Feb. 18, 2024

Visions of Heaven, BTS 18 Feb 24

Introduction - This week’s lesson is a short, preparatory lesson for the next several lessons.  We’re going to learn about heaven: what life will be like there, what God will be doing with us there, what’s ahead for us in eternity, etc.  It is a subject I haven’t spent much time talking about because I was uncertain about which source to rely on for good information concerning this important subject. The following Scriptures begin describing where our knowledge of heaven comes from. 

1 Cor 2:9 That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” NLT

Try as we might, we cannot imagine what heaven is like.  Human imagination has filled up many things in our lives - in movies, literature, art, even science, but God says that we haven’t even imagined what heaven will be like.  Rest assured, heaven will be better than anything we have imagined!  To get the glimpses of it which we are allowed to have, we are limited to two reliable sources: 1) The Bible and 2) Visions and dreams which the Lord authorizes.

Acts 2:17 ‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. NLT

The visions and dreams referred to above  were meant to give us hope and understanding. They are to be evaluated by the hearers (us) and to be received if they are consistent with those things which are already written and  with the vast body of visions and dreams which saints in times past have received.  

Revelation 12:11 And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die. NLT

The testimony referred to above is a legal term.  It refers to the story of witnesses, as in a court of law.  The testimony of the saints is the collection of authentic experiences that saints of all time have had with the Lord Jesus.  The collection of dreams and visions experienced by others is a valid part of this testimony.  They help us to overcome the lies of our accuser, Satan. One last caution about visions or dreams:

Deuteronomy 18:11-12 …or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead.12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD . It is because the other nations have done these detestable things that the LORD your God will drive them out ahead of you. NLT

We are not authorized to initiate contact with departed people.  This is a common practice in witchcraft which God considers a sin.