Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
When you get to heaven, either by way of death or the rapture, you will be fully conscious and in the presence of the Lord and all the saints, II Cor.5:8. You will be aware of your present condition. Your mind and emotions will be clearer than they have ever been. The sin nature will be gone forever thus your thinking, your self awareness, your conscience with all of the things you have wanted to rid yourself of is pure. No more bad thoughts about others or yourself will ever haunt you again. No more guilt or defensive excuses justifying your shortcomings will be in existence any more. Your emotions will respond with an excitement you could not have handled on earth, even when you were having your best day. Your volition will no longer be tormented with right and wrong choices. All indecisive gray areas of thought will be gone. For the first time in your life you will have no doubts about who you really are. You will see yourself as an individual immortal soul like you have never recognized before. You are no longer a pilgrim living in a strange land. You are finally home. Only your kind; the beloved, are there. No unsaved, no lost sinners, Jn.3:3... “Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Your memories of loved ones not present will not come to mind, Isa.65:17; Rev.21:4.
I Thess.2:19 says rejoicing will break out; I Thess.4:17 says we will forever be with the Lord. That means we will be with him in heaven; we will return with him in his second coming, Rev.19:7-14; we will be with him in his millennial reign and we will be with him in eternity after the new heavens and the new earth are established.
Col.1:12 tells us that the Father has made each New Testament believer fit to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints, an inheritance of which Christ holds the title.
Heb.10:14, Jesus Christ has perfected forever those who are sanctified. At salvation we are positionally perfected, eternally, 100% acceptable into the family of God. When we get to heaven, either at death or in the rapture, we then will be made perfect in all the ways which we were not, in our practice, in time. For all the times we had to use I Jn.1:9 to confess our sins and for all the frustration we felt for our failures in either grieving or quenching the Holy Spirit; those imperfections will be no more.
Jn.14:2-3 "In my Father’s house..." The Greek text reads it this way... "In te... the definite article is used as there is a specific house, the house of my Father, tou Patros mou, in the house of the Father there are many abodes..." [house is, oikia, a structure, a place of residence]. "I go to prepare, to make ready, a place for you."
The word place, topon, is used in v.2, v.3. It is our English word, topography. Heaven is not a metaphorical condition only; it is also a topographical place. It is the place Lucifer went up to from the earth, as he attempted to unseat God from his throne and steal the worship of the angels, Isa.14:13-14. From Acts 1:25 it is said that Judas, by his transgression fell, that he might go to his own place, topon. Hell just as heaven, is a geographical place. Jesus Christ has been to both.
From II Cor.12:2, Paul said he was caught up to the third heaven where he heard things, and apparently, saw things which he had no words to describe, I Cor.2:9; Isa.64:4.
The first heaven is our lower atmosphere where the birds fly and the clouds move about. The second heaven is the stellar atmosphere where all the planets and solar systems abide.
From II Cor.12:4 Paul called the place to which he was caught up; i.e., the third heaven; that it was paradise.
Rev.2:7 says the tree of life is in the midst of the paradise of God. This is a physical tree, not a metaphorical tree symbolical of only mystical immaterial thought.
Do you remember there was a tree of life in the midst of the Garden of Eden. Gen.2:9 tells us this tree of life grew out of the ground, just like the other trees. And Adam and Eve were prevented from ever partaking of this tree after they had sinned, Gen.3:24.
There is a physical heaven and there is a spiritual heaven.
The spiritual aspect of heaven often referred to in scripture as, the kingdom of heaven is simply God’s will being done on earth, but the kingdom of heaven is not the location of heaven. It is the condition of heaven where God reigns.
Once the church age is over, it will be the Lord’s agenda to judge our works, then glorify himself in us in our resurrection bodies. This will take place in the topos, the geographical location of the third heaven.
Heb.2:10 “For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”
Rev.21:1-22:5 describes a small portion of the beauty of heaven.
Heb.12:22-24 describes the inhabitants who will abide in heaven, well after the rapture of the church and after time is over.
1. an innumerable company of holy angels
2. a general assembly which are all saints formed under the Abrahamic covenant, called Israel
3. the body of Christ, the church of the first born.
4. the spirits of just men made perfect which are all saints outside of the dispensations of Israel and the Church.
Dear friend, are you ready for life after your death? “If you will confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.” … “For whosoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Rom.10:9,13