Understanding Spiritual Covenants Through Dreams: The Spiritual Realm and Spiritual Authority (Part 1)

ALL PRAISES TO THE MOST HIGH GOD.

In the previous blog post I alluded to the idea of spiritual covenants (coming into agreement with spirits) and I promised to build up on this topic. This post is part of a two part series in which  I will firstly discuss on the spiritual realm and the principle of spiritual authority and then in a subsequent post I will deal with how spiritual covenants are formed through dreams. 

SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLES AND PROTOCOLS

Dreams are very fascinating and there are so many theories and ideologies relating to them but on this blog we focus on what the Word of God has to say, not feelings or emotions because "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (JOHN 1 verse 1). Therefore, if God is an embodiment of his Word it means that only his word can provide conclusive authority to all questions.

The Bible, in as much as it is a book containing various testimonies and stories, it is a book filled with spiritual principles and protocols. This is because the word of God is "spirit and life" (JOHN 6 verse 63) and it is very much "living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword" (HEBREWS 4 verse 12). 

The greatest irony regarding dreams is that most people tend to think that dreams are just part of one's imagination with very little real world effect but the more that you read the scriptures, the more that you will begin to realise dreams are far more real than you can imagine. Before we can talk about how covenants are formed through dreams, it is important to get an understanding of the spiritual realm and principle of spiritual authority. 

SPIRITS AND THE SPIRITUAL REALM 

When we talk about spirits and the spiritual realm, what are we exactly talking about?

The Bible tells us that "God is a Spirit : and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (JOHN 4 verse 24). It stands to reason that since you must worship God in spirit, the only way to interact with The Most High and anything spiritual is through some form of spiritual medium. This spiritual medium is discussed in 1 THESSALONIANS 5 verse 23 where it is stated that we, as humans, are composed of Spirit, Soul and Body. In this post I will mainly focus on the Spirit and Body component but in future posts, God willingly, I will discuss on all three parts that make up the human.

 

Since you are composed of spirit and flesh, Paul tells us that "though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is renewed day by day" (2 CORINTHIANS 4 VERSE 16). By "outer man" Paul is referring to your physical body and  by "inner man" Paul is referring to the Spirit that God has put in you. 

The sole purpose of your Spirit is to be a conduit that allows you to interact with God and other spirits in the spiritual realm while your physical body is just a shell for your spirit that interacts in the physical world. This is why your physical body, which is "dust will return to the earth as it was, and the SPIRIT will return to God who gave it" (ECCLESIASTES 12 verse 7). 

So we should always follow the advice to "look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen : for the things which are seen are temporal ; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 CORINTHIANS 4 verse 18). The reason for this is because the spiritual world as much as it is unseen to the physical eye, it is the parent world to this physical world we live in because everything that happens in this realm has already been determined in the spirit by The Most High God (ECCLESIASTES 3 verses 1 to 11). So what can we conclude from the scriptures that I have just discussed?

1. God is a spirit, which essentially means that he exists in an unseen, eternal plane of existence that we refer to as the spiritual realm.   
2. God has made us in three parts consisting of a body, soul and spirit and the spirit that he has given to us serves as a conduit that interacts with the spiritual realm.    
3. This unseen spiritual realm is the parent world to our current physical world that we call earth.

Understanding these principles of the spiritual realm is very important because "we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against SPIRITUAL wickedness in high places" (EPHESIANS 6 verse 12). In other words, most of the challenges that we face are not rooted in what the physical eye can see but rather what is manifested  in the spiritual world.  

The spiritual realm is also  inhabited by spirits of The Most High God and the Spirits of Satan which is why we are called to "believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God..." ( 1 JOHN 4 verse 1). 

I CANNOT EMPHASIZE HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO UNDERSTAND THESE PRINCIPLES.

SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY      

Now if you recall, I mentioned in my previous post that God has given us dominion over the physical world and spirits of the spiritual realm. 

In the book of LUKE 10 verse 19 we are told that we have been given " power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy ; and nothing shall by any means hurt you."  However we are also warned in the same book  at verse 20 that we should not waste too much time rejoicing in the fact that "the spirits are subject unto you ; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven."    

From these scriptures we can see that SPIRITS ARE SUBJECT TO US because God gave us dominion and spiritual authority over them from the very inception (GENESIS 1 verse 28).This is an important spiritual principle that has been put in place by The Most High to the point where even God abides by this principle.

However, it is important to understand that this spiritual authority that we have been given  can only be fully exercised if we follow the instruction to "put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes." (EPHESIANS 6 verse 11)    

What is the full armor of God and what does it consist of? 

A lot can be written on this subject and I will do that in the future but for now we will just touch the surface. The full armor of God represents a metaphorical armor for your spirit consisting of the spiritual elements that one must pursue in order to fully exercise their spiritual authority. These elements are:     

1. The Belt of truth (EPHESIANS 6 verse 14) 

2. The breastplate of righteousness (EPHESIANS 6 verse 14)     

3. Shoes of the gospel of peace (EPHESIANS 6 verse 15)    

4.Shield of faith (EPHISIANS 6 verse 16) 

5. Helmet of salvation (EPHESIANS 6 verse 16)     

6. The Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God (EPHESIANS 6 verse 17)  

CONCLUSION   

In this post we have laid an important foundation for us to understand the spiritual realm and the spiritual authority that God has given us. In part 2 we will apply this knowledge and look into how covenants are formed through dreams.