Spiritual Depth HOWTO

Good morning, Readers. In honor of the season:

The primary element of spiritual depth is less of the flesh.

In order to dampen the striving of the flesh, we have to understand what it is and how it works. Specifically, we have to understand how that striving is different from that of the spiritual hungering and thirsting, and how the appetites of the flesh are directly contrary to those of the Spirit. Spiritual growth, by definition, means dragging the flesh along behind, training the flesh to serve the Spirit, and not to lead.

Thus, simply gaining a deeper intellectual understanding by itself is actually contrary to the Spirit. We find ourselves in the sad state in Western Christianity where "spiritual growth" is anything but spiritual. It means better theology and better behavior, but not arising from a deeper commitment to the ineffable. It’s always clothed in some cultural mythology drawn from a background different from that of Scripture.

So the second critical distinction is purity. The worst thing we could do is propose to offer spiritual exercises built on pagan religion. God raised up one and only one intellectual and cultural background against which to project and display His revelation, and that is the ancient Hebrew. Very pointedly God warned His chosen people against mixing in other sources for religious activities. The Laws of Moses are replete with specific prohibitions rooted in the broad command of not being like the pagan nations which Israel had encountered. That difference singles out any and all pagan ritual echoes, even while the specific Mosaic rituals and imagery were so very similar in some ways to common pagan religions of that time and place.

We further refine the distinction, then, by noting God gets to choose what matters and what does not. This is not wholly mysterious. A substantial element in the Law of Moses was the invitation to abstract from it applications not specifically stated. See the whole through Hebrew eyes and you’ll discern the patterns God intended. They will surely give rise to debate among sincere believers, but holiness is in the determination to seek properly, not so much in the answers.

The secondary element of spiritual depth is committing accurately to the revelation of God as a whole, including the intellectual and cultural background, as the means to understanding what is required to carry out the primary element.

If you need a full explanation of what that Hebrew outlook is like, the best I can offer is in the following links in order:

[edit: The original list of materials are all gone, incorporated into my books sometime after this post. Start with A Course in Biblical Mysticism.]

Again, it is not necessary to discard your Western analytical approach, but to remember its limits. You still have to understand how people without spiritual awareness operate. Aristotelian logic is good for its designed purpose, which is handling what our five senses can tell us. When it comes to ultimate truth, we rely in revelation and a mystical approach.

Building on this foundation, the primary means to advancement is studying the Bible. It usually works best to simultaneously study the Bible while reading books about manners, customs, and daily life in Bible times. Be particularly conscious modern Judaism bears only a superficial resemblance to the ancient Hebrew ways, so take Jewish sources with a grain of salt (see Edersheim’s Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, starting with Chapter II and reading through the next two chapters.)

Every human on earth serves God’s purpose. Only a few are taken into the divine household as adopted family members. They can know God intimately and be taken into His counsel. Most humans are not aware of Him, and so never get to know Him any better than a slave purchased by some great Eastern Potentate. All the slave knows is his job and his immediate supervisor. So those without a spiritual awareness are steered through life by all sorts of concerns and desires, never really understanding the deeper issues.

A great many people involved in Christian religion are mere believers in the flesh. We can’t pretend to know or even estimate proportions, but the Parable of the Tares (Matthew 13:14-30) indicates some portion of those claiming to follow Christ will never bear any spiritual fruit. The question is not their eternal status, but whether you can see the right fruit. You can’t simply toss them out, because that would destroy the very operation itself. But even those who indicate an interest in spiritual depth will include folks with dead spirits. They are seeking more knowledge, more personal discipline, and even some greater emotional involvement, perhaps hoping these things will by some sort of magic change them.

It’s fine to explain clinical symptoms of spiritual change, because even if they are learned artificially, the world becomes a slightly better place. We cannot avoid that, but it is not our goal. It’s merely a side effect. Our goal is to weaken the flesh and strengthen the spirit.

A critical problem for most Westerners is mistaking emotion for the move of the Spirit. Escaping this is usually a long term discipline. While spiritual stirrings can produce emotions, the two are not chained together. There is no shortcut to learning this. However, a critical element in discernment is control. The Spirit gives us more control, while the flesh takes it away. Scripture says the spirit of the prophets is subject to the will of the prophets. The Lord will not compel you to serve Him, but will build a fire of desire. The difference between an emotional desire and spiritual desire is whether you can turn it off.

A move of the Spirit will persist across contexts, but will go quiet if you decide you cannot act immediately. Emotions tend to run away with us, impossible to control because they arise from the fallen nature. It’s rather like a haunting melody you can’t get out of your head. The Spirit of God does not work that way. He is quiet and patient, waiting for us to work our way to Him. If you question the source of a particular impulse, your emotions will demand immediate satisfaction, and likely fade over time or change objects. Those of the Spirit will fade with the context as you move away from the moment. It will not haunt you so very much, except perhaps as mild regret. His drawing will persist over time, arising again and again when the opportunity for acting comes around. This movement will often come in contradiction to your emotions, or your intellectual inclinations.

Do we have to explain this will mean nothing to someone not yet spiritually awakened? Much more than this requires you simply proceed in good conscience. Trial and error will teach you the rest. Desire to please God is more important than your performance, because the desire is what pleases Him.

The final issue in spiritual depth is moral purity. This is a desire to know and understand organically what His Laws intend to tell us. This is why Bible study is central to growth, because it lays out the Laws. You begin to discern the biblical narrative, and the world around you, in light of what God demands. We grasp intellectually how His Laws symbolize higher truth. More specifically, His Laws indicate what holiness of commitment produces. If you truly desire to please Him, your actions will tend to look like His Laws. Nothing substitutes for a good understanding of the Laws of Noah. These are a frame of reference I generally refer to as God’s Laws (always with an “s” on the end, to differentiate from the singular “Law” used for Moses’ Law). Abstracting Noah with the intent to see the heart of God is your mission here.

There is a snowball effect, and progressive amplification of these factors feeding into each other. Your only concern for this world is not to make it better, though that will happen to some degree as a side effect, but the emphasis is revealing God. The primary revelation of God is via His commandments and requirements for the human race under the Fall. We show His will by living it, by how we change as our self-denial grows stronger. His glory arises from people seeing that self-death.
All creation is a tool for His glory.