THE WONDERS OF HEAVEN V

6. The wonder of rewards. Heaven is a place of rewards. Rev. 3:12, “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name”. Heaven is also a place of crowns. You will be decorated with different types of crowns. The only people that are rewarded in heaven are overcomers and that is the reason why we must overcome. Rev. 3:5, “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.” May we be part of the people who the Lord will boldly confess before his Father and before the angels in Jesus name. How will that happen? You must have a relationship with him. Before the Lord can testify concerning you, it must be as a result of your personal relationship with him. Let’s straighten our relationship with Jesus. You can deceive human beings, you can even deceive your Pastor but nothing is hidden before Christ. Heaven is also a place of books; a place of records. It is a place of settlement of accounts; a place of balancing of accounts.

The story is told about a popular Nigerian Pastor who died and on arriving at the gate of heaven, he was very confident that he will be given a warm reception but he received a great shock when the angel at the gate did not really pay much attention to him. On checking the book of life, the angel could not find his name there. Standing there before the angel, he argued with the angel and enumerated everything he did while on earth so the angel checked another book called the book of works and behold, his name was in the book of works and not in the book of life. Fortunately for him, he had raised intercessors in his ministry before he died and these intercessors refused to let him go, they started praying fervently for him to return and that was how he came back to life. Since then, everything about him changed. Before he had this experience, he was always moving around in a large convoy; to get him to be a guest speaker in another Church was quite expensive. He is fully transformed and still serving God today. How many people will have the opportunity of a second chance?

The story is also told about another prominent man of God who died and made it to heaven. He was expecting to have a very massive mansion but instead of a mansion, the angels ushered him into a very small place which was not in the high brow area of heaven. He argued with the angels that the place could not be his. He, however,  got a very instructive response from the angels. They told him ‘this is the much we could do with the materials you kept sending to heaven’. What kind of materials have you been sending up? Do you allow opportunities to serve God pass you by? Do you take advantage of opportunities to serve God or you allow them to pass? Meanwhile, we are closer to a major event than most people realize. The rate at which prophecies are being fulfilled is alarming. The gospel has already been preached in almost all the nations of the world. Take note that every passing moment takes you closer to eternity. Are you preparing for this world or are you preparing for heaven? Any Church that is not preparing you for heaven is sentencing you to hell it doesn’t matter the office you hold or what you do; at best, they will be recorded in the book of works and not in the book of life. Will you be part of those who will be clothed like those described in Rev. 19:7-8? “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.” There is a song we used to sing back in the days, ‘Are you ready, Jesus is coming again, Are you ready, Jesus is coming again! It is your responsibility to get yourself ready. That is the message of this song. There is dress code in heaven, let’s learn to dress up properly right from here, not just physically but spiritually as well.

TO BE CONTINUED….