THE DOORWAY THROUGH which we pass to come home to God's loving arms is not the end of the soul's journey as many of you believe. When we pass through the doorway of death, it leads us home to a resting place where we find comfort and love so that we can prepare for the next adventure on our soul's journey.

The journey of our soul began when God first created our soul. He then gave us the ability to co-create as we could then decide what we wanted to experience in each of our lifetimes. As part of this project, we have a set group of issues we are required to learn about, such as trust, abandonment, abuse, judgment, control, responsibility and love. Our soul's journey continues lifetime after lifetime as we experience and learn about each of these issues. During this journey karma is created and karma is healed, that is just part of the adventure. When I ask about the purpose of these lessons, I am told that this is God's way of allowing us to grow and become aware of who we are, to find our own place of forgiveness and unconditional love for all mankind than resides within us. In this place we can be closer to God, as we will be more like God. We are all one with God it is only our issues and negative belief systems that hold us apart. When we cross through the doorway of death, we are allowed to return to God's presence as a reprieve from the challenges of our issues. It is like the ultimate vacation. Our soul understands that it will return in its next life to complete any unfinished issue work and most likely with the same souls. Our soul understands all of this but our human consciousness is very limited to here and now so the death of a loved one can be devastating to our everyday life.

Most of us would like to avoid thinking about our own death or the death of a loved one but it is inevitable. The moment we are born we begin our journey towards our exit from that lifetime. We typically refer to this exit as death. We struggle to experience all that we can between the two events but death is part of this journey.

For most of us the subject of death is shrouded with fear as well as being one of our greatest mysteries. Through our book we hope to change that. We have traditionally feared death because it was not something we could understand or control. What happens at the time of death? Is it the end of your existence or just a new chapter? Our religions have tried to fill in the blanks with their perceptions of life and death but what is truth? Is there really a place called Heaven and a place called Hell? I believe we should all arrive at our own truths. To find this truth you must explore. Some explanations you may easily accept and find comfort in but some theories will cause you to search deeper to discover what is the truth is for you.

In my search for truth it was channeled to me by the Masters that God's definition of death is the doorway through which his child returns to him. Death is one of God's greatest gifts to us. When God opens his arms to us and welcomes us home it is our death that allows us to join him. Death is God's reward to us for completing our journey. No matter how long or short our life journey is God is there waiting for us when it is our time to come home. It has been explained to me that death is not accidental. We do not just stumble and fall through the doorway of death. As part of your life plan the time of your birth is set and the approximate time of your death is set. This can fluctuate slightly depending on the timing of the work you are doing. There are windows of time along your journey though which you can exit if you have completed your work or if you are not able to accomplish what you came into this life to do. There is a purpose to everyone's life and a purpose to everyone's death. Whether your death comes of natural causes, by your own hand or by the hand of someone else, God knows it is your time to come home and he is there to greet you.

At this point I must integrate that I have a unique source of knowledge about what happens at the time of death. We all come into our life with spiritual gifts and my God-given gift is to be able to communicate with spirits that have crossed over. My knowledge of death and what happens after death comes from my communication with these spirits as well as my own near-death experience. I will share with you what I have learned from the countless stories I have heard from those in spirit.

We sometimes hear people talk about what they feel or see when they have a near-death experience. In the thousands of stories I have heard and read about I have never heard anyone talk about experiencing anything negative while on their journey of transition. It is always a joyful experience and one they did not want to return from. It is difficult for us to understand the overwhelming sensation of love that is expressed in the transition realm. Our spirits are immersed in this indescribable feeling of unconditional love that becomes so strong it causes us to lose all desire to remain in or return to the density of the human body and life. We just want to remain forever in the comfort of God's arms. Your spiritual consciousness becomes momentarily disconnected from the human consciousness. There is no time and space, only spiritual bliss.

When I had my near-death experience in earth time it was a very short amount of time but it seemed like I was there for a long time while I was talking with God's council of Masters. You can imagine how disappointing it is when you are sent back to finish your work as I was. I can remember begging to stay even after they showed me what my future life would hold, but back they were not dissuaded as they sent me. I had passed through a window of time in which I could have left this life but I had not completed my life purpose as a healer so I was sent back. It was at that time that I realized how death is a very special gift that we are given from God. It is not the end of life or a random act of punishment it is a celebration of completion. Death is a blessing and life is our challenge. You will often see people's lives changed after such an experience, I know it changed mine. This experience could be a wakeup call to take better care of your body because you have more to accomplish in this life or that you had better get your work done so you are ready next time you pass through that doorway.

The medical field tries to explain away all of the sensations that we experience in a near-death situation but I know it as fact. There is still a lot that science does not understand about the human body that God created in such perfection. Everything has a purpose, even you. We are each a creation of God. We are the child that he loves unconditionally but some of us have just forgotten.

When I bring spirits forward to communicate with their loved ones in body, the spirits frequently share with me what they each experienced at the time of their death. I am just amazed at how similar their stories are yet how unique they are as to which family members greeted them upon their arrival. Seldom do they talk about the actual moment of their last breath as their spirits are focused on rushing to the arms of God. Once their spirits have been comforted and embraced in his love they have the choice of returning for a period of time to comfort the loved ones they left behind. My husband laughs at me when we attend funerals because I am busy chatting with the spirit of the deceased loved one. They will often attend their own funeral as a celebration of their life. I only wish we could all see it in the same way they do.

Imagine our life journey as if we are God's child and he sends us off to college to learn, grow and experience life. God has prepared us for this adventure and put everything in place for us to experience our journey. He allowed us to choose the subjects we will study and the experiences we will encounter as we experience life. We can choose to go to class and to grow in our awareness and advance or we may choose to sleep all day, missing class and wasting the entire experience as we struggle to avoid learning anything. As a parent, God sends us off to college (life) knowing that we will not return to his arms until we are have completed our project, but he also knows that this college experience is an important opportunity for us to grow and advance on our souls journey. It is anguishing for God as he watches us struggle with our lessons of life but he understands that we must endure them to learn. He is continually there to support us, picking us up each time we fall down but he also understands that he must let us learn from our lessons to move forward on our life journey. When we have completed our allotted time for learning our lessons we rush excitedly back to the arms of our supporting father. This is the doorway of death that we pass through to return to our father. We leave God through the same doorway that we return. On one side of the door it says "Birth" or the other side it says "Death". God wants us to experience love and relationships so he understands our grief when we have to say goodbye to a loved one. God knows that he can communicate with us in many ways even though we can not see him, we can talk directly to him in prayer. He gives us the gift of being able to continue to communicate with our loved ones in spirit. Trusting and believing that they are there with us when we ask them to come allows us to receive their messages of comfort.

The lessons we learn in a lifetime are based on our choices and the consequences of those choices. If you have learned what you needed to learn in that lifetime you will be rewarded and promoted to the next level. If chose not to learn we will just return to our next lifetime with the same issues to face and the same people to learn them with, unfortunately the lessons may be a little harder. It is all about choices and consequences as we experience our soul's journey.

Life is not by accident, it is a very involved project in which we chose the challenges of the life we live. We chose the individuals that we will interact with and the issues that we will learn from. God gives you a support system of angels and spirit guides to assist you through this process of learning. God continually supports us through the entire journey. You can do it the hard way, stomping your foot at life like an obstinate child or you can do it the easy way with the assistance of your spiritual support system.

© Linda Drake, 2006

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Linda Drake, an intuitive life path healer, author and acclaimed speaker uses her gifts to help the bereaved find comfort, healing and understanding. In her new book Reaching Through The Veil To Heal (Llewellyn Worldwide 2006), she shares powerful, true stories that underscore vital lessons in accepting loss, coping with grief, understanding death and reconnecting with life. Linda Drake is conducting books signings at Barnes & Nobles, Boarders Books and independent bookstores across the nation. She will also be headlining at many Mind, Body, Spirit and personal empowerment expos across the nation. For More Inforamtion on Linda Drake and her new book Reaching Through The Veil To Heal Visit /www.llewellyn.com or www.lindadrakebooks.com.