Living From Heaven While Walking on Earth
Rev. Aniekan "Mbomboyo" Okokon ·
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. — Philippians 3:20
Philippi was a Roman colony. Its citizens lived in Macedonia but belonged to Rome; they dressed, judged and governed as Romans, far from the capital. When Paul told them their citizenship was in heaven, they understood at once. Heaven was not merely where they were going. It was where they were from, and it set the pattern for how they lived where they were.
Not escape, but source
Living from heaven is not a way of avoiding the earth. It is the only way to be useful on it. The believer who is seated with Christ in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6) brings heaven’s values, heaven’s authority and heaven’s peace into the office, the market and the home. He is not waiting to be taken out of the world; he is a colony of the coming Kingdom planted in it.
What heavenly citizens do on earth
- They judge by heaven’s verdicts — on themselves, on others, on success and failure.
- They pray "your kingdom come, your will be done on earth" and expect to be part of the answer.
- They hold earthly things lightly: money, status, comfort — real, useful, and not ultimate.
- They are not shaken by the news, because their government is not up for election.
- They live as ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20), representing a King wherever they are posted.
Setting the mind
"Seek the things that are above… set your minds on things that are above" (Colossians 3:1–2). This is a daily act. The world is loud, and it will set your mind on itself if you let it. Every morning the citizen of heaven decides again where he is from — and then goes out into Eket to live like it.