Life had never been better. I owned prime property, had a research clinic with five doctors working for me, achieved three doctorates, and four multimillion dollar corporations, which I had built up myself employing many people. I was worth many, many millions of dollars.
The full story of how I was kidnapped and murdered is recorded in my book, Murdered Heiress. Immediately after I was electrocuted it was a case of, ‘out of the body and present with the Lord’.
Immediately the current was switched on I was dead. In one second I was walking across the top of the universe with my long purple velvet robe on, not yet realising I was going to meet royalty. There, in front of me, was Jesus. Two beautiful chairs that I always had around my table at home appeared out of nowhere, and we sat down.
I sat there opposite Jesus for six solid hours. Every second I was with Him it seemed that a million intravenous tubes of pure love went into my body. I was all-knowing. I knew the beginning, the end and the middle. There was nothing I did not know when I was sitting in front of Jesus.
Sitting there with Jesus, we were able to look down and see my body whilst they took off the electrodes, and returned my body to the room in which I had been kept prisoner. We could see them checking to confirm that I was dead. Jesus sat opposite me. There was no question that He was Jesus. He asked me whether I wanted to stay up in Heaven, or whether I wanted to go back to Earth. I said, ‘Lord’. If He was not my Lord, I could not have said that. If I had not taken Him into my heart when I was five years old, I could not have used the title, ‘Lord’. My response to him was, ‘Lord, my job is not done. I want to wrap up a lot of packages in red ribbons, just how my mother taught us, before I am through’.
It may seem strange that I wanted to come back, especially when I looked at that mutilated body. It was not something I really wanted to return to. But my spirit was speaking for me. Jesus said, ‘Any time when the blueprint of your life, that your Heavenly Father has given you, is interrupted, you have a choice. Today you are the judge, not the jury’. Immediately He said this, I was back in my body again.
I came back into my body with the sheet over my head. Suddenly the room was full of a voice as if it went from the ceiling to the floor, from every corner of the room. This big voice said, ‘I am the Lord your God, I am here to help you and not to hurt you. Do not be afraid.’
When I came back into my body I was in excruciating pain of course. I looked out of the window, and the time and temperature were on a sign across the street. The sign had been my constant companion.
I waited until it was almost six o’clock. Of course my murderers were all very confident that I was dead. My death certificate had been written. As it approached six o’clock, I went over and knocked on the door, and I tell you it was almost worth the whole trip! Have you ever had a ghost asking for something to eat? Well, that’s exactly what I did, because those big men opened that door, not knowing what they were going to see. Yet here I was asking for something to eat. They turned white as sheets, and ran down the hall.
The Lord impressed on me that I should forgive all those who had been responsible for my kidnapping and murder. I could not understand this. ‘Why?’ I said. ‘If I could pray, I would be praying for myself!’ God said, ‘If you do not pray and forgive them right now, then it will interfere with the work you and I have to do together’. I said, ‘Lord, I do not know how to pray’. He responded, ‘I will teach you’. He told me to say, ‘God forgive them, they knew not what they were doing’.
With God’s help I managed to escape from the room in which I was held captive, as recorded in my book. I was collected by a taxi driver. He took me to my aunt’s house. I called the police, and arranged for medical attention.
Since then, I have never been afraid of anything. I have had nothing but holy boldness. It is so important to pray for our enemies. God gave me a huge gift of forgiveness right from the very beginning. This enabled me to pray for them, and forgive every one of them. I pray for their families as well.
Since this interview, Petti Wagner has gone to be with the Lord, this time forever. John Osteen has described her as one of the greatest soul-winners of our time. Every time she got on a plane she would take six rows up and six rows down from her own seat, and tell them about Jesus.
Perhaps the most telling statement she ever made was, ‘Even if only one lost soul had come to a saving knowledge of Jesus, it would have been worth it all’.