A Living Testimony
by SkyAngel2
I was born and raised
Catholic. In all the years of faithful weekly attendance, Catholic schools, and religion
classes, no one ever told me about Jesus and what it meant to be saved. It was all
repetition and memorizing and, when I was younger, it was in Latin. When my mom and dad
were divorced we were told we could no longer be Catholic. We stopped going altogether.
I grew up in a dysfunctional home. My dad was abusive to my mom and brother and me,
emotionally, mentally, physically, and sexually. While I was growing up my dad was into
the occult, out of body travel, and worked a Ouija board by himself. And we lived in a
house that was haunted, as we called it. My grandmother was half Cherokee and always had a
special remedy for something... and she traveled throughout the world seeking fortune
tellers. (A little background) I met my husband and we dated two years before we got
married, spending a great deal of our time talking about life, goals, dreams, and God. We
each had our own interpretation of religion, what it meant, how we thought it was intended
to be, etc. He was raised Methodist. We got married in his church and started to raise our
family, but never attended. We were living our lives, doing our own thing, having a good
time. Our struggles began almost immediately.... health, finances, arguments, you name it.
We separated twice. And then my husband became a Christian.... and I was angry. I provoked
him every chance I got and broke the man down. He returned to his fun-loving self and we
continued on, although our discussions about God never ended.
We moved into a new home following the birth of our second child. I decided to stay home
and care for our children. Because we no longer had my income to help with bills, he took
on a second part-time job in the evenings. He was never home. We fought constantly about
everything. About that same time, I started having "dreams." Dreams that would
wake me up screaming in the night, or in a cold sweat and so fearful it took me hours to
get back to sleep, if at all. I didn't talk about them for a long time because I thought I
was going crazy. Then, when I did start to talk about them, others just looked at me like
I was losing my mind. These dreams continued and became more and more real as the weeks
and months went on, escalating to the point of hearing voices. I slept with the TV on,
just so I would have company and block out other noises.
My husband was still working evenings and weekends. We continued to have problems in our
marriage and the dreams continued. I started seeing a counselor, a Christian counselor.
Don't ask me why, just did. (hehehe). He started talking about the Lord and I stopped him,
simply stating that I was there to get some insight into my marriage, things I could do to
deal with my husband, etc... that I didn't need to know about God. He went along with me,
but told me that he would occasionally relate to the Bible to explain this or that. As we
got into these sessions, the dreams got worse, not only voices now but I would wake up to
someone touching me and no one was there! My counselor had me read "This Present
Darkness," by Frank E. Perritti. I couldn't put the book down. I even found myself
writing down a couple things on an index card while I was reading this book. Again, don't
know why. But I used it as a bookmark and each time I opened or closed the book, I read
what I had written. On Good Friday, 1994, I finished the book. My family was out running
errands and I decided to lay down for a quick nap before they returned. At this point in
my life, I tried NEVER to sleep when I was alone, but I couldn't keep my eyes open. As
soon as I curled up on my sofa, I felt the most evil presence enter the room. I was
absolutely frozen with fear. It stood behind me breathing on my neck and it started to
lick me. Almost instantly I remembered the words on the index card... the first ones
being, "The Lord rebuke you." I tried to speak these words, but couldn't. I
started praying, asking the Lord to help me say them, and He did. As soon as the words
came out, this demon stopped licking me, but remained. Then I remembered the second words
I had written.... "In Jesus' Name, I command you to leave my house." The demon
backed away and ran down the hallway to my bedroom. I could hear it's claws sticking in
the carpeting all the way down.
When my husband returned, I jumped on top of him, sobbing uncontrollably and I think I
even tried to climb inside him, I was so frightened. We finally did reach my counselor and
he said, "Oh, yeah, didn't I tell you this book would change your life?" I went
to see him a few days following that and we prayed together for the first time. It was an
awesome prayer and I asked the Lord into my life that day.
The Lord restored my marriage and we will be celebrating 24 years together in September. A
couple weeks after I accepted the Lord, my youngest daughter started asking questions
because she could see the change in me and she wanted to know more. She was 10 at the
time. We prayed together and I shared with her all I was learning. That summer we were
baptized together in our pool in the backyard, with a hillside full of family, friends,
and neighbors in attendance. My oldest daughter rededicated her life to the Lord and so
did my husband. All I kept thinking was how faithful the Lord was when He promised He
would restore the years the locusts had eaten (Joel 2). He sure did. And shortly following
all that, my brother and his wife, and my favorite cousin in the world gave their lives to
the Lord, also.
The last four years have been wonderful and our family has been very blessed. Not to say
we don't have problems, because we do. But it's different now. DAILY we each thank God for
what we have, our burdens are intense sometimes, but when we can truly hand them to Him,
we are at peace. We are all very active in our church (Methodist) and now have an awesome
church family.
During the years before we came to know Christ, life was impossible. We were constantly
searching for an answer, constantly struggling with life's basics, insurmountable turmoil,
that emptiness you just can't explain... and all along all we needed was HIM. It's that
simple.
The Lord had His Hand on me my whole life, but I was too busy to see that, too busy to
listen, to busy to care. But, He remained faithful, patient, and loving and continued to
call my name.... and waited.
Thank You, Lord Jesus!!
SkyAngel2
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