Brooklyn: This is kind of a long one, but it’s a God story and it’s worth hearing.
My name is Brooklyn and I am 18 years old. This story took place over the course of my whole life (and is still in the process of being written).
This testimony of how God saved me from death and took me to Heaven happened when I was 13 years old. I know this will help and encourage you! I love you, and so does God!!! Biggest lesson: If God saved me, what makes you think He can’t save anyone else? God is so good. I just wanted to remind you of that!! He saved me from death literally.
When I was 13, I tried to kill myself with pills and medications. I woke up at midnight that night and just couldn’t stop praying to God, exclaiming, “I don’t want to die. I regret this. Please help me.” And that was the first time I prayed in years. I then saw myself out of my body. I was floating around in the room and saw my body lying lifeless and still on the bed. My dogs came over to lick me and check on me and all I could do was see this happening. I then saw a huge bright light and I was being pulled into it by an invisible force (which I know are angels). I couldn’t see anyone but I could hear people and their spirits and I was being brought up in like a wagon wheel. Suddenly, I was in front of these TALL golden gates (over 1,000,000 feet tall) and nothing like you’ve ever seen before. SO golden and radiant. On top of the golden gates were tens of thousands of people. All different ethnicities and looks but everyone being 30 years old (which is very significant for the fact that Jesus was in His 30’s when He was taken up to Heaven from the cross).
I remember seeing this one lady specifically. She had Afro hair and was African American. Next to her was a man who was of Spanish descent. I remember them specifically. I hope I’m going to meet them one day when I get there. And all of the tens of thousands of people up there kept cheering me on as I kept getting closer and closer to the gates like I had just won the biggest soccer game in the whole universe. It was so cheerful and awesome! Then suddenly as I got closer, I felt a sense of consciousness that said, “this isn’t my time yet. I don’t want to be here.” And out of nowhere, this LOUD, booming deep voice spoke from above me and all around me and it said, “You will be ok.” I even saw those words in my spirit in black bold letters. Then suddenly I was back in my own bed with my dogs laid up next to me. My one dog, Angel, had tears in her eyes as she kept one eye on me and the rest of her face buried in herself. She did a double take when I woke up and started talking to her. And my other dog, Maverick, was jumping up and down excited that I was alive and next to him. I believe they knew I had died for a split second. Dogs sense everything and these dogs… are NOT cuddle dogs, yet somehow they were right then. I told my mother about what I had tried to do the night before and I was in the hospital for 12 days. The actual hospital for 5 and the mental hospital for the rest. I was supposed to be in the mental hospital for longer but I hated being in there so much that I manipulated my way out of it, which either way was God’s plan because if He wanted me in there longer, I would’ve been in there for longer. I got home and thought everything would be cured. But from May 2017-November 2017, it was still hell and I hated it, but I knew very well then to not try and kill myself again because I was scared. I went through some tough things during that time and one night after a blowout with one of my teachers, I cried and thought, “I’m done living like this.”
I picked up the Bible I had since I was a 7 year old, and ever since then, I haven’t put it down. My walk with the Lord has not been perfect and hasn’t been the best every single waking second which is completely normal and fine because everyone’s walk is this way at one season or another. But ever since that moment when I gave up living my life on my own and started devoting my time to God and praying and reading the NLT version of the Bible (which I completely recommend to everyone who’s searching for a richer deeper meaning into scriptures), my life has truly not been the same. I’ve been through trials. I’ve been through hardships. I’ve been through the rough spots in life and I’ve seen the darkest of dark parts that you can see. I know what it feels like to be alone and to feel alone (because our feelings can also manipulate us to feel one way when it’s not fully that). I know what it feels to have the world fall around you. I know what it feels to have your world crumble with one single word and phrase or action someone has done. I know what it feels like to feel worthless and useless. I know what it feels like to want to kill yourself and die. I know what it feels like.
Without God, I don’t know what I’d be. I don’t know where I’d be. I should be dead. I should be dead and up there with Him in Heaven laughing and having fun for eternity. No pain. No anxiety. No suicide. No injustice. No society pressure. Nothing of that is in Heaven like what’s on Earth. Everything in Heaven is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, joyful parties, get togethers!!!! Heaven is full of laughter and peace and a bringingness together. No anger. No manipulation. No fear. Trust me when I say that ALL of these things above that I listed are on the lists of “yes’s” and “no’s” in Heaven. TRUST ME. I literally went there. So much love and joy and peace. It’s unlike anything any of us on earth has ever felt before, even on your happiest day… it’s NOTHING compared to what I felt in Heaven that day… what we will CONTINUE to feel when we spend our eternities in Heaven. One thing I want you to take away from this is… Heaven is real. I’ve been there. God’s love is real. His saving power is NOT only for biblical times. It’s for EVERYTIME. EVERY SINGLE TIME. EVERY SINGLE DAY. It says in Ecclesiasties 3:11 – “Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” And Ecclesiasties 3:1 “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.” I did not ask for Him and He chose to save me when I could very well not even be here right now in this spot.
It’s valid to feel alone and sad. It’s real. The emotions suck. They come and devour you and take hold of you just when one second ago, you were dancing in a field of garden flowers. It’s like- BOOM. Everything’s all gone in a second and now you can’t even remember the last time you smelled flowers in your life. It comes when you least expect it. It’s not fun. It’s traumatizing. It’s painful. It’s hurtful. It’s invigorating. It’s sad. You can’t go on. You feel like you can’t. And so you give up because everything is going downhill and wrong in your life. Nothing you can do to change anything so why try…? But no. You are not going to be stuck in this place forever. You are NOT going to be tied up to the dock of hell anymore. You are NOT going to continue to sink lower and lower, deeper into the pit because God has been there the whole time. What you’ve been struggling with was a SPIRITUAL ATTACK. The enemy HATES you so much that He causes you to have your eyes blinded from the truth of God’s love and hope and joy for you. How does it feel to know the enemy knows more about the destiny and life you’re going to conquer than you even do? The enemy has attacked you for so long… you started believing it because it became real and it became comfort. But this isn’t forever. I was in that spot too and it felt like it. God changed me and transformed me completely into the woman I am today and I’m still not fully healed and perfect because we will NEVER be perfect in this life. Let that truth take pressure off of you. You will NEVER be perfect in this life, so STOP trying. You’re burning yourself out trying to pursue a lie. The Lord has you on His mind and in His heart all of the time, every single day. You can’t feel it but He LITERALLY created you. The fact you are alive right now is the sign you’ve been searching for. The Lord is on your side and loves you. I never thought He loved me and I thought I had to work towards His love but now I’ve realized how much God loves all of us right where we’re at. He is our rock and our shield and confidence and hope. God’s love NEVER fails. John 14:18 TPT “I promise that I will never leave you helpless or abandon you as orphans-I will come back to you!” That’s just one promise in the Bible. There are THOUSANDS. Joshua 1:9 NLT “This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”” And then finally one of my very awesome favorite ones for right now- Romans 8:38 NIV – “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Nothing can separate us from God’s love. Let’s go confidently to the throne and remember He’s been there from the very beginning. We are not alone. He is here and He is for us. God is alive and real and so is Heaven. There is hope. There is a place for you and me and God in eternity. But I want you to remember that you also need to CHOOSE to accept Him into your heart and life. You do not need to get baptized and be in a church to go to heaven. That’s not the full truth. That’s only the partial truth. And you want full truth right? So do I and so does God. The full truth is this: Romans 10:9 CSB – “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” That’s all you gotta do to know confidently that you’re going to Heaven. God is so good. He saved me to help save you. If He can do it to an ordinary person like me, He can do it to anyone. I just want to see your heart changed and transformed to follow Christ and see His goodness and glory in the Land of the Living. It is open for you and for everyone! It’s not limited to anyone. God’s got you so much. Don’t give up! Don’t you DARE give up. You are right on the edge of something amazing and beautiful. And I love you. He loves you. You are loved. Do not forget that.
I hope this changed you and if it did, please let me know so I can know God’s doing something good in all of this.
