How Can We Sense Spiritual Realities in Daily Life? (Part 2)

December 14, 2017

Do you realize you can observe what God is saying and doing? Everyone has the spirit of life as part of our make-up. This deposit of God’s Spirit means we are all equipped with spiritual senses that enable us to see, hear, touch, taste and even smell spiritual realities and the presence of God! With the ability to grasp what is hidden to our natural senses, many times without our awareness, we actually experience life beyond what we physically sense.

We have the ability to grasp what is hidden to our natural senses.

The fact that our spiritual senses are being exercised from our first days is frequently overlooked. We sense spiritual realities more often than we realize, as I noted in “How Can We Sense Spiritual Realities in Daily Life?” When we sense a characteristic, an attitude or a personality, we are exercising more than natural senses.

Many Scriptures speak of our spirit’s use of our five senses to connect us to the spiritual realm. Let’s look at 2 Corinthians 3:18: “But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.” Perhaps you are familiar with the verse, but have not considered the act of “beholding” to be a spiritual sense.

Grasping Deeper Qualities

The exercise of our five natural senses adds tremendous value to our life. Certainly this is very good, and yet, God has even more for us. By combining both the natural and spiritual sides of our senses our interactions are enhanced, and we are able to experience deeper levels of relationship.

While we appear to be somewhat limited by our natural senses, we are not restricted to them. Without realizing it, we experience and learn to respond to numerous spiritual qualities like love and patience. Scripture gives us a small list of these qualities:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-25).

Isn’t it obvious that spiritual fruits are more than natural characteristics with which we are born? Children need to be taught these qualities in order to partake of them. Even as adults these fruitful qualities do not automatically grow in us; we must intentionally cultivate them. While this requires effort, giving ourselves to the practice of these realities can greatly improve our natural life.

Body vs. Spirit?

While God designed us with both body and spirit senses, it can be helpful to notice two Scriptures that address a contrast between our body and our spirit. These indicate, at first glance, that our body and spirit are rivals and competitors:

Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh… for these are in opposition to one another…(Galatians 5:16-17).

Those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace… (Romans 8:5-6).

Actually, the comparisons in these verses do not intend to indicate our body and spirit are rivals, although that is a fairly common perception. Both passages really provide cautions about setting our mind primarily on natural and physical desires which are called “fleshly.”

Our body is not bad and does not separate us from God or make us sin any more than our spirit makes us sinless and routinely in harmony with God. Nurturing and exercising both our body and spirit senses increases our overall quality of life. Ignoring either one limits our maturing process.

Feeding Our Spirit

As a great benefit to us, our heavenly Father’s Spirit becomes a prevailing influence over our natural life when we are spiritually aware. As we interact with the presence of God, our spirit is fed and receives a God-inspired guiding influence that enriches all our interactions.

Conversely, we can limp through life, missing much of what God intends. When we negate His guidance and the value of interaction with His Spirit and one another, we tend to limit ourselves to our physical senses and fleshly mind.

We can limp through life, limiting ourselves to our physical senses.

(It’s important to add a note at this point as we refer to “fleshly”. While many view “flesh” and “body” as the same thing, they are quite different. You’ll find very interesting insights about this in my book, Created To Relate.)

Eternal Life on Earth

As our loving Father, God provides eternal insights that add richness and lasting qualities to our relational interactions during life here on earth. To truly partake of this abundance, we must embrace life from both temporal and eternal perspectives, engaging our natural and spiritual senses. Scripture calls this eternal life.

This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent (John 17:3).

To know someone is much more than to know about them. Our indwelling spirit of life enables us to relate and communicate with the Father of all spirits. This is a remarkable and un-matched gift. Everyone can have eternal life—receiving insightful thoughts and instructions directly from God! Are you using your spiritual senses to interact with the presence of God among us in daily life?

Keith Carroll, Relational Gospel Founder

More resources about our relational God:

Created to Relate, Insights Into Our Design and Purpose, and The Christ Culture, A Way of Life Like No Other are available for purchase on this site, by request in bookstores, and on Amazon.com. Folks are finding them to be insightful and stimulating. Get your copy today!

Keith’s books are excellent for personal understanding, for new believers, and to share in small groups. We provide a Leader’s Guide to facilitate discussions.

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