David

“I died for 24 minutes with no brain activity, and while I was gone, the Holy Spirit showed me every moment I had cried out to God and taken the credit myself.”

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What they struggled with

Gang involvement Drug addiction Incarceration Father wound Shame Bereavement / grief Anger

False refuges

Drugs Power / status / wealth Rage / violence

What this story reveals about God

Relentless pursuit Patience Father's heart Restorer Mercy Faithful to his word

Religious background

Main testimony theme

Secondary theme

Near-death experience

How they came to faith

Supernatural encounter Hitting rock bottom

God accusation

Content advisory

Before you watch

This testimony contains graphic descriptions of gang violence, multiple near-death incidents including a shooting and stabbing, severe drug addiction, and a 24-minute cardiac death. What makes it worth watching is the NDE life review — God showing David every moment he had cried out and been answered, and the quiet authority with which that changed everything.

What this story teaches

People can cry out to God in desperation for years without recognizing it as relationship — and God answers anyway, waiting for the moment when the person can no longer explain it away.

How God moved

The lie David carried

Everything I survived was because of me — I never gave God credit, I thought it was all my own strength.

What Jesus showed him

David had cried out to God over 100 times across shootings, stabbings, and prison — and every time he survived, he took the credit himself. The core wound was a lifetime of self-reliance built on never having a father, never being taught to receive help, and being raised to believe strength was self-made. The NDE stripped that lie bare: he could not take credit for surviving death.

Go Deeper

Seek God, man. Seek a relationship. Dig deep because the roots of the trauma you deal with, the roots of the things that are pulling you away from him, they're deep. And you have to expose them. You have to dig deep. You have to really be vulnerable and transparent. And if you don't have no one to do that with, you need to find someone. You need to get plugged into a Bible study. Church is great. Sunday service is great, but for me, Bible study — if they did Bible study five times a week, that would be excellent for me because it's teaching me, it's equipping me. The sermon is great, but that's somebody else's point of view. You need to get your own. You need to have your own relationship with Christ because the things that he'll give you, nobody else can.

Progressive entrapment

Started with weed at a young age from his mom's stash, introduced to harder drugs and drug dealing by a cousin at 12-13, escalated through X pills, alcohol, heroin, and finally meth — which he could not quit by willpower unlike everything else. 'The meth had a hold on me and I couldn't shake it. I would crush the pipe, I would break it, but I would never stop.'

Core lie

Every time David survived a shooting, a stabbing, a kidnapping, or a near-death situation, he took the credit himself. 'I cried out to God, but I never gave him credit for it. I always thought it was me.' This lie of self-sufficiency kept him from recognizing God's sustained presence and returning to him.

Generational demon

David explicitly names generational curses as the framework for his family's patterns: 'A lot of you suffer with alcohol or addiction. It was passed down to you. You seen it growing up. It's just repetitive, and you don't even realize that it's a generational curse. That generational curse stops with me.'

Isolation pattern

After his best friend's suicide, David describes being pushed deeper into addiction and not caring about anything — wife, kids, future. 'I don't care if you leave. I don't care what happens. I know I'm going back to prison. I lost my best friend. I just felt like everything was over with.' Grief became the final isolating force before the cardiac arrest.

1

Man, God, I don't know what's going on. I don't know where I'm at. I don't know what to do right now, but if you're real, help me. Come help me right now. I don't know what's going on. God, look, I'm scared. I don't know what to do. I just need you to take the wheel. If you help me right now, I'll never do any of these things that I've done again. I'll really live for you. I'll really serve you.

2

I told the nurse, 'Thank you for everything you did, but Jesus Christ saved my life.' I told my wife we're going to get married. I started witnessing to nurses — 'Hey, do you know about Jesus? God really wants to move in your life.'

3

I remember telling my mom, 'Hey, I forgive you for everything.' I'm sorry for the way that I treated you. I'm sorry for the way I manipulated things. I'm sorry. And I told Glenn, 'Thank you, man. Everything you ever did — I know it was really you behind the scenes.'

4

I was at a church and I was planted there. I started going to a bunch of different churches looking for more. I end up meeting the pastor that I'm under now and he's like, 'You need to get a different Bible translation. We have Bible study on Mondays. We'll come together and we'll grow.'

5

The first scripture I ever memorized was Proverbs 3:5 — trust in the Lord with all your heart and don't lean on your own understanding. When I learned that, I was like, well, this is all I need to know. My own understanding ain't give me nothing but trouble, pain, hurt. Trust in the Lord.

6

We're married now and man, it's been awesome. God's really moved in my life. She serves right now, and she's a big part of the ministry. God opened up some amazing doors for me — I ain't supposed to have a house right now. There was no way I had the credit for it, and God opened up a door and I have a four-bedroom house.

Proverbs 3:5–6

First scripture David memorized; became his anchor for trusting God over his own understanding after years of self-reliance.

Romans 10:13

David shared this with a young man before he was killed; became the seed of hope he planted and the source of his peace afterward.

James 4:7

David emphasizes the full verse — submit AND resist — as the key to freedom, noting most people quote only the second half.

Isaiah 55:8–9

God's response to David's anger over the young man's death — 'My ways are not your ways' — brought peace and acceptance.

Proverbs 14:12

David quotes 'there is a way that seems right to man that ends in death' to describe his pre-conversion street life.

Like Paul, David was stopped mid-course by a divine encounter that reoriented his entire life and immediately sent him witnessing.

David left home at 14, squandered years in reckless living, hit rock bottom, and returned to a God who had been waiting for him.

24 minutes clinically dead with no brain activity; God breathed life back in and David emerged as a new man with a new mission.

David explicitly says 'when they say I was reborn, I was really reborn' — his physical death and return mirrors baptismal death and new life.

The accusation

God was absent

What they said

“Man, God, if you're really real, where you at? Where you at right now? Where you at in the midst of all this hurt and all this pain and all these people who I'm losing?”

How God answered

During the NDE, the Holy Spirit showed David that every time he had cried out to God, God had answered — he had just taken the credit himself. The accusation of absence was answered by a replay of God's sustained presence across his entire life.

Resolution

Fully resolved in testimony

David's Christian Walk

Criminal case dismissed. Married his longtime partner. Owns a four-bedroom house. Holds stable employment — he and his wife essentially run the business. Reconciled with his mother and stepfather Glenn. No altercations since conversion despite encountering people he previously wronged. Stopped all drug use and street activity. Active father to all his children.

When they say I was reborn, I was really reborn. Everything was new to me — smell, taste, hearing people's voice, everything felt new.

The addictions — 'He took a lot of things that I struggled with, the addictions. He took it all away.' Specifically the meth addiction he had been unable to break by willpower, and the compulsive return to street life and drug dealing.

He took a lot of things that I struggled with, the addictions. He took it all away. I come from a background of poverty, gang, drugs, addiction, depression, suicidal thoughts, and he took all that away. The anger, the bitterness, the lust, the violence — all I knew — he took it.

Prayer

The power of Prayer — praying employer and workplace community stood in the gap for David.

The owner of the business where David's wife worked was a believer. When David went into cardiac arrest and the coma, the owner and the workplace community prayed for him intensively. When David came out and applied for a job with no experience, the owner hired him, saying 'I already know you and you don't even know it.' He opened a door that gave David his first stable employment and a community of faith around him.

Is today your day?

Yes — I'm Ready

Absolutely, He will.

You don't have to figure everything out right now.

You don't need to have all the answers.

If something stirred in your heart while you were watching or reading — that's not nothing.

That is the Holy Spirit gently knocking on the door of your heart.

Stay right here. There's no rush. The Spirit doesn't pressure or hurry.

Watch another video. Read a little more. Take your time.

When you're ready — even if “ready” just means a little curious — Jesus is ready to meet you.

You don't have to clean up your life first.

You don't have to pass any test.

You only need to say a simple “yes” to Him.

He will take care of the rest.

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

Luke 11:9

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