“Our citizenship is in heaven.” “Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longer for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord” (Phil 3:20; 4:1). Your polity, your citizenship, is in heaven. If you simply accept the fact that you are a citizen of another country, then you are not really a citizen of this country. Nothing can be more definite than that if you belong to another country, you do not belong to this one.
This is a great point. The first thing to accept is that the earth is not our place, but that heaven is our place. You may say that we are not in heaven yet; still, it is our country, and therefore this is not our country. I quite admit we are subjects here, but subjects and citizens are quite different; we are subjects, but we are not citizens; we are bound to obey the powers that be, but our citizenship is in heaven.
I believe it is of immense importance to apprehend that fact, and I do not think anyone can form a just idea of the alteration it would effect in him. Practically, there is nothing that a man abhors more than to be displaced from the earth. The earth suits the natural man.
First of all, the earth could not be your rightful place because the One who is your Life (Col 3:4) was rejected here, and He has been called to the right hand of the Father. “The light of the world” has gone away, and if you seek the light (IMO, the presence of Jesus’ person in His body, thus believers have the presence of His Spirit, and now in His absence they are the only light of the world—NC) you will find that it is in another place, and that you cannot find it here. “But if we walk in the light, as He is the light, we have fellowship one with another” (1 Jhn 1:7).
The subject I am pressing here is, that your blessings do not come from the earth. It is true that immense blessing has been effected for you here. Christ died for you here; but if you look for blessings peculiarly Christian, they do not come from this place, but from Him who is exalted to the Father’s right hand. Hence there are many Christians, who, though true and devoted, do not enjoy the blessings peculiarly their own. The do not seek them where they are, and they cannot find them anywhere else. They come from heaven. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph 1:3).
Most Christians dwell on the fact that they are forgiven their sins, they have the satisfaction that they are believers, and they look for proofs of God’s favor all day long, and this mercy and the other, they say, is a mark of His favor. No doubt His mercies are “new every morning”; but there is much more. The greatest mark of the Father’s favor is the fuller revelation of His mind. If you were to be given the whole world it would not be equal to the favor of a growing acquaintance with the One who has done everything for you. The day you see more of Him in His own greatness and preciousness, then you are most highly favored by your Father.
“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” It is plain that if you have not your treasure in heaven, your heart cannot be there. The Lord Jesus has gone in, and taken us there, and now we lose immeasurably if we do not know and fellowship with Him where He is (Col 3:1-3).
- J B Stoney
Excerpt from the MJS devotional for May 5th:
“The sharing of His life is our blessed experience just in the measure in which we share His death. So many of us are content merely that the Cross should be the power to save us from the penalty of sin, but death was not the end of the manifestation of Christ. It was resurrection, and it is the risen life, shining forth in the believer, that alone can carry out the purpose of God in redemption. The believer, in whose daily attitude the mark of resurrection is seen, becomes what the world is looking for, a convincing witness to the power of the Living Redeemer.” -G.W.
http://www.abideabove.com/hungry-heart/
This is a great point. The first thing to accept is that the earth is not our place, but that heaven is our place. You may say that we are not in heaven yet; still, it is our country, and therefore this is not our country. I quite admit we are subjects here, but subjects and citizens are quite different; we are subjects, but we are not citizens; we are bound to obey the powers that be, but our citizenship is in heaven.
I believe it is of immense importance to apprehend that fact, and I do not think anyone can form a just idea of the alteration it would effect in him. Practically, there is nothing that a man abhors more than to be displaced from the earth. The earth suits the natural man.
First of all, the earth could not be your rightful place because the One who is your Life (Col 3:4) was rejected here, and He has been called to the right hand of the Father. “The light of the world” has gone away, and if you seek the light (IMO, the presence of Jesus’ person in His body, thus believers have the presence of His Spirit, and now in His absence they are the only light of the world—NC) you will find that it is in another place, and that you cannot find it here. “But if we walk in the light, as He is the light, we have fellowship one with another” (1 Jhn 1:7).
The subject I am pressing here is, that your blessings do not come from the earth. It is true that immense blessing has been effected for you here. Christ died for you here; but if you look for blessings peculiarly Christian, they do not come from this place, but from Him who is exalted to the Father’s right hand. Hence there are many Christians, who, though true and devoted, do not enjoy the blessings peculiarly their own. The do not seek them where they are, and they cannot find them anywhere else. They come from heaven. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph 1:3).
Most Christians dwell on the fact that they are forgiven their sins, they have the satisfaction that they are believers, and they look for proofs of God’s favor all day long, and this mercy and the other, they say, is a mark of His favor. No doubt His mercies are “new every morning”; but there is much more. The greatest mark of the Father’s favor is the fuller revelation of His mind. If you were to be given the whole world it would not be equal to the favor of a growing acquaintance with the One who has done everything for you. The day you see more of Him in His own greatness and preciousness, then you are most highly favored by your Father.
“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” It is plain that if you have not your treasure in heaven, your heart cannot be there. The Lord Jesus has gone in, and taken us there, and now we lose immeasurably if we do not know and fellowship with Him where He is (Col 3:1-3).
- J B Stoney
Excerpt from the MJS devotional for May 5th:
“The sharing of His life is our blessed experience just in the measure in which we share His death. So many of us are content merely that the Cross should be the power to save us from the penalty of sin, but death was not the end of the manifestation of Christ. It was resurrection, and it is the risen life, shining forth in the believer, that alone can carry out the purpose of God in redemption. The believer, in whose daily attitude the mark of resurrection is seen, becomes what the world is looking for, a convincing witness to the power of the Living Redeemer.” -G.W.
http://www.abideabove.com/hungry-heart/
