Heaven To Gain

"Heaven is prepared for God’s children, and there, in its beauty, is no death nor sorrow nor sickness, no stealing, no destruction. God is Himself the light of it."

THERE IS NO SELF-STYLED HEAVEN. An artist paints a landscape from an image he’s created, but though it may resemble something on the earth, the image on the canvas came from the artist’s imagination. The Word of God says to cast down imaginations that exalt themselves against the truth of the Word. This is fancy language for saying, stop thinking about what is ungodly. Ungodly should be defined as well. Something un (not) godly goes against the principles of God. For example, God is love, so an imagination that exalts hatred and envy would be ungodly. We can speak otherwise; we can write books saying anger is healthy and give a dozen psychological reasons supporting it, but only when your reasons come from the truth of Scripture, from whom God is, only when He has designed what you are painting, will it truly be godly.

If the entire world passed laws condoning murder, it would still be wrong. Manmade laws do not change truth. If the artist paints the landscape as having green skies and purple grass, it would be only from his imagination. Fantasy creatures exist only in books, only in the mind. Supernatural beings, angelic and demonic beings exist outside of our physical eyesight. We have this confirmed by the Word of God and can glean from it. Gabrial, who appeared to Mary, Joseph, and Zacharias is an actual angelic being. Michael is another angelic being mentioned in the Bible. And, of course, the gospels mention demonic powers that Jesus cast out of humans. But they must be perceived by the spirit through the Holy Spirit. On an ordinary day, you will not see one or experience one.

"For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:" (Colossians 1:16)

Heaven is a real place. In heaven is the blood of Christ, placed on heaven’s altar. In heaven, is God’s throne, where the creatures described in Revelation circle the Almighty crying out, “Holy, holy, holy.” In heaven, are those who have passed on who had Christ in their hearts, as well as those who were formerly in Paradise, before Jesus’ Resurrection. This is described in the gospels in the story of the rich man and the poor man, Lazarus. This is actually a very enlightening parable because on earth, the rich man had no time for the poor man and ignored him. Then when in Hades, after his death, he thought no more of the poor man than he had when alive. He still expected him to come and minister to him, by dipping his finger in water to cool his tongue. He wasn’t even willing to drink from a glassful the poor man might bring but wanted no more contact than his finger. Even placed in torment because of sin, he’d learned nothing.

When Jesus hung on the cross, He offered salvation to the thief hanging beside him. Here was a man justfully condemned, and Jesus said, “To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” Paradise sat across an impassable gulf from Hades, in the parable just mentioned. Notice, Jesus said “today.” Though He was in the grave three days, He was in paradise that very day. In 1 Peter 3:19, it says, after His death, Jesus “went and made a proclamation to those imprisoned spirits who disobeyed long ago in the days of Noah.” (BBE) Here is another spiritual proof of both heaven and of hell.

Heaven is prepared for God’s children, and there, in its beauty, is no death nor sorrow nor sickness, no stealing, no destruction. God is Himself the light of it. It needs no sun nor moon. It is described as having unlimited gold and silver and precious jewels. It is a place of holiness created by God and is not subject to the will of men. Life is short. We are given only a brief time here. Too many people spend it caught up in themselves, heaping teachers around them who say what they want to hear. Old Covenant kings hired prophets and paid them to proclaim their own desires.

But what good does that do? It is one thing to believe a lie and another to create the lie that you believe. Build a golden calf from what jewelry you gather, and you know you made it yourself. Where is there anything to worship? Build a statue of yourself and command men to bow down and worship it, then when the fourth man appears in the fire with the three youths you tossed in there, you have much to explain. Deny God exists and decide the earth came about by an unusual cataclysm of nature and we crawled out of the damp as tiny shrimp, and it is foolishness.

“He (Abraham) wasn’t concerned with earthly palaces, because he was looking forward to living in the city whose foundation, architect and builder is God.” (Hebrews 11:10, Remedy)

God is real. Heaven is real. Hell is real. Jesus is alive. The Holy Spirit lives in the children of God. And the Bible is God’s written words of truth. These are actual. Man’s depiction of heaven as filled with personal sins that you can freely get away with is not only wrong, it will send those individuals where they will not wish to be if they persist in believing in it. I am here to tell you it is a lie that we will all float on clouds or as some suggest, we will be given multiple sex partners. What is sin on earth is sin everywhere else in the universe. What a banal, selfish point of view.

Jesus, in fact, said there is no marriage in heaven. This does not mean there are no families. God is love. Heaven is filled with the love of God, with the family of God. Moms and dads and children and pets. No creature on earth who contains a soul, whose body dies will be missing. Humanity has a Savior. We must accept Jesus Christ died and rose again and make Him our Lord because we were created to have a freewill. We are given the right to choose between life and death. But Romans 8 clearly says, “For the creation is eagerly awaiting the revelation of God's children, because the creation has become subject to futility, though not by anything it did. The one who subjected it did so in the certainty that the creation itself would also be set free from corrupting bondage in order to share the glorious freedom of God's children (Romans 8:19-21).”

No innocent life is ever forsaken. All of creation will share in the freedom that comes to the children of God when He banishes death for good, and then there will be a new heaven and a new earth, not like this one, and yet exactly like God who created it in all its grandeur. Until then, we are given the fullness of life to live, and our loving God wants us to live it in peace and health and prosperity. Then when life is over, to be with Him in heaven, as He designed it for us.

“In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” (John 14:2-3)

“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal. It was flowing from the throne of God and the lamb. Between the city street and the river, the tree of life was visible from each side. It produced twelve kinds of fruit, each month having its own fruit. The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse. The throne of God and the lamb will be in the city. His servants will worship him and see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night, and they will not need any light from lamps or the sun because the Lord God will shine on them. They will rule forever and ever.” (Revelation 22:1-5)

Image by Trung Phan from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com