Stephen, "being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God" (Acts 7:55,56).
Such is the true place of the believer, rendered capable by the Spirit of fixing his eye on Jesus in glory, and this in presence of the world and its prince, who crucified the Lord of glory. It is not simply nor vaguely his eye opened to glory, but he sees the Son of Man there, and the Spirit forms his heart and mind and walk according to that pattern.
We have heaven opened four times in the New Testament. The first two were when the Lord was upon the earth; there was nothing in the condition of man which God could look on with pleasure until the Man Christ Jesus was seen on earth. That the heavens should open on Him was no marvel. God had found perfect rest upon earth, and said, when the heavens opened, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:17; 17:5). On the last occasion, recorded in Rev. 19, heaven is opened for the fourth time, and Christ is seen as coming to judge. In each of these, heaven opened to Christ. But there was a third scene when heaven opened, and not to Christ. He had been rejected from earth and was no longer a link between it and God. Where then is he? At God’s right hand. When He was crucified, the whole world was condemned, and the prince of this world judged. All had joined together_governor, priest, people_against the Lord and His anointed. The world deliberately rejected the holiness of God, and had no heart for the love of God. Yet after this, and in spite of this, we get heaven opened once more before Christ comes to execute judgment. Heaven is opened upon a believer in Christ, upon a witness to His glory outside the world. "Behold, I see the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God." Christ Himself was the object on earth upon whom heaven opened. Christ is now the object in heaven presented to the believer on earth.
Stephen’s testimony only drew out the murderous opposition of the world. It had been guilty of rejecting Christ down here. It equally rejected Him, now that He is proclaimed as the exalted One in heaven. But Stephen only thus saw and testified when "full of the Holy Ghost." To have the Holy Ghost is one thing; to be filled with the Holy Ghost is another. When He is the one source of my thought, I am filled with Him. When He has possession of my heart, there is power to silence what is not of God, to keep my soul from evil, and to guide in every act of my life and walk; so that in both I am kept apart from the world.
Are we then looking steadfastly into heaven? Alas! what inconstant hearts we have! how fickle and changing! The Holy Ghost ever leads the eye to, and would keep it fixed on, Jesus. He is the object of the Spirit from all eternity, whether (1) as the Son in the bosom of the Father, or (2) as the rejected Messiah on earth, or (3) as the Son of Man exalted at the right hand of God. To reveal and glorify Him is the habitual aim of the Spirit. When we have not much power for prayer, or even to follow the prayers of others, and our hearts get full of distracting thoughts, and when there is little energy in our souls for praise and worship, we have but a feeble measure of the power of the Spirit; we are not filled with the Holy Spirit.
The heavens, then, can be opened upon a believer here below when Christ, the Son of Man, is up there. What a wonderful truth for our heart! Indeed, it is more than this, for in Eph. 2 we learn the blessed fact that God has quickened us together with Christ, has raised us up together, and seated us together in Christ in heavenly places. He has taken His place at the right hand of God, and we are made to sit there in Him because united to Him who is there. "He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" (1 Cor. 6:17).
It is no longer, then, the heavens opening and Jesus acknowledged in humiliation to be the beloved Son of God. It is not the heavens open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man, the object of service to those who were the most dignified and holy creatures of God. It is not yet heaven opened and a rider upon a white horse coming in triumphant judgment. Rather, it is a precious scene where the disciple on earth sees the heavens opened, and, filled with the Spirit, sees the glory of God and Jesus standing at His right hand. It is the manifest and characteristic picture of the true position of the Christian, rejected like Jesus, because of Jesus, with Jesus, and with his eyes opened by the Holy Spirit to higher hopes and glory than any who are depending on the Lord’s return to and judgment of the earth, and restoration of His ancient people, Israel. Heavenly glory is the portion with which his soul is in present fellowship.
What an effect this sight in heaven should have upon our souls! In Stephen it produced a thorough practical likeness to Christ. He is a faithful follower of the One he sees in heaven. He bears witness to his Master, forgetful of himself or his danger, without a thought of consequences. The Holy Ghost guides and fills him with holy joy that runs over. His heart was filled with Christ to the exclusion of care for his life or what should follow. Christ was the only object before him. He was like Christ in confession, like Him in suffering too, filling "up that which [was] behind of the afflictions of Christ" (Col. 1:24). What a picture Stephen gave of practical conformity to Christ in grace, what strong intercession as he thought of those who stoned him to death:"And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge" (Acts 7:60).
(From "Grace Rejected and Heavenly Glory Opened" in Collected Writings, Vol. 16.)