Ekklesia Series / Everything is Spiritual

I am convinced that there is an awakening happening across the church at this moment and it has very little to do with our typical understanding of revival. I believe the church is awakening to the fact that everything is spiritual. And while I am sure that statement might get some violent head shakes of disagreement, for the sake of this post I just want to expand on my statement in the context of the Ekklesia. Specifically, I am referring to the fact that the myriad of gifting’s, callings and anointing’s that reside within the Ekklesia are all spiritual, and meant to be celebrated, irrespective of the social or cultural arena that they function in. (Not to digress but If you want to discuss other aspects of everything being spiritual drop me a note!)

Picking up on this thought, if someone is called to be a mathematician, or maybe an artist or a teacher, the call is as spiritual as the call to be a Pastor, a missionary or something that is found within the local church. I often hear people say “one day when I am released into full-time ministry” or “when I get my breakthrough” or “somethings are sacred and some are secular”. All these statements point to a dualistic mindset that has seeped into the body of Christ and which now God is awakening us to deal with.

The definition of Dualism is; The division of something conceptually into two opposed or contrasted aspects. When we engage in dualism we separate our lives into compartments, that which in our framework or culture is seen as “Godly” and that which is seen as “ungodly”. And generally, the teaching of the church over the last 50 years has caused a narrative that says “if you give your passion, time and commitment to anything other than a recognised “church” position or traditional ministry position then you haven’t quite reached the heights that God wanted for you”.

And while there have been strides over the last ten to fifteen years to break out of our dualistic understanding we still have not quite settled in our hearts, that everything is spiritual. Even the term “market-place ministry”, while being a step closer, has still produced a dualistic view of the “two” places that people get to serve God in. And don’t get me started on “full-time ministry”! This concept is one of the great contributors to the slumber and failure of the Ekklesia to arise over the last century.

If the Ekklesia is going to be effective in manifesting the kingdom of God then we have to break the yoke of dualism and see that everyone is called to serve Christ in a full-time capacity, irrespective of the expression. And to do this we have to see the value of all the different callings and anointing’s that are expressed through the Ekklesia. The awakening of the Spirit in this time is shifting our understanding and allowing us to value non-traditional ministry perspectives and see them as necessities in the context of Ekklesia.

I believe there are two core concepts that we need to settle in our hearts in order to break out of our dualism mindsets completely.

1. The state of our hearts

On several occasions in the Bible Paul exhorts believers to “in whatever one does work unto the Lord and not to man”. In these words, Paul gives us a secret in our dealings regarding the separation of spiritual/unspiritual. Paul basically tells us that the test of whether something is Godly or Spiritual is not in what we do doing but rather where our heart is pointing when we doing what we doing.

Put another way, it’s the state or positioning of our hearts that determines whether a call, anointing or gift is spiritual or not. Not the actual gift, anointing or calling. If someone who is called as a Pastor or Prophet simply sees it as a job and does not “work unto the Lord” then pastoring in itself is not spiritual. The converse is true. If someone who is called to the political sphere does it with a heart that is unto the Lord then the engaging and working within the political arena for that person is deeply spiritual. The same can be said for any of the areas that the Ekklesia is supposed to possess and govern in.

Taking the thought that our heart’s determine spirituality a bit further, even the most mundane tasks or daily activities of our lives can be deemed spiritual if we understand how to position our hearts. Taking the dog for a walk, meeting up with friends, reading a book, playing sports, all of these can be spiritual when my heart understands that everything I do is “in Christ” because “I am in Christ”.

Until we see that the expression of our heart towards Christ as the actual key to being spiritual, we will always have people striving to be something or do something that they were never fashioned for. When we cross the separation bridge in our hearts and see that all gifts, calls and anointing’s have the potential to be spiritual then the Ekklesia mandate becomes a reality and a powerful force.

2. Obedience

I am convinced that there are many sons and daughters who have not moved in obedience to what the Holy Spirit was leading them in because it did not seem spiritual or Godly. How many gifted artists, teachers, government leaders, businessmen, mothers are sitting in the pews of the church building trying to find relevance in “church” position’s that they were not fashioned for? But because of the ingrained dualistic foundation in their hearts, they have never stopped to contemplate that maybe the passion for something other than a typical “church” position is actually the Holy Spirit prompting them to move into a different area of influence within the Ekklesia.

Once we see that everything is spiritual our ability to step out in obedience becomes much greater. In fact, it frees us all to pursue our Kingdom and Ekklesia calls with much greater vigour and passion because we don’t carry the burden or weight of failure anymore.

Let’s break free and start exploring our passions, gifts and anointing’s, no matter what they are. Let’s stop talking about sacred and secular. Let’s allow the Spirit to lead us into new places of influence and consider that the very things we deemed not spiritual in the past, might be the spiritual callings that will make the Ekklesia come alive and possess the gates.

Blessings

Ant