By Joanne Panettieri

Editor Kingdom Iconoclast

God has RAISED US

Eph. 2:6 "God has raised us with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus"

The word raised here is: sunegeivrw (Strongs 4891) and means: to raise together, to cause to raise together to raise up together from mortal death to a new and blessed life dedicated to God

The root world means to rouse from sleep, inactivity, disease or death, or figuratively from obscurity, inactivity, ruin or non-existence.

The fact that God has raised us is in the present perfect tense. The present perfect tense is used to describe an action which started in the past but is still relevant now. It is not an action which was started in the past and is finished, but it continues to be true to this present day.

COL 3:1 "If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. [2] Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. [3] For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. [4] When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory."

"If we can clearly see that we are here on earth, how is it that we can say that we have been raised up and seated with Christ in heavenly places. Do we have disappear from here in order to be there? Certainly not! Why? Because the only thing that separates us from that other realm is a thin veil. Both realms are in the same location"

My thesis is this: There is a realm in which we now live, just beyond the physical, in which we may "see" eternal things. This is not a matter of God "taking us some other place" to show us this realm but this "realm" is all around us now. For example; If we were with Paul when he was caught up to the Third Heaven when He "saw" unspeakable things, would we be aware that he left and went some other place? No! His body was on earth. In fact Paul couldn't even tell if he was in the body or not." 2

"For you have come to Mount Zion the city of the Living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem."

This is where we, as saints, actually live...... on the Mount of Assembly and like Abraham we are looking for a city not of this world, but whose builder and maker is God. Our citizenship is in Heaven with the Lord while we live as strangers here on the earth....... pilgrims and aliens, because we are just passing through the natural realm.

We are the church on the earth and in the heavenlies declaring the manifold wisdom of God to the principalities and powers in the 2nd heaven. When God raised Jesus from the dead and raised him to his exalted position at the Father's right hand, God shifted the focus of life from the earth realm to the throne realm in heaven. Jesus is now the Lord of heaven and earth, as he has conquered death, hell and the grave. Jesus ascended far above all the heavens so that he could fill the whole world and now he is the HEAD OVER ALL THINGS. (Eph 1:22).

"Seated with the cosmic Christ, sharing his throne, is the cosmic Christian. As the cosmic Christ, He is Lord, He is God. As the cosmic Christian in Christ, I am a person of cosmic power. It is His power which operates within me.

As the cosmic Christ, His sphere of operations is the entire universe. From the perspective of Scripture, however, He is seen operating exclusively with reference to humanity. Thus His operations in the heavenlies and on earth all relate to salvation history - His love for humanity.

As a cosmic Christian my sphere of operations is the same as His, that is, in the heavenlies AND on earth. I am seated with Him in the heavenlies; I am also indwelt by him on earth". 3 You may ask how this translates into real life. We are to be the representation of and expression of Christ in the earth! We are to be the manifestation of HIS presence to all those around us.

"As He is so are we in the world." 1 John 4: 17, one body, with many parts. God is not in the business of playing "church" with us. He is in the business of building HIS KINGDOM. We must be about our Father's business and be Kingdom builders! As we listen to the sound of his voice and obey what he commands us to do we enter his rest. It is only then that we will walk into our destiny, and BE the sound of HIS voice to this lost world.

Joanne Panettieri

http://iconoclast.weebly.com/a-heavenly-citizenship-in-the-third-day.html