Connecting To True Spirituality

I encounter so many people who claim to be ‘spiritual’ but not in a ‘traditional sense’. I can appreciate that, if it is true but, very often if you dig a little deeper, you will realize such a statement is just a vague, veiled way to throw you off so you will not continue discussing spirituality with them, particularly if you are a Christian. If such a person is honest, very often, it usually means they are not committed to any spiritual beliefs. It appeases that part of them that is crying out for a spiritual connection and even gives them a moment of feeling superior. But the fact is, there is a God-sized hole in us all that can only be satisfied by the true and living God. We were meant to have a deep, intimate connection and relationship with our Creator. Something happened, though, that broke and severed that connection way back in the Garden of Eden when humans decided they would rather choose what was right and what was wrong rather than God.

The Genesis story, in Genesis 1-3, recounts it as the first man and woman partaking of a tree called the knowledge of good and evil. It wasn’t about an apple, as people like to reduce the story to it, but believing the lie from the devil who tempted them to take their lives into their own hands and that they could become as gods. They knew what God said and yet they listened to the devil, who got them to doubt that they could trust their creator when he said, ‘Hath God said?’ In other words, ‘Did he really say that?’ God, in his continuing love for even those who failed, sent his son Jesus Christ to pay the penalty for the sins of all humankind and to restore the connection that was lost back to him (John 3:16-17). Yet still to this day, people continue to create religions that are nothing but poor substitutes for what God really intends for us have.

The Tenets of True Spirituality

If you wish to be truly spiritual, there are two tenets that you must accept and that cannot be violated. The first thing you need to know is what ‘True Spirituality’ is. True Spirituality is not about religion. It is an all-encompassing view of life and not denying that things are more connected than most want to accept. True spirituality carries over into every aspect of your life. It becomes as real as the air you breathe, invisible in many ways but so real and vital to you as an individual. True spirituality is something that comes alongside everything you do, every thought you think and everything you see. It becomes a filter through which you view all things on a level that just makes sense.

What Is Truth?

Secondly, you need to know what Truth is. If something is truly the truth, then no temple made by the hands of any created being will be able to contain it. Real truth is big enough to cover all of creation. To try to contain truth in a temple or to even try to organize it under one roof or one people or one set of beliefs is like caging a wild animal. It is cruel, it is against its natural design and eventually will only weaken as it loses its wild side and conforms to its captivity and as a result, it would only produce other caged animals. Truth by design should set one free not put one in a cage. This is what religion is. It is a human-created cage intended to keep you bound so you never have a truly intimate relationship with God.

There was a time, I believe, that spirituality came easily to humans. Adam and Eve had a relationship with the Creator. There was nothing they had to do except walk and talk face-to-face with him daily. They walked with the Creator and talked to him as naturally as we would talk to anyone else. Their relationship was not something that people felt threatened by or that the Creator had to enforce. People were just glad to be part of creation. There were parameters they didn’t question or feel threatened by; things like not being able to breathe underwater or we could drown, not cutting ourselves because we knew blood would come out and possibly enough could come out that we could die, see where I am going with this? We trusted the Creator and what he decided was best for us. We didn’t see the parameters he established as unjust; in fact, just the opposite, we felt more secure knowing our limitations.

But being created, intelligent, sentient beings there was another dimension that did not seem so black and white as breathing underwater; it was what was good and bad. As long as we walked in harmony with the Creator in a loving, trusting relationship, it was no problem. People originally welcomed the Creator’s direction; they desired that he teach them, and they acknowledged that if he designed us and created us, he also knew what was best for us. Introduce into that equation the lie that you cannot trust your maker, then it all comes tumbling down. But instead of recognizing it as a lie and turning from it, people decided to prop up the lie and that was the beginning of religion. People decided not only that their maker could not be trusted, but took it a step further and fancied themselves to be gods and created a god in an image they could control and serve them. This, of course, was not true but an illusion that people created; it was beyond illusion, it was delusion. It was a lie so intense that people believed it was true and proceeded to build their world around it accordingly. Consequences, facts and truth suddenly did not matter if it did not fit the narrative.

What was accomplished was not enlightenment or freedom but a death to the spirit of humans and the death of true spirituality. The spirit that once spoke and corrected us was ignored until its voice became nothing more than white noise. Our conscience was seared, bound and silenced. What it was replaced with was an ever-evolving mess that just became more convoluted day by day. You can organize it, scream loudly with megaphones, claim to be God’s mouthpiece and it still does not make it true spirituality! True spirituality’s voice has never been in the earthquake or the squalling storm or the shouting of people. It has always been and always will be the still small voice within. (1 Kings 19:11-13)

True spirituality will never attempt to shout over whatever it is a person has accepted as truth. It will always be the still small voice that if one wants to hear one must quiet the noise that drowns it out for themselves. True spirituality is about being still. True spirituality is about letting go, not adding to. True spirituality’s voice is a whisper, not a scream.

Religion won’t bridge the gap between us and God.

How Do We Get It Back?

So, how do people get back to that place where we can hear that still small voice again? How do we reconnect to true spirituality? How do we recognize truth when we see it and a lie when we see it? First of all, realize you are not God. Don’t believe the New Age garbage that ‘you are God’. That is nonsense if God is us, then there is no God at all and that just goes back to people’s original fall.

It is always the downfall of human beings when one or more who have the power to enforce their will on people who can’t defend themselves take advantage of the weaker ones. The Creator is God. Call him God, call him what you will. One reference in scripture says call him ‘daddy’ (Romans 8:15). He went by many different names in many different cultures. Don’t get hung up on a name. A name can become an idol just as sure as carving a statue can. Just know and recognize that there is a personal being that is the creator and you’re not him.

Secondly, acknowledge that you cannot do it in your own power. Recognize that you need help beyond human help. You can’t work it up, wind it up, meditate enough, or do enough self-discipline. You need help that only the Creator can give. The good news is he offers just that. He offers to come alongside you and help you succeed.

Thirdly, you need a new beginning and a rebirth of your spirit. Jesus called it being born again. He explained to a scholar named Nicodemus in John 3 that just like you have a physical birth you also need a spiritual birth. This is a quickening and awakening of your spirit. This is something you express you have need of to the Creator and that you desire for him to do that only he can do. It is admitting it isn’t within your power to do this.

Fourthly, you need to ask forgiveness for your arrogance in thinking you could do it without help from the Creator. We all fall short in being good enough, no matter how good we are (Romans 3:23). Ask him to forgive your shortcomings and acknowledge your need to rely on him (1 John 1:9).

Fifthly, believe in someone who has done it successfully and laid down his very life so that we could be reconnected to the Creator. The Creator himself paid the price we could not pay, although he was not the one who failed. He came down to us in the form of Jesus/Yashua and not only showed us the way but was the way. He not only showed us what truth was but he was truth. (John 14:6)

Christianity has even become a religion. Jesus was against religion. He came to reconnect us to the Creator, or as he called him, our Father. I am not asking you to join a religion or attend a certain church and I am certainly not asking for your money. I am asking you to consider these truths without religious bias or rejection. I am asking you to talk to the Creator for yourself and ask him to reveal himself to you and to reveal to you whether these things are true. Then, read the Bible for yourself with no religious bias and you tell me if it is true or not. Don’t approach it looking for an excuse that it isn’t true, just let what is there speak to you. Read Genesis. Then skip to John. Then read Romans. Then where you go from there is up to you. I think any sincere seeker of truth will recognize the way, the truth and the life spoken of in its pages. Then whatever you do, don’t make a religion out of it. Just let the Creator speak and guide you.

More Reading:

Drawing Closer: Your Journey to Intimate Fellowship with God

Is There Any One Religion That Is Right?

How Sure Are You In What You Believe?

My Truth, Your Truth, Whose Truth?

Beyond Religion: Discovering Authentic Spirituality

True Spirituality

Grace

Things I wish Someone Would Have Told Me When I Became A Christian