If you’re not careful...you’ll miss it; it’s easy to do, especially if you find yourself on a mission to get through that last chapter so that you can ‘check off another book read’ in your Bible.

There is a tendency for many of us at times to assume that the ‘more we read through in our Bibles (chapters and verses)...the better off we will be. (Whatever that means). It can prove to be challenging in our busy world and lives these days to carve out the time to spend feeding on God’s word, which to this date is the only way we can grow... and be ‘cleansed’ (1 Peter 2:2; Eph. 5:26-27). It is God’s word, and nothing else that supernaturally ‘works IN us...who believe’ (1 Thess. 2:13).

Listening to or singing along with Christian praise music is nice, but it is no substitute for feeding on God’s word. Nor is taking in one devotional or Christian-themed book after another. It is God’s word alone that provides freedom and nourishment to us, given the fact His word is ‘truth’ (John 8:32,36; Matt. 4:4; John 17:17).

Friends...there is good reason why Satan ‘comes immediately...to snatch God’s word from our hearts lest we believe it and are saved’ (Mark 4:15; Luke 8:12). He knows the power of God’s word, first hand... which is why at the very beginning ...his strategy was to undermine God’s word and get Eve to question it and then back off from it- “Has God really said...?” (Gen. 3:1) before turning it around to say just the opposite: ‘you surely will not die!’ (Gen. 3:5; 2:17) That may have worked for the ‘first Adam’ but not the second One’ given it was how Jesus refuted every temptation that the devil threw at him in the wilderness. Remember His response? – “It is written...It is written...It is written...” (Luke 4:4,8,12)

Oh, but you have a hard time when it comes to reading your Bible, you say?...and it’s ‘hard to understand’, you think? Well...I think we can all identify with that struggle at times, especially when it comes to trying to grasp and understand what God is trying to say to us through it. But there may be good reason why it seems like a ‘closed book’ to us at times, and it boils down to whether or not God truly has our ‘whole heart’.

We are told that the ‘god of this age’ works to ‘blind our minds’, or keep a ‘veil over us’ in order to shield the ‘light of the gospel from shining upon those who are perishing’ (2 Cor. 4:3-4). But if you want the ‘veil removed’, the key is found in 2 Cor. 3:16 where we are told that “when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away”. Interesting, is not? That sounds reminiscent to some words Jesus spoke to those who were diligent in their study of the scriptures as they sought after eternal life; but Jesus points out that they were, at the same time, ‘unwilling to come to Him that they might have life’ (John 5:39-40)

In other words, unless Jesus has our whole heart, the Bible will remain a mystery. That’s not to say you won’t glean a lot of good info from reading it, along with gaining historical knowledge while learning inspiring moral lessons and such; but unless the Holy Spirit is opening the eyes of our understanding and giving us revelation...then we will at best... be like those who walk in a ‘form of godliness’... ‘always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth’ (2 Tim. 3:5-7). You might glance at Matt. 13:10-11 along with Luke 10:21; 24:32 & 45 again for reference.

So what was I suggesting might be ‘easy to miss if not careful’, at the start of this lesson today? Let’s read 1 Thess. 5:23 and see if it grabs you:

“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

You and I were created as beings with ‘three parts’: spirit...soul...and body. We are a ‘spirit’; we have a ‘soul’, and are ‘housed’ in a physical body. The Greek word used there for ‘soul’ is [psyche] which is where we get the words ‘psychology’ and ‘psychiatry’, which is the study of human intellect, emotions, mental acuity, etc. But God created us in His image, to be ‘spirit’ beings, just as He was, and is today ...a ‘Spirit’. (John 4:24; Gen. 1:26-27)

There was just one problem: sin corrupted us and brought ‘death’ (Rom. 5:12). Why do you think Paul writes in Eph. 2:1-3, explaining how prior to being ‘made alive in Christ’, we were ‘dead in our sins and transgressions’? Answer: Because apart from God, we have no true, genuine life that God intended us to have (John 5:40) And that is what He came to offer us (John 10:10). (Did you catch my recent post on being ‘brain dead’?)

Further study of those verses in Eph. 2 would suggest that while we were ‘dead’, our lives were pretty much governed by our fleshly desires and lusts that filled both mind and body, and the driving force that worked ‘in us’ was the ‘prince of the air’, who is Satan. Imagine what a sail boat does on open waters when it has lost its rudder? It just goes wherever the wind guides it.

I know it made for a great song when ‘Meatloaf’ sang ‘2 out of 3 ain’t bad’, but if your ‘spirit’ being is dead, or malnourished, then may I suggest that you'll have about as much balance living your life in this current world... as a three-legged stool has standing with one of its legs missing.

So if we were...or continue to be ...spiritually ‘dead’, then you can assume that we are ignorant of a ‘spiritual world’ that is very much in existence, even today... and we'll be quick to shy away from giving serious thought to its influence on the world... and all who are in the world. And we will be even that more susceptible to being deceived and led astray (John 10:5; 2 Cor. 11:3-4; 1 Tim. 4:1)

May I invite you to go read 1 John 5:19, underline it, think on it...and then meet me back here tomorrow, Lord willing.