The Eternal Prospect

  The Eternal Prospect

The primary problem in the spiritual lives of modern Christians is eschatological in nature.  Eschatology is a fancy theological word for matters related to heaven and the end times.

With each passing second, every person’s life is moving toward eternity.  However, most Christians live with very little awareness of their eternal trajectory.  Other Christians, as a product of life circumstances such as suffering, death, or a terminal diagnosis, do have an awareness of heaven.  Still, they have very little knowledge or structure to offer them meaningful, life-giving direction as they move toward glory.

Consequently, to put it in sophisticated, academic language, one could describe the spiritual lives of many Christians as blah or meh. Perhaps, you can identify with this feeling.  Your relationship with Christ lacks the deep joy and abundant life that Jesus offers.  You do not experience the soaring hope and steadfast perseverance described in the New Testament accounts.  Your service to Christ feels routine and obligatory and does not contain transcendent inspiration or bold resolve.

Of course, God does not promise constant “highs” in the Christian life, and yet you can reasonably expect more than a nondescript relationship with Jesus.  God’s grace ‘unmerited favor’ to us in Jesus contains too much richness for such flatness.

A spiritual perspective quietly pervading the modern church involves what the apostle Paul referred to as “earthly mindedness” (see Phil. 3:19).  A present-day term for earthly mindedness is YOLO: “You only live once.”  In other words, modern Christians often live as if this life is it.  There’s no heavenly life beyond.  As a result, there’s little to no eternal hope, joy, or purpose in the spirituality of many Christians.

Consequently, people chase fleeting pleasures of this life, which do not satisfy their souls.  They freak out when difficulties and trials come their way.  They conceive of their purpose and mission for Christ in a manner that elicits little inspiration or boldness.

You may be reading this and thinking, “My heart and mind are anywhere but in this life.”  For you, a death, a diagnosis, or a general sense of disenchantment with this world has turned your soul away from the earth.  In a general, undirected way, your consciousness has shifted toward eternity.  Still, you do not know exactly where to go with these feelings and longings.

Game-changing transformation occurs when we set our hearts and minds “on things above,” as Paul exhorted believers to do (Col. 3:1–2). Life-altering change can happen when we live like citizens of heaven, as Paul characterized believers (see Phil. 3:20).  Your Christian life can be turned right-side-up when you start to live heavenward.  Christ calls us there, and the apostle Paul gives us direction.

A heavenward life means that heaven serves as the backdrop of your everyday consciousness. Heaven is a frequent object of your longings and desires.  In a heavenward life, eternity organically and instinctively informs and drives the everyday matters and decisions of your life.

I can tell you from personal experience that you will discover and enjoy great spiritual riches in a heavenward life.

My Friend, the Apostle Paul

A heavenward mindset changed my life after my first wife whom I loved with all my heart and soul divorced me.  As the sorrow of grief persisted, ‘heavenward Ness’ provided richer fellowship with Jesus.  I had more perspective and more hope.  I had more comfort and more patience.  I had more focus in ministry, prayer, and evangelism.  Life set in relation to heaven felt more hopeful, joyful, and purposeful. Though I was suffering deeply from the loss of my family, God was blessing my inner life in a unique way, like I had never before experienced.

However, I do not know if I would have sustained this heavenward life after the season of grief if I had not met a significant companion on the heavenly journey.

During that year after Karen divorced me, I was thinking about heaven so much that I, in-spite of the deep pain of my loss, I experienced the ‘peace of God that surpasses human understanding’

“A heavenward life means that heaven serves as the backdrop of your everyday consciousness.”

Meanwhile, I began reading the letters of the apostle Paul in my devotional life.  As I read these New Testament books, I noticed heaven popping up all over the place!  I used a golden-yellow highlighter (like the heavenly streets of gold) to mark every reference to heaven and eternity in Paul’s letters.  My Bible was covered with yellow highlights in the Pauline epistles.

When he talks about suffering, he mentions the resurrection of the body or being at home with God.  When he considers morality and ethics, the heavenly realities of the kingdom of God appear.  When Paul thinks about serving God, seeing Christ on his judgment seat motivates him.  Heaven pervaded the consciousness and life of the apostle Paul.  In one sense, he lived as a person whose life was constantly moving toward glory.  In another sense, Paul lived as if he were already there.

I had found a friend, someone who had thought about heaven in an even more intense, constant, and peculiar manner than I had.

What I discovered is that my life had been moving heavenward since the day of my conversion as a thirty-eight-year-old man.  God used the fact that my children and my estranged wife also needed to know the ‘Good News’ in order that they too would live in glory, and that hope served to awaken me to the present heavenly realities of my salvation. Paul did have circumstances that probably aided his heavenly awakening.  He characterized his life as “often near death” (2 Cor. 11:23).  In his letter to the Philippians, one gets the impression that Paul was not sure if his imprisonment would end in death or deliverance (Phil. 1:18–26).  In 2 Corinthians, he mentions being beaten nearly to death five times and adrift at sea for a full day and a full night after a shipwreck (2 Cor. 11:25).

However, the realities brought about through Jesus’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension (known as the Christ Event) more likely drove and sustained Paul’s heavenward life.

Paul viewed the Christ Event as the arrival of heaven on earth.  The Christ Event signified the beginning of the age to come, a new heavenly age, which Jews had anticipated for centuries.  Paul’s letters clearly assert that the conversion of believers means that they are instantly transferred into the kingdom of God, and they live as citizens of that Kingdom realm where Christ reigns in his glory.

As I continued to study God’s Kingdom principles, I found other heavenward friends along the way in the writings and music of church history.  The early church fathers, Christian mystics, Puritan theologians, British poets, slaves of the American South, and others all became heavenward companions.  From these sources, I found other people who were consumed with heaven to various degrees.

In this season, my life changed radically.  I would earnestly want this change for you too.

When you understand the implications of the coming of Christ and the fullness of your salvation, heaven naturally starts to sink deeper and deeper into your heart and mind.  You start to realize that, in the spiritual realm, you live with a foot in heaven-ruled Kingdom and a toe on earth.  The more eternity sinks into your soul, the more your thoughts, life, actions, and longings move in a heavenward direction.  When you realize that God has blessed you in Christ with “all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places,” greater joy enters your relationship with Jesus.  When you digest how eternally blissful your life in heaven will be, the more you will persevere in the trials and sufferings of this life.  When you think about offering your life as a worshipful gift before the judgment seat of Christ, the more inspiring and convicted your purpose in life becomes.

The apostle Paul’s theology of heaven offers promise and hope in these various areas.  All these eternal benefits and blessings are on offer to you right now in the gospel.

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” Colossians 3:1-4

"Turn to the Lord for help in everything you do, and you will be successful." Proverbs 16:3

Page created by Peter Brenner Saturday February 15, 2025