I go to prepare a place for you - part 2

After I prepared the first part of this blog, something gnawed at me, as I knew I did not address heaven properly - not that I ever would, as the Truth is only in Jesus Christ.

What I do is groping with my fingers in the darkness to feel what this image of heaven is which has been partly disclosed to us in scripture. In this i am reminded of the words of a song of ABBA :

I have a dream, a fantasy
To help me through reality
And my destination makes it worth the while
Pushing through the darkness still another mile



Although I have only looked at three types of heaven there are surely many more - heaven as a place we can see (the sky), heaven as a place God and Jesus Christ is thought to be in and where we will meet them someday, and heaven as a state of the soul at peace.

There are however a few aspects I still did not address. Coming back to the words of Solomon in 1 Kings 8:27 he talks of the heaven of heavens. The heaven itself in the Greek refers to the sky and the heaven of heavens to a loftier heaven which is the heaven of stars. If there is a heaven of heavens, can there not also be a heaven of heavens of heavens - or a third heaven so to speak?

What is it Paul talks of in : 2Co 12:2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

Could the third heaven then be paradise and still not be Heaven itself as it is generally thought that paradise is not yet the Heaven wherein God and Jesus Christ dwells. The the words of Solomon would then be correct wherein he stated that the second heaven(heaven of heavens) could not contain God. So one could infer from this that there is a fourth heaven.

The next problem one sits with is : where is the new Jerusalem presently. I believe in some heaven as scripture says : Rev 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Why would scripture say ... prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, if it is not the vision of the Bride of Christ indeed, and seeing this comes from God out of heaven, it also points to another heaven which might even be a fourth or fifth heaven, but still not be one wherein God dwells. The scripture says ... from God out of heaven ... not from the heaven wherein God dwells. It is like receiving something from God on earth. The thing comes from the earth, but is received from God who does not (only) dwell on earth.

One also reads that the angels and birds fly in the midst of heaven. Where are the bounds of heaven then ?

This concept is indeed much more vague than one realises, and one should then stand still and wonder as one wonders of God. Is God part of His creation or does he stand apart and separate from it. One interpretation that I find insightful, but not necessarily true, is that the whole of creation is indeed God himself and that we are no more that parts of God. This is borne out by these scriptures :

1Co 12:27 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

1Co 15:28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

This also gives some perspective of life - if God was all in all, then the life and breath we have in us, is indeed God's life and breath in us and this is probably why God changed the names of Abram an Sarai to Abraham and Sarah - adding the ha in both.

This ha refers to God's name which is Haweh, so every time you would say their names, you would say God's name. What is even more delightful is that God says His name is I am, meaning that nobody else Is, and anybody other than God, would thus be a part of God. We might even take this analogy further and say that everytime we breathe (like in exhaling and saying softly ha) we mentions God's name. Is that then the reason why David says in Psa 145:10 All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee.

Is it then not so that everytime we inhale or exhale we praise God's name and His works.

These are profound thought to contemplate, although I am still not much nearer to the truth, but in the process I hope I have also gloried the works of God. Halleluja!!