As we have learned, it is the calling of every Christian to experience heaven now, and to live a life that demonstrates the reality of heaven on this earth. We do that by living in heaven now. It is our calling to bring heaven to every place we go, to our homes, our jobs, where we shop, everywhere.

 

As we grow spiritually, our homes, our hearts, and our perspectives, should be heavenly ones. The Christian life is supposed to be filled with the bliss of heaven. That bliss is the love of God, the peace of God, the patience of God, and the power of God. As we grow into and begin to demonstrate the reality of heaven, we will become contagious, causing everything we come in contact with to begin looking up.

 

The characteristics of God are shared with man in the form of the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. These are together a demonstration that the Lord has risen, He loves man, and continues to seek our redemption, our restoration, and our glorification—to take on His nature. The gifts of the Spirit are the special, personal demonstrations of His love and willingness to help us. They are also a touch from another, higher reality.

 

The power of the gifts of the Spirit cannot be explained or understood from an earthly intelligence, but only from a heavenly one. It is a call to the earthbound so they can live in another reality. There is a glib saying that some people are so heavenly minded that they are not any earthly good. That sounds witty, but the truth is that much of the church is so earthly minded that they are not any good to either heaven or earth.

 

Christianity is not just another, better philosophy of life. It is another reality and another life altogether. We are called to walk the earth, do good on the earth, and to do it with power that is not of this earth. St. Francis of Assisi was once walking with a priest who was pointing out the splendor of a cathedral they were passing. With a touch of pride the priest remarked, "We can no longer say, 'Silver and gold have we none,'" to which St. Francis replied, "And neither can we say to the cripple, 'Rise up and walk!'"

 

The true Christian witness that impacts this world will never come from just having better things on earth. There are a number of beautiful church buildings in our city, a couple of them probably as large and splendid as any in America, but they are dwarfed by the banks and other corporate buildings in the city. The people in our city spend much more time serving the banks and other corporations than they do serving the Lord. However, if a single believer begins to touch and demonstrate the reality that heaven has authority over all cancer, that believer may live in a cabin, but the world will beat a path to their door.

 

That the world has better buildings than the church should not bother us. If the church had the largest, most glorious buildings on earth it would not, by itself, result in the salvation of a single soul. One Christian anointed by the Holy Spirit can do more for the kingdom of God than all of the buildings constructed in the name of the Lord combined. This is not to say that buildings cannot be useful to the church, but nothing from or on this earth can ever be compared to the Holy Spirit. The wealth and power that resides within a single Christian by the Holy Spirit is greater than all of the wealth and power found on the whole earth.

 

The Spirit moving brought forth this glorious creation. The Spirit moving can, and will, recreate the world. Since the Lord delegated authority over the earth to man, He now moves on the earth through men. Because, "The heavens are the heavens of the LORD; but the earth He has given to the sons of men" (Psalm 115:16), the Lord requires the cooperation of men to move on the earth. This is why, even though the Lord knows what we need before we ask Him, He requires that we ask before He moves on the earth. When He demonstrates His kingdom and the powers of heaven to the earth, He does it through men.

 

The Lord could have parted the Red Sea without Moses, but not without violating His own principles of authority. He could have brought down fire on the prophets of Baal without Elijah, but that is not the way He does things on the earth. He gave authority over the earth to men, which is why even the Son of God, Jesus, continually referred to Himself as the Son of Man. He had to come as a man to retake the authority over the earth that had been lost by man's transgression and subsequent subservience to Satan. That is why, when Satan tempted Jesus he tried to get Him to wrongly use His powers as the Son of God, but Jesus responded to Him with "Man does not live by bread alone," etc. God ordained that man should rule over the earth and the coming of His kingdom will, therefore, restore man's authority over the earth to those who worship and obey Him.