What was the power to the converts of early days to be heavenly? It is one thing to see what the heavenly calling is, and another to know the spring of power that makes a people heavenly. We know that the Lord Jesus has gone from this world to heaven, the Holy Spirit has come down, and the mystery of the church has come out in Paul’s ministry. During our Lord’s earthly ministry, the twelve had the personal experience of what Christ was during three and a half years of intimacy. All that time their thoughts were set on His taking the place of king on earth, and even after His resurrection their thoughts went on beating round that same idea. He was with them forty days as a risen Man, His thoughts flowing out according to God’s plans. Then they saw Him go up, but even then they did not know that He would not return at that time to Jerusalem to reign, for God meant to make the people one more offer. But He was gone! The magnet that had drawn their hearts had gone off to heaven, and it was impossible not to feel, in thought and affection, that heaven was the scene for them.
When He was on earth, Peter, James and John could not, ought not, to have had their thoughts in heaven where their Lord was not. He was to be the center of their hearts; their thoughts and affections were to follow Him. That lies at the bottom of the question: How am I to become heavenly? Get firm hold of the fact that Christ has gone up into heaven and has not come back. Yes, Christ is gone into heaven, and I can afford to be discovering whatever in me is not like Him. Do not say, “There is no hope, now that things are so low and worldly everywhere,” or I shall think you do not love Christ. What do you possess if you have not Christ? Where do you have Him? In heaven. Look to it, that whatever in you is inconsistent with Him there is judged.
The Spirit of God Is the Power
The Spirit of God is the power in the children of God, and as such all power is centered in Him. He is also called the Spirit of Christ, and as such He is the expression of His mind and ways. He has come down to you from Christ, and He has brought power and the mind of Christ down into you. You may speak of your weakness, for you cannot expect anything but this in yourself. However, if you have the Holy Spirit, you know the power of God in yourself, and you must not speak of your weakness.
Christians do not feel the solemnity of the fact that they are robbing God of His glory. The thought, “I want peace,” will not give solemnity like, “How dare I question what Christ has done?” Levity does not become us in the presence of the Son of Man in heaven. God has rolled the curtain right back and shown us what is in heaven. His Son, having made purgation, sat down there (Heb. 1:33Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; (Hebrews 1:3)). Christ is now Head of His house; He outshines all the rest, though fulfilling all in Himself.
Heavenly Interests in Our Earthly Path
There is a solemn word which I should like to see put home on all our hearts. To Israel it was one thing to leave Egypt, but it was another thing for that generation to fall in the wilderness. We cannot get through the place without God, and we do not want to do so without Him. God knows how, not only to show bright visions of glory, but to bring the heart of a man into that position where nothing but Abba will do for him down here, as well as up there. It is not merely that you must go through the wilderness, but that God has so formed it that man may have the opportunity of saying deliberately, “I will have nothing but from God and Christ.” He brings us into circumstances in which He is our servant. The Word of God searches and exposes you. If you give yourself credit for the least bit of will or power, you will go down from that point.
What sort of hearts does the Lord find when He reads yours and mine? Will He turn away? No, but He will bring in His own deepest experience to bear on our weakness, as He did, in Revelation 1, with John, who fell at His feet as dead. Christ looks at the dirtiest thing He can find — the soiled heart of a poor sinner — and makes it fit for the presence of God. There is nothing between you and God now, any more than between God and Christ. Take care what you are about. It is in heaven your portion is; take care your interests are eternal now. Look at Paul, and see if you are like him in this respect.
G. V. Wigram, from Ministry of G. V. Wigram