And the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself. (Ephesians 4:10, NLT)
I am one of those people who has funny lines from movies randomly pop into my head… and then often out of my mouth!
As I was preparing my thoughts for today’s devotional, a line from the movie Happy Gilmore kept popping into my head: “Doing the bull dance. Feeling the flow. Working it. Working it.” This was the line of Gilmore’s playing partner, played by comedian Kevin Nealon, as Happy was dancing around the tee box, riding his driver like a bull after hitting a good drive in a televised tournament. (Some of us still remember Boo Weekley doing the same thing at the Ryder Cup in 2008 at Valhalla.)
Not a Happy Gilmore fan? Then maybe you remember Ty Webb, Chevy Chase’s character in Caddyshack, channeling his mojo while making putts from all over the green, saying, “Na-Na-Na-Na-Na.”
Jesus’ expressed mission throughout his ministry was to bring heaven to earth.This may not be your reality on the golf course, but I am convinced this is the authenticity that God wants us to have in our relationship with him. He desires for us to experience the realities of heaven on earth. You have likely prayed, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10, KJV), but do you know what Jesus was trying to teach us to pray in what is commonly called the Lord’s Prayer?
Jesus’ expressed mission throughout his ministry was to bring heaven to earth. The theme of his teachings and parables was all about the kingdom of God lived out in our lives. Jesus was persistent about this. He wants us to live in his kingdom, which is his intimate presence that is never void of his power. Granted, there are parts of the kingdom of God yet to come, but that which he promised us here on earth is accomplished through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. “For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power” (1 Corinthians 4:20). And living in God’s power is all about “feeling the flow” of heaven.
The prophet Jeremiah wrote these words hundreds of years before Jesus brought about the kingdom of God on earth: “‘The day is coming,’ says the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant… I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts… For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already… and I will never again remember their sins” (Jeremiah 31:31-34). This has been the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit for the last twenty centuries—to bring us into the flow of heaven.
The author of Hebrews writes that “[Jesus] lives forever to intercede with God on [our] behalf” (Hebrews 7:25). I don’t know all that this verse could possibly mean, but I think it somehow ties into when he told his disciples that “anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father” (John 14:12).
I do not know exactly what “feeling the flow” of heaven will look like in your life once manifested, but I want to encourage you to ask God to release it in you and through you. You may not start doing the spiritual “bull dance,” but I would love to see you “working it!”
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Josh Nelson
November 19, 2018
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.