Fight the Good Fight_02 - Two Realms

Hey friends, this is Pastor Ron, Pleasant Grove Church. Thanks so much for taking

the time to listen today. And here is some good news from the Grove.

We're going to get in part number two of Fight the Good Fight.

We're going to kind of still lay in some foundation.

We're going to get to Ephesians chapter 6, Lord willing.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

But talking about Fight the Good Fight, we're going to talk about two realms.

I'm not going to do much of a review.

Let's just kind of jump into this. I've got a lot to cover, so let's just kind of jump into this.

Two realms, okay? God created two realms or two dimensions, maybe what you want to call it.

He created two dimensions or two realms.

The spirit realm, I talked a little bit about that last week,

which is invisible to us, right?

That's the part we can't see, but it's reality. In fact, God is spirit.

I mean, all of this natural realm, spiritual realm all comes out of him, but God is a spirit.

The spirit realm was created before Genesis 1. One, we don't have any text that

I know of, maybe just little blips and pieces of it on the creation of the spirit realm.

We just are confronted with it in Genesis chapter three.

When that being that Eve is talking to shows up, he's not from around here.

You know what I'm saying?

Something's different about him. So you see it popping up time and time again.

Sometimes this realm is referred to as heaven.

You've got to kind of watch the word heaven in the scripture when it's used.

It might be talking about heaven like the spirit realm or it might be talking

about heaven like the sky. I just kind of got to work it out in context and what all that is.

It may be referred to as the heavens or heavenly places.

You've heard that idea that we're seated with Christ in heavenly places.

He's talking about the spirit realm right there.

Referred to by the idea of rulers and thrones and

powers maybe some other term terminology too that

kind of refers to that spirit realm and God's created

all sorts of spirit beings you know Steven

Spielberg ain't got nothing on God I'm just gonna tell you you read some of

the things that that Ezekiel describes and all those kind of things it's kind

of out there it's like okay but he's very creative with what he does so there's

there's a spirit realm and then there's the natural realm for lack of a better

way thing to call it let's just call it the natural realm That's like our world.

That's the creation or what we may call the cosmos, that kind of idea.

It's sun, moon, stars, all the trees, all the creation, so to speak,

and also flesh and blood. We're here.

The humans are here in this natural realm, right? This is kind of our domain.

Adam and Eve were called to rule over this natural realm, right?

You see that in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, and called to be the image of God.

They had a job. Their job was to be the image of God or the representative of God.

OK, a lot of people try to think the image like, OK, well, we're body,

soul and spirit, God's Trinity and God's three. I don't think it's really going there.

I think it's going to you were created in the image and the likeness of God

and you were to be my representatives on the earth. That's the idea.

So to be the image of God is to be a representative. Think about the word image.

It's akin to the word like idol, that kind of thing.

You know what an idol is? Idol is a representation of another deity, right?

So one reason God doesn't want us to have any idols, he's already made an idol. It's us.

If I can use that, not in a bad way, but he's made us in his likeness and in his image.

And if we want to know what God looks like, it's supposed to be like we're to

be able to reflect that or at least represent that. You know what I'm saying? That kind of idea.

So the spirit realm, the natural realm. All right. So these two realms,

and we're talking about fighting this good fight, so we're kind of going somewhere with this.

These two realms interact and influence each other.

The spirit realm influences the natural realm. The natural realm influences

the spirit realm as well.

Well, and these two dimensions, if I can call it that, these two realms were

were designed originally to cooperate together in the fulfilling of God's purposes

and God's plans. They're designed to cooperate together.

Heaven and earth are meant to be one.

Right. Heaven and earth are meant to be one. In fact, that's the plan of redemption.

And the whole idea of resurrection life is taking us right back to that,

to the new heavens and new earth, where the tabernacle of God will then be with

man in the new Jerusalem.

So heaven and earth are meant to be one. And the rebellions we talked about

last week, we talked about three of the rebellions last week,

Genesis chapter 3, Genesis chapter 6, and then Genesis chapter 11 with the Tower of Babel.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention Genesis 6 · chapter mention Genesis 11 · chapter mention

The three rebellions we talked about broke that unity between heaven and earth. It broke it. Okay.

And Adam and Eve, in consequence of the first fall, the first rebellion,

were separated from God out of the garden. Right.

All right. So everybody tracking with me so far?

Jesus came to reunite these realms the way they're supposed to be,

the way they should work together.

He came to reunite that. That will be his ultimate goal, to get those two realms reunited again.

All right. Functioning the way God intended. That's part of why.

Think about the words of redemption, regeneration, redeemed.

Yeah, redo it. Do it again. Exactly. So redeeming, right? Okay.

And the forgiveness of sin is how God begins to restore part of that unity for

us. God's very interested in forgiving you of your sins.

It was a high price that Jesus paid, but God is more than willing to forgive

sins if you will just ask him.

Because he knows that that is what's come between you, that rebellion and that

sin has come between you.

And the forgiveness of sins is about beginning to restore that unity between you and God, all right?

All right, so now, let's get to us.

How are we involved in these two realms? Humans are a unique fusion of both realms.

You come from the natural realm and the spirit realm. You come from both.

We're made from the earth.

Dust you are, and dust you shall return, right?

When God got ready to make Adam, the first human that we all come from,

he then, he took the dust of the earth and he formed him, right? Right.

So we have we've got quite a connection with the earth. You know,

there's a lot of talking in like health world now about about people like walking

around barefooted and getting grounded.

You heard that kind of stuff, that kind of deal, being grounded or back in tune with nature.

You know, you can go full blown hip and get a yellow bus with all that stuff if you're not careful.

One of the buses with flowers, a long one, a short one. Well, we got all kinds.

But but this this. And so there is an element of truth to that.

We are connected to the earth.

You know, you think about it. I mean, we're dependent on creation.

Where do you think our food comes? It don't come from Kroger, does it?

You know, it comes from the earth. We're very dependent.

We need the earth, and it's part of us. But we're also made up of part of God.

We're this fusion of earth. We're this fusion of dirt and spirit.

God breathed into Adam, and Adam came alive. He got animated.

So what animates us is the very life of God.

That's what bios is. It's life is.

It's a mystery to us. We kind of can measure it.

We know when it starts and when it ends, but it's a real mystery.

But if you get into Genesis chapter two, you find out what that mystery is.

What is life? Well, life literally comes from the very breath of God and God

breathed into Adam that breath of life.

And that breath of life was so potent that it transmitted all the way down through

all the generations and all the generations.

And it's continued on all the way to you and I. And we're still breathing on

that breath. He breathed in Adam.

That's pretty wild, isn't it? Huh?

So you're made up of both realms. You're made up partly of your body.

But you also have a soul and spirit that's that's kind

of the supernatural part of us all right that's spiritual part

of us so we're not spirit beings i hear people say

things like we're spirit beings who live in

a body no we're not spirit beings we are human beings there's a difference okay

we are human beings there are spiritual beings out there angels demonic forces

heavenly hosts of all kinds different things like that we are human beings that

have a spirit and we We also have a body.

Okay. And God's very interested in your spirit, man. He's very interested in

saving your soul. But he's also very interested in saving your body.

You know that. You know that's what resurrection is about.

I mean, like the resurrection of the dead at the end of the age.

The resurrection is about God redeeming your body.

Because when God bought you through the blood of Jesus, he bought every part

of you. He bought your spirit. Yes.

We're back in tune with God now. Yes, he wants to save your soul. For sure. For sure.

But he also is interested in this body and he's going to redeem it and we'll

have a glorified body at that point,

That's going to be good. I'm going for an S on my chest. What about y'all?

I want to be able to fly. I don't know about y'all. I don't know how that works.

It's super wrong. That's right. Hey, whatever. Whatever. When it comes down

to it, I'll just be glad to be there. That's all.

We're created to live on the earth and to see God's kingdom work done here on

the earth. We're created for that.

So our future is this. a glorified body

living in an under a new heaven and new

earth in the new jerusalem that's that's our future it's

our future all right so that we're this fusion

of both realms that's kind of interesting i'd like to think of it like that

so we're kind of uniquely positioned to kind of deal with both sides of this

coin we're talking about all right so now spiritual warfare that's kind of where

we're at with the good fight the good fight we're getting into this idea of

spiritual warfare here soon when we get to Ephesians chapter 6 especially.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

Spiritual warfare is about the clashing of these two realms.

We talked about the unity was how it was supposed to be, but things aren't how

they're supposed to be. We all know that, right?

And there's this clashing and we call it spiritual warfare.

You're not going to find that term necessarily in the scriptures,

but the idea is all over the place.

You know, the wrestling against flesh and blood, fight the good fight,

all those kind of things.

Spiritual warfare is the clashing of these His kingdom is God's kingdom versus

the kingdom of darkness. Right.

And this this whole idea of spiritual warfare is focused on maybe more than

this, but it's certainly these things. It's focused on bringing God honor again.

Bringing God's name honor again. That's what Jesus taught us to be about.

You know, it's focused on salvation of people.

The spiritual warfare, the goal ultimately is, is to rescue the souls of people,

rescue people, period. Right.

And in doing God's will. will every time you do God's will and every time you

obey you know that spiritual warfare that is a testimony that is an honoring

of God and that is a message that is sent to the heavenlies as well.

Now, let's look at a couple of places right here that kind of deal with the

supernatural work we've got to do.

Let's go here. You got the notes right there in front of you?

What's that one? Mark 16. What is it?

Mark 16, 15 through 18. You'll know this. This is Mark's version of the Great Commission.

And Jesus, he, Jesus said to them, go into all the world.

Okay, that's the world. That's like everywhere. But he's also talking about

like the world system. You go into the world where the world system is dominant,

where the enemy is at work.

You go into that world and you preach the gospel to everybody,

to every creature, everybody.

Right. So we see in this in this spiritual warfare is what we're going to call

this. This is the Great Commission.

But the gospel is a huge weapon in that. In other words, the world doesn't know

what Jesus has done. Somebody's got to tell him the good news.

You were to go out there and preach. I'm to go out there and preach and talk

to him about it. And it's not preaching like behind this desk necessarily.

It might be over a cup of coffee in somebody's living room.

It might be at a restaurant somewhere. It might be in passing or it might be

in a church setting like this.

It might be in a Bible study or at the office or, you know, go into the world.

Wherever they are, that's where we're going to be.

Mm hmm. Every creature. I think that's just a way of talking about humans.

You know, I mean, I mean, you might can preach it to. I know a few dogs need

to be saved. Act like they got some.

Anybody. I anyway, Steve pulled up with a couple of the day.

I think they for sure need to be saved. Anyway.

Anyway. Verse number 16. Anyway, he who believes and is baptized will be saved.

Now, that's interesting.

He said he who believes, believes the gospel, the good news of Jesus,

the good news of the gospel of the kingdom, he who believes and is baptized will be saved.

Why is believing in baptism so important?

Well, if you get into a study of water baptism, water baptism is is part of spiritual warfare.

Water baptism is is a declaration to the family, to the people,

to your friends and also to the principalities that, That, hey, I'm on Jesus' side.

That's what it is. I'm on Jesus' side.

And it's a declaration of whose team you're on, so to speak.

If we can say it like that, right? Everybody tracking?

Good. So he said, believe and be baptized, we'll be saved. All right?

Now, the blood of Jesus is what saves us. But baptism is what declares that,

hey, I'm with God. I'm with him. All right?

But he who does not believe will be condemned. them now he

gets in some of our of our ministry this this spiritual warfare thing

and these signs will follow those who believe in

my name they will cast out demons uh-oh it got supernatural all of a sudden

didn't right there okay they will speak with new tongues what's all that about

you know well we see a thing that happens in the book of acts with the spiritual

language but we Well, so,

you know, if you get Jesus in your heart, your tongue changes. Did like that.

I mean, some words can get up, walk out of here. You speak with a new tongue.

I mean, because, see, the fountainhead of the tongue is rooted down in the heart, right?

And from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And when God changes

the heart, all that changes, right?

Verse number 18, and they will take up serpents. Okay, what are we going on

here? That sounds like some of my folks in them hills in Tennessee, huh?

What are we talking about? Is it that? If you're tracking the story,

what's the serpent about?

That's the other kingdom, right? They will take on the other kingdom.

We could say that. Another place it says tread upon serpents and scorpions, it says.

Those are symbols if you know the text. How did he show up and how did the enemy

show up in Genesis chapter 3? What did they call him?

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

It was a serpent, right? So it has something to do with that.

And if they drink any deadly thing, it will by no means hurt them,

right? Taking in all the deadly poison of the world.

It's not talking about strychnine. I don't care what you say.

You know, if you ever heard Jerry Clyer talk about some of that kind of stuff, it's pretty funny.

Going to a snake handling church and all that kind of thing.

You ever heard that deal?

I don't know where you want. Where's the back door? He said,

we ain't got one. He said, where you want one? That kind of deal. Anyway.

They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover. That's part of the ministry.

Okay. Now, is it these signs will follow all the preachers? Is that what it says?

These signs will follow those who believe. We're all to be a part of this spiritual warfare.

What was the next scripture I've got written down there? Romans 16, 20?

Romans 16, 20. Let's get there. 16, 20.

So he's closing out his letter to the Romans here.

And he says, And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. I expect him to say the God

of peace will crush Satan under Jesus' feet. But whose feet did he say?

It's your feet, our feet. So there's something, let me tell you,

there's something that's going to be about the walk of the people of God that

will just keep crushing and pounding the enemy down under your feet.

That's what you walk with, right?

There's something supernatural about your walk with God, that God will use it

to literally crush down the enemy and his work around us.

Lots more we can say about all that, but let's get back to our notes here.

You good? Questions, comments before we move on? You all right back there,

Sandy? You just snuck in on me.

Oh, you're not listening to me. It's okay.

She has to hear me all day. It's all right. No problem. All right.

So now let's listen. Let's get into some practical stuff here.

Ministry in the two realms. Okay. Your ministry, my ministry.

And we all have one, you know, whether or not we're are

doing it are good at it that's another story but we all have a

ministry kingdom ministry has work to

do in both realms okay what were the two

realms again what are the two realms spirit realm and

the natural realm so we've got we got work to do

in both realms ministry in order to be effective must do the spiritual work

and the natural work we've got to do both all right and i i got thinking about

this and kind of the idea that popped to mind was like in modern day warfare

you think Think about modern-day stuff, not biblical times, but now times.

The way warfare works today is they send in the air attack before the ground attack ever comes.

And the air attack kind of softens up the place so the ground attack can be

effective. Y'all saw the movie, right?

So I believe the same thing's true about our ministry, is that the air attack,

which is the work we do in the spirit, the praying, those kind of things,

It makes way for the ground attack,

if we can say the ground work, let's say it like that, to be done.

So why did Paul ask the believers everywhere he went, y'all pray for me,

pray for me, pray for me that a door would be open, pray for me that I'd be

affected, pray for me as I go into here and go into there. He said it all the time. Why?

Well, he knew that in order for him to be effective in the natural realm,

dealing with people and preaching sermons and doing all the spiritual work had to be done.

But if you go into the natural work without the spirit work being done,

what's going to happen? Nothing.

Not much at all. Really? You see what I'm talking about? But if you go into

the whole idea and you just pray and all we're doing is praying and we're not

doing anything practical, what good is that going to do?

And see, what I'm saying is we're not real balanced in these two areas.

People either lean into the super spiritual type stuff and the real emotional

kind of heavy duty stuff, or they lean into the real practical and say,

ah, let's push all that spiritual stuff. That's just a little bit too weird for me.

And they're handing out canned goods and all that kind of stuff,

but ain't nobody getting nothing out of it except some green beans.

What I want to do is hand out canned goods and then knowing and follow somebody when they eat them.

You know what I'm talking about? Or do something in the name of Christ that

absolutely makes a difference.

It's in the practical realm, but somehow or another, because we've done the

work on both ends, it becomes different.

You see what I'm talking about? All right. So I got a couple of questions.

What are some ways we do the spiritual work? We pray, right? Speak the word. Sure.

Fasting, you see fasting and prayer in combination a lot of times in Scripture, right?

Fasting helps temper you in such a way to where you can hear the Spirit in a more keen way.

Sharper. Sharpens your ears. What else?

Let's get to that in a moment. That'll be the practical side, the natural side.

Sharing your testimony with someone in need. sharing testimony

preaching the gospel that's spiritual work the

word that's the sword of the spirit that when jesus got ready to deal with the

enemy he pulled the sword out equal to deuteronomy boom boom boom boom so that's

meeting them right there how

about this do you do you know that worship is part of your spiritual work,

Worship is very diverse. It's very multidimensional.

But there are a lot of times in Scripture you see people singing songs.

God had them sing a song or something before they even went to battle.

Or maybe when they went to battle, they sang a song. What?

How would you like to have been part of that crew and they told the band, y'all go first?

Yeah. At that time, you're glad you're the tuba player because you're in the back.

You see how this thing goes, right? But anyway, why would God say that kind of stuff?

Because worship is part of our weaponry. Okay, so now think about this with

worship. Hold that question right there.

Hold it. Think about this in worship. Okay, we talked about the rebellions last week.

Rebellion is when you exalt yourself against the knowledge of God.

You exalt your will against God's will.

You sin, you do your own thing. We've all been a part of that.

We all know about that, right?

See, worship is part of spiritual warfare in this sense.

Every time you worship God, you are counteracting that idea of rebellion.

Okay, now when you kneel before God, It is the very opposite of that rebellion,

the very opposite, where you're humbling yourself before God.

When you lift your hands and you do it right in the right spirit,

you're not trying to be seen or nothing like that.

When you lift your hands in worship, that is the universal sign of surrender, right?

It always has been. I mean, John Wayne made it that way, I think. Now, David did, I think.

That's the cowboy movies. Even the cowboys know about surrender, right?

So it's the idea of what we're doing every time we worship.

Because, see, we all still have that flesh we've got to deal with.

We all still have that potential for that rebellion streak to come back any

time. We know about that, right?

And what we do in worship, part of that warfare is, is that every time we come

together, every time you get an opportunity, maybe in your personal devotion,

your car, riding, you just lift your hands or you sing or you humble your heart or you kneel.

You're counteracting that rebellion that may even still be on the inside of

you and say, no, I'm not with that rebellion. Boom!

You see what I'm talking about? That's part of our warfare. and that's why there's

so much warfare over worship, what songs we're going to sing,

and are we going to drum or not to drum? That is the question.

Some people are all fighting about all that kind of stuff, and the whole idea,

the reason the enemy wants warfare about worship because he don't want you at

warfare in worship. You see what I'm talking about?

That's important. You've got to know it's all that. So worship's a big deal.

What? You got something?

I was just going to ask what worship is because we only see the angels sing

at the laying of the cornerstone of the earth.

Now the Bible does say that they worship, but it doesn't say they were singing. So I'm wondering what.

Worship, the idea is worthy-ship. It's the idea of giving worth to God. Is that my phone? Okay.

It's the idea of giving worth and honor to God. However you can do that.

Now, through song, you certainly can do that.

Through confession, you can even just do that through the posture of your own heart.

You know, Jesus said it like this in different terminology. He said that the

greatest thing you can do in your life is to love God with all your heart,

with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

That's the first and greatest commandment. That's the greatest thing a person can do with their life.

So you could break worship down into that whole idea. It's loving God.

And how do you do that with your heart?

Figure that out. We've got to figure that out with all our soul,

with all our mind, with all our strength.

See, that's what I'm saying. It's multidimensional. It's not just the singing

part. Singing is wonderful. Because singing, if you do it right,

it can engage almost all that.

And heaven's going to be a singing place. Every time you open a book of Revelations,

it just sings to you. Somebody's singing.

Somebody's singing around the throne. Others are singing and people saying stuff to God.

The Revelation song that we sing, it's going to be on repeat a lot.

But we have a glorified body, so we'll be all right. Yeah, we'll be able to sing.

That's right. That glorified body is going to tune some of us up, ain't it?

That'll be good. All right? So I don't know if that helps you,

but it's us honoring God in every way we possibly can. In every way you possibly can.

Else before we move on all right we got we got

some scriptures to track down here so that's some ways that's some

spiritual work what are some ways we do the practical natural work what'd you

say over here helping other people helping other people right jesus said the

second greatest thing you can do with your life is just as important as the

first and that's loving your neighbor right how are you going to love your neighbor

well that's a real practical thing right,

you love them through kindness you love them through goodness you love them

through you know charitable deeds benevolence feeding sheep that's what he told peter what's that.

Exactly you know why you need to learn love the unlovable because

that's what you were at one time and jesus loved you anyway you know so that's

that's you know you know why jesus said love your enemies he wasn't telling

us to do nothing he wasn't gonna do he said love your enemies that's the way

the kingdom expands is through this supernatural kind of love so that That comes

out in all kinds of practical ways now, right?

So what else did Jesus say about practical ministry? And it's not rocket science.

How do we practically help people?

We share the gospel. If they're hungry, we do what? We feed them.

If they need clothes, what do we do? We clothe them. If they need shelter, what do we do?

We find and get them a place, you know? And he said, if they're in prison,

we visit them, go to them.

You know, prison ministries today are great and all that kind of thing,

But he was specifically talking about a certain kind of prisoner.

He was talking about those believers who get who during that time were being persecuted like crazy.

And he said, I want you to have the guts to bear witness of me and those people

that have been arrested for my name.

I want you to have the guts to go in there and stand with them on the other side of the bars.

The possibility could be you could get in on the other side of the bar,

the wrong side of the bars. But you have the courage to stand with your brothers

and sisters who stood for me.

That's that's a whole nother kind of prison minister right there.

And to, you know, in those days, they didn't have cable TV and government meals.

Family and friends brought them all the food. So he said, you just have the

courage to go and take care of your brothers and sisters in prison that have

been arrested for my namesake. I think that's what he's talking about.

You take them, you take them to biscuits. But what if, you know,

you take them to go visit them. You see what I'm talking about?

See, that's a different kind of courage and faith right there.

That puts a whole other faith in the deal.

Anyway, all right? So you see the practical ideas. That's just practical every

day, day in, day out, helping meet people's needs, whatever they might be, right?

That would be practical side, all right? So we got to do both of those.

So now, as we read these scriptures, keep these two realms in mind.

All right, now look at this. This is kind of our text that we're going to pick apart here soon.

Ephesians 6, 10 through 12. Finally, my brothers and sisters,

be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.

Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles

of the devil. Now, we're thinking two realms here now again.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. That's one realm, isn't it?

But against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness

of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

That's all that from principalities all the way to the spiritual wickedness

in heavenly places. That's all another round, right?

We're just thinking two rounds. I want you to see some others here.

So what does Paul mean by principalities and powers? You got some fill in the blank here.

Rulers of the darkness of this age, spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Yes.

In your bible now this is not something we're making up he just

said that your fight is not against people right flesh and blood it's not against

people as much as people get on your nerves get in your way it just happens

don't y'all talking about we're talking about them people who just walking slow

and shoveling you know all kind of stuff we're talking about that sunday anyway,

all those those people are not not the enemy and he begins to describe them

in all these different These are words that are used to describe the spirit realm we talked about.

And if you pick it up on scriptures, we won't have time tonight,

but you start seeing these words scattered throughout, even in the New Testament,

but also in the Old Testament.

So Paul's theology is by revelation of the spirit.

Up to this point in time, he's got the greatest revelation of who Jesus is and

the working of the spirit. He's the one who wrote the book on it, so to speak.

God had him write the book on it. But Paul also has a thorough understanding

of the Old Testament. He's drawing from all of this.

All right. All right. So now, now think again. Ephesians 1, 20,

21. Think two realms again. All right.

And I'm jumping right in the middle of a thought here, but just for the sake of time.

It says, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated

him at his right hand in the heavenly places.

Okay. That's that other realm. Right.

Far above all principality and power.

Okay. That's talking about that other realm. That's the dark side of that realm.

And might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age,

but also in that which is to come.

There's a lot of theology right there. But I just want you to kind of see the

idea that he's talking about, that what Christ did on the cross was not just

about forgiving your sins.

It had something to do with the spirit realm as well. You see that?

Verses 116, for by him, by Jesus, by Christ, all things were created that are

in heaven and that are on earth.

Visible, thinking two realms, right? That's the visible realm where I live in

that realm. And invisible, oh, that's that other realm, okay.

Whether thrones or dominions or

principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him.

And all these principalities and powers, the scriptures in the Old Testament calls them the sons.

Sons of God, all those principalities and powers that we see even showing up in the Old Testament.

They were created for the sake of Christ.

They chose to rebel against it, but they were initially created for his sake. All right.

And I'm trying to blow your mind tonight. So we're not even halfway there yet.

All right. First Corinthians 2, 6 through 8.

However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this

age, nor of the rulers of this age, you see this phraseology is popping up all over,

who are coming to nothing, but we speak the wisdom of God and the mystery,

the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the ages for our glory,

which none of the rulers of this age knew,

for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Well, who killed Jesus? Well, that's kind of a long list, isn't it?

Right here, he attributes the killing of Jesus. Well, of course,

you could call the rulers of this age, you could call it, you know,

that could have been Pilate. That could have been Caiaphas, you know,

the religious leaders of the Jews. It could have been the leaders of Rome.

But this verbiage, Paul uses rulers of this age to talk about spiritual beings.

OK, so the enemy had something to do with the death of Christ.

In fact, you remember at the Last Supper when it says that Judas,

it said that Satan entered into him.

He was behind the deal, wasn't he? Mm-hmm. All right.

So now let's look at a few scriptures about that realm. And I'm just going to

probably look at a couple of these, and you'll have them in your notes for the

rest of them, all right? Let's talk about Cain and Abel.

Now, remember the two realms. Now, we're dealing with both realms,

the natural realm and the spirit realm, okay?

Cain and Abel, a lot of revelation in this story now.

So you know the backstory, Cain and Abel were both bringing an offering to worship

God. Cain's offering was refused.

Abel's offering was accepted. He was a shepherd. He brought a lamb,

and God accepted that offering of Abel.

Cain was a farmer. He brought some fruits and vegetables and stuff,

and God didn't accept that.

Now, it's not because it wasn't blood. I know preachers talk about all that,

but there are all kinds of Old

Testament offerings where you can bring produce and you can bring food.

It wasn't the actual offering.

It was something to do with Cain's heart.

God accepted Abel. Abel, by faith, it says in Hebrews, offered his sacrifice.

Cain, some other kind of way. We don't have any revelation on why Cain did not

offer up his in faith, it seems. You see? Okay.

And Cain is livid about it. And Cain is kind of of the heart that he would rather

take his brother down than to change his ways.

Okay. And God comes to him. him that's the

most interesting thing about the story of Cain and Abel Cain

is he's got murder in his heart God knows it and

God comes to Cain to try to talk him out of this deal that's pretty big because

he's always the God who comes now okay Jesus is the proof of that so the Lord

said to Cain why are you angry it's a good question and why has your countenance

fallen if you do well Well,

if you were to do the right thing, will you not be accepted?

If you did the right thing, would you be accepted? What would be the answer?

I mean, God just don't like Cain. Is this the problem? No, God's defended himself right here.

He said, No, man, it's not just about you. If you did the right thing,

he's implying you already know.

You know what you're supposed to do. You ain't doing it, boy.

He's implying that, right?

And if you do not do well, this is where the revelation comes in.

If you don't do the right thing, sin lies at the door. Now, we're talking about

these two realms right here.

Sin lies at the door and its desire is for you.

But you should rule over it. Now,

you got to kind of get into dig out the Hebrew to kind of get an idea.

God right here paints a picture and says, Cain, you're at a point of decision

and you're at a point of temptation and you're really jacked up about this deal.

And you got to make the right decision here. But if you do not make the right

decision, I want you to know that there is a power.

There is a ruler. He calls it right here. He calls it sin in the English.

It says sin lies at the door in the Hebrew. That word means this.

It is the picture of a crouching beast that is ready to launch on its prey.

Sin is almost given like a personification in this Hebrew word.

And he says, you're one decision. Watch your step right here.

You're one decision that if you go into this, this is going to hijack and take over your life.

You ever made a decision like that? To where all of a sudden, it's changed now.

You're changed. And you're captive now.

He is saying, Cain, you be careful. Therefore, there is something you can do in the natural realm.

You can make a decision right here and it will unleash a spiritual force against

your life that is absolutely going to destroy you.

Folks who've dealt with addiction and things like that, they know about that.

You know about that, that power that he's given sin right here.

You know about that, right?

And then all sins got addictive qualities to it.

But it's personified like a power. you see that there is he's coming to Cain

and he's saying Cain there's a realm out there that you don't even know about

son and there's a darkness out there and there's a spiritual wickedness out

there that is waiting to absolutely snatch your life away from you,

and he said don't give don't don't give don't give heed to that instead he said

you should rule over that but here's the truth either you're going to rule over

that or it's going to rule over you.

We all know that song and dance we've all

i went both ways with it you

know i'm talking about i made the bad decision and something launched

on my life and literally nearly destroyed it

but i've also at this stage in my life learned to rule over some things said

now you're not playing them tricks no more we ain't doing that you know i'm

talking about what i'm talking about out of these spiritual dynamics now so

sin is more than just a decision between right and wrong,

it can be the unleashing of a power into your life that hijacks you you see what he's talking about,

and if we had time and you wouldn't want to tip out of here we could all testify

to some of that couldn't we for real which is one of the ways now that i coming

out of some of that both since i I've before Christ and even since I've been

a Christian and even a pastor,

we have an empathy and a sympathy for people who are in that situation now.

And that that should inform your ministry and how you and your compassion to

help people and not be judgmental.

How could you be judgmental about somebody who's in sin?

How in the world could you be judgmental? Are you serious?

You know, that power ate your lunch one day.

And it's not that we excuse it or sweep anything under the rug,

but we've got a great empathy for people.

Man, I hate to hear that. How can I help? Seriously.

Anyway. All right. Now, let's see.

I need you to go on your own later and read 1 Kings 22, 6 through 28. And then.

Let me read 2 Kings 6, 8 through 17. Let me read some of that.

That's a very important story. Was it 6, 18? Is that what it said?

2 Kings 6, 8. Okay. Okay. Is this the one I want? Let me see.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is the one I want. Okay. Now, the king of Syria

was making war against Israel.

And he consulted with his servants saying, this is the king of Syria talking,

the enemy, right? Right. My camp will be in such and such a place.

And the man of God who was Elisha. Remember, we're talking about Elijah on Sunday

mornings. But Elisha is the is the successor of Elijah. Right.

And the man of God, Elijah, sent to the king of Israel, said,

beware that you do not pass this place for the Syrians are coming down there.

So Elijah or Elisha was giving intelligence basically to the king of Israel

saying, hey, this is what the king of Syria is going to do. Now,

how did Elisha know that?

By revelation of the Spirit. The Spirit of God told him what the enemy was going to do.

He gave word to the king of Israel and said, don't go here. So the king of Israel

sent someone to the place of which the man of God had told him.

Thus he warned him and he was watchful there, not just once or twice.

And therefore the heart of the king of Syria was greatly troubled by this thing.

He called his servants and said to them, will you not show me which of us is

for the king of Israel? Who is telling this cat where we're going to be?

One of y'all is selling us out. Who's spying? And they say, and one of his servants

said, none, my Lord, O king.

But Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words

that you speak in your bedroom.

This is before Facebook was doing all that stuff. God was doing this a long time ago.

So he said, go and see where he, go to that prophet Elisha. I won't take him

out. That's going to be a bad idea.

That I may send and get him. And it was told him saying, surely he's in Dothan.

Therefore, he sent horses and chariots and a great army there.

And they came by night and surrounded the city that Elisha was in.

You get the picture? They're going to take him.

And when the servant of the man of God of Elisha arose early,

sun come up, he went out and there was an army surrounding the city.

See him kind of on the hillside right there. He's got it surrounded.

Horses and chariots. and his servant said

to elisha alas my

master what shall we do what are we gonna do man they're everywhere these these

boys are here they're serious i don't know what we got i got three rocks and

a slingshot i don't know what we're gonna do you know and elisha's over there

making eggs and biscuits i ain't even worried about nothing he looks at that young man he says,

do not fear for those who are with us,

are more than those who are with them.

How many biscuits you want? You want your eggs scrambled? How could you eat at a time like this?

Oh no, man. We're going to eat breakfast. Just chill out. Don't be afraid.

There are more with us than with them. And look at what he says.

This seasoned prophet says, Elisha prayed.

And he said, Lord, I pray that you open up his eyes that he may see. at you.

The Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold,

the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

We're talking about two realms, okay? The natural realm was all of the Syrians

all over the place, surrounding the place.

And this cat that could only see the natural, he was freaking out.

And if you can only see the natural, that's where you're going to be.

And the world's going to be falling apart. And Jesus will look at this.

He said, I'm telling you, these things are going to happen. So you don't give

up. You don't lose heart.

Because if all you can see is the natural, you're going to lose heart.

And he said, God opened up his eyes.

And when he opened up that servant's eyes, he saw that there was another realm

that was dominant over the realm that he could see.

And he saw the chariots and horses or the host of the armies of God is what

he saw. He said, okay, we're good.

I'm okay now. The story goes on. You could go.

They come and get Elijah. Elijah strikes them with blindness,

sends them out to the... it's kind of comical, actually, in one sense,

unless you're the guy to get struck anyway.

What if God was to open up our eyes like that?

Now, I'm not saying we're going to see these kind of things every day,

but there are times in our lives where we need to understand there are more

for us than are against us.

What if we could see that? What if we could get a glimpse of that,

or even just from Scripture get faith for that?

Our country's not in good shape.

As Christians, we're starting to see persecution in our lifetime. time.

And if it continues to go down that road, we're going to see lots more.

What if we could get our eyes open to another reality of that spirit realm?

What if? It'd be a lot different, wouldn't it?

Some of what we do is we get faith out of the word. We see this.

So can I believe? I mean, I'm not fighting a bunch of Syrians over the hillside right there,

but can I get my faith lined

up into that and say Lord open up

my eyes so that I can understand at least even

if I don't see it I mean I don't I don't know if anybody's opened up and saw

that Ram anybody here saying that I don't know if you physically see that but

by faith can you believe that and that's a great question how do we get that

kind of faith well let me tell you this whether you believe angel armies or

whatnot I mean the scriptures full of that kind of stuff all right.

Did the Lord Jesus say that he'd ever leave you nor forsake you?

Did he say he would always be with you?

And if he's with you, well, he's got his angel armors with him too.

But if he's with you, what else does it matter?

You see the unfolding of the book of Acts. And the book of Acts is like a highlight reel.

It's like a highlight reel of 40 years. It spans 40 years of history.

And it's a highlight reel of those 40 years. So you can put together a pretty

good highlight over 40 years of time. I could do it with my life.

You could do it with your life.

He could look pretty good. A lot of normal days in between there.

But the book of Acts shows us a people who were on the earth who had that kind of faith.

To believe even though they were outnumbered in the natural,

in the spirit realm, God was with them. Yeah, sure.

But Paul comes along in the scripture where we draw our faith from. Okay.

We don't just walk by what we see in our natural eyes.

Because, you know, some people see things in the spirit, but it's just pepperoni pizza.

You know, we've got that kind of thing, too. But OK, Paul tells us,

Paul tells us specifically.

Right there in Ephesians 6, what we just read, that we are we are in a war with

principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness, rulers of darkness.

He talks about that. Right.

OK, so we got it. You got a choice to make whether or not you ever see that.

And hey, you may spend your whole lifetime and never see a demon.

You probably don't want to, to be honest with you. you know but do I have faith

to believe that that's the reality and how where do I anchor my faith in that

well it's in the text and that's where we not only take the Bible seriously

but we believe what it says.

In this room has felt spiritual opposition. Everybody's felt that.

You don't need to see it. You can feel it.

I'll tell you what, we could go take a ride across Lake Pontchartrain.

And if I got you and said, and I prayed over you before we got there and said,

Lord, I ask you to let them feel what I feel when I ride across the Lake Pontchartrain.

And there is a point on the bridge of Lake Pontchartrain where the switch in

me flips and I know I am in enemy territory without a doubt.

How do I know that? Well, it's a discernment. You just know.

And New Orleans is a wicked place.

It's extremely underneath. I mean, and that's just kind of a real easy answer.

I mean, we already know that.

I mean, they got chicken feet and blood slinging everywhere around there.

You know, but you go in there. I mean, you feel.

Let me tell you what happens to me, too, on the flip side of that, on the positive side.

But when I am off and I go travel or go visit Lily or come back and I come back

into my territory that God has given me to work.

I know, I know where about is.

And I, and when I get close, I'm not talking about the land,

I'm talking about the area.

It's that apostolic thing. When I come into this, this territory, I know I'm, this is mine.

And there's an authority that comes over me that I know I'm where I'm supposed

to be. You see what I'm talking about?

And I can work that. And I do have the ability to speak to things and do things

and help people on a level that I don't have other places.

I'm in somebody else's territory. That makes it. Well, you know, jurisdiction.

We know that's that's kind of spiritual jurisdiction. You know,

you just can't go over to Holmes County and do your thing, can you?

And I can't go. I can't even go back to Memphis and do what I do here,

because that's not where my my boundary of habitation is.

That's a positive area, but I know that spiritually speaking.

What I want you to do today, I'm not trying to get you to figure everything

out. The Bible is a book to make you go, what in the world?

So that you go home and you mull it over, you chew on it a little bit longer.

Well, most people don't. They don't chew on it no more.

They just say, well, I don't know what he's talking about.

Where's the grilled cheese? Or you go home and turn on Dallas and you watch

Dallas and you don't ponder these things.

If you don't ponder these things, you don't get them. OK, because it's meditation.

You got to think them through. And God's wired it up to where you can't get

it the first time. Nobody does. You won't get it the 10th time.

You won't get it the first five years or 10 years. It's a lifelong journey. He's got us on.

What I want you to do is to get your spiritual senses and antennas up to know

that you and I got work to do in the spirit realm. And we got work to do in the natural realm.

You good? If you're not good, that's good.

And I'm OK with that. We just got to work it out. We'll pray.

All right, Father, thank you.

All right, so your word just kind of challenges us in all kinds of ways, Lord.

You got a particular kind of knowledge in the Bible that we're not accustomed to anywhere else.

And Lord, your revelation is needed for us, not to make us weird,

not to make us strange, not to make us floating off the ground or humming in

B-flat and all that kind of stuff.

Your word came to give us the food that we need to do the work that we're called to do.

So I pray you'd help us, Lord. Help us to understand what we need to see in

the spirit realm, not to get too preoccupied with things, but also not to neglect it.

Help us in the natural, in our work, Lord, to know that we can't do anything

unless you bless it and you give us the strength and you undo us with power.

So help us, Lord. Help us to be a people that do what you want us to do while we live.

In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.