WHAT IS GOING ON IN HEAVEN?

WHAT IS GOING ON IN HEAVEN?

November 2021

Have you ever wondered about that? The Book of Revelation gives us some ideas, or at least some glimpses, as it pulls back the veil. It seems that there is magnificent worship going on in heaven! We see snapshots of this worship taking place. In this article, I would like to take a closer look at this heavenly worship. So, this blog will be a little different in that I will let the words of Scripture speak more loudly than my own...I hope! I invite you to prayerfully consider what is being uttered as worship takes place in heaven.

The first episode to take a look at is Rev. 4:8-11. In it, the four living creatures never cease to sing,  "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, who is, and who is to come."

Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, the twenty-four elders fall down before him and worship him; they cast their crowns before the throne as they sing,  "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created."

The second scene is Rev. 5:9-14. The four living creatures and the twenty-four elders sing a new song to the Lamb (Jesus), saying:  "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and by your blood you ransomed men for God from every tribe and tongue and people and nation and made them a kingdom and priests to our God and they shall reign on earth."

These living creatures, elders and countless numbers of angels are saying with a loud voice:  "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!"

Every creature in heaven and on earth, under the earth, in the sea - in other words,  everywhere - is saying:  "To him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever." The four living creatures say "Amen" and the twenty-four elders fall down and worship.

In Rev. 11:15-18, we see the twenty-four elders fall on their faces and worship God, saying:  "We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who are and who were, that you have taken your great power and begun to reign."

There is yet another worship scene depicted in Rev. 15:3-4, in which those who have conquered the beast sing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb, saying:  "Great and wonderful are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the ages! Who shall not fear and glorify your name, O Lord? For you alone are holy. All nations shall come and worship you, for your judgments have been revealed."

For our final picture of what is going on in heaven, we turn to Rev. 19:1-8. A great multitude is crying out:  "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just."

Then a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and the sound of thunderpeals, is saying:  "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns: Let us rejoice and give him glory..."

Out of curiosity I made a list of the words used in praise of the Lord in these passages and the number of times used. Warning - math is not my strongest subject so I might have miscounted, but this is what I came up with:

glory - 6
honor - 6
power - 4
worthy - 2
wisdom - 2
blessing - 2
salvation - 2
thanksgiving - 2
strength - 2
might - 1
wealth - 1

So, you might be asking, why bother to go through all this? What's the point? I would answer that, if we all want to go to heaven (safe guess, I hope), then it seems that we should be interested in what is going on there. Since it seems that worship of the Lord makes up most, if not all, of heavenly activity, we should prepare by practicing to do some heavenly worship here on earth!