Wednesday, October 22, 2008

What is spirituality? (3)

I love this old story; I think it came from Naval Times magazine several years ago:

The ship's captain strained to see ahead in the darkness and saw faint lights headed toward him. Immediately he told his signalman to send a message:

"Alter your course 10 degrees south."

Promptly a return message was received: "Alter your course 10 degrees north."

Angered, the captain sent a second message: "Alter your course 10 degrees south--I am the captain!"

The reply was: "Alter your course 10 degrees north--I am seaman third class Jones."

Immediately the red-faced captain sent a third message: "Alter your course 10 degrees south--I am a battleship!"

Then the reply came "Alter your course 10 degrees north--I am a lighthouse."

Here's why I laugh at that story every time I read it: it's funny when the absolutes of life rudely confront people who don't believe that life has absolutes. Watching them try to avoid the absolutes can be great entertainment. Or it can be sad.

I feel some of that sadness when I see churches try to avoid the obvious conclusion: the Holy Spirit came to earth to oversee the church's effort to spread the gospel. The Father rules from His throne in heaven, the Son reigns glorified at His Father's right hand, but the Holy Spirit is here. He's on earth to guide the church to victory in her assignment.

So many of us spend so much time trying to avoid that. We search for just the right program, the right preacher, the right book on church growth, the right entertaining agenda, the right seminar speaker, the right... well, you understand.

These things are fine in themselves, but they aren't the answer. The answer is to deepen the church so she can grow wider. A "spiritual" group of people will have little or no problem attracting converts or keeping them.

Here's an illustration. When the church at Antioch wanted to launch new missions to the Gentiles, their prophets and teachers gathered to fast and worship the Lord (unique idea... wonder if that would work today?).

When they did so, "The Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for me Barnabus and Saul for the work to which I have called them.'" (Acts 13:1-3 NIV).

Did you catch that? The Holy Spirit said? The Holy Spirit has a voice? He can speak and make Himself understood by the church? And He intends to guide the program Himself? Amazing.

And notice this. After the church at Antioch had "fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off."

Look at how, from then on, the Spirit actually "micromanaged" Paul's work:

"Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to." (Acts 16:6-7 NIV - emphasis mine).

The Holy Spirit aggressively led the early church through her mission. As you read the 28 chapters of the Book of Acts, you'll notice the Holy Spirit mentioned 57 times (NIV)! He was running the operation.

So, to be "spiritual", a church today must recognize the absolute authority of the Holy Spirit over her work on earth.

"And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ... those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." (Romans 8:9,14 NIV).



Monday, October 20, 2008

What is spirituality? (2)

Does spirituality make life better? That's the assumption, isn't it? That if one pursues a deep spiritual life, their natural life will be happier, more complete.

Why do we assume that to be true? Well, we hear it often from preachers, pundits and other voices pushing us toward a higher life.

Yet I think the assumption (that spirituality increases well being) comes mostly from own experience. The happiest people I know are those who hunger to be spiritual the way a plant stretches toward the light.

In fact, happiness (joy) tops the
"fruit of the Spirit" list (Galatians 5:22). Which brings me to the main point: one can't truly be "spiritual" without the Holy Spirit.

Notice how the Holy Spirit radically changed Jesus' own disciples and caused them to grow in spirit:


Jesus had nicknamed James and John "sons of thunder" (Mark 3:17) - probably because of their hostile approach to any who weren't part of the group (Mark 9:38) and their eagerness to call fire from heaven down on those who insulted Jesus (Luke 9:54).

Yet, after the coming of the Holy Spirit, John later writes, "We should love one another... Anyone who does not love remains in death... Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." (1 John 3:11; 3:14; 4:8 NIV).

And Peter had the same radical experience. Although seemingly bold and assertive, when the crisis came he wilted. After protesting to Jesus, "Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death", Peter couldn't even admit that he knew his Master when the trial started (Luke 22:33, 54-62).

But after his encounter with the Holy Spirit, Peter preaches boldly in Acts chapter two to the same mob that shouted for Jesus to be crucified. And he even went against fifteen centuries of Jewish law, entered a Gentile's home and spoke the gospel to the Centurion's family (Acts chapter ten).

So true spirituality hinges on one's relationship to the Holy Spirit. If He is present and active in your life, He will increase the strength and and maturity of your spirit.

"People who do not have God's Spirit do not accept the things that come from His Spirit. They think these things are foolish. They cannot understand them, because they can only be understood with the Spirit's help. " (1 Corinthians 2:14 ERV).

Thursday, October 9, 2008

What is spirituality?

I've often had people say to me, "I'm actually a very spiritual person... I just don't attend church."

As the conversation progresses, I can usually tell the person doesn't have a comprehensive definition of spirituality, nor a grasp of the Bible's definition of it. They also tend to live life on their own terms, skeptical of joining the community of man in any meaningful way.

I know. Those are generalities. And they certainly don't apply to all the church-avoiders who claim to be spiritual. But it's been my experience that the generalities above generally hold true... which tells me that many remain locked-in to a cafeteria style of spirituality - choose a little from this TV talk show or from that religion, or some from this tradition or that one.

So, what is spirituality? I mean, what is true spirituality, according to the revealed, Biblical point of view?

Well, first of all, a spiritual person believes in (and seeks) the spirit world... a realm of existence outside time and space that we can't experience directly with the five senses. And he or she believes that such a world is more complex and detailed than even the natural world we see.

In the Bible, the word "spiritual" comes from the word PNEUMA, a Greek word meaning "air", "wind" or "breath". This word paints the portrait of an environment in the ethereal, invisible regions of God's creation.

Since God Himself is "spirit" (John 4:24), most of His creation could be defined as "spirit" or "spiritual". In fact, the natural world we can experience with the five senses grew out of the invisible, the supernatural. When God created the world, He did it from the pre-existent, supernatural realm.

And since He also created the spirit realm, the people He labels "spiritual" focus their energies, goals, hopes and their whole lives on the spirit realm. They want a life there and plan to live in that realm forever.

Labeling someone as "spiritual" compares to calling someone an "American citizen". It describes the person by describing his origins and cultural environment.

Second, a spiritual person is connected to that invisible realm by having his or her spirit linked through the Holy Spirit.

Notice this contrast in the Bible between the "spiritual" person ("pneumatikos") and the "natural" person ("psuchikos" or earth-oriented, animalistic):

"But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one." (1 Corinthians 2:14-15 NASB).

So there's a stark difference between the spiritual man and the natural one. The spiritual man knows the Holy Spirit and accepts the things that come from God's Spirit. But the natural man can't appraise or understand the spirit realm and its operation on this earth.

That's why so many have a counterfeit spirituality. The real thing eludes them because they don't know about, or haven't experienced, the working of the Holy Spirit. The world is full of counterfeit spirituality, even in the major world religions.

And that's why Jesus deflected the religious (but unspiritual) approach of Nicodemus by saying, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3 NASB).

Then he said, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (Verse 6).

One can't be "spiritual" without surrendering to the work of Christ through his Holy Spirit.

Spirituality comes, not be being a good person in human terms or by being religious. It comes by surrender, in prayer, to the working of God's Spirit. Then one is "born from above" into a new life... a spiritual one.