But God, this weekend that I was waiting and just so scared and just so distraught, waiting, waiting for the news, I had a dream. And in this dream, I was on the east coast of the United States and a woman was with me. We both had backpacks and they had jetpacks. She explained to me that we were going to go by means of these jetpacks, we were going to blast off and we were going to go across the ocean to Europe. I looked at her and I said, “This is never gonna work.” She just looked at me and she said, “Trust me.” Looking back on it, I really believe this was a picture of the Holy Spirit. 

So I said, “All right, I thought I’m gonna trust her.” So we blast off. We went across the ocean, I did what I always do when we go to Europe, I slept for the trip. So I fell asleep and I woke up as we were falling into the ocean. I remember as we were falling, I thought, we didn’t make it. I knew I was right. We didn’t make it. We didn’t make it. But as we fell into the ocean, I looked up and there was this, I could see land not too far away. I thought, if we can just get to the land, but between me and the land was this giant whirlpool and it was a struggle to get around that whirlpool. I remember just struggling and struggling to get around that whirlpool. But we did, we finally got around it, got to the land, got up on the land. 

We were going through kind of a jungle and trying to figure out where we were. We saw a little kiosk, sort of a little shack in the woods, and the man was selling something. We went up to him, and said, “Where are we? We don’t know where we are.” And he said, “Well, don’t you know, you’re in Malta.” And this woman and I looked at each other, and we just started jumping up and down and saying, “We’re in Malta! We’re in Malta!” And I woke up. 

When I woke up the next morning, I really had the sense that this dream was from God, but didn’t know what it meant. And so first thing I looked up the word Malta; it actually means refuge. Then I remembered that there was a story in Acts about Malta. I looked it up, it’s in Acts 27 and 28. It’s a story of Paul, when he was a prisoner, and he was being transported to Rome and they actually came upon Malta, and shipwrecked, and it was a whole life threatening situation. 

In fact, Paul actually told some of the shipmates, they were trying to get off the ship and he said, “If you get off, nobody will survive.” But because of the word that Paul gave, everybody was saved. So they were spared. Then they came up on the shore and they started a fire and Paul reached into the fire and a viper attached onto his hand. Everybody thought he was gonna fall over dead, but he didn’t. He escaped death again. 

So now here they’ve escaped death in the ship, and as a matter of fact, on the ship, the soldiers actually had a plan to go ahead and kill the prisoners, which was Paul, to make sure that nobody escaped. A Centurion advocated for Paul to let him live. So they escaped death from the shipwreck, they escaped death from this foiled plan of the soldiers that were going to kill the prisoners, and Paul escaped death from this Viper that latched onto his hand. 

The rest of the account of Malta is about healing. There was a lead man on the island and his father was ill. Paul went and prayed for him, and he was healed. And then it says this, “and the rest of everyone on the island that had disease came to Paul, and they were all being cured. 

So when I read this account, I thought, there’s no account of salvation. There were no accounts of apologetic sermons or anything like that. The only account on Malta was escaping death and healing. So I took it as a real encouragement from the Lord, that this is what He was saying to me. As a matter of fact, in my Bible, the heading for chapter 28 in Acts says, “Safe at Malta.” So I was trying to believe that the Lord was encouraging me that I was going to be safe. 

Another thing that happened shortly after that, I ran across a little booklet by Rick Joyner that was about the Knights of St. John. The Knights of St. John started out in Jerusalem and there was a Catholic monk that started two houses where people could come and receive medical attention and be healed. These were the first two hospitals and the servants that worked at the hospital and that served in the hospital became an independent order. 

Years later, these Knights of St. John, there were different places that they gathered and lived for a number of years. But they settled on the island of Malta and they became known as the Knights of Malta. So they were the Knights of St. John and then known as the Knights of Malta. 

They were really amazing military men, and they were credited for actually keeping the Muslims out of Europe, but their core mission was healing. When they would go into battle, after the battle was over, they would take their armor off, and they would go tend to the injured on both sides and they would care for the injured even on the opposing side that they had just fought against. All the military men were required to give time in the hospital, even though they were warriors. So, they were true warrior healers. 

When I read this, I just felt like the Lord was really wanting to encourage me that this was really, He had healing for me. But I struggled. I wanted to believe that. I just tried my best to step out on faith and really believe it. But I remember just saying to the Lord, “Lord, will You meet me where I am? I feel like I’m trying to run the full way, to have faith and yet I felt like I can only make it about halfway. Are You willing to come and meet me where I am in my faith journey?” And I was hoping so much that He was willing to do that, but just unsure how I could really get the full way of really believing what He was saying to me. 

Well, in about the sixth or seventh month of my medical journey, I had been through more chemo than normal because it was so advanced. I had been through surgery, I had been through radiation, I was getting near the end of the whole regimen and we got a call from friends of ours that live in the Czech Republic. They’re really kind of a spiritual son, and daughter. They said, “We’ve been missing you and we just really want you to come visit. In fact, we’ll pay for your wife and you to come when Suzanne gets finished with her treatment. We want you to come out for a visit.” 

So we scheduled a trip, I honestly did not feel very good at all. It was sort of a struggle just to be able to, to do all that. But we didn’t want to miss the opportunities. So we, shortly after I finished that sort of last radiation, we did this trip to Prague. We went and we spent a wonderful couple of weeks with our friends and in Prague. I had told them the story of the dream and all the whole journey. Well, they had said to me, “Before you leave, it’s our anniversary, we want you all to celebrate our anniversary with us. We have a special place that we want to take you to dinner.” 

We walked through the streets of Prague, it’s such a beautiful place, such an amazing place, and we came around this corner. She said, “Here’s the restaurant right in front of us.” I looked at the restaurant and on the door of the restaurant was that Maltese cross that was representative of the Knights of Malta. It turned out that the Knights of Malta had actually come to Prague and had settled right there in that area of town and the place where we were having dinner was the hospital where they had brought the sick. 

They escorted us down through this ancient tunnel and down through the stairs to the table where we were going to be seated. Then the server came and was explaining everything to us and right beside our table there was an archway that you could see had been sealed up. She explained to us that that archway was the tunnel between the hospital and the church. That was where they would take the sick through this tunnel to get to the church to be prayed for for healing. 

When we went outside, the whole square, it’s called Maltézské náměstí, which means Maltese square. Positioned on this square was the restaurant that used to be the hospital. Then there was this great cathedral that used to be the Maltese cathedral, and then a statue in the center of one of the warriors. I felt like I had been to Malta. I was just so blown away with just that visual picture. 

I was resting the day after we got home from jetlag, and I was lying on my bed and I just started thinking about it and I realized, God, You actually let me walk out my dream. You went to a lot of trouble to actually take me where I felt like I had walked out my dream and actually felt like I’d been to Malta. And it just suddenly washed over me that the Lord was saying, “I will meet you halfway. I will take you the rest of the way, because of what I will do.” 

I remember I just, I jumped up out of my bed and I planted my feet and I said, “In the name of Jesus, I am healed.” I just was overwhelmed that the Lord is willing to meet us if we can just go as far as we can with our faith. He is so willing in His mercy and His kindness, that He’s willing to come and meet us, right where we are. 

So they wanted to follow me for 10 years, which they did, and I went to a different doctor years later, for something else. When he looked over my medical history, he told me three different times he said, “This is not the outcome I would have expected from this scenario.” So I, I just believe the Lord saw me through. He was the One who was the healing hand in my life.