Dedication to God or a higher power translated into less stress reactivity, greater feelings of well-being, and ultimately even a decreased fear of death. Taking the first step is the hardest. It’s an admittance that your way of living isn’t working anymore. The state of mind required to start looking inward is brought upon by a great force. People turn to spirituality for relief their harshest moments. So God means us to have, as one of His gifts in this life, freedom from a false tyranny of conscience.Most, if not all, Christians find that the first step in the “substantial healing” that they can have in the present life is the substantial healing of the “separation from themselves” that is a result of the fall andof sin. Man is first of all separated from God. . . then from himself. . . and finally from his fellow man and from nature. The blood of Christ will give an absolute and perfect restoration of all these things when Jesus comes. But in the present life there is to be a substantial healing, including the results of the separation between a man and himself. This is the first step towards “freedom in the present life”from the results of the bonds of sin.

Quoting the ad further, it says, “For years Russian and Communist scientists have experienced with subliminal advertising designed to influence unsuspecting consumers to their ideology and propaganda. Now the Lord has revealed to His people how to use it for His glory.” A magnified picture of one of the ties revealed that indeed the words “Jesus saves, Jesus saves, Jesus saves, Jesus saves” were over and over again woven through the fabric. The true Bible-believing Christian is one who lives in practice in this “supernatural world.” That doesn’t mean, however, that a person is “unsaved” if he fails to live in practice in this supernatural world – happily this is not so, or none of us would go to heaven, because none of us live this way consistently. According to the biblical view, there are two parts to reality: the natural world that we see normally, and the supernatural world which we do not see (that is the reason we call it supernatural). So the biblical Judaistic-Christian view of the universe is that reality has two halves – one part is seen, and the other is unseen (Rom 8:24; Heb 11:1). Schaeffer states that it is perfectly possible for a Christian to be so infiltrated by twentieth-century thinking, that he lives most of his life as though the supernatural were not there – he says “all of us do this to some extent.” But being a “biblical Christian” means living in the supernatural now. Unhappily, the Christian all too often tends to vacillate between these two realities – at one moment he lives in the realm of faith, and at another moment he lives in the realm of unfaith. If I am trying to live the Christian life in the realm of unfaith, I am only “playing at it,” rather than “living it.” Since the real battle is not against flesh and blood, but is in the “heavenlies,” we cannot participate in that battle in the flesh (Eph 6:12). Furthermore, the Lord’s work done in human energy is not the Lord’s work any longer – it is something, but it is not the Lord’s work. You wrap this all up, and it’s all so easy, and it’s all so effortless. You put on a tape, and you get 100,000 suggestions for your spiritual life. You get cured of every problem you have; you get all the demons chased away. And if you put it on your tie, the people who see your tie are going to get saved. Focus on others: Opening your heart, feeling empathy, and helping others are important aspects of spirituality. In the second half of the book, Schaeffer shows how true spirituality involves freedom in this life from the results of the bonds of sin. He focuses on matters of conscience: our thought-life, psychological problems, what he calls the “total person,” our relationships, and the church.A foundational place to go – and you can turn there in your Bible – and we’re going to go through this fairly rapidly because I know these are truths with which you are familiar, but it’s 1 Corinthians 2. And I want to just kind of give you a little bit of a feeling here for some of the terminology that is important to the issue. First Corinthians chapter 2 and verses 14 and 15. Verses 14 and 15, “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no man.” Now, that’s very basic. And what I want you to understand is that according to 1 Corinthians 2 all Christians are – what? – spiritual. It’s basic. It’s basic terminology. That’s our position in Christ. We are spiritual. We are alive in the Spirit. We have the life of God within our souls. We possess the Holy Spirit as Romans 8:6 through 9 clearly indicates. And again in Romans 8, if we look at that – and I would just draw you there for a brief moment, chapter 8 of Romans to affirm that same thought – Romans 8, verse 6, “The mind set on the flesh is death, the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace”– same contrast –“the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; it doesn’t subject itself to the law of God; it’s not even able to do so; those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but I the Spirit”– and then he goes on to say –“the Spirit of God dwells in you.” Verywell Mind articles are reviewed by mental health professionals. Reviewers confirm the content is thorough and accurate, reflecting the latest evidence-based research. Content is reviewed before publication and upon substantial updates. Learn more.

Life is only a succession of moments – we live “one moment” at a time.No one lives his whole lifein a single moment in time – we all live it one moment after another in time. So we must believe God’s promises at this one moment in which we now are. In believing God’s promises, we apply them for andin this one moment. Schaeffer says, “If you grasp this, everything changes!” As we believe God for this moment, the Holy Spirit is not quenched; and through His agency, the risen and glorified Christ (the vine) brings forth His fruit through us at this moment (Jn 15:5). By the way, this morning’s faith will never do for this afternoon. In every moment of time, our calling is to believe God. . . raise the empty hands of faith (we bring nothing to the table!). . . and let fruit flow out through us. Furthermore, Christian faith is never faith in faith, it is never without content, it is never a jump in the dark, it is always believing what God has said. And Christian faith rests upon Christ’s finished work on the cross. Our thoughts] end in communion with the infinite-personal reference point who is there, God Himself. And that is tremendous. Then you can worship. This is where true worship is found: not in stained-glass windows, candles, or altarpieces, not in contentless experiences, but in communion with the God who is there—communion for eternity, and communion now, with the infinite-personal God as Abba, Father. 6 In the area of “morality” we find exactly the same thing. Man cannot escape the fact of the notionsof a true right and wrong in himself – not just a sociological or hedonistic morality, but true morality,true right and true wrong. Yet beginning with himself he can neither bring forth “absolute standards”nor keep the “poor relative ones” he has set up. Thus in the area of morality, as in the area of rationality, trying to be what he is not, he is crushed and damned by what he is. Man is thus divided against and from himself in every part of his nature – he is divided from himself because of his rebellion – in rationality, in morality, in his thinking, in his acting, in his feeling. . . by rebellion he is divided from God by true moral guilt, and he is damned by what he is – wanting to be God, which obviously he is not, because he is not infinite. At some level of consciousness man cannot forget the fact that he is “finite man” – surely at some point there will be a cry within him, that there must be a real answer in this life to the “separation from himself.” And the answer is an emphatic, “Yes, thank God, there is!” Spirituality brings peace and joy but that doesn’t mean that hard times are forgotten. By being spiritual, you are becoming more human. Humans experience full ranges of emotions. You need to feel depression to feel bliss. Accepting your emotional state is how you build your inner being.Real inner peace and happiness come from within. No amount of money in the world is capable of buying the feeling of fulfillment. The materialistic world has no chance of coming close to the power spirituality brings. A decade of spirituality has brought me to my knees, took everything away from me (a few times), and left me feeling hopeless and empty.