What is Heaven, really?

I must have been 8 or 9 and I had a dream I will never forget. I don't know if I was in heaven, but it seemed like I was about to be there. The start was not a little scary, but a lot... like saying goodbye to all your family forever, and your old familiar world and life, being plucked up out of it by the roots and driven into another just as real world, only quite different, fresh, unused. Very unfamiliar since I hadn't lived there before, yet familiar in a sense of picking up a favorite book you've read a dozen times - you know what is going to happen. Or maybe like going from a black and white silent movie of the 40-50s into a 3-D movie of the 21st century.

Was I about to open a nicely wrapped package with pretty ribbons and bows, given to me out of love? Or was it total rejection from others I now faced?

Please keep reading...(the answer won't come until the very end, so don't quit. It will be fatalistic if you do)

All I knew about heaven up to that point was what I'd heard in Sunday school and what I'd seen others do at services. My background was a combination of the Mormons and the Pentecostals. Mom wanted us kids to learn about heaven from the Mormons, and it seemed Dad wanted us kids to learn about heaven from the "holy-rollers." Well, one prevailed against the other one Sunday morning when my holy-roller teacher scared me to death as she pulled me away from the other kids after Sunday school and told me she was going to teach me how to pray. I had already experienced enough with my eyes and ears to know that was not a nice thing, but a scary thing as I heard people hollering and crying out and repeating Jesus' name over and over and people on the floor carrying on like lunatics! I fought her off and ran out screaming and crying, interrupting the church service already in progress, looking for my momma. Needless to say, momma's children never had to step foot in that church again.

Still searching. For heaven. I've looked high and I've looked low. When God tells us that His mercy and forgiveness are as far as the east is from the west, I do believe Him. When He tells us that His ways are unsearchable, I believe Him.

It seems a lifetime has passed since I began my search...and of the 50 plus years I have seen life, of those there may have been 40 years or so I've fallen backwards and maybe 10 years or so that I've actually made progress forward. Yes, it is a struggle to understand just what heaven is. And by that I mean: what must I do to achieve that goal of eternal life.

Because before we can reach our goal, we must understand just what it is.

(I liked the simplicity of this man's view)

David Brandt Berg: "We're going to be surprised when we discover that things in Heaven are normal and natural, much like this life. Of course, it will be better, much more beautiful and supernatural, without all the troubles, trials, tribulations, suffering, tears and pain we have here. However, it will still be enough like this life that we will survive the change and not suffer some sort of traumatic "culture shock." It'll be life very much like we're living now, only without the bad and evil.

Culture shock, hmm. It can't be any worse than this world we're living in now, it's just that we've been living in it and know nothing else - and you could say that all the trouble, suffering, tears and pain is just par for the course. So I'll gladly take the culture shock - a world without bad and evil - that can only be heavenly!

Andrew Greeley: "We are born with two incurable diseases: Life, from which we die, and hope, which says maybe death isn't the end."

We hope against hope because we know there must be more than just this life!

The Apostle Paul: "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable."

It's a new day, it's a new dawn, it's a new life. This kind of life only comes by letting Christ himself live in us - we become a human sacrifice that Christ dwells in. It's the fresh start on the road to another place much better than this life only.

Helen Keller: "Death ... is no more than passing from one room into another. But there's a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see."

We're all blind as bats! Don't you know we'll all be able to see, really see? Helen was blind physically, but we are all blind spiritually without God's intervention and guidance.

Louisa May Alcott: "Love is the only thing that we can carry with us when we go, and it makes the end so easy."

If God is love and we are His children, we had better be about our Father's business of loving others. It's the only thing we'll take with us at death.

Where is there a country without sin, crime, lawlessness, bloodshed, disease, death, sorrow and heartache? Heaven is a country in which there is the absence of all that is common to any land, for in God's country there are no barriers, no walls or curtains to divide; no race barrier; no soldiers because there are no wars; no policemen because there is no crime or sin; no undertakers because there are no graves; no physicians because germs, fevers, pestilences, diseases are unknown; no thieves because there is no darkness. Who would not yearn for this better and more desirable country in which there are no separations, no broken homes, no drunkards, no prisons, no hospitals, no beggars, no persons who are blind, deaf, dumb or destitute? What a country! Are you not homesick for Heaven? H. Lockyer

So I've spent much time and effort reading to see what other people thought about heaven and their own interpretations of this mysterious place we all wonder about. The great minds from King Solomon to Albert Einstein to the great writers and poets back in time. And I don't put any trust in what mainstream religion tries to pawn on off as heaven. I sure wouldn't want to sit around heaven forever and a day idly plucking on a harp, would you?

Somewhere along the way, my mind began receiving outside information. It was amazing, it was incredible. It was everything people would imagine it to be and more. Everything they could long for and more. It was far beyond anything man could devise or conjure up in his own puny mind. I hadn't prayed for it, I hadn't known God and didn't want to know Him. It was too embarrassing for me to pray. I didn't even know how to or want to.So I had not asked...yet, I received. Amazing! Talk about mercy and grace! And forgiveness great. It was the most beautifully wrapped package with ribbons and bows anyone had ever given me. Obviously to gaze upon it all one could see was love. A great big beautiful gift of love. I was hooked, I was addicted. I loved what I was receiving for my mind,it was real food. Nourishing brain food. Happy food! The gift of the gods! Woops - I mean the gift of God. His inspiration, His mind. HE HAD OPENED MY MIND TO RECEIVE HIS WORD AND UNDERSTAND HIS BIBLE!

But I ran across a snag. And it was a giant one. Bigger than Goliath. And it had to be crossed to get to the other side. It created a crevice so deep and wide there was no turning back once I took that first step forward. One had to bite the bullet. A price had to be paid.

Remember my dream I first told you about? It wasn't a dream any more. I was now living it. I had a choice to make. I would not and could not receive any further inspiration until I chose and made the right decision. There was no turning back for me, not now. Not after the banquet and joyous feast He had prepared, shared and fed me. No turning back.

It was time for me to make a choice. I chose to walk the same road as Abraham did. I thought long and hard about how Abraham believed in this future place everyone calls heaven so much so, that when he was told by God to get up and move, he just did it, forsaking everything. And the amazing thing was...he went out not knowing whither he went. Because he looked for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God.

So the time comes, oh yes, it will come, when all individuals must choose. Just read Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.

There are only two ways to live producing two very different results. One is the way of God and the spirit of truth and the other is the way of the devil and the spirit of error. 1 John 4:6

LIFE AND BLESSING: Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life John 14:6

DEATH AND CURSING: Satan's way is the way of this world: the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. 1 John 2:16

Adam and Eve could have experienced heaven on earth. But they chose not to. Instead they chose not to believe God, but rather Satan the devil, the first liar and father of lies. He's been busy broadcasting to unsuspecting minds created in God's image ever since and now we're all mixed up about this subject, thanks to his cunning evil ways!

JUST BELIEVE GOD AND HIS WORD...

Genesis 13: 15-17 For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.

Psalms 37:9 For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth. 11 But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.22 For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off. 29 The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever.

Isaiah 60:21 Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.

Rev. 5:10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

So I got to thinking about this subject of the Kingdom of God on earth and it fascinated me!

It is prophesied in Daniel 7:27 that the Kingdom of God and its greatness will be UNDER the whole heaven, not IN heaven!

IF GOD SAYS IN HIS WORD THAT HIS KINGDOM WILL BE ON EARTH,

I AM GOING TO TAKE HIM AT HIS WORD AND BELIEVE HIM

TIME IS ABOUT UP FOR THIS SIN-FILLED WORLD AND HE IS SENDING HIS SON SOON TO ESTABLISH A NEW WORLD ORDER CALLED THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON THIS EARTH AND BRING ABOUT RIGHTEOUSNESS, HEALING, LEARNING AND PEACE.

IT WILL BE DONE TO US AND FOR US WHETHER WE BELIEVE IT OR NOT, WHETHER WE CHOOSE IT OR NOT. IT WILL COME. THE ZEAL OF THE LORD OF HOSTS WILL PERFORM IT.

AND GOD IS LOVE AND HAS NEVER LIED. HIS PROMISES ARE SURE.

THERE IS HOPE AHEAD...GREAT HOPE!