What will Heaven be like?

 "In my Father's house there are many mansions: If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there may you be also." Jn 14:2-3

What do we know about Heaven? What will be different in Heaven than our lives here on Earth? I believe I learned the following in Bible School:

1. Justification - I am free from the penalty of sin, by the power of the blood of Jesus

2. Sanctification - I am free from the power of sin, by the power of the Holy Spirit

3. Glorification - I am free from the presence of sin, either at death or when He comes back, by the power of a new life in me. 

On Earth, no one experiences perfection. From our perspective, sanctification is a continuing revelation. But do we really change when we pass from life into glory? Is there a new experience waiting for us? Now, says John, we are God's children - but it does not yet appear what we shall be. Yet, when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. I John 3:1-2. So, by the time we do pass from this life, we will have been made to be as He is. 

We do not need to wait till we get to Heaven to be saints. Even if our experience is far from perfection, we nevertheless are perfect in God's eyes. He no longer sees us, but Christ, in us. Fully sanctified. No sin. Only the resurrected Christ, who is our Brother. This is true of all who are in Christ. 

Of course, our minds do not accept this. We judge naturally by what we hear, see, taste, smell and touch. But John, in his epistle, tells us that there is a way to hear, see, taste, smell and touch Jesus by revelation. And that revelation is the basis of our fellowship. Amen. 

So Heaven may not be so far removed from our experience here. I used to live on Maui. I made a joke that if you live on Maui, and then suddenly enter Heaven, how will you know, being as how Maui is the closest thing to Heaven on earth? If I know Him here, He will be no different in Heaven. If I am fully sanctified here on earth, I will not be any different there. I am saved now. I will not be any more saved then. 

In the book of Hebrews, we are encouraged to press on until we enter His Rest (Chapter 4). "Be still, and know, that I am God" writes David (Psalm 46:10). Here on earth, our life is hidden in Christ. In Heaven, the cloak of the flesh is removed, and we "will know, even as we are already known (Ph. 3). Heaven is already here. The only difference will be our glorified bodies.