Seated in the Heavenly Realm

“I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms. Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else in this world or in the world to come. And God has put all things under the authority of Christ, and he gave him this authority for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body; it is filled by Christ, who fills everything everywhere with his presence.” (Eph. 1:19-23)

Do you ever notice how God has designed infants to develop? First, they learn to sit, then they learn to crawl, then they learn to pull themselves up on a piece of furniture and stand. It is the same, I think, with our spiritual life in Christ.

First we learn who we are in Christ, and what He has done for us. We are SEATED in the heavenly realm. This means that all the work has been done and we can sit and rest. We can rest in knowing that God accepts us just the way we are because of what Jesus has done.

Then we learn that WALK of faith. We begin to live out the life of a Christian, not because we ‘have’ to but because we ‘get’ to. We realize that God has a purpose in each day and we want to find out what that is. We start taking those first steps by letting go of our own desires and allowing God to renew our minds and change our hearts.

As we continue, we find that we face many battles. We learn that there is an enemy who wants to see us defeated. “Use every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy in the time of evil, so that after the battle you will still be standing firm.” (Eph. 6:13) We need the Armor of God so that after the battle we will be able to STAND.

No matter where we are in our lives in Christ, we can know that there is power available. “This same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him in the place of honor at God’s right hand” is available to us. Whether sitting, walking, or standing we can trust God to give us the power we need to accomplish His will.

Lord, help me continue to grow and develop my relationship with You as You have designed. Empower me to accomplish Your will for my life. Let me always bring glory to Your Name in all I do. In Jesus’ name—Amen.