Inner man,Inner peace

Posted by Jeffrey Smith July 6th, 2016 2,549 Views 0 Comments

Genesis 3:7-8: Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden

There are a lot of unnatural things in this life. I have found that one of the most unnatural things that we as humans have embarked upon is ocean and space exploration. Now, I am all for exploration, but you really have to take a perspective check on this. Think about how unnatural it is to try and survive in an environment that lacks the very necessities of our existence as humans. 

The ocean lacks oxygen in the form we require it, and the water that we need to live is not potable. 

The same can be said about space. There is no gravity in which we can firmly place our body weight upon the ground. There is no oxygen in outer space and so we cannot survive in that environment. If we wanted to safely explore space or the ocean, we would be required to wear a suit that regulates our necessary basic life supporting functions. If we unplug from those suits and outer layers, we have a tremendous amount of peril to face in a short period of time. 

There is an inversion of this truth in the Spirit. All of us are spirits wrapped up in a body of flesh. The further we cover up that spirit within us, the harder it is for us to be close to God. Layer after layer after layer, the flesh grows stronger by adding to itself an identity outside of the Lord.

I was once an emotional eater. Some people struggle with that, and I did like it was my job. I would eat when I felt rejected, or fear, or shame. I was insecure and I felt temporary comfort in the control of eating what I wanted, whenever I wanted. The problem with doing that, is our flesh grows physically and figuratively. We start to add literal and figurative layers over top of our spirit in an attempt to hide from God.

Others use their education or intelligence to separate, still others use fast cars, and fancy clothes. Others create layers through addiction and chemical altering substances. They all lead back to the fig leaves. 

When the flesh takes on enough layers to bury the spirit, we lose the necessary communication that we need to survive. We are hard wired for Jesus. We need a relationship with God to truly survive and thrive. The hardest part is letting go of all the layers that separate us from Him. This can be difficult in concept. It would feel like taking the oxygen off in twenty feet of Bering Sea water. All of the mechanisms we ourselves have created to hide seem like our reality, but they are not. 

Jesus is our reality. We must receive the depth of His love in revelation daily to remove the layers and layers of shame, filth, self-hate, and strip down to our messy vulnerable selves before the Lord. Since the old Adam has gone and the new Adam has come, we no longer have to hide ourselves in nakedness. It is going to be just fine as we were made. It is our spirit within us that will prosper our soul and body. We must allow our spirit an unencumbered line to Jesus. Let go of all that blocks our view and a whole new universe will open up for us to explore, without having to put on a fig leaf or a space suit.