Then God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters."

 

       And God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse

       from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so.

 

       And God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day (Genesis 1:6-8).
 

 

 Immediately after we start the process of separating the light from the darkness in our lives, we must look up and begin to see the expanse of heaven. Heaven is not a fairy tale, nor a carrot on a stick that the Lord uses to make us be good. It is more real than the physical universe, and heaven is above the physical universe. Neither is heaven beyond the farthest galaxy. It is a realm in our very midst, and one which we can see and begin to experience now, as we are told in Ephesians:
 

 

       Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

       who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1:3).

 

       But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

       even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:4-6).
 

 

At the very time we are struggling with the darkness that manifests in our lives, we begin to see both how dead we are in our transgressions, and how the Father has raised and seated us with His Son in the heavenly places. As we behold the glory of the heavenlies, where Christ is seated, far above all rule, authority, and power, we know we have been placed with Him by the power of His cross, not by our own righteousness. We do not just cover the darkness in our lives, but instead we must rise above it into a new and ever expanding glory.

 

The earthly minded will constantly try to restrain those who are seekers of God with such statements as, "Don't become so heavenly minded that you are no earthly good," which is precisely the opposite of true wisdom. Heaven is the realm in which we are called to abide with Christ Jesus, and the only truly effective ministry we will ever have on this earth is originated from that position. The church that becomes too earthly minded is not doing the earth any good. We are called to be a bridge between heaven and earth, and to represent the reality of all we have been given in Christ Jesus in the heavenly places. Christians should be so saturated with heaven that it is more real to them than anything in the natural realm. Only then will we reveal the light that is more powerful than any darkness, and begin to call the earth out of her terrible night into the dawning light of Christ.

 

 "From that time Jesus began to preach and say, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand"' (Matthew 4:17). The entire message that Jesus preached on the earth was centered around His teachings on "the kingdom of heaven." Most of His teachings began with "the kingdom of heaven is like...." If we are to understand the message of Jesus, it is fundamental that we understand the kingdom of heaven.

 

The Apostle John recorded in Revelation 4:1: "After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things." That voice is still calling to all who will hear. There is a door open in heaven and the Spirit is beckoning us to come up there. The ultimate quest of every Christian is to walk the earth from a position seated with Christ Jesus in the heavenly places.

 

Therefore, our prayer must be the one that He taught His disciples, for His kingdom to come, and His will to be done, on earth as it is in heaven (see Matthew 6:l0). We can never be too heavenly minded. The true good that we are able to do on earth will be dependent on the degree to which we have attained the heavenly treasures. We must always keep our devotion to obey Matthew 6:33, "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you."