If you think about it, we live in what could be called a parallel universe ...
There is the natural world that we engage with our five senses – sight, touch, smell, hearing, and taste. There is also a spiritual world that is just a real, if not more real, as the natural world, even though it is invisible to the human eye. It contains real beings – God, angels, a devil, and demons. These two worlds are part of the one universe, yet they are parallel to each other … and they interact. Heaven touches earth. Earth touches heaven.
How easy it is to live in one world while totally ignoring (or worse till, not believing in) the other. God calls us to live in and experience both worlds. We'll talk more about that tomorrow.
Think for a moment about travel between these two worlds, as well as interaction …
- God used to walk in the garden of Eden and talk with Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:8).
- Enoch walked so closely with God that God took him from the natural world and he was not seen again (Genesis 5:24).
- Jacob had a dream of a stairway bridging earth and heaven. Angels were coming and going on it (Genesis 28:12). Was this some sort of a 'portal' (door or entrance) between these two worlds?
- Elijah was taken from this natural world in a chariot and horses of fire accompanied by a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11). Yet we see him again appearing on a mountain talking with Jesus and Moses (Matthew 17:1-3).
- God opened Elisha's servants eyes to see chariots of fire all around a human army that was surrounding them (2 Kings 6:15-17).
- The Son of God came from heaven to earth in the form of a baby. After his resurrection he ascended back to heaven again.
- All through the Bible we have stories of angels appearing to people at significant times.
- Jesus frequently set people free from demonic forces.
- Jesus invited people to 'see' then 'enter' the kingdom of heaven. He described that experience as like being 'born again' (John 3:3, 5).
- John had all sorts of visions of the spiritual world while in prison on an island called Patmos (Revelation 1:9-20).
Interesting stuff!