We all know that we are fighting to establish God’s kingdom here on earth. We are looking at the bible for clues of how that will look, and living that truth now!

Matthew 6:10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Jesus instructs us to pray for God’s kingdom to manafest around us, so that basically our lives here on earth would begin to blend with the promises of heaven.

The bible is full of descriptions of God’s kingdom:

Revelation provides insight about what heaven looks like, and the activity at the throne,

THE GARDEN, BEFORE THE FALL, is the clearest picture of the daily life God had planned for us.

Genesis 1:31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

When God said what He made was good, He was affirming its original design and intent: to reflect and display His good character, power, and nature. In its original state, creation measured up to God's standards.

Clearly seeing what Adam and Eve’s life looked like in the Garden will help us clarify what we are asking God for, allow us to change our hearts and see His kingdom come.

It shapes how we pray, and how we model our lives here on earth!

If the Bible says: in Heaven, we will all speak in sign language. We would certainly begin learning sign language on earth to establish his kingdom.

Slight discrepancies of what life in heaven is like can be dangerous, because we are crafting the overflow of God’s nature.

IN HEAVEN, WE WILL ALL BE IDENTICAL TO JESUS (clones of Christ)

Misunderstand of “perfect” - feels like its a single answer. Like math.

This can mislead us to struggle with our unique identity! Make us think that God isn’t happy with our idiosyncrasies.

God made you unique. This was not an accident.

Infact, in heaven you will have characteristics about you that NO ONE else shares… or even understands!

Revelation 2:17 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.

It is not God's will that as you grow closer to God, your unique characteristics begin to fade.

RATHER true identity is enhanced - giving you a name only known to you!

“More of Him, less of me.” … this is from John 3:30 and is actually about John the Baptist saying its now a time when his ministry is ending and Jesus’s is starting.

God actually used the quirkiness of John to be an onramp for Jesus to be on display.

God created you in a specific way… to see things differently, to question and lead in a very personal way.

The enemy makes us question our desire to be the best versions of ourselves…

“It does matter in the end! We will all just cast our crowns at God’s feet and stand in awe.”

STOP.

Let that tape play through:

In heaven, we will all respond to input the same, we will all appreciate beauty the same, and decorate the same, we will all find the best way to do things, and eventually be in step with every other being… like homogeneous bride.

Your personality will become clearer:

CS Lewis: To enter heaven is to become more human than you ever succeeded in being on earth; to enter hell is to be banished from humanity. What is cast (or casts itself) into hell is not a man: it is 'remains.'

Yes, we will be like Jesus, in the way that we will be connected directly with the Father. But, you will be a unique thumbprint of God… expressing the beauty of Him in a way NO OTHER HUMAN CAN.

Press into God, let him speak to you about your identity! This will bring God’s kingdom to earth.

MISUNDERSTANDING: IN HEAVEN, WE WILL ALL BE JUST LIKE JESUS

TRUTH: IN HEAVEN, WE WILL BECOME MORE AND MORE A UNIQUE EXPRESSION OF GOD.

IN HEAVEN, WE WILL NEVER MAKE ANOTHER MISTAKE BECAUSE WE WILL HAVE ALL KNOWLEDGE.

We know Jesus was perfect his WHOLE LIFE. Never sinning. NEVER ONCE.

When Jesus was first born, did he know how to form all words?

As he learned to walk, did he fall? Did he ever cut himself in the workshop as he LEARNED how to woodwork? Did he ever frustrate his parents?

YES!

Luke 2:42 When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. 43 After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. 44 Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”

Again: When Jesus was first born, did he know how to form all words?

As he learned to walk, did he ever fall? Did he ever cut himself in the workshop as he LEARNED how to woodwork? Did he mispronounced words as he learned to read?

So, let's establish this: Learning, and the journey of going from an unknowing state (making mistakes) to a knowing state is NOT sin.

Therefore can learning be in heaven?

YEs

Ephesians 2:6-7 (NIV) And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

“Show” demonstrates that there will be continual revealing of Him!

Because we know everyone is unique, we can say that each persons journey of LEARNING is at different stages. One man can look at another, and see that they are not doing something “right”

ASSUMPTION: But… in heaven we will fully understand everything!

Not true:

Revelation 19:12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and He had a name written that no man knew, but He Himself.

There are certainly an abundance of unknown things about God that will take a LONG time to learn.

God is bigger than forever, and it will take eternity “to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ” (Ephesians 3:18-19).

NEW ASSUMPTION - Maybe things like tripping, or playing the wrong note in a song are permitted… BUT there will be NO major misunderstandings!

Gen 2:25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

This is BEFORE the fall. Before what we call “SIN” entered the world.

If you choose to believe that there were no major mistakes in heaven, you will have to believe that being naked is God’s best for us in heaven.

Let's read on…

Gen 3:6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.

Eve saw that there were things she DID NOT yet know! Even in her perfect sinless state! That desire led her to eat!

She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

“Who told you you were naked?”

This is so heartbreaking.

God intended to teach them about nakedness, not now… but later. They had LEARNED about righteousness from THEMSELVES instead of from GOD!

EX: List of movies I want to watch with my kids… Angie let Emery see Princess Bride without me :(

I wasn’t sad she saw it… I was sad she saw it without me! I had planned to make popcorn, and see her reactions, laughter, and talk about it after.

I look forward to teaching my children about sexuality, morality, and other patterns I have learned in the world. It’s heartbreaking to me, when they say: someone else already told me that.

It steals moments that were meant to be shared between us!

God wanted to teach them, through love, the wonder of a world called clothes.

Proof that God planned to show Adam and Eve about clothes:

Gen 3:21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”

This is a difficult reality to swallow.

In Heaven, we will look out and see people of all maturities in Christ. Walking naked, not yet understanding some of the wisdom fo God we are walking in… the only difference:

There will be no SHAME! There will be no temptation to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Shame can be a powerful motivator to richeousness… but surrendering shame is to draw God’s kingdom to earth.

MISUNDERSTANDING: IN HEAVEN, WE WILL NEVER MAKE ANOTHER MISTAKE

TRUTH: IN HEAVEN, YOU WILL BE FREE FROM SHAME AND YOU WILL WALK WITH GOD EVERYDAY, LEARNING OF HIS GREATNESS!

IN HEAVEN WE DON'T NEED TO WORK ANYMORE, WE WILL HAVE FREEDOM FROM RESPONSIBILITY!

Gen 3:17 cursed is the ground because of you, through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

The curse of toiling for food was after the fall! So, in heaven we don't need to work for a harvest!

Let’s first look at the nature of “curses”

Curses are a natural progression of a life in sin, not an unavoidable path you can't escape.

EX: a child learning about fire: I see carelessness, I could say - You will be severely burned!

This is an observation of the earthly laws He set in place and the consequence of what living a life in the current state will yield!

So let's look at this curse:

When God said: the land will be cursed and you will toil painfully to eat of it.”

He is saying

“When you live according to your knowledge of good and evil… the land will be cursed and you will toil painfully to eat of it.”

This is avoidable!

We can live without this toil, work can be life!

Jona 3 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city,[a] three days' journey in breadth.[b] 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

The People of Nineveh Repent

6 The word reached[c] the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

The curse of toil can be broken. Repent from your own desire to understand and eat from the knowledge of good and evil… Learn to find life in your work. To balance your desire for excellence with contentment.

Looking even at the Garden before the fall, there was work to be done.

In heaven, our rewards will be a heaping pile of work:

Matt 25:21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.[c] You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’

This is bringing God’s kingdom to earth.

Let’s react like Niniva to the curse of eating from the tree of knowledge!

God, forgive me for pursuing wisdom that you have not brought to me!

Set me free from my desire to eat from that tree.

Let me live in a satisfaction of the truth you alone have offered to me in our walk.

Help me to be fully satisfied from the tree of life.

MISUNDERSTANDING: IN HEAVEN WE DON'T NEED TO WORK ANYMORE, WE WILL HAVE FREEDOM FROM RESPONSIBILITY!

TRUTH: WE WILL FIND TREMENDOUS FULFILLMENT WHEN WE LISTEN TO GOD AND DO THE WORK HE HAS APPOINTED FOR US

Let's all stand. And have the band come up.

Lord, help us to get a true perspective of Heaven! Show us what it means for Your will to come, and Your will to be done, here on earth.

We believe that living a heavenly life is possible now! We shake off any misunderstand we may have believed and kept us from living that out today:

We believe that we are made, on purpose, to be a unique expression of you

We believe that we can grow and learn, without shame.

We ask that you would forgive us for our hunger of the tree of knowledge, so that we can take pleasure in the work you have appointed us to do.