Spiritual awareness is being conscious of spiritual ideas or matters. Some think of their soul, a spiritual path, a spiritual leader, a religion, or even unseen forces in the world or their lives.
The Apostle Paul writes a lot about spirit focus and flesh focus throughout the Bible.
The Bible makes it clear that there is a real spiritual realm where activity happens constantly. While most people pay no attention to anything that they can not see physically others cultivate their spiritual awareness through a relationship with God.
Spiritual awareness is precisely explained in Ephesians 6:12,
“For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
There are several ways to see and understand spiritual awareness in scripture. One of the most enlightening ways is when Daniel is trying to understand the truth of God’s will.
While Daniel was speaking and praying, confession his sins and the sins of his people in Israel, God instructed him in 9: 22-23,
“Daniel, I have now come to give you wisdom and understanding. At the beginning of your petitions, the commandment went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved. Therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision.”
While Daniel was still in prayer and confessed sin in making his request of God, Gabriel the angel came to him and told him that there was heavenly activity to respond to Daniel’s spiritual activity of prayer.
Just like Daniel, we need to be spiritually aware that God is working behind the scenes when we pray. God pulled back the curtains for Daniel and He can do it for us. This is why prayer is so important.
When we think about the sources of temptation, conflict, and confusion being a result of unseen dark spiritual activity. We begin to live spiritually aware lives, understanding the limited power of people, and the immense need to learn to exert spiritual power if we are going to flourish in this world.
My pastor explained it this way, “there is a spiritual war going on above us. The war that is going on with Isreal and Hamas is what is going on above us right now in the spiritual realm.
When we develop this awareness that the most recent activity taking place at any one time is spiritual, and recognize the insignificance of human action in comparison to the invisible spiritual power at work in the cosmos, we then lose our fear of people and discover what it truly means to be in awe of God.
Spiritual awareness is about seeing the world spiritually, getting beyond the superficial view that human resistance is responsible for our difficulties.
From Pity to Praise 