Living A Supernatural Life In A Natural World

We're speaking about developing our spiritual senses.

That simply means to grow in our relationship with God.

You and I have that privilege and that honor to be able to know God like no other generation.

Before Jesus came, there were select people that God would have a relationship with.

We know of Moses, we know of Abraham.

We know of the prophets.

But when Jesus came, he changed that whole connection with God.

The heavens were open to every person.

So that when we come to Jesus and are saved, we can have a relationship with God.

The thing is, we have to take advantage of that.

We have to live this life that we have now as believers in a whole different perspective.

We're not ordinary people.

We have a connection with God that takes us to a whole different playing field.

I want to talk for a few moments how to live a supernatural life in a natural world.

So that we can live out this new life that we have in Christ.

So that we could live different, distinct lives.

So we need to grow up spiritually.

Now real maturity is not about avoiding sin.

It's not about avoiding it.

It is choosing excellence.

Or evil in the sense of avoiding sin.

What's the word?

Avoiding evitando pecado.

No, the word good means something beautiful.

It means something surpassing.

It means something of excellence.

And so when the apostle Paul here says we discern between good and evil, it's not avoiding sin, it's knowing how to choose what is excellent.

Now, our natural senses, which include our reasoning, our feelings, our intellect, our five senses react to adversity.

According to the moment.

Sometimes it's fear.

Sometimes it's anger.

Sometimes it's sadness or you go into depression.

Those are our natural physical senses.

But when we develop our spiritual senses, when our spiritual side of life is strong, we will be able to override what we feel and what we see.

But it's not going to affect us.

And so as we go into this a little deeper today, I want to go specifically to this verse we just read.

And so you can live your whole life as a Christian.

Stay on milk.

If you choose to do that, make sure you add a little bit of coffee to it, it tastes better.

So solid food is for those who want to grow.

It means to be closely joined together.

And so it's a continuous practice in our lives.

In other words, what he's saying is it's a part of you.

And we will yield as human beings, we will yield to whatever we are closest to.

The apostle Paul always used uh illustrations that have to do with sports.

Whether it was boxing, or lucha, or running, or correr.

Now the Greeks were unique in the way that they trained.

They actually had a huge courtyard that had pillars that had little rooms where the athletes would go and they would they would bathe, they would exercise, they would do different things in these little rooms.

If you know anything about the Greeks, the athletics was something strong in their culture.

And so they met in this place called the, I think it was the Palestria.

And the unique thing is that they would train completely without clothes, naked.

And so I thought about that for a second.

In other words, taking off our natural carnal clothes.

That's how our training is as believers.

You train until your spiritual instincts.

Now, when we when it when it comes to battling temptation in our life, it shouldn't be that we're fighting temptation, but that we're choosing that which is excellent for our life.

Have been developed in prayer in the house of God with the saints of God.

These are some of the ways that we develop ourselves in the Lord.

So that walking in excellence caminar in excellencia is natural.

It's a temptation not to do it.

For example, as you're growing up, you learn that a stove can get pretty hot.

And so you're not trying to not touch the stove.

Why?

Because your senses have been trained.

Maybe you touched it once and you learned.

And so spiritual maturity spiritual means that our senses are so sharp.

That yielding to the flesh, yielding to sin, it stops being our first option.

It stops being our only option.

Oh, I'm just human, I have to sin.

If we're thinking like that, we need to develop our spiritual side.

Now our mind and our natural senses are so important in our life as a Christian.

Because they're like the outlet, they're like the conduit.

That it's a conduit for our spiritual life that is in us.

Our new nature that we received in Christ.

And so for the spiritual side of us to be in control in our life.

The conduit.

What's another way to say conduit?

The pipeline.

Yeah.

Like in a house, we all have plumbing.

And all the water flows through that plumbing.

But what happens if there's an obstruction in the line?

You don't get the full force of that water.

So that's what happens when our mind and our senses.

And so the plumbing part of our life is the mind, the intellect, the emotion.

And we want to walk in the fullness of God.

So we all that debris has got to come out.

There's got to be a free flow of God's life.

The same thing with your car or your house.

Sometimes it's not the motor.

It's just that the filter needs to be replaced.

Sometimes your air conditioner isn't working right.

You'll notice if you just change the filter, you get colder air coming through that.

You get the full force of that unit.

Now, when we feed on the word of God, it keeps our soul free.

Of obstructions.

When we face situations and we feel like we're hopeless.

And when our soul is cleared up, our spiritual reflexes spiritual will override all the instincts of the flesh.

Temptation, fear, temptation, sadness, depression, hopelessness, all these things.

Those things may be present.

But we know they're not going to be present for long because there's a spirit of life flowing through us.

And that force of life is going to remove all the obstacles.

So we have to choose which world we're going to live in.

In the spiritual world that we have spiritual that we have or in the natural world.

Blessing and cursing.

Therefore choose life that both you and your seed may live.

So, what God is saying, if you want to walk in the fullness of life, if you want to walk in the blessing of God, it's up to you, not me.

Remember John 10:10.

John 10:10

The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

But I am come that you might have life and have life in abundance.

But Jesus comes and he offered us an abundant life, supernatural life.

And when we allow the word of God to rule in our hearts.

Not just the word of God.

But when we delight in the Word of God.

Look at Habakkuk 3.17.

This has been one of my favorite scriptures for years and years.

I learned it when I first became a Christian.

Listen to this.

The labor of the olive shall fail.

And the fields are yielding no meat.

The flock shall be cut off from the fall.

And there is no herd in the stalls.

How do you know this guy is talking about a hard time in his life?

How do you know he's going through some financial problems?

He says nothing's working.

No fig trees.

Nothing's blossoming in my life.

There's no fruit.

Everything's failing.

No provision.

There's no flocks in the field.

He says, I'm in a bad, bad place.

You see, that's the natural world.

But he learned how to step into the spiritual world.

Look what he says in verse 18.

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

When natural circumstances fail us, when there's no figs, no fruit in our lives, no cattle, no provision in our life.

The spiritual senses of our life.

And he will see us to the other side.

But the secret is right in front of us.

Delight in the Word of God.

I want your word to be fulfilled in my life.

You know, some people might say.

Those come from the fruit of the Spirit, from the Holy Spirit Himself.

That comes from the nature of God.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace.

And so you can accomplish a lot on your own.

You can accomplish a lot.

You know why?

Because of God's great mercy.

And he's given us such intellect and such ability.

That's the goodness of God.

But God wants you to walk in the fullness of who he is.

Many people don't realize the power that's in the Bible.

They read the Bible, but there's no real impact in their life.

Because they don't put it to work in their life.

The most effective way to develop our spiritual side of God is to develop our spiritual senses.

How do we do that?

Choosing the right thing.

Sometimes we reject the bad and we think we're spiritual.

But the more we reject the bad, it seems like more attractive becomes more attractive to us.

Because there's nothing to substitute it.

But when we choose the excellent things.

When your body wants to sleep in.

Her mom, her mom told me one day.

She's like, Oh, I don't know what to do sometimes.

She goes to the store with me.

And then I can't find her.

And she's talking to someone about Jesus.

You're clapping, but her mom wasn't clapping.

Her mom was telling me, I had an appointment, I had places to be, and I'm I'm like, AJ, we gotta go.

And I told her, I know what to do.

Give her a two-minute warning.

Give her the two-minute warning.

It's been working out better, right, AJ?

Praise the Lord.

Choose to tell someone about Jesus instead of staying quiet in your comfort zone.

Choose kindness.

When your natural emotions natural are screaming in you to get revenge.

Choose the good things.

And we won't have to battle the temptations as much.

You know why?

Because our spiritual senses spiritual.

If we're dealing with temptation a lot and it's hard for us, it means our physical natural senses are more awake than our spiritual senses.

But when I first started, I had before I said something, I had to think it in my mind.

I had to translate it in my mind and then find a way to say it in Spanish.

It's exhausting, it's tiring.

And it's slow at first.

Because you're looking at the person for a couple minutes.

Let me tell you as we come in for a landing.

Just a little definition of maturity.

What does it mean to be spiritually mature?

It's that exact moment.

Watch this.

When you start thinking in your own language.

The language of heaven.

The language of the spirit.

That's what happened when I started learning a little bit of Spanish.

Now there are times when I don't have to think in English and translate and get all crazy.

Should I resist?

Should I resist?

Oh, I don't want to do that.

Lord help me.

I know I'm gonna fall.

I don't want to fall.

You see, we spend more time and it's exhausting.

Rejecting temptation.

But when our mind and our soul begins to be cleansed by the word of God, empieza a series of we start thinking like Jesus.

The temptation is far from us.

Stop translating your spiritual life.

Stop trying to figure out how should I respond in this situation?

Let's get to a place where we just respond automatically.

So maturity means.

Just like that hot stove.

You're not struggling so that you don't touch it.

That's what we do in the spirit sometimes.

Because our senses haven't been developed.

But we have everything in us.

A full deposit of the life of God.

We have enough.

We have enough.

It's our soul that we need to keep free of debris.

And the word is the cleanser.

You are clean through the word I've spoken to you.

Make good choices.

We're not talking about resisting evil, we're talking about making good choices.

Choose prayer.

Choose sharing Christ with others.

And when we do those things, the word of God is alive in us.

And it's a constant flushing of debris that gets in our soul.

It's like those things you can put in the sink in your bathroom.

If you do it regularly, it'll never get plugged up.

It's when we forget to put that little product in there.

One day we're in a hurry.

And we're trying to wash up and get going.

Keep a constant flow of the Word of God in your life.

And you'll live a blessed life.

A life of excellence.

No, our model is Jesus.

He didn't struggle to walk in the spirit.

He lived an excellent, blessed life.

Supernatural life because he was filled with his Father's Word.

A supernatural life.

It's what he wants for us.

He says, I put before you put blessing.

Blendiction.

Cursing.

Life, death, vida, muerte.

Good evil.

Bueno y malo.

He says, choose good.

Choose life.

I've given it to you.

It belongs to you.

Amen.