06/19/2018
Have you ever been to heaven? Perhaps you don’t feel that you have walked its streets, but have you ever stood on an adjoining hill and looked out over it, and heard the sounds of life there? Right now you are probably thinking that I have lost my mind, but more than likely you have been closer than you think, and in some moments of realized faith, actually stood there. The problem with most of us is that we don’t look around, hear the singing, smell the fragrance, and understand where we are.
“Pray then like this: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”
Matthew 6:9 ESV
A few years ago I was at my son’s wedding in Raleigh North Carolina, and as the Pastor began his homily he welcomed us to heaven, and thanked my son and daughter in law for allowing us to be there with them. He went on to explain that they were making covenant in the presence of God, and that where God was... there too was heaven. So he thanked them for taking us with them to heaven.
When the reverend said these words it was as if the fog cleared, and there before me was heaven. Suddenly I realized that I was not only there now, but had been there many times. At that particular moment the veil that separates us from God became so thin as to become transparent, and then it was gone. I looked around the sun filled sanctuary as the light reflected off the wooden walls and painted everything with a golden hue, and as the singing commenced and I smelled the fragrance of the candles, I thought to myself... welcome Holy Spirit... welcome Father, welcome Jesus. The family had gathered together for this occasion, as it does whenever we invite them to join us.
“For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them."”
Matthew 18:20 ESV
So there we were, in the presence of God, as two young people made covenant before Him, and I was amazed as I thought back on all those times when I had heard someone say.. “The Holy Spirit was really strong today wasn’t He?” I realized what Jesus had said about His presence as we gathered together to worship, and I remembered all the scripture in which God had reassured us that He was with us always... and I understood that on those occasions when the Holy Spirit had been palpable, God had been there, Jesus was among us, and we had been standing in the midst of heaven as its misty glory swirled about us.
“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”
Zephaniah 3:17 ESV
I also realized that these moments of amazing presence weren’t limited to the sanctuary of a building, church, tabernacle, or cathedral... but occurred more times than not in unlikely places that were suddenly made Holy by our realization of God. I recalled the moment I first prayed for Jesus to come into my life in the living room of a man and his wife. That room had become heaven, and the couch my elbows rested on as I prayed had become an altar. I ask you now... where have you made your sanctuaries? Where have you entered heaven? Are you there now?
“And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.”
Exodus 25:8 ESV
God is with us always, and yet we are blind to Him much of the time. We walk the very streets of heaven and choose not to see where we are. We sin and pretend that we do so in secret, we seek to be alone with ourselves and yet there He is, all of these things we do on the bustling streets of heaven. We are children of the King and yet we pretend to be an orphan, but there is no hiding from the truth...
“Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.”
Psalms 139:7-10 ESV
So today, like all days, God is with us, and where He is, there too is heaven. Can you see it? Will you take off the blinders and look at the glory, or continue to imagine yourself to be removed from God, and see only the fallen world? Who will you be today? Will you be the Prince, or the pauper? Will you be a citizen of heaven, or earth? Will you be the one who walks in the presence of the divine, or imagine yourself alone? And how close are you? Do you see nothing Holy around you, or perhaps just the distant streets of heaven as if they were a dream? Well today is the day to take the hand of Jesus, and walk with Him into heaven itself... after all... you are as good as there already.
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for being with me always, and I thank you for allowing me to walk with you in splendor, and along the streets of heaven. I thank you for the redeeming blood of Jesus that removes the shingles from my eyes and reveals to me the relationship I have with you, and all of those things to which I am joint heir with Him. Thank you Father for letting me smell the fragrance of heaven, and to glimpse the majesty of what awaits me with you in eternity. I thank you Holy Father for showing me that death is just a short step into my eternal heavenly home, and that the joy of your presence awaits me when I transition into that fullness of glory, by grace. Today I walk into and out of the gates of heaven, but one day I will join you and not turn back, or lose sight of what is prepared for me. Continue to open my eyes Lord, that I might experience you, and walk ever so briefly in the mansion that you have prepared for me. Help me in my faith Holy Father so that my visits to heaven with you will be longer and more frequent, until at last I am there. You are a great God, and worthy of all praise and glory. You are Holy, and never abandon me; you surround me, and by so doing allow me to experience your holiness, and heaven. Your grace is like honey on my tongue, and salve on my eyes as I walk beyond the veil with you. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my faithful and loving God who art in heaven, beckoning me to come.
“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going."”
John 14:3-4 ESV
Rich Forbes