In Christ in the heavenlies by Zac Poonen

Some key points:

Jesus taught us to pray, Our Father who is in heaven, "hallowed be Your name".

This should be the number one request in the heart of a disciple of Jesus.

My primary burden in prayer must be, hallowed be Your name, let Your name be honored and respected. Everything else should be secondary.

In the book of Job, the very first book God decided to write for man, the first theme God speaks about is that we have a testimony in the heavenlies, God is looking for those who honor Him.

Job was a man that was blameless, upright, feared God, turned away from evil (Job 1:1)

When we realize this is the very first sentence of inspired Scripture, we understand this is what God is looking for on earth.

Job's sensitivity to sin in verse 5: "Perhaps" his children may have sinned "in their heart".

Colossians 1:9 says, "that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding"

A paraphrase of this verse reads, "that you would see things from God's viewpoint." This really opened up that verse to me. When we see things from God's viewpoint we have victory over sin.

"The heavenlies" is spoken about in the book of Ephesians. The main phrase in Ephesians is "in Christ".

Most Christians think more about "Christ in us", that is the theme of Colossians, "Christ in you".

When you begin to think about "you in Christ", certain other truths open up to us in an amazing way.

God chose us "in Christ" before the foundation of the world not to be preachers, evangelists, church planters but to be holy, Ephesians 1:4.

God chose us to be holy and blameless not "before man" but "before Him", 1:4.

When I realized that I existed in God's mind from the beginning, it brought tremendous security in my life.

It is insecure Christians who are jealous of others. competing with others, fighting with others, boasting, trying to get some credit for something.

The more I thought about it through the years, I once preached a sermon on this, insecurity is the cause of almost all sins.

Anything we do for God comes out of being holy and blameless before Him., because it comes from Him, otherwise it has no value.

We don't have to produce the rivers of living water, that flows from God, we just have to make sure the channel is pure.

One of the great truths I learned from the miracles of Jesus is that I never have to produce anything in my ministry. You remember the feeding of the 5000, did the disciples produce the bread or distribute it?

I have said that to the Lord, Lord, I am not in the production business, I do not produce bread, I do not produce sermons, I am in the distribution business, I pass on what you give me.

God's called us to keep the channel pure, the waters will come from Him, the bread will come from Him, we only have to pass it on.

In order to pass it on we must be constantly in touch with Him. It is much easier to be out of touch with Him and sit down on a Saturday and read a lot of books and listen to a lot of tapes and produce something.

It is a wonderful thing to see ourselves in the heavenlies.

We are seated in the heavenlies, Ephesians 2:6.

We battle in the heavenlies, Ephesians 6:12.
Those who live on the earth, fight with human beings.

Israel fought with earthly enemies, and many people who are still under the old covenant are also fighting with human enemies, their neighbors, their relatives or some brother or sister.

Ephesians 6:12 says we do not fight with flesh and blood.

I remember many years ago the Lord said to me, you must make the decision that you will never again fight with a human being. I said yes Lord.

If they come to fight with me I refuse to fight because I know that person is under the control of the devil. I want to fight with the devil who is behind that person.

We read in 1 Samuel 17 about David telling King Saul before he went to fight Goliath, Saul says how in the world can you fight Goliath, David says I will give you a testimony of what God did through me.

I used to look after my father's sheep (Father's sheep) and one day a lion (1 Peter 5:8)came and grabbed a lamb and walked away with a lamb in its mouth. And David says, I went after the lion and I didn't give a lecture to the lamb, I killed the lion.

The people who come to fight with you are in the mouth of Satan. Fight the devil who is behind that person. We wrestle not with flesh and blood. The battle will be over much quicker.

I decided years ago that I will not fight with flesh and blood even concerning doctrinal matters.

I stand for the truth of the Bible cover to cover, every single thing, especially new covenant truths in the New Testament. Sometimes people don't like when I show them things in Scripture, they get upset or angry because it exposes their nakedness, they want to argue. You know what I do, I change the subject. Let's talk about cricket. They say, what about the doctrine. Think what you like, I refuse to fight.

Doctrine is understood by revelation of the Holy Spirit, not by argument. If I win an argument that only proves that I am more clever, that I am a better lawyer. That's not what I am after.

There are many things in Scripture that we do not experience because we do not believe it. "According to your faith be it unto you" is a law. That means if God offers you something and you don't believe it, you don't get it. Christ offers victory over sin to all believers. If you believe what it says in God's Word, you will have it in your life.