It is a precious thing to be together
for these days.
I thought the message this morning was one
of the clearest expositions I've ever heard on
the practical matters of sitting positioned in Christ
and how the Lord works us and engineers
circumstances to make us realize this position we're
in and to deal with our flesh and
those things that have been ground for the
enemy in the past in our lives.
I thought that was a wonderful exposition and
then Ernie sharing about the Holy Spirit last
night as well lends itself and actually is
just something I would like to add to
this afternoon as we're talking about this matter
of spiritual ascendancy and looking at it from
the aspect of the subjective experience of the
Spirit leading us into the reality, leading us
into all truth, as our brother shared last
night.
The Spirit of God is now here among
us and within us with this purpose to
lead us into the truth of our position
in Christ and of our spiritual ascendancy.
And so we'll just try to touch on
that in some matters today that hopefully will
add to the things that were shared last
night and this morning.
To begin with, I'd like us to turn
to a portion in the book of Acts
that records Paul's ministry to the Ephesians before
we actually look at the verses in Ephesians
itself.
In Acts chapter 19, we just want to
pick up where Paul arrives back at the
beginning of his third missionary journey now and
arrives in Ephesus and begins ministering there.
We'll begin in verse 8.
And Paul entered the synagogue and continued speaking
out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading
them about the kingdom of God.
But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient,
speaking evil of the way before the people,
he withdrew from them and took away the
disciples, reasoning daily in the school of tyrannous.
This took place for two years so that
all who lived in Asia Minor heard the
word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.
God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands
of Paul so that handkerchiefs or aprons were
even carried from his body to the sick
and the diseases left them and the evil
spirits went out.
But also some of the Jewish exorcists who
went from place to place attempted to name
over those who had evil spirits the name
of the Lord Jesus saying, I adjure you
by Jesus whom Paul preaches.
Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief
priest, were doing this.
And the evil spirit answered and said to
them, I recognize Jesus and I know about
Paul, but who are you?
And the man in whom was the evil
spirit left on them and subdued all of
them and overpowered them so that they fled
out of that house naked and wounded.
This became known to all both Jews and
Greeks who lived in Ephesus and fear fell
upon them all.
And the name of the Lord Jesus was
being magnified.
Many also of those who had believed kept
coming, confessing and disclosing their practices.
And many of those who practice magic brought
their books together and began burning them in
the sight of everyone.
And they counted up the price of them
and found it to be 50,000 pieces
of silver.
The point being, so the word of the
Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.
Verse 23.
Now, about that time, there occurred no small
disturbance concerning the way this is where the
silversmiths got up in a coalition against these
gospel preachers.
And just verses 26 and 27, where Demetrius
is preaching.
Verse 26, you see in here that not
only in Ephesus, but in almost all of
Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away
a considerable number of people saying that the
gods made with hands are no gods.
Not only is there danger that this trade
of ours fall into disrepute, although he cares
little for his money, but also that the
temple of the great goddess Artemis Artemis Artemis
be regarded as worthless.
That she whom all of Asia and the
world worship will even be dethroned for her
magnificence.
Now let's turn to a piece and we
just want to read in the chapter six
and verse 10, Ephesians chapter six, beginning in
verse 10.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in
the strength of his might.
Put on the full armor of God so
that you'll be able to stand firm against
the schemes of the devil.
For our struggle is not against flesh and
blood, but against the rulers, against the powers,
against the world forces of this darkness, against
the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly
place.
Therefore, take up the full armor of God
so that you will be able to resist
in the evil day.
And having done everything to stand firm, stand
firm.
Therefore, having girded your loins with truth, having
put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod
your feet with the preparation of the gospel
of peace, in addition to all taking up
the shield of faith with which you will
be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows
of the evil one and take the helmet
of salvation and the sword of the spirit,
which is the word of God with all
prayer and petition, pray at all times in
the spirit.
And with this in view, be on the
alert with all perseverance and petition for all
the saints and pray on my behalf that
utterance may be given to me in the
opening of my mouth to make known with
boldness, the mystery of the gospel for which
I am an ambassador in chains that in
proclaiming it, I may speak boldly as I
ought to speak.
Let's just have a further word of prayer.
Lord, we realize that this matter of spiritual
descendancy has been given to us as something
finished and accomplished by what your son has
done.
And father, we come to you today and
pray that this will once again be underscored
in our hearts.
As we look at some of these matters
in the book of Ephesians, how we thank
you, Lord, that you're teaching us these things.
We pray that there'll be fruit in our
lives.
Indeed, the realization of our position and a
possession of those things that have been freely
given to us, help us quicken us by
the Holy Spirit.
Even this afternoon with tired bodies and minds
that have been stuffed to capacity.
Oh, grant us the ability to understand and
see yet even more in our hearts by
a revelation of the Holy Spirit.
We commit this time into your hands, asking
that your refreshing would be upon us in
Jesus name.
Yesterday we tried to emphasize from the letter
of Paul to the Colossians that this matter
of spiritual descendancy is really predicated upon us
being founded upon the word of God and
the truth of the word of God regarding
the will of God.
If we have this as our basis, as
our foundation, we will be able to experience
spiritual ascendancy.
As our Lord said, if you abide in
me and my words abide in you, ask
whatever you will and it shall be done
for you.
This is so important.
We not only abide in him, but we
let his words richly dwell within us.
This is what makes us fruitful in the
body of Christ.
That's when we can with wisdom, offer psalms,
hymns, spiritual songs, counsel, prayer, and all the
things that are necessary in assembled life.
It's this matter of having understood by the
word of God what Christ has done, where
we sit, who we are in him.
But we not only have this precious word
of God, but we have the Holy Spirit
that makes this word of God real to
us and takes us through experience as our
brother even shared this morning to make real
the things that we understand in our head.
It makes them real down in our hearts
as he leads us into all truth.
And so when you look in the book
of Ephesians, just for the starter, let's look
in chapter five and verse 18, because we
see a wonderful complimentary verse with that, which
we read yesterday in Colossians three 16.
It says in Ephesians five, 18, do not
get drunk with wine for that is dissipation,
but be filled with the spirit, putting it
more correct that a Greek, you know, keep
on being filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking
to one another in Psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your
hearts to the Lord, always giving thanks for
all things in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the God, even the father and
being subject to one another in the fear
of Christ.
This matter of being filled with the spirit
is found throughout this letter to Ephesians.
Obviously, these things understand what this means.
And when we go through this letter, we
see that really quite often the Holy Spirit
is mentioned in chapter one.
If you'll just look in verse 13, we
see something that to me lends credence to
what our brother shared this morning, that once
we are saved, we are sealed by the
Holy Spirit.
He seals us in that position.
And whether we wander out or become full
of doubts or whether our soul life is
uncrucified and we doubt anything, the fact that
it matters, we have been sealed by the
Holy Spirit.
It's a very powerful work.
And chapter two, of course, it mentioned that
we are quickened, made alive together.
And we know from the rest of scripture
that this quickening is being born again is
by the spirit himself who brings us to
life.
What a mighty, powerful work this is for
bringing somebody who is dead and trespasses the
sin into new life by the Holy Spirit.
It's a tremendously powerful thing.
And then we see in Paul's prayer in
chapter one, that he's praying for three things
to be seen by the Ephesian believers, that
they could see the hope of his calling
and the glorious riches of his inheritance in
the saints.
And third, the exceeding greatness of his power
toward us who believe here again, practically saying
that it's the Holy Spirit who quickens us.
It's the Holy Spirit that raises us up.
It's the Holy Spirit that enables us to
sit with Christ in the heavenly places.
These are tremendously powerful things.
And then we go on and we see
further that in chapter two, as it talks
about the two, the Jews and the Gentiles
being made one, we find that it is
the spirit that gives us this unity.
Now, this is a miracle.
Now, I know by several years of being
married, it's a miracle that Julie and I
are one.
And it's a miracle that brothers and sisters
can come together and remain one and maintain
the unity of the spirit.
This must be some tremendous fusing power that
can fuse us together.
But this is exactly what the spirit of
God does.
And then in chapter three, and again, I'm
just going over some things that I think
we all know.
In the chapter three, during poor Paul's prayer,
he prays that we might be strengthened in
the inner man by the Holy Spirit.
Now, if we're going to stand, if we're
going to overcome, if we're going to intercede,
if we're going to do spiritual warfare, we've
got to be strengthened by the spirit in
the inner man so that Christ can dwell
in our hearts by faith.
This is an absolute necessity if we're to
be in a position of spiritual ascendancy.
And then in chapter five, he talks about
being filled with the Holy Spirit when you
assemble yourselves together.
An absolute necessity.
The matter of the Holy Spirit being with
us as we're together in worship.
And then in chapter six, when we come
together for prayer, praying always in the spirit.
The spirit is absolutely essential to our learning
this life and living this life of spiritual
ascendancy.
He will lead us into all truth.
And of course, these things that we have
read here in both Acts chapter 19 and
Ephesians six, which is what I would like
to touch on somewhat today.
That is the matter of spiritual warfare.
In this whole relationship of our spiritual ascendancy.
Our brother shared this morning that part of
that spiritual warfare is for us to realize
where we really stand.
And that can only be tested in the
crucible of conflict.
And also when we're in spiritual warfare, we
find ourselves being humbled because our flesh is
always getting in the way.
We're always coming to the Lord, confessing, finding
ourselves humbled in the presence of the Lord.
And then he lifts us up and shows
us his victory.
If I had this pick out a book
that I think most often shows us the
sort of process we go through in this
subjective manner of coming into spiritual ascendancy, it
would have to be the book of Psalms.
When you read the Psalm, there must be,
and I haven't counted, but I'm going to
say there has to be 40 Psalms.
Let's make it 51 third of the Psalms.
Start out with David down on the ground
in conflict, enemies around him or personally laid
low because of his own sins.
Some way he's been brought low.
And then the word of God comes to
him.
Why are you cast down?
Oh, my soul, hope now in God, for
you will yet praise him.
And he finds himself being lifted up.
And then he finds himself standing with God.
And he says, my heart is fixed.
My heart is fixed.
You see, he's gone through a process.
This is our process, too.
Well, we may be New Testament people, but
we find ourselves scraping our chin on the
ground because of sin being brought low or
the enemies attacked us and blindsided us or
our bosses gotten after us or something has
happened that brings us low.
We say, oh, like David said in Psalm
73, I look around and all the sinners,
they're cheating on their income tax and they're
hiding their bonuses and they're just doing great.
Here I am declaring my bonuses, getting killed
by the IRS.
And I'm looking around.
Everybody's getting away with murder and I'm trying
to do the right thing and I can't
even buy groceries.
And then I go in the house of
God and sniff the fragrance of holiness.
And I realized, what am I talking about?
It's better to have little and have the
Lord and be content than to be as
well in the courts of the wicked where
you'll be snuffed out at any moment.
How many times did David go through this
process?
He confesses his foolishness or he asks God,
his cries out, God, why are they attacking
me?
I used to be their friend.
They're attacking me.
What's going on?
And then somehow God lifts him up further
enough up into the heavenly places where he
says, ah, but you, I can always trust
in you.
And then the whole tide turns, you see.
Now, isn't that our experience?
This is what we go through.
Then the Holy Spirit uses circumstances.
The only problem is when we're so dumb
and we are so dumb that we think
circumstances just haphazardly happen to us.
We would go a long way at the
beginning of every day if we could simply
say this, Lord, I trust you today because
I live in you.
I believe I am exactly in the right
marriage that you want.
I am going to the exact job just
tailor made for me and my boss.
He is exactly how you have portioned to
me.
Oh, now we will start out on the
right foot.
Instead of woe is me.
Where's my resume?
Woe is me.
Who is this woman next to me?
And so on and so forth.
Why?
Oh, when the kids grow up, then I
can finally be spiritual or all of these
sort of things where we think circumstances have
been laid upon us and God doesn't know.
He's forgotten about us.
Oh, but when we find ourselves in the
heavenly places, we find out God has never
forgotten about us.
He has prescribed these things for us and
they are for our sanctification.
Therefore, our education.
Sometimes it's for us to finally stand up
and say, in Jesus name, I call it
quits.
The world gets in, slowly steals your soul
and like that old frog they put in
the frying pan and start heating up the
water slow.
Until next thing you know, you're on a
job where you're making so much money and
you can't even enjoy the money because you're
working 90 hours a week.
And they got your soul.
Well, the Lord even allowed that to happen
to you.
And if he delivers you, don't jump from
the frying pan into the fire.
With another high power job that involves your
soul and your right arm.
So if we don't learn from these trials
we go through, well, then we'll have to
repeat it and lap around the wilderness another
time.
Now this becomes a crucially important as a
matter of fact, it can be the life
and death of a fellowship.
Understanding the dimensions of spiritual warfare.
Because I don't know.
It's just who we are.
That when the going gets tough, we blame
one another and we wrestle against flesh and
blood.
Whether it's a family conflict, whether it's a
fellowship conflict, we really are stupid enough to
think it's the other people.
That's the problem.
Oh Lord, deliver us from brother so-and
-so and then we'll all be free.
And until we realize we wrestle not against
flesh and blood, but there are forces behind
the scenes that are out to destroy anything
that bears a testimony about Jesus redemption, unity
and what he can do.
We have to become wise in this matter
of spiritual warfare in the progress of our
spiritual life.
Can I just put it this way?
As we mentioned yesterday, this matter of quickening,
raising and ascension.
Let me just say something like this.
When we begin as new Christians, our lives
are almost completely outward, aren't they?
When I got saved at 20 years old,
I was so thankful that he saved me
from the sins I committed that I could
recount very clearly.
And I was so glad I could say
he saved me and he started changing my
outward conduct.
You know, I was a smoker and a
cursor and a wise guy and a liar
and slowly but surely God started changing that
outward conduct.
And I said, man, am I becoming a
perfect Christian or what?
I was even doing the thing that only
monks and nuns did.
I was reading the Bible.
And yet my inner life had hardly been
touched at all.
Yes, I had been quickened, but my whole
deliverance was from outward things.
Bad friends, all this is what really being
a Christian is all about.
Then the Lord touched my inner life, showed
me the nature of sin in me.
And now I had to be brought to
resurrection because that killed me.
When I saw my old man, I got
very self-conscious and then I tried to
hide the old man.
You know, I'd hold my breath when people
came around.
Maybe they wouldn't know who he is.
I refined, I reformed my old man.
You know, I tried to use flowery words,
but the same old proud, arrogant, pushy, domineering,
whatever, personality guy.
And what a process.
Understanding that the cross is our deliverance from
the old man and finding that deliverance and
that tripping over into that exchange life where
you actually sense this life inside.
That's resurrection.
You've been raised up with Christ, I asked
yesterday, have you experienced that?
Where you sense there's a heavenly life within.
This is the amazing thing.
I'm walking on earth.
There's a heavenly life within actually to have
a heavenly motive, at least once a month.
I actually care about somebody else more than
myself.
This is miraculous.
That's a heavenly life within.
And now you're living on a new plane,
you see.
And that's the sort of the second stage
in our lives when we realize it's not
I, but it's Christ.
That's the key.
That's the center.
That's the focus of my Christian life.
And you start.
But we still haven't come to ascendancy yet.
You see, there's still something more that has
to happen.
The Lord has to deal in our lives
yet more and yet more.
And very often we find this matter of
spiritual conflict as being one of the ways
that he brings us in.
Now, we read the passage in Acts because
it was only recently in studying this book
of Acts that I realized and I sort
of saw the flow of Luke's account in
the book of Acts.
Of course, you realize that Ephesus was the
last church that Paul constructed from the ground
up, as it were, and that he spent
a large amount of time with because shortly
after that, he made a little trip up
into Greece and everything went back to Jerusalem
and was jailed.
Ephesus was his the church that was built
with the greatest wisdom in master building.
It was, in fact, while he was in
Ephesus that he wrote to the Corinthians, I,
as a wise master builder, laid the foundation.
It can only be Jesus Christ.
And we mentioned yesterday that even Paul in
his life is continuing to progress in his
clarity regarding spiritual things.
And as he comes to Ephesus and the
church begins to be built there, he has
a wisdom there that has been accumulated through
his ministry in the past.
And we see a wonderful church being established.
This church.
He didn't just work with the Gentiles and
say, I kicked the dust off my feet
from the Jewish synagogue and work with.
No, no.
He took the Jews out of the synagogue
that were saved and he brought the Jews
and Gentiles together in beautiful oneness.
He laid that foundation.
He laid such a foundation as he worked
three years there in Ephesus that the church
had first love.
They loved the Lord at the church had
revelation.
They saw much deeper, so deep he could
write this letter to the Ephesians.
Not only that, but during that three years
in his wisdom, he had raised up some
brothers besides Timothy, other young men in the
area, sending them out, bringing them back, sharing
with them, working with them as they preach
the gospel and lay out to see a
higher apple is Colossi and other places.
It was like a work center.
There was so much going on there.
This was the quintessential church building work.
This was a high watermark of Paul's active
building work as an apostle.
As I say, after that, he's thrown in
jail.
And though he visited churches afterwards, this was
the last original, we might say, work.
And Paul is a Luke emphasizes this.
Luke 19 shows us something.
The one thing I want to say that
is so clear is how much spiritual conflict
is involved in building the church.
It was also while he was in Ephesus
and wrote to the Corinthians that he made
it clear that even preaching the gospel was
a spiritual warfare against the God of this
world who blinds the mind, the eyes of
the unbelievers.
And as he worked there in Ephesus, we
saw, as we read in the book of
Acts, this this story.
And what was the story?
Frankly, it was a story of spiritual conflict
after spiritual conflict where he took his stand
with the brethren and God gained the victory
and a greater response happened.
And the word of God was spread more
effectively and the spirit had victory.
So what did we see?
We saw that many great acts were done
as demons were coming out of people.
There was spiritual oppression there and evil spirits.
And that can only be dealt with brothers
and sisters by being filled with the spirit
and under the blood of Jesus.
Part of the work of building the church,
especially in the area of preaching the gospel,
is understanding the spiritual conflict with demonic elements
that were being cast out, it says, even
by the handkerchiefs that were going from the
presence of Paul.
And he also had to deal with the
spiritual counterfeits of these exorcists who were exercising
in the name of Jesus, but without the
reality of Jesus.
And he saw that, you know, when you're
building the church, there is counterfeit ministry that
has to be exposed.
And in that exposing fear came upon people
because they saw this Jesus doesn't allow people
to fool around.
And suddenly people started coming, confessing their sins
and asking for salvation.
And then those who would practice witchcraft, a
whole nother occult dimension of spiritual conflict came
into play as people brought their magic books
and burned them, bringing forth the ire of
all kinds of occult worshipers and practicers and
idol makers.
And then finally, I believe that this whole
matter of Artemis, where they went into the
great theater in Ephesus, you know, I said
I was with Brother Christian Chen, we went
to the theater in Ephesus, where it holds
probably 60,000 people.
And you can hear without the aid of
microphone in the 60,000 people auditorium.
And so we went in there and Brother
Christian asked me if I could pretend I
was the apostle Paul and get up in
the middle of this theater and preach.
I shared my testimony, how I turned from
false gods and came to Jesus as my
savior.
I stood there without microphone and there were
5,000 tourists up there.
They all stopped and listened to every word.
Well, you know, of course, now in the
story in the book of Acts, Paul never
got to go into the theater.
The Christian friends wouldn't let him go in,
but they dragged in the other Christian guys
and Demetrius is up there propounding.
Oh, this Paul, what a terrible man.
He's bringing people away from sin and into
Jesus.
It's terrible.
And the worst thing about it is behind
Artemis, the great temple of Artemis.
Now, I didn't realize this.
You know, you need a complicated person like
Christian Chen to tell you all these facts.
When we were in Athens, looking at the
Parthenon, you've all seen pictures of the Parthenon.
The temple to Artemis in Ephesus was four
times as large as the Parthenon.
It was the largest temple and the seventh
wonder of the world in the ancient times.
And this goddess Artemis was not only an
idol.
She was the principality in power over Asia
Minor.
And in the process of preaching the gospel
in Ephesus, they touched that principality over that
whole area.
And that principality yelled.
And in the end, chased Paul away.
It's interesting in church tradition, by the way,
a second century tradition.
It says that John, the apostle, later came
to Ephesus, which we know is true.
And he went into the temple of Artemis
and he says, Jesus Christ is Lord.
And the author broken half of Artemis.
Now, whether that's true or not, I can't
say these traditions are spectacular and all of
these things.
But the fact that there was spiritual warfare
against Artemis is true.
Don't think it's a statue with no power
behind it.
People say, oh, what's the problem with having
a little idol in the home?
The idols of St. Confusion.
I've got the idol there.
I have it a dangling from my front
view mirror.
What's the problem of St. Confusion?
It's never the idol.
It's the power behind that most people don't
even realize.
Now, Paul came to see in his building
of the church that he preached the gospel
and relied on the Holy Spirit.
But he did spiritual warfare there in Ephesus.
Now read that account.
It's full of spiritual encounter after spiritual encounter
and victory after victory.
And every encounter led to a greater victory
and more people were saved.
That is the nature of church building gospel
work.
It's an eye opener.
When we see how much we need the
power of the Holy Spirit.
I'll never forget.
It was 1971 and I was down in
Times Square as a young pastor at that
time of a Baptist church from Long Island.
I snuck into the city.
Actually, Brother Ernie also snuck in there with
me.
And there was a brother named Arthur Blessed,
who was an evangelist.
And he was spending the summer preaching the
gospel in Times Square.
Many people got saved.
And I went in there on a number
of occasions and joined with him.
I played my guitar and people would sing,
you know, and then he preached the gospel.
He was an amazing preacher.
He was a street preacher, but he was
amazing.
He'd catch people's attention.
We didn't start the meeting until people came
out of the Broadway shows.
1030 at night when the meeting started until
2 a.m. This is when he did
it right there.
And now where that tickets place is used
to be Duffy Square.
So he was there.
Well, I'll never forget one night I went
in there and Arthur wasn't there.
His assistant was there.
Very nice guy.
We sang some songs.
This nice guy stood up with the bullhorn
to start to preach.
He got five minutes into it.
And this woman stood up and said, I
defy you to say that.
How can you prove that that she started
rattling around and talking?
And you know what?
The man couldn't continue.
He said, just pray, brothers and sisters.
And she ruined the little gospel meeting.
She was a demon powered woman.
Now, at that point, of course, 10 Christians
were sick on her, you know, when I
do it.
What are you talking about?
How could you say that?
Let the guy alone.
Let him speak.
And she's talking and talking and talking.
Now, by that time, I'm walking around behind.
I'm curious.
And there's a crowd of 40 people in
front of her.
And she's talking this way.
I'm walking behind her.
I'm telling you, this is the truth.
I'm just walking by and looking.
And she's talking to somebody and she spins
like she spins and says, you man of
God, what are you doing here?
I tell you, you know, color went out
of my face.
My heart was down in my shoes.
I wish I could say, I said, drop
that lady down.
You know, I was so caught off guard
and so ill equipped.
All I could do was I stood there
and stared at her.
I stared at her.
I wouldn't let her eyes go off my
eyes.
And she stopped talking and left.
Now I'm not talking about this was no
great victory, believe me.
But what it was was a moment of
reality.
Now I'm driving home a half hour later,
my hands are shaking.
And the Lord said to me, unless my
brothers and sisters know what it means to
be filled with the spirit, you might as
well pack up your bags and leave from
a place like New York City.
If we think we can just walk in
on principalities and powers and walk right through
without static conflict, stoppages, problems where we're just
foolish, this great conflict out there.
And it scared me into a humbly asking
the Lord, well, forgive me for ever saying
I am filled with the spirit.
I want to know more of your Holy
Spirit.
It's going to take that in these last
days for all of us.
It's not just New York City.
In the last days, we need to know
what it means to be filled with the
Holy Spirit.
If this is the case, then we as
brothers and sisters together, not as lone rangers.
Of course, in that day, I was a
Baptist pastor, and that means a lone ranger.
It was me.
Now I have brothers and sisters, I wouldn't
dare go somewhere alone and try to do
something against the devil, principalities and powers.
But you stand together with the Lord's people
who are praying in the spirit.
And then the Lord can do something.
Now, there's an interesting aspect to the book
of Ephesians.
And it has to do with this progress,
this progress in Paul's life, where he is
seeing more and more the dynamics of the
spiritual reality before him.
And as a result of it, when he
writes this letter to the Ephesians, he has
to find a phrase to explain a reality
that's become clearer and clearer to him.
How do I explain this reality that I
see clearer and clearer?
As I'm looking at the unseen, instead of
concentrating at the scene, there's this reality, what
do we call it?
And we find springing forth from his mind,
this phrase is called five times in the
book of Ephesians, the heavenly.
It's the only time it's used in the
Bible.
But Paul has come to the place where
he's realized if we are to know and
experience spiritual ascendancy, it all begins with a
recognition of this realm called the heavenly.
Now your Bible might have it put in
italic afterwards places as my Bible does, but
it actually just says the heavenly.
And I'd like for us to look at
the five places just so you can see
it.
And in verse three, we see in chapter
one that right immediately that part of our
great problem as Christians is we not only
began with an outward sense of our salvation,
but we also have an outward sense of
we're almost like Jews expecting financial prosperity because
we've become Christians.
And to this, Paul says, blessed be the
God father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
father of glory, who has blessed us with
every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies.
Well, where is that?
You want to cash in on your spiritual
blessing?
They're all located in the heavenlies.
Well, that's not down at your local bank.
And he's not saying blessed is God who
blesses us with every material blessing, every spiritual
blessing in this place called the heavenlies.
And then we see as he's talking about
what happened to Christ in verse 19 of
chapter one, the second occurrence of this race.
And what is the surpassing greatness of his
power toward us who believe these are in
accordance with the working of the strength of
his might, which he brought about in Christ
when he raised him from the dead and
seated him at his right hand in the
heavenlies far above all rule and authority and
power and dominion and every name that is
named not only in this age, but also
in the one to come.
We go on and see in chapter three
and verse 10 that the church has a
testimony in the heavenlies so that the manifold
wisdom of God might now be made known
through the church to the rulers and authorities
in the heavenlies.
And then the other one I wanted to
touch on is there in verse 12 of
chapter six.
For our struggle is not against flesh and
blood, but against the rulers, against the powers,
against the world forces of this darkness, against
the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies.
Now, I want to attempt to paint a
little picture of this heavenly, this heavenly sphere,
this spiritual sphere, because it's helped me.
I suppose I grew up also with the
Greco Roman idea of heaven or with the
Babylonian idea of heaven.
Up there in the clouds, the celestial city,
you can see, you know, one of Walt
Disney's castles rising up above the clouds.
And that's where we're all going.
Streets of gold up in the heavenlies.
Wonderful for me, a feeling of weightlessness.
We're up there forever, sort of going around
and having a wonderful time.
It's all very celestial.
We've learned to breathe thin air and everything
is crystal white and wonderful gold and all
of this idea of heaven, which, by the
way, brothers and sisters, is nowhere in the
Bible.
Now, heaven is mentioned many times in the
Bible.
I think it's 434 in the Old Testament
itself.
Three quarters of that time, the heavens are
describing the sky or the stars.
You know, the heavens declare the glory of
God.
He means by that the stars and the
moon and the sun and all but a
quarter of the time that the heavens are
mentioned and they're defined if you read it
consistently, the heavens.
Is where God's throne is now, you might
not think that that's anything spectacular, but during
the time that the Old Testament was being
written.
The mythology of the religions of the world,
whether Egyptian or Babylonian, were rich in this
whole matter of what heaven was like, including
Greek or Roman mythology.
Zeus with the big beard.
This is how we know who God looks
like.
He has a big beard like Zeus and
he's up on Mount Olympus because that's where
heaven is to the Greeks.
And we get the idea that heaven is
up on some big mountain.
And all of this stuff has been brought
into Christianity today that have songs about crossing
the river.
Well, that's a Greek mythology, crossing the river
Styx.
They made it the river Jordan into this
sort of promised land and heaven where, you
know, there's always a harvest time and all
of this kind of stuff.
And there's a whole non-Christian understanding of
heaven that unfortunately, most Christians really believe.
In the New Testament, half of the time
that heaven is mentioned, it's again talking about
God's throne.
And it's always reticent to describe the details.
A quarter of the time it's dealing with
the stars.
It's quoting usually from the Old Testament.
And then one quarter of the times in
the New Testament, three new phrases have arisen
that weren't in the Old Testament.
Heavenly.
Kingdom of the heavens and the heavenly.
Now, without going into too much about what
these mean, because actually it varies in meaning
a little bit from usage to usage.
But heavenly usually means as opposed to earthly.
You have a heavenly calling as opposed to
earthly, you see, without much definition to it.
But when there is some definition to it,
there's three things that are very interesting that
these phrases, the kingdom of the heavens.
Where does that come from?
Matthew, exclusively Matthew, the gospel of Matthew talks
about the kingdom of the heavens.
Luke, Mark talked about the kingdom of God
only in Matthew, only in Ephesians, the heavenly.
And these, these phrases have three things that
are in common.
Number one, the heavenly and the kingdom of
the heavens are speaking of a present spiritual
realm.
Where there is spiritual being and even conflict
going on right now.
Did you notice when we read those definitions
of the heavenlies?
Of course, I know, I know the first
thing you saw there was that Christ is
enthroned in the heaven.
Now that's where his throne is right now.
He's in this heaven, in this sphere that
we can't see, but there it is.
And he's on his throne.
But did you notice there's also principalities and
powers and world rules of darkness and evil,
the strategies of the enemy are coming out
of the heavenlies.
Now there's all kinds of talk.
We can go into that, the strata, the
first heaven, the second heaven, the third heavens,
you know, unnecessary.
What's important to realize is that this unseen
spiritual realm is right now going on in
a great sort of conflict.
It's in this spiritual realm where Jesus, our
Lord has gained the victory and he sits
in throne over all the principalities and powers,
but they're still scattering about and their plans
and purposes are still coming out of this
sphere called the heavenlies.
It said there in Ephesians chapter six, we
don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against
these principalities and powers of world rules of
darkness in the heavenly.
That's where our conflict is.
I don't know if you ever realized that.
See, that's where Jesus throne is, but that's
also where some spiritual conflict is.
There's a lot of spiritual activity going on
right there.
That's number one.
Number two, the kingdom of the heavens and
the phrase, the heavenlies have this second thing
in common.
The heavenlies.
I don't want to scare you now is
in close proximity to the earth.
You see, when we think of the heavenlies,
we think of Jesus as an example.
Think about this.
Jesus was lifted up from their sight and
was carried up above the clouds into the
heavens.
Now, I, I wonder what your view of
that is, how far up you think he
went?
It was he like a missile like they
have from Canaveral now and you keep watching
him go up and up is seven thousand
feet.
He's now going up nine.
He went up.
We know that the heavenlies are up.
It's close to earth, but it's up.
But I would say he went up a
hundred yards and vanished because the heavenlies are
not there.
They're juxtaposed.
They're proximate to our physical realm, but it's
a spiritual realm.
How close is it?
It's so close that sometimes these spiritual forces
are exposed on earth.
It's so close that sometimes something is trying
to be prayed about here on earth is
interrupted by spiritual forces like the king over
Persia, who interrupted Gabriel from answering Daniel's prayer.
There are things going on there unseen to
us, but right over our heads, literally right
over our heads.
I'm not talking seven miles or just past
Proxima Centauri or the third cumulus cloud on
the left, or as some evangelicals have posited,
you know, directly above the North Pole.
It is the black hole there where there's
no stars.
This is where heaven is.
Heaven is a spiritual realm, but heaven isn't
far from here.
The heavenly is very proximate to this earth.
When Joshua stood ready to take Jericho and
wondering what to do, he saw one of
the angels just suddenly showed up.
He didn't travel six nights, four days.
He showed up.
And when you read carefully, the beginning of
the book of Judges, you realize that Joshua
and the children of Israel won their victories
in the conquering of their inheritance because that
captain of the host of the Lord's army
took the Lord's angelic army ahead of the
children of Israel and gained the victory half
the time before they even got there.
Now, what do you think happened when they
walked around seven times and blew the trumpet
and yelled?
Is this a sonic phenomenon?
Well, it may be, but I think it's
probably just a couple of angels squished the
wall.
And half the time when they faced the
foes, the foes were half defeated before the
Israelis even raised up a spear because this
invisible army had done things to them.
So Elisha says, Lord, show that my servant,
what's here?
You see, he doesn't see the heavenlies.
He's just seeing the earth.
What does it mean that we have a
heavenly calling?
Does it mean we should be no earthly
good and heavenly minded?
My life is in the clouds.
Oh, praise God.
I don't have to worry about money or
food anymore.
No, a heavenly calling is walked out here
on earth.
What was the heavenly city that Abraham saw?
As it says in Hebrews chapter 11, he
saw that heavenly city.
What is that talking about?
You think he saw, you know, Disneyland?
Oh, I want to go to Disneyland.
Oh, he saw a city on earth that
had heavenly foundations.
Now that I know that's a paradox, but
the heavenlies has very much to do with
earth.
It isn't another world, a retreating place.
It's something that is juxtaposed right over our
physical reality and has a very much to
do.
It was Daniel who always saw so clearly
and even said the Nebuchadnezzar as he interpreted
one of Nebuchadnezzar's dreams.
Nebuchadnezzar, I'm sorry, but our God is going
to discipline you until you see that the
heavens do rule in the earth.
Now that's the reality.
What is the reality?
Jesus Christ is Lord upon his throne over
this earth.
If we could only see that, and this
is so proximate to us.
Now I know this is conjecture, but I'm
going to say what I think.
How close are the heavenlies to us?
When Stephen was being stoned, he didn't look
up and see 29 miles past the sun,
Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
He saw Jesus as far away as he
was.
How close is Jesus thrown to the earth
right now?
200 yards, but unseen.
Well, that's number two.
I'm just giving you something to think about
because you see this, this area of the
heavenlies is very, very close to us, has
very, very much to do with how we
serve, how we worship, how we pray, how
we preach the gospel.
It's very present among us.
The third thing that these things have in
common, which is a very interesting thing, the
kingdom of the heavens and this matter of
the heavenlies is this.
These, this spiritual sphere is temporary until the
final coming of our Lord.
What is the kingdom of the heavens?
Our Lord is king of the kingdom of
the heavens, but his parables in chapter 13
make us know for sure that the enemy
still works in the kingdom of the heavens.
There's a mystery there.
The enemy has done this.
It says when they see the tears among
the wheat, how come the enemy is allowed
to work in the heavenlies because there's still
a conflict going on, but Jesus has won
the victory.
And when he comes back, he's going to
take the heavenlies and bring it down here
on earth.
And suddenly we'll see all of these spiritual
dynamics.
We couldn't see before and we'll see him,
especially upon the throne.
It'll be a spiritual reality as physical reality.
I'm sorry.
It already is a spiritual reality.
If we could see it and by the
spirit, we can see it.
So the final point I want to say
that these things have in common is they're
temporary brothers and sisters, these things about Jesus
standing in the door and coming on the
clouds.
He's much closer than you think he is.
And the angels as well as demon forces
are all around much closer than you think,
helping us much more than you realize how
often the Lord has sent angels to help
us in the time of dire need.
But these are unseen things and largely remain
unseen things, except as by the spirit of
God.
He gives us a spirit of wisdom and
revelation to see what Christ why to see
Christ because our whole seeing of the heavenlies,
including the seeing of the demonic conflict and
including the seeing of angels is keyed in
our seeing the son of man.
Look at John chapter one in verse 51.
You'll see what I mean.
And this very first chapter, as he meets
Nathaniel, an extraordinary statement is made by Nathaniel
countered by an even greater statement made by
our Lord Jesus and chapter one, verse 48.
Let's start right there.
Nathaniel said to Jesus, how do you know
me?
Jesus answered and said, before Philip called you
when you were under the fig tree, I
saw you.
Nathaniel answered and said, Rabbi, you are the
son of God.
You are the king of Israel.
And Jesus answered and said, because I said
to you that I saw you under the
fig tree, do you believe you will see
greater things than these?
Truly, truly, I say to you, you will
see the heavens opened and the angels of
God ascending and descending on the son of
man, son of man.
Think about this for a minute.
What is this talking about?
Nathaniel is Israel.
He is a son of Israel, a son
of Jacob.
Jacob saw the ladder, God at the top
angels going up and down.
Jesus says one day when the son of
man is exalted, he's going to be the
ladder.
He is the ladder and you'll see messages
coming down and going up, coming down and
going up on the son of man himself,
because Jesus is the center of the revelation
of the heavenlies.
If we see Jesus on his throne and
then the angels come back, it's an open
heaven, brothers and sisters.
When we see Jesus is on that throne.
How the angels are up and down and
up and down and there's no interference when
we're under the throne and see the son
of man and he says in the family,
you're going to see it.
You're going to see it.
Angels up and down and up and down.
And we as Christians, I'm not, I'm not
going to be afraid of this matter of
angels because I don't believe in the worship
of angels, nor do I believe in getting
crazy about angels, nor have I ever seen
an angel.
My wife, of course, but you know, so
what, what, so let's, let's get back to
some of you folks say, whoo, this has
gone too crazy.
All right, listen.
There is the heaven of the heavens, the
highest heaven where God's throne is.
There is no evil, no evil spirits, nothing
up there except the kingdom of God.
His throne endures forever in the heaven of
the heavens.
There is this earth.
We know this earth.
We live upon this earth.
There is this intermediate sphere that connects heaven
of heavens because Jesus sits at the right
hand of the throne of God that is
in the heaven of heaven.
And it connects earth and enables things to
be bound and loose because of what's going
on in the heavenlies.
If we could see that the battles to
be won are in the heavenlies, rather than
in the earth, we wouldn't spend our time
talking against each other and praying against each
other, but we'd see what's going on in
the heavenlies and buying those spirits that are
causing division in the body of Christ.
It's a matter of seeing that there is
this place.
And one day, one day we'll all be
in heaven.
And what is heaven now?
Please, I know everybody.
You see, heaven is very controversial.
So what I'm saying will probably have to
be expunged from this tape.
Heaven, I believe when the whole thing is
worked out and Jesus is crowned and here
on earth and a new heaven and a
new earth comes about, heaven is going to
be earth glorified, full of God, full of
his glory, full of redeemed men.
That's going to be heaven.
Don't look for the third cloud on the
left.
Forget about those stories about people who go
up to heaven, knock on St. Peter's door.
No, no.
Heaven is going to be to be here
on earth with a redeemed, resurrected body before
God and his throne, his presence down here
with us.
That is heaven.
It's very earthly.
The heavenly has to do with the earth.
He's not interested in building a new planet
made out of fluff, but he's going to
renew the heavens and the earth.
And you and I are going to enjoy
heaven on earth forever.
That's what I think heaven is.
So don't get too up there about it.
You know, anyway, look at the, see what
the Bible says about it.
Don't forget the new Jerusalem comes down out
of heaven and sets up right here.
Right now it says in the Bible, in
the heavens, there's the true tabernacle.
Wait till it gets laid down on Mount
Zion.
And Jesus is the center of the tabernacle
and God is in the midst of her
and there's no more night.
We're talking about, we can't imagine what the
earth will look like in its glorified form.
It's just going to be wonderful.
And to be together with you and I
thank God you'll be changed by then.
Then I can take you and maybe you'll
be able to put up with me a
little bit too.
So you see this whole matter of the
heavenlies for the Christian has everything to do
with the Holy Spirit, revealing to us the
reality of the heavenlies.
And it starts with the throne of Jesus.
Don't look into the heavenlies for demons.
It'll scare you to death.
But when you are filled with the Holy
Spirit, you do begin to see the spiritual
conflict behind things going on.
It's a very important part point to come
to in the Christian life, especially men gathered
together in responsibility.
If we can't see things from the heavenly
point of view and the spiritual conflict behind
the things going on in our fellowship life,
then we will not prevail.
The enemies got us all how we need
to humble ourselves and ask the Lord to
show us what's really going on.
This should almost be our prayer in all
counseling, dear brothers and sisters, as you, as
you're more mature and you counsel some new
Christians, you should almost always say, Lord, what's
really going on here?
Because it's seldom what we hear at the
at the face value of things, there's so
much more going.
Well, I share all these things just to
make a few practical applications in the corporate
life until the throne room is central to
church life.
We're not gathering under an open heaven.
Is the throne of our Lord Jesus central
to church life?
Is he really the Lord in the head
when we gather together?
If we see him seated above all principalities
and powers and forces, it releases faith as
we gather together.
Now let's think about some of our gatherings.
The prayer meeting is the place where God,
where our Lord at the head wants to
govern the church.
It's such a vital meeting, how and in
the church life, the Lord wants us in
prayer to declare the will of God.
But we can't declare the will of God
unless we see the will of God.
We cannot see the will of God unless
we gain a heavenly point of view.
Now, don't again get cloudy and what I
mean by heavenly point of view.
Many times it means somebody has found the
scripture that explains what's going on.
And we can declare the will of God
based on the word of God.
And suddenly we can bind and loose.
Listen, it says, whatever you bind on earth
shall already have been bound in heaven.
Now, wouldn't it be a good idea to
see that being bound up in heaven and
then declared on earth?
Wouldn't that be good?
It should be our privilege and our portion
when we gather together in prayer.
It's that important to be praying in the
spirit.
If we are before the Lord and under
his headship, we will also sense the priority
of the burdens that are brought into the
prayer meeting.
Now, most of us have a shopping list
by the time we get to the weekly
prayer meeting.
We've got 10 things, 12 things.
People were sick.
But what is the Lord's priority?
What he wants us to pray about that
particular night?
It may be four things and he'll take
care of the rest.
It may be one thing or maybe all
the things or maybe to pray for one
another that night.
You know, this is a living experience when
we come together, gathered together in his name,
and it's for him to symphonize and organize
that prayer meeting in the spirit so that
we can bind and loose and take hold
and use the keys and do all these
things.
It all takes a seeing of Jesus upon
the throne, of having a heavenly point of
view and of having the word of God
as the sword of the spirit.
So often our prayer meetings are just the
opposite.
We don't take hold of anything.
We don't really know the priorities and we
get lost in the shuffle of things that
are going on.
You know, I'm so thankful that I know
saints from many places.
Now, the brothers and sisters in Queens in
New York, they had a little house and
they decided to extend it.
Praise God, the way they can meet.
It's a wonderful thing.
What spiritual conflict they got into, they had
no idea.
They started building that place and suddenly code
violations came up.
There was zoning violations that came up.
There was somebody in the neighborhood started a
petition to stop the work of the building
when it was three quarters of the way
through.
Then there was the problem of getting a
permit.
You know what?
They learned some spiritual warfare because they had
to take this up above the individuals.
It wasn't the woman on the street who
got mad because all the cars were parked
in front of her house.
Although they learned that lesson, but there was
spiritual warfare involved in the building of a
building.
Can you believe it?
All they're trying to do is a Jesus
is Lord over New York City.
It's a very small matter.
Well, they fought and they fought and they
fought and their prayer meeting took on a
battle room strategies sort of scenario.
And the Lord had his way.
The Lord got the victory.
And thank God they could rise above that
and see this is a conflict in the
heavenlies over this building.
How do you see?
This is so, so important that we see
this and that we be seated with Christ
in this heavenly place as we're gather around.
And that's why we have to realize often
in our prayer meeting, you know, the enemy
brings in static heaviness.
We're praying, but we're not getting anywhere.
What's happened?
We've become viscous.
We're slowing down.
That woman prayed and almost killed us.
And now what's going on?
We're going down and down and somebody needs
to stand up and say, Jesus is Lord.
We lift this heaviness off of us now.
We pray in the Holy Spirit.
Otherwise, and then we all become sick, tired.
We have to, you know, I always thank
God for whoever shows up at the prayer
meeting, because I know they had to overcome
something.
It's almost guarantee.
So thank God.
But then we can't go there and just
fall asleep.
You've only won half the battle.
You got there.
Now you're asleep.
Oh, you see.
But isn't it wonderful?
I tell you, when we have touched the
throne and by God's mercy, how many of
you been in a prayer meeting where we
touched the throne?
It's so wonderful.
You go home refreshed.
Praise God.
I don't know exactly what happened, but we
were up there somewhere.
Jesus was there and he knew something was
going to happen here.
We go home refreshed.
So let's be in the heavenly places if
we're going to have a prayer meeting.
Okay?
Under the throne of Jesus, alive by the
Holy Spirit, sensing his burden, not praying everything
because we have a list of 26 things.
Moving by the Spirit.
Oh, he'll take care of everything else.
But we need to find his way in
this matter.
I mentioned another matter, this matter of gathering
and worship.
Now, I know that there are such assemblies
that gather on Sunday morning, would nary a
prayer.
Everybody comes toodling in there.
Hi, Myrtle.
How you doing?
Hey, Fred, how's things going?
Tuning up guitar, guitar, piano players.
Nobody prays.
They start a meeting.
I'm telling you what, you got a 50
-50 chance that meeting will go nowhere.
If we see that when we come to
worship the Lord and we have the table
before us, this table is spread in the
presence of our enemy.
And if all we do is come and
say, as the brothers gather around together before
the meeting, we just want to say, Jesus
Christ is Lord over us today.
Oh, Lord, by your precious blood, cover us
and fill us with your Holy Spirit.
Push out all distractions and let us live
in your presence as we worship you today.
That's all it takes.
Now, sometimes the brothers get in a meeting
beforehand to pray and they pray about everything
else, but they don't take hold of the
meeting on behalf of all the things in
the name of the Lord Jesus.
But this is the ground we need to
stand on.
And then the ground is clear.
And then and then what is this whole
matter in Ephesians 518 about anyway?
Be filled with the spirit.
It's specifically talking about our life in corporate
worship.
What a wonderful thing when some spirit filled
people are among us and they offer songs
and hymns and spiritual songs and sing and
make melody in their hearts and pray with
thanksgiving and their prayers are spirit filled and
their worship is spirit filled.
And if we all came together full of
the Holy Spirit, what a transfiguring worship time
we would have together.
But many of us drag in.
We haven't even prayed.
We're just fighting with the kids.
How we need to be filled with the
spirit in order to offer songs and hymns
and spiritual songs, be in tune and symphonized
by the Holy Spirit when we're gathered in
worship.
This is such an important time.
You know, Paul was very aware of angels.
He's a woman head covering.
Don't you realize the angels are watching when
we gather?
Did you know that?
You see, we women, we women.
I guess I must say you women.
You see, shouldn't that be our spiritual reality?
Oh, the angels are watching.
Oh, wow.
This is whole matter of covering and submission
here.
Very important.
Because in Ephesians 310, it says that the
manifold wisdom of God may be shown through
the church.
The angels look down, not just the demons.
The angels look down.
They all look at that.
They're all one.
Look at that.
They all love Jesus.
Look at that.
They all have the Holy Spirit.
Oh, they the angels love to see the
church in unity, the body of Christ loving
one another.
And that's why it's so important that Paul
says, I'm sorry, you don't realize it because
you don't see the heavenlies.
You're too carnal.
But some of you are sick and some
of you are taking the cup in an
unworthy manner.
And some of you don't discern the body
at all.
You don't recognize the Lord in his body.
And so the Lord's disciplining us.
We don't even realize it because the heavenlies
is like we don't even know it's there.
We just come into church.
We see one another.
We think this is a composite of individual
human beings.
And it isn't.
We're taking a place every time we gather
in the Lord's name to break bread and
come before his table.
We're taking a place in the heavenlies.
If we realized it, that's how close the
heavenlies are to earth.
You see what I'm saying?
We don't have to go off there to
reach it.
He's right there.
He joins in singing when we sing in
the spirit.
Think about it.
He's much closer than we realize.
But when we when we hold a gospel
meeting, how we need to take hold of
the Lord before a gospel meeting and say,
Lord, we know the God of this world
would want the blind, our gospel friends so
that they don't see the truth that Jesus
is God.
Oh, Lord, set their eyes to see that
the gospel is proclaimed and realize that there's
enemy static going on, even in these gospel
friends who would come to a meeting.
You know, many times they go through a
lot of I don't want to go and
the wife is forcing them and all this
stuff.
There's great conflict in preaching the gospel just
to realize that's all I'm saying.
Not to be afraid of it.
Jesus Christ is Lord.
I remember one time I was in Manchester.
No, that's not right.
Some city in England.
I can't remember.
And some young people that are at a
college there.
Oh, Nottingham.
And then the university in Nottingham, they had
this big square.
And the young people said, well, could you
have a gospel meeting here?
I said, well, how do you want to
do it?
Well, we don't know.
I said, OK, we got a big square.
That's a good start.
Let's go out in the square.
There were 25 or 30 of this, like
intervarsity or something.
Let's join around in a circle.
I got my guitar.
Let's start singing some songs.
So we got there.
And then I said to them, now, look,
before we even sing, let's pray and ask
Jesus to circumscribe this whole square with his
presence.
We started to sing.
People started opening the doors and windows of
the dormitory, sticking out the head.
They started coming out and joined us.
Like, you know, we had a whole bunch
of people.
And I had two or three brothers and
sisters share the testimony how they got saved.
It was a wonderful meeting.
People asked about how to accept Jesus.
But we wouldn't.
Would you just sit there in enemy territory
and start to sing?
Let's realize that the Lord can sanctify this
ground, as it were, and let his presence
be there among us as we do whatever
it is the Lord wants us to do.
And then finally to say, you know, just
to stand for the Lord's purpose is to
invite spiritual conflict.
We can do many other things, have a
good work going, busy ourselves, feeding the poor,
even preaching the gospel.
But when we decide to stand for the
Lord's purpose and to be a testimony for
the Lord, we should not be ignorant, but
wise.
There will be spiritual conflict, but we prepare.
We know this is a reality.
We stay under the blood of Jesus.
Oh, we submit ourselves in the presence of
God, humble ourselves in the presence of God.
We resist the enemy and God gains the
victory.
So he has us go where we gather
together, humbly gather together in his presence.
He gains the victory and we learn who
we are in Christ and who he is
above us.
The reality of the heavenlies, we no longer
look at things just from the earth as
if we were against flesh and blood.
But we start to see this richer, fuller
understanding of our life that victory is found
when we touch something in the heavenlies, exactly
the throne of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now here is a mystery.
It says in Galatians, now you are dead
and your life is hid with Christ and
God.
Only the Holy Spirit can make that real
to us.
Isn't that so?
He puts us in the middle of kingdom
and says, don't pursue things.
Seek first the kingdom of God.
He puts us in the middle of busyness
and says, turn aside, be devoted to me.
Rise early in the morning.
I mean, he tells us the most, it's
almost like saying to the man with the
withered hand, stretch forth your hand.
I mean, it's impossible.
Sticks you in the middle of university dome
and says, enroll in the school of Christ.
And so on and so forth.
I mean, he puts us in this impossible
environment.
I tell you, brothers, this isn't bragging, but
New York's got to be the toughest place.
I know you want to nominate your city.
You know, it's impossible to stand up for
the Lord except by the strength of his
might.
Putting him on as our full armor and
standing there.
Here we are, these little skinny weaklings wearing
his armor, standing in Jesus name and the
Lord gives the victory.
Let that be our experience.
Brothers and sisters, be filled with the Holy
Spirit.
Let's pray.
Lord, we pray not shouting out to a
throne that we reckon is a hundred light
years away, but we pray under a throne
that's nearer than we ever imagined.
Oh, Lord, at times you allow us all
in your mercy to see something of the
heavenly places, to see an angel, to see
the conflict, to see our Lord's enthronement.
Oh, how wonderful it is.
Help us more and more as we grow
in our spiritual life to realize this spiritual
sphere called the heavenlies.
Help us to realize that you are the
king of the heavenlies, that even though the
kingdom is not seen with signs and outward
observations, there you are in the midst of
it.
Oh, Lord, we believe we see you on
your throne and we pray that thy kingdom
would come and thy will would be done
on earth, even as it's been already sealed
in heaven.
Oh, Lord, we pray, give us these eyes
to see by the Holy Spirit, our Lord
Jesus, the son of man attained to that
place of spiritual ascendancy and all of the
messengers up and down and up and down
under an open heaven because the son of
man stands there for us.
Oh, we praise you and thank you and
ask that you teach us these lessons as
we gather together for prayer or for worship
or for gospel meeting or for whatever reason.
Help us to realize the ground where we
stand and that we're seated with Christ in
the heavenly place.
Oh, let this be our portion.
We pray in Jesus name.
Amen.