Being Spiritual: How?

BEING SPIRITUAL: How?

Many Christians crave to be like Jesus. It has something to do with being spiritual or Spirit filled. For many years, I envisioned a being that had his head in the clouds, his heart in heaven and his feet in the world. For my mother it had to do with Bible reading, prayer, and abstaining from everything she considered sinful or worldly. My brother, by natural birth, believed that feeling high, talking in strange tongues and praising the Lord was being spiritual. There is some truth in the three of us; but none of us qualified in being that extra terrestrial creature.

To begin with, the Lord is not looking for supernatural or extra terrestrial beings. The Lord needs earthly human beings that think godly and act godly. By being and acting godly, it simply means to live and do what is right as defined in the ethics in the Bible. It means to obey God’s Laws. It is to do unto others what we hope others shall to for us. God wants to be loved, but only when we love others more than ourselves and pray and forgive those that intend us harm. In that sense, we can be like Jesus who forgave those that crucified Him. The very idea of being spiritual and living in the Spirit is synonymous with doing the Will of God. And that is also synonymous with seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Righteousness is also “those that do what is right shall live or be saved by faith.” The spiritual person’s deeds make his faith acceptable before God. The reason a person becomes spiritual or is born of the Spirit is to do God’s work (Ephesians 2:10).

How did Jesus illustrate spirituality? He used a child to teach His disciples what true spirituality ought to be (Matthew 18:1-9). It was not about God or heaven but about getting along and making out with each other. The twelve were squabbling about greatness and Kingdom positions while the child was content to be invited into Jesus’ circle. It trusted thirteen men and treated all the same. It was satisfied with whatever Jesus was promising for being there. It did not take much to love the child and be loved by it. Was the child an angel? We happen to have a three-year old grandson who can be angelic and a minute later stubborn and temperamental. But never question his loyalty and faith in his parents, or question his sincere endeavor to please them. By pleasing his parents he is pleased with himself. It is that relationship between parents and child that Jesus wants us to have with each other and with Him and our Heavenly Father. If that is not being spiritual then what is?