Heaven, a place

 

John 14:1-3 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if [it were] not [so], I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, [there] ye may be also.

Before Jesus ascended back into heaven, he comforted the disciples by pointing them to heaven, a place where he was about to go to. What this means to us is that whenever we go through trials and our hearts are troubled, we need to remember that Jesus is preparing for us something greater in heaven. It helps put hardship in perspective. 

I have heard descriptions of heaven as merely a state, an atmosphere or God's presence and not a place. Eden is a word which means beautiful, delight, pleasure. So some argue that God placed man in his presence in Genesis which was a beautiful, delightful and pleasurable place. Obviously God's presence is beautiful, you don't want to get out of it once you experience it when you are communing with Him in prayer, fellowship and the word. However true those descriptions are, we cannot deny that the Bible talks about heaven being a real place like you know of a city in the country you know of with mansions, and actual streets made of gold, Rev 21:21. Paul talks about heavenly places where we have our spiritual blessings, Ephesians 1:3. 

Heaven is a place where God, angels and saints who have died in the Lord dwell. It's a place where no physical death, suffering, pain, and struggles we are facing currently on earth won't exist. Our souls long for such a place.