Revelation 14 speaks of 144,000 standing before God's throne in heaven. But Revelation 7:9 says that the number of people before God's throne is so large that "no one could count" them. Thus, the number 144,000 is, like many other numbers in the book of Revelation, a symbolic number. The number 12 (12 times 12 = 144) is used to refer to believers and the number 1000 refers to completeness. So 144,000 is a symbolic number that symbolizes that the complete number of all the believers in heaven.