There are many things so to speak that are right under our noses that we do not have a clue that it is there. A great of majority of things that are out of sight are truly out of most of our minds. A great part of our consciousness is occupied by the things we see and interact with on a daily basis. We really do value the physical things more than the spiritual things.

We hear our physical alarm devices when it is time to wake up and we physically answer it to turn it off. When it is time to eat we physically interact with ovens, microwaves, refrigerators, utensil drawers, cabinets, variety of hot drink machines (coffee…), and anything else I may have forgotten. We interact with our parents, siblings, apartment/house neighbors, co-workers, bosses,  strangers, boyfriend/girlfriend, spouse… using our physical senses of sight for body language/appearances, hearing for tone/pitch and choice of words, touch for handshakes/pat on shoulders, smell for pleasant/unpleasant odors, possibly taste for try this drink. Our daily routines are almost 100% physical interaction from our bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, dens, doors, stairs, vehicles, cell phones, computers, tablets, school buildings, work buildings, amusement parks, national parks, animals, and you can continue on with the list. We are flooded every day with the physical things and therefore we become accustom in a routine of relying on the physical things to not fail us or leave us. We forget that it is our spirit on the inside driving our bodies, processing our thoughts, speaking words, and other actions to the rest of the physical world, but we think it is all physical.

Think of someone you love very much that is no longer with you in this world. I will choose my dad to speak on, but continue to put the person you are thinking of in the place of my dad. When my dad passed away a flood of emotions swept down the valleys of my mind, heart and soul knocking down all kinds of any happiness I had accumulated. I did not want to let him go. I wanted him to be with me always. I felt a hole inside my life like a huge solid tree that I could always run around, climb, and laugh with was gone in the yard and all that was left was this big empty hole of nothing. I could not even sit and lean up against this tree for comfort anymore. I had become so accustomed to my dad’s physical presence that my value of him was to me totally on his physical existence. When he passed away all I had that was in living form was my memories and his physical things – church clothes, work clothes, every day clothes, tools, shaving kit, pictures…did not satisfy missing him physically being there with me. I image now you have rolled the memories of your passed away loved one. We find ourselves wishing we had spent more time with them. The physical part of them we valued more than the spiritual part is gone and what we are clinging to with all importance is the spirit memories of them.

We are now forced out of our comfort zone of valuing their physical part of our loved one into looking at them from the spiritual part. My dad’s spirit has left his physical body and his body is buried with a grave marker above it. I can inside my mind pick and choose the memory film(s) I want to roll on the screen of my mind seeing him once again being my dad. Again, place the loved you are thinking of in my dad’s place. You can see them alive in your memories. Now, my value of my dad can no longer be based on physical presence, but on spirit memory presences. My memories are showing me the spirit inside the man I called my dad. My value of him has changed into a greater value than the physical. In my memories I now see the spirit driver of that physical body I called dad. I see his integrity (code of ethics), laughter, kindness, consideration, desires, goals, faith, love, and the things he enjoyed. I value him greater because he left with me spiritual values that are not only good teaching and living for me, but also for all those in this world who encounter me. I can live a life reflecting and passing on the spiritual things of my dad. He cannot be physically shared with others, but he can be spiritually. The journey begins to start looking for the spirit value past the physical.

Then God dropped the thought into my mind: “We value the physical things more and God values the spiritual things more“.  We are focused on the physical things being good. We look for the weather to be physically good to us, our homes to physically shelter us, our vehicles to physically transport us, our jobs to physically support us financially, and our people to physically be there for us. I know you can pause right now and start naming all kinds of physical things in your life you expect and want to be there for you. I see I have put value on a cell phone to work for me when I need it. I see a vehicle I have put value on to get me to work and other places. I have put value on a home to be warm in the winter, cool in the summer, dry in the rain, a shade from the sunlight. I have put value on my mom being there, my sister being there, my wife being there, my son being there, my daughter being there, my grandparents being there, my uncles/aunts being there, my coach being there, my teachers being there, my pastor being there, my church being there, my friends being there, my pets being there, but the truth is all things that are physically seen will pass away. The passing away is a draining of the blood feeling because I have locked into their physical presence is more valuable than their spiritual presences. I am scrambling at times on how would dad feel about this situation, what would dad do if he were here?

My eyes are open from the physical to realizing it is not wrong to value the physical, but the highest value should be on the spiritual. We should enjoy the physical things, but more so looking past the surface of the physical and drinking in the spiritual. All things we see will pass away because the visible physical things are temporary and the things we cannot see are eternal (2 Cor. 4:18). My dad and your loved one had a physical side to their existence to us, but far beyond the time of this world they had and have an eternal side to them – their spirit. They have and we have a spirit inside our bodies that is the driver of these physical bodies, even though we are outwardly wasting away with time our inward spiritual part can be renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16, ). I see a need to counter attack the lies of the physical flesh and enjoy the spiritual things of others while there is time. It is time to plant those word seeds of “I love you”, “You are a kind person”, “I have always liked you” because the words we speak and the actions we take will be recorded into their eternal spirit being.

Tomorrow is not physically guaranteed of what we think it shall be (Ja. 4:14). If you have lived long enough you have experienced someone passing away suddenly without any warning and your expectation was that they would be there in your day forever. Our lives  are like a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes (Ja. 4:14) away before the eyes of others. I want to change my valuing the physical more than the spiritual. The physical will return to the dust of the earth, but the spirit will go on to live somewhere forever whether it is a good place or a bad place.

“We value the physical things more and God values the spiritual things more” is a life changing thought. God came to us in spirit form in the beginning with Adam and Eve like a father spending time with his children that he loved dearly. Our body was made from the earth and spirit was made from Him. God was well pleased with our creation in His likeness and His image. When we sinned against Him He did not want to lose us eternally. Our body was one thing, but our spirit was another. Death to our body to God was not a huge deal because He can replace the body with a new one, but death to our spirit was a problem because it was of eternal substance made from Him. Our body was of the earth and our spirit was of Him. God did it back then and does it today always reaching out to our spiritual side.

We have looked at ourselves briefly about how we value the physical more than the spiritual. Now, it is time to look at God’s value on both the physical and the spiritual.

God promised the save us from the death penalty from a seed He will provide Himself to be born inside the flesh of man (Ge. 3:15, 1 Tim. 3:16). In Jn. 1:14 God is now among us in His Spirit form inside a physical flesh and blood form (Heb. 4:14), but we did not know Him (Jn. 1:10,11). Again, the entrapment of us all is being so caught up with looking only at the surface of the physical things we miss out on spiritual things. That is why God reminded us that some people have entertained angels, but were unaware of it (Heb. 13:2).

Now, we can see the two sides of Jesus. He was born of flesh and blood, but his spirit inside of Him was God Almighty. This is why Jesus said, “I and my Father are one” (Jn. 10:30). The first recording of God inside of Jesus was when he was a youth he stayed behind at the temple/church while his parents left with other family members thinking he was with them, but he was not. They traveled back to the temple/church and found him talking with the bible intellects and when he answered them he said that he must be about his Father’s business – spiritual things (Lu. 2:49).

When Jesus faced the devil in the desert after 40 days of physically fasting without food all his answers to the devil were focused on the value of spiritual things and the devil’s temptations were based on physical things. The devil said if you’re the son of God turn these stones into bread. Jesus said, man shall not live by bread (physical) alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God (spiritual value). The devil said if you are the son of God jump off this pinnacle (physical) and God will  save you. Jesus said you are not to tempt the Lord your God (Spiritual value). The devil showed Jesus all the riches of the world (physical – passes away stuff) and said if you will bow down and worship me I will give you all the kingdoms of the world (physical). Jesus said get away from me Satan for we are to worship the Lord our God and Him only, which makes sense because He is the only true God and the devil is just a fallen angel – spiritual value.

I cannot go through them all, but to quickly go through some how we value the physical things more, even in Jesus day on earth He saw past things and valued the spiritual. The physical is no problem to God, but He is more focused on the spiritual in all of us. So, if the physical things in your life are not going the way you think they should may be there is a spiritual treasure God wants you to start looking for and find it.

In Jn. 8:11 was about stoning a woman with rocks for adultery (physically), but Jesus said he who among you is without sin let him first cast the stone (spiritual examination) and the woman Jesus said after they all left being convicted that they too had sin in their lives, neither do I condemn you go and sin no more (spiritual forgiveness and spiritual guidance). Food for thought Jesus was the only one among them without sin and the right to cast the first stone. Another good reading – Luke 7:37-50.

Luke 5:18-26 Men carrying a man on a stretcher could not get inside the house to Jesus, went to the roof, and removed the tiles to lower the man to Jesus to physically heal him. Jesus saw their faith (spiritual value) and said words to the man who needed physical healing that his sins were forgiven him. The religious people sitting inside the house were upset because they said ONLY GOD can forgive sins. They could only see Jesus as a physical man and not the spiritual backing of God inside him. To God physically healing and changing physical things is absolutely no problem, but they are only temporary changes whereas our spirit changing on the inside is forever. Jesus said to them which is easier to heal this man, to take up his bed and walk, or to say his sins are forgiven him. This put the religious people in a place where they knew to physically heal someone is impossible except with God and impossible to forgive sins except with God. Jesus told the man to rise up and walk taking his bed home. The man physically healed, physically rose up, physically gathered his bed from the men who physically lowered him through the roof, physically walked by everyone walking on his own going home praising God. This is what God was looking for out of all that had occurred past the physical events. God inside of Jesus the man values the spiritual over the physical. The healed man was not just physically walking back home, but was spiritually walking with God inside his spirit with praises and love for God. He was changed more than the physical. He realized God had forgiven him of sins. The people around Jesus were shocked with amazement (spiritual inside realization), started glorifying God (spiritual awakening to God’s presence), and were filled with fear (spiritual Godly fear seeing God face to face). Again, Jesus asking us today which is easier to change the physical things of this world or accept Him and His Word for spiritual changes inside our minds, hearts, and souls?

Jesus was physically punished, physically beaten, physically abused, and physically crucified on a cross with a crown of thorns upon his head until he died the physical death in our place. Again, the physical God can handle, but what He is looking for is our total spiritual surrender through the death of the man (made of the earth) Jesus to save our soul, the part that is made of Him.

Now, go read your favorite passages about Jesus and see if you see past the surface of what God values the most and what have you valued the most in this life.

(Note: I do not claim any great intelligence or spiritual prowess, but when God drops a thought into my mind I simply start following that thought while He leads me down the path dropping more thoughts like bread crumbs to follow all the way home.) All the greatness is in Him and my hope is this will help someone somewhere.