REALM WARFARE 101

We are to be in the world but not of the world... to be separated internally not externally.  As followers of Christ we live in a duel reality. Externally we are in the world... home to everything that is contrary to God, the physical realm in which we exist. Internally we are to be at all times disconnected from the physical realm and plugged into God’s spiritual realm... His Kingdom, walking in the Spirit of another realm. These two realms cannot cohabitate and will strive for dominating influence: A carnal, fleshly Christian allows the cares, desires, and pleasures of earth-life to dominate their spiritual life... what Jesus called living in the thorn bushes. A spiritual Christian allows the cares, desires, and pleasures of their King’s heart to dominate their earth-life... what Jesus called being a “Light” to a world living in darkness. Spiritual maturity, growing into Christlikeness, is the degree this influence is unidirectional – from the heart of God, through man, into the world. The mind is the arbitrator in realm warfare: “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”  What we set our mind on will determine which realm influences the other. This makes Paul’s command to set one’s mind on things above most important:  “Aim at and seek the rich, eternal treasures that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. And set your minds and keep them set on what is above... the higher things, not on the things that are on the earth.  For as far as this world is concerned you have died, and your new, real life is hidden with Christ in God.” We need to remember this at the gossip mill around the coffee machine at work... When someone cuts us off in traffic... When our neighbor’s dog takes a dump in our backyard... When we avoid the eyes of the homeless person at the stoplights... When someone else gets the promotion... When our annual physical takes a detour... When we get that phone call in the night... We need to remember we are seated in the heavenlies with Christ... if we choose to be...

(Jn. 17:14-16 NKJV: Rom. 8:6 NKJV; Col. 3:1-3 Amp.)

HIDDEN WITH CHRIST IN GOD

THE WEATHER OF LIFE

God “makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Jesus is speaking a subtle metaphor here: Sun and rain is what keeps the earth from being a barren uninhabitable wasteland, so sun and rain represent “good”... God’s blessings. God sends good things to the wicked and the virtuous, to the righteous and the unrighteous. Sinner and saint alike receive the blessings of God, who is not a respecter of persons in His predisposition to allocate blessings to mankind. But, what about bad... evil?  “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity.” This rhetorical question came from the lips of Job who was “blameless and upright ... one who feared God and shunned evil.” Adversity and evil in these passages are both translated from the Hebrew ra/raah, which covers the entire spectrum of evil... bad in all its forms. We all know the story, satan makes a deal with God to dump evil on Job’s doorstep. The intent of Job’s remark is crystal clear in the original Hebrew: “Shall we indeed accept only good from God, and shall we not accept also adversity.” “Of course not”! (implied)

God allows satan to perpetrate evil and sets the limits and boundaries of his attacks. Let’s be clear on one vital point: satan is evil, it is his nature to kill, steal, and destroy... he is the source of evil. God is sovereign, absolutely supreme in power, dominion and authority, and in His sovereignty He arbitrates the release of evil... He allows Bad, from the “cursings” of disobedient Israel to Paul’s “thorn in the flesh.” God allows evil... it doesn’t just happen, He created it for His divine purpose... evil is God’s instrument: “I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD, do all these things.” Ra/raah is translated “calamity” here demonstrating evil at its worst.

Bad has a sifting effect on people, moving them either closer or further away from God, out of the deception of “lukewarmness.” And for the saints, this sifting is transformational: *Trials and tests prove our faith. *Chastening, rebukes and scourgings, metaphors for degrees of adversity, demonstrate the love of God while mortifying sin and nurturing faith. *Through reaping what we sow we learn dependence on God whose choices for us are always much better than our own. *We are “predestined to be conformed”, formed and molded by adversity, into Christlikeness... releasing His divine nature within. *Bad provides opportunities for God’s Kingdom to invade man’s circumstances with signs, wonders and miracles... manifesting the works of God, which declares His omnipotence... and brings glory to His name. *Satan’s attacks teach us to stand fast -- as Paul’s Spiritual Warfare Thesis admonishes four times -- for the battle is the Lord’s... teaching us sovereignty. God works bad into good... His good, invoking His will... creating good out of bad in accordance with His plans and purposes. So... we can and should “count it all joy” and “glory” when Bad visits, turning our heart and mind heavenward... which infuriates the enemy, knowing God is in control and transforming what the enemy meant for evil into His good.

God doesn’t deliver us out of our troubles; God delivers us in our troubles.  Our “Overcoming Testimony” is experience based. Our strength is in the strain!  Our “Light Afflictions” bring an eternal weight of glory. Life will leave proof-marks on God’s children: “For I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” Proof-marks may be physical or psychological... scars of life, testifying to the Lord’s ownership and our faithfulness... forming the backbone of our testimony. God sends the sun and rain, and allows the hailstorms, hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, and tsunamis of life to fall on the evil and on the good, the just and on the unjust alike. For when it comes to Good and Bad in the experiences of life, He is no respecter of persons.                                                                                                                            

THE LORD GIVES...  AND TAKES AWAY...

BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD

(Matt. 5:45; Job 2:10, 1:1, 1:12, 2:6; Jn. 10:10; 2 Cor.12:7-10, 11:23-27; Deut. 11:26-28;  Rev. 3:15-16; 1Peter 1:6-7, 4:12-13; Heb. 12:5-7; Gal. 6:7; Rom. 8:29; Jn. 9:3; Eph. 6:11,13,14; Rom. 8:28, 5:3-5; James 2:2-4; Job 1:21; Rev. 12:11; 2 Cor. 4:17; Gal. 6:17)

WILL WE EVER LEARN

Adam and Eve knew exactly what they could do, what they could not do and the consequences if they disobeyed. Ditto Today! Satan denied three virtues of God in his temptation of Adam and Eve: First, he denied the truthfulness of God, “you shall not surely die”, challenging the consequence of disobedience. Adam and Eve died spiritually and their bodies became mortal... God does speak truth. Second, he denied the goodness of God, “your eyes will be opened”, implying God was withholding a positive blessing of knowledge from them. The “may” of our freedom in God is still framed by the “must not” that limits it... as seen today in God’s moral law. Third, he denied the “Otherness” of God, that God alone is self-dependent, depending for Himself on Himself. Satan’s diabolical suggestion was that Adam and Eve could become “Like God”, ignoring the fact that they were already like God in every way God intended. This shot over the bow of God’s sovereignty was aimed at the fundamental way Adam and Eve were unlike God, in their creaturely dependence on Him as His created beings. Adam and Eve’s desire was not to be “Like God” but “God Like”, Self-deification as Self-dependent beings rather than God-dependent created beings. The devil still denies God’s warnings of eternal judgment and the fearful reality of a literal hell. He makes the permitted things, the ample freedom of what God allows His children, to seem boring and unsatisfying, while making the prohibited things, which God in His wisdom does not allow His children, seem attractive and desirable. Then as now satan stirs the fire of proud coveting independence in the heart of gullible man who refuses to acknowledge his continuing dependence on God... attempting in denial to become God Like. Not much has changed...

ONLY GOD HAS “OTHERNESS”

I LOVE YOU FOR...

I love You for the selfless love You demonstrated at Calvary, love that challenges me to love likewise. I love You for the call to “follow Me”, a command of submission into Your Lordship. I love You for the honor of being a co-worker in Your Kingdom, sharing in Your suffering as you produce Your life in me. I love You for allowing me to partake of You... for Your indwelling Spirit who teaches... guides... comforts... and manifests Your life in and through me. I love You for Your patient endurance... for I am so slow to learn and so easily side-tracked by lover’s less wild. I love You for calling me Your friend, though I dare not presume the same... Sir! I love You because You are for me... on my side... in my corner... fighting my battles... for me. I love You for first loving me, planting the seed of Your agape love which grows in me as I behold it. I love You for loving me too much to leave me the way I am, allowing satan’s threshings so You can winnow away the chaff, bringing forth the kernel of Your life in me... bringing forth good out of intended evil... teaching me that real love sometimes hurts... that transforming pain brings eternal glory... teaching me to bow down and kiss the Son. I love You for the blessed hope I have in You, that You have prepared a special place for me, beyond the capacity of my imagination to visualize or the power of man to put into words, that You will come again and take me to Yourself, that where You are, there I may be also.  I love You for the intimate moments we share, for the privilege of sitting at Your nail-scarred feet... listening... looking into Your face... adoring You. May I never regard this privilege casually... may I never neglect it... may I always come humbly... and come often. There really is only one thing truly necessary in life... May I be a person of that one thing... Always!!!

ALL THAT YOU ARE... TO ME