Our Father Who Art in Heaven

QUESTION: Our Father who art in Heaven - Is He really in Heaven?

ANSWER:

Our Father who art in heaven is a statement that gives us a subject and a place. Do you believe in the Father? If you do, then what do you believe about heaven? All major religions express a belief in a higher power and in a destination for the soul or spirit after death. Christianity is a faith-based relationship between God and man and Christianity believes that God resides in heaven.

God gave us signs to show us that there is something existing beyond what we can see. For centuries, astrologers have wanted to see further and further into space. What we see around us is called the first heaven and was created in Genesis 1:8. The second heaven is the expanse beyond what we can see with our eyes, but can examine with powerful telescopes. The third heaven is where God the Father resides.

We can be assured that our Father is in heaven because that is what the Bible teaches (2 Corinthians 12:2). Matthew 5:34 says, "But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne."

Another proof is the Lord Jesus Christ. In John 8:23, Jesus said, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world." Jesus came down from heaven to be our perfect sacrifice for sin. Only one person has died, gone to heaven, and then returned and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. After the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, He descended into Heaven. Earlier, Jesus had said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"

Heaven is a place where our perceptions of the material (physical world) and the immaterial (spiritual world) blend into one new world. Revelation 21:11 describes heaven this way, "It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal."

In heaven, time and space will blend into eternity and sin will be gone. Heaven is the place where the Lord God Almighty dwells and all Believers will be with Him for eternity.

The mortality of this world will end and we will begin immortality with our Lord. This physical life will end and we will continue a spiritual life with God in the place He has prepared for us with Him.

If you have a personal relationship with God, you can call God your Father. You can look forward to spending eternity with Him!