◄ Position And Possession ►

I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:12).

To know our position in the Lord Jesus is necessary so that we may understand His ways and rest in His means. Then, by processing through the years He slowly narrows the discrepancy between our heavenly position and our personal condition. Truth is received in the mind, assimilated in the heart, and manifested in the walk.

"First, the believer, like a bird, flies at once to the top and sees everything accomplished on his behalf, and then he, as it were, comes back and creeps up every inch of the way. It is like ascending a ladder of grace.

"The first step is, we believe that the Lord Jesus was sent of the Father; second, that in the fulness of His work we are justified; third, we make His acquaintance, fourth, we come to see Him in heaven - we know our association with Him there, and His rest here, fifth, we learn the mystery, the great things we are entitled to because of being in His Body, His Bride; sixth, that we are seated in heavenly places in Him; seventh, we rejoice in wonder and in praise in the knowledge of Himself." -J.B.S.

"As the result of the work of His Cross and resurrection, eternal life is received complete by those who believe. But while that life is itself victorious,  incorruptible, and indestructible, the believer has to come by faith to prove it, to live by it, to learn its principles, to be conformed to it. The life in itself in the believer needs no addition, so far as its quality and quantity are concerned. So far as its power, its glory, its potentialities are concerned nothing can be added to it. But the course of spiritual experience, of spiritual life, is to discover, to appropriate, and to grow in all that the life represents and means." -T. A-S.

"Rooted and built up in Him, and established" (Col. 2:7).