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The Mission Statement
of Heaven
by Francis Frangipane
All major companies have a vision or mission
statement. A mission statement defines the
primary purpose and direction of a corporation,
what services or products it provides and
who would likely be interested in their
organization. Likewise, when Jesus began
His ministry, He issued a sort of "mission
statement" that explained the nature of
His Father's business. He said,
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because
He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the
poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release
to the captives, and recovery of sight to
the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden,
to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord"
(Luke 4:18-19).
Liberating
the human heart from oppression and spiritual
incarceration is the mission statement of
the Son of God. When Jesus declared He "must
be about [His] Father's business," that
specific business is to provide redemption
of the lost and freedom to the imprisoned.
You
say, "I want to serve God, but I am in bondage
to sin. I am a captive of guilt, shame and
condemnation." Good. You qualify. You are
the type of person heaven is looking for.
Even when we are enchained and trapped in
our failures, held prisoners to demons too
strong for us, Christ does not reject us.
He does not come to condemn or punish, but
to set us free.
You
may be one who has never known God. Today,
you find yourself trapped in addictions
and fears beyond your ability to resist.
Yet, according to the mission statement
of heaven, you are exactly the type of person
Christ came to find.
Or,
you might be a pastor, knowledgeable of
the Scriptures, serving in professional
ministry for over 50 years, but do not love
yourself. You can quote the Bible, but inwardly
you are tormented by your personal short-comings.
You desperately want to regain your spiritual
health, but you don't know where to start,
for you feel dead inside.
If
you feel imprisoned inwardly, remember,
Jesus Christ came to set captives free.
This message is in your hands and you are
reading it because Christ loves you and
has come to rescue you! You may not sense
it, but God's angels have been fighting
a war with the devil for your soul. Indeed,
Christ Himself has defeated the enemy on
your behalf!
"Can
the prey be taken from the mighty man, or
the captives of a tyrant be rescued?" Surely,
thus says the LORD, "Even the captives of
the mighty man will be taken away, and the
prey of the tyrant will be rescued; for
I will contend with the one who contends
with you, and I will save your sons" (Isaiah
49:24).
God
desires wholeness and healing for our souls,
even promising to "contend with the one
who contends" with us. Our enemies may too
strong for us, but they are not too strong
for God. The Almighty is on our side; He
will continue to fight our oppressors until
we are free from the grip of hell upon our
lives. Yes, the Holy Spirit corrects and
disciplines us along the way, but He does
so to transform our hearts and remove our
vulnerability to Satan's attacks. Our rescue
is at the center of God's heart.
The Desperate Find Help
Within
the variety of ways God reveals Himself
through Christ, remember this one truth:
"The Son of God appeared for this purpose,
to destroy the works of the devil" (1 John
3:8). The war is not between you and God,
but between God and the devil.
In verse after verse, Jesus makes it plain
that He came to heal and redeem the wreckage
wrought by Satan upon humanity. Remember,
Jesus said of Himself that He came "to seek
and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10);
He assures us, "I did not come to judge
the world, but to save the world" (John
12:47). Indeed, He says His primary mission
field was not the "[self-] righteous, but
sinners" (Matthew 9:13).
It
is an amazing truth: the Son of God is seeking
to save the very people most Christians
seek to avoid. Those highest on God's agenda
are usually those lowest in society - people
in bondage to sin and its consequences.
In truth, He seeks the desperate, regardless
of their outward status in life.
The
mission statement of heaven is to find these
people, deliver them from sin and fear,
and then pour into them the very heart of
the Savior Himself.
The mission statement of heaven is to seek
and to find the lost.
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Francis
serves as senior minister of River of Life
Ministries in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 
