(By: Norm Rasmussen)

To hear this testimony on video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NWUa05up_8 

I would like to share with you about a precious sister in the Lord's personal encounter of being in the presence of Jesus Christ. (I will refer to her name as being Joy; she wanted to remain anonymous at the time she shared her experience with me, and so I still honor that years later). Prior to hearing about Joy's supernatural encounter of being in the presence of Jesus Christ ... Jesus in my mind stood about 6'2' ' weighing maybe 160-170 pounds. The Holy Spirit had revealed to me by that time that Jesus had paid full penalty for all my sins when He died on the cross, and other than Jesus being fully God before He came to earth as a mere man, and then going back to heavenly glory to once again being One of the three persons of the eternal Godhead, that was pretty much the extent of my comprehension of Him.

That all changed when Joy shared her supernatural encounter of being in His presence. She told me that she didn't share her experience with many people; only those God had clearly prompted her to. She said she felt strongly prompted to share it with me at the time to help me stay encouraged with the ministry call (Exhorting the Body of Christ to use born again testimonies in helping reach lost souls) God had on my life. I now feel a strong prompting from the Lord to share about her experience, so OTHERS can begin to get a little bit greater comprehension of just how MAGNIFICENTLY AWESOME Jesus Christ truly IS!

Joy was diagnosed with a serious brain tumor. It needed to be removed immediately, but her brain surgeon suggested she be flown to Mayo Clinic to be operated on. The odds of it being a successful surgery were very small. If she lived from the operation, she would most likely be at least in a partial vegetative state the rest of her life.

An evangelist was asked to come and pray for Joy in the local hospital before Joy was flown to Mayo Clinic for brain surgery. When the evangelist prayed for her, the power of God shot through his hands and arms, blowing him back against the hospital room wall. He had never experienced anything like that before when praying for people.

Moments prior to this happening, Joy was in another dimension. When she shared her experience with me, she said: 'It seemed like I was near the top of the clouds. Immediately I was in the presence of Jesus Christ, so where the location was of my being in the presence of Jesus seemed very unimportant, as you'll soon understand."

Joy continued, 'In trying to find the right words to describe how close I was to Jesus, I liken it to being about 100 miles away from the sun, if such a thing were possible. Everywhere I looked there was a shining brilliance of Jesus. It was as though He filled the whole sky, I was so close to Him.

I vaguely remember seeing His face, but I couldn't tell you what it looked like, it was so bright. Truly, it was as though He was the very sun Himself, He was so large, yet if there was intense heat radiating from Him, I didn't feel it. Here's what I felt:

I felt an unconditional love emanating from Him that words couldn't possibly describe. It was an accepting love with no strings attached. Yet it was so much more than that. It was as though I was the only person that mattered to Him. There was His unconditional love for me in one respect, yet His emotional love for me in another. It was like I was the most special person ever to be created, and a knowing that all He wanted to do was shower me with His affection for the rest of eternity.

I had heard of people experiencing different experiences about heaven, and I had always felt a little envious of people who had those experiences, to be honest, and of course like everyone else, I wondered what heaven was going to be like for me once I got there. BUT, NOW what heaven would be like didn't matter! In the presence of Jesus like I was, heaven didn't enter my mind. The ONLY thing that I wanted was to remain in His presence and soak up His love flowing into me. Nothing else mattered. There was nothing else that I could hope to experience or ever have from God.

Next, I became aware of a peace inside me coming from Him that mere words couldn't begin to describe either. All fears of living on earth were immediately replaced with a peace that totally surpasses all understanding. Peace that Jesus is fully in control of all things.

That came so stunningly apparent as I began to comprehend the power that Jesus has. It was quickened more fully to me when I realized that everything I ever wanted to know about anything, I suddenly KNEW! I didn't have to ask Him, it suddenly was in me. Along with knowing all things came my realization that with the power that resides in Him, nothing is impossible for Him to do. Absolutely nothing.

Next, I began to sense the joy that is in Him. That joy in Him began to radiate from Him into me, and for the very first time since becoming a Christian years earlier, He allowed me to experience some of the joy in Him He spoke of when it was recorded in the holy scriptures: fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

What I experienced next is the most difficult thing yet for me to find the right words to try to communicate. With the power He had ' there was a dimension of holy fear -- a reverential fear may be a better way to describe it -- that no rebellion against Him could remain in His presence without being judged. Up to this moment in my experience in His presence, I had experienced Him as a gentle, loving friend ' but now I was experiencing the part of Him that is ferocious as a mighty lion - warrior - conquering King ... mightily to be feared. I personally wasn't experiencing any fear, but then it became clear to me that others one day who would stand before Him as their Judge; they would experience this fear in the most terrifying way, knowing that He was the One to be their Judge for rejecting His free gift of salvation (eternal forgiveness for their sins) and refusing to come under His Lordship while they were alive on earth and Him having the full authority and power of God the Father to determine their eternal destiny henceforth.

Content to just remain in His presence for eternity, He spoke these words to me, 'Joy, you must go back. There is work for you yet to do before your time is done. You are needed on earth.'

I begged Him to not make me have to go back to earth, to have to go back and deal with life's difficulties, but there was no changing His mind.

In coming back, Mayo Clinic took scans of my brain, and could find no brain tumor. I had been miraculously healed from it, presumably when the evangelist prayed for me. There were pictures of my brain before going to Mayo clearly showing the brain tumor, and then at Mayo Clinic, pictures of my brain with absolutely no brain tumor present. To say they all were mystified would be an understatement.

The most painful testing I ever went through was coming back from being in the presence of Jesus. In coming back, everything I knew about everything was erased from my mind, so I was back to 'normal' in that arena. That didn't bother me. What began to bother me and kept building was anger against God for giving me such an experience with Jesus and then taking it away from me. Anger about it grew so intense. It took months for me to get complete deliverance of my anger toward Him. A part of me so wished I had never had the experience in the first place, because I knew it wasn't healthy for me to hold such anger against Him. Yet it was beyond my ability to stop nursing it. It was constantly there, chipping away at any joy I tried to hold onto, for a long, long time.

Yet because of that experience with Him, my understanding of who Jesus Christ fully IS grew -- like from a small particle of dust before that experience to the largest galaxy, and all galaxies combined there is in the solar systems after the experience ... He co-created (Being one of the three persons of the Godhead) and controls them all.

At the time Joy shared her 'Jesus Encounter' with me, I so desperately needed to hear what she had to say. I was struggling so much from demonic attacks personally, as well as in my marriage, it was truly God putting me in contact with her, and then God putting it on her heart to share her experience to bring me some encouragement from the Holy Spirit. 

After many years of keeping this experience tucked away in my mind, recently I've felt to start sharing Joy's experience with others, to help them battle temptations of doubt, unbelief, and frustration in their relationship with God, and help them try to understand a little better just how intense demonic attacks are increasing upon born again believers, and their need to apply the spiritual weapons of their warfare more frequently and effectively, otherwise there would less and less joy, peace, and faith for them. 

My friends, this One who was born in a manger and walked on water near the end of His life down here on this planet is so much more than what our hearts can comprehend. He is fully God, and I am now fully persuaded that Joy experienced just a small dimension of Him. He is so much MORE than what she experienced. Don't let go of Him. Keep battling through every attack Satan launches at you to try to make Him so unimportant to you, so distant, so unimportant, so uncaring. 

Jesus cares, dear one. OH DOES HE CARE! He is rooting for you to be - and remain qualified to be - in His presence for all eternity once life is over for you down here. And as great as heaven will be for each of us who keep our faith in Jesus Christ to be our Savior and allow Him to be our moment-by-moment Lord ' there will be nothing BETTER to experience in heaven than to be in the presence of the One who co-created it (along with God The Father and God The Holy Spirit of course: See - Hebrews 1:3; Genesis 1:1-5; John 1; Hebrews 1:10; Colossians 1:16-17). There will be no evil there -- only love, joy, and majestic marvels yet secret for God's created beings to enjoy -- eternity without end. 

Jesus, help each of us to be found faithful when you come for us in whatever capacity you have called us each to do in helping rescue others from the increasing demonic spiritual darkness - the demonic spiritual deception - that covers this planet. Help us remain faithful as glowing spiritual beacons of spiritual Truth wherever we find ourselves...until our time is done down here. Help us to be more courageous in sharing Jesus Christ with the lost. Help us to be more productive ambassadors on Your behalf while we still have time. Let us purpose to live each day for You, Lord, going forward. Help us to stop being so focused on ourselves ... and to be increasingly more focused in working with Your Spirit to help people realize that there are only two places they will end up at their Judgment Day: Heaven or hell. Help us, Lord, to keep the lost from spending eternity in hell. Help us make the rest of our days count for YOU, heavenly Father - not squandering time and wasting opportunities to be Your faithful witnesses!

If you want to hear this Message Encourager on video, you can click on the following link: 

IN THE GLORIOUS PRESENCE OF JESUS CHRIST

PLEASE HELP US HELP YOU SHARE THE BEST NEWS GOD HAS FOR EVERY PERSON BECAUSE...

JESUS DID IT! and...

YOU ARE SO GREATLY NEEDED!

Remember: All that we do in this life comes back to our God-given purpose which is to serve and glorify God. The money and assets we accumulate, the fame and power we've attained or seek to attain - all of the things of this nature will one day pass away, but those lives of others we impact for Jesus Christ will last for eternity, and we will be rewarded for the part we helped play by impacting those lives ... for eternity. (Matthew 6:19-21 is our assurance)