I wrote a post about three years ago on the importance of recognizing and understanding the spiritual realm and how it affects us Christians. I want to revisit that thought because nothing has really changed and it is my hope that the Body of Christ will discern the Kingdom aspects of this view.
To begin, I guess various reactions are to be expected when we Christians become
bold enough to speak publicly about "Spiritual Warfare" and "Spiritual
Realms" and doing battle with "Spiritual Beings". There will be those
who do not share my faith, and are either agnostic or atheistic, and see
these subjects as contrary to their scientific mindset, and those who
believe in rationalism, a theory that opinions and actions should be
based on reason and knowledge rather than on religious belief.
But we should also expect that our fellow Christians may have
differences of opinion with us; especially over terminology and just how
far we are to go in waging our battle. We must remember that, as 21st
Century Christians, the theology of spiritual warfare is largely
unrecognized and we are essentially, still trying to come to terms with
what it all means.
I happen to believe that the Christian "Church", or Body of Christ if
you prefer, is largely uncomfortable with the idea that we live in a
supernatural world, and that the Bible is a supernatural Book. Oh, you
will hear Christians agreeing that the Bible is a supernatural book, but
then they are so clearly skeptical when you try to point out the
supernatural implications of Scripture. I'm not sure what it is ... if
certain charismatic denominations, and individuals, have given a bad
name to the spiritual and supernatural side of our faith; or if we have
just closed our minds to the possibilities of the supernatural in our
faith, so that we keep it at arm's length, and only refer to it in
whispers.
Because of these two distortions, Christians suffer from a
fundamental problem: they don't see the unseen world from the same
point of view as the ancient Biblical writers. One group assigns the
spiritual and supernatural to the periphery of theological discussions;
while the other group is so obsessed with experiencing the supernatural,
that they are indifferent to whether their theology is Scriptural or
not.
That's why I think it is important for us to examine and recover a
Biblical context when discussing spiritual warfare, and we must not
dismiss, ignore, or wrongly interpret what the Bible is telling us. I
find it interesting that most people, whether devout in their faith or
not, will agree that God exists. Yet how do they see Him? If forced to
define Him, I suppose most would agree that He is not flesh and blood
like us, but is a Spirit. So they can conceive of God, the Creator of
the Universe, as a Spirit, but these same people can't agree that there
are evil spirits, or that Satan is real.
I think that it all comes down to a fundamental lack of knowledge about
what occurred in the Garden of Eden. Let's start at the beginning: The
Bible reveals to us that God and the Word (Jesus) have existed
eternally. That's what John 1:1-2 plainly says. As Genesis tells us, They created everything .... the
earth and all things on it; the first and second heavens (our sky, and
the heavenly realm beyond our atmosphere); and all the plant and animal
life. God also created angels to help Him create, govern and manage His
creation. Angels are ministers, agents and helpers in God’s creation.
They are servants of God, playing a critical role in fulfilling His
eternal purpose.
Lucifer was created to hold a special office: one of just two
cherubs covering and protecting God's throne. Ezekiel, Chapter 28 gives
us a good vision of how God saw this angel He created, whom He refers
to as the prince of Tyre. He describes Lucifer as having "the full
measure of perfection and the finishing touch [of completeness]; Full of
wisdom and perfect in beauty." God created and educated Lucifer for
his assignment on Earth’s throne, which was placed in the Garden of
Eden—before human beings were even created! Lucifer received this
special training from the “holy mountain of God,” God’s throne! Yes,
God had great plans for Lucifer to manage His creation of Earth for
Him.... that is until we get to Ezekiel 28, verse 15: "You were
blameless in your ways from the day you were created until
unrighteousness and evil were found in you."
We all know the rest of the story. Lucifer, in his pride and
arrogance, sought to usurp God's throne, and when God (and Jesus)
created man to have dominion over the earth and manage their creation,
Lucifer became known as Satan and plotted to steal back what he believes
is rightfully his. Through Satan's tempting scheme, mankind
experienced The Fall, and we have been in battle ever since with Satan
and the angels that chose to follow him.
But here is what we need to know! When God created the earth and "the
heavens", He created a spiritual world that exists in parallel to the
physical world. God created a multi-dimensional universe. We can only
see the three dimensions of our existence ... height, width, and depth
... along with the dimension of time. The website called, The Kingdom Watcher,
really explains the bigger picture well. "The physical realms consist
of the earth, the sea and the sky. It includes people and the things
they have made. The Bible refers to the "heavenlies" as a label for the
spiritual realms that exist alongside the physical world. The spiritual
realms are just as real as the physical world that we can see. These
two realms overlap and interact with each other. We live in a
multi-dimensional universe in which the spiritual dimensions exist in
parallel to our three-dimensional physical world. The spiritual realms
operate in continuity with the physical/natural world that we observe.
Most humans cannot see into the spiritual dimensions, so we can only
observe the physical side of existence. However, events in our physical
world are shaped by activities in the spiritual realm. When we look at
the physical world in isolation, we miss much of what is happening in
the universe."
Here's what we need to understand ... God operates in the spiritual
dimensions of our reality, but He also created and sustains the
physical world. The sad fact is that the ancient Biblical writers
understood this concept, and up until about 300 years ago, so did modern
man. But then a European intellectual movement of the late 17th and
18th centuries, called the Enlightenment, emphasized reason and
individualism over accepted traditional thought. Combine that with
modern education, and we all but wiped out our awareness of the
spiritual world.
But there's another important concept to understand when it comes to
recognizing the overlapping of the spiritual and physical worlds. It is
the concept of AUTHORITY. God had authority over all the angels in
heaven. At some point, when Lucifer rebelled, one-third of the angels
decided to follow him and he was allowed to set up an alternative
kingdom, under some semblance of his authority. (Remember: nothing
happens without God allowing it, even though we may not understand His
Sovereign choices). God created the earth and placed humans in it. He
gave authority over the earth to the people He created, but kept
authority in heaven for Himself. Satan wrestled authority from Adam and
Eve by persuading them to believe a lie. This gave his spiritual forces
of wickedness a place in heaven and authority over the earth, but it
was stolen authority. The devil also devised a place in the spiritual
realms by acting as accuser /prosecutor of God's people before the
presence of God. (We see that played out in the Book of Job). And now,
all this is being played out in our lives, and upon the earth and the
heavenly realms.
This is what it looks like: Sin and The Fall destroyed the unity
that had existed in the spiritual realms. God still dominates the
spiritual realms, and two-thirds of the angels remain loyal to Him.
However, Satan drew together the angels that had rebelled with him and
squeezed them into an alternative power structure within the spiritual
world. This division in the spiritual realm results in struggles here
on earth between the Kingdom of God and the forces of wickedness. That
is why Paul tells us "we do not struggle/wrestle with flesh and blood"
-- there is an overlapping and interaction between our physical world
and the spiritual realm.
I realize that this leads to all kinds of questions ... questions
that we will consider in the coming days and months. A question that
naturally occurs at this point is, God is Sovereign. Why doesn't He just stop Satan (or people) from carrying out their wicked plots and schemes? That
is a tough question, and I do not claim to know the mind or counsel of
God. But perhaps He plays by His own rules and His immutability (His
unchanging Character). When He gave authority over the earth to man, it
is not in His character to take it back, even when man so carelessly
gave it away. Or perhaps, once man handed over his authority to Satan,
God planned a way for us to get it back, but it would involve making a
choice on our part to believe in His Co-Creator, Jesus. I'm not sure we
are capable of answering that question, or that it even matters.
I believe, however, that prior to The Fall, Adam and Eve could see
into the spiritual world. They were able to walk with God in the cool of
the evenings and speak directly to Him. They were even able to see the
devil, when he came to tempt them. But after they disobeyed God, they
were blinded and could no longer see into the spiritual realm. I
believe that this is the state in which most of us find ourselves today.
I also believe, that at His discretion, God is able to restore sight
to those Christians who can forego their doubt and unbelief and accept
His direction.
But I also believe that Authority will come into play as we near
the final struggle for dominion over this earth. God is revealing
exactly what we're dealing with, so that we can prepare ourselves for
the battle that Satan and his wicked partners plan to bring against us.
They know that Jesus is readying Himself and His army to stop the reign
of the Lawless One and take back Authority over His creation. Until
then, He has given us a measure of His authority, and that's what I want
to explore with you on my next post. That is where it gets exciting
for me, and I can't wait to share with you what that can look like!
Ephesians 3:10 "So that through
the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the
rulers and authorities in the heavenly places."
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