Kingdom Come: Thinking Like Heaven

  • Every single one of us has a purpose and call on our life. – you are someone in the eyes of the King
  • Our lives as Christians are meant to be more than just getting out of hell and getting into heaven. They’re even meant to be more than coming to church once or twice a week.
  • We have to rethink what the Christian life is supposed to look like.
  • Rather than just thinking on what we’re saved from we need to spend more time thinking on what we’re saved to.
    • Too often we stop at saved from hell
  • We have not just been saved to get us out of hell and into heaven, but to get heaven into us! We are called to be His hands and feet in this day.
  • Challenge your own thinking of what the normal Christian life is supposed to look like.
  • A primary part of the call that is on all of our lives is that We have the responsibility and privilege of demonstrating the will of God.
  • Two sides of the same coin.
  • Some times we get caught up on the will of God. The specific will of God vs general will of God.
    • The will for our personal lives vs the will for humanity and the world
    • Scripture outlines what the will of God is for all humanity
      • It’s God’s will all should be saved – 1 Timothy 2:3-4
      • It’s God’s will that we give thanks in all circumstances – 1 Thes. 5:18
  • One of the most powerful demonstrations of the will of God is found in a passage that a lot of people know, even those who don’t attend church regularly, but we tend to breeze right over it.
  • The Lord’s prayer Matthew 6:9-13
  • The concept of Heaven coming to Earth
  • So how do we see this happen? We need a starting point
  • In order to do see His will be done in this way (Heaven coming to Earth) we need to start by repenting.
    • The word repent literally means to change ones mind
  • Now if we are in relationship with Christ, that relationship had to begin with repentance.
    • We came to a place of godly sorrow over sin and as a result is produced a shift in how we think about about sin and see life.
  • In the same way that we needed a shift in our thinking of how we viewed sin we also need a shift in how we view living out the Christian life.
  • We’ve allowed the “normal Christian life” to be defined by what we’ve been experiencing or we’ve seen the majority experiencing.
  • The problem with this view is that we will go on experiencing an old level of normal UNTIL we redefine our expectation of normal and place a demand on our experience to come in alignment with the lifestyle defined by Jesus.
  • Jesus is our benchmark. He is the start point and the definition for what the normal Christian life looks like.
  • Why?
    • First, because He says so in John 14:12 – “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”
    • Second, because as He went to the Father, in return He sent His Spirit to live in us.
  • Romans 8:11 – “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”
  • If this verse is indeed true, and the Spirit of the resurrected Christ actually does live inside of us, don’t you think our lives should look different than the rest of the world?
  • In fact I want to look at a phrase in this verse that shows the power of what Romans 8:11 is saying: “Give Life” or zōopoieō in the greek
    • to cause to live, make alive, give life
    • to restore to life, to give increase of life
    • quickening in the spirit, endued with new and greater powers of life
  • So our goal is simple. We need to change our mind towards what the Christian life looks like, we need to start seeing it from God’s perspective and then embrace this thinking as our “new normal”.
  • This idea of thinking from God’s perspective is defined in scripture as having the mind of Christ. – 1 Cor. 2:16
  • You see, everyone has a mind, not everyone uses it, but everyone has one. And with that everyone has a way of thinking, looking at something, point of view, or perspective.
  • The differences in two views (ex. punching someone and taking their wallet)
  • But there can only be one perfect point of view or way of thinking. Jesus.
  • I want to take a look at what Paul say in regards to the power behind having the right way of thinking.
  • Romans 12:1-2 – “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
  • So you can encounter a situation and know God’s will in that situation.
  • Powerful stuff right, but I want to pinpoint this word transformed. This word is used only four times in NT. Once here, once in Corinthians
  • 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 – “17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
  • Metamorphoo (Metamorphic)-to change into another form, to transform, to transfigure
  • Twice in the gospel accounts – Matt 17:2, Mark 9:2
    • Jesus met with Moses and Elijah – in Luke’s account: They were glorious to see. And they were speaking about his exodus from this world, which was about to be fulfilled in Jerusalem.
    • His clothes were like like lighting
  • Jesus’ transfiguration is a representation of what the renewed mind looks like
  • Some theologians believe…
  • I would suggest that much like the fullness of Jesus’ call was revealed during transfiguration, when we have our mind transformed, when we start thinking like Heaven that is when we are going to start to understand the fullness of the calling will be revealed to us.
  • We can’t just try to replicate what He does. We have to see how He sees and the fruit will follow.
  • So what now, as Romans 12:1 says we’re going to present ourselves. Apart from Him we can’t do this
  • So we need to repent, believe that the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in us, and if we have eyes to see we will start to discern His will as we walk out our days.
  • We will start to see heaven come to earth.
  • He longs to use each and everyone of us to demonstrate His will and walk in the fullness of what He has for us. Let’s start thinking like Heaven and I guarantee we’ll see Him move in our lives.