YOU ARE HEAVENLY

You are heavenly, not earthly

“The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” 1Cor15:47-49

One of the most definitive characteristics of the nature of the old man is the word carnal or flesh. These two words describe the essence of every natural person who is born of the seed of Adam. They have to do with the five physical senses, with physical experiences that are well understood and applied by our physical capacity.

In other words, all of us are naturally very well equipped to function as physical beings in a physical realm called earth. When God made Adam He gave him an incredible ability to function in the physical earth and have dominion through the senses of sight, smell, hearing, touching and feeling. 

You can say that Adam was made for earth and earth for him.

In the earth he was in his element, in his habitation, in his dwelling place, in the earth he was never at a disadvantage. He was the seed and earth was the soil. And yet this was but a type and shadow of the reality of a new creation that would come in Christ at a later date in history.

When Jesus comes upon the earth He brings with Him the advent of a new creation, a new nature of people that would be perfectly designed and equipped for the spiritual world. We who have believed in Jesus and have become a new creation in Him have an incredible ability to function in the spiritual world (heaven) through faith.

Faith is to the new creation what the five senses are to the natural person! Indeed the scripture contrasts the earthly experience of the natural person with the heavenly experience of the Christian who is in Christ Jesus. “…As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” 1Cor15:47-49

The Christian still lives in the earth and yet they are not of the earth. The Christian has the ability to function well in the physical earth through their physical senses and yet they are also able to function as well or even better in the spiritual world through faith. The Christian just like Jesus is in the world and yet not of the world. They like Jesus are heavenly and spiritual.

“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” Jn15:19

“I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to the world just as I do not belong to the world. Set them apart in the truth; your word is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I set myself apart on their behalf, so that they too may be truly set apart.” Jn17:14-19NET

This is one of the reasons why the bible also refers to us as ambassadors of Christ. An ambassador is an envoy into a foreign land to represent the interests of their government. The ambassador is not of that country, they belong to another country. The Christian that presents the gospel to this world is an ambassador of Christ (the King of the kingdom of heaven) representing His interests in this country called earth.

“Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.” 2Cor5:20

Jesus promised us that He would give us the keys of the kingdom of heaven so that we would dominate the earth through the authority of heaven. That we would be able to achieve heavenly results on the earth. This is NORMAL for the Christian!

“And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Mat16:19

Jesus constantly told His disciples and everybody else that He was from heaven. That He was not like them, He was of a different nature. And that God sent Him to do His will.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.” Jn3:11-13

“Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." Then they said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always." And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” Jn6:32-38

You may wonder why this is important to us, after all Jesus was talking about Himself, not us. And you are right, He was talking about Himself, but we are now in Him and He in us. What is true of Him has become true of us, we are of the same nature, united with Him, of the same spirit with Him. Look at these scriptures;-

“But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” 1Cor6:17.

“For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” Eph5:30-32

“Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.” 1Jn4:17.

Did you notice that this verse doesn’t say we shall become like Him when we go to heaven? It says we are already like Him in the earth!!

“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” Eph2:4-6

“Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus,” Heb3:1

Paul says we are partakers of the heavenly calling, He says we are partaking of this calling NOW. This verse does not say we shall partake of this calling when we die, no it says we are partakers now! The word for partakers (metochos) and it means sharing in, partaking, a partner (in a work, office, dignity), participant, a sharer, an associate.

This word has to do with an experience, a sharing. In other words we share the heavenly calling of Christ; we too are a heavenly people. Here is another verse with this same idea;

“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,” Heb6:4-5

You are a citizen of heaven

In the same way that Jesus belonged to another kingdom, a spiritual kingdom we to belong to another kingdom, a spiritual kingdom. In this earth we are sojourners, our home and citizenship is in heaven. That is where we belong. We are citizens of heaven!!

“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.” Phil3:20-21

When we become Christians so much more happens than what we know or acknowledge. Not only does heaven become our future, it also becomes our present. At that very moment, God by His power is able to translate us from an earthly existence into a spiritual life.

When we became Christians many of us thought we were going to heaven, little did we know that heaven had come to us. Jesus did not come to take us to heaven, Jesus brought heaven to us, He is our heaven. In Him we live and move and have our being.

In heaven yet on earth!

How can this be? Is it possible to be in heaven and yet on earth at the same time? Are we in heaven or on earth? We are IN heaven and ON earth. Heaven is our home, our calling, our nature. I am not making this up; this is what Jesus told Nicodemus;

“No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.” Jn3:13

How could Jesus say this? How could He say that He had come down from heaven and yet in the same breath say that He was in heaven? How could He be right in front of Nicodemus and yet say that He was in heaven? Was He trying to confuse Nicodemus? No, He was revealing to Nicodemus a wonderful truth.

That those who would believe in Him and get born again would be of a new nature. They would be spiritual and yet physical, that they would be heavenly and yet in the earth. As it was true of Jesus, it is true of us!! We have already come to heaven, that is where we are now! Just like Eden was Adam’s earthly garden, We are the heavenly garden of God!

“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.” Heb12:22-24