UNVEILING THE UNSEEN
1. Many Christians do not fully benefit in this life from being part of God’s plan because they don’t know what God is doing, wants to do, in their lives.
a. As a result, they don’t know how to cooperate with God.
b. We are taking some time to educate ourselves from God’s word as to what He wants to do in our lives so we can intelligently cooperate with Him.
2. Man is a three part being — spirit, soul, and body. I Thess 5:23
a. The spirit is the part of man that contacts God. The body contacts the physical world. The soul is our mind, emotions, and will.
b. For the sake of understanding, we could say it this way: Man is a spirit who lives in a physical body and possesses a soul (mind and emotions).
3. When a person makes Christ Lord of His life, he gets born again, born from above.
John 1:12,13; John 3:3,5; I John 5:1
a. At the new birth, God puts His very life and nature into a person’s spirit and unites him to Christ. John 1:4; 5:26; 15:5; I John 5:11,12; II Pet 1:4; Heb 3:14
b. The life of God in that person makes him a literal son of God and begin the process of conforming him to the image of Christ.
4. Now, in our spirits, we are like Christ because we have His life in us. Whatever is in Christ, in His life, is in us now. I Cor 1:30; Eph 4:24; II Cor 5:17,18
a. It is God’s plan that our spirit, which now has the life and nature of God in it, come to dominate our soul and body.
b. We are to take on outwardly the characteristics and behavior of the new man (new life) in our spirits. Eph 4:24; Col 3:10
c. God wants to build the life of Christ into us, spirit, soul, and body, and thereby conform us to the image of Christ.
d. Gal 4:19–Christ formed in us is the genius of Christianity.
5. Being conformed to the image of Christ, Christ being formed in us in this life, does not happen automatically. We have a part to play.
a. Christ was not yet formed in these Christians at Galatia. Christians at Corinth were living like mere men instead of men filled with the life of God. I Cor 3:3
b. We must feed our spirits spirit food (the word of God) so that they will grow strong, and we must get our minds renewed (make them subject to the word of God, in harmony with the new man on the inside). Matt 4:4; Rom 12:1,2
6. To be conformed to the image of Jesus in this life means we act like Him, talk like Him, and live like Him because that new life on the inside is transforming us on the outside.
7. It is God’s will that, as His sons and daughters, we accurately represent Jesus and reign in life through Christ. John 14:12; I John 2:6; 4:17; Rom 5:17
a. Just as Jesus showed the Father (His character and His power) to the world by the things He said and did, so we show Jesus to the world (His character and His power) by the things we say and do.
b. Just as Jesus reigned in life, we reign in life = have victory in the midst of problems, experience all that the Cross of Christ has provided, experience power to accurately represent Jesus in this life.
1. If you are going to be conformed to the image of Christ in this life to the degree that God desires, and if you are going to reign in life, you must become spirit conscious.
2. What does it mean to become spirit conscious? First of all, it means to become aware of the fact that you are a spirit being.
a. It is in your spirit that you are born again. It is in your spirit that you have received the life and nature of God. It is in your spirit that all these marvelous changes have already taken place.
b. It is in your spirit that you have received righteousness and have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. That righteousness now enables you to reign in life through Christ. Rom 5:17; II Cor 5:21
c. If you develop your spirit and learn to let that new life in your spirit dominate you, you will dominate circumstances. Phil 4:11-13
3. Righteousness is supposed to make us masters in this life.
a. Righteousness gives us the ability to stand in the Father’s presence as though sin never existed.
b. Righteousness gives us the ability to stand in the face of satan, sickness, lack, fear, as an absolute master, unafraid and confident.
4. Before you were born again you lived by the dictates of your soul (mind and emotions) and your body. Eph 2:3
a. That has to change. God’s plan is that our spirit, which now has the life of God in it, dominate our soul and body.
b. We are to be spirit ruled. That doesn’t just mean ruled by the Holy Spirit. Our spirit, which now has the life and nature of God in it, is supposed to dominate and control our soul and body. Gal 5:16,17; Rom 8:12,13
c. Part of being spirit conscious is becoming aware of the fact that this is supposed to happen, and then beginning to work on making it happen.
5. If we are going to reign in life we must become spirit conscious — aware of the fact that we are spirit beings, aware of the changes that have taken place in us.
a. Those facts must dominate us. We must become God-inside minded.
b. That means we must learn to respond to life based on the fact that we are new creatures who have the life and nature of God in us.
6. To become spirit conscious, we must look into the mirror of God’s word and begin to identify with what it says about us now that we are born again. II Cor 5:16
a. Your identity now is that you are a spirit being who has the life and nature of God in Him. And, you can live as He asks you to live — like Jesus. Eph 2:10
b. Doesn’t talk like this put too much emphasis on us and not on God? No!! We are talking about what God has done in us. We need to know it so we can cooperate with Him. II Cor 3:5; Acts 10:15
7. When we are talking about all of this, we are talking about unseen realities. II Cor 4:18
a. Two realms exist side by side — seen and unseen.
b. Two sources of information are continually available — sense knowledge (the information given to us by our physical senses) and revelation knowledge (facts about the unseen realm which have been revealed to us in the Bible).
8. Part of becoming spirit conscious is developing to the point where the unseen realities are as real to us as the things our senses tell us.
a. We must get to the point where we are as aware of spiritual, unseen realities as we are of what we can see and feel.
b. That will only happen with effort, as we take time to meditate on God’s word.
c. That will happen only as we learn to depend on the One who has been sent to unveil spiritual realities to us — the Holy Spirit.
1. Before Jesus went back to heaven He promised to send the Holy Spirit to help His followers. John 14:16,17,26; 15:26; 16:13-15
a. The Spirit of truth has been sent to guide us into all truth or reality.
b. He has been sent to guide us into, to reveal to us, the things Jesus said and did. He has come to unveil things about Jesus to us. He has come to guide us into the reality of spiritual (unseen) things.
2. The Holy Spirit is here to guide us into what Jesus did for us through the Cross.
a. When Jesus hung on the Cross there was much more going on than what could be seen with the physical eyes.
b. Our sins were placed on Him. He was made sin with our sin. Our sicknesses were laid on Him. God’s wrath was poured out on Him. Isa 53:6,10,12;
II Cor 5:21; Ps 88
3. As the disciples watched the crucifixion, they did not have a clue as to what was happening behind the scenes. They knew only what they could see.
a. After Jesus rose from the dead, He had to unveil to them through the Bible what had happened in the unseen realm — that He was made a sin sacrifice.
Luke 24:44-48
b. Later, Jesus appeared to Paul and unveiled to him the fact that He not only became our sin sacrifice, but also our substitute. Jesus had to show Paul the fact that we died with Christ, were raised up with Him, and are now in union with Him. Acts 26:16; Gal 1:11,12; Eph 3:1-6; Paul’s epistles
4. What went on behind the scenes, what goes on in the unseen realm, is what saved us, recreated us, made us children of God.
a. God has given us His word to tell us about these unseen realities.
b. And, God has sent the Holy Spirit to us to give us understanding of these things.
5. I Cor 2:9-16–The Holy Spirit is here to make spiritual (unseen) things as real to our spirits as physical things are to our senses.
a. He has come to unveil spiritual realities so that they will become as real to us as material things.
b. v13–God’s Spirit through God’s word is here to teach us spiritual things.
c. v13–And we are setting these truths forth in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the (Holy) Spirit, combining and interpreting spiritual truths with spiritual language [to those who possess the (Holy) Spirit]. (Amp)
d. Spiritual = of the spirit; natural = non-spiritual, sensual; carnal = earthly, material.
6. Remember, the Holy Spirit has been sent to do in us and through us all that Jesus did for us on the Cross. Titus 3:5
a. He wrote the Bible which reveals to us what Jesus did through the Cross.
b. Then, as we study it, believe it, and agree with it, He gives us understanding of it and brings it to pass in our lives (gives us the experience).
7. The Holy Spirit is here to help us become spirit conscious. We can intelligently cooperate with Him as He does His work.
a. Remember why He was sent. The Holy Spirit has been sent to guide us into all truth. Look to Him, depend on Him, expect His help.
b. Spend time in His Book. He wrote it to give you access to the unseen the realm, to the unseen kingdom of which you are now a part. Josh 1:8
c. Get good, solid Bible teaching to help you build your spirit and renew your mind. Eph 4:11-13
d. II Cor 13:14; Philemon 6–Remember, you are in partnership with the Holy Spirit. and, the partnership becomes effective as you acknowledge or confess the things that are in you because of your union with Christ.
8. Pray the Ephesians prayers for yourself. Eph 1:16-20; 3:16-19
a. Note that you are praying for knowledge of unseen realities.
b. Each time you pray them, thank God for opening your eyes a little further to see the unseen.
1. God’s life in our spirit must come to dominate our mind, emotions, and body.
a. That will not happen unless we take time to meditate in and do God’s word.
b. Then, slowly but surely, God’s word and our recreated spirit will gain the ascendancy over our sense ruled mind and body.
2. You must accept the fact that until and unless you renew your mind, every bit of information in your mind has come from the sense realm.
a. The information you get through your senses is not evil, or even necessarily always wrong. It is incomplete.
b. If you live by just that information, you will never walk in the peace, joy, and power of God. You’ll walk as a mere man.
3. The very fact that so many Christians think these kinds of studies have nothing to do with real life shows how dominated by the senses we are.
4. If you live by the dictates of your emotions and logic, if you live by the dictates of your body, you will be unstable, discontented, and powerless.
5. But, if you become spirit conscious through meditating in God’s word, if you become as aware of the unseen realities of the kingdom to which you now belong and of the life and nature of God in you through the new birth as you are of the things you can see and feel, you’ll walk in victory on a daily basis.