DIVINE INTERVENTIONS: "He Will Never be 100%"

On this episode, Michael Briggs and his mother, Melta Briggs, share about Michael's life-changing motorcycle accident and miraculous recovery. Michael, who had turned away from God, suffered a severe brain injury in 2007, leading to a coma and a grim prognosis.

Despite the dire situation, Melta held onto her faith, praying for Michael's full recovery. Against all odds, Michael regained his health, attributing his recovery to the power of prayer and divine intervention. The podcast highlights the importance of faith, the impact of a praying family, and the transformative power of personal encounters with God.

Transcript

TOPIC: Divine Interventions – “He Will Never be 100%”
GUEST: Michael Briggs and Melta Briggs
Season 3, Episode 45

Melta Briggs (00:00):

When the doctor came out, he said, "Hey, everything went great. But we did have to remove a small portion of his brain." Well, I didn't know you could live without all of your brain. I said, "Okay, then what does this mean for us?" He said, "Well, I could have 10 patients, same surgery. I'd have 10 different outcomes." And he said to me, and his exact words were, "He will never be a hundred percent because nobody ever is." So, I asked the doctor, I said, "Well, what percentage is he at that then?" And he says, "Zero. He's in a coma."

Ric Shields (00:43):

Thank you for joining us on this podcast. I'm Ric Shields, your host, and the director of the DoorWays® Ministry Network. For the past few weeks, we've talked with several people about divine interventions in their lives, situations and circumstances, spaces, and places where only God could have intervened and made a difference.

(01:03):

Today I'm speaking with Michael Briggs. As a young man, he had turned his back on God and was making some dangerous choices. I'm also speaking with his mother, Melta Briggs, who received in her heart the promise God spoke to her and she wouldn't let go of that promise.

(01:20):

Michael is in Florida, Melta is in Colorado, and I'm right in between in Oklahoma and grateful for the technology that brings us together today. Before we really get into the story, Melta you and your husband, David, just returned from ministry trip to Uganda. And just before that you were in Canada, then you were in Mexico. Are you through with all your jet lag from your travels <laugh>?

Melta Briggs (01:42):

You know, remarkably, I have not had any jet lag with these trips.

Ric Shields (01:46):

It's because you do it all the time. That just means you don't sleep well normally. So <laugh>,

Melta Briggs (01:51):

Probably it's why I'm up at 3:00 AM

Ric Shields (01:54):

I'd really like to focus on what looked like a life altering experience for you, Michael. So where does this story start?

Michael Briggs (02:03):

Really about 17 years ago, December 15, 2007, was the night of the accident, the experience that happened. But, two months before that, growing up, a pastor's kid my whole life, I knew the rules regs, boundaries of being a Christian, being in church. And so I knew the, we just called the game of church.

(02:22):

And two months before this event happened, I had come to a point in my life where I never had a personal encounter to be a child of God. And I, with superlatives, out loud in my bedroom, said, "You know what God? Forget you. Forget the church. I'll go to hell. I'm doing good." And so, it's mind my own business on my way to hell when December 15th showed up and I was at a restaurant with some friends and my best friend and his girlfriend, we were eating dinner together.

(02:51):

And I always had a three drink rule. I was on my motorcycle that night. If I ever had more than three alcoholic drinks, I would come back later and get my bike. I'd never ride it drunk. This night was different. The band playing in the bar didn't know me personally but recognized me in the music scene. And I stepped in and started playing with them.

(03:09):

Well, while I'm playing, I'm drinking. And when I did that, I drank enough to alter my decisions to not put my helmet on my head to get on my bike and go meet up with a friend who I've been teaching how to do stunts. And I've been stunt riding off and on for fun for about eight or nine years. And never without a helmet, never with alcohol in my system and never on the road. And that would be a, I decided the most dangerous time I ever accomplished one time ever. And that was doing a handstand on the gas tank while you're moving.

Ric Shields (03:40):

Now you know, Michael, that's crazy.

Michael Briggs (03:41):

Yeah. Yeah. It's called stupid. I'd say. <Laugh>.

Ric Shields (03:44):

I just wanted to point that out. While the bike is moving, a handstand.

Michael Briggs (03:49):

Mm-Hmm, <affirmative>

Ric Shields (03:50):

With your hands on the gas tank. Okay, keep going.

Michael Briggs (03:53):

Yeah. Yep. <Laugh>.

Ric Shields (03:55):

It can't get worse.

Michael Briggs (03:56):

Well, we'll see <laugh>.

Ric Shields (03:58):

Okay.

Michael Briggs (03:59):

So I meet with Brian and I remember having my arms and hands on the tank and my feet on the back foot pegs. It was a slow stunt, about 25, 30 miles an hour. And as soon as I jumped up to get inverted to do the handstand, we call it tank slap, where handlebar started slapping the tank. Because the front tire was wobbling so bad that my left hand slipped off the tank and I landed straight on my head again, going by twenty-five miles an hour with no helmet and drunk.

(04:27):

Right away on scene I was a #7 coma, not breathing.

Ric Shields (04:32):

What, by the way, what is the #7 coma?

Michael Briggs (04:34):

There's a scale, I think one to twelve or one to ten. And I was #7 coma. So, I was also completely paralyzed, the whole left side of my body, and not breathing. They couldn't get me to breathe. They tried everything. They tried the trach bag, they tried everything. But the sheriff, when he pulled up on scene, found my phone in pieces on the ground. He was able to put it back together. He couldn't call out on it, but he was able to find my dad's number.

(04:59):

So just before that, the young man who I've been teaching him to do the tricks left the scene. He didn't call 911. I found out later he was on a stolen bike that night and had drugs on him. There was a young lady that turned down the street that lived in the neighborhood behind where this happened. She saw it happen, she called 911.

(05:17):

 I found out later that Brian had called my best friend Alex, who was like a brother, grew up with, and said, "Hey, Mike just ate it bad doing stunts on the bike." So, Alex, we used to have landlines back in the day, besides this technology of cell phones. And so, I

Ric Shields (05:31):

I remember those days.

Michael Briggs (05:32):

Yeah. Yeah. And in my generation, there was always numbers on the keypad or letters on the keypad. And so our, the last four digits of our phone was three, five, four, seven. So it was “FLIP.” So, Alex memorized my parents' home phone, “641-FLIP.”

Ric Shields (05:47):

<Laugh>. There you go.

Michael Briggs (05:48):

So, he called. Yeah. So, he called my parents' home line. I don't know, he said hundreds of times, and no answer. Correct me Mom if I'm wrong, but my mom was sleeping in the bedroom. Guess you didn't hear the phone ring. And my dad fell asleep on the couch watching TV, but his cell phone was on his lap, on the couch. So, when the sheriff called him, it woke him up. So when he called me, he said "We just bagged your son and life flighted him. He's going to die. You need to get to the hospital."

Ric Shields (06:14):

Melta, those have got to be the scariest words ever heard in your life. What did you do when you heard the sheriff say, "Get to the hospital, your son is going to die."

Melta Briggs (06:27):

Well, about two years before Michael's accident, I got a phone call that our daughter had been airlifted. And just a couple of months before that, I witnessed a little boy who had gotten hit on a bicycle and just a few feet before the trauma hawk landed, the paramedics waved him off because the little boy has died.

(06:48):

So, I knew that if somebody's airlifted, it's very critical. So, when I got the phone call that my daughter had been airlifted, I lost it. And I allowed fear to grip me to the point I couldn't even pray. All I could get out of my mouth was, "God, don't let my baby die." And what a miracle that we had. She walked out of the hospital the next day.

(07:11):

So, when we got the call that Michael had been airlifted, I said, "Not this time devil. I went down that road once and I refuse to give into fear." And we just began to confess every scripture we could think of, "He'll live and not die and he'll declare the wonderful works of God." And of course, we didn't know all the details behind that Michael had just walked away from God. So, as we're heading to the hospital, God spoke to me and he said, "You believe for a hundred percent recovery and don't you settle for anything less." And so that scripture became my anchor through this journey.

Michael Briggs (07:47):

Yeah, the whole time my parents were in the hospital, every doctor, every nurse, every assistant said, "He'll never be a hundred percent if he even lives." Without the helmet, the two hemispheres in my brain, the pathways on the inside were sheared and twisted, ripped, and torn. The front tip of the right lobe was torn off. They said it was like gray soup. So, the first three nights of the accident, they wouldn't touch me. I had forty pounds of pressure inside my skull and they said the only way to live or to save the brain would be between four and five pounds of pressure.

Melta Briggs (08:20):

So they told us they could no longer control the swelling with medication they were going to have to operate. So, we agreed to that. And when the doctor came out, he said, "Hey, everything went great. But we did have to remove a small portion of his brain." Well, I didn't know you could live without all of your brain. And so, I asked the doctor, I said, "Okay, then what does this mean for us?" He said, "Well, I could have 10 patients, same surgery. I'd have 10 different outcomes." And he said to me, and his exact words were, "He will never be a hundred because nobody ever is."

(08:56):

And it, as crazy as it sounds, it encouraged me because that's exactly how God told me to pray was, "You believe for a hundred percent and don't settle for anything less." If God had told me a full recovery, a complete recovery, those would've been familiar words. But he said, "a hundred percent." And what we didn't know is that with brain injury patients, everything's on percentages. So, I asked the doctor, I said, "Well, what percentage is he at that then?" And he said, "Zero. He's in a coma."

Ric Shields (09:28):

You're listening to the DoorWays® Ministry Network. podcast. My name is Ric Shields and I'm joined on this episode with Michael Briggs and his mother, Melta. Michael suffered a horrific brain injury following a motorcycle accident. I wanted to hear his story, but I also thought it would be good to hear his mother's side of the story, too. So, Michael, while you were in the hospital, it was three days before they would even attempt surgery to repair the trauma on your brain. How long did you end up being in the hospital?

Michael Briggs (09:59):

The night of the accident was the 15th of December. After the brain has major surgery like that and they put you in a step-down unit and help stabilize you to prepare you for a regular room. Well, from the step - now again, I was paralyzed on the whole left side. Thank God my parents got that phone call because now someone's praying. From the step-down unit to the rehab part of the hospital, I walked. God healed the paralyzation in my body after they threw parts of my brain in the garbage.

Ric Shields (10:25):

That's pretty cool.

Michael Briggs (10:27):

Yeah. So, I was supposed to be in rehab for at least three to six months. I was in rehab for 10 days. I was in a coma for 10 days. So, Christmas Eve was the first physical response. So, me coming, trying to come out of the coma, I said it was God's gift to my parents for Christmas.

Melta Briggs (10:44):

Christmas Eve, of course all of our family, we were told, bring your family in. He is not going to live through the night. And so, his sisters were there and they told him, and then he's still in a coma. And they said, "Michael, tomorrow is Christmas and if you don't wake up, we're bringing lights and ornaments and we're decorating you for Christmas."

(11:02):

We had just gotten home from the hospital, it's Christmas Eve. And his nurse called me and she said, "Mrs. Briggs, I just had to call and tell you that Michael has just come out of the coma and he's been able to respond to his first voice command."

(11:22):

The next day we get to the hospital and I had taken a whiteboard because Michael was on a ventilator and I knew he wouldn't be able to talk or communicate. And so, I handed him the whiteboard and he wrote his last name on it. Then he wrote the word "gloves" with a question mark (because we all had gloves on because he had MRSA which is very contagious). And then he wrote the word "foray," F-O-R-A-Y. I didn't even know if that was a word. So later I am wiping the board off and I noticed that it was actually the brand name of the board.

(11:57):

So, it so encouraged me because he could see the letters, recognize them and write them. His surgeon called me that night and I told him about him writing on the whiteboard and he said, "Wow." He said, "That's amazing, but now mama, that's just a drop in the bucket." And God reminded me of Elijah when he was praying for rain. All he had was the cloud, the size of a, of a hand. I said, "there's my drop." And I said, "Doctor, I understand that and I'll take every drop I can get." He was in the hospital for thirty days.

Ric Shields (12:31):

Thirty days in the hospital is no small deal. Now you were scheduled, you thought you were going to be in the hospital longer than that, but to be in the hospital thirty days, no small deal, let alone recovering from a traumatic brain injury. Add to that, the prognosis that you would never be 100% again. Michael, what is life like for you today?

Michael Briggs (12:53):

Life has purpose now. Before the accident I was living a life of this huge fear of rejection. And so, I thought everybody loved me for who I was. It wasn't. They loved me for my money because I was a good contractor. I made a lot of money. I always picked up the tab at the restaurant, at the bar. But I thought people liked Michael. I was living a life of fear of rejection and didn't realize it. And so, I didn't have much purpose. I was not, I'm not serving God. So that wasn't a point in my life.

(13:21):

But I'll never forget that I'm supposed to be paralyzed for life. I was supposed to be a vegetable for life. And to be sitting here a hundred percent restored because there was just in Palm Beach County alone, there was 6,000 people that were praying. And that's just from church and some others. They prayed every day while I was in the hospital.

(13:38):

And my dad and I were talking, he was a missions director and an elder of the church for 29 years. And so, he oversaw about 180 missionaries worldwide. So, you know, all those people were praying. So, we figured about 20 to 30,000 people were praying worldwide, praying and prophesying helping me become back to life.

(13:54):

So here I'm today, December will be 17 years, a hundred percent restored, not paralyzed, not jacked up. All crazy, loving the fact that God gave the grace to bring me back to life.

(14:04):

You know, this physical miracle that God did wasn't for me. You know, I reap the benefits of it and I'm grateful for it. But this physical miracle was to reach the lost because spiritually they're dead. But you can't deny the power of God in front of your natural eye.

(14:19):

My miracle was that God didn't turn a deaf ear to a praying family. Because remember two months prior to the accident, I cursed God and said, "I'll go hell, it's fine." You know what I hated the most and like growing up was hypocrites because I grew up around it, especially in the church. But Ric, I was the chief of them. I played drums in church on Sunday and I was at the cabaret, or I was doing drugs and doing whatever two days before that, sitting in secret per se. So, the fact that I was spitting in God's face in his own house on Sundays and he didn't turn a deaf ear and he didn't gimme what I deserved, which was hell.

(14:49):

My miracle was the grace God, his love. He loved me enough to give me another shot and to entrust this kind of testimony in my hands. I'm just so honored and humbled to be able to give this story and let people know that no matter where they're at, there's hope. And he's still a miracle working God. I will say this from John 14 to John 16 in the Bible, seven times, Jesus himself said, "Ask anything in my name." He doesn't say he might, maybe, could, should. It says he will do it. The family of God praying, gave God permission to prove that word true when this moron here that was doing stupid stuff, cursing him. This changed my life.

Melta Briggs (15:28):

He went into the hospital, December 15th. He came out on January 15th and we brought him home from the hospital and we brought his Christmas gifts out and all he did was sat there and he stared at them. He didn't know what they were, he didn't know what to do with them. So, I helped him open one gift. And I told my daughter, I said, "Look, just take, take them all back to my room. He is not ready for this and that's okay." But that's how far gone his brain was. I just held on to that anchor of a hundred percent. I said, "It's okay. We're going to have a hundred percent. I don't know how long it'll take, but we're going to have a hundred percent."

(16:04):

So, five days later it's Sunday and Michael says, “I want to go to church.” Well, with brain injury patients, you can't have bright lights or loud music. And our church was everything except that. And John Bevere was the guest speaker that Sunday and he preached on the scripture that if you honor your mother and father, your days will be long upon the earth.

(16:25):

We get home from church, David and Michael are sitting in the den and talking. And it was the most miraculous thing I've ever witnessed in my life. Michael said to his dad, he said, "Dad, I realize now why I am still alive because I've always honored you and Mom." And he had, he had never been disrespectful to us.

(16:48):

We showed him pictures of him in the hospital and he said, "Mom, I'm so sorry. I didn't understand. I'm so sorry." And I said, "It's okay Babe." <laugh> We bring his Christmas gifts out. Now this is five days later, we bring his Christmas gifts out and he looks at me, he goes, "Mom, I missed Christmas? I've never missed Christmas," and began tearing the paper off of his gifts. That was only five days after we brought him home. I'm so grateful to God that we had such a miracle in such a short space of time because I know there's a lot of people out there who are still struggling to recover from different things and different traumas in their lives.

Michael Briggs (17:31):

Ric, I want to interrupt here with where my mom talked about John Bevere coming as a guest speaker. That morning, I wanted to go to church and well, I woke up that morning and you know, the Bible says, "Train up a child in the way they should go, they went apart from it." Well, I was used to my dad being the one of the head pastors and we always went to church on Sunday. And I walked out into the living room area and everybody was lounging around doing nothing. I said, "Guys, what are you doing? Aren't we supposed to go to church?" And they said, "Well Michael, we didn't think you wanted to go." I said, “Well, Dad, how can you say that? You're supposed to be there." He said, "Well, we can watch it in the screen later at home." I said, "Do you have the brain injury?" <laugh> <laugh>

(18:06):

Yeah. So my Dad, because of what my Mom said about the stimulation of the brain, they were trying to protect me being obedient to the doctors that my dad called the head usher at the church and gave him a heads up that, that we were coming in to protect me from being bombarded. And he said, "Son, we could, we don't have to sit down front like we always do. We can sit underneath the balcony in the back or we can stay in pastor's green room and watch it on the screen." I said, "The screen again, Dad? You got the brain injury. Not me. This is weird."

(18:32):

So, we got to the church and the ushers protected me. We sat underneath the balcony. And when John Bevere brought up that only commandment with a promise, when he spoke that Ric, it was like, I'm talking about physically tangibly, it was like someone took an arrow of some sort and shot me and it hit my heart. And I was like almost euphoric. It was tangible presence of God nailed me and it woke me up. And that's when I leaned over and told him that. It changed my life.

Ric Shields (18:56):

Your mother told me, you told me, that just a short time before the accident, you told God you were through with him. You're done with him. I'm, that's all I got. I'm going to go to hell. I don't need this.

Michael Briggs (19:09):

Yeah.

Ric Shields (19:09):

You were going to live your life the way that you wanted to live it, but obviously it sounds like things have really changed since that time.

Michael Briggs (19:18):

You know, God loves all of us so much and he'll forgive us and we can step back into our relationship with him now. He'll change our life forever. God, listen, God is still a miracle working God. I know it. The physical miracle is not for me. Yeah, I reap the benefits of it. But my miracle was a spiritual miracle. Him using his grace to bring me back to life so I can actually love and serve him and be a true son of God and let him be my father and go out and reach the lost. Because that's what it's about, Ric. It's the lost, it's the harvest.

Ric Shields (19:51):

You know, there's something powerful about a mother's prayers.

Michael Briggs (19:56):

Yeah,

Ric Shields (19:56):

We've seen it in our home. I'm confident Melta, you could tell stories about how you've prayed for your other children, for your grandchildren, for other people. I believe there's probably someone listening to this episode who would appreciate you Melta praying for them. So, would you please conclude our time by agreeing with others for the divine intervention they need and their life or in their circumstances?

Melta Briggs (20:19):

And let me just encourage you, if you're going through something like this, not to let fear grip your heart. You fight against that with everything within you.

(20:29):

Father, we thank you today for the opportunity that you have given us to share our testimony. And I thank you, father, for the people out there who are facing similar things and maybe a diagnosis from the doctor of cancer. I thank you Father, we bind fear in the name of Jesus. And we thank you Father that you said your Word will set us free. That truth will set us free. And the truth is, is that Jesus took stripes for our healing. That every single one of us can be healed, whole and complete.

(21:03):

And Father, I thank you that you are ministering your Word, that you are speaking your Word to your children today who are facing horrendous obstacles. And I thank you Jesus for the peace of God that passes every obstacle, that passes all understanding. And Father, we release your peace now to them that they can come in peace and be able to come into your presence. And Father, that you'll speak the Word and Father, it will encourage them and you will lift them up and carry them through this terrible time. And they'll be able to come out on the other side and say, "Look what God has done." We, thank you for it in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Ric Shields (21:50):

There are so many takeaways from this story. Which ones speak to you? I especially connected with what Michael said was the reason for this miracle. Did you catch what he said? He said the physical miracle was not for him yet he reaps the benefits of it. He went on to explain that God brought him back to life so that he could actually love and serve him and be a true son of God. He finished by saying it was about reaching the lost. Those who have strayed from Jesus or who never had a relationship with him.

(22:20):

In the first year following his miraculous recovery, Michael led thirty-two people to Christ. And since then, Michael Briggs has shared his testimony scores of times in churches and community organizations. And God continues to use him to reach the lost and encourage the body of Christ by helping them to believe for divine interventions in their life or circumstance.

(22:46):

I hope this has encouraged you. If you would, send me an email at info at doorways dot cc and let me know what you think.

(22:54):

I'd like to conclude with this scripture as a prayer for you. It's found in Ephesians chapter 3, verse 20 and 21. The Apostle Paul wrote, "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."