I.　We need to see a vision of Christ's person and work in His ascension— in His heavenly ministry and in the divine administration—Heb. 8:1-2; Rev. 5:6:

A.　In His ascension Christ is the Head over all things to the church—Eph. 1:20-23, 10:

1.　It was through God's surpassingly great power that Christ received the headship in the universe; this was given to Him as a man in His humanity with His divinity to be Head over all things—v. 19; Acts 7:55-56.

2.　Christ is the Head over all things to the church so that all things may be subjected to and headed up in Him through the building up of the church, which is His Body, the fullness of Him, the One who fills all in all—Eph. 1:10, 22-23.

B.　In His ascension Christ is the High Priest according to the order of Melchizedec interceding for us—Heb. 4:14; 5:10; 7:24-26:

1.　Christ has been constituted our High Priest according to the power of an indestructible life—the eternal, divine, uncreated life and the resurrection life that has passed through the test of death and Hades— v. 16; Acts 2:24; Rev. 1:18.

2.　As our High Priest, Christ is bearing us on His shoulders and on His breast; as He bears us before God in the Holy of Holies, He ministers God into our being—Exo. 28:9-12, 15-30.

3.　Christ is able to save us completely because He is always interceding for us; He is our perpetual, constant, and eternal Intercessor—Heb. 7:25.

C.　In His ascension Christ is the Minister of the heavenly tabernacle—8:1-2:

1.　Christ is the Minister of the true and heavenly tabernacle, executing the bequests in the new testament and serving us with the blessing of the new testament—9:15.

2.　As such a Minister, He ministers heaven (which is not only a place but a condition of life) into us so that we may live a heavenly life on earth.

3.　As the heavenly Minister, He transmits what we need from God the Father, who is the source, into our spirit to supply and sustain us; this is the dispensing of the processed Triune God into our being—4:16.

D.　In His ascension Christ has been enthroned as the heavenly Administrator in God's universal government—12:2; Rev. 3:21; 22:1, 3; 5:6; 1:5:

1.　The Lamb, the Redeemer, the One slain for our sins, is now on the throne of the divine administration carrying out God's administration over the entire universe—5:6.

2.　As the heavenly Administrator, Christ is the Ruler of the kings of the earth, ruling the whole earth that the gospel may spread and that the Body may be built up—1:5.

3.　As the Administrator in God's universal government, Christ is the Lion-Lamb, the overcoming Redeemer, opening the scroll of God's economy— 5:1-13.

E.　In His ascension Christ is the great Shepherd of the sheep—Heb. 13:20-21:

1.　God raised up our Lord from the dead to be the great Shepherd to consummate the New Jerusalem according to God's eternal covenant— Rev. 21:2:

a.　The eternal covenant is the covenant of the new testament to gain a flock, which is the church issuing in the Body and consummating in the New Jerusalem—John 10:16; Acts 20:28; Eph. 1:22-23; Rev. 21:10-11.

b.　The eternal covenant of God is to consummate the New Jerusalem by shepherding—7:17.

2.　The heavenly ministry of Christ is mainly to shepherd the church of God as His flock, which issues in His Body—Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:2.

II.　We need to cooperate with and correspond to what Christ is doing in His ascension—in His heavenly ministry and in the divine adminis-tration—John 21:15-17; Col. 1:28-29:

A.　Christ's ministry in the heavens requires our response; for centuries the Lord has tried without adequate success to gain a people to respond to His ministry in the heavens—3:1-4.

B.　Between Christ in heaven and us on earth, there is a divine transmission; if we are open to Him and receive this transmission, we will respond to Christ's heavenly ministry—Eph. 1:22.

C.　God will subject all things under Christ by heading up all things in Christ through the church—v. 10; 1 Cor. 15:20-28:

1.　The first step in the heading up of all things in Christ is for God to bring His chosen and redeemed people out of the universal heap of collapse and to place them under the headship of Christ—Eph. 1:22; 4:14; Col. 1:18.

2.　When the church takes the lead to be headed up in Christ, God has a way to head up all other things—Eph. 1:22-23, 10.

3.　The church life is a life of being headed up in Christ; if we do not know what it is to be headed up in Christ, we cannot know the church—4:15; 1 Cor. 11:3.

4.　The heading up in the church life is by life and light; when God in Christ as the life-giving Spirit comes into us as life, the light of life shines within us, and we are headed up—John 1:4; Eph. 5:8-9.

D.　Through our prayer, Christ, the Head, is given a way to carry out His administration through His Body—6:18; 3:1-2, 14:

1.　The position of prayer is ascension, that is, a heavenly position; if we leave the heavenly sphere, we lose the position of prayer—1:3; 2:6.

2.　With the position of prayer there is the authority of prayer; as the position of prayer is ascension, the authority of prayer is also ascension—Matt. 17:20; 18:18-19.

3.　When we have the heavenly position and authority, our prayers become God's administration, the execution of God's rule—6:9-10, 13b.