Viewing the Next Location

We can be confident that Jesus is preparing a place for us - that we will live forever in a place called heaven.  The Bible describes it as a glorious place, a place where we will be in the presence of the Lord.   When we leave this earth, we are promised that we will be with Him. 2nd Corinthians 5 (ESV) states:
6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,
7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.
8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

Randy Kay was essentially a walking dead man - he had experienced a swelling in his body following a trip for business, didn't do anything about it, even went on a bicycle ride.  He ended up in a doctor's office and then in the ER.

That's according to a Faithwire story that included quotes from an interview on the Into the Supernatural podcast.  He had contracted seven blood clots and he was considered to be "clinically" dead.  The article relates:

“Immediately, my body went still, and, initially, it felt like a tugging at my hospital gown,” he said. “And, later, I would come to realize that that was my spirit leaving my body, and then I became a third party to my body. So, I was looking down this still body I knew that was my body, but that wasn’t me.”

Kay said he was suddenly “in a different place.” He found himself moving up to a new location — a place where he witnessed a spiritual battle over his body. As it unfolded, he cried out.

He went on to say: "As soon as I cried out the name of Jesus Christ, I was side to side with this figure who I knew was Jesus,” adding,  “I just caved. I just collapsed. And I was sobbing. I knew I was in the presence of God and the first thought was, ‘So this is love.’”  He shared that Jesus showed him snapshots of his life as a reminder that He had been with Randy.  He even recounted the moment in his life when a little boy had prayed for Randy, which led to his coming to Christ. 

The Faithwire article goes on to say:

Kay, who wanted to stay in Heaven, said he was clinically dead for 30 minutes and 49 seconds — but miraculously returned to his body. He said Jesus told him he would need to go back.

At first, he held his story close. But, after more than a decade, Kay began publicly sharing his story and has since written books like “Heaven Stormed,” among others. He also has a popular YouTube channel where he tells incredible stories of near-death experiences.

In a piece on the Think Eternity website, John Burke related the sheer number of near-death experiences that he has studied.  It states, regarding Burke:

As he learned, he discovered, from his perspective, the belief that NDEs line up with what’s in the Bible. And since the late 1980s, he’s studied nearly “1,500 cases of clinical death and resuscitation.”

The commonalities among these stories have stunned him — reports he believes line up with Scripture. Remarkably, he said, upwards of 5% of the population has reported having NDEs.

Burke, in a piece on the Destiny Image publisher's website, related that out of the cases he has studied, Randy Kay's is "one of the most intriguing."

After interviewing Burke and spending time with Don Piper, who has written and spoken about his experience with the afterlife during a time in which he was clinically dead, I do believe in the credibility of these gentlemen.  And, we can be reminded of the reality of heaven. It's not some far away place that the mind or the spirit cannot grasp.  The Bible teaches that when we leave this body, as believers, we are home with the Lord.

We also recognize that when we leave this earth, we are changing locations - yes, we have died from this life, but we are very much alive.  Already, we have eternal life through Jesus Christ - a regenerated spirit.  And, we are promised a glorifed body, a body in which we will never face death once we leave this earth.  Eternity with Christ is promised to the believer, and we can have certainty that if we know Jesus, we will live with Him forever.