Hi all,
I felt led to share on things I have seen in heaven that I only talk about here and there in interviews or private discussions. That is, in heaven I saw people talking through disagreements and situations that happened when they were alive on the earth. I’ve seen this many times, and it caused me to look at scripture to confirm what I saw with chapter and verse. It is in there and gives us insight about relationships in heaven.
This should bring peace to any who wish they had a chance for a final goodbye, a chance to have said things that needed to be said, to apologize or receive an apology, before a loved one or someone we once interacted with passed on.
Jesus was the first
The teaching in the first century was that Messiah would come and subdue the Romans, setting up His kingdom from Jerusalem. This was the expectation of all the disciples at the start, and why the mother of James and John asked that her sons sit on His sides in the kingdom. Judas tried to force Jesus to prove Himself, not realizing the Messiah came first as the suffering servant to bring the acceptable year of the Lord rather than the day of vengeance of the Lord.
When He was arrested and died, therefore, the disciples were confused and afraid; their whole lives were turned upside down. Everything they had been taught and believed about Messiah was wrong, and they were confused. They went from believing they had some official position in Jesus’ kingdom He was about to set up, to recognizing everything they had been taught from the Word about Messiah was wrong. Jesus alluded to and even spoke directly to them about His upcoming death, but His words were so far outside all they had been taught and believed they didn’t understand Him.
In Luke 24: 44-45, shortly after His resurrection, Jesus came to them and said: “This is what I was talking to you about, that everything written of me in the law of Moses and the Prophets must come to pass. Then He opened their understanding so they could understand the scriptures.”
This and other events after His resurrection, like John 21 and His instructions to Peter and John, shows us that things unsettled on earth when one dies, will be addressed and settled later, as Jesus did with the disciples. We also see this in John 20: 24-28 with Thomas, who was not with them on resurrection day and infamously stated that unless he put his hand in the nail holes in Jesus’ hands, and in his side where the spear went in, and see with his own eyes, he would not believe. About a week later Jesus appeared to them again, and this time Thomas was with them. Immediately Jesus challenged Thomas to do what he had said, and to therefore believe He had been resurrected. This shows that one in heaven’s realm (Jesus) is aware of challenges and things said on earth, and will have an opportunity to address and answer questions.
The Revelation 6: 9-11, the opening of the 5th seal
In a type of the rapture happening before the events of the last 7 years of the age, John tells us in The Revelation 4: 1-2 that He heard a voice that sounded like a trumpet, and heard ‘Come up here’, and he was caught up to heaven, finding himself before the throne of the Father. In 5:7 the Lamb that had been slain, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, came to the Father on the throne and ‘took the book out of the right hand of Him who sits on the throne’.
Then the Lord opens one seal after another starting in 6:1, coming to the 5th seal in 6: 9-11, which the apostle witnesses: “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those that had been slain because of the word of God and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those that live on the earth? And white robes were given unto each one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little while until their fellow servants and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.”
The apostle John sees thousands of martyrs in heaven who had recently been killed for their faith crying out for justice. In heaven they remembered their life on earth, how they died, and still demanded justice. There is no loss of memory when we transition to heaven.
That we see people in heaven very much aware of the injustices they suffered before the Father, asking Him to bring judgment on their foes, then being told to wait while given the white wedding robes of righteousness, shows there is give and take, timing and patience, instruction and passion for all things to be set right, even once we get to heaven. The point being that from the resurrected Lord calling to remembrance and reconciling what He had told them when He was with them, to martyrs in heaven crying out for vengeance upon those who had murdered them, life goes on. Memories continue. Heaven doesn’t cause us to forget this life, no, it confirms and corrects life. Life continues on, we continue on. Heaven is simply a transition to another realm with all things in our spirit and soul remaining intact.
Your anguish and victories on earth turned into spiritual building material
Sometimes it is difficult to understand that our battles in this life have a direct impact on our heavenly home. Scripture teaches, however, that our lives here are, in fact, that building material with the object of completing the heavenly city.
In Psalm 56: 8, David wrote: “You know all about my wanderings, you have kept my tears in your bottle, are they not written in your book?”
The word ‘wanderings’ is ‘nod’ (nuwd) in Hebrew, meaning exile. The superscription (information given before v1) tells us it was written when David was fleeing King Saul and was captured by the Philistines in Gath. David said God kept his tears and recorded the difficulties of his exile in the Lord’s book. In Judaism, it is taught, and we see in the Old and New Testaments, that our lives are recorded in books. Malachi* refers to the ‘book of remembrance’, The Revelation says ‘the books were opened’ and there is the Book of the Living, or Book of Life as it is called.
The opening of books, a book for each person and the Book of Life, implies the content of those books is open for others to see. For scrutiny, for correction, for reconciliation and explanation. Jesus said in Matthew 7: 22-23 that many false believers will come to Jesus on that day and claim to have done miracles and amazing things in His name. But putting that in the 1st century Jewish understanding, Jesus would be looking at their books and admit to them: “I never knew you and you are actually living in iniquity (lifestyle of deceit and hypocrisy pretending to know Him), depart from me.” *Malachi 3: 16, The Revelation 20: 12, also Exodus 32: 32-33, etc.
This is why Peter writes in I Peter 2: 5: “You are built up a spiritual house,” or we could say a house of spiritual material. He continues in v6 that Jesus is the Cornerstone laid down to start the foundation of that house. Jesus said in His Father’s house are many places to live, in Greek ‘abodes’, places to rest, relax, live. In The Revelation 21: 14 the apostle John sees the layers of foundation stones in the walls of the heavenly Jerusalem, saying each layer has the names of the apostles on them. That means what they went through in their lives on earth was turned into heavenly material furnishing the foundations of the walls of the city. Your life, my life, our victories and the little things in which we grow, in Christ, are recorded and remembered – from tears to overcoming bitterness and un-forgiveness – it’s all recorded.
In The Revelation 21: 2 John sees the heavenly Jerusalem, ‘adorned as a bride for her husband’ and in v9 the city is called ‘the bride, the Lamb’s wife’. He states , “THAT HAS MADE HERSELF READY” (19:7). That’s what this life is about – we, the bride, are making ourselves ready for Christ. As a bride, keeping ourselves unspotted from the world, loving no other, and those sacrifices are noted in heaven and used to adorn the city, the ‘place I go to prepare for you’.
The foundation and walls of the city have the names of the apostles, meaning their lives on earth were translated into building material for the heavenly walls. Paul told the strife and envy filled Corinthians in I Corinthians 3: 1-15 that their envy, strife, and divisions were spiritual wood, hay, and stubble that if carried into death, would burn away when they stood before the Lord, though they would still be saved. He encouraged them to grow up, walk in love, which would turn that wood, hay, and stubble into gold, silver, and precious stones in heaven.
We understand 2 main points from today: First, that we remember things in heaven from our lives on earth, and that reconciliation is desired and happens between people once we get there. Jesus cleared up their confusion about the events of the previous week, so too will relatives and friends have time to address, apologize, make right, and give understanding about events shared with us while on earth.
Next week, people I saw reconciling and how it was so very different from conversations on earth, and more.
Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
