Details. I wanted details. “So let’s get down to the nitty gritty here. When I stop breathing, will I know I’m dying? I know You don’t like that word, but it’s still kind of the way I think. No offense.”
“None taken. Keep your eyes on Me and you will never see death.”
Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys My Word will never see death.
John 8:51
“Oh God, do You really mean that?”
“Absolutely!”
“You won’t be paying attention to earthly things. I’ll be telling you all about your new home on the way there. I will be happy to be your personal escort.”
Do not let your hearts be troubled. My Father’s House has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am.
John 14: 1-3
“Oh God,” I confessed. “I think I have feared death all my life. I think that’s why I became a hospice nurse. I thought I could demystify it … get more comfortable with it … figure it all out. I’ve looked at death a thousand different ways.”
“And with such extensive research what did you find? Do you know how it all works now? Ready to try it out?”
I shuttered. “No, not yet. That’s why I am talking to You.”
He smiled. “I waited a long time for this moment. You could have saved yourself a lot of worry if you had talked to Me first.
“You are not the only one who is afraid of death. That is why I came to show you how it will be.”
He paused and looked at me. I could tell He saw through me to the depths of my very soul.
“I don’t think this conversation was really about what to do with a dead body, was it? It is about what to do with death itself. Am I right?”
I cried. “Yes. Yes, that’s really it. It’s so … so … unknown. I mean nobody ever really goes all the way there and ‘lives to talk about it.’ Pardon the pun.”
“That is not true. Someone did. And believe Me, they have been talking about it for thousands of years!”
“Well tell me. I didn’t hear it. Who?”
He smiled. “Me!”
“Yeah, but you’re not human. You’re God!”
“I am God. But I was also God in a human body. I was Jesus. I came as Jesus to free you from any fear of death.
“Paul got that one right too.”
Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His Death He might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Hebrews 2:14-15
God repeated Paul’s words.
… free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
“I am here to do that.
“I could have stayed in Heaven. But I did not. I was with you from the beginning and have been every moment.
“But I knew you needed to see Me in the same kind of body you have to understand you do not need to fear death.
“Every human is a little different. But we have many things in common.
“I was born like you.
“I grew up like you.
“I ate, slept, walked, talked, did everything like you.
“I died like you will. Hopefully you will not have to suffer crucifixion, but you may suffer as you move into your new body.
“Someone will do something with your dead body. We will talk later about that. They laid My Body in a tomb.
“Notice, I said they laid My Body in a tomb. I was no longer in it. Wherever your body is laid, you will not be there either.
“At the moment I released My Spirit, I was free of the body. You will be too.
“And to demonstrate the grave could not hold Me, I returned to My Body and showed everyone.
“I showed them I was still Me. I could still walk, talk, eat and do other things I used to do. I even cooked!
“I didn’t deny something had happened to Me. I had the wounds to prove it. But they did not hurt Me anymore. Do you think I would have let Thomas put his hand in the wound in My Side if it was going to hurt?
“I was showing everyone the body was sort of like a bullet proof vest. It got attacked. It got wounded. But I was no longer attached to it. I had been changed.
“I walked through walls. I appeared various places. I was different. And so shall you be.”
“Will people be able to see me in my body like they did You?”
He was quiet. Finally I said, “Did you hear my question?”
He smiled. “You’re doing it again. Making your list. Wanting every detail. I am not going to tell you everything now. As your generation says, ‘Wait for it … wait for it!’
“But let’s get back to your original question of what to do with the body after you have finished using it. I do have some things to tell you about that.”
