Matrix Faith
by: Roger Talbert
2 Kings 6:15-17
Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, "Alas, my master! What shall we do?" 16 So he answered, "Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." 17 Then Elisha prayed and said, "O Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see." And the Lord opened the servant's eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
2 Corinthians 10:3-6
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, 6 and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.
First off, I am not advocating the movie “Matrix”. But I do believe that it shows a correlation between the physical world and the spiritual world. For in the movie there are two worlds. One is physical while the other is a computer generated world.
While this is science fiction, I see a depiction of our lives. We live in a physical and spiritual realm. Our lives are reversed from what is reality in the movie “Matrix”. For in “Matrix” the computer generated world is what the majority of the human population believes is reality and understand. They do believe that it is in fact the physical world, not realizing that there is another real physical world. While in our lives, all live in the physical world and don’t have a clue about the spiritual world.
If you talk to the general public about a spiritual realm, you will get a lot of ghosts, goblins and the like. A follower of Christ knows that there is a spiritual world and the two Scriptures listed in the beginning show this to be true but they do not understand it. The movie “Matrix” shed some light on this for me and I hope that it will do the same for you.
To give you background of the movie “Matrix” for those that have not seen it (I don’t want to ruin it for you if you haven’t seen it but I must elaborate on it) or have forgotten it, there is a war between man and machine. Mankind is losing or all but lost only a few humans have survived outside the matrix in the physical world. The matrix is a result of this war. In order to try to defeat the machines, humans cut their power even to the extent of cutting off solar power by messing with the atmosphere. This seemed to be working until the machines discovered that humans create electricity and power by living. To harness this energy, the machines turned humans into slaves from birth putting them into a stasis unit plugging into their mind and bodies creating a reality where the human slaves thought they were going through a normal life but in reality they were producing energy for their enemies the machines. This created the matrix. The ones that were awakened from the matrix tried to free the rest of the slaves. The machines were still winning the war but a prophecy of the one was their only hope.
I find familiarity between this science fiction and the battle Christians face every day. But it goes much deeper than that. In the movie, parts of the battles fought were fought in the physical world while most of the battles were fought in the matrix. This too is a comparison as to what Scripture instructs us to do.
I see connection between the matrix realm and the spiritual realm. They are very similar with the exception that spiritual realm is very much real the matrix is not. I know that what goes on in the spiritual world effects this world. I also realize that most don’t believe in this realm and the ones that do believe do not understand it. Now I do not claim to understand it completely but I have been given some realization. Our battles are not to be fought in the physical world alone. Christians agree with this but are fighting the spiritual battle with physical rules, the limitations if you will. This is where the movie “Matrix” can shed light on this dilemma.
In the movie when the battles were fought in the physical realm they fought with technology, firearms, hand to hand, all the weapons we understand and with the limitation that we know. If you got shot you were wounded or even died. But the battles fought in the matrix changed the rules. They fought with the same types of weapons and hand to hand techniques but the outcome was different. Their reflexes were faster, stamina greater, they were able to leap great distances, run up walls dodge bullets and even stop bullets in midair. In short the real world laws didn’t apply to the matrix. This is how our spiritual life is meant to be lived.
Okay so how do we accomplish this?
We fight through prayer. Prayer links us with God. In your prayers don’t limit yourself to what you know in the physical world. What made the difference between the matrix and the real world laws is what you believe. If you didn’t believe that you could jump a great distance, you won’t. Believe that healing can happen, that Bibles can be brought to anti-Christian countries, that Satan’s strongholds can be destroyed and that the you are free in Christ. I am not saying that if you have the right faith or enough faith your prayer will be answered as you see fit for all our prayer will be answered as God sees fit. But I am saying that without faith prayers have no chance nor do we have a chance in the spiritual realm without faith. Satan knows this, why do you think he attacks your faith so much?
Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight
