Too many Christians fell for the lie.

The world has taught us that our physical life is separate from our spiritual life.

You can believe what you want provided you keep it to yourself.

Do your worshipping in a building on Sunday, and keep it out of the rest of the world.

Practice your religion at home, not in the workplace or public places.

The result is that many Christians have compartmentalized their faith.

There are the things we learn in the bible about the physical world, and then there are the things of the spiritual world.

Because the world told us to separate the two in its presence, we did the same in our heads and hearts.

We embrace the physical parts of our faith that we can recognize in the physical world, and then we separate the spiritual parts that don’t seem to fit in with our understanding of the physical world. Jesus specifically told us not to lean on our own understanding.

And so we end up with practicing Christians who see the values the bible teaches but don’t know what to do with the resurrection. They just gloss over it because they don’t understand it. They get 99% of the way there and keep one foot in the world. I did this for 18 years.

They hear that Moses parted the sea, but see it as some sort of metaphorical meaning vs Moses actually physically parting the sea. They struggle to connect the spiritual with the physical because it’s not within their current understanding of the physical world. And yet, in the last few years, we’ve seen evidence of where the sea was parted. The spiritual world collided with the physical world that day and through God, Moses parted the sea.

They hear of miracle healings, but because they have not witnessed it firsthand, they park that idea aside as they’ve seen too many fake charismatic healing televangelists making fools of the whole thing. I’m not going to lie, I’ve had my doubts in this area because I’ve not seen it myself, but I have to trust in what Jesus did and continues to do for us. Some He chooses to heal so that they will be a witness of miracles. Others He does not so they will be a witness of obedience and faithfulness.

Finally, they completely ignore the book of Revelation. Because this one book deeply connects the spiritual world with the physical one, unlike any other book in the bible. So much so that they just can’t get past it so they put up their arms, say they don’t get it and they’ll let God figure it out in the end.

But there is one problem with ignoring this book

“Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.”
~Revelation 1:3

No other book in the Bible offers a blessing to those who read and hear it. There is a spiritual blessing for those who have an ear to hear, and listen with great intent to what God has to say in this book. But this post isn’t about revelation and the things that must come to place.

This post is about the problem with Christians not seeing or understanding the deep connection between the physical world they live in every day and the spiritual world that surrounds us.

They really don’t understand how their enslavement to sin prevents them from being really close to God. They don’t understand that their love of the things of this world prevents them from loving the things of God.

They can’t truly see how sinful we’ve become and as a result

I believe God is currently pouring out His judgment on the world.

“Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”

~Romans 1:24-25

And perhaps He will allow us, those who take His name, to correct ourselves, so that our land will be blessed by Him again. Of course, only if it is His will, we are not to be attached to the outcome of what must come.

“if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

~II Chronicles 7:14

Going back to many Christians, they really believe that because God loves them and will never abandon them, He is ok with His children basking in their sins because of what His son did for us. This is because while they have understood the love of God, they have not been taught to fear God.

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;”

~Philippians 2:12

I look at the world today, and I look into myself, and I fear that very few of us who call ourselves Christians really take seriously how deeply connected the physical and spiritual worlds are. If we did, we would walk away from the things the world offers us, especially those things that promote sin, and we would bask in the things that God has given us. We would be the most dedicated children of God in obedience to what He has asked us to do.

Instead, many don’t take it seriously. They brush off the spiritual world as something getting in the way of the physical world. And they go about their lives believing they are saved and have nothing to account for because Jesus is love, and all you need is love.

And yes, I fell for this lie just as most do.