On Earth As It Is In Heaven

Aside Posted on January 29, 2017 Updated on January 30, 2017

When we reflect on the instructions that Jesus models for us concerning prayer, one of the key parts is when He asks for the Father’s kingdom to come and the His will to be done on earth JUST as it is in heaven. How can we truly perform His will upon this earth, if we are uninformed of how His kingdom operates in heaven? Because we are incapable of fully understanding or even accessing heavenly realities, God uses the physical world to provide us a glimpse of how His kingdom operates in heaven. Everything upon this earth is at God’s instructive disposal, and He certainly uses all things: our marriages, our parenting, our circumstances, our vocations, the natural world, etc. Through the scriptures, God has also communicated and continues to communicate kingdom matters to us via the life, the culture, the religion, and the history of His people, Israel. This is one of the reasons why the Word is so essential in our spiritual development and understanding of the kingdom, and one of the reasons why Jesus said, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but by EVERY word that precedes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 5:4). The book of Hebrews refers to what He uses upon this earth as a shadow or type of the things in heaven.

Hebrews 8:5

“Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the Law; who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when He was about to erect the tabernacle; for, ‘See,’ He says, ‘That you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.’”

Hebrews 10:1

“For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very image of things can never by the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near.”

When the tabernacle was erected and the priesthood established, God instructed Moses to do everything according to the pattern that he saw on the mountain. As a matter of fact, God repeats this over and over, which is a clear indication that He wanted Moses to really pay attention, but that we, too, would take notice that the details matter. The physical details, though made from perishable material, were important to God because they pointed to imperishable, spiritual realities. The manner in which the tabernacle was built and the priestly services carried out, was also to be done with precise attention to detail. Why? As Hebrews states, they are a copy and shadow of what lies ahead. Tweak just one detail of the copy, and our perception of the heavenly becomes distorted. It was imperative that Moses pay attention to the details because the details would become our spiritual blueprint—a blueprint not just of heavenly realities, but of our divine calling. Many have discarded large portions of Moses and the prophets due to their belief that Christ “fulfilled” many of the sacrifices, ceremonies, and duties recorded in these books. In discarding them we are ignoring essential aspects of what God wants to teach us about both present and future realities. The Scriptures shed light on the kingdom and work of God, and though much has been fulfilled in and through the work of Christ, there is is still much to learn and to be accomplished. In Matthew 5, Jesus states,

“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished” (5:17-18).

Jesus clearly states that the Law and the prophets did not and will not not pass away until all is accomplished. Why? Because all of it, fulfilled or not, points to past, present, and future truths and realities. To annul one stroke of it is to “erase” key details of the kingdom and leads to neglect of both the weightier AND less weightier matters of the law, both of which Jesus made clear should not be neglected (Matthew 23:23). Through the work of His Spirit, God will continue to use the law, the writings, the prophets, the works of the apostles and the certainly the life of Christ as a shadow until all is accomplished and we see and know in full. When will this happen? Jesus says when heaven and earth pass away. The book of Revelation also sheds light on when this will be:

Revelation 21:1

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth PASSED AWAY, and there is no longer any sea.”

Heaven and earth will pass away when the kingdom of God descends upon us. It is in this moment that the shadow will pass away because the full reality will be here. Why will it pass? Because it will no longer be necessary because it will be written upon our hearts and will be infused in our nature. We will know in full, we will see clearly, and our understanding will be complete. The apostle Paul speaks of this transition:

1 Corinthians 13:9-12

“For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak as child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known.”

It’s disheartening to see how many people have either neglected the reading of the scriptures or have discarded their truths altogether. In doing so, we are distancing ourselves from the knowledge and reality of the kingdom. Everything that God communicated and recorded in the Law of Moses, in the prophets, in the writings, the gospels, and the apostles is, without question, for our present benefit. Furthermore, all of these scriptures unveil for us to the future kingdom, which the book of Hebrews speaks to. Therefore, to deem all or parts these scriptures irrelevant, or to believe that Christ fulfilling them means that He abolished them or rendered them obsolete is of the gravest errors, one that has causing many to miss the mark. Looking back, Israel’s struggle was/is that they refused to see beyond the physical aspects (the shadow) of the scriptures/Law (2 Corinthians 3), so they missed out on what is called the Spirit of the Law, or the spiritual realities embedded in the scriptures. They thought the shadow was the end all be all. Today, we spurn the shadow altogether—the sabbath, the appointed feasts, the offerings, the prophets, and the divine service portrayed in both the tabernacle and the temple—and have replaced it with our own precepts, doctrines, and theologies. The results have led to mass confusion, delusion, and a severe misunderstanding of God’s kingdom.

Until the heavenly tabernacle descends upon this earth, we are bound to this short-sighted knowledge of the kingdom. Thankfully, God has given His Spirit, His written and Living Word to  those who seek after Him with a desire to know and worship Him in “spirit and truth” (John 4:23).