Yesterday we were discovering that, as we thank the Lord that ‘in Christ’ we are now seated in the heavenly realm, we can expect to become more and more aware of what Jesus Himself is praying for us. We know too that because the indwelling Holy Spirit is praying in us and for us, we can pray with greater confidence than ever, ‘Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as in heaven’. Being seated with Christ enables us to catch what is in God’s heart, so that we will be praying in agreement with heaven more and more. This then brings us onto the next blessing that is ours as we grasp the significance of having been seated with Christ in this way, Ephesians 2:6,7.
The clue is in that word ‘seated’. Jesus was raised up from the dead and seated at the Fathers right hand. He is seated because His work is finished. He has won the victory and we are told that ‘having provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven’ Hebrews 1:3. He has finished His work on earth but also, because He has been raised from the tomb to the throne, He is now in that place of supreme authority. He is now ‘far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one that is to come’. Ephesians 1:20,21.
In the following verses, 22 and 23, Paul underscores again how much authority Jesus now has. He writes ‘and God has placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head of the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way’. Here then is an amazing mystery that somehow, because we too are raised up with Christ and seated with Him in the heavenly realm, because we are ‘in Christ’, we share His authority.
When we pray ‘in Jesus name’ it is a little like the old fashioned policeman, who would say on arriving at a potential crime scene “Open up in the name of the Law”. That man may have had no other strength or weapon to hand other than that he was in a uniform and was therefore carrying the authority of the governors and law makers of the land. By using that phrase ‘In the name of the law’, he invoked a delegated authority far greater than his own.
We are now Christ’s body on earth. We don’t have a policeman’s uniform but we are clothed in His righteousness, and we are told that His body, is in some mystical way ‘the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way’. When Jesus declared to Peter that he was going to build His Ekklesia and that the gates of hell would not be strong enough or able to withstand it, Matthew 16:18, He was letting Peter know something of the authority that His people were going to carry on the earth, the delegated authority that is ours because we have been raised with Christ and seated with Him in the heavenly realm.
We will explore more of this authority tomorrow but for today, when we next pray ‘in Jesus name,’ let us do it with thanksgiving in our hearts that we are seated with Him in that place of authority. Our thanksgiving will remind us of our position, and increase the faith in our hearts that those words convey more to the enemy than we have perhaps yet realised.
