Video from Jewish Learning Institute
The Soul's True Potential After Death
I can't wait until I am with Jesus! We are given the life God intended us to have in the here and now but beyond our fallen futile selves there is the potential of what we can do in our next life. there is no doubt even before we receive our resurrection bodies our Being will be immaterial and our experience in living will be something totally new to us.
The question we must ask then upon our death what happens according to the Bible. Information is scant but the apostle Paul says that “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” Many passages can be cited in support of this view. ( 2 Corinthians 5:6-8, Philippians 1:23, and John 5:25-29.) Where do we go?
"So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him” (2 Cor. 5:6-9).
We see from this scripture Paul's says we will be away from our body and at home with the Lord, notice the word with! IN the body = ABSENCE from the Lord
OUT OF the body = PRESENCE with the Lord
To find our first reference to what happens to us after death we go to Jesus’s parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31) in which both Lazarus and the rich man die. Their souls are separated from their bodies and sent to “Hades,” the realm of the dead, where Lazarus is on Abraham’s side in Paradise, across the chasm or gulf from where the rich man is in torment. Jesus often used parables to depict reality.
Theologians refer to the place where Lazarus’s and the rich man’s soul go (with a great chasm fixed between them, Luke 16:26) as the “intermediate state,” where souls of those who have died await the resurrection of the dead and the final judgment (John 5:28–29). That however is a state of being and not a "place" never the less the point is made. For those who die in their sin (John 8:24) not believing in Christ, it is literally a hellish place and a state of torment. For those who die in faith, it is wonderful beyond imagination because it is where God is. That’s why Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). And it’s why Paul said that to “be away from the body [is to be] at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8), which is “far better” (Philippians 1:23) than remaining in a fallen “body of death” (Romans 7:24).
But while this temporary paradise is far better for the Christian than this futile world, the Bible does not describe it as being our ultimate state of being. There is some sense in which our souls will be “unclothed” at the loss of our physical bodies (2 Corinthians 5:4), though the Bible doesn’t describe it specifically. It no doubt be a heavenly experience for us to be with the Lord, but we will be incomplete until we have our resurrection bodies (Philippians 3:11).
The intermediate state for the Christian is immediate transition upon death into the presence of Christ in heaven, during which time we experience holiness (no longer being at war with the flesh and our sin nature), happiness, a heightened sense of consciousness, and knowledge of Christ in its fullest. The “intermediate” state is not our “final” or “eternal” state.
The actual mental and spiritual capacities is what this video refers to as we are no longer bound by our physical embodiment. right now we are finite and limited, all of that will change when we are with Christ.
So, do Christians “go to heaven” when they die? Yes, but only temporarily, as they await the return of Christ, the resurrection of the body, and eternal life in the New Heavens and New Earth.