5. Preparing
Engaging your spirit is a journey and before getting started on any journey it is good to understand what you are getting yourself into and taking some time to prepare. That is especially true when it is a big journey, a journey to somewhere unknown. The journey we are talking about is not like a journey to the shops, or to see friends in the next town. For a big journey we tend to take a bit more time to prepare to make sure we bring all the right things with us, know where we are going, and have some contingency plans. All of this greatly improves the chances of it being a successful and enjoyable journey.
It is the same with the process of developing our spirit. Without some basic preparation, we could easily get lost, become unnecessarily disheartened, not recognise the landmarks, and not recognise the great progress we are making and give up just as we are starting to build enough momentum to transform. Quite apart from this, there are also forces out there that are actively against us developing our spirit and they will not be pleased with us setting out in this direction and will likely try to interfere. The good news is, with a bit of preparation and planning, we can have a much more successful journey than if we set off hoping we can figure it out as we go.
Separating Spirit & Soul
The first preparation to make, and probably the most important, is to get really straight in our minds that our spirit and our soul are two completely different kinds of being. I cannot emphasise this enough. I would go so far to say that it is not worth starting if we haven’t got this straight because we will find ourselves in all sorts of unnecessary trouble and will struggle to make any sense of what is happening to us.
Let me be clear, I am not talking about understanding how spirit and soul are different, but only accepting that they are different. The Bible puts a lot of importance on dividing spirit and soul. The key reference is in the Book of Hebrews and states
Heb 4:12 - For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart
There are some very good books written on this, I am thinking in particular here about the work by Watchman Nee. Wonderful as it is to philosophise about this, in terms of getting prepared our primary purpose is to practice making a difference between spirit and soul and not confusing them. In my experience this is the area that people really struggle with, and most of the trouble people get into is as a result of not keeping this distinction clear and getting confused between spirit and soul. This for me, is like forgetting to bring a compass. Without this distinction, we will quickly become lost, give up, and go back home.
This might sound hard to do, but it’s actually really simple. Firstly, all we need to do is drill into our heads the following four points: >>* we have a spirit, >>* we have a soul, >>* they are both fundamentally different, and >>* they both have emotions and thoughts
The last point is vital, because it means that every though and emotion you have is originating from either the spirit or the soul. One thing it might be worthwhile doing is writing it down on the bathroom mirror or somewhere so that you can constantly remind yourself of it, because I can guarantee that it is something that you will very easily forget once things start happening. I am astonished by how easy it is to forget one or more of these points once we are in motion.
Once you train yourself to think this way, it is quite easy with very little practice to step back from any decision or reaction and ask yourself “is this feeling coming from my spirit or my soul”, “is this my spirit or soul guiding this decision”, “is it my spirit or my soul that’s uncomfortable here”, or “what does my spirit think of this crisis”. With a little bit of practice it will become easier and easier to spot the difference. Once you start to pay attention to it and start looking for it, it is actually quite easy. What isn’t so easy, once we get started is facing up to just how much of the what we do that is so-called ‘spiritual’ is actually all about our soul and not our spirit.
So the preparation we need to do is accept the difference between spirit and soul and commit ourselves to maintaining that difference and training ourselves not to confuse them. Remember, our soul is the product of our birth, circumstances, family, gender, race, and it is linked to our physical hardware, i.e. our brain, physiology, gender, genetics. It is what we have been brought up to be. Your spirit is independent of these and functions at a completely different level, free from these concerns, and it probably isn’t going to be that easy to recognise at first, because it hasn’t been given a lot of attention or opportunity to express itself.
Realistic Expectations
The next preparatory step is to have realistic expectations, especially regarding where we are starting from. When we start out most of us will be very weak in our spirit and very strong in our soul because we will have developed the one and neglected the development of the other. That can be difficult to accept. Especially as we get more aware of our spirit. Unfortunately, because of the way things are, many people will also start this journey with a spirit that is damaged, malnourished, and weak from constant neglect, lack of exercise, hostility from the world around us, and sometimes even deliberate damage by others. This is normal, and no reason to be disheartened. Our spirit is amazingly resilient and responsive. It is also extremely powerful and able to quickly get onto a road of recovery with a little support.
It is important to be OK with the fact that when we begin, we are probably going to find that our spirit is not in great condition. It simply isn’t going to be a matter of paying attention to our spirit and experiencing an amazing transformation overnight. In fact, we are probably going to encounter some obstacles along the way that we will need to push through. In practice, that means that when we start, we will probably go through times of doubt, conflicting thoughts about what we are doing, outright hostility towards the spirit, and we may even be tempted to give up and stop rocking the boat. But, and this is a big but, your spirit, even in its malnourished state, is still immensely powerful, and even just paying a little attention to it can produce astonishing results.
Two Different Levels
The next step is to come to terms with the fact that our soul and spirit speak two different languages, because they are two different levels of being. An area I often see people struggling with is coming to terms with the fact that their spirit is so much bigger and more capable than their souls. Let me use an analogy. Think of your soul as being like a dog or cat, a pet, and think of your spirit as being like a person. Your dog or cat has a very limited understanding of how a person thinks, feels, and acts. People can do things that animals just can’t do. They can do scientific research, build things, discover things, etc. Animals can’t do any of these things. You simply cannot have a meaningful conversation with your dog or cat about how you hate your boss, or how a combustion engine works. Although we can love our pets, it will always be a one-sided relationship because we are at two different levels of being.
This is the case with our spirit and our soul. Our soul is like the animal in our analogy, and our spirit is like the person, a different class of being. Our soul just simply doesn’t have the ability to understand the things our spirit can understand, just like a dog doesn’t have the capacity to understand how a combustion engine works, no matter how many times you explain it. Because our soul has no idea of the world of our spirit, there is no language our spirit can use to describe the things it can do, or sense or feel. What does this mean for us? One thing it meas is that the things our spirit talks about and cares about are often going to appear nonsense to the soul - just like conversation about a combustion engine workings will appear as nonsense to our dog.
One of the challenges I come across a lot is dealing with people whose souls demand to understand everything that is happening to them. I myself was probably one of the worst offenders. I spent days and months trying to make sense of it all, until my spirit became strong again, and my soul acclimatised to the change. Our tiny and limited souls do not have the capacity to grasp the enormity of our spirit and the things that it is capable of, no matter how important they think they are. That is why I said earlier, God is too big for our minds to grasp - but He is not too big for our spirit!
In order to complete this preparation, we need to find a way to get comfortable with the fact that our soul is never going to understand the things that start to happen to us when our spirit begins to engage. Some people are really good with this, but most often, a persons’ soul will find it very uncomfortable and dig in and demand to know more before continuing. This is something that needs to be pushed through, because it is just not possible.
Markers and Landmarks
When you prepare for a journey, one of the most important steps is to know roughly which direction you are going in, and how to tell if you are going in the right direction. You need a map, and some way of recognising the things on the map so you know you are making progress and not going round in circles. In the journey of developing your spirit, this step is vitally important. You need to know where you are going, and how to understand the markers or landmarks that will tell you if you are on the right track. Basically, we will need some way of telling us if we are going in the right direction.
This is an area that people really struggle with because of wrong expectations. It is important therefore to get an idea of what the landscape looks like when you start to move and engage your spirit. Some things will be very noticeable and easier to spot, others will be more difficult. In order to prepare properly, you will need to know what to look for in order so that you can recognise progress and know that it is working. Basically, there are two types of markers, local markers and landmarks. Local markers are usually small and right in front of you, landmarks are usually things like mountains or rivers that are easy to miss unless you step back and take a big picture view.
Local Markers
Looking at local markers, there will be times when remarkable things happen. Our spirit will occasionally jump into the driving seat and do things that will make us go “Wow!!! What was that!! That was amazing!!”. There will be times when we will find ourselves knowing things about situations and people that seem impossible and that are the opposite of what we see on the surface; times when our spirit will jump in and make a decision before our soul even has time to think about it; times when we experience an amazing connection with another person with our spirit without any need for words; times where we experience God in ways we couldn’t have imagined before we started. There will even be times when we experience God in ways we never dreamed of. These are the indicators that our spirit is engaging, and it is wonderful and exciting. These are the things that are easy to recognise, because they are the small things we can see with our soul.
Landmarks
The bigger landmarks however, are not so easy to spot. These are the really big things that will be happening on a much deeper level, that we will need to step back to see. These are the landmarks that we will not recognise unless we have prepared and know what to look for. To some extent, even though it is amazing, people expect the smaller markers, and recognise these as positive signs of progress. What they don’t expect is the biggest landmark indicator that our spirit is engaging, which is change. When our spirit begins to engage, the world around us will start to change. That means family, job, church, even our physical body - basically the fabric of everyday life will start to change in a big way. We will start to find things such as unexpected changes at work, changes in the family, changes in our body, and changes in the way we normally react and the things that we used to be comfortable with. A problem that I come across is that people find this degree of change uncomfortable and start to panic. They don’t recognise that this is their spirit starting the work of transforming them and the world around them according to how God designed them. In other words, they were thinking too small. That brings us nicely to the next area of preparation.
Endurance
The final area of preparing for the journey is recognising the type of journey that this is. It is not a short casual trip or a day out. It is an epic journey, and epic journeys take a long time and are full of risk and danger. If we are about to undertake an epic journey, we prepare differently. The risks are higher, but so are the rewards! This is especially true with regards to the journey of spiritual development.
It is important to understand that we will not get there in a day, or a week, or a month, or a year. In fact, there is no telling how long it will take. Which means firstly, that there is no hurry. We will need to pace ourselves, take it slow. We will need to rest and step aside every now and then. Also, when the going gets a bit tough, it will be important to persevere. There will be times when our spirit will need time to make big adjustments that won’t be obvious to our soul, and it will feel like we have stalled. There will be times when life will be extremely intense and we will need urgency and speed, so it will be important to be rested for those. And, unfortunately, there will be times where we just need to push through a difficult patch to get into the sunlight on the other side.
Summary
Having looked at some of the things we can do to prepare, we can finally get down to the exciting part - getting started. Preparing is always a bit frustrating for me, my spirit is of the kind that likes to go at a hundred miles an hour and skip any preliminaries. Every little bit of preparation we do, however, will pay great dividends. I would therefore encourage you to spend some time on preparing and not try and rush over it. On the other hand, if your spirit is very cautious, I would advise against over-preparing. Preparing is, in this case, a step we can come back to at various stages and revisit.