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Being Spiritual

by Jerry Ousley  
2/12/2016 / Christian Living

A certain popular evangelist had come to our small community as a guest speaker of one of the local churches. My grandmother, who is now with the Lord, wanted to go hear him and after several hints I agreed to take her. We arrived and took our seats somewhere in the middle not too close but not in the back those are the places that seem to get the most attention in a meeting. The pastor of the church took charge of the service and really everything was moving along in a reasonable manner.

It came time for the evangelist to take the platform. He talked a lot then started a prayer line. Only, it wasn't like any prayer line I'd ever seen. It seemed that his prayers cost money! He started out with a thousand dollar prayer line. I don't think I have to tell you that there was only one or two who got in that line. Then he dropped it to five hundred dollars. There were a few more than the thousand dollar line and folks they didn't get as long a prayer either. Then came the hundred dollar line, a fifty dollar line, a twenty-five dollar line and a ten dollar line. As the amount dropped more people went forward but the prayers got shorter and shorter. I think my grandmother went forward for the twenty-five dollar prayer.

Finally the evangelist called for a general prayer line in which folks could give whatever they could afford. I was pretty upset with this by now, but because it seemed everyone in the building was in this line I didn't want to stick out like a sore thumb so I got in it too. I began noticing that as each person's turn came to be prayed for, the evangelist placed his hand on their heads and they took off dancing in the spirit. I had seen people dancing in the spirit before so that didn't bother me so much as the fact that everyone was doing it. What was going on here? At last it was my turn to be prayed for; I stepped up in front of the man expecting a mighty prayer (after all, he must have been special to merit charging for his prayers). What happened was this; he put his hand on my head, and then whispered in my ear, "Now take off dancing in the spirit." I couldn't believe what I had heard; he was telling each individual to begin dancing in the spirit and it made it look as if the power of God had fallen when all along it was his suggestion. I couldn't believe that all those people were so influenced by the man that they actually did it! A man had been standing near the front of the prayer line with an offering basket for folks to make their "affordable donations" and so I had slipped in a couple of dollars but after what he had said I was wondering if I could get my money back! Needless to say, I didn't take off dancing in the spirit but walked back to my seat mad as a hornet. I stayed only because Grandma wanted to but I had experienced enough.

The point of this story is to say that we can't be spiritual just by appearing to be so. Outward manifestations do not make us spiritual. Way too many people have it all wrong. One group thinks they are spiritual because they let their emotions go wild in their services, while others are so afraid of emotion they make their services staunch, cold, and formal with no place for someone to get emotional.

So just how do we become spiritual? To be spiritual means that our thinking and actions are toward the spirit. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:44 that there is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. So being in the spirit means that we are not concerned for the moment with the physical but we are concentrated on the spiritual. The only way we can truly be spiritual is by prayer, Bible study and worship.

Yes we are emotional creatures. God made us that way. Some people are very guarded about becoming emotional in a service and I believe rightly so because our reaction to the Holy Spirit should be to edify the church, not ourselves. Yet there is a place for the emotional too because when God, by way of the Holy Spirit, moves upon us you'd better believe that our emotions are going to be affected. Some discreetly and some openly.

But God will not have us being emotional to cause the attention of others to be on us; God demands the attention. Like in everything, our spirituality must be in balance. In the Bible whenever it said that someone was moved by the Spirit, or that the Spirit was upon them, good always followed, and so it is still today. How do we become spiritual? Read the word, pray, seek God and worship Him and you won't need to be concerned with being spiritual because you will find yourself there without even thinking about it.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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