Spirits Experiencing Life

On a recent visit to a doctor’s office I became engaged in conversation with a lady. The conversation led to comments about experiencing and participating in spiritual things in life. I told her that I had written and published a devotional book and was currently writing a spiritual weekly column in the Messenger Newspaper.

At some point, my new lady friend said in so many words, ‘I consider myself a spirit having a life experience.’ Her comment caught my attention, and I pondered on it the rest of the day. Do we consider ourselves spirits living in a worldly human experience? Were we spirits before we were born and while we’re alive only to leave this life as the same spirit moving into eternal life?

Most all the religions of the World that are seeking a creator God recognize that we humans have some sort of soul or spirit that is part of us. Some differ as to just how long we are spirits.  In the Christian Tradition, we can sense that spirit in each other and have faith that it is an eternal life promise. When we think of most friends and family during their lives and after their death, we certainly sense some kind of spirit relating to them.

We are all tiny physical pieces of our vast universe, God’s Creation, but we see ourselves as spirits whose souls have always existed. While our bodies seem to be separate from our spirit, we are in some sense immortal in our spirit as we leave these short natural world lives to be in God’s Eternal Kingdom.                             

God does not measure time with a clock? Each of us will experience our own death at a worldly time unknown to us. We are, however, on God’s Time. Einstein probably understood that more than anyone with his theory of Relativity, the thought of which brings us closer together with all humanity that has ever been.

St. Paul tells us in Chapter 8 of his letter to the Romans: “9 But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you …though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness……nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Ben Franklin once wrote to a deceased friend’s family (in part), “Our friend and we were invited abroad on a party of pleasure, which is to last forever.  His chair was ready first, and he goes before us.  We could not all conveniently start together; and why should you and I be grieved at this, since we are soon to follow, and know where to find him?”  Adieu, Ben Franklin

My personal certainty of God’s Love & Grace and Eternal life with Him comes from my personal revelation experience from Him through His Spirit during a 10-hour brain tumor surgery and 30-day recovery at UAB Hospital, Birmingham, in 1993.  I was forgiven and comforted by Him, and my fear of death was removed. He even gave me a glimpse into His Eternal Kingdom. Nothing has changed that understanding I received some 20-years ago.

If we believe that a spirit-soul is alive in the heart of every living being we are halfway to understanding how to live life. To know that our bodies can be destroyed, but our spirit is indestructible, gives us a whole new way of looking at life and our relationship with others. We can proceed with life without a sense of fear and worry because we know our spirits are immortal. We can approach each day with confidence in the Lord.