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When God has your death in his hands, you will only die when God wants you to come home to heaven
Give your Death to the Lord.
Brendan McCrossan
“Give your death to the Lord.” ——————————————— As Christians we have given our lives to the Lord, but most Christians have never actually given their death to the lord. We have made Jesus Lord of our lives and that means he is in complete charge of everything concerning us , or he should actually be, as Lord. Lord means the one in charge. One night my wife returned from her prayer meeting and told me a man shared that he gave his life to the Lord and then the lord told him to give his death also. I was surprised because I never heard of giving your death to the lord. Over the next week this nagged at my mind never going away, until one day as I was worshiping the lord in the upstairs room in my local church. A place where I had a key so that I could come here anytime and praise God out aloud with no one to bother me. As I worshiped this day, I sensed the Lord saying to me, “give me your death,” I immediately said, “ok Lord I give you my death,” and that was it, I thought that I had done what God asked and I went home feeling pleased with myself. Next day I was back worshipping in my upper room when God spoke to me and said. “Give me your death” I replied feeling quite surprised and said. “Lord I gave you my death yesterday. “ The lord replied; “ no you did not.” I had the audacity to argue back with God and told him; “I gave you my death yesterday.” to which the Lord replied again, “ no you did not, you thought you did but you didn’t really give me your death, you gave it no great thought, you just said the words.” “Now I want you to think of this,” he continued; If you died today Rose your wife would be free to marry again and have sex with another husband, your children would call another man daddy, your most precious material passions, your guitar, and your bible would be left behind for anyone to use or get rid of.” “All you think is yours would be yours no longer.” As God was saying those words to me I was sitting in horror, Rose having sex with another man, my kids having another man call him daddy, all I own going to someone else. I was truthfully sitting in shock, I never thought those things when I gave my death to the lord. I admitted to the Lord, I did not think it through, and excused myself and went home, and for the next while I deliberated on what I was prepared to give up by giving my death to the Lord. The next time I came before the Lord I was feeling a lot more humbled and when I said to him; “Lord I give you my death,” I actually meant it, and immediately I sensed God accepted my death.
About a month later I was visiting a friend in Drumalis Retreat Centre in Larne, N. Ireland. As I made my way home after my visit, I was halfway home when I approached a village called Dungiven, as I came around a corner, there in the middle of the road stood a policeman with his gun drawn and aimed at me, other policemen stood in ready firing positions. I knew immediately these were not true policemen by their mannerism and weapons. At that time in Northern Ireland they were reports of bogus policemen killing Catholics, and I was a Catholic. I stopped my car and one of them approached me and asked for my licence. I gave it to him realising my address in Creggan Derry was a dead giveaway that I was a Catholic. He then went around my car to the back, and as he stood at the back of my car, I felt the muzzle of a gun press hard against the back of my neck, I actually could feel the coldness and hardness of the gun as it pressed into me. I knew I was going to die there and then. As the thoughts of death flashed before me I thought of Rose and my Children and I said Jesus I commit Rose and my children into your hands , look after them as you promised you would , then I thought If I am going to die I am going to enter heaven singing praise and worship and I bowed my head and began to sing quietly under my breath and praise God. Suddenly the muzzle of the gun was removed and the “policeman” Came back round to me and he threw the driving licence at me and said, “get the hell out of here.” It didn’t take any persuading to get the hell out of there and as I made my way home I was singing at the top of my voice praises to God, then I realised that God had just put me to the test, and I knew I had just passed my test. Praise the lord for his mercy. You know since that day I have never been afraid of death, it lost its sting. I almost died one night in Turkey recently, and as I lay there waiting on death to come for me, I thought I’m knackered I am going to sleep; if I wake up in the morning I wake up, if not , I will be with the lord, and yes I did think of Rose and the kids and again committed them to the Lord. Have you made Jesus Lord of your life? Is Jesus your Lord and saviour? Is Jesus lord of your death? If not , why not give it serious thought and then come before the Lord and offer him your death. How you die and when you die lies in the hands of Jesus as Lord of your death. Scripture say it is appointed unto man a time to die, that scripture doesn’t say there is an appointed time to die. Man is going to die, because it is appointed unto man a time to die, we won’t live forever. But the day and hour of your death can be lengthened by praise and glorifying God; So your days can be lengthened by closeness with God or they can be shortened by, smoking , over drinking, drugs and wrong living. It tells you on the packet smoking kills, I’m not against smoking but it can shorten your life while worship and relationship with God can lengthen it. By giving your death to the Lord, you break the power of fear of death over you and you will only die when God says come home.