Throne Life—The Life You Can Have Now
We aren’t reading our Bible right if we don’t see the exalted status we’ve been given. Many Christians think they should be a lowly, humble servant and that aspiring to be more promotes pride. According to Revelation 1:6, though, the born-again Christian is a king!
True, Jesus is the King of kings, but we are those other kings, vested with delegated powers sufficient in its supply Romans 5:17 says to “reign in life.”
Both honesty and accuracy compel an admission: Most church members have no vision anywhere close to the vision Scripture puts forth. Not for one moment do they see themselves making decrees like a king with Heaven backing them up!
The life script they’ve accepted is not one of daring and boldness. They’ve consigned themselves instead to a somewhat ordinary life: a life of small vision, common goals, and routine endeavors.
Eventually, the daily grind wears them down, not just physically but in that part of life where dreams are stored.
The story is told of Michelangelo entering the studio of his young student, Raffaello, only to find the attempted art too cramped, too narrow, too restricted.
So the master artist wrote one word at the foot of the canvas, the word amplius, which being translated from Latin means bigger, broader, fuller.
One has to wonder if the Master of all life would say the same thing to us.
Upon viewing our much-too-small lives, would he not also urge an expanded vision, one extending far beyond where present plans intend to take us?
After the Polish pianist Arthur Rubinstein visited a church at the urging of a friend, the low-level preaching he heard prompted him to tell his friend that he would agree to go with him to another church on one condition: “You must take me to hear a man who will tempt me to do the impossible.”
Apparently, even in that day, the preaching of small vision had no heavenly sanction and no earthly appeal. The drivel that droned on from the pulpit inspired no one. Certainly not Mr. Rubinstein.
Before his death, Jesus communicated this precise message, saying believers, like a king, could have whatever they say (Mark 11:23-25). There were guidelines for that promise, of course, with certain stipulated prerequisites. Nevertheless, the prerequisites didn’t do away the promise!
At least six other times this promise was made (John 14:13, 14; 15:7, 16; 16:23, 24; Matthew 21:22)! Followers of Jesus, like a king, could and should make biblically-consistent decrees, and issue faith-filled edicts that would expand the kingdom.
But people filtered all that out, as if it were fiction.
Talk about fiction: When the young man, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, stood at the front of the Titanic leaning into the wind, he declared, “I am the king of the world!”
This was a whimsical thought at best, as the disaster that followed proved.
Muhammad Ali also shouted these words after going six rounds with the heavyweight champion of his day, Sonny Liston.
Let it be known to all that the gospel declaring we are kings means far more than the bubbling-up euphoria enjoyed when the sea breezes caress our face, or the jubilation that comes after winning a boxing match against a formidable foe.
We are the kings of the world!
William Booth, the Spirit-filled founder of the Salvation Army, said, “God loves with a great love the man whose heart is bursting with a passion for the impossible.”
Well acquainted with this principle, Hudson Taylor endorsed its truth when he wrote, “I have found that there are three stages in every great work of God: first, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done.”
The king who reigns, the conqueror who does mighty exploits, the man of faith who casts mountains into the sea, the prayer warrior who overcomes the stout and supernatural resistance of demons, all do what they do—not by chance, not by spiritual gifting alone, but by an understanding of the spiritual world most Christians don’t have.
When Jesus returned to earth for forty days (after the resurrection but before the ascension), he conferred with the remaining apostles to emphasize this teaching—how to be a kingdom man, how to be a kingdom woman.
Yet, glimpses into this part of the gospel, were given a long time before that time.
For example, when a storm arose that terrorized these seasoned sailors out of their minds, Jesus demanded that the storm cease—and it did! Immediately, not gradually!
But then he turned to his disciples and said, why didn’t you do that?
Was he serious? Did he really think they could do that?
Indeed, he did!
Then came that time when Peter was walking on the water but then started to sink. After rescuing the flailing apostle, Jesus labeled what he did as an example of "little faith."
Seriously? Peter got five feet further than anyone else in human history! Little faith?
There was another incident—it happened toward the end of Jesus’ ministry—when a demon attacked a little boy, threw him into a fire, threw him into water, threw him into convulsion, blinded him, caused him not to hear. And the apostles couldn’t evict the demons (Mark 9:14-29).
But to show how much they had grown by this point, they asked—with astonishment, mind you—why couldn’t we cast the demon out?
Think about that. They thought they could! And were surprised they couldn’t!
Now, if anything like that happened in a church today, would its leaders have this confidence?
Not likely. Much more likely, their courage would instantly shrink into disappearance.
Reinforcing the fact the believer is a king is the biblical assertion that believers have already been seated in the “heavenly places” (Ephesians 2:6).
This means that the believer’s relationship with Jesus, right now, has been elevated so high that I John 4:17 declares “… as He is, so are we in this world.”
Can you fathom this? You being like the glorified Jesus? Do you believe this?
In his book, The Christ of the Forty Days, A.B. Simpson stressed the importance of throne life.
We are seated with Christ in heavenly places, and we are to recognize ourselves as actually there, just as much as if the judgment were past and we were already seated, in the ages to come upon our kingly thrones. This is a very important matter and a true key to victory in our Christian life.
J.A. MacMillan wrote: “The purpose of the Father provides that each child of his may be a sharer of the Throne and the authority of his risen and exalted Son.”
F.J. Huegel, a contemporary of MacMillan, said, “… there is such a thing as an actual sharing of the Savior’s exaltation—a participation of the life of the Throne .…”
The reason God freely gives us all things (Romans 8:32), that we can triumph in all things (II Corinthians 2:14), that we have everything we need for life and godliness (II Peter 1:3), and that all the promises of God are “Yes and in Him Amen” to us (II Corinthians 1:20), is directly traceable to throne life.
Those who would spend their lives climbing the corporate ladder or plotting schemes in some back room for winning office, are too easily enticed. A far greater power exists in God's kingdom!
All blessings, all power, the full complement of answered prayer, the full release of dominion authority, are accessed through dynamics which, though hidden to many, are uniquely found in that part of the Christian’s experience we may reverently call throne life.
John Calvin rightly said, “We are sharers of his ascension.”
But those who think Heaven is way up there and we are way down here, and who think God is mighty and we are puny, won’t ever share in the ascension.
This need not be our story. Energized by throne-life thinking, we can unsheathe the Sword of the Spirit and move in militancy against Satan and every obstacle he puts in our way.
For precisely this reason, Paul Billheimer contended, “Satan wants the believer to forget that he is risen with Christ, that he is now, that is, his spirit, united with Christ on the throne with all enemies under his feet.”
The result of believing Satan’s lie is—timidity triumphs and boldness exits.
This low vision of ourselves isn’t God’s prescription for pride; it can't be. Because whenever low vision neutralizes great promises, it isn’t humility at work; it’s unbelief.
Unbelief is masked by supposed humility when it says that the difference between us and Jesus is the difference between dust and deity.
This visionless Christianity, so widespread in the church today, amuses Satan and amazes angels.
So what’s your view of yourself? Are you thinking of yourself in the right way?
