Shannon Daniel
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Lay Speaker Since:
My name is Shannon Daniel I am 43yrs old, and have been married to my wife Amy for 22 years. We have two boys, 20 and 17. My walk with Jesus Christ started on January 19, 1991. Here is my story.
My story as I have lived it:
I’m just another common man living an everyday life just as anyone else does. I have a testimony, a short true story that changed my life forever. I give God the glory for this testimony so people of the world can see what he has done in my life so maybe their sprit can be touched in a way that God may change their life also.
I really don’t know where to start with this story. I will try to start back as far as I can remember. As I can recall, it was about 1987; I’m not sure what month my brother Greg had just told us that he had AIDS and he was a homosexual. Boy what a bomb shell that was. I was 22 years old when he had told us (his family). It was like a dream that could not be happening to my family. I kept telling myself over and over “This could not be happening.” The things that go through your head, are amazing, especially at that age. I was just starting to get out and live on my own. I would think about the things me and my brother use to do together me and Greg were pretty close although, he seemed pretty distant ever since he went to the Marines. But we were still brought up in the same house. How could this be happening to him? The more I was really starting to think about it the truth really came out about life. We really aren’t safe from anything in this world. Then some of the things that my father had taught us about God had started to come back to me. The only thing that I could hope is that Greg was thinking the same thing about God; the things that we were taught when we where little. But I could see shortly, after several months that his life style was totally opposite of what he was brought up to live and believe. I would think over and over again, “What happened to my brother?” The hardest thing for me to accept was that he was so forward about being gay. Now that I look back, I realize how selfish that was of me, because I was thinking of what my friends, co-workers, other family members would think about me. If I were to have it to do over again I would pray and not worry what other people thought and just let God work with that person. We can not change that person’s ideas alone. Once they have made their mind up, it will take God working though us.
The next three years were the hardest to deal with. We had to actually see what AIDS patients have to go through. It had seemed like he had caught every sickness that came along; anything from the common cold to yellow jaundice. I can remember Mom always calling and letting me know they had to take Greg back to the hospital to get some special medicine or some strong pain killer for severe headaches. My family and I had learned a lot about the AIDS virus; but it wasn’t because we wanted to, it was because we needed to know what to expect from this horrible disease.
It was 1991, the Gulf War was about to start; and I remember sitting in the waiting room. They thought Greg had yellow jaundice and or spinal meningitis. I remember the last time I seen him half conscious, he had just came out of surgery. I can’t remember what the doctors actually did surgery for. I’m not sure that they even new why, but my dad was in the room with him. His skin looked so yellow. Dad said that he was doing pretty good so far, but he was taking on a little water internally. It did look like his stomach was swollen. He still did not look good at all when I was standing in his room looking at him. I would remember how strong he use to look, his muscles would bulge from his neck and arms. Back in high school he lifted weights to stay fit for football. Back then he was six foot and about 170 lbs, just all muscle. Now as he lay there in the hospital bed, he was six foot and barely pushing 100 lbs with barely enough muscle to walk, skin just a yellowish color and his belly swollen. That night, I went home and went to work the next day. While at work I received a phone call from my sister telling me I need to go to hospital. She told me that he had not passed away yet, but he had gone unconscious and that I need to get there as soon as I can. When I arrived at the hospital my family explained what happened. They said that dad was with him. Greg had said that his stomach was swelling up even more and he wasn’t feeling good, the doctors were in fear that he had been taking on more fluid in his stomach, and they were going to do exploratory surgery to find out the problem. Dad said that Greg had stood up and said “Oh no” and fell back to his bed and went unconscious. By this time the doctors said that there was no response in his pupils and that his brain was not functioning. I guess mom and dad had all ready discussed this with Greg, if this were to happen what to do, it was a mutual agreement that he would not live off of a machine so the decision had been made to turn the respirators off.
What I would see next would start to change my life forever. The doctor had called a Catholic Priest in with us. We all gathered around Greg’s bed and began to pray. Ye though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil. As we began these words the nurses were told to start turning the machines off. As they started this, with the sounds of our voices praying, and the heart monitor flatlined, the nurses had begun turning off the respirator and a couple of other switches, until all that was left was the heart monitor. Within a minute or two, the heart monitor started rapidly picking up speed, until it had just started going crazy up and down violently. As this happened, Greg’s face turned slight red like he was straining really hard and his shoulders started pulling forward a little. I knew at that moment he was starting eternity, but for a sec, I knew that he would see us gathered around his bed praying for him; so I had quietly told him goodbye and I loved him. Still as I watched the monitor it had gotten so violent then all at once the monitor started getting calm until it flatlined, and the tone became one solid tone, no beeps. At that moment, Greg’s body seemed to relax like the pain had ended. It was over. His life on this earth was over. His eternity had begun. The only thing that I could have hoped for, was that he changed his ideas about God, and I hoped that he was saved before he died, because none of us had really talked to Greg that much towards the later part of his life. We all thought he was lost because of his lifestyle and how he was living, but we could only hope that he had changed his mind and heart before he left, but there was no proof that that had happened.
Mom and dad told me they would go to the funeral home tomorrow and make the arrangements and I could come down with them and help. We made all the arrangements that afternoon and I started to return home to pick up my wife Amy, and later go to Mom and Dad’s for dinner. But what I didn’t know was that God would start working with me that day on my way back home. It was about a twenty minute drive back to my house by myself. I was about ten minutes from my house when I had this vision. I didn’t know where it was coming from, but I could see it as plane as day, it was not like thinking of something, but much more. Not only could I see it I could feel it, too. God was speaking to me; it was such a strong presence. What I saw was my brother dying all over again, but this time, it was a little different. I seen everything over again, exactly like it happened. I asked God “Why do I have to watch this over again?” He showed me why. I could see the monitor going crazy, his body was pushing and straining, then it was like wringing a wash rag of water. I could see his spirit like the water coming out of the rag. It was separating from the body the (wash rag). The only difference was that it look like it was tearing away from the body. At that moment a huge hand appeared, I mean a big one. It was translucent like you could see through it, just like Greg’s spirit. The hand came down close enough so Greg could reach up and grab hold of one of the fingers and it helped him up and took him away. I knew that hand was the hand of Jesus I could feel it. God had let me see a glimpse of the spirit world, but that’s not what I was thinking. I had thought I was losing my mind, but at that point, I had made my mind up to serve God, and I asked Jesus to come into my life and I would serve him. I started crying so hard going down the road in my car I almost had to pull over.
I got home and I didn’t really want to tell my wife Amy what I saw. She would think I had lost my mind and went crazy. I was home for about an hour or so but could hardly stand it any longer. I had to tell her and see what she thought about it. So I told her the whole story. Just as I suspected, she didn’t say anything during the whole story. She just looked at me as if I had two heads. I knew she was thinking, “This is it, he’s lost his mind.” I asked her “What do you think?” She said “I don’t know what to think.” She wouldn’t respond with much more than that. At that point I was standing in our living room and the Holy Sprit fell upon me, and I had an uncontrollable shaking and crying. All I could do was cry. Amy asked me “What was the matter?” I said “I don’t know,” but inside my whole inner being, my sprit had bowed before God and all I could do was worship Him. I can remember turning to the chair that was behind me, and just falling to my knees right were I stood. I must have prayed and worshipped God there for about thirty minutes, just crying and speaking in tongues within my sprit.
I was so excited; I could hardly wait to tell Mom and Dad what I saw. But then I got to thinking about it, there is no proof that Greg was saved. It was all in my mind of wishful thinking. I had made this story up to make myself feel better, but I had made my mind up I was going to tell Mom and Dad anyway. They deserve to know what I saw. Then everyone could think that I was crazy. We arrived at Mom and Dad’s house that evening, and I told them the whole story. They were happy about it, and I know Mom and Dad would just accept it just because it came from me, but we still just couldn’t believe it because we all new Greg’s lifestyle that he had not really accepted Jesus before he died. That’s all we knew until about an hour after I had told them the story, the phone rang. Mom answered it, and we could hear her talking to someone, and she was getting excited about something. She said “He did?” She proceeded to tell who ever was on the other end, the story that I had just told them about my vision. When Mom got off the phone she said that that was John K. Summers. I was thinking I haven’t heard that name sense I was about thirteen. We use to go to Ovid Church and he was the pastor there. He was a good pastor, too. Everyone was asking what he wanted. Mom said he wanted to call sooner, but for some reason he couldn’t get a hold of us. He had heard that Greg was sick, so he went to visit him and talked to him for some time, and before he left, Greg accepted Jesus into his life. That was just a few days before he died, so he wanted us to know this, and this was just a confirmation to what I saw. This was Gods way of letting us know that he’s completely safe. Glory Be To God in the highest. From that point on, God has changed me forever. I had made my mind up to serve him. From that point on, God has opened my eyes to see things differently; to see the truth, the scriptures, where Jesus says he who has ears, let him hear, he who has eyes, let him see. I know just what he is talking about. When I accepted him to come into my life, he took the blinds off so I could see the truth. Everything you read in God’s word is truth. If you apply it in your life it will set you free.
If you are reading this and it has touched your heart, its God’s Holy Spirit speaking to you. If you have not accepted Jesus into you life, I encourage you to do so right now where you are sitting or standing. Don’t wait any longer, do not put it off, you might not get another chance. Now is the time; now is the place. If you’re waiting on some special vacation, don’t because it might not ever happen. I have learned that if you hear God’s voice, act now. Do not wait, some people think that Christian people or “Holy Rollers” as they would say, just want to push God down their throat. That’s by far not the truth. God is so gentle he will not push us into anything we don’t want to do; he wants us to serve him by our own will. So when you hear that voice in your head telling you what you should be doing, living for Jesus, and it tugs at your heart; don’t resist, jump into his arms, just as a child would do, jumping off a bed into their parent’s arms; with that kind of trust knowing they will not drop them. What most people don’t realize is that God speaks to us daily. We just don’t realize it. We go on about are fast pace life ignoring him every day. If we would open our ears and take a moment to talk to him, and read his word, and get out of our fast paced world.
If this story has inspired you in some way then God has done his will through me and I give him the praise and the Glory forever. He is, EL SHADDAI (The All Sufficient One).
