---
title: "The Way of the Spirit: Recognizing and Responding to God’s Subtle Movements by Jeremy Daniel Sims"
description: "Summary: Spiritual formation that avoids formula or triteness. . Writing about spiritual formation is hard for many reasons. Part of the difficulty is that it hard to write about something well that y..."
url: https://bookwi.se/the-way-of-the-spirit/
date: 2026-10-29
modified: 2026-10-29
author: "Adam Shields"
categories: ["Book Reviews"]
type: post
lang: en
---

# The Way of the Spirit: Recognizing and Responding to God’s Subtle Movements by Jeremy Daniel Sims

[![The Way of the Spirit: Recognizing and Responding to God’s Subtle Movements by Jeremy Daniel Sims cover image](https://bookwi.se/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/242718829._SY475_-195x300.jpg)](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0FVCP2S32/)**Summary: Spiritual formation that avoids formula or triteness. **

Writing about spiritual formation is hard for many reasons. Part of the difficulty is that it hard to write about something well that you have not experienced, and so a good writer on spiritual formation needs to be someone who has worked to develop their own spiritual life. But that introduces another problem with spiritual writing. Many spiritual writers turn their own experience into instructions and frame “the right way” to grow spiritually as an imitation of their own experience instead of one possible path. I think one of the biggest strengths of The Way of The Spirit is that Jeremy Sims is careful to not prescribe methods but rather open up opportunities. This is about the framing but it is an important part of good spiritual formation writing. A book that commands will naturally create a situation where the reader is arguing with the author about the details of the commands. Sims does a good job of framing the book as opening up the ideas of spiritual formation as an invitation.

As someone who has read a lot about spiritual formation, I want to say, in the best way possible, that there is little that is new here. The history of Christianity is all about seeking after God. It is not that we need new methods or paths to God. What we do need are new metaphors and emphases that address the particular needs of our current culture.

This quote from early in the book I think is exactly why The Way of The Spirit is a helpful book for spiritual formation today:

> “We live in an age where attention has become our most endangered resource. Every sound, every scroll, every urgency competes for it. But what if the real threat to our spiritual lives isn’t disbelief, but distraction? What if the Spirit has not grown silent, but we have grown unable to hear? I’ve come to see that much of the Christian life is not about gaining more faith but giving better attention.” (p10)

Attention is particularly in short supply, but as is emphasized regularly, spiritual formation cannot happen if we do not pay attention to both the way that God is at work in and around us, but also that we need to have space for that awareness to seep into our souls.

There is always a tension in spiritual writing about the work we do to seek after God and the gift that we receive from God.

> “…here’s the tension: Depth cannot be willed. The moment we try to force it, we move in the opposite direction. Depth resists control. It emerges not from grasping but from releasing. The more we strive for it, the more it slips through our fingers. Only a willingness to relinquish control can put us in a posture to receive what cannot be taken. So much of my life has been shaped by willpower. It’s effective, to a point. It helps me complete a task I don’t want to do, or push through a meeting when I’m tired, or drag myself out of bed on the kind of morning when everything feels heavier than it should. But Simone Weil is right: When it comes to the deeper work, the spiritual work, willpower falls short.” (p17)

In an era where self help is pervasive and we are all expected to do everything we can to maximize our efficiency and productively, Sims keeps reminding the reader that spiritual formation is not a listicle of “one little trick that will solve everything”.  Instead, “This is not a new hack. This is a new way of seeing.” (p16)

The Way of the Spirit is in three main sections. The first section primarily focuses on attention and naming. We need to pay attention to the ways that God is already at work around us. And we need to find metaphors and names of how God works, so that we can recognize what we are seeing.

> “Language simply gives us the vocabulary to name it. When we name it, we begin to recognize it. When we recognize it, we’re no longer just observers. We become participants.” (p29)

and then soon after:

> “As L’Engle writes, “We think because we have words, not the other way around. The more words we have, the better able we are to think conceptually.” That includes theological thinking, yes, but also spiritual reflection. More words don’t mean better performance. They mean greater vision. More precise noticing. Clearer participation. We don’t name to control. We name to recognize, to receive, to remember. And when we do, the ordinary world opens up like a field of wildflowers waiting to be seen.” (p31)

The second section is the largest part of the book. Sims takes us through seven waypoints where Sims introduces Christian mystics who model ways of seeking God. We all will not identify with all seven because each of us are constructed in different ways and we have different cultures and backgrounds. But these are map points that are common in the pathway of Christian spiritual formation. The seven Christians that Sims introduces us to are familiar. Many who will pick up a book on spiritual formation will have at least passing familiarity with them. The metaphors and images that Sims uses to help the reader see these figures and their importance as one possible way toward seeing God is what makes them new again. I could spend another 1000 words discussing what I found helpful in the second part of the book, but that is largely about what I found helpful. I will skip that and move onto the third section.

The third section goes back and revisits the naming and attention of the first section of the book. After spending time with those seven waypoints, Sims draws us back to the naming and recognition of God’s work around us and points out that this is not an individual process but a communal one. We will as individuals, see God at work. But it is the work of community to see what God is doing within the community as a whole. It is not just us as an individual that God is calling to be in relationship but the church communal.

But it is that last chapter that really sealed the brilliance of the book for me.

> “FOLLOWING THE WAY OF THE SPIRIT has always been about attentiveness to the Spirit’s work. It is not about another list of spiritual tasks, a clever framework to master, or a ladder to climb. If we’re not careful, even the most sacred invitations can become another system to optimize, another formational plan to manage. Yet attention was never meant to be a strategy. It’s meant to be a way of life that draws us into communion with Jesus.” (p172)

and then

> “The same danger exists with everything in this book. The waypoints are not meant to be mastered. They are meant to name and then invite. They are not checkpoints of accomplishment but invitations to recognize and join the Spirit’s ongoing work. They are meant to be companions on the journey, not trophies of spiritual achievement.” (p172)

and finally

> “There will always be pressure to speed up what cannot be rushed—falling in love, raising a family, and most importantly, shaping the soul. You can microwave dinner, but you cannot microwave transformation. The Spirit does not move at the pace of our tools. The speed of the soul is slow. Formation is not knowledge acquisition. It’s not spiritual productivity. It’s not how much you’ve read or what you’ve accomplished in the name of God. It is slow trust built over years of staying with the work of God through every friction, silence, disappointment, and shift.” (p174)

I think that as I have walked with people as a spiritual director and paid attention to my own spiritual formation as an individual, the key insights are that the work is slow. But slow consistent work is how change happens. Every once in a while, it seems like someone does have a miraculous interaction with God and seems to change overnight. But if that every does really happen, it is rare. We change not because someone tells us to change, but because something shifts inside of us. “There is no shortcut for formation.”

I alternated back and forth between audio and ebook. The audiobook was well done and clear. But I found myself moving back to the print particularly because I wanted to highlight and take notes. So there was nothing wrong with the audio, but I think this is a book that many will prefer in print because you will want to mull over the images or re-read the phrasing.

**The Way of the Spirit: Recognizing and Responding to God’s Subtle Movements by Jeremy Daniel Sims Purchase Links: [Paperback](https://www.amazon.com/Way-Spirit-Recognizing-Responding-Movements/dp/1514015889/), [Kindle Edition](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0FVCP2S32/), [Audible.com Audiobook](https://www.amazon.com/Way-Spirit-Recognizing-Responding-Movements/dp/B0GV4PX7MZ/)**