Imagine that you are the two thieves on the cross either side of Jesus as they died. One mocked him. Bravado. Anger. Pain. The other appealed to Jesus. Remember me he said. Jesus assures him thru his anguish, pain of scourging and beatings, pain of torture on a cross designed to make the dying as long and painful as possible. All three were suffering. Yet, the mocking thief faced his final moments in terror. Not knowing what would be next. His last breath was a desperate attempt to forestall the moment of life's termination. How about that thief that heard the word of the Lord; TODAY YOU WILL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE. His last breath was welcomed. He knew that Jesus, Creator of all the universe, just opened heaven's welcome center for him. Fear was gone. He may have been in pain.. but he entered into eternity in hope. That is Gods best for his children. Fear of the sting of death is gone...when we know Jesus said... TODAY YOU WILL BE WITH ME.
So what happens to us right after we die? It's the moment after. Time has now ceased. We enter eternity. All pain is gone. Our carcass is empty. Body and soul are no longer one. What do we see or experience? What is that moment like?
There are scriptural and testimonies of a some who have witnessed these things to help us grasp what happens. We can construct what it will be like using clues with Biblical support. The song we can only imagine, as wonderful as it is, comes short of the mark. We can and if we can grasp the vision, fear dissolves.
The moment the thief Jesus Promised died, all people who die in Christ, the moment you die here's what happens:
There is a shock into well being. We suddenly feel indescribable peace. Beyond all understanding. It's overwhelms us. We can hardly take it in. Then there is the beauty. It is a manifestation of the fullness of Jesus beauty. Every color comes so alive that we can taste it. In fact we taste colors. Music is everywhere. All at once. Remember this is eternity where everything is now. So our experience in non linear. It's all now. Hard for those of us trapped in time to grasp, but to get a small glimpse of what that might be like, think back to a wonderful childhood memory. A good one. Think of it. All the color, music, joy, fun, and love you felt. Now let that emotion come over you. You see it not in linear fashion but as one good memory, all at once. The parts you really enjoyed come back again and again. That's a bad imitation of what eternity is like. All at once, but able to be parceled out. I hear people ask what kind of music will I hear? It will be your fullness of joy to experience... whatever fits your moment will be heard. For some hymns, for some chants, for some choruses, for some classical for some a gospel song, or even rap (Christian). It's your eternity and Father speaks to you in the context you understand. You have to grasp that it's all one. Yet differentiable.
You will have unspeakable joy. No remembrances from earth that have contain any regret or pain... the pain you had in life will fit into your understanding and there will be no questions. The Idea that you are going to ask questions of Jesus when you get there will be needless. You will have full understanding of all. You will know who you really are. There will be no more self doubt. How you fit into the whole while on earth will make perfect sense in a supernatural way. That is why there is no recognized hierarchy in heaven. One saint is as another. Fullness and fitly joined together. This sudden recognition of your place in the universe will take your breath away.
Your capacity for experience will multiply a thousand times or more. You will experience heaven as if you had 5000 senses instead of 5. Every color, every sound, every taste, everything you hear, everything you feel, and the fragrance... it will be amazing. You will understand what a vapid colorless place life on earth was. You won't regret it...but wish everyone could experience what you are experience.
You will live without confusion. No question. Your only desire will be to worship. It will all be so clear. Bowing in worship, raising hands. Singing. Whatever will make all the sense...in heaven. You will want to enter into who HE is so completely at to be lost in Him. You were created for this. The beauty of Jesus will be revealed again and again. It will be all one but eternal. It will never be boring.
You will have a form. A spirit form. Yet you will look to others as you were remembered best. Known as you were known. Recognized... yet it is your spirit that they see.. the rest is construct. In fact you have only a spirit. It's hard to explain, but you won't have arms, legs or head as you know yourself, but to those who see you, you will look as you did to them. I know that's unclear but think of a child who dies young. Her daddy is 25 years old. She will see him thus. His brother who dies at 50 will remember him as about his age and his wife who follows him in death will see that man thru the eyes of love. His mother who bore him and died in childbirth will see him as a young boy. They will all know him, but all in context and construct. Its how people who die see grandparents and such waiting for them... as they knew them.
It will not seem an unfamiliar place to be explored. You will already know all about it. It will seem normal, someplace you already knew. In a strange way, heaven was always in your heart. You have had glimpses of it. This is why the idea of reincarnation keeps coming up in false religions. There is a sense of going back, so people try to explain the origin of all life (JESUS saying let there be) as a reincarnation. It's not. But it is returning... Remember, once there, all here is now. To grasp this scripturally, you are already seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus...yet you are here.
It is impossible to describe so those who have had a glimpse of Heaven are lost for words. One thing is certain, once you have been there and come back the fear of death, even the fear of the pain of death is gone.
People don't GO to heaven. They enter heaven. Heaven is infinite in proximity. Right here. Right there. Just there. It is easier to think of it a long long away somehow out there, but it's here. Not on earth, well kind of. More on that in the last post.
When people die they step from the cloak of time into the uncloaking of eternity. We are locked in a box called time and enter into an unlimited vista called NOW.. Eternity.
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