By Pastor Doug Cox
 
In our Simple Truths Bible study, we have been learning about prayer. What a privilege it is for us to pray to God and call Him our Father. God becomes the Father of every person that confesses with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believes in their heart that God raised Him from the dead. (See Romans 10:9-10) This is how a sinner is adopted into the family of God.
 
Think about this wonderful world changing miracle. Jesus rose from the dead! I believe it, but sometimes we hear things so many times they lose their impact. Let’s not let that happen to us. The resurrection of Jesus should always stir our hearts with awe, wonder and excitement.
 
So, Jesus rose from the dead. Have you ever considered the magnitude of what He is doing there? 1 Peter 3:22 says Jesus “…has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.” The writer of Hebrews tells us He is there to “…save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” (Hebrews 7:25) I want to consider how these two passages  relate to us as individuals.
 
The first is in 1 Peter 3:22 where Peter says, “He has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.” The fact that Jesus conquered death and ascended to the right hand of the Father of itself demands the respect of all of heaven “angels, authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.” Did you know that when you became a believer according to Romans 10:9-10 you were aligning yourself with all of heaven? All of heaven is in submission to the Lordship of Christ.  
 
That brings us to how Jesus ascended to heaven for the purpose of saving “…to the uttermost those who come to God through Him…” I hope you are catching a glimpse of what I am trying to show you. Even though Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection was enough to get us into God’s heavenly family, there is still more He wants to do. He wants to save believers “to the uttermost”.
 
That means He wants to do continued work in our lives while we are on this planet besides forgive us of sin. He wants to change us and transform us into His image. The reality is though, these things can only happen to those who submit to His Lordship. So what is He doing in heaven? He is “making intercession” for us. That means He has things He wants to say to us and things He wants us to do. That means in our relationship with Him we should be open to His intercessory whispers and nudges. This is easier for submitted believers.
 
What does His intercession look like? Just before Jesus went to the cross, He prayed a prayer for the believers who were with Him and those to come afterward (that means us). I encourage you to read through this prayer in John 17. There you will find He prayed for believers to know both Him and God better… to be protected from apostasy… to be one in spirit with other believers, just like He was one with the Father. He prayed they would be filled with joy… be kept from the evil one and be sanctified through the Word of God and be compelled by His love to spread the gospel in the world around them.
 
To summarize what Jesus is doing today and make it personal. He rose from the dead triumphantly as Lord over all. He now sits willingly at the right hand of the Father receiving every sinner who calls on Him into the family. Once in the family He continues to intercede for that believer with the intention of giving them guidance, more life, more love, more freedom, transformation and godly influence. What we should be doing as believers is keeping our hearts and minds open to His Lordship as we set our hearts to follow Him. We should live with a heart sensitive to His direction in whatever we do.