We live in a physical world. We can interact with it though our senses. It is tangible. It is real. Contrast this to the spiritual realm. We exist in both physical and spiritual realms.
While this is true, there is more—much more. There is a spiritual reality that is even more real then the physical realm that we call home. Consider that God exists in the spiritual realm. It existed first and always has.
It is from this spiritual reality that he created our physical world in which we live. (Don’t get distracted on how this creation occurred.)
In his letter to the people who lived in Thessalonica, Paul talks about our spirit, soul, and body. How do these three aspects of who we are interact and co-exist?
It’s been said that we are a spirit, we have a soul, and we live in a body. (See 1 Thessalonians 5:23).
Furthermore, our soul is comprised of our mind, will, and emotions. That puts things in the proper order, giving us a good perspective on our existence and what is most important.
Although our body is temporal and will die, our spirit will live on, existing in the spiritual realm.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
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In a spiritual sense, this is how it is with God and us. He is coming towards us; with him, we will be protected. (That doesn’t mean there won’t be risks as we journey with him, because there will.)
We will also be afforded a band of warriors, ready to battle on our behalf. In the spiritual realm, this is an army of angels.
Centuries later, Jesus tells Satan, “Don’t you know that I could ask my Father, and right away he would send me more than twelve armies of angels?” (Matthew 26:53).
While we might not see angels, we have good reason to believe that they are nearby, ready to protect us from both physical threats and spiritual foes.
Our God, who loves us, will make sure we are protected.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
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We Get a Glimpse into the Spiritual Realm Through Scripture
We live in a physical realm. In our physical world, we experience it with our senses. We see things, touch things, and hear, taste, and smell things. Through our senses, we experience our physical reality.
However, there’s also a spiritual aspect of our existence, which embraces the spiritual realm. Though we can’t tangibly experience this spiritual reality with our senses, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
Through the Bible we get a peek into the spiritual realm and can get an awareness of what that implies.
Here are some aspects of the spiritual realm that the Bible reveals to us:
Three Characteristics of God
Through the Bible we can discover three critical characteristics of God.
First, he is omnipotent, which means he’s all powerful, Almighty.
Next, we see that God is omnipresent. This means God is present in all places at the same time. He is everywhere, all the time.
Third, we see God as omniscient, which means all-knowing. God knows all things. everything.
These words all start with omni. Omni means all. God is all powerful, all present, and all knowing. I like to say that he’s omni God, that is, he is all, all we need. He is everything.
He is three entities, yet one entity. He’s three and one at the same time. Confusing, right? The Bible reveals this to us, and we addressed this characteristic of God in prior reasons of why I love the Bible: reason #2, #3 and #4.
Holy Spirit Power
Let’s focus for a moment on the Holy Spirit. As we’ve already covered, the Bible reveals the Holy Spirit to us. More than that, the Bible also reveals the Holy Spirit’s power.
Though we see the Holy Spirit at work throughout the Bible, he takes center stage in the book of Acts, with close to one hundred mentions.
The Holy Spirit also takes part in creation, as covered in the first chapter of the first book of the Bible.
And the Holy Spirit is there as the Bible concludes, taking a central role in the last chapter of the last book. The Holy Spirit is powerful and the Holy Spirit lives in us. We need to listen to the Holy Spirit and then obey what he says.
Miracles and More
Throughout the Bible we read about miracles, of supernatural events that transcend physical realities. Some people make ineffective attempts to explain away miracles through logic, science, or reason. All attempts fall short.
Through faith, we accept the miracles we read about in the Bible as the manifestation of the reality of the spiritual realm.
Angels
The Bible reveals angels and other supernatural beings to us. These aren’t harp-playing cherubs, floating on clouds, with child-like innocence plastered on their face.
These are powerful spiritual beings, created by God, who do his bidding and even battle on our behalf.
Evil
The Bible also reveals another element of the spiritual realm to us. It is Satan, the devil, he exists in the spiritual realm, yet we see evidence of his work in the physical realm.
Many people imagine Satan as God’s counterpart, doing battle against each other is equal, opposing forces.
Yet the Bible reveals that Satan is an angel created by God. He later rebels against his maker. God, as creator, is more powerful than his creation. That means God is more powerful then Satan.
Though the devil enjoys a time of authority to cause havoc in our world today, in the end God will win. And he will conquer his enemy, Satan.
Life After Death
Last, the most important element of the spiritual realm that the Bible reveals to us is that we will experience a new life. This is a spiritual life that continues after physical death.
Though no one is sure what our life-after-death existence will be like, the Bible reveals to us that it is real.
As followers of Jesus, we can expect to spend eternity with God in the spiritual realm. And then it will all become clear (1 Corinthians 13:12).
We are more than corporeal, so much more. We are more than just a body. Let’s not even consider our physical being first.
Instead let’s begin with our spiritual being and build upon it: we are a spirit, we have a soul, and we live in a body (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
The Bible reveals the spiritual realm to us. Though it’s hard to comprehend from our present, physical reality, the Bible gives us glimpses into it and what it means.
We must grasp this and accept it, for it is our future. And when we get there, I suspect it will be more real than the reality we currently experience in the physical realm.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
We Can Only Guess about Battles in the Spiritual Realm, but Angels Fight for Us
The book of Daniel contains six stories and four prophetic visions. In Daniel’s final, and longest, vision, we get a glimpse— perhaps metaphorically—of what happens in the spiritual realm and how angels fight for us.
Starting with chapter 10, Daniel receives a vision about a great war. This troubles him. It saps him of his strength. Afterward, he stands up trembling.
Daniel mourns for three weeks about what this vision might mean. During this time he fasts and shoves aside personal hygiene. Daniel is in distress, trying to figure out the meaning of this terrifying vision.
Why is God not answering? Why is he delaying?
At last, an angel appears—three weeks late. The angel explains. God heard Daniel’s prayers on day one.
He dispatched his messenger immediately. But the angel had to battle an evil force that tried to keep him from carrying out his mission.
At last, the mighty angel Michael came to help this messenger battle the evil that opposed him. Together these angels fight the fallen angel.
Finally, with victory assured, this messenger, this angel, is no longer detained. He proceeded to Daniel to complete his mission and explain the vision.
Angels Fight for Us in the Spiritual Realm
This account of good angels battling bad angels in the spiritual realm may be hard for us to grasp. But the idea that angels fight for us should also encourage us.
God has angels working on our behalf, either directly, to come to our aid, or indirectly, to battle supernatural forces of evil.
Our reality is more than what we can observe, more than our physical world offers. There’s a spiritual dimension, too.
While we may not know what happens in this other reality, we are assured God works on our behalf in ways we can’t understand.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
As Followers of Jesus We Can Point the Supernaturally Curious to God
Premodern people saw everything as spiritual. Though modern thinking attempted to remove the spiritual from our everyday reality, the postmodern view is open to reunite them. For that I am glad.
Yet not all that is spiritual is good. Consider all of the TV shows and movies that delve into the supernatural. Sci-fi specifically seems to be moving in this direction but so are more generally marketed television shows and movies.
Also, consider the growing interest in fantasy novels and the various speculative fiction subgenres. Why is this?
It’s quite simply because of demand. The public seeks content that investigates spiritual concepts and explores the supernatural realm.
They have interest in such matters. They hunger for something more than what a nonspiritual life offers, with content producers happy to fill that void.
In fact, most people in today’s postmodern world, notably younger generations, such as Millennials, are open to the spiritual. This is both good and bad. Just because something is spiritual doesn’t automatically make it good.
Sometimes supernatural considerations point us to God and other times this content steers us in the opposite direction.
Often these mind-blowing forays into the non-temporal merely confuse a godly, spiritual reality with intriguing, yet inconsequential fantasy.
Does this mean we should abandon all cinema, television, and books that dip into the supernatural? Of course not. Ignoring this trend will not make it go away and will leave the spiritually curious with only opposing views to influence them.
As people who know what the Bible says about spiritual matters, we need to guide our world’s spiritually inquisitive toward an understanding that is biblically centered and focused on Jesus.
If we don’t, people will persist in forming their own hodgepodge of spiritual practices based on what they see in their entertainment choices and that is not anchored in the foundation of God’s Word.
Let us be their light to a path that leads to God, the narrow way, and away from the wide path that leads to destruction (Psalm 119:105, Matthew 7:13-14).
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
A friend of mine once startled me by saying, “Sometimes I think the spiritual realm is more real than the physical realm.”
That gave me a start, but I understand what he meant—and yearn to understand it more fully.
It’s been said that “we are a spirit, we have a soul, and we live in a body.” That suggests that our body, while temporal, will be outlasted by our spirit.
While we can only begin to vaguely comprehend the spiritual realm, I do believe it is real—and more real and more important than this tangible, physical realm, which sees me typing these words into my computer, to be posted on a blog, for you to read.
There is a physical realm and a spiritual realm. Right now I am residing in both, though mostly in the physical. One day I expect to transition fully and completely into the spiritual realm.
That is what we commonly call death, but I call eternal life.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
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I recently watched the 2003 movie Indigo—and enjoyed it thoroughly. Indigo is a drama about a young girl who has special abilities, which she uses to protect and re-unite her family.
In the movie, she encounters others who are likewise gifted.
These, we learn, are “indigo children,” who have supernatural awareness and abilities, often empathic and sharing a telepathic connection; mostly they are misunderstood or marginalized.
In watching the movie, I began to wonder if these indigo children might actually have a spiritual awareness that eludes most people. Are they tapping or seeing into the spiritual realm?
While much controversy surrounds this (Google “indigo children” to learn more), I suspect that for some, this is the case.
However, knowing that not everything that is spiritual is good, it is important to be cognizant that those who are truly “indigo” could be connecting with God—or alternately with evil.
If you wish to ponder this, do so with an open mind, but with caution and discernment.
From a production perspective, this is not a standout movie, but it is compelling enough that I want to watch it again and to recommend it.
However, know that the reviews I read were largely negative, criticizing every conceivable aspect, from acting to directing to characterization to plot.
Interestingly, those wrote favorably seemed to have a positive predisposition to indigo children. Could it be that the movie’s detractors were merely offended by the topic?)
[Read more reviews by Peter DeHaan of other faith-friendly videos and movies.]Save
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
