Pursuing the Heavenly 2
And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, (Ephesians 2:6-NIV)
The Duality
If part of our personality is in Heaven at the present time, if we have been raised up with Christ and are seated with Him in the heavenly realms, and the Bible clearly states this to be an accomplished fact, then a duality exists in our personality.
Part of us is seated with Christ, waiting with Him until His (and our) enemies have been made His footstool. This is a very real part of our life.Part of us is living on the earth. Our human body, physical brain, and soul are on the earth.
This also is a very real part of our life. This is the only life most people in the world understand to be possible, including perhaps the majority of those who attend Christian churches, even though they may profess belief in Jesus Christ.The battle is for our mind.
Either our mind is in the heavenlies with Christ or our mind is down here focusing on the passions of our body and soul. The battle being waged today by Antichrist, the spirit that is in the world, is for our mind.
This is why there is such a flood of attractions and information in the media, the radio, newspapers, magazines, television presentations, commercials, personal computers, and the Internet.Satan is calling us down, down, down to the earth.
Jesus Christ is inviting us up, up, up to the right hand of God. Our struggle to respond to Christ is the good fight of faith that must be fought today.
It may be a bit late for most of the older Christians. We have regarded salvation as having to do with the reformation of our earthly nature. The new generation will understand that the entire earthly nature and everything associated with it is to be kept on the cross.
Jesus Christ is at the right hand of God. He is our life. He and we will appear together at His coming.When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:4-NIV)
And so a duality exists. Part of us, our new born-again nature, is with Christ on the highest throne. Part of us, our earthly, sensual nature, is on the earth.
It seems likely to me that this duality will exist after our physical death. Our new born-again nature will remain with Christ on the highest throne. Our body and physical brain will return to the ground to await the day of resurrection.
Our conscious soul will enter the spirit realm and be assigned to an appropriate environment.I do not think our personality will be integrated again until the Day of Resurrection.
At that time what we have sown in the heavens, including our heavenly body, will return with the Lord Jesus. Our soul will be reunited with our born-again nature. Our heavenly body will raise our dead physical body and brain from the ground and then clothe them with incorruptible resurrection life.
I may be incorrect about some of the details here, but this is the way I view what will take place in the Day of the Lord.