Where is heaven? The word "heaven" itself comes from Anglo-Saxon "heofon" and just means "sky". The same is true of the Greek word "ouranos" used throughout the New Testament and generally translated "heaven." Ouranos also just means "sky." So, we have a cultural heritage of associating the dwelling of the divine with the sky, and all of our images of God's "dwelling" reference somewhere in the sky.
Now, where does the omnipresent, infinite God, the foundation of all existence, Yahweh, actually dwell? Everywhere, everywhen, and in every conceivable dimension, universe, and alternate timeline or reality should they exist. The multiverse cannot contain Him. All things exist within Him, time and space move through Him and not the other way around. All particles of matter and all particles of energy transmission vibrate, spin, and have charge by means of and within His fundamental, elemental, and foundational energy.
So, where is heaven as we understand it to be God's dweling place? Every possible direction, every possible vector, every possible dimension, and every possible reality around and within you. Heaven forms the underlying substructure of all creation because God forms the underlying substructure of all creation.
So, is heaven, as such, a definite, finite location in space and time? No. It cannot be as God dwells everywhere and everywhen. This is the necessary logical outcome of omnipresence. So then what is it?
Based on these understandings, I would define heaven, as such, to be that overwhelming, all consuming experience of the reality of Yahweh where one's union with God through Jesus Christ is finished, and we fully realize and actualize being one thing with Him, just as Jesus Christ is one thing with the Father, as He said and prayed in the Gospel of John. I would also make the observation, from various readings and documented experiences, that it is possible to receive glimpses and experiences of prior to physical death, though these experiences do not appear to be of a permanent nature prior to death due to the human brain's common neurological malfunction called "Hamartia."
These experiences are generally recorded by those who intentionally draw closer to Yahweh through Jesus Christ through prayer and meditation. Jesus Himself commanded those who follow Him very clearly to remain in Him, and that on the one hand nothing would happen if they didn't, and on the other hand everything would open up if they did. In other words, the experience of heaven can and should begin in the here and now by drawing closer to Jesus Christ and remaining in Him. Those who do not, should not expect it to.
If then God is everywhere and everywhen, and thus heaven is everywhere and everywhen, no matter where one is, if one is receptive to Jesus Christ upon physical death, one's psyche, free from the previous neurological disorder, should immediately experience that becoming of one thing with the Father and the Son as He described. Those who are knowingly (dare I say deliberately) unreceptive to Jesus Christ still transition from their physical bodies, but have no connecting medium, so to speak, because they deliberately refusing the connecting medium which exists. Instead of finished union with Yahweh, they remain separated by their own choice. What undesirable psychological torment that follows is a direct result of this self-imposed separation, and not because of anything Yahweh Himself imposes upon them.
Heaven and salvation are about more than just being absolved of wrongdoing by God because of Jesus Christ. Salvation is about a finished union with God through Jesus Christ, and being freed from this Hamartia neurological malfunction in the here and now as well as after physical death. It is about being loved by God, loving God in return, and God loving all others through you as you move closer and closer towards finished union with Him.
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