Are You Prepared for Heaven?

By David Hobbs

Most Christians are longing for heaven. Quite a number are expecting the Rapture to take them there momentarily. The fact that brother Camping is predicting Jesus’ return for this May 21st (about a week from now) has more people than usual thinking about eternity. But are we ready? How much in sync are our lives with the flow of life in heaven?
Most people are clueless to what heaven is all about. They think it’s like life here on earth except on a higher level. So up there we will have WWF wrestling with mighty angels instead of Hulk Hogan types. We’ll have TV programs about voting an angel off a galaxy every week, and competitions to see if angels can sing better than the redeemed. And who knows, probably some kind of sports’ contests….
As we think about all this (to the extent we do at all), Jesus doesn’t seem to play much of a role. We might need Him if there is a disputed contest, or if an angel starts acting up. But in the normal course of activities, we don’t see Him showing up much, just like He plays no role in events down here on earth. We don’t expect Jesus to show up at a NASCAR race, or an NFL game—we’ll catch up with Him at church Sunday morning before the Sunday afternoon golf match and boat regatta.
People of this mindset are about as prepared for heaven as a slug is prepared to swim the English Channel.
While it’s true there is a lot about heaven we don’t know, there are many things we do know. In heaven, the focus of everything is on Jesus: who He is and what He’s done. Here on earth in church, we sometimes have a time where people can stand up and give a testimony for the Lord. In heaven that goes on all the time. On earth, in church, we sing a few songs and have an opportunity to worship the Lord. In heaven, full-blown worship goes on nonstop. On earth we try to get good seats at sporting contests—we try to get close to the 50 yard line or home plate. In heaven, it’s all about getting close to Jesus.
1 Peter 1:10-12 says the former prophets and the angels in heaven are longing to understand the mysteries of redemption: the suffering of Christ on the cross and the glory of the resurrection that followed. Psalm 145:4 gives us another picture of life in heaven when it says, “One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.” Now that will be a testimony service!
The Book of Revelation gives us a better picture of life in heaven than anywhere else in the Bible. We see tremendous praise and worship services like in Chapter 5:11:

“And I beheld, and I heard the voices of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; 12Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. 13And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.

How much of your time last week did you spend in worshipping the Lord? How much in giving and receiving testimony about what He’s done?

Rev. 7:15 talks about those who were saved out of the Great Tribulation serving God day and night in His temple…. When was the last time you were at an all night prayer meeting? How much did you enjoy it?

People say, “But even if I don’t do those things on earth, once I get to heaven it’ll be different.” In her book The Priestly Bride, Anna Rountree was taken to heaven and spent much time with Jesus. On page 22 she had this conversation with Him:

[Jesus] lifted my chin. “Anna, look at me,” He said. “Even a king wishes to be loved for Himself, not for the gifts He bestows.” He smiled at me, “If you do not enjoy being with me now [on earth], why do you believe you will enjoy my company for eternity?”

Jesus is the same forever. He won’t be any different in heaven than He is now. How much do we enjoy spending time with Him now, not only in asking for things, but spending time with Him because we enjoy it? How much time have you spent with Him this week? What makes you think it will be different in heaven?

Everybody wants to go to heaven. But the big question is, are you prepared for heaven? There won’t be all the pleasures we enjoy on earth—no TV or movies or video games or junk food or sports, not even marriage and sex (let alone sexual activities outside marriage!). We may have a mansion on a hill on the streets of gold, but we won’t be watching American Idol in that mansion. We may be able to eat from the tree of life, but not from McDonalds or Starbucks! Are you ready? Have you re-programmed your desires from the earthly to the heavenly? Have you crucified yourself to the desires of the flesh? Do you already enjoy what heaven offers? If not what are you going to do about it? (If you've never given yourself to the Lord, that's where you need to start!)

Surprising Victory from Total Defeat

By David Hobbs

Not long ago I awoke early in the morning to go out to the church to pray. I was tired and would have preferred going back to bed. But I really wanted to meet with the Lord so I pushed through that, got dressed, and made my way out to the church, a 15 minute drive away.

Once at the church, things didn’t get much better. I sat and waited on the Lord for awhile, invited the Holy Spirit, felt His presence come to a certain degree, enjoyed what measure I had.... But I was still tired and couldn’t muster any energy. I didn’t have the strength to pray, sing, or even walk around. I could say there was a lot of spiritual oppression, but then some dear saint would correct me, “Why do you always have to make everything spiritual? Wasn’t it just plain old physical tiredness from too early in the morning?”

I have found that the enemy will take any negative condition we’re in and multiply it against us. If we’re sad about something he will try to turn it into depression. If we’re disgusted about how we’ve failed God and fallen short, he’ll turn it into condemnation. And if we’re weak or tired, he’ll multiply that into spiritual oppression.

So yes I was tired, but that wasn’t the whole story. That was just the beginning of the story. When we’re stymied in prayer, we rarely know why. We know we can’t break through, but have no idea what we’re up against because we can’t see.
Daniel didn’t know why he couldn’t break through in prayer for 21 days, even though he was fasting and doing everything right. He had no idea he was being resisted by the mighty spirit prince of Persia, until the angel Gabriel was able, with Michael’s help, to break through and tell him (Daniel 10).

So that morning I had no idea to what extent the resistance I was experiencing was from my tired flesh or from some spiritual power outside myself.

I tried as hard as I could to focus on God in my thoughts, to at least give Him my time and attention, even if I couldn’t bring forth any praise or worship. But it was a losing battle. I got up and moved to a different location, still trying, but still facing a brick wall.

Well into the second hour I started losing focus and falling asleep. Once you enter that stage, there’s little chance of recovery.

I finally gave up, turned off the lights, locked up and headed for home. I had been there an hour and a half, said nothing, sang nothing, prayed nothing did nothing. From my perspective it had been a total loss. I had not prayed any prayers, walked in the Spirit, received anything from God, experienced the anointing, or accomplished anything in the spirit realm. If I had judged my performance I would have given myself an “F” for “Total Failure.”
I went home and went back to bed.

So what’s the story? Why am I even telling this? Don’t we all fail like this in life over and over? Welcome to the real world, Hobbs!

Ah but here’s the rub. Later that morning when I started my day’s work—which this day was calling Christian school librarians about sending them a copy of my Out of the Fire book—as soon as I started calling, the heavens opened and the blessing came down! For two hours everybody I called was available and everybody I talked to was enthusiastic. I was sending out books right and left. I’d been doing this for over a year, and had never had a series of responses like that—it was off the chart. To my thinking it was a better answer from heaven than I would have expected if I had had a smashingly successful prayer time: shouting out praises and victory declarations; taking song requests from angels; falling on my knees in joyous worship... the whole nine yards.

I was greatly encouraged, and greatly humbled, to see once more that God is sovereign; He can do as He pleases. And He was pleased to bless my prayer offering that day, even though it appeared pitifully small. He does not always judge success the way we do. I was not being flaky or lazy or apathetic. I really was giving Him all I had, though it seemed pathetically weak. I imagine there might have been great, unseen forces arrayed against me that day, but who knows?

What I felt the Holy Spirit telling me through this experience was, “Pray on, my son! Pray on!