Imagining Heaven: Put your trust in Jesus

Many of the ideas and Scriptures used in this article are from the book “Heaven” by Randy Alcorn.

Isaiah 6:3 states, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.” Regarding the New Jerusalem, Revelation 21 proclaims, “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life”.

The first article in this series reminded each of us to send in our RSVP. We just can’t get into heaven by our works or by our positions in life. We must believe in Jesus. God is holy and He instructs us to be holy.

He has anointed us to preach good news to the poor and to proclaim freedom for the captives. If you practice the discipline of fasting God may be using you to help set captives free.

As God’s heirs, we need to recognize that our inheritance is the kingdom that was prepared for us since the creation of the world. Rather than forget that we are God’s heirs when we encounter opposition we can remind ourselves that Jesus is the One Who is in us and He is greater than the one who is in the world.

Right now the Holy Spirit is in each of us who are believers. Revelation Chapter 21 instructs us that God will live with us. Before that time we need to recognize that Christ has defeated Satan but the full manifestation of that victory has not yet been seen by all of us on this present earth. Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. According to Colossians He “disarmed the powers and authorities” and “made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them”. At the cross what looked like a failure for Jesus was a great victory for Jesus and us.

Jesus destroyed the works of the devil. The book of Romans teaches us that Christ came to remove the curse of sin and death. We were redeemed from the curse of the law when Jesus became a curse for us on the cross. We get to become citizens of heaven when we put our trust in Jesus. God has set eternity in the hearts of men. We know that we will see God with our own eyes. He is the God of the living. We shall be like Him and see Him as He is. We will have flesh and bones as Jesus had when He was resurrected according to Luke 24:39. We wait in expectation for the return of Jesus.

The whole creation groans as in the pains of childbirth according to Romans. So what should we do as we await the return of Jesus and our eventual resurrection? We should stand firm and work as if we are working for the Lord. We should build with gold, silver, and costly stones rather than wood, hay, or straw. Fire will test the quality of our work. If what we build survives we get a reward. If what we build is burned up then we suffer loss. We need to remember that our righteous works or deeds will follow us to Heaven.

We need to admit that we are strangers on this earth. We are looking and longing for a better country. God has prepared a city for us.

As we seek to see God’s Kingdom come and His will be done we can encourage one another to fight the good fight of faith and to run the race to win the prize. We can encourage ourselves when it seems that we are discouraged. We can treat others the way we want to be treated and thus work to store up for ourselves more treasure in heaven. We can choose to forgive and decide to stay loyal to the Lord. We can be content and trust God.

If we have trusted God for salvation we should trust Him with every area our lives. Without the Holy Spirit no one can say, “Jesus is Lord.” As we continue to imagine Heaven let us believe that it will be greater than anything we can ask or imagine. Our good Father wants to give good gifts to His children. Let’s trust Him to complete the good work He began in each of us. Let’s anticipate a wonderful homecoming when God calls us home.

May God bless you big.

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This is the fifth in a series of articles examining the Christian view of heaven by Kevin Barsotti, pastor of Ark Church in Havre.