The Way to Spiritual Ascendancy 2 — Dana Congdon

The Spirit Leads Believers Into Spiritual Ascendancy

It is a precious thing to be together for these days. I thought the message this morning was one of the clearest expositions I've ever heard on the practical matters of sitting positioned in Christ and how the Lord works us and engineers circumstances to make us realize this position we're in and to deal with our flesh and those things that have been ground for the enemy in the past in our lives.

I thought that was a wonderful exposition and then Ernie sharing about the Holy Spirit last night as well lends itself and actually is just something I would like to add to this afternoon as we're talking about this matter of spiritual ascendancy and looking at it from the aspect of the subjective experience of the Spirit leading us into the reality and leading us into all truth as our brother shared last night.

The Spirit of God is now here among us and within us with this purpose to lead us into the truth of our position in Christ and of our spiritual ascendancy. And so we'll just try to touch on that in some matters today that hopefully will add to the things that were shared last night and this morning.

To begin with, I'd like us to turn to a portion in the book of Acts that records Paul's ministry to the Ephesians before we actually look at some verses in Ephesians itself. In Acts chapter 19, we just want to pick up where Paul arrives back at the beginning of his third missionary journey now and arrives in Ephesus and begins ministering there.

We'll begin in verse 8. And Paul entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the way before the people, he withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyranus.

This took place for two years so that all who lived in Asia Minor heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them, and the evil spirits went out.

But also some of the Jewish exorcists who went from place to place attempted to name over those who had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, I adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches. Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this.

And the evil spirit answered and said to them, I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you? And the man in whom was the evil spirit leapt on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

This became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived in Ephesus. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified. Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices, and many of those who practice magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone, and they counted up the price of them and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver.

The point being, so the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing. Verse 23. Now, about that time, there occurred no small disturbance concerning the way. This is where the silversmiths got up in a coalition against these gospel preachers and just verses 26 and 27, where Demetrius is preaching.

Verse 26. You see in here that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable number of people, saying that the gods made with hands are no gods.

Not only is there danger that this trade of ours fall into disrepute, although he cares little for his money, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis, Artemis, Artemis, be regarded as worthless, that she whom all of Asia and the world worship will even be dethroned for her magnificence.

The Armor of God and the Reality of Spiritual Warfare

Now let's turn to a piece, and we just want to read in Chapter six and verse ten. Ephesians, Chapter six, beginning in verse ten. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the full armor of God so that you'll be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

With all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit. And with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. And pray on my behalf that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in proclaiming it, I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.

Let's just have a further word of prayer. Lord, we realize that this matter of spiritual descendancy has been given to us as something finished and accomplished by what your Son has done. And Father, we come to you today and pray that this will once again be underscored in our hearts as we look at some of these matters in the book of Ephesians.

How we thank you, Lord, that you're teaching us these things. We pray that there'll be fruit in our lives. Indeed, the realization of our position and a possession of those things that have been freely given to us.

Help us, quicken us by the Holy Spirit, even this afternoon with tired bodies and minds that have been scuffed to capacity. Oh, grant us the ability to understand and see yet even more in our hearts by a revelation of the Holy Spirit.

We commit this time into your hands, asking that your refreshing would be upon us in Jesus' name. Amen. Yesterday, we tried to emphasize from the letter of Paul to the Colossians that this matter of spiritual ascendancy is really predicated upon us being founded upon the word of God and the truth of the word of God regarding the will of God.

If we have this as our basis, as our foundation, we will be able to experience spiritual ascendancy. As our Lord said, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will and it shall be done for you.

This is so important. We not only abide in him, but we let his words richly dwell within us. This is what makes us fruitful in the body of Christ. That's when we can, with wisdom, offer psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, counsel, prayer and all the things that are necessary in assembled life.

It's this matter of having understood by the word of God what Christ has done, where we sit, who we are in him. But we not only have this precious word of God, but we have the Holy Spirit that makes this word of God real to us and takes us through experience.

As our brother even shared this morning to make real the things that we understand in our head, it makes them real down in our hearts as he leads us into all truth. And so when you look in the book of Ephesians, just for the starter, let's look in chapter five and verse 18, because we see a wonderful complimentary reverse with that which we read yesterday in Colossians 316.

It says in Ephesians 518, do not get drunk with wine for that is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit, putting it more correct that a Greek, you know, keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your hearts to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God, even the father, and being subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

The Holy Spirit’s Work in Ephesians

This matter of being filled with the spirit is found throughout this letter to the Ephesians. Obviously these things understand what this means. And when we go through this letter, we see that really quite often the Holy Spirit is mentioned in chapter one.

If you'll just look in verse 13, we see something that to me lends credence to what our brother shared this morning, that once we are saved, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit. He seals us in that position, whether we wander out or become full of doubts or whether our soul life is uncrucified and we doubt anything.

The fact that it matters, we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit. It's a very powerful work. In chapter two, of course, it mentions that we are quickened, made alive together. And we know from the rest of scripture that this quickening, this being born again is by the spirit himself who brings us to life.

What a mighty, powerful work this is for bringing somebody who is dead and trespasses the sin into new life by the Holy Spirit. It's a tremendously powerful thing. And then we see in Paul's prayer in chapter one that he's praying for three things to be seen by the Ephesian believers that they could see the hope of his calling and the glories, riches of his inheritance in the state.

And third, the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe here again, practically saying that it's the Holy Spirit who quickens us. It's the Holy Spirit that raises us up. It's the Holy Spirit that enables us to sit with Christ in the heavenly places.

These are tremendously powerful things. And then we go on and we see further that in chapter two, as it talks about the two, the Jews and the Gentiles being made one, we find that it is the spirit that gives us this unity.

Now, this is a miracle. Now, I know by several years of being married, it's a miracle that Julie and I are one. And it's a miracle that brothers and sisters can come together and remain one and maintain the unity of the spirit.

This must be some tremendous fusing power that can fuse us together. But this is exactly what the spirit of God does. And then in chapter three, and again, I'm just going over some things that I think we all know.

In the chapter three, during poor Paul's prayer, he prays that we might be strengthened in the inner man by the Holy Spirit. Now, if we're going to stand, if we're going to overcome, if we're going to intercede, if we're going to do spiritual warfare, we've got to be strengthened by the spirit in the inner man so that Christ can dwell in our hearts by faith.

This is an absolute necessity. If we're to be in a position of spiritual ascension. And then in chapter five, he talks about being filled with the Holy Spirit when you assemble yourselves together, an absolute necessity.

The matter of the Holy Spirit being with us as we're together in worship. And then in chapter six, when we come together for prayer, praying always in the spirit. The spirit is absolutely essential to our learning this life and living this life of spiritual ascendancy.

He will lead us into all truth. And, of course, these things that we have read here in both Acts chapter 19 and Ephesians six, which is what I would like to touch on somewhat today. That is the matter of spiritual warfare in this whole relationship of our spiritual ascendancy.

Our brother shared this morning that part of that spiritual warfare is for us to realize where we really stand. And that can only be tested in the crucible of conflict. And also when we're in spiritual warfare, we find ourselves being humbled because our flesh is always getting in the way.

We're always coming to the Lord, confessing, finding ourselves humbled in the presence of the Lord. And then he lifts us up and shows us his victory. If I had this pick out a book that I think most often shows us the sort of process we go through in this subjective manner of coming into spiritual ascendancy, it would have to be the book of Psalms.

When you read the psalm, there must be, and I haven't counted, but I'm going to say there has to be 40 psalms. Let's make it 51. Third of the psalms start out with David down on the ground in conflict, enemies around him or personally laid low because of his own sins.

Some way he's been brought low. And then the word of God comes to him. Why are you cast down? Oh, my soul, hope thou in God for you will yet praise him. And he finds himself being lifted up. And then he finds himself standing with God.

And he says, my heart is fixed. My heart is fixed. You see, he's gone through a process. This is our process, too. Well, we may be New Testament people, but we find ourselves scraping our chin on the ground because of sin being brought low or the enemies attacked us and blindsided us or our bosses gotten after us or something has happened.

It brings us low. We say, oh, like David said in Psalm 73, I look around and all the sinners, they're cheating on their income tax and they're hiding their bonuses and they're just doing great. Here I am declaring my bonuses, getting killed by the IRS.

And I'm looking around and everybody's getting away with murder. And I'm trying to do the right thing. And I can't even buy groceries. And then I go in the house of God and sniff the fragrance of holiness.

And I realized what am I talking about? It's better to have a little and have the Lord and be content than to be to dwell in the courts of the wicked, where you'll get snuffed out at any moment. How many times did David go through this process?

He confesses his foolishness or he asks God, his cries out, God, why are they attacking me? I used to be their friend. They're attacking me. What's going on? And then somehow God lifts him up further enough up into the heavenly places where he says, ah, but you, I can always trust in you.

And then the whole tide turns, you see. Now, isn't that our experience? This is what we go through. Then the Holy Spirit uses circumstances. The only problem is when we're so dumb and we are so dumb that we think circumstances just haphazardly happened to us.

We would go a long way at the beginning of every day. If we could simply say this, Lord, I trust you today because I live in you. I believe I am exactly in the right marriage that you want. I am going to the exact job just tailor-made for me and my boss.

He is exactly how you have portioned to me. Oh, now we will start out on the right foot. Instead of, oh, it's me. Where's my resume? Who is this woman next to me? And so on and so forth. Why? Oh, when the kids grow up, then I can finally be spiritual.

Or all of these sort of things where we think circumstances have been laid upon us and God doesn't know. He's forgotten about us. Oh, but when we find ourselves in the heavenly places, we find out God has never forgotten about us.

He has prescribed these things for us and they are for our sanctification. They're for our education. Sometimes it's for us to finally stand up and say in Jesus name, I call it quits. The world gets in slowly, steals your soul like that old frog they put in the frying pan and start heating up the water slow until next thing you know, you're on a job where you're making so much money and you can't even enjoy the money because you're working 90 hours a week and they've got your soul.

Well, the Lord even allowed that to happen to you. And if he delivers you, don't jump from the frying pan into the fire with another high power job that involves your soul and your right arm. So if we don't learn from these trials we go through, well, then we'll have to repeat it and lap around the wilderness another time.

Spiritual Warfare Behind Fellowship Conflicts

Now this becomes crucially important. As a matter of fact, it can be the life and death of a fellowship, understanding the dimensions of spiritual warfare, because I don't know. It's just who we are, that when the going gets tough, we blame one another and we wrestle against flesh and blood.

Whether it's a family conflict, whether it's a fellowship conflict, we really are stupid enough to think it's the other people. That's the problem. Oh Lord, deliver us from brother so-and-so and then we'll all be free.

And until we realize we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but there are forces behind the scenes that are out to destroy anything that bears a testimony about Jesus, redemption, unity, and what he can do.

We have to become wise in this matter of spiritual warfare in the progress of our spiritual life. Can I just put it this way? As we mentioned yesterday, this matter of quickening, raising an ascension.

Let me just say something like this. When we begin as new Christians, our lives are almost completely outward, aren't they? When I got saved at 20 years old, I was so thankful that he saved me from the sins I committed that I could recount very clearly.

And I was so glad I could say he saved me and he started changing my outward conduct. You know, I was a smoker and a cursor and a wise guy and a liar and slowly but surely God started changing that outward conduct.

And I said, man, am I becoming a perfect Christian or what? I was even doing the thing that only monks and nuns did. I was reading the Bible and yet my inner life had hardly been touched at all. Yes, I had been quickened, but my my whole deliverance was from outward things, bad friends, all of this.

This is what really being a Christian is all about. Then the Lord touched my inner life, showed me the nature of sin in me, and now I had to be brought to resurrection because that killed me. When I saw my old man, I got very self-conscious and then I tried to hide the old man.

You know, I'd hold my breath when people came around. Maybe they wouldn't know who he is. I refined, I reformed my old man. You know, I tried to use flowery words, but the same old, proud, arrogant, pushy, domineering, whatever, personality guy.

And what a process. Understanding that the cross is our deliverance from the old man and finding that deliverance and that tripping over into that exchange life where you actually sense this light inside.

That's resurrection. You've been raised up with Christ. I asked yesterday, have you experienced that where you sense there's a heavenly life within? This is the amazing thing. I'm walking on earth. There's a heavenly life within actually to have a heavenly motive at least once a month.

I actually care about somebody else more than myself. This is miraculous. That's a heavenly life within. And now you're living on a new plane, you see, and that's the sort of the second stage in our lives when we realize it's not I, but it's Christ.

That's the key. That's the center. That's the focus of my Christian life. And you start, but we still haven't come to ascendancy yet. You see, there's still something more that has to happen. The Lord has to deal in our lives yet more and yet more.

Ephesus as a Model of Church Building and Spiritual Conflict

And very often we find this matter of spiritual conflict as being one of the ways that he brings us in. Now we read the passage in Acts because it was only recently in studying this book of Acts that I realized and I sort of saw the flow of Luke's account in the book of Acts.

Of course, you realize that Ephesus was the last church that Paul constructed from the ground up, as it were, and that he spent a large amount of time with because shortly after that, he made a little trip up into Greece and everything went back to Jerusalem and was jailed.

Ephesus was his, the church that was built with the greatest wisdom in master building. It was, in fact, while he was in Ephesus that he wrote to the Corinthians, I, as a wise master builder, laid the foundation.

It can only be Jesus Christ. And we mentioned yesterday that even Paul in his life is continuing to progress in his clarity regarding spiritual things. And as he comes to Ephesus and the church begins to be built there, he has a wisdom there that has been accumulated through his ministry in the past.

And we see a wonderful church being established. This church, he didn't just work with the Gentiles and say, I kicked the dust off my feet from the Jewish synagogue and work with. No, no. He took the Jews out of the synagogue that were saved, and he brought the Jews and Gentiles together in beautiful oneness.

He laid that foundation. He laid such a foundation as he worked three years there in Ephesus that the church had first love. They loved the Lord at the church had revelation. They saw much deeper, so deep he could write this letter to the Ephesians.

Not only that, but during that three years in his wisdom, he had raised up some brothers besides Timothy, other young men in the area, sending them out, bringing them back, sharing with them, working with them as they preach the gospel in Laodicea, Hierapolis, Colossi and other places.

It was like a work center. There was so much going on there. This was the quintessential church building work. This was the high watermark of Paul's active building work as an apostle. As I say, after that, he's thrown in jail.

And though he visited churches afterwards, this was the last original, we might say, work. And Paul and so Luke emphasizes this and shows us something. The one thing I want to say that is so clear is how much spiritual conflict is involved in building the church.

It was also while he was in Ephesus and wrote to the Corinthians that he made it clear that even preaching the gospel was a spiritual warfare against the God of this world who blinds the mind, the eyes of the unbelievers.

And as he worked there in Ephesus, we saw, as we read in the book of Acts, this this story. And what was the story? Frankly, it was a story of spiritual conflict after spiritual conflict where he took his stand with the brethren and God gained the victory and a greater response happened and the word of God was spread more effectively and the spirit had victory.

So what did we see? We saw that many great acts were done as demons were coming out of people. There was spiritual oppression there and evil spirits. And that can only be dealt with brothers and sisters by being filled with the spirit and under the blood of Jesus.

Part of the work of building the church, especially in the area of preaching the gospel, is understanding the spiritual conflict with demonic elements that were being cast out, it says, even by the handkerchiefs that were going from the presence of Paul.

And he also had to deal with the spiritual counterfeits of these exorcists who were exercising in the name of Jesus, but without the reality of Jesus. And he saw that, you know, when you're building the church, there is counterfeit ministry that has to be exposed.

And in that exposing fear came upon people because they saw this Jesus doesn't allow people to fool around. And suddenly people started coming, confessing their sins and asking for salvation. And then those who would practice witchcraft, a whole other occult dimension of spiritual conflict came into play as people brought their magic books and burned them, bringing forth the ire of all kinds of occult worshippers and practicers and idol makers.

And then finally, I believe that this whole matter of Artemis, where they went into the great theater in Ephesus. You know, I said I was a brother, Christian Chen, we went to the theater in Ephesus where it holds probably 60 ,000 people and you can hear without the aid of microphone in the 60 ,000 people auditorium.

And so we went in there and brother Christian asked me if I could pretend I was the apostle Paul and get up in the middle of this theater and preach. I shared my testimony, how I turned from false gods and came to Jesus as my savior.

I stood there without microphone and there were 5 ,000 tourists up there. They all stopped and listened to every word. Well, you know, of course, now in the story in the book of Acts, Paul never got to go into the theater.

The Christian friends wouldn't let him go in, but they dragged in the other Christian guys and Demetrius is up there propounding, oh, this Paul, what a terrible man. He's bringing people away from sin and into Jesus.

It's terrible. Terrible. And the worst thing about it is behind Artemis, the great temple of Artemis. Now, I didn't realize this. You know, you need a complicated person like Christian Chen to tell you all these facts.

When we were in Athens, looking at the Parthenon, you've all seen pictures of the Parthenon. The temple to Artemis in Ephesus was four times as large as the Parthenon. It was the largest temple and the seventh wonder of the world in the ancient times.

And this goddess Artemis was not only an idol, she was the principality in power over Asia Minor. And in the process of preaching the gospel in Ephesus, they touched that principality over that whole area and that principality yelled and in the end chased Paul away.

It's interesting in church tradition, by the way, a second century tradition. It says that John, the apostle, later came to Ephesus, which we know is true. And he went into the temple of Artemis and he says, Jesus Christ is Lord.

And the author broken half of Artemis. Now, whether that's true or not, I can't say these traditions are spectacular and all of these things. But the fact that there was spiritual warfare against Artemis is true.

Don't think it's a statue with no power behind it. People say, oh, what's the problem with having a little idol in the home? The idols of St. Confusion. I've got the idol there. I have it dangling from my front view mirror.

What's the problem of St. Confusion? It's never the idol, it's the power behind that most people don't even realize. Now, Paul came to see in his building of the church that he preached the gospel and relied on the Holy Spirit, but he did spiritual warfare there in Ephesus.

Now read that account. It's full of spiritual encounter after spiritual encounter and victory after victory. And every encounter led to a greater victory and more people were saved. That is the nature of church building gospel work.

A Personal Encounter With Spiritual Opposition

It's an eye opener when we see how much we need the power of the Holy Spirit. I'll never forget. It was 1971 and I was down in Times Square as a young pastor at that time of a Baptist church from Long Island.

I snuck into the city. Actually, Brother Ernie also snuck in there with me. And there was a brother named Arthur Blessed, who was an evangelist. And he was spending the summer preaching the gospel in Times Square.

Many people got saved. And I went in there on a number of occasions and joined with him as I played my guitar and people would sing, you know, and then he preached the gospel. He was an amazing preacher.

He was a street preacher, but he was amazing. He'd catch people's attention. We didn't start the meetings until people came out of the Broadway shows. 1030 at night when the meeting started until 2 a .m.

This is when he did it right there. And now where that tickets place is used to be Duffy Square. So he was there. Well, I'll never forget one night I went in there and Arthur wasn't there. His assistant was there.

Very nice guy. We sang some songs. This nice guy stood up with the bullhorn to start to preach. He got five minutes into it and this woman stood up and said, I defy you to say that. How can you prove that?

And she started rattling around and talking. And you know what? The man couldn't continue. He said, just pray, brothers and sisters. And she ruined the little gospel meeting. She was a demon powered woman.

Now, at that point, of course, 10 Christians were sick on her, you know, when I do it, how are you talking about? How could you say that? Let the guy alone, let him speak. And she's talking and talking and talking.

Now, by that time, I'm walking around behind. I'm curious. And there's a crowd of 40 people in front of her. And she's talking this way. I'm walking behind her. I'm telling you, this is the truth. I'm just walking by and looking.

And she's talking to somebody and she spins like she spins and says, you know, man of God, what are you doing here? I tell you, you know, color went out of my face. My heart was down in my shoes. How I wish I could say, I said, drop that lady down.

You know, I was so caught off guard and so ill equipped. All I could do was I stood there and stared at her. I stared at her. I wouldn't let her eyes go off my eye. And she stopped talking and left. Now I'm not talking about this was no great victory, believe me.

But what it was, was a moment of reality. Now I'm driving home a half hour later, my hands are shaking. And the Lord said to me, unless my brothers and sisters know what it means to be filled with the spirit, you might as well pack up your bags and leave from a place like New York city.

If we think we can just walk in on principalities and powers and walk right through without static conflict, stoppages, problems, we're just foolish. This great conflict out there. And it scared me into a humbly asking the Lord, well, forgive me for ever saying I am filled with spirit.

I want to know more of your Holy Spirit. It's going to take that in these last days for all of us. It's not just New York city. And the last days we need to know what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

If this is the case, then we as brothers and sisters together, not as lone Rangers. Of course, in that day, I was a Baptist pastor and that means a lone Ranger. It was me. Now I have brothers and sisters.

I wouldn't dare go somewhere alone and try to do something against the devil, principalities and powers. But you stand together with the Lord's people who are praying in the spirit. And then the Lord can do something.

The Heavenly Realm and Christ’s Authority

Now, there's an interesting aspect to the book of Ephesians, and it has to do with this progress, this progress in Paul's life, where he is seeing more and more the dynamics of the spiritual reality before him.

And as a result of it, when he writes this letter to the Ephesians, he has to find a phrase to explain a reality that's become clearer and clearer to him. How do I explain this reality that I see clearer and clearer as I'm looking at the unseen instead of concentrating at the scene?

There's this reality. What do we call it? And we find springing forth from his mind this phrase that's called five times in the book of Ephesians, the heavenly. That's the only time it's used in the Bible.

But Paul has come to the place where he's realized if we are to know and experience spiritual ascendancy, it all begins with a recognition of this realm called the heavenly. Now, your Bible might have it put in italics afterwards places as my Bible does, but it actually just says the heavenly.

And I'd like for us to look at the five places just so you can see it. And in verse three, we see in chapter one that right immediately that part of our great problem as Christians is we not only began with an outward sense of our salvation, but we also have an outward sense of we're almost like Jews expecting financial prosperity because we've become Christians.

And to this, Paul says, blessed be the God father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies. Well, where is that? Do you want to cash in on your spiritual blessings?

They're all located in the heavenlies. Well, that's not down at your local bank. And he's not saying, blessed is God who blesses us with every material blessing, every spiritual blessing in this place called the heavenlies.

And then we see, as he's talking about what happened to Christ in verse 19 of chapter one, the second occurrence of this phrase. And what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe these are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might, which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenlies far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

We go on and see in chapter three and verse 10, that the church has a testimony in the heavenlies so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenlies.

And then the other one I wanted to touch on is there in verse 12 of chapter six. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heaven.

Now, I want to attempt to paint a little picture of this heavenly, this heavenly sphere, this spiritual sphere, because it's helped me. I grew up also with the Greco Roman idea of heaven or with the Babylonian idea of heaven.

Up there in the clouds, the celestial city, you can see, you know, one of Walt Disney's castles rising up above the clouds, and that's where we're all going. Streets of gold up in the heavenlies. Wonderful for me, a feeling of weightlessness.

We're up there forever, sort of going around and having a wonderful time. It's all very celestial. We've learned to breathe thin air and everything is crystal white and wonderful gold and all of this idea of heaven, which, by the way, brothers and sisters, is nowhere in the Bible.