In late July of 2007, I stood by the bed of my dear nephew Sam Nichols, the marine sergeant who was hit by a bomb in Iraq.  4 of his men died in the blast, they were in 3 vehicles that were hit. My family’s prayers had been heard, to spare him on his 2^nd tour to Iraq.  But it was not good.  I cried as I looked at him.  I was painfully aware that he took this hit for the rest of us.  Sam was brain dead, on life support, lying at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland, the same place they rushed Ronald Reagan to when he received an assassin’s bullet.  Sam was a gruesome sight, he had huge chunks of flesh missing, he was swollen, he had tubes everywhere, his neck was broken, his leg was broken, his arm was broken, his brain was hopelessly injured and filled with blood and swelling.  His body was full of shrapnel. But what really gave the doctors no hope was his brain stem which was all bled out, was totally bruised, and much like mush.  I had flown back to Maryland to be with my brother Eric and to pray.  He and his family were very beat down by this horrendous circumstance.  Two naval officers, also neural-surgeons, sat us down and told us it was hopeless.  They said he was brain dead, and met all the Harvard Medical School qualifications for brain death.  1)  Eyes don’t track, also called doll eyes, 2) eyes don’t respond to light,   3) Pupils totally unresponsive.  (There are 7 other points but Sam met them all.)  The two doctors showed us a cat scan and pointed out why they had no hope, and they told me, my brother Eric and Erin, Sam’s young wife, he was gone and we must face it.  My brother asked them how many cases they have seen like Sam’s. They said 450. My brother asked them how many woke or survived.  They said none.  According to the doctors, Sam was in a coma which he would never wake up from.
This was huge, and a tough pill to swallow, but how huge is our God, and just Who and What is this person called the Holy Spirit like who we all have living in us?  I want to boast on Him!  We asked the two doctors if we could discuss it alone, Eric, Erin, and I.  They left, with faces like morticians, and expected an answer from us of caving in.  As soon as the door closed behind them, I plopped down by Erin, and said, “are you ready to receive Christ?”  She said “yes,” and the Holy Spirit raised the first dead person in this story.  We called the doctors in and said, we are people of faith, and we will not give up, we are going to pray and trust God.  They actually tried to talk us out of it.  But the Holy Spirit had a plan and a path for us to walk, and the unfolding had already begun.  A few days later, Erin, who was hungry for God, received the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Back at the hotel room, I put in a call to a mentor of mine, Dave Duell, a world evangelist and apostle of God.  I do not know how I had his cell phone number.  I had never called him before.  In 15 minutes, Dave called me back from Hungary, where it was 7:00 PM in the evening, and he was about to start a miracle crusade.  Dave listened to the story, and the odds against us, and then he said the words that to this day echo in my mind, and are still being said by thousands today who pray for Sam.   He said, “brother, faith overrules fact.”  He said it again. Then he said, “you go raise him up, you have everything you need to do it.”  I was so thankful to hear from Dave Duell, the Holy Spirit was at work, and Dave’s call was part of it.  We began a vigil at Sam’s side, and Sam’s new believer wife, Erin, was the most diligent of all.  I stayed 11 days, and finally flew home, but in those 11 days, I was able to highly disciple this little niece of mine, Erin.  I call her little, since she is maybe 5’2”, but her spirit inside is tall.  What a man of faith my brother Eric turned into over night.  He had not been following God very long when this happened.  The Holy Spirit is awesome, He caused me to have a cell phone number to connect with a man from Colorado who called us from Hungary and gave us a preceding Word to stand on!  The Holy Spirit was also about to walk us and a host of people through the fire with tempering flames, with great faith on the other side.
Sam had some near misses in those first few days. A day or so after Dave’s call, and our stand of faith, Satan tried to take Sam. We got summoned to him by an early morning call, and it was now his heart.  The assistant Commandant of the Marines was coming, they wanted to impart a purple heart before Sam passed away. We got there and they had a chaplain, ready to comfort the grieving wife, and several officers had been called in.  My brother and Erin and I looked at the monitor, and Sam’s heart was beating way above normal blood pressure.  A team of doctors and nurses were all around him.  They said this was normal right before the end.  Erin and I, right in front of everyone, laid our hands on Sam’s heart and commanded healing in Jesus’ name, and it slowed down as we watched the monitor.  Sam was better on this issue within a few hours.  A few days later, they said they needed to amputate Sam’s right leg. It was severely broken and shattered right at the shin, with bone and skin missing.  Erin signed a permission form for this to be done, but it did not set right with me at all.   A prayer warrior in our family, my sister or wife or someone, got a scripture about this and fed it to us by cell phone.  “For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep thy foot from being taken.”  Proverbs 3:26! Eric and I went to Erin and gave her this word, and then I said to Erin, “according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 7, the husband has not power over his own body but the wife.  Plus, you two are one flesh.  So if you have power over Sam’s body and you are one with him, then that leg belongs to you, and you need to hold onto to your leg by faith and claim that leg as healed.”  Erin did this, and after signing an amputation permission form the day before, Erin received her leg (Sam’s) the next day by doctors deciding not to amputate. We never told them of our prayer and stand of faith for the leg.  They had their permission form, only God could have stopped them.  The Holy Spirit would not turn over that leg.  Praise Him!
The Holy Spirit had caused our prayer team from back home to give forth a Word with a miracle in it for that leg.  When I finally flew home, Sam had not awoke or risen, but in those days before I left, what a fight of faith we had to fight.  Eric and I would walk back and forth on the Naval base from our quarter’s to the hospital in high humidity and heat, and when we got there, the doctors would release another attack against ours and Erin’s faith.  They kept sending more doctors to state the facts, and bigger doctors, I mean a doctor who was 6 ft 5 inches came in and told us it was not going to happen.   They gave us wave after wave of fear and negativity, and we were weary, but the whole country of believers seemed to be networked in prayer over Sam.  We could feel the anointing in the air.  My sister Jan called me and said that we reminded her of Moses and Aaron, (my brother and I) walking back and forth between the Lord and Pharaoh many times.  She said that each time you go back you grow stronger with more resolve.  That was so true.  Although it is true we had some victories, we had no visible sign or any physical encouragement in the natural realm of any kind that Sam would wake up from brain death.  We had to base our stand and reputation on the Word of God alone.  What a lesson I learned in that trial by fire, of listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit. My brother feels the same way.
But now I have come to the whole point of my story.  We needed faith in this trial, and although we won some physical victories, it was all for naught if he was only being sustained by life support. One day, as we saw no change in Sam or his coma, Eric and I were interceding in our room, and the precious Holy Spirit spoke to me.
Back to Sam:  My brother got this following understanding from God before we left Maryland.  We did not see him awake then, but Eric said that God no doubt had Sam in an anesthetic coma for his own good, to stay off pain, and in a sense, our prayers were being answered, God’s way.  Oh, by the way, let me get to the end of the story.  In several weeks, Sam awoke. Countless people got saved in the process.  Many soldiers got healed back there in Bethesda.  Erin got to minister to many families.  One soldier had leukemia and just a few days to live.  Erin prayed with the family and the young man had a drastic turn around.  Sam’s cup ran over.  The grace could not be contained. Little Erin, the feisty believing wife got her hubby back, and the precious Holy Spirit literally manifested this scripture on the earth once more:  “by faith….. Women received their dead raised to life again.”  Hebrews 11:3a and 35a.  Sam not only awoke, but He knows the Lord.  He is double raised from death.  This couple is destined to be in some form of the ministry, and Sam is a miracle and example to many TBI patients.  (Traumatic Brain Injury)  Sam is now in the Bay area of California and undergoing rehabilitation and making gains daily with his wife Erin at his side.  When you think of it, pray for this couple that God has His will with all the restoration needed.  They have come so far.  Erin and Sam are still fighting battles, but failure to go all the way is not even an option for them, or the rest of us.
Sam Nichols’ story is one like so many others, a tapestry of the work of the Holy Spirit of God, based on the Cross of Christ. You have all of God’s power if you have received His Holy Spirit. Paul indicated in Ephesians 5:18 that we must be filled continually with the Holy Sprit which means we leak Him out, and must be refilled.  That first time we received Him, we received the power, the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and faith for a new “wine skin” of capacity to hold Him within us, and be refilled any time we desire Him and seek His presence.  Bless His name forever!   Mark 16 tells us what Jesus expected us to do once we were filled with the Holy Spirit:  We would be going into all the world, preaching the gospel, casting out devils, speaking with new tongues and healing the sick, like Sam Nichols.  Jesus also said if you are going to go, get filled first.  Imagine a knight going out to battle without his armor.  Imagine a fisherman going out without his pole. Imagine a preacher going out without his Bible.  But the biggest advice Jesus ever gave anyone was, don’t go out without the Holy Spirit.  Don’t start anything, don’t say a word, don’t pray a prayer, don’t minister to anyone, just wait, and be still, and be filled.  Jesus knew this and He walked it out Himself.  The carpenter stayed a carpenter until He was filled and then He became a preacher.  OK, you got it too?  Now you have the power.  Now go!

Greg Nichols