By his own confession, Deral Hardy shouldn't be alive today. And he probably wouldn't be, if he had continued to live his life on the edge of civility. More than once, God snatched him from the brink of extinction.
Deral's aberrant behavior began early. By the time he was 11 years old, he was taking and dealing drugs. He says he can't blame his parents for his defiant lifestyle. In fact, he credits his mother's persistent prayers for his deliverance. "My mom never gave up on me," he says. "The truth is, I was motivated by outside influences and a strong desire to feel good and have fun." If something gave him a sense of euphoria, Deral would try it.
This penchant for pleasure put Deral in constant skirmishes with the law. He says the police in his hometown knew him by name. He was arrested at least 50 times and treated in five different psychiatric facilities by the time he was 33. When he was only 18, he spent 10 days on life support after being stabbed with a 12-inch butcher knife. He admits to fighting every day.
But the scrapes with the law and near-death experiences didn't curtail his destructive habits. Deral survived drug overdoses, poisoned drugs, and being battered by thugs in a motel room.
Yet in the midst of this chaos Deral knew as life, God found a way to speak to him. Deral says God did for him what he was unable to do for himself.
Deral's last stay at a treatment center was in 2001. He had court dates pending and was on probation in two counties when he showed up one night at his parents' home. He was high on drugs and had been up for a week. When his brother saw his condition, he called Deral's probation officer, who gave him two options: either take a drug test and submit to treatment or be charged with breaking probation and spend the next 20 years behind bars.
Over the weekend, Deral began trying to detoxify his system. Yet all the while something inside of him urged, "Just surrender to treatment."
The prescribed treatment was admittance to a six-month long work camp. He opted for the therapy. On the second day at the camp, Deral was picking up trash and found drug paraphernalia. That night he was high again, but that proved to be the turning point in his life. Paranoid, he lay in his bunk crying, when suddenly he had a moment of clarity. "God, if you are real," he prayed, "please help me stop! I can't do it on my own!"
The next morning, Deral awoke clean, and the desire for drugs was gone. That day marked the beginning of his journey toward wholeness. "At that moment, I knew something had happened. God had saved me." Three months later, still a resident at the treatment facility, he was baptized in the Holy Spirit.
During that time, Deral came under the ministry and mentorship of Dwight Burchett, pastor of Life Christian PH Church in far northeast Oklahoma City. Pastor Burchett showed Deral acceptance and unconditional love as he modeled the Christian life. Joe Cram, a layman at the church, used the church's van to pick up the men from the treatment center. Joe also ministered to Deral and spoke affirmation and blessings over him. He was the one who led Deral in receiving the Holy Spirit baptism.
Following his six-month rehabilitation program at the center, Deral volunteered at the church. Pastor Burchett told him about Southwestern Christian University and encouraged him to enroll at the school. In the process, God called Deral to become an itinerate evangelist. His first convert was his own father.
Deral graduated cum laude from Southwestern in 2006. He completed the graduate program at the school in the spring of 2008 and plans to pursue his doctorate.
In 2004, Deral married Michelle Vavak (also an alumnus of SCU, 93'), who has been a part of the Pentecostal Holiness Church all of her life. Though their backgrounds and life experiences are different, Deral and Michelle are a team. They are expecting their first child in June of 2008. He is also being ordained in June as a minister in the Heartland Conference.
Deral W. Hardy is a shining trophy of God's redemptive power. He went from being diagnosed with "schizoaffective disorder and poly-substance abuse" to owning his own business, from hearing "voices" and talking to the devil inside him to hearing God and talking to others about His power to save even the most desperate sinner.
Yes, Deral realizes that by the law of averages, he should be dead now. Most of the friends he made during his rebellious years are now either dead or in jail. But God had a rich destiny for Deral and snatched him miraculously from the enemy's grasp.

*Spencer, Shirley (2008, May issue). "He Should Be Dead". IPHC Experience, pg. 19.