The Bunker M.O.M

We Remember! ❤️❤️❤️

Intentional w/Gina

Hello Bunker Family!

As you know our focus in 2023 is Renewing the Mind and our core scripture is found in Romans 12:1-2. I am going to use the AMPC version.
I appeal to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].

To renew our minds or to change the way we think is a decision. I spent so many years of my life thinking negatively about everything. One of the things that kept me from experiencing different things was the constant questioning of situations with the “what if” this – what if… a bad outcome. My husband used to say to me “what if something good happens” But that was not the way I thought, so it was hard for me to see anything other than a bad ending.

Fast-forward to today, I no longer live my life like that. I learned to renew my mind with the Word of God. One wrong thought at a time. Whenever crazy thoughts would come to my mind, I begin to meditate on a particular Bible verse. I would take that verse and intentionally break it down to get the meaning of it. I memorized it and began to intentionally rehearse it within me. Shortly after, that other thought no longer worried, scared, or hurt me. Instead, I begin to experience something I never had, PEACE of mind. Eventually, I learn that what I was doing was getting a clear revelation of the Word of God for my life. I begin to see myself the way God sees me, and I began to stop conforming to the patterns and labels of this world.

The reason why I like the AMPC translation of Romans 12:1-2 is because it starts out by clearly outlining the need to decide how we are going to live our lives. Our outcomes are ultimately depending on us and what we decide to do with our bodies and our mind is a part of it.
I encourage you to practice getting acquainted with the promises that belong to anyone who’s made Jesus their Lord and Savior such as Isa 26:3 (NKJV) which says “You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You” I like how the MSG versions plainly says it “People with their minds set on You, You keep completely whole, steady on their feet, because they keep at it and don't quit.

Don’t quit, remember one wrong thought a time being replaced intentionally by the Great News, the Word of God.

God bless you!

Train as you Fight with Rafael

If you have spent even one day in the military you have heard the expression "train as you fight". Prior to deployment we go to the range and requalify with our weapon ensuring our basic rifle marksmanship readiness. We go to the gas chamber and rehearse how to switch our gas mask canisters in that environment and become exposed to that smell to make sure we are able to think in that stressful environment. We even go to a land navigation area and practice using the fundamental skills taught on navigating tough and unknown terrain to locate checkpoints.

I remember going through rollover training prior to my first deployment to Iraq. We went through nine iterations of being flipped in an uparmored HMMWV while we had all our gear on and when it stopped, we had to get out within a certain amount of time while being upside down in the HMMWV. The most uncomfortable interation was the last one where we are blindfolded (simulating we have gone under water) and have to drop all gear then escape out the small back hatch with only each person's rifle. The extensive training helped us prepare to react and combat the enemy's tactics because we had an understanding of some of the enemy's attack methods.

We must understand that we must prepare ourselves for battle with a different enemy called satan. We have a training manual(the bible) on how to defeat him but we have to sharpen our skills by reading, learning it, and understanding it with the help of the Holy Spirit in us. We fight a different fight against satan in that we have already won through Jesus. Now it's simply up to us to resist the attacks using the word of God and he (satan) will flee (James 4:7). We must take the time to renew our minds every day because satan looks for the smallest enterance to exploit and try to turn our world upside down if we let him. The great news is that we have The Champion in us, the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians1:22). This means the fight is rigged, WE ALREADY WON! We mustn't walk around with our head down scared or defeated regardless of what the situation looks like arounds us. We are called to walk by faith not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). We must posture ourselves with the strongest weapon, The Word of God, and be skillful in using it. We must train as we fight and not wait until we are under attack to learn to use it. By then it's too late. We didn't wait until we were deployed to train for deployment. Had we done that, the enemy would have had the upper hand by catching us off guard. We know satan is going to try to come at us any opportunity he can but "satan will not outsmart us. For we are familiar with his evil schemes" (2 Corinthians 2:11). It is up to us to be armed and dangerous when he comes knocking at our door. We must remain in Him (God) and His word remain in us (John 15:7) so that when we are faced with the devil's devices we simply speak against them with the word of God and continue to stand in our victory.

In order to posses and understand the victory that is yours through Christ, you must first accept Him as your Lord and Savior. If you have not done so yet, don't wait any longer. Simply repent of any sins you have committed and confess with your mouth that you accept Him as your Lord and Savior (Romans 10:9-10) and let the process of renewing your mind begin (Romans 12:1-2).

Tomorrow night at this months, Basic Training”, Juli Toney will be sharing about how renewing the mind changed her life!

Join us!

2/3/23
6:30 pm
3783 Sullivan Street (behind Sonic)

Renewing you mind w/JC

James 1:8 New King James Version

“8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

As children of God, I believe that the renewing of your mind is one of the most important ways to work out our salvation. Before Christ, we trained our mind while living in the world. Now, we are commanded to renew or retrain our mind. Unless you renew your mind, you will be double-minded and unstable in all your ways. In my past, I was poor. I barely had money to pay my bills. With a poor mentality, it was hard for me to understand tithing. I didn't understand how giving could bless me. I was torn between what the Word said and my past life experience, double-minded. I would sometimes but not on a consistent basis. Because I was double-minded, I reasoned with the Word of God. Until I renewed my mind, I didn't receive the blessing of tithing. These are harsh words but it is the truth, an unrenewed mind can't make godly decisions.

Romans 8:6 New King James Version

“6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”

A carnal mind lives and makes decisions according to senses (see, touch, hear, taste, smell). Whatever you see, you will believe. You will make decisions according to self. One of the meanings of carnal relates to unaided human effort that originates from self or are empowered by self. This is a dangerous place to be because you aren't relying on the Holy Spirit. This is carnal and proceeds out of the untouched, unchanged part of us, what is not transformed by God.

BUT, God has given us the Word of God to renew our minds. We are to replace our old thoughts with the Word of God. We can become one minded, having God's perspective instead of the world.

Romans 12:2 New King James Version

“2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Think on these things with Gina

Phil 4:8 AMP

Finally, believers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable and worthy of respect, whatever is right and confirmed by God’s word, whatever is pure and wholesome, whatever is lovely and brings peace, whatever is admirable and of good repute; if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think continually on these things [center your mind on them, and implant them in your heart].

As we continue our journey on “Renewing the Mind” let’s look at some of the things the Bible says we should thing about. Renewing the mind simply means to change our way of thinking so that we can bring our thoughts in line with the Word of God and begin to see ourselves the way that God sees us – the way He intended for us to be.

When I was learning about renewing the mind (Rom 12:1-2) we were stationed at Ft. Campbell, KY, my friend Tara from TN gave me a book called “The 4:8 Principle, the secret to a joy-filled life”. She gave me this book because I was broken, my mind was not in a good place, and I was battling a serious case of anxiety and panic disorder. Since then, I have learned that to keep my sanity I have to think the way that God thinks, and I do this by following the instructions that we are given in our key scripture. I recommend reading Phil 4:6-8. These verses are among my favorites, and they are at the core of my walk with God. These verses are straight forward, we are told what not to do in verse six, what is the result of obeying the instructions given in verse seven, and what to do in verse eight – think continually on these things.
Renewing the mind is present and ongoing, we cannot do this one day and not the other. When we choose to mediate on the Word of God, we are creating new habits in us and little by little we begin to see results. Whenever the devil tries to torment me by reminding me of bad experiences from the past or something that may be happening now, I remind myself that if I keep my mind on God & His Word (God and His Word are one) I have a sure victory against the enemy and the Bible says that God will keep me in perfect peace (Isa 26:3).

There are many things that I am grateful to God for, the primary is salvation and right next to it is being able to live a fulfilled life free from anxiety and panic attacks. It wasn’t easy, but I didn’t give up. I did what the Apostle Paul said in Phil 3:14 “I press toward the mark” how? Phil 3:13 “Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before” or in front of me. I keep the Word of God at the forefront of my mind and heart.

Friend don’t give up; God has a great plan for you. These are the three Bible verses that help me keep my thoughts right: Isaiah 26:3, 2 Cor 10:5, and 2 Tim 1:7. Ask God to help you understand these verses and if you haven’t made Jesus the Lord of your life this is your first step (Rom 10:9-10) and let the transformation begin.

God Bless you!!

Renewing the Mind with Rafael,

Extremely excited to see the impact of the new topic we are introducing for our Tuesday communications from The Bunker Team, Renewing of the Mind. This is an area that my family has dealt with firsthand, and I am sure it is a relatable to everyone reading this.

If you have heard any part of my testimony, you already know I deployed three times while in the military. Throughout two of those deployments I was not yet serving the Lord but thank God I was saved prior to my third one. If any of you have deployed before, you will know that satan will try and play with your mind like never before prior to, during, and after a deployment. Prior to my first two deployments, I remember briefings that reinforced the need to do my will, to provide a Power of Attorney to someone, to spend extra time with my family, etc. in the event I never see them again. That in itself can take a person on a tailspin where you feel as if you are doing your final preparations because you are about to die. As I went through the process of my predeployment checklist, I remember saying to myself “what’s the purpose of trying to do things right if I’m not coming back.” At this point in my life, I was not a believer, nor did I know who Jesus was or what He did for me. I simply believed that if I did good things in life, I wouldn’t go to hell. I remember giving things away and making sure I said my goodbyes to my family because I probably wasn’t going to see them again. I remember during training for the deployment, thinking to myself that when I come under attack, I am going to take as many as I can out so that they don’t get away so easily with killing me. I remember wondering what my kids were going to be like when they grow up. I even remember wondering to myself what possessed me to make this crazy decision to join the military (just being real about it). It was such a stressful point in my life that I can feal my body becoming tense and even a sense of depression trying to creep into my mind. Satan had injected thoughts and I ran with it. He was not responsible for all my thoughts, but he sure did do a good job sparking the match before I poured the lighter fluid onto it. The end result of that deployment was me returning home to my family fully intact (Praise God!) and continuing where I left off.

Prior to my return to the U.S. from Iraq, the unit that arrived in theater to relieve us suffered a loss of one of their soldiers who killed themselves with their rifle six days after arriving to our location. According to John 10:10 “the devil comes to steel, kill, and destroy” and it is obvious he was doing all three in this soldier’s mind. Satan tries to build a stronghold in our minds by inserting crazy ideas into our mind. We have to know how to and make the decision to silence the noise of those ideas and walk in the peace that only God can provide. God’s voice must be the loudest in our ears or we leave ourselves open to the devil’s attacks. The same way Peter couldn’t stay walking on water while he had his eye on the storm (Matt 14:22-33), we cannot flourish in life when we are shaken by the winds of the storm. We must have both feet planted on God’s word, The Rock of our Salvation (2 Samuel 22:47). When the devil tries to whisper those crazy ideas, do as Jesus did when He spent 40 days and nights in the wilderness being tempted by the devil, respond with The Word “It is written…”. This is called resisting the devil which the devil will then flee (James 4:7) as a response. We must do the resisting first, satan is not going to leave us alone just because. Find scriptural versus that line up with areas that you know satan has tried to attack you in before. Tape them to your bathroom mirror, to your work computer screen, save them as the screen saver on your cell phone. Doesn’t matter how you do it, but you must equip yourself for a battle that is guaranteed to happen. There is no doubt that satan will come with his crazy ideas, the question is whether we are skilled with what we have been equipped to defeat him.

We are only equipped if we know Jesus and have confessed Him as our Lord and Savior(Romans 8:9-10). Through salvation, we then inherit everything God has promised us to include the perfect peace that surpasses all understanding (Isaiah 26:3). This doesn’t mean that satan will not try, it means that we have already won the battle and simply need to stand on God’s promises. There is no comparison to my stance in God when I prepared for my third deployment of which I was saved. My predeployment process was focused on this temporary trip prior to my return. I knew who I am in God and who God is in me. I knew to use The Word of God against satan each time he tried to inject crazy ideas in my mind. I was able to fight back with: It is written that I will live and not die (Psalm 118:17-19), It is written that NO weapon formed against me shall prosper (Isaiah 54:17), It is written that My God shall supply all your (my) need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19), It is written that He sent His Word, and healed them, and delivered them from destructions (Romans 8:11). If you don’t know what is written, I encourage you to open the bible and equip yourself the way that I did. It truly does bring about the perfect peace that surpasses all understanding.

Renewing the mind = Freedom w/Pastor Kimberley

Studying the Word is very necessary but there is more to renewing our minds than just studying. The Word is a book of living, doing, walking out what it says so that the Word becomes apart of us.

1. Giving the Word first place (making it what you live by).
2. Meditating it like Joshua 1:8 says “This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success.”
3. Doing the Word like James 1:22 in the MSG Bible says “Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other.”
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‭‭The Word has the power in it to change us from the inside out. We can start where we are. God is not expecting us to be Greek scholars, which those that are have understanding to pass along, but we are to be doers of the Word which means, reading it, speaking it, doing it.

We all have stories of things we have learned growing up or from life experiences that have framed how we believe, how we function through life, BUT the Word is our way to truly live free. Taking it, like medicine everyday!

I encourage us to take inventory by looking at what we go to when life is hard. What is our initial thought or answer? Do we try mentally to figure out what to do by reasoning? There is a much easier and freeing way to go.

God’s Word = Freedom in every area

Gina Miranda, teaching this month at our monthly “Basic Training” meeting. Gina has great revelation on how she renewed her mind to the Word of God and she walked free from anxiety, panic disorder, fear, memories of her childhood growing up in Panama as well as the hardships of being a military spouse.

God restored her life!!

Friday 1/6
6:30 pm
3783 Sullivan Street, Madison (south end of the campus)

Learning how Jesus made a way for us to be free in our mind, free from the 1000’s of replays of difficult things we lived through during our time of service.

There is an answer to the nightmares, suicidal thoughts, depression and oppression.

Join us as we learn how to renew our minds through the Word of God!

Friday 1/6/23
6:30 pm
3783 Sullivan Street, Madison, Alabama

We are here for you and would love for you to join us!

We are THANKFUL for all of our active duty soldiers, veterans and all of their families! We pray that wherever you are, the peace of God reigns in your life! We love you ❤️❤️❤️

We pray today for every active duty service member as well as anyone who has served our nation! We believe that it is of the highest honor that one would give their life to serve and protect another’s life and family! For those families who have lost their husbands, wives, sons, daughters, grandchildren we pray that the God of peace surround you and bring comfort to you! We know that there is a special calling for those who know they are to become a soldier and we consider you all elite and of great value!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! We honor you all today and everyday!! ❤️soldiers

My Renewed Mind in Christ w/Gina – Rom 12:1-2

How do we renew the mind? By replacing wrong thinking with the word of God. We cannot replace one thought with another thought trust me I tried and eventually my mind would circle right back to that other thought. The only way I was able to replace wrong thinking patterns and the bad memories from my past
was by replacing anxious thoughts with the Word of God.
How? Three scriptures which became my anchor and are my go-to when wrong thoughts try to invade my mind and as you become more familiar with what Jesus did on the cross for us you will find other verses that will help you as well. This is how I resisted/resist the devil when he sent bombarding thoughts to my mind.
Isaiah 26:3 NLT
You will keep the man in perfect peace whose mind is kept on You, because he trusts in You.

2 Corinthians 10:5
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

2 Timothy 1:7
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

These verses became my medicine I followed the instructions that God gave Joshua in Joshua 1:8 - This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; but you shall meditate therein day and night. Daily!

I did what Jeremiah did in Jeremiah 15:16 – once I found the Word, I ate it.

Remember the Son has set us free – John 8:36

If you have not made Jesus, your Lord and Savior you can do so by believing in your heart and confessing with your mouth like Rom 10:9-10 says.

God bless you!

Supernatural Peace w/Rafael

Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7 NLT)

The peace that surpasses understanding…

Jesus wants us to have peace regardless of trials and sorrows we face here on Earth because He has overcome the world (John 16:33). So how do we identify that we are in peace? My last deployment to Iraq was one that popped up pretty quick. My team and I were not originally on the roster to deploy with the group that was going so I had surgery on my left shoulder anticipating I would have adequate time to heal before putting any strain on it. This situation quickly changed and although I had surgery in January and was supposed to not put any strain on my shoulder for at least six months, an incident occurred over seas where my skillset was heavily needed. My four-man team had just gone through training on a new capability the unit received that would help protect our forces during this deployment, so the need was pretty clear. Leadership had asked me if I would deploy to lead my team with this necessary support and while I knew the chances of reinjuring my shoulder was high, I also knew the loss of life due to not having the defense capability was just as high. My first thought was there no way I am going to deploy after having this surgery but as I prayed about it, I realized who was going out there with me. My savior, my protector, my provider would keep me safe regardless of what weapon may have tried to come against me. Trust me, many weapons tried to come against during that deployment. Throughout prayer and much conversation with God, I found myself in peace. A good portion of the unit were anxious and fearful because of all the news we were getting regarding loss of life, but God kept me grounded. I had no worry at all with my decision to go on this deployment. I was confident that He would not only keep me safe but additionally use me to reach His people. The military mission was successful, and I was used by God more than I could have imagined but additionally walking in the perfect peace that surpasses all understanding.

If you have not arrived at the perfect peace and are seeking it, start with the prayer of salvation accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior, repent of anything you have been a part of which is contrary to the word of God. Finally, invite God to direct your path in all things and relinquish control to Him and rest knowing that He has got it taken care of.

Tell Me Something Good with Juli

2 Corinthians 3:17
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty(freedom).

The Constitution of the United States says that we, as citizens, have the “Blessings of Liberty” (freedom). We would say that means that we can go where we want. Freedom to say what we want, buy what we want, marry who we want, go to school where we want…..

Even though those things are true, are you really free? Are you free from worry? Are you free from sickness, burdens, sin?? If you can say that you still struggle with some of these things, then are you truly free? NO, you are not. You can be free if you would give your life to Christ. Galatians 5:1 says, “Freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage.” Don’t let Satan keep you from living a life of freedom from sin, worry, burden, sickness.

Before I gave my life to Jesus, I really thought I was living a life of freedom. Going where I wanted, doing what pleased me, not having a care in the world. But the truth was, my life was in total chaos. I was worried all the time, I didn’t have peace, I struggled financially. But God!

When I finally committed my life to serving Him, my life was free from all that. Sure, we still face obstacles, but with God you can overcome those obstacles and not let them win. We always win, we have the victory with Jesus.

It is simple, ask Jesus into your heart, ask Him to forgive you of your sins, acknowledge that He is the Son of God and watch your life turn into a life of true freedom.

Join us this Friday, 10/7 6:30 pm for our monthly meeting! A time of the Word and fellowship!! Come and bring a fellow soldier with you!!

Peace in Calm in the storm w/Gina

Jesus said – Mark 4:35-41
One night while I was reading my daily bible reading, I read these verses which I have read and heard preached many times except this time I saw something with my spiritual eyes so exciting.

Vs. 35 He (Jesus) said to them “Let us cross over to the other side”

Vs. 39 Jesus said, “Peace be still” Jesus spoke these three words and the “WIND CEASED AND THERE WAS A GREAT CALM” and that’s what I was looking for at the time, “CALMNESS” in my life.

Let me share this story from our BC (before Christ) days as my husband would say. This is funny now, but I can assure you that it was not at the time. Anyway, this is another one of my husband's great sea adventure ideas. He was deployed to Afghanistan and decided that we should go on a cruise upon his return. Not a bad idea, right? After much rebuttal, I agreed and began to prepare myself for the journey, I mean the vacation.

If only you could have seen inside of me as the cruise ship was taking off and as we entered open sea where all I could see was water everywhere. One of the seven days at sea, there was a great big storm.

It was nighttime and all I could feel was the storm beating on the boat. I spent most of the evening shaking trying to calm my nerves. I didn’t say anything until my inability to stop shaking woke Rafael up. He said I think the water is just ruff right now and he got up to look outside our cabin window. The sun was coming out and he said to me come to the balcony. I answered with an emphatic NO, but he insisted that I come out there and look outside – it was so sunny and beautiful, NO STORM. The problem was with the ship because there was nothing happening outside. Till this day we laugh so hard whenever we talk about this.

In life we encounter so many situations and circumstances that come to create storms in our lives, I have learned since then that Jesus spoke to the storm without fear. Jesus said – I can’t get passed this, He spoke to the storm and the wind ceased! Do you know what else He said? Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Mat 11:28) The key to doing the things that Jesus did is simple, Jesus said, “Come to Me.” If you are going through a storm, I know a Man that can help you and empower you to speak to the storms in His name as you say what He said, “Peace be still.” Storms will come but in Him we can “cross over to the other side.”

If you haven’t made Jesus, the Lord of your life I encourage you to do so today –

No Weapon Formed w/Rafael

The bible never told us that no weapon would be formed against us, it says “no weapon formed against us will prosper” (Isaiah 54:17). As we came to September 11th this year I was reminded of this scripture because this catastrophic event affected the world in one way or the other. People’s daily activities came to a halt and as a country, we were shaken. To some degree our guard was let down and the enemy took advantage of this. The weapon was formed against us and attacked For those who did not know Christ like myself at the time (I was not saved yet), we feared what was next because we flowed in the chaos of the world instead of the peace that only God can give even in a time as chaotic as this.

All throughout the bible, we read the words “Fear Not”. We are instructed to not fear, it is not a recommendation but rather a command. We must stand boldly and with confidence knowing that we are victors not victims regardless of what is going on around us. We must know who we are and more importantly, whose we are. The enemy will always try and strike, but we must equip ourselves with the Armor of God and never take it off. The armor described in the book of Ephesians is described to give us a further understanding of what God has equipped us with regardless of the situation. We are overcomers (John 16:33 ; 1John 4:4) because things will come, obstacles will present themselves to us, but God has given us the tools to overcome them, OVER come. Not fall under them or fall apart when they land on our laps, but rather to pass right over them. It is up to us to maintain our posture of victor and not find ourselves as the victim regardless of what it looks like in the natural realm. Jesus has already fought the fight for us and won forever for us and because we have proclaimed Him as Lord and Savior over our lives (Romans 10:9-10), we are joint heirs with Christ.

Reflecting on 9/11 brought to my remembrance the torment that existed throughout this nation. It was an obvious blow from the enemy. We as The Bunker pay our respects to the families of all those who physically perished that day and pray over our country daily, that we shall never experience something so tragic like that again. If you ever need someone to simply talk to about the event or still suffer with thoughts about that event, we encourage you to reach out and one of our team members would love the opportunity to pray for you and your family, standing together in agreement with you for full restoration of what satan tried to take away from us. Jesus said in the bible “I have come to give life and life more abundantly” (John 10:10). We thank the Lord that we choose life through Christ for eternity, so it doesn’t matter what satan tries to bring about our midst, We Choose Life!



If you have never accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior and inherited the promises from God, I encourage you today to simply talk to God, declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved (Romans 10:9-10). Now rejoice that you too are now seated with Him (Jesus) at the right hand of God (1 Peter 3:22).