Spiritual Interactions (13) Current Situation

Interactions between the physical and spiritual realms are critical for the development of authority on earth and in heaven.
At the time of creation, authority was split.

• God had absolute authority in the spiritual realms.

• The humans he had created were given over the earth.

The authority situation was changed by the fall.

• God maintained his absolute authority of most of the spiritual realm.

• The devil gained authority over a place in the spiritual realms.

• The devil tricked humans into surrendering their authority to him, so he gained authority over the earth (Luke 4:6).

The cross changed the authority situation.

• God maintained his absolute authority in the spiritual realms.

• The devil lost his place in the spiritual realms.

• The devil and his angels are spiritual beings so they still have an existence in a confined place on the edge of the spiritual realms.

• Jesus released authority to those who trust in him. They have authority over their own lives (freedom) and over the sphere of life on earth that are under their authority. They have authority over the houses and businesses that they own.

• The devil and his angels continue to have authority in the lives of the people they can trick into rejecting Jesus victory on the cross. This gives them authority on earth, but it is not real authority. The cross turned them into trespassers in a place where they have no legal authority to be.

• Political powers continue to exercise authority on much of the earth. This gives the spiritual powers great authority to work their evil schemes.

As the kingdom of God advances, these spiritual squatters and usurpers will be squeezed out of the earth. Their authority will be totally diminished. Until that happens, authority on earth is currently divided.

• At one level, it is exercised by people and institutions operating in the physical world, but at another level, actors in the spiritual realm have influence.

• Areas of life where Christians have authority (including their lives) are under God’s authority, if the person is obedient to God.

• Areas of life that are under the authority people who are not Christians are mostly under the authority of the evil one, often without their knowing.

God’s kingdom comes when his will is done on earth as it is in heaven, ie alignment of the heavens and the earth. To be ready for this, we must understand the connection between authority on earth and on authority in heaven.