Do People In Heaven Know What Is Happening On Earth?

so heaven in earth right now we coexist at the same time there's a physical realm there's a spiritual realm right now in heaven here's a person they write her name is Becky my husband passed away a few years ago and sometimes people will tell my children or me he's looking down on us from heaven while it's encouraging to think he seems us this seems contradictory to Scripture could you shed light on this our people who have gone on before us believers in the Lord looking down on us right now or looking down at us at any time what the people in heaven know about what is happening here on earth a good passage to turn to for that is Revelation chapter 6 where you have the martyrs in heaven they've died they've gone home to be with the Lord they're with Jesus in the present heaven you look in Revelation chapter 6 verse 9 I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained now here's what they do this is what life is like for them in the president heaven they called out in a loud voice how long Sovereign Lord holy and true until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood well first of all clearly they remember their life on earth and some people say well if we could remember anything of our life on Earth and heaven surely we couldn't remember the bad things how much worse does it get than having been murdered and they remember that they were murdered but see the key to heaven is not ignorant its perspective on their life so they remember that they their lives on earth they remembered the bad things actually that even happened them but now they see them through redemptive eyes and they're also aware that God has not yet brought judgment upon their persecutors they're not asking lord have you brought judgment they're saying when will you bring judgment so they know that he hasn't yet how do they know that because they're seen at least to a degree at least they're aware of what's going on down on earth and then they're told that they had to wait a little longer remember they're saying how long O Lord wait a little longer people say well is there time in heaven very clearly there is here and and he says when the last martyr dies that's basically when he's going to return but you look at Luke chapter 15 where Jesus says there's rejoicing in the presence of the Angels when a sinner repents it doesn't say the Angels rejoice it could easily say the Angels rejoice it doesn't say that oh I'm sure they do rejoice but it's saying there's rejoicing in the presence of the Angels when a sinner on earth rejoices I mean I mean repent so how do they know that the sinner on earth has repented they have to know about it in order to rejoice who are those people in the presence of the Angels I think it's the people of God it's the it's the part of the body of Christ that's already gone home they may be prayed for years for that person they see that that person repented there's rejoicing in the very presence of the angels where the people of God are when someone down on earth repents so people in heaven are aware of what is happening in earth as you pointed out a one verse that's often quoted is you know we're surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses that's run the race with endurance that set before us and some would interpret that is saying well these are the people that have just gone before us and it's sort of set the example which is true of course Hebrews 11 proceeds Hebrews 12 and that's the Hall of faith of all the great heroes of the Bible but then again surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses some wonder is that you know I don't know if it's heavenly grandstands but certainly some form of viewing or watching from a heavenly perspective you've seen it from that view I think so I think you could compare and I do this in the heaven book it's like Centre Court at Wimbledon so you've got you've got this great tennis match that's going on and there people in the grandstands are watching it well some of the people in the grandstands are people who've they always kind of focus in on former champions and all of that it's like people who have gone before who are now watching those who are participating and I agree that in Hebrews 11 now you can't really prove the cloud of witnesses is exactly that they're all watching but when you put it together with these other passages it makes perfect sense the focus of heaven is on the unfolding drama of redemption that is happening on planet earth and so Christ is going to return and does it make sense to think that the people up in heaven are kind of like oh they're just oblivious to what's going on down on earth to which they're going to return with Christ like it says in Thessalonians and other passages and they're going to return with him and his plan for the redemption of planet Earth will be culminated do they care are they interested in what's going on down and have it a down on earth from the perspective of heaven I think the answer is yes I think they're cheering us on and I don't think by the way that we should ever there is no biblical basis in fact it's contradicted scripturally that we should ever pray to the Saints we do not pray to the Saints there's one mediator between God and men the man Jesus Christ first Timothy tells us but it's maybe a different question of whether the Saints are praying for us I mean there there there because even in in this passage in revelation 6 they're saying how long before you bring judgment well they're they're almost praying for judgment to come down on these sinners but meanwhile if they're seeing the righteous people of God are they upholding them in prayer well prayers talking to God will we talk to God less once we go to heaven than we do when we're here I think we'll talk to him more

Channel: Pastor Greg Laurie

Views: 774,175

Rating: 4.7014413 out of 5

Keywords: greg laurie, randy alcorn, earth, murder, heaven, saints, sovereign, martyred, judgement, persecution, family., judgement day, do people in heaven know what is happening on earth, do people in heaven hear us, do people in heaven visit us, do people in heaven feel pain, can i contact people in heaven

Id: oXTEa8wBhp0

Length: 5min 51sec (351 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 11 2010