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It’s All About Love
When I wrote my last blog post, I didn’t get to what’s most important of all. It’s not just the fact that we will give an account of our lives or that it will be an exacting account, but that it is all about love.
Feel the Pain – or the Joy
I’ve been listening to and reading about hundreds of people’s near-death experiences, and just as they learn lessons through their experiences, I am too. Many of them tell about how they have a life review, where the Lord questions them about the highlights of their lives and they get to see and feel, good or bad, the impact they had on others. Concerning how we treat or mistreat others, they say we get to feel, good or bad, everything the other person felt. For instance, one person saw Hilter is in Hell being repeatedly cooked alive, feeling all of the pain, suffering, and death that he inflicted on millions of people. According to Wikipedia, it was “around 6 million Jews.” Just imagine feeling everything 6 million people felt being torture and murdered, including the pain that caused their loved ones and God who loves us all so deeply.
Your Life Review – What to Expect
As I’d pointed out yesterday, I listened to Barbara Ireland’s testimony, and unlike any of the others I heard, she went into detail about how “this male voice” [Jesus] asked her specifically what she was thinking when she said, thought, or even gestured, a certain way.
She said, “A movie [of my life] started playing in my head that was crystal clear. Not like a memory that’s a little bit foggy. It had sounds and I could feel all the emotions that I had. … The movie is playing and then it freeze-frames and this voice appears in my head. Not my normal internal voice. Not a voice from outside. This calm, neutral kind of male voice, and it said, what were you thinking at that moment? And I thought I told them what I was thinking. And the movie went off the screen. A new movie took its place of something that had happened maybe a month earlier. It freeze-framed again. I was asked [the voice asked me], what were you thinking? The next one that came up, it went freeze-frame. They [the voice] said, what did that gesture mean when you turned your head down at that moment? Another one was, what did it mean when you raised your eyebrow at that moment? Each of these went over and over for four hours. Four hours of this…life review.”
My Takeaways
For me, there were several takeaways. I mentioned the first two in my last blog post and will recap them here…
First, these life reviews confirm numerous scriptures that say everyone, even the animals, will give account to God. “…for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being,” Genesis 9:5.
Hebrews 4:13
Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Romans 14:12
…each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.
2 Corinthians 5:10
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive his due for the things done in the body, whether good or bad.
1 Peter 4:5
But they will have to give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
Proverbs 5:21
For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths.
Proverbs 15:3
The eyes of the LORD are in every place, observing the evil and the good.
Second, this specific testimony confirms how exacting the account will be. Jesus said, “But I tell you that everyone will give an account on the day of judgment for *every careless word* they have spoken,” Matthew 12:36. While we might think He’s simply saying He will hold us accountable for just our “careless” words, He’s really saying that if He cares about the “careless” words we speak, He cares about everything we think, say, and do. Keep in mind that our thoughts, and even our gestures, are ways we communicate to ourselves and others.
Third, and the one I didn’t discuss yesterday, is that every near-death experience seems to have the same lesson — that loving others and yourself is what’s most important. Barbara’s testimony includes a discussion she had with “the voice” [Jesus] that demonstrates this well. In discussing a return to her life on earth, she had asked, “What about all my projects that are half done? I have albums ready to come out. What about my books and all these projects? The voice said, ‘Oh Barbara, those projects, they aren’t that important.’ I was like, ‘Really?’ It was like, ‘No, what’s really important are your relationships. Now if your projects open a relationship up between you and another person or them and another person or them with themselves or you with yourself, then yeah they are important, but in general, that’s not what counts.’ What did count according to our conversation [her conversation with this voice] was how we show up in the world, how open are our hearts, how we treat other people. Do we judge them or are we open to them? How do we treat ourselves? Can we forgive ourselves for things? Can we love ourselves despite all these worthless loops that we might have going on in our heads? I thought okay. It [the voice] said, ‘When you go back, if you choose to go back, you need to do four different things or see four different people, and you need to tell them how much you love them.’ It’s not like, ‘Hey man, I love you!’ It’s not one of those, right? It’s like, this is why I love you. These are the qualities about you that I love. This is the impact you made on my life. There was another person I needed to make amends to. Even if we think they are 90% wrong in a situation, we are responsible for that 10%.”
What is Most Important
One thing that stands out for me is that as I hear these testimonies, they all get a second chance to fulfill their life purpose and that is to learn what love is and to learn how to love, and as we consider these testimonies, along with what the Bible tells us (it says the same thing), we have a chance to begin reviewing our lives in the here and now to see where we stand and we can begin to make any needed adjustments.
Life Review = Life Changing
Think About What You’re Thinking About
This testimony of a near-death experience is quite telling. Barbara Ireland pointed out how “this voice” [the Lord] stepped her through a life review, questioning her about how she was in various parts of her life. She said, “A movie [of my life] started playing in my head that was crystal clear. Not like a memory that’s a little bit foggy. It had sounds and I could feel all the emotions that I had. … The movie is playing and then it freeze-frames and this voice appears in my head. Not my normal internal voice. Not a voice from outside. This calm, neutral kind of male voice, and it said, what were you thinking at that moment? And I thought, I told them what I was thinking. And the movie went off the screen. A new movie took its place of something that had happened maybe a month earlier. It freeze-framed again. I was asked [the voice asked me], what were you thinking? The next one that came up, it went freeze-frame. They [the voice] said, what did that gesture mean when you turned your head down at that moment? Another one was, what did it mean when you raised your eyebrow at that moment? Each of these went over and over for four hours. Four hours of this…life review.”
As part of my own personal research, I have listened to and read hundreds of testimonies of near-death experiences now, and many of them say they went through a life review but this is the first time I’ve heard anyone outline it so specifically. What she describes affirms a number of scriptures that say we will give an account of our lives, and not only that, but it will be a very exacting account. Jesus testified to this when He said, “But I tell you that men will give an account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken,” Matthew 12:36. In other words, we will give an account for even our thoughts and gestures since they are words we “speak” even if we don’t verbalize them.
Genesis 9:5 tells us that every creature will give an account. “…for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.”
Hebrews 4:13
Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Romans 14:12
…each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.
2 Corinthians 5:10
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive his due for the things done in the body, whether good or bad.
1 Peter 4:5
But they will have to give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
Proverbs 5:21
For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths.
Proverbs 15:3
The eyes of the LORD are in every place, observing the evil and the good.
If It Feels Good
As if thinking about how the Lord will call us to account for every negative thought is not enough, Barbara goes on to point out something I hadn’t thought of before. She says, “I delved into all the research I could find about thought and negative thought … about how we become addicted to the chemicals of negative emotions that we think we don’t want but our cells are like baby birds, going, I want shame and anger and guilt, so we keep feeding it.” She’s pointing out that there’s a literal chemical reaction in our bodies that takes place when we think negative thoughts, and that like taking drugs to help us feel better, we often unknowingly want those chemicals.
Stay on the “Straight and Narrow”
A little later, she explains how repetitively thinking negatively creates neural pathways in our brains and like walking down a beaten path that makes it easier to travel that way again and again, we have to go a new direction and create new pathways if we want something better.
All of this reminds me that if I want a good life or want to accomplish anything good in life, I have to start thinking better, focusing on what is good and positive. Hebrews 12:2 says it this way, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Let us follow Him and His example. Was He a negative person? Can we think like Him? “We have the mind of Christ,” (1 Corinthians 2:16), or according to this scripture, we’re supposed to.
I highly recommend you watch the YouTube video and listen for what the Lord might say to you through it.
For God's Glory 