Secrets from Beyond The Grave

I plan on drinking the water from it! Heaven, however, is as real as what we see on Earth. Just as Earth has diverse landscapes; plant life; and a variety of tree, hills, mountains, and valleys, so heaven has a variety of appearances to appeal to all believers from around the world. I am certainly a mountain lover. From ages three to ten, I lived in southwestern Virginia in a small town surrounded by rolling mountains. On the outskirts of the town were farms with rolling hills carpeted in green where cattle roamed freely. My favorite time of the year has always been the fall months, when God splashes His bright colors on the leaves and the crisp, cooler air blows gently across your face. By God's grace, when I arrive in heaven I hope to spend time in an area with mountains and a place where the trees are multicolored and never change. The Waiting Period for the Resurrection When I came to the full realization that a person's soul and spirit continue to live outside of the body at death and that there are holding places , one in Sheol (hell) and the other in the third heaven (paradise), I began to imagine what this intermediate state is like for those who have departed--especially those who have gone to be with the Lord. As a young child, I visualized people floating around in the atmosphere like ghosts, blanketed in a white, misty vapor and sort of hovering over some special location in heaven. I did not visualize them with clothes but saw them in my mind as covered with light. I didn't think they actually communicated but lived in this intermediate zone until the resurrection. As a teenager the image changed, and I realized they could communicate and actually lived in a realm similar to what we have on Earth, except in a realm of perfection. Paul makes it clear that if he were absent from his body he would be "present with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:9). We know from the incident in Luke 16 that both the rich man in hell and the beggar in Abraham's bosom had all five senses in the afterlife. Now the righteous are dwelling in the land of light in the third heaven in the paradise of God. Paul wrote that "to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Phil. 1:21). He wrote that to die and be with Christ was far better, but to remain in the flesh and minister to the saints was more needful at the time (vv. 22-24). Certainly Paul did not believe that at death his soul went to sleep in the grave until the resurrection. If our souls slept when our bodies do, it would be impossible to experience a vision or to have a spiritual dream. As God pours out His Spirit at the time of the end, the "old men shall dream dreams" and the "young men shall see visions" (Joel 2:28). The State of "Resting" In Job 3:17 we read, "There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest." The word rest is used extensively when describing the righteous in the afterlife. In Hebrews chapter 4, the writer consistently mentions the danger of a believer falling into unbelief, as the Hebrew people did in the wilderness, and falling short of his or her eternal rest. In Hebrews 4, the word rest is mentioned nine times; eight times the word means "to repose, sit down, and relax." It is a word used to describe the position of a person after working long hours, when that person returns home to repose, sit down, and, as I would say, chill out . In Hebrews 4:9, the writer uses a different word for rest: "There remains therefore a rest to the people of God." The Greek word here for "rest" is sabbatismos and refers to a Sabbath of rest that God's people will receive if we remain faithful in this life to follow the Lord.