Virtual reality – the habit of projecting an ideal image of your life on social networks – has imprisoned a lot of people with lies that feel as if they are true. So true in fact, that we build our lives around them.
At the same time superficial spirituality – or rather, the focus on being spiritual rather than real, and adopting other worldviews rather than the biblical one – is probably one of the biggest sicknesses of our age.
I started a journey after I ended up being appalled at the sometimes-pretentious state of my relationship with Jesus. I have had to repent over and over again, because in adopting thoughts that didn’t align with what Jesus says in the Bible, I allowed myself to get offended and affected by things that wouldn’t have affected me otherwise.
There’s a particular podcast by Kris Valloton’s (of Bethel Church in Redding, California), titled Managing Your Inner World, that really helped me through this. Valloton talks about “living in wholeness” and managing the needs of your spirit, soul and body. Why is this even important?
Let me explain it this way… The Bible (in the book of 3 John 1:2) says the following:
”My beloved, I pray that everything is going well for you and that your body is as healthy as your soul is prosperous…”
So get this: wealth and prosperity relates to how well your soul is! Learning to take care of your soul means learning to manage the “appetites” of your soul – your endless need for affection, significance, or attention. The way to manage these appetites is not to ignore them – the Bible says the following:
“If it were up to me, I’d rather not have to be so bold when I’m with you, especially with the kind of forceful confidence I can work up when I confront those who have accused us of walking in a worldly way. For though we walk in the world, we do not fight according to this world’s rules of warfare. The weapons of the war we’re fighting are not of this world but are powered by God and effective at tearing down the strongholds erected against His truth. We are demolishing arguments and ideas, every high-and-mighty philosophy that pits itself against the knowledge of the one true God. We are taking prisoners of every thought, every emotion, and subduing them into obedience to the Anointed One.”
– 2 Corinthians 10:2-6
Jesus was and is still super (my favourite word these days) serious about us taking control of what we think – managing the way we think, instead of letting our thoughts control and lead us… subjecting our thoughts and feelings into obedience to Christ.
Knowing and understanding the truth is a process – freedom is a process. But if you really seek what’s real, it will be revealed to you, and it will make you free.
Free from conforming to any aesthetic, movement, mob think, or social cultural pressure.
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