Wednesday, May 25, 2016
About Eternity
The hardest part for those still here after someone steps from time into eternity is the sense of being left behind (there is still pain in loss). Once our loved ones step from time into eternity they are unaware of us. They don't forget us, they know who we are, but they are not aware of us once they are in eternity. They are not part of any cloud of witnesses. They are oblivious to us after the point of death. Think about what it would be like for them to be aware of our actions, reactions and rebellions. They do not become angels.
Mary the Mother of Jesus, she is there, but she is not an angel. I don't want to upset my Catholic friends but the apparitions of Mary are supernatural communications but not Mary.
People saw her because it was a form of communication. Sometimes perhaps even demonic. Measurement of that must be made in the light of Scripture. An Angel taking a form acceptable to us can be a way Father uses His messengers to communicate something he can't get done another way. Look at all the times angel messengers were used and documented to communicate something. It's still happening. There are angels of light, but not all good.
Those people now in heaven don't see or sense us. They are in glory. BUT we can sense them. They can't come to us, there are no ghosts. We will only go to them. They can't come to us. David proclaimed that when his infant son died. It's a truth we must grasp.
When someone who has lost a loved one says, "It feels like they are still here or I can feel or sense their presence" it's true. They are just there.. just on the other side of the veil. A very thin veil.
You can feel it. You sense them. Yet this is not so for them. They wait for you. They remember you in the completed tapestry that was their life in time. But you are now frozen in their memory. After they die, they don’t see you again. You can talk, pray and cry out to them, but they are deaf to your cries. Praying to saints is fruitless. YET... of your loved ones gone - you can sense the love they had for you and bask in it... as they wait for you to come. The veil between you and them is very thin and sometimes is breached for a moment.. you to them but not them to you. They are in Glory and you are still here in the battle. They are right there... just there, you can almost reach out and touch them on the other side of the veil. Think of what the transfiguration was like for Moses? Did he see to our side?
Jesus and all the angels have no problem moving from time into eternity and back again. There is no confusion for them. That's why Jesus ascending into heaven and returning seemed to break thru a veil, a cloud. I wonder how high it appeared Jesus was when he seemed to disappear? Fifty feet, a hundred, a thousand? It seemed as if he entered a cloud and then was gone.
In the same way he came back again.... in a cloud. Not that it is a cloud.. it is the separation between time and eternity.
Cloud is the only way someone seeing it can describe it. It's a portal that opens and as angels step thru it looks like stepping into or out of a cloud.
Jesus appears often on earth. Has to many. He sees us. He is God. Your uncle Art is not like that. He is now like Jesus in bodily form in heaven, but not God.
Angels are assigned messengers and with messages come from and return to heaven. Your uncle Art will never be an angel. Your uncle Art will be one who came into heaven a little higher than the angels yet never assigned to return to earth. That's for other created beings.
This is also how supernatural provision comes. Remember the storeroom of heaven is just over there. Just the other side of the veil. Very close in proximity. So when we look to heaven's provision we are able to receive as the veil is breached and those things stored up for us are delivered into our hands. Sometimes it's manna. Sometimes it's rain when you need it. Sometimes it's deliverance. Sometimes its protection. Sometimes it's money in a fish. Those things happen as heaven touches earth for a moment in answer to prayer.
One thing that becomes clear in heaven when the revelation comes of HIS greatness and majesty. The earth, the sun, the moon, the solar system, the galaxies, all the galaxies, all of creation will suddenly fade into proper perspective in our sight of the Creator. Will earth exist...? Yes but in proper perspective.
All of creation will roll up like a scroll in proper relationship to her creator. You won't be in awe of them any more, you will only have awe for the Maker. There will be very little to cause you to want to be other than in HIS presence... except that HE is everywhere. If you decide you want to visit Jupiter or Mars (like the old song says) you can think it and be there. You won't need air or a spaceship. You won't --- not moving, you'll just be.
All the things you read and memorized from scripture will make sense. There will be things you were taught or believed here on earth that will seem like nonsense. But that was then. In eternity the silly things you thought will fall away as the TRUTH takes center stage.. I AM the TRUTH HE said.
Not everyone will make it to heaven. Will you know if your loved ones are missing and grieve? Probably not. There are no tears in heaven. No grief. No pain.
So from the moment you die till your loved ones appear at heaven's portal you will be unknowing. It's not a sanitized experience; it's one that provides only for your fit into the whole.
These things are hard to explain. The centrality of Jesus is what makes it all hold together (according to Scripture).
He will so overwhelm you with His glory you will not notice so many things that distract on earth. You can live like this. You can grasp your eternal nature now. You already have eternal life.
Mary the Mother of Jesus, she is there, but she is not an angel. I don't want to upset my Catholic friends but the apparitions of Mary are supernatural communications but not Mary.
People saw her because it was a form of communication. Sometimes perhaps even demonic. Measurement of that must be made in the light of Scripture. An Angel taking a form acceptable to us can be a way Father uses His messengers to communicate something he can't get done another way. Look at all the times angel messengers were used and documented to communicate something. It's still happening. There are angels of light, but not all good.
Those people now in heaven don't see or sense us. They are in glory. BUT we can sense them. They can't come to us, there are no ghosts. We will only go to them. They can't come to us. David proclaimed that when his infant son died. It's a truth we must grasp.
When someone who has lost a loved one says, "It feels like they are still here or I can feel or sense their presence" it's true. They are just there.. just on the other side of the veil. A very thin veil.
You can feel it. You sense them. Yet this is not so for them. They wait for you. They remember you in the completed tapestry that was their life in time. But you are now frozen in their memory. After they die, they don’t see you again. You can talk, pray and cry out to them, but they are deaf to your cries. Praying to saints is fruitless. YET... of your loved ones gone - you can sense the love they had for you and bask in it... as they wait for you to come. The veil between you and them is very thin and sometimes is breached for a moment.. you to them but not them to you. They are in Glory and you are still here in the battle. They are right there... just there, you can almost reach out and touch them on the other side of the veil. Think of what the transfiguration was like for Moses? Did he see to our side?
Jesus and all the angels have no problem moving from time into eternity and back again. There is no confusion for them. That's why Jesus ascending into heaven and returning seemed to break thru a veil, a cloud. I wonder how high it appeared Jesus was when he seemed to disappear? Fifty feet, a hundred, a thousand? It seemed as if he entered a cloud and then was gone.
In the same way he came back again.... in a cloud. Not that it is a cloud.. it is the separation between time and eternity.
Cloud is the only way someone seeing it can describe it. It's a portal that opens and as angels step thru it looks like stepping into or out of a cloud.
Jesus appears often on earth. Has to many. He sees us. He is God. Your uncle Art is not like that. He is now like Jesus in bodily form in heaven, but not God.
Angels are assigned messengers and with messages come from and return to heaven. Your uncle Art will never be an angel. Your uncle Art will be one who came into heaven a little higher than the angels yet never assigned to return to earth. That's for other created beings.
This is also how supernatural provision comes. Remember the storeroom of heaven is just over there. Just the other side of the veil. Very close in proximity. So when we look to heaven's provision we are able to receive as the veil is breached and those things stored up for us are delivered into our hands. Sometimes it's manna. Sometimes it's rain when you need it. Sometimes it's deliverance. Sometimes its protection. Sometimes it's money in a fish. Those things happen as heaven touches earth for a moment in answer to prayer.
One thing that becomes clear in heaven when the revelation comes of HIS greatness and majesty. The earth, the sun, the moon, the solar system, the galaxies, all the galaxies, all of creation will suddenly fade into proper perspective in our sight of the Creator. Will earth exist...? Yes but in proper perspective.
All of creation will roll up like a scroll in proper relationship to her creator. You won't be in awe of them any more, you will only have awe for the Maker. There will be very little to cause you to want to be other than in HIS presence... except that HE is everywhere. If you decide you want to visit Jupiter or Mars (like the old song says) you can think it and be there. You won't need air or a spaceship. You won't --- not moving, you'll just be.
All the things you read and memorized from scripture will make sense. There will be things you were taught or believed here on earth that will seem like nonsense. But that was then. In eternity the silly things you thought will fall away as the TRUTH takes center stage.. I AM the TRUTH HE said.
Not everyone will make it to heaven. Will you know if your loved ones are missing and grieve? Probably not. There are no tears in heaven. No grief. No pain.
So from the moment you die till your loved ones appear at heaven's portal you will be unknowing. It's not a sanitized experience; it's one that provides only for your fit into the whole.
These things are hard to explain. The centrality of Jesus is what makes it all hold together (according to Scripture).
He will so overwhelm you with His glory you will not notice so many things that distract on earth. You can live like this. You can grasp your eternal nature now. You already have eternal life.
