Posted on by Adam

The Spiritual Microscope.

The apostle Paul called himself the “worst of sinners.” I always wondered about that. I mean, this is the Apostle Paul! This is the guy that historically had the largest effect on Christianity, next to Jesus of course. If anyone has ever been CLOSE to God, its the Apostle Paul — yet he calls himself the WORST of sinners. Why?

I think back to 9th grade Biology class. One of my favorite things was working with a microscope in the labs. Maybe I’m a geek – but I still remember the time I looked at a celery cell. The microscope had three different lenses that increased in power. With the first lens, we could see a large group of the individual cells. When we turned up the power to the second lens, we could see three or four cells, and some of the stuff on the inside. When we turned up the power to the highest level, we could see the details of one individual cell. We could see the mitochondria, the lysosome, cell wall, everything (I didn’t even google that stuff, I still remember it!).

When we get close to God, its like we turn up the power on the spiritual microscope and we can see what we couldn’t see before. I think the closer we get to God, the more we see our own sin. This happens to me, but it also explains why the Apostle Paul called himself the WORST of sinners. It wasn’t that he sinned more than anyone else, it was that he could see better. It also indicates his humility.

Do you struggle with your sin? (That’s rhetorical!). My bet is that you say “yes, of course I struggle.” But please press further before simply passing this off as an irrelevant blog post:

Do you truly STRUGGLE with your sin or do you just feel bad about it?

That’s a really introspective question. Go ahead and think about it. No really – think about it. I’m going to wait.

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I think most of the Christians in America, especially the Midwest region, just feel bad about their sin – they aren’t struggling – they are not OVERCOMERS. I think most Christians couldn’t make a list of the sins they are struggling with because they’re not struggling at all – they think they have everything under control but they don’t realize they have nothing. It’s not until they are close to God when they will see clearly through a higher powered lens in the spiritual microscope.

That is the description of the Church in Laodecia that is talked about in Revelation 3. The very nature of this sin is that you don’t realize there is even a problem… it’s a “slow and subtle fade” away from your relationship with Christ. It’s self-deception. I encourage you to ask God to show you if you fit into this “lukewarm Christianity” described in Revelation 3. I wrote more about it here.

3,857 Replies to “The Spiritual Microscope.”

  2. Great question!

    The coasts are “more severe” in that they are EXTREMELY ungodly… take California for example… nearly the entire pornography industry is in California…. and that’s just starters. The coast is EXTREME… But most Christians on the coast are extremely passionate for God as well. You HAVE to be passionate for God in an ungodly environment. It’s all in or nothing…. and according to Revelation 3 – God would prefer “all in or nothing” Christianity (that doesn’t mean we have to hit ourselves over the head when we sin – but we go ALL IN trying to be closer to God).

    But in the midwest we’re just stagnent. That’s lukewarm – and that’s worse than not having a relationship with God at all: Jesus said of those who are neither hot nor cold, “I would rather you be one or the other!”

    That’s just an explanation. Now to answer your question directly: I was born and raised in the Midwest, so I never had another perspective. This whole midwest thing was brought to my attention a few weeks ago when I attended a national prayer conference. I wound up meeting several others from the midwest region, and EVERYONE had the same perspective: Christians in our area are dry, lukewarm Christianity is widespread. Those on the coasts didn’t share the same observation. In fact, when I described the “complacent” attitude of most Christians in the midwest, some of them looked confused like they weren’t really understanding how someone could do that! (And now I’m wondering how I ever did it).

    Furthermore, part of the conference was a 12 hour prayer meeting, and there was a hunk of it designated specifically to pray for the Midwest to be pulled out of its complacent attitude. This was a huge wake up call to me – it showed me how the rest of the nation sees the midwest! And its true!

    To top it all off, a friend of mine that I trust had a vision of dark clouds covering the midwest region, and just staying there. The very next week, I had “part 2” of that same vision and I saw a lightning bolt shoot through and break open the dark clouds that were covering the region. They clouds didn’t leave – but the lightning bolt broke a whole. Now the greatest thing – is that the lightning bolt didn’t come from the sky like a normal bolt of lightning. The lightning bolt shot from the ground up – and that says to me that the dark cloud is lingering over the region until WE cry out to God in prayer (and with our lives). It’s OUR PRAYERS and OUR LIVES that will break through the dark clouds entirely.

    Hence, my recent burst of passion relating to Revelation 3 and the Midwest.

  3. I see the passion to be great in Kentucky; the southern baptists are very passionate people.

    I also look at New Orleans, it is known for their voodoo, (which I believe is why God gave that place a bath). Those people are passionate for the super powers of the ‘gris gris’.

  5. Let me expound on that.

    The great stereotype of Southern Baptists is that they are famous for their incredibly expressive and exciting worship music…. jumping, dancing, clapping, everything.

    So if by “passion” you mean that the Southern Baptists are physically expressive in their worship – I’d say I agree. That’s exciting. Nothing wrong with that.

    However that’s not the opposite of the “complacency” that I was referring to. The “passion” that’s the opposite of “complacency” is passion that actually changes your life. Passion that literally gives everything to God. By that I don’t mean “worships harder” during a service. I mean, you actually give your desires up to desire what the Lord desires.

    That may be the case with Southern Baptists, but I am not aware of that denomination (in Kentucky or otherwise) being any less complacent than anyone else.

  6. What I mean is, for example, they travel from church to church to preach and to sing and pray with you. They do it because God tells them to. Their travel expenses are out of pocket. They have nothing to eat in their fridge but beans and bologna, but they will invite you to stay for a meal or to spend the night, anyway.

    It’s more than just the show when they sing, and sweat rolling off the preacher’s brow; they are different down there.

  7. Every experience I have had with the Southern Baptists fits in with what Penny is describing…they really are different!

    They really are passionate in their lives across the board, of course there are exceptions.

    I think the way they celebrate when they come together is an indicator of the pre-existing passion and lack of general complacency.

    Also, I would have to say that the Midwest really is a lot more complacent than the rest of the country…not just in “spiritual” matters (frankly, I don’t really understand how spiritual matters and other matters can be separated…but, anyway), but in everything! People want to grow up and move away from the Midwest…they don’t want to stay here, and I think a reason for this is because we have become a complacent, almost back-water, group, on the whole.

    I think there are a lot of reasons for this, but I won’t bore you with my reasoning 🙂

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