Most of us are intrigued when we hear a scary story, but most of us also struggle to really believe in the spiritual. What if there is more going on that most of us know. Tune in this week as Kent explains this new series. When you give at Harmony, you are investing in life change and are Advancing the Kingdom! GIVE TODAY, text any amount to (859) 459-0316 to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give .——————-
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OPENING ILLUSTRATION: Years ago I was staying in this old farmhouse, built in 1900, in an upstairs room in the peak part of the house. Someone at some point had built a little storage space in the smaller section of the peak where it meets the floor. I’m talking to the person who owned the house and they start telling me how years ago, they had been outside doing something and looked up in the window of that room and saw a little girl standing in the window waving at them. THERE WAS NO ONE HOME EXCEPT FOR THEM!
Then they were like, “welp, hope you have a good night sleeping up there…” Ha. They had pushed the bed up against this opening in the wall and I’m telling you, all night, I laid there thinking some creepy little girl was going to reach out and pull me into that little storage room…
Ha! What do you do with stories like that?
I know plenty of people who say they don’t believe in ghosts, but you get them around a campfire and start telling ghost stories and I guarantee you, when they walk back to their car – they are moving faster and keeping an eye out for anything creepy.
I’m doing this series, The Physics of the Spiritual because most people either err on two sides of the spiritual
- They don’t believe any of it
- What they believe in is more like magic than reality
Because here’s the deal, if there is a spiritual reality – then it has a type of physics to it.
What I mean is this
In order for God to have temporal beings or beings that occupy space, whether physical or spiritual, there has to be laws and principles that govern that space. Speeds by which things travel, friction which can be generated. So, just as there are laws that govern what we can and cannot do in the physical, there have to be laws like this to the spiritual.
For instance, most of us, when we pray just magically expect God to answer it Himself – and sometimes He does, but God always chooses to work in community.
This means he uses, people, angels, events, and more to answer prayers at times. And people, angels, events necessarily have a speed that they work at. -so there are times when God is answering a prayer and we can’t understand because we don’t have an adequate understanding of how the spiritual works
A quick for instanceDaniel Chapter 10Daniel has been praying and fasting for 3 weeks. When finally he has a vision with an angel speaking to him, listen to what the angel says – it’s instructive about how the physics workDaniel 10:12-13“Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. 13 But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.
I want you to notice a few things-
Daniels prayer was heard from the first day he set to seeking God on it-The angel had been dispatched-But an evil spiritual entity called the Prince of Persia resisted him-It wasn’t until backup was sent that he was able to get to Daniel
This doesn’t make sense, God doesn’t need the delay – He could have just pushed past all of this and gotten immediately to Daniel.
Which is true
UNLESS you are a God whose preference is to work through your created temporal beings.
In that case, the speed of your answer may at times be delayed due to the physics by which they are interacting within.
We see this same thing in the New Testament-angels appearing to announce things-Revelation with those given power over plants, animals, plagues
You may not realize it, but even humanity’s purpose was as partners with Yahweh.
Genesis 1:26-3026 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
3 Times God says to mankind, “I am giving you the earth to subdue and rule it”
God created humans to rule – to be stewards of all He had created.
We are His partners in the physical side of creation. I believe the angelic are His partners on the spiritual side of creation
There is a Physics to the way the Kingdom works. and I’m only scratching the surface of it all…
ILLUSTRATION: The other day, it was pouring rain. I had brought an umbrella with me to work. When I got here, I was thinking about all I had to do. I jumped out of the car with the umbrella in my hand, still all bundled up, and walked to the door – thinking about everything I had to do. I got inside and realized I was soaked and didn’t use my umbrella at all to keep me dry….
It hit me, this is how most of us treat the spiritual. We are going about our day, our life not realizing there are other forces at work in our lives than just the physical. We’ve been given the tools to interact with it. But we don’t use it because we ignore the spiritual.
In the coming weeks, we are going to look at prayer, our enemy, the power of the name of Jesus, and what Heaven & hell look like.
These are going to be powerful weeks. But for now, it’s vital that we all start to realize there is more going on than we even know and that God is up to something more than we can imagine.
I wanted to close by telling you a story from the Old Testament that is my prayer for us…
CLOSING ILLUSTRATION: Elisha the prophet of God had been consulting the King of Israel and had been helping him evade the Arameans. Word got to the king of Aram that Elisha had been the one who had foiled his plans – so he dispatched an army to attack Elisha. That next morning, Elisha’s servant went out and saw that the city was surrounded by horses and chariots. He came to Elisha and told him – he was freaked out and deservedly so. But then Elisha prayed this prayer…
2 Kings 6:16-1716 “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”17 And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. My hope and prayer for you this morning is that God will start to open your eyes up to where He is working – that no matter what your circumstance is this morning. You’ll start to be able to see where He’s working.
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