What are you doing in this life that you hope to be able to do in heaven, what task, what abilities, what skills that you have been blessed with today do you hope you will continue in, in our next forever home?
If you are a praying person, not one who continuously is saying, “Oh Lord help me to….” but those of intercessory prayers for others, there will not be much call for that in heaven, prayers are for this life, not the next. Seeking out and reaching the lost for the glory of God? Over, there are no lost, unsaved people where we are going. Feeding the poor, tending to the needs of the homeless, not in heaven.
How about loving your enemies, praying for those that persecute you and others of the faith? Sorry, no enemies where we are going. Missionary trips, bake sales to raise funds for the church, putting a little something in the plate as it passes by you? If you enjoy praising the name of the Most High and lifting up the name of Jesus in song and adoration, that will most definitely still be available, but nearly all else that we do here in this life for His glory is not going to carry over into heaven, so what are your plans?
“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” (1 Cor. 2:9) And that’s a good thing, because I would venture a guess that most of you just said something like “I guess we will just figure it out when we get there.” Well, perhaps I can help with that in a small way.
What was the first thoughts of Adam when he saw that his wife had eaten the forbidden fruit? How many times did Noah get frustrated and decide to just quit? At what point in Solomon’s life did he decide that maybe just one little idol to Ashtoreth wouldn’t be that bad, why did Jesus not heal everyone that He met, how did Paul, “To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” (1 Cor. 5:5)
When we get to heaven there are a lot of things that we are not going to know, things that pertain to the way that men have always thought in relation to the Lord, and most definitely in the way that the Lord thinks. Proverbs 2:5 says that we will find the knowledge of God, that is in this life, but it is one of the things that can carry on. The contemplative man does not want all wisdom, all knowledge, all of the Word of God memorized within him the moment he is glorified, and I do not believe that anyone will receive these things in full anyway, the contemplative man desires to search out the deep things of God, (1 Cor. 2:10) in submission to the Holy Spirit.
One of our greatest rewards in this life is to be shown truth, infallible, unchanging truth, truth than can only come from God and is unalterable, because He is unchanging. To those of you whose greatest passion is seeking continuously after Christ, to learn of Him, to study His ways, to wonder after the mind of God, rest assured, this will go on for all eternity, for the finite can never know the infinite, but can search for Him throughout all of eternity. This is one of my interpretations of Psalm 16:11, “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
One of the pleasures forever more is to never fully know, but to be blessed with the ability to search out. I think Paul understood this fully when he said, “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” And I think that he found great joy when he said it, because that meant there was more, more of Christ to know about, more to search out about His wondrous ways, and there would be throughout all eternity.
Any man worth his weight will tell you that once the goal has been reached, a new goal must be set, that once you have learned all that you can in that valley, it is time to cross over the next mountain. Here, in the mind of the contemplative man, are the pleasures forevermore.
