When We All Get To Heaven

January 14, 2012

“Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 3:20)

This is an election year here in the United States. To be able to vote you must be a citizen of the U.S. I am thankful I live in a country where the citizens are free to vote on whomever they want in office. But I am more thankful that I have dual citizenship – my earthly is in the U.S. but my spiritual citizenship is in Heaven. I am here on earth for a little while but soon I will be going to my Heavenly home where the King (Jesus) is waiting for me, and others who have made a decision to become a citizen of that Heavenly Kingdom.

To be a citizen of the U.S. you simply have to be born here, or you can be a naturalized citizen by meeting the requirements set forth by the U.S. government. Some of these requirements are: learning the English language; being legally admitted into the U.S.; passing a test on the history and government of the U.S.; living in the U.S. for a specified time; and signing a pledge of allegiance to the U.S. and its flag and for what it stands.


Whether being born a citizen of the U.S. or being naturalized, it really doesn’t change how we are as a person, but by being born-again into the kingdom of God (the spiritual kingdom) we become a “new creation, old things are passed away and all things become new (II Corinthians 5:27). Wow! We are not the same spiritually as we were before, we are new! Everything is new – even the world looks different. Our being a citizen of the U.S. doesn’t change our eternal destiny; but by becoming a citizen of Heaven we know our eternal destiny – to forever be with the Lord! In being a citizen of the U.S. we may have been born to poor, common parents, but being born-again we are adopted into the family of God and become a “child of the King” – and the King is our Father, and our name is written on the palm of His hand (Isaiah 49:16), and in His Book of Remembrance (Malachi 3:16). This book must be the citizenship roll of Heaven.

I had no choice in my U.S. citizenship – I was born here, but in becoming a citizen of Heaven I had a conscious choice and by choosing Jesus I was born-again. This is a spiritual birth made possible by the shed blood Of Jesus Christ on the cross; and my acceptance of His sacrifice for my sins; and by my believing in His death, burial, resurrection and ascension and He now lives and sits on the right hand of the Father in Heaven, where someday we will rule and reign with Him. By believing and trusting in Jesus Christ as our only Savior, we are “born-again” and instantly become a citizen of Heaven, although we are still living in the U.S. “we are eagerly waiting for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ to come and take us to that Heavenly Kingdom where we'll live forever with Him.”

Oh, what a Savior! Oh, what a Kingdom! Oh, what a citizenship!

When We All Get To Heaven
Eliza E. Hewitt

Sing the wondrous love of Jesus; sing His mercy and His grace;
In the mansions bright and blessed He’ll prepare for us a place.

Let us then be true and faithful, trusting, serving every day;
Just one glimpse of him in glory will the toils of life repay.

Onward to the prize before us! Soon His beauty we’ll behold;
Soon the pearly gates will open – we shall tread the streets of gold.

When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be!
When we all see Jesus, we’ll sing and shout the victory.