RYAN: Welcome back to “Something More.” I’m here with Laurie Ditto. We’re talking about encountering heaven. And I want to get right into this. You have a story of how you were on the Main Street of heaven but hiding from the Father, or trying to hide from the Father.
LAURIE: Yes. Yes. So, you know, it’s a busy, bustling place. I was very excited to see the different time periods of people, family members there.
RYAN: When you say time periods, you mean, like when they live on earth?
LAURIE: Right. So, well, you get to choose your clothes style. And there was a beautiful family, they’re my family, and they were walking. And she had one of these beautiful bustle dresses and things.
RYAN: Right. Right.
LAURIE: So, I mean, it’s just a real happy environment. And I saw Jesus on the street, but He was busy. The Holy Spirit was moving and playing on the street. And then, all of a sudden, the Father stepped onto Main Street somewhere away from me. But everyone knows.
RYAN: And you knew it.
LAURIE: You know where they are. And people were so excited that they were going to see the Father. But I was not excited.
RYAN: Yeah.
LAURIE: I was not excited.
RYAN: Why were you not excited?
LAURIE: [laughs]
RYAN: I mean, I don’t know how I would have responded.
LAURIE: I quickly got behind the tree first. So I’m back there –
RYAN: That’s what Adam and Eve did. [laughs]
LAURIE: [laughs] Yeah. Yeah. I get behind this tree –
RYAN: Yeah.
LAURIE: And it’s like He’s coming. He’s coming. He’s coming. And He came. And I knew He was looking for me. I knew it. And when He got there He wanted to say something to me, Ryan. He wanted to say that, “Laurie, you’re going to have to go back.” And I didn’t really want to go back. But what He wanted to say to me was, “Because heaven is not heaven for you right now.” I understood right away it’s because I didn’t know how to relate to Him.
RYAN: To the Father.
LAURIE: To the Father.
RYAN: Yeah.
LAURIE: You know, I wanted to hide from Him. I was really concerned that I didn’t measure up, that my best wasn’t going to be best enough. I remember thinking that if God would just let me in, and maybe I could clean the toilets of heaven, or something.
RYAN: Wow. Yeah.
LAURIE: Because I didn’t know how to see the Father the way that Jesus has taught us. He said, “If you’ve seen Me,
RYAN: Right.
LAURIE: Then you’ve seen the Father.” And that means more than just a physical appearance. That means they are just alike.
RYAN: In other words, would you say that, as you read the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you see Jesus doing this, doing that, His personality, that the Father is just like that is what you’re saying.
LAURIE: Right. But I came with a wrong perception of Him.
RYAN: Okay. Is that because of what you went through on earth?
LAURIE: You know, probably a whole lot of things play into it.
RYAN: Right.
LAURIE: But the concept that you need to be able to relate to whole Trinity – And if that’s broken in you,
RYAN: Mm. That’s good.
LAURIE: Then we need to go to Jesus and let Him heal us, whichever part of the Trinity that you can go to. And Jesus wanted me to know that God the Father has never forsaken me. He will never leave me. And the lies that I had attached to the Father is so unjust.
RYAN: Wow.
LAURIE: And, of course, He’s going to be on Main Street. And, of course, He wants to see His children. And I think He singled me out because He knew I was hurt.
RYAN: Right. Right.
