How to experience heaven now

Some Christians believe that the life we spend here on earth is a big test for us. Then, after we die, we are evaluated and sent to heaven or hell. Depending on the version of this theological doctrine, there may even be a waiting period—a time of probation—before we can get to God, to heaven. This week’s Christian Science Bible Lesson, titled “Probation After Death,” addresses this topic, showing us that we do not need to wait for some distant future evaluation; we are able to experience our full relationship with God now.

The Golden Text states this for us right from the beginning of the Lesson, in Mark 1:15 : “The kingdom of God is at hand.” The reign of God is present and active. Matthew uses a slightly different term to refer to this reign—“the kingdom of heaven” (3:2 , citation 6). The term heaven reminds us of the blessings this reign of God has for us. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, we read: “Heaven represents harmony .... and the grand necessity of existence is to gain the true idea of what constitutes the kingdom of heaven in man” (p. 560 , cit. 14).

The Lesson discusses what we need to do to ensure that we experience the harmony of God’s kingdom now. The Responsive Reading recommends a number of qualities to possess and express for entrance into “the everlasting kingdom of our Lord,” such as faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity (see II Peter 1:5–7, 11 ).

Paul speaks of the Christian requirement to be spiritually minded. Science and Health explains that immortal Mind supplies “beautiful images of thought” (see p. 248 , cit. 4). Holding these images as thought-models for our lives brings goodness into our experience and removes sin, disease, and death. On the other hand, Paul warns us: “To be carnally minded is death.” That is, by letting our thought become occupied with things of the world, we lose the experience of harmony—or as Paul puts it, “life and peace” (Romans 8:6 , cit. 3).

Jesus warns against carnal mindedness in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man (see Luke 16, cit. 14). The problem with the rich man is not that he wore purple or that he ate well. It is that his preoccupation with material indulgence has numbed his spirituality and compassion. Carnality has deadened him, and this mental state is what leads to his suffering at the end of the parable. Science and Health emphasizes this point in citation 20, “The sinner makes his own hell by doing evil, and the saint his own heaven by doing right” (p. 266 ).

At times we may feel that the blessings of heaven—health, happiness, harmony—are far off, and we must wait for them. But this Lesson shows us that heaven is not something we gain through death. Rather, as Jesus proclaimed, these blessings are available here and now—they are at hand.