What Are Your Expectations of Heaven?

Jesus often told his followers to set their hearts on things above. St Paul himself told his followers to affix their eyes on what lies before us. Even a casual observer of scripture would have to admit that the Bible often tells us to set our hearts, our direction heavenward.

I take a lot of family vacations. Each year our children along with their spouses and our grandchildren travel to the beaches of North Carolina or Florida for a week. My wife and I rent a home and for one blessed week we laugh, dine, and pray together as a family.  During the year out kids and grandchildren will often talk about some of the experiences they have had on their last family vacation. We all look forward and plan with great expectation for next year’s trip with eager excitement - Because we know what to expect, our hearts are set in a certain direction.

I will jump off here and ask you a very pointed question. Do you know what to expect after you leave this life?

The Bible has a great verse and it goes like this, “Lord show me the shortness of my days that I may gain wisdom of heart.”  We all are on a very short trip here. The greatest adventure of life begins when this one ends. Think about that…… Don’t get discouraged about your future. Get excited. Look up as Jesus said “For your redemption is at hand”.

Our biggest dilemma is that we do not know what lies beyond. Our hearts are not affixed because we have no idea of what to expect. Imagine my family never having had a beach vacation, let alone a family one. There would be no expectation, no real excitement. It is when we understand the experience that we can then begin to affix our gaze, to set our hearts on something….

The bible has a lot to say about the afterlife and much of it is very plain to understand.

We are fed a fast food diet of incorrect notions about eternity by our culture, often seeing ethereal spirits floating on clouds musing about their day while pondering some abstract idea. It seems very cerebral but totally false. I certainly wouldn’t have my heart set on that kind of afterlife and I am sure you wouldn’t either. I want a productive future just like I have now, and you know what? That’s what awaits you!

What does the Bible say?
The scriptures are quite clear about the return of Jesus Christ in the future. It is spoken about in most of the prophetic books in the Old Testament, and in the New Testament by Jesus himself. St John’s Book of Revelations is devoted entirely to the subject also, his being the only book of scripture that promises its reader a blessing for taking the time to explore its pages. 

For me Isaiah chapter 11 captures the essence of change we can expect in the future. The scriptures seem to allude to a re-creation of Earth in the distant future, St John, Isaiah, and Ezekiel all spoke about the kingdom of God descending upon the earth and His eternal kingdom being established right here. That is very clear…..  They candidly call it “A New Heaven and new earth.”
When our first parents rebelled against God something more profound occurred than simply losing a personal connection to God and sin entering humanities line. On that day a cosmic shift occurred that affected our entire universe both physically and spiritually. Our world has been permanently skewed ever since. God it appears will address this physical skewing that took place millennia ago with some kind of a transformative process of the entire universe.

The exciting thing about your future is when we leave our earthly existence, it is only temporary. We will be back, not to float on clouds, but to serve and work in God’s eternal kingdom right here on a restored planet earth. St Paul said that Jesus’ followers, us, are going to be judges of the world and rule with Jesus himself in his kingdom. I don’t know about you, but I am very excited about my future. Indeed, when we know our inheritance, death loses a lot of its sting and our hearts begin to get affixed to eternities heartbeat.

As humans we look at things in a linear fashion, looking at salvation for example, as a onetime event along a long line of successive events. Jesus, however, looks at salvation as part of the entire process of redemption which is ongoing. The culmination of that redemption occurs when we enter our eternal abode AND reach our fullest potential that God has planned for us since the beginning, a potential we could never achieve in our sin clad bodies.

So, it is with this understanding, this realization of what awaits, that I can look up with excitement and expectation just as my family does for that next family vacation, knowing that my fullest potential does not occur here but in the future. Yours and my FULL redemption might be far off, but it is exciting to know that God has a host of breathtaking surprises in store for us.

Jesus was once asked why he was healing on the Sabbath and his response was “My Father is always at his work and I, too, am working”. Our future certainly does not coexist with the cultural image of us floating on clouds in rest for eternity, rather it is a future of productivity and in reaching our highest potential. The scriptures are clear that our future lives are going to be wonderfully dynamic in a way that we could never imagine.

Isaiah clearly talks about the rule of God’s kingdom by saying that nations will turn their weapons of war into pruning hooks and plow shears. In those days’ children will play with a viper and not be hurt. Lions will lie down with lambs and graze like cattle. God says on that day “Nothing will hurt on all my holy mountain”.
Interestingly enough the book of Genesis talks about the dietary habits of the first predators and how, it seems, they were all vegetarians in the beginning.

Isaiah talks about the paths of rivers changing course, the result of which is water diverted to more areas of the earth. Luscious fruit trees will line the banks of these great rivers where fruit can be eaten in any season. It is recorded that those same rivers which flow through and from God’s eternal kingdom will change our oceans into fresh water source and the scorching heat of the sun will no longer burn our skin.

In those days Isaiah says “Nation will swarm to God to inquire of his wisdom where they will learn from Him and He will judge the nations fairly”.  It certainly appears that God’s eternal kingdom will be established here while there are people still living alongside us who have passed on before. There will be commerce and peace established on earth where God will judge the disputes of nations. Happily, though, commerce will be done honestly and with integrity because scripture says the light of God will surround us all.
Our future involves not only a political shift from man to God as rule, but an environmental and geographical change as well.
Now that is Good News!

In closing, affix your gaze and yearn for home and that will keep you steadfast. When hardships appear in your life try to remember that it is only temporary and recall your Fathers words from Isaiah
“And upon his government there will be no end.” Isaiah 9:7
“I go to prepare a place for you” John 14