“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2: 4-7)

It’s easy enough to read these words and tell ourselves that we believe them, but speaking personally, I wonder how much I really understand what it is to be seated in heavenly places when I don’t even know what they look like? Paul had been there (see 2 Cor 12: 2-4), and I have friends who have had visions of them, but so far that hasn’t been part of my walk with Jesus. But Jesus said to Thomas: “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed,” so that tells me that those of us (i.e. most of the Body of Christ) who haven’t had any visionary experience of heavenly places, can be blessed in our lack of experience just as we are blessed with eternal life by believing in the Saviour that we haven’t seen. So my question is this: if I am blessed for believing what I haven’t seen, how do I live out of that blessing? Among other things, being seated in heavenly places is our position of spiritual authority, and that is my focus here, because the devil will do all he can to get us out of our seats in the spirit and running around, weakened, in the flesh. Here are three keys that may help us to stay in our seats. I plan to post some more in future articles.

Remain in the atmosphere of worship.
If we know one thing about heaven it is that it rings with worship. When John first looked through the door into heaven and beheld “a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne,” (Rev 4:2) the scene before him is ablaze with the beauty of the Lord and resounds with unending worship:

“The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying:
“Holy, holy, holy,
Lord God Almighty,
Who was and is and is to come!” (Rev 4:8)

Heavenly places echo with constant worship, so we too must keep our hearts tuned to this atmosphere. As we know, God is looking for true worshippers: “The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.“(John 4:23) However this isn’t easy, as we know. But I think Paul gives us some help here:  his exhortation to the Thessalonians to “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thess 5:18) is a reminder to remain thankful for the wonder of our salvation and the abundance of God’s mercy in lifting us into those heavenly places, whatever may be happening around us. Whatever we are doing, we can always seek God’s face in the midst of it: “When You said, “Seek My face,” My heart said to You, “Your face, LORD, I will seek.” (Psalm 27:8) If we seek His presence we will find it (Matthew 7:7), and when we do, our hearts will be stirred to worship, on earth as it is in heaven. It was “because of His great love with which He loved us” that God “made us alive together with Christ,” so that He could have us in His presence and we could share the wonders of heaven with Him. We have been lifted there because God wants us with him. I have a precious pair of pictures of my son-in-law with my 4-year old grandson. In the first picture, he is standing behind his son, with his arms outstretched, but the little boy is looking in the other direction and is unaware of what is about to happen. In the next picture, he has been scooped up, and his happy face is close to the smiling countenance of his loving dad. The God of the Universe, in all His glory and majesty, has scooped us up because He wanted us close to Him. If we can keep our hearts aligned with this truth I think the rest will follow; and spiritual authority, alongside the capacity to love, will become a reality in our lives. (Eph. 2:4-5) God doesn’t need our thanks: giving thanks in all circumstances is for our benefit, not His.

Maintain holiness and consecration.
Heaven is a holy place. Jesus has qualified us to be there, but He wants us to take what we have been given in heaven and bring it to earth. As well as keeping our flame of worship alive, we need to keep our mind renewed and empty of carnality and selfish ambition. Talking of those “by nature children of wrath,” Paul writes “among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, … just as the others.” (Ephesians 2:3) How much of our thought life and activity revolves round gratifying the flesh? In Christ we “walk after the spirit and not after the flesh,” but it’s also true that “the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another.”(Gal 5:17) Suffice to say that there is a battle going on, and we can’t expect to be spiritual without being vigilant.

So why focus particularly on “selfish ambition?” Because Satan’s selfish ambition brought about his downfall and consequently introduced sin into the world, by tempting man with the thought that he, too, could “be like God, knowing good from evil.” (Genesis 3:5) Satan’s selfish ambition became Man’s: it is at the very root  of all sin. James writes: “Where jealousy and selfish ambition exists, there will be disorder and every vile practice,” (James 3:16) and Paul teaches us to ”Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves.” (Phil 2:3)

King Jesus, the Lord of Lords, was “meek and humble of heart.” Philippians 2:3 tells us that our pathway to this humility is not to try to fight a battle against conceit in our heads, but quite simply to make a practice of putting the interests of others before our own. When we are unselfishly loving others we are pulling up roots of sin in our own hearts. Holiness and consecration are a consequence of a decision to love instead of being the lofty goal of a priestly lifestyle, and love begins with humility. Peter writes, “Love covers a multitude of sin.” (1 Pe 4:8) Not only does our loving forgiveness of others cover the sin in their lives, just as Christ’s forgiveness covers ours, but it also covers “a multitude of sin” in our own hearts so that we can indeed “be holy, just as I am holy.” (1 Pe 1:16)

It’s notable that Paul partners “selfish ambition” with “vain conceit.” They have the same root of pride: both exalt self. Conceit tells me that I am better than others, and ambition makes a career path out of that belief. Since it was selfish ambition that caused Satan to be cast out of heaven, we can’t sit in heavenly places with any in our hearts.

Stay free of condemnation.
We are blameless before Him; His adopted sons. We know the scripture, of course: “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” But knowing the words doesn’t always mean we know the truth in our hearts, and many of us can be all too ready to listen to the enemy when he whispers condemnation over us, because it’s an area where he has often started building strongholds during childhood. A “naughty” child becoming a rebellious teenager who comes to faith in their early 20’s can carry a lot of baggage into the Kingdom, and it’s not always easy to leave at the cross – until we grasp the dimensions of Christ’s sacrifice measured against our condemnation. Paul writes:

“Who can lay a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, Who also makes intercession for us.” (Romans 8:33–34).

If we measure a pebble against Mount Everest, even that is not enough to even begin measuring the value of God’s gift to us against the weight – or lack of it – of condemnation that the enemy would try and lay on our shoulders. What is the devil’s pebble against us when we have a mountain of freedom in Christ? Who can lay a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Hebrews 12:2 says “Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame, for the joy set before Him.” If our Jesus despised Calvary’s mountain of shame, who are we to catch and carry the pebbles that the devil tosses in our direction? “He who believes in Him will not be put to shame.” (Romans 10:11, 1 Pe 2:6)

Condemnation that hurts us is only part of the picture, however, because “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45) If we feel condemned in ourselves, we will be prone to condemning others. If we can truly walk in the freedom that Christ has given us in this area, we will be less likely to be judgemental of others; less likely to be open to the enemy using us to put other people to shame. Even when we work at not allowing the critical words to be formed on our lips, what is in our hearts will always leak out. If there is no shame in our own hearts, there will be none to spill over others.

I want to look at one more aspect of this topic before we leave it. Paul writes “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes.” (Romans 1:16) If we are vulnerable to condemnation and the shame that it brings, it will affect our witness: if we are ashamed of ourselves, we will also be ashamed of the gospel. If we are confident in who we are in Christ, we will be more likely to be confident in sharing what He has done for us. I think this makes it one of Satan’s favoured weapons against God’s people: if there is one thing he must want more than just about anything else, it is to close down our effectiveness in sharing the victory of Calvary. We need to keep in mind the words of Jesus to the woman caught in adultery: “Woman, where are those accusers of yours?  Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” (John 8:10-11) There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus; there is no condemnation in heavenly places.

Where we are seated in the Spirit is our place of authority. The devil works hard at trying to make us get up out of our seats: we mustn’t let him.

Next: our sonship, not our business card.