SPIRITUAL REALITIES
2 Corinthians 4:18 “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.”
What is reality? Humanly speaking we could say that reality is what we see with our eyes and what we touch with our hands, and that if we cannot touch it or see it because it is invisible,
that it probably doesn’t exist or that at least is not real to us.
Science however, has discovered that the things that we see and touch are made of particles that are invisible, and that when we come in contact with the things that appear to be solid and real, that we are not really even touching them, but rather, when we feel like we are touching something solid we are in reality feeling an invisible electromagnetic field or force that holds the particles together that form the visible stuff, and these forces repel one another, so that whatever force keeps the particles together in one form repel the particles that keep together another form.
What that means is that every time I strike a key on my keyboard as I am writing this lesson, I am not really touching nothing that is solid, there is some force emanating from my finger tips that repels the force that holds together the particles that comprise my keyboard and make it visible, but my fingers and the keyboard never really come into contact with one another. Try figuring that one out; in other words, reality is not really what we think it to be. Which raises the question, what is real?
Hebrews 11:3 “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made (are not comprise) of things which are visible.”
Isn’t it amazing how true science does nothing but corroborate what the Word of God teaches us? Clearly the answer to the question I posed earlier, what is real? Is, The Word of God, that’s reality!
Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living (life creating and life sustaining and powerful (the invisible energy or force that holds everything together), and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the division (separation) of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
So that the Word of God which created everything, sustains the creation by the power of an invisible force that holds everything together that God created. That force is also what separates the visible from the invisible so that everything occupies its own space in its interaction with the rest of the creation, what scientists call locality.
Acts 17:28 “For in Him (the Word that became flesh) we live and move and have our being (existence).”
The visible, what we call the physical realm, exists in a three-dimensional universe, but the invisible, what we call the spiritual realm, exists in a four-dimensional universe that is intertwined with the physical realm. So here is the key, the visible physical realm is totally made of invisible stuff, and the things which may appear real to us in reality are not.
How does knowledge of this, or the lack of it, affects my walk of faith?
Understanding the interactions of the physical and spiritual realm is key if we want to follow after the spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
Hebrews 1:14 “Are they not all (the holy angels) ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?”
Angels inhabit the fourth dimension, or what we call the spiritual realm, they are eternal creatures made of and sustained by the creating energy and do not have physical bodies. They can project themselves into our three-dimensional physical realm into whatever image they think is appropriate for their ministry on behalf of the saints, or remain invisible for that matter, but always working on and for the protection of the saints. Knowledge of this type of interactions, like that of knowing that we are never really alone when facing the creatures of darkness that are ever opposing us, can help our faith to be strengthen during a spiritual battle.
In the same manner, the demonic forces that we wrestle against in our physical realm, are not physical, they are unclean spirits that operate out of the invisible realm of darkness. The spiritual realm is divided into two camps, the third heaven or paradise which Jesus refers to in the Lord’s prayer: Thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, this heaven is also called the Kingdom of Light, and is where two thirds of the angels reside, all these are the holy angels. The other part of the spiritual realm is called the kingdom of darkness or the underworld, the second heaven out of which the demons operate, where one third of the fallen angels reside. Both of these kingdoms are invisible to us yet we interact with them in our daily walk in a regular basis.
Hebrews 13:2 “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.”
So that these types of interactions are real and can be beneficial to us if we understand how they are continuously working on our behalf to aid us. Also our understanding of these interactions can be helpful in protecting us from the unwanted intrusions that originate from the underworld and the creatures of darkness that are always coming against us.
Hebrews 13:6 “So we may boldly say: ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me (since God has angels working on our behalf)?’”
Here is revelation, if the creatures of the spiritual realm, the fourth dimension, have the abilities to interact with and or interfere with our three-dimensional time/space, can we then, the creatures that dwell in the physical three-dimensional realm cross over and interact with the spiritual realm which is in the fourth dimension and do that to our advantage?
Luke 10:17-21 “Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.’ And He said to them, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits (the invisible energy creatures) are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in (the third) heaven.’”
Jesus gives to us a tremendous insight into what the power of His name here on earth really entails. He tells them, do not just rejoice in the fact that in mine name the invisible creatures of the fourth dimension are subject to you, but rejoice in the fact that your names are written in heaven. What I believe that means is that not only are the creatures of the fourth dimension subject to us in His name, but that the creation itself falls under our jurisdiction as well, for it is from the third heaven that the creation itself is ruled from, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven!
Romans 8:19, 21 “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God...because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”
The creation is not just waiting for us to show up, but it says that it is eagerly waiting for us to be liberated from our bondage to a false reality that hold us captive to the natural world. What is it that keeps our understanding in chains?
Hosea 3:6 & 6:6 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge...For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”
There’s a couple of insights into the passages we just quoted from Hosea; First, a burnt offering sacrifice is the act of converting something that is real physical matter, back into its original invisible state, by releasing the particles that form a physical body, the sacrifice, from the force that holds that body together as a visible unit, through the agency of fire.
In other words, taking something that though visible is comprised of invisible particles and releasing those invisible particles back into the invisible realm as an act of worship. Which brings us to the second point, the knowledge of God that is gained by understanding what a burnt offering really meant to begin with.
So that in all of this, it was always our understanding of the mechanics of how the physical and spiritual realms interact that God was after: I desire mercy and not sacrifice...knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
1 Corinthians 1:30 “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom (revealed knowledge by His sacrificial act on the cross) from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”
Here is what I believe all these things mean; The creation began when God spoke and said: Let there be light (energy), and then He proceeded to complete the creation with all of the energy that He first released out of His mouth, so that everything that exists now, both visible and invisible, were made and are sustained by the Word that came out of God’s mouth.
John 1:1-3 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He (the Word) was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him (the Word), and without Him nothing was made that was made.”
Not only did God make everything by the breath of His mouth, but as we read earlier, He also sustains everything as well by the breath of His mouth.
Acts 17:28 “For in Him we live and move and have our being.”
John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh…”
Energy became matter! And they named Him, the energy that became matter, Jesus. All the invisible particles that are made of energy, whether joined together to form some physical visible body, or loosed in their invisible form somewhere in the universe, all have to answer to the name of Jesus, no matter whatever state they are in. For Jesus is the force that created them, that sustains them, and that governs them.
Philippians 2:9-10 “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him (the
Word that became flesh) and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven (invisible four-dimensional spiritual realm, third heaven), and of those on the earth (the physical three-dimensional visible realm), and of those under the earth (the second heaven four-dimensional spiritual underworld, the realm of darkness).”
So that from a scientific point of view, those of us whose names have been written in heaven, have been invested with authority in the name of Jesus, to rule over the invisible realm of particles that make up everything in the universe, both the physical and invisible. And not only are we expected to exercise that authority, but the creation itself eagerly waits for us to exercise such authority.
Mark 11:23 “For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.”
Notice how Jesus tells us where the power resides, whoever says, the power resides in the words that we speak. If it is a mountain of dirt and rocks that we are speaking to, that dirt and those rocks are made of invisible energy particles that respond to the Word of God, the energy that causes some particles to hold together and others to repel each other, those energy particles can make such a mountain disappear in a second by just disbanding. You see, as those particles start to repel one another at the command of God’s Word, such mountain can disappear in an instant into thin air. Now you see it and now you don’t, just like that.
But in our natural mind, which is confined to our present reality, when we first read about that huge mountain disappearing, immediately our mind turns to, how many buckets does it take to carry all that dirt out and where in the world are we going to put it?
Let’s talk about another type of mountain, let’s say, a cancerous tumor that threatens the life of a loved one; what is that cancer made out of? Invisible particles that bond together and are continuously growing. In the natural if we cut that cancer out, chances are that it may spread to other parts of the body, also if it is growing in an organ that is vital to life, will such removal cause more damage than help?
What if by a simple word of faith that understands not only how things are made and function, but that as believers we have such authority in the name of Jesus to cause such tumor to disappear without spreading or damaging anything to which is connected within that body, in an instant.
Many years ago, there was a man here in California who was originally from my home town in Cuba, he was older than me and a friend of my eight years older brother, that was my only knowledge of him. Through my brother I found out that he was dying of a cancerous tumor in his stomach. Every time my brother spoke about him and his trials the Holy Spirit convicted me to go and pray for this man, I was young in my faith and resisted by saying to myself, probably this man does not even remember me or know who I am, for I was a kid the last time he saw me.
One morning my brother told me that after years of struggling with that cancer, his friend was about to die and that they gave him his last rites that night in the hospital and he was not expected to make it through that morning. I rushed to the hospital thinking that if I didn’t the Holy Spirit would be grieved by my disobedience and that maybe this man would not make it to heaven. When I got there, it was a horrible scene, he could not eat so he was less than eighty pounds, they had earlier opened his stomach in surgery, but the tumor was too big and because of where it was could not be removed.
He had tried to get out of the bed and had fallen to the floor and was put back into his bed before I got there, and there was some kind of fluid on the floor by his bed just as I walked in and stepped in it. I remember speaking to God in my mind and saying: Lord I think you got the wrong man, I am just not cut out for this type of ministry. The man woke up and looked at me startled, I told him that I was Carlos’ brother and had come to see him. I saw shame in his eyes and I don’t know why. He did not seem to want to talk to me or look at me anymore, desperate to fulfill whatever mission God had sent me there for I asked him if he had a Bible as I looked at a funeral brochure that his wife had left by his bed, how I connected the Bible with a funeral pamphlet I’ll never know, but when I mentioned the word Bible his eyes lit up and he told me, almost in a cheerful mode how he would love to have a Bible in the Spanish language. I ran out as fast as I could to the church I attended miles away, where I knew my pastor kept Spanish language Bibles to pass out.
When I got back to his hospital room he was not there anymore, they had moved him to another facility to die there, I met his wife in the hallway who told me many of the things that I just shared with you about his condition, but she remarked how elated he was that I had gone there to take him a Bible and how he insisted that she stay back and wait for the Bible that I promised him.
That night was Friday night when we normally had a home Bible study, which I could not teach for I felt like such a failure. I told those who showed up for the study how I had failed and broke into tears. They were nice to me and understood, we had fellowship and they left. Just then, my nephew who had taken his dad, my brother, to see if he could see his friend one more time before he died called me and said: What did you do to that man? He could not stop talking about you showing up and taking him a Bible and what a difference that had made in his life, it was like somebody else showed up there and ministered to this man and I know it wasn’t me, but I was somehow getting the credit for it.
He told the nurses that he was hungry and wanted to eat. I think that eventually they started to feed him again and that weekend he accepted the Lord as his savior watching a Jimmy Swagger service that was translated into the Spanish language. One week later I went to see him again before they released him from the hospital. He told me that they could not find the cancer and that it was gone. So, they were sending him home and he was thanking me for the Bible that brought such a change in his life.
I prayed and asked the Lord what had really happened that day, for this man’s recollection of what happened and mine were totally different. The Lord in a stern tone said to me; the results are never left up to you, and by that He meant men, the only thing left to you men to do is for you to obey Me when I call you and to show up. And knowing that I was, as a teacher of His Word, interested in what mechanism He had used to heal that man, He told me, when you mentioned the word Bible, the spirit of that man understood it as My Word and what My Word desired to do on behalf of that man. You went just along for the ride so that I could teach you not to trust in the reality that you see, but in the reality of My Word.
Romans 10:17 “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
As we proceed into the last days of this age, reality, or should I say, our perception of it, is going to get more and more difficult to comprehend with our natural abilities. That is because our world has been programmed by this end time deception to tune into the world of the supernatural that is driven by the rulers of darkness as we get closer to the end of this age.
We as believers have to depend totally, so that we can spiritually discern what’s happening, on the fidelity of the Word of God and our understanding of what it teaches us in regards to what is really real and what is not.
We need to remember that the world with all its lusts is passing away, while the promises of God remain forever. What are you clinging to?
I will ask one more time: What is real?
God so loved the world that He sent Jesus to save us; that is real!
Jesus died to forgive and to cleanse us from all our sins; that is real!
Jesus is coming back to judge both the living and the dead; that is real!
The trials and tribulations that we are facing are temporary; that is real!
The blessings of God for enduring trials faithfully are eternal; that is real!
If you do not know Jesus as your Lord and Savior you can receive Him right now, just as you are, for they that call upon the name of the Lord will be saved; Now it does not get any more real than that, does it?
Thank you Jesus for allowing me the privilege to proclaim Your Word!