YOU can be the reason for someone's freedom

In 2012, I was at the end of a relationship, a single mother of a beautiful daughter born out of wedlock. Her father was controlling, manipulative, and verbally abusive. I wasn't allowed to have a job after the birth of our daughter. I would take her to the playground and cry when I saw other "normal" young families there, because having a family like I had growing up was all I wanted. But instead, I had a man who was rarely there, who would do something and then accuse me of doing it instead, whose fits of rage put us all in danger and left holes in walls throughout the house I'd purchased after college. The worst part was that I'd come to believe all of his lies: I would never find anyone else who loved me the way he did. I was a whore, a pig, and many other names I won't repeat. My mind felt full of cobwebs. I could no longer think clearly. I felt as if I was slipping into mental illness. But I lacked the emotional and financial strength to leave him. I was desperate to find a way out of the pit I was in, so I cried and prayed myself to sleep every night. One morning, though, I awakened to find a strange whisper in my head. "There's nothing wrong with you. The only that's wrong is him." At that moment, I believed what I'd heard. All of the lies and self-doubt fell away. I could suddenly see the path to freedom, even though I was certain that I would never have the family I wanted. How could I trust anyone after that? 

I spent the next year fighting for the right to get a job and to have my own income, fighting for a chance to take our daughter to church, fighting for the right to keep my income tax return to fix the 3 leaks in the roof, the drafty windows, and to replace the old, dirty carpeting. When I'd risen to the point of financial stability, I told him he was moving out. It took more fighting to get him to leave, but when he did, the source of so many problems was suddenly gone.

That's when the things got weird. The home that I'd lived in for 13 years suddenly came to life at night with the sounds of knocks, voices in the other room when no one else was home, objects toppling over, and a fiery ball of light that floated through the room. At the same time, I was fighting the only depression I'd ever experienced. It was profound and disturbing. Part of me still believed the lies I'd been told. I knew I'd be alone for the rest of my life. I even considered suicide, but knew I could never leave my daughter without her mother. So, I put on a smile each day for her, and at night when I was alone I would cry and pray, because I knew that no one but God could help me. 

Then came the evening that changed my life. My daughter was spending the weekend with her father, and I was alone in my home. A voice spoke to me. It was a voice I'd been hearing for a while, but I still wasn't sure of its origins. It told me to find a book I'd purchased years before but had never read. I searched the bookshelf until my eyes fell upon it. The book was Prayers that Rout Demons by John Eckhardt. "Open it," the voice said, and I did. I was urged to thumb through until I'd come upon a certain chapter. The heading at the top of the page read: Prayers for Self-Deliverance. I'd heard neither of deliverance, nor self-deliverance.

The voice came again and told me to read it out loud, three times, as if I was trying to get the neighbors to hear me. And so I walked around the house, shouting the compilation of scriptures in that chapter. Then, I read it again, this time with more force, more conviction than before. By the third reading, I was sure the neighbors had called the cops, but I kept reading. When I was done, I shut the book and wondered if I was, indeed, going insane. 

A couple of hours later, asleep in bed, I had a vivid dream. I was standing in the darkness, with only a dim light around me. I looked down at myself. There, connected to different parts of my body, were these umbilical-like cords. They trailed off into the distance, connected to something I couldn't see. Somehow, I knew they weren't supposed to be there, though, so I started pulling at them, tearing them off one by one and throwing them to the ground. And when I'd removed them all, I squinted out through the darkness to see what was at the other end of them. Standing there, with a look of anger on his face, was my ex. 

It was odd for me to remember my dreams. I usually sleep so hard that I've wondered if I have a sleep disorder. That morning, though, I remembered it all very clearly. I swung my feet off the bed and thought about the dream. And that's when I realized it: Something was different. VERY different. Then I realized that I was different! I could think clearly. The cobwebs in my mind were gone. I was no longer depressed. My spirit felt light within me, no longer heavy laden with fear and anguish. I felt like I'd gone to bed one person and woke up another. I couldn't believe the change that had happened within me overnight! I wasn't sure what had happened, but I knew it had something to do with that section of John Eckhardt's book I'd read the night before. It took some thinking and researching to discover that I'd just undergone a deliverance. And it was a few years before I realized how special of a gift this was from God, how this had been His way of reaching down into that pit I was in and pulling me back up and into His arms. The experience has touched me in a way that nothing else has, and each time I think about it I can't help but weep with gratefulness and joy. 

It wasn't the last time He moved in such an amazing way in my life. Even after He'd released me from demonic oppression through deliverance, I still continued to believe I was too broken to have another relationship. Soon, though, He led me to find the story of Ruth on TV, and He set it in my heart to stop scrolling through channels and watch it. The story of Ruth showed me that not only would I find another husband, but that he would be a great man. Very soon after, I was looking for a way to have a social life I'd never been allowed to have. That's when I found Virginia Paranormal Investigations, led by Jeff Santos. (Unfortunately, he had the same last name as my ex, but there's a good story behind that, too). I joined his team, found friends, and found out that Jeff was a Christian. Now, we're happily married. Not only was I given the gift of deliverance, but I was given hope, and then the family that I'd always wanted.