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Almost every religion on earth includes the idea of heaven. Even most people who don’t consider themselves religious at least like the concept. They hope it’s true. They tell their kids that “Grammy is in heaven now,” even if they can’t say with complete certainty that there is such a place.

For Bible-believing Christians, that hope in a real and supernatural heaven isn’t just a great big wish. It’s not a cross-our-fingers-and-blow-out-the-candles kind of hope. It’s a solid hope. A real hope. It’s a hope based on believing that God does not lie.

Listen to the writer of Hebrews: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (11:1). I’ve never seen a snapshot of the golden streets of heaven. I can’t find a downloadable QuickTime movie of heaven anywhere on the Internet. No live Webcams capture the massive pearly gates.

But I know it’s there. It’s everything I’m hoping for. It’s the promise of God that means the most to me. Why? Heaven is my home.

Of course, people who can’t bring themselves to trust a God they cannot see aren’t so sure. In our survey of American teens, 22 percent said heaven is not a real place at all—just a connection to God’s presence. Another 13 percent can only accept the idea of heaven as a hopeful symbol of a peaceful afterlife.

Movies, TV shows, and pop songs offer more confusion about heaven. An 80s pop hit said that “heaven is a place on earth” when you’re in love with the right person. On Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy actually died and went to heaven, then came back and realized how dark the world is by comparison.

In a book called What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson—and a Robin Williams movie based on it—heaven is pictured with great imagination as a place of vibrant color and wonder, specifically tailored to each individual’s idea of greatest happiness. On the flip side, it’s also seen as a place of potential loneliness and, strangely, godlessness.

Countless other films (apparently with smaller budgets) reveal heaven as mostly white light, with rolling clouds, and aggravatingly unhelpful angles or formerly living humans. It’s also seen as the staging area between reincarnated lives.

Let’s wrap up our look at the world of the supernatural by digging out a little of what the Bible says about a very real place called heaven.

Resurrection Bodies

Some of our first clues about the experience of heaven come from the night Jesus was killed and the days that followed. A ton of supernatural events happened in those few days to show God’s amazing power over death. It must have been a spooky few days in Jerusalem.

A couple of the weirdest things happened at the moment Jesus’ died. First, “the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Matthew 27:51). This curtain was huge and thick and it separated the “presence of God” in the temple from the area where people were allowed to be.

This supernatural event showed that at the minute of Jesus’ death, the separation between humans and God was over. Anyone who trusts in Jesus can now approach God and will ultimately be in heaven with him.

What happened next is even weirder: “The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life” (27:52). Dead people who had lived their lives in a way that honored God came back to life! They were resurrected the moment Jesus gave up his spirit.

How creepy would it be to see Uncle Lou walk into your house years after his funeral? We’re not sure what happened to these people. It’s like that they died again or were taken to heaven. But the fact that God brought them back at the moment of Jesus’ death proved that God has conquered death once and for all. Now it is possible for people to live in heaven with him forever.

We learn most about the experience of heaven from Jesus’ resurrection. His body was glorified once he came back from the dead. For at least 40 days, he was in his resurrection body on earth—able to appear, disappear, and walk through solid objects, recognizable to those who knew him, able to eat but not needing to do so.

Why does that matter to us? Because we, too, will be resurrected. Yes, most of us will die a physical death before the end of the world—but Christians will be raised again just as Jesus was (John 5:28-29). We will have physical bodies again, but they won’t be the same as we remember them.

Paul wrote this about our made-for-heaven bodies: “Now we know that if the earthly tent [our body] we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God [a new body], an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling” (2 Corinthians 5:1-2).

A Place for Us

Our next clue about heaven comes from something Jesus said to his disciples about his return to heaven after his death and resurrection. They didn’t really understand everything he was telling them, but they were understandably freaked out about the idea of losing Jesus.

He told them: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:1-3).

Jesus went to prepare a place for them—and for us! The idea seems to be that every child in the family of God will be given a room—a place—just for us in the Father’s house. It will be our home with our huge family forever and ever. It’s a place where we will belong and where we’ll be loved, cared for, and included.

And what a place it will be! Most of what we know about this home in the afterlife is from the Book of Revelation. Its author, John, was one of Jesus’ disciples and closest companions during Jesus’ three years on earth. He called himself “the disciple Jesus loved.”

Late in his life, John was given a supernatural vision of heaven. In this vision, he was taken to heaven by an angel to see what it was like so he could write it all down. Here are just a few of the things we know about heaven from John’s description in Revelation 21:

• Heaven’s greatest city is called the new Jerusalem, and it is a huge cube. Unbelievably, it is 1,400 miles wide, long, and high. That means each side is the distance from Arizona to Georgia!

• The walls of the city are made of a brilliant blue gem called jasper, and they’re 216 feet thick. The city itself, including the streets, is made of transparent gold.

• Each of the 12 gates into the city—3 per side—is made of a single, massive pearl and is guarded by an angel. They stand open all the time. On each gate is written one of the names of the 12 tribes of Israel.

• The city is built on 12 massive foundation stones made of 12 separate precious gems. On each stone is written the name of one of the twelve apostles.

• It is never night. The glory of God fills the whole city, meaning there’s no need for any other light source. No sun. No moon. And also no temple or church. The inhabitants of the city are in God’s presence all the time, so they never need to gather in one place to worship him.

• Heaven will tower above the new earth (also part of the afterlife), and it will be free of any kind of sin or wickedness or evil. There will be nothing to fear from anyone.

The Best Part

Absolutely the best part of John’s vision of heaven is…well, let’s let him tell it:

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.’ ” (Revelation 21:3)

God with us! That’s what it’s all about. The whole story of human history leads up to this moment. Every human heart longs to be with God—because that’s what we were created for. That’s what we lost when Adam and Eve bought the lie of the serpent and disobeyed God. That’s what we’ll regain finally and forever in heaven.

What will that change mean for us personally?

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. (21:4)

What’s the reason for all the pain in our earth-bound, painful, human lives? Yes, it’s sin, but it’s more than that. It’s being away from God. Paul wrote this about painful life on planet earth, even for Christians:

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:22-23)

The pain we all carry through this life will vanish in the presence of our God. With new bodies and a “new order” of living with him, the separation at long last will end forever. No crying. No pain. No tears. No illness. No death.

Finally, we’ll be reunited with all those we love who have died. And those who lost us to death will be with us again, too. The family will be complete, and we’ll be together forever with no anger or fear and worry. We’ll be with the Father.

Know Hope

In the meantime, how should we live in this natural world? What should believers do with all this knowledge of our supernatural selves, our supernatural enemy, and the supernatural future awaiting us in heaven?

I’m convinced that when it comes to the world of the supernatural, the most important things are what you do with your mind—and your heart. Let’s let Paul teach the final lesson on how Christians should live in an age fascinated with the supernatural.

Remember That You Belong to God

Colossians 3 starts with these words, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ...”

The supernatural world can be scary and confusing. Hopefully, you’ve gained the tools in this book to better spot the lies and hoaxes about spiritual things. I also hope you’ve learned what it takes to protect yourself from real supernatural evil.

But the most important thing to remember is that you belong to God. God’s Word teaches that when we trust in Christ for our salvation we die with him, in a way. We die to our way of living and become alive to his way of living.

That means we belong to God forever and ever. Nothing can change that for a Christian. Even when other ideas scare you or tempt you, you are still God’s. Don’t forget that.

Set Your Heart on Heaven

Colossians 3 continues: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God” (3:1).

Never forget that you’re a supernatural being with an everlasting future in heaven. The saddest thing in the world is when Christians (including myself) find more joy and excitement from the temporary things of the world than we do from our future with the Father.

In his book, The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis compared us to kids playing in mud puddles in the back yard. Even when given a chance to go to the beach and play in the ocean, we don’t stop, because we can’t image what the beach will be like. We love the mud, because it’s all we know.

Part of becoming a mature spiritual person is learning that nothing on this earth can satisfy us for long. Our only hope of real satisfaction and meaning comes at the end of the story, when we’ll be reunited with God and our loved ones forever.

My friend Bart from Mercy Me was thinking of his grandfather when he wrote the now widely-loved song, “I Can Only Imagine.” He nailed this point. Setting our hearts on heaven means taking the time to imagine what being in the presence of God together will be like. That song helps me to live in the hope of heaven.

Think about Heavenly Things

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:1-2).

In the end, your interaction with the supernatural world will come down to what you do with your mind. Will you fill it with the supernatural ideas and images of the world? Will you become an expert on Harry Potter or Buffy or Star Wars or The Matrix? Will you chase your curiosity into Wiccan teachings or angel worship or flirting with evil?

I hope this book has helped you understand the emptiness and danger of making those things the main focus of your life. Again, I’m not teaching that you should never consume any movies, books, or TV shows that address those themes. What I’m asking is: What’s the main thing for you?

If the main thing in your life is your relationship with God through Jesus, how much of your time do you spend thinking about heavenly things? How much of God’s Word are you putting into your mind and thoughts? How often do you talk to God about stuff?

If you’re going to get serious in your supernatural relationship with the ultimate supernatural being, you might have to do something radical. You might have to turn off the TV and the Web and study his Word. On purpose. On a regular basis.

It’s the most powerful supernatural experience you can have on earth. And it’s very, very real.

The Promise

Paul concludes that paragraph at the beginning of Colossians 3 with a promise: “Your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will appear with him in glory.” (3:3-4)

Your real life, your actual home, isn’t on this planet, anymore. Not if you’re a follower of Jesus. All your supernatural mail is being forwarded to an address in heaven. That’s where you live. You’re a foreigner here now.

Everything in this world will end. The time is coming when Christ will make himself known to everyone, and God’s Word will be proved true. Those who now mock your faith in what can’t be seen or touched or heard will know then that you were right.