What does Tribe teach about spiritual disciplines?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on spiritual disciplines begins with a simple but demanding claim: time spent with Jesus is not optional background noise for the Christian life, it is what forms the capacity to recognize and receive what God is doing. Joy Bhatt, teaching from the wineskins series, pointed to Matthew 12 and the contrast between the disciples and the Pharisees. Both groups knew the Torah. The difference was proximity. The disciples had been with Jesus day after day, eating with him, watching him, following him, and that accumulated time was what gave them the eyes to see a new work of God rather than attack it. Joy put it plainly: "Your capacity to recognize and receive from the Holy Spirit is directly proportional to how much time you spend with Jesus."
The disciplines Joy named, reading scripture, prayer, fasting, and Sabbath, are not ends in themselves. They are the practices that keep a person near Jesus, and nearness is what produces discernment. She drew on 2 Chronicles 20, where Jehoshaphat faces an overwhelming army and his first move is to call a fast, gather everyone, and stand before God holding him to his own history with Israel. The new thing God asked of Judah, that the worship team lead the army and that no one raise a weapon, required a people who already knew how to hear and trust him. Joy noted that the Hebrew word for "listen" carries both hearing and obeying inside it, so you cannot claim to have received something from God if you have not acted on it.
The same thread runs through Joy's earlier message on Sabbath, built from Luke 23:56 and Psalm 23. The women who prepared spices for Jesus's body stopped their work when the Sabbath began, even on the worst night of their lives. Joy connected that to the idea of falling back to the level of your training: if your autopilot is to fix your eyes on God, then even on the darkest day of your life, that is what you will fall back to. Sabbath, in this teaching, is not a rule to keep but a rhythm practiced in ordinary weeks precisely so it holds you when ordinary life collapses.
Taught from Matthew 12:1-14 · 2 Chronicles 20:1-24 · Luke 23:56 · Psalm 23
“Your capacity to recognize and receive from the Holy Spirit is directly proportional to how much time you spend with Jesus.”
From New Wineskins ｜ Joy Abad
The passage taught · 2 Chronicles 20:1-24
1 After this, the children of Moab, the children of Ammon, and with them some of the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle.
2 Then some came who told Jehoshaphat, saying, “A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea from Syria. Behold, they are in Hazazon Tamar” (that is, En Gedi).
3 Jehoshaphat was alarmed, and set himself to seek to Yahweh. He proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
4 Judah gathered themselves together to seek help from Yahweh. They came out of all the cities of Judah to seek Yahweh.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- February 10, 2025 New Wineskins ｜ Joy Abad Joy Bhatt teaches Tribe Church on how time spent with Jesus shapes our ability to recognize and follow where God is moving, even when it looks unconventional.
- February 9, 2025 Being With Jesus Joy Bhatt teaches on what it means to spend time with Jesus, how that shapes our capacity to recognize God moving, and why discernment matters more than ever.
- June 5, 2023 The Power Accessible in Recalibration Joy Obot teaches Tribe on how practicing rest and spiritual disciplines now prepares you to trust God when life's darkest days arrive.