“Only My grace is sufficient”: Prayer, friendship, and God’s intervention - 23 Jan 2008

David Hull is studying for a dual Masters at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, KY.  This semester on Mondays at Asbury, God has brought together a regular group of 15-25 students to intercede for the community, the campus, and each other. Together, they are seeking a vision of God's heart, and one of their goals is to fill one week a month with 24-7 prayer.  David writes a shocking account of God’s beautiful intervention in his life this past November, which is undoubtedly in some part due to the increase in unified prayer in their midst.

In hindsight, looking back at that weekend after Thanksgiving, I should have known something was wrong. On the surface, it was a weekend like any other, hanging out with friends for a birthday party, waking up early on Sunday to go hear a sermon on daily abandonment to God. Beneath the placid, still surface, however, I felt weak and unsteady.

My flight was set to head out on Monday to take me back home, and the trouble set in early. The flight was delayed for 2 hours and after we finally got underway, I knew something was wrong. My body kept experiencing mini tremors, uncontrollable spasms where my muscles would tighten up and quake. I felt incredibly fatigued yet could not close my eyes. My flight was rerouted because of inclement weather in Charlotte; we ended up in the Tri-City area in Tennessee. After many frustrating hours we were told that we could not leave until the following day, and that we were going to be put up at a nearby hotel. I called my friend who was picking me up the next day and let her know the situation while I waited for the hotel shuttle.

When I arrived at the hotel, things began to shift from wrong to an urban version of Alice in Wonderland. The tremors progressed to seizures that would grip me for a moment, and they were accompanied by lucid hallucinations. I remember people walking out of walls and I remember how real they were; I conversed with them and could actually touch them, that’s how real they appeared. Halfway through the night, I called my mother and let her know I was really not feeling well, going so far as to ask my mom to call a doctor. She told me to go to the doctor when I arrived home after my flight. That seemed reasonable. The last thing I remember was praying to Jesus for protection and deliverance from the visions that were assailing me.

This portion of testimony is compiled from information I received from others:
My arrival time rolled around the next day and I did not show up at the airport, so my friend was frustrated. She called the airline, who then notified her that I had not boarded my flight. Her frustration turned into concern, so she called my hotel. I later asked her how she knew where I was staying because I had never told her, and she contemplated and said that a voice in her head told her where I was. In any case, the front desk told her I had not checked out. The staff came upstairs and found me unconscious and unresponsive in my room. They called an ambulance that arrived to transport me to the ER. The doctors called my parents to alert them that I had gone into complete respiratory arrest, my lung had collapsed and my liver had started failing. My mother and sister were both told that it was probable that I would die.

My friend who was supposed to pick me up at the airport and a group of friends were already en route from Kentucky to Tennessee to pick me up at the hospital, unaware of the severity of the situation. When my sister told them the news, they called everyone they knew at school and at home and people began praying.
    
I came to on the table as they were intubating me, sliding tubes down my throat to clear fluid from my lungs. The last thing I remembered was being at the hotel, so I was terrified. With my right arm, I flung the doctors back and with my left I began pulling the tubes out, feeling them burning like fire as they scraped up my insides. The doctors rushed back to hold me down but I threw them back, again continuing to remove the tubes. Fluid began gushing out of my mouth, choking me.

As I struggled for air, my eyes beginning to bulge, my whole body on fire from oxygen depletion, the doctors managed to get my arms into restraints. Now, I have to mention that my largest fear in life is death by suffocation or drowning.  I was so afraid; I arched my back and snapped the restraints off the table, trying to pull myself up. The strength was sapped from my body, and as I looked upwards the light began dimming and I knew that I was dying. As I collapsed on the table, God spoke to me: “Your whole life, you have had a faulty image of what strength is, you have always tried to be people’s protector, using your own strength to shield them from the world. I wanted you to see what it was like to expend the last ounce of your energy trying to save your own life and have it not be enough. Only my grace is sufficient.” At that point, I blacked out.

When I came to, I was in a bed, intubated, on a ventilator, IV’s in both arms, and my groups of friends were already there at the base of my bed.  As I looked at them with weak eyes, the Lord spoke to me again, “This is where your strength comes from. It is not anything that you say or do; it’s not ability or a state of mind. Your strength comes from relationships, relationship with men and women in the Body of Christ that can petition the throne for you when you are too weak to do it on your own. These relationships always give you a voice in the heavens even when you cannot speak.” As I looked at my friends, I chuckled internally. There were three girls standing not too much over five feet tall and two guys who would never have scared anyone in a dark alley.

I praise God for that moment, for the destruction of my perception of strength, for humbling me to understand where true strength comes from. I thank God that after four days in the ICU, after the doctors told my family I was going to die, I walked out of the hospital, lifted up on the wings of a thousand prayers.  The very next day I was strong enough to praise him in a church with my friends.

I thank God for being a God that listens and answers prayers.  That is why I am walking and talking, and all I can give in return is everything that I am, my heart, my mind, and my body I commit to His service.