So what does heaven look like?
Revelation 21:15-27 The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits thick, by man’s measurement, which the angel was using. The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass. I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
One Stadia is equal to 600 feet. So the dimensions would be approximately 1363 miles high, 1363 miles wide and 1363 miles long. It doesn’t seems that long when you think that the length would be from approximately the East Coast to Colorado when you consider all believers from all time are to be in heaven. But then you get to the height of heaven. The Space Shuttle flies between 200 and 240 miles above the earth. Now heaven is going to extend 1363 miles about the earth. WOW now that is a big heaven.
A cubit is 18 inches so the wall of heaven will be 200 feet thick made up of awesome crystals. Now realize this. There will be no need for the sun as God’s glory will illuminate all heaven, even to 1300 miles above the earth!!!!!!! That is why God should receive our praise, glory and honor from morning till night. We serve an awesome God but we treat Him for the most part like another man. That is where we get into trouble.
I have come to realize that heaven is down on our list of priorities for a number of reasons.
1. It seems far off for us
2. We don’t know much about heaven
3. Our goals are on this earth
4. Most of us don’t even have goals
In order to do anything great in life your life you need to have goals. When I say goals we can have goals that glorify us or we can have goals that glorify God. Sometimes they can be so closely related that we can get lost in our mission. I was speaking to a friend last night that works for one of the richest people in the world. He said that this person is always miserable because he is worried about losing it all.
Ecclesiastes 5:19 “Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work--this is a gift of God.”
No matter how much or how little you have it is God who enables you to enjoy what you have. So be very careful what goals you set for yourself. When I set goals to run in High School and College it was all about me. That was mistake number one. God had given me a great talent one in which I tried to glorify myself instead of using that talent to glorify the One who gave me the talent. I had a number of goals that I met and surpassed but it became a feeling of emptiness because of my self glorification.
Most of us only do what is the hottest thing on our agenda. Most of us are not into delayed gratification. But that is what heaven is. We need discipline to have our goal in the future as far as heaven is concerned. As I was talking about vacations yesterday most of us get so excited the weeks before we go. Why is it that we are not excited about heaven? Now some of you may be saying “I am excited about heaven”. This brings me back to another problem we have as Christians. A lot of us say what people want to hear instead of what is in our heart. A lot of us don’t want to be open with our struggles and lack of discipline. So we start to build this Christian wall that takes on a life all its own. Before we know it we have put so many bricks up that no one can get in. It is also so big that if we were to take it down everyone would notice and ask us what was wrong.
You cannot live a joyful life unless you are ready to go to heaven today. If you are not ready that means you are holding onto something that is an imposter of the original. God has built a home for YOU. So when you desire to be here on earth more than heaven you are telling God that heaven is second best!!!!!!! So how do we view heaven as our goal and have joy now?
Let Go!!!!! Each of us has attached ourselves to some THING that is taking our attention and affection away from God. This is a great plan of Satan that we fall right into. If a man who owns 50 companies and is worth billions is miserable then why do you think money is not the answer to happiness? If we are cured of a sickness but still have to have an earthly death why are we worried about our health? If our children are not our own but we have them for a time why do we worry that God cannot take care of them? Why do we worry others may get a better deal at work than us when maybe we have worked harder? Our short sidedness can rob all the joy that the Lord has to give.
In heaven there will be unspeakable joy for eternity for all believers. But here is the interesting part to all of this. God has promised us that joy now if we have the Holy Spirit in our lives. We can have joy this side of heaven. So what is the problem with us? It is that THING or THINGS. Don’t feel bad I am the master of THINGS and God has shown me through many trials who is in charge. He loves me and he loves you enough to take things away. It is when we get things taken away, maybe everything taken away that we finally see where and who we should be putting our focus on.
Heaven is a very real place where there is no sin, we will have new bodies that resemble our same features but without pain. There will be many great things we can do as we will never be bored. We will never have to play politics again, worry about our health or bills:) There will be a million great things more we can do in heaven but these are just a few. The only way to know about heaven is to read the Bible, pray, worship (find a good church with fellowship that preaches God’s word) and think more about others than you do yourself.
“Lord forgive me for my hearts desire to be with what’s in front of me instead of you. Help me to stop chasing fantasies and to start to chase after you. Help me to do the most that I can with the talents you have given me. But help me to do that for your glory not my own. Lord I struggle everyday with trying to make a difference. Please take all pride out of my body and replace that through your Holy Spirit with humility and grace. Help me to think of others more than I do myself. Please help me to have a longing for heaven more than I do for the false trappings that are here on earth.” Amen.
No matter what is going on today, God knows. Not only does He know but he planed it. Be excited about heaven more than any vacation and you will start to let go of the things this world has to offer. Then and only then will true joy start to flood your soul.
Take care
Brad
