(Excerpt from Worship the First-Century Way)
The Bible never uses the actual word spirituality. The closest it comes is “spiritually” and “spiritual.” The word spirit is a translation of the Greek word pneuma which means breathing or blowing. We know that people breathe by its results, but we cannot see breath. We know that the wind blows by its results, but we cannot see the wind.
Jesus explained it this way: ” ‘…no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water AND the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit….The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit’ ” (John 3:5-8).
Spirituality is the same. We cannot see spirituality. We know someone has it by the results. Romans 8:6 says we should “be spiritually minded” (KJV). So from this, we know that spirituality has to do with the mind. What else does it have to do with?
- The written law of God (Romans 7:6, 14)
- The gift of salvation (Romans 15:27 & Acts 10:36, 18)
- Truth, mind of Christ, the Word of God (1 Corinthians 2:2:13-16, John 17:17)
- Food of God, the Word of God (1 Corinthians 3:1 & Hebrews 5:12-14)
- Seed, the Word of God (1 Corinthians 9:11 & Matthew 13:19)
- Drink of Christ, water of eternal life (1 Corinthians 10:3-4 & John 7:38)
- Miraculous powers that confirmed the Word was really from God (1 Corinthians 12:1, 12; 14:37; John 20:30-31)’
- Our heavenly body (1 Corinthians 15:44-46)
- Sinlessness (Galatians 5:19-6:1)
- Salvation, the blessings of heavenly realms (Ephesians 1:3; 2:6-7)
- Worship (Ephesians 5:19 & Colossians 3:16)
- Satan’s forces of evil (Ephesians 6:12)
- Knowledge of God’s will (Colossians 1:9)
- People in the church (1 Pet. 2:5 & 1 Timothy 3:15)
In a nutshell, we see that spirituality is linked to the Word of God which is called the law of God, the mind of God, truth, knowledge of God’s will. It was also the miracles that confirmed the Word of God. Therefore, we cannot have spirituality out of our imaginations. Spirituality comes from the Bible.
Spirituality is also linked to sinlessness, salvation, worship, the church. Of course, we do not know what things are sin unless we check with the Bible. We do not know how to be saved unless we check with the Bible. We do not know if we are in the church unless we check with the Bible
There is no scripture listed above regarding spirituality that is an emotion. It all deals with the Word of God, the Logos. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God….The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:1, 14). The term “word” is from the Greek logos from which we get another word, logic.
What many people today define as “spirituality” is an emotionalism akin to someone on a drug “high.” Interestingly, the sin of sorcery condemned by God comes from the Greek word pharmakeia from whence our word for pharmacy or drugs. It is a sin to act like we are on a drug high in the name of Jehovah God. It is frightful, it is confusing, it is non-productive, and it is wrong (Revelation 21:8; 22:15).
Spirituality, then, is not emotionalism. Spirituality also is not what comes out of our imaginations. Spirituality is knowing and following the Word of God.
There is a parallel to understanding spirituality with understanding fasting. Jesus said in Matthew 6:16-18, “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
In an era when fasting was practiced frequently (we modern Christians miss a blessing by not fasting), Jesus said people were going out of their way to look the part of holy people so others would admire them. Today, in our worship services, especially where it comes to emotionalism, we are trying to look the part of holy people.
An unknown poet said,
- Let us keep our fast within,
- Till heaven and we are quite alone;
- Then let the grief, the shame, the sin,
- Before the mercy-seat be thrown.
Fasting is an act of self-restraint. It belongs to the sphere of self-discipline. It is strictly a personal and private matter. What is public is the results of fasting, the results of self-discipline. But we cannot show the actual process of self-discipline. In fact, we would spoil the process by attempting to show it, like wearing a “humble” button.
Just as a plant must begin its growth in the darkness of the soil, we begin our spiritual growth in the darkness of our own inner thoughts and prayer to God. And just as we can never safely expose the roots of a plant, we can never show the exact process by which we develop and protect our own spiritual roots. All moral and bodily restraint, all humbleness of body and spirit are represented by fasting, and it is a complete failure of self-restraint to want to show others our self-restraint.
It is the same with spirituality. Spirituality (salvation) comes from reading the Mind of God, the Word of God (Romans 10:1-3, 17). No one else can absorb the Mind of God, the Word of God into our minds for us. We have to do it for ourselves. It is a personal thing. A private thing. Developing faith from it all is something that cannot really be expressed in words. It happens within our own minds. Hebrews 11:1 (KJV) says Faith is the EVIDENCE of things hoped for. And faith that comes from the Word of God and then following it leads to salvation (Romans 10:3, 17).
We should be grateful that salvation does not rely on emotions. If it did, we’d be very confused about our salvation. David understood the tug-of-war that occurs between emotions and logic. Look at Psalm 42 where he struggled with his faith.
Here David begins a debate between his emotions (his soul) and his logic. Let’s look in on the drama as David has a talk with himself:
SCENE: His soul is panting for God, thirsting for God, trying to meet with God. He’s been crying day and night asking where God is.
EMOTIONS: Where is your God? Remember how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng?
LOGIC: Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
EMOTIONS: My soul is downcast within me.
LOGIC: Therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan….
EMOTIONS: Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.
LOGIC: By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me ~ a prayer to the God of my life.
EMOTIONS: I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?” My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
LOGIC: Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
Isn’t it wonderful that our salvation doesn’t depend on how spiritual we feel? If it did, we’d be in and out of salvation, depending on how we felt. I have known people who did gauge their salvation by their emotions
They’d say something like, “I cried and cried all one day because of my sins and asked God to forgive me. Then I felt such release, and knew I was now saved.” Then they’d say a few years later, “I thought I was saved, but I wasn’t really. This time, I cried and cried for several days because of my sins and asked God to forgive me. Then I felt so good that this time, I knew he’d saved me.”
Then a few years later the rise in emotions would happen again, only this time, more intensely. On and on the cycle went for them. Thinking they knew for sure they were saved, then wondering, then doubting, then in hopelessness once again
Salvation does not depend on our emotions. Salvation depends on what we logically believe about what Jesus did for us. Are remorse, love. and gratitude involved in our salvation? Of course. Many emotions are involved. But they are the result of our logically reading God’s word, and then logically accepting it and following it.
Remember, Romans 10:1-2 says, “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their ZEAL IS NOT BASED ON KNOWLEDGE.”
Why are we given the spiritual gift of salvation? There is more than one reason. The obvious one is so we can go to heaven. But there is another reason. Ephesians 2:8-10 explains, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God ~ not by works so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, CREATED in Christ Jesus TO DO GOOD WORKS, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Spirituality and Touching Jesus
The Spirit cannot be seen any more than breath or wind can be seen. But the results of breath and wind can be seen. So too, spirituality cannot be seen. Only the results of spirituality can be seen. The results are in our attitudes and deeds
For instance, Galatians 5:22-25 explains clearly, “But the fruit [result] of the Spirit [spirituality] is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
Furthermore, James, the brother of Jesus said, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘God, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:14-17).
Do we want to touch Jesus? Jesus told us how. ” ‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, “I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me….whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me’ ” (Matthew 25:35-36, 40).
Therefore, everything In this book about applying God’s Word in worship and in service is spirituality.
Do we want to touch Jesus? Every time the announcements are made and someone responds, “I’ll take some food over to them on Monday,” that is spirituality
Do we want to touch Jesus? Every time we enter into prayer together after getting into each other’s hearts and lives and asking them, “What do you need prayer for?” that is spirituality.
Do we want to touch Jesus? Every time we partake of the Lord’s Supper and compare our imperfection and being deserving of death and hell with Jesus’ perfection and taking our punishment for us, as explained in God’s Word, that is spirituality
Do we want to touch Jesus? Every time we give money to help support evangelism, purchase Bibles, send food to the needy, that is spirituality.
Do we want to touch Jesus? Every time we sing praises to God in faltering voices but from deep within our soul, playing on the strings of our heart, that is spirituality.
Do we want to touch Jesus? Every time we read the Bible in order to know the Mind of God, so we can live the way he wants us to rather than what our imaginations think he wants, that is spirituality.
All we need to feel spiritual and special is to know God loves us. No matter how many times we sin, he loves us. No matter how many times we fall, God loves us
- We are not special to God because of how good we are, but because how good God is.
- Not because of anything we are, but because of who God is.
- We’re not special because we are so loving, but because God is love.
- Not because we are so full of life, but because God is life.
- Not because we’re so intelligent and spiritual, but because God is.
If we want to speak in a special language, let us speak in the language of love.
Spirituality is sitting with a friend and telling them God loves them when they’re good and bad, and will help them overcome the bad.
Spirituality is going with a friend who wants to join a self-help group like Alcoholics Anonymous. It’s telling them how much God will help them. Then proving it with scriptures.
Spirituality is going to an enemy gossiping against you and saying God loves you both, and there’s nothing they can say or do to get you to stop loving them!
That’s spirituality!
That’s high!