I spoke with a dear friend of mine earlier whose husband just died in the early morning hours today. My heart was sad for her, but she had a palpable sense of peace that easily transcended the phone line. She said “I knew today was the day and I know he’s in a much better place now”. It pleased God to take him home.

These may be familiar words for anyone who believes in Jesus and has been around death. But hers were not rote words rolling off the lips without feeling. Quite the opposite, they were filled with life and a genuine excitement for him. He had been living for some years with Parkinson’s disease and these last few months had endured incredible pain and suffering. At one point, looking into his eyes and imagining what he would see and experience in that moment, she said “I wish I was going there with you”.

I believe my friend had what is known as the gift of faith. For believers in Jesus, the gift of faith is different than saving faith that comes when we trust in Christ. As my pastor would say, the gift of faith is “a situational Spirit-given confidence that God intends to act in a specific moment.” Often more than faith from God, it is the faith of God that is gifted to us for a specific need, and will always bring glory to the Father. It is less about trying to believe something and more about suddenly knowing without a shadow of a doubt what God wants to do, and then partnering with God for the thing in which He is granting that faith. My friend knew God wanted to take her husband home today, and she released him into His loving arms.

In that moment I was filled with grief for my own mother, whom I lost over 12 years earlier. She had that kind of faith, too, knowing that she also was going home that very day, and being filled with that same peace, readied herself for the moment.

I love that “by His stripes we have been healed” does not limit healing to just our physical bodies. God’s healing includes emotional, relational, and spiritual wholeness for us as well. Body, soul, and spirit. This is the kind of healing I believe my friend’s husband received from the Lord today, one that readied and enabled him to fully embrace his moment of passing. I believe when he took his last breath here, his very next breath was in a whole new dimension of eternity in the very presence of God Himself, and being embraced by a love beyond imagination, he never looked back.

In loving memory of Ray Keller