Start Living Your Eternal Life

The Lord recently gave me a picture of the eternal in a prayer time. I like to picture myself standing with Him in a shallow river. I gradually give Him my burdens which I carry in baskets on my back and He, in turn, sends them down the river.

But this time, the river looked very different. The water was deeper, darker and flowed much faster. While I could see to the other shore, it lay much further away than my little prayer river. Jesus was larger, too.  He sat in the river and though His legs were bent, they reached clear over to the other side.

He beckoned, so I jumped in on the upstream side. His body kept me from being swept downstream. But I had no control over this river. The currents ran swift and inexorably towards the ocean. I held on to His legs and looked up at Him questioningly.

This is eternity, He said.

The moment He spoke, the water changed. Or perhaps it didn’t change, but my relationship to it did. The waters still flowed with rapid purpose, but no longer was I pushed by its force. And then I understood what He meant.

The currents of time are always flowing and if we allow them, pushing us towards the end of our stay on earth. But time is contained within the eternal and as citizens of the kingdom of God, we get to choose how the river of life affects us.

The Eternal is Always Now

My relationship with eternal life used to begin with the understanding that it would begin with an ending, specifically the ending of my physical life here on earth.  Eternity, preachers always tell me, is a concept I cannot grasp with my puny human brain. But I think I disagree now. Understanding the eternal is impossible when we try to grasp it mathematically, but as Christians, we are called to understand it in our spirits. Understanding eternity comes with revelation. With the Holy Spirit living in us, we can hold on to the concept of what the eternal means for us.

Because it means that every day we have a choice. We can either be swept by the relentless push of time or we can stand with Jesus in the realm of the spirit. Our spirits are eternal. We worship in spirit and in truth.  John 17:3 says

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Friends, if you know the one true God and His son, Jesus Christ, you know eternal life. And every day when you jump back into the river of your day, your week, your year, you choose where you stand. Are you living out of a sense that you are partners with Jesus sowing the eternal things of God into the lives around you? Or are you swept along time’s stubborn tide?

I have had to change my mindset about my days since this glimpse into the eternal. My choices seem more important on the level of the eternal and less so when it comes to the urgent business of life. Here is how I stand in the eternal river and let time flow past me.

1: I spend as long as I need to with Jesus.

I find myself checking my spirit more and more often. What is His will right now? This could easily turn religious and legalistic if I was trying to figure out the exact “right” thing to do at every moment. But instead, it means that I am sensitive to losing touch with Him. When anxiety starts to creep in, I withdraw to the prayer chamber in my spirit. He gives me His peace. That is His will for us.

To live in the eternal is to understand that the answer to the difficult issues in our lives is His peace. To be sure, we have real issues that need resolution. But His peace brings those resolutions, not our scurrying along the banks of time. The eternal allows us to live in a world that is filled with conflict in total peace. Time doesn’t fix or heal anything. Jesus makes all things new, redeems us, and conquers the enemy. I don’t need more time. I need more Jesus.

2: I do not live as a slave to time.

I know that is easy to say now that my nest is empty.  But the demands are just as many, I find. But now I clean out my schedule the way I clean out my closet. If I haven’t worn something in a long time or I don’t absolutely love something, I give it away.

Now my question is: Will it matter after I am dead? The answer is sometimes surprising. A well- enough ordered household brings peace, enhances relationship, and encourages hospitality. So I keep up on the vacuuming and laundry for the sake of the eternal. (I believe our relationships land firmly in the realm of the eternal).  A perfectly decorated and immaculate house, while I would like it, takes my attention away from the presence of Jesus in my home and lands me square in the middle of striving with the river of time. Perfectly clean houses waste my eternity.

3: I view everyone around me as eternal.

This means that my actions toward them have eternal consequences. A young woman threw herself in front of my car while I was on the freeway a week ago. Miraculously, I was able to slow down enough that, while bones were broken, her life was spared. The police firmly warned her to keep away from me. I appreciate their protective instincts. The incident was traumatic.

But for me, that collision has eternal implications. I visited her in the hospital. She is not currently able to know who I am or what our connection is. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that how I treat the hurting around me has consequences that last forever.

And by the way, bathing in the eternal presence of Jesus took away the trauma of that moment. I see His face now. I see His hands holding back the car from running her over. I see Him standing over her, guarding her against other cars. And protecting me, too, from getting hit in a stopped car in the middle of a busy highway at night.

Mary said to the angel, Gabriel, “Be it unto me as you have said”. Powerful words those. So now I try to say it every day.

   Be it unto me as you have said, in my time, in my life, in my body, in my finances, in my marriage….

Living in the eternal means to live in unreserved obedience to Christ. It is the only way to stay unmoved in the inescapable flux of time. Try it. You will begin to see quickly that living in the eternal is easier when you discover that is where you belong.

If you want a glimpse of eternity, read these books. Don Richardson is a personal hero of mine, though he has gone on to dwell in his eternal home.

How to Move Mountains