Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places

Ephesians 1 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,

To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus: ² Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, ⁴ just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love ⁵ He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, ⁶ to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. ⁷ In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace ⁸ which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight ⁹ He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him ¹⁰ with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him ¹¹ also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, ¹² to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. ¹³ In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, ¹⁴ who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

¹⁵ For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, ¹⁶ do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; ¹⁷ that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. ¹⁸ I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹ and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might ²⁰ which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹ far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. ²² And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, ²³ which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

In John 10:10 Jesus says:  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. Today’s text describes the abundant life we have in Christ saying:  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.  In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. The abundant life in Christ is God’s grace lavished on us. It is that we are redeemed through His blood. We are adopted as children of God. We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places.

Before we look more closely at the spiritual blessings that we have, let’s look at the heavenly places, where we have them. Jesus says He came to give us abundant life, not just eternal life in heaven, after we die. So, the blessings are also for this life. It says every spiritual blessing in heavenly places, not just in heaven.  Jesus taught us to pray saying, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10) So then we are to pray that earth would be a heavenly place. From the beginning of His ministry on earth, Jesus said: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17) The heavenly places are right at hand. They are nearby. We can touch them. Even more, in Luke 17:21 Jesus says:  Behold, the kingdom of God is within you.  We ourselves are a heavenly place. We carry every spiritual blessing from God with us wherever we go. The Holy Spirit abides in us and with us. In John 14:17 Jesus says:  The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

What then are the blessings we have been blessed with so that we would have the abundant life of Christ? We saw from what Jesus said that the Spirit is the Spirit of truth. We are blessed that we know truth. When we see the world, our culture and society being so deceived; embracing darkness and evil, calling evil good and good evil, it is difficult to understand why so many believe the lies and deception. It is simply that they have not been blessed with the spiritual blessing of truth. In John 14:6 Jesus says: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”  To know truth a person must know Jesus. Those who do not know Jesus will be deceived. In Galatians 5:22-23 it says:  The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.  The fruit of the Spirit, these things  being present in our lives, is evidence of the Spiritual blessings of God on our lives. In 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 it says:  Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.  Even though we may see the manifestation of the Spiritual blessings in only one or some of these Spiritual gifts in our lives, we have been blessed with every Spiritual blessing. The gifts are given as He wills, so that if and when it is necessary, in order to fulfill the prayer of Jesus, that His kingdom would come and His will would be done, on earth as it is in heaven; in order that we could bring the kingdom of heaven to earth wherever we go, He will enable us with whatever Spiritual blessing that we need to fulfill His will, that it would be done on earth as it is in heaven.

May Paul’s words be our prayer today:  For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might  which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.  And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church,  which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.  Amen.