This gospel, this good news, is so huge that it is easy to settle with experiencing just a slice of it because that’s all we see is the small slice. Therefore, it is important that we see bigger. We must always keep the big picture in front of us. Philippians 3:12 – 14 puts it this way, “Not that I have already fully taken hold of it or have become fully Christlike, but I press on in order that I may fully lay hold of that which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having fully laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do; forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
What was Paul trying to lay hold of fully? The answer is, of course, the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Okay, what is the upward call of God for those who are in Christ? The answer to that question is the most important thing a Christian can ever discover because it will set the tone of your vision and your passion for the rest of your life. It’s why Jesus came and was crucified, rose from the dead, and ascended to the right hand of the Father.
The upward call of God is that we would experience fully the life that Jesus lives, both seated at the right hand of God and walking in all that makes up your daily life here on earth.
In Christ, we are seated in the heavenly places, and Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father. That’s not, first and foremost, a governmental position, though, of course, it includes that. Instead, it is first and foremost about intimacy among the Godhead. Let this sink in; we are created to participate in the extraordinarily joyful, pure, exhilarating fellowship the Father and Holy Spirit experience with each other. Imagine what that atmosphere must be like, and then have your spiritual eyes open to see that we are called to live in that reality, consciously, at all times. The upward call of God in Christ is not that we would strive for greater intimacy with God but that we would understand the kind of intimacy we have been placed into because we are in Christ seated at the right hand of God. Mike Bickle calls this “The fellowship of the burning heart.” The burning heart that God has in communion among the three persons of the Godhead is the glory cloud that we get to participate in because we are in Christ, and that is the reality He lives in.
The remarkable other part of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ is that we also get to experience the life of Jesus living through us, by the divine resources of heaven, in all that we do that make up our daily lives. We were created to be contained by God and to contain Him, and this destiny is ours in Christ. This mutual indwelling of us experiencing all that Christ is, and in total surrender, Jesus experiencing all that we are as He lives His life through us is the great upward call. We, participating in the life that He lives in intimacy with the triune God, and He living the life we live in all the practical things that make up our unique life daily. This is the great prize. It is the big picture that drives us forward to press on so that, as the King James Bible puts it, “we may fully apprehend that for which we have been apprehended by Christ.”
No wonder Jesus said, “I came that they may have life (Zoe-God’s life) and may have it abundantly.”