For what it is worth, I'd thought I'd pass this on to the rest of you. I wrote this article a few years ago. On TBN, they had a middle-aged couple on one of their talk shows that were really anointed. They had their own church and ministry - I can't recall where it was at. But part of their testimony was on the death of their young daughter.
Here they were - serving God full time with their church and ministry and their daughter dies at a fairly young age. I came in on the story right as they were talking about it. I didn't catch the age of the daughter or what the cause of her death was.
The wife was really wrestling with God. How could You take her, how could You allow this to happen, why didn't You heal her, why didn't You protect her, etc. Both the wife and husband were having a hard time "getting over" this death with God. They couldn't understand or get a direct answer from God as to why He allowed their daughter to be brought home at such a young age and rob the both of them the joy of seeing their daughter grow up.
Then the wife said that she received a direct word from the Holy Spirit that immediately set her free from her "mental captivity." And boy did I get a whopper witness off of this Word!
I'll give you what the Word was and an additional revelation that God gave the both of them on the death of their daughter. For those of you who have lost loved ones in your past - grab a hold of this direct Word from God. This Word from God has been used by this couple to set a lot of other people free from the depression and anger that others have slipped into as a result of not being able to deal with the death of a close loved one.
The wife said she was in the kitchen when she heard the Holy Spirit speak directly to her. The words were: "Your daughter is no longer in the past - she is now in the future." Think about those words! The wife said as soon as she heard the words - she immediately knew what God was trying to tell her and it immediately set both her and her husband free of the mental torment they were still going through with the death of their daughter.
God was telling them that their daughter was no longer in the past. She had died and she was now in heaven with God! God was telling them that they had to move on with their lives, to let the past go, including the death of their daughter and to continue to press onward into the call that God had placed on both of their lives.
Their daughter is now in their future! When they both die, they will both cross over into heaven and be immediately reunited with their daughter. God was telling them to change the "angle" with which they were looking at their daughter's death. Instead of seeing her as being "dead in the past" - start seeing her as being "alive in heaven" - and understand that you will be reunited with her in a very short period of time. Our time on earth is not even a blink of an eye compared to the eternal time frame that operates in heaven.
1. You have to step back and look at the "big picture." We are all going to die and cross over - no exceptions! Some just go sooner than others. When you die is irrelevant. What you do with the time that you have down here is what really matters. When you really grasp the meaning of the words that the Holy Spirit spoke to her - you understand that they should be rejoicing. Their daughter is now in the most perfect place imaginable and they are both guaranteed to be reunited with her once they die and cross over. They should keep the picture of their daughter in front of them - in their own personal futures - which will also be heaven for the both of them when they die and cross over.
God was also telling them that if they did not quit thinking about and wallowing in their past - that they would eventually "die" in their past - that they would no longer be able to move forward for God because they would end up staying "stuck" in their past.
Too many people are "bound up" with things that have happened in their past. They can't "let go" of what has happened in their past. As a result, it slowly eats away at them until they get to a point where they no longer have any joy for living. They then start slipping into depressions and lose all of their will to even want to live anymore.
2. Shortly after receiving this revelation from God and being set free, they came across a woman who had lost her son. Her son had died about a year ago and the woman had slipped into a severe depression. She had literally boarded up her house, closed all the drapes and curtains and would no longer even go outside. She had completely shut down due to the pain and agony she was going through at losing her son at what apparently was also a fairly young age.
This couple gave their testimony on the above revelation to a church that this woman had been going to. The testimony was taped and one of the church members slipped the tape to this woman who had boarded herself up in her house. The woman took the tape in to her bedroom. She listened to it over and over again all night along - literally until the sun broke at dawn.
When the sun broke at dawn, she later testified that she knew God was speaking to her through this couple's testimony on this tape. She said the message and revelation from this couple that was on this tape set her free from the "mental captivity" that she had placed herself under as a result of not being able to see the "truth" of her son's death. The Bible says that the "truth will set you free" and this is a perfect example of that principle in operation!
Once she heard the revelation given by the Holy Spirit - she knew she had been looking at her son's death from the "wrong angle." Her son is now in heaven and she should be looking "forward" to being reunited with him in heaven once she crosses over - not dwelling on his death, which was now in her past.
Once she grasped what God was telling her - and it apparently took all night for the revelation to really sink into her mind - she was finally set free and was able to fully start living again.
This couple said that those specific words spoken by the Holy Spirit has helped a lot of other people deal with the death of loved ones.
Look at the words in that second verse - "forgetting those things which are behind" and "reaching forward for those things which are ahead." That verse perfectly lines up with what the Holy Spirit was trying to tell this couple - to let the death of their daughter go, which was now in their past, and to look forward, to press forward for the things which are ahead for them in their futures. And one of the things ahead for this couple in their futures will be their own physical deaths, their own crossing over into heaven and being reunited with their daughter where they will never ever be separated from her again!!
2. This next verse talks about "plowing forward in hope."
"... he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be a partaker of his hope." (1 Corinthians 9:10)
This verse is telling us that each one of us should continue to "plow for God" with whatever time we have left here on this earth - with the understanding that we will eventually be reunited with all of our loved ones who have gone before us. Not only should we continue to plow with this hope in mind, but also to be a "partaker" of this hope. In other words - really grab onto and really believe that when you die, you will be reunited with your loved ones and this time it will be for good - for eternity!
Heaven is going to be the final and ultimate reward for all Christians. The Bible tells us that we cannot even begin to imagine all the good things that God will have in store for all of those who will be entering into His dwelling place.
But one thing we do know for sure - we will all be given the two greatest rewards any human can ever hope to receive once we cross over onto the other side.
For all those who have lost very close loved ones, you have to step back and see the "real" big picture - the "real ending" to the story. So many people have "lost" the rest of their earthly lives because they could never "get over" the death of a loved one. And the reason they could not get over their deaths is due to the fact that they are looking at their deaths from the "wrong angle."
The Holy Spirit gave this couple what I feel is a very powerful and liberating word on this subject. He gave them a word that was pure God-truth. And once you receive a truth from God the Father - it will set you free if you are willing to accept it and work with it.
The other thing that happened with this couple is that before they received this direct Word from God, they found themselves taking their daughter's picture out of a lot of their family portraits because it was too painful for them to see her and be reminded of her death.
After receiving the above Word from God, God then told them to put her pictures back in with the rest of the family pictures. He told them that she was not "dead" - that she was fully alive in heaven - and that they should be rejoicing because their time would come when they would all be reunited with her. They were told not to try and put her out of their memory. They were to keep all of her photos and all of their memories intact of her. They were all to "look forward to the future" when they would all be reunited again with her in heaven.
When this couple received all of the above from God the Father through the Holy Spirit, they were all set free from the "mental captivity" that they had placed themselves under and were able to pick themselves back up and get back into the real game of life.
The other revelation that the wife received from God the Father was on the question of why - why did God allow her daughter to be taken home so early. God basically told her there will be times when He will not tell you why He allows something specific to happen in your life - like the early death of a loved one.
Sometimes it may be better that you not know why God brings someone home so early. Maybe that person was going to have something really bad happen to them somewhere down the road and God wanted to spare them the pain of having to go through it - so He arranges to have them brought home early. There could be a million different reasons as to why God may have brought that person home early, and maybe with half of those reasons you are better off not knowing.
She finally came to the conclusion that if it was God's will that she not know why He brought her daughter home so early - that she would simply have to trust God that He did have a good enough reason to bring her home early and to let it go at that!
The Bible says that we can "only know in part." We will never get all the answers to all of life's problems. God will answer a lot of questions that you may present to Him. The Bible says, "Ask and you will receive." But when God does not want to tell you why or answer a certain question with a definite answer - then you have to accept the fact that He has a good enough reason not to give you the answer and just trust that He knows what He is doing - that He knows what is best for the situation at hand - and to move on with your life.
If you don't, you run the risk of getting "stuck" in your misery or in your past and you thus may "lose" the chance to accomplish anything worthwhile with whatever allotted time you still have left down here on earth.
For those of you have had a difficult time either now or in your past on accepting the death of a loved one, really chew on the above Word given to this couple by the Holy Spirit.
For those of you who may know someone who is really having a hard time handling the death of a close loved one like a child, a spouse, a parent or a best friend, give them a copy of this article and/or sit down with them and give them the above Word from the Spirit of God. Share the above testimony with them on this couple and the other woman who had lost her son.
Pray that God will move on them with illumination and insight to fully grasp and understand that even though the death of a loved one is a very painful experience - that their loved one's death is a new beginning for the one who has died. They are now in the most perfect place imaginable and you will be reunited with them in just a very short period of time. This life on earth is for just a moment - but the life to come where they are now at will be forever. Remember what the Holy Spirit Himself has spoken - your loved one is no longer "dead in your past" - your loved one is now "fully alive in your future" - which is heaven.
Article written by Michael Bradley of Bible Knowledge Ministries. Their website is a resource of Bible Knowledge, articles, commentary and teaching. They currently have over 100 Bible articles.