From darkness into the Light

I  was not raised in a Christian home. My father was an alcoholic and we fought constantly.

When I was about 14 years old he started using his fists instead of a belt. However, I never raised a hand to him. I  left home when I was 16 for about 2 months and got involved in witchcraft in the little town where I grew up. At 17, with just 6 weeks left before graduation form high school, I joined the Army where I became deeper involved in the occult and became obsessed with power and learned to use my anger as a tool to release the spirits of darkness. I also became obsessed with sex and was unfaithful to my wife. I ended up being married five times before the age of 36. I have three children, and was so caught up in satisfying my own selfish desires, I was not around to be with them or be there for them. The allure of the occult was so strong that it eventually evolved into Satanism in which I was a high priest of Satan for 15 years. I was even ordained as a minister by an occult church in the 1990’s. Through the use of the powers of Satan I learned to acquire all that I wanted by deceit and deception. I ended up living on the streets for about 3 or 5 years but still maintained my allegiance to Satan. I have seen Satan in physical form. The first time he appeared as a man in the most beautiful form that a man can become. I remember what he said to me, “If you will serve me I shall grant you all that you could hope for.” Yes, I had money, friends and nice things, even when I lived on the streets. But the devil is a liar and when I could not provide what he asked of me, I was left to wither away. My friends only wanted what I could give them and soon forgot me.

 

 But God had a plan for me even though I was serving Satan. I was living with two witches in a trailer that was owned by one of their mothers. When she passed away, the family was making arrangements to sell the two mobile homes that she owned and as I was living on a V.A. pension, I did not have enough money to rent another place and was facing living on the streets again. The girls had purchased another mobile home and had moved but were allowing me to stay until the trailer that I was living in was sold when one day the woman’s son, which I had become friends with, knocked on the door and handed me the title to the mobile home and asked for one dollar. I did not know it at the time but God had provided for me to serve him. You see the mobile home park is right across the street from the church where I attend. But I am getting ahead of myself. I became a recluse for about a year, and then one day I was talking to a neighbor who told me that the church across the street had a food pantry where I could receive a little food every week. Well, I told him that I was not interested in anything that the church had to offer.

 

My bills became more than I could afford and still buy groceries, so I went to the food pantry in Aug of 2002. I would not let anyone pray with me and knew that they could not force me and refuse me food so I would get what I could and leave. None of the counselors at the church wanted to talk to me so the director said that I was only to see him. Now you need to realize that they all thought that I was an atheist. So week after week I would go and get my food and Charles, one of the directors of the food pantry, would talk to me. Little did I know that prior to opening the pantry, all the counselors would gather and pray for those who came, but especially for me? Well, let me say that prayer works because in March of 2003, I was asleep on a Sunday morning as I always slept in due to staying up all night, when I was awoken by an audible voice saying “Go to the church.” As I was a priest of Satan, I knew that it was not any churches that I would hold rituals at so I knew that it was not Satan talking to me. This was my first encounter with God. I tried to go back to sleep, but the voice said again “Attend the church.” Well I got out of bed and got dressed and hobbled over to the church as I had to use a cane due to three strokes. As I walked up the driveway, one of the counselors almost ran over me with her car. One month later I gave my heart to Christ and renounced Satan. I was baptized 4 months later and joined the church and started attending a bible study and burned all the books that I had on anything that had to do with the occult. I starting serving in the food pantry and still do as a counselor and lead intercessory prayer for two years, have laid hands and prayed for people and they were healed and now have a devoted wife, who I might add I was engaged to while in high school, an I am also involved in the prison ministry and have been called by God to become an evangelist. Romans 5 v 8 says “For God so loved us yet while we were sinners in that Christ died for us.”  

 

No matter what you have done, Christ will forgive you of your sins if you just ask him to come into your heart and believe that he died and rose form the grave and to forgive you of your sins. Do not wait until it is too late. I have heard people say that there is plenty of time and that they are not ready to give up what they enjoy, but let me tell you that living for Christ is a lot more enjoyable than the pleasures of Satan and this world. You could stop breathing in your sleep, get hit by a car; you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What are you waiting for? When you make decisions that you make on your own and do not seek God’s guidance it hurts not only your self, but also your family and those who love and care about you, especially your family. Thanks to God and our savior Jesus Christ, I have reconciled with my family and I have two beautiful daughters, a wonderful son, two gorgeous granddaughters, a beautiful grandson, and a great grandson to be born in July 2007. All who I love dearly and I thank God for bringing them back into my life.

 

I am a living testimony of the promises of God. “For we are saved by Grace thru faith in Christ Jesus”

 

Rev. John Mincher