I want to be like that, but I cringe thinking about how much I default to natural solutions for my seemingly physical problems. Some of His phrases come to mind like John 10:30, “The Father and I are one.” Or in John 5:19b, “For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” When it comes to a physical person living in harmony with the Spirit, there can be no better example than Jesus. When the Lord stretches out His hand to save, no technology nor mortal person will successfully stand in His way! How are we to live more spiritual lives as physical beings? I did a lot of research for this article on my cell phone, which is a dynamic tool, but it's not Spirit. For Israel, the horses were powerful, much like technology is in my world. In the same way, the horses are just animals: flesh but not Spirit. Only He can truly deliver and do the unexpected, but more needed work, in their heart. They may have been wise, powerful or rich, but at the end of the day, they were just people. We all need a hand sometimes, but God was letting them know that no one could do what they were asking. When the LORD stretches out his hand, the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall, and they will all perish together" (Isaiah 31:3).įaced with an overwhelming problem, Israel sought help from powerful allies. "The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit.
It comes from a passage where God is rebuking Israel for turning to Egypt's help rather than seeking His deliverance. What if He uses it to jar me out of my satisfaction in all things physical to whet my spiritual thirst for Him? This brings me to a verse that really struck home. Sure, I may be stressed out, but that doesn't change the fact that the Lord may just have allowed the problem I am facing. A truer vision of God might see that He simply is and was there. So my cry, “Where are you, Lord,” is quite often linked to my perception of a problem too big for me. The spiritual is more powerful than the physical as we can see in Jesus rising from the dead, and it is in no way limited by anything in space or time as we can see in fulfilled prophecy like Isaiah 53. It will outlast the physical, because one day, heaven and earth will pass away. The Spiritual reality is the greater one. Whether I’m in worry mode or crying out to God, I can see an overemphasis on the physical reality while overlooking something scripture tells me. This is a physical problem I need to resolve (or worry over), or this is overwhelmingly spiritual (Lord, where are You). Isn't it interesting, that when confronted with a problem, we often find ourselves reacting two ways. So, we can say that if we are born again, we experience a spiritual realm through our physical being. We can give food to a homeless person we can hear a sermon that tugs at our heart. We can see His handiwork in nature we can hug someone who is upset. Through faith, aided by our senses, we learn to experience God. As babies we can be comforted by the physical presence of our mother or be panicked by her absence when she leaves the room.
What we encounter from the beginning of our existence is mostly physical undergirded by emotion. We interact with our world through our physical senses - taste, sight, smell, hearing and touch.
This little guy uncovered a human struggle: living in the balance between the physical and spiritual world. I was stunned at the theological implications of a seven-year-old explaining away my illustration on faith. He said, "Actually, we turn on the light switch that allows electricity to pass through the wires that go up the wall to the light on the ceiling and illuminate the bulb." That's when I was blind-sided by a precocious seven-year-old whose father is a skilled craftsmen. We show we believe in the power of electricity by the fact that we turn on a light switch when we enter a dark room. On one occasion, I was teaching about how we show our faith by what we do. As the main teacher, I get to interact with the kids and sharpen my teaching skills. Twice a month we have a kids club in our neighborhood.
0 kommentar(er)
