Welcome to Season 2 of the Empowering Grace Podcast!

Man was created to have a relationship with God that’s in the spirit realm while living and walking in the natural realm. And the way he was going to have dominion on earth was through that spirit-realm relationship with God. 

God’s original intention was for the spirit realm to dominate soul and body, but for some of us, our earthly experience does not reflect that intention. 

Discover: 

• How Man’s identity became rooted in the physical realm

• What the Bible says about Heaven and the heavens (spirit realm)

Tune into part two, Episode 26, to learn how to make the identity shift from rooted in the physical realm to rooted in the spiritual realm (and thriving in the physical realm, as a result!). 

These episodes are pulled from the Two Realms of Creation MP3 series.

Additional Resources

Two Realms of Creation MP3 series

Full Transcript

All right. Let’s pray and invite the Holy Spirit to help us tonight. Father, God, we thank you that you have put the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead in us. And He is the guide who is leading us into all truth and taking the things of Jesus, and revealing them unto us. And as we hear Your word, he causes these words to be life to us. He causes them to be illumination to us. And we understand more of your kingdom as we hear Your word and as the Spirit makes it alive to us, and we thank you for that. We receive it from you tonight. By the anointing of the Holy Spirit, in Jesus name. Amen. Hallelujah. 

All right. Well, as you can see, from our outlines, we’re beginning a new series tonight, called the two realms of creation. I noticed, on my notes from when I first received this from the Lord, it was in 1983. And you know, that time when you’re waking up in the morning, you’re sort of between awake and asleep. And, you know, it’s a good time for God to talk to you because your mind can’t get in the way. 

And, the Spirit of the Lord just seemed to thunder in my heart. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And, you know, when the Lord speaks to you, you know, he’s got a purpose in speaking to you. He wants to unfold something to you. And so I had to sort of pray and look to the Lord after I got up and had some time to get into pray and study about it. I went and looked in Genesis 1:1, in the beginning, God created the heavens, and the earth. And what I felt the Lord was unveiling to me was that he created two realms for a man to live in. And man was created to have a relationship with him that’s in the spirit realm, while walking and living in the natural realm. And the way he was going to have dominion, was through his relationship with God. And as he came before the face of God, which, in the book of Genesis, when man sinned, it says they heard the sound of his voice, and they fled from his presence, but really the Hebrew word for presence is face. It’s Khah’-ee in the Hebrew. What was lost in the garden, by and large was the ability to have a face to face relationship with God. Because shame came in with sin. And man was afraid of the face of God. But I don’t want to get off on to that too far today. I’m sure it’ll reoccur here. 

But the Bible reveals that God is a spirit, or more literally, God is Spirit. And what many have failed to fully realize is that man is primarily spirit as well. When God breathed the breath of life, did I say Khah’-ee? It’s actually Pānîm is the word for face. Khah’-ee is the word for life. God breathed the breath of life into Adam. And Adam became a living soul. So the spiritual Breath of God, combined with the physical clay, produced a mediating realm called the soul of man. But the spirit was how man communed with God. And it was on the spiritual level that he was going to walk with God. And in God’s original intention, the spirit man was to dominate soul and body. In other words, his relationship with God would inform his mind, his soul. And so God would reign in and through him, by enabling him to what we now know as walk in the Spirit.

And so man was created to have a relationship with God on the plane of spirit. Because of the fall man lost his awareness of the spirit realm. And it’s interesting to note that it wasn’t right away that he lost his awareness of the spirit realm. In fact, God continued to interact with man, even to approaching Cain when he killed Abel. And he talked to him. But then it says, “And Cain left the face of God” or the presence of God. He went out from the presence of God. And from that point on, mankind began to degenerate into living apart from the spiritual realities, and to descend lower and lower in the physical, mental and emotional realm, and become progressively more and more alienated from God. 

Man must be born of the Spirit to see the kingdom of God. John 3 tells us that you must, Jesus said, be born again. But that Greek word translated again actually means from above. You must be born from above, from that higher realm. The new birth is the invasion of heaven into the spirit of man. Whereas man’s spirit became alienated through the fall through the new birth, heaven, once again invades the human spirit and revitalizes the human spirit, bringing the human spirit from death (alienation from God) to life, which is fellowship and communion with God. 

Man was created to function in both realms. Both the spirit and the physical realm. I’ll just mention this now, and we’ll probably look at it in more detail later, but the soul realm is the prize. I did a series once called Winning the Battle for the Mind. The mind is the battlefield, the will is the prize. Because whatever you  think about and meditate on will lead to the choices that you make. So if you think in agreement with God, you’ll make good choices. If you think in agreement with your own selfish desires, you’ll make poor choices. 

But the way I’ve unfolded this, is by contrasts. Because when you start to see it in the seedbed of Genesis, and then you see it unfolded in the New Covenant, it starts to make more sense to us than it might otherwise. We have to realize that traditionally speaking, until the late 19th century, and some earlier than that, but many did not believe mans’ spirit was different than his soul life. They believed man was dichotomous or two. Soul and body.

As the church progressed on, it began to discover that there was a distinction between soul and spirit. And that the spirit man was the place of the location of the true, God intended personality. What  we discover is that in the fall and being raised in alienation from God, we develop our sense of identity in our soul realm, because of family, because of circumstances, because of different life situations that shape us. We define ourselves by what others have told us we are, what others have told us, we can do, what others have said our value is, until we come to the Lord, and we realize that that identity is false. It’s not the truth about who we really are. Who we really are, is God’s sons and daughters, who were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, who God has revealed himself to. And now we’re starting to shed the grave clothes of that false identity and embrace the true identity that’s ours in Christ. 

But let’s look at some of these contrasts. When the Lord spoke to me and he said in the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth, I knew that he was saying that there was something about these two realms that I needed to understand. And one of the things that you’ll find is, throughout the Bible, many times, the word heaven is translated singularly. But in the Hebrew, it’s always plural. And many times in the New Testament, it’s plural, even when we translate it heaven. In fact, the New Testament has very little teaching about a place called heaven. It has a clear teaching, we see it a lot in the book of Revelation about a spiritual realm. 

I believe in heaven, I believe when we die, we go to be with the Lord in another place. But my point is that the traditional idea that heaven is our final destiny is not accurate, because actually, if you look in the book of Revelation, the City of God comes down to earth. And there’s a new heaven and a new earth. And in that new heaven, and in that new Earth dwells righteousness, and we dwell in that new heaven, and in that new earth, but we dwell in them both. 

The whole cry of the kingdom is, Your will be done in earth as it is in heaven. It’s a cry to see what’s true in heaven to be manifested on Earth. And we know that ultimately that will happen. 

The heaven and the earth represent two realms. And in John chapter one, verse one, a familiar passage, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And he was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through Him. And without him, nothing was made, that was made.” So when God created the heavens and the earth, it was actually the son in manifestation, doing the creative work of the Father. The Son, Jesus, was the agent of creation. But here’s something interesting if you look in Colossians, chapter one. Now, there’s a lot of a lot of scripture in this study, and it’ll probably be sort of necessary to look at a lot of them, particularly tonight as we’re laying foundation for this, and maybe less so as we as we proceed into the series. 

Colossians chapter one is one of the verses the Lord immediately led me to when he was teaching me this. Verse 15, “He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created, that are in heaven, and that are on earth, visible, and invisible.” So one of the things that we all accept, intuitively, but sometimes don’t really think about is that there’s a whole realm of creation that’s invisible. There’s a whole myriad of beings that have been created that are not visible. They’re not earthly creatures, they’re Heavenly Creatures. And Jesus is responsible for creating them all. “For by Him all things were created, that are in heaven, that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through Him and for Him.” So, Jesus is the agent of creation, who created things visible, and things invisible. 

Now, most of us who’ve read Ephesians 6, know that we wrestle not with flesh and blood but principalities and powers. We wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with unseen invisible creatures who have personality, they have power, they have wisdom, although it’s perverted. They’re real beings, they’re just not physical beings. And our warfare is primarily with the spiritual beings in another realm. And the only way that we can accurately find to deal with them is to believe what God says about that realm, and our authority in that realm. Otherwise they control and dominate and seduce us and beguile us by gaining access to our minds, and getting us to choose wrong things. So visible and invisible things. 

Now in First Corinthians 15, we want to look at that. I want to read to before I go to First Corinthians 15. The verses on the other side of your outline, the Scripture quotes. I thought these were fascinating. Genesis 1:1-2, in The Message says, “First this, God created the heavens and the earth. All you see, and all you don’t see.” It’s Eugene Peterson who did that translation. Although it’s a paraphrase, it captures the Greek and Hebrew ideas just beautifully in many ways. 

John 4:24 Let’s see, have we come to that yet? No, that’s in the introduction. “God is sheer being itself, Spirit. Those who worship Him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.” So, again, it is a paraphrase, but I found it interesting that Peterson sees our spirits as our true selves. And that’s really a profound insight. 

Proverbs 20:27 says, “The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the innermost parts of his being.” As we come to realize that your human spirit is where the Lord illuminates you, and He reveals to you everything you need to know about you. Now, if you’ve ever sought to understand yourself by yourself, have you realized how futile that is, and how discouraging that is trying to understand yourself by yourself? It’s yourself looking at yourself, to find yourself. And actually, as I think I said in a previous lesson, God is a better judge of yourself than you are. And his word about who you are and what you have, and what your attributes are as much more reliable than your own perceptions.

1 Corinthians 15:48 is also on your notes. “The first man is from the earth, earthy, the second man is from heaven. As is the earthy, so are those who are earthy, as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. Just as we have born the image of the earthly, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.” So here we see this contrast between the heavenly and the earthly, that it’s talking about more than physical things, versus unseen spiritual things. It’s talking about what we are and what we have in ourselves, that before we were born again, we were earthly. The New King James says, “We were of the dust”, but you’re no longer of the dust, you’re no longer of the first Adam. You’re now in the second man who is from the man from heaven, and you bear his image, and shall bear his image. 

In John 3:31, “Hhe who comes from above is above all, and he who is of the Earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all, and what he has seen and heard, that he testifies, and no one receives his testimony. He who received his testimony has certified that God is true.” Now, this, of course, is talking about the Lord Jesus, but we now have been born from above. And certainly not in the absolute sense that this describes Jesus.,but in a relative sense, this is also true of us, we are born from above. And we testify to heavenly spiritual realities, when we tell somebody about what Christ did for them, because almost everybody believes that Jesus lived, and that he died. But when it comes to the resurrection, that’s where their faith falters, because they can’t believe that anybody has been raised from the dead, because that’s in an unseen realm, although the early church did see him physically after his resurrection. 

But all of those who never saw the resurrected Christ took the testimony of His resurrection from the mouths of those who had seen him. And they believed in a testimony about something that’s totally contrary to what we would say forensic evidence, or any kind of scientific provability. There’s no way you can prove that God raised Jesus from the dead, and yet we believe it. And we now believe he’s seated at the Father’s right hand, yet, we’ve never seen the Father’s right hand, nor have we seen him seated there. But we accept those realities. In fact, we’ve staked our eternal destiny on those realities. 

So he who comes from above is above all, and he who is of the Earth is earthy, or earthly. And so if you’re born again, you’re you’re no longer earthly. You’re from another planet. Just kidding. You’re from outer space. 

I once took a trip to Great Britain, and was invited to speak at a church. I went there one year, and the meetings went pretty well, and the pastor invited me to come back the next year, and then invited me, as they say, in Britain to tea, which is the afternoon meal. And so I was there having a meal with him, and he began to share things with me. And he said, “You know, of course, you realize that when Jesus returns, he’ll be coming in a spaceship.” And I said, “Yeah, yeah right.” And he said, “No, really.” I realized that my minister friend here, really did think that the Chariots of the Gods were telling the true story. Needless to say, I never sought to go back and visit his church again after that. But when I say we’re from above, and we’re from another dimension, I’m not talking about outer space, I’m talking about the realm in which God lives. 

There’s another reference there, you don’t have to turn to it. It’s James 3:15-17. And it talks about the wisdom that is earthly, soulless and demonic, contrasted with the wisdom that is from above. Our God given destiny is to be partakers of that heavenly wisdom. It’s a wonderful contrast between the heavens and the earth. 

Our second contrast is light and darkness. You don’t have to turn to Genesis 1 again, I’ll just read it to you. 2-4 says, “And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And then God said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light. And God saw the light that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness.” Now, as I said earlier, the book of Genesis is the seed book of the Bible. Many of the concepts that we find in Genesis become threads of revelation that reached their full harvest in the new covenant. 

While this is talking about I’m sure, in one sense, the darkness and the light that we normally think of as light and darkness in the physical realm, it’s interesting to note that the sun, moon and stars weren’t created for days yet. So this separation of light from darkness had to have some other dimension to it. And it’s also interesting that in the days preceding the arrival of Jesus, the rabbis began to see the Messiah throughout the whole Bible. And one of the verses they said was actually speaking of Messiah, was this verse where it says, “Let there be light”, they said, that was the coming of the Messiah, prophesied in Genesis 1:2. That’s rather interesting, when we get over to second Corinthians chapter four, because Paul actually applies the creation story to our new birth. And says in verses 4-6, “Whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe lest the light of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves, your servants for Christ’s sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shown in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus.”

The literal Hebrew of Genesis 1:2 is “Light, be.” And at a certain point in our story, the Lord spoke and said, Light be, and the light was separated from the darkness in us, and we carry within us now this treasure in an earthen vessel, the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus. But it’s interesting that in the New Covenant, it’s light and darkness. 

Now, if we look also over in Colossians 1:12, “Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light, He has delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of His love.” Out of darkness, into the light. These themes begin in Genesis one, and they culminate in actually, it’s, I will probably get to a study on on these Tuesday nights of the finished work of Christ, but when Jesus appeared to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, it says he opened to them the scriptures, and showed them where they speak of Himself. And it says he opened up the the law and the prophets, and the writings, all three sections of the Old Covenant, and showed where he was revealed in all of those places. 

It’s an interesting thing, but theologians who study the interpretation of Scripture are somewhat baffled by the way that the New Testament writers use the Old Testament scriptures, because it’s hard to make some rules of interpretation based on the way that they interpreted scripture. But the key is quite simple. They saw the Messiah in everything. And so when they saw in the prophets that Israel is called out of Egypt, and it says, “I have called my Son out of Egypt,” well, the Bible said, Israel is my son, my firstborn. But in Matthew, Matthew applies that to Jesus being brought out of Egypt. “How can he do that? That’s destroying the context.” No, the whole book is about Jesus. 

While there may be a legitimate science of scriptural interpretation, we always have to make room for the Holy Spirit to interpret the Word the way he wants to interpret it. And that’s what he did with his disciples as they wrote the scriptures. They saw the Messiah by the illumination of the Spirit. They saw Christ throughout the scriptures. And Paul in Ephesians five gets all excited about husbands love your wives and wives respect your husbands, talks about this relationship between husbands and wives, and then all of a sudden he says, I speak to you a great mystery. I’m speaking about Christ and His Church. He can’t hardly talk about anything without relating it to the mystery of Christ, because the great type of Christ in His Church is a husband wife. That’s why marriage is so sacred. And that’s why it dishonors God and Christ, when marriage is not highly esteemed. 

Okay, so day and night, another image that’s used in this contrast. Now, what I’m wanting you to see as we go through these is that whether it’s the heavens, light day, or the visible, or the invisible, or the spirit, or faith, or the spiritual mind, these are our new realm. These are the things that are for us. And fallen mankind is not a partaker of what we’re a partaker of. Now we want him to be. We want to share the gospel and see people receive Christ. 

I was talking to someone about a relative of theirs that was a believer who was dating an unbeliever. And she made the comment, “It’s amazing that they can date seeing as they’re of a different species. And that’s really the truth. How much intimacy can light have with darkness? Say, You say, “I know some really good unbelievers.” Well, you know, there are many kind and ethical unbelievers. But, it’s interesting that they picked up their values in a culture that was largely Christian.