Celebrating
Love of JESUS, Hope of Heaven, and Faith in the Word of God.

INSIDE THE GATES OF HEAVEN

CHAPTER 10

 INTO THE CITY

In front of us now is the area of the City called Paradise at the Father's right hand, the Holy Place and the outer court.  Here we see the golden streets, the Tree of Life and the River of Life.  The Tree of Life is a row of trees on both sides of the river and these trees produce twelve kinds of fruit, one for each month of the year.  But there is more than one kind of fruit ripe at one time.  One fruit given to visitors to taste, is shaped like a pear, tastes like a soft ripe peach, and is so juicy that its juice will run down your arms and drip off your elbows.   (Before an Old Testament priest entered the Tabernacle to serve the Lord, he had to wash his hands; and, to make sure he used enough water, it had to run down his arms and drip off his elbows.)  But don't worry, the juice from heavenly fruit dries quickly and does not stain your beautiful garments.

The rows of the Tree of Life are always filled with fruit.  The faster it is used, the faster it reappears; and what is left of the core then disappears.  The trees are always filled with blossoms and fruit at the same time.  These blossoms have a delightful fragrance that fills the air and blesses the saints who gather there.

Companions in Heaven spend many happy hours in this park talking, singing and laughing.  In fact, there is always someone near by who is laughing heartily.  We each take our turn expressing our love and delight with laughter as we enjoy the tasty fruit and the colorful fragrant flowers, or as we wade, walk, and play in the mile-wide river.

One day my angel guide said, "Today we're going to step into the crystal River of Life."

I said, "But I have shoes on.'

Then I looked at my feet and they had no shoes on.  My feet never came to my attention before in my heavenly visits; I just supposed I had shoes on.  Perhaps it is because we wear them all the time on earth, or perhaps it is because of an old song about people putting on shoes and walking all over God's Heaven.  I don't think we wear shoes in Heaven and I know we don't walk -- we move gracefully as on roller skates without bouncing up and down.

So we stepped into the river and the experience was very stimulating and exciting.  It was my first experience in touching the water of the River of Heaven.

This crystal River of Life is not cold and wet like earthly water.  We can breathe under the surface because this water is a manifestation or appearing of the Spirit of God.  Walking in this river is walking in the Spirit, and these waters remove the scars and memories of sin from the souls and minds of the saints whose home is in Heaven.  The sins themselves, of course, must be removed on earth by the blood Jesus shed on earth.

"Jesus...gave Himself for us
that He might redeem us
and purify us from all iniquity,
and make us His very own people."
Titus 2:14

The golden streets are on both sides of the river.  Close to the water, they begin to slope downward and continue under the water forming the river bed.  The golden streets are clear, but they look golden because they reflect the predominant gold color of the City.  Here again the effect is like pearl -- we can see into the street but we cannot see through it.  The river also is clear but it sparkles more like silver.  The streets are on both sides of the river and are each about 90 feet wide.  In the center of each street is a 30-foot wide green lawn with a row of trees, something like a boulevard.  The trees are called the Tree of Life with twelve different fruits, one for each month.  The lawn is made of short thick grass growing up out of white sand.  There are also beds of fragrant colorful flowers artistically designed and arranged.  This park of trees, streets, and river makes twelve spirals around and from the center of the City outward to the eastern gate.  This park is about 26.000 miles long and could easily accommodate 144 million people.  But in all my visits to this place, there appear to be very few people here.

Some have wondered about family circles in Heaven.  Togetherness here is different than it was on earth, because, even those who had no family on earth have a companion here, from whom they never part.  We do at times have a banquet in our mansion for friends and relatives but they all bring their companions.  And when we attend other banquets, we go as companions.  For as Eden was made an eternal paradise for Adam and Eve until they fell, so Heaven was made for companions who are restored from the fall by Jesus, to be eternal sweethearts.

There are no families here as there are on earth.  But in a spiritual sense, those who are here are all one family in our Heavenly Father's big House.  We can communicate by thought; but since we can't listen and talk to everybody at once, most human fellowship in Heaven is between companions.

There are also small groups of companions talking, you could say, all at once.  And there are larger groups listening to an interesting person, and there are also congregations listening to platform presentations or watching video scenes.

(to Chapter 11)

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