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Jesus knew exactly where He came from
and where He was heading – but how do you think His disciples must
have felt when He announced, It is to your advantage that I am
going away (John 16:7)? They must have felt tempted to “know
better” and to retort: “How can it possibly be better for You not to
be here?”
Those who have experienced the
sweetness of the Lord’s presence stealing upon them might feel best
qualified to answer that question, for these special times when the
Lord’s presence is close remind us more vividly than words alone
could ever do of the nearness of His love for us. They, above all,
are in a position to make sense of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s comment
whilst in prison that, “Death is the supreme festival on the road to
freedom.”
Sometimes the most profound
experiences happen in surprisingly matter of fact ways. At a time
when he felt completely stuck in his work of preparing his
translation of the New Testament, and utterly depressed in his life
and faith, J. B. Phillips records how the recently deceased C. S.
Lewis suddenly stood before him, having entered his bedroom through
closed doors. In this vision experience, Lewis spoke just one short
sentence to Phillips: “J. B., it’s not as hard as you think!” This
“appearance” was precisely what was needed to draw Phillips out of
his depression, and to set him free again to continue his life’s
work.
Many of you will have your own
stories of the “powers of the age to come” breaking through to bring
you help and reassurance. Such experiences owe nothing to
“spiritualism,” but everything to the Lord deliberately withdrawing
the veil somewhat between Heaven and Earth. Why does He do this?
Usually to bring direction, or to reassure us that a loved one is
safely with Him. Sometimes it is to help us let go of them.
A friend who was struggling greatly
in the aftermath of losing her mother lamented that she had not felt
the presence of her mother for some time. Without telling her
husband what she was doing, she prayed that the Lord would show him
that her mother really was with the Lord. That night, he had a
powerful dream, in which he saw his wife’s mother with the Lord,
specifically giving her blessing to them as a couple in a way that
she had never managed to do on Earth.
Shortly after her husband died,
Catherine Marshall went into the hospital room where his body lay
and suddenly realised:
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I was not alone. For a
while there was a transcendent glory. Although I did not
understand it then and can’t explain it now, I knew that
Peter was near me. And beside him, another presence, the
Lord he had served through long years stretching back to
boyhood experiences on the moors of Scotland.7 |
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In time this experience
faded, and Catherine Marshall was left longing for further
reassurance that Peter really was still “alive.” What the
Lord said to her then will be of help to us now.
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Once again you have been
trying to put feeling before faith. Because you haven’t been
able to feel Peter’s presence, you have assumed that he is
lost to you forever. Simply have faith that he is with you
whenever you need him. Assume it – and the feeling and the
proof will come later. Accept this on faith.8 |
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Given that not all of us may
be privileged to receive such “audible” confirmation, we do
well to bear Jesus’ words in mind.
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Because you have seen Me,
you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and
yet have believed.
John 20:29 |
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Experiences such as these
remind us that the dead in Christ are by no means gone
forever. Who knows what role they may still be playing on
our behalf? We may one day discover to our delight that our
loved ones continue to be involved in our pilgrimage, but
now from the infinitely richer vantage point of sharing
God’s presence and perspective.
Understanding nothing of this
interaction between Heaven and Earth, the Sadducees tried to catch
Jesus out, but He cut right through their chicanery:
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Marriage is for people
here on Earth. But that is not how it will be in the age to
come. For those worthy of being raised from the dead won’t
be married then. And they will never die again. In these
respects, they are like the angels. They are children of God
raised up to new life. But now, as to whether the dead will
be raised – even Moses proved this when He wrote about the
burning bush. Long after Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had died
He referred to the Lord as the ‘God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac and the God of Jacob.’ So He is the God of the living,
not the dead. They are all alive to Him. Luke 20:34-38
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Jesus was pointing here to
the wonderful continuity that exists between those of us who
are part of His Church on Earth, and those who have died in
Christ. Clothed now in their spiritual bodies, we can be
very sure that they are able to think and praise on a much
higher level than ever they could on Earth. What joy there
will be when our time comes to meet with them in glory!
Contrary to certain popular
superstitions, Scripture does not say that we will become angels –
it tells us that we will be like the angels.9 Since this is to be
our destiny, let’s get into training. What to angels do? They stand
before the throne of God in worship, and are sent out from there on
specific missions. Are we not called to do the same – first to draw
close to the Lord, and then to go out to do His work, full of a
Heavenly love that is free from all trace of lust and selfish
exclusivity?
We are to steer well clear, however,
of the many deceivers who are waiting in the wings to exploit our
yearning to contact loved ones who have passed beyond. Although God
in His mercy may occasionally grant some comforting sense of a loved
one’s presence, we dare not make this a general expectation, let
alone go looking for opportunities to make contact with them after
they have died.
The Scriptures categorically forbid
all types of divination – whether by palmistry, pendulums,
horoscopes or the like. We are specifically instructed not to get in
contact with the dead through mediums. The Hebrew word for spiritist
is a “knowing one,” but much of the information that fortune-tellers
provide is completely false, and comes from so deceptive a source
that no wise person should have anything to do with it.
The spirit powers that are at work
through mediums are perfectly prepared to trade platitudes about the
afterlife, and even to accord insights into future events and
physical healings – but if this permits an entry point into
someone’s heart it is by no means the good deal it may at first
appear.
Given how wonderful Heaven is, it was
perhaps inevitable that the enemy would find suitable propagandists
to publish so-called tales from beyond the grave in order to lull
people into believing that the afterlife is certain to be sweet.
Interviewing people who had
clinically died, but subsequently returned to life, Dr. Richard Kent
found a strikingly similar pattern. Each person described how
significant moments of their life passed before their eyes – but in
the clearer light of eternity, most of these were not the events
that had appeared the most important at the time on Earth. The real
issue is whether they had loved God and the people God had placed
around them.
Dr Kent’s findings are a powerful
incentive not to leave getting right with God to our deathbed.10 In
stark contrast to the so-called wisdom of the therapy TV chat shows,
Jesus does not give a blanket reassurance that everyone will
automatically fare well in the next world. Rather, as a matter of
urgency He warns us to fear and honour God.11 The Scriptural
teaching is clear: It is appointed for men to die once and then
to face judgement (Hebrews 9:27).
I shared in
“Angelic
Assistance” how the Lord delights to send ministering
spirits to our aid. He wants us to be aware of the ministry of
angels, and confident of their ability to help. At the same time, we
must be wise, for there are many deceiving spirits around. New Age
and neo-pagan publications are full of stories of encounters with
angels, and highly dubious out-of-body testimonies.
If you have had any involvement in
such things, you will know a far greater freedom in your spirit if
you repent of all such things in the name of Jesus, and ask people
experienced in these matters to pray you free. |
