Transcription
I was just looking in his face and just feeling this absolute flow of power and love and beauty just coming out of him and just totally washing me. Claim it was amazing. Um, and I listened to him. Who are you? And he just said, “I’m the one you call Lord.” And you know, then it hit me—wow, I’m actually sitting with Jesus.
Hey everybody, welcome back to the Everyday Miracles podcast. I’m Julie Hedenborg, and I’m your host. I have a beautiful share for you tonight. I am so excited to be here with you. My guest tonight will be sharing from his book; it’s called *Dying to Be Alive*, and the name on the book is C. Thomas Perry. That’s P-E-R-R-Y. I got mine on Amazon, but he goes by Colin. So we’ll be sharing from this, and Colin is a lover of Jesus Christ. He is a Spirit-filled Christian. I love all the scripture that is laced throughout this book; it really touched me. He’s a father, he’s a musician, he is a PhD and a writer and lecturer and media, and he is in Melbourne, Australia.
In 2008, Colin suffered a heart attack and died briefly. He had a near-death experience. He met Jesus. He met angels. He was given a choice whether he could stay or he could come back. Jesus gave him a gentle warning that we’re going to share tonight, and he also asked him to share his experience when he returned. The insights from this experience are going to bless you. I have been very blessed in reading this and preparing for this interview. So Colin, welcome.
Thank you so much.
Thanks Julie. It’s really good to be with you.
You were a Christian growing up. Do you want to go into your background a little bit, or you want to just go right to the incident?
Yeah, the background is is relevant, I feel. Um, I was brought up at Christadelphian, which is an unusual sort of Christian sect that has a few a few things wrong with the theology, but I was brought up with an extreme love of reading the Bible and understanding the Bible and seeking God. So that was very strong in my life. But this sect was so conservative that as a young teenager I just couldn’t relate to it culturally, and I just rebelled and had to get out of there. Felt imprisoned and, you know, got into the the music world and drugs and the the stuff that was happening in the 1970s. Um, and really lived that life, and I was swinging backwards and forwards between that lifestyle and God and eventually said to myself, “Well, I’m just going to believe in God regardless. I’m going to follow God regardless.” And um, so I went through quite a quite a journey of of living that lifestyle and realizing it wasn’t good and then pulling away from it gradually and going through some pretty horrific experiences with it with the Hamilton burn cult here in Australia. Uh, I went through that and finally have, you know, broken away from that altogether. Was never actually an active member, but they were certainly after me and and chasing me down, uh, which was a very scary part of my life, but not something I particularly want to discuss in detail today. That’s that’s gone so in the past and not not relevant to the story terribly much that I want to tell you today, which is really about what happened to me and and how it’s changed me and changed my life completely.
Yes, so 2008 was when you had your your heart attack. Can you tell us a little bit about that day?
Sure. Well, look, leading up to it, probably probably a week or two in advance, I started to have pain in my chest. It wasn’t what I would have associated with with heart attack pain. I thought it was a lung infection at the time, and I went to see a doctor and told her, you know, “Well, this is where I’m having the pain; this is what it’s like. I think I’ve got a lung infection.” And she said, “Oh, look, we’d better just check your heart to be to be sure.” So they gave me an ECG test, wired me up and shaved bits of my chest hair off, which was quite painful getting the pads back off again, but it uh, basically I had just had to wait for the results, and she said, “Look, just take it easy, just relax and don’t do too much strenuous activity just to be on the safe side until we get these results back.” So I I heeded her advice and and was taking it easy, not doing very much. And um, by the time about a week had gone by, perhaps because I wasn’t doing too much strenuous activity, the pain receded, and I was feeling pretty good, and I thought, “Oh, I don’t think there’s anything too serious with this.” So I decided I looked out the back door at my my yard, the mess it had become, and uh, thought, “No, I really must get out there and do a bit of gardening work.” So I went and got the lawnmower from the garage and tried to start it, and of course, being the stubborn machine it is, it didn’t want to start. So I was I was pulling on the cord and trying to get this thing going, and as I was doing it, suddenly out of nowhere this this massive cramping sensation came across my chest, and I was just boom, hit by it. Uh, it was not so much an excruciating pain as an extreme cramping feeling right across the front of my body, and I knew instantly what was happening because I read enough about heart attacks to know that this this is what it was. So I was I was standing out there in in my yard, and as this happened, I heard an extremely loud voice. I don’t know to this day whether it was audible or not, but it was extremely loud, and it said, um, “You are going to die, but I have things for you to do.” And it was just totally took me aback. It was so loud and it was so strong. So I just stopped, and I I thought, “Hang on a minute, there’s a slight contradiction here. You’re going to die, but I have things for you to do. Which one is it, Lord?” Because I knew very well who was speaking to me. What’s happening here? And he just just spoke to me so clearly. He said, “Go inside, pack yourself a bag, call the ambulance, and just wait, and everything will be okay, and I’ll be with you.” Basically was the the gist of what he said to me. So I did that. I I don’t know if I would have if he hadn’t have spoken to me. I really don’t know. I might have just waited to see how I felt and uh, you know, written it through for a little while, but he said, “No, you go straight inside; you call an ambulance right now.” So I did that, packed a bag. I was able to sort of basically get around and do a few things, although I was still cramping up quite badly then, and then the the ambulance operators turned up quite quickly—five, ten minutes maximum—uh, and uh, one of them was a newbie, one of them was a rookie. It was it was his first day on the job.
Oh my gosh.
Uh, so the the more senior one just said, “Here, you you look after it,” and so he ran through the routine with me, and they gave me nitroglycerin to to lower my heart uh, blood pressure and um and a little bit of morphine just as a precaution that they do in these situations. They said, “We’re not sure whether it’s a heart attack or what’s going on, but we’ll we’ll you know, take the precautions just to see that everything’s all right.” So we um, they loaded me onto the trolley and into the ambulance and off we went, and the young rookie said, “Look, we usually give you a second a second treatment,” uh, so more nitroglycerin and another injection of morphine. And um, as as we were going along, I started to feel disoriented and dizzy and and I said, “I think I’m going to pass out. I’ve passed out before; I know how it feels,” uh, and the next thing I know, darkness—just total darkness. I was still aware, not quite in the same way as I’m aware now, but I was still very aware, much like you are in a dream. I think I still had a sense of myself, but I was just floating in in darkness, and there was just nothing nothing at all—no sensation, no sound. It was as if I was in in water; I felt totally weightless and was just drifting along and being quite aware. It was different to when I passed out in the past because I was aware of what was happening and very strongly aware. And I took a few seconds, and I started to realize, “I think I may have died.” That that realization slowly dawned on me, um, because this is not like anything I’ve experienced before. This is this is very different. So I was floating in this darkness, just just drifting along, and with this realization that I died, it was sort of this this fearful sensation started to rise up in me. It was a mix between relief and fear, to be honest. Like, there were no more bills, no more responsibilities; I’m free. It was it was the way it felt, but at the same time, I also thought, “Wow, why am I in darkness? I you know, I felt like I should be seeing lights or something at this stage.” So I was I was feeling a bit insecure, and as I felt the fear, I started to drift down a little bit, and at this point I still don’t know how this works, but I looked downward, I pointed my attention downward to see where I was drifting to, and I just got this awareness that there was this absolute bottomless black pit beneath me, that that there was just nothing that’s down there. It was just a void, and I really did become afraid at that point in time because I was drifting down into this this nothingness void—not like normal darkness; this was absolute darkness and absolute nothingness that I could sense. Um, and I did not want to go there. So at this point in time, being a believer in Jesus, I just I just cried out with everything I had, “Jesus, help me! Help me!” Um, and and continued to drift, and I continued to gradually drift downward, and I was starting to get quite concerned and kept calling out, “Jesus, Jesus, help me!” And then after a short period of time, uh, this this arm just came down and just grabbed my forearm and just out of nowhere, and and he just said to me, “You don’t want to go that way,” and he started to pull me upwards at an incredible speed. So I was flying up through whatever it was. I don’t know. I could see blurred lights and things going past me. It was a bit like the Star Trek, you know, uh, going going into warp speed or whatever. I I just felt myself moving at an incredible speed upward. Uh, there was still definitely a sense of up and down where I was there, and I was certainly flying upward with with him grasping me very tightly and and pulling me at an incredible speed. Um, this this went on for some time—not terribly long, but for some time—and then we settled and stopped, and I gradually became aware of my surroundings, and it was a sort of a cloudy, dimly lit, but I could I could sense there was a bright light in the distance, but it was it was just quite dim, but but well lit where we were, and I became aware there were probably about six or seven angels standing around in a semi-circle around me and and this one being who would come and grabbed me and pulled me up there. So for a little while I just lay back and just observed them and looked at who they were and just became overwhelmed with this feeling of love. It just started to permeate my whole being. I don’t know if they were like projecting love into me, but or if it’s just what it’s like there, which I suspect the case, and I just felt this delicious, powerful warmth just welling up inside my chest to the to the point that I um, I didn’t feel I could contain it. I felt like I was going to explode with the the power of this love that was within me. It was beautiful. I’ve never experienced anything vaguely close to it. Um, as I say in my book, that the closest thing I can think of is is memories as being a very small child and being loved by your mother and just, you know, husband and adored by your mother and just knowing I am absolutely loved, and that’s the closest thing I can relate it to. So and so I just felt this beautiful warm love, um, and I was lying there for a little while, and um, then the one who came to to grab me came to me and said, um, “Well, you have a choice to make.” I said, “You you can stay here with us, and you can go on to eternity with us in heaven, or you can return to your life, but you have to make this choice.” Um, and he actually said to one of the angels, “Go and check the vessel,” was the words that he used, uh, so one of the angels took off, and I could actually see it flying down, and I could actually see my body in the extreme distance lying in the ambulance, which was pretty strange. I saw this angel go down, and he started moving around my body, and and then I just turned my attention back to this this amazing being. Now I was just looking in his face and just feeling this absolute flow of power and love and beauty just coming out of him and just totally washing me. Claim it was amazing. Um, when I listened to him, “Who are you?” And he just said, “I’m the one you call Lord.” And you know, then it hit me—wow, I’m actually sitting with Jesus. This is unbelievable. Uh, you know, I’m almost into it’s just just remembering the moment, and I was just overcome with with joy and love and all those good emotions, and uh, he just said to me, “Look, you know, you’ve been through some some terribly hard things.” I had my daughter was hit by a car when she was seven. I’d had all these really difficult times with this Colin with my children, and he just said, “I’ve got to come come into you and do some healing.” So I just said, “Yeah, you know, be my guest. Go.” Look, I should explain when I say he said, there are no words. This is not speech as we know it; this is just I felt his thoughts. He knew my thoughts, and the angels, we all knew what each other was thinking. There was no need to speak; it was just this direct communication that was going on, which was really an amazing experience. Anyway, he um, he then I could feel his his presence and his his Spirit just enter into me and go inside me, and I could feel things shifting around in spiritually, mentally. I could feel blockages being opened up; I could feel, you know, strongholds being broken. I could feel all sorts of things being shifted around inside me. It was quite a powerful experience, but but more than that, while he was doing that, I felt this connection and oneness with him, and for a few seconds I was able to perceive what he perceived, just for a few seconds, and um, that that is something I’ll never forget. That that’s just totally changed my life, to know what Jesus sees and what he perceives and just just knowing that feeling that he can tell you what’s under a rock in Africa, and he he can tell you what someone in you know, in Thailand is thinking about at any moment. He had an awareness that just encompassed everything, and just feeling that for a minute, not only in space but time also here. I just knew he he could see through time uh, to wherever he wanted to see. He had the whole universe at his command, and that was really a mind-boggling, deep, profound experience that, as I said, I’ll never forget that moment. That was just so special.
Yeah, that’s about my reaction. I was like, “Wow, whoa.” Uh, so I looked, this this was uh, you know, felt like about a minute or two. He was he was working on me and really did some amazing stuff, whatever he did. I don’t know, but he did some amazing stuff, and I don’t think I’ve quite be in the same sense. And then then he stopped, and he said, “Well, while we’re here, you know, are there other things you want to talk about?” So I sort of like I just sort of said, “What’s what’s happening here? What’s going on?” Um, I still have children; I still have my daughter in a wheelchair because she’d been in a wheelchair for like 20 years. I said, “I just don’t think I can just abandon all of that,” and and there were prophecies over my life that had talked about things I was going to do with my life, and I said, “I just don’t feel my life’s fulfilled. I don’t feel my life on Earth is complete.” And as much as I did not want to go back, I should explain that um, it was so beautiful there. The thought of tearing myself away from that and coming back into my earthly life was not something that was very attractive at all. There is no comparison, people. Uh, if I can just talk about that for a minute. Um, yeah, we all sit here, and we mourn and we weep when somebody we love dies. Don’t they are going to somewhere. If if they are believers, they’re going to somewhere that is just so amazingly good; it’s beyond our imagination. It is it is so wonderful to be there. It is the most blessed and beautiful experience you can imagine. So if you’ve lost someone, if somebody you know has died as a Christian, as a believer, rest assured, this is a merciful, loving God. This is a God that loves you more than you can possibly understand how much he loves you. Um, he wants to help you; he wants you to be with him, and any of your relatives or friends that have that have passed away, you can rejoice. You can just rejoice because they are in the arms of God, and it’s a wonderful place to be. Um, so yeah, I had this I had this choice to make, and um, interestingly, I started to get afraid again at this point because I thought, “I’m leaving all these people behind. My children are going to be freaked out; my children are going to be sad, and this is going to be very difficult for them, and what’s my daughter Rebecca in the wheelchair? What will she do? How will she get through this without me?” Because I was her one parent who was still, you know, in contact with her. And and I got anxious, and I got afraid in that moment, and suddenly there was a shift in the atmosphere, and um, the the angels all all got rather taken aback, and they all gathered around me, and I said, “No, no, we can’t do that here. We can’t have fear here,” um, and they they calmed me using using their spirits, their communication, however it worked, but they calmed me down again and said, “There is no fear in this place,” and they just basically brought me back to that beautiful, peaceful, loving state again, which you know, I now realized they they were the ones bringing that state around in me; they were the ones just emanating that love into me. So I was calmed down again, ah, back in that beautiful loving state again, and um, and then I just said to the Lord, “Look, I really think I do need to go back and be there for these people, for my family,” and um, he started to say to me, “Yeah, I want you to you know, tell people about this. I want you to tell people about where you’ve been and what’s happened and to make it known what happens when you die because people need to hear this. People need to understand this. People need to be able to overcome the fear of death.” Uh, he was explaining these thoughts of things to me, and um, around then this the angel returned, and his words were, “The vessel is good,” which I gather meant my body was okay. I’m sure the Lord had the power to heal my body anyway, but I think he was just seeing what was going on and how everything was happening. So I felt at this stage like I’d been there for about I guess about 15 minutes would have would have been my estimation of the time, and then the Lord just said to me, “Look, there are things you know I need to show you and talk to you about before you go back.” And so I said, “Sure, yeah, yep, tell me. What is it?” And he said, “Um, your choices when you go back will will determine whether you come back.”
Again, to Paradise, or whether you—you don't," he said. "Um, the the choices you make in your life, how you deal with temptation, how you deal with the rest of your life—that is up to you. We can't dictate that for you. You have to make those choices and choose the paths that you walk, and that is the risk you run going back."
And I—I understood that, and I said, "Yeah, like I do understand that," and um, he then showed me things from my future—uh, a few people that I had not yet met that were going to come into my life. And he—he showed me um, things that were yet to happen and—and um—asked me, you know, "Would I be willing to do this? Would I be willing to do that?" Uh, things that I said yes to, which did occur. Um, he showed me the face of somebody who I had met—that I was going to meet—and he said, "You know, you need to be aware of this person." So I—I sort of agreed to everything that he—that he said to me. I said, "Okay, I'll take all of that on board and I'll be very aware of my choices and what I do."
Um, and at that point he sort of turned and said, "Okay, well, it's—it's time to send you back." And I felt myself once again, like, first flying down, then felt myself floating again, as if I was in—in a watery watery substance, and I could see a lot above me as I was floating. And I sort of traveled towards that light, and then suddenly, Bang! I was back in my body again, lying in the ambulance, and the—the poor rookie ambulance operator was—he was standing above me with the two defibrillator pads in his hand, saying, "Ah, you're back with us."
I said to him, "Yeah, wow. I—I've been gone. Feels like ages. Feels like a long time. How long's it been?" And he said—he sort of got a confused look on his face—and he said, "You've only been gone a minute." But I was absolutely stunned at that because I felt like I'd been there 20 minutes, half an hour, that sort of time frame. Um, a lot had happened, a lot had taken place. So the only conclusion I can come to from that is that that there are just two totally different time frames; they're not on the same trajectory at all, and that the time that—as it flows in—in the Heavenly realm is not tied to time as it is here in the Physical Realm. I think they're two very, very different things, and I've come to understand that a lot more since then by reading the word and coming to understand a lot of things about it.
So there I was, um, and the poor ambulance operator—he actually—I didn't have a shirt on—and I said, "Where's my shirt? What's—what's going on here?" And he said, "Oh, look, I had to cut it off for you; it was sopping wet." And I was, "What? Okay." And he had thrown it down in the corner, and I said, "Oh, could you pass it back up?" And he gave it to me, and I said, "This is bone dry. What are you talking about?" And—hey—once again got a very confused look on his face, and he said, "No, that was dripping wet. That shirt was dripping wet." And I was like, "What the heck?" I don't know what had happened there, but maybe—maybe something had bled through from that spiritual realm into the physical. I—I don't know, but that was a very weird—
"I think you were in water, so that's interesting."
"Yeah, I just don't know how that works."
But that was his experience. So this poor guy, he was as white as a sheet. I think he was more freaked out than I was. But look, I need to talk about the experience of coming from the Heavenly realm into my body again, and just the difference that is there between the Heavenly realm and where we live in the world. Um, it honestly felt like I was hitting concrete. It felt like I was just so heavy and clumsy and evil, and all of these things were just such an impressive feeling on me after being where I had been. If I could compare the two, being there is so much more real than being here. I know that's hard to understand when we live here and we live in this physical world, but this is not the reality. This is a very, very poor imitation of what's in the higher Heavenly Realms. Um, it felt more alive, it felt more full, it felt more loving in almost every Dimension that I can describe. There was more goodness, truths—like everything was—was Amplified enormously. And coming back here to this—what we call the normal life—made me realize we are living a partial existence here, that we are really Limited in what we can perceive in this lifetime. And it makes me think—um, when Paul, in—in First Corinthians 13, the very—the very famous verse that everybody reads at weddings—um, he says, "Now we see through a glass darkly"—in other words, we—we get this slightly distorted, furry image of what's going on; we don't really have the clarity—but then, "We'll see clearly. I will know as I am known." And that's very much my experience—that when I was there, I knew them. I could feel what their Spirits were thinking; they could feel what my spirit was thinking, and there was communication. I think that's what Paul had experienced himself, and he said, "You know, I—I will know as I am known when—when completion comes." That's very much what I—what I think is the situation. So we—we are in an incomplete State; we're in this partial State here. We can see through—we get glimpses of the Heavenly and the spiritual; the Holy Spirit helps us enormously with that—but um, it is still only glimpses in comparison to what's waiting for us there—the most amazing, amazing experience that you can possibly imagine.
"Look, I've talked a lot."
"No, you're doing great."
"No, I—I—I don't want to—I want to take it all in. It's beautiful. I—I have never heard—I've been doing this for—this is my fourth year. I don't Focus primarily on near-death experiences, but God keeps sending me specific ones and highlights them to me, which ones to share, and I have not heard from anyone this statement that he told me. It's not a guarantee that you can come back; you know, it's based on your choices and what you do when you go back. And so that—to me—I've always had this feeling, you know, in scripture there's two verses that stand out with this, and—and I've heard experiencers—other experiences—not on my show—it's—it's almost like they just think everyone's going to heaven, and—and it's—well, they know they're going back, and I don't know. I—I just—you're—you're back here; you know, you're still making choices, and—um—there's two verses I hadn't gotten to those, but—uh—what I was going to say is, 'Blessed are those who believe and have not seen.' Okay, so there's that, and there's another verse—I think it's in Luke—'To those who are given much, much is expected.' And to me—um—which I'm kind of glad I'm in the 'blessed and have not seen' category—because I think it's a big responsibility. You've crossed the veil and you've seen what we have not seen, and that is a term that is given much, and—and I do think that what you're doing is—is absolutely the will of God here. So I feel comfortable talking about this with you, but—um—that really jumped out to me in your experience, and I do think that God is using these experiences to draw people to him. I do think he's sending people back with a message, and—and—uh—it's super powerful. So that piece of your experience—and if I just emailed John Burke like two days ago, and then I'm reading this and I'm like, 'Oh my goodness.' So yeah, I thought that was really—that's important."
"Yeah, I love John Burke's book. It's just amazing. It's great."
"Yeah, uh, and that's—there is another really powerful and slightly frightening verse, which is where Jesus—I forget exactly where it is—where he's sitting in judgment, and they—they come to me—and they come to him—and say, 'Um, have we not, you know, given to these? Have we not cared for these?—um—have we not cast out demons? Have we not, you know…' and they list all these things they've done, and he says, 'Go away from me; I don't know…'" So they're Believers—or claiming to be Believers—and he's saying to me—and saying to them—"Go away; I don't know who you are." And that—his method of judgment is how well they've cared for other people, how well they've loved other people. Uh, I—I don't know the exact, you know, measures and the levels; it's for the law to judge those things—but I do think as—as Christians we do have to live our lives in his will. Yeah, and he—he wants a relationship with us. You know, 'I never knew you.' It's not like you didn't do enough, you didn't memorize enough verses, you didn't—'I never knew you.' He wants us to know him and to seek him, you know. So yeah.
"Yeah. So Christianity of going through the motions is—Is Not What It Wants. It's—it's like you say—it's that connection; it's that absolute connection, and that—that's something I felt so strongly and that I've never wanted to let go of. I mean, over the years—we're talking—well, we're talking 14 years ago now that this happened—and it's hard to maintain that—that level of connection living this life—but I always know that feeling. I always know that sensation of the presence of—of Jesus and the Holy Spirit in my life, and I can—I can feel when the spirit comes in. I can—I can feel when Jesus is present, and I know it. It's like knowing someone's about to walk in the door—one of your relatives, you know—uh—and—and that—that is something that is just so valuable. And I mean, look, it comes through things like praying in the spirit; it comes through having yourself open to hearing God speak to you. I can't underline that enough. And as we were discussing just before the interview—um—being able to be still and know that he is God. Now that's a really interesting verse because—um—basically if you look at the psalm this comes from, it's actually talking about the Nations being in turmoil; it's talking about the nation's rebelling and going to war and destruction and chaos, and God's response to it all is, 'Be still and know that I am God.' It's not necessarily about crossing your legs and—and meditating. I mean, it's about—in the face of craziness, in the face of Chaos—pull away from that chaos, calm yourself, be still and know that he's in control and that he's with—and that I think is—is really profound. In the things that are going on inside our minds are just so chaotic quite often, and—um—this is something else I learned when I was there because I was away from my physical brain; I was just a soul; I was just a disembodied soul, and I could feel the difference in that. The brain is this wild, crazy calculating machine that is constantly second-guessing and saying, 'What if?' and 'Maybe this,' and 'Do you need to worry about that?' and this constant dialogue of stuff going on inside our minds that—that is just so confusing and so much in the way of how God wants to communicate to us. Um, and I think just being able to slow that down, put it in its place, and—and listen—listen for that still, small voice of God—I think that's the—the really important part of this—uh, particularly in the world—in the way that we live—our phones, the internet, social media, etc.—I mean, just put it down; give your brain and your soul some space to just have some time to just listen to what he wants to say to you. I mean, he can blast through the chatter, believe me, but he wants us to be the ones to take that step of giving him the space inside us to inhabit—to—to communicate with us—to influence us—to work on us—and—and if we don't give him the opportunity and the place to inhabit within us—which is—I think that's what he means when he says, 'Open up the door and I'll come in.' You know…
"Yes. I—I think that's what we've got to do—make space for Jesus inside ourselves to actually have an influence in our lives."
"That's good. And I know when you—when you first came back—there's so much—I'm so excited to cover on this whole topic—but I just know people are wanting to hear the rest of your experience. Uh, we are going to talk about how the Kingdom of Heaven is within us; you don't have to die to have an experience with Jesus quite yet—and maybe not exactly the same level of experience—but we're going to get there. But I know when you first were in the hospital—you didn't—when you crossed the bill and came back—there was still some activity—like I think you were able to have—you could hear the angels; you were aware of some things that you were kind of—I don't know if you had one fit in—or if—once you cross that—when you come back—you have a different awareness. Um, can you talk a little bit about that?"
"Sure. Yeah, that was a very strong and very noticeable—it was—although I had come back—that it was like the veil was still drawn apart. I could sense—every now and again—I could just sense their presence. I think they were literally coming into the hospital room and keeping an eye on me. Um, but I could hear clearly what they were saying. And one—one of the things that happened was—was—well, you were—you were going to meet this person that the Lord had told me about, and a voice said to me, 'This person is within one kilometer of where you are lying right now.'"
"Oh, okay. Wow. Wow."
"Um, so I thought, 'All right, I'll take that on board.' Sure enough, a couple of weeks later I met up with someone who lived 800 meters from that hospital, and we went on to have, you know, quite a close relationship for many years. Uh, but that was—just to me—that was just this proof that the—these angels and the Lord were just still communicating with me in a way that I couldn't understand. It was way beyond my comprehension, but they were telling me the future; they were telling me what was going to happen and things that were going to occur. Um, more interestingly than that was a very clear voice said to me, 'Look—look, you have—you know—blocked arteries.'" And the doctors were telling me this, and—and this Angelic voice said to me, "We have healed—I think he said—we have healed three, but there's one we will not—or can not—cannot—but will not heal." Uh, and I said, "Okay." And I've thought about this a lot ever since and thought, "Why on Earth would they not heal this—this artery?" And I—I've realized if that had not have happened, if they had not have left that artery blocked, I would have been told, "No, you didn't have a heart attack. I would have been told, 'No, you're fine; off you go,' and they would have been absolutely no basis for—for my whole testimony to come out because it would have just been a case of—nothing wrong with you, mister; you're just imagining things." Wow. And I realize now, yeah, that—that's why they chose not to heal this one last artery. And interestingly, when—when the doctor came and spoke to me—and he's the head of the cardiac department at this hospital—and he came and spoke to me and he said, "Um, you're a very lucky man. He said, 'Most men of this age—I was 49 at the time—he said, 'Most men of this age when they have this sort of heart attack, they're dead and they're gone. That's it; there's no—no coming back; it's—it's very instant and very sudden.' Uh, and he said, 'But you're very lucky. It appears you—maybe you've had a heart attack in the past, and that you're one of those lucky people who has been able to divert the flow around the blockages into other arteries, and your body's managed to do this.'" And then I realized, "Oh, you have healed three." Okay. And I realize that's probably what had happened; they just changed the—the arteries—changed the flow of the blood in my heart, and that was—that was the healing they'd given me. Um, but this one was still—still very blocked, and they did put a stent in my heart at that point and—um—you know, tested and made sure, yes, I had definitely had a heart attack and—uh—you know, validated all that had happened to me.
"Yeah, that's interesting. I guess you're right; if there was nothing there… yeah, I could see how people might discount it. So that's—there's a perfect plan—just like we read that he has—"
"I know with your daughter there was a special moment with your daughter, and—uh—I know you went through a lot with—with her situation, but can you share the blessing in all of it?"
"Yeah, look, it's—it's—um—such a—a sad, sad experience I had with her. And look, a lot of people who have these NDAs do have extreme difficulty and extreme sadness in their—in their life, and I wonder if it's not God's sort of balancing up The Ledger for them a little bit and saying, 'Here, have a little—have a little encouragement; have a little taste of what's to come.' Um, yeah, my daughter was—she was hit by a car when she was seven years old and had profound brain injury, mostly in the brain stem, which controls physical movement. Um, her skull was just shattered; it was completely broken into pieces—the poor kid. Uh, so she had her awareness very strongly—let's use a big personality—but she couldn't move efficiently. So the best she could do was use her left hand to point up or down or make a few little signs; that the left hand was basically all she had decent control over. So she was stuck in this existence in a wheelchair where she was fully alert but just couldn't properly communicate. She did an amazing job, mind you, of communicating her emotions and her feelings just through her voice; she couldn't speak. Um, yeah, so that was—that was a difficult, difficult time for—well, it was—it ended up being 21 years she was in a wheelchair, and then she finally passed away, age 29, which was due to—well, her weakened condition—and that was the time of the swine flu, so she actually developed the swine flu, which very quickly turns to pneumonia and filled their lungs, and—and she just died as a result of that. But—um—that was prior to the time of her—her having this wine through—probably about six months prior to that—after I'd had my experience—I sat with her; she was visiting me at my house, and I just sat with her and I said, 'Rebecca, I've had the most amazing experience,' and I basically went through and gave an abbreviated version of what I've just told you about, and she became just so excited; she was squealing with excitement, and—and she started pointing to herself like this, and I just thought, 'Oh my goodness, you were in a coma for three months; you were unconscious for three months. Were you with Jesus?' And she's going, 'Yes! Yes! Yes!' And telling me, you know, that—that's what she'd been through; she'd been through the same sort of thing. So that—for me—was just amazing because I'd been so afraid for her in this time—she was lying in hospital bed for three months—just—just unable to move—only an eyelid flicker here and there—and—um—eventually she became conscious—but to know that—that she'd been with the Lord all that time was just so touching and so beautiful. And then—um—you know, when it—when it came time and when she was actually on her deathbed and taking her last breaths, I—I was able to just sit with her and say—look around the eye—and say, 'Becks, you don't have to be afraid.' I just took a hand and said, 'You don't have to be afraid; you know exactly where you're going. You and I have both been there.' And I could just see all the fear just drained out of her face, and she just—you know—nodded her head slightly, and she—she passed away a few minutes after that—not long after that—but I just knew, you know, that was just such a comfort for me and such a comfort for her to know that—where she was going and exactly what was going to happen.
Just how good it truly was. There, oh wow, what a blessing. What a blessing. And although I was, you know, devastated and sad at the same time, I had this very deep knowledge of where she was and that it was okay, that it’s all right. I could, you know, had the little visions of her being with the Lord and being happy and being able to walk and being able to do all the things she couldn’t do in her life, and it was just such a comfort to me to know that that was where she was situated. Yeah, amazing, beautiful.
And I would love for you, um, to talk a little bit about—I think it’s chapter eight—where you get into the Kingdom of Heaven is within you. I think it’s so beautiful, the part, the things that you took away from this experience. And what do you feel Jesus wants you to share with us? What do you think He wants us to say, or to you?
Yes, yes, certainly. Look, um, the Kingdom of Heaven is within you is is a direct quote from Jesus. It’s uh, it’s what He was telling everyone. And it says when He preached, when it says He went around preaching, the Kingdom of Heaven is has drawn nigh now. And I think He was talking a time frame, because the Kingdom of Heaven still ain’t here, and it’s 2,000 years later. In in a literal sense, He was talking about its Drawing Near; it’s coming close to you. The veil is growing thin; it’s it’s coming through and bleeding through into this world. That’s, I believe, what His meaning was. The Kingdom of Heaven is accessible to us in this world. The Kingdom of Heaven is open to us in this world. Um, and I think, look, there’s a lot to be learned from the from the scriptures. It’s not just a book you read; it’s an unfolding manual on everything in the universe, really. That the Bible is an incredible document, uh, and I love going back and looking at the visions of Ezekiel and Isaiah and of course the Revelation, and and just seeing this thing: I was in the spirit; I was in the spirit, and I saw this, that. Ezekiel actually runs through these these different levels. There’s Wheels within wheels, and there’s creatures up here, and then there’s this throne room up there. He takes us through the layers of Heaven that Paul talks about, the third heaven, and it’s it’s just an amazing complex multi-dimensional Universe, Multiverse that we live in. Um, and it’s not as if these things are isolated from us. If we can put the effort in, I know Elijah ran the school of prophets in the Old Testament; they learned these things; they learned how to become aware, and I I believe they actually learned how to go through into the spirit and have these visions. Paul, Peter, all of these people knew about this, and this is something I’m sure the Lord taught them while He was with them.
Um, remember when Peter was let out of the prison and he came and he knocked on the door, and the young girl says, “Ah, oh, it’s Peter at the door,” and ran in and said to the others, “Peter’s at the door.” They were like, “No, he’s not.” Their response was, “No, it’s just his spirit.” Okay, now, now let’s stop; let’s think about that. What sort of a response is that if that has never happened before? What sort of response is that, right? This is something they knew about. This is something they knew about that Peter’s Spirit would turn up. And you think about things like Philip with the the Ethiopian and how it says afterwards, “He was then taken and was found here.” It’s like things were going on in the spiritual realm that these these people knew about very well. Paul talks about, “And I can see you in the spirit; I can see what you are doing in the spirit.” And I believe, you know, we we sort of gloss over this and don’t really look at it and don’t really think about it, but I I believe there’s this whole spiritual realm that our Spirits can enter into, and this is what Visions truly are, that that we can open ourselves up to that spiritual realm. We can operate and function within that spiritual realm; we can go places and see things in our Spirits through the Holy Spirit of God. I’m not talking astral traveling; that’s an entirely different community. No, this is—I was going to clarify this—some people might think, “Is this new?” This is all biblical, and you know it talks about gifts of the Spirit and the Bible and uh…
Yeah, you’re doing great. I just want to clarify that. But yeah, I’m with you. I want to be sure to draw that distinction.
Yeah. And Jesus, when He walked up to Nathaniel and He said, “I saw you when you were sitting under the Fig Tree,” and Nathaniel said, “Wow, you’re the Christ,” and He said, “You think so, just because I’ve told you that… uh, you’ll see bigger things than that.” But that was an example Jesus was showing us where His awareness—He could just go and see somewhere else and be aware of that now. But that the reason I’m talking about this is that it I think is the Practical outcome of letting the Kingdom of Heaven Come into us. And I believe if we can learn how to do this, the the things like healings and miracles, signs and wonders, will just proliferate, because it’s opening what I call a portal. It’s like that Gap in the vowel; it’s opening a portal; it’s allowing ourselves to have the River of Life just flow into us from heaven. And that I think is one of the highest things as Believers, as Spirit-filled Christians, that we can that we can do is is to be vessels for God, vessels for His presence and vessels for His spirit, so that we just enable this flow from Heaven into us, out into the world. Um, that’s what I believe Jesus was saying when He said the Kingdom of Heaven is within you. Uh, and also, look, I’m just feeling LED in the spirit to talk about this: the Heavenly Temple. Like we we have these multiple dimensions of the Temple. One is the temple that was in Jerusalem, the physical Temple set up for the worship of God, and then there’s the the Heavenly Jerusalem with the temple within it that is in the heavens. But then He also says, “This Temple within you—are the temple of God. You are built together into the temple of God”—and that exists within us. Like we are the building blocks of God’s temple on Earth. And um, I don’t think any one of us can say, “I am the entire Temple,” but I’m a small part of the temple is within me. And this is to do with just Allowing God to to show us things, to be open. And there’s quite a section I spend in the book talking about where Jesus—and it’s a quote from Isaiah—um, He talks about they they could not see, they could not hear, and and they they, you know, were removed from from God. And then it says, “But if they came and followed Me, they would see, they would hear, or they would come to know Me.” And it very much ties in seeing and hearing and knowing God and being being unified with God, uh, and actually sort of talks about the direction that works. And interestingly, the first stage in this is seen—is having spiritual eyes opened. And I think this is dreams and visions that we we need to just pray for God to just give us dreams and visions that He can show us things in the spirit.
Yes. Yeah. And that I think is the very first step of what God can do to us, to transform us. Then He talks about hearing—that’s when our ears are opened, our spiritual ears are open to hear His voice—and that is I think a slightly higher step, a step that’s a bit closer where God can actually speak to us and we can hear Him and and know what it is that He’s saying to us. And then the final step is is to be truly unified with Him, and I think that’s that’s like the throne room level; that’s that’s knowing God’s presence right deep down inside our lives. Um, and that’s like a Stairway—think about Jacob’s Ladder—this is this is where it all comes from. And I believe what what Jacob was showing was this ascending levels towards the Throne of God. And God seriously wants us to be one with Him; He seriously wants us to be aware of this and to allow this to flow into our lives.
Yes, yes. Now I love what you talked about, too. You know, there are things that can block us from these gifts, and if we’re holding something in our hearts, like looking—you know, I’ve asked God before, you know, “I think I think I’m not holding on to forgiveness,” but like I’ll ask Him, you know, “Search My Heart, Lord, show me,” and like a day or two later, or some—a face will pop in my mind, and it’s like, well, I say I’ve forgiven, but I’m having these thoughts. I’m like, “Oh,” and I just ask Him, “Lord, can You help me with that?” You know, He will reveal things to you. It may not be immediately, but if you pray and you seek, um, that’s really powerful. And you talk a lot about faith and believing. You know, in His hometown, you mentioned that that’s that’s a verse—you know, He couldn’t perform Miracles because people had no faith. You know, so if you need to—there’s there’s so many things that you cover; it’s so rich. I wish we had time for all of it. Um, there’s one sentence that I love that I just want to read, and I this really resonated in my spirit. Um, you wrote on page 123, “I believe that God is calling us now to break out of the shackles of the physical life and begin to see beyond into the Heavenly realm. He’s calling us to higher places where the limitations of our Earthly thoughts can no longer Hold Us Down. Belief is the key that opens the door. Faith is the motivation that carries us Across the Threshold. Trust is the assurance that we are welcome in this house. Jesus is the doorway which we enter.” Oh, amen.
Yes, I love that. So someone’s listening right now, and maybe they’re at a point in their their faith walk or they want to get started, and they don’t even know really where to begin. And you’ve talked a little bit about, you know, open your eyes and open your ears and um, but what are some practical things that they can do just to to start examining them themselves and and and seeking Jesus? What is what are the first things they need to do?
Look, I think the first thing to do is—look, I love church; church is great; I love going to church; it is wonderful. But you need to bring it into your being and you need to bring it into yourself and not rely on church to do the work for you. One of the ways—I love reading the Psalms and the prophets and the gospels and just making that a part of your daily ritual that you do—to read every day. Read—there’s actually Research into this, and it’s amazing the difference in a person’s life when they have a daily reading habit. The things that happen in their life are very different indeed to those who don’t. Um, look, that’s that’s step one. But step two is—how do you pray? How do you pray? Is your prayer, “God, I want this. God, I need this. God, do this for me”? Is that the content of your prayers? There’s nothing wrong with that, but if that is that the sole content of your prayers, then there’s a whole realm of prayer that you’re not entering into, which is adoring Him, which is honoring Him, which is lifting Him in the higher Place. What’s the first words of the Lord’s prayer? “Our Father in Heaven.” “Hallowed be Your name,” and just recognizing His greatness and having that in your prayer life and feeling it with your emotions. God doesn’t want us to have mental, intellectual prayers; He wants us to have heart-felt prayers. That’s where it really starts to work is when you open up your heart to God. Um, so don’t don’t ever think you can just go through the motions of being a Christian; it means nothing. You actually need to feel every step of the way with your heart, your mind, your body, and your soul. That’s that’s I think how you start to head in this direction. And then spend some time with your eyes closed talking to God and listening—just listening in the silence to what He has to say to you. And be prepared—it comes in as a thought, and at first you might think it’s your own thought, that when you actually listen, then analyze what’s being said, you realize, “No, this is coming from Beyond me, and this is this is a higher being, a higher love, speaking into my life.” So make the space, make the time, dedicate regular times to doing this. Trust me, God will speak into your life if you honor Him, give Him the space and the time to talk to you. He will He will do so.
Beautiful, beautiful. Yes, surrendering and praying that way is is awesome, and it does require some intentionality, you know, and making that time. And and I’m not always perfect with that either. Um, but one of the things I wanted to add, too, that I I’ve started doing recently to help me with dreams, um, and this might help someone out there—I asked God, you know, “Speak to me. Am I—would You speak to me in my dreams?” And it’s really hard, but when you wake up, you need to have like a notepad, or my friend uses her phone, the memo thing where she can speak into it, but right when you wake up, you gotta write down what you can remember from your dream. And it may feel bizarre, but you would be surprised what is coming and the things that are coming out. And when you’re talking to other believers who are who are asking for dreams and writing their dreams down, there’s a friend of mine—we’re having the same type of dream; we’re finding things in scripture; it’s like, “Oh my goodness, this is this is not a ‘me’ dream; this is a message,” and and it it points some to what you just—what I just read. I do think we’re living in an exciting time right now, and there’s a lot of things that God—He wants us to step up and and just come to Him, so um… yeah, so this has been amazing.
Is there any other message that you want to leave listeners with? Uh, just think on on the note of the exciting times we’re living with and dreams. I should just tell you about a recurring dream God sent to me just just last year or a couple of years ago, about the time Covid started, actually. Um, He sent me a whole series—there was five, six, seven dreams, very very powerful dreams—and and I was standing by the coastline, and massive, massive tsunami tidal waves were coming towards me, like huge, huge—I couldn’t fathom how big they were—and it was frightening, and yet they would break, and they would just be froth at my feet, and they didn’t cause me any damage. And then another one would come, another one, and the same thing would happen. And this stream recurred a number of times. Um, and and one time there were several of them, and then there were smaller waves going backwards and forwards in between, but these massive big tidal waves. And I just—when I was awake, not in the dream—I said, “Lord, please explain this dream to me. I want to know what this is about, because it’s happened so many times, and it’s so powerful.” And He said to me, “There will be three waves.” He said, “The first wave is pandemic; the first wave is pestilence.” And He said, “Just when that wave has settled down, there’ll be another wave, and that wave will be Warfare.” He said, “There will be war, that large-scale war.” Um, and then He said, “That will go on for a while,” and then He said, “Once that has settled down, there will be another wave, and that will be massive natural disasters on a scale that the Earth has never seen.” So so this is what He said to me, and I mean it’s it’s a scary message, but we know it’s in the Book of Revelation; we’re told what’s going to happen; we know what’s coming up. But He but He said to me, “That’s that’s what’s going to come upon the Earth.” And we’ve experienced that first wave of of the pestilence, you know, with Covid. Um, now now Warfare is starting to emerge, and I can say, “Okay, Lord, this is going according to what You told me.” So I just thought I should get that out there and talk to people. But don’t be afraid; the Lord has it in hand, and the Lord will protect us through this, and the Lord will return.
Yes, at the end of all of these Cycles, the Lord will return to bring…
Yeah. And I think this is the perfect time to refer back to the verse that you talked about that in the Bible: “Be still, and know that I am God.” In the middle of all the chaos, I have felt that in my spirit—just keep focused on Me, keep focused on Me, not the waves, you know, uh, because it is it’s definitely a crazy time, but it’s also, like I said, an exciting time. So thank you so much, Colin, again. Um, your book—for anyone listening that wants to check it out—it’s *Dying to Be Alive*, C. Thomas Perry, P-E-R-R-Y. Just want to mention that again. And I got mine on Amazon, but it’s a beautiful book, and I loved I loved it; it’s absolutely beautiful. So thank you for sharing this experience today. Is there any other place if people wanted to reach out to you? Do you have a web website or any other resource that you want to share?
I have a Facebook page, um, C. Thomas Perry author page. So you can look up C. Thomas Perry and and send me, you know—or I generally tend to put the links to these these podcast interviews up there so people can refer it to their friends or whatever. Um, but yeah, you can communicate to me through that; send me a message. Sometimes I’m able to get back to you; sometimes I’m not, depending on the workload at the time.
I understand. Would you mind praying over our listeners on the way out?
Look, absolutely. I’d love to. Yeah, sure. Dear Lord, thank You, thank You so much for Your love and Your goodness, the light that You shine through the whole universe. Lord, I just want to thank You and just put You in the highest Place. Jesus, Son of God, Lion of the tribe of Judah, we absolutely adore You, and we just want to dedicate Our Lives to You, Lord. If there’s anyone out there sort of in that swaying place of not being sure, Lord, I just pray You just touched their hearts; I pray You just reach down, touch their heart, open their eyes, open their ears, let them hear Your voice, Lord God, and bring them close to You, Lord. We love You, Lord; we thank You for all Your goodness, all Your mercy, all Your grace, which give You thanks; we give You praise, and we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen. Amen. And I just want to add on to that, Lord, I just pray blessings over Colin as well. We know that You’ve sent him back with work to do, Lord, and I just pray that You would bless everything that he’s doing and that his message would would keep going and just bless many people and bring them to the kingdom, Lord, in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Amen.
Okay, wonderful. I was just looking in His face and just feeling this absolute flow of power and love and beauty just coming out of Him and just totally washing the claim; it was amazing. Um, when I listened to Him—who are You? And You just said, “I’m the one You call Lord,” and you know, then it hit me, “Wow, I’m actually sitting with Jesus.”
Wonderful. Thank you for listening today. If you have a miracle or a testimony you’d like to share with me, please reach out to me at everydaymiraclespodcast@gmail.com. I have a lot of people emailing me right now; it’s wonderful, so just give me a little time, and I’d love to get back to you. Thank you so much. God bless. Together.