Descending before Ascending

Everyone wants to Ascend to the Level for which God has ordained for them. Some people describe it as "promotion", others may describe it as "getting to the next Level". There are various ways to describe the different degrees of Grace for which God takes His people. But what a lot of the saints don't understand, that somewhat precludes our spiritual progress, is that before you move to Ascension, you must first experience Descending. In other words, you have to go Down before you can go Up in the Lord. Down is not a direction that most of the saints are willing to travel. But it is a prerequisite to get to where God has ordained us to be.

In studying the Redemptive Work of Jesus, we notice that before He Ascended back to the Father, He first had to Descend into the lower parts of hell (Ephesians 4). This is a part of Jesus' Redemptive Ministry that doesn't get mentioned frequently. We discuss Calvary and we talk about Him being dead for three days; but what happened during those three days of Jesus' Death? Part of what happened is that He went to Hell! Let me assure you saints that part of our spiritual journey consists of, metaphorically, going to and through hell before we ascend the spiritual heights of Glory for which the Father has prepared for His children.

The scripture says that any person who will live godly must suffer persecution (2Timothy 3). The scripture also says that we have been called to suffer with Christ (1Peter 2). These scriptures let us know that as the children of God, there is a level of suffering that we are called to endure in order to fulfill God's Will and Purpose for our lives. There are no easy roads to Calvary. One must first bear their Cross before they wear their Crown (Revelation 3). We must be prepared for the affliction and the trials that come with growing and maturing in Christ.

Some of the Spiritual Descending also grows out of Satanic Attack. One of the things that I'm learning is that the more you grow in Christ and the more He establishes you on the path for which He has ordained, the bigger a target you become for the Devil. There was a time when I was apt to look to get into some trouble. Now trouble comes looking for me! Things just popping up out of the blue, that you know are not of God. This is part of the Descending, because we're challenged to deal with some stuff that, under "normal" circumstances, we wouldn't even be involved with. But being a Disciple of Christ is not normal. It's Spiritual Warfare. And when dealing with the Devil, he has a way of going into some places that, to say the least, are not above board.

But the blessing of the Spiritual Descending is that it takes you into the Deep Places of God. I was in prayer several months ago with a Prophet of God, and as we were praying the Lord said to us, Deeper, Deeper, Go Deeper. This is what the Lord wants us to do. He wants us to go Deeper into Him. Deeper into His Love. Deeper into His Grace. Deeper into His Spirit. Deeper into His Worship. Deeper into His Word. In order to go Deeper in the Lord, you will have to Descend, but His Resurrection Spirit will raise us up and Ascend us into His Glory.