I Died, Went to Heaven, and Came Back!

I used to be a very typical American Christian I went to Sunday school when I was a kid I was confirmed in the church when I was in middle school and then I went to college and medical school and training and I bought into the idea that you had to choose between science and spirituality now I was a good person I mean I certainly bought into the concept of me and good person and honest and ethical and a woman of integrity and all those sorts of things but the fact is I was really busy I became a wife a full-time surgeon I was the director of spine surgery at a big University I'm pretty soon I had four little kids to take care of I mean Jesus to me was one more thing on my to-do list that I knew I was never gonna get to but that all changed one day in 1999 when I died and yes I literally mean died I spent 30 minutes under 8 to 10 feet of water without oxygen at the base of this waterfall and while I was underwater and dying I asked that God's will be done and the minute I asked that I was immediately overcome with a very very physical sensation of being held and comforted and reassured by Christ and he took me through a life review was that was like nothing I could have imagined I was reinserted into every one of the most painful memories of my life but this time was different I had a complete understanding of the life story of other people involved and I felt nothing but compassion even for the people who had hurt me deeply and I discovered that where God's love is present there is no room for destructive emotion I discovered grace and then I was also shown the beauty that came out of each and every one of those painful experiences when seen from a distant perspective eventually my body came over the front deck of my boat and when that happened my spirit rose up and out of the river and I was immediately greeted by a group of people or spirits beings who were so overjoyed to welcome me home I know that they had loved me and known me as long as I have existed and even as I was with them and rejoicing I could look back at the river and I could see my friends pull my bloated purple body to shore and watch them start CPR and I had a wonderful life but even as I watched that I knew that I was home and I had no intention of returning and these people or spirits started taking me down this beautiful pathway that exploded with colors and flowers and the aromas of flowers which is what speaks beauty to my soul and I absolutely believe that God presents to each one of us the experience at the time of our death that does speak beauty to us that lets us know that we are known and loved and we finally got to the end of this pathway and I was there for what felt like many many hours and during my time there I had a complete understanding a complete understanding of the divine or of the universe how it could possibly be true that there is a God that is real and present today knows each and every one of the billions of us on this planet individually loves each and every one of us as though were the only ones and has a plan for each and every one of us and for the world that's one of hope and eventually I was told that it wasn't my time that I had more work to do on earth and that I would have to go back to my body so I did what any reasonable person would do and I said I'm good I can stay But Here I am I got kicked out the but they took that opportunity to then give me this laundry list of work yet to be done everything on the list would be challenging but certainly one of the most challenging things on that list had to do with the coming and unexpected death of my oldest son he was hit and killed by a car ten years later but at that time he was only nine and when I asked the obvious question of why why am I why my boy I was immediately returned to my life review where I had been shown the truth and God's promise that beauty comes of all things eventually and I was reminded that it is always a matter of trust trusting God's promises to us and with that then I was reunited with my body and I continued to have supernatural experiences over the next couple of weeks but then finally the window my personal window into heaven closed and I was left with the consequences of my injury and I underwent many many surgeries and many more months of rehab and I spent those many months of rehab trying to figure out what had happened to me I researched extensively every possible explanation or excuse that anyone had ever mentioned I researched of course dreams and hallucinations and DMT or other neurotransmitter trips you know could it have been just the physiologic process of a dying brain and at the end of many many months of research I had to conclude that mine had been a true and spiritual experience and I discovered also that science and spirituality actually coexist very easily because they answer different questions and I also discovered that I wasn't alone in this experience almost 20 million people in this country alone have had this sort of profoundly transformative experience and I've spent many years of course thinking about my experiences and I recognized that my most important transformation was moving from hope or a faith in God's promises to an absolute trust and I do not mean to discount the faith of the Bible but faith in our culture is so often based on reading or other people's experiences and it can certainly be strong but it can just as easily be shaken or lost when challenged but trust is solid trust is an active choice based on the presence of God and the experience of God's trustworthiness in one's own life and I will tell you that trust for me is sort of faith in action and I will tell you what it looks like in my life first of all because of trust I'm free I am free from all bondage to my past I don't feel guilt I don't feel remorse regret for anything I've done or not done because I trust that God knows me completely and knows my story knows my failings and in that knowledge through grace feels nothing but compassion for me and I also know that I would feel nothing but compassion for people in my past because if I knew their true story I too would feel nothing but compassion for them and so I am free from bitterness hate anger even minor irritation that people have caused me and I don't have worry or anxiety about my future because I trust that God has a plan for my life that is one of hope and I'm certainly not afraid of death I trust and actually I will claim to know that there really is life after death heaven whatever you want to call it and I actually believe that it is very reality of that heaven that brings context and meaning and purpose to my own life and what I mean by that is best shown in this next slide many of you will see a white cup and some of you will see blue faces but if you focus entirely on the cup you'll miss the context in the meaning provided by the faces and if you focus entirely on the blue faces you'll miss the beauty and the purpose of the cup now if you imagine for a minute that that white cup represents our life here on earth and the blue faces represent heaven God's people God's intention God's love if you take away that background of heaven then this white cup of life becomes nothing but potential so I'm free from my past I don't worry about the future and heaven brings a context and meaning to my life so what that means is that I am absolutely free to be fully present in every moment of this day and because I trust all of God's promises that means that I also trust what the Bible says about God's presence in my life I trust that God is always present that there's nothing that can separate me from his love that beauty will come of all things in its time and that all things work together for good so what that does is it allows me to rise above my momentary circumstances and experience joy it allows me to be free to experience the joy filled life that I believe God intends for each one of us and wonderfully you don't have to die to make this transformation but you do have to open your heart and that is why I am here today because I want to share my story but more importantly I want to challenge you every one of you to try to prove anything I've said wrong because I know that you can't and I also know that in the process of trying your lives will be transformed in ways that you cannot even begin to imagine so thank you and god bless you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Crossroads Church

Views: 2,235,803

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Id: PhbMMBYijNM

Length: 12min 38sec (758 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 13 2019