We can be so full of God’s presence that all things become possible through him. We are an unstoppable force when we develop confidence in his goodness. The promise of Isaiah 40: 28 -31 becomes ours to possess:
Isaiah 40: 28-have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might he increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young man shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like Eagles, they shall run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weary.
There is a tangible reality in our relationship with scripture that must bring us into a physical manifestation of the presence of God. If this is not the case, how can we say that we have a relationship with a personal savior? The word of God must have an impact upon us physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
The word of God must affect us in a holistic manner, otherwise it makes no sense.
Psalm 107: 20 he sent his word and healed.
Proverbs 4: 22-the word is health to all their body.
Hebrews 4: 12-the word is living and active.
John 1: 14-the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Colossians 1: 27 Christ in us the hope (profound realization) of glory.
The very idea that God’s word has only a partial effect upon his people is anathema to the true gospel of Jesus Christ. The concept that there could be a full gospel experience for the early church but not for today’s believers would lead us to think that the Father loved that church more than the present one. What does it mean for us to be made in the image of God? What does heaven on earth look like? What does being Christ like mean? Is It only in character that we get to become like him?
1 John 4: 17-as he is, so are we in this world. Surely this means as he is now in heaven, not as he was then on earth. Now, he stands in the presence of God as the exact representation of the father. At some point, we must abandon our rational western mindset and accept that the word of God is for the whole person, to enable us to have encounters and experiences that affect the sum total of all that we are in Jesus. Anything less is not a so great salvation. It is measure, not fullness. It is mediocre, not abundant. Such a salvation is not glorious because there is no possibility of God receiving great glory from it.
As the people of God, we are defined by our promises, prophecies and all of the possibilities of life in the Spirit that exist in the heart of an all powerful God. He does not get weary, and therefore neither should we! He gives power to the weak and increased strength to those who have no might. We expect that, and we pray for it as a matter of course.
However, when we enter the secret place of abiding in the Lord, we encounter a much different proposition. Those who practice waiting on the Lord have another place of encounter that supersedes the other.
The place of encounter in Christ supersedes any other.
Strength is renewed constantly. We can rise up and soar in the Spirit. We are weightless, like an eagle on the wind. Life becomes effortless when we are with Christ in heavenly places. We can ride the thermals of the Holy Spirit. We get to increase our speed spiritually. We access a divide acceleration. We discover the ability to move faster and travel further in shorter periods of time. We encounter a quickening spirit in the form of Jesus (1Corinthians 15: 45) moving at a more pronounced speed in our conscious fellowship with the father. The second man is a quickening spirit. Jesus did not come to restore us to the garden of Eden. That was the first Adams relationship, which was with God on earth.
We are a new creation, all the old things are passed away, everything has become new, and all these things are of God (2 Corinthians 5: 17-18). What does new creation mean? It means a new race of people that have never been seen in the earth before! In the Old Covenant, believers had the Holy Spirit upon them. People served a God who lived among them, but he was never in them, in the sense of abiding.
In Christ, the New Covenant produces a people who are vastly different. God lives in us! He abides and dwells within. We can hear his voice, know His will personally, and move in his power. We have access to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4: 16). We are seated with him in heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1: 20 and 2: 6). We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places (Ephesians 1: 3). We bear the image of the heavenly (1 Corinthians 15: 49).
There has never been a people like us at any time of the world’s existence. We are a brand-new creation. David saw it coming when he wrote Psalm 102: 18-this will be written for a generation to come, that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord.
1 Peter 2: 9- We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that we may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Colossians 3: 3-we are dead, and our life is hidden with Christ in God.
Roman 6: 11-Even so, we consider ourselves to be dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus
All our favor is tied into the new creation and not the old. The father, knowing that our old nature is dead only relates to our new nature in Christ. Therefore, when he looks at us, he does not see what is wrong with us. He sees what is missing from our current experience in Christ, and he is deeply committed to our ongoing encounter.
Ephesians 4: 15-we are learning to grow up in all things in Christ.
Our relationship is to live in the second man who is occupied with the Father in heavenly places in Christ. It is a completely different relational paradigm that gives us a stronger connection and access to the heavenly places. We are not earthbound in our spiritual walk but have a huge array of possible encounters with God available to us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Like an eagle, we are free to fly, not just to explore earth from a heavenly perspective, but also to encounter heaven in the context of all that the father has called us to establish on earth!
We see it constantly in the Old Testament, where people had encounters with God that empowered incredible victories against impossible odds, experiences of the Kingdom realm that overwhelmed the properties of our natural world: the sun standing still in the sky for 24 hours, water parting to allow passage, raising of the dead, miraculous provisions, axe heads floating. All around them also were amazing encounters with God, angels and the heavenly realm. This was under the Old Covenant, supposedly lesser then the new. It is a type of the new, which would be fully revealed in the Lord Jesus. That is why he came saying you have heard it said, but now I say unto you.