The Darkness

I wrote this vision down 2 years ago and still I remember it as if it happened 5 minutes ago. I hope you don't mind if I get a little long with this post. I've got a burning deep inside of me. I've never had a vision of Hell before and the glimpse I got this evening has burdened me to no end. I don't care if you don't believe if there is a Hell or not. Or that you think you are living a hell on Earth, but it ain't even close. I thank God it was just a second and not any longer.

The Darkness
It wasn't really a vision. However, it is hard to explain. More of a feeling. A feeling of complete darkness, it was heavy and deep drowning. A darkness so confining it was smothering. A sense that nobody was there yet there were people everywhere. You couldn't see them because you were focused on your own darkness, your own emptiness that was so thick you could smell the stench of it. It was putrid, inexplicably so. An aloneness you could actually touch. An aloneness that made you want to shriek and cry out and tear at yourself just to feel something.

Then came the creeping. The slithering forms that began to crawl on you. Again, I think it was actually the darkness eating at you. I think it was the canker worm that it talks about in the Bible. I'm not certain. It was eating away and I could feel the rawness of fresh-peeled skin only to have it gnawed on again. A slithering, sliming that wouldn't wipe off. You couldn't run anywhere to escape. A creeping, crawling fear that this was for eternity. That in itself became maddening. Like you know there is help on the other side but you just can't seem to get there.

The knowledge of where you are at sets in. You begin to think of how many times you turned your back on those reaching out to you. You remember your attitude. “Oh great, here they come again. Don't they get it? I don't want to hear about this God stuff anymore.” This plays over and over in your mind, recounting every single time the opportunity came and YOU chose to turn away, until God had no choice but to honor your choice.

And you begin to weep, desiring with everything in you to have that one more chance. If only I can get across this gap. WHY? WHY? WHY? It plays over and over again. Now that slimy creeping smelling thing begins to invade your mind. You can't get away, you can't see to run. The darkness is so thick it is holding you in place. It’s so thick that it begins to burn. And it burns and burns. There is no escape.

A new mindset sets in. You begin to really understand what infinity and eternity mean. We can't know eternity right now in the natural. We think we do, but when we actually try to imagine it, we go a little mad. We add one more second to time and it just becomes more time. But eternity is time with no time constraints. Add another second, minute, hour, day, week, month, year, decade, century, millennium, and on and on. Makes no difference. But revelation of it starts to sit in and the choice YOU made has caused you to be eternally in torment and you realize then and there how long eternity is and seconds get longer and longer.

After I came to myself I began to weep.

I thought about how I was told by one of my family members to stop preaching Jesus to them. They respect my beliefs and I needed to respect theirs. But this played in my mind and I began to weep more.

I recalled another family member that had said, “I tried all that religion stuff and it didn't work for me.” I began to weep uncontrollably.

Then fear over the fact that I've got family that could wind up in this place of torment, made my heart is so troubled. When was the last time I spent just an hour calling upon God on behalf of my family? Even my own children? It saddens me to say almost never! Yes, I pray for them, but have I really prayed that God would save them? Not very often. I know if most are honest, they would have to say the same. I think this is what Jesus was talking about when He told His disciples to pray to the Master for the laborers. He said the fields are white with the harvest, but the laborers are few. It ain't talking about the preacher spending an hour in the pulpit, pouring his or her heart out to the congregation. He's talking about you and I standing out there on the factory floor giving out the good news of the salvation of Christ. He's talking about you and me on our knees constantly going before God petitioning him for the salvation of our family and friends. When was the last time we spent just 30 minutes in prayer? Then we wonder why the effectiveness of the Church has lost its power.

Come on! Wake up! God is coming back! God is coming back and He’s coming after a Bride who is spotless and without wrinkle! Where will He find you on that great and terrible day?