We Have A Choice // Let God Show Us The Way Օրինակ

Taste of Heaven

There are glimpses I give you of this new life that is coming, this new life that I have for you even now. Glimpses that you see not with your eyes, but with your heart. A reality that is truer than the blue in the sky, than the clink of glass upon a table, than the fire burning in the grate. 

You see, the things in this world that you see and hear and feel are only hints of what is to come. And I ask you now if you want to know more of what is coming. I ask you now if you want to experience more of the kingdom—the kingdom coming as you live your life on the yet unrestored earth. Do you want more than a taste of heaven before I come again? I have more than a taste for you, more than a glimpse, if you want it. I do not hide myself from you. I am not coy. There is more for you now, if you don’t want to wait. I know it is difficult, this waiting.

How do you do it? How do you attain it? Here’s how, and it is not complicated: the more you pursue me now, the more I give to you. Even now, I awaken your hunger for more of me. Even now, I help you grow deeper in your love for me—greater in your strength and in your talents. I guide you deeper to the place you recognize as Home. But it is up to you to dream, to believe, to turn your heart toward me, to keep your mind looking to me in all things..

I have given you a hunger for me, and I want to increase it. Come to me with your hunger, and I will satisfy it. When you try to satisfy your hunger in this world, your hunger is displaced. You will remain hungry, famished even. Your hunger for me makes you stronger. Hunger for the world makes you weaker, exhausted. You may become better, more skilled, at attaining the things this world offers, but it will never satisfy you like I can. And what good is a restless heart if it will not be calmed? What good is an exhausted soul if it refuses rest? 

I can remove the blinders from your eyes, the barriers of your heart—all that makes you skeptical of your ability to hear and see and feel the more I have for you. There is more than this world. It is coming, and it is here. So claim it with me, all that is to come.

Exercise:

There’s a book Jennifer and I like to return to. It’s called The Great Divorce, and it’s by C.S Lewis.

In the book, the main character boards a bus on a grey, rainy day. It’s a bus that takes him and his fellow passengers to some “other place.” Along the way, those riding the bus become less and less solid. Their bodies become more and more transparent.

When they arrive at their destination, a most beautiful place, they encounter great difficulty in moving about. Everything is too substantial for their vaporous bodies—bodies which all but disappear in the wash of sunlight. Everything is too sharp or too hard or too heavy for them to encounter or handle or manipulate without tremendous effort. It’s painful to walk. It’s difficult to breathe. The main character talks about how the air itself presses down upon him. He’s not substantial enough to survive here, he knows—not like this.

This place is set in the foothills of Heaven.

The main character says, “A grove of huge cedars to my right seemed attractive and I entered it. Walking proved difficult. The grass, hard as diamonds to my unsubstantial feet, made me feel as if I were walking on wrinkled rock, and I suffered pains like those of the mermaid in Hans Andersen. A bird ran across in front of me and I envied it. It belonged to that country and was as real as the grass. It could bend the stalks and spatter itself with the dew.” 

There is so much Jenn and I love about this strange, short book. But one is how it captures our imagination about Heaven—about all that is to come. But not only that; it reminds us too of a beautiful reality—too vast and wonderful for our minds to grasp fully—how we’re all living into more and more wholeness, and into more and more unity with Jesus. 

You see, before we decided to follow Jesus, we were like those passengers on the bus. Those visitors in inky vapor. We lived by our own rules; overwhelmed by our wounds and sin; receiving very little of God’s love.

But we are no longer like that. We’re no longer hopeless, desperate people. We’re people of light and joy and hope and belonging and love—and we’re becoming more so every day. We are becoming more and more substantial.

We are becoming more, and God is giving us more.

With God, there is always more. Even here. Even now.

So how do we learn to say yes to that reality—the reality of Heaven now—while we’re still yet here in our earthly lives? How do we turn from the things of this world—with their demands and their distractions—and live, even now, in the goodness that is to come? 

Well, let me repeat the words we just heard from Holy Spirit: “The more you pursue me now, the more I give to you . . . I guide you deeper to the place you recognize as Home. But it is up to you to dream, to believe, to turn your heart toward me, to keep your mind looking to me in all things . . . “ 

So, I invite you to ask Holy Spirit how.

Holy Spirit, how? How can I, right now, pursue You more?

Holy Spirit how? How can I turn my heart toward You more?

Holy Spirit, remove the blinders from my eyes. I want to see you in all moments. Remove the barriers in my heart. I want to experience Your presence.

I give you my skepticism. I give you my desire for control. I give you my fear.

I want more substance. I want to be more whole. I want more unity with You, Jesus.

I believe I can hear You and see You and feel You with me now. Increase my desire for more. You say there is more than this world, more than what I can see, and I believe it. So, bring Heaven down, Holy Spirit. Bring Heaven down in me.

Amen.

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