Latest / Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo / Greg Gutierrez: ‘Realigned By God’ After Being On Life Support

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Greg Gutierrez: ‘Realigned By God’ After Being On Life Support · Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo

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  Welcome to World View Matters, discussing controversial issues, discerning current events,
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  defending biblical Christianity.
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  No topic, off limits.
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  And now, here's your host, David Fiorazo.
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  Hello, friends, family and Christ, thank you so much for tuning in.
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  We are going to give you a blessing today, a prospective check.
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  We're going to talk about the eternal perspective that we hopefully are living with, as we're
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  here occupying, and temporarily in these tents until Jesus returns or takes us home.
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  But I've got a blessing.
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  Before we get to our guests today, I will be speaking in Oshkosh, Wisconsin,
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  Thursday, April 11 at 6.30 pm.
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  There is any event they just put up on Facebook.
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  If you're on Facebook, you can go over there and click interested or going or however that works.
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  It's going to be at Calvary Sunrise Church, Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
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  We'll be doing a presentation on the biblical worldview and how to respond to the attacks on Christianity,
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  what's going on in our culture and around the country.
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  And we'll also have a Q&A at the end of that.
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  So that's Thursday, April 11 in Oshkosh.
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  Go to Facebook and you'll see the image there.
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  That's all we need to know about that.
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  So I can't wait to talk to my brother.
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  We've been talking on the phone a little bit back and forth for a while.
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  I've known this man for years and he even played guitar for a few concerts and worship sets over
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  in California when Rosanna, my wife, was doing her music ministry.
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  This was back in 2008, 2009, if I remember right.
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  But I want to bring in Greg Gutierrez.
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  He's a chaplain now with Haven Healthcare in Southern California.
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  He's been a pastor for nearly 33 years.
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  He was an integral part of Calvary Chapel in Santa Fe Spring since its inception in 1991.
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  He joined the staff there in 2003 and he now serves on the worship team at Calvary Chapel Downey.
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  And that's, of course, also in California.
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  And it's just such a pleasure bringing my brother, Greg Gutierrez.
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  So good to see you, man. Welcome to World View Matters.
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  Thanks for having me, Dave.
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  All right. So a lot of people don't know what's going on here.
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  What is this story that he's got that we're talking about an eternal perspective, right?
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  So let's, let's go back.
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  Most of our viewers, most know the story of my wife and her brain issues,
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  her functional neurological disorder that she's had for two and a half years.
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  And we've had other guests on that have had issues since COVID.
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  And you were on life support.
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  You went into the hospital.
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  Tell us, just, just start us off and I'll interject and ask specific questions on it.
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  You've got some fascinating details that I want to make sure we know what you went through.
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  And then how that changed your perspective.
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  But go ahead and start off when you first went into the hospital.
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  Sure. Well, it was kind of an interesting thing because
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  I wasn't much of a guy that would go and be really consistent about doctor's appointments,
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  et cetera. And so I think I held up to the absolute last minute.
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  I mean, even to the point that the day that my wife rushed me to emergency,
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  I was ordering two large sweet teas from McDonald's, if you will.
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  And knowing that that was just making my situation worse.
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  Anyway, she had recorded my temperatures about 105 and I was starting to struggle breathing.
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  Now what I'm telling you is what she is communicated to me because from the time I got into the
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  car to the time I made it to the hospital, I don't remember a whole lot. It's kind of foggy.
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  But I get little snapshots of being wheeled into the emergency room and then they put the mask on
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  me for O2 because I was struggling in my breathing. At that point didn't think it was that big a deal
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  yet. But I was going down and I just wasn't aware of it. And you know, the doctors, I could hear
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  them, you know, and a buzz in the room saying, hey, this guy's really sick. We need to do things.
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  And of course, during the time, many patients, many people were suffering with the illness.
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  And there was, how should I say, a shortage of beds available for patients?
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  There were some patients in the hallways, et cetera. And they eventually would decide to admit me.
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  And over the course of that first night and day, and I don't even have recollection of this
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  conversation, but my wife does. They knew that they would have to at some point intubate me
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  because I was just not breathing well. And of course, when, upon a further examination, I had
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  full blown pneumonia, I had a 105 temperature and low and behold, they discovered that my blood glucose
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  had registered over 500. And normal is usually below 100. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Yeah. And so
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  they were anticipating that this guy's going to, you know, put comatose here. And I was going
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  that route, but they knew that they also needed to intubate me in the process. And I refused
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  to parent. And I'm told, because I don't remember this, but one of our leasons, a nurse, that I
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  actually was part of our young little Bible study, who was very instrumental in helping keeping
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  things connected and communicating between the hospital and my wife during the time. Anyway,
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  she informed me that they need to intubate you and I absolutely refused because I have a
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  background. My family are all in the medical field. My mom was a surgical nurse and my dad was
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  a radiologist. And you know, we hear stories that intertime and I need intubation not good.
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  Intubation, I won't be coming off. And that'll pretty much be it. And so I refused. Our nurse friend
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  said, you need to do this. You're not, you're not going to make it. Just had that look in her.
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  Apparently, in her eyes, he said, I just looked and then I apparently agreed. Now,
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  keep in mind, this was all done via electronics and electronic devices because no one was really
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  allowed to visit with me. So I did do a lot of this over the tablet. And so I agreed and they finally
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  intubated me. And then at that moment, I slipped into this unusual, I want to say like an animated
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  state. I didn't know what what was going on. And yet I did. You know, you immediately start
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  wanting where am I? I didn't recognize where I was. I had like these incredible visions. And
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  a lot of that I'm certain was inspired by what God was looking to impart to me during that time.
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  I saw some scriptural things. One of the most vivid visions I had while I was in my in my coma
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  was I was floating in a river. And it's kind of like the river that's mentioned in the book of
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  Revelation 22, verse 1 and 2, that there's a river that leads to the throne of God. But along
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  the river banks, I just did three of life. And I remember seeing a lot of trees that gave me a
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  measure of comfort that I could sense God's presence through that vision. It was crazy thing.
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  So being in my coma for several, several days, the doctors tell me that at some point,
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  I awakened out of my coma and pulled out my intubation tube apparently and all my IVs and
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  attempted to get out of bed. Now, how do you do that when you're restrained? Yeah. Well,
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  you get this, I think, crazy drug-induced strength. And I broke my straps and I still
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  marked on my wrist from doing that. And I pulled all my tubing's out and my IVs. Of course,
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  they rushed in. Of course, they had to put on all their gear before they could come in to see me
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  and got me back situated on the bed. And the doctor had taken notice. Well, first he thought,
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  okay, he pretty much a goner. He's not going to make it, but didn't notice it when I was on my
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  back. And I slipped into unconsciousness again that my chest was right on its own. And so they
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  hooked me back up and lo and behold, I started breathing on my own again. I mean, just I was coming
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  back. So you were on the, were you on a life support for five days, you said? Well, that's what I was
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  told initially, but it's probably closer to a week. And it was on the last day, according to
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  the doctor, my had an endocrinologist and also my emergency physician. And he said he couldn't
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  believe that it came out. And we had interesting conversations and he had no explanation as to why
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  I came out of it. He was like, I have no explanation. And of course, I responded. I knew it was the
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  Lord that was excited that it wasn't my time. And you know, he's the one that's appointed
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  those days. And you know, nothing's going to get in the way of that. And so I let him know that
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  I was very confident that that that God had made that decision that it wasn't. You know, my
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  doctor is a Jewish doctor and atheistic doesn't believe in God. And so I had an opportunity to
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  bear with him. And to pray with him, I asked him if he would be okay if I prayed over him.
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  Because I was just grateful that he exercised everything that he knew. There were many people
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  praying for me, as I'm told. And I really believe that just that effort by everyone to pray and
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  to not only get me back, according to God's will, but to pray for the doctors that were
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  tending to me, the nurses that were tending to me, I really believe that it was an active faith.
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  And not only that, I think it was an exercise and a test in everybody's faith collectively was
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  praying for me as well as my own. And I was really inspiring. He certainly gave me an opportunity
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  in a platform to share with all the people that were tending to me. And as a result, I remember one
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  of our nurses actually came to my bedside. I got a chance to share with her and gave her
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  her life disease this that day. And it was just the crazy. It almost seems surreal,
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  but God was moving incredibly. I also had some other experiences while I was recovering Dave that
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  I don't know if I mentioned, but I tried to be really careful, but because of your audience,
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  I'm going to go ahead and share it. When I was recovering, there were times that I would get
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  other visions of figures that were taunting me, scoffing me. And they remind me, I don't know if
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  you remember that movie, The Passion of the Christ. And you remember when there's this
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  magic baby in the arms of quote-unquote Satan, that's what they look like. And they were mocking me
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  and telling me, Oh, now you believe in your God. He allowed you to get sick. What kind of God would
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  would do that to you? And I remember seeing that on my bedside and then just going into prayer
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  and just saying, Okay, and I would just talk to him and cry out to him and God was just
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  faithful to just kind of remove that. But I often wonder, you know, when that happened, I go,
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  you know, why is this going on? But it was really good for me in a personal way. It just reinforced
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  what I knew to be the truth about who God is. I had another vision that there was a lady
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  like lying like over my shoulder, stroking my hair. And it was, I almost want to say like a lady who
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  writes the B so to speak trying to comfort me. I can take care of you. Don't worry about it. Just,
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  you know, give yourself and I just crazy visions like that that I remember just having to battle
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  through that through prayer and reading my word and just trusting God. Now during that entire
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  experience, there was a script through that always seem to be coming to the forefront. I'm a big
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  AW Tozer fan. I really enjoy his works and the insight that the Lord had given him. But there's
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  one scripture in particular that just seemed to resonate continually during my entire experience.
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  And it was Psalm 63.8. And I like the Old King James version of that verse, which says,
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  my skull follow with art after the, and I write Hannah, hold with me. And it gave me a lot of
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  comfort knowing that not only did he withhold me, but the part that really challenged me during
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  that entire time was where it says, my soul follows hard. I really felt like I was being charged
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  with defining the word hard as if I were asking, or maybe the Lord, how hard are you actually
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  pursuing me? Now keep in mind, I have 30 years of ministry experience serving the Lord
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  that capacity. And it's really easy in that service where that vocation or your calling as a
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  pastor can over a period of times begin to become a job. And it might, depending upon our
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  consistency and maintaining, it can become a little drudgerous. It could be, it could become
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  a little heavy. And it's just like any other job before not careful if you don't guard it,
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  if we don't stay refreshed. And that way, I felt like that may have been happening. And the reason
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  I say that is a year prior to me getting ill, I had a very well-known worship leader at a
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  worship conference. Now I knew he was, he didn't know me, but I just entered into Settling for the
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  first round of a sectven rather, and it started out with, with worship. And just divine worship.
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  And as I was getting settled in, I could tell someone was walking towards me. I didn't know it
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  wasn't. It was the host of this conference. And he approached me and he says, hey, you got a moment
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  I need to talk to you. I just heard him start saying, you know, the Lord has put a word in my heart
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  for you. And I want to share it with you. And he began to spare the fact that the Lord was pleased
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  with my efforts. But the chapter is coming to an end. And there's the new work that he has for
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  me. But to get there will require a lot of profound pain that I would have to experience.
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  Wow. Now I kind of, when he told me that, I kind of dismissed it. And I thought, oh, well,
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  hey, thanks. But you know, it was kind of, you know, I would think about it every now and again. But
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  you know, before I got ill now, keep in mind, we had just left Calvary Santa Fe spring. So the
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  Lord had kind of removed this from there and it felt like it was in my wife and I that it was
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  just time for us to do something different. And in the scripture that comes to mind is Isaiah 43.
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  And I'm just going to share it here really quickly. But it talked about, you know, reinforcing the
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  idea that the Lord wanted to do something different or something new. It's as this. Regardless
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  of what I experience prior, do not remember the former things. No, consider the things of old.
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  Behold, I will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth. Do you not know it? I will even make a
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  road in the wilderness and get this rivers and the desert. And so it, you know, as I'm weighing
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  that, I'm not certain what God intends to do with that and what's going to happen. And obviously,
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  going to this sickness gave me an opportunity to take inventory. You know, where am I going?
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  What am I doing? And then always asking the question because I really feel it's imperative for you
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  know, leaders in the church are just, you know, believers. You always need to ask yourself why you're
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  doing the things that you're doing. What's your motivation? I think that's a healthy thing to ask
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  yourself so that you can make sure that, you know, you're walking in the proper lane that God has
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  called you so that you don't get caught up in the word I mentioned you a while back in that
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  cruise control mode of Christianity where I said the prayer, I'm saved, I go to church, I'm a good
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  person, I'm okay. When in reality, there are always things we could be doing to continue to invest
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  in our spirituality, you know, in our relationship with Jesus. You know, we can't just assume
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  anything. Right. Continue going on. Now this experience and my sickness, I really felt
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  challenged me in that scripture. I'd mentioned to you how hard am I truly following? Yes,
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  I know the Lord. Yes, I've served. I've thought led worship. I've done all those things and I'd like
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  to believe for the most part with authenticity filled with the spirit. But there's always more.
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  And I felt that when that particular worship leader pastor approached me with that prophecy
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  that God was challenging, I need you to go deeper. I want you to go deeper. I want you to embrace
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  how hard are you truly following me? And for everybody, it's going to be different.
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  And I just sense that he's, I was impressing upon me, you need to let go. I think you're holding
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  on to something that won't allow me to take you down to those levels of profundity so that you can
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  really know, know my heart. And so we trusted him and, you know, coming out of it, I put my family
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  through tremendous traumas, a result. My wife, she's an amazing woman, believer.
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  He has so much faith. But he couldn't, she said one of the things that stood out to her, she couldn't
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  resolve that I would pass because he recalled the time of the doctor basically told her,
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  you need to get your home in order and call him oratory and get these things situated because
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  he's not going to survive this. So when you ask, when you were in the coma, that's what the doctor
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  was telling Nancy. Yeah, he's not going to make it. We don't, they didn't know what they were
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  doing. They were reaching. There was no cure, obviously, still isn't, but they were reaching with
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  various medications. And they didn't know what to do. Ultimately, I got infused with some plasma.
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  I apparently by a patient who had the antibodies in himself, but we know ultimately all healing
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  emanates from the Lord. It comes with 80 signs to use it through medicine or supernaturally.
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  It's Jesus who does it on. And I'm just grateful that the doctors exercised,
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  you know, everything they did, everything that they could. And I really believe that that was
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  divinely ordered. Now, you couldn't resolve that I wasn't going to be here round anymore.
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  Going through the process of making those arrangements for my departure.
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  But she said that she couldn't resolve it in her heart that this just can't be it.
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  It just to this day she refers to it, it was like a foggy dream.
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  She didn't come to grips with the possibility of me passing until my older son had told her,
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  you know, mom, you know, dad can't die. He just can't. And it finally hit her. And she just
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  recalls praying, you know, Lord, please, I know you can heal him if you want to, if you are willing,
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  that you would just breathe the breath of life into him again and help him to breathe again
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  and on his own. And she was just steadfastly praying that and will be whole will come out of it.
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  I love the scriptures that make references to Almighty God who breathes life into me.
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  And, you know, obviously has more profound meaning to me now because I was, you know, the recipient
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  of that. So many people had prayed for me, you know, you find out, and this is going to sound
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  really silly for a past coming from a pastor, but you're so busy serving and meeting other people's
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  needs, reaching out that you don't put a value on your own needs per se. You don't really
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  think about that. And when people start reaching out and people begin to pray for you and
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  you become aware of it and the emotion and the passion involved in it, you realize,
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  I never thought that there were people, and that's going to sound dumb, that love you to that
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  depth, that really love you. And I'm like, oh my goodness, there's people that really care.
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  And you know, during times like that, you really find out who and how much and it was really humbling
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  and emotional. And I mean, I cried so much, Dave, just because it was just an affirmation
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  of how much God loves us and how much we need to be in fellowship. We need people in our lives
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  that God brings strategically. He places them in our life and we can't ignore that. And you know,
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  as soon as I became more cognizant, I want to slip into pastor mode and how can I help other
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  people and people are offering to provide groceries and all these, you know, things that we need.
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  And you know, in my pride, I'm like, oh, no, we don't need that. That's for somebody else.
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  But we're fine. We're going to be fine. And you know, not realizing that I was keeping people
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  from utilizing their giftings and the big amen. They wanted to demonstrate.
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  Well, big amen to them. Yeah, I just needed to sit back and Lord, whatever you want to happen,
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  may it happen. And people bless my family like crazy. And it came from the most unlikely sources.
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  And I want to be careful. I always said, because I'm not here to, I don't want to
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  give a negative portrayal of things. But I think that the places that you expected to receive it,
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  or you thought you might receive support, didn't happen.
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  And they came to the most, yeah. Yeah. And the help and support came from unexpected
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  places. And that humbled me too. And it just, I could just see that all of a sudden, my perspective,
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  I'm how hard I was pursuing the Lord. It was coming into better focus. Go ahead,
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  so Greg, before we run out of time, we've got to talk about what you're doing now with,
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  you use that experience. You're ministering to people who are dying because you're a chaplain now.
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  And can you briefly sum up what was that transition like to now being a chaplain?
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  That's interesting, because obviously, I probably contacted the COVID through the chaplaincy,
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  quite frankly, from patients. Patients were in desperate need, not just physically, but from a
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  spiritual perspective. They weren't surviving. They needed people to visit them.
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  Those of my patients who come from a Catholic background wanted to visit with the priests,
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  but priests wouldn't go out to visit. They were either uncertain or afraid or sick themselves.
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  And I remember there was a specific patient that was just emotional and scared and wanted to know
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  if I would come out and visit. I remember talking to Nancy and say, look, I'm going to go visit.
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  It's an opportunity, you know, the pandemic's around, but I think I really need to do this. We prayed,
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  I went, ministered, and a person gave their life to Christ. And it was shortly after that,
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  I got diagnosed with COVID. Obviously, I got sick and have a good emergency.
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  But now, the interesting thing is I really feel that it really augmented my empathy and my ability
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  to communicate with my patients on that level. And so, you know, my goal is always when I
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  visit with patients, there's fear, there's anxiety, there's a nervousness, and I want to help them walk
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  through that and just kind of grab their hand and do God's word and through prayer and fellowship,
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  just kind of like walk them through that entire journey so that they get to that place of peace,
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  that place where they have confidence in God that they've given their heart complete to Christ
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  and trust them with their eternity. And all of a sudden, death doesn't become a scary thing anymore.
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  It's just a vehicle we almost go through to get to eternity.
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  And that's why I wanted to have you come on and minister to the audience here at World
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  View Matters because what you went through is not a lot of people get to have a story like yours,
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  right? God's not done with you yet, brother, and for some of us, meaning you, that is more obvious
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  than for others when God wants us to do a work. And he's still got plans and work for us.
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  But you also said, Greg, very briefly, because you're now, you know, leading worship on occasion
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  and you're on the worship team at Calvary Chapel in Downey, you said you had a little struggle
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  getting back to the guitar and we only have a minute. Can you, is it possible to sum up that journey?
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  Okay, so, you know, when I came out of my sickness, I was humbled, but I was a little upset, I think,
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  and I said, you know, I'm not, I'm not going to do this anymore. I don't want to, I don't think
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  I want to do ministry. I don't think I want to play the guitar. I'm done. I set it in the corner and
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  I said, Lord, lest you put that guitar in my hands, I'm not going to pick it up again. I'm done.
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  And lo and behold, you know, I'm sitting there one day in the couch and I'm kind of like sleeping.
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  And I feel something get put into my lap and it's my guitar and it's my daughter.
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  She put it goes, Dad, I need you to teach me how to play the song.
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  And I thought, yeah, no idea what she had just did, but I got emotional. I was crying. I was like,
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  Oh, my gosh, Lord, you're using my daughter to minister to me that I am not done,
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  that there's still a song in my heart that you would want me to, you know, to sing unto you.
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  And that expression in my life, you know, is a song of worship.
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  So, Greg, if some people in our audience have questions, I, is it okay to give out your email address?
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  You don't have to do it now, but you can just tell me and we can put it in the notes.
• 27:04
  Okay. So if you want to get a hold of Greg, because some people maybe survived COVID,
• 27:10
  others, they lost a loved one during that time. And there's just different stories there.
• 27:15
  But God is sovereign over it all. I want to remind people of Psalm 90 verse 12,
• 27:20
  one of my favorite scriptures that says, teach us to number our days that we might gain a heart
• 27:27
  of wisdom. And it's hard when you don't, we take so much for granted. And you have been given a
• 27:33
  great gift, brother. And I praise God for that. But we need to also strive for that, the sense
• 27:40
  of urgency, not being on cruise control, not go through the motions, you know, follow hard after
• 27:45
  God. One day at a time, we don't know when our next, or when, you know, we are going to die,
• 27:50
  or Jesus is going to return. So it's that sense of urgency. But thank you, brother.
• 27:54
  Man, we try to sum up a very important lengthy story and a short time. But appreciate you. God
• 28:00
  bless you, high denancing and your families. God bless you. Thanks for having me, David.
• 28:04
  Congratulations. Thank you, Greg. All right, Chaplin, Greg Gutierrez, and worship leader,
• 28:10
  Southern California, great brother. And guys, thank you. These are the types of programs we need as a
• 28:15
  perspective check. And I hopefully you're ministered to let us know what you think. God bless you.
• 28:19
  And as always, keep speaking the truth about things that matter.