Author Billy Stanley, stepbrother to music legend Elvis Presley, recently revealed he faced a near-death experience a few years ago, during which he was dead for 10 minutes and visited heaven.
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This transformative event, Stanley said, has been a motivating factor for him to speak more fervently about Elvis’ Christian faith, a topic Stanley covers extensively in his new book, “The Faith of Elvis: A Story Only a Brother Can Tell.”
“Everybody says, ‘Why are you doing this now?'” he said. “[I went through] what most people call a near-death experience — I call it a near-God experience — because I was actually dead for 10 minutes.”
Stanley believes the 2018 venture went far beyond a medical crisis; he said there were stunning spiritual implications as well, including a purported visit to heaven.
“I saw heaven, and I saw [Elvis] in heaven, and his message was, ‘Tell my family, my friends, and my fans I love them, I’ll see them when they get here,'” Stanley said. “And right before I came back, as he was saying that, it was getting dark. I was looking at his face, and I heard another voice that said, ‘No doubt, no fear.'”
He continued, “Now, I knew who that was — that was God, and it was, no doubt, there is a heaven. It’s real and, no fear — this is where you’ll be as long as you believe that Jesus came and died for your sins.”
Watch Stanley discuss this fascinating experience:
Stanley said he has been a Christian since the age of 13 and that Elvis was “kind of like a substitute Sunday school teacher” for him as a young man.
But that heaven experience helped reaffirm his faith and bring the realness of eternity to life.
“I got a chance to see it and it’s the most amazing thing,” he said. “Heaven is not even a good enough word for it, because the first thing you feel is this overwhelming sense of love like you’ve never felt before in your whole life.”
That profound feeling of peace, happiness, and joy has remained with Stanley.
The author said he spent at least a month and a half after his recovery in silence, praying about what he was supposed to do with the experience. Flash-forward four years and he’s now sharing what unfolded while also shedding light on Elvis’ faith journey.
“I had to pray about this long and hard and God finally gave me the answer,” Stanley said. “[He] said, ‘Tell people That’s why you experienced it.'”
Stanley said he likely wouldn’t have written “The Faith of Elvis: A Story Only a Brother Can Tell” had he not had such a stirring adventure.
Watch Stanley discuss heaven and Elvis’ Christian faith with CBN’s Faithwire.
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