There’s a lie we subconsciously tell ourselves about spiritual things. And it’s this: “if you can’t see it or touch it, it’s not real. Reality only exists in the material world.” To be clear, when we believe this falsehood, we miss out on so much!
In fact, we miss out on another whole dimension of life and reality! Notice, all of creation exists in 3 dimensions. His fingerprint is all over creation as a trinitarian witness: in the spacial world, there’s length, width, height. In the physical world there’s land, sea, skies; As to time, there’s past, present, future. In the creation of humanity, there is body, soul, and spirit. Even down to the molecular level we see a trinity – atoms, molecules, ions; and on it goes…
However, a 4th dimension of reality extends beyond the material world we see. It is supra-physical. And though unseen, this dimension is as real – if not more so – than the physical world we are in.
Thus, Hebrews 11:1 says “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen…” So, I’ll say it – Faith that is ‘blind’ is not biblical. Biblical faith IS a substance as real as rocks or (as Jesus said) as real as the wind! It may not be ‘visible’ but is nonetheless powerful! I love how The Message paraphrases it in John 3:
5-6 Jesus said, “You’re not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the ‘wind-hovering-over-the-water’ creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom. When you look at a baby, it’s just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can’t see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit.
7-8 “So don’t be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be ‘born from above’—out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it’s headed next. That’s the way it is with everyone ‘born from above’ by the wind of God, the Spirit of God.”
So if we can’t touch it but it’s real, how does it work? That’s the very next question Nicodemus asked Jesus in John 3. If you are up to it, here’s His answer:
10-12 Jesus said, “You’re a respected teacher of Israel and you don’t know these basics? Listen carefully. I’m speaking sober truth to you. I speak only of what I know by experience; I give witness only to what I have seen with my own eyes. There is nothing secondhand here, no hearsay. Yet instead of facing the evidence and accepting it, you procrastinate with questions. If I tell you things that are plain as the hand before your face and you don’t believe me, what use is there in telling you things you can’t see, things of God?
13-15 “No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man. In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up—and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life.
16-18 “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.
19-21 “This is the crisis we’re in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won’t come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is.”
There is a crisis among people – including believers – in America. It is the crisis Elijah faced on Mt Carmel: cultural religion’s false gods v. the God of Creation. There is no shortage of religion; there is a shortage of biblical Faith and believers sharing the good news of Jesus.
Skye
for an outline of biblical faith, go here: https://www.ioutreachinc.org/new-testament-bible-study/
