“THE FACT AND NATURE OF THE HEAVENLY WAY”

“These all died in Faith, not having received the Promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things make it manifest that they are seeking after a country of their own. And if indeed they had been mindful of that country from which they went out, they would have had the opportunity to return. But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God: for He has prepared for them a city”.
(Hebrews 11:13-16)

Our ‘main concern’ for the next few weeks will be that of pioneering ‘the Heavenly way’.  

While we are going to think and perhaps say much about ‘the Heavenly way’ itself, yet, I believe, it is this ‘tremendous business’ of pioneering that ‘way’ which is ‘the main concern’ of ‘the Lord’, and therefore of ‘ourselves’, at this time.

The Earth related to Heaven:

We notice that ‘the Bible’ begins with ‘the heavens’: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” - not the ‘earth’ and ‘the heavens’; the ‘heavens’ came first.    
 
‘The Bible’ closes with ‘the Holy City’, “New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven” (Rev.21:2); and, just as ‘heaven’ stands at the beginning and at the end, so everything in between, in ‘the Word of God’, is from ‘heaven’ and to ‘heaven’.  

As it is in ‘the natural realm’, so it is in ‘the spiritual’. 

‘The heavens’ govern ‘the earth’ and ‘the earthly’, and ‘the earthly’ has to answer to ‘the heavenly’.   

It is ‘the heavens’, it is ‘heaven’, that is ultimate: everything has to be in ‘the light of heaven’, to answer to ‘heaven’, to come from ‘heaven’. 
  
That is ‘the sum of the Word of God’, ‘the whole content of the Scriptures’. 
 
This ‘world’, this ‘earth’, is not ‘unrelated’ and ‘alone’.  

However important it may be in ‘the Divine scheme of things’ - and certainly it is an object of ‘great heavenly concern’; perhaps ‘the greatest things’ in ‘the universe’ have taken place on this ‘earth’: - ‘God’ has come here in flesh, has lived here, has given ‘Himself’ for this ‘world’; the great drama of ‘the Eternal Counsels’ has to do with this earth - nevertheless it is not apart, alone, it is related to ‘heaven’, and all its ‘significance’ is by reason of that ‘relationship’.  

It takes its ‘significance’ and ‘importance’ from being related to something greater than itself - to ‘heaven’.  

‘The Bible’ teaches that ‘God’ is located in ‘heaven’.   
 
“God is in heaven”: that is ‘the declaration’ of (Eccles.5:2).

It teaches that there is a system, an order, in ‘heaven’, which is ‘the true one’ and which is ‘the ultimate one’. 

In the end, it will be ‘the reproduction’ of a ‘heavenly order’ upon this ‘earth’ which will be ‘the consummation’ of all ‘the counsels of God’.     
‘Christ’ came down from ‘heaven’ and returned to ‘heaven’. 

‘The Christian’, as a ‘child of God’, is born  from ‘heaven’, and has his life centered in ‘heaven’, and the life of ‘the child of God’ will be consummated in ‘heaven’.  

‘The Church’, that ‘masterpiece of God’, is of ‘heavenly origin’, of ‘heavenly calling’, and of ‘heavenly destiny’.  

In all these things, and in many others, “The heavens do rule”. (Dan.4: 26) 

‘The great factor of heaven’ governs ‘everything’. 

Children of God related to Heaven: 

As for ourselves, if we are ‘children of God’, our whole education and history is related to ‘heaven’.  

That is one of the matters we must follow out presently in greater detail; but let it be said, and let it be recognized, that our whole history and education as ‘children of God’ is related to ‘heaven’ - and by that I do not mean simply that we are going to ‘heaven’.  

We are related to this ‘Kingdom of the heavens’, by ‘birth’, by ‘sustenance’ and by ‘eternal vocation’.   

All our ‘education’ is related to ‘heaven’.  

All that you and I have to learn is as to how it is done in ‘heaven’; - as to what ‘the Lord’ meant when ‘He’ said, “Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth” (Matt. 6:10) - a great comprehensive part covering all the education of ‘the child of God’, for that ‘Prayer’ begins with “Our Father who art in Heaven”.   
For as things are in ‘heaven’, so they must be here; but a whole ‘lifetime of education’, deep and drastic training, is involved in conformity to ‘heaven’.  

‘The Bible of the Christians’ in ‘New Testament times’ was ‘the Old Testament’. 
 
When we read in ‘the New Testament’, as we so often do, about ‘the Scriptures’ - “that the Scriptures might be fulfilled”,  or “as it is written in the Scriptures”, and so on - it was ‘the Old Testament’ that was referred to.  

‘The Old Testament’ was ‘the only Scripture’, ‘the only Bible’, of ‘the first Christians’, ‘the Christians of the first decades’.  

They did not have our ‘New Testament’.  

For them ‘the Old Testament’ was ‘the Bible’, and it was continuously drawn upon, referred to, taken up, and used in order to exemplify ‘the spiritual experience of Christians’.  

This ‘letter to the Hebrews’, from which we quoted at the beginning, is just that.  

From beginning to end it is packed with ‘the Old Testament’; ‘the Old Testament’ is being unceasingly used to illustrate and set forth the meaning of ‘the Spiritual Life’ in ‘the New Testament Christian’. 

A Pilgrimage related to Heaven: 

And what we find in ‘the Old Testament’ is a ‘pilgrimage’, all the way through: a ‘pilgrimage in relation to heaven’.   

Let us step right back to the beginning.  
You see, ‘the Divine Intention in Creation’ was that such a harmony should prevail between ‘heaven’ and ‘earth’ that ‘God’ could be here in this ‘world’ in ‘pleasure’, in ‘happiness’, in ‘rest’, just as much as ‘He’ could be in ‘His heaven’.  

‘He’ made it for ‘His pleasure’, ‘He’ made it for ‘Himself’, ‘He’ made it that ‘He’ might come and go in perfect ‘Satisfaction’ and ‘Rest’ and ‘Joy’.  

‘The first picture’ is of ‘God’ being pleased to come to ‘the world’ which ‘He’ had ‘created’.  

‘He’ made it, it was ‘His work’, and we are told that when ‘He’ had made it ‘He’ entered into ‘His Rest’.  

‘His Rest’ was found in being here in ‘His Creation’.  

But since ‘the tragedy of the Fall’, ‘heaven’ and ‘earth’ have lost their ‘harmony’; they are now at variance.  

This ‘world’ is in conflict with ‘heaven’.  

Everything here on this ‘earth’ has been changed.  

So far as ‘the world’ is concerned, ‘God’ has no ‘pleasure’ in being in it or coming to it.  

‘His presence’ here is in testimony, not in fullness - in testimony that this is ‘His rightful place’, in testimony to the fact that “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof”. (Psa. 24:1), in testimony that ‘He’ made it for ‘His own pleasure’.  

But ‘God’ is here only in ‘testimony’, in ‘token’. 

‘He’ must have that ‘testimony’, but ‘He’ is not now here in ‘fullnes’.  

In a very real sense and in a very large degree, ‘God’ is outside of this ‘world’, and there is ‘conflict’ between ‘heaven’ and ‘the world’; and even while there is ‘testimony’ here, that very ‘testimony’ is here and not here; it is outside.  

‘The very vessel’ of ‘the testimony of God’s presence’ is something that does not belong here.  

Here it has no ‘dwelling’; here it has no ‘city’.  

It is in, but not of; this ‘world’.  

It is a ‘stranger’ in this ‘world’.  

And so it has been since ‘the Fall’.  

Now ‘the whole history’ of ‘Divinely apprehended instruments’ for that ‘testimony’, whether they be ‘individual’ or whether they be ‘corporate’, is ‘the history of Spiritual pioneering’ in 
relation to ‘heaven’.

Have you realized that? 

Let me repeat it. 

‘The whole history of vessels’ ‘Divinely chosen and apprehended’ for ‘the testimony of God’, whether they be ‘individual’ or ‘corporate’, is ‘the history of pioneers’ breaking a way, cutting a way through, doing something which was new so far as this ‘world’ was concerned, breaking fresh ground, making fresh discoveries in relation to ‘heaven’; - ‘pioneers’ of a ‘heavenly realm’.  
Oh how much ‘history’ is gathered into a ‘statement like that’! 

For Pilgrims the Center of Gravity is in Heaven:

Let us look at one or two of ‘the features’ of this ‘pioneering vocation’.  

First of all, those who are called from ‘heaven’, apprehended by ‘heaven’, to serve ‘the heavenly purpose’, find that their ‘center of gravity’ has been ‘inwardly’ and ‘spiritually’ changed and transferred from this ‘world’ to ‘heaven’.  

Inside there is a deep-seated sense that we do not belong here, that this ‘world’ is not our ‘resting-place’, that this is not our ‘home’ and this is not our ‘center of gravity’; - we are not drawn to it ‘inwardly’.  

Within ‘the spirit of the pioneer’ there is this sense of ‘conflict’ with what is here, of being at variance with it and unable to accept it.  

I repeat: ‘inwardly’ and ‘spiritually’, ‘the center of gravity’ has been transferred from this ‘world’ to ‘heaven’.  

It is an ‘inborn consciousness’, and it is the first thing in this ‘heavenly calling’, the first effect, the first result of our
‘calling from on high’.  

We are going to come back to that again later on.  

And we can test it by this.  

Of course, it is true of ‘the simplest child of God’.  

‘The first consciousness’ of one ‘born’, truly ‘born-from- above’, is that ‘the center of gravity’ has changed.  

Somehow or other, inwardly, we have moved from ‘one world’ to ‘another’.  

Somehow or other, that to which we have heretofore been related by ‘nature’ no longer holds us: it is no longer ‘our world’.  

Put it how we will, that is ‘the consciousness’, and unless it is so there is something very doubtful about any ‘profession of Faith’ in ‘the Lord Jesus’.  

And this ‘inborn sense’ of a ‘new center of gravity’ has to grow and grow and grow and make it more and more impossible for us to accept this ‘world’ in any way. 

Again I say, it is a ‘test’ of our ‘Spiritual progress’, of our ‘pilgrimage’ and our ‘advance’ in it. 

But that is ‘elementary’ after all.  

The Heavenly Realm unknown to us by Nature:

Notice, that ‘other realm’, ‘the consciuousness’ of which has come into ‘our hearts’, ‘the gravitation’ toward which has commenced in ‘our spirits’, is an entirely ‘unknown world’ to us by ‘nature’.

We shall take this up when we continue ‘next Sunday’,
Lord willing!

Read: Hebrews 11:13-16.

As we stated last Sunday, our main concern for the next few weeks will be that of “Pioneering the Heavenly Way”.

We started out by stating that ‘the heavens’ govern ‘the earth’ and ‘the earthly’, and ‘the earthly’ has to answer to ‘the heavenly’.  

‘The great factor of heaven’ governs everything!  

We further saw that we, if we are ‘the children of God’, our ‘education’ and ‘history’ is related to ‘heaven’.  

We are related to ‘the Kingdom of Heaven’ by ‘birth’, by ‘sustenance’, by ‘the eternal vocation’.  

Then we reminded ourselves of the fact that ‘the Divine Intention in Creation’ was that such a ‘harmony’ should prevail between ‘heaven’ and ‘earth’ that ‘God’ could be here in this ‘world’ in ‘Pleasure’, in ‘Happiness’, in ‘Rest’, just as much as ‘He’ could be in ‘heaven’.  

‘He’ made it for ‘Himself’, to come and go in ‘perfect Satisfaction’.  

Of course ‘the Fall’ changed all that and ‘His presence’ here is now only in ‘testimony’ and not in ‘fullness’.  

Even ‘the vessel’ of that ‘testimony’ does not belong here.    

It is in this ‘world’ as a token that ‘the earth’ belongs to ‘God’, but it is not of this ‘world’.  

Before we concluded last week we took up one of ‘the features’ of ‘the pioneering vocation’ which is that all those who are called from ‘heaven’ to serve ‘the heavenly purpose’, find that ‘the center of gravity’ has been ‘changed’ and ‘transferred’ from this ‘world’ to ‘heaven’.  

It is an ‘inborn consciousness’ and it is the first thing in this ‘heavenly calling’, the first ‘effect’, the first ‘result of our calling from on high’.  

And this ‘inborn sense’ of ‘the new center of gravity’ has to grow and grow and make it more impossible for us to accept this ‘world’ in any way.  

We shall now continue with another ‘feature’ of this ‘pioneering vocation’.

Notice, that other ‘realm’, ‘the consciousness’ of which has come into ‘our hearts’, ‘the gravitation’ toward which has commenced in ‘our spirits’, is an entirely ‘unknown world’ to us by ‘nature’.   

To ‘nature’ it is another ‘realm’ altogether - different, unfamiliar, unexplored.  

It does not matter how many have gone on before us, it does not matter how many there are who have started on this way and gone a long way in it: for every ‘individual’ it is an altogether ‘new world’ and it can only be known by ‘experience’.  

We may derive ‘value’ from ‘the experience of others’, and ‘thank God’ for all those ‘values’, but with all their ‘experiences’ they cannot get us one step further on that way.  

For us it is ‘new’, ‘utterly new’, and ‘strange’.  

We have to learn everything about it from ‘the beginning’.  

That makes ‘pioneering’ - what ‘pioneering’ always is - a ‘lonely way’.  

No one can hand down to us a ‘heritage’.  

We have to obtain our own in that ‘world’, strange and unknown as it is; - demanding basically a ‘new constitution’ according to that ‘world’, with ‘capacities’ that are not possessed by ‘nature’.  

Notice: no man by searching can find out ‘God’ (Job 11:7); we do not have ‘the capacity’.  

It must be ‘born’ in us from ‘heaven’.  

And then we have got to make ‘the discovery’ for ‘ourselves’ of everything.  

We have to discover ‘God’ for ‘ourselves’ in every detail, of ‘His willing relationship’ to ‘the human heart’.

‘Light’ may come through ‘testimony’, ‘Light’ may come through ‘the Scriptures’, ‘Help’ may come through ‘counsel’, ‘Inspiration’ may come to us from those who have plowed through and gone ahead, but in ‘the last analysis’ we have got to possess ‘our own Spiritual plot’ in ‘the heavenly country’, subdue it, cultivate it and exploit it.  

No doubt, you know that is true; that you are going that ‘way’ in ‘the Spiritual Life’.  

You are having to find out for yourself.  
Oh, how we long for somebody to be able to pick us up and put us through on the good of their ‘experience’! 

But ‘the Lord’ never allows that. 

If really and truly we are on ‘the heavenly road’ - if we have not just started and set down or given up; if we are moving on ‘the heavenly road’, we are all ‘Pioneers’.

Of course, there will be ‘values’ in it which others will come into because we have ‘pioneered’, but there is a sense in which ‘everyone’, no matter how far behind, has got to make ‘discoveries’ for himself, and it is best so.  

Ultimately, there is nothing second-hand in their ‘Spiritual Life’.  

Pioneering is laden with Cost and Conflict:  

And so we come to ‘the third feature’ of this ‘pioneering’. 

All ‘pioneering’ is laden with ‘great cost’ and ‘suffering’, and, this being a ‘Spiritual course or way’, ‘the cost’ of this ‘pioneering’ is mainly inward.  

It is in terms of ‘perplexity’; yes, ‘perplexity’! 

We read of ‘Paul’ saying he was ‘perplexed’ and in ‘distress’ and in ‘despair’. 

Yes: a ‘Christian’, and such a ‘Christian’ as ‘the Apostle Paul’, ‘perplexed’, and ‘cast down’, and in ‘despair’.   

That is ‘the way of Pioneers’! 

‘Perplexed’: what does ‘perplexity’ imply? 
It implies a need for ‘capacity’ or ‘comprehension’ in some ‘realm’ in which at present there is none.  

Listen, there is a ‘realm’ that is beyond us.   

It does not mean that we will always be ‘perplexed’ in ‘the same measure’ over ‘the same thing’.  

We will grow out of ‘our perplexity’ on this matter, and we will understand; but there will be to the end ‘perplexity’, in some measure, simply because ‘heaven’ is bigger than this ‘world’, vaster than this ‘natural life’, and we have to grow and grow.  

‘Perplexity’ is ‘the lot of Pioneers’.

‘The cost’ is also in terms of ‘Weakness’: a ‘Christian’ in  ‘weakness’ and confessing to being ‘weak’? 

What kind of ‘Christian’ is that? 

‘Paul’ speaks much about ‘weakness’, and about ‘his own weakness’ - meaning, of course, that there is another kind of ‘strength’ which is not ‘our own’, which has to be ‘discovered’; something that we do not know ‘naturally’.

It is ‘the way of Pioneers’: to come to a ‘wisdom’ which is beyond us and which for the time being means ‘perplexity’;   to come to a ‘strength’ which is beyond us and which for the time being means ‘weakness in ourselves’.  

We are ‘learning’, that is all.  

It is ‘the way of the Pioneer’, but it is costly.  

‘The cost’ is inward, and it is like that, in so many ways.  
But while it is inward, it is also outward.  

‘The letter to the Hebrews’ is just full of these ‘two aspects’ of ‘the pilgrimage’. 

“These all...confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth”. (Heb.11:13) 

It was a ‘Spiritual journey’, a ‘transition’ from ‘the earthly’ to ‘the heavenly’, that ‘the Apostle’ was writing about.  

There was an ‘inward aspect’.  

But there was ‘the outward aspect’ for them, and it is ‘the same’ for us.  

Notice: ‘the whole trend of nature’, if left to itself, is downward.  

Leave things to themselves, and down they go, in all ‘nature’.  

‘A beautiful garden’ will become a ‘wild desolation’, a ‘riot’ and a ‘chaos’, in no time, if you take ‘the upward-ordering hand’ from it.  

And that is true of us in a ‘Spiritual way’ - ‘gravitation earthward’, always wanting to ‘settle down’, always wanting to end ‘the conflict’ and ‘the fight’, always wanting to get out of ‘the atmosphere of stress’ in ‘the Spiritual Life’.

‘The whole history of the church’ is ‘one long story’ of this  ‘tendency to settle down’ on this ‘earth’ and to become conformed to this ‘world’, to find ‘acceptance’ and ‘popularity’ here and to eliminate ‘the element of conflict’ and of ‘pilgrimage’.  
That is ‘the trend’ and ‘the tendency’ of everything.  

Therefore ‘outwardly’, as well as ‘inwardly’, ‘the pioneering’ is a ‘costly thing’. 

We are up against ‘the trend of things’ religiously.  

See again this ‘letter to the Hebrews’.  

The trend was ‘backward’ and ‘downward’ to ‘the earth’, to make of ‘Christianity’ an ‘earthly religious system’, with all its ‘externalities’, its ‘forms’, its ‘rites’, its ‘ritual’, its ‘vestments’; something here to be seen and to respond to ‘the senses’.

It was a great pull on these ‘Christians’; it made a great appeal to their ‘souls’, to their ‘natures’, and ‘the letter’ is written to say, ‘Let us leave these things and go on’.  

We are ‘pilgrims’, we are ‘strangers’, it is ‘the heavenly’ that matters - you recall that great paragraph about our coming to “the heavenly Jerusalem”. (Chapter 12:18-24) 

But it is a ‘costly’ and a ‘suffering thing’ to come up against ‘the religious system’ that has settled down here. 

It is, I sometimes feel, far more ‘costly’ than coming up against ‘the naked world itself’.  

‘The religious system’ can be more ruthless and bitter; it can be actuated by all those ‘mean things’, ‘contemptible things’, ‘prejudices’ and ‘suspicions’, that you will not even find in ‘decent people’ in ‘the world’.  

Let there be no mistake about it, it is ‘costly’ to go on to ‘the heavenlies’, it is ‘painful’; but it is ‘the way of the Pioneer’, and it has to be settled that that is how it is.  

The phrase in this letter is, “Let us therefore go forth unto Him without the Camp”. (Heb.13:13) - and I leave you to decide what is ‘the camp’ referred to there; it is not ‘the world’.  

“Unto Him without the camp” means ‘ostracism’, ‘suspicion’.

“These all died in Faith, not having received the Promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar”. - is that not ‘the vision of the Pioneer’ - always ‘seeing’ and ‘greeting’ from afar; hailing the day, although it might be beyond this ‘life’s little day’; greeting ‘the day of realization’? - “And having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things make it manifest that they are seeking after a country of their own.  And if indeed they had been mindful of the country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.  But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed of them”. -
‘God’ is not ashamed of ‘the people’ who are on ‘the pilgrimage’ with ‘Himself’ to ‘His end’; ‘He’ calls them ‘His own’ and ‘He’ is “called their God”- and “He has prepared for them a city”. (Heb.11:13-16) 

That is a ‘marvelous summary’, when you come to think about it.  

“These all” - what a comprehensive “all”! 

And covering them all, it says of them that they had ‘seen something’ - and having ‘seen’ they could never ‘rest’, to their ‘last day’ and their ‘last breath’ on this ‘earth’.  

They were still ‘pilgrims’, they could never ‘rest’, this was in them ‘the call of the unseen’.  

It is something that must come into us from ‘heaven’ in order to get us to ‘heaven’.  

Let me ask you, have you got it? 

Well, as we shall see, that is “the key” to everything, it explains everything.  

It is ‘the guarantee’ that all that is in us of ‘longing’ and of ‘craving’ and of ‘quest’, born of ‘the Spirit of God’, is going to be ‘realized’.  

Are you hungry? - are you longing? - are you dissatisfied? 

That is itself a ‘prophecy’ of more to come.  

Are you contented? - have you settled down? 

Is your vision short and narrow? 

Can you just go on here? - can you accept things as they are? 

In that case, you will be left to it, you will not get very far.  

‘God’ calls ‘Himself’ ‘the God of those who are pilgrims’.  

‘He’ is ‘the God of pilgrims’, and, divesting ourselves of all the mentality of a ‘literal pilgrimage’ - if you like, of a ‘literal heaven’, for I do not know where ‘heaven’ is, but I know that there is a ‘heavenly order of things’ and that I am being dealt with in relation to that every day of my life - let us leave out ‘the literal side’, and see ‘the Spiritual’, which is so ‘real’; and let us ask ‘the Lord’ to put this ‘spirit of pilgrimage’ in us mightily.

You will find as you go on that, whereas at one point in your ‘Spiritual Life’ everything was so wonderful and so full that you felt you had reached ‘the end of everything’, there will come a time when that will be as nothing, and you look back upon it as mere ‘infancy’.  

Things that you were able to read then and feed upon: you say, ‘how was I able to find anything in this at all’? 

Please, do not mistake me: there is nothing ‘wrong’ with that, that is alright for people at that ‘point’ - but we have to go on, we must have something more.  

We ought to be growing out of ‘things’ all the time, going beyond.  

We ought to be ‘people of the beyond’.  

Do you know that that is the meaning of the word ‘Hebrew’.  

This letter is called ‘the Letter to the Hebrews’, and it speaks about ‘pilgrims’ and ‘strangers’, and if the word ‘Hebrew’ means a ‘person from beyond’, well, we are ‘people from beyond’, ‘our home’ and ‘our gravitation’ is beyond.  

We are ‘pilgrims’ here, ‘pilgrims’ of the beyond.  

May ‘the Lord’ make this helpful, and on the one hand move us out of any ‘lethargy’ or ‘false contentedness’, or ‘undue longing’ to reach an end here, and on the other hand, keep ‘our eyes’ and ‘our hearts’ with those who have ‘pioneered’ before, ‘seeing’ and ‘greeting’, and, if needs be, dying, ‘in Faith’.