A Spiritual Person
by Roy Hendrix
There must be several ways to approach a subject as broad as this article’s title suggests. I’ve simply chosen the writings of a couple of authors, a pastor, and a philosopher to help in a quick look at one or two aspects of the subject.
Rick Warren
As Rick Warren discusses in Purpose Driven Life, you are made in God’s image and you are a spirit that resides in a human body – God designed your spirit to communicate with him. Worship is your spirit responding to God’s spirit (see the Spiritual Insight entitled, “Worship” on this web site.)
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience” - quote by French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
Randy Brown
Further, Randy Brown, pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Manchester, TN discusses spiritual and non-spiritual people and issues in a sermon entitled, Nobody Knows, the last in a series of sermons on the Body of Christ. Randy uses one of Paul’s letters to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 2:1-16) as his scripture reference for this sermon.
Randy says that the way God desires for us to live is to realize that we are spiritual beings and we need to feel that spiritual nature. He also points out that life in the spirit is different from life in the flesh. We are spiritual beings trapped for a moment in human experience. 1 Corinthians tells us that a person who has the spirit of Christ in him will see things differently… “15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,” 1 Corinthians 2:15 New International Version (NIV)
Some ways this difference can be manifested are:
- A spiritual person will see life through eyes of grace – a non-spiritual person will see life through the eyes of judgment.
- A spiritual person will see life through the eyes of forgiveness – a non-spiritual person will see life through the eyes of condemnation.
- A spiritual person will see life through the eyes of kindness – a non-spiritual person will see life through the eyes of arrogance.
- A spiritual person will see life through the eyes of trying to be helpful – a non-spiritual person will tell you how hopeless things are.
- A spiritual person can see the big picture – a non-spiritual person can’t even see the small picture.
Margaret Paul
Margaret Paul - author and relationship expert has this to say on the subject of spirituality:
People often confuse spirituality with religion. People can be both religious and spiritual, but it is also possible to be religious without being spiritual, or to be spiritual without being religious.
My experience of God is that God is the energy of Love that created us and sustains us. In my experience, “God is Spirit” (John 4:24) and “God is love” (1 John 4:16).
If you want to be a spiritual person, then let kindness be your guiding light – kindness toward yourself, toward others, toward animals and toward this beautiful planet that is our home. Recognize that we all have the spark of love that is God within us, and learn to honor that love so that you can know and experience the Oneness of all that is.
Summary
So, summing up what our experts quoted above have said:
- Rick Warren says you are a spirit and your spirit responding to God’s spirit is called worship.
- Randy Brown says we are spiritual beings trapped for a moment in human experience and that a person who has the spirit of Christ in him will see things quite differently as pointed out by Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:15.
- The French philosopher, de Chardin, says, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
- Margaret Paul, author, says, “if you want to be a spiritual person, then let kindness be your guiding light.”
Your spirit is eternal, while your body withers away in a short period of time. Thus your spirit cries out for nourishment and growth while it resides in your body. So let your spirit be guided by the Holy Spirit and rejoice in being able to see things differently (as Paul suggested) during its short stay in your human body.