Matthew 6:19-21
·
Some store treasures on earth
·
These are susceptible to attack
·
Instead, store treasures in heaven
·
Which is completely safe.
For where your treasure is, there
will be your heart (motivation, dedication).
Thesario
– storehouse – treasury
What are we
sending ahead? What do I desire to most preserve for eternity? The answer to the second question will reveal
my heart and, subsequently, my path.
Motivation will determine the life I live: whether I live it for myself
and my goals on earth or for God and his goals in heaven.
Treasures
are often thought of as goods and wealth, and it may include the use of our goods
and wealth, but only if those are involved in the pursuance of the things of
heaven. Jesus tells us much about
heaven: that it’s near us, (Matt 3:2,
4:17; Luke 10:8,9; Mark 10:34) is given to us (Matt 5:3), that we can enter it
while still on earth (Mark 10:15; Matt 5:20), that it has arrived (Matt 12:28;
Mark 9:1), that it belongs to us (Matt 18:3; 19:14), that it is seen (John 3:3-5)
and that you can tell when someone is a disciple of heaven (Matt 13:52). The treasury’s door is opened by the Kingdom
of Heaven’s presence today.
Through
these teachings, Jesus describes what actions will be in the treasury: repentance, healing, understanding,
obedience, living in the Spirit, having the faith and humbleness of a child,
realizing your need for God, even being persecuted demonstrates where our
hearts are. Casting out demons/spirits,
power for life, knowledge, relationship with God’s people are the treasures
which garner interest in heaven. The
treasury is filled with the stories and the life within the Kingdom’s presence
today.
My
storehouse in heaven needs more repentance – being able to own up and confess
my sins to God and others. It will hold
the delight of honesty and the integrity of coming clean. It will hold the healing which began on earth
and will be completed in heaven. It will
be the full expression of how I have gotten right with myself, no longer
burdened or held back by the offenses of others or my own sin. Freedom will exist there like no other place.
The
history of the places I have obeyed God’s commands and of Jesus’ measure of the
enactment of love, including the love of my enemies, will fill the songs of
heaven. When I have been able to obey
God and not the world, when love was acted out with purity of motive, heaven’s
coffers brim with the contribution.
The
Kingdom of Heaven has arrived with the casting (drive out, expel with force)
out of demons (evil spirits, ministers of the devil). Let great fear and awe come over you when the
Spirit of God has overcome these evil spirits, whether illness or addiction,
bad intent or sin. The story will
reverberate and be sung in the halls of your mansion.
Life in
the Spirit will lay up memories of the obvious places where I was led, guided,
taught and protected by the Holy Spirit, including when I got invited into the
Kingdom and the veil was lifted about the Holy Spirit. It is the story of the hole in my heart and how
God filled it, of the places for prayer in my life and how the Holy Spirit
directed the solutions. Salvation’s
story in me is awaiting its fulfillment in that treasury.
The power
that became dynamically present and publicly displayed will have a heavenly
display. That power will be magnified by
being in its proper home, where it originated.
What was thought to be the actions of people, will be fully seen as to
its source and will glorify the One who shared it. It will show itself by its true source, it
will come into full view, in heaven.
The
humbleness of a child – knowing my rightful place with God, my complete
dependence on God – will electrify and grow the treasury. When I could believe with innocence and
dependence on God, the stories of the possibilities of letting God have his way
will be fully explored and grown. What
humbleness stories will go ahead of me?
Maybe I could lay down my sword, my ego more. Lay down myself so as to build the treasury’s
hold.
The obedience
of my heart will be displayed for its motivation, not to preserve my own place
but to allow God to have his way. The
stories of deliberateness and willingness to live God’s way will be to his honor. Whenever I could want and pray for God’s way
is displayed in a prayer that says, “Lord,
do whatever it takes,” and then concede to his way. That story is laid up in the treasury because
it gives attention to God’s rightful claim to my path, my decisions.
In the
relationships with God’s people, remember what lasts into eternity are the
hearts and souls of godly men and women.
The stories you could tell of those you nurtured, those who nurtured you. those who walked alongside you in darkness
and celebrated the victory with you, those who taught you and whom you taught! That annals of heaven will reverberate with
our victory songs.
Healing
will be complete there. Healing of bodies, hearts, minds and relationships are
the evidence of heaven’s presence. I
want to work for that reward!
