I WAS TAKEN TO OUTER DARKNESS!

(By: Haydee Cortes)

 My spirit left my body, and I was taken to outer darkness. I began to feel the anguish and torment of that terrible place. You do not want to go there when you die!

I was baptized by the Jehovah Witnesses in 1970 in Ponce, Puerto Rico, in a full-blown cultish "religion" which believed in God the Father as the only true God. I was taught by them to believe that Jesus Christ was not God, but a god created by God the Father.

 My spirit left my body, and I was taken to outer darkness. I began to feel the anguish and torment of that terrible place. You do not want to go there when you die!

I was baptized by the Jehovah Witnesses in 1970 in Ponce, Puerto Rico, in a full-blown cultish "religion" which believed in God the Father as the only true God. I was taught by them to believe that Jesus Christ was not God, but a god created by God the Father.

I was taught to believe there is no life after death, much less that there was a conscious spirit that would leave the body when I died. I was taught not to believe in any kind of miracle healing, nor believe that God would communicate with people through visions or dreams. I was also taught that all kinds of healing, miracles and visions were the work of the devil. I was very loyal to these teachings and nobody could convince me differently by the age of 26.

Then God saw fit to shake my world of the deception I was taught by the Jehovah Witnesses and believed!

On September 12, 1973 I was ready to have a C-section. In the operating room, they applied an orange liquid all over my belly, and they started injecting me with an anesthetic. I felt a strange sensation. My body got stiff, but my mind stayed awake. I realized they were going to cut my abdomen and I was not asleep! I tried to move and scream to let them know I was conscious, but all efforts were in vain.

I started feeling a terrible pain when they began cutting my abdomen. All of a sudden, I heard an audible voice say, "Look what is going to happen to you!"

In that instant I was pulled out of my body and I found myself at the ceiling of the room. From there I could see how my baby was being taken out of my womb. I felt very sad and I said to myself: 'This is it. Everything is finished for me on the earth.'

I was so anxious to see that baby and I couldn't even hold it in my arms. What can I do? My children will forget all about me. I then started going up. I was able to realize I didn't have a solid body. I was some kind of energy force moving at a high speed - like in a circular motion. However, I knew I was me, and I had all my memories with me. I also knew I had left the earth.

I went on - going up - until I found myself in a pitch-black place. I was so puzzled so I started asking questions. "Is this the universe? Where am I? Where am I going to? Am I going to stay here forever?"

All of a sudden, I started feeling something very strange. The only word I can use for this is agony or torment. I was feeling a need for my body. I started feeling a kind of anguish. I wanted to get out of there and I wanted my body back. I couldn't bear the torment.

I remembered the audible voice I heard before coming out of my body: "Look what is going to happen to you!"

I started screaming: "Please, don't let this happen to me! I accept I won't ever go to the earth again. I accept I will never see my children again, but I can't accept that I will be here forever. No - please! Don't let this happen to me!"

I then heard a group of voices saying at the same time: "This is for you to believe!"

I exclaimed, "I only believe in the Almighty God!"

The torment I was feeling stopped. I then started to come down at a high rate of speed. I found myself back to the ceiling of the hospital room. This time my body was lying on a stretcher, and I saw a nurse tapping my face and saying, "Haydee, wake up!"

I could clearly see her while I was moving down closer to my body. Then I was softly dropped inside my body. The nurse was still tapping my face and calling my name. I opened my eyes and there she was right in front of my face. I looked at her eyes while I was thinking: I wish you knew where I just came from!

I couldn't put the experience out of my mind, and I was very concerned about people in the world and where they might spend eternity. I began to realize I was deceived by what I had been taught to believe! There actually exists a conscious spirit that comes out of the body

People don't know what can happen to them. They need to know about this; they need to be warned!

I was discharged from the hospital and went back home thinking about everyone in the world who didn't know they were going to come out of their bodies - totally conscious when they died - and that they could leave their dead bodies behind. Furthermore, that they may go to the black darkness like I did. I felt like I was about to lose my mind. I didn't know what to do. I wanted to warn everybody about it so they could escape for their lives.

Before my c-section, I was suffering from kidney infection. They were infected with a bacterium called aeruginosa. The bacteria caused my right kidney to clog and it stopped working. I had to go through a very delicate surgery to remove all the damaged part of the kidney, leaving me with only a small piece of it, and a plastic surgery done to the ureter, all the way down to the bladder. The plastic surgery to the ureter had to be done because it was short and narrow by a birth defect, plus it was clogged with the kidney infection.  

Everything appeared to be fine, except that since my left kidney was also infected with the bacteria, I had to be under medication during the full length of my pregnancy to keep the bacteria from spreading.

I was about seven days from being discharged from the hospital, and my left kidney was hurting a lot. One morning I got up from my bed, feeling very strange. I felt my face weird like if it was tight, so I went to the mirror and noticed my mouth was twisted to the side. My left eye couldn't wink nor close. 

I became hysterical, and rushed to the hospital -- leaving my kids with my husband at home. The doctor said I had a facial paralysis, and prescribed for me a series of injections, then sending me for facial therapy. I had all my shots, and I started my facial therapy, which was the application of electrical mini-shocks to my face in order to bring the nerve movement back.

My family doctor visited me and said that it looked as if the facial nerve died. Then he said, "Haydee, you will have to sadly accept to look like that forever." I was only 26 years old. It was like the end of the world for me.

Near the end of one of my facial therapy series, I began experiencing some kind of strange dizziness. Little by little, I began entering into a different dimension. I lost my memory completely. I didn't know if I had fed the kids and the baby. I saw what appeared to be the walls of the house falling on me. When I was outside the house, it was as though the trees and clouds were falling on me. Everything was distorted. It was horrible. I cried constantly, asking Jehovah to at least let me know if I had fed my children and especially the baby.

My skin turned yellowish in color and my family and the neighbors (they told me later) were expecting me to die. I became weaker and weaker each day. My husband used to leave the house in the morning while I was alone with my kids all day until evening, when he returned home. I had no one to help me with my kids.

One evening I felt incredibility weak. I knew I was going to die. My kids went to sleep and I laid down next to my five year old "man". He had helped me so much during my ordeal. If I've got to die, I wanted to die close to him. I wrapped my arm around him and I started to call my God's name. I said, "Jehovah - If I'm to die - I want to do it calling your name."

I didn't mention Jesus Christ because I didn't believe in Him yet. Even though I had the out-of-body experience - learning I was a spirit inside a body - visiting blackness and agony - I had not yet believed in Yeshuah Jesus as my Savior.

I got up in the morning even weaker. My breathing was so heavy, and my legs were so weak, that I realized death had to be so close. I walked away from the bedroom and I fell on the floor. I had a indescribably weird coldness inside my bones, and my breathing was getting difficult. There was no doubt in my mind I was dying.

I said softly, "Jehovah, give me courage to die and to leave my little kids. They don't have anyone to take care of them."

All of a sudden, I saw a lady standing right in front of me! I recognized the lady was a Pentecostal neighbor. She used to live a few houses away from mine. I used to turn my way when I saw her in the streets. I didn't want to hear her talk to me about Jesus.

While I was observing her, I heard an audible voice saying, "Go to her!" 

I answered back to the voice in reply, "I won't humiliate myself before a Pentecostal!"

The voice spoke to me again saying, "Go to her! You have an opportunity! You're going to die!"

When the voice said that, I realized it was true, since I was feeling death so close. I decided to go to the lady's house, but I was not planning to ask for healing, since I didn't believe in miracles. I called my five year old son and asked him to help me go to the lady's house. He held my hand, very willing to help. I told him that if I fell down on our way to the lady's house, to call someone for help to take me to the hospital, which he agreed to.

We arrived at the lady's house and entered the porch. When the lady saw me, she opened her eyes widely and exclaimed," My Lord, what are you doing here in such a condition, girl?"

I said, "Mrs. Anna -- I'm coming here to ask you to pray to God so He will give me courage to die. I will die today and my kids are going to be with no one to take good care of them."

She said to me boldly, "Let me tell you something! The same Jesus Christ of yesterday is the same Jesus Christ today! He has not changed, and He is going to heal you so you can believe in Him."

I did not want to hear those words.

She said, "Go to your house and pray. I will pray here for you and you will be healed." 

She gave me a tiny bottle with oil and told me to put the oil everywhere I was in pain, "Because the Bible says to bring the ill ones and anoint them with oil and pray. James 5:14 reads: Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the Lord will heal the sick."

Then I left the house, but I was kind of annoyed by her words.

I got home and as soon as I entered the door, I felt prompted to kneel on the floor. I took the oil and put it all over my forehead (it was an ordeal to feel myself -- lost in a strange dimension of some sort). I put it over my left kidney. I then felt inside to start praying. 

I looked up to heaven and I said, "Father, in the name of Jesus Christ and by the power of your Holy Spirit, heal me, that I will say whatever you do for me."

The next instant I felt what seemed like electricity entering the soles of my feet - moving up through my whole body up to my head where it stayed for awhile. Then the current left my body.

I got up and looked outside the window. The trees were in their right place!  I exclaimed, "The world is again as it used to be!  The pain from my left kidney has disappeared!"

I ran to the mirror and my face was back to normal and my mind was clear. I started running around the house screaming, "It's true that Jesus Christ still heals!  It's true that Jesus Christ still heals!" 

I felt so good. I cleaned the house; cooked and fed my little children. 

When my husband came home that evening, I casually asked him if he wanted dinner. He stared at me as if seeing a ghost and asked, "What has happened to you?!'

I intentionally asked, "What do you mean?"

He exclaimed, " What happened that has made you so well?!"

I said, "You want to know what happened? Jesus Christ healed me!"

My husband exclaimed, "We have to go to the church!"

I thought to myself: To the church? What church is he talking about? I hope he is not talking about that Pentecostal church.

After a while the Pentecostal neighbor lady came to visit me, asking how I was. I told her, "Jesus Christ healed me!"

She said, "You have to go to church and testify about this miracle!" Let me know when you want to do so and I'll take you to church.

With hesitation and reluctance, I answered, "I will see."

As soon as she left, I walked to the bedroom. Looking up to heaven, I said, "You have taught me that I have a spirit. You have taught me that Jesus Christ still heals. Show me now where the truth is and I promise to serve you."

Right away I heard a voice. This time the voice was inside my head. I heard the voice say, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no one comes unto the Father, but by me. I am the door: by me, if any man enters in he shall be saved. I am the light of the world. He that follows me shall not walk in darkness."

All of a sudden my mind opened up with great understanding!  I said, "You say no one "comes" unto the Father. You don't say no one "goes" unto the Father. That means you, Jesus, and the Father are One! Here God broke another one of the connecting links in my brain-washed chain of lies I had been taught.

I said, "You say you are the light and if I follow you, I won't walk in darkness." That's not what my religion taught me. They said if I left them, I would walk in darkness. You say you are the truth, so the truth is not a religion. You are the Truth! Well, I know for sure that Pentecostals preach about you. So I will visit the Pentecostal church."

All of the neighborhood saw the miracle God did in me. I recovered my normal skin color. I went to the doctor and my new urine analysis was normal. The doctor told me, "Haydee, this is the first time in two years that your urine test comes out to be negative." I got the chance to testify to the doctor, who agreed it was a miracle.

On my way out of the doctor's office the secretary confessed to me that they were thinking I was going to die. Later on I had a sonogram done and they found both of my kidneys were of normal size and were in sound health. To God be the glory!

I decided then to receive Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and Lord, and started visiting the Pentecostal church. I continued to go to the Pentecostal church, dedicating my life to God.

One time, I was worshiping the Lord in the church when all of a sudden my chest was hit and felt like it split. Immediately I felt my body was being electrified, and an indescribable joy overcame my whole being. As I continued to praise the Lord in this ecstatic joy, I found coming out of my mouth a language I had never spoken before. I didn't know what was going on, but I was wrapped in sublime joy!

I eventually began to calm down (Hey - you would have been excited too if you could have experienced what I experienced!) and I asked the neighbor lady, sister Anna, the one God used to pray for my healing, "What has happened to me?!"

She answered with this huge smile, "You have just been baptized in the Holy Spirit!"

I knelt on the floor to thank God for such a precious, amazing experience, feeling so overjoyed with the power and blessing God had just imparted to me.

I realize I risk sounding a bit "spooky" and a little "strange" by sharing what I'm about to share next. I could easily not share it, but for some reason, I feel God wants me to share it, so I'm going to. Maybe someone needs to hear about it.

A few days later after my precious Holy Spirit baptism encounter at church, I went to sleep one night. I woke up some time in the night and I got up out of my bed and took a few steps forward. While walking toward the door, I looked at my bed and I saw my husband laying on it, but to my surprise, my body was also there!

I looked at myself.  I had a body this time. I stretched my arms forward and looked at this new body. I realized I had died. I looked at my children's bedroom and I felt sad to leave them. I thought: Now when my children wake up, they will see I'm dead. They will bury that body and they will forget all about me. They don't have anybody to take good care of them, my poor babies.

I then knelt on the floor and started praying, "Please Father, in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, return me to my body. My children need me."

I felt a force lifting me up slowly from the floor, and I was positioned on top of my body on the bed, and started to come down slowly until I fell inside it.

I tried to open my eyes right away but they didn't open. I tried to move but the body was rigid like a wall. All efforts to move were in vain. I got desperate and I began to pray: "Please Lord, my children need me. There is no one to take care of them properly. Bring me back to life!"

I started feeling the force of life through my entire body and the beating of my heart. I then tried to open my eyes and this time they opened. Then I moved my fingers to check and they moved. I then jumped out the bed overwhelmed with amazement.

I have been give the opportunity to share this testimony in different churches and many lives have been touched and many have given their hearts to our Lord Jesus Christ. I believe God wants me to write a book on my life story, because God has done many more things in my life than what I have shared here. I'm trusting God for just the right publisher.

Thank you for taking the time to read this testimony. To God be all the glory!

Editorial Note: I feel to say a few things regarding Haydee's testimony. Someone reading this may not be aware that Jesus Christ speaks of 'outer darkness' in Matthew 8:12, Matthew 22:13, and Matthew 25:30. Peter, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, speaks of judgment and 'chains of darkness' in 2 Peter 2:4. He also speaks of it in 2 Peter 2:17. In the Book of Jude, verse 6 and verse 13 also speaks of 'black darkness' as punishment for angels who sinned against God in a former time.

"But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."  - Matthew 8:12

These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, to whom the gloom of darkness is reserved forever.  - 2 Peter:2:17 

I realize there are other portions of scripture that speaks of burning in hell, so how we are to connect 'outer darkness' with 'feeling intense agony and heat in hell' in another dimension of suffering (hell) ' God doesn't tell us in the Bible. However, suffice to say that no one wants to go to outer darkness, nor burn in a hot agonizing hell, and no one has to go there, if they will seek God with all their being about who Jesus Christ truly is, and what God the Father accomplished by sending Him to death on the cross for your sins and my sins, that we can be free from God's judgment for those sins.

I also believe the Holy Spirit wants to point this out. When Haydee heard that voice speak directly inside her, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life '' she didn't realize at that exact moment time that it was Jesus Christ saying that about Himself, which is also recorded in the Book of John, in Chapter 14, verse 6: 

Please don't let this slip by your attention. Jesus doesn't say He's 'A' way, 'A' truth, 'A' life. He says very plainly, he's the ONLY way, the ONLY truth, the ONLY life. The word 'THE' fully implies He's the ONLY way to heaven to be in God's presence forever, to have one's sins forgiven, and escape an eternity of hell, which is forever being separated from God in torment.

Every person reading this owes it to yourself to diligently pray and seek God about that and be absolutely convinced that if you don't want to believe that, be warned that when the Judgment Day comes, be prepared to suffer God's wrath. When judgment is pronounced over you, there won't be any turning back like God gave Haydee the chance to, so please, don't listen to Satan's lies that try to minimize who Jesus Christ TRULY was or is. He is in fact fully one of the three persons of the eternal Godhead. Scripture clearly tells us so:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.  -- John 1:1-3 (KJV)

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.  John 1:14 (KJV)

As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.  Colossians 2:6-9  (KJV)

For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.  2 John 5:7  (KJV)

And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.

And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. Revelation 19:11-13 (KJV)

The Bible does make perfectly clear is that The Word is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ -- fully God when he lived on earth, yet in disguised form to most who knew Him at the time, prior to His resurrection. 

Upon resurrecting from the tomb (grave), He went back to His rightful place in the highest heaven once He left earth and currently sits on the right hand of God the Father in bodily form as the Bible states, but in Spirit, He also resides in every truly born again Christian. 

The Bible states that the Father has decreed that Jesus Christ will be a part of the final Great Judgment of the souls of mankind. Anyone who tries to minimize the importance of Jesus Christ in light of the eternal Godhead have either yet to hear what the Bible has to say about Him ... or has heard, but refuses to believe it. 

So again, we cannot encourage you enough to seek God with everything in you and never stop, until you are firmly convinced who Jesus Christ truly IS, and what was fully accomplished for you on the cross by His sacrificial death and resurrection from the grave. It was none other than God HIMSELF who shed His innocent blood for you and I.

-- Norm Rasmussen, Director, Precious Testimonies 

Dear Reader - are you at peace with God? If not, you can be. Do you know what awaits you when you die? You can have the assurance from God that heaven will be your home, if you would like to be certain. You can even have that assurance RIGHT NOW! Either Jesus Christ died for your sins, or He didn't (He did!). Are you prepared to stand before God on the Judgment Day and tell Him that you didn't need the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross to have your sins forgiven and get in right-standing with God? We plead with you...please don't make such a tragic mistake. 

To get to know God, to be at peace with God, to have your sins forgiven, to make certain heaven will be your home for eternity, to make certain that you are in right-standing with God right now ... please click here to help you understand the importance of being reconciled to God. What you do about being reconciled to God will determine where you will spend eternity, precious one. Your decision to be reconciled to God is the most important decision you'll ever make in this life, because in Christ, it is impossible to put a value on the worth of your soul in light of eternity.

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Remember:  All that we do in this life comes back to our God-given purpose which is to serve and glorify God. The money and assets we accumulate, the fame and power we've attained or seek to attain - all of the things of this nature will one day pass away, but those lives of others we impact for Jesus Christ will last for eternity, and we will be rewarded for the part we helped play by impacting those lives ... for eternity.
(Matthew 6:19-21 is our assurance)