The Bible records: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Psalm 116:15) and “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord” (Revelation 14:13). When the righteous die, they are escorted from this life into the Third Heaven by angels, who take them to their mansions of splendor created by the Architect of the Ages (John 14:2).
The following are a few illustrations concerning the precious “death of His saints,” one of which is very personal to me regarding my father, Bythel Hagee.
My father was the second of eleven children. He survived his premature birth, the flu epidemic of the 1900s, and the Depression of the early 1930s. He was the second son of the second son who became the fourth generation of Hagee men to preach the gospel, serving the Lord as an ordained minister and evangelist for fifty-three years.
My father became gravely ill in his late 70s, and as his final days drew near, my mother and three brothers gathered around his bed for our last prayer with him. I thanked the Lord for my dad’s years of faithful service, the thousands of souls who had been saved, the healings and restored marriages that were made possible through his ministry. Then I prayed for the angels of God to come and carry him from his bed of suffering to his home in the Third Heaven. When I finished praying, my father was escorted into glory.
For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers. (Acts 13:36)
Many years prior to my father’s death, a member of his church was about to pass away while the town was enduring a bitter winter ice storm. I was only eight years old at the time, and my dad woke me up to “go sing for Mrs. Moy as she’s dying.”
As we sang, her ninety-year-old face became radiant. “God’s angels have arrived!” she exclaimed. “Two are standing at the foot of my bed! I’m going home!” While we sang, “I will meet you in the morning; just inside the eastern gate,” she extended her hand to the visitors we could not see.
It was the first time I was privileged to witness a saint of God being escorted from this earth to her heavenly home.
Missionary journalist Carl Lawrence, in his book The Church in China, wrote of a miraculous story involving a seventy-year-old Chinese woman. The godly matriarch was the only person with knowledge of most of the daily operations of her family as well as the activities of an underground house church in her village. She also knew where the Bibles were hidden, who the messengers were, and who could or could not be trusted.
She died suddenly of a heart attack.
Her family was lost without her. What’s more, she’d had no opportunity before her untimely end to share the information that was critical to so many, so the family began to pray for a miracle: “Lord, restore our mother to life with time enough to enlighten us with the information we need to carry on Your work.”
Suddenly, after being dead for two days, this woman of God came back to life!
She scolded her family for calling her back from heaven. They let her know that God had answered their prayer and allowed her to return so she could set all matters straight. They also promised her that they would pray that she could return to the Lord within two days.
As promised, exactly two days later, with all their questions answered, the family and friends began to sing hymns and prayed that the Lord would take her back to glory. The mother’s final words before she returned to heaven were, “They’re coming! Two angels are coming.”
This miraculous incident caused the entire village to repent.
Be mindful of this: if angels can comfort Hagar in the desert of her days; if they can comfort Elijah by the brook Cherith as he ran from Jezebel; if the angels of God can comfort Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane…angels can surely comfort you now!
God still sends His angels to minister to the righteous, empowering them to carry out their divine assignments.
Look up and celebrate, child of God! You are not alone! Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for God’s angels are watching over you! They are God’s heavenly army on the battlefront!
Hear John Hagee talk about The Three Heavens this Thursday on LIFE TODAY. This is an excerpt from The Three Heavens by John Hagee. Copyright ©2015 by John Hagee. Published by Worthy Books, an imprint of Worthy Publishing Group. Used by permission.
