Heaven – the dwelling place of the Father and where Jesus is seated on His right hand (Hebrews 1:3). The truth is my concept of Heaven was this place that resembled that clips in Hercules:
The actual truth is that Heaven, the Kingdom of God, is way better than the human mind can conceive or imagine. Because of that, please allow your mind to be open when you read this blog or anything about Heaven. What you imagine Heaven to be, or look like, think again because it is way better – “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him” 1 Corinthians 2:9.
Jesus mentions that God has prepared a place for us and it is a place God created when He made the Earth (Genesis 1:1). The default setting is that we were meant to live and abide with our Father God forever, that is until the fall of man and sin came into the world. The wages of sin is death, i.e. an eternity in hell which we spoke about in the last blog. However, because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, He paid the price for our sin, so now if we believe in Him we have eternal life i.e an eternity in Heaven (For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord – Romans 6:23 & For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life – John 3:16 & And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43).
Where is Heaven
As we mentioned in the last blog, there is a spiritual realm and that realm is as real as the keyboard I am typing on. When we mention Heaven we are talking about the spiritual realm but the Bible says the Heavens are high above the earth (Psalm 103:11). How do we know this? When Jesus went to Heaven, He ascended – He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight (Acts 1:9).
The Environment
The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy. When sin came into the world, with it came death, pain, sickness, fear, shame, hate, and anxiety etc… but all of that is passed away and in Heaven there is no pain and no death. In fact there is total joy, peace and laughter. Remember, God created you and knows what you love, He knows every single one of your hearts desires so when Jesus said that He has prepared a place for you, it is personal and that is oh so exciting. For me that would be Disney World, amazing food and jazz music. What humans can do, their Creator can do it a million times better.
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. Revelation 21:4
&
In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:11
Our Bodies
It is much questioned, what will we look like in Heaven, will we have the same bodies? The answer is yes but it will be an enhanced body, one could almost say an ideal body.
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Philippians 3:20-21
The Gates and Streets
There are 12 gates of Heaven adorned with pearls. The streets are paved with Gold and while there is no sun, it doesn’t matter because light comes from the Glory of God.
And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass. And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. – Revelation 21:21-25
Cities In Heaven
In Hebrews 11, the writer mentions of the fathers and mothers of our faith like Sarah, Abraham and Noah in verse 16 it says:
But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
Yes, In Heaven there are cities. Jesus said the Father’s house
Courts in Heaven
There are courts in Heaven and there are different types of courts, our Father is a judge and He adjudicates accordingly in heavenly court rooms. We know this because the Bible says our accuser (Revelation 12:10) goes to these courts day and night accuse us for whatever sin we have not repented from (Matthew 5:25). There is legality in the spiritual realm but our God is merciful and just. Slightly off topic, but we are going there – this is why repentance regularly is so important. When you repent, God forgives you and forgets your sin so the enemy cannot legally accuse you anymore. But when you do not repent, the enemy can, and that can sometimes open a door for the enemy in your life – For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12).
God’s Throne and Throne Rooms in Heaven
God has throne rooms, one of them being the throne room of grace as mentioned in Hebrews 4:16. It is so important to envision these places as real rooms and places, simply because they are; when you pray, in your minds eye, imagine actually going there. Then we have the throne of God, this is detailed in Revelation 4.
I put an artistic representation in here so you have something visually but I am in no way insinuating that this is what it looks like. It is hard to even imagine.
Revelation 4:2-6 says:
The one sitting there looked like gray quartz and red quartz. There was a rainbow around the throne which looked like an emerald.
Around that throne were 24 other thrones, and on these thrones sat 24 leaders wearing white clothes. They had gold crowns on their heads. Lightning, noise, and thunder came from the throne. Seven flaming torches were burning in front of the throne. These are the seven spirits of God.
In front of the throne, there was something like a sea of glass as clear as crystal. In the center near the throne and around the throne were four living creatures covered with eyes in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like a young bull, the third had a face like a human, and the fourth was like a flying eagle. 8 Each of the four living creatures had six wings and were covered with eyes, inside and out. Without stopping day or night they were singing,
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,
who was, who is, and who is coming.”
Whewwww. Heaven is way more than we can even conceive with our human minds, it is better and bigger than anything we could imagine on Earth. I am going to leave this part of the blog here and continue on next week where we will be talking your mansions, your rewards and your authority in Heaven.
Give us a heart in the comments if you enjoyed this blog x
