Lie: Things I can’t sense do not exist, and if they do, it doesn’t matter

Lie:      Things I can’t sense do not exist, and if they do, it doesn’t matter.

Truth: Most of reality, even most of what is important, cannot be seen or sensed at all.

We see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. — I Corinthians 13:12

We experience so much today – our eyes are assaulted with images, our ears with sounds. We are drenched – overstimulated by a world of TV images, phone apps, YouTube, iTunes and more. The sheer volume of sights and sounds quickly overwhelm our senses. It’s no wonder we forget the unseen world when the seen-world fills our vision.

You may say, ‘Of course I believe in an unseen world. I’m a Christian who believes in God and angels and demons.’ Yes, but I’m afraid this belief often has little to no practical benefit. Many Christians live such prayerless lives, not so much because they’ve lost their faith, but simply because they’ve tuned him out to tune in the senses that scream at them. God simply is forgotten among the noise.

So, though we know better, let us remind ourselves of the true reality that we are awash in, the reality of which, only the tip of the iceberg we will ever see.

1  Physical reality. Let’s start with the physical world, that is, what is actually there, but that we are ordinarily unaware of. This is the world that can be quantified, as long as a sensitive-enough instrument exists to measure it.

electricity	x-rays	ultra-violet light
magnetism	gamma rays	microbes of all kinds
radio/TV waves	infrared light	metabolism
ultra-high frequencies	evaporation	most species of animals and plants
ultra-low frequencies	cell division	germination

I could go on but you get the picture. By design we must live in a very narrowly-sensed physical environment. If our senses did actually pick up all of the physical phenomena, they would quickly be swamped with stimulation and noise. But apparently God has put most of this in the background, where it can do its work quietly. And even most of those phenomena that we can sense, we quickly filter out so that our senses can stay alert to what really matters. For example, we speak of background noise, the drone of a highway or a machine or conversations at a party. Our senses have a way of filtering those sounds so that we can pay attention to the matter at hand. God knew that we would need this amazing built-in ability!

2  Relational reality. Another sphere of reality that is unseen but still exists, is what I’ll call ‘relational reality.’ No one would dispute the existence of the bonds between a husband and wife, father and son, grandmother and grand-daughter. But what is the nature of that bond? It doesn’t exist in the physical world, but it does exist. It manifests in facial expressions, words and actions. But if someone ignores them, the relationship/bond still manifests itself, but now in disappointment, anger, withdrawal or even assault.

3  Inward reality. The sphere of inward reality consists of our own thoughts and feelings and decisions. Again, no one would dispute the existence of these, though some would claim their only true existence is in the electro-chemical processes of the brain. But can chemical processes alone produce books, speeches, conversations and complex actions, say the composition of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5? Uhm . . no.

4  Spiritual reality. That brings us to spiritual reality. A side note here: to be clear, no hard line of demarcation between physical and spiritual reality exists. It’s all one reality that may or may not be manifest to our senses. As we’ve seen, most of what is called physical reality is not ordinarily sensed by us.

By spiritual reality I mean the reality of creatures, persons, human-influenced events and places – their actions, attitudes and words, the discernment of their purposes and true motives. To see the spiritual reality is to see an aspect of ‘what’s really going on here.’ The good news is that God has given an ability to actually see into this and then speak those truths. It’s call prophecy.

Prophecy – understanding mysteries

In his first letter to the Corinthian believers, Paul, almost as an aside, reveals that, with the gift of prophecy, we ‘understand all mysteries.’[1] The remarkable implication is that this prophetic gift may be exercised with or without agape – love, but that love is the most important motivator to move us to engage in spiritual things.

For example, your friend may be plagued by doubts about God. She can’t reconcile the teaching of a good and loving Father with the suffering that she sees in the world.[2] So you hurt for her; you want to help her. So you pray for her, asking for insight, for a word, a message, something that you could share that would help her to see the good and loving God that you know. You wait on the Lord for her; meaning, you don’t rush ahead with a pre-packaged, warmed-over, second-hand, formulaic message you’ve heard from someone else. You don’t google it or search YouTube. No – you pray, you wait, you meditate on God’s goodness yourself, believing that God really does care for her and wants to use you in the process.

This is a lost art. Very few do this any more. But the good news is that there are answers in God, yet he will not usually share those mysteries unless we earnestly ask and trust him. If we’re satisfied with the status quo or only lukewarmly, perfunctorily ask, then he – like we would be – will be less inclined. Do you really want to know? Do you really want to help your friend? Do you really believe that only God has those kinds of ultimate, deep answers?

But imagine that you do seek the Lord, that God unlocks the person to you, that you do hear him and then share this simple word with her and she has a dramatic breakthrough in her walk with God. Or maybe there is no dramatic breakthrough, but she is warmed and her doubts are eased. Imagine either of those scenarios – can you conceive of any greater value?

God does not share his secrets gratuitously[3]; if he shares a secret, it is for good reason and usually that reason is love – to truly benefit a human being. This is the spiritual reality to which all who are in Christ have access.

What I’ve described here has been called personal prophecy, and yes, it has been abused and misused, but there really is a legitimate practice. But there are other levels of prophecy. Paul exhorts those with the gift of prophecy to practice it: ‘in proportion to your faith’ (Romans 12:6). So God may use us to unveil other kinds of mysteries: events, places, systems and to put them in proper context, to warn of their use, to interpret their meaning or to unmask their true source.

This kind of prophecy is much like the prophecy of old – it calls the people of God back to himself and reminds them of the Lord’s faithfulness and all-sufficiency. Both kinds of prophecy tap into the spiritual reality and speak what is seen and heard there.

How to increase your spiritual awareness

What can we do then to increase our spiritual awareness? The simple answer is: we do it by wading out into the spiritual world itself. And how do we do that? We learn to practice the spiritual disciplines: solitude and silence, prayer, fasting, meditation, service, study, etc. By taking time to do these things, not perfunctorily, but giving them the time and attention they need, we effectively learn to filter out the ‘noise’ and reorient ourselves to this other spiritual reality. For deep insight into this topic, I highly recommend Dallas Willard’s book: The Spirit of the Disciplines, Understanding How God Changes Lives.

The spiritual world is not separate from the physical; it is overlaid and integrated into the physical world. And so it is directly available to us through the Spirit of God.

An analogy may help. The electric power grid has changed our lives so much that most of us have lost the ability to function well without it. All of the resources to produce food and water and shelter are still there, but most of us have lost the ability to extract these directly from the natural world. Instead, we’ve migrated to the electrified world and imagined – even fooled ourselves – that this electric world is native, but it is not. It too derives its source from the natural world.

Now imagine what it would take to recover those abilities to, ‘live off the land.’ We would need to practice a whole new way of life, learn new ways: farming, water conservation, animal husbandry, food preservation, sewing, etc.

Likewise the spiritual world is still there – it has always been there – but in our enchantment with the kosmos, the overlaid world, we have imagined that the spiritual world is either separate or non-existent. But it is not. It’s right here. We just need to recover the old ways of solitude, prayer, meditation, fasting, etc.

So where does this leave us? We must remember and re-train ourselves to tune out the noise and tune into what we cannot see. We do this by refusing to listen to the stimulations that insist on being heard, all the while cultivating and becoming aware of the realities that otherwise fade to the background — the souls of people and the voice of God.

See also the introduction to Lies attacking what is real.

[1] I Corinthians 13:2

[2] See the lies: God is mean and God doesn’t care.

[3] There are exceptions. In his great mercy, God does reveal things according to his purpose, despite our unworthiness or even unwillingness.