Recently I came across the idea that our reality is an illusion that my brain creates from my five senses and the sixth sense or intuition that is from my heart. It sounded like a very odd idea, until I looked at the choices I have.
I know that I have an old nature that is evil and corrupt. My old nature tries to rationalize my behavior so I can continue to sin. It skews my reality. It tries to subtly change my direction. Usually I am unaware of any slight change. If anything, I notice that people act slightly different. They don’t, really. It is my perception that changes.
My new nature is of God and is redeemed. God fuels my new nature. His Spirit lives with my spirit. When I listen to God I can no longer rationalize my questionable behavior. I see the reality of the situation. My perception. It changes.
But there are other voices that question God’s Spirit. I have to choose which voice to obey. There is God’s will and Satan’s will. Whose will becomes my will? I have to choose.
It comes down to the reality that I see in my life. Which reality is it? Is it the true reality of God? How do I test my reality? How do I check my worldview? What is my view of things around me?
I spend time in prayer. Being with God will help reset my reality to more closely resemble God’s true reality. When I ask God to help me to see my reality, he shows me areas that are off kilter. I spend time reading my bible and studying it. I allow God to time to reveal his truth to me. I see that He is showing me how things work in this world and the next.
Sometimes God will speak to me through the testimonies of others in church. I miss out on blessings when I miss church services. God can speak to me through a stranger. Just a chance meeting is what I see. What God sees is the next step in his plan for me.
Being in a small group is one way God speaks to me. I can see how God is shaping their reality and I see then how my reality has been skewed. I see God through their eyes. I see how they are seeing God through my eyes. God finds a way to speak to me and to turn my heart more towards Him.
My reality becomes less skewed toward the World or Satan’s reality. Then the strongholds of sin in my life become more apparent to me. I can see how I have been duped. And I turn more fully toward God and his reality. I choose God. I choose to listen to him and see how he can work in my life. I choose to let him work through me to touch others.
So, this day, how will you choose?
Philippians 1:9-11 I pray that your love will keep on growing and that you will fully know and understand how to make the right choices. Then you will still be pure and innocent when Christ returns. And until that day, Jesus Christ will keep you busy doing good deeds that bring glory and praise to God.
Deuteronomy 30:15 Today I am giving you a choice. You can choose life and success or death and disaster.
Galations 5: 16-18 My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 I pray that God, who gives peace, will make you completely holy. And may your spirit, soul, and body be kept healthy and faultless until our Lord Jesus Christ returns. The one who chose you can be trusted, and he will do this.
2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 Because we know that this extraordinary day is just ahead, we pray for you all the time—pray that our God will make you fit for what he’s called you to be, pray that he’ll fill your good ideas and acts of faith with his own energy so that it all amounts to something. If your life honors the name of Jesus, he will honor you. Grace is behind and through all of this, our God giving himself freely, the Master, Jesus Christ, giving himself freely.