Our Great Cloud of Witnesses—Personal Encounters of the Heavenly Kind If you are paying attention to what is transpiring in many circles, there is a clear sign of the increase in people dying and going to be with the Lord, more people experiencing out-of-body experiences or visits to heaven through temporary death or visions, and more people having dreams about heaven. This is what the Apostle Paul stated in 2 Corinthians 12:1-5 when he said…
“I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know--God knows. And I know that this man--whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows -- was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses.”
The exciting aspect of this increase is that there appears to be more and more excitement about heaven and less fear of death. This also shows that a spiritual maturity is occurring as people are eagerly focused on the things above the earth rather than just on temporal life (Colossians 3:1–2).
The reason I am so excited is that I have seen personal visions, heard from others, and read in scripture that we not only have a cloud of witnesses that include the great people of the Bible, but our great cloud of witnesses includes our contemporaries, our families, friends, relatives, and great ministers who we know are in heaven being “witnesses on our behalf.” Hebrews 12:1–2 states “Seeing we are encompassed about with such a great cloud of witnesses let us set aside every weight and sin that so easily besets us and run with patience the race that is set before us.”
Our Great Cloud of Witnesses Include Our Contemporaries
Hebrews 12:1–2 describes the great cloud of witnesses that encompasses us. The word “great” in this context means “a multitude” or “many.” We should assume it goes beyond the few hundreds of Old and New Testament Saints to include everyone who is with Jesus and the Father in heaven. It includes my grandparents and friends who saw my potential and are now interceding, laughing, and cheering me on from heaven. In fact, Pam and I often think of Gene Rolland and Clayton McClary, two dear friends who went to heaven in the last few years. They were dedicated soul winners for the kingdom and viewed Pam and me as partners in soul winning. Since they have died and are now part of our great and personal cloud of witnesses, we have noticed an increase in our love and God-given ability to heal and win souls into the kingdom. On numerous occasions we have laughed as we said, “We can see Clayton laughing at us from the throne room as we are part of God healing another person or see another person saved.”
Clayton was my personal friend and witness on earth who as a seventy-year-old elder, said, “Mike, one day, all your dreams and desires for the kingdom will come to pass.” In the last few years, as we have seen our dreams being fulfilled, we are reminded that our cloud of witnesses is very personal. We start to envision and believe that our friends and relatives are witnessing for us before the throne. We see them personally asking God to use two ordinary people, us. We also imagine them cheering us on because they personally know our struggles and challenges on earth.
I should mention the word “encompass” used in Hebrews 12:1–2 means “to surround” and represents a form of completeness. In other words, the great cloud of witnesses surrounds us to provide a sense of completeness in our calling.
Recent Examples of Deaths and Visions of Heaven
A few years ago I visited with a wise and godly businessman from Minnesota. He had informed me he had been led by dreams, visions, and prayers since he was thirteen, and he was then forty-
eight. This successful businessman who had learned to practice the invisible aspects of the fullness of Christ (Colossians 1:15–16) immediately had my attention. This was very refreshing, as I normally have to persuade people to believe in God’s dreams and visions. He shared a vision that he, his wife, and seven others witnessed in the evening sky over their home during 2009. The vision included an elderly woman, a child, and angels who were rejoicing. The elderly woman in the sky resembled one of their parents, and the child resembled a child of theirs who had gone home to be with the Lord at a very young age. The elderly lady picked up the boy and twirled the child in a joyful manner. As he was describing the vision he and others had witnessed, God began to speak to my Spirit to the reason and purpose of the vision. He continued to share that during the vision his wife went into the house to get a CD player and started playing music as the vision was transpiring in the sky over a few hours. They realized that the angels and elderly lady were all dancing to the very tunes of the music they were playing on their CD player. I could barely hold back what I was witnessing in my spirit and blurted out what I believed to be the interpretation of the vision they had.
My interpretation was that the personal vision was given to them to show that they had their own personal cloud of witnesses made up of their contemporaries, very personal, and literally in tune with what they were doing on earth. The businessman and I laughed and rejoiced over the simple yet broadening understanding of the great cloud of witnesses that surrounds us.
As each year passes, more people have had out-of-body experiences as well as dreams or visions of heaven. In almost all cases the people who have had out-of-body experiences of heaven make statements such as “Now that I have seen heaven, there is nothing that interests me but heaven.” Assuming these encounters of the heavenly kinds are true, we could say that these people have also become witnesses to what is happening in heaven, thus part of the great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. I guess this may be what God mentions in 2 Corinthians 2:9 when He says, “Eye hath not seen nor ear heard the great things that God has prepared for those who love him.”
One of my personal heroes, Reggie White, died at the early age of forty-three, but the week before he died he had a dream of two Hebrew words that translated into “Jehovah redeems.” Prior to that dream, Reggie had prayed that his life would be a living sacrifice even unto death. I
would not be surprised if God has pulled Reggie into the greatest reverse-salvation plan of all time, directly from the throne room down toward earth. This would explain what Isaiah saw when he said that salvation will spring forth from the ground after heaven rains down. “You heavens above, rain down righteousness; let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up, let righteousness grow with it; I, the LORD, have created it.” (Isaiah 45:8).
Starting to Win Against our Accusers
In 2011, as God was revealing fresh ideas about the great cloud of witnesses, He allowed me to understand and see a visual tug of war. On one side of the rope were all my accusers through the years who found fault with, accused, doubted, and verbally assaulted my actions, character, and intents. This is the side of people who Satan uses as the accusers of the brethren to say, “Lord, don’t you see what these people are saying about Mike?”
On the other side of the rope, which was suddenly winning the tug of war, God showed me family members, friends, relatives, and co-ministers who had died and were greater in number than my accusers. This side stands before His throne and wins the battle against my accusers. They are cheering me on, laughing, and making statements that may sound something like “Lord, forgive Mike’s mistakes, and view his intent as we now do, and use him to a greater degree.” In God’s court of law or court of this tug of war, the Great Judge is hearing the truth about people like you and me. We are starting to feel more confident, assured, and aware that our contemporaries who are a part of our great cloud of witnesses are working for us. This great cloud of witnesses continues to grow, to surround us, and to encompass us as we realize we can now easily set aside the weights and sins of the accusers who have distracted us for years. This tug of war was truly a fresh and revealing look at Hebrews 12:1–2.
Are you ready, willing, and able to see the spiritual insight into your cloud of witnesses, which include your contemporaries who know your challenges, your purest motives, and desires? If you will open your spiritual eyes, the light of life will reflect truth and revelation off the retina of your spiritual eyes, and you may begin to see your fullest and surest calling. This is what is
revealed in Ephesians 1:18: “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.”
It’s time we all open our spiritual eyes to see, hear, and appreciate the great cloud of witnesses God has gathered for us. Rejoice as your loved ones go home to be with the Lord and enter your side of the tug of war. Conclusion About 12-months ago, God have me a wonderful and vivid dream. In the dream God reminded me and encouraged me that heavens’ throne room of grace is both a court room and throne of grace (Hebrews 14:6). In the throne room God operates it like His court room of justice and throne room of grace in our times of need. In the dream, many accusers were standing and accusing me of practicing many acts of the Kingdom. The acts were acts of healing, kindness, free with my money, and worst of all a risk-taker who should know better. In the dream, I’m completely astonished that the people were actually accusing me of good works, but I was able to remain my composure and let the accusations continue. After a moment of silence, God slams down the gavel and gives the verdict… ‘Mike is innocent – and will receive twenty-down on everything he freely gave.’ In the dream I am completely liberated and felt the justice and grace of God flood my entire being. I recognized that Jesus was my mediator, lawyer, and defender during this time. As bad and many of the accusations that came, God was able to render a just verdict because an what Jesus had did over 2,000 years ago. In addition, any good works I was being accused of, was only because of what Jesus did in my life 25 years ago. After this dream, I want to shout and proclaim like the Apostle Paul … that we can enter into the throne of grace in the third heavens and experience things that indescribable. I am not sure what twenty-down meant, but I did sense it was far greater than anything I had experienced up until the time of the dream. I pray that you allow the heavens to open and seek the Kingdom of God and all that it has to offer. There is a good reason that Jesus started in Matthew 6:33 that we should seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and the rest will follow. I am standing on good theological ground making promises that Jesus made about His Kingdom, throne room, and the fact that in the last days all flesh will experience, dreams, visions, and prophecies (Acts 2:17-19).
You can find this same write-up in the book ‘Heaven 3.0 Seeing and Believing’ which can be purchased at Amazon.com.