I’ve always had a hesitant about the adjective, “supernatural.” I have always felt like the word was implying that “natural” was the norm, the frame of reference, the “way things really are.” That is simply untrue. Of course, the term is not a bad word. I’m just referring to the background noise I have when I hear it.
What is spiritual is more real than what is natural. It would seem more accurate to refer to natural reality as “sub-spiritual” than to refer to spiritual things as “supernatural.” We tend to begin with the natural and observe the spiritual because we tend to be more natural than spiritual; yet, we were created to live spirit-first, to bring the spiritual into the natural because we are the spiritual part of Creation.
Of course, the word comes from terms that mean “above nature.” Supernatural refers to beings, powers, and realities above the natural world. When supernatural enters natural, there is a disruption.
Adam and Eve were assigned to dominate the natural order of things with their spiritual nature. God gave Creation a spirit-first order, but Adam and Eve failed to keep that order of dominion. God was there with them, but Adam and Eve were obvious. They were responsible for Creation.
People often miss God because He is not more obvious. They tend to think, “If God was all that, He wouldn’t be so mysterious.”
Divine Disruptions
One of the reasons God is not as obvious as people demand is that manifestations of God are disruptive. What I mean is that humans often desire and demand that God make Himself more obvious, simplify His message and manifestations, and remove the mystery of the Divine so humans can grasp hold of Him more easily. Yet, for God to do so would require a total disruption of the order He established in Creation.
They lack the proper understanding of God. When God demonstrates and manifests in the natural, a Divine disruption occurs. Instead of people welcoming this disruptions, they demand that God make the disruption the norm when the purpose of the disruption is to reset spirit-first dominion, to reset the order God gave to Creation.
God isn’t going to become more obvious right now because He already has a strategy for how the natural should operate. Divine disruptions reinforce the order He gave to Creation. Otherwise, God stepping into the natural wouldn’t be a disruption at all.
God isn’t trying to take dominion of the earth Himself or that would be over before it started. He’s God! If He wanted to take dominion of earth Himself, He would just do it! He has been doing something else with Creation since the beginning: God has been establishing His dominion in Creation through man. God made man obvious and left Himself mysterious.
For example, when the Bible speaks of someone releasing a miracle or healing, prophecy or revelation, preaching and power demonstrations, the Bible always refers to the healing being done by the person: to say “the apostles healed them” really bothers us because we want to say “God healed them through the apostles.” Of course, it is His power and authority being demonstrated, but the norm is not God doing it but God’s people doing it. That is, God uses people because it is less disruptive for them to touch, speak, act, and release than for God to do it Himself, and it is more consistent with the order He established in Creation.
How much dominion a man can exercise in Creation depends upon how much dominion God can exercise in that man.
God created man in His own image. In this way, God was most obvious in Creation in man. God walked with man, not Creation, “in the cool of the day.” God wasn’t revealing Himself to trees, birds, and fish. God was revealing Himself to man so man could reveal God to Creation. God wanted to be obvious in the world by making Himself obvious to man.
So, God doesn’t paint pictures of Himself on the clouds, announce His words out loud with a trumpet voice, or appear on city streets before cameras so people will believe in Him. God reveals Himself to people. God reveals His Word to people. God reveals His will to people. God makes Himself obvious the world by making Himself obvious to His people.
