In this teaching, Chris Naidoo presents a sermon on the need to develop a heavenly perspective of life.
One of the advantages that Adam lost in the fall was the ability to have a heavenly perspective. In the pre-fallen state, Adam lived in a dimension that touched heaven and earth. In the New Testament interpretation, this would be called a Zion position. After sin entered into the heart of humanity mankind became earthly-minded and earthly orientated. This is evidenced by the fact that Adam now had to manually work the ground by his own sweat for his survival. He was also banished from the Garden of Eden which was a heavenly piece of real estate on the earth. Humanity must now, through the finished works of the cross, start to develop again a heavenly perspective.
A major emphasis in this message is that just listening to teachings and accumulating knowledge is not good enough to see the world from a heavenly perspective, or through the lenses of Christ. Pastor Chris differentiated between two types of knowledge referred to in scripture; gnosis and epignosis (in the Greek) and expounded on how only epignosis, which is a full knowledge, or a complete knowledge that comes through faith, can change us from having an earthly perspective to having the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16). Ephesians 2:6 reminds us that we are seated together with Christ in heavenly places. If that is the case then we can no longer have an earthly based, domesticated, fatalistic, view of life based on the earthly aspects of fallen humanity that is devoid of the essence of the living God.
Every aspect of our lives; our marriages, our physical bodies, our vocations, etc. must be viewed from a heavenly perspective. Marriages, for example, cannot just be viewed from an earthly perspective which is that a marriage is a civil union which is legally formed and legally nullified. The heavenly perspective is that marriage is a model of the relationship between Christ and the Church. It cannot be taken lightly! Similarly, every aspect of our lives must take on a heavenly perspective.