Access to Heavenly Treasures

“Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.”  Matthew 7:21(NLT)

By Alexandra Copeland

When I was a youngster, I lived in a small rural community that was outside of town. Going to the store was something that we didn’t take for granted, because it was quite a distance away from where we lived. It was such a treat to be able to go into town, because my grandparents would give me money to spend on candy and treats. I’m dating myself a bit, but back in the day, candy bars were no more than $.25 and penny candy was actually pretty good. Fifty cents would get you two nice size pockets full of goodies, and if you had a dollar…forget about it. You’d be chewing bubble gum and taffy the whole week, and then some. 

Although it was very difficult to do, we learned to restrain ourselves and not eat all of our candy at one time. Some of us were even a little stingy with it, especially when it became clear to us that trips to town would be few and far between. We learned to ration our pleasure, and to save some for later. It’s a valuable lesson, one that will help us to prepare for seasons in life where stored treasures can be released. 

Heaven has an inexhaustible economy where there is never a shortage of treasures. In order to tap into those resources, you and I have to operate by faith and be obedient to God’s Word. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 7:21(NLT), “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.”  There are special privileges that come with being members of the royal family in God’s household. One of those privileges is that we enjoy citizenship in heaven. 

Romans 8:17 tells us that as God’s children, we’re joint heirs with Christ. We’re seated in heaven with him, because our lives are hidden in him. Because of what he accomplished for us on the cross, we’ve got a seat at the table. We can feast on God’s rich and unending supply. Our Lord and Savior has made a more than abundant life available to every born-again believer, and we have access to it by faith. 

When I was a kid in the candy store years ago, my eyes were always bigger than my stomach. There was deliciousness everywhere I looked, and I wanted everything that I saw. My cousins and I went straight to the candy aisle, and walked up and down it over and over because we couldn’t make up our minds about what to get; everything looked so good. We scrutinized our choices very carefully, because we knew the process of the transaction, and that it couldn’t be violated. In other words, we knew that we couldn’t get a dollar’s worth of candy if we only had fifty cents. 

God wants us to come to Him with the humility of a child. He loves it when we have a ‘kid in a candy store’ mentality about heaven’s goodies, but He also expects that we will honor things like stewardship, accountability, and responsibility. Sometimes, we expect to receive from God, and we haven’t yet cultivated an understanding about what to do with heavenly treasures.  

Heavenly Father is a God of order and decency. He is an excellent Giver, which means He gives us blessings of which we’re prepared to make good use. And not only that, we receive blessings that are in alignment with our heart capacity to express earnest and sincere gratitude for them. What sense would it make to receive blessings when we don’t have a heart to be truly thankful for them? Without a thankful heart, we wouldn’t make good use of the blessings we’ve received, but instead would probably trample over them or take them for granted. That’s not a Godly way to operate. 

All of us are works in progress. 2Timothy 3:16-17(NLT) tells us, “16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.”  Through His Word and through the indwelling Holy Spirit, God is preparing us to do every good work. We are being perfected in Jesus Christ day by day, but we haven’t arrived at our destinations. We’re on our way, but we’re still learning how to be like Christ, and sometimes we need to adjust our expectations so that we’re not demanding things that we’ve not yet groomed ourselves to receive.

Through Christ, we are at one with Heavenly Father, which means that our purpose should be in lockstep with HIS Plan and Purpose, but we know we don’t always get this one right. We have our own agendas, and we want life on our own terms. We have to make some adjustments with this. Our goal should be to become flexible, so that we can begin to move in accordance with God’s divine agenda for our lives. The more we commit ourselves to this, the more we will witness miraculous and splendid blessings. Heaven will open up to us and we will go higher in our relationship with Heavenly Father. 

This is when we begin to receive greater rewards. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that God is a Rewarder, and He rewards those that diligently seek Him. He’s looking to bless those whose hearts are pure towards Him. This means that pleasing God has to be our number one motivation and goal. 

In Matthew 6:19-20(NLT), Jesus Christ tells us, “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. 21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” We need to assume a posture of seeking God for His spiritual goodies before we inundate our prayer lives with worldly pursuits and desires. Spiritual strength and stamina replenish us for the work that we’ve been called to do, and these are the treasures that we need to begin to focus on and store up. We must always remember that it is our privilege and responsibility to position ourselves to receive from Heaven’s abundance. Those transactions must be of an orderly nature, which means that we need to keep our hearts focused on continuing to grow in Christ. Then we will always have access to what we need. ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.