How Do You See Yourself?
”And He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together [giving us joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue of our being] in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One)”. Ephesians 2:6 Amplified Bible
Perhaps you going through one of those times in life are right now when you find yourself stretched. When we are stretched so that we have to believe the Lord for things that seem, well difficult if not impossible to our natural minds, it can be uncomfortable. When those times of stretching come we need to remember that we have truly been raised up together with Him and are seated jointly with Him in the heavenly realms. Where is He seated? At the right hand of the Father. That is your position in the spiritual realm as a child of God!
We are spirit, soul, and body. Your soul and body are bound by this natural world and cannot see beyond this existence. If we only look through those two elements of who we are then we will get discouraged and defeated in this life. But in your born again spirit you are already taken to that place of victory and are seated with Jesus as joint heirs of all that is His. No matter how things look here through our natural eyes.
But even with the limitations of the soul, which is our mind, thoughts, personality and our flesh, we can still see ourselves in that spiritual arena. Since we live in this natural world and our existence is in the physical realm, we will often see and experience things that are at odds with the Word or even contrary to the promises of the Word. At those moments it is hard to remember the truth of Ephesians 2:6. Every experience may tell you that the Word is not working and it is at those times that we find it most difficult to stretch our belief for what we cannot see.
However, even though we live in this natural world and see our experiences with natural eyes, we can still see the promises of the Word. We can still see the spiritual truths which will give us the strength to believe and to stretch ourselves in faith despite what we see. We have to see ourselves seated with Jesus in the heavenly realms and we can see ourselves in that spiritual truth when we see ourselves through the Word. If we can see ourselves through the truth of the Word we are getting a glimpse of ourselves in the spiritual realm. We need to see ourselves in those promises, walking in those promises for us. If you are having trouble stretching yourself today so that you can believe in His promises, spend some time in the Bible and see yourself raised up together with Jesus, seated with Him in the victories He has provided for you in the reality of the spiritual realm.
Your place is not in defeat here in this life. You are seated with Him in victory and if you see yourself there, you will find the faith to believe the promises and then experience them in this life. How are you seeing yourself today?
J Todd Hostetler