I would like to talk about a very important decision. As a matter of fact, this is the most important decision you will ever be faced with.

This decision is more important than where you chose to go to school, your career choice, who you decide to marry, or where you decide to live. This decision concerns eternity.

Think about it. Forever is a long, long time.

So many people are only concerned with today or a few months down the road. At best, some are concerned with retirement. I want to go beyond that. I want to talk about "life after death" Are you making any provision for that?

Did you know that you are not just a body made of flesh and bones, blood and muscle? You are a spirit being, you have a soul and you live in a body. When you die - which everyone does sooner or later - your physical body will be put in a grave. It will decay and turn to ashes and dust.

But what about "the real you" - the inner you, your personality, your mind, will and emotions?

The spiritual part of you can be thought of as the part of you that cannot be seen with the natural eye. This part of you will live forever. And where the "spiritual you" lives depends on the decision you make as you contemplate this message.

There are two forces in the world - good and evil, right and wrong. We have a "knowing" of that inside of us even without being told. There are two forces in the spirit realm - God and the devil; good angels - which are spirit beings created by God to help Him carry out His business - and bad angels, called demons.

These bad angels were once good angels who made a choice to rebel against God. Lucifer, an archangel (also called Beelzebub, Satan, or the devil), led these angels in this rebellion, and God threw them out of heaven and created a place for them and their master called hell (See Rev. 12:7-9).

God and the good angels have their home in heaven. Satan and the bad angels have their home in hell.

Between heaven and hell is the earth and the atmosphere above the earth. Good and bad angels patrol the earth at all times. Satan also roams about "seeking whom he may devour." The Bible tells us that in 1 Peter 5:8.

The Holy Spirit of God (God's own Spirit) also dwells on the earth as well as in the heavenlies, and the job God has given Him is to seal, keep, preserve, and protect God's people (those who have chosen to serve God).

The Holy Spirit also has the job of wooing and winning people who have not yet chosen God and His way of living.

Have you made your choice?

No one can make it for you. God created you with a free will, and He will not force you to choose Him. He did not force the angels. Part of them rebelled and He let them do what they wanted to do. But remember, bad choices bring their own penalty.

The choice is yours.

Choose Life.

Excerpted from the book The Most Important Decision You'll Ever Make by Joyce Meyer
(Tulsa: Harrison House, 1998) All rights reserved. Used by permission.