In this deeply personal piece, I will be sharing my transformative journey from darkness into the radiant light of love and faith. This is not just my story, but a testament to the unwavering grace and salvation offered by Jesus Christ to those who seek Him. It is a tale of redemption, hope, and most importantly, divine love that forever altered my life’s trajectory. This is the story of my spiritual journey, the story of how I was lost, but then found, how I was broken, but then healed. It is a testament to the redemptive power of Jesus’ love.

My Life Before Christ

Before I get into the nitty gritty of things, I’d like to share a bit about my past. I was raised in the Catholic Church. My family is Christian and I was taught about Jesus Christ from a young age. However, as I grew older, my faith became more of a cultural tradition rather than a personal relationship with God. 

Growing up, I attended a Christian Middle School and High School where we had Chapel services during school every week. For five years I was a worship singer in the praise band during these services. At that time, I did feel closer to God. However, once I started college and moved away from home, my faith began to drift.

When I moved into college, I reached out to the Catholic club on campus, but I never attended a single church service during my time there. The only services I went to were ones I went to when I traveled back home. I started partying, drinking, and smoking. I was living the typical college life, but deep down I knew something was missing. I felt empty and lost, constantly searching for fulfillment in all the wrong places.

Despite growing up in a Christian household, I never truly understood what it meant to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. My faith had become stagnant and my heart had grown cold. I started drifting even farther away from God. I developed a new age mindset, spiritually. I had the mindset of “all religions tell the same story, they just tell it in different ways”. I now know that this is a false statement. I started seeking spiritual fulfillment in meditation, hypnosis, and manifestation. I don’t think I ever stopped believing in Jesus, but because I never understood how to have a relationship with him, I was seeking fulfillment in the wrong places.

I graduated college in 2021 and continued on living my life the same way. I continued to feel uncomfortable in my faith. I wouldn’t go to church because I felt judged and unworthy. I wanted help, but I couldn’t bring myself to ask for it. However, in September of 2022 things started to change.

Encountering God

I attended a ReAwaken America Tour on September 16th, 2022. This is a political event that is centered around Jesus Christ. At this event, I felt the presence of God like never before. As soon as we walked into the event I could immediately feel a charge in the atmosphere. Worship music was playing and everyone was in a good mood. I had never felt anything like it. At that point, I didn’t do very well in crowds. I used get anxious and annoyed easily when in large groups, but this event was different. There was 6,000 people there and the peace that I had was incomprehensible.

Throughout the day, I met so many good patriotic people who love America and Jesus. It was very refreshing, but I kept having a recurring thought. I kept thinking, “These events are amazing, but I wonder if they’re actually making a difference in our nation”.

At the end of the day, Sean Feucht was performing. While a lot of people left, we stayed and were able to get seats a few rows back from the stage. I remember looking around and seeing people holding hands, hugging, singing, and worshipping with their hands in the air. In that moment I felt very uncomfortable. For the first time in a long time, I prayed and told God that I wanted to worship like that but I didn’t know how to get there. I wanted what these people had, but I didn’t know how to get it.

Next thing I know, the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard in my life started playing. This song is called “Yeshua / Our God Reigns”. Well, I guess God heard my recurring thoughts from earlier. Part of the way into this song I had a vision.

The vision I had is difficult to describe. I wasn’t in my body. I was lifted up into the sky and was overlooking America. Keep in mind, my earthly body was still standing at that concert. I was only having a vision. It was the most beautiful thing. I was still hearing the song play, but I was seeing all of America. I was looking from the Northwest towards the Southeast. I only saw landscapes and nature, no people or man-made things. The sky was blue and America was green and blue. The border of the country was bright white and glowing. Coming up from the ground were light beams that resembled sun rays. It was a powerful image that brought tears to my eyes. Before I knew it, the vision had gone away and I was back seeing the concert in front of me. Immediately I knew that that was God telling me that everything was going to be fine and those events are making a difference.

This was the first moment that I knew for a fact that God existed. How else could I have explained that experience? However, shortly after this event I reverted to living life in my old ways.

The Turning Point

The next encounter I had with God wasn’t until March of 2023. This was the encounter with him that completely changed everything for me. I remember this day so vividly. It was the afternoon of March 31st. I was alone and I had no plans. I had casually been rewatching New Girl on Netflix, but this day was different. I was about to put New Girl on when something inside of me told me to go watch The Chosen instead. I really didn’t want to watch The Chosen so I clicked play on New Girl and that feeling just got stronger. I can’t explain it other than I wasn’t going to be satisfied unless I watched The Chosen. So I caved and I put on the first episode. I told myself I’d only watch a couple episodes but I ended up binging the entire first season that night.

Watching this show made me realize that night how far down the wrong path I was. I was so emotionally and spiritually exhausted. I was sad, depressed, and searching for fulfillment and happiness in all the wrong places. Immediately after I finished the season I fell to my knees in my living room and prayed. In tears, I asked God for forgiveness. I told Him that I couldn’t keep living the way I had been and I needed His help. I asked Him to come into my life and save me. I gave everything to Him that night. While I was praying and immediately after, I felt God’s presence so strong, it was like He was standing in my living room. I knew in that moment that I had been saved. I couldn’t wrap my head around what had just happened. Up until that moment, I didn’t know that one could feel God’s presence like that. He was right there with me.

I gathered my thoughts, composed myself and was getting ready to go to sleep that night. I couldn’t comprehend what had just happened. I went to go fill my water bottle up and head to sleep. I started doubting that encounter with God, but as I was filling my water bottle up I had a strong feeling to click shuffle on my Christian Spotify playlist. This was the same gut feeling as before. The feeling was so strong, so I did it. Keep in mind, this playlist hadn’t been touched since September of 2022. I clicked shuffle on this playlist with over 5 hours of songs on it and the first song that played was “Yeshua / Our God Reigns”. Immediately I started crying. As much as I had doubted before, I knew in that moment that the one and only true God is the God of the Bible and He was speaking to me.

God did a complete 180 with my life that night. I started praying multiple times per day and I started reading the Bible every day. Before this experience, I had never felt like reading the Bible and the last time I had prayed everyday was in the 8th grade. That night I finally got a glimpse of what having a relationship with God is like and from that point on I have only found myself craving more of Him.

A Deeper Understanding of Faith

My journey with God didn’t stop at that remarkable encounter, it was just the beginning. With every new day, there was a new lesson to learn, a new nugget of wisdom to discover in the Bible. I found solace and strength in my moments of prayer, and gradually, I felt myself becoming more attuned to His divine presence in my life.

A big step that allowed me to be more attuned to God’s presence was going through deliverance. If you haven’t heard of deliverance ministry it is the casting out of demons from a person. That’s a story for another time, but the bottom line is that once I was set free from these demons, I experienced zero resistance towards my pursuing of God. This really helped grow my faith and each day the Holy Spirit continues to convict me and change me into a better person.

Now, I am by no means perfect and my faith is a journey that will continue for the rest of my life. But what I can say with certainty is that my life has been transformed in ways I never thought possible because of my relationship with God. My perspective on everything has changed, and I have found true peace, joy, and purpose in Him. The stories I had heard growing up from the Bible are no longer just stories. They became real because I have experienced God in all of His power and glory firsthand.

I thought I was too far gone to be saved, but God pulled me out of the darkness and he can do the same for you. One thing I have learned on my journey is that Jesus is a gentleman. He’s not going to barge into your life and force you to accept him. He’s standing at the door knocking, but you have to choose to open the door and seek him. No one is too far gone to be saved. You only have to humble yourself before God, ask him to forgive you, and invite him into your life.

In conclusion, my spiritual journey has been a remarkable testament to the transformative power of faith. It’s an adventure that began with a simple prayer and evolved into a deep, personal relationship with God. The experiences I have had along the way have not just reshaped my views on faith, but have also profoundly affected every aspect of my life. The journey hasn’t been without challenges, but the peace and strength I have found in God’s presence far outweighs any difficulties encountered. My experience with deliverance ministry and the daily conviction of the Holy Spirit only reaffirms my faith and belief in God. This journey is far from over, and as each day unfolds, my faith continues to deepen. I hope sharing my experience will inspire others to seek their own relationship with God, for it’s a journey that promises transformation, peace, and a deeper understanding of life.

“But now, this is what the Lord says—he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.'” – Isaiah 43:1

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