What Does It Mean To Be Seated In Heavenly Realms?

The question is often asked, “how can we be seated with Christ in the heavenly realms if we are still here upon this earth?” Let’s look at what Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:4-7

But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶ And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

The Theory of the Spiritual Position
Some teachers of the Bible believe that this is a spiritual position. The idea is that though we are living in the physical realm and experiencing natural realities, our spirit “in Christ” is seated in the exalted spiritual realm known also as “heavenly places”. This is supposedly the spiritual realm of Christ’s victories and therefore, you are expected to live in His favor and victory on earth.

Does your spirit need to leave your body to enter into the heavenly realms? Some teachers have the idea that is very similar to Plato’s dualism (but not in its entirety). If my understanding of what they believe is correct, then they are saying that the body and spirit are two separate entities and can exist in different spheres. So, the spirit is “seated” in the heavenly realms with Christ while the body on earth is being directed by that human spirit that is seated above. I do not subscribe to this mystical idea and I will explain why later.

The Theory of the Legal Position
Other teachers suggest that this “seated in heavenly realms” is an expression of our legal position. We are still here on earth and the “heavenly places” expression has to do with our legal rights being restored by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. To them, our new legal position has placed us not so much as being physically there in the heavenly realms with Christ but having the legal rights and authority of Christ who is in the heavenly realms. Our real-life condition remains staunchly here on earth but we function with heavenly authority. This theory sounds plausible but is it really what the Bible is teaching?

The Prophetic Perfect
Having discussed the two commonly preached positions, let’s venture into the biblical understanding of this exciting portion in Ephesians 2:4-7. For this purpose, I like to introduce you to a particular style of writing of the Bible known as the Prophetic Perfect. Bible scholars recognize the Hebraic and Aramaic idiom of using past tense to express the certainty of something in the future. This is known as the “perfective of confidence” – something that God is so confident that in His mind, even though the event is still in the future, He declares it as accomplished or has already happened.

The Promise To Abraham
For example, in Genesis 15:18, in the original Hebrew text, it is “To your descendants, I have given this land.” At that time, all those descendants had not existed and how could God give them the land? You would not be asking this question if you understood that God was using prophetic perfect in his promise. He was so confident in giving this land to Abraham’s descendants and so He used the prophetic perfect to emphasize the certainty of the event one thousand years before it actually happened.
There are just too many occasions that the prophetic perfect has been used in the Bible for me to list all of them here. Let me give you a few more examples:

Victory In A Battle
A quick reference to Numbers 21:34 (NIV) –  The Lord said to Moses, “Do not be afraid of him, for I have handed him over to you, along with all his people and his land. Do the same to him as you did to King Sihon of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon.” 
The context of this portion was God assuring Moses that Israel would win the battle against Og, the king of Bashan. Here most of the English translators kept the original prophetic perfect meaning. Reading the NIV translation, you may think that the battle was already over because God said, “I have handed him over to you, along with all his people and his land.” The truth is that the battle had not been fought yet but in the mind of God, it was already a done deal.

The Coming Of The Messiah
Let’s check a prophecy about the coming of Jesus, given by Balaam. We read Numbers 24:17 (NIV) – “A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel.” Did you realize that in most English translations this portion is in the future tense except in the Young’s Literal Translation (YLT)? The reason is that Robert Young the translator followed rigidly what he read in both the Textus Receptus (TR) and the Masoretic Text (MT). Young’s translation has accurately expressed the Hebrew text of the prophetic perfect tense – “A star hath proceeded from Jacob, And a scepter hath risen from Israel.”
This was to be fulfilled by Christ 1,400 years after the prophecy but in the sight of God, it was already a done deal.

Let’s look at another popular scripture about the coming of Jesus – Isaiah 9:6. God was so certain of the coming of His Son that He made Isaiah write in the prophetic perfect tense- “To us, a child has been born, to us a son has been given, and the government has been on his shoulders, and he has been called Wonderful, Counselor….” Can you now recognize the force of the prophetic perfect tense? Isaiah was writing as though this birth of Jesus was a past event, even though he knew that it would be something far in the future – actually 700 years into the future.

Prophetic Perfect Tense In The New Testament
What about the prophetic perfect tense in the New Testament? We have to remember that the New Testament was written in Greek but by people who were mostly Jews or living in the Jewish culture. It is like me – I am Chinese and raised in Chinese culture but I speak and write in English. Many of my Chinese cultural influences are reflected in my English messages and writing.

The Prophetic Perfect Tense In Jude
In Jude 1:14, we see the force of the prophetic perfect tense at work – “It was about these people that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, when he said, “Look, the Lord came with myriads of His holy ones.” (Amplified version). The International Standard Version states: “Look! The Lord has come with countless thousands of his holy ones.“
Most English translators used the future tense to translate this portion because they did not want to confuse the readers. Imagine those who only read the “prophetic perfect” translations, they may not understand the purpose of God in emphasizing His certainty of a future event, and so they may be puzzled and ask, “When did the Lord come back with thousands of His holy angels?” Once again, the purpose of the prophetic perfect tense is to indicate the certainty of the second coming of the Lord with His angels.

The Prophetic Perfect Tense of Ephesians 2:6
Paul apparently used the prophetic perfect tense when he wrote: “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus“. Surprisingly, the majority of the English translations followed the past tense in the Greek text and did not use the future tense. And that is why many believers who have no idea about the idiom of the prophetic perfect struggle with this idea of “seated in the heavenly realms” while they are still here, very much alive. on earth. If only they knew that God is so confident of them sitting with Christ forever in heaven in their future that He inspired Paul to express it in the past tense with the prophetic perfect sense.

Most scholars will tell you that the concept that God has “already seated His people with Christ in the heavenly realm” as a past or present experience is not found in all the other epistles of Paul the Apostle. The more accurate explanation will have to be that this is a statement of God’s absolute confidence that His people will one day be seated eternally with Christ.

Now, you may have some doubts about this explanation. Let’s look at the fact – you are here on earth and not in the heavenly realms. You can only look up to what Colossians 3:1 has stated – “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.“

Which Scripture Is Literal?
Now, you have to figure out which scripture is literal and which is prophetic perfect. If you accept Ephesians 2:6 as a literal “sitting in the heavenly realms now” then you will have to reject Colossians 3:1 which places you on earth, looking above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. However, since the Bible does not contradict itself, I would definitely accept Colossians 3:1 as literal and Ephesians 2:6 as an expression of the prophetic perfect tense.

Therefore, based upon Colossians 3:1, we are now living on earth, serving the kingdom of God and we are looking and seeking “above” where “Christ is seated right now in the heavenly realms”. Then, with our understanding of the prophetic perfect tense in Ephesians 2:6, we are confident that one day, in the future, we will definitely be seated with Christ in the heavenly realms.

Blood Covenant Part 3: Should You Be Sprinkled With The Blood?

For many years, I have observed how the previous religious cultures of believers have influenced how they believe the Word of God. One of the most misunderstood concepts among these believers is the blood of Jesus. In certain Eastern religions, actual blood sacrifice is made to their deities. I saw a video of a man who plunged his head under the gushing blood of a decapitated carcass of a sacrificed animal. The purpose was to get his sins cleansed by the blood of the sacrificed animal. Another series of disturbing photos online showed devotees of certain Eastern religions drinking fresh blood right off the recently killed animals. Some believers today also have this idea that the blood of Jesus is to be magically sprinkled upon them when they ask to be “covered or sprinkled by the blood.” A similar image of the gushing blood of Jesus somehow would cover and protect them. And so, with this idea, they proceed to “cover their loved ones and their treasured items with the blood of Jesus”. Many of them are now doing this as a daily ritual for divine protection and guidance. Our question is whether this practice was taught by Jesus and the Apostles. Should believers continue to include such a ritual in their daily life?

The Contextualization of the Gospel
As the Gospel of Jesus Christ is spread throughout the world, it is inevitable that certain degrees of contextualization of the message would take place. What is contextualization? To put it in a nutshell, it is to share the message of God’s love in the language and cultural understandings of a particular race, dialect, nation, or culture.

For example, the celebration of the birth of Christ on 25th December. This is a tradition that is supposedly adapted from the ancient European celebration of the resurgence of the sun after a harsh winter. The joy of welcoming spring and the warm summer was contextualized from welcoming the sun to welcoming the Son of God.

Healthy contextualization helps the people to appreciate the Gospel within their own cultures, languages, and also meanings. However, if contextualization is not done properly, then all kinds of misunderstandings will happen in the local Church. For example, in the 1970s, we received news that certain remote churches in China actually sacrificed goats or sheep and drank their blood on Good Fridays.

In Singapore and Malaysia, due to the Charismatic influences of the 1970s to 2000s, many extra-biblical teachings from other nations became appealing to the local believers. The new believers readily swallowed the teachings by teachers of Generational Curses, performed prayer walking to rebuke the territorial spirits, depended upon personal prophecies from self-styled prophets, sold out to the teachings of the Word of Faith that included the “name it and claim it” approach of the prosperity gospel. Then they were inundated by the laughter movement, animals’ sounds movement, uncontrollable shaking and jerking of the head movement, etc. All these were claimed to be the new works of God as they did not have any biblical basis or precedents.

Sprinkled By The Blood?
When more people from other religions were converted, they found consoling similarities of their former religions in Christianity. For example, the idea of being “sprinkled by the blood” or “covered by the blood”. The biblical image of having the blood of the sacrifice sprinkled over the people came from a ceremony conducted by Moses upon the children of Israel as commanded by God in Exodus 24:4-8…

[Moses] got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.”
Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

In that unique, one-time ceremony, Moses splashed half of the sacrificed blood upon the altar, and the other half, he sprinkled on the people to symbolize the covenantal bond between God and Israel. Though this only happened once in biblical history, what Moses did was not an uncommon practice among ancient civilizations. To those people of antiquity, the principle of any worthy covenant had to be sealed with blood. The parties involved in the covenant became partakers of that blood and became committed to a sacramental union.

The writer of Hebrews recalled this incident in Hebrews 9:19-22
When Moses had proclaimed every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool, and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.

The New Covenant In The Blood of Jesus
Strictly speaking, you should avoid doing the ritual of sprinkling water as imaginary blood or worse still, usinfg real raw blood of a sacrificed animal. This has never been required in the New Testament. Why shouldn’t you do that? The reason is that God has instituted a sacrament known as the Holy Communion or the Lord’s Supper, just for you.

Reading from 1 Corinthians 11:25, we will see its meaning:
In the same way, after supper He [Jesus] took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me.

When you partake of the Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion, you are recalling the sacrifice of the Lord upon the cross. The purpose of His sacrifice is to reconcile the relationship between God and you. Jesus specifically said that the cup represented the “New Covenant” in His blood. This blood was poured out for you (Luke 22:20) and it was to take the place of the past animal sacrifices practiced in ancient Israel. You of course know that during the Holy Communion, you are not drinking actual blood but a symbolic representation made either of wine or grape juice. You also do not eat actual flesh but its symbol that is a piece of bread.

Do You Need To Plead The Blood Of Jesus?
The phrase “pleading the blood” is not found in the Bible but it is used among many believers today, especially those from the Charismatic circle. The word, “pleading” means a sincere and humble appeal to a higher authority. The phrase has almost a similar emphasis as “in the name of Jesus”.

Most people who plead the blood of Jesus see the scriptural relevance in Revelation 12:11 – “And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” Thus to them, the idea is implied that you can actually conquer the devil and his demons by “pleading the blood of Jesus”.

As the “blood of Jesus” is just another term for the New Covenant in His blood, it may seem appropriate to appeal to the authority of this covenant rather than to a mystical image of the blood. However, it is not necessary to always appeal to the New Covenant because it is a “done deal”.

Many believers may not know the reason why they “plead the blood of Jesus” and may use it like a magic spell or a mantra, especially during deliverance. I have seen fellow ministers who kept “pleading the blood of Jesus” when they could simply command the demons to leave with their “kingly authority”. Others “plead the blood of Jesus” to declare and decree so as to claim certain imaginary “legal rights” to good health and great wealth. The level of superstition in modern Christianity is unimaginably high. Too many believers have unwittingly carried the rituals and beliefs of their former religions into the Christian faith.

Should you then use this phrase, “I plead the blood of Jesus?” Strictly speaking, you don’t have to. Jesus has already defeated Satan and all the fallen angels by His death on the cross and resurrection on the third day. That was a one-time event that forever changed history. Your faith in the finished work of Christ is good enough to provide all the protection that you need. However, if you feel that the phrase helps you when you are in the midst of a deliverance ministry, then it is perfectly harmless in using it. However, it is also meaningless to the demons because they already knew about this blood covenant of Jesus that has been established for you. What you need to do is simply to command the demons to leave with the authority and power of the Lord. So, instead of saying “by the blood of Jesus”, you can command “in the mighty name of Jesus”.

Here is a video teaching on the Blood of Jesus. I trust that it will help you appreciate and understand deeper the meaning of the blood covenant that God has with all of us.

Blood Covenant Part 2 – Why The Blood Is Important?

Before becoming a Christian, I was involved in worshipping Chinese deities and ancestors. As my father was the chairman of the Seventh Month Celebration and also the treasurer of a Hainanese association, I had seen my fair share of blood sacrifices. These were usually done with live roosters that got their throats slit and blood spilling all over the altars of the deities. That was my initial introduction to “applying the blood.”
Then recently, I heard from a believer that she was taught by her church to “apply the Blood of Jesus” every day. I have heard this phrase before and I wonder if the believer really understood the meaning of “applying the Blood of Jesus”. In my last blog post, “Blood Covenant Part 1: Do You Need To Apply The Blood Every Day”, I shared why you do not need to apply the blood all the time. In this post, I like to share the importance of blood in the sacrifices instructed by God.

Why Is The Blood Important?
Many long-time Christians will remember this hymn by Robert Lowry – “Nothing But The Blood of Jesus”. The first stanza alone is enough to give us the theological meaning and purpose of the blood of Jesus:
What can wash away my sin
Nothing but the blood of Jesus
What can make me whole again
Nothing but the blood of Jesus

Oh, precious is the flow, that makes me white as snow
No other fount I know
Nothing but the blood of Jesus

Blood Represents Life
The Bible says in Leviticus 17:11 – “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.” Therefore, for the blood to be shed, means death. The writer of Hebrews says: “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22).

Since antiquity, every culture has had a recorded history of religious blood sacrifices. The people of Israel have theirs too. In fact, you can read Leviticus 23 which contains a list of all the Jewish festivals that were related to blood sacrifice.

Since the time of Moses in the desert, these feasts were observed in the Tabernacle and later in the temple at Jerusalem. All these feasts carried within themselves deep prophetic meaning of future events and they all included sacrifices and offerings. The feasts were namely:
1. Passover – Leviticus 23:4-8
2. Feast of Unleavened Bread – Leviticus 23:6
3. Feast of Firstfruits – Leviticus 23:10
4. Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) – Leviticus 23:16
5. Feast of Trumpets – Leviticus 23:24
6. Day of Atonement – Leviticus 16, 23:26-32
7. Feast of Tabernacles or Booths – Leviticus 23:34

As in every feast and festival, the priests and Levites had to sacrifice animals that were without blemish and these were representatives of the future Lamb of God – Jesus Christ. The early Jewish ceremonies were very complicating, with the slaughtering of animals, shedding of blood, and sprinkling of blood around the altar and other areas. It was a very messy and bloody era but it was necessary.

The Blood of Jesus
The most endearing meaning is that all these ceremonies and feasts pointed to the fulfillment of them all by one Person – Jesus Christ. We can see how much God loves us by His intentional leaving of clues in the Old Covenant that foreshadowed the coming of His Son, Jesus Christ. How God has hidden truths in the Old Testament and only to be revealed gloriously in the New Testament.

All the blood of unblemished animals being shed in the Old Testament was only a shadow of the future. The real blood of the sacrifice for the sins of mankind was given by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, being crucified on a cross.

The Covenant In The Blood of Jesus
Taking the imagery of the Passover lamb in Exodus 12, Jesus taught His disciples an object lesson. During the Last Supper (Matthew 26), Jesus held up a piece of bread and said to His disciples, “Take it and eat it, for this is My body” (Matthew 26:26). He then gave thanks and offered them the cup and said, “Each of you, drink from it, for this is My blood, which seals the covenant between God and His people. It is poured out to forgive the sins of many ” (Matthew 26:27-28). Jesus would fulfill the meaning of these symbols by actually dying on the cross and having His body tortured and His blood spilled.

Paul the Apostel later recorded this event in 1 Corinthians 11:25 – “In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the NEW COVENANT IN MY BLOOD; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me” (Italic mine). There you have it – the blood is for the purpose of establishing a new covenant between God and you. So, whenever you “plead the blood” or “apply the blood”, you are actually reminding yourself or others of the fact that there is a blood covenant between God and you.

Pleading and Applying The Blood Of Jesus
Is it wrong to use the terms “plead the blood of Jesus” or “apply the blood of Jesus” upon your life? The answer is both “yes” and “no”. If “pleading” or “applying” the blood of Jesus is understood as a magical rendition of a powerful mantra, then you should not use these terms.

For example, one believer had made it a rule to have his wife “pleads the blood of Jesus” over their two young sons as she drops them off at school every morning. He himself “pleads the blood of Jesus” over his car and journey to work. Then he invited a pastor to come and “apply the blood of Jesus” over his new factory. During the dedication of his factory, the pastor buried four small metal boxes of scriptures in the four corners of the factory ground. And those scriptures were supposed to have supernatural power to prevent evil spirits from disturbing the premises. And in the event of any breach of the spiritual protective walls, the believer hung a big cross on the wall of his office to ward off evil spirits. Does that sound similar to what the Feng Shui masters or temple mediums are offering?

When Can We Plead The Blood of Jesus?
If I ever used the phrase, “plead the blood of Jesus”, I do not consider it a magic formula of words or the application of some invisible blood. Rather, I would be fully aware of the covenant that Jesus has established by His sacrifice on the cross. That covenant has a “spiritual dynamic” and its authority is far greater than our own human abilities and those of our spiritual enemy. The blood covenant has given us the privilege of being saved. Apart from that, it also gives us the power and authority to come against the enemy by nullifying all the demonic activities plus those of our flesh. So, when you say, “I plead the blood of Jesus”, you are bringing to your remembrance what Jesus has done at Calvary’s cross to give you victory in all situations. And the same time, you are reminding the demons that they are defeated foes. This is, of course, unnecessary because they know that they have been thoroughly defeated and waiting for the day of Judgement.
Here is a video teaching on the Blood of Jesus. I trust that it will help you appreciate and understand deeper the meaning of the blood covenant that God has with all of us.