Spiritual Position

Ephesians 4:2-7

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

Spiritual Position

I asked the Lord a while back about how do we begin to operate out of the third heaven or that kingdom realm rather that the  second heaven of flesh and spirit?  In that realm we have only seen and experienced in part and my heart is to see ‘God’s kingdom come and His will be done in this earth as it is in heaven.’ I realize that the reality of that truth begins in us, His people.  That truth first has to take place in  us, because we are His body and the vehicle through which He manifests His kingdom in the earth.  So as I asked about this operating out of the third heaven and I felt like God gave me three keys that would bring us into our authority.  It is not just in the knowledge of these three keys that this brought about, but it is in the revelation and the experience of these that this takes place.  These three keys were in the revelation of your identity in Christ, your position and your purpose.   When we get the revelation of ourselves and what Christ has brought us into then we will begin to step into our authority. 

If you read the past articles written you will observe that a predominant topic of conversation deals with the identity of who you are in Christ.  We can do nothing truly effective if we don’t really know who we are or we are just focused on what we used to be.  When we see Jesus, we see the image we have been created in and the character and nature that we are to possess.  Jesus came bringing the kingdom of God into the earth.  He was the firstfruits, the predecessor, the template and the pattern for what His many-membered body is to become.  “Christ in you, the hope of glory”, that is the mystery of who you are becoming.  1 John 4:17 says, “In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.”  In Galatians 2:20 Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”  Through these many other scripture we a revelation of our true identity in Christ. 

It is this next part that I wish to address today, “Our Position”.  Our scripture here in Ephesians 2:6 describes our position in Christ.  “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.”  While we may occupy the earth with our natural bodies we get insight here that our spirit man is positioned with Christ in heavenly places because we are in Him and that is where He is seated, so we can also operate out of this position and seat of authority.  Colossians 3:1-2 goes on to tells that if we understand our position in Christ then this how we should operate out of that position, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”  Your position in Christ is a spiritual position and you must operate out of that position from you spiritual man.  That means our focus has to be on kingdom or  “things above” and you can only be and operate out of this position if you know who you are “in Christ.”  Paul goes on to make it more practical in verses 5-11.  “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. 

Jesus makes this comment to the Pharisees in Luke 17:20-21, “Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, 21nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” In this “position” it is all about Christ, because that is who we operate out of by faith in Him and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.   What that ultimately means to us is the eradication and putting away from ourselves any identity that is not of HIM.

One sister shared an astute observation,  When you are on the earth looking at the giants in your life they look so big and unconquerable, but when you see your position, “in Christ”  seated at the right-hand of God the Father  looking down on your giants, they are as grasshoppers.  What is our perspective?  For us to move into these places we have to be willing to lose our old stinking thinking that we might put on the mind and the perspective of Christ.  He finished the work and He set down at the right hand of the Father until His enemies be made His footstool.  What makes up the feet of Jesus if it isn’t His body.  We are simply the fulfillment what He has already done, but how are we going to accomplish that if we don’t know our identity, our position and our purpose? 

Blessings,

#kent