Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
This year in the midst of the struggles and loss we are actually seeing a deeper level of thankfulness rising from our hearts. Why is that? It has to do with perspective. I believe in hard times we are afforded the opportunity to get a new and deeper appreciation for those true blessings, for what really matters.
This time has helped me to see how blessed we are that there is a real place called heaven. I am so appreciative of all the revelation of heaven on earth we have experienced in the last few years and no doubt we will continue to pursue heaven on earth. However, I do not want to dismiss the fact that heaven is also a real place. I have a daughter, grandchildren, parents, dear friends and relatives living in heaven right this second. And beyond that it is where the Father and Jesus live!
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 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. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. John 14:1-3
Jesus tells us heaven is a real, literal place. He did not go into a lot of details here describing heaven, but He did say it was a place to which He was going, a place from which He would return and a place to which He would one day take us. One of the things that comfort me when a loved one passes is the fact they have just moved on to heaven. Their body is dead, but they are more alive than ever.
Heaven is also a prepared place. Jesus prepared a place for us. We are so loved that the Father and Christ desire for us to be with them. You know if Jesus is preparing a place for us it will be glorious beyond anything we can imagine. Revelation 4 & 5 describe some of the beauty realm that we will live in, but I do not think our minds can really grasp how awesome a place heaven is.
Man has always been fascinated with heaven. Many have seen visions, dreamed dreams and a few blessed souls have actually visited heaven and returned to report what they saw. There is a book titled Proof of Heaven, A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife, by Eben Alexander, M.D. This book is particularly interesting because Dr. Alexander understands how the brain works and states, “Science-the science to which I’ve devoted so much of my life-doesn’t contradict what I learned up there.”
Here is an excerpt from the book that captures the essence of what Dr. Alexander learned up there.
I had already been taught the one thing-the only thing-that, in the last analysis, truly matters…
You are loved and cherished.
You have nothing to fear.
There is nothing you can do wrong.
If I had to boil this entire message down to one sentence it would run this way:
You are loved.
And if I had to boil it down further, to just one word, it would (of course) be, simply:
Love.
That is what heaven is all about.
Many Blessings, BW