God’s will for us in eternity
By Ps KB Chan
A vision in the hospital
When I had my operation in July, 2003 in the Penang General Hospital to remove my kidneys I could not sleep realizing I had come through a miraculous operation. I felt very depressed because I was thinking that when I go back home I will be waiting to die because I had lost a lot of weight and my protruding stomach had now sunken in and I was very thin…a dialysis patient cannot stand malnutrition for long…..In fact I even contemplated suicide.
On the third day a brother from the church came to visit and encourage me. He prayed, “there is now a bright future for you…” I was inspired and lifted up. That night I couldn’t sleep and the Lord began to speak to me about His plans for eternity for me as well as for His people.
Every time I closed my eyes, I could see stars, beautiful stars in different shades of brightness in the firmament of the universe. As I began to look closer and concentrate on the shining stars, they began to come closer and closer to me, until they became trees, charcoal black oily trees. That vision was repeated the whole night but I could not understand it.
After I was discharged from the hospital, the Lord started to explain this vision clearly to me. The explanation of the stars can be found in:
Dan: 12: 2-3. ‘And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine, like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.’
God’s assignment
God impressed upon me that He wants me to explain the scripture through His perspective, to tell His people about His plans for eternity – to be stars to turn people to righteous living.
God spoke to Abraham that his children will be as many as the stars in heaven. “In the firmament of God, there are the greater lights and the lesser lights.” (Gen.:1:16). Even the stars have their own shades of brightness. The different degrees of reflected brightness depends on the condition or maturity of our souls before we die and also the credits we have received serving Him on earth. How much Christ-likeness we have in our soul will be how much glory we will reflect from the glory of God.
Oily trees
When I was a science teacher I taught about nature’s way of making diamonds that were formed when large acres of forestations were buried under the earth through earth movements, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and glacier movements. Through years of pressure and heat, the body liquid masses of the forest became fossil oil and were stored in channels under the surface of the earth now called crude oil for petroleum. The hard wood parts of the plants became hard carbon and through a longer period of pressure and heat, turn to rough diamonds, waiting to be mined, polished and shine like the stars in heaven.
Pressure and heat
The Lord revealed to me again a spiritual analogy. The pressure and heat represented the refiner’s fire and the baptism of fire God sent on the souls that needed to be purified. The squeezed out oil from the forest talks about the fragrance of brokenness to be diffused in every place and through further dealings of the Lord. The different grades of brightness, like the polished diamonds, will depend on the person’s willingness to yield to God’s Holy Fire.
God’s purpose for eternity
Churches too often only talk about wining souls but there is a higher calling for Christians and that is to sanctify their souls for eternity. Jesus did not come to die to save us only but has given us the keys to continue our spiritual pilgrimage on earth. With the help of the Holy Spirit He will make us holy and blameless, so that He can present us as His flawless Bride to the Father in eternity. This is what I feel God wants me and His other children to know and to be.
KB is a worshipper and composer of spiritual songs. Read his remarkable life without kidneys in “A Song in the Night” www.deargoldie.com Dec #11 2015