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Supernatural Reality

by Valerie Roeseler

Supernatural fiction stories have elements in them that could never happen in real life. Many of us love to read or watch supernatural fiction because it connects us to something outside of reality and we can ignore our own lives by living vicariously through a fiction character’s life. Our minds get excited at the thought of magical things happening. We often think, “Man! What if that could really happen?”

According to Etymology: In the early fifteenth century (around 1400-1425 A.D.), the word supernatural came from the Medieval Latin word supernaturalis. In the literal sense, it means “above nature”. In the times the word originated, its intent was to define things “of or given by God”. Its original meaning was “divine” or “heavenly”. It wasn’t until the nineteenth century (1800-1900 A.D.) that topics like ghosts, vampires, werewolves, etc. perverted the word supernatural. In 1830, the definition of supernatural became “that which is above or beyond the established course of nature.” Today, the word supernatural is used to attribute an event or force beyond a scientific understanding of the laws of nature.

The word supernatural originated to define the unexplainable events, acts, and gifts from God. Today, it’s used for anything our minds cannot comprehend as part of the scientific laws of nature. This is a prime example of how worldly influence has infected proof of God’s existence. (When I use the word worldly, I’m referring to anything that excludes God—otherwise known as worldliness.) Whenever we ask for proof of something, we want to witness it for ourselves. We need to experience it with one of our five senses (either touch, taste, hear, see, or smell) or we need to feel it on an emotional level (like love, joy, sadness, or anger). But do not be mistaken. God is supernatural. It’s why so many people emersed in worldliness have a hard time accepting the reality of God.

I remember my first Sunday morning Bible Study class at Anderson Baptist Church. We were going over the famous story of ‘Jonah and the Whale’. The leader of the study group asked me if I believed the story was a complete fact or if it was fiction. I answered, “I think it’s a metaphorical story used to represent God’s continuous pursuit to push us on the right path.” She didn’t contradict what my opinion was and accepted my answer with a warm smile. Today, if you asked me if the story of ‘Jonah and the Whale’ is fact or fiction, I would tell you it’s fact. And when I told my Bible Study leader how my perception has changed, her reaction was a knowing grin as she basically stated, “I knew it would only be time before you realized it.” No matter how hard it is to believe that something so supernatural as living inside of the belly of a whale is, our God is powerful and can make that happen.

Do you doubt this or other stories within the Bible? Why? As Christians, our entire belief system is based on a man who died and came back to life! That’s not natural! You don’t get any more supernatural than that! So, next time you think about whether you believe the truth of a biblical story, think about that. If you can believe that Christ died on the cross for your sins and raised to life to live at the right hand of God, how can you look at anything else in the Bible and think, “Yeah right. That couldn’t happen…”?

So, how can we prove the existence of God is a supernatural reality?

For one, we can see, touch, and hear God’s word through The Holy Bible. I could do a deep dive into the supernatural elements of the Bible, but it would be extremely long, theologically detailed, and may bore you. Just a few examples are the prophetic telling of the life of Christ told within the first word of Genesis 1 written in Hebrew (It’s called the Bereshit Prophecy. Look it up!), or how the entire outline of the Bible is told within the first names of Jesus’ lineage, all the way from Adam. The Bible is so complex, it would blow your mind at how exact many of its hidden prophetic messages are. Centuries of stories were written by men that, besides Jesus’ apostles, didn’t even know each other. That is living proof of God’s supernatural being in our reality.

My favorite reality of God’s supernatural existence is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God’s presence that we can feel emotionally and sometimes that emotion manifests physically, like an ache in your chest or butterflies in your stomach or chills down your spine. In the beginning, when Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden, God walked among them (Genesis 3:8). They knew God because He was with them physically and they could see Him. After the fall of man, when sin entered the world, God spoke to many people, as we see in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). In Genesis 4:7, God asks Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” In Genesis 5:20, we see Enoch walked with God. We see the existence of God proven to Moses when angels of God delivered messages to him, or when God presented Himself and spoke to Moses in the form of a burning bush.

So, when did God stop being in our presence in a physical way we could witness? The correct answer is: Never. We can still physically see proof of his existence all around us. We have just become so attuned to it now that it doesn’t feel supernatural anymore, so we dismiss it as natural. But, for argument’s sake, in the Bible, the last time we read about God’s physical presence (before Christ and the New Testament) is when King Nebuchadnezzar charged the execution of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace, and God’s presence was witnessed delivering them from the fire unharmed. From then until the birth of Jesus, the people relied on the Twelve Prophets of God (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi) to speak God’s will to them.

It wasn’t until Acts 2:1-4 that God gifted us with the Holy Spirit. Once a true believer of Jesus as Christ, we’re gifted with the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. It guides, directs, and leads us. It confirms our choices and opens our hearts and minds to direct our thoughts. We are walking around with the greatest supernatural power in the world; a connection with our Father. Why don’t we use it more? It gives us the ability to make better decisions, and it’s already inside of us. Everything changes when we let the Holy Spirit guide us. It gives us the courage to make decisions we never would’ve made before, because we can now see things through God’s eyes.

Have you ever had a ‘gut feeling’ about something? Have you ever felt convicted of something? It could be the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit speaking to you. But how do you know for sure it’s the Holy Spirit and not the devil whispering in your ear? You’ll know it’s the Holy Spirit speaking to you when God’s word aligns with your thoughts. You’ll know it’s the Holy Spirit when you find peace with your thoughts. You can confirm God’s will through the Holy Spirit within you when you see God’s word come alive in your life. Sometimes it’s hard to see God’s work when we’re amid chaos. But when we’re past the chaos, we can see God’s work from a thousand-foot view and appreciate the times the Holy Spirit helped us endure and persevere.

Think of the Holy Spirit as your supernatural GPS (or Guiding Providential Spirit, as I call it). If you seek and listen to the Holy Spirit, it can keep you on the path God designed for you. Otherwise, you may get lost and take a wrong turn somewhere. Put yourself in a position to seek God and be ready to hear from Him. We can face any hardship because God is with us. And because God lives within us, the battle is not ours but the Lord’s. God will work on your behalf. All God asks of us is to seek Him, then face our enemies, issues, or problems, and trust He is with us. The more you seek and use the supernatural Holy Spirit within you, the more powerful God’s will becomes.

And that is supernatural reality. How amazing is that!?