Prophesies

On August 26, 1999 James Berkley came to our Church to release God’s gifts of prophecy, teaching, and worship. My wife, Kate, and I received a prophetic word from James that went as follows:

"The enemy is going to attack you not for the first time but the second time. Do not worry, the Lord God will protect you and raise you up even before the attack can get started. This will take place in 3 months time."

There were more words that night but this one in particular caught my eye, so I watched for it. I had no idea what to expect. I did know from scripture that I did not have to fear. The Bible example came to me of Jesus prophesying to Peter in John 21:18 saying,

"Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish."

The key word for Peter here is "When you are old". When the Sanhedrin imprisoned Peter threatening his life, he had a prophetic word from Jesus which gave him great courage. "When you are old", Peter was not yet old! Paul tells us in 1 Tim 1:18 to "wage a good warfare", "according to the prophecies previously made concerning us". Therefore, when Peter realized he was not yet "old" as Jesus had prophesied, he had faith and confidence to overcome! Hallelujah!

Back to my story. I was sitting in my bedroom on a Tuesday night at around 11:30PM. I was in the midst of some strife over an issue in my life. All of a sudden, I felt as if an arrow had been shot into the back of my thrown. The next day, as I had done so many times before, I went to work not feeling well. I thought I would just work off the sickness and move on with life. Well it did not turn out that way this time! I was worse than ever. I then took off work.

I was going to go deer hunting with a good friend and if I missed work I thought I would not be able to go hunting so off I went. Well on Thursday I went hunting but man was I ever miserable. I was useless! I sat in the truck uncomfortable and horribly sick. I knew I had to push my way through this because I had such a full schedule for the weekend.

I had scheduled a 3-day Motorcycle class for the weekend which cost $50.00 several months earlier. To miss the class would force me have to reschedule and that would be months later. My schedule was too jammed to do that. I attended the whole thing! I attended the Friday night book session. Saturday, I barley survived the riding portion.

The trial was not over here because I had to do a Church Service on Saturday night. Boy did my dear friends let me know how horrible I looked! Many prayed for me but to no avail. I was already in a full-blown attack. Sunday came early and off I went to complete the skills and testing, I finished at around 3:00 on Sunday.

Going home, I went straight to bed! I had a fever and was breathing very shallow. I had to put pillows under me to sit up all night to be able to breath. The next morning, on November 20, I told my wife I had better go to the Doctor’s office. By this time, things were progressively worsening. By this time, I was breathing 165 breaths per minute. When I arrived at the doctors office, they sent me straight to the emergency room at Black Hills Medical Center in Olympia. Man did the doctors and nurses fly into action. I was admitted right into ICU. I had an oxygen mask on and the doctors were desperately trying to figure out what was wrong with me.

Wednesday morning at 3:35AM, things worsened. My wife, Kate, who was at my bedside, could see I was going away. She hit the button for help as I took her hand. I looked her in the eyes and said, "Remember the word from James Berkley? We are walking through it right now" I then passed into a comma.

Four days, I was in a deep comma. The doctors could not figure out what was going on. Then they found I had a blood staff infection. They told my wife it was at a high enough level to end my life. On top of that, they found I had full-blown phenomena in both lungs upper and lower. The oxygen deportation to my brain had now been eleven hours. The doctors prognoses to my wife was I would not make it, and if I did there would be months and months of restoration to motor skills, learning to talk and walk and such. The doctors had move quickly so they started by suctioning my lounges. Later the doctors told me only 5 % of all who go through this procedures make it through. On top of that, my blood hemoglobin level was at 17. I was told people die at 14.

On the fourth day of the comma the doctors finally discovered I was having a ketoacidosous attack. They have never seen one this bad. The doctors were administering five times the insulin that the average person would receive. The also had me on the two strongest antibiotics known to man at the highest dosages possible.

On the fifth day, I started to come out of the comma. However, I do not remember anything until day seven.

On day eight, the physical specialist came in to see. She was shocked! Calling her boss in because I could walk, talk and sit up!

On day nine the head of the hospital Dr. Black paid me a visit. These were His words, "Boy you got a microscopic virus, but it hit you like an 18 wheeler".

On day eleven, the doctors sent me home with an oxygen bottle. I only needed that for two weeks! During my first doctor’s appointment after the incident, my doctor told me "it was a miracle". He could not explain what happened or why I survived. He went on to tell me one of the issues of why I was hospitalized was enough to kill me having two would guarantee my demise. Having four meant there was no hope. Not to mention, I was supposed to stay in the hospital for two months, and go through physical therapy for another three months. I don't know about you but I think God did plenty to stop the attack before it could get started. The nurses in the doctors office afterwards told us that my doctor was pulling his hair out with concern because He could not figure out what was wrong or how to help, he was helpless.

Two weeks after my discharge from the hospital, I went in for a hemoglobin exam. I was told not to be too excited because it would take at least 2 months for my levels to normal out to between 12 or 13. Another shock treatment for my doctor. The test came back at 5.5. In unbelief, He re-tested. This time it was at 6!

Well there it is! This truly is God’s hand and not man’s. What a testimony! I hope you can see what I was trying to tell you.

God Bless,

Pastor Rick Thale
Olympia Foursquare Church
Olympia, WA
thalesgloryhouse@juno.com

For clarity to the dates: I received the prophetic word from James Berkley on August 26. I went into the Hospital on November 20th, I went into comma November 21st . I left the hospital on December 31.