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“Our petitions to God should not proceed from hearts that are filled with selfish aspirations. God exhorts us to choose those gifts that will redound to His glory... He throws open before us the possibilities and advantages of a heavenly commerce. He gives encouragement to our loftiest aims, security to our choicest treasure....
“They might enter into the palaces of heaven, and associate on terms of freedom and equality with Christ and heavenly angels, and with the princes of God....” (SD 188)
I think I caught just a little glimpse for a second of what this “heavenly commerce” really means. Because of my nearly total immersion in the context of worldly-oriented commerce it is extremely difficult to even comprehend how the heavenly commerce operates, especially in motive and incentives. But just a glimpse of the true commerce unleashes a whole raft of insights that have been waiting to take their proper place in relation to each other. The commerce of heaven can only operate effectively and efficiently in the atmosphere of heaven which is absolute, rarified selflessness and love for others. This is not just a nice option that we need to have as an asset to live in heaven, it is an absolute and fundamental prerequisite for survival in the presence of love so pure and passionate that it becomes destructive if experienced with any internal resistance of selfishness left in place.
In the above statements I see references to these principles. When our prayers and relationship to God are based on selfish aspirations, we may seem very noble and religious in each others eyes but in heavens view we are still functioning with the wrong fuel that will only explode destructively inside of us when exposed to the fire of heaven.
Maybe that is a better analogy than even resistance for what happens in hell. Flammable fuel is created within us from the fermenting process of sin in our heart. That is how we store up wrath for ourselves against the day of Judgment, by allowing the fermentation of sin to create flammable material inside of us. We may think we have it safely hidden or under control, but when our lives are exposed to the white heat of God's unveiled, selfless passionate love the volatile materials still residing in our hearts explode into literal flames of torture that burns painfully until it is all consumed and we are consumed with it.
It appears in the above statements that the alternative to the motives of selfish aspirations is to live for the purpose of producing honor and glory for God. Even the gifts offered to us by God have different options that may lead us down different paths. It is implied here that we can choose to accept gifts from God that would seem to benefit ourselves more than would “redound to His glory”. Why would God offer us such gifts? Because He has to start where we are to establish enough of a relationship and trust in Him so that we can be led eventually to mature out of our selfishness and closer to learning the ways of operating in heaven's atmosphere. But we can accelerate that maturing and purifying process by not choosing the gifts for our selfish aspirations but choosing the gifts that will display before others the kindness and attractiveness of God.
“He throws open before us the possibilities and advantages of a heavenly commerce. He gives encouragement to our loftiest aims, security to our choicest treasure....” Again, to relate to this correctly and understand its true implications, I must check my motives behind how I interpret what constitutes my loftiest aims and what really is my choice to treasure. These words can be used both in selfish terminology or in heaven's selfless commerce. Implied in these words is that any apparent possibilities and advantages of earthly commerce – that based on selfishness – is very short-lived and self-destructive in the end, whereas operating and living in the realm of heavenly commerce opens up possibilities and advantages of living forever in harmony with all unfallen creation under the principles of eternity.
Further elaborated are hints of what these possibilities and advantages constitute. “They might enter into the palaces of heaven, and associate on terms of freedom and equality with Christ and heavenly angels, and with the princes of God....” The principles or motives that must be in place in our hearts are described as freedom and equality as well as unselfishness. The stunning possibilities of living in this atmosphere is to be treated in commerce as an equal, not only with angels and princes of God, but with Christ Himself who is God. The economy of heaven amazingly accomplishes the very thing that Lucifer claimed that he wanted for himself – equality with God. But by trying to employ the motive of selfishness to acquire that end he missed the very thing that he was designed to enjoy.
Selfishness so permeates every aspect of our thinking that it is impossible for us to be free of it without massive divine intervention and radical death to self. It filters everything we read or hear about God and heaven or spiritual things and puts a twist, a spin on how we interpret what God is trying to communicate to us. Selfishness is the core of sin and is the most dangerous element in the universe. It is the bacteria in the fermentation process that turns the pure juice of love created by God to be the fuel of choice for our lives into the wine of Babylon that contains not only mind-altering and numbing properties but also fatal volatility when exposed to the fire of God's unprotected presence. This idea of fermentation and the bacteria underlying the fermentation process was illustrated in the Old Testament sanctuary system. This is why God was so urgent that the people preparing to experience His presence in the Day of Atonement purge their lives and their surroundings of all traces of leaven.
Selfishness and pride are the main elements that constitute the bacteria that works on all the gifts and blessings we receive from God, turning them into decaying, death-producing, mind-altering drugs that we choose over the energizing, life-giving pure diet required to exist in the presence of God. If any amount of bacteria is left in our system when we tank up with pure fuel, like pure juice exposed to a tiny amount of impure bacteria it will quickly become contaminated, infected and transformed into a bubbling mass of wine that threatens to infect others with its impurity.
This all takes place in our spirit being, in our heart. When we think that our head-based religion is all we need to satisfy the requirements of God and earn us a place in heaven, we are actually allowing the bacteria of selfishness to remain in our heart where it continues to thrive and feed on all the good things we are receiving daily from God. Our heart is the real source of our problem and also the place where God needs to accomplish the most radical transformation. We need His white-heat passion of selfless love to sterilize and pasteurize completely our hearts from all selfishness to prepare us to safely interact with others who are likewise made safe in the commerce of heaven. If we resist the pasteurization process and don't allow Him to keep us in the heat long enough to eradicate all the dangerous bacteria in our minds and hearts, we become a liability that makes us a fatal danger to ourselves, the family of God and all of the universe.
This, like I said at the beginning, is just a tiny glimpse of what constitutes the atmosphere of heaven in which the commerce of heaven operates. It is frightening and overwhelming to my mind because I begin to see a little bit of how so unqualified and unfit I am right now to live in that atmosphere. It is like a fish who spent his whole life living at the bottom of the lake believing he could climb up on land anytime he wanted and function as a mammal breathing air out of water. He does not understand that he must be born again and take on a whole new way of thinking and living like a tadpole has to become a frog before leaving the water. If the tadpole tries to leave the water before his transformation it would be fatal for him. Likewise, if we believe we are ready to go home with Jesus while entertaining selfish aspirations and motives for wanting that very thing we are asking for something that would, in fact, expose us to the horrors of hell instead of the thrills of heaven. Because hell is simply the drying up of the waters and exposing everyone to the atmosphere of heaven without the proper preparation of receiving the internal equipment necessary to thrive in that atmosphere.
The commerce of heaven is so extremely delicate and sensitive that it is easily obscured by the bluntness of force, the blindness of bitterness or rage, or the numbness of self-pity. It can easily be lost site of in the midst of our seemingly most spectacular moments of spiritual triumph. It thrives on the fuel of humility and is lubricated by the oil of grace. But sugar in the gas tank can feed the bacteria and ruin the works designed to live in harmony with purity and integrity.
Elijah got derailed while traveling at high speed on the right track and had to be taken back to his roots to remind him of what was really important in the economy of heaven. He approached Mt. Carmel in the spirit of humility and total dependence on God listening to the quiet inner voice of the Spirit and accelerating higher and higher into the atmosphere of heaven. But he got momentarily distracted by the blazing results of spectacular glory that is inherent in the atmosphere of heaven and became slightly infected with the bacteria of externalism which opened the door for fear to sneak in. He then reacted by running in terror from a threat that before would have not affected him in the slightest. But he ran in the right direction for he ran into the arms of God and received grace and comfort and assurance. After he calmed down enough God took him through the training program once again to remind him of one of the most crucial rules of heaven's commercial system – giving preference to the still small voice over any other modes of communication claiming to represent the voice of God.
The apparent fragility required to live successfully in the economy of heaven is confusing because of our addiction to force. But to succeed in heaven requires our complete disavowal of all means of force and becoming familiar with the use of the sensitive ways of love and gentleness. We must get past the lies of religion that paint God with pictures of power, might and control, and realize that His real power lies in His abilities to work everything out for good through non-forceful means, that gentleness makes greatness, that humility is nobility, that surrendering control is to come into victory, that by dying we can enter into real living.
I want to learn the ways of gentleness, to become sensitive to hearing more clearly the small voice inside prompting me to know which way to go without the interference of my own preferred emotions or clamorings for pleasure. I want to experience the metamorphosis required to become ready to live and thrive in the rarified, even dangerous atmosphere of heaven. I want to be cleansed of all hidden bacteria that keeps reinfecting and poisoning the good things that God gives me with selfishness. I want a total work of grace and conversion in my life so that God's reputation can be honored and glorified.
