Seeing through Spiritual Eyes

Expand Your View of Spiritual Reality, Uncover the Mystery of Spiritual Warfare, Envision the Path of Spiritual Well-Being

Farnsworth

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781630874599
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Bring the otherworldly mystery of spiritual reality down to earth.Understand how Satan can gain entry into the personal lives of Christians.Learn how to find peace in church conflict without having to flee, fake it, or fight back.Put an end to toxic memories from a painful past.Experience meaningful life in the Spirit.

part i

Winning the Battle

1

Spiritual Perspective

Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching . . . you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free . . . you will be free indeed.”1 Really free. Free from bondage of sin, from captivity to Satan. Free to “soar on wings like eagles” with “hope in the Lord.” 2 The love of Christ sets us free to be filled with the fullness of God.3

We can conclude that the sense of truth Jesus is referring to is not inactive truthful ideas, doctrines, or propositions, but rather the redeeming actions of God that are actually experienced—the reality of the “fullness of God.” We could say that gospel truth is not just a message from God but the existential reality of the true nature of God—e.g., the reality of God’s peace in the midst of conflict.4

So what is “captivity to Satan” all about? How real is it, and what can we do about it? What we have to do first is recognize the presence and potency of spiritual realities alongside the presence and potency of physical and psychological realities. Second, we have to ask the question, how do the spiritual realities of the Holy Spirit and Satan operate in the world we live in? Let’s look more closely at the importance of recognizing spiritual reality, and at two specific areas of human endeavor working alongside spiritual activity: converting spiritual conflict and building spiritual well-being.

Spiritual Reality

Scripture anticipates that as fully devoted followers of Jesus we will experience the spiritual reality of the fullness of God. Likewise, we will experience the spiritual reality of the destructiveness of Satan. Jesus himself experienced spiritual realities all the way from communing with the Father to casting out demons. What we need are credible ways of assessing and identifying these realities that are often beyond measure but are knowable and true. Using Scripture as our guide, we can and must be aware of the multitude of ways that the Holy Spirit will heal us and Satan will hurt us in the course of our everyday living.

The trouble is, when we think about spiritual reality, we often truncate our thoughts with the caution not to spiritualize our troubles away. We correctly tell ourselves not to take false comfort in the hope that Jesus will fix everything to make us feel better, and not to see a demon under every rock so we can avoid personal responsibility for our own actions. However, we can try too hard to exclude certain kinds of spiritual reality—keep the spiritual world “in its place”—by turning a blind eye and missing the truth of what is actually going on.

The very nature of Jesus—fully divine and fully human—as well as the testimony about his life throughout Scripture, give credence to quite the opposite view of spiritual reality. The nature and life of Jesus simply do not allow us to get away with bifurcating reality into two unrelated realms of earthly and heavenly, seen and unseen, objective and subjective. He will not let us get away with that. We also have the testimony of the two realities operating in our personal experience of salvation, whereby we ask Jesus into our heart and receive the heavenly activity of the Holy Spirit in our earthly inner self. The two realities are undeniably compatible and coexistent with each other. The lines are blurred between these dual realities that are present at every moment every day of our lives. In other words, earthly and heavenly realities thoroughly commingle across seamless shared boundaries.

As we shall see later in this book, a major factor in discerning spiritual reality is our ability to imagine what it looks like. Imagination is key to getting it right. But our picture of spiritual reality can easily be clouded by the cataracts of a limited imagination. When we don’t see accurately because our imagination is biased, restrained, or inactive, we will be much less likely to get it right.

Spiritual Conflict

Satan (referred to as the author of confusion and disorder and not of peace5) is at work all around us, all the time. God is also at work all around us, all the time. They are the primary spiritual actors in both earthly and heavenly realities. Satan is a fallen angel and cannot do anything God does not allow him to do. God is Spirit, referred to in the Bible as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—same in essence, different in expression—and as being in ultimate control over both realms of reality. It is safe to conclude that we can and should address spiritual realities. We must not avoid them! The Bible says that sin is crouching at our door, eager to pounce and devour us.6 But we are also reassured that he who lives in us is greater than he who is in the world.7

Spiritual conflict, pure and simple, is real. We must live every day in the midst of the battle, and we must do so with faith, not fear. That is the choice that Jesus, who exposed and defeated Satan on the cross, made possible for us to choose. Indeed, he won the victory, and what we must do is claim the victory. Jesus also went so far as to give us earth-bound human beings authority over demonic spiritual beings as well as authority to heal diseases in the earthly realm. That’s a fact. He gave his disciples power and authority over demons and diseases.8 He bestowed upon those who believe authority over demons and the power to make well those who are sick.9 Biblical authority is power and influence, command and control. Satan may be the author, but we have the authority!

Where there are opposite powers, there is bound to be conflict. We must consider the spiritual reality of conflict between them. I am well aware, however, that many thoughtful, devoted Christians are uncomfortable with the phrase “spiritual warfare” and are wary or dismissive of its reality in their own lives. Hopefully “spiritual conflict” will be more acceptable and helpful for them. I am using this phrase to refer to the spiritual battles we personally encounter that are more limited in scope and targeted in focus than the all-encompassing scope and long-lasting effects of spiritual war between the forces of good and evil. My goal is to provide a clearer picture of the various forms of inner conflict that are actually involved: mental conflict, emotional conflict, and spiritual conflict.

The real battleground is the inner self, where demonic influence meets up with the power of the Holy Spirit, and our personal attitudes and actions have to face the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Spiritual conflict is not one-directional (fighting the enemy) but two-directional (outward battle with the enemy plus in...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Part 1: Winning the Battle
• Chapter 1: Spiritual Perspective
• Chapter 2: Unsanctified Self
• Chapter 3: Church Conflict
• Chapter 4: Redemptive Memory
• Chapter 5: Restoring Peace
• Part 2: Winning the War
• Chapter 6: Toxic Memories
• Chapter 7: Spiritual Well-Being I
• Chapter 8: Spiritual Well-Being II
• Chapter 9: Meaningful Memories I
• Chapter 10: Meaningful Memories II
• Afterword
• Appendix
• Bibliography