Our text for this week is Ephesians 2:1-7:
In which you formerly walked according to the course of the world, according to the prince of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging in the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
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,
in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
For eternity we will be uncovering layer after layer of the revelation of God’s unfathomable ways—His grace and love that is revealed through the cross. Even though we walked in all of the evil that required God Himself to suffer because of our sin, He not only forgave us and saved us, but He enabled us to sit with Him on His throne.
A few days ago I was talking with a friend who is a king in Ghana, West Africa. In our conversation, he explained that when he is in his domain and sits on his throne, no one may approach him unless he invites them to. To him, the fact that the Lord has given us an open invitation to come boldly into His presence before His throne of grace was more than just amazing to him. That the Lord would also allow us to sit with Him on His throne, which means nothing less than to actually share His authority, was almost incomprehensible. This is probably one of the most difficult truths for all Christians to comprehend.
It stretches our faith just to grasp the fact that we can boldly come before the throne of the King of kings at any time. It is even more of stretch for us to believe that we can actually sit with Him on it, which means nothing less than to share His power! However, we must go beyond believing this to actually doing it if we are going to fulfill our purpose on this earth.
If we are to ever comprehend this great truth, we must begin with ceasing to try and earn it. We will never, in ourselves, be worthy of the greatest of honors and greatest of responsibilities. Jesus attained this for us. This is not something that He is doing grudgingly, but He wants us to sit with Him in His seat of authority so much that He endured the shame and the pain of the cross for it. If the Lord wants us to have it so much, why doesn’t He make it easier? Why does He require us to do this by faith, rather than send an honor guard of angels to escort us to our seat with Him?
The Lord requires us to come to Him by faith because of Satan. Satan fell because he wanted that seat so badly that he tried to seize it by his own power. True faith is in Jesus, not ourselves, and not in our own faith. True faith is therefore growing in dependence on Jesus. As we grow in faith in Him and what He accomplished on the cross, not how righteous we are becoming, or what we have accomplished, He can trust us with more power and authority because we will only exercise it in unity with Him. Our calling is not to sit on His throne, but to sit with Him on His throne.
Jesus did not do anything except what He saw the Father doing. He walked in union with His Father. We too must do the same with Him. We only have true spiritual authority to the degree that we are abiding in Him. The angels do not respect us and the demons do not obey us because of who we are, but because of Who is in us.
As our text today declares, if we are abiding in Him we will not continue to do the things that we used to do when we were in unity with Satan and his ways. If we are abiding in the light we will not continue to do the deeds of darkness, but rather our days will be filled with light, truth, and the power of the One we are sitting with. The Scriptures declare that before the end there will be a bride that is in such unity with her Bridegroom that she will demonstrate the power of His kingdom on the earth. That is your calling. Today you can be closer to Him than you have ever been before. It is your destiny.