Making Sense of God, Religion and Spirituality

There are about as many opinions about God, religion and spirituality as there are people on Earth. It is difficult to make sense of any subject with that many opinions, especially when many are strong and conflicting. To begin, we need to look at the similarities and differences of various religions and spiritual systems and how they started.

Religion is Not Necessarily Spiritual

Most religions recognize one or more supreme beings or an organizing force that shapes our environment. Most also prescribe a set of ethical and behavioral standards that, if followed, are rewarded in this life or another life to come. And they usually provide a place to meet. However, as similar as two religions might be, their leaders may insist that one is based on truth and the other on heresy. Usually these arguments are not about spiritual truth, which can't be proved anyway. They are mostly about money and power, and the arguements are often designed to be confusing. I'm not saying that everyone involved in a religion is not spiritual, but it is not necessary.

Historically, many religions took someone's enlightened ideas and build a system for control and government out of them. This ultimately led to destructive regimes built on fear and tyranny, rather than communities demonstrating faith and love. That is religion without spirituality. If our spiritual quest is to reconnect with the creator, the source of everything (including us), we need spiritual nourishment not oppression. 

Take a fresh look at the dictates of any religion. It won't be too difficult to recognize which instructions are for our good and which are not. This type of investigation is good for your intuition and spiritual development, and can help you decide where to spend your time and resources. We need fellowship and community, but not at the expense of personal spiritual growth. You can learn a lot from scripture, but be discerning about how others interpret it, and why.

God is Spirit

For many of us, our concept of God changes throughout life. While it once may have been an old man with a beard, personally, I now understand it as a force, or energy, like everything else, but of a higher order... and then beyond that, something else that I or anyone else cannot understand, but can only describe as stillness, or beyond knowing. This creative force expresses itself through us, and through a series of energetic realms to ultimately manifest and experience the material world we live in.

Our role in this process is important. We are co-creators of our world, with God. We are an instrument that the Creator uses to engage creation. Impressions from our five senses feed our consciousness, which is connected to God, allowing the Creator to experience reality. At the same time God's intention works down through us to express itself into the physical universe via our intention, speech and action.

Spirituality Brings Us Closer to God

We live in a material body in a material world but we are more than just matter. Our emotions and thoughts are energy, but not material. We are the sum of our physical, emotional, mental and spirit bodies. These parts of us participate in the emotional, causal and astral realms that the creator works through. Our spiritual, or higher self is the deepest part of our being. It connects us to God. Direct experience of our deepest inner self is the goal of spirituality. Being able to detach ourselves from the thoughts and emotions we experience, and observe them, is an important step towards connecting with God.

As we move our awareness from our body up to our higher self we raise our vibration and move closer to God, not in space but in vibration. We take ourselves up through the energetic realms to meet God. 

To raise our vibration and make the connection most spiritual traditions prescribe certain behavior, such as being kind, humble, grateful, fearless, honest, loyal etc. In general these kinds of behavior require us to overcome our egoic self-centeredness. In our spiritual journey we should constantly assess the state of our ego to gauge our progress. Our ego is is a survival tool for self protection. It is not bad, it just needs to be monitored and kept in check. Treating others as we would like to be treated is a good start. Meditation and prayer are also great tools for spiritual development and to connect with Source. They help us see more clearly what is happening in our different energetic realms.

As we connect with source we move our awareness out of our time and space bound material universe into realms beyond space and time. Then we begin to understand that our only true reality is the present moment. The past is gone, only alive as a memory. The future is not here, except as a vision – both mental constructs. The present is the one time we can direct creative energy, connect to God and manifest the future, which is all the time.

Spiritual development is paramount and you can achieve it with or without religion. You were created to have free will. Use it to find like minded people with whom you can grow. If you see the same problems or circumstances in your life over and over, take stock and consider a change. Change is not only possible, it is inevitable. Growth is change and is God's intention for you. So connect to God and reap the benefits of a blessed life.