Sometimes, in spite of the fact that we know that we are ill, we ignore the signs, and the situation has to be acted upon by others. It was Darrel Young’s wife, Helen, who made an appointment for him to see the doctor. It was a good thing that she did. Nobody had realised just how sick he was. But in his hour of need, Jesus came to him in a special way. This is his story.
My wife had been concerned about the state of my health for some time, so I wasn’t really surprised when I learned that she had set up an appointment for me to see our family doctor. I was scheduled to see him on October 16th 1996. I have to say that when I heard what she had done, I had no intention of keeping that appointment. But I was not feeling well on that particular day, so I went along anyway. My wife warned the doctor ahead of time that I would probably not be very co-operative, and possibly deny that I had a heart problem!
My wife asked him to do an ECG. He had done this a year earlier, and the result had been normal. He didn’t say what he had found after the ECG was completed, but he did refer me to cardiologist for a stress test. The stress test was performed by the cardiologist two days later on Friday 18th October. After this test I was referred to have a heart catheterisation, which was done the following Monday morning. It was after this was performed that the doctors told me that they wanted to perform heart surgery on me. The operation was scheduled for the following Friday. There was nothing that I could do but agree to their proposals. I asked if I could at least go home until Friday, but the doctors advised me to stay in hospital. I was admitted to hospital and underwent preparation for the surgery.
Being a Christian, and having witnessed healing in others, I called for a prayer chain to be started. Several people from different denominations promised to pray for me. The day of my operation arrived, and my pastor came to visit me in hospital. He walked along beside me as I was being wheeled towards the operating theatre, and as he did so I took the opportunity to thank him for his part in organising the prayer chain.
What I didn’t say to him was that I had a strange sensation that I was going to die. I said to my wife that if I woke up and saw her face after the operation I would be happy, but if I woke up and saw the face of Jesus, I would also be happy. Either way I would be happy. There were two promises God had made which had not yet come to pass.
Before I was even was taken to the operating theatre, I experienced severe chest pains. I felt as though giant hands came down and wrung my heart like a wet dish cloth. The pain was indescribable, and I cried out ‘Jesus! Please help me’. Again the pain came, and again I cried out. Then it came back for a third time. At that point I just asked the Lord to take me home. Next thing I heard was one of the people working in the operating theatre saying ‘His heart has arrested’.
Then I started to experience another kind of pain as they started cutting into my chest, but the pain was not as bad as the pain I had felt moments before when the heart attack started.
It seemed that I was coming out of my body from where they had made an incision in my chest. As I looked at the scene from where I now was, at the top of the room, near the ceiling, I heard someone say ‘He has a hiatus hernia’.
The room then started to fill up with what appeared to be people, but who I realised were in fact demons. They were having a great time, laughing because I had died. Then the most exciting and exhilarating thing happened. A hand came down and grasped my left hand. Immediately all the pain ceased. Later, during our talk together, I thanked Him for stopping my pain. He said that He did not stop it, but took it away, in the same way as He took all of my sins on the Cross. I can remember thinking what an awesome power and love my Master possesses.
The robe that He was wearing was very beautiful, far more beautiful than I can describe. There was a very bright light coming from Him. It was so bright that it could never been produced by a thousand powerful lights. It was not like the sunlight on Earth that would cause you to squint your eyes. I had always thought of His robe as being white, like the whitest cloth that one could imagine. But what I saw was clear pure white gold that flowed like cloth, as it says in Matthew 17:2 “His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.”
We walked out together through space, although it seemed like we were moving with very little effort. However, I could tell that we were travelling at tremendous speed. Then I saw two sides of a beautiful walled city where they came together in one corner. There was a gate in the wall leading off to the left side. Leading up to the gate was a staircase of magnificent beauty. I felt it to be the Eastern Gate. The gate was made of pearl, just as I expected, but I didn’t expect it to be covered by diamonds, rubies and other precious stones, with hinges of yellow gold. The staircase was made of yellow and white gold – and as I looked beyond it, I saw the most beautiful tinge of purple that I had ever seen. I wish I had words to describe it. The city was just sitting there in space, with no visible means of support, just like Earth which I had left behind, which was now nowhere in sight.
We stopped on the fifth step and sat down. He sat me on his right knee, but at no time did He let go of my left hand. I said that I did not understand my dying before the two promises you made have been kept.’ But He said ‘It’s not over until I say it’s over.’ He was referring to the fact that He has power over life and death, which of course is true.
While we were sitting together on the steps, lights were continually travelling from below to up above our heads, before bursting like fireworks all around us. I felt that they were very important, and it seemed as though I could almost hear them, but I could not make out what message they contained. Jesus explained that what I saw were prayers, coming up on my behalf from my prayer chain. I felt that there were far too many lights bursting around us for the people I knew that were praying for me, and He said that angels from all over creation were also praying for me. ‘All prayers are heard by Me’ He said, ‘and people ought to pray at all times.’ It seemed as though, when I was in His presence, I had total knowledge about all things, but maybe that was because He kept hold of my hand.
Finally He said that it was time for me to go back. But then He added ‘But when I come to get you the next time I will reach out and take your right hand, and you will be with Me forever.’ We travelled back together in space. I was disappointed that I did not go into the Holy City, but I was satisfied with the reason that He gave me.
The trip back seemed much faster than the trip out. He brought me back to the same spot in the ceiling where He had lifted me out. My body was still there, and was being frantically worked on by the doctors and nurses. The room was now totally filled shoulder to shoulder with angels, who were praising God. Just as the demons had looked like people, so did the angels. The demons did not have horns, and the angels did not have wings.
I dreaded going back into that body of mine, but I dreaded more leaving that love, joy and peace that I had experienced with Jesus. I was in the operating theatre for several hours after I returned to my body. My wife Helen and our daughter came to see me afterwards. They had expected to see a terrible sight, based on what the surgeons had told them. I had a pump in my heart, two tubes in my throat, a tube in my neck, and a smile on my face! I later said to her ‘You’ll never believe what happened to me’. As soon as I was able, I told her the full story. She made the remark that I would never be able to tell it again like I had just told it to her. I was just so full of emotion.
It is now my desire to tell as many people as I can about the love of Jesus for them. Because the Bible promises that when Jesus returns to Earth again, He is not coming to be born of a virgin, to suffer on a Cross, and to shed His blood as a sacrifice for our sins. Next time He is coming as the Almighty Creator King in all His Glory, and the time of grace that we currently live in will be no more. When He held my hand for six hours and thirty five minutes Earth time, He showed me what total love and total peace is, and I will never be the same again.
For further information on the ministry of Darrel R. Young please write to:
Darrel R. Young
308 Cooper Drive,
Charleston,
WV 25302
USA.
The true story of Darrell Young is included, with kind permission, in the free e-book BEYOND THE FINAL FRONTIER which includes 27 similar true stories, and may be freely read and downloaded from this web site.