Ephesians 6:11-12 (NKJV) 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Now that our yearly leadership conference is over, let me get back to the message I believe God has given me for this year. We are meditating on the thought that all things are possible to those who believe. It is important for the church to get back to expecting God to do more than what we see in the natural. I use the term “God’s possibility” as opposed to natural or man’s possibility.
For instance, I may get a bad medical report. The natural possibility involves doctors and medicine. There is nothing wrong with using those possibilities. If they work, great! Of course sometimes the cure, as they say, is worse than the disease. Sometimes the doctors and medicine simply have no solution. The choices based on man’s possibilities are live in sickness or die. That is just the way it is if we are limited to natural or man’s possibilities.
Jesus tells us in Mark 9 that, if we believe, there are other possibilities. In our sickness scenario, natural possibility ends with doctors and medicine. If that does not work, we have run out of possibilities. However, if we believe, there are other possibilities. Here are a few.
Isaiah 53:5 (NKJV) 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
This is echoed in the New Testament.
1 Peter 2:24 (NKJV) 24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness–by whose stripes you were healed.
In Acts the ministry of Jesus, and by extension the church, is described this way.
Acts 10:38 (NKJV) 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
All of these scriptures point to another realm of possibility. God can heal our bodies. He made them. It only makes sense that he can fix them. Today it seems increasingly difficult to see beyond the possibilities the technology of modern medicine makes available to us. However, there are other possibilities and we need to be able to tap into them.
This same thinking applies to any kind of need or condition we can think of. We need to see beyond natural possibility in finances. We need to see beyond natural possibility in the relationships and interactions of our lives. We need to see beyond the natural possibilities when it comes to living our Christian life. Many people try to do the right thing as a matter of will power alone. You will never overcome sin or weakness by will power. There is another way. There is another possibility.
Galatians 5:16 (NKJV) 16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
I do not want to take the time or space to elaborate on this scripture but it points to another way that we can defeat sin and weakness. We can walk in the spirit. We can draw from inner possibilities empowered by the Spirit of God not just on the strength of our own will.
There is a simple truth we must embrace and cultivate in order to walk in God’s possibilities. I am not saying that no one in the church understand this truth, but I do not believe we cultivate it the way we used to. I know I have not but I am stirring it up once again. That truth is represented by todays scripture.
We usually quote this scripture in relation to spiritual warfare but I want to look at it from a more basic point of view. This scripture tells us we need the armor of God to stand against the wiles of the devil. This is not talking about heaven or some other place. It is talking about where we are living right now.
There is an armor that we can wear that does not originate in the natural and does not draw from natural possibility. There is a foe that we must withstand right here on earth who cannot be seen in this world. Both of these things point to a connection between a place we cannot see with our natural eyes and the world we can see.
Paul goes on to say we do not wrestle with flesh and blood. However, we do wrestle! Any being that is of this world is flesh and blood. It may be a person or an animal but it is flesh and blood. What we must defeat is not flesh and blood. What is it then? It is something that is part of another world!
The term “wrestle” is particularly descriptive. Wrestling is a type of combat that involves close contact. It is isometric in nature. That means two forces are pressing together to see which is stronger. Boxing involves punching. It is a type of combat that does not involve constant contact with the enemy. Wrestling does require that kind of contact. Nevertheless, the wrestling we must do is not against flesh and blood.
We cannot see our enemy yet we must wrestle with him. We must push and be pushed back. We must hold onto our enemy, forcing him in the direction we need him to go until we so pin him down so he cannot function in our lives. How can we be in such intimate contact with an enemy we cannot see? The answer is that both we and our enemy live in two worlds.
We live in the natural world but, due to our connection with the Lord, have the ability to affect the spiritual world. Our enemy lives primarily in the world of the spirit but because of the sin of Adam is able to affect the natural world. We both live in two worlds but we are fighting for the future of this world and those who live here but do not yet know the Lord.
The possibilities we are trying to access, God’s possibilities, are not drawn from the world we can see. They are drawn from the invisible world of the spirit. They can affect the visible world because we are part of both. Let me point out one more scripture.
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 (NKJV) 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Paul was not overcome by the things that he faced because he knew a secret we must learn as well. What we see is temporary. That means it is subject to change. It will change! What is unseen is eternal. What is unseen is the world of the spirit. When we learn to access the unseen power available to us, then and only then will we access the unseen possibilities that will take us beyond our natural limitations.
We cannot access what we do not believe exists. We must cultivate the awareness of the world of the spirit until, like Paul, it becomes more real to us than what we see, hear or feel in the world we can see. When that happens everything we see becomes subject to change by the power of God’s possibilities.
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