Can the dead speak? The Bible tells us not to try to communicate with the dead.[1] But does that mean that there is no communication between the dead and the living? How then do we account for the thousands of people who claim to have heard the voice of their loved one warning them of impending danger? Some claim to have smelled their former loved one’s perfume. Others had dreams where their departed loved one spoke to them leaving them a message of love and encouragement. If God doesn’t permit such communication, how can we explain such events? Was it the Devil and therefore evil? But why did it bring good fruit? Or was it the person’s imagination? Or does God allow such communication in time of dire emergency to save a life or encourage someone in time of deep distress or danger?[2]
Just how God operates the spiritual world is much of a mystery to us. As Paul wrote,
“Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know even as I am also known.”[3]
But we do know from God’s Word that He speaks to us in dreams, visions, a still small voice,[4] and through the voice of prophecy.[5] God’s word says,
“Call upon Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things that you know not.”[6]
In the gospel of Luke we see Jesus marveling about the centurion’s understanding of the spiritual world.[7] Was he marveling because the centurion had understood how the spirit world works? The centurion had told Jesus not to come into his house but to speak the word and it would be done. The centurion would command his soldiers and they would obey orders and carry messages and do tasks. Was he alluding to Jesus authority in the spirit world similar to his own? Did he mean that Jesus could send an angel to do the work, in this case the healing, and not have to go Himself?
In Daniel, we see the Prince of Persia, a demon, delaying for three weeks the angel who is bringing a message to Daniel.[8] Even in the book of Hebrews we see “a great cloud of witnesses” that compasses us about.[9] The author of Hebrews tells us to help strangers and that some have as such entertained angels unawares.[10]
About three years ago my twenty-seven year old son died in a swimming accident. After finishing his education in England he had been offered a job in Bermuda at $50,000 a year. He took it. Six months later at midnight, I received the phone call that every parent dreads. Your child has gone missing. His clothing has been found on the beach front near to his home. He has missed work for the first time in six months. I immediately got on my knees and cried out to God, as any parent would, imploring for my son’s safety.
No sooner had I begun to pray, than I saw, in my mind’s eye, a vision. My son was entering into the Heavenly City. A crowd had gathered to meet him. I saw my recently departed father and a close friend who had died from cancer a few months earlier. Everyone was hugging my son with warm embraces, like a great celebration or graduation. At that moment, I knew my son was with the Lord and we would not find him alive. Some will say, “That was your imagination, how could you have a vision?” How, I do not know, but his body was found five days later.
I made arrangements to fly to Bermuda. I wanted to take care of his things and send his body back to Europe where he had been born and lived. While sorting through his things at his rented cottage, a wave of emotions hit me like a tsunami. “Why, God? Why, God? Why did this happen? Why, my son, who was hard-working, friendly and had so many good qualities?”
I had walked down to cliff where his clothes had been found, above the churning waters of the Caribbean at a local diving spot. The tide was high and rough. If I dove in, could I make it through those troubled waters to the mouth of the little natural pool where bathers would swim peacefully some forty meters away? The voice of conscience told me it was too dangerous. Besides, I knew not where the hidden rocks stood beneath the waves that had injured many a young diver.
When I got back to his apartment, I was still in emotional turmoil. Desperately, with tears forming constantly in my eyes, I opened up my computer and logged in. I had a message on Facebook: my son’s former girlfriend had written me. While she had been taking time to listen to the Lord and receive from Him some encouraging words for me in prophecy, she heard my son’s voice in her voice of conscience. “Tell my father not to be discouraged. Tell him I’m okay. Now I understand all that he had tried to teach me. Tell him I am thankful for all he did and not to worry about me. I am okay.” She thanked the Lord for the privilege of receiving this message and sent it on to me.
As I read those words, tears swelled in my eyes. But they were not tears of despair and anguish, but tears of joy and comfort knowing that my son was okay. He was safe in the arms of Jesus. You may say, “It was a figment of her imagination.” Maybe it was. All I know, I was encouraged and through those words found strength to continue on in the face of one of life’s most difficult tests: the death of one’s child.
You ask “Do the dead speak?” I do not believe they do. I will not go to a clairvoyant or spiritualist or white witch seeking to hear from the beyond. God’s word strictly forbids this and God punished Saul for doing such.[11] Saul should have sought the Lord and been patient for the Lord’s answer. But he went ahead in his own strength and disobeyed the Lord and sought counsel of a clairvoyant. If we are seeking the Lord, He speaks, and He may even send a message from a departed loved one in a dream, a vision, or a still small voice in our conscience, or through the voice of prophecy.
My mother had such an experience when her godfather died. She dreamed about him the same night he died. He told her, he had come to say good-bye. The next morning her auntie called to pass on the message of her godfather’s death, which my mother already knew through her dream. Many people have had experiences similar where God has allowed them to receive a message from a departed loved one.
How God sends the message, is His business. Whether or not it was my son speaking to his former girlfriend or an angel disguising himself as my son or Jesus Himself speaking as my son, or the girlfriend’s own wishful imaginative thinking, I do not know. I do know that I was encouraged and strengthened in that difficult time. I was able to face that dark hour in faith and with the knowledge that my son was okay. He was with Jesus.
“All things truly do work together for good to them that love God.”[12]
She called upon the Lord and He answered and He gave her just the message I needed to be inspired and encouraged and find the faith to continue on in life’s difficult journey. Her listening to the Lord, accepting the message, and sending it on to me bore good fruit in my life. Jesus said,
“by their fruits you shall know them.”[13]
Are you calling upon the Lord and learning to hear His still, small voice in your heart? He may have a message for you or for you to pass on to someone in need of love and encouragement. He may even let a dear departed love one send something back to you to help lift your burden in time of trouble. He may give you a vision, or a dream, or you may have a sensation. Or you may hear His still, small voice in your heart telling you,
‘this is the way, walk in it.’[14] “Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you”.
[15] Are you knocking on Heaven’s door for the answers that you need? Please do it. You won’t be disappointed!
Footnotes
1. Isaiah 8:19, Leviticus 19:31
3. 1 Corinthians 13:12
4. 1 Kings 19:3
5. Joel 2:28
6. Jeremiah 33:3
7. Luke 7:1-9
8. Daniel 10
9. Hebrews 12:1
10. Hebrews 13:2
11. 1 Chronicles 10:13-14
12. Romans 8:28
13. Matthew 7:20
14. Isaiah 32:21
15. Matthew 7:7
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