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 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 do we shift our identity from rooted in the physical to rooted in the spiritual?
- How should we consider our earthly responsibilities, in light of this?
- What is the one fear that gauges our level of spiritual maturity? (And the cure!)
This episode is pulled from the The Two Realms MP3 series.
Additional Resources
Full Transcript
In Colossians, we see that we’re delivered out of the authority of darkness, and we’ve been made partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. You and I have an inheritance in the light, and we have been made partakers of that. God has qualified us.
I heard a healing series not long ago, and the gentleman who was teaching gave a list of all the ways we can tend to disqualify ourselves from God’s grace in talking about healing. He just listed all these ways. “Well, I’m not worthy enough. My faith isn’t strong enough. I haven’t lived a perfect life. I’m not sanctified enough.” And here this verse says you’re qualified because God has qualified you. Again it comes down to are we gonna believe God or our own experience? I think I’d go with God if I were you. I’d say if he says I’m qualified, I think I’ll agree. He says you’re qualified to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in the light, and you’ve been delivered from the power of darkness. So that’s pretty good news.
Alright, John 1:4 says, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” When Jesus came, he was a light in a dark place. And I think it might be the Amplified Bible says that the darkness could not overwhelm it. The light. And we certainly know that was true, that the light when it came into the darkness people were drawn to the light.
And if we look in John 3:19, we have another reference to light and darkness. “And this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen that they have been done in God.”
Let me mention two things. One, we can gauge the level of our spiritual maturity by how afraid we are of being exposed. In other words, probably many in the church have areas where they’re very ashamed of their own problems. But the cure for darkness is coming to the light. Because nobody ever came to Jesus, who was the light, and didn’t get help. But if we allow the darkness to enwrap us in shame we’ll be afraid of the light we’ll draw back from the light. And it’s kind of like the principle of the throne of grace. “What do I do if I’m struggling with my flesh?” Come boldly to the throne of grace and obtain mercy. “Well, I don’t deserve mercy.” Well, you got that right. And you never will, but it’s being offered so why not obtain it? You see?
This is the good news is that even if I’m not perfect, even if I don’t do everything right, I can still come to the throne of grace. And get mercy. And not only that, but I can be empowered by grace and given divine wisdom so that I don’t continue in the cycle of failure and repentance and promising to do better and going out and failing again. You see, there come a point, there should come a point for any of us that you stop promising God to do better. And you get brutally honest with God, and you say, “Lord, if it’s up to me to make this change happen I’m not going to be able to do it.” And the Lord will say, “Well, I guess then probably you need my mercy and my grace.” “Oh. Oh, you kind of knew that did you Lord? You’re waiting for me to find that out? Oh.”
So we don’t have to live in the dark. Kenyon made the statement that many believers live with broken fellowship with Heaven and in its place, they do good works. But you see, those works have no value in the kingdom because they do not originate in God. You see, it’s out of fellowship with Him, that we’re inspired to do the kind of works that glorify the Lord. And we know it’s His grace and His mercy working in us. Therefore, he gets the glory.
All right, so day and night. The passage of light and darkness separates the light from the darkness. Then it goes on to talk about day and night. In verse three through five, “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 and God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. So the evening and the morning, were the first day.”
So he called the light day and the darkness he called night, but turn over 1 Thessalonians chapter five, and we’ll see how Paul uses this imagery. I know I’m probably not telling you a lot that’s new here, but sometimes when we see it all brought together. It has the effect of seeing ourselves as those who are called to walk and live in the light in the day, walking in heavenly realities and not earthly realities. 1 Thessalonians 5:4 says, “But you brethren, are not in darkness so that this day should overtake you as a thief. But you are all sons of the light, and Sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.”
So sons of light sons of the day. The day and light become images of new creation life, they become symbols of having passed. You see our redemption, our salvation is far more radically accomplished than sometimes we understand. We think we’re kind of saved for eternity and maybe we’ll get there if we hang on or something like that. And in reality, this enormous miracle has taken place in us, and it’s as dramatic as light from darkness and night from day. It’s that dramatic. And we’re called to walk in the day and to walk in the light and God’s grace is sufficient for us to do that, if we believe it. Romans 13 addresses this same idea.
Now you’ll notice as we read through these, Paul will use them a little differently in the different contexts, but there’s the underlying theme there, that I want you to see. Romans 13:11, “And do this knowing the time that it’s high time to wake out of sleep, for our salvation is nearer than we first believed. The night is far spent. The day is at hand, therefore let us cast off the works of darkness. And let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness not in licentiousness and lewdness, nor in strife and envy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts.” So, walking in the light, walking in the day, putting on the armor of light, casting off the works of darkness. Again, this very extreme contrast.
We have to realize that the writers of the New Testament were a people thoroughly steeped in the Old Testament scriptures. 2 Peter 1:19, “We also have the prophetic word made more sure, which you do well to heed as to a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.”
Now, I’m tempted and we’ll just take a minute to address this issue. But sometimes charismatic believers have a lot more confidence in their own experience than they do in the Bible. And you know, if somebody prophesies to you, it’s, you know, “Wow, I have this, I have this word that says God is going to use me and I’m going to be fruitful, and I’m going to have a powerful and effective life.” But I could have read you that in the Bible. You see, so often our prophecies just confirm what the Scriptures say and when they don’t, we’re supposed to reject them. But people are more excited about a prophet prophesying to me, than God speaking to me by the Holy Spirit through his word. Now I believe in personal prophecy. I’ve been greatly encouraged by prophetic words, but they have a secondary place in my walk with the Lord. The Lord sends prophetic words to confirm things to us, not to necessarily give us direction. There are some directive prophecies that are valid, but for the most part the prophetic word is to confirm what God is speaking to us in the private chamber of our prayer life. I’ve had some pretty powerful encounters with the Lord over the years, but they serve to open up the scriptures to me, not to take the place of the scriptures.
And you notice here, if you read this passage in context, Peter is talking about being the mount of transfiguration, where the Lord comes in the cloud, Jesus is transfigured before him and his robes turn like a bright light, and the voice from glory speaks and says, “This is my beloved son, hear him.” And notice what Peter says, “We have the more sure word of prophecy.” In other words, as glorious as that experience was, I have something more reliable than that experience. I have the scriptures. Now, I like that, because sometimes we hear about the great experiences people have and we’re sort of jealous and envious, and “Wow, I wish I could have that experience.” Well, you know what, there have been believers throughout the over 2,000 years of church history, who just believed the word and changed the world. Who just had the witness of the Spirit as they prayed and read the scriptures and they just did what it said and they changed the world.
But sometimes we we have a tendency, maybe it’s because of our media generation that we want to be entertained and we want something spectacular instead of the mundane reality of just getting on our face before God every day and seeking his face. You know, and I’m not against anything that God is doing. And I believe in the prophetic I believe in dreams and visions and revelations. I believe in all of it. I just don’t put it in the place some some I believe mistakenly do. They give it a more exalted place and I have the more sure word of God’s scriptures. Something more sure than a profound experience, where God the Father speaks and God the Son’s revealed. I have something more sure than that. It’s called the Bible. And that’s a good way to approach things, because you can really be blessed by experiences and by prophetic words and dreams and visions. They can be a real blessing to you, but you cannot walk with them.
I remember somebody made the same point in a little different way. In the healing revival in the 50s so many of the of the healing ministers built their ministry on gifts of the Spirit. And Kenneth Hagin was in one of these meetings and he got up and he said, “Well, brothers,” he said, “I need to tell you that many of you are building your ministries on the gifts of the Spirit and your ministries are going to fail. I am building my ministry on the Word of God, and I’ll still be here when you’re gone.” And to a man, almost every one of those men died long before Hagin did. Hagen lived to see a couple more moves of God. And he’s got a book on his visions of Jesus. He had exciting and amazing visions, yet he still said those are not the final criteria. In fact, when Jesus appeared during one of his visions, he said, “Show me that in the Word. “And the Lord gave him four verses for it. He said, “I want to see it in three verses in the New Testament.” Jesus said, “I’ll give you four”. And Hagen said to Jesus, “I’ve never seen that anywhere in the New Testament.” And the Lord laughed and said, “There’s lots you’ve never seen in the new testament.” But the point is well taken that our experience, as wonderful as it might be is not the final court of appeal for what is true and reliable and what we should build our lives on. So the more sure word of prophecy.
All right, visible and invisible. We looked at Colossians one earlier, where it talks about things that were created visible and invisible. And it’s interesting it says thrones, dominions, rulers and authorities. Now it’s interesting to watch commentators try to work out what that could possibly mean. Are there ranks among the angelic beings? Probably. But there are also in Ezekiel, there are four living creatures. And the book of Revelation, there’s all kinds of creatures that you’d kind of go, “Well, how does that fit into everything?” Well, when you figure it out, let me know, because we don’t know that much about the unseen realm, although we know that there is a courtroom. And when Jesus rose from the dead in Daniel and came to his father, it said, thrones were set up. Not a throne. But thrones were set up and a judgment was made. What can that mean? Well, I’ve read some interesting things by Hebrew scholar about that. Tom Hopkins, a man who’s been able to help a lot of people dealing with multiple personalities has taught on the courtroom of heaven. And there are some people that are beginning to teach on some of these things. But there’s a lot we don’t know frankly, about these things. And it’s quite intriguing, really, if you have an inquisitive mind.
But we wrestle not with flesh and blood but principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, wicked spirits in the heavenlies. And the good news is we’re seated far above them. And that’s the only place you want to put your armor on is seated far above them. You want them where they belong beneath your feet. And I’m not talking about going around, calling down principalities and powers. I don’t think that’s our sphere. I think some intercessors with an apostolic and prophetic calling, do get into interaction with some high levels of principalities, but in general, our job is to displace them by the demonstration of the gospel of the Kingdom. In Luke chapter 10, Jesus appoints 70 others and sends them out. And when they come back, they say, “Master, even the demons were subject to us in Your name.” And Jesus responded and he says, “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning. But rejoice not in this, that the demons are subject to you by that your names are written in heaven.”
I was wondering what to make of that and I heard an evangelist one time share how God showed him that when the gospel was preached with power with signs following it, it dislodged Satan’s kingdom in the heavenlies in that area, where the gospel was demonstrated. The kingdom of God dominated the kingdom of darkness and Satan was dislodged in that locality. So when the Gospel goes forth with power, and is accompanied by signs and wonders, the satanic hierarchy can be displaced by the members of God’s kingdom. That’s a perspective on that that I found helpful. If it helps you, I hope it does.
2 Corinthians chapter four is the next verse here we want to look at. Running out of time here. 4:16, “Therefore we do not lose heart, for even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.” Another way we could read that is, “Though our outward fleshly man is perishing, our inward man the spirit man is being renewed, day by day. For our our light affliction which is but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While 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.”
So, Paul believed that we believers ought to be able to perceive spiritual realities and walk by them. I don’t think he meant living in the realm of visions and revelations, I think he meant that the eyes of our heart in Hebrews 11 it says, “Moses endured as seeing him who is invisible.” I don’t think it meant he perceived him with his natural eyes. I believe it means he perceived that God was for him and God was with him, and he was in the will and purpose of God. Therefore, he could go through what he needed to go through. It’s much like what Paul is saying here. He said, our focus is not on our affliction. In Romans eight, he says, “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that’s about to be revealed in us.” So I think this is that heavenly perspective. The Lord would have us learn to rely entirely on the unseen realm. That doesn’t mean where we don’t pay attention to natural responsibilities and all of those things. It’s not an either or situation. It’s a prioritization situation that the spiritual reality should govern what I do in the natural realm. In fact, the more they do, the more successful I’ll even be in the natural realm.
So while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen, which are eternal. Paul had his eyes on a coming body like Jesus’ glorified body. And so when they threatened to kill him, he was hardly intimidated. You see, it didn’t, it didn’t faze him. He was willing to lay down his life. in fact, it says in earlier part of 2 Corinthians that he had the sentence of death in himself that he might learn to trust in God who raises the debt, who delivered him, who had delivered him who is delivering him and who will deliver him. He had the confidence and it’s a confidence we should all have, that we’ll finish our course. That we’ll get done what we need to get done, and then we’ll step out of our bodies.
Flesh and spirit. This is one we could probably take some time on. John 3:6 says “That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.” It is sometimes helpful for us to realize that flesh sometimes, if you have the NIV Bible, it will translate the Greek word sark’s, which is usually translated flesh. It’ll translate it sinful nature. And that’s totally an interpretation. It’s not a translation, because flesh is not a nature. Flesh is what you live in, and to the degree that your body dominates your soul, you’re walking in the flesh. But to the degree that your spirit dominates your soul, you walk in the Spirit.
So as I said, the battle is for the mind, the prize is the will. Will I walk in the dictates of my body and my emotions, or will I walk in the dictates of my recreated spirit, under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit and the truth of God’s word? That’s where the real battle is. Of course, 2 Corinthians 5:7 says where we walk by faith and not by sight. So learning to walk by faith, learning to to bet everything on the unseen realm. You know, we all do that when we get born again. We believe we’re gonna go to heaven when we die. We’ve already entrusted our eternal destiny to unseen realities. Why not just trust God for the rest of life, on the same unseen realities? Why not just believe that if he’s able to draw me out of darkness and reveal his son to me when I was a rebel and not even trying to find him, how much more can he accomplish his will in and through me, as I’m now trying to cooperate with him? You see? But we have kind of a stronghold of false humility.
Let me read a verse to. Colossians 2:18 which is actually on point seven there. This is from Young’s Literal translation. He says, “Let no one beguile you of your prize, delighting in humble mindedness and in worship of the messengers, intruding into the things he has not seen, being vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh.” but delighting in humble mindedness. Do you know the Bible says that humility is a good thing. But have you ever met somebody that was so humble that you just, how shall I say it? It had an air of unreality about it? They just seem so humble that you just kind of thought they weren’t being real. You know, there’s a false religious humility, that delights… One translation says delights in self abasement. “Oh, I am nothing. I’m so unworthy.”
Well, you know, there’s a reality to the fact that we’re nothing and we’re unworthy, but But God didn’t leave us in that situation,and he’s done something dramatic about it. And it doesn’t honor what Christ did for us, for us to exalt in our wickedness or our unworthiness. Because, you know, it’s like somebody once said, you determine the worth of something by how much someone is willing to pay for. Well, God so loved you and I that He gave His only begotten Son. I think that gives us some worth. Now, it’s not worth that we’ve created on our own but it’s worth he’s attributed to us. So it’s his appraisal of the situation that delivers us from the pride and arrogance of human independence and from the false humility of religious do goodism, and brings us into the reality of a walk in the Spirit, where we bring forth fruit that’s pleasing to God, and we know who’s responsible for it, because He who began a good work in us is working it in us and through us and to him be all the glory Amen.
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