I've had several great talks about the spiritual realm with my 30 Mighty Men, and I wanted to bring this one back up into center stage because of the spiritual flavor of the re-posts from the week. It's definitely a little long, as was the one I posted last night, but I won't be posting anything this weekend, so hopefully you'll find time to go over it. Maybe watch the Matrix for fun too…

Posted in: Devotional by CaptainAJ at The Big 3 Zone on April 18, 2010

“For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.” Romans 8:5 (NASB)

“But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated.” I Corinthians 2:14 (Amplified Bible)

This comes out of a 20+ comment discussion on FaceBook with my original post using these 2 verses to say this:

“To the spiritual man, the 5 senses are simply a figment of his imagination.”

I received many responses on this post saying it sounded like Gnosticism; that the physical senses are good for understanding spiritual things too… But, for anyone wishing to argue these points, let me include this caveat: I am not dismissing the 5 senses as useless and of no value, I’m striking at the heart of Naturalism which seems to embrace that all we have is this physical world and these physical bodies and when we die we’re all just worm food. I want to challenge people with this idea: that the spirit realm is more real than the physical realm. I use the word “real” for a reason, and looking at the definition, I’ll defend my point: as an adjective, real means: existing or happening as or in fact; actual, true. I believe this physical world was created out of the spiritual. I believe there are angels and demons existing all over the place waging war – happening right now! I believe God is Spirit, because Jesus said so in John 4:24, and if we’re going to worship Him, we have to do it in “spirit and truth”. Look at the definition: what is real is true, so you’ll see again, the spirit realm where we worship God who is Spirit, includes truth.

We definitely have to balance this approach with unbelievers who think we’re off our rocker if we start blabbing about a spirit world that is “more real” than this physical world. You might get the obnoxious question: “What do you think this is: the matrix??? Get real!” Once someone becomes a believer, I believe the next step is growth in the faith, and with that comes the belief in the spiritual realm anchored in the Holy Spirit who dwells in them. (1 Cor 3:16) Everywhere I look in scripture, the spiritual realm is emphasized. First look at 2Corinthians 10:3-4 which talks about how we “walk according to the flesh but don’t wage war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds…” Notice the word carnal (AKA flesh), and how that’s contrasted with what is “mighty in God” who again, is Spirit… And then notice how Jesus told Peter in Matthew 16:17, that the Truth of Who He is, was revealed – not by flesh and blood – but by the Father! – yup – He’s Spirit. From the armor of God hammered out in Ephesians 6, to how we’re to walk in Galatians 5, the spiritual realm comes out head and shoulders above the physical.

Now I know there are some great uses for the 5 senses. Smells can bring back memories, encourage prayer, the sounds of worship and music can help bring people out of depression and then there’s the tasting the bread and wine during communion and so on…, all this is powerful and it has it’s place. I simply just keep coming back to the spirit – when David said “taste and see that the Lord is good,” he was talking about a spiritual tasting (Psalm 34:8). Moses’ command to “Hear Oh Israel that the Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is One,” is heard with spiritual ears, (Deut 6:4) and when we, like Jehoshaphat, praying for the armies of Judah “who were powerless before the great multitude coming to destroy them,” declare: “we don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on You.” These are spiritual eyes we fix on our Savior! (2 Chronicles 20:12).

Yes, again, we were created with a physical body, and yes, when we are raised in the last day it will be a bodily resurrection. But we will have sight and hearing that will far surpass what we have now. With our glorified bodies we will be as He originally created us – before the fall that has cursed us with this sinful flesh. It will be truly remarkable, and there will be some physical aspect of it, but I believe the spiritual aspect will far surpass it all. This temporal world will be swallowed up by the eternal existence of God the Father, and this corruptible body will take on an incorruptible state as Jesus did Himself. We will see Him as He sees us, for “though we look in a mirror – dimly – then we will see Him face to face.” (1 Cor 13:12)

Now that is something very REAL that we can get REALLY excited about!

Is anybody with me??? Let me year you shout!

peace,
Adam