There is an important question that many ask which seems appropriate to address here. Does the Lord make us into what we should be, or does the bride "make herself ready"? There is sound biblical teaching that reveals both to be true. When we run into paradoxes like this in Scripture it is because there is truth to both. In fact, many of the historic heresies are the result of Christians embracing a truth without understanding and embracing the counterbalancing truth.

On Day Twenty-Two we looked at the remarkable statement that Peter made when he said we should be "looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God...." (II Peter 3:12). We discussed how the "coming of the day of the Lord" can be hastened by the bride making herself ready (see Revelation 19:7).

As we have been studying, it is the calling of every Christian to dwell in the heavenly places with Christ and to bring the blessings of heaven to earth. However, our ultimate goal is more than just bringing the blessings of heaven to earth, but rather to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth. Because a kingdom would not be a kingdom without a king, this means the kingdom will never fully come to earth until the King does.

Jesus used His heavenly powers, but never to fulfill His own human desires, or to testify of Himself as Satan tried to trick Him into doing. When Jesus used the power of the heavenly realm, it was in obedience to the Father in heaven and as a witness of the Father. Because He gave Himself to be a witness of the Father's love, the Father sent the Spirit to witness of the Son. The power of heaven is never used selfishly. That is why selfish ambition can be found at the root of almost every ministry that falls.

As we have learned, it is the calling of every Christian to experience heaven now, and to live a life that demonstrates the reality of heaven on this earth. We do that by living in heaven now. It is our calling to bring heaven to every place we go, to our homes, our jobs, where we shop, everywhere.

 

As we grow spiritually, our homes, our hearts, and our perspectives, should be heavenly ones. The Christian life is supposed to be filled with the bliss of heaven.

A fundamental calling of Christians is to experience heaven, and bring heaven to earth. The prayer the Lord gave us to pray is for His kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Daniel gave a very specific prophecy about how this would happen when he interpreted Nebuchadnezzar's dream.

 

This dream is remarkable for its accurate foretelling of the coming great empires of men, which have now been fulfilled just as he foresaw.

We have been looking at our call to enter into and live in the heavenly realm now. We addressed Jacob's ladder, and how it represented Christ. He is the Way by which we climb into the heavenly realm. We discussed how the messengers of God are ascending and descending upon this ladder. We are called to enter into the heavenly realm, but we are also to descend back to earth with what we receive in the heavenly realm. This is what I want to discuss a little more at this time.

 

As a jet pilot I used to love flying at the highest altitudes.

For today's study we will look at Ezekiel 8:3 for a very important understanding about the prophetic:

 

And He stretched out the form of a hand and caught me by a lock of my head;

and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven

and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem,

The Lord gave a great promise that Peter quoted from Joel on the Day of Pentecost, which we see in Acts 2:17: