The weapons of our warfare are not carnal

The cover of Frank Peretti’s This Present Darkness.

This is the line of a song in my head from very early on in my church days - I must have been five or seven when I first heard it. All about how we as christians do not wage our battle against the flesh, but in spiritual realms and high places. It was captivating for my young mind: angels and demons fighting with swords - dark angel's against the light - so much so that I used to swing my spiritual sword around in my teens in an attempt to save my non - christian friends.

Ah, the old and the new - now, older, deeper in I see the importance of not focusing all ones energy on what is in front of you - but the other realms - yes, they are real too - have an impact on the seen, felt, touched and tasted - just like we cannot see the wind, where it comes from or is going yet it determines much.

There is a break here - its between the animate - more than human world of physical entities and then the spiritual world of mystery - I mean it’s all one as far as I can gather - move something in heaven through prayer as Jesus said and it moves on earth - and vice versa - the heavens and the earth are one - just as our carnal body, soul and spirit cannot have their existence without each other. The lives of the spirit people - well that may be real - but it’s mostly conjecture until we ourselves have no bodies with which to navigate our lives.

Thank you history, heritage - there is a lot from our past that cycles back up to us asking to be integrated - if we are wise we will welcome the older passengers - gingerly at first perhaps - but ultimately they are there to serve our future selves.