Heaven Is Beyond Your Wildest Expectations (16 page)

The cloud of fire went to my feet and started moving upward. I saw this with my spiritual eyes, not my natural eyes because this was all happening in the spirit realm. The red and orange fire moved up my legs. I couldn’t see my body after it reached my torso, to my chest and throat and my arms. My entire body disappeared in the power of it. I was in my body watching it. I was perplexed as to how to stay alive. The cloud was consuming my whole body. The force came to my face. When it touched my face, my heart stopped beating. I knew my body was rock solid still. Like a dead person. A voice spoke into my right ear and said, “This is death.” At that instant, I smelled roses like they were everywhere. I had no fear. I had no physical reaction, but I was purely alive—and fully discerning.

Just before I entered death, before my body stopped functioning, I knew it was impossible to escape what was going to happen. I knew how to hold my breath, almost to black out, as I was a diver. I thought,
I used to breathe, but now I’m not breathing air.
I was alive and breathing in the cloud stuff. I was breathing the spiritual power. As I was contemplating how to survive this encounter with all-powerful God, I simply died. It was a miracle that I still had full consciousness.

At the moment of death, the song kept playing. The only thing that kept me in my right mind was the song. At the same time, the Spirit of God was entirely in control. There was no confusion or chaos. He completely encompassed me and had taken over my entire being. Once I learned I was still alive on the other side, I had peace.

Once I knew I was dead, all I
wanted was to be with Jesus and
the Father.

While all this was going on, the words of my song,
Run, Run into the Son,
were coming out of the depths of my heart. They were the only things I heard except the voice in my right ear that said, “This is death.” Death is final, terminating all I knew on earth. I was then so surrounded by such glory and power that I didn’t think about anyone or anything. There was nothing that I missed on earth. I had no recollection of anything except the song. Once I knew I was dead, all I wanted was to be with Jesus and the Father.

S
LOW
M
OTION

Now I was moving in slow motion to some degree, not fast, and was again aware of the song being played. It got louder as I was going upward. I had the distinct sense of moving upward, in a direction closer to the Source of life. Direction is hard to figure out in the eternal realm, but I was definitely heading upward, to a place above, to a higher spiritual place, to where God is. My consciousness at that point went from inside my body and all of my self-awareness to outside myself, to God. There was no more of the self-life inside me. Now Life was all around me, and I was moving into it—I was moving into God! I am describing what takes place in the spiritual realm, though at the time I did not have a complete understanding of what was taking place.

At this point there was no more hiddenness in my soul. Though I didn’t completely understand it then, what took place is that I had escaped the imprisonment of my soul and was free to be part of what was outside myself in the spiritual realm. I was brought to being selfless. Now I was into myriads of the works that are in God that are stored above from before the foundation of the world. The day you die, you’ll see that He’s always been there. He’s there immediately, even if you don’t know it. You have no idea in this life on earth how much God is all over and around you all the time. He’s always there.

What happened next? I saw the heavens open; and I saw the wheels that Ezekiel saw, though I did not see the beings in the wheel that he saw. In front of me appeared a huge array of wheels and lights that were spinning and sparkling. The splendor, the explosive sparkling, the flames of fire and glory, were all ablaze with millions of colors I had never seen before. The wheels stopped between me and the cosmic lights. The stopping point was arrayed in glory and wonder and flashing and peals of thunder. It all moved in such explosiveness.

T
HE
W
HEELS

It didn’t make sense to me at first. They were more like wheeling clouds than wheels we have on earth. The Holy Spirit is in the wheels. The wheels have a lot to do with the spinning of the universe, and it all happens musically. The truth of God is the majesty of God and the wonder of God, which is the truth of God, and it all goes round and round. Together they create a symphony of glorious sounds. Inside the spinning comes an additional symphony.

The wheels have a lot to do with
the spinning of the universe, and
it all happens musically.

Inside the wheel are multiple personalities, angels, and people. I tried to ascend the wheel of music. The wheel stops at the Father and remains stationary, but the wheels keep turning and all the voices start spinning and all the voices around the Father are in majestic harmony. That’s the real purpose of the wheels, to open up the celestial music of the spheres. There is spatial direction through the music.

The wheels are not for transport from one place to another as we see on earth. For example, on earth we get on a bus to go somewhere, like to a concert. The earthly bus travels down the streets and maybe across a bridge or through a tunnel to take us to our destination. But once we get in the heavenly bus within the wheels, we’re already there! I was in this moving thing that had everything already in it. I was no longer going to a concert, I was
in
a concert! In the heavenly realm, all sound joins in a galactic song as the wheels emerge in a musical expansion of sound.

In a way I cannot explain, I could see His glory and His greatness in the music. The music is to sing the truth. It is pure spiritual joy, uncontainable joy. The spiritual attainment of paradise is in the music of God. I saw friends and cities and angels in Heaven, but what was most amazing is the music. All of creation spins on a huge galactic never-ending song. The identity of everyone and everything is in the music. I don’t want to compromise the spiritual perfection as I try to describe it.

W
ELCOME
H
OME

Leaving that atmosphere, I went into a great big orb of white sparkling light. I saw in the backdrop a huge, spatial blue ball, peaceful yet absorbing my full attention. There was much more than I could understand as it was way beyond my ability to comprehend or come close to the light orb. It was of another dimension. I wanted to go there. I wanted to go to the deepest place. I had just gone through the celestial bliss of hearing His music and it was totally exhausting in the sense of being overwhelmed, somewhat like when Daniel saw the angel Gabriel or when John saw Jesus and fell at His feet in the third heaven, overwhelmed in His presence. The Father wasn’t going to put me into all that cosmic energy and not let me wind down.

He’s inside me, and I’m inside
Him—it’s all settled.

What I experienced was more than exterior glory—it was Him on the inside of me. After He showed me what He had in the wheels, He brought me to a place of peacefulness where it was just me and Him. His love for me was just about Him and me at that point, about His heart and me being inside Him and a spiritual peace and a profound sense of “Welcome home.” That’s what the blue was all about. He’s inside me, and I’m inside Him—it’s all settled. There’s nothing more to be accomplished.

He wanted me to visualize Him as the Lord God Almighty, Creator and Everlasting Father. I saw that His power and glory and radiance is spiritual sovereignty, harmony, unity, and righteousness. There is a difference in the two identifiable characters who are one and the same God, one comes out of the other. The Spiritual Person who unites each one, God’s Spirit, moves from the Son to the Father. There is no separation between them. We finally see Jesus as who He is, wrapped up in unity with the Father. There’s God Himself—single, only one. He reveals Himself in time through the incarnation. Jesus is all that comes from the Father.

When I went inside Him, I became part of His love. He serenaded me and sang me to His throne. I saw that He was my song and Lord God and Savior. It was not to see Him as much as to know Him and hear Him. To me it was more important than looking at Him. I saw His righteousness, His radiant, sovereign glory. I saw the Spiritual God Almighty! I didn’t see the nail-scarred hands, but I did see His spiritual power.