- The Paradox of History
- The Essence of God
- Raw Material
- Available People
- Humility
- Spiritual Gifts
- Meekness
- Baptisms
- Three Functions of the Believer
- Ambassadorship
- Seven Figures of Christ and the Church
- The Mature Believer and Personal Accountability
- Tongues as a Spiritual Gift
- Prophecies of Jesus Christ in the Psalms
- The Perspective of Grace
- Discipleship
- Blessing and Reward
- How to Redeem Time
- Dispensations Timeline
- The Rapture
- The Day of the Lord and The Day of Christ
- The Good Fight of Faith
- Suffering
- Decisions
- No Truce
- Peace
- 10 Principles of Warfare
- God is Able, God Is Faithful
- Present Session of Christ
- Religion: The Enemy’s Ace
- Power In Us
- Faith
- Small Things
- Five Techniques (to spirituality)
- Eight Sabbaths
- Faith-rest
- Strange Tests
- Daily Disciplines
- The Faith-rest Technique
- Three Sources of Temptation
- Divine Wisdom
- The Value of Wisdom
- Evil
- The Royal Code
- The Character of Grace
- The Cross to the Crown
- Water and the Spirit
- Spirituality
- Synonomous Terms
- Reversionism and Recovery
- Soul Strengths and Soul Kinks
- Discipline
- Seven Steps of Spiritual Advance
- The Race of Life
- The Will of God
- The Old Sin Nature
- Energized Prayer
- Abiding: Absolute Thinking
- God’s Faithfulness
- Salvation in The Book of James
- “All things work together …”
- Biblical Spirituality
- Dispensations
- Death
- Endurance
- Essence of God Acronym
- Eternal Security
- Fellowship with God
- Five Commands for Christian Soldiers
- Five Factors of Effective Faith
- Five Techniques of the Christian Way of Life
- Five works of the Holy Spirit
- Five Works of the Spirit in Regard to the Word
- Free Will
- Freedom
- God is Able
- God Revealed
- Greek
- Hebrew Words for Faith
- Hermeneutics
- Imitation of Christ
- Man’s Barrier with God
- Parakaleo
- Seven Steps of Spiritual Recovery
- Seven Steps of Spiritual Retreat
- Spiritual Flexibility
- Spiritual Rest
- Stages of Spiritual Growth
- Take up Your Cross and Follow Him
- The Blood of Christ
- The Call of God
- The Daily Care of the Soul
- The Doctrine of Sin
- The Good Soldier of Jesus Christ
- Christ’s Work on the Cross
- The Church
- The Holy Spirit and Christ
- The I AM Sayings of Christ
- The Importance of the Word of God
- The Overcomer
- The Plan of God
- The Spirit in the Old Testament
- The Way of Salvation
- The Way to be Salt and Light
- The Words of Jesus
- The Work of Christ on the Cross
- Using the Physical to Learn the Spiritual
- Ways of Learning
- The Christian Way of Life
- The Christian Walk
- Scriptural Proof of the Pre-tribulation Rapture
- The Five Crowns
- Jesus Christ in the Tabernacle
- 5 Circles of Faith around Jesus
- The 4 Points of the Cross
- Should I Confess My Sins?
Spirituality
What makes a person spiritual? Some people would look to externals for the answer—they would say a person is spiritual because of the pious way he dresses or talks, the things he does or does not do, the places he goes or refuses to go. Others would say a person is spiritual simply because he believes in and seeks to tap some sort of higher power in the universe. Webster’s dictionary vaguely defines spirituality as “sensitivity or attachment to religious values.”
God’s definition is anything but vague. According to the Bible, a person is spiritual when—and only when—he is filled with the Holy Spirit. Spirituality is an absolute—at any moment of time we are either one hundred percent filled with the Spirit and therefore spiritual, or we are not filled with the Spirit at all and are therefore carnal (1Co 2:14–15; 1Co 3:1–4; Gal 5:16–17; Gal 6:1).
At the moment of salvation, every believer is indwelt by God the Holy Spirit. Indwelling is a once-for-all thing; it cannot be changed or lost. The Spirit indwells every believer all the time (Rom 8:9; 1Co 6:19–20; Gal 3:2; Gal 4:6). But with the indwelling, an inner conflict begins between the Holy Spirit and our old sin nature. Our volition—our freedom to choose—is the arbiter in the conflict. We decide moment by moment who will be in control of our soul.
So, the filling of the Spirit is a matter of choice. We are commanded to be filled (Eph 5:18), and we choose every day whether to obey that command or not. The command in Ephesians Five is in the passive voice, indicating that the filling of the Holy Spirit is a gift which we can receive or reject, but cannot earn. Like everything else in the Christian life, the filling of the Holy Spirit comes one way: by grace through faith. We lose the filling of the Spirit by choosing to grieve or quench the Spirit through sin or apathy (Eph 4:30; 1Th 5:19). We regain it by choosing to confess, which results in our being cleansed from all unrighteousness (1Jo 1:9; Pro 1:23).
Being filled with the Spirit is not an end in the Christian life; it is the means to an end. The Holy Spirit is not given to us for nothing; He is given to us to provide power for life. Our goal is to bear fruit (Joh 15:4–5); the fruit described in Gal 5:22–23 is the character of Jesus Christ. Spirituality—the life that is produced by the consistent filling of the Holy Spirit—is the life of Christ in us.