Much in the world denies your identity in Christ. Hardship fights it. Your history denies it. Skeptics question it. Yet, lies form the basis of these fights, denials, and questions. And you can learn to identify and reject them all. This is the slow daily process of living the resurrection life of Christ, until he suddenly returns and unveils your hidden beauty.   

To say it differently, you are a caterpillar concealed in the chrysalis of a mortal and fallen body. Paul describes creation awaiting the revelation of your beauty: “The whole creation waits breathless with anticipation for the revelation of God’s sons and daughter” (Romans 8:19 CEB). Every angel, tree, flower, blade of grass, star, planet, animal, bird, and the fish of the sea eagerly wait for God to reveal you, with Christ, in your resurrection glory. Until then, your resurrection identity remains certain, though unseen.

But how can you focus your heart and mind on Jesus to experience his resurrection life and power now?

How? By training your mind to capture every thought and make it obey Christ (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). By choosing to see life with a good eye, one that allows the light of Christ’s resurrection life to fill your heart and mind. Within that resurrection paradigm[1] you’ll view:

Every loss as gain (Philippians 3:8)

Every disappointment, hope (Romans 5:2-5)

Every temptation, victory (1 Corinthians 10:13)

Every challenge, courage (John 16:33

Every stronghold, freedom. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)

Every sin, repentance (Luke 5:32)

Every demon, dispelled (Mark 3:15)

Every wrong, forgiven (Matthew 6:12)

Every need, supplied (Philippians 4:19)

            Eyes of Faith

This requires accepting, by faith, the presence of an unseen spiritual reality—your co-resurrection with Christ. Such vision transforms every negative above into the positive God promises.   

An excellent example of this invisible reality occurred in 2 Kings 6:8-22. At the time the King of Aram was engaged in a war with the King of Israel. After a series of military setbacks, the Aramean king discovered that God was revealing his battle plans to the prophet Elisha, and Elisha was passing them along to the King of Israel. Seeking to kill the prophet, the king of Aram sent an army to Dothan, Elisha’s hometown. No doubt thinking God wouldn’t notice.

When the prophet’s servant awoke and went outside, he saw the city surrounded by an army of enemy horses and chariots. Terrified, he asked his master, “What shall we do?” Not a bad question considering the apparent hopelessness of the situation.

The prophet calmly said, “Don’t be afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them” (2 Kings 6:16).

I don’t think Elisha’s servant bought into the Elisha’s assessment. His twenty-twenty vision told him a massive army surrounded them. He may have rubbed his eyes and looked again, but the odds didn’t improve.

Sensing his servant’s fear, Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes so he may see” (2 Kings 6:17). Immediately, God allowed Elisha’s servant to see into the spiritual dimension. The text says, “Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” (2 Kings 6:17).

I wonder, did Elisha see the angels all along, or did he simply believe they were there? In either case, he lived with an acute awareness of God’s presence. This story provides an impressive example of God’s existence in an unseen parallel dimension. A dimension within our eyesight—if we could view that reality. I believe if God “opened our eyes” so we could, we would see ourselves with Christ in the heavenlies surrounded by a host of angels (Isaiah 6:1-3). This reality is as certain as the invisible systems and infrastructure that surround us—a hidden world of webs and waves that come from cell towers, routers, satellites, and more.

Apart from a vision, or other sudden revelation from God, we will never see what Elisha’s servant saw. But we can train ourselves to accept the presence of that invisible reality. Remember, we just read that faith is “being convinced of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). And what we cannot see is that we are now with Christ at God’s right hand, sharing His resurrection life.

---

[1] Paradigm is a word that describes the way we see things. It’s the lens through which we view the world. For instance, because I wear prescription glasses, I see the world clearly. If I put on non-prescription sunglasses, the world looks blurry and dark. Has the world changed? No, the world remains constant. All that’s changed are the lenses I’m looking through. A paradigm shift occurs when I change glasses. The Resurrection Paradigm describes viewing the world through the lens of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and all that encompasses.