Third, Christian spirituality is concerned for all of a person's life. Rather than separating spiritual, physical, financial, social, and other life components into distinct areas, Christian spirituality is concerned with how all of life connects to our relationship with God. For example, the use of our finances reflects the attitude of our heart (Matthew 6:21). How we treat our body reflects our spiritual life in important ways (1 Corinthians 6:20). The importance of truth is that every thought, belief and identity can be broken down with the truth test. You’ve believed things your whole life that have been handed down from your parents, friends or coworkers without even realizing it.

For the typical charismatic, the gateway to spirituality is through an experience. And that experience is usually defined as the baptism of the Spirit with speaking in tongues. They tell us that if you have that experience, you are zapped. It accurately describes the way most charismatics view sanctification. They think you go along in your Christian life until you get the baptism of the Spirit, speak in tongues, you’ve got the zap, and then you’ve been elevated to sanctification. Some would go so far as to say you’ve reached the second level of grace. There are many charismatics who will even use the word “zap” and say, “Well, may Jesus zap you.” As founder of L’Abri and the thinker who inspired a generation of evangelicals to engage meaningfully with culture, Schaeffer authored more than 20 books. He often described his trilogy as the hub of his writing: The God Who Is There, Escape from Reason, and He Is There and He Is Not Silent. If you’re looking to learn what it means to “live” the new birth event, I commend Francis Schaeffer’s True Spirituality. For those who desire deep biblical answers, Schaeffer has delivered a profoundly complex yet beautiful explanation of the Christian life. To cope with feelings of stress, depression, and anxiety: Spiritual experiences can be helpful when coping with the stresses of life.The book concludes with a call to take the transformative power to the whole world: “Having come this far, true spirituality—the Christian life—flows into the total culture” (256). Schaeffer clearly believes true dependence on Christ has substantial implications for all of life.

A decade of spirituality has brought me to my knees, took everything away from me (a few times), and left me feeling hopeless and empty. One of the greatest attractions of the Charismatic Movement has always been that it offers believers power, understanding, and spirituality immediately through some kind of experience. And if you just have the experience, you’ve got it without the time, without the pain, without the progress, without the struggle that’s natural to any growth process. And so, I went, and they had a nice lunch. And after lunch, I got up and I launched into my biblical discussion on the reality of what the Bible says about tongues. And I could note there was a severe amount of nervousness and movement in the crowd, and I didn’t know why because I thought these gracious just want to know what the other side believes. And so, I continued to wax eloquent about what I believe the Bible was teaching about the cessation of the gift of tongues and that it had no part for today, and that it was a false standard of spirituality and things like that. In contemporary society, Christian spirituality is generally defined as a set of beliefs, values, and way of life that reflect the teachings of the Bible, the holy book of Christianity. Much research has been devoted to this topic, ranging from practical to academic. But what does the Bible teach on this issue?Whitehead BR, Bergeman CS. Coping with daily stress: Differential role of spiritual experience on daily positive and negative affect. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2012;67(4):456-459. doi:10.1093/geronb/gbr136

And then I was really confused because I thought I was doing what they expected me to do. And I’ll never forget his prayer. He started out by saying, “We want to pray for this brother that sometime soon, in the middle of the night, the Holy Spirit will zap him.” That’s exactly what he said, and that’sHe was in love with God. He was earnestly seeking a deeper and closer relationship with God with all his heart (Jeremiah 29:12-14) – as one friend knows another very close and personal friend. All through the Psalms David was seeking after God. The “something more” is found in seeking God with all your heart day after day. I would encourage you to read the brief study called “God’s Great Passion.” It is the Holy Spirit who fills the inner being Conclusion For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more. The great commandment in the Bible is to “Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength” (Deut 6:5; Mt 22:37). We must see that “loving God” means “not coveting against God”. . . and that “loving our neighbor” means “not coveting against him.” When we do not love the Lord as we should, we are actually “coveting against Him.” The word “covet” in the Greek is epithumeo – which means “to fix the desire upon; to long for; to lust after.” Therefore, when we do not fix our desire upon God, we are longing for something or someone else; so when we do not love God as we should, we are coveting against Him . Jesus said, “You cannot covet both God and mammon – you will hate one and love the other” (Mt 6:24). “Thou shalt not covet” is the internal commandment which shows the man who thinks himself as being “moral,” as really needing a Savior. The average “moral man” who has lived comparing himself to other men can feel like Paul, that he is actually doing all right. But suddenly, when he is confronted with the “inward command” not to covet, he is brought to his knees. Schaeffer first shows us how spiritual birth unites us to Christ’s death and resurrection. Following our new birth, a wonderful paradox arises. Jesus commands us to die.

That period of examination laid the groundwork for True Spirituality. The book wasn’t published until two decades after Schaeffer’s crisis of faith. But the basic components of the book had been created by the mid-1950s in the form of camp talks and messages: twin emphases on the finished work of Christ and the need for Christians to live out their faith in all of life. Pay attention to how you are feeling: Part of embracing spirituality means also embracing what it means to be human, both the good and the bad.But unfortunately, it often does not last and after a while they discover that they are looking for “something more” again. At first Bible study seems to meet the need, then it is worship, or some think it is in relationships – fellowship with other believers. But Jesus offered the “something more” when He said, Thoughts precede actions – the external is a product of the internal. All behavior begins in the mind. Paul tells us to “present our bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is our spiritual service of worship” (Rom 12:1). Notice verse one cannot be separated from verse two – “Do not be con-formed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom 12:2). So in contrast to being conformed to this world, we are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, and that is internal. Paul exhorts us to not walk as other Gentiles walk, “in the futility of their mind” (Eph 4:17); rather, we are to be “renewed in the spirit of our mind” (4:23). You will notice this is not simply a “feeling” – it is a matter of “thoughts” with content (4:24). Paul goes on to say, “Walk not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil; so do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is” (Eph 5:15-17). Thus our “thought-life” is critical in the area of true spirituality. “As a man thinks, so is he” (Prv 23:7). Jesus also emphasized this: “the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart” (Mt 12:34); “out of the heart come evil thoughts and all manner of evil” (Mt 15:19) – if the internal condition of the heart is not right, one cannot bring forth proper results. John writes, “Whoever hates his brother is a murderer”(1 Jn 3:15) – hate in the heart (mind) does not just lead to murder; morally it is murder. In the story of Joseph, his brothers “hated him” – their internal hate was the root of the whole problem; his brothers “envied him” (Gen 37:4ff).