Saved from Evil Spirits and Drugs
Hello everyone,
I would like to share with you how and why I became a Christian in the hope that it will encourage you to seek God and never give up.
Some very evil things happened to me as a child - I grew up fatherless, very untrusting and hateful, and completely disillusioned with what I saw in this world.
At the age of 12 I was already drinking hard alcohol (rum), and one year later I started to smoke cannabis. This totally messed up my schoolwork, as I was smoking it almost every day. I ended up with a criminal record at 16, and without any education, I was homeless and always in trouble.
At one point I was able to get a house and used this opportunity to start practising yoga - I dived into this in a big way, sometimes doing up to 6 hours a day. After 7 months of this, I had the most frightening experiences, where I saw and was spoken to by "spiritual beings" who promised me that they would take care of me and help my life. I stopped the yoga immediately and went straight back to using drugs to try and find my peace.
However, my life full of hatred continued and these "spiritual beings" were to continue to appear to me in one way or another, driving me to all sorts of excesses, until something special happened !
At the age of 20, I was living in a crazy, drugged-filled social security bedsit in Edinburgh, where I had also started amphetamine and heroin substitute abuse. One day I was looking out of the window and saw an old girlfriend, someone whom I had not seen for quite a few months. I waved her up to the flat, and had a talk with her about what we had been doing since I last saw her.
She told me that she had become a Christian. This was a big surprise to me as we had sat a few times very late into the night and spoke of life, the universe and everything and both of us came to the conclusion that we were on our own - that there was no Superior Being and that when we die, that was the end. She invited me to a meeting, and explained that the format would be some singing, some preaching and some "FOOD"! The magic word!
"When should I be there?" I asked.
The "meeting" was held on a beach and started with a game of football. The people present were a bunch of normal, friendly, and happy people, not the wide-eyed preaching freaks I had imagined them to be. After the football, we sang some songs and one chap explained some scriptures from the Bible. After the meeting and the food, I took a pre-rolled joint out and thought to offer it to the guitarist - who politely declined and then showed me from the Bible why I should not be smoking cannabis, in fact why I should not be smoking at all.
I met up with a couple of the guys a few days later, but then decided to forget it all after the next meeting (OK, after the food actually). However, something happened that changed my life forever. I was challenged to find out if God existed. I was shown in the Bible that I had to turn my life round and find God, and ensure my eternity - and I decided to try it out!
After the meeting, a guy named Franzy showed me scriptures in the Bible that promise that God will answer those that seek him with a sincere heart.
Franzy then suggested that everyone starts to pray and that I should start to pray. The 10 people left in the room all went on their knees and started to pray in a different language!
I could not believe my ears or my eyes, but was still able to keep my mind on the task in hand - that of finding out if God was alive, so I just kept asking God "to forgive my life and to do something, and if he did show me something I would follow Him". After 5 minutes or so, Franzy came across to me and laying his hands on my shoulders, prayed that I was repentant towards God and that I would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Peace flooded me and at that moment I knew God was there! Franzy took his hands from my shoulders and told me to just thank the Lord. As I opened my mouth, from it came another language! Not English! Some language I did not understand. The first miracle!
There was rejoicing amongst the others present, and then I was taken to a river to be baptized. Afterwards I was driven home, and we arranged to meet a couple of days later. I met up with some of the Christians a few days later, and after chatting for a while, one of them asked me "how it was going with my drug usage, smoking etc" to which I had to answer "I haven't even thought about it!" - no desire for drugs, no lack of peace! The second miracle!
Since then, I have seen this happen on countless occasions and experienced many other answers to prayer.
It has not always been a bed of roses, and a few times, due to my selfishness and pride, I have found myself to be very far from any semblance of Christianity - but He never casts us aside and through it all, I have never been able to deny that Jesus Christ is alive and is indeed
"The same yesterday, today and forever"
- HEBREWS 13:8.
Love in Christ Jesus,
William Downs
Français
Comments
I'm sorry about the awful
I'm sorry about the awful experiences you both have had with drugs. I know drugs can be destructive and dangerous for many people, but I wonder how many people turn to religion in the first place because of drug experiences. I find I think about God and read the Bible more when I'm stoned. I only smoke occasionally and it allows me pray really deeply. I don't use any other drugs. I'm familiar with the stuff about the body being a temple and so on, but where in the Bible does it say you're not allowed to smoke the occasional joint? I'm not saying everyone should be using drugs, far from it, just that for some people drug experimentation seems to elicit a religious conversion. Just my opinion, please don't berate me for it. Like I said, I'm sorry for both your struggles with addiction and so on.
Hi Haydn, Many thanks for
Hi Haydn,
Many thanks for your comment - my struggles were over the day I received the Holy Spirit actually, but I very much appreciate the compassion in your words
There are very concrete Biblical reasons as to why we should not take drugs. In the first instance, we are told clearly to obey the laws of the country we live in. Of course, this would not tie in with countries where it is legal.
There is also the biblical exhortation to "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;" - 1 Peter 1:13
However, there are also more spiritual reasons for not taking drugs. Concerning psychodelics in particular, an often quoted scripture is in 1 Samuel 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.The word used here for witchcraft is translated into the greek as pharmakeia or pharmakous, the root word which is obviosly used by us to describe mind altering drugs. A large part of shamanism is that by using naturally occuring substances and ritual one can interact with the spirit world. This is repeated more than once n the Bible, and is actually classed alongside mith murder in the book of Revelation
In essence, the Lord is saying that withcraft is spiritual rebellion, i.e trying to reach paradise through other means than that which is advocated by the Bible. The Word may not use such words as "hashish, psilocybin" etc, but that does not take away our responsibility. It is indeed part of our make-up to desire a transendental experiance, as man originally had fellowship with God, but the means to that are clearly defined.
Hope that you find this interesting enough to continue searching...
Love in Christ,
William
I was born in Paris, France.
I was born in Paris, France. My parents divorced when I was a young age. I grew up looking for answers and comfort in all the wrong places...the world. Junior high is when I started rebelling and getting in trouble, suspension after suspension...and after school detention after detention. I then got into the crowd that leads to destruction, and in doing so my life had been engulfed with chaos and storms. I got into a fight in the 7th grade that led to some very interesting results; the two people that I had called out wanted to have a huge fight, with the people I was assosciated with, and the people they were associated with. I told none of my friends of it because I thought it was silly..well they all showed up where my friends and I were supposed to meet, with various weapons. In the process of this they said that my dad drove bye (he didn't, he was at work.) and shortly after the police arrived busting people with guns and various weapons. Not long after that my mother recieved various life threating calls as to what these people were to do to us for revenge. We moved. I got in more trouble fighting and then was suspended for half of a year due to being caught with drugs in school. We moved from there and I went through high school at a different school. It was there after graduation that my life took a dramatic turn for the worse. I began drinking alcohol and doing drugs. So much so, that in a 2 month span I lost 50 pounds from cocaine. Needless to say, shortly after my mother learned of my addiction. I felt as if I had no reason to live any longer. I went home and wrote a letter to my family telling them that I loved them and I could no longer take the pain that this life brings. I took a gun and went to a river bank in Texas. It was there on a hot sunny day that I would take my last breath. On that clear sunny day, with blue skies, I knelt down against a tree and lifted the gun up. As I went to pull the trigger the beautiful clear sky cracked with thunder! It was there that I knew there was a living true God. I dropped the gun instantly and there began my recovery from the drugs and alcohol through my new found Savior Jesus Christ. I then got into the Word, which is the Bible, and found the comfort I had always searched for, the peace...the answer. You see I was was addicted to drugs, now my addiction is in the King of kings (Jesus Christ). I once was consumed in alchohol, and now I am completly consumed in the Lord of lords. It took me almost losing my life to find it and now that I have Him in my life it will never be the same. Thank you my BEAUTIFUL SAVIOR, MY KING, MY LORD, MY ROCK, MY HEALER, MY REDEEMER, MY FORTRESS, MY JOY, AND MY ALL IN ALL FOREVERMORE...JESUS CHRIST MY LORD AND SAVIOR.
Kenneth Suprenant
Post new comment