(NOTE: I published this article sometime ago and then immediately took it back down due to concern it might come across negative. I prefer to post uplifting positive articles. I’ve now decided to publish it after all because I feel it is a necessary warning others may need to hear. Besides this, I’m a “new creature in Christ” and the things I did in previous years before coming to the Lord, I did as a different person who became changed forever by God’s Spirit.)

I wish to relate my experience with the powers of darkness in this article that thankfully was short-lived and that I believe God delivered me from before I could venture into it too deeply.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” - Ephesians 6:12

My dad was a member of a fraternal lodge up until approximately 26 years ago. He dropped his membership after seeing things in the fraternity (which in reality is very much a religious sect), after seeing things that did not set well with him. He began to recognize cult type beliefs in the organization which often uses things like the signs of the zodiac and that requires oaths to be taken that have occult overtones to them. Prayers are ended with those present acknowledging with the phrase “so mote it be”.

What was really the last straw for my dad was when after moving forward to higher levels of enlightenment in this lodge, he reached the title of “worshipful grand master”. His recognition of these things as not being compatible with his Christian Faith came after he rededicated his life to Jesus Christ and it was as if his eyes were opened to these things for the first time. Certain lodge members have claimed that at the very highest level in the fraternity it is revealed to a member that Satan is the “light bearer” (of course he could not confirm this). He was for a time shunned by former fellow-members (including family) after making a clean-break from the lodge.

I was allowed to attend meetings at the lodge as my dad’s guest and was already being offered membership in my teens and I too noticed in the films they would show at times in these meetings, that there seemed to be an exaltation of men as being, “worshipful”. My dad also lent me a lodge book and I saw the zodiac and other symbols in it that appear in cult religions. I was actually intrigued by all of this even as a youngster.

At age-11 (in the early 70s), my family and I lived in a large city with a number of grade schools in it, one of which I attended and I became acquainted with some boys who had gained an interest in occult type practices. One of the boys was bringing pictures of ghosts and aberritions to school for show and tell. Another boy was practicing psychic power and reading other kid’s minds as a demonstration in school. This too was intriguing to me and I invited some of these boys to my home for a séance or what might be better described as a cult prayer session.

I have no idea how I even knew how to do this (I still don’t know) but we sat idols around us, which were models of monsters and we prayed that demon spirits would manifest through them (Thank God for his grace – I’m now forgiven for these things!). I could actually feel a satanic power as we did this and I totally believed at that moment that a demon spirit would manifest. Well, one did but not at that moment.

A few days later, another friend was at my home visiting after dark but was not one of the boys present at the ritual and no lights were on in my room. The ritual I was involved in days earlier was not even on my mind. As my friend left my room for a moment, walking down my hallway, a demon spirit appeared in front of me on a wall. It was as if I was looking at a cut-out that appeared like a very dark shadow but extremely real. It was terrifying-looking and was posed as if threatening me. It literally put me in shock because I knew this thing was very real. I screamed for my friend who turned around and stepped back into my room and I just kept asking him “did you see it?, did you see it?”. He acted as if I was crazy, so I dropped it and tried to talk myself out of what I knew had just occurred. I had never had a vivid enough imagination to have conjured this in my mind, had never done-so previous to this and it absolutely terrified me.

For several years afterward, I would experience other supernatural things, such as seeing things move that were not touched by anyone and someone in a mirror walking around in a room I was in but who was not there when I looked in the room away from the mirror. I also felt demonic oppression at times that was unmistakably real.

When I was age-19, God spoke to me very clearly after a time I had been deeply involved in alcohol and drugs (mostly alcohol) and I hit rock bottom and caused myself to crash from it. I remember wondering if God was there and if he cared about me and that’s when he asked me to turn my life over to him and that he would deliver me. It was a glorious feeling when Jesus came into my heart and set me free from the darkness. I was born again!

A couple of years later (early 1980s), I led a man to Christ, who was open to my witnessing and asking me more about the Lord. We were working together at a supermarket and were taking martial arts training together (White Crane system of Gung Fu and Jeet Kune Do/Bruce Lee’s style). He was a previous gang member from a large city and left the gang after they began to commit murders and he moved to my state. He too had experienced severe drug addiction (including heroin) and had dabbled in the occult.

He and I ran across a book by a former drug addict/dealer and former cult member. We were intrigued by his testimony of deliverance and actually got to meet him at one point. I have since heard that this evangelist’s testimony contained false information but despite this, my friend and I were blessed by God’s Word.

“So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” - Isaiah 55:11

The man who is my friend who attended the meeting with me at a local evangelical Christian church (I attended another one by the man at a Full Gospel Businessmen fellowship) is now a homicide detective and appears regularly on a show called “The First 48 Hours”. He has also appeared numerous times on “America’s Most Wanted” with appeals to the public in regard to wanted-criminals. We have been in contact a few times since and I plan to contact him again soon - it has been ten years or more.

I hope this testimony serves as warning to those who may dabble in the occult with no intention of inciting darkness. To some it is just a game and they don’t take it seriously (playing with Ouija Boards for example). Others actually practice these type things purposefully as a decision for their lives. As strange as it may sound, I would suppose it’s their right to do so. I for one reject that darkness and I cling to the Lord who is the strength of my life.

“The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” – Psalm 27:1