They were longing for a better country – a heavenly one.
Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city
for them. (Hebrews 11:16 NIV)
The implications of any movement of God are not always recognized at the
beginning, but if we go on with Him we shall find that much that is done here
and is of time is – and has to be – left behind. The spiritual and the heavenly
is pressing for a larger place and becoming absolutely imperative to the very
life of the instrumentality and those concerned. It is spontaneous, and just
happens. We wake up to realize that we have moved into a new realm or position,
and no amount of additional earthly resource can meet the need. It is not only
something more that is demanded, but something different. This is a crisis, and
it will only be safely passed if there is vision of God's ultimate object. This
demands spiritual mindedness, capacity for grasping heavenly
things. One world may be tumbling to pieces, but the full and final is the
explanation.
The great pity is that so many just will cling to the old framework or
partial vision. God presents His heavenly pattern
in greater fullness and demands adjustment. He does it with foreknowledge,
knowing of a day which is imminent when this vision alone will save. But,
because it is "revolutionary" or not "what has been in the blessing of God"
etc., etc., it is rejected and put aside. Then the foreseen day comes and all
sorts of expedients have to be resorted to, to save the ship.... God is never on
the line of reduction, or limitation. It may look like that, but it is not so. If
we really had His vision, that which looks like trimming and reduction is His
way of enlargement, but spiritual and heavenly enlargement.... God in sovereignty will run the risk of shattering, or allow the shattering, of
so much that He has used of scaffolding or framework in order to realize the
fuller purpose. It is not that it was wrong, but now He wants something more. We
thank God forever that He took Paul away from his traveling ministry and let
him be shut up in prison. It was then that the full, glorious vision and
revelation of the "heavenlies" and the "eternal" was given to eclipse all the
earthly and temporal. It was worth it, and was no tragedy! The Holy Spirit is
the custodian of the full purpose
of God, and under His government the Church and the individual believer will
move ever on and up.