We are not living in a time of peace but in a time of war. Sure, it may not feel like you are in the heat of battle, but there is a war raging in the spiritual realm, in the heavenly places, that is as fierce and as real as any battle here on earth. In this last installment of our study of the heavenly realm, we are going to take a peak at what our part in the battle is.
If you have not already read the first two studies of our Greek word epouranios (Heavenly Realm), please do so now by clicking here:
The Heavenly Realm – Part 1
The Heavenly Realm – Part 2
That They Might Know
In 1 Kings 18.36-39, Elijah prepares the sacrifice on Mount Carmel, cries out to God, and all the people see the fire of God descend to consume the altar. It says in the last verse: “And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The LORD, He is the God; the LORD, He is the God.”
God is continually demonstrating Himself in order that all the people might proclaim: “The God of Elijah – He is the God!” For example when little David went against the giant Goliath, the people knew there was still a God in Israel. He was proclaimed and lifted high throughout the land. In the book of Job we find satan wondering the halls of heaven when God asks him if he had ever taken notice of Job. “Yes,” satan replied, “but You have him guarded.” And as the book progresses, Job becomes a demonstration not only to earth but also to the spiritual realm that there are still those who wholly follow hard after God.
The great English author and preacher, Ian Thomas, once made the statement that God created our lives to be a visible, physical demonstration of an invisible God within our visible world. He is to inhabit and have full authority in our lives in order that He may demonstrate Himself to the world through you and me. We are to be the vessel through which all the world might proclaim: “There is a God. The LORD, He is the God!”
This same concept is presented by Paul in Ephesians 3.10: “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in epouranios might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.”
The church is to be the demonstration and evidence of the manifold wisdom of God to all the powers, rules, and peoples within the heavenly realm. As we have said before, the heavenly (spiritual) realm is a far greater reality than what you see around you. You may not be able to see what is going on, but be sure that it is more “real” than the earthly realm you live in.
Do you know what our lives are suppose to be? Our lives are to be a living demonstration to all the world and and to the spiritual realm that there is a God, and He has all wisdom, control, power, and authority. There should be no doubt in any human, angelic, or demonic mind. It appears that satan and his weaklings have a faulty assumption about the power, majesty, and wisdom of God. And strangely enough, God wants to use us as a proclamation to the heavenly realms.
Will you allow Jesus to invade your life, willing that He – in His consuming fire – would burn all of self and flesh within you, in order that you become a righteous and pure vessel throughout which He might demonstrate and proclaim Himself to all of earth, heaven, and hell that there is a God and the LORD, He is the God!?
The Battle
Ephesians 6.10-12: Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armour of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers or the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in epouranios.
Just as we are to be a proclamation to the spiritual realm, so our battle is not earthly but heavenly. It is within the spiritual realm that the War of wars ensues. This battle is not physical, like the battles of the Old Testament were. The battle has been raised to the spiritual realm where far more is at risk, it is far more dangerous and certainly far more adventurous and glorious. The reality of this war is extremely serious, costly, and eternally significant.
We all recognize that what happens in the spiritual realm has influence over the physical realm. But what may not be as obvious is that what happens in the physical also affects the spiritual. For example, prayer. God in the spiritual realm had the intention of destroying the Israelites in the desert and starting over with Moses because of their endless complaining. But Moses prayed and God stayed His hand. Prayer influences the spiritual realm. Another example was the Cross. The penalty of sin was a penalty demanding death. But it was a spiritual issue. Yet what took place on the cross paid a spiritual debt – the physical changed and altered the spiritual. If the death of Jesus was merely physical, it would have been just another man dying upon a cross – but it was FAR more, because the physical death reached into the spiritual realm and canceled the penalty and punishment of sin.
What you say and how you live gives “fuel” to the forces within the spiritual realm – either strengthening the darkness or lifting up the light. What if we allowed God, who is the Light, to invade our lives and demonstrate Himself in and through us that we might be proclaimers (light bearers) to all the world that He is God!
What if we lived as if the epouranios, the heavenly realm, was the REAL reality and this earthly realm merely fog and haze? Could it be that when we die we find the earthly realm more like a dream and the spiritual realm was in fact the reality of realities. 1 Corinthians 13.12 says: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
We are living in a fog, haze, dream-like state when compared to the spiritual realm. IT is the reality we are to be living within. A huge army came to get Elisha and when his servant came in to tell him, Elisha told him not to worry. Not worry? As Elisha took the servant outside and prayed for the servant’s eyes to be opened, the servant saw the REALITY – horses and chariots of fire all about the mountain (2 Kings 6.8-23). Elisha knew and lived from the reality of the spiritual realm. Do you?
One last observation – all of the spiritual realm, both Godly and demonic, knows that the Word of God is fact. Everything contained therein is true. What if we too began to reckon the full reality and fact of Scripture in our lives? If we lived in light of the spiritual realm, knowing it is more real than the earth we “live” on, and we put our full weight, confidence, and trust in the Word, do you not think our lives would begin to look like they should? (take a peak at Hebrews 11 for a good picture of such lives)
Read the other Bible Studies in this Heavenly Realms series:
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