Scripture Reading
Revelation 21:3-4
And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, members of over 5,800 branch churches in Korea and all over the world including the United States, Canada, Peru, Honduras, Bolivia, El Salvador, Argentina, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, China, Japan, Pakistan, Nepal, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, India, Mongolia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Israel, Egypt, Kenya, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Angola, Burundi, Rwanda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Botswana, Swaziland, Cote d’Ivoire, South Africa the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Estonia, Kazakhstan, and local sanctuary members, those who are attending the service on the Internet all over the world, and television viewing audiences,
Today is the 20th message in the sermon series on “Heaven” and it continues from the last three sessions about the life in heaven.
Today’s Scripture says that our Father God will always be with us in the eternal kingdom of heaven where there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain. It means that there will be only joy, happiness and pleasure in heaven.
By the way, some of you have already been enjoying the happiness and joy of heaven on this earth.
It is because you have accomplished true hearts and perfect faith.
You can have heavenly joy and contentment while on earth to the same extent as you possess true hearts and perfect faith.
For example, if all the members of your family have accomplished the heart of spirit and all of you are always at peace with one another and love and serve one another, then wouldn’t you home be like heaven?
Moreover, you will be able to enter the better dwelling places in heaven to the extent that you accomplish heaven in your heart while here on earth.
I ask you to remember that living the life to come in heaven will be different according to the level of spirit you are accomplishing right now.
Therefore, through this message, may all of you possess true hearts and perfect faith and through you may your homes, working places become places of spirit that are like heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I pray!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
In the last session I spoke to you about communication in heaven and explained that the people in heaven do not communicate with each other through machines or equipment.
The residents of New Jerusalem communicate with one another in a clear and spiritual way. When they hold meetings and have fellowship, they won’t have to give a detailed account to each individual. Just short messages will suffice and everyone will understand exactly without any miscommunication.
For example, let’s say that two New Jerusalem residents are going to pay a visit to the mansion of our Lord.
If you were going to arrange something similar on Earth wouldn’t you call the other person and say, “Let’s meet outside of the main gate of the Lord’s mansion so we can go together for a visit”?
But, it’s possible one of you may mistake the rear gate for the main gate and wait for the other person. Or, whether it is because of you or the other person, you may be late for the appointment time.
But this will be a totally different story in New Jerusalem. If you promise someone the time and place meet, no matter how unfamiliar you are with the place, you can find exactly the right place through the guidance of the spirit in your heart and angels.
Thus, the life in heaven is not complicated. If you determine to do something, you can do it just as you have planned.
However, it is not from the time they have entered New Jerusalem that New Jerusalem residents begin to live this steadfast life.
Since they have unchangingly kept every word spoken in truthfulness while living on the earth and they have never been late for a promised meeting, they are really truthful in everything they do in heaven.
They are not rude but considerate of others in any and in all circumstances.
Now I urge you to examine yourselves whether your life will be proper for the life in New Jerusalem.
This will not apply to only personal fellowship, but also to small meetings.
Suppose a few people promise to meet at the place in which the most beautiful flower blossoms in the midst of the garden of our Lord’s castle.
Then, those residents who live in New Jerusalem will all be moved in their hearts in the same way and understand what the most beautiful flower is and no matter how vast the garden of the of our Lord’s castle may be, they will all be able to find the place and meet there.
But this does not apply to the people residing in the 1st kingdom of heaven. They cannot find the exact place in the same way I have just explained.
They can get to the place where the sweetest and most beautiful flower is located only if they are given specific directions that it is in the very center of the garden of the Lord’s castle.
The people from the 1st kingdom would feel a little uncomfortable even if they were permitted to live in New Jerusalem because they cannot properly communicate with others in spirit and they would have difficulty understanding others living there.
Let me give you an illustration. Recently many cars have Navigation systems installed that guide drivers directly to the right destination.
The navigation systems not only tell the drivers the shortest way to the destination, but also give them many different kinds of information via satellite including the least congested roads to travel.
With this convenience of the nav-systems, drivers can follow the right way without getting lost, even if it is the first visit and even though they avoid roads that are traffic-jammed.
Since drivers frequently have trouble finding the right way when they drive somewhere for the first time, they often go astray and wander around along the way.
In order to avoid those troubles in the middle of the trip, they have to pull their car over a few times and ask for directions from people who are passing by.
In the same way, New Jerusalem residents are guided anywhere they want in their hearts, like having Nav-systems, while the residents in the other dwelling places will have to ask for detailed directions because they are only dimly guided in spirit.
This is not applied only to heaven but also the same to us who are on earth.
For example, the measure of understanding and obeying the will of God is different for each of you according to whether you have failed to store any knowledge of the word of God at all; whether you have stored it only as knowledge; or whether you have stored the Word in your hearts and cultivated it into spirit.
Suppose the three kinds of people desire to live by the word of God. Those who do not know the word of God even as stored knowledge will fail to find that they are disobeying the word of God.
Some new believers say that they ate regular food instead of recovery food after a 3-day fast because they were full of the grace.
It means that God protected them because they had no idea of the recovery process at all.
But it is a totally different story to you if you have the long years of faith and the knowledge of recovery food. If you eat common food right after 3 days of fasting, you will have physical problems with your body.
Your face will swell up and you will likely have stomach problems. Then, you will realize the will of God.
Thus, you are able to obey the word of God as much as you understand it.
But the level of obedience in your daily life and the completion of the works of God are different with each of you according to how much you have accomplished in changing your heart into spirit.
If you have accomplished whole spirit in your heart, no matter what God commands you to do, and no matter how difficult the commands are to understand with human knowledge and theory, you can obey them by the guidance of the Holy Spirit in your heart.
Just as Abraham offered his only son Isaac as a burnt sacrifice and the second generation of Israel stepped down on the flowing Jordan river to conquer the land of Canaan, you will neither look at the situation from a fleshly viewpoint nor will you be blocked by fleshly thoughts, but just obey God by the guidance from within your heart.
But if you have done little to accomplish spirit within your heart, your thoughts will then operate by means of fleshly knowledge and the guidance from within your heart is blocked.
Even when you hear only a few words of the will and heart of God in a specific situation, if you have the heart of spirit, you will understand the will of God and cooperate.
In the same situation, if your heart is still of flesh, you need to hear a detailed explanation of the will of God or you may follow fleshly thoughts and that will result in misunderstandings.
This is the same in the kingdom of heaven.
Of course, you will never follow fleshly thoughts in heaven because there is nothing fleshly in heaven. Furthermore, only the parts of your heart that belongs to spirit can enter heaven. So, when you come together from different dwelling places and have the meetings in heaven, some souls will feel awkward or out of place.
For example, suppose a resident of the 1st kingdom joins the fellowship meeting of New Jerusalem residents. The person from the 1st kingdom cannot properly understand their conversations.
The residents of New Jerusalem do not want to let the person feel estranged from the others. So, they explain things to him slowly and in detail.
If these meetings are held only occasionally, it will be acceptable to all of them. But, if both of the parties of New Jerusalem and the 1st Kingdom have to live together all the time, a lot of awkwardness would result and difficulties would follow.
For these reasons, our Father God has divided the different dwelling places of heaven according to the level of each individual’s faith to give the greatest happiness and comfort to all.
No matter how eagerly you confess and hope to enter New Jerusalem, what is the most important is that you have to become qualified to enter.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
After you enter the kingdom of heaven, most of time will be spent offering the worship services to God and learning the limitless knowledge of the spiritual realm.
The heavenly worship services, first of all, will be held on a regular basis just as you have already offered the services at the times scheduled on earth.
The messages will be delivered by our Father God. Through His messages, you will learn the origin of God and the spiritual realm in which there is no beginning and no end, but instead it is from since before eternity began and past when eternity would end.
Generally speaking, good students wait for classes and miss the teachers.
It is the same for Christians. Those of you who love God and worship Him in spirit and truth, wait for the worship services and eagerly long to listen to the voices of the shepherd who preaches the words of life.
Then, you do not think the message time is too long nor feel bored by the services. Instead you may feel as if the service time passes very quickly.
It is the same when you have entered heaven. You take delight and rejoice in attending the services and yearn to listen to the word of God.
At the worship services in heaven, you will not only hear the word of God but also sometimes talk with Him and hear our Lord’s messages.
In addition to this, you will have prayer time. You will not kneel down on the ground nor earnestly and fervently cry out like you did on earth. Talking with God is prayer itself.
In other words, prayers of heaven will be through the conversation with our Father God, our Lord and Holy Spirit.
Moreover, you will sing praises to God like on earth. However you will not sing using earthly languages and you will sing new songs praising God.
Those who have attended the same church will have the worship services and fellowships along with their shepherd they served on earth.
Those who have a religious life in the same church and overcome severe trials together will have the close friendships and enjoy the fellowships of love.
By the way, many of you will enter different dwelling places according to the level of each one’s faith. Then, how will you have the worship services together?
It is the same when you attend the heavenly banquets. If you are going to attend the services that will be held in the higher places than your heavenly residence, you will have to change your garments.
In our time, world-famous events are broadcast live to all the corners of the globe through satellites. The same systems will be found in heaven also.
For example, the worship services held in New Jerusalem will be broadcast live to all the dwelling places of heaven simultaneously.
The simultaneous broadcasting system of heaven is not a complicated machine. When angels unfold a screen in the sky that is similar to a cloth, all will be able to participate in the services through it.
The heavenly screen is adjusted in the brightness and illumination according to the level of each dwelling place. The screen will vividly present everything to all the people with as if they were on location.
The reason that the brightness of the screen is controlled is because those who are in the 3rd Kingdom of Heaven and the below cannot open their eyes and watch the screen because of the blinding light coming from the appearance of God the Father who preaches the message from New Jerusalem.
But our Father God wants to give the best conditions for dwelling and to show the appearances of our Father God and New Jerusalem even to those who have failed to enter New Jerusalem.
To accomplish that end, the brightness of the lights coming from New Jerusalem and our Father God must be reduced.
Even though the appearance of our Father God is presented on screen with properly adjusted brightness of the lights according to the level of each dwelling place, owing to their consciences, those in the 2nd Kingdom and the below cannot lift up their heads to look at the face of our Father God on screen.
It is almost the same for everyone who resides in the 2nd Kingdom and the below. Those who are in Paradise will feel so sorry that they cannot look at the face of God on screen, but just from time to time they glance toward the screen.
Thus, the worship services will be led not only by our Father God but also by our Lord and our Holy Spirit, and fathers of faith including Moses and the apostle Paul will be invited to those services.
In heaven invitations are made according to the order of the spiritual laws. If you want to invite fathers of faith who are in the higher ranking in heaven, you must become qualified.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
You have been taught many spiritual things during the history of human cultivation. But most of the knowledge is for the entrance to heaven. So, you have to understand the new world after you have entered heaven.
Some of you may ask why you cannot be satisfied with what you have learned on earth, but have to continue to learn in heaven. But you have to remember that you learn just a few things necessary for spiritual training but will really learn detailed things.
There will be no end of learning in the everlasting kingdom of heaven.
No matter how much you have learned on earth, you cannot fully learn about God and completely fathom the limitless depths of God who is from everlasting to everlasting and governs the universes and everything in them.
If you have entered the unlimited world of spirit, you will at last realize that there are so many things for you to learn. Unlike on earth, the things that you will be learning in heaven will be very pleasant and joyous.
You will not learn from a sense of duty nor sit for exams. You will never fail to memorize anything because of poor intellectual ability. You will understand many more things once you grasp something, and will never forget it. That’s why learning will not be difficult at all for anyone.
When you are taught the knowledge of spirit, you will not sit and just hear the lectures.
For example, when you are taught the providence of God’s creation, video presentations will be held on a large screen along with the best quality of sound, so you will feel as if you were there as it was happening.
On the video presentations, the formation of the light and the separation of light and darkness will be shown when the original voice of God is sounded saying, “Let there be light!” and the formation of the expanse between waters and the division of waters will be displayed. This will be beyond description.
Then as we see the history of creation for us unfold, we will bow our heads before God in awe and respect offering our praise and worship.
This interesting time will last in heaven so you will never feel bored in anything you do.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Through the last four sessions we have learned about the fundamentals of life in heaven.
Since everything concerning life in heaven, including worship services and banquets, is decided according to the justice of God, the diversity of living environments and heavenly circumstances are different as well.
The reason that our Father God categorizes everything is for everyone to live the happiest and most free life in each residence. In a word, the amazing love of God is embedded in everything prepared in heaven.
So, how pitiable you will be that you fail to fully see the face of our Father God who has prepared everything in His perfect justice and love!
Therefore, may each of you accomplish purity in heart as recorded in Matthew 5:8 and fully see the face of our Father God who has made you, guided you and provided for you live in the beautiful heaven for ever more, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I pray!
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