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Chapter 31

God's Undetectable Spirit

Imagine a big, black burka with a slit in it for eyes. The burka is used by women in the Middle East. Due to an oppressive custom in the Middle East, they must hide all their physical body (except for that slit through which they can see). Atheist leader, Richard Dawkins, used it to illustrate how little of the universe we can perceive through our eyes. In his example, he asked us to think about that slit for eyes as representative of what we can see with our naked eyes. What we can't see, radio waves (the long waves) on one end of the scale and gamma rays (the short waves) on the other end, if measured off in proportion to the slit, that burka would be miles and miles long. To me, it is incredible to think about the dimensions of the universe that God made, that we cannot even imagine.

The great biologist, J.B.S. Haldane, said "Now, my own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose…I suspect that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of, or can be dreamed of, in any philosophy."

Mr. Dawkins has shown amazement at the material "tangible" universe, and how little we can perceive, how little we can know. Well, surprise of all surprises! There's more! The universe is queerer than even the atheistic scientist can perceive with all his scientific equipment.

God is Spirit. Undetectable by ANY scientific equipment because His Spirit is outside the tangible range. In this universe of wonder, filled with the unexpected and unknown, God's Spirit is as likely to exist as that which is tangible. Because God's Spirit is beyond any physically detectible ranges, mankind must rely upon faith that God exists. Faith is belief in things not seen or detected by our senses. Faith is another way of perceiving. We obviously perceive with our five senses, but this faith-based perception shows yet another dimension of reality, that is God and His Spirit indwelling in His children—and potentially, in all of us.

There was an old Gary Larson cartoon that I enjoyed. A dog is pointing a wand at a wary man walking by on the sidewalk. The wand is attached to a machine the dog is wearing. This machine has in big letters on its side, "Fear-O-Meter." Perhaps we need a machine that can detect faith—a Faith-O-Meter. Jesus really gave much credence to faith, saying such things as, "Your faith has made you whole" to the sick who were healed and "What you pray, believing, will happen." Why wouldn't the atheistic scientist, who recognizes the incredible mystery of life and how little we know, be willing to explore faith? Especially since it is so easy to test out. No multi-million dollar lab is needed, no elaborate scientific equipment is needed, and no double-blind studies need to be commissioned (and no animals need be harmed).

Mr. Dawkins needs to go ahead and be a fool for a little while. The pride needs to be dropped. In a room by himself, he should sit, stand or lay down on the floor (Jesus has answered prayers offered in all positions). He should close his eyes, or leave them open (Jesus has answered prayers offered with eyes closed or open). He should say, either out loud or in his head, something to this effect: "Jesus, I love you and I want to know you better. I want You as my Lord and Savior now. Please forgive me of all my sins, past and present and come into my heart now. I am tired of trying to live my life with only myself in charge. I want relief which only You can give me. Please be my Lord!"

There is a catch, but it is not a hard one to overcome. The prayer that is said must be sincere and stated with a sense of reverence. It must come from the heart, and not just from the head. Any scientist knows the value of making sure his laboratory experiments are performed using only the proper ingredients and following all the instructions. If heat is needed, it must be applied the proper amount of time, etc. If all the instructions are not followed properly, if all the required conditions are not met, the experiment will be a failure. If a certain reaction was expected, and that reaction didn't occur, it doesn't always mean the experiment was a failure—it could mean the experimenter did not follow the instructions. If certain results were obtained by others before him, then the scientist needs to search out why he did not succeed. A pure heart is vital to the outcome of this particular experiment. It could be more diligence and patience is required of the one doing the experiment.

As simplistic and foolish as this sounds, I challenge the atheistic scientist to let Jesus come into your heart and reveal some things you didn't know. The first thing you will discover is that God is real. Secondly, you will come to know that He loves you very much and thirdly, you will know that He wants you on His team, to share the Gospel to the people who do not know Jesus. God can use those who have had antagonistic attitudes toward Him in very special ways. He will use them to share the truth with others who have also had this antagonistic attitude.

Earlier I quoted a portion of God's Word, in which Jesus said He dislikes people's tendency to be lukewarm. The lukewarm people, who are neither hot nor cold, are the most challenging because they are smugly happy in their own strongly defended world. They are asleep, in a way, determined not to awaken to the truth. Such are many who profess to be Christians. But Jesus loves the hot and cold, because with them, He will work wonders. The hot are gung ho for Him, so they are going to be good stewards of His spirit, loving others and God with all their hearts. Why do you suppose God loves to work with those who are cold to Him? Because they are ripe for awakening to the truth that shall set them free. When the cold catch hold, they get hot real fast.

Paul in the New Testament was a Pharisee who loved God and thought he was doing God's will by hunting down Christians and seeing that they were persecuted and even killed for their faith. Most certainly, Christians from all over the land, prayed fervently for God to intervene and stop his madness. As Paul was on "the road to Damascus," which Dawkins mentioned in his list of biblical catch phrases, an amazing thing occurred. He did not have a hallucination; He had a supernatural visitation of Christ that actually temporarily blinded him. The fruit of this visitation was a 180 degree turn around, in his motivation. In a matter of only 3 days, Paul went from a life of persecuting Christians to promoting Christ. God intervened and Paul made a supernatural selection to go with the Lord, instead of against Him.

Act 9:4 And he fell to the ground. Then he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me [harassing, troubling, and molesting Me]?
Act 9:5 And Saul said, Who are You, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting. It is dangerous and it will turn out badly for you to keep kicking against the goad [to offer vain and perilous resistance]. (AMP)
From Henry's Commentary, I want to share another phrase which should be added to Professor Dawkins' list of phrases from the Bible. "It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks, or goads."
It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks, or goads - to spurn at the spur. It is hard, it is in itself an absurd and evil thing, and will be of fatal consequence to him that does it. Those kick at the goad that stifle and smother the convictions of conscience, that rebel against God's truths and laws, that quarrel with his providences, and that persecute and oppose his ministers, because they reprove them, and their words are as goads and as nails. Those that revolt more and more when they are stricken by the word or rod of God, that are enraged at reproofs and fly in the face of their reprovers, kick against the pricks and will have a great deal to answer for.
We have an uncanny ability to stand back from ourselves and look at things objectively. If we were only the product of natural selection and evolution, we would only be physical and everything would stem from or circle around this truth. There would be no point where anything outside the physical would even enter into our minds. How could it, if we were only physical? Mr. Dawkins is fighting against his own inner knowledge that there is something beyond the physical, and it may irritate him immensely that he should even have to address it. He is fighting against the goad, and one day, hopefully, he will come to the conclusion that he is God's child, and spiritually grounded.

It is so simple to test this out that it has not occurred to him to do this. He must try faith in something that can't be examined with scientific instruments. Though preposterous, it is highly unscientific and prejudicial to proceed with any further books on this subject UNTIL he can get a proper perspective and step into the heart, soul, and mind of a Christian by his choice to do so. Truthfully, it long ago should have entered his mind to do so, for he thinks himself an honest and open minded atheistic scientist, and is of the opinion that we Christians are so ridiculously dead-set in our ways, we should not even be allowed to walk this earth without signs pinned to our shirts that indicate we are ignorant fools. I pray he hears this challenge to be what he claims he already is. I pray he takes the time and tests out what the Christians have been saying for all these many years since Christ's visitation to earth.

Lord, please take Professor Dawkins and atheists like him, by their hands and lead them to You.

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