Three Realms of Wealth & Finances
3 Realms of Existence
Last week, we talked about certain forces at work to keep people in bondage by stifling their ability to accumulate wealth. We introduced the idea of the world’s system versus God’s system and the fact that we can only be freed from the world’s system by making the quality decision to follow God’s system as it concerns our finances. Some Christians try to follow both systems simultaneously, but the word of God says this is impossible (Matthew 6:24). As Christians, we should be operating in this world, but not of this world as we are ambassadors for the heavenly kingdom—God’s kingdom (John 17:14-16). Furthermore, our highest priority should be to operate in the spirit as we are guided by the Holy Spirit. We will dive deeper into what all this means.
Why is the “spiritual realm” important?
Although both (a) the world’s system and (b) God’s system are driven by spiritual forces, there are some glaring differences. For starters, Father God wants us to know His system is spiritual, meaning it is accessed by and governed by the spirit. Satan, on the other hand, wants us to remain oblivious to the spirit realm and the spiritual forces driving the world’s system. People that do not acknowledge the spiritual realm attribute certain aspects of life to luck and fate. Unfortunately, most non-Christians and even some Christians don’t operate in or even really acknowledge the spirit.
Jesus told the woman at the well, “true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth…” (John 4:23). Paul reiterates this spiritual requirement in his first writing to the Corinthians:
12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
By God’s design, the spiritual realm has supremacy over the remaining two realms which are the soul realm and the physical realm. The soul realm concerns our minds, emotions, will, and reasoning. The physical realm concerns our bodies. Together, the soul and physical realms deal with the natural while the spiritual realm deals with the supernatural. It is by the spirit that we receive the blessings and promises of God. Nonetheless, since the spiritual realm has supremacy, these blessings eventually manifest in the natural. Dr. Tony Evans articulates it best with the following:
“Everything visible and physical is preceded by something invisible and spiritual.” – Dr. Tony Evans, Sr.
Another important distinction between these realms is that things in the soul and physical realms are temporal while things in the spiritual realm are eternal. The chart below summarizes all of these key distinctions.
The main takeaway from this discussion of the three realms is that before anything manifests itself in the natural, it must first be realized spiritually (Matthew 18:18). This is especially important regarding wealth and finances.
Invisible Shackles
So why does Satan want us oblivious to the spiritual realm? Ignorance of the spiritual realm and God’s word concerning our operating in it creates an opportunity for him to replace God’s truth with lies. The word of God says in John 8:32 (NIV), “Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” If we flip this statement from the affirmative to the negative case, we can rewrite it as “When you do not know the truth, the absence of it will keep you in bondage.”
We know Satan seeks to steal, kill, and destroy the plan and will of God (John 10:10). He has done this since the beginning by targeting mankind. He targets any and everyone: rich, poor, black, white, male, female, Catholic, Protestant, young, old, believers, and non-believers. As you would imagine, he uses different tactics for each respective group. Our common weapon against him and his lies, however, is the word of God. This is where Christian believers should have an advantage. We should not allow ourselves to be naive about Satan’s schemes (II Corinthians 2:11). Our society lives out many of his lies unconsciously day to day. Because they are so deeply embedded in the world’s system, we are not even aware that our actions are built upon them. Let’s use an analogy to get a better understanding of how the lies and the absence of truth embolden the world’s system.
What the Israelites and Jocelyn Berry have in common
To know what Jocelyn Berry and the Israelites have in common, you would first need to know the story of Jocelyn and her mother, Amanda Berry. Amanda was one of three young girls who, between 2002 and 2004, was abducted by child predator and rapist Ariel Castro in Cleveland, Ohio. Although this is a sad story, it has a good ending. All three young ladies survived. They were rescued in 2013 after Amanda bravely escaped and alerted authorities of the whereabouts of the remaining victims. Her daughter, Jocelyn, was born in 2006. Yes, Jocelyn was unknowingly living her life as a captive with her mother in the house of her horrifying father. What’s the point of this story? Since Jocelyn had never experienced life any other way, she considered her life of “unconscious captivity” normal since she had been born in it.
Similarly, the Israelites had been slaves for so long in Egypt after the death of Joseph, they had grown to be comfortable, complacent, and accepting of their lives of involuntary servitude. Even after being freed, many of the Israelites complained that bondage in Egypt was a better way of life (Exodus 14:11-12). We can imagine that, similar to Jocelyn, the children of subsequent Israelite generations grew more and more comfortable with slavery since they had never experienced life outside of captivity. Bondage was “normal” and captivity was comfortable to them. It took a message from God through the prophet Moses to awaken the desire to be free in the Israelites. The word of God came to them and they accepted it as true. The word from the LORD had to be accepted in their spirit as truth before it could manifest in the natural. Their acceptance of the word dictated their faith, obedience, and trust in the plan, work, and word of God.
Like Jocelyn and the Israelites, we were born as captives of the world’s system. When we received salvation by faith in His son Jesus Christ, we were born again into a new system—God’s system. Although we are free because of Christ, we need the word of God to loose the invisible shackles that still tie us to the world’s system as the Holy Spirit of Truth reveals them. Our acceptance of the truth of God’s word should dictate our faith, obedience, and trust in His plan and will for us. This should be a perpetual process for all Christians while here in the world. Satan will not stop trying to lure us back to the world until his time is up. No need to worry or fear though because we have victory over his attacks (Isaiah 54:17, II Corinthians 2:14, and Colossians 2:15).
The biggest flaw of the world’s system
In the example of the Israelites, it is obvious that one side benefitted at the expense, anguish, and oppression of the other side. The Egyptians built great pyramids, obelisks, and wonders and became a great culture, but at the expense of the oppressed Israelites. The same one-sided benefitting was experienced with slavery in the United States during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. America became a great and prosperous nation through agriculture (cotton, indigo, rice, sugar cane, tobacco, etc.), but at the expense of the oppressed African-Americans. These are various incarnations of the world’s system of wealth, finances, and inequality—a system schemed by Satan to divide, create strife and oppression, fuel greed and selfishness, and oppose God’s will for mankind. Ultimately, this system is flawed and is bound to fail, yet we deal with its establishment all around us. The good news is that God’s system of wealth, finances, and equality is designed to benefit all willing participants. Just as the Israelites were freed during the life of Moses from their oppressive system, blacks were freed by the abolishment of slavery in 1865, and the Berry’s were freed by escaping in 2013, we can be freed from being captives of the world’s system through life in Christ and the emancipating power of God’s word. The world’s system today is not as blatant as chattel slavery, but it is still very one-sided (We will save the discussion of how extremely one-sided it actually is for a different post).
Next step: Prioritize Spiritual Truth
Last week, we were admonished to make a quality decision to be freed from the world’s system. This week, we are taking another step to understand what all is involved with that quality decision:
- Living by the spirit with highest priority, knowing that the spiritual realm has supremacy
- Accepting the plan and will of God in our lives by first accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, then living in the world as ambassadors for Him
- Prioritizing the word of God in our lives which is truth
- Applying the truth in all areas of our lives to break the bondages of the world’s system—specifically, as it concerns wealth and finances
You may be wondering “when are we going to start talking about saving and investing?” Those things certainly play a role in the overall Wealth picture, but without a strong spiritual foundation of truth, any insights that could be shared in those areas alone would be of no avail.
This post contains several foundational scriptures. Meditate on these and ask God for more understanding from them according to James 1:5:
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.
In a couple of weeks, we will make use of the POTENT Wealth Accumulation diagram, so stay tuned for next week’s post. In the meantime, review previous blog post and feel free to share with anyone you believe will be blessed by this spiritual truth. God bless!