My fear is in the west or at least America we
separate the spiritual from the normal. Just as we often try to remove our
emotions from our thoughts and only allow one or the other to be used at a
time- so do we with the Spiritual and natural/normal.
When talking to a person you are not simply
addressing their body, but also their soul (mind, emotions, and desires/will)
and spirit at the same time. We recognize this to an extent as you talk to
someone: you use 1) your body language to express yourself and read how the other
person is following, 2) your mind to express your thoughts in a way their
mind can cognitively understand, 3) you consider their past and their emotions
that are tied to it and their dreams as to know what they will find interesting
and how to explain it. Whether of not we consciously do this, we all do it,
some better than others, as we learn to communicate well. We consider there's
more to the person than the body.
I propose there's more to the life that's going on
than what we can see or explain. Examples: How is laughter contagious? How does a smile
lighten your heart? How can you feel a "thickness" in the room as its
awkward?
I thoroughly enjoy science, psychology, and
biological psychology, but I think that sometimes these things are censors of
what's going on rather than the cause of them. You can't read colors with a
thermometer nor can you measure radio-waves with a camera. Although these are
excellent censors, there are certain areas of life that can't be measured
unless you have an instrument with that receptor in it. A few hundred years
ago, they didn't have instruments to monitor global weather patterns. It's not
that global weather patterns didn't exist or would be useful to know, it's that
we had no way of monitoring that and being able to record it well. Very few
people even considered the idea of how global weather patters affected their
life. So it is with spiritual atmospheres. Like weather, they exist all over
the world, few people take note of them because we don't have a way to record
and dictate them. I believe there's more than what we can consciously or scientifically note.
In the west, we have a very intellectual view of
life. It comes from our Greek and Roman backgrounds that devalued emotions and
anything that could not be cognitively explained. We see this today with the
idea "People are afraid of what they don't understand." We're always
using our minds as the filter and final say for something. Especially in our
male led culture where men are excellent in logic and reasoning, but don't
display emotions and feelings as well as females. But we can all agree that
there are ways to make decisions or live beyond your brain's leading. (Even in
that statement, many people will tense up inside) Let me give you examples
of what you already know works: a mothers intuition that she knows what's needed, where
things are, or when something happens to her child when she's not around. It's
not her intellectual mind that signifies these things that she doesn't know,
it's her soul or spirit. Also, we describe things we know beyond our mind as a
"gut feeling" when you don't know how or why you know something, but
you just know it or can tell. A third example is when you dream at night, when
your body is at rest and your soul and spirit are still working or dreaming. In
the dream, you're in your house with two of your friends but the house isn't a
place you've ever been except somehow you know, it's your house. In the next
scene your friends become different people you haven't met before yet you know
who they are and what they're doing. Cognitively, these dreams don't make
sense. As you try to explain them intellectually (with logic and reasoning),
you realize that it doesn't really make sense, but in your dream it makes
perfect sense. That's because your mind is not leading the rest of you.
So that explains how we often snag on how it has to
intellectually make sense, but how we are already moving beyond our brains. Now,
well look more into beyond what's "normal."
C.S. Lewis once wrote, "You do not have a
soul, you are a soul. You have a body." The Bible confirms this idea that
before our body's had been made, we (Christians or those going to be Christians) were already saved (Ephesians 1:4)(God exists outside of what we know as linear time). It also
explains that after our bodies die, we will live on (2 Corinthians 5:1). So we
are more than our bodies and we are more than what is tangible.
Unfortunately, many times we, as Christians, live
only by what's tangible. We address people as physical people rather than
souls/spirits. It's ok, that's all we've ever really seen modeled or all we
knew was possible. But now, I suggest that we can live more with our grounding as souls
living in the spiritual realm with our feet on the ground than physical beings
with our arms occasionally in the spiritual realm.
So what does any of this matter? I say this for a few
reasons:
1) If we don’t realize we are more than physical
bodies, we will not fully realize the life we have been given. (2 Cor 5:16-17) We
have been reconciled to God through Christ. We’ve been given new desires, new
dreams, new wants – these are no longer bad or wrong but now they’re good.
Christ now lives in us and He wants to get out of us and onto other people. This
means we'll do the things that Jesus did (John 14:12): we take care of the poor,
we proclaim the kingdom, we heal the sick, we raise the dead, we cast out
demons, etc.
2) We often get caught
thinking "that’s not possible because we’re just humans, just bodies, just
tangible things." But if we're souls/spirits first, then bodies more things are possible. God has taken our whole self (body, soul, spirit) changed
it so it will affect the inside and outside. The word in the Greek for “saved”
is “sozo.” It’s used in the new testament to describe eternal salvation to
heaven from hell (Romans 10:9), physical healing (Matt 9:22), and deliverance
(Luke 8:36). So as we see Jesus saving, healing, delivering, restoring, and
doing everything it’s beyond what is just physically seen.
A great example is recognizing the sin battle/death/victory. We’re free from sin and
all of it’s temptations (Romans 6:18). Many times we miss this because we only
believe what is seen and that is all Christians will continue to suffer until
they physically die. That’s a slight fallacy because that makes physical death
the end of sin and not the blood of Jesus on the cross. When we can understand
that things happen beyond what we can physical see, we can begin to walk in the
unseen truth and reality. We also will be able to realize that unseen demons or
angels can tempt or hurt us and it’s not ourselves. If you note the right
enemy, you’re chances of victory are much higher.
3) In the same way, you can
help people better by seeing what the true problem is. They may say their struggling with having enough
money, homosexuality, rage, or lonliness but rather than trying to help treat
their spoken problem you realize they’ve been told or think they’re not worth
much and need to be healed in that area and the rest will be taken care of.
4) The last issue is what I
see in most American churches. Sunday Christians or Christians who feel guilty
for not doing more due to time constraints. I think both of
these come from a core of not realizing that God is life andthat the spiritual and natural arne't seperate. People will come on
Sundays and do the right thing so they’ve marked off that part of their life
and they feel good about themselves or like they’ve fulfilled their spiritual part of their heart. The guilty Christians are the ones who
feel like they should do more, help out more, pray more, read their Bible more
yet they find themselves getting burnt out cause there just isn’t enough time
in the day. Both groups of people have separated
their life into “religious/spiritual/Jesus stuff” and “my life.”
Here’s the way I realized
this. By asking people who already come to church on Sunday morning and night,
and Wednesday night if they want to have a small group/family group with people
in their church/neighborhood just to help do life together on Tuesdays – they’ll hesitate
and say yes. Then ask if they want to do a prayer group on Thursday evenings – “um… well maybe. Sometimes, when I can.”
Inside, they think, “Oh man, I’m losing my life by doing all this church stuff.
When am I going to be able to just live and do my own thing?” I know this
because I’ve thought it and wrestled with this as people asked me to be more involved. My problem
was I was separating the things I do for God and “the rest of my life.” There
is no distinction though. When you become married to someone you do all things
with and in relation to that person. You shop together, talk together, eat
together, you let them know you’re plans and listen for theirs. You have things
that are fun that you enjoy, and things that he/she enjoys. You have time with
the guys/girls and vice-versa with your spouse. But everything’s now changed.
Being married isn’t part of your life. It is your life. (I don't mean to imply that to do things with God means you have to do things with or at the Church
every night. You do your whole life with Him in mind and with Him.)
One example of seperation is King Saul: Saul was a farmer’s son, anointed
as the first king over the Israelites. He knew was explained to what a king
should do and had Samuel to be his God reference and help keep him on track. Due
to their enemies evil actions, God told Saul via Samuel to annihilate all of them: man, woman, child, infant, ox, cheep, camel and donkey. (1 Sam15:3) Saul
went and killed most of them, but saved some sheep, calves, lambs and all that
was good to give as a sacrifice. When Samuel confronted him about why he didn’t
destroy everything, we see Saul’s heart revealed: Saul said, “they have brought
them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of
the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God,
and the rest we have devoted to destruction.” (15:15) Even though he had the
Spirit of God on him (11:6) and served Him, he never made God his own. He was
still living his life as it was by what he saw and was tangible, and doing the appropriate amount of spiritual stuff to satisfy that part of his life. He never made his life about God. He didn't submerge his life into the Spiritual, but kept it in the natural. God then removed His Spirit from Saul and anointed another who would be
obsessed with God above anything in the kingdom. He chose a man who made his life
to be God and His presence, will, heart and dreams. A man after his own heart – David. David wasn’t a shut off monk. He
was one of the most successful kings, warriors, and worshipers of all
time.
In conclusion, I propose
that there is more to life than what is simply seen, that we are souls/spirits that
we have a body. Our minds are great ways to carry out the things of our
spirit, but they are not great leaders. God has designed us to be more than
bodies and has more in store than our minds can comprehend. So let our souls be
swept away, completely enamored with Him, and let our minds and bodies
follow to the giver of life. From that place, let
us continue to walk in the Spiritual world with our feet just enough in the
physical world for others to grab onto. They are not separated, but united. So let us live united and in the complete united reality not a partial, seen one -for there is more to life than what meets the eye and it's our pleasure to display it.