Spiritual Life

Spiritual definition = relating to peoples thought and beliefs, rather than their bodies and physical surroundings

As a scientific person I have some problems it is hard to be precise about anything here and definitions are hard to pin down. Angels and demons would definitely come under the heading of supernatural but I was thinking to look at the spiritual under the same heading. Therefore I asked Google

‘what is the difference between supernatural and spiritual?,

One answer was

‘Given that no one can ever define what they mean by “spiritual” a definitive answer is unlikely….’

I am not going to define these things either just to say that science, and logical structured thinking may not be helpful and language itself is also inadequate. Words we can use like wonder, mystery and even love itself give a better sense of what we are talking about I think. Anyway let us not be afraid to go further just because the words we use are inadequate.  

Under the heading of Spirituality, I am referencing where Paul talks about Angels and Demons, what I mean by referring to these as ‘spirituality’ is that that there is a realm, a dimension if you like which is not visible to us and which we can only vaguely appreciate. I doubt that there any humans who are expert in this it is beyond our natural comprehension. This is the place for stories and fantasies where weird and wonderful things happen which are normally impossible in our created physical world.

In modern language we can think of ‘aliens’ or ‘superpowers’ and in books and films we have fantasy and sci-fi genres and because of this we are able to imagine many possibilities as to how this dimension operates but there is no definition and certainly no science. Paul assures us that neither demons nor angels can separate us and we need not be afraid of them, like a hurricane or an earthquake they may have power which we cannot truly comprehend but that does not matter. They come under God’s authority they are only able to operate inside His will, which means something quite profound. God is still connected to us even when we don’t understand what is going on. It is not up to us to understand what to believe about the spiritual realm we can trust him. I would suggest that there is no way we can possibly understand this realm except that it is under the authority of God our Heavenly Father.

Again we are presented with two cause of separation like life and death where one seems obvious and one seems a bit odd. I mean it is obvious that demons and the demonic world would be actively trying to separate us from God’s Love. But Angels? Why are they listed here? Well we have the benefit of hindsight, I think we can see that in the history of the church Angels have appeared and have indeed interfered in the lives of saints, but it seems whenever or wherever these events occur there is a need to make some sort of shrine or holy relic and these things become a problem. Humans are apt to turn to superstition and worship the inanimate objects and even the Angel rather than only worship God. We have access to our loving heavenly father, every individual has the same access and no medium or intermediary is required. In fact, I think this substitution of other things or people for a direct connection is positively harmful to us.

I love the story of St Antony of the desert fathers who one day was praying and saw a vision of many angry demons and monsters being aggressive to him and in his praying vision (whatever that is) he said to them. ‘I know that you cannot harm me, because if you had any authority to do me harm then there would only be one of you, but because you cannot harm me you are trying to frighten me with your numbers and aggressive ways. Begone!’

There are many things that we cannot understand but that is no reason for our connection to stop if anything it drives us to be more connected. We are sensibly afraid of power that we don’t understand but we can take shelter in the presence of one who is bigger than both the alien power and also our own fears.

Summary

The spiritual world – is not visible and not easily explained, this can seem alien yet to God it is familiar and He is greater we should not be worried

Demons are against us but God is greater

Angels are for us but we must not become distracted or overly fascinated

We need to be connected to God to navigate the spiritual world

At Easter we see a physical cross and see a physical Death, and we see evidence of a spiritual battle with Angels and Demons. At this moment in physical history all physical and spiritual worlds met in one place and Jesus through his physical death released all physical and spiritual worlds from bondage and restored the right relationship with the creator Heavenly Father God.

Let everything that has breath praise Him.