By Mike
On our side of the world, spirits still exist in the everyday thoughts of our neighbors. The world is not only what is visible and what can be reasoned. Forces beyond our imagination, sometimes visible and sometimes invisible, are at play. Once, a researcher was sharing about her work among a certain tribe. Her anthropologist friends remarked that Christianity had destroyed the culture and nothing of value was left to study. Her Western Christian colleagues argued that the tribe was not really Christian as they still had many Pagan beliefs, such as beliefs in spirits and places that were either especially holy or dark and demonic.
In the end, the researcher demonstrated that the cosmology of the tribe was closer to that of the first century peoples with whom Jesus interacted. It was us, Western Christians, who had turned a blind eye to the spiritual realities that surround us, for better or for worse. As much as we try to claim that our churches and our theologies are rooted in Acts 2, for many the spirits and the Spirit play very little role in our day-to-day thoughts.
Here, Christians do not deny the spirit world exists. They grow up knowing that these things seen and unseen are part of our reality. But they also know that this world and the spirit world has no hold over them. The Holy Spirit is supreme overall and, for this reason, they need not fear.
Let us not be blind to the unseen realities that Jesus and His followers knew so well. The spiritual world is real, but Christ reigns over every power and every force. May we, like those who have not forgotten, walk in the authority of the Holy Spirit, unafraid and unwavering in the truth of His victory.