The heavenly or spiritual realm
"Praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight" Ephesians 1:3-4 (NIV)
The spiritual realm is as real as the natural realm. In fact the spiritual realm determines what takes places in the natural realm.
God has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. When Jesus died and rose again He appeared to his disciples and then ascended up into heaven (Acts1:9-11).
Although the location of heaven is up high above the earth, its operation is all over the earth and in our hearts.
Once you received the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, Jesus came to live in your heart. Heaven is in your heart. You have access to the heavenly realm through Christ Jesus (Colossians 1:27, Colossians 3:3-4, Colossians 1:12-14)
The heavenly realm is where God has His provision. To receive from the heavenly realm we need to reach out in faith and take it.
Reaching out in Faith is not believing for something that does not exist, but rather receiving something that God has already made available in the Spiritual realm and bringing it into our natural realm.
Our salvation is a beautiful example. We received the salvation of Jesus by faith and became Children of God (John 1:12-13). Our faith reached out to take something that already existed in the spiritual realm. Jesus has already died for us. That is a truth.
But except a person reaches out by faith and receives Jesus into his or her heart the salvation of Jesus (which although invisible to the natural eye) already available will not benefit that person.
"The spiritual realm is a real world, invisible to the natural eye but visible to the eye of faith"
Several examples of people reaching out or seeing things in the spiritual realm exist in the Bible
1 Elijah and the widow 1Kings 17:7-15
Real the whole of this story. Notice that God had commanded (or made provision) for the widow to take care of Elijah. The widow was not even aware of this. Elijah had to tell her. The widow obeyed Elijah and the jar of flour was not used up nor did the oil run out. Elijah's faith was reaching out to receive God's provision in the heavenly or spiritual realm and bringing it into the natural realm.
2. Elisha and his servant 2 Kings 6:8-17
Read the whole story. Here again we see Elisha's servants eyes of faith opened in answer to Elisha's prayer. He saw God's provision in the spiritual realm.
3. Jesus feeds 5,000 - Matthew 14:15-21 Luke 9:12-17
Jesus feeds over 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. Any guesses about how these few items of food were enough to feed all the people.
4. Ten lepers healed - Luke 17:11-19
Jesus sent ten lepers to go and show themselves to the high priest. An act of faith. Can you imagine what would have happened if the ten lepers had turned up in the high priest office without being healed?
Jesus, as ever, was aware that the lepers healing was already a done and concluded thing. As they went by faith to the high priest , they received their healing, which had already been made provision for in the spiritual realm, into their natural bodies.
The last example shows how our faith will work more effectively when we have a clear understanding of the spiritual realm
"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see, This is what the ancients were commended for Hebrews11:1-2 (NIV)
We are able to be sure of what we hope for when we realise it already exists with God in the spiritual realm. The promises of God make us aware of what God has provided for us. We need to study the Bible in order to increase our faith and have a better understanding of what God has made available for us in the spiritual realm.