1 Corinthians 2:8-10 (NASB) says, “8 The wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; 9 but just as it is written: ‘Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the human heart, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.’ 10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.”
I believe at some point most of us have been guilty of just giving up on life: our dreams, visions and goals. After moments of failure and losses, especially the passing away of loved ones, its easy to think to ourselves, “I cannot wait to go to heaven!” We think that not just because we want to see Jesus face-to-face and be reunited with saints who have finished their journey before us, but because we have allowed misery to become our company 24/7. Truthfully, we should all be excited to go to heaven because if the only hope we have is in this life we are “of all men most miserable (1 Corinthians 15:19). However, in the same fashion, God doesn’t want us to be miserable on earth for the rest of our lives as we live for church from Sunday-to-Sunday waiting to either die or for Christ to return. There is something upside down with this eschatology because our greatest desire should be to see and have “heaven on earth”, and we will never see or have it if we do not have a renewed mindset and view things from God’s perspective!
It’s become too familiar for us to interpret 1 Corinthians 2:9 as far as “eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love them” as a futuristic event. But what about now? While our minds can only picture the fullness of the beauty and glory of God in heaven, the Apostle Paul continued to see that God has revealed it to us in the Spirit! We no longer have to be blinded or deafened to what God is doing and saying. Why? Because the Lord of glory was crucified on a cross and resurrected from the grave. Jesus Christ didn’t go through this humiliation and pain just to save us eternally from hell, but He saved us to be in relationship with the Father NOW!
Our minds should be blown in according to what God longs to do to, in and through us now here on earth. God chooses to function through those who love Him to accomplish His will in the earth. It is about partnering with Him to see His kingdom come and will be done. There is so much more to the gospel than asking God to forgive you of your sins and asking Jesus to be the LORD of your life. He wants to empower us by His grace and through the Holy Spirit to be witnesses in the earth and point others to Christ in every sphere of influence in our lives. All we have to do is surrender ourselves to Him and ask Him to show us opportunities where to love, give and help others. We can pass those moments up time and time again due to distractions and the busyness of life if we are not careful. Nothing is more important than people experiencing the love of God for themselves, and sometimes, we are the hands and feet of Christ to demonstrate such an encounter of glory! We should have the joy of living knowing that the best is truly yet to come!