WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE SPIRITUAL (PART 3)

Christianity in itself is spiritual. What differentiate Christianity from other religion is that Christianity is not just a way to seek God but it is a love affair between God and mankind (believers). We are called into a relationship with God (Spirit being) therefore it is not a physical relationship but a spiritual one.

Having this in mind that we are dealing with God who is a spiritual being can we really say a man (believer) can be over-spiritual? To be spiritual is to walk in total obedience to the instructions of the Spirit of God, which in turns determines your conformity to the image of Christ.

Spirituality is neither over nor under. There is no such thing as being over or under spiritual. It is either you are spiritual or you are carnal. Either you are cold or hot. There is no hot-hot or cold-cold.

Yet why do we brand some to be over spiritual?

The scripture is full of things, decisions and actions that we will easily termed to be over-spiritual (I will rather use religious fanatics) yet those actions are birthed out of their love for God. A man filled with God’s love will ALWAYS find it as a matter of urgency and necessity to yield to the instructions of the Spirit and to fulfill all the requirements demanded by the Holy Spirit.

READ WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE SPIRITUAL PART 2 to see actions birthed out of love from the scripture that to the natural mind it’s above the board yet these actions produced extraordinary things.

The key to spirituality is OBEDIENCE. Your level of obedience determines how spiritual you are and you will be.

We branded some believers to be over-spiritual when they tend to behave irrational to our rational mind. When some believers seems to be living and acting above what we seems to be God’s standard then we say they are over-spiritual.

For example when a believer seems to be so humble that the ‘humble’ in our sight says this is too much. How can you keep quiet when you were slapped without retaliating? How can you still show love to the same person that betrayed and reject you? What of those times when you don’t shift your ground on some issues despite what people says?

I recalled that my salary was over paid in my last circular job and I called the accountant to inform her of the misappropriation. Everyone around me, including Christians who are workers in the church shouted you are too spiritual.

When some people tend to go extra miles in setting boundaries that we are not willing to set like they don’t go to party, no make-up, no trousers, no visit to opposite sex alone. No gossip about others. Those who are not willing to go that extra mile will brand those who are willing to go extra miles to be over spiritual.

Let me clear something here, some of these things are not sin on their own (don’t get me wrong) but one way or the other it can breed an environment to sin that is why some believers sees it as a necessity not to give space to them.

The truth of spirituality

The more you walk with God the more He will require you to shed off some weight. The more you yield to God, the more you will notice that things that are normal for others seem to be no go area for you especially if you have a great part to play in God’s agenda. He will require a self-denial lifestyle. To others trouser and make-up may not mean anything but it may to you because of what you will represent in the body of Christ yet those who wear trouser or make-up are not ‘under-spiritual’, it’s all about God’s dealing with you and your willingness to yield to it.

I have seen ladies that told me on several occasions that they are scolded on the issue of earrings, make-up and trouser. According to them they were restricted on several accounts by the spirit of God not to go that line despite their refusal. Yet are they saying those who make use of these are not spiritual or they are sinners? NO, it’s about personal dealings with the Spirit of God.

Can we cross the line of spirituality?

The truth is when it’s comes to spirituality nothing is too much to do. The spiritual is as deep as God. Therefore, you can’t be over zealous with your lover but it must be complemented with knowledge. Romans 10:2 “for I bear them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge”.

Failure to balance your zealousness with the knowledge of the scripture will produce a religious fanatic instead of a spiritual Christian.

When you begin to judge your spirituality based on your activities in church then you might just be religious and not spiritual. The fact that you attends church services more than your friend doesn’t mean you are spiritual than him/her.

The fact that you engage in spiritual activities doesn’t make you spiritual more than the rest but your willingness to yield and obey God’s instruction.

The fact that you are modest in your appearance doesn’t make you spiritual than others but how much obedience you give to the scripture.

It’s very good to go extra miles to please God. It’s very good to go extra-miles to obey God’s instruction but it will be unfortunate when you do all this out of God’s way. It will be unfortunate to use human standard to judge being spiritual or not. Your zeal for God must be balanced with the knowledge of God.

Note: when you notice that everyone around you is over-spiritual then it’s only pointing to the fact that you are not spiritual as you think.

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©Oladimeji Olayinka Joseph