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The spirit realm of God and the physical domain of the universe must meet. There has to be a junction for them to interact together.
The spirit realm and the physical realm both exist. God (Spirit) created the universe (physical). Where is the conjuncture between the two?
The SPIRIT realm is everything to do with God. The physical realm is everything to do with the universe. Spirit God created the physical universe and oversees it. To exercise His creative and transformative power, there has to be a juncture or intersection where they both meet. Where?
(Origin of Humankind, chapter 4.5)
Last week we discussed how God’s Spirit moved on the face of the waters; this is the link or interconnection between the spiritual world of God (His Spirit) and the physical world (the waters) of humankind on Earth. The Bible opens with a clear definition of both the spirit and physical environments and the relationship between the two. The spirit acts on the material; this is the process of creation and transformation of the physical by the Spirit of God.
Don’t ask me how the process works; I have no idea. I can, however, give you an analogy. I’m writing the words of this blog post on a keyboard while simultaneously watching them on my monitor. When I hit save, these same words transform into electrical impulses, transported and stored on some computer, somewhere in the world in the form of an electrical impulse.
When you, on your computer, enter www.TheExplanation.com and open up this blog post, you connect to that server storage area, and it sends you an INVISIBLE electrical impulse that, via your computer or telephone and their programs. It will transform the INVISIBLE into VISIBLE characters, sounds, and images for you to see and hear. There’s an intimate and definite relationship between the immaterial and the material, the invisible (to the human eye) electrical impulses, and the visible letters.
Genesis 1:2, with the spirit of God moving on the face of the waters, is an incredible statement when we stop to meditate on it. But so is the transformation of invisible electric impulses into visible dots on a screen that form readable letters, images, and listenable sounds. There is a juncture when the visible letter becomes an invisible wave and vice versa. You’ve probably never thought about it, but God transforms spirit into physical, and there’s a definite interconnection between the two.
With that in mind in Genesis 1:2, we have the first appearance of the Biblical Hebrew word ruach, which is translated spirit. Let’s see what Strong’s Concordance has to say.
רוּחַ rûwach roo’-akh; from H7306 (רוּחַ); wind; by resemblance breath, i.e. a sensible (or even violent) exhalation; figuratively, life, anger, unsubstantiality; by extension, a region of the sky; by resemblance spirit, but only of a rational being (including its expression and functions):
KJV – air, anger, blast, breath, ⨯ cool, courage, mind, ⨯ quarter, ⨯ side, spirit(-ual), tempest, ⨯ vain, (whirl-) wind(-y).
Strong’s resume indicates this dichotomy of the ruach
- Visibility: wind, breath
- Invisibility: unsubstantiality, spirit
The KJV translators do the same. Air, breath, wind portray visibility, while the spirit represents invisibility.
The point is that the concept of the invisible is understood and is a given in the Bible, with Strong and the translators. I don’t want to get into it here, but there are Bible scholars or theologians who look for physical phenomena to explain the effects of the ruach. Put in other terms, they’re searching for physical explanations for spiritual miracles. An eclipse to explain Joshua’s long day. A shooting star to describe the star that led the wise men to Christ or a hurricane to part the sea for Moses and the Israelites to cross.
Such surmisings deny the ruach, the spiritual intervention to transform the physical universe. Miracles are just that, the spirit acting on the material. When Christ changed the water to wine, don’t look for some physical explanation. The spirit turned the physical water into physical wine. Yes, this takes faith to believe, but that’s what the Bible indicates.
That the spirit creates and transforms the physical in Genesis 1 becomes part of the basis for understanding the rest of the Bible narrative. It is a concept the Bible reader incorporates, or not, into their understanding. Further reading of Genesis and the rest of the Bible is dependent on this fundamental fact. Yes, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to call it a fact. It is a Biblical reality. One is free to accept or reject this fact, just like any other fact.
Realize, however, that this fact is a piece of our puzzle. If the piece is rejected, altered, or placed in the wrong position in the puzzle image, all the rest of the image will be askew. Right from Genesis 1:2, most Bible readers begin to blur the accurate puzzle picture, and it gets blurrier and blurrier from there. No wonder there’s so much confusion when it comes to Bible understanding.
Back to the Spirit of God, the ruach. The invisible and its relation to the visible creation. Last week The Explanation developed the meaning of the Biblical Hebrew word move. It is to flutter and shake; this is akin to wave, jitter, ripples, and other such descriptions of quantum fields. Yes, God’s Spirit is spirit. Yes, quantum fields, although invisible, are physical. They are two totally different environments. But like Genesis 1:2 where the Spirit moves over the waters, there’s a connection between the two environments
I suggest to you that the SAME SHAKING MOTION of God’s Spirit is connected, via creation and transformation, to SHAKING QUANTUM FIELDS.
We’re breaking new ground here; this is possibly the first time you’ve ever heard this. The Explanation is bringing into coherent completeness the SPIRITUAL and the PHYSICAL. God can connect with the physical, and you and I, as physical beings, can connect to God. Theology means God’s logos, which is His logical word. The Greek term logos is at the origin of both logic and word; this is the junction between the spiritual and the physical
If we believe in the Bible, then we believe in SPIRIT. We’re here on Earth, and we believe in the PHYSICAL. Well, then, rationally, there must be a conjunction between the two. Science and theology must meet and be in accordance. That is what we’re dealing with in Genesis 2:7 with the creation of man, precisely.
A SPIRIT God is creating a PHYSICAL man. The Spirit interacts with the physical.
Here’s where this reasoning is leading. God’s Spirit FLUTTERS and SHAKES. At the minutest level of the physical universe are quanta that are both waves and particles with the specific quality that they SHAKE and, in so doing, emit energy. These minute shakers are known as energy fields. The key to keep in mind as The Explanation continues to develop this fascinating subject is the shaking or the VIBRATIONS of Spirit in God’s realm and moving quanta fields in our universal domain.
SMELL = Spirit
Here’s just one interesting and exciting example that is scientific and, as you will see, has Biblical backup. It’s about our sense of SMELL. Smelling involves the nose taking in a breath of air, which includes the fragrance emitted by the substance smelled.
What science has come to realize is that SMELLING is akin to HEARING. Yes, when I heard that, I was skeptical too. But watch this video. It’ll start just before the section about smell.
Smelling/hearing involves VIBRATIONS, AIRWAVES of varying degrees depending on the fragrance. We shall come back to the varying degrees next week. But here are a couple of verses that include God smelling the sweet savor of sacrifices. That is the Old Testament counterpart of listening to our prayers (Revelations 5:8).
All that are born of the country shall do these things after this manner, in offering an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour H7381 unto the LORD.
Ezekiel 20:41
I will accept you with your sweet savour, H7381 when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein you have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen.
Now for the kicker. The Biblical Hebrew for savor. Look at these next three references from Strong’s Concordance. Figure out the Biblical Hebrew relationship, which will show the interconnection between what is SPIRIT and what is PHYSICAL. Realize that it is impossible to see this in English or any other translation.
רֵיחַ rêyach ray’-akh; from H7306 (רוּחַ); odor (as if blown):
KJV – savour, scent, smell.
H7306
רוּחַ rûwach roo’-akh; a primitive root; properly, to blow, i.e. breathe; only (literally) to smell or (by implication, perceive (figuratively, to anticipate, enjoy):
KJV – accept, smell, ⨯ touch, make of quick understanding.
H7307
רוּחַ rûwach roo’-akh; from H7306 (רוּחַ); wind; by resemblance breath, i.e. a sensible (or even violent) exhalation; figuratively, life, anger, unsubstantiality; by extension, a region of the sky; by resemblance spirit, but only of a rational being (including its expression and functions):
KJV – air, anger, blast, breath, ⨯ cool, courage, mind, ⨯ quarter, ⨯ side, spirit(-ual), tempest, ⨯ vain, (whirl-) wind(-y).
This blog post started out with H7307, ruach revealing the interconnection of the physical wind to the spiritual spirit.
Notice that H7307, ruach comes from H7306. Now notice that H7381 ALSO comes from H7306. The point is SMELL and SPIRIT have the same Biblical Hebrew root. Even if you can’t read Hebrew, you can see that all three words have identical 1st and 3rd letters, raish ( ר ), and chet ( ח ). The middle vav ( ו ) and yod ( ‘ ) are vowels and can be interchangeable.
Smelling is intimately tied to breathing, and they are related to the spirit. Smelling, breathing, and the spirit all involve shaking and vibration (fluttering). Only the Biblical Hebrew shows this tightly knit relationship between the spirit and the physical; this is the junction between the spirit realm and the physical realm.
I’m going to leave you with something to meditate on from H7306. It is also translated make of quick understanding. Where, according to the Bible, does understanding take place? Do you see this exact same conjunction in H7306 between the SPIRIT and the PHYSICAL? We will return to this vital subject.
This blog post is an excerpt from chapter 4.5 of the book Origin of Humankind.
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