Our Spiritual Nervous System

Our family has become a licensed foster family. Excitedly, this past September we received placement of a baby. My husband’s work travel increased that same month, refusing to slow its pace. This put extra physical strain on my body. (When God calls you to a kingdom task, oftentimes there are sacrifices. Thankfully, He’s more than enough to provide the strength you need to endure.) 

During one of Chris’s travel weeks, I began having new pain in my left foot. Because of my spine surgeries, I have significant nerve damage in my feet and legs, to the point where I do not have sensation in my feet. 

For the first week, I pushed through the pain, thinking that I had done something to frustrate a nerve. I have periodic neuropathy in my feet and because of the damage to the nerves, so some- times what I am feeling is not always reality. 

Midway through the second week of this persistent pain, I began to consider the fact that my foot may have been injured. My body was showing other signs that confirmed this theory as well. I went in for an X-ray that revealed I had been walking on a broken foot for over two weeks! Our physical nerves are important, because they alert us to dangers that could harm us.

I ended up wearing a walking boot for eight weeks and the fractures eventually healed, but I was left pondering the importance of our nervous system and the corresponding picture that it can have in our spiritual lives. 

As believers in Christ Jesus we are told that we have been given the deposit of the Holy Spirit as a gift during our time here on earth (Eph. 1:14; 2 Cor. 1:22; John 14:15-17). One of the jobs of the Holy Spirit is to act as a sort of “spiritual nervous system” that warns us when we are getting too close to sin that could cause damage in our lives. 

As my foot healed, I started to reflect on what condition my “spiritual nerves” were in. Were they healthy and in tune to alert me to danger? Or were they damaged and dull, unable to determine truth from lies?

Physical nerve damage oftentimes is irreparable. Thankfully, spiritual nerve damage is not. 

One of the first steps to repairing our insensitivity to the Holy Spirit’s voice is to confess any sin that we may have in our lives. Proverbs 28:13 says, “Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” Unconfessed sin can callous our hearts to God’s voice (Gal. 5:16-26).

A second way that we can reverse spiritual nerve damage is by spending time with God in prayer and by reading His Word so that we increase our sensitivity to His Spirit. Jeremiah 29: 12-13 says, “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” It is nearly impossible to recognize a voice unless you first know what it sounds like. 

Unfortunately, my broken foot has not been the only injury that has been caused by my lack of sensation. Since my spina bifida was at L5, much of my nerve damage is from the waist down. This has resulted in third-degree burns on my rear…twice! You would think that burning it once, seeing a burn surgeon, and going through months of burn cream application and debriding would have taught me to be more careful about what I sit on, but it didn’t. 

We can be the same way in our spiritual lives. Sin can quickly deceive us and make us forget the damage it can do and has done in our lives. 

Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”