Where is God in heaven?

Since we learned that God is really everywhere (see our recent post "Where is God?"), we can say, “Yes, God is in heaven. 

The Bible teaches that heaven is the place where all the people who have accepted Jesus Christ, God’s Son, as their Lord and Savior will spend eternity. In your new Bible, please read John 3:16, John 1:12, John 14:6 and Romans 10:9! Though heaven is a place, it is a spiritual place, not a physical place. Just like God is spirit and we can’t see, smell, touch, taste or hear him, we also can’t use our senses to see, smell, touch, taste or hear heaven. Although our human minds cannot truly know exactly what heaven will be like, the Bible describes heaven as an unimaginably wonderful place, where we are always in the presence of God! You can read about this in Revelation 21:3-4!

What happens to your spirit when you die?

Wow, what an awesome question! And it’s also a very difficult question to answer because so many Bible scholars have different opinions on it. The truth is that no one knows for sure what happens the moment we die and I think that God had a good reason for keeping us wondering about the mysteries of heaven. Perhaps our brains just couldn’t grasp the realities of eternity.

BUT, the Holy Bible does reveal the following truth about the afterlife. We know that while our earthly bodies will die, our spirit will continue on for eternity. The million dollar question then becomes, where are you going to spend eternity? And there are only two choices there; you can spend eternity with God or apart from God.

You see, the choice is really yours. God gave you free will to either choose Him or reject Him. If you choose to follow God and accept Jesus as your Savior, you will spend eternity with God in Heaven. If you choose to reject God, then you will spend eternity separated from God in a place that God never meant for you. The Bible even says this place, Hell, is a place that God “prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41).

Remember when I said earlier that no one knows for sure what happens the moment we die? Well, there are many Bible scholars who believe your spirit goes somewhere else before you get to Heaven and that you’ll only get to Heaven once Jesus returns. However, there are other Bible scholars that believe you enter God’s presence at death. We just don’t know.

Here’s what I’m confident of: If you believe that Jesus is who He says He is and you’ve received Him as your Lord and Savior, you will be with God forever (Psalm 23:6) and that Jesus is preparing a special place for all us believers in Heaven! (John 14:1-3) Not only are you with God forever, you will never die again (Revelation 21:1-4).

How is it possible that God has been here forever because it seems like everything should have a beginning?

Yahoo! I love that question because friends ask me that question all the time! I could easily give them the standard Biblical answer that “God has always been here and He has no beginning and no end and He will always be here because He is eternal.” But, I usually get that deer-in-the-headlights look when I say that.

So, here’s my way of explaining it: Imagine being able to go back in time to the days of the pilgrims as they were colonizing this country and trying to explain to them how a helicopter works or how an iPod works. Remember, there’s no such thing as electricity, gas engines, batteries, etc. So, how do you explain how those things work to people that have never seen stuff like that? You see, we’ve grown up with so much technology that we just accept what is there without really trying to understand how it works. But trying to explain something so difficult that we casually accept to someone who’s never experienced would be very challenging.

Let’s apply that thinking to the idea of God being eternal. Truth: God’s eternal power is clearly seen in the creation of our universe but our brains have a hard time wrapping around that idea. And we kind of know what eternity is but we don’t fully understand it. So, what do we do? We try to explain it in terms we can see and understand. But how do we explain eternity to people (all of us) who are stuck in the passage of time? We usually start by trying to simplify the idea!

The Bible is our place to start. The Bible simply says God “is.” Remember Moses? When he asked the Lord God what His name was, do you remember what God said? He said, “Tell them I AM” Exodus 3:14). Revelation 1:8 and 4:8 says that God is, God was and God is to come.

We know tht time is a measurement of physical change. Time, though, has only existed since the creation of the universe. Genesis 1:1, the very first book and chapter of the Bible, says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” God created everything, so time started at creation.

We also know from Genesis 1:1 that God was BEFORE the creation of the heavens and the earth becuse He was there to create it. That makes God timeless (eternal) because He created time! So, to answer your question in the simplest of terms, God has been here for all eternity and will be here for all eternity.

Thank you for a great and challenging question!

What if you are in Hell and you pray about your sins? Will God take you to heaven from hell?

Wow, dude, that is an awesome question! Sadly, though, the Bible is quite clear on that and the truth is, no. Once you are in Hell, it is for all eternity.

Jesus actually talks more about Hell than He does about Heaven and the reason is because He does not want any of us to ever go there. Hell was not created by God for you and me. It is a place that was created for Satan and his demons. In Matthew 25:41, Jesus tells those who never came to Him, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

It is a terrible place…the Holy Bible can’t even adequately describe it. We do know that it is a place where even Satan is tormented day and night forever (Revelation 20:10). It is a place of total darkness, where you are completely alone and where you are in constant anguish from the searing flame with a thirst that cannot be quenched and where there will be a constant weeping and gnashing of teeth (Revelation 14:11, Mark 9:4, Jude 7, Matthew 22:13). If that scares you, that’s okay…it scares me too.

There are people, who are non-believers, who will say, “How can a loving God send people to a place like Hell?” The truth is God doesn’t send us to Hell. The non-belief in Him and sin, choosing the devil’s way, put people in Hell. Remember, God is holy and will not allow sin in His kingdom.

But, know this: God does not want anyone to perish! He wants all of us to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9) More importantly, God sent His one and only Son to die for us so that we would not go to Hell. But, it’s not enough just to know that Jesus died for us. You must truly believe that He died for us and then confess Him that He is your Savior. Remember our A-B-C’s in the Bridge Illustration? You must Admit your sins, Believe that Jesus is who He says He is and Confess that He is your Savior.

Never forget how much God loves you!!! He loves you so much that while we were still sinners he sent His son to die for us! (Romans 5:8) And the reward is so great, too, because the Bible says that, “For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through Him” (John 3:16-17)