TEEN TREE 
OF LIFE
Our Heavenly Citizenship
Part 3
March 8, 2020
Before you begin, ask yourself a very important question: Do you believe that Jesus Christ died on The Cross for all of your sins? If you answered yes, you will need to be sure that you are filled with The Holy Spirit. How do you do this? You name your sins to God The Father in His Son’s Name. This is called Rebound. As a Christian, you must rebound any time you sin. This is taught in 1JOHN 1:9: If we confess [name] our sins [directly to God], He [God] is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, if you have never believed that Jesus Christ died on The Cross for all of your sins, all you have to do is say to yourself that you believe in Him and you are saved! The Bible verse which teaches us this is ACTS 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”
Our next Heavenly Privilege is the Mystery Doctrine of the Church-Age. The apostle Paul says it all about the Mystery Doctrine in EPH 3:1-13 (The Message Bible): This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders, so-called. I take it that you’re familiar with the part I was given in God’s plan for including everybody. I got the inside story on this from God himself, as I just wrote you in brief. As you read over what I have written to you, you’ll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God’s Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order. The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I’ve been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board. This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God’s way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities. And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels! All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. When we trust in him, we’re free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. So don’t let my present trouble on your behalf get you down. Be proud! Read that again but it’s so full of important information for us!!
The Greek word for mystery is “musterion” and is also written about by Paul in ROM 16:25-26 (The Message Bible): All of our praise rises to the One who is strong enough to make you strong, exactly as preached in Jesus Christ, precisely as revealed in the mystery kept secret for so long but now an open book through the prophetic Scriptures. All the nations of the world can now know the truth and be brought into obedient belief, carrying out the orders of God, who got all this started, down to the very last letter.
Additionally, Paul wrote about the Mystery Doctrine of the Church-Age to the Colossians in COL 1:26-29 (The Message Bible): This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it’s out in the open. God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple. That is the substance of our Message. We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the Message. We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less. That’s what I’m working so hard at day after day, year after year, doing my best with the energy God so generously gives me.
In a nutshell, the Mystery Doctrine for the Church-Age is found in the New Testament epistles and it reveals to us our Heavenly Privileges so that we may execute God’s unique Pre-Designed Plan for our lives. Through our union with Christ and by increasing our knowledge of Mystery Doctrine, we’re able to execute His Plan. And when we execute His Plan, we receive the blessings found in our Escrow Account.
Our Escrow Account is also one of our Heavenly Privilege. An escrow is a written agreement, entered into by three parties. The agreement is generally accompanied by a bond, deed, money, or property, (or something similar) and put into the keeping of a third party for delivery (or transfer) to the intended receiver after specified conditions have been met. In Christianity, the three parties are: God The Father Who is The Third Party Who will deliver what’s in the Escrow Account; The Church-Age Believer who is the receiver to whom God will deliver what’s in the Escrow Account; and God The Son who is The Custodian of the Escrow Account.
When the specific conditions have been met, The Custodian (Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ) delivers the agreement to the Church-Age Believer and the deposit is held. It’s held pending the outcome of what each of us does in our Christian Walk. Our Lord Jesus Christ, as The Custodian, is allowed no discretion; He must strictly follow the terms of the agreement, as it concerns the other two parties. The conditions of The Escrow are executing the God’s Pre-Designed Plan, resulting in advancing to Spiritual maturity.
In Eternity Past, God The Father placed Himself under legal obligation to provide two categories of special and unusual blessings for every Church-Age believer. These blessings are both temporal (for us on earth) and eternal (for us in Heaven). Both categories of blessings were deposited with Our Lord Jesus Christ in escrow, pending every Church-Age believer’s fulfillment of the conditions of The Escrow (executing God’s Pre-Designed Plan, resulting in advancing to Spiritual Maturity). Once these conditions are met, The Lord Jesus Christ will deliver the believer’s Escrow Blessings.
Escrow Blessings are infinitely superior to all other categories of Divine Blessings for both time (on earth) and eternity (in Heaven). Nothing can stand in the way of receiving them. As a mature believer, even if the rest of the nation is falling apart around you, you can still receive your Escrow Blessings in time! That fact is extremely important for you to focus on today. That’s what makes studying Bible doctrine so important in your life. Look around you at what’s going on in your schools and think about what’s reported in the news. How can you survive without knowing God? And how can you get to know Him without studying His Word?
Have you ever asked yourself how you get to know someone? It’s through words! That’s why we should never stop studying; because when we do study, we create a stronger relationship with God The Father, God The Son and God The Holy Spirit!!
One of the most valuable blessings in the mature believer’s Escrow Account, is a relationship with God. A strong relationship with Our Heavenly Father is by far the most fantastic blessing He offers us. It enables a spiritually mature believer to endure suffering and still go forward in God’s Plan. Important lesson: if a believer fails to reach spiritual maturity, he or she doesn’t receive blessings from his Escrow Account in time or in Eternity. This is taught in 1CO 3:12-15 (New International Version): If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.
We control what God is able to distribute to us from our Escrow Accounts through our free will decisions. The most vital part of these decisions is learning and applying His Word. And when God can distribute our Escrow Blessings, He is glorified!
In COL 2:2-4 (The Message Bible) the apostle Paul gives us this important message: I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God’s great mystery. All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in that mystery and nowhere else. And we’ve been shown the mystery! I’m telling you this because I don’t want anyone leading you off on some wild-goose chase, after other so-called mysteries, or “the Secret.” The “richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge” come from knowing God and His Mystery. And all of them exist in Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So, true wealth comes from the true knowledge found in Our Savior. God’s Mystery centers around Him. And most importantly, “All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge” are part of the conditions of The Escrow Blessings which become ours when we execute God’s Pre-Designed Plan and advance to Spiritual maturity.
So, as you can see, as a result of our Heavenly Citizenship, we are all beneficiaries of the most fantastic plan ever designed. But again, it’s a plan that requires an accurate system of execution. Without executing God’s Plan, the blessings in The Escrow are not distributed. What God has given to us, in our Escrow Account, is absolutely, phenomenal BUT we must know His Plan, have a relationship with Him, and organize our priorities around what He offers us – not what the world offers. We tend to be dazzled by the riches of the world, but God has something far better for us if we have the faith to stay in His Plan.
{to be continued}