INTRODUCTION
Because I have to make an immensely controversial statement in this book it is necessary to present the before going conclusions, in the form of a summary of the past six books.
I do not expect that anyone who has not read the six previous books will understand this summery. It is however necessary to go over all the events that took place in order to once again see the hand of God in revealing knowledge of the glory of the Lord without us being aware of it.
In the first painting, the “line” was revealed to us in a miraculous way. The “line” divided the “flesh” from the “spirit” and this is accounted for in the book ‘The Line’. We were taught by the Spirit of the Lord about highs and lows, above and beneath. Jesus said to Nicodemus “you must be born from above” (Joh 3:3).
During tours through the cave, on the subject of the Line, we were excited to see how sick people could be healed by looking up. By having the natural mind, changed into the Christ mind. We also learned that it must be at least two who agree concerning any matter (Matt 18:19).
We learnt about “looking up” and began to discern about when we were looking down. In this way families began to find out how to help each other to look up, by loving each other and learning to tell each other about dreams they wanted to achieve. Things that were hidden in our deep recesses were beginning to submerge as we told each other intimate details of un-achieved dreams and needs. It became a family matter to look up together, and see how the Lord provided when these basic principles were applied. At the same time it glorified the Lord as we learnt about disciplining the mind to look at the solution and not the problem. To “overcome the enemy by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimonies” (Rev 12:11). The reason why the church does not walk in victory is because the last part of this verse was not understood and applied… “And they loved not their lives unto the death”. We have to partake of the dying process, which will be explained in this book.
The first painting helped many people for it explained that the horizontal beam of the cross, which divided the painting into two halves established that the LINE is, the blood of Christ. We learnt that the above state of mind could only be held through the work of the cross and the blood. We learnt that this above state of mind where one can be safe, in a fenced estate, is the garden and is the dimension lost by Adam. We understood that to live in this above state we needed to have the mind of Christ. Also we realized that our minds would have to be transformed by disciplining ourselves to look up. The horizontal beam of the cross explained that, the garden (above) which have been lost by the first Adam has been once again made accessible by the last Adam. If man would understand Calvary he can once again live in the presence of God.
Next we found out that the “line” was already drawn inside the cave, that was created by the artist and his family, without their knowledge six years before the line was discovered. We found that the line was inside the cave and ran true throughout all the rooms, dividing flesh from spirit.
The artist and author of these books built the cave under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. I was so overworked that I was physically dying. Because of this physical state, I was usable by the Spirit, and the cave was built as a monument of dividing flesh and spirit, because this important message of Romans 6 is hardly preached (Figure 1).
As the knowledge of the “line” increased by applying it to the Bible, much of the Bible that could previously not be understood, was suddenly clear. This resulted in many paintings and the two books ‘The Garden’ and the ‘Short Sword’. These studies went on to prove that the Bible is not only prophetically, archaeologically and historically correct, but that it is spiritually correct. By drawing the human form onto the plan of the tabernacle it was found, that we are the tabernacle of God, exactly as the Bible says. (Figure 2) (1 Cor 6:19).
In this way it was possible to see that the fenced garden that was lost, is the Holy of Holies. We also see that we are as a three story temple where we grow out of the outer court into the Holy place and then into the above, where the presence of God is in the Holy of Holies. Also this compares well with the three stories of Noah’s ark. To understand even more of this truth we have to start at the Genesis creation. In the beginning, it was ‘dark’ (wicked, sorrow, ignorant, (Strong)), and when God said “Light” it translates as ‘morning sun, happiness and lightning’. (Figure 3)
This brought about the Genesis sketches, where it is proven that when God created the earth, he was saying how our spiritual growth would be created out of chaotic darkness, in to the seventh day lifestyle, in the rest.
Furthermore it showed the reason for the thorn crown. Adam was fenced, Job was hedged and lost it, but Jesus wore the thorn hedge to bring us into the sheepfold. (Figure 4)
It is into this height we enter into via the Christ mind to become kings of the Kingdom of God. During the revelation of these childlike drawings, it was revealed that we can see, as we look into the face, where each Christian is in the mountain of the Lord. This mountain shape in the face is called the A-zone by beauticians and is where the age lines are located which are to be painted out. (Figure 5) Paint however cannot hide the spirit that is ruling in a person. The shape of this mountain is used in the movie industry by Paramount pictures for instance, and is a snow-capped mountain. After the mountain is shown, little stars appear and then settle in the shape that is drawn here in Figure 6. This symbolizes that it is in the mountain heights where the imagination soars like an eagle. Other movie industries draw castles, sometimes on the mountain, and then almost as if in an afterthought the morning sun shape appears to finish the logo off, and place it in the mind. Moses fetched the commandments of the law in the mountain, Abraham sacrificed his son in the mountain, Jesus preached His first sermon on the mount, was transformed on the mount… etc.
The difference between the pyramids and the Mountain of the Lord is possible to be understood because of the comparison between the pyramids and the mountain of the Lord. The pyramid structure represents the rigid laws of the world structure. (Figure 7) Loan your money, pay back with interest or else lose all your possessions. But the mountain of the Lord (Figure 8) represents the holy presence of God which is where Zion is, which is above. We are a city on a hill, and when the sun rises over the mountains, it is a daily reminder that Jesus was a ‘crack of dawn’ person. This was also the time the resurrection took place. Joy comes in the morning and too many scriptures to mention is proof of this except for this knee buckling scripture:
Song 6:10: “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?”
When Pharaoh drowned in the Red Sea, the sun came up.
Mar 16:2: “And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.”
The shape of the mind is the shape of the morning sun, and should always be as holy as compared to the rising of the sun. Lots of stuff became very easy to understand and there are too numerous to mention. The important thing we need to remember is that when one draws the cross onto the forehead of a person the centre appears where Goliath was slayed, Hindus wear the spot and the Jews the square box.
(Figure 9)
Nursery rhymes and stories began to fit into these drawings as for example, Jack and the beanstalk. The giant was living above, and it was slayed into the below. Notice where the wealth was!
In this case the upright of the cross is the beanstalk and the cross beam the ‘above’ that was lost by Adam, to the flesh, or giants, and conquered by Christ. After which He poured out His soul for the sin of mankind. Much more of these in the books ‘The Short Sword’ and ‘Room with a View’.
The next miraculous thing that happened was that the artist had to start painting by inspiration, which resulted in paintings that proved that all of scripture speak of the above and below in different ways. The artist painted things he was not aware of, like for instance, the spiritual sea. He started to learn that all people are like a sea of emotions, also that it is the language of the Bible. For instance the ‘beast’ or ‘dragon’ or ‘whore’ is on the sea.
As the reader may have noticed we are finding that physical things reveal the spiritual. In the sixth book, we realize that we are a sea of emotions which reaches to the neck (Is 30:28).
The Bible speaks of the sea as the flood, in the days of Noah. Noah was saved from the flood, in a sealed ark, to the tops of the mountains. This compares to the statement Jesus made concerning the flood: “the house must be build on the rock” (mountain or above) so it can withstand the flood. The flood is also the emotional storms of ‘Life’. This word “life” is the one we have to lay down or deny (Luke 9:23) and is translated as ‘animal’ and is carnality. Each one of us have the sea of emotions inside us, it comes from below into the above. We are as a rock in the ocean, continually bombarded by the storms of life. Sometimes calm, but open to the mood changes of the mighty deep. We are all in the same boat on the sea. Horror stories are made up of slimy things that come out of the deep sea, jaws is in the sea, and so are the wrecks of our past, which lay at the bottom of the sea. Not one of these sea creatures are mentioned at the throne of God, but Baal is the fish god. I will leave it to the imagination of the reader to find out which of the major religions still wear the fish shape hat during ceremonies. The point is that we are a sea of emotions, which want to rule in the above, or mind of a person.
The word emotion is not used in the Bible but it is the FLESH. To explain the mysteries of the flesh Jesus never spoke directly of the spiritual and fleshly, but left it to mankind to find the Kingdom of God, by searching earnestly, as if for a treasure of great value.
(Figure 10).
By first speaking to the physical storm and calming it, He then goes across the lake onto a mountain, where Legion is living among the graves with a thousand demons ruling him. Although He calmed a physical storm it was showing the spiritual work He loves to do in all of us, and teach us about this. After this he calmed the spiritual sea in the mad, naked man of Gadara’s mind. Notice where the demons were – they were in the mountain. Compare this to the holy mountain of the Lord in Is 14:13 and Eze 28. The demons were in the man and caused storms at will, while he lived among the graves. The man was naked as Adam became, which compares to our spiritual state. We are naked to the comings and goings of the sea of emotions. We did not know how to do anything about it. As in the nursery rhyme of Itsie-bitsie- spider. I believe it must have been a mother who was telling a child, that some days the mind would be calm but other days, stormy, and we can’t do anything about it. But this is not true, for this is what the cross was designed to do. When there is no life in the mountain, there is death, which is carnality. After this, Jesus allowed the demons to enter the swine, which went back into the sea.
The conscience – The Line, is holding true as we find the Line to be the surface of the sea where Jesus walked on. This is the Line on which the sun rises and is where we wear a crown or cap. The line is thus above the eyes and becomes the subject of the Bible in many different ways. It can be drawn as the circle inside the head and compares to the circle of the horizon, above which is the “air”. (Figure 11) Above the line is the ‘above’ thought life in Christ, and below is the emotions, intellect, will and feelings. This is also the subconscious, for in the sea lay all the wrecks of the past which Jesus wants to save us from.
When the sun rises in the morning, our Lord is asking how is your mind today, did you manage to keep it, or did the below come above again? Adam can you keep your mind?
No person on earth can keep the mind, therefore, come to the cross.(Figure 12)
As we take thoughts captive daily we are honest with ourselves and allow the two edged sword to divide between spirit and flesh. We can at this stage identify what sin is! Sin is when the below comes above. When we have sinned, we go to the cross to crucify the sin, in Christ, and be saved from the effects of what sinful thoughts had on the condition of the heart or conscience. We go to the cross daily, to die in Christ and then rise in Christ. In this way our thought life is being dealt with to be transformed into the mind of Christ. As we are willing to die to the flesh, the effects the past has had on us will also be dealt with by Jesus, who is our Gardener. He will save us from the torment of the past that destroys us daily, and make us free. This is achieved by having a relationship with our Lord, who prepares us to go to the Father by the cross and blood.
The conscience must become clear, holy and compare to a pool of clear water after the rain. Clear and tranquil and reflecting the rain clouds and rainbow after the rain. If the tiniest leaf should fall onto the surface of the conscience, we should immediately be aware of it in order to discern between flesh and Spirit.
These studies were done in the sixth book ‘The Spiritual Sea’. Incredibly, the preachers of old, also spoke this language of parallels and this author found comfort in their work, which proved that he was not alone in his thinking.
F B Meyer:
“There is the mighty ocean of power all around us, but for some reason we cannot tap it. It is like the electric current, which refuses to help us unless we have instruments precisely adapted to transmit the driving-power. Faith is absolutely necessary for the conveyance of God’s power to meet the need and sin and sorrow of the world.”
The word ‘ocean’ is used in a spiritual sense, and should really have been the word “air”, for electricity is in the lightning, in the “air”. The word ‘lightning’ is a descriptive Hebrew translation for ‘light’. When God said: “let there be light” (Gen 1:3) it is also where the power is. When we give our hearts to God, light comes, and our sins are forgiven because of the work of the cross. We are now in the “air” in Christ and the POWER surrounds us, the heart is blood washed and in contact with the heart of God. Because our sins have been forgiven and the heart is pure we have faith. BUT! We lose this exalted position in Christ, when we become fleshly or carnal again. If we do not guard the heart we become naked, naked to the sea.
Read the piece by Meyer again and you will see that he was thinking that faith alone can bring the vast ocean of power. But there can only be faith if the heart is pure. The subject of the Bible is the heart that must be kept. The word ‘keep’, is translated as ‘guard’.
Gen 2:15: “…and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.”
Pro 4:23: “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”
THE GARDEN AND SIN
This brings us to the garden which I believe is the heart, for the following reasons.
Physically we compare to the spiritual tree of Psalm 1. The tree is referring to a human being as a tree that is planted by waters, and will bring forth fruit, if it meditates the scriptures. The water is the word of God. We realize there are trees, but we are as a tree.
When I sketch a tree into the brain of a person, it looks like a tall tree. There are many scriptures to prove this. When we draw the leaves and branches of the tree into the brain it is a drawing of the basic nervous system. When we add all the nerves that are spread throughout the body, leading from out of the spinal cord, it looks like a tree with lots of roots. (Figure 13) Out of the brain comes the commands that are relayed by nerves to every part of the body.
I do not find it strange that the Egyptians believed the brain was to cool the blood down, for they were carnal in their thinking. The Hebrew people on the other hand were spiritual in their thoughts. Abraham for instance was looking for a city.
Heb 11:10: “For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
Abraham was a man of faith. The God kind of faith can only come if the conscience is kept clear. He walked in a thought life that was above, while yet on earth. The Egyptians on the other hand were bringing the below into their above. Yet they were completely convinced that their Gods were superior to the Hebrew God, as many still think today.
Gen 26:5: “Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”
Because he did this, God could bless him.
Gen 26:4: “And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed…”
The seed of Abraham became carnal in their thinking because of their slave mentality.
The thought life of man is where God makes himself a dwelling, if the commandments are kept. Because the conscience is clear, he is capable of imagining, and bringing the good things, God has in mind for all mankind to earth. (Let thy will be done…)
When the thought life becomes fleshly the tops of the brain tree dies to the things of God as a physical tree would have died. The tree leaves die, where it is supposed to breathe the God “air”, and becomes perches for spiders and vultures. In this way principalities and powers of darkness lives in our high places, and cause strongholds. The thought life is fearful and full of carnality. When the tree no longer fully belongs to God the conscience is seared and nervous conditions take over in the thought life. Where there used to be rest and calm, reassurance that God is providing, the person becomes agitated, loses assertiveness, and all kinds of ailments appear. The blessing has departed and the curse has taken its place.
The curse is not because of a witches brew, it is the result of turning away from God and His law. The commission to Abraham was:
Gen 17:9: “And God said to Abraham, As for you, you shall therefore keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.”
This word ‘keep’ is the same word (H8104) as Adam was told to keep the garden.
Gen 4:9: “Cain replied “am I my brother’s keeper?””
As Christians we are to help each other keep the heart.
Gen 17:10: “This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your posterity after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised.”
To be physically circumcised was to cut the flesh, as we spiritually cut the flesh at the cross for the circumcision of the heart. In Gen 18:19 we find that if this covenant was kept, they would be blessed. Each time the blessing departed from Israel after this covenant, it was because they did not keep the heart. We give the heart to God at regeneration and are to keep it free from the flesh. It is however a full time occupation to keep the heart, as we can see in the following verse:
Gen 31:24: “Then God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
When we have been offended, as I am sure Laban must have been at this time, we must also consider the offence of Jacob at the same time. They both felt hurt, and this is when we lash out and offend and take offence, become emotional, and loose God’s blessings. This is why Laban was warned in the dream to say nothing, for he was in danger of losing God’s blessings, at the same time causing irreparable offence to Jacob. We say things hastily without getting counsel from God, and in this way loose the blessing. God requires a calm, peaceful, holy dwelling to live inside us. To take offence or cause offence is to block the blessing out.(Figure 14)
Pro 4:23: “Keep (guard) thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”
We are to guard the heart for all things pertaining to life, flow forth from the heart.
Ps 119:2: “Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.”
Once one has given the heart to God and learnt to guard it, blessings flow continually. FB Meyer explains this process in the following way:
“Salvation has three stages. It begins with deliverance from the penalty of the past. Our sins are blotted out. The penalty is remitted or turned to benediction. (Blessings) Then we are saved lower down. The process of purification goes deeper and deeper into our nature. Finally, our body is renewed through the resurrection – grace of Christ. And surely there is a sense in which the grace of Christ will ever sink deeper, giving us a profounder realization and participation in the things that will open before us in the eternal progress.”
It is an ongoing process, we are naturally created in carnality, and I will prove it. If we ask any psychiatrist or brain scientist, where emotions live, they will tell you it is in the hypothalamus. Bible dictionaries say: “the seat of emotions is the heart”. The center of man is the heart, but we are naturally fleshly and proud.(Figure 15). We are naturally slaves to emotions as Israel was slaves to Pharaoh.
We are saved from slavery if we partake of the flesh of the Lamb, and if the blood is sprinkled, we will pass safely, on dry land through the “Red Sea”, to be prepared in the wilderness, to live in the Promised Land. This also entails the three-step process Meyer mentions above. As he says: “Then we are saved lower down, the process of sanctification goes deeper”. The word ‘flesh’ that is used here is the lower emotional condition of man. The flesh is death (Rom 8:6).
To be saved is not the problem; it is the wilderness that lay ahead. During the initial regeneration, lots of miracles and things happen, but when we go to the wilderness, those miracles are forgotten in the heat of the day. Even though God is still providing for us in the wilderness, by providing all we need. We still have shoes, clothes, shelter and food, but we allow fleshly worries and arrogance to convince us that God is not providing, while He actually is cutting the flesh and providing at the same time. However the requirement for God’s provision is faith. Only a pure heart generates faith. If the fleshly doubts enter, the conscience sears and the blessing departs. We are no better than those who criticized God during the wilderness ordeal. We were also wandering around in the wilderness because we were in the flesh, while thinking we were above and open to the blessings. Naming and claiming, speaking God’s Word in the face of apparent defeat, yet the blessings did not abide. We find little bits of revelation and we soar for a while and then back into the wilderness. The mainspring is the heart, keep the heart! This is the only way to avoid the prolonged wilderness times. I remember a man who was sent from China to tell me that the Lord wishes that I prosper even as my soul prospers. The man looked past me and he said “you come out of the deep dry wilderness, but I don’t know why”.
My prayer is that the reader will understand why we spend so much time in the wilderness and not in the blessing. If it seems to you as if I keep saying the same thing over and over, it is because of my experience with groups in the cave. They nod their heads at all the right places and promise me they do understand, but they failed. This knowledge sounds easy, but it is hard to do. We naturally want to avoid the straight and narrow and then walk around the mountain one more time. By simply observing the parallels that are drawn throughout the Bible we can see that our spiritual growth, out of the fleshly into the spiritual, is the subject of the Bible.
Although we are saved by our Lord, He still has to deal with the way we thought before being saved. Because of our old thought life we still think carnally, and die in the wilderness, as that wilderness generation did. This death is the death of the conscience, the conscience is non life giving. It means that the Spirit through whom everything was created cannot bring forth life, for the flesh is ruling. This life is the power we have to change the atom through our thought life. Not only in our bodies but everything that surrounds us. The difference between the rich and the poor is the way they think. The slave mentality caused their death, even as Christians die today of every kind of sickness imaginable. I know what I’m talking about, for I was there in Egypt, I was saved as they were, but almost died in the wilderness. There was no one to help me. I heard that everybody thought they were Caleb and Joshua’s generation, but they were as fleshly as I was. I was taught that the law is a curse, and everything is grace, but I was still dying. I simply could not find out how to turn things around, until I found out that the “line” is the conscience. The man from Galilee walked on my stormy sea and He saved me! Then He taught me how not to sin.
After this He started dealing with the ship wrecks, most embarrassing moments and disappointments so I could heal. I needed healing, for the past was brewing up a great chaos up inside my deep and was beginning to kill me. He saved me, healed me, redeemed me and crowned me with loving kindness and tender mercies (Ps 103). Notice the three step process.
If we would meditate the word of God constantly, we will be able to teach our children the difference between flesh and spirit by example. These are the generations that will inherit the Promised Land.
THE HEART IS ALSO ZION
The place where children play is the imagination, it is where toys become real things, and children partake of the magical in their thoughts. The rainbow becomes the physical comparison to the mind that flies and goes into a different dimension without drugs. If only we could live this way always, if only we could “keep” our minds constantly. Well, this is the subject of the Bible. The imagination is where we receive inspiration to be creative in our particular field. Some religions are so busy being religious that the imagination is allowed no freedom. All creative abilities come out of the imagination. The outcome of the creative force in us will depend on what is in the imagination. What force is ruling in the citadel, is it from below or above? To be able to discern whether the heart is fleshly or spiritual is the constant quest of the believer. When the principles of the cross is applied; when we have died to self daily, and raised in Christ we are able to discern. When we are in the flesh, principalities, powers and rulers of darkness are ruling, and the decisions we make will end in chaos.
Col 2:10: “And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power…”
If you have died with Him, now joined in Spirit to Him, we are to abide in him!
This is where the heart is circumcised (Col 2:11) and the heart is God’s dwelling, not that of the flesh.
This is the only way to find out whether thoughts or inspiration, that come to us, are from God or not. This is what is meant by, “the Devil appears as an angel of light”. In actual fact the inspiration came out of hell and will lead us on another useless circle through the wilderness. We have to deal with the “flesh” at the cross.
Jesse Penn Lewis : “The ‘flesh’ cannot be taken into Him. It must be cast of. ‘For with Him you were buried in your baptism (into death) wherein you were also made partakers of His resurrection, through the faith wrought in you by God, who raised Him from the dead.
The severing work of the cross takes place as we abide in Him; the cutting of the ‘flesh’, even the casting off, of the whole body of the flesh takes place as we abide in Him. This circumcision is not done by human hands, for it is wrought by the Holy Ghost as the believer consents….It is the Spirit of God who baptizes us into Christ and gives the believer the power to cast off all the “body of the flesh” and to carry this out in detail.”
It takes time to deal with the flesh, even under the guidance of the Gardener, some situations will seem as if they come out of hell, which is exactly where they come from, but it is for the sanctification of the saints. All work together for good, for the fires are melting and moulding us into pure gold, so that we may live according to God in the Spirit.
2 Cor 5:17: “Whosoever, then, is in Christ, is a new creation; his old being has passed away, and behold, all has become new.”
We are going into the sphere of Christ, we leave outside the “old”. It is the Christ-mind we are being transformed into. We can discern by the Spirit, and live in the Spirit, no more mistakes; whatever happens to us, is from God.
Bad things do happen to Christians who are partaking of the “cutting”, for it is God’s way of dealing with the old creation and bringing us to the cross with preconceived religions and traditions. Most of us, simply will not listen to good advice, and have to spend time in the wilderness to learn, to hear the still small voice. This is the immature child who learns by chastisement.
2 Cor 5:1: “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
2 Cor 5:2: “For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven.”
The kingdom of God belongs to children, and we are to seek the kingdom, then all will be added. In this same way Abraham was seeking for a city that God was the builder and architect of. This city is the “high’ city, the one Gal 4:25 speaks of as Jerusalem above. Jerusalem below is slavery, carnal, but Jerusalem above is free.
Heb 12:22: “But ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels…”
This city is the “highway”; it is where we are seated “above”, in Christ. Joined to the risen One to be lifted up in the spirit, “far above all”, in Christ, however deeply it may have been “down”, under the bondage of the flesh, or mingled with the “life” of the old nature of the soul; “we are seated with Him in the heavens”. It helps me to imagine the glorious cloud formations and sunrise colours over the sea, it brings this above spiritual state of mind into perspective. The sea creatures that were previously only in the imaginations of artists are being found thousands of meters below in the deep. In the same way we are also discovering how we were ruled by the deep within. Compare this picture to the burst of light and splendour at sunrise (Figure 16).
Mal 4:2; (Ps 37:6 NIV): “The one is below, the other above.”
The line between these two dimensions is the horizontal beam of the cross. “Finally…let your hearts be strengthened in the Lord, and the conquering power of His might…”
The cross beam is also representing the conscience or heart – “let your hearts be strengthened in the Lord…” We are to “keep” the heart—but did not! Out of the deep the beast came and rules on our sea. The Lord Christ, Paul said in chapter one, is above the principalities and powers. He is not under them, and the believer is also seated with Him, “far above”. Now let us be strengthened in the Lord, be confident, be sure, know for certain the position of victory, and be strong in the conquering power of His might. If the reader can grasp who he is in Christ, he will live constantly in the victory of the cross. But to stay above is a lifelong task of constant self discipline, self control and study of who we are in Christ. The moment we think we have arrived, we fall short again. For this reason, “put on the whole armour of God that you are able to stand”. But you were seated a moment ago! Yes, you cannot fight external foes if you have a conflict within! You must be ‘sitting down’ inside!
If you lose your inward peace, you are at the mercy of the devil.
To have the inner calm we must understand the armour, by placing the state of the conscience first. We go to the cross to have the conscience dealt with. We need the ‘pure heart’ in order that God may put us in our right place. When sins have been dealt with at the cross and the blood is sprinkled, we have died and risen in Christ, we are above in thanks giving, praise and worship and can ‘enter into’ the presence of our Father. When the conscience is clear, we are saved (helmet) we are the righteousness of God (breastplate) and so on …lastly the shield is biggest of all, and is Faith.
When the conscience is clear we have faith! We can go pray the prayer of faith! Because we have died, and then risen in Christ, we are in Christ.