If the cross is the Father’s deepest work in the humanity of the Son, then it must be the key to all spiritual fathering.

The spiritual father sees into the heart of another person and discerns there the work of God which is a way that always leads to the cross in the person’s life.  This is a revelation, primarily to the person being discipled of the Father.  Through this, both “spiritual father” and disciple are united in the one heart of God through what they share in common i.e. the Father’s in-working of the cross in them both.

N.B. the cross seems to be the exception to this, when Jesus seeks to trace the work of God in his heart it leads to nothing (Mark 15:34) and hence despair.  It is however the way to glory.  (hence, something of the perplexity of the cross must embrace the journey of all Christians.)

To discern this work of God is to go through the veil/curtain of ordinary human flesh (life/experience etc.) into the holy place (“spirit”) where the Father dwells in the Spirit in the temple of the human person cf. 1 Cor 6 etc.  The spiritual father therefore uncovers the treasures of the divine temple and the glory of God therein of which the OT structures are but a pattern (of Christ, then the Christian).

The Christian community = church, is the composite glory of the living stones recognizing these things in one another and being built up together as a holy temple in the Lord cf. Eph 2:20ff.