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Topic: Testimony of Gary Wood's death and visit to heaven; true or false?
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BORN AGAIN
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posted
It had been a few years since I read this, but I just reread Gary Wood's testimony; that was terrific. Praise the LORD.
God bless, BORN AGAIN ![[Cross]](graemlins/cross.gif)
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Pleasemaranatha
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Member # 5150
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THANKS BORN AGAIN FOR POSTING THIS.
GlORY be to God. He is so good and can do anything for His Will to be done. I believe.
God Bless you and all who read this.
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My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning. Psalms 130 verse 6
Joyce
Posts: 308 | From: Missouri | Registered: Oct 2005
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BORN AGAIN
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Transcript of Pastor Gary Wood's Testimony of His
Death and Visit to Heaven, as Told on Christian TV,
Trinity Broadcasting Network, USA, in 1983
I felt the call of God after I was saved and I entered into college and prepared myself for the full-time ministry at Baptist College in Plainview, Texas. My family had moved to a little community called Farmington, New Mexico, that borders on the four corner areas of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico.
On December 23, 1966, I was about a block from our home. My little sister was in the car with me. We were singing Christmas carols and we were having a wonderful time, when suddenly I saw a car coming over the horizon, and I said to my little sister, "Honey, I believe that guy must be drunk, I'm just going to pull the car over to the side of the road and stop".
Well, I just took my foot off the gas pedal, started to apply the brake, when suddenly my little sister let out a blood-curdling scream, and I turned to see what was the matter with her.
And all of a sudden, the next thing I knew, Roger, there was a brilliant explosion, a blinding flashing light, there was an instant sharp pain, and the first thing I remember was just leaving my body much like you would just slip out of your shoe, and I rose above the top of the car, and there I sat and watched the things that were transpiring beneath me.
My life flashed before my eyes. I remember burning my dad's barn down when I was 6 years old. And I remember the whipping I got as a result of that action, and it just, you know, flashed before my eyes.
I was to learn later that we had run into the back of a 10-ton wrecker truck that was illegally parked on the edge of the highway late that night. From that point on, Roger, something happened to me that was to alter my life from that day to this.
I was caught up in a swirling, massive funnel-shaped cloud that was very small at the beginning [see Matthew 7:14] and then began to get wider and wider and the light began to get brighter and brighter, and I began to make my way down a pathway, from which I believed at that time that I would never return.
Well, about halfway down that pathway, I began to hear music like I had never heard, and I tell you, that there is nothing that thrills me more than hearing you hit some of the high notes that you hit, Roger, but the angels joined in chorus and began to sing, "Holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Glory, Power, and Dominion be Yours forever, oh Lord, Amen and Amen".
And I began to be escorted literally into the very presence of Jesus with the angelic chorus accompanying me.
Well, I came to the bottom of a hill, and I looked up and I saw a magnificent city [see Revelation 21:2].
At this particular period of time in my life--I was 18 years of age--I'd been told that the book of Revelation [the last book of the Bible] was difficult to understand and to leave it to the theologians, let them fight over whether it was pre-, post-, or amillennial, and I wasn't even sure what any of those things were, so I just stayed out of that book.
And I'd heard a few sermons on heaven as I was growing up, but what I'm going to tell you from this point on is what I actually experienced, what I actually saw.
I came to the bottom of a grassy hill and began to walk up this hill and the grass literally came through my feet. It was like walking on soft, very soft carpet. I saw a magnificent city, and I saw what I now believe to have been 12 angelic beings as they were around the 12 gates of this city, 3 in each direction [see Revelation 21:13].
The city was tiered with 12 foundations [see Revelation 21:19-20]. The outer wall was pure jasper [see Revelation 21:18], and it was laden with all kinds of diamonds, pearls, everything; our Father doesn't lack anything. Oh, how magnificent this was to behold.
I must stress again the importance of being born again, because I believe that as a result of being born again that I'm able to share with you this exciting testimony of what Jesus Christ has done in my life.
If I hadn't been born again and didn't know Jesus Christ as my Savior, perhaps I couldn't share this story with you. But I'm excited that I can share what Jesus Christ has done in my life.
I entered into the city and there I was greeted by a friend of mine who had died in an automobile accident years before and had been decapitated, and he met me and spoke to me and then began to escort me around the city.
You know, there are people who are listening, Roger, who have lost loved ones in accidents, where they have been decapitated or been burned, or been mutilated beyond recognition, and what depression and grief has been the result of that experience, but I want you to know that in heaven you are perfectly whole, my friend was totally whole; I mean he looked the same as when he had left, except now he was perfectly whole.
The first thing that transpired, I remember asking him just a lot of questions, and he told me to be quiet. He said, "There is a lot of time for you to learn". And he said, "Come with me". He led me then at that point to a beautiful blue crystal river [see Revelation 22:1, and Ezekiel 47].
And Roger, I had never seen beautiful water as I saw, crystal blue, I could just see through it, and the rocks and the pebbles and the stones and colors, the color schemes here at this beautiful studio magnified ten billion times ten billion, you cannot begin to imagine the things that I saw.
I entered into the water [see Ezekiel 47:3-6], I stood and drank of the water; oh, there is nothing like it, it's just so refreshing, so satisfying, and I finally felt myself being submerged by the water.
Now Ezekiel 47, I believe, talks about this river. I didn't understand it at that time, but it does speak about this river of water. I don't have time to expound upon it, but it began over there in the garden of Eden [see Genesis 2:8-10], and it flows to Revelation 22.
It's interwoven all in the Bible, this beautiful river, and it literally consumed me until it came above me and over me and I was just saturated and oh, it's just a cleansing, purifying effect that took place.
I spent 20 minutes in heaven, but to me it seemed like an eternity, and some of the most exciting of those moments were when new people would pass from this life and come over as I had and come into the presence of the Lord and there be greeted by loved ones and you'd see them just leap into the arms of loved ones, reunions take place, I mean it was happy, it was exciting, exhilarating.
In heaven, Roger, you can think and you can be somewhere instantaneously, there are no barriers, there is no time barrier, there is no barrier in communication, you don't have to speak, you can think and transmit thought, and understand what someone else is thinking about.
There are just no limitations, there are no barriers, there are no graves on the hillside, I mean it's all life and joy and happiness.
I then came out of the water and found myself with a beautiful transparent, effervescent, glowing-type robe, and it was a very light-type robe, and I had this on me.
Well, the Bible also says, Roger, we can have the desires of our heart [see Psalms 37:4]. I love Mississippi. I love those colonial mansions, with the colonnades; well, that's how my mansion looked. It had beautiful columns out in front of it.
My friend began to take me, and he said, "I want to take you to your mansion". Jesus said, "In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, you may be also" [see John 14:2-3].
And Roger, God is not a man that He should lie; neither the son of man that He should repent" [see Numbers 23:19]. If He spoke it, you can mark it down, it's going to be exactly the way He said it would be.
And I went in and got to decorate my mansion. I got to spend some time, and my friend said, "Now you need to come with me". So I came out and he took me and I walked on the street.
Roger, the only way I know how to express this, the street is like the wax advertised on TV, which, when it's put on the floor, causes the floor to appear transparent; well, that's how it was, it was pure, solid gold [see Revelation 21:21] that I walked on, and yet I could see literally all the way through it.
I was taken toward the east by my friend, and he said, "I want to introduce you to someone", and then he took me to Jesus. And I saw Jesus my Savior, who died on the cross for me.
I saw the nailprints in His hands, I saw the place on His brow where the crown of thorns had been on His head, I saw where the spear had been in His side, and I stood, and His voice, Roger, is like Niagara Falls, it's magnificent when He speaks.
When Jesus speaks, all of heaven ceases, there is a calm, there is a peace, there is a joy, and the simple theme of heaven is God's love. God really loves you, He loved you so much that He sent His only Son Jesus Christ to die for you, to provide for your salvation, to provide for your healing, to provide for the restoration of your mind; that's how much Jesus loves you.
And Jesus, with outstretched arms, spoke to me, Roger, and He said, "My son, be not afraid. I am going to send you back and I want you to make me real to people of this earth".
With those words ringing in my spirit, and sitting and beholding the face of my Savior, my friend turned to me and said, "You've got to go back, she's using that Name" [see Philippians 2:9-11]. And I said, "I don't want to go back".
I was there in the presence of Jesus, hearing my friend telling me I had to go back and I didn't want to go back, and suddenly all eternity just rolled back, and I saw my little sister in the car beneath, and she was praying and using the name of Jesus.
Now at that time we didn't know the power in the name of Jesus. We were good Baptist people. I love Baptist people, praise the Lord, I'm an ordained Southern Baptist preacher, but my little sister and I didn't know the power in the name of Jesus.
My little sister was critically injured, losing her life rapidly, blood profusely coming out of her, and she had seen me, and had heard the doctor pronounce me dead at the scene of the accident.
She began to pray, "Oh Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, he's my baby brother, just spare his life, oh Jesus, Jesus", and my friend in heaven said, "Gary, you've got to go back, she's using that Name".
David Engels has just written a beautiful song about it, "You've Got to Go Back, She's Using That Name". I want you to know that when the name of Jesus is spoken, every demon in hell trembles, and every angel is awestruck at the love of God who would allow simple men to crucify His Son upon a cross, but He did it because He loved you and me, and He sent me to tell you this today.
And Roger, with that, I simply slipped right back down through eternity, and came back into my body. I had been pronounced dead at the scene of the accident and was dead for 20 minutes at the scene of the accident.
Well, they rushed me to San Juan County Medical hospital in Farmington, New Mexico, and it was there the next morning that I was to learn the tragic results of the accident that had transpired before.
This section of my face down is totally rebuilt. The turn signal indicator snapped in two, cut a jagged edge across my face, my nose, all this section in here is all plastic surgery, cut my vocal cords, leaving me unable to speak.
I couldn't speak, Roger, but God had called me to speak, and told me to share His message with the people.
And I'd been taught that miracles ceased. But you see, Roger, when you need a miracle, when your back is against the wall, you forget who you are, you've got to have a miracle.
I remember my daddy say by the bed, tears streaming down his face, "Son, the doctors told me, you are never going to be able to speak again, let alone be able to sing, your vocal cords are damaged beyond repair, you will never speak again".
Well, I got into the Word [the Bible], Roger, which says, "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" [see Romans 10:17]. I was searching through my Bible, I began to see where the Word of God said, "I am the Lord your God who heals you" [see Exodus 15:26], and where It says, "He sent His word and healed them" [see Psalms 107:20], and where It says, "Bless the Lord, oh my soul and all that is within me" [see Psalms 103:1], and, "He forgives all our inequities and heals all our diseases" [see Psalms 103:3].
I got into the New Testament and began to see that Jesus healed everyone, healed them all, and I'd been told miracles had passed off the scene, and I needed a miracle.
I was getting so much of the Word inside of me that it was building my faith subconsciously. I didn't realize that was taking place, but it was building my faith.
You'll never rise above your level of faith, and so I got into the Word and began to meditate upon the Word and got It down inside my spirit.
Nine months later, one day in the hospital, surgery had fixed me up to the way I look today, and I was reading the Word of God, and suddenly I heard a song. You sing it, it was brandnew at that time, I'd never heard it before, and it simply said, "I was shackled by a heavy burden, beneath a load of guilt and shame", and then the hand of Jesus touched me, and since that day I have never been the same.
The nurse walked into the room, as had been her custom during my many months of surgery, and she was so cheerful. She walked in that morning and Jesus of Nazareth had preceded her into my room and had touched my vocal cords, and He had healed me.
Roger, I have no vocal cords; I medically cannot speak. I have it affirmed by over 5 medical doctors that I cannot, according to medical science, do what I am doing right now, and the nurse walked in, and she said, "Good morning, Mr. Wood, how are you doing today?", and Jesus had touched me and I threw my hands up and I said, "Bless God, Hallelujah, I've been healed!!", and she dropped the tray, ran out--and I mean ran out.
And I was praising God, I tell you, I was rejoicing, I got out of bed, I began to dance before the Lord, and I began to get excited about what God had done for me, and the doctors came running in, they examined me, I was talking, and they said, "You can't talk!! You can't talk!!"
And I'm so glad I didn't listen to them, I got a second opinion, I got a higher opinion, His name is Jesus, Doctor Jesus, and He gave me a clean bill of health. Hallelujah, He healed me.
Roger, that started the miraculous miracles in my life that we have seen down through the years as God moved miraculously in our church in Houston, Texas.
A lady walked down for prayer, and as I grabbed hold of her hand, she just died of a heart attack. Two registered nurses said, "Pastor, she's gone", but our church is called "Reigning Life", and I said, "We can't have this!"
And I bent over and said, "In the name of Jesus, I command life to come into that body, I rebuke you, spirit of death" and that lady's eyes rolled around and she came back to life, and then later I said to her, "Sister, did you hear me quoting all the scripture to you? What did you hear when I was praying over you?"
And she said, "Pastor, I didn't hear you quote any scripture over me; all I heard you say was the name of Jesus". There's power in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah!
God bless, BORN AGAIN
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