Most everyone knows there is more to life than what is seen with our natural eyes. We sense our experience in this natural world is just one part of life; there is a reality our natural eye cannot see.
A few aspects of life that the natural eye cannot see are: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,” (a) [see endnotes for Scriptures] even character, attitude, personality, and beliefs. These are a real part of life despite our inability to see them with natural eyes. So how can we actually see the unseen?
Consider Time and Space
The first statement of God’s intention for us is recorded as a desire to have offspring that would be “images and likenesses” of His character, attitude and personality. (b) We all began in the thoughts of God as He desired to father offspring and raise them as children to “reflect and resemble” Him.
This would involve birthing each one into existence and developing us as children under His oversight. To facilitate such a gradual process of growth, God designed and created a natural realm, a new universe that would function with the progressions and limitations of time and space.
As God expressed His desire for children, His “spoken word” (Greek logos) proceeded to create what did not exist. (c) When God speaks, He “calls into being that which does not exist.” (d) If the natural universe started with a big bang, as some think, it unleashed God’s ever-expanding creative design into the developing reality that we are birthed into.
The created universe and its time progressions are a slow-motion factor that exists within the vast realm of eternity. When compared with the immense expansion of eternity, the slow motion of time allows the Eternal One to observe 1000 years of time as one day. (e)
Although the natural eye cannot actually see time, eternity, or the Eternal One, they are all around us as a support to natural life. (f) We all experience time even though our natural eye can only see and examine the results of time.
After forming the earth with its unique atmosphere, God began the process of creating and then birthing His offspring into existence. He fashioned the first complex body out of the earth’s elements then infused His Spirit into the body and the first human became a conscious soul. (g) Then God took from the first and fashioned it into a second so ‘they’ could assist the process of birthing and developing His offspring. (h)
Since “we are all offspring of man and God,” (i) scripture reminds us that Jesus Christ is the only “son of man and of God” to fully mature (j) into the image and likeness of our heavenly Father. (k)
We all experience time even though our natural eye can only see and examine the results of time.
Designed To See
We are all designed and fashioned with the ability to interact with each other and with our heavenly Father, with both natural and eternal realities.
Since science can only see and examine natural realities, it is not able to verify or deny the reality of spirit. The scientific community, however, acknowledges there is an aspect of life that is beyond what our five natural senses can see or examine, so they conclude we have a sixth sense.
We know our five senses (see, hear, taste, touch, and smell) equip us to relate to natural realities. Scripture however speaks of a spiritual side or feature of our five senses. “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” (l) The Old and New Testaments verify we can actually sense, (m) see, (n) hear, (o) taste, (p) touch (q) and smell (r) spiritual realities. This ability to sense God and spiritual realities is actually in every person.
You may be surprised to learn that 
Scripture declares God designed us to live a natural life and interact with the unseen, simultaneously. We often do so without realizing it. The sixth sense (science admits) is our spirit’s ability to sense, see, hear, taste, smell, touch and relate to spiritual realities.
We want to understand that our unseen soul is the combined action of our mind (ability to reason), emotion (ability to feel), and will (ability to understand and believe). While our conscious soul uses our body to interact with natural realities, our conscious soul utilizes our spirit to interact with unseen realities, even the dwelling presence of our heavenly Father. (see book Created To Relate)
During this natural life we can “know our heavenly Father and Jesus Christ” (s) by experience. Our interaction with God, infuses us with eternal qualities so we can experience “life more abundantly.” (t)
The ability to sense God and spiritual realities is actually in every person.
Navigating the Unseen
To facilitate our freedom of choice and ability to discover and create, God designed this earth to function with complementary factors. We learn to navigate such conditions: in and out, up and down, positive and negative, right and wrong, and the forces of productive good and destructive evil.
While we tend to think of these either-or variables as contrasts, God created them to function as balancing complements within the constraints of this time-sensitive natural life. As we learn to live with them, we also learn to seek God’s guidance through many choices and trying situations.
Everyone has the ability to see, grasp, comprehend, believe in, and experience the unseen. This is how we can believe in an invisible God and sense His invisible presence. This also explains how many things that did not exist are now visible parts of everyday life.
Think about it, what makes inventors successful? How do they come up with what was not previously seen or known? Inventors tend to imagine and consider inspiring thoughts and insights as possibilities and then proceed to work through the details of creating what did not already exist.
Believe it or not, God endows each of us with natural and spiritual gifts. Scripture gives us a simple view of the equipping gifts God provides. (u)
- The apostolic gift gathers to form and create what was not.
- The prophetic gift declares what is right.
- The evangelistic gift encourages us into better ways.
- The pastoral gift shepherds and cares for needs.
- The teacher’s gift instructs and enlightens.
While these equipping gifts are generally viewed as just for believers, (v) I find all parents are exercised in these maturing gifts: creating, encouraging, declaring, caring, and instructing. We are all assisting God’s ever-growing family of offspring to be better children of our heavenly Father. Our interaction with God and each other brings us into levels of maturity.
It is our spiritual senses (eyes and ears) that see, observe and experience character, attitude, and personality (CAP). Jesus Christ is the finest example of God’s CAP and desire for each of us.
We want to realize we are all in processes of maturing and becoming what we are created to be, children of God. May we continue to see the unseen reality of spirit life and function as maturing children of our heavenly Father!
Everyone has the ability to see, grasp, comprehend, believe in and experience the unseen.
a) Galatians 5:22; b) Genesis 1:27; c) John 1:1-3; d) Romans 4:17; e) 2 Peter 3:8; f) 1 Corinthians 8:6; Acts 17:28; g) Genesis 2:7; h) Genesis 2:18, 21-24; i) Acts 17:22-29; j) Luke 2:40, 52; k) Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3; 2 Corinthians 4:4; l) Psalm 34:8; m) Hebrews 5:14; n) Ezekiel 1:1; Acts 7:54-56; o) Deuteronomy 4:13; Jeremiah 23:18; p) Psalm 119:103; q) Exodus 10:21; Acts 2: 43; 1 Peter 2:1-3; r) 2 Corinthians 2:14; s) John 17:3; t) John 10:10; Ephesians 3:20; u) 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; v) Ephesians 4:7, 11
Keith Carroll, “The Relationship Guy”
Relational Gospel Founder
Created To Relate author