Traditional 'folk Christian' belief is that you die and go to heaven and live there as a disembodied spirit. The Bible does not directly state that you go to heaven when you die. Some people infer this from Paul's statement that it is better to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. But dying and going to heaven is not emphazed. None of the apostles or other preachers we read about in Acts preach to their audiences that they should repent so they can die or go to heaven. Paul preached about the resurrection and the judgment. Paul, in Acts, is very resurrection-focused, for example in Athens and later after he had been bound in the temple. He made the resurrection of the dead a key point of his trial before the Jews.
Excuse me president, but Paul did not emphasize that scripture, as the scripture is very clear in its meaning and that is not the only scripture:
"In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and welcome you into My presence, so that you also may be where I am."
In the scripture above, Jesus states that "in His Father's house are many rooms" The Father's house could only be referring to heaven. Jesus then said He was going to the Father's house/heaven to prepare rooms for the disciples and all believers and that he was coming back to welcome us into his presence so that we could be were He is, i.e. to those rooms which are in the Father's house/heaven.
"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.
In the scripture above Paul is torn between remaining in the body for the benefit of the Philippians, opposed to his body dying and his spirit departing in order to be with the Lord, which infers immediacy.
As I said in a previous post, we have examples of the conscious awareness of the spirits of those who have died, such as Moses and Elijah who appeared and spoke with Jesus on the mount in His glorified state. We also have the 5th seal where John sees the souls of the saints who will have been killed during the first 3 1/2 years of that seven year period.
We have Jesus telling the man crucified next Him, "today you will be with me in paradise," yet their bodies both died that died that day.
We have the spirit of Samuel coming up from Sheol/Hades at Saul's request.
We have two men "the rich man and Lazarus" as well as Abraham, whose bodies had died, but their spirits were found conscious and aware down in sheol/Hades.
We have Stephen, after he was stoned, saying "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," with Jesus "standing" at the right hand of God to receive Stephens spirit.
