(tm) Day 12
Back to John Seventeen, Devotional
And I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. (John 17:11)
The Lord Jesus was returning to the Father in order to prepare a place in the Father for the saints. It is important to recognize that the Lord stressed that He was returning to the Father, not to Heaven as such.
The saints look forward with joy to being released from the physical body and entering the spirit Paradise. Such joy is understandable when we compare the pain, dread, and unrest of the world with the peace and beauty of the spirit realm.
But the more Christ grows in us the more we become aware our Christian discipleship is not leading us primarily toward Heaven as a place. Rather, our goal is rest in the Father through Christ. There is a practical difference between viewing Heaven as our goal and the Father as our goal.
Christ kept speaking of going to the Father, not of going to Heaven.
The goal of the New Testament saint is union with the Father through Christ. The way of the New Testament saint is that of a disciplined walk in the Spirit of God: denying one’s self, taking up one’s cross, and following Christ each day.
The wrong goal and wrong way will cause practical mistakes in the Christian life. A multitude of believers are holding their "ticket to Heaven" while they continue to live in the flesh instead of pressing forward each day to union with the Father through Christ, which is eternal life (John 17:3). They are missing the plan of redemption while they are waiting to go to Paradise.
Our goal as a victorious saint is to enter that rest in Christ, whether we are on the earth or in Heaven. We too are waiting until Christ’s enemies have become His footstool. When He returns to earth to receive His inheritance we shall return with Him. We shall be revealed in glory together with Him.
The effort, the goal, of the Kingdom of God, is not to get people into Heaven, it is to get the life and ways of Heaven into people.
Christ has given each of us into the keeping authority and power of His Father in Heaven. No person or spirit can force us from the Father’s hands. That keeping authority and power are bringing us into the Oneness that exists only in the Divine Godhead.