How the Gospel Brings Heaven’s Reality Into Daily Life
By Jonathan Brenneman
Introduction: My Problem Was Never God’s Will I did not grow up assuming God was real.
As a child, I was oppressed by Satan in very tangible ways. I thought of killing myself, but I was afraid I would go to hell if God existed. I questioned whether God created the world or everything existed because of evolution.
Change started when my mother prayed for my hurting back, commanding, “In Jesus’ name, be healed.” I felt God’s supernatural power move up and down my spine, healing me.
That convinced me that God was real—not because someone argued me into it, but because His power touched me. God did not remain theoretical. He revealed Himself.
Two years later, I had a clear born-again experience. I encountered Jesus, not merely as an idea, but as life itself entering my heart. Something fundamentally changed inside me.
As a teenager, I encountered God’s love again in a profound way. His goodness overwhelmed me, and at fourteen years old I made a decision that shaped my entire life: I wanted to be a missionary. I wanted to give myself fully to God’s purposes. I wanted to
see His kingdom touch the earth. But despite my sincerity, something was missing.
The Frustration of Powerlessness
Though I loved Jesus deeply as a teenager, I lived with growing frustration. I believed the Bible. I believed God could do miracles.
I believed Jesus was Lord.
Yet my experience did not match what I read in Scripture.
I prayed, fasted, cried out, and begged God to move. I heard much talk about “waiting on God,” “mystery,” and “God’s timing.” I assumed my lack of results meant God was withholding something—or that I simply needed more faith, more holiness, more
dedication.
Looking back, I can say this clearly: My problem was not a lack of sincerity. My problem was a lack of understanding.
I accepted good doctrine, but I lived as if it were not true.
Like many Christians, I begged God to open the heavens—completely unaware tha Jesus already had.
This frustration is common because many believers’ view heaven as distant and delayed, rather than as present access. Yet the gospel does not merely promise heaven later—it reveals heaven now, made accessible through Jesus Christ.
God’s Correction Changed Everything
When I was nineteen years old, God corrected me—and that correction changed my life. It was not harsh. It was liberating.
I realized something that now seems obvious, but at the time revolutionized everything: God is generous. The limitation was never on His side.
The issue was not that God was reluctant to give. The issue was that I did not yet understand what He had already given, nor how to live in agreement with it.
The first and most important shift in my thinking was this: Jesus is the image of the invisible God. We cannot see God or know His will through life’s experiences. We can only see God by looking at Jesus.
This single revelation dismantled years of confusion. I had been subconsciously trying to understand God through unanswered prayers, suffering, disappointment, and religious explanations. But Scripture says that Jesus perfectly reveals the Father—not partially, not symbolically, but fully. And what did Jesus reveal?He healed them all.
He delivered all who came to Him. He revealed a God who is good, present, and willing. When I became absolutely convinced that Jesus shows us exactly what God is like, everything changed. I began seeing more miracles in a single day than I had seen in all
my previous years of Christianity combined.
Twenty Years of Living Under an Open Heaven
That was twenty years ago. I have grown and learned much since then, but the foundation has never changed.
For two decades now, I have lived with a settled conviction that heaven is open—not because of a special calling, not because of a unique gift, but because Jesus’ body was torn, granting full access to God.
Over these years, I have experienced thousands of miracles and signs and wonders. Rain has fallen supernaturally in my house. I see people healed every week. I hear God’s voice in clear and remarkable ways. I experience God’s glory tangibly. And I want to be very clear:
This is not because I am special. It is because I was corrected.
The change was not in God.
The change was in my understanding. When truth replaced religious assumptions, power followed naturally.
Jesus’ Torn Body Is Our Open Heaven
When Jesus died, something happened that forever changed reality.
The Gospels tell us that when He breathed His last breath, the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom. Hebrews explains that this veil represented His body. His torn flesh became the doorway into God’s presence.
Heaven is not something we must persuade God to open. Heaven is already open because of Jesus.
For many years, I begged God to open heaven and come down, not realizing that I was denying the gospel in my prayers. God already opened heaven when Jesus died. He already came down when Jesus came as a man.
Prayers of unbelief result in frustration. The prayer of faith is grounded in agreement with what Jesus has accomplished.
Jesus Reveals God’s Will—Completely
Many Christians still speak of God’s will as mysterious. But Scripture says that Jesus is the exact representation of God’s nature. If we want to know God’s will, we look at Jesus—not at sickness, tragedy, or life circumstances.
Jesus did not heal sometimes. He did not heal selectively.
He healed all who came to Him. If Jesus healed them all, then healing is not an exception—it is God’s will revealed in action.
The same is true of deliverance, restoration, and blessing.
God is not conflicted. God is not withholding.
God has revealed Himself fully in His Son.
Resurrection Life and the Righteous Identity
Another essential revelation is the meaning of Jesus’ resurrection.
Those who are in Christ have died to sin and been raised with newness of life. This is not symbolic language—it is spiritual reality.
Yet many Christians cripple their communion with God by constantly identifying themselves as sinners rather than as new creations.
Yes, we once were sinners. But Scripture says we were sinners—not that we still are. Righteousness is not something we achieve. It is something we receive.
When believers keep calling themselves sinners, they subconsciously distance themselves from God. But righteousness restores communion.
When you understand that you are seated with Christ and possess heavenly riches, your focus shifts. You stop being consumed by lack and begin giving freely what you have received. People around you experience God’s love, peace, joy, salvation, deliverance, and healing as you give away heaven’s riches.
Praise, Thanksgiving, and the Manifest Presence of God
Another crucial key is praise and thanksgiving. When we declare who God is, who He is manifests. Praise is not merely singing. It is agreement with truth.
Thanksgiving aligns our hearts with heaven’s perspective. Praise fills us with the Holy Spirit, and spiritual power is released through declaration.
When we share testimonies of what God has done, the same works happen again. Testimony proclaims God’s nature. God’s glory is revealed where truth is declared.
How God Works: The Invisible Spirit and Human Authority
God is an invisible Spirit. From the beginning, His intention was that man would reflect His invisible nature on the earth.
All men sinned, and that is why Jesus came as a man. Jesus did not bypass humanity. He redeemed it. In the incarnation, God is no longer distant or mysterious. God is with us, revealed in Christ.
God is all-powerful—but He is not all-controlling. His Spirit manifests through people who agree with Him.
Powerful prayer is not trying to convince God. It is agreement with what He has already revealed. The lack is never on God’s side.
Revival Is Normal Christianity
What many Christians call revival is simply normal Christianity.
The reason it feels extraordinary is because most believers are used to living far below what God intended. There is more.
We can live in an open heaven. We can see people saved, healed, and delivered wherever we go. We can experience God’s presence daily.
Traditions That Hinder the Gospel
Many religious traditions subtly shift believers away from simple faith in Christ. Traditions that emphasize earning rather than receiving weaken confidence in the finished work of Jesus.
When church structures restrict the body of Christ from functioning, power is quenched. This is not condemnation—it is invitation.
Conclusion: Heaven Is Closer Than You Think
Heaven is not far away. Heaven has already been opened.
Jesus is the open heaven. And He lives in you. As you grow in the knowledge of Him, heaven will feel increasingly near—not because it
moved, but because you are learning to see clearly.
Live from that place.
Pray from that reality.
Love from that identity.
Heaven’s reality is now.
Next Steps: Walking This Out
This eBook is not meant to be an endpoint, but a foundation.
If these truths resonate with you, continue allowing Scripture and the Holy Spirit to challenge assumptions that may have limited your walk with God.
Living in an open heaven grows out of simple, ongoing agreement with what Jesus has already accomplished—through praise, thanksgiving, prayer, and daily communion with God.
Heaven is open. Jesus is enough. And there is more ahead