Pulled Back From The Edge - The Testimony of Greg Merrifield

Darkness filled the room, his body hit the floor, and he was certain he was dying. Greg Merrifield tells us about the night drugs pushed him past the edge, when he believes he left his body, heard chains, saw angels coming for him, and finally cried out for mercy to Jesus. It’s an unfiltered Christian testimony that doesn’t tidy up the past, because the point is the rescue and the warning.

We walk through Greg’s childhood with little church background, the family upheaval that fed his anger and addiction, and the crimes that landed him in courtrooms and jail cells. He shares the moment he prayed on his knees behind bars, then watched events shift in a way he sees as God’s intervention. After the near-death experience, two Bible passages hit him with force, Jude 6 and 2 Peter 2:4, and he describes living for years with fear of dying again until he finally starts building real faith through church, Scripture, and new people.

The conversation also turns to relapse and a second crisis in 1998 that sounded like a cerebral haemorrhage, followed by what Greg believes is a miraculous healing. From there, we get intensely practical about addiction recovery, repentance, spiritual warfare, and why community matters: come out from among the people who pull you back, get grounded in the Word of God, and find a Bible-believing church that teaches repentance instead of hype.

If you know someone who’s backslidden, battling addiction, or wondering whether God still wants them, this one is for you. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review with the line that challenged you most.

Transcript

Welcome And Meet Greg

SPEAKER_00 0:28

God bless you and thank you for tuning in to Blossoms of My Life Radio. I'm excited today to be able to introduce a brother in Christ. His name is Greg Merrifield. He was born in Texas. He's currently residing in San Benito County here in California. He's a retired truck driver. He's been walking with the Lord now for 20 plus years. He is here today to share his testimony on dying and leaving his body. Just his testimony is profound on the things that God has done. And I know Greg because he comes to church where I go to church and so with Pastor Carmen. And so I'm excited to be able to have some time just to be able to share his story. So, Greg, how are you today?

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Oh, pretty good. Good.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

I'm glad. All right, Greg. I know we've been talking about writing a book or doing whatever, but today we're gonna do an interview and we're gonna try to see how much that we can talk about in the time that we have together. So let's kind of go back a little bit. So you were born in Texas. Why don't you tell us a little bit about your childhood before we go into your testimony?

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Born in Texas, so my dad ran um corporate businesses, so we moved around a lot. We moved to California, Chicago, New Jersey, back to back to the West Coast, and I've been out

Moving Constantly And No Church Home

SPEAKER_01 1:59

here ever since.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Okay. When you were growing up with your family, did you come come up with in a Christian background in your family life?

SPEAKER_01 2:11

No, I think I went to church four times.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

As being small. So you didn't have you didn't have the Bible around you as far as knowing what the Bible and what God's word was. That that wasn't something that you grew up with?

SPEAKER_01 2:26

No, when I went down to the ranch, my great-great aunt, my great-grandmother would tell you about Jesus, but that was only one of my family.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Wow. Powerful prayers being answered, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

You can look you look back at that now and you're like, okay, that's where that came from. So you get to a place to where how old were you when you kind of things started kind of going a little bit where your life kind of took a turn for the worse?

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Oh 12 or 13, my dad had a stroke, and then my parents, my mom left them, and then that's when all hell broke loose.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

Okay. Kind of kind of just like no purpose in life and just gonna run amok.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

Yeah, yeah. I just uh just felt kind of hopeless.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Okay. And so these kinds of things kind of led you to getting in trouble a lot.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

Yeah, I got uh I got in so much trouble that uh I had to leave New Jersey and uh moved back out with my dad, and then my dad uh talked to my probation officer, and he told me uh he told my dad if I didn't come back, he'd take me off probation. So I've been out here ever since.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Okay, so you were actually already getting arrested at juvenile hall, that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

Yeah, I never went to juvenile hall, but yeah, I was getting arrested, and they they all knew me. I was just a teenager. In fact, they used to ask my little brother where me and my other brother went when we both moved out of the state.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

Okay. Were you getting in trouble mostly for drugs? What were you doing?

SPEAKER_01 4:27

Well, I've been drinking really since I was a little kid, you know. But uh yeah, we're we're just doing a lot of you know, in junior high, we started doing drugs and a lot of drinking.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Okay. I know you look back at it now and you're thinking, okay, this is crazy, right? The devil is really trying to get a hold of you. And so you move out of the state and you come this way, kind of take us through what what were the next things that started happening before your experience that we're gonna talk about today.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Well, I think it kind of follows the trouble follows you, or you you just wherever you go, you're gonna run on the same stuff. Yeah, when I came out of Seattle, I stayed there a year and then I came down to uh San Jose. And it's just I don't know, I always fall into the wrong crowd, you know. And everything always escalated. And uh by the time I was 19 I I got arrested and I was looking at 15 alives.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

Oh, what'd you get arrested for?

SPEAKER_01 5:50

I shot a guy in self-defense. And uh that was a weird, uh weird uh trial in my life, and and uh I got

Crime, Courtrooms, And A Jail Prayer

SPEAKER_01 6:04

through that and then three years later I got arrested again. I was looking at ten years, and that was for uh a 211.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

What's a 211, Greg, for people listening?

SPEAKER_01 6:20

It's an arm robbery, okay. And uh I remember in that situation, I remember I was I was locked up in the main jail and I thought everybody was asleep, and I got on my knees and I asked the Lord to to help me. And one of my friends sat up and looked at me and said, Do you think that's really gonna help? And I says, uh, yeah, I do. And uh I was the only one that didn't go to prison. Wow, the day before my trial, the main witness got busted with an ounce of cocaine and got arrested for sales and possession. I dismissed my case. Because I guess his credibility was no good to testify against things.

SPEAKER_00 7:18

So that was your first experience of seeing God come through for you.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

Well, you know, I I I can't say that was the first experience. I remember when my dad had a stroke, I asked God to not let him die. He should have died.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

He it was in 1972, and he had seven brain surgeries, and uh they he was never supposed to make it, and he lived till I was 26.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

You know, and uh I never blamed God for anything that happened. I knew my dad was in a high stress job, I knew he drank a lot, he smoked. Yeah, but I just asked him to keep him alive so I could see him again. And uh I didn't see him until I was 16 when I got when I left New Jersey.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Wow. Okay. So then you did you get released from jail then at that time that that they couldn't testify against you?

SPEAKER_01 8:33

Uh yeah, yeah, they they dropped everything to a misdemeanor taper of a witness. Okay, and and I'd been there nine months and I I just wanted to get out. My dad passed away while I was locked up.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

Oh wow, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

Yeah, and also they would they wouldn't let me go to the funeral or nothing. And I was out on bail for one charge, and my lawyer said to give me a three-day pass, and he would take responsibility on me, and they still wouldn't do it.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

Okay, so then what happens next?

SPEAKER_01 10:14

I got out, I just went back to what I was doing, and uh uh it was it wasn't too long after that when I when I died.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

All right, well, let's just kind of get to that. So, how old were you? Like how many years had gone by since you had gotten out of jail with God's past at that one where God came in and intervened and and you got out, and then you went right back to that lifestyle. How many years before you had this death experience?

SPEAKER_01 10:47

It was several months after I got let out.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

Okay, so it wasn't years, it was months.

unknown 10:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Okay, so God's probably thinking like, okay, I let you out, and now you're gonna go right back to that.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

Yeah, I was I I was I was I was doing a lot of drugs back then.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

A lot of co cocaine and seed, and and I don't like cocaine. I was just I was pretty hooked on it. And uh it's just uh I don't you know you I look back and I go, what horon I want to show.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

Yeah, it's kind of crazy when you look back and you think about it. And so kind of set us up to what happened because this is the powerful part of your testimony of of what happened when, like what led up to you dying.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Well, I was like I said, I was doing a lot of drugs. Me and a good friend of mine were were uh taking stuff from drug dealers and uh it was like total chaos. But the night that uh that I died I was I did I did way too much drugs like when I did it I realized I messed up

Overdose, Darkness, And Crying For Mercy

SPEAKER_01 12:18

and as I I hit the ground and uh I as darkness came in the room as the darkness it is is the most scariest thing I ever went through and I started to lift out of my body and I knew I was dying because my bowels loose I lost my bowels and and as I was lifting out my body I knew Jesus was God. I knew all those things that all these little Christian moms used to come up and pray for me all the time. I knew everything they said was true, and I started crying out for mercy. I knew I was headed to hell. I knew that it was my own fault because I didn't listen. And uh and I just you know it seemed like forever I was crying out for the mercy of the Lord, and as I was lifting up out of my body, two angels were coming towards me and they they had changed and they were gonna I knew I was going to hell, I knew they were taking me to hell, and and I just started crying out for mercy and as they were at the at my feet, all of a sudden they stopped and I started going back into my body. I couldn't move and I heard them walking away, and when I couldn't hear the chains anymore, I was I was able to get up. And I I was shook up for a long time after that. I I didn't know of God, I knew He brought me back to life, but I wasn't sure about Him forgiving me for all the stuff. I did a lot of evil stuff, you know, I didn't know much about the Bible. And then a couple weeks later I got I had to go to jail, take care of some stuff. And I picked up one of those little Gideon Bibles. And as I was reading the New Testament, I'll never forget when I got to Peter 224. It talks about the angels that didn't keep their own abode, but they're they're chained up and cast out and you know, cast out of hell. And in Jude verse 6, it says they're bound and chains in gloomy dungeons waiting for judgment. And those two

Gideon Bible Verses That Explained It

SPEAKER_01 15:09

scriptures was always stuck in the I mean once I read them, I never forgot them. And uh it wasn't until years later that uh that I started going to church. But for a long time I lived in I lived in fear. You know, I I carried guns all the time. I you know, I didn't want to die again. I was so scared of dying. And uh years down the road, a friend of mine invited me a church. He was a I don't know if he's an airborne, he was a he was army, but he he served with the airborne or something like that. He was like special forces. His name was Danny. And uh he took me to church. And that's the first time I experienced the presence of God. It wasn't at the church I go to now, but then I started reading the Bible a lot, and I got a Bible on cassette and uh I received the Lord as my savior and then I was doing good until my divorce and I was I was back uh oh wanna say '98. 1998 my mom died. I was going through my divorce. I ran into some old friends of mine and like a dummy, I started hanging out with them again. You know, we're like, you know, when God says we're we're sheep well, he's right, because sheep are stupid. They do the stupidest things. And I I got screwed up on drugs again for two years. And I was in my bedroom. Doing the same thing I did back in eighty eighty six. And I thought I was hanging out with some people that they were really, really bad people. Some were like sociopaths, you know. And I thought somebody snuck up behind me and hit me. And I jerked my 45 out of my holster

Relapse, A Suspected Hemorrhage, And Healing

SPEAKER_01 17:51

and I spun around. And uh, there was nobody there.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

And I knew I was in trouble. And I fell back on the the bed. I was in my my bedroom. I don't know where my wife was, I think she was gone for about a week. You know, she would come in and out of the house, she would never stay. And um as I fell back to the on the bed, uh blood started squirting out my right ear like a squirt gun.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

And then all the veins on the from my shoulder up to the side of my neck, and it went around the top of my head, went back to my left ear, and then it popped, and um blood started dribbling out that ear like a like a slow faucet. And I I I messed up. And I was so terrified because I from the neck down I went numb, and the left side of my body went like a quadripelegian. And I was I couldn't even talk. I might I tried talking, but none of nothing was working. And so in my mind, I was I was I was just panicked. I I I knew I messed up and I knew it was gonna be bad. And then as I was laying there, and I you know, I didn't know if I was gonna bleed out, or I started thinking about two weeks before I I I backlit my pastor, who flows from the gifts of the Holy Spirit, he he started, he he told the Lord reminded, well, first of all, the Lord reminded me about Moses uh when they came off the uh from worshiping the golden calf, how uh uh the Lord said he was gonna wipe out Israel. And and then Moses pleaded for him, and he uh said, I believe he said, take my life, and and it said the Lord repented. I've never read in the Bible where the Lord repented, but this was all gone in my head for it seemed like seconds. And so when when I when I thought of that, I I did in my mind I just reminded God what he said to me before I backfled. He said, I the things I told you that you're gonna do for me, you're gonna do them, period. And as soon as I I I I cried out and I said, Lord, remember what you said. And as soon as I said that, it was like a warm wall started at the top of my head and was going down my body. And when it got down to my neck and past my shoulders, I started getting feeling that my body. And as it went down my body, my left side straightened out, and it was a presence of the Lord was so strong. I'll never forget it, and it went all the way down to my feet, and then I could move again. And I crawled to the bathroom and I crawled into the shower and turned the water on and just laid there. And um I even went to work that day. Pastor Carver's mother-in-law said that uh, because I went and saw her after it happened, she was uh uh ran the ICU at at uh St. Helen, I I think it's St. Louis or some hospital in Gilroy. And she said that it sounded like I had a cerebral hemorrhage that should have been dead in ICU or in a coma. And I the only reason I'm here is because God honored what he said to me in that moment that it was happening again, and I was uh I was I you know I think about all the miracles God's done in my life. I was talking to Pastor Carmen's wife's sister, and just all through my life, I guess the Lord He said he had his hand on me since I was a baby, but I could see all the times that he intervened for me. And and I had a lot of close calls. And um that was last time for for the the drugs for me. That was it. I I went back to church and uh I've been going to church ever since.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

Yeah, I don't hang around, I don't hang around, I get invited to a lot of things. Like uh there's a group of bikers I know when they come to San Benito, they invite me to their booth, but I don't go around them because I I don't wanna it's not that I don't care about them or or you know, I really I pray for them all the time. It's just I don't wanna I don't want to take a chance of um you know, I know I'm not above anything.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

Right.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

You know, take a chance of falling again or you know, going back to any of that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Right. So so Greg, kind of going back, so this second time when this happened, it was around two years after the first time, that was all it was longer than that.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

It was 86, 96. It was like 18 years after.

SPEAKER_00 23:28

Oh wow. So eight so you went backslid for almost 18 years?

SPEAKER_01 23:33

No, two years.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

Okay, two years backslid.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

Uh 86 and then 91, I started going that's when I started going to comic church.

unknown 23:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:47

So the cerebral hemorrhage happened what year?

SPEAKER_01 23:52

Uh 98.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

And 98.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

Now I'm just saying that's what uh Sister Davis said.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

Okay. Okay, and so that that particular incident that was drug induced.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

Yeah, it was drug-induced again. Well, you know what's really weird about that incident? Um and um I heard a rumor that uh the the drugs that the person sold to me were were uh were meant to um to overdose me.

SPEAKER_00 24:30

Okay, so they were trying to and purpose.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

Yeah, that's what I heard. I don't know how true it is. Wow. That person's no longer he was a he was a toy, he's no longer with us.

SPEAKER_00 24:41

Wow. I was gonna say after that first time when you said the darkness came in and you were so afraid and you didn't want to do that again, but then again you had some trauma and you weren't actually going to church in a way to where you were strong in your faith, your foundation wasn't strong. But when you started using drugs again, did you notice that you were using more than what you were the first time?

SPEAKER_01 25:14

Uh no, I always use a lot of drugs when I was a good thing. Okay, so you've got five friends that are making it.

SPEAKER_00 25:22

Yeah, were you would you still remember that time and be afraid when you were high?

SPEAKER_01 25:29

Uh yeah, yeah. There's there's some certain times when I was backslid, I'd do so.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

And I would I would always think to this day, I think of almost every day I think about when I almost went to hell.

SPEAKER_00 25:41

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

It's uh it's always on my mind. You know, anytime you I mess up or do something wrong, you know, I go, Lord forgive me. You know, I just you know, I lose my temper.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

Well, you probably even just hearing the chains, you know, things like that brings back that sound that you heard, and you just remember, right? That that that was the day that that God changed his mind and let you come back. He he stood on his word like what you said.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

Yeah, you know, he gave me a word through Pastor Carmen's son-in-law, and uh when I pray, I'm really specific about what I pray about, what I talk about. And I remember I was praying for like four different things. This is several years ago, and um and then uh brother Aaron would say, Come here, I want to pray for you. And I feel the presence of the Lord, and God answered four things I was praying about, and then the Lord showed Aaron. I never really told everybody what happened to me when I died, just tell them I died, and you know, God brought me back to God. But he showed Aaron everything that happened to me. Wow, and and Aaron, I know this since he was a teenager. You know, he uh when he got done praying for me, his throat was popping wet, and he was shit trembling, he was shaking, and and he was terrified. He says, I've never seen anything as scary as what you went through.

SPEAKER_00 27:19

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 27:20

He says, The Lord show me everything that happened to you that night. And I said, I mean you had to be there a few hours, you know, and he says, Gregory, he says, uh when you cried out to Jesus, he says, the Lord had compassion on you, and that's why he wanted uh that's why he brought you back. And uh he says you're the goal and warrant people and tell people what happened to you. And and I do every chance I get and that was the most terrifying thing. I mean, I I've had people shooting at me on the east side of San Jose, and I I wasn't even scared. But that night I knew it was for good, and there was no parole at that place. It's the most it's something I think about every day. I I I think about it almost every day, I think about that day.

SPEAKER_00 28:25

And what's so crazy in our human form is that we have something like that, and yet something can rock us if our faith is not solid on that ground and take us right back to what we know we shouldn't be doing. Because even though you had that and you still are fearful of what you saw, it's still because your foundation wasn't, which is so important for a Christian, right? To get your foundation strong, it still wasn't enough to hold you from going back and doing drugs again. Yeah. That's what's crazy. That's what's crazy about our human, you know, just the temptation and why it's so important to heed to what God is asking us to do, like to build ourselves on that strong foundation, because you already know now what happens when you backslide.

SPEAKER_01 29:15

Yeah, yeah. You know, like I said, sheep are dumb. You know, they go back right through the thickets. And the difference between the first time and and this last time is when I came to church, I surrounded myself. Well, first of all, Pastor Carmen's family adopted me. His mother-in-law said, I'm gonna adopt you, and and every every holiday I go up there and I have dinner with him. I I've been around all his grandkids when they were born. Yeah. And I this time I surrounded myself with strong Christians. I don't I don't hang out with people. I've always been kind of

Staying Free Through Church And Community

SPEAKER_01 29:55

a loner, but I I I I go out and do what the Lord shows me to do, and and but I s my core people that I hang around with is my pastor, his son-in-law, his daughter, and people at church. I I just uh I don't go places where I'm not supposed to. I don't hang out in places where because you believe me, I don't care who you are, you're not tough enough to you you'll fall.

SPEAKER_00 30:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

If you hang out in bad places.

SPEAKER_00 30:29

Yep. Those are good words. You're not tough enough that you're not gonna fall because you experienced it.

SPEAKER_01 30:35

Oh yeah, we're a man, we're just we're fragile. That's why it's good to have strong people around you.

SPEAKER_00 30:43

Yep. Yeah. And it's so important, and now you know, you just you hang on and you get to share this now with everybody that will listen. What kind of advice would you tell somebody that maybe is in a place where they can't seem to pull themselves out?

SPEAKER_01 31:03

Well, you gotta come out from among them. Yeah, I know. This is uh there's no no doubt. You you can't hang out with people you used to know or people that you used to kind of run with. You gotta get into your work. I I used to drive truck. That was one of the first jobs God gave me when I quit being a a hoodlow. And uh I would listen to the New Testament. Well, back then it was on cassette. I learned the Bible over and over again. I didn't listen to preachers because all the radio preachers will confuse you. I just said a simple prayer, Daddy God, show me the truth so I know who's telling me the truth. And then I just listen to my word and I can tell when people are talking to me, you know, if they belong to a cult, I can tell just by what's coming out of their mouth because the the Lord will bring up scriptures to my heart. You know. But the word of God is the most important thing, and surrounding yourself with with uh strong Christians get plugged into a church. A Bible believing church, not a church that preaches uh it's gonna make you rich or you wanna give you in a church that teaches repentance.

SPEAKER_00 32:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:39

And and and that's what I love about the Bible, because faith comes by hearing the word. I'm a listener, so when I listen to the Bible, I absorb it better. It's like when I took my crane test to the the run of crane and I got a high score because I listened to over and over again and I learn it. You have to know your word and you have to be around strong people because Satan's a lion, he's a toothless lion. But lions, when they're falling a herd, the first first thing they go after are are babies and the old and the sick that they can't keep up with the herd. So you want to be with the herd so the rest of them can surround you and protect you. You know, you don't want to you don't want to stray off because that's they he he don't care about lost people. When you give your life to Jesus, that's when the battle b begins. That's true. He he he goes he he people that he already got he has, he doesn't care. He'll give them anything they want to keep their you know, the so the lose their souls. But the people that are striving to follow Jesus, that's the ones he attacks, because that's the only way he can hurt Jesus. You know.

SPEAKER_00 34:10

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_01 34:12

Yeah, he he try he goes after the the the lost souls, you know. He that's the only thing that hurts God. He doesn't want to see anybody go to that place. Yeah. Hell wasn't meant for us, it was meant for fallen angels. But because of of man, he had to expand hell. But I guarantee he doesn't just read what he did for you, he does not want you to go there. He took the punishment so we could be with him. And that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 34:49

Yeah, that is, and just that he's merciful, you know, he showed you mercy in that moment. Yeah, I was thinking of something that you said right now when you were talking about how you do better by listening, and that's how you hear things better, and how profound that that second incident blew out your ears to where blood was coming out, but yet your ears are what help you to be able to learn better now.

SPEAKER_01 35:18

Yeah. Well, you you know what you know, another thing I I I wanted to say is uh since I retired, I'm uh Medicare and uh you know I've had some uh problems with my neck from truck driving, my C45, and and I have a spasm in my left eye and my cheek. And so they started doing uh they did a CT scan on me. They did an MRA and an MRI on my brain and my neck and everything. And and I I didn't know what I was I was gonna, I didn't know what they were gonna see on that scan. You know, it's kind of like, yeah, you know, is there gonna be any damage, you know, because I felt the presence of God come in so strong when when it went down my body that uh you know, I knew he touched me because I went to work that day. I probably shouldn't have gone to work that day. There's no damage. It just I I was sitting there, I almost started to cry, you know. He says, Yeah, you're there's nothing wrong with your brain. Your neck, he says, he says I have damage on my C4 and five in my neck from arthritis and bouncing around in that big rig. Yeah, he says, you know, the around my ear, all that stuff. There was no blown-up vessels or anything. So God completely healed my my brain. And I was always worried about that because my dad died of a stroke.

SPEAKER_00 36:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:56

So that was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 36:58

That is cool. God just kind of, and maybe he just wanted you to have a glimpse, you know, do this MRI thing and have a glimpse of what he's done and just kind of confirm like that he he took care of everything for you.

SPEAKER_01 37:13

Yeah, yeah. I just uh yeah, I it's it's done so much stuff. I wanna I wanted to bring up one more thing too. Okay. I was on um uh Facebook. I I got recently I got off of Facebook, but I was on a a Kirk Cameron blog uh blog, and uh I I gave my testimony on that blog, and I had about I don't know, about a good 10, I think, 10, 15 Christians just rail on me. And they brought the rich man and the poor man. And he said, they said, if God didn't let the rich man come back to life, why did he let you come back to life? Oh wow, and and it and it bothered me

Why God Sent Him Back To Warn

SPEAKER_01 37:58

because I didn't know how to answer that. And I I went to sleep that night and I was almost in tears, you know. The Lord woke me up at 3:30, and this is what the Lord uh showed me. He said, the rich man and his brothers knew Moses and the prophets. He says, The people I'm sending you to, they don't know what the Bible says, they don't know who the prophets are, and they don't know who Moses was, they don't know who Jesus is, and you're to go and warn these people and tell them there's a place like hell, and you don't want to go there, and there's a place that you can go to, and it's in heaven with Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 38:36

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 38:37

You know, and it's for eternity, and not only did he take the blame for us, but through him we become his son and his daughter, and we're gonna rule and reign with him. You know, he he he he did that so we could be in heaven with him. And and I've I've never had anybody take the punishment. That's somebody that really loves you. You know, I was telling a friend of mine that used to make dope for a certain biker group, I don't want to stay on the air. And when I saw him, I I told him, I said, uh, you know, last two times you got busted for manufacturing, did they come and tell you, hey, you know what? You got busted. We're gonna step in and take the blame for you again. You know, this time. And my friend Steve said, No, Greg, they didn't do that. And then I told him what Jesus did at the cross and and the and the how they whipped him, and he they they did that for he did that for our healing. And I basically told him, I says, you know, he he took the wrap for you, he took your prison sentence for you. And I said, When you receive Jesus, this is in Galatians, it says, through him we become adopted sons of God. And I told Steve, I says, What does that make you? He goes, That would make me a prince. I go, what do princes grow up to be? He said, Kings. I says, when you give your life to Jesus, one day you'll be a king and you're gonna rule and reign with the king of kings and the lord of lords. And he looked at me and he says, You know, Greg, I I've heard the gospel presented before, but I never heard it that way. That's pretty cool. I said, Well, that's what he did for you, and that's you know, you become a adopted son of God. And I uh to me, that's the most coolest thing there is, right? I mean, how the devil wants to take you to hell because he knows that'll hurt Jesus, and Jesus wants to take you to heaven and be with him. Wow, I yeah, I I I think about that every day.

SPEAKER_00 41:04

Yeah, that's a good testimony. I think he'll that'll be one that he never forgets those words. You know, he'll be reminded of those words that you told him for a long time. Wow, Greg, we're kind of getting close to the end here. Thank you so much for sharing that little bit. And you know, like how you shared for somebody that's maybe at that place where they don't know how to how to get to where you're at, you know. Maybe they're backslid, maybe. But like how you said, you just need to get to your word. You need to surround yourself with good, godly people. You know, you need to pull away from the people that you're with because they're not gonna do anything but bring you down. Those are all good words of advice for sure. Do you have any last-minute words? I'm gonna have you pray over us before we close, but do you have any last words that you'd like to share?

SPEAKER_01 42:00

You you do more good for your friends going to church and praying for them with other Christians than you can do hanging out with them.

SPEAKER_00 42:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:09

Because when you pray, God releases his angels and uh God started moving in their lives. And he might be the only one that prays for that person. I was fortunate that God would send me little Christian moms to pray for me. He knew that that I like moms and I like kids. I just really didn't have nothing to do with anybody else. But I thank God for every Christian

Last Advice For Backsliders

SPEAKER_01 42:36

mom that would come and everybody was scared of me, that would come up and say, Can I pray for you? And I'd always let them do it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:46

God's word stands still, right? And it's still going.

SPEAKER_01 42:49

Oh, yeah. I think uh mommies are good prayer warriors.

SPEAKER_00 42:54

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 42:55

For anybody out there who's got a Christian mom, hang out with her. That's gonna be your best friend. Her and your dad. They love you.

SPEAKER_00 43:05

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 43:06

Yeah, they're the next to Jesus, they're the only ones that really, really love you with all their heart.

SPEAKER_00 43:12

Amen. Amen. And even if you have an aunt or a grandmother or somebody, somebody's praying in your family line, it's so that way you could have, you know, come to salvation and thank God somebody prayed for you, like you said, because because of the prayers, you know, those angels stopped what they were doing, turned around and went back.

SPEAKER_01 43:33

Well, you know, my friend's mom when I was 19, she told me that God had a call on my life, but I I didn't understand at that time, you know. I was, you know, and but I always think about her, she would always take time. Yeah, I I really miss her. She was the Lord.

SPEAKER_00 43:53

But uh Yeah, and sometimes you know, somebody out there might be listening and wondering, well, somebody told me once that I had purpose and I had a call. And so if somebody tells you that and you don't know how to find what that is, talk to God about that, you know, talk to Jesus and and just ask him, like, Lord, how do I find out what this call is? How do I find out what this purpose is? So, you know, find someone that you know that knows the Lord and have them pray with you and find out what that is because we're all born with the purpose, and that purpose is to be able to come to know Christ and then to serve him while we're here, because there's gonna come a day when we won't be here, you know, and we have to be prepared for that. We have to acknowledge that we have to pray for our families that don't know him, and so you know, don't give up. If if somebody told you, like Greg said years ago, told him he was gonna he had a call on his life, that that call doesn't go anywhere. It just needs you to take action to be a part of it. So praise the Lord, Greg. Thank you so much for sharing. I would love it if you would pray us out and maybe in your prayer, you know, maybe lift up those that might be backslidden or those that don't know how to get to that place where you are now, you know, and they just don't know what to do. They can't let go of certain things that are hurting them. If you could include that in your prayer as we close out.

SPEAKER_01 45:18

Okay. Thank you. Father God, I just come before you in Jesus' name, Lord.

unknown 45:24

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 45:25

And Lord, I just pray that there's there's a lot of backslidden sisters and brothers out there that have parents or even in the ministry, Lord. Yes, I pray, Lord, that you send out your angels, Lord, and dispatch them, Lord. I pray, Lord, that uh Lord, just like the prodigal son, whether they be a girl or a boy, if they just turn towards Jesus, he'll run towards them.

Closing Prayer For Restoration

SPEAKER_01 45:53

He's waiting for you to do that. And I I don't care what happened in your families, God will restore that. He's a the God that restores and he rebuilds. And uh, and uh he he he he just loves you so much. He's just waiting for you to turn around and say, help. You know, he doesn't want to see you go to that place. That place is so terrifying. And he'll send the right people around you, Father. And if you if you have to make that effort though, too. You gotta go to church, you gotta, you know, I I go up and and I get prayer every time almost I go to church. Thank you, Jesus. You know, because I know I need the prayer, and I've been with the Lord a long time now, and and I still go up and get prayer. And uh I just pray for people who don't know him, yes, Father, to pick up a little New Testament and just this just pray, Daddy, God, in Jesus' name, show me the truth. I want to know if you're real, yes, Father. And I guarantee you, he delights when you ask him.

SPEAKER_00 47:09

Yes, father.

SPEAKER_01 47:10

When you humble yourself, when I talk to him, I feel like I'm seven years old.

SPEAKER_00 47:14

Thank you, Father.

SPEAKER_01 47:16

He he he you come to him not knowing, and he will show you things you'll never forget. Things like and the word of God, he you it's just it's so neat how he shows you. He loves you. He's not gonna give up for uh he'll go after the one sheep that's strayed, he'll leave the 99. You're very important to him. Thank you, Jesus. He made you and he loves you, and just find a good church to go to.

unknown 47:45

Thank you, Father.

SPEAKER_01 47:46

Uh a Bible believing, when you read the New Testament and you see how that church operated, ask God to send you the same kind of church.

SPEAKER_00 47:55

Yes, Father. Thank you, Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 47:57

In Jesus' name I pray.

SPEAKER_00 47:59

Amen and amen. Thank you, Greg.

SPEAKER_01 48:03

All righty.