My father-in-law, Edward Jesze, who went ……
To Heaven and Back!
By Helen Jesze, 15th April 2016
“Jesus said… “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
John 11, 25 + 26 NASB
“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”
Hebrews 9, 27 KJB
“A person’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.”
Job 14, 5 NIV
Some people say, there is no afterlife, that nobody has come back to tell us. Yet some have come back. Let me tell you about my father-in-law, Edward. Once he was standing on a table, hanging up some curtains, when he fell headfirst onto the concrete floor. Later he described his experience and recorded it on tape:
“I went deathly cold, starting at my feet, going up to my head. Suddenly I was up in the corner of the room looking down on my body lying on the floor, with Emma, my wife, kneeling beside me. Then I saw a big angel, who took me by the hand and we passed through the closed door of the room into the kitchen, then out through the wall into the garden. We shot up in the air and stopped by a band of light, like a conveyor belt, and the angel told me to lay down on it.
The ‘belt’ took us up like a rocket, then we got off at a place overlooking a most beautiful country. The angel took me to a hall where three thrones were standing. In the middle sat God the Father, at his right side was Jesus the Son, and on his other side was the Holy Spirit. I could not see their faces clearly, but I knew who they were. The angel took me by the hand and stepped in front of God the Father and said: ‘I have brought you Edward Samuel Jesze.’
God the Father gazed at me a long time and then said: “It is not his time yet. He must return to the earth.’ Up we shot again to the ‘conveyor belt’ of light, down at incredible speed to the earth, arriving outside our closed kitchen door, through the walls and into the room where Emma was still kneeling, crying bitterly and beseeching God to restore me. My spirit entered my body again through my mouth and I opened my eyes. I was very grateful that God had answered Emma’s prayers and given me another chance!”
If Edward had not come back to life again on that day, his wife and son would have missed him greatly and I and our children would never have known him. He lived at least thirty four years more and was a great blessing to many people. He preached in English churches and visited different parts of England where there were refugee camps. With his knowledge of English, German, Polish and Russian Edward preached the Gospel to these displaced and hurting people, separated from their families with little or no hope of ever seeing them again; he also helped as an interpreter.
Many of these Slavic people found Jesus and there were remarkable healings took place in the Name of Jesus from cancer and other sicknesses. Regular meetings were started in Nottingham, Manchester and London and Edward was the Chairman of the Slavic Pentecostal Churches, visiting and preaching at each one. He, himself, led the Slavic Church in Nottingham. He went to preach in Switzerland and this eventually opened the way for my husband, George, to go to pastor there, and become an ordained Minister of the Gospel in the Swiss Pentecostal Mission.
In later life, Edward became ill and could not get about as before, but he still had a strong prayer ministry. Friends would come and share their needs, and after a pot of Emma’s tea with a slice of lemon, and some of her delicious apple cake, Edward would lead in prayer and intercession. We thank the Lord that his life was spared to be a blessing and help to us and many others.
If Edward had not been a born-again Christian, his experience might have been very different. I read once about a heart surgeon. One day, a man had a massive heart attack in his office and he struggled so violently that the doctor had to hold him down on the floor. The man screamed as if in torment, then suddenly he opened his eyes and shouted, “I have seen the fires of hell and I’m not ready to meet God!” The surgeon who had seen many people die was so shaken, that he gave his life to Jesus Christ!
There IS a life after death for Man’s spirit cannot die in the sense that it ceases to exist. It is part of the ‘God-life’ which he placed in every man and woman. Spiritual ‘death’ means to be cut off from God for all Eternity. The human spirit is released from a person’s body at the point of their death. We remember how Jesus said to his Father: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit”, and that was the point of his physical death. The dead body – the shell which had housed Jesus’ eternal spirit for approximately thirty three years – was buried in the grave, until three days later, the Holy Spirit raised him from the dead, and gave him a ‘glorified body’. In this body he stayed during his forty days on Earth after the resurrection, until his return to his Father.
Some people wonder what happened to those people who came to life again and were seen in Jerusalem after Jesus’ resurrection. They received a normal earthly body, lived out the rest of their lives and then died and were buried a second time, just like any other person. Edward was able to walk through walls and ascend to see God the Father, because he had died and it was his spirit-man who could do those things. But when he came back to Life, he entered into his normal restricted earthly body again – where he could walk only through open doors!
When Edward was taken by the angel to the throne of God, he was known there, for he was already ‘saved’, he had already taken Jesus to be his Saviour. How different for the man who died with the heart attack! None of us knows when our time will come, but we all need to be ready to meet our Maker. People make jokes about St. Peter waiting to let us in at the pearly gates, but it will be no laughing matter if we do not know and have believed on Jesus. The Bible tells us that every man and woman will die ONCE, they will not be reincarnated, coming back in another form, as an animal or insect, in an almost endless cycle – no, we have ONE chance to get right with the Lord, and that is here and now while we are alive.
Christ died for all who have sinned – and that is every one of us – he paid the price for our redemption with his blood. We only need to repent of our sin (which means a complete turn-around) and ask him for his forgiveness and cleansing. He then gives us the right to become a child of God! What about YOU, would you be ready, if he called? Make sure now! I want to see you in Heaven one day!
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing Edward back to us. Thank you for the provision of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who made the way for us to come into your presence and to live for all eternity with you. May every one who is reading this, make sure of their salvation TODAY!
Thank you also for protecting us from every attack of satan, who would like to cut short our life and take us before we have fulfilled your plan for us. In the Name of Jesus we pray, Amen.
Edward (left) baptises a new convert in the river
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