Living in the Kingdom (Part 2):
The Nature of Heaven
by: Alan Smith
2 Peter 1:10-11: Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (NKJV)
What will heaven be like? Will it be like Disney World—or even better? What really makes heaven, heaven? Will it be like earth, but not in a fallen state? Will nature in heaven worship the Lord? Could it be that nature itself is giving us a reflection of heaven? It makes us feel so wonderful to see nature, in all its beauty, worship it’s Creator. It is amazing to me how we seem to want to get back to things that are natural. We want to “get back to nature”. We think if we could only be more natural and closer to nature that everything would be all right. What is this compelling of mankind to get back to nature? We want to feel the warm earth in our hands. We want to watch the flowers bloom in spring. Does God have another language in which to speak to us? Let us take a look at what the Bible has to say about this “key” that opens our understanding of the entrance into the heavens.
Rom 1:20: For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
Did you get it? God’s qualities are in His nature. And we can see and understand what they are by the things He has made. God’s heavenly nature created the very nature in which we are living in this natural world. Could it be this is why we want to “get back to nature”? You know, be more organic. Does it give us the feeling we are getting closer to the Creator? Could it be we are just trying to trade our old nature for a new one by trying to be more organic like God? An organic nature of heaven: I bet this would make me very healthy. The trend today is that everyone wants to be more organic in the things we put into our bodies. I think this is great; but could it be that we need to feed our spiritual bodies an organic food as well? Manna from heaven: an organic spiritual food? Psalm 78:24: “And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.” This fresh manna that we can receive by feeding daily on the living food from our Creator would begin to bring life to our fruit. Galatians 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” This daily feeding in the Word of God would help our anger, which is an indicator of our spiritual blood pressure. Could this organic food from heaven even change how we think? We know from Isaiah that our natural thoughts are not like His thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Boy would this be incredible: that we can begin to think more like Him—the very nature of God! I bet the sign over the spiritual buffet bar in heaven would say “COME AND DINE: ALL YOU CAN EAT”.
Blessings,
Alan
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