The day I died I saw something.

From the 11:30pm 19 July – 12:00am 20 July 2014 

I wrote about this many years ago and recently decided to share my experience online with others who have had similar encounters because I searched for similar stories and found a few. This is not to change your life or create believers it's for the sake of knowledge and thought-provoking information.

On the 19th of July, I worked at a fitment center where car fumes and tyre dust filled the air, forget not that I am asthmatic and I was a smoker at that time. So on that day I had a tight chest and yet I still smoked both weed and cigarettes even though I knew it was wrong according to my religion 'Christianity'. I would argue with Christian peers over the fact that the bible has no verse for smoking and I was content with the statement that once you become a Christian you are saved for life.  I also believed that saying the sinner’s prayer before I died would get me into heaven but what I saw in my death and what I heard from the Holy Spirit changed my whole perspective. On that day I had a slight flu and my son had a constant cough as well and we made a hospital visitation to my father in-law after his surgery. My son and I went home earlier to take some medication and a warm bath while my wife, her sister, and nephew went shopping.

So after the exposure to so many possible triggers to an asthmatic attack and what could possibly cause it, I don’t know. That night from 10pm my chest felt tight and my son did something to irritate me and the lack of oxygen just made me snap and my emotions caused my asthma to spiral out of control. Immediately my awesome wife did the basics such as switching on the fan to provide more fresh air in the stuffy room, massaging my feet to bring about relaxation, and water to drink. Yet it still became worse and at the moment I told her “call my mother”, not for physical help but for prayer. My wife rather tried calling her cousin and asked her younger sister to call my older sister. My older sister got to our house within 10 to 15 minutes, the average time is 20 - 25 minutes via the highway.

I started saying the sinners' prayer and asking Jesus for forgiveness and making promises of evangelism while walking to the car and sitting in the back seat and waiting for my wife, I passed out. 

WHAT MY SPIRIT SAW

In the 10 minutes that my sister and her husband were traveling to get to us, in those short minutes my wife was trying to resuscitate my dead body. I found myself in a pitch-black environment as my eyes adjusted to the darkness I could see people heads shape against a dim light but not a light, I saw these silhouettes of people next to me and in sudden fear I tried closing my eyes and in my imagination I saw my wife and family in clear tangible vision as though I was not dead, but I knew it was not real because the touch wasn't warm as in emotional warmth. So I open my eyes and stared into the black pit of tormented souls, as though standing on a hill looking over other hills upon hills, I started seeing thousands upon thousands of souls moaning as they came to the realization that they were not on earth anymore.

Dead in the car

Before making the phone call to my sister my wife was busy making a 3 point turn with the car in a small yard. While calling my sister she noticed that I stopped breathing and my body was not moving.

She came to the back seat to apply CPR but foam came out of my mouth, my body pulled stiff releasing all waste matter from urine to feces while my hands and knuckles tighten with an open palm. There was no movement, no response from my eyelids, no pulse, no breathing,  no asthma attack taking place, it all just stopped. My wife attempted heavier compressions to the center point on my chest and punching it. As the final air escaped my lungs through the foam barrier and the sound of groaning and noticing that my body was not moving she tried to apply more CPR.

My wife kept praying relentlessly while applying CPR and just before my sister arrived God gave air back to my lungs. My wife and my sister were arguing about how to drive the car that was stinking of my discharges. As they reached the top of the road the paramedics finally arrived. Instead of moving me over they strapped an oxygen tank to my face and followed the ambulance to the Southrand hospital, when we arrived I stood up as though nothing had happened went to the toilet to clean myself off, and went looking for my family.

My life didn't change but my mindset did.

Many times in my life after an asthma attack I would be weak and frail but this time I was strong as though God has touched me when he breathed new life into me. I thank God that I am married to this woman and we have the kind of love that makes us fight for each other. 

I learned that the sinners' prayer and the belief in Jesus is like a marriage vow, it only works if you live accordingly and can be broken. We as Christians believe we are going to heaven because we tell ourselves so but live horrible and hypocritical lives. Why didn't I see heaven, why did I see a pit of souls and a darkness that made me fear the night for months thereafter.

Now I believe that we are judged by the"intention of our desires". Before we desire it what's our intention, what intention created that desire. Before we act out our desires what's our intention in our action and finally when we do what we do is it for good or selfishness and God will judge us based on all that and more in Jesus.