BACK FROM THE DEAD

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BACK FROM THE DEAD
Copyright 1997 Arise Magazine
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Early on the morning of October 6th, as he was being
driven to the airport to catch a 6:00 a.m. flight out of Montreal,
evangelist Scott Holtz and his driver, Henry Pierre, came upon a
devastating sight. A car had slammed into a highway guard rail at high speed in front of
them, and they were one of the first cars on the scene to give assistance.

"When we saw the extent of the injuries suffered by
this lady driving the car, we were horrified," Holtz explained.
She had slammed into a concrete wall with such force
that a metal guard rail came crashing through her window and through
part of her head.

"As people stopped to assist this lady, nobody wanted
to go near her body because of the terrible looking open wound she had
suffered to her face and head," Holtz remembered.
Having called the police on their cellular phone, Holtz and Pierre
waited for around twenty minutes for them to arrive.
While they waited, they began to witness about Jesus
Christ to the other people who had gathered around. They were also
trying to calm down their own emotions as they looked upon this terrible, early
morning scene.

"Here was this middle aged lady on the way to work, suddenly killed,"
Holtz said. "Her once beautiful face ripped open by the impact of the
car wreck." They kept looking closely while waiting for the police to see if
she would start breathing again. But there was no sign of life
for over twenty minutes.

"Her heart was no longer pumping blood through her huge head wounds,"
Holtz related. "She had died instantly and tragically upon impact."
The first Montreal police officers to arrive at the scene could barely
look at her, according to Holtz. The two were astonished that the
officers didn't even try to revive her. Instead, they simply "walked away in
horror to redirect traffic."

The commanding officer later arrived and inspected the women. Then, he
walked back to his cruiser to get a yellow plastic tarp to wrap her body
in. "It was at this time that my friend and I began to feel a tremendous
love and anointing for this woman and her lost soul,"
Holtz stated. "We began to pray out loud for her and then suddenly she
came back to life!"

Her head started to move back and forth. She began to cough and breathe
again. The color of life returned to her skin and what was left of her
face. The blood started to flow out of her open wounds as her heart
started beating once again. "We became totally enraptured with love and
euphoric joy as we saw this," Holtz continued. "We quickly began to speak to her
in her car and tell her that we were Christians and had come to tell her
how to get saved and get to Heaven. She was even trying to move her lips and
say something to us." The police officer in charge was "taken aback" by
what was happening. Two truck drivers even got scared and ran ran off
when they saw the lady come back to life again.

A little while later, the police officer told Holtz defiantly that she
was not going to continue living, but die very shortly.
"Soon thereafter, I confronted him strongly," Holtz
mentioned. "He backed down under conviction of his own hard and
insensitive heart." Holtz and Pierre had to leave the scene when the ambulance
arrived, and they continued on to the airport as they had originally set out to do
earlier that morning. Later that day, Holtz received a phone call from a
friend who had called the police department to find out more
information. The police had already contacted the family of the lady and had listed
her as dead on their police report.

"It was very strange to hear this," Holtz remembered. "But I refused to
stop praying because I couldn't get the image of her coming back to life
out of my heart!" Back in Montreal the next day, his friend found a
full color picture of the accident in one of the newspapers. However,
few details were given about her condition. So, he contacted the police
again. They would only say that she was dead and offered no further details.
Apparently the officer at the scene of the accident was so impacted by
the sight of these two Christians praying for the lady in the car that
morning that the story started to circulate at the station.
One particular officer overheard two others laughing at what Holtz and
Pierre had done. It turned out that she was a born-again believer who
decided to research the police report and find out what happened.

Evidently, her body was transported to a nearby hospital, and her family
was notified that she had passed away. Yet, upon the family's arrival,
they discovered that she was still alive.
Henry Pierre found out the name of the hospital and went to see if he
could get any more information. Unexpectedly, he stumbled
upon the family waiting in the Intensive Care Unit. He was able to tell
them the true story of what happened that morning which caused the family to
"breakdown with overwhelming tears of joy and comfort."

"The doctors told him that they were able to save her right eye," Scott
related. "This totally startles us to this day because at the accident
scene she had no right eye at all. There was just an empty, bloody eye
socket."

In the wake of these exciting events, Holtz is quick to point out that
believers should expect God to do such things through their lives.
"This is not just an isolated miracle. This is going to be a common
occurrence," Holtz emphasized. "We are learning how to yield so that the
resurrection power can flow through us."

"I didn't feel any anointing. I felt wasted, tired and was ready to get
back to see my family that morning," Holtz continued. "I believe that
after 'marinating' in God's presence in hundreds of services. His power
kicked in when it was needed most."

(First Published: 01/12/97)