The intense deep love that characterizes God and heaven can have a large impact on our present lives. The more you know the love of God and experience it in your heart, the more you can see the fruits of the Spirit in your life.
The lives of those eyewitnesses of heaven were dramatically changed by their experience and so yours can be as you vicariously experience the love and perfection they experienced first hand. While you will probably not get the opportunity to be invited to tell your story to groups as some of them were, you can still allow God’s love to permeate your life and attitudes to such an extent you will be a witness to those around you of God’s goodness. Their closeness to God opened up other avenues of witness as well, which can also be available to you. As God became closer and a natural part of their lives, some experienced healings, some experienced prophetic messages, some became more aware of the visits of angels, some had greater perception into people’s needs, some were able to recognize God’s nudges to be in the right place at the right time to meet a need. The more you know God’s love, His ability to do great things in your life, and His desire to make your life a joyful blessing, the more you will be sensitive to the subtle influences of the Spirit.
If the Spirit nudges you in a particular direction and you don’t believe it is from God or if that it is not something you can do or if you are afraid or if you just don’t want to do it, either God will find someone else or both you and the other person will be deprived of a blessing God wants to give.
Here are two examples of times I had a nudging of the Spirit but didn’t respond. Sometime after I came into my relationship with the Lord as a student on the Harvard campus, I saw a young man in a wheelchair entering one of the dormitories on campus, I had the nudging to go up to him, lay my hands on him and pray for his healing. As a new Christian I had childlike faith in Jesus and His presence, but I doubted that I could do that and that the young man would welcome my attention. I thought it would look foolish when nothing happened. So I refused to follow that nudge. Since then I have always wondered how my life would have been different these sixty years if I had had the faith to do what God was leading me to do. I will never know because at that point my walk with Jesus had been like the one who said “let me go do something else first.” Or it could be that God wasn’t nudging me, and it was right to ignore it. But in my spirit, I think God would have used that for His glory. Now I know God can heal and can use any of His followers for that who will willingly trust Him and respond to even subtle prompting of the Spirit and walk in faith.
A few years ago I was in a healing service at church. At one point when we were praying, God spoke to me about going up to someone who was praying and lay my hands on him and pray with him. I was stuck to my seat and didn’t move. Then I saw someone else get up and do that very thing. I lost the blessing, but God found another servant who could obey him to minister to the man that needed the healing. God was determined to give the man praying the touch he needed and used someone else who was more prompt at responding than I was.
How often do we miss a blessing because of fear or doubt? Unfortunately, most of the time we will never know. When we do step out as God is leading, we very likely will experience an unanticipated blessing that will encourage our faith and trust. So what is my message here from these eyewitnesses? God can use you as He used them. You don’t have to die temporarily and visit heaven to know the depth of God’s love and experience the subtle leading of the Spirit. Heaven is not just after we die. That love and leading of the Holy Spirit is here for us now. I myself have much to learn even after reading all these testimonies. Perhaps you can benefit if you can take to heart their experiences and apply them in your life by letting God increase your faith and trust.