A LOOK INTO HEAVEN "TWO"

PART TWO I SEE ANGELS IN HEAVEN

Come walk with me, do you smell that? That sweet smell of incense rising up, is the prayers of us His saints (Revelation 5:8). Remember everything that was in the earthly tabernacle was a copy of what is in heaven. Wait do you hear that voice, it sounds like many waters, that's JESUS! That voice is the anionting of His authority. Wait I hear the song of the angels. Stop listen a moment "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come" they sing continually all the time, they are singing to Jesus (Revelation 1:15). And we here on earth don't want to sing more than 20 minutes, better get used to it.

Angels, Angels, Angels so many and they were created beings with a purpose. They're spoken of over and over throughout the scriptures. The world projects them in pictures as only finite minds can comprehend But here is what they are not:

1. They are never women

2. Cherubs are not fat little babies flying around with itty bitty wings. In fact they are called in scripture also Cherubim. 

3. They are not the believers when they go to heaven. We go in our spirit and soul, we haven't got our new bodies as yet.

4. They don't all have wings. We assume one cannot fly without wings but in Ezekiel 1:14 it says they move like a flash of lightening.

What they are

1. Angels were created to serve God and to be ministering spirits to those that are believers found in Hebrews 1:14

2. We find worshipping angels, the angels that guard the glory of God, we find warring angels led by Michael the Archangel, they war in the spirit realm and watch over Israel and us, we have the messenger angel Gabriel and probably he leads others, but he comes to bring the word of God, as we have read before, we have ministering angels, guardian angels and watching angels

 Since we spotted and heard the seraphim as soon as we entered, we will begin with them. These angels have one purpose, to praise God continually. They have 6 wings:

Isaiah 6:2-3 Above it (the throne mentioned in verse 1) stood seraphim; each one had 6 wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

Revelation 4:6-8 describe the different faces these created beings, seraphim, had each had a different face, but all had 6 wings and full of eyes and didn't rest day or night , saying Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come.

Revelation 4:9 whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever.

The seraphim angels are in our words of today the "Praise team of heaven".

The first mention of an angel is the cherubim mentioned in: Genesis 3:24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

Again we find that above the mercy seat we saw 2 golden cherubim guarding over the mercy seat.

But we find a lot more about them by looking at Ezekiel. I screenshot a few verses and will add at the end. But suggest you open the word to Ezekiel 9 & 10. Now I read it in the NKJV but screenshot it in the NLT version.

Where the seraphim have six wings cherubim have four wings. Cherubim are the angels that guard the glory of God in heaven and on earth. Now these two are the only angels mentioned that have wings.

Warring angels, who are they? We would compare them as operating as a military led by Michael the archangel. They swiftly carry out the judgments of God and protectors of God's people. We see them mentioned at the beginning of Ezekiel 9 as six men:

Ezekiel 9:1-2 Then He called out in my hearing with a loud voice, saying, "Let those who have charge over the city draw near, each with a deadly weapon in his hand". And suddenly six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with a battle-ax in his hand. One man among them was clothed with linen and had a writer's inkhorn at his side. They went in and stood beside the bronze altar.

Verse 4 tells the purpose of the writer's inkhorn.

If you go to 2 Kings 6:17 you will see Elisha prayed that God would open his servants eyes, that he might see in the spirit realm, what he saw were warring angels all around them. Anytime you read in scripture of God's army fighting on His people's behalf, that would be warring angels. Fairly certain that in the great tribulation these are the angels bringing judgment on the nations.

Then we have Gabriel, he is the only one mentioned, whether he leads more angels like himself we are not told, after reading a little deeper I realize there are several angels mentioned that came with a word and when it was Gabriel he was named, so he was probably positioned as their leader. Now Gabriel is the angel of the word, or the word angel. He is the messenger sent to give a specific word from God. Example of just a few: Hagar, Daniel, Abraham, Lot, Zacharias, Mary, Joseph, John the Revelator,  Mary Magdalene st the open tomb and then there are the three angels of Revelation 14:6 flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth to every nation, tribe, tongue and people.

Then we have ministering angels created to minister to others as God sends when we call out for help. Some may say guardian angels and they could be the same, I don't know, or they could be different. 

When you read Matthew 4 when Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan, he had not had food or water for 40 days His human body was weak and hungry. In verse 11 angels came to minister to Him and literally fed Him. These were ministering angels.

Wait, Stop who are all those angels recording in the big books? Let's look a little closer. Those are the watchers/recorders always watching earth recording every single person ever born and their life, Daniel 4:13. There are five books mentioned in the scriptures:

1. The Book of the Living (not the Lambs Book of Life) every person born is written here and all they did in their life is recorded Psalm 139:16

2. The Book of Remembrance, Everything we have done in God's kingdom is found here Malachi 3:16

3. The book/bottle recording our tears, our tears shed in our suffering, tears shed for others is kept here Psalm 56:8

4. The Book of Alms, our giving into the kingdom of God, into His family is kept here Acts 10:4

5. The Lamb's Book of Life the day, the hour, the moment we accepted Jesus' gift of eternal life and surrendered to Him, our name was written in this Book. Revelation 13:8, Revelation 20:12, Revelation 21:27.

Psalm 103:20-21 Bless the Lord, you His angels, who excel in strength, who do His word, heeding the voice of His word. Bless the Lord, all you hosts, you ministers of His, who do His pleasure

I believe it is an angel that comes to us as we leave this earth and leads us into our heavenly home. One thing is for certain angels are God's created creatures, they are mighty angels, and as soon as God says go they obey.

I could go on and on,  scripture after scripture about angels, but I will only add this in both Hebrews and some of the Epistles, many were worshipping angels and we are told not to worship angels, we are to worship Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God. But aren't they beautiful creatures, to see and hear in heaven.

BUT I WANT TO SEE JESUS, IT'S NOT HEAVEN WITHOUT JESUS! While the angels are beautiful and all that, I WANT TO SEE JESUS! 

I believe when we first enter heaven the first One we will see is Jesus!! How did John see Him? 

Revelation 1:12-15 Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed in a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as refined in a furnace and His voice as the sound of many waters.

Jesus all focus, all attention is toward Him as He sits on His throne, the angels sing to Him about Him the 24 elders worship Him and they cast their crowns before the throne, saying "You are worthy, Oh Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, For You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created " Revelation 4:10-11

Even here on this earth, He should be our focus, He is worthy of our praise and worship everyday all day, He alone is worthy of our adoration, He gave Himself for a wretch like me, that I might be found in heaven with Him forever, and ever and ever. 

As Jesus Christ is the center of heaven and He should be the center of our lives on this earth. Amen 

A LOOK INTO HEAVEN "ONE"

 

PART ONE

A PLACE CALLED HEAVEN

Now today it will simply the basic foundation that most Christians already know. Yet, I felt we must begin here because this blog goes beyond my Facebook friends. In this world of today many, many people do not believe, God nor heaven or hell exist they simply believe when you die you just no longer exist. Some are under the false assumption that everyone goes to heaven and many other religions teach many different beliefs about heaven. We are going to look at what the Word of God says about heaven and allow the Holy Spirit to guide me and you as we search the scriptures. I will be peeking a lot into Revelation, as it reveals a clear picture of heaven. During this "Look into Heaven", here are the subjects we will be looking into:

1. A Place Called Heaven

     a. The sights we see in heaven's throne room.

2. The Angels In Heaven

3. The Redeemed in Heaven

     a. What we will look like

     b. How will be dressed

     c. Where will we live

     d. What will we do

4. The sights and sounds around us in heaven

Now this one may be included in several different subjects.

5.  A new heaven and a new earth

      a. What we will not see in heaven

And wherever else God may lead us to.

Heaven is where we find the throne room of God. It is in this throne room where Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God the Father.

Isaiah 66:1 This says the LORD: Heaven is My throne, And earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for Me? And where is the place of My rest.

This heaven that is spoken of, the throne room of God, where Jesus sits at His Father's right hand, where is it? Let's look outside and see, as we read these words of Paul.

2 Corinthians 12:2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago----whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God, knows-----such a one was caught up to the third heaven.

Clue, third heaven, are you looking up? What do you see? The blue sky, clouds, the sun if it is day, and at night you see the stars and the moon. This is the first heaven. Now imagine we are traveling in a space shuttle, an traveling through outer space, what do you see? Now we are passing through the second heaven. The third heaven is beyond our reach beyond our ability to see, but it is here we find the heaven we are searching and longing for.

If we go back and read in Exodus 25-37 God is giving Moses very detailed instructions on how to build the Tabernacle, everything in it, and the Ark of the covenant (right here is something there important)

Exodus 37:1-9 is the construction of the Ark of the covenant. Here we find a mercy seat in the center and on either side, facing each other we find two cherubim:

Exodus 37:9 the cherubim spread out their wings above, and covered the mercy seat with their wings. They faced each other; the faces of the cherubim were toward the mercy seat.

Now let's fast forward to Hebrews 8:5 who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, "See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain."

God literally showed Moses what was in the Throne Room of heaven. Let's go to one more, as I was reading in Psalm 99:1 a few years back I read this and my heart skipped several beats as I realized God dwelled at the mercy seat.

Psalm 99:1 The LORD reigns; Let the peoples tremble! He dwells between the cherubim; Let the earth be moved!

Now what is between the cherubim? The Mercy Seat. Our God extends His love, grace and mercy. Now I saved the best for last, we will go to this multiple times as we take a peek into heaven.

Revelation 4 suddenly John is called up into heaven and let's see what he says, just looking at a few verses will look at the others later.

Revelation 4: 2-3 Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set it heaven, and One sat on the throne. And He who sat there was like a jasper and sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald.

Revelation 4:5-6a And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices . Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal..........

We sort of got into a little of the sounds around the throne room, but what does this tell us about God.

What can we see in these verses in Revelation 4:

1. God's position

2. God's power

3. God's perfection.

Though I purposely left out a few scriptures until next time, what did you see when you stepped into heaven's throne room?

1. God is the center of attention, all focus is on Him. We will look at closer next time. And He is beautiful.

2. God's great power, lightening and thunder coming from His throne. Representing His warning to those on earth.

3. His perfection, His purity seen in the crystal sea. There never was and never can be any sin in God.

Now take just a moment and imagine this sight as you step out of this world and into your eternal home. Our finite minds can not visualize that one sight. But it is very real and we will one day see it and our loved ones are seeing it now.

But a lot more to see. So until next time good day or goodnight for me it is 11:30 pm so Goodnight.