Born Into Realms of Glory

 

“I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not!  It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ.”

 At the time that Jesus came, many knew the law.  They followed every detail.  And for every detail they did not know, they had Rabbi’s who would make up additional rules to follow.   They lived in bondage to keeping the law.  One wealthy ruler once told Jesus, “All these things I follow, so what do I lack?”  Jesus told Him to go sell all He had and give it to the poor and come follow Him, and he would have treasures in heaven.  But the ruler went away sad as he wanted to achieve and accomplish more not let go of his wealth and surrender more. 

 Following Jesus comes by faith through love.   He first loved us and we surrender our lives to Him through faith.  We invite Him into our lives and then surrender more and more of what the world offers as we, in love, make more room for Him.  

 The glory in our lives grow as we surrender and trust by faith not as we work hard and accomplish more for Him.   I saw this with my mother.  As she became older, she lost her house, her ability to drive and much of her freedoms, she came to this trusting place of surrender that was filled with glory.  The more she lost, the more the glory grew.  The glory grew as her faith and trust in the Lord grew and as she surrendered all else she held onto.  

 Paul from the Bible said that if anyone could boast in all their religious pedigrees and right standing by the law, it was him.   Yet, he threw it all away and counted it all as rubbish for knowing the Lord.  He surrendered everything to embrace the Kingdom. He lived not by what he knew or by rules of instruction; but, by faith in Jesus, he lived into the promises and direction of God.

 The Psalmist says in Psalm 199:50:, “Your promise revives me; it comforts me in all my troubles.”   We are people who are meant to live into the promises of God by faith.  The covenant and eternal promises can only be received by faith.   We live completely different than the world that says, seeing is believing.  We believe and then we see.

 Paul says in Galatians 3:22,29. “But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ… And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham.  You are his heirs and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.”

 Paul says that in living into this new life with Christ, we are to “set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand.  Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.” (Colossians 3:1b-2a) And in 1 Thessalonians 2:12, “For He called you to share in His Kingdom and glory.”

 I think a lot of times we are like the rich young ruler that wants to add God to our lives and not surrender our lives up to Him.   We want it all.   We want riches, power, wealth, to live by the world’s standards, and have Jesus too.   We don’t necessarily want to live by faith but we add our faith by doing good deeds and trying to live being kind to others.  

 But is this really living into the gospel or is our lives becoming just more overcrowded?  Paul prays for the church in Ephesians 1:19-23, “I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe Him.  This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead. And seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.  Now He is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come.  God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church.  And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ who fills all things everywhere with himself.”

 Not only is Christ seated in heavenly places with our Father, but we are seated there as well.  Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:6, “For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.”

 So, what does it mean to be seated in heavenly realms by faith?

 This power that raised Christ from the dead lives in us.  And He brings us to be seated with Christ in heavenly realms far above any ruler or authority or power or leader in the world.   Christ is our head and we are to live out of these heavenly realms as well by faith, holding to the promises of God.    

 One author, Wendy Backlund, in her book Victorious Emotions, writes, “We are seated with Christ in heavenly realms… Once we really believe it is our right to see both realms, we will take responsibility to train our brain to see the patterns of Heaven and the realm of the spirit.” [1]

We live in two realms.   We live in this physical realm, but we also belong to this heavenly realm.   As such, we can walk in both.  In the natural realms, we respond to what we see.  And in the spiritual realm, we are to see and respond accordingly as well.  We see and live out of this spiritual realm by faith.

 As an example, in Zachariah 4:2 he is asked, “What do you see?” Like with Jeremiah, he was not asking what he saw in front of him in the natural.  He was asking him to see in the spiritual realm.   And says, “I see a solid gold lampstand,” I replied, “with a bowl at the top and seven lamps on it, with seven spouts to the lamps. There are also two olive trees beside it, one on the right side of the bowl and the other on its left.”…In this vision, it is later explained that the two olive trees were the two anointed ones, implying that the One in the middle was the Spirit of God.

 In Revelation 1:12 Johns sees seven lamps as well.  It says, “Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands…”  Later, it is explained in Revelation 1:20, “This is the mystery of the seven stars you saw in My right hand and of the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”

 While we get a glimpse of it now through dreams, visions, and praying by the Spirit, heavenly language is different than our earthly language.   Communication is through the Spirit of God who reveals all things to us.   It is through Him that we live in this other realm and it is all by faith.

 All that to say that if we are having visions or dreams, we do not want to disregard them as weird but receive them as a gift by faith.   We have been born again into a new Kingdom realm and as we grow in faith, we will grow in our ability to live out of this realm.  We close our eyes more to living in our problems in the natural.  And, like Elisha who prayed that the spiritual eyes of his servant were open and he could see then that there were more with them than there was against them, we open our eyes and believe by faith what we see in heavenly realms.

 On occasion, I have talked to someone through the Spirit through this other realm.   We have had conversations.   While we may be physically distanced, it is like we are all sitting around the same table. It is a little like Elisha and Gehazi in 2 Kings 5:26).   I sometimes try to figure this out in the natural but it makes no sense.   When I worship, I often feel like I am in another realm.   I feel so close to God in these times.  It is like He is right there with me and I can see and hear Him.   I sometimes see angels there too.  God is so full of love and will often will say such simple and profound things that it stuns me for a moment and makes me cry or laugh, usually both at the same time.

 All this to say, I wonder if we often really know how it is supposed to look to live by the Kingdom of God.  Paul says in Romans7:6, we serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.   The more I read the Word and read about the lives of the disciples and the way that they followed the Spirit and all the scriptures about this way of walking in His power for us, it feels like there is so much more to living out the gospel than I really live into.   

One thing that Phillip, Ezekiah and these others had in common is their willingness to surrender the things of the world for the Kingdom.  Their lives were scattered seed in a physical sense but as they left it behind, they began to walk in more authority in the unseen realm.   In Matthew 19:27, Peter tells Jesus that him and the other disciples left everything to follow Him and asked what there would be for them.  Jesus replied that at the renewal of all things, they would have great authority.  

John Bailey writes in a World Challenge devotional, "When you cling to what’s precious to you, you hold up the blessings and power of God in your life.  If you want your soul to awaken to God, you have to let go of what’s precious to you and give up trying to control your uncertain future. Your impossibilities belong to a God who does the impossible."[1]

Recently, we had a couple join us at our work that are filled with the Spirit and an answer to prayer for bringing a whole new level of Kingdom living to our organization.   They came from NY where they led the organization as the CEO and the wife had their own practice.  They came left everything, titles and positions, family and friends, to follow the Lord to MN and are having an amazing impact. 

All that to say, why didn't God just send someone from down the block?  Part of it is this leaving process and cleaving to Him.   As we leave what we know and step out in trust, things of the world no longer have a grip on us and we become freed up to walk in kingdom authority.  

Lord, helps us to live in the fullness of the new life you have for us.  Open our spiritual eyes to see and show us to with the fullness of life and power that comes from You. 

 Bailey, John.  Awakening Our Souls to God.   World Challenge.  Daily Devotional, October 22, 2022.