Mark Nelson lay in a coma for 22 days while his family fought for his life in prayer. Then he pulled out his breathing tube and flatlined for 22 minutes. In the darkness, he heard millions of voices screaming for help and felt himself being dragged toward them. With nothing left, he cried out one name: “Jesus.” In this episode of God’s Truth Podcast, Mark shares what happened next.
A boy on fire for Jesus
Mark grew up in Florida in a Spirit-filled home. The year before he was born, his mother, a lifelong Catholic, asked everyone she could what it meant to be born again. A woman carrying a Bible finally led her to Jesus, and soon after, she says, the Holy Spirit fell on her in her bedroom like a ball of fire. By the time Mark was eight, the family was sharing Jesus on street corners and in homeless shelters, and Mark was right there with them.
“Get out and don’t come back”
At 13, fresh from a youth mission trip to Jamaica, Mark was called aside by the youth pastor who had been like a second father to him. The pastor told him he’d heard Mark was gay. Mark didn’t even know what the word meant. The pastor began rebuking a spirit he believed was in him, ending with, “Get out and don’t come back.”
Mark heard those words as meant for him. He ran out weeping and told his parents he would never go back to church. That night, he says, his mind was flooded with perverse thoughts no 13-year-old should have. He now believes his inner vow opened a door to a spirit of perversion. Too ashamed to tell anyone, he began drinking and using drugs.
A double life
In college in Tallahassee, Mark stopped resisting and embraced a gay identity, becoming involved in activism. After graduating, he landed a job in the Florida governor’s office. By day he was a model professional. By night he lived a reckless, hidden life.
In 2004, he organised a prayer meeting after a season of hurricanes. Franklin Graham shared John 3:16, and Mark felt it was spoken straight to him. Weeks later, he was drawn into a church, where the pastor said, “It is God’s kindness that leads you to repentance,” and Mark broke down as a woman prayed the Word over him.
But within months, he says, the enemy whispered that he could follow Jesus and keep his same-sex relationships. He believed it, and joined an affirming church with his partner.
“You have AIDS”
In early 2008, after months of illness, Mark collapsed and was rushed to hospital. The doctor told him he had full-blown AIDS. His viral load was over four million, and his CD4 count was four. As his organs began to fail, doctors prepared to put him into a coma and handed him a phone to call his parents.
Mark could manage only one word: “Mom.” Before he could breathe again, she said, “Mark, the Holy Spirit has already visited us. We’ve been on our knees praying and fasting for you for two weeks.”
22 days between heaven and hell
The family drove up to say goodbye. The doctor gave them a thumbs down. Mark’s oldest brother stood up: “We don’t believe anything you just said, because our hope is in Jesus.” On the way to Mark’s bedside, his mother had a vision of a cross with the letters AIDS nailed to it. As she stepped toward his bed, she felt a push and heard a voice: “Get away from him. He’s mine.”
For 22 days, Mark says he moved back and forth between heaven and hell, life and death. His parents never stopped reading, speaking and writing down Scripture over him: “Mark will live and not die and declare the works of the Lord.”
The nurse who untied his hands
Because Mark was convulsing, doctors kept his hands tied so he couldn’t pull out his breathing tube. His parents sensed that this was how the enemy would try to take him, so his father never left his side. Then one night, a nurse his father had never seen came in and began untying Mark’s hands. “He’ll be all right,” she kept saying, as his father begged her to stop. She left, and when he ran after her, she was gone. Before he could get back, Mark had pulled the tube out.
“I am here”
For 22 minutes, the medical team worked to bring him back. Mark moved through a darkness deeper than any he had known, toward a light, as scenes of his life passed before him: the drinking, the drugs, the relationships. Then darkness again, and screaming, millions of voices crying, “Help me.” He felt his skin being torn and his limbs pulled as something dragged him closer.
“I knew that I was on my way to be eternally bound to Satan in hell,” he says. So he cried out, “Jesus,” in surrender. And he heard: “I am here.”
Then he saw a wind, the wind of the Holy Spirit, blow into the ICU so powerfully that the room shook. It swept Satan and the demons out. It was Easter weekend, 2008. His failing organs recovered, and his mind, he says, was washed clean.
A new life
In rehab, Mark fully surrendered his life to the Lord, and heard the Holy Spirit say he would marry his friend Beth. They married that November. When a $250,000 hospital bill cost them their house and car, a couple at their new church quietly handed them cash every Sunday, just enough to get by. Years later they explained, “The Holy Spirit told us you needed it.”
Doctors still can’t explain how Mark went from a viral load of four million to undetectable. He is still monitored by an infectious disease doctor, and he lives a full, normal life.
“It’s time”
For ten years Mark kept his story to himself, letting God ground him. Then, in 2018, at a morning devotion at Samaritan’s Purse, Franklin Graham’s ministry, a speaker talked about Lazarus. “Some of you have stones in front of your stories,” he said. “It’s time.” Mark heard the Spirit say the same.
Today, alongside his work at Samaritan’s Purse, Mark and Beth lead Exchange Ministries, sharing Jesus with the LGBT community at Pride events and on the streets, and connecting new believers to local churches.
The three C’s
Mark believes most people who struggle with their identity have been wounded, through trauma, unforgiveness, word curses or inner vows. When he shares Jesus, he follows three C’s:
- Consistent: keep your message rooted in the Word of God, and keep showing up.
- Compassionate: listen well, ask questions, love and pray for people. No one chooses temptation.
- Complete: trust that only the Holy Spirit can transform a heart and mind. You are planting seeds.
Connect with Mark
- Exchange Ministries: exchangeministries.org, for Mark’s email and phone number
Scriptures in this episode
- John 3:16, God so loved the world
- Romans 2:4, the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance
- Psalm 118:17, “I shall not die, but live”
- 1 John 4:4, greater is he that is in you
- Romans 8:37, more than conquerors
- Colossians 2:14, nailing it to his cross
- 2 Kings 6:15–17, the armies of the Lord around Elisha
- Acts 2:2, a rushing mighty wind
- John 11:38–44, Jesus calls Lazarus from the tomb
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