Yesterday, I thought a long while on spiritual warfare. Daniel chapter 10 things. Like; why did Jesus require help to break through a barrier in order to get to Daniel? (And, by the way, if that WASN’T Jesus, well, he certainly seemed to have his clothes on, and that individual did have the same effect on Daniel that Jesus had on John in Revelation’s chapter 1. Seems reasonable to start there to me.)
Without elaborating here, it also seems to me that there are ‘skinny spots in the heavens’. Maybe ‘thin spots in the ecosphere’ states more perfectly the idea that there is a barrier in the unseen heavens, made up of demonic authorities still resisting the breakthrough of God’s words into the planet and our prayers upwards into God’s sphere. It explains why the gospels penetration is more prevalent into some cultures and less in others. It ties nicely to Paul’s prayer that the gospel ‘would have free course and be glorified’ too.
There are many things to say, many points to raise about ‘stairways and gates to heaven’ but in the end, and while the Bible alludes to certain unknowns, it intentionally doesn’t spend much time on them. There has to be a reason for that. (I’d suppose that too much knowledge of what opposed us would have a counterintuitive impact on our faith; as in, ‘I can’t fight this battle- it’s too big for me. It’s always good to remember He fights our battles for us.)
Today, I’m stuck on the verb ‘is’ as it’s connected to ‘One’ in Ephesians 4:4-6. ‘Is’…isn’t …actually used in the greek passage, but English sentence construction requires it in order to make sense. This is a safe spot to trust what the translators interpreted because of the combined weight of all the nouns (Spirit, faith, baptism, body, etc.) that Paul piled on top of each other in the passage.)
Since ‘One’ is connected by ‘is’ eight times in that passage, it’s safe to conclude that the idea that we now EXIST as one body, spirit, hope, call, Lord, faith, baptism, God (Father) is the present reality. It’s not only what we are becoming, it’s also where we start life’s battles from.
Perhaps these realms are the ‘heavenly realms’ Paul mentions so frequently (exclusively) in this epistle. Perhaps this is what the forces in the sky above and the air around us are trying to interrupt and destroy. We are definitely in a warfare and some, or all, of those truths are assaulted, daily, in our lives.
But it’s an encouragement for me to see once again the reality is my position in Christ IS the stronghold. I’ve already won life’s battles, and I keep winning, as long as I hold these truths intact.