[Steve Myers] Pokémon Go is the latest rage in the gaming app world, for your iPhone or your Android. It works – it’s an augmented reality game. So I’m standing outside the home office of the United Church of God because this is one of the geo-locations that are actually used in the game. So they use the rock, they use the building as a gym in this game, this augmented reality game. Now, I had to look that phrase up because I’d never heard of “augmented reality” before. In fact, it’s described as a live, direct, or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics, or GPS data. Early versions of this you might see in a football game where they put the first down mark across that field. That’s augmented reality.

Well, Pokémon Go uses little creatures in the real world. And so it’s supposed to get kids out and play and walk and exercise out of the house. Now, the interesting part of this is they say that the AR – the augmented reality – enhances your perception of reality. But let me tell you something that really enhances your perception of reality. It’s the reality of the spirit world. Now, you don’t see the spirit world, just like people who aren’t playing Pokémon Go can’t really understand why these people are walking around with their phones, looking at these pretend little creatures that are embedded, I guess, in reality. The spirit world is real. In fact, there’s a section of Scripture where Elisha the prophet showed the reality of that spirit world.

2 Kings 6 is where you’ll find that, verse 16. Here we find Elisha facing the armies of the enemies, and in facing those armies, he told one of the people with him – he said, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” What was he talking about? Well, he’s talking about the spirit world. “So Elisha prayed,” verse 17, “and he said, ‘Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.’ The Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” (2 Kings 6:16-17). And so we have this great spiritual army that was really watching over them. And you know, we are surrounded by the spirit world, even though most people are walking around in this life unaware, just like those that aren’t playing Pokémon Go are unaware of what that game is all about. But the spirit world is real, and in 2 Corinthians we’re told that’s what our focus should be. If you really want the real reality, look to the spirit world. Look to God.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, it tells us that very thing. This is in verse 18. He says that as Christians, “We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18). So let’s not just augment reality. Let’s look at the actual reality of the spirit world that God wants us ultimately to be a part of.

That’s BT Daily. We’ll see you next time.