For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3—NIV)

And again:

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, (Ephesians 2:6—NIV)

We are entering the conflict of the ages. The next few years may see substantial change in the way we understand Christianity. Spiritual warfare will accelerate rapidly. The new generation of believers will have an opportunity to occupy the thrones of the Kingdom of God.

All that has gone before has brought us to the brink of Jordan, as it were. The young people and children of the present hour will be enabled to press into a position in Christ occupied by only a handful of the saints of history.

The only correct orientation to the Christian salvation is that the believer has been crucified with Christ, has been raised from the dead with Christ, and has ascended with Christ to the right hand of God, the right hand of power. We have discussed this orientation in a previous essay titled The Necessary Orientation.

How high we have been raised, to what position of authority and power, can be seen in a previous verse in Ephesians.

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, And his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, Which he exerted in Christ when he raised him 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 title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, Which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. (Ephesians 1:18-23—NIV)

"Far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come."

I invite the reader to consider these facts carefully: We have been crucified with Christ. We have been raised from the dead with Christ.

We have ascended to the right hand of God, to the highest throne there is, to the highest level of authority and power.

This is not to take place in the future, it has happened already to our new born-again nature in Christ. It is a fact now if we have been truly born again.

We already have come to Mount Zion in Heaven, to an innumerable company of angels, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect.

If we are to orient ourselves properly to the changes in the world that are at hand, the fact of our death, resurrection, and ascension must be repeated again and again in the churches until our position in Christ is as familiar to us, as solidly entrenched in our faith, as is true of the forgiveness of our sins and the return of the Lord from Heaven.

To be continued.