There are two realms of life in our existence on earth.

There are two realms of life in our existence on earth.

One is the obvious reality of the physical world we live in; the other is the unforeseen Spiritual world which remains in oblivion to the common man.  In the course of history many have dabbled with the dark side of the unknown world by means of occultic practices, while on the other hand every Christian has to be aware of the Spiritual world which has been made known to us through the Word of God and the intuition of the Holy Spirit.  We know that God is Spirit and He communicates with man Spirit to spirit and we need to be aware of this supernatural realm.  Christianity involves in walking both in the Spiritual and in the Physical realm and it is dangerous to play down the reality of this supernatural realm as it can be seen, felt and experienced.  The Bible contains so many instances where supernatural things have happened and it is our task to prepare ourselves in order to experience the supernatural which cannot be deduced by the carnal mind.

There was a pastor in Europe who was skeptical when it came to supernatural things like miracles. He was a writer and a qualified psychiatrist.  During the revival in Indonesia, he had heard about a church where God demonstrated His power through miracles, so he went to Indonesia to investigate this Presbyterian Church where water was turned into wine at the Communion service, once a quarter.  He arrived on the day when they had their quarterly Communion and the local pastor got up in the middle of the service and said “the Lord is telling me that there is a brother here who doesn’t believe in miracles’’ pointing to the visitor saying that it was his job today to draw the water from the well for the communion.  The pastor was startled at this unexpected call but proceeded to the well to draw the water.  No sooner he had brought the water to the communion table, they prayed over it, and it became wine.  Suddenly this man was gripped with a sense of unworthiness, he felt so dirty that he wanted to hide under his seat.  He wished he had never come to Indonesia.  The presence of a Holy God was so real, that all the veneer in his life was stripped away.  He was taken aback at God’s power that he was so skeptical about, and found it difficult to recover and ultimately gave up his profession of serving God.  This pastor got too near a miracle.  He forgot the warning in Joshua3:5 “consecrate yourselves for tomorrow the Lord wants to do miracles among you.” The people of Israel had to consecrate themselves before they gained entry into the Promised Land.  In the same way, God has called us to a holy war and He needs holy soldiers for this Spiritual war.  We should not be unbelieving and skeptical like this pastor who ultimately lost out on God’s plan for his life.

We are all called to be soldiers in the army of the living God.  We need to fight against the forces of darkness and must snatch the perishing souls from satan’s domain and lead them to Christ.  And for us to be effective soldiers, we need to be properly equipped.  Just as enrolment into any army requires fulfilling certain criteria and rigorous training; likewise there are four essentials involved in this holy war which are the foundations of the Christian life.  Just like a motor car which needs to run always on four cylinders, we need to have all the four essentials of our Christian life properly functioning at any given time.