Realms of Living

It struck me in the midst of God's many blessings during the Christmas and New Year season that there are different realms of living.  This is not some Biblically technical term, simply one that describes what I am talking about (or dimensions).  For example, there is the natural realm which follows certain laws and principals.  We would consider someone to surely plunge to their death (because of the law of gravity) when jumping off a 1,000 ft. building but if they are using a parachute we may believe they are crazy (like when someone recently jumped off "Tower One" in New York City) but can survive.  In the natural realm gravity is a law and the only way to overcome it is with higher laws (such as the law of thrust and aerodynamics).  There are laws and principals (truths) that affect how we live but there are also people who seem to live life at another realm of living.  I think of Heidi Baker, who has seen food multiply so many times it has become commonplace.  Others like Randy Clark, who have seen creative miracles where a woman who only had an atrophied and nonfunctional eye have a completely functional eye form through prayer.

In James 3:15 describes natural wisdom as, "This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic."  Wisdom is the thinking and living that are associated with a certain realm, in this case the natural one (w/o God).  Amazing how this thinking starts out simply as earthly (bound by the created order) but ends up becoming demonic.  I believe this is because without God's redemptive intervention, the earthly realm is under the influence of sin, deception, curse, and ultimately death.  Jesus while on earth was living in the natural realm but displayed living under another realm in the way He thought, interacted with others, and responded to situations.  I believe Jesus lived under the laws and principals of the Kingdom of God, while also walking as a human being in the natural realm.

The revelation of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit is more than an idea about who Jesus is but actually elevates us to a higher realm of living.  Since the Bible clearly ties the destiny of human beings with the Son of Man, Jesus Christ.  In Hebrews 5:12-14 we see this displayed, "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.  For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.  But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil."  We discern a realm of living by our senses, to understand what is going on in the world around us, we use our 5 senses connected with our thinking to process the input.  These verse in Hebrews 5 say that if we want to be mature, we need to have our senses trained by the "word of righteousness".

As I have written about poverty before, poverty is more than a way of thinking or an experience but a whole realm of living that people must be lifted out of to experience prosperity.  A CEO who sits in a 100th story skyscraper boardroom thinks and operates on another realm than someone who simply trying to find their next meal.  One thinks and operates in terms of millions and billions of dollars, thousands of people, and massive buildings.  While the other person (poor) is reduced to scrounging in the trash, holding up a sign asking for money, and trying to stay warm.  The video is from Benny Hinn and while I may not agree with everything he teaches or lives, I believe God has given him revelation.

Seated in heavenly places "in Christ",
Bret