The Necessity of the Heavenly Calling

            This is a word of preparation given at a recent Chronos Ministry weekly meeting. Daniel 7 and 8 record key prophecies concerning “the time of the end” (Dan. 8:17). Dan. 7:9-10 describes a key event at the end of this age that happens because of Christ’s return at the rapture. It is our heavenly calling whereby we are seated as the heavenly court. It is in fact, the reason for the rapture.
            We partake of this ruling assignment because we are in Christ (Heb. 3:1). Our calling is His calling. The purpose of this seating?  “But the court shall be seated, and they shall take away his dominion [Satan who empowers the Antichrist] to consume and destroy it forever (Dan. 7:28).
            This is confirmed in Psalm 149:6-9. “Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance on the nations, and punishments on the peoples; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute on them the written judgment—this honor have all His saints.”  This godly vengeance is also confirmed in Rev. 15 whereby our declarations as the heavenly court release the bowls of God’s wrath during the last Day.
            Without the court in place and reigning with all authority, the world would fall apart. Hebrews 2 reminds us that God has not put the world to come in subjection to the angels. By virtue of Christ’s resurrection the world to come is in His hands, along with the many brethren, His Church and Bride, who shall be raised up at the Last Day, likewise born from the dead. We rule as the one new Man by virtue of our resurrection.
            This seating of Christ the Head and His Body is affirmed in Acts 17:31. “He [God] has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” We are seated together with Christ at the right hand of the Father’s throne, ruling over the earth from this position of all authority for the final 1,000-year Day, the Last Day, and Christ’s millennial reign. This is why Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:15-21 is so vital.  We need to understand the hope of our calling that comes because we are “in Christ.”
           This is also why our Lord’s visible return at the appointed time of the Last Day (John 6:39, 40, 44, 45) is so key. We must be installed as the heavenly court with Christ for God’s plan of redemption to be fulfilled. For God the Father declared the decree, the inheritance over this earth, to the Son. At the rapture, when all the heirs are gathered together with the Son, Jesus will declare that decree over us as His joint heirs, likewise the sons of God through adoption (Gal. 4:5; Eph. 1:5). This is our eternal position, for it is an eternal government (Ps. 2). We will be making the necessary judgments from the throne, executing the written judgments, speaking forth God’s will on earth as in heaven (Rev. 2:26-27).
           When Jeff first introduced this teaching on our heavenly calling, it changed everything for me. I knew we would be gathered together with Christ at the rapture. But I wasn’t sure what would happen next. Of course I relished the idea of being in Heaven with God and our Lord, but what would we do besides strum some songs on harps and bask in His glory. Yet this tells us there is so much more to this calling. Once perfected at the rapture and fully conformed to Jesus (Rom. 8:29), we shall reign with Him as joint heirs as foreshadowed in Esther’s story when the king, her husband, offered her half of his kingdom.