There are two kinds of men on this planet: Christ, the new man, and Adam, the old man-beauty and the beast!
And he [Solomon] said, Lord God of Israel, there is no God like Thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with Thy servants that walk before Thee with all their heart (1Kings 8:23).
The way of life winds upward for the wise, that he may turn away from hell [death] below (Proverbs 15:24, NKJV).
And He [Jesus] said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world (John 8:23).
The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:47-49).
The literal Greek rendering of the latter verse is, "so let us now put on and wear as a garment or a piece of armor the image of the heavenly."
Heaven is from above. Earth is from beneath.
Christ is from above. Adam is from beneath.
The fruit of the Spirit is from above (Gal. 5:22-24).
The works of the flesh are from beneath (Gal. 5:19-21).
Righteousness, peace, and joy are from above (Rom.14:17).
Unrighteousness, war, and sorrow are from beneath.
Sexual sins, evil habits, gluttony and drunkenness, gossip,
jealousy, envy, strife, peer pressure, the love of money
power struggles (civil or ecclesiastical), insecurity, any sense
of insignificance or inferiority, unrighteous anger, law suits,
political correctness, any and all kinds of prejudice, all
thoughts of retaliation and revenge, any sort of demonic
activity, fear or timidity in any form- all this is from
beneath- the realm of death and hell (Prov. 15:24).
In Christ, we have been called to live above all the junk and stuff. Preachers, we cannot focus on those lower realms. We cannot speak from beneath-you get what you preach, and you preach what you are. We are to prophesy from the heavens, the place of the ascended life, life more abundantly (John 10:10). We are to bring Heaven to earth (Matt. 6:10).
He is not beneath. He is not "down there" in the lower realms of our whining and complaining, our self-pity, our weakness. This is tough, but He isn’t going there! When you throw your pity party, He will not come, nor will any of His servants. There is nothing "down there" but death and hell.
Are you sick and tired of being bound by earthly things? We can live "down there" in Adam, or "up here" in Christ. We can live the high calling. We can now enjoy the secrets of the ascended life. Choose wisely.
He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all (John 3:31).
The Ascended One and those who live the ascended life in Him are above the cares of lif e. Stuff is not on top of us. We are on top of it.
Jesus knew that all religion, pictured by the Pharisees of his day, was "beneath" (John 8:23). This adverb is kato and it means, "downwards; below." It is also translated in the King James Version as "bottom, down, under." When Jesus said, "I am from above," He was standing right here on this planet (compare John 3:13).
The Message Bible gives a powerful rendering of this truth:
Jesus said, "You're tied down to the mundane; I'm in touch with what is beyond your horizons. You live in terms of what you see and touch. I'm living on other terms.
I told you that you were missing God in all this. You're at a dead end. If you won't believe I am who l say I am, you're at the dead end of sins. You're missing God in your lives" (John 8:23-24, The Message Bible).
But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code (Romans 7:6, NIV). Compare Romans 6:4.
His death was our death.. As new creatures (2 Cor. 5:17), we have now arisen to walk with Him in “newness" (renewal) of life, and serve Him in "newness" of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (John 3:6).
...shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the
Father of spirits, and live? (Hebrews 12:9).
As Christians, we are essentially spirit, not human. I am not a human being trying to have a spiritual experience. I am a spirit being of which God Almighty the Father is trying to put up with a human experience. We are eagle saints. We have never fit, and never will. Like God, we are spirit, have a soul, and are expressed through a body. We live in the
Spirit, far above. This is the ascended life.
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:1-3, NIV).
RAISED UP IN THE THIRD DAY
Jesus was raised from the dead on the "third day" (Matt.16:21; Acts 10:40; 1 Cor. 15:3-4)
Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up. After two days will He revive us: in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth (Hosea 6:1-3).
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day (2 Peter 3:8).
We are privileged to live in the dawning of a new day. This new day is the Third Day from Jesus and the Seventh Day from Adam (Jude 1:14). This key passage from Hosea heralds the ascended life.
The word for "return" in Hosea 6:1 is shoob , and it means, "to turn back; again; to bring back, to restore, to refresh, to repair." These are tremendous days of restoration and reformation.
And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten... (Joel2:25).
From the days of Martin Luther (1517) to the present, the Lord has been restoring to His true Church the years that manmade religious tradition has consumed.
After "two days," after 2,000 years, He has promised to "revive" us. He is quickening us, restoring us to life and health. "In" (during) the Third Day He has determined to "raise us up." He has roused us from sleep and empowered us to stand up again.
Now we "live in His sight," literally, "in His face," His presence. We are ascending. We are being raised up to "follow on," to run after the Lord in the Most Holy Place. We met with Him as our Savior in the Outer Court (Acts 4:12). We experienced Him as Baptizer in the Holy Ghost in the Holy Place (Matt. 3:11; Acts 1:5; 2:1-4). Now we meet with Him yet a third time as Lord as He raises us up in the Feast of Tabernacles (Deut. 16:16).
The ascended life is His life. The virtue of the indwelling Christ (Col. 1:27) empowers us to ascend into the heights of Zion.
The ascended life is the high calling. The ascended life is His life. Christ is from above. Adam is from beneath. God is raising us up in the Third Day.
The ascended life is revealed throughout both Testaments. Every major Old Testament type points to Jesus, the ascended One. He is the Antitype, the fulfillment of every Old Testament shadow. Jesus is the Substance. He is the once-for-all offering that consummates every Old Testament sacrifice, especially the Burnt Offering, less commonly known as the Ascending Offering.
