Seeing

God wants us to know what we've been given as his children, and that includes what heaven will be like.

You may have heard the response, "no eye has seen, and no ear has heard" ¹ to the question, "What will heaven be like?" But God is not a God who hides the blessings he has in store for us as his children. He invites us to search and imagine. The promises of God and what our eternal future hold for us, span and sprinkle the pages of Scripture. You can look forward to seeing your deepest desires for intimacy, affirmation, and acceptance fulfilled when you meet him at heaven's gate.

To be clear the Scripture does contain the words “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”, not in the context of heaven, but rather in the context of what Jesus did for us on the cross - but now that mystery has been revealed to us by the Holy Spirit through the apostles. Jesus redeemed us from the dismal future of eternal separation from God - his blood was the payment for our sin: the very sin that separated us from knowing God.

God wants us to know what he has in store for us (as well as what he has for us on this journey called Life). ² But to understand these things, (God's promises, heaven's glory, forgiveness and freedom, and so much more), we need the mind of Christ, and the mind of Christ is given to those who have received and believed in Jesus - to those who are born of the Spirit.

There was a man, a Pharisee, who met with Jesus and claimed to know about Jesus: where he came from and who he was. His name was Nicodemus, and he was a religious leader of the day. Jesus' immediate response to Nicodemus and his organization's conclusion about him cut to the heart of what Nicodemus really needed: not a consensus, not a well thought out conclusion of the truth, not a title or a degree, but rather a new birth,

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” ³

And,

Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. ⁴

Jesus was saying that experiential knowledge of and entry into the realm of his kingdom comes by birth, not by any human effort or understanding. There are possibly many who can analyze the bible and teach Christianity and comment on the kingdom of God and its meaning, but only those who are born of the Spirit know the Author personally and have a relational knowledge of the Savior.

Eta Linneman knew this. She was a respected and admired New Testament Scholar and theologian - before becoming a Christian. She knew much about religion but didn't know the Savior, Jesus Christ. By God's grace she was freed from disillusionment and addiction and converted to Christianity. She was freed from the darkness of her mind and born again into the kingdom of light. Her denial of what she thought she knew and the realization that she needed to be born again, is a testimony to the change that Jesus brought into her life. ⁵

John the apostle points us in the same direction that Eta took into the kingdom of light with these words of invitation,

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. ⁶

That initiation is open to everyone of us.

References

¹ 1 Corinthians 2:9: However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him—

² 1 Corinthians 2:12: What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.

³ John 3:3

⁴ John 3:5

⁵ What is even worse, there are pastors who, because of such theology [historical-critical theology], do not even know that humans are lost and we have to be born again. And what they themselves do not know, they cannot pass along to their church members.

Ministry Magazine | "The Word of God should be the measure"

⁶ John 1:12-13