When I see Spirit in everything, Peace is at hand.
– Jonathan Lockwood Huie
What happens when we disconnect from Spirit?
When we are not connected to Spirit, we are cut off from the Source of all life and goodness and our souls suffer.
We hear the words “spirit” and “soul” used interchangeably, but there is a distinction. Even the Bible makes it clear that “spirit” and “soul”: refer to two different things.
In the Bible, “soul” refers to people, animals, or the life that a person or an animal has. “In Noah’s day… a few people, that is, eight souls, were carried safely through the water.” (1 Peter 3:20) God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures [“souls,” footnote] according to their kinds, domestic animals and creeping animals and wild animals of the earth according to their kinds.’ And it was so.” (Genesis 1:20, 24)
When referring to Spirit, Bible writers used the Hebrew word ruʹach or the Greek word pneuʹma. For instance: “If you [Jehovah] take away their spirit [ruʹach], they die and return to the dust.” (Psalm 104: 29). “The body without spirit [pneuʹma] is dead.” (James 2:26) We see that “spirit” refers to that which gives life to a body.
Essentially, when we connect to Spirit we connect to the Source of all life, which I will here call God, or Divine Spirit—what Christians call Holy Spirit.
Incarnation is the process of embodiment of Spirit that has been going on for billions of years, and continues to expand in increasing complexity as the evolutionary process unfolds. Body is the vessel through which Spirit works, through which everything in creation grows and thrives.
Spirit expressed through our unique and individual bodies is experienced as soul. Our souls often struggle, become confused and divided. Trauma and all forms of human suffering deeply affect our souls, and in the course of our lives on earth, countless challenges lead us to disconnect from that Spirit within, leaving our souls adrift. We become caught up and even mesmerized by all kinds of substitutes for Spirit (false idols), while Spirit is always there within, giving us life.
When our souls become disconnected from Spirit, we can go into a depression, become anxious, confused, and unkind toward ourselves or others. We may lack a sense of meaning or purpose, and become indifferent, or numb. Others who grab for substitutes may become addicted, greedy, or even go insane.
Why connecting to Spirit is good for the world
The first body through which God revealed herself is not the human, but the cosmos itself. When we connect to Spirit, we connect to God in our body, which connects us to all other embodiments of Spirit, because the Spirit of God is manifested in and through all the galactic and planetary bodies, including our home planet, Earth, which is in great turmoil at this time.
Our Earth has countless forms embodying Spirit in the mountains, lakes, plants, animals, insects, bacteria, etc. We who call ourselves creatures of this Earth are not simply souls, but Spirit manifest in our human forms. Everything of earth is Spirit manifest, and when we connect to our own Spirit, we connect to Spirit in all things. This makes it very hard for us to want to destroy or disregard the earth or other human beings, for we actually feel our deep connection.
According to indigenous peoples, it is Spirit that comes first, and we experience the power of Spirit through the living land itself. This is a mystical way of understanding the embodiment of God that gives me hope for humanity, and a deep sense of peace in the midst of countless souls in turmoil.
True salvation is our primary responsibility through learning what it means to be authentically human upon our Spirit-infused earth. As more of us learn to become incarnational humans in a more authentic way by connecting to Spirit, the chaos on Earth will begin to transform.
Ways you can connect to Spirit
- Spend time in nature. If you leave your phone behind or put it on airplane if you must take photos, it will help the cause of truly connecting, but taking a photo of a beautiful moment in nature is not the same as experiencing it. Open your senses and breathe deeply. This changes you dramatically. This is your world!
- Prayer and contemplation. Turn your attention within, and ask to connect to Spirit. Breathe into your heart center in toward the back of your spine, and feel the space your breath creates. Contemplate what it means to love. Tune into someone you love and speak with their Spirit. Pray for them. Ask for guidance from your own Spirit. Keep breathing and maintain the connection for as long as you can. You will be transformed.
- Practice kindness toward other people, the earth, animals. These are all expressions of Spirit in form, and when you care for, tend, support, or extend kindness to other creatures, your own Spirit expands.
- Listen to or play music. Beethoven said, “Music is… a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.” Music can carry a weary soul to the heights of Spirit with ease, as well as open the heart to the wonder of life.
- Dance. Allowing your body to move to music freely has a way of unleashing the spirit within. One of my all time favorite forms of dance is 5Rythms.
- Gather with others connecting to Spirit. This can be in a sweat lodge, prayer circle, church, or any gathering where there is a turning to the Spirit within.
- Write poetry, paint, or other creative art forms with the intention of connecting to Spirit. I once heard the spiritual teacher Ram Dass tell the story of a woman knitting in the first row of an auditorium where he was giving a talk on connecting to Spirit. She was shaking her head up and down the whole time, and he wondered how this little lady could so relate to his message. When she came up to thank him after the talk, he asked her how she knew so deeply what he was talking about. Her answer: “Knitting.”
Yes, there are countless ways to connect to Spirit, and we each must find our own, the one that resonates with our Soul.
May I find ways to connect to Spirit every day, that remind me of my oneness with all that is.
