Spiritual Amnesiacs - Part 1

Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God…For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory [Colossians 3:1, 3-4].

He was a most pathetic character indeed. He got up in the morning and didn’t know who he was. He didn’t know where he came from. For that matter he didn’t even know where he was! Sounds like a cartoon or a joke, right? Wrong! It’s called amnesia.

Sometimes amnesia is mental, other times physical. Sometimes it is accident related, other times emotional due to shock. Sometimes amnesia occurs as a symptom of illness. Anyone knowing a poor unfortunate with Alzheimer’s Disease abruptly recognizes their memory problems. Stroke victims don’t only face loss of motor skills; they sometimes encounter memory malfunction.

How horrible not to remember a foundational part of one’s life. What must go through the minds of those still in their right senses, as far as recognizing the reality around them, yet they don’t recall their name or where they’re at or what they should be doing. Could anything be more disconcerting, dear friends?

Yes, I can think of something much more disconcerting. Spiritual amnesia is qualitatively more disconcerting! The problem with spiritual amnesia, what makes it so devastating to life, is that those afflicted with it don’t know they have it.

In the natural realm amnesiacs know that they don’t know. They recognize that something’s amiss. In the spiritual realm amnesiacs go right on thinking all is well with the world, when in fact all is anything but well.

The reason for this discrepancy between amnesia in the natural realm versus in the spiritual realm is simple. We live and breathe and conduct our lives in the natural realm. I mean, if we didn’t we would no longer be in the natural realm. We would have died already and gone into eternity! Ergo, since we function in the natural realm, we recognize when our natural functioning is out of kilter.

Alas, but this isn’t necessarily the case with our spiritual functioning. Even more, it isn’t usually the case, which is what makes it so dangerous and life-threatening. When we become new creations, born again as spiritual recreations, we are still in our natural bodies in time, space, and matter.

Before a person is born again, he functions only naturally. Christians function both naturally and spiritually. Any person, including a Christian, can easily enough function naturally. After all, it’s natural! A Christian must attempt to function spiritually because it doesn’t happen naturally.

To function spiritually a person must first be born again. Next the person must grow up as a new creation. He must mature spiritually. He must stop being conformed to this world and instead be transformed by the renewing of his mind, so that he recognizes what the good and perfect will of God is (cf., Romans 12:1-2).

We will press the pause button here and call it a day. See you tomorrow. Enjoy Jesus today!

To further research this issue, I direct you to my books in the Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes Bible study series. To purchase my books please click on the "Shop" tab at the top of this page, where you will find a complete list of my books. Each book is available in both paperback (Createspace) and eBook (Kindle).

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