Heaven & Earth Will Come Together
by Lelonnie Hibberd
Having made known to us the mystery (hidden plan) of His will ...which He purposed in Himself 10 that in the.... fullness of the times He might gather together in One all things in Christ – both which are in heaven and which are on earth ...in Him Ephesians 1:9-10
There is a mystery about God's will. He has a hidden plan which is not easy to understand. Until God makes it known to us. Ephesians 1 talks about this mystery and tells us God has unveiled it for us. He has uncovered the mystery so that we may gaze upon it. To gaze does not mean to fully understand though. It is a mystery because we are meant to wrestle with it; to ask the Lord to show us, to help us understand, to explain it to us. We are meant to think and pray about it. What does this mean and what does it have to do with me?
Right now we live on the earth. The Bible tells us that God the father lives in heaven. And His Son Jesus is seated at the Father's right hand. We cannot see heaven and we cannot just go there to visit whenever we'd like. Its not like going to the store or to school. Heaven is a place that is beyond our reach.
The Bible tells us that when we die, our spirits leave this coat we wear called the body. Our spirits go to heaven to be with God. Heaven is glorious because God is there. Heaven is filled with beauty because God is beautiful and makes all things beautiful. Heaven wouldn't be anything special without God.
Right now heaven and earth feel very far apart. Those people who have died and gone to be with Jesus in heaven cannot come back to earth right now. Those of us who live on the earth cannot just wake up one morning and say, “That's it. I'm not living here on earth anymore. I'm going to move to heaven.” Right now the doorway between the earth world and heaven's world is called death.
But you know it wasn't always this way. When God created the world, He actually came down and walked and talked with man and woman in the Garden He'd made for them. God and man did walk together then. It must have been wonderful. The Bible says that God breathed the breath of life into the first man and he became a living soul. Can you imagine opening your eyes for the first time and the first thing you see is the face of God? It must have been so exciting for Adam. And for Eve. To walk and talk with God. Even thought the Bible says “God is spirit,” Adam and Even could see God anyway. Could they also see the angels? Could they see God's Throne, made of jasper and sardius and other precious stones? Could they also hear the worship of the living creatures around God's throne? Though the Bible doesn't clearly say, we do know that Adam and Eve saw with their human eyes much more of God than we can see with our human eyes. The spirit realm where angels dwell with God in unapproachable light was in some way open to them. It is not open to us today. What happened to change things?
Do you remember the Bible story that tells of the sin of Adam and Eve when they disobeyed God and tasted the fruit they were not supposed to eat? Read Genesis 2 and 3 again and picture what must have happened. Read about the sad day Adam and Eve had to leave the Garden of Eden, tearfullly walking away from the presence of the angel with a flaming sword the Lord sent to guard the tree of life. They were no longer able to walk and talk with God. Though the first man and woman may not have fully understood the consequences of their sin, in an instant they were separated from their Creator, their Father and the One who wanted friendship with them.
They were no longer holy as He was holy. They were no longer allowed to be near Him in unbroken communion. Our God is a consuming fire which would have instantly destroyed Adam and Eve because a sinful creature cannot stand before awesome holiness and survive. For their own protection Adam and Eve were sent out from the holy presence of God. What a great sadness they must have felt. What a great loneliness they were to embark upon. Now there was a veil, like a separation between our earthly world and the supernatural world. Now there was a great and growing gap between God and man. No more could Adam or Eve walk so closely with God, even if they wanted to. No more was the Garden of Eden open to Adam and his family. No more was the voice of God as easy to hear as if you were listening to your best friend.
To be continued....