HEAVEN! I Can’t Wait To Be There!

HEAVEN!  I Can’t Wait To Be There!                    By Kelly Durant 8-9-15 Re 10-16-22 Re 8-20-23

Revelation 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

 

2. How many of you have ever had a dream about heaven? Have you been flying like an angel? You are not alone! Thousands upon thousands of books and testimonies exist of people who have dreamed about heaven! And there are those who temporarily died, and come back to life, and witnessed heaven! Well, frighteningly, some others have reported they witnessed hell!

Heaven is what we all look forward to, and because Jesus spoke about it, it gives us hope of a much better existence than the one we have to endure at this present time!

 

The Old Testament was not very clear about what the spirit world held for us in the future, or how heaven would be. But here it’s made clear by Jesus, John 14:2 “In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you”. I’ve always thought, why do I need a mansion on earth? I prefer the one in heaven! What gain is there to invest so much in this decaying material world and then one day you will leave it all behind? You and I are just pilgrims just passing through this temporary place. Wise people invest in heaven!

 

1 Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”  In other words, some of the people that have had a little glimpse of heaven in a dream or vision, have really not seen anything yet! It is going to be even better than all our dreams combined!

 

3. Why am I bringing up the subject of heaven? Because everyone wants to know about it! I have never met anyone yet who does not like to talk about heaven! (Well, some atheists deny heaven’s existence even though they accept science’s rendition of a multidimensional universe and how sad for them as they are missing out!) Try to bring up the subject of hell and see if people like to talk about it! It’s not very popular as some people know it is a real place for the wicked and they are afraid to seek God to know if they are one of them bound for there! 

 

Everyone wants to go to heaven; do you not agree? But if they would go there or not, that’s between Jesus and them, their faith, and what they are doing with their life. We can have a role in offering salvation and heaven to them, by offering them Jesus’ saving love, but each person decides for their self. We all need to be reminded of heaven as often as possible, so we live happier in the present because it is our hope and future reality! It is where our Christian loved ones are! What is the heaven of your dreams? How do you want heaven to be anyway? 

 

The verse of today describes something beautiful… “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible! I can’t wait, can you? That’s the way the world should be! Free from pain and suffering!

Imagine a perfect world where all creatures live in harmony and love and live in happiness forever! Imagine getting a new resurrected heavenly body that never will hurt, get sick, or die. And all the suffering we see today will all stop! Rev 7:16 “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.”  This is the way I want the world to be, the heaven I want to live in! Imagine, nothing hurts or bothers you, there is always a natural AC on and there is only the love, beauty, and the light of God’s presence! Now that is a utopian paradise!

 

4. Another favorite verse of mine is in Isaiah 65:25 “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord”.  I thank God for the book of Revelation as it describes heaven in a way that most of us as clueless thinkers have never thought of. It is described it as a physical place with beautiful elements which we value here on earth.  

 

Heaven will exist in a time and space continuum but in Revelation 10:6b it states, ”That there should be time no longer.” We interpret that to mean measuring time would be meaningless as all things are maintained in an eternal state in a heavenly dimension, we are not familiar with yet. Scientific string theory says 11 dimensions exist, maybe there are 12, who knows but let’s explore the number 12 in heaven.  Rev 21:19-20 And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; 20 The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolyte; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.

 

I wanted to start a rock collection of all 12 of these stones but I soon realized that it is not in my budget!  One time I wanted to calculate how far man could get if all nations gathered up all the precious stones on earth to build a wall such as this one described in Revelation which is 1,500 miles long, or 6,000 miles in it’s total length & it has a width (?), and the height is 216 feet high! I am sure that on earth we cannot even construct 10 feet of it given earth’s limited resources! And don’t forget the streets of gold! These are hard elements that air, water, and sandstorms cannot erode (but in heaven there are no more sandstorms, ha!)

 

5. Heaven is the eternal City of God that we all are anxiously looking forward to get to! Hebrews 11:16 “But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.” Man starts out in a garden then ends up in a City. I really do not fully understand why God needs heaven to have streets of gold and with precious stone walls, but what it appears like is heaven will be electrified! Energy will radiate and vibrate throughout the whole structure. Why is this a legitimate assumption?

 

Revelation 11:19 And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail. Lightning is electric and all the other shakings provoked by it!

Everything has a purpose, and apart from heaven being eternal in its physical composition, it will contain elements of what we are familiar with here along with things we are to learn about. I have had dreams of being in heaven and what I recall is less about the beautiful surrealistic surrounding nature, and more about the indescribably feeling of peace and joy. John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

 

6. God is omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, and He can transcend the laws of physics which he established, and with Him the eternal can be maintained over any material. I know that God has precision and reason behind His architectural design in that unknown world. Only Christians are blessed with the Word of God revealing to them the beauty of heaven. Other religion’s versions pale comparatively, and their renditions of heaven often are disappointingly false concoctions of carnal man’s desires of pride!

 

Recall how the High Priests in the Old Testament had 12 precious gems on their breastplates representing the 12 tribes of Israel. God esteems us, his people, to be compared to these beautiful colorful, light emitting stones. Quartz and similar stones capture sound and radio waves, and the mysteries of God are still not yet understood by our tiny 3 pounds of grey brain matter! 

 

In our resurrected bodies we will still perceive light as we do now and all of the colors will be for our enjoyment! The most important thing is that in heaven we will be in God’s house, a house that He is the architect of. And if Jesus is there, I want to be near Him! And you?

 

7.  Just by being in the presence of God we will have eternal light, life, and indescribable joy! The Biblical definition of hell is an eternal existence separated from the presence of God in a burning darkness! God owns all the beauty of all things created and he created and administrates the unique ‘tree of life’ that will sustain all who are allowed to partake of it forever. Why would anyone want to mess up their chance for this? 

 

John gave us the Revelation of heaven because God wanted him to see it and to write down how amazing it is! Rev. 22:1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. So to answer the question of many of you, yes, you will we get to eat in heaven! Fruit, in particular! And it will be there just for the taking and not cost you a whole dollar for one!

 

Heaven is where your memory of this past hellish earth will be over-written with new beautiful experiences, and you will be surround by a new group of pure loving people who are authentically holy and loving being angels many who are transformed former humans. Many of the people there you will know and recognize. Matthew 8:11 And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. How wonderful is that! I want to talk to them! 

 

8. Heaven will be all of what we could never afford here on earth, and there we will not have to make payments on it either! Jesus paid a high price to pay for it for us in order for us to enjoy it forever! John 10:28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Few people have grasped how valuable this is!

 

Let’s obey God and Jesus in everything, in every way, loving, serving, trusting, and worshipping! Reread Revelation 21 and 22 and be heavenly in your thoughts, dreams, and behavior! If you are not practicing heavenly manners in the present, don’t think that God will assume you will be any better and change in the future. Revelation 22:11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.

 

How can you and I be heavenly minded and be holy as God is? Phil 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

 

So, keep dreaming of heaven, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace! Remember, Heaven, is the place of our destiny. It is important to dream about, envision it, and look forward to as it will be our future home where God will wipe away all our tears! And remember these words I love from this old gospel song that says:

When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be!

When we all see Jesus, We’ll sing and shout the victory!

Christians Confused: It is by Faith or by Works?

Christians Confused: It is by Faith or by Works? Kelly Durant 4-14 Re 8-13-23 

James 2: 20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? 22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? 23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. 24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. 25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? 26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

2. There is a very illustrative picture to describe how a Christian must advance in this life: it is of being in a rowboat with 2 oars. One oar is faith, the other is works. If you row with only one, then you will go in circles. Christians don’t we see this often, that why they don’t seem to not grow much or at all advancing spiritually. Often many of us are not balanced, some people are rowing with only one oar! If someone here this morning is frustrated with your walk with God then let’s stop and examine our lives and situations, habits, and deduct changes we can make.

Some people row with the faith oar. They will affirm they have faith in God, and this is essential but the things they do from day to day may not reflect that they are doing anything for God or others. They believe that having faith, reading the Bible and praying is keeping them going straight but they do not reveal the evidence of being sacrificial or doing anything for those in need.  These people often feel they are fine with God because they are confident in their own idea of what faith is. We need to wake them up as some Christians think faith only requires going to church!

Then there are those who do works only.  There always exists some people with pride in what they do, and they feel they do not really need so much the spirituality trip that the church goers seem to proclaim. They have an idea that they are better than the spiritual people because they do good stuff, and doing good to others helping them is important but this is a wrong idea. Works and service are not all of what a Christian needs; if we serve without glorifying God, then He does not get the praise and we are just wasting our time. Only when you row faith and works at the same time do you mature and grow in holiness and faith a become a balanced and effective Christian.

3. Today we have started with the story of Abraham taking Isaac to be sacrificed. The point is clear, Abraham had faith and he acted on his faith to prove it. His works were that of obeying what God had told him to do, even though inside he must have been dying, crying, and probably doubting why God would require this type of a dreadful sacrifice. After all, wasn’t his son his only son of God’s promise?

Here are a few lessons for all of us: he first had faith, which means he believed God, he trusted God, he submitted to God, and he knew God’s voice inside giving him direction. He was determined to obey no matter what he had to give up or do! It made absolutely no sense either, but he obeyed anyway!  

When you imagine this, it is very disturbing, but the outcome of God providing the lamb instead made the point: that our loving Father God wants the entire world to know that he does not ever want our human sacrifices to appease Him! Works for God never includes cruel sacrifices, as some Satanic and pagan cults require, but rather good deeds originating from obedience. God gave up his son Jesus for us, but he has never required that anyone give up their son for Him! But what do you give up for God? What works do you have to prove your faith? 

4. I am amazed that there are so many comfortable Christians today and they cannot produce hardly any works as a proof that they “do” any works for God. A real believer with faith is supposed to have works in their own personal lives that prove they are obedient to God being faithful, helping, serving, loving, showing up and doing something for any neighbor who has a need.  

Thank God the Salvation Army established doing works from the beginning. We sent shock waves through the church by doing a social gospel, preaching in the streets, and then taking in the less fortunate or addict! Our foundation is that of seeing the needs of those who are our neighbors (our local community) and responding to it. 

From the beginning we see the Salvation Army was the first church to open up rehabilitation homes for the alcoholics, to provide homeless shelters (and those who stayed in our shelters collected rags door to door for the SA to recycle into mops and other things) and we created a system in which one could be redeemed and reintegrated into society. Some folks donate money, some volunteer time, but it all works together to support those who cannot help themselves.

5. Do you know of any other Seminary like ours at the Booth Colleges that will receive reformed ex-drug users, ex-worldly folks (even prostitutes) and anyone who is willing to obey the call of Jesus to leave it all behind for a life of service to Him? Very few! Many seminars are full of kids who really are not there for the love of Jesus but for the love of a title (diploma) that will gain them a high income somewhere. How wrongly motivated is that! 

When you serve in the SA it is understood that you will follow the Bible all the way, like the disciples did, and not care for this world’s provisions, but be focused on saving lost souls. And Salvation as we know it includes caring for the whole person, their physical needs (food, or water bills, etc.) and for their spirit, praying for them to know Jesus and to gain healing from life’s blows.

People forget that God sees the heart! Whatever is visible to us, works or faith, is not as all important as to how God is discerning the intents of the heart of each of us. Most people never pray, God reveal to me my heart’s intentions, I think they are afraid they will end up like Isaiah 6:5 So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.” Our intentions should always be love, to love & obey God and our neighbor as ourself!

6. From the Scripture today we learn “Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.” How do we become God’s friend? By being righteous? It is revealed here that believing is what makes us worthy, or righteous! It comes by obeying on what God asks of us, in other words by believing! Belief then transfers into actions!

It is like an alternating current going back and forth. We do our part to act on what we believe, and then God does His part by imputing into us righteousness, which is an integral part of faith. Back & forth a connection is then active.

God is Holy and we cannot please Him without Holiness, and it is all tied together, we believe God’s Word, therefore we “do works” according to His commands, and this renders us ‘righteous’ because we are manifesting our faith into deeds in this world. God has no other hands, feet, and voice in this world except ours! 

7. And what about Rahab, the prostitute? Few preachers want to mention prostitutes in theirsermons! We see that even though Rahab was a law breaker (according to the 10 commands (“Do not commit adultery”), she was found to be righteous and protected from God’s judgments, how?  Because she believed in God’s people and she did something that won her God’s forgiveness, and what was that?

She risked getting killed by her own countrymen by harboring God’s children helping them to escape out of the city, and that was a very ‘good work’! There has to be some proof of some kind with each one of us to prove that one is on God’s side and not on the side of the cruel and evil world which is soon to be judged as Jericho was judged!

So, this shows that people caught up in sin, if they will listen to God, if they will obey at the right moment, if they can some to Jesus, then they can be saved, and it is all by the act of believing! Acts 16:31 So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” All the walls fell, but her house remained!

8. But believing in Jesus is everything! How many do good community groups do you know out there ‘doing good’ but they are not doing it for the glory of God but for the glory of their organization? There are many secret society type groups that do many good works, helping those with illnesses, bills etc., helping those with needs but ask yourself, do they do it for the glory of the name of Jesus?

If not, then those works are nothing to God! Their motives are then for the pride of man, and for money, and a good name. Quite often these groups are being used by Satan (Satan wants to be seen as an angel of light, as a good guy doing good), but in essence they are competing to take funding away from us who serve ‘in Jesus’ name’. Secular groups do nothing for God’s glory, and want to appear to care for others, but without God’s love in their hearts, there is no love in their service or works, it is only a façade.

So beware, today many groups, politicians, and even some churches want to ‘virtue signal’. That is when you do something to appear to be good with the motive of selling a perception that you are so wonderful, but in reality, the group or person is not so good at all. They then become wealthy liars and deceivers like Satan himself, pretending to have good works yet none of those works are done in the faith for God. Pray for discernment (repeat), today we live in a fake world and only God’s Word can reveal who or what is true or authentic! 

9. How many of you have ever seen a corpse? A lifeless body in the casket? You have the impression the eyes should open, but they don’t! A dead body has no chance of coming back as the brain dies within 4 minutes of no oxygen. So, this is how the Scripture describes you or me, or any one of us that does not have the Spirit of God, we are dead with no hope of anything without faith and works. 

What connects us to the Spirit of God and makes us alive? Works that reveal our faith! Faith is something inside our head and heart, BUT no one can see OUR faith unless WE do something; something loving for God and others that reveals our faithful obedience.

So, this is my challenge to you today, to start ‘doing’ more good works so the whole world can see your faith and light shine to glorify our Father which is in Heaven! Matthew 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Remember, faith and works go together, one without the other is useless and is not according to the Word of God. Let’s pray to obey, and not stray…from doing our part, believing, trusting, & doing amen?