Seeking the Things which are Above, where Christ is Sitting at the Right hand of God

As believers in Christ, we need to seek the things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God; we are not only saved from death and brought into life, but God seated us with Christ in the heavenlies, and now we need to seek and enjoy the things which are above! Amen!

Starting with this week we are focusing on, Cooperating with the Heavenly Ministry of the Ascended Christ, and in particular this week we want to learn to be those, Seeking the Things which are Above.

Our God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent; He can do whatever He wants to do, whenever He wants to do, and in whatever way He wants to do it.

In eternity past, when He brought forth in Christ His eternal purpose, He worked out His economy, and He created all the positive things according to His will, nothing could limit Him or hinder Him.

But this is not the situation now, that is, during the length of time in which God created human beings with a will. God created us with a will because now He intends to operate according to our cooperation with Him.

For the sake of this principle, God has imposed on Himself a limitation: He will not unilaterally do whatever He wills according to His omnipotence, but rather He will act according to the degree of His people’s willingness, responsiveness, and openness to Him.

When the Lord begins to shine on us concerning this matter, we will be pursuing the Lord in a way we have never done before. The Lord Jesus taught us to pray, Father, may Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven!

To what extent, this very moment, is God’s will being done on earth depends on the degree of the cooperation that we, the church as the Body of Christ, render to Him.

We need to have God’s light to realize what God is able to do, what He desires to do, what He wills to accomplish, and how He wants to move on the earth. Also, we need to realize the very great degree that we, His people, can limit Him, have limited Him, and are still limiting Him from doing what He intends to do.

Cooperating with the Lord in His Heavenly Ministry by Setting our Mind on Things Above

Watchman Nee has a portion on, The Limitations of God (see the Collected Works of Watchman Nee, Vol. 46), in which he expounds that, once there are human beings with a will, God will not just override that will and demand certain things to be done.

Rather, during this dispensation, God is seeking for a response from His people, a cooperation, and a coordination from their side. Right now, the ascended Christ is very active in various aspects of His heavenly ministry.

He did accomplish redemption and sat down – but in the heavens right now He always lives to intercede for us, He is bearing us before the face of God, He is the Great Shepherd of the sheep shepherding the flock and every sheep, He is the high priest according to the order of Melchizedek, He is the heavenly Minister seeking to transmit the heavenly supply to our being, and He is the Administrator in God’s eternal economy with all authority in heaven and on earth.

Christ in His heavenly ministry is very active and busy, and we as His Body on earth need to cooperate with Him by setting our mind on the things above. For the Lord’s recovery to actually be the Lord’s recovery means that everything is under His direction – He is the Head.

In our physical body, once everything is normal, all the members of the body respond to the commands given by the person living in the body; but if things are not normal, the person living in the body lives as in a prison.

Christ has been waiting for centuries to see an adequate response to His heavenly ministry. He wants to gain a kingdom, a realm in which He can do whatever He wills without any hindrance.

We need to be saved from our disposition, temperament, and self-confidence, and realize the Lord’s longing to have a Body on earth through which He can move without any hindrance or limitation.

For this to happen, we need to see who and what Christ is in His heavenly ministry, what He wants to accomplish on the earth as this age is coming to a close, and how we ourselves in our Christian life and church life have been a limitation to Him in what He wants to do.

May the Lord enlighten us and cause us to open as never before, giving the Lord the right of access to our whole being, that we would welcome His dealing and touching on any element in our being that is hindering Him from carrying out the desire of His heart.

The Lord is looking for and even praying for a complete openness from our side, a full cooperation from our will.

He wants to advance by working in us so that we who limit Him and who are a limitation to Him, we would by His grace become those who release Him, enable Him, and give Him the way to move wherever He wants to move on earth, and to do whatever He wills to accomplish all that is on His heart.

Lord Jesus, shine on us to see what You desire to do and how much we limit You from doing what You want to do. Lord, if we have any concepts, feelings, inclinations, and self-confidence, ambition, a lack of sense of measure of our portion in functioning in the Body, for the sake of Your move to build up the Body, prepare the Bride, and bring in the kingdom, we present ourselves to You! Have mercy on us and grant us that we would no longer limit You or be a limitation to You! We want to set our mind on the things above where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God, to be one with Him in what He wants to do today!

Seeking the Things which are Above, where Christ is Sitting at the Right hand of God

In Col. 3:1 Paul commands us, who were raised together with Christ, that we would seek the things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Seeking the things which are above is a territory largely unknown to us.

The things above are Christ in His heavenly ministry with His activities, and our response to Him. The Lord cares about every matter, every church, every person, and every situation; He is omniscient, He is God, yet He’s also a man, full of feeling.

Since we have been raised with Christ, we are a new creation in a new realm; therefore, we should seek the things which are above, and set our mind on these things.

Christ was raised by God and now He is at the right hand of God in His ascension (Rom. 8:34); the right hand of God is the first place of honor, the preeminence. God has given the preeminence and the highest honor in the universe to Christ – He is in the highest heaven, holding the highest position at God’s right hand.

We need to see that Christ occupies the place of preeminence, the first place of honor in the universe, and we need to take the lead to honor Him. The right hand of God is the first and highest place in the universe, and God has put Christ there, giving the preeminence and the highest honor in the universe to Christ (Heb. 1:13; 8:1; 10:12).

We don’t expect the ungodly and increasingly degrading society to recognize this, neither do we expect the organized religion to see this; but in the churches, we as expressions of the Body of Christ, need to always have the realization that our Lord is at the right hand of God, having the highest position in the universe.

It is a great thing for us to say, Lord Jesus!

God has raised up together with Christ and has seated us together with Him in the heavenlies for our salvation by grace through faith (see Eph. 2:6-8).

First, He made us alive together with Christ by regenerating us and raising us from the position of death; then, in His salvation God has also raised us up together with Christ and has seated us together with Him.

He didn’t raise us up one by one but together – just as the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea together, so we were raised up together with Christ (and with one another) at the same time.

First, God made us alive together with Christ (Eph. 2:5), then He raised us up from the position of death (v. 6), and finally He seated us together in the heavenlies.

In His organic salvation God is saving us to the uttermost until we are practically and intrinsically living in the heavenlies with Christ, seeking the things which are above where Christ is – and where we also are.

God’s salvation has transferred us into the realm where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God; now we are in a heavenly atmosphere where we can seek the things which are above.

Thank You God for raising us up together with Christ and seating us with Him in the heavenlies. Praise the Lord, we are now in a heavenly position and atmosphere, and we can seek the things which are above. Lord Jesus, we give You all the glory and the honor, acknowledging Your preeminence over all things. Hallelujah, Christ is now at the highest and first place in the universe, and all preeminence and highest honor has been given to Him. And we are one with Him, in the same place where He is! Lord, we want to seek the things which are above, where Christ is!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron K. for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 31, 335, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Cooperating with the Heavenly Ministry of the Ascended Christ (2017 Spring ITERO), msg. 1 (week 1), Seeking the Things Which Are Above.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Once by nature we were dead in sin, / In a world of utter discord; / But together God has quickened us, / Raised us up to sit together with the Lord. (Hymns #1232)
  # Now in heaven by ascension / He is seated on the throne; / All the lordship, all the headship, / He Himself doth fully own. (Hymns #277)
  # Ascended now, in glory bright, / Head of the Church Thou art; / Nor life nor death, nor depth nor height, / Thy saints and Thee can part. / Oh teach us, Lord, to know and own / This wondrous mystery, / That Thou in heaven with us art one, / And we are one with Thee. (Hymns #157)