Consider how piercing the presence of the angel was that appeared to Daniel in Daniel 10, or when Jesus appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus. Satan tries to discourage us by giving us a false sense of what Heaven or the spiritual realm is like. We sometimes think of spiritual things or beings as some kind of gaseous globs floating in outer space with little or no substance. Some kind of vague ethereal electrical energy force with no identity (Star Wars, “the Force” a perfect example). The ultimate expression of this is in Buddhism where the goal is to attain to Nirvana which is to attain to nothingness. Jesus refuted this concept by stating that the souls of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were with God after death and that God was the God of the living, not of the dead. Moses and Elijah themselves appeared with Christ at the Transfiguration. Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with Me in Paradise.” All indicating that we don’t lose our identities in Heaven but we maintain them.
Heaven, or the spiritual realm, is a place of substance and truth and meaning and purpose. It is not a place of vague esoteric symbolic meaninglessness. If any place is symbolic and enigmatic, it is the earthly realm, not the heavenly. In Hebrews 8-10 it describes how God had Moses, David, and Solomon build the Tabernacle and the Temple according to the pattern He had showed them. Indicating the earthly was a pattern of the heavenly. Indicating the earthly is symbolic of the heavenly, points to the heavenly. The heavenly is higher and of deeper meaning and substance than the earthly. If any realm is of meaninglessness, obscurity, anonymity and darkness, it is the earthly realm, not the heavenly.
It is in Christ that we receive meaning and purpose to life even in this earthly realm. Imagine how much more clarity, meaning, substance, purpose, identity, and spiritual light we will have in Christ in the heavenly realms. We are not becoming one with some kind of vague, anonymous, energy force. We are becoming one with Jesus Christ Himself in a very clear, tangible, real, identifiable way.
The things that deal with the spiritual realm and our heart (where our spirit resides) are things that are invisible to our earthly eyes. It is what is invisible, what is spiritual, that is really real not what is visible or natural. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible (Hebrews 11:3, see also Psalm 33:6, 9 and II Cor. 4:18). Every invisible characteristic of God is clearly seen by what He has made visible (Rom. 1:19, 20). The ultimate demonstration of this is Jesus Christ, Who is the visible image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15; I Tim. 1:17, 6:16; Heb. 1:1-3).
When we are in someone’s presence, in someone’s face, it is here we behold their heart, their spirit. We are presented with their presence, their heart, their spirit, when we look into their face and especially when we look into their eyes. We are presented with their spirit when we listen with our ears to the words they speak. We receive their spirit when they allow us to touch them physically or when we allow them to touch us. Touching is intimate. Physical touching is holy. Like seeing and hearing, touching is a gateway to the spiritual, to the invisible.
We perceive that which is invisible through that which is visible.
Our mind is the gateway to and from the visible world into our invisible heart. We make decisions in our mind that allow spiritual things to enter into our heart. The heart is the repository of the spiritual things our mind meditates on. It is in our heart that the spiritual things we cater to in our mind find their home. And we make decisions that allow these spiritual things residing in our invisible heart to be broadcast to the visible world outside. Our mind allows access to our heart or denies access to our heart. Our mind decides what will be broadcast from our heart and it decides what will not be broadcast from our heart.
It is through our mind that we release what’s in our heart back to the world and to those who are around us.
Jesus said:
“The mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.”
“The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil” (Matthew 12:34, 35).
The heart of everything is the heart. It’s in the heart that we are defined. “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7 NLV). It’s what takes place inside the heart – hidden away from the eyes of the world that defines who we are. It’s what we believe in our heart that is really who we are. It’s in our heart where our strength lies, where our spirit lives. It is in the invisible decisions we make with our mind that define us inside. Inside us is who we are. Who we really are. What people see on the outside is the reflection of our heart, our spirit inside us.
Our invisible mind and heart hidden inside define what we are visibly both to the natural world and to the spiritual world.
A person could lose their arms, their legs, their ears, their eyes, their nose, but they would still be here. In fact when someone dies, their spirit leaves their body and their body becomes lifeless, (spiritless) and begins to decay - because their spirit has left their body (James 2:26). Our spirit lives inside us, inside our body. Our body is clothing for our spirit (Matthew 6:25, 28-34).
When we look at another human being we are looking at the outward visible manifestation of that person’s invisible heart. All their actions, their words, their gestures express their heart, express what’s in their heart, what’s in their spirit.
It is what is inside, invisible to the world that is real.
When we bask in someone’s presence, in someone’s face, we receive their spirit. We receive their heart. We enter into their spirit. We enter into their heart.
This is where true love is. This is where true love lives. This is greater than any ministry, any gifts of the Spirit, any healings, any deliverances. It is what these ministries are for.
Consider this:
In eternity, in Heaven, will there be a need for healings or for deliverances?
No.
Will there be a need to raise someone from the dead?
No.
So what will we be doing in Heaven?
We will be abiding in one another’s presence. There will be no sin to hinder our spirits from interacting with each other. There will be no sin to interfere with the free flow of God’s Spirit between us.
But, we are already tasting that.
God put on my heart one day, when I was asking Him about spiritual gifts and healings and deliverances, etc., and why the church was not moving in these powers like the NT Church. He said, “I’ve got a gift for you. I’m giving you this evening to spend with three of my daughters, your wife, your mother, and a friend.”
When He put that on my heart, I realized what He was showing me. The greatest thing of all, the greatest gift of all, the greatest spiritual gift of all is to spend time with those we love. This is the heart of everything. This is the ultimate goal of every ministry. It is what ministries are for. What they lead to. Being with those we love in Christ is what it is all about. It’s what life is all about, whether it is earthly life or spiritual life. Being with those we love is even what Heaven is all about. It is what Heaven is. It’s very easy to take those who are in our lives for granted. It’s very easy to lose appreciation for the tremendous spiritual value they are to us. Our loved ones are the greatest spiritual gifts we have. And ultimately it is our love relationship with Christ that transcends all others and makes all other love relationships possible.
But we have to be careful:
We have to watch over what we allow our mind to meditate on and what we let into our spirit.
If we overindulge in something bad in our mind, then what is bad that is stored in our heart can override our mind. Paul taught:
For what I am doing, I do not understand;
for I am not practicing what I would like
to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.
(Rom. 7:15).
for I am not practicing what I would like
to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.
(Rom. 7:15).
We must work to allow that which is good to override that which is bad. We must overcome the evil in us with that which is good in Christ. We must become rooted and grounded in Christ our Rock, our Foundation, our Mighty Fortress, our Strong Tower, our Corner Stone, our Living Stone. We must become living stones ourselves—pillars in God’s Temple. We must get to that place where the Lord pours out His Spirit upon us and our cup overflows. To where God’s Spirit becomes rivers, and streams, and fountains of living waters springing up from our invisible innermost being out to the visible world.
