Hope Church @ Port City

My testimony

...and by His stripes we are healed. (Is. 53:5)

My testimony

Olga asked me how I came to Christ, so I went and grabbed my testimony off the ExWitch site for her.

Please understand that this is not quite a play-by-play… it’s a condensed version. Please also understand that it was written for a pagan audience. There will almost certainly be terms in here that many Christians won’t be familiar with or understand. The simplest way to “get” it is to just understand that most of those terms mean “occult” in one way or another.

______________________________________________________________________

So many people ask, “Why would a pagan become a Christian?” or “Kathi, you had been following netjeru (the gods of ancient egypt) and had been very dedicated to them. What happened? Did you have a bad experience? Did someone in the pagan community burn you? Did a ritual go bad, or magick not work for you?”

It was nothing like that.

Here is my story…perhaps badly told. I wrote it shortly after becoming a Christian. I plan to re-write it sometime soon, and tell it in more detail, explaining certain things better (a common question over the years has been “deafie device? What the heck is that?”) and using more accessible language so that readers can more easily understand what the Lord did and how I responded. But until then… well… Here is my story…perhaps badly told. 🙂
I had been a Witch for ten years, and a leader in AOL’s pagan community for 5 or 6 years. For about four years, I had been dedicated to the gods of ancient Egypt.

Despite all the magic, healing rituals, reiki, and prayers that I and others could do, I suffered from some serious health problems, including 70% deafness in both ears. The doctors told me there was no cure, and that it was likely to get worse. They told me to get a TTY phone and other deafie-devices, and advised us to start learning sign language.

Then one night, I had a dream about Jesus. No idea then “why”… I chalked it up to bad pizza and told Him to go away. Two nights later, I had another dream. He said, in sign language, “Come follow Me”.

So I went into denial mode, bigtime. I couldn’t blame pizza that night . I certainly didn’t want anything to do with following Him… I had some pretty skewed assumptions about Christianity, and there was an awful lot about Witchcraft that I didn’t want to give up!

So, in utter arrogance, I asked God to prove it. Prove He wanted me, Prove He’s real. I work with an internet company. We’d purchased a piece of software months before this happened, and I could not get one of the features to work. I’d written to a user’s group for assistance about 3 months before, and no one had answers. I’d given up on the thing. So I figured this would be a great test for God. I prayed on a Monday afternoon, “If you’re real, God, you need to come down here and not only solve this problem, solve it in a way that I know it’s you.”

Tuesday right after lunchtime, I checked my email. In it was a letter from someone on that user’s group with the answer to my problem. Not only was it the exact solution, the email address was from @christianity.net.

You can’t deny that kind of answer, now can you? 🙂 This person was also an AIM user, so I was able to talk to him via IM… fortunately his boss was very understanding, because we talked for two whole days He answered my questions, cleared up my incorrect assumptions, and told me about the great love of Jesus. At the end of the two days, I gave my heart to the Lord.

Now, the very next day, my family left for a planned camping vacation at the beach. Given everything that had happened, we determined that church on Sunday morning would be a Good Thing. 😉 We ended up going to a small Assemblies of God church, mainly because it was completely different from what we’d experienced before in church (I was raised congregationalist, my husband baptist). I don’t know if you know anything about deafness and hearing aids… they are useless in any kind of large room environment because they tend to amplify the closest sounds. In most situations, I could hear shuffling, coughing, and breathing better than a speaker. Most people do not move their lips well when they speak, also, so lip-reading is not easy. However, the pastor at this church spoke in such a way that I could lip-read almost every word. After the service, I *had* to compliment him on this. When I told him why, he asked if he could pray for my hearing to be restored. Whoa! Way out of the realm of my experience with church. But I figured it couldn’t hurt, so I said yes, and he did.

I felt something (which I now know was the Holy Spirit), but I still couldn’t hear. We left the church and went back to our tent. Over the course of that afternoon, I got sick… I mean, really really sick. I spent most of that evening and the next morning in the bathhouse, puking my guts out and hallucinating (or maybe NOT). I felt greatly burdened to tell my old gods that they had to leave me, and spent a great deal of time between vomiting, doing just that. (I think I neglected to mention that my trad was egyptian…they had a deity for *everything*.)

Now, I’d taken my hearing aids out the night before (you don’t wear them to bed) and never put them back in. Besides, violent facial contortions, like vomiting or coughing, tend to hurt when you have them in. Anyways… at about 2 Monday afternoon, I started to feel better. Weak, but better. So I went back to the tent and my husband asked how I was feeling. I realized, mid-sentence, that I’d heard what he said and I wasn’t wearing my hearing aids. I was able to hear what my kids said for the first time in a VERY long time. What a blessing!

Needless to say, now I serve God and love Him with all my heart!
______________________________________________________________________________

24 Responses

  1. Sam says:

    PTL! Awesome testimony. Thanks for sharing.

  2. Sam says:

    PTL! Awesome testimony. Thanks for sharing.

  3. Olga says:

    Dear Kathi,
    I truly do appreciate you telling me your testimony. I have been praying for you and feel great amount of compassion to continue, you are heavily on my heart for reasons unknown to me. I have been saying for years how deeply rooted the Pagan religions are (even here in southern US). Every time I mention this to a fellow Christian, I usually get an eye roll or a blank stare. I was even told at one time that there was no such thing. I beg to differ. Although, I just dabbled in occultic things as a teenager, I have had many spiritual happenings in my life. God has allowed me to sense or discern things. Perhaps to keep me from falling into occultic things. When I say spiritual things I mean things not of God. But, for this moment and time in my life God has lifted this ability to see with spiritual eyes, perhaps so I could see with my heart instead. Also, I have and do know many people who claim to be a witch or a pagan of some sort. At times when praying for some people I have been spiritually attacked. I just want you to know that your work here is deeply needed to bring those to Christ. I am not and have not been a pagan and have only read what I know. usually people who know I am a Christian attempt to be combative when on the subject of Jesus. So, I try not to go there, I just show them the love of Christ, by being kind and loving towards whom I know. They all know I am a Christian and that I believe in Jesus Christ. I use to be very Judgmental towards those in the occult; God has changed my heart. I am not sure what my role to my pagan Friends are. God hasn’t given me that answer. I know before in the past I have witnessed to some of them . Please continue your work, but be very careful in who you believe. Satan just wants to work his way back into your heart. You could reach many that I and many other Christians cannot. I just wanted to say also, that it was not my intention to upset you so much yesterday. I prayed deeply before I sent you my reply on Todd, I was just delivering the message. Peace to you and your family and God bless you.
    Your Sister in Christ
    Olga

  4. Olga says:

    Dear Kathi,
    I truly do appreciate you telling me your testimony. I have been praying for you and feel great amount of compassion to continue, you are heavily on my heart for reasons unknown to me. I have been saying for years how deeply rooted the Pagan religions are (even here in southern US). Every time I mention this to a fellow Christian, I usually get an eye roll or a blank stare. I was even told at one time that there was no such thing. I beg to differ. Although, I just dabbled in occultic things as a teenager, I have had many spiritual happenings in my life. God has allowed me to sense or discern things. Perhaps to keep me from falling into occultic things. When I say spiritual things I mean things not of God. But, for this moment and time in my life God has lifted this ability to see with spiritual eyes, perhaps so I could see with my heart instead. Also, I have and do know many people who claim to be a witch or a pagan of some sort. At times when praying for some people I have been spiritually attacked. I just want you to know that your work here is deeply needed to bring those to Christ. I am not and have not been a pagan and have only read what I know. usually people who know I am a Christian attempt to be combative when on the subject of Jesus. So, I try not to go there, I just show them the love of Christ, by being kind and loving towards whom I know. They all know I am a Christian and that I believe in Jesus Christ. I use to be very Judgmental towards those in the occult; God has changed my heart. I am not sure what my role to my pagan Friends are. God hasn’t given me that answer. I know before in the past I have witnessed to some of them . Please continue your work, but be very careful in who you believe. Satan just wants to work his way back into your heart. You could reach many that I and many other Christians cannot. I just wanted to say also, that it was not my intention to upset you so much yesterday. I prayed deeply before I sent you my reply on Todd, I was just delivering the message. Peace to you and your family and God bless you.
    Your Sister in Christ
    Olga

  5. Kathi says:

    Olga, I tend to get either the eye-roll, the blank stare, or the “Run for the Hills! Hide Under the Bed” look from Christians when I tell them of the prevalence of witchcraft here. In fact, I moved to Greensboro 11 years ago because of the # of witches locally (as compared to where I used to live in New England).

    I am careful who I believe… I believe in Jesus 🙂 I also believe every word He said in the Bible. I’m glad that God is reviving His church in these last days, and I’m also glad that God is choosing servants that illustrate the religious mindset of even those who love Him.

    If you can’t embrace what’s happening in Lakeland because of the servant God has chosen, I encourage you to pursue God and revival in your heart with all the passion within you.

  6. Kathi says:

    Olga, I tend to get either the eye-roll, the blank stare, or the “Run for the Hills! Hide Under the Bed” look from Christians when I tell them of the prevalence of witchcraft here. In fact, I moved to Greensboro 11 years ago because of the # of witches locally (as compared to where I used to live in New England).

    I am careful who I believe… I believe in Jesus 🙂 I also believe every word He said in the Bible. I’m glad that God is reviving His church in these last days, and I’m also glad that God is choosing servants that illustrate the religious mindset of even those who love Him.

    If you can’t embrace what’s happening in Lakeland because of the servant God has chosen, I encourage you to pursue God and revival in your heart with all the passion within you.

  7. Olga says:

    Dearest Kathi, +
    please do not Misunderstand, I come to you in peace and the love of Jesus. But since you want to condemn me, instead of wow thats great you have a compassion for the pagans, or just a simple thanks would be great, or wow perhaps we could talk about how to bring them to Christ. You come back at me combatively and I am not sure why.
    I have questions for you.
    One. Where in the bible does it talk about a great end time revival before Jesus comes back?
    two. Why such a great interest in Todd Bentley?
    Three. If he is so great, What is happening in areas where he preaches ie. crime rate, poverty, and such.
    Four. Does he teach the Gospel of Christ as well as the Laws of God?
    Five. What is the difference between Bentley and say Morris Cerullo?
    six. How do you know if I do or do not follow Christ with all my heart? If I did not would I have the energy or even care about you and your fellowship.
    Seven. What makes you think I do not believe every word in God Bible?
    Eight. Why not at least look up the information that has been given to you?
    Nine. Did you know I have been where you are? Do you believe God suddenly blinded me from the truth?
    Ten. Did you know, Gods word tells us to rebuke those that are not biblically correct?

    God Bless
    Olga

  8. Olga says:

    Dearest Kathi, +
    please do not Misunderstand, I come to you in peace and the love of Jesus. But since you want to condemn me, instead of wow thats great you have a compassion for the pagans, or just a simple thanks would be great, or wow perhaps we could talk about how to bring them to Christ. You come back at me combatively and I am not sure why.
    I have questions for you.
    One. Where in the bible does it talk about a great end time revival before Jesus comes back?
    two. Why such a great interest in Todd Bentley?
    Three. If he is so great, What is happening in areas where he preaches ie. crime rate, poverty, and such.
    Four. Does he teach the Gospel of Christ as well as the Laws of God?
    Five. What is the difference between Bentley and say Morris Cerullo?
    six. How do you know if I do or do not follow Christ with all my heart? If I did not would I have the energy or even care about you and your fellowship.
    Seven. What makes you think I do not believe every word in God Bible?
    Eight. Why not at least look up the information that has been given to you?
    Nine. Did you know I have been where you are? Do you believe God suddenly blinded me from the truth?
    Ten. Did you know, Gods word tells us to rebuke those that are not biblically correct?

    God Bless
    Olga

  9. Kathi says:

    Olga, I fail to see a single thing in what I wrote condemning you. I shared my common experience with Christians relating to pagans in the South. I answered your questions about who I believe and why. I exhorted you to place your focus where it belongs.

  10. Kathi says:

    Olga, I fail to see a single thing in what I wrote condemning you. I shared my common experience with Christians relating to pagans in the South. I answered your questions about who I believe and why. I exhorted you to place your focus where it belongs.

  11. Olga says:

    Why not answer my questions?

    Perhaps you did not condemn me, however your tone of writing is very combative.

    God Bless
    Olga

  12. Olga says:

    Why not answer my questions?

    Perhaps you did not condemn me, however your tone of writing is very combative.

    God Bless
    Olga

  13. Kathi says:

    Olga, you’ve stated that you operate from a place of hurt. I think you’re reading that hurt into what I’m saying (for example, translating me saying that I believe every word of the Bible into thinking I was saying that therefore, YOU do not)

    I’ll get back to you on the answers for the most part – dinner’s about ready.

    Ponder this for the evening. Why would God present His Son with a bride that’s weak, pathetic, and apart from some individuals, really doesn’t give a flip about Him? That’s the state of the church today…

  14. Kathi says:

    Olga, you’ve stated that you operate from a place of hurt. I think you’re reading that hurt into what I’m saying (for example, translating me saying that I believe every word of the Bible into thinking I was saying that therefore, YOU do not)

    I’ll get back to you on the answers for the most part – dinner’s about ready.

    Ponder this for the evening. Why would God present His Son with a bride that’s weak, pathetic, and apart from some individuals, really doesn’t give a flip about Him? That’s the state of the church today…

  15. Olga says:

    Hope dinner is good… However,
    Matthew 7:14
    Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
    Matthew 20:16
    So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.
    Matthew 22:14
    For many are called, but few are chosen.
    Luke 13:22-24
    22And he went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem.

    23Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them,

    24Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.

  16. Olga says:

    Hope dinner is good… However,
    Matthew 7:14
    Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
    Matthew 20:16
    So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.
    Matthew 22:14
    For many are called, but few are chosen.
    Luke 13:22-24
    22And he went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem.

    23Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them,

    24Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.

  17. Kent says:

    That is a wonderful testimony! Recently I’ve been hearing that many Muslims are being called to Jesus by dreams.

  18. Kent says:

    That is a wonderful testimony! Recently I’ve been hearing that many Muslims are being called to Jesus by dreams.

  19. Kathi says:

    Olga, I believe that’s what God was getting at in the visions and dreams I’ve been having lately. Have you read that post?

    How about you re-ask your questions without coming from a place of assuming attack where there is none?

  20. Kathi says:

    Olga, I believe that’s what God was getting at in the visions and dreams I’ve been having lately. Have you read that post?

    How about you re-ask your questions without coming from a place of assuming attack where there is none?

  21. Kathi says:

    Olga, what I’m getting at, is will you be celebrating His return, or complaining to Him about Todd Bentley?

  22. Kathi says:

    Olga, what I’m getting at, is will you be celebrating His return, or complaining to Him about Todd Bentley?

  23. Kathi,
    I never grow tired of reading your testimony. It is a powerful testimony of God’s love and strength, grace and power. Thank you for bringing it over from exW. I pray that God will continue to use it to His glory.

    In His Grace and Joy
    Sylvia

  24. Kathi,
    I never grow tired of reading your testimony. It is a powerful testimony of God’s love and strength, grace and power. Thank you for bringing it over from exW. I pray that God will continue to use it to His glory.

    In His Grace and Joy
    Sylvia

Comments are closed.