Dear Ones,
Peace and grace to you. I will share a series of writings concerning life in the Kingdom of God.
Now I sincerely hope my sharing will not cause chaos or controversies that run over the boundary of any meaningful discuss. The piece of writing I will share is not to defend or offend, rather as a friend to lend a hand on your journey to spiritual matters. I enjoy to see others even care to ponder such things...
Below is one of the chapters of a writing I wrote some time ago. It is mainly addressing to those who share my view of spiritual things and are well familiar with the Bible. I hope you enjoy the chance to read the scripture in the context as I didn't expound on some basics, even this was written as a basic teaching.
I have many miraculous things happened to me: "Converted" because God talked to me while never knew anything of church or the Bible; 3 days was caught up in heaven in a out-of-body experience and preached to myriads of angels with an unknown tongue after came back; many times was able to see into heavenly things, even participate in them; 7 days did not eat or sleep while the Spirit and the power of God rested upon me; having cast out demons, heal people, etc...I would surely testify that Spiritual Reality exists and functions in a way confounding to the "wise". And this is for a reason...
1 Corinthians 1:18-31 (NIV)
Christ the Wisdom and Power of God
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”(a)
20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
26 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”b
[1]
a Isaiah 29:14
b Jer. 9:24
[1] The Holy Bible : New International Version. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984
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Now that being said, here is the article. Hope you have the patience to read it through...
Love,
Sun
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CHAPTER 14: SPIRITUAL REALITY, SPIRITUAL ORDER AND SPIRITUAL WISDOM
In this section we will continue to introduce some basic of the Kingdom of God in a general sense.
• Spiritual Reality
• Spiritual Order.
• Two Wisdoms
Presentation
Introduction
This chapter will be a continuation of a brief survey of some basic concepts of the Kingdom of God. As we put our faith in God, we will be able to see through our spiritual eyes a reality beyond the natural one: spiritual reality. This reality is not static, but also subject to a work that is initiated by God and will be summed up by Him as well. The Father has set up His order and entrust to His Son to establish it as He subject the Devil, who rebelled against His will and sow disorder or lawlessness into creation. The conflict between the Kingdom of Light by the Son of God and the Kingdom of Darkness by the Devil is across the ages of creation, and man is the main prize and battle field for this engagement. As we mentioned before, man will be influenced by the wisdom He receive. If he receives it through the Holy Spirit, the wisdom of God, he is able to enter into the Kingdom of His Son and be established as member of God’s house and citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. Otherwise, he will receive the wisdom from below by his flesh or influence of evil spirits, and remain in the power of the darkness and subject to death and sin, even worse, willingly become instrument of the Devil, full of deception and wickedness.
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 wellbeing and understanding. Because of the mystical nature, fear or curiosity will lead to unbalanced view of spiritual things.
Many believers would think that the Kingdom of God is the only spiritual reality we will encounter in spiritual life. This is more than a wrong proposition to take, but also a dangerous one. Spiritual reality, if defined as anything of a spiritual nature, would involve with more than the reality in the Kingdom of God, but also other realities in the heavenly places. Some only belong to the Kingdom of the Enemy, which most of the time is a counterfeit or copy of the Kingdom of God. This fact causes great confusion and deception to an untrained and unenlightened mind to grasp and discern. Let us take a look at what Jesus had to say when facing those who only possess 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.
Now, we can see how blind the minds of the religious men were at the time. Yes these profess that they knew God and His Kingdom and could give guidance to other’s spiritual life. 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 meant to come only through the Holy Spirit. This we will discuss a little later. Now let’s turn to another interesting thing as revealed in these verses: spiritual order.
Spiritual Order
Accused as of being the very opposite of who He is, Jesus refuted and warned the Pharisees by pointing of the way how spiritual reality exists and works. It exists and works not in so much chaos as evidenced in this visible realm, rather it moves and functions in a much strict and regulated order.
In last chapter, we mentioned the economy and government of the Kingdom of God. Now these also exist in the Kingdom of Darkness, even in many ways a copy or counterfeit. Let’s take a look another story of Jesus to illustrate this.
Luk. 7:1-10 [NIV]
1When Jesus had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. 2There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. 3The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, 5because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” 6So Jesus went with them.
He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. 7That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
9When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” 10Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.
It is amusing to see that even Jesus was surprised by this Gentile’s faith; it is also sad. Obviously the nature and way of spiritual Kingdom of God is an unknown territory for the religious Jews of the day. And they supposed to be the ones teaching others the way of God.
Now, give a closer examination of the story, we can see how Jesus Himself understood and moves in the order of the Kingdom of God, which is constituted in a governmental way with authority and power granted to offices that would function within.
To trace back a bit, this is the design of God when He created everything, which is in order and boundaries that was set up for them. There are heavenly bodies and earthly ones; there are seasons and times, etc. These were created for the revelation of His wisdom, glory and power. And He created Man in His image and likeness and gave Him the position to represent Him to govern everything on His behalf. Tragically, as we mentioned before, Man forfeited this privilege and Satan usurped His position unto the earthly realm as an extension of His rebellion against God. He is called the prince of this world, the ruler of this world. His Kingdom is a kingdom of lawlessness and pride.
However, Man is not without hope. In the fullness of time, God sent His Son and released us from this powerless place and restored everything back to us. It is in this sense, Jesus came and died and resurrected again to open the way to eternal life and the place of authority and power unto man. With this in mind, He discipled the Apostles and entrusted and empowered them to do the same.
Matt. 28:16-20 [NIV]
16Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Two Wisdoms
We will not expound on this a lot as we mentioned the difference of the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil before. We will briefly recap it.
When God created man, He created him in His image. This implies that man was created with spiritual faculties make him readily to commune with God and learn wisdom from Him. Man was designed to be taught by God Himself, to become His disciple. And through man, God intended to reveal His wisdom and His glory to all creation. What an honor and privilege! These spiritual faculties can be compared to man’s natural senses, of which the direct ones are spiritual ears and spiritual eyes, which allow man to hear God and see His glory, thus learn of His Wisdom, walk in His Ways, change into His Nature and transform into His Glory. God wanted to father man as His own son and teach him everything He knows. Imagine how sad He was when man chose to forfeit this wonderful relationship with Him!
Yet, man lost this privilege when seduced the serpent as recorded in Genesis 3.
Ge 3:4-5 [NIV]
4“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When Adam and Eve both partook the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, their natural eyes and ears were opened, so they felt shamed when they found themselves naked and afraid when they heard God’s voice calling them. They relationship with God and each other became defiled with unclean conscience, which is the essence of sin. Consequently, they were casted out of the Garden of Eden, away from God’s presence, thus forever cut off from the Fatherhood of God, or His family and His education, lost the chance to “become just like Him”.
David knew this very well, he was given amazing revelation of the ordinances of God. In Psm. 32, after describing his painful struggle of sin and his joy in the forgiveness of God, he heard God uttered him something more promising than anything else.
Ps 32:8 [NIV]
8I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you and watch over you.
Like many other Davidic psalms, this one also is a Messianic psalm, its application is beyond that of David himself, rather the whole human race. In it is the hope of the restitution of man’s privilege to be taught and protected by God, which is fulfilled through Christ Jesus, the second Adam, the life-giving spirit.
It is God’s desire to teach us His wisdom, the wisdom from above, not the one from below.
James offers us a clear distinction between the two:
James 3:13-18 [NIV]
13Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. 16For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
17But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.
We will explore this more in the coming chapters in more detailed manners.
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Scriptures
Spiritual Reality and Order
Col 1:10-14 [NIV]
10And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Luk 4:31-37 [NIV]
31Then he went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath began to teach the people. 32They were amazed at his teaching, because his message had authority.
33In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, 34“Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
35“Be quiet!” Jesus said sternly. “Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him.
36All the people were amazed and said to each other, “What is this teaching? With authority and power he gives orders to evil spirits and they come out!” 37And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area.
Matt 6:9-13 [NIV]
9“This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us today our daily bread.
12Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’
Two Wisdoms
John 3:10-12 [NIV]
10“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?
Isa 11:2-5 [NIV]
2The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD—
3and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;
4but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
5Righteousness will be his belt
and faithfulness the sash around his waist.
Luk 2:40 [NIV]
40And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. ….
52And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
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Questions for Reviews
1. What is the difference between the Kingdom of God and Spiritual Reality?
2. What is the relationship between Spiritual Reality and Spiritual Order?
3. Was Jesus under authority when He walked on earth? How so?
4. Give you observation what is the characters of wisdom from above.
Questions for Meditation and Application
1. Read John 3, and explain
a. Why Jesus stopped Nicodemus’s way of conversation?
b. Do you think there is a difference between seeing and entering the Kingdom of God? How so?
c. How do you describe the effect of understanding the wisdom from above as explained by Jesus?
2. Have you ever encountered spiritualist or witchcraft in your life? Do you think practices of such enjoy certain spiritual insight and power? How so?
3. What is your idea of spiritual authority and order? Do you think they are necessary to be established in your life? How so?
4. Give some practical decisions after you read and study this chapter, so that spiritual wisdom and order in your life can be improved.