Most believers do not practice agreement between themselves and the work of the Holy Spirit. They can be Soulish, led mostly by their feelings, and heavily influenced by rational thinking. They do not live by the Spirit because they usually use logic to talk themselves out of the spiritual dimension.
But God rarely employees a logical plan. Often, he tells us things that simply do not make rational sense. While it resonates with the inner man of our spirit, it offends the soulless nature of our own mind. Our brain then spends the next few minutes talking us out of the plan.
Spiritual warriors know that God’s plans are not like ours. They are often illogical, implausible, and sometimes completely impossible! Who else but God would send thousands of people walking around the city for 6 days in complete silence? Who else but God would conceive of a plan to bring a wall down by shouting at it? You and I would have built catapults, ramps, ladders, and battering rams. God use some vocal cords. If I gave you a prophecy to walk around the city for 7 days, shout, and watch the walls tumbled down; you would have me committed. Things that God says supernaturally will not always make sense to our logical minds.
When we each first heard the gospel, it didn’t make complete sense to us. Yet something started to work inside of us; and whether it made sense or not, we knew we needed it. That was God digging through the mire covering our spirit, so we could feel his touch again.
To reduce the experience of God to either an intellectual or emotional process is to deny his power and make it impossible to receive His presence. In our relationship with the Holy Spirit, we are learning a language of faith. We are mastering the ability to see through a wholly different lens. God’s perceptions are heaven sent; that is, they originate in heaven and come to earth. It is a viewpoint from a higher place in a totally different dimension.
Clearly, if we are to walk with the father in his ways, then our earthbound thinking requires serious adjustment. He lives in the all things are possible realm. We live in a place of seeming impossibility. In his universe, limbs can grow back; sight can be restored along with hearing and speech; internal organs can reappear as new; and all manner of sickness, mental confusion, and emotional disorder can be fully healed.
In his realm, his abundance in heaven obliterates our poverty on earth. In his domain, we are never outclassed, overwhelmed, or overcome. No matter what is against us, we can win through his name. Impossible odds are fun to him, who loves to laugh at his enemies.
We are learning how to occupy a seat in heavenly places in Christ, so that his viewpoint of our circumstances is the one that dominates our thinking, praying, and believing. We are disciples of another realm, learning the lessons of abiding in Christ so that what is in heaven can come to earth through a relationship with the Holy Spirit.
He is our tutor from heaven. He is given to teach us the ways of heaven and earth. Through him we learn that whatever has been bound in heaven may also be bound on earth. Whatever heaven is releasing may also be loosed on earth. These are known as the keys of the kingdom – Matthew 16:19. What is not tolerated in heaven cannot be condoned on earth.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven, – Matthew 6:10 – is a significant part of the Lord’s prayer. The same kingdom must be established on earth that abides in heaven. We are citizens of heaven, while living here on earth – Philippians 3:20/Ephesians 2:19. In that place of being raised up with Christ, we seek only the things of heaven, where Christ is seated at God’s right hand – Colossians 3:1.
We are discipled by the Holy Spirit to learn to live from another dimension. He is training us to bring heaven to earth by our prayers, faith, and obedience. There are therefore important and significant lessons to be learned, if we are to be commissioned from on high.
To learn ineffectively, we must agree with our tutor – not supply him with our unbelieving curriculum. He has no theology of powerlessness. It is complete nonsense to say that we have a tutor assigned to us from heaven, but he can only teach us to be earthbound in our thinking and believing. The Holy Spirit sets us free in Christ to do greater things than he did, which was one of his extravagant promises to us.
To live in the flow of God’s outpouring, we must drink in the culture of heaven and adopt all of its character and ways. To do that best we must love our tutor. Spending time with him must become one of the highest pleasures. Attaining a lifestyle of heaven must be a joyful experience. Watching the impossible become possible is part of a normal Christian life.
Assignment – how much of your thinking is earthbound in logic and rational thought? What does the phrase – we have the mind of Christ – actually mean to your life? What agreements do you need to make with the Holy Spirit in order to be discipled from heaven?
Commission – how will you position yourself before God so that – on earth as it is in heaven – can be your usual experience? What are the ways that you need to abide in Christ in this present season? What are you learning about the language of faith and seeing in the spirit?