Basic Bible Concepts: 1 Spiritual Realm

Video transcript below

So welcome to the first Bible concept that we’re going to study and that is the importance of the spiritual realm. I’m really excited about this because I think this is going to be life-changing when you can understand and get a grasp of why the spiritual realm is important mostly because it’s important to God. And what’s important to him should be important to us, right? It really does revolutionize your life and I want to jump right into it.

So let’s talk about spiritual reality and in general God’s priority. It is a priority, it’s more important than the physical realm and that’s in the Bible. So let’s talk about what the Bible says about why the spiritual realm has more value or more importance than the physical realm. We’re going to read 2nd Corinthians 4:16. It’s as though our outer self is wasting away. Our inner self is being renewed day by day because this light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen but to things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient but the things that  are unseen are eternal. So when we think about our life and what’s important, what’s eternal, it’s the things that are unseen, which means the things that are spiritual.

Yet when we focus on, if you think about how you spent the day and what was your focus on and you know, we get up, we eat breakfast, we go to work, we spend hours at work, we have our to-do list, we exercise, all the things that we do, that we spend so much time doing. God’s saying, hey those things are going to waste away, that’s going to pass away, as they’re transient, right? 

So we are refocusing by learning God’s Word and refocusing on what’s important and what’s spiritual. We learn to live with purpose and hopefully divine purpose , right? Because it’s God’s Word. And so the Bible makes it very clear that what’s spiritual is more important than what’s physical.

The second part of this is that the spiritual, the Bible teaches the spiritual part generated the physical part and so the verses that I like to read supporting that principle is that the Bible says in Colossians 1:15-17, that he is the image, he being Jesus, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth visible and invisible whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities all things were created through him and for him and he is before all things and in him all things hold together.  This is speaking of Jesus. And you know it and of course Jesus who is the theme throughout the scripture. But it’s interesting that the Bible teaches us throughout scripture that Jesus was the creator of all things. If you look at the book of John chapter 1 it says, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and the same was in the beginning with God and by him and through him all things were created. I’m paraphrasing, but you know the Bible has a theme. Jesus was here before creation. He did create the world and we think about that the spirit actually generated everything that we see, everything we hold dear. I mean you think about what we think is important are the things that we spend our time and money on, right?  And aren’t most of those things physical?

But God is trying to point us back to the spiritual realm and show us, hey the spiritual realm, it existed first and so isn’t it important to go back and to see what that means?  Why that is important, and what does that teach us about life?  And it’s kind of like, you know, you can enjoy a really beautiful painting but if you get to know the artist that adds an element to that painting that you couldn’t see by just viewing the painting itself. So when we study creation we are able to also study our Creator and to learn from it.

And that kind of brings us to the third element of this study. Which is that the physical world is intended to reveal the spiritual world to us. In other words, the physical is a reflection of the mind and qualities of God. Now we’re not going to go into the qualities of God today, that’s actually the next study, but we’re going to read Romans 1:19-20 which says: For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them for his invisible attributes namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made so that they are without excuse.  So we can look at creation and see God, and we can know the characteristics of God . 

You know, there are a lot of people who don’t acknowledge the spiritual realm and they believe that this is all there is. If you die you go in the ground and you’re done, right? But when you think about it,  and that satisfies you, you know that’s your choice, right? But when you think about it, let’s just take this to its logical conclusion. And I want to, I like logic.  So let’s just talk about a simple example.  For example, let’s take this iPhone that I’m recording on right now. It was probably designed by a computer engineer. I think that’s the right term, and somebody who is a lot smarter than I am obviously.  And there was a lot of probable collaboration. A lot of different great minds came together and designed the device that is the size of my hand that can do what you’re seeing right now.  It can call all over the world and do all these magnificent things, right?  And then a whole other team of people probably put it together so a lot of technology and collaboration and great minds went into designing what we call the iPhone. And if we took it apart and put all the pieces in a tumbler and shook it, how long do you think we’d have to shake that for all those pieces to come together randomly and make the iPhone?  Would it ever happen in my lifetime?  No, I don’t think so.  And the probabilities of that happening are so astronomical I can’t put a number on them. So now take that to the logical conclusion.  I guess the logical conclusion about the universe is that we have a universe that is so vast we can’t even see it all. We have more creatures than we can count. Even within one human there are so many cells and so many different systems that man can’t create any of them . Man has not been able to create any part of our body with the precision and the great workability. That’s not a word, but you know what I mean. The full design and function of our body exists when it is born and grows.  We can just mimic it poorly, right? 

So when you take that whole vast creation including every human being, every creature of  every kind, and the great cosmos, and you think about that coming together as a random series of acts or a big bang or whatever from something other than a supernatural intelligence a supernatural power in existence apart from the creation, is that possible?  If it could not happen with the iPhone, how could it possibly have happened with everything we see outside our window including the eyes that we are using  to look up? It’s a logical conclusion that we could definitely put together with the mind that God’s given us that hey, creation definitely points to the existence of a supernatural being.

And so when the Bible says that they are without excuse, what the Bible’s saying is,hey, you can look at creation and know there is this eternal power and this divine nature out there because it’s common sense. You know there are laws. I’m not going to go into laws of science, but there are many laws of science that also could support this idea that there was a supernatural beginning.  I mean even something as simple as the law of entropy which says the whole universe is running down. That’s my simplistic way of saying the law of entropy or reiterating it. You know we were born. Ever since we’re born we begin to die right?  And that’s because our body is running down. And that again presumes that at the beginning before the universe started running down that there was a beginning, a creation, a supernatural event.  

So when we talk about the Bible teaching us that the physical is intended to reveal the spiritual, the creation speaks of a supernatural being that has always existed, has infinite intelligence, and has incredible power that we can’t even comprehend.

I mean, think about the Sun rising every day, and the energy needed to create the sun. That would require power that our mind can’t even wrap itself around. And then just the sustaining of the universe. I mean we talk about the verse in Colossians, that Christ is before all things and that in him all things consist in other words, they are held together.  Wow, what a lesson to learn about the spiritual realm, from the physical realm.  Because you know we think about just the way that the solar system operates, something’s holding it together.  And if we try to replicate that in a mechanical sense we would have to have all kinds of gizmos holding it together.  But it is obvious that  something’s holding it together and that speaks of a supernatural power.

Well, the final thing I’d like to talk about regarding  the importance of the spiritual realm, is that the spiritual is eternal and  the physical is temporary. We touched on this in the first point, but I’d like to read out of the book of Psalms 102: 24-27 which interestingly was quoted in the book of Hebrews Chapter 1 and it says:  I said O my god, take me not away in the midst of my days: you whose years continue throughout all generations at the beginning you existed and laid the foundations of the earth the heavens are the work of your hands they shall perish but you remain and endure yes all of them shall wear out and become like an old garment my clothing you will change them and they shall be changed and pass away but you remain the same and your years have no end. 

Wow, what a great commentary about our Creator and an acknowledgment by the psalmist that the spiritual part, the part that God makes, and within us in the spiritual realm, he has our spiritual part that will never pass away.  But everything else, our body, the world that we see, it’s transient, it’s going to pass away.

And of course we also know that the Bible talks about the new heaven and the new earth that won’t pass away, which is a different subject which we’ll talk about later.  But when you think about the aspect of this in the spiritual realm that exists, that God is a spirit, we’re going to talk about the characteristics of God’s being in the next video or next study.  Because that is kind of the foundation of everything right?

But when you think about the spiritual part of creation, I try to put it in a way that makes sense.  When you acknowledge that there’s a spiritual realm and that spiritual realm is forever, it’s eternal.  That should absolutely change the way we live, the way we think,  what we do with our time . Because when  you think about it, we spend the majority of our day working, feeding ourselves, taking care of people, our to-do list, making our body healthy, right?  Working out whatever that looks like and that part of us is going to pass away. 

So, by understanding the importance of the spiritual realm and the fact that God obviously says it’s important,  it should be important to us.  There’s a really great reason for that, and the reason is that we were created with a divine purpose.  And to live that divine purpose, we have to learn God’s Word and learn to talk to him and to communicate to him. I’m getting a little bit off-topic but I want to emphasize that there’s a really good reason to learn about the spiritual realm, to understand it to the extent that we can, and to integrate  the spiritual part of our life into what we do physically.  So that we can live out what the Bible says when it says whatever you do whether you eat or drink or work and play, whatever you do,  do it for the glory of God.  Because God is eternal and when we glorify God in our body by working what is eternal and spiritual into our daily life then we are living within the divine purpose that God creates for us.  And I can’t think of a better reason to exist because that is God’s plan.  So next time we are going to learn the characteristics of God so that we can better understand who he is and also live our purpose.

We would love to hear your thoughts about this devotional. Did God speak to you or challenge your daily walk with him? Or is there a topic that you would like Kimberly to cover or expound on? Please share with us in the comments below.

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