What's Heaven Like?

Babies floating on clouds, an out-of-body experience similar to our current, or a place that sounds repetitive and boring for all of eternity. There are many wrong ideas about heaven...so...What will heaven be like? A question worthy of a lifetime of meditation and anticipation. While plenty of people out there can tell you of their “experience” of heaven in a dream, coma, or vision…we do not need these questionable accounts as we have one sure account: the Bible. God has not left us with an ambiguous, undefined view of heaven but has given us just enough information and a preview of what is to come to whet our appetites for eternal glory with Him. Today, I will highlight the nature of heaven, God’s relationship to heaven, and the actions of heaven. Let’s smell the smells, view the beauty, and prepare our hearts for the blessed future!

Delving into the nature of heaven, the first thing to understand is heaven is created by God (Genesis 1:1; Revelation 10:6). Heaven has not always been but is instead another aspect of creation, no matter how different it is from Earth. When God describes heaven in the Bible, it is called everlasting (Psalm 89:29; 2 Corinthians 5:1), immeasurable (Jeremiah 31:37), high (Psalm 103:11; Isaiah 57:15), and holy (Deuteronomy 26:15; Psalm 20:6; Isaiah 57:15). Heaven is called a barn (Matthew 3:12), the kingdom of Christ and God (Ephesians 5:5), the Father’s house (John 14:2), a heavenly country (Hebrews 11:26), God’s throne (Isaiah 66:1; Acts 7:49), a rest (Hebrews 4:9), and paradise (Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 12:2, 4). Heaven is a place the wicked are excluded from (Galatians 5:21; Ephesians 5:5; Revelation 22:15), contains angels (Matthew 18:10; 24:36), and cannot be inherited by flesh and blood (1 Corinthians 15:50). Heaven is a place of rest called Abraham’s bosom for all the weary pilgrims who arrive (Luke 16:23). 

What is heaven like for God? For God, heaven is where He dwells (1 Kings 8:30; Matthew 6:9), reigns as Lord (Psalm 11:4; 135:6; Daniel 4:35; 5:23; Matthew 11:25), answers His people from (1 Chronicles 21:26; 2 Chronicles 7:14; Nehemiah 9:27; Psalm 20:6), send His judgments from (Genesis 19:24; 1 Samuel 2:10; Daniel 4:13-14; Romans 1:18), fills ( 1 Kings 8:27; Jeremiah 23:24), and is where Christ acts as mediator (Acts 3:21; Hebrews 6:20; 9:12, 24) and is all-powerful in (Matthew 28:18; 1 Peter 3:22). Heaven is the command center from which God rules and controls all things.

Heaven is where believers should lay up their treasure (Matthew 6:20; Luke 12:33), is where believers are rewarded (Matthew 5:12; Luke 10:20; Hebrews 12:23; 1 Peter 1:4), and is where joy erupts every time someone repents (Luke 15:7). In heaven we will enjoy worshipping God forever, be united with all other believers, will be protected by and provided for by Christ Himself, and experience no lack of anything we might ever need (Revelation 7:9-17). We will be perfectly satisfied, perfectly content, and perfectly at peace. Heaven is where we will be in perfect union with God (Revelation 21:1-5a), enjoying the new city of Jerusalem and never experiencing crying, death, pain, or mourning because God is making something perfectly new. Heaven will be the absence of everything rotten in this life and the presence of everything good, only exaggeratively multiplied for our experience. In heaven, we will experience life to the fullest, with no darkness, no curse, no decaying bodies, and the most immaculate beauty of a place called New Jerusalem, which is described in terms that confound the human mind (Revelation 21:9-22:4). However, the best part of heaven will be seeing Christ face to face as He is with no barriers, separation, sin, curse, boundaries of any kind (1 John 3:2). We will not only be like Christ in His glorified body but we will be in perfect relationship with the one who made us, loves us, and died for us. 

Most likely, heaven will simply restore the paradise we lost in the Garden of Eden, but it is even better now. We will work and always enjoy it and never grow tired. We will worship and never be tempted, distracted, or discouraged. We will love, be joyful, and have peace; we will never fail or falter in these blessed areas. As each line of God’s word describes and defines our heavenly destination, you can almost hear the Billy Mays line from the Oxy Clean commercials in the 90s, “But wait, there’s more!” If a picture is worth a thousand words, it is hard to imagine how the thousand words God has given us to describe heaven fall so short of the reality we will experience one day, and I cannot wait for that day to come. 

May God bless your week as you seek His kingdom first!

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Dan