HEAVENLY PLACES

I have just finished a bible study with the women's group from my church, we studied the book 'Armor of God ' by Priscilia Shirer. It was an interesting study and i had so many things to learn. An important lesson i learned from the bible study is about heavenly places which i am going to be sharing. I found this particular revelation very liberating for me and i pray it will be liberating for you as well.

For me, there is something intimidating when the bible verse Ephesians 6:12 is quoted 

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against powers of this dark world and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

Scary right? look at all the forces of darkness in one sentence :) I know the next thing people say is "God is one your side" "God is fighting your battles"... But there is an understanding that you need to have, You need to have an understanding of where you stand.

In Paul's letter to the Ephesians, he didn't just unleash the reality of the forces of darkness on them in the last chapter of the book of Ephesians, that is like on the final notes of his letters to the Ephesians. The truth is he had prepped them up so much in the earlier chapters such that when they got to chapter 6, they didn't need to be scared or intimidated, but aware of what they were up against.

Now lets take a look at Ephesians 1:3 

"Praise be to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ"

From the beginning of his letter, Paul gave thanks to God for the spiritual blessings we have in the heavenly realms. This verse indicates that we have every spiritual blessing in Christ in that realm.

To further understand this, lets look at Ephesians 1:20 

"That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when 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"

Believe me, there are levels in the heavenly realms! like really! :) Yes agreed that there are forces, powers and dominions, but look at this verse 20 again, Christ was raised and He is seated FAR ABOVE them all! Hallelujah! You should scream! literally :) Now, the coolest part is that its not only the powers of darkness of this present age, but even the ones to come, the ones that does not exist yet. wow!! amazing! Now tell me there are no levels in the heavenly realms. This understanding in itself is liberating, that you have a God who is seated far above! He is on the highest level and no one can beat that!

 Now the question is where am i in all of this? Just look at Ephesians 2:6 

"And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus"

Did you read that well? You are seated with Christ in heavenly places FAR ABOVE!! Praise God!! That is where you are, with Christ above every powers and principalities, above sickness and death, above every manipulations of the evil one. How liberating is that? Now you can go back and read Ephesians 6:12 again and this understanding will help you put on that full armor of God in Ephesians 6:13-18.

Yours in the walk...