Clay,

Some years back, after I had severely backslidden into the worldly things that I was caught up in before I was saved, I had a similar experience. I was all alone, in a large empty building, and had the overwhelming conviction to fall on my face and entreat the Lord with tears and groans. While I was doing that, I guess what could be considered a vision, happened. A hole began to open in the middle of the floor where I was on my face, like one of those sink holes. The hole began to widen, until my head, arms, and chest were hanging out over the hole. Looking down, I realized that it was not a sink hole, though I could see the dirt, rocks, and roots, on the sides of it going down - however, this hole went down so far that I could not fathom it, yet I could see flames, fire, and the light of the fire, coming up from deep down in the hole. It was like looking down into a live volcano. Far more than the sight of it, the sound of it, or the smell of it, was there clear understanding that I was looking down into hell, and that I was teetering on the edge. I was on the edge of the pit to hell, about to fall in, and I couldn't pull myself back from the edge. The overwhelming terror of where my wickedness had brought me, that I deserved to fall down into that fire, and that it had been Jesus, whom I had turned back from, that had shed his blood to take away my wicked sins, and that had saved me, that I had not "unsaved" myself, but that I had broken his heart, defiled the temple of the Holy Ghost, and had forgotten what he had done for me. This dramatic scene had the effect on me of causing me to come to myself, like the prodigal son in Luke 15, and to repent like he did, and go back to the Father who was waiting for me.

Gino