A spiritual person is deep in everything, far from superficiality and formality, deeply attached to God, deep in prayer, in ministry, in giving, in love, in repentance, in zeal, in faith, in thinking, and in whatever he/she does.
A spiritual person is deep in prayer:
His/her prayer comes out of the depth of heart and reaches God’s heart. Neither the length of the prayer, nor the wording avails, but what avails is the depth of faith, of humility, of understanding, and of humbleness I am very impressed by the words of David the Prophet with which the comp line Prayer begins, which says :
“Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice!” (Ps 130) And also, “With my whole heart I have sought you.” (Ps 119:10).
I have cried to you from the depth of my heart, of my need, of my weakness and failure, of my weariness and inability, of the pit where I lie, for You are my only resort. I seek You, O Lord, out of my deep trust, of my deep faith, and of my deep confidence in your power and Your response.
An example of the deep prayer is that of Jonah in the belly of the fish.
It was a deep prayer to God who alone could save him. There is also the prayer of the people at the Mount Mokattam. But for that prayer and cry from the heart to Him, who alone can save, the catastrophe would have happened. It was like the cry of a drowning person to a lifeboat.
There were prayers that were short, but deep in their power and effectiveness.
An example of such prayers is the prayer of the thief on the right of the Lord at the last hours of his life, waiting for death. His prayer was short, one mere sentence from the depth of heart and with deep faith. His short prayer was to receive a promise from the Lord to let him ter Paradise. Another example is the prayer of the tax-collector. It was a short prayer, deep in humbleness, contribution, and humiliation, unlike that of the Pharisee who was self-assured. By that short prayer tax collector went down to his house justified rather than the other
(Lk 18:13-14).
A deep prayer has certain characteristics:
It is not mere words, but rather emotions involving humbleness, heart contrition, and humiliation, as well as spiritual fervor and faith, understanding and meditation. Every word is meant, so, one of the twenty four priests receives it in his golden censer and presents it before God as incense with the prayers of the saints. A spiritual person says even the words “O Lord, have mercy” forty one times from all the heart.
Deep worship.
The same applies to fasting, metanoia, spiritual reading, chanting, and praises. What avails is not the number nor the form, but the emotions of the heart and the mind and the senses, by which the whole man becomes with God.
Some people may focus only on the number of metanoia, rather than the accompanying emotions.
The heads bow, but the souls do not, whereas the psalmist says, “My soul clings to the dust.” (Ps 119:25). He says “my soul,” not “my head”.
A spiritual person always feels that he /she is in the presence of the Lord who searches the hearts and thoughts. Entering the church, a person means every word when saying, “As for me I enter Your house in the multitude of Your mercy, and worship before Your holy temple in Your fear.”
When fasting, a spiritual person does not focus in the fasting of the body, but on deep fasting of the soul.
The spirit takes part with the body in fasting. Fasting for a spiritual person is not a mere virtue of the body, but it involves self-control, overcoming of the body, and feeding of the spirit.
We are taught by the Lord that demons are cast out by prayer and fasting (Mt 17:21), but what kind of prayer and fasting? Certainly the Lord meant deep prayer and deep fasting that bear a feeling of attachment to God.
With respect to reading what avail is not the quantity, but rather the deep understanding and applying of that which we read.
A spiritual person may find satisfaction in one verse that brings to the depth of the mind and heart a word which is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword (Neb 4:12), which turns into spirit and life (Jn 6:63.) whatever words of God heard in the church is taken by a spiritual person with the same depth young Anthony received the verse that changed his life and created an angelic order in the church.
Depth of giving.
The quantity we give is not so important as the depth of giving. The most wonderful example of giving is the offering which our father Abraham gave: his only-begotten son whom he loved and for whom he received the promises. It is true that God did not permit him to slaughter Isaac, but Abraham had the intention actually and began to carry it out.
In that offering Abraham gave deep love to God, more than his love to his only begotton promised son. He also gave deep obedience, for the obeyed a matter hard to do and against nature. His deep obedience was revealed in his quick response; for he arose early in the morning
(Gen 22:3). He likewise offered deep faith and trust. He trusted that God would raise Isaac even if he had slaughtered him, and would multiply his descendants as the stars of heaven (Heb 11:17-19; Gen 22:17).
The widow who gave out of her poverty all that she had, her whole livelihood, was praised by the Lord that she had given more than all (Mk 12:42-44). The Lord did not look to the quantity she gave (two mites), but to the depth of her offering and of her emotions.
The same may be said about the widow in Zarephath of Sidon: she gave Elijah the Prophet only a handful of flour and a little oil. The quantity was not important but the depth, because she did so in a period of famine. She gave all that she had, which she was going to eat with her son and die (1 kgs 17:12). She preferred the prophet to herself.
St. Anthony, likewise, gave all that he had.
He gave everything to the poor and preferred to live in poverty and asceticism. God’s love in his heart was deeper than love of money and property.
To Abraham, Anthony, and the widow, we add the martyrs who gave their life for the Lord’s sake.
The depth of giving appears also in giving cheerfully, with liberality, even to the enemies, and in secret (2 Cor 9:7; Rom 12: 8-13,20;
Mt 6:3), and in saying to God, “of Your own we have given You.”
(1 Chr 29:14)
Deep ministry:
Christianity started its evangelism with depth, though with a small number of ministers, twelve apostles who were simple and weak (1 Cor 1:27). However they were deep in their ministry, as St. Paul says, “In all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses… as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing …,” “in journeys often, in perils … in weariness and toil … in hunger and theist, in fasting often … who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn.: ?” ( 2 Cor 6:4-10; 11:26-29).
By that profoundness evangelism extended and spread.
For those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word (Acts 8:4). Even in prison, St. Paul wrote letters and baptized the jail keeper in philippi (Acts 16:33). The ministry was deep, serious, faithful, and with commitment. The word had its influence and power, and did not return void (Isa 55:11). Philip, while on the way, saw the Ethiopian eunuch in his chariot and he preached him, baptized him, and went on his way rejoicing (Acts 8:38).
Some people perhaps judge the success of the ministry wrongly, by the number of the attendees, the quantity of activities and the growth of knowledge!!
Some may judge it by the organization, administration, preparation of lessons, improvement of the library and the club, or by the visits. They forget the depth of the ministry that is, leading the others to repentance and to God’s love. So, we read about the church in the days of the apostles that the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved (Acts a 2:47).
The success of the ministry is not an outward aspect, but rather profoundness. There may be a minister who has no class to serve but his ministry is more profound than the ministry of all other ministers who promote from one class to another, even to the university classes. The former’s ministry is perhaps an individual ministry that attracts many to God’s love and rids them of the hindrances that prevents them from a life with God. His ministry also may be within the scope of family, saving the family members from separation and loss; or perhaps in the field of visitation, to bring the youths to church, to meetings. He may have a hidden ministry, which no one cares for, but deep ministry which is very precious in God sight, such as serving the homo-sexual, the disabled, or the perverted. It may be a deep ministry, and a great effort is exerted in it, without the other ministers knowing about it.
The depth of the ministry may appear in its fruit, like that of the Baptist in spite of its short period.
He ministered for less than a year, but it was very deep in its results, influence, and effectiveness. He prepared for the Lord a people prepared by repentance. He was the angel that prepared the way before the Lord (Mk 1:2-4; Lk 1:16-17).
The depth of the ministry may appear in the influence of the word that comes from the depths to the depths and changes the heart.
A word from a minister may hold to the ear of the listener and continues with him in church, at home, in street or work, and even in his dreams. It does not quiet him before working within him. He cannot flee from such a work.
Deep repentance:
A spiritual person is deep in his repentance and never returns to sin or weakness, but rather grows in righteousness unto perfection. Such was the repentance of Augustine, Moses the Black, Many the Copt, and others who turned from sinners into saints’ Deep repentance may be accompanied by tears and humbleness, like that of king David whose tears never quit him, and that of Saul of Tarsus who in spite of his deep ministry and spirituality said, “I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” (1 Cor 15:9), and like the humiliation that accompanied St. Jacob the struggler for 18 years.
Those who after repentance return to sin are not deep in their repentance.
They were not deep in penitence nor contrite in confession. Therefore sin remained within them and kept fighting them. So, they did not change and their confessions are repeated!!
Deep faith:
Many people thing themselves faithful, but their faith may shake when facing a hardship. This happened to Peter the Apostle who while walking with the Lord on the water doubted and deserved to be rebuked (Mt 14 : 21). Deep faith moves mountains (1 Cor 13:2), and everything is possible to the faithful (Mk 9:23). That is why St Paul says, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.” ( 2 Cor 13:5). We should have such deep faith, working with love (Gal 5:6), which fruit appears in our life.
Deep emotions:
A spiritual persons is deep in his emotions, is fervent in spirit and zealous in ministry, always saying, “I will not go into the chamber of my house, or go up to the comfort of my bed; I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord.”
(Ps 132). In friendship a spiritual person bears love to his friends like the love that was between David and Jonathan, and the love of John who followed the Lord unto the cross. In his repentance is full of love like that of the sinful woman who wet the feet of Christ with her tears and wiped them with her hair (Lk 7:38). In Compassion he has the emotions of a mother towards her suckling.
Deep personality:
A person who has a deep personality, with deep thinking, understanding and intelligence will give a deep word. He understands everything from all its aspects, with all its expectations and consequences. Whatever he does is done deeply as Joseph did when he was in charge of provisions in Egypt. When raising up his children, he/she will do that deeply as Jochabid did to her child Moses before handing him to Pharaoh’s daughter. Her education kept him in faith amidst the idolatrous worship of Pharaoh.
May the Lord give us depth in everything.