Many people believe in the existence of Heaven and Hell. Sadly many others deny their existence, but both places are very real.
Your eternal destiny and my eternal destiny are in either one or the other of these places. There is no escaping it. The outcome rests on our decisions in life to accept the free and lavish gift of Salvation in Jesus or ignore the invitation. I trust that after reading this, you will determine in your own heart to join me in the most beautiful place I have ever seen—a place called Heaven.
It is therefore my great pleasure and delight to be able to share these few thoughts and my experience with you. I developed this page after receiving many requests to share my testimony. As a young Christian, God miraculously preserved me from certain accidental death by electrocution. That evening, He took me bodily out of my home up towards a Divine encounter that is still as fresh today as it was those many years ago. I have been blessed, honored, privileged (how does one describe it?) to have visited Heaven literally on more than one occasion.
There were no near death experiences. They were not in dream or vision form, but physically.
There are many times I asked the question, Why me? with regard some of the experiences He has given me. The Lord’s answer was so simple, Because you listen.
Please always remember that no matter how spectacular or nice sounding such experiences may be, the final arbiter is the Word of God. It has to line up with scripture. I invite you to open your eyes to see and open your ears to listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying through my words as He talks about and reveals Jesus to us and in the process to ensure that what I say in everything does meet scriptural requirements. I share what He has done for me truthfully and honestly and I hope with a spirit of humility, with the intent to bless and encourage you,
Robert.
I was saved on September 1st, 1968 when Jesus met me during the opening hymn of a crusade. He appeared in a brilliant blaze of light that seemed to bore right through me.
That was my first divine encounter.
About eighteen months later, I received an electric shock, which should have killed me at my place of employment. The current was flowing from my right hand through my body and out through my left hand, burning a small pea-sized hole in the inner joint of my middle finger.
My hand was closing tighter and tighter in an involuntary muscular contraction around the live terminal that had been accidentally exposed through a mechanical failure of the device on which I was working. I could feel the pulsating of the current supplied by the high voltage supply flowing through my chest and was thinking to myself, This is it. This is graduation day.
I am coming home.
Suddenly, I was free. I do not know how that happened as my assistant was too far away to see everything that was happening, but he knew that something had indeed happened and continually looked intently at me in wonderment afterward.
That evening, I was preparing for bed and in a state of awed numbness. I felt elated. After all, my God delivered me from certain death, yet here I was without any side effects whatsoever. The experts told me that I should have received muscular or tissue damage that would have produced chest pains, if nothing else, but I had no pain… no headaches, no feelings whatsoever to indicate that I had just had such an experience.
The gaping hole burned into my right finger was not hurting and it had completely gone without a trace the following morning.
It was a crisp wintry evening as I sat on the floor with my back against the bed and my feet on the wall as I looked out the bedroom window into a cloudless sky. The sky was bright and the stars were twinkling brilliantly under that clear crisp sky, when I suddenly heard a strange noise that grew louder.
It was a whooshing sound and I could feel a breeze on my face, blowing past my ears, ruffling my hair, blowing onto my eyes and whistling past my ears. Suddenly, a tunnel shaped opening appeared in the sky, enveloping me. It disappeared into the distance high above me into a mere pinpoint as if the very sky opened itself up. This whooshing noise continued whilst I was being bodily lifted upwards and outwards out of my window into this tunnel.
Although the evening sky was naturally bright and the were stars twinkling brilliantly, the tunnel grew even lighter, almost dazzling bright. The stars disappeared inside this tunnel, although I could still see them outside the tunnel as I moved.
Lying on my back, I was moving at an astonishing speed upwards towards the pinpoint at the end of the tunnel.The motion was simply amazing and seemed to continue for a very long time but I really do not know how long it lasted. As I continued upwards, the end of this tunnel seemed to disappear, open out, or fade out into a wide expanse of sky. I call it sky, because there is no way I can describe it. It was like being in space with the stars surrounding me, but in the midst of this, there was an atmosphere and brilliantly, dazzingly white clouds and I was zooming towards them.
As I got closer, a gleaming white object appeared. It was immense, seemingly miles wide. It was a throne and had the appearance of gleaming white marble that seemed to pulsate with a kaleidoscope of vibrant colors that emanated from within, yet surrounded it.
The geometric precision of this throne amazed me. It was perfectly straight, level and vertical. The right angles were perfect and the edges were so precise, they were almost razor sharp. The throne was reminiscent of those marble seats one sees in Roman or ancient Greek settings. It had shiny portions in the sides that were like mother of pearl and although I cannot honestly state that there were precious gems there, it gleamed, shimmered and sparkled brilliantly as if light was reflecting from them. It was dazzling.
As if shrouded in a cloud, or like a photograph that is slightly out of focus, a human shaped figure was sitting on this throne. I could not see this person clearly, almost as if not permitted to do so, but there was a definite impression of age… timeless age and a carriage of distinction like nothing I have experienced. Again, without being capable of seeing distinctly, he seemed to be garbed in a flowing white mantle with long sleeves and large cuffs.
Although this throne was miles wide and the person was the size of a very large man, he filled this throne. It was one thing that greatly impressed me.
The throne was huge in proportions… miles wide, yet this person completely filled it as he sat there in regal posture.I was still moving at astronomical speed towards this sight, in the middle of this brilliantly illuminated tunnel with the wind blowing in my face, ruffling my hair. The illumination in this tunnel was not by any artificial means. There were no lights as we understand them yet the whole opening was just lit up as if the light was alive. The stars were still visible as I continued my movement.
This person then leant slightly forwards and gestured with the right arm and hand towards me. I heard a voice within me that spoke words of comfort and reassurance that all was well and that I had a destiny and then suddenly there was one sudden large whoosh sound and I was back in my home again… in a different position that before.
My personal opinion is that this was the Great White Throne. I have no biblical proof in any way, but that is what my heart tells me. I do not hazard a guess as to who this person was, nor am I going to try to suggest anything, as I just do not know, but the experience has radically affected my life. I can close my eyes and think about it even now and see it again. One day, I will stand before the Great White Throne, but this time, I will see with open eyes, clothed in pure white linen, bowing in worship and adoration with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Will you?
For many people, Heaven is a place shrouded in mystery. It is an almost an unknown place… a dream land… a paradise that is without peer, or a place that exists merely in peoples’ imaginations… a fantasy land, or escapism from reality. It is more real than the world in which we live. It is a place that dreams are made of and it truly is a place that is without comparison.
You might not have visited there yet, or know much about it, other than what you read in books or in the bible.
You might not know anyone who has seen it and perhaps there are mere handfuls of people who have seen Heaven, but I have a feeling that this is going to change. We just cannot barge in to anyone’s home without invitation- that would be trespass and lead to problems with the law. Similarly, one cannot just arrive in Heaven, because it is a special place that is reserved for special people.
Going to church will not guarantee admission. Doing many good deeds will not open the door for you. Believing in God is no certainty either, because even the devil and evil spirits believe in God. They aren’t going there!
The people who will go there are those who are the redeemed of the Lord. Those blood washed believers, who are looking earnestly for the Bridegroom’s appearance, are the ones who will go. Those ones who are not foolish like the man who attended the wedding reception, but was not prepared, will go, but those who are clean, righteous and prepared will!
Oh, yes! Heaven is special.
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We often forget that Jesus was just as much a man on earth as we are. He got just as tired, hot, dirty, sweaty, hungry and thirsty as we do and went to the bathroom occasionally. That is one reason why he so readily identifies with us and understands the feeling of our infirmities.
If you will give him the time, he will become your friend and relate to you, friend to friend, man to man, God to man, in communion, fellowship, relationship and he will enjoy the purest of our worship.
God wants to get involved in our everyday life. He is very interested in all that we do, where we go, what we eat, drink and wear. He is involved with our sleep, work, rest or play, desires us to enjoy life to the full and more than that… to the overflow.
There are times in which we think are inappropriate that he communes with us like that. I was showering one time and he started talking. I was sitting in the bathroom and he started talking. Now, going to the restroom is a very private thing and I was embarrassed the first time, but suddenly realized that he made me. He knows my plumbing, so my nakedness and toilet habits were inconsequential.
He has often done things like that with me, often sharing things as friends do together. One evening as I was sitting in my lounge chair, doing nothing of real importance, he suddenly said that he wanted to show me the home that he was building for me in heaven.
Suddenly, without any physical manifestations, feelings of movement, fire from Heaven or flashes of lightning etc, I was there. One minute I was sitting in my lounge chair and the next, as fast as it takes to blink an eye, I was standing outside a mansion in heaven.
Paul explained:
But we do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them that are fallen asleep, to the end that ye be not grieved even as also the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus has died and has risen again, so also God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. (For this we say to you in the word of the Lord, that we, the living, who remain to the coming of the Lord, are in no way to anticipate those who have fallen asleep; for the Lord himself, with an assembling shout, with archangel’s voice and with trump of God, shall descend from heaven; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we, the living who remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall be always with the Lord. So encourage one another with these words.) 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. I recommend you also read 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11.
This is what Christians often call the rapture. The word itself does not really appear as such in scripture, but it is an apt description of what is there, describing the event as a catching away. It is often debated topic, linked with the tribulation period and this is a topic best addressed elsewhere. Personally, I believe that I shall be gone before that and hope you will join me.
People often ask about what we will look like and such things and Paul gave an answer:
…some one will say, How are the dead raised? and with what body do they come? Fool; what thou sowest is not quickened unless it die. And what thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but a bare grain: it may be of wheat, or some one of the rest: and God gives to it a body as he has pleased, and to each of the seeds its own body. Every flesh is not the same flesh, but one is of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fishes. And there are heavenly bodies, and earthly bodies: but different is the glory of the heavenly, different that of the earthly: one the sun’s glory, and another the moon’s glory, and another the stars’ glory; for star differs from star in glory. Thus also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruptibility. It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body: if there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one. Thus also it is written, The first man Adam became a living soul; the last Adam a quickening spirit. But that which is spiritual was not first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual: the first man out of the earth, made of dust; the second man, out of heaven. Such as he made of dust, such also those made of dust; and such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones. And as we have borne the image of the one made of dust, we shall bear also the image of the heavenly one. But this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s kingdom, nor does corruption inherit incorruptibility.
Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed, in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must needs put on incorruptibility, and this mortal put on immortality. But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruptibility, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the word written: Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is thy sting? where, O death, thy victory? Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin the law; but thanks to God, who gives us the victory by our Lord Jesus Christ.
So then, my beloved brethren, be firm, immovable, abounding always in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.
1 Corinthians 15:35-5
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