Our TVs and smart phones bombard us with news that brings us down. Where has all the good news gone? Those stories are still there. Here is a story that we hope will brighten your day.

Paying attention to coaches is nothing new to Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr. Neither is paying attention to God. While Carr is currently sweating through training camp with the Raiders, an interview he did last year with Play4Him has gone viral. 

In it Carr describes how he followed God’s lead at a church event, and the prophetic word he spoke at an alter call saved the lives of three men contemplating suicide. 

Carr and his brother were invited to speak at a church event. At the end, the Holy Spirit told him that somebody would commit suicide unless he said something. At first, he questioned whether to obey. He thought that if nobody came up after he said something that he’d look silly. “That’s a big step,” he said. “That’s a lot of obedience to step out there and do that.” 

But he did step out. Carr asked the pastor if he could say something. “Someone in here, it got so hard, to where you were going to end your life and you were going to kill yourself and commit suicide tonight,” he said. “I’m just here to tell you Jesus loves you, that I love you, and that he has a plan for your life.” All of the sudden, out of 300 people at the altar, Carr saw a man started pointing to himself. Carr asked him, “Is it you?” And the man said, “Yes.” He prayed with the man and told him how much Jesus loved him and that God had a plan for his life. 

Then, another young man came forward and said that he, too, had thought about committing suicide. Carr and his brother also prayed with him. He thought, “Wow, two people, that’s amazing.” 

He sat down and was worn out. “I’ve played football games all my life. I’ve never felt so exhausted.”

But God wasn’t finished yet.

A third man approached Carr in the parking lot. “That suicide thing you were talking about, that was me,” he said to Carr. “I was going to kill myself tonight.” Once again, Carr hugged the man and told him how much he loved him. “I’ve never met these three people in my life,” he said. “And I just told them how much I loved them, I told them how much God loved them, how much Jesus loved them. And I told them “Whatever you were going to do, don’t do that. …God has allowed you to be here tonight to hear His message and to take a different path with your life.”

“I’ve never experienced anything like that in my entire life,” Carr said. “And all it was, was being obedient.”

“I think it’s truly important, truly saying, ‘God, is this what You want?’ Then seeing what He wants and then going and doing that. Being obedient to what He wants.”

Watch the video: