Trusting the God of Miracles: the Real-Life Story Behind “Breakthrough” Movie
Jesus Calling: Stories of Faith
Jesus Calling
4.6 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 18 April 2019
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today we hear the miraculous true story of one mother’s belief in the power of prayer that not only brought her son back to life, but continues to inspire people around the world in a new inspirational movie called Breakthrough, starring Chrissy Metz from NBC’s This Is Us. On a cold winter’s day in Missouri, John Smith was a 14-year-old boy playing on a frozen lake with two of his best friends. But a carefree day soon grew dire as the ice gave way and boys fell into the lake. While John’s friends were able to escape, John remained underwater for fifteen minutes. And by the time he was pulled out by first responders, he didn’t have a pulse. John’s mother Joyce was summoned to the hospital, and when she saw her son’s lifeless body on the hospital bed, she turned to God for a miracle. Later, we hear how the Smiths’ story traveled from a Missouri hospital room to a Hollywood studio, and how the cast and crew of Breakthrough were able to see God’s hand throughout the creation of the film.
Links, Products and Resources Mentioned:
Interview Quotes:
“I had drowned and was underwater for 15 minutes.” - John Smith
“I lay lifeless. They did everything medically, scientifically that they could do.” - John Smith
"I believe God is who He says He is. I believe God can do what He says He can do. And I believe in God." - Joyce Smith
“Anybody would be [upset] when they tell you that you know they've just pulled your son out of the lake and he doesn't have a heartbeat. . . . But my first go-to was God to pray. That was what I had been prepared to do over the weeks beforehand.” - Joyce Smith
“[God], You say we can come to You with the things going on in our lives, and You're there to be faithful to us and answer our prayers." - Joyce Smith
“Holy Spirit, please come and bring me back my son." - Joyce Smith
“When [Mom] prayed, something so powerful rushed up my body that it pushed three nurses searching for a pulse physically back, and they can't explain it.” - John Smith
“Because God is omnipotent, and we are created in His image, our words have potency to them, they have power.” - Joyce Smith
________________________
Enjoy watching these additional videos from Jesus Calling YouTube channel:
Audio podcast: https://bit.ly/2uCnNM0
Original Series video podcast: https://bit.ly/2WzFY0O
________________________
Connect with Jesus Calling
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | It's such an honor to be able to share this story with the world. I mean, how do you not shout this from the mountaintops that God gave you your son once, but he also gave him back to you the second time. |
| 0:16.0 | Welcome to the Jesus Calling podcast. |
| 0:19.0 | Today we hear the miraculous true story of one mother's belief in the power of prayer that not only brought |
| 0:24.8 | her son back to life, but continues to inspire people around the world in a new inspirational |
| 0:29.5 | movie called Breakthrough, starring Chrissy Metz from NBC's This Is Us. |
| 0:35.3 | On a cold winter day in Missouri, John Smith was playing on a frozen lake with two of his best |
| 0:40.2 | friends. |
| 0:41.2 | But a carefree day soon grew dire as the ice gave way and the boy's best friends were able to escape from |
| 0:45.0 | the boys fell underwater. While somehow John's friends were able to escape |
| 0:48.6 | from under the ice, John remained underwater for 15 minutes and by the time he was pulled out by first responders John's mother |
| 0:54.0 | underwater for 15 minutes and by the time he was pulled out by first responders he didn't have a pulse. |
| 0:57.0 | John's mother Joyce was summoned to the hospital and when she saw our son's |
| 1:01.0 | lifeless body on the hospital bed she turned to God for a miracle. |
| 1:05.0 | My name is Joyce Smith and I am the mother of the young man who drown and the Lord so graciously brought back to life when he |
| 1:18.4 | prayed it's just amazing that God would trust you with such a miracle, but also to be able to share |
| 1:25.8 | it with the world. |
| 1:28.1 | My name is John Smith. |
| 1:29.8 | I am the boy that was underwater for 15 minutes and was without a pulse for over an hour. |
| 1:39.4 | So me and two of my friends, we were on the same eighth grade basketball team and let me just put it into words on how great we were |
| 1:48.0 | We were probably the worst team eighth grade team in the state of Missouri. I guarantee you some fourth |
| 1:54.2 | graded teams probably could beat us pretty bad. We were not good at all. But this |
| 2:00.9 | day we were playing a local high school and we were excited because we had an opportunity to win the game. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jesus Calling, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Jesus Calling and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.