Q - Where is Heaven?

Where is heaven?  Does God live there? 

Let me set straight some misunderstandings before I answer the ‘where’ question.  First of all heaven is a lot of things to a lot of different people.  Let me define some terms so that when we talk about heaven we are talking about the same thing.

·          Joy – This is what we will call heaven when it’s being referred to as a state of mind; a state of joy.  Happiness (e.g. the mere excitement of doing something fulfilling, interesting, and challenging and being successful at it)  is a part of that joy…but only a component.  Joy is that knowledge that you are at peace with all about you, that you are understood and accepted of those who matter most, that you are in the right way, and that you have deep meaning in your life.   Now I’m going to explain a couple of things that are going on over here, which will help you understand  my ‘where’ answer.

 ·          Spirit World -  When you die, you come into a spirit world where only those who dwelt on earth, and have passed away – as spirits – dwell.  Here you continue your journey but without your physical body.  You are still you – but you are  living just in a spirit body.  Here you continue to learn, to grow, to make decisions about good and evil, to change your life, to make and break associations, to make and break commitments of service, etc.  Those who are righteous and learn the most, find joy here and thus it becomes a paradise or heaven. Those who are wicked, and have appetites for evil things, will find great chaos and discord in their minds and will lose focus – creating a sense of depression, fear, anger, and ultimate sorrow.  These will call this place spirit prison or hell – even though it is only a temporary location and not the ultimate suffering described by prophets and the savior.  Whether in paradise or spirit prison, this state of spiritual preparation is just temporary.  For ultimately we all will come before the Savior to be judged, so that we may enter the ‘Heaven’ or Mansion or Kingdom to which we will continue our development in the flesh.

·          Kingdom of Glory – Finally, the resurrection will come to all, and here is where you will enter a place of glory – both physical and spiritual in nature.  While we all will have physical bodies able to do many of the things we do in life, yet, we will be primarily spiritual in nature – able to communicate, travel, reason, understand as a spirit.  There are many levels of glory to which we will exist.  Some will have the ultimate glory – so powerful and incredible, that they will be able to live near and with God and his Son as they exist in their full glory.  Others will be less powefully endowed with glory, but nonetheless will experience great joy and happiness.  These will have great power over their bodies and their world – and will find great opportunities for growth and experiencing joy.  While others will still have great joy – but will not experience a fullness because of their inability or incapacity for joy.  These are those who on earth and in the spirit world were proud, wicked, hateful, unthankful and selfish.  Each at this level of glory will have repented and changed from their wicked ways, but still will not have the capacity for increased and eternal joy.   They will not have learned how to turn darkness into light.  Turn pain into joy.  They trials come upon them, they are unable to cope with it – and cry for help.  It is the influence of those in higher kingdoms  (coming through the channel of the Holy Ghost) which will nurture and strengthen those in this kingdom.

 So where am I?  I’m kind of in between.  I live in the kingdom of glory known as the Celestial Kingdom…but I work consistently with spirits in the Spirit world.  All of us from the City of Enoch have already been resurrected into a celestial glory, but before we move forward with our eternal progression we are servants of God to help prepare for the wrap-up scene.  There are thousands from Earth who have proven their worthiness and ability for joy, and have already been resurrected into this kingdom of glory. 

 

Now let’s talk about where… The spirit world is here on earth…now…all around you.  But don’t panic – just as you can’t see us, we typically don’t see you.  We exist in another dimension of space which can only be seen if you were to become more ‘attune – or in tune’ with this dimension.  Hard to imagine isn’t it.  Think of it like a TV set.  When you flip the channel – you see different worlds on the same screen – it just depends on who you are tuned into.  The same is true with our two worlds.  You have to tune into the right dimensional frequency.  The trick is that this is more than just a spiritual tuning – for a man to tune into the spirit world – he either has to leave his body – or his whole body has to tune in.  This is not something that man has learned to do…however,  it does happen on occasion with prophets or extremely spiritual people. 

 There are many dimensions located here.  The Celestial Kingdom is also located here.  However, since the world itself has not finished passing through it’s full process of death and resurrection, the Celestial World is not finished.  Once the earth is resurrected, then it will shine with it’s full glory.

 In the meantime, God’s heaven – headquarters as it were – is located on a star far from here….near a star known as Kolob.  God in all his glory governs from there.  Those who have not yet been born, are located there with him.…but once this world has passed through it’s eternal preparation, it too will become a home/heaven for those who were trained and tested here. 

 Having said that we should remember that God’s home is anywhere amongst his creations.  Wherever his children are and where they have built a dwelling place for him to dwell…a temple, he comes and dwells for a time.  All things are his, and so he is at home at all places where he may be found.  He has rights to all locations to enter, to leave.  And all who dwell within his lands are guests – permitted to dwell for a time.