Two Realities
“And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying”. Mark 2:4 NKJV
We all are quick to say that we are standing in faith, but what does that really mean? There are two realities and only two. First is the reality of the spirit realm. There, all of the promises of the Word are established and real. For example, healing is already complete by the stripes that Jesus bore for us. The other reality is this one in which we live in – this natural realm. We live in the natural realm and not the spiritual, so we tend to believe the reality of what we see and experience rather than the promises of the Word. But understand that the things of this natural world are not the ultimate truth or reality. They are only a temporal reality. True reality is found in the spirit realm, but since we do not live there, we mistakenly believe those promises to be real in theory, but not in reality.
Here is an important truth, what we believe, will be our reality! If I believe the promises of the Word are the actual truth, they will become my reality. Conversely, if I believe what my body tells me or what my physical senses tell me, then those things will become my reality. What I believe will become my reality.
So, how do I know what I believe? Well, the easy way is by simply observing my own actions. If I believe something to be true I will act according to that belief. For example, if I have a headache, I can say “I believe I am healed”, but if my immediate action is to take a couple of aspirin, then my actions demonstrate that I believe the things that I feel and perceive are more real then the promises of the spiritual realm. That then becomes my reality. I need to be able to get to the place that I am not led through life by the things that my senses tell me, the things from this physical world, but rather I am led by my certainty of the things of the spiritual realm.
We need to retrain our minds and thoughts so that we dwell in the spiritual reality and not this physical one. We make this transformation by the degree that we press into Him. Most of us pray for things in our life and when it does not happen right away or we do not see the outcome we are hoping for with the time frame we desire, we get frustrated and disappointed with the Word and with the Lord. We may not say it out loud, but in our minds, we think that God has let us down and we get discouraged in our faith. We really give up and do not press in and possess the things are realities already in the spirit realm.
In the story of the paralytic’s friends, they did not give up when the crowd kept them at a distance. They carried him to the roof, made a hole in the roof and lowered him on his mat down to the place where Jesus was. They pressed in! We need to press in, spend time with Him allowing His love to settle us and calm our uncertainties so that our faith can work unimpeded. You will either believe what your senses tell you or what the Word tells you is the truth. Whichever you choose to believe will become your reality! The promises of the Word, established through Jesus, are yours. That is your reality, now determine to possess it.
J Todd Hostetler