Article May 19, 1986 Issue

What is blocking your way?

JURGEN KURT STARK

At times it may seem that what stands between us and happiness or some worthwhile achievement is a long list of individuals or things that are in one way or another posing a barrier. There is the person at work who is blocking our advancement in business or a certain relative who is keeping us from experiencing peace in the family. Others may think it's the economy, their education or their background that is limiting them. The list of so-called "blockers" could go on indefinitely. Even on a global level, we may feel that one nation or a group of people is preventing world peace and thereby endangering everyone else's safety.

Judging from what is going on around us, we might conclude that these barriers are insurmountable—at least for a good long while. And so we may find we are holding back from taking forward steps, much as the children of Israel hesitated to go forward when they heard of the opposition they would face when entering the Promised Land. Moses had sent out twelve spies to explore the land of Canaan, and the twelve men came back with differing reports. One named Caleb said: "Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it." A man named Joshua agreed with him, but the other ten "brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched," arguing that "the people be strong that dwell in the land" and giving an impressive list of their strengths.^{See Num. 13:17–33 .}

Caleb and Joshua must have intuitively seen something beyond what the others saw, because they were not impressed by the size or strength of the opposition. The Bible states of Caleb that "he had another spirit."^{Num. 14:24.} This verse indicates why his report was different from the others'; you might say that he had a strong spiritual sense. Spiritual sense is the opposite of personal, material sense—the tendency to take a materialistic view of man and see creation as millions of mortal persons in conflict. Spiritual sense is God-given and derives its information from divine Spirit, God. It recognizes only the control of one Mind, God, in contrast to the argument that there are many conflicting minds. It's through spiritual sense that God reveals to us the perfection and goodness of His creation.