Seated in the Heavenlies

Lessons from Ephesians

In the very beginning of the book of Ephesians Paul makes a profound statement that deserves our full attention.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” (Eph 1:3)

Notice the word blessing is used three times by Paul to convey his main point. And the main point is that the believers at Ephesus (and us!) have been blessed with every blessing in the heavenly places. That is quite the loaded statement! We should not brush over the word “blessing” so easily. The the Old Testament we see God blessing the likes of Noah, Abraham and so on. God did not and still doesn’t take blessing lightly and nor should we.

The Greek word for blessing in our Ephesians text is eulogeō and comes from two root word εὖ  “well, well done, good” and λόγος  (logos) “word, saying, account.” So to be blessed by God is a tremendous thing. It means we have His favor and His goodness is upon us. But Paul went even farther: he declared they were blessed with every spiritual blessing. The important thing is where that blessing is: in HEAVENLY places.

What is heavenly places? It may sound mystical to some but it simply means being in the Holy Spirit. Let’s look a bit farther in Ephesians to get a clearer picture.

At the end of Ephesians 1 Paul prays one of his 4 “epistle prayers.” Starting in verse 19 he talks about the power that is toward us who believe:

“and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places. (vv.19-20)

And now, see this, we too are seated right there with Jesus in the heavenly places! Imagine that! Paul continues his revelation on this and see yourself in it.

“Even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Eph 2:5-6)

Notice all the work is done by God. He “made us alive,” raised us up together” and “made us sit together in the heavenly places.” We cannot, somehow on our own, climb our way to the heavenly places. We have been placed there by Jesus dying and being raised to life. So we also see that being seated in the heavenly places is a matter of position. He has appointed us to that place. And we were meant to rule in that place with Christ. See this profound statement Paul makes:

“to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.” (Eph 3:9)

The manifold (many sided, colored, varied) wisdom of God is made known by the church (us) to the principalities and powers (demonic entities) in the heavenly places. What an honor from God!

Lastly, we are commissioned by God to wrestle against principalities in the heavenly places.

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Eph 6:12)

This wrestling is done in the Spirit and empowered by God. This is a battle fought from a seated position. When we remain seated in the heavenly places we operate from a place of strength and authority.