What is the true nature of heaven and what brings joy in that eternal realm?

Robert McCurley explains that Heaven is not simply a place where earthly desires are fulfilled without sin. Rather, it is characterized by the sight of the glory of God, which produces deep joy. In Heaven, believers will have resurrected bodies and be free from sin, and their enjoyment of God will be intimately connected to their knowledge of Him.

Since God is infinite and we are finite, there will be an ongoing revelation of God's glory and knowledge throughout eternity. This ever-expanding disclosure of God's glory will result in increasing joy for the believer. The fullness of joy in heaven is tied to the progressive and eternal revelation of God's glory and knowledge.

To fully enjoy the Lord, the Christian's path is to seek a deeper knowledge of God, to see Him, know Him, love Him, and delight in Him more fully. The prayer of Moses to see God's glory, the longing of David to behold the beauty of the Lord, and the passion of Paul to know Christ and the power of His resurrection exemplify the heart's desire of every believer. As Christians, we should prioritize seeking a deeper relationship with God, desiring to know Him more intimately and experience the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus. This pursuit of God's glory and knowledge becomes the source of true joy and fulfillment in the Christian life.

Psalm 16:11 (NKJV) beautifully captures the essence of heavenly joy and delight in the presence of God: "You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

So what is heaven? Heaven is characterized by joy. What will produce that joy? The answer is the sight of the glory of God. You know heaven, Unlike what so many say in the modern world, is not a celestial playground where you get to do everything perfectly without sin that you wanted to do and couldn't do here on Earth.

That is way too paltry. That whole concept of heaven is Completely an antithesis to what we see in Scripture. The glory of heaven is beholding drinking in Tasting being saturated with the sight of the glory of God what our forefathers called the beatific vision Right the blast or happy vision so in heaven when there's no sin and we have a resurrected body and so on, the enjoyment of God will be tied perfectly to the knowledge of God. And here's the consequence. God is infinite, we are finite.

The finite, as Calvin said, cannot contain the infinite. And so there will be throughout heaven, there will be throughout eternity, there will be an ever expansive disclosure of the glory and knowledge of God. And with that will come greater and greater intensity of joy for the believer. So that as we go out into eternity there's more and more to know of him and there's more and more joy as a consequence. You will need a resurrected body to survive that.

That's joy that is inexpressible and full of glory. So if we take our cue from the end, that beatific vision, and we work our way backwards, it becomes quite clear, doesn't it? That the way for the Christian to enjoy the Lord is to come to see Him, and know Him, and love Him, and delight in him more fully, more deeply, more purely as he gives us grace. We're praying like Moses did, I beseech thee show me thy glory. You know, we're like David saying there's one thing that I desire, one thing that I may behold the beauty of the Lord and worship him." We're like Paul where we're saying, you know, this surpassing excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.

This is the main thing, to know him, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. That heartbeat of Moses and David and Paul should be the heartbeat of every Christian. You