Although I have only started my close walk with God a mere 21 months ago, I know for sure He has never left my side. He has always remained faithful. When I look back on my life at all the times where I strayed from the path, I can see now where He gently tried putting me back on track. He is truly good, and now that I have returned to Him and put my entire life of His altar and taken up my cross, He blesses me with the favor, not just once a week, but every day.
My close journey with Jesus Christ started in the Fall of 2018 after I accepted Him again as my Lord and Savior after finding myself in a terrible state of depression with suicidal thoughts plaguing me week after week. In the summer of 2018, I was finally doing good things for myself and was losing the extra weight I had carried for nearly 15 years. I had stopped drinking entirely earlier that year in May of 2018, and my healthy habits had my mind in more and more clarity. It wasn’t until I began intermittent fasting that I found much more clarity and began to see synchronicities and spiritual connections where I had never seen them before.
Occult Teachings
In September of 2018, I had a supernatural breakthrough, but it was terrifying. I found myself stuck in life and not sure where to move forward. I had one of my children suffering from issues I didn’t know how to approach and I had no idea where to turn for help. When I started studying and researching psychology three years prior, in particular hypnosis, Neural Linguistic Programming (NLP), and Dark Psychology (to understand why people do the things they do), I began to see and know patterns in life. These patterns, as it turns out, were spiritual. They were the fingerprint of God on our world, that many do not see. The DNA of God’s creation and it was only noticeable when I was at my most desperate point.
The Catalyst for Change
I had been using an application called iReverseSpeech on my phone to record my conversations. I had learned that there were things in this world that the corporations used to gain influence with marketing and advertising to the human mind that most are unaware of. This application was a sound reversing app and I used it to reverse the speech of conversations. It was in these backward conversations, I began to hear a fascinating new way of understanding things. I heard messages, and these messages were often truths. I would record a person from a video or a song, play it backward, and I could hear the person talking about secrets, and sometimes, I could hear them confess to evil acts. Later, I understood this to be a sin confession. Once, I heard a popular politician at the time yell racial remarks backward in a very clear message. These were hidden thoughts of the unconscious mind being heard, or so I thought. Keep in mind that before this, I had also been studying occult technology, alternative history, science, symbolism, and hidden understandings of the world for at least 3 years before finding this new tool, but this information was mind-blowing. I learned that there are many psychoanalysts in the fields of psychology and psychiatry that were using this divining technique to record their patients to fast-track their treatment plans.
It was at this point that I stumbled on something evil. The evil things of this world do not want you to know or believe they exist. When you are using occult understandings or teachings, such as listening to backward conversation and recordings or studying occult teachings, you are opening yourself up to the demonic world and its influence on your life. This is where I found out that demons are real. They are just as evil as you have heard about, and they do not want you to know they are real. They have extraordinary power over your life when you do not know they exist.
Cover Blown
One day, while investigating using this app, I stumbled on voices that were speaking to me directly. They were mocking and ridiculing me. When I listened to one recording from a close family member, I heard the demon speaking the most discouraging things imaginable. It spoke accusations, it spoke of my past sins, and it spoke with hatred and vitriol that I had never experienced in my life. They even made fun of the music I listened to and said, “oh, you like sad music”, then began singing one of my favorite songs, in reverse!
It wasn’t until this point that I realized, they were right! I did listen to depressing music. Demons are real and they hate us. We are never to engage in them in this way, where we use stolen knowledge to gain information about people to control them. This is the essence of witchcraft. This is when I chose to put the app away, permanently. This is also the moment I chose to repent, and I deleted it all the evil things I now knew were not of God and began to repent to God with all my heart. If demons were real, then God is real!
Change of Heart – for God
That night, I deleted the app. I deleted all the music I was listening to, which was quite a library of music. From Prince and the Revolution that I had been fascinated with as a child, to Korn, Metallica, The Strokes, and many countless other alternative, rock, and other bands that I felt did not honor God. I felt it was better safe than sorry. I picked up the Bible, but as I started reading, I thought that it was also wrong and I started reading it backward. When I read it backward, it made sense! Unfortunately, this too was a lie and it is not written to be read backward. I repented, again, and have put away evil ideas of finding secrets through occult means. There are some truths in many things, especially our language, but we cannot trust the information with any true reliability to receive the truth to the world.
There are church ministries today that have followed deceiving spirits in this direction and that hold bible studies using the occult practice of reading it backward, and they believe that it makes better sense backward than forward. I found out that they are wrong. Demons are translators and when they are, they do not tell the truth. They lie – almost always! Do not go and explore occult technologies or teachings, they will deceive you and open you up to the demonic. Seek God’s wisdom from God. Read the Bible and listen to the Holy Spirit!
Seeking Deliverance
Soon after this, I began to become paranoid. These things were evil, they were physically following me, and they did not stop showing me they existed and were everywhere. Wherever I went, I heard them. They would tap on windows as I walked through neighborhoods while walking my dog. They would jump in the trees (there were no squirrels or animals in them) and would make bird noises that spoke my name. Yes, this truly did seem crazy! I was scared and it was the hardest time of my life. Until I realized that demons play off the spirit of fear. Fear gives them control over our lives. We are to fear nothing!
Having no place to go, I decided to reach out to my sister Brenda for help. We had dinner one night and I described what I was seeing and hearing and she recommended listening to Derek Prince Ministries. Once I did, I never looked back.
Healing and Deliverance
I immediately started exploring all the works of Derek Prince Ministries. What an amazing man! So much knowledge, so much education, so much experience! This guy knew what he was talking about and he had real experience with the demonic that I needed to hear. I did everything he said to do and gave my life over to Jesus at the altar as directed. I started praying all the prayers he spoke, going through all the deliverance videos and began to understand, very quickly, what I was up against. As I went through the videos, books, and readings, I acquired an insatiable appetite to learn as much as I could about God’s word and specifically, prayers for deliverance. As I spoke the deliverance prayers I began to notice that there was a difference in my body and mind that I had never thought possible.
The voices and issues I had been experiencing before deliverance were stopping and I no longer had the fear I once had. I genuinely put my life on His altar. I gave my life over to Christ completely and I haven’t looked back. During those prayers over the next few days and weeks, I felt my mind change, I felt my body change, and I felt my life change. I was healed during this time of most ailments I had suffered from previously. I had asthma since I was a kid, I had pain in my lower bowels that I was avoiding having checked out, I had occasional issues with my bladder and pain and swelling of my prostate. and before all this, I was in poor health. At the young age of 46, I felt like I only had a few years left to live. Quite frankly, I had been welcoming the idea of leaving the world. Death had seduced me! I was then delivered from the spirit of death and the suicidal ideations as well as the thought that I was going to die early.
I also had been suffering for many years of debilitating depression, anxiety, and many bouts with suicidal thoughts and attempts. In all truth, I should have died a few times, but now I know the Lord keeps me safe. I had also suffered from eating disorders, obesity, alcoholism, and was addicted to pornography. The more I stayed in the word of God and went through the process of deliverance, the more these all faded away. I knew that I was forgiven! I knew that these were no longer my burdens to carry! I also knew that there was no going back. Those demons are relentless and there was no way I was going to give them any access to my life again if I could help it. I was healed of everything after my baptism in the Holy Spirit and I had a new lease on life! I could run down the street and wouldn’t even breathe hard when I was done. God is so good!
Baptism of the Holy Spirit
I was a changed man before this point, but the baptism of the Holy Spirit sealed me for Christ. I was praying and worshiping every day and constantly looking to learn more about what God had for all of His children. It was one day that my family and I were having a frustrating moment that we now know was a demonic attack that was trying to stop what God had planned for us. We were getting ready to go to Walmart when I began to pray. My wife had been upset, the kids were upset, and I knew all there was to do for me was to pray.
I was sitting comfortably on the couch, turned my hands over, and began to pray. As I did, I lifted my hands higher in the air, palms facing up, and began praying in tongues and praying “holy, holy, holy!” I gave thanks and praised His name. At this moment, I felt something I hadn’t any other time I prayed. It was a warmth and a pressure on both palms of my hands like a light beam was shining down from space that connected with me and I felt the overwhelming sense of peace touch me. I began to tear up and kept my palms up and continued praising Him. My hands were locked in position as though I was being helped and they were held up by a power that I hadn’t felt before. As my hands and arms began to feel electric, I felt a touch on the top of my head that was like having oil poured over my head and body. Second, by second, I felt this new powerful blessing wash over me, from the top of my head and slowly moved through my body, touching every cell, then down to my feet. My brain felt like it was growing and probably glowing. It almost hurt slightly, but it was a feeling like life was being added to me, so I had no fear. My heart was cracking inside of my chest and I felt a heat I had never felt before, radiate from within as my heart raced wildly and began beating harder. The energy then moved down my arms, into my hands, into my legs, and my feet. The Holy Spirit was touching every part of my body and I was being healed. All the pains I felt left me and my mind was at perfect peace. I felt the love of God and I knew that He was doing something to me that was unexplainable.
Even now, as I write this, I am trying to think of what all the things that were done to heal my mind, body, and soul. My heart was healed, my mind was healed and renewed. My arms and hands felt as though they were in a traction beam of pure light and energy and I kept holding them up in the air for over 15 minutes and I was comfortable. It was at this time that my wife came in the room and while she was still upset, she wanted us to leave immediately to run errands, which I knew was a distraction by the enemy to break my connection, so I calmly told her, “please be patient, I’m praying and I love you.” So she reluctantly left the room.
My hands felt like power (light) was shooting through them, they were hot, electric, but liquid at the same time. Each finger was pulsating and this happened also in my legs and my feet as it progressed. This pulsating, beam of light was now moving back to my head and I felt internally a popping and energy moving throughout my brain as it traversed my brain. I felt the vessels and tissues being healed, enlarged and expanded. Sometimes it felt a bit painful, but would quickly turn into peace and comfort. The spaces in my brain above the ears, in my temples, in my occipital lobes were popping open and I felt them cleansed. My frontal lobe was expanded and was pulsating and I felt the joy of the Lord that was now coursing through my body. As this connection began to fade, my body felt as though it was full of the purest light one can imagine. I was energized and I could not wipe the smile from my face.
Baptizing My Family
After this experience, I knew that I had to get my family in on this. I had them sit down on the couch, then I touched them on their heads and I prayed for the Holy Spirit to baptize them. I told them to try and speak in tongues, my stepdaughters both started. My wife struggled and to this day, she doesn’t like to try, but I know that she was filled with the Holy Spirit as she experienced the same sensations and power and fear and anxiety she had before this left her. All four of us were lit up with the Holy Spirit and were sitting on the couch with the palms of their hands in the air and we each had a connection to our Father in Heaven we had never experienced before. It was transformed us, healed us, and taught us all at the same time. My mind felt expanded and healed. We knew and still know that this God moment was the most powerful experience we had ever had. Since then, we have experienced the Holy Spirit daily and life only gets better as time passes!
Everything is Spirit!
My wife had been experiencing anxiety before the baptism because we had planned on going to Walmart to buy things we needed. I don’t recall exactly why she was anxious, but after the baptisms, our Holy Spirit family headed off to Walmart. It was at this time that I knew that things were going to be much different. As soon as we stepped outside through the garage door, it was already dark at this point, I saw the stars in the sky. Unlike any other time in my life, I felt them on my head! I would take a step outside the garage and I felt them as though a blanket of pressure was descending on me, it was almost liquid and it was powerful. I began seeing things with a different eye as well and was able to see in the spirit. This experience with pressure was very strong and as I would take a step back into the garage, the pressure would be less, then with a step forward into the moonlight and starlight, again the powerful sense of them would be felt in my head and brain. This was incredible!
Demons Flee!
When we arrived at Walmart, I couldn’t help but see people differently. I noticed how sad their faces were. It was as though the filters and deceptions of this world had fallen away and I could see right through the masks people wore into their spirit. People were thirsty! Their faces were down, they frowned, there were wrinkle lines of stress and worry covering their faces and I could see that they were missing something. It was almost like a vision of hell in a way, where everyone I saw was miserable, unhappy, and without God. It was at this time that I became extra friendly and lost any fear I had to talk with people I did not know. I began saying hello to everyone and giving people a smile of encouragement as we walked through Walmart. Keep in mind, that even with this supernatural experience, my wife was still in shock from all that was happening, but she still allowed me to work in the spirit as I talked to people.
Most people were in the store were quite friendly, but some were strangely fearful around me. It was not because of me though, it was because of the spirit of God in me! All I had to do was look toward some people and they would grab their carts and head the other way fast! My kids saw this and could not believe what they were seeing! I had one Walmart employee view me walking down an aisle toward her with my family and her eyes rolled in her head, flexed wide open and I could see fear and panic cover her face as I read her lips and heard her say “JESUS!” and quickly scampered away. It was strange! Please do not mistake me with this information, I know that I am not Jesus, but the spirit of Jesus is in me, this is why demons flee as though Jesus was in the flesh right in front of them. It’s a real thing and I’m sure other Holy Spirit-filled Christians have seen similar experiences in their lives.
As we walked through the store, this was a repeated theme. Some people smiled as soon as they looked at us and others had pure panic cover their faces as they moved the opposite direction as though they saw a ghost. What I knew then and now is that these were likely the devil’s children written about in 1 John 3:4-10.
That night was quite a learning experience and one, that to this very day, has shown me that the Bible is very real and holds truths to this world that many do not understand because they are deceived. I’ve had nearly two years of these same types of occurrences occur, and I’ve also seen some of the miracles written in the bible manifest in real life. God and I are on a journey together. This is the life I’ve always wanted and I live it every day. He hopes that all His children will believe and begin their walks with Him in the same manner as Jesus did. He truly loves you!
Closing
This is the short story of how I returned to Christ. This, by no means, is a closed book, as there is so much to write about and report. Like the anointing I received in December of 2018 that caused the gifts of discerning of spirits to manifest in my life, the walks I have been on with the Holy Spirit, the dealings when Satan who crept into my life to attack, and more stories of the wonderful blessings the Lord has given our family for being faithful. God truly is good and His word is true.
The day my family and I were baptized in the Holy Spirit was just the beginning! The life we now have is full of experiences many never witness. I now sense His presence every day since my return to Christ and I’ll continue writing this blog and future books. I now know I am called to write to share with others. I know I am to share this and all my stories of God’s truth to minister to people. I know that I have been saved and forgiven. God has planted himself in my heart to go and do the things that Jesus did. Glory to God!
I look forward to hearing your testimonies! I look forward to hearing how God saved you from pain and suffering and to how much He has changed your life since your journey with Him began. I especially look forward to seeing the body of Christ grow as we plant the seeds of His Kingdom and harvest where we have not planted. God is so good and we all need to know that the time of His return in nearing. We are close! Praise Jesus!
In Christ,
Darrell B. Jones