By Zac Poonen
The Holy Spirit has come to bring the atmosphere of heaven into our hearts. Under the old covenant, they could only have laws that enabled them to live a life that was very righteous compared to the life of the rest of humanity. But now, we have more than just Divine laws to guide us, we have the Divine life itself to govern our actions. Heaven is heaven because the presence of God is there. Where God is, there is heaven.
In Heaven, there is blessed fellowship. There is no lording it over others there. Everyone is a servant of others. Heaven has a totally different spirit, because God is a Father there. He does not dominate people but lovingly shepherds them and serves them. That is the nature we are to partake of. We are promised crowns in heaven if we are faithful now. What does that mean? Does it mean that we will then rule people? No, not at all. It means that we who had a longing to serve our brothers here on earth, but could not do it perfectly because of various limitations, will find all those limitations gone in heaven, and we will be able to serve others perfectly. Thus the longing of our hearts will be fulfilled.
The greatest Person in heaven will be Jesus Himself, and He will be the greatest servant of all. His spirit will forever be the spirit of service. The church has been placed by God on earth to be a little sample of heaven for others to taste of. It is something like a biscuit-company sending you a small sample of their biscuits and asking you to taste it and see whether you want more. God also has sent us to earth to show forth the values of His kingdom to others so that they may be attracted to Him. What taste do others get from us? When Jesus walked on this earth, people saw and tasted a little sample of the life of heaven. They saw His compassion, His consideration for others, His purity and His selfless love and humility. Heaven is like that. God is like that – full of compassion for sinners and for those who have failed in life.
The most valuable brother and sister in any church is the one who can bring the atmosphere of heaven into a church and who can build fellowship in that church. And such a person need not necessarily be one of the elder brothers. All of us have the opportunity to become such valuable brothers and sisters. Think of a brother/sister in a church, who whenever he/she comes into a meeting or into a home, is like a pure breeze from heaven blowing through the room. What a precious brother/sister such a person is! Even if he/she stops by and visits you for just five minutes, you feel refreshed. You feel as if heaven came into your home for five minutes!; He/she may not have given you a sermon or even a word of revelation from the Scriptures. But he/she was so pure. He/she was not moody or gloomy and had no complaints against anyone.
Such a brother/sister may never speak first in a meeting. He/she may speak fifteenth in every meeting perhaps and that too for just three minutes. But those will be three minutes of heaven in the meeting – worth waiting for, to listen to!