To be 44 years old and you can't

do anything for yourself-- you can't take a bath.

You can't feed yourself.

You can't bathe yourself.

You just couldn't do it no more.

The next thing was a loaded 9 millimeter

handgun that nobody knew I had.

I'm trying to figure out, do I stick the gun in my mouth,

or do I put it to my temple?

NARRATOR: Mike Jackson was a healthy 44-year-old

until the day he felt a sharp pain in his left side.

Really, if felt like somebody was just stabbing me.

It was just the most unbearable pain I'd ever experienced.

NARRATOR: His wife Leatta drove him to the emergency

room that same day.

After 13 hours in the ER, Mike received his diagnosis.

DOCTOR: This is the pancreas right in here--

And they tell me I have stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

DOCTOR: --and that is the pancreatic mass.

I said, doctor, how long do I have?

And he told me four months.

Unfortunately, that is one of the most lethal diagnoses

anybody can have.

MIKE JACKSON: I took a deep breath.

I looked at Leatta.

She's sitting at the foot of my bed, and her face is trembling.

I really don't know what I thought, because my thoughts

were all over the place.

I thought about my daughter.

I thought about myself.

I walk in the bathroom, and I just scream.

And I'm mad.

And something miraculous happens while I'm in this bathroom.

God speaks to me, and He says, you will live and not die.

NARRATOR: Three days after his diagnosis,

Mike started treatment.

Woo.

Chemo was every 14 days for 51 hours.

My body is taking a beating.

I'm weak.

I can't walk.

I can't do anything for myself.

NARRATOR: After several months of chemo,

Mike began to feel intense fear and rarely left home.

Because all I could hear was four months.

Four months.

Four months.

And I'm counting the days.

I guess you could say the devil was playing with my mind.

God doesn't love you, and you're going to die.

You're going to die in 15 days.

So I said to myself, well, if I'm going to die in 15 days,

let's do this.

NARRATOR: Mike drove to a local river

with a loaded 9 millimeter in hand

and began thinking about his family.

In the long run, I'm apologizing

to Leatta and Vasthi, because I told them that I would fight.

That I wouldn't quit.

My mother didn't raise any quitters.

But I couldn't do it anymore.

I just couldn't take the beating from chemo.

NARRATOR: Then, something stopped him

from pulling the trigger.

[SIGHS]

(VOICE BREAKING) My daughter.

My daughter's face appeared in front of me.

She was talking to me, and I was telling her I'm sorry.

That I can't do it no more.

I can't do it.

I know I promised you that I would be here,

but I can't do it.

I'm sorry.

And she was like, daddy, please come home.

And I kept telling her no.

She kept telling me to come home.

She wouldn't leave.

So as long as my daughter was standing in front of me,

I couldn't pull the trigger.

I put the gun down, and I came home.

And when I walked in the door, my daughter ran up to me

and said, thank you, daddy, for coming home.

NARRATOR: From that day forward, Mike

was committed to trusting God and beating the odds.

That day changed me.

I said, I'm going to do this.

I'm going to fight.

He just seemed more involved in his recovery, in his treatment.

He was in it now.

NARRATOR: Mike passed the four month mark,

and MRI's revealed the tumors had stopped growing

but he still required chemo.

After two years of treatment, Mike

asked his doctor for a break.

I said, you either give me a break,

or I'm going to take a break.

But my body is tired, and I can't do this anymore.

Just give me a break.

So the break is coming to an end.

It's September 2013.

I don't know what it is with me and God and bathrooms,

but I'm standing up in the bathroom

shaving my chest on a Monday morning,

getting ready for chemo, and God speaks to me again.

And this time, I don't look around,

because I know who it is.

And I chuckle to myself.

And He says to me, by My stripes, you are healed.

You don't need anymore chemo.

NARRATOR: Mike told his doctor that he was healed.

So the doctor says to me, I'll make a deal with you.

I want to scan your body.

If I find cancer, you get back in chemo.

I said, OK, deal.

They scanned my body.

They can't find cancer.

What's happened to Mike is absolutely

outside the ordinary.

It is not usual for somebody with metastatic pancreatic

cancer to be doing as well as he has been doing,

if you consider that it's been over five years.

NARRATOR: Mike is still cancer free

and has become one of only 2% who survive

stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

I'm not supposed to be here.

Doctors say I'm not supposed to be here.

But I serve a God that loves me.

He says I'm supposed to be here.