Paul says God hath made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Being seated is not the believer's location, nor merely his posture, but his position — a finished, shared, heavenly, and permanent place in the risen Christ, a seat that is also a throne. Here is what the seat means, and what it does not.

Paul did not stumble into suffering by ignoring the Holy Spirit's warnings at Tyre and Caesarea. Those were prophetic predictions of what would happen, not prohibitions against going. Acts 23:11 records the Lord's own commendation of Paul's Jerusalem testimony, settling the question of obedience.