27.Feb.2008 The Realm of the Spirit
Every now and again we need to understand in a refreshed and renewed way what is going on in the spirit realm. It is so hard not to get caught up in the natural and stay focused on the supernatural. You have continually renew your thinking and retrain your mind to not allow the things of the world to challenge your faith when the things of the natural don’t line up with the things of the Kingdom. A lot of things in the natural do not line up with the Kingdom.
There are things in the natural that are in conflict with the spirit and how we are trying to live our lives. A good example is economics. Many people are in fear of the current economic situation and political changes. They let the natural outweigh their faith in God. God is bigger than the economy. God has a bigger plan and destiny for us than where the country is going or how the market shifts. Americans are spenders and have been living above their means for more than a decade. If you don’t control your money, your money will control you and you are dead. It can take years to get out of debt and get your spending back under control. Our whole economy has been running this way. Because of these behaviors, the economy will probably get a lot worse before it gets better.
There are consequences for our actions in the natural, such as spending more than we earn. That being said, we are people of the spirit. We were born of the natural and then born again – born as a person in the spirit. We enter the realm of the spirit and understand that there is another dimension we can live in. We physically live in the natural, but we operate under the laws of the spirit – the laws of God’s kingdom. When we align with those laws, the benefits of God’s kingdom – his realm – start affecting our natural world and our lives. Those who can see into the spirit can see beyond the natural. The prophet could see beyond the enemy in front of him into the spirit and the army of angels ready to consume the enemy. If all you can see is the natural, you will be defeated.
Ephesians 2 – when we are born into the spirit, the eyes of our understanding are opened. When our spirit eyes begin to look past the natural, we begin to see into God’s realm, which is all miraculous. It goes totally against the natural world. It is where miracles occur and seeds are multiplied. As spirit filled believers, we don’t get caught up in the natural. In the natural, there is no other way out of things that to fight them in the natural. But our battle is not of flesh and blood. The fight of faith is the fight between being caught up in the natural and transcending into the realm of the spirit where there is victory. The fight of faith is building bridges between the natural and the spiritual. One of these bridges is vision – when I can see that God is bigger than interest rates or the stock markets, and when I can see that God can prosper me despite what I see the eyes of my understanding open. Sometimes all you need is a glimpse of God’s power – the prophet says those that are with us are greater than those who are with them. In the realm of the spirit there is so much that we can’t see, but by getting caught up in the natural we will never experience or see what is possible in the spirit.
In the natural, there are many forces working against us and many obstacles conspiring against us. If you are trapped in the natural, you get run over. You are doing everything you know how to do, but nothing is lining up. When we can’t see beyond the natural, we are well on the way to discouragement and defeat. Discouragement is like cancer that eats away at your faith. God says I want you to see what I can see. The New Testament says greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. If you allow circumstance to dictate you and put a ceiling on you, your future, outcomes and visions are limited because beyond that ceiling is another world. Nothing in the realm of the spirit matches up with things here. God laughs at the circumstances. He is not moved by the things that are going on in our natural. We have a constant tension between what we see in the natural – letting out thought processes to create our future – and arresting our thoughts and minds to create our future according to the realm of the Spirit. Declare what God has already declared. Align yourself with his power and provision. Make the best decisions you can and then don’t let circumstances dictate what you see or do. It’s not denial, because you have to live in the natural. You just choose to submit your circumstances to God and have faith in his power to bring you through despite what you see.
You go to the Spirit, align with God and come back with new vision and new weapons. You see the angels of God ready to overcome your enemies. You see the strength and power of God to bring you through. Then all of the sudden, you start to see things change and shift. You change your world by aligning it with the realm of God, and you move and prosper despite what you see in the natural because God has already declared that you win.
