Learn to Live in the Heavenlies

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. (Colossians 3:1—NIV)

In the first chapter of the Book of Genesis we read that God separated the waters into the water that was under the expanse of the sky from the water that was above the expanse of the sky. I think scientists one day will discover outer space is bound by water. Certainly rain clouds are not above the expanse of the sky!

The separation of the waters is a type, I believe, of the manner in which God redeems human beings.

When Adam and Eve sinned God could have destroyed them and started over. But I don’t think this was His plan. Rather, He removed their spiritual nature from their bodies, after nearly a thousand years, and permitted their bodies to return to the ground from which they were fashioned. God separated their spiritual natures from their bodies by placing a heaven between them, just as He did the heaven between the waters. If I am correct in this, Adam and Eve are alive somewhere in the spirit realm awaiting the Day of Judgment. Then their spiritual natures will be reunited with their bodies, because the dead are judged in their bodies.

This is what happens to us when we truly receive Jesus Christ and are baptized in water. We assign our first personality to the cross with Christ. Then we count that our inward spiritual nature has been raised with Christ and has ascended with Christ to be seated at the right hand of God.

This is the principle of the firstfruits. Our personality has been harvested in part, beginning with our inward spiritual nature.

Now our body and probably our soul remain on the earth. Our body and soul are battling to save our personality, and he who endures to the end shall be saved. This is what the Lord said, although it is not emphasized today.

How we behave on the earth is directly affecting our life in the heavens. We are constructing a building, one might say, before the Throne of God. If we practice that which is good, our heavenly building, or robe, reflects the goodness. If we practice that which is bad, our heavenly building reflects the badness. There is no truth more needed in Christian thinking.

When the Lord returns He shall bring our building with Him. Our body shall be raised from the dead and then clothed with our house from Heaven. We shall reap what we have sown.

One might ask, "Can we ever lose our place in Heaven at the right hand of God?"

It is my point of view that we can. I think Satan can tempt us to the point that we actually are cast down from the place we had in Christ. We can lose our eternal life. Not only does the New Testament teach this but I have seen it happen in a human being, so I am not really open to reasoning about how we never can lose our eternal life.

It grew until it reached the host of the heavens, and it threw some of the starry host down to the earth and trampled on them. (Daniel 8:10—NIV)

Paul says something interesting:

When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:4—NIV)

The issue is, is Christ our life? Or have we just made a profession of belief in Christ? Are we truly thinking, speaking, and acting at all times in the Person and Presence of Jesus Christ? If not, He is not our life. We are not living in and by Him.

Think about the following passage.

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, Made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 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 incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-7—NIV)

The above verses indicate we already are as high as we every can go in the spirit realm, for the Throne of Christ is the highest of all thrones.

We really and truly have risen and ascended with Jesus Christ in our inward nature. This is not just a figure of speech. Heaven is all around us and we already are there, in this sense. But we have to be very careful that no one take our crown, for it is possible to have the crown of life and then lose it!

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, To the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, (Hebrews 12:22,23—NIV)

If our spiritual eyes were opened we would see, as did the servant of Elisha, that we already are in the city of God in our inward nature.

How helpful it is now, and how supremely helpful it shall be in the coming age of moral horrors, to continually lift our imagination into the heavens and think about the part of our personality that is present there.

One of the important activities of prayer is to go window-shopping in Heaven. This is fun. Imagine who will meet you when you die. Imagine what you would like to do in Heaven. Set your hopes and thoughts on things above.

When a loved one falls asleep, picture him or her in Heaven with Jesus. It will help to alleviate the intensity of the grief. They have not been destroyed; they are with Jesus.

Our American culture is so terribly materialistic that we do not spend enough time in the heavens. We are in bondage to all our things without realizing it. We need more time for reflection on what is truly important.

Have you thought much about dying?

If our spiritual nature already is at the right hand of God, what will it be like to die? Will our soul join our spirit at the right hand of God? I don’t think our soul will go to a mansion while our spiritual nature is at the right hand of God, do you?

And what about the Day of Resurrection? Will our soul and spirit be brought together and then return with the Lord to join our resurrected body?

And what about the "house from Heaven" that Paul speaks of?

For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. (II Corinthians 5:4—NIV)

Where has our "heavenly dwelling" been all this time?

I do not pretend to know the answer to these questions. But I love to think about them because they lift me above the anxieties and cares of life that so easily can tear us down from our high place in God.

The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. (Matthew 13:22—NIV)

If we are to live victoriously in Christ during the horrors of earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, and war, we must—we absolutely must—become citizens of two worlds, the present world and the heavenly world. When a thousand fall at our side and ten thousand at our right hand, and the blood is as a river in the street, and we do not know where our loved ones are, we must be able to lift ourselves up with Jesus and realize He always sits as King of the flood. Our loved ones are safe in His ever watchful care.

If we are not able to lift ourselves into the heavenlies in this manner, praying and trusting in Jesus in the midst of chaos, we will be frantically screaming like everyone else.

If we are to survive spiritually in the future we must set aside a place and time for prayer each day.

If we are to survive spiritually we must become a person of the Word, meditating in the Scriptures continually.

If we are to survive spiritually we must place all that we are and possess on the altar of God.

If we are to survive spiritually in the days to come we must always be living in and by Christ.

If we are to survive spiritually we must put on the whole armor of God.

If we are to survive spiritually throughout the future calamities, the days of evil, we must be at home on earth and in the heavenlies. Part of our personality is on earth. The other part is at the right hand of God in Jesus Christ. If our earthly life should perish, there is no problem. Our eternal life is in Heaven at the right hand of God. There is no destructive power that can reach us there unless, as I said, we choose to live in the flesh to the extent we are torn down from our position in Christ.

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