The Way to Spiritual Ascendancy 1 — Dana Congdon

Good afternoon, brothers and sisters. Well, it's so wonderful we can worship our God and stand on his word. We want to read some verses from Colossians chapter 3, so if you'd open your Bibles, please.

Setting the Mind on Heavenly Things

Colossians chapter 3, we'll read the first 11 verses. Colossians chapter 3, beginning with verse 1. Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who was our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these very things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience.

And in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. But now you also put them all aside, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and the abuse of speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old man with his evil practices, and have put on the new man, who is being renewed to a true knowledge, according to the image of the one who created him.

A renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, and free man, but Christ is all and in all. And then just some verses in Ephesians chapter 2, as our brother read this morning.

Ephesians chapter 2, verse 4. But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved.

And raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Our Father, we come to you with this gospel presented before us. We thank you so much for the word of God upon which we can stand as our brother has testified. And now we pray that by the Holy Spirit, your word could become living to us and enable us to stand more fully into that spiritual ascendancy with which we have all been called.

Help us, Lord, in this time. And with our tired bodies, quicken them. And our minds, quicken them. Especially our hearts do quicken to respond to you in worship and commitment. We thank you, Lord, for this time together.

In Jesus' name. Amen. Well, we certainly had a wonderful introduction this morning with our brother Stephen sharing regarding this matter of spiritual ascendancy. And I think most of you were here, perhaps some were still on the way.

But basically, he said that spiritual ascendancy is when we obtain by grace through faith that which was attained by our Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of Man when he died, rose again, was raised up and seated at the right hand of God the Father.

It is the Lord Jesus that did all that. But we, by grace through faith, enter into the good of it. And so there's a frequent expression used that could be applied to spiritual ascendancy, which is when somebody truly is living in the good of the gospel.

We read this verse here in Ephesians 2 regarding our death and our being quickened and raised up and seated with Christ. And then by grace, you've been saved through faith. But you know, Paul's understanding of what it means to be saved is much more than just, you know, coming to Jesus and having our sins forgiven.

When he includes being saved, he means being raised up and seated with Christ in the heavenly places and attaining to spiritual ascendancy. This is all involved. And so when he says in verse 10, we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which he has prepared for beforehand for us to work in.

Of course, he's talking again about this spiritual ascendancy that all of us have come to through Jesus Christ, our Lord. I want to share. I thought afternoons would be a better time to share on practical things.

The Word of God as the Objective Basis

I want to share some practical things in the two times and together with you today. I want to look in Colossians because in Colossians we see, as it were, the objective basis of our spiritual ascendancy.

And specifically, we see emphasized there the necessity of us standing on the word of God. Now, you see, Alan's song was no mistake at all, nor his testimony, because this is exactly what we want to share this this afternoon for us to truly go the way of spiritual ascendancy.

I suppose that would be how you could entitle my two messages the way to spiritual ascendancy. The first way, which we'll talk about more or less today, we find in the book of Colossians, which is telling us the priority of the word of God being truly understood, embraced and stood upon by faith.

If we ever want to come to this place in our life and experience. So let me give you in Colossians, just three little points there in Chapter three, which we read, because I know that this is also a siesta friendly time of the day.

And just in case you fall off and you have a big line going down on your note page. If you can get these three things down, then you will have basically understood everything I wanted to say. In Chapter three, these three things, verse two, set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth.

There is some objective ground, something we can do. Set your mind on the things above. And then I want us to notice in verse ten. Renewed our mind, renewed by the Holy Spirit through the word of God to a true knowledge, according to the image of the one who created him.

Very much to do with our spiritual ascendancy is a true knowledge of who we are made in the image of this one who created. And then down in verse 16, which we didn't read, but nevertheless, the objective position again, let the word of Christ richly dwell within you.

With all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thanksgiving in your hearts to God. And there we are. Those are the three points all having to do, as it were, with the word of God.

Tomorrow, I want to go the way of spiritual ascendancy by looking in the book of Ephesians. You see, we're all going to be dealing with these two books this weekend. And in Ephesians, I find the subjective basis of our attaining spiritual ascendancy through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Resurrection and Heavenly Seating in Ephesians

Just again, let's go back and look for a moment at these verses in Chapter two of Ephesians. Now, when it talks about us being quickened together in verse five and raised up with him in verse six and then again in verse six, seated with him in the heavenly places in Christ.

I just want to make the connection in case anybody has not made the connection. All of this is possible because of what Paul talks about in Chapter one. If we go back to Chapter one, we see basically the same statement where it says.

He now he's talking about the great exceeding greatness of the power toward us who believe how great is this power? If the power that was experienced and brought about in Christ, verse 20, Chapter one of verse 20, when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly place.

So do you see the connection? Because he was raised now we are raised because he has been seated by the right hand of the father. Now we are seated with him in the heavenly places is a gospel connection there.

I just want everybody to see that this has very much to do one with the other. And the point in the context of what Paul is sharing in Chapter one is this that we might see by spiritual revelation, this tremendous spiritual power that is moving us, pushing us into this reality.

If that same power that raised up Jesus from the dead that is fully able to raise us and bring us on the resurrection ground, so on and so forth. So tomorrow, Lord willing, we'll look at Ephesians and some of the exercise of spirits that bring us in this process of spiritual ascendancy.

OK, now let's go back to class before we actually. Launched to a deeply in the collection. I think one thing that's worth noting is that both the letter of the Ephesians and Colossians, as well as Philippians and Philemon are four letters that are commonly called the prison epistles of Paul, that is, he wrote them from prison.

Most people believe all four of these letters are written approximately the same time when he was in jail in Rome. The interesting thing about these four epistles is that they represent the highest thought of Paul, and as they stand as a body of literature together, they are a testimony to Paul's spiritual ascendancy.

Paul's Spiritual Progress Through Suffering

Now, you know, in the Bible, in the New Testament, there's no man as unique as Paul. I mean, of course, Christ accepted Paul had such a deep experience. He was such a faithful brother. He went through such suffering.

He did such masterful building in every way. He was the most unusual man, but let's give him credit for being a sinner saved by grace. He progressed spiritually, even as he served the Lord. And when you compare his earlier letters to his later letters, there is a noted spiritual ascendancy, which is testified to when you read these most amazing letters in his earlier letters.

Of course, Paul wrote his earlier letters when he was still serving. We know Paul would labor much and he would preach the gospel. He experienced a lot of persecution. There were times when he was all kinds of difficult situations.

But anyway, he was a faithful servant. And when he was preaching the gospel and building the church, he often had the fight defending the gospel against Judaizers, defending the gospel against all kinds of false doctrines.

So in Galatians, you find him speaking about this Judaizers, you know, getting into the gospel and distorting the gospel. And in the books of the Thessalonians, some of his earlier letters, you find him contending with those who are preaching false things about the second coming.

The day of the Lord and him having to straighten some of these outward things out. Now we see him in these letters, Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, Philemon. He's in jail. Could I put it this way for simplicity?

His outward ministry is over. And yet he's come to the place where he's ministering more effectively than previously. We see him in these letters and we realize that this man may be in jail, but he is unhindered.

Because he's come to a perspective into a place seated with Christ in the heavenly places that he is aware and able to minister in a way he's never perhaps seen so clearly before. You know, when we're busy doing things, we don't always see so clearly how much God can do.

Sometimes the Lord, you know, there's many testimonies when you read biographies of missionaries, of pastors who were laid on their back with an illness just to discover God can still work while they're laid down.

It's a lesson for all of us. When we look in Colossians, we'll just look at a few verses. You'll see what I mean. Now, remember, now Paul's in prison. He has some brothers and sisters who come and minister to him.

He talks to them, perhaps in some limited way. And yet when we listen to him in verse twenty eight of chapter one, you just don't get the feeling that he is held back in any way. In chapter one and verse twenty eight, we proclaim Christ admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present every man perfect in Christ for this purpose.

Also, I labor agonizing, agonizing according to his power, which mightily works within me, for I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea and for all those who have not personally seen my face, that their hearts may be encouraged.

Having been knit together in love and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery. That is Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Now, here he is, Paul, and here's Paul in jail. And yet here's Paul wrestling and struggling, struggling and wrestling. But now in intercession, he's an unshackled intercessor. He's not able to go. As a matter of fact, there has now in Asia Minor become many Christians.

He's never even seen them face to face. It no longer makes any difference. Before he saw everybody he dealt with and worked with face to face. Now there's people becoming Christians. He only knows of them by name as he hears reports.

It makes no difference. We find him up in the heavenlies praying and interceding. Oh, I wrestled for the Colossians today. And yet his wrestling was effectual. He was living in this spiritual ascendancy where even as Jesus came down and died, rose again for our sake to attain to this place.

Paul has now come to this place of intercession and a priesthood unceasing, even though he's in jail. Do you sense he's bound up? Of course, I'm sure at times he was the paste around and I wish it stopped raining.

I wish I could jump out of the window and hang glide. But this this wasn't his situation. But while he was in jail, he was wrestling. Isn't that wonderful? When you see Paul, when you read these epistles, you don't get the feeling of somebody who's been trapped and somehow now limited and unable to go on.

What do you sense here in Colossians? Here's here's this apostle. And he is traversing the heights and the depths of Christ. He's up in the mountains. He's wow. Look how big Christ is. He present. You know, many of you have heard me speak before.

The New Testament as a Progressive Revelation of Christ

I always speak in Colossians on the macrocosmic Christ and the microcosmic Christ. He speaks of this macrocosmic Christ who is over all who created all. You know, Paul had time and God revealed to him such wonderful revelation of who Christ was.

There's nothing higher and more wonderful than this. You know, I always like in the New Testament to some poor little cameraman who's trying to take a picture of Jesus. And after all, all of the Gospels, as well as the epistles, are little photos of Jesus.

And we start out with the Gospel of Mark. And he has one of those little Kodak things. You just go out comes a little picture. And Mark does the Gospel of Jesus, the Savior, the servant, the son of God, complete.

By the time Matthew comes along, the spirit is Matthew. Move the camera back. This thing of Jesus doesn't start at the Jordan River. This thing of Jesus starts back with Abraham and God's promise to the Jews.

Move the camera back. Now Matthew's got a wider angle lens. He's taking pictures. By the time Luke gets around to writing his gospel, the spirit is move the camera back. Luke, it starts with Adam. As you know, the genealogy starts there in Luke.

And Luke has to push back there and find a wide angle lens to take in Jesus since Adam. Then John came along. Now, John, go to the end of the universe and captured it. In the beginning was Jesus. And he created all things.

Whoa, what a picture. There's a long hole in that one. Now, Paul is in prison. The spirit has moved the camera back. He not only created everything. Everything was created for him. Get a hold of that.

So there's Paul in jail. He is measuring the height and the depth and the length and the breadth of Christ. And this is his remedy to the Colossians for anything small. He's not unhindered. His understanding is unshackled.

This is spiritual ascendancy. Or you see Paul in Ephesians. Poor boy's in jail. No, he's not. He's become a worshipper. His letter to Ephesians. Is he praying? I don't know. Is he worshipping? I don't know.

He's praying. He's worshipping. He says, I bow my knees. And I believe Paul got down on his knees. And he says, and I worship. I praise. Give thanks to the God and father. I believe he's raising his hands and he's raising his hands and he's on his knees.

Well, which one is he doing? He's praising. He's exhorting. He's praying. Here's an unshackled prayer. Here's an unshackled preacher. Here's an unshackled writer. He's writing and praying and writing and praying.

And, you know, that poor Immanuensis is writing all that is down. He never could figure out. Are you praying now, Paul? Am I supposed to be writing? Because Paul realized the importance of the revelation of the spirit to the truth.

And so he's pressing these things on. And then you take the letter to the Philippians. I just want you to see that this man's in jail, but he's in spiritual ascendancy. Oh, he's in Philippians in the jail.

He's full of sour grapes, isn't he? No, all he's full of is joy. Unshackled joy. He says, you know something? This thing of me being put in prison. It's worked the reverse of the way the devil fought.

Why more people are getting saved than ever before since I got thrown in jail. First of all, everybody in Caesar's household now knows the gospel. Plus the fact that some of the brothers finding out I'm in prison have redoubled their efforts and faithfulness to preach the gospel.

And so much is happening. Praise God for my being jailed. You can't hold them down. And even those people who are preaching to try to get at me. Who cares if they're preaching Jesus? That's fine. You find a man full of joy.

And listen to this. Here he is in jail. Any sour grapes? No. Listen to this. While I'm in jail. Here's the one thing I do. Forgetting everything that lies behind. Reaching forward to everything that's in front of me.

I press on toward the high calling in Christ Jesus. This man is in unshackled pursuit of Jesus. Forget the bars. Forget the jail. This man's free. And even in Philemon, we just see this little picture of him saying, you know, this anesthetist running away.

This terrible circumstance, Philemon. It worked out together for good. The Lord had his hand in this whole thing. You see, here's a man. When we read these letters, we say, wow, look at this place he has come to.

Look where he's standing. Look how he's administering the word. Look how he's praying. Look at him wrestling in intercession. Here is a brother who has come to the reality of these things. We talk about the way of spiritual ascendancy.

Spiritual Discernment of Hidden Issues

Now, this matter of the spiritual ascendancy, which Paul is in, as we address the book of the letter to the Colossians. Enables Paul to see beyond the circumstances of the Colossians to the spiritual issues behind.

This is one of the marks of spiritual ascendancy. Somebody can see the spiritual realities and issues behind the outward conflicts. And so Paul was very clear as he's writing to them. The mark of somebody who is growing in this way spiritually is that they realize that 99 of the circumstances in their life have some spiritual reason to them.

Maybe 1 just circumstance. In our early days, we think 99 of the stuff in my life is based on a bad and bad employer. A rotten circumstance. A nasty wife. Disobedient children. It's never my fault, you see.

There's never spiritual issues involved in my tough circumstances. There's always just the luck of the draw. But with spiritual maturity. We see that the events of our life, they all have a working. They all have a goal.

And so Paul sees behind the things that are going on. And the problem with the Colossians is young Christians have to do with what I'll just call. Insecurity. They're insecure. They're young Christians.

And Paul sees that their insecurity has become grounds for the enemy to capture them and to oppress them and to put them in some kind of bondage. You see, he looks beyond the insecurity and he sees what's lying underneath.

He sees the lion roaring and taking hold of some of these Christians. What do I mean by insecurity? The Colossians were embracing philosophies. Religions. Even asceticism. Because they felt they weren't good enough Christians.

That's what I mean by insecurity. They would be those Christians who think that they're very spiritual by saying, oh, I'm not holy enough. I just don't know enough. I'd like to serve God. I just don't know enough.

I don't have enough power. I don't have enough faith. I don't believe enough. I don't serve enough. That is the grounds for the enemy coming along and gaining an advantage over you. Now, the key word there is enough.

Because it's when we say I don't believe enough that it gives some ground for myself to do something about it. I don't know enough gives me license to go and learn the Greek. And then having learned the Greek New Testament, I still don't know enough.

This matter of enough is where our flesh gets involved. And where our flesh gets involved, religion can come in. It speaks to our flesh. And so these people in this way were falling prey because you see.

The insecure natural mind in order to know more will eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And get themselves in even more trouble. So such religious men came along and told these people.

Oh, you see, the whole Christian faith is involved in a lot of mysterious, very complex mystery. They said, oh, that sounds exciting. I can get my mind all work up and discover all kinds of interesting things.

And it's just a trap for the Christian. Or prevalent in the time of this letter was the Greek view of man being soul and body. And what transpired through this philosophy that started with Plato and Socrates.

This matter of body and soul being what man is made out of is this. Basically, they came to this duality that the soul is good, but the body is bad. Therefore, you have to beat up on the body. You always have to kind of hit the body, you know, because the body is bad.

All of your temptations. The reason you lose your temper is because your body is bad. Bad body, bad body. Meanwhile, your soul is good. Oh, I'm such a good person. It's just that I have a bad body. Religion loves that.

Oh, it plays into asceticism and all kinds of things. But you see, what's really needed is an understanding that man is body, soul and spirit. Because when you understand the dynamics of the spirit of a man, you understand just what the soul's relationship is.

It's not that the body and the soul is evil. It's just who's running the show. That's the key. But religion would say, take your good soul and do something about your ugly body. And so Paul says, as an example, you know these things.

But let's just look at a couple of verses. Verse 23 is Paul's addressing religion in Chapter 2 of Colossians. Verse 23. These are matters which have to be sure. The appearance of wisdom and self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body.

But they're of no value against fleshly indulgence. Oh, but how the Christian gets sucked in. Now, listen, let me just make a point before I run on here. I don't want you to misunderstand. Now, what Christian here is willing to raise your hand?

I'm holy enough. Nobody. Listen, do we want to be holy? Then we run into Christ who's been made sanctification for us. Do we want more knowledge? Then we come to Christ in whom we hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

You see, our desire to be more holy or to have more knowledge or to serve more faithfully means we run to Christ and take his yoke upon us. It's always running to Christ that enables us to grow. But religion wouldn't have us run to Christ.

It have us do something about it in ourselves and form a very complicated religious system. Christian chance is one of the most complicated Christian men. I say that because this summer, at the end of the summer, I went on a trip with our brother and 150 other people to Turkey, Greece and Italy in the steps, the footsteps of Paul.

Now, along the way, I got a hold of a little book on Greek mythology only because we were visiting the temple to Apollo and then over here, the temple of Zeus. And so I wanted to sort of bone up on this.

Christian Chen is divinely simple compared to the complexity of Greek mythology. When you touch human religion, it is so complicated. There's so many gods. There's so many idols. There's so many people doing and then counter doing.

There's every God who does something has another God who didn't like what they did, and they counter it. It is such a complicated mess that, you know, it makes me realize how complicated religion is. How simple is it to be hid in Christ and to take him as our provision?

You see, that's spiritual ascendancy. Well, now, the Colossians didn't understand that completely. And so Paul's remedy for their insecurity is this. Oh, Colossians, look at Christ. Look how big he is.

Be swallowed up in this Christ. He is the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form. And you are complete in him. Now, don't say you're incomplete. Or as we read there in Colossians chapter three, verse 11, at the end of this wonderful passage, he just says, and Christ is all and in all.

Now, there's your religion. Christ is all and in all. Christ is enough for my holiness. Christ is enough for my knowledge. Christ is enough for my faith. Christ is enough for my serving. You see, now you're in a good place.

And so Paul emphasizes this thing in a number of ways in Colossians, especially emphasizing this fact. You need to lay hold of the word of God and gain real spiritual understanding into the will of God, the word of God, the will of God.

These objective things are absolutely essential for spiritual ascendancy. If we are light on the word of God, the enemy has ground to fool around with us. So one of Paul's prayers we find in Colossians chapter one, we see in verse nine.

Let's just read this prayer because you'll see how much is important, how much understanding and true knowledge is necessary in spiritual ascendancy. For this reason, also, since the day we heard of it, have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to praise and please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

Let's just stop it there because you see where you go. We need knowledge, but with true spiritual understanding, it comes from the word of God. It's so essential, brothers and sisters. So if we're going to talk about spiritual ascendancy before we sort of wobble off up into the heavenlies, start sitting on clouds.

The whole thing has to do with a real understanding of the word of God. Now, positionally. Every Christian. It's already quickened. Right. Already raised. Right. Already seated. Right. Anybody still flying, but you're not seated yet.

Because Christ was quickened, raised and seated already. You embrace it. You're in Christ. It's already happened to you. It's done. That's it. That's objectively true. That's your position. But there is the subjective side.

You see, Paul says, notice at the beginning of that chapter three in verse one, he says, therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ. Now, wait a minute. Now, we've just been fighting to say you've been raised up with Christ.

Now, how can he turn around and if you've been raised up with Christ? Well, he's using a rhetorical if. Because he's trying to call our attention to the fact that we always need to ask these things of ourselves in spiritual reality.

Not just are we in the position, but are we in the life? Are we truly living in the good of this gospel? So let me ask us the questions. At least these three questions presented to us in Ephesians two and actually Colossians three and in a little different form.

Examining the Reality of Spiritual Life

Number one. You have been quickened together with Christ by grace. You haven't saved. Question. Are you really alive to God? Are you? Sometimes I fear we talk as if everybody's already sitting up on the cloud and we need to ask these basic questions.

There are some people who would say, I have confessed Jesus as my Lord and Savior, but you don't sense the spark of life. Where is that living? That quickened experience. Are you quickened to the reality of the presence of God?

Or do you not feel him? You know what I'm saying? Now, I don't want to scare you. Many people are true Christians, but somehow their flesh has brought them into such a state where they don't sense the presence of God.

So I'm not trying to question your basic Christian confession. But all I know, brothers and sisters, there are many, many Christians who say they believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior. But there seems to be no living spark of the Holy Spirit in their life.

Are you full of the Holy Spirit? Is the word of God alive to you? Are you alive in the body of Christ? Do you see you're part of something? Do you join into the worship? In other words, not just well, have your sins been forgiven?

Are you going to heaven? Are you alive now? Let's ask ourselves that question. Are you alive? Or are you just talking the talk? It's an important question. The second question, we have been raised up together with him.

And yet in Colossians we say, now if you have been raised up with Christ, why would he say that? Has the power of the cross brought us to resurrection ground? You know, if we really are raised up with him, we have put aside the old man and we have put on the new man.

We understand what that means. We're living on resurrection ground. Brothers and sisters, I must tell you, there's no old man that's going to sit up with Christ in the heavenly places. He'll be tossed right out.

Just as Satan was thrown down to the earth, your old man would be thrown down. He'd never make it up there in the first place. But just assuming. There's no room for the old man in the heavenly places.

There's no room for the old man in spiritual ascendancy. But the power of the cross is what brings us from the old man to the new man. And we're living on resurrection ground. And we sense this life within us.

Do you live by that life within you? I've been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet. Not I, but Christ lives in me. This life within us is so important. So Paul saying, now, look, I know that you're Christians, Colossians.

But if you've been raised up, there should be this response of seeking the things above. This is this is the sort of product of a life that's living on resurrection ground. You're seeking the things that are above.

And then this third question, which in one sense is the issue of this weekend. Well, we've been seated with Christ in the heavenly place. Have you been seated with Christ in the heavenly place? What does that mean?

I'm going to talk about what I call this for a moment. The ascended life. What is this? Is it an occasional, infrequent spiritual awareness of something beyond this? At a funeral, we get the idea there's something more to life.

The occasional brush with spiritual reality beyond this. Is this what this whole matter is about? No. Spiritual ascendancy or the ascended life at least has these three characteristics that I, you know, I'm a one, two, three type guy.

Anyway, write down one, two, three, and then take your siesta because you may not follow this. But here we go. Number one, the mark of somebody in this ascended life is they see earthly things from the heavenly point of view.

Now, of course, when a earthly thing first happens to you, you see it with earthly things. You know what I'm saying? A difficult circumstance happens to you and your flesh immediately starts going. Your mind starts working.

How can I escape the situation? How can I beat that person up? How can I gain the advantage where they're getting the advantage of me? This is unfair. This is unjust. Oh, this is this is our initial response.

OK, that's our humanity. Now, are we going to get into the heavenly places in Christ? Jesus hid in him to the place where we see the thing from the heavenly point of view. One time recently we were praying in Huntington and in the prayer meeting that we were praying about the matter of Israel in this conflict with the Palestinians.

And it's almost as if I saw because I'd recently read something in Daniel about the fact that Michael was the archangel of Israel. Always standing, always fighting for Israel, you know, and that whole report with Gabriel that I was waylaid in Persia, you know, and you prayed and I had to wrestle before I could come.