Focus: Basic Spirituality

Text: 1Sam.15:22

"And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."

True spirituality is Spirit-related. No one is truly spiritual who does not have the Spirit of God dwelling in him.

God is a spirit. He is described in Scripture as "the Father of spirits" (Heb.12:9). The Holy Spirit by His very name is a spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ is described by Paul as "a quickening spirit" (1Cor.15:45). At the creation of man, the Lord God breathed His spirit into man, making him a living being. In the redemption of man, he is born of the Spirit and indwelt by the Spirit. He is Spirit-filled, Spirit-led, Spirit-taught, and Spirit-enabled. The spirituality of the believer in Christ is generated by the Spirit of God.

No man can be truly spiritual without the Spirit of God dwelling in him. But beyond that, no one is truly spiritual who is not obedient to God.

Basic spirituality is marked by one's obedience quotient. Faith has two sides to it - the believing or trusting and the obedience sides. Faith that doesn't lead to obedience isn't real. Luke tells us that "a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith" (Act.6:7). Obedience to God means doing what God says, and faith does exactly what God says. Obedience is the sacrifice that God truly desires and demands of those who believe in Christ.

Cain and Abel made sacrifices to God, but we are informed that God accepted Abel's sacrifice and rejected Cain's. Why so? The writer of Hebrews tells us that "by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain…" (Heb.11:4). Abel's sacrifice was informed and motivated by faith, and faith comes by hearing the word of God. So the sacrifice of Abel was based on divine instruction, and this divine instruction is born out of divine revelation, and revelation is a function of divine manifestation and divine declaration. So faith presupposes that God has previously made Himself known by certain declarations.

Abraham made a sacrifice on Mount Moriah because God told him to do it. He solely acted in obedience. His obedience was the real sacrifice. Saul planned to give God a sacrifice of disobedience. Saul spared animals God instructed him to destroy, and his reason for sparing them being that he wanted to use them as sacrifices to God. How can you sacrifice to God what He had already instructed you to destroy? 

Obeying God's instruction is our true sacrifice. Sacrificing to God must be in His own terms, not how you want it, when you want it, and where you want it. God is opposed to sacrifice or worship of convenience.

God requires the sacrifice of obedience, worship resulting from obedience, and spirituality that issues forth in obedience. The bottomline of true spirituality is obedience. Let's habitually and promptly obey God, for that is the pathway of genuine spirituality.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter