Heaven and earth: closer than you think Part 2

Heaven and earth: closer than you think, PART 2

Heaven loves the earth
 I've been at the arrival halls of many airports and seen all sorts of 'welcome' moments. Some are simply inspirational... The shouts, the hugs, the excitement on the faces,  forget about who's watching, it's abundant love on display. They haven't seen each other for a long time, now they are together. Who can have a 'controlled welcome'? When heaven met earth again it was love galore. The shout we hear from the throne is full of love.  Heaven had missed having close fellowship with earth for so long! But that's now a thing of the past.  " .... now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
The party has taken ages to be prepared, everything has been ready for ages, the host has been waiting for ages, now at last here comes the object of his love and now love and generosity can be released. Heaven is ever ready for the earth!  No coercion needed!

The spotlight was on the Bride of Christ - the church.
In the climax of heaven meeting the earth, it wasn't the powerful politicians who were in the spotlight, it wasn't the celebrities, neither was it the rich and famous, there was only one organism in the frame - the church of the living God.

Rev 21:9 .........."Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb."
10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.

Isaiah prophesied about this amazing event a few thousand  years earlier.

In the last days  the mountain of the Lord 's temple will be established  as chief among the mountains;  it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. (Isaiah 2:2 NIVUK)
The glory of the church will eclipse everything else. He truly has a place prepared for us.

 He saw four things that he would never forget about the City of God.

1. Gloriously large!
He saw a truly sprawling city that would make any present day city appear like a tiny hamlet.  
16 The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 2200km in length, and as wide and high as it is long. 17 He measured its wall and it was 65meters thick, by man's measurement, which the angel was using.
I find the height of the city mind blowing. It was 2,200km high compared with the tallest building in our world now which is only 0.828km high ( the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. ).  We are going to need eternity to explore the glories of this heaven. Regular encounters with heaven will change the shape and size and height of our vision permanently. When we speak about our plans people will turn round and ask, where are you from?

2. Gloriously rich
Whichever way we look at it, there is absolutely no doubt that heaven is a very very rich place with limitless wealth. In very plain terms, we are told that the streets were made of gold Rev. 21:21b. Wow! Is this nearly universal thirst for gold connected with this place! We've got bits of gold here but it  takes days of digging and sifting through tons of earth to get a few kilos of the precious metal. In heaven it is what we walk on. Those who are really spending all their time chasing gold here are really looking in the wrong place. Let's tell them to try heaven instead. How about that for evangelism?  Many other precious metals and stones also bedeck this glorious place. Now if this heaven is mixing up with the earth more and more, what can we expect? We can expect the wealth and riches of heaven to be entering into the church.  May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven! May heaven drop a billion or a trillion dollar idea into your mind. Let the church become gloriously rich in every way.

Gloriously bright
We've known Jesus as the light of the world but it looks like we've seen only part of his glorious light. In heaven, where where we behold him in full glow, every created light source had become redundant. Paul caught only a glimpse of this shinning glory which exceeded the brightness of the noon day sun but in heaven this is an everyday and every night's  experience. Which of course made the night to become a thing of the past. What glory!  Even now may he turn your darkness into light and may the light of heaven dispel the present darkness that covers the earth.

Gloriously pure
27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.
God is holy, his home, heaven is holy and pure and true. Here he is making it clear that heaven will be protected very securely from sin and anything that spoiled the first creation. As heaven breaks in on us more and more we are hearing and learning that God has made us holy and he wants us to be holy we must get rid of anything impure that is still with us or in us.
Gloriously large, gloriously rich, gloriously bright and gloriously pure: This is what God is sending into your midst, this is what is coming out of heaven into the earth, this shall be for those who are ready to receive.
Motivated by His love, these are some key characteristics of heaven that God will be filling the earth with as we see more and more outbreaks of heaven into the earth.
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the  Lord,  as the waters cover the sea. (Habakkuk 2:14 NIVUK)