Longing for Eternity
Session 4: Enhanced Interaction with God
I. We Get to be with Him Forever:
In the wildest turn of events we who were dead in sin and evil beyond repair were bought by the kindest and most powerful person there has ever been. From that transaction we were brought from death to life and now our destiny is that we will live with and experience life forevermore with God in Heaven. Our minds cannot grasp the concept of what this means, we can barely articulate it; in just a moment of time we will get to be with God for all eternity. We need to begin to allow the Word of God to transform our thinking so that we can begin to think about our eternity in Heaven with God like it’s actually real. We will be with Him forever.
“After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever (1Th. 4:17).”
A. The Holy Spirit Will Live in Us Forever:
A dynamic aspect of this forever is that the Holy Spirit isn’t going anywhere. He lives in us now and He will be with us forever and always enhancing our interaction with the Father. When we are well into eternity we will still have the Holy Spirit informing, strengthening and leading us.
"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever (Jn. 14:16)"
B. The Lord is Our Portion Forever:
Though all else may fade away and there may be disappointments in this life and though we will enter into eternity with nothing we can count on this one truth; we have God as our portion forever. We will be with Him, so much so that He is called ours, our portion, that which has been apportioned to us.
“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Ps. 73:26).”
C. He Watches Over Us Forever:
Forever we will be coming and going, that is that we will have life dynamics that have us going about, traveling and doing real life things. In it all however the Word tells us that God will be keeping watch over us forever, He will know us and see us and stay in a close and caring relationship with us.
“the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore (Ps. 121:8).”
D. He Will Surround Us Forever:
The psalmist speaks of the Lord’s nearness and protection over His people as a constant reality extending infinitely into eternity. It is a great comfort to know He will be near to us forever; He will be with us and for us and all around us forever.
“As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forevermore (Ps. 125:2).”
II. Serving in Heaven’s Eternal Priesthood:
We don’t just get to be with God in Heaven as worshipers He has called us to serve Him as priests in His house forever. This will be our greatest joy and privilege, not even the angels have been able to enter into this level of intimate service. Jesus leads an eternal priesthood under the Father’s careful direction that we will all partake in.
A. A Permanent High Priest:
We are familiar with the aspect of Jesus’ leadership where He has been made King over all the kings but the Bible also tells us that He has been made high priest over all the priests. This is an important detail and distinction because He is leading a permanent priesthood.
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin (He. 4:15).”
“You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission…and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek (He. 5:6-10).”
B. Jesus Always Lives to Make Intercession:
As the forever high priest we see that Jesus serves the Father in intercession in what is described as an unchangeable priesthood where He always lives to pray for those under His care.
“But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them (He. 7:24-25 NKJV).”
C. We are Priests Together with Him:
That permanent priesthood that Jesus will be leading forever is very important to our future because we are told repeatedly that we are priests along side with Jesus in that priesthood.
“To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father (Re. 1:5-6)”
“You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God (Re. 5:10)”
D. We Will Serve Him as Priests Forever:
We better get ahold of this priesthood thing because it isn’t going anywhere; this is our destiny for all of eternity. We have been called into the eternal service of God as priests who will perform the tasks of prayer and praise in His house forever.
“Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever (Ps. 23:6).”
“they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst (Re. 7:15-16)”
“Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years (Re. 20:6).”
E. God is Our Inheritance:
Speaking to the ones that God set aside as priests, the Lord said of them that He Himself would be their inheritance in the land. This was the special privilege of the Levites, set apart to know and encounter God, to make His presence known to the community of Israel. In the New Testament however we are all called priests (1Pe. 2:5, 9), making us like the Levites in that God will be our portion in the coming age.
“The LORD said to Aaron, “You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any share among them; I am your share and your inheritance among the Israelites (Nu. 18:20).”
“‘I am to be the only inheritance the priests have. You are to give them no possession in Israel; I will be their possession (Ez. 44:28).”
F. We will be Kings Before God:
In connection to our priestly role the Words also says that we will not only be called priests forever but also that we will be kings in His Kingdom for the ages to come. It also says that as kings we will wear a crown for all the ages to come. That crown is labored for in this life and relates to our eternal role before God in the next.
"and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen (Re. 1:6 NKJV)."
“Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever (1Co. 9:25).”
III. Attributes of His Eternal Nature:
As we enter into the realm of eternity it is extremely helpful to know that we will be able to count on God’s eternal nature as the center point of our sustained forever reality. The Bible tells us who He is; it is from the Word of God that we know what He is like, His temperament, how He thinks and feels about us and many other things. It describes His nature and tells us that this is not how He is sometimes, but that it is who God is forever.
A. He is the Same Forever:
He is unshaken and steady; He holds all of existence in the palm of His hand, He leads with perfect precision and eternal certainty. He is fully trustworthy, unmovable and inherently good. The God that we know him to be, the nature of God revealed in the Bible, that is who He is and who He will be forever.
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (He. 13:8).”
B. His Eternal Glory:
God’s glory is bright, brilliant, perfect, beautiful, powerful and reflects His nature and might and it will be a forever experience for us. A really incredible thing about His glory is that it is called both His and ours. We are told that He imparts it to us in visible and experiential ways in the next age in a far greater capacity to what we are accustomed to in this life. His glory, in whatever form it may come, whether on Him or resting on us, is an eternal glory.
“to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore (Ju. 1:25)!”
“And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast (1Pe. 5:10).”
“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (2Co. 4:17-18).”
“Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory (2Ti. 2:10).”
C. His Eternal Love:
The God who is love will still be love and full of love forever forward no matter what might come. No matter what life will look like, no matter what upgrades mankind will undergo or what shifts will take place in the way life looks on Earth His love is eternal.
“Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness (1Ki. 10:9).”
“I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion (Ho. 2:19).”
D. His Truth is Eternal:
God’s truth, like His character, is the same yesterday, today and forever. We build our understanding about eternity on the platform of His Word and that what is written there is not just true now for this age but also for the ages to come. This in incredibly stabilizing and informative about our future because it means that what is true about life and God and man now will be true 10,000 years from now.
"Your word, Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens (Ps. 119:89)."
“All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal (Ps. 119:160)."
"The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever (Is. 40:8).”
“but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you (1Pe. 1:25).”
"Long ago I learned from your statutes that you established them to last forever (Ps. 119:152)."
E. His Plans Are Eternal:
God has made plans long ago, plans that cannot be thwarted and which will stand forever. More than simply that these plans will stand every aspect of life is connected to these plans and they encompass all of us and interweave all of our destinies together. His plans are eternal, both what has been and what will be in 10 million years from now, they all work together in His perfect eternal strategy.
“But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations (Ps. 33:1).”
IV. Our Worship Experience:
Worship isn’t a temporal assignment; we will be worshiping God forever as a very real part of life. Just like the angels and those from all of history that are before Him we will worship the Lord in the full splendor of His holiness. The most dynamic worship experiences we could ever imagine await us in the next age and for all eternity.
“Ascribe to the Lord, you heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness (Ps. 29:1-2).”
A. We Will be in His Presence:
The apex of worship will be when we are worshiping the Lord in His very presence. We’ve never encountered this type of worship before, where we see Him with our eyes and His tangible and powerful presence is manifest there in our midst.
“Because of my integrity you uphold me and set me in your presence forever (Ps. 41:12).”
B. The Sea of Glass:
The Sea of glass is an enormous meeting hall before the Throne. This is the grand theater worship hall of eternity where we will gather for corporate worship and experience His presence together in ways our minds cannot yet comprehend. It is large enough to contain the 3 billion (give or take a billion) saints that will call Heaven home. Plus all the angels have to be able to get in there somehow too –it is enormous.
“Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal (Re. 4:6).”
“I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name. They held harps given them by God and sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb (Re. 15:2-3).”
C. Corporate Worship in Heaven:
We, the entire Body of Christ will all be together forever worshiping Jesus. All the saints from history, all the martyrs and all those that survived the Great Tribulation, along with all of the angels, the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit we will all be together in worship.