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AFTER THE RESURRECTION: THE PRESENCE OF JESUS IS HERE AND EVERYWHERE IN HEAVEN

Where is Jesus, now that He has resurrected? He is everywhere. He is in Heaven. He is at every level of Heaven. Of course, He is also here on earth (everywhere).

It's very important to avail ourselves of what Christ left us when He told us to eat His body and drink His blood. This is unity with Him before we actually see His Light.

Yet we must keep an open mind in a world that is so often mysterious. Here, we speak of near-death experiences, which call to mind biblical imagery.

Did not John try to grant us a preview in Revelation: "Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in Heaven, and One sitting on the throne. And He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones; and upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads."

That is the height!

We enter at the countryside. It is after purgatory (if we don't enter directly). We need to be forgiving to enter. Total forgiveness. Be kind to someone every day and do it out of love. This will get you there.

"Just as we crested the top of the hill, I heard my father’s voice calling, 'Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,'" remembered a woman named Betty Malz. "His voice was a long distance away. I thought about turning back to find him. I did not because I knew my destination was ahead.

"We walked along in silence save for the whisper of a gentle breeze ruffling the white, sheer garments of the angel.

"We came upon a magnificent, silver structure. It was like a palace except there were no towers. As we walked toward it, I heard voices. They were melodious, harmonious, blending in chorus and I heard the word, 'Jesus.'"

While the angel walked, said Betty, she had the feeling that they could go wherever they willed themselves to go. Movement was instant. "The angel stepped forward and put the palm of his hand upon a gate which I had not noticed before," she wrote. "About twelve feet high, the gate was a solid sheet of pearl, with no handles and some lovely scroll work at the top of its Gothic structure. The pearl was translucent so that I could almost, but not quite, see inside. When the angel stepped forward, pressing his palm on the gate, an opening appeared in the center of the pearl panel and slowly widened and deepened as though the translucent material was dissolving.

"Inside I was what appeared to be a street of golden color with an overlay of glass or water. The yellow light that appeared was dazzling. There is no way to describe it. I saw no figure, yet I was conscious of a Person. Suddenly I knew that the Light was Jesus, the Person was Jesus."

There is Ian McCormick, who nearly died when he was stung by a toxic jellyfish while diving for lobster on the island of Mauritius.

"I couldn't believe it, but as I stood there a radiant beam of light shone through the darkness and immediately began to lift me upward," said Ian, once a non-believer -- now a convert. "I found myself being translated up into an incredibly brilliant beam of pure white light -- it seemed to be emanating from a circular opening far above me. I felt like a speck of dust being drawn up into a beam of sunlight. This light wasn't just physical, but was giving off a living emotion. Halfway down was another wave of light -- this time it gave off pure peace -- followed by another wave: of pure joy.

"Coming out of the end of this tunnel, I found myself standing in the Presence of awesome light and power -- it seemed as though even the constellations in the universe must find their energy source from this focal point.

"Words appeared in front of me," added Ian. "'God is light and in Him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5).' I had never read a Bible before in my life so I didn't know this was straight out of the scriptures. God is light, I thought, is pure light -- I see no darkness here, I have just come from darkness -- I see no evil, no shadows -- this is pure light -- am I standing in the presence of God?"

It was God -- in the form of Jesus. We will all see Him -- the risen Lord, the ascended Lord -- if we believe. When we concentrate on the Light we get the Light. And so we hear from so many: that they are led to Jesus or even by Him on their first visit to the place that is really home as home could never be.

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