Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. (Ephesians 1:3 NIV)
Familiar as these words and
these thoughts are to us, there are tremendous possibilities of
freshness, and newness, about the enjoyment of these things.... If there is
no fresh glimmer of light and glory associated with the
reiteration of this truth, there is all the more reason why we
should ask the Lord what has happened to us, that we could
contemplate such a thing without a stirring of heart. Now, is
that our Christ, the Christ of our experience, the Christ of our
knowledge? Are we living in the realization of that, not to its
fullness – because that fullness will never be exhausted – but in
the wonder of the fullness which lies before? A land flowing
with milk and honey, a good land indeed. Any fresh contemplation
of our Lord in this way should ravish our hearts: Christ, the
fullness of spiritual blessing now, the Sphere of our
experience, our exploring, our enjoyment, our satisfaction. That
is heavenly union with the Lord Jesus. Anybody who is in that is
in heaven. You have not to define and explain to such people what
it means to be in the heavenlies in Christ. They know of what you
are speaking. Spiritual geography is understood by those who walk
up and down in Him and enjoy His fullness.
If you are not there, all that
we can do is to be like the spies, and report upon it, and it is
left with you to say whether you are going in or not. It is left
to the crisis of faith or unbelief, just as it was of old. Do you
believe that that is the Christ Whom God has presented as the
Sphere of your life? If so, go up and possess; appropriate by
faith the fullness that is in Christ for every need which arises, for every
demand which confronts you.... Let us face the whole issue in this definite way:
"Lord, it is clearly represented in the Word that You are the fullness of God for me! Here is a
need, a spiritual need. In order that You should be glorified in
me, I by faith take You to meet this need!" That is very simple.
That is almost the infant class of things, but it is a very
effective way of proving the Lord. Do not sink back afterward and
decline into discouragement and say, "Nothing has happened!" Stand
your ground just as Israel had to stand their ground and prove
thereby that the Lord had indeed given.