Can you ever imagine getting a glimpse of Heaven?
I recently got the pleasure to interview Seth Alfaro and hear his story. For those of you who don't know Seth, he recently had an experience where he fell 25 feet from a building and fell flat on his face. He was then rushed to a hospital and was in a coma for 2 weeks. The doctors weren't sure if he would make it through. While Seth was in the coma he had an amazing experience. While laying on his bed he saw all the people that were and were not praying for him. When he saw the people who were praying for him it gave him the strength to come back. But the people who said they were going to pray for him but did not hurt him deeply in his spirit. So that just goes to show how important prayer is and how effective it can be.
Then God brought Seth to a baseball field and he saw a boy who was playing baseball and got hurt and who was all curled up and he saw Jesus leaning over him crying. Jesus doesn't want any of His people to be hurt. But God does give us free will. For the same reason, God didn't want Seth to fall through a building but God gives us free will. God suffers when we suffer. God rejoices when we rejoice. God cries when we cry. He is willing to cry over us because He doesn't want us to be hurt. God is in sync with us and to how we feel. He also said that God is always with us. Literally, if we are taking a walk by ourselves, Jesus is there. If we are at a concert, Jesus is there. If we are in our rooms crying by ourselves, Jesus is there. If we are playing baseball with our friends, Jesus is there. He is leaning over your shoulder reading this with you now. "God will never leave NOR forsake you" Deuteronomy 31:6 God is in sync with us and to how we feel.
Seth said while he was in the hospital, he couldn't swallow, he couldn't drink he couldn't go to the bathroom by himself. He had to re-learn a lot of stuff and it was by the help of God he got through it all. God enables us to do the things we can't. Seth said, while he was in the the hospital despite all the hard things he was going through he felt very happy. He felt a joy that he could not comprehend. He said "The peace that God gives us is amazing, and we don't have to fall through a building to experience it".
Let that sink in. God's peace is ours for the taking. We just need to accept it. No anxiety. No worries. No more doubt. God's peace is ours. Right now.
Because of what Seth was going through, God was there right with him. He said he wouldn't change what happened with the accident. Because like I sometimes say, God has us go through trials and tribulations not for just no reason but to make us stronger and it makes our faith in God stronger. Faith in God and our trust in Him alone is so important. This experience changed Seth's life. What I think is God puts experiences either like this or something else in order to change something in our lives. To know God more. Now Seth is not the same person that he was before because of this experience God gave him. Before Seth went to a lot of parties and did things that pleased himself, but because of God's grace and mercy and what happened to him God changed him. "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, the old has gone; and the new has come!" 2 Corinthians 5:17 His love for God has grown stronger, he knows he has a job to do in this life now, just as all of God's children do.
Seth said God's love for us is so strong and when he was up in heaven he could feel it so strongly and it was amazing. Seth said he would die to feel God's love like that again when he had his experience in heaven. He said if he could give up everything to go to heaven he would. He would give up everything to feel what he felt again in heaven, in a heart beat. Nothing on earth compares to his love. Not even your happiest day on earth. "See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called His children" 1 John 3:1. God's love does not compare to any human love here on earth. How comforting is that?
So to me Seth's experience says a lot. A couple of them are-
1.God suffers with us
2. There is a reason for our trials
3. God's love for us IS unconditional
4. God enables us to do the things we can't
5.We should be excited about heaven and look towards the things we cannot see (See Hebrews 11.1)
6. Prayer changes everything