Pondering Heaven and God

I can’t wait to be in Heaven.  No, I am not depressed.  No, I am not suicidal.  I just can’t wait to experience total freedom for the first time and forever.  I look forward to the day when religious debates and legalism will end and we will fully understand exactly what it means to have Christ’s Holy Spirit living in us.  We will fully experience the complete and total absence of sin, temptation and the possibility of death or feeling like a failure in life.  We will not even be capable of experiencing guilt or shame. We will finally get it that Jesus already took that on and our sin is already forgiven.  We won’t mess up anymore but if we understood that now, I believe all Christians would be living in victory.  So many Christians live in defeat because we focus so much on how we, “fail” God.  The only way we fail God is to die without Christ (and truthfully, we really only fail ourselves with this one). If we, as believers can fail God, then Jesus did not do what God’s Word tells us He did on the cross.

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”

(2 Corinthians 5:21).

In Heaven, we will never have to worry about losing friends and loved ones over a disagreement in regards to our religious beliefs.  There will be no more debates about immigration, the LGBT agenda, physician assisted suicide, a woman’s right to choose, etc…. The truth will come to light and we will all know the Truth in all its fullness.

I will never have to wonder how it is two people can claim a revelation of the Holy Spirit and stand firm on that revelation when both people believe the complete opposite of that truth (such as some of the topics mentioned above). There will be no political parties, no conservatives, and no liberals.  We will all be like-minded and united in Truth.

Unlike now, our thoughts and ways will no longer be far from God’s.  We will understand how everything in this world is in direct contrast to everything in God’s.  We will see why every commandment was given and understand the love behind it.  Uncommon common sense will not be so uncommon.

We will forgive completely, love passionately and live forever in peace with one another.  We will see how foolish it is to care for anything in this life because we will truly understand why Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes.  Everything in this life that we fret over, (finances, retirement, health, death, broken homes, alienated loved ones, pride, pain, etc….) will disappear forever.  It will be so insignificant. We won’t be searching for the next greatest product to keep us looking and feeling younger. We won’t have to battle bodies that are dying since birth.  We won’t have to search for ways to live a longer, more quality life.  We won’t be focused on ourselves….at all…EVER!!!!!  We will be so focused on Christ that nothing will be able to cause us to turn our heads away because there will be NO TEMPTATION! 

That is the biggest thing for me.  That is the root of it all.  I cannot wait to be in the complete absence of sin or any temptation that might lead to it.  The biggest problem in this life is that we, even and especially believers, we are ALL self-centered on our very best day!  When we speak, we fear we may say something that might be taken the wrong way.  When we give, we want to make sure we still have enough to pay our bills.  When we love, we want to be loved in return.  When we feel empty, we want to be filled.  When we long for Jesus, it’s usually because we are tired of the circumstances in this life and we need to be set free. When we get to Heaven, we will long for Jesus simply because we will see Him as He is in all His glory and majesty and we will not be able to keep from worshipping Him just because He IS!

I could go on all day.  But even my longing for Heaven…even the groaning in my heart with all creation for the return of Christ is self-centered.  I want to be free.  I want to be set free from me. The irony of it all is that Jesus died so we could have all of this freedom now but our finite minds cannot even grasp it and the presence of evil confuses us and robs us of this freedom. 

This summer, the Holy Spirit led me on a journey as I focused heavily on John 15:1-5.  The most important part of this focus was abiding in Christ.  When we fully abide in Christ, that is as close as we can get to Heaven as long as we live on Earth. When we abide, that is when we have peace in the midst of the worst circumstances. When we abide that is when we love God first and others before ourselves or anyone else.  When we abide, it is the only way we can love anyone.  That is why the enemy’s game is to get us to focus on ourselves and our circumstances.  Depression is satan’s plan.  Self-pity and self-esteem are his deception.  If it starts with self, then that is where the focal point lies and this is the beginning of defeat in any circumstance.

I used to be such an advocate for building self-esteem. But, I have learned from my own experiences, that apart from Christ, I have nothing good in me.  My esteem should come from who I am in Christ.  This is how God sees me.  He sees me as perfect, pure and holy. I can’t even comprehend seeing myself that way.  But, it’s not because of anything I have done or any good in me that I am seen that way by God.  It’s because of grace and forgiveness that Christ made possible on the cross when He became sin in my place.  It’s because God only sees Christ in me that I can rejoice in who I am and see any good in myself.  But, even the desire to see good in myself is tainted by sin.  It is about me.  In heaven, I won’t even care a bit about how worthy or unworthy I am.  I will only be able to stand in awe of the Glory of God that will forever be before me.  I won’t even be able to think about anything I want because I will have more than I could have ever hoped for or imagined just because I get to stand in the light of His glory.  Oh how I wish I could comprehend this now.   But, if I did, I think I would be dead because my physical body would not be able to handle it.  I am God’s righteousness???!!! How can this be???!!! There are no words invented that can describe what this really means.  My mind just can’t even wrap around this.  All I can say is Glory to God in the highest.  He alone is worthy of all glory and honor and praise and He chooses to live in me????!!!!!!

No wonder I can’t stop longing for home!

ASK MS. ENCOURAGEMENT – What exactly do people mean by having a purpose or a calling?

What a wonderful post by a very wise and inspiring woman!