How do you think we experience heaven?

[Silyosha]

Basically, the question is the title…How do you think the soul experiences heaven? Do you think of h.eaves as a state of being, or a place for the soul to be? Is heaven a “dimension”, or is it something else entirely? How is the way we experience heaven dIfferent from the way we experience life on Earth, aside from the obvious lack of a physical body? Not meant toe a heated debate just share your thoughts and understanding of this subject. God bless!

 

[tonyrey]

Heaven is the continuation of our life on earth in our quest for - and appreciation - of truth, goodness, beauty, freedom, justice, beauty and love. It is above all a dynamic relationship with God and other persons but it does not exclude the enjoyment of other creatures and things.

Those who suggest that heaven must be monotonous simply reveal their lack of creativity, enthusiasm, curiosity, imagination, passion and delight in being alive!

 

[Waiting]

Basically, the question is the title…How do you think the soul experiences heaven? Do you think of h.eaves as a state of being, or a place for the soul to be? Is heaven a “dimension”, or is it something else entirely? How is the way we experience heaven dIfferent from the way we experience life on Earth, aside from the obvious lack of a physical body? Not meant toe a heated debate just share your thoughts and understanding of this subject. God bless!

Heaven is beyond anything that our finite minds can envision. St. Paul tells us that. I know that it is happiness to the fullest extent. We will be ourselves, minus the faults that get in our way here on earth. It will be exciting, pleasurable, and fulfilling. Barriers of time and space will be non-existent. All those friends and family that we loved and lost will meet and greet us. It will be “heavenly.”

 

[Gem]

In the May-June 2010 edition of This Rock, there’s a great article talking about Dante’s “Inferno” and how heaven is our continuous and ever-deepening discovery of who the Person of God is.

C.S. Lewis also describes this experience in a metphor at the end of The Last Battle (Narnia series) when the people enter a new dimension (much like a New Earth) which slowly grows brighter and more wonderful as all saved people run joyously towards the Center.

Gem

 

[GEddie]

Basically, the question is the title…How do you think the soul experiences heaven? Do you think of h.eaves as a state of being, or a place for the soul to be? Is heaven a “dimension”, or is it something else entirely? How is the way we experience heaven dIfferent from the way we experience life on Earth, aside from the obvious lack of a physical body? Not meant toe a heated debate just share your thoughts and understanding of this subject. God bless!

You will lose the physical body, of course, but you will receive what Saint Paul called a pneumatikon soma, or “spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15). You will be a fully assembled human being! Able to move, hear, smell, see, and hug and be held by our LORD.

Heaven is not a “place” in the sense that it can be mapped onto the world we know (or onto a star chart), or can be reached by transportation of your physical body. To be there requires a change of your being, the pneumatikon soma. Your natural self and Heaven are incompatible.

Yet, it is not just a “state of being”; there will be sights, sounds, smells, movement and experiences beyond all human yearnings. You’ll even be able to join your mind to our LORD’s directly!

So I’d say that the thought of Heaven as a new dimension makes the most sense. But, as a dimension of LIFE, not just location. And it won’t be strange to what you know as a human being; it was made for human beings! “I go to prepare a place for you,” our LORD HIMself said (St. John 14).

ICXC NIKA!

 

[StJudePray4Me]

I always thought Heaven was a state of being. Our souls are that part of us that make us “us”, the part of us that can’t be destroyed, even when the body dies. Heaven would be being in the presence of God, so therefore our state of being would be total peace, bliss, contentment, grace. Hell would be the absence of God, so therefore it would be total despair and an eternity of longing and regret.

Just my opinion.

 

[BornAgain2010]

haha, I’ve ALWAYS wanted to talk about this.

In my opinion, and indeed imagination…

Heaven will be a big party type of scenario. A bit childish perhaps:
“Mommy, daddy, whats heaven like.”
“A big party in the sky”



Its probably a stupid idea, but it works for me. heh.

I think it’ll be like an underground jazz club somewhere down a dark alleyway, below street level,
a place so hip that there’s not even a sign over the door. You knock three times (3…the Trinity). A pair of eyes slides back the slot in the door and asks, “Who sent you?”. You reply, “Peter” (as in a reference to St. Peter and the pearly gates). They let you in. You sit at table close to the stage. A heady mix of cigar smoke, the smell of mixed drinks, and excitement fills the air. Joe Pass and his cats are playing the current set. You reach into the pocket of your custom fitted suit for your money to pay the waitress, however you find none. She smiles down at you, “money is not an object in THIS establishment”. You sit down and start eating the best dinner of your life. Juicy, hearty, steak. Steak so tender it melts in mouth. Grilled vegetables. Squash, carrots, wax beans, cucumber, water chestnuts, onions, bell pepper…all on a bed of succulent rice pilaf - steamed just the way Momma used to make.

Around you sit your parents and all your favorite aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters, and then when you think it can’t get any better…

all your old friends walk in, “pull up a chair” you say to them. And then as if by magic, there is always room for one more, no matter how many chairs are pulled up. You sit there reminiscing about the good ole days. People at the other tables get up and dance. You join them, and after that you return to your table for a drink, and start the process all over again as more and more of everyone you know comes in to share in the happiness of being in Heaven. Heaven - the greatest gig in the sky. Yeah!

I know it may seem like total BS to some,
but thats just what I think it will be like.

 

[YankeeRC]

I think heaven is constant communion with God (which is why He asks us to “pray always” while we are now alive as a kind of practice) where there is no concept of ‘boredom’ or distraction that want to take us away from God because to paraphrase Paul in one of his letters “Now we see as children…as if looking through a glass darkly, but in Heaven we will see as God sees.”

On a personal level, I hope as an amateur astronomer to get a chance to see the rest of this wonderful universe God has created. A chance to see the stars and worlds and alien landscapes and so shall sing “my soul my Savior God to thee, how great Thou art, how great Thou art”

 

[smichhertz]

Interesting post!

I believe the true happiness of Heaven is found complete and total intimacy with God. I would also think that since everyone in Heaven is in perfect communion with each other.

I think at one point Jesus described the Kingdom of Heaven like it was a banquet. So we can kind of relate it to when we sit down at a table with friends and enjoy food. We enjoy both the nourishment of the food and the company of our friends. But in Heaven, we will be spiritually nourished by the love of God.

Bottom line is, we will never really know until we experience it! So love God and neighbor with your whole heart, mind and strength and you’ll find out! Just my two cents.

 

[lemondiesel]

I believe it will infinite bliss. That is a state of being unimaginable to anyone; we can still experience bits and pieces though, just getting a taste.

The true love you feel for your soul mate, the love at first sight, the aching of the heart longing for their company doesn’t even compare, but it is still just a taste.

The utter humility you feel for friends, family, mankind; the longing for preservation of Life does not even compare.

This infinite bliss will be so great we won’t even know we are experiencing it. We only know happiness when we have something bad to compare it too, but in Heaven there is no bad, no evils. It’ll be so magnificant that one will not even think about questioning where he is. We will not wonder where our loved ones are, because they are in this bliss as well.

Anything in this bliss is one, entirely connected.