Heaven Is Beyond Your Wildest Expectations (7 page)
Read Heaven Is Beyond Your Wildest Expectations Online
Authors: Sid Roth
As I saw these words in front of me, I realized the light could be coming from God, and, if it was, then what was I doing here? They must have made a mistake because I did not deserve to be here.
If He knows my name, and He knows my thoughts as speech, then I am transparent before Him,
I thought.
He can see everything I’ve ever done in my life.
In fear I thought,
I’m getting out of here.
I started pulling back, looking for some rock to crawl under, or go back down the tunnel where I thought I belonged. But as I pulled back from His presence, wave after wave of pure light started flooding upon me.
The first wave that touched me caused my hands and body to tingle as I felt love go into the depths of who I was, to the extent that I staggered. Then another wave came, and yet another. I thought,
God, You can’t love me, I’ve committed so many sins, I’ve cursed You, I’ve broken so many commandments.
The waves of love kept coming to me, and every statement I confessed was followed by another wave of love until I stood there weeping as God’s love washed through me again and again. I could not believe that God could love such a filthy, unclean man. Yet, as I stood in His presence, the love got stronger and stronger until I felt that if only I could step into the light and see Him, I would know who God was.
I walked closer and closer, until suddenly the light opened up and I saw the bare feet of a Man with dazzling white garments around His ankles. As I looked up, it seemed as if the light emanated from the pores of His entire face, like brilliant jewels with light and power shooting out from every facet. In total wonder at the sight of the brilliance and purity before me, I realized this person indeed must be God. It could only be Jesus. His garments appeared to be made of shimmering light itself. I walked up closer to see His eyes, but as I stood in front of Him, He moved away as if He did not want that. And as He moved, I saw what looked like a brand-new planet Earth opening up before me.
This new earth had green grass, yet with the same light and radiance that was upon God. Through the fields, a crystal clear river flowed, with trees on either side of its banks. There were green rolling hills, mountains and blue skies over to my right; and to my left, meadows with flowers and trees. It looked like a Garden of Eden or paradise. Every part of me was drinking this in saying, “I belong here. I was made for this place. I’ve traveled the world looking for a place like this.” I wanted to enter in and explore, but as I stepped forward to do so, He stepped in front of me and asked me this question, “Ian, now that you have seen, do you wish to step in, or return?”
Imagine if you had gotten there, as it were, by the skin of your teeth, through a deathbed prayer.
Imagine if you knew that, just behind God, was a place where there would be no more sickness, no more death, no more suffering, no more pain, no more wars, and where there was life for eternity, what would you do? Believe me, I had no plans to come back to this earth. I was going to say goodbye to this cruel world and step right into that one.
But that instant I looked back over my shoulder. I saw a clear vision of my mother looking at me. She had prayed for me every day of my life, and had tried to show me the way of God. I realized that if I went into Heaven right then she would think I had gone to hell, because she would not know of my repentance in that ambulance and giving my life to God. I said, “God, I can’t step in, I can’t be selfish. I must go back and tell my mother that what she believes in is real.”
I must go back and tell my mother
that what she believes in is real.
Looking back, I saw all my family and thousands upon thousands of people stretching far back into the distance. I asked God who they were, and He said that if I did not return, many of those people would most likely never hear about Him. My response was that I did not love them; but as I expressed that feeling, God said, “But I do, and I want them to come to know Me.”
How was I to get back? God told me to tilt my head, feel liquid running from my eye, and then open it and see. I found myself with my right eye open, and there was a doctor at the end of the bed with a sharp instrument prodding my foot. As he turned and saw me, the blood drained from his face, and you could see him thinking,
A corpse has just opened its eye.
I heard the voice of God whisper,
“Son, I’ve just given you your
life back.”
Still trying to grasp what I had seen, I heard the voice of God whisper, “Son, I’ve just given you your life back.” My response to God, “If that is true, could You please give me strength to turn my head and look through my other eye?” As God gave me strength to open my left eye, I saw in the doorway of the room, nurses and orderlies. They were standing in the doorway staring, open-mouthed. I had been dead for fifteen minutes; but now I was very much alive!
I tried to move my neck. I thought that if I had been dead that long, I could be a quadriplegic for the rest of my life. So I asked God to heal me completely, and allow me to walk out of the hospital, otherwise to take me back into Heaven. Over the next four hours, I felt warmth and power flow through my body—the next day I walked out of the hospital, completely healed.
Over the next six weeks I read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. As I read through the Scriptures, everything that I had seen in Heaven was described in that book. I believe Jesus the Messiah died for our sins on the cross, rose from the dead, and is the Resurrection and the Life.
I believe in resurrection power.
I believe in healing.
I am a living testimony to it all.
Commentary
The Lord does warn even those who do not believe in Him when trouble is ahead; but like Ian, many do not heed the warnings. Ian’s sense of uneasiness was a warning he didn’t heed. The gracious mercy of the Lord and a praying mother enabled Ian to hear the Lord’s voice speaking to him to keep his eyes open. Even the feeble prayer Ian prayed was enough to rescue him from an eternity in the darkness of hell. The Bible tells us,
“But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you…”
(Isa. 59:2). Ian, an atheist, had been so far from the Lord that when He saw Jesus in all His light, he had no recognition of Him such as someone who knows the Lord immediately has. Then he surmised He must be God.
As the Lord begins to show Ian His love, Ian wanted to flee from Him back into darkness as he saw his own unworthiness. But the love of the Lord overcame Ian’s feelings of uncleanness in His presence until he then wanted to come closer to Him, to know who He was. That shift in the spirit realm, where Ian realized his sin before God and then received His forgiveness, wanting to draw near to him, he experienced being “born again” of the Spirit of God.
When anyone has a “born again” experience, we become new persons who are now responsive to the Spirit of God who comes to dwell within us. Little by little, God works in our lives to make us righteous as He is righteous. We can see that process already beginning in Ian’s life. Despite living a self-indulgent life, when Ian is given the choice of staying in Heaven or going back to earth, he realizes his mother would think he had gone to hell and never know he was in Heaven if he didn’t go back. The unselfishness of this choice reveals that a change was already beginning to happen in Ian.
One of the things that takes place when we are born again is that we begin to change and become more loving and more forgiving, all of which is to say, more like Jesus in increasing measure. Ian now cared more about his mother than even his own preference to stay in Heaven. The Lord told Ian that many thousands of people would never know about Him and His offer of forgiveness and the way to Heaven if Ian did not return to earth. Ian responded that he didn’t really care about them. But Jesus replied that He loved them. Here too is another remarkable thing about being born again. Jesus begins to give us His love for others, even those whom we might never have cared about before. God has no favorites. He loves us all equally.
For God so loved the
[whole]
world
[and everyone in it]
that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life
(John 3:16).
About Ian McCormack
Born and raised in New Zealand, following his life-after-death experience in 1982, Ian has traveled the world sharing his experience in more than fifty-five nations. He is an ordained minister with the New Zealand Assemblies of God and is currently the pastor at Kingsgate Church in London, England. His heart is to see many souls come to know the Lord as their personal Savior. The following story is Ian’s son Michael’s testimony of also being in Heaven with Jesus.
Michael is the son of Ian McCormack whose story you just read. Michael was ten years old when he had this encounter with Jesus in Heaven in a vision. The McCormack’s live in London, England. Try reading this with Michael’s delightful British accent telling the story.
When I came into church, I felt led to sit down and pray to Jesus. As I did, a light shone on me and with that light came an overflowing love. I was then lifted up into the heavens in this white light. I saw angels coming around me, surrounding me as I went up. They were clothed in white robes and had shining faces and wings. They were floating around me, like they were hovering. Their wings were fully open and moving quite slowly—and they were barefooted.
Then I arrived at Heaven’s Gate. It was golden. Beyond the gate I could see a massive palace and a town. The palace and the town were surrounded by a wall, which was also golden in color. Jesus was suddenly next to me in white shining clothing. I saw the shape of His face that was all light, so it was hard to see His face clearly, but I was aware that He had very kind eyes. He was tall. I felt surprised, happy, and amazed all at the same time. Jesus didn’t speak to me then, but I heard God the Father’s voice say to me from inside the city, “Come, My son.” When He said it, I saw the massive golden gate open toward me by itself; and I saw a bright shining light coming out as the gate opened.
