Man Meets Lung Donor in Heaven

Excerpted from Mike Olsen’s testimony from Real Near Death Experience Stories.

I was diagnosed with this terminal lung disease, though I had never smoked.

So I was really like, “Wow, how did this happen?” I was diagnosed with IPF, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and I started getting weak pretty quickly. My oxygen needed to be increased, and I was just running out of time. So as I said, I was doing some awareness meeting with people. How I did that I have no idea, because I was so weak, but I did it anyway. It came up to the time I finally got a call. I was in my backyard, out in the cabin, and I was working on my folk art. I heard the Lord’s voice saying, “You put that stuff up. You need to go now. You just put all that stuff up.” Wow, that’s kind of weird, but I heard His voice saying to do that.

So I put it all up, got back to the house, and my wife said, “The hospital’s on the call. They have a pair of lungs for you.” After waiting a very long time on the transplant list, I thought, “Wow, this is incredible.” So we went to the hospital and I thought everything was going to be hunky-dory. I thought, “Man this is worth the wait. And God already told me ahead of time.”

I went to the hospital, got prepped, and got wheeled into the OR. For the first hour or so, things were going okay. They got the first lung in, no problem.

But when the second lung went in, and as they were closing me up, the doctor took the clamp off too early. And I bled out. I died on the table. So in that situation, they were trying to get me back to life. They transfused me with a bunch of blood. But during that time, I saw myself rising off the operating table.

I’m a jokester. So I just said to myself, “Well, at least I’m going up.” You know, because that’s a good thing. So now, as a pastor, I had the assurance. I knew the scriptures. I knew that I would be going to heaven if I ever died, but I just found it kind of comforting to know I was rising off the table. But as I got off the table, all of a sudden I heard all these negative voices, and they were saying, “You’re not good enough. Who do you think you are?” And just taunting me. I thought, “Well, I know what that voice is.” And I said, “In the name of Jesus, leave me alone and shut up because I’m a child of God and you can’t say those things,” and all those voices silenced and never spoke again.

This is where I get emotional. So as I was rising off the table, further toward the ceiling, I saw these rainbow lights swirling all around me. I was like, “Wow, what is this?” I was trying to discern—I still had my mental faculties, so I was trying to discern, “Is this the medicine? What is this?” And then these bright rainbow lights started singing. And then I knew it was angels. And I saw myriads of angels and they were singing, “Mike’s coming home, Mike’s coming home.” They were so happy. And then I heard a voice saying, “No, he’s just here for a visit.” And as I rose into this bright light, I was just overwhelmed. I was like, “I’m standing in heaven.” As far as the eye can see, it’s bright light.

It was just a feeling of total bliss, total. Like I can’t explain. I just felt like I was engulfed in light. And then I started thinking about things in my life that I had done. And it was like, that realization came right there in heaven, and it was like, “It’s all taken care of, Mike.” And then the thought came, “Jesus is all in all.” Every molecule, I felt His presence throughout this expanse.

I thought, “Oh my goodness. I worried about way too much stuff on the earth.” I was worried about my finances. I was worried about my health. Even as a Christian, I was worried about my spiritual condition—did I do enough? You know, was I good enough? I knew Jesus took care of it. But when I got there, He did take care of it. It was like the slate was washed clean. The realization was, “Mike, it’s not you anyway. Why, why were you even thinking that? It’s all Jesus.” I mean, the whole place was filled with His presence. The glory of the Lord fills the temple— that was the Lord.

As I stood there, all of a sudden I got emotional. I started thinking about the donor. I thought, “Oh my God, this guy died so that I could live. This guy died so I could have his lungs.” I thought I’d said it out loud, but I think it was in my spirit man, because in heaven when I was talking back and forth, it wasn’t like speaking. It was like, my spirit was speaking, I guess.

So anyway, I cried out through my spirit and I said, “I want to thank my donor.” All of a sudden, I looked behind. I don’t know why. I just felt a presence behind me. I looked over my left shoulder and there was Jesus, and there was the donor. How did I know it was the donor? I just knew. It was as if Jesus said, “Here he or she is.” I don’t remember. The figures were like, I couldn’t see them fully, even Jesus. I don’t know why that was. Anyway, the Lord came up to me and He put His hand on my left shoulder and He said, “Mike, these are your new lungs because you just received them.”

I said, “Yes, Lord.” And at that moment, when I said, “yes, Lord,” I started floating back down to the OR table. I just had the feeling that I had to agree with Him. I had to agree that I would take this person’s organ into my life, into my body. As a transplant patient it’s so strange to even think about having somebody else’s organ in your body. So God gave me the comfort to know that He knows about it. He knew about it before I’d even got the transplant done. He knew all things.