Heaven is so much better than earth that we can hardly compare the two. On earth we have pain and suffering, whereas in heaven there will be none. That comparison alone should make you long to walk on the streets of gold.
It’s by the mercy of God that He allows us to die so that we can go to heaven. “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Psalm 116:15 NKJV). From the perspective of heaven, leaving earth is a gain.
We fear death too much because we trust God too little. It’s on our way out of this earth that we have our faith tested the most. Jesus promised us a place in heaven, and don’t you know every promise of His is as certain as the sun rising each day.
Settle your soul, Christian; your last day on earth will be your first day in heaven. “Then he said, ‘Yeshua, remember me when you enter your kingdom.’ Yeshua said to him, ‘I can guarantee this truth: Today you will be with me in paradise.’” (Luke 23:42-43 NOG).
Often the circumstances on this lowly earth weigh us down so much because we have taken our eyes off heaven above. If you’re born again, then your spirit will live for all of eternity. Keep your eyes on heaven.
Things on earth will only bother you if your focus is on them. Look to heaven. “Set your mind and keep focused habitually on the things above [the heavenly things], not on things that are on the earth [which have only temporal value].” (Colossians 3:2 AMP).
We must strive to live a life of a balanced desire, that we would long to go to heaven and be with our Lord, but also long to stay here on earth so long as the Lord has things He still wants us to do. The way to know you’re not done here on earth is you’re still breathing.
As His servants, we serve His purposes. “For to me, to live is Christ [He is my source of joy, my reason to live] and to die is gain [for I will be with Him in eternity]. If, however, it is to be life here and I am to go on living, this will mean useful and productive service for me…” (Philippians 1:21-22 AMP).
When we get to heaven, there will be many tears we will shed. I’m most sure it will be for those that we loved who refused the free gift of eternal life from Jesus Christ. But God Himself will wipe away our tears, and a time will come when there will be no more crying.
Heaven is the ultimate “do-over” in God’s divine eternal plan. “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying…” (Revelation 21:4 NKJV).
Most teach of an eternal hell where unbelievers will suffer for all of eternity. But these teachers are wrong. Unbelievers who rejected God were never born again in the spirit. For unbelievers, born once, die twice. In effect, they have a spiritual miscarriage of their own choosing. For believers, born twice, die once. Their spirit will live forever.
There is no middle ground between heaven and hell, but a single choice. “…He who overcomes [the world through believing that Jesus is the Son of God] will not be hurt by the second death…” (Revelation 2:11 AMP).
This second death is God’s gracious and merciful plan to those who reject Him. Your loved ones who reject God will not suffer forever, but they will miss out on the joy of living with Him forever, and that’s an infinitely big miss. We were meant to be immortal.
It doesn’t matter how much you’re known on earth but in heaven.
Jesus promised, “He who overcomes [the world through believing that Jesus is the Son of God] will accordingly be dressed in white clothing; and I will never blot out his name from the Book of Life, and I will confess and openly acknowledge his name before My Father and before His angels [saying that he is one of Mine]” (Revelation 3:5 AMP).
“The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:14-15 NIV).
Fire is judgment because light exposes the dark. “For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed” (John 3:20 NKJV).
Hell is a place eternally separated from God, many will die their second death there. Only the rebellious eternal beings, the fallen angels, will live there forever. We will mourn those we love who go there, and thank God He did not let them suffer forever.
Salvation is a free gift, but unless you receive it, then it doesn’t yet belong to you. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23 ESV).
Some think that heaven will be in the clouds with floating spirits. But God’s plan is to bring the spiritual heaven back down to earth. God’s design of earth was good; it was the fall of man that made things bad. God will remove the bad, and we will live on the earth renewed.
Don’t be afraid of what might go wrong, knowing that in the end God will make everything right. “We are looking for what God has promised, which are new heavens and a new earth. Only what is right and good will be there” (2 Peter 3:13 NLV).
Many think that everyone will be equal in heaven. But God is a God of order and fairness. The angels have a hierarchy, and so will we. Rewards will be given fairly based on the rewards each believer has earned individually. God knows what we do.
The rewards in heaven are never dependent on how people treat you, but on how you treat them. “For we [believers will be called to account and] must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be repaid for what has been done in the body, whether good or bad [that is, each will be held responsible for his actions, purposes, goals, motives—the use or misuse of his time, opportunities and abilities]” (2 Corinthians 5:10 AMP).
Heavenly rewards are not monetary, as who cares about money when the streets of heaven are paved with gold. The rewards will be the assignments, what the Lord will entrust each of us to do. Heaven is not a retirement home but thriving communities of believers.
You can’t be the servant without the service. “…His servants shall serve Him…forever and ever” (Revelation 22:3,5 NKJV).
The best reward any of us can hope to receive when we enter the gates of heaven is to learn about those precious souls that entered heaven with even a small influence from us. And who is it that you will be thanking when you get to heaven?
The best impression comes from those who do not try to impress. “I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus” (1 Corinthians 1:4 NKJV).
Don’t let the stories of man weigh heavier in your hearts regarding heaven than the Word of God and all His promises that He has written there. Pray to God that you could knock on heaven’s door, that He just might let you take a peek inside.
When love is your compass, heaven will be your destination. “Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life” (Jude 21 NIV).
Blessings to you always,
Paul Balius
Dear Brothers and Sisters, I wrote this message the other day when I was completely wiped out. I’ve been dealing with an autoimmune disease the last few years that has eaten away at my joints, which causes bone-on-bone pain. Then, a few weeks ago, after a new and very bad pain in my back, my spine doctor discovered I am bone-on-bone between two vertebrae just above my last back surgery. Another surgery is coming.
So, I had really high pain from this back issue a few days ago, and then the next day I woke up to super high blood pressure, the highest ever. I was close to going to the ER and was waiting to see if my blood pressure was going to stay so high.
So, I lay down, and I prayed: “Lord, I am good to go to heaven whenever You’re done with me here on earth.” Then He gave me these words, “Knocking on Heaven’s Door.” Then the rest just poured out. Afterward, I added devotions I wrote in the past with the verses added in.
Child of God, don’t you know that He loves you so much? There is nothing you need to fear. We have a Father in heaven eagerly waiting for us to come home, and someday we will be most blessed when we do. But until then, my fellow sojourners, let’s serve God here on earth. He will give you all the time you need to accomplish His purposes in your life.
You know, you don’t have to be afraid of death when you are going to live for all of eternity. And don’t fear suffering for a day, a year, and even longer, because forever in heaven you will not. Put your life in His hands and stop worrying. He has you.
Go deeper
If this spoke to you, there is more. Paul Balius has written a book called “If You Can Believe”. It goes deeper into all of this, for anyone ready to believe God for the impossible.
Paul has written three books. See them all
When we read Romans 6:23 NIV, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life…” the death is not referring to the first death, our bodily death, for all will die the first death. It is the second death that is at stake, the fate of our eternal spirit. Only by God’s gift and Christ’s sacrifice can we be born again in the Spirit.
Beautiful, beloved brother, daily, in the Spirit, I have had the privilege of praying for you, and shall be pleased to continue doing so until He directs me otherwise.
So very intimately I relate with, and thus appreciate so very deeply, your writing on heaven. The past few days, this specific subject has been an emphasis the Spirit has been blessedly bringing to my spirit. This morning, sitting at our Lord’s feet, gazing on His face, hearing His still, small voice, I was truly thanking Him for taking me home to heaven soon. I’m crying now, being reminded of this. In heaven, you and I, my wonderful Jesus lover and fine friend, will gladly, gratefully, gloriously greet and meet.
Yes, our spirit is eternal if we are born again, that is, born into the kingdom of heaven by repenting and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, because He is the Eternal One who is Eternal Life. He who has joined Himself to the Lord by repentance and belief in the Lord is one spirit with the Lord. Certainly, hell is sorrow, pain, and torment, but mercifully, such a state of consciousness eventually ends.
Is hell really never-ending conscious anguish, agony, and pain of spirit, soul, and body? Was it not Augustine of Hippo in the 4th century who gave us that wildly rampant doctrine? During the first few centuries, the early church did not mistakenly believe the heresy that hell is never-ending.
Teaching that hell never ends but is eternal massively misrepresents the character, nature, and attributes of our just but ceaselessly compassionate Creator.
Study the words ‘forever ’, ‘everlasting ’, and ‘eternal’ in Hebrew/Greek and their usage in various other passages not referring to hell or heaven, such as the mountains in Psalms and Jonah in the belly of the whale. In those two examples, even in English, the words everlasting and forever cannot carry the definition commonly ascribed to hell.
Know that the Greek word often translated as “forever” or “everlasting” or “eternal” (aion) MORE LITERALLY means “age”, referring to a lengthy but limited period of time.
WHEN the adjective aionios, meaning everlasting, is used in Greek with nouns of action, it has reference to the RESULT of the act, NOT the PROCESS. The phrase (1) everlasting punishment is comparable to (2) everlasting redemption and (3) everlasting salvation, all Scriptural phrases. All three, according to the correct usage of Greek, are in reference to the result, not the process.
The lost shall not be in punishment forever but will be punished once and for all with eternal RESULTS.
I humbly hope that those erroneously, egregiously exercised as though hell is never-ending, conscious anguish and agony will get this sorted out to the praise of the glory of the God Who Is Truth, Love, and Justice in perfect proportion for all His creation.
Dr. Basil Atkinson explains Greek usage of the words eternal or everlasting as follows, and I quote:
“When the adjective aionios, meaning everlasting, is used in Greek with nouns of action, it has reference to the result of the act, not the process. The phrase everlasting punishment is comparable to everlasting redemption and everlasting salvation, both Scriptural phrases. No one supposes that we are being redeemed or saved forever. We were redeemed and saved once for all by Christ with eternal results. In the same way, the lost will not be passing through the process of punishment forever but will be punished once and for all with eternal results. On the other hand, the noun ‘life’ is not a noun of action, but a noun expressing a state. Thus life itself is eternal.”
Basil F. C. Atkinson, Life and Immortality. An Examination of the Nature and Meaning of Life and Death as they are revealed in the Scriptures (Taunton, England, n. n.), p.101
I really liked what you wrote with this: “The lost shall not be in punishment forever but will be punished once and for all with eternal RESULTS.” That, my friend, is a good word!
When I wrote this blog I expected to get some push back as so many preach and believe in eternal pain and suffering for the lost. But how can that possibly be aligned with a God who is love? God loved us so much He sent His Son to die for us, and He wants us all to be in heaven. Many say God sends people to hell. No He doesn’t, He does everything He can to turn them back to Himself. People have a choice, heaven or hell, and it is entirely up to them.
When Adam and Eve fell, God had to remove them from the Garden of Eden. The reason why is because that is where the Tree of Life is, and if you eat from that tree, you will live forever. Had they eaten from the tree they would have lived in their sin forever. By God’s mercy, he wouldn’t allow it. They had to die in their flesh so they could someday be born again in the Spirit. They needed the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to cleanse them from all sin such that they could enter heaven, blameless before God.
It is the same principle today. We must accept the free gift of Jesus Christ to cleanse our sin before we would enter into eternity with God. Those that accept it will live forever, and as is plainly written in Scripture, those that do not will experience a second death. A merciful God, who is love, will never let a wayward soul suffer forever.
Paul, you write: “When Adam and Eve fell, God had to remove them from the Garden of Eden. The reason why is because that is where the Tree of Life is, and if you eat from that tree, you will live forever. Had they eaten from the tree they would have lived in their sin forever. By God’s mercy, he wouldn’t allow it. They had to die in their flesh so they could someday be born again in the Spirit. They needed the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to cleanse them from all sin such that they could enter heaven, blameless before God.”
Thank you for that rich revelation!
You’re welcome! We are so blessed that God is so merciful. Like His mercy and His love, His plans are unstoppable!
Oh Father most high, thou knowest. Send healing on Your wings, heal Paul and he will be healed. Thank you that your mercies are truly new every morning, most Faithful and True.
Thank you for sharing your inspirations, Paul. God bless you.
Thank you so much for your prayers!
God bless you, Paul. Thank you for your weekly posts.
You’re most welcome! It is a privilege to serve the Lord!
Dear Paul, I am praying for you, my brother. We will never see each other here, but we will see each other there. Looking forward to a big hug.
Dear John, thank you so much for your prayers. I’ll be looking forward to that big hug! God’s best to you.