McIntyre Throne Life

Sharing Christ's Throne
1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-0-9778338-6-3
Verlag: Empowering Grace Ministries
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 118 Seiten

Throne Life is an exposition of the believer's union with Christ on His throne. What the apostle Paul called the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. This book unfolds the truth about this high calling and gives practical insights into the process of entering in.

Autoren/Hrsg.

McIntyre, Joe

Leseproben

Chapter One

What is Throne Life?

Jesus invites us to share with Him in the glory of His enthronement at the Father’s right hand. This is not some high spiritual accomplishment for an elite class of believers, but rather the privilege and inheritance of every believer. The fact that many of God’s children have not entered in to this standing in grace does not prove that it is not for all. The fullness of God’s blessings are already ours in Christ (Ephesians 1:3), awaiting our comprehension and appropriation.

Revelation 3:21

To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

John is writing to the Church at Laodicea, which was lukewarm and self satisfied, and yet Jesus offers them a participation in His throne. John exhorts them to be zealous and repent and He will open the door to the throne for them to join Him.

Jesus said that the overcomer would be enthroned with Him and enjoy His victory. John tells us that this overcoming is for every believer.

1 John 5:4

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith.

If we are Born Again, we are born of God. If we are born of God, we are (at least potentially) constantly coming off victorious. (Wuest’s Expanded Translation of 1 John 5:5) And the key to this victorious life is our faith. Faith possesses what grace gives. Grace has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. (2 Peter 1:3) As our faith is developed, we take hold of our glorious inheritance in Christ. You are predestined to be conformed to the image of God’s Son. Since God’s Son is an overcomer, then - at least potentially – so are you as well. You may not feel like one and your present level of spirituality may not reflect this fully. But if you are a believer, you have the potential to walk as an overcomer. As your mind is renewed and your faith grows, you can enter this overcoming life.

So often, when the Word speaks of great things we may participate in, our theologians have told us that it is for another age. “This is for the millennium,” they say. “That was for the early Church,” some would insist. “You are practicing triumphalism,” others add. But I would suggest to you that, as Paul said, all the promises of God are Yes and Amen in Christ now. (2 Corinthians1:20) I question the wisdom of postponing the riches that are ours in Christ to the next age. Let’s take hold of them by faith now.

Death Minded

In an honest desire to honor the cross of Christ, many have majored on His death. “Christ died for your sins and you can be saved” we tell folks. And as true as that is, we have unwittingly missed a major aspect of the gospel. Christ surely did die for our sins, but if He hadn’t risen we would still be in our sins. It shocks many Christians to realize that in the preaching of the early Church, as we see in the book of Acts, there is no mention of them preaching that Christ died for their sins.4

Christ did, of course, die for our sins, but He arose to bring us to God and put us in right standing with the Father. “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

Christ’s work was not finished when He died on the cross, but rather when He presented His blood in the heavenly sanctuary.

Hebrews 9:12

Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

Jesus took the blood He shed on the cross to heaven, into the heavenly Holy of Holies, and sealed the New Covenant. This was foreshadowed in the Old Covenant when the high priest presented the blood of the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement. It was not the slaying of the sacrifice in the outer court that accomplished the atonement, but the bringing of the blood into the Holy of Holies that indicated that God has accepted the atoning sacrifice. In the same manner Jesus entered with His blood into the heavenly sanctuary to complete the work begun in the outer court – His death on the cross.

The reason this is significant for this study is that the early Church was focused on a victorious, triumphant Savior, who had overcome death and was now enthroned in heaven, with all authority in heaven and earth given to Him. We are transformed as we behold – by the Holy Spirit – the glory of the resurrected Lord.

2 Corinthians 3:18

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Notice that our transformation comes as a result of our focus on the glory of the resurrected Lord, not His death. As wonderful as His sacrifice was, we are to move in our focus to the glory of His resurrection and enthroning. We are identified with Him in His enthroning.

Our Identification with Christ

Much of the doctrinal confusion in the body of Christ today comes from a lack of understanding of Paul’s revelation. The backbone of Paul’s teaching is the fact that we were participants in all that Jesus endured.

• We were crucified with Him. Rom. 6:6: Gal. 2:20: Gal. 6:14
• We died with Him. 2 Cor. 5:14, 15; Col. 2:20; Rom. 6:8; Col. 3:3; Rom. 6:10, 11
• We were buried with Him. Rom. 6:4; Col. 2:12
• We were made alive with Him. Col. 2:13; Eph. 2:5
• We were raised with Him. Col. 3:1; Eph. 2:6
• We were seated (or enthroned) with Him. Eph. 2:6
• We were anointed with Him. Heb.1:9; Acts 2:33
• We will be manifested with Him. Col. 3:4; Rom. 8:19

We have been identified with Christ in His Finished Work. All that He did, He did for us. His victory is our victory. His defeat of Satan is our defeat of Satan. His authority over demonic forces is ours. His freedom to come before the Father is ours as well. All of the above quoted Scriptures are divine fact. They are Realities. They are now ours. They were freely given to us in the grace of God.

But they must be possessed. Paul exhorted us to “fight the good fight of faith.” (1 Timothy 6:12) It is a good fight because Jesus has already won the decisive battle. We are enforcing His defeat of Satan and evil forces in His name. We are His representatives clothed with His presence and power. We are dressed in armor that protects us in the battle. As one translator puts it “having overcome all, stand.” Another says “having conquered all, stand.” Our destiny is victory but it doesn’t happen automatically. We must possess it by an aggressive faith.

All Things Center in Christ

The goal of the universe and the culmination of God’s purpose is to bring all things under the headship of Christ. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess the Lordship of Christ.

Philippians 2:9-11

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

We are to go forth in His name and extend His reign. He has all authority now. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end.

Ephesians 1:9-11 Weymouth

When He made known to us the secret of His will. And this is in harmony with God’s merciful purpose for the government of the world when the times are ripe for it--the purpose which He has cherished in His own mind of restoring the whole creation to find its one Head in Christ; yes, things in Heaven and things on earth, to find their one Head in Him.

Everything that has been created has been created by Jesus. All things were brought forth by Him.

Colossians 1:16-17

For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

It is the Father’s purpose to bring all things back under the headship of Christ. What we have sometimes failed to see is that we are an important factor in Him accomplishing this purpose. Our overcoming and taking our place enthroned with Him is necessary to fulfill all of God’s plan. Christ shall reign until all His enemies are under His feet. We are the Body of Christ. The feet are in the Body. The feet are the part of the Body that walks the earth.

Our Revelation Determines Our Personal Experience

We do not enter into experientially any more than we perceive by revelation. It is the job of the Holy Spirit to bring us into this revelation. He delights to unfold the riches that are ours in Christ. He has been given to guide us into all Truth.

1 Corinthians 2:12

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

All that we have in Christ has been freely given to us in grace by the Father. He delights for us to enter into His glorious provisions. The Spirit within us longs to unfold these riches to us and enable us to walk in them....