God Is Real. He Wants You To Know. Satan is Real Too…And He Doesn’t Want You To Know

God is real. And Satan is real too…. One of these wants you to know. The other doesn’t. This is John’s testimony.

John was five years old when he started seeing visions of future events, but no one in his family wanted to hear it.  It was around that time that John was approached by his first “shadow.”  It seemed nice–and it gave him someone to talk to.  Over the next ten years, John innocently developed a “friendly” relationship with Satan.  Then God threw John a curve ball.

First John met Beth, and she was unlike any other human he had ever met. Struck by her faith and strong emotional disposition, he decided to get to know her better. As their relationship developed, John–for the first time–began questioning the things Satan was teaching him. Year later, he decided to part ways with Satan, marry Beth, and choose God. God is real…the real deal!

Is God Real? Yes; God Is Real.

Shortly after his monumental decision, however, tragedy struck, pushing him to the brink of despair. And yet, through these trials, John discovered the true nature of his spiritual gifts and the responsibility that comes with them. Unbeknownst to him, his resolve would be tried and tested in ways that would break the strongest of men. And yet, these trials would lead him to embrace his calling as a warrior, triumphing over the forces that sought to consume him.

Despite hardship, John continues to remain unwavering in his faith, and uses his experiences to help others facing similar struggles. This episode 17 of The Overcome Depression Podcast features John’s story of faith, resilience, and what it means to choose and love God above all else.  John’s firsthand experience has given him knowledge-beyond a shadow of a doubt-that Satan is real.  He also knows-with absolute certainty-that God is real.  And that it is his His love that transforms and heals us all.

Scriptural References in this Episode

Read these amazing scriptural references that we talk about on Episode 17; highly recommend this reading!

Moses 1

Luke 4

Matthew 4

John 20:28 My Lord, and My God!

Want to Heal Faster?? Get the Overcome Depression Workbook!

Get The Overcome Depression Workbook for each #Chapter of the Overcome Depression Podcast and maximize your healing power!

Full Transcript: Episode 17: God Is Real. He Wants You To Know. Satan is Real Too…And He Doesn’t Want You To Know

Speaker 1 (00:00)
I was having dreams and my dreams were coming true. So you have this little five-year-old kid running around like a five-year-old does telling people things that he should not know.

Speaker 2 (00:13)
Wow. Welcome to the Overcome Depression podcast. The tools you learn here can make depression a part of your past, allow healing regardless of your present circumstances, and offer hope for your future. I am your host, Jennifer Sterling Campbell.

This episode of the Overcome Depression podcast is deep and vulnerable, so vulnerable in fact, that my guest will remain anonymous today. No video, no pictures, just audio. After numerous life challenges, he met the love of his life and she shared her faith with him. But after proposing to her, she was tragically murdered. This experience gave him a very real, up-close-and-personal encounter with the master of all lies. And I think we all know who I’m talking about.

I am not speaking symbolically, this was the real deal. And yet, despite this horrific experience, my guest today chose God and forgiveness, and that has made all of the difference. Welcome, I’m going to call you John today.

Speaker 1 (01:22)
That’s fine. And in case people are curious, that’s my conformational name. So it is my valid name. It’s not made up or anything. So, myself and Jennifer got introduced through her doing my natal chart because I was curious about that. And she’s a Christian astrologer, which is fine. There’s naysayers out there. OK. And we got to talking and she wanted to ask me about my life.

And the things that I’ve experienced and wanted to do a podcast. So that’s why I’ve agreed to come on here and talk a little bit about my life and my experiences. And hopefully it’s going to be educational and also helpful to some people because I want you to know no matter how bad things get, how deep you think you are in that hole.

You can recover, you can come out the other side and you can be much better for it. God is the God of the impossible, quite literally. And he can truly do anything as long as you’re willing to let him. You let him in. As was told to me once, he made you without your permission.

But he won’t save you without your free will. You he gives you free will. So you have to choose whether or not to accept his help and to accept his guidance. And that’s not always easy, but I tell you what, when you let go and you trust him, things work out so much better than you could have ever done it yourself or even thought possible. And events, just happen.

It’s kind of neat to see God at work. I also want to say that this is odd for me to open up this way because normally I got to get to know somebody. Oftentimes it takes years. So that way they realize I’m actually a normal person. I get up, I go to work, I live a normal life. And once they understand that, it’s just that I have some extraordinary gifts.

And extraordinary responsibilities. And one of the things I want you to know is this does not make me better than anybody else. I’m just different and I don’t compare myself to anyone other than myself. So I’m always in a competition with myself.

I treat everyone else the same way. love everyone. see everyone’s unique gifts. So just because I can do things and see things doesn’t make me special, as they say. It just makes my journey different.

Speaker 2 (04:30)
Yeah, and would you say that everybody has gifts? They’re just different.

Speaker 1 (04:36)
Yeah. And it can be simple. Some of the greatest of saints have led the simplest of lives. Nothing grand, nothing out of the ordinary. But the key was that no matter how they live their life, they lived it with the will of God in their lives and they loved God in everything they did. Even just from getting up in the morning and thanking him for giving them another day, to sweeping, to cleaning.

And they kept God as part of those actions and felt that he was there beside them. And they’ve become some of the greatest of saints because they were able to gain that childlike trust and knowledge of God. And that’s what he wants.

That so doesn’t matter everyone has their own unique gifts. In fact, he’s such an awesome God that he tailors everybody’s gifts individually. So no two people have the exact same gifts or abilities. In fact, I even go so far to say that no two people even see the same colors exactly the same.

Speaker 2 (05:56)
Yeah, I believe that too. you entered into someone else’s body and you saw through their eyes that the world would look different, the colors would be different.

Speaker 1 (06:06)
Yes, because that’s where each unique and he designs us that way. Therefore, we each have our own unique struggles and he judges us by how we handle our scenarios that he that he puts in our way that he allows to happen because it is a test. It really is.

Speaker 2 (06:29)
You see him as a harsh god because I think a lot of people hear the word judgment and they kind of cringe like, ugh, you know.

Speaker 1 (06:37)
Well, I will say this. God is a loving God. He is a merciful God, but he is also a God of justice and he cannot stand sin. Always he comments about how sin smells horrible or how sin makes a soul look ugly in his opinion, you know, from his point of view, because that’s how he sees us. He sees us as souls. So

In that regard, if someone of their free will embraces a sinful life, then it can seem like he’s harsh. But in reality, he is honoring the gift of free will to the point where if you sin, you are rejecting his help. You are rejecting his influence in your life.

So he steps back. He quits helping you as much.

Speaker 2 (07:43)
I think that’s the key too, as much. He’s always there. And I think that sin, it has this negative connotation to it, like you’re saying I’m a bad person if I sin. We all sin. And I think it’s more of, here’s some guidelines if you look at the scriptures are just universal laws that I think we all kind of innately know with that light that we’re born with. when we reject that light, it causes pain, whether we recognize it or not.

It’s either it can be delayed, but that that pain is very real. And he doesn’t want us to have to go through that, but in a lot of cases, it’s kind of necessary for us to learn and to grow and to become the beings that aren’t so ugly, to get desperate enough to call for help. And I think I get the feeling that’s what happened to you.

Speaker 1 (08:37)
Yeah, it really happened to me in a hard way. So I guess I should start off a little bit at the beginning of all things. Also just to let people know the comment about people are many layered like a many layered onion and that’s very true. So there’s a lot of layers. There’s a lot of different viewpoints and that’s also a key. If you can learn to look at other people through different perspectives or even your own life.

As Jennifer pointed out to me, step back and look at your own actions from another angle and it helps you understand a lot more than a single straightforward view. But anyway, so let me start off with saying that my family growing up was quite poor. We lived on a farm partially. I’m the youngest of six.

At one point, my father worked three jobs just to put food and everything on the table. And by the time I came along, it wasn’t so bad. But then again, I was the odd child. So there’s my five siblings. Then they told my mother that she was never going to have another kid, that she was too old and that she was done having children.

Seven years later, she got about of the flu, couldn’t kick it, went to the doctors and found out she was pregnant. So right then and there it was. So there’s actually a seven year gap between me and my closest sibling.

Speaker 2 (10:23)
Which is interesting. That’s the same as my mother. She was the youngest by seven.

Speaker 1 (10:29)
Interesting.

All right, go for the young ones. So that’s pretty much how I came to came into the world. lot of surprises with that. My family, my parents had actually left. My dad was Catholic. My mother was Protestant. She became Catholic and they went to church for a while. Then there was a significant disagreement with a very bad priest and they quit going to church. They gave up on all religion. So by the time I came around, my parents were no longer going to church, no longer praying. And so there was no spirituality in my life.

Speaker 2 (11:01)
Hmm.

Speaker 1 (11:24)
I mean, which was okay, because I mean, my parents loved me and I had a good relationship with my older siblings when I wasn’t getting them in trouble. Well, when I was roughly five years old in that time frame, between five and six, things began to change. One of the questions Jennifer had asked me is like, when did I first realize my gifts? That was, that was when they kicked in. All of a sudden,

I was having dreams and my dreams were coming true. And I began to know things that I shouldn’t know as a child. So you have this little five-year-old kid running around like a five-year-old does, telling people things that he should not know. And I began to freak people out a little bit. Understandably.

Speaker 2 (11:59)
Hmm.

Speaker 1 (12:23)
And of course, I didn’t, I really didn’t know any better. Yeah. So imagine you’re that young without a spiritual background, you’re having these gifts and people were your families looking at you kind of you’re weird. What are you saying this for? And it finally hit a high point. We were having a family get together out of my grandparents. So my grand, my family was there, my cousins and their families were there.

Speaker 2 (12:26)
Now you’re five.

Speaker 1 (12:53)
And we were all celebrating and I don’t even remember what we were celebrating at the time, but I had a vision and I, like a little kid wanted to make shh. My intentions were pure. And while we’re all, everybody is sitting there. I got frustrated and I walked up and I looked at my grandfather and I said, grandpap, said, you’re going to die in front of everybody, loudly, and I remember everyone just kind of looking and I said yeah I said I see it there’s a darkness I was shown there’s darkness in your lungs and it’s going to kill you and you need to stop smoking right now or else it’s going to kill you

And of course, when you’re a family gathering, that’s the game changer.

Speaker 2 (13:48)
Mike drop Mike

Speaker 1 (13:52)
Yeah, I thought-

And so my parents kind of brushed it off and my mother took me to another room and she basically yelled at me and scolded me and told me to quit making up all the stories. Do you have an overactive imagination? That’s not going to happen. Quit trying to get attention. And she says, never again.

Speak of this to anyone ever. Quit doing it. Done.

Speaker 2 (14:33)
Hmm.

Speaker 1 (14:34)
Like I said, I don’t blame my mom.

Speaker 2 (14:37)
Well, she was doing the best she could. I’m sure it frightened her.

Speaker 1 (14:40)
Oh, I’m sure. Yeah. And there’s stories. I understand her now. So I don’t blame her for that. I mean, was it a mistake? Yes, because that was when I began to hate my gift. So I said, you’re right. I’m making everything up. I’ll never tell anybody ever again.

Once that was done, I didn’t. I quit telling people. But what I didn’t tell anyone is that the gifts didn’t stop. I kept seeing things and understanding things. I just didn’t tell anybody anymore.

Speaker 2 (15:20)
Mm-hmm. That’s a lot to carry.

Speaker 1 (15:23)
Well, and then that’s when it wasn’t there long after when I was really getting depressed and didn’t know what to do. I was like, what do I do with this knowledge? What do I? I can’t tell anybody because my mom just told me I’m not allowed to. And that’s when I saw my first shadow. I saw this dark, shadowy figure step out of a doorway.

And walked up to me and introduced himself and says, hi, I’m like, hi. And he’s like, I can help you. I will. You can’t tell them, but you can tell me everything. And I was like, who are you? And he’s like, I’m, I’m a ghost. I’m just stuck between worlds, but I’m, I’ve been sent to help you and I will guide you.

And I was like, okay, I’m a kid. I believe things. I mean, I can do things other people can’t. And that’s when I began to hear and talk to the dark ghosts, the shadowy things. And I could see them. You know, later years, I found out exactly who that was. So eventually that’s how it started. And I started getting into communication with them and

One of the problems I’m going to warn people about is my parents were not part of the church, so I was not baptized. Everyone says, why do you baptize children? Because until you’re baptized, you’re part of the world. Satan has greater control over the unbaptized than you can imagine.

Speaker 2 (17:11)
You see that with

Speaker 1 (17:13)
Now

with kids all the time, especially as a teacher, I can see things and.

Speaker 2 (17:21)
So in my faith, they’re baptized at eight because that’s when we’re taught that that’s an age of accountability where you start to understand right from wrong. Right. And so that agency kind of comes into play, whereas before you’re a child, you don’t really know any better. like the brain isn’t the same until about eight years old and then something changes. yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:43)
With art, with my faith, in case people are curious, I’m Catholic. We’re supposed to be baptized at birth to basically help sever the ties. And then around seven or eight years old, you go through confirmation, which where you receive the Holy Ghost and you officially proclaim yourself a part of the church and whatnot. So that’s how we handle it in that regard.

Speaker 2 (17:59)
Mm, very similar.

Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:13)
But I was open because again, like I said, there’s family history, there’s generational sin, and I didn’t know any of that at the time. But here I was a little kid and I was finally given the opportunity to talk to somebody. So I did. And then they started guiding me. And about the same time, I also began to see what I would say, good ghosts. You know, after the bad ghosts would talk to me, a good ghost would show up and say, well, maybe you don’t want to do this.

Maybe you want to go that route. It finally, and I began to learn a little bit about God when I, when I was in fourth grade. So that’s up to fourth grade. Fourth grade was a little bit of a change because my one sister who was actually in the church before my parents left came and started teaching me about the faith, about God, and say, well, we need to get you baptized, we need to get you confirmed, we need to

Speaker 2 (19:18)
Was your sister?

Speaker 1 (19:20)

18. Actually, probably in her mid 20s. I would think somewhere that way.

Speaker 2 (19:26)
Want to set the stage?

Speaker 1 (19:28)
I always got to think because I know there’s that gap. So she is the one that brought me into the church, got me into CCD, and finally got me baptized. And I began to learn about God. She taught me the Our Father. And I would start and I started praying the Our Father once a day. And I said, actually, it’s a tradition that I continue to this day. It’s like regardless of anything else I pray or do.

Before I go to bed at night, I still say that single our father just get to continue the history. The tradition. And when I was so when I was in elementary, it finally got to a head. I couldn’t make because I was considered the creepy kid. Because I again, because I knew things and that freaked it freaked the kids out. It freaked the teachers out. Also to backtrack a little bit is that I was also a sickly child.

By the time, by the age of five, I had already been hospitalized three times. Almost dying as just a little child because I was very sickly. So you have this little sickly kid, very weak, going around knowing things he shouldn’t know. The dark spirits would always say, now that you know this, use it. You can convince that person if you…say you don’t gonna reveal their secret unless they do this or do that. So he taught me pretty much about how to blackmail people with the knowledge I was receiving. So instead of using it in the right way, I was using it in the wrong way. But eventually,

I remember I don’t know if I had gotten beaten up or got into a really bad argument and I was in the bathroom crying at school and I remember looking in the mirror and I just said a prayer and I said, God, why can’t I be like everybody else? Why can’t I be normal?

And then to my surprise, I felt a very loving yet stern presence. And I heard a single word. Granted. And that was it. So that was actually the first time I had ever heard God. I found that I understood that later on at the time I didn’t understand, didn’t know. But yeah, that’s all he said. He said.

Granted. At which point the visions began to fade and It became more like a deja vu as so as not as far as me knowing really future events It became more of a deja vu like effect like I’ve been here before I’ve done this already and I couldn’t never quite put my finger on it but….

Speaker 2 (22:33)
That’s really interesting, because I do believe that God will give us what we ask for, even if it’s not necessarily what He would like for us. So to be very careful or thoughtful about what we’re asking and to think about it before we really ask for things. In The Chosen recently, I can’t forget about it. It was kind of cool where His two apostles asked

Christ if they could sit on his right and his left hand. They wanted that special privilege and he got so sad and he said, you do not know what you are asking. They just did not understand what that would take, what the kind of sacrifice and the pain that maybe they weren’t quite ready for. You don’t know what you’re asking.

Speaker 1 (23:27)
And that was true. I didn’t know but God respected he respected my request and he Kind of he kind of stepped back and let me experience more of the world from another point of view and unfortunately or fortunately because he stepped back the other side stepped in to fill that void because it’s always going to be there that….

Speaker 2 (23:42)
Hmm.

Speaker 1 (23:55)
Whoever you fill that void with on that spiritual side, it’s going to be one side or the other.

So fast forward on until we get to my high school year. So I started living that life and by that point I began to hate emotion. I had finally gotten myself to the point where I decided, yeah, emotion is evil. I will never have an emotion again. It’s too painful. Thinking logically is the only way to exist. Logic.

Speaker 2 (24:22)
Too painful.

Speaker 1 (24:31)
and logic alone will dictate my life. Then when I would get angry or feel hopeless, the shadows could now enter me. would allow them inside my body and whenever they came in, I felt that their anger mingled with mine, their hate and I felt my

Speaker 2 (24:54)
I have experienced that too for the record. Anyone listening, it’s very real. And I think a lot of people actually do, who are dealing with mental illness, are experiencing this and they just don’t understand what’s going on.

Speaker 1 (25:10)
In a sense, there are two Johns. Basically, there was the logical, family-driven John, and then there was the angry, furious one who hated these emotions.

I tell you some of the things I could do when they were inside me is no joke. So when they say someone who’s possessed can do incredible things, when I would be mad, I would go into the forest because we had many acres. I was punching trees and I broke more than one tree in half just by punching it and letting the rage and anger. So the changes to you physically, it happens. It’s scary.

Speaker 2 (25:56)
Is there a lust or a power or a feeling of almost like an unhealthy euphoria of I’ve got this power that I didn’t have before?

Speaker 1 (26:05)
Yes, it’s an unhealthy euphoria like I’m in control. And I’m in control of these emotions just like I’m in control of this logic.

Speaker 2 (26:09)
Hmm.

When actually someone’s in control of you.

Speaker 1 (26:18)
Yes, I was being manipulated. Didn’t know it. All right, so God allowed this to happen. I learned a lot because the evil shadows, evil ghosts, taught me many things and I began to enter into this whole, one of the things he taught me was that he needed to exist. That the only way that good can exist is if evil exists.

The light cannot exist without the shadow. Therefore I began to sense a yin yang, good evil perspective on the world and that it was okay for me to be good sometimes. And when I said when I’m being good, then I’m serving God. When someone hurts me or I feel like being evil, Satan is the go to guy.

Speaker 2 (27:15)
Hmm.

Speaker 1 (27:17)
And at this point he had told me, you know, I’m Satan, I’m working with God, I’m… and this whole spiel, which I believed.

I would go to church. I would go to church once a week whenever I felt like it, but I was so lukewarm and really the So this is a thing for the anyone else out there who’s struggling That single our father every night Was more of a lifeline to me than I knew at the time That was like my one thing really still keeping me connected to God and keeping him attached so

That was my life. By the time I got to high school, I had it figured out. I was in control of my emotions. I existed purely with logic. I knew how things were. And that’s when God threw a curve ball in my direction because I love you.

Speaker 2 (28:17)
I love you John.

Speaker 1 (28:21)
When I joined high school, I was in forensics, which is a competition where you do Congress and recite poetry and stories. And I’ve always been a big story buff. I love fantasy, sci-fi. I love debating things and whatnot. So it was a great club for me to be in. And my first competition went in and that’s when I met a young lady.

her name was Beth and she blew my mind. Here I was convinced that emotions were unnecessary, you live your life by logic and it turns out Beth was bipolar manic depressive.

Speaker 2 (29:13)
That’s a lot of emotion.

Speaker 1 (29:14)
She has pure emotion and no sense of logic whatsoever. Just when I thought I had it, God put the contradiction right in my face. And admittedly, at first, we both looked at each other and were like, how do you exist? Because she couldn’t understand how I existed without emotion as much as I couldn’t understand how she existed without logic. It was just, it perplexed both of us.

To the point where we sat down and had lunch together. And actually I’ll never forget because she had forgotten her lunch. So I gave her half of mine trying to be nice. That’s what started it all. And it started this friendship that would grow over the course of the next three years. We kept in touch via letter, via phone.

And it started out as an interest and it eventually grew to a friendship. And she began began to tell me things because she was really devoted Catholic and she began to teach me other things and whatnot. So that was progressing behind the scenes. Unknowingly, I was really take we were really taken with each other. She she knew, but definitely she knew before me.

She was the one who really chased me. Once she knew what she wanted, I wasn’t getting away and she was determined. And I said, that was the one thing, no matter what I ever said or whatever I did, she still loved me unconditionally. She would always forgive me. And like I said, it was cool. And I needed that. I truly needed that in my life.

Speaker 2 (30:59)
Mm.

Speaker 1 (31:12)
So while this is going on, as much as Beth’s influence affected me, she made me begin to question things, to understand, and she was the first person I told outside, I defied my mother, and I told her, I said, I can speak to the shadows, the dark, I can speak to Satan, and I talk to them all the time, I let them inside me.

And I still remember the expression on her face when I told her that and she was the one she’s like, she says, they aren’t your friends. They’re devils. They’re from hell. She said, they are going to destroy you. That’s what they’re trying to do. They are manipulating you. They are twisting you and they are pulling you away from God and they’re trying to try and pull you away from me. Don’t let them.

You need to come back to the way you used to be bbefore when you were little. So I was like, okay, so I began to seriously question a lot of things at that point. Satan and the others would come in and I say that collectively because there was more than just Satan. There’s a whole army supporting him. They would count counter argument what Beth was telling me, but there’s something there. Something about Beth made me trust her so much that I began to question things.

But I wasn’t quite there yet at which point God Decided to take more direct action For the first time since I was a child He gave me another vision in His opinion it was he it was time for him to step back in because

Speaker 2 (33:03)
Hmm.

Speaker 1 (33:10)
I was more receptive. I had more of a foundation that I would be able to understand what he was about to show me. Far more than if he had done it when I was younger.

Speaker 2 (33:24)
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 (33:26)
So what happened is I woke up in a dream and I was in a destroyed city. It was black. It was on fire. I was knee deep in blood. There were bodies everywhere. And the death was so profound that not even insects were left alive.

It was a literal hellscape, but we weren’t in hell. was, I understood that this was a city in the future in my timeline. And that’s, I’ll also mention this is that when God gives me visions, there are sometimes a literal element, but a lot of times there is also, uh, what’s, what’s the

Speaker 2 (34:23)
Symbolism?

Speaker 1 (34:24)
Symbolism yes, God uses symbolism a lot in my visions and that’s part me trying to figure things out. So anyway.

Speaker 2 (34:33)
I’ve heard that quite a bit from people who have gifts that sometimes, at least the books I’ve read, that sometimes the things they see that they assume this is literal actually ends up being the opposite, more symbolic, or sometimes they’ll see something thinking, this must be symbolic. And then it ends up being very literal. it’s cool. And it’s kind of like a having the faith to see because he’s not going to give you every single detail and help you know everything in most cases, I think, and that’s where faith comes in.

Speaker 1 (35:08)
Well, I tell you what, after doing what God has done, he taught me how to be a teacher. So I try and use those same strategies when I teach others. They get in the course, they get as annoyed with me as I get annoyed with God sometimes.

Speaker 2 (35:16)
Hahaha!

sure, I feel you.

Speaker 1 (35:27)
But anyway, and I had a sword and there was a group of people in a building and I understand that the demons were attacking them. They were the last survivors in the city. Everyone else was dead except for them and that the demons were going to come and kill them. And I had to…protect them; had to keep them alive. So I started fighting. It was up to me. And I started fighting and these demons were coming at me and I was attacking them with the sword, fighting. And I don’t remember how long I fought, but the stack of demon bodies was higher than the tallest skyscraper. Every time I would cut them down, I would climb up. Cut them down, climb up.

And I just had this mountain of defeated demons under my feet as I climbed the mountain. And I finally got to the top at which point Satan had enough and he charged me. And at that instant, that one instant, I lost trust. I got fearful because Satan is massive.

That can give you an analogy about how tall and big he is, but he’s a massive dark presence.

Speaker 2 (36:59)
I’ve also heard that a demon can transform into whatever will scare you most. Basically.

Speaker 1 (37:06)
Yeah, well he can transform into whatever can scare you most and he can also transform into his beautiful angel form. Over the years I have seen Satan in multiple versions.

Speaker 2 (37:21)
Mm-hmm.

To look like an angel.

Speaker 1 (37:25)
Yeah, and one of the things that you asked me before was how do I tell the difference between a devil and an angel? I always command them in the name of Jesus to tell me who they are and use Jesus’s name. Angels will do so without hesitation or the angels will bear the sign…

Speaker 2 (37:46)
Hmm.

Speaker 1 (37:54)
of the cross saying and the devils will never say jesus’ name they will do everything they can and oftentimes when i do that they will curse me out swear at me and then walk away because they’ve been caught yeah they they just cannot do it they cannot bring themselves to do it regardless of their parents

Speaker 2 (38:14)
Yeah. I had one vision. I don’t have visions a lot, but after my father died, I had a vision where I saw him in my basement. I lived in a basement apartment at the time and I could see dark figures on either side of him and he looked like he did when he was dying, which was cancerous. And I started to talk to him and cry, like, I miss you, dad. And he was smiling and then something told me that’s not him.

And I stopped and I kept looking at him and then I commanded in the name of Jesus Christ for anything that was not my father to leave immediately. I had that experience at least just that one time where I could actually see what was going on. I do it all the time, but I don’t necessarily see it as clearly as you do on a regular basis.

Speaker 1 (39:12)
No, know just me that my friends have talked to me all the time like when one friend asked me like how do you do it is like how do you how does this all happen to you and you and you’re still like normal you’re like you’re still saying and I’m like well it’s just like getting up and going to work I’ve just been doing it for so long and God has also strengthened me to the point where it’s like in the middle of the night I’ll wake up like two or three AM.

And I’ll send out a text like, they just attacked me. I did another exorcism, went back to bed. We need to pray for so-and-so. And then I just go back to bed and like, okay, just a day in the life.

Speaker 2 (39:51)
Yeah,

yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:55)
So anyway, now that we’ve kept your listeners waiting, here’s…

Speaker 2 (39:58)
The epitome of the apex! What’s gonna happen?

Speaker 1 (40:02)
Well, I got fearful and Satan basically put his hand over my head. It was so huge. He picked me up and then with his other hand he swiped and he disemboweled me. And then he dropped me onto the ground. As I fell to the ground, I was cradling my stomach trying to keep my organs in my body. The blood was washing over my arms and then I could feel the poison. His claws were poisoned and I literally felt all my blood vessels turning to acid as if I was being dissolved from the inside out. And he chuckled.

He laughed and commented about how weak I was and then he started walking over towards the people I was trying to protect with some other demons and said let’s get rid of them next. And as I was lying there I was dying in the vision and my last thoughts were God save me please I need your help. It was an honest heartfelt plea at which point in the vision I died.

The next thing that happened, I was in, it’s hard to describe this space. Just imagine if you were floating in a giant white room that had no floor ceiling. It’s just you’re floating in this white space and it feels, it felt like heaven. mean, that’s the easiest way I could describe it. It was as if I was in heaven.

I’ll also comment on how arrogant and prideful I was. One of the times Beth had told me that I had needed to change one of our many talks and I told her, I will not change unless the eternal father himself comes down and tells me to change. I will not believe anyone else. Don’t send me angels. Don’t send me saints. Only the eternal father and the eternal father alone, not even Jesus.

Only he is going to be the one that’s going to change my mind. So that yeah, that’s how arrogant I was back in those days. So when this vision happened, when I died, I found myself in a, in a place akin to heaven without actually being in heaven. It’s a kind of a in between and these clouds started these beautiful clouds came rolling in.

And the eternal father stood there and walked right up to me. And it was like I kind of remembered being saying only if the eternal father and I at this moment I was like crap he’s here.

Speaker 2 (43:20)
You’re like, surely this couldn’t happen.

Speaker 1 (43:24)
Yeah, and I remember he thought he’s taller than me because when he put his on he put his arm around my shoulder and my head was maybe to his chest.

Speaker 2 (43:34)
What did he look like when you think he was?

Speaker 1 (43:37)
I can remember the long beard. can remember how large he was, muscular, strong. But to this day, I cannot remember his face. I just see a glowing love. I can’t see it. I just can’t.

Speaker 2 (43:55)
No, that’s okay. I just had to ask.

Speaker 1 (43:58)
I know everybody does. said, John, by your actions, because you are willing to sacrifice your life on behalf of people you didn’t even know, because you have cried out to me, honestly, you have merited a place with me here in heaven. And if you wish to stay, you may do so.

But before you decide, I want to show you something. So he put his arm around me and with his other arm, he waved and I saw a giant, like a crystal sphere appear made out of clouds. And then it began to change and I began to see, he showed me people and lives and experiences.

And he says, these are the people that were in the building that you were trying to protect. Know that by their merits, he says, they are still going to merit heaven. However, without you there to pray for them, without you there to intercede, without you there to protect them, I will be forced to cut their lives shorter.

And they will not be able to achieve as much celestial glory as I had originally intended for their lives. So I basically that was his spiel. He didn’t want me to feel pressured. And when I looked at

Speaker 2 (45:42)
That sounds like pressure. A little bit.

Speaker 1 (45:49)
But some inside me I Just said it’s wrong. said this is wrong. These people should have the opportunity to love you These people should have the opportunity to earn as much celestial glory as possible Your plan is this the better plan it needs to be accomplished and I was like if if your plan is going to be accomplished by sending me back Then send me back

I don’t need to stay here. Send me back. And the vision faded and he smiled at me and he’s like granted.

And with that, I came back to that same hellscape, that same vision. And when I appeared, the angels were standing around me and they had rebuilt my body. They had undone the damage Satan had done to it. I, where I was walking and waiting through blood, now I suddenly flew and I charged Satan.

And when I charged him, I put my knee into his chest, my hand on his head, and I smashed him into the building. And I said, you’re not touching any of them. At which point he screamed. The other demons ran, scattered in all directions in utter fear. And then I looked over and the people began to come out of the building.

And something private happened at that point, at which point that I smiled and then the vision ended and then I woke up in bed sweating and the vision was over and I’m like, wow, did that just happen? And it did. So I was like, all right, he did it. He came down, he told me, when God speaks to you,

It’s the truth. You cannot deny anything he says. I mean, you have to be true. You have to be honest.

So I began to change, began to go more towards God. Satan was still in the picture, but I noticed after that he became a little bit more subdued. And that was the first time I noticed when I was, like I said, it’s weird to say this, but when he would appear to me, I could also something nervous for the first time I could sense that he was nervous and I didn’t tell him about my vision.

I don’t know if he knew about it. I said but that after that vision happened he could I guess he could sense that the eternal father had intervened and that’s something was amiss his that his plan was now starting to get skewed.

Anyway, I was like, okay, well, how what’s the best way to serve God? So I kind of started bypassing the whole evil good coexistence idea. Then I’m like, well, I need to live an honorable life. should maybe study Bushido and law. At which point I was given another vision. Same place when I looked and I ended up getting my head cut off in that one.

Speaker 2 (49:38)
Geez. Did it end well?

Speaker 1 (49:42)
Well, yeah, because after my head was cut off, I went back to that same white space, except this time I was outside the gates of heaven and I got a full view of the gates and they were closed. And God basically said, you’re better still in my grace. But if you go down that path, the doors will get closed. Try something else. And then I woke up from that one. So like I said, God

Speaker 2 (50:21)
I think your intentions were good, right? Like doing these things was not bad. But that’s an important point, I think, to focus on for just a second is that there are so many good things we can do, but if it’s not what’s going to lead us closer to God ultimately, it will lead us somewhere else or be a distraction, even if it’s generally a good thing. You have to tune into that intuition that knows exactly what it is you need to do.

Speaker 1 (50:53)
But after that happened, that was kind of a deal clencher to me. And I graduated, we graduated high school, went to college and that first year of college, Beth and I were together. The whole long distance thing was no longer long distance. We had the same classes together. We spent time together and that’s the point. And when I was ready more so I understood more.

And that’s when everything exploded for us. We fell deep. That’s when we realized how much in love we were. Well, how much I realized I loved Beth. And she knew she already she had already known she had already figured it out. So during that first year of college was very formative. We became boyfriend girlfriend. We decided we were already best friends. We’re going to take it to the next level.

Speaker 2 (51:36)
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 (51:54)
And then I had to make a choice. My gift was starting to come back. I was starting to have all these mini visions again. I had to make a choice. And I sat down the one day and I was like, if I had to choose between Satan or Beth and God, which she was leading me towards.

So I summoned Satan, which I could. And I sat down and I was like, I want to have a talk with you. He’s like, OK. I’m like, you know, you really haven’t done anything to me all these years. I really don’t have anything against you per se. So tell you what, you go your way. I’m going to go my way. Let bygones be bygones. We just won’t.

I said, I want to try this thing with Beth. I want to go that direction for now. And I said, I don’t have anything against you. Because up to that point, honestly, he had never really done anything bad to me. Not that I was aware of. And he’s listened to me and he’s like, okay. He’s like, I agree. like, he says, I’ll leave you alone. You go my, you go ahead. I’m going to go. Let bygones be bygones.

And he left.

And I was like, wow, that went pretty good. You know, was like, all right, so I can start exploring marrying Beth, start exploring God more. Satan left without any incident. Like, cool. I was like, see, he’s amicable. You know, he’s good. After that first year of college, I got a job working in DC for the summer.

So I went. Curiously, when I went, I had sent Beth some letters, I’d make calls, but she wasn’t responding and I thought that was really weird. I was only in DC for two weeks when my sister-in-law’s mother passed.

And she was really close with my nephews and I’m like wow this is bad so I said well I need to go back for them because they were close to her and they were very close to me and said me being in DC and away from them isn’t good they need someone there to help support them at this point

Speaker 2 (54:43)
And it was before cell phones. So the fact that you were writing letters and calling and she wasn’t picking up, you were just kind of like, hmm, that’s weird.

Speaker 1 (54:45)
Yeah, this is before cell phones.

Yeah, not not you, you know, so I was like, all right, I’ll go home for the funeral. Be there for my nephews and then I’ll take a chance to go see what’s happening with Beth.

After the funeral, my mom asked me to come back in the back room and I did and I said, what’s up? And she says, Beth’s dead.

And yeah, that hit like a ton of bricks.

To say the least, was like utterly, totally devastated. And I was confused. like, what, what happened? And my mom’s like, she’s like, don’t worry. She didn’t kill herself. See up to that point because of depression, Beth had actually tried to kill herself three times because the depression just threw her over the edge, but she recovered each time. You know, and I helped her through it, but now I’ll just.

getting hit with that out of the blue and my mom’s like, don’t worry. She didn’t kill herself. It was her roommate. And I’m like, what do you mean? She’s like, well, it turns out her roommate is a saint was a saint nest and she murdered Beth as a sacrifice to Saint.

And yeah, I just remember running and I ran out of the house, ran into the fields, fell down and I was just crying for hours. mean, I can’t even now it still hits me. It’s been many years, but it still hits hard. Come to find out that the girl that was rooming with Beth was indeed a Satanist.

And that, she said she admitted, she flat out admitted what she had done and she was proud of it. Cause she said, Satan appeared to her and said that if she, if she sacrificed Beth, he would marry her and take her as one of his wives. And that Beth was someone that needed removed.

When I heard that, I will tell you when Beth died, every emotion that was left in me just erupted all at once. At that point, I’ll say there was really, it was already starting to break. The wall was already breaking down. But at that moment, the emotions in my body overrode everything.

And at that point there was no longer an emotional John there was no longer a logical John then there was just John and I said that was Beth’s final gift to me was that healing that I needed and I was like that was gone I was devastated I was going to marry Beth get a job start a life and now it was all gone and Beth was gone

And here’s where the kicker came in. I went back to DC and as I was a zombie after that happened, I admit for the next two years easy, I was a zombie because my life was trying to rebuild my life from that. And I’ll never forget. I was down there and Satan came up to me. He flat out came up to me. He’s like, I heard about Beth.

Sorry to hear that. And now I’m just like looking at him and he’s like, you know, if we were still friends, that would never have happened. I would have protected her and made sure nothing happened to Beth. In fact, I’m protecting your family and friends right now because we’re buddies. We’re friends. I mean, it would be a shame.

If anything like what happened to Beth would suddenly happen to them, wouldn’t.

I just remembered that was the first time I had built up the courage. I don’t know if I was courageous or just pissed and I held out my hand and I looked at it held up my hands and I said, Beth’s blood is on my hands. Her innocent blood. I said, I hate you. I despise you. You are my enemy and I will do everything in my power from this day forward to stop you, to interfere with you, and I will not stop until you are chained in hell forever and away from everyone. I said you just made me your eternal enemy. Leave.

And he just, he looked at me and he was shocked. mean, he honestly thought I was going to break. And he honestly thought that by removing Beth out of my life.

Was it? I was going to fold and just come diving back into him. Instead, I had the exact opposite and I rebelled. said, I said, no, I’m like, no, I’m going to stop. I said, you just showed you’re evil. I said, you are a murderer and a liar. Gone. After that shocked look, he just shook his head, turned around and walked away.

Until the next time.

And after which he after he left and then I pretty much just collapsed and broke down. At which point I heard God just say to me, he’s like, don’t worry, I’ve got you. I’m sending you someone. And I was like, OK, at that point, I was just an emotional wreck.

Speaker 2 (1:01:24)
Did you feel angry at God because he didn’t intercede?

Speaker 1 (1:01:31)
No, no, it’s

Speaker 2 (1:01:35)
I think most people would. It’s just, very unusual and I think extremely special.

Speaker 1 (1:01:46)
That’s later on when I was ready he told me more about his decision that whole ish incident and why things played out.

Everyone has a set time. He sets a time for people to be on the earth. Some people live days. Some people live hundreds of years. It’s all in accordance to his plan for their life.

Speaker 2 (1:02:20)
Hundreds of years if someone’s listening and they’re not familiar with the Bible. Yeah, that was the old. Adam lived hundreds of years. So, continue.

Speaker 1 (1:02:33)
Yes, so her life was going to end. In fact, he had given me a vision earlier regarding this, and I saw that Beth was about to leave my life. He was trying to warn me, but I misunderstood the vision and I was like, Beth loves me. I’m going to marry her. How is she leaving my life? I could not comprehend how she would leave my life. So.

And I mean, it was just turned on. That was the lifespan God had planned for Beth. And he put her in my orbit because that would do the most good for both of us. And he allowed her to die a martyr’s death because that’s essentially what she died did. that so even though it might seem that her life was cut short.

From a certain point of view and people might seem angry when you stop and realize that God has a set period of time and it’s not for us to judge. So that was it. mean, that was the set period of time. I have loved to marry her? Yes. And have a family? Yes. But it just, that wasn’t meant to be. That wasn’t God’s plan.

And I just had to trust him. So I did. And actually, the thing I did is I said, what would be the best memorial I could give to Beth?

And I said, well, Beth forgave everybody, no matter what they did. She was so loving, so forgiving. And so I said a prayer to God and I said. The woman who murdered her, I said, I forgive her. I forgive. Sybil. For murdering Beth. And one day I want Sybil to go to heaven.

So that way she can apologize to Beth in person. I don’t want Sybil to go to hell. I don’t want her. And I did. So I mean, I genuinely forgave her. And I can’t tell you the relief, the release that happened for myself when I did that. That was one of the ways I was able to heal. Forgiving the people that hurt you.

That is so very important to do. And I think that’s really the first step in recovery because if you can forgive others, then you can forgive yourself for all the mistakes you’ve made, all the stupid decisions. And I’m not immune to that despite everything I have, despite all the abilities I can do and whatnot I’ve been given.

I still make mistakes. I still screw up and I still kick myself for it. But you have to be willing to forgive yourself too and realize you’re not perfect. Only God’s perfect. That’s it. So that’s how that played out. When I came back from DC at the end of the summer, I went back to college.

And I was still, like I said, it took a couple of years, took a long time to recover. And I’ll.

Speaker 2 (1:06:14)
Some people never do.

Speaker 1 (1:06:16)
Yeah, I know.

Speaker 2 (1:06:19)
The fact that you were able to get up and keep going and I really think that your willingness to forgive and your trust in God made that difference. But, I mean, hard no matter what. mean, trusting God or not, that’s real life. I mean, for you, was, most people don’t have to go through that. But that was what was going on in your life and that’s what you were dealt and you accepted it.

Speaker 1 (1:06:47)
I that what you just said is another key. Acceptance. Don’t try and deny what happened. Don’t do the woulda, coulda, shoulda. What happens, happens. Accept it and then try your best to move on and just say, does my life move on from this point? And it’s fine. We’re not in this alone.

It’s good to have the support of others, people you can trust, people you love. And I had my family, you know, ironically, I went home to support my nephews and then in turn they supported me. They started writing me letters and they started calling me and we kind of helped each other through that bad situation. And like I said, my family was always there for me. And then I had another person that was going to enter my life, like God said.

Totally unexpected another curveball But I would learn so much from him my first semester at college I was going to school for engineering at the time and Went and sat in a lab and everybody was just sitting as partners in these lab benches and Nobody was sitting next to me Probably because I had the whole depressed gurgly vibe going on

But there is this one student in our class that everybody rolled their eyes at. He was crazy. He was nuts. He had no sense of law. He was pure and utter chaos. He didn’t listen to people. He did what he wanted to do. He drove a Z20, a Z28 Camaro with a stock race car engine on the streets. And yet he was perpetually late for class.

Speaker 2 (1:08:46)
No, that’s funny.

Speaker 1 (1:08:50)
Everybody kinda shied away from him.

So I’m sitting there going, I’m like, God, I said, I am really feeling miserable. I can’t deal with that. I seen nobody else was sitting next to me. no, not him. said, don’t not him. God, I can’t deal with this right now. Do not make him sit next to me. Do not do not. And next thing I know, he comes in, sits down next to me and says, hi, I’m Carl. How are you? And I’m just like, what the heck?

Bombastic in your face. And so I talked to him and felt the urge to tell him everything. And it turned out how misunderstood he was amongst everyone. He’s like, there’s only, there’s only 10 laws you need to live by. Those are called the 10 commandments. Everything else is fluff. I’m like, okay. Turned out he was a very devout Roman Catholic.

He was traditional he knew Latin and he knew all this stuff about the church and I said, what do you why you said he’s like Well, you look kind of miserable. He’s like, hey, do you ever you want to go to church? I’m like I got classes. He’s like, screw the classes. Come on and he took me and That was the and I sat in that car and we then he burned I’m not gonna some of the crazy stories we had and I laughed

That was the first time I laughed since Beth was killed. He knew, I mean, it was just amazing how this person that was quote an outsider that people thought was crazy and he ended up being the perfect fit and he became my best friend in the years that would follow and he supported me. He talked to me.

I told him the story and he was just like, okay, okay. And he’s like, you know, he’s like one thing that bothers me, John, I’m like, what? He’s like, you said you talked to Satan and all the other demons on a regular basis and that you could actually summon them. And I’m like, yeah. He’s like, did you ever try and do that with the angels? And I’m like, what do you mean? I’m like, what? He’s like, oh yeah. He’s like, that says, that gift, sounds like that came from God and that Satan just twisted it.

And Satan focused that gift on him. He’s like, if you talk to that side, you should be able to talk to the other side. And I’m like, what a novel idea. had never, I mean, I was never, that piece, single piece of advice would change my life in so many ways. So I did that night.

I went home and he started teaching me about the church and it wasn’t a lukewarm about the church. mean, he started teaching me why we do what we do, what it really means.

Speaker 2 (1:12:02)
Why it’s important.

Speaker 1 (1:12:04)
I hate he was teaching me this one kid. Teaching me everything I never learned in actual church. He was teaching me everything I had so desperately wanted to know, and I didn’t realize it. So I remember I prayed. I prayed for a solid two weeks. Just kept praying over and over again, going to church, attending mass, I said God; fix me. God, let me talk to the angels.

I said, if I could talk to them, like Carl said, said, I want to do this. Let me do this. Please let me do this. Fix what is broken. Change me back to the way you want me. And then finally, after two weeks of prayer, I’m sitting there, tired from praying that night.

Next thing I know, my room, begins to glow this soft, beautiful glow and out appears this magnificent looking human. like Satan and all of them up to that point were always shadowy, cloaked in the darkness. Here was this figure in broad light, wearing long flowing white robes, beautiful angelic wings. And he looked at me, smiled and said, I am Demi Dillion. I am your guardian. It is a pleasure to finally make your acquaint.

Speaker 2 (1:13:46)
It makes me want to cry.

Speaker 1 (1:13:49)
And then he became a part of my life and would talk to me and he would instruct me. He would reprimand me when I screwed up. And so like I had done all those previous years, now I was beginning to talk to my guardian angel. And as time went on, he would then introduce me to others.

Speaker 2 (1:14:00)
You

Speaker 1 (1:14:16)
He would introduce me to other angels who would talk to me. Then he would introduce me to saints. He would talk to me and they would explain things and slowly began to open up at which point came the next assault. So this is all happening. I’m finally carrying on. They’re supporting me. I’m feeling the support from God.

He’s feeling in a lot of pieces, but Satan did not give up yet. So those of you that are struggling, just keep going, keep going forward. What had happened as I started to walk out to my car and the world around me vanished as it often does, except this time I wasn’t asleep. This was happening while I was physically there.

Speaker 2 (1:15:14)
Was that a first time for you?

Speaker 1 (1:15:16)
Yes, that was a that was the first time I had the physical and spiritual happen Like that at the same time. It was incredible I saw two figures satan was standing on one side of me And the eternal father was standing on the other And this was the first time I could actually see satan in a more human-like form. It wasn’t all shadowy. It was more distinct. It wasn’t his true form. That would be later on down the road. But I could actually make him out as a humanoid like figure. And Satan looked at me and says, I want you to serve me. If you do, this is what I will give you.

Speaker 2 (1:15:59)
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 (1:16:14)
And then he proceeded to dump into my mind. And when I say communicate, it’s on a spiritual level. It’s not verbally, but he communicated his thoughts into my mind. And he showed me everything. He showed me people, places, money, power, women, anything.

Everything I could conceivably want as a human. I mean it went on a good five to ten minutes in a perspective time because time also doesn’t really have meaning when this stuff happens but it was like a very long expanse of time. He was given this long long long detailed speech giving it all to me

Speaker 2 (1:17:04)
Really trying to sell it.

Speaker 1 (1:17:05)
Yeah, and at the very end he said, outside of my son you will be the most important and most powerful person on the earth. That is what I give you. And he said that.

So I’m sitting there like overwhelmed. Like, wow, this is it. This is everything. I turned to God.

And I, I know it sounds kind of arrogant, but it was innocent. And I looked at God and I said, what do you offer?

All these experiences, all this creation, and now I’m looking at the eternal father going, all right, what are you gonna give me if I serve you? I know I could see all the angels in the background just going, you know. But he didn’t. God looked at me, he smiled and said, love.

Speaker 2 (1:17:51)
To

You

Speaker 1 (1:18:18)
That was it. That was his entire comeback. One word. Here Satan gave me this huge, huge spill. God said a single word. Love.

So I remembered the love that Beth and I had and I said, I want that again. I want the love of my God. And I sort of smiled back at the eternal father and said, I choose you.

Peyton looked like complete utter shock and disbelief and he started cursing and swearing, turned around, walked away and vanished.

And then everything kind of dimmed and I found myself still standing in the parking lot. No real time had actually passed. So I slowly walked towards my car in a daze because I am stunned. That sort of thing does not happen without leaving after effects because

Speaker 2 (1:19:32)
It really sounds like a very similar experience that is found with Moses in the Pearl of Great Price, which is a Mormon text, but very similar. If you haven’t read it, just for the entertainment value, be like, wow, he went through this too. It’s pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (1:19:51)
Yeah. And so, and then when I, as I got to my car, I think to set steady myself, the eternal, I felt the eternal father’s presence wrap around me again. And he says, because you have chosen to follow me for the sake of love and love alone, know that you will have all of my love now and for eternity.

I will give you all of it and know that your friend was right. Those gifts you possess were not given to you by Saint. I gave you those gifts. And if you believe what he did with those gifts was impressive, allow me to show you what they’re truly are, what they’re capable of. It’s kind of game that which…

Speaker 2 (1:20:53)
What they’re for. What they’re really for.

Speaker 1 (1:20:56)
At which point the blinders came off, the veil lifted, and I remembered everything. Up to that point, I had forgotten what I had done as a child, the things I had said. I had forgotten the promise God made to me in that bathroom when he had said granted. I remembered everything. And my gifts, my ability to foresee things, to understand things. I cannot describe how much it exploded and magnified. To put it in terms of Moses, my Lord and my God, I was just blown away. And then he said, now we begin.

Now we’re starting

Speaker 2 (1:21:53)
What was everything else?

Speaker 1 (1:21:56)
Now is the prep work.

So looking back, again, this is from a spiritual side of things. Why did God allow those things to happen? He wanted me to have an understanding of the enemy. He wanted me to understand how Satan weasels his way in, how he manipulates, how he can be so cunning and deceptive.

So all of that was basically a lesson. That whole part. And to show me the dangers of what happens when someone is not with God, who is away from the church, the things that can happen.

Speaker 2 (1:22:38)
Do you, with that in mind, do you think that someone who is spiritual, because there’s a lot of talk about this, where people say religion’s not important as long as you’re spiritual and you’re connecting to God in those ways, and I don’t necessarily agree, it’s a hard thing to speak, because I know that spirituality is important and that some people just do church for the ritual aspect and they’re not really connecting, so there’s all these factors in mind, but what are your thoughts on this?

Religion important.

Speaker 1 (1:23:10)
Yes. Because it was established by Jesus. Jesus established religion. He established the church. And if God does something, He does it. I mean, you follow the rules. So that’s why church is important. It also gives you the opportunity to socialize and meet with other people, even if it’s for a time, which is why I also believe that if you go to church, it’s not to socialize.

When you’re in church, you’re there to worship and honor God, give him the praise that’s due. After Mass is over, then you can go outside, then you can do the socializing and interact with other people, just not while Mass and the service is going on. That’s not the right idea. And as far as spirituality, every soul was created with a connection to their creator.

God chooses your parents. He chooses what religion they’re in. He chooses the circumstances of your birth, which is why he always says, do not judge others because you don’t know. And so you can have people born of other faiths, of other beliefs, but you have to realize at some point during their life, God will give them the opportunity

Opportunity to learn the truth Even if it’s not during their life here even at the moment of death There is a last final battle where people where people can be given an opportunity to embrace God So that’s why you kind of have to be careful. So can people be spiritual?

And still be tied to God? Yes, but it also depends on where they are at in their life, where they are at in their journey. Because if you look back at my own life, there was a part of my life where I could say I was spiritual. I believed in God. I believed in Satan.

I didn’t think going to church mattered. And if you had seen me at that moment in my journey, yeah, you could have made all kinds of, yeah, he’s not a true faith, true religious. The key though is that when the moment happens, when God throws that at you, when the opportunity arises for you to learn the truth, to understand that fact,

Do you do it? Which way do you turn? So that’s the way you have to look at things and why that’s kind of how I look at other people. You know, I always say I’m not like other people. Contrary to what that little kid asked for. I know for a fact, I am not like other people. I know I scare people. I know I confuse people and I’m fine with that because

The only person I am competing with is myself. So that’s okay. I get it.

Speaker 2 (1:26:42)
And according to you told me that you’ve learned to not throw pearls before swine in a sense. You’ve learned who to open up to and who to not necessarily share those things with.

Speaker 1 (1:26:54)
Yes, like even including members of my own family. It’s, you know, it goes to the place where a profit is least accepted is within their own home. And that’s very kind of true with me too. That’s why I’ve always kept mom kept quiet about things. And I’m very careful about who I talk to and things that I say. Also from the fact that

I don’t want the emphasis to be on me. I’d rather you listen to the story and that’s what you need to focus on. In fact, one of my friends really pointed that out because I had known him. I got along with his mother really well because she had a near death experience. She had died on the operating table, met Jesus and Mary and then she came back. And so people like that.

I can often times relate to very easily because there’s words that can’t be expressed and we kind of find each other. It’s neat how God does that. But anyway, so he always thought his mother was crazy and he thought I was crazy. He’s one of my good friends now. And then because I asked him, said, what changed? I said, what was the point where you stop thinking that I was just some crazy person spouting all this nonsense?

And he said, when I stopped trying to understand you and instead listened to what you were saying, when I listened to the message, not the messenger, he said, then it all hit me like a ton of brick.

Speaker 2 (1:28:41)
Yeah, well, that’s an incredible story. And I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your vulnerability and willingness to talk about this in a very public way. It’s absolutely an honor. And I’m so grateful to know you and that you’ve shared your experience with not only me, but two others who I hope will honor, I suppose, keep it sacred.

That’s not always going to be the case, but the people who need to hear this are going to hear it, and those who don’t, maybe later.

Speaker 1 (1:29:18)
And those who are meant to understand will yeah, and that’s that’s fine by me. I mean, I have like I have more stories. The old boy wasn’t done with me yet. There’s a lot more that’s happened since then a lot more tragedy. More awesomeness, you know, God is an awesome God and if you ever want like I said, if you ever want to hear more, I’m here.

Speaker 2 (1:29:46)
Yeah, think we should. I think we should talk about Chapter 2.

Speaker 1 (1:29:51)
That’s fine, because I know we’ve really. Yeah, like I said, I needed to put things in perspective so that way you understand. And again, it’s not easy. By far, it was not easy. It’s still not easy. So why is.

Speaker 2 (1:29:53)
This is good

Yeah.

Why is it worth it?

Speaker 1 (1:30:12)
Wow, it is. But why?

Let me call it.

Speaker 2 (1:30:18)
How do you describe this to someone who’s like, I don’t get it. I don’t get how he could be okay and happy and or have this peace and join him and go through so much. What’s the point? Why?

Speaker 1 (1:30:32)
God has so much love. There is so much peace, happiness, and joy in his presence. I have a unique perspective in that I’ve actually met him, at least on a little bit of a level, because he’s so much more grand than this. Then even when he meets with me, he has to tone it down.

I would be willing to endure an entire life of suffering, misery and hardship for a single moment of his presence. It is that awe inspiring, overwhelming at the heart of it all is love.

Speaker 2 (1:31:23)
Can anyone experience that? Do you think?

Speaker 1 (1:31:25)
Anyone can experience that and anytime you are experiencing love with somebody else you are experiencing a fraction of god So imagine that love magnified Magnified hundred thousand ten thousand four whatever That’s what awaits. That’s that’s why I do it

It’s not for any other reason, no other rewards. It’s just God is worth it. And what he is offering is worth it. And trust me, the angels and the saints, they tell you.

Speaker 2 (1:32:08)
They’ve been through some horrific themselves.

Speaker 1 (1:32:12)
Only one who says it’s not worth it is the old boy, the old spoiled brat. Yeah, he’s the only one that will disagree.

Speaker 2 (1:32:19)
Yeah, that one.

Yeah, and even he knows that he’s lying.

Speaker 1 (1:32:26)
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (1:32:28)
Master of all lies, man. Don’t forget it.

Speaker 1 (1:32:31)
Yeah, and he’s so good he even lies to himself.

Speaker 2 (1:32:34)
Yeah, yeah, I believe it. So is there anything you would like to leave us with before we close this amazing interview?

Speaker 1 (1:32:44)
If you are struggling in life, regardless of those struggles, place your faith in God and trust Him. He has a plan and His plan will get you through it. You just have to trust Him and you just have to ask Him. You’ll become a stumbling block.

Because Satan’s gonna throw everything he’s got at you to try and stop you. But if you persevere and know that there is a light at the end of that tunnel and that light is God and that is happiness and pure utter bliss.

Speaker 2 (1:33:26)
I can testify to that as well. When I started making changes, life got really hard. But even when I was going through it, there was that piece that this is right and I could feel him there. knew it was going to be okay. And everything, I mean, I have a beautiful life now that I couldn’t conceive back then.

But when you start being willing to change, whether it’s letting go of depression, or letting go of addiction or whatever it is that you’re dealing with, things do tend to get thrown at you to try to get you back where you were before. But if you realize that that’s the plan of the adversary, that is the trap. You recognize it for what it is and you take courage in knowing, man, I’m going the right way because if I wasn’t, things wouldn’t be here. And to hold onto that love that you know is there, that you know that you’re loved.

Speaker 1 (1:34:10)
That’s the track.

Speaker 2 (1:34:24)
You’re important. There’s a plan for you individually for each and every human being on this planet. That is how important we are. John is not the only person that God cares about. He’s had these special experiences, but we all have access to that love. And there’s a reason that I don’t have the same gifts that John does. It’s for my own purpose and requires me to have a little more faith and so forth. Different life goals that God has for me.

Speaker 1 (1:34:52)
Life would be boring if everybody was the same.

Speaker 2 (1:34:55)
Yes, and we wouldn’t be able to listen to magnificent stories and learn from them. Learning is what life to me is all about. It makes life exciting.

Speaker 1 (1:35:06)
Definitely.

Speaker 2 (1:35:07)
So thank you again, John, for meeting with us today. I again appreciate you so much. You’re wonderful. Godspeed. I know we’ll talk again. This is the Overcome Depression Podcast. I’m Jennifer Sterling Campbell and we’ll see you next time.

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