To Fully Develop As a Human Being Try Spiritual Development

Our physical development is automatic. As we eat, sleep, play or work, our bodies grow. Our mental development is taken care of first by our parents, brothers and sisters if we have, relatives, neighbors, then by our teachers and classmates in schools. Of course as we grow older we begin to have a more active part in our physical and mental development. How about our spiritual development? This should be the area where the church or religion we belong to has a decisive and effective influence. But sad to say this is not the case. Most of the members of our churches are not developed in their spiritual life.

Signs of Underdevelopment in the Spiritual Life

The most obvious sign of underdevelopment in the spiritual life is the level of unhappiness among most of our fellow church members. They are obviously not satisfied with their life. They want more and better things in life: more money, more time for themselves and their family, more excitement in their activities, more demands on their spouses, more attention from their parents, more appreciation for their work, etc. They always hanker for more.

As a result of this desire for more things, they fall into addictions: addiction to alcohol, to drugs, to sexual pleasure, to nicotine, to work, to religious activities, to gambling, etc. They search for things which they think can satisfy them and they never find complete satisfaction in those things. If they are truly developed in their spiritual life they would exhibit these qualities of a mature, fruitful Christian: love, harmony with others, a joyful spirit, sobriety, benevolence, humility, dependability, patience, kindly disposition, and other attitudes which bring happiness to others. But sad to say this is not the case. Rather the opposite is true. They bring more unhappiness to themselves and others.

Another sign of underdevelopment in the spiritual life is the low level of active literacy in the Bible. In 1965 the Catholic bishops gathered in Rome issued a document on divine revelation, entitled DOGMATIC CONSTITUTION ON DIVINE REVELATION. In that document they urged the Catholic faithful to read frequently the Bible. After 46 years have the Catholic faithful followed this exhortation? The obvious answer is No. Most of them do not even have a personal Bible. And most of those who do have do not even open it regularly. It is gathering dust in the shelf. Most Catholics do not read the Bible on a regular basis. Ask an ordinary Catholic to open her Bible at the Book of Job and you see her leafing through the book forward and backward wondering where the Book of Job is located; or you see her locating this book in the Table of Content. She could not easily estimate it as somewhere in the middle just before the Psalms.

But this does not apply only to Catholics. Even non-Catholics have a problem also. They have to devise ways and means to encourage their members to read and understand the Bible. In their Sunday schools they have various contests which require reading of the Bible, they have memory cards with Biblical verses, they have conferences on principles based on the Bible, anything that would draw their members to go and read their Bibles. If their members do the reading with a glad and grateful spirit, there would be no need for these techniques and gimmicks to make them read and understand the Bible. Ask an ordinary Protestant what are the unclean foods listed in the Bible, she would not know. She would have to locate the list in Leviticus. If she regularly reads and tries to understand the Bible she would know what these unclean foods are, the ones she should be careful not to eat for the health of her body.

If the church leaders and members are properly developing spiritually they would regularly read the Bible as they regularly eat their meals. Most church leaders and members think that as they read the Bible they would become better Christians. They never realized that the opposite of this process is true. As they genuinely develop spiritually they would have a natural hunger for God's Word and so would read and understand what is written in their Bible. As a consequence they would really grow spiritually.

A third sign that most of us are underdeveloped spiritually is the fact that we do not keep on multiplying ourselves as genuine Christians. People are baptized, yes by the hundreds and thousands, but this baptism does not make them genuine Christians. Instead we have inmates in prisons multiplying in numbers who have been baptized sometime in their life. Many of our jails are over populated.

It is clear then that most of us are not developing spiritually. Spiritual development has not been taught in our schools. True, we have had theology or Bible or religious education or values education classes, but nothing on spiritual development properly so called. There is then a need to learn more about spiritual development. Hopefully as we develop spiritually, we will have an increasing number of genuine Christians in our midst, people who make this world a happier place to live in.

Let Us Learn About Spiritual Development

Spiritual development is the topic of this blog. I discuss ideas here that can help us develop spiritually, grow in our inner life and enjoy life to the fullest. As we go along we shall discover that everything else in life can be related to our spiritual life.

While the spiritual life cannot be separated from our physical, material, and intellectual life, it is governed by principles and processes which are uniquely its own. We will discuss those principles and processes here. We will find that the principles and processes of the spiritual life have analogies with the principles and processes in the physical and material life that enable us to understand better the development of the spiritual life.

I welcome your contributions to this blog on spiritual development. Together we shall understand better the workings of our inner life and hopefully achieve that inner peace and harmony which is beyond our understanding. I also welcome your questions on this topic, spiritual development.

There is a brief primer here on spiritual development. There are also posts or articles which discuss the seven stages of spiritual development. Feel your way around and write your comments when you feel writing them. Your participation in the discussion and contribution to the ideas presented here will certainly help me and others who are reading the posts or articles in this blog.
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I have other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld

for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual things

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare

for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends

for learning about the new trends around you

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline

for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download 2 FREE e-books. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

Hindrances to Your Spiritual Development

Strangely the spirit is like a plant. Two organisms—one invisible, the other invisible—and yet they are very similar to each other.

They are very similar to each other in terms of growth or development, particularly in the hindrances to their development.

A plant grows or develops with the help of the sunlight, the soil, the freedom from predators, adjustment to climate, and the help of human beings.

So also similar factors help in the development of the human spirit.

This article discusses the hindrances to spiritual development. You can develop faster spiritually if these hindrances are overcome or eliminated in your life.

First Hindrance to Spiritual Development: Lack of Exposure to the Word of God

A plant needs sunlight. This is very basic to its growth. It cannot be kept indoors most of the time, unlike animals and human beings. In a similar way the human spirit needs the sunlight of God’s Word.

The Scriptures say that the Word of God is a light to the path of the righteous. The sun not only gives light, it also gives out heat and warmth. The Word of God also warms the heart of spiritual persons.

Failure to expose the spiritual person to the Word of God is the number one hindrance to spiritual development. This exposure, like the exposure of the plant to the sunlight, needs to be done daily.

Second Hindrance to Spiritual Development: Lack of Engagement with the Problems of the World

Plants need soil in order to develop. Today we know that there are plants which are no longer planted on soil. Some species of plants just hang on air. Other kinds grow on water or some kind of liquid. But even these grow above the ground and are nourished by substances which are naturally found in soil, like nitrogen.

In a similar manner human spirits need the spiritual soil, the events happening to their lives around them. They move in the midst of world events. Even the hermit or the most enclosed monk is surrounded by air, vegetation, buildings, electromagnetic waves which make available information about the events around him with the touch of an electronic gadget. These events spur the spiritual person to live on, to pursue spiritual growth. After all he develops spiritually in order to be of benefit to others. The human spirit who lives only for himself is more barren than the most barren of deserts.

The life of Thomas Merton helps us reflect on the idea of spiritual soil. He was a Trappist monk, a member of one of the strictest Order in the Church. And yet he did not live just by and for himself. He thought of the world around him and wrote of the many things he observed around him. Because of this he developed spiritually faster than his brother monks and left us lots of spiritual food.

The second hindrance to spiritual development is forgetfulness of the world around us, a forgetfulness that is like uprooting a plant from the soil.

Third Hindrance to Spiritual Development: Inappropriate Spiritual Climate

A plant needs to adjust to an appropriate climate. There are some plants, like bananas, which cannot grow in cold places where snow abounds. Other plants cannot grow well in warm climate, like apples.

In a similar manner human spirits need the proper spiritual climate for their development. There were two periods in the Christian Church history when there was an abundance of saints: the first centuries when there were persecutions, and the Middle Ages when Christian learning flourished in Europe.

The third hindrance to spiritual development is an inappropriate spiritual climate. When most people turn to material comforts as a way of life, their spiritual development is suffocated by the things around them. But when more and more people react against materialism, more spiritual development is bound to happen.

Fourth Hindrance to Spiritual Development: Envy and Maliciousness of Evil Spirits

Plants can be stunted in their development by predators: human beings, animals, or fellow plants. Some human beings cut plants indiscriminately. Animals graze on plants. Other plants which grow faster and therefore consume more nutrients from the soil may grow very near to less fortunate plants, stunting their growth.

In a similar way, there are spiritual predators, spirits who envy our human spiritual development and thwart it. Paul the Apostle warns us that our real enemies are spirits who roam this world. They too hinder our spiritual development. They are the fourth hindrance to spiritual development.

Fifth Hindrance to Spiritual Development: Lack of Good Spiritual Directors or Coaches

Plants tended to by a human gardener develop faster and better. Wild plants do develop. But plants in a garden cared for by a human being develop more.

In a similar way, human spirits who have good spiritual directors develop faster and better. We now have spiritual coaches who guide others in their spiritual path. Some of these coaches are good, others are not so good. The fifth hindrance to spiritual development is lack of a good spiritual director or coach.

These are the hindrances to spiritual development: 1) lack of daily exposure to the Word of God; 2) forgetfulness of the events around us; 3) inappropriate spiritual climate; 4) spiritual predators, spirits who envy our human spiritual development and thwart it; 5) lack of a good spiritual director or coach.

It is up to you now to discern which of these hindrances are more effectively hindering your spiritual development. Then you seek ways to get rid of or minimize these hindrances.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.