Ephesians 2:6, “And has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus…”

How can Christians in our present bodies sit in heavenly places with Jesus? Ultimately, we shall be resurrected in heaven and have all the heavenly things including full fellowship and communion with the Father and with our Lord. But we are reckoned as having this beginning in the present life. 

Anyone, therefore, who does not know the beginning of the new life now, has no reason whatever to believe that he has been begotten of the holy spirit and is a new creature. Only new creatures are reckoned as having been raised up out of sin and death into a new condition of life. They love righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Symbolically, they are ushered into the Holy of the Tabernacle, where they have the light of the Golden Lampstand symbolizing God’s word. Psalm 119:105, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” They partake of the spiritual Shewbread. John 4:34, “Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work.’” 

They may also offer spiritual incense to God. Revelation 8:3-4, “And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar (incense altar in the Holy of the Tabernacle) which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.” 

True Christians have fellowship with God “in Christ Jesus” – as members of “the Church which is his body.” This is a figurative resurrection from the dead – a figure and earnest of the real resurrection from the dead. When Christians prove loyal to God and maintain faithfulness to their covenant – to be dead with their Head, that they may also live with him- then they presently participate in His resurrection. – Rom. 6:5,8.