“But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” -Philippians 3:13-14
In 1969 the United States launched Apollo 11. It was the first space flight designed to put humans on the moon. We went to my aunt’s house to gather around her TV set to watch the epic event. I remember the images of the fiery take off from the launch pad! It was awesome!! There was no such thing as surround sound or high definition TV in those days but you could almost feel the rumbling of the rocket and experience the heat of the blast off. As a nine-year-old the sheer power of the flames shooting out of the rocket at lift-off stirred my imagination. I wondered how the astronauts sitting at the top of the capsule could escape the fiery flames shooting out of the bottom of the rocket!
Every bit of it’s energy was aimed in an upward trajectory. The whole purpose was to leave earth’s atmosphere. If it fell short of breaking loose of the earth it would be a complete failure. The entire intention was to bring the human race to someplace we had never been before. I can’t help but see the parallel for me as a child of God. I was made for a heavenly destination. I was created to blast off, break free of this place, and rocket into Glory!
From the moment I became born again I began an upward ascent away from the Earth toward Heaven.
The call of God is always upward, it’s always elevated.
When the Apostle John received the Revelation he heard a voice calling out to him saying, “Come up higher!”
We are called up and out of this place to go from “glory to glory” in ever-increasing measure; to leave that which is fading away that we may enter into an inheritance which lasts forever.
“For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.” -Hebrews 13:14
There’s a heavenly trajectory on my life and I’m aiming straight for Jesus Christ. I’m rocketing into Glory!
The Holy Spirit is the fiery power of God that gives me lift-off. When I got saved the resurrection power of Christ propelled me heavenward and I could see the world fading from view behind me. I climbed so far so fast I couldn’t believe it! Eternity filled my eyes and the pull of earthly gravity lost its hold on me. But that was just the beginning of my flight.
When NASA designed the Apollo Rocket to leave the earth’s atmosphere they never intended the entire rocket to survive the flight to the moon. As the rocket began its climb upward the parts of it that were no longer needed would fall back to the earth in stages. They were intentionally jettisoned and discarded because they served no useful purpose anymore. Everything was directed to the single goal of getting the men out of the Earth’s atmosphere so that they might arrive at their final destination and whatever did not contribute to that goal was sacrificed.
Parallels between the natural and the spiritual
This earth has a tremendous natural pull to it that we call gravity. Its purpose in the natural realm is to keep me grounded. When it comes to spiritual things I find that there is a similar principle at work- I have an “upward call” but the earth has a “downward pull”. My spirit wants to soar and “come up higher”, but there’s a power at work on the earth that wants to keep that from happening. In this respect, I’m not different than the Apollo Rocket. I was made to defy the pull of earth so that I may discover the glory of heavenly places.
I was designed by God to be propelled from Earth to Heaven!
That sounds glorious, and it certianly is, but just like the Apollo Rocket I’m going to need to discard and jettison everything that doesn’t contribute to me attaining the goal that God has for me if I’m ever going to make it out of this earth’s atmosphere and the pull of gravity. The closer I get to heaven the lighter I need to be.
This means “letting go”.
Letting go of dead weight
I will never enter into the highest things that God has for me if I’m unwilling to sacrifice the things that will hold me back.
Often this comes down to sheer obedience to the voice of God.
I’m rocketing into Glory when suddenly God says, “Press the button and jettison your desire! It’s time to let go! You want to go higher? It’s time to get rid of some dead weight!”
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely…” -Hebrews 12:1
Notice that sin is not the only thing that weighs us down in our upward pursuit of Jesus. We are told to lay aside “every weight”.
Affections, desires, dreams, earthly pursuits and attachments can all be dead weight that keeps us from launching into the glory that God has for us.
Some of the most amazing days of my life were when I first blasted off toward heaven but the truth is there is even more glory now than there was then. I’m closer to the prize! I’m closer to the heart of God! I’m closer to my heavenly home than I’ve ever been before, but I haven’t arrived there yet and I won’t be fully satisfied until I reach it.
“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” – Philippians 3:12
Never forget why you began this journey in the first place. It’s because Christ Jesus has made you His own! This is all about love and not about religion. You’re rocketing into glory because you want to see His face! You want to be as close as you can possibly be!!
“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” – 1 Corinthians 13:12
Oh the glory of knowing God as fully as He knows us! Another translation puts it this way- “Now I know only in a fragmentary fashion, but then I shall fully know…”
I’ve experienced the wonderful glory of God in many ways throughout my life but I haven’t even come close to the goal for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Letting go is necessary for ascension
A couple of years ago in an act of simple obedience I decided to let go of something that I was holding on to. Oh how I wanted to keep holding on to it but God said, “Let go”. A friend prophesied to me not even knowing the desire of my heart, and said, “I see this falling away and you being with the Father.” How true it was!!! Ever since the moment I let go, there’s been a steady ascent into greater glory!
My spiritual rocket doesn’t make it out of the earth’s atmosphere without losing some of its former stages and letting them fall away.
I had no plans of letting go, but God did! He wanted consecration, separation, and obedience to His voice. When that stage of my rocket fell away, so to speak, it propelled me upward and onward into Christ at an even greater speed!
As I was shooting up into the glory of God the enemy came and made a concerted effort to bring back the thing that I had let go of! He wanted me to look at the rocket stage that was falling back to the earth rather than what God had in front of me as Jesus was propelling me upward and onward.
I resisted the devil firm in my faith!
There’s nothing worth looking back to because the glory is always ahead of you, never behind.
God keeps reminding me NOT TO BE LIKE LOT’S WIFE, not to be longingly looking back at ANYTHING on this earth, but rather to set my face like flint pressing forward, looking upward, into what God has for me with eager expectation.
Not everything in life gets carried into the future.
My entire life has been a constant succession of advances and letting go of the past. Not just letting go of things that were hard or difficult for me, but letting go of the good things I loved to obey the voice of the Holy Spirit.
God is bringing me forward, and some things I’ve been able to bring forward with me, but not very many.
“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” -Colossians 3:1-2
God wants me focused constantly upward. Constantly seeking and setting my mind on things above not on the things of earth. As long as I keep my eyes on Jesus and my ears are attentive to His voice I find myself always entering into new realms of glory.
I pray that God would light you on fire and that you would blaze and rocket into His glorious presence!