This chapter will be a continuation of some basic concepts of the Kingdom of God. As we put our faith in God, we’re able to see through our spiritual eyes a reality beyond the natural one: the spiritual reality. This reality is not static, but also subject to a work that is initiated by God. The Father has set up His order and entrusted His Son to establish it as He subjects the Enemy, who rebelled against His will and sows disorder into creation.
The conflict between the Kingdom of Light led by the Son of God and the Kingdom of Darkness led by the Enemy spans the ages since creation. Man is that which is being battled over in this conflict. As we mentioned before, man is influenced by the wisdom he receives. If he receives it through the Holy Spirit, the wisdom of God, he is able to enter into the Kingdom of His Son. There he is established as member of God’s house and as a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. Otherwise, he will receive the wisdom from below by his flesh or by the influence of evil spirits. He will remain in the power of the darkness and subject to death and sin, or worse, willingly become an instrument of the Devil.
Spiritual Reality
One of the biggest traps anyone can make is to mystify spiritual matters and give up the position and discernment that is required for our well-being and understanding. When we mystify our spiritual reality, fear or curiosity will lead to an unbalanced view of spiritual things.
Many believers think that the Kingdom of God is the only spiritual reality we will encounter in the spiritual life. This is a wrong proposition to take and also a dangerous one. Spiritual reality, if defined as anything of a spiritual nature, involves more than the the Kingdom of God, but also other realities in the heavenly places. Some belong to the Kingdom of the Enemy, which most of the time is a counterfeit of the Kingdom of God. This fact causes great confusion and deception to an untrained mind. Let us take a look at what Jesus had to say when facing those who possessed head-knowledge, yet were totally blind to such realities:
Matt. 12:22-28 [NIV]
22Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. 23All the people were astonished and said, “Could this be the Son of David?”
24But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.”
25Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. 26If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? 27And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. 28But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
We can see how blind the minds of the religious men were at the time. They professed that they knew God and His Kingdom and could give guidance to others’ spiritual lives. Thus Jesus called them the blind leading the blind and rebuked them as ones who did not enter the Kingdom and stood in the door so that others would not enter.
In essence, they used the mind and reasoning, or their flesh, to try to grasp and fulfill what was meant to come only through the Holy Spirit.
This post is _Part 1_ in the series Spiritual Reality, Order, and Wisdom. To continue with this series, click on Pt 2. To use this as a growth tool to better understand your own calling, you might start by reading the explanation of this series.
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