One morning, immediately upon waking, things were very apparently, not normal. Lying flat on my back and looking up at the off-white ceiling of the bedroom, I was somehow, in two places at once!
It didn’t enter my mind to look around at any other place in the cheery light-yellow bedroom. I didn’t consider looking straight ahead at the sunlight that usually comes through the long white curtains and the two windows. Lying still in the comfortable king-sized bed, I could only bring myself to look up!
Fixated at the off-white ceiling; I was trying to absorb that I was also in another place, which was so far above the ceiling, that it wasn’t conceivable to even consider how far up that it was. Somehow, this did not seem as abnormal as it should have seemed.
Up high, I wasn’t sure exactly where I was at in Heaven. But I was, in fact, in Heaven!
Heavenly euphoria of peace beyond any type of comprehension was thoroughly through and through me. There was not any part of me that was not filled with a sensational Holiness of peace!
Completely immersed within the glory of the presence of Almighty God, novel revelation of God’s Kingdom was past any and all type of consideration! Suspended in one location within the Holy Spirit, God’s spectacular power of glory was beyond comprehension! It wasn’t imaginable that being alive could feel this incredible!
There was something missing, though, that should have been happening in Heaven; that I wasn’t noticing, and wasn’t happening at all.
Right then, all that I knew of was that I was within a paradise of God’s presence that no human could dream of or consider. In not doing anything at all but just existing, was past exhilarating; simply by being within God’s presence of peace!
If someone were to dream as far as they could dream, of the most beautiful experience and feeling possible, and multiply that, times trillions, times many more trillions and trillions, they not only wouldn’t be close, they wouldn’t even be starting to reflect on Heaven.
Heaven, in God’s presence; was utterly and completely engulfing me in a different realm of subsistence than anything of the world, greater than all descriptions of elation! Past a sphere of what extraordinary happiness could be, was Holiness, the Holy tranquility of God!
Immersed within the Holy Spirit of Heaven right then, was without a possible scale of comparison or relation to anything. Absorbing the presence of God was all that mattered, and nothing else. In Heaven’s glory, I wasn’t thinking of comparisons or scales to relate anything to, but only relishing and in awe of God’s glorious presence!
Very apparently past any human conception or idea, Heaven, simply and by itself, within the presence of Almighty God; was greater than all and everything needed, desired, or ever hoped for! A thickness of God’s Holy Spirit was orchestrating all of my senses, on high, as high as all senses could be felt and enjoyed, in a celebration of life in what only Holy God could bring!
Right smack in the face of my sinful history of over thirty years of denying Jesus Christ as my Lord, and rejecting the love of God, Jesus had never given up on me. Sin after sin, and never having a consideration for the Word of God; God kept coming at me with love, forgiveness, and some hard lessons. I needed a lot of truth, guidance and hard lessons, until I gained some reasoning and sense, and repented and gave my life to Jesus in 2008.
And right then, around seven years after giving my life to the Lord, the Holy Spirit had me, up high! The Holy Spirit was not pouring His Holy Spirit into me. The Holy Spirit was simply and immediately, within me, and all around me, as soon as I woke up. I suddenly existed in a magnitude of exultation, jubilantly, as one, within God’s glory!
Both, in the bed and up high, I knew that God is, in fact, glory! I knew what glory was, as never before. Glory includes splendor, magnificence and wonder! Glory, is the presence of our loving and merciful God!
The Lord’s presence was powerful, Almighty, and thick within the Holy Spirit. I somehow knew that the presence of God was within all things in Heaven. I also didn’t have any urge to look around. God kept me still, and I wasn’t moving toward any other place, but was only stationary, simply absorbing Heaven, in God’s presence!
The Lord was embracing me, and I was embracing the presence of God. In Heaven, God just is, everywhere, as one within all things, including in a manifestation of peace beyond any intellectual capacity.
By the moment, I was learning many things about the presence of God. But unknowingly, I was also learning one particular lesson of wisdom that would take me years to understand. This lesson was, ironically, from what was not happening to me in Heaven, and what most people, including myself, would think should be happening if they went to Heaven.
The Word of God guides to give glory to God. I knew right then, that the world is literally nothingness! And God deserves for everyone to give Him thanks and praise for giving His children life itself, as well as within His eternal glory that is beyond any human consideration of what majesty is!
I understood that God has created His children out of nothing, into existence, just as a gift for the purpose of love. Our Father offered His Son Jesus to atone for His children’s sins to give them everlasting life. But, additionally, and not sparingly, God loves His children so well, that He only wants to share His immensity of Heavenly love and glory with them forever without end!
Floating motionless; all and everything within the Heavenly realm of existence, was ‘utterly still,’ peaceful, perpetually in the present, and without any sense of time.
Suddenly, another manifestation of the Holy Spirit started to come within me! Something new, a novel Holy feeling; was beginning to happen. But mostly, I was engaged within a thorough thickness of the presence of God that was pure and absolute Holiness: a peace passing all descriptions possible.
Lying there in bed, I was simultaneously, without ceasing, staring straight up at the ceiling and also living somewhere else, in Heaven somewhere, within a beautiful otherworldly spectacular Holiness. It just was so, that I was able to think things through, in both places. Somehow, there was two of me, but existing as one person.
With much going on and much to think about, somewhere deep in the back of my mind, I wondered as to where I was at in Heaven. As I wondered in my thoughts, the Holy Spirit answered, and I could sense within the Holy Spirit, that I was at a particular level of one of the Heavens. But all that truly mattered was the presence of God and Heaven!
I was somewhere, up, really far up, in Heaven some place, and having an experience beyond what anyone could ask for or comprehend to ask for. When I prayed further about the level, the Holy Spirit would not reveal any more knowledge of the location.
One of the things that I did know right then, is that Heaven is Heaven! Heaven is Heavenly! When someone comes into Heaven, a welcoming sign to Heaven is not needed to tell someone that they are, in fact, in Heaven! Unreserved enlightening euphoria of Holiness was, as one, within all things!
There were other things that I knew right then, and they were as clear as clear could be. One of these things was: wherever I was exactly at, someone could live right there, at that same spot without ever moving, and be in awe, everlasting, praising God forever and ever without end!
There was no need to go anywhere. No one would feel as if they had to try something different; be at some other place, or do anything else. Just the Holy peace of the Holy Spirit of God alone, was exceeding and glorious beyond any possible human portrayal!
Without ceasing, the Holy Spirit of God was through and through me, beyond what any earthy words could depict. The Holy peace of God was not just in great breadths, depths and widths of uplifting splendor, but an all consuming peace: nothing, and no space, without the peace of the Holiness of God.
An increase of the other manifestation from the Holy Spirit was starting to increase in strength. Through me, I could feel something else was happening, besides the peace.
Somehow, I mostly kept taking the experience in complete stride, of being in bed, and up high, as if someone did this every day; including, seemingly being two entities. The Holy Spirit apparently has these things covered, as far as not being on overload from having something so sensational happening, such as Heaven, or being in two places at once.
The generous nature and mercy of the Lord had my undeserving self, hovering, and elevated in an ecstasy of stillness. Wherever this location was at; had a complete void of any worriment of the world. No one had any problems in Heaven, and no one could recall, of any past problems, once they were in Heaven. Heaven was too spectacular! Reflecting from being in both Heaven and the world at the same time, it was evident at all times, that the world was nothingness, as absolute, as nothingness could be.
The second manifestation, of another intricacy of the Holy Spirit, was starting to grow more and more within me and become more prevalent and very powerful. Something else magnificent, felt like it was going to happen at any moment, within the Holy Spirit.
Back in bed, I knew of the ceiling, and wasn’t focused on much else of the world, but just the ceiling. Up high, I knew nothing of the world. Only the part of me in bed knew fully of having a human body and being in the world. I didn’t completely recognize it at first, but the Holy Spirit was also upon me in a spectacular manifestation while in bed. The Holy Spirit’s pureness was so absolute, that when I had woken up, it wasn’t a jolt to me of being within the Holy Spirit in such a way.
In two places at once, I kept alternating to think things through. At one moment, I was more aware of the part of me that was up high, with more focus on that. And then, without effort, at others times, I was more focused on looking up at the ceiling and thinking things through as a man and a human, including absorbing that I was also so high up. The Lord was giving me free will, to think things through in either place, whenever I wanted to.
I was more of me, in bed, at one period of time, thinking the experience through. And then more of me; was thinking things through, high up, although I could, at all times, feel myself to some degree in two places.
More of the other blessing from the Holy Spirit was starting to come on stronger, but I wasn’t sure what. However, steadfast, the tranquility, all the way throughout me, was still utterly consuming and transient of all reasoning. All earthly pain and past suffering was entirely forgotten about. There was nothing of any care. Past just incredible merriment, was Heaven; as one within God’s presence!
Fully occupied with the ceiling, quite possibly, I kept looking up, as what else was someone to do when they were in two places, and one of them was above their ceiling. It seemed reasonable, as to what else could someone do when they had never been in two places at once, but wait for the other one of them, to come back and be together again.
Void of anything else in the room, in the home, or in my life; too much else was going on to consider anything other than a paradise of Heavenly pleasure!
Relationship and health issues, letdowns, any financial issues, the grieving from the passing of loved ones, and all worldly consequences; were utterly, and to the most absolute degree that absolute could be, non-existence. All was taken care of. God had all things covered. Heaven was not just without sorrow and tears, it was all consuming paradise!
Seven years prior and as a brand new Christian, only knowing two Bible verses at the beginning of that year, I said a casual prayer that I didn’t even recognize as a prayer. In my thoughts, I offered and asked the Lord, “If I knew your Word I would speak it.” From that point forward, things started to happen in the spiritual world that I never knew existed.
For decades, I mostly had never considered God, unless when I needed something. I simply never repented sin, at least that I could recall, and most certainly not to lead and seek a new life of righteous truth. I knew almost nothing about God’s Word, and might have only tried to read Scripture once or twice in over thirty years.
I had been so far removed from knowing anything about God’s Word that I didn’t know that it was horribly wicked when I tried to make a deal with God one day, telling Him; that I would not do a particular sin anymore, if He would do me a favor. With that outlook, no one could be anymore undeserving than me, to receive any blessing.
But right then, seven years later, in a Heavenly hold of Godly love, my undeserving self was engulfed in enlightenment from the Almighty God and creator of all things! My mind was racing with many thoughts of God’s amazing Holiness!
At every moment, I was motionless in Heaven, and still not moving around, in a sensational presence of the exhilarating Holy presence of God! God was also teaching me much, directly, and through just the experience, and there was no way that I was going to absorb all of the particulars right then.
I still was not looking around, and not even trying to; in Heaven, or in the bed. And that one thing that should have been happening in Heaven, that anyone would think would be happening in Heaven, was not only not happening, I wasn’t even aware that it was not happening.
Impossible to fully convey or understand unless it was actually happening, was the ecstasy from being within the existence of God! Hanging in quiet immobility within God’s everlasting to everlasting presence, the awe from the peace of the presence of God; was off of any type of registration.
The Holy enlightenment revealed that if someone were to only experience the peace of God’s presence, and only that, forever without end, they would be in a jubilation of praise and worship forever without end. If nothing else ever happened for an eternity, but the feeling of having all senses on high from the presence of God and only His peace, they would thank, praise, and worship God, for just His peace for an eternity!
Suddenly, not just one more, but two more spectacular Holy manifestations from God’s presence were beginning to be apparent, besides the peace, and increasing into a much fuller development. Knew realms of Holiness were coming within me, or were there all along in a lesser degree, but becoming more evident, of which I wasn’t sure.
Fixated on the peace as well as the two other manifestations that were developing quickly, I wasn’t looking around or trying to look around in Heaven. God’s presence was all and everything within itself!
The love of God and His presence of a Holy peace passing all understanding were suddenly giving allowance of the increasing exposure of another amazing manifestation! Beyond what any words could describe, was the sudden presence of a pureness of Holy calm beyond any type of human comprehension!
A Holiness of calm, different than the peace, was through and through me! Simultaneously with the peace, was a festival of serene calm beyond any perception in its manifestation! I never knew calm until right then! Without the presence of God’s Spiritual calm, I knew that me, nor anyone, could ever know what calm truly was!
The peace hadn’t dissipated, but there was just also, a Holy calm beyond all comprehension! Living, at one, within God’s Holy peace, there was now also life within God’s Holy calm! Calm, in Heavenly euphoria, had a definitive Holy pureness to it that was as absolute as pure could be. As soon as someone knew the calm of God, they also knew pureness. God’s calm, had a definitive Holy pureness to it.
New enlightenment revealed: if, in fact, someone lived forever, and never looked at anything in Heaven, but only felt the pureness of God’s Holy calm, they would call out in joy, seeking novel revelations of words to praise God forever without end!
Being only within the blessing of the calm stillness of God’s presence, the entire Kingdom of God would be elated for the chance to worship God in newfound ways; everlasting!
Calm, that I never knew could be, was utterly through me, and as one within me! Beautiful, sensational, spectacular, calm!
All and everything within the earthly world, of its treasures and luxuries combined, was literally nothingness, and not even a consideration, within the calm of God’s love!
If someone could live for any length of time on earth, and not age and be in good health, happy, as well as financially wealthy; and they experienced the pureness of the Holy calm of God’s presence for just one moment, and could feel it again for just one more moment, by relinquishing everything that they had, it would be a quick decision to choose just one more moment, of Holy calm!
Laying in bed and still not looking or moving around, and staring up at the ceiling, I was fully aware that I was also, not just within a Holy peace passing all understanding in Heaven, but was also within a pureness of tranquility of God’s Holy calm!
In a timeless state, God’s Holy presence was perpetually in the present. Nothing was moving, in the sense of, and including, that no time was elapsing. God’s presence and Heaven; just is. God just is.
Be it God’s will, simultaneously, as to someone thinking of the subject of ‘everlasting’ in Heaven, they would know that God is everlasting to everlasting. God just has always been and always will be.
All praise to God that can be made possible, should be! God’s children sin against God. And God and His love, not waiting a moment, announced that He would send His Son Jesus to rescue sinners from themselves, just to love them forever, and in paradise!
Right there in Heaven, there was a complete void of any sense of hurry. There was no need to be anywhere, nothing to get done, but to just be as one, existing, within the Spirit of God Almighty!
There was existence without any oppression of anything, including time, situations to deal with, or the world weighing. There was only God to think about, having reverence for, and to be with.
The suddenness of people and the world were not a consideration. No one could remember any hardships within the glory of God. In Heaven, was only the contemplation and reflection to God’s love and glory! And God’s glory included definitive, unwavering; perfect, and beautiful calm.
Suddenly, the third manifestation from the presence of God was developing much stronger. Simultaneously, within the peace passing all understanding and the pureness of Holy calm, my mind was abruptly being flooded with God’s Holy wisdom! Faster and more condensed than fathomable, my mind was fluently inundated with wisdom!
The wisdom of God was penetrating my thoughts in an extraordinarily condensed manner. I was learning new meaning, to the word, ‘condensed.’ Multitudes of intricacies of wisdom were flying into my mind, but moments themselves, were not passing. Continually in the present; came novel wisdom that was not stopping!
Heaven, in its timeless state, very apparently could have a bombardment of the immersion of wisdom within what someone in this time-based world might relate to as a micro fraction of a second of time, but less. There was simply no time, and no way to fully explain the feeling of timelessness with a mere human mind and the use of human words.
What was coming into my consciousness greater is that; Heaven, in the least, had peace, calm, and wisdom, as part of the permanent and eternal presence of God. To an absolute degree, at anytime that I thought about it, I knew that Heaven just was, in regard of a permanent, non-ending existence.
Heaven, even if someone knew it before, was absolute apparent in Holy terms that God is truly Almighty! God never had a beginning and never will have an ending. God and Heaven could be felt like that. God just was, life just was, and life would just go on without end.
Right then, living as one, within the presence of God, was unending and ceaseless Godly love emanating peace, calm, and wisdom. The knowledge from God’s Holy presence included that infinite breadths and depths of love were eternally experienced in Heaven.
Wisdom kept coming into me at a rapid pace, and was so intense in its magnitude, deepness, and insightfulness; someone might think that it might be too much of an intensity to bear. If wisdom was coming into someone’s mind on earth, as was happening right then, it would have to be considered the most intense and condensed manner of which someone ever experienced anything. But there was without any effort, wear, or any tiredness that could come, in Heaven.
God has all things covered. As fast as wisdom could come into the mind, either God’s love, the wisdom itself, the peace and calm of the Holy Spirit, all of the above, or some other factor, made it definitively effortless to receive.
God is love, and God is wisdom. The wisdom in Heaven, as all things, just came as an act and gift of love from God.
In Heaven, it was easy to know that God’s wisdom reveals and teaches how to address all things. This includes through the understanding, reasoning, and discernment from the knowledge of the Holy. Wisdom from God is clearly righteous truth, and interprets the entire Word and life for application, through its understanding.
Remarkably, I didn’t have the slightest idea, though, of the specifics of the wisdom that I was receiving, in regards to having any time to evaluate any deeper particulars. Novel characteristics of wisdom were just flooding into me, and I just knew overall, that God’s wisdom could address all things.
Suddenly, while looking up at the off-white ceiling, something else was happening, that was not good! Uh oh!
In bed, I suddenly panicked. I could feel and sense the part of me that was up high, in Heaven, was starting to come down! I didn’t want to come down!
I tried to will the Spirit, so that I would not come down. But trying to out-will God, very apparently doesn’t work. And there wasn’t any new exception or precedent that was going to be set right then, to out-will God, or to even ask God to stay up high with Him. I was coming back down. I tried not to. I was trying not to come down; trying to find a way, not to come down.
But that was it. I was coming down fairly quickly, and back in bed, my mind was racing fast. More and more of my thoughts, were only happening to the part of me that was in the bed. This included trying to direct the other part of me, who was up high, on some things to do. I thought to myself, “Why didn’t I pray for anyone while I was all of the way up in Heaven?”
Thinking it quickly through on the bed, I was guessing that there could have been a greater degree of prayers that might be answered, if, in fact, someone prayed on a visit to Heaven.
I wasn’t certain that this would be the case, if that would have any more of an effect for praying, than praying on earth. But I was suddenly kicking myself as to why I did not even think to try it?! Therefore, I thought to hurry up, and give it a try right then, before I came all of the way back into my body.
Right at that moment, either the Spirit of the Lord prompted and guided me; or I thought do so on my own, but I started to pray for two people in who I had never met. A good friend had just asked me, over the past few days, to pray for her nephew and niece, and had never asked me to pray for them before.
Thereafter the prayer, even though I felt good about squeezing in a prayer for my friend’s nephew and niece, I was still kicking myself, as to why I hadn’t also prayed for others, such as loved ones and friends. I quickly prayed for more people. I was coming down too fast to get many more prayers in. I prayed faster. I didn’t know how much time that I’d have until I was completely back into my body. At all times, it felt like it could be at any moment.
I was on overdrive, thinking to fit in as many prayers for as many people as possible. I kept praying, including for more close loved ones, all the way until the end, and then suddenly, I was back into my body and knew it, and I stopped praying.
Trying to absorb all that had just happened; was an impossible task. I didn’t know it at the time, but it would take years to just get a bearing on some of the messages and wisdom that could be obtained from the experience itself, let alone from any specific wisdom received.
But something was missing, something new, besides what didn’t happen in Heaven and what anyone would think should happen in Heaven. What the new thing that was missing was: I couldn’t recall any
of the wisdom in which God gave to me in Heaven. None of it. I couldn’t remember any of the wisdom that had flooded into my mind.
Maybe I did know some of it, or all of it, and just didn’t realize it. But I certainly couldn’t remember anything about the wisdom; only the experience of wisdom coming into me fast and condensed.
Right then in bed, I was not on overdrive from going to Heaven and coming back. It was also almost like I was in some sort of other world, with God protecting me from myself, and the very finite structure that is a human, with Heaven being so incredible. So easily, I was not overcome with what had just happened. But I was, in fact, exhilarated, and still feeling an immense power of Almighty God and the Holy Spirit’s Holiness within me.
I was now only looking straight up at the off-white ceiling; not existing in two places. I still wasn’t looking around and noticing the cheery and light yellow bedroom with the long white curtains hanging over the two windows that usually shined good light through them in the morning.
One other thing that was happening right then: the Holy Spirit kept emanating a beautiful and wonderful manifestation of His presence within the bedroom. Holiness of the Spirit was present and powerful, thereafter coming down from Heaven.
Although the experience did not seem overwhelming, my mind was, in fact, racing at what had just happened. To only say that there were some things to think about, was a vast understatement.
Lying in bed and reviewing, Heaven included: a peace passing all understanding, a Holy purity of calm as absolute as purity could be, and condensed Holy wisdom. I was also starting to be more cognitive as to what did not happen in Heaven.
Growing into a greater realization and trying to grasp; out of all of the wisdom that came into me; I couldn’t recall any of it. Thinking it through again; I was only left with the remembrance, that in Heaven, someone will get engulfed with an extraordinary amount of wisdom beyond any comprehension.
It was apparent before the trip to Heaven that the wisdom received directly from the Holy Spirit could also be found within the Word of God. And it was even more apparent after the trip to Heaven. If someone were receiving wisdom directly from within the Holy Spirit and or Word of God, that also dictated the presence of God. God is wisdom. As varying wisdom might accumulate and be pieced together, a synergy of wisdom of enlightenment and revelation could happen beyond any understanding.
Right then, I felt full of many thoughts. And, as any person might do after coming back from a trip to Heaven, I got out of bed, and started the day and made some eggs for breakfast.
A strong presence of Holiness was still within the home in which I was residing. I was filled with the Holy Spirit. Coming clearer into my senses; was what had just happened: Heaven.
I didn’t really feel the need to tell anyone what had just happened. In fact, and mostly unknowingly, the Lord’s Spirit of guidance was subtly aiding me not to tell anyone of the experience. There was much to think about, to even maybe have the ability to accurately sum it up for myself, let alone tell anyone else what had just happened.
I was coming upon more and more enlightenment of the trip to Heaven. This included to what should have been happening, and what never happened. In Heaven, amazingly, God did not allow me to see anything! And at the time of it, i was not aware that this was happening!
When I couldn’t see anything in Heaven, it did not feel as if my eyes were closed. But I just could not see anything at all. I did not feel disabled or handicapped of eyesight. I just didn’t see anything, and remarkably, I didn’t notice that I couldn’t see anything. That seems absurdly impossible, that someone would be in Heaven, not seeing anything, and not noticing that they were not seeing anything. But this was absolute, by means of the power of the Holy Spirit; and it was for a great purpose. I had no sight, and didn’t know it at the time.
~ Wisdom that took about four years to learn was that Heaven, paradise, glory, and the Kingdom of God, were simply, the presence of God!
This was one of the primary lessons, if not, the primary lesson, that God wanted me to arrive at after all of those years of not giving testimony of the experience in Heaven. God wanted it ingrained into me, for my free will to have the full understanding of the wisdom: Heaven is the presence of God!
This particular part of the experience in Heaven was a great lesson of enlightenment, and thought provoking until this day, instigating even more wisdom behind the experience of not seeing anything in Heaven. The occurrence, and eventual wisdom from it, has opened up the Bible in more ways now, than if I had not had that experience of not seeing anything in Heaven.
The sights and sounds and all things in Heaven, including God’s children, have the presence of God through and through them. This includes Godly love in a peace passing all understanding, a purity of Holy calm, and wisdom behind any comprehension! I also knew that Heaven is, in fact, everlasting to everlasting, and timeless in the sense of always being in the present.
Almost immediately after Heaven, I learned some wisdom from God about the ‘overall’ experience; including from God teaching my pride a lesson in truth and humility. I wrote sixteen words of wisdom from the overall experience of Heaven, and then learning a lesson in truth and humility. I wrote the wisdom on a custom-colored piece of paper, put it in a picture frame, and hung it on a wall in a home in which the Lord Jesus was allowing me to stay at.
‘I am nothing, but for God and His glory. Thank you, God, for allowing me. Amen.’
Written and experienced by James Rathman: Evangelist: BlessedInternational.com
The book, ‘A Place called Heaven,’ includes dozens of submissions from Christians having exceeding encounters with Jesus, the Holy Spirit, visions, dreams, Angels, and others having experiences with visions and or going to Heaven and back…available at Amazon.
Blessings and love, James Rathman: Evangelist
For prayer requests, comments and questions: [email protected]
