Phoneman777 said:
"I go to prepare a PLACE for you, and if I go, I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that WHERE I am, you will be also."
i don't disagree with the passage, but i suggest that we look for a physical place, in some future, when Christ likely meant a spiritual one that occurs when we manifest Christ in the earth, right now (Esau, despising his birthright for a meal). This is not a denial of some different tomorrow, but an agreement with other passages of the Book that must be considered, imo, when you are led to believe in some future existence which you cannot demonstrate, and is likely not truth. Christ goes to prepare a place for you, yes; but you do not know where you come from, or where you are going, so the matter is left just ambiguously enough for you to justify a "place" called heaven, should you so desire, even though heaven is likely a state, and not a place, and God is everywhere, and Meshach, Shadrach, and Abed~Nego were perfectly comfortable in the furnace, see, and we are told to let the tares grow with the wheat, and heaven is coming to earth, not the other way around. "Hell" then becomes a necessary invention, as "the other place," or more properly "the place where the losers--who are not me, a winner, on the winning team--go." (and of course as i am now Qualified, and have been given the Seal of Approval--by my new friends--i can confidently point out who is who, and treat them accordingly). Lol. Complete madness, tailored to suit your ego, is what that is.
So iow you might be encouraged to suppose that Christ is "coming to receive you unto Himself" when you die and "go to heaven," but this is likely not what was meant at all, if you are already "the Body of Christ."
A valid next question for someone who believes that, the first one, is "Are you now in Christ, or not?" And imo Saul's convo with the then deceased Samuel should be considered in this light. Yes, your soul will continue in some "form" after you die, but you do not know what form that is, and anyone assuring you that they do know is full of it, and defying Scripture, as you can discover for yourself. And it is virtually axiomatic that the surer they are, the faster you should run.
The best shepherds are those who will admit that they do not know about this tomorrow with any certainty, but that we have plenty to overcome today anyway, and that's where the focus should be.
Of course no one much likes that, even me, but this is contained in the lesson of Esau, who God had hated, who
squandered his birthright. Yes, the lesson of Esau is one for a seeker after God, so if you are already a
believer in something that precludes your applying this lesson to your walk, then you might reflect upon this, for what it is worth. I am Esau, whom God had hated. At least when i am not busy being Cain, plowing my own ground, or some other conflicted figure illuminated in the Book.