Robert Morris - God's Goodness
I want to share a very special message with you today that is not in our normal series of messages. And that is I want to share with you today what happened to me just a few months ago when I went through the health crisis that many of you prayed me through. Literally, I lost over half of my blood, and almost died. And the doctors said there's no medical reason why you're still alive, and many of you haven't heard the details of that story, but I shared them with our congregation. And I want to share that message with you today. Here's the message, I call it, God's Goodness.
The story is that the day after Easter, I had hernia surgery. Nothing went wrong. Everything was successful. In some of our earlier social media posts, it was our fault, we said that it was complications from the hernia surgery. It was not. And one of the reasons I want to say that is because the doctor that did the hernia surgery is one of our elders. He's also the doctor that did the two surgeries that saved my life. And so, there was nothing, he did nothing wrong at all.
Six days later, I started feeling bad. Debbie and I, many of you know, have some land about an hour and a half, two hours outside of the Metroplex. It's where I write, and we get away, and relax. And so, it was a perfect storm in that we were away from this area where, you know, the surgeries were done. And then also, it was race weekend, and so it would have been difficult with the traffic, and we're in a very remote area. But I started feeling bad, and I asked her to help me to get in the bathtub, and as she did, I passed out.
And, this is why I appreciate you praying for Debbie, because when I passed out, my eyes were open and I stopped breathing for about a period of about 30 seconds, and she thought I had died. And so, when I came to, she was on the phone with 911. And, so the paramedics came, and we called the surgeon, and they said, well, maybe you're dehydrated, and so they gave me two bags of fluid. We didn't know I was bleeding internally, but the two bags of fluid, again, were something that helped sustain my life, that gave me more fluid for my heart to keep pumping. And, we waited a little while, and then I asked her a little while later, can you help me up now, and I started to pass out again.
And so, she called the paramedics back, and in between, we were doing my blood pressure, and we had just a little machine you buy at the pharmacy, so I really don't know whether this was accurate or not, but my blood pressure was 50/35, and my heart rate was over 100, which, it's like when you exercise, your heart's trying to pump that blood. And so, it was trying to pump blood, but there wasn't much blood to pump. This was different from when I was in Australia about six years ago. I had a bleeding ulcer and I was passing blood, so that's how I knew I was bleeding. I thought, well, I must not be losing blood, because I'm not passing blood, but I was bleeding into my abdominal cavity.
So, the paramedics came back. They put me in the ambulance immediately and they started doing fluids again, and they checked the blood pressure, but my blood pressure was actually too low to read. It would not register at all. And then, this was a little surreal, and there'll be a few little humorous parts in this. They're humorous now. But, so there's one paramedic on one side and one on the other, and they're doing this, and I can hear 'em talking and sayin' I can't feel a pulse, can you feel a pulse? The other one said, no, I don't. I can't feel a pulse. And I was thinkin', I can hear you. I mean, I'm not a medical professional, but I'm pretty sure I have a pulse, because I'm hearing what you're saying right now.
And so, one of the paramedics had moved to this smaller town where our land is to just slow down. He had been a helicopter paramedic for 13 years. And again, it's amazing the people that God put in our path. And so, he knew I needed to be care flighted immediately, and so he said to me, he said, sir, look at me. Can you understand what I'm saying? And I shook my head yes, and he said, you need to be care flighted. This is life and death. And he said, do you have helicopter insurance?
And I know that sounds strange, but some people who have a place in a remote place, which we're now getting this for grandkids or whatever, there's something, you know, you can do. So anyway, when he said life or death, I don't know why I said this, and I know this sounds a little bad the way I said it, but I just, he said life or death, so he said, do you have helicopter insurance? I said, I don't know, but I can afford it. So, you know. What I meant was, I'll figure it out. If I have to sell the house, we'll, you know. I'd rather live, you know. Of course, later I got the bill and found out that I couldn't afford it, so.
But then they got out and they told Debbie, and that's a tough thing for a wife to hear. They said, his blood pressure's too low to read. We can't get a blood pressure, and we can't even feel a pulse, and so we've called for a helicopter. And then the guy said, you might want to want to get in and talk to him. And so, we both thought that it was over. And I actually said to the surgeon, who's one of our elders, I said, I thought I was dying, and he said, you were. You were dying. And so, Debbie and I said good-byes, and I recorded a video to our children and our grandchildren.
And so, the helicopter took 35 minutes to get there, and then about 10 minutes to transfer me over, and then 45 minutes to get me to Baylor. I'm saying that because we found out later I had two torn arteries that were simply just pumping blood into my abdomen, and you just have minutes when that happens, you know. So, before we took off, I asked to talk to Debbie again, and, when we were waiting for the helicopter to land. It hadn't landed yet, but I said to her, I think you need to put this out on social media, because I think I need all the prayers I can get. And, I believed that God did that. God did something there.
I've been thinking about this, because I have had several people say to me, we have great leaders here in the kingdom that are here, and I'm grateful for my friendship with Greg and Rice, but I've had several leaders say to me the same thing. They said, Robert, I don't remember, in my lifetime, a time when the body of Christ came together to pray for someone as much as they came together to pray for you. And what I thought about was, I think that's fantastic and it saved my life, but if we could come together to pray for a dying person, what would happen if we came together to pray for a dying nation? And so, one of the things that I'm hoping can happen out of this is that God could use me to gather people to pray, and help the body of Christ to pray.
And so, anyway, they took me to the hospital. When I landed, they immediately put a port in my neck. All my veins had collapsed. Your body starts sending, the heart starts sending blood to your vital organs. When I landed, I had lost half my blood. And all you've gotta do is look this up on the medical sites on the web, how much blood does a person have to lose before he dies, and it'll say 40% to 45%, and I had lost over 50%. And it says without medical attention, then death is imminent. So again, the medical attention that I received in the helicopter.
So we landed and they immediately put a port in that had four IVs in it and started giving me blood and fluids, and eventually at one point, I had nine IV bags going in me. They took me in for a CAT scan and they saw a hematoma, dried blood, which was where the blood was gathering in my abdomen, and I could feel pain in my stomach, and it was the size, according to the surgeon, a little larger than a cantaloupe. And so, they knew I was bleeding internally and said, we're taking you in immediately. They took me in. They removed that. They found where it was bleeding and cauterized it, but they didn't know — they looked, but they couldn't find, but there was actually another bleed in another place.
So, the first one was fixed. They didn't know there was another one. My blood pressure after surgery was 65/40. This is a picture. It was, just a moment ago, briefly in the video, but this is the picture we didn't post online, but as you can see, I don't look like I'm havin' fun. But the next day, they gave me — a man my size has 12 units of blood. They gave me 6 units of blood, 4 units of plasma, and 2 units of platelets, and my blood pressure still wouldn't come up, so that's when they knew, he's probably still bleeding somewhere. And so, they took me back in for a CAT scan, and there was another cantaloupe sized hematoma from less than 24 hours, or around 24 hours.
And so, they took me back in. That time they opened me up big time. So, I apologize for not praying enough for every woman that's ever had a C-section. And they did not do a bikini cut on me, so it's not a very flattering scar that I have. But, they opened up and they moved everything around to find any other place I was bleeding, and found another tear, and cauterized it, and then I was beginning to recover. I was in the ICU for four days, in the hospital for eight days total, and in the ICU, I got pneumonia. So, it was a difficult time. I also, when I got out of the hospital, I had night sweats for about two to three weeks, and Debbie said, I think they gave you blood from a menopausal woman. So, I'd like to also apologize to all of the ladies who've gone through that.
So, I want to tell you the three things that God spoke to me, and I really would like for you to write 'em down and just take it in your quiet time, 'cause I think God'll speak to you. Number one, spiritual warfare is real. Now, I had some medical problems and I needed medical help, and again, I thank God for the medical professionals. But I also had a spiritual battle, and that's where the prayer came in.
And you know, there are people that blame everything on the devil, but we are not like that. We are grounded in the Word. Most of you are very mature believers. But I think that we have a tendency then to be too logical sometimes and not realize that the enemy's at work, and we keep looking for the logical explanation. And, Jesus Himself told us that Satan comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I think he was trying to kill me, and I think he would try to kill you, too, and I think he would try to steal from you. And when the disciples asked Jesus, teach us to pray, the thing that the Lord reminded me was, He taught us to pray daily, because He said, "Give us this day our daily bread". And in this daily prayer that He taught us, He taught us to pray deliverance — deliver us from the evil one, protect us from the evil one.
So, He taught us to do spiritual warfare every day, and the Lord reminded me that it's very easy for me to have a quiet time and pray, and put my petitions before God every day, but am I praying a hedge of the Word of God around my family every day? Am I breaking words and curses that are being spoken against me, and am I saying to Satan every day, the Lord rebuke you, and standing against the enemy? So, I want you to know that spiritual warfare is real.
The second thing that God reminded me of was that God answers prayer. Remember, the surgeon said to me, I only told you half of it. He said, Robert, there's no medical reason why you had two arterial tears at the same time. There's no medical reason. But he went on to say, listen to this, and there's also no medical reason why you're still alive today. There's no medical reason. So again, I'm not blaming everything on the devil, and I'm very thankful for the medical professionals, but I'm thankful for the prayers. And I also, as I said, thank you for praying for Debbie as we went through this.
If you remember, the helicopter took off. Our place is an hour and a half to two hours away. She had to go around a different route because of race weekend. And, she had to drive back by herself, and God was with her. As a matter of fact, this is a little humorous to me, too. Her quiet time, reading through the Bible that day, was about Lazarus. She just said, Lord, I don't know if you were trying to tell me you were gonna raise him from the dead. But, many people have asked her, how did it feel drivin' back? She said, well, I was worried and I was concerned, but I had a supernatural peace that God was gonna take care of him.
And the third thing that the Lord showed me is that God is in control. And, all three of these things we already know. We know spiritual warfare is real. We know God answers prayer. But, God's in control. You know, when we talk about even the prayers, many of us have heard the numbers, but the numbers are so much higher than what we even hear. But, I heard about prayer meetings were being called for me all over the world. Pastor friends of mine sent me texts and things. They called a prayer meeting for me in India for ten hours, and ten hours they prayed. China — the underground church called a prayer meeting for me, and it spread through the underground church in China. In Guatemala, they called a prayer meeting specifically for me, and over 12.000 people showed up. So, it just shows how God answers prayer of the saints. But, He's in control.
When we were going to go back out to our land a few weeks later, about three weeks afterwards, and the doctors had cleared us, and I also asked for the elders to clear us, because I believe the elders are my spiritual covering, and covering is a good thing. And so, they prayed and had peace about it, too, and the doctors said I was out of the danger zone. But, as I was praying that morning, I thought about driving back out there, and the memories that Debbie had of seeing me pass out, and seeing the helicopter land, and things. And there's a field when you drive into our land that's to the right, and when they called for the helicopter, Debbie said that ambulances from other counties, and fire trucks, state troopers, deputy sheriffs, began to just come, and she thought, what are all these people coming for? These first responders actually lined that field with all of their lights on so that helicopter would know exactly where to land.
So, I thought about, in my prayer time that morning, that field and the memory of Debbie seeing me take off in that helicopter. And so, I prayed that that field would always be a reminder of God's goodness, and that our land, our place of peace, would not be a bad memory for her, but it would actually be a memory of God's goodness. And so, we named that field, "Goodness Field", so that shows what God's doing.
In the helicopter, this is the last thing I want to share with you. In the helicopter, I had an encounter with the Lord that I really believe is gonna minister to all of you, every person watching. I didn't go to heaven, but the Lord's presence filled the helicopter, just filled the helicopter, and I felt like I was about to go to heaven. And, here's the thing that surprised me. I've heard people say that for the believer, there's no fear in death. That's true. I had no fear, no fear at all. Also I've heard people say, for the believer, that there's peace in death, and I was extremely peaceful. But, here's what surprised me. I was happy. I was excited.
I mean, I knew I was leaving my family and my church family, but I was excited that I was about to see Jesus, that I was going to heaven. I was so, I can't even tell you how joyful I was. Now, I thought about my family and my church family, and the ministry that God's given me, but these were my thoughts. When I thought about my family and you, I just knew, well, God'll take care of them. There wasn't like, a regret. There wasn't a fear or a concern even. Debbie, the children, grandchildren, I just knew, God'll take care of 'em. And the church, God'll take care of them.
I also knew this. I knew they would be sad that I was going, but I knew it would only be a really short time and I would actually see 'em again, even my grandchildren. And I just thought, Lord, I'm so happy I'm comin' to heaven, and I don't want to leave my family, but they'll be here in just a little while. I mean, just a little while. And so, when I was telling my son, James, this in the hospital, he said, well, you know, Scripture says a day is as a thousand years, a thousand years is a day to the Lord. He said, did you think it'd be months before your grandchildren would be there? Did you think it was like, days? Did you think it was seconds? I mean, what time frame did you think?
And I said, I didn't even think in time. I just knew it wouldn't be very long. And my son made an incredible statement. He said, Dad, I think you experienced eternity. I think you experienced, what you experienced, it was timeless. And I'm telling you that I want to encourage you, because for those of you who've lost a loved one, I want you to know, they are extremely happy. They are joy filled. And, they know you're gonna be there pretty quickly. They're just, there's no time.
So, I knew that. But as I thought about my family and the church, and the ministry that God's given me, I just had this thought, and so I voiced it to the Lord in that helicopter. I said, Lord, I'm excited. I am so excited about coming home. I'm excited. But, I would like to be there for my family a few more years. I'd like to be there for Debbie. I want to grow old with Debbie. I remember thinking that, and of course, some of you young people are thinking, y'all have already grown old, but you'll get here too, smart aleck! So, but I want to grow old with Debbie. I want to watch my children step into and fulfill the destiny God has for them, and I want to watch my children grow up, my grandchildren. I want to see my grandchildren grow up.
So I said, Lord, I'm excited about coming, and if this is it, I'm ready to come, but I'd like to stay for my family. And when I thought about the ministry God's given me, I said, and I just don't think You're finished with me yet on earth. I don't think You're finished with me. And the Lord said two words to me in the helicopter. When I said, I don't think You're finished with me, He said, I'm not. And I knew I wasn't dying that day. I just knew it. It didn't matter, anything else. It didn't matter how much blood I'd lost. It didn't matter. I just knew, God has spoken. I'm not dying today, because He's not finished with me yet.
I want to say this to you, though. I've heard people say, I'm gonna live my life, and then before I die, I'll give my life to the Lord. When it happened and I was dying, there wasn't time. God sustained me, but when I passed out with Debbie, I couldn't speak. I couldn't say anything. I just want to say to all of you, because it's very important, death can come quickly. It can come in an instant, and if you're waiting for some time later to get right with God, you may not have the chance.
What I experienced in that helicopter was so incredible I want to encourage you, if you've never given your life to Jesus Christ, do it today. That's probably why you watched today, so that you could give your life to Jesus Christ, and I also want to encourage those of you who have lost loved ones, as I said in the message, they are experiencing incredible joy in the presence of the Lord. And I want to say also, thank you so much if you are one of those that heard about the health crisis and you prayed for me, thank you. But in the same way that God has a purpose for me, God has a purpose for you, and God wants every one of us to be a light in this world, and lead as many people to Christ as we possibly can.