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.]