It’s always been a hard concept for me to grasp – What’s with this “In heavenly places thing I keep hearing about and stumbling over  in the pages of my Bible?  I’m sure I’m not alone in my confusion and in my trying to understand.   I hear my pastor say that I am currently seated in heavenly places… but yet I am here.  So let’s take a quick look at what the bible has to say – the who, what, where, when and why of it all.

^“3 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, ” Ephesians 1:3

So first of all, we have been given EVERY spiritual blessing.  Where?  In heavenly places.  Why in the world would we be given this amazing gift in a place we can’t reach?  How are we supposed to access it?

“²⁰ which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,” Ephesians 1:20

Jesus is there, in heavenly places.  Seated high and lifted up… can’t you just picture it?  And the train of His robe fills the temple… We are His temple, our bodies…. How beautiful a picture, how magnificent a train.  Nothing else will fit in us!  He fills us!  And yet, once again, how can we access these heavenly places?

^“5 even when we were dead  in our transgressions, made us alive together  with Christ (by grace you have been saved), ⁶ and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” Ephesians 2: 5-6

WE – Me You, US – WE are seated with Jesus in heavenly places. But how can that be?  I see me down here in the physical realm, I have issues and problems here in the real world.  I stumble and fall and get back up down here in the real, physical world.  I was so confused!

¹⁰ so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. Ephesians 3:10

So now the wisdom of God the Father comes down through the church rulers and authorities… once again in heavenly places.  I think that clears up the age old question of why we NEED to go to church.  Somehow the Spirit communicates to us better and more fully if we are in a group of believers, and we can spur each other on, encourage each other to keep on moving forward in Jesus.

So what do we need to understand from all of this?

^“12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12

Our struggle, our war, our fight in in the heavenly places.  The devil is there “accusing the brethren day and night”.  So where do we fight?  IN HEAVENLY PLACES!

This means that our champion, Jesus is there, right there with us in heavenly places.  It means our weapons, our spiritual blessings, our chance of standing strong against the devil is there, in heavenly places.  This is so exciting because it means that even though I am here in the real world, the physical world, I have access to these weapons, to this power that we have in Christ Jesus.

And what is the key, the way we can get to it all?  Prayer and study!  We can fight back with the memorized Word of God which we have access to here in the real world.  When Jesus was tempted He fought back with, It is written” and quoted scripture to the devil.  But here’s the thing, we also know from that temptation of Jesus that the devil himself will also use scripture against us.  He did it to Jesus.  So it takes more than memorizing a piece of scripture, it takes understanding and wisdom.  And where do we get that?

^“5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and  without reproach, and it will be given to him.”  James 1:5

So we can access the wisdom we need from this same source – prayer.

In her Bible study, Armor of God, Priscilla Shirer addresses this very issue.

“I believe I can say it as bluntly as this: Unless prayer is a vital and thriving part of your life, you will never achieve spiritual victory.  No matter how many times you go through this study, no matter how many conferences and ministries you participate in, you will be spinning your wheels until you’re grounded in prayer.  Prayer is the connective tissue between you and heavenly places.  And that, that is always where spiritual battles are won.”

So get on your knees, Sister!  Drop right on down and start connecting to your power, your victory that has already been won for you in heavenly places!