Living in the Kingdom
By: Alan Smith
2 Peter 1:10-11: Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (NKJV)
Have you ever wondered how you will feel when you enter heaven? You know, will you feel happy, overjoyed, and peaceful; but yet overwhelmed? What will it really be like? I have wondered this many times, as years ago, I was told to prepare myself for this journey. Twenty two years have passed since I had a tumor in my lung and was told that I had only six months to live. This is not what I expected to hear, nor what I wanted to hear. Suddenly, my world stopped. I found myself in a place that I had never been before. It was amazing what started happening to me and in me. The first thought I had was, “How am I going to work this into my busy schedule?” Is this dumb or what? I discovered I did not have time for this illness today because I was too busy preparing for tomorrow. It appeared that I was too short sighted.
Let me share with you two truths that the Holy Spirit revealed to me during this time. The first one is “short term future” and the second one is “long term future”. “Short term future” does not include “long term future”; but “long term” does include “short term”. Through this ordeal, I realized that I needed to expand my futuristic thinking. All of the vision of my “tomorrows” was too short. I was guilty of “preparing” to stay here on earth, instead of “living” unto where I was going. I learned that living in “today’s moments” prophetically spoke into my long range experiencing of my future. The life of the spirit can only be experienced in the “now” moment. I learned that ninety eight percent of my “today” was preparing for my short term future. Therefore, I only lived two percent of my “today” in the “now” moment which actually was preparing me for my “long term future”. The things that we do in our "today’s" prophetically set the coarse for our “tomorrows”. Just as taking care of your health prophetically speaks to the future of your body, so do your actions, in any given day, prophetically speak to what you will be doing in your future. Each day is prophetic unto the next.
Now back to my illness. Slowly, my body was yielding to the “short term future” spoken to me by my doctors. However, my spirit man was yielding more to the “long term future”. Things in my life were beginning to shift. I knew leaving planet earth was upon me. The “short term future” I had been living for was about to expire. How could I have been so short sighted? Was I looking for life in all the wrong places? As I pondered this question, I was convinced that my “short term future” was very necessary and was not to be ignored. I will explain what I am trying to say further if you will allow me to give value to my two terms of “future”.
Let’s give a value of 1 to “short term future” and a value of 2 to “long term future”. Now, 1 can not and does not include 2, for 2 is larger than 1. But 2 can and does include 1. The truth is that a 2 is just a 1 supersized. Some believe that we must leave our “short term futures” and that we must totally kill them before we can walk into our “long term futures”. This is not so. #2 must have #1 to even exist. It is the #1 that needs to lose its identity into the #2, so that #2 can be created and come forth. Would you like to live a supersized life? Would you like your “short term future” to be guided and molded by your “long term future”? Perhaps we are being too short sighted about our futures, and we need to expand our borders of life: our futures, our destinies. Perhaps the Lord has been writing our “long term futures” all the time. Today, let’s receive God’s #2, which will include our #1. We will then be in Him, and He will be in us for eternity.
Well, that’s enough for today. Blessings to you this wonderful day, for it can be just part of a script written for you in your “long term scroll” of life. It’s your choice.
Blessings,
Alan
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