If you asked a hundred different people the question, “What does heaven look like?”, I’m sure you’d receive a hundred different answers. To some, heaven may be that “perfect day” where everything goes just right. To others, heaven may be a time and place with loved ones. Countless people will say is a place in the sky where you go to after you die. Many will also say that heaven is where God or their deity lives.
If you look in many Christian bookstores, there are all kinds of personal stories and such sharing the author’s (or close friend’s or family member’s) account of “seeing heaven”. Maybe they described it as a city with streets of gold, or a large castle-type of structure with all kinds of precious stones and clear water – something like a literal representation of what’s described in Revelation 21.
Everyone has their own ideas of what heaven is. How about you? What’s does heaven look like to you, or what have you heard about it throughout your life? And what does the Bible tell us about what heaven looks like?
Heaven is God’s Dwelling Place
In order for us to recognize what and where heaven is, we must understand it according to the Bible. To do that, we should learn to put aside our own expectations or ideas of heaven, and focus on what the Bible says so that we can get an accurate picture from what God has given us Himself.
First and foremost, “heaven” is God’s dwelling place – where God is. In 2 Chronicles, it says,
“Then the priests and the Levites arose and blessed the people, and their voice was heard, and their prayer came to his holy habitation in heaven.”
2 Chronicles 30:27
Just like a king who sits atop a throne, God who is the Creator of all things, sits in heaven above all creation. Psalms 33:14 and 43:3 both tell us that God is the highest being who stands above all.
“from where he sits enthroned he looks out
on all the inhabitants of the earth,”
Psalms 33:14
Wherever God is, that’s heaven. During the time of Adam and the Garden of Eden, where do you think heaven was? Was it up in the sky? Nope. The Bible says that God walked through the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:8). If God was walking around in Eden that means the Garden of Eden was heaven at that time. And why was that? Because God was there.
What Did Heaven Look Like in the Past?
When God isn’t dwelling on earth, but resides in the spiritual realm, then we refer to that place as heaven. Not because it’s literally above us, not because we can’t see it, but because the Spirit of God, who is the Almighty Creator, dwells there.
In Moses’s time, God told Moses to build a tabernacle exactly as God showed it to him in the spiritual world of heaven (Exodus 25:8-9). In that tabernacle was the Ark of the Covenant. On that Ark, there was the mercy seat where God dwelled. Whenever God came down to the tabernacle, it was essentially heaven because God was there.
But is heaven just a physical building or location?
If God’s Spirit Dwelled in Jesus, Then…
At the time of Jesus’s first coming, where was heaven? Well let’s ask ourselves, where was God at that time? In Matthew 3:16-17 we read of Jesus’s baptism, and after Jesus came up out of the water, God’s spirit came down and dwelled in Jesus. Not only God, but all the spirits of heaven were with Jesus, too.
When Jesus began preaching, he said, “Repent! The kingdom of heaven is near!” (Matthew 4:17). When Jesus said, “the kingdom of heaven”, was he only talking about God the Father? He was referring to the entire kingdom of heaven – God and all of the angels who served him as well were with Jesus.
In John 10:30, Jesus said, “I and the Father are one”. That doesn’t mean Jesus was the same being as God. The Jews who listened to him made that misunderstanding. We must look deeper. Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase, “and the two shall become one” during a wedding ceremony. Does that mean the husband and wife literally become one person? No, but that they are bound in a relationship and a purpose.
God and Jesus were also bound in a relationship and a purpose. That purpose was to spread the gospel of heaven and fulfill the Old Testament prophecies about Jesus. If God and the spirits in heaven are with Jesus, then that would make Jesus heaven, right? God is there with Jesus, and where God is, so is heaven.
What Does Heaven Look Like in the Spiritual World?
Many people have claimed to “see heaven” while having a near-death experience, or while on the operating table, or in relation to some other significant experience in their lives. They may claim it’s like a city of gold, or has golden streets, or some other description related to a very luxurious appearance.
The media likes to portray heaven as a castle in the sky with little angels flying around. Or the pearly gates with Apostle Peter at the front like some holy bouncer with a list to an exclusive club. We see God often depicted as a bearded, bald old man looking down on earth. But does heaven really look like that?
We must always seek to know how God describes heaven according to the Bible. We must try to understand it as God wrote it without mixing in our own thoughts or guesses. If we add to the Bible, it clouds and misconstrues, and ultimately keeps us from understanding the way God intended.
In the Bible, heaven is described in Revelation 4, 21, and 22, as well as in the gospel of Matthew 13. In those chapters we see that heaven isn’t a castle in the sky with little angels floating or flying about. There is a clear structure and order given of what heaven looks like in Revelation 4. God is at the center on His throne, and all of His angels with specific tasks surround Him in a specific and organized structure.
In the Bible, heaven is very orderly and everything in it is done according to God’s will to ensure quick and organized work. God has a goal and purpose to achieve, so heaven, where He and His heavenly workers are, has clear roles and structures so that the work can be carried out accordingly.
What Does Heaven Look Like For Us Today?
Remember that at the time of the Garden of Eden, that place – Eden – was heaven because God was also there. Eden was a place on earth, so heaven used to be on earth. Do you remember what God did after Adam and Eve sinned? He left. When sin entered, the connection between God and His creation was broken.
Why did God leave after sin entered? Well, if God had stayed, everything else would have been wiped out. Holiness and sin cannot mix. Like turning on a light in a dark room, the light completely overtakes the darkness. It’s the same for God and his holiness and us with our sin. But God didn’t just abandon us.
God’s Plan and Promise for Heaven
As we read through the Bible, we see God’s desire to reconnect with His creation. That’s the ultimate goal of religion itself – to reconnect us, the creation, with God, our Creator. Since the time when sin entered the world, God has been working to remove sin and its source (the devil) so He can reunite with His creation. God wants to give us life and make death a thing of the past.
At the time of Jesus’ second coming, when the devil is finally captured and destroyed, God and His kingdom of heaven in the spiritual world will come back to dwell with creation forever. In Revelation 21:2-3 it says,
And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
When God and the kingdom of heaven come back down to earth, they don’t come to just anywhere. In Matthew 6:10, when we pray “Your kingdom come,” God and His spirits that make up heaven come down to a place prophesied in the book of Revelation. When the time comes, and God and heaven come down, it will be done according to the Scriptures.
Will You Be Able to Recognize Heaven When It Comes?
If we think of heaven according to our own thoughts, or the thoughts of other people, then we won’t be able to recognize heaven according to how it truly is. It will be like how the Jews didn’t recognize Jesus, who was fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies, because they didn’t understand their scriptures correctly. They had their own thoughts of what the Messiah would be like, and when Jesus came, they didn’t come to him (John 5:39-40).
We should not be like them. It’s important to know and understand the Bible clearly, so we can recognize the place where God and heaven come down to. If we ask ourselves what does heaven look like and if we don’t know what heaven is according to the Scriptures, then how can we recognize it?
Heaven Is On Its Way
So let me ask you again, “What does heaven look like?”
Heaven is wherever God is, where He dwells. We have heaven in the spiritual world, but a time is coming when that place will come down to earth – to a specific place prophesied in the Bible. When God comes down there, that place will be heaven on earth.
How can we get to heaven? We need to know what God says in the Bible. We need to become like God through His Word and the blood of Jesus – meaning holy and without sin.
How can you do that? It’s by studying the Bible. By learning to understand God’s Word clearly, we can learn to recognize what heaven truly is, and also check to see if we have all the qualifications to enter heaven. Let’s always try our best as believers to be those who seek God and heaven. If we aren’t sure of how to do that, first pray, and then reach out and ask.
Written by Kenny
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