Heaven, Hell, Jesus, and the Bible

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.”  Matthew 24:35

Today on ABC – Barbara Walters repeated an interview about Heaven and Hell with many celebrities and well known figures and some not well known figures about about Heaven and Hell.

The Bible says –

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. ⁴ In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend^[a] it. (John 1:1-5)

There are so many theories and speculations about what heaven and hell     This is what is called man’s wisdom.  You cannot find out about Heaven or Hell or God by watching an interview.  Yes it may be entertaining, but in reality we are all searching for what is the Truth?

The Bible makes it clear – Jesus is the Truth, the Way, and the Life.

¹³ “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. ¹⁴ Because^[a] narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.- Matthew 7:13-14

An explanation of Heaven as it is known in the Bible –

1) First Heaven – the sky or firmament

2) Second Heaven – what we like to call outer space

3) Third Heaven – is something we cannot see where Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father and is described in the Book of Revelation and also in the book of Ezekiel.

I cannot argue Heaven or Hell or Jesus with someone who does not take an act of faith and come to the point that all of life is meaningless without Jesus.  This takes the Holy Spirit to reveal who Jesus is.

You cannot get to Heaven by being a good person – because none of us are good.  Nobody, no one, not anyone anywhere is good, there is no one.  Whatever good you think you may have done it is nothing.  You cannot earn a place into Heaven by doing good deeds.  It takes the life changing influence of Jesus Christ as the only way to inherit eternal salvation or the right to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven because there is no one righteous not even one.  Whatever good deeds or rituals or ceremonies that we have done, nothing will enable to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven because it was only purchased through the Blood of Jesus.  He took the worlds sins, and yes everyone sins everyday.  No matter what man or angel or any other being from heaven or on earth says –  Jesus is superior to them all, and He is the only way to the Heavenly Father, who is so bright that looking at Him could kill you because His power is an uncountable more times than electricity.  In fact in the Old Testament He revealed Himself as a cloud by day and fire by night, and even if you’ve been the worst thunderstorm you cannot begin to understand the magnitude of the God of the Bible.  The only way to know this God is through Jesus Christ, and it takes a personal revelation from Him, Himself to you so you can go ahead and watch all the interviews of all the people, but in the end, you are going to have to take an act of faith and search out God for yourself.

I found Jesus through renouncing Hinduism because of heavy demonic activity.  In fact the only thing that saved me from insanity was the prayer of a friend to the Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus.  Before that God was so distant and far away.  Now He’s so close and He gives me revelation of who He is.  He is a God of love, compassion, of Holiness.  Nobody is perfect, I don’t care who you say you are – whether you’re Dalai Lama, Mahatma Gandhi, or Mother Theresa, unless you have Jesus your works don’t mean anything.  It’s only after you’ve been saved, and this is a daily practice of believing in Jesus, working out your salvation with fear and trembling or awe and reverance and then portraying the fruits of the Holy Spirit, and the Word of God, which is Jesus and also the Bible revealed through the Holy Spirit and a daily repentant heart and turning away from your sin with the Help of the the Holy Spirit.  Unless you have Jesus you always find other things, other idols, be it money, pleasures, signficant others, and something else to satisfy, but Jesus is the Bread of Life, and whoever eats of Him will not hunger or go after things that don’t really matter in life.

There are 10 commanments:

You shall not have other gods

You shall not make any graven images

You shall not take the name of the LORD in vain

You shall observe the Sabbath (Saturday)

You shall“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

You shall not covet your neighbor’s belongings or wife or husband.

Most of those have broken those things, but lets say you haven’t.  There are 603 others, and you would not be able to fulfill them at all, that’s why Jesus had to become the curse of the Law. When you believe in Him, you are released from the Law, and the curse of the Law, but then you have to follow the Holy Spirit, who lives in your heart and gives you that tugging feeling to let you know whether you want to accept Him or not.  If you experience that tugging feeling in your heart, and you want to accept Jesus into your heart because He is the one who will comfort you when you cry, He is the one who holds your hand, He is the one that is always with you when you are down, and He forgives you because He died for you.  No other person died for you.  Yes other people died, but He is the only one that died specifically for you, and for the rest of the world just so that He would have a relationship with you and even if you were the only person on earth He would have died for you.  Not only did He die for you in a gruesome horrible death and was buried in a dark tomb,  but He actually showed up physically after He died, and ate, then went up to Heaven, the real Heaven.   This is not something that can be thought with the mind, it is something that is revealed in the heart and it takes a risk of faith to say, I choose to accept You Lord as my Savior. He and I are not going to force you to believe, we can just warn you, but the thing is that don’t be afraid that if you don’t believe you will go to Hell, but go to Him because of this awesome love and forgiveness of everything that you’ve ever done.  We all have this trash in our lives that He has to take out, and He is willing to give you a brand new start and a clean slate, and wipe it clean, and whatever chalk stains you get on the blackboard of life, He is willing to wipe them clean every day if you say,  “You know what I am wrong in this.”  He will teach you lessons and He will speak to you through His Word.  This is special.  I didn’t have this before I knew Jesus.  Before I knew Jesus and I mean really knew Jesus I was searching for things that could not satisfy.  It’s  a process of life that we have to work at, but Jesus helps us everyday and you are never alone.

You really don’t know how long you have, so be prepared.  Jesus is coming any time soon, and whoever reads this, if you feel a conviction to believe in Jesus say,

Heavenly Father,

I know that I am a sinner, and I know that I cannot live life except without your grace, and I have done many things wrong in my life, but I would like to know You and this God who can change my heart and turn me into a new creation, and work with me to wipe my slate clean everyday and walk with me through life during all the hard times, and all  the rough times, so that we may go through this journey alone and that I can learn to trust in You.  I want to experience Your Love, and Joy, and Peace, in a world that just seems to be falling apart.  You know how many times I have failed, and You have been there to pick up the pieces even though I couldn’t see it.  I want to accept You as my Savior and regardless of what happens to me, I want to serve You.  Teach me how to fall desperately in love with You and help work to refine and change me to be more and more like You everyday.

In Jesus Mighty Name I pray,

Amen.

If you want more information – go through my blog, there are a lot of articles and a lot of information, and also you can reply to this blog, but be sure to use the word Jesus.

Signs you are becoming too religious

Christianity is not about religion, but it is a relationship with a Person, who is Jesus Christ, and that is the basis and foundation of Christianity.  The Pharisees were religious people and they were considered enemies of Jesus, but so many Christians are becoming religious in their walk of faith.

Here are some signs to see if you fall in to that category:

1.  You feel like you must read the Bible everyday to earn points with God- There is distinction between reading the Word to get a rhema, and to get an insight, but to feel like it’s like an obligation or something that you do to put a checkmark on your to do list, then you know you are getting into muddy waters.

2.  You pray because you feel like you are forced to pray and that the desire to communicate doesn’t come from your heart:  This is another to do thing on your checklist.  Jesus warned of not doing vain repetitions as heathen do, but he actually showed us how to pray.  Praying without ceasing actually means to be in constant communication with God and to have your minds continually set upon Him.  It doesn’t necessarily always mean interceding for others or making requests or supplications.  Yes it is good to pray in the Spirit, but even Jesus had conversations with God that we know nothing about because He was in constant communion and fellowship with Him.  The Father never left the Son up until the point where He was crucified.

3.  You feel like God cannot interrupt your plans and the way you decide to worship and pursue Him – You have those set songs on your youtube, or cd player, or music device, and unless you listen to those specific songs in that specific order you feel like you are not going to experience God.

4.  You judge others and are very critical of people that don’t have as a high a standard then you do – You are in danger of becoming self-righteous if you hold yourself in higher esteem than other people.   The Bible says that we should hold people that have less honorable positions of higher esteem, and Jesus even said, that He came for the sick who are need of a physician, but not those that are well.

5.  You become unteachable – You are so set in your doctrines, and whenever someone points out something that may be a different angle, you say, “No, no, it can’t be this way”, and that the doctrines you are following are the only right way.  Paul warned against divisions and factions and separations in the Church.  There is a distinction to be made between apostasy, (the falling away of the Church), and denominationalism.  The problem is that we have been sidetracked by so many different kinds of  dispensations all of which bear fruit, that we can’t tell the difference between good fruit and bad fruit and so we are easily deceived, but if Christ is preached in according to the full incorruptibility of the Truth of the Gospel then the fruit will be evident of itself.  I was asking the Holy Spirit about this, that how come there are so many divisions of dispensation, and one Holy Spirit?  Some people say that Law is the only way, and some people say that Grace is the only way.  We know that the Blood of Jesus is the primary way, so I was asking Him about it and I came to the parable of the Wheat and the Tares, that there was some wheat sown in the ground, and some tares.   The parable says if you have good wheat and bad tares, you let them grow up together until harvest time, and then the angels will take up what is bad and cast it into the fire.  There may be different doctrines, but the ones that bear fruit will reveal the characteristic and nature of God.  It has to go by primarily what Jesus said, and secondary by what anyone else said because Jesus is the primary authority on the matter even though the whole Bible is in the inspiration of God, and no Scripture is of private interpretation.  The Bible also says that the Bereans were more noble than the Thessalonians because they searched out everything in the Scriptures to see if it was Truth bearing.

6.  You look at people that are not Christians or those who have fallen away as not worthy to be loved because of their sin. – This is a very dangerous way of thinking and can really grieve the Holy Spirit.   When Whitney Houston passed away some people were gossipping about the problems at the end of her life, but one very wise person pointed out that it doesn’t matter what happens at the end of a person’s life, and there are lessons to be learned, but each person is to be appreciated.  This is very important because the same way which you judge you will be judged, and God had mercy on you when you were a sinner so why shouldn’t you have mercy on sinners when they are sinners, because we are all sinners without the Blood of Christ.

7.  You have become so detached from the world that you become heartless to the things going around- This is based on selfishness too, but the heart of it is religiousness.  Because you want to be separated, and set apart for the things of God you make yourself numb to all that’s going on around you because you don’t want to have anything to do with the world, and the people of the world.  You don’t want to take part in the world’s sins.  Jesus wasn’t like that – He ate with the outcasts and the sinners, and He was called to bring sinners to repentance.  Sinners are supposed to turn their lives around and make change. Now if a righteous person doesn’t repent and turns back into sinning there is judgment for him as well.

8.  You become all knowledge with no heart – This can be a very dangerous place to be in, especially for people that have been in ministry a long time, or people that have read their Bible so much, that they think that it can’t hold anything new for them.  With this kind of knowledge the Bible says you become puffed up and in sorts conceited.  You think you know everything and have no need for God and His Word.  You think that because you have studied everything that the Holy Spirit can’t give you fresh new insight.  You come to the point where you know all about Jesus, but don’t know Jesus, you don’t have an intimate walk with Him.  This is what is meant by Matthew 7:23- the “I never knew you” passage.

9.  You become ritualistic- This means everything has a set pattern.  While it’s good to have structure, order, and discipline, we can get to the point where we put God in a box and God is not in a box.  It takes time to figure out how God operates and to listen to Him.

10.  You cannot tell the difference between conviction and condemnation – A person who is walking closely with the Holy Spirit will be able to discern the difference between conviction and condemnation.  According Romans 8:1 there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus for those who do not walk after the dictates of the flesh, but  are led by the Spirit.  (paraphrase) And according to James 3:1 -NOT MANY [of you] should become teachers ( self-constituted censors and reprovers of others), my brethren, for you know that we [teachers] will be judged by a higher standard and with greater severity [than other people; thus we assume the greater accountability and the more condemnation].  So fellow blog evangelizers make sure you have strong footing in your relationship with the Lord and not to judge anyone or you will be judged in the same respect.  This is when you are becoming to legalistic when you are following God’s word and when you strictly adhere to God’s law and beat yourself up for every mistake you make and don’t allow room for mistakes or error.

11.  There is no transformation in your life – You may know everything, but since you became a Christian, your life doesn’t bear fruit, and you have the same testimony you had ten years ago and your walk is not growing.  People can’t tell the difference between you and an unbeliever.  They may think you are just sweet, nice, or a good person, but they don’t see the light.  This may be especially true with your family.  Your family may see you as the same person you were several years before and you may not have changed at all.

If any of these things is true here’s a prayer for you-

Heavenly Father,

Forgive me for becoming too religious and not seeking a true and intimate relationship with You.  I may not know how to do it and I may be caught up in my ways, that I don’t know how to change.  I can’t do it without You and I claim Your Blood to wash over my life and give me a fresh start and new direction.  You take over my life and I surrender to You this moment forward.  Let Your Spirit operate in me and dwell inside me and show the power of a transformed heart.  I admit that I am not perfect and that I am still learning, but help me to not always be learning but never come to the knowledge of truth.  Holy Spirit help me walk the Christian life and call me into my purpose and destiny and help me not to become lukewarm but to become hot in love with God.  Renew my heart and renew my spirit and take control from this moment forward.  I turn my life over to you.

In Jesus Name I pray,

Amen.