For the angel of the LORD is a guard; he surrounds and defends all who fear him. (Psalm 34:7)
Life is more than physical; it is preparation for eternity.
Every experience which we have experienced in this body is engraved somewhere in our minds. Our minds are like a computer hard drive where everything is encoded; and this can be replayed at a future time.
The mind and the brain are two different things. The brain, as a physical organ, will die and decay, going back to dust in the grave. The mind is a spiritual component of man, who will live for eternity. The mind is that inner most part of man, his spiritual living soul, housed by an eternal spirit-garment. The mind is the spiritual heart of man. As the physical heart supplies life to all the parts of the body, so the spiritual heart supplies life to the living spirit-soul, for eternity.
Jesus said in Matthew 12:37, “for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Jesus said in Luke 6:45, “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.”
The heart functions as our conscience. David showed insubordination against the anointed King Saul, by cutting off the edge of his robe; and his heart smote him. (I Samuel 24:5)
Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost caused the hearers to be ‘cut to the heart’. (Acts 2:37)
The heart can condemn us, but God is greater than our hearts. (I John 3:20)
David prays that God would create in him a pure heart to replace his defiled conscience. (Psalm 51:10)
The heart plans man’s ways, but the Lord determines his steps. (Proverbs 16:9)
From these scriptures we see that the heart, or the inner aspect of man, is made up of the mental, the emotional, and the will.
According to Strong’s Concordance, the Hebrew word lebab (3824) is rendered: “heart” (as the most interior organ); “being, think in themselves,” “breast,” “comfortably,” “courage,” “midst,” “mind,” “unawares,” and “understanding.”
Strong’s Greek Dictionary states that the Greek word kardia (2588) is rendered: “heart,” i.e. (figuratively), the thoughts or feelings (mind); also (by analogy) the middle.
Dr. Eben Alexander, a renowned neurosurgeon, thought he knew how the brain and mind worked, until he spent over three weeks in a deep coma. He then learned that our mind lives on after death and never dies. He wrote a book, entitled ‘Proof of Heaven’, to tell about his experience. He, as a neurosurgeon, knew that his brain was not working at all during his coma, yet he was fully aware of the beautiful light coming from God, and of being surrounded by His love.
Many Near Death experiencers have testified about their acute awareness of the life they have lived, and how much love they are shown by Jesus, and loved ones who have died before them. Colors and music become so much more enjoyable without the limitations of the physical body.
Jesus told a story of a rich man and a beggar, in Luke 16:20-31. They both died and were buried, yet they were able to continue to speak verbally, and think and reason mentally, without their physical bodies and brains. This shows they were conscience and aware, with the same mental capabilities that they possessed when they were on earth.
Abraham even tells the rich man to ‘remember’, showing that we will take our past memories with us into eternity. The rich man was able to recall his brothers on earth, and realize his mistake in not telling them about hell and heaven, and that he should have treated the beggar differently on earth. These abilities had nothing to do with his brain cells, but with his spiritual heart, his inner most spiritual man, his spirit mind.
Enoch walked with God, and God took him to heaven without dying. Elijah was caught up to heaven, without death, in a chariot of fire. Jesus conversed with Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. Paul was caught up to the third heaven, and heard words that mortal man is unable to utter. John was caught up in the Holy Spirit, and saw things in heaven so awesome he had trouble putting them into earthly words.
Jesus told Martha, in John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.”
Paul says when we die as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, Lord, and God, that our bodies are just as if they are sleeping. When Jesus returns to rapture his believers to be with Him for eternity, the graves will open, just as they did after His Resurrection, in Matthew 27:52, and this mortal shall put on immortality and these dust particles will be changed into a Glorified body like unto His Glorified body, and there will be no more death, pain, suffering, or sorrow, because we will dwell with the Living God for eternity. (II Corinthians 15:1-58) (I Thessalonians 4:13-18)
I have been privileged to pray with saints on their death beds. I call it a privilege because I get to experience the Presence of angels and the Lord being with them at the time of their deaths.
One sister, who had spent her whole life as a prayer warrior for God’s kingdom, was unresponsive to any conversation from her loved ones, and the doctors said she would die soon. I was called by her son to pray with her. No one was in the room when I arrived, and she was unresponsive to anything I said to her. I quietly prayed with her, asking God to protect her and bless her with His love and Presence, and for His will to be done about taking her home. As I was finishing praying, I felt a change in the atmosphere of the room, and I started to pray in tongues, as I opened my eyes and looked around. When I opened my eyes, this sister had her hands and arms raised upward toward heaven, and she had her eyes open, and she was smiling, and she was also praying in tongues. I looked up to see what or who she was smiling at, and I was aware of her lowering her arms, as she closed her eyes and ceased breathing, still with the smile on her face. I felt the Presence of God and His angels in the room when I felt the change in the atmosphere of the room. I felt the power of God when she was praying in tongues, and I felt the Peace and holiness of God’s Presence when she closed her eyes and quit breathing. I didn’t see her angels, or the Lord, but she surely did, and was very peaceful and happy about it.
You cannot tell me that her angels and her Lord had not come to escort her home to Heaven. She is more alive now than she ever was in her earthly, aging, pain-racked body; and I believe she is still smiling, singing, and asking God to remember all those she left behind.
Death is just a gateway between earth and eternity!
The question is, “Where will you spend eternity?”, in Heaven with God – in peace, or in hell with the devil – in torment?
If you are not sure, now is the time to ask God to forgive you and cover your sins with the Blood of Jesus Christ, and ask for the infilling of His Holy Spirit to enable you to obey His teachings. Death can come at any time to all of us. Jesus is our gateway to eternal life, of peace and joy in His Kingdom that is not of this world.