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Bubbles of Heaven

As we saw in Day 1, God intends for all his people to experience and to encourage heaven to come to earth. He wants his presence and power to impact our everyday lives. He wants his love to characterize our lives.

It’s something we need desperately, isn’t it?

In today’s culture, so-called normal life seems nothing like the way things should be. According to social researcher Brené Brown, ours is the most in-debt, addicted, medicated, and obese adult generation in American history. How few of us live lives of freedom, lives of joy, lives of love, or lives of peace. How far that is from the heart of the Father for us.

Don’t you want your life on earth to be an adventure in God’s presence?

Guess what.

It can be.

But how do we actually experience the presence of a loving God, seeing heaven show up and make a difference here on earth?

Over the years since visiting heaven, I have learned to recognize how the kingdom of heaven breaks into our everyday realities. In my experience, heaven appears on earth in a certain place for a period of time in what I call “bubbles of heaven.” It’s usually nothing you see. It’s something you sense with your spirit. Our awareness is stirred, and like Jacob we say, “Surely the Lord is in this place.”

Calling these zones of heavenly experience “bubbles” isn’t perfect, but it’s the best word I can find. Why? Because the sense of presence, of heaven on earth, is fragile. It begins small, grows and expands, and then seems to burst, leaving us different.

We can’t produce these bubbles. They come from God, appearing surprisingly, often when we least expect them. We can only be ready to take advantage of them. But they happen more frequently than we might think; they happen, I’m convinced, in the presence of all followers of Jesus from time to time; and they always provide opportunities for God’s love to meet needs here on earth.

If you want a life that’s different, then look for the bubbles—for heaven in the here and now. This is real stuff. This is what we were made for.

Begin today to ask God to create bubbles of heaven in your presence. Make this a regular prayer of yours from now on.