Throne Life - Sharing Christ's Throne by Joe McIntyre

Summarize the content of the book in your own words:

Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father on His throne, and invites us to share in that glory as both an inheritance as well as a privilege. The fullness of the blessing of God is already our as believers, it just waits upon our comprehension and belief. I come off as victorious constantly because I am born of God. By renewing my mind and growing my faith, I can ‘walk out’ an overcoming life. 

Although Christ’s death was for my sins, His resurrection was for my justification. It is common to overemphasize His death, and while He did do this for our sins, our focus should be on Him being raised. His Finished Work was when He entered the Most Holy Place, and presented His own blood, having won and obtained our eternal redemption, and sealing the New Covenant. Our transformation is not the result of His death, but comes as a result of the glory of His resurrection being our focus, as it is with Him in His enthroning that we have our identity.

I am God’s representative whom He has covered with His power and presence. I am to enforce and extend both His reign and His name; bringing everything to its rightful place- under the headship of Christ, which is the purpose of the Father. Jesus is waiting for the His Body, the church, to use the authority that He has bestowed unto them to make His enemies into His footstool. Although we may not see this as something that has been completely manifested yet, by each of us walking in the Holy Spirit, we can see this change spread throughout our world.

Complacency is not normal in healthy Christians, but hunger is, and this desire should be fully present regardless of their level of maturity. We also need to get our “head faith” to travel down deep inside of us until our thinking and behavior is controlled by what we believe, and it becomes “heart faith.”

I was raised when Jesus was raised for my justification; He broke sin’s dominion over me, stripping it of all of its guilt, power, and condemnation. By appropriating the abundant grace of God, we find the dominion and rule of sin melting and disintegrating like snow in the warm light of the sun.

Regarding the parable of the sower, since I have been born again by the creative power of the Word of God, my heart is the ‘good ground’. In numerous places throughout the Bible there is a three dimensional or three-fold unpacking, unfolding, and revealing of the truth. Here we see that when it comes to God’s Word, there is a progressive way by which we can have a ‘thirtyfold grasp’, a ‘sixtyfold understanding’, or a ‘hundredfold comprehension’ of it. Intellectual comprehension of truth is good, but it is the truth revealed to us by the Holy Spirit that changes our lives and behavior, empowering us to live out what we comprehend and understand.                                                                                                              

  

It is interesting to me that the enemy’s strategy in our infancy as Christians is to draw us into or back into the world, but that as we mature, his strategy then becomes to get us to become introspective and self-focused, because he is afraid of us finding, entering into, and exercising the authority that we have been given.

As dearly as we want Jesus to return, we must fulfill the great commission, as Jesus is waiting for us to reach the people that He died for with the gospel so that He can return. As much as we want to be intercessors, we must first be proven in our own walk and also learn how to assault our doubts, reject lies, and cast down vain imaginations that try to exalt themselves above Christ. It is once we learn to use our authority over our own situations, that we will be able and qualified to use it to help others with their own.

We must be determined to overcome chronic sickness, hindered ministry, personal insecurities, various testing and trials, as well as anything else that the enemy would throw at us in order to press in and claim the victory we have been given. We must be willing to continually walk in humility and renew our minds if we are to live based on the Word and want to have an open door of revelation by the Holy Spirit.

What was new, stretching or revelatory to you personally?
When tempted, not only is there always a way of escape whereby we may leave, but there is also a way of proactive resistance, which causes us to be more than conquerors through Christ and His love; this way also causes the enemy to flee from us.

My faith is the victory that overcomes the world because I am born of God, a new creation that has the potential to come off as victorious constantly. What grace gives, my faith is able to possess, and all of the promises of God are available to me; none of them are nullified or now not applicable due to the age, time, or place I live in today. The Bible is alive and relevant. I don’t have to wait until I go to heaven to experience, grasp hold of, and hold on to what is already mine in Christ, by faith. I can start living the abundant life that He obtained for me right now.

Just as with the Old Covenant, it was not the slaughter of the animal itself that brought the atonement for sin, but the presenting of its blood before God; so the death of the spotless animal in the outer court was the foreshadowing for Jesus’ death on the cross, and it is His resurrection then presenting His blood in the heavenly sanctuary for our atonement that is His Finished Work. His death on the cross is where that work began.

Being part of Christ’s body, I am also His feet, a part that walks upon the earth. It is under my feet that God has placed the enemy. I am free from the oppression of the enemy and have been delivered out from his authority. Because of God’s redemption, I now have authority over him, because Christ now has all of the authority in heaven and on earth, and I get to share in His inheritance, since I am in Him.

In order for something to become fruitful in my life, the Holy Spirit must reveal it to me and Him doing that with even just one verse, is more important than me reading through multiple verses without recollection, recognition, or understanding. I could be searching the Bible for a ‘thirtyfold grasp’ on scripture for an answer to my current problem or situation, but in this intention, I could possibly miss God’s heart toward me in revealing a ‘sixtyfold understanding’ or even a ‘hundred fold comprehension’ on truths that I already know. This process is one of the ways that God makes Scripture rich and real to me, by increasing the meaning, tying things together, giving them more depth, and raising my knowledge of the content from facts to meaning to passion that influences who I am.                                                                 

How does this impact your life or thinking?
I was expecting to read a book about how to do and accomplish certain things. Instead, this was a book explaining why we are able and why we can, which is much more critical.

Are we zealous enough to repent of any kind of being self-satisfied and lukewarm in order to have Jesus open the door for us to join Him in the throne room? This question definitely reflects the sentiment of my heart to the affirmative, as I am determined to overcome all obstacles to get to Jesus. I want everything that He wants for my life and nothing that He doesn't.

I am a participant in everything Jesus endured, inclusive of His Finished Work; because of Him, in Him, and through Him, I have victory, authority, and freedom. These divine realities are mine for the taking and have been freely given to me by God’s grace. Through aggressive faith I can possess my victorious destiny.

With Jesus having all of the authority, that leaves none for the enemy, who is dethroned, defeated, and has come to nothing; in his being overthrown, it is my job to enforce the death blow of defeat that Christ already dealt to him. I will go forward in the name of Jesus and destroy any and all works of darkness in the same way that He did.

It’s not how quickly I can get through the whole Bible and how many times I can accomplish reading it, the real issue is how much of it am I putting into practice and how much of it is becoming a part of who I actually am.

Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him and was held there not by the nails (He could have ended His suffering at any moment), but by His love for me. Because He loved me, Jesus suffered in every way (mind, soul, and body) more than any human ever has. How can I possibly respond to the grandest gesture of love ever made with selfishness or complacency? The very thought is not only ridiculous, it is offensive; I will serve Him and His kingdom with all that I am and with all that I have forever. It is better for me to expect too much in this life, rather than for me to expect too little. I have counted the cost and made my decision: I choose to overcome all obstacles to get to Jesus, I choose to live with aggressive faith, and I will have all of the promises and I mean absolutely everything that God has made available to me. It is at this very moment that I choose to start now, and that with life more abundantly! I am who God says I am, I have what He says I can have, and I will do what God says I can do!

What did you disagree with in this book? Give a clear and defended position as to why you disagree. 
I did not find it possible to disagree with any of the content presented within this work, as all of it was in line with Scripture and is clearly stated within the Bible.

[This book review has also been posted on Amazon.com and Goodreads.]

Who we are in Christ: Discovering Your Eternal Identity by Joe McIntyre

Upon teaching a study and receiving some questions, Joe McIntyre asked the Lord why many aspects of the faith life were not so easily grasped by us and when he received his answer, it was that this happens because we do not know that God loves us. In response, eager to resolve the issue within the body, Joe asked if he should teach us about God’s love. To his surprise, the Lord told him instead to teach us about who we are in Christ, and then we will know that we are loved.

Until we understand what belongs to us as a result of Christ’s finished work as well as who we are in Him, we will not be able to see the love of God the Father, which is revealed in what He has done for us. God selected us out for Himself, making us with love, as we are the precious object of His heart’s desire, which He redeemed and obtained through the agency of Jesus Christ.

Once we know who we are, we see our true value, comprehending the treasure we are and realizing that to God, we are the pearl of great price that the man gave everything for in order to obtain. Because God already did and gave everything for me, He loves me more than I can comprehend. It is that believing of my eternal identity, which produces confidence and leads to faith through the understanding of His love. Likewise, faith is also incomprehensible when we do not know who we are, our value, what has been done for us, and how much we are truly loved.

Having an ongoing relationship with the Word, causes the activation of truth in our lives and brings forth our deliverance, setting us free. The power of this truth is released to us as we ascend through the four levels of knowledge: faint recognition of truth, general knowledge of truth, the ability to prove, illustrate, and apply truth, and finally acting upon and having our conduct modified by the truth (level four), which sets us free.

The church gets frustrated with the promise that knowing the truth will set them free, when they feel that they know the truth and they have yet to experience the freedom that they so desperately desire. Realizing that it is possible for them to not know the truth at the level that they need to in order to have its power be released in them was an absolutely revelatory thought.

Also, there is the illustration that when we see God as angry, we are seeing Him through a veil, just like how there is a veil present whenever the law of Moses is read (and that law leads to death, because none of us are capable of keeping all of it on our own). This caused me to picture the veil that was torn as a result of Jesus and to conclude that through Him, we are able to know and experience the love of God, whereas outside of Jesus, there is only the feeling of condemnation and guilt as we inevitably fail repetitively to measure up to God’s standards. It is in this when we struggle on our own and are relying on our own efforts that we tend to feel that God is upset with us. This is because we are seeing Him though the veil instead of allowing Jesus to tear that veil away for us so that we can experience the freedom and liberty of God’s love, grace, and mercy. 

Although the knowledge about there being two realms: the seen (natural) and the unseen (spiritual) was not a new concept for me, there was something about the way it was presented in this work that allowed the previous understanding I had to travel from my head to my heart. Just understanding God’s heart toward me and seeing the motivation behind the Holy Spirit revealing the knowledge and the nature of God, so that we can be freed by this knowledge and have a relationship with him, that was beautiful.

In the same way I stated above, the following with which I was already aware of, became more than just knowledge, but alive and meaningful to me as the material about our Father wanting a Father-Son relationship with us instead of a Master-servant relationship with us was covered. Again the same thing happened with our identity being not in what we have done, will do, or can do, but that identity being in Jesus’ finished and completed work. 

My true identity is who I am as a new creation in Christ. I don’t have to do anything, God already did everything, not because I could earn or deserve it, but because of who He is and His grace. (Talk about truth that sets you free, the sheer resting in this truth alone and ceasing to struggle in works of the flesh is absolutely liberating and empowering.)

In Christ I am separated unto the Father, and that is what it means to be holy and set apart, not anything I choose to do or to abstain from. Without knowing who I am, I tried to do things so that I could become someone, not knowing that both purpose and grace were given to me before I even existed, and that God’s works were preordained for me, so I don’t have to fight and aimlessly try to make them happen or accomplish them in my own strength, power, or efforts.

Through the principal of spiritual headship, when it comes to how God sees me, I once was represented by Adam, but now I am represented by Christ, and as a result, I now get to share in His inheritance, instead of the inheritance of Satan and his demons. Also, I am God’s inheritance, a new creation of God’s workmanship, a temple of the Living God. I savor and marinate in every single word in that sentence, letting that truth permeate my entire being. 

There was an illustration that Joe McIntyre used which really grabbed my attention and impacted my thinking. He conveyed that if I saw him dressed as, talking like, and acting like Napoleon, I would naturally think that he had lost touch with reality. He then likened this unto being a new creation in Christ, but still seeing myself as, as well as acting like, and talking like I used to be. From God’s point of view, wouldn’t that look like I had lost touch with reality? Yet so often this happens when we don’t know who we are.

I felt like this concept represented perfectly the tension between both who I used to be and what I remember doing, and who God says I am; the struggle between my old and new nature. I would continue to call upon God to forgive me and make me more holy and righteous, but He already did, when He hid me in Christ, and made me into a new creation.

This allowed me to implement dropping the old dead nature, and letting it go, as well as catching myself whenever I am presented with thoughts the old one would think, and as a new creation, casting them down and subjecting them to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Because of the attitudes we embrace in our emotional life, we will either have joy or despair; determining our internal realities. God loves me, He has made me new, holy, righteous, and set apart for Him. I choose joy, I choose freedom, and I choose life. Not some kind of making it through existing on earth while I wait for and look forward to heaven kind of life, but the abundant life that Christ died to give me. His kingdom is here and now among us and I am his ambassador and friend who is dearly loved like a sister because of what God has done for me through the agency of His beloved Son.     

I carefully read all of the material, dissected it, researched it, prayed about it, and filtered it through my discernment, as well as inviting the Holy Spirit to speak to me about it. Not only do I not disagree with any of the material presented here, but I am fully convinced that this is Biblical and that it is God’s will for His children to understand this content.

It is because of this that I am paying some of the girls I teach in our church youth group for their time to read this book and write a report on it as I have. I also have inducting it with great pride, joy, and hopefulness into my personal library. I look forward to each and every opportunity that the Lord will provide to me where I can get this book into the hands of someone else, and pass along the gift that was so graciously given to me.

[In addition to my personal blog, this book review has been posted on Amazon.com, and Goodreads.]