September 30, 2025 • 45 mins
Don Piper shares his life-changing encounter with heaven after a near-fatal crash. A true story of faith, hope, and God’s guiding hand.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Hungry Gen podcast, and I just want to
thank you for joining us today here at HG. Our
vision is to see thousands say locally and millions globally.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
We hope you enjoyed this week's message.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Well, I got killed on the way to church, not
this morning, quite a few years ago. So this is
that story. It's a testimony. Let me say this to you.
If you're a follower of Christ authentically, you have a testimony.
Maybe you didn't get run over by a truck, you
didn't write a book, they didn't make a movie about you,
(00:36):
but your testimony is just as important as mine.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
I mean, using it to.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Help other people come to Jesus is just as important
as anything I'll ever do. So I want to encourage
you as I share this testimony, to share your testimony
and let God use you to bring other people to Him. Okay,
is that a deal? All right, let's do it. I
wrote this book it called ninety Minutes in Heaven Flat,
(01:04):
and I talked in a podcast a few years ago
about it, and so that led to me being here
today with you. And I'm very honored to be here
with you and your team. It's a great privilege. I
wrote this book so I would never have to talk
about it. That has not gone well. I've been in
(01:27):
all fifty states and many foreign countries talking about it.
I wrote it so I could get past something. Do
you ever have something in your life you just wanted
to get past it and move on.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Well, that's kind of what happened to me.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
But it turned out that the thing I was trying
to get away from was the things that God wanted
to use to bless other people. So be careful. That
may be exactly what He's doing with you. This thing
you're going through, it may be the very thing that
he'll use in your life to bless other people.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
We'll talk about that.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
A little bit later on, a lady walked up to
me with a copy of this book and really tattered.
It was in bad shape, torn, dirty, and I almost said, hey,
what happened to your book? But I didn't, Thank Goodness,
so she handed it to me and she said, would
you sign it? So I flipped over to the page
I usually signed. I signed this book ninety minutes, said Heaven,
(02:19):
see you at the gate. You'll understand a little more
about that, and a little bit see you at the gate,
and then my name, and I did, and the lady said, well,
I was doing that. This is not my book. I said, oh,
this is not your book. No, this is my daughter's book.
I said, Oh, your daughter owned this book. Yes, I
(02:40):
didn't know she had it. The lady said it was
in her backpack when she got off a school bus
and was run over and killed. I said, I'm so sorry.
That explains why it's in this condition. Yes, I said,
was your daughter a follower of crime?
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yeah, she said. My daughter was very devoted to the Lord.
She was a great inspiration to me. I said, I see.
She says, I couldn't bring myself to read your book
for a while. I said, I understand. Often i'll hand
it to somebody and say, read this when you're ready,
because it's kind of heavy stuff, as you will see.
And she said I couldn't read it. But then I
(03:21):
cracked the book just a little bit, and I saw
that my daughter had written all kinds of things in
the book. She had circle things, she drew arrows to things.
It was like she was speaking to me. And when
I got through reading the book, mister Piper, I realized
I was not ready to go to heaven. Myself, so
I gave my heart to Jesus. I know where I'm going.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
Now. The question is, do you are you sure?
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Hey, listen, we're taking reservations this morning. I'm serious as
a car wreck. Really, we're taking reservations now. If you're
in this room and you've never made a reservation to
go to Heaven, you're not prepared. I mean, I got
killed on the way to church. What does that say?
You got to be ready all the time, all the time.
(04:19):
Right before Jesus died, he was with his followers in
the upper room in John chapter fourteen.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Things were not going too well.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
In fact, most of the people in that room were
scared out of their minds because there were threats against
the life of Jesus, many threats, and they were followers
of his, so they figured something might happen to him
if something happened to them or Jesus.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
They were right.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Ultimately all of them were martyred except one, and I
mean died horrific lives, and Jesus alone was crucified on
the cross. They eventually were Some of them were not
the same way. We're having the same problems with did
in the first service. They said it was my beard.
(05:10):
I couldn't find a racer.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
So this is it.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
So they're in the upper room and Jesus looks into
their eyes John chapter fourteen. He has a message for them,
and here's the message. Let not your hearts be troubled.
Do you believe in God, believe in me. Also, he said,
in my father's house are many mentions rooms.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
If it were not so, I would have told you.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
And if I go to prepare a place for you,
I will come again and receive you under myself.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
And where I am you will be also.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
And then he added, you know where I'm going, and
you know how to get there. My goodness had follow
him in three and a half years. They should have known.
But not Thomas, of all people, Thomas. Thomas stands up
from the lord's supper table and says this, we don't
(06:15):
know where you're going, then we don't know how to
get there. And maybe that's you today. Wherever you are,
you're watching at home, you're here, you're in another room,
you would honestly say, I don't know where I'm going.
I don't know where Jesus went. That's a good question.
It's probably the question for all eternity. Like, if he's
(06:37):
in heaven, how do I get there? And that's what
Thomas wanted to know, So let's give him credit. And
here's the answer to the question that Thomas asked, how
do I get to Heaven? Jesus, I am the way,
I am the Truth, I am the Life.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
No man comes to the Father except through me God.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
So if you want to go to Heaven, you're gonna
have to go through Jesus. I mean, there are several
aisles in the church. Sometimes people think it doesn't matter
what direction you come from. It doesn't matter because all
paths lead to Jesus. Wrong, Jesus is Jesus. There's no
one path leads to Jesus, and it's the only way.
(07:26):
That's what he said. I am the way. I found
that out the hard way. I got killed in the
car wreck, and I immediately went to be with Jesus
because I knew the way. Now, just intellectually, I knew
it down.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Here in my heart. Yeah, I knew it here.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I wasn't planning to die that day, but I was ready,
and so when I died, I went to Heaven.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
That's the way it works.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
So don't leave this place today without making a reservation
in heaven.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Don't leave. You got to do it today. That's because
you don't know how many more days you have. I'm
not trying to frighten you. I'm being honest with you.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
I mean I got to get a car to Passer's
conference in East Texas. And I was on my way,
but to church south of Houston where I was a pastor.
And make it, I was crossing a bridge, narrow bridge
in the middle of nowhere. An eighteen wheels across the
center stripe and ran over my car.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
I mean, here, we have a picture of the car. There.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
It is in the wrecking yard. It ran right over
the car. The corner of the car crushed it with
me in. It went off the back of my car
and hit two more cars and finally brought the rig
to a halt. So it's a four vehicle wreck on
the Trinity River bridge. Trinity River, how about that? And
so there I was in that car. This arm was
(08:49):
broken from here forward and broken off and went over
my separated my shoulder, went over my back into the
back seat. This left leg was cross at the knee.
I lost four and a half inches of femur, which
was ejected out of the car and never found. My
right leg was broken at the knee. I was impaled
on the steering wheel. This picture shows that there's no
(09:12):
airbags in those days, so steering wheel just went horizontal
and went right into my chest and I had internal injuries.
My head banged against the side of the car, and
I had brain damage. I had blood coming out of
my ears and eyes and nose. My wife still thinks
I have brain damage, which works out really well sometimes
(09:36):
if you follow me, guys, I have brain damage. Sorry,
So I was dead. I wasn't nearly dead. I didn't
have a near death experience. When you're dead an hour
and a half, you're not nearly dead. I was in
the car. So traffic is now backed up for miles
(09:59):
and both directions. It's a two lane bridge. Both lanes
are blocked back. Behind me are lots of preachers, pastors
who'd come from the same conference I had come from,
and they can't go anywhere now because the bridge's blocked.
Some of them left their cars started walking up the bridge.
One of them, named dick Onnorecord, walked up to the bridge.
This is a screen grab from the movie. There he
(10:20):
is walking up on the bridge and he approaches the
state trooper whose name is Finn spin Sv and he's
a Swedish guy.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
I got to know him very well.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Ultimately, he's actually looking down at the front page of
my sermon for the next week.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
A sermon was.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Called I Believe in a Great God. It took me
twenty eight years to preach that sermon in my church.
That's how long the time passed before I was able
to preach that sermon.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
That's the front page of it.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
And there's Dick or the guy who played him in
the wreckage of the car. He came into the trunk
in the back seat and put his arm his hand
on my right shoulder because it's the only thing I
did up breaking the wreck.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
So he's praying for me under a tarp and.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
It's pitch dark because we're covered up with a tarp.
Even though it's in the middle of the day. He's praying.
He's not the only one praying. Because they did search
my body. They found my business card. They call my church.
They told the church not that I was dead. They
just told him I'd been in a terrible wreck and
that they would update them. So the church, of course
(11:32):
started praying. I mean I was going to lead the
prayer service that night in the church then obviously didn't
make it. So they're praying, and they're calling every church
in something called a phone book. Anybody out there, phone book. Well,
so they're calling every church in the phone book and
(11:53):
asking them if they'll pray, and all of them said, yes,
we'll pray, and we'll call some more churches. And this
began to spread coast to coast, tens of thousands of
people praying for the man in the wrecked car in Texas.
None of them knew I was already dead, except one
guy who was in the car praying over my dead body,
(12:13):
And that's why this went on for an hour and
a half. Killed at eleven forty five. He's in the
car praying, and he's now singing hymns, alternating verbal prayers
with hymns I mean music. I mean, we just sang
some musical prayers up here, that's what those are.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
And so we sang those. That's what he's doing.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
And he's singing a really old hymn called what a
Friend we Have in Jesus. This is a great old
song he's singing, and over my dead body under the
tarp in the dark an hour and a half after
the wreck happened, and with his arm on my right shoulder. Suddenly,
without any warning, I started singing the song with him
(13:00):
out of the car really fast, like anybody would.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
But he did this. You probably wouldn't have done this.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
He went over to the policeman and said, officer, the
dead man is singing. And nobody believed that because it's unbelievable.
But I was because I remember singing with him. Even
if I didn't know who he was, I didn't even
know what had happened. I was in kind of shock. Well,
I was definitely in shock, so I did not know
there had been a car wreck. I just knew I
(13:30):
was under a tarp in the dark.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Now I didn't know why.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Well, it took them some doing to get me out
of that car, I mean some doing to get me
out of that car. Finally they extracted me. I was
taken to the nearest Level one trauma center, which is
about ninety miles away, in an ambulance because the weather
was too bad for helicopters to fly. It was a
(13:57):
very rotten weather day, pouring rain, cold, and so I
was in the back of an ambulance making my way
to Houston. I got there from an eleven forty five
wreck at six fifteen that evening, and I would be
in a hospital bed from that day forward for thirteen months.
I would have thirty four operations to put me back
(14:19):
together again, and they did it the best job they could.
This left leg now is completely shot. It's bone on bone.
So I'm gonna have a knee replacement in November. Pray
for me. That'll be surgery for me, number forty two.
And I mean how many times you can be put
to sleep? It's a surgery number forty two. So I
(14:41):
may still be asleep. You may be in my dream. No,
I'm exkidding, just kidding. So they got me there and
I was in horrible shape. I developed double pneumonia within
old three or four days. And these are the pictures
of what I look like. You could see here where
(15:01):
they put my arm back on with metal device to
hold it in place. All the bones in this arm
came to my right pelvis. All the skin on this
arm came to my right leg, and you could see
maybe the slide before this. They put a bone stretching
device on my leg. Never been done before on a femur.
Because I was missing three inches. They put halos around
(15:25):
my leg and then wires going from the halos through
and out the other side, and they held the bone
in place like it was attached for eleven months, turning
screws on these things four times a day to try
to stretch the bone. It was invented in Russia. That's
why it's called Elizarov or elizor off everyhow that's pronounced.
(15:51):
But anyway, this is the guy that did it. I
wore that for eleven months. I wore the one on
my arm for eight months trying to restore me. I
was told I would never walk again. And I walked
into this place and when I finished on walking out,
and this is the armies in the back seat. Right
(16:13):
before Jesus died there in John fourteen, he made some
statements that he knew his followers needed to hear. One
of them was this, you may ask me for anything
in my name, and I will do it. What has
often overlooked that statement because it seems on the surface, hey,
I can get anything I want his name it and
claim it in my name means it coincides with the
(16:36):
will of God. You may ask me for anything in
my name, and I will do it. I mean, people
ask for me to live. I mean I had nothing
to do with my survival. Nothing. If I had a choice,
I would have stayed there. I mean, this is Washington
is a wonderful place, but I'd rather be there than here.
But people prayed and God said yes. He doesn't always
(16:59):
say yet. Sometimes he says no. I want to show
you a picture of our daughter. Isn't she beautiful?
Speaker 4 (17:07):
Nicole.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Nicole died three years ago of kidney cancer, forty six.
One of the most talented people I've ever known in
my life. She was given a year and a half.
She lived six years after the diagnose, but she had
thousands of people praying for her. And I'm not exaggerating
(17:31):
thousands of people because everywhere I went I asked people
to pray for Nicole. We miss her, but we know
where she is. So God doesn't answer prayer. It's not
always the way you want, but he knows best he does.
I think they needed a redheaded Sobrano in heaven myself,
(17:52):
and they wanted the best, so they sent for her.
When I held her the first time, I knew she
was a gift from God. But I also knew that
I did not own her. She was only on loan
to me. We are on loan to each other. That's
the way it worked. I believe in prayer. I know
(18:15):
I'm an answered prayer. I mean, every time I look
at myself in the mirror, no matter what I'm looking at,
I know that the only reason I'm here is because
a lot of people prayed and God said yes. Also
believe in miracles. I think God's still in the miracle business.
And in the same verses in John fourteen, Jesus makes
the statement, if you have faith in me, anyone who
(18:38):
has faith in me, Remember in the prayer verse he
said you may ask me for anything.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
Now he says, anyone who.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Has faith in me will do what I've been doing,
and will do even greater things than these, because I'm
going to Father.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Now.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
Imagine the people sitting in the room with Jesus when
he said this. They saw him change water into wine.
They saw heal lepers people who are lame, I mean,
give sight to the blind.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
They were standing.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Outside of the tomb when he said, Lazarus come fourth.
Lazarus comes waltzing out of the tomb. They saw that
with their own eyes, and now he's telling them, after
I leave here, you're gonna do.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
Him in greater things than that. Imagine that.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
I think God's doing some of his best stuff now.
I see it every day. Another lady came up with
a book and she had it like this, clutched very tightly.
She leaned down over the book table very close to me,
like very close, and I said hello, and she said,
I came to ask you to pray for me. I said,
(19:46):
of course, I'd be happy to pray for you. She said,
I just got out of prison for dw I it
was my sixth I'm an alcoholic and I just didn't
know how it was going to make it. I said,
I understand, she said. I asked one of the other inmates,
how do you get through this? I mean, I'm so
(20:06):
lonely and I don't know what to do next. Well,
he said, I'll tell you what I did. I've heard
about this book where this guy was in a horrible
wreck and they thought they would never be the same again.
And he was never the same again. But he was
not bitter. He was better. Oh, I want to read
that book, she said, you have to order it short
of that she read it, and now she had it
right here. She said, I've come to ask you to
(20:28):
pray for me today because two weeks from today in
this church, she said, I'm going to start leading celebrate
recovery for addicts and alcoholics. And I said, who better
than you. I'll be happy to pray for you. I
don't know about you, but I think that's a miracle.
I think that's a miracle. So you may need one,
(20:49):
and I have good news for you. God is still
in the miracle. Is that.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
I said earlier. I may not be. I mean it
looked like much, but the.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
Fact that I exist at all is a miracle. The
fact that I can move around it all is a miracle.
So I believe in miracles. I also believe that sometimes
things that happened to you are so catastrophic you are
not going.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
To be the same. And you may be here.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
You may have had a loss, you may have lost
your job, you may have gone through a divorce. You
may have been devoted to Christ and fallen back. I mean,
you know who I'm talking to. I'm talking to you.
I mean, you may be going.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
Through the long dark night.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Eva's book out in the lobby is called a walk
through the dark because she had to get us through
what we went through. I'm so happy she's here with
us today, my wife, because she's the hero of our story.
I'm not I survived, she overcame. Yeah, she's the caregiver.
(21:55):
So her book is called to walk Through the Dark.
We had to get through the dark. I'm laying in
the hospital. If you could put that picture back up
of me in the hospital bed, this is my life
for thirteen months, flat on my back. I can only
look up, thankfully. But I couldn't do a thing for myself. Man,
if you can imagine being thirty eight years old and
(22:16):
not being able to do anything for yourself at all,
completely helpless depending on other people.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
And so there I lay, and.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
I got tired of it, and I got frustrated with it.
And one morning, about three or four o'clock, maybe two o'clock,
early in the morning, I'm doing this. This is visual.
You have to look up here. I don't understand why
this happened to me. I was on my way to church.
I wasn't doing anything wrong as far as I know.
(22:48):
Why can't you send somebody here who understands what I'm
going through. I just need to talk to somebody who
gets it. Everybody's nice to me, people are praying for me,
but I need to talk to somebody who gets it.
I heard the voice of God one of two times
I've ever heard the voice of God verbally.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
And here's what God said to me in hospital room.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
This is not about you. It's about me and what
I can do through you and for you that you
can't do for yourself.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
You could never have done this without this.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
So instead of shaking your fist at me, which doesn't
bother God at all, I want you to take the
same hand and reach out to other people and help
them because you understand what it's like. You understand how
they feel. And I wrote a chapter in the book
(23:46):
ninety Minutes and Heaven called a new normal because I
had to find a new way to live. I couldn't
be the way I was before, and so I've spent
my life now trying to reach out to other people.
For the first few years I did this, go to
a convention or something, and there'd be eight rows of
wheelchairs because they wanted to talk to somebody who got
(24:07):
out of a wheelchair. They wanted to talk to somebody
who learned how to walk again. And so I went
down and shook the hand of every single person, and
I told them this, no wheelchairs in heaven. If you
don't ever walk here, you will walk there. In fact,
you'll run there. You'll run like a deer. You may
(24:31):
need a new normal. You may be sick and tired
of being sick and tired. And God can take your
test and turn it into a testimony. Yeah, he could
take you from better or frustrated to better. I understand
how you feel. Together, we'll get through this together.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
That may be a word for some of you.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
I suspect it is with the crowd, decighs. Some of
you need to get past your pity party and reach
out to others and you'll understand why you went through this. Yeah,
it'll come clear to you. Get out of the hospital
bed and go do something.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
When the truck hit me, I was standing at the
gates of heaven. I didn't go down a long tongue
to one a bride light at.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
The end of the tunnel.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
I didn't even have a near death experience. Like I said,
if you've been dead an hour and a half, you're
not nearly dead. I was like, at the gates of Heaven.
There are twelve gates of Heaven. I challenge you to
read Revelation twenty one before you go to sleep tonight.
You'll find out all kinds of things about Heaven, the
street of gold, what the walls are covered with, I mean,
everything's in there. In fact, it begins with talking about
(25:45):
the bride. It's the bride of Christ, and the bride
is beautifully dressed for a wedding. And that's what heaven
is like, beautifully dressed for your getting there eternal.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
Well, I'm looking at a big gate.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
Actually the gate was magnificent, but the entrance was quite small.
We go in one at a time. It's a personal decision.
Nobody can make it for you. No church membership, no
family membership. No, I mean it's you. You have to
decide to follow Jesus to get in the gate. And
(26:23):
I wasn't planning to die at thirty eight, but I
didn't make a decision to follow Jesus at sixteen. I
was sixteen years old when that pastor said, who wants
to go to heaven? We're taking reservations today. I knew
he was talking to me. I left my seat. I
went down. I shook his hand, and I said, I
want to go to heaven. He said, son, this is
(26:45):
the best decision you ever made. He was right, But
I didn't know I was going to get killed on
a lonely highway in East Texas twenty two years later.
Speaker 4 (26:54):
I was ready. I just wasn't planning to die that day.
He gotta be ready, ready.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:02):
And so I'm approaching the gate.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Now I'm surrounded by people I had known and loved
in life. Wow, did they look good? If you want
to look good, heaven is where you want to be.
I mean you look good now, but I mean you're
really gonna look good there because you want to have
any scars on you, You want to have any blemishes on you.
My grandfather was the first person I met. I was
with him when he died. He was a carpenter. He
(27:26):
had many scars in his body. In fact, he was
missing fingers on some of his fingers on both hands
were missing.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
So he he seize me at the gate. He extends
his hands.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
He speaks the language I've never heard before but fully understood,
and said, welcome home.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
Donnie.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
That was his name for me. He's the only one
that call me Donnie, Welcome home, Donnie. And I looked
down at the hands that used to hold me when
I was a little boy. All of his fingers were there.
I had never seen his fingers for You're gonna look
good in heaven. You're gonna be perfect, just the way
God wanted to be when he made you in the
first place.
Speaker 4 (28:03):
Good.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
There were people that I had known in high school
that died in tragic accidents. One drown another, one was
killed in a car wreck. It was my next door neighbor,
Mss Norris. They were aunts and uncles. My great grandmother
was standing there, Hattie. I mean, there was a variety
of people. Why did these people show up. I'll tell
(28:27):
you why they showed up. They were expecting me. They
knew I was coming. I was greeted by the people
who helped me get there. They took me to church,
they gave me a Bible. They were Christians in front
of me, so I knew what one was. They lived
that kind of life. So ultimately they greeted me at
(28:49):
the gates. I don't remember whether I asked you or not,
but what are you doing in Washington?
Speaker 4 (28:57):
That matters?
Speaker 3 (29:00):
What we ought to be doing here is helping everyone
else get there. That's what we should be doing. That's
why we're still here, is to help other people get there.
These people did, they were expecting me. People often ask me,
do people in heaven miss you?
Speaker 4 (29:18):
No, they don't.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
They expect you, and there's no time in heaven, so
they're expecting you now in a heavenly sense. Understand, they're
expecting you now because now it's always now in heaven.
Speaker 4 (29:35):
Always.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
It's never tomorrow, it's never fifteen minutes from now. There's
no time in heaven. It's eternal. So the people in
heaven who know you're coming because your name is in
the Book of Life, they expect you. They're so excited
that you're on the way. I told the young lady
who gave her heart to Jesus' morning and the book's onnyline.
(29:57):
The angels are thinking your name right now, announcing that
you're coming. And they are they still are that she's
on the way because she gave a heart for Jesus
today and she's ready now. No matter how long she
lives on earth, she's ready.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
So are you ready? All right?
Speaker 3 (30:18):
I'm going in. I'm going through angels. They're everywhere, all kinds.
Some have two wings, some have six, some have none.
They're the ones who lift us up and carry us
to heaven.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
The angels do.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
They are quite magnificent. We don't become angels in heaven.
Angels are a different group of people, are.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
Beings from us.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
God created them for a completely different purpose. So angels
minister to us. One day. The Bible says, well, and
be in charge of the angels ourselves. But they do
minister to us, and we're they're ministering to us right now.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
They're all around us right.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Now, but they conduct us in the heaven. So I
was surrounded by angels, now surrounded by music. If you
like music, you're going to have a great time in heaven.
They have great music up there, all kinds of music
glorifying God. That all of it glorifies God. And there
are thousands of songs at the same time. He said, well,
(31:19):
that's impossible. It would all be just a big jumble.
Not in heaven, you could distinguish each one of the
songs with your heavenly ears, each one of them. You
could see things there you couldn't possibly see here, because
you'll have heavenly eyes, because the light up there. If
God is light, and so is Jesus, it's so bright
(31:39):
that you would be blinded by it. But you won't
have earthly eyes, You'll have heavenly eyes. You'll see colors
there you've never seen here. You'll smell the romans there
you never have smelled here. One of the romans of
heaven is supposed to be the incense from the Throne
of God, which are the prayers of God's people. Imagine
(32:00):
smelling that and smell it in heaven. Heaven is a
buffet for the senses. It's a sensory explosion. It's simply
the most real thing that's ever happened to me. I've
had some pretty real things happened to me, nothing compared
to Heaven. I know who's there now. I know my
daughter is there. She's having the best time. I miss
(32:24):
her here, but I know where she is. And someone's
not gone.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
If you know.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
Where they are, yeah, she's there, not here.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
No goodbyes in heaven, only helloes. So I'm going in now.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
The gate is quite the wall is quite thick, and
I'm emerging in the inside. People are right agree to
me or following me, and I could see thrones high
and lifted up. Wow, awesome, And that's where I wanted
to go. I mean, past the trees of life that
we can eat from in heaven as the river of life,
(33:01):
down the golden Boulevard, to fall at the feet of
Jesus and simply say thank you, thank you for letting
me come, thank you. But I never got a chance.
As I emerged inside, it was taking in all the
incredible things that are inside the gates of Heaven, all
the incredible people who are inside the gates of Heaven.
(33:22):
People didn't help me get there, but the people who
played a role in my spiritual life. Ultimately, people like
Peter and John James, will be able to meet them
and just walk down the streets of gold together and
catch up what's happened to them, sins and what's happened
to me since those people. So I want to go
(33:43):
up there, And suddenly, without any warning, just inside the gate,
it all stopped. I found myself in silence and darkness,
and I wanted to cry out, of course, what's going on?
I just got here. What happened? I couldn't even make
my voice sound. I heard one voice out of the darkness,
(34:10):
but it wasn't in front of me like Heaven was.
It was behind me. It was that man in that
car singing that song. And I was back here. I
didn't know what had happened. I didn't even know there'd
been a wreck. I didn't know who he was. I
got to know him very well preaching the church, actually,
(34:34):
But he was singing, and I was singing with him
because he was trying to keep me conscious. Then I
eventually wound up in the hospital bed. When we had
that picture hospital, yeah there is. I eventually wound up
in the hospital bed. And I promise you, as God
is my witness, I said this every day you would
have said the same thing. Why did you let me
(34:57):
see that and take it away away from me? You
brought me back for this. That's when I said, you
know what godsend? Yes, yes, I brought you back for this.
I brought you back so you could be a hungry
(35:20):
Gian church on a Sunday morning and tell them to
their face, Heaven is real. Heaven is real, Heaven is real,
and Jesus is the way. He's the way. So I
have to say to you to your face, if you've
(35:41):
never given your heart to Jesus, today is today. Make
a reservation today. Do not leave this place today without
having a reservation in heaven. And it's so easy to do,
but it takes everything. All we're asking you to do
in a moment is to walk down here in the aisle,
come to the front, will pray for you. We'll welcome
(36:03):
you into the Kingdom of God. We'll welcome you into
this church. We'll welcome you because you know why we
love you here and we want to love you there.
That's why. Maybe you've drifted away. At one point in
your life. You made a lot of promises to God
that you haven't delivered on. Maybe you've drifted away. Hey,
(36:24):
come home, Come home today. Get away from that life
that you're living now and live the life that He
has in store for you. I mean, I thought I
was living a decent life. I was a pastor before
the truck hit me, but it changed everything afterwards. I
tried to get away from it. I tried to take
the testimony and not bury it, but not make an
(36:45):
issue out of it. I just wanted a pastor at church.
Sometimes God has a different plan for you and you
have to change, so be willing to do that. Maybe
it starts today. For you is to change, be willing
to be used by God, and it perhaps a different
way from the way you are. Whatever God's telling you
(37:05):
to do. Hey, listen to me. Do what Dick on
a record did when God said pray for the man
in the red car. He was obedient and got in
the car and prayed for me. And I'm here. So
obedience is what God is looking for. If you have
(37:25):
to wait until you understand it all, you'll never do it.
You have to come by faith. Come by faith. God
will take care of the rest. And I'm telling you,
if God's in it, you'll like it. He'll be right
for you. He'll be right for you. It may not
be easy, but he'll be right. So that's where we are.
We're at a decision time. So you can do one
(37:48):
of two things. You can pray that everyone else will
make a decision that needs to because you're already prepared.
You're prepared. Heaven is a prepared place for prepared people.
So you're prepared. Pray for those other people who aren't.
And if you're not, come on now, we're going to
help you get ready and we're gonna invite you into
(38:11):
the Kingdom of God. Heaven is prepared for you. Maybe
you need to come home from drifting far away. Whatever
God's telling you to do, you just do it today.
I want to pray for you, and then I'm going
to ask you a stand up and if you need
to come, don't delay. Come immediately so we can pray
(38:32):
for you. Let's pray well. Thank you for what you
have done today in this church. It's always important and
it's always kingdom work. And I pray the Lord that
you will speak to individuals in the church, each one
of them now, and help them ask this question in
their heart. If I were this was the last day
(38:52):
of my life, if my life were to end today,
am I sure I would go to be with Jesus
in Heaven.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (39:01):
If you're sure, pray right now for yourself and the
people around you, the ones who aren't sure. If you're
not sure, then come to Jesus. He'll be the best
decision you've ever made. We'll pray for you, we'll be
with you, we'll be your family. It's a miracle that happens,
(39:22):
but God is still in the miracle business. So come
to Jesus. Give your heart to Jesus. He'll be the
most right thing you've ever done. Maybe you need to
come home. You've justfted far away and you need to
come back to Jesus, and you know you do. Maybe
you need to make a decision today that takes you
from what you're doing to what you need to do.
(39:42):
God is speaking to you very profoundly, and so you
know what you need to do now. Instead of shaking
your fist at God because things haven't gone well, you
need to reach out to others and say, I'll help.
Speaker 4 (39:53):
You, I'll be with you, We'll get this together.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
Whatever God's telling you to do, do like Dick on
the record that in the car, be obedient, don't hesitate,
Just come and God will bless you for it. Let's
all stand together now and we're gonna ask you to
come without delay, come to Jesus. Just leave your seat
right now and come on down. We're taking reservations in
(40:19):
heaven right now. Come on down. You know who you are.
If you're in another room, I guess you can come
over here. Come on, come to Jesus, Come to Jesus.
Speaker 4 (40:31):
You know who you are.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
Come on, come to Jesus, Come on, come on meet.
An attitude of prayer would you just maybe bow your
heads in your heart, but let people out and need
to get out. Come on to Jesus. Come right down
here to the front. We're going to pray for you.
(40:53):
We're gonna pray over you.
Speaker 4 (40:55):
You know who you are.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
Come on, come to Jesus, Heavenly Father. You know what
we need to do. Give us the courage to do it.
Speaker 4 (41:10):
Right now.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
There's someone here, maybe several someonees who are really struggling
with this. They're kind of arguing with God right now,
so learn help them to put that aside and come on,
come on, just come to Jesus.
Speaker 4 (41:30):
You know who they are. They know who they are.
Some have come.
Speaker 3 (41:40):
More need to not because we're interested in numbers, but
because we don't want you to leave here without Jesus
in your heart.
Speaker 4 (41:48):
So here it is.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
Come on, God bless those that have come. God will
use them. Will he use you? Come on, come to Jesus.
I was sixteen when I came. I wasn't planned to
die at thirty eight, but thank God I was ready.
I hope you live a long and meaningful life, but
there are no guarantees. So, young people, if you haven't
(42:15):
made that decision you're thinking about it.
Speaker 4 (42:17):
Today's the day.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
Come on, come to Jesus. Well, God, bless all of
you for coming. We're so honored that you were. Let's
give Let's get these folks a deefre. You know I'm
(42:45):
a little jealous. I'm proud of you when I remember
the day I came down and how meaningful it was
to me, how life changing it was.
Speaker 4 (42:53):
So I'm so happy for you.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
I really am. God bless you. I want to say
a prayer with you, and you can repeat up to
me if you want. And then one of the pastors
is going to come past your ahead, I think, is
going to come and go to our service, maybe give
you some instructions. So let's pray together. You can still come,
go ahead, come on, even if you're coming for a
(43:23):
kind of a rededication or something. Just pray this prayer
with me. Okay, Salvation, Let's pray together out loud, Heavenly Father,
thank you for Jesus, Thank you for his sacrifice on
the cross, because it means I could be.
Speaker 4 (43:42):
Saved, and I want to be saved. I know I'm
a sinner.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
I've done things I shouldn't have done, and I failed
to do things I should have done.
Speaker 4 (43:58):
Forgive me.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
Please forgive me and come into my heart. Wash away
those sins, and help me to live for you. From
this day forward, I want to live as a Christian,
a follower of Jesus. Thank you for saving me. Now
(44:22):
I know where I'm going. I'm going to be with
you someday, but use me until then. Shine a light
on my path so I can follow you because I
want to. I love you, Lord, Thank you for loving me.
(44:45):
I pray this prayer in Jesus' name.
Speaker 4 (44:50):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
Thanks for listening to today's podcast.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
If you are blessed by this message, be sure to
subscribe and send it to someone and again, you can
always share it on your social stories. Stay connected with
us on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. For more information
on internship, prayer line conferences, and other resources, go to
hungrygen dot com.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
Remember better is not good enough. The best is yet
to come.
This is Hungry Gen podcast, and I just want to
thank you for joining us today here at HG. Our
vision is to see thousands say locally and millions globally.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
We hope you enjoyed this week's message.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Well, I got killed on the way to church, not
this morning, quite a few years ago. So this is
that story. It's a testimony. Let me say this to you.
If you're a follower of Christ authentically, you have a testimony.
Maybe you didn't get run over by a truck, you
didn't write a book, they didn't make a movie about you,
(00:36):
but your testimony is just as important as mine.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
I mean, using it to.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Help other people come to Jesus is just as important
as anything I'll ever do. So I want to encourage
you as I share this testimony, to share your testimony
and let God use you to bring other people to Him. Okay,
is that a deal? All right, let's do it. I
wrote this book it called ninety Minutes in Heaven Flat,
(01:04):
and I talked in a podcast a few years ago
about it, and so that led to me being here
today with you. And I'm very honored to be here
with you and your team. It's a great privilege. I
wrote this book so I would never have to talk
about it. That has not gone well. I've been in
(01:27):
all fifty states and many foreign countries talking about it.
I wrote it so I could get past something. Do
you ever have something in your life you just wanted
to get past it and move on.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Well, that's kind of what happened to me.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
But it turned out that the thing I was trying
to get away from was the things that God wanted
to use to bless other people. So be careful. That
may be exactly what He's doing with you. This thing
you're going through, it may be the very thing that
he'll use in your life to bless other people.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
We'll talk about that.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
A little bit later on, a lady walked up to
me with a copy of this book and really tattered.
It was in bad shape, torn, dirty, and I almost said, hey,
what happened to your book? But I didn't, Thank Goodness,
so she handed it to me and she said, would
you sign it? So I flipped over to the page
I usually signed. I signed this book ninety minutes, said Heaven,
(02:19):
see you at the gate. You'll understand a little more
about that, and a little bit see you at the gate,
and then my name, and I did, and the lady said, well,
I was doing that. This is not my book. I said, oh,
this is not your book. No, this is my daughter's book.
I said, Oh, your daughter owned this book. Yes, I
(02:40):
didn't know she had it. The lady said it was
in her backpack when she got off a school bus
and was run over and killed. I said, I'm so sorry.
That explains why it's in this condition. Yes, I said,
was your daughter a follower of crime?
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yeah, she said. My daughter was very devoted to the Lord.
She was a great inspiration to me. I said, I see.
She says, I couldn't bring myself to read your book
for a while. I said, I understand. Often i'll hand
it to somebody and say, read this when you're ready,
because it's kind of heavy stuff, as you will see.
And she said I couldn't read it. But then I
(03:21):
cracked the book just a little bit, and I saw
that my daughter had written all kinds of things in
the book. She had circle things, she drew arrows to things.
It was like she was speaking to me. And when
I got through reading the book, mister Piper, I realized
I was not ready to go to heaven. Myself, so
I gave my heart to Jesus. I know where I'm going.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
Now. The question is, do you are you sure?
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Hey, listen, we're taking reservations this morning. I'm serious as
a car wreck. Really, we're taking reservations now. If you're
in this room and you've never made a reservation to
go to Heaven, you're not prepared. I mean, I got
killed on the way to church. What does that say?
You got to be ready all the time, all the time.
(04:19):
Right before Jesus died, he was with his followers in
the upper room in John chapter fourteen.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Things were not going too well.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
In fact, most of the people in that room were
scared out of their minds because there were threats against
the life of Jesus, many threats, and they were followers
of his, so they figured something might happen to him
if something happened to them or Jesus.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
They were right.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Ultimately all of them were martyred except one, and I
mean died horrific lives, and Jesus alone was crucified on
the cross. They eventually were Some of them were not
the same way. We're having the same problems with did
in the first service. They said it was my beard.
(05:10):
I couldn't find a racer.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
So this is it.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
So they're in the upper room and Jesus looks into
their eyes John chapter fourteen. He has a message for them,
and here's the message. Let not your hearts be troubled.
Do you believe in God, believe in me. Also, he said,
in my father's house are many mentions rooms.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
If it were not so, I would have told you.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
And if I go to prepare a place for you,
I will come again and receive you under myself.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
And where I am you will be also.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
And then he added, you know where I'm going, and
you know how to get there. My goodness had follow
him in three and a half years. They should have known.
But not Thomas, of all people, Thomas. Thomas stands up
from the lord's supper table and says this, we don't
(06:15):
know where you're going, then we don't know how to
get there. And maybe that's you today. Wherever you are,
you're watching at home, you're here, you're in another room,
you would honestly say, I don't know where I'm going.
I don't know where Jesus went. That's a good question.
It's probably the question for all eternity. Like, if he's
(06:37):
in heaven, how do I get there? And that's what
Thomas wanted to know, So let's give him credit. And
here's the answer to the question that Thomas asked, how
do I get to Heaven? Jesus, I am the way,
I am the Truth, I am the Life.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
No man comes to the Father except through me God.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
So if you want to go to Heaven, you're gonna
have to go through Jesus. I mean, there are several
aisles in the church. Sometimes people think it doesn't matter
what direction you come from. It doesn't matter because all
paths lead to Jesus. Wrong, Jesus is Jesus. There's no
one path leads to Jesus, and it's the only way.
(07:26):
That's what he said. I am the way. I found
that out the hard way. I got killed in the
car wreck, and I immediately went to be with Jesus
because I knew the way. Now, just intellectually, I knew
it down.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Here in my heart. Yeah, I knew it here.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I wasn't planning to die that day, but I was ready,
and so when I died, I went to Heaven.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
That's the way it works.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
So don't leave this place today without making a reservation
in heaven.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Don't leave. You got to do it today. That's because
you don't know how many more days you have. I'm
not trying to frighten you. I'm being honest with you.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
I mean I got to get a car to Passer's
conference in East Texas. And I was on my way,
but to church south of Houston where I was a pastor.
And make it, I was crossing a bridge, narrow bridge
in the middle of nowhere. An eighteen wheels across the
center stripe and ran over my car.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
I mean, here, we have a picture of the car. There.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
It is in the wrecking yard. It ran right over
the car. The corner of the car crushed it with
me in. It went off the back of my car
and hit two more cars and finally brought the rig
to a halt. So it's a four vehicle wreck on
the Trinity River bridge. Trinity River, how about that? And
so there I was in that car. This arm was
(08:49):
broken from here forward and broken off and went over
my separated my shoulder, went over my back into the
back seat. This left leg was cross at the knee.
I lost four and a half inches of femur, which
was ejected out of the car and never found. My
right leg was broken at the knee. I was impaled
on the steering wheel. This picture shows that there's no
(09:12):
airbags in those days, so steering wheel just went horizontal
and went right into my chest and I had internal injuries.
My head banged against the side of the car, and
I had brain damage. I had blood coming out of
my ears and eyes and nose. My wife still thinks
I have brain damage, which works out really well sometimes
(09:36):
if you follow me, guys, I have brain damage. Sorry,
So I was dead. I wasn't nearly dead. I didn't
have a near death experience. When you're dead an hour
and a half, you're not nearly dead. I was in
the car. So traffic is now backed up for miles
(09:59):
and both directions. It's a two lane bridge. Both lanes
are blocked back. Behind me are lots of preachers, pastors
who'd come from the same conference I had come from,
and they can't go anywhere now because the bridge's blocked.
Some of them left their cars started walking up the bridge.
One of them, named dick Onnorecord, walked up to the bridge.
This is a screen grab from the movie. There he
(10:20):
is walking up on the bridge and he approaches the
state trooper whose name is Finn spin Sv and he's
a Swedish guy.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
I got to know him very well.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Ultimately, he's actually looking down at the front page of
my sermon for the next week.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
A sermon was.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Called I Believe in a Great God. It took me
twenty eight years to preach that sermon in my church.
That's how long the time passed before I was able
to preach that sermon.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
That's the front page of it.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
And there's Dick or the guy who played him in
the wreckage of the car. He came into the trunk
in the back seat and put his arm his hand
on my right shoulder because it's the only thing I
did up breaking the wreck.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
So he's praying for me under a tarp and.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
It's pitch dark because we're covered up with a tarp.
Even though it's in the middle of the day. He's praying.
He's not the only one praying. Because they did search
my body. They found my business card. They call my church.
They told the church not that I was dead. They
just told him I'd been in a terrible wreck and
that they would update them. So the church, of course
(11:32):
started praying. I mean I was going to lead the
prayer service that night in the church then obviously didn't
make it. So they're praying, and they're calling every church
in something called a phone book. Anybody out there, phone book. Well,
so they're calling every church in the phone book and
(11:53):
asking them if they'll pray, and all of them said, yes,
we'll pray, and we'll call some more churches. And this
began to spread coast to coast, tens of thousands of
people praying for the man in the wrecked car in Texas.
None of them knew I was already dead, except one
guy who was in the car praying over my dead body,
(12:13):
And that's why this went on for an hour and
a half. Killed at eleven forty five. He's in the
car praying, and he's now singing hymns, alternating verbal prayers
with hymns I mean music. I mean, we just sang
some musical prayers up here, that's what those are.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
And so we sang those. That's what he's doing.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
And he's singing a really old hymn called what a
Friend we Have in Jesus. This is a great old
song he's singing, and over my dead body under the
tarp in the dark an hour and a half after
the wreck happened, and with his arm on my right shoulder. Suddenly,
without any warning, I started singing the song with him
(13:00):
out of the car really fast, like anybody would.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
But he did this. You probably wouldn't have done this.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
He went over to the policeman and said, officer, the
dead man is singing. And nobody believed that because it's unbelievable.
But I was because I remember singing with him. Even
if I didn't know who he was, I didn't even
know what had happened. I was in kind of shock. Well,
I was definitely in shock, so I did not know
there had been a car wreck. I just knew I
(13:30):
was under a tarp in the dark.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Now I didn't know why.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Well, it took them some doing to get me out
of that car, I mean some doing to get me
out of that car. Finally they extracted me. I was
taken to the nearest Level one trauma center, which is
about ninety miles away, in an ambulance because the weather
was too bad for helicopters to fly. It was a
(13:57):
very rotten weather day, pouring rain, cold, and so I
was in the back of an ambulance making my way
to Houston. I got there from an eleven forty five
wreck at six fifteen that evening, and I would be
in a hospital bed from that day forward for thirteen months.
I would have thirty four operations to put me back
(14:19):
together again, and they did it the best job they could.
This left leg now is completely shot. It's bone on bone.
So I'm gonna have a knee replacement in November. Pray
for me. That'll be surgery for me, number forty two.
And I mean how many times you can be put
to sleep? It's a surgery number forty two. So I
(14:41):
may still be asleep. You may be in my dream. No,
I'm exkidding, just kidding. So they got me there and
I was in horrible shape. I developed double pneumonia within
old three or four days. And these are the pictures
of what I look like. You could see here where
(15:01):
they put my arm back on with metal device to
hold it in place. All the bones in this arm
came to my right pelvis. All the skin on this
arm came to my right leg, and you could see
maybe the slide before this. They put a bone stretching
device on my leg. Never been done before on a femur.
Because I was missing three inches. They put halos around
(15:25):
my leg and then wires going from the halos through
and out the other side, and they held the bone
in place like it was attached for eleven months, turning
screws on these things four times a day to try
to stretch the bone. It was invented in Russia. That's
why it's called Elizarov or elizor off everyhow that's pronounced.
(15:51):
But anyway, this is the guy that did it. I
wore that for eleven months. I wore the one on
my arm for eight months trying to restore me. I
was told I would never walk again. And I walked
into this place and when I finished on walking out,
and this is the armies in the back seat. Right
(16:13):
before Jesus died there in John fourteen, he made some
statements that he knew his followers needed to hear. One
of them was this, you may ask me for anything
in my name, and I will do it. What has
often overlooked that statement because it seems on the surface, hey,
I can get anything I want his name it and
claim it in my name means it coincides with the
(16:36):
will of God. You may ask me for anything in
my name, and I will do it. I mean, people
ask for me to live. I mean I had nothing
to do with my survival. Nothing. If I had a choice,
I would have stayed there. I mean, this is Washington
is a wonderful place, but I'd rather be there than here.
But people prayed and God said yes. He doesn't always
(16:59):
say yet. Sometimes he says no. I want to show
you a picture of our daughter. Isn't she beautiful?
Speaker 4 (17:07):
Nicole.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Nicole died three years ago of kidney cancer, forty six.
One of the most talented people I've ever known in
my life. She was given a year and a half.
She lived six years after the diagnose, but she had
thousands of people praying for her. And I'm not exaggerating
(17:31):
thousands of people because everywhere I went I asked people
to pray for Nicole. We miss her, but we know
where she is. So God doesn't answer prayer. It's not
always the way you want, but he knows best he does.
I think they needed a redheaded Sobrano in heaven myself,
(17:52):
and they wanted the best, so they sent for her.
When I held her the first time, I knew she
was a gift from God. But I also knew that
I did not own her. She was only on loan
to me. We are on loan to each other. That's
the way it worked. I believe in prayer. I know
(18:15):
I'm an answered prayer. I mean, every time I look
at myself in the mirror, no matter what I'm looking at,
I know that the only reason I'm here is because
a lot of people prayed and God said yes. Also
believe in miracles. I think God's still in the miracle business.
And in the same verses in John fourteen, Jesus makes
the statement, if you have faith in me, anyone who
(18:38):
has faith in me, Remember in the prayer verse he
said you may ask me for anything.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
Now he says, anyone who.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Has faith in me will do what I've been doing,
and will do even greater things than these, because I'm
going to Father.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Now.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
Imagine the people sitting in the room with Jesus when
he said this. They saw him change water into wine.
They saw heal lepers people who are lame, I mean,
give sight to the blind.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
They were standing.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Outside of the tomb when he said, Lazarus come fourth.
Lazarus comes waltzing out of the tomb. They saw that
with their own eyes, and now he's telling them, after
I leave here, you're gonna do.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
Him in greater things than that. Imagine that.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
I think God's doing some of his best stuff now.
I see it every day. Another lady came up with
a book and she had it like this, clutched very tightly.
She leaned down over the book table very close to me,
like very close, and I said hello, and she said,
I came to ask you to pray for me. I said,
(19:46):
of course, I'd be happy to pray for you. She said,
I just got out of prison for dw I it
was my sixth I'm an alcoholic and I just didn't
know how it was going to make it. I said,
I understand, she said. I asked one of the other inmates,
how do you get through this? I mean, I'm so
(20:06):
lonely and I don't know what to do next. Well,
he said, I'll tell you what I did. I've heard
about this book where this guy was in a horrible
wreck and they thought they would never be the same again.
And he was never the same again. But he was
not bitter. He was better. Oh, I want to read
that book, she said, you have to order it short
of that she read it, and now she had it
right here. She said, I've come to ask you to
(20:28):
pray for me today because two weeks from today in
this church, she said, I'm going to start leading celebrate
recovery for addicts and alcoholics. And I said, who better
than you. I'll be happy to pray for you. I
don't know about you, but I think that's a miracle.
I think that's a miracle. So you may need one,
(20:49):
and I have good news for you. God is still
in the miracle. Is that.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
I said earlier. I may not be. I mean it
looked like much, but the.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
Fact that I exist at all is a miracle. The
fact that I can move around it all is a miracle.
So I believe in miracles. I also believe that sometimes
things that happened to you are so catastrophic you are
not going.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
To be the same. And you may be here.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
You may have had a loss, you may have lost
your job, you may have gone through a divorce. You
may have been devoted to Christ and fallen back. I mean,
you know who I'm talking to. I'm talking to you.
I mean, you may be going.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
Through the long dark night.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Eva's book out in the lobby is called a walk
through the dark because she had to get us through
what we went through. I'm so happy she's here with
us today, my wife, because she's the hero of our story.
I'm not I survived, she overcame. Yeah, she's the caregiver.
(21:55):
So her book is called to walk Through the Dark.
We had to get through the dark. I'm laying in
the hospital. If you could put that picture back up
of me in the hospital bed, this is my life
for thirteen months, flat on my back. I can only
look up, thankfully. But I couldn't do a thing for myself. Man,
if you can imagine being thirty eight years old and
(22:16):
not being able to do anything for yourself at all,
completely helpless depending on other people.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
And so there I lay, and.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
I got tired of it, and I got frustrated with it.
And one morning, about three or four o'clock, maybe two o'clock,
early in the morning, I'm doing this. This is visual.
You have to look up here. I don't understand why
this happened to me. I was on my way to church.
I wasn't doing anything wrong as far as I know.
(22:48):
Why can't you send somebody here who understands what I'm
going through. I just need to talk to somebody who
gets it. Everybody's nice to me, people are praying for me,
but I need to talk to somebody who gets it.
I heard the voice of God one of two times
I've ever heard the voice of God verbally.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
And here's what God said to me in hospital room.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
This is not about you. It's about me and what
I can do through you and for you that you
can't do for yourself.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
You could never have done this without this.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
So instead of shaking your fist at me, which doesn't
bother God at all, I want you to take the
same hand and reach out to other people and help
them because you understand what it's like. You understand how
they feel. And I wrote a chapter in the book
(23:46):
ninety Minutes and Heaven called a new normal because I
had to find a new way to live. I couldn't
be the way I was before, and so I've spent
my life now trying to reach out to other people.
For the first few years I did this, go to
a convention or something, and there'd be eight rows of
wheelchairs because they wanted to talk to somebody who got
(24:07):
out of a wheelchair. They wanted to talk to somebody
who learned how to walk again. And so I went
down and shook the hand of every single person, and
I told them this, no wheelchairs in heaven. If you
don't ever walk here, you will walk there. In fact,
you'll run there. You'll run like a deer. You may
(24:31):
need a new normal. You may be sick and tired
of being sick and tired. And God can take your
test and turn it into a testimony. Yeah, he could
take you from better or frustrated to better. I understand
how you feel. Together, we'll get through this together.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
That may be a word for some of you.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
I suspect it is with the crowd, decighs. Some of
you need to get past your pity party and reach
out to others and you'll understand why you went through this. Yeah,
it'll come clear to you. Get out of the hospital
bed and go do something.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
When the truck hit me, I was standing at the
gates of heaven. I didn't go down a long tongue
to one a bride light at.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
The end of the tunnel.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
I didn't even have a near death experience. Like I said,
if you've been dead an hour and a half, you're
not nearly dead. I was like, at the gates of Heaven.
There are twelve gates of Heaven. I challenge you to
read Revelation twenty one before you go to sleep tonight.
You'll find out all kinds of things about Heaven, the
street of gold, what the walls are covered with, I mean,
everything's in there. In fact, it begins with talking about
(25:45):
the bride. It's the bride of Christ, and the bride
is beautifully dressed for a wedding. And that's what heaven
is like, beautifully dressed for your getting there eternal.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
Well, I'm looking at a big gate.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
Actually the gate was magnificent, but the entrance was quite small.
We go in one at a time. It's a personal decision.
Nobody can make it for you. No church membership, no
family membership. No, I mean it's you. You have to
decide to follow Jesus to get in the gate. And
(26:23):
I wasn't planning to die at thirty eight, but I
didn't make a decision to follow Jesus at sixteen. I
was sixteen years old when that pastor said, who wants
to go to heaven? We're taking reservations today. I knew
he was talking to me. I left my seat. I
went down. I shook his hand, and I said, I
want to go to heaven. He said, son, this is
(26:45):
the best decision you ever made. He was right, But
I didn't know I was going to get killed on
a lonely highway in East Texas twenty two years later.
Speaker 4 (26:54):
I was ready. I just wasn't planning to die that day.
He gotta be ready, ready.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:02):
And so I'm approaching the gate.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Now I'm surrounded by people I had known and loved
in life. Wow, did they look good? If you want
to look good, heaven is where you want to be.
I mean you look good now, but I mean you're
really gonna look good there because you want to have
any scars on you, You want to have any blemishes on you.
My grandfather was the first person I met. I was
with him when he died. He was a carpenter. He
(27:26):
had many scars in his body. In fact, he was
missing fingers on some of his fingers on both hands
were missing.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
So he he seize me at the gate. He extends
his hands.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
He speaks the language I've never heard before but fully understood,
and said, welcome home.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
Donnie.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
That was his name for me. He's the only one
that call me Donnie, Welcome home, Donnie. And I looked
down at the hands that used to hold me when
I was a little boy. All of his fingers were there.
I had never seen his fingers for You're gonna look
good in heaven. You're gonna be perfect, just the way
God wanted to be when he made you in the
first place.
Speaker 4 (28:03):
Good.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
There were people that I had known in high school
that died in tragic accidents. One drown another, one was
killed in a car wreck. It was my next door neighbor,
Mss Norris. They were aunts and uncles. My great grandmother
was standing there, Hattie. I mean, there was a variety
of people. Why did these people show up. I'll tell
(28:27):
you why they showed up. They were expecting me. They
knew I was coming. I was greeted by the people
who helped me get there. They took me to church,
they gave me a Bible. They were Christians in front
of me, so I knew what one was. They lived
that kind of life. So ultimately they greeted me at
(28:49):
the gates. I don't remember whether I asked you or not,
but what are you doing in Washington?
Speaker 4 (28:57):
That matters?
Speaker 3 (29:00):
What we ought to be doing here is helping everyone
else get there. That's what we should be doing. That's
why we're still here, is to help other people get there.
These people did, they were expecting me. People often ask me,
do people in heaven miss you?
Speaker 4 (29:18):
No, they don't.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
They expect you, and there's no time in heaven, so
they're expecting you now in a heavenly sense. Understand, they're
expecting you now because now it's always now in heaven.
Speaker 4 (29:35):
Always.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
It's never tomorrow, it's never fifteen minutes from now. There's
no time in heaven. It's eternal. So the people in
heaven who know you're coming because your name is in
the Book of Life, they expect you. They're so excited
that you're on the way. I told the young lady
who gave her heart to Jesus' morning and the book's onnyline.
(29:57):
The angels are thinking your name right now, announcing that
you're coming. And they are they still are that she's
on the way because she gave a heart for Jesus
today and she's ready now. No matter how long she
lives on earth, she's ready.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
So are you ready? All right?
Speaker 3 (30:18):
I'm going in. I'm going through angels. They're everywhere, all kinds.
Some have two wings, some have six, some have none.
They're the ones who lift us up and carry us
to heaven.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
The angels do.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
They are quite magnificent. We don't become angels in heaven.
Angels are a different group of people, are.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
Beings from us.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
God created them for a completely different purpose. So angels
minister to us. One day. The Bible says, well, and
be in charge of the angels ourselves. But they do
minister to us, and we're they're ministering to us right now.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
They're all around us right.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Now, but they conduct us in the heaven. So I
was surrounded by angels, now surrounded by music. If you
like music, you're going to have a great time in heaven.
They have great music up there, all kinds of music
glorifying God. That all of it glorifies God. And there
are thousands of songs at the same time. He said, well,
(31:19):
that's impossible. It would all be just a big jumble.
Not in heaven, you could distinguish each one of the
songs with your heavenly ears, each one of them. You
could see things there you couldn't possibly see here, because
you'll have heavenly eyes, because the light up there. If
God is light, and so is Jesus, it's so bright
(31:39):
that you would be blinded by it. But you won't
have earthly eyes, You'll have heavenly eyes. You'll see colors
there you've never seen here. You'll smell the romans there
you never have smelled here. One of the romans of
heaven is supposed to be the incense from the Throne
of God, which are the prayers of God's people. Imagine
(32:00):
smelling that and smell it in heaven. Heaven is a
buffet for the senses. It's a sensory explosion. It's simply
the most real thing that's ever happened to me. I've
had some pretty real things happened to me, nothing compared
to Heaven. I know who's there now. I know my
daughter is there. She's having the best time. I miss
(32:24):
her here, but I know where she is. And someone's
not gone.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
If you know.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
Where they are, yeah, she's there, not here.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
No goodbyes in heaven, only helloes. So I'm going in now.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
The gate is quite the wall is quite thick, and
I'm emerging in the inside. People are right agree to
me or following me, and I could see thrones high
and lifted up. Wow, awesome, And that's where I wanted
to go. I mean, past the trees of life that
we can eat from in heaven as the river of life,
(33:01):
down the golden Boulevard, to fall at the feet of
Jesus and simply say thank you, thank you for letting
me come, thank you. But I never got a chance.
As I emerged inside, it was taking in all the
incredible things that are inside the gates of Heaven, all
the incredible people who are inside the gates of Heaven.
(33:22):
People didn't help me get there, but the people who
played a role in my spiritual life. Ultimately, people like
Peter and John James, will be able to meet them
and just walk down the streets of gold together and
catch up what's happened to them, sins and what's happened
to me since those people. So I want to go
(33:43):
up there, And suddenly, without any warning, just inside the gate,
it all stopped. I found myself in silence and darkness,
and I wanted to cry out, of course, what's going on?
I just got here. What happened? I couldn't even make
my voice sound. I heard one voice out of the darkness,
(34:10):
but it wasn't in front of me like Heaven was.
It was behind me. It was that man in that
car singing that song. And I was back here. I
didn't know what had happened. I didn't even know there'd
been a wreck. I didn't know who he was. I
got to know him very well preaching the church, actually,
(34:34):
But he was singing, and I was singing with him
because he was trying to keep me conscious. Then I
eventually wound up in the hospital bed. When we had
that picture hospital, yeah there is. I eventually wound up
in the hospital bed. And I promise you, as God
is my witness, I said this every day you would
have said the same thing. Why did you let me
(34:57):
see that and take it away away from me? You
brought me back for this. That's when I said, you
know what godsend? Yes, yes, I brought you back for this.
I brought you back so you could be a hungry
(35:20):
Gian church on a Sunday morning and tell them to
their face, Heaven is real. Heaven is real, Heaven is real,
and Jesus is the way. He's the way. So I
have to say to you to your face, if you've
(35:41):
never given your heart to Jesus, today is today. Make
a reservation today. Do not leave this place today without
having a reservation in heaven. And it's so easy to do,
but it takes everything. All we're asking you to do
in a moment is to walk down here in the aisle,
come to the front, will pray for you. We'll welcome
(36:03):
you into the Kingdom of God. We'll welcome you into
this church. We'll welcome you because you know why we
love you here and we want to love you there.
That's why. Maybe you've drifted away. At one point in
your life. You made a lot of promises to God
that you haven't delivered on. Maybe you've drifted away. Hey,
(36:24):
come home, Come home today. Get away from that life
that you're living now and live the life that He
has in store for you. I mean, I thought I
was living a decent life. I was a pastor before
the truck hit me, but it changed everything afterwards. I
tried to get away from it. I tried to take
the testimony and not bury it, but not make an
(36:45):
issue out of it. I just wanted a pastor at church.
Sometimes God has a different plan for you and you
have to change, so be willing to do that. Maybe
it starts today. For you is to change, be willing
to be used by God, and it perhaps a different
way from the way you are. Whatever God's telling you
(37:05):
to do. Hey, listen to me. Do what Dick on
a record did when God said pray for the man
in the red car. He was obedient and got in
the car and prayed for me. And I'm here. So
obedience is what God is looking for. If you have
(37:25):
to wait until you understand it all, you'll never do it.
You have to come by faith. Come by faith. God
will take care of the rest. And I'm telling you,
if God's in it, you'll like it. He'll be right
for you. He'll be right for you. It may not
be easy, but he'll be right. So that's where we are.
We're at a decision time. So you can do one
(37:48):
of two things. You can pray that everyone else will
make a decision that needs to because you're already prepared.
You're prepared. Heaven is a prepared place for prepared people.
So you're prepared. Pray for those other people who aren't.
And if you're not, come on now, we're going to
help you get ready and we're gonna invite you into
(38:11):
the Kingdom of God. Heaven is prepared for you. Maybe
you need to come home from drifting far away. Whatever
God's telling you to do, you just do it today.
I want to pray for you, and then I'm going
to ask you a stand up and if you need
to come, don't delay. Come immediately so we can pray
(38:32):
for you. Let's pray well. Thank you for what you
have done today in this church. It's always important and
it's always kingdom work. And I pray the Lord that
you will speak to individuals in the church, each one
of them now, and help them ask this question in
their heart. If I were this was the last day
(38:52):
of my life, if my life were to end today,
am I sure I would go to be with Jesus
in Heaven.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (39:01):
If you're sure, pray right now for yourself and the
people around you, the ones who aren't sure. If you're
not sure, then come to Jesus. He'll be the best
decision you've ever made. We'll pray for you, we'll be
with you, we'll be your family. It's a miracle that happens,
(39:22):
but God is still in the miracle business. So come
to Jesus. Give your heart to Jesus. He'll be the
most right thing you've ever done. Maybe you need to
come home. You've justfted far away and you need to
come back to Jesus, and you know you do. Maybe
you need to make a decision today that takes you
from what you're doing to what you need to do.
(39:42):
God is speaking to you very profoundly, and so you
know what you need to do now. Instead of shaking
your fist at God because things haven't gone well, you
need to reach out to others and say, I'll help.
Speaker 4 (39:53):
You, I'll be with you, We'll get this together.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
Whatever God's telling you to do, do like Dick on
the record that in the car, be obedient, don't hesitate,
Just come and God will bless you for it. Let's
all stand together now and we're gonna ask you to
come without delay, come to Jesus. Just leave your seat
right now and come on down. We're taking reservations in
(40:19):
heaven right now. Come on down. You know who you are.
If you're in another room, I guess you can come
over here. Come on, come to Jesus, Come to Jesus.
Speaker 4 (40:31):
You know who you are.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
Come on, come to Jesus, Come on, come on meet.
An attitude of prayer would you just maybe bow your
heads in your heart, but let people out and need
to get out. Come on to Jesus. Come right down
here to the front. We're going to pray for you.
(40:53):
We're gonna pray over you.
Speaker 4 (40:55):
You know who you are.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
Come on, come to Jesus, Heavenly Father. You know what
we need to do. Give us the courage to do it.
Speaker 4 (41:10):
Right now.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
There's someone here, maybe several someonees who are really struggling
with this. They're kind of arguing with God right now,
so learn help them to put that aside and come on,
come on, just come to Jesus.
Speaker 4 (41:30):
You know who they are. They know who they are.
Some have come.
Speaker 3 (41:40):
More need to not because we're interested in numbers, but
because we don't want you to leave here without Jesus
in your heart.
Speaker 4 (41:48):
So here it is.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
Come on, God bless those that have come. God will
use them. Will he use you? Come on, come to Jesus.
I was sixteen when I came. I wasn't planned to
die at thirty eight, but thank God I was ready.
I hope you live a long and meaningful life, but
there are no guarantees. So, young people, if you haven't
(42:15):
made that decision you're thinking about it.
Speaker 4 (42:17):
Today's the day.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
Come on, come to Jesus. Well, God, bless all of
you for coming. We're so honored that you were. Let's
give Let's get these folks a deefre. You know I'm
(42:45):
a little jealous. I'm proud of you when I remember
the day I came down and how meaningful it was
to me, how life changing it was.
Speaker 4 (42:53):
So I'm so happy for you.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
I really am. God bless you. I want to say
a prayer with you, and you can repeat up to
me if you want. And then one of the pastors
is going to come past your ahead, I think, is
going to come and go to our service, maybe give
you some instructions. So let's pray together. You can still come,
go ahead, come on, even if you're coming for a
(43:23):
kind of a rededication or something. Just pray this prayer
with me. Okay, Salvation, Let's pray together out loud, Heavenly Father,
thank you for Jesus, Thank you for his sacrifice on
the cross, because it means I could be.
Speaker 4 (43:42):
Saved, and I want to be saved. I know I'm
a sinner.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
I've done things I shouldn't have done, and I failed
to do things I should have done.
Speaker 4 (43:58):
Forgive me.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
Please forgive me and come into my heart. Wash away
those sins, and help me to live for you. From
this day forward, I want to live as a Christian,
a follower of Jesus. Thank you for saving me. Now
(44:22):
I know where I'm going. I'm going to be with
you someday, but use me until then. Shine a light
on my path so I can follow you because I
want to. I love you, Lord, Thank you for loving me.
(44:45):
I pray this prayer in Jesus' name.
Speaker 4 (44:50):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
Thanks for listening to today's podcast.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
If you are blessed by this message, be sure to
subscribe and send it to someone and again, you can
always share it on your social stories. Stay connected with
us on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. For more information
on internship, prayer line conferences, and other resources, go to
hungrygen dot com.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
Remember better is not good enough. The best is yet
to come.
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