A Glimpse of Heaven

One night recently, the LORD woke me up as the Holy Spirit prayed through me. I don’t recall everything spoken in the Spirit that night, but it was powerful. As I woke up a little more and began to pray my own prayer in the Spirit, I soon realized I needed to use the bathroom. I got up out of bed and continued praising and worshipping God. Right there in the restroom, the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to see into the heavens above me; it was as if I could see right through the ceiling of our bathroom. As I looked up, and even as I closed my eyes, I was able to see the planets, the galaxies and the many stars all around me. I then saw a host of angelic beings encircled around the heavens. A beautiful light flooded the center of the heavens, and more than a billion unique points of color, like lights, encircled it. The feet of God were upon the earth, and as I followed His feet and looked up into the sky, I could see that He was seated upon the heavens like a throne.

The Holy Spirit tenderly spoke to my heart: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be?” These words from the Prophet Isaiah were also spoken at the stoning of Stephen. As Stephen said in his final moments, before falling asleep in Christ Jesus: “The Most High does not live in houses made by human hands”. The LORD revealed to me in that moment that heaven is not merely some far-off place, but rather it is here and now. It is all around us, in us and for us now.

When God created the heavens and the earth in the beginning, the earth was literally nothing; an unformed clump of matter. God spoke, and it became everything we see today, but so much more; it was perfect and eternal. When sin came into the world, it didn’t just affect man, but also the entire creation of God. In the garden of God, man was able to walk and talk with God. Man enjoyed a body that lived both in the physical and the spiritual. Man enjoyed a body that was immortal, unfearful of death, but also perfect and complete without sickness or disease. Man enjoyed an existence with God that allowed man to live both inside and outside of heaven and earth; he communed with the LORD.

Through this imagery, I was reminded that Jesus came into the world to restore order, to conquer death and to renew man’s relationship with the Father. When Jesus ascended into heaven, He promised the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit quite literally “indwells” the believer and makes “home” within each one of us. Because God made all things, man cannot make a home or resting place for God, because God is the Most High; it is an impossibility. God, in His infinite wisdom, sent Jesus to restore creation, renew His relationship with man and to find home and a resting place within the heart of man through Christ Jesus.

Heaven is in us all; those of us who have been redeemed and chosen by the blood of the Lamb. Heaven is not just a mystical place that is far-off and distant, but a place that the earth and the heavens reside in. Heaven is the place between one heartbeat and the next. Heaven is as high as the heavens above, but as near as your bathroom sink. Heaven is in you. It is in me. It is in all of the Chosen of God. Can you see it? Can you hear it? Can you feel it and understand that the life we live on this earth is not life, but death, and that true life is in Christ alone? 

Oh, how I long for the day when we can all experience the JOY of heaven as children of the Most High God; when we might encircle the throne of God and sing praises to our King forever and ever! Amen!