Spiritual Realities - Are We Blind To Them?: Search For Truth Bible Series

By Brian Johnston

Elisha prayed that God would open the eyes of his servant so he could see the reality of God's army with them. The apostle Paul prayed that the eyes of the hearts of the church in Ephesus might be enlightened and no longer blind to the reality of the spiritual blessings he'd list in his letter. Do our eyes, our hearts, need opening to some spiritual realities, too? In this book, Brian Johnston outlines 8 spiritual realities that could easily be missed: the reality of being dead in our sins, the reality of being united with Christ, the reality of being chosen from eternity, the reality of being members of Christ's Body, the reality of being living stones in God's House, the reality of knowing Christ, the reality of meeting with God on earth, the reality of worshipping in heaven.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hayes Press
• Release date: Jun 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223929055

Brian Johnston

Born and educated in Scotland, Brian worked as a government scientist until God called him into full-time Christian ministry on behalf of the Churches of God (www.churchesofgod.info). His voice has been heard on Search For Truth radio broadcasts for over 30 years (visit www.searchfortruth.podbean.com) during which time he has been an itinerant Bible teacher throughout the UK and Canada. His evangelical and missionary work outside the UK is primarily in Belgium and The Philippines. He is married to Rosemary, with a son and daughter.

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Brian Johnston

Spiritual Realities

Are We Blind to Them?

First published by Hayes Press 2023

Copyright © 2023 by Brian Johnston

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

Brian Johnston asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

Unless otherwise stated all Bible references are taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org.

Scriptures marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Scriptures marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scriptures marked ESV are taken from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Contents

1. Being Dead in Sins

2. United with Christ

3. Chosen from Eternity

4. Members of Christ’s Body

5. Living Stones in God’s House

6. The Value of Knowing Christ

7. Meeting with God

8. Worshipping in Heaven

About Hayes Press

About the Author

Also by Brian Johnston

1

Being Dead in Sins

I want to anchor our studies in this book in the narrative of 2 Kings chapter 6. We don’t need a lot of background to this story; I simply want to let the relevant part of this narrative speak for itself. It concerns the man of God, Elisha, and his servant. And the setting of the episode we’re interested in is at a time when the enemy king of Syria has sent an army to capture Elisha, the Israelite prophet and notable man of God. The Bible historian says…

… he sent horses and chariots and a substantial army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city. Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, This is hopeless, my master! What are we to do? And he said, Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are greater than those who are with them. Then Elisha prayed and said, LORD, please, open his eyes so that he may see. And the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha (2 Kings 6:14-17).

Ever heard the saying that says: one person with God is a majority? Well, this is a classic example of how true that is. Let’s recap on the specific details from our reading. In the morning, Elisha’s servant looks out and sees the enemy army come to take them prisoner and, naturally enough, he’s afraid. But the man of God at his side, Elisha, is totally unfazed by the same sight. And why is that? The reason is that he could see something that his servant couldn’t see. He then prayed that his servant’s eyes would be opened. The Lord answered this prayer, and suddenly the servant was also able to see God’s protective army all around them: with chariots and horses of fire. Now he could understand how the prophet could be so calm and stress-free!

This reminds me of David’s words at the beginning of Psalm 27. There, he expresses his own trust in God. He said that even if an army would surround him, and even though war should break out against him, he’d still be confident in God, in the God whom he trusted. That’s the same as Elisha’s experience. And now let’s ask the question that we’ll often find ourselves asking throughout this book: What spiritual realities are we blind to? It was certainly Paul’s prayer for believers in the Church of God at Ephesus that the eyes of their heart might be enlightened (Ephesians 1:18) - in other words, that they might