The Commodity of Heaven

I had an interesting dream last night about a man whose face was somewhat obscured, I didn’t specifically recognize him as being any one person in particular. This man carried two things, a briefcase and a very large sewing kit, and he walked about with arrogance. At one point the man left the room, leaving behind both the sewing kit and the briefcase, to which (in the dream) I daringly walked over to examine. Opening the briefcase, I was surprised to see a pile of disorderly papers, mostly pages that had been ripped out of magazines and catalogues, looking strikingly similar to the contents of any given trash can.

As with many dreams I have, part of my dream is me asking the Lord “what does this mean”? I remember getting the impression that the man was a picture or type of those who put on airs for others around them. The “trash” in the briefcase included articles or trivial bits of knowledge but not complete studies (no whole books), and catalogues of purchases made that revealed an expensive price tag on each. The over-the-top sewing kit was an elaborate on-the-spot attempt to repair any tear or hole in the long worn-out clothing that represented the sustenance of the man – his works, his life, reflections of who he was, his reputation.

“What does it mean”, I asked again? Although I don’t think the Lord has finished telling me all of it yet, I sense that this man is a common representation of so many of us today, putting on airs, hiding insecurities, having bits and pieces of knowledge scattered about on many things but not really mastering anything, putting up a facade of fancy belongings and all the while hiding how poorly clothed we really are. It reminded me of this verse:

¹⁷ You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. ¹⁸ I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

Revelation 3:17

In the passage above, the Lord counsels us to buy from Him. Thinking of the sermon on the mount, and Jesus telling those present “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3), between these two passages we can surmise that NEED is a commodity in Heaven, meaning the only way we can purchase things from God is to admit that we have NEED, and in doing so we activate Philippians 4:19, that tells us our God will meet all our needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus.

I believe the significance of the dream points to what we may be facing in 2023. I sense that 2023 could be a hard but glorious year, even more so than 2022. This country needs more than revival or even some glorious move on the surface where we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief and then go back to the way things were. We need the kind of God-awakening that comes from the roots up, bringing substantial and lasting change back to the foundations upon which we were once established.

Are we ready? It will require us to recognize our need to move beyond being weekend Christians and into the kind of focus and belief that the Apostle Paul had when he spoke these words in the letter to the Philippians:

⁷ But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. ¹⁰ I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

Philippians 3:7-11

Are we willing to admit our wretched state, and go all the way, if necessary to lose everything and count it all loss as the Apostle Paul did, knowing with a fervent passion and certainty that even if we lose our own lives, what we gain is far greater? Author Bob Sorge notes in his book “The Fire of God’s Love” that “Jesus is looking for a Bride with whom He can relate, who can identify with His joys and who has also experienced His pains”. Embracing the cross is not something we can do academically. We must experience for ourselves what it means to fellowship in sufferings and embrace the cross.

Will the true believer sit by idly and wait for the Lord to take us out of here, or will we do as He commands and engage culture, choosing not to hide our light but to shine brightly in every sphere of society? Grass roots change in our country is up to the body of Christ, which means we need to engage as we partner with the one and only person we should have been relying on this whole time – Jesus Christ. He is the one who supplies all our needs, but we have to recognize our need first. It’s money in Heaven’s bank – let’s go spend some!

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