HEAVEN! Just the mention of the word stirs something deep within the hearts and minds of people. We sing about it, hear sermons about it, and have loved ones there. One day we hope to go there ourselves. But how real is heaven ?
- Rev. Yonggi Choo of Yoido Full Gospel Church , Seoul .

According to John chapter 14 vs. 2 and 3 (Jn. 14:2-3) " in my father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you.

3. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am you will be also " (KJV)

From our opening scripture, we can see the reality of this kingdom called heaven. So many believers are in reality functional atheists because they don't believe in heaven. This write-up is to help you keep your heart and mind open to the Lord to show you his wonderful plan and purpose for your life. I can assure you that he has prepared a home for you in heaven far above everything you have and will experience on planet earth. Like me, you can be thrilled by the fact that you are going to live in the presence of the God who loves you so much that he gave himself for you.

Heaven according to Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary; is the place believed to be the home of God and the angels and good people after death. The only disagreement we have against the definition is that of 'good people'. Good people who do not accept Jesus as their lord and saviour will surely go to hell with their good works. As we can see in the books of (acts 10;1-2).This man was full of good works but no salvation until God had mercy on him and sent his angel to tell him what to do. So the first step in the direction of heaven is salvation.

When somebody has received salvation the next thing is to start a relationship with God by praying and studying the Bible. (Acts 6; 4)

Membership of a church

It is compulsory for a believer to belong to a bible believing church in order to grow and also to fellowship together with others as a unit even as our Lord commanded in (Hebs. 10 :25.) I am aware that in some parts of the world, Christians are prohibited from holding public worship, and in some other places there are out rightly persecuted. In cases like that I believe that the best solution will be to talk to the lord about it.(Jn 16:2-3)

On the other hand they can work out modalities that will help them come together to fellowship. It is compulsory that believers must worship together as proverbs 27:17 says that, ‘Iron sharpeneth iron.' The church is the place where he will learn the Christian way of doing things. The Lord is still very much around His church. Rev. 1:20. Since He is the leader of the church, it is mandatory therefore that He supervises and oversees the affairs of His business.

Most importantly, the essence of worshiping together is for the believers to break bread continually which symbolises our Lord's death at the cross of Calvary. The benefits of belonging to a church is enormous, chief amongst them is the issue of Satan (God's arch-enemy.) This enemy of God has one assignment, that is; to stop believers from making heaven. Without the assembling together of the saints to pray and cast him out daily, it will be difficult for anyone to make it to the Promised Land. Jn. 10:10.

Lastly on the church, it must have a geographical location and a shepherd. This pastor will serve as the in-house priest of God who will keep the fire aglow all the times.

Prayer

Prayer has been described as an effective communication between two or more individuals. In this case it is a relationship of two or more people that love each other. Every believer came to God through prayer right from inception. This is the only medium where a believer expresses his whole life to the one he loves. Without prayer there will be serious gap between these two lovers. It is improper and dangerous for a believer to neglect the office of prayer for that is his life-wire.

This attracts the devil to attack and destroy the faith of that particular individual, which will eventually spell doom for him. Lack of prayer weakens the spiritual life of a believer and it causes stunted growth to his total spiritual well-being and poses threat to his assurance of making heaven. So far, God has not given man any other means of reaching Him except by this. The importance of prayer cannot be over-emphasized in the life of a believer; prayer could be long or short, loud or silent, indoor or outdoor etc.

It serves as refilling agent for the believer, weapon for warfare, solace and bliss for the hurting and joy for the rejoicing. This is the only forum where he has the opportunity of saying anything on any issue that is not palatable to him or another person. Pardon and repentance are sought for as well as mercy and grace got. (Acts 4:13, Lk.18:1, 1 Tim. 2: 1-3.) The time of refreshing comes through prayer and also the way forward for the believer. He can grow in the duration by spending more time interceding for others and so on. We are encouraged to make prayer one of our most treasured treasures.

The Mirror of God

Every nation on planet earth has a constitution. By the way what is a constitution? It is a system of laws and principles according to which a state is governed. This bible here is symbolised with a mirror, simply because the role a mirror plays in the life of an individual is exactly the role the bible plays in the spiritual growth of a believer. (2cor. 3:18)The bible says in matt. 4:4,'Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. In the bible we learn about God, self, heaven, hell etc. We cannot learn all these things from anywhere else in the world.

It is therefore imperative for us to make the bible our daily companion as it is the manual of life without which we won't be able to know our rights and privileges in order to succeed like other citizens of the kingdom. Therein is the present life of a believer fully expressed and so many other things. The usage of the bible on daily basis guarantees rapid spiritual growth of a believer who knows that he serves a spiritual God. I am aware that there are some parts of the world where paper bibles cannot be displayed openly or publicly, I advise that they take other formats like phones, computers etc, which is handled personally by the individual concerned since there is no replacement for the bible and no excuse is big enough to be accepted. Our Lord Jesus started with the bible as we can see in the book of Luke 4:16-21 and also ended with the same, jn 21:25.

How do you prepare?

Jn 3: 1-8 answers the question for us especially in verses 3-5,'Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say to thee, Expect a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.' God in His decent and orderly manner did not want people to be confused on the right way to reach him that is why He brought out one way for us to follow as shown in Jn. 14:6,' Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the Truth and the Life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me.'

Accepting Jesus as one's Lord and Saviour remains the singular option to follow and find God. Someone might be tempted to ask how this things are done, Romans 10:9-10 has the answer, 'That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. This ushers in the individual into an eternal relationship with God His maker.