It seems like there are a lot of people moving through or embarking on a spiritual awakening or spiritual growth journey. It can be really confusing at times and challenging to navigate on your own, especially if you aren’t sure what to expect. So, today, I am laying out seven things I experienced through my own spiritual journey that you may find helpful as you move through yours.
Having recently gone through this myself, I experienced several things that you may not expect or understand if you have not yet experienced a spiritual awakening or season of rapid and deep spiritual growth. Some of the things to expect if you are embarking on a spiritual growth journey or at the beginning of an awakening are:
- You will be set apart.
- You will feel lost or alone at times.
- Confusion or disorientation.
- Old behaviors and beliefs resurface or become more challenging to break.
- Feeling drawn to nature.
- Noticing signs and synchronicities.
- Heightened intuition.
So, a bit over a year ago, I started a coaching program, which I thought was for health and fitness, and it was, but it was also much more than that. A major component of this program was self-healing, which also set me on a path of rapid spiritual growth. I would say that my spiritual awakening had started a couple years prior to my joining this particular program. Still, this program accelerated and deepened this process for me.
While I thought I was doing some inner work to get to the root of some of my challenges with weight loss and other aspects of my health, God was guiding me inward, yes, for healing, but also for my spiritual growth. Through all this, I deepened my connection with God, received answers to questions I’ve had my whole life related to religion, discovered and activated my spiritual gifts, and found my purpose and calling, something I’ve been searching for, for over 20 years. It also gave me new understanding and perspective on the true meaning behind many Bible verses and helped me understand why God wants us to have a relationship with Him, instead of relying on church or others’ interpretation of the Bible and Bible passages. This is more than I could possibly cover in a podcast episode and it’s not really what I want to focus on today.
I have noticed over recent years that it seems there is an increasing number of people having similar experiences or going through similar spiritual growth or at the beginning of a spiritual awakening. So, I thought it would be helpful to discuss some things to expect as you continue through the process, especially because some of these things I experienced didn’t always seem related or make sense and I had to figure a lot out on my own. So, let’s get into what you may experience on your spiritual growth journey.
- You will be set apart.
In my case, this was one of the first things that happened after I started going on the inner healing path I mentioned earlier. Now, I was already planning on moving from my lifelong home in California to Montana, but I had no idea at the time how God was planning to use this. In hindsight, I think he led me to move specifically for this reason, to set me apart; to separate me from any and all distractions and people.
It’s not because everyone in my life was bad or negative or doing anything deliberately. It is just that He wanted to shift my attention and focus entirely to Him and my growth. Again, this is only something I came to understand in reflecting back. If you find people in your life falling away, or it seems like the forces of the universe are moving to keep you separated from other people for most of your time, trust this is necessary and for your good.
It doesn’t have to mean you’ll never have any of these people in your life again. That said, it is likely some people in your life will fall away. It is not good or bad, it’s just part of the process as you turn your focus inward and upward. Trust this is God’s way of providing you the time and space you need for this growth. - You will feel lost or alone at times.
Given the first point, this may seem obvious, but you will feel very alone and lost at times. As people close to you fall away or as God separates you to minimize distractions, you will feel alone at times. I have found God also gets quiet during parts of the process. Trust this is not because He has abandoned you. It is more Him creating the space for you to figure some things out and work through some things for yourself. Like teaching your kid to ride a bike; there is a point you let them go without holding the bike for them. Even if they fall, it’s the best way for them to get the hang of it.
This is also how God guides you inward. We are conditioned to look outside of ourselves for answers when we have the answers within. I learned through my own spiritual growth process that feeling alone or confused is guidance to go within, through meditation. You cannot hear that still, small voice (aka your intuition) if you are always looking outside yourself for answers. While God wants us to seek, He also wants us to learn how to find answers within ourselves. Many of us don’t realize it, but God has given us the power of co-creation and many other abilities that lie dormant in most of us. In order to tap into them, we have to go within and connect to Him as well as our own intuition. - Confusion or disorientation.
As you move further along your spiritual growth journey you will go through what I think of as a shedding process. Long held beliefs, behaviors, and understandings will be shattered or released as truths are revealed and as you grow. This will naturally cause confusion and can also feel disorienting. Everything you thought you knew and understood starts to crumble as you gain new understanding and as your connection within yourself as well as to God deepens. It’s very similar to the red pill in the movie the Matrix; once you gain new awareness and understanding and as you grow more spiritually, you cannot see things the same way again. So, there is a time of feeling confused and disoriented. This is because you are shifting from walking by the flesh to walking by the spirit.
I believe this is what is meant by Romans 12:2: And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. As you allow yourself to be led more by the spirit and not the flesh, as you loosen the grip of the things of this world from you and move closer to God, the world will feel a bit foreign and confusing for a while. It is part of the growth process. - Old behaviors and beliefs resurface or become more challenging to break.
At a point in your spiritual growth journey you will, quite naturally and of your own accord, start to shed behaviors, thought patterns, and habits that no longer serve you. This can be things like drinking, smoking, junk food, TV, certain types of music and a number of other things. Interestingly, as you move into each new level of your spiritual growth, many of these very things will suddenly pop back up and you may find you are battling yourself for a while. This can take months, weeks, days. Like all of this it is a process, and it is different for everyone, and it is a normal part of it.
I have come to learn this is your ego dying. The part of you that has been running the show up until this whole spiritual growth process started. It is the part of us that likes the familiar, even if it isn’t what is good for us and even if it is the exact opposite of what we want. Whether we like to admit it or not, people do not like the unknown and a spiritual awakening and spiritual growth is a voyage into the unknown. So, naturally, the part of our mind designed to keep us safe fights it and works hard to keep us in familiarity, aka safety.
The best advice I can give you for this part of it is to give yourself love and grace through this phase. Do the best you can and remind yourself of the things you have learned and why you have let go of these things in the first place. The good news is that by this point, you will have gotten pretty good at recognizing this for what it is and will get faster at releasing it again with each stage of growth. It is iterative and happens in layers. - Feeling drawn to nature.
You are going to want to be outside more. You are going to want to get away, so to speak, from the noise of life and out into nature. The stronger your connection to God becomes, the stronger the pull you will feel to His creation. You will find a newfound appreciation for every creature, for the plants around you, the earth, rocks, everything. I have found it seems to look more beautiful each day as if my sight is changing. I believe this is because it does, because you are changing inside. Through all the shedding and changing and transformation that you experience through this process, you make more room within yourself for God.
As 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says: know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. Through shedding old beliefs and behaviors and allowing yourself to walk by the spirit and not by the flesh, you make more room for God to dwell within you. He always has, but now you have given Him a much larger space in your temple. As a result you start to feel how connected you truly are to all of creation and you will want to be in it more often. - Noticing signs and synchronicities.
I’ve done a couple previous posts around signs and synchronicities and the way God speaks to us, so I won’t repeat all of it here. Like how you will feel more connected to and drawn to nature, you will also notice more signs and synchronicities. As you strengthen your connection to your inner self and God, you will start to become more attuned to the many ways God speaks to us. God uses signs and synchronicities to help us know when we are in alignment, when we are moving along in the direction we are being guided by Him. He will use a variety of things to do this, like all of creation, numbers, other people, even music and television. Because you are more connected to Him through spiritual growth, you will be able to receive these messages more easily. Your intuition will help confirm this for you, which brings me to the last of the many experiences you will have through your spiritual growth or awakening. - Heightened intuition.
We all have a sixth sense or extra senses whether we want to believe it or not. Most of us just don’t use it, or we use it very little. If you ever watched a survivor of a dangerous situation tell their story, you may have noticed they often talk about how they knew or had a bad feeling in their stomach right before the incident happened. This is your sixth sense or intuition. It’s built in for survival, yes, but that is not it’s only purpose. I have come to learn it’s given to us by God. There are so many passages in the Bible that speak to this as well. To list just a few
2 Timothy 1:7: For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love and of a sound mind.
Ephesians 3:20: Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
Colossians 1:11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
Matthew 17: 20-21: If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
Our intuition is one of the amazing abilities God has given us, but it has to be worked like a muscle does to grow stronger. We can work it through meditation, going inward, and connecting to God daily. As you follow your spiritual growth or awakening process, your intuition will grow stronger and you may even begin to notice other extra senses activate or heighten.
So, these have been the experiences I have had over the course of my own spiritual awakening and growth. I am by no means done growing or learning, of course – I don’t believe we ever are, but in reflecting back on this past year, these are many of the things I experienced along the way. I had to figure a lot of it out as I went, so I thought it would be helpful to outline what you might expect for those early in the process or just beginning. I hope you find this helpful in your own spiritual awakening and growth.
I would love to hear from you, so please share your thoughts in the comments. If you find this helpful and want to continue the pursuit of faith, fitness, and joy with me, please like and subscribe. You can also find Faith Fitness Joy on Facebook and Instagram or check out the podcast at https://faithfitnessjoy.podbean. Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you in the comments and on the socials!