We are looking at the Lord’s Prayer. This devotional reading looks at what Heaven is.
Nuggets
- In a way, Heaven is a very mysterious place.
- Heaven is God’s dwelling place, His home.
So. God is some stuffy monarch living off in His high palace, right? Wrong.
God and Jesus brought heaven down to us. A lot of times, we don’t think of heaven on earth. We focus on the trials and tribulations. We focus on what is happening in our lives and not on God.
God doesn’t want us to settle for today. He wants us to prepare for tomorrow—when we are residents on heaven.
But we do have access to heaven now. “The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand…” (Deut. 28: 12, KJV). He takes care of us. He is giving us little sightings now to prepare us.
But what does Scriptures say about Heaven? And who all is going to be there?
Let's Put It into Context
To read devotions in the Habitual Holiness of Heart and Life theme, click the button below.
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
Devotions in the Commit to Grow Our Habits study
Here is a running list of nuggets for the study.
How Is Heaven Described?
“… ‘Our Father Which art in heaven Hallowed be thy name’” (Mt. 6: 9 (NIV)
In a way, Heaven is a very mysterious place.
We haven’t seen Heaven. We just have to piece together the descriptions that are in the Bible — and some of them can be confusing. Let’s take a look at what the Bible has to say about heaven.
The most comprehensive description we get of heaven is in Revelation 21: 18-21. We don’t know how accurate of a picture that is.
It may have been so far beyond John’s comprehension that he may have been trying to describe it best he knew how. Plus, we do know a lot of Revelation is symbolic.
Either way, it sounds wonderful. John was trying to describe a beautiful place. He described gold, precious stones and pearls such as in jewelry.
Many of us love jewelry. It’s pretty and shiny. It catches the eye. There is that flash to it. Heaven is going to be like that.
John was describing Heaven as smooth as glass. No ripples or wrinkles or tears that show disturbance.
Why Is Heaven Important?
“And listen to the plea of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. And listen in heaven your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive” (I Kgs. 8: 30 ESV)
Heaven is God’s dwelling place, His home.
Probably one of the hardest things we cope with here on earth is we can’t physically see God. We can’t physically hear Him.
God does appear to us. The Holy Spirit lives within us to guide and teach us. He uses His Word, His people, and His creation to encourage and discipline us.
We just have to know when God is talking to us and nudging us to do His Will. That is hard sometimes. God’s voice is drowned out by the chaos in our lives.
Plus, there is this little thing called free will. Free will is the ability within us to make decisions, which determine actions that produce character.
God isn’t going to force us to choose His way. The fact that we can’t see Him and only have His soft promptings from within us makes it easier to choose the way of the world.
We have to stand firm and choose God’s way. That will bring peace to this life and eternal life. One day we will see God face to face. One day.
But, you know, it is not going to matter what heaven looks like when we get there because “Behold, the heavens and the heaven of heavens is the Lord’s thy God, … (Deut. 10:14 KJV). God is going to be there, and we are going to be able to see Him. It will be so wonderful to live with our Father forever.
Heaven is important because that is where God is. It is a holy place because He is holy.
An Actual Place Where Beings Live
“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (Rev. 7: 9-10 ESV)
Heaven is currently being inhabited by angels.
Heaven is an actual place right now. While we will someday call it our home, currently, the angels inhabit it.
“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (Heb. 12: 22-24 ESV).
The players will gather for the festival. Who is on the team? (Note: we are going to look at the angels in this devotion. Future devotions will include a look at the church, God, and Jesus as inhabitants of Heaven.)
Angels
Even though the Bible has many references to angels, there are opposing opinions of what and who angels are and do and how they came to be.
Scriptures does tell us that there are a large group of angels.
- “… ten thousands of holy ones …” (Deut. 33: 2 ESV)
- “… thousand thousands …” (Dan. 7: 10 ESV)
- “… tens of thousands and thousands of thousands” (Ps. 68: 17 NIV)
- “… innumerable angels …” (Heb. 12: 22 ESV)
- “… legions …” (Mt. 26: 53 NIV)
- “…thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand …” (Rev. 5: 11 NIV).
They have also been referred to as “… host …” (Lk. 2: 13 NIV) and “… army …” (Rev. 19: 19 NIV). It sounds like the population of angels rivals the population of mankind.
What Is the Purpose of Angels?
The first and foremost purpose of angels is to worship and praise God.
- “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” (Isa. 6: 1-3 ESV).
- “Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth — to every nation, tribe, language and people” (Rev. 14: 6 NIV).
As their name means, angels are the messengers of God. In addition to Gabriel’s messages, there are other instances recorded in the Bible.
- “Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road–the desert road–that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza’” (Ac. 8: 26 NIV).
- “And they said, ‘Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say’” (Ac. 10: 22 ESV).
- “For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you’” (Ac. 27: 23–24 ESV).
Angels also delivered from God the answers to prayers.
- “While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the Lord my God for the holy hill of my God, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice. He made me understand, speaking with me and saying, ‘O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding. At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved. Therefore consider the word and understand the vision’” (Dan. 9: 20-23 ESV).
- “Then he continued, ‘Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them’” (Dan. 10: 10-12 ESV).
What does that tell us? God answers prayers. Sometimes, He uses angels as the messengers to deliver the answers.
Making the Connections #1
Angels provide a good example of how we should continuously praise God. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus prayed, “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt 6: 10 NIV).
The angels’ song of “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” (Rev. 5: 12 NIV) should be our refrain here on earth.
For now, prayer is one way in which we praise God. We should use it to consistently communicate with our Creator.
Making the Connections #2
I really liked what Manton had to say about looking up to God. He wrote, “Prayer is an act of the heart, not of the lips. It is not the sound of the voice which can enter into the ears of the Lord of Hosts, but sighs and groans of the Spirit. … The work of prayer is to lift up the heart to God; to withdraw the heart from all created things, that we may converse with God ‘ in heaven.’”
Resource
Think about that. Prayer isn’t what we say.
It is what we feel. It is the motivations behind it. It is the purpose for it. It is the One to Whom we are talking.
The words aren’t important. The length isn’t important.
The worship is important.
How Do We Apply This?
- Keep our eyes focused upward on God.
- Seek His heavenly blessings.
Resource
Father God. You are in Heaven, high above us. That is literally and figuratively. We know that, while You are above us, You are also in us. Thank You for the angels that You have created to minister to You and to us upon Your command. We look forward to spending eternity with them praising You. Amen.
What do you think?
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