What Do We Do With Our Spiritual Blessings? (Part 2)

by Mari

We are told by the word of God that we have all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, that we are raised up together and that (He) made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ…. This is a magnificent, glorious truth!

Do you realize this is the place of absolute and complete VICTORY IN CHRIST?  You see, nothing in this life can get between you and God!  Nothing.  Not life, not troubles, not even death!

While we have victory over sin and death because Christ was victorious, without question there are other victories that require struggle, work, effort and time in order for victory to be won. And oftentimes in this present evil world, victory is absent all together.  Our Apostle Paul says we are soldiers fighting in a battle, that we need to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, and stay un-entangled with the affairs of this life that we may please God who chose us to be a soldier!

2Ti 2:3-4 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

I would ask you to take time to read 2 Cor chapters 4 & 11 where the victory Paul has in Christ drives him to continue the work he ought to do, despite the many struggles and lack of victories present in his life. As Paul is our pattern (1Tim 1:16), this is what we ought to do as well, because as we see the bigger picture through study of the word of God! We understand that Christ is already victorious, and WE are in Christ!  We lack for nothing!

2Co 4:14-18  Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.

For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

We have been given directions in the word of God about how to live for God.  Often the problem of living for God is a lack of knowledge, which is most often caused by not rightly dividing the word of truth.  Today in this dispensation of grace, WE have been given ALL spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ!  We must understand we are operating from a position of victory:  Christ’s victory on the cross, His death, our death with Him, and His burial and resurrection, which is also ours in Him when we first believed! Wow, huh?!

This correct perception makes all the difference when we go through the trials and tribulations of this life, to know who we are in Christ!  Come to the battle… in Christ! Come with the knowledge of who you are in Him! Join in! Living as a good soldier, as an Ambassador in His strength and courage, believing the truth that He has already won!  This is a true spiritual blessing to know that we are not alone in the battle and that we have constant access by one Spirit unto the Father! (Eph 2:18)

When my sister Sharon (and fellow SWORDS member) was saved, we were both running down a mountain of a hill in the early morning sunlight. We had just finished our usual Bible study and talk about what we had learned and believed.  Sharon started shouting at the top of her lungs that she got it! That she was saved! Suddenly she started running faster and faster and just as suddenly stopped! Looked at me in wonder and asked one of the most brilliant of questions! She said, “Why am I still in my shoes?”

There are a lot of reasons Sharon asked this question; one of the best is that she had been brought up Catholic under the law.  As a Catholic you cannot ever know if you are saved or not, at least not while one is alive, only finding out after death! (That could be a bit late, don’t you think?)  However, when Sharon believed on the Lord that marvelous morning, she understood fully by the word of God that she was indeed saved, and so her question of why wasn’t she transported to heaven instantly was quite astute!

When we are saved, instead of transporting us immediately into heaven, God instantly transforms us into the new creature in Christ, the body of Christ! AND we are given new life in Christ with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places!

So let’s see what the Apostle Paul says about why we are left here on earth for a time….

Php 1:22-24 But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not.

For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:

Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.

I believe there is only one reason we remain in these bodies here on earth while we wait to spend eternity in heaven with the Lord. I believe it is a life worth living in freedom and in truth, giving our best efforts toward sharing with the folks who have not been saved how they too may have eternal life.

So what do we do with our spiritual blessings in our life today?

We recognize them! We thank God for them! We incorporate them into our thinking and actions! Understanding fully that absolutely nothing can get between us and God as we are sealed by the Holy Spirit! No power in heaven or on earth can ever separate us from the love of our God. We have complete assurance in Christ.

Rom 8:35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We can understand that fear of sharing the gospel of the grace of God with another is not of God but of the devil.  Fear and confusion is not from God! God does not give us the spirit of fear and is not the author of confusion, but of power, and of love, and a sound mind! More blessings!

2Ti_1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

1Co_14:33  For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

Knowing who we are in Christ, knowing we have all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, knowing we have all the tools we need to effectively be soldiers and ambassadors of Christ gives us the ability to put our lives into action in Christ.

Remember to pray for one another. Pray for our saved brothers and sisters, the soldiers and ambassadors of Christ!

THE GOSPEL THAT SAVES
“I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved … that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”

– 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 (KJB)