Spiritual Connection

Labelling ourselves as religious does not make us spiritual – that is, simply stating that we belong to a particular religious group, and that we attend some sort of organised “worshipful service” maybe once per week, does not mean that we are spiritual. There are very many people who will claim religious affiliation without ever understanding what it means to be spiritual.

Truly spiritual people feel a personal connection to God, and here I do not mean mere “lip-service”, as in “I believe there is some sort of spiritual force bigger than me at play in the universe”. When I speak of a personal connection I mean a real, palpable sensation that I have a constant relationship with an entity where our relationship is characterised by mutual trust, belief, support, care and love.

Despite the fact that I cannot see the entity, our relationship is a two-way interaction in which there are “highs” and “lows”, just as in any relationship we have with our human counterparts. There is also a deep sense of longing to be with and see the other entity, just as we feel towards the human partners we love.

The spirituality aspect comes into play from the fact that the entity I am in a relationship with – God – is not material (like a physical human), but spiritual (as in a non-physical being).

So, when we claim to be spiritual, if we are being true, we are saying that we live (think, feel, and act) a real relationship with the overarching spirit (the Holy Spirit – no Christian connotation implied) from which our soul originates. Just think about the significance of this. Just as our body is associated with our mother (through birth), our soul is associated with the Holy Spirit of the ONE true and eternal God. Through our spiritual relationship, our soul is attached to the Spirit of God.

When we grasp the real significance of spirituality, we understand that we are soul (not mere physical body prone to ageing, death and decay). As soul, we are immortal. However, we only gain true immortality if we are sincerely united with the Spirit. It is like marriage – where two are united as one and the bond remains true and sacred as long as the two – through their continuing relationship – live and work as one.

There is a saying from the Gospel of Philip: “It is from water and fire that the soul and the spirit came into being…”. This tells us clearly that the water is the soul, while the fire is the spirit. 

The saying from the Gospel of Philip continues: “The fire is the chrism, the light is the fire. I am not referring to that fire which has no form, but to the other fire whose form is white, which is bright and beautiful, and which gives beauty”.

The Gospel of Philip tells us that the fire is the light of the Holy Spirit of God.

In the book of Revelation (17: 15) we are told: “The waters you saw…are all the peoples, the populations, the nations and the languages”.

From the above, we see how water and fire are soul and spirit, which is humanity and God.

If we call ourselves spiritual, we must continuously venture far deeper into our soul and its relationship with God; we must strive to understand the sacred marriage between our soul and the Spirit.


Image: "Water and Fire", Little Haven, Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK. Copyright - Michael Beaton

NOTE: I chose this picture because the sky symbolises heaven above the water and soil of the earth. Also the "fire" (sun) and its radiance in the heavens represents the Holy Spirit, while the water and soil represent humanity. The sheep in the dark foreground are symbolic of the sheep we humans are in this dark world as we wait for the return of the Shepherd. 

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