Here are notes for my radio interview with Jan Markell on Saturday, Dec. 19th. She asked me to share my testimony and then share stories of witnessing in Venice Beach, CA, where LTW began, as well as other locations. These notes may serve as part of the discussion on spirits. The battle for the soul is truly between Christ and Satan. Jesus said to the most religious people of His day that they were of "their father, the devil". Satan is described as an angel of light, the great deceiver, the god of this age, and the father of lies. In Jesus there is "no deceit found in Him." We are taught in 1 John 4 to "test the spirits". Not every spirit coming in God's name is from God. The Holy Spirit is just that--holy. The demonic spirits are not. The Bible says that Satan sets a snare through sin to make people a "slave to sin." Satan sets a person free to sin. Jesus sets us free from it. With a Savior like that, ruling over the demons, how could I keep from telling others about Him?
Venice Beach:
1. A man named Richie approached my table. He had never heard how to be saved before, coming to Venice Beach from a Native American Indian reservation. I began to offer him a free Bible, asking him if he believed in Jesus. He said, “Well, I know Satan is real. You don’t have to convince me of that.” I told him that Jesus was the only One with power over the demons, and a relationship with Jesus would be Richie’s only protection. Richie said that in the Indian Reservation he had been taught to pray to his ancestors and the “great spirit.” He went on to explain that he had seen a black figure show up in his home, and he could feel a dark presence…Richie took a Bible and agreed to meet me for church. I picked him up at Venice to take him to church, and he said, “I am scared.” I told him that Satan was trying to make him scared. I took out the Bible and started reading from Psalm 139. I stopped and asked, “Richie, are you scared now?” He said, “No, not right now.” I told him to read the Bible when he was scared and the Holy Spirit would calm his fears….He came back to the table in a few days and said, “I am scared.” Once again, I opened the Bible to the book of John, reading him John 1, and John 3. He said he felt better….He came back and said once again, “I am scared, and nothing has been going right since I started reading the Bible.” I told him that if he would give his heart to Jesus, Satan would have no power over him. Still, Richie was not ready. Well (and this is really SAD), the last time I saw Richie I asked him if he was still reading the Bible. He answered with a smile, “Nope, and everything has been going fine. Satan let me know that he would leave me alone if I would stop reading the Bible.” (I have a photo of Richie next to my table, and I pray for him every time I see that photo.)
2. I witnessed to a psychic who asked, “ Do you really believe this? I mean, I have seen tables levitate.” I answered, “Tables levitating just confirms what the Bible says about demons.” I went on to read the psychic how that Satan parades himself as an angel of light and how demonic powers have a biblical explanation. This psychic was so “talented” people would come back and give him more money, because he was such an accurate tarot card reader.
3. One psychic said she bowed down to photos of herself with candles lit and said secret prayers to get powers.
4. Another psychic called me the “Christian lady.” She came back one week and smiled and said, “Oh, I have to tell you, I saw ‘Jesus’ the other day.” I asked, “How did you know it was Jesus?” She said, “He looked just like he did in all of the Catholic pictures.” [Ha] Then, I asked, “Well, what happened?” She said, “I smiled and told him, ‘I am so glad you are here.’” I told her lovingly that the Bible says there is more than one Jesus. She was shocked. I read to her 2 Corinthians 11:4.
5. One man named Edward came up to my table at the end of the day. He was a little nervous. He said that he had been observing me for over a year and said that I seemed sincere. He hesitated and then told me what he had come to say: “God” had spoken to him. He explained, “Last night as I was playing my guitar, god spoke to me. She had a female voice. She said that I was chosen to be a star and change the world.” Then Edward (a man in his forties) started to cry, admitting, “I think it is God, but I am not sure.” I cried, too. I said, “Edward, that was a demon.” I explained that the true HOLY Spirit points people to Jesus and humbles a person to give glory to Jesus. Demons come to seduce a person away from Jesus. I told Edward that the Bible warns that we must test the spirits (1 John 4). I also explained that Jesus is called the Prince of Peace. He gives people peace, and Edward admitted he had no peace. I admonished him to give his heart to Jesus and follow Him and not the demons. Sadly, I saw Edward a few months later when I went to witness at a Benjamin Crème New Age meeting. I observed Edward holding his arms out to accept the “spirit” Benjamin Crème had offered. I gave out Gospel tracts to everyone there warning of demons as they left, realizing that only God can save. I cannot. (God is honored when we stand for the Bible, and it is up to Him then to take that Scripture to plow the heart to regeneration; salvation is not a human work.)
6. One man, who was a New Age healer, approached me one day at Venice Beach. People had come to him for ‘a healing’ from miles around. He put his hands close to my body, not touching me, and he asked if I could feel the energy, explaining that he had just been meditating and had felt the “healing energy” flow throughout his body, even through his fingertips. He put his hands close to me and asked, “Can you feel it?” I smiled, looked him straight in the eyes, and answered, “No, because I am possessed.” He looked shocked. I continued, “I am possessed by the Holy Spirit, and He is blocking that energy. I don’t feel a thing.”
7. One man approached my table and said he believed in Jesus, covered in tattoos, admitting that he had just practiced astral projection. I answered, “You believe in Jesus? Which one?” He looked surprised. I said, “Didn’t you know there is more than one?” I gave him a list of different ‘Jesuses’ from cults and the varying characteristics of the false Jesuses being taught. He left with the documentation, walking off stating, “Huh, I never knew there was more than one.”
Boulder:
One man came up and said that he had just seen rocks lifting in caves. He said he knew spirits were real. I gave him a Bible, told him how to be saved according to Scripture, and I gave him Warren Smith’s book The Light That Was Dark.
A woman came up asking for oil. She said she wanted to put oil on her doors. I looked her straight in the eyes and asked, “Are you having trouble with demons?” She looked me straight in the eyes and answered, “Yes, I am.” I began to tell her why the oil would not help…
West Hollywood:
One man hated Jesus so much he had a web site about hating Jesus. He tried his best to get my name, but I never gave it to him in all of his heckling that night. The next week, he came up with a smirk on his face asking me if I had seen the latest issue of a popular newspaper in West Hollywood. He said, “You are in it.” He had gotten my name and copied my photo and some of my web site text in this mockery of me, placed right under a gay man in his underwear in the newspaper. The article said facetiously I was trying to “light the way” for people and proceeded to mock me in derision. I drove back home that night telling God I love Him. I remembered my years as a singer when I had production deals…thinking I would be in the papers someday. I never expected this kind of press back then. I cried as I thanked God for letting me be in the newspapers in West Hollywood, not for me, but to be mocked as a Christian. (We were told when we started witnessing at the table in West Hollywood that our permit would get revoked in a short time. Well, we began our table outreach in 2005, and we are still going strong there as we share the truth in LOVE. Many men on their way to the gay bars stop for prayer, stating that their fathers are pastors, and their mothers are praying for them. Some people now on our team have gotten saved from the lifestyle of homosexuality and are now living for Jesus, working with us in ministry in that area to share what Jesus has done for them.)
