“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
I heard this quote a few years back, and it is strikingly profound. The Bible clearly supports this truth from the very beginning in the Garden of Eden all the way through to the Revelation of the Heavenly realm to the Apostle John.
Believers in Christ navigate both realms simultaneously. As followers of Christ today it is vitally important that we walk through life in this spiritual reality and resolve. However, it seems the opposite most days don’t you think? I’m busy, distracted, entertained, indulging in what appeals to my 5 senses, worrying about my loved ones, worrying about this lost world that I all too often view as “home”. I’m longing for spiritual experiences. Daily asking God to lead me, reveal truth to me, fill me with the Holy Spirit, and hungry to hear another testimony of what amazing things God is doing in the lives of others. I want every worship experience, whether in a Sunday morning assembly or just alone with God, to be a mind-blowing spiritual breakthrough where I really “feel” God’s presence.
I see religion and worldly influence as the two biggest problems for us living into our spiritual identity. Religion takes the spiritual truths, revelations, and the power of the Holy Spirit and packs them tightly into forms, organizations, rules, traditions, and other human systems we can control. Simultaneously, we live in a world that tells us we have all the answers, we are self-sufficient, and we should just do what feels good and seems right, and not let anyone judge us for it because, after all, there’s no higher power to answer to. We are merely humans having human experiences and that’s all there is to it.
The result for many of us Christians today it that we go through life like any other decent mortal person, but we only have brief moments when we get somewhat “spiritual” at best or at least religious. But what if we flipped that? Better yet, what if God flipped that?
Remember the “red pill or the blue pill” proposal in the sci-fi classic “The Matrix”?
Everyday we are offered that choice by God. We can go along like everybody else, oblivious to the spiritual reality all around us and live subjected to the evil that tries to conform and control us. Or, we could “walk by faith, instead of sight.” (2 Cor. 5:7) We could wake up realizing our true identity, mission, destination, who our source of life, power, and hope is, and go face this world with open eyes of spiritual discernment.
I want to caution against reading in to every single thing as a spiritual battle or issue, but it is important that we open our eyes to possibilities and we look for God’s working and voice in everything.
To approach everyday with the conviction that this world is temporary, this body is not the real “me”, God is my source of life, and the Kingdom of Heaven is my true citizenship as well as my destiny will certainly help me “seek first God’s Kingdom and His righteousness”, and not get so caught up in the earthly “chasing after the wind” temporary stuff.
Let’s pray along with Paul in Ephesians 1:17-23
17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people, 19 and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 He exerted when He raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.
-Amen
