Pastor Mike's Blog

This is an excerpt from a recent sermon the Lord gave to me about Eternity:  I feel compelled to share this with as many as possible.  You can find the entire sermon in audio or video here: www.shore.sermon.tv

Then I saw was this vastness of the universe. I heard the Lord, He said, "All the scientists in the world will agree that the universe is expanding constantly." And I said, "Yes, Lord. The universe is expanding constantly." And then he went into show me the way eternity really is. I know I didn't get an entire glimpse of all of what's available to us, but he began to share with me the wonderful things that he has waiting for us.

Scripture says this, "Eye has not seen, neither has ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love him." We can't imagine. We can't see it. We can't feel it. We can't understand it. But God has prepared something wonderful for us that is beyond our comprehension. It's beyond the ability for us to even really conceive of.

He said, "In heaven, there is no hell. And in hell, there is no heaven." I never heard it quite like that. I said, "There's no hell in heaven. There's no sadness, no sickness, no disease." We sang the song this morning, "No weeping, no crying, no pain, no suffering." We know all that. I know you believe that, but what do you really believe eternity is all about?

Most of us have the sense, as I did, that we will be giving God praise in eternity forevermore. I know we will be, but I think the impression that we had of eternity, to be honest, from my perspective, was kind of boring. I'm just being honest with you. In my flesh, I'm going, "I don't want to sit around all day just singing songs and praising God." Maybe it will be that exciting. I don't know, but there was just part of me that was kind of – that was troublesome to me. Wasn't it? Be honest with you. Didn't that ever trouble you a little bit? You ever go, "I don't know if I could do that all day every day."

And he said, "I never said that." I said, "What do you mean? It's right there in your word." he said, "No, read it again." And I read the scripture and it says the 24 elders and the beasts around the throne are praising God. And the heavenly hosts are joining in praise, but it's the elders, the 24, the beasts, and all them that are around the throne that are giving praise to God forever more.

He said, "I created you to be with me. I created you special. And my desire is to spend eternity with you." As God began to unfold this vision of what eternity was, I was starting to just – the excitement inside of me was just building more, and more, and more. When it was done, I was like, "Okay, I'm ready." I mean it. I really was. I'm saying, "I'm ready."

As much as I love being here, as much as I love pasturing, as much as I love all the things that I do and the things that God has laid on my heart, I felt and I meant it and I mean it, I was ready to go. Eternity is that awesome. So we're going to talk a little bit about the glimpse into eternity. For all eternity, we'll be with God. Philippians says this, Philippians 3:20-21. It says, "But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself."

John 14:1-3 says this, "Let not your hearts be trouble. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would've told you. But I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself that where I am, you may be also."

So the Lord took me on a little journey in the spirit of eternity. This is what I saw. The vastness of the universe laid out before us, almost like a painting like I've never seen before, some of the most beautiful paintings that you could ever think of or imagine, so real, three-dimensional, I was looking out and could literally see galaxies all over. I said, "Lord, that's so wonderful." And he says, "They're yours."

I said, "What?" He said, "The galaxies are yours." I said, "But Lord –" And then immediately I was like here on Earth. I'm here and I remembered all the trips that I've taken and all the places that I've seen, and he says, "You, my son, have seen some of the creation here on the Earth. You've seen the majesty of my glory." He said, "There are many who live a whole life and never get to see some of the things that you've experienced, but there is so much more."

And I began to think, "You're right." I mean there are people who go through all of life and never see the Seven Wonders of the World, who never get to experience the awe of the Arctic or the amazing sites of the high mountaintops of the Himalayas. People have never even experienced some of the beauty here in our own county, the Grand Canyon, the Dakotas, the Rio Grande River, the Great Mississippi, and around the world, the Nile.

Some of us have never seen the freshness, the beauty of African and South America in its untouched wilderness. Some of us have never experienced the depths of the ocean, only a small few. And then what about just the outer realms of the Earth? What about seeing the Earth from above? Only a select handful or more have ever had that pleasure of seeing the Earth from the atmosphere above or placing their foot on another piece of soil other than the Earth, like the moon.

So we go through all of life only experiencing small little portions of the grandeur of our amazing God. Some of us drive by the areas where we live. We live in a beautiful place. I mean as much as we take it for granted, when you drive just down this road here or in Old Saybrook around 154 and you make that loop around and you see the majesty, the beauty of the ocean and the waves crashing and the sunsets, amazing sunsets.

We take it all for granted, most of us. But the splendor of God goes far beyond what we've ever seen. Some of us – I believe all of us have the desire to explore. I do. I believe that all of us inside have the desire to explore. We want to know more. You know what if you've ever seen a scary movie. I don't like them, but if you've ever seen one – I can remember when I was younger and I did see some of them. It's like why are you going in that room? Why are you opening that door? You know there's something bad behind the door. The music is playing. It can't be good. But curiosity, we've got to go in that door. You know? Have you checked the children?

We have this natural curiosity to go running where we know we shouldn't be or to go running to something that – when there's an accident or when there's something, people are running to see it. We have a natural born curiosity. That's the way we are. So, I believe that inside of all of us is the nature of an explorer. Like I said, I'm sharing with you as it's being downloaded to me and God was showing himself as the creator of the majestic universe that we have no clue about how beautiful it really is.

As explorers inside of us, it's been tamed over the years. The older we get, we kind of tame our exploration, our desire for exploration. Well, I guess I'll never get to go there. We live with it because we can maybe see it on DVD.

We've tamed our desires to explore, but it's still there. It's inside of us, and I know inside of you, just like me, is the desire to know what's it really like when we step into eternity. What's it really like when we cross that threshold, our eyes close here, and we open there? What's it really like?

I know some pretty tenacious people who have gone on to be with the Lord. I would think that if there is any way that they can get back here to tell us how awesome it is, some of these people, they'd find a way. Some of these people, they would convince God or something. You think they've got that ability. God said that when people get here, they're not even thinking about what was here because the splendor, the majesty that's spread out before them is so marvelous, so beautiful, so enticing that they're drawn.            

And the love and the peace that they have about those who have been left behind covers them, saturates them that they move on into this new place, into this new realm with the excitement of a new explorer, like a child. Wow. I've got some new marvels. Wow. I get to look at these – just the excitement. We are here and we go through the natural processes of grieving and difficulties. And even as years go by, we still think and we remember our loved ones.

We always say, "I wonder how they're doing. I wonder what it's like." You know some of us will even toss of a few of, "Hey, if you're looking out over me." We do that. We know we can't talk to the dead, but we're human. We toss it up anyhow, "If you're listening." God loves us so much. Here is what eternity is all about.

He said, "The moment you step into my presence, those of you who have accepted me and are still written in the Lamb's book of life, you're immediately, immediately welcomed. And all that is mine is yours." The Lord says, "All that is mine is yours." It's just as it is here on Earth, but it's so hard for us to grab just by faith. Here, it's laid out before us for the taking, for the going.

I said, "But what could there be, God? What excitement? What will I be doing? Will I be kneeling at the feet of the throne all day? I'm embarrassed, God. I'm sorry. I just can't picture me doing that all day." And just as I spoke that for the second time because I talked about it earlier, it's like a whole other room opened. What was that picture and that view, that three-dimensional view of the universe, I was in the midst of all of it?

Everywhere I looked, to ever side of me, beneath me, above me, all of it, and I was like hovering in the midst of eternity. And he said, "Whatever direction you decide to go, go. As you think, there you'll be. As you desire, there is will be." I said, "Lord, what's there?" He goes, "You can't imagine. You can't comprehend until you see with your spirit because we're spirit now. Our bodies are different. We're spirit. Go and explore."

And I just felt myself just letting go just a little, and I saw this bright light. It was just like a – I can't explain it. It was like have you ever looked in the night sky and you see the North Star, but it was like a hundred times the brightness of the North Star. There is was. My mind was just saying, "I wonder what that is." And as soon as I spoke it, it was like there I was.

I know this is going to blow some religious minds, so there are some things I'm going to share and there are some things I'll withhold. But as I got there and looked around, there were all kinds of creations of God, living beings. There were sights and beauties. I saw a waterfall in the spirit. [Sigh]

Did you ever see the sun come through the clouds? As a young kid, I remember someone once telling me that when you see that, that's the spirit of God pulling somebody up into heaven. So I used to think of that and this waterfall was like coming out of the sky. It was so high that you couldn't see the top of it. It was beyond your vision and it looked like just a little pin, way, way up there. Then as it came down, it got wider and wider and wider and wider and wider until I was standing nearly in front of it and I couldn't see the right end nor the left end of it.

It was this gorgeous waterfall and the water was bluish green and it was crystal. You could almost see through it. I was so overwhelmed. I said I want to go back where I was. And there I was, back standing where I felt comfortable. I wasn't uncomfortable in a fearful way being where I was, but I was so overwhelmed. Every sense that I had was overwhelmed, of feeling, emotion, everything you could think of was overwhelmed, smell, sound. And it was all beautiful. None of it was loud or sharp. It was mellow and it was beautiful.

And to the eye, it was so appealing. It was so beautiful. I can't explain it. It was gorgeous. I'm saying, "Lord, this is so beautiful. I don't want to go home. I don't want to go home. This is beautiful here." He said, "That's one of so many." And then he said this. He says, "Just as your scientists have known about the expansion of the universe," he goes, "because my spirit has revealed unto man some things." He goes, "The reason why the universe is expanding like it is, from the first person who stepped into eternity until the last one that will, no one will ever be able to see all that I've created."

Eternity is expanding and no matter how far you go or in what direction you go to look, no matter how many years you spend in eternity with God, you're never going to take it all in. It's constantly expanding. It's like an amusement park that has no end. I don't know what other way to put it. I can't grasp it in my mind. I love amusement parks, all the rides and it was like a greater joy than that. It just kept going.

You know every year, at least they used to years ago, they would add a new ride, like a Superman ride out over the water at Busch Gardens. Ooh, now you go out over the water dangling your feet and then the Batman ride. So you would be like, "I've got to go this year because they added a new ride." In eternity, it's like every moment that you could think of, there's something new being added.

We have no desire to sleep nor no need to sleep. We have no desires to rest, but yet we could. Our spiritual body that we inhabit has power beyond….. It's like – what's the guy? Oh, hallelujah. What's that new show there where the guys got the suit on, the red suit? You know the first one they did the movie about, the red suit with the gold and he flew – Ironman.

It was like your body felt like Ironman. I'm not kidding. I don't know what Ironman feels like, but that's all I can relate it to. It's like if I wanted to go, it was like I could [whoosh] I can go. It's like if I wanted to see, it's like there it was. You know he had the computer in the mask? Our spiritual body, if you want to call it, I don't know what else to call it. The thing that we inhabit is so powerful and you don't feel things like that. You don't feel anything that could be even slightly imagined as pain. You don't feel it.

You have a sense of touch. You have a sense of reality, but when you see the glory of God and the glory of God fills all of eternity. The glory of God lights everything. And all the stars in the universe and all the other things are kind of like dim in comparison to the glory of God. I said, "Lord, but what about the Earth? What about the Earth? We live here. What are we going to do? How do I live the rest of my life knowing what's waiting there is so amazing?"

I couldn't even get the final part of that word out of my mouth before it was like the answer was flooding my mind. He was like, "I've shown you these things so you'll be motivated to let the people know that my love and my glory goes beyond what you could think, hope or imagine." He said, "I have planned things for you that are so good, that are so beautiful, there's nothing ever, ever that you have to be fearful about for the rest of all of eternity."

Immediately, he brought me to Revelation 21. He said, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new Earth. For the first heaven and the first Earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God like a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne of God saying, 'Behold the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people. God himself will be with them as their God, and I will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain because the former things have passed away.'"

It just shook me. He said, "I'm creating a new Earth." A new Earth, and he gave me the dimensions of the cubits of 1500 by 1800 by – and it's all in the Bible. It's all written there, but I never saw it this way. He says, "And I'm creating a new Earth. It's called the New Jerusalem. And it has height and depth and width and length." It's kind of like the Jetson's. No, it's better than that. It's like the movie The Fifth Element. You know where he's in the taxi and he's like vroom, vroom, going up or down and people and things are going across.

It's like we're in this amazing place on Earth and all of the saved people can fit in this place. But we have the ability to just expand, think with a thought, and here are, off somewhere in the universe in a split second. Love in eternity, there's no ending. I sense inside of me – I don't know how to tell you.

There's something inside of all of us if we're really honest with ourselves. There's something inside of all of us that at times, with certain people and certain places, we get thoughts that we shouldn't have. Our mind goes to places. Do you know what I'm trying to say? Whether it's envious or anger or momentary displeasure or lustful thinking, I don't care what thought a human gets, there's no thoughts like that there.

Your thoughts are crystal clear and pure, pure! When you see a person, you see the wholeness, the beauty, the creation of God inside that person, the depths that God created that person to. You know them the moment you see them. I can't explain it. You recognize. I saw no one I love and I said, "God –" He knew it. I didn't even have to speak it. He said, "Some things are not for now." Some things are not for now. Hallelujah.

But there in eternity, some people say where do we go? We go to heaven. You go to Abraham's bosom. You go here. You wait there. You do this. Listen. It's so simple. There is no time when we step into eternity. We don't sense time at all in any way, in any shape, in any form. You don't sense time. As I'm talking, as I'm looking, as I'm – I had no comprehension nor any desire to even think of time. It was not even a consideration.

Every feeling, if you can call it that, because it's like there are no negatives, but they're all positive. It's like all the feedback, maybe that's a better word, all the feedback that I was receiving from everything around me was all positive. It was like things were alive. Like that waterfall, it's like the waterfall was alive, like the elements that composed what looked like the water, I don't even know if it was water, it was like it was alive.

He created us as a special creation...........................................

Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness .........................