"I believe in the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints."
The Holy Spirit on earth is the one that keeps all believers whether still on this planet or who have gone home to be with the Lord connected in one church. This is not the visible church where believers are mixed with unbelievers, but all the elect of God from the foundation of the world for all time.
This church has Jesus as its worldwide head and pope and no other. Nobody needs to take his place on this earth because he has never left his office as Prophet, Priest, and King. The Church has no husband other than her Lord and Savior. And he sends his Holy Spirit to all believers and that way we are united as the universal Church.
If you are recovering from any addiction or sin, it is good to know not only what you are saved from, God's wrath, how you are saved, by grace and faith alone in Jesus who lived a perfect life and took your punishment on the cross, but what you are saved to. Jesus stands before the Father day and night praying for his believers, the saints, the ones he has called out from the world as his treasured possession, and while we still wait for his physical return to earth, he places us in a church to be with both Him and other believers. So not only do we enjoy heaven in the future, we enjoy it now.
Heaven is not a place, but a man, Jesus Christ. And we are in heaven when we meet in a true church body where his Presence dwells in the Word and among other believers who have the same Holy Spirit.
Also, for grievers, this means we are not separated from those we love who are now dead. We can no longer talk to them, but we are not separated from them either.
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