Ascend
Psalm 24:3-10 (NIV) “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear falsely. They will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God their Savior. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, God of Jacob. Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this king of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, you gates; life them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord almighty - he is the King of glory.”
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Our journey into God’s heart is a spiritual ascent, a vertical elevation into the atmosphere of heaven. In Psalm 24, the Psalmist conveys spiritual realities by way of analogy. The “mountain of the Lord” is the place of God’s presence, the Most Holy place. It is the place where His wisdom, knowledge, and goodness can be grasped. The mountain of the Lord is the place where we personally experience God’s attributes. Our ascent up the mountain is thus a climb into the very heart of God. It is a place of revelation and experience.
How do we ascend? The Psalmist tells us that it is by “clean hands” and a “pure heart.” Clean hands are purified intentions. A pure heart is one free of spiritual idols. In Christ, the human heart and mind have become the temple where the presence of the living God dwells (1 Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 3:17). Our ability to ascend, to experience God and know His thoughts, is thus a matter of the mind and heart.
In the New Covenant, our journey up the mountain of the Lord is accomplished through the mind. We have been made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Our journey of knowing Christ is a rediscovery of this image. As we journey in relationship with Him, we are transformed into His image with an ever-increasing glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). With Christ, we climb the spiritual Mount Zion, the city of the living God.
Hebrews 12:22-23 (NIV) “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus….”
Our personal journey of rediscovering the image of God within is our spiritual ascent. As we climb, we go higher and higher into the pure atmosphere of heaven. We discover the image of Christ and the hope of glory within us (Colossians 1:27).
This ascent is not based so much on our own efforts, but on the grace of God. As we abide, He takes us higher. There is grace, but there is also a tension. Idols of the heart prevent us from entering the deeper atmospheres of heaven. The Holy Spirit is the one who is responsible for illuminating and destroying these idols. These idols are ideas and paradigms which set themselves over and against a true knowledge of God.
2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV) “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
Our ascent of God’s holy mountain is thus a matter of the mind. It is a demolishing of the arguments and pretensions that stand in opposition to a true experiential knowledge of the living God. It is the renewing of the mind, by putting on the mind of Christ (Romans 12:2; 1 Corinthians 2:16).
Thus the Psalmist can say, “lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.” The human mind is the ancient door - God’s pathway into the natural realm. To “lift up our heads” is to make our minds obedient to the mind of Christ. It is a turning away from the carnal mind, which is at war with God, towards a mind that is overshadowed and empowered by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:7). Our individualized, spiritual process with the Lord is what accomplishes this.
The result of the renewed mind? The entrance of the King of Glory and a state of consciousness that sees and experiences the world as Jesus does. The mind and heart become vessels filled and empowered by God’s presence. In this state, revelation from heaven and the gifts of the Holy Spirit flow freely. Our ability to ascend into heaven’s atmosphere is directly related to our ability to surrender our own “arguments and lofty pretensions” that hinder a more direct experience of God. Ideas are useful only to the extent that they allow us contact with God. We must surrender our understanding in order to allow Him to continually redefine who we think is He, and who we are in Him.
All believers are consciously or unconsciously on a journey of ascent up this mountain. However, it is those who truly live in a state of continual surrender - a poverty of spirit (Matthew 5:3) - who will be able to experience the greater depths of God’s grace and power.
