True Spirituality
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Our thoughts] end in communion with the infinite-personal reference point who is there, God Himself. And that is tremendous. Then you can worship. This is where true worship is found: not in stained-glass windows, candles, or altarpieces, not in contentless experiences, but in communion with the God who is there—communion for eternity, and communion now, with the infinite-personal God as Abba, Father. 6 The book you refer to by Richard Foster may be “Celebration of Discipline.” If so, the book is a reflection of things that he has personally experienced and believes helped him to grow spiritually. It appears that the author was looking for something more in the Christian life than what he had experienced. Something More
Paul spent most of 1 Corinthians 2 discussing the difference between the natural man and the spiritual man. And that’s the difference between the unsaved and the saved. The unregenerate is the natural man, and the regenerate is the spiritual man. The natural man doesn’t know God. He is unsaved, isolated in his humanness and sin, and headed for hell. He cannot understand the things of the Spirit. In contrast, the spiritual man knows God, understands spiritual things. Charismatics argue that unless you have the baptism of the Holy Spirit with tongues, you can’t function the way God really wants you to; you’re missing something. If, on the other hand, you do have the baptism of the Spirit with tongues, you’ve been elevated to a level of spirituality and sanctification. We sin daily in thought, word, and deed – That is the emphasis of the Westminster Catechism. Though this is not wrong, it can be distorted by our sinful hearts into something which is exceedingly wrong. As we teach our children that we all sin daily in thought, word, and deed, we must be very careful to warn them of the danger of thinking that they can look lightly or abstractly at sin in their lives. Furthermore, if we count on Christ’s victory at the cross for our entrance into heaven, dare we deny Him the glory of what the victories would produce in the battles of the present life? And the battles before men and angels and the supernatural world? What an awful thought!
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Says Schaeffer: This is a very “central concept” if we are to have any understanding or any real practice of the true Christian life or true spirituality.We can take man-made lists and we can seem to keep them, but when we come face to face with the “Law of Love,” we can no longer feel proud, and the reality of our sinful self becomes quite clear. In this life we can never say, “I have arrived! it is finished!look at me! I am holy!” When we talk of the Christian life or true spirituality… when we are talking about freedom from the bonds of sin… we must wrestle with the “inward problems” of not coveting (fixing our desires) against God and men, of loving God and men, and not merely some setof externals. This immediately raises the question of whether or not “all desire” is sin – the Bible clearly teaches that it is not. Schaeffer says, “ desire becomes sin when it fails to include love of God or men —we are to love God enough to be contented, and love men enough not to envy.”
Robert L. (Bob)Deffinbaugh graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary with his Th.M. in 1971. Bob is a pastor/teacher and elder at Community Bible Chapel in Richardson, Texas, and has contributed many of his Bible study series for use by the Foundation. And he’s doing deference to people like me and others who have some kind of a ministry because you can’t just flatly deny that people have a ministry, but it is a second-class ministry. It is a partial measure of spiritual ministry and incomplete manifestation of spiritual gifts and endowments because we’ve never had the culminating, Pentecostal gift of the baptism of the Spirit and that zap. But unfortunately, it often does not last and after a while they discover that they are looking for “something more” again. At first Bible study seems to meet the need, then it is worship, or some think it is in relationships – fellowship with other believers. But Jesus offered the “something more” when He said, Real inner peace and happiness come from within. No amount of money in the world is capable of buying the feeling of fulfillment. The materialistic world has no chance of coming close to the power spirituality brings. My wishes went unanswered as my childhood depression lasted until my early 20s. Years of questioning my reality, my purpose, experimenting, it all culminated in me realizing what matters most.Akbari M, Hossaini SM. The relationship of spiritual health with quality of life, mental health, and burnout: The mediating role of emotional regulation. Iran J Psychiatry. 2018;13(1):22-31. PMID:29892314
And then I was really confused because I thought I was doing what they expected me to do. And I’ll never forget his prayer. He started out by saying, “We want to pray for this brother that sometime soon, in the middle of the night, the Holy Spirit will zap him.” That’s exactly what he said, and that’s what he prayed. So, I’ve heard that term used. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, “From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.” John 7:38 (NASB) The Bible makes a clear distinction between “temptation” and “sin.” Christ was tempted in every point like as we are, yet He never sinned (Heb 4:15); therefore, there is a difference between temptationand sin. Scripture goes on to tell us that the victory that overcomes the world is “our faith” (1 Jn 5:4). It is not we who overcome the world in our own strength – we do not have a power plant inside ourselves that can overcome the world. The overcoming is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, as we have already seen. There can be a victory, a practical victory, if we raise the “empty hands of faith” moment by moment and accept the gift. God has promised a way of escape that we might not succumb to temptation (1 Cor 10:13).
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You need to be constantly inquiring into each thought and feeling that occurs, no matter how they make you feel. Second, Christian spirituality relies on the power of the Holy Spirit to live according to God's will. The Holy Spirit serves to lead us into all truth (John 16:13), gives joy (Ephesians 5:18), and convicts when we sin (Ephesians 4:30). For example, 1 John 1:5-8 teaches, "This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." True spirituality depends on the supernatural power God gives through the Holy Spirit rather than dependence on human strength.
To say there is “no real guilt” is futile, for man as he is knows that there is “real moral guilt.” But when I know the real guilt is really met by Christ, so that I do not need to fear to look at the basic questions deep inside myself, then I can see that the feeling of guilt that is left is really just “psychological guilt,” and only that. This does not mean to say that psychological guilt is still not cruel – but nowI can be open with it and see it for what it is. This also does not mean that we will be perfect in this life psychologically any more than we are physically. But thanks be to God, now I can move forward, not expecting to be perfect. We will wait for the second coming of Jesus Christ and the resurrection of the body, to be perfect morally, physically, and psychologically – but there now can be a substantial over-coming of this psychological division in the present life on the basis of Christ’s finish work. It will not be perfect, but it can be real and substantial. Let’s be very clear about this – all men since the fall havehad some psychological problems. It is utter nonsense to say that a Christian never has a psychological problem. All men have psychological problems. They differ in degree and they differ in kind, but since the fall all men have more or less a problem psychologically – that is the essence of “fallen man.” None of us are even close to perfection. Martin Luther, in his commentary on Galatians, shows a great understanding of the fact that our salvation includes salvation from the “bondage of our conscience.” It is natural and right that as we become Christians our consciences become ever more tender – this is a work of the Holy Spirit. But we should not be downcast by our conscience year after year over sins which are past. When your conscience, by the Holy Spirit, makes you aware of a specific sin, you should at once call that sin“sin” and bring it consciously under the blood of Christ – when you do this it is then “covered,” so by continuing to “worry about it,” you not only dishonor the finished work of Christ, but you impair your relationship with God, either by thinking that you must “suffer sufficiently” to merit his forgiveness, or by “doubting” that God is that loving and merciful – hence, your fellowship with Him is short-circuited. Writes Schaeffer: “To worry about it is to do despite to the infinite value of the death of the Son of God.” As you consciously say, “Thank you” to God for a completed work, your conscience should come into rest. By applying the blood of Christ to your sin, your fellowship experience with God is restored. Is the supernatural world remote? The answer, very decidedly, is “No.” The supernatural world is not only not far off, but is very close indeed. Perhaps the classic passage on this subject is that found in 2 Kings – here Elisha is surrounded by an enemy, and the young man who is with him is terrified. So Elisha says to him: “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” At that moment, Elisha prayed saying, “Lord open his eyes that he may see.” And the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he saw – “and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” (2 Kg 6:16-17). The only difference was that the young man’s eyes had to be opened to see what Elisha already saw – the supernatural was not something far off, it was right there. God gives his faithful children “eyes of faith” to see and understand the unseen world (Jn 16:13; Acts 16:14; 1 Jn 2:27). Little by little, many Christians in this generation find this reality slipping away – the reality tends to get covered by the barnacles of naturalistic thought. Doctrine is important, but it is not an end in itself – there is to be an experiential reality, moment by moment. This is “how” to live a life of freedom from the bonds of sin – not perfection, for that is not promised to us in this life. This is the Christian life – true spirituality. In the light of the Scripture, the “how” is the power of the crucified and risen Christ. . . through the agency of the indwelling Holy Spirit. . . by faith. (60-70) Next, let’s consider the Christian life in relation to “psychological problems.” This is the problem of man’s separation from himself, and his relationship to himself in the world of thought. Just as God is a person – he thinks, acts, and feels – so, we are persons who think, act, and feel. Therefore as humans we are personal, rational, and moral beings. God created us in His image. As a result of the fall, however, we are separated from God and trying to exist outside the realm in which God made us to exist – as such, we are trying to be what we are not. As Schaeffer puts it, “our rationality damns us… by not bowing to God, with a loud shout of rationality, we simply end up jumping in the dark, and are torn within ourselves.” It is not enough for man to rationally begin with himself and work outward – his very existence demands purpose. . . being the sinful man that he is, he is not able to bring resolution to such demands; he is not only confounded by his limitations, and naturally “separated from himself,” but knows nothing of a tranquil heart that is at peace. Now we come to the next in our series that we’ve been studying on the Charismatic Movement. Tonight we want to talk about the subject “What is True Spirituality?” What is true spirituality?
Practice gratitude: Start a gratitude journal and record what you are grateful for each day. This can be a great reminder of what is most important to you and what brings you the greatest happiness. Whitehead BR, Bergeman CS. Coping with daily stress: Differential role of spiritual experience on daily positive and negative affect. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2012;67(4):456-459. doi:10.1093/geronb/gbr136
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