Set Your Affections on Things Above

Did you know that it’s possible to think like God thinks? “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:1-2). Set your affection can read, “Be of the same mind.” This is astounding truth!

Let’s dive deeper into what it means to “set your affection on things above.”

Bold Prayers

Much of mankind thinks of their Savior as dead on the cross or as a newborn baby. But Jesus Christ is alive! What is He doing today? As our High Priest, He has sympathy for us and our weaknesses and works to help us in several ways (Hebrews 4:14-15).

“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). Christ is our Advocate when we sin, not when we’re righteous. He lived as a human and was tempted like we are, but He never sinned. In some respects, He understands our spiritual battle better than God the Father does, because He experienced it. He speaks with the Father about how to help the saints, the members of God’s true Church.

Jesus Christ is active today as our Advocate! God doesn’t condemn us to death; He helps us get back up and go forward in overcoming our human nature, this evil world and Satan the devil. God and Christ work together to assist us in every way possible. In my free book The Last Hour, I wrote:

This word [Advocate] also reveals a lot about our Father. He too is living, deeply sensitive to every important detail in our lives. He established Christ’s responsibility as our Advocate. He is a Father who has perfect love for each and every son. How can a Father with perfect love not be equally involved with each Family member? Our Father has no favorites in His Family.

How inspiring to know that we are so deeply loved!

God and Christ want us to join their Family and will do whatever they can to help us obtain this reward! What a majestic vision that all of us need in our lives.

“And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (verse 2). Christ paid for the sins of all mankind, though most of them don’t know it yet. His sacrifice was more than the blood of bulls and goats, which could never be enough to offset our sins! (Hebrews 9:13-14). Sin required the death of God in the flesh. Not only was Christ crucified, but He was savagely and brutally beaten to pay for our physical sins, which result in health problems and injuries. Christ’s sacrifice is dual, covering both spiritual and physical law breaking. This is one of the major reasons why a God Being became a man.

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). We are commanded to come boldly into God’s throne room in prayer. When we truly understand all that God has done to give us a glorious future in His Family, we will boldly claim God’s promises in prayer, knowing how important we are to Him.

Pure Waters of God

The book of Isaiah was written to be understood and applied “in that day,” or this end time (Isaiah 22:20, 25). Notice this specific detail about this very last Church era: “Ye have seen also the breaches of the city of David, that they are many: and ye gathered together the waters of the lower pool” (verse 9). What does this mean?

The lower pool is within the walls of the City of David—a type of the Philadelphia Church of God today—and symbolizes all of the new revelation we have received over the past three-plus decades. Water is always a symbol of God’s Holy Spirit. God speaks to us by the power of His Spirit, pouring new revelation into His Church so we may proclaim a warning message to the world and to the rebellious Laodiceans.

Historically, spring waters have always emerged from God’s temple, a symbol of our salvation coming right from God Himself. The temple today is God’s own people! The pure waters of God flow through us! There’s a lot of depth to this subject.

Another pool of revelation is mentioned in Isaiah 22: “Ye made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old [or upper] pool: but ye have not looked unto the maker thereof, neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago” (verse 11). The upper pool originates outside the pcg. It is from the previous Church era, during which God revealed foundational biblical truths through one man. This man restored all things to God’s Church and was an end-time type of Elijah (Matthew 17:10-11). Today, the pcg owns the copyrights to all of his major writings.

The two pools have the same ultimate source: the Almighty God! But 95 percent of God’s own people in this end time “have not looked unto the maker thereof”! God rebukes the rebels for not setting their affection on things above!

Of course, it is not easy for anyone to do this. We have to work at putting our focus on the spiritual. “O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters” (Jeremiah 17:13). When people turn away from God, life becomes all about the Earth and anything physical. God will let the living waters of the Holy Spirit flow into our minds and empower us, if only we will set our affection on things above! New revelation isn’t from Earth; it comes from the third heaven, where God dwells! He always reveals His secrets to the very elect (Amos 3:7).

The Heavenly Pattern

God gave Moses a vision of the heavenly temple and told him to build a tabernacle just like it (Hebrews 8:5). Moses obeyed. Paul also followed the heavenly pattern, setting his affection on the above. That’s where God wants all of us to fix our vision.

“It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Hebrews 9:23-24). Christ dwells not in our replicas of the heavenly temple, but in the presence of God Himself! He appears before God the Father for us.

The Gihon Spring is one of the most powerful symbols in the Bible, the only spring-fed freshwater source for 5 miles around the heart of Jerusalem. This spring symbolizes the Holy Spirit and the fountain of living waters in God’s heavenly temple. “This same requirement was viewed by David and Solomon as a necessary feature of the temple at Jerusalem to precisely duplicate the pattern or replica of God’s temple in heaven,” Ernest Martin wrote. (To learn more, read my free booklet Jerusalem’s Temples.)

Today, God’s temple on Earth is His one true Church. The brethren possess rivers of living water—the Holy Spirit. It is pure water, or pure righteousness, used by the Father and the Son. It enables us to see the vision of God’s temple above.

“Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern” (Ezekiel 43:10). Pattern can mean a model for copying. If we focus on the above, which is possible because of Christ’s sacrifice, then we can copy the heavenly pattern!

Notice this description of God’s temple on Earth during the soon-coming Millennium: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim” (Joel 3:18). A fountain will spring forth from that temple! Pure waters will flow in Jerusalem. All who touch the water will be healed, symbolic of God’s Holy Spirit healing the world of all their sins, weaknesses and evils. The Earth will overflow with God’s life-saving truth!

Zadok the priest anointed Solomon king of Israel at the Gihon Spring (1 Kings 1:38-39). Before that, King David placed the ark of the covenant over the Gihon Spring and left it there until Solomon built the first temple. The ark pictures God’s throne and has covering cherubs just like that throne. We must keep looking to where God is. Look up to God’s throne. Measure according to what’s up there.

Set your affection on things above. Measure your life God’s way, and you will discover the most phenomenal and wonderful truths! Your life will be filled with happiness, peace and abundance, and you will understand God’s goal for every human being.