Jesus was one of us when he was in the flesh. We identify with our own. The Spiritual world is difficult to grasp because we are in the flesh. Jesus is even closer to us in the Spirit, even if we cant see him. He is inside us. We need to learn to see by faith. This article may be published if the resource box is unaltered. Before the fleshly Jesus left the earth he told those close to him, Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asked where are you going? Because I have said these things you are filled with grief, but I tell you the truth; it is for your own good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you (JN 16:5-7). We are a lot like the people of that day. We would like to have him here in the flesh. We would like to touch him, be comforted by him. In moments of doubt, we could put our hands in the nail marks of his hands and feet. We would like to see some of his miracles. When the storms of life come up, we would like to wake up Jesus like the disciples of Mark 4:37-39, and say "Teacher, don't you care if we perish? We would like to see him rebuke the wind and the sea and the other storms of life. We would like to have more evidence that Jesus is with us today. Since we can't see Jesus in the flesh, it may be difficult to convince ourselves that he is still around. He is still here, he is just playing hide and seek. Ask and it will be given you; seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you (MT 7:7). His parents looked for him among their relatives before finding him in the temple. We only need to examine our heart. The Spirit of Jesus is living inside Christians (RO 8:9). When were the apostles more spiritual, while Jesus was with them in the flesh, or after he was with them in Spirit? When did they understand more, when he was teaching them in the flesh, or when the Spirit was guiding them? The Spiritual Jesus is more powerful than the fleshly Jesus. He was subject to the frailties of the flesh. His body was subject to temptation, pain and death. People were constantly trying to trap him and find a reason to kill him. He could be in only one place at a time. The Spiritual Jesus can listen to the prayers of everyone in the world simultaneously. When he was in the flesh, he had to teach from the outside, now his Spirit guides us from the inside. You can preach to a person until you are blue in the face, but until the message reaches the heart, that person, is not going to respond. Saul of Tarsus would not listen to the teaching of the physical Jesus, in fact he put believers in prison, but when he met the spiritual Jesus he got the message! Each must be dealt with according to their spiritual condition. The jailer was told to believe because this is the first step toward salvation (Acts 16:31). On the day of Pentecost they already believed to the point of asking what to do (Acts 2:37-38). They were told their next steps, repentance and baptism. The woman at the well was gently led to believe "the man who told me everything I ever did" was the Messiah (JN 4:29). Saul had to be temporally blinded so that he could see the truth (9:1-7)! Jesus is still around, but we are reluctant to serve him. He said, Go and we usually say, Come. We huddle in church buildings hoping that perhaps our spiritual batteries will be charged. We are commanded to assemble together, but sometimes batteries that are seldom discharged, reach the point where they will not take a full charge. Back up batteries that are seldom used, just require a trickle of current to keep them up, until suddenly an emergency comes along and they can't charge back, because they are not accustomed to it. Most of us are like back up batteries, we are seldom used spiritually, we are on trickle charge. Our spiritual batteries may not charge up fully until they have been discharged in Christian duty. |
