BACK FROM THE DEAD, REBORN INTO THE LIGHT!

By Sheryl Fountain; The 700 Club It was the morning of 20 September 2006. Jeff Markin recalls heading for work as usual. What he doesn’t remember is driving himself to the hospital. He had called his boss and told him he didn’t feel well. His boss was concerned and convinced Jeff to go to the emergency room. Somehow Jeff made it. Once he got there, he collapsed. Dr. Chauncey Crandall was doing rounds in the Intensive Care Unit that morning. He recalls, "An alert call came over the PA system that someone had arrived at the hospital with a massive, deadly heart attack. Then a second call went out over the PA system and specifically asked for me, because I was the cardiologist that day. When I arrived there, it was like a war zone. It was chaos. Everyone there fighting to keep this man alive." The ER staff worked on Jeff for 40 minutes. They shocked him a dozen times. Despite their efforts, there was no response. Once Dr. Crandall decided the team had done everything medically possible, he noted the time of death. Medically Jeff was dead, but he was still experiencing consciousness. "I was standing in the back of a funeral home, and at that time, I determined that I had died," Jeff Markin says. "This funeral home was empty and I was wondering where all my friends and family were." While a nurse prepared Jeff’s body for the morgue, Dr. Crandall updated the charts. "As soon as my notes were completed, I walked out through the door of the emergency room and I heard this Voice say, ‘Turn around and pray for this man.’ I wanted to ignore that Voice because I said to myself, How can I pray for that man? He’s dead - he’s gone! There’s no life in him. So I kept on walking. The Voice came back again and said, ‘Turn around and pray for that man.’ I stopped and thought I needed to honour the Lord. So I turned around at the doorway, and I walked back to the side of the body. "A nurse was on the other side of the body, and she was looking, probably thinking, ‘What are you doing? Why are you here?’ I stood there next to the corpse and I opened my mouth and these words came out: ‘Father God, I cry out for this man’s soul. If he does not know you as his Lord and Saviour, Father, raise him from the dead now, in Jesus’ Name.’" "I remember staring at bright lights and they were swirling around," Jeff says. "Out of those bright lights came an image and he told me that he was there to look over me and make sure that everything was going to be fine." Dr. Crandall continues, "The other doctor walked into the room and I pointed to him and said, ‘Shock this man one more time.’ He looked at me and said, ‘Dr. Crandall, we can’t shock him. He’s dead. There’s no life in him. He's gone.’ I said, ‘For me, shock him one more time.’ Out of respect for me, the other doctor went over to that dead body with the defibrillator paddles, put his paddles on the patient and shocked him. Immediately an instant heartbeat came back. Instant, perfect, regular, which we’ve never seen before. Then suddenly the patient’s abdomen started moving, he started breathing and then a couple of moments later, his fingers started twitching." They immediately moved Jeff to the Intensive Care Unit. Three days later, Jeff woke up with no evidence of brain or organ damage. "Once I woke up, my daughter Jillian was there," Jeff says. "That’s when she told me what had happened." Dr. Crandall says, "When I came in on Monday morning, Jeff was sitting up in bed, and I said, ‘Where were you that day when I prayed for you in the emergency room?’ And he said, ‘I was in total darkness and I was so disappointed.’ I said, ‘Jeff, what were you disappointed about?’ He said, ‘I was alone for eternity.’" Jeff recalls, "He asked me at that time if I was willing to accept God into my life and into my heart and I did. I just opened my arms and accepted God. It was a very emotional time and I remember crying in his arms." Today Jeff is back at work and gets regular check-ups with Dr. Crandall. "He still has no heart problems or residual complications from his brush with death," Dr. Crandall says. Jeff ponders, "Why have I been so fortunate to have God shine on me? It’s been tremendous! I’ve been physically reborn. I’ve been spiritually reborn, and I’m just very grateful for God’s indescribable grace and mercy for an undeserving sinner like me!" "The day that I prayed for Jeff was a day when my faith was small. It wasn’t one of my ‘big God days’," Dr. Crandall says. "I was in such a rush at work and I didn’t have a lot of faith backing that prayer. But the Lord asked me to do it, so I honoured the Lord and prayed. That’s all we should do: All you need is just a spark of faith like a mustard seed. When you cry out to God and the mighty Holy Spirit, He will take control. Miracles are real, and they’re still real today!" www.cbn.com