TEACHING 1

GRADUATION DAY! (A teaching on Passing into Glory)

We lost our son in 2004 and it was such a tragic loss to our family.  My own son was taken
before I was.  How was I going to respond?  How was I to think and be pleasing to the Lord?  
How do I get a hold of the Comforter (the Holy Spirit) to comfort me in my greatest hour of
need?

It seems that most everyone is afraid to die.  The uncertainty of where they are going, will they
live again after they die, and where will they end up.  Most do not have the “blessed
assurance” of going home to heaven, a place that has been prepared for us.

As Christians we are not to be afraid to leave this planet, but rejoice that now we can finally
end our journey here and go ahead into a wonderful, blessed new state of perfection and be
free from all the cares that this world brings our way.

Here we are faced with our FAITH in action, when we either lose someone whom we love
dearly, or are told that we ourselves are going to die soon.  We so often proclaim our great faith
to others, and tell others how they need to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but how do WE
respond when WE are the ones who are faced with the great trial and testing of our faith?

Here we have to make the decision when one of the two above things are told to us.  That a
loved one has died or that we ourselves are about to die.  Of course it is only natural to be
shocked, cry and mourn, be bewildered, shaken to the core, sad, depressed (momentarily), try
to figure out why this happened, and many other emotions that we all as humans go through,
but in the end, we must yield.

Here we have the opportunity to show God that we really do TRUST HIM with our lives, our
loved ones and all that we have so valiantly proclaimed that we trusted Him with.  Now we are
put to the test.  Can we actually TRUST Him if we are told that we are going to die soon?  Can
we actually TRUST Him when we are told that our child has just died?  Without FAITH it is
impossible to please God the Bible says.  And if life is a test, and if life is to build our character
into the image of Christ by the Holy Spirit, and if this life on earth is merely boot camp; which is
to train us in order to fight the good fight of faith on this earth, then go to our heavenly reward
and our REAL home in glory, then we must surely TRUST that God KNOWS what He is doing.  
Are not Christian’s lives and the lives of the ones that they love in His hands?  Have we not
committed ourselves over to Him to do with us as HE WILLS and said many times to the Lord,
“You do whatever YOU think is best for us and our loved ones dear Lord.”  Is GOD incapable
of making right decisions?  Of course not.  He only makes PERFEFCT decisions on our
behalf.  He knows exactly the hour of each one of us to go home to be with Him.  He knows
when we have passed our tests, are the most ready to be taken home.

I know that my son was at the peak of his spiritual life as far as the work that God had done in
his heart just before he was taken home.  If he had stayed any longer perhaps he might have
gone backwards and lost all that God had done in him.  Perhaps he would have gone into the
world and turned away from Jesus, who knows, but I do TRUST and KNOW that God does
ALL things well and He is in full control of all of us.  He knows what He is doing and why.  It is
not for us to question Him, but to surrender to His will and BELIEVE!  

I was able to go through Steven’s death because of my absolute commitment to the fact that I
REALLY BELIEVE that God know what is best and what He is doing.  I know I am just the clay
and not the Potter, and I am not to question Him.  He is my loving FATHER and what child
should question their father?

God did give us little comforts along the way after Steven’s death.  For example, Steven had
just been up a month earlier to celebrate his father’s birthday and he slept in our guest room.  
He use to smoke and so the smell of tobacco was left in the comforter that was on his bed.  
After he died, before the funeral in L.A., I went and laid on the bed and wept and wept and I
could smell the smell of the cigarettes in the comforter.  It was a comfort to me just to be able to
smell this smell in the covers, because it made me feel close to him.  Then we went to the
funeral.  And when we came back, once again I went into the guest room and laid on the bed.  
But this time was different.  As I laid there weeping, I did not smell the cigarette smell any
longer but instead I smelled a beautiful perfume smell coming out of the covers.  Then I heard
the Lord say to my spirit, something like “Steven is no longer in bondage to this world, but now
he has become a sweet smelling savor to Me.”  Wow!  I ran and got my husband to come and
smell.  He too could smell the smell and acknowledged that I had not made it up or that it was
my imagination.  We rejoiced in the Lord kindness to us to give us this comfort.  A short time
later I went back to smell it again, and it was GONE.  No smell of ANY kind was left in the
blanket.

Now that my son is in heaven, I do so look forward to seeing him.  I can’t wait to go to heaven
and leave this world and all its earthly cares and mundane concerns behind.  Shortly after we
had lost Steven, we went to a get away at a bed and breakfast.  I had been asking the Lord
what it was like to die and where did we go right after we die.  I wanted to know what Steven
was experiencing right now.  Well, one night at the bed and breakfast, very late at night, I
looked across the room and saw a little table.  On the little table I saw a book that looked like a
Bible.  I said, “Is that a Bible on the table?”  And so I went over to look.  Sure enough, it was a
Bible, but not only that, there was a little book on the table called “ldl???????” or What it was
like to go to heaven>  Oh I was so excited.  We stayed up all night reading that little booklet
together, crying and being encouraged.  Perhaps this book had some of the answers that I had
been searching for.  And to my own heart, it certainly did.

It was about a woman who was in Acoma for several weeks and very very ill.  She either had a
dream or a vision that I believe was from the Lord.  Her brother-in-law came into the bedroom
window and took her by the hand, out the window, down the street and all of a sudden she was
in Paradise.  The grass there was all green and perfect, there was nothing that was dead or
decaying there;  like no dried grass, no fallen leaves off trees, no dead flowers or dried up ones
etc.  Everything was absolutely perfect.  There were flowers that grew up through the grass but
when you walked on the grass, neither the flowers nor the grass got squashed.  Then she was
led to a river.  She was given a white robe that glistened and was made of a very beautiful
shiny glistening material.  Everyone wore the same robes.  She was told to get into the water,
but she was afraid to do so for fear of damaging her beautiful new robe and getting her hair
wet.  But she was told to get into the water anyway, so she did.  As she approached the river,
she noticed that on the bottom of the river were beautiful small colored rocks all along the
bottom of the river bed.  And when she stepped into the water, it was a perfect temperature and
felt so good to her.  She was beaconed to come deeper into the river and as she did, it began
to cover her neck and then her face and then it covered her entire head.  She found that she
could breathe under water and even talk under water.  She sat on the bottom of the river bed
and play with the colorful stones on the bottom.  She and her brother-in-law had a conversation
in the river bed bottom that day.  He told her that this was a very special river, and that as she
came to river and went into it, that she would be cleansed more and more of the entanglements
that the world had on her.  The world would be washed more and more away from her as she
was in this water.

When she came up out of the water she noticed that her robe was perfectly dry, her hair dry
and her robe still glistening in the daylight sun.  Then she walked through the beautiful park-
like grounds with beautiful trees, flowers of every kind, people enjoying the park, children
dancing around the grounds, people walking on the pathways.  The sidewalks, or pathways,
had two little streams, one on each side, running along the pathways, and gold nuggets were at
the bottom of these small streams or pathways of water.  It was absolutely gloriously
magnificent.

Then she was taken by her brother-in-law past beautiful mansions of marble, with huge
pavilions or porches on the outside and marble pillars.  No two homes were the same, but all
were incredibly beautiful.  He took her to one in particular.  He told here that he had been
building it for her and her husband when they arrived.  He brought her into the one he had built
for her and showed her all around.  There were verandas, marble floors, and a library with lots
of books.  He told her that these books contained the writing of the saints who had written on
the earth, but now had rewritten their books with clear understanding and with the new
knowledge they had, in order to help people to read and understand.

He showed her the desk he had made for her husband to sit at.  He showed her upstairs, and
there were no beds.  There were laying couches, because we needed rest, but we did not
need to sleep as we do here.  There was huge fruit hanging from the trees outside over the
veranda from her resting place, and she could just go out and pick off the fruit whenever she
was hunger and eat it.  One fruit was much like a pear, only sweeter and bigger.  Then when
she was through with it, the core and unwanted parts would just evaporate and disappear,
because Paradise could have no waste.  There were no kitchen, no cooking, no need of house
cleaning, and all the mundane things we are slaves to down here.  

People who had special talents down here kept them and they were only more enhanced up
there.  If you are artistic here, so much the more will your creativity be able to be used there.  
Who you ARE, goes with you.  What you enjoy and like stays with you.  You do not lose your
personality, or your spirit or soul, it is just made perfect and sin does exist in us any longer.  
PRAISE THE LORD!  You do not go to Paradise and instantly know everything like we often
think we would do.  No, she said it was a gradual learning experience.  We are taken up with
the knowledge we have right now and learn from this point on.  Things are revealed and
unveiled to us as we are capable to taking them in and understanding them.  We continue to
learn and understand and grow in our knowledge.

She had to learn and understand little by little and taken into new knowledge and
understanding as she was ready for it, or it would have overwhelmed her, to see, know and do
all at once.  So her brother-in-law was used to help her make the transition.

Jesus came to her one evening, and she wept and wept at His feet.  But He pulled up her and
talked with her awhile.  She did not reveal much of their conversation, because she said some
things up there were just too precious to share with us.  But He would appear frequently in the
park or garden, and be seen talking to groups of children, or walking with an individual down
the pathways, or coming to visit at your home.  There was no night but the sun did seem to go
into a twilight state if I remember correctly, so as to be able to rest.

She was finally taken to the city, where there were no cars, or stores, or shopping or buying.  
There were beautiful buildings of culture and architecture and music, and art to see instead.  

There was also a huge lake on which people would row in their boats on the lake.  And when
people came to heaven from the earth some came rowing up onto the shore to meet loved ones
who were waiting for them to arrive.  A great reunion took place there for them.  

She met old friends, beloved family members, and finally her husband and son and daughter-in-
law finally joined her there.  

There was so much more to the book, like being able to fly that she finally learned she could
do, and she flew over places and saw other communities with other cultures living in their own
areas and with totally different looking houses than the ones we imaging in our own minds as
being our dream home.  

She was told that each person had an assignment to fulfill up there.  That we just don’t sit
around all day and do nothing.  We are vitally involved in different ways according to our
giftedness.  For example, there were some children up there who were artistically gifted down
here on earth.  They went up to the brother-in-law while he was building the house and asked if
they could help.  He was a little skeptical that children could help, but he said, “sure OK.”  
These children were carrying baskets of roses and a little tool or carving set with them.  They
went into one the room and threw the flowers again the walls and on the floor.  Then they got
on the floor and begin to etch the flowers into the marble floors.  The flowers were embedded
into the marble and stayed alive in that marble, never dying.  It turned out beautifully and she
was so pleased with the room.  These children were using their giftedness to bless others up
there, and so will we in one way or another.  

Oh, we will not have to work but oh we will have wonderful assignments to attend to, along with
relaxation and rest and plenty of time for fellowship with both Jesus and loved ones.  It will be
the most wonderful thing that ever has happened to us and yet we seem to fear it the most.  
The unknown is always scary to us, but it will be like going from one room into another, only
this room will be a heavenly home that the Lord Himself has prepared for those that love Him.

I truly can’t wait to go there.  No more elections, no more terror attacks, no more wars, no more
car accidents, no more bills, no more cooking, no more cleaning, no more having to go to work
to earn money.

I had a dream several weeks again and it was a very vivid dream to me.  I was taken to a place
much like the one I just described, but I was told, there is no buying here, or spending up here,
thus no need for money and having to go out and work to earn money to buy the things you
need or want.  Thus many sins are eliminated in the heart of man because there is no more
striving, no more jealousy, no more greed, no more lust for things, and so forth.  I was told,
“You just think of what you want and it is there.”
I said, “Oh can I ask for a ladies’ tea party with a beautiful table all set for the ladies to come
to?”  And boom!  It was there right in front of me.  Then when the tea party is over, or whenever
you are through using something, it disappears.  No clean up, no mess, no work to put it all
away.  You can THINK and it comes into play and then is gone again when you have no need
for it any longer.  I don’t know why I had this dream??? But I believe it was not an ordinary
dream.  I keep asking the Lord what heaven is like, and perhaps this was also part of the
answer to my question.  

Death is nothing to fear.  The hardest thing is leaving our loved ones behind.  We think that
they can’t get along without us and what will they do?  But we are not indispensable dear
ones.  God knows that if we are truly needed down here, He would keep us down here longer,
so our family members and loved ones must be able to get along without us.  He has a plan for
their lives too and will take perfect care of them.  And with that in mind, then we can be free to
look upward, heaven bound, and look forward to what is just ahead for us up there.  Meeting
Jesus, falling at His precious feet and crying wiping His feet with our hair in thankfulness for all
that He has done for us.  Seeing and being reunited with loved ones who have gone on before
us, each of us now made perfect, so we will get along with each one so beautifully now.  Being
made perfect with no more SIN in our lives controlling us and causing us to stumble and fall.  
Oh no wonder the Bible calls it our BLESSED HOPE!  YEA!  We get to go HOME!  It is our
GRADUATION DAY! and instead of being all sad and depressed, we should rejoice and shout
HALLELUJAH, my journey is over and my REAL life is just beginning!  Blessed Be the Name of
the Lord.

I hope this little story can give you encouragement and will help to take away your fears or
comfort you in case you have lost a loved one or child.  If  this message has helped you, please
please let me know..

Also, if you, yourself, have a testimony of losing someone dear to you, or you yourself have
been pronounced with something terminal and have had to deal with this in your heart and
mind, and now have something to share with us, in order to encourage others who are going
through these same things; then please write to me and I will put your testimony on my site for
others to be able to benefit from your experience as well.

womenforthelord.com
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website.  I am so proud of
it and hope that you too
will enjoy the things he
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