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How many times have we heard someone say

" Why would God want to speak to me?" I am not a preacher or in full time Christian service. Why would God want to communicate with me.

The truth is, we are all saved by grace, we are all sanctified, we are all saints, and we are all children of the living God. Fathers love to speak to their children, unfortunately we often see ourselves in an unworthy light. We wonder why a great, magnificent God would ever want to speak to us. We are children of God, and our Father eagerly seeks to speak and listen to us. It all depends on our relationship with Him, and our desire to seek God. He knows our sinful desires and our weaknesses, He knows our innermost hurts, fears, and frustrations, and yet He longs to gain intimacy with us. We need to relax and enjoy His fellowship, knowing that He died for us. God has permanently accepted us into His family, with all our undesirable baggage.

My sheep hear My voice My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. ( John 10:27,28 ) You may say that you know all this and believe it. But this is still not enough, until you act upon this knowledge and walk in obedience to what you believe and know, according to God's word. Perhaps you think you're okay, but according to the Scripture one will not enter the Kingdom of God without a concrete commitment to Jesus, the Christ. You must be redeemed from sin, evil and the powers of satan; entering through the Door, if you want to communicate with the Father. "No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me "(Jesus).

John 14:06 - 4. " He who overcomes shall inherit all things "For whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith," 1 John 5:04.

Faith is a very important key, because it put's God's power into action on your behalf. The more you exercise faith and put it into action, the stronger it gets. God is not asking us to do something we cannot do, neither does He ask us to depend on our own abilities.

God has equipped us to be overcomers through Christ Jesus, and the power of the Holy Spirit. If you believe, God will enable you to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. Don't be deceived by the whispering of the devil, that tries to give you reason as to why you cannot get rid of bad habits, unclean thoughts, or bad temper. The Only thing that is holding you back from victory is your unbelief and your own stubborn will.

It all up to you " He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which is the second death." Revelation 21:7 - 8. Because of disobedience to His Word, you will miss the victory.

This can cause many endless problems and bad situations. Lacking holiness leads to worldliness. To be a conqueror, you must learn to obey God be led by the Spirit. Sometimes believers may confront difficult circumstance their lives, learn to deny the flesh and totally surrender yourself to the will of God.

Today we are spoiled with instant mash potatoes and instant everything. The Lord looks at the end result and what He can accomplish in your life. Through ongoing troubles you will learn what the Lord is trying to teach you.

If it were up to us, an instant victory would be accommodated in those instant resources. But one can only become a victor after winning a battle. This can only be accomplished by practising and exercising your faith, that you've been equipped with through knowing God's Word.

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Different levels of Heaven

The closest thing Scripture says to there being different levels of Heaven is found in 2 Corinthians 12:2, "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know-God knows." Some interpret this as indicating that there are three different levels of Heaven. The supposed levels of Heaven are divided into a level for "super-committed Christians" or Christians who have obtained a high level of spirituality, a level for "ordinary" Christians, and a level for Christians who did not serve God faithfully.
2 Corinthians 12:2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows such a man was caught up to the third heaven.

The idea of "the third heaven" is a strange concept to us today that raises all sorts of questions. Are there different levels of heaven? Do different levels of heaven correspond to how how well one has lived; more good works the higher the level, with "death bed" conversions being at the bottom? What exactly is "the third heaven"?

These are understandable questions for modern people. This verse is a good example of how 2,000 years and a different culture can come between the text and our understanding of it. If we were a part of Jewish culture 2,000 years ago this sentence would have made more sense than it does to us today.

First, most students of Scripture accept that Paul is writing this verse about himself, and that he is referring to his own visionary experience on the road to Damascus some years earlier (Acts 9:1-9, 22:6-11). It was this experience that caused Paul to claim in another letter that he had seen the risen Christ (1 Cor 15:1-10, cf. Gal 1:12). His half-hearted attempt at modesty in addressing the Corinthians led him to claim rather weakly that he knew a man who had this experience. Well, that man was Paul. He was not trying to be deceitful or evasive, but used this method of writing as a means of getting his point across in the letter.

New Heavens And The New Earth

Many people have a misconception of what Heaven is truly like. Revelation chapters 21-22 give us a detailed picture of the New Heavens and the New Earth. After the end times, the current Heavens and Earth will be done away with and replaced by the New Heavens and New Earth. The eternal dwelling place of believers will be the New Earth. The New Earth is the "Heaven" on which we will spend eternity. It is the New Earth on which the New Jerusalem, the heavenly city, will reside. It is on the New Earth were the pearly gates and streets of gold will be.
Heaven - the New Earth - is a physical place on which we will dwell with glorified physical bodies (see 1 Corinthians 15:35-58). The concept that Heaven is "in the clouds" is unbiblical. The concept that we will be "spirits floating around in Heaven" is unbiblical. The Heaven that believers will experience will be a new and perfect planet on which we will dwell. The New Earth will be free from sin, evil, sickness, suffering, and death. It will likely be very similar to our current Earth, or perhaps even a re-creation of our current earth - but without the curse of sin.

What about the New Heavens? It is important to remember that in the ancient mind, "heavens" referred to the skies and outer space, as well as the realm in which God dwells. So, when Revelation 21:1 refers to the New Heavens, it is likely indicating that the entire universe will be created, a New Earth, new skies, a new outer space. It seems as if God's "Heaven" will be recreated as well, to give everything in the universe a "fresh start" whether physical or spiritual. Will we have access to the New Heavens in eternity? Possibly...but we will have to wait to find out! May we all allow God's Word to shape our understanding of Heaven!

The closest thing Scripture says to there being different levels of Heaven is found in 2 Corinthians 12:2, "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know-God knows." Some interpret this as indicating that there are three different levels of Heaven. The supposed levels of Heaven are divided into a level for "super-committed Christians" or Christians who have obtained a high level of spirituality, a level for "ordinary" Christians, and a level for Christians who did not serve God faithfully.

Heaven at the Moment of Death

The popular belief of most faiths is that one enters heaven at the moment of death. This, however, is not part of the doctrine of all of Christianity. Some of Christianity along with other major religions maintain that entry into Heaven awaits such time as, "When the form of this world has passed away."

Two related and often confused concepts of heaven in Christianity are better described as the "resurrection of the body", which is exclusively of Biblical origin, as contrasted with "the immortality of the soul", which is also evident in the Greek tradition. In the first concept, the soul does not enter heaven until the last judgement or the "end of time" when it (along with the body) is resurrected and judged. In the second concept, the soul goes to a heaven on another plane immediately after death. These two concepts are generally combined in the doctrine of the double judgement where the soul is judged once at death and goes to a temporary heaven, while awaiting a second and final physical judgement at the end of the world.

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