Spiritual Union With God
Religion and spirituality are often associated with sacred artifacts, solemn rituals, holy incantations, and zealous beliefs. But we don’t need any of this to make contact with the divine Spirit within us. All we need is an unwavering faith that this Spirit is always with us and is always willing to help us (see Have Faith in What?).
This is the simple answer to a spiritual life, one that goes far beyond religious doctrines and New Age rituals. Faith in the goodness of the Spirit raises us to higher and higher levels of consciousness. This is divine spirituality.
Divinity is the quality or state of being divine, and all things divine are either related to God or proceed directly from God. Divine spirituality is a personal spiritual experience, or consciousness, of this divinity.
God, by any name or conception, is the Primal Source of all divinity, and we begin to understand the nature and character of this divine Source by recognizing the qualities of divinity in our daily lives—the divine qualities of love, truth, goodness, wisdom, and compassion. We personally convey these qualities to others with loving kindness, good deeds, and social service. To become divine is to become increasingly Godlike.
Regardless of the name applied to this ideal of spirit reality, it is God.
– The Urantia Book
Achieving consciousness of the presence of divinity takes time, but it’s a sure and steady process of becoming more spiritual—it’s our ongoing path of positive and progressive growth. Much of this growth depends on our ability and our willingness to receive the spiritual guidance so freely given to us. It also depends on our willingness to adopt spiritual values—to make a concerted effort to live the Spirit Way in every moment of life—to do the right thing—to live God’s Way.
Divine spirituality is a matter of achieving spiritual union with God through communion—personal interaction—and not by dissolving your unique self in an infinite ocean of impersonal existence. You achieve unity with divinity by your freewill choice to live a spiritual life, to follow the lead of your inner Spirit as God wants you to. It’s a unity of purpose.
In this purposeful unity of self and spirit, we come to realize that spirituality is not a thing we exclusively possess. Instead, it’s a dynamic experience in which we become living conduits for spiritual energy, love, and wisdom. We fully participate in a spiritual life by being both a receiver and a transmitter of spiritual qualities and forces.
Thus, to complete your God experience, you must be willing to live a life in the spirit. Until you can reach a point in your life where you can love others freely and with sincere affection, you will find yourself confined to a religion of the mind rather than being liberated in a religion of the spirit.
Freely you have received, freely give.
– Jesus of Nazareth
Divine spirituality is an active and eager state of mind in which you are a happy, receptive, and willing participant who freely chooses, consciously and assertively, to embrace the Spirit Way. It is the delightful result of your overwhelming desire to be pure of heart—sincere, loving, and faithful.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
– Jesus of Nazareth
Balanced Spirituality
Get the most from your spiritual experiences by taking a balanced approach. A divine experience is a fully conscious, happy, sane, and sober experience of living in the presence of God and actively engaging in a spiritual life, an experience you can easily cultivate and express as you go about your daily routine. It’s alive, spontaneous, and authentic.
Strongly felt emotions, physical rites, or self-inflicted pain are not necessary conditions for a spiritual life. Nor should our honest and transformative experiences be confused with any kind of fanaticism, religious intolerance, or narcissistic tendency. A divine experience is a rational, level-headed, and personal approach to God.
Divine spirituality takes a balanced approach by making the necessary adjustments and improvements in body, mind, and soul. The objective is to stimulate the growth of all three but not to overemphasize either one. It is a balanced, integrated, and harmonious development of all personality endowments.
The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man.
– Euripides
The body works best as a temple of God when all electrochemical functions are working normally. The mind works best when it is free of all vices, fears, and detrimental emotions. And the Spirit thrives in an atmosphere of dedication, contemplation, and worship. See Balance Your Self.
The Spirit Within You
To find God, there is no need to travel to distant lands, exotic places, or sacred sites. God doesn’t live in Rome, Amritsar, or Mecca any more than anywhere else. The presence of God is all around us, and a spark of this Creator Spirit lives within each of us. We carry this gift of God wherever we go.
For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.
– Jesus of Nazareth
The Spirit Guide is a powerful source, and there are several ways to draw on its rejuvenating, spiritual energy. But more so, it is a conscious living entity that always endeavors to convey divine values, ideals, and goals. It is literally the gentle whisper of God.
The Spirit within is a piece of God. It has all the elements of God, much as a drop of ocean water retains all the elements of the ocean. This is not to say that God will eventually merge our identities in a great universe ocean. We will always be unique beings because we enjoy the divine gift of a unique personality that is endowed with the freewill power of moral choice (See Your Self as a Spiritual Child).
Divine spirituality means putting our wholehearted trust in the love and goodness of this divine Spirit, which will lead us through every difficulty and challenge in our lives. It will not necessarily exempt us from tragedy and tribulation, but it will help us to solve or rectify difficult problems—to face our challenges with an indomitable spirit guided by love, tact, wisdom, and reason.
Without the Spirit of God, we can do nothing. We are as ships without wind.
– Charles Spurgeon
Communion, or fellowship, with our inner Spirit brings happiness, strength, courage, and peace, but it will not endow us with a life of ease. Being spiritual does not entail living a passive life of indifference wherein we can forever avoid our duties, obligations, and responsibilities by hiding away from the world.
The Spirit is forever attempting to guide us through the maze of life’s problems by adjusting our thoughts in a way that enhances our spiritual perceptions and cosmic perspectives. In effect, it is transforming us into new, spiritual creatures. We can think of this Spirit as our Much Higher Self while keeping in mind that we are not that Self as yet—it’s a divine goal, a destiny to be attained.
True power is within, and it is available to you now.
– Eckhart Tolle
Your inner Spirit is a divine gift of God that works day and night to reach you. And you can assist it by learning to recognize spiritual realities, by accepting the truth of those realities, and by opening your heart to receive them.
