What is true spirituality any way? Is it being religious and committed to a certain religion? Is it being a space cadet anything goes as long as it sounds deep and esoteric?

I say it is neither of these things. True spirituality has nothing to do with religion or any particular set of beliefs. It is an all-encompassing view of life and not denying that things are more connected than most want to accept. True spirituality carries over into every aspect of your life. It’s not something you have to stir up, pay up or wind up. It becomes as real as the air you breathe, invisible in many ways but so real and vital to you as an individual. True spirituality is something that comes alongside everything you do, every thought you think and everything you see. It becomes a filter through which you view all things on a level that just makes sense. Does that mean you can make up anything you want and call it spiritual? Of course not but that is exactly what most people have done. I have never heard so many made up concoctions of BS in my life as there are today. I know a person who seemed to be a completely normal guy anyone would want to be around who went to a New Age gathering and came back swearing he was a reincarnated Druid priest. He immediately became obnoxious and ‘holier-than-thou’ from that moment on. I cannot help but be amazed and find it so laughable and obvious that everyone who traces their ‘past lives’ were always a queen or someone rich and important, never a thief or drunk or some slob. Just because something sounds all quasi-spiritual and appeals to your ego does not mean it is truth.
    Humanity today doesn’t want to acknowledge there is a God/Creator. There are hundreds of New Age belief systems that reinforce the thought that we are our own God and at best we are connected to some impersonal force in the universe. Much of the confusion and acceptance of the world we live in today stems from the general acceptance that there is no god which indirectly stems from the human desire to be their own gods. Successful thriving civilizations acknowledged a higher power. When that higher power becomes a human then we have dictatorships and religious rulers. When that higher power is acknowledged to be something superior to humans and outside of the flesh and blood realm then one has a sense of all things having their place in the universe including humans. When humans make their particular religion, their particular civilization, their particular race or gender, even their particular planet the center of the universe and of the supreme importance then it justifies all the atrocities they do to create and reinforce this illusion at the expense of those who don’t buy into and submit to their illusion. This has happened from the Dark Ages Roman Catholic church to Hitler to Islam today. These examples are the best examples on a grand scale but this ill bent illusion continues in many lesser forms today also.
    The longer I live as a rational being and observer of life it becomes irrefutably clear that there is a design in place for all living things and if there is a design there is a designer. We are not just products of a ‘Big Bang’ or some primordial soup. Harmony and balance are no more than living within that design. No one would argue that a gas combustion engine runs on gas and that is how it was designed. Defy its design and put water in the gas tank and it will break down and will not run. Treat it as designed by keeping it well lubricated and using the right fuel and it will run well for its life expectancy. Yet we as humans constantly defy our design or even deny we are designed and as a result treat our body, soul, spirit and other living things as we desire and the results are what we have today; a disjointed, self-serving society with no respect or regard for what is left of this creation or respect for future generations and the planet they will inherit.
     True spirituality must start with acknowledging there is a God and we are not it. We are created beings. Our Creator is spirit. He is in everything he created. He is not male, female, plant, animal or mineral. He is ALL these things and more but unlimited by any of these definitions. He cannot be confined or defined. He just IS. The best definition of the Creator is the one he gave of himself when he was asked by a man named Moses as he came face to face with the Creator as he manifested himself in a bush on fire that did not burn. When asked who he was he said “I am that I am”. He did not arrogantly speak and say “I am what I am” no he said “I am THAT I am”. There is a difference. If he said “I am what I am” it would merely have placed him as something among many other things but by saying “I am THAT I am” it was a statement of completeness, all encompassing, everything.
    Humans were created from the very clay and essence of this planet. When the Creator breathed his breath into them they became a living soul. This creation we call human became a fleshly body that was infused with the Creator’s very own life. His breath that he ‘spoke’ with, that he formed words with, and created all things with, that he spoke worlds into being with was placed within us human beings. Life giving to us and life creating ability given to us in the breath we breathed and the words we would speak. Not creating in the same sense of the Creator but the charge of whatever we would speak or choose would be life to all creation or death. He became one with our spirit and rather than make us automatons gave us a soul to choose. How could such life giving, life empowering reality that had the ability to glance into the infinite and the finite simultaneously choose anything but the harmony they were created for? And yet that is exactly what happened. Human beings chose to do things their own way. Rather than walk in harmony with the one who created them and gave them life, the ‘created’ elevated themselves in their own mind as equal or superior to the ‘creator’.
    So, what is TRUTH? Your truth, my truth, whose truth…? The Creator’s voice is a constant reference point for creation of how things are supposed to be and what will ultimately benefit all that he has created and keep it living harmoniously and balanced and ultimately satisfying all our needs without taking away from anything else’s needs in creation. Jesus introduced a concept that was missing in all the world’s religious thinking. He introduced a concept that true balance and harmony (spirit, soul and body) is absolutely impossible without something he called being ‘born again’. Jesus called it being ‘born again’ in the Holy Bible, book of John chapter 3. Now there is a term that has been much abused and misunderstood. He explained to a puzzled man named Nicodemus and ultimately to us all that we needed a rebirth; a rebirth of what? A rebirth of our spirit. The Holy Bible teaches something that no other so-called holy books teach. It teaches us that as humans somewhere along the way died in our spirit and lost our connection to the infinite and along with it lost our moral compass. By bad choices made by our ancestors humans have become less than what we should be and instead of turning to our Creator to show us the way back we have just propped up system after system until we were in such a spiritual mess that it took the Creator himself to take human form and come down here to straighten it all out.
    Just about every religion in the world says if we do this or that then we will be truly spiritual or enlightened, as some religions put it. Every religion in the world says it is within our power and up to us and that we don’t need a god to do it. Basically, they are saying what Satan told Adam and Eve long ago that we are our own gods or we are god and there is no superior being outside of us that is God. The Bible is the only ‘holy’ book that teaches we fall short, we can’t do it on our own, we are disconnected from God; we need to be reconnected to him, we need to be restored into being harmonious beings with the spirit, soul and body in their proper function and that this is possible only through acknowledging our broken state and allowing Creator/God to restore this broken connection which he made a way to do just that by coming to this planet in a human form in the person of Jesus.
I have honestly and open-mindedly looked into and studied many religions and philosophies and one thing that stands out to me in the Holy Bible is it is the only belief system that admits we cannot do it on our own, that we need a Savior. It could not and cannot be lived apart from God in our life guiding us and empowering us by His Spirit. The truth has not changed. The truth is still alive and well. Truth is a person. His name is Jesus. Now that may be hard to grasp for the accepted concept and definition of truth has more to do with irrefutable facts. But think about it. What makes a fact irrefutable? It must be embodied by the authority of a container, as in a person who is living proof of it so much so that they are the living embodiment of that truth. Now imagine the Creator himself, creator of ALL things, THE authority on all things, including truth, taking a tangible form that can be related to on every level, even on a level of our five senses, then truth itself becomes tangible and possible to embody, comprehend, touch and live. That was what the Creator did. The Creator took human form in the form of Jesus. Then the truth itself took on a life of its own to the point that the limited human container was no longer needed and indwelled all of creation. The Creator/Spirit revealed himself that he was indeed infused in all of creation and connects all creations, including humans, back to harmony and balance in the truth embodied Jesus.
    Jesus had great respect for all religions as do I and I read and ponder many great quotes and sayings by many people. Jesus made the respect he had very clear when he said “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” (Matthew 5:17). That explains a lot! Think about it. He wasn’t just speaking of Judaism and the Mosaic Law. He was saying, ‘Hey Earth, you have made a big mess out of spirituality, you have created religions and rules so difficult you can’t even live up to them yourself and I have come with good news! Your every belief system, no matter what it is is fulfilled in me. I am the way, the truth and the life that your spiritual longings have longed for. You have distanced yourself farther and farther from God and true spirituality year after year after year with all your systems. Some of you have meant well but I’m here to tell you that you have made it too difficult and too complicated but I am here to straighten all that out, to give you clarity and I have good news for you: no matter how evil or religious you are I have come to bring truth and forgiveness and a chance to start fresh and new.” This was not a con job or the start of another religion. It was a line drawn in the sands of eternity. The truth would no longer be a relative thing. What is good and what is evil would no longer be in the hands of humans to decide. It never really was; it was just a grand illusion that was perpetrated in the Garden of Eden and just grew and became more complex all through time. Jesus was saying the truth was not a code or set of rules or even facts; it was a person, Jesus himself. God the Creator took on a form of flesh that we humans could relate to. He reminded us and declared that he was, is and always will be the truth. How could the truth be anything else than the Creator? He was, is and will always be the only one with all the knowledge, all the power and the only one good enough. He was the only one that was perfectly love, perfectly unbiased, perfectly objective enough to be so.
    Jesus went a step farther even and as God incarnate he recognized that there was a pretty big ledger of atrocities and evil built up by now. He labeled it all sin and didn’t categorize big sins and little sins and declared that there was no human being, no created thing good enough, truthful enough, holy enough to do what needed to be done and to the pay the price that needed to be paid. So, he, God, sinless and holy paid the debt himself and laid down his very own life to pay the price. No one else could. Humans have tried. They have sacrificed plants, animals and even other humans. They created all kinds of religious systems to gain God’s favor and forgiveness. Jesus was not just another enlightened teacher or a good man. Jesus was God and man in one. He was God in the flesh.
    I know that sounds like a lot to swallow and in this day and time easy for some of you to pass off as preaching and trying to convert you to Christianity. I hate the way most Christians interpret spirituality. I am asking you to throw away all the stereotypes and bad examples that claim to follow the teachings of Christ. I’m asking you to discard religion and consider what has been presented objectively and I think you will, like I have, conclude it makes sense on a spiritual level. That’s really what it comes down to is connecting with your spirit and enter into that room where you and your spirit dwell and talk to yourself with more than words. Listen with more than your physical ears and brain and ask yourself and the Creator is what I have said thus far the truth. Let your spirit be brought to life in a way that you never dreamed possible as only the Creator can do. Connect to he who is truth and you will know the truth and it WILL set you free. I’m not asking you to join a church or send your money anywhere. I’m just asking you to know true harmony, balance and peace. Being born again is only the beginning. It is an introduction to your mentor, spiritual guide and Creator. It is an invitation to have a growing, continuing relationship with your Creator. You can still be open minded and question everything but I’m telling you the questions will be less and less as he does something no religion can do and settle things in you and answer the deepest questions that you cannot even put into words. You will just know that you that you know. You might not be able to explain it but who can put into words how you feel on the most beautiful day of all or how you really feel in the arms of that one you love. The Creator himself takes up residence in you and you in him. You become connected to spiritual understanding that you cannot explain but neither will you feel the need to explain. You abide in a spiritual house that is seemingly just you and he teaching you, growing you on a level that is so individual and yet also connected to a great body of others like you but not like you, oneness like you never dreamed possible. This is more than religion, my friend.

Raven has a great book discussing the topic of TRUE SPIRITUALITY. It is available in paperback or DESTIN-E BOOK form. Get your copy today!