Sharing a Testimony, a Life Story,
Where Is the Kingdom of Heaven?
November 14, 2016
Wu Ming
One day on my return flight to America, I felt bored, so I opened the Bible to read. A lady next to me asked, “Are you a believer in the Lord?” I said, “Yes. All four generations of my family are believers in the Lord. Do you also believe in the Lord?” She replied, “Right!” “What a coincidence!” I said, “Thanks be to the Lord!” Learning that she also believed in the Lord Jesus, I was very glad. Then we launched into a talk about the condition of the churches.
The sister asked me, “How about the condition of your church?” I answered, “Alas! I don’t know what’s wrong with me these years. I have no enjoyment at the meetings. Inland churches and overseas churches are in the same boat. I even don’t want to attend the service. When I thought back on the past, the gatherings were very good, and my father was a preacher at that time. We had great enjoyment in the gatherings all day. Unfortunately, such gatherings are little more than a memory now.” The sister said, “The churches are all in such a condition because the prophecies concerning the Lord’s return have come into reality. The Lord has already returned.” “Oh, the Lord has come back? But why didn’t we meet Him? If He really is back, we should have been raptured into the kingdom of heaven.” I said with confusion, and then opened the Bible, “The Lord Jesus once said, ‘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 to myself; that where I am, there you may be also’ (John 14:2-3). The Lord Jesus has prepared a place for us in heaven. He will bring us directly into the kingdom of heaven when He comes again. If the Lord has already come, why are we still on earth and not taken into heaven?”
The sister said, “It is true that the Lord Jesus promised us He would prepare a place for us. Yet we should be clear that never did the Lord say He would take us to heaven in the future.”
Where Is the Kingdom of Heaven?
I said, “Are you saying the place that the Lord prepares for us is not in heaven? In Matthew 4:17, the Lord Jesus said, ‘Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Isn’t the kingdom of heaven in heaven?”
