Recall Rip Van Winkle? Those of us in the American English speaking part of the world who passed our higher school years in the 1950s to 1970s do keep in mind him. He was the man who slept for 20 years in a hollow in New York. We knew him in our English Literature class.

For the younger generation who know nothing at all about Rip Van Winkle, here is a really brief summary. He was the principal character in Washington Irving’s story “Rip Van Winkle.” He was a Dutch American who did not want to operate for a charge. He just wanted to play. A single day he was lost in the mountains of New York as it was then before the American Revolution and got into the company of the ghosts of Henry Hudson and his crew. He drank their drink and fell asleep. He woke up only after 20 years, with a long beard and an aged man. He goes back to his village only to discover it was no longer the identical as he left it. America was now independent from Excellent Britain. Immediately after some browsing he found his loved ones.

The explanation why I began with the story of Rip Van Winkle is since he illustrates the particular person who sleeps for a lot of years, who is awakened only right after sleeping those several years, that is, in his physique, the physical life.

In the spiritual life, like Rip Van Winkle most men and women are asleep and unless somebody wakes them up they will continue on sleeping spiritually, perhaps for the rest of their life. Some of them will wake up only in eternity.

Here are three ways to know you have had a spiritual awakening. If you have not gone by means of these 3 techniques, this means that you are nevertheless asleep, that is, spiritually, like Rip Van Winkle physically, and it’s time for you to wake up.

And that is the difference involving spiritual awakening and physical awakening. You can not know that you are physically awake if you are asleep. You can not know that you are awake even though you are still sleeping. But you can know that you have not yet awakened spiritually. How? By reflecting on your life, no matter whether any of these methods are present in your life. If they are not yet present, then it signifies that you have not but awakened spiritually. Figuring out this you can now need to awaken spiritually. And desiring to awaken spiritually is the step before in fact awakening spiritually.

Thankfully, the techniques to know we’ve had a spiritual awakening are equivalent to the ways to know we’ve had a physical awakening.

The very first way to know that you are physically awake is by getting aware of your surrounding, at 1st indistinctly, then small by small, much more distinctly.

Even ahead of you open your eyes you can know that you are already awake, that you are still in bed, that it is late in the evening or early in the morning, etc.

Even so in spiritual awakening you are conscious of the spiritual realities around you. You are aware that you are in a planet of spiritual as effectively as physical realities. Once again, as in physical awakening, this awareness is at very first indistinct, but as time goes on and as you proceed in our spiritual journey this awareness becomes clearer and clearer.

This awareness of spiritual realities around you may well outcome as a consequence of a dissatisfaction with your present job, of a failure in enterprise, of a loss of a loved a single, of a joyful encounter with a beloved. What ever it is that triggers this awareness, you are created aware that not only physical, visible points surround you but also spiritual, non-visible points, like really like or fear, inner peace or turmoil, joy or confusion.

Have you had this practical experience? If you have, then you have begun to awaken spiritually.

In physical awakening, soon after being conscious of your surrounding the natural point to do is to open your eyes and you see things about: the fading darkness or the onrush of sunlight, the furnishings around the area, the light switch, the door, and so forth.

So also in spiritual awakening you open your spiritual eyes and perceive the spiritual realities about you: the strivings of human beings to improve their lives and seek ultimate happiness, the crimes committed in the search for some type of satisfaction, the exultation and joys of those who succeed in their endeavors, the struggle involving great and evil occurring prior to your quite eyes.

Do you perceive these spiritual realities about you? Beneath the stories of sordid crimes and wars, of all-natural and man-created calamities, do you see the mighty spiritual forces claiming for your focus? Do you see the ever growing hordes of human beings who are digging deeper into poverty and homelessness? Do you see the few elite masters of this planet earth who continue to acquire resources beyond their consumption and just waste them away? And do you see these events as element of a spiritual battle amongst the invisible superior and evil forces of the universe, beyond psychological, sociological, financial and political factors? Do you see the forces behind our planet leaders which push them to dominate peoples and exploit them? If you do, you have had a spiritual awakening.

Thirdly, in physical awakening after you are aware of your surrounding and after you open your eyes, you act. You get out of bed, go to the wash space, and so on., preparing yourself for the function of the day.

So also in spiritual awakening, just after you are aware of your spiritual surrounding and soon after you see what is taking place spiritually around you and all over the world, you act. John De Ruiter prepare for the spiritual function ahead of you. You do not sink into hopeless resignation, thinking you can do absolutely nothing since of the enormity of the spiritual forces around you. You act since you are convinced that the Spirit in you is mightier than the thousands of difficulties around you.

You act but you do not do so rashly. You do not go into battle unprepared. So also in spiritual warfare you place on the shield and weapons of a spiritual nature, totally prepared to vanquish the enemies.

Are you struggling with spirit energy to make this globe a superior location for you to reside in, even just in your corner of the globe? If you say, Yes, then you are acting and you are spiritually awake.

The 3 strategies to know whether or not you have had a spiritual awakening is by 1) becoming aware of the spiritual realities around you 2) opening your spiritual eyes to the events of spiritual forces about you three) acting spiritually in your corner of the planet to make it a better location to live in. If this has occurred to you, you know that you are spiritually awake and you can now enable other individuals to wake up spiritually.