They Desire a Better Country

There is a remnant, within the Body of Christ, enraptured by the vision of a heavenly kingdom. With eyes of faith, these scattered pilgrims see and desire a heavenly homeland. The vision has captured their hearts. They see this heavenly kingdom, even though it is invisible. To the faithful remnant, this heavenly country is infinitely more desirable and real than all the visible splendour of the kingdoms of this world.

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. Heb 11:13-14

When we catch a glimpse of our heavenly homeland, we are enraptured by the vision. The vision is so tangible and so pure. Our heart’s cry is that it will soon be manifest on the earth! “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” This vision of the heavenly kingdom, and the earnest desire for Christ to return and establish it, is an identifying mark of the faithful remnant. These faithful ones will not lose their reward. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt 5:5).

… they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city. Heb 11:16

For the disciple of Christ, this heavenly vision is worthy of our exclusive desire and affection. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness…” (Matt 6:33). It is a grave fall from grace for a bondservant of Christ to lose his kingdom vision and desire. The kingdom vision is exclusive. Truly, we cannot be enamoured with the world and its splendour and, at the same time, possess a true vision of the heavenly kingdom.

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. 1 John 2:15-17

Our church gatherings are to provide us with a foretaste of the heavenly country. “Ye have come unto Mount Zion and unto the city of our God, the heavenly Jerusalem…” (Heb 12:22). Our holy church communities are heavenly outposts, commissioned to occupy the earth until our King returns. These outposts are to offer a foretaste of the heavenly kingdom soon to be established on the earth.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession … I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 1 Pet 2:9,11

Inasmuch as modern church meetings have become worldly affairs, they have crowded out this heavenly vision and replaced it with an earthly one. They have taken men’s eyes off the prize. The prize is not worldly success and soulish indulgence and the praise of men – the prize is the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, attained through fellowship in Christ’s sufferings. (Phil 3:10-14). The prize is not about being honoured by men in this age – it is about receiving honour from Christ in the age to come.

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Mark 8:36

The remnant Bride is being prepared for our Lord and will soon be taken from His Body. In the same way that Adam’s wife was taken and formed from his side, as he slept, so also the remnant Bride will be taken from the Body of Christ. In the same way that Woman was given to Man to be a help-meet in stewarding the garden of Eden, so also a beautiful Bride will be presented to our Lord Jesus Christ to reign with Him in His millennial kingdom on the earth. As surely as the five virgins, in Christ’s parable, were chosen from the sleeping company, so also a Bride will be chosen from within the Body of Christ.

This chosen, virgin company will be those who have not been distracted from looking for and hastening the return of Christ, who have remained chaste and pure in a world clamouring for men's affections, and who are clothed with love and good works.

Because you have kept My word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. Rev 3:10-11

The Bride of Christ is marked by her unswerving desire to prepare and be found without spot or blemish at the appearing of the Bridegroom. The Bride of Christ is the gathered company of overcomers called forth in the letters to the churches (Rev 2-3). The Bride of Christ is the glorious, firstfruits company that appears with the Lamb on Mount Zion (Rev 14:1-5). 

Brothers and sisters, the night is far spent, the day is at hand. Where are you looking? Where is your heart? Even now, many of God’s people are drunk with the cares of this life and have turned back to the weak and beggarly elements of this world and its obsession with days and times and seasons and years. They have become children of sight and not of faith. They have slid back into a life of serving the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life. There are many who name Christ and are travelling on the broad path that leads to destruction. Having treated their inheritance lightly, they are not prepared for the appearing of their Lord. They are not eagerly awaiting their Saviour. Having lost sight of the kingdom, the return of the King will be to them like a thief in the night.

For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ… Phil 3:18-20

The kingdoms of this world will very soon become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. Are you ready for that glorious day? Are you consumed with the vision of the soon-to-be manifested kingdom of Christ? “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved…” (Heb 12:28). Those whom the Lord loves, He reproves and disciplines. If you have left the sure path and lost your heavenly vision, be zealous and repent. 

Brothers and sisters, let us be those who see and yearn for the heavenly country and of whom God is not ashamed. Do not lose heart. Do not grow weary in well doing. The vision is true – though it tarry, wait for it. There is a city – prepared by God Himself – for the strangers and exiles on the earth; for those who seek and desire the better country.