^{April 30, 2026}

Did Gabe Poirot REALLY Meet Jesus in Heaven?

Inside This Episode

In October 2021, Gabe Poirot's life changed forever. After a devastating electric skateboard accident left him unconscious for 18 days, what he experienced during that time would challenge everything he thought he knew about life, death, and eternity. In this episode of Maybe God, Gabe shares his near-death experience in full detail—from watching the scene of his accident unfold, to moving through a tunnel, to encountering heaven, and ultimately coming face-to-face with Jesus in a way he never had before.

Buy Gabe’s book: 18 Days in Heaven: I Left My Body. I Met Jesus. What He Told Me Will Alter Your Eternity

Subscribe to Maybe God’s YouTube channel today!

Transcript

Gabe Poirot: Life is more than flesh and blood. If you could have an experience outside of your body, that starts to challenge everything we're used to.

Eric Huffman: What happened the day that you died?

Gabe Poirot: We were racing. I had an electric skateboard. I remember in that moment just thinking to myself, "This is amazing." There's this little bump in the middle of the road and I did a back flip, landed right on my head. I slipped out of my body. You know when you take off your clothes, when you get home from work and you just take off your jacket and you set your jacket down and then you look at your jacket, but you're not your jacket.

Eric Huffman: You saw yourself?

Gabe Poirot: Yeah. And then I was just captured by this light. This light just suctioned me. The light was living. The light was Him.

Eric Huffman: What was He pulling you toward as He pulled you through all of that?

Gabe Poirot: When I was brought before Him, my face was down. I was like, "Oh my goodness, I'm done for. The list of my record is going to get pulled up. My rights versus my wrongs is going to get pulled up and I'm done for." He picks up my face, He looks me in the eyes and He says, "Gabriel, why are you concerned about that which I paid for?" When I was brought before Him, I was home. Finally home.

Eric Huffman: What is the big message you want to share with unbelievers, people that just aren't sure about God?

Gabe Poirot: I encountered a Jesus that was not the head of a religion. He wasn't the head of an organization. He was-

[00:01:20] <music>

Eric Huffman: Well, Gabe, welcome to Maybe God.

Gabe Poirot: Thanks for having me.

Eric Huffman: Thanks for coming all the way from Fort Worth down to Houston.

Gabe Poirot: Yes, sir.

Eric Huffman: Hope you enjoy your time here. Congratulations on everything. The book we'll talk about in a moment, but you were just telling me y'all have welcomed a new baby into the world. So congrats on that.

Gabe Poirot: Thank you, he's our miraculous baby.

Eric Huffman: Yeah, it's gotta be incredible. Six months in. I remember those days. We're here to, among other things, talk about what you wrote the book about and this incredible story that you're living and a near-death experience. This won't be the first conversation we've had on the topic of near-death experiences. We've had John Burke and others come and talk about NDEs.

What's always interesting to me when we have near-death experience conversations are the comments pushing back against the concept. For example, I can imagine you've heard comments from people who say, "Look, this guy was a Christian before he had this whole dramatic experience. He already knew the Bible, he knew Jesus. And so of course he's going to have some kind of Christian experience," like you did. I'm just curious, we're a channel that tries to engage with skeptics and people that don't believe yet, what do you say to people that come at you with that sort of line of criticism or attack about your story?

Gabe Poirot: For sure, well, actually, I welcome scrutiny. I lean into conversation. I truly am not even bothered by those comments because I believe in civil discussion. And ultimately this testimony isn't about myself, it's Christ and Christ alone. And even I wrote the title of my book and that gets a lot of people because it's 18 Days in Heaven. "Who do you think you are?" Well, it's not about me actually. I write it poetically because it's 18 days with Him.

Now, it only even says 18 days because that's how long I was medically in the coma for. That's how long I was medically not there in my body. And that's why I write the title the way it is. But with Him, it was like two minutes. Time doesn't work the same when you're outside of it. That's another conversation.

Eric Huffman: Yeah, I want to get more into it.

Gabe Poirot: But to address the skepticism, I would actually invite them to open their Bibles to Joel 2 where it was prophesied that old men would dream dreams and young men would see visions when the spirit of the Lord was poured out. And that didn't just happen 2,000 years ago. That wasn't just fulfilled 2,000 years ago when the Spirit was poured out. And even Stephen in Acts 9, who by the way, was not an apostle, was not a special guy, didn't write a book in the Bible, yet he had an NDE.

Eric Huffman: Stephen?

Gabe Poirot: Stephen in Acts 9, as he was being stoned, he saw Jesus lifted up on His throne. As he was being stoned.

Eric Huffman: So, a supernatural vision in the process of dying.

Gabe Poirot: In the process of dying.

Eric Huffman: Not unlike what you experienced.

Gabe Poirot: Yeah. So you start to see like, oh. And then John in Revelation he had an encounter with heaven that he came back and wrote all about. Now, could he describe everything he saw? No. Did Paul describe everything he wrote in 2 Corinthians when he said, "I know a man caught up to the third heaven?" No, he said it was things indescribable. And there's things I saw that are literally indescribable that I don't even put in my book and I never even say.

Eric Huffman: Really?

Gabe Poirot: This book is just a small preview of a testimony that points towards the cross and scripture. It does not seek to take away from scripture at all.

Eric Huffman: But why do you think a story like yours triggers skeptics to the extent that they tend to ask more questions, and some are generously asked and some are not, right? But what do you think it is about a story like yours that really ignites that kind of inquiry?

Gabe Poirot: Well, because it challenges our entire perception of life because all we're used to is what's on earth. Flesh and blood. So if life is more than flesh and blood, if you could have an experience, a vision, not just a vision, but an experience outside of your body, that starts to challenge everything we're used to. Also, I will say, you know, man, if I was going to come up with a story, cracking my skull in half, flatlining, and then being in a coma for 18 days is not, I think, the best method if I was intentionally out to come up with a narrative.

Eric Huffman: You would have wrote a different story.

Gabe Poirot: I think there's a lot of other ideas to come out with and a lot of other things to do than literally flatline. If people thought I intentionally did this, then that's actually kind of wild. Even skeptics accept the fact this is a medical miracle. I have the medical documents that I'll be sending to you guys so you can put this up. This was even medically confirmed. The doctor has come out publicly of the JPS Hospital and said, "We had to resuscitate him, and even then we didn't know if he'd come back. And if he did, we never anticipated his brain to function again." So it's like my brain was mashed potatoes.

Eric Huffman: That's wild. I can't wait to get more into the weeds of your story with you. But before we get into the details, let me ask one more question along these lines, which is we're going to talk a lot about what you came back with from this experience. And a lot of it has to do with what believers need to know, how we need to be affirmed and encouraged. What about unbelievers? What is it that more than anything else, as we get into the story in a minute, what is the big message you want to share with unbelievers, people that just aren't sure about God? If you could sum it up in a line or two, what would that be?

Gabe Poirot: Man, I encountered a Jesus that was not the head of a religion. He wasn't the head of an organization. He was family. Heaven is not full of religion. Heaven is full of family. And truly, truly, we keep thinking of Him as just another person who considers what He thinks of us, who considers whether or not He loves us. We've never understood He is love.

Eric Huffman: Why, of all things, when you think about the non-religious people or uncommitted people that you think of and why they are in that camp, why is that the message that comes through most loudly for them? What is it about their experience that leads you to lead with, or maybe led God to lead with family and love?

Gabe Poirot: Well, I think they've been so manipulated and I think they've seen so many fraudulent, actually, pictures of Christ. Actually, I don't blame or even separate those who maybe aren't a part of a church yet or aren't religious or aren't putting a label to it. Actually, I welcome people like that. Even on my channel, I get comments all the time telling me, "I'm an atheist, but I love this channel. I'm an agnostic, but why do I keep coming back? There's a love that I just feel here." And a guy even told me... he'd read a lot of other religious books, textbooks. He said, "But I picked up your book and I literally felt something I can't describe."

Eric Huffman: Wow.  

Gabe Poirot: And I said, "Sir, His name is Jesus, the real Jesus."

Eric Huffman: Breaking through all the walls of religion and everything.

Gabe Poirot: Because we really have misrepresented Him. Again, this isn't me introducing some special heaven as if it's like a tourism spot or like... even in my book, I don't describe heaven as all the items and as if it's all about the physical things or all about the gold and mansions. No, it's Him. It really actually debunks a lot of the prosperity junk that we have on this earth and a lot of the churches that have misused the Bible for wicked gains. I call that out, too.

Eric Huffman: You do. This is a good time, I guess, to talk about the book you poured your heart and soul into, 18 Days in Heaven. Thank you for writing it. I can only imagine that was a process to get through your own thoughts about what happened. But let's talk about it. What happened the day that you died?

Hey everybody, Eric Huffman here, host of Maybe God. Thank you so much for tuning in today. If this episode is making you think differently about your life, your purpose, or about the afterlife, I hope you won't stop there. Subscribe to Maybe God right now so that you don't miss the next episode that we've got coming. Our mission on this channel isn't to tell you what to think; it's to create a space where we share real stories and honest questions and have deeper conversations about God and faith. So hit "subscribe", join our community today. Now let's get back to my conversation with Gabe Poirot.

Gabe Poirot: So it was October 25th, 2021. And before this date, I certainly had known a lot about the Bible. I learned a lot about faith. I learned a lot about God. I had made a decision to place my faith in Christ, but I describe it like this. There's a big difference between knowing about someone versus knowing them. You can tell someone about watermelon a hundred times. It's never the same as giving them a piece of watermelon.

Eric Huffman: There's nothing like it.

Gabe Poirot: Nothing like it. Especially in Texas.

Eric Huffman: On a hot summer day.

Gabe Poirot: Houston. Oh, it's your redemption. We hooked around this curve of the road. My other friend had started heading back to the house, but he still was a little bit more ahead. And then my other friend, John Michael, we were racing. I had an electric skateboard without a helmet, of course, because helmets are for nerds.

Eric Huffman: Who needs helmets?

Gabe Poirot: Who needs helmets?

Eric Huffman: Stay tuned, everyone.

Gabe Poirot: I remember in that moment just thinking to myself, "This is perfect. There's nothing wrong with my life. Nothing could go wrong." I remember just being like, "This is amazing." Quite the irony. There's this little bump in the middle of the road... and I don't know exactly how fast I was going. I say 30, I don't know. Maybe I was going 15. I don't know. I was going fast. That's what I know. Actually, this company went bankrupt because so many people have died.

Eric Huffman: Really?

Gabe Poirot: That's another story. A lot of these EV bikes and scooters, they all go bankrupt because so many deaths happen.

Eric Huffman: Liability, man.

Gabe Poirot: Yeah, it's serious. And I was the next one. So I hit that bump and I did a back flip, landed right on my head. Just stuck it right on my head.

Eric Huffman: You didn't mean to do a back flip, in other words.

Gabe Poirot: No, no, no, it wasn't intentional. No, it happened. So, as my skull was cracked, blood didn't have anywhere to escape except the ears. [00:11:25]

Eric Huffman: It's not a good sign.

Gabe Poirot: Eyes rolled back, my body went plank.

Eric Huffman: Do you remember the impact?

Gabe Poirot: I remember the moment right up until the very moment. And then I slipped out of my body.

Eric Huffman: What do you mean?

Gabe Poirot: You know when you take off your clothes, when you get home from work and you just take off your jacket and you set your jacket down and then you look at your jacket, but you're not your jacket? That's how it felt.

Eric Huffman: You saw yourself?

Gabe Poirot: Yeah. It was like, you see yourself and you're just like, oh.

Eric Huffman: What do you remember seeing specifically?

Gabe Poirot: I didn't see like intimate details other than my friend was holding up my body in his arms and it was just like-

Eric Huffman: And he actually was.

Gabe Poirot: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Eric Huffman: And you saw him?

Gabe Poirot: And it was like, I just slipped right out and then I was just captured by this light. Like this light just suctioned me higher. And as much of a tragedy as that situation was, I knew it was going to be okay.

Eric Huffman: Right away?

Gabe Poirot: It wasn't the end of life. It was the end of my body, but it wasn't the end of life.

Eric Huffman: Was it just one friend or was it multiple friends that were with you?

Gabe Poirot: It was John Michael and then Aaron, the other friend, came running later on.

Eric Huffman: Do you remember how they reacted?

Gabe Poirot: You know what, I was suctioned up so fast that their initial reaction was something that was like shock. It was like, "What?" They thought I was pranking them at first. John Michael thought I was pranking him. And then he just runs over and he's like, "Oh." And my body was plank, and he was holding up my body. But it wasn't just him holding up my body. I saw his prayers.

Eric Huffman: You saw it? What does that mean?

Gabe Poirot: What I mean by that is, as I'm being suctioned up by this light, I understand that life is so much more than just physical, like flesh and blood. And so it literally was like an awareness that they were praying for me. It was just an awareness that I was going to be okay.

Eric Huffman: Hmm. No grief

Gabe Poirot: None.

Eric Huffman: No regret?

Gabe Poirot: They were dealing with immense grief. My family and friends, my parents were called from Virginia and told, "Hey, your son was just in an accident. Get here now." When they got there, they said, "Where's his last will? Has he written one?"

Eric Huffman: You were 20.

Gabe Poirot: Yeah, I was 20.

Eric Huffman: Nobody writes a will that young.

Gabe Poirot: Yeah, it's like, "No, he didn't write one." But they were talking about me in past tense because I truly had... so they resuscitated me, but I was still in the natural coma for three days and then I was in a medically induced coma for 15 more days. So it was a total of 18 days.

Eric Huffman: Okay. Obviously, they called 9-1-1, they get you, but you're gone by that point. I mean, spiritually, you're sucked away. You didn't see the ambulance arrive?

Gabe Poirot: No. I described my story. Obviously, I talk about the ambulance coming and all those things, but no, I didn't see the details of the ambulance or even the details of the hospital because I was already suctioned out by that time.

Eric Huffman: So they get you to the hospital, your body anyway. What are the doctors telling your parents and friends?

Gabe Poirot: They're just telling them that they've never really seen a case like mine come back. And if I do ever come back, they really were, and they had to say this even legally, they were like, "We don't even know if he's going to be functional. It's likely he'll be a mental vegetable."

Eric Huffman: Vegetative state.

Gabe Poirot: Actually, we did a whole documentary on this already on CBN. We went to the same hospital room that my body was lying in. The doctor shook my hand. By the way, I thanked the doctors and nurses, you know?

Eric Huffman: Of course.

Gabe Poirot: But he shook my hand and he said, "God is real."

Eric Huffman: The doctor said that?

Gabe Poirot: The doctor said that.

Eric Huffman: Do you know if he was already a believer before? I would just be curious to know, not that it really matters, but your story clearly shook him up as a doctor.

Gabe Poirot: Definitely. I don't know if he was actually a believer before or not. I don't know, I didn't ask him. But it definitely did give off a feeling that he was deeply touched and deeply appreciative that I was alive.

Eric Huffman: Wow. Yeah, man, when the doctors-

Gabe Poirot: They were like, "We love this story of your survival because it makes this ER room look really good."

Eric Huffman: I'm sure.

Gabe Poirot: Which it does, you know, but... yeah.

Eric Huffman: Yeah, when you shock the doctors by coming back, I mean, you're standing outside the usual statistical norms, I guess. Okay, you said 18 days?

Gabe Poirot: Yeah, yeah.

Eric Huffman: What happened to you? Not just your body, but what happened to you in the moment after you died?

Gabe Poirot: I quickly understood I am not limited by my body. My body is literally was just my earth vehicle, is what I call it. It literally is just an earth vehicle. Who I truly am, I felt like I took my first breath. I was like, Uh, and I felt alive, truly alive.

Eric Huffman: So, for that whole time, your body's basically dead, you're alive?

Gabe Poirot: I don't have any grief, any pain. And you know, whether I was with Christ for like all 18 days or just like two minutes, I can't even tell people because time doesn't work the same when you're outside of it.

Eric Huffman: John Burke said something similar to me in his research and all the thousands-

Gabe Poirot: When people were like, "Exactly how much time were you gone?" Well, I say 18 days because that's how long I was in the coma for and that's how long I was fully unconscious. But it truly is like a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day. But do you know time only exists because of distance with planets, right? Because we're on this sphere is what I call it. But the day is going to come where this sphere is actually going to get all wrapped up and there won't be time as we know it anymore. People don't understand that.

Eric Huffman: Time is not what we think.

Gabe Poirot: Time is not some objective truth that forever exists, but time actually was only put within the confines of this universe. So when you're outside of the dimension of this universe, which is where I was, you're not limited by it anymore. Scientists even talk about the 11 dimensions and they talk about these places in space where they can't describe what's going on because it's not operating like the rest.

Eric Huffman: For sure. Yeah, it's wild. If you ever watch a Christopher Nolan movie, how time is relative, right? Was there a light like you often hear?

Gabe Poirot: But the light was not visible as I'm looking at this light. It wasn't visible. The light was living. The light was breathing. The light was Him.

Eric Huffman: Okay, the light was Him.

Gabe Poirot: I knew immediately this light that I was being suctioned into wasn't just taking me to a place. I was becoming enveloped by this person. Not just a person... When I say person, I don't mean a human, although He fully did take on a human body, but He's not some, He's not about, He is.

Eric Huffman: So it was a personal light.

Gabe Poirot: Very intimate and very... it felt like a truck driving through mud. As I'm being suctioned, I'm like kind of pulled up what I call the second heaven. Now, the Bible talks about the first heaven is the blue sky, the second heaven is outer space. I say second heaven, including outer space, plus what I call the spiritual realm right above. We wrestle not with flesh and blood, but principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world. As I was being suctioned up, I just remember being like, uh, that's chaos. Because the spiritual world right above the earth is chaos.

Eric Huffman: You got pulled up through it?

Gabe Poirot: Through it, yeah.

Eric Huffman: Were you scared?

Gabe Poirot: It wasn't necessarily fear because I knew I was going to be okay. But it was like, oh wow, things make sense now.

Eric Huffman: You got a glimpse of it?

Gabe Poirot: Tiny glimpse.

Eric Huffman: What made sense?

Gabe Poirot: Why so many evil, wicked things happen on the earth. I saw that it actually. It's not like God's doing it. This earth is very fallen and very influenced by those principalities, powers and rulers of darkness of this world. I saw that there were people were like Muppets and they were just being manipulated by these evil spirits. But the evil spirits would introduce things to make it so familiar with the person. They'll introduce thoughts and feelings and even past histories and they'll bring it to the person. And then specifically, unforgiveness I saw is actually the food chain of these spirits. They eat off of it.

Eric Huffman: Unforgiveness, resentment.

Gabe Poirot: It was an awareness. And when I describe this, they're like, "What did unforgiveness look like?" It was just an awareness I had.

Eric Huffman: How long would you say that... I know time, right? But was it like a brief window where you're just going through it?

Gabe Poirot: That's what's so wild about it. It's hard to describe on a linear timeline because it was such a supernatural experience.

Eric Huffman: It's like a snow globe. You see it all at once kind of, yeah.

Gabe Poirot: And that's why people make fun of NDEs all the time because it sounds so not normal. It's like, because it's not.

Eric Huffman: How do you explain it?

Gabe Poirot: How do you put something outside of this dimension back into this dimension?

Eric Huffman: I will tell you that for me, that detail, as a... I'm a skeptic sort of wired person. I always want to question everything. That for me lends credence to your story because it's such an unexpected detail. Like everybody expects the tunnel of light part. Everybody expects seeing familiar faces on the other side and love and everything. But going through that little detail of seeing this earthly battleground for a spiritual war playing out, how that explains so much of the pain and suffering and discord you witnessed, that is an interesting detail for me.

Gabe Poirot: It gives them access in your life more than people realize. And ever since this moment, by the way, I'm so fast. Even if someone will look me in my face and be like, "You're lying, you're a fraud," I'll look at them and I'll say, "I love you. Bless you. I forgive you."

Eric Huffman: Because you know what's really going on.

Gabe Poirot: Because I know what will happen if I hold resentment against that person.

Eric Huffman: And you know why they might hold resentment against you.

Gabe Poirot: Exactly. And I know actually most of the time it has truly nothing to do with me. It's their own pain. So I saw these spirits, what they do. So I describe it as like a... okay, people mishear me. I'm not talking literal. I'm talking like a. This is a metaphor. Like a spiritual vault or a bank or a storage depot. It's the best way I can describe it.

There's a storage. There's a spiritual storage upon every person. And every time we hold unforgiveness and resentment, it is like a food that these spirits gain function over us. We give them authority and function. So if I hold unforgiveness, what am I doing? I'm saying that I'm literally giving them access because it's me taking the forgiveness of Christ and the love of Christ. And it's me saying, ah, no, I deserve forgiveness, but you don't. It's me becoming my own God.

Eric Huffman: It's the parable of the unmerciful servant.

Gabe Poirot: It is. And they feast on that. You know why? Because they were the original inventors of where that came from.

Eric Huffman: Yeah.

Gabe Poirot: He was close to God. He was the chief worshiper in heaven. And he said, "Why don't I just do it my own way? I'll be my own God."

Eric Huffman: It's the original fault.

Gabe Poirot: And he stepped outside of love and he fell because of it. And so anytime, okay, you ready to see this? Anytime we walk outside of love, it's dangerous. Not because God's angry at us or because God's trying to punish us. It's not because like, "Oh, we're sinners and God hates us and God's casting you out." No, no. Making a mistake is not God so angry at you. It's you stepped out of the place He had for you. You stepped out of the love He has for you. So it's not God angry at you. It's God wanting to bring you back to love.

Eric Huffman: Right. Gosh, bro. It really is the difference between the religious mindset and a gospel love-oriented mindset, right? Because religious mindset is all about what we do and what we deserve and what other people deserve. And we end up becoming our own God eventually in that. And God, in a shocking way, liberated you from that in this experience by giving you this vision of what's really going on.

All right, we gotta keep going. I can get hung up on that and spend the whole time talking about that alone. What was He pulling you toward as He pulled you through all of that?

Gabe Poirot: Yeah. I described this as the third heaven. Now, again, I am not claiming as if, again, I know all about heaven, but I just know this, where He was is heaven. Heaven can't be described as just a location. Heaven can't just be described as a place. It can't even be understood as that. Heaven is Him.

Eric Huffman: The only analogy I can think of is... this is going to be so cheesy but I mean it. When I think of earthly home, where is home? It's where my wife is. Wherever she is. Sure, wherever she is, I'm home. I can imagine in a much bigger, I mean, infinitely grander scale, that's what you're describing. It's not just a zip code. It's like wherever His presence is, that's ultimately home. That's what you were shown.

Gabe Poirot: That's what was wild about the experience. When I was brought before Him, I was home, finally home.

Eric Huffman: I can only imagine what that must've felt like. Indescribable.

Gabe Poirot: I still do struggle to share it because... and I didn't wanna share it for a long time.

Eric Huffman: I'm sure. You feel like you're selling it short by putting words to it.

Gabe Poirot: Putting English to it. Even the way we're communicating. I mean, this is great, but-

Eric Huffman: We're doing our best.

Gabe Poirot: He talked to me not in an English language. His words were like spears to my heart.

Eric Huffman: That sounds painful.

Gabe Poirot: In the best way possible.

Eric Huffman: Yeah.

Gabe Poirot: In the best way possible. It hurts so good.

Eric Huffman: It hurts so good.

Gabe Poirot: Here's what's wild. Left, right, up, down, He's there. Heaven breathes Him. Heaven sings Him. Heaven smells Him. Heaven smells like Him. You look at the flowers and you say, "Jesus, You're beautiful." You look at the streets and you say, "Love, love is beautiful." The rivers and the waves, as they crash back and forth, the waves of water sing, "Worthy is the Lamb. Worthy is the King. Jehovah, Jireh, Alpha and Omega, Eternal One. He's coming back soon." They say, worthy is the King. The King is coming. The King is coming. The King is here and the King is coming because they know how valuable His family is.

Eric Huffman: On earth?

Gabe Poirot: On earth. And in heaven. We're all one. We're one. So it's not like a separate family on heaven, separate family on earth. We're one family. There's no orphanage in heaven. We're all adopted. So when I was brought before, my face was down because I was like, "Oh my goodness, I'm done for. The list of my record is going to get pulled up. My rights versus my wrongs is going to get pulled up and I'm done for." I was just like, "I don't stand a chance."

Eric Huffman: You really felt that?

Gabe Poirot: It was like Ezekiel and Daniel as their face was down. I think it was either Ezekiel or Daniel or Isaiah, all three of them had encounters anyways. Stand up, son of man. Well, so as my face was down, tears were just flowing down my face. He picks up my face, He looks me in the eyes and he says, "Gabriel, why are you concerned about that which I paid for?" And of course He knows the answer. He didn't ask that as if He didn't know. But He spoke that to my heart. Again, I'm trying to put English to this, but He spoke it to my heart. I was forgiven. The case was shut.

Eric Huffman: Was there any element of judgment? A lot of Christians would expect there to be some element of like coming to terms with your sin and saying, I'm sorry, ultimately or whatever. But what was it all acceptance and love or was there some...?

Gabe Poirot: So again, there's a recognition that I was not brought to Him and I was not saved by my works. Like you fully understand the end of yourself is the start of Him, but you see His grace. For me, I was born again before this experience, I had decided to receive His grace, to receive His love, and repent of my sins, but I wasn't saved because of me. I was saved because of Him.

Eric Huffman: One thing that is common in NDE stories is some kind of a life review. I know you mentioned that briefly in the book or not so briefly. But I wonder if you could walk us through that concept. What is a life review and what was yours like?

Gabe Poirot: For me, it was just an awareness that a lot of things that I thought were super important did not come with me.

Eric Huffman: What do you mean?

Gabe Poirot: What I mean by that is none of the money or accolades or what people thought of me. It really didn't matter. There's so many things I could get into, but my life review was just like all in one and it was like a snapshot. It didn't take like an hour to watch through type thing. It was more like, just like that.

Eric Huffman: Just like time, it's compressed.

Gabe Poirot: But it was definitely a lot of moments that I thought were going to be marked like accolades and what people thought of me. None of it. None of it exists in heaven. But I saw this. Actually my life review, I experienced it like a library. There was books there that He recorded that meant something to Him. It was all about Him. And His grace washed me of my sins. I was forgiven. There was no record of my sins in heaven. I was forgiven. As far as East is from the West so my sins were removed from me. But it's not because of me, it's because of Him.

Eric Huffman: Dude, I believe that in concept, but believing it in reality is a different thing. Like being actually convinced and seeing your sin erased is different from saying, I know I'm forgiven, I know I'll go to heaven and Jesus paid it all. But actually feeling that weight lift off of me, I can only imagine it at this point. Because I still hold on to some form of legalism.

Gabe Poirot: I think we all do. We say we don't, but a lot of places do. We all do. As He's speaking to me, He shows me the wounds. People don't know this, but actually the Bible describes that Greek word for hand wasn't just talking about hand. It's actually also including the wrist. Do you know this? He was actually crucified closer to the wrist.

Eric Huffman: Yeah, yeah.

Gabe Poirot: And those who know Roman crucifixion will tell you that.

Eric Huffman: That's right.

Gabe Poirot: But it wasn't two inches wide. It was the depth of eternity. And it had a name: Gabriel. He did it for me. Just me.

Eric Huffman: Oh, Gabriel. So Jesus standing before you after your, I guess, your life review shows you what it costs to free you from your sin as far as the East is from the West, revealing His scars to you just like He did, and they look like... just like He did in the New Testament, I meant to say. But they look like real scars, but enhanced.

Gabe Poirot: They're real yet redeemed at the same time. He was crucified yet He's alive. See?

Eric Huffman: Yeah.

Gabe Poirot: The price is paid and it's done and He's alive.

Eric Huffman: Did He have a face you can see?

Gabe Poirot: Yes. But can I tell you something? You look into His eyes, good luck trying to look at anything else.

Eric Huffman: You have nice eyes, but I could look away if I wanted to.

Gabe Poirot: You can't look away from His eyes. People are like, "Tell me all about the other parts of heaven." And I tell them, "No, you missed the point."

Eric Huffman: Gosh.

Gabe Poirot: "You missed the point."

Eric Huffman: Well, what was in His eyes when He showed you His scars? Because I can imagine some people, cynical people going like, well, was He like, look what I did for you? What was it like?

Gabe Poirot: It's love, it's joy. It's like, Gabe, you were the joy that was set before me. People don't know this, but when He was on that cross, His diaphragm was actually... the way His legs were... He was hanging down. He had to hold himself up. He had to hold himself up to speak seven more words. And as He spoke the words, He had to suffocate even further because He wasn't able to get oxygen out, but yet He lifted Himself up to speak these words: Father, forgive them. They do not know what they're doing. He said that for me.

Eric Huffman: That's not often how we read it on Good Friday services. We think of Him speaking some comfortable British posh accent or something.

Gabe Poirot: Yeah, a singular sentence. He spoke that word by word. He took a breath that was like five seconds long after every word.

Eric Huffman: Yeah. The mechanics of crucifixion.

Gabe Poirot: If you look into it, you'll see.

Eric Huffman: Yeah, no doubt. Wow. At what point did you realize, as much as you might have wanted to, you weren't going to be staying?

Gabe Poirot: Well, that was wild. It was such a moment that was like, obviously you never want to leave, right?

Eric Huffman: Yeah. Come back to Dallas, Fort Worth after being in heaven.

Gabe Poirot: Even worse would be Houston, but that's not the conversation.

Eric Huffman: Oh, come on now.

Gabe Poirot: So He showed me His wounds, a spear in His side, and He did it all for me. And yet He could do it for you at the same time. Like I was the one, He left the ninety-nine.

Eric Huffman: That's the shocking thing is that if it had only been you who could be saved, He still would have done it.

Gabe Poirot: No, no, no. Not only if. Like I am His only one. We think metaphorically, but this is where I challenge people. I am His only one and you are His only one and everyone else, the viewer, you are His only one.

Eric Huffman: Would you have said that before this experience?

Gabe Poirot: No, because we try to be theologically correct.

Eric Huffman: I don't even think our minds can conceive of what you're actually trying to say.

Gabe Poirot: No. Exactly. And that's where people struggle a lot. They're like, "Gabe said this. Gabe said that." And I just accept it. You can put false prophet on my forehead, seriously, whatever you like, like false teacher, whatever you like to say, seriously, because I'm a son of God.

Eric Huffman: Nothing else matters.

Gabe Poirot: And I know what He says about me. And when I do speak, I speak from my heart and I point back to scripture. And that's the principle. But Jesus didn't explain himself to everyone. Yeah. And even when people didn't like what He said, He leaned into it, He said, "Eat my flesh and drink my blood. I am one with my Father and my Father is one with me."

Eric Huffman: Things that are of another dimension.

Gabe Poirot: "And Father, pray that they would be one and that they would be one, just like I am in You and You are in me." So it's like-

Eric Huffman: Yeah, there's more.

Gabe Poirot: And you know what? They called Jesus blasphemous. They said, "Jesus, you're doing the work of Satan."

Eric Huffman: Sure, they did.

Gabe Poirot: And Jesus is like, "Must be a successful Satan because people are getting saved and knowing the Father." So it's like, "If this testimony that I share is so satanic, why is it leading people to their knees in repentance? Why is it leading people to Jesus?" If this is satanic, he's working against himself.

Eric Huffman: I want to double back to that in a minute and talk about criticism and what you've heard from people, but I want to keep us on track here. You're conscious and alive in heaven with Jesus looking into His eyes, and at some point you realize you're going back. How did you come into that awareness that you couldn't stay?

Gabe Poirot: It was just like an awareness that my time was not up. He made it clear like, "Gabriel, your time's not up."

Eric Huffman: So you never had an inkling that this was forever.

Gabe Poirot: See, this is where it's challenging. It does feel like forever because a moment with Him is eternity. He is eternity. But there is an awareness that like I knew my time on the earth was not up. There's just like this knowing that like, I did know that I wasn't going to be there forever starting at that point. I knew I still had to finish what He had for me on the earth.

Eric Huffman: Okay. So that kind of fits with other NDEs that I think in a detail about NDEs that's often overlooked is this idea of there's some kind of threshold or line.

Gabe Poirot: There is. And I knew I didn't cross that. I knew this was a moment with Him in heaven from what I described, but it wasn't like all of heaven or all of-

Eric Huffman: The fullness of it

Gabe Poirot: The fullness. No, it was literally just a small picture.

Eric Huffman: Which is, if you look into these, if you're watching and you're not familiar, that is a very common theme in NDEs, both the good pleasant ones and the unpleasant ones, is that you, you come to a line that you know, if you cross that, it's it, that's it. But in these NDEs, they typically stop short of that line and then go back with some story to tell, as you did. Were you aware of your parents and everybody else just grieving and suffering over your hospital bed?

Gabe Poirot: It's actually kind of wild. I was never aware of any of grief or death or pain, but I was aware of something on the earth that was going on. I was shown the prayers.

Eric Huffman: What do you mean?

Gabe Poirot: I knew everyone was praying for me. And the reason why is because Jesus told me, "Now is not your time. He looked me in the eyes, He said, 'You must go back. Tell them who I really am.'" He said, "Tell my family who I am and how much I love them." And when He spoke that, there was just this knowing that like, He's coming so soon. When He spoke those words, He gave me such an awareness that actually He is infinite, His love is infinite, His love is never ending, but the specific grace for the earth, people don't recognize this a lot of times, the specific grace for the earth actually does have an expiration date.

Eric Huffman: Yeah, that's right. Judgment day.

Gabe Poirot: His love is desperate to get the truth to people before that expiration date.

Eric Huffman: So when He sent you back, I can imagine as a guy, right? Guy's like a mission. So He sent you back, it wasn't just go back and keep living the way you've been living. He sent you back with a mission.

Gabe Poirot: And not just tell people, live who I am. Let your life speak of my name. Let your life speak of love. Let everything you do speak of me because I am in you and you are in Me. And we are one. We are brothers. I thought heaven had made a mistake at first. I was like, "Why is He looking at me with the same love?" Like the Father was looking at Jesus as how He was looking at me in the same love, the same value, the same excitement.

Eric Huffman: Dang.

Gabe Poirot: I was like...

Eric Huffman: What was the relationship between the prayers and being sent back? Do you think He sent you back because of their prayers or do you think He just wanted you to see how prayer works before He sent you back?

Gabe Poirot: I don't believe prayer in God is something that we work Him into or we tell God what to do. No. But prayer is an intimacy with Him. It's a unity with what He wants. So prayer does give Him access, biblically speaking, right? He wants all men to be saved, but He still gives free will. So prayer is a submission of our free will to His will is the way I describe it.

Eric Huffman: That's how I look at it too, and I think that's important because it's... if you just say, well, prayer doesn't change God's mind, and I don't believe it does, you know, I think His perfect will is His will, but He does give us this powerful tool. I like Blaise Pascal's line about "He has granted us the dignity of causality and that we can interact with His will by submitting our will in prayer." How were you seeing those prayers from the vantage point of heaven?

Gabe Poirot: The prayers were what was real. The prayers were their own living function, like building blocks, I describe them. I also want to clarify, this isn't me saying you have to pray a certain amount of times or you have to throw a certain amount of things up. No, no, no. It was prayers of the heart joined with God's word. That is what I saw mattered. It was all about the heart and it was about agreeing with God.

Eric Huffman: And they were materializing?

Gabe Poirot: They literally were materialized as like roads. So, you know, Houston, you have like the intersections of like 12 interstates all on top of each other. I actually saw prayers kind of like that, but they didn't intersect linearly. They intersected to heaven.

Eric Huffman: That's amazing.

Gabe Poirot: Now you know why Jesus said, "Father, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." He was introducing to us how we are called to live a life of heaven on earth, a preview of heaven on earth by interlocking our will with His will. And you can even go back, there's even TikToks that were viral of everyone on the earth that was praying at the time.

Eric Huffman: Really?

Gabe Poirot: When I came back, I told everyone, I said, thank you for praying for me. Thank you for praying for me. Thank you for praying for me. So, that doesn't make sense how I could have a memory and how I could know everyone was praying for me and the importance of prayer. And I don't just say like, oh yeah, thanks for praying. No, no, no, I look them in their eyes and I say, "Thank you for praying."

Eric Huffman: "Your prayer mattered and it became like... it was material substantive stuff in heaven. Your prayers were real."

Gabe Poirot: And Jesus showed me, He gathered them, those prayers. There's actually a golden bowl. In Revelation 4:5, it talks about this, the prayers of the saints, of the intercessors. Yeah. And there's a golden bowl he gathers all the prayers.

Eric Huffman: Oh, a bowl. I thought you said a bull. And I was like, I don't think there's one of those golden bull. It sounds like something you see in hell. But a golden bowl and the prayers were gathered.

Gabe Poirot: And if you read Revelation 4:5, it talks about that.

Eric Huffman: Wow.

Gabe Poirot: Five, four, one of them. I know it's in there. But I saw that every prayer is answered. And even if we don't see it coming to pass on the earth, it doesn't mean the story's over.

Eric Huffman: Yeah, that's right.

Gabe Poirot: His story's never over. Don't close the book before it's done.

Eric Huffman: That's right. Again, it's how time works differently in our dimension versus His.

Gabe Poirot: And at times it manifests on the earth, at times it doesn't. We should always rejoice and never lose hope.

Eric Huffman: Yeah. What was your biggest takeaway from God's presence? As much as you can, putting it into words, you've mentioned, you know, love and forgiveness. What else do you want people to know about what it's like to be in His unvarnished presence?

Gabe Poirot: He is love. And all of who I am is not going to be found in my abilities and what I can do, what I can present, all of my success versus failures. The start of me, who I truly am, is found at Him. And I need to get to the end of myself, I'll find the start of Him. So it's that understanding that I am only anything because He is, not because I am. Moses encountered the pre-incarnate Christ. People don't realize that, but He showed me that moment. Moses, when he was looking at that bush, he didn't just see a bush. He met Jesus.

Eric Huffman: Really? That was another interesting thing in your book is witnessing biblical events that happened a long time ago. Moses and there were several others. Do you feel like you were seeing them as they happened even though they happened long ago, or were you just given visions of them?

Gabe Poirot: It was like a vision. It was like an awareness. Again, I don't describe to know all the details of Moses. People really misunderstand when I get into those things, but-

Eric Huffman: I think it's interesting.

Gabe Poirot: It's just like this awareness/vision that is just like, wow, Moses found himself when he saw Christ. He saw his true identity in Christ. Do you know this? When Moses presented all of his failures to God, do you know what God said? He said, "I am. And tell them I am has sent you," why? How egocentrical some would say, how prideful some would say. No, God was showing Moses that the start of himself was found in Christ.

Eric Huffman: Who also described himself in the same terms.

Gabe Poirot: So we need to find the I am, and we need to find ourselves in Him, not in our own I am, not in our own abilities, not in everything we present on our own. But that so releases you from all the failures and doubts and sin and mistakes you make because even when you fall, you pick yourself up and you look Him in His eyes and He says, "My son, come here. You're forgiven. You're loved. You are mine. You are mine and I'm yours."

Eric Huffman: People don't understand that, do they? What the love of a father is really like.

Gabe Poirot: They don't.

Eric Huffman: They have a whole different conception of it. An angry, angry old man. So tell me about coming back. When you left heaven, I don't even know if that's the right way to put it, were there goodbyes? Was there see you later? Did you feel like you never really left heaven, you also came back to life on earth?

Gabe Poirot: No, you definitely do just feel like this... Like I remember just going back and then just being put back in my body.

Eric Huffman: So just as you had ascended in the tunnel or whatever, you descended again.

Gabe Poirot: And it was just like a moment. It was just like that. And I remember knowing though a couple of things. He didn't show me the future books of my life in the library because He wanted me to trust Him. And I knew He wasn't going to allow me to remember a lot of things because He wanted me to trust Him. He was going to allow me to remember a little bit and I could share a little bit, but He wanted me to trust, because I can't rely on yesterday's. It's today's bread.

Eric Huffman: Yeah, if He had given you too much, He could have made you fool yourself too. I think God sometimes restrains Himself for our sake.

Gabe Poirot: For our own sake, yeah. And it is challenging coming back, and a lot of other NDEs will talk about this. You do really feel like a foreigner. There's a lot of people out there that actually have never had an NDE and you feel like a foreigner too. I think we all kind of feel like foreigners here at times.

Eric Huffman: Was it a let down?

Gabe Poirot: There's a part of it that's obviously like, you never want to leave heaven, but He gave me the desire to come back. Because I want one more person to know Him. Because I saw how temporary this life on this earth is. And man, like we're not saved by what we do. Everyone's equally loved and cherished in heaven. We're all saved by His grace. However, those who did allow their life to bear fruit on the earth, they actually are rewarded in heaven. People don't know that. It's not like an equal communist nation that like-

Eric Huffman: Social utopia kind of.

Gabe Poirot: Yeah, it's not like everyone gets the same rewards.

Eric Huffman: What's it look like, though? What are the different... I mean, can you describe?

Gabe Poirot: I can't describe all of it, but I can just say what we are faithful with on the earth, we are rewarded with more in heaven. And so you should never say you're just a janitor, you're just a teacher, you're just a doctor. Like, no, there's nothing just a. If you do it for Him here, you'll be doing it for Him there and He'll reward you with much more.

Eric Huffman: Dang. I've heard other people say that who've had similar experiences and it's hard to figure out how that might look, but I take it seriously. I think the call is just to steward well what gifts and graces He gives you, what roles He gives you.

Gabe Poirot: Exactly. It's not about the amounts or it's not about the accolades, it's about the heart.

Eric Huffman: Do you remember waking up in the hospital?

Gabe Poirot: Yeah. I remember waking up and I looked at... the first thing I saw was the calendar. And you know what I said? I said, "That calendar is wrong."

Eric Huffman: That was my first line.

Gabe Poirot: Yeah. Because I was in a timeline that wasn't earth time.

Eric Huffman: Yeah. Did you think less time had passed or more?

Gabe Poirot: Oh, definitely. I was like, "It's only been a minute." Because with Him, a day is a thousand years and a thousand years is a day. And that's what I kind of say it, my book title almost just like poetically, because it's like 18 days in heaven, but it was like eight seconds with Him.

Eric Huffman: "That calendar is wrong." Not I love you mom or anything.

Gabe Poirot: I said, "Why are you guys..." They ran in and they were, Ah, you know?

Eric Huffman: Yeah, it had been two and a half weeks. I just said, "Why are you guys being dramatic? It's all good. I'm here now." I run the scans because I knew the Lord had healed me.

Eric Huffman: Healed you physically?

Gabe Poirot: Well, obviously, I had to gain back my weight. I was like half my weight at the time. I have a photo. You guys can be able to show all these MRIs, but I have the MRI of my skull before the healing and soon after the recovery. And you can actually see the skull... The brain doesn't normally heal. Okay, when it's like mashed potatoes, it's going to be mashed potatoes for the rest of your life.

Eric Huffman: Yeah, it was pretty gnarly. I saw that.

Gabe Poirot: But what was so miraculous is that over the course of a couple of months, it just recovered and the skull healed over and then I gained back my weight and I walked again and I went on to recover. So it wasn't instantaneous, but it was definitely miraculous.

Eric Huffman: So before this incident, you were a Christian, you studied the Bible, you took the Lord seriously and I'm looking at you now and you're just... I mean, you're lit up, you're on fire, you're emotional about it. Like, were you this guy before the incident to any degree, or what's different, I guess, after?

Gabe Poirot: I did love the Lord right before, but I knew a lot about Him and I had a lot of misconceptions, actually. I was in different circles and different camps and just a lot of different areas that actually since my encounter, I have quickly corrected and turned from. There's just a lot of different things that-

Eric Huffman: So if 2020 Gabe was here in the room with us, what kind of conversations would you be having with him about things that he's almost right about but missing?

Gabe Poirot: I would really just tell him, ministry and the gospel isn't about numbers, it's not about what people think of you, it's not about what you think, it's about one more person, because that's who I was to Jesus. One more.

On this podcast, I'm just talking to you, if you told me the technology cut out and this video isn't going to be posted at all, I would rejoice just the same. By the way, that actually has happened before. The guy was like, "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. The audio never came through. We're not going to be able to post it." And I told him, I said, "Don't worry, man, you're worth it."

Eric Huffman: Dang.

Gabe Poirot: So that's what I would tell the 20-year-old Gabe.

Eric Huffman: That's the mentality.

Gabe Poirot: I also tell him just like, man, at that time, you know, I was just so concerned maybe with what people thought of me or how I could teach everyone about this Jesus or about faith or about how to quote unquote, work your faith.

Eric Huffman: The mechanics of.

Gabe Poirot: The mechanics. But I missed the spirit a lot.

Eric Huffman: Really?

Gabe Poirot: The heart. So I would have corrected him and told him about the personhood of Christ.

Eric Huffman: I wonder why Christians often miss that side of it. I think part of it in my analysis is that we want to be in control. We want a God we keep our hand on the wheel and Jesus is my co-pilot kind of thing. And part of it is just I think we're afraid of letting go too much and becoming too willy-nilly, you know, love is love kind of worldly or secular in that sense, borderline universalist, I guess, where God is love, so it's all good. So how do you find that balance between the fact that His love is immense, unspeakably immense for all people, and yet there is judgment, there is truth?

Gabe Poirot: Well, that's the thing. The Jesus I encountered He is love, but He actually wasn't nice.

Eric Huffman: Really?

Gabe Poirot: He was tolerant.

Eric Huffman: That's fascinating. Tell me more about that.

Gabe Poirot: He's not messing around. He's not just the lamb, He's the lion.

Eric Huffman: Wow.

Gabe Poirot: Yes, He's the lamb that was slain from the foundations of the world. Yes, He's the lamb, but actually when He comes back, He's going to be on His white horse. And He's going to be a lion on that horse.

Eric Huffman: There's another side, the lion and the lamb.

Gabe Poirot: So it's meekness. Meekness is not passive or timid or tolerant. Meekness is strength targeted. Meekness is strength that is-

Eric Huffman: Under control.

Gabe Poirot: Like a Mustang. It's an engine that has the horsepower, yet it is targeted. So it's not targeted against me, but it's targeted for me. For example, He's not angry at sinners. He's angry at the sin that has captured them, at the sin that has taken them.

Eric Huffman: I'm not sure we have a category for somebody being loving, but not nice in our world today.

Gabe Poirot: And that's the other issue. We don't. We present Jesus as if He's some flamboyant hippie, go along with the flow type of guy, from California almost, you know. Like He's just-

Eric Huffman: Says dude a lot.

Gabe Poirot: But He is Jesus.

Eric Huffman: Commanding authority who is love.

Gabe Poirot: You're not going to present your opinion to Him. You're not going to tell Him what you think.

Eric Huffman: That's a helpful way to think about it. You're going to fall on your knees.

Gabe Poirot: So we come to Him and we're so thinking that, "Oh, my works have made me a failure. I have no hope. I'm never going to be accepted. Maybe I did place my faith in Him, but I messed up, I fell. I'm just still such a failure." And He looks at you He says, "The price is paid. When are you going to accept the price that I paid?" He loves you. He's pointing you to truth. He doesn't judge you down. He judges you up. His grace doesn't allow you to free lease in and just say, "Oh, who cares now? I'm going do whatever I want." No, His grace gives you the desire to say, "No, I don't want to walk that way anymore because I love Him."

My wife... I always use this example. I don't change diapers and wash dishes and make the bed because I have to, or at least I hope not. I don't do all the things because I have to get her to stay married to me or because I have to get her to live-

Eric Huffman: But that's not why you do it.

Gabe Poirot: But it's not why I do it. The "why" hopefully is because I do love her, and because she loves me. Because it's a covenant that is set. That's why couples should get married. Not because they have to, but because they should set the covenant. Because out of a set covenant, love can bear fruit, healthy fruit. But without a covenant, there is no foundation.

Eric Huffman: Amen.

Gabe Poirot: So in my relationship with my wife, it's not that I have to do all these things to qualify myself for her love. It's because of my love for her and her love for me that I want to change the diaper, that I want to make the bed, hopefully, right?

Eric Huffman: I'm sure.

Gabe Poirot: So that is the relationship He wants with us. It's a love relationship.

Eric Huffman: But I love the fact that you said, you know, Jesus, as loving as He truly is, He's not messing around. There's a sense of urgency and truth. And that's part of what you came back with. I'm curious how long it took you after waking up in the hospital bed to tell your loved ones what happened.

Gabe Poirot: Actually, a lot of my loved ones, the book was the first time they heard a lot of these things.

Eric Huffman: What?

Gabe Poirot: Even my mom reached out to me and said, "Gabe, you've said things in this book you never told me." So it really was something precious that I treasured up. And people even asked me, "When you first came back, all you would say is Jesus. How did you get all these other things coming out?" And people are almost like, "Are you just coming up with it?" It's like, "No, it was such a precious moment that it has unfolded." And as I wrote the book, it actually came out of me in memory. It was like, oh yeah, this happened, this happened.

And even on podcast, people ask me questions and I'll just tell them, and then I'll be like, "Wait, wow, that happened." Because again, it happened outside of myself.

Eric Huffman: You have to filter it through the flesh and the language and everything.

Gabe Poirot: And I do filter it through the scripture because I want to keep myself grounded. That's why people are like, "Your testimony sounds so like scripture, it just can't be real." It's like, "Whoa, hold up. That's what a testimony should sound, like scripture. What?" We should framework all of our testimonies through what scripture says.

Eric Huffman: That's one thing I actually really man-to-man appreciated about your book compared to others that I've read of similar genre, heaven is for real and things that I don't want to throw anybody under the bus, but sometimes it just seems so fantastical and sentimental, I get lost.

Gabe Poirot: You're right.

Eric Huffman: Because it's not grounded in anything.

Gabe Poirot: It becomes just a narrative.

Eric Huffman: It just feels like a nice story. Yours is deeply rooted. I learned a lot about the Bible by reading your story, which is awesome.

Gabe Poirot: That's my heart. I made a rule. I said every chapter is going to have scripture. Every chapter.

Eric Huffman: And then you make sense of what happened to you through the lens of scripture.

Gabe Poirot: Exactly.

Eric Huffman: So you held back with your loved ones a lot.

Gabe Poirot: And I still do. Actually, to be completely honest, I love my loved ones and family and friends actually, a lot of times I can't talk about my testimony to them because they knew me before and after. And so it's hard for them to receive a lot of things.

Eric Huffman: They're not ready?

Gabe Poirot: I say it's because they knew the Gabe before and then now Gabe is telling them about some... it's different.

Eric Huffman: A prophet is not welcome in his-

Gabe Poirot: No, but really though. And I love them and I bless them, you know? I don't take it personal. That's the other thing. I don't get offended when people... I've had friends totally say that my book is just wild. And I just laugh it off because it's not about me. I didn't write this for me. I don't need them to accept me because I'm already accepted by Him. No one can reject you when you see how accepted you are from Him.

Eric Huffman: What is the mission you're on now? If you could sum it up in a line or two, what are you going to spend the rest of your time on earth doing given what you've seen and experienced?

Gabe Poirot: Him plus nothing. Period. Him plus nothing. And in Him, I want to just tell one more person about Him. Him. Not even about Him. I want to tell one more person Him. See?

Eric Huffman: Yeah. There's a difference.

Gabe Poirot: That's my mission in life. I call out things. Oh, one more thing. Before my encounter, I really thought how my life was going was I had to give a certain amount of money. And then if I struggled, it was because I wasn't giving a certain amount of money or I wasn't praying a certain way or I wasn't working it the certain right way. I thought some really actually toxic things that have taken a lot of the church. And I don't mean to just knock this cow over-

Eric Huffman: No, do it. Knock that cow.

Gabe Poirot: So if you don't mind me.

Eric Huffman: Please.

Gabe Poirot: But like we teach that we're saved by grace, but then we tell people, "But you need to give more money. And your roof fell off not because you live in a fallen broken world, but your roof fell off because you're not giving enough money to us."

Eric Huffman: Yeah, that's out there, man.

Gabe Poirot: See, that stuff is out there. And that stuff was actually stuff that I was around before my accident and it was stuff that I actually... since my encounter and since my deep dive into more scripture, I've actually separated myself from a lot of teachings like that. And I'm not even afraid to call them out publicly.

Eric Huffman: Right, sure. Well, and it's not just the... I mean, what you're describing sounds prosperity gospel kind of stuff. And it's in a lot of different denominations and traditions to different degrees. But there's also this strand of religion that's like, well, salvation comes through Christ alone, but really through the church.

Gabe Poirot: And we need to tell you.

Eric Huffman: Yeah, people need to come to church to get saved. It sounds to me like that was shaken up big time for you. And it's not that you don't think church matters or going to church matters, but God is much bigger than our institutions. Is that accurate?

Gabe Poirot: To say it lightly. I feel closer to Christ when I'm actually further away from a lot of the churches.

Eric Huffman: Say more about that. What do you mean?

Gabe Poirot: There are so many churches that I even step inside and I feel like I want to throw up now.

Eric Huffman: Really? Whereas before you would have just tolerated and been fine with it.

Gabe Poirot: It was like before I would have like a weird feeling. I'd be like, this is kind of weird. Or like I would see pastors do things or like say things and I'd be like, This is kind of weird. But I didn't think much of it. But now I'm like, oh no.

Eric Huffman: Why? What's changed?

Gabe Poirot: Because I met the real Jesus. And I cannot accept a counterfeit any longer.

Eric Huffman: It's not just a boring couple of hours anymore. It's an abomination.

Gabe Poirot: It's not a sit-down. And this Bible is not just some book that just represents text on a page and some religion. This is Jesus. This is not a Jesus just within a book. This is the Jesus that wants my heart, wants all of me.

Eric Huffman: Do you read it differently now?

Gabe Poirot: I struggle to read more than one sentence because I'll read one sentence and I'll start balling my eyes.

Eric Huffman: You'll go back.

Gabe Poirot: I'll go back. And I'll just think of that one sentence. Like, you know, John 17:22, I've given them the glory you gave me so they may be one as we are one. So I'll read that. And people read the Bible so fast. I don't get how they do it because I read that scripture and I'm like-

Eric Huffman: Let's unpack it.

Gabe Poirot: "Excuse me. I'm one as He is one."

Eric Huffman: Because you got a real glimpse of what that looks and feels like.

Gabe Poirot: Because I'm not hearing about watermelon. I'm tasting watermelon.

Eric Huffman: I get comments, "I'm getting a boosted board so I can have your experience." No. People have really told me that. I'm like, "Oh, my goodness."

Eric Huffman: Well, I was going to say, as you were talking, I found myself battling envy, jealousy. Like, "Why did you get that experience?" Not that I want my skull to get cracked open, but there's grace, a special grace or favor in going through something like this because you come away with such certainty about things that-

Gabe Poirot: But I have to tell you, sir, you'll actually be so much more blessed to believe without seeing. Actually, no one should want my experience because now I have to answer for what I saw.

Eric Huffman: You feel the weight of that?

Gabe Poirot: You do. There's a responsibility,. But you're more blessed to believe without seeing.

Eric Huffman: I think a lot of people need to hear that.

Gabe Poirot: I would really tell everyone watching, please, please do not say, you wish you had my encounter. No. I wish I could be like you and you could experience it by faith. You could get on your knees right now, wherever you're watching this podcast. If you're driving, maybe pull to the side of the road. You could close your eyes. You could have an encounter with Him by faith. I don't pray people will get my book. I pray you get the Bible. I pray you see Jesus today by faith.

And people have even told me that a girl was putting makeup on for work as she was reading my book and she fell to her knees and met Jesus. I don't think she saw Him with her eyes, but she had an encounter. And many others are telling me about that, like how they're coming to repentance, coming to Christ, getting a Bible. It's like just all these signs and it's all about Jesus, right? If He be lifted up, He'll draw all men into Himself. That's what any, I would say, biblical testimony does. It points to Jesus and Him alone.

Eric Huffman: And that's really the whole point of what you saw is we are living in a physical battleground of a spiritual war and the desire of the one who made us is to have us with Him forever. And He gives us the dignity to choose Him or not to. You came back fired up, I would guess, more about the end times than you ever had before. And I'm guessing that's because you saw and heard in heaven things that stoked a sense of urgency in you. Why is it so important to you that everybody knows not just that Jesus has come and that He is love and He died for our sins, but that He's coming back and that there is a deadline looming?

Gabe Poirot: There is a deadline. We keep expecting tomorrow to be here. We're not guaranteed tomorrow. We only have today. That's why the Bible says today is the day of salvation. So, you know how two twins in the mother's womb, one twin said to the other, wow, it seems that this is all we have. I wonder if there's anything outside of this. Let's just keep existing here. And the other twin said, there's something more. We should think about what's more. And I say the same to everyone on earth. You should think about what's after this earth.

You plan for retirement, you plan for different locations, you plan for a new job, have you planned for your return? So He did show me the door of grace was actually just about to be shut on the earth. So, grace-

Eric Huffman: So the time is near, in other words.

Gabe Poirot: Time is very close. Grace is almost like a bubble that has even protected the earth even existing. And soon that grace is going to be evaporated by the fire that's going to burn it all. So here's what I saw. Those that burn now with the fire of grace, when that fire does come, they won't be taken by the fire because they'll have already burned. But they burn with grace not judgment. But the judgment fire is going to come, it's going to burn everything up. So that's why we're called now to burn with His love, burn in His grace, burn in a unity with Him. Not just praying a prayer, but being born again. See?

Eric Huffman: Right. I have two questions about this topic and you can take them in whatever order you want. One question is how have you avoided just becoming like a sidewalk evangelist with a megaphone, the end is near, kind of everybody get ready? Because if I'm that sure that's that imminent, like that would be my instinct. And secondly, a lot of churches do talk about the end times. Many don't at all. In what is being taught about the end times, what do you think churches are getting wrong based on what's been revealed to you?

Gabe Poirot: What if I actually told you the rapture isn't about just a rescue mission and it's not even just something we have to get towards. In fact, if you think about it like that, you've actually gotten the whole thing wrong. Do you know Enoch was raptured? Do you know why he was? He was a friend of God. And then the Bible says one day the Lord took him. Do you know the rapture isn't supposed to be just some like desperate rescue mission, although it will be a rescue. But it's not just a rescue. And the purpose of it is not just a rescue.

The end times, the closing of it all up is not just a rescue. It's actually, we are called to walk with Him now in such intimacy, in such fellowship that we just actually reached the place of maturation. And then one day we're taken.

Eric Huffman: It's like a natural next step.

Gabe Poirot: So it's a natural next step. It's the body of Christ becoming who Christ made us to be, what He wrote and presenting Him accurately to the world. And it's the body of Christ coming to full maturity and then it's the end. As these end times, we always talk about the end times about all the catastrophic events, which certainly are increasing, you know, all the signs in the sky, and yes, that's all verified biblical prophecy coming to pass, but we can't keep looking on the outside. We have to be friends of God because that's our responsibility. That's our choice.

Eric Huffman: That's a lifestyle. That's not just a belief system.

Gabe Poirot: It's not just even something you just teach. It's something you live. So the end times, if they're just taught, you've missed the point. You missed the point.

Eric Huffman: Boy, this experience really messed you up in the best way possible

Gabe Poirot: And you know what the doctor said? That I'll never be normal again. They were correct.

Eric Huffman: I don't know how you ever enjoy just a football game anymore. Your mind has seen, eyes have seen too much to just enjoy the things of the flesh mindlessly. You must always be thinking.

Gabe Poirot: Well, actually, that's a great question. I still do like football. I've always been a football guy. But I actually see how everything good, anything even slightly good that we have in this earth, it just reminds me of the goodness of my Father. So I can watch a fun football game, but ultimately it's like, I'm not thinking about football. I'm just like, wow, God, thank you for giving us this. Thank you. Wow. You gave us a sport. Thank you. It points back to Him.

Eric Huffman: After Jesus messed with me and my salvation story, I started seeing just truth everywhere. Like in a football game, I'm like, well, that's a war. This is how it works. It's territory. It's good versus evil.

Gabe Poirot: You appreciate football, but you see so much more than football.

Eric Huffman: I sermons and messages and everything, scripture and everything. Yeah, it's probably not the funnest guy to have at a party.

Gabe Poirot: But you're seeing Christ. He's all in all. The Bible says before the foundations of the world was made, He was.

Eric Huffman: Amen. Wow. When you think about this whole story and the mission you were sent back on and people that still... you mentioned your cynics and skeptics, people that still don't believe. What is God's message of love for them even in their disbelief?

Gabe Poirot: You know, His faith in them actually never changed.

Eric Huffman: His faith in them?

Gabe Poirot: He so loved the world that He sent His one and only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. Why? Well, as 1 Peter describes, for they are not mere mortals worth silver and gold, but worth the precious blood of Christ. 1 Peter 1:18. We were not bought with silver or gold, but we were bought with the precious blood of Christ. You don't pay something as infinite as your own Son for something you don't deem worth it or something you don't deem valuable. But if you are willing to give your only begotten Son for just that one person, that speaks of the value you give them, of the faith you have in them.

Eric Huffman: How do you think that should change the way Christians think about and talk to non-Christians? Because usually the narrative, I mean, whether we want to be honest about it or not, the narrative is like, well, sorry, you know, if you want to come to church, you can be one of us or, you know, turn or burn kind of mentality. What you're describing is a very different narrative, a very different message for the unbeliever or the skeptic.

Gabe Poirot: And it's why I don't stand on the street and yell in people's ears, which by the way, I love my street preachers out there.

Eric Huffman: Sure. There's some good ones.

Gabe Poirot: There are some really good ones that I love and don't condemn them at all. However, in my evangelism, I want to walk with someone. I don't just want to tell them something. I want to walk with them. I want to show them what it looks like. And I want them to ask me... I was at a hotel, a stranger in Denver, never met the guy. I'm walking past the hotel, they just checked me in and God, the Father told me, He said, "Tell him his dad just died this year. It wasn't me. I'm good and I love him. Tell him not to blame his dad's death on Me."

Eric Huffman: Wow.

Gabe Poirot: Obviously, you're not going to share that word with a stranger. You better, you better be accurate. I went up to him... this guy's a big, brawny guy. He balls his eyes out and runs to the back because it was accurate. His dad had just died. And he told me, he said, "I want to know God now."

Eric Huffman: Dang.

Gabe Poirot: And so we were able to lead him to Christ. I had another guy at a pizza shop randomly. I just knew that I was supposed to tell him, like Holy Spirit was leading me to just tell him, "Tell him he has more influence than he realizes." And I told him that. That's all I said. I said, "Sir, I just want to encourage you. You have more influence than you realize." And he was like, "Thanks." I get a DM a month later from his wife, told me, "Hey, our family was about to be broken and split. He was an alcoholic. From that day, from that word you said, you don't know this, but he stopped alcohol soon thereafter. And he hasn't drank since. It saved our marriage, our family. And he told me that that word that stranger gave me, that word that guy gave me at the restaurant brought me to a place where I just didn't want to live that way anymore."

Eric Huffman: Wow.

Gabe Poirot: I didn't know that. I was just sharing one sentence with him. It's things like that that are just like-

Eric Huffman: Oh God, and you just have to be faithfully obedient and take the risk, take the leap and just do what He tells you to do.

Gabe Poirot: And look as stupid as you're going to look. Just do it. As much as you're going to fall in your face, just do it.

Eric Huffman: And now for the last several years, you've been obviously writing, but also speaking a lot and doing your YouTube channel, which is awesome. Congratulations, by the way. What's the name of the channel so everybody can hear it?

Gabe Poirot: My name, Gabe Poirot.

Eric Huffman: Gabe Pairot. And you can put it in the episode description so people can find it. I mean, tons of subscribers and views and you're making inroads around the world by sharing the gospel outside of the institutional church. You think that's your calling now? Is that specifically what Jesus sent you back to do? Will I ever see you in a pulpit or a robe and a stole one day, Gabe?

Gabe Poirot: There's a few out there that I love and dearly, but I enjoy being on the streets. I go to college campuses now, and I go to what I call death clinics, actually, the abortion clinics.

Eric Huffman: Really?

Gabe Poirot: Me and my wife we helped talk to moms before, and we saw two babies saved. Actually, that's why I say our baby's miraculous, because we were infertile. But God told me, He said, "Go to that abortion clinic and save a life. You'll reap what you sow." A month later, we found out we were pregnant.

Eric Huffman: How long did you struggle with infertility?

Gabe Poirot: Pretty wild. Since we got married. It was around two to three years we were told, "You're infertile." She tried putting my wife on birth control. It doesn't make any sense.

Eric Huffman: It seems counterproductive.

Gabe Poirot: How would you tell a woman she's infertile and then put her on birth control?

Eric Huffman: Who knows? I'm sure somebody in the comments will tell you why they did that. Somebody knows.

Gabe Poirot: Oh man. Did you pray for fertility during that time?

Gabe Poirot: Yeah, we had been praying. Obviously, we were like, "Why aren't we having a baby?" And then the doctor told us and then it was challenging for sure. But we-

Eric Huffman: Did it change the way you prayed to go through what you went through?

Gabe Poirot: It really did, you know, in the form of... but actually I wasn't really like praying all the time for fertility. I was just trusting the Lord. I was like, "You know what? I know this isn't working, but God, I ask you, what should we do? Thank you. How can we trust You today? I just thank You." I would just thank Him for my wife. Even though we didn't have a baby, I was thankful for my wife. Even if we never did have a baby, I would have been thankful.

Eric Huffman: Boy, that's the perspective you came back with.

Gabe Poirot: Even if we never were fertile, I'm not going to tell Him a complaint. I'm thankful He gave me my wife.

Eric Huffman: Who am I to deserve a wife even?

Gabe Poirot: Exactly.

Eric Huffman: Or today, you know, any gift of God. And you saw that so clearly.

Gabe Poirot: Again, it's like prayer is not me working something. Prayer is just talking to my Father who loves me.

Eric Huffman: And being grateful.

Gabe Poirot: Grateful. Gratefulness, man. Oh.

Eric Huffman: You've said a line at least three or four times since you got here, maybe once or twice since the camera started rolling, something about there's no orphans or orphanages in heaven. I just want to revisit that because it's clearly something you came back very clear about. And I want to make sure I understand why that is such an important concept to you, having seen what you've seen. What do you mean with "there's no orphans in heaven"?

Gabe Poirot: There's no foster care system because we're all adopted. We're all one. And there's not a family over here, a family over here. This earth is so divided, especially in America. We are so all about ourselves. We have our house, we have our family. We do our things our way. Even around other believers, we categorize other believers as "they're kind of close". But I saw that. I was as dearly close to the entire family in heaven, even closer than I was even to ever any earth family. Like we were blood of blood.

Eric Huffman: Another way of putting it would be like you were, by God's grace, every bit the son of God adopted and belonging as the apostle Paul or somebody that's like a saint in history, you know, and somebody that... a deathbed confession, jailhouse religion situation, you know, thief on the cross situation, he also is just as much a son of God as you are or any other super Christian person who was a believer their whole life.

Gabe Poirot: Which by the way, do you know why the thief on the cross, Jesus said, You'll be with me in paradise, not heaven? It's because He wasn't resurrected yet.

Eric Huffman: It was that mid-

Gabe Poirot: Literally, like three days later, He was going to be in heaven with Jesus. But Jesus told him paradise because the price wasn't fully paid yet and the resurrection hadn't happened. But the resurrection now has happened and that's why people do experience heaven now, by the way. Because people are like, "You can't experience heaven. You're just in a..." No. Now that we look back to the cross, we can receive salvation.

The purgatory only existed or the paradise only existed because they had to look forward to the cross, but they didn't know the gospel yet and the price hadn't been paid yet.

Eric Huffman: Yeah, the first fruits of the resurrection hadn't come in. But this notion of no orphans in heaven really breaks down the idea of legalism and entitlement.

Gabe Poirot: It really does.

Eric Huffman: And I think a lot of people need to hear that today. People that have gotten the message, whatever, however, that there's some people more worthy and higher up the chain or whatever and more in the know with God who are, and then there's the rest of us. None of that.

Gabe Poirot: No, it's not. We're one. We're one. And it's beautiful. There's even libraries where they read the story of your life. It's so beautiful. Again, I don't know all the details of it, but I just know that it's beautiful.

Eric Huffman: Amen. Okay, I want to wrap with a question for people who are done with religion. I think that is the fastest growing segment of religious identity is done with religion.

Gabe Poirot: "I'm over it."

Eric Huffman: Yet there is something tugging at them because we're human beings, we believe made in God's image and made with purpose and made to identify in Him. And so there's something maybe nagging at their hearts, stoking a fire in them. What do you want to say to them about a starting point? Potentially what's their next step if they feel something turning in them? Where do they go from here?

Gabe Poirot: I would invite them, whatever it is you do have today, wherever you are, however little or big you feel, give Him what you have. Give Him your yes. It's all He's asking, but not a yes in the head, not a yes of just what you think. Give Him the yes of your heart. Come out of darkness and into the light for He is appointed today for you.

Set aside all the distractions and open the door to Him for He is knocking. Interesting scripture, in John 20:26 is the place where the disciples were gathered and He appeared among them. Couldn't be an accident that this year everyone has felt this knocking, this tension. The year 2026, everyone just feels a calling of Jesus inviting everyone to know Him, to encounter Him. And whether it's an encounter that you see with your eyes or an encounter you see by faith, just within your heart, you'll be more blessed.

Eric Huffman: I've run into a lot of people that don't even know what the knocking is. They just know the world as it is is unsustainable, things are falling apart and can't continue and there must be something more. Gabe, what your testimony reminds us is it's not a "what" that is more, but a "who". It's a person. Love is a person. His name is Jesus.

Gabe Perot, thank you for joining us on Maybe God. I hope everybody will check out Gabe's Maybe God channel and check out the book, 18 Days in Heaven. It's awesome. And it's not what you expect if you feel like you've read that kind of book before. It's really outstanding. So thank you for pouring your heart and soul into that. And we'd love to have you back on sometime, brother.

Gabe Poirot: Thanks, man.

Eric Huffman: Safe trip back to Fort Worth, back to your baby boy and your loving wife. Thanks for being with us.

Gabe Poirot: Thank you.