Day 17 of Illumination: Truth is dispensed from the eternal into the temporal.

“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

‭‭II Corinthians‬ ‭4:17-18‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

From a young age I have been aware that we live in two worlds.

Now, we obviously live in a physical world and this is where we learn to focus our attention. Even while still in the womb we are forming impressions based on voices, sounds, and so on. And, from the moment we take our first breath, until we lay this body down, we are gathering information, forming opinions, learning strategies, and so on, to be able to make sense of—and operate in—this physical realm.

But, we are also living in the realm of the spirit in as much as we have an eternal soul. At this point in our being we may be ignorant of the spiritual activity going on all around us; but it certainly is happening. Indeed, the realm of the spirit is where our eternal life is hidden in Jesus Christ.

Sadly, some people, even those who believe in the realm of the spirit, falsely assume that the realm of the spirit is of no real concern to us now. They live their lives with their heads buried in this physical world, assuming that the wealth of the spirit realm—if it exists—is beyond their reach.

Of course, the Lord gave us the ability to learn from our experiences and to be able to successfully operate in this physical realm, as well we should. But, it is tragic when we totally ignore the realm of the spirit. Additionally, many of the things we learn in this physical realm are contrary to the wisdom of God.

Although our experience can and should be helpful in terms of our navigating the physical realm, it can also be detrimental when we have learned the wrong things from our experience.

It becomes even more self-defeating when we pull resources for coping, strategizing, or operating, out of the very realm in which we learned the wrong things to begin with. In other words: we try to make a cure from the same poison that is killing us!

Whereas we certainly are meant to operate as productive human beings in this physical realm, the actual keys to success in this realm are found in the realm of the spirit.

Revelation from the realm of the spirit becomes a high tower from which we can see things from the eternal perspective that only comes from the Spirit of God. From this high tower of revelation we can receive truth and instruction that can then be applied to our physical lives. Our flesh existence should not be that which informs our spiritual existence. Rather, the knowledge given by the Spirit of God to our spirit should be the source of instruction for our lives in this physical realm.

“And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.”

‭‭Acts‬ ‭17:26-29‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Paul, addressing the people of Athens at the Areopagus, was trying to help them understand that God should not be thought of as something that they had formed (like their idols), but that God was the One Who had formed us. You see, we should not be forming our opinions about God and the eternal realm by consulting our experience or circumstances. Rather, that which is eternal must help us to rightly see our experience and circumstances. In this way, our decisions and our reactions come out of that eternal knowledge, the wisdom from above.

In our opening passage we see that Paul is encouraging the church at Corinth to not allow their minds to be consumed by the trouble they were experiencing. He wanted them to understand that their temporary struggle was actually working to bring an eternal reward.

As we direct our minds to the eternal, we will rightly adjust the flow of information to come from that transcendent perspective—that high tower—into this finite existence.

We light a seventeenth candle of illumination today by knowing this:

Truth is dispensed from the eternal into the temporal.

#25daysofillumination