Week 28
In Ephesians 2:6-7 we read “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incombarable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”
As believers in Christ we are raised up with him and seated with him in the heavenly realms. How can that be when we are physically walking on this earth? Once we accept Christ as our savior and he sends his Spirit to live in us we are considered spiritual creatures. Our identity is in Christ, we no longer identify with the old sinful body, but we are new creatures in Christ.
It is hard to envision that we belong more to heaven than earth, but it is true and as our spiritual walk becomes stronger our thoughts of heaven become stronger. The pull is toward God and Jesus and away from the things of the world. Ultimately we will be where our hearts long to be, with God.
In Isaiah 66:1 we read that God’s throne is in heaven and the earth is his footstool. It isn’t hard to understand why we long for heaven when we come into a relationship with God through Jesus. That is where God rules and as his subjects that is where we want to meet with him. That is why we spiritually enter his throneroom everytime we pray to him.
But the scripture calls the earth God’s footstool. As I meditated and prayed about this, God spoke very clearly to me. He originally made the earth and put man here to be in a realtionship with him. He walked in the garden with Adam. (Genesis 3:8) When sin invaded the earth and mankind let satan have control, God only came to earth when he found men righteous enough to walk with. Through the ages he walked with different men, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David. But he wanted to get the earth back, he created it in love and longed for it.
The only way that he could get it back was by coming here himself in the form of Christ and living such a righteous life that he could take it back. When he died on the cross he bought it back for us. His blood paid the price for us. But he still has to work through mankind to get possession of it. People have to take back control of the earth from satan because he is not going to leave it willingly.
Jesus told his disciples, and that includes you and I, that “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20.
If authority was given to Christ and we are in him, then we also have that authority. He has passed it on to us. Jesus couldn’t be everyplace on the earth as a physical man. He was still only one man, but through us he could cover the face of the earth and take back what the devil stolen. It is up to us to do this for him. As his disciples we are given authority over satan and his demons. Jesus told us that he had given us authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the powers of the enemy, that nothing would harm us. So what are we afraid of? Why don’t we take back control of the earth?
In Matthew 16 Jesus tells Peter that he would be the rock on which he would build his church. Peter was indeed the spokesman for the disciples when the Holy Spirit entered the church on the day of Pentecost. He spoke boldly and eloquently winning people to Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. God used him in a mighty way to establish the church on earth.
Jesus also told Peter that he was giving him the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever he would bind on earth would be bound in heaven and whatever he would loose on earth would be loosed in heaven. He was passing his authority over to the church. We, the universal church of Christ, can take back legally what satan has taken from us. We just need to do it. By reading God’s word and asking the Spirit to help us we can begin right where we are to run the devil off. He has to listen to us when we order him to leave.
A good place to start is in our own homes and with our families. Start claiming your home for the Lord. Order anything that is not of God to leave your property and claim the lives of your family members for the Lord. Speak boldly in the name of Jesus and it will be done. God wants us to stand for Christ.
Once we give our hearts to Jesus our citizenship is no longer connected with the earth. Our allegience is to Christ and he is in heaven. That is the direction we should look. In Philippians 3:20-21 Paul says “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”
With our citizenship in heaven that makes us ambassadors on the earth. And we read in 2 Corinthians 5:20 “we are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” Our minds are focused on Christ and our bodies are still here on earth to win souls to Christ. That is our sole purpose in life once we commit to Christ.
What are you doing as a disciple of Christ to share the good news? Are you letting your light shine in your home? In your neighborhood? In the workplace? Who are you sharing God’s love with?
The Bible is full of shadows of heavenly things that are portrayed on earth in terms that we can understand. One of the shadows is the priesthood.
Over and over the priest would offer the same sacrifices and the blood would cover the sins of the people. But the sins would never be taken away only covered. When Jesus came he willingly gave his blood, the blood of a perfect man. Then he took that blood and offered it to God himself in that heavenly tabernacle. His blood, the blood of a righteous man, not only covered all the sins of the world, but also erased them. He took all those sins to hell and left them there. And after he took the sins of the world there, he overcame death itself and came back to life.
All this is hard for us to imagine and it doesn’t make sense to a logical mind, because it requires faith. If we have faith that Jesus did this for us, then we can have the faith to believe that right now he is sitting at the right hand of God waiting for us to spread the good news to all the people on the earth.
Our feet are here on the earth doing the work God gave us to do, but our eyes are fixed on Christ the one who died for us. There is a beautiful verse in 2 Corinthians 4:18. “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” Heaven is our real home. It is the place where God dwells and it is close enough for us to visit every time we pray. The more we pray, the more time we spend there.
Heavenly Father,
We seek you today and we thank you that you have prepared a place for us to spend eternity with you. Sometimes it gets so hard being on this earth. We long to be with you all the time and yet we know that you have work for us to do here. Forgive us for failing to do the good that we know we should do. Forgive us for not remembering all that Christ did for us. Forgive us for not seeing that he died for each person in the world. Open our eyes to see those around us who have never heard the good news. Open our mouths to speak to them about all that Christ did for them. Give us a boldness like you gave to Peter. We know that the same Spirit that spoke through him can also speak through us. Use us today. Because of Jesus. Amen
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