Small Tastes Of Heaven

Posted on November 8, 2024 by Stephen Nielsen

Though we aren’t in heaven yet, God will send us small tastes of heaven. The more you connect yourself with God through His Spirit by prayer and meditation on His word, and by your personal holiness and obedience, the more you will be blessed and will taste of all of the spiritual blessings He has given us (Eph. 1:3).

I love what Paul says in Colossians 3:1-3.

Therefore if 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.

Let me go through this passage and comment briefly. In verse one Paul instructs the believer to “keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” He is talking about heaven isn’t he? We are to “keep seeking” those things in heaven.

What does he mean by this? How are we to do it? Well, verse two gives us his answer. We are to set our mind on the things above (on heaven where Christ is) instead of on all the things down here on this earth.

In verse three Paul continues with this thought. He is giving us the reason why we are not to set our mind on things of this earth: it is because we have died to our old life and have been raised up with Christ to a new life with Him. Our real life now is in Christ in God. That is to say, everything that gives us real meaning in life is in the Christ life. Our real home now is with Christ in heaven.

So how do we actually taste of heaven? I would say anything that brings the life of Christ into us is how we taste of heaven—because heaven is really enjoying the life of Christ. Here are five ways that we can taste of heaven:

Obey Christ in everything. Remember that obeying Him is loving Him.
Pursue holiness. The more we stop sinning the more we will see God (Matt. 5:8).
Stay in prayer. Prayer is our connection to God.
Fellowship with other believers. The more we love and encourage them in the Lord the more He will bless us—satisfy us with His love.
Worship together. Praise to God is most blessed and satisfying when we do it together.

5 Reasons Why Every Christian Is Called To Reign With Christ in the Heavenly Places

Posted on March 23, 2021 by Stephen Nielsen

Prayer A to Z

In previous posts I have written about the Christian’s authority in Christ and about the heavenly places, which is the spirit realm, the place where we reign with Christ. In this post I want to give some reasons why God has called us to our high position.

1. To battle and be victorious.God has created us for battle and to be victorious over sin and Satan (Jud. 3:2). Every person who is a believer is naturally an enemy of the devil (1 Peter 5:8) and desires in his spirit to take authority over him.

2. To rule with Christ over the nations. In the future all Christians will sit with Christ (bodily) on His throne and will rule with Him over the nations (Rev. 2:26, 3:21). In the light of this great future we must now be trained in conflict and in how to prevail over the enemy…

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What and Where are the Heavenly Places? – Ephesians 1:3, 1:20, 2:6, 3:10, 6:12

Posted on March 20, 2021 by Stephen Nielsen

Prayer A to Z

Ephesians 2:6 tells us that all believers reign together in Christ in the “heavenly places.” The book of Ephesians mentions these heavenly places five different times (Eph. 1:3, 1:20, 2:6, 3:10, and 6:12). Here are some observations I have made about these places:

1 . The heavenly places are the spirit realm where all spirits dwell. The triune God dwells there (Eph. 1:20); the angels and the demons dwell there (Eph. 6:12); and all human spirits are there too.

2. Since both God and Satan dwell in the heavenly places we know that it is a place of both good and evil, where both light and darkness exist.

3. It is the place where Christians are reigning with Christ (Eph. 2:6), taking authority over sin, Satan and the demons, because they trust in Him and remain in His domain of light.

4. Likewise, it is also the place where…

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