Chapter 12: Now this is Eternal Life.

  Jude awoke from his sleep later that day. “What time is it?” he wondered as he scrounged around looking for his phone. “17:36, wow! I slept the whole day. That was an amazing dream I had” thought Jude as he got up from the couch. “I will make dinner”. The following morning, Jude was in the secret place praising God and singing. “How is he doing, Glen?” asked Azrael. “Azrael! I didn’t see you come in – I wasn’t expecting a visit from you? Why are you here?”, Glen asked in a panic. “I am here for Jude,” said Azrael. “What do you mean? Is the Lord taking him? Is his time finished already? Is that why Jesus came for him yesterday?” Glen’s questions came out fast – he was truly surprised to see Azrael, not yet expecting that Jude’s time had come to an end on earth and that the Angel of Death had come for him. “At least he met with Jesus. I know you will take him to heaven…” conceded Glen, as the tears began to well up in his eyes. “Glen, why are you crying? That is not why I am here…” Smiled Azrael. Relief hit hard, sighing deeply, Glen whispered, “Thank you Father. I wasn’t ready…”

  What Death Separates,

  “Open your eyes Jude”, said an unfamiliar voice. “This is my secret place, who can enter into this place?” thought Jude as his eyes slowly opened. Before him stood a tall being with large, layered wings – three of each side. The tips were deep red; blood soaked with a powerful innocence emanating from them. Jude didn’t know who this was. The angel was warm and cold at the same time, close but distant simultaneously. Jude couldn’t quite make sense of what he was experiencing or feeling. He felt like he could feel every opposite there was, dark-light, push-pull… “Who are you?” asked Jude, “Your warmth and closeness feel familiar, but there is a cold distance as well that makes me dread.”

  “You are right to dread” the angel said in a deep, powerful voice. “I am Azrael, the Angel of Death”. Jude immediately felt a wave of revelation wash over him. Glen watched as the wave of royal blue washed over Jude from Azrael. Azrael spoke directly into Jude’s mind saying, “then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and take for yourselves lambs according to your families, and slaughter the Passover lamb. And you shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning. For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians; but when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the Destroyer to come into your houses to strike you. And you shall keep this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever. When you enter the land which the Lord will give you, as He has promised, you shall keep this rite. And when your children say to you, ‘What does this rite mean to you?’ then you shall say, ‘It is a Passover sacrifice to the Lord because He passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians but spared our homes.’” And the people bowed low and worshiped.”

  “I am the Destroyer, Jude. The one God sent to execute our Lords judgement. Do you know what the original Hebrew for my name means?” Azrael asked calmly. “No” thought Jude, “it is the word ham-mash??t, which means violent finality: physical slaughter, spiritual ruin, national calamity…” The words lingered powerfully in Jude’s mind. Azrael continued, “I am not merely death, I am complete undoing – I reduce the essence of this universe to nothingness.” Jude felt strangely calm, “Why am I not fearful?” he asked. “It is because you are covered by the blood of the Passover lamb.” Jude felt again a rush of revelation as Azrael flapped his wings powerfully. Both Glen and Jude saw the blood from the tips of his wings spray all over them and the room. Glen smiled as He felt the righteous purity of the Lamb wash over him. He could hear the song of the innocents singing through the blood, “holy holy holy! holy is the Lord! Hosanah, Hosanah! Holy is the Lord!”

  Their song penetrated through everything the blood touched and imprinted on the matter, their song testifying to the holy innocence of what has been touched. Glen could see the deep glowing red of the injuries of the Passover lamb imprint onto where the blood landed. “It’s beautiful” he thought, “the personal wounds inflicted upon us like fingerprints that signify our inclusion in His sacrifice. Each cosmic element redeemed with it’s own unique injury pattern.” Tears streamed down Glen’s cheeks as he thought of the pain of having to endure the unique patterns for so many things.

  The Blood Restores.

  Jude saw Glen for the first time but was too focused on Azrael to take in any details. As the blood dripped over Jude, Azrael spoke again, this time with a distinct power and authority, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” He declared. Jude was entranced at what he was seeing. The blinding light behind Azrael sharply contrasted the red of his wing tips, the black of his soft, flowing, silk-like robes, and the brightness of His face and skin. It was immediately obvious to Jude this angel carried extreme power and extreme Glory. Jude struggled to look at him because He could feel the strength of the power pressing against the blood on his flesh. Jude could feel the Blood pushing back - actively fighting the power of Azrael. As the glory power of Azrael pulsed from him and onto the environment around him, Jude and Glen could see how the Glory dissolved the matter around him. Jude watched as the matter wasn’t just burnt, it was undone. The bonds between the fibres of the molecules broken, the atoms exploding. The only protection was the Blood of Jesus. He could see the destructive power and understood innately that this was a power that wiped things from existence – unmaking them as though they had never been made at all.

  The weight of God’s glory on Azrael was profoundly heavy, Jude was struggling to stand underneath it. He could see the whirlwind of blue flames swirling around them. Jude could feel the heat blazing against him, “It smells like ash. Like the smell that fills the air when there has been a very bad grass fire” said Jude.“They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails. And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall completely burn with fire. Now you shall eat it in this way: with your garment belted around your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in a hurry. It is the Lord’s Passover.” declared Azrael.

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  Then Jude heard a loud and commanding voice, ‘Now this day shall be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord. Throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove dough with yeast from your houses; for whoever eats anything with yeast from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. You shall also keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your multitudes out of the land of Egypt; therefore, you shall keep this day throughout your generations as a permanent ordinance.” Both Jude and Azrael turned, and through the swirling blue flames, they saw Jesus materialise. Azrael instinctively bowed His head and so did Glen. Jude’s gaze dropped in automatic reverence. “The King of Glory has come”, announced a host of angels.

  Jude could only see the torso of Jesus. He did not look like same as in his dream. There was barely any visible skin on Him. Blood gushed from His wounds but the flames that swirled around Him burnt it into vapour before it could touch the ground so that not a drop was spilt on the floor. Jude could see the char of the flames on the flesh of Jesus. The smell of burnt flesh fragranced the air, it smelled charred but sweet at the same time, like it had been mixed with a perfume. Jude could see how His flesh continually cycled through stages of being raw, burnt, charred, and then reduced to ash. The cycle seemed to follow the flow of the flames an endless random circuit.

  “Look at me Jude”, the King of Glory said lifting Judes head up gently by the chin. “Take and eat, this is my body”, a piece of unleavened bread appeared out of nowhere in the mouth of Jude. Jude swallowed the bread. Glen watched as the bread dissolved into a radiant light that was so bright it could be traced through the skin and clothes of Jude as it moved through him. “What is happening Jesus?”, asked Jude. “What do you feel, Jude?” “I feel the light burning the inside of me. I can see it is irradiating through every fibre of my being. I can feel I am being unmade – It feels like I am being denatured, like the matter that was affected by Azrael. But yours is different to Azrael’s. Azrael’s left the matter unmade, the radiation from the bread almost immediately remakes it into something that is the same, but feels completely different. It feels like my entire being is going through repeating cycles of being unmade and remade…” explained Jude, “But I thought I was protected and covered with the blood?”. “You are” replied Jesus with His warm smile, “this is the Bread of Life. Where Azrael is the unmaking of essence, my body is the creation of essence. You will cycle through each until you are fully made into the new creature. This is sanctification.”

  Glen watched as Jude was filled up with the Essence of Kingdom. He could see Sanctification at work through the glow of the blue flames, the sigils from accepting Jude’s wounds in Christ, and the imprinting of the Word of God into the fabric of Jude’s being. Jesus turned to Azrael who gave him a small, ornate box made from cedar wood. Jesus opened it and inside was a small key. “This is the key to my Kingdom. Consuming my Blood reinforces my reconciliation with you. Consuming my body reinforces my kingdom within you. ” As Jesus said this, he stuck the key into the heart of Jude and turned it, Jude’s heart unlocked and opened and from it Jude could see threads that linked Him to different Spirits, some he knew, some he didn't. Some were thin threads, others thick cords.

  Now only Faith, Hope, and Love Remain.

  The heart threads grew out of Jude's Heart like a wild, all-consuming fire. Glen watched as they grew up towards Jude’s head and burrowed into Jude’s brain. Suddenly, the Light broke free and blazed through Jude’s eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. His skin gleamed with shimmery, red-tinted golden oil, covering the ash-grey coals of burnt flesh. “Jude has received His anointing oil”, thought Glen. “The rose-gold colour is always pretty, God was wise to mix His anointing oil with the blood of Jesus… It’s a powerful protection until the sanctification process is complete.”

  Glen continued watching as the light incinerated what looked like snake scales from Jude’s eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. “Jude’s receiving his spirit senses”, Glen thought excitedly, “now we’ll be able to talk and interact! He’ll be able to see and hear me directly”, he clapped his hands with excitement, praising God. The Spirits of Faith, Hope, and Love entered in through an opening from Eternity. The Spirit of Faith came forward and declared over Jude, “for by the grace given me I say to you Jude: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the Faith God has distributed to you.” Glen watched as Faith placed its connection into Jude’s mind. Faith stepped back and the Spirit of Hope stepped forward, declaring over Jude “Now Faith is the certainty of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen. For by it the people of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the world has been created by the word of God so that what is seen has not been made out of things that are visible.” Hope then made it’s connection into Jude’s brain and stepped back.

  Finally, the Spirit of Love stepped forward and declared over Jude, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind. And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” Love connected to Jude’s brain and Glen watched as the three cords from Faith, Hope, and Love spiralled into a twisted coil and embedded within Jude’s brain. The heavens opened and the three spirits stated in one voice, “For we know in part and prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away with. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known. But now Faith, Hope, and Love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is Love.” Jude dropped back to the floor, landing gently on his feet. As the room cleared and went back to how it was before, he turned and said “Glen, I can see my path in Eternity...”

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