Time 3

Recently a pastor publicly mocked the idea of a boy going to heaven and coming back again…. 

WHY?

I don’t understand it myself. 

I mean Jesus has resurrected people from death and they have shared their experiences of heaven- so why not a child? What is so far fetched about this? Is nothing impossible with God? Is He not sovereign over time?  

How about those of us filled with the Holy Spirit that have experienced Heaven while still physically here on earth? 

“It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple.  Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.  They were calling out to each other,

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies!
    The whole earth is filled with his glory!”  Isaiah 6:1-3

“I was caught up to the third heaven fourteen years ago. Whether I was in my body or out of my body, I don't know--only God knows.”  2 Corinthians 12:2

“Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple.”  Ezekiel 43:5

As I have shared before I have had such a vision but I am not going to retell this experience but another one. 

Some time ago, as I was resting I had vision.  I was young child maybe 6 years of age but I was no longer here on earth.  I pass through a small gate where a girl dressed in white with brown hair took my hand.  I didn’t recognize her from the past or even the present but it was apparent I knew her.  There was a forest of trees on the left side filled with this warm yellow light. 

As I continued in the vision I seem to go back and forth from being in my child self to watching myself as I am now.   I watched the younger me dressed in white holding this girl’s hand.  I remember feeling so filled with joy and energy.  We laughed and giggled as we ran up this tall grassy hill without even having to catch our breath.  And that is where the vision stopped- as if God didn’t want to give away the surprise that awaits on the other side of that tall green hill.

Three things come to mind when I think of the vision. 

1. My grandfather told me when God took his name down off the “hook” he would go over those green hills.  I never gave it much thought until after the vision.  What made him say such a thing?  Had he seen the green grassy hill himself? 

2. Then a sister in Christ told me when she has experienced heaven she is always a child as well. Now there were two of us that experienced the same thing.  We must be children in heaven.

3. Jesus says, ‘Truly I say to you, unless you repent (change, turn about) and become like little children [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving], you can never enter the kingdom of heaven [at all]. Whoever will humble himself therefore and become like this little child [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving] is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’” Matthew 18:2-4 AMP

These types of experiences are windows to things that have not happened yet they have been shown to us as things to come and are…

GOD is sovereign over time and the experiences in time.

He can do what he chooses….

For “nothing is impossible with God.”

God’s predestined timeline might have been what the Apostle Paul thought when he wrote, “When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.”  EPHESIANS 3:14

God knows the plan…. It is already written.   When I think about God knowing us, I think all that has been before us… I think of our past, our present, and our future- I think of words of prophesy, visions, dreams and even those déjà vu experiences.

Let us look at some encouraging scriptures about Jesus/God and Us and time.

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” JEREMIAH 1:5

God knew us! God set us apart and appointed us for "spirit-filled" tasks in this life.  I say "spirit-filled" tasks because God is suppose to be helping us in those tasks but because we don't seek God's help and guidance that may seem too difficult for us to do or even mundane.   But the tasks that God gives are not to be mundane- we are not to think we are too good for any tasks for Jesus who was God took the servant's position and cleaned the disciples feet.  That was the job of a servant or a slave.  He died a death he did not deserve!

Let us look at Gideon who said, " “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” JUDGES 6:15 
But God did not see Him as the least.  God seeing all that Gideon would become in time gave him this message, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” JUDGES 6:12
  
“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” ROMANS 8:29-30

“No, we declare God's wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.” 1 CORINTHIANS 2:7

^“Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,” EPHESIANS 1:4-5

“but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.  He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”  1 PETER 1:19-21

Thinks about what Jesus says here, “Yet even in Sardis there are some who have not soiled their garments with evil deeds.  They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.  All who are victorious will be clothed in white.  I will never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine.  Anyone who is willing to hear should listen to the Spirit and understand what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”  REVELATION 3:4-6

JESUS knows who names are and are not in the book of life before they are even born.   There is no reason not to believe this if He knows everything. 

Is he not the author and finisher of our faith?  Does he not know us in time and out of time?