The Eyes of a Son and Heaven’s Reality

As Adam raised himself from the ground he was tilling with the new tool he had fashioned to try to make his task easier, he rubbed his aching back and wiped the sweat from his brow. How he longed for a cool breeze to give him a bit of relief from the scorching heat. And then he thought longingly of something that seemed so far away that it was almost a dream. He thought of the cool of the day in the Garden of the Lord and how he had seen God and heard his voice so clearly. He tried to remember what it was like. He tried to remember how it had been to live without fear, without sadness, without dread, and without turmoil. He tried to remember those distant days when everything was right–when his every moment was marked by peace and joy–when he walked in heaven’s reality here on earth. Then one day it all ended. Life as he had known it came to an abrupt halt. The man and woman ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and they died that day. Adam shuddered at the thought of the death that he had already experienced and the loss of all he had. His only hope was that one day when his wasting physical body gave out and returned to the dust from which he came, perhaps God, in the grace and forgiveness he had demonstrated on that day he ate from the tree, would take his soul to heaven so he could finally have once more what he had lost in Eden.

Of course Adam and Eve did not die physically. But they did die spiritually and that death was akin to physical death–a slow and steadily encroaching death that made them increasingly unable to participate in the realities of the realm to which they were dying. Their sensitivity to heaven, their ability to interact with heaven, and their ability to see in the invisible spiritual realm all began to die. No one knows how long it took, but in a matter of time they found themselves no longer interacting with heaven’s reality but consumed with and overwhelmed by earth’s realities as they tried to eke out a living from the cursed soil.

Perhaps the greatest tragedy of Adam’s fall is that all his descendants have been born spiritually dead. After all, we are born in the likeness and image of Adam–no longer sons, but orphans–no longer living in heaven’s reality, struggling to survive in this earth with the hope that one day we might go to heaven. We were all born dead–and spiritually blind. We see as orphans, not as sons. An orphan has no father and so he has to see everything through the eyes of his own understanding and his understanding tells him that most things are a threat–hence his defensiveness, fear, need to prove himself, and feelings of insecurity.

The longing that was in Adam’s lost heart is that which has resonated in the heart of all his descendants throughout history. “I want to see again. I want to see beyond this realm. I want to see into that world which is all righteousness, peace, and joy. I want to see heaven’s reality.” The teaching of the ages that has assuaged this longing is that through God’s grace we will one day again see heaven when we die if we trust in Jesus. Praise God for that truth. But it is only part of the truth. Jesus came teaching that when a person is born again then his spiritual eyes are opened again and he can see the kingdom of God. And that is the Gospel of the Kingdom–Jesus came not just to get us to heaven, but to bring heaven to us. In the new birth we can see the kingdom (heaven’s reality) and enter it once again even here on earth. We can see again what the Father is doing and do those same things here on earth. That is the kingdom. And that is good news indeed.

To read The Eyes of a Son.The first article in this series click Here..