By: Larry Shawn Cagle
December 20, 2014

This is about an amazing experience I had that occurred quite suddenly and was completely unexpected. When this happened, I was not praying or meditating. I was not reading the Bible or other theological styled book.  I was not in some deep contemplation about God and the universe. I was not reasoning or pondering man’s existence.  I was simply considering the accuracy of a Cable program that my wife and I had just finished viewing.

My unbelievable experience happened in the Fall of 2004.  My wife and I had just finished watching a cable program on the original History Channel concerning people who “claim” to see Saints, Angles, Spirits or the Virgin Mary on a somewhat frequent basis.  Overall, the program was at best, fair to very poor in quality.  Plus, the individuals who were highlighted seemed to be somewhat out of touch with reality.  I do not think I could believe these people because they seemed to be scripted and somewhat shallow.  After the show ended, I decided to surf the internet for awhile.  I went to our spare bedroom, the one that we used as our computer room and sat down and powered on the system.  As it was slowly booting up, I started thinking about the program we had just watched and the topic that was covered. It occurred to me, how would these people or anybody really know if what they saw was real or just hallucinations or fabrications?  Also, I considered what the images they claimed to have seen could of actually been.  Were these images truly holy and from God or possibly Satanic. How would they know that they were not being deceived by Satan or his demons? The Bible states that demons can take on many forms including heavenly spirits (1 John 4:1, 2 Corinthians 11:14).  In addition, I wondered if they were only seeking their 15 minutes of fame.  How could anyone truly know and be sure that the images they experienced, like the one’s we just saw on the History Channel, were real, imagined, holy or demonic??

As I was sitting there reflecting on the questions I had just asked myself while waiting for the system to fully boot up, I suddenly and unexpectedly had an experience that is still hard for me to fully explain. This experience forever change my life and my perception of life, God and His love.  What I experienced, for that magnificent moment, was God’s presence and His love.

I will try to explain how powerful and suprising experiencing God’s presence was, but unfortunately, I know that will not be possible.  I know all my words will fall short of expressing the unimaginable magnitude of what happened.  However, I will do my best to explain what I felt and discovered by my Godly experience.

When I first felt God’s presence, I noticed that everything I was either stressed or distressed about, including all I was worrying and concerned about was gone, vanished, did not exist anymore.  All those negitive feelings I had from my entire life vanished from my conscience. It was as though they never existed or they were never experienced. I then noticed that beside all the negitive feelings, thoughts, memories, etc. in my life disappearing, everything that I cared about, all the positive things in my life, had also disappeared, vanished.  They were all gone to as through they never existed.  I realized I no longer had any feelings about both the good and the bad in my life.  All the things I loved in this world no longer mattered or meant anything to me. My family, my wife, our pets, everything and anything of this world that I loved or had ever loved or cared about, along with all the things hated, was no longer part of my existence.  All my experiences and anything that was part of me and my life, including everything that was not part of my life, was gone and had no meaning to me.  I was now completely seperated from this world and no longer part of the world.  Everything that was part of this world no longer had any meaning to me.  The good and the bad of life was no longer relevant and I was no longer connected in anyway, shape, or form to this world.  I was physically here but that was the extent of my connection to this world. I was no longer emotionally, mentally, or even spiritually connected to this world.  As I stated before, I was actually seperated from everything that existed in this world and it no longer meant anything because of God’s presence.  His presence had completely seperated me from this world and anything that related to this world.  I was totally and absolutely free from this world. Beyond any doubt, this was the most intense, strange and unbelievable surprise (gift or blessing) I had ever experienced in my life.  At least until what happened next.

What I then noticed or felt next was the most pure, the most precious, perfect and complete, intense and fulfilling love that could ever be imagined. This love literally penetrated every part of my body, every cell and every atom.  It penetrated the essence of my being. I felt God’s love down to my very soul.  It was so intense and fulfilling I realized that this love could and would give me absolutely and unequivocally everything I would ever need, want or desire.  I relealized I would not required food to live as this love could give me the all the nutrition I needed. I realized I would no longer require air to breathe as this love could supply the very air I needed to live. This love gave me absolutely everything I could ever need or want. Plus, I discovered there was nothing else outside of this warm, exquisite, wonderful, beautiful, magnificent, precious, perfect and Divine Godly love.  All my perceptions, all my senses, everything was consumed by this love. There are really no word I have or words I know of that can fully express God’s love. The Bible states that you can have anything you desire in Heaven. If Heaven gives you everything you need, want or desire, I know that God’s love is all I would ever want.  So for that brief period I think I was expecting a small part of Heaven.  Even after +12 years, I cannot image anything greater than that warm embrace of God’s love that I briefly had.

I do not know how long this experience lasted as time seemed to have stopped. Or at least, my perception of time. I think it only lasted for a few seconds to maybe a minute or two.  I am not sure because I was disconnected from this world briefly. I do not think anyone here on earth could handled a love that powerful and intense for any longer period of time. I believe if it lasted for any great length of time I would of quit existing as the person I was. If I had continued to experience God’s love, I would not had left that chair or room. I would of sat there until the end of time.  The love from God gave me everything I needed or would ever need and nothing else mattered to me.

One of the lasting effect of God’s love is related death and dying.  I had very little concern about death and dying once I became a Christian and understood God’s word.  Since I have experienced God’s love I know no longer have any fear or reservations concerning death and dying.  I can say with a doubt that I look forward to my death because I know what is waiting for me once I am in Heaven.

I apologize for the parts were I rambled attempting to explain how I felt and how God’s love felt.  No matter how many times I have attempted to tell my experience, my words always fall short of the actual experience I experienced.

I hope I was able to give you an inkling of the overwhelming magnitude and the sheer intensity of the pure, perfect and divine love from God that I experienced.  I still wonder why God allowed me to experience His presence and His love.  I do not know if it was an answer to what I was thinking or some other reason. Maybe there will be a time when it is fully clear to me why God touched my life is this way!!