Post by Cindy on May 22, 2015 10:59:03 GMT -5
I'm reading a Christian fiction series that starts with a book called Prophet, by R.J. Larson. It's fantastic but that's not why I'm posting this. In this first book, the girl that God has called to be His prophet is shown what it's like to be without Him....and ultimately what the second death is like. It blew me away so of course, I have to share it with you. I'm not going to include what led up to this experience and it may sound like God was being cruel to her, but I assure you that He wasn't. You'll have to take my word for that, or else get the book yourself as I just want to share the experience she had: (I'm going to put God's words in dark blue italics)
"Do you understand what My Presence truly means?" He had perceived Ela’s lingering doubts, she knew. ...
She felt His presence sucked from her body like air - saw it leave in a whirlwind rising above her. He was gone. No! Ela staggered, fighting to breathe. The mimicry of breath she finally managed was a searing torrent of agony. She tried to raise her hands to her throat, then comprehended that even the dust the Creator had used to sculpt her kind was incapable of holding form without His Presence. She crumbled into the ground itself. Bereft of a body, her soul collapsed in fiery torment, screaming for death and for Him. The world around Ela vanished amid flames, leaving her writhing in agony. Without His sustaining Spirit, she could not endure this measureless cauldron of fire. Where was its end? Where was He? Why couldn't she die? Infinite! Let me die!
A touch drew her soul from the fire and her body from the dust. Alive, she lay helpless, her face resting against ash tainted desert sand. Clawing the parched ground, which was cold in comparison to what she had just felt, she whimpered, "Please, let me die." He seemed so near that Ela imagined she felt His breath restoring her senses, her sanity.
She was trembling, unable to even lift her head. How was it possible she still lived? Who could exist without Him? "Not even those who deny Me can live on this world if I withdraw My Spirit," the Creator murmured into her thoughts. Infinite? Was that like death? "No. That was life without Me. Death without My Presence is immeasurably worse, for it brings eternity in torment, without hope of release." What gives us hope? What gives us eternity with You? "Faith in Me."
"Do you understand what My Presence truly means?" He had perceived Ela’s lingering doubts, she knew. ...
She felt His presence sucked from her body like air - saw it leave in a whirlwind rising above her. He was gone. No! Ela staggered, fighting to breathe. The mimicry of breath she finally managed was a searing torrent of agony. She tried to raise her hands to her throat, then comprehended that even the dust the Creator had used to sculpt her kind was incapable of holding form without His Presence. She crumbled into the ground itself. Bereft of a body, her soul collapsed in fiery torment, screaming for death and for Him. The world around Ela vanished amid flames, leaving her writhing in agony. Without His sustaining Spirit, she could not endure this measureless cauldron of fire. Where was its end? Where was He? Why couldn't she die? Infinite! Let me die!
A touch drew her soul from the fire and her body from the dust. Alive, she lay helpless, her face resting against ash tainted desert sand. Clawing the parched ground, which was cold in comparison to what she had just felt, she whimpered, "Please, let me die." He seemed so near that Ela imagined she felt His breath restoring her senses, her sanity.
She was trembling, unable to even lift her head. How was it possible she still lived? Who could exist without Him? "Not even those who deny Me can live on this world if I withdraw My Spirit," the Creator murmured into her thoughts. Infinite? Was that like death? "No. That was life without Me. Death without My Presence is immeasurably worse, for it brings eternity in torment, without hope of release." What gives us hope? What gives us eternity with You? "Faith in Me."
!!
