By John Thiel

We have contemplated the heaven we need to have to be able to enter the heaven that Jesus has gone to prepare a place in for us. In our great desire as the prophet John says, even so come Lord Jesus take us to be with you. We have learnt the way which we can be with him is that we would have a heaven here below.

We must have a heaven to go to heaven in. ST July 31, 1893

Do we have a heaven inside? Our natural way is to be provoked by things around us. There is always something that wants to bore into our inward soul that wants to destroy a peaceful inward entity. We are prone to say such and such a person has spoilt my peace. I either throw up my arms in despair or I manipulate my fellow beings so they will make a pleasant time for me. This is the human way so natural to us. I would like to find afresh the secret of heaven in the soul. Recall what heaven is like. In heaven the intercommunication of angels is of allegiance of love. There is perfect harmony throughout the universe of God.

The law of love is the foundation of God’s government, and the service of love the only service acceptable to Heaven. God has granted freedom of will to all, endowed men with capacity to appreciate His character, and therefore with ability to love Him and to choose His service. So long as created beings worshiped God they were in harmony throughout the universe. While love to God was supreme, love to others abounded. As there was no transgression of the law, which is the transcript of God’s character, no note of discord jarred the celestial harmonies. {TMK 366.2}

To have heaven in my heart, there must be no discord in me and no disturbance off peace inside but confiding unselfish sentiments going through the soul. Our souls love is only stirred in the nature of man by someone else who loves me. Other than that if there is unpleasantness around me, there is difficulty to love. I look for someone to love me and if there is distaste played out in front of me by anybody, my love becomes tarnished because we love only because we are loved. God knows that therefore he shows us his love, the love of heaven although we are not lovely to him. This is our nature that we can only love when we are being loved. God knows that so he commends to us his love.

Romans 5:7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

An enemy is someone who is alienated from me. I find someone an enemy and my love is not there for him but God, his love, the love of heaven is to love the enemy. God knows that. To reach us who are enemies, he communicates that love and we see he is not my enemy. He shows such love, he has given Jesus Christ to die for me who is such an enemy of his. That does something. As we behold and contemplate that love especially when we discover how unlovely we are, that is what the law does with us. It tells us how unlovely we are as we fail so badly. When we see ourselves so unlovely and we are displaying our enmity toward God by nature, we see this love.

The love of Christ is a golden chain that binds finite, human beings who believe in Jesus Christ to the Infinite God. The love that the Lord has for His children passeth knowledge. No science can define or explain it. No human wisdom can fathom it. {OHC 173.2}

It defies all concepts. The love of heaven defies all common sense. It is a love that will not be put off by the cruellest reaction to it. That can’t be comprehended. How is that possible? As we behold that love we discover that it is a chain that is let down from God to the sinner.

Jesus Is that Chain

We are discovering the secret of heaven, how heaven can be in our soul.

When we see the length of the chain that was let down for us, when we understand something of the infinite sacrifice that Christ has made in our behalf, the heart is melted with tenderness and contrition. {SC 35.4}

A heart that is full of selfishness gets upset when someone has mistreated it and the heart becomes hardened. When people become mistreated long enough they become hard. When we see that God left heaven but was still in touch with heaven as the chain, when we see what God did, our heart is melted. I can’t hold back, I feel melted down, I’m amazed. As I behold the chain Jesus Christ, I become captive to the chain, the divine amazing presence and his divine love becomes ingested into me because he became at one with me and I believe that. I am no longer an enemy and God is no longer and enemy to me as we are entwined together. The divine nature that is in that chain, the divine nature which is God, is love. This chain of love is dangled down in front of me in my deplorable condition and as I am suffering, Jesus is suffering with me. As I see this, the divine nature becomes part of me.

Ephesians 3:16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;

3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

3:18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what [is] the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;

3:19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

This is what the gospel of Jesus Christ is about – to bring the glory of God by that chain into the inner man. A chain is always something we associated with being connected to by two objects. When you have absorbed this amazing love, the spirit of God in the inner man, then Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. Jesus was the one man who was filled with all the fulness of the Godhead. As he comes down to this earth in contact with heaven, I embrace him with this indescribable love and I melt. God is like a fisherman. He sent down a chain and I swallow it and now I’m caught. The bible says we are captivated by his love. I have swallowed inside of me the bait. Self wants to be loved so God says okay, I will show you my love and self says wow and takes the bait. Now inside of self-love there is God’s love. Inside our human heart the divine nature comes in by those precious promises.

2 Peter 2:2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

2:3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

2:4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast [them] down to hell, and delivered [them] into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

By this love we become partakers of the divine nature. It becomes embedded as the human nature loves someone that loves it. Now comes another ingredient. He is inside now. God is inside of me and God is love. But that is a little seed remember. His seed remaineth in him and he can’t sin. Now this is seed of love is surrounded with what?

Love is a tender plant, and it must be cultivated and cherished, and the roots of bitterness all have to be plucked up around it in order for it to have room to circulate, and then it will bring in under its influence all the powers of the mind, all the heart, so that we shall love God supremely, and our neighbor as ourselves. {OHC 173.5}

Love that has been put into the heart by the process we have explored is surrounded by what? The roots of bitterness. The Love that is planted inside the heart with roots of bitterness around it, how can it expand and grow? By having the roots of bitterness pulled out. That is the ongoing experience of the person who has swallowed the bait. Selfishness is there because I want to live with him forever. Self-love wants that but it discovers with that love inside it is so different to the selfish love, the roots of bitterness around it.

Hebrews 12:14 Follow peace with all [men], and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

12:15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble [you], and thereby many be defiled;

Because love is inside of a heart with roots of bitterness, we have to be diligent now. We need to cultivate and cherish that plant and the roots of bitterness must be plucked up around it in order for it to have room and to exercise itself. This unselfish love has no bitterness in it.

Ephesians 4:31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

Pluck it out.

Ephesians 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

This is the diligent activity that must go on inside of me. I do not love somebody who isn’t nice to me but God’s love does and so my reaction and my human discomforts would like to be alleviated by making my surroundings more pleasant. That is why people want to manipulate others or we run away from something not pleasant. To sit through it and to love the unlovely is the tender plant of God. I must pluck out everything contrary to that to cultivate God’s love within. When I do that the roots of bitterness are plucked out. The soul comes into a perfect internal heaven. Those roots of bitterness are not rankling against the love of God together. I let the love of God expand and the roots of bitterness are plucked out. The bible is given to us as a book of instruction of command. Jesus said he gives us a new commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. To love one another not according to my human love but as the love of God has streamed into my heart and shall by this all men know something has happened. Here is the instruction of how to keep that beautiful plant of love active inside of me.

The Secret

This is the instruction to be diligent in to achieve this end.

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord alway: [and] again I say, Rejoice.

4:5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord [is] at hand.

The Lord is at hand, what do I have to worry about? What do I have to let disturb my inward heaven? The Lord is at hand.

Philippians 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

I wish this would be practised. Don’t care about anything, don’t worry about anything. How much do you worry? When you worry is there peace and heaven in your soul? The Lord is at hand. Don’t worry about anything but yes you have problems, the Lord is at hand. What will happen?

Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Heaven in the soul, perfect tranquillity, not a troubled soul at all. Satan spoilt the beautiful heaven in Eden. What will he do with my soul? When I have this beautiful peace and tranquillity and confiding love, great peace have they which love thy law and what? Nothing shall offend them. Does it? Are you offended at different things? What have you? The roots of bitterness that must be plucked up. If we love the law of God then why are we offended? We can be at perfect peace no matter what happens. We are to sustain it as Satan comes in and spoils the peace. How does he spoil it? How did he do it in heaven and how does he do it in our heart?

How Satan Spoilt Heaven

When the mind dwells upon self, it is turned away from Christ, the source of strength and life. Hence it is Satan’s constant effort to keep the attention diverted from the Saviour and thus prevent the union and communion of the soul with Christ. The pleasures of the world, life’s cares and perplexities and sorrows, the faults of others, or your own faults and imperfections–to any or all of these he will seek to divert the mind. Do not be misled by his devices. {SC 71.2}

We get distracted and say oh but this and that is going to happen. Who does that? Satan. Is the Lord at hand or not? Rejoice, don’t even listen to the suggestions. Examine carefully every time there is trouble in your heart. There is no heaven there. Why? Because of these things. That is how heaven is spoilt in the soul. What do we do then? What’s the secret when Satan wants to come in and divert my attention to all the perplexities and faults that are rampant around us, to keep your mind from going haywire and to keep that perfect peace of heaven inside the soul to go to heaven in? Here is the other part of the instruction that Jesus commands us to practise;

Ephesians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] any praise, think on these things.

4:9 Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

It might be true, it might be an honest case of dilemma but if it is not lovely, if it is not of good report, if there is no virtue in it, if there is no praise in it, what do you do with it? Don’t think on those things. If I practise this heaven will be in my soul. The moment a thought comes to you and it is not lovely, don’t think. That’s the instruction. If it’s not pure and an its evil report, don’t think about it but the beauty of Jesus. The precious messages we hear, that is what we are to think about. When we come to commune together, what do we talk about? Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. If you are not talking positive you are talking negative. Think only of Jesus the width, length and depth. What a subject. I get bewildered with the huge amount of things we can talk about and people talk about perplexities. I can’t comprehend it as there is so much to talk about but the roots of bitterness are still there and they haven’t allowed the love of Jesus to grow. We are toys in Satan’s in hand and he is playing around with our heart strings and here we have the instruction. Follow it diligently. Great peace have they which love my law and nothing shall offend them. Remember the accuser. He is the only one that will make things offensive. Cultivate God in you, heaven within. Each individual who follows that instruction meticulously, are you meticulous? Don’t worry if the other person isn’t, just make sure you are. Any person who is meticulous and following this instruction will find the golden chain linking himself with the others who are doing the same thing.

The Golden Chain of Love

The golden chain of love, binding the hearts of the believers in unity, in bonds of fellowship and love, and in oneness with Christ and the Father, makes the connection perfect and bears to the world a testimony of the power of Christianity that cannot be controverted. . . {OHC 173.4}

You might argue the doctrines that are perfectly correct but one thing they can’t controvert is the perfect love of God. As this golden chain of love as comes down in this mad world and you and others take hold of it, all the people attached to it, are holding onto the same chain. That is the church is pressing together as they are all taking hold of the same experience. As they do it they are bound together by the chain. Then selfishness will be uprooted and the unfaithfulness will not exist. There will not be strife and divisions. There will not be stubbornness in anyone bound with Christ.

Then will selfishness be uprooted and unfaithfulness will not exist. There will not be strife and divisions. There will not be stubbornness in anyone who is bound up with Christ. Not one will act out the stubborn independence of the wayward, impulsive child who drops the hand that is leading him and chooses to stumble on alone and walk in his own ways. {OHC 173.4}

The people who are so attached and to the chain in another will be hated by those who are not attached because it will create enmity. Those who are not pursing that experience will be envious of those who are in unity like that. It will create havoc. Haven’t we experienced that? In the very church we thought was functioning as God’s church we were distastefully handled but now in our own company we must diligently practise what we believe that has been provided to us in the atonement. So we can then enjoy the fellowship of one another without the slightest inkling of envy or feeling bad because I’ve been put aside or because I’ve been treated bad and someone uplifted.

It doesn’t matter as we esteem one another better than ourselves. The love of heaven makes us uplifted. What about me, I’m not being uplifted. When Jesus is in our heart there is no such thing. This is what God wants us to do, to cast out the inroads of how Satan spoilt heaven so he doesn’t spoil the heaven in my soul that Jesus has installed. Love as I have loved. As this took place in the disciple’s experience some left and the disciples stayed. In the last days, the church triumphant will be treated badly by those who were their former brethren because that meticulous application of Philippians 4:8 was not practised. They even had the doctrines fairly right but they still didn’t have it. May we cultivate the very delicate plant of God’s love in our soul so that heaven will start here and it will then expand to one another. May the Lord help us.

Amen.