"Our hearts, Oh Lord, are restless until they find their rest in Thee."

I've been thinking and interacting alot with the spiritual world lately. I think its a part of our universe that goes unnoticed and unknown which is a horrible pity because in many ways the spiritual world is far more real then the physical world which we observe with our sense. My contemplation has brought me to these conclusions, which you are free to dispute in your comments.



I. Each human has a spirit which is active in the spiritual world.

II. Most human spirits are acting on impulse rather then planned movements making them very vulnerable.

III. Satan wars with God by manipulating people's spirits thus getting people to act in the physical world how he would like them to but washing his hands of it at the same time.
(Here I must explain myself)
It is common knowledge, or should be anyway that the spirit is meant to be in control of the physical. As Christians our actions ought to be a mirrored reflection of our spirit and our spirit ought to be a mirrored reflection of the Holy Spirit which is rooming with our spirit inside our hearts.
According to Romans 8 God purifies our Spirit first by sending His spirit to dwell inside of us. When His spirit is firmly entrenched inside of us then He will kill our fleshly body. Once the flesh is dead He will bring our mortal bodies back to life through the power of His spirit with no trace remaining of our original sin nature. That in short is the process of Sanctification. That being said our spirit is the key player, it never dies and never comes back to life, it is purified through its interaction with and self subjugation to the Holy Spirit which dwells inside us.
Satan knows that the best way he can counteract God's plan for the reunification of humanity with Himself is to hinder our spirit connecting with God's spirit. Since Satan himself is a spirit it is must easier for him then attacking us in the physical world or the world we observe through our senses. This is why we dont see Satan walking around gathering a following and burning churches, he attacks peoples spirits and he can so manipulate them that he can get people like Joseph Stalin who gather their own following and burn churches for Satan. It saves Satan time, resources and effort to manipulate other people to do his dirty work rather then do it himself.

Now how do we counteract Satan's plans to counteract God's plan?

IV. To counteract Satan people must be willing to interact with their spirit and to let their spirit be the one in control of their actions.

V. We must be open with other humans,
(I need to explain again here)
Satan can not beat God in any sort of real contest, he can cheat God he can manipulate people he can slink around but he can never meet God in any sort of pitched battle because he will lose every time.(this proves I'm not a dualist for the record) What Satan can do though is cut people off from God. He gets people isolated, stifles them in their own emotions and misunderstandings which will inhibit them from being a powerful voice for God. It is of prime important that people are willing to be open and honest with each other, primarily about the state of their spirit.
The Puritans had as the cornerstone of their theology a cross diagram. The vertical part of the cross representing one's relationship with God and coinciding with the first and greatest commandment. (Matthew 22:37), the horizontal piece representing our relationship with each other and coinciding with the second greatest commandment. (Matthew 22:39). The point is both of those relationships are essential for God fulfilling his purposes on earth. Not that He needs us specifically but people need to focus on these two items. If someone focuses only on the vertical he will be a holy island which will be of no help to anyone except for that one person. If we focus only on the second we will become polluted by the world.

VI. The Spiritual realm is much more worthy of exploration then anything terrestrial.
Things spiritual last much longer then things earthly and if it is our spirit which is guiding our perception of the physical world then what we experience in the spiritual world will transfer over to the physical world making life better in general.

VII. In the spiritual world we are not subject to our circumstances or our emotions but rather we can rise above both those hindrances and pursue God with praise and adoration.

I apologize for the longevity of this post but I think that too often we get lost amidst the complexities of this earthly life with all its unknowns and misconceptions. We seek solace for our spirits in things earthly rather then allowing our spirits to rest in God. So if nothing else I hope this post might prompt you to reconsider how you spend your time, how you go about combatting Satan and when you are troubled where do you run for help. I hope you will take to heart the words of Augustine who says, "Our hearts(spirits) are restless until they rest in Thee" and to rest in him does not necessarily mean going and knitting a sweater or relaxing in front of the tv but pursuing him through prayer and study.

Some of my favorite books in the world.