True Spirituality is different than spirituality. And no, I’m not just trying to be cute.

by Paul Burkhart

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I don’t know about you, but too often I divorce spirituality from the Holy Spirit. Now don’t get me wrong, I fully have understood the idea that “spirituality” in the proper sense is a matter between my spirit and the Holy Spirit. But I too often define spirituality as fundamentally being about my spirit. Stirring it up and syncing it up to God. My thoughts turn to thoughts on how to make me “feel the Spirit more”. If I’m honest, I too often think that a healthy and vibrant Spirituality is defined by intense spiritual experience (emotions, gifts, fruits, and such). Now, these things are certainly a product of a vibrant spirituality, but that causes me to seek those things, thinking that if I achieve them, I have been “successful.”

True Spirituality is not first and foremost about the state of my spirit. No; it is about developing a dynamic vitality with the Holy Spirit. It’s about being swept up in a force greater than yourself – a person greater than yourself. Intimacy with any other person is not first and foremost about your experience of it. It’s about exploring the depths of who that person is. Lord, forgive my self-centeredness. He is the undergirding assumption, foundation, and pillow for all things. This isn’t about us. Oh, the offense and relief of that! It’s not about me, therefore it’s not by me. The weight isn’t mine to bear. I seek to be swept up in Him, draw near to Him, remove the things that keep me from Him and I trust that He will then respond to me in such a way that stirs me up for Him. A way that brings my soul to ecstasies I could not give myself, to experiences of gifting I could not bring about, and to fruits that could not be tasted apart from the Spirit’s work in me.

True Spirituality is this: that we know the Spirit.

Spirit, come. Teach me to find and know fullness of the Spirit only in Jesus. Make me wholly dependent on thee. I love you. I need you. Come.

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