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GOD IS HEAVEN A synonym to holiness and strangeness is heavenliness…
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“Holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling” – Heb. 3:1
“For our conversation is in heaven” – Php. 3:20 We are NOT “living in this world” – Col. 2:20 “But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all” - Gal. 4:26 “Now therefore ye are …fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God” (Eph. 2:19), and “ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and Church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect” (Heb. 12:22-23). |
Perfectly Heavenly -------------------------------------- God is heaven; and he that dwelleth in heaven dwelleth in God, and God in him. “just men made perfect” – Heb. 12:23 |
“Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.” (Psalm 24:3-6)
“And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having His Father's name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.” (Rev. 14:1-5)
GOD IS HEAVEN, it can be said, for He is what is heavenly about heaven. God is heavenly and His Spirit is called “the heavenly gift” (Heb. 6:4), and if we walk in Him, then we are walking worthy of our “heavenly calling” (Heb. 3:1). This heavenly calling lives in the setting of our “affections” (Col. 3:1-3) and “conversation” (Php. 3:20) on heaven, from whence is our salvation in the very “heavenly things” (Heb. 8:5), where Christ is standing in His virtuous salvation (Heb. 9:23-24), and if we thus walk worthily we will be unashamedly called God’s worthy inheritors of His “heavenly” country (Heb. 11:16), “the heavenly Jerusalem” (Heb. 12:22). Therefore also, your name has then abided past the dangers of being blotted out from the heavenly BOOK, which is to say that your name is still written there – “written in heaven” (Heb. 12:23). In fact, it can be said that “our conversation is in heaven” (Php. 3:20) in such a real, spiritual, and lawful way, so much so that we are not “living in this world” anymore (Col. 2:20). In this way we are already come unto the “Mount Sion” of heaven (Heb. 12:22), even now, but we await a consummating ascension unto the physical “Mount Sion” (Rev. 14:1-5) which is to come. Those that stand with the “Lamb” (Rev. 14:1) on that final day, all of them will be arrayed in holiness on the Mountain of God! These are there with the Lamb in the end, because they did follow the Lamb of heaven while on earth. They were in Him by nature and deed! Jesus said, “If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be: if any man serve Me, him will My Father honour” (John 12:26). Those that were with Him on earth are worthy for heaven! “These are they which follow the Lamb withersoever He goeth” (Rev. 14:4)! “Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come” (Heb. 13:13-14).
God is the builder of heaven, and, “we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” in Christ (2 Cor. 5:1), “Whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end” (Heb. 3:6, 14). God’s face is the light of heaven (Rev. 21:23-25), and those that “are saved shall walk in the light of it”, not only then but NOW (2 Cor. 3:17-18, 4:3-6)! God’s nature is the purity of heaven, and, “it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). In a sinlessly perfect way, God does consummate the gospel (1 Cor. 13:10, Php. 3:12), culminating in our regeneration into His sinless perfection for all eternity! Jesus Christ is “on High” (Heb. 1:3)! Amen! Therefore we are called by what is said to be, “the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Php. 3:14). In a gospel sense, it is as if God has said to us – “come up hither” (Rev. 11:12).
“And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having His Father's name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.” (Rev. 14:1-5)
GOD IS HEAVEN, it can be said, for He is what is heavenly about heaven. God is heavenly and His Spirit is called “the heavenly gift” (Heb. 6:4), and if we walk in Him, then we are walking worthy of our “heavenly calling” (Heb. 3:1). This heavenly calling lives in the setting of our “affections” (Col. 3:1-3) and “conversation” (Php. 3:20) on heaven, from whence is our salvation in the very “heavenly things” (Heb. 8:5), where Christ is standing in His virtuous salvation (Heb. 9:23-24), and if we thus walk worthily we will be unashamedly called God’s worthy inheritors of His “heavenly” country (Heb. 11:16), “the heavenly Jerusalem” (Heb. 12:22). Therefore also, your name has then abided past the dangers of being blotted out from the heavenly BOOK, which is to say that your name is still written there – “written in heaven” (Heb. 12:23). In fact, it can be said that “our conversation is in heaven” (Php. 3:20) in such a real, spiritual, and lawful way, so much so that we are not “living in this world” anymore (Col. 2:20). In this way we are already come unto the “Mount Sion” of heaven (Heb. 12:22), even now, but we await a consummating ascension unto the physical “Mount Sion” (Rev. 14:1-5) which is to come. Those that stand with the “Lamb” (Rev. 14:1) on that final day, all of them will be arrayed in holiness on the Mountain of God! These are there with the Lamb in the end, because they did follow the Lamb of heaven while on earth. They were in Him by nature and deed! Jesus said, “If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be: if any man serve Me, him will My Father honour” (John 12:26). Those that were with Him on earth are worthy for heaven! “These are they which follow the Lamb withersoever He goeth” (Rev. 14:4)! “Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come” (Heb. 13:13-14).
God is the builder of heaven, and, “we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” in Christ (2 Cor. 5:1), “Whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end” (Heb. 3:6, 14). God’s face is the light of heaven (Rev. 21:23-25), and those that “are saved shall walk in the light of it”, not only then but NOW (2 Cor. 3:17-18, 4:3-6)! God’s nature is the purity of heaven, and, “it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). In a sinlessly perfect way, God does consummate the gospel (1 Cor. 13:10, Php. 3:12), culminating in our regeneration into His sinless perfection for all eternity! Jesus Christ is “on High” (Heb. 1:3)! Amen! Therefore we are called by what is said to be, “the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Php. 3:14). In a gospel sense, it is as if God has said to us – “come up hither” (Rev. 11:12).