Fascinated by Heaven

“There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever” (Rev. 22:5, NKJV).

For several years now, I have been taken with the subject of heaven, fascinated by it well beyond anything I had experienced previously in my life. I have read numerous testimonies recorded by individuals who died, had experiences of heaven, and were raised back to life to tell about it. Here I would like to share a quote with you from one of the books I finished recently, written by a man who was dead for eight hours before returning to his body:

“But I noticed something… in heaven, there is no such thing as tomorrow and no such thing as yesterday. It was and is always right now.

“I asked one of the angels how time is measured in heaven. He looked at me with a puzzled expression on his face. He said, ‘You mean time as you know it?’

“‘Yes.’

“He continued, ‘Time here is not measured in such trivial things as years, but in ages where the glory of God rolls on forever.'”*

The reason I share this with you is to invite you to meditate with me on the enormity of eternity. Frequent reflection on our coming reward is vitally important for maintaining a vibrant spiritual life. This is why Holy Spirit urges us, “…Set your hearts on the things that are in heaven, where Christ sits on his throne… Keep your minds fixed on things there, not on things here on earth” (Col. 3:1b-2, GNT).

God earnestly desires that our hearts and minds be set on the reality of heaven, rather than being absorbed with our material lives here. He wants us entirely fixated on the unspeakable beauty and glory that await us. This perspective will be a tremendous boost in our efforts to live in such a way as to maximize our eternal recompense. It will help us keep at the forefront a message that is exceedingly clear in His Word: He will give to each of us according to our deeds done in the body. Our works do not save us, but they do act as deposits into our eternal account! (Matt. 16:27).

Holy Spirit whispered something to my heart this morning that I believe will help you grasp how essential this truth is. He explained to me that every second of our lives on earth corresponds to an “age” in heaven. For every second of obedience, we will exult in an entire age of indescribably blissful reward. In other words, sixty seconds given over passionately to the Lord’s purposes here will translate into sixty eons of ecstasy there.

Keep in mind, though, this does not mean that once He has run out of finite seconds to reward us for, we will spend the rest of eternity twiddling our thumbs. On the contrary! The rewarding will go on and on and on and on, in perpetuity, with no end, ever! This illustration is simply a way to start wrapping our minds around how worthwhile it is to invest our every moment alive on this planet in things that will matter forever.

Pouring our lives out to Him in surrender is our “spiritual act of worship” (Rom. 12:1). The degree of reward we receive in heaven will be in direct proportion to the measure of worship we lavish on Him here. For this reason, we want to “store up treasures in heaven,” by offering our bodies today, in this moment, to Him, as living sacrifices.

Angels are inscribing every colossal and every tiny gesture of loving service to Him indelibly into His Book of Remembrance. Daddy is planning on extravagantly expressing to us forever and ever His gratitude over each one of these demonstrations of our devotion. We can’t even imagine the deluge of His goodness that will eternally, overwhelmingly wash over us as He does so!

Understanding this, give your today wholeheartedly to Him as a worship offering. Eagerly ask Him to do with you, in the day that lies ahead, absolutely everything that is stirring in His heart. Remember that every minute of every hour in front of you holds staggering importance for eternity!

*Sigmund, Richard, My Time in Heaven, p. 96

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What are some of your thoughts about heaven?