Hello, and welcome to Faith is Hope,
I’m Dave.
Visions. Have you ever heard of a near-death experience? Some people report having an experience where they hover above their bodies. They can look down and see themselves, and what’s going on. That they enter into a bright light or a tunnel of light that takes them to heaven. Some have said they saw Jesus, talked with him, or maybe visited with a relative that had been dead. These experiences usually come as a result of a severe illness or injury where the person literally dies for a short period of time. But what would you call an experience when the person wasn’t sick or injured, someone who wasn’t near death?
In January 2016, I was at home, in my chair. I received a vision in a dream. I saw myself laying in a hospital bed. There were doctors and nurses around me. I saw a cart sitting against the wall on the left side of the bed. I could see the wires and IV’s connected to me, and hear everything that was going on, everything being said. I wasn’t looking down on myself, I was walking in and around the doctors and nurses. I was standing behind the doctor at the head of the bed, looking over his shoulder at myself. I heard the heart monitor going from rhythmic tones to one long continuous tone. The doctor called for different medicines from the cart. They were doing chest compressions, I could feel all of it. Then the doctor said, that’s it, and everyone stopped. Two nurses stayed as everyone else walked out of the room. They started unhooking all the IVs and wires, then pulled the sheet up to my chest. One of the nurses left and returned with my wife. They led her to my right side and left. My wife took my hand and fell to her knees crying. I walked around in front of her and started telling her. Look I’m not dead, I’m right here. I’m right in front of you, look up they made a mistake, I’m right here, just look up, but she just continued crying. I could feel something warm running down my forehead, and into my eyes so I wiped my eyes and when I looked at my hands, they were covered in blood. Then everything went black. Not dark, black. There was nothing, no light, no sound, no smells, no feeling, nothing. And that’s what the physical death of our body is, it’s nothing. Nothing exists in the grave, not even time. I felt like I was suspended, just floating, but my head felt it was lower than my body. Like I was slightly inverted, tilted down. I saw a light up and to the right of me. I tried to reach for it, but nothing moved, nothing worked. Suddenly I was in a place that was filled with a beautifully soft, warm light. I felt nothing but love. Pure perfect love that can only be described as heaven. There was no more pain, sorrow, none of it. This light, this perfect love didn’t just surround me. It flowed through me, it filled me, and then continued to pour out into me. No matter where I went, I was never without or outside of that light or the love. I could see a black line, like a horizon line way out in the distance, but you could walk forever and never reach it. I looked down. I could see a shimmering sea of deep blue. Then I woke up from this dream vision. My wife said she wanted to talk to me in the living room. She went out and waited for me. I stood up and started walking down the hallway. When I got to the living room, she stood up and shouted what are you doing? I said you wanted to talk to me. She said yes, but you don’t walk. You haven’t walked in over fourteen years, what’s going on? So I told her about my vision.
God blessed me with a small short glimpse of heaven. I’ve seen his glory, I’ve felt his power and his grace. I don’t know why God did what he did. I don’t have to know why. I just have to understand that whatever it is God wants me to do with this, he will guide me, each and every step of the way.
Now, later that year, I was shown another vision. This one was very different. God blessed me with this small glimpse of hell. Hell is defined as the absence of God. A place where there is no love, no joy, no happiness, no mercy or compassion, just death. I don’t know why God showed me this. But I can tell you hell is real. And there is no one, not one of us can even begin to imagine it. There’s a saying that “war is hell”. No, war is war, it’s many things, but it’s not hell, hell is forever. I’m going to try to describe what I was shown, what I felt, and what I heard and smelled. But no matter how I describe it. Know this. Hell is beyond our understanding, and infinitely worse than I can describe.
The space where I was was very dark. The light was very faint and had a slight reddish/orange glow around me, but nothing else. I was straining my eyes trying to see, but I couldn’t make anything out. My thought was this must be some sorta cave or something deep underground. I didn’t know what was around me, but I knew I didn’t want to move. I reached out my right hand and found a wall. I could feel the sharp, jagged rocks above me, behind me. The floor had little pools of liquid that had a fire burning on them. Some were the size of my foot, some as big as me. The flame was an eerie blue, that was very hot, but didn’t give off a lot of light. There wasn’t much room, and I had to hunch over and crawl. One hand in front of me, the other on the wall. I could hear blood-curdling screams from out of the darkness. God, it sounded like people were being torn apart. I tried to cover my ears, but it didn’t help. People were begging for mercy, but the screams never stopped.
I’ve been to a lot of places, and I’ve seen things that I never thought one person could do to another. I’ve known fear, but not like this. It sorta felt like I fell into an ocean of anguish, torment, pain and suffering, hatred, and feeling every bit of it in that one single second, but that second never ends. Every second of eternity, drowning in an ocean of evil. No way out, no one to save you.
The smell can only be described as death. It was like rotting meat, sulfur, burnt hair, and tar all combined. It was so horrible, that I choked on it every time I took a breath. The stench made me physically sick for three days. How can any of us even begin to imagine what being in hell is really like? There’s no love, no compassion, nothing. Just pain, and suffering. This wasn’t like some nightmare that ends when you wake up. Hell never ends.
God’s love is perfect. We understand good, and we can understand great, but we have no concept of perfect because none of us are perfect, and nothing we do is perfect. God is perfect, heaven is perfect in his presence, and his love, his mercy, and truth are perfect. See, that’s the kicker, satan is perfect too. Just like hell is perfect, only they’re perfect evil. Perfect death and destruction. Heaven is an eternity in God’s presence, with God’s love, mercy, truth, compassion, understanding, and grace. Hell is an eternity in the presence of satan, of darkness, death, torment, and anguish and it’s also for eternity. If I knew every word ever spoken in every language past, present, and future. I wouldn’t have enough words to describe how amazing heaven is. I also wouldn’t have enough words to describe how horrific hell is. There are no words, none.
Hey, I’m Dave – Join me next time when I talk about “Just One Thing”. And until then, I’ll see you at the Rest Area.
