December seems to be a month for angels, but I think we miss the fact that angels are actually a year round entity. Maybe it is because we sing Christmas carols mentioning angels at this time of the year. The angels came to the shepherds to give praises to God and tell them about the birth of a baby born in Bethlehem, the real reason to celebrate Christmas.
Most people agree that angels are real. Most people seem to know about guardian angels (I told you my personal angel story a couple of years ago). I want to share another couple true stories with you.
I had a friend come over to my house and she wanted me to pray with her. We chatted about what was going on before we got to praying and I distinctly heard God tell me not to pray yet, He wanted some time alone with her first. I mentioned this to her and told her that I was going to go for a walk around the block and leave her to talk to God before we prayed.
I came back and found her on the couch crying. She had been given a very huge gift in my short time away. God had talked to her about some deeply personal stuff and then had given her a chance to see that she was indeed safe and protected by Him. He opened her eyes to see the spiritual world around her for a brief moment.
What she saw astounded her.
My front room windows are huge. There are 2 of them and with a small spacer in the middle they are 10’ tall by 12’ long. She saw the backs of 2 angels standing in front of the house, so large they were blocking the windows. Their shoulders and wing span completely covered the windows. The house was entirely protected by these angelic beings.
Even though we cannot usually see the “spiritual world” does not make it not exist. The Bible tells us that the spiritual world is there and is as real as our material world, we simply, do not have eyes to see it. There are a couple of people mentioned in the Bible who got this same gift of seeing the “unseen”. It overwhelmed and terrified them, it was more than they could imagine and then the Bible mentions others who seeing into the spiritual world was fairly “normal” to them. The same holds true for us today. I know people who can see into the spiritual world quite easily and others who are working on it, and others who this thought terrifies them.
I once had a person call me and wanted to meet right away. Off Brian and I went. This person told me they had died a few days prior, like been officially declared dead at a hospital and had been brought back to life. They had no spiritual or religious views, and at this point I was it, so they called me. This incident scared them terribly because they saw something, something happened. It is very difficult to explain things when you do not believe in them.
Like most people who experience something “new” it is hard to find words to actually describe what you see because you have never seen it before. This person said they left their body and something like an elevator with a bright, bright light at the top took them to a different place. It was not scary for them, they felt peace but before they were able to enter into the next “place” they were put back into their body. When they woke up, they knew that death was not the “end” rather that there was something real on the other side. This person was having a hard time accepting that they were being given a second chance, they wanted to know why. They wanted to know what the Bible had to say about it. A wise move on their part.
This person is not the first person I have met that has died, I know 5 people who have died and been brought back to life. 2 experienced something not peaceful but disturbing and unsettling, to the point that it caused them to seek out God and find Jesus once they came back to this side again. They determined not to ever go “there” again. 3 of the 5 experienced peace and the “light”.
There are many, many accounts of people who have died – I have yet to hear anyone who says, “yup I died, laid in the ground and nothing happened.” All of the stories I have heard, read, or talked to people about include the fact that there is something more, a spiritual world on the other side. Death is simply a door to another dimension.
If you died today, do you know what you are going to experience? Will it be peaceful or so unsettling that fear creeps in? It is a comforting feeling to not fear the next chapter of our life.
I am not sure how to fully explain it but once you invite Jesus to be a part of your life, you get a peace about dying, you simply “know” that you are going “home” and the fear dissolves into expectation.
This Christmas season as we watch the weary world trying to find peace and contentment with “things”, perhaps we can set aside a bit of time to ponder the question, “if I died tonight…. I would be….”
Frankly there is not a more important question you can ask yourself, life owes you no extra minute, no guarantee of the future.
I heard a country song that has stuck with me, I will put the link at the bottom because it is worth the listen. It is called “Everyone talks to God," by Aaron Lewis.
I sum it up this way: basically, it is up to you, you can talk to Him now or you can talk to Him later, but eventually, everyone talks to God.
Link to song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=allxx9EzoxU