Touched by Heaven - Everyday Encounters with God

"We're all going to die. That's what's on my mind. I'm going to die, and I'm never gonna see my three-year-old again. I'm hot, I'm sweating, And I still don't get in the taxi and leave. " ---------- This week's episode plays like a movie. It began with a song that bubbled up unexpectedly: "Comedy Tonight." Not comedy as in jokes or punch lines, but comedy in the ancient Greek sense -- a story that...

"I heard his voice next to my ear. His arm was around my shoulder. I looked down, but I did not see shoes or his pant legs." ---------- Episode 400 brings Touched by Heaven back to where it all began. Before the themes expanded and the conversations deepened, it was angel stories that first drew many of you in. In this milestone episode, I return to real moments where help arrived quietly and unex...

"I just saw this bright, golden, light. It encompassed me. And in the middle of that light was the most beautiful face." ---------- Fifty years ago today, with seconds left on the clock, a quarterback launched a desperate pass and later said, "I closed my eyes and said a Hail Mary." The phrase stuck -- a last-ditch effort when human ability runs out. As I record this episode, I'm reading Project H...

9/11. He saw a jet coming right for his office. The wing went through his window. Fire was everywhere as he cried out, "Lord, take over!" --------- This Christmas week episode is truly a gift. I'm joined by kindred spirit and author Mark Ellis, whose book When Kingdom Light Shines mirrors the heart of the Touched by Heaven podcast--60 powerful stories of divine intervention, angels, near-death exp...

"For 16 months, my body and mind shut down due to spiritual warfare. My doctor said, "I don't believe in your God, I believe in my medicine." ---------- Peter Nathan and his wife Christine from Australia, both of deep faith, experienced one brief encounter on the street that changed everything. In this extraordinary retelling of episode 243, a woman fixed Peter with what can only be described as a...

"I was living on the reservation, with my father, drunk, my mother, drunk, and pointing a rifle at me and my siblings." ---------- In this moving episode, we meet Susy—a woman whose life has been marked by deep loss, relentless struggle, and extraordinary moments of grace. Raised amid instability on an Indian reservation and searching for belonging across multiple faith traditions, Susy carried tr...

"I'm half in the bag," said the intoxicated Julia Roberts in the movie clip. And is this a message for the church? ---------- Why did Episode 394 disappear almost as fast as it was posted? Because I sounded strangely intoxicated—yet I hadn't had a drop. Only later did I realize the Holy Spirit was using that moment to steer me toward this far more important episode. Here, I'm back in the impartial...

"We had a massive fire. We lost everything, with the exception of one thing. In the living room, within the ashes, one thing survived, our Bible." ---------- At the base of Cross Mountain in Medjugorje, our guide had us bend down and pick up a small stone. She said to place all our worries, fears, and crosses on this tiny rock. Then, she told us to carry it in our pocket to the top and to leave it...

"Everyone was flipping out. I was there. I witnessed this. Everyone was screaming and yelling at my mother's impossible prayer being answered." ---------- What happens when we stop telling God How to Fix It and simply hand Him the problem? This week's Touched by Heaven takes us from a broken white cane on a Medjugorje pilgrimage, to a Cuban girl's miracle education, and even to a can of tomato pas...

"The Harley Davidson rider had hit a dog and was thrown from his bike. My dad did CPR on the guy for more than ten minutes. There was still no pulse, no breathing. That's when I remembered the story of Lazarus." ---------- In this episode, I sit down with 18-year-old Christian Lindsay, who didn't turn toward God until just two years ago. Christian shares an unforgettable story from a cross-country...

"I'm a miracle healing. I am a living testimony of Medjugorje. I was healed there." ---------- Elizabeth and I just returned from two and a half weeks of incredible pilgrimages — first with some of our Touched by Heaven listeners in Medjugorje, and then with our parish in Italy. I literally just walked in the door, and what better time to revisit one of our most powerful miracle stories? In this e...

"I had three questions. Is it real? If it is real, is it from God? If it is from God, what does it mean? " ---------- Arguments about faith can sound a lot like the Genesis song "That's All" — "Well, I could say day, you'd say night. Tell me it's black when I know that it's white." We debate Eucharist, Church authority, and who's "right," but God's desire is simple: a relationship. This week, Tim...

"We were walking across a field in heaven, when a little boy walked up to me, said, 'Hi, my name is Daniel. I think that you're my dad.' He told me that he had been here for a long, long time. I've grown up here with a bunch of others, since we were little babies. Indeed, many years before, my wife had a miscarriage of a baby that we were going to call Daniel. " ---------- In 2021, COVID nearly to...

"The wind changed direction, and I was caught in this massive fire. I screamed out to God to save me. My face was on fire, and somehow I was suddenly lifted, and floating." ---------- Jamie's life has been miraculously spared more than once. At just fifteen he was caught in a raging fire — but instead of dying, he was mysteriously floated to safety, though badly burned. Years later, in a violent S...

"I took his cell phone into the bathroom, locked the door, and said to God, 'If you want me away from this guy, you're going to have to help me break the password code and see what's in here.' I hit a bunch of keys, and I was in!" ---------- Samantha came to God with raw and painful questions. Through tears she asked if her dog was in heaven. She pleaded to know where her father was in the afterli...

"In my battle with alcohol, I felt like there was something with barbed hooks attached to my chest. I cried out to God, "please don't let me die." ---------- Josh just wanted to make music. As a kid, the dream was to be in a band. But then life collapsed — his parents split, alcohol took over, and older women pulled him further off course. Along with the drinking came something darker — a clutchin...

"My mom hadn't spoken in four years. But when my dad passed away, she let go of his hand, her head shot upward, she began pointing straight up—and then the play-by-play began." ---------- Sometimes heaven breaks through in the most unexpected ways. Heather's parents had faced years of suffering—cancer, strokes, and decline. Her mom, weighed down by Alzheimer's, had not spoken in four years. Yet, a...

"The baby was delivered via C-section. but my wife was hemorrhaging, 2 Liters of blood, and the doctors didn't know from where. Her blood pressure was down to 52/38, and she was losing consciousness." ---------- I asked Johnny, " How did you pray differently?" This week on Touched by Heaven, we meet musician, Johnny Hall, whose life took a dramatic turn in the delivery room. Known for leading prai...

"I was in the middle of a massive migraine when I heard a woman's voice saying, 'Go to a Catholic church.' I walked into the nearest one, sat in the pew, looked around, and said, OK, I am here. Now what?" ---------- This Labor Day weekend, I'm reminded of the words: "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few." One of those laborers is Vickie Smith. In this revisiting of episode 174, Vicki...

The doctor said, "The vision in your bad eye has gone from 20/100 to 20/10. And the other eye has gone from 20/40 to 20/20." Stunned, he asked, "How did this happen?" ---------- I've known Ginny Pippin for nearly 20 years, but nothing prepared me for the story she shares in this episode. While attending a training class at the Encounter School of Ministry, Ginny sat before the tabernacle as her cl...

"In my hives are nurse bees, worker bees, drones, the queen, funeral bees that cart out the dead, and guard bees, that make sure bees from other hives don't get in. No, I don't think this is all random." ---------- I've heard it said that nature is a silent sermon. If that's true, then my friend, Tom Kennish, has 130,000 preachers buzzing in his backyard. Tom's a beekeeper and his bees are as orga...

"So, this stranger walks up and flat out points his finger at me and asks, 'Are you looking for a wife?'   then points his finger at the lady I had just met, and asks, 'Are you looking for a husband? …'cause there's something going on here.'" ---------- Hi! Trapper Jack here. Today… Four extraordinary encounters—each is a reminder that Heaven is closer than we think. In revisiting episode 134, we...

"It hit me, as I was looking at the blood of Jesus, this is something that just leaves you with a sense of awe! And I'm thinking, where do I fit in?" ---------- Hi, Trapper Jack, here! I just recently learned that one of my fellow parishioners at church, Dr. John Judge, is a pathologist who played a role in the last major investigation of the Shroud of Turin, believed by millions to be the burial...

"And, all of a sudden, the peace that surpasses all understanding was there, and it's there till this day." ---------- There are some stories you don't just hear—you feel them. And when you walk away, you don't walk the same. You walk with a limp. That's what happened to Jacob in the Old Testament after wrestling with God all night. Forever changed, forever reminded of the moment he came face to f...

I was sitting in my convertible Mercedes, staring up at the dark, starry night, anxiety and worry filling my heart. I figured Heaven was somewhere up there. I said, "God, if You are up there, all I want is inner peace. Please help me." ---------- John Sottosanti had everything—success as an oral surgeon, a beautiful home steps from the San Diego beach, and a Mercedes in the garage. But one by one,...