Dear friends, some of these points we are going to talk about have been mentioned briefly in other documents but I would like to expand upon them here. How many times friends have we questioned the love of our Saviour? This world is evil now, almost given over to the devil’s deceitful ways entirely, well, almost, there are a few of us still holding out. Well, let’s jump straight in and refute some of these lies.
Heaven’s Hierarchy
There are questions deep within us all that I believe need to be answered. Let’s endeavour to answer some of those today.
Question:-
I really struggle with being cast aside and maybe I am over-sensitive to this kind of thing but it really appears to me that there is a real hierarchy in heaven and only the ones who work hard enough to earn it are loved the ‘most’. On the one hand they say that everyone is loved equally but then they go on to say there are people who are loved the most.
Let’s say I’m in the group who didn’t work hard enough or wasn’t accepted to work hard enough or even couldn’t work hard enough? I am worried I will be lonely and cast aside in heaven too. I would like to be close to Jesus because He sounds nice but what if I can’t earn it?
This statement is in one of my Bible studies and I believe has the potential to be misinterpreted. But the above question is very valid regardless of the following statement.
“When we get to heaven there are going to be two separate groups (don’t get me wrong all are loved equally). One group will be the saints who ‘sailed’ through life without any major trauma or without doing any ‘special’ mission, and a second group who gave their all for Jesus. This second group is especially close to Jesus and He does love them the most. These people have given their all for their Saviour, they have literally been to hell and back, they haven’t doubted His callings and they have put their body and mind on the line for Him. For these reasons Jesus is especially close to these people.”
Answer:-
The answer to this question lies with the respondent. Jesus loves us all the same – but – He is closer to some and that lies with the respondent. See some people have taken heaven for granted, like it is their right. They haven’t lifted a finger to help and they will ‘sail’ into heaven as though it ‘belongs’ to them and will walk the streets of gold as if it is their birthright. Now Jesus does love these people and they will get a big surprise at the real cost of heaven, but they won’t be as close to Jesus because they never desired to be so. And that is where our answer lies, the people ‘closer’ to Jesus are the ones who wanted to be. The ones who gave their lives, sacrificed so much, and dove headfirst into the fight for heaven, to justify Jesus and fight for His cause. Even the people who love Jesus dearly but couldn’t do anything to help the cause are closer to Jesus. We are close to Jesus because we chose to be, Jesus opens His arms to everyone but few choose to enter, those who do are closer to Jesus. He is extremely grateful to them for their service and sacrifice and many will be rewarded above others in heaven, but I would like to point you to a statement of Ellen White where she mentions how everyone in heaven was admiring their crowns. Some had many stars and some had few but everyone was satisfied and happy with their crown.
“…Some will have brighter crowns than others, but there will be no jealous thoughts in any heart among the redeemed…”
(Ellen White, The Signs of the Times, February 10, 1888.)
I believe that one of the hardest concepts to grasp is that there will be no jealousy in heaven. That feeling originated with Satan, it is what started the rebellion, therefore once Satan is banished the feeling of jealousy will disappear with him. So those people who ‘sailed’ into heaven will understand why some are rewarded more than others and many people will regret not taking up Jesus’ offer to come in closer to Him. Think about it, if someone sacrificed so much for you, while others passed you by not even taking up your offer of love and comfort, wouldn’t you be ‘closer’ to the people that came to your assistance? Heaven is not unmindful of our sacrifice and suffering and Jesus has cried many a tear because of our pain. What about the disciple John for example? Jesus loved all the disciples but John was singled out as ‘beloved of Jesus’. See John chose to move into Jesus’ open arms and pressed in closer and closer. It is our choice, we have ‘chosen’ to work closely with Jesus and the more we work the closer we come into His circle, His love and His arms.
Jesus loves everyone, there is no ‘hierarchy’ as man portrays it. ‘Hierarchy’ is said like it is a bad word and on earth it can be as people on the bottom do seem to be ‘cast aside’, but in heaven it is not called a hierarchy, it is the order of command. Let’s go to the army – major, general, private etc, it is the order of command. Now all the angels have their positions and all are happy with their position, and yes, they can move around if they want to, but the commanders, leaders etc, remain the same. It is how heaven works, everyone has their respective position and as Satan has been banished, there are no feelings of discontent. Jesus loves the garbage collector angel just as much as His leading commander angel, there is no hierarchy, no one is ‘better’ or ‘higher up’ than anyone else, all are equally respected.
This answer is hard to understand and I believe I am struggling to get this concept across. See we are going very deep into the working of heaven and it is really hard for us to understand and grasp the concept because it has been drilled into us from birth, growing up, school, work, social status, Satan has integrated this ‘hierarchy’ concept into everything and it has become so ingrained that people cannot see life without it. Please understand that this feeling or concept doesn’t exist in heaven in the way Satan has ingrained it on earth. The feeling of ‘working for God’s love’ or ‘needing to earn it is pure evil and comes direct from Satan. Nobody has to ‘work’ or ‘earn’ Jesus’ love, we are His creation, He loves us because He made us and no-one is going to get into heaven by their works, oh no. Many a ‘working Christian’ (you know the ones, the wolves in the church) is going to be left out of heaven, they may say, “look at all the work I did for you”, but Jesus will say, “I never knew you”. These people ‘worked’ for Jesus, or so they thought, but they were actually working against Him.
I am endeavouring to help you understand, it is very deep this concept but if we can take it by faith please, let’s put it in point form:-
But first of all let’s define the word ‘hierarchy’.
According to the dictionary ‘hierarchy’ is “a system in which members of an organisation or society are ranked according to relative status or authority.”
A example in a sentence would be:-
“The initiative was with those lower down in the hierarchy”
The statement above indicates that a hierarchy has people at working stations of various, what shall we say? levels, some are high up the ladder as we say or on a high level, some people saying they are on a pedestal. Then there are the people much lower down the ladder. This tends to leave people with the overall feeling of a ‘hierarchy’ and the higher you are the more you are respected.
So in the next statement I am going to say that there is no ‘hierarchy’ in heaven, but friends, there is, just not on ‘our’ earthly terms. Let’s read it friends as heaven sees it.
1/ There is no hierarchy in heaven. That concept has been introduced and developed into what it is today by the devil. It is the devil that says “I am better than you”.
2/ There is order in heaven, yes there are angels higher up the command than others, but all are happy in their position, there is no feelings of ‘I’m better than you’ as that is Satan’s tactic. Jesus loves every angel the same and no one feels ‘cast aside’, once again that feeling has been introduced to earth by Satan and it goes against everything Jesus stands for.
3/ Jesus is a God of love, He died for us all, I mean He could have just wiped everyone out at the onset of the rebellion and started again, who would have known? But no, He died on the cross to save us all and He died for everyone, not just those on the top of the ‘hierarchy’. Jesus would never cast anyone aside, He loves us all.
4/ Jesus is closer to some than others but it doesn’t mean He loves the others less. The children of God He is closer to are the ones that have responded to His offer of love and have chosen to come into a close connection with Him. Jesus is not unmindful of our life of sacrifice and He isn’t going to ‘pass by’ or ‘overlook’ our sacrifice, oh no, Jesus wants to say thank you and He will with His rewards once we get to heaven. He also wants to honour us and publicly point out just what we have done for Him. He is grateful, therefore we are closer to Him.
5/ The concept of ‘working for’ or ‘earning’ God’s love is another of the devil’s ingrained traits, it is not accepted in heaven. No-one ‘works’ for the love of God. There is many a Christian on earth who loves Jesus dearly but doesn’t have the capacity to work for Him. Does that mean Jesus loves them any less? Oh no, that again comes from the devil, no, Jesus loves these people just as much as everyone else.
There is so much that the devil has implanted into our minds and I don’t believe we will fully understand it till we get to heaven. I mean we have been thinking this way for a lifetime, it is very hard to just suddenly change the pathway of your thoughts. Heaven has a totally different regime and it is one based on love, for now we may just have to take it by faith. But believe me please, no-one is going to be cast aside, lonely or forgotten and no-one is ‘working’ their way to heaven. The doors to heaven are opened purely by love and all anyone has to do to get there is to love Jesus. Please take this by faith, you are not going to be cast out or forgotten, no-one is, it goes against everything Jesus died for. He loves us dearly and it is important that these thoughts are banished from your mind. The devil really does have the power to destroy us with this concept. This topic as we said is very deep and we may need to just take it by faith. No-one is going to be lonely, cast aside or forgotten, heaven really does love us dearly.
How is the least person in Heaven treated?
Friends, this ties into the above section about heaven’s hierarchy but I would like to mention it separately as so many people misjudge the love of God. See friends, Jesus is a God of love:-
1st John 4:8 “…for God is love.”
So the query here is:-
How is the least person in Heaven treated?
Let’s start by defining the word ‘least’. So the definition of least is:-
“Smallest in amount, extent, or significance.”
So the least person is the one who is least significant?
Friends, there is a spoiler alert here – there is no ‘least’ person in heaven. Let’s jump into this topic.
The answer to this insinuation by the devil is found in the Bible.
Romans 2:11 “For there is no respect of persons with God.”
Acts 10:34,35 “Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:…”
Jesus doesn’t respect rank, that is another ‘sin’ created by the devil. It is Satan who has set up ranks, and as you read above Jesus doesn’t respect them. Jesus loves everyone equal, and He doesn’t love the warrior angel above the cleaner, He loves them both the same. Yes there are ‘ranks’ in heaven but it is different to the ‘ranks’ on earth. Satan has set up the ranks on earth in such a way that the ‘higher’ people demand respect and the lower people are to ‘look up’ to them, to the point of worshiping them, also Satan treated the ‘least’ people with disrespect, unworthy of even looking at, and I believe Satan is trying to make us believe that the order of ranks on earth is the same in heaven – friend, it is not – heaven is completely different. Heaven and its ‘ranks’ is established on love and respect, yes Jesus loves the cleaner just as much as his closest confidant. Jesus created all of the angels, He is the Father of all and when we get to heaven we will be His children also.
So for example, picture yourself with six kids, could you love one more than the other? I doubt it. It is the same with Jesus, we are all His children and He loves us all equally, yes some have worked harder for Jesus than others and by our choice have moved closer into His presence, but it doesn’t mean Jesus is going to cast aside those who had a ‘easier’ path through. Jesus loves us all and He has promised to spend time with each and every one of us walking by the river of life, answering our questions, explaining our life’s path and calming any concerns or ‘bumps in the road’.
Let’s take a quick look at what Ellen White has to say on the matter:-
“…Christ will lead the redeemed one beside the river of life and will open to them that which while on this earth they could not understand…”
(Ellen White Letters and Manuscripts volume 20)
And again:-
“…There Christ the heavenly Teacher will lead His people to the tree of life that grows on either side of the river of life, and He will explain to them the truths they could not in this life understand…”
(Ellen White Letters and Manuscripts volume 24)
Yes, Jesus will explain the things of this life we don’t understand and the path of our own personal lives will be explained.
We don’t have all the answers and I know some of these facts of heaven are going to remain a mystery till we get there, but what we can see is the devil in the detail. The spirit of ‘I’m better than you’ is the leading theme behind the devil’s insinuations to us. No-one in heaven treats anyone as ‘beneath’ them. See the warrior angels and the cooks to the messenger angels and the cleaners – all work together, they don’t look upon anyone else’s job as being beneath them. It’s hard to explain because we are so ingrained with the devil’s tactics that our leaders are ‘better’ than us. I think the word we need here is ‘perception’. We have been ‘brainwashed’ (thanks to the devil) by the perception, for example, that a cleaner’s job is not a ‘desirable’ job and the only people who do it are not very clever, or a famous music player or prime minister are to be ‘looked up to’ and ‘admired’. This concept does not exist in heaven, it is a perception Satan has implanted within the human world and it has grown to a dangerous level. Look to the black slavery, no white man has the authority to ‘own’ a person, yet they looked at the black people as far beneath the white people. This is a perfect example of the ‘perception’ Satan has introduced into our society. I think you understand, these perceptions do not exist in heaven.
In short our perception of jobs or people being least or higher is a scam from Satan. This perception divides people, it makes some people snobby, it makes others depressed, still others angry and dissatisfied, all of these traits stemming from the devil. So when the devil comes in with these accusations, remember, anything that divides people, or creates disharmony, makes someone feel inferior, all of these plus more stem from the devil and are not part of heaven, they just don’t exist in heaven. So we need to turn around and ‘see’ the devil for the person he really is, don’t bother to tell him he is a liar, we know that, just ignore him and picture heaven as it really is.
Will I be happy in Heaven?
The other day I overheard someone voicing some of their doubts about Heaven:-
“I keep having overwhelming feelings that I will not be wanted in Heaven and it will be miserable there.”
I would like to address this ‘lie from the devil’ today. But first I want to remind you of the deceits we are facing from the devil today. In the document on this website entitled ’Avoiding The Devil’s Tactics’ I have explained the relatively ‘new’ tactics from the devil where he uses truth as deceit. If you haven’t already read it I encourage you to do so, but for the purpose of this letter let’s take a snippet from that document so we can give better understanding to this one.
“He (Satan) has trained a ‘elite’ group of his angels and has sent them out with the commission, to destroy as many people as possible, and also with the warning not to return into his presence if they fail. The devil is using the truth as deceit in this, his current warfare and he is trapping so many souls in his web of truth/deceit. See Jesus uses truth and truth alone, Satan is twisting this truth into deceit.”
So, you can see friends that Satan is using truth and turning it into deceit. But let’s move on with this letter and address another of Satan’s lies, we will expose him on another of his deceits.
Firstly the lie: “I keep having overwhelming feelings that I will not be wanted in Heaven and it will be miserable there.”
Let’s start with the second half of this lie: “…and it will be miserable there”. The devil is referring to himself. The devil is not wanted in Heaven and he would be miserable if allowed in and the devil is using his own feelings toward Heaven to attempt to make us believe it also.
If we look back over the documents written, the Bible and prophecy we have received we can see that Heaven is really a beautiful place. Let me expand – we have a mansion in Heaven given to us by Jesus, this mansion is Jesus’ ‘thank you’ to us – but – it isn’t necessarily our ‘permanent’ lodging. We, like the angels, will build another house anywhere we want to reside, we will make it our own, living as near or as far apart to others as we desire and we will have our own hobbies, pleasures, whatever we enjoy to do will be made available to us. We can travel the universe, there will be happiness abroad so we can socialise or just go to the many different planets gathering supplies for our chosen hobby or seek out others who are proficient in our hobby to teach us. The ideas are limitless. God is a God of love and He has prepared a place abundant with pleasures for us to explore and enjoy, and no, we won’t just be worshiping day to day like some people enjoy to depict. Don’t get me wrong here, we will be bursting with praise and thanks to our Maker, it’s just that some people (thanks to the devil) like to depict Heaven as a boring place where all we do is pray and worship. This, my friends, is a perfect example of the devil using truth as deceit.
(When the New Jerusalem comes down from Heaven and this earth is purged by fire, then we take up residence on the earth made new. We know from the Bible and prophecy there are other planets, also the angel choir that heralded the birth of Jesus, the chariots and horses mentioned in the Bible. We have ample evidence to support the above statement, it is not just my imagination.)
Let’s take a look at the devil’s other half of the lie: “I keep having overwhelming feelings that I will not be wanted in Heaven.”
Let’s start by looking into the death of Christ. The Bible has plenty of scripture evidences that Jesus died for us all but I would like to start with a breakdown of exactly what happened:-
Jesus did just die for one person – Adam – all other sin stemmed from him, therefore the original sin was with Adam. He was born free, we are born into sin, we had no choice. Jesus died to clear Adam’s sin and to free us from the burden of being born into sin – therefore – now while we are born into sin we are now free to choose whether we will sin or not – which now means we are ‘free’. So while we are now ‘free’ we still have the devil to contend with and his temptations can be overwhelming – but Jesus also knows this and we are covered by His blood.
There is another side of Jesus that very few people see, let’s take a look:
Very few people ‘see’ Jesus behind closed doors. But Heaven, Jesus especially, is allowing us a peek through those doors. What can we see? yes, it’s Jesus and He is crying. It hurt Jesus so much when Lucifer rebelled and tricked one third of Jesus’ angels into joining him. Jesus had created each and every one of those angels and He loved them dearly. I don’t believe we will ever be able to fathom the pain of Jesus, losing all those children, but worse still losing them because of a angel He had created! That hurts and yes, behind those closed doors Jesus cries. He has now shut out any sympathy and He doesn’t regret casting them out, they have chosen another master and Jesus has resigned to that, no His pain isn’t for them now His pain is for what happened and the loss occurred. This is why Jesus wants everyone possible in Heaven, He wants to make up for the loss. He wants all to see the tyrant the devil is and to save everyone from the clutches of the devil. This is why we work so hard for Jesus, to prove to everyone that the devil is a arch deceiver, a tyrant worthy of death and to save everyone for Heaven. Jesus wants all in Heaven safe away from the devil and to replace the angels that left – but – these people coming in will be special to Jesus (all of them no matter their rank) as these people have chosen Jesus despite the devil’s tactics, they have taken Jesus by faith and chosen Him as their Commander. This fact is very special to Jesus and He is especially close to each and every one of His redeemed. Yes, I hear you say, “the angels also made their choice”, but they ‘knew’ Heaven before Satan rebelled, we have to take it by faith. So in short we are very special to Jesus and He has a special place set aside for us and believe me, I know we will be happy.