Heaven Series--Surprise #2: Earth Was Intended To Be Our Heaven!
In an effort to avoid the expense of buying a new vehicle, I once bought an older van and replaced the engine. In my mind, this would be the next best thing to having a new van. My plan was working like a charm until the transmission starting slipping. Shortly after I replaced my transmission, the drive shaft literally fell off while I was driving down the highway. The problems cascaded into a series of minor and not so minor issues until I finally couldn’t afford my van anymore. I sold it for a fraction of what I had put into it just to stop the bleeding. Sometimes things don’t turn out according to our plans. That’s because, being human, our best intentions are often flawed.
We must be careful, however, not to superimpose this same limitation on God. Unlike us, God’s intentions are always perfect. So perfect that God Himself can’t even improve upon them. This is a very powerful principle. To observe just how powerful, take note of everything God has ever intended to do and you’ll discover a very significant pattern. When God intends to do something, one way or another, it always happens.
Take the subject matter at hand as an example. To discover what Heaven will be like, all we really have to do is take note of God’s original intentions. After God created the universe and everything in it, the Bible says, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). That means everything was exactly how God intended it to be. Man was granted dominion over a perfect world. There was no death, no sickness, no sin and no struggle—just as God intended.
So, what would have happened had Adam and Eve never eaten the forbidding fruit? Presumably, mankind would have lived forever in an earthly paradise. Fruit and vegetable bearing plants would have thrived instead of weeds. Man would have leisurely enjoyed exercising dominion over God’s creation. The animal kingdom would have lived in submission to man as its caretaker, enjoying peace and harmony within itself. But sadly, man sinned, and paradise was lost forever. Or was it?
To you and me, intentions are just intentions. We set out with the best of them, but when things don’t work out, we simply change our plans (our intentions) and move on. Not so with God. God’s intentions are perfect, which means they can’t be improved upon, and thus they never have to be changed.
So, taking that logic into account, if Earth was intended to by our Heaven—if that was God’s original intent—shouldn’t we expect that Earth will end up being our Heaven? Exactly! The Bible begins with God creating Earth to be man’s eternal abode and the Bible ends with God returning to His original plan by creating a New Earth to be man’s eternal abode. The Bible ends where it began, with God coming back to His original plan!
The fall of man didn’t negate God’s original intentions; it just delayed them for a while. Right now, you and I live in a pause period, a period of redemption where God seeks to save those who are lost due to the fall of man. When redemptive history is complete, the moment the last of mankind has been resurrected and judged (Revelation 20:11-15), God will go back to His original plan! In fact, it’s in the very next verse that the Apostle John wrote, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared” (Revelation 21:1).
The Apostle Peter put it this way, “But we are looking forward to the new heavens and the new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13).
Several hundred years earlier, the great prophet Isaiah recorded God making this same promise: "See, I will create new heavens and a new earth …” (Isaiah 65:17). Despite the fall of man, God’s original plan will be fulfilled!
None of this should be a surprise to us. Jesus, in the most famous sermon ever delivered, The Sermon on the Mount, promised, “The meek … shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). Notice, according to Jesus, our eternal inheritance won’t be a harp and a cloud; it won’t be an ethereal abode. It will be Earth itself!
So, regardless of what you’ve heard about Heaven, God’s clear promise to you is that one day the “New Earth” will be your Heaven!!
Unchanging God
“He is immutable, which means that He has never changed and can never change in any smallest measure. To change he would need to go from better to worse or from worse to better. He cannot do either, for being perfect He cannot become more perfect, and if He were to become less perfect, He would be less than God.”
The late Dr. A. W. Tozer (1897-1963) was well known in evangelical circles both for his long and fruitful editorship of the Alliance Witness as well as his pastorate of one of the largest Alliance churches in the Chicago area. He came to be known as the Prophet of Today because of his penetrating books on the deeper spiritual life.
Of course, we are just the opposite. While God is holy, we are sinners. While God is perfect, we are throughly flawed. Given these facts, what should a relationship between God and man be about? It must be about change--our change. In fact, we should expect that every genuine encounter with God must involve a transformation on our part. It should be the common thread in all of our prayers.
Dr. Mitchell Dillon, founder of Illustration Exchange
Missed It By 'That' Much
Different directional compasses bear different markings. Some compasses are marked off to display a full 360 degrees, and some are marked in gradations of 20 degrees. Some also display a "declination." The declination is a means of showing the difference between magnetic north and true north.
Have you ever been on a cruise ship out in the middle of the ocean and wondered how in the world the captain and crew knew which way to go? We know they use, among many navigational tools, a compass, but how does it work?
If you've ever looked at a compass, you know that there are hundreds of little hash marks — 360 to be exact — that mark off each separate degree of direction.
When a captain sets course, they know exactly to which little degree mark they need to set the compass. As long as they stay on that course, they will reach their destination.
But what would happen if someone moved the compass one little tiny degree to the left? At first it would look like you were still going in the same direction, on course for your destination. But in reality, as the vessel proceeded en route, the ship would be moving ever so slightly 1° away from the original course.
Before you know it, that ship would be miles away from its planned destination, all because it was one little tiny degree off course.
It is the same way in our spiritual experience ...
We set the course for our life, our day, our relationships, our work experience, etc., with the intention of focusing on Jesus, but we are fighting an enemy who wants to get us off course.
Of course our enemy — ol' Beezlebub — knows we won't likely make a 180° turn away from God, or even a 45° move away from Him. But if he can get us to compromise just one little degree, all he need do is just be patient.
While we think we are right on course, slowly but surely, we drift, until one day we wake up and wonder how in the world we got so far from the Lord's will for our lives.
We are wise to keep checking the compass. Keep charting our course in alignment with His will and His word.
Psalms 119:1-8 (MSG):
1 You're blessed when you stay on course, walking steadily on the road revealed by God.
2 You're blessed when you follow his directions, doing your best to find him.
3 That's right - you don't go off on your own; you walk straight along the road he set.
4 You, God, prescribed the right way to live; now you expect us to live it.
5 Oh, that my steps might be steady, keeping to the course you set;
6 Then I'd never have any regrets in comparing my life with your counsel.
7 I thank you for speaking straight from your heart; I learn the pattern of your righteous ways.
8 I'm going to do what you tell me to do; don't ever walk off and leave me.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths" (Proverbs 3:5-6).