Philippians 3:10-13 AMPC
[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope] [11] That if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body]. [12] Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own. [13] I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,[14] I press on toward the goal for the prize of experiencing completely “the above life” that God has called us to in Christ Jesus.
In John 8 Jesus told the Pharisees that they were from below, but he was from above. Even though the feet of Jesus were squarely on the earth, he lived on the earth seated in the heavenly places. The prize that Philippians 3:14 speaks of is our experiencing fully that “above life” that is in Christ. Paul said in verse 12 that he was aggressively pursuing (that’s what the phrase “press on” actually means) laying hold of that which had laid hold of him. The “above life” has already taken hold of every Christian because being a Christian means that you are in Christ, but every Christian hasn’t laid hold of the prize they possess. In his passionate pursuit to completely and fully realize in his own experience “life on the highest plane,” Paul said one thing he did; he constantly chose to continually forget what was behind him so that he could continually stretch forward to what lies ahead (the above life). If we are called to forget what lies behind us so that we can experience everything that’s ours in Christ, then that means that God will never remind us of what has happened to us, or what has happened because of us. How many times have we entertained regrets and in so doing allow the enemy to deceive us into believing that somehow the great “prize” is something we can never fully enjoy. God never changes us by condemning us with our failures. Instead, He always changes us by luring us with his favor. If you find yourself often reflecting on things that have happened to you, or things that have happened because of you then you must realize those thoughts are coming from the enemy because they can’t come from God. How can God expect us to forget those things which lie behind us if he is constantly bringing them up to us? Your entire life has been bought with a price, and therefore your past doesn’t belong to you. It belongs to Jesus who paid a precious price for it. If you live with a lot of guilt and regret and you often ponder those things in your past, even the most recent past, then that is only proof that you have learned to listen to the voice of the devil. It is time to believe in the radical grace of God and to start dreaming and pursuing the great prize of the “above life” that’s still yours to lay hold of in Christ.