There are some moments in life that can only be defined by freedom. Long before I knew Christ, a conversation with a friend in late elementary school changed the trajectory of my life. In viewing my outlandish behavior, my friend Glenda said bluntly, “I don’t think this is really who you are. I don’t think you are truly like this.” While we were just children at the time, her discernment rocked me to the core. Her jack-hammer words and consistent friendship that year created in me a hunger for a missing piece of my identity. While we ultimately had to go separate ways for middle school the following year, her friendship marked my life. The love she had for me inspired me to learn Spanish, to honor her Mexican heritage.

Drawn by her love for me, I studied Spanish for another 7.5 years, throughout middle school, high school, and college. Throughout those years, I struggled with depression and was very hungry to know if I could trust God. My mom had taken us to church occasionally for a few years, but I struggled there. I had many questions about God, but couldn’t find any others who were hungry. While I knew nothing about supernatural ministry at the time, I intuitively felt that if God were real, he would have the capacity to radically heal my mind. As I started college, I was led by my hunger to a priest who spoke to a large university audience about his profession as a deliverance minister. All at once, I began to realize there may be legitimate answers to my questions.

As I was in the process of deciding where I would study abroad to grow my Spanish, I felt a hunger for Jesus begin to pull me like a fish on a hook. I made a spreadsheet, weighed my options, and went with “my intuition” to select a program in Valparaiso, Chile. Little did I know, this program was one of very few that ran a Christian study abroad option. As I boarded the plane with my backpack and suitcase, I said to the Lord, “Jesus, if you’re real, I’m ready to know.” Several months later, I found the Answer to my questions, got radically saved and delivered from depression, had various supernatural encounters, and experienced a strong sense of adoption both to Lord and to the land. Believe it or not, that semester I was even voted “Most likely to be adopted by their Host Family” by my study abroad program.

In November 2021, I was in Glasgow, Scotland for a training in prophetic ministry with the Global Prophetic Alliance. Emma Stark and another leader prophesied over me, and acknowledged that I have a mass deliverance calling for Latin America. God has given me a fire, passion, and determination for the Latin American people that responds to the decisions I’ve made since my return to the United States. After graduating university, I came to Washington, DC where I have worked daily as a teacher with Central American children and their families (especially Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, Venezuelans, and Mexicans). Eighteen months ago, during the early days of the pandemic, God used my hunger for bilingualism to draw me to work at Sacred Heart Bilingual Catholic school. At Sacred Heart, I have been focusing on using technology to share the beauty of Jesus and impart a greater hunger for the Holy Spirit to my third and fourth grade students. You can check out some of the projects we’ve done with the Holy Spirit here.

“Record my misery; list my tears on your scroll — are they not in your record?”

(Psalm 56:8)

False and True Rewards

It is hard to have a godly understanding of God’s rewards without having paid any cost. On the Earth, our understanding of rewards is dominated by physical possessions or consumables. Promotions, winning the lottery, and other kinds of worldly favor usually expose our desire for increased comfort or physical pleasure.

Heaven’s rewards are mostly about being honored by God for our cost. He honors before others the tears and blood sacrificed by his people. He shows by the specific blessings he distributes that he has seen and understood our earthly suffering. His “Well done” is true praise. It is absolutely that we understand what it is to find our recompense in his “well done” if we are going to understand the nature of Heaven.

The bible gives us various warnings on the topic of rewards, as we prepare for the fullness of Heaven.

Do not let your reward be other’s approval. Allow God to define your work.

Do not let yourself be distracted. Do not give yourself over to despair.

One day we will stand before Jesus in the flesh, and he will show each of us the effect our sacrifices had. We will see the portion we surrendered and the many baskets of loaves and fishes that it produced through his multiplication power. We will see our talents, every resource from gifting to finance to ones we may not even we aware that we have, and we will see the exact measure of what it earned for the Kingdom of God. May we be those that bring Jesus the full measure of his inheritance through our costly choices to give him everything. We know that the result of great giving is great joy, for him and for the Kingdom.

We will see the fullness of God’s perfect redemption and glory over all curses and loss. Every tear will truly be dried from the people’s eyes when they see the perfection of his justice, his triumphant goodness, and his unimaginable creative wholeness. On this side of heaven, we cannot possibly imagine the fullness of what God will do with our surrendered lives. It will be story after story building the story of God himself, of great courage, great redemption, and unimaginable plot twists.

On that day, the people will reflect the glory of his inheritance.

Heaven is Ultimately About Jesus’ Reward

One reality that should give us utmost delight is simultaneously simple and mind blowing: Heaven is actually not about us.

Heaven is actually both a picture and a reality of the ongoing reward of Jesus. In Heaven, Jesus’ longing for recompense will be fulfilled.

Instead of being a sojourner, Jesus will receive his land and territory. The recreated Heavens and Earth is the renovated Holy land Jesus died for.

Instead of his years of abandonment and isolation, Jesus will receive an inheritance of people (Isaiah 60:4, Psalm 87:5, John 4:35, Isaiah 49). On earth, this is what it means when people are born again into the Kingdom of God and receive his Holy Spirit as a proof.

Instead of premature death and lost time, Jesus’ premature death will be repaid by eternity.

Instead of mockery, Jesus will receive endless honor and endless praise.

Jesus’ full measure of torture will be repaid by the fullness of his joy. I don’t actually believe we have a verse in the Bible that shows fully what the fullness of this joy will look like. I think to some degree, it will be a surprise.

In his Eternal Kingdom, the Holy Trinity will go from glory to glory for eternity. Because we are in Christ, we will be caught up in his glory and brought from glory to glory for eternity too.

Christ, Our Crown

Since Heaven belongs to Christ in all of its fullness, it gives me great joy to share that our ultimate reward is Christ himself.

The elders prophetically enact this truth, for they cast their crowns at his feet.

In the bible, Crowns signify Honor. In the bible, we see that Jesus will give crowns to his people as a way to honor them.

Isaiah 28:5 says, “In that day the Lord of hosts will become a beautiful crown
And a glorious diadem to the remnant of His people.”

Revelation 12:1 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. This woman symbolizes the Church.

In the bible, EVERY SINGLE CROWN that God’s people receive relate to who Jesus is to us, and Jesus’ own identity. Each crown is a symbol of being marked and defined by Jesus, for those who have let themselves be so marked.

Therefore,

Our truest rewards as the people of God will be in 1) being honored by Christ and 2) being defined by him.

“Christ” is the new name is new name by which we will be defined, not just in part, but in our entire substance. This is what it means to be past the point of decay, because he has overcome it.

All of the crowns for believers mentioned in scripture directly relate who Jesus is. I am going to give just four examples of how these crowns connect to Jesus’ character, and leave room for my readers to search out the rest.

Christ Our Glory

1 Peter 5:4  And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

Colossians 3:4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Christ Our Life

James 1:12 Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

Romans 6:4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

Christ Our Righteousness

2 Timothy 4:8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

Philippians 3:8-9  What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in^[a] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.

Christ our Joy

1 Thessalonians 2:19 For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you?

John 15:11-13  I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Some Reasonable Questions

Does that mean that I cannot expect a nice place prepared for me in Heaven?

No! Jesus said in John 14:2-4,

“In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and welcome you into My presence, so that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Instead of asking whether your heavenly mansion has a hot tub, it might be more edifying to ask God to help you trust that he is the author of all good gifts, and will not give you something awful.

Does this mean that Heaven will be less awesome than I had hoped?

Our experience of Heaven will doubtlessly be more awesome than any of us can rightly imagine. God is the giver of good gifts, and he knows how to take us from glory to glory for all of eternity. You will hardly be bored.

However, the ultimate aim and the ultimate prize of Heaven is already the person of Jesus Christ, who came down to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth. Eternity has already started.

A bit overwhelmed? Sometimes we need to spend more time reflecting and processing information, using other senses to help us align to what God is saying. Check out this song by Josh Yeoh that will help your heart internalize Christ as our Greatest Reward.

Even More Good News: God makes the Church his Crown

Just as being honored by Jesus is our highest reward, God glorifies the Church in an even greater way: He makes her his own crown.

Do you realize that you serve a God who is proud of you, who delights in you, and even glories in you? That should blow our entire minds. If there was ever a reason to be spontaneously delivered of all insecurity, it is our realization that God glories in us.

Zephaniah 3:17, The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”

God’s infinite capacity indicates that he has many names (aspects of his character) that only he knows and many crowns already. But in Isaiah 62:1-3, he promises and delights to make the Church his crown. We are that important!

How pleased and in love the Lord must be to make his Church his own crown!

Ending on a Prayer

Lord, it is utterly beyond our comprehension how much you delight in us. We are so grateful that it occurred to you to make yourself our reward, and crown us with the glory you earned for yourself. It goes without saying that we could never have earned the gifts you give us, and so we simply delight in them.

Lord, along with you we look forward to the eternal day of the fullness of your joy, your life, your righteousness, and your glory. Display your glory in us King Jesus, and rid us of any other pursuit.

Help us to know you as our truest reward and to define our lives by the honor that comes from God and not people.

Lord, we want to bring you glory and we long to be honored among your assembly. Give us the grace to live lives that honor you and bring the full measure of your inheritance, through us, into your storehouse.

With grateful longing, Amen!

Will God be content with a partial offering of our lives?

Do Not Hide your Gifts

In this time of upheaval on the Earth, among wars and rumors of war, many of us are waiting on God to provide in some area of lack. Whether relationally, financially, in career, family, or geography, many of us are expecting the miraculous, redemptive, perfect justice of God.

During times of shaking and even necessary discomfort, it is tempting to hide from God. In Isaiah 2:19, the prophet warns his audience of this temptation, saying “People will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from the fearful presence of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth.”

In a Modern context, we relive that desire to run and hide through distraction and comfort seeking, through substances, relationships, and entertainment sources. Contrary to the way that the world responds to shaking, Christians have the opportunity to learn that God is the only safe place (surrender) and he requires full obedience. Without our full surrender and obedience, we leave ourselves exposed and can even partner with lack. In an extreme sense, our failure to trust God, our attempts to hide for the sake of comfort, and our partnership with lack can even lead to death.

The story of Ananias and Sapphira can be read as a parable about the importance of trusting God with everything. As it states in Acts 5, both individually and as a couple, they died as a sign to the church because they wanted to hold some portion of their goods/lives back. This was an example of their small thinking, because they did not trust in God’s ability to multiply.

Do not Partner with Decay

Both today and in its original context, the story of Ananias and Sapphira reminds us to give God the full portion of our lives. While their deaths were immediate, we often experience a more gradual death in the form of decay as a an evidence of withholding our full portion from God. As people who have been called by baptism to die, and by the Holy Spirit to be born again, any part of your body that has been withheld has not been transformed, and thus, is subject to decay.

Decay can be symbolized by negative exponents. A person starts with a full portion in some aspect of their life (for example, work). Over time, what was once good and healthy erodes until there is nothing good left in it. Decay can affect all domains of a person’s life, including one’s physical frame and property.

Under the New Testament, our giving to God is not a partial offering. The Old Testament practice of tithing was eclipsed by a new covenant under Jesus Christ. In the New Covenant, we give every aspect of our lives away to God, and allow the Holy Spirit to transform what remains. This is the meaning of baptism, that we have chosen to give God everything, dying to ourselves, and becoming his possession. This process of transformation is not concretely limited to finances, but requires a willing sacrifice in of your time, hobbies, relationships, family, career, emotions, rights, and entire being.

By this logic, if God is making a claim on your time, you can be liable to him for neglecting to spend time with him. If God is calling you to make a change in your relationships, you will likely experience decay in those relationships you cling to, against his call. If he is calling you to trust him with your career, you may find yourself with the taste of ashes in your mouth and finding that what once gave life now tastes like death! Anything that doesn’t follow from obedience is sin. As it says in James 4:17 (NIV) “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.”

Before moving on, let’s clarify 3 important things:

1. There is a difference between partnering with decay and robbery. In robbery, others rob you of your inheritance, of resources and opportunities that God has laid up for you. In the case of robbery, you can claim and expect a recompense.
2. There is a difference between partnering with decay and the generational effects of poverty. You can ask Jesus to break off the curses against your family and assignment of poverty because of his finished work on the cross.
3. Contrary to robbery, when we partner with lack, WE actually are robbing God! What can he really do with your life if you are unwilling to surrender?

Just look how God rails against his people making themselves like Ananias and Sapphira, who made themselves theives!

Often, this failure to trust is a failure to understand God’s character, and his power to provide. Just look at the way the servant describes his masters’ character:

What Ananias and Sapphira did not know is that the Lord is the only perfect hiding place and Provider. If you give the Lord every aspect of your life, you can trust that he will continually provide more than enough. This is the same mechanism that allows us to “go from glory to glory”, the same justice of God in the law of Reaping and Sowing, and the same pursuit of being fully mature Sons of God.

Have you trusted God with everything? Ask the Holy Spirit to bring to your mind any area of your talents, resources, or life that you have withheld from his leadership. Ask him to forgive you for this lack of trust. Surrender it all to Jesus to be the sole manager!

For as it says in Jeremiah 17:10 “I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”

Still having a hard time trusting God?

Sometimes we struggle to trust God because of experiences with untrustworthy people. Ask him to give you the faith to trust that he is full of integrity, and will not disappoint you. Ask God to take you on a journey of learning to trust him over time! Feel free to check out these verses that show God’s inability to lie.

Trusting God for More: Daniel’s Excellent Spirit

The story of Daniel is an example of what can happen when we trust everything over to God. While this story emphasizes Daniel’s revelatory and cognitive capacities, don’t miss how he sees God as the author and sustainer of his gifts.

Ultimately, the story of Daniel isn’t primarily about a gifted young man, it’s about a young man who chose to honor God with all of his gifts.

Honoring God at a Cost

In the book of Daniel, it is true that our main character and his three friends were relatively gifted young men. According to Daniel 1:4, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were all noble “young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace“. However, even as gifted young men, it was their decision to honor God that distinguished them among their peers. This decision to forego specific kinds of food and pleasure came at a cost, but just as David was not willing to sacrifice that which cost him nothing, God rewarded him. Through choosing to keep themselves from anything unholy substances or false worship,“God gave them knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning”, “superior physical appearance“, and positions of high responsibility.

Did you catch that? While these young men showed aptitude, only through their devotion did God reward them with his Excellent Spirit. By choosing to forego comfort and distraction, God could trust them with more.

Beyond just the initial and ongoing sacrifice of food and other forms of pleasure, Daniel uses his gifts by trusting God enough to risk. Can you see how this is the opposite of remaining hidden?

Daniel trusts God over and over again in order to avoid death. In Daniel 2, he saves himself and his friends by Interpreting Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, while his friends prayed. Daniel’s friends then trusted God in the fiery furnace, and experience solidarity with Jesus in their testing. Daniel then has to give an incredibly risky word about the King going insane, which does indeed come to pass. Daniel is subjected to other’s jealousy, but survives an assassination attempt among Lions. His revelation for the remainder of the book is exceedingly weighty and concerns secrets about wars and even the day of Christ. Still, even Daniel wasn’t permitted to know or share some mysteries about God’s ultimate plan.

From this ongoing place of risk and active participation in God’s story, the Lord shared many things with Daniel that he would not have known, had he been more easily satisfied or less convinced of the saving power of God.

For the Display of his Splendor

Far beyond enchanters and magicians of his era, the quality of the revelation God gave to Daniel distinguished Yahweh as the definitive Lord of Hosts.

In spite of Daniel’s abilities, it is not even the most naturally gifted of individuals, but often the most zealous whom God favors. In Isaiah 11:2, the prophet describes the outstanding Spirit that rests on Jesus in much the same language:

Just as we all aspire to imitate Christ, Daniel is far from the only character past or present to whom God has apportioned this Excellent Spirit.

This excellent Spirit is available to all of us. Throughout scripture, God allocates this Excellent Spirit to individuals who seek him with all their hearts, souls, and strength. Through the diversity of those in the Bible who receive this excellent spirit, it can be inferred that God’s excellence is not limited to our specific kind of gifts or sphere of influence.

God gave this Spirit To Solomon, A Ruler

Sadly, Solomon did not receive the fullness of God’s promises because he allowed himself to be seduced.

God Gave this Spirit to Bezalel, A Creative Craftsman

God gave this Spirit to Jesus

Today, God is looking for people to whom he can entrust this Excellent Spirit, who will be his instruments.

As it says in 2 Chronicles 16:9, “For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him…” The faithfulness of these individuals allows the Master to trust them with more responsibility. Through Jesus, the Spirit of the Lord even says in Matthew 24:5, “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time?”

Excellence Results in a Reward

So, what is the result of giving everything to God?

According to Jesus, it is being rewarded!

While people often misread the Parable of the Talents as “How God will Exponentially Multiply Already Gifted People”, the Parable is actually about how God will add more to those who are already using their gifts to glorify him.

We all have different gifts, but since we have the same Spirit, excellence is available to all who will steward what they have been given. This is especially true because often believers do not know their capacity, because Satan has intentionally obscured their gifts by circumstances or lies. Similar to trying to predetermine who will be saved before giving people the opportunity to respond, our fear of risk can allow us to shrink back from exploring giftings that God wants to make excellent.

Even if you are still scared, God promises to take the little you have and make it excellent. In the Parable of the Mustard Seed, it wasn’t the largest but the smallest seed that grew fastest and provided shelter.

Our God loves reversals, and he will honor your risk.

Not sure where to Start?

In James 1:5, the Apostle encourages us simply to ask God for wisdom. This is actually it’s own form of wisdom, because you need discernment to know that you are in lack, and not to rely on your own wisdom. We are told, “Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” We can trust that if we come to God like Solomon in acknowledgement of our need, he will meet our lack.

In this season of shaking, whatever gifts you have and from whatever sphere of influence, Be like the Three Wise Men and prepare your gifts to present to the King. Do not withhold giving your entire substance to God! May he give you an excellent Spirit like Jesus, Solomon, Daniel, Bezalel, and many others past and present. May he make you a pure gold an instrument to display his splendor, a fit vessel to minister in his temple. May you know that God will discipline those who do not use their gifts to serve him. May God give you the endurance to risk well and be rewarded.