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TOZER DEVOTIONALWed, December 23, 2020Distinguishing the Spiritual from the NaturalThey who think on heavenly things are forced by their psychological structure to use mental raw material borrowed from the earth. And this is certain to show up in their thinking. Even the Bible, to be understood by its readers, must condescend to tell of eternal things in the language of time. It must explain the celestial by means of the mundane. So we find in the Scriptures birds and kings and sheep and soldiers acting as interpreters for Almighty God. Grapes and lilies, gold and stubble, corn and cattle, rain and stars all are used by the Holy Spirit to carry our minds across the vast chasm that separates the spiritual from the material. Doubtless the constant use of figures drawn from our familiar world to express religious ideas leaves a residuum at the bottom of our minds which in some measure gives color, if not form, to our theology. We struggle to understand spiritual things by comparing them to natural ones; then little by little those natural things become identified with the spiritual completely and the spiritual suffers greatly as a consequence.VerseNow we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.1 Corinthians 13:12ThoughtAt best we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror because God reveals to us reality of which we have no experience. He speaks of the unknown in the context of the familiar so that we may grasp truth even imperfectly.PrayerO Holy Spirit, help me to move beyond the natural to the spiritual to undersstand what for me is the newly revealed.