There are many TV programmes which look at the topic of restoration (e.g. ‘The Repair Shop‘) and in an age of disposable items (cameras, cutlery, plates etc.), it’s interesting to see the trend for restoration growing. Stephen spoke this morning about the restoration of a pocket watch left to him by his father which was badly damaged – the chain was detached from the watch, the minute hand was missing and the silver of the watch was badly tarnished. Its restoration to its original state was a source of great joy to him.

In Ezekiel 37:1-14, we see an example of God’s restoration of His people. This seemed an impossible situation: Ezekiel is given a vision of a valley of dry bones, skeletons where the bones were crumpled and brittle, but by the power of God, these bones came together and as the breath of God filled them again, life returned to these bones and God, in His glory, performed a miracle of restoration.

God knows all about us and is able to restore us. He is able to add lustre to our lives, bringing a shine to replace the dullness which often tarnishes our lives, repairing all that life has broken and healing all that is sick so that we are put back to our original condition and are able to shine for God. God is in the business of regeneration and reconfiguration; He is able to bring lustre, light and life to situations where all seems hopeless and lost. God is the God of restoration.

It’s so wonderful to be able to report good news about our local community. Today I had the privilege of attending the opening of the Goldthorpe Railway Embankment project, a project that has seen the transformation of the old railway line from an area used almost solely for fly-tipping into a peaceful, beautiful community space where wildlife can flourish.

Situated opposite the Texaco garage on the entrance to Goldthorpe, the project has seen local residents and local groups, spearheaded by the Dearne Area Team, transform this area into a beautiful community space. There’s a butterfly walk, an orchard planted by pupils of Goldthorpe Primary School, a bluebell wood, an ‘Incredible Edible’ garden growing herbs and spices, a flower garden, picnic benches, water feature and bug houses and fairy doors, plus a memorial stone to two boys who died in that area.

Well done to all those who have worked tirelessly to create a beautiful space for local residents to enjoy in the heart of our busy community, a place of tranquillity and repose.

This past week we visited Woburn Safari Park where there is a play area for children. Our older granddaughter loved the park and she demonstrated to us quite clearly how her gymnastics lessons have helped to develop her sense of balance. With arms outstretched to help her keep her balance, she navigated the twists and turns of the wooden beams quite confidently.

Maintaining balance is largely a matter of practice. We understand this when it comes to children learning to walk and ride a bicycle – or navigating the different challenges of a play area – but we don’t always appreciate that as adults, we too have to keep practising if we want to maintain balance. Moreover, we accept that falling and failing will be inevitable when it comes to children, but often a fear of falling and failing paralyses us as adults, and we prefer not to even try because we are afraid if we step out in faith, it will end in crashing failure.

Moving in spiritual realms is risky. We won’t always get it right, but just as the child falls and is picked up by loving parents and encouraged to try again, so too we have a heavenly Father who is longing to pour out His Spirit in our lives. Let’s not be afraid to ask God to use us in the spiritual realm, to give us access to heavenly wisdom, knowledge and power, and let’s step out in boldness. Little children have much to teach us.

God wants us to have access to the supernatural, spiritual realm; in fact, since we are now alive in Him because of His love and mercy, this is now our ‘new normal.’ The question remains, however: ‘how do we learn to balance the spiritual with the physical?’ How do we ‘grow into’ the spiritual?

There is a simple test for how far you have come into the spiritual realm, and this is ‘what does it take for you to pray?’ If prayer is a last resort, something to be done only in times of real emergency when we have exhausted every other option, we will not make much progress spiritually. We need to pray in order to become more spiritually sensitive, and as we become more spiritually sensitive, we will want to pray more!

One of the hardest things for us is learning to recognise when God is speaking to us. He may speak to us in an audible voice, but quite often, our connection to the spiritual realm comes through thoughts or feelings and it can be hard to discern if this is our own ideas or God’s. What matters is that we are tuned in to God’s word so that we know the kinds of things He says and we  then need to take baby steps in responding to God’s voice. That often leaves us feeling uncomfortable; after all, sometimes the ideas we have are odd, to say the least! But as we respond to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, we realise we have an open invitation to live in balance with the physical and the spiritual, to live in this augmented reality. All God really requires is our willingness to hear and obey. If we pray, ‘God, use me’, be prepared to hear God’s voice and obey it!

Vertigo is a sensation of whirling and loss of balance, associated particularly with looking down from a great height, or caused by disease affecting the inner ear or the vestibular nerve. Balance is especially important to us and can be improved with practice, so vertigo leaves us feeling out of sorts and can be very disorientating.

All of us have to learn to balance (think of the child learning to walk and ride a bicycle) and some people, like Travis Horn (see here), become very, very good at balancing. We talk about ‘balancing’ different aspects of life, but perhaps the most important balancing we have to do is between the physical and spiritual realms.

Humans were created physical and spiritual beings and initially these two aspects of being human were in perfect balance. However, when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, a kind of spiritual vertigo set in and now we all have lost touch with our spiritual side (see Eph 2:1, Col 2:13). We are living off-balance since we are living mainly in the physical realm. It’s a bit like losing a dimension (like the difference between a 2D picture and 3D reality.)

God the life-giver has given us spiritual resurrection through Jesus, however (Eph 2:4-5, Col 2:13, Eph 5:14) and as a result, we now have access to ‘augmented reality.’ In military terms, this term refers to a technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the real world, thus providing a composite view. In spiritual terms, this means we now have access to God’s spiritual realm as well as our physical realm.

Jesus demonstrated this augmented reality throughout His life, ‘knowing’ things about people (e.g. the woman at the well and Nathanael) which could only have been known by God. We have access not only to knowledge and information, however (often described as a ‘word of knowledge’), but also have access to God’s power. Jesus was involved in healing the sick, raising the dead and controlling nature, but He also told us that we would do greater things than He had been doing (John 14:12).

As we pray, read God’s word and meditate on it and are washed by God’s truth, we have access to the spiritual side of life and need to grow in sensitivity to this side of life. Just as Travis Horn learned to balance by practising, we need to take those baby steps towards God’s knowledge and power; we need to learn to respond to God. Life is about far more than the material and the physical only; we need the augmented reality of the spiritual world which is now available to all who believe.

Last week we had three birthdays to celebrate! (and a new tiara to go with the birthday hat…)