But heaven is none of these things. It is not a children’s story, a trance state, or an emotion. It is a destination so real that this present reality will seem like a children’s story. It is a place so personal that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit dwell there. Dr. Steven J. Lawson says heaven is real enough that Christ came into the world from it and departed again to it when His body left this earth. And someday, we will do the same.12

Both Old and New Testament Scriptures treat heaven as both real and important. In fact, the Bible refers to heaven more than five hundred times. The Hebrew word translated “heaven”—shamayim—literally means “the heights.” The Greek word for “heaven” is ouranos, which inspired the name of the planet Uranus. The word refers to that which is raised up or lofty.

As the following Scriptures reveal, heaven is the home of our God:

For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.

—HEBREWS 9:24

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

—MATTHEW 5:16

The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven.

—PSALM 11:4

As Canadian pastor Bruce Milne tells us, the book of Revelation speaks of heaven as a place where you will find “God’s throne, God’s river, God’s tree, God’s service, God’s face, God’s seal, God’s reign: such are the features of the life of the people of God in the coming Holy City… It is life totally centered on God. That is the deepest and most glorious prospect imaginable, for there is no reality comparable to the triune God, the ever-blessed Father.”13

My primary goal for this chapter is that you will grasp once and for all that heaven is real. It is an actual location, and it is the future for everyone who knows and loves the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a place of reunion with those we’ve lost, and it is a place where we will no longer see through the dim glass, but we will regard our Savior face-to-face.

A Place of Ultimate Rejoicing

You will show me the path of life;

In Your presence is fullness of joy;

At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

—PSALM 16:11