The Church Is Perfected in Heaven
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The new Jerusalem will not be perfected on the earth and then ascend to Heaven. The new Jerusalem will be perfected in Heaven and then descend to the earth. The spirits of righteous men made perfect are in Heaven (Hebrews 12:23).
For two thousand years the Christian churches have sought to build the Kingdom on the earth. The cathedrals of Europe and South America are expressions of man’s attempts to build the Kingdom and glorify God on the earth.
Today the quest for spiritual improvement and for the Kingdom is revealed in the Laodicean "togetherness" emphasis. The idea is that the Christians can join hands and build the Kingdom of God through their righteous behavior.
One recent development is political activism. Christian political activism, while it may accomplish some temporary good, always will stumble eventually because secular governments are incompatible with the nature of the Kingdom of God. Christian political activism, unless directed by the Lord to meet a special need, is just one more attempt of the flesh to build the Kingdom of God.
The true Church always is built in Heaven. We already have been raised in Jesus to the right hand of God. The Church is a wonder in the heaven (Revelation 12:1). Our perfecting as living "stones" is taking place as the Lord Jesus through the Holy Spirit is imparting His own virtue, strength, and wisdom to us. We are being formed at the right hand of God while our body and soul remain on the earth.
Man’s perpetual mistake is his concentration on earthly tabernacles and activities. But Christ desires that we walk in the heavenlies in Him while He perfects our spirit.
The new Jerusalem is not of the earth, it is of Heaven. The Lord Jesus is fashioning an eternal Wife from His own body and blood, not from the body and blood of human beings.
Jesus is God. He cannot take to Himself a human bride. Our humanity serves only as "bare grain" that is sown in Divinity until what no longer is flesh and blood has its rise in the heavenlies. Flesh and blood cannot possibly inherit the Kingdom of God. The first man is of the earth—earthy. The second man is the Lord from Heaven.
The days ahead will be filled with bloodshed. Human resources will fail us. All that flesh and blood have accomplished will be torn down.
What is being fashioned in Heaven will become ever more glorious. Those who are walking in heavenly places in Christ will stand throughout every calamity and shaking no matter what comes to pass on the earth.
While destruction and death are hurling hundreds of thousands of people into the realm of spirits, the saint who lives in the heavenlies will be filled with peace concerning his own life and the life of his loved ones. He understands that God has control over all persons whether they are alive on the earth or are living in the sight of God on another plane of existence. No one has passed into oblivion. The deceased are hidden from our view for a short period of time.
Our strength, our wisdom, our food, our health, our glory, our joy, our peace—all come from God in Heaven. If we look to the perfection of the Church in Heaven, not to our human accomplishments on the earth, we will stand in the dark hour that even now is upon us.
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