Flow
What if we changed the way we think about heaven? In modern Christianity, heaven is more of a post-death aspiration than a current reality that is made tangible through faith. It is thought of as an ideal, dream-like realm, far above and beyond the earth in which we live. Most of our popular understanding about heaven is drawn from Catholic tradition and medieval literature. Heaven is more tangible than we may realize.
Heaven, simply put, is God’s realm. The heavenly realm, more real than the natural realm, is discerned spiritually. This discernment is an internal recognition of heavenly realities that find expression in the natural realm. We need the Holy Spirit to see and comprehend the movements of this realm. As we grow with God, we learn how the natural realm actually “speaks His language.” God still speaks, and He is always speaking. What changes is our awareness and recognition of Him.
The scientific advances of the past several centuries, although not inherently evil, have greatly affected the way Christians perceive God’s involvement in our world. We tend to believe that the universe is self-sustaining, governed by its own set of natural laws. Because God is not physically tangible, our experience of God becomes limited to the facts we know about Him. As a result of a “distant” God, the Bible has become the only means by which we think we may grasp and experience divine realities. The Holy Spirit has become less of an empowering, tangible reality, and more of a telephone line to the beyond. We think and believe that one day, when we die, God’s reality will finally become tangible. If we can change the way we think, heaven’s reality can become tangible to us now.
The entire universe is held together and actively sustained by Jesus Christ. This includes both the natural and spiritual realms. Jesus is the empowering force that electrifies the seen and unseen.
Colossians 1:16-17 (NIV) “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
The dominating viewpoint in Christianity is that heaven and earth are two disconnected entities that have little to no influence on each other. In reality, the opposite is true. Heaven and earth are connected. The realities of the spiritual realm find expression in the natural realm. This was a worldview held by many ancient people, including the Hebrews. To the Hebrews, God’s involvement on the earth was intricate and intimate. Everything was spiritual. The apostle Paul, a “Hebrew of Hebrews,” had this in mind when he wrote the following in Romans 1:
Romans 1:20 (NIV) “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”
Paul’s point is that nature reveals the spiritual characteristics and qualities of the Father and His heavenly realm. God did not just create and vanish. He still actively upholds and sustains all things by His WORD, who is the god-man, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:3). All of nature actively represents God. God’s creative power has not left, it is still present and evident in all of aspects of creation. Paul was also brilliant in that he understood that humans are open windows to the spiritual realm. We are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6), interact with the “unseen” (Ephesians 6:12), and usher in God’s kingdom through personal internal transformation (Romans 14:17).
The prophets are excellent examples of men and women who could easily recognize the interplay of heaven and earth. Their spiritual vision and discernment were not brought on by miraculous or extraordinary powers, but sensitivity and awareness to spiritual presence. They saw God in everything, and were experts at hearing and responding to God’s “voice,” within and without them. Intimacy with God and time in His presence transformed their minds to recognize the spiritual realm’s influence on the natural realm.
The point is this: if we want to see, understand, and experience the spiritual realm in our lives, it is a matter of adjusting our thinking, and growing in our God-given ability of discernment. Heaven (and hell) are actively manifesting themselves and flowing into the natural realm through the hearts of people. Everything is spiritual: thoughts, words, actions, etc. Everything evident in the natural can reveal to us a spiritual reality. A quickening of the pulse, a tear forming in your eye, a kindly spoken word - all of these find their origin in the spiritual realm. it is a matter of adjusting our perception and patiently learning the intricacies of His language.
The greatest example of this concept is Jesus Christ. Jesus is heaven meeting earth. He is two realms operating in connection. He had two natures - one invisible and one visible. His invisible nature was divine, that of the Father. His visible nature was human, that of a man.
John 14:8-10 (NIV) “Phillip said, ‘Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.’ Jesus answered: ‘Don’t you know me, Phillip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather it is the Father, living in me, who is doing the work.’”
Jesus, through the incarnation, is the perfect visible image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3). He has physical form, but this physical form has a correspondence in the spiritual realm - that of God the Father. The Father was and is forever present in Jesus. There was never any distance or separation. The Father was not off in a heavenly abode as Jesus did His work in Christ. He was in Christ.
Christ is in all and through all (Ephesians 4:6). In Him, we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). Our role as Christians (lit. “Christ-ones”) is to, like Jesus, express the divine nature of the Father on earth. Christ is actively pouring out His manifest power in us and through us, because we are united with Him in the spiritual realm (1 Corinthians 6:16). The spiritual Christ is appropriated into the natural realm through our thoughts, words, and actions.
To pray “on earth as it is in heaven,” is to desire the natural realm to become the most perfect expression of God’s heavenly realm. Heaven and earth cannot look alike in substance, but earth can become an increasingly perfect expression of the peace, joy, unity, and life that characterizes the heavenly realm. The mandate of God’s people is to become a “blessing to all nations,” expressing and manifesting in the natural God’s invisible reality wherever we go.
