December 17, 2018 – Click here to listen
My good friend TK Wetherell passed away yesterday afternoon. It was quite amazing. I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to call his wife Ginger yesterday afternoon to check on him. She had quit taking calls and did not intend to answer but something told her to answer this one. When she heard my voice, she tearfully told me that TK’s breathing was beginning to get labored, and the doctor had just told her that he had only moments left to live. She had been reading Scripture to him and asked me to please pray with him and she put it on speakerphone and held it to his ear and I prayed.
I spoke loud and clear and asked God to prepare His angels to escort him to his new home where Jesus would welcome him to his new home. I prayed several comforting thoughts and ended the prayer. And then I reassured Ginger that he would be fine and said goodbye. She told me later that he passed away within a minute or two after I prayed with him. She had her hand on his forehead and the other on his heart and she felt his heart quit beating. Hospice was called, and they pronounced him dead. It was as though he was waiting for my final prayer with him.
I’m happy and sad at the same time. Happy for him because he is with Jesus Christ at this very moment. – 2 Corinthians 5:8 – “We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”. Just imagine being with the Lord Jesus, the Creator of the universe at this very moment. I imagine he hasn’t quit smiling since he’s been there. He has fought the good fight, finished the race, and has kept the faith. The Lord has said to him “Well done my good and faithful servant – Enter into the joy of the Lord.”
I’m sad for Ginger, and those who love him including me. We will miss him dearly as we await our turn to join him and have our reunion in heaven. TK fought bravely and endured suffering in this life and yet lived each day to its fullest. We are left to do the same and fulfill our own purpose.
But TK is in his new home in heaven now and lo and behold it is God’s home too. His throne is there, the angels are there, and the Lord Jesus Christ is there. The streets are paved with gold, the gates are made of pearl, and the walls made of precious jewels. The Bible states that: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” God said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.”
The Bible even refers to heaven as a country (Hebrews 11:16). Remember that before sin came into this world, the world was a physical paradise – a beautiful garden full of fruits, trees, and animals. Similarly, when sin is finally eradicated from this universe, we will get to live life as God originally intended for mankind when He first created the Garden of Eden – not as spirits on clouds floating around playing harps, but in a tangible, material, Heaven. Our bodies will be free from disease, pain and death in heaven. We will still have physical bodies. The Bible says: For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body. We will be able to recognize our loved ones. The Bible says: “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.”
Life in heaven will be free from sickness, war, crime and anything harmful. The future life will have the best of this life plus additional joys beyond our imagination. My friends that is where TK is at this very moment. We cannot possibly be sad for him, but happy. He is free from suffering and pain forever. Yes, we are entitled to cry for ourselves having lost such a good friend and good man, but don’t cry for TK, he led the fullest of lives.
The following passage was written by John who actually got to visit heaven. Friend if you have not asked God for forgiveness of your sins, acknowledged that He is the living Son of God who died on a cross and was resurrected in three days and today sits at the right hand of the Father, and then made the decision to follow Him and not the world, you will miss what TK is enjoying right now, because your name is not recorded in the Book of Life. If you have not received Christ as your Savior then you need to do so at this very moment . . . Selah!
A friend told me he received a word from the Lord that TK would be my greeter when I enter heaven. This comforted him and me greatly. I look forward to that day.
Rev. 21:10
And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass. I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.