Posts: Think as a Spirit

Think as a Spirit

How do I learn to think as a spirit? Growing up, everything entered through our physical senses, so our viewpoint was physical. Hopefully, we developed some abstract thinking processes along the way, but everyone is still mostly concrete. How do we shift to the viewpoint of that part of each of us that will continue after we quit breathing? What does the world look like from my seat in the heavenlies? (Ephesians 2:6) Stay tuned.

To think as a spirit, first we must settle logically on the nature of God. The Bible assumes its readers have already reached the conclusion that God is consistently good, not a mixture of good and evil, because a mixture makes God conflicted and inherently self-destructive. So, we must evaluate what happens here from the sure knowledge that God has been, is, and will remain 100% good, not constructing our god from the mixture of good and evil we experience.

To think as a spirit, we must picture God as vitally concerned with the development of each person, all of whom grow differently. God’s interest is not with theoretical norms and sameness, but with trust and care given and received between unique and free individuals. Spirits, including God, think in terms of liberty; people think in terms of authority.

To think as a spirit, we must picture God as an active participant in life, not an observer waiting for the end of the show. Based on God’s history, when He wants us to know He did something, the evidence is overwhelming. But when He leaves no evidence, we must assume neither that He is doing nothing, nor that He is working behind the scenes in the way that I visualize. Speculating about God’s unpublished involvement is counter-productive. Trust, don’t guess.

To think as a spirit, we must know the purpose of creation or we will be focused on an objective that, no matter how good, is not God’s. As described in the Bible, the function of the universe is to be an incubator for faith with the terminal objective of developing a big family that will last. The functionality of families depends on trust and care (faith and love). Spirits fixate on enlarging and strengthening the family. People fixate on behavior and organization.

To think as a spirit, we must know the promises of God, which can be categorized into three groups: acceptance by God, character development by the indwelling Spirit, and individual importance in the Kingdom. The faith economy is fueled by these promises. We need to diligently seek and ask. The fact that we choose by trust in real promises is what is of value, not the choice itself.

An attitude of acceptability is essential to thinking as a spirit. Those who do not have the confidence to declare that they are acceptable have no Biblical hope, no confident expectation, and therefore no faith. In the other ditch are those who have developed a self-deceived confidence, again devoid of faith. We know that we have the Spirit, that we are acceptable, when we have the selfless love and consistency described by John, or when we overcome ourselves through the power of God as described by Paul.

Spirits think about character development. A spirit may well be described as being composed of character. A concrete person thinks in physical terms. Spirits think in character terms. Our objective is for character and action to be in harmony, which is to be consistent. “Be ye consistent as your heavenly Father is consistent.” (Matthew 5:48) Yes, that is the accurate translation.

As we come to the realization that our character-building exercises are not resulting in muscle mass as desired, we should re-visit the Word and discover that God has provided a balanced exercise program with nutritional supplements. The nearly universal church practices of prayer, singing, the Lord’s Supper, and teaching of the Scriptures were all designed not as rituals but as training exercises for character development and growth of faith.

Thinking as a spirit and our expectations of the Spirit dictate how much the Spirit can do. If we expect to be filled with God’s version of love, wisdom, understanding, enlightenment, peace, grace, mercy, and such like, as promised, then we will be. But, it is not quite as simple as it looks on paper. Because we like to be in control, those promises are scary and tend to push us back into our historically more comfortable physical mindset.

The governments of this world are, in the view of most, a classic example of evil. Even under the best (least bad) of them, we can find plenty about which to complain. However, the perspective of those who think as spirits is different than those stuck in the typical physical mindset. Contemplate Romans 13:1 – 7. Even assuming that our perceptions of governments are accurate, Paul lets us know that God sets them up and God takes them down. Jesus is Lord of the earth now. Despite a history of evil, God has it under control.

Bottom line, suffering is a fact of life. Pretending that it doesn’t matter is escapism, not spirituality. The key to handling it, to a safe return to thinking as a spirit, starts with reviewing the nature of God, His purpose for creation, and the promise that He has your back.

Thinking as a spirit must rest upon an expectation of joy in this life. That confidence is built on a solid foundation of the nature of God, the purpose of Creation, the nature of faith, the promises of God, the work of the Spirit, and the brokenness of the world being part of the plan. The joy of those spirits still associated with physical bodies centers around connectedness, trust, and developing a loving, gracious, merciful, peaceful nature.

We need to be open to a variety of sources of joy and be confident that several will be provided, not sequentially but in parallel. Physical family, spiritual family, our usefulness in the Kingdom, the victory of Jesus, and the nature of God just scratch the surface of the joys available for this life. When we think as spirits, joy comes out on top.