Freddie Garcia fell through a hole in the rock and landed on his feet in a lake of fire, surrounded by hundreds of millions of people. He screamed with his arms in the air, and in the blink of an eye, Jesus grabbed his arm and pulled him out. In this episode of God’s Truth Podcast, Freddie shares a life marked by abuse and exploitation, a coma in 2002, three levels of hell, the third heaven, and a mercy he will never stop thanking God for.
Please note: this testimony includes childhood sexual abuse and human trafficking. The article does not go into detail. If you or someone you know is being abused or trafficked, please contact your local police or a trafficking helpline.
A childhood that should never have happened
Freddie grew up in Texas, the youngest of seven, in a home full of abuse. From early childhood he was abused again and again, by people he knew and by strangers. At eight, a man he had never met raped him and held a rifle to his face to keep him quiet. He told no one. Years later he learned his mother had quietly fought for justice for him.
As a boy, seeing his sisters suffer, Freddie remembers saying, “I don’t want that to happen to them. Let it happen to me.” He now believes the enemy took hold of those words.
Alone, and exploited
When he told his mother his stepfather had tried to abuse him, she called him a liar. At sixteen he left home and took a Greyhound bus to California. Within weeks he was homeless on the streets of Bakersfield. The people who took him in introduced him to the gay scene. Hurt and adrift, he eventually entered it himself.
Every door that seemed to open came with a price. As a young man, a man who called himself Freddie’s friend took his documents, threatened him and sold him to wealthy clients. One night Freddie ran from house to house, banging on doors and begging for help, and the lights went off one after another. “Nobody’s going to help you,” his trafficker told him. Eventually a young woman discovered the truth and, with her family, got him away for good.
Freddie wants people to know that young men are trafficked too, and are often too ashamed to ask for help. “Get up and run,” he says. “There is somebody out there who’s going to help. Cry out to God, and He will send His people.”
“Ask for forgiveness”
Back in Texas, Freddie married and had a child, but he says his mind was still lost in darkness. He worked in the medical field and trained as a mortician, and was drawn back into the same lifestyle.
In 2002, a crushing headache sent him to hospital. In the ambulance, one paramedic laid his hand on Freddie’s back and prayed quietly in tongues. Freddie felt heat pour through him. Later, alone in an X-ray room, he saw black shapes like smoke circling him and felt a heavy evil. Then a gentle voice whispered in his left ear: “Ask for forgiveness.”
He tried to pray, but every time he tried to say the name of Jesus he felt hands around his throat. He kept pushing until “Jesus” finally came out, and then he could pray freely. He cried out to God for mercy. Days later, diagnosed with spinal meningitis, he fell into a coma.
Three levels of hell
Freddie felt his spirit leave his body. He saw himself in the hospital bed, then flew down the hallway and into total darkness. Lightning flashes showed him what lay below.
First he saw deep pits, five or six storeys deep, with one person in each. A woman trembled as her skin melted to the bone. A man clawed at the walls and slid back down. Demons climbed in and tore people apart, and their bodies came back together for it to happen again.
Next he saw a black ocean where multitudes were drowning, again and again, in torment.
Then a blinding light appeared on his left, and a voice warned him not to look at it. The rock gave way, and he fell into the lake of fire.
“This is where you would have been”
Freddie landed on his feet in lava and flames, surrounded by screaming people. Some were little more than skeletons. With his arms raised, he saw Jesus’ face. Jesus grabbed his arm, pulled him out, and stood with him at an opening in the rock, pointing across the burning cavern.
“This is where you would have been for the sinful life you were living,” Jesus said. “But I heard your prayer, and the prayers of my servants for your healing. You belong to me. I’m going to take you home.”
The third heaven
When Freddie opened his eyes, he was standing on a road of glass-like gold, with shafts of light rising from it. Around him was a tropical paradise of hills and waterfalls, full of colours he had never seen, and every tree and flower was praising God. Waves of love washed over him. Jesus showed him a palace with a golden crown on top. “This belongs to you,” He said. “There is much in store in there for you, my son.”
Then Freddie was standing in space, looking at the earth, as the idols of many religions rose before him. Jesus told him, “When you go back, you need to let people know they have to be born again to make it into the kingdom of heaven.”
In a vast white room, Freddie watched his whole life replayed in seconds and fell on his face, disgusted by what he saw. “After everything I did, you’re going to forgive me?” he asked. “I forgive you,” Jesus said. “You belong to me. You’re going to go back.”
“He’s a vegetable”
Freddie woke up a different man. He left hospital in a wheelchair, down more than thirty pounds. The doctor told his wife that his brain had swelled and he would never recover, read or write, and that she should put him in a nursing home.
Instead, Freddie slowly learned to walk, drive and read again. He began to have visions. When an elderly uncle with Alzheimer’s went missing, Freddie described where he would be found, beside a dumpster with a bag of clothes at his feet, and he was found exactly there. The Holy Spirit led him to a pastor who took him in and taught him the Word, and he served for eleven years as a prophet in that church.
Freddie today
Since 2004 Freddie has travelled to churches and radio stations sharing his testimony. He says the desires that once ruled him were wiped away when he came back from heaven. He believes God has called him to preach against the sexual sin he was set free from, and against child abuse and molestation. He counsels those who are still struggling, urging them to pray, fast, read the Word and find a mentor.
“What the enemy did to destroy me,” he says, “God turned around and used to save souls.”
Scriptures in this episode
- Genesis 50:20, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good
- Romans 10:13, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
- 1 John 1:9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful to forgive
- Revelation 20:14–15, the lake of fire
- 2 Corinthians 12:2, caught up to the third heaven
- Revelation 21:21, the street of the city was pure gold
- John 3:3, ye must be born again
- Exodus 20:3–5, thou shalt have no other gods
- Psalm 91:11, He shall give His angels charge over thee
- John 10:10, that they might have life more abundantly
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