Re: Our NDE Experiences Might Awaken Many People!

This may sound incredible, but five years after my NDE experience, I was almost 17 and I frequently shared all the details about my going to Heaven, with young people my own age. I was living at a trailer park that still exists at the end of Siesta Key, Florida. The area was renamed Turdle Beach, a few years back.
A young lady who was there, about 21 years in age I would estimate, was with her mother and her father. He was writing some kind of Christian book, but I never found out what it was about. In any event, this young lady heard that I was saying I had been to Paradise, and she searched me out. One evening on the beach, there, she was with a small group who asked me to tell them what it was like when I went to Paradise. Of course, I was very eager to do so, and I did. At the end, she asked, and what about your coming back to this earth. I told her just what had happened; how the Lord God had said to me "I am the Lord thy God who has begotten thee!" He actually said it two times, and then it was like he just moved his hand to wish me out of His presence, and I was immediately flying through space - heading to this earth! I could see it from a great distance. It was about the size of a grape, but not the same color. Then I came closer and closer, moving at a tremendous speed. All I was trying to do was to push that word into my mind, as I had never heard it before. I kept saying, "Begotten! Begotten! Begotten! What's begotten!"
About the time that I realized it was this world, I passed through the cloud cover, streaking across the sky. I could see land on my left, and soon water on my right. Then I could only see the water and the waves below me, as my trajectory got lower. Then I suddenly hit the water with a great smack, like clapping your hands together. I didn't get anything else, as imput, and all of a sudden some thing had me by the arm, and it was like ice-picks stabbing clear to the bone! I was in incredible pain, and my arm felt like it was going to be wrenched off. In any event, I was being pulled to the surface by a friend of the family, Mr. Hoffine. He and my dad had swam a great distance to where I went down, and they had been diving for me, and trying to find me in under the water, and up we came. Mr. Hoffine started hollering, "I've got him!" "I've got him!" and in a few moments time my Dad came to the surface.
When I shared that with her, she said "That's impossible." I immediately said, "No it isn't impossible, because that's exactly what happened to me."
"Well, there's one part that isn't true," she said. And when I asked her what it was, she said that the Lord did not say to me . . . "I am the Lord thy God who has begotten thee!" because, she said, Jesus is the only begotten son of God, "and you sure ain't Jesus." she added. I told her frankly. I didn't claim that I was Jesus, but I was absolutely sure that He had said to me "I am the Lord thy God who has begotten thee." In fact, He had said it two times, and I told her so. This didn't come off too easy on her part, and she was quite preplexed. She nevertheless, told me that Jesus was God's begotten son, and he had been sent from Heaven, almost two thousand years ago, to show people the way for them to receive forgiveness for their sins. She told me the whole story. I had a few questions for her, and she answered them. The next day she came over and asked me if I wanted to ride to church with them, where there would be others who would tell me about Jesus.
I did, and that's when I first heard the "salvation story." It was so unexpected, I was utterly amazed. I didn't say much on the ride back home, and they left the Sesta Key traily park that same day, or the next.
Well, I thought about it and thought about it. Finally I decided to ask, so I started praying, like I always did since coming back to this earth. "They tell me that you have a son that you sent here, to this earth, many many years ago." I prayed, "Would you please tell me if this is true or not?"
There was a long pause. It was a long, unexpected pause, and then He spoke these words. "Yes. It is true. And you would do very well in this life if you were to simply follow in his steps."
That was a total shock to me. I thought I knew what "begotten" was, and I sure didn't understand it all, but that was all He would say about it. In otherwords, while you might think it was just the other way around - my NDE experience DID SPECIFICALLY POINT ME INTO THE DIRECTION OF BECOMING A CHRISTIAN!
Not only that! It constantly GOT IN THE WAY of my being a Christian, because I was considered to be a total outsider by many! I wanted to be part of the ministry, and I was NOT WELCOMED to do so, I suppose, for the most part, because of my "so radical" views! So becoming a Christian wasn't just a decision I made later on. It was all a very real part of all my NDE experiences, and I never let go of that. It was, and it still is, all directly related to my NDE experiences - and I truly fly in the face of those who claim to be the righteous preachers and teachers, wherever I go!
We had a "sunday school" lesson, this last Sunday and in a group discussion, I told them. "Being saved, means you can ask forgiveness for your sins, on a daily basis. Why would you do that? So you will be able to make your self available, to receive all the other blessings of God! And if you aren't standing and working to dispell and otherwise remove those various iniquities from your life - then you need to sit down and start figuring out why you call yourself a Christian. That's the whole reason that Jesus came to this earth! So that you can be set free from your iniquities! And if you aren't praying and asking for God's forgiveness for the wrong things that you've done - then you aren't being blessed, and you aren't in any way doing what the Lord wants you to do with your life. You're just sitting around 'claiming to be a Christian,' and telling everyone how you're on your way to heaven, but that isn't necessarily true."
This is percisely what happened to me when I went to Paradise. This is percisely what happened when I first heard about Jesus coming to this world - and it was a very definite part of my NDE. Oh, one other thing. I don't really think of myself so much as a NDE'er, in that, I was trully DEAD, and I went through the judgment! I was gone or "out of here" for so long, they couldn't believe I was still alive! Mr. Hoffine even dove back in, trying to see if there was an underwater cave, right where we stood, but there wasn't anything there! So I just refer to being an NDE'er because there are a lot of people who readily relate to that term, and they at least know what I am talking about as being "real." Overall,

It would be accurate and fair for YOU to say that given my description of my experience, my NDE did MOST CERTAINLY AND MOST specifically point ME in the direction of Christianity? My decision to become a Christian was made later on, BUT IT WASN'T based on other factors, not directly related to my NDE! Moreover, I am yet a tremendous odds with many of the things going on in the Chruch. Moreover, I never grew or got a thing out of becoming a Christion, prior to my receiving what is known in some circles as "the infilling of the Holy Spirit."

I do hope that this fully answers your question. What else would you like to know. I will be glad to answer and I do hope it will uplift your spirit, and bring you closer to the Lord!

Elijah Nov 6, 2002 12:00

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