Randy Hicks: Hell and Back

CBN.com - Randy Hicks describes what he saw, “I just knew that I was going to hell.  And I knew that the enemy came for me.  When I looked up, I looked right into his face and eyes.  And it was so huge; it almost looked like a fallen angel.  And he had the horns of a ram and it was horrible.  When I looked into his eye sockets, it was like looking into death and hell.  The best way I can describe it, it was a darkness within a darkness.”

Randy Hick’s drug use and his eventual overdose had kept him living in darkness since early in his childhood.  He grew up one of nine children in rural Illinois, with little parental supervision.

“I got high when I was eight years old.  Two of my brothers had me out in the garage smoking a bong.  That was the first time I ever used marijuana.  I’ll never forget it, I loved it,” Randy said.

Randy’s brothers hid “the goods” in the garden out back, in their school bags or even under the mattresses.

“One time I found some white powder in there, it was cocaine.  I did not know what it was, I touched it and it numbed my lips.  And I was like, ‘Wow, that’s some strange stuff.’  And one day I just happened to watch my brother sniff it and I sniffed some too.  And time I got to high school, I was a freshman–people were selling it to make money.  Time I was a senior in high school, I was selling big time.”

After graduation, Randy joined the military.

Randy explains, “I ended up being in a tanker, an armored crewman, and they sent me to Fort Irwin, California.  Well, up there crystal meth was big.  Well, when I got up there, I got hooked up with the wrong people, I started drinking heavier, and then I really started going on a binge with crystal meth." 

"I was so addicted," says Randy. "It was like I could not live without it.  I breathed it from the time I got up in the morning to the time I went to bed.  I started selling stuff to get it.  And then eventually they sent me to rehab.  Eventually they released me from the military; it bothered me.  I was like, ‘Man, I had this great opportunity to turn my life around.  Why did I go back to doing the drugs?’”

But it only got worse.  Randy spent a year in jail for robbing a gas station.  He was so high he does not even remember holding a gun to the clerk’s head.  When he got out of jail, he overdosed.  He was only 27.

In the hospital, “They went ahead and pulled the white sheet up on me.  They said, ‘He’s done.’  They called my family in. When I woke up, it was the most frightening moment because I looked down and I’m looking at a white sheet.”

Doctor’s discovered Randy was still alive.  After running numerous tests, he was released.  But even that near death experience was not enough to scare Randy straight.  Randy married, but the alcohol and drug use continued, eventually destroying the relationship.  In 1997, Randy’s wife left him with their two young children.

“When I had my kids I was still drinking.  And I was smoking weed.  And I still did a little coke.  Not like I used to, but I was still doing it, yes.  The moment that changed that, all of a sudden my body collapsed to the ground.  I felt something physically dragging me out of my body.  And I mean, I looked up and I saw death and I saw hell in his eyes.  And it had these huge horns; it curled around like a ram."

Randy continue, "And death just filled the room.  And it scared me; I could physically feel my spiritual man separating from my flesh.  I did not feel any pain, but I felt it leaving, trembling in fear.  And immediately, I fell on my face and I cried out, ‘Jesus,’ I said, ‘Forgive me of my sins, God help me with my addictions, take it all away, just don’t let me go to hell.  Please.’  I was begging, I was crying, I did everything I knew."

"And suddenly," says Randy, "just out of nowhere a perfect peace filled the room.  I mean; it was so peaceful.  And as soon as I looked at the door, my door opened.  And I saw this long, white, glowing robe; there was just no white in the world you can use to describe it.  And I knew, I knew without a doubt that the moment I cried out for Jesus, that God had showed up right there and saved me at the moment I cried out.  From that moment, I just wanted to know God.  I wanted to know Jesus.  I wanted to know this One who when I knew without a doubt I was going to hell came for me.”

Immediately, Randy’s craving for drugs and alcohol was replaced with a hunger and thirst for Jesus.

“I travel and share what God brought me from, what I went through, what it will do to you, and how Christ is the answer.  When you call on that name, Jesus, He is there, right there and He is ready to receive you, to forgive you of all your sins, and to write your name in the Book of Life.  He is more than happy to call you His own and give you a brand-new start.  Immediately!”