Living from Heaven to Earth

Living from Heaven to Earth

(Mat 6:10 KJV) Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

This morning I interrupt our current series to share a special message with you. "Living from Heaven to Earth" and I feel led to share a few of my thoughts. I trust you will be blessed.

Jesus' disciples walked with Him for 3 ½ years and the only thing we find ever recorded in scripture that they asked Him to teach them to do was to pray. That is a lesson in and of itself on the importance of prayer, but what I want to highlight is something Jesus said as He was teaching them to pray. He said, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." As the disciples learned to pray they were to pray for God's Kingdom to come (or to be manifested) and for God's will to be done. Where? On earth. How? As it is in heaven. Jesus brought heaven to earth every day and He was teaching His disciples to pray for just that.

As we pray and as we seek to maximize our purpose and potential in Christ we are to live from heaven to earth, from the spiritual to the natural, from God's reality to ours, and not the other way around. When we live form earth to heaven we have the propensity to shirk back or to cancel out what heaven wants to do in our lives. But when we have the faith to live from heaven to earth we believe the seemingly impossible and we are able to see God's best become our reality. Let me give you two quick examples.

In the Old Testament, when it was time for the Israelites to take possession of the Promised Land (Canaan), the Lord said to Moses, "Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites." In other words, heaven already said the land was theirs for the taking. But we know what happened. 10 of the 12 men who went in to explore the land saw things from earth to heaven instead of from heaven to earth. They came back and told the people that they simply could not do it because the challenge was too hard - there were giants in the land and six different tribes of people that they would have to fight or displace. But two of the men, Joshua and Caleb, looking at the situation from heaven to earth and knowing that heaven already said the land was theirs, said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it." Unfortunately, millions of Israelites believed the 10 instead of the 2 and they wound up dying in the wilderness because of it.

In the New Testament Jesus asked a man named Simon (later known as Peter) if he could use his boat for the work of the ministry. Jesus needed a place from which to preach a message to the crowd that had followed him to the shore. Simon had been fishing all night and did not even have one fish to show for it. It was morning, he was tired, but he obliged the newly famous preacher and boated Jesus out to where He wanted to preach His message. When the message was over Jesus told Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch." Why was Jesus saying this? Well, Simon had just invested his time, talent (guiding Jesus into place), and treasure (the resources from his fishing business) into Jesus' ministry. Jesus wanted to give him and opportunity to reap a harvest from the seed he had just sown. But Simon almost missed his opportunity because he was looking at the situation from earth to heaven. Simon said, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything." In other words, he was saying, "Look preacher, I am a fisherman. Fishing is what I do for a living. I have already fished in this spot all night and I did not catch a thing. Fish are just not here, and especially now that is it daytime. You stick to preaching, I'll stick to fishing." But someway, somehow Simon changed his mind even as he was speaking, because the next thing he said was, "But because you say so, I will let down the nets." Listening to the preacher was one of the best decisions Simon ever made for his fishing business. He had so many fish that his nets were breaking and he had to call other fishermen for help.

To live from Heaven to Earth you need:
1. Someone speaking Heaven's Words into your situation.
2. The audacity to believe that what Heaven said WILL come to pass.
3. The Faith to do whatever Heaven's Words require you to do; even though most of the time it will make no earthly sense at all!

Father, I thank You for stretching me this morning and every day for that matter. I hear heaven's words directly, from Your Spirit who lives in me, and also from my Pastors, who is ordained by You to speak into my life. As I hear heaven's words I have the audacity to believe that they WILL come to pass in my life. And I have the faith to DO whatever is required of me to see the manifestation of Your best in my life. From this day forward I will live from heaven to earth, not from earth to heaven and as I do my life will never be the same! In Jesus' name. Amen!