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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 