The Spiritual Dimension of Reality​

This entry is part of a set of discussions on Inhabiting God's Story

​God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth. (John 4:24)
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For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Eph 6:12)​

​Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead? (Acts 26:8)

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​In this section I share some initial thoughts about the need to take into account, and make sense of, the spiritual dimension of reality.

​I don't want to rush a description of the nature of the unseen realm, but I can already see that the witness in Scripture about this aspect of things is meant as a witness about the nature of reality. I'm also not in a rush to suggest some plan of action, or appropriate postures, or a response to these realities. But it does seem clear that prophets and apostles alike expect us to take this aspect of things into account, both in the formation of our worldviews (which is a basic aspect of Christian discipleship), and in the development of a corresponding situational consciousness (see 2 Kings 6:15-17, the gospels, etc.).
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​Why avoid it?
It is quite obvious in all of Scripture that the spiritual dimension of reality was a given, presupposed by all biblical writers and their communities. But this is no longer the case in many circles among God's people. Or at least, our belief is not showing in our scholarship and our lives. Why is that?

Probably few Christians would say they don't believe in the supernatural, that space, time and matter is all there is. So why isn't the spirit-realm showing up as a major aspect of reality in our theologies and discipleship programs? My sense is we just don't know what to do with this aspect of things. We have lived in naturalistic narratives for too long now to remember how to live like there's more going on than meets the eye. And it doesn't help when we see others overemphasise or distort this aspect of things in ways that we find foolish and embarrassing.
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But if we want to live our lives according to the Scriptures, we better get used to the reality of spiritual phenomena and spiritual beings. It's not enough to believe in "spiritual" things in the abstract.

Or have we forgotten that God himself is spirit? If we think about it, what is surprising is not that there's a spirit-realm but that there's a physical realm, since the One who brought matter into being is a Spirit. Imagine that, the clay asking the potter: "How could you possibly not be clay?" Or worse: "If you're not clay, it must mean that you don't exist!"

According to the Scriptures, furthermore, the spiritual dimension of reality is a big part of the picture. It explains a lot about what's really going on in the world.

​Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne with all the multitudes of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left. And the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?’ “One suggested this, and another that. Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the Lord and said, ‘I will entice him.’ ‘By what means?’ the Lord asked. ‘I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,’ he said. ‘You will succeed in enticing him,’ said the Lord. ‘Go and do it.’ So now the Lord has put a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The Lord has decreed disaster for you.  (1 Kings 22:19-23)

What do you make of that?

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It seems to me that if reality is as the Scriptures describe it, it's pretty clear that a Christian without enough understanding and ability to discern and engage the spitit-realm is pretty much walking in the dark and fairly powerless in the midst of a cosmic struggle between God and his agents, on the one hand, and all that opposes his will, on the other. We don't have to swallow whole any theory about a "warfare worldview"​ to agree with that. Just read Luke-Acts, for example, and see if these aren't the claims of the text.


Spiritual Eyes
One question to explore is how much spiritual vision the Lord intended for us at the beginning: how much of the spiritual realm is "natural" for us to see, by design, as earthlings.

However much he intended for us to see, my sense is that as earthlings our business is primarily with the natural world. That we're meant to know about and to mind the spiritual dimension of reality, but that it's largely beyond our domain and our responsibility—except for our awareness and response to it.

​But it also might just be that the spiritual and the physical realms are so integrated that it makes no sense in practice to talk of a primary domain for us, except in that we're limited geographically to the earth as our home. This possibility might be corroborated by the oneness of human and divine agency that I see called for in the witness of Scripture–especially in the Lord Jesus and in the church after Pentecost (see my Life in the Spirit). The Spirit empowers us to see and do whatever God wants us to see and do in either realm.


Spiritual Agents
I think there is something to the view that the supernatural manifestations of the Spirit in the New Testament church was unique—something not to be expected as the norm forever, but given to back-up the apostles' claims regarding the work of God in those days. And if I'm onto something regarding the natural world (with its natural laws) being our primary domain, then it makes sense not to expect the Spirit to act through supernatural phenomena all of the time.
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​However, the first century was not the only period in the biblical Story (including church history) when miracles happened. And, as far as I can tell, the New Testament does speak of supernatural gifts as something normal, something to get used to. So, I believe it is both: I expect miracles and supernatural gifts, but I don't think something is necessarily missing if we don't see them to the extent that we did in the first century. God was doing something extraordinary at that point in the history of the cosmos, and we could expect extraordinary signs from God to back up the claims and the work of his agents.

Personally, I want to be very open to anything God may want to show me or do thorough me (or others) regarding the spirit-realm. And I hope to find more friends among whom this aspect of reality is a given, and the spirit-realm engaged as needed. This includes openness and readiness to exercise any supernatural gifts the Spirit may give us, and to engage in spiritual warfare if that's what needs to be done.
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In Sum
Keeping in mind that there's more going on than meets the eye helps us not only make sense of things, it also empowers us to live as God's agents in the biblical Story of reality—precisely because the spirit-realm is part of reality.



Notes and Sources

• The most helpful source I've found is Michael Heiser. I would start with Supernatural, which is a summary of his findings in The Unseen Realm.
• I would supplement that with the basic introduction on the Powers by  Hendrik Berkhof, Christ and the Powers. And there's a helpful discussion on this theme in Created for Community by Stanley Grenz et al.​ My sense is that treatments like those of Walter Wink are taking this aspect of things too far, making too much of "the Powers" (in ways beyond biblical precedent), but I'm not sure yet.
• See also When Giants Were Upon the Earth: The Watchers, the Nephilim, and the Biblical Cosmic War of the Seed, by Brian Godawa.
• Understanding Spiritual Warfare: Four Views, edited by James K. Beilby and Paul Rhodes Eddy.
• And the Spiritual Beings series by The Bible Project.

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Michael Heiser on the Divine Council