When we receive Jesus, we are born into a new family with a new residence.
Colossians 1:13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,
When we were living in the darkness of satan’s kingdom we had no eternal purpose and no hope. The light of the gospel now illuminates our life and purpose in God’s kingdom. There has been a transfer of residence. Not just when we die but even while we live here on foreign soil.
Philippians 3:20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;
The term that Paul used for citizen, in the above passage, was describing the concept of a Roman citizen who had great rights and privileges that he carried with him even when that citizen was in a remote province of the Roman Empire. He had all the same rights and privileges that he would have if he were in Rome. In other words, it’s as if he were living in Rome even if he were living in another remote province.
Paul is saying, with this analogy, that you are a citizen of heaven even though you are living in this remote, hostile province called planet earth. You have all the rights and privileges of heaven while here on this earth. You are no longer a citizen of this domain of darkness because you have been transferred into the kingdom of light.
Yet very few of us live this way. We are earth-bound princes, priests and kings. We don’t understand our lives because our lives don’t pertain to this earth.
1 Peter 2: 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
We live as though satan calls the shots and sets all the rules. Do we realize that he has been defeated? He hinders us because we grant him permission to do so.
Colossians 2: 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.
One of satan’s favorite tools is to accuse us of crimes that we have been acquitted of. He keeps us bound by fake chains. All the decrees of the sins we have and will commit have been nailed to the cross with Jesus as the above verse clearly states. Yet we continue to live like earth-bound princes. We are not exercising our heavenly rights and privileges. We are listening to our enemy. He is convincing us to grab a ladder, drag it up to the cross of Jesus, climb up it and pull down the decrees written against us and pin it to our chests.
We have aligned our thinking with our former kingdom, which will affect our will, emotions, and actions.
Colossians 3:2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
Satan will convince us that we are not worthy of God’s love and then he will hand us the things of this earth to numb out with in order to ease the pain and depression. All the while we are a free citizen of heaven we are living on earth in a dungeon without a door or lock. We are living in a prison of your own choosing. We can walk out the door anytime and live where we belong.
Acts 12: 6 On the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison. 7 And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter’s side and woke him up, saying, “Get up quickly.” And his chains fell off his hands. 8 And the angel said to him, “Gird yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he *said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” 9 And he went out and continued to follow, and he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.
What God has done for you is not an illusion it is real.