Lifebyte 11. Freedom In Jesus Video Series (Part 1)
Certain Of What We Do Not See

Introduction To Freedom In Jesus

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Introduction
Beginning with this Lifebyte and several more to follow, we want to share with you a biblical subject that’s often overlooked or misunderstood — the whole realm of the unseen world around us.
Why is this topic important for followers of Jesus to understand? Because all spiritual victory and defeat in our lives is accomplished in the dimension we can’t see.
The unseen world is a dynamic part of our lives as followers of Jesus. The writer of the Book of Hebrews leaves no doubt about this:

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for” (Hebrews 11:1,2).

Our spiritual forefathers were commended by God because they were certain about the unseen reality. We need that same confidence in our faith walk today. That’s why we’ve entitled Part One of the Freedom In Jesus series, “Certain Of What We Do Not See”. We’ve divided the entire Freedom In Jesus series into three parts. Part 1 is a comprehensive overview of the invisible world to which the Bible so often refers. This invisible reality existed before our Lord called the physical world into being, and will exist for eternity after our planet disintegrates.

Picture this for a moment: Our Father in heaven can’t be seen because He is spirit. Yet, the Bible recounts so much about His character. We know from His Word that He’s loving, holy and just. Scripture also reveals that our God created both the visible and the invisible world, and that He interacts with His creation.

Knowing About God Isn’t Knowing God

Have you ever considered, really considered, the countless ways that God, Who is spirit, interacts with His creation, which is physical? By searching the Scriptures we can learn a lot about the spirit nature of God. We can also open up greater understanding of His interaction with us from HIS vantage point.

For many who call themselves “Christian”, knowing about God through their mind’s analysis sums up their relationship with Him. That’s because the influence of Hellenist philosophy on western Christianity has caused many people to learn about God in a classroom setting like every other topic they learned in school.
But we assure you: Knowledge about our heavenly Father and knowing Him have nothing in common. As we’ll discuss a little later, to truly know God is a matter of your spirit’s trust, not your mind’s analysis.

Let me [Sue] give you an example. What if Mike and I never met, but someone gave each of us a booklet describing the other’s character qualities. What if we liked what we read about each other, so we were told, “Because you know about each other and like each other’s character traits, you are now married." We’d never met, but now we’re told that we’re married. Sounds ludicrous, doesn’t it? But that’s what so many who call themselves Christian have been told: They belong to God because, in their mind, they know about Him. This is a tragic lie!
As we’ll be discussing shortly, our heavenly Father is spirit, yet He can be known and experienced. In fact, truly knowing someone is to experience him.

So how does a physical being experience and know a God Who is Spirit? Through our spirit. As Jesus verifies in John chapter 3, “No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit”, and, “Spirit gives birth to spirit.”

We’ve prepared an article that provides a framework for our discussion: “The Gospel of the Covenant is the Pilgrimage to Salvation”. (It can be downloaded for free from our website by clicking on “Hebraic Articles.” We also discuss this in Part 2 of our video series, Jesus In Your Home.) In this very key article we describe the nature and backdrop of the Gospel which the earliest followers of Jesus embraced. This is the Gospel that produced the outpouring of the Holy Spirit we see in Acts chapter 2, the one which transformed the lives of those who first trusted Jesus as their Lord.

So many false gospels found in Christendom today do not bring their adherents the indwelling Holy Spirit. All they can do is learn more about God through their mind. But the mind’s analysis is not the same as truly knowing and experiencing Him through the Spirit. In the Lifebyte segments that follow, we’ll deal more fully with how you can truly know God in spirit. We’ll also share how you can live in a way that pleases our Lord and glorifies Him. It’s all made possible through the invisible, indwelling Holy Spirit, and your understanding of the unseen world of spirits all around you.

We’ll emphasize this as you read along. But anchor this point for yourself:
All spiritual victory and defeat is a result of what goes on in the unseen world of the Holy Spirit, angels, and demons.
Pause for a moment to consider this question:

• What do you think our Lord Jesus means when He says, “God is spirit, and His worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24)?

If you can’t answer this question right now, don’t worry. By the time you finish Part One of this series, you’ll not only be able to explain this. You’ll also appreciate a whole lot more about the intimate spiritual relationship our Lord wants with you! You’ll also discover ways to incorporate living by the Spirit into your daily life.

From the Physical to the Invisible

It’s so important that you understand yourself spiritually and see yourself spiritually from your heavenly Father’s perspective. As we’ll be emphasizing often: Truly knowing our Lord as He desires for you to know and worship Him takes place in your spirit, not through your mind’s rationale. If you’re going to shift from mental knowledge about God to spiritual intimacy with Him, you’ll need to die to relying solely on your physical senses.

Your five senses enable you to know and interact with the physical world around you. But they interfere with you interacting with God in spirit. So you’ll have to die to that which you’ve relied on for so long. Only then can you truly learn to know God by your spirit.
All your life you’ve interacted in the physical world through your five senses. Everything you know about the physical world around you has come through your sight, taste, touch, smell, or hearing.
These senses are God-given. They make it possible for you to recognize and interact with your physical environment. In the physical world, 89% of all you know has come through your sight. The remaining 11% is acquired through your other four senses. You don’t even think about this; it just happens.

But when you’re “born again” in spiritual rebirth, your five senses aren’t able to help you understand the invisible spiritual world that exists all around you. Your senses are not the primary means for you to know and experience God. Those senses are inadequate in helping you know your heavenly Father or interact with Him. If you’re His child, then you’ve entered into the unseen world of the spirit.

Those of you who have read our other materials or watched our video series Jesus In You Home know about the influence of Hellenism on the western Church over the centuries. This demonic influence in Christendom causes people to try to know about God only through their mind. They rely on their reasoning to define Who He is. (See Restoring the Early Church, Chapter 6. “Greek Philosophy in the Church”, a free download.)

As we’ve already mentioned: So many who call themselves “Christian” know about God in their mind because they’ve learned about Him through their senses of sight and hearing. In other words, they’ve read a lot about God, and have heard countless messages expounding on Him.
But the earliest followers of Jesus were so spiritually powerful and relationally intimate because they knew God in their spirit — the same intimate relationship our loving Father desires with you.

So how could you ever experience His love by just knowing about Him? That’s no better than Sue and I reading about each other and then claiming to be married.
Do you really yearn to KNOW our Father as HE desires to be known by His children? Then you’ll need to set aside your reliance on your five senses so you can learn how to live by the Holy Spirit. It’s wonderful that our Father seals all whom He accepts as His children with His Spirit. We’ll discuss this marvelous reality more in following segments.

You’re Never, Ever Alone

From our Father’s perspective, you’re never alone. If you’ve embraced the true Gospel, you’re indwelled by the Holy Spirit. And, you’re surrounded by an unseen reality of angels and demons. These invisible angelic and demonic forces around you are engaged in unrelenting spiritual warfare over your soul. When you understand this battle through your spirit, you can better cooperate with the Holy Spirit for your own freedom and the victory that Jesus promises you.

Later in Part 1 of this series we’ll show you how unseen angels, demons, the world, and your own sin nature are engaged in a battle for your very soul — your mind, will and emotions. This battle that you can’t see has more to do with your freedom and victory than anything in the physical dimension that affects you. So keep this in mind: You’re never alone!... Ever!

Freedom In Jesus (Part 2): Demolishing Strongholds

Part 2 of our Freedom In Jesus series is our revised and expanded workbook, Demolishing Strongholds, and the video series by the same title. In the workbook we not only clarify the impact of spiritual warfare on your own life. We also show you how to be free through the authority of Jesus. (The video and book are a free download from our website, or may be purchased by calling 888-229-3041.)

We’ll take you step-by-step through a process of personal deliverance from the demonic influences the Bible calls “strongholds.” Only by ridding yourself of any demonic influences that may be hindering you will you be truly able to experience all the freedom our Lord Jesus promises. Then you’ll clearly hear only the Holy Spirit so you can serve our Lord’s purposes in your life.

Why is ridding yourself of these demonic influences so important? The Bible authenticates that a mighty spiritual battle for your soul is going on in the unseen world around you. The main target of this warfare is you if you’re a follower of Jesus. That’s right! Followers of Jesus are the primary target of this warfare. And, this demonic onslaught is well-planned and systematic.

Scripture warns of the certainty of attack on the followers of Jesus, and of the possibility of defeat. But God’s Word also reveals how we can experience victory through the authority of Jesus. The Demolishing Strongholds workbook and accompanying video take you through steps to help you discover the freedom our Lord Jesus promises in His Word. We encourage you to press on in this series so you can be fully available for the life in the Holy Spirit that our Father wants for you!

Freedom Fighters for Jesus
If it isn’t apparent to you already, our Lord didn’t come to set you free so you could serve your own purposes. Lifebytes 41 and 42 are a guide for those who have experienced spiritual freedom and are burdened to serve our Lord Jesus without reservation. We want to help you effectively minister to others. As Paul exhorts,

“You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love” (Galatians 5:13).

“...[you] can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God” (2 Corinthians 1:4).

Your willingness to take action to help others is a vibrant sign that you’re truly free. And your response to aid others will help keep you from slipping back into the bondage from which you’ve just been freed. To live free in Jesus is to help free others. It’s crucial that you go through Parts 1 and 2 of Freedom In Jesus before you offer yourself as God’s instrument to bring freedom to others.

Let’s recap. The three parts of the Freedom In Jesus series are designed:

1. To help you gain a biblically-based, balanced understanding of the unseen world around us.

2. To help you perceive the spiritual warfare being waged against you so you can effectively fight and resist the schemes of Satan.

3. To help you discern demonic activity in your own life, and appropriate victory through the authority of Jesus Christ.

4. To biblically minister to others who are in demonic captivity so that they too can walk in freedom and serve our Lord’s purposes.

Remember: As we go through each segment in this series, learn to perceive yourself from our Father’s vantage point. This means you’ll need to die to reliance only on your five physical senses and learn to live by the Holy Spirit Who dwells within all who have embraced the true Gospel.

[Mike]: As we were preparing this segment, our Lord reminded me of an anecdote that describes the kind of dying to ourself we must all go through to serve Him. In 1968 I entered the Navy to become a pilot. At that time this nation was deeply enmeshed in the Vietnam conflict. I went through Aviation Officer Candidate School before going on to flight training. As soon as I arrived at my barracks, I encountered a Marine drill instructor who had me doing pushups within 30 seconds of walking through the door.

In all the training and discipline I received, I found my core motivations being changed. After I’d spent 10 years in the Navy and served on 3 shipboard deployments to Vietnam, I could understand something about what had happened to me in Officer Candidate School. All my training had been designed to break down a young man whose life had revolved around himself and his own interests. My immature perspective of life had encompassed that which I’d observed through my own eyeballs and what my brain had concluded. Boot camp and all the training that followed caused me to die to this self-centered pattern so I’d be willing to lay down my life for others. In the heat of wartime, that training not only taught me obedience, but self-sacrifice.

This same transition from relying solely on our five senses and mind’s analysis of the physical world must be put to death. We must become children of our heavenly Father — Spirit-led followers of Jesus. And this can only by done in Spirit-to-spirit communication. And remember: Our Father knew you before you were conceived. Long before you were born He accepted the sacrifice of His Son Jesus on your behalf.

If you’ve embraced the true Gospel, our Father has sealed you with His Holy Spirit to guide and strengthen you on your pilgrimage to salvation. You’re never alone. God perceives both the angels and the demons that operate around you. If your spiritual eyes were opened, you’d see yourself as He sees you, in the midst of all kinds of angelic and demonic beings. This is reality as the Bible describes it.

How can you ever cooperate with an invisible Holy Spirit and unseen hosts of ministering angels if you don’t discern their reality as our Lord speaks of them in His Word? In the unseen world around us, a battle is being fought for your soul. This war is not just over the souls of unbelievers, but for your soul — your mind, will and emotions — and for all others who trust in Jesus.

Deceptive demonic lies teach that Satan has no influence in the lives of those who follow Jesus. But we’ll show you that Satan does take advantage of areas of the soul that Christians have yielded to him through sinful disobedience. This is why a solid biblical understanding of God’s view of ourselves and the unseen world around us is so critical.

Through obedient trust that grows as you resist the unseen enemy’s attacks you can both gain and hold onto the victory we’re promised in Jesus. It’s crucial for you to have confidence that there’s an unseen reality around you. It is real, and out of the invisible realm the visible is affected, both by God and by demons.

Please keep this in mind as you go through these Lifebytes: As often as you need to, pause, discuss, and pray until the truths the Holy Spirit wants to you to know are your way of life.