A Heavenly Citizenship in the Third Day
by Joanne Panettieri
Hosea 6:2, “After two days will He REVIVE us: in the THIRD DAY He will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.”
According to Watchman Nee in his classic book “Sit, Walk, Stand”, we can not even begin walking our Christian walk until we are first seated with Christ. The command of the book of Ephesians is to SIT DOWN and rest by grace in the completed work of Christ, far above all rulers, authorities, powers, dominions and even titles!
I will never forget the day that the Lord made this a reality to me. I was at a prayer meeting in the spring of 2004 happily lost in worship. The Lord spoke to me very clearly and said, “From this day forward you will no longer pray from the earth realm up through the second heaven to reach my throne. After today you will pray from the position of being seated with me in heavenly places, far above, with the earth as my footstool.”
The Lord then caught me up in a vision where I saw myself IN HIM and when I looked down my feet were in his feet and they were resting on the earth. All of my spiritual striving was then released in the total victory of the completed work of Jesus Christ ……I don’t have to fight the devil because he’s already defeated!! And he’s UNDER MY FEET.
I must be SEATED in order to TAKE MY STAND, and maintain it!
I spent many hours pondering and praying and really trying to GET this and to make it a living reality. If I’m seated with Christ and as the Bible says, “Hidden with Christ in God”, then I’m in HIM and He’s in me AND WE ARE ONE. That means I don’t pray TO HIM but His Spirit PRAYS THOUGH ME! The prayer of faith becomes the prophetic declaration that is the two edged sword that changes my circumstances!
"For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb. 4:12).
Now the Greek word for “two-edged” literally means having two mouths as a river or two edges as the blade of a sword. The mouth of the river is where it empties into the sea and “seas” in scripture represent the multitudes of people. When we prophetically declare the Word of God it flows from God’s mouth through our mouth and effects those around us! We have the power to cut through and divide with the Word of God.
Adam must rest before he can work!
Watchman Nee went on to explain that God’s last day was Adam’s first day. God works before he rests, while Adam begins his life with the Sabbath and first must enter God’s rest before he can begin to work! (Isa. 58)
“It was because God’s work of creation was truly complete that Adam’s life could begin with rest. In the Gospel, God has gone one step further and has completed the work in redemption. Christianity means that God has done EVERYTHING in Christ and we step into that by faith”[1].
The book of Hebrews confirms this when it says in Hebrews 2:8 that there is NOTHING that is not in subjection to our Messiah, we just don’t yet see everything in subjection to him.
In being seated with Christ we are therefore raised up into the throne ministry! We are the Royal Priesthood and Overcoming Sons of God who inherit all that our Father has and we rule with Christ from his throne. We have an unlimited ministry beyond the veil, as we walk in the completed work of the Cross and all that that encompasses.
When we are sitting we are at rest, and we are not striving. We are sitting with Christ in the completed work of His resurrection. Jesus is raised from the dead and all things are put under his feet. (Eph. 1: 20-22). Positionally we are co-regents with Christ over all the demonic rulers and authorities which oppose Christ and us, that are located in the second heaven. The 2nd heaven correlates to the 2nd day, when Christ was buried and in the tomb. This is the death realm. Christians who are living in this realm are like Lazarus, wrapped in burial clothes and trying to fight off death and the demonic. But praise God, the Lord is saying in this hour, “Lazarus, COME FORTH. Shake off the grave clothes and be raised with Christ and seated with him in paradise in the 3rd heaven. Lazarus’ name means “whom God helps” and he lived in Bethany which means “house of dates” or “house of misery”. But Jesus said to Martha, “I am the RESURRECTION and the life”. Jesus is the one who raises us up! The next time we see Lazarus he is feasting with Jesus. This is the realm of the Third Day or the day of the resurrection.
God has RAISED US
Eph. 2:6 “God has raised us with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus”
The word raised here is: sunegeivrw (Strongs 4891) and means:
to raise together, to cause to raise together
to raise up together from mortal death to a new and blessed life dedicated to God
The root world means to rouse from sleep, inactivity, disease or death, or figuratively from obscurity, inactivity, ruin or non-existence.
The fact that God has raised us is in the present perfect tense. The present perfect tense is used to describe an action which started in the past but is still relevant now. It is not an action which was started in the past and is finished, but it continues to be true to this present day.
COL 3:1 “If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. [2] Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. [3] For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. [4] When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”
“If we can clearly see that we are here on earth, how is it that we can say that we have been raised up and seated with Christ in heavenly places. Do we have disappear from here in order to be there? Certainly not! Why? Because the only thing that separates us from that other realm is a thin veil. Both realms are in the same location
“ My thesis is this: There is a realm in which we now live, just beyond the physical, in which we may “see” eternal things. This is not a matter of God “taking us some other place” to show us this realm but this “realm” is all around us now. For example; If we were with Paul when he was caught up to the Third Heaven when He “saw” unspeakable things, would we be aware that he left and went some other place? No! His body was on earth. In fact Paul couldn’t even tell if he was in the body or not.” 2
“For you have come to Mount Zion the city of the Living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem.”
This is where we, as saints, actually live…… on the Mount of Assembly and like Abraham we are looking for a city not of this world, but whose builder and maker is God. Our citizenship is in Heaven with the Lord while we live as strangers here on the earth……. pilgrims and aliens, because we are just passing through the natural realm.
We are the church on the earth and in the heavenlies declaring the manifold wisdom of God to the principalities and powers in the 2nd heaven. When God raised Jesus from the dead and raised him to his exalted position at the Father’s right hand, God shifted the focus of life from the earth realm to the throne realm in heaven. Jesus is now the Lord of heaven and earth, as he has conquered death, hell and the grave. Jesus ascended far above all the heavens so that he could fill the whole world and now he is the HEAD OVER ALL THINGS. (Eph 1:22).
“Seated with the cosmic Christ, sharing his throne, is the cosmic Christian. As the cosmic Christ, He is Lord, He is God. As the cosmic Christian in Christ, I am a person of cosmic power. It is His power which operates within me.
As the cosmic Christ, His sphere of operations is the entire universe. From the perspective of Scripture, however, He is seen operating exclusively with reference to humanity. Thus His operations in the heavenlies and on earth all relate to salvation history – His love for humanity.
As a cosmic Christian my sphere of operations is the same as His, that is, in the heavenlies AND on earth. I am seated with Him in the heavenlies; I am also indwelt by him on earth”. 3
You may ask how this translates into real life. We are to be the representation of and expression of Christ in the earth! We are to be the manifestation of HIS presence to all those around us. “As He is so are we in the world.” 1 John 4: 17, one body, with many parts. God is not in the business of playing “church” with us. He is in the business of building HIS KINGDOM. We must be about our Father’s business and be Kingdom builders! As we listen to the sound of his voice and obey what he commands us to do we enter his rest. It is only then that we will walk into our destiny, and BE the sound of HIS voice to this lost world.
Joanne Panettieri
[email protected]
www.chinatowngifts.ecrater.com
[1] “Sit, Walk, Stand” by Watchman Nee
2 “The Handbook for Spiritual Warfare” by Dr. Ed Murphy
2. #13ATabernacle_ The Veils Between Realms – Leo Fenton http://eternalvisionministries.com/id447.htm
3 “The Handbook for Spiritual Warfare” by Dr. Ed Murphy