Cyber Truths By E-mail
16. Certain Of What We Do Not See (October 15, 2005)
[click here for a printable pdf copy]

Dear Friends,

By God's grace we have completed Part 1 of the Freedom In Jesus Video Series, Certain Of What We Do Not See. We've taped, edited, and produced 11 video segments. It is now available on our website and on three DVDs. We'll share more about the video later in this e-mail.

We want to clarify for you the entire nature of the two video series we are simultaneously producing.
First, there is the Jesus In Your Home Video Series. We've completed Section 1, Introduction To the Hebraic Restoration, and Section 2, Our Father & Jesus.
Still to come in this series is Section 3, The Home, and section 4, Fellowship In Homes.

The other series is the Freedom In Jesus Video Series.

We've completed Part 1, Certain Of What We Do Not See, and Part 2, Demolishing Strongholds. We hope to have Section 3, Freedom Fighters For Jesus, completed by the year's end, our Lord willing.

Both video series deal with your way of life as followers of Jesus. The information in each series is interconnected, but also distinct in itself. The  Jesus In Your Home Video Series discusses the relational priorities which were foundational to the spiritual power and relational intimacy of the earliest followers of Jesus. God had been introducing these truths to the Hebraic stream of Judaism for centuries prior to the coming of Jesus. It was these people who chose to relate to God rather than being religious rule keepers as were the Judaizing Stream. The Hebraic Stream who yearned to walk in the relational intimacy and obedient trust that Abraham had enjoyed with God were the first to put their trust in the Lord Jesus.

To these who pursued a loved-grounded relationship with God, He gave the foundational truths and practices we see in the Newer Testament. For instance, over two hundred years before the coming of Jesus, the rabbis of the Hebraic Stream were teaching, "you must be born from above."
They practiced communal righteousness; that is, they recognized that one person's unconfessed sin held God back from answering the prayers of all those who were in fellowship with that person. The one-anothering as interconnected family in Jesus was that important!

The Hebraic-based followers of Jesus understood the Covenant relationship our Father offered them through the shed blood of Jesus. His desire was that they live their lives in union with Him, and not be enticed by the world in which they lived.

The Jesus In Your Home Video Series shares the facets of the Hebraic foundations which our Father is restoring to the Gentile community around the world as He fulfills His promise to the Jewish people to return them to the land of Israel one last time. He is being merciful to both Jew and Gentile alike in using their return as a banner to the nations!

Our Father is giving us followers of Jesus the opportunity to rid ourselves of the curse of the demonic principalities of Hellenist philosophical division and Romanist hierarchical organization. Our Father permitted this curse to come upon Christendom for centuries. The men of the second and third century who are called "Church Fathers" were so anti-semitic that their writings paved the way for the atrocities done to the Jewish people.

Our promise-keeping Father has honored His word to Abraham, "I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3). The demonic principalities of Hellenist thought and Roman organization have enslaved the Church in institutionalism for 1700 years.

Freedom In Jesus Video Series

Our purpose in producing 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.

We completed Part 2 of the video series, Demolishing Strongholds, first. Because the book has been out for over a decade, and the revision was completed in May, we felt it necessary to produce the companion video before tackling Parts 1 and 3. The feedback from those who have already used the video with the book has been  encouraging! It's far more effective than Sue and I doing a seminar. People can  stop the video and discuss the truths we share. As we've mentioned so often, discussion of God's truth opens the way for the Spirit of Jesus to give understanding and application.

Over the years, we've grieved for the people who lose the freedom they experienced when they went through Demolishing Strongholds. As we prayed and learned more, we realized that Demolishing Strongholds was the centerpiece of two other vital truths. The first was the need for a complete understanding of the unseen world of the Holy Spirit, angels, demons, and our sin nature. And, second, we found that in order to sustain freedom in Jesus, you need to minister the steps to freedom to others in your life. Thus, the third part to come, Freedom Fighters For Jesus.

Freedom In Jesus (Part 1), Certain of What We Do Not See

In this e-mail we can only touch upon what we present in 11 video segments. But let us share some thoughts from the series with you. We believe it's crucial that you understand the unseen world around you. The biblical anchor point for Part 1 is, “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).

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.

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.

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. All spiritual victory and defeat in our lives is accomplished in the dimension we can’t see.

• On a scale of 0 to 100, how confident are you about the unseen world around you?

• Do you live according to its reality, or do you just know facts about it?

Anchor this foundational truth for yourself: We exist because the only and true God of all the universe took it upon Himself to create us.  Our Lord wanted a creation that would relate to Him.

Keep in mind that in order for physical beings like ourselves to experience and relate to an unseen God, He must reveal Himself to us. God continues to reveal Himself through His creation, and that He most importantly has revealed Himself in the coming of Jesus to Earth.

Our Father and Jesus foresaw a relational barrier. How could a physical human relate to an invisible God? They recognized the need to baptize those who trusted Jesus with the Holy Spirit. One of the names of Jesus is “Immanuel”, which means “God with us”. And when we become children of our Father, the Spirit dwells in us. And we followers of Jesus are now able to have Spirit-to-spirit communication within ourselves. Keep in mind all of this is an act of our Father in trying to both reveal Himself to us, and to enable us to relate to Him.

The apostle Paul warns us of formidable spiritual adversaries: a demonic hierarchy of  rulers, authorities, powers in this dark world system, and  spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6: 12). And what is Satan’s particular mission on earth? To make war against those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

Our struggle is not against any other human being who is made in the image of God, and for whom Jesus died.

Our Father desires that we graciously represent Him to other people, not fight against them!

Besides the devil, the Bible refers to two other sources of temptation as “the world” and “the flesh”.

So these three areas — the world, the flesh, and the devil — try to thwart your ability to wholeheartedly follow Jesus and to experience the freedom He promises.

Think of the world in terms of Mental Enticement. Words, images, and feelings intrude into your mind every day trying to seduce you away from obedient trust in our Lord Jesus.

The arena of our flesh can be thought of in terms of Human Frailty. In other words, our flesh represents the weaknesses to which we’re prone due to our sin nature.

It’s crucial, if we want to have true fellowship with our heavenly Father, and with anyone else for that matter, that we personally experience victory in these arenas of the world’s enticements, our fleshly tendencies, and the devil’s schemes.

And, once we gain victory, we need to be able to hold onto it.
Then, we need to minister the means of that victory to others.

So we don’t have any misunderstanding of our goal, let’s define the nature of our spiritual victory:

In Jesus our Conquering Lord, you’re fully able to walk in union with Him, experience our Lord in your daily life, and obey only the voice of His Spirit within you.

That’s how you can live in union with Jesus in wholehearted love and trust. If you want to continue to walk in this kind of victory, you need God’s perspective on the world, the flesh, and the devil as the Bible depicts them.

We encourage you to make use of this series. Freedom and victory are inseparable in Jesus!
Your servants,
Mike & Sue Dowgiewicz