Book: Learning to Make the “Spiritual Switch”

“Jesus began to take simple things that were evident in nature and use them as spiritual illustrations. These were simply things we see in nature every day, taken to a new level of understanding, because everything God made in the physical realm He made in order to teach spiritual truth. Jesus unveiled a world of illustrations that serve as living reminders of virtually every expression of the will of God.”

“The first step is to take everything Jesus used and catalog it and develop our own way of communicating that truth. The second step is to look for more truths in nature itself and draw from them the way Jesus did. The third step is to take even the man-made things in our world, which God knew we would create, and see the spiritual parallels, so that as we teach, we will have living illustrations that are intensely familiar.”

“For example, salt is a spiritual picture of the believer as he or she infiltrates the kingdom of this world. You are supposed to flavor the world you live in. Life springs out of death; joy springs out of sorrow. That’s why blessed are those who mourn. Your humility will put to shame the arrogance of the world and call attention to a higher way. That’s the reason blessed are the meek. The things that satisfy the world will not be needed by you for happiness. That’s the reason blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness. You are the flavor of the world. Therefore, you must maintain the source of your saltiness.”

“Jesus had taken the miracle of mental imagery and the paintbrush of human experience and melded the two into a ministry tool of epic proportions. He had taken the profound and made it simple. The Pharisees had created a whole industry of taking the simple and making it complicated. What a refreshing change.”

“Learn to make the spiritual switch. Learn to open the eyes of your spirit to the world of living pictures. Ask God to give you the creative joy of taking the illustrations of life and translating them into the deep things of God. If you were walking through a field of hidden treasure and you knew the treasure was there, just waiting to be claimed, would you just walk away? I think not. The treasure is there. Take it.”

1-What are three characteristics of Jesus’ teaching in the first part of this lesson?

2- Why does the Lord use salt and light as object lessons? What was he really trying to show to the people with each?

3- What are the problems of storing our treasures on the earth?

4- How can we be “lights or salt” in our everyday lives?

5- Why do you think that God used His provision for caring for birds and lilies as an illustration for His tender love?

6- How can you make the “spiritual switch” in your own life?

“Yes, you were designed to be a tree – a certain kind of tree, in fact. You were designed to have certain attributes that only trees have. So we are about to “em-bark” (if you’ll pardon the pun) on a lesson about trees. The story of the fall of man and of the ultimate redemption of man has its roots (pardon the pun again) in a specific creation of God called “The Tree of Life.” Why did God use a tree?”

“The tree was given to us primarily to demonstrate truths about ourselves and our relationship with God. The tree is a picture of us – what we’re like when God is in control, and what we’re like when He’s not. Trees were created by God to yield fruit, reproduce themselves after their kind, possess a natural beauty, and provide food [among other things.]”

“The tree, a simple, yet complex creation of God’s, became from the beginning a symbol of life, a way of escape, a portrait of our redemption. It began as the ultimate source of life yet became the ultimate instrument of death. In its ultimate form of stately grandeur, no one can take glory for its existence except the Creator who formed the seed from whence it came. That is why when the real majestic beauty of Christ begins to flow through your spiritual veins, and the leaves of eternity begin to sprout from your heart, and the kind of fruit that feeds others begins to blossom from your life, no one will mistake it for anything you have done.”

1- How are tree roots a symbol of our Christian beliefs and values?

2- What are some ways we can spiritually emulate the nature of a tree?

3- How do the trials and seasons of life shape us, like changing seasons affect a tree?

4- In what areas of your life have you seen growth like a maturing tree?

5- Trees flourish through the process of pruning. How have you experienced God’s pruning in your Christian walk?

6- What does it mean to bear fruit in our lives as trees do?

“Based on the emphasis of Scripture, trees speak a message of slow, deliberate, long-term growth. Through the analogy of blessed man and flourishing tree [in Psalm 1] we make the spiritual switch: The kind of tree you were meant to be is one which is planted beside a consistently flowing river, developing a root system which goes deep, drawing life from the river. It is characterized by rich, lush green leaves, healthy roots, and beautiful fruit.”

“Where you plant yourself will determine whether or not you will grow. Where is the river? The river is wherever the Word is flowing and the Spirit is giving life. You will find where God’s Word is being taught, God’s mind is being revealed, and God’s Name being exalted. You will station yourself where the waters run deep. You must learn to “delight in the law of the Lord, and in His law meditate day and night.” Day and night means always.”

“The final key to the growth of the desirable tree is time. Strong, enduring trees are not amazingly fast growers. Time is the one great ingredient that man simply despises including in his menu of spiritual delicacies. We want to become giant oaks in a year or two, but giant oaks don’t grow to be giant oaks in a year or two. That’s why the heartbeat of the church must always be those who have quietly stood the test of time.”

“The kind of person God calls a tree is one who plants himself by the river of God, roots himself in the nourishment of God’s Word, and when the winds of adversity begin to blow, rests himself in the shelter of God’s everlasting arms, knowing that the one final ingredient that makes a tree a tree is time. God promises four things will ultimately happen: (1) You will bear fruit, but in season; (2) Your leaf will be green; it will not wither; (3) You won’t be anxious in the year of drought; (4) You never will cease yielding fruit. Passing years will confirm where you have been planted.”

1- Psalm 1:1-3 tells us we can be like a tree planted by rivers of water. How does the Psalmist tell us we can achieve this and what are the benefits?

2- What are some ways you can delight yourself in the law of the Lord?

3- What are four things God promises us if we abide in the Vine?

4- What happens to us spiritually when we don’t abide in the Vine?

5- According to John 15, what three things are required to be the tree we were meant to be?

6- Why is it important to God that you are becoming the kind of tree He wants you to be?

“Man was created for the primary purpose of reflecting the image of God; but if man is to reflect a God Who has a will, then man must be given that same capability. Since God gave man the capacity to choose, He had also to give him choices. As soon as man was given the choice not only of what to do, but of whether or not to do what he was told to do, the problem of forbidden fruit began to surface.”

“God’s plan is not for man to experience evil that he might better appreciate good. That’s a lie of Satan. We are to flee the very appearance of evil. We don’t need to taste it to hate it. To taste evil is to love it, and to thus destroy your fellowship with a Holy God.”

“There is that initial freedom when man first learns that he doesn’t have to obey God, that he can, in essence, be his own god. However, that freedom is followed by the bondage of loneliness, emptiness, embarrassment, fear, and hopelessness accompanied by the realization that once he chose to disobey God, he became responsible for all the things God was responsible for before the fall, and he was not equipped.”

“You’ve had your forbidden fruit. For a moment, the taste was exhilarating, but later the after-taste takes its toll. The sweet turns to bitter. You pretend it never happened, but your eyes have been opened to new areas of sin, and you wonder if it can ever be like it was before. You tasted of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and another veil has been lifted unnecessarily from the eyes of your understanding, destroying the holiness that surrounded you before.”

“The Father, whose mercies are new every morning, is a God, not just of second chances, but of many chances. He extends those new mercies to those who repent and come to Him for cleansing, but often times, as with King David, the consequences are not removed but must be endured for a lifetime.”

1- What does the forbidden fruit represent?

2- Why was Eve so drawn to the forbidden fruit?

3- What did Adam and Eve gain by eating the fruit?

4- What was the punishment for eating the fruit?

5- Do you think knowledge comes with a price? (See James 3:1)

6- What are some modern day “forbidden fruits” we may struggle with?

“Because man chose to eat forbidden fruit, man has to live with infested soil. Until Jesus comes again, work on planet earth will be just that – work. Those who tell you otherwise are confusing the world’s principles with God’s. Man was instructed to labor with his hands by the sweat of his brow for God’s glory and for man’s good, and all because of that one choice involving a tree.”

“Mankind, so marvelously created to mirror the likeness of a holy God, degenerated into every conceivable kind of immorality and depravity. Every child born to woman from that day forward inherited a natural sin nature that, whenever left to itself, would create its own god and defy the magnificent order and plan of the One who created it all. Sin had entered the world and death by sin, even as God had warned it would.”

“What a God of mercy we have! For the very moment man discarded His protection and rejected His authority, God began to lovingly create a way of escape. Death had entered the world by means of the curse. Now there would be bloodshed, grief, war, and greed. Now there would be anger, jealousy, selfishness, and revenge. Each man, having now become his own god, would set about to defend his own kingdom.”

“God introduced animal sacrifices as a demonstration of what the blood of a perfect Lamb, slain before the foundation of the world, would one day do. He introduced the law to reveal the depths of man’s sins, so that man’s need, which was being ignored by a heart that was deceitful above all things, could not be ignored. The death penalty was to be God’s restraint in a world filled by now with the fruits of sin. It was not because God desired to, but because man, having become his own god, had devised rules of behavior that trampled God’s absolutes. Unless something protected man from himself, he would totally destroy himself.”

“The way has been made; the curse has been removed, and access to eternal life is ours once again. And all because “He who knew no sin became sin for us.” That, Beloved, is why the cross stands at the center of the gospel. It is THE WAY back to the Father. … Religions of all types and persuasions will talk to you about a tree of life. They will tell you a god of love wants you to live forever. What they won’t tell you is, that should you eat of that tree without having the curse removed, you will die in your sins and live forever in an eternal hell. A cross-less theology is the lie of lies. Sin must be atoned for. The price must be paid. Neither you nor I nor anyone we know can pay that price.”

“I beseech you, Beloved, in the name of the Living God, to come to the cross of Jesus Christ today; to bow down in deep humility and ask the Lord Jesus Christ, who bore your sins on that tree, to purge you and cleanse you and save you. Tell Him you want eternal life; but you understand that unless the curse has been removed, there simply is no way to receive it.”

1- What does Satan’s role in the Garden of Eden reveal about temptation?

2- God judged Satan, Adam and Eve. Give an example of each.

3- Why was entrance to the Garden of Eden closed after sin entered the world?

4- What is the spiritual significance of the Tree of Life?

5- How did God show the tree as an instrument of death in the New Testament?

6- How did God pave the way for the day the Tree of Life would again be available to mankind?

“The wind cannot be contained. It can’t be cornered. It can’t be captured; we can’t even see it. We can only see what it does. We cannot touch it, but we can feel it with such confidence that there is no doubt when it’s blowing. Most of all, it is one of God’s great reminders of Himself, because every time you feel the wind, God is sending a message from heaven. How seldom we stop to listen.”

“What are some of the characteristics of the wind that speak so eloquently of the work of God’s Spirit? (1) The wind is God’s agent of restoration and comfort (Genesis 8:1).  (2) The wind speaks of the provisions of God (Numbers 11:31). (3) Whenever you see the wind devour and destroy, stop and bow in awe before a God of judgment and power. The wind is your reminder of how powerful He is. (Exodus 15:10,11).”

“God is like the wind. He cannot be contained. We cannot see Him or capture Him or make Him exclusive. We cannot make Him in our image; we were rather made to be in His image. We cannot dispute the miracle of His comfort, the constancy of His provisions, or the awesomeness of His power. Like the wind that blows, although we do not know from whence it comes or where it goes, we cannot doubt its presence. And like that wind, He moves where He chooses.”

“You, too, can inherit the wind by asking Jesus Christ to come into your heart. When you do, all that comfort and all that power will be yours, for “so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.” You can be born of the Spirit right now. You can open your heart this moment, wherever you are and ask Christ to come into your life. Stop waiting for God to appear in human form: He did that 2,000 years ago.”

1- How did Jesus use the wind to explain the concept of the Spirit to Nicodemus? (John 3:8)

2- How did Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus about being born again challenge the understanding of his religious traditions?

3- Give several examples of the spiritual significance of the wind in Scripture.

4- How have you personally experienced one of the examples you listed in number 3 above?

5- In Psalm 18, David spoke of God “riding on the wings of the wind.” What do you think he meant by that?

6- Can you draw comfort from the idea that God moves like the wind-unseen but powerfully present?

“Every time the wind blows, God is saying to us, “Be assured of your salvation; the wind reminds you that my Spirit lives in your heart.” For it was in the wind that the Holy Spirit first descended to inhabit man. (Acts 2:1-2a) God wanted the wind to serve as a reminder that the Spirit would be our assurance of His indwelling presence. Down where you are there seems to be no evidence of the wind’s work at all. But up in the heavens, where you can’t feel it, the wind is quietly at work, moving the clouds of life to where they need to be. His Spirit is quietly at work in your life [in the same way.]”

“Like the chaff that the wind drives away, judgment shall come as surely as the wind blows. The time is coming when God will judge this earth, and the scales of justice will be balanced once and for all. The wind of His Spirit will one day blow across planet Earth, and sin will be judged at last. Those who appear to be getting away with great injustices will not stand in that day.”

“There are at least three aspects of the guiding ministry of the Spirit of God that are written in the wind. (1) He precedes: The Spirit begins to quicken us and awaken us and alert us, either to danger or to conflict or to a change in course. (2) He intercedes: Just as the wind moves in as a fierce storm appears on the horizon and suddenly shifts, blowing away the clouds, even so the Spirit often intercedes on our behalf because He knows the Father’s mind. (3) He leads: In our day, in an age of such self-assertiveness, to rest in a storm is tantamount to slothfulness. To wait on God is considered to be the absence of faith rather than the evidence of faith. He controls the wind of His Spirit; our job is to move our sails to receive the power and follow His leading.”

“How much time do you spend waiting on God, learning of God, and beseeching God to lead you? And how faithfully do you move at the Spirit’s leading? Or have you placed an outboard motor alongside your spiritual sails, just in case God doesn’t send the wind to blow, or it doesn’t blow the way you planned it?”

“Every time the wind blows, you will have a physical reminder of one of the greatest spiritual truths known to man: God did not call us to be gods, but to let Him be God. He has not called us to be self-driven vessels on the sea of life, but rather sailboats moved along by the gentle wind of His Spirit wherever He sees fit.”

1- What message was God conveying in Acts 2 through the sound of a mighty, rushing wind?

2- What aspect of God’s character is demonstrated by the wind in Psalm 1:4?

3- What is one of the best ways we can discern the move of the Spirit in our lives?

4- What are three ways we experience the guiding ministry of the Holy Spirit?

5- Think about a circumstance when you felt the wind of the Spirit blowing through your life. Did you feel led toward something, or away from something no longer meant for you?

6- What is one of the greatest lessons we can learn from watching a ship at sea?

“Amidst a climate of declining morals, fallen heroes, and incredibly unstable world conditions, people want something to hang on to that won’t fall apart when the winds of adversity blow. “New theology”, in an attempt to be contemporary, has removed the conviction of sin with its resulting need for salvation and has thus eliminated the solution to man’s problems. God foreknowing our desperate need for stability and security, designed for us in nature the perfect illustration of those qualities which are to be found in Him. He is the Rock. In our vernacular we would say He is rock-solid: perfectly faithful, perfectly just, never wrong, doing and deciding everything perfectly, without error.”

“Oh, to come to grips with the perfection of God! What peace it gives! What relief it gives! What joy it gives! It removes from our shoulders the responsibility or even the right to judge the ways of God. They are so much higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:9b). To make absolutely certain we never forget it, He paints against the backdrop of the cloud-filled skies that fill our lives with showers, the heaven-sized, towering, majestic mountains. And He cries out from atop those mountains, “I AM the Rock. My ways are perfect.””

“God also used the “rock” in Scripture to demonstrate His provision for meeting our needs and the importance of how we go about asking. In the process, He spoke to us ever so eloquently of the Cross and of our salvation that was to come. God gave [the Israelites] water from a rock to portray the spiritual water that would one day be poured forth from The Rock. Lest anyone misunderstand, Paul made it clear – The Rock was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:1-4). He was smitten once for the sins of the world, that through Him might flow living water unto life eternal.”

“The final link in this analogy of rock formations comes when we learn to see The Rock as our fortress of protection in a world in which the enemy seems to attack us from an artillery base in every nook and cranny in our lives. When fear begins to overtake us like a flood, it is time to crawl up into The Rock and recognize that it is His strength, not ours, upon which we stand. Therefore, nothing can overtake us. He is The Rock. His works are perfect; He is The Rock that is higher than we are. He is our shield against the enemy’s darts, our shelter from the enemy’s lies, our strong tower when the enemy launches his offensives.”

“Re-evaluate your life based upon your relationship to the Rock. If you’ve been angry at God because He has not done things your way, or answered your prayers as you expected, take the time to crawl up into Him this week and exclaim: “Thou art my Rock; Thy work is perfect. All your ways are just; a God of faithfulness and without injustice art Thou.” The Rock is just; He alone sees the beginning from the end. He is perfect, so what He is doing is perfect. You have a friend who will never leave you or forsake you; an anchor that will hold in the darkest storm. His name is Jesus.”

1- What aspects of God’s character are we describing when we say, “He is rock-solid?”

2- What circumstance was Hannah experiencing when she declared, “There is no rock like our God?” (1 Samuel 1:1-2:2)

3- What did God reveal about His character when He instructed Moses to strike the rock?

4- In Psalm 18, how did David describe God as his rock?

5- How do specific verses such as 1 Corinthians 10:4 or Psalm 62:2 deepen our understanding of Christ as the Rock?

6- Describe a circumstance in your life where you experienced God as your rock.

“God created the cloud, not only as a covering for the Heavens, but also as a covering for Himself – to protect man from the awesomeness of His Holiness while at the same time revealing [His Presence.]”

“[In Numbers 9:16-23,] God began to teach [the Israelites] to follow His Presence in the cloud as He took them, step by step, minute by minute, towards the land of promise. If the cloud moved daily, they moved daily. If it stopped, they stopped. “Whether two days, a month, or even a year,” the passage states, so long as the cloud stood still, they stood still.”

“I believe the greatest message spoken by the clouds is the message that Jesus is coming again. “And then they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” (Luke 21:25-28) “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16,17)”

“This is our hope. This is our joy. This is our victory. Jesus will one day sweep us into His arms in a magnificent cloud, and then He will return with us in a cloud of great glory to set up His Kingdom. How can you ever go outside and look up into the sky and see those precious pillows of white floating across the horizon without asking yourself, “Could this be the day?””

1- What are some ways God uses clouds to demonstrate His attitudes and actions?

2- What are two things God conveyed to the Israelites by appearing in a cloud?

3- Why did God make a cloud appear before the Israelites in Exodus 13:21?

4- What does the “cloud of glory” signify in the Tabernacle and Temple? (Exodus 40:34–38; 1 Kings 8:10–12)

5- Why do you think God spoke from a cloud at the Mount of Transfiguration? (Matthew 17:5)

6- Describe the significance of the cloud in Jesus’ departure from earth and His return to earth. (Acts 1:9; 1 Thess.4:17)

“God’s ability to perform that which He has promised is illustrated by one of nature’s most beautiful natural provisions, and it is easily understood, simply by making the spiritual switch. In nearly every book of the Bible God calls our attention to rain. Always it is divinely timed; always it is in the prescribed amount; and always it is at the exact location that He, in His sovereignty, has chosen.”

“Rain shows us how God works and who God is: (1) God’s primary reason for sending rain is to give life and to give it abundantly. (2) Rain and the growth it produces comes totally from the hand of a sovereign God. (Joel 2:23) (3) Rain is a reminder of the grace of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. (4) Gentle rains are a reminder of God’s goodness and are cause for praise. (5) Violent rains are a reminder of God’s judgment. (6) Violent rains are also a reminder of the oppression of the poor. (7) Steady, fruitful rains remind us of the righteousness of God as it is demonstrated to man. (8) Rain speaks of God refreshing His people spiritually.”

“[Isaiah 55:10,11a says:] The Word of God, like rain, will not return void. So long as you faithfully minister the Word and not the concepts of man, what happens in human hearts is God’s business, not yours. You will never know this side of heaven the fruit borne because you faithfully sowed nothing but the seed. (2) It provides both seed for the sower and bread for the eater. As long as the ministering you are doing is centered around the giving out of the Word of God, you will be blessed, and those who receive the seed will be blessed. (3) God’s Word will not only never return to Him void, but it will always accomplish what God intends it to accomplish. It may not be what you intended, but it is what God intended.”

“Every time it starts to rain, God is speaking. He is saying many, many things; He is painting many, many pictures; but one message is so outstanding we ought never, ever to see it rain again without joy welling up within us. That picture is a portrait of an immutable Word in the hands of a sovereign God, always accomplishing what it was intended to accomplish, never returning void.”

1- What is the primary purpose of rain on the earth? How does this relate to us spiritually?

2- What does rain represent as it relates to God’s provision and care?

3- How do violent rains remind us of God’s judgment?

4- What is the three-fold promise God gives us in Isaiah 55:10-11? Briefly describe each aspect of the promise.

5- Choose a Bible account where rain was involved. What happened and what was the outcome?

6- Has God’s Word ever felt like refreshing rain in your life? How did it make you change or grow?

“Light is a gift from God; it is not something He owes mankind. Creating light was a deliberate act from His sovereign hand to demonstrate to us the difference between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. The works of Satan fester best in the darkness; the works of God are manifested best in the light. The contrast is so great that the best words to describe two things totally different are “they are as different as night and day”.”

“The story of the sun: (1) The earth’s movement around the sun was appointed to create divisions in what we know as time – the days, the seasons and the years. (2) The sun is set in the heavens as a testimony of God’s faithfulness. Every morning it has “risen” in the east; every evening it has “set” in the west. Every day at noontime it has cast its blazing heat upon the earth. Never has it failed.”

“The brilliance of the sun, as incredible as it is, cannot even be compared with the radiance of God’s glory or the glory His saints will one day share in eternity. So every time the sun comes up, think of the awesomeness of His holiness; the magnificence of His glory, and remember that one day “we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). … As a wonderful visual aid, the entire heavens have been arranged by God as a backdrop for the sun, allowing us glimpses not only of His nature and glory, but of His power.”

“The Lord God is a sun. That means He is the source of all light. There is no spiritual Truth that can be imparted to man apart from Him. That means He is the source of all warmth. There is no genuine comfort apart from His Spirit, who is the Comforter. That means He is the source of all life. There is no spiritual birth apart from that divine birth that takes place when man asks God to dwell in His heart. That means He is the source of all growth. All that the sun does, the Son does, because the sun was created to be on planet Earth what the Son is in the Kingdom of God; light, warmth, life, growth. Everything.”

1- In what ways does the sun reflect God’s qualities, such as His faithfulness and power?

2- How is the glory of God represented by the sun?

3- Name two instances in Scripture where the glory of God was reflected on men’s faces.

4- Explain how the sun is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber (Psalm 19:5).

5- How is God a sun and shield to us?

6- What are four truths about God revealed by the sun?