MY NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE ON AN AEROPLANE.
- Pastor Benny Hinn
Often, when one of God’s angels comes to your rescue, you won’t realize it at the time. The truth of the situation will dawn on you later.
You may be driving on the highway and suddenly your car swerves to avoid a terrible accident. It all happens so quickly you don’t know what is going on. But a few minutes later you exclaim, “Ahh...Godj ust saved my life!”
Think back on the times the Lord has sent guardian angels for your protection.
I can still recall the moment I heard the pilot say, “We’re in trouble!”
Those scary words woke me from my sleep. We were in a small single engine Cessna at 11,000 feet, returning to Orlando from Naples, Florida, in May 1983 about 1 a.m. The sky was pitch black and there were six of us on board.
“I think we are out of fuel,” the concerned pilot told us as the engine sputtered and stopped. I could feel my heart pounding against my rib-cage and thought, “God in heaven, I could be with You any minute.” Then I began to ask myself, “Am I ready? Am I ready?”
When facing death, that question becomes most powerful. I knew that my answer could leave no room for doubt. Was I ready fort eternity?
If you find yourself in the same situation what will you be asking?
Are you ready?
As the plane was falling and the pilot was anxiously searching for an emergency landing site, suddenly my mind flashed back to an
event that happened eight months earlier.
In September 1982, my father, Costandi, passed away. At the funeral home, the director approached me and said, “Reverend Hinn, your father needs a necktie. Could you get one for him?”
Immediately, I took off the tie I was wearing and handed it to themortician. Later, after the funeral service, I was standing before the
coffin at the cemetery. As they were lowering the casket of my dear father into the ground, an incident happened that I had almost dismissed from memory. But now as the plane was plummeting, I remembered it all too clearly.
As the pallbearers lowered the coffin, I experienced something quite unusual. Even though I had given my necktie to my father, I suddenly felt a tightening around my throat, as if my own necktie was choking me. I then heard a voice say, You will be dead in one year. I immediately replied out loud, “No, I won’t.”
When Satan speaks, you had better talk back, even if people are around. I looked upward toward the sky and said, “God in heaven, the devil can’t do that!” And instantly I heard the unmistakable voice of the Holy Spirit. The words He spoke were all I needed. The Spirit softly whispered, “I won’t let you die.”
Now, on the plane, I remembered those words: “You will be dead I one year!” But I also recalled the reassuring voice of the Holy Spirit.It took just a second for the entire scene to flash through my mind. Then the peace of God washed over me like a warm blanket and I knew I would not die. I blurted out to the other nervous passengers, “Don’t worry. We’re going to be all right. The Lord just told me!” For I’d heard His voice again on that plane.
Usually, I am excitable, but at that particular moment I became calm. Without the roar of the engine, the silence was deafening in the plane. The pilot spotted an airstrip near Avon Park, Florida, and did his best to maneuver the troubled craft to the runway. But with mo power it became impossible—and he missed his target.
The plane crashed!
We smashed into a tree and the small aircraft rolled over four times. It was totally demolished—the wheels were ripped off and remained in the tree. The fuselage was so damaged that an onlooker would doubt there could be any survivors. The engine was torn from its housing and we hung upside down.
The door of the plane had disappeared as I crawled out to realize that there was not a scratch on my body. Thank God, I was unharmed.
In the darkness, I began to run in circles for help, not knowing where I was or what direction to go. All I knew was that we were in the middle of a farm. Then I thought, “What in the world am I doing?” I had better go back and help the other passengers.”
I ran back to the plane to discover that I was the only one who had escaped injury. The heads of the pilots were jutting through the broken windshield. They were making horrible sounds as I tried to pull them out of the wreckage, but the twisted metal was wrapped around them, making it impossible. Another passenger, a businessman, had injuries to his head, and it was apparent that his eye had popped out of the socket. I reached over and pushed his eye back into place in the name of the Lord.
Miraculously, not one person was killed in the crash. As the ambulance was approaching the site—which seemed to take
forever—I began to cry, “Oh Lord, the devil wanted to kill me, but Your angel was by my side. You alone have preserved me Because You have a purpose for my life. Otherwise, I would be dead right now. Thank You, Lord.”
Later I learned that at the exact moment our plane was experiencing engine trouble, a woman was awakened from her sleep in California. She told the story of how God woke her, saying, “Benny Hinn is in danger! Pray!” She added, “The devil wanted to snuff out your life!”
How well I knew it! I will never forget the tension-filled moment when I asked, “Am I ready?” In my heart of hearts I knew that I was, and I also understood that God was not finished with my assignment on earth.
Earlier, the Holy Spirit had given me the assurance, and now an angel of protection was guarding my life.
Credit : Jesus SAVES TV
Am I ready?
Are you ready?
Are we ready?
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