As I’m reading the first eight verses of Revelations 21 this morning, and trying to take in all that awaits those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, it occurs to me that the blessings of that future day . . . that much of what awaits me in heaven, when I’m “face to face” . . . I can know, in some measure, today . . . that, in a sense, the future is now.

“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God.” (Revelation 21:3 ESV)

Am I not, today, part of a living temple of God (Eph. 2:21-22)? Does He not now dwell with me . . . and in me . . . through His blessed Holy Spirit? To be sure, it will be glory when faith gives way to sight and I’m before the throne, but let me not miss the blessing of knowing His presence NOW because I’m waiting for “then” to participate in it.

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 21:4a).

How I anticipate that time when there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying . . . no more pain. But isn’t my God the “God of all comfort” now (2Cor. 1:3)? Isn’t there a peace that passes understanding available now (Php. 4:7)? While I look forward to that day when the hand of God will touch my eyes and wipe away the tears, let me not be dull to the reality of knowing His comfort today.

“Behold I am making all things new . . . To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment . . . The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be My son.” (Revelation 21:5-7)

How glorious are those future promises?!?!? But I can participate in them now. Not fully, of course, for that will be realized when the Lamb takes His bride to be with Him. But these promises are mine now to know and experience.

Wasn’t I “born again” and made a new creation in Christ through regeneration, old things having passed away and all things becoming new (2Cor. 5:17)? Didn’t Jesus promise the Samaritan woman that “whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14)? Can’t I participate today in that life giving water from heaven? And, though my sonship will take on a whole new reality and dynamic when I am before my God and in the midst of the Lamb, I don’t have to wait until that future day to hear Him say, “I will be his God and he shall be My Son.” Today, I possess the Spirit of adoption by whom I can cry out, “Abba, Father!” (Rom. 8:15, Gal. 4:6). The “abundant life”, which Jesus came to give those who would believe in Him, is the life of heaven . . . the life of being in the very presence of God. But it is not just a future life . . . it is a life that I can experience now . . . through the walk of faith . . . and by the active working of the Holy Spirit within me.

So . . . as excited as I get about thinking about the future portrayed in Revelation 21, I’m pretty pumped about my present too! While I can’t wait to be in that place where there is no temple, “for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” (21:22) . . . and while I look forward, with eager anticipation, to being in that new city that has “no need of the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (21:23) . . . I also want to experience, by His grace, all I can of that future now . . . that the heart of worship which will be known in a future heaven, would be active on this present earth . . . for His glory . . . amen!