Life on the Highest Plane (10)
IT IS A LIFE LIVED ON GOD’S APPOINTED PLANE
As God has never had but one plan for the life of man, and that is a spiritual one, He has never had but one plane on which He means man to live, and that is the plane of the spiritual. Life lived on the highest plane is a life of deep, vital, growing spirituality. When God speaks of the man who can examine and understand the things of God and of the one whom He can trust to help weak and sinful believers, He calls him “he that is spiritual.”
1 Corinthians 2:15
“But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.”
Galatians 6:1
“Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.”
There are three outstanding marks of the life lived on the highest plane. The first is—it is an abounding life. The spiritual man draws all his resources directly from God; consequently, he never lacks for anything. God’s granaries are always full, and the doors are opened earthward. In Christ, the believer’s life, “dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,” and in Him the believer may be made as “full” as he wishes to be (Colossians 2:9-10). The spiritual man desires with a deepening intensity to “be filled with all the fulness of God” (Ephesians 3:19); consequently, he draws bountifully from Christ.
2 Corinthians 8:7
“Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also.”
2 Corinthians 9:11
“Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.”
- The spiritual man abounds in grace.
2 Corinthians 9:8
“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.”
- The spiritual man abounds in hope.
Romans 15:13
“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”
- The spiritual man abounds in joy.
John 15:11
“These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”
- The spiritual man abounds in peace.
Colossians 3:15
“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.”
- The spiritual man abounds in thankfulness.
Ephesians 5:20
“Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
- The spiritual man abounds in knowledge.
1 Corinthians 1:5
“That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge.”
- The spiritual man abounds in love.
Philippians 1:9
“And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment.”
The more the spiritual man abounds in the riches of God’s grace, the more unsearchable and exhaustless he finds them to be so that there exists in his life a strange but joyous paradox—that of always being satisfied in Christ and yet always unsatisfied. The spiritual man never stops growing because he is always reaching upward to that still higher height that is just beyond. This passionate upreaching toward Christ in the heart of the apostle Paul inspired those words to the Christians at Philippi.
Philippians 3:12-14
“Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
The second mark of a life lived on the highest plane is that it is an overcoming life. Having taken his position by faith in the heavenlies in Christ, the spiritual man lives in the atmosphere of triumph that prevails there. The spiritual man is on top of his difficulties; he is the conqueror, not the conquered; the victor, not the vanquished. His identification with Jesus Christ in the victory over sin and Satan is a reality to him, and he looks upon Satan as an already defeated foe and treats him accordingly and reckons upon his own death to sin, to self, and to the world.
Romans 8:37
“Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”
1 John 5:4
“For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”
The spiritual man aspires to such an overcoming life on earth, which will win him a share in the reigning life of heaven.
Revelation 3:21
“To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.”
The third mark of a life lived on the highest plane is that it is an overflowing life. The spiritual man has enough and to spare. He does not have to hoard his spiritual riches for he is the child of a King, and knows that his Father is a royal Giver, and has taught His child “that it is more blessed to give than to receive.” He is assured that the more he gives, the more he will receive. Out of his innermost being flow the rivers of living water to bring life more abundant to every life he touches.
John 7:38
“He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water.”
Life lived on the highest plane is a continuous miracle of God’s grace.
Source: “Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson
Gracious Lord, thank You for the bountiful supply of Your riches that we can enjoy in our daily lives with You.