Colossians 3:1-2 (NKJV) If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
Colossians 3:1-2 (NLT) Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.
Colossians 3:1-2 (MSG) So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.
Notice these phrases and let them sink in
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seek those things which are above
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Set your mind on things above
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Set your sights on the realities of heaven
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Pursue the things over which Christ presides, be alert to what is going on around Christ,
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See things from His perspective
This is the Biblical key to walking by faith and not by sight. Your perspective will determine you practice. How you see things will determine how you respond to your circumstances.
The sacred/secular divide
The biggest error we have embraced in Christianity is the belief that a dichotomy exists between the secular and the sacred. We see Sunday as the day of worship. The rest of the week seems to be view as time spent in the “secular” world. Sunday we do godly stuff, while Monday to Saturday we are busy doing worldly stuff.
Worship is associated with music and song. So when the band goes silent and the singers are not accompanying us on Monday morning, worship has seized. What about that sing-a-long session with a bunch of preschoolers on Monday morning? Can that be your worship? What about that patient gentle response to an irate customer on Tuesday afternoon? Can that be your worship? The hours you have spent to ensure that sales pitch you have put together will be done with excellence, can that be your worship?
God’s not interested in that. That’s worldly. Well tell that to General Joshua who had to lead the army of God against the Amorites on Monday morning. Tell that to Governor and chief engineer Nehemiah who had to sort out issues around the city walls on Tuesday afternoon. Tell that to CEO Joseph navigating a multinational corporation called Egypt during a global crisis. Tell them that God’s not interested in their “secular” jobs. They all worked on the weekdays. All these depended on God to function in the work God had called them to do. They lived their lives believing that everything they did was sacred and done unto the Lord.
The sacred/secular divide has been brought about by a misrepresentation of God’s revelation in the Old Testament. The Old Testament ideas around the Temple, The priests, what is sacred and common were all shadows of things to come. When Christ appeared – the shadows became the reality.
Hebrews 10:1a (NLT) The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves.
Every believer is a temple of the Holy Spirit. We tabernacle the presence of God. I don’t feel the presence of God, I carry the presence of God.
2 Corinthians 3:16-18 (NLT) But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord.
Every believer is a royal priesthood. We are the conduit between God and man. We are mediators, we are ambassadors of Christ.
1 Peter 2:9 (NKJV) But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
The sacred and secular divide is over. Everything you do is sacred. Everywhere you go is holy ground. Whatever your preoccupation is on Monday morning, you are going about your Father’s business.
If that is so then these words become even more significant to us. “Set your sights on the realities of heaven. Be alert to what is going on around Christ. Look at life through Kingdom perspective.”
CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE AND YOU WILL CHANGE YOUR PRACTICE
When you refocus and begin to seek those things which are above; when you set your mind on things above – you begin to see things from God’s perspective. A change of perspective gives you a sense of scale. To understand what it means to have a sense of scale let us look at the difference between Bill Gates and a person earning minimum wage.
Bill Gates is worth 100 Billion US dollars. Since Microsoft was created, he earned $6,000 dollars a minute or $50 per second. Imagine what that looks like – to be able to earn $50 every second of your working life. Based on this information, lets look at the difference between Gates and a person on minimum wage. To buy a mansion worth $50 million dollars, Gates will have to work for a total of three and a half weeks. A person on minimum wage would have only earned around $3000. That’s how impossible it would be for a person on minimum wage to purchase a mansion like that.
To purchase the latest iPhone (not that Bill Gates would ever purchase one), he will have to work 43 seconds. That’s about 13 cents on a minimum wage. In terms of scale, an iPhone for Bill Gates is like loose change.
In terms of the scale of things, losing a brand new iPhone is not going to affect Bill Gates as it would affect a person on minimum wage. It only took Gates 43 seconds to earn enough to purchase that phone, while it would have taken 3 weeks of hard earned money for one in minimum wage.
YOU GET A SENSE OF SCALE WHEN YOU LOOK AT YOUR PROBLEMS FROM GOD’S PERSPECTIVE
I’m not minimizing the extent of your suffering. I’m not ignoring that diagnosis. That financial crisis is real. The pain of that dysfunctional relationship is real. It’s overwhelming, what you are going through – I get that. All hardship and suffering we go through is overwhelming when we look at it from a human perspective. When I look at myself, my problems are always larger than me; but when I look at it from God’s perspective – when I reposition myself and look at Kingdom resources – when I look at God possibilities, I get a sense of scale. WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE
WHEN I LOOK AT IT FROM MY PERSPECTIVE, THEN FEAR IS MY NATURAL RESPONSE
WHEN I LOOK AT IT FROM GOD’S PERSPECTIVE THEN FAITH IS MY NATURAL RESPONSE
Your perspective will determine your practice. How you see things will determine how you respond to things.
HOW TO REPOSITION YOURSELF
If changing our perspective helps us develop a sense of scale from God’s point of view – if it gives us an opportunity to see things from God’s vantage point – how then can we reposition ourselves to access such a perspective? Paul gives us two things that we need to do in order to see things from God’s perspective.
1. Seek things above
The first thing he exhorts us to do is to seek, pursue, to go after. The only way we can set our sights on the realities of heaven is to seek after the realities of heaven. We cannot be alert to what is going on around Christ, unless we pursue and go after Christ who is seated above and not below. In Mark 4 we get a glimpse of what pursuing things above looks like on a day to day basis.
Mark 4:33-34 (NKJV) And with many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. But without a parable He did not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples.
The relationship between Jesus and the disciples while He was on earth gives us a good understanding on how to be alert to things that are going on around Christ. Mark shows us a big difference in the way Jesus related to the crowd and the way He related to his disciples. With the crowd He spoke in parables; He couched His communication in coded language. With the disciples He spoke plainly and took time to explain “all things”. The difference between the crowd and the disciples were simply put – pursuit. The disciples were not satisfied with mere stories, they pursued truth. They wanted to know what Jesus was attempting to convey to them. They wanted to see things from Christ’s perspective. The way they did it – they pursued Him alone, away from the hustle and bustle of the crowds.
WHEN THEY WERE ALONE – shut yourself up and get into the Word
The is no short cut to developing a Kingdom perspective. It comes from the revealed Word of God. Some may say “I’m not much of a reader”. You need to get over that or risk having a “below” mindset. Faith is Word based. Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of God. You got to get the Word into you if you want to respond by faith.
If reading is not your thing then get an audio Bible. Listen to it and read along with it. When something moves within you stop the audio and focus on what was moving. Read those few lines again and again until you hear the voice of God through the word of God. You cannot develop a heavenly mindset without pursuing it through the words of Christ.
Matthew 13:10-12 (NKJV) And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
WHOEVER HAS, MORE WILL BE GIVEN. That’s a sobering thought. To those who pursue God by hearing his voice through His word, more revelation is given. To those who do not take time to listen, they eventually lose the ability to hear God.
Use it or lose it. Line upon line, precept upon precept – a momentum is created when we repeatedly expose ourselves to the process of hearing God through His word. Divine revelation increases exponentially.
SEEK THINGS ABOVE – GET ALONE – GET INTO HIS WORD – PURSUE KINGDOM PERSPECTIVE
2. Set your mind
Your mind is made up of your thought and your talk. Your thinking is your silent saying. Your saying is your audible thinking. The psalmist puts it this way.
Psalms 91:1-2 (NKJV) He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High, Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”
There’s the dwelling and then there’s the saying. When one is dwelling in God; the saying will be God talk. Your dwelling will determine your saying and your saying will influence your dwelling. If you want to know where you mind is set on – listen to your speech patterns. Change your speech you change your thinking. Change your thinking you will change your speech. The two are interconnected.
To set your mind on things above, think of your circumstances the way God thinks of it. Declare into your circumstances what God is saying. Speak the promises of God over your circumstances. Kingdom of God come; Will of God be done.
Let’s do just that. Seek, pursue, go after the things above by creating that momentum of repeated exposure to God’s word on a daily basis. As you seek God’s voice through His word, let the Word of God begin to influence the way you speak and think.
Remember:
YOUR PERSPECTIVE WILL DETERMINE YOUR PRACTICE. HOW YOU SEE THINGS WILL DETERMINE HOW YOU RESPOND TO THINGS.
WHEN YOU LOOK AT IT FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE, THEN FEAR WILL BE THE NATURAL RESPONSE. WHEN YOU LOOK AT IT FROM GOD’S PERSPECTIVE THEN FAITH WILL BE THE NATURAL RESPONSE.
SO SEEK THINGS ABOVE – GET ALONE – GET INTO HIS WORD – PURSUE KINGDOM PERSPECTIVE. THEN SET YOUR MIND ON THINGS ABOVE – TAKE STOCK OF YOUR THOUGHTS AND WHAT YOU DWELL ON; TAKE STOCK OF YOUR SPEECH PATTERNS.
THINK OF YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES THE WAY GOD THINKS OF IT. DECLARE INTO YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES WHAT GOD IS SAYING. KINGDOM OF GOD COME; WILL OF GOD BE DONE.
REMEMBER YOUR PERSPECTIVE WILL DETERMINE YOUR PRACTICE