DAY 75

We don’t have the ability to elevate ourselves (we might think we do.) We can’t change our location from the stand point that we are still here on earth. We have no control over when the end comes or when we physically get to heaven. BUT, we need to remember that when we gave our lives to Christ, everything changed. He spiritually put us in heaven.

Ephesians 2:4-7 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

When you put your trust in Jesus, He raised you up and seated you with Him in Heaven, already. Spiritually, you are already a resident of Heaven!

Philippians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,

So we should be living as if we are citizens of heaven, now, not waiting for the someday. We don’t yet understand fully the interface between the spiritual and physical. We know that both exist. We know that both are interconnected, we know that one is seen and one is unseen. But we know that what happens in the unseen is not necessarily reflected in the seen right away. We also know that what happens in the seen physical world does not necessarily reflect what is happening in the spiritual realm presently.

Considering all of this, our attitudes, words, and lives should be different. As Christ followers we are not victims, we live with one foot in heaven and one on earth so to speak. We get the privilege of being covered by the blood and power of Jesus which gives us authority over the spiritual world and the wisdom needed to navigate this world. We are different. We should be recognized by this world as being different.

We need to be confident, we need to be heavenly, as in -not of this world. We need to be heavenly minded, heavenly hearted, and have heavenly lives. We need to be peculiar, different, distinct (not weird.) Different from the world. We need to show the world what heaven is like. We need to live now like heaven is here. If we don’t then how will they know?

Our perspective of life in general should be guided by this knowledge that we are citizens of heaven. We are aliens here, temporary residents here to spread the good news that Jesus is the hope they are desperately looking for and need. We shouldn’t get too comfortable, this isn’t our home. You know as nice as some fancy hotel resort can be, it still isn’t home. There is nothing on this earth that we will miss in heaven, it will be better than we can imagine.

John 17:14-18 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.

Jesus, thank you for saving me and calling me out of the world. Help me to live as a citizen of heaven instead of like the world. Help me to be the light, help me to see myself and the world through your eyes and walk in the Truth. Sanctify me so that I am who you created me to be in your image. Help me to reflect your image to the world the way you reflect God the Father. Thank you for your love and your perfect plan.