What About The Unseen Realm of Spirits?
Mysteries Beyond
Today’s Verse and Thought
“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”(Genesis 3:5)
Star Trek scene of transporting into the fourth dimension (source)
From yesterday - “…when we look around at all the mysterious things in the world from the supernatural metanarrative vantage point, we begin to have a better context and understanding of the mysterious.”
Rethinking Our Reality
Years ago I took flying lessons. When the time came for me to take the wheel, the hardest part was operating in all three dimensions of space. My experience with travel was limited to driving, so sitting behind the controls of the plane felt “familiar,” but obviously, the capabilities of a plane were very different than a car. I had been so well indoctrinated in driving, that flying in three dimensions fought against my sense of reality. I had to rethink how I operated.
The wheel of the plane primarily controlled up and down motion, while the pedals controlled side to side movement. My brain kept trying to understand flying as if I was in a car, but the reality of flight was very different.
I was no longer restricted by two-dimensional back, forth, left, right - now I had to consider up and down as well. I was controlling a vehicle in three dimensions. I had never really experienced it before so it felt really weird. It was hard to wrap my mind around. It was both thrilling, scary, and disorienting all at the same time.
The Fourth Dimension of the Unseen Realm
Dr. Michael Heiser, an ancient Hebrew scholar, introduced me to another dimension that, at first unsettled me, just as it did that day in the plane. When I read his book, and took his courses on The Unseen Realm, my eyes were opened to the reality of what physicists call, “The Fourth Dimension,” or the unseen spirit world. I was once again thrilled, scared, and disoriented.
One of my college professors referred to times when we experience the fourth dimension as “thin places.” This is where the supernatural and physical world seem to connect. Every time we pray, we are entering into a thin place as our spirit connects with the Spirit of God. And sometimes, we actually “see” into it.
It’s like the story in Matthew 17 when Jesus took Peter, James, and John up on a mountain. “And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.”(Matthew 17:3). Moses and Elijah had long ago gone into glory, yet here they were alive and talking with with Jesus… on earth…and the disciples witnessed it. Some people refer to these thin places as “portals.”
Isn’t This Some Kind of New Age Spiritualism?
Does the concept of “the spirit realm” raise alarm bells in you? I know it did me at first. The only time I had ever heard of “the spirit world” in church, it was tied to Satanic occultism, or the New Age cult.
The spirit world was a forbidden taboo - a place of evil; things “good Christians” don’t talk about. However, the entire Bible is full of events where people interact with the spirit realm.
So why did it become taboo?
When the age of reason and science began dominating our educational system - including our seminaries - it stripped the church of the reality of the depths of the spirit world.
It’s OK to believe God the Father was the Creator. We knew that His Son, Jesus, (who was also God) was our Savior; and, depending on the church, the Holy Spirit acts as a hidden force in our Christian walk.
There were also generic teachings about angels and demons that operated on earth in some manner of good vs. evil, but I never really heard much about them in church. I heard about Satan, but my understanding of the supernatural was at a kindergarten level: God, Satan, Jesus, Holy Spirit, and Heaven in the clouds with fat baby angels playing harps; or hell “down there” where Satan lives.
“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”(Matthew 6:10)
The entire Bible is filled with mysterious interactions between the supernatural and the natural
And as things happen on earth, things are also happening in the heavenly realm. We are told to pray for this reality. And we are to pray for The Kingdom to come. What Kingdom?
The supernatural Kingdom of Jesus that is coming. This is what we are told to seek first above all of our earthly needs: seek first the supernatural Kingdom of God and his ways of righteousness.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”(Matthew 6:33)
This is the dimension where we are supposed to deposit all of our “treasures” where nothing can destroy them.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”(Matthew 6:19-20)
This way of thinking is much like my experience with flying
I was trained for so many years to operate in a three dimensional world, that to consider a fourth - the spiritual one - was disorienting and restricted due to prior teaching. I had to retrain my brain to be open to the truth of spirituality from a Christian standpoint - not from a New Age, or occult lens.
It’s like Adam and Eve whose eyes were “open” to something they had never seen before. They became aware of something in the world that prior was closed off. Adam and Eve lived each day in all four dimensions, but there were limits placed on them.
There’s an “off limits” to our participation too. We are not to seek “spirits.” The Bible strictly forbids this just as Adam and Eve weren’t supposed to toy with the knowledge of good and evil. If we have a spiritual encounter, we are told to “test the spirits” to discern if they’re from God or not.
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.”(1 John 4:1)
This Realm Belongs to God
It’s time to take back what Satan stole from us. If the church doesn’t address this, we relegate “spirituality” to the perverted Satanic version filled with magick, demons, possession, witchcraft, astral projections, tarot cards, alien worship, shamanism, voodoo, etc. There are many ways to live a “spiritual life,” but some are eternally destructive. You may be having real encounters with spirits, but they may be demonic ones.
For years, if a person felt there was “more” to faith than the basics taught in church, their only option was to seek the occult or New Age. That was where learning about the supernatural realm was found.
For years, I lived in a flat dimension of faith. I never saw the whole story. This is what Dr. Heiser addressed in The Unseen Realm:
“The psalmist declared that God presides over an assembly of divine beings (Psa. 82:1). Who are they? What does it mean when those beings participate in God's decisions (1 Kings 22:19-23)? Why wasn't Eve surprised when the serpent spoke to her? Why are Yahweh and his Angel fused together in Jacob's prayer (Gen. 48:15-16)? How did descendants of the Nephilim (Gen. 6:4) survive the flood (Num. 13:33)? What are we to make of Peter and Jude's belief in imprisoned spirits (2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6)? Why does Paul describe evil spirits in terms of geographical rulership (thrones, principalities, rulers, authorities)? Who are the "glorious ones" that even angels dare not rebuke (2 Pet. 2:10-11)? Dr. Michael Heiser explores these biblical questions in The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible. The Unseen Realm presents the fruit of Dr. Heiser's fifteen years of research into what the Bible really says about the unseen world of the supernatural. His goal is to help readers view the biblical text unfiltered by tradition or by theological presuppositions. He presents a clear biblical theology that cuts through our modern worldview that tends to ignore the unseen world. "People shouldn't be protected from the Bible," Dr. Heiser says. But theological systems often do just that, by "explaining away" difficult or troublesome passages of Scripture because their literal meaning doesn't fit into our tidy systems. In The Unseen Realm, Michael Heiser shines a light on the supernatural world--not a new light, but rather the same light the original, ancient readers--and writers--of Scripture would have seen it in, given their historical and cultural milieu.”(source)
If you are new in your faith, these concepts may seem weird or crazy because - especially in the US - we have been conditioned in our churches to see faith in Jesus in a restricted dimension like driving a car vs flying a plane.
But the supernatural realm doesn’t belong to Satan’s evil rule; it’s the place where God resides. Satan is the prince of the power of “the air,” but not of “heaven.” Satan was kicked out of heaven.
And the heavens are much more complex than just clouds and fat cherubs.
To be continued…
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”(Ephesians 2:1-3)
Today’s Question
Verses to Explore
“For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.”(Colossians 1:16)
“Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.”(1 Corinthians 15:24)
“As we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”(2 Corinthians 4:18)
Today’s Prayer
Father I know that this is a dicey subject in Christianity. For so long I thought that anything supernatural was something evil. I was fooled by Satan. I see now that he tricked us. And then he counterfeited the truth by stealing the supernatural world for his own agenda. Father you are Spirit. We are to worship you in the Spirit. Help each of us to understand what this means. Help us to regain the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Open our eyes to the truth and help us to discern between the evil spirits and the good. Help us to live as children of your Kingdom as much as we are allowed to while we live in our fleshly bodies.
The last thing we want to do is partake in something forbidden. We don’t want to be deceived. Give us a heart of wisdom and discernment. Help us to regain our rightful standing in your work on earth - just as it is in heaven. Show us the truth and warn us loudly of deception. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from all evil. For the Kingdom belongs to you. The power and glory belong to you, and you alone. May our lives be “fully alive” in your Spirit and may it bring you honor and glory each day. Amen.❤️