LESSONS ON HEAVEN ( PART 20) | WHAT HAPPENS AFTER WE DIE?

Pastor Christopher Choo

Lesson 3226

LESSONS ON HEAVEN ( PART 20)

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER WE DIE?

We are tripartite beings created with a body, soul, and spirit.

Death results in the separation of the body from the spirit and soul. The body goes to the grave, but the souls and spirits of believers go to the Lord.

The separation continues until the resurrection of our bodies.

John 5:28-29 informs us: " The hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation."

Right now the souls and spirits of believers who have died are in heaven. But someday their bodies will be resurrected and they shall be joined to their souls and spirits. Thus they will enjoy the eternal perfection of body, soul, and spirit.

Unbelievers at the time of death do not enter heaven. Their bodies enter the grave, and their souls and spirits enter Hades to wait for the final judgment at the end of the Millennium. Like a believer's body, the unbeliever's body will one day be joined with his or her soul and spirit. But this resurrection will be for final judgment, and they will not receive glorified bodies.

Abba Father, the souls, and spirits of all believers enter Heaven at the moment of death. There they await, with Old Testament saints, their glorified resurrection bodies. So many long to live life to the fullest; yet, for believers "the fullest" will come only after death. It will come in heaven when we see our Creator and Lord face-to-face and are finally and eternally "home" where we belong. Death is not a great sleep but a great awakening...at the moment we awake in God's everlasting arms, we shall, at last, see things the way He has seen them all along. Indeed as Paul teaches: "...prefer rather be absent from the body and be at home with the Lord" ( 2 Cor.5:8 ).