Twenty-four-year-old Lindsay Smith wanted absolutely nothing to do with Christianity. Her experience with Christians did little for her as a child because she had the ability to see into the spirit realm, and the Christians she encountered ignored this particular ability, not realizing she was actually seeing demonic principalities.
“I was seeing, like, in the spirit realm,” Smith says. “I was seeing ghosts, I was seeing stuff I would tell my Christian family like this is what’s happening to me; I’m literally being able to see in the spirit…I didn’t know this was a demon, I didn’t know I could rebuke it in Jesus’ name.”
In her interview with Delafé Testimonies, Smith shared how this inability from the Christians in her life to explain to her what she was seeing or help her led her to believe that she simply didn’t fit the mold of Christianity and that she must then be better suited for a different religion.
“I was seeing all these spiritual things and I didn’t understand…they would just tell me it was my imagination. They had no explanation for me and so that kind of made me think in my mind, ‘okay, well, my answer is not in the Christian church. My answer has nothing to do with Christianity. I must be a different religion.'”
From here Smith turned her back on the idea of Christianity altogether and found herself into anything and everything that might potentially have filled her soul. From astrology, crystals and sage to an addiction to marijuana, Smith tried everything that might potentially bring rest to her soul. She even attempted a confusing LGBTQ relationship. However, none of these things ever lasted. Smith said that one of the biggest issues she didn’t realize she was dealing with was generational curses.
“The root of it was depression. If we’re being really honest, the root of it was depression, generational curses, trauma, fear…” Smith says.
Another grip that the enemy had on her was discipleship from a warlock who sought out to teach her about stars, astrology, natal charts and more. It was around this time that Smith was invited to a Bible study. While she still had a great uphill battle to climb, this would be the beginning of Smith’s introduction to Scripture. Eventually, she desired to know that if Jesus was real, He would help clear up her mind to understand what the Bible was saying. God did exactly that, but Smith still struggled with tarot card usage.
“He spoke to me ‘astrology is not in the Bible. Just throw away the cards,'” Smith recounts. “I knew it was Jesus instantly this time. It was different because I was praying and He spoke back…[I] went on YouTube [and] instantly searched ‘Jesus.’ [I] saw hundreds of new age to Jesus testimonies.”
After spending a week watching testimony videos, Smith decided to turn her life around once and for all. She threw out her witchcraft books, sage, crystals natal charts and marijuana.
“I was like repenting crazy,” Smith said. “I was like, ‘Jesus, you’re real. I didn’t think you were real this whole time and now you’re so real to me now.'”
There really is a spiritual world all around us, and we have the choice to choose either light or darkness. Just as Jesus turned around Smith’s life, He is still after the next generation to be fully whole and set free. We saw a glimpse of that during the Asbury Revival as it spread out to the nation.
One of the key elements to truly gaining freedom in Christ is experiencing deliverance from the spiritual traps that so many are held in bondage over. Imagine if a Christian had actually explained to Smith the kinds of demonic spirits she was seeing years prior; what pain and suffering may she have been spared from?
That’s one of the reasons why deliverance ministers like Greg Locke and Alexander Pagani are experiencing a surge of people coming to them for deliverance; they see the needs of those who find themselves stuck in the darkness, trapped by demonic spirits and other bondages. They know that only the truth can set the captives free. The church is in desperate need of more people who are willing to preach the gospel with effective discipleship and deliverance. {eoa}
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Abby Trivett is a marketing copywriter and coordinator for Charisma Media.
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