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The kingdom of heaven is actually divided into three parts. Currently, when a forgiven person dies the person goes to heaven and receives his new spiritual body. The second part of heaven will be when Jesus and all His saints in heaven come down to rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years. The third part of heaven will be after the thousand-year reign of Christ and the Bible says there will be a new heaven and a new earth. I would like to pick up this study first by examining the current kingdom of heaven. The Bible tells us that when Jesus ascended to heaven He was going to the Father. We can read this in John 14:12, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” The Bible says that the purpose of Jesus going to the Father was to prepare a place for us and to receive us to Himself. We can read this in John 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. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. Before Jesus died on the cross when a righteous person died, the Bible says that the righteous person went to paradise and stayed there until Jesus was to free them and take them to heaven which occurred in the three days after Jesus died on the cross. By these verses we know that the Father is in heaven with Jesus preparing a place for us. I believe this is referring to our new spiritual bodies “made in the heavens, not with hands”. We also know by reading the scriptures that the saints who have died are currently in heaven. We also know that Jesus is coming for His people known as the “rapture of the church.” Once the rapture of God’s people takes place we will be in heaven with all the saints for a period of seven years. After the seven-year period expires God and all the saints in heaven will descend upon the earth and rule and reign with Jesus forever. According to the Bible heaven will be on earth and Jesus will rule and reign on the earth forever. The people who claim the world is coming to an end are mistaken. The Bible never states that the world is coming to an end in fact the Bible states that Jesus is to rule and reign on the earth forever. We can read this in Psalm 145:13, “Your kingdom is a kingdom that will last forever. Your rule will continue for all time to come. The Lord is faithful and will keep all of his promises. He is loving toward everything he has made.” And also in Revelation 11:15, “Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” We couldn't have asked for a better leader than Jesus. The world today is being ruled by short-sighted, greedy, dishonest, perverted, and unloving politicians. The whole system is corrupt and we are left without any hope for this present system. It reminds me of what the religious leaders said to Pilot as Jesus stood before them. They said “We will not have this man reign over us.” What a huge mistake that was. If you turn your back on God, He will turn his back on you! We have established that Jesus is going to rule and reign on the earth forever. We also know that Jesus’ reign will be divided into two segments. The first segment of his reign will last one thousand years which is referred to as the millennium during which time we will rule with Christ on the earth as kings and priests over the people who survived the great tribulation. After the thousand years Christ will judge the unrighteous dead after which time Christ will then cast Satin into the lake of fire and death will finally be a thing of the past. The second portion of Christ’s reign on earth will then last for eternity with a new heaven and a new earth. We can see this in Revelation 20:3-4, “and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while. And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years What will we be doing during the thousand-year reign of Christ? The Bible says during the thousand-year reign of Christ we will be kings and priests ruling over the cities of the earth with Jesus. We read this in Luke 19:17, “And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.” Also in Revelation 5:10, “And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.” And in Revelation 20:6, “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with Him a thousand years.” Jesus says in the New Testament we will be ruling over the cities of the earth. However, I believe that it is not going to be the way the cities are currently governed. We are going to give a new meaning to the phrase “public servant”. Jesus’ disciples once asked Jesus how to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus gave the disciples His answer in Luke 22:25-26, “And He said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’ But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves.” And also in Mark 9:35, “And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.” We will be ruling the cities of the earth with compassion and love. Serving man with superhuman powers and not dependent on the things of the earth for our own needs. No longer will the earth be ruled by human beings who only care about their own selfish needs without any regard for anybody else. We will be in tune with God’s perfect will and rule this earth with foresight and perfect judgment. Next I want to take a look at heaven on earth and try to get as much of a picture of heaven as we can from the Bible Scriptures. Keep in mind the first part of heaven we want to look at is heaven during the thousand-year reign of Christ which is referred to as the “millennium”. The first verse we will look at is found in Zechariah 14:17, “And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, on them there will be no rain.” The fact that the above verse states “on them, there will be no rain” tells us first of all that in heaven there will still be rain. We will still have weather pretty much the same as we do now and secondly, this verse implies that the people who survived the tribulation will be dependent on rain for growing their own food. We can see this in Isaiah 2:4, “He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. That statement definitely implies that many human beings during the millennium will be farmers. We know that all human beings can’t be farmers because the New Testament says we are to rule over the cities. Neither shall they learn war anymore. If we could have just done this today think of the trillions of dollars yearly we could apply to everybody’s standard of living. We could eliminate the middle class as well as the lower class of people. Everybody would be wealthy living the way God originally intended. It has been said that if the world’s wealth was divided equally among every inhabitant on the planet earth there would be enough wealth for everybody on the planet to be wealthy. It has been said that three percent of the population controls all the world’s wealth. God gave man enough wealth on this earth for everyone to live a rich life but because of a greedy few this planet currently suffers needlessly. We can now take the information that we have just learned and start a list titled “Heavenly Attributes” and we will begin with the following attributes: • Heaven will be on earth • We will reign with Christ as kings and priests • There will still be rain in heaven • No more wars • No more military • Farms and farmers will play an important role in heaven The next verses we are going to be studying are found in Isaiah 65: 19-20; I will rejoice in Jerusalem, And joy in My people; The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, Nor the voice of crying.“No more shall an infant from there live but a few days, Nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days; For the child shall die one hundred years old, But the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed. “I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in My people: This shows that Jesus will reside in Jerusalem. I also know by reading Micah 4:1 that the Lord’s house will be established on the mountain tops of Jerusalem above the hills and many peoples of all nations will all flow to it. “ Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills, and peoples shall flow to it.” The elevation of the Mount of Olives is 2,683 ft. I believe the elevation will be greatly increased when Jesus returns and His feet touch down at the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives has been used as a Jewish cemetery for thousands of years entombing such greats as Zechariah and Absalom. Currently, there are over 150,000 Jews buried or entombed there. Many Jews today want to be buried or entombed on the Mount of Olives because they believe that man’s first resurrection will occur there when the Messiah touches down. The Jews believe this because of the prophesy found in Zechariah 14:4, “And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, Which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley; half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south.” The voice of weeping and crying shall no longer be heard in her. The “her” is referring to Jerusalem currently one of the most violent cities in the world today. Due to the length of this article it was necessary to divide it into part 1 and part 2. To complete this study please go to “The Kingdom of Heaven Part 2’. For more articles please go to; please God help me
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