← Imagine Heaven Podcast with John Burke
Imagine Heaven Podcast with John Burke
Your Guardian Angels at Christmas: What Near-Death Experiences Reveal
00:16:31
Do you have a guardian angel? What are angels really like - and what role do they play in our lives? In this special audio-only episode, John Burke shares four powerful angelic encounters told by near-death experiencers he has interviewed over the...
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Beings are coming toward me. And I mean, I may not have gone to church, but everyone has gotten a Christmas card with an angel on it. Knew what they were. Very tall, luminous creatures, beautiful in every way. I just struggled to describe them. God has angels assigned to watch over and minister to all of us. I knew that. But even as a pastor, I didn't think much about it. I mean, honestly, angels kind of seemed out there to me. And of course, every Christmas I taught about how angels announced the birth of Jesus, saying, don't be afraid. I bring good news that will bring great joy to all people. And I knew the other scriptures, like Hebrews 1:14, which teaches that angels are servants, their spirits sent to care for people who will inherit salvation. And of course, Jesus said of the children, their angels are always in the presence of my heavenly Father. So I believed angels were real. But I also knew we're not supposed to worship angels. We're not really supposed to seek guidance from angels or anyone except God. So I didn't realize how real and involved angels are in our daily lives. Not until I heard from more and more people that I interviewed who had clinically died, yet been resuscitated and had what's called now a near death experience. And the overlapping picture they gave me of angels and what the Bible Says left me in awe of God and his care for us through his holy angels. You have a guardian angel, maybe two, and maybe many, many more working on your behalf. But I'll tell you, for years I didn't believe any of that. So I started off in all of this as an agnostic. I thought Jesus was probably a good man, turned into a legend God there might be, there might not. There's just no evidence. And decades ago, my dad was dying of cancer and someone gave him the very first research on near death experiences. When people clinically die so literally they have no heartbeat, no brain waves, and yet either modern medicine or many times is just miracle, resuscitates them, brings them back and they talk about this place that they were in that was more real than earth with their loved ones who had died before them. Many of them talking about seeing this God of light who is love, who knew them intimately, gives them a life review in his presence. They relive their whole lives. Many of them see Jesus and know that Jesus is God. And I'm reading this book, I see it on my dad's bedside table and I pick it up and I start reading it because he's dying. And I read the whole thing in one night. And at the end I said, wow, maybe this is the evidence I've been looking for. Maybe this God, Jesus, heaven stuff is real. And as a result, I started to read and study the Bible over the next couple of years. And I did come to faith in Christ. Years after that, I went from a career in engineering to becoming a pastor. And over the last 40 years, just out of sheer curiosity, I've studied close to a thousand five hundred cases of near death experience. I've now interviewed people all over the world because I have found that they truly are real evidence of everything the Bible's teaching, they testify to the reality of the scriptures. And so in 2015 I wrote the book Imagine Heaven, showing the 40 commonalities of what these people having near death experiences all across the globe, what they commonly report, how it aligns with the Bible. And I show how there is evidence that these are not brain based hallucinations like I thought maybe they were as a skeptical engineer, but that these are actual testimonies of heaven and of hell and of the God of the Bible. And one of the 40 commonalities is their consistent encounter with angelic beings. Let me share with you what a few of them have told me about angels. Megan goes to our church, the church that we started, and she told us that when she was Six years old, she struggled with sleep apnea, which of course can cause death. And one night, Megan recalls this. I was asleep, she says, when two angels came to me and woke me up and took me to heaven. After a while, they said we had some time and we could do anything I would like to do. I said I'd like to play a board game, Candyland. Since my friends didn't like playing it anymore, the angels materialized the game and asked me to teach them how to play. I did, and as they were learning, they were laughing with deep joy, as if there's nothing better ever than playing that game with me. I was feeling such joy in that moment that when they told me I must go back, I resisted. One angel said if I didn't return, my friends and teachers at school would miss me and be sad. But I still didn't want to go back. It was so wonderful. Then he waved his hand again, and I was up in the corner of the ceiling of our kitchen, looking down at my mom getting breakfast ready. The angel said if I didn't go back, my mom would be really sad. And so I said, okay. They reassured me they would always be with me and be there to help me. And then, Megan says, one of the greatest gifts I received from my time with my two angels was experiencing their joy in being with me, like there was nothing better in the universe than that. It's amazing to think that you have angels who find great joy in you as well, because they're God's servants assigned to you. So you are loved and cared for not only by God immensely, but also by your angels. But not all angels are the same, you know. Jim Woodford was a commercial airline pilot who actually had never prayed a day in his life. But his wife was a follower of Jesus, and she was praying for him. Jim had a disease called Guillain Barrel, and it's a very painful disease. And he was taking opioids for it to relieve the pain when he accidentally took too much. One day he was sitting in his truck on his horse farm. He was actually a very wealthy man. He. He was a commercial airline pilot, but also started many multimillion dollar businesses. And he's on his horse farm in his truck, looking at the sunset, and he realizes. He told me, john, you know, when you're dying? And he said he could feel it. And suddenly the thought came to him, which I believe was God trying to get his attention. At the last minute, the thought came to him. You've never thanked God for all these things that you thought were your own doing. And in that last second, he said, right before his head hit the steering wheel and he died, he said, God forgive me. At first, Jim has this hellish near death experience and again calls to God for help. He says, help me. And three angels come to his rescue and battle this fallen angel. That because demons are real as well and they're fallen angels. And this one knew Jim's name. It was like it was ready to own him. But they battled it back and then listened to what Jim describes that happened next. These three magnificent beings are coming toward me and I mean, I may not have gone to church, but everyone has gotten a Christmas card with an angel on it. I knew what they were. Very tall, luminous creatures, beautiful in every way. I just struggled to describe them. The first one was about 10ft tall, the next one about 13ft tall. And the third was wearing the garb of a warrior and was 15ft tall with this incredible luminescent face covered in light. And what I remember most was their eyes. Their eyes were huge, but the most magnificent shade of violet. And they came toward me and there was such a sense of peace. And the first one, the ten foot one who I later found out had been my guardian angel since my conception. He put his arm around my shoulder and then I felt a wing come out and hug me as it held me to its chest. What a feeling to be hugged by an angel. Jim then began to walk with the angels through a gorgeous pathway through the the meadows of heaven, lined with flowers and mountains off in the distance. And as a commercial airline pilot, he said, you know, I always try to find the sun to locate north, south, east and west. But he said there was no sun. But of course we know that that's what scripture says. The light of God is the light of heaven. And then he notices, he looks up and notices these what look like shooting stars or six contrails. You know, like what a jet leaves behind it shooting up across the sky of heaven. And Jim said this. I looked up in the sky of heaven, I see these brilliant streaks of light going straight up six of them. And I've logged millions of miles of contrails behind me in my jet. So I asked the guardian, what are those? And he said, those, James, are the prayers of your family for your soul going to the throne of heaven. Well, Jim later learned that when his wife was told that Jim was found dead in his truck, she quickly called her sisters and and brothers in law. And six of them stood in a circle and held hands and prayed for Jim's Salvation. And Jim saw those six shooting stars, those shooting lights of prayer going across the skies of heaven to the throne of God. And then the guardian explained. He said, james, sadly, mankind is losing the will to pray. He said, your forefathers, when they were finished their day's work in the fields or the factories after dinner, they would read the Bible or pray as a family. With all your modern technology, sadly, mankind is losing that. The angel said, every prayer you've ever issued, every thought ever contemplated is recorded in heaven. And what it's for is that when you cross through the veil and you have your life review, it's to help you understand why you made the decisions you did and the consequences of that on your life and on others. And it's to help you see how God answered your every prayer so that it really did work for your good and the good of all involved. That's an amazing thought, that every prayer from the heart, every sincere prayer, is heard by God. And he does answer. He doesn't always answer the way maybe we think the universe should go. He answers in the way he knows things should go for our good and for the good of all involved. And interestingly, the way he answers is, is by sending angels on your behalf. Randy K. Was a CEO that I interviewed who had a near death experience. He had a pulmonary embolism and was dead for 30 minutes and has hospital records. He told me a very similar thing. He said prayers were like these shooting lights going into the throne of God that he saw and listen to what he learned in his near death experience about prayers and angels. He said it took only a nanosecond in heaven to realize that my home existed not in a form, but in the person of Jesus. He is home now. I realize that God assigned a guardian angel to me for a lifetime on earth. Indeed, thousands of angels of different varieties and forms circled about heaven. Their appearances varied by the color of their sashes or by their faces. In the distance, I saw angels worshiping with choruses of praises whose features were more akin to humans. Each sang with the force of 10 human voices. Some angels dove downward toward the world below. Jesus explained them as warrior angels. He impressed upon me that these warrior angels respond instantly to commands from God's throne. Commands issued in response to prayers that work in combination with God's appointments. Jesus elucidated their stature and heavenly assignments while I was in heaven. I command each of my angels, Jesus explained. They go forth to declare my word. Some archangels battle for dominion of territories in the world. The guardian angels battle for each of my children. Some angels guard my throne in praise and worship to my father. And some battle for the right to speak my truth to those who would listen on earth. So angels are at work. They're fighting on your behalf. Think about that. And when you pray to God, God responds by sending angels in response to your prayers. You may not always see or know how they're working, but you can have comfort in knowing you have angels watching over you. Steve Boyles is a software engineer married to a medical doctor, and in 2021, he got Covid. Combined with asthma and other issues, Steve's health deteriorated rapidly. He ended up on a ventilator for 45 days in a medically induced coma. They finally told his family he had little chance of survival during that coma. One night, Steve says, my spirit man woke up to see a face looking at me from about 18 inches away. Hello, Steve. My name is Marzuka. You spell that M A R Z U K A and I'm here to take you to heaven for a little bit while your body heals. Marzuka later explained. He had been my guardian angel since birth, Steve says, and I realized that's why he spelled out his name for me. I'm always asking Kathy, my wife, how to spell things. And he had observed my whole life. In fact, he told me he'd saved my life more times than I could imagine. Just think, your angels know you so well. They've been through all of life with you and they're crazy about you. They are for you, and they've probably saved your life and mine more than we could ever imagine. So take great hope, because God is a wonderful father who, through his son Jesus, has done all that's needed to call us his own children when we simply accept his love and forgiveness offered through Christ. And he has angels watching over you. So fear not.
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