This is one of the most inspiring Near Death Experiences I have heard of. It resulted in the most amazing conversion.
Wonderful story to listen to first thing this morning, thank you for sharing this. I've never heard of this man before today, but I love how the Lord is working in so many people's lives, giving us their stories when we need to hear them to raise our Spirits too. I needed to hear this this morning. This is Paul's website with more interviews and his book too which I'm thinking would make a good gift for loved ones. https://faithunderstood.org/
There was something he said about heaven that threw me a little. He said that he saw souls like little drops of light in the sea of God's Light, mentioning he saw both St Paul and St Peter as little drops of Light. Well I thought to myself, 'I don't really want to be little drop of Light! I want to be me!'. I want to walk over mountains with the dogs, I want to play my guitar. I want an occasional drink and sing song in the pub. I want to go camping, maybe do a bit of shooting. I want to maybe go back and study a little more. I want to wander about a little and talk to some saints and hear their stories. I would like to travel the Universe and visit other planets and see other stars. I would like to talk to angels. I would just want to sit and stare at the mother of God with my moth open for a zillion years. I would want to do a zillion things up there. But to be a little drop of light? Nawww. But I was talking to Jesus about this , this morning in prayer and expressing a bit of discontent and He laughed and said, 'Don''t worry about it. In Heaven you will be a million times more that than you are supposed to be than you are here!' This totally removed my concerns. For being who and what you are supposed to be is all about what getting older is all about. To be happy in your own skin. He went on to explain that in human terms Heaven is totally indescribable but they do their best. That the description of being s drop of light was a way of describing a certain aspect of heaven. 1 Corinthians 2:9 9 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” So those little Irish Pubs up the mountains better get themselves set.... Heaven would not be Heaven if I could not take a little bit of Ireland with me. I would always be a stranger without it.
I've had the privilege of driving to work through the hills, valleys and drumlins of County Down for the past thirty years and the beauty at times takes my breath away what a God we have who created such beauty. As I climb through the hills I come across incredible vistas of patchwork fields with forty shades of green. And in Ireland our farming families name every field so I look in awe at the quilt of beauty created by His mighty Hands. I really hope in heaven there is a little Irish corner.
I once read a book about near-death experiences, by a late Orthodox monk, called Seraphim Rose. He cautioned, wisely I thought, that some of these experiences can be deceptive, particularly ones that give the impression that there's nothing to be afraid of. He said that one can encounter bad spirits as well as good ones. The case here is obviously, from its fruits, a benevolent one, but I thought this monk's book sobering and wise. The only thing I didn't like about Rose's book was his hostility to Catholicism, something not uncommon in the Orthodox, but I put it down to the fact that he was a monk in 60s/70s California and it might have given him a bad impression! I hope I'm not coming across as a negative curmudgeon!
I noticed in the first stage of Paul's experience things were maybe not so good. He experienced hostile spirits there. In Tibetan Buddhism (which is totally unlike anything described in Buddhism anywhere else) .I suppose you might call it Tantric they describe it very similiarly to many accounts I have read of NDE'S particularly in the, 'Book of the Dead', which is a bit of an eye opener. Anyway when the soul d dies it is described as going to the Bardo Thodo Realm, a place where it wanders a bit and gets a little loss if it is not careful in a kind of in between place, in which evil spirits wander. . This is the purpose of the Path of Enlightment to cut through all the nonsense so that the soul may fly, after death like an arrow to the mark , to the heart of God. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardo_Thodol
I think after death some souls do in fact get stuck on Earth if they have too many attachments and are not happy about going through the door to the beyond.
