Every morning it is
like Easter at my house. It has not always been this way though. I had to die
to learn how to live. I died for 28 minutes, and it was during this death
experience that I learned how to live. I had never been sick before this time.
I was on vacation. I was having a great time with my mother and dad, my kid
brother Gary, my husband, and my six- year- old Brenda. The first night I
experienced a pain in my right side. For someone who had never even had a
headache up to that time, I began to suffer excruciating and uncontrollable
pain.
After I began to
vomit and hemorrhage they rushed me to a little beach hospital. I was
transferred to another hospital and had an operation on my abdomen. The doctors
discovered that I had developed peritonitis. After the operation I lapsed into
a coma which lasted for the greater part of 44 days. I had two further
operations.
During this comatose
period I went through a wonderful learning process. I prayed most of the time,
although I was unconscious and could not speak or respond. I still prayed in my
heart, and I understood everything that was going on around me. I remembered
all of the conversations that were spoken in my room, and I have written them
in my book My Glimpse of Eternity. Another wonderful thing happened in this
room. I heard music all the time as I lingered near death. I shall always
remember two of the songs that I heard constantly echoing in my mind, and in
the chambers of my heart. I heard singing 'The old account was settled long
ago'. How thankful I was that at the age of 13, I had settled my account with
sin. I had decided to invite Jesus be the Lord of my life, forgiving me of my
sins, and experienced the new birth. Another song that I heard constantly was
the same man singing 'I have been born again'.
God used very
ordinary people to bring about some extraordinary experiences in my life. I was
a proud, haughty young woman whom God could not use up to this time. Through
this suffering, and 44 days of unconsciousness, I underwent a complete overhaul
of personality. Ordinary people came into the room. I always remember Aunt
Gertrude coming. She did not know that unconscious people hear, but she took me
by the hand and very positively prayed for me. She talked with me about the
flowers at home, read my cards, and the little notes that were on my flowers
that had been sent to my room. She brought a little bit of the outside world
into that hospital room.
Another wonderful
person who ministered to me was Uncle Jesse. He was a brake man on the
railroad. One day coming home from work he said he felt a very firm desire to
come to the hospital to see how I was doing. He initially thought he should go
home and shower first. He then felt God impressed him not to delay, but to go
to the hospital right then. On arrival he learned that I desperately needed
B-negative blood. When they tested Uncle Jesse and typed him, he had B-negative
blood. I received a direct transfusion, which I urgently needed.
Another person who
ministered to me was a man in our neighborhood who used pitiful English, and I
whom considered ugly. I did not like him. I did not like his looks, and he did
not know how to dress. He had a radio broadcast that I never cared for. I used
to turn the broadcast off whenever it came on. This man violated the 'No
Visitors' sign and came into my hospital room, not knowing that I could hear in
this unconscious state. He came to the foot of my bed. Hearing a man's
footsteps I thought it was my husband, John, who came several times a day. Or
perhaps it was my father coming to sit beside me in the squeaky leather chair
to pray for me, or just to whisper praises of worship, and bless the name of
Jesus. But it was not my father. Suddenly I recognized the voice of Art, the
man that I had never liked. My immediate reaction was to try to regain
consciousness, to use the call button, and to call a nurse through to ask him
out. After all I could not stand the man when I was well, let alone when I was
sick. But Art did not leave because God was working on my pride. God had me in
a corner where I could not manipulate the situation. Art began to read, and I
began to listen. He read Psalm 107:20 to me, 'He sent His word and healed them
'. Suddenly I realized that this ugly man had been a wonderful instrument, and
played sweet music to my dying soul. I latched on to the hope of this word that
he had read me, 'He sent His word and healed them'. I began to have faith that
I might be healed. Art left, and I determined that, if I did live, I would
apologize and tell him how much I loved him for bringing that word of life and
hope.
In the days that
followed I almost gave up. On two occasions I had to be resuscitated. Then I
developed pneumonia with a high fever. At the end of this forty-four day
period, when pneumonia raged, the outlook seemed very poor to my husband, my
father and my mother. So they all went home to prepare themselves for my
funeral and burial.
After they all left
I felt as if I had suddenly got on a roller-coaster. When you hit that peak,
that topmost point on the ride, I felt as though this was what had happened to
me. When that sudden lurch came I realized that this was death. It was not frightening,
and if it was death, it was very sudden. There was no fear, for death was just
changing locations from this place to the other.
I had always been
very tall, and it had become a phobia that haunted me all my life. Suddenly
that was gone. I began to stand tall and erect, realizing that, in the place to
which I had come, there were no complexes. I stood to my full height realizing
that, in spite of three operations and forty-four days of tubes into my
stomach, that I was well and strong. I was walking through a beautiful meadow
of waving grass, the strands of which were like green velvet. As I walked in my
bare feet, life, health and vigor began to come into my body. It was outdoors,
and the climate was like forever spring. What a joy to learn that Heaven was
not sitting on a damp cloud playing a harp. It was not wall to wall church,
because there was no need for the church here. I realized I was in the living
presence of the Son of God, and we would worship Him forever.
As I walked up a
hill I became aware that I was not alone. To the left, and a little behind me,
was a tall angel clad in a transparent garment of white. I saw his very capable
masculine hands, and a masculine face with a knowing look. I realized that the
angel had always been there from the day that I had found Jesus. I had never
known it, because I had never needed him until now. Walking along we talked
with our 'think'. There was no need for conversation because, just by wishing,
we understood each other. We could go from Earth to the galaxies of space, and
to the gates of Heaven where, as we approached, I heard the most beautiful
singing. As we reached the gates there was melodious and harmonious sounds of
music coming over the wall. Suddenly I heard voices whose singing I cannot
describe, and I began to sing with them in a way I have never been able to do
before or since. Standing there I understood all of the languages of the world.
The Scripture verse in I John 3 became alive to me, 'When we see Him, we shall
be like Him for we shall see Him as He is'. He understands all of the languages
being spoken all the time around the world. In His presence, I was like Him,
and I understood the other languages.
Approaching a most
majestic gate of solid pearl, the angel touched it. It severed in the center.
When it opened and I stepped inside I saw and felt light such as I cannot
describe. Vivid yellow light, so dazzling and bright that I could not look into
it. I began to strain to see where it was coming from. I believe I looked
directly into the throne room of God the Father, for seated on His right hand
was Jesus, the Son of the living God. I was trying to see His face, which
caused a brilliant light to be reflected onto a golden boulevard. When I did,
the light and the warmth of His face went directly through me, and I was
healed. My past whirled rapidly before me. The present became very wonderful
and real, and the things of the future unfolded. In that 28 minute period I
learned so much that it will take many books to write it.
I began to look
around. In that light I began to see shafts of direct light ascending from the
Earth, directly joining that great light in the throne room. The light in the
throne room is the source of all energy, all creativity and all power. It
occurred to me that I had seen the other end of prayer. I cannot describe what
followed except in great detail, and so have written a book, Prayers that are
answered in which I describe this. As I saw the direct shafts of light
ascending from the Earth, the reality occurred to me that they were the prayers
of people on Earth ascending to the great light in the throne room. God could
answer, either by the powers of almighty Heaven, or by angels, or the armies of
God. We have to realize that in the midst of battle we need not be dismayed,
for the powers of the armies of Heaven are at our command when we pray. What
made me realize this was that, on one shaft of light, I saw my father's voice
being registered. In my book I describe this as a 'The One Word Prayer'. My
mother and father had been summoned to the hospital room by the head nurse to
tell them that I had died. My father arrived there first. He walked over to my
body, with the equipment removed, and the sheet covering me. He said that all
he could think of to say was to breathe one word of prayer for himself, asking
God through this prayer to give him strength to break the news to my husband.
He also prayed for my daughter, Brenda, who would be very distressed when she
heard the news that her mother had died. The only word that my father could
speak was 'Jesus'. I saw it, and I heard it. There is power in the name of
Jesus. It is sufficient. In that one word prayer was a wish that I had not
died. I saw it and felt it. I thought I would never want to leave that place,
but the power of my father's prayer breathed in the form of a wish, 'Jesus,'
healed me and changed my mind. Now I desired to follow his prayer and to come
back.
As I came back down
the hill I had walked up, I looked through the roof of the hospital and saw
down through the floors and into the room where my body was covered with a
sheet. As I came closer I saw a direct shaft of the sunrays coming through the
glass into my room. The sun was shining on my body, and suddenly I felt as
though I had gone in an elevator and had hit the bottom floor. There was a
sudden lurch sensation of inertia and I felt my body begin to warm and I
touched the sheet. In the center of that shaft of light, I saw ivory letters
about two inches coming towards me. I remembered what Art had read, 'He sent
His word and healed them'. When I looked closer I saw these ivory letters were
the printed word of God from the Bible, John 11:25, the words of Jesus, 'I am
the resurrection and the life and He that believes on me though he were dead,
yet shall he live.' I knew as that word was coming towards me it would heal me,
and Art's prayer became reality. I touched the word, pushing the sheet off my
face and, reaching out, I grasped those letters pulling them into my arms and
then sat up. Within two days I went home from the hospital.
The doctor coming
into my room was overwhelmed. The nurse ran down the corridors saying, 'It's a
ghost!', she was so frightened. My first thought was that I wanted to call my
grandmother who had been dying for the past year. When I called her I did not know
that my mother had already called her to tell her I had died. So when I called
I shocked her, because she thought that if I was dead then she must have died
too. Finally my father got on to her and said, 'Betty is back, we don't know
what has happened, but she is very much alive and sitting up'. In the following
moments I begged for a drink and for food. I was given some 7 Up on crushed
ice, and tray on which were two pork chops and a full meal. I ate it all.
I have perfect
vision, and have suffered no depression. Since then I have had a perfect baby
daughter, no drug withdrawal problems, no colostomy, all of my plumbing works
perfectly well, and I have no brain damage. I have written books that have
helped many people. I went home in two days happy for a second chance to live
again. A second chance to love people again.
My healing was a
great miracle, but even greater was the miracle that I returned with a
different attitude, and with a great love for people. Through the telling of
this story many people have experienced the love of Jesus and experienced the
greatest miracle of all, that of sins forgiven.
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