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Wednesday, October 5, 2011

What Christians do in Heaven

Revelation 4:10-11 And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying,  11 “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”

As we saw in yesterday's blog, the twenty four elders, gathered at the throne of God, represent believers of all ages, as well as being quite literally 24 literal saints of God - 12 apostles and the twelve heads of the tribes of Israel from the Old Testament.  With this understanding we can begin to understand a little bit as to what Christians can expect to do when they are in the presence of God in Heaven.  Along with other passages in the New Testament, we can get a pretty good picture of what Christians can expect concerning their future destination.

1. Definite Home WIth the Lord.  2 Corinthians 5:6-8 states: Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight— 8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.

2. Delightful welcome in Heaven. Heaven as the Christian's destination is revealed by God to encourage Christians to live for the Lord while here in this world.  Consider the promise of a delightful welcome in 2 Peter 1:10-11 10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; 11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

3. Definite Joy over seeing Christ.  The saints of God in Heaven will do what these saints are described doing in Revelation 4:9-10 And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

4. Definite recognition of other believers. So what will it be like when we are in the presence of the Lord with other saints stretched across the ages?  Scripture indicates we will recognize one another not only by sight, but intuitively.  Peter for instance stated that when He saw Jesus on the Mount of transfiguration in Matthew 17:3-4, that he saw "Moses and Elijah".  Now how did he know?  He had no picture of them, and they had lived hundreds of years before he came on the scene.  Clearly when believers are in the direct presence of the Lord, the Holy Spirit who unites them all together in Christ will enable them to recognize each other instantly.