Listen. I have been thinking about something weird and I want to know what you think about it. Here it goes… the way I see it is we live in two realities as Christians (and maybe even more than two). Let me explain so you can determine whether or not you agree with me.
So the first one is, in my opinion, the most important and the most valuable but, we also live in another one that shifts, changes, and deceives us. It trips us up often and we keep falling for it as Christians.
Yep, God’s reality is what we strive to live in!
You’ve likely figured out that the first reality is that of being a Christian. Let me talk about that one first.
Yeah. As Christians, we live, move, and have our being by way of a magnificent, kind, all-powerful Ruler of the universe.
Further, we sit in heavenly places with Him, and through Him, we have the power to tread on scorpions and over every power of the enemy! NOTHING can hurt us in this reality!
We are more than conquerors!
We are loved, and cherished beyond the values of any living thing! We are called jewels of great price!
We are worth dying for!
Our best days are ahead of us in this reality; they are not behind us.
We are blessed when we go out and blessed when we come in …in this reality.
In this state of being, we have an unending blessed hope and super good plans for our lives. These plans are generated from heaven. So you can count on them regardless of what is going on around you!
In this reality, we are never alone- EVER. We always have the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead residing in us – comforting us, guiding us into all truth, and expressing the nature of our God to us twenty-four hours a day.
The very angels of heaven are camped out around us in God’s reality.
We are the head and not the tail.
We are above and “not less than” or beneath anyone else in this reality. Girl, we can do all things in this reality and we are supernaturally healed as we go from glory to glory. In this reality, we are followed, chased, and pursued by goodness and mercy. We can’t ‘lose with the stuff we use’ in this reality!
I could go on and on.
In God’s reality, we live by the truth and not just the facts.
All this I’ve mentioned and so much more about our Christian identity and reality are rooted in truth… not facts.
Facts change and can be amended by another set of facts. No way!
As a Christian woman, I stand on the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Truth is truth. It doesn’t change. It doesn’t sway, it doesn’t move. An apple is an apple and that’s the truth. An apple can be genetically changed to be like an orange – that’s a fact. Nah, we don’t live on facts. We live on what IS and that is truth.
That’s the one and the most crucial, most valuable reality we live in. Do not forget it, Christian Woman!
But we have another reality that we must deal with too.
*sigh*
We also live a reality that is of this world.
This reality wars or fights against the reality of truth. It questions it; it doubts it. It challenges it every chance it gets.
This reality is the one delivered by most doctors that say how you should feel based on a set of changeable facts.
This reality is also rooted in how you may feel physically or emotionally.
This reality is emotional. In this reality, one can become swayed easily by pain, the words of others, and even the lack of sleep.
In this reality, you can feel empty and alone. You can wonder “what’s the use?” or “my life is a dead end.”
This reality figures Bible studying and prayer are inconvenient, so what’s the point? It concludes that becoming spiritually mature is too hard – so what’s the use?
It is tempted to do things you know are wrong or against God’s will, yet it does it.
Staying up and worrying all night is always a part of this reality.
Thinking about all the things going wrong, that could go wrong or have gone wrong…another part of this reality.
This reality condemns you to mediocrity because it infects your dreams with fear and doubt. It replays in your mind all the negative things others have said about you or you have said about yourself.
It repeats those things in your mind over and over until you’re paralyzed by them. Hence, you never try anything significant and you never exercise your faith muscles.
The bad news is both realities are true for us.
You and I live in both of these realities – that’s the bad news.
But, there is good news, Girl! The good news is while we live in both realities, one has all the power.
The reality rooted in Jesus Christ trumps the one rooted in this earth.
This is why you can have an illness but yet be healed. Perhaps, your healing hasn’t manifested itself yet, but you’re still healed.
Here are some other examples:
| Reality – Facts – God’s Reality | Reality – TRUTH! |
|---|---|
| “My head hurts.” | “I am healed by the blood of Jesus.” |
| “I’ve fallen out of love with my husband.” | “The Bible says what God has bought together, let no man pull apart.” “The Lord will renew my love for my husband.” |
| “If it ain’t one thing, it’s another.” | “I’m blessed by God and all grace abounds toward me. No weapon formed against me will prosper. I am the head and not the tail; I’m above and not beneath and God’s grace is sufficient for me.” |
| “I can’t tithe, I’m broke.” | “The more I give to the Lord, the more the windows of heaven open, and pour out blessings for me! So much I can’t handle it all!” “I shall never be so broke I’m begging because God is my Provider” |
Do you see the difference between God’s reality and the world’s?
One reality is rooted in faith and the Word of God.
The other is rooted in feelings and emotions. It’s rooted in what we “see” or feel. It can even be rooted in what we experience day to day. Neither of these has any power over God’s promises for our lives, Christian Sister!
It’s better to build your life on the rock of God’s word rather than what we “see” happening around us. What we see is temporary.
No, we are not “vics” or victims of our circumstances. I don’t care what a doctor says. I don’t care what anyone says – you stand on the sturdy Words of Jesus Christian, Beautiful Christian Lady!
The “natural” reality of this world lifts off like one of my fashion wigs! It’s NOT permanent! Our citizenship is not here so the rules don’t apply to us!
Hey! One move of God can change ANYTHING!
God’s favor can make you a manager when you have no formal education.
God’s power can heal you when all the medical professionals gave up on you.
God’s power can save that family member who seems too far gone.
God’s strength can support you through the worse of times and give you hope for your future.
The Holy Spirit can help you change that bad habit you can’t seem to shake.
Jesus can touch your husband’s heart and make him fall in love with you again.
God can comfort you through the grief you carry.
God can create in you a desire to do the right thing even when you want to do all the wrong things.
God can add to your confidence so you can take this world by storm!
God can anoint you with His presence so you can speak with boldness about Him.
Do NOT let anything in your life get you down. God is in control and He’s got you covered, Lady.
Keep your eyes on HIM and HIS reality!
Amen?
This is one of my favorite sermons about the power we have to ask and live in God’s reality. I heard a version it he preached years ago as a young, young woman. It built my faith in a way that super-charged my life in Christ.
Bishop Nate Holcomb preached it at Sheffield Family Life Center. It must have been in the late 1990s. Listen. I promise it will shake your faith in the best possible way!
God’s Reality scriptures to help you understand
Matthew 17:20
He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
Mark 11:22–25
And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
Romans 8: 37-38
…in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Roman’s 5:8
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
1 John 4:9-10
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Zephaniah 3:17
The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”
Deuteronomy 28:13 (AMP)
The Lord will make you the head (leader) and not the tail (follower); and you will be above only, and you will not be beneath, if you listen and pay attention to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today, to observe them carefully.
Deuteronomy 28:6 (NIV)
You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding… in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
Lamentations 3:21-23
21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Isaiah 54:17
No weapon formed against you shall prosper,
And every tongue which rises against you in judgment
You shall condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
And their righteousness is from Me,”
Says the Lord.
I like to get most of my translations from the BibleGateway. Feel free to search for them in other translations.
