Visions of Heaven
Reported by John Edwards
One day I was sitting at home in my room, and I thought to myself, "I wonder whether the saints in heaven ever long to meet the saints on earth - like we often long to meet them?"
There is, after all, one family in heaven and earth (Ephesians 3:15).
"But would such an experience be Scriptural?" I wondered.
Straightaway I thought of the time when Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus on the mount of Transfiguration, when the disciples Peter, James and John saw them and even recorded what they talked about.
Next I also remembered that John the Revelator saw a vision in which he met and held conversations with the saints in heaven, as well as seeing angels and also the Lord Himself.
"In the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established," the Bible says.
Later that day I was to be a guest speaker in a youth meeting. So, since I now felt assured that such an experience would be Scriptural, I asked the Lord to let it happen that night during the meeting.
A Visitation
During the meeting, I shared my usual message: that Jesus loves to visit with us through the Holy Spirit - and all we need do is give Him time to move.
I shared a couple of testimonies of how Jesus moved in the past, then all the youth agreed to give Jesus the rest of the time in the meeting. After we sang just one more worship song, we welcomed the Holy Spirit.
One by one the youth began to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Some were in tears. Others shook. Some laughed for joy.
Two of the girls, both aged about 14, appeared to be having a most remarkable experience. Together they cried, laughed, sang and danced. At one stage we even saw them acting as though they were casting a fishing line, or something.
The youth were still under the power of the Holy Spirit when some of the parents already began arriving to collect them - so the parents disturbed their children in the midst of the experience, to take them home.
But before they left, we asked the two teenage girls in particular about their experience.
We were amazed at what we heard:
"An angel came and got me and took me to heaven," they both said.
"In heaven we saw a multitude of people singing praises to God. So we joined-in the song."
This was the song we had heard the girls singing. It could have been a brand new song sung in heaven, for neither the girls nor any of us had ever heard it sung before.
Two of the people they met in that throng were Peter and John.
"Peter asked us to teach him one of our dances".
That's when we saw the girls get up and dance.
"Peter just couldn't get it right. He looked so funny."
That's what had made the girls laugh: he looked so awkward trying a modern dance - his steps were so old-fashioned.
And Peter laughed too!
For the rest of us who were in the room, it was like hearing someone talking on the telephone - when you know there is someone talking on the other end of the line, but you only hear the conversation one-way.
That's what it was like. We could hear and see that the girls were interracting with people in heaven, but we only heard one side of the conversation.
A sense of awe descended in the room - which made me wish I was a part of what they were experiencing.
Then Peter said to the girls, "Come, I'll take you fishing".
"We came to a river with the most crystal-clear water: you could see the fish swimming," one of the girls said.
"When we threw the line, Peter laughed at us. 'Here, let me show you how to do it,' he said."
It was at this point that we'd seen the girls acting as though they were casting a line - and laughing!
After Peter taught them how to fish, they had a picnic together with a campfire, and John sat under a pergola.
I asked the girls what Peter and John look like.
"Peter is big and has an afro hair-do! John has dark hair and it is meticulous - not a hair out of place.
Peter does most of the talking - John only adds things in when he feels like it.
People who were friends on earth are still friends in heaven," one of the girls added, "that's why Peter and John still like hanging out together and doing things together in heaven [like fishing].
When Peter says something, John laughs, and he laughs so much his belly moves up and down, it's so funny!"
Both the girls laughed again.
That was the point where some of the parents began arriving, and some of the people present disturbed the girls, telling them it was time to go home.
They both went home visibly filled with the Holy Spirit.
Beloved, there is a place waiting for us in heaven who have known and believed that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He came down from heaven to die for our sins on the cross.
Repent of your sins, confess Jesus Christ as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, today.
"Whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved".
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life"
- John 3:16