Resurrection Sunday, Part III

Believing right is hard because often the things God asks us to believe are things we cannot perceive with our 5 senses. They are typically spiritual truths, that is, truths of the Holy Spirit. As such, they exist in the unseen, eternal realm first, and only later become manifest in the seen, temporal realm. That makes believing right hard.

This is why Paul reminds us that “we walk by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7). Because we’re shackled inside these earthen bodies, we’re always tempted to walk by sight and not by faith. That is the scientific method, after all. Humanity has made tremendous discoveries in the sciences by operating on the principle of sight and not faith. In fact, science really cannot admit of faith (at least not to be effective) because that is just not how science works.

But in the kingdom of God, things operate differently. In the Father’s kingdom, we believe first before we see. Truths abide in an unseen, eternal realm, where He is. We only see them manifest in the seen and temporal when our belief aligns with those unseen, eternal truths. Jesus pointed out that there was a connection between faith in unseen truths and effects in the seen world when He taught His disciples that “If you had faith as tiny as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘uproot yourself and move into the sea,’ and it would obey.” Jesus wasn’t just using cute, metaphorical language there. He was pointing out a key principle of God’s kingdom.

The natural mind, however, cannot receive these spiritual truths. To the natural mind, “seeing is believing.” But to the spiritual mind, “Believing is seeing.” It’s backwards. Not knowing this backwards Kingdom economy causes us lots of frustration as Christians. Listen to Pastor Mike conclude our Resurrection Sunday series on how we can believe the right truths about Jesus.