A Heavenly Dream

Sunday morning, Jun 25, 06

I got up this morning remembering an incredible dream I had two nights ago. It is just beginning to make sense.

I was attending some sort of event at a wide open place that resembled parking lots around a large school, or the grounds around the U.S. Open in New York City. People were milling around in all directions and I didn’t know but a handful of them. I can’t even remember who I was with, but I was people watching, looking for opportunities with the crowds.

Trying to get my bearings, I looked up in the sky. There, literally looming overhead I realized I could see the uppermost portion of an enormous skyscraper. It was an amazing sight. It was so high up and I marveled that the entire body of the building was completely hidden by a space of air and clouds. Only the top portion was visible and appeared to be suspended above me like a city in itself. Wow, I thought, that’s huge! How strange that I couldn’t see how it connected to the ground. I stood there and wondered how that could be. Did anyone else see it?

I found some people and started talking and some time passed. I don’t know how much time or what I did. I just got involved in the crowds, or distracted with what was going on around me. Then it felt like the day was coming to an end when I remembered having seen that incredible sight. I looked up again. Oddly, it had grown even bigger! I just stood there staring at it, open-mouthed, trying to make out the walls and height and breadth and enormity of the space it must fill, considering its distance from the ground. It looked spectacularly beautiful. Ooo, it’s so beautiful, I thought, comparing it to all the concrete and tar below. How do you get there?

This is all I remember now, that beautiful image. I can’t remember a thing about who was around me--only that there were milling crowds and some activity and the day was now coming to an end. But the sight of the top of that building captured my heart and has stayed with me. It blew my mind.

ExplanationThis morning, as its image replayed on my mind while I was still half asleep, it suddenly dawned on me what this meant. Even though I thought I was looking at the top of a skyscraper, now I think it was a glimpse of the heavenly city. This would explain why it wasn't attached to the ground. Remember, I was trying to get my bearings when I looked up the first time. Seeing heaven certainly does give you your true bearings for this life. I know in my spirit that the Lord is reminding me to live for eternity.

I looked around and wondered if anyone else could see it, but people really weren’t paying attention to the sky. Everyone was busy. Again, this is how I feel when I try to tell people how real heaven is, and that the Lord’s promises are sure to come. Sometimes I meet people who don't really care. It seems irrelevant and too far off. There is a giant gulf and disconnect between the activities of our everyday lives and that distant maybe, I hope you're right, point of view.

As I stood in that city square, I was dumbfounded, awestruck by the glorious sight. I couldn’t see how it made sense though, or how it connected to the rest of the building, or stood above the ground on invisible foundations. Do only a few people get to see this? Yes, and only with the eyes of faith. We need to help others to put on faith so that they can see it with us.

Then, after spending time with the people around me, looking for opportunities to share the Word in the crowds, that city looked even larger when I saw it the second time. Why? I think there are three reasons:

1. The kingdom of God is coming closer, nearing in time, and ready for fulfillment. The Lord said his hand is on the door! All the church’s prophets are in agreement with this now. Certainly, God has been moving us to this realization for these final days. Jesus said he would speak to us as a man shares with his friend, and he calls us his friends, not servants, but sadly, many don't know his Word and can't recognize what he's saying or see what's happening. It is right here but many can't see it.

2. The kingdom of God literally grows in size as we labor here, winning souls to Christ. As we are involved in sharing the gospel with the people around us, God’s glory is increased and the magnitude and greatness and population of that heavenly city multiplies.

3. The vision of the heavenly city has grown and become more central in my own life. Since losing Frank and spending some time in the valley of the shadow, my eyes have learned to see heaven with a deeper appreciation and affection than ever before. As time passes, the glory and beauty of the heavenly city increases in my own eyes.

In closing, it is also noteworthy that it felt like the day was ending when I looked up the second time. It felt like five or six p.m., the time we usually start thinking about going home for supper. Anyone who knows their Bible can see the correlation to being called home for suppertime with our bridegroom, Jesus Christ. We are holding standing and paid invitations to join him at the Lord’s table. We will be seated in the heavenlies at the Supper of the Lamb!

Are you ready? Do you have your eyes of faith fixed on the heavenly city? Are you investing time in this eternal kingdom? Are you helping others to see it? Will any of the ones you love be able to go because of you?

I pray that you answered all five questions in the positive. If not, look up and ask the Lord to increase your vision. We are surely living in the last days and we need to be actively seeking the lost. The Lord of the harvest longs to use you while the sun is still shining.

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For further study and reflection:

The visionThe LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD is on his heavenly throne. He observes the sons of men; his eyes examine them… and upright men will see his face. Ps 11:4-12:1

"Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb." And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls...  The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone... The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl... Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

The angel said to me, "These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place."

"Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book."
Rev 21:9-22:7

The harvestJesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom... Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." Matt 9:35-38

“As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work." John 9:3-5

No one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. 1 Cor 3:11-13

My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, `Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. John 4:34-38

For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, `You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' Matt 20:1-4


Our true bearing
Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the high priest whom we confess... Heb 3:1