JEAN'S BIBLE STUDY

Chapter 3:

Inhabitants of Heaven

The Holy Spirit is indicating this, that the way into the Holy Place wasn’t yet revealed while the first tabernacle [His fleshly body] was still standing.  Heb 9-8

In the former life the world consisted of people who were indifferent to each other, caring only for themselves and for their immediate family members, but everyone else was just a faceless stranger, not so in heaven. In Jason’s former life it was tiring to go places–like to the grocery store– and see hollow eyes in the people he passed, having no apparent feeling for anyone they didn’t know and having no interest or sense of obligation toward their fellow man. Jason saw this as a great evil. They used the excuse that it was from a lack of trust, but Jason knew they had no love in their hearts, because they didn’t believe in Jesus, and that was their fault. The same attitude existed on city streets and highways in cars, exhibited by the discourteous way people drove. Attitudes like this simply didn’t exist in heaven; instead, everyone is an immediate family member, directly related to each other by faith as brothers and sisters of Christ, and sons and daughters of the Father, and love is what tied them together. In heaven when we meet strangers, we don’t become conceited and look the other way. Instead, we trust them and seek their friendship, knowing they are faithful to God. People in heaven don’t have a reason to lie or steal or hurt us in any way, and people didn’t worry about anyone devising insidious plans against them. Consequently, the number of strangers decreased the longer we were there, and eventually everyone came to know each other, but this took a very long time.  

They were all one big happy family, not metaphorically but literally, consisting of millions of siblings. The Bible says that the Lord adopted us all, including babies that were aborted or stillborn or victims of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) or Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) or killed in some other way, that were never given an opportunity to live and become an adult and amass rewards. These are all in heaven and will remain children forever, and we will adopt them and love them as our own children. Being that there are no children in hell, and that children are a blessing to any family, heaven is filled with them, and they are a blessing to God and to everyone who resides there. Their spiritual maturity was stunted from a lack of experience in their former lives, but they will be blessed in other ways. If Jesus said that heaven was made for adults who humble themselves like children and submit to God, how much more is heaven made for actual children? They will not be given great authority as God has given us, but they will be honored with the angels and greatly loved by all. They will join the chorus of worship and they will not be alone or neglected, but full of joy and energy, running and skipping and chasing on the hills of Zion. Heaven is all the more heavenly because of aborted children populating the great city, another example of God turning tragedy into blessing.

Jesus never left His throne while His people were suffering on earth, and He was clearly suffering with them. Heaven was beautiful; there were flowers and birds and butterflies everywhere, angels and man singing and worshipping God together, but it wasn’t heavenly like it will be after the First Resurrection, when God finally closes the chapter on man’s brutal reign on earth, after the Millennium and after He destroys this present universe and creates a new one in its place, making all things new. Then there will be great joy in heaven, and Jesus will rejoice with His people. Until then Christ was suffering with those on earth, seated on His throne, rarely interacting with the heavenly residents, because they were already blessed; they didn’t need His attention like those who remained on earth, still struggling against the world, the flesh and the devil. He loved us, and we worshipped Him, but we could tell that He was in travail with His people on earth, until the end of the age, which was soon coming, when all things are restored.

People didn’t handpick friends they liked and disowned the others, which is what people did in their former lives. We all came to know each other, and we learned their stories, how they were saved and their experiences as they walked with God, their service and ministry, how many people they led to Christ, their victories and defeats, how the grace of God healed their maladies, leading to the present. People were genuinely interested in learning about everyone’s former life and what activities they were doing in heaven. People were meeting; groups were forming and learning about each other and about God. It took a long time, billions of years, making the transition from complete strangers to becoming an intimate family in the development of unity. God had plans to use them to build a kingdom that would last forever.

Jason saw his future here with Jesus and his new family, and it filled him with joy that welled inside him until he exploded with shouts of joy about this place and about his brethren and his beginning experiences with the Lord. His shouting turned people’s heads and stirred their hearts to cheer with him. These were a collection of the greatest people who ever lived in sinful flesh, who believed in something greater than themselves, who believed in more than what their five senses could tell them, and they invested their lives of squalor in the hope of one day inheriting this place. They believed in God that lived beyond their tragic existence. Many people whom the world called great were not there; this is what Jesus forewarned on the Sermon on the Mount, “Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward” (Mat 6-10), but for the inhabitants of heaven their reward had only begun.

Jeanie introduced Jason to some of her friends she had met over the past fifty years. In his former life Jason missed Jeanie; it broke his heart to see her die, and now that they were reunited, he could hardly bear to be apart from her. He called out her name, and she emerged from a group and said tersely, “We can’t always be together. Go make some friends of your own.” He realized she was right, and tried not be so possessive and started meeting people and discovered how easy it was to make friends.

Wherever Jason went, Jesus was there in Spirit, watching over his soul and over His growing flock, as a shepherd looks after his sheep. Jason could talk to Him whenever he wanted; he didn’t have to open his mouth, just think, and the Lord knew every thought in his mind, and so they communicated this way, always. Distance between them was irrelevant; they were always together, and the Lord was this way with every soul in heaven and also on earth to those who believed in Him. In Jason’s former life in the flesh, he prayed to the Lord and could sense God’s presence with him right through his sinful flesh. Now that his flesh had been removed, Jesus was ever-present with him in a way he always wanted but minimally experienced in his former life, only during times when he incorporated the Scriptures into hours of intense prayer, as he strove with all his strength of spirit to push the veil of his flesh aside and peer into the Most Holy Place if only for a moment, but now he lives here, in the Most Holy Place, and nothing inhibited his communion with God.

Talking to Jesus in person involved getting in line and waiting his or her turn. In contrast, Jason developed a personal relationship with Him in prayer that he cultivated in his former life and continually chatted with Him, but those who stood in line to speak with Him never developed a relationship with the Lord in their former lives, and they found it very difficult to engender a relationship with Him in eternity. Therefore, if they wanted to speak with Him, they had to do it in person, which meant getting in line. There were so many of them like this; groups would decide on a question and then assign a person to step in the back of the line and wait his turn to see Jesus.

Jason was glad to lose his sinful nature, which no longer plagued him after the Lord purified his soul at the judgment seat of Christ, though many things remained in memory of his former life, things he said and did that glorified God, and Christ set them ablaze in his heart. It would have been horrible to have an evil thought in such a beautiful place, in the very presence of God, knowing that He would hear it, but thoughts like that never came to him, and he didn’t miss them, for Jesus had purified him and made him perfect (Heb 12,22-24). He was made incapable of such things; God took all that from him, and Jason was glad of it. The only thing Jason could do now was love God and love the brethren and practice the fruits of the Spirit, which now came naturally to him. Practicing the fruits of the Spirit in his former life was like pulling teeth; it was a constant uphill battle in a world of evil, being totally foreign and unnatural to his carnal flesh. To come here in that condition would have been embarrassing; he would have wanted nothing more than to hide, which is the reason for hell; it is a place to hide from God. Jason thought of all the wicked people he met on earth, who would have hated to be here, for their whole life was continually centered on evil. No one like that was in heaven. There go I but for the grace of God.

Nancy, Jason’s wife, was with her family and was meeting relatives she knew, and didn't know from centuries past and noticed that the farther back she went in time, the more she realized she was related to just about everybody here. Meanwhile, Jason met Jeanie’s friends and listened to their stories about things they did a few years earlier in heaven. Some had been there longer than others; Jeanie had been there about sixty-two years. Her oldest friend, Samuel, had been there for over seven hundred years. He and Jeanie had lived such different lives, yet they had their faith in common, Jesus died for them, and God received them all into His heavenly kingdom. All of her friends shared their differences with each other, yet their differences brought them closer together, through the obvious things they had in common, being brothers and sisters of faith in Jesus Christ. They all lived in different times and in different places and in different cultures, but they all believed in God. Everyone had a unique relationship with Him and viewed Jesus differently, and this linked them together. There were many variations of colors and personalities among the people, and they all maintained their gender to remind them of their former lives, though they lost the organ that made them gender specific. They all understood the Lord from a different viewpoint, yet no one's perceptions were wrong, rather, based on an unequaled perspective of the God’s infinite and eternal Truth.

Everyone’s first stop as they entered heaven was the judgment seat of Christ. They were assessed and purified; sins were removed; rewards were given and made ready for heaven. Each person glowed with a distinct luminance, and their light forever determined their level of intimacy with Christ, which in turn determined their rank with Him and with their fellow brethren, and they all had one thing in common: they all loved God and each other with all their hearts. Each understood God according to their faith from their former lives, according to the grace they acquired, that was apportioned to them, to overcome their trials and hardships, and they understood God according to their gratitude for counting them worthy to suffer for Him. He led them through the obstacles of life, which changed them forever. They talked about their victories and defeats in their previous life and enjoyed each other’s stories about overcoming through faith in Jesus Christ. Nothing would sway them from their goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, entering heaven and becoming a member of his eternal Kingdom.         

Jason asked Jeanie and her friends a question: “Why do we have bodies? According to the Bible it says we shouldn’t have bodies until the First Resurrection, which according to my limited knowledge has not yet occurred?” Jeanie answered, “You don’t have a body.” “I don’t?” “None of us do. It only seems we have a body because we are living in a spiritual city.” Drishti added, “Yeah, this is the New Jerusalem, God’s heaven, it is a spiritual place, and we are spirits, so we can interact with each other and with the city, because it is all of the same stuff.” Jason answered, “What dimension is a spirit?” Maryam answered, “You are asking the wrong person; you need to ask the Lord questions like that, and if you do there is no guarantee you will understand His answer.” Jason replied, “So I don’t have a body?” Jeanie said, “Not yet, but you don’t need one here.” Nicca answered, “We will receive physical bodies at the First Resurrection, which comes after the great period of martyrdom of the saints, and the Lord said it is to be fulfilled in just a little while, so we don’t have long to wait.” Sebastian added, “The only time we need physical bodies is when we are interacting with physical objects, but nothing here is physical.” Jason answered, “This place sure seems physical. When I was with the Lord, He looked physical to me” Drishti answered, “He is the only one with a physical body, but we have to wait for our bodies at the Resurrection of the Righteous at the Last Trumpet at the unfolding of endtime prophecy, which He said was very near.”

Jason asked, “How are things going on earth?” Nicca, said, “you can look for yourself.” She took him to the perimeter of the great city and they looked through what seemed a large window, and Jason was able to see the earth and the people on it. When he wanted a closer view, he just concentrated and his view narrowed and was magnified. He found his hometown and located some of his friends and saw what they were doing (Heb 12-1). Sebastian said, “We spend a lot of time at this window watching the activities of the earth; much of it is heartrending. Jesus wants everyone to come to heaven, but He knows most won’t. He wants His house filled, and so we continue asking God to move on their behalf, but our prayers don’t have the impact on Him that those on earth have, still clothed in sinful flesh who pray in faith that others would be saved. Satan is a merciless and evil spirit who wants to keep people from coming here. He is barred from this place, and for that reason he doesn’t want anyone else to come here either. People have an open invitation, if they would just repent of their unbelief.”

Maryam added, “When you think of Satan’s role in the world and man’s ugly past, all the wars, all the wickedness that has happened since the beginning of time, and all the evil that is occurring now, half of it would have never happened if it weren’t for Satan orchestrating the mind of man, leading him to his ruin. It seems that Satan’s gift is the ability to orchestrate the mind of man to believe the wrong things about God, because He is evil.” Nicca elaborated, “There is the earth and there is the world. The earth is the physical planet, but the world is the belief system of mankind that seeks to shut out God from their lives. Man thinks he is interpreting his five senses, but Satan is leading man into a secular worldview, twisting their ideas into a tangled mess, until people don’t know their left hand from their right. It seems this is Satan’s gift that God gave to Lucifer that he has since distorted: he orchestrates whole societies to hate God and reject His offer of eternal life.”

They were still standing at the windows of heaven, looking at the earth when Jeanie added to the conversation, “The story goes that Lucifer was once a cherub, the greatest of them all before he fell into sin, who guarded God’s throne. Seraphim are choir directors, leading both man and angels into worship of God. The whole purpose of their existence is to lead man into a state of unity, while the Holy Spirit leads us into His truth. Both Jesus and the angels are in a partnership with a single goal of leading man into the will of God. We understand this by the opposite example of the work of Satan in the world. If Satan didn’t exist, most if not all the wars throughout man’s bloody past would never have been fought, because no one would have orchestrated the mind of man into a tunnel view of war. It seems that man is ready to go to war at the drop of a hat, because Satan is always there orchestrating man's mind." Jeanie looked toward Jesus' throne with the cherubim and seraphim worshipping God and continued, "Demons control individuals, while Satan controls whole societies. Since Satan is so good at uniting man for the purpose of excluding God from their world and killing one another, then the opposite goal of heavenly cherubim and seraphim, which Lucifer once was, is to unite man in worship of God.

Jason just listened and absorbed what they were saying, while he communed with the Lord, who confirmed all these things in his heart. Rebecca contributed to the conversation, “An example of this was written by our dear brother John, who happens to be sitting right over there;” she pointed in his direction with a crowd around him as usual. He gave a smile and waved. “It can’t be easy being one of the twelve;” she digressed, “they are always swarmed with people asking them questions about what it was like walking with Jesus in the flesh; they never have any privacy. Anyway, John wrote in Revelation chapter 12 that there would be a war between Satan and heavenly cherubim and seraphim in the last days" (see Revelation chapter 12). "As you look around, there are no angels that have wings, but seraphim do.” She pointed at God’s throne, where the seraphim reside, emphasizing their wings. “So when John wrote about the great eagle swooping down and picking up the woman (Israel) and carrying her into the wilderness, where she would be nourished for 3½ years, he was referring to cherubim (guardians of heaven) and seraphim (orchestra leaders). Satan came looking for the woman and her children to destroy them (Israel and the gentile Church). It was a 3½-year period of prayer and worship of God.”

Jason entered the conversation with a question, “What is the difference between us and the angels? In my former life everybody thought angels were messengers and ministering spirits rendering service to those who would inherit salvation (Heb 1-13; 2,1-9), but now that I’m here I realize that they are much more than that.” Nicca answered, “Angels witnessed the creation; they existed before us, and in that way they are greater than us, but in other ways we are greater than them. They have been alive for billions of years and were tested too, only not to the extent that we were. Man has created worlds; there is the Egyptian empire, the Roman empire, the British empire, the Medes and Persians, the Greeks, the Assyrians, and don’t forget the Babylonians.” All these world empires were different from each other.

Rebecca asked, “Who built the New Jerusalem? God didn’t just snap His fingers and it suddenly appeared. Jesus said, "In my Father’s house are many homes. If it weren’t so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you" (Jn 14-2). Drishti answered, “The angels helped Christ build the Holy City before Lucifer fell into sin, before God cursed the creation, and it was built by materials that were not under the curse. It says that the gates of the city were made from one pearl; that denotes a big oyster! The angels are not creative; they only follow orders; and they were tested when Lucifer fell into sin. All the angels had to make a choice to either follow Christ or follow Lucifer, and those who followed Christ are the angels of heaven today, and those who followed Lucifer are demons, fallen angels, who made a really bad choice, and their temptation was to take the throne of God.”

Jason again asked, “What then is the difference between man and angels?” Drishti answered, “The two biggest differences between them and us is our creative ability and our level of testing and thus our level of authority from God. The angels of heaven were tested once and found true, but man was tested dozens of times every day. If we picked a round number of twenty times a day, a person living seventy years will have been tested 70 X 365 X 20 throughout his life or 511,000 times. The angels had to pass one test: side with the devil or side with Christ. Plus, angels were not tested in a state of weakness, but we had the world, the flesh and the devil against us and still we were found faithful. We had a sinful nature dwelling in our bodies; this was how closely tied to temptation we were, yet God expected us not to sin. Every day we made dozens of choices to do the will of God or to cave to our sinful passions and desires. God must have great plans for us. The angels saw God’s face, and so it really wasn’t a hard decision to make, except for the mystery of lawlessness that was released in the transformation from Lucifer to Satan, meaning that those who followed Lucifer were deceived, and we had that same spirit of lawlessness dwelling in our flesh and shaping the world, and it was Satan's only creation, and he has ever since used it to orchestrate man. When we contrast the angel’s single choice to follow Lucifer against the thousands of decision points we had to make: our commitment to truth and righteousness with so many weaknesses and circumstances paralyzing us, people spouting false knowledge, our world colored in rebellion against God, everything we knew telling us that God was an evil ogre if He exists at all. We lived in a stained world, yet through it all we remained faithful.” Jason answered, "Those are some big differences between man and angel, but is that is; it seems there is still something missing."

Jason always kept his eyes peeled for characters of the Bible, such as the Apostles, Moses and David, but they usually had a large crowd around them. However, Jason chanced to see the apostle Paul sitting alone, which was a rarity, so Jason quickly approached him, “Paul, you were my greatest hero next to Jesus of all the writers of the Bible!” “Thank you, and what is your name?” “Jason, say, I got a question for you, what would you say was the biggest difference between man and angels?” That was all Paul needed, for he loved to teach. He started, “When we look at how low the angels are to man and the authority God has given us (Heb 2,1-9), and compare that to the incident in the temple with Zechariahs and the angel Gabriel, who came to impart a message and met him next to the Golden Altar of Incense, after the angel informed him that his wife would have a baby, John the Baptist, Zechariahs said in essence, ‘How do I know you are telling me the truth?’” (Lk 1,18-20). Zechariahs asked for a sign when the angel himself was a sign. The angel answered, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God.” After responding to the angel with doubt and unbelief, the angel decreed that Zechariahs should become mute, so he couldn’t use his voice to doubt God anymore from that day until the baby was born. This is the authority that angels had over us when we lived in sinful flesh.”

Paul continued, “Now, compare that to the authority God has given us in heaven. I said in my letter to the Ephesians that God has raised us up and seated us with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph 2-6,7), so our position with Him is just as high as Christ Himself, giving us more authority than the angels by as much as kings have more authority than servants. However, in our former lives the angels had more authority than us, by as much as servants have more authority than worms. The fact that the angels had more authority in our former lives indicates how lowly an existence we had. To have as much authority as Christ is beyond comprehension, having as much authority as the One who spoke stars into existence and entire galaxies (1Cor 2-9). He has raised us up and seated us with Him, in order to manage His new creation that He has yet to build.”

Paul continued, “However, this doesn’t mean that because we have more authority than the angels we can treat them disdainfully. On the contrary, Jesus said that the least are greatest and the greatest are least; that is, we are to honor angels for the very reason of our authority. Angels perform important tasks. They are like Timothy and Titus and all the helpers I named in my epistles. I could have never done what I did alone. I would preach the gospel in a certain town and stay for a while, but then God would call me to the next city, and so I left my helpers with the fledgling church to help get the new believers on their feet. Titus and Timothy and all the helpers were critical to the success of the ministry: establishing the Church in the knowledge of God and assigning pastors and deacons. The ministry of angels is similar. Every man and woman in heaven has an angel, basically an assistant, and together we will teach God’s new creation right from wrong. What I am saying is this: we represent Christ, and the angels represent us.”

Paul continued, “When we think of the angels accepting their place as servants of man, giving their place to us as the greater being, though they were created first, that took tremendous humility.” Jason cut in, “You’re right, I can’t imagine how I would feel if God created someone greater than us.” Paul said, “Actually Jason, He intends to do that very thing.” “Really?” mystified. Paul affirmed, “Yes, just as the angels are greater than us as servants, so we will be greater in some ways to the next of God’s creation, but in other ways they will be greater than us.” Jason suggested, “The angels must have expected God to make something under their administrative care; instead He created man.” Paul finished, “And the angels who didn’t follow Satan accepted it. Like I said, it took profound humility. Lucifer and the angels of the great rebellion were unhappy with God's plan to create man; it didn’t sit well with Lucifer because of his pride. He wanted to be top dog, the mightiest and greatest of all, first in everything, but God created man possibly for the very reason of testing Lucifer’s pride. God is good at humbling His creation through His own humility. Whenever we become full of pride, it incites God to test us to see if we are really serious about sacrificing His plan and purpose to defend our pride. Therefore, when He saw that Lucifer was proud in heart and refused to accept a lower position, it incited God to create man. He intended to create man anyway, but after He saw pride in Lucifer, it gave Him further reason to create man. When we think of the angels that didn’t follow Satan but humbled themselves, trusting God’s wisdom as inscrutable, they are vessels of great honor, and we should treat them as such.”

"Wow" Jason said. Paul continued, “It’s all about fitting into the position we were given; this is where we will be most content and happy; but if we abandon our post and seek a higher place, we will suffer. The highest place we can achieve with God and His creation is the one He has given us. God made the angels; then He made man greater in authority, and the next creation will be greater still, maybe not in authority but in some other way. As angels have more honor as better servants, man has more authority, and the next creation will be greater in number, and they will be better inventors than we ever were. God gave man great ability to be inventive, but He never told us to use it. Instead, he hoped we would remain farmers. As fate would have it, though, we invented worlds, and by those worlds we nearly annihilated ourselves, but God intervened and saved us. As a result, we are Jesus’ people, but the next creation will be the Father’s people. Jesus is God, yet having been formed in Mary’s womb in the image of man, He became finite, and His people are also finite in number. However, the Father is infinite, and so His people will be infinite in number. Every time God makes something, He makes it greater than His previous creation.”

By this time their dialogue drew a crowd, and those in proximity gathered around Paul and Jason as they conversed. Jeanie and Nancy were among them and provided the exclamation point, “Poverty, poor health, indifference, mental, physical and emotional abuse, injustice, the list goes on of all the things we faced on a daily basis in our former life. God has richly rewarded us for enduing them all and for refusing to surrender to the world’s unbelief. We maintained our faith throughout our lives, so when we breathed our last and met God with a heart full of faith and love for Him, He richly rewarded us for the goodness and faithfulness that we showed toward His name. The angels by comparison had an easy life and a relatively easy choice, who were rewarded accordingly. Therefore, the level of testing and purification is the only real difference between man and angels. If angels could be born into the world as we were, and if they were allowed to suffer our oppression and difficulties, they would be honored to obey Christ in the weakness of sinful flesh and prove their faithfulness. This is something they long to do, but God has not given it to them; instead, He has given it to us as a gift. He has turned our trials into triumph that will follow us forever.”

Darnell changed the subject, postulating, “What if after the resurrection we can’t teleport anymore? We’re going to be physical then!” McCurry said, “Jesus can do it.” Darnell answered, “Yeah, but He’s Jesus, maybe He’s the only one who can.” McCurry replied, “We’ve been made in His image.” “But we’re never going to be God,” Darnell retorted, “There will always be things true about Jesus that will not be true of us, because He’s God and we’re not.” So, there was a long discussion about whether they will be able to teleport after the resurrection, and they decided the only way they would know is to wait and see. They knew if they asked the Lord, He would say, 'These questions will be answered in due time.' They went on like this, quickly boring Paul, and he looked at Jason, then at Jeanie and Nancy, and the four of them turned and started walking, continuing their conversation in deep thought. Suddenly Paul stopped, and they looked up and saw a huge mansion. Paul started up the stairs to the front door, and he invited them in for ice-cold lemonade and blueberries. In his house Paul went over the route with them that he took on his missionary journeys in his former life, when he turned the world upside down for Jesus (Act 17-6).

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