What Is Heaven Really Like?

WHY FOCUS ON HEAVEN?

“I’m fed up with earth.”  That feeling had been growing in Sheila’s heart for months.  Between the nightly discouragements of the evening news, wars abroad, and friends hurting in every way imaginable, she’d just had it.  To add insult to injury (or vice versa), an innocent flip of her head one day resulted in such excruciating pain that Sheila couldn’t stand up.  After nearly 18 awful hours in an ER, she and husband, Barry, learned that she hadn’t broken anything, but had torn ligaments, which would be extremely painful, but heal on their own.  That experience led Sheila to seek God in His Word for comfort, as usual, about so much misery in the world.  “When everything else in the world seems upside down, God’s Word is right-side up,” she says.  The more she studied what the Bible says about our eternal home, the more peace she felt, as well as eagerness for that reality.  “Being fed up with earth absolutely makes sense to me now.  We were made for more.  The yearning you and I feel at times, even on our best days, is because we were made for heaven and nothing else will do.” 

WHAT HEAVEN IS LIKE

After making the case biblically that heaven is indeed a real place, Sheila delves into eight intriguing aspects of heaven:  Heaven is up, i.e. it is referred to as the “third heaven” after the earth’s atmosphere and outer space; heaven is with Jesus, heaven is our real home; heaven is comforting for those left behind; heaven is where we’ll be fully known at last; in heaven, we’ll have glorified bodies; heaven is not boring; and heaven is full of wonder. Just two in more detail are:

• Heaven is Where We’ll be Fully Known at Last.  “Let me say up front that I firmly believe we will recognize and know each other in heaven,” Sheila states.  “Not only that, but I believe we’ll recognize godly men and women who died long before us.”  One of the supporting Scripture passages she refers to is Mark 9:2-8, where Peter, James, and John see the glorified Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah on the mount of transfiguration.  “Have you ever wondered how the disciples recognized Moses and Elijah?  This was long before photographs and magazines.  She then refers to Matthew 16:15-17, where Simon Peter tells Jesus that he believes He’s the Messiah.  “God himself revealed Christ’s identity to Peter.  The Holy Spirit gave him understanding.”
• The Wonder of Heaven.  “Here on earth, even in the best moments, we barely have a glimpse of the wonder of heaven,” Sheila believes.  “It’s everything you’ve ever dreamt of in its purest form and so much more.  When you’ve grabbed hold of everything this world offers and found it heartbreakingly wanting, it’s easy to give in to despair.”   To counter that limited thinking, she quotes popular author Randy Alcorn: “We think of ourselves as fun-loving and of God as a humorless killjoy.  But we’ve got it backward.  It’s not God who’s boring, it’s us.  Did we invent wit, humor,and laughter? No, God did.  We’ll never begin to. 

exhaust God’s sense of humor and his love for adventure.  The real question is this: How could God not

be bored with us?”                                 

EARTHLY DISAPPOINTMENTS

There’s an endless list of sorrows people face in this life, Sheila points out: loneliness, fear, bankruptcy, loss of a job, an unexpected diagnosis, a son or daughter lost in the world of drugs, divorce, etc.  Will those profound disappointments follow believers to heaven and tarnish eternity for them, she posits?  “We live in a culture that promises so much and, more often than not, fails to deliver.  It’s hard not to become skeptical about everything.  There is something in us, as if woven into our DNA, that believes that life should be better than what we’re experiencing right now,” she says.  “You do it all and yet you fall into bed each night and think, Is this all there is?  If you feel that, I want you to know you are not alone.  This is not an unnatural feeling but a deep desire for what you were actually made for.”

To counter the fear that even heaven can’t relieve us of all our earthly suffering, Sheila offers a number of solid encouragements, all based in God’s Word:

• Disappointment doesn’t exist in heaven.  “Disappointment is real.  It’s party of our lives on this earth, but (it) doesn’t exist in heaven,” she states, based on Paul’s description of heaven in 1 Corinthians 2:9-11, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.”
• Jesus will be there.  “We’ll be home and we’ll be loved and we’ll be whole and we will join in worshipping Christ, the Lamb of God, the King of Kings forever,” she says, based on Revelation 5:13.  That’s where John tells us every creature in heaven and earth and even in the sea will sing, “Blessing and honor and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.”    
• Your friends and family are there.  “We’ll experience the greatest reunions we’ve ever known.  We’ll get to see friends and family who have trusted in Jesus and who’ve gone before us – and not as they were but as they are without any pain or sorrow, without anxiety or depression or any kind of sickness,” Sheila exhorts us.  One Scripture she uses to illustrates this is 2 Samuel 12:23, where David eats again after mourning his son, who has just died.  “But why should I fast when he is dead?  Can I bring him back again?  I will go to him one day, but he cannot return to me.” 

HEAVEN CHANGES HOW WE LIVE NOW

In response to the long list of earthly trials we face, Sheila offers another list to contemplate daily:  We are spiritual lambs who are becoming lions of the faith, there will be no more death in glory, nor grief, nor a curse on all creation, nor hurt, nor unmet needs, nor sin itself!  So how should that affect our daily lives now? she asks.  “Jesus tells them (the disciples on the Mount of Olives) that, as no one but the Father knows the hour when He will return, they should be ready, they should be waiting, and they should be expectant,” like the ten bridesmaids in one of the Matthew 25 parables.  With the support of that chapter’s parable of the talents, she illustrates how we should now live.  “What’s clear from the story that Jesus told is that how great our gifts are doesn’t matter at all to God.  After all, He is the one who gave them out in the first place.  All that matters is what we will do with what we’ve been given.  We live in a culture and at times, a church, that elevates giftedness.  None of us can take credit for the gifts we’ve been given.  They are just that, gifts.  We are able to glorify God by what we do with them.”

AND WHAT OF OUR PETS??

“It is hard to put into words the love that pets bring to us as humans,” Sheila says.  “If that was God’s original plan in Eden, then someday we will once again enjoy these beautiful gifts from God.”  She points out that heavenly animals are mentioned many places in Scripture, such as 2 Kings 2:11, where Elijah is taken up to heaven in a carriage of fire drawn by horses, Revelation 6:2, where John tell us, “I looked up and saw a white horse standing there,” and Isaiah 11:6-9, which tells us about the wolf and lamb, leopard and baby goat, calf and yearling lying together or with lions.  “If animals were always part of God’s plan for us, I’m sure they will part of our eternal lives with Him.  In heaven, we will be who we are now, but without sin, so animals that knew a certain beauty, grace, and strength in Eden will be perfected once again, too.”

For more information on Sheila Walsh please click the LINK! 

CREDITS

Best-selling author, latest: The Hope of Heaven (Baker, 2024) / Sheila has sold nearly six million books / Popular conference speaker and Bible teacher; has spoken to six million people worldwide / Joined the TBN network in December, 2022 as a host of several shows, including Praise and Better Together / Former Co-host of Life Today with James and Betty Robison / Founder, Braveheart Sisterhood events / Former Women of Faith speaker, more than 20 years until its end in 2017 / Former co-host of The 700 Club, 1987-1992, and host of CBN’S Heart to Heart / Two-time Grammy-nominated recording artist, having recorded more than 25 albums / Married to Barry, one grown son, Christian, now a clinical psychologist, and one crazy little dog, Maggie