Seen & Unseen: There's More Going on Than We KnowSýnishorn

Our Spiritual Nature is Our Essence

While we may have grown more comfortable with (and confident in) the physical world, that doesn’t mean we don’t have spiritual aspects too. We do. For “God is spirit” (John 4:24). And he made us “in his own image” (Gen. 1:27).

God formed Adam, the first man, from the natural world—from “dust from the ground” (Gen. 2:7). But he breathed himself into Adam—he “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” (v. 7). He created us as physical beings. But he created us as spiritual beings too—just like him.

And our spiritual nature is our essence. It’s what distinguishes us from the rest of creation: that we can access and experience and participate in this great reality that lies beyond our everyday reality.

We’re made for it; we’re made to be sustained by it. We’re made to be sustained by the natural world, of course—by air and water and food and all the rest. But we are made to be sustained by the supernatural world too. Jesus taught us about “living water” and “the bread of life” (John 4:10; 6:35)—deeper kinds of sustenance that come from his deeper, unseen reality.

“Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life” (John 4:14). “Anyone who eats this Bread will live—and forever!” (John 6:51) But we don’t believe it. Not really.

Just as our physical bodies wouldn’t survive or thrive without air or water or food from the physical world, our hearts can’t thrive without spiritual, supernatural sustenance either. We need mystery and wonder and beauty and glory and love overflowing.

Without them, our hearts break. And so do our lives. No wonder we’re anxious, depressed, addicted, and overmedicated. No wonder we’re full of doubt and cynicism, materialism and desperation.

Open the news; look at the state of the world. Look at the state of us.

When we believe there’s nothing bigger, better going on here, we lose heart. We become mercenary, trying to pull more and more from the physical world—money, status, connectedness, whatever.

But that doesn’t work either, not well enough. Nowhere near well enough.

We don’t have to wait until we die. God is inviting us to come and see it for ourselves. He’s inviting us to come and discover and explore. Now.

He’s inviting us to come and encounter him.

Because that’s what all this is really about.

We hope you enjoyed this reading plan. Click here to learn more about Justin Camp and get his new book, Odyssey.