Don’t settle in too much; earth is not your home. “For this world is not our home; we are looking forward to our everlasting home in heaven” (Hebrews 13:14 TLB).
Child of God, heaven is your home, and your time on earth is like a single breath on the timeline of eternity. All your joy on earth is barely a taste of what you will enjoy in heaven. All your suffering on earth will become a distant memory the moment you step into His eternal kingdom.
Heaven satisfies what the world never can. “You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11 NKJV).
Have you ever had a day in which it hurts to open your eyes or even hear the sounds around you? That is my life every day. God gifted me with a life of suffering where my autistic-like sensory system often makes it impossible to tolerate the world around me.
The future hope of heaven comforts you in the troubles of the day. “We thank God for the hope that is being kept for you in heaven. You first heard about this hope through the Good News which is the Word of Truth” (Colossians 1:5 NLV).
How can I say that God has gifted me with suffering? It is because I have been shown by the Lord all the ways He has used this suffering for His purposes to be realized in my life. Never underestimate how much God can do through your suffering.
You can’t see the value in suffering focusing on only the costs and not the return. “These troubles and sufferings of ours are, after all, quite small and won’t last very long. Yet this short time of distress will result in God’s richest blessing upon us forever and ever! So we do not look at what we can see right now, the troubles all around us, but we look forward to the joys in heaven which we have not yet seen. The troubles will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever” (2 Corinthians 4:17-18 TLB).
When I was a very young child, I didn’t understand my sensory condition. It hurt to be around people, and I thought they were hurting me on purpose. I wondered what I had done to deserve being punished. All I could do was to go and be alone even when I didn’t want to be alone.
The Lord has a purpose for your pain. “Jesus replied, ‘You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will’” (John 13:7 NLT).
When I was a young man, I read some writings from a well-known autistic lady named Temple Grandin. I discovered my condition, and the revelation floored me. I kept learning more and found out about some treatments. I was finding treasures in my darkness.
Don’t only ask God to change your circumstances but to have your circumstances change you. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28 NKJV).
I met a doctor, and we arranged to get me the treatment. It used auditory impulses to help re-channel the sensory pathways. After almost two weeks of daily treatment, nothing happened. Then, near the end of the treatments, something wonderful happened: I was cured.
I’ll never forget that the first thing I noticed was that visual stimuli that had been impossible for me to tolerate were no longer an issue at all. My healing continued, and every auditory pain suddenly went away. I had a normal sensory system. I was a new me.
I felt like I was in heaven. I was a new person, and my senses of the world around me were now at peace. It lasted about three days, and then it all changed back. I was broken again. I couldn’t afford to do the treatment again. And it left my system worse off, so I never wanted to try again.
Look forward to heaven more than fear the things in between. “But we are looking forward to God’s promise of new heavens and a new earth afterwards, where there will be only goodness” (2 Peter 3:13 TLB).
God gave me a taste of heaven. In heaven, my body will be whole, and my sensory system will work as it should. I tasted what it was like to not be broken. I may still have a hard time here on Earth, but my hope for heaven outweighs any burden that I must carry along the way.
We all have burdens. Some will be crushed beneath them. Others will set them down and use them as a stepping stone to go somewhere higher. “Cast your burden on the Lord [releasing the weight of it] and He will sustain you; He will never allow the [consistently] righteous to be moved (made to slip, fall, or fail)” (Psalm 55:22 AMPC).
Around 25 years after I had read Temple Grandin’s writings, I contributed to a book someone was writing about my condition. When I got a copy of the book, I saw something wonderful: Temple Grandin had also contributed to the same book. God is the Master planner of our lives.
The greater your future hope, the better you can deal with current problems. “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV).
Child of God, however you are suffering, God knows. Trust Him with your life. Pray for healing, but be willing to praise Him even in your pain. You may not get healed here on earth, but you will most certainly be made well for all of eternity the very day that you step into heaven.
Every pain you have is God tapping you with His finger, saying, “…going to bring you home soon.” “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will no longer be any death; and there will no longer be any mourning, crying or pain; because the old order has passed away” (Revelation 21:4 CJB).
Blessings to you always,
Paul Balius
Beautiful, helpful post as always. Thank you.
Thank you so much!
Paul, beloved brother, thank you so very much for this massively meaningful sharing. I know that I am truly helped enormously by its excellence and emphasis. This, and all your writing together, is deeply discerning of the One Beautiful God’s wonders, ways, and will. Much, much manifest love to you and yours, ever and always
Romans 15:13 AMPC
May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope.
Jude 1:24-25 AMPC
24 Now to Him Who is able to keep you without stumbling or slipping or falling, and to present [you] unblemished (blameless and faultless) before the presence of His glory in triumphant joy and exultation [with unspeakable, ecstatic delight]—
25 To the one only God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory (splendor), majesty, might and dominion, and power and authority, before all time and now and forever (unto all the ages of eternity). Amen (so be it).
Thank you my friend. This blog was such a blessing to me because it stretched back so many years in my life to a time of despair all the way up to a time that I walk with the hope of heaven so richly in my heart. We are most blessed if we can look back and see just how far the Lord has brought us! Blessings to you!
Earth is the womb of heaven – it is here where the shaping and the conformity to Christ are realized or lost. The ones faithful to the pound given will rule according to their faithfulness, the one not faithful suffers loss.
“Fixing our eyes on Jesus…” A good share be blessed.
BT
Thank you so much my friend. I really loved your words. Sometimes God has us reach down deeper than we would want to, but we are blessed when He does. Blessings to you!
Thank you Paul. It is so hard to explain total trust in God to others. You have done a wonderful job!
Thank you. I wonder how many believers really understand the great need to trust the Lord more, because if they do, they will most certainly worry less.
2 Corinthians 5-10 AMP
6 So then, being always filled with good courage and confident hope, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight [living our lives in a manner consistent with our confident belief in God’s promises]— 8 we are [as I was saying] of good courage and confident hope, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. 9 Therefore, whether we are at home [on earth] or away from home [and with Him], it is our [constant] ambition to be pleasing to Him. 10 For we [believers will be called to account and] must all appear before the [a]judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be repaid for what has been done in the body, whether good or [b]bad [that is, each will be held responsible for his actions, purposes, goals, motives—the use or misuse of his time, opportunities and abilities].
I love the Amplified version!
That is 2 Corinthians Chapter 5, verses 6-10. Such a needed blessing to reread this post “A Taste of Heaven” this was and is. Alleluia!
That is 2 Corinthians Chapter 5, verses 6-10. Such a needed blessing to reread this post “A Taste of Heaven” this was and is. Alleluia!
Heaven is going to be better than we can even imagine!
Beloved brother, Paul, in these words the Spirit has so splendidly given you to share, my spirit and soul soak and steep, on our glad and grateful Way out of this realm of ruin, which the Christ of our Abba Almighty Who Is Love has redeemed us, for the forevermore undiminished, holy, happy highlands of heaven hereafter, in most intimate, ecstatic communion with Himself and perfectly enjoyable union with each other, His graced and glorified saints.
Jude 21, 24, 25 AMPC
21 Guard and keep yourselves in the love of God; expect and patiently wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah)—[which will bring you] unto life eternal.
24 Now to Him Who is able to keep you without stumbling or slipping or falling, and to present [you] unblemished (blameless and faultless) before the presence of His glory in triumphant joy and exultation [with unspeakable, ecstatic delight]—
25 To the one only God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory (splendor), majesty, might and dominion, and power and authority, before all time and now and forever (unto all the ages of eternity). Amen (so be it).
We are all so blessed as we live on earth if we have tasted but one morsel of the goodness of heaven and all that awaits us there!