What Will It Be Like in Heaven?

It is in the word of God, the Bible, that we find out what heaven is like.  D.L. Moody, the great evangelist of the 1800’s, after studying the scriptures, declared that “The light of heaven is Jesus’ face. The Joy of heaven is Jesus’ presence. The harmony of heaven is Jesus’ praise. The theme of heaven is Jesus’ worth.”

Jesus tells us in the Bible in John 14:1-6 (NIV), “‘Do not let your hearts be troubled.  You believe in God; believe also in me.  My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  You know the way to the place where I am going.’  Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”  Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

I have known for some time that Jesus is “the way and the truth and the life”. Because Jesus is the Son of God and He died for my sins, and rose from the dead, I know that He is the way to heaven.  It has only been within the past twenty years that I have been asking myself more and more what it is like being in heaven.  These questions became more frequent after my sister, and then my first wife Penny died followed by my father and mother.  When someone you love dearly goes on a trip, you want to know what they are doing, what they are seeing, and exactly what they are experiencing.  Your interest in this destination is further intensified when you know you are going to meet them there in the not-so-distant future.

As I stated earlier, our primary source of insight into what heaven is like is the Bible.  In Revelation 5, we have John taking us on a visit to heaven.  There we see Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, surrounded by the four living creatures, the elders and tens of thousands of angels singing, “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”  (Revelation 5:12 NIV).

This heavenly visit shows us that worship is the central focus of heaven.  As we continue to study the scriptures further, we will see that in heaven we will be doing many different things like eating, drinking, and living in various dwelling places. 

We will be reigning with Christ and working for Him.  We will be standing, walking, gathering for feasts, and much more.  All of this will be in the conscious presence of God and will be an act of worship.

There have been many times I have gotten a personal foretaste of heaven.  It happens each time I am awakened to the presence of God.  This is a result of a prayer walk in the wonders of creation or reflecting on God’s goodness and glory as I read the scriptures.  Even as I am engaging in what some would refer to as work, I see this activity transformed into worship as I become aware of the love of God.  It is this love of God that shows me what heaven is like.  In fact, it is this uninterrupted presence of God that I am looking forward to the most when I get to heaven.

For many, being in the presence of God or engaging in glorifying God in all things along with enjoying His presence for all eternity isn’t something they are really looking forward to.  This is clear by the fact that those who aren’t seeking God never have time to pray, read the Bible, and don’t care about helping someone in need.  This attitude is prevalent in spite of the fact that in Matthew 25:31-46 Jesus speaks of separating the sheep and the goats (those who are going to heaven and those who aren’t) by determining whether or not their faith has propelled them into the action of feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, and visiting the sick and imprisoned.

God’s desire is for everyone to be in heaven.  The Bible says that “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (I Tim. 2:3,4 NIV).  Even though God wants everyone to be saved He doesn’t force anyone to go to heaven.  If someone has indicated through their life on earth that they would be miserable in heaven, and have no desire to be in God’s presence, and worship Him even for a few minutes much less for all eternity, then He doesn’t force them to go to heaven.

People go to hell because they have shown throughout their lives that they do not really believe God loves them and sent His son Jesus Christ to pay the price for their sins.  As a result, there is very little desire to pray, or praise God in word and deed.  Since they would be miserable in heaven and have resisted every attempt God has made to draw them to Himself, hell is their final destination after death.

Jesus pleaded with people to experience the Kingdom of God and avoid hell.  He referred to hell as a real place in Matt 10:28; 13:40-42; Mark 9:43-48; Luke 16:19-31 and other places in the scriptures.  C.S. Lewis said, “I have met no people who fully disbelieved in Hell and also had a living and life-giving belief in Heaven.”  Lewis goes on to say this about hell, “There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this, if it lay in my power.  But it has the full support of Scripture and specially, of Our Lord’s own words; it has always been held by Christendom; and it has the support of reason.”

God wanted humanity in heaven so badly that “He sent His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).  In Revelations 22:3-5 we read about this heavenly city that God has prepared for those who believe in Jesus and have accepted the forgiveness of sins He provides.  “No longer will there be any curse.  The throne of God and the Lamb will be in the city, and His servants will serve Him.  They will see His face and His name will be on their foreheads.  There will be no more light.  They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light.  And they will reign forever and ever.”

Randy Alcorn, reflecting on this ultimate reward, made the following observation about Heaven.  “Christ centered righteous living today is directly affected by knowing where we’re going and what rewards we’ll receive there for serving Christ… Following Christ is not a call to abstain from gratification but to delay gratification.  It is finding our joy in Christ rather than seeking joy in the things of this world.  Heaven – our assurance of external gratification and fulfillment should be our North Star, reminding us where we are and which direction to go.  When we realize the pleasures that await us in God’s presence, we can forego lesser pleasures now.  When we realize the possessions that await us in Heaven, we will gladly give away possessions on Earth to store up treasures in Heaven.

Everyone wants to go to heaven, but like the rich man Jesus spoke of in Luke 16:19-30, they want to prescribe the terms of getting there. Such self-righteous individuals, intoxicated by their wine of cheap grace, totally ignore Lazarus as he tries to survive on the crumbs that they dropped from their tables. They consider Lazarus and his other homeless friends a nuisance they want to drive out of their neighborhoods in the name of economic development.

The rich man had convinced himself he was going to heaven only to find himself in hell where Abraham told him, "Remember in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented."

In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness! "' 

Those who think they are going home to heaven because of all the good things they have done for the less fortunate better realize that for their salvation's sake, there is much more involved. Jesus made this clear to the rich young man who asked Him, "What must I do to be saved?" Jesus in response tells this man it is going to cost him everything when Jesus tells him to sell all that he had and give it to the poor (Matthew 19:21). Jesus said this because Jesus knew what it would cost Him personally to provide the means of grace which paved the way for salvation for all of us. Jesus was going to have to shed His blood by dying on a Roman cross and then conquer that death through a resurrection that would split hell wide open. As a result of this price that defies all logic, redemption was bought and paid for all of us. It was because of such redemption we can go home to heaven. That is why Jesus says in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through Me."

Recipients of cheap grace are convinced of their salvation to the extent they feel perfectly at ease when it comes to their indifference of whether or not the homeless are sheltered, the hungry fed, the naked clothed, or the sick or imprisoned visited. They refer to all the acts of mercy as good works which they preach that they don't need, because they declare they are saved by their cheap grace. Yet James 3:17 says, "Faith without works is dead."

So many are on the road to hell with just enough religion to keep them from getting the real thing. Vaccinated with their self-made, feel-good religion of cheap grace, they subscribe to a form of religion that denies the real power.

When Jesus speaks of heaven as a home, He is not just using the word home as a metaphor. He is describing an actual physical place where we will be in the presence of God forever. It is a place built by our Savior, Jesus, who gave His life in payment for our sins so we can go to this eternal home. At our home in heaven, we will be sharing a place of security with our loved ones. It will be a home where there will be comfort and refuge. Finally, the homeless will have a place where the police won't be waking them up and saying you can't sleep here. Our home in heaven will be a place of unprecedented freedom, joy and peace. It will be a place of love and relationship with God, His angels and His redeemed humanity.

Those of us who want to go up to our home in heaven are told, "Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us" (Hebrews 12:1). Running this race is only possible through the grace that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ gives us.

Life is very fragile. We never know when we will die. Facing this reality, our prayers should be, "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom" (Psalm 90:12). This heart of wisdom involves receiving the free life insurance policy Jesus gives and learning how to let go of this world. This letting go, or disengaging, can seem painful, but in reality, it provides the freedom necessary to really live. It involves seeing death, not as the end, but as the doorway to a new life, which is now possible because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In Hebrews 2:14 & 15, we read, "So that by His death He (Jesus) might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death."

Those who refuse to accept Jesus' invitation to go home to heaven that He provided through His death and resurrection have every reason to fear death. Instead of an eternity in the presence of the Living God who is love, what awaits the unbeliever is condemnation and an eternal separation from God. "Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son" (John 3:18).

Billy Graham, in his book, "Nearing Home, " shared the following: "We sometimes speak of a beautiful sunset or a warm spring day as 'glorious, ' but even earth 's most awe-inspiring nature is but a shadow of the glory of heaven. When the apostle John was given a glimpse of heaven 's grandeur, he barely could find words to describe it, comparing it to the most wondrous objects on earth—only far greater: 'It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal... The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass… This city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb [Christ] is its lamp " (Revelations 21: 1 1, 21, 23).

1 Corinthians 2:9 says, "No eye has seen, nor ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him." Jonathon Edwards, trying to explain the awesomeness of our home in heaven declared, "To pretend to describe the excellence, the greatness or duration of the happiness of heaven by the artful composition of words would be but to darken and cloud it: to talk of raptures and ecstasies, joy and singing, is but to set forth low shadows of reality.”

Jesus, desiring that everyone would come to heaven, died on the cross to provide the forgiveness of sins necessary to go there. He rose from the dead and now declares we too shall live for all eternity with Him in heaven, if we but believe and receive the eternal life He provides. "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself" (Philippians 3:20 & 21).

Knowing that I am going home to heaven changes everything. I know my stay on this earth is temporary, and because of what Christ has done for me, I want to serve Him with my total being. As a believer who is going home to heaven, I receive a taste of heaven now as the Holy Spirit works within me and awakens me daily to the wonders of God's creation. With this taste of heaven, my hunger keeps growing to go there with each passing day.

Living in the light of eternity and knowing you are going home to heaven means being prepared for your death. "We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brothers (or sister) abides in death. Whoever hates his brother (or sister) is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has an eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother (or sister) in need, and shuts up his heart from him (or her), how does the love of God abide in him? Let us not love in word or tongue, but in deed and in truth" (1 John 3:14-18).

That is the challenge that exists for each of us as we prepare to go home to heaven. It is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit that continues to help us be more than conquerors each day as we get closer and closer to our homecoming. It won't be long now. So let us use every opportunity to get ready to go to our heavenly home.

Yours in Christ,

Larry Rice