Created to Live in Two Realms

We as humans are probably the most unique beings that God created. Why are we unique? Some theologians will tell you that humans are unique because we have a will. However, God created many beings that have wills. Cats, for example, must have a will because they do whatever they want to do, and it is never what you want them to do! Angels also have wills. Remember, satan was an angel and he had the will to rebel against God. So we as humans are not unique because we have a will. What makes us unique is that we were created to live in both the spirit and the natural realms.

God created us to live in the physical realm, and yet He also made us spiritual beings. Other beings created by God exist in a spiritual body only (1 Corinthians 15:40). So it is easy for them to have an awareness of the spiritual or heavenly realm. That awareness is more difficult for us because we are oriented toward the physical realm. So what captures our mind is what is happening around us physically, and we struggle to have spiritual perception. That captivity to the natural world is something God wants to change.

That was actually a major focus of the first Passover. Part of Passover was about God getting the children of Israel out of being swallowed up by the natural realm. Yes, He wanted to deliver them from slavery. But a big part of slavery is what it does to your mind. It steals away any ability to focus on the spirit world. How can you focus on the spirit world when you have a taskmaster’s whip on your back? The Israelites spent their lives in harsh physical labor, and so the physical world held their minds captive.

God wanted to take them out of Egypt because it was distracting them from Himself. They were not capable of becoming a spiritual people while they were slaves in Egypt. Therefore, God instructed Moses to tell Pharaoh to release the children of Israel, which we read about in Exodus 3.

“Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” And He said, “Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.” (Exodus 3:10–12)

God Wants to Dwell With His People

God promised to be with Moses.

And He said, “Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.” (Exodus 3:12)

The sign of that promise was that Moses would worship God after bringing Israel out of Egypt. Remember, this was before everything Moses went through to see Israel finally delivered from Egypt. First Moses had to face the elders of Israel. Then he had to lead Israel through ten plagues. Later he had to lead them through the Red Sea while Pharaoh’s army chased them.

But from our human perspective, God meeting us after we have completed His will would be too late to be a sign that He would be with us in the process of doing His will. However, the purpose that God had for His people could only be understood after they were completely out of Egypt. The Lord explained this in Exodus 29.

“I will dwell among the sons of Israel and will be their God. They shall know that I am the Lord their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them; I am the Lord their God.” (Exodus 29:45–46)

Why was the Passover necessary? It was necessary because God wanted to dwell with the sons of Israel. He could not do that while they were in Egypt. God was not in Egypt. He was not in slavery. He was not in their bondage. And He had to bring His people out to where He was. God wants to do the same thing for us. He wants to bring us to where He is (John 17:24). Yeshua (Jesus) said that we must be born again of the Spirit (John 3:3–7). Even though God created us with the capacity to relate to Him, we are still locked into our bondage to the natural realm.

Transformed by the Renewing of Your Mind

What happens when you receive your initial salvation experience? Your spirit comes alive. Without that you have no ability to relate to God because the tools are missing. Just as you cannot make a phone call without a phone, so you must also be equipped to communicate with God. Then, because your spirit is alive, you can begin to communicate with God because God is spirit: “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). Real worship can only begin through salvation when your spirit comes alive to God. Only then can you begin to take your whole being and present it back to God, as we read in Romans 12.

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1–2)

True spiritual worship is presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice to God. This leads us out of conformity to this world and into a transformation whereby our minds are renewed. Why must our minds be renewed?

It is like going to a foreign country without knowing the language. Your ability to function in that country is limited until you can understand and speak the language. The same is true when you begin to walk with God. You are born again; your spirit is alive to God; but your ability to function in the world of spirit is still limited. So your mind must be renewed to function in the spirit. It essentially must learn a new language. It must learn a new way to relate.

Relating to Earth and Heaven

This ability to function in two realms at the same time is not impossible because when God created you, He created you as spirit, soul, and body. But all those things have been locked into the natural world surrounding you. Therefore, even your spirit gets connected to what is happening in the world, as we read in the Scriptures: “Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit” (2 Corinthians 7:1). Your spirit gets so engaged in the world around it that it gets polluted.

This is similar to the children of Isreal coming out of their bondage at Passover. The only way we can become a spiritual people is to learn to relate to God in the spirit, and that means coming out of everything we have been bound to in the world. God is bringing you out of all your circumstances, all your confusion, and all the distractions that are holding you in bondage to the natural world. It is your spirit that relates to God, and your spirit needs to grow in that relationship. People have the concept of going to heaven to relate to God. But the reality is that we were made to live on the earth. The Kingdom of God is coming to earth, and mankind will still be living here.

Yeshua taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Our existence is here. Our life is here. But that existence and life must still be as it is in heaven. Heaven is a place of spirit, and I believe that the world will become overwhelmingly a place of spirit. Now, however, it is locked into the futility of the natural world, and we are locked into it along with everything else in creation (Romans 8:20–23).