In His Presence

A few hours ago, I was listening to the song “I Am”, a song by Nicole Nordeman from her album, Woven & Spun. A part of the song talks about dying, leaving this world and going home to heaven. We have all heard it before. When a child or parent dies, the person left behind is told that the person who has died has gone to home to heaven. If we were to speak to most Christians, one would discover that most Christians think of heaven as home. That however is only partially right.

When one talks of home, one thinks of a place where one stays with family and loved ones on a permanent basis. One of the tenets of the Christian faith is the belief that Christ will return one day for a church without spot or blemish. A ready church. The book of Revelation tells us that Christ will come again for us and we will be with him where he is. But a careful reading of the book of Revelation however shows that heaven is not our permanent home. Heaven is for God. The White Throne judgment will take place in heaven after which those whose names are found in the Book of Life come back to earth with Christ. We understand that there will be a new heaven and a new earth and that instead of the moon and sun, Christ’s face, his presence will be our sun and our moon. The Apostle Paul said that to be absent from the body to be present with God. That tells me that heaven is something of a place where those that leave this world go to stay before Christ returns.   

All that got me thinking. Why do we like thinking that heaven is home? Simple. Because that’s where God is. We all want to be where God is. While listening to the song, it occurred to me that the thing we most long for (but at times we don’t know it) is the presence of God. While we long for God’s presence and the knowledge that he is with us, our bodies and the circumstances we go through in the flesh living on this earth do not let us realise or know that God is with us. We go through troubles and we ask ourselves, “Where is God in all these things I’m going through?”

But Jesus told us that God would send the Holy Spirit to be with us and we know that the Holy Spirit was sent at Pentecost. We know that God has given us the Holy Spirit as a gift, just as he gave us Christ as a gift. The Apostle Paul tells us that it’s a mystery, God being with us and living in us. We don’t therefore need to die and go to heaven to be in God’s presence. He is already with us, living in us. That is what we need to understand and believe right now. God loves us and his presence is with us. Jesus promised, “I will be with you, till the end of the age.” Take him at his word. 

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers.http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal.