Stephen Strang Goes In-Depth With Man Who Died 12 Times About What Finally Healed Him
If you were to meet Damon Davis in person, you would probably see him as the picture of good health. And yet Davis—a global leader, media guru and former basketball star—tells me he died 12 times before he was 25 years old. Davis went on a 10-year journey to find the physical and spiritual answers to his health problems, which he details in his new book, God Cures: 21 Days to Look Good, Live Great and Love Well.
I found Davis’ story so fascinating that I asked him if he would let me interview him about it for my new podcast, “In Depth With Stephen Strang,” which premieres today, Feb. 1, 2019, on the Charisma Podcast Network. His story of overcoming physical and emotional challenges certainly speaks of the power and wisdom of God. You can hear our podcast interview by clicking below, in which Davis told me that when he was young, doctors diagnosed him supraventricular tachycardia, which means he had a very fast heart rate.
“My heart would shoot to 250 to 270 beats per minute—sitting still,” Davis says. “And your heart can’t go that fast—like an engine in a car—without collapsing. And that’s what they were afraid of.”
Davis says whenever his heart rate would spike without warning, his family had to call 911. The paramedics would come and would either shock him with a defibrillator or inject him with Adenocard, a drug that flatlines the heart. Davis always preferred the defibrillator, because even the paramedics never knew if the Adenocard would kill him or not. There was always a chance Davis’ heart wouldn’t start again.
But Davis’ problems weren’t confined to his health. He says the real tragedy of his childhood was growing up in a divorced home. He mother remarried, but her new husband was physically abusive.
“I was in the home of a drunk, who would literally beat me every day in the boiler room of my house,” Davis says. “[My mother] worked; she did not know. It wasn’t until my grandparents found the welts on my legs and the scabs from bleeding that [they] rescued me from my home.”
That abuse set Davis on a journey of struggle, tragedy, bewilderment, fear and low self-esteem. But the worst was yet to come. One morning after visiting Congo, Davis woke up to discover he couldn’t get out of bed. He couldn’t shut his hands. He managed to crawl to the floor but felt like he was walking on glass. Finally, he got to the doctor, who told him he had rheumatoid arthritis, an aggressive autoimmune disease that was incurable.
“We get sick and we all go through the same thing,” Davis says. “… [The doctors] put you on medication, and then you go back to life. But usually it’s a modified version of what life is supposed to be. God created us to live this amazing life full of destiny and purpose. And I believe there’s a strategy of the enemy to keep us from ever accomplishing and experiencing what God put in us to see unleashed in the world.”
Davis says God created the answer, but unfortunately His people often don’t see it.
“The church has done a great job talking about the spirit and the soul,” he says. “We’ve done a very poor job of understanding the temple.”
What Davis discovered is that much disease comes from a misalignment between body and soul. The reason for this is that disease goes back to what the medical community calls epigenetics. He says when the Bible talks about God knowing us before we were born and “writing into us” in Psalm 139, part of that includes our genes. Within our genes, Davis explains, we find traces of disease that our bodies express when the struggle and trauma of life take their toll on us. Davis calls this process “gene expression.”
And while Davis believes in supernatural healing, he says there’s a stark difference between healing and cure. God can heal us, but He also wants us to eradicate the things in our lives that are causing us to be sick and diseased in the first place. In God Cures, Davis details how to do just that.
“It’s a 21-day journey that starts with us bringing into alignment our spirit and our soul,” Davis says. “[Then it requires] a revelation of things we can do now, going forward, to not end up back where we were. And then finally, [I offer] a lot of practical steps that we just don’t understand about how some food heals and some food kills; what proper exercise, diet and nutrition [are] all about; and the things that we can do physically to become the best version of ourselves.”
Davis stresses, though, that this book is not a diet plan. On the contrary, he calls it a “balanced and sensible approach” to holistic health that starts with God.
I hope you order a copy of Davis’ book—whether for yourself or someone you know. You can find the book at amazon.com or anywhere books are sold. To hear more of Davis’ profound insights into gene expression—including the fascinating science behind it—click on my podcast below!