Hi Carol & Steve,
You are very welcome, I believe losing sight of the beast within us is a very effective tool of the devil as he constantly attempts to take our eyes off of spiritual truth and blind us with physical matters, it has worked very well on me too many times!
We can only reach for the Lord's extended hand as He pulls us back up on our feet to continue this journey.THE DEVIL MAKES MAN MINDFUL OF PHYSICAL THINGS
The devil has always been mindful of physical, literal, material things. That’s what Satan "dines" on—
"…DUST [of man] shall you eat all the days of your life" (Gen. 3:14).
"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour [Greek: ‘swallow up’]" [I Pet. 5:8].
Yes, the Adversary eats "dust" and we, mankind, ARE "dust" of the ground. Satan does not feast on spiritual food—it would choke him! Satan dines on the carnal [flesh/meat] mind of men. While Jesus was physically starving for forty days, He was feasting on spiritual food from heaven! Satan thought he could trick Jesus into satisfying His need for physical FOOD before He was finished dining on spiritual food with His Father!
"Then was Jesus led up of THE SPIRIT into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered" […and so was STARVING, The Four Gospels By C.H. Rieu].
And when the tempter came to Him, he said, If you be the Son of God, command that these stones be made BREAD" (Matt. 4:1-3).
Satan should have realized that one doesn’t tempt a Spiritual Giant with a loaf of physical bread.
IT TAKES SPIRITUAL EARS TO HEAR SPIRITUAL WORDS
Listen to Jesus (with your SPIRIT):
"WHY do ye [all of us] NOT UNDERSTAND MY SPEECH? EVEN BECAUSE YE CANNOT HEAR MY WORD. Ye are of your father THE DEVIL … He that is of God HEARS God’s words [words of SPIRIT, WITH HIS SPIRIT]: ye therefore hear them not, BECAUSE YE ARE NOT OF GOD" (John 8:43-44 & 47).
"But the natural [soulish] man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are SPIRITUALLY discerned" (I Cor. 2:14).
Practically the whole Church believes and teaches that Jesus spoke literal little stories about physical people, places, and things, so that everyone could understand Him. One cannot hear words of spirit with physical ears.
All they heard were the physical vibrations in the air against their physical eardrums. Their heart and mind and spirit didn’t hear a thing! We just read the Scriptures above, where the greatest theologians and thinkers in the law could not "hear" and understand Jesus. Little has changed in two thousand years!
As long as people think what Jesus taught was physical, and material, and literal, then they will never understand. Were the parables given to enhance understanding? I speak as fool (read Matt. 13). Were the teachings of Jesus, temporary, physical, literal? Let Him answer:
"…the words that I speak unto you, THEY ARE SPIRIT, and they are LIFE" (John 6:63)!
Parables have a SPIRITUAL meaning, and all of Christ’s teachings are SPIRITUAL. And that is because His very "words" ARE SPIRIT! Remember that Revelation is the "revelation OF Jesus Christ," it is HIS testimony. The "words" of His testimony are therefore, also, "SPIRIT."
So once again: "He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says…" What "who" says? Just "who" is doing the speaking here in Revelation? "…hear what THE SPIRIT says…" It is "the SPIRIT" speaking to the churches, and the words being spoken are those of Jesus, which "words are SPIRIT," and "the LORD [Jesus Christ] is that SPIRIT…" (II Cor. 3:17).
His Peace and Wisdom to you,
Joe