Matthew Murray shares his story of being healed from malaria after being given three hours to live.



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Matthew: It got so bad the doctors said to Becky, "We are going to give him pain medication now. There is nothing else we can do." So they pretty much gave up on me. They had done their best. They worked hard, but they had to say, "There is nothing we can do."

Becky meantime is out with our friends. She is crying and she is upset. I am unconscious and have no idea of what is going on, but something happened in those three hours. I can't explain it. I don't know at what point in the three hours it happened. I have no physical memory of it, but I do know that three hours later they did another test and that malaria had gone from fifty percent right down to ten percent and eventually it disappeared completely. They were stunned and Becky was relieved. My friends were like, "Wow!" And here we were starting to recover. It wasn't easy. My lungs, heart and liver recovered. My brain, some would argue that never recovered, but hey, we will not talk about that right now. My kidneys were the one thing that did have a little bit of damage, so they put me on a dialysis machine. It was a pretty scary time, because they said I would have to be on this machine for the rest of my life. Its five hours a day. Then they said eventually you will need a kidney transplant. But then again God did a great miracle. My friend came to see me, Nathan Morris, who is an evangelist. He prayed for me and my kidneys were pretty much instantly healed. So the doctors discharged me about four days after his visit and I never saw that machine again. I have not used a dialysis machine now for two and a half years, so it's safe to say my kidneys are doing okay.

Jonathan: So day one you are about to die, with three hours to live. Suddenly there's a major turnaround in your blood system. How many days before you left hospital?

He Still Heals

Matthew: Probably the overall recovery took about two weeks. It took about a week to get all the organs working again. Then it took a week, I mean when you have not eaten for three weeks, you barely drank for three weeks. So you are absolutely exhausted. Your legs don't know how to move. You have such little strength. You can't eat. It's very traumatic. You also have the fear and the trauma and the emotional pain you have gone through. So it's pretty tough in there. It took about a week from that point. I think I got discharged on the 22nd October. I spent a few days relaxing in America doing media interviews, because the TV picked up on it out there locally and then I flew back to England.

Literally one day after landing back in England I am preaching the gospel and sharing my story. It's pretty much been like that for two and a half years now. I have been sharing the story, preaching the gospel and telling people what Jesus did for me.

Jonathan: How many people do you think will have heard your story in America and in the UK?

Matthew: It's pretty hard to say. If you add up all the circulations and the videos, the TV, the radio, the magazines, you would get to well over a million people. I try and keep it to a million, because I don't want to be accused of exaggerating things. But a conservative guess would be a million. In likelihood it's probably well over a million.

Jonathan: You were picked up on the BBC news and some of the newspapers?

He Still Heals

Matthew: BBC news, and one or two of the national papers carried it as well. It was great. On the whole they were really positive about God's healing power. It shows that in Britain today people are quite open to God and the miraculous, so I was quite excited about that. It blessed me that people were hearing the story. You know this isn't about me getting famous, it's not about me sharing my story; it's not about making any money. I have not received any money personally from any of the engagements I have done because of this. I have put every penny back into the work we do in Kenya and Sri Lanka.

I just want to emphasise that there's a lot of people out there who lack hope. It might not be as serious as my condition; they may have a little bit longer than three hours to live, but they are lacking hope. Maybe their relationships are on the rocks, or their finances are struggling. Maybe they don't know what the future holds. Maybe there is a conflict or some kind of trauma going on. Listen, whatever it is God can bring hope. That's what real faith means.

This was a landmark moment for me, which I can look back on and know that God saved my life. He didn't have to do that, but He did. People prayed, God heard and here I am today to tell the story. I want to encourage others that God can do the same for them.

Jonathan: Final question, you hear a lot of stories of people who have near death experiences, and for a lot of people, it changes their perspective. There is a change from who they were before to who they are afterwards. Do you think you have changed in going through that experience and if so how?

He Still Heals

Matthew: Definitely. You cannot get so close to death and go back to normal life. People in church get upset about the smallest things; they don't like the music, they don't like the preacher, or they don't like the carpet. You start to think none of that really matters. This is a matter of life and death. How serious are we going to take the call of God? You know it could have been much worse for me. Every second I get now is added time. It's not something God had to do, but He allowed me to keep living. So I am going to make every minute count, and every day count. I got to wake up and say, you know what? Today is a new day. Who can I impart with the gospel? Who can we reach? Who can we help? What can we do to further the kingdom of God?

That's where I am; every minute counts. People are suffering all around the world, and ten thousand children will have heard the gospel this week in Kenya. I have got to keep going for them. I have got to do all I can to make sure that tens of thousands, or however many people it is, whether it's small or large, people just hear the gospel message.

That's it for me. It was a life changing moment and I am determined not to go back to some kind of religious lifestyle, but to live on fire, burning with the Holy Spirit and passionate to change lives with the gospel. CR

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.