Making it to Heaven - Ituah Ighodalo

Copyright 2006 – Ituah Ighodalo 

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No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

 Published by TIMELESS COURAGE PUBLISHING LIMITED 
 Block A, Plot 6, Redemption Crescent (Road Beside UPS), Gbagada/Oworonsoki Expressway. P.O Box 15440 Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria.
E-mail: ituahpi@yahoo.com

 ISBN: 978-36962-4-6

 All scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, King James Version,
 Copyright Ó1984Thomas Nelson Publishers Inc.

CONTENTS

 Introduction  

Prologue  

What shall I do to have Eternal Life? 

What shall it profit a man? 

Making it to Heaven 

Who then can make it to Heaven? 

INTRODUCTION

In Making it to Heaven, Pastor Ituah challenges our conceptions about eternal life and changes our mindset on an age old issue that has continued to puzzle generation after generation. A lot of us have been brought up and indoctrinated to believe that all it takes in making it to heaven is to get born again. But after being born again, what next? Using several stories and parables including the story of the rich young ruler who went to meet Jesus by the Jordan River; the parable of the ten virgins who were waiting for the bridegroom; the story of Lazarus, the rich man and father Abraham and the parable of the King who invited important guests to a party none of whom showed up after which the King had to throw the party open; Pastor Ituah explains in this book other necessary steps and ingredients that it will take to make it to Heaven.
            Being born again and living a holy life we are shown is just the first step. Then we are shown why it is necessary and important to be compassionate to the poor and not depend on our riches here on earth. But even these as we will see in this book are not enough. We are also shown why it is important to have the Word of God inside our hearts and confessing it with our mouths as this is the only language that will be spoken in heaven. Those that cannot speak this heavenly language will have the doors shut against them. But the one that really ‘takes the biscuit from you’ as Pastor Ituah will say is where we are shown that it is possible to make it to heaven and still be thrown out literally. Who then can make it to heaven? That is the million dollar question that this book sets out to answer.                       
Matthew 19: 16-26

And behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou will enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, THOU SHALT DO NO MURDER, THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, THOU SHALT NOT STEAL, THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, HONOUR THY FATHER AND THEY MOTHER; AND THOU SHALT LOVE THOU NEIGHBOUR AS THYSELF. The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily, I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed saying, Who then can be saved? But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this impossible; but with God all things are possible.

Mark 8: 36-37

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

PROLOGUE

The Bible tells us in the story in Matthew 19:16-26 that a rich young man came one day to our Lord Jesus Christ and asked him a question, “Good Master, What can I do to make it to heaven?” Jesus had just departed from Galilee with his disciples and as usual a great multitude followed him. He settled somewhere along the coasts of Judea just beyond the Jordan River. Jesus as usual did not send the crowd away but healed them. The Pharisees also came along and asked him certain questions concerning divorce and marriage. While at this same place, Jesus had the little children brought unto him and he laid his hands on them and blessed and healed them. It was in the middle of all this that this rich young ruler came to meet him to ask him a question about eternal life. Jesus in replying him said, “Why call me good, there is only one that is good and that is the Almighty. But if you will enter into life.” Notice that Jesus did not say if you will have eternal life but if you will enter into life. That immediately tells us that there is a difference between eternal life and life itself. There is a difference between having eternal life and entering into life. It means that it is possible that some people are alive but they are not in life. If you are going to enter into life and living, you have to keep the commandments of God. Jesus listed all the Ten Commandments for the man. It means therefore that anybody who was not keeping the commandments of God was living but was not in life. The rich young man replied Jesus that he had been keeping all the commandments but somehow in spite of keeping those commandments, he still did not have that life. He knew that there was something missing in his life. Notice that Jesus did not mention anything about the other laws relating directly to God such as having no other gods; not calling the name of the Lord God in vain and remembering the Sabbath day to keep it holy. That immediately tells us that the rich young man was born again and was already serving God. What then was missing from his life? What was preventing him from making it to heaven?     
           

WHAT SHALL I DO TO HAVE ETERNAL LIFE?

A lot of us get life all wrong. We get our values in life all wrong. I once got a text from a lady of about fifty-one years of age telling me that she had no money, no home, no land, no houses, and a job that was not satisfying. She had children but no husband. She felt that life was not worth living. She had lived life but she was not in life. Life had become what it was for her because of the mistakes she had made, the decisions she had taken, the associations she had gotten into, the husband she had married and all that she had done in the past. There were things she had done that had brought her into despair at the age of fifty-one. Each one of us is responsible for whatever happens in our lives. You are responsible for what your life becomes. You are responsible what happens to you in life. Your life is dependent on what you do on a day by day basis. A lot of us take life as we see it and as we receive it and we have no influence over what happens in our lives.
            What can you do to make sure that you are where God wants you to be? What can you do to make sure that you do not despair? Almost everyone of us lays the wrong emphasis on our lives and the reason why we do this is because of our wrong thinking and our negative mindsets. A lot of us think that life has cheated us, that life has not been fair to us, that we have received the wrong end of the stick from life. At a singles seminar organised a while ago by our church, the speaker mentioned that there was very little difference between one person and the next person. He said there was very little difference between the brain of one human being and that of another one. He mentioned that there were thirty-two million cells in each person’s brain. He says there is no reason why one person should not succeed as the other person. Yet in life only very few people make it through life.
            I remember when I was in Primary school and I was not doing very well in school. In a class of thirty-six people, I came in at the thirty-fifth position and because the number was a large number, I felt I had done well. I got home one day feeling good with myself and asked my mother if I had done well. Trust my mum; she beat me black and blue. One day, my father called me and asked me why I had not been doing well in school. He asked me who usually comes first in class. I mentioned the boy’s name. He asked me whether that boy had two heads. I thought about it and I said no, he doesn’t have two heads. He asked me if he came from a better background than myself, again I thought about it and I said no. He asked me if the boy had four feet, again I answered no that he doesn’t. So my father finally asked me why that particular boy was always coming first and I wasn’t doing as well. From that day, I made up my mind that I was going to do well. So I started studying harder than I had ever done before. At the next exam, I was third in the class and the next exam after that I came first. I never knew that I had it in me to do so well. My thought before was that once you had been taught in class, all you had to do was to remember everything you had been taught and you didn’t have to read or study. But once I got that revelation and decided to start studying hard, everything changed. My change came when I changed my thinking.
It is the wrong thinking that causes people to fail and not achieve much in life. People are generally motivated by their thoughts, what they see, what they perceive and how they feel. Most people react to life based on the emphasis on their minds. However most times, such thoughts and feelings are wrong. A lot of people get locked into a set of principles that determine our values and our stay on actions/reactions that are really not important and do not add value to our lives.

What are the things that drive and motivate people? What are the things that drive people to the wrong side of life?

• A lot of people are driven and motivated by where they come from. They feel that where they come from is important. Judges 6 tells us the story of Gideon. Gideon attributed his failure in life to where he came from. Gideon told God that he could not achieve much because his family was poor and he was the least in his father’s house. I want to tell you that where you come from is not important, it should not stop you from achieving whatever you want to achieve in your life, it should not stop you from getting to where you are going either.
• A lot of people are motivated by and have confidence in what they own. Their confidence comes from their houses, their cars, their bank accounts, their children, their wives and what they consider to be their possessions. I was at a meeting once with an important personality in Lagos for a transaction. Apparently he felt that I didn’t know him well enough. He wanted me to know who he was, what he did and what he owned. He told me about his companies, his properties, the boards of companies on which he sat and so on and so forth, it was obvious that he had so much confidence in what he owned.     
• Some people are motivated or care so much about how they feel and their situation in life. When they are sad, everyone will know that they are sad. When they are hungry, everyone knows that they are hungry. When they have been let down, everyone knows that they have been let down. They are concerned that people don’t ask after them. They are concerned that people don’t call them up when they are not in church. People have told me that they are angry with me because they called me and I didn’t respond. The book of Genesis tells us the story of a woman called Leah who was so concerned about how she felt that she named all her children depending on her emotions. She called the first one Reuben meaning ‘my husband will love me because I gave him a son’; she called the second one Simeon meaning ‘the Lord has heard that I was heated’; she called the third one Levi meaning ‘now my husband will become attached to me because I have borne him three sons’. Then she had another son and called him Judah saying ‘though I have been treated badly I will still praise the Lord’. This shows that people are so concerned about themselves.           
• Some people are motivated by what they have become and who they are in life. That is why there is so much jostle for positions. People want you to know the position they occupy, what they have become and what they have achieved. Even when people don’t have any position or title they simply want you to know that they are older than you. That is when people will suddenly realise that they are not your age mate. I remember once, I was helping to tow a car from camp. Then we came to a police check point where they stopped me. They asked me why I was towing a car without a permit! Permit to tow a broken down vehicle? I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I told the officer that instead of commending me for helping a fellow citizen in distress and helping the police do their work, he was criticising me. The officer did not like my response. It was then he told me that I was speaking like that because I thought I was a ‘big man’ in Lagos. He then promptly told me that he was not my age mate! Age mate? What has age mate got to do with civic responsibility? However I was quite sure then I was older than he was!      

The most important thing in life has nothing to do with where we come from, what we own, what we have become, what we have achieved or the way we feel. The most important thing in life is making it to heaven. If you go through this life and achieve so much and own so much and you do not make it to heaven then it is a useless and worthless life. You have wasted your time. Matthew 16:26 and Mark 8:36 says “what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul, and what will a man give in exchange for his soul” What these scriptures are saying is that all the gold in the world, all the silver, all the diamond, all the money, all the property, all the assets everything that you can see and you can buy in this world is not worth as much as one soul. Your soul has to be purchased. Your soul is what you buy by what you have given up in life. You will have lost everything if you gain everything in this world and lose your soul. A man once said that what we do for ourselves dies with us. When we die, all that we own dies with us. Just as have come into this world so we are going to leave it. Naked. It is the things that you have done for others that remains behind. The Bible tells us in Acts 9: 36-41 the story of a woman called Dorcas who had died. All the widows and all the children she had helped during her lifetime came and started recounting all that she had done for them. They said no, this woman must not die, she cannot die, she has been too useful to us to die. So they kept her and washed her body and then sent for Peter. Peter came and prayed for this woman and God raised her from the dead simply because of what she had done for others. We can contrast this to the story of the very rich man called Nabal in 1st Samuel who refused to help David and his men. All the world could remember him for after his sudden death was not his stupendous wealth but his foolishness. If you refuse to help others in life, then you must be a fool.    
Jesus told the rich young ruler in our story to go and sell all that he had and give to the poor and he will inherit life. The Bible tells us that the rich young ruler went away sorrowful because he had so much possessions. One of the surprises we are going to encounter in heaven is that some rich Christians might not make it to heaven. Some people have ten, fifteen or twenty houses some of which are not even doing well or making their owners any money. You ask such people to come and give to the kingdom and they will give a hundred thousand or a million naira and go away thinking that they had given much money even though they are in a position and have the capacity to give much more. Meanwhile there are possessions they have that they are not using or that are not bringing them any income and those assets are useless wasted assets and will soon have no value and instead of them to sell such and bring the money for the use of the Kingdom, they clutch on to those possessions because men are so engrossed in what they own. Every soul that you save is recorded against your name in heaven. Every soul that your money saves is recorded against your name. Every amount of money you exchange for a soul is worth more than that which you have kept for yourself. Henry Beecher once said that “it is not what we take up but what we give up that makes us rich”. It is not what we acquire or what we seize that makes us rich but what we give up. I have been at many funerals and I have not heard them say that this person had so many houses or had so many cars or had so much of this and that. What people usually say is that this is what this man did for me, this is what he did for so and so people, and this is what he did for so and so children. People talk about what you have done for other people when you were alive and not the assets that you left behind. I went to an office sometime ago for a meeting and saw an expensive limousine parked outside. The only problem with this limousine was that it was covered with dust and it was obvious it had been abandoned for a long time. So I turned and asked the lady whom I had gone to visit why such a lovely car should be abandoned like that. She smiled and told me that it belonged to their landlord. I asked why the landlord abandoned such a beautiful car. She replied that he had just bought the car and the building and was about to celebrate the acquisition of those things when he died and because he had so many wives and children nobody had come to claim the car.
            Our story of the rich, young man tells us that a lot of people might not make it to heaven because of their possessions. Everything that you own is only yours to use for a little while. Nothing in this life really belongs to you, that is why Jesus never owned anything. Everything belongs to God. A very rich man died sometimes ago. He was a terrible miser. He was such a miser that he had made up his mind that his children will not inherit anything from him. He had three mischievous sons. When he knew he was going to die, he took the key to his safe and swallowed it. When he died, his children said that at last this man has died. They had been waiting for him to die, he had not benefited them while he was alive; perhaps he might be of benefit to them in death. So they started searching his room and the whole house for the key to the safe so they could get some cash and the title papers to all the assets. After searching for a while and not finding it; the youngest and wisest of them said he knew their father would not keep the key where they could find it. He said I know this man; he could have swallowed the key. So he took his father’s body, shook it, turned it upside down and hit it at the back and the key fell out of his .mouth. They took the key and opened the safe. They grabbed all the money they could. When they were going to bury the man, they took some of the money and put it in the dead man’s hands but the hands could not hold the money. Nobody goes to heaven with his earthly possessions. Just as we have come into this world so we are going to leave.

WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT A MAN?

I am sure that there is no one out there who will say he does not want to make it to heaven. How many of us are sure however that if death comes calling today, we would make it to heaven?
A lot of people will not make it to heaven because they believe that they would not die. We need to live life and live it delicately. About two or three years ago, a lady fell ill. She was about seventy-one or seventy-two years of age. She was full of life and very committed to the things she believed in. She was a very beautiful lady. All of a sudden, she began to feel pains in her intestines and abdomen. A lot of the time, sickness does not write a letter that it is on the way and a lot of us will have realised by now that sickness is usually a messenger of death. The Bible tells us that Elisha fell sick of the illness of which he would die (2 Kings 13:14). The truth of the matter is that as you grow older, you grow towards death and every time you fall sick there is a gradual process of decay. So this woman fell sick, was rushed to London and went to all the hospitals she could find. What they thought was a stomach ulcer turned out to be a very aggressive cancer and within one and a half years she had died. The pitiable thing about this woman was that the daughter whom she had stayed with in London seemed to have no time for her. Her daughter was too busy chasing the things of life and felt that her mother was old and therefore sickness was her portion. Exactly nine months after this woman died, this same daughter fell sick and she had a similar pain in the abdomen. She was taken to the hospital and by the time the doctors examined her, they discovered that she too had a cancer that was far gone. This lady felt that she was perfectly okay and nothing was wrong with her but within two weeks, she had become ill with a terminal illness.
            People will rather buy land, buy jewellery, buy houses, and buy cars than save a soul or even their own lives. Again a lot of people will not make it to heaven because they do not believe in heaven and hell. You can tell by the attitude of such people. When you tell people not to do certain things like drinking, smoking and committing fornication, they turn to you and ask you how that affects their well being. Psalm 14:1 tells us that a person who says there is no heaven or hell is a fool. Some people will not make it to heaven because they do not believe or they do not realise that one definite day sooner or later they will die and the next destination will would be heaven or hell. A lot of people think that death is for the next person. When I go to wake keepings or funerals, I usually tell people that what they are witnessing is a dress rehearsal of their own day. I remember when my mother died, there was an uncle of ours who came and was there weeping so much. He was at my mother’s funeral and at the thanksgiving service two days later. But the same day of the thanksgiving this uncle died. He had been at our house, had been in the church and had had lunch with us. He got to his own home and he died. A lot people do not prepare for heaven because they do not believe that death is so near to them.
            Again a lot of people will not make it to heaven because they do not believe God exists. The Bible says in Psalm 14:1 that a fool has said in his heart that there is no God. In many parts of the world today people by their beliefs and activities say that there is no God. I went to visit someone a while ago to commiserate with the family on the loss of their father. The wife began to tell me how she had gone through trials and difficulties in the last eight years during which time her husband had been ill. The illness was such that made the man was unable to speak, unable to walk and unable to feed himself. For seven or eight years, he was like a living dead person. She said she began to ask God what they had done for them to be struck with such a calamity. The man was a good man, he helped other people, he lived a good life but the only problem with that man was that he was not born again. Not only was he not born again but he was of that school of thought that believed that there was no God. He believed that once you lived a good life, you were okay. He had been a man that was so active and believed that there was no way he would not be able to go out for even one day then this strange sickness came and for eight years he could not even move. The woman said she became born again and started praying to God. God revealed to her that the reason her husband had been struck with that illness was because he believed that that there was no God. She decided to intercede on his behalf. After praying for a while, one day all of a sudden the man got up. The woman was excited. A man who had not talked or walked for almost seven years suddenly got up. The man gathered all the books he had been reading that said there was no God and got rid of them. He began to speak and ask God to forgive him and save his soul. He and his wife spoke all night for that day that he was alright, but after he had prayed and asked for forgiveness, the man suddenly slumped again and went back into his coma. The woman started praying again asking God to revive the man, there was no answer. Eventually that was how the man died. The woman then got a revelation that if God had kept him up and well, he would have gone back to his old ways. At least the man had the opportunity to know and acknowledge that there is a God.    

MAKING IT TO HEAVEN

Life is an exam and the reward of passing that exam is heaven. In that exam, there is no resit or carry over, you live life once and after that there is the judgement. The Bible says it is appointed for man to die and thereafter the judgement. How do we make it to heaven? One of the ways of making it to heaven is to get born again. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me” (John 14:6). Jesus said, “I am the door to heaven” (Revelations 3:20). Some people believe that once you live a good life here on earth, that is all there is to it and that there is no heaven. Some others believe that only some people have been pre-selected to make it to heaven. Others still believe that once you do some heroic deeds here on earth, you will make it to heaven. However it is clear that the first step to making it to heaven is to give your life to Jesus and live your life according to the way God wants you to live it. I remember a friend of mine whom we used to go out together. After I got born again, we did not hang out together as before but we were still very close. One day I saw him again somewhere and I was telling him to give his life to Jesus. He started giving me all sorts of excuses and asking me why his mother who was born again had to die of cancer and his father had to be ridden with stroke. We spoke in November of that particular year and by February of the next year; this friend of mine had died. God was knocking at the door of his heart in November; God had seen what will happen to him in February. God had given him three months notice.
            Being born again is however not sufficient for you to make it to heaven. What I am about to make mention of will change your mind set drastically. How do I know that being born again is not sufficient to make it to heaven? Solomon was born again. Solomon loved the Lord. He pursued the Lord. But by the twilight of Solomon’s life, his wives had turned his heart away from God. Solomon allowed and participated in the worship of several other gods. Solomon probably did not make it to heaven (1 Kings 11). Judas Iscariot was born again. He was with Jesus for 3 and half years. He raised the dead, he healed the sick. He was among those who said they saw the devil fall like lighting from the sky. But Judas betrayed Jesus, committed suicide and went to hell. He was born again. Betrayal of a friend is not necessarily a sin or an unforgivable offence but suicide leads to hell regardless of what your beliefs are or how you had lived your life. In addition to being born again, you have to keep all the commandments and not to make up your own commandments. You need to live a holy life till the end. God is constant and consistent. God is not a man that He should lie neither is He a man that He should repent. A lot of people had sinned. Not only will the sin prevent their making it to heaven it will also affect their lives here on earth. A lot of people start wondering where their problems are coming from but they have forgotten some of the things they have done in the past. The adultery that was committed years ago. The abortions committed years ago. The young girls raped years back. The harsh words spoken to someone in the past. The Bible says don’t lie, don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t worship other gods, don’t steal, honour your father and your mother, love your neighbour as yourself.              
            But then again, we can see that being born again and being holy is not even enough to make it to heaven. It takes a bit more than holiness to make it to heaven. Jesus told the rich, young ruler to give up all his earthly possessions if he wanted to have life. This tells us clearly that you need to be willing to give up all your earthly possessions in order to make it to heaven. Some Christians, spirit-filled, tongue talking might not make it to heaven because of what they own. The rich, young man went away sorrowful after Jesus told him to give up his earthly possessions because he was very rich. Some people are heading to hell because of what they own. A lot of people are not willing to give up comfort and materials in order to be able to make it to heaven. The rich, young ruler went away sad because he had a wrong concept of life. He wanted to gain the whole world in spite of his holiness. This is where some of our pastors might also miss making it to heaven. Our pastors now lay so much emphasis on material things or their own comfort, status and well being that in spite of all the miracles that has been wrought through them or souls saved through their efforts they might not make it. There are Christians who own ten houses or more while other people are finding it difficult to eat even one square meal a day. There are Christians who are sitting on top of large bank accounts and people around them are suffering. The money you have is not for you to spend but for you to bless others with. It is not just because of what you have done but there are things you have not done that will lead you away from heaven. I was once with a young man who was telling me the story of an experience he had had. This young man is the leader of ‘area boys’ in a certain community. One day one of the boys came to him asking him for twenty or thirty naira to buy food. He said he himself had about fifty naira with him but he told the young boy that he did not have any money. Later that day the young boy was caught stealing and was burnt to death. Seven days later, the mother of that young boy also died. He said his conscience has not been clear since that time. He said if only he had given the boy even if just ten naira out of the fifty naira he had, things would have been different, now it was too late and two people had died. The things that are important to you are not important to God. I was at an event once and a woman came in; someone who knew her mentioned the fact that everything she had on at that party including clothes, shoes and jewellery was worth almost a million naira. If you went and met this woman and tell her to give some money for an orphanage home, she will tell you she doesn’t have. And this is something we all do all the time. There are some things we had rather spend money on than use it to save a soul. When Jesus went to the home of Zacchaeus and Zacchaeus he decided to give away half of his possessions, that was when Jesus told him that salvation had come to his house that day (Luke 19: 2-8). What Jesus was simply saying is that even though Zacchaeus was born again, there will still some things he had to do for salvation to be complete in his house. Some of us need to sell some of our possessions and use such proceeds to help the poor so that we will be blameless.
            A friend of mine who was also a pastor had a very wealthy father. He himself did not know how wealthy his father was until the man became a bit sick. Previously he had gone to his father several times to ask for money for various activities in church and his father will give the church ten thousand, twenty thousand naira. After the man got ill, they took him to England from hospital to hospital. One of the doctors told them that they will need a hundred thousand pounds to treat the man’s illness and immediately the man took out his cheque and wrote out a cheque for hundred thousand pounds. His son could not believe it. The son asked the father where he got the money from, the father replied that he had been saving it for a rainy day. At the time of the man’s illness the rain had indeed begun to fall, eventually the father died. My friend said to me that if his father had given out that money to be used for saving souls and helping others he would still have been alive, he would not even have fallen sick as their would have been no need for a rainy day. It was when his father died that my friend knew that his father owned a whole street of houses in Lagos.
I have seen the rich do many things. I have seen the rich fly in private jets. I have seen them build mansions. I have seen them marry several wives. I have seen them buy several cars. I have seen them hold several parties and host important guests. I have seen the rich having bank accounts in several countries. But I have never seen any rich person take his riches to heaven or perhaps hell. Is there something that you have or that you own that will prevent you from making it to heaven? Give it out to someone who needs it more than you do. 

WHO THEN CAN MAKE IT TO HEAVEN?

One of the most difficult things in life is to make it to heaven. A lot of us do not know how difficult it is because if we did we would not be living our lives the way we are living it. One of the most important things in life is not the houses you own, your husband or your wife or your children or your bank account or even the lack of these things. The most important thing in life is making it to heaven. Each man has come into this world to gain something. It is possible for you to gain property. It is possible for you to gain children. It is possible for you to gain even the whole world as the Bible makes that point clear in Mark 8: 36. It is possible for you to have everything that you wish and desire for in the world. However, in your attempt to gain the whole world, you might also lose something important, your soul. All of us are here on earth for a short while and for a definite purpose. No matter how long you live, one day you have to pack up and go. No matter how long you live, the owner of your life will come one day and knock and say your time is up. The whole world is a market place and we all have come to buy and sell. Some people get to the market in the morning and stay all day long. Others get there in the morning and stay till noon. Others get to the market at noon and stay till evening. But no matter what time anybody gets to the market; nobody sleeps in the market. I have seen people who used to be very young and strong grow to become very old and weak. It is the process of death. When you die, your body goes back to the earth and your spirit must go to either heaven or hell and believe me sincerely heaven is real and hell is real also. Where it goes is what you decide when you are alive                            
            It is better to go to heaven because you cannot imagine the pain, the anguish, the suffering, the bitterness, the sorrow that hell will be like. The reason why people do not take hell seriously is because they cannot imagine what hell signifies and how painful hell will be like. If people can imagine how hell will be like, they will behave much better here on earth. Luke 16:19-31 tells us the story of Lazarus and the rich man. Lazarus was a beggar who sat by the gates of the rich man and begged to be fed by the droppings from the table of the rich man. But the rich man would not feed Lazarus. The rich man fed sumptuously and wore rich clothing while the dogs licked Lazarus’ sores. One day as it is bound to happen both of them died, while Lazarus went to heaven, the rich man went to hell. In hell, the rich man said ‘I am in torment in this place, please father Abraham send Lazarus to dip his hand in water to cool my thirst.’ The Bible says there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth in hell. If people can visualise the pain that will be present in hell, they will spend more time investigating how they can get to heaven and spend less time trying to hang desperately unto life here on earth. A lot of people spend too much time trying to live permanently here on earth. We spend so much time trying to preserve our health, trying to preserve our beauty, trying to preserve our wealth and trying to preserve everything else we think belongs to us. Nothing however including our bodies belongs to us.
            I was told a story by a health worker in Kosovo who was part of those trying to lend support during the war there. There was a bomb attack on a certain part of town which destroyed many houses and killed many people. This health worker went to the mortuary to try and help in identifying some of the bodies and bring solace to those still alive. She said one of the things that struck her most was that when she got to a certain part of the mortuary there was this beautiful blond woman who had been hit by a stray bullet and shrapnel and had died without even knowing what hit her. This woman was laying there in the mortuary as if she was sleeping. All her makeup and jewellery were still on her body. The only problem with this woman was that she was dead. What people worry most about these days is how to live more comfortably, how to live more expensively, how to live more enjoyably here on earth, and how to please the world and look good among the people here on earth. People do not understand that sooner or later it will be time to go home. Everytime I see a congratulatory birthday message in the newspaper and people are celebrating their fortieth, fiftieth or sixtieth birthday; I smile because what people don’t realise is that those years they are celebrating are gone and can never be recovered. The older you become, the more you get nearer to where you are going and farther from where you are coming from. Each second, each minute and each hour that passes by takes you nearer home. I once preached at someone’s wake-keeping and was privileged to know the exact time that the person was born and the exact time that he died. I was able to calculate to the last second all the time that this fellow had spent on earth. I saw that the totality of this man’s life was not worth many seconds.
            The most painful thing about heaven and hell is that it is the decisions that you make here on earth on an everyday basis that make either heaven or hell permanent. There are certain things that you do here on a daily basis that decides where you will spend the rest of your life. In the story of the rich man and Lazarus; we discover that the rich man was born again because he called on father Abraham while he was in hell to send someone to go and warn his brothers still alive on earth. This man paid his tithes, he paid his first fruits, he gave big offerings, he went to church regularly, he did not commit fornication and adultery and yet he still ended up in hell. The rich man went to hell because he was not compassionate to Lazarus the beggar.  
There are some people who are not talking to others because they feel aggrieved by such people. Such resentment won’t take you to heaven. There are people who are bitter at their parents, their husbands or their wives; such bitterness won’t take you to heaven. There are people who all they are concerned about is that they don’t have a husband or a wife or children. The husband or wife or children or lack of them won’t take you to heaven.
            The rich man went to hell simply because in spite of all that he had, he was not ready to give it all up and help the beggar who was always waiting at the gate. Some of us have been receiving requests for help from people and we simply pretend that we don’t see such people or we can’t help them. There are people who have been knocking on your door for one help or the other and all you are doing is thinking to yourself, ‘Am I the one who killed Jesus?’ The Bible says that if you help the poor, you will have treasures in heaven. Some people won’t make it to heaven because of the things that they are struggling for. They are fighting for material possessions and holding on tightly to the things they already have. A lot of us might fail to make it to heaven because we did not have sufficient compassion on the poor.
But we will discover that even helping the poor is not enough to make it to heaven. Even if you give everything that you have to the poor, you still might not make to heaven. Matthew 19:25 asks the question succinctly, ‘Who then can be saved?’ The parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25 tells us that it is possible to be born again, to live a holy life, to give everything you have to the poor and still not make it to heaven. Five of the virgins did not make it to heaven despite all the sacrifices they had made here on earth. The door was shut on these five virgins in spite of all their holiness and giving to the poor and being born again. Consequently from this story Jesus is saying for you to make it to heaven, you need an extra anointing of the Holy Spirit. You need an extra knowledge of the Word of God. You need an extra amount of prayer. You need to be fully prepared for that day. The problem with the virgins was that they did not have an extra knowledge and revelation of the Word of God. Joshua 1:8 tells us that ‘The book of the law shall not depart out of our sight so that we can meditate on it day and night and be careful to observe all that is written therein.’ What the parable of the virgins is telling us that in heaven only the Word is spoken and you have to have the Word of God fully inside of you to be able to make it.  
Finally we will discover that even if you are born again, living a holy life, compassionate to the poor and have the Word inside of you and you make it to heaven; you can still be thrown out … of heaven. Matthew 22: 1-14 tells us the story of the King who invited some special guests to his party and all of them gave one excuse or the other for not being able to make it. Then the king asked his people to go and invite people from the streets to the party and the beggars, the street people, the market women all came to the party organised by the king. That will be one of the surprises of heaven. You will see the mallam at your gate in heaven. You will see your taxi driver in heaven. You will see the area boy in heaven. But some people you expected to see in heaven, the bishops, the Pentecostal pastors might not be there because they in the final analysis refused the King’s invitation or they did not qualify. The story is told of a born again Christian who generally lived a good Christian life but found out on his death that he did not make it to heaven for failure to pay his tithes. In the dark accesses of hell, he began to look at everyone’s faces to see who they were. When asked what he was doing, he said he was looking for his pastor. He said his pastor had to be in hell because even though he taught them many things he did not teach them the importance of tithing and how biblical it was. He said he did not know too many scriptures but he knew very well the one that said whosoever causes another to stumble is guilty of the same sin.
So all sorts of people found themselves in this King’s party. While the party was going on, the giver of the party was going round his guests; suddenly he noticed someone who was not properly dressed for the party and asked what the fellow was doing there improperly dressed. He then instructed that he be thrown out concluding that there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth. It is possible to make it to heaven and be thrown out if your garment is wrong. What is your garment? Your garment is your outer covering, your personality, the kind of person that you are. If there is a stain on your garment which you have not cleaned by the blood and through repentance, you might be thrown out of heaven. 1 Thessalonians 2:5 tells us that some of us have a garment of covetousness, 1 Peter 2:16 say some of us have a garment of maliciousness. Some people have the wrong temperament and the wrong attitude. Such people even though born again and holy might not make it to heaven.
It is possible to make it to heaven and not be able to remain there. It is one thing to get there; it is another thing to remain there. Matthew 22:12 tells us that the King called the man that was thrown out of the party ‘friend’ meaning that they knew one another, there was a friendship. This tells me that in spite of being a friend of God, you might not make it to heaven. Pastor Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God tells us the story of Pa Akindayomi, the founder and first general superintendent of the RCCG. Pa Akindayomi had had a quarrel once with another man of God over certain evangelical materials which Pa Akindayomi had used without permission from this other man of God and they had never settled the issue. Pa Akindayomi got ill and died. When he got to heaven, he was shown his house and everything that had been prepared for him. As he was about to settle down, he was told that he couldn’t because he had an unsettled matter on earth. He was made to return to earth and he lived in good health for another one month during which he settled the outstanding quarrel with this man and thereafter he finally passed on. He was not thrown into hell because of all the souls he had saved and was given another chance to return to earth to sort out the remaining issue in his life. Not everybody might be that lucky.  
The disciples asked Jesus in the story of the rich young ruler, ‘who then can be saved?’ Jesus replied that with men this shall be impossible but with God all things are possible. Meaning what? Meaning that in the final analysis, we can make it to heaven only by the grace of God. In spite of all that you have done, the only way you can make it to heaven is if God allows it because even all that you have done may not fully qualify you. It is impossible for you as a man to make it to heaven. It is possible only by the grace of God. The reason why Lazarus made it heaven was because God allowed him. The name Lazarus means ‘God allows or God permits’. It means that Lazarus the beggar made it only because God by His grace allowed him to do so. You will find out that all that eventually get into that great party in heaven got there because the giver of the party allowed them in. Most of them were not even expecting to be invited but what they all did was to wear the properly approved garment of righteousness as instructed. Making it to heaven is not an easy thing but you have to keep trying. You have to keep doing the right things so that the grace of God can come over your life. When you have done all that you on your part have to do such as being born again, living a holy life, being compassionate to the poor, giving to the Kingdom, having the Word of God inside of you and speaking it, have the right attitude then ask for the grace of God to bless all these and beg God that whatsoever He decides to do, He must allow you in, I am sure that He will.
See you in heaven…by His Grace