IS THIS TRUE?

We Will Live in a Mansion in Heaven When We Die

My amazing brother George, who helps me with editing all of our blogs, asked me to write a blog about when we die, “Will we live in mansions? What happens to us? What will Heaven be Like?”

We have all grown up with the picture of heaven with streets paved with gold, surrounded by crystal glass seas, and living in a mansion of gold upon the Glory Hill, right? We have pictures of angels singing and playing their harps, while people of every tongue and nation gathered around the throne in white robes.  Apostle John shared his vision of heaven in the Book of Revelation. The Lord Jesus took him away in the spirit after he was persecuted for his faith in Christ, then banished to the island of Patmos. What John wrote for us in the Book of Revelation was spiritual. He wrote in pictures, metaphors, and symbols to express the wonders he beheld!

For our blog this week, I want to bring clarity to a few things we were taught over the years that were not true, yet, keeping in mind the awesomeness of our eternal abode with God the Father, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and Our Precious Holy Spirit in our Home called, Heaven.

MANSIONS

For the first time in the Bible, Jesus spoke of His Father’s House where everyone lived in a mansion. Let’s look at the scripture John 14:2-3 found in the Amplified:

John 14: 2-3 – In My Father’s house are many mansions (dwelling places). If it were not so, I would have told you, because I am going there to prepare a place for you. ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and I will take you to Myself so that where I am you may be also.

Many of us believe and have been taught when Jesus is talking in John 14:2-3 we are going to live in a great home of brick and mortar, or a mansion with Jesus when we die.

Many Mansions – In King James’ day, a mansion was a room, not a huge, fancy house. Today, most translations say “many dwelling places” (NRSV), or “plenty of room,” as the TNIV helpfully puts it. Jesus’ central meaning is this: There is plenty of room with God.

My Father’s House – This does not mean Heaven. Heaven is not mentioned once in the whole chapter. What then is the “Father’s house?”

Jesus speaks out of the context of the whole Old Testament’s revelation. In the Old Testament, the Lord’s “house” or “dwelling place” is an immensely rich idea. It essentially means the place or places where God’s presence is manifested. Often, in the Psalms, God’s “house” or “dwelling” is the temple in Jerusalem. Other times it refers to the whole creation or even the whole universe. But, in the New Testament, He refers to believers as “The Temples of the Holy Spirit” where God dwells.

God’s “house” or “dwelling place” is wherever God is and wherever His presence is made evident and His will is done. Jesus assumes this in many of His discourses. The meaning of John 14:2 is, “There is plenty of room with God” for every lost soul, He calls out to ALL of mankind.

A Heavenly Place Is Within Us Right Now!

I go to prepare a place for you.” Jesus assures His apostles that in going away (through his crucifixion and death), He is accomplishing the next step in God’s plan for His kingdom to come in fullness and His Holy Spirit to come and live within every believer In Him.
https://www.seedbed.com/fathers-house-many-mansions

Paul also said to us in Ephesians 2:5-6, “Even when we were [spiritually] dead and separated from Him because of our sins, He made us [spiritually] alive together with Christ (for by His grace—His undeserved favor and mercy—you have been saved from God’s judgment through faith in Him). ⁶ And He raised us up together with Him [when we believed], AND SEATED US WITH HIM IN HEAVENLY PLACES, [because we are] IN Christ Jesus.”

Within our earth suits made of clay, our bodies… living within us right now, in our spirits and souls is Heaven! The Kingdom of God where our Father, Lord Jesus, and Holy Spirit dwells and lives. Our bodies are decaying, but our spirits and souls are being renewed day by day, 2 Corinthians 4:16. We are experiencing, now, just a foretaste or appetizer, of all we will experience in the Fullness of God when we leave our earth suits (earthly bodies) behind. The full course meal is yet to come!

HEAVEN

2 Corinthians 5:5-6 [The Temporal and Eternal] – For we know that if the earthly tent [our physical body] which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (in our spirits). For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our [immortal, eternal] celestial dwelling, so that by putting it on, we will not be found naked. … TO BE ABSENT FROM THIS BODY IS TO BE PRESENT WITH THE LORD… THE ONE WHO HAS BEEN WITH US ALL ALONG!

Of course, when we leave this temporary home, our earth suit, we will live in an immortal home or spiritual body with our Lord. The Book of Revelation paints an amazing picture for our natural minds to understand. However, it is only a picture. In our spiritual bodies, we will experience the FULLNESS OF HEAVEN and what John was trying to portray in natural words.

A Heavenly Place Still To Come… A Greater Fullness

In the book of Revelation, there are many accounts of heaven, a place where we will live forever in infinite, immortal bodies. We will know each other and be known by each other.

Revelation 21 gives us an amazing depiction of heaven with symbols and metaphors describing this beautiful place! It’s called a NEW HEAVEN OR NEW EARTH. It can be defined as a spiritual place, whether symbols or a new reality; it will be an unbelievable place to live with Christ. Who will be there living in heaven? The Book of Revelation describes them:

The New Heaven and Earth – Read Revelation Chapters 21 and 7 to Learn More.

• Those who have given their lives to Christ over the years
• Those whose names have been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life
• Those who have come out of Great Tribulations
• Those who have been chosen as the Bride of Christ
• Those from many tongues and nations
• The Lamb’s wife
• The New Jerusalem like a Bride Adorned for her Husband
• One Bride and One Bridegroom… No marriage in Heaven

21 Then I saw a New Heaven and a New Earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away (vanished), and there is no longer any sea. ² And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, arrayed like a bride adorned for her husband; ³ and then I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “See! The tabernacle of God is among men, and He will live among them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them [as their God,] ⁴ and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be death; there will no longer be sorrow and anguish, or crying, or pain; for the former order of things has passed away.”

In conclusion, the mansion Jesus spoke of in the Book of John, is the same building Paul speaks of in 2 Corinthians. WE ARE THE DWELLING PLACES OF GOD! We are God’s TEMPLE AND HOUSE WHERE HIS PRESENCE DWELLS FOREVER. Heaven lives within us right now! When we die or when our Lord returns, we will change clothes; our mortal bodies will put on immortality, our spiritual bodies and we will rule and reign with Christ throughout eternity in the place we have always known a spiritual place we call Heaven.