This touches on a pretty interesting dynamic actually when it comes to discipleship, sanctification, and living by faith. We have all the blessings in the heavenly places in Christ, so why do we pray for God to bless us? I’ve been thinking about this concept and how we communicate it in ministry for 18 years.
Easiest biblical example of this is Ephesians 1. In v3-14, Paul describes all the blessings that we have in Christ. These blessings are ours. In v15-23, he then prays that we would understand these blessings. “I pray that God would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him… that you would KNOW the hope of your calling, the riches of his inheritance in the saints, and the power that works in you—it’s the same power that raised Jesus from the dead.”
You have these blessings, but Paul is compelled to pray that you would understand them. I think this is a clear model that we apply to this situation. God is present, yet we pray that we would know his presence. I like Genesis 28:14—“Surely the Lord is in this place, AND I DID NOT KNOW IT.” May our prayers of invocation help us not to make this same mistake!
The other place in Scripture that directly relates to sanctification is Romans 6:6 and Romans 6:11.
V6—For we know that our old self was crucified with him… that we should no longer be enslaved to sin.V11—Therefore consider yourself to be dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Again, Paul is saying that though we have the blessing of being crucified and risen with Jesus, we have an obligation to “consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God…”
To me, this has been the most powerful impetus for personal growth in my Christian life. Some theologians call it the relationship between the indicatives and imperatives in Scriptures. All the imperatives are based on the indicatives. God calls us to walk in holiness because he has made us holy in Christ.
Big issue: how do we close the gap that exists between what God says we are in Christ and our daily experience?
I think it’s faith: Faith that drives us to believe we are what God says we are, faith that drives us to practice what God has called us to do because he’s given us all his blessings and power.How do we grow this faith? Prayers which invoke God’s presence and bring us into greater awareness of who we are in him.
