When I was close to 13 years old, I had a dream about heaven, I dreamed that it was this big hospital, and as I walked down the halls all I seen was room after room of sick people laying in bed, there some people who had Iv’s hooked up to them, the were some who had cast on their legs or on their arm. When I woke up, I so disappointed, I had been told all of my young life how beautiful heaven is going to be, and how perfect heaven was going to be, and yet, I couldn’t shake that image out of my mind. I had spent most of my young life, either going to the doctor with momma, or sitting at the hospital with momma, and now to have a dream where heaven is nothing but a big giant hospital, was such a let down! That has always stuck in the back of my mind, because it seemed so real, and no matter what I read about heaven, the streets of gold, no sickness, no death, being reunited with love ones, being with Jesus, those images of that dream haunted me.
As I started studying, about something we may not know about heaven, I really got excited about the verses I found in God’s word and as I have been studying this, I have a new anticipation for heaven and when that happened, God really spoke to me about that dream I had…It was simply this….Heaven is where all sickness and hurts (the people in cast) will be healed!! Makes sense, that is why we go to the hospital on this old earth, isn’t it?
But I am not the only one, who has had fears, or wrong ideas about heaven!
You hear a lot of those ideas come to surface, when there is a funeral, or someone talking about the death of a love one.
So Where Do People Get Their Misconceptions About Heaven?
The number one reason that we have a distorted view of heaven, is because Satan
Likes to make sure we receive bad information, and the good information we do receive about heaven, he tries to twist it.
Remember, what Jesus said about the Devil….John 8:44-You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
So when you hear something about heaven, and it does not line up with scripture, in other words, that scripture doesn’t back that statement up, then you know, who it is from!
During the tribulation, the antichrist will rise up, or the beast, as the bible calls him, and look what he attacks with his words!
Revelation 13:6-Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven.
Satan slanders three things: (He has been doing this all thru history) God’s person, (His name), God’s place (His tabernacle, heaven), those who dwell in heaven (God’s people)
Satan not only attacking us on a daily basis but also our view of God , and our view of heaven.
Colossians 3:1-2-If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.
Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
What better place for Satan to attack, than the place where God says to have our mind on!
Satan knows that if he can get you to think less of God, to think less of heaven, you will focus more on the here and now, instead of the here after!!
And if you are not excited about the prospect of heaven, then you are not going to witness to people, so they can go to heaven!
When you go somewhere and it was nice…(Restaurant, movie, sight seeing), you are more apt to pass that information on, because you want others to experience, what you experienced!
But also when you go somewhere and it was a bad experience, you will pass that information on too!
If Satan can get you, to not have high opinion of heaven, it will come across to others, maybe thru your attitude, your mannerisms, thru your lifestyle!
So How Should We Feel About Heaven?
We have to go to the standard of promise, of what God wants us to anticipate!
John 14:2-3-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.
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.
Now, I want you to think of this verse in these terms….As soon to be groom talking to his soon to be bride.
If the bride groom says, to his soon to be wife… I go to prepare a place for you.
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.
How do you think she would respond?
Not a single day would go by, not a single hour, in which the bride wouldn’t anticipate joining her husband in that place he prepared for her.
Isn’t that what most couple want when they get married, is to be with one another!
To live happily ever after!
But I am afraid that for most Christians they are not thinking in those terms, Satan has robbed them of that joy that comes with anticipating, what it will be like to be with Jesus forever!
Most people have the view, that we will be sitting on a cloud playing a harp, no wonder people don’t get excited about that!
But if you come to realize that you are going to be with the One who loves you the most, the One who has done for you the most, and that you get to spend eternity with Him, I don’t know how that couldn’t excite you!!
Next week, we will find some things about heaven you may not know!
