16 Jul How Much Do You Know About the Invisible World?
My grandfather, who was born just before the turn of the twentieth century – before most homes even had electricity – got a television when they first became available in the 1950’s. The cultural jump was too great for him. One day, after watching one of his favorite westerns, he said, out loud, to no one in particular, “I don’t understand how they get all those little people in that box.”
Well, we know that there are no little people in the box. It’s all images carried by invisible electronic waves.
In the very place where you are right now there are television signals, radio signals, Wi-Fi signals, smart phone signals, satellite signals, microwave signals and other kinds of signals coursing through the air. Even as you read this, you can’t see them, hear them, touch them, taste them, or smell them. You have no capacity within your five senses to know that the signals are in the air.
But if you have the right device, you can turn on a television show, a radio show, connect to the Internet, or ask Siri or Alexa what the weather is going to be tomorrow.
The fact that we cannot perceive these signals with our five senses has nothing whatsoever to do with their existence. They are all here, right now, right where you are. While we don’t think it’s magic, most of us don’t have any idea how it all works. We just accept it and move on from there.
The Spirit World is Real
In the same way, while the Bible does not say as much, it is possible, even likely, that there are angels and demons right where you are, right now. Demons, to look for opportunities to deceive, distract and defeat us, and angels to protect us. We cannot see them, hear them, touch them, taste them, or smell them.
But, just as we cannot perceive all the electrical waves around us all the time – but they are real nevertheless – so, the fact that we cannot perceive angels and demons with our five senses has nothing whatsoever to do with their existence. It is possible they are all with you, right now.
In 2 Kings 6, the king of Aram had gotten angry with the prophet Elisha and sent horses, chariots and a great army to his home town of Dothan to capture him. They came by night and surrounded the city and his home.
In the morning, Elisha’s servant got up early, and saw the army with horses and chariots circling the city. He went back to Elisha and said “Master! What shall we do?”
Elisha replied: “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
Then Elisha prayed and said, “Oh Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And the Lord opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” The horses and chariots of fire were there all along, but they were invisible.
Members of the spirit world are not normally visible to members of the physical world. But just like television and radio waves, that doesn’t mean they’re not there.
Life is not a Waltz, It’s a War
Part of cultivating a mature and complete eternal perspective includes being aware of the spirit world and assuming ongoing spiritual warfare – with demons trying to deceive, discourage, or defeat us, and with angels to protect us.
C. S. Lewis said “Every square inch in the universe and every split second of time is claimed by God and counter claimed by Satan.” This suggests that spiritual warfare is not occasional, but constant.
The apostle Paul says as much in Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
One of most important mental shifts a Christian must make is to come to grips with the fact that spiritual warfare is part of the life of every Christian.
Again, C. S. Lewis wrote, “There are two equal and opposite errors into which [we] can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.”
The Christian with a mature and complete eternal perspective will live with a continuous awareness that life is not a waltz, it’s a war. It is not a playground, it’s a battlefield! The goal for Christians is not success in the physical world, but victory in the spiritual world. In our next few blogs, we’ll investigate how that is done.
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