The first place is commonly associated with the times when you experienced the reality of God’s presence and power in a highly personalized way, and which had a big impact on you.

Do you remember the time He came and convicted you of sin in your life, or He reminded you of a long-held promise (that you made to Him, or that He made to you). These are some examples, but the thought just occurred to me that just to hear God call your name will do the trick! We have institutionalized or “vocationalized” God’s calling to mean going into full time ministry. But if you look closely at Biblical examples, it may be as simple as God calling out a person’s name. Of course there is more to it, God speaks, and the “content” is also meaningful and important. He calls you, and then He calls you out or to go in, to press on, to do some stuff, etc. And to “become” that is say, to fulfill His destiny for you.

This is what I call the first place. In the kingdom of God, under God’s rule. The feelings associated with the first place, include an assurance of God’s love and care of you, a rekindling of your first love of Him, a fresh passion to do His bidding and work, hope, faith, peace. Therefore as you can imagine, this is a good place to be at!

That bring us to the second place, though I must quickly add that it is not one where you would want to go or be found, literally! Because the second place is to be under the rule of the god of this world. The second place is where you are under the control of and influence of the enemy, Satan. Once, before anyone of us knew God, we were in this place. We were “goods” or chattels that he owned. And in a perverse way, though he does not love you, he does not give you up easily. It’s like a husband who is unfaithful and loves to indulge in infidelity, yet he is possessive. He intimidates and abuses his wife, puts her down with the children. She is driven to seek divorce, but he is intent to keep her on his own terms and at her expense. It’s a place of slavery, deception, lies, darkness and death.

Finally, the third place. This is the place we go to, in a picture word sense, after coming down to earth from the first.

Coming down to earth, because voices in your head (or other people) tell you that you should not be so serious about the first place. You cannot possibly live all the time in the first place. Sure, you must visit it on Sunday. Enjoy those special moments but be realistic, life must go on, you can’t stay up there forever. The third place is where normal life is. Hmmm…