Too Heavenly-Minded?
Have you ever heard that old saying that goes, “Don’t be so heavenly-minded that you’re no earthly good?”
It was used to convince believers that they needed to keep their feet firmly planted on the ground and their thoughts in touch with what they could see so they could identify with it rather than something they couldn’t see. This seems so logical, and many thought it was wise.
It’s surprising the things many can embrace as wisdom when, in fact, it is contrary to the counsel of the Word of God. To step into who God says we are to be and to do requires faith, and faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).
I may not always appear to be the completed work on the outside that I already am on the inside, but I am still a completed work and need to believe that to be true so I can move forward into it as a believer in a Jesus I have never seen and yet believe. The heroes of faith that went before us believed in a Messiah yet to come that they had not seen, and the hope of it shaped their lives. We believe in a Savior who has already and will come again and whom we have not seen, and the hope of it shapes our lives.
My hope gives birth to faith in something I cannot yet see, but I choose to believe nonetheless. Although it cannot be seen, it is very real to me. It occupies my thoughts and empowers my choices and actions. My faith paves the way for living life from a place of expectation. Faith is not just some static state of being; it is a force that motivates and moves me into action in life. In the Bible, James said it this way,
James 2:17 Thus, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works, faith was made perfect?
We’ll never escape faith’s activating nature because it is in its DNA to do so. Hope and faith offer us something to expect, and that expectation moves us to pursue the object of the hope. The Bible conveys this idea when Paul wrote to the church at Colossae.
Colossians 3:1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
Doing this by faith is what motivates us to put to death and put off specific things that manifest in our lives, and then put on the things we find are the characteristics of Jesus in whom we have our hope and faith. Read Colossians 3:5-17, and you will see what I am referring to. The fact is no one is too heavenly-minded to be any earthly good. We are meant to have our minds set on the things above where Christ is seated in the heavenly places. We need to identify more with our heavenly reality according to hope and faith so we can identify with who He says we are more than what we think about ourselves based on what we see, feel, and think in the natural. Faith-based new creation thinking is meant to replace the way we used to think about ourselves and about others.
