When a person dies

When a Christian dies (falls asleep in Christ), does that person’s spirit go to heaven right then? I know when a person sleeps it is like timeless till you awake.  How many persons’ spirits are in heaven today?

When a Christian (someone who has made the choice to trust the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary for their sins) dies, God, the Holy Ghost (who comes to live in us at the moment of our salvation), takes both our soul and our spirit to heaven to be with God right away.  

Every human being (both the saved and the lost) are made up of a spirit, a soul and a physical body.

1 Thessalonians 5:23

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So when a person dies physically, their body is buried (or cremated, lost at sea, etc.) and then returns back into dust, but their soul and spirit go elsewhere. For the lost person (the person who has not trusted Christ for their sins), their spirit goes back to God that gave it, but their soul (the real, conscience part of the person with all the feelings, etc.), goes to hell.

Ecclesiastes 12:7

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

Every human spirit goes back to God, the Father of Spirits, because the human spirit is what gives a human life. So once that human life is over, the person no longer needs their spirit, so it goes back to God.

But the soul of that person, depending on the relationship that person has with God/Christ today, either goes to heaven or hell. The lost person goes to flames of hell to be tormented until the time of judgment before Christ.

Luke 16:23-24

And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.  And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

That person's soul is held in the flames of hell until the Great White Throne judgment of Christ where their works are judged and then they are thrown into the lake of fire to burn for all eternity!

Revelation 20:12-15

And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

But this is not true for the believer! When the believer in Christ dies, his or her spirit and soul both go into the heavenly throne room of God, and remains up there conscious, in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ!

2 Corinthians 5:1, 6-8

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

When a believer dies his soul goes directly to the Lord's throne room. That soul is there until they return with the Lord to come and get all the rest of the believers at the time of the resurrection/rapture of the church, the body of Christ!

1 Thessalonians 4:14-18

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Lastly, the human body is the only thing that the bible refers to as being "asleep." That is because the soul never sleeps in scripture, it is always conscious either in heaven or hell. The physical body is referred to as asleep because it looks just like it does when we sleep in our beds in the natural. But when we are asleep, we are still conscious because we have dreams, thoughts, etc. The same holds true for the physical body. It goes ‘asleep’ (so to speak) until the resurrection, but the soul stays alive in torment or in bliss.

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Of those who have died, although the souls of all believers are in Heaven right now, and the souls of all unbelievers are in hell right now, the spirit of every dead person ever born into this world is now in Heaven with God. God is the God and Father of all spirits because when God created man, He gave man the spirit and the human spirit gives man life!

Genesis 2:7

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground [body], and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life [spirit]; and man became a living soul.

When God breathed life into man, man's spirit was created. And as long as a person lives, their human spirit remains in him. But when a person dies, their spirit goes back to God, and their soul goes either to heaven or hell.

All spirits go back to God because God is life. And when your physical body dies the life leaves it.

Hebrew 12:9

Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

Ecclesiastes 12:7

Then shall the dust [body] return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

So how many spirits are in heaven today? Every spirit of every person born from Adam and Eve to each person on earth dying today as we speak!

Hopefully this helps!

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