The John-Henry Westen Show - Veteran's near-death experience： a journey of faith, war, and divine intervention

00:00:00.000 I was naked on my knees and there were stairs. I was like an all marble landing out there.

00:00:05.780 There were stairs going down into this pool and in this pool there's pillars and the first two

00:00:09.640 pillars were broken off and laying down in the pool and then farther out there was two more

00:00:13.900 pillars and in the center of these four pillars was a drip coming from eternity. It was the blood

00:00:18.960 of Jesus. What if I told you there was a guy who was told by God that he would die at the

00:00:33.240 age of 32. It's funny because he was sort of raised a Mormon, didn't really practice any 0.65

00:00:39.280 faith, but he was nevertheless told by God he would die at 32 and he did. In fact, he

00:00:45.140 died three times over five days and now he's a very good Catholic. You're going to want

00:00:53.540 to stay tuned to this episode of John Henry Weston's show with Robert Bartlett.

00:00:58.380 Pope Pius XI said men must look for the peace of Christ in the kingdom of Christ and he urged

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00:01:30.340 Robert, so good to be with you.

00:01:31.740 You too, John.

00:01:32.540 And let's begin as you always do with the sign of the cross.

00:01:34.860 In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

00:01:40.280 Amen.

00:01:40.880 Robert, tell us about your background because I think this is super fascinating.

00:01:44.080 I think everybody's going to want to hear about how you got here and this crazy revelation

00:01:50.520 of God to you when you weren't really practicing any faith at all.

00:01:54.200 Yeah, so my family, I come from a multi-religion family.

00:01:58.300 My mother was a fallen away Catholic and my father was a fallen away Mormon. 0.96

00:02:05.940 And because they didn't want to compromise and neither one wanted to convert to the other

00:02:10.880 one's faith, they just raised us nothing. 1.00

00:02:14.520 I attended more Mormon church growing up than anything.

00:02:18.600 And that was maybe five times.

00:02:21.540 It was through the pressure of my grandmother, my mother's mother, that we're all baptized

00:02:26.160 into the faith.

00:02:27.100 And it's, you know, they talk about the indelible mark.

00:02:30.100 I could still remember what it was like and to remember the room and what the priest was

00:02:34.940 wearing and everything that happened, even though it was when I was like six years old.

00:02:40.900 How does one who basically lives like an atheist or agnostic or whatever hear God?

00:02:46.080 First time I can recall hearing God, I died when I was a little kid.

00:02:49.080 So I've died four times in life.

00:02:51.820 My mom was supposed to be a nurse, you know, God gives us our vocation. 0.99

00:02:56.820 And my mother was always supposed to be a nurse because if she wasn't a nurse, then I 1.00

00:03:00.180 wouldn't be here today.

00:03:01.300 She resuscitated me when I was a toddler.

00:03:03.620 She had put me on my uncle's motorcycle in the garage and while she was bringing in groceries

00:03:08.500 with my sister.

00:03:10.000 And I was pretending like I was riding it and rocking it back and forth while the handlebars

00:03:14.380 ended up pinching my, uh, across the throat and, uh, me against the wall.

00:03:21.160 And, and my mother found me out there and she had to resuscitate me.

00:03:24.940 And it was soon after that, I had like a God speaking to me and he, he said, you can never

00:03:31.520 add to me and you can, I can't take away from me.

00:03:34.180 What did that mean to you?

00:03:36.020 Well, I was a young, um, you know, a young child.

00:03:39.360 So I didn't, I didn't know what that meant.

00:03:41.400 I just tried to understand and I spoke to him, you know, a few times and I would just

00:03:47.100 spend time with him when I was in our backyard in our, like a woods garden, uh, area.

00:03:53.100 And I would just talk to him and, um, you know, how could a, I would ask him like, how

00:03:58.420 could a, you know, boy love, love a man, um, or love another boy.

00:04:04.880 And he said, well, you love your father.

00:04:07.260 And I said, yes.

00:04:08.140 He says, well, that's me, things like that.

00:04:11.040 And then, you know, because I came from like a pay, it was basically just under a pagan

00:04:16.600 lifestyle.

00:04:18.500 So, or, or world.

00:04:20.820 Uh, so I can just remember things like that.

00:04:24.380 You know, my dad being Mormon, that was pretty telling.

00:04:28.060 He can't add to the gospels.

00:04:30.160 Interesting.

00:04:30.800 Did you tell your parents about this, these interactions that you had?

00:04:34.260 No, no, I didn't tell anybody.

00:04:36.360 No, it was just something for me.

00:04:39.760 Um, I don't know if I, I, oh, you know, you always worry about telling somebody something

00:04:45.520 that, you know, they think you're crazy or.

00:04:47.660 Yeah. 0.52

00:04:48.340 You were also told by our Lord that you would die at the age of 32.

00:04:54.000 In fact, I think he told you some other things in there as well.

00:04:55.880 What, what was that?

00:04:56.700 So I was out partying with my friends.

00:04:58.600 It was, uh, around my 26th birthday.

00:05:01.480 It was 1998.

00:05:02.920 My birthday's on the 25th of May.

00:05:04.700 So I, I was out partying with my friends.

00:05:06.940 My grandmother was in the hospital.

00:05:08.180 I thought she was going to get out in the next couple of days.

00:05:11.180 She was 74 at the time.

00:05:12.580 And I just turned and looked out.

00:05:14.420 I had a feeling come over me.

00:05:15.640 Like, uh, when God speaks to you, it's not always here or here.

00:05:19.800 It's all understanding.

00:05:22.340 And I just turned and looked at my buddy and I said, um, my grandmother is going to die

00:05:28.520 tomorrow.

00:05:29.040 And she did, um, and then it was soon after that, I got the, the number in my head would

00:05:36.400 just always be there that I was going to die at the age of 32.

00:05:39.380 It'd be just 32, 32, 32, 32, 32 all the time.

00:05:42.820 And so I knew what it meant.

00:05:44.900 You know, I hadn't joined the army at this point.

00:05:46.780 Uh, we were not at war and I ended up having a fiance and then she had an abortion with my

00:05:54.260 child, um, in the middle of a fight.

00:05:56.420 She told me eight months later, you know, I just thought she had a miscarriage.

00:06:00.560 And, uh, then I found out I was pro-life and just little things like that.

00:06:04.320 And so I, you know, there's heavy things that were on me and I just, one time, and I couldn't,

00:06:08.780 I couldn't figure out what it was.

00:06:10.060 And so my church would go spend time with God.

00:06:12.440 So I just go fishing and I would just talk to him there and just fish.

00:06:16.940 And that's what I was doing.

00:06:18.180 And it was soon after that, uh, 9-11 happened and, uh, I was told that, you know, uh, and

00:06:26.820 she had abortion with my kid. 1.00

00:06:28.340 I just found out about the kid eight months later in the middle of a fight, you know?

00:06:32.400 So we broke up and, um, I was single.

00:06:35.860 And so I went off to war and joined the army.

00:06:37.960 It was after 9-11 now, you know?

00:06:40.040 And how did that play out?

00:06:41.180 Because this, so you're now 26, 27 years old, um, or 29 already.

00:06:47.440 Okay.

00:06:48.040 And so then what, what takes place that leads you to actually dying?

00:06:53.340 I was at sniper school and the number flipped on me.

00:06:56.040 I started saying 31-32, 31-32, 31-32, uh, again, near my birthday.

00:07:01.720 And I, uh, I started going to church when I joined the army a little bit.

00:07:06.820 I started going to mass and receiving Eucharist wrong and not going, I hadn't gone to

00:07:11.160 confession.

00:07:11.960 I hadn't done any tatechism at all, uh, no confirmation or anything, but I just want to

00:07:17.920 get right with God.

00:07:18.920 So I was trying, but I didn't know what to do.

00:07:21.900 So now we flash forward.

00:07:23.120 It's October right before our deployment.

00:07:25.160 And I talked to our chaplain, he's a Baptist chaplain, Michael, Captain Mike Spikes.

00:07:30.060 And I said to him, you know, Hey, I've got, God told me I was going to die at the age

00:07:34.100 of 32 and the switch now it's 31-32.

00:07:37.100 And this is right before our deployment.

00:07:39.000 We were at a, doing a funeral.

00:07:41.160 For a young soldier who died in his sleep from aneurysm.

00:07:44.880 And I said, I'm going to, uh, he said, let's just pray about it.

00:07:48.380 That will never happen.

00:07:49.240 That's not going to happen.

00:07:50.400 You know, and, you know, we all think we're going to die young.

00:07:53.720 And, um, you know, that wasn't the case.

00:07:57.160 Uh, I ended up dying and he was holding my hands, praying for me when I went down.

00:08:02.500 Like I have a picture of him holding my hands and you can see the top of his head, uh, right

00:08:07.800 before I died in Iraq.

00:08:09.500 So I was always meant to tell him.

00:08:11.260 Wow.

00:08:12.060 So tell us how, how did you die?

00:08:14.020 What happened?

00:08:14.520 We were on a, uh, reconnaissance patrol.

00:08:17.200 Uh, it was a Calvary scout, uh, sniper.

00:08:20.080 So I had two different roles.

00:08:21.840 And that day I was doing scouting missions and we just go clear sectors for the day.

00:08:26.720 And we had one more, we had three sectors we cleared.

00:08:28.900 Or how we're working on that day.

00:08:31.980 And I'd clear, we'd already cleared one sector and on the way to clear.

00:08:34.440 And you were in Iraq at the time.

00:08:36.160 Iraq, yeah.

00:08:36.920 And we're in a, I was in the armored Humvee.

00:08:39.200 It was the most placed IEDs in all of Iraq is this one place, checkpoint, 515.

00:08:44.880 So I went past this, uh, it's like a concrete divider for highways.

00:08:52.200 We set them up and we sidestacked them.

00:08:54.620 So you had to wheel your car through them.

00:08:56.760 Um, so a car bomber couldn't come from the other side of the road, run through there

00:09:00.600 really quick and blow up our convoy as we were going down the road.

00:09:04.140 So we set these things up so we can always action on them with the, the machine gun that's

00:09:08.860 on top of the vehicle.

00:09:10.020 The bomb was on the backside of the one of those.

00:09:12.180 So as soon as my truck vehicle came around, the bomb came through and these are the bombs

00:09:17.860 that come from Iran.

00:09:19.600 They're called an EFP.

00:09:21.700 And it's what it is.

00:09:22.720 It cut me in half from the left corner of my temple down through my jaw.

00:09:26.180 Uh, and, uh, and then we had ball bearings size of quarters coming through the, through

00:09:31.580 the firewall and the dashboard.

00:09:32.940 So it was a two part and my buddy was killed instantly and, and my gunner lost his legs.

00:09:39.620 He was in the turret, uh, next to me. 0.96

00:09:42.300 So his, he has like a little strap underneath his legs and his butt.

00:09:45.880 Um, so he can sit down in the turret while we're driving and he, he, the bomb, when it, you 0.56

00:09:51.900 know, cut me in half, it took his legs off and then the, took the top of my truck commander's

00:09:57.020 head off and then went out the other side of the vehicle, the armored vehicle and kept

00:10:00.620 on going.

00:10:01.720 And it went through you sort of sideways like that.

00:10:04.980 Yeah.

00:10:05.720 I bounced off the ceiling, hit my Kevlar and then came down.

00:10:09.420 So it's though the bomb, this is a certain type of bomb.

00:10:12.580 So it's a, it's like a molten hot slug.

00:10:15.140 And so when it hits the armor, it, it breaks apart and causes lots of shrapnel to kill as

00:10:22.200 many in the vehicle as possible.

00:10:23.900 It's about 3,500 degrees would hit you.

00:10:26.580 Oh my God.

00:10:27.280 So you're a mess there in, in, in the photos and what, what, what happened thereafter so

00:10:35.000 that they were still sort of with you when the, this minister was even with you at the

00:10:39.900 time?

00:10:40.640 Well, that would take about, that'd be about 10 minutes later.

00:10:43.840 Uh, so the truck, my, I turned to my right and the, the vehicles full with smoke and fuel,

00:10:51.080 the smelling of fuel and burning hair and burning flesh.

00:10:53.880 The front windshield is totally blacked out.

00:10:57.720 You can't see through it anymore.

00:10:59.620 I turned to my right and I see my gun, my truck commander is instantly killed.

00:11:04.400 And I had ball bearings hit me in the chest and the other shrapnel.

00:11:08.300 So I had internal bleeding and I had a collapsed lung and I was, my body was filling up with

00:11:13.140 blood.

00:11:13.560 And when your body fills up with blood, it slowly shuts off your lungs and your heart.

00:11:17.600 So with every breath I was taking, I was losing partial breath.

00:11:21.080 So I just knew I was dying.

00:11:24.160 I couldn't say anything.

00:11:25.960 And I just looked at my truck commander.

00:11:28.140 He was instantly dead.

00:11:29.020 And I just leaned forward on the, on the, uh, steering wheel and was ready to die right

00:11:34.560 then and there.

00:11:35.200 And that's when my gunner tried to stand up on his legs and those broken legs, he fell

00:11:40.500 down on top of me.

00:11:41.540 Um, and when he did that, that pain stimuli, it helped me get going again.

00:11:46.700 I looked at him and then worked the best I could to straighten out his legs because I

00:11:50.900 had third degree burns on my hands and shrapnel that went through my fingers and my hands.

00:11:56.680 So I, they just weren't working properly.

00:11:58.860 And I mean, I couldn't get a good grip to, to do things.

00:12:02.660 So it was really difficult.

00:12:03.840 So we put the back of, of my, of my gunner towards the, towards the windshield and then

00:12:11.100 his legs towards the back of the vehicle.

00:12:12.780 And we just did our best.

00:12:14.500 And I just was straightening out his legs the best I could.

00:12:17.940 And, um, you know, they were third degree burns down to the bone.

00:12:23.960 You could see his femur, the bottom of his femur, you know, it was, uh, the, the flesh

00:12:30.140 was black.

00:12:30.900 It wasn't, it wasn't flesh anymore.

00:12:33.760 Um, and then you could see the ball bearing holes through his legs.

00:12:38.760 We get back to the base, you know, my other truck commander, there's two more vehicles

00:12:43.040 behind us and the truck commander from one gets out and a good friend of mine.

00:12:47.760 And he comes to my door and he takes them three yanks, you know, and I always think

00:12:52.500 father, son, and the Holy spirit.

00:12:53.700 Cause it took them three tries and that door came open and he looked down at me and I looked

00:12:59.200 up at him and I was laying in my gunner's lap at that time because we, we just thought

00:13:04.540 we were dead.

00:13:05.180 I just, after straightening out his legs, I just looked at him and he just looked at

00:13:09.560 me and I, we didn't have to say anything.

00:13:11.180 We were going to die together, you know?

00:13:13.680 So I just, I just leaned over in his lap and he just put his arms around me.

00:13:17.760 Young kid, 18, 19, I was 30, 30 round.

00:13:22.600 And I just, you know, and then Sergeant Greer came to the door, three yanks.

00:13:27.500 He was in the seat behind me and the blast that came through the vehicle and blowing him

00:13:31.660 out the door.

00:13:32.420 He had a knee brace on, on his knee and it got caught in the corner of the door.

00:13:36.540 And so when the vehicle rolled forward, he didn't get run over.

00:13:40.440 It dragged him along the way until he woke up and then he got, and he was like, you know,

00:13:47.640 and then he did, he could hear the voice of Sergeant Brooks, the spirit telling him to

00:13:52.640 open to how to save my life and my gunner's life.

00:13:56.480 So it was killed in the, you know, in the vehicle with us.

00:13:59.020 Um, so he yanked on the door three times and he asked me if I could walk and he, I said,

00:14:04.460 I just shook my head.

00:14:05.680 Yes.

00:14:06.620 And then he just, I just helped, he helped me get into his seat in the back.

00:14:10.680 And then we just pulled that vehicle forward a little bit.

00:14:13.340 By the grace of God, the truck was still running.

00:14:15.920 And I don't think there was any tires that weren't flat or destroyed.

00:14:20.460 And there was, there was ball bearings that went through the motor, but it was still running.

00:14:24.520 And you can just hear the grinding of gears.

00:14:27.060 And I mean, it was a mess, but he pulled that truck, that Humvee forward.

00:14:32.020 And it was just enough so we could get the other two vehicles between us and that concrete

00:14:36.360 barrier.

00:14:37.580 Um, and then we loaded into the other two vehicles and then to our camp, which was right there.

00:14:44.600 And it was like one little thing.

00:14:46.420 If it was out of place, I wouldn't be here.

00:14:48.700 You know, they gave me a huge, you know, they transferred me to the vehicle with every breath.

00:14:53.680 I was losing a breath.

00:14:54.680 And so the medic, he hands me when I, when they bring me over to the other vehicle and this

00:14:59.500 is the command vehicle.

00:15:00.440 So the lieutenant's in the front and he's calling the medevac, the helicopter to get it,

00:15:04.620 get the bird in the air.

00:15:05.520 Cause it takes a half an hour to get to our base.

00:15:08.460 So they could life flight us to the main hospital in the, in Iraq.

00:15:13.080 So he's making that call.

00:15:15.600 It's called nine line medevac.

00:15:17.000 And they walked me over and put me in the back seat.

00:15:19.340 Now he gave me this huge pad cause he just didn't know what to do with me.

00:15:23.260 So it's just like this huge wound pad.

00:15:25.600 Right.

00:15:26.300 And it was like the size of a, like a giant diaper, like just so big, took up my, almost

00:15:32.160 my whole face.

00:15:33.360 And I'm in the back of this Humvee and they're trying to get Todd, my, my gunner into the other

00:15:37.580 vehicle and I, and I just, I didn't know what I looked like.

00:15:42.800 So I just put the, the pad down to look at it.

00:15:46.020 And there was barely any blood on us because what hit me was 3,500 degrees.

00:15:49.880 So it clodderized everything.

00:15:52.420 You know, my issue was I had internal bleeding and that was, that was, that was shutting down

00:15:58.620 my internals.

00:15:59.380 I presume they, they were able to flight you over to the hospital.

00:16:03.760 Where did you actually die?

00:16:05.180 When did you die the first time?

00:16:06.840 Well, the first time would be at our base at the, we have a little small hospital at

00:16:10.080 our base and I was just a little casualty hospital and the bird was flying into there.

00:16:16.040 So we got to our base.

00:16:17.600 I'm in the hospital now.

00:16:18.880 And the last thing I can remember was I tried to open up the door and I didn't want my guys

00:16:24.400 to know how bad I was, but I don't know what it looked like.

00:16:27.620 So I opened up the door and I tried to go in the hospital under my own power.

00:16:31.160 So I got about halfway before the soldiers picked me, you know, the medics picked me

00:16:36.160 up and put me on a gurney.

00:16:37.440 And then I remember the hit, the gurney hitting the, hitting the, the medical doors, you know

00:16:43.960 what I mean?

00:16:44.220 And the doors blowing open and that's it.

00:16:48.120 From then on out, I was, I was with, I was on the other side, but I can tell you by pictures

00:16:53.860 what happened and stories.

00:16:56.580 So when I, when I went through those doors, they put me on a, on a, you know, I was on

00:17:01.300 a table.

00:17:01.860 It's what they called a tripod position.

00:17:03.540 So I was hand forward in between my legs and I'm just focusing on staying alive.

00:17:09.160 I'm about to die.

00:17:10.300 It's a key indicator.

00:17:11.960 If you ever come up on somebody, if they're one arm forward and leaning forward, they are

00:17:17.360 about to die on you. 0.94

00:17:19.060 So that's where I was and Chaplain Spikes by the, by the prompting of Bishop, of Corporal

00:17:26.360 Bishop, Todd Bishop told him to come over to me because he said, Robert's dying.

00:17:32.000 You got to go, go pray for him, go see him.

00:17:35.140 And so he came over to me and, and he was holding my hands and, and that's when I flatlined

00:17:40.820 the first time.

00:17:43.480 And do you know how you were revived?

00:17:46.140 Oh, they, yeah, they, they cracked me here.

00:17:48.420 You can still see the scar here.

00:17:49.820 They had to do a crack on me and get air in my lungs and basically resuscitate me, you

00:17:54.920 know?

00:17:55.280 And so the medics did that, got me going again.

00:17:58.180 This death experience occurred to you still more over the next five days.

00:18:02.800 What, what happened with that?

00:18:04.120 So for me, it's the first two or just one long experience on the other side until I got

00:18:10.200 to Walter Reed and they woke me up out of the induced coma.

00:18:13.480 And then the last time is when, you know, I saw, I saw some visions and things five

00:18:18.480 days.

00:18:19.180 Yeah.

00:18:19.540 It took me to get to Walter Reed.

00:18:21.060 I died twice in Iraq.

00:18:23.240 They didn't think I was going to live in launch tool Germany when they air flighted me to launch

00:18:27.420 tool.

00:18:28.180 And so, uh, they were sending flights of that were full at the time back.

00:18:35.280 So they wanted to send people who were going to live. 0.99

00:18:37.040 So they held me back until I was a little bit more stable and they thought I could make it.

00:18:40.440 And then it was just like a day or two.

00:18:43.160 And then I got to Walter Reed one day before Mother's Day.

00:18:46.240 So I was supposed to surprise my mother for Mother's Day.

00:18:49.600 I was getting leave, but I came home on a medical flight instead.

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00:19:21.060 Right from the first time you died, which would have been the first and second because you

00:19:27.100 wouldn't recall, you say you were receiving visions or something like that.

00:19:31.300 What did you experience?

00:19:33.440 So what it was, I was naked on my knees and there were stairs.

00:19:38.080 I was like an all marble landing out there.

00:19:40.780 There were stairs going down into this pool.

00:19:42.500 And in this pool, there's pillars.

00:19:44.060 And the first two pillars were broken off and laying down in the pool.

00:19:47.380 And then farther out, there was two more pillars.

00:19:49.260 And in the center of these four pillars was a drip coming from eternity.

00:19:53.620 And it was filling up this pool.

00:19:55.640 And as soon as I saw that, I knew it was blood.

00:20:00.240 And that's the blood.

00:20:00.960 It was the blood of Jesus.

00:20:02.020 It's where those who wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb, that's where you go. 0.97

00:20:06.500 I went right to the gate, right?

00:20:08.480 And so I was in between the two gates.

00:20:11.160 And then I turned behind me and naked on my knees and a huge dragon.

00:20:17.100 And I mean huge.

00:20:19.260 I was on a pillar on the same marble landing that I was on.

00:20:23.780 And it came down off there when I started to turn back towards the blood.

00:20:27.780 He came down off there and he started tearing me apart.

00:20:30.520 And it was all where my injuries were.

00:20:32.940 And just flesh was coming off me.

00:20:34.940 And I got to feel how evil he is.

00:20:37.300 Like the depth of his being forever marked me.

00:20:40.020 I mean, I go into a house that needs to be blessed and I know something's not right there.

00:20:47.140 I'm sensitive to it.

00:20:48.240 And then I just turned back towards the blood and I just, you know, I flat out begged God to get out of there.

00:20:58.800 That's the best way to describe it.

00:21:00.440 And I, and instantly I was out there and it was like he put me in the palm of his hand.

00:21:05.220 And I got to feel his love for me.

00:21:09.020 His love is, is the child, our own child, seeing our child born is, is the closest we get to how God feels for us.

00:21:21.300 And that's, that would be like a watch battery compared against all the nuclear power plants, the sun and all the power of the stars.

00:21:29.880 And it still wouldn't do a justice on how far apart it is.

00:21:33.660 Wait, I mean, here you are finding yourself, were you, when you first got to this place in your vision, were you uninjured before the pool?

00:21:40.820 Or were you already injured, still injured from your accident or no?

00:21:44.700 Wasn't injured.

00:21:46.080 Okay.

00:21:46.420 But so then the, the dragon, the demon was ripping you apart, but at the same wounds, which you had in real life.

00:21:52.980 So around your face and stuff like that.

00:21:54.600 And then three on the body too, there was more, but it was huge.

00:21:58.040 You know, we're created in the image and likeness of God.

00:22:00.760 He wants to destroy that.

00:22:02.320 In terms of what you received, you, you became a Catholic after this, despite being, uh, you were sort of going, you, you had gone to a mass or whatever, but.

00:22:14.700 Like, did you see any of, in any of this, the reality of the Catholic faith?

00:22:21.080 Oh yeah.

00:22:21.440 I mean, my buddy's spirit talked to my, my buddy and helped save my life.

00:22:25.680 You know, a lot of people would say that is part of all sorts of religions, uh, you know, where, where spirits talk.

00:22:31.800 But how did you get the sense that it was the Catholic faith?

00:22:35.480 Well, it wasn't just that.

00:22:37.220 So, um, now, now I'm on the other side.

00:22:40.580 I'm in the presence and his, in his hand.

00:22:42.800 And I could, you know, um, so far fallen and full of sin.

00:22:46.860 If, you know, Moses couldn't see the face of God or he would have died the eternal death.

00:22:51.040 And he was a holy man.

00:22:52.020 And how far I'd fallen, I think if I saw maybe even the toenail of God, I would have died the eternal death.

00:23:00.420 So being in his presence, he kept me in his palm.

00:23:02.800 He just, I was the only robber he ever created in all of eternity.

00:23:05.580 And that's how he loves us.

00:23:06.720 And that's how he feels about us.

00:23:08.320 And we have to keep that in mind.

00:23:09.780 We're creating his image and like us, his child.

00:23:12.660 Every single one is his child.

00:23:14.880 But we have to, in love, choose to be his child. 0.99

00:23:17.600 So now I didn't want to go back because this place sucks. 0.96

00:23:23.460 This place is terrible compared to there. 0.97

00:23:26.080 And I didn't want to go back.

00:23:27.740 Now, my buddy who had, who was killed next to me, I wanted him to go back because he had a wife and two kids, you know, two little girls.

00:23:38.520 And I was, you know, single and didn't have anything other than my family to go back to, but no, no children.

00:23:44.860 But he told me I had to go back.

00:23:46.460 I hadn't had a wife and children yet.

00:23:48.200 So I came back and now I'm married and I got three boys.

00:23:53.360 What I prayed for, I prayed for three boys and one girl in honor of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit and Mary in that order.

00:24:02.320 And right now I got three boys.

00:24:04.340 This all takes place in your life and the healing process was a long one.

00:24:10.800 Tell us about that.

00:24:11.900 How long was the healing process for you?

00:24:13.900 It was four and a half years of surgeries.

00:24:17.400 Wow.

00:24:18.860 So it was a long time when I'd get a surgery and it would just, it would, you know, it's like pick up your cross and it's like falling and getting back up again.

00:24:28.400 You know, one of the longest surgeries was like 14 hours to reveal my face.

00:24:32.640 You know, this is a fake eye.

00:24:33.780 You got to see a fake, you know, it's a fake eye.

00:24:36.000 Yeah.

00:24:36.140 They did a lot of, a lot of reconstruction on me.

00:24:38.660 But I remember one of the thing on the other side and sitting underneath the tree and just having a conversation with Jesus.

00:24:47.500 Now that conversation has been held back from me until he's ready for me to know it again.

00:24:54.100 A ton of miracles since then.

00:24:55.720 I mean, so many.

00:24:57.000 Tell us about a couple of those that, that mean the most to you, that, that struck you the most.

00:25:02.260 Well, we had miracles in Lourdes, France.

00:25:04.960 So it hurts to drink.

00:25:07.900 My lip, my face is on fire all the time for the nerve damage.

00:25:11.280 So drinking coffee or eating or anything to do with my lips, my lips are on fire all the time.

00:25:18.960 And so when I first got married, it hurt to kiss my bride.

00:25:22.180 And before I lost my lips, I got to kiss her one time at a going away party when I was on leave before I left for Iraq.

00:25:30.560 So then she didn't later become my wife.

00:25:33.460 And that's another story, another miracle in itself.

00:25:36.240 But I got to kiss her one time before I lost my lips.

00:25:39.220 And so I always remembered her as soft lips.

00:25:41.640 That's what I, that was her nickname when I was overseas.

00:25:47.620 And not that I had, we didn't communicate while I was overseas or anything, but I went to Lourdes, France with the Order of Malta.

00:25:54.360 They took some sick people and they took a couple of vets and their spouses there.

00:25:59.640 And my wife and I went and we had miracles there.

00:26:02.920 And that was when I started, Jesus wanted me to meet his mother.

00:26:05.740 And that's why I started praying to Hail Mary and became devotional to her as well and my love for her.

00:26:14.940 And started passing out Lourdes, France water for years.

00:26:21.100 I mean, maybe 10 years I passed out Lourdes, France water and I stopped counting the miracles at 40 something.

00:26:26.320 And then, I mean, from cancer to blindness to you name it, head injury.

00:26:33.580 I mean, it was, and it was all, I was giving it to Muslims, Protestants, Catholics, Hindus, just anybody who was willing to take it.

00:26:42.980 And I told them what to do.

00:26:45.340 You pray, wash and drink.

00:26:47.040 And it's the only holy water you drink.

00:26:48.580 But those are some of the big ones.

00:26:50.040 But there's a major one in 2008 before I went to Lourdes, France.

00:26:54.000 I was giving glory to God, right?

00:26:55.760 And I was just spending time with him in my spirit, just giving him praise.

00:27:00.160 And we were fly fishing in a place called Lebanon, Virginia.

00:27:03.440 And here I was casting.

00:27:05.020 And it was so beautiful out because it was about this time, it was close to this time.

00:27:08.020 It was about October the 26th of 2008.

00:27:11.100 So all the leaves were all these brilliant colors of corals and reds and yellows and oranges.

00:27:17.200 And we're standing in this valley and the mountains were really tight to us.

00:27:20.840 So it was only like a couple hundred, maybe a hundred yards one way off the river and a hundred yards off the other.

00:27:25.760 And we're standing in this private stream that they'd let the one of the vets fish out, right, from Walter Reed through this veteran program.

00:27:36.340 And so I was sitting there fly fishing.

00:27:38.140 And I just started giving glory to God, saying how beautiful it was that nobody could create the beauty that was before me.

00:27:45.140 And you couldn't do a picture and it would do it justice.

00:27:49.500 It was just so beautiful.

00:27:50.760 So I was saying our fathers and glory be's and just praising him.

00:27:54.220 And then all of a sudden the sky opened up and leaves were falling on Will and I.

00:28:02.420 So there I was with an atheist and leaves fell on him and I when the sky opened up.

00:28:08.060 And we both looked up at the same time and said, what are these leaves falling from heaven?

00:28:12.940 And they were.

00:28:14.020 They absolutely did.

00:28:14.900 It was like time and eternity opened up like a knife cut and a leaf would slowly pop through.

00:28:21.380 And it was millions of them.

00:28:23.040 Beautiful.

00:28:23.320 Did he stay an atheist?

00:28:24.440 He's coming into faith, actually.

00:28:26.060 Oh, praise God.

00:28:27.060 Coming into faith, yeah.

00:28:28.380 Glory to God, yeah.

00:28:29.860 God is good.

00:28:30.800 Amen.

00:28:31.780 Yeah.

00:28:32.400 That's so beautiful.

00:28:33.660 Now, your journey then after the healing, after four and a half years, I mean, it's stunning

00:28:39.260 that you got married too because you were so severely injured.

00:28:43.500 Now, mind you, that compared to what you've gone through, you look great.

00:28:46.420 So you must have done a lot, a lot of work, obviously over four and a half years.

00:28:49.800 But when did you get married in all this thing?

00:28:52.020 We got secretly married in 2006.

00:28:54.240 Same chaplain who was holding my hands when I died in Iraq.

00:28:57.420 We got secretly married in Gettysburg, which my family fought in Gettysburg.

00:29:03.500 Our family has been fighting for this country since the Valley Forge.

00:29:06.620 Our name is on the Declaration of Independence.

00:29:09.680 Whoa.

00:29:11.160 Another miracle, there's like my Fatima statue and three other Fatima statues, all weeping

00:29:17.420 oil.

00:29:18.000 There's images of Our Lady of Guadalupe that used to travel around.

00:29:23.420 And there's four of them and miracles are coming out of that.

00:29:25.800 So you could actually touch the painting and you could feel Jesus in the womb of Mary and

00:29:31.700 of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

00:29:33.120 He'd kick your hand or you could listen to the scope and hear his heartbeat.

00:29:37.640 And so I could, I could hear, I heard his heartbeat and, you know, in her hair, you touch

00:29:42.620 her hands and they'll be warm or you'll be covered in glitter. 0.93

00:29:47.460 There's so many, or you'll hear her heartbeat.

00:29:50.580 So many things like that.

00:29:52.260 So many miracles.

00:29:53.240 Beautiful.

00:29:53.960 Now, why do you think our Lord is doing this for you, with you?

00:30:00.620 What do you think the message is?

00:30:02.280 I'm here to warn people, hell is for real.

00:30:05.220 Heaven is for real.

00:30:07.240 And those who are on the fence, you got to decide whether you're going to be with God or

00:30:12.580 not, and being a Christian is, isn't easy, but it's glorious and joyful, you know, and it'll

00:30:22.760 change your life.

00:30:23.880 You'll find a joy deeper than you can ever describe, you know.

00:30:28.380 And they, and I think right now that's what God is doing.

00:30:32.240 He's separating the sheep from the goats and he's, he's drawing the line and slowly the

00:30:39.040 hundred year reign, I believe is going away from Publio the 13th.

00:30:42.680 And I've been praying and your, your listeners and they were watching this, please join me

00:30:49.400 in prayer and fighting for this for a moment in time.

00:30:53.240 When the evil one was given a hundred years, will he give us a moment in time to turn back

00:30:59.980 to him and our loved ones to turn back to him with not that powerful influence that they've

00:31:06.360 had for the last hundred years?

The John-Henry Westen Show - October 17, 2024

Veteran's near-death experience： a journey of faith, war, and divine intervention

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