To the Bride of Christ who are learning how to keep their lamps lit as we await the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, may we grow with increasing confidence that the Holy Spirit who works in us to perfect maturity as one new man, is leading us somewhere beautiful.
We have been exploring the concept and importance for the Bride to develop a prophetic consciousness. For the Bride to fulfil her mandate before her wedding day, there are prayers that only she can pray, and assignments that only she can fulfil. This necessitates that she has a “double portion” anointing which I like to understand as the ability to see and operate in both the visible and invisible realms. Remember Elisha’s request from Elijah for a double portion, and Elijah said “You have asked a difficult thing, yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours–otherwise, it will not.” 2 Kings 2:10. The condition for Elisha to have the “double portion” was dependent upon his ability to see in the spiritual world, which of course he did and cried out “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!”
So the question remains: how do we develop our spiritual mind? Well there is a simple answer to this question. Ascension comes after crucifixion and burial. If we want to ascend with Christ we must first be crucified with Him. Being crucified with Christ means putting our old nature, our carnal minds and old thought patterns to death, by abandoning any value we may hold upon such things, and embracing entirely our new man, our new identity of who we are in Christ, the new creation. The apostle Paul understood these things well, when he wrote “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which [is] from the law, but that which [is] through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Php 3:7-11
The Bible teaches that we should become like the Lord and that we should learn to think the way that He does. Php 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: speaks of having the same mind, the context refers to us thinking in the same way, having the same mindset as the Lord, who humbled himself and gave up His heavenly position and took on human form to become obedient even unto death upon a cross. Peter teaches the same point in 1 Pet 4:1,2 “arm yourselves with the same way of thinking”, and Paul instructs us to “not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” Rom 12:1,2 But we cannot be transformed by the renewing of our mind, until we first “present our bodies as living sacrifices.” You see, you cannot attain true spiritual ascension without first being crucified.
Yet there are other forms of ascension which are on offer, and at times are substituted for true spiritual ascension. These are a poor replacement. For example positional ascension, where it is possible to mistake position or title for true spirituality. In addition to positional ascension, there is also mental ascension. Today there is unprecedented knowledge with continued research and breakthrough in every area of learning – we could call this mental ascension, the elevation of mental capacity, thought, knowledge and reason. These things hold tremendous value, and we should apply ourselves to learning and education, so long as we are clear that mental ascent as empowering as that can be, is no substitute and should not therefore replace spiritual ascent. Even in the church, we live in times of much availability of knowledge and access to learning. Biblical resources like never before are available online and in store. Whilst we thank the Lord for these things, there is a subtle danger to the body of Christ, that we can centre our confidence, experience and identity around informational knowledge, a cerebral Christianity of mental ascent, and pride ourselves in our knowledge of the scriptures, or ability to give great discourse on matters of life. Yet all of this is possible whilst becoming detached from our head who is Christ Jesus. Such a diet of informational knowledge, worldly wisdom and even philosophies of men can infiltrate the church and promote sophistication and stifle the freedom of the Holy Spirit to blow where it wills.
Let us understand that the ascension the Lord longs for in us more than any other, is a spiritual ascension. He invites us to pick up our cross and follow Him. So that in the process of being crucified with Him, the process of ascension is activated in our lives, and our minds become transformed. A regenerated mind is Bridal, it doesn’t think the same way. It is an ascended mind. Not mental assent as in increased knowledge, but spiritual ascent as in the mind of Christ.
Until next time
Maranatha
Mike @call2come
