Supernatural: What the Bible Teaches about the Unseen World And Why It Matters

by Michael S. Heiser

Another implication of the passages of Scripture we’ve examined is that the notion of demonic strongholds is biblical. We aren’t given a full description of demonic zones or turf boundaries, or even a spiritual pecking order for the dark side. We are told, however, that the unseen powers see earth as their domain. We’re told those powers resist God’s kingdom and don’t want people to become part of God’s plan to spread his good rule everywhere. That means we should expect resistance we can’t explain with logic or empirical evidence and we can’t defeat it on our own. God has given us his Spirit and unseen agents of his own to help us further his mission (1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19; Heb. 1:13; 1 John 4:4). The real question to ask ourselves is this: What would our lives be like if we woke up each day with a view of the world and its supernatural influences that matched Paul’s? What if, each day, our lives were organized around our knowledge of our status as part of God’s family, tasked with delivering siblings from darkness? What if we lived intentionally, knowing that each decision we make and each word we speak isn’t randomly purposeless? What if, instead, we believed unseen intelligences all around us use our decisions, our actions, our words to influence other people—for good or evil—whether or not we see or know them? Our jobs, our income, our talents, even our problems are of no consequence when it comes to knowing who we really are, and will be, and why we’re here. We cannot se...