Closing the Door on the Spirit of Death

Monday, November 25th promised to be a fun evening for pastors Glen and Deborah Berteau. It was Deborah’s birthday and her prayer group had planned a party for her at church.

She recalls, “I was happy my husband was with me. Lots of times he stays home because he's very tired after preaching three times on the weekend. But that night he came with me because of my birthday party.”

Deborah had no idea it could be the last birthday they’d ever spend together. They had arrived early and were waiting in the pastor’s lounge on the opposite side of the building. When it was time to drive around to the party, Glen went to the car while Deborah finished some work. By the time she came out, Glen appeared to be asleep at the wheel. When she tried to wake him, he didn’t respond. She says, “The more I shook him, and nothing was happening, I was realizing the seriousness of it.”

At that moment, Penny Greaves, a member of the prayer group, came over. She just happened to get off work early and had parked on the wrong side of the building where Glen’s car was. She also happens to be a nurse practitioner and pulled Glen from the car. Penny recalls, “He was pulseless, I concluded he was dead. He wasn't breathing, and his pupils were dilated.”

Immediately Penny started CPR. By now people were gathering, and someone called 911 while others prayed. Deborah says, “I was already hysterical, I was shocked – I think I was in shock.” When the ambulance arrived 10 minutes later, Glen still had no pulse. Having many years of critical care experience, Penny took charge of the scene, pressing the EMTs to keep trying.

Deborah recalls, “Every time they said, ‘Let's give up and let's quit, there's no use he's too far gone,’ she would say, ‘No, let's continue to work.'" Deborah found it hard to grasp what was happening. She says, “I just remember being comforted by several of my intercessor ladies around me.”

Finally, after 30 minutes, they got a pulse. They rushed Glen across the street to Memorial Medical Center. Deborah says, “I don't remember having a lot of thoughts. I was just crying, and then the next thing I know I'm binding the spirit of death, you know, along with my crying.”

Eventually, Glen was taken to ICU and for 6 hours they waited and prayed. Then, around 1 a.m., a doctor came out with devastating news. Deborah recalls, “He said, ‘He's not good.’ And I said, ‘Well, is he dead?’ And he said, ‘Not yet, but he will die tonight.’ I just remember saying, ‘Can I see him?’ And he said, ‘Yes, go say goodbye to him.'"

At the suggestion of DR. Manual Canga, a friend who’d come to support Deborah, they used a pump to stabilize Glen’s blood flow. Dr Canga says, “They felt like he's done. Or if he's gonna make it, he'll be brain damaged, he'll have a lot of secondary morbidity from the arrest itself, because of prolonged CPR.” Still, his doctors didn’t know what caused the cardiac arrest and couldn’t take appropriate steps to fix it. The next 24 hours would be critical to Glen’s recovery. 

Doctors discovered Glen had an electrical issue with his heart that would require surgery. Yet Glen, now in a medically induced coma, needed to get stronger before they could operate. Deborah says, “He had machines doing everything for him. He had one helping his heartbeat. He had the intubation helping him breathe. And then he was on dialysis.”

Dr Canga recalls, “I was really confident that he's gonna make it, based on my faith. But based on my being a doctor, I still have doubt.” Deborah recalls, “We would sing and worship. We had some really glorious times around his bed.” And Glen’s body responded. Not only did he make it through those critical 24 hours, he showed amazing signs of improvement. Then on Saturday, five days after his heart attack, Glen opened his eyes. Deborah says, “And we were all happy. It was a happy day.” 

Once awake and alert, Glen shared that he’d had a vision. He was stuck in a pitch-black room where he sensed a menacing figure pacing in front of the door. Glen recalls, “All of a sudden, I start hearing this thunder. It's almost like a hurricane deep sound. Its people’s voices. I hear my wife praying. I hear my pastors praying. I hear people from around the world. And they're all saying the same thing, ‘Death, you can't have him. Death, you have to let him go. God is not through with him.'”

The figure then shoved him through the door, out of the dark room. The next thing Glen remembers is waking up. Glen says God then told him what the vision meant. Glen recalls, “He said, ‘You were in a room of death.’ I said, ‘How was I able to come out of that room of death? It was a conglomerate of Christian people coming together with their gifting and just putting a demand on death.”

A short time later Glen had surgery to install a cardiac defibrillator to prevent any future issues. Two weeks after dying in the parking lot, Glen went home and went on to fully recover. Deborah recalls, “He was not his old self yet, but in certain ways he was. He could hug me, and he could kiss me and things like that.”

The Berteaus and everyone involved love to share how the power of prayer and God’s guidance saved Glen’s life. Penny says, “This miracle happened, there is nothing fake about it. There was nothing that was contrived. It was purely a miracle from God.” Deborah believes, “God had Dr. Canga there. And God had Penny there. And God had intercessors there. And God had us all together. It was the prayers that kept him alive.”  

Glen says, “God doesn't guarantee you a life without any sickness and not any difficulty and not any roadblocks and not any mountains and not any hardships. It highlights the miracles. It highlights signs and wonders. It highlights His ability to turn around any bad situation and make it good.”