Heaven Is Beyond Your Wildest Expectations (9 page)

S
EEING
H
EAVEN

Then He said to me, “You are My daughter.” The instant the words came out of His mouth, they were like living water. I saw everything in one split second, and I understood as I saw it all happen. He didn’t preach to me; He was just talking to me like another person, but with a beautiful and strong voice. It was loving, and sweet like honey. As He got closer, as He was talking to me, it was revealed to me that He is truly the Son of God and that He had died on the cross. I also knew that He is the Lion and the King. It all was revealed to me at once. I also knew that He is a Father and I was His daughter and His chosen one. All the pain in my life He already knew about, and He was already pleased with me. I knew that all is forgiven by the blood of Jesus. All this I knew just being in His presence.

It all was revealed to me at once.

Jesus stood on my right side. I saw three men who were surrounded by light. The one who appeared to be the oldest had a long beard and was wearing a royal robe. Jesus told me that they were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jesus introduced them to me without words. He said, “Go to the bosom of your father Abraham.” Jesus looked at me and assured me, “Do not be in fear. Go to the bosom of Father Abraham.” I then went. I walked to Abraham, and he welcomed me and said, “Come to me, my daughter.” He was sitting, and I sat on his lap and rested my head on his shoulder. Jesus told me to repent from the curse words that we used to curse the Jewish people. I spoke in Arabic and asked for forgiveness. Abraham said my repentance was received by the Lord. I said, “I want to see this in my lifetime.” As I said that, I saw it written, “On earth as it is in heaven.”
¹
I was requesting it for the earth, and Jesus affirmed that my request would take place on the earth. I then went back to Jesus.

I began to recognize more things in Heaven. There was no language barrier. I understood angels were saying, “Holy, holy, holy.” I saw a huge crown and people threw it at the feet of Jesus. I saw children under the age of six, and they were all worshiping Jesus. Jesus was speaking to me, explaining things to my mind about what I was seeing. These were the babies who died when their mothers got rid of them through abortion. Some died naturally through sickness or were murdered. All of them were at Jesus’ feet and so peaceful and so healthy and happy—not one sad face.

There were multitudes of people. I could hear the sounds of Heaven in every language and tongue, and I saw every color of the millions worshiping Jesus as Lord, calling Him, “Holy, Holy Lamb of God” over and over. I saw water, crystal clear water. Everyone was healthy. As I looked at things, I understood them supernaturally. I knew it all by the Spirit of God as I was with them in Heaven dancing before Jesus, dancing around the throne at His feet. He was also the Person who was on the throne.

There is a place by His feet where I saw the angels, the babies, and the birds of the air. It was all so very beautiful. I was worshiping and calling Him “My God, my Savior, and my King.” These words were coming out of my mouth. I was still seeing and feeling all this in my body and I was on my knees worshiping Him when Heaven began fading away, though not too quickly. I started sensing that I was back on the earth. I could see Jesus backing away in the room. I was still on my knees though I had been standing when He first spoke to me. I was begging Him not to leave me there. “I need You,” I told Him, not wanting to ever be without Him again. He said to me in Arabic, “I’m going to come back and get you,” He put His hand on me before He left. Right after that, I was flat on the ground, and I was back in the room and everything of Heaven faded away.

T
HE
S
PIRIT OF
G
OD

I got up and sat on my knees. I began to speak in a language I had heard in Heaven but never on earth. I had never learned about speaking in tongues. I saw the Lion in Heaven, that strong Lion. Now as I spoke in that language, I felt that strength inside of me. All of my life of pain, hurt, and sorrow was suddenly before me. It was as if He took out all the sadness from inside of me and let me see it and then replaced it with everything that is good. I saw so many negative things; they were all before me, but all the good things were there, too. I could see all of it, not only the experiences, but things in my heart as well. I recognized it, and I was able to choose to replace all the bad with the good.

I continued to speak in the heavenly language. I had never used drugs or alcohol in my life, but I had seen people who were drunk—and I was “drunk” with the Spirit of God, something I would read about later that happened to the disciples at Pentecost. I was feeling heavy, yet at the same time as light as if I was dancing on a cloud, like a bird that could fly in the air.

I walked out of the room to the front of the store. I was having a hard time walking, still under the power of the Spirit. I was not scared for one moment. I felt like I had just been with the love of my life. I knew I could trust that Person. I could trust Him entirely. Now I knew who Jesus is. When I walked outside, I saw my dear friend, and I said to her, “I just received Jesus as my personal Savior. I just talked to Jesus. He’s my God and my King!” I told her, “He
IS
the way and you do have to believe in Jesus.”

He gave me the love, healing, and security that twenty-nine years in the Qur’an never gave me. Now, by a miracle of the Spirit of God, I was quoting many verses from the Bible though I had never read it. I now knew it is not about us and what we do to try and please God, it’s all about Jesus and who He is and what He has done for us!

I was filled with the power of Jesus from that day forward. My heart was healed. It was no longer full of hate, anger, confusion, and unforgiveness. I was wholly healed from my childhood as a Palestinian and feeling like a victim of every circumstance. There was such a change in my heart. I wasn’t sad anymore. I felt strong, as if I could face life and face any challenges that would come to me now that I had Jesus with me. He gave me freedom and He gave me love.

Commentary

Khalida came from a life that is about as far from faith in Jesus as you can get—she was a slave to a Bedouin tribe, living as a Muslim with no awareness of there being any other faith or any other god than Allah. But God knew exactly where she was, and He sovereignly led her to the Christian woman who took her and her children in and gave them a home when they were homeless. Many times when we come to the Lord we can look back and see that He was there all along in our lives in one way or another, caring for us, protecting us. That certainly was true for Khalida. As she worked for the Christian woman, she remained true to her Islamic faith. Though she maintained her beliefs, it was the love of God that she saw in her Christian friend and employer that Islam did not provide for her. Neither did it provide a relationship with God, one in which He would talk to her as her friend claimed He spoke to her. Allah seemed unresponsive no matter how many Islamic prayers she prayed or how often she fasted.

Finally, out of frustration in wanting to know God, she suddenly called out to Jesus and just as suddenly He was there before her, as if He had been waiting for her to call to Him. He is that close to all of us, waiting to respond to us when we call upon Him with all our hearts, wanting to know Him, or know Him more deeply. He may not come personally to everyone, but that is a prayer He always answers.

What Khalida experienced in Heaven was not something she would ever have imagined as a faithful Muslim, but then, she would not have expected to meet Father Abraham either, or as she would call him in Arabic, Ibrahim. She did as the Lord bid her to do, and asked him for forgiveness for curses she had spoken against the Jewish people. Coming to know Jesus, in Heaven or on the earth, if we are to be His, we must give up our prejudices and exchange what we thought was wrong with others for accepting that we have had wrong attitudes of bitterness, hatred, or pride against others—and ask for forgiveness. As Jesus loves and died for all people so that we all can be forgiven, so must we love and forgive as He does if we are to be His followers. No exceptions allowed!

Never as a Muslim did she ever know the joy of worship and certainly never worship of Jesus whom she had been taught was a prophet of Allah, second to Mohammed. One moment with Jesus and there is complete revelation of who He is. She was calling Him “My God, my Savior, and my King.” He is that for all of us who call upon His name.

About Khalida Wukawitz

Khalida’s story is probably one of the most unique you’ll ever hear. Born in Bethlehem of a Palestinian mother who died days after she was born, she was put in an orphanage that was bombed when she was a little girl. It was never known if the bomb came from the Israelis or the Palestinians. All in the orphanage were killed—except Khalida who was found wandering the streets. She was sold to a Bedouin family where she became their slave. She was given her own camel and was taught the ways of Islam as she walked barefooted and in the same clothes for years as part of a caravan that traveled from one Arab country to the next in search of food. But God’s hand was upon her through one difficult situation after another. God sovereignly took her from the sands of an Arab desert to the United States. When she met the Christian woman, she had barely escaped with her children from the husband who had brought her to America but kept her in seclusion. What may look like a very circuitous journey is often a straight path into the arms of Jesus. God was all this time leading her to Himself.

When Khalida met her Christian friend, she spoke very little English. Today she has a college degree and speaks English very well. Khalida’s experience of asking Father Abraham to forgive her for cursing the Jewish people had a profound impact on her life. She carries in her heart a desire to see reconciliation between Arabs and Jews and to see Israel honored in the way God has ordained in the Bible. Khalida considers that part of the work God has given her.

The full story of Khalida’s life (this is only the barest details) and salvation can be found in
10 Amazing Muslims Touched by God.
²

Endnotes

1.
  See Matthew 6:10.

2.
  Faisal Malick,
10 Amazing Muslims Touched by God
(Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, 2012).

C
HAPTER
6

THE MAGNIFICENCE OF
HEAVEN

Dr. Gary Wood

It was two days before Christmas. Gary was listening to his sister softly singing “Silent Night” while he drove the car home that dark night, when suddenly she screamed in horror. A truck was parked illegally on the side of the road and there was no way to avoid hitting it. Gary heard an explosion and felt a sharp searing pain on the lower portion of his face and then, just as suddenly, he was relieved of all pain.

I saw my whole life pass before me in a millisecond in flashes of incidents. There was no confusion about what had just happened. I had nothing but complete peace and tranquility and total absence of pain.

At first, I felt myself at the top of the car, then I was out of it. Then I was caught into a funnel-shaped cloud that kept getting wider and wider. I began to walk on a moving pathway in the cloud—like an airport walkway that enables you to walk more easily. Up, up, up I went; and as I continued, I was engulfed in a brilliant light. Serenity and peace continued to wash over me. As I walked on the pathway, I instinctively knew I was headed north.

Then the swirling mass of a funnel-shaped cloud opened up wide and I saw a giant golden satellite suspended in Heaven. All earthly things are built upon something, but God has this city suspended in Heaven because there’s nothing on earth that could hold it. When I approached Heaven, there was an angel with a sword who granted me access into Heaven. Then I was actually standing on the outside of the city, on a lush green carpet of grass on a hill. I started walking up the hill. The grass came all the way through my feet; and when I looked, there were no indentions where I had stepped. Nothing is harmed in Heaven.