Citizens of Heaven

In an ever-changing temporal world, we can live eternally before eternity, because as believers our citizenship is in Heaven, even while our residence is on earth.

“Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God…” - Ephesians 2:19 NKJV

There are benefits of our Heavenly citizenship that we already have access to – Charles Spurgeon in his “Morning and Evening” devotional put it this way:

• Already children of God

• Already princes and princesses of the imperial bloodline

• Already we wear the spotless robe of Jesus’s righteousness

• Already we have angels as our servants and saints as our companions

• Already Christ is our brother and God our father

• Already we have the crown of immortality as our reward

• Already have common rights to all of the property of Heaven

If we are citizens of Heaven, living on earth – how do we live in light of the already benefits of Heaven now?

I believe it’s a daily re-alignment of our priorities, through a daily prayer of “…your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…” (Matthew 6:10 ESV). As citizens of Heaven, we get to outwork God’s will on earth. We are the kingdom workers carrying out Heavenly orders and assignments, that those already in Heaven cannot. Saints have gone before us in the work, Jesus went before us in the work, but the work isn’t over. Jesus left His Spirit with us for this very purpose.

The permeating reality of this truth should change what we choose to do as work, how we do that work, the purpose behind that work, the goals attached to the work and what success means in the work. There is work to do in the Kingdom of God – our job, is to find the work that is each of ours to do at the time we are called to do it and to allow the Spirit of God to embody that work.

How are you allowing your Heavenly citizenship inform your earthly assignment today?