Steve and Dr Kathy Boyls, I’ve Been to Heaven | COMPASS in the Storm Ep 13

Full Transcript

Transcribed from the episode audio. Names, places, scripture references and medical terms have been corrected, and caption noise has been removed. Speaker names are not marked, because the source captions marked only that the speaker changed and not who was talking. Paragraph breaks follow those speaker changes.

And you could feel the power and the peace and the love. I mean, it was all the same together. But and you could hear the thunder of God’s voice speaking. And he gave me this big hug and I hugged him back. Heaven is more real than Earth.

While the battle for his life raged here on Earth,

he had a near-death experience and was transported to a heavenly realm. Since then, he shares some of the most detailed heavenly encounters that I’ve ever heard. Stay tuned. Hi, I’m Lana Bach your host on COMPASS in the Storm. We feature real-life stories of people who overcame life-altering storms with God’s grace and now bring hope and encouragement to others. If you’re looking for powerful, uplifting stories that will offer you hope and strengthen your faith, be sure to click the subscribe button so you don’t miss our monthly podcast. My guest today is a software engineer and his wife has been a pediatrician for 34 years. But they found themselves in a battle for his life when he spent 45 days on a ventilator while in a coma for 3 weeks due to complications from COVID-19. But while the battle for his life raged here on Earth, he had a near-death experience and was transported to a heavenly realm. Since that incredible journey, he and his wife have written a book titled I’ve been to Heaven. And they’ve been interviewed by some of my most admired podcast colleagues including John Burke, Billye Brim, Janie Duvall, and the late Joni Lamb just to name a few. So I’m thrilled to have them both on COMPASS in the Storm today to share their incredible journey with you. Please welcome my guest today, Steve Boyls and his wife Dr. Kathy Boyls. Thank you both for being with me today.

Thank you for the invitation.

Oh, it’s such a privilege to have you and I know I’ve told you this before, but I’ve been looking forward to this interview since we met in Nashville. And again, I’m going to say it was such a God moment when Billye Brim’s daughter Shelly introduced us while we’re NRB Nashville. We’re getting ready to go into the Pete Hegseth event and I remember when I discovered Steve that you’d been to heaven. I must have asked you a thousand questions and you were trying to be so kind to answer all of them. But I was so intrigued by your answers. I knew that we had to share your story on this podcast and I know it was a horrific experience when COVID attacked your body Steve and it took you two years to even recover. And yet at that very time while you were sick in a coma, it allowed you to have a beautiful life-changing experience. And Kathy, that had to be one of the most challenging storms of your life as well. So, just to give a little bit of background Steve, your story is not one of clinical death and coming back to life, but of leaving your body while in an induced coma, which I have to say this, I was thinking about it and it seems like you and Apostle Paul have something very special in common because most scholars believe that Paul is talking about himself in 2 Corinthians 12 when he says, “I know a man caught up in the third heaven whether in the body or out of the body, I don’t know, God knows, but he was caught up to paradise.” So, you’re in good company Steve. And I would just love if you would please share your story. Maybe just start with a brief sequence of events that left you in an induced coma and on a ventilator.

Sure. Well, it was late November of 2021 and it was we had gone out for my birthday and I hadn’t been feeling all that great anyway. We went out to eat, celebrated my birthday and I was kind of having to force myself to have a good time, you know. I was like, “Yeah, this is fun.” You know, I just had a really hard time really enjoying myself cuz I didn’t feel all that hot. And as a couple of days later just kind of keep kept getting worse and worse and I just get I couldn’t get comfortable. I was just totally miserable no matter what position I was in and she kept wanting me to get on my stomach, lay on my stomach and I thought that was like even the worst position for me to be on. Anyway, she finally decided that it would be better to take me to the emergency room because she was having COVID also and our daughter was had COVID. So, we were all getting affected different ways. So, kind of long story short, we went to the emergency room. I got checked in and they told my daughter she couldn’t come up. so, it was just kind of like after I got checked in it was me. And then they took me up to the ICU and put me in the bed and hooked me up to some oxygen and just being able to for some reason I was able to relax a little bit and I think that was the biggest part. I kept it cuz I kept thinking, “Okay, I’m in the hospital. They’re going to take care of me and I’m going to be fine.” So, I kind of relaxed a little bit. I was on oxygen through just a nose cannula for like 3 or 4 days and then finally one day they came in and said, “Well, we need to put you on a on a pressure mask on a CPAP.” And well, okay, fine. Well, kind of a long story short, I’ll leave out all the details here, but they decided I needed to be put on a ventilator and they didn’t give me really any kind of detail about what that entails. If I’d have known what all that meant, I would have probably changed my mind and not said yes, but I was at the time at that point in time, I was like, I want to get out of here. I’ll do just about anything to get out of here because they said, “Well, you won’t be on it very long. You’ll be on it for a few days and then you can you’ll get better and you can go home.” And I thought, “Okay, fine.” You know, but I don’t recall them ever telling me I was going to be in a coma. I don’t recall them ever telling me I was going to like lose total control of anything, you know, about myself. And I said, “Okay.” And next thing I know, I’m out of it. They they As soon as I said, “Okay.” They they hooked me up to I was on IVs and so they put in the drugs that knocked me out, paralyzed me. And that was it. That’s that’s like all I even know.

We don’t have time to go into all the details of what happened in the hospital, but I do remember you saying this is that you lost use of your arm. so maybe when our reader when our listeners do get your book, they’ll be able to read more about what happened and the complications that came that left you having to go through therapy and everything else for 2 years. And Kathy, you’re a medical doctor and you’ve always taken care of your family’s medical needs. It had to be incredibly difficult for you not to be able to visit Steve cuz I know you said that they wouldn’t allow you to visit him and care for him. It was a terrible time for so many families. What helped you cope with the stress of being restricted from seeing him, especially knowing that he might die, never to see him again on this earth?

Well, it was pretty shocking because I just really thought he needed some CPAP and he would be fine. what he didn’t share was that I did have the three of us on some good medicine and some great supplements. And Stacy and I got better, but unfortunately Steve didn’t take them the way he should have.

I was I thought I was feeling good enough to stop, so I quit.

when he got worse, but I didn’t know that. And when I dropped him off at the emergency room door with Stacy and I went to park the car, you know, she called me just a few minutes and said, “Mom, you got to come pick me up. They won’t let me in and they’re not going to let you in, either.” And I didn’t understand what was going on in the hospitals during COVID, and so I got kind of this sinking feeling inside. And so what ended up happening is a hospital committee decided that I could not visit my husband for 20 days. 20. And that wasn’t really reasonable to me. I mean, I’m a doctor and I could have walked into that hospital as a physician and visited anyone I wanted to, but I was restricted

from seeing him for 20 days. I did obey that rule, but I knew that I had to appeal to a much higher power. So, when I got home, I realized that my appeal was only to our Father God. And I have known the Lord since I was a very little girl, and I knew the word, and I knew about healing, and I knew that we serve a God of miracles. And so I knew the power of God is in his word. And I remember being at home and being ready to break out and cry, and I wanted to say, “Lord, I don’t know what to do.” But before those words could come out of my mouth, the Holy Spirit said to me, “You know what to do.” And it was almost a little surprising to me that I heard him say inside me, “You know what to do.” And I had to stop and think a second, and I went, “Oh, yeah. I do. I know what the word says about healing. I know what to do.” Because from the natural standpoint, there wasn’t anything I could do. I had zero control over anything that was going on. And and of course Steve didn’t cuz he’s in a coma. So, when I realized that I do know what to do, I gathered up all these healing scriptures and wrote them down and went up to my prayer room. I think everyone needs a place of prayer in their house, some place that’s quiet that you can just get alone with the Lord and hear his voice. And so I’d go up every

every day, a lot times multiple times a day, and I would begin to speak those healing scriptures over him. I would have his nurse FaceTime me with the phone and I could see him on the ventilator, which was initially quite shocking, but getting over the shock, I just would start to speak the word and speak the word and speak the word because that is where the power of God is. By his stripes, Steve was healed. You know, he is the God that forgives all of our iniquities and heals all of our diseases. And so every scripture as I would begin to speak it at just faith would arise in my heart. I was just getting strengthened. There were times when some days I would just there was so many bad reports and there was so many things that he went through that you know, and every every report was bad. I mean, sometimes he would get a teeny weeny bit better and then crash again. And it was absolutely horrible. I mean, I have five doctor girlfriends who would advise me about adult medicine because I’m a pediatrician and we’d get on either on the phone or on chats and I would be like, you know, so what do I do now? They’re not doing what is reasonable and what we know should be done. So because I had no control, but I knew about the spirit realm. And I knew that we are actually we are seated with Christ in heavenly places. We actually are in Christ and Christ has dominion. And so, I began to take my authority and I actually asked the Lord to send angelic hosts. I sent them myself. I would say, “I want, you know, I want angels to go to his room right now and watch over him because I can’t be there and I need somebody in that room to watch over him.” And so, every single day I would be asking for angels to go to his room and to protect him because I couldn’t protect him in the natural. You know, sometimes it’s even it might even be an advantage if you can’t do anything in the natural. You have to rely on the spirit. You have to rely on the Lord. That’s when, you know, the rubber meets the road. I mean, it’s either God’s doing this or it’s not happening. And so, I remember when I was praying with my dearest friend and I didn’t tell very many people a very very very few number. my doctor girlfriends cuz I knew they would help me and then just a few little prayer warriors that I knew were strong in faith cuz I didn’t want anyone praying in unbelief.

Mhm. Mhm.

So, I was on the phone with my dearest friend who lives on the other side of the world as a missionary and we were praying earnestly in the spirit and then all of a sudden she said, “Kathy, the Lord is giving me a vision. He’s showing me Steve’s hospital room. I can see him. I see him in the bed. I see everything in this room, the machines, the monitors, everything.” And then she said, “And guess what? There are angels all over this room.”

Wow.

There are two large angels on either side of the door, and they will not let anything evil come into this room. And the Lord is telling me that this room is an embassy of heaven. And I had not told her that I had been asking for angels to go to this room every day. And it was like amazing to me that the Lord, you know, he literally did that for me. And those angels were there, physically there in that room.

I believe that.

that I couldn’t be there. And even after I could be there, I knew they were there cuz I still put it in there.

So, that really, that’s what held you. You knew that God had angels there with him. So, you could Again, I’m sure it was very frustrating, but at least you had that reassurance that he was in good hands. And I just want to say I think you said those scriptures are in the back of the book, too, that you that you have. So, anybody that gets the book will see exactly what kind of prayers you were praying, which were awesome. That’s so I just think that is so wonderful to know that, you know, God is watching out even even if we can’t be there. And And I know, Steve, I know at that time you know, you were you again were in an induced coma. But, want to kind of reserve the best for last about when you met Jesus. But, I just love you to share some of the things that you saw and kind of whatever you feel the listeners would want to hear.

no, I don’t mind at all. in fact, it may be hard for me to stop after I get going because I was on IVs and stuff. They put in the drugs that knocked me out, paralyzed me. And that was it. That’s that’s like all I know. And so, at that point in time, while I’m in this coma, I And I think it happened fairly quickly after that. the angel came up to me and he goes, “Hello, Steve. My name is Marzuka. I’m here to take you to heaven for a short time while your body heals.” And he even told me how to spell his name. He said, “My name is Marzuka and you spell that m a r z u k a.” I’m like, “Well, okay.” I mean, I’m thinking this guy wants to take me to heaven. I know that’s a good place. So, why would I argue? And he says it’s for a short time. So, I’m thinking, “Okay, I’m going to be back. So, why would I say no?”

When they put you under, that’s when Marzuka appeared. Your your guardian And you’re sure you Are you believe Marzuka is your guardian angel then?

He told me that. And and he told me that he had been my guardian angel since I was conceived, not since I was born, but since I was conceived. And he said that he had saved my life more times than I’ll ever know. When my body was left on the bed and my spirit rose up, we went through the ceilings, we went through outside. We were I was flying through space. And it is like it was very vivid. I could I could see things. And when we got into space, there was you could see all these formations, gas formations, things that you might see in a Hubble or a James Webb Space Telescope type pictures. I mean, they’re amazing. But our spiritual eyes have a broader spectrum of light that they can pick up than just our natural eyes. We’re kind of limited. But our spirit man can see so much more. And and so that’s why I was able to see all this stuff and it was just incredible. Now, I saw all this stuff. It was pretty quick because it doesn’t take your spirit long to get from Earth to heaven. But we ended up in heaven and it was it’s an amazing place. And I’ll tell you a few things about heaven right off the bat. It’s there’s never any darkness. It’s light the whole time. There’s no clouds. I saw no clouds in heaven. And the grass we landed on this little area of grass outside of this building and this grass and the grass all over heaven that I walked on was like the most plush grass you could ever imagine. It was thick, it was vibrant, it was alive, and you step on it and it springs right back. You could sleep on it and it’d be the probably the best sleep you ever had, but we went into this little building that I kind of I actually put everything in Earth terms so people can understand what I’m trying to say, but I’ll call it a welcome center. This guy was standing there behind this very ornate desk with all these great looking carvings on it. And he said, “Hello Steve, welcome to heaven. Marzuka is going to be your guide and he’s going to show you things that you need to see.” And you know, why some of the things I needed to see were there, I’m not sure why that might have been the case. I’m still trying to filter out some of those stuff and understand it. The one of the first places I saw was this amazing meadow. and this meadow had these huge trees which I later found out were trees that were grown from mustard seeds. So, you know, the word says that we have faith as a grain of a grain of mustard. Well, those seeds don’t stay seeds. They grow. And as your faith grows, your those trees grow. So, and I think those trees that I saw in heaven which had all kind of birds flying in and out of them, they were people’s faith. I think people’s faith had grown those trees.

Wow.

And you know, so and there was a whole area of just all kind of trees like this. I mean, there was hundreds of them, I suppose. but one of the things that I first saw I saw my dogs. Now, we saw I saw all the dogs that we’d ever had on Earth. they’d all we’d all they’d had them for a long time. They all got old. They all got in bad shape. You know, they just they wear out. But they came running up to me in this group and I could saw them from a distance and I thought, “Wow, what is this?” And I saw them coming up to me and then I started realizing those are those are the dogs we had. Those are I started naming them off to myself and thinking, “Yeah, that’s who they are.” Well, they came up to me and they all looked beautiful. They all looked perfect. They all looked healthy. there was one dog we had we kind of use him as an example. his name was Poppy. He was a He kind of we were his retirement home. He wandered into our garage one day

when it was about 110° outside and he and he just didn’t leave. So, we just kept him. But he had one eye. He had a bad leg. had a big scar on it. Walked with a limp. But he was just a sweet dog. But when I saw him in heaven, he saw he had both eyes. He had no limp. He had no scars. He had just perfect looked great. He was running around just like with all the other dogs. And all the other dogs looked amazing, too. They They were all healthy. They were all beautiful looking. They lush coats. And then I saw my niece who had passed away in a car wreck about a week before she was supposed to get married.

Got to spend time with her. I asked her what she did and she said, “Well, I spend time with my dad.” which is my brother Ted. He’s She said they do things together that you can spend time with whoever you want to in heaven. And so, she spends time with him. They do things together. I saw a friend of mine that I used to work with. And you got to understand I didn’t haven’t talked to too many people that have gone to heaven. So, or were in heaven. So, I asked him I said, “Well, Gary, how do you like it here?” And he goes, “Oh, I love it.” He goes, “I can eat whatever I want and I don’t gain any weight.” Well, the thing you got to understand about Gary is that he was about 6’2″ and he was overweight. he was really nice guy. Great guy. But he was just overweight. We we trying to say, “Gary, you need to like take care of yourself, do a better job.” And he just kind of shrugged it off. Well, unfortunately, he passed away. In heaven, I mean, everybody looked like they were like 25 to 30. Everybody’s young. Everybody’s in amazing health.

Just the fact that we’ll be able to eat up there because sometimes people, you know, because our bodies are going to be different, you wonder what will we eat? So, maybe tell us a little bit about that as well. I don’t mean to interrupt your flow.

Well, one of the things I got So, we were Marzuka and I and I were walking around and I don’t know how long I’d actually been there that he said, “Well, Steve,” he goes, “you’ve been here for a while and you haven’t eaten anything. Are you hungry?”

And I really hadn’t thought a whole lot about it and I said, “Well, yeah, I guess I could eat something.” And I, of course, I had no idea what he had in mind, but he like pulls out this kind of a copper-looking fruit and it was pretty round and he just kind of handed it to me. So, I just kind of bit into it. Well, it tasted a lot like a really nice juicy apple. and I ate the whole thing and after I ate it, I really did feel more energized. I felt like I had more energy. Just I guess I didn’t realize the difference between until after I ate the thing and how much better I felt. And then he said, “Well, I’ve got something else for you.” And he pulls out like a vanilla ice cream cone. I mean, where he where he got it from, I have no idea. But he pulled it out, he hands it to me and it’s like a cone and I start eating it. Now, the thing is in heaven, it didn’t melt. It’s not like you had to sit there and lick all the corners all the way around it to make sure it wasn’t dripping. But it was like it was vanilla and it was like the most amazing vanilla ice cream I’d ever had. And I love

Wow.

I love vanilla ice cream. I like homemade vanilla ice cream, but this was even better than homemade vanilla ice cream. And I said, “Wow, this is great. Vanilla, that’s my favorite.” He goes, “Yeah, I know.”

Wow. Wow. Well, that’s something too that I wanted to mention is that when you were in heaven, you said that you saw the Apostle Paul, I believe, right? But you said you automatically knew things. Like you said, I don’t know what it was, but you said you said I just knew it was Paul. Is that was that something that happened a lot? Like how did you communicate? How did you know these things? I mean, is it just boom, you’re there and you know all this stuff?

Well, more or less. I mean, there it’s not everything that I knew, but I knew there was I knew that was Paul. Because well, one thing my brother said that he I had met my brother who had passed away about 6 months after we got got married. He was actually doing the communion in our service. But he had gotten killed in a car wreck. So, One of the things he said he did was he said that he goes to Bible studies from the Apostle Paul. So, when we started kind of going in that direction and I saw him, I knew that’s where you’re who he was. Now, one thing I didn’t that I also kind of knew was I also, which I don’t think I told you and I don’t even think it’s in the book, is that I met the martyr Stephen. And I knew that was him. I knew who he was. I got to sit down and talk to him. And one of the things he told me was he said, “You don’t fear man. Say what the Lord wants you to say and don’t worry about what man does.” You know, because you got to understand what happened to him. He

Yes.

killed for speaking the truth. And they stoned him. He was encouraging me that, “Hey, you know, don’t worry about people. It’s God. You serve God. So, do what the Lord wants you to do.” We went to one of the places I went to was like a valley. and this valley had all these amazing flowers in it. And you kind of get real close to the flowers and you can hear them singing praises to the Lord.

Wow.

And you know, well, the even the Bible says that the rocks will cry out and you know, for the Lord, you know, if man doesn’t. So, these flowers are there giving praise to the Lord.

Wow.

And they had this amazing fragrance, too. I There’s you know, heaven’s perfect. Heaven is amazing because heaven doesn’t wear out. It’s and I’ve said this numerous times that heaven is more real than earth. When the Garden of Eden was created, I think that was kind of like heaven on earth. But, when Adam sinned and things started deteriorating and the devil got got his foot in the door, that’s when it started going downhill. Well, heaven isn’t like that. Heaven’s never worn out. It’s never deteriorated. Everything is like pristine and looks like it was just created yesterday, you know?

Yeah. I mean, I just can’t wait. I can’t wait to see the things that you’re talking about. I just can’t wait. But, I get a lot of questions when I’m teaching different things, especially when it comes to grief. They will say, “Well, do does that my loved one know what I’m doing on earth?” How would you answer that after going to heaven? How would you answer that question for someone who asked you that?

I Yes, they know what’s going on. Now, how much detail they know, I’m not sure on that. But, I do know that they know what’s going on. When I was talking to my mom, I got to see my mom and spend time talking to her and I mentioned something about our girls and she said, “I know.” So, she knew that. And then, when I just briefly, I’m going to jump to Daniel. Daniel said that I said, “Well, you’d you’d love to see your mom because she’s real pretty.” And he goes, “Yeah, I know. I’ve seen her.” I was talking to my dad and my dad said, “You’re really lucky to be married to such a good wife cuz she’s taking really good care of you.” So, those are three examples of people who know what was going on.

One little comment on that is that, you know, I could not take care of him in the flesh. I could not in the natural realm. I was not even allowed to see him.

Right.

How was I taking good care of him by speaking the word over him? By praying in the spirit for him. by using the sword of the spirit and holding up the shield of faith. That is how because we are one. And one of my one of my friends had said, “You know, Kathy, you’re one with Steve. And so because of the covenant that you have with him in marriage, when you speak the word over him, it’s like he’s saying it over himself.”

Believe that, yes.

And so that was just an amazing thing to me that I could do it in his stead because we’re in covenant together. And so it’s so important that’s how we literally take care of each other by using the word and speaking the word. And that is what his dad called taking good care of him.

Wow. Good word. And maybe while we’re on this point because Steve mentioned Daniel, so for our listeners, Kathy, maybe share a little bit about Daniel, then you can finish up the story about what happened in heaven with Daniel. So what tell us who is Daniel?

Well, many years before I had a miscarriage and I was only about four or five weeks pregnant. So it wasn’t very far along. So really in the natural, I didn’t know if it was a boy or a girl, but I felt in my heart that it was a boy. And so I named him Daniel.

Mhm.

And so that is who Daniel is.

So I’m in heaven, Marzuka and I are walking. We’re actually going someplace and this little boy comes up to me and kind of stands right in front of me and he looks like he’s like five or six. He said, “Oh, my name’s Daniel. I think you’re my dad.” And and I kind of like wow. I hadn’t thought about that since Cathy had the miscarriage. I had to realize that okay, it’s unfortunate. I would have loved to have had another baby, but you know, hopefully maybe a son, but it didn’t happen. So, if you could be real shocked in heaven, I guess that was probably at the time I was the most shocked. I said, “Well, we were going to have a little baby and the Cathy thought it was going to be a little boy and she was going to name him Daniel.” He said, “Well,” he goes, “I’ve been here since I was really little.”

Aw.

He said that he was raised in this with a bunch of other little babies. They just all grown up together.

So, really that is so encouraging for women who like in your case, Cathy, you know, they had a miscarriage or whatever happened that they will, you know, as believers in Christ, they’ll have an opportunity to see their babies. And just amazing thing to know that God just takes such good care of everything we love. And I know there’s a whole lot more maybe somewhere we’ll talk about, but I do want to get to this. I want to ask you what happened when you saw Jesus. How would you describe him? That to me is this the best part.

Yeah, that was like the last place I went to get the I got to go see. We went into the throne room building and walked down this amazing hall with these high arch ceilings just littered with gold and all kind of precious jewels. And we walked through this door and you could see you could see this platform at the end. And behind the platform where was kind of a curved area and it had lightning, it had thunder, had this huge rainbow behind it. And you could feel the power and the peace and the love. I mean, it was all the same together, but you could feel each one and you could hear the thunder of God’s voice speaking. In fact, when I heard it the first couple of times, I wasn’t real sure that I heard anything or what I heard, and then I heard it again and I was he was speaking to me and he said, “Hello, Steve. Welcome to heaven.” We were Marzuka and I were walking in well, he knelt down and bowed his head and he pushed me forward on against my back. And so, we I walked forward. I wasn’t real sure how far to walk, so I kind of stopped probably about 10 or 15 ft from these from this platform and there were seven steps that went up to this platform where the two thrones were. Now, God the Father looked like he was I didn’t see a figure, but I saw this bright light. Okay, that’s the way I’ll describe it. It’s just a bright light. I could I could look at it, didn’t hurt my eyes, but it was like the light of heaven. Okay, that’s that God is the light of heaven and he’s he was sitting there on that throne. And then Jesus was sitting next to him and the throne next to him on his right and he got up and came down to where I was standing. He said, “You know, I got a couple of pictures I want to show you.” And the first one was me laying on the ground. It was a kind of a black and white picture. I didn’t look like I was in very good shape. And part of the reason is because it was a black and white picture and my face but my face looked pretty gray. I didn’t look real healthy and he said, “Now, this is you, but you’re going to be just fine.” And he said, “I got another picture and it was a color picture. I was in the same pose laying on the ground. He it was a color picture, but I looked a lot better. I looked healthy and I had on these kind of a red and white type pajama type stripes. And he said, “This is you and you’re going to be just fine because you’re healed by my stripes and my righteousness.” So, you got to you got to understand this is like a pretty emotional type thing. I mean, I could just feel the love, you know, he had you know, when he talks about my stripes and his righteousness, you know, those stripes were he got beat, you know, he took he bled and that was his love. And he gave me this big hug and I hugged him back and you know, I can tell you I can I can feel like I’m in that hug almost anytime I want to. And it was like amazing. And he told me he loved me and I told him I loved him and I thanked him for his sacrifice. Then he kind of stepped back and we had a little conversation. He was talking to me about a few things. A real incredible experience. Jesus is talking about 6 ft or 6’1 had kind of longish dark hair, had a nicely trimmed beard, had piercing blue eyes. And I’ve heard people say that well, Jesus has eyes of eyes of fire. Well, out of flame, blue is the hottest part of that fire. And so and I had to give Kathy I think Kathy pointed that out to me.

That’s true.

Those piercing blue eyes were you know, you could just feel the depth of mean the love and the power and you know, when he spoke, he when he told me he loved me, I could feel the warmth and the true love. When some of the other times he spoke, he was a little bit more he had stuff for me to do and he was a little bit more, you know, matter-of-fact about it. But I knew it was all in the love. It was all just, you know, because he’s got stuff he’s got stuff for us to do.

Right.

And and then when I left the throne room, I’m walking with Marzuka and I said, “So Marzuka, why did you kneel down and push me forward?” He said, “And this is something that really makes this verse stand out to me.” A lot of things have happened that make verses stand out to me, but this one, you know, Marzuka said, he said, “I knelt down because the Lord is my master and I serve him.” He said, “I you forward because you are family. You are the sons

and you go boldly into his throne room because you don’t have to crawl, you don’t have to, you know, beg and, you know, plead for God to let you come in. I mean, you think about that. If you’ve got kids, you don’t make them beg to come and sit on your lap or come and beg to talk to you. God loves us and he wants us to come in there.

And, you know, that just that just hit home so much for me. When I pray now, man, I know that God wants me there and, you know, because he’s he’s he’s seeing me through the blood of Jesus and I can go boldly into the throne room. I can just go up right to him, sit on his lap if I want to feel like I’m doing that and put my arm around him and his arm around me and just sit there and talk to him.

Absolutely. And I mean, I’m sure it had to be I don’t know what point in your visit to heaven was it after you saw Jesus or did you get to hang out a little bit more after Jesus talked with you? Was that was like your final and the angel brought you back? Like how did you

Yeah, that was that was like the last place I went. In fact, when we were leaving, Marzuka was saying, I need to get you back to your body because you’re going to be waking up any any minute now and Kathy’s going to be sitting there waiting for you.

Oh, wow. And so that’s what happened?

So that’s what happened and so right after he told me that’s when I asked him about the throne room. kneeling down. And yes. So I opened my eyes and Kathy’s sitting there waiting for me.

Wow. And you did you Was it like you were instantly you went right from being with Marzuka into your body then?

But I didn’t go through the We did go back to the welcome center and, you know, the guy at the welcome center, you know, basically he said, we’ll see you again and then I’m boom, I’m I don’t remember going back through space again. I just remember opening up my eyes and I have to be honest, I did not when I opened my eyes, I did not have any remembrance of any of this happening to me yet. Because, I was on a lot of medications from the hospital, and I was just trying to figure out where I was.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well,

I was wiggle my arms, see see what works, and see and that’s why I found out my arm doesn’t work very well, but that’s working fine now. I got it well throw it up

now. The Lord made sure And, I just want to ask you this, too. What two specific experiences that you can think of that you had in heaven that you’re going to miss the most, and you can’t wait to get back to experience it again?

I one of the things that I got to do was I got to ride a horse. So, that was a pretty wild experience, and I guess I would really like to do that again. That’s that’s that’s kind of in the book somewhere, so I’ll just kind of let people go read it.

Okay.

You know, and there’s a couple of things, you know, just being with family, you know, my son who I didn’t get to grow up with or be with when we were growing up. I’d love to be with them again. I’d love to be with my brother. I’ve missed him so much. I love you know, just all my parents, Cathy’s parents, just all the loved ones, you know, they’re there. And then just, you know, it’s hard to pick out you know, heaven’s heaven. I mean, it’s not like I got to decide if I’d rather go to Six Flags or, you know, some other theme park, you know.

It’s like you’re talking about heaven. There’s no bad nothing bad about

Yes. Well, again, when you said Jesus when Jesus hugged you, I’m cuz you said you would you could remember it like you can feel it when So, I’m thinking that’s what’s keeping cuz I’m just going to be honest, I have talked to the Lord so many times and said, “Lord, you know, I would love to go to heaven and just even I don’t care if it’s my time to go or not. I’ll go anytime you want.” But, but he won’t he won’t let me see anything, and I and I think one of the reasons is because I think I would be very depressed if I had to if I saw what I what you’re seeing, I think I would be so depressed and that’s why I was wondering cuz maybe it’s a good thing you didn’t remember anything right away because I think if I got back in my body I’d be going, “You brought me back.” You know, that’s why he won’t let me go. I really do.

I can tell you that when I started having these memories and I mean they were vivid. I mean I couldn’t have just dreamt these. I mean they were more vivid and more real than my most favorite vacation.

Wow.

And you know, and that’s why when I think about them I can like almost feel like I’m experiencing them again.

Mhm.

That’s how real they were. And and then I’m sitting there thinking, “How can I tell this to anyone? They’re going to think I’m crazy. You know?”

That had to be hard, too. Yes.

Oh, I was reluctant to tell I got to tell somebody and the only person I can think of I can tell right now is Kathy and she’s going to think I’m crazy. And you know, so I had to pray about it for days. I would I was in a rehab hospital at the time and I’d lay in bed and this and just because I started having these memories there and I started praying about it, “Lord, am I like crazy or did I go there and you know, the Lord has reassured me more than once that yes, that’s real.

Yes.

One of the things that I like to talk about is 2 Corinthians 4:18 and it says while we look not at the things which are seen, which are temporary, but we look at the things which are unseen, which are eternal. And also that we walk by faith,

Mhm.

not by sight because my sight when I finally got to go and see him after those 20 days and he was still in the in the coma initially. You know, I saw a lot of awful stuff, you know, just looking at him. But I had to keep my eyes on the unseen realm in the eyes of my spirit. No, every time the enemy would bring bad thoughts, well, it’s a good thing I walk by faith then and not by sight.

Yes.

And God’s word is eternal. That is eternal forever settled in heaven. And so we have to learn how to see the unseen. And when we begin to do that, there is an amazing joy that the Lord will give us in spite of the difficult things that we’re going through. In spite of it. And you kind of go, well, I wonder why I feel joyful because everything around me is falling apart. But you when you focus and Steve has a little story about

keeping your eye on Jesus.

when you can focus on Jesus

And

walk by faith, there is amazing things the Lord shows you. And amazing things that he will

Absolutely.

let you experience.

Well, the verse that I like to use these days from my experience is 1 Corinthians 2 verses 9 and 10. And it says, “No eye has seen nor ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. But it was to us that God revealed these things by his spirit. For his spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets.”

Mhm.

And that’s what I feel like I experience is you know, God’s secrets about heaven. And you know, Marzuka told me he said that you know, people say, “Well, I don’t I don’t believe there’s baseball in heaven.” And Marzuka told me he said, “People need to expand their concept of heaven.”

Mhm.

Or people may believe that you saw your dogs. Well, you’re going to better expand your concept of heaven. You’re going to be so overwhelmed with all the things you never thought were going to be there that you it may take you a while to get over it.

Right. Well, and this is the thing too. I think people forget that scripture tells us that it’s beyond our imagination what’s even there. So, we can’t even imagine what is there because we don’t have the ability to imagine what’s even there. So, I agree absolutely.

and the thing is Marzuka told me he said that you know, God has never stopped creating things and it’s going to take us eternity to see everything he created. So, you know, it’s just going to be an eternity of amazement and wonder because God is going to keep doing things and we’re just going to be in total awe of all the things that he’s done.

What do you feel God wants us to learn from your experience?

First off, let me Well, let me share this one little thing about keeping your eye on Jesus. One of the things that I went through after I was back in my body is I went through a week’s worth of fentanyl withdrawals because I was on a very high dose fentanyl given me through an IV. And they basically just cut it off cold turkey. Well, I’ve been on this stuff for 6 weeks at a high dose. So, I’m addicted to this fentanyl stuff. and so when they cut it off, I started going through just a week’s worth of just terrible terrible terrible withdrawal systems. I mean, I there was a time in that period that I thought I’m going to I could die. You know, I didn’t I’m usually pretty optimistic. I have a hard time being down on about anything because I always think well, there’s there’s always you know, something good’s going to happen. Well, I’m in this thing and I’m having these withdrawals and I’m just I’m just thinking I’m dying. I didn’t know. I couldn’t really discern what was going on in the room. I knew there was a lot of commotion, a lot of activity, but I really couldn’t tell what anybody was doing and I just heard a lot of noise. And in all of that, I’m sitting here thinking about myself, about how bad I feel and how I could die. Well, just out in my right ear, I heard this very firm and distinct voice say, “Keep your eye on me.” And I knew exactly who it was. That was the Lord talking to me. And because I’m in a ventilator, I’m in bad shape, I can’t do anything. So, the only thing working is my brain somewhat. So, I just started praising and worshiping the Lord. I took myself took my mind and my thoughts off of my condition and I started putting them on Jesus. And you know, I don’t know what ended up happening in the room, but I know that me taking my focus off of me and on to Jesus helped me personally get through that. And then whatever they did medically in the room added to that as far as I’m concerned. Because if I had to just given up and said, “Okay, I’m dead.” I probably would be dead.

Yeah. Yeah.

but you know, the Lord said, “No, keep your eye on me.” And so, one thing that I would say is yeah, you know what? We need to keep our eye on Jesus. Don’t keep your eyes on the headlines. Don’t keep your eyes on, you know, who said what about somebody on some social media page. Because you know what? It’s all a moot point. It really doesn’t mean anything. So, you know, let’s keep our eye on Jesus because he’s the reason we’re here. He’s got work for us to do. And if we let the devil trip us up, mess us up, get us distracted, then we’re not going to do what Jesus wants us to do.

Yeah, I agree. Amen. Amen. And actually, when you know what’s waiting for you know, it doesn’t make it as hard to leave this earth when you know what’s waiting for you. And I’m just so thankful. And Stephen Kathy, you may not be aware of this, but I don’t think I told you this when we met, but my late husband became ill in late November of 2021, the exact same month as you were, Stephen. His name was Steve. And he also went to heaven, but he finished his race, so he got to stay there. And I want to thank you so much for sharing all that. I know there’s so much more. I wanted to say this for people that are can physically see this, unless you’re listening on the podcast, but we want to talk about your book because I’m sure some of our listeners watchers have more questions about your journey and there’s a lot more in there. I read your book, it’s awesome and I know they can purchase your book. It’s titled I’ve been to heaven. It’s available on Amazon and any major bookstore, correct? And and can put they can also go to your website steveandkathyb.com, which will put that in the podcast and they can purchase your book there as well. And also, if anyone wants to schedule you for a speaking event or podcast, they can contact you on that website as well.

Now, best to email, so you can use my email, which is kathy@steveandkathyb.com.

Okay. And we have put that in there as well. Absolute And you have a you have a newsletter, too, that you said that you started. So, if people are interested, they can sign up for that. And one last thing that I want to mention, which is something recent I just found out, was that you guys are going to be speakers on a cruise to the Caribbean. And the name of the cruise line again that’s doing it?

The name of the cruise line is actually Royal Caribbean.

Royal Caribbean.

the website to sign up for is heavenlycruises.com.

Okay. Okay. They get to talk to you while you’re on the ship as well. You’re going to be inundated with people, you know that, but that’s that’s part of the fun. Yes, absolutely. And and so, we’ll make sure we put all that information in there and I just want to say, Steven Kathy, it has been an honor. It’s gone by so quickly, like I have said before to you two. I could keep you for hours with all these questions. And I just want you know, I just feel honored to have you as my guest today. I thank you and I pray and I know the Lord will continue to use your story and ministry to touch lives of others with the message of God’s love. And I hope I hope we’ll meet up again soon. Maybe at the next NRB. I would love that, but I want to thank you and God bless you both. Thank you so much for sharing today.

Well, thank you for having us again. We appreciate it.

Thank you for joining me today on COMPASS in the Storm. I hope you received encouragement and enjoyed hearing about the mysteries of heaven that await each of us who are Christ followers. I’m looking forward to that day when I will see the mysteries of heaven. But friend, when unexpected storms of life hit, we often find ourselves in need of help navigating that storm. It can be hard just to take our next breath. It’s comforting to know that God’s grace can get us through. That’s why I invite you to join me on this monthly podcast. We explore stories of how people found guidance, answers, and strength during the most challenging seasons of their lives guided by the compass of God’s word and the power of God’s grace. New episodes drop every first Tuesday of the month on my YouTube channel and all major podcast platforms.

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