2 Corinthians 12: “2I 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… 4How that he was caught UP INTO PARADISE, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.”

It is a common belief among the majority of people, even Christians, that HEAVEN is located up somewhere in the skies. So if you ask them where is heaven, they will always point directly to the sky above their head.

They forget that the earth is not flat. So you pointing up here means someone somewhere is pointing down.

Some claimed to have even died, gone and come back from heaven, thereby forming the band of the ‘comebackers’ ministries though God said He is not ready to use those who died and come back to preach His Gospel ( Luke 16:31).

I was in a conference when a minister said he had been to heaven several times and the grasses there are golden and could speak to him.

That when you see these grasses and the street of gold, you will not want to come back. Street of gold? What a pity! The Bible tells us that gold is perishable;

1 Peter1:7, ”That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire…” (KJV)

So how for goodness sake would you imagine God using the perishable to decorate the eternal?

Gold friend is simply the divine nature of God which we have received in Christ (2 Peter 1:4).

But what exactly is heaven? Where is it located? How does one really get into heaven? etc. These and many more questions are what we are looking at through this series of studies.

Jesus carried heaven around.

“Do you not believe that I AM IN THE FATHER AND THAT THE FATHER IS IN ME? What I am telling you I do not say on my own accord, but the FATHER WHO LIVES CONTINUALLY IN ME does the works – His miracles, His own deeds of power. Believe me that I am in the father and the father in me.” John 14:10a,11a (AMP, KJV)

So here we see Jesus saying that the signs and wonders He demonstrated while in the human form was God’s heavenly life flowing out of Him.

He was simply a carrier of heavenly presence wherever He was, hence the declaration in John 3:13 of being in heaven even though He was on earth. And when He said no man has ascended to heaven, he meant to say that before Him nobody has had the privilege of attaining (ascended) to the fullness of God’s realm of glory, power and dominion, that He was demonstrating while on earth, for He alone then had the fullness of God dwelling in Him.

Colossians 1:19 “For it has pleased [the Father] that all the divine fullness (the sum total of the divine perfection, powers, and attributes) should dwell in Him permanently” (AMP)

And this is the privilege that He has called us into these days that we might become partakers of this heavenly (life) – calling in measure (Hebrews 3:1), to possess the fullness of the Father’s heavenly life (Ephesians 3:19), right here on the earth, not when we die.

So heaven is a realm, not a geographical location, but a realm in God’s life (spirit) attainable now, for God (Heaven) is real and ever present in us as vessels of honour to reveal Him.

“John 14, the misunderstood passage”

“In my Father’s house are many mansions,” John 14:2a.

This is not talking of a location called heaven up in the sky.

Obviously in the words of Jesus, His Father, God has a house where He dwells with many rooms. But what exactly is this house? See this.

“But Christ, God’s faithful son, is in complete charge of God’s house AND WE CHRISTIANS ARE GOD’S HOUSE – He lives in us” Hebrews 3:6 (TLB).

Similarly, “And Joseph dwelt in Egypt he and his father’s house,” Genesis 50:22.

The above passages reveals to us that the phrase “Father’s House” means a people and not a physical building. For Joseph did not carry his Father’s building to Egypt, but rather the household of Jacob, Joseph’s brethren constitutes the Father’s house.

Even so the household of God today is the Church of the firstborn, Christ. (Hebrews 10:21; 1 Timothy 3:15; Hebrews 12:23)

So all true believers put together make up the Father’s house.

Where else can we then be if God is in heaven and we are his house?

When Jesus said “I go and prepare a place for you,” He was only talking about His crucifixion, death and resurrection so that the Spirit that will bring us to the Father might be released; and this was done on the day of Pentecost. For through Him we both have access by one spirit unto the Father (Ephesians 2:18). He received us unto Himself as the bride, the lamb’s wife (Ephesians 5:22-32; Revelation 21:9). “But he that is joined unto the Lord is ONE SPIRIT… that is a great mystery but I speak concerning CHRIST AND THE CHURCH,” (1 Corinthians 6:17; Ephesians 5:32). And this union is what brought us to where He is now and not where He will be.

But where was He when he was talking to the apostles? He was in the Father – Heaven. (John 14:10, 3:13) “believest thou not that I am in the father and the father in me, which is in Heaven? Now where are we? We are IN THE FATHER and the FATHER IS IN US.“ “For in him we live and move, and have our being,” (Acts 17:28a; l John 14:23).

So, if we are in the Father and the Father is in heaven then we must be in heaven. This is clear enough that what we are talking about is a spiritual matter; it has nothing to do with human reasoning or imaginations neither some physical structure in the sky that you will inherit when you die.

Don’t forget we are trying to locate what is the First, Second and Third Heaven of God. And Heaven is simply where God dwells. God cannot exist outside of the realm called Heaven.

Now get this right. You can walk on streets of Gold now for that is God’s divine nature revealed in and through us, as we move in Mt. Zion, God’s own city, the Church.

Hebrews 12; “22But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 23To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.”

To be written in Heaven means you have your birth certificate as a citizen of heaven the day you were Born again.

Please know and enjoy your right and privileges as a citizen of heaven now, not when you die.

To be continued…