Sometimes when we awake we might say to ourselves, "Oh thank goodness it was only a dream." Knowing that we've made it safe and sound back to reality.
Some people think this reality is all we have, no life after death. No heaven or hell. Luke 16:19-31 Jesus tells of a true account of a rich man, and a poor man named Lazarus. When the Lazarus dies, an angel comes to him and takes him to Abraham's side in Paradise. The rich man comes to die and was tormented in Hell.So the rich man calls to Father Abraham, "have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire." He continues,
He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment."
Abraham replies, "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead. ”
We as humans are so engulfed in this world that we can touch, taste, see, hear, and smell. But the truth is, this world is closer to a dream than Heaven and Hell and the spiritual realm where God lives. This body of skin that dies and rots away has us blinded to the truest reality.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
This verse reminds us that what you can see is what is temporary, it is what you can't see in the spiritual realm that last forever.
Even Christians that know this truth get blinded, or blurry vision of the truth that is the spiritual realm that is reality. We get side-tracked or derailed. Clutter of this world starts to block out the truth. Love of this world. Love of what this world offers. But what this world offers is an illusion. Money, material possession, fame, career, worldly knowledge, drug and gambling highs, sexual pleasure, even our goals and our selfish dreams are illusions.
I would like to leave you with some movie references.
The first is from a movie called, The Labyrinth. When Sarah the main character is on a mission to retrieve her brother from a goblin king. The goblin king sends a poison peach to her, which causes her to hallucinate. In her hallucination she is coaxed with pleasures and riches. While still hallucinating she finds herself in a junkyard, where all sorts of junk and material possessions try to clammer for her attention and try to cloud her brain from the truth, from her mission.
Also in the movie, "The Last Unicorn"
A unicorn gets trapped inside a human body. The consequences is that she slowly forgets that she once was a unicorn. Much like we are a spirit in a fleshy body and forget that God breathed life into us. And that we possess a spirit.
