{"id":4736,"date":"2011-08-31T05:11:20","date_gmt":"2011-08-31T05:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomfrommedom.com\/wp3\/?p=4736"},"modified":"2017-09-30T16:54:06","modified_gmt":"2017-09-30T16:54:06","slug":"its-a-matter-of-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.freedomfrommedom.com\/wp3\/believe\/its-a-matter-of-time","title":{"rendered":"It’s Simply a Matter of Time (Soon I Will See)"},"content":{"rendered":"
by Steven Gledhill<\/span> <\/em>for FREEdom from MEdom Project<\/span><\/h5>\n

\u201cI do not believe it to be a matter of hope… it\u2019s simply a matter of time.\u201d \u00a0<\/em>—from the movie, The Matrix, Reloaded: Morpheus describing the certainty of victory because of who is on their side<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I asked a client of mine at the prison I work at on his birthday how young he was. “Young, I turned 47 today.” Since he is a believer in recovery I asked him, “Where do you see yourself ten years from now? Where do you see yourself 1000 years from now? Ever wonder how young you’ll look… how good you’ll look?” He loved that.<\/p>\n

What is the end game for those who stay the course of recovery, laying down selfish desires and pursuits to instant gratification, to pursue fulfilling satisfaction in the perfect will of God? Well for one\u00a0thing, the “game” doesn’t end. It just becomes a lot more fun. In relationship with Jesus is resurrection from the old life into the new life at the present time. The Bible says that the Kingdom of God is near and at hand. We live today in the kingdom age of glorious grace as citizens of heaven. The light of the new day is upon us. It’s merely a matter of time before we dance on streets of gold in the new earth. Humility is the key to living out recovery from an eternal kingdom point of view while looking forward to celebrating our recovery forever.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.\u201d Matthew 5:3\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBlessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.\u201d Matthew 5:6\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I recently attended the funeral service for a 16-year-old girl named Jenna. For the last five and a half years of her life, Jenna suffered from T-Cell Lymphoma, a cancer that attacks white blood cells and destroys major organs in the body. In Jenna’s case her lungs were under siege from this deadly disease. By the end, after numerous procedures she would wear a breathing apparatus that looked like something that Darth Vader (Star Wars<\/em>) would wear just to survive another day.<\/p>\n

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Jenna<\/p><\/div>\n

Jenna had an opportunity for a lung transplant but it came with big time risk. Jenna’s body rejected the new lungs and she died, entering the presence of the Lord.\u00a0What was amazing at this funeral were the songs Jenna wrote only months before she left her severely flawed existence for the glory of Heaven; a destination she was certain of. She wrote with bated anticipation as if she had been given a glimpse into her eternity in relationship with Jesus. In her song, “What I Found”<\/em>, Jenna wrote to Jesus in the first person asking Him to wait for her while she sought Him out. But then it was as though she understood that Jesus would be seeking her out so she promised Him that she would wait for Him to find her.<\/span><\/p>\n

While she had hoped that her knew lungs would work out, that was something she could only speculate. What she knew to be as sure and real as the words on this page was that it was only a matter of time before she would be in the literal presence of her Lord Jesus. Jenna took peace in that. All who knew and loved her knew her peace to be genuine. She was already enjoying a sweet fellowship with Jesus as though she was invited to a unique spiritual place perhaps reserved for someone as near to eternity as she was.<\/p>\n

What are you sure about?<\/p>\n

Be sure about this… Your recovery is not in vain!\u00a0 Jesus Christ is alive, and at the end of the day, is preparing a celebration of literally heavenly proportion.\u00a0 Paul viewed his recovery from sin as an upward calling<\/em> to experience the unspeakable joy of heaven in the presence of Jesus himself.\u00a0 \u201cUpward calling\u201d means that his purpose is to do the will of God in order to please him, knowing that his reward is heavenly and beyond his comprehension. This is definitely a spiritual concept on how to function from day to day.\u00a0 He saw doing the will of God in all<\/em> of his activities as unto his upward calling.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Paul would do whatever it took to fulfill the will of God for the ultimate prize.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI press on, that I may lay hold of that since Christ Jesus has already laid hold of me.\u00a0 Brethren, I do not consider myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward calling<\/em> of God in Christ Jesus.\u201d Philippians 3:11-14 (NKJV)\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Paul\u2019s daily goal was eternal fellowship in heaven with Jesus.\u00a0 It is his eternal objective that motivates him in recovery, driving him in his pursuit to will and to do the will of God, empowered by God.\u00a0 Paul believed the teachings and promises of Jesus and did cling to them.\u00a0 Jesus promised he would be preparing a place for us beyond our wildest imaginations.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLet not your heart be troubled; you, who believe in God, believe also in Me.\u00a0 In My Father\u2019s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.\u00a0 I go to prepare a place for you<\/em>.\u00a0 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.\u00a0 And where I am going you know, and the way you know.\u201d\u00a0Then Thomas said to Him, \u201cLord we do not know where you are going, and how can we know the way?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Jesus said to him, \u201cI am the way, the truth, and the life.\u00a0 No one comes to the Father except through Me.\u201d John 14:1-6 (NKJV)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The more we discover who Jesus is in our recovery from a life of addictive sin, the less Scriptures like this are a mystery to our ears.\u00a0 As we grow in knowledge and experience, we become more mature spiritually and are able grasp the truths of the Bible, the Word of God written specifically for you and for me. \u00a0The more we more fully understand who we are in the new resurrection age of grace, the more we are content with our everyday lives as a foreshadowing of what’s to come. Revelation of this truth of who we are today as citizens of heaven—now, today—the more we can be at peace with our past, present, and future. \u00a0We no longer live in an age of darkness, but rather we walk in the light. \u00a0When this revelation is truly alive in your heart, you cannot help but shine your light brightly wherever you are and wherever you go.<\/p>\n