>> This is Rabbi Felix Halpern with the great privilege
of sharing with you my journey into heaven
and what heaven means to us not only as believers,
but what eternity holds for us.
I've known the Lord for forty five years.
I've had some wonderful experiences with the Lord,
but nothing can measure up to what happened
the moment where I medically died,
my soul left my body and I ascended into the heavens.
When I first went to heaven,
I found myself before the throne of God,
and around the throne was a circle of fire
with ripples, ripples and ripples of fire.
That had a depth that I could not measure and there
in I found myself lying prostrate before the Lord
because my eyes could not behold the brilliance
even upon my return and back in my life
today, when I go into the presence of the Lord,
I have to cover my eyes.
Something has just imprinted inside of me
upon my soul of the brilliance and the glory of God.
God is a God of glory.
Heaven is the showcase of the perfection of our creator.
Everything in heaven is filled with gold.
I saw a river and at that river I want you to know
that I saw redeemed in robes that were so brilliant,
so white that I could not even behold
that brilliance of the perfection of that color,
there was a glow. But as I saw this river,
I recall so clearly a water that was so crystal clear,
clearer than I think that I would find
at the highest mountain that I could climb
and the most natural spring of water
that was untouched by anything known to us here.
It was clearer.
In fact, the water seemed to be life
giving in of itself. As I looked at the riverbed,
they sparkled with gemstones, brilliant stones,
precious stones and semi-precious stones.
I was in awe of that, especially for myself,
it had meaning. Before my full time call to the Lord,
I spent many years in the diamond and gold industry
handling the most precious diamonds and rubies
and pearls and gold bars that weighed 400 ounces
and more worth a fortune in our worldly standards.
And you know that the stones in heaven,
that lied on the bottom of that riverbed,
whether it was lapis lazuli that I remember that had a blue
that I have never, ever experienced in my life.
The brilliance of those sparkling stones
have no comparison.
They are incomparable to anything I have ever seen.
And I saw, again, as I said,
the, the redeemed. What was interesting about the redeemed,
they were talking, there was something about their voice
that had a deep resonance.
It had a commanding, a certain confidence,
a certain conviction about them. I thought about that.
And I said, of course, they live in truth.
They live fully in a state of truth, a knowledge.
Years ago, the Lord spoke to my heart
that he was bringing me back to the calling to our people,
the Jewish people.
At 3:00 a.m., the Lord spoke into my left ear
and said something very simple.
I am bringing you back to your people.
I reference that because it was the same tone,
the same depth, the same authority that the Lord
spoke into my left ear
and the same authority that I witnessed of the redeemed.
They were in a state of joy, in a state of peace,
in a state of knowing that they were home.
And I experienced that. The object of death itself
is something that was what I like
to compare to as beautiful as birth.
Which sounds strange, doesn't it?
But I can only say that when my soul left my body
and literally stepped out of my physical frame,
it literally stepped up and walked out and rose
like I was getting up from a night's sleep.
Or I think of it'd be like I'm leaving the hotel room
to go to another place.
Everything is congruent, consistent
with the creative hand of our God.
And I saw mountains
that ascended into the canopy of blue.
And can I tell you something about the blue?
The blue to me was like a rainbow all together
in an iridescent glow that had a tone to it and a hue to it.
That is again something I have never seen in my life.
And I saw the mountains ascend into a canopy that had no limit.
Heaven has streets of gold. The gates I saw said "The Place of -
It said "Truth and Righteousness". Gates of pearl, pearl.
I've never seen Pearl like that.
And a foundation of gold throughout and gemstones
and precious stones throughout. There was a glow in the air.
There was a glow in the air of holiness.
And I remember distinctly that no matter
where you are in heaven, the throne seems to be close.
The throne does not seem to be far away.
The throne sat on a crystal sea, a firmament
that separated the third heaven from the lower heavens.
And I was in awe before God
when I saw a shadow of a, of an outline.
But I was able to see the footstool
and the image of the feet on the Crystal Sea.
And the Lord can see everything. And I want to say to you,
wherever you are, whatever season you're in,
whatever struggles you find yourself in,
would you look up to heaven?
Would you look up to heaven by posturing your heart
and asking the Lord to come into your life?
Because it is he that is the key to the glory,
to the strength and to the power.
But it is the key to life living abundantly on this earth
with the presence of God in your life.
Heaven is our destination. Heaven is real.
Heaven is the glorious place.
Finally, it is the showcase of our Lord and King.