Standing in the Position of Ascension to Pray with Authority and Execute God’s Commands

As believers in Christ and members of the Body of Christ, we need to respond to Christ’s heavenly ministry of intercession by standing in the position of ascension and pray with authority, one with Christ, to execute God’s commands.

Our ascended head, Christ, is now in heaven interceding for us, and He as the Spirit is also in our spirit, interceding with us and for us according to God.

However, we need to respond to Christ’s intercession, that is, we need to participate in Christ’s interceding life and become on earth the reflection of Christ’s intercession in His heavenly ministry, praying prayers of the interceding Christ.

Christ doesn’t want us to necessarily do great things for Him on earth; what He desires is a group of people, the church, who would be a reflection of what He’s doing and praying in the heavens.

Whatever Christ intercedes for us and for the churches will happen when we on earth cooperate with Him to stand in the position of ascension and pray one with Him prayers or authority, releasing on earth what He has released in the heavens, and binding what has been already bound in heavens.

Therefore, we need to open to the Lord and spend much time with Him in prayer so that He may infuse us with His desire and purpose, and then we will echo back to Him in prayer what He has shown to us.

Through our prayer, the ascended Christ has a way to carry out His administration through His body. We need to offer Him genuine prayers that are initiated by Him and are originated by His will and purpose, so that He may carry out His heart’s desire among us on earth.

God is seeking to have a way in our being, a way in our prayer, and a way among us; we simply need to give ourselves to the Lord and exercise our spirit to pray one with Him, one with His heart’s desire, and release on earth what He has released in heaven, and bind on earth what has been bound in heaven.

Both as believers and as the church we need to respond to Christ’s heavenly ministry of intercession by being in our spirit, standing in the position of ascension, and pray with authority, one with Christ, to give the Lord a way on earth.

Praying to be Filled with the Full Knowledge of God’s Will to Know and Experience Christ

On the negative side, we pray to deal with the enemy – we pray fighting prayers one with Christ to fight the battle against Satan, the evil one; on the one hand, we need to pray to have the full knowledge of God’s will.

In the beginning of Colossians Paul prayed that the saints would be filled with the full knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding (Col. 1:9). The will of God here is not something related to where we should live, whom should we marry, what job should we take, or what car should we buy; rather, the will of God concerns the all-inclusive Christ as our portion.

The will of God is profound in relation to our knowing, experiencing, and living the all-inclusive Christ. God’s will for us is that we know Christ, experience Christ, enjoy Christ, live Christ, and have Christ become our life and our person (see Phil. 3:7-10; 1:21a; Col. 3:4; Eph. 3:17).

God’s will for us is that we have Christ make His home in our heart, we would live Christ, Christ would live in us, and we would enjoy and experience the all-inclusive Christ. We need to see that this is God’s will, and we need to intercede for this.

Christ is interceding for us in the heavens and the Spirit is interceding in our spirit; now we need to see God’s will to know and experience Christ, and we need to intercede for this. We need to intercede for us and for the saints that we would be filled with the full knowledge of God’s will, that is, that they would experience Christ and live Christ.

We need to intercede not only to fight the battle against the evil forces but also that Christ would be preeminent and exalted in us.

We need to intercede not only for our gospel preaching or the Bible study in the homes of the new ones, but that the saints and the new ones would experience Christ, give Him the preeminence, and take Christ as their all.

God’s centrality and universality is that God wants Christ to be our all, that Christ would be the One in whom all things are headed up; this is God’s will. Our responsibility as the church is to exalt Christ, maintain the victory of Christ, and give Christ the preeminence in everything.

We may have a burden for others to know the Bible, meet in homes, and enjoy Christ daily, but do we pray for ourselves and for others to give Christ the preeminence, experience Christ live Christ, and have Christ live in us?

God wants His Christ to be exalted and lived out of His people; He must be the preeminent One, and we need to intercede for this.

On the one hand, Paul interceded that the saints would be filled with the full knowledge of God’s will to know and experience Christ; on the other hand, at the end of Colossians, Epaphras also struggled on behalf of the saints in his prayers that they would stand mature and be fully assured in all the will of God (Col. 4:12).

Are we assured in the word of God? Are we standing mature in His word? Do we know what the will of God is?

We need to take the lead and fulfill our responsibility of interceding for ourselves and for the saints that we would stand firm and mature, being fully assured in all the will of God, to experience Christ and live Christ.

Lord Jesus, cause us to realize that God’s will is profound in relation to our knowing, experiencing, and living the all-inclusive Christ. May Your will be done in our life. We intercede for ourselves and for all the saints, that we would know Christ, experience Christ, enjoy Christ, live Christ, and have Christ become our life and person. Lord, give us a heart to intercede for the saints that they would stand mature and be fully assured in all the will of God. Amen, Lord, may Your will be done in us – may we live Christ, experience Christ, and express Christ corporately!

Standing in the Position of Ascension to Pray with Authority and Execute God’s Commands

As believers in Christ who are learning to set our mind on the things which are above so that we may respond to Christ’s heavenly ministry, especially to respond to His interceding in the heavens, we need to stand in the position of ascension and pray with authority to execute God’s commands on earth.

God needs a people who first of all are filled with His heart’s desire, and who stand in the position of ascension one with Christ to utter His prayers with authority.

The position of prayer is entirely a heavenly position, with nothing of jealousy, spite, or anger toward others. We need to be purified in our heart, be supplied with His Spirit in His word, and enter into the Holy of Holies, in our spirit, to pray one with the Lord.

Prayer is not only holy ground but also a spiritual realm. We need to enter into the spiritual realm of prayer, enter into Christ’s interceding life, and remain in the position of prayer, which is heavenly, in ascension.

The position of prayer is in ascension, and the authority of prayer is also ascension (Eph. 1:3; 2:6). We have not only power but also authority. We need to pray prayers that are worthwhile before God, that is, be one with Him to pray with authority to execute God’s commands.

We need to learn to pray in ascension with Christ, praying not from below but from above; our prayers should not be begging prayers, asking God to do this or that, but prayers in ascension – prayer as a command.

The Lord tells us that, concerning the work of His hands, we should command Him. But if our position is wrong and our condition is not in the heavenly realm, commanding prayers are an insult to God.

If our position is right and our state is in the heavenly sphere, we will pray with authority, even uttering commands before God, and God will be pleased. He wants us to be so one with Him that we utter His prayers, His commands, and thus cooperate with Him to gain what He is after.

Sometimes a certain situation causes us to be before the Lord, in ascension, and in spirit, and there we will tell Him, God, we cannot allow this matter to happen! God wants that the words we pray would be the same as His administration, being equal to executing His commands, so that He would answer such prayers and accomplish His will.

We need to consider our condition and the condition of our church, and we need to treasure the prayer meetings, realizing that, without our intercession on earth, the fulfilling of the Lord’s commission to the church, the Lord is delayed in what He wants to accomplish.

We need to humble ourselves before the Lord for Him to help us concerning the deplorable condition of prayer in the church. If there’s no revival of our prayers, both personally and corporately, we can’t expect the Lord to do much.

Prayer and intercession gives the Lord a way. What is needed is not only being constituted with the word and being able to speak the word in a clear way but more intercession, more intercessors.

We need to not assume that our prayers here and there are what God wants from us; we need to give not only a token prayer but a real exercise of the authority of Christ to pray with authority, releasing what has been released in heaven and binding what has been bound in heaven.

May the Lord help us to raise up the prayer ministry of the church. May we be the intercessors of today, those who give Him a way to do what He wants to do on earth (Isa. 59:16).

Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You to learn to intercede. We exercise our spirit to be one spirit with You, and we want to learn to intercede by being in ascension, praying in ascension, and praying with authority to execute God’s commands. Raise up the prayer ministry of the church, Lord. May many young ones especially rise up to pray, intercede, and stand one with You in ascension to stand in the gap and be the intercessors You need for You to accomplish Your will. Oh Lord Jesus, make us the intercessors You need today!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James L. for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 372, 374-375, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Cooperating with the Heavenly Ministry of the Ascended Christ (2017 Spring ITERO), msg. 6 (week 6), Responding to Christ’s Intercession in His Heavenly Ministry.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Father of glory, now grant unto me / A spirit of wisdom, a spirit to see; / O give unto me the full knowledge of Him, / Enlight’ning the eyes of my heart deep within. (Hymns #1133)
  # Pray to touch the throne of God / By the hand of living faith; / Exercise authority / Over all the pow’r of death. / Pray to touch the throne of God, / Pray to shake the evil pow’r; / Pray with kingship on the throne, / Pray with Christ this very hour. (Hymns #783)
  # God needs men who pray; / Those who lay the tracks for Him; / God’s economy is carried out through men of prayer. / They love not themselves; / But a willing sacrifice. / What they fear—offending God, losing His presence dear. / Make us those who meet Your need, the Nazarites. / Make us those through whom You’d close this age; / Who are one with You to bring the kingdom in, / Young people absolute for Your move. (Song on being God’s Nazarites)