The Mirage

4/16/1999

You are a prisoner, a slave in this present, dying, decaying age.

YET, you were born to live and to have abundant life. You were born to have true life. You are not meant to be a slave, bound to this decaying, fallen world. You are not meant to be a slave to your lustful pursuits and to the futility of your thinking. You are not to be bound by the empty darkness of your heart and understanding—being a slave pushed around by hormones and moods and selfish desires that have enslaved the present age and those who have lived for pleasure.

If that’s you, you are dead even while you live. No matter how nice you are, no matter how talented you are, no matter how intelligent you are, and no matter how accomplished you are in this fallen world. The real issue is this: What are you going to do in the real world, the unseen world, which is eternal? Is that where you will live and will that be where you make your mark?

See Through the Mirage

Satan wants us to be a whole race of slaves that think we are having fun, that think we are free, that think our lives have meaning. Then, Poof! Flush! down into the abyss goes everyone who lived for themselves, religious or not, with nothing left to show for it all.

This world we are living in is not the real world. It shouldn’t be what we live for. It shouldn’t be what we put our energy in or what we care about. The REAL world is a world that is UNSEEN. All the unseen issues of Authority, Love, Grace, Prayer, Worship, Forgiveness, Angels, Freedom, Wisdom, True Relationship, Light—THESE things are the REAL and tangible things from God’s view of planet Earth. And the reality of all of those things is in the unseen world—NOT the seen world.

“Mere humans” (as God called those who can ONLY see temporary and three-dimensional objects) are BLIND to the only things that are REAL, and controlled by things that are only “shadows” and “object lessons” in the visible world. This world is a mirage. Do you realize that is a sandcastle that you have just spent your life building?! Do you realize that it’s going to dry up and blow away?! It’s worthless. It doesn’t mean a thing. There is a whole unseen universe that you can’t see because you are dead in your transgressions and sins. You are darkened in your heart and mind in the futility of your thinking. You are darkened because you have decided to worship the created things rather than the Creator, who is ever to be praised. You’ve been given over to a depraved mind, and yet Jesus is extending His hand to pull you into the real world. THE ONE raised from the dead, JESUS, can see things as they really are and can pull you into the real world where you are not a slave anymore. Stretch your heart towards these things, and the Father will bring it all to pass in your life and family!

This is an invitation into the Real world where everything is eternal. Eternal Life. The Unseen. You are being invited into the unseen world that is eternal when you receive eternal life.

Eternal life is to choose to live in what can’t be seen. What is seen is temporary; what is unseen is eternal. Whoever believes in Him shall receive eternal life. The process of salvation itself is to live in the unseen world with a priority system that reflects the fact that we know this seen world is just a mirage, a shadow. Whoever believes in JESUS shall receive and live in the eternal, the unseen, and that’s where their priority system will be. This seen world is not where their allegiance is going. It’s not where their heart is going, and it’s not where their loyalties are. They fear nothing here. They embrace nothing here. They are obsessed with nothing here.

All of this is really as basic as salvation itself. It’s a different priority system because it is based on the real and not the temporal. It’s based on the reality and not the shadow. We all know that it’s a fool who tries to eat a shadow. It’s a fool who tries to buy a shadow. It’s a fool who falls in love with a shadow. It’s a fool who decides to befriend a shadow and have a relationship with a shadow. You are just not going to do that if you are wise, are you? When you live for your hobbies or alcohol and drugs or power or money, you are living for a mirage and it can’t satisfy because it is in the physical realm and you were created in the image of God for heavenly realm satisfaction.

What is seen is temporary; what is unseen is eternal. And the gift of God is eternal life. Those are the choices we make. Our choices should not be reflective of the shadows that control everyone who lives in the “Matrix,” but by the reality of what’s really True: Who Jesus really is, and what He really stands for.

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