All in Spirit
For most of us our belief in God is based primarily on faith. We have never seen God, but we have felt Him; not so much by His outward physical touch, but through an inward touching, and by a spiritual response to His actions and voice in our lives. For His physical touch we depend on the love we have for one another, and in the hands of man being borrowed to do the will of God. Does your faith bridge your body and spirit?
How do we worship and have faith in the Father and the Son? Do we go about doing the physical things that identify us as religious, and leave the inner, spiritual, things of faith to quietly stagnate? God made us to be both physical and spiritual beings, but didn’t He make the physical first, and then breathe the spirit into it? As we grow in faith is our body fully formed, but our spiritual self lagging behind?
How do we come into the presence of God? Are we clothed in all of our sin, and wearing shoes that are filthy and covered in the dust of the world? As creatures of both physical and spiritual construction we can’t travel anywhere without both sides of ourselves being present. Only at death is that separation possible. So until then, we must be careful regarding the purity of both our body and our spirit when we come before the Lord.
Do you find yourself to be at war within? Are you in the midst of a battle between your mind and your body, between the weakness of your flesh that is so often made to kneel before God, and the spirit which actually worships Him? We never have to look far as we seek to understand if there truly is both a physical and a spiritual world, because we live with one foot in each, and this tenuous stance threatens constantly to destroy us as our spirit works to tame the man of flesh who walks towards sin.
Over the past few days many of you have prayed for me as I have battled to throw off the head and chest cold I have been suffering with, but today I wish to pray for you, and ask that you join me by praying for me and those around you. My prayer today is not for your physical body, but rather for your spirit and faith. Have you ever prayed such a prayer? If you haven’t then you are missing the greatest opportunity in prayer... to pray for the will of God to be manifest in all its power within another person.
Are your eyes fixed on the things of heaven, or do you still chase after those of this world? Do you long for kingdom treasure, or the gold, silver, and riches of an earthly existence? It is so tempting for us to set our priorities incorrectly. If we see ourselves as a physical being that contains an imbedded spirit, rather than a spirit wrapped in an earthly body then we are lost. How do you envision yourself, and how do you live your life?
Are you unsatisfied in your prayer life? Do you ask in prayer, and yet feel unfulfilled when you rise from your knees? Do you recite scripture in your prayers and cry out, yet leave your prayer closet feeling as though God might not have heard you? Well, perhaps you are missing a key lesson that was taught by Jesus. Maybe you need to listen as he teaches us to pray in spirit and truth.
Do you hear the Word of Jesus and worship God as you should? We go to church and sing songs, pray together, chant, and recite creeds, but these are all physical manifestations of faith that anybody can do. What I am asking is... Do you allow your spirit to enter into worship with the physical you; in the religious things you do?