ESSENTIAL QUALITIES OF A SPIRITUAL PERSON

Introduction

Many a youth grapple with the meaning of spirituality. To some, when a believer consistently prays for long hours, participates in every prayer meeting, and partakes of every prayer movement, then they are spiritual. To others, spirituality means attending church meetings regularly, spending long hours in church and giving huge sums of money as offering in church. To still others, spirituality means reading the Bible consistently and for long hours. While these rituals find credence in the Bible, they are not spiritual necessarily. Rituals are the routine, day-to-day activities performed religiously as means of showing relationship to God. Many believers use rituals to get to God, and to show that they are related to him. 

Spirituality means sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and to spiritual values. A person is spiritual if and only if he/she is born again by the Holy Spirit. Likewise a thing is spiritual if and only if it originates from the Holy Spirit. Therefore, spirituality is to be born again by the Holy Spirit. Spirituality is manifesting the fruit of the Spirit. Spirituality is manifesting the gifts of the Spirit. Spirituality is expressing the life of the Spirit through faith showing by love and holiness. These are the essential things that prove that one is alive and sensitive to the Holy Spirit. Instead of connecting to God through the Holy Spirit, some believers connect to God by daily religious performances. Any means of connecting to God, apart from the Holy Spirit, constitutes religion but not spirituality. 

We need to understand the nature of true spirituality so as to curtail religiosity and fanaticism on the part of Christians. How do you tell that a person is spiritual, that is, sensitive to and operating by the Holy Spirit? The following are the qualities of a spiritual person:

•A spiritual person is knowledgeable

A spiritual person has knowledge, I mean indepth knowledge of the Holy Spirit. Knowledge means consciousness; consciousness of your source and identity. Personhood begins with self-identity. You need to be conscious of who you are, where you came from, what you are here for, and where you are going after here. Answers to these essential questions are gotten through the Holy Spirit. Your consciousness of the Holy Spirit tells that you are awake to the Holy Spirit and to your true self as a spiritual person. It is the starting point of your Christian journey. No one truly born of God is oblivious of his source, for the Holy Spirit gave birth to you. 

Consciousness of the Holy Spirit basically shows through your manifestation of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and then his gifts. The fruit of the Spirit reveals his character and the gifts reveal his ministry within individual believers, within the church, and within the world. Consciousness of the Holy Spirit also brings forth a desire to know more about yourself, about your environment and about other people. So spiritual knowledge does not prohibit you from learning and increasing knowledge. A spiritual person has passion to increase in knowledge, not just any kind of knowledge, but knowledge of the truth, because, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. A spiritual person is not interested in being acquainted with and spreading false knowledge.

•A spiritual person is reasonable

To be reasonable means having the faculty of reason; rational, reasoning; not excessive or immoderate; within due limits; proper. To be spiritual is not to mean that you have lost your mind or your sense of thinking. God says that you should love him with all your heart, not only that, but also, with all your mind, meaning that you can add value to the cause of God by thinking and reasoning. Some believers suppose that being born again means losing your faculty of reasoning. Some Christians have taken actions that are not congruent with reason, but to them, they are operating according to revelation and faith. For instance, it is not reasonable to fast and pray for as long as your intestines develop sores, or to give your life-savings as offering to God. These actions do not tally with sound mind, and God will not authorize such exercises that are detrimental to your health and wealth, whereas he has said that he wants you to prosper financially under healthy and vivacious conditions. 

Prior to the beginning of his ministry, Jesus heard that Herod had put John the Baptist into prison. He left the south for the northern part of Israel to avoid clashes with Herod. This was a reasonable decision made by the Lord to escape being imprisoned by Herod. Another time his disciples wanted to make him king of Israel by force. Even though it was the will of God for him to be king of Israel, it was not the right time for him to be crowned as king, or else, he would clash with Herod and Pilate—the traditional and political rulers of the jurisdiction respectively. Jesus avoided this opportunity since it was not spiritual, at the same time, not reasonable. A spiritual person acts reasonably just like Jesus. 

•A spiritual persons speaks the truth

Speaking the truth is a sure evidence of spirituality. Truth is spiritual as it originates from God. Bible calls the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of truth because he influences people to speak and to do only the truth. The Bible teaches that when the devil lies, he speaks his native language—his native language is lies. Every person who is deep-seated in telling lies and deceiving people is being used by the devil to complete his devilish agenda. 

•A spiritual person teaches the truth

There are two kinds of spiritual teachers: those who teach the truth and those who teach falsehood. The latter are false teachers, pretenders and deceivers. They are called by the devil and are being used to embellish the truth of God's word. God's word reveals that teachers shall face stricter judgment since their ministry is more crucial as their interpretation of the word of God will either keep God's holy people in his marvelous light or will send them back to the darkness from which they were translated. A spiritual person desires to teach God's people only the truth, and God's word is truth. If you are fond of building doctrine based on your personal encounters with supporting texts from the Scriptures, then you are very likely to spread falsehood. You are supposed to build doctrine based on the revelation of the Bible with supporting evidence from your personal encounters, if you have any. This way, you will establish and spread the truth. 

•A spiritual person practices the truth

A spiritual person lives a life based on the reality of the gospel. Reality means applied truth. It is not enough to have knowledge of the truth. Your knowledge of the truth is accurate when you put it to practice. Then it becomes a reality in your life. Except you practise the truth that you know, you are as lost as one who does not know it at all. A spiritual person lives a life of reality—a life based on the reality of the gospel. It is important to know the truth, but it is more important to do it. Spirituality is so deeply rooted in the reality of the gospel. Preachers are models of their message just like Jesus. You prove to be intimate with the Holy Spirit when you do the truth that you know. 

Conclusion

If you truly followed the discussion, you would realise that we have not mentioned praying for long hours, studying the Bible for long hours, attending church fellowship regularly and spending long hours in church, and sowing fat seeds as part of the essential qualities of a spiritual person. This is because, religious persons as well as devils, are able to perform all of these activities, and that, more abundantly. Spirituality is less about performances and more about faith and intimacy with the Holy Spirit. Religious persons are concerned about performances even if they are without meaning. This is the only way they show their relationship to God. You can pray and read your Bible religiously, yet you may be out of touch with the Holy Spirit. If your words and deeds are prompted by the Holy Spirit, then you are in-tune with him, hence, alive to him. Beware of false religion! 

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