LIVING IN THE SPIRITUAL REALM
Read Revelation 1:10.
How do you receive direction from God?
John’s experience on that day was described as being “in the Spirit” – a phrase that has perhaps a different meaning today than when he wrote this.
In some circles today a person “in the Spirit” might be described as one who is miraculously overcome by the Holy Spirit’s control. In this view, this would be something that happens periodically and not a continuous experience. I believe in the miraculous empowering of the Holy Spirit who enables us to accomplish God’s work. I believe at times God through His Holy Spirit gives us words to say, directions to take, the ability to heal if He so desires. However, in this passage when John says he is “in the Spirit” it is a reference to his being transported from the earthly realm to the prophetic, spiritual realm. In the Spirit, he is transported about as if to move from one act in a play to another. He uses this phrase in Rev. 4:2, where he is told to “come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.” And at that point John says, “Immediately I was in the Spirit” where he proceeds to receive another revelation from “up here”. This is seen again in Rev. 17:3 where John says, “he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness” whereafter another scene in the revelation is given. And then again in Rev. 21:10 John says “he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain” where he is shown the holy city, the New Jerusalem. “In the Spirit” for John means to see and move about within the spiritual realm.
Why does John say he was “in the Spirit”? Perhaps because he wanted his readers to understand that this revelation was not given in the physical realm – he did not see this with physical eyes, but with spiritual eyes. Perhaps he wanted his readers to understand that this was not manmade, but from the Spirit. Or maybe he wanted them to know that this was not merely a dream, but a vision of the Spirit. Whatever the case may be, it is clear that God’s revelation came to John in the spiritual realm.
As is often the case, God reveals in the spiritual realm what He will do in the physical. I don’t know about you, but I often find myself looking at the physical realm for God’s direction when perhaps God is giving direction in the spiritual realm. Sometimes (maybe oftentimes) the physical realm is where God validates what was revealed in the spiritual. We can look at circumstances and sometimes they can be quite revealing. But I think God would have us look to the spiritual realm first, because it is “in the Spirit” that the work begins.
How are your spiritual eyes? Are you seeking Him in prayer and the Word first? Remember, everything that happens in the physical realm is the outworking of something that began in the spiritual realm.