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This
is an abbreviated account of Ian's testimony, in his own words. For a fuller
account, go to one of his meetings, or get hold of a tape from one of the
sources on the Audio/Video page. |
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Ambulance |
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One
night while diving for lobster on the small Island of Mauritius I was stung
on my forearm by 5 Box-Jellyfish , which the local Creole fishermen called
"invisables" A sting from a Box-Jellyfish often proves to be fatal
- as exemplified in Australia where 70 people are known to have died from
their stings. Many books quote this particular type of Jellyfish to be among
the most venomous creatures in the world. |
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By
the time an ambulance arrived my body was totally paralyzed and necrosis had
begun to set into my bone marrow. On route to the hospital I began to see my
life flash before me. At this point of my life I was an atheist - but I knew
I was nearly dead and I didn't know if there was life after death or whether
there was just nothing. As I lay there dying, I saw my mother in a vision
praying for me, encouraging me to cry out to God from my heart and He would
hear me and forgive me (my mother was the only Christian in our family.) I
didn't know what to pray and cried out that if God was real, could He help me
to pray. Immediately God showed me the Lord’s Prayer, and for the first time
in my life I prayed from my heart and gave my life to the Lord. |
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Death
& Hell |
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The
ambulance stopped and they placed me in a wheel chair and raced me into the
hospital. The nurse took my blood pressure twice but could not find a pulse
as my veins had collapsed. The doctors tried to save my life by injecting
anti-toxins and dextrose into my body, but seemingly to no avail. Within a
few minutes I seemed to slip away (apparently life ceased from my body for a
period of approx. 15 minutes). |
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During
this time I found myself in a very dark place, not realising where I was. So
I tried to find a light switch, thinking I was still in the hospital - but as
I reached out into the dark I couldn't touch anything. Reaching to touch my
face I found my hand go straight through it. It seemed so bizarre, as I knew
I was standing there but couldn't touch any part of my physical body. |
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As
I stood there I began to sense that this wasn't just a physical darkness but
that there was something else there. I could feel a cold eerie feeling as
though something or someone was looking at me - a spiritual darkness. From
the darkness I began to hear men’s voices screaming at me telling me to
"shut up" - "that I deserved to be there" - "that I
was in Hell". I couldn't believe it, but as I stood there a radiant beam
of light shone through the darkness and immediately began to lift me upward.
I found myself being translated up into an incredibly brilliant beam of pure
white light - it seemed to be emanating from a circular opening far above me
(I felt like a speck of dust being drawn up into a beam of sunlight). |
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The
Journey |
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I
entered this opening to find myself inside a long narrow passageway or tunnel
- at the far end of the tunnel I could see the source of the light - it was
so radiant that it looked to be the centre of the universe. As I continued to
look towards this light it seemed to draw me towards it at an incredible
speed - I wasn't walking but was being translated along this tunnel towards
the source of this light. I watched as a wave of light broke off the source
and moved up the tunnel towards me - as it passed through me I could feel a
wave of warmth and comfort flood my soul … it was incredible. This light
wasn't just physical, but was giving off a living emotion … Halfway down
another wave of light - this time it gave off pure peace - followed by
another wave - of pure joy. Coming out of the end of this tunnel I found
myself standing in the presence of awesome light and power - it seemed as
though even the constellations in the universe must find their energy source
from this focal point. |
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As
I stood there I wondered to myself if this was just an energy source in the
universe or if perhaps there could be someone standing in the midst of this
light!!!!! A voice immediately responded to my thought and asked me
"Ian, do you wish to return?" Return, I thought!!! Where am I??? As
I looked over my shoulder I could see the tunnel going back into darkness. |
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The
Light |
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I
thought - darkness - hospital bed - am I out of my body? - is this real? - am
I standing here? - or am I in a coma having some bizarre dream? Am I in my body
or out of my body?? (I could cognitively think of the two alternatives.) As I
looked back towards the light, it was still there ... I responded "I
don't know where I am, but if I am out of my physical body I wish to
return." The voice responded "If you wish to return - you must see
in a new light." "New light", I thought, "I'm seeing the
light." "Are you the true light???" Words appeared in front of
me "God is light and in Him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5)." I
had never read a Bible before in my life so I didn't know this was straight
out of the scriptures. God is light, I thought - that is pure light - I see
no darkness here, I have just come from darkness - I see no evil, no shadows
- this is pure light - am I standing in the presence of God??? He knows my
name and I didn't tell Him, only God could do that - He knows what I am
thinking before I even speak, only God could do that. Then he must be able to
see everything I have done wrong in my life ... no ... I don't want God to
see that. I felt totally exposed and wanted to move away from the light and
go back into the darkness where I belonged. I thought someone had made a
mistake and brought the wrong person up. As I drew back towards the darkness
a wave of light swept through me ... I felt pure unadulterated Love flow over
me. Love I thought, how could God love me - I've taken his name in vain -
I've slept around - I'm not a good man … but no matter what I said, waves of
His unconditional Love continued to flow over me. I found myself weeping uncontrollably
in His Presence. It was so amazing that He had totally forgiven me and
accepted me as I was. |
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The
waves of Love ceased and I wondered if I could possibly step into the light
and see what God looked like. I was so close. ... I asked if I could step in.
..???.. I heard no response but thought if God could love me so much, He
wouldn't mind …. As I stepped into the light I found myself disappear into it
as it was so radiant - it had the intensity of laser light, yet you could
look directly at it. The light seemed to absorb me into it - the centre
seemed to be very bright so I aimed for it - I could feel a healing presence
coming off this light that was healing my broken heart ... it was touching me
deep inside my heart of hearts where no one gets to see … so beautiful. |
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God |
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Suddenly
it opened up in the centre and standing in front of me was the most awesome
sight - I could see a man standing in front of me, but he was not like anyone
I'd ever seen before in my life. His garments were shimmering white in colour
- garments of light - I could see His bare feet and His hands were
outstretched towards me as if to welcome me. I knew I was looking upon God …
as I looked toward His face the intensity of the light seemed to increase
7-fold - you couldn't make out the form of his face as the light was so
bright - such purity, such holiness, such beauty. I asked God if I could step
closer. I felt I could, I wanted to see His face. Moving closer waves of more
Love began to flow towards me, and I felt very safe. Standing, now feet away,
from the Lord I tried to see His face - but I didn't know that no man can see
the face of God and live. And so, as I moved my face into the radiance that
surrounded His face, He moved - and all His Glory moved with Him. Directly
behind Him it opened out into a brand new World - green pastures, a crystal
clear stream, rolling green hills to my right, mountains in the distance,
blue skies above, to my left fields interspersed with trees and flowers. As I
looked at the grass in front of me I could see the same light that was on the
presence of God was radiating throughout this entire creation - totally
untouched by man - perfect creation. And in my heart I knew I belonged here,
that God had created me to live here - I knew I was home. |
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Return |
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I
was just about to enter in and explore, when God stepped back in front of me,
and asked me this question. "Now that you have seen - do you wish to step
in or do you wish to return?" I thought, "I don't want to return. I
wish to step in. I have no one to go back for and no one has ever loved me,
all they've ever done is manipulate me and try to control me ... I have no
one to go back for, I wish to step in." But God didn't move, so I looked
back behind me to say "goodbye, cruel world", and standing behind
me in a vision in front of the tunnel was my mother. And as soon as I saw her
I knew that there was one person in my life that had shown me love, and that
was my mother, and that she had prayed for me every day and tried to show me
that this was the way. In my mind I thought, "if I am dead and I did
choose to step into heaven, what would my mother think? Would she know I made
it or would she think I went to Hell - because she knew I had no Faith? … I
realised that it could break her heart and that she would have no reason to
believe that God had heard my prayer in the ambulance and forgiven my sins. …
I thought, "how can I do that to my mum, it would be so selfish" …
and decided I wished to return. |
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God
then spoke to me and said, "If I wished to return - I must see things in
a new light." I understood that to mean that I must begin to see through
his eyes of Love, Peace, Joy, Forgiveness, from His Heavenly perspective, not
my temporary earthly perspective. Looking back towards the tunnel again I now
could see a vision of all my family, and thousands and thousands of other
people. I asked God who all these people were, and He told me that if I
didn't return then many of these people would not get a chance to hear about
Him…. |
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I
told God that I didn't know most of them and I didn't love them, but that I
loved my mother and wished to return for her. God spoke to me and told me
that He loved those people and wanted them all to come to know Him. I asked
God how could I possibly return back down the tunnel and back into my
hospital bed. He spoke and said "Son, tilt your head, now feel the
liquid drain from your eye. Now open your eye and see." And I was
immediately back in my physical body. |
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Back
to earth |
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As
I opened my eye, I was lying back on a hospital bed with my right leg elevated,
cupped in the hands of the young Indian doctor who had been trying to save my
life. He had a scalpel or some sharp instrument in his hand and he was
prodding the base of my foot like a dead piece of meat. He wasn't aware that
I was looking at him. I thought, "what's that man doing with my foot,
what is he doing with that knife!!!!!!" At the same time something
seemed to spook the doctor and he quickly turned his head to see my right eye
open, looking at him… Terror struck his face and I got the distinct
impression that he has just seen a dead man looking at him… My eye wasn't
moving much and I could see the doctor thinking to himself that perhaps he
had hit a nerve in my foot and caused the corpse to twitch, and that he had
the evil eye looking at him or something. As for me, I was trying to grapple
with what I had just seen. … Did I just see God, has He just given my life
back??? As I lay there I heard the voice of God say "Son, I have just
given you your life back." I said if that is true God, could you help me
to tilt my head to the left and look out of the other eye, as I was getting
sick of looking at the doctor’s terrified face. Strength came back into my
neck and I opened my left eye to see a whole bunch of nurses and orderlies
standing in the doorway looking at me as if the dead had just risen … As my
eye locked onto theirs they began to jump backwards out of the doorway. From
what I can ascertain I had been dead for a period of some 15 minutes. I
prayed to God that night and asked him to heal me and enable me to walk out
of the hospital. That night God completely healed me and enabled me to walk
out of the hospital the next day. |
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I
asked God what I had become, as I found my entire life was changing for good.
God told me I was a Re-Born Christian and that he wanted me to read His
Bible. I had never read a Bible and had never heard about being Born-Again.
Over the next 6 weeks I read the entire Bible. I have never been the same,
and believe that I saw our Lord Jesus Christ in His Glorified form (Rev. 1:13
-18) |
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