Lots of people get offended when you talk about death! It is easily the taboo topic in any community! There are people who think that life after death is an illusion, but this thinking does not wipe away their fear of dying.
I always had a fear of death as far back as I can remember. I feared being anywhere near hospitals, the morgues were a no-go-zone area for me, and whenever possible, I skipped funerals, including those of family members.
Fortunately, many years later, I went through a beautiful spiritual transformation that wiped out this disturbing fear!
Unknown to me then, an inborn pride from ignorance had stood on the way, preventing me from understanding who I really was! In my spiritual transformation, the stronghold of pride started melting, a gradual spiritual revelation of my identity in this world emerged, and the many fears I had, including the fear of dying had no hold on me anymore! Unlike before, fear became something I could deal with through meditation!
“Coincidentally”, around this time, I began to hear stories of persons that had been pronounced clinically dead but lived to tell their stories! I was gobsmacked by their experiences! The laid out facts lit something in me. It was like an ‘aha’ moment, but unfortunately my fascination with these revelations was met with mockery. I remember a pastor and a gentleman I highly respected hurt my feelings by pouring cold water on my excitement. This made me feel like a stranger in a mob that I had thrived in for a long time! I kept asking myself, “who are these people?”
Though spiritually disturbed, I wasn’t discouraged by these attitudes, but started researching on this intriguing phenomenon.
I set out on a discovery mission to know where I came from, where I was going, and who I was!
I discovered that one of the most common theme of Near Death Experiencers (NDErs) is seeing the light.
The association of the Light and The Saviour Jesus Christ is captured everywhere in the bible especially in the writings through Apostle John and Prophet Isaiah.
John 1:1-5 (ESV) “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
I came to a realisation that people who go through near death experiences and see the light, were in the presence of The Creator.
It became obvious to me that we are spiritual beings made in the image of the Creator, Who is a Spirit! Once out of our bodies, we are helpless spirit beings who may end up at the mercy of evil spiritual beings in the dark spiritual world, or end up in the presence of God and feel an all-encompassing love of our Creator while enveloped in His Light!
There are stories told of people living under palliative care services, who when about to die suddenly light up, and start smiling at beings they can see through the walls of their rooms. In the same setting, others beg nurses, doctors, and caregivers not to let them be taken away by spiritual beings they can see waiting for them through the same walls!
This phenomenon is easily explainable! At the time of near death, souls are loosely connected to the body! A person at this point normally has the will to decide when to leave their body for good! Some people may decide to hang on for a while as they wait for a son or daughter to arrive! Immediately this person arrives they then depart!
You may ask, why would one depart from a body if they have the will to stay on?
My personal take in this is that we are given a window to make things right and reassure loved ones, once this is done, we have no reason to hang onto our bodies! The other reason is, a soul that is about to leave the body feels the peace and an unconditional love that is beyond the spiritual veil!
There could be many other reasons why a soul wants to go, like realisation that pain from the body goes away once they pop out. Some souls may also realise that their bodies are badly damaged by say an accident or dementia and cannot function so there is no need to hang on to it as they cannot use the body anymore unless they are miraculously healed by God for there is nothing impossible with our Creator!
I wish to state that our soul is a spirit made in the image of God, “breathed” into our body by God at some stage during our fetal development phase. The bodies that we stubbornly worship, and hang onto, are made of organic materials that easily decay back to earth after our soul departs!
John 4:24 (NLT) for God is Spirit…
Genesis 1:27 (NIV) So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female …
Ecclesiastes 12:7 (NIV) and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
The soul is made with an everlasting consciousness, has complete functions of knowledge and has all senses that we know of! The body was made for the soul while here on earth and not the other way round! The soul does not need the body to function or exist. However, when in a body, its functions are filtered to what the body has to offer including intellect. The functions are also limited by how well the body can execute them. That’s why people have different abilities. This does not mean that their souls are limited in any way! You could be limited in intelligence, sight, hearing or have a body impairment, but the soul isn’t, it has to put up with that for the duration of time it’s in that body!
I heard an interesting true story of this woman who was born blind. She was involved in a car accident and her soul popped out of her body! Guess what? She could see! She saw her body being taken to the hospital and eventually going through an operation. She saw trees and people outside as her soul hovered above the hospital roof. She eventually went back to her body but was unfortunately confined again to her visually-impaired body. This lady is still blind to this day!
I have personal stories from people I worked with but were never spiritual or religious and they all had the same near death experiences! One person asked me, “why this phenomenon is not a common knowledge or why is it not taught to people?”. At this point I have no answer to that but I guess ignorance and spiritual pride in humanity has resisted anything that can help reveal the existence of God our Creator!
I sincerely hope that what I have written in this article has been of help to your understanding of death and leads you to a life of spiritual freedom! Always remember that your body is a gift to your soul. Use the body well, with only what will glorify our Creator!
One of the best sources of stories on near death experience is in the NDERF website. Please check it out!
May the Almighty God richly bless you.
[Article Author: Joseph GM]
Live In Spiritual Victory 