A few months ago, my 6-year-old son Jovan was having nightmares.
So I encouraged him to pray to meet God and angels in his dream.
We prayed together nightly before his bedtime.
Then few days later, Jovan woke up in the morning feeling very happy and told me that he went to God's church in heaven. He said he was with God and Jesus and eating cookies with them. He said God told him that he is the sweetest and the kindest and the most loving boy in the world.
Wow, what a wonderful dream! I feel glad that he had his own special experience with God.
I did not think much about his dream nor question him more as I did not expect that he can remember or describe further at such a young age.
However last week during my cell group meeting, my leader preached on "How to handle vivid dreams?" and I was reminded of my son's dream about God.
Next morning I asked Jovan if he remembered about his dream. Then he suddenly remembered more about the dream and in greater details. The following account was from his own words. I merely guided him through using simple questions like What happened? What did you see? How does it look like?
Jovan's Account on his Dream about Heaven and Hell:
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| My sweet 6-year-old boy, Jovan |
I went to heaven. God put me to a test to see how heaven and earth feels like.
Hell is a place full of lava. It's a bad place. I saw the devil. Looks like a bad spirit in black and red color.
There were many empty cages. The devil tried to put me in a cage. God help me to fight the devil. Then I have faith to fight the devil. Then God helped me to escape from hell.
Then I went back to heaven. Heaven is like a place full of clouds. I went to God's church in heaven. God gave me white clothes to wear. I ate cookies and drank ribena.
There were angels singing new songs. God said I'm the sweetest and the kindest and the most loving boy in the whole world.
Then God brought me back to earth where the Christians belong where the new heaven and new earth is. Looks like the whole earth is changed.
Wow. It was amazing! The only bible that he read was children's bible and he had never heard stories about heaven and hell before. Neither had I spoken to him on it nor let him watch any show about it.
I have no doubt that his dream was from God.
Because I had my countless encounters in my last 22 years as a Christian.
Let me share a little bit on how I became a Christian so you will understand why I believed in my son.
When I was 14 years old, someone gave me a bible and I started reading it on my own.
At that time, I was more inclined toward the Chinese religions due to my family background. But because I love to read and it was a gift so I began to read it.
It was a little hard for me to understand as I started reading from the Old Testament and I could not make head nor tail out of it.
But as I read the bible in Exodus 21 about the Ten Commandments, the 2nd commandment says "You shall have no other gods before me."
That got me really thinking.
There are so many gods. How do I know that this is the right god to follow? And the New Testament also talks about Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
So in my heart I said to this god, "There are so many gods. How do I know that You are the One? If You are the real god, then show me."
I did not realize that I had then made a challenge prayer to God.
Soon after this, I was caught in a heavy rain at the bus-stop without umbrella. The sky was really dark and there were lightning flashes and thunders roaring.
I said in my heart, "God, if you are real, please help me stop the rain."
I remember vividly that within seconds right after I said that prayer, the heavy rain became drizzles, the sky started clearing and the rain stopped completely!
That was the first encounter I had. But I thought to myself, maybe this was a coincidence?
I continued "sending requests to God" so as to "give Him a chance to prove Himself".
True enough, I experienced many prayers answered and God kept speaking to me clearing through the bible at the same time.
Whenever I needed a word of wisdom or advice for my situation, I would turn to the bible and find a word that would burn in my heart and gave me comfort and encouragement.
Eventually, I said my own sinner's prayers at home through following a Daily Bread booklet.
I did not receive Jesus through the influence of church visit nor through understanding or analyzing the bible theories.
There was one encounter particularly unforgettable when God "rebuked" me.
I was having a bad quarrel at home with my sister and I felt really upset and even spoke words of hatred.
Through my intense frustration, I turned to the bible and flipped through the bible pages angrily.
All of a sudden, I stopped flipping. Even though it was not highlighted nor bookmarked, this particular verse seemed to jump out from the thousands of words and started glaring back at me.
1 John 4:20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
That was the first time I read this verse in the bible. I felt convicted immediately.
I understood what God had wanted to tell me. Hard as it was at that time as I was really upset, I chose to let go of my hatred and anger and to learn to forgive.
And this was only one of the many moments that I experienced how real God revealed Himself to me.
I also had unusual vivid dreams.
In one of the dreams I had many years ago, I still remember clearly until today though I did not write it down.
There was this huge hand from heaven that placed me in this town with rows of ancient shop houses. It looked like a scene that came out from China ancient drama. As I walked on the streets, I saw houses started to catch fire. People started to accuse me that I was the one that caused the fire. I heard someone called my name and suddenly I woke up from the dream. After that, I realize the dream was God putting a desire in my heart for missions to China.
This year, I had another dream about the hand of God.
In the dream, I was in a church service worshipping God with my hands lifted up.
Then I felt and saw the hands of God reaching all the way from heaven and He held my hands tightly. The woman beside me saw it and began to shout "The hands of God!"
I woke up abruptly. The grip of God's hands on mine felt so tight and real!
It was an unusual encounter and it felt very comforting. Thereafter, my dream was confirmed a few times when pastors and Christian friends gave me prophetic word that God's hands were with me despite I did not share about this dream with them.
My beliefs as a Christian were not one founded on religious theories alone.
In fact, it was mainly through personal encounters and miracles that I experienced God's reality in my life. There will always be endless rebuttals about how authentic the bible is, if Jesus is real, did Jesus really came alive after 3 days of being crucified etc.
But no one can take away all that I had experienced first-hand; that God is not just a theory nor a religion, but that God is real to me.
And I know of many other friends and Christians all around the world who also had their personal miracles and encounters. I was not one single, "specially-favored" example.
And I realize that there were many others like myself who called out to God to reveal to them when they were yet Christians and they too, experienced powerful answered prayers.
If you desire to know God, don't just focus on the theory. This will only gain you head knowledge.
We all know that in life, our mind often may reason and logic one thing but our heart often feels another thing.
This is the same with knowing God. It is about knowing Him from your heart.
God is real. His love is real. Heaven is real. Hell is real. His salvation gift is real.
After listening to my son's dream about Heaven and Hell, I found a video about other people's amazing encounters. It touched my heart and I cried various times while watching it. I will like to share this video with you. May you be blessed and experience God's power and reality in your life today!
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