Hand Spun Shakes

Cam and I got back from the hot dog place where we had eaten lunch, and our afternoon was spent receiving prophetic ministry from the prophetic teams at Bethel Church. Then we decided to attend their Sunday evening service. We experienced a powerful time of worship, but nothing could have prepared us for what came next.

Cam sat at the end of the row, all the way to the right, and I sat in the seat to his left. There was an empty seat to my immediate left and a group of people sitting together filling out the rest of the row. When we sat down after singing, an Asian lady asked if she could sit in the empty seat next to me. I welcomed her, and we began to prepare to hear the sermon.

Then, seemly unprovoked and unannounced, I began to shake. This sometimes happens to me in the Presence of God. My midsection will shimmy quickly side-to-side as the Holy Spirit’s Presence is felt in increasing measure. It sort of looks like some hybrid between a mild seizure and The Shimmy dance performed by Flappers in the Roaring Twenties. In my quiet times with the Lord, this usually happens anywhere from one to ten minutes. It just depends on what God’s Presence does. But I’ve never experienced anything like what was about to happen.

I began to shake/shimmy in my seat as Bill Johnson began to preach. Seconds later, Cam started doing the same thing. Seconds after that, the sweet Asian lady started doing something similar. Then she started laughing because of the joy of the Holy Spirit that was being poured out on her. And I started laughing. And Cam started laughing.

I assumed we were experiencing a surge of the Presence of God and that it would soon subside. It didn’t. It increased. It came in waves. Through the entire sermon. For an hour.

I looked around to see if this was happening to anyone else in the room. It wasn’t. The group to the left of the Asian lady left soon after worship. I’m not sure where they went. But sitting in the row was just us three. And out of an entire sanctuary full of people, we were the only ones shaking uncontrollably under the power of God. Just us three. For an hour.

Midway through the sermon I asked the Asian lady her name and if I she needed prayer for healing. If God was moving, I wanted to take advantage of it. She said she didn’t need physical healing but that she felt a heaviness that was on her that wouldn’t leave. I told her I would pray for her at the end of the service.

About 10 minutes later the thought popped in my head, “Why wait?” So, I placed my hand on her back and commanded a spirit of heaviness to leave in Jesus’s name. At the time she was bent over in her seat, head close to her knees, shaking under the power of God. I was shaking too. When I commanded that spirit of heaviness to leave she shot back in her chair and sat straight up. I assumed something just happened, I just didn’t know what.

So there the three of us were, shaking, shimmying, random fits of laughing; at times the Asian lady slumped over; at times Cam slid off of his chair; there were momentary surges where all of us would shake violently and the Asian woman’s hands would flail in the air, all while we’re attempting to keep some semblance of composure as Bill Johnson preached on. I have been in worship services where the Spirit was moving in a physical way on most of the people in the room. I’ve never been in a service where the Spirit was rocking three people in the same row while the rest of the room was composed, silently listening to the sermon. It was wild!

The shaking eventually subsided as the service transitioned from the sermon to corporate words of knowledge and prayers for healing.

After the service was over, I officially introduced myself to the Asian lady. I asked her about the heaviness and she confirmed that it was gone. I found out that she was originally from Taiwan and now lived close by. She asked for more prayer, and so I prayed for her, her son, and her son’s friend who was there with her. She also recognized that we (she, Cam and I) were the only three in the whole place who were getting rocked by the Presence of God. I commented that I wasn’t sure what it all meant. She suggested that we were each getting marked, we just didn’t yet know for what.

God was definitely doing something unusual. We’ll have to wait to discover what it was.

Apostle and Prophet

After a new Pope of the Roman Catholic Church is elected, he goes into a small red room next to the Sistine Chapel known as the “Room of Tears.” It got this name because of the deep emotion expressed by newly elected Popes once they receive this new and heavy apostolic mantle.

No true apostle in the church is self-appointed. All apostolic leaders, and there are many around the world today, are recognized (formally or informally) by the network of churches with which they associate. And all true apostles feel the heavy weight of this roll. True apostles respond with both deep gratitude and deep grieving⏤deep gratitude for the high honor that it is and deep grieving because of the awareness of the suffering and self-sacrifice involved.

Paul was known as the apostle to the Gentiles (Romans 1:5; 11:13, Galatians 2:8). He wrote to the church in Ephesus:

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
Ephesians 2:19-20

The first church was built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. If the church wants to continue to have a solid foundation, it needs to be built upon the writings of the original apostles (the New Testament) and the writings of the original prophets (the Old Testament).

In addition to this, each floor in the temple that is the Church needs new apostles and new prophets to lead. These apostolic and prophetic leaders don’t create a new foundation; our foundation has already been established and our Chief Cornerstone is set. What the new apostles and prophets do for each generation of the Church is create a solid floor for the next level, the new story, to be built.

The apostle Paul said it this way:

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Ephesians 4:11-13

The problem with the modern American church is that most of it only recognizes the need for three of these offices. We celebrate the office of the evangelist in people like Billy Graham and Ravi Zacharias. We celebrate the office of the teacher in people like Tim Keller, Dallas Willard, N.T. Wright and C.S. Lewis. We celebrate the office of the pastor in people like Henri Nouwen, Philip Yancey, Eugene Peterson, and Brennan Manning.

But the floor beams of the Church in this generation are warping and bending because we’ve rejected the biblical mandate to have apostles and prophets leading the way. We’re asking pastors to act like apostles and wonder why it doesn’t work out, why they get burnt out and morally compromised. We’re asking teachers to lead us into the future like prophets and wonder why we get stale doctrine instead of fresh vision.

It’s time for the Church to recognize apostolic and prophetic anointings on people’s lives just as we do with pastors, teachers and evangelists. And when those people are faithful with their anointing, we need to honor them as God moves them into the office of apostle and prophet, guiding and leading whole movements of churches.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Throughout the New Testament there are passages that involve the persons of the Trinity⏤The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Many passages connect the Father and the Son (John 1:14; 10:30), or the Son and the Spirit (Luke 1:35; 2 Corinthians 13:17), or even the Father and the Spirit (Romans 8:14-16). There are a few, however, that express all three in one passage.

“As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased'”(Matthew 3:16-17).

“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…”(Matthew 28:19).

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all”(2 Corinthians 13:14).

“God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father'”(Galatians 4:6).

“Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come”(2 Corinthians 1:21-22).

Paul writes one of these passages in his letter to the Ephesians as he attempts to unite Jews and Gentiles within the church. And this one gives a glimpse of how the Trinity works together as One. Speaking of Jesus, he writes, “For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit”(Ephesians 2:18). Through Jesus, the Son, we have access to the Father by the Spirit.

To make sense of this, imagine standing on the coast of France looking over at England on a clear day. The white cliffs of Dover are in the distance on the other side of the English Channel, but there is no way to get across. Your new life and new future await you in England, but you are stuck in France.

Then someone comes up to you and says, “Hey, I have good news! Someone has made a way. For through the tunnel we have access to England by train. That is what Paul is saying here.

The Father is our destination. He is the one we now have access to who was previously unreachable by our own efforts. He made a way for us to now have access to Him despite our sin. Yet, to access the Father we must go through Jesus. Jesus is a tunnel, not a bridge, because we must be in Him to gain access to the Father. And the gift given to us to utilize this tunnel is the Holy Spirit. Just as one would travel through the tunnel by train, we go through Jesus by the Spirit.

All three persons of the Trinity operate together to get us to the Father so that we are no longer distant and disconnected from Him. As Scripture attests, “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them”(2 Corinthians 5:19).

Pam

She was a sweet, middle-aged, Indian lady with an easy smile. She didn’t know that God had highlighted her that day, and neither did we. Her name was Pam.

She took our order at Wienershnitzel fast food restaurant in Redding, California. Their main menu items are hotdogs and chili cheese fries. Cam ordered a chili cheese dog and chili cheese fries. I ordered three chili cheese dogs, a corn dog and a drink.

We had just experienced a 10:30am Sunday worship service at Bethel Church. We both were overwhelmed by the Presence of God in worship and the poignancy of the sermon. I had a hard time singing through most of the songs on account of my continual weeping⏤not crying, weeping. I was overwhelmed by a sense of gratitude bubbling up from within me and the Father’s love being poured out upon me, a geyser and a waterfall all at once.

The message was about faith. What does it look like to grow in faith and to have faith for the impossible? Cam and I both left for lunch with a boost of faith flowing through our veins.

So when I heard the Holy Spirit say one of the workers had back issues, I knew I had to do something. The Lord brought to mind Matthew 10:8 that says, “Freely you have received; freely give.” I knew what He was saying. Cam and I have received so much from the Lord this weekend, it was time to give some away.

I went up to refill my tea and the young girl who had been sweeping the floor asked, “Is there something I can help you with?” It felt like it was an opening that I had to step through. “No, thanks,” I answered, “Is there something I can help you with? Is there anything I can pray for you about? Like a back issue?” I thought this girl was the one who needed prayer for her back. I was wrong.

“No, I’m good,” she said. Then she awkwardly smiled hoping that I wouldn’t ask any more questions like that. A second or two clicked by that felt like an eternity as I thought I had misheard the Lord. Then, as if a sudden thought came to mind, the girl tells me, “But Pam has a hurt back.”

“Oh,” I said, “It’s Pam who needs prayer.” I asked where Pam was and the girl explained that Pam is in the back and wasn’t likely to come out to the front. She warned that Pam would be even less willing to receive prayer.

Returning to my seat, Cam and I chatted some more, finished our lunch, and prepared to leave. I prayed for an open door with Pam. I didn’t know at the time that Pam was the same lady who waited on us. I assumed that she was in the back and that I hadn’t met her yet.

As we got up to leave, I saw the lady who waited on us behind the flat top grill in the area just behind the counter. I stopped. The Holy Spirit whispered, just faintly enough that it would have been easy to miss. I’ve missed it so many times before. The Holy Spirit said, “That’s Pam.”

I stopped and looked right at her. The young girl saw me look at Pam and said to me, “That’s her. That’s Pam.” I pointed to her and asked, “Is your back okay? Is it hurting?”

At first she shook her head and said, “It’s okay. It’s fine.” But I knew it wasn’t. And she knew it wasn’t. And the young girl knew it wasn’t and so she said so. “I told him your back has been hurting,” she said to Pam.

I asked Pam if I could pray for her. After some kind-hearted cajoling, she agreed. I met her at the door that said Employees Only, and I opened the door just as she was coming out.

I told her that sometimes when I pray for people they get healed. I asked her if I could pray for her back and she agreed. I told her that I believe God had sent me to this restaurant just for her, that He loved her and wanted her well. Tears welled up in her eyes. The Father’s love was right there with us in that moment. He knew her. He saw her. He loved her.

I held out my hand and she allowed me to take hers. I prayed for Jesus to heal her back. I heard the Holy Spirit say the word, “sciatica” and so I asked if she ever had pain radiate down her legs. She confirmed that she did. So I prayed against that pain and for her total healing. My hand started to shake as it held hers. The Holy Spirit was moving.

After about a minute of prayer, I concluded and said, “My hand shakes when the Holy Spirit is really moving in power. Can you feel His Presence on you?” She said she did. I asked her to check her back and see if it was better. She said it did feel better and explained that it had been hurting for a long time. I also got the sense that while it was feeling better it wasn’t completely healed. So I asked if I could do one final prayer for her. She agreed.

I invited the Holy Spirit to continue to heal her back from top to bottom as the day went on. I prayed that by the time she fell asleep that night, that it would be totally healed. Then I thanked her for letting me pray. She thanked me for praying, and we left. Cam and I drove away praying, not only for Pam’s back but for her heart, that she would come to know the Father’s love for her, that she would learn from Him how valued and treasured she really is.

That lunch wasn’t about me and Cam reflecting on the Bethel service. It wasn’t about me and Cam at all. It wasn’t about chili cheese dogs or chili cheese fries. It wasn’t about sightseeing in downtown Redding, CA. It was about the Father’s love for a woman named Pam. She may have thought she was insignificant, hidden in the back, with back pain as her lot in life. But the Father saw her, loved her, and sent to her anyone who was willing to go. Even if He had to bring them from Baltimore.

A Day-dream

I want to tell you of a dream I had. Forgive me if some parts seem fantastical. That is the way of dreams.

The dream started with me and my friend Cam landing in Sacramento on our trip out to Bethel Church in Redding, California. We rented a large sedan to make the two hour drive north from the Sacramento airport to Redding. But they didn’t have any sedans when we got to the rental counter. Instead, they asked if it was okay if they gave us a small SUV. It turned out to be a red, Dodge Journey. We were on a journey, now in a Journey. We couldn’t help but laugh at our new chariot of fire.

The next day Cam and I went to the Healing Rooms at Bethel. The reason we were there in the first place was because of a dream Cam had months ago. In Cam’s dream Bill Johnson, the senior leader at Bethel Church, showed Cam around a town he had never seen before and then dropped him off in front of a building that was surrounded by piney, snow-dusted mountains. He vividly remembered the picture of the mountains from his dream. We felt that this dream was the Lord saying that Cam needed to go receive prayer at the Bethel Healing Rooms. When we pulled up to park at the church, we couldn’t believe our eyes. There they were, the mountains, just as Cam had seen them in his dream. Tears welled up in his eyes as the Lord confirmed the dream and God’s desire for us to be there.

We sat in a waiting area as Cam filled out a paper indicating his need for prayer. The flow for the day would be waiting area (5 minutes), informational classroom (10 minutes), worship sanctuary soaking in God’s Presence (until Cam’s number was called), then healing room (where they prayed in teams of 3 or 4 for each person needed prayer). God wasn’t interested in waiting for the healing room. One girl who hadn’t had any feeling in her foot for 12 years was healed in the waiting area.

As we walked from the waiting area to the classroom, I could feel the air get thick. You know how humid air seems thicker than dry air? That was how it felt to walk down the hallway, but it wasn’t a change in humidity; it was a change in the spiritual atmosphere. In the informational classroom they gave a quick overview of the process and a quick teaching on Jesus and His desire to heal. I started to shake uncontrollably. The Presence of God was already moving and my body was reacting to it. No one was even praying yet.

Then we left the classroom and walked over to the sanctuary. As I walked through the doors into the sanctuary it felt like someone jabbed a finger in my right side. It was another reaction to the Presence of God. I almost fell over. A worship band was singing in a kind of continual worship. Some people sat quietly, peacefully, yet others were dancing around. I saw some people weeping and others laying down. Everyone was encountering God in different ways.

After a while, Cam’s group number was put up on the projection screens so we walked to the healing room. I had to pee. By the time I got back from the restroom, a group of people were praying for Cam. Nothing much happened for him but others in the room were being touched. For one lady, her scoliosis was healed right there in front of us. We all celebrated.

The morning ended with a quick debrief in the informational classroom and a short visit to the Bethel prayer chapel. Cam was fighting disappointment. So we engaged in the well-known cure-all for disappointment, worship and pizza.

What seemed like a random selection from Google maps ended up being a divine appointment. We picked the pizza place with 4.5 stars on Google, Westside Pizza. As we ordered we smelled pizza in the air and heard Bethel worship music blaring in the back. We asked about it and found out that the owners went to Bethel Church. The worship that was happening in the car on the way to the restaurant continued inside the restaurant. The pizza was really good too.

Bellies and hearts full, we took in the sights of Redding. There aren’t many. We walked around the Turtle Bay Exploration Park and across the Sundial Bridge. There is an amazing view of the Sacramento River with the snow-dusted Shasta mountains in the distance. Then we drove up to Whiskeytown Lake. The lake is surrounded by the awesome beauty of the Shasta mountains and the devastating remains of the Carr fire. The juxtaposition was heart-breaking.

Whiskeytown is almost half-way between Redding and Weaverville. Weaverville is where the movement known as Bethel started before Bethel. Bill Johnson was the pastor of a church in Weaverville called Mountain Chapel (also where Kris Vallotton was a leader) for 18 years before ever coming to Bethel Church. So Cam and I decided to check it out for ourselves.

Weaverville is a very small town tucked away in the mountains. Mountain Chapel is a small church, about the size of the one I grew up in. Cam and I walked around the property praying. We were looking at a mustard seed, the very definition of insignificance, a Bethlehem of sorts. How could something so powerful, something that is now impacting Christians around the world, be born out of this? Only God.

Our prayer? Do it again, God. Do it in us. Two roadrunners sprinted across our path just as we finished our prayer. It was God’s amen. Let it be so!

The drive back to Redding winds through mountains blanketed by pine trees. Cam and I talked of beginnings, John Wimber, and what we’re called to be in this next generation of the Church. I’m driving.

As we round a bend, Cam presses his left forearm firmly against my right arm as if to say without words, “Did you see that…did you see that…” I turned to him and asked what was going on.

He tells me that as we came around that bend in the road, he saw a huge angel standing on the side of the road taller than the pine trees. The angel was bending at his side as he looked around the corner for us, like a child playing hide-and-go-seek who just can’t wait any longer. The angel looked right at us as we drove toward him. He was giant, blond and was holding a huge pocket watch in his hand. The clock part of the watch was dangling down at the end of a long, golden chain and the angel was holding the top of the chain. The hands of the clock were tick-tick-ticking. Cam could barely take it all in before the angel disappeared and the prophetic pocket watch with him.

“What could it mean?” we wondered. It seemed as if the Lord was highlighting His timing of things and this giant angel was a time-keeper. The rest of the drive to Redding we marveled at God’s goodness.

This dream continued with me giving a prophetic word to the hostess of a restaurant that night and, later, casting black, demonic butterfly wings off of a person. But it’s all too much to record here. You know how dreams can be. Fantastical.

“Whoever has ears, let them hear.” (Matthew 11:15)

The gatekeeper

We sat in the Charlotte airport in those fun rocking chairs they have there. As if we were on a back country porch on a back country road. We were waiting. Our 3 hour layover gave us time to sit, talk, drink Starbucks and wrap our heads around the trip ahead. It’s a long flight to California.

Cam and I were trading stories of God’s goodness. He opened up about the fear and doubt he had experienced the night before about whether God would really show up powerfully on this adventure. He admitted that life gets harder as the disappointments mount, and he wasn’t sure he could handle another one.

That’s when I heard it.

Wafting through the air was piano music from an airport piano player. Just beneath us, a young man in his twenties played skillfully on a grand piano for all of the airport travelers to enjoy. He was positioned right outside a food court area. I assumed he was there for the big jar of cash sitting conspicuously atop the piano. I was wrong.

In the exact moment Cam was reflecting on his doubts, familiar notes filled the atrium. I knew the song the pianist was playing. It was the unmistakable sound of a worship song that I love. The song’s title? “Confident” by Steffany Gretzinger.

As the piano lofted the music our way, the lyrics emerged from my memory as if someone was singing them in the distance.

You’re always moving in the unseen
The breath You exhale sustaining me
Before I call, You know my need
You’re always going before me

Then came the first few lines of the chorus.

I’m confident Your faithfulness will see me through
My soul can rest, my righteousness is found in You

The pianist couldn’t have known was was happening in that moment. He was likely only slightly aware of the angelic whisper in his ear prompting him to choose that song as his next selection. He probably assumed his audience was simply the harried passengers carting their carry-ons from one gate to the next.

Yet, what was happening was profound. He was a prophet, his keys the prophetic instrument. His fingers were declaring the truth Cam so needed to hear, that Cam could be confident in the Lord. In that moment, the pianist was the radio station launching radio waves into the air, and I was the transistor radio offering the translation. But the song was for Cam.

And more than that, the pianist was not only welcoming the passengers to Charlotte but also welcoming the Presence of God. He wasn’t welcoming God’s tangible Presence into the familiar space of a church sanctuary. Instead, he was changing the atmosphere in a place that is a gateway into the city, he the gatekeeper.

Angels gathered. And so did we.

Without God

If we were to run into a Gentile pagan from the first century who somehow time-warped to our culture today, most Americans would say things like, “They seem very nice and very religious. They are so faithful to be mindful of all of their gods…They are just a really good person…They are more religious than I am…I find their religious practices so interesting.” It might be similar to how most would respond to living next door to a Hindu swami.

Without question, as a follower of Jesus, we should be gentle, kind and loving to those of all faith traditions. It’s the fruit of the Spirit! Yet, the typical American attitude about the truthfulness of polytheistic religions is very different than the apostle Paul’s attitude.

This is what the apostle Paul said about the polytheistic faith of the Gentiles in the first century:

Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)—remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
Ephesians 2:11-12

Paul looked straight at those who used to worship a pantheon of gods and told them that not only were they separate from Christ in their old life but that they were “without hope and without God in the world.” It wasn’t just that they had a different religion than Paul. Paul wasn’t interested in affirming a universalistic religious pluralism. The worship of many gods was (and still is) completely bankrupt when it came to the promises of God, completely void of hope, and completely disconnected from the true God.

Before we follow Christ, here is how Paul describes us:

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
Ephesians 2:1-2

Following the ways of the world is the same as following “the ruler of the kingdom of the air,” otherwise known as Satan. He is called a “ruler” because he has a measure of power in this world to deceive and torment people. Satan is “the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” He is actively trying to get people to reject Christ and live in unbelief. Satan is happy to have people believe anything but the truth of the gospel regardless of how “religious” they are.

Yet, Satan is a conquered ruler. He does exert a measure of power, but all of his authority has been stripped away by Jesus. Jesus now has all authority as He Himself said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”(Matthew 28:18).

Imagine an oppressive ruler who had been completely conquered and overthrown by good and generous Kingdom yet was still on the run trying to exert his power over the kingdom he once had. All of the oppressive ruler’s authority has been taken, but by using the power he has left, he tries to get people to believe he still has authority. And so he only has the amount of authority that people are willing to give him. He goes from village to village usurping the people’s authority who haven’t yet been told “the good news” of their freedom. And even those who have believed the good news are a target and must stand firm against his attacks (Ephesians 6:10-18).

This is why we can’t sit idly by in silence, but we must “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 teach them to obey everything Jesus has commanded us (Matthew 28:18). Following Jesus isn’t about having one set of beliefs among a myriad of comparative religions. It’s about a relationship with the rightful King and Lord.

From Heaven To Earth

Paul tells the Ephesian Christians that when they were saved by grace something happened that is mind-boggling. He writes, “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus”(Ephesians 2:6).

What does this mean?

The death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ was not just an event in human history, it was an eternal event. In other words, while things were unfolding within the bounds of time (the crucifixion, burial, and ascension of Jesus) there were other things happening outside the bounds of time in the realm of the spirit. Jesus didn’t just pay for the sins that had been committed up to that point, He paid for all the sin of humanity for all time⏤past, present and future. It was an eternal moment.

Paul tries to explain this to the Roman Christians:

“…don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him…”
“Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”
“In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 6:3-6, 8, 11

So when we surrender our life to Jesus, it is as if our old self was there with Christ being crucified with him and being buried with Him. Likewise, we are raised to new life with Him just as Jesus resurrected out of that tomb.

But our journey with Jesus wasn’t done. Not only were Jesus’s death and resurrection eternal events but so was His ascension. Remember what Paul already wrote to the Ephesians about God the Father and Jesus’s ascension, “…he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come”(Ephesians 1:20-21).

So where is Jesus’s residence right now? He’s seated at the right hand of the Father in the heavenly realms far above all other human and demonic powers, far above any other name to which people pray. And He will be there not only now but for eternity.

Paul then drops the bomb on us and says that God has “seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus”(Ephesians 2:6). Just as we were somehow with Christ in His death and resurrection, we are now with Him as He sits with the Father in the heavenly realms.

Because we were with Christ on the cross, we don’t live hoping our sin was dealt with, we live knowing our sin was death with once and for all. Because we were with Christ when He rose from the grave, we don’t live hoping for new life one day, we live knowing we’ve been given new life today. In the same way, because we are seated with Christ in the heavenly realms, we don’t live hoping we get into heaven in the future, we live from heaven to earth today!

Living from heaven to earth means that heavenly things are now natural to us and earthly things have become unnatural. Having the mind of Christ, thinking from God’s perspective, has now become natural. By “natural” I mean “that which alines with our new nature.” Sin feels abnormal. It’s not who we are anymore. Operating in the authority of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit has become natural. Fear feels unnatural. Resentment feels like an old coat that no longer fits and smells bad. Forgiveness, however, has the feel of when a ball hits a bat right on the sweet spot.

Paul articulates this well to the Colossian Christians:

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
Colossians 3:1-3

What is grace?

For anyone who is a follower of Jesus, this is our story:

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live…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.
Ephesians 2:1-2, 4-5

Yet, many of us misunderstand grace. Grace is not just being washed clean of sin. That is forgiveness. Grace empowers us to do what we couldn’t otherwise do. Grace is the divine enablement of God.

If we were a car, grace would not be the windshield wiper fluid dispensed whenever some sin has made our windshield unclean and our vision obstructed. That’s forgiveness. Grace is the gasoline in the car! Mercy is God’s passion to rebuild and rehab broken-down cars instead of tossing them into the junkyard.

As Dallas Willard says, “You will consume much more grace by leading a holy life than you will by sinning, because every holy act you do will have to be upheld by the grace of God.” Using the car analogy, a car that is in the shop all the time uses less gasoline than a car that is constantly on the move accomplishing the mission for which it was intended.

A life of holiness is a life in continual dependence upon grace. When Paul writes, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast”(Ephesians 2:8-9), he is saying, “For it is by gas that the car goes, through the turning of the ignition, and this is not your doing. You didn’t earn the gas; you didn’t put the gas in the car; you simply turned the key or pressed the button. God gave you the gas that made it go.”

Paul continues in the next verse, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do”(Ephesians 2:10), which is like saying, “For we are God’s restored car, rebuilt from the ground up, not in order to sit idling in a garage, but to go driving on the highways and byways transporting people back to God.”

Inheritance (Part 2)

Paul writes down some of his prayers for the Ephesians. By looking at what he prays for we can learn more about what parts of our inheritance in Christ are available to us now. These things that Paul prays for aren’t automatic or he wouldn’t need to pray that the Ephesians receive them. Instead, they are available but must be pursued.

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strengthhe exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms…”
Ephesians 1:17-20

Here are more things that come with the inheritance of Christ. Every believer has access to these but must pursue them:

“the Spirit of wisdom and revelation”: this is when the Holy Spirit in us begins to supernaturally download God’s wisdom to us. It is insight that can’t be attained through natural means. God reveals things to us by His Spirit. When we get glimpses of the mind of Christ, we get to know Him better.
“eyes of your heart…enlightened”: this is the ability to see and sense things that we couldn’t before. Sometimes it is sensing things about another person. Sometimes it is an “ah ha” moment when reading Scripture. Sometimes it is just the ability to view a hard situation from God’s perspective. Specifically, Paul prays that the Ephesians would have the eyes of their hearts enlightened so that can come to know two things – hope and power.
“the hope to which he has called you”: hope is part of our inheritance as believers. Part of the reason we can have hope in any situation is because of the riches of this glorious inheritance that has been given to us by Christ. The hope of the gospel is an unconditional hope not dependent on circumstances. But this hope isn’t automatic; it must be pursued and held onto.
“his incomparably great power”: believers have access to the same power that rose Jesus from the dead. This is part of our inheritance! This power comes from the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. Romans 8:11 says, “the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you.” This power is not something to take likely. More power is entrusted to those who are good stewards of what they’ve already been given. Miracles become a more regular part of a believer’s life when they begin to operate in more power from the Holy Spirit.

As one can see, we’ve not only been given salvation in Christ but so much more!

Imagine a teenager living in poverty with a huge inheritance sitting in his bank account untouched. He doesn’t know it’s there and he doesn’t know how to access it. When family members have tried to tell him about it, he doesn’t believe them. When family members tell him that the first step in receiving what’s in the account is believing it is really there, he skeptically responds, “If this inheritance was real, I shouldn’t have to believe it is there for it to exist.” He ignores their response as they tell him his unbelief doesn’t change the reality of its existence but instead hinders his ability to access it. The longer he refuses to access his inheritance (or learn how to access it) the more he struggles in poverty.

This is much of the American church. We live in such spiritual poverty that we struggle to believe in the reality of the inheritance that has been given to us. The “riches of his glorious inheritance” is beyond measure! Are we willing to pursue it and receive it?