Understanding the Spiritual Side of Life: Unpacking the Connection Between Spiritual and Natural Results

Are you familiar with the children’s tale “The Three Little Pigs”? It narrates the story of a mother pig who had three piglets but lacked sufficient food to provide for them. Consequently, when they grew old enough, she sent them out into the world. Each piglet constructed a house: one from straw, another from sticks, and the final one from bricks. The lesson of this fairy tale is that when difficult times arrive, the material your house is built from will be significant. 

While the children's story discusses the importance of constructing a physical house and planning ahead for difficult times, today I feel compelled to focus on the creation of a "spiritual house". To build a spiritual house (character), one must possess a heart that seeks wisdom from God and welcomes Jesus to assume a guiding role in the heart instead of selfishness. Such a heart is submissive and open to learning from Jesus. 

Many individuals devote significant spiritual effort through prayer and intercessions to construct their "spiritual house" and transform their lives, not realizing that the heavenly Father is the ultimate builder, and by His grace our characters become transformed. "For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything... Christ is faithful as the Son over God's house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory." - Hebrews 3:4-6

One of my Bible instructors once mentioned that life is spiritual, emphasizing the importance of not overlooking the spiritual aspect of life. He also explained that the outcomes in our natural life are directly influenced by the spiritual state of a person’s life. Jesus stated, “A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can't produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can't produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire.” - Matthew 7:17-23 NLT. In essence, an individual's spiritual life impacts their thought processes, words, behavior, and overall life.

Let us invite the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and reveal where our spiritual house is on a wrong foundation. Perhaps we were focused on building relationships with ulterior motives, allowing selfishness to rule our hearts, rather than trusting that the Father's plans for our future are far better than what we could ever imagine for ourselves. Perhaps we were motivated to serve God in order to attain self-promotion. Or perhaps there are some other heart issues that need to be reconstructed, in order to be transformed. Let us ask Him to help us build on a firm foundation, putting our trust in Jesus alone, instead of trusting and relying on self (our ego).  

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.- Matthew 7:24-27