I was woken up by something or someone grabbing my left wrist and holding on to it very tightly, yanking me right up out of my body. I turned
around to see my lifeless body just lying there. I was shocked and kept trying to break free. I even tried to turn the light on in the room, but my hand went right through the wall.

Abruptly, we started to move through space and time into this horrible darkness. Where it took me was the most horrific place I had ever seen, heard, or smelled. I could hear people screaming; at first the sound was way off in the distance, but within seconds the screams were so loud it was as if they were coming from right beside me. The shrieks were beyond anything I had ever heard before, and the stench was indescribably repulsive. The sense of hopelessness I felt in this place was totally overwhelming.

The realization finally hit me—this was not a dream, and it was not a drug-induced hallucination. I was dead and I was in Hell.

All hope and expectation of life was gone. The evil spirit that had ahold of me had begun laughing at me. It was incredibly grotesque looking and had the strength of a hundred men. As I heard the screams and shrieks of the people there, I could feel their pain in a way considerably beyond what we typically feel here on earth. Our earthly minds and bodies cannot begin to understand that type of pain. The heat became unbearable, although I didn’t ever see actual flames.

I thought, What did I do to deserve this? I was a pretty good kid and I even went to Bible college
for a little while. I didn’t hurt anyone or kill anybody, so why am I in Hell? Then
I realized that the answers didn’t really matter because there was no escape. Once you are in Hell, it is too late to ask God into your life. The longer I was staying there in Hell, people were grabbing me, biting me and screaming at me. Different demons were now attaching themselves to me as well. I could feel them pulling from different directions while the one main spirit continued to hold onto my left wrist. He constantly yelled at me, making fun of me and telling me that I was a loser, just like I was always told I would be. I knew there was no return. And to think I had all those chances to turn things around and change my life, but my own self-satisfaction was too important to me. I thought, What a fool I had been; I was trapped and now would have to pay the price for all eternity.

Suddenly, I heard a voice like a mighty roar of thunder say, “It is not his time yet. His mother has been praying for him since he was a little boy. You must release him now. I made a promise!” The evil spirit released me immediately, and I seemed to just fly through space upward and out of Hell in seconds.

Now there was bright light everywhere and everything glowed. I felt like I had never felt before, with wonderful feelings all through my being! Not only did I now have hope, I knew I was in the presence of a Heavenly being!

I was just outside a gate. It looked like it was made of pearls and it radiated in beauty, but
the light that came from it and from the city inside the gate was unbelievable! I not only saw the light, but it penetrated every aspect of my being. The feeling that came over me was euphoric. I could only feel joy and happiness, no sorrow of any kind. At this time there was nothing holding on to me like in Hell, and I had freedom to move around, so I started to go into the gate.

I also now know that my mother’s prayers weren’t the main reason I didn’t stay in Hell. I didn’t remain there because it wasn’t my time to die. Hell was a glimpse of what would have been my fate if I didn’t change. And now, since I had not given my life to the Lord yet, I had been taken to Heaven only to observe, and then tell people on Earth about what I saw.

The light in Heaven was everywhere—there were no shadows at all. I saw many huge homes, not like homes here in the United States, but huge structures made with pure white stone of some kind. The streets were the shiniest pure gold you have ever seen. There was a river flowing through Heaven and the water was so clean and pure that it almost looked like nothing was in the river at first. The sound of the water was like that of little children laughing and singing. Every noise I heard in Heaven made me smile and filled me with joy!

The music that you hear in Heaven literally goes through you; it pierces every part of your being and it is so beautiful and uplifting! I thought, Please God, I don’t want to go back to earth! But I could not stay there because I had yet to give my life to God, and I had a job to do—write my book.

Back to earth I went and in a blink of an eye I was entering my bedroom. There in the room were two paramedics who
had just arrived. One paramedic was feeling my neck for a pulse, and he shook his head looking back over his right shoulder to the other paramedic standing behind him.

Just then, my spirit moved into my body and started to wake it up. It shook my body violently, vibrating like I had just been hit with electricity, and it actually scared the paramedics. All of a sudden, I was able to breathe, and I opened my eyes and stared straight at this surprised paramedic. I will never forget the look on his face.

Ivan Tuttle has been successful in business and is an ordained minister. His proudest accomplishment is speaking at churches around the country about his death experience and seeing people turn their lives over to the Lord.

Now that I am 80, my heart is to impart wisdom to you that I wish I had learned earlier in life. I could have avoided many problems I created for myself through lack of knowledge and generational, emotionally-rooted character flaws.

I can really relate to Paul. Like me, he came from a strong background in Judaism. In my case it was almost 2,000 years of a Jewish religious system that was created by the rabbis—a man-made alternative to believing in Jesus.

When the Temple was destroyed in A.D. 70, the Jews who did not recognize Jesus as Messiah had to create an alternative to Torah Judaism. Why? Because the destruction of the Temple removed the ONLY way for atonement of sin under the Old Covenant. Without blood sacrifice, which was required to be performed in the Temple, there was no possibility of atonement for sin. The Torah says, For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your lives; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul (Leviticus 17:11, MEV).

Judaism as we know it today is not based on Torah Temple sacrificial requirements but is a new religion, Rabbinic Judaism, that rejects Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. As a result, Jews—religious as well as secular—are just as separated from God by sin as non-Christian Gentiles are. Believing in God but not knowing Him for almost 2,000 years has made us vulnerable to be influenced by the pagan culture of every nation to which our ancestors were scattered. To my knowledge, I was the first believer in Messiah Jesus in my family in almost 2,000 years! Now my whole family believes!

This emotional baggage from almost 2,000 years of not knowing God would have been impossible for me to overcome in my lifetime in my own strength. BUT GOD had a solution. Immediately after my salvation, I began praying often in tongues—supernatural languages. I did not realize it at the time, but the more I prayed in tongues, the more I was convicted of hidden sin. And God’s grace gave me the supernatural power to overcome sin. The more I walked in “instant repentance,” the less I was sabotaging my destiny.

Over the years I prayed less often in tongues. But recently I started back praying more consistently and longer than ever! I am convicted of sins of omission as well as commission that a few years ago I would not have even considered sin. Praying in tongues is causing my spirit to grow exponentially.

What do I mean?

If you were able to see inside of believers, you would see that most have a tiny spirit compared to a gigantic brain. Praying in tongues helps our spirit man to strengthen and grow. It’s as important to our spirit as spinach is to Popeye the Sailor!

Can you see how life-changing it is to spend at least an hour a day praying in tongues? And it’s more essential now than ever. Why? When the Glory of God draws close to you, you don’t want your sins to cause you to miss the moment of the greatest visitation in history. This visitation is called the Greater Glory, and it’s your game changer. NOTHING WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE! And in Romans 9:4, Paul says the Glory belongs to the Jews! This Glory will be the catalyst for all Israel to be saved. I’m excited that we as a ministry are situated right now to impact Israel’s salvation in amazing ways including our Middle East TV network!

When I first met Ivan Tuttle, right away, I knew he was someone I wanted to interview on our TV show. Then, as I found out more about him, I knew we had to publish his book through our It’s Supernatural! Press.

Ivan’s book, A Journey to Hell, Heaven and Back, will boost your conviction in Messiah Jesus and motivate you to strip off every weight that has tried to keep you from fulfilling the destiny God has set before you. It is also an extremely effective tool to reach your unsaved friends. But even more, the profits and gifts over and above your purchase of his book and 3-CD set will be poured into the salvation of Israel! And the firstfruits of the salvation of Israel will evangelize the Gentiles, just like the first Jewish believers did back in Paul’s day. Our God is brilliant!