Responding to a knock at my door, I found a short Asian man standing there. “I am your neighbor. May I come in?” he asked. Somewhat skeptical, I said, “Sure, come on in.” After a brief introduction, he asked if he could read my palm, which is fortune-telling by reading the life lines of a person’s palm. Although I knew biblically that this was forbidden, as a backslidden Christian, I allowed it anyway. “You have a secret nobody knows,” he said. He was right. 

   “Why don’t you come to my apartment, where we can read your future?” He asked. Out of curiosity, I went with him. Seated across from me at a small table, he opened a deck of Tarot cards. With anticipation, I waited for the unveiling of my future. From the top of the deck, he flipped each card, explaining how each applied to my life. He then drew a black ace of spades and placed it on the table: it was upside down.

    “This is not good,” he said as fear filled the room. With my heart racing, I mustered the courage to ask, “What is it? What does this card mean?” “This is the death card,” he said. “The death card?” I asked. “Yes,” he replied. “When the ace is upside down, it means you will die!” “How will I die?” I asked. Rising from the table, he walked to the center of the room. 

    Stopping about 10 feet away, he turned to face me. Fire appeared, engulfing him in flames. He then disappeared, and where he once stood, I appeared. Like looking in a full-length mirror, I saw myself looking back at me. Did this vision reveal my future – death by fire? This is how my father died at the age of 33. Secretly, I had always feared this would happen to me at the same age. I had heard of those who were preyed upon by people exploiting their weaknesses; mine was that of irrational fear. The vision quickly faded, and he returned to the table.

   Is this going to happen to me? “Yes,” he said, “That is, unless things change.” Fear now held me hostage. Could he really change the course of my demise by fire? I must have been thinking aloud. He then informed me, “I am a high priest of Satan.” This startled me. His statement turned the light switch on!  I was in the presence of a Satanic priest who obviously had power. The choice between light and darkness, between freedom and bondage, loomed before me.

    All my life, I ran from God. Seeking fulfillment, I trudged on, always hoping, never retreating. Now, as a victim seeking destiny, I fell into an evil trap. He used my fear to entice me, and then he sprang the bait. Although married, he suggested that the answer to my deliverance from certain death was to have a sexual relationship with him. He didn’t need to say any more. “No thanks,” I said. And with that proposition, I walked out the door.

     I walked home in the dark, but not alone. An evil spirit, like a dark cloud, hung over me. As I lay in bed, the presence of evil settled over the house. My home had become the dwelling place of a Satanic spirit. I knew only the power of God could deliver me from this evil influence.

    I knew what I would do. The next morning, I attended “The Baptist Church on the Hill.” After the sermon, the pastor invited anyone who wanted to receive Jesus Christ to come forward. I rose from my seat and walked to the front. It was the longest walk of my life. There at the Altar, I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I wept like a baby.

     My life was brand new. My hardened heart, now soft as butter, was transformed by God’s love. My guilt and shame rolled away by God’s grace. In their place was the presence of divine peace and joy. The evil Spirit that plagued me was gone. I thus gave thanks unto God,

    “Who has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son” (Colossians 1:13).

    When I arrived home, my neighbor was standing in the parking lot. With his arms crossed, it seemed he was waiting for me. I approached him and said, “You have no power over me! I just received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.” He then said that people like me are killed. I just smiled and walked off.

     On Easter Sunday, 1976, I received the gift of the Holy Spirit. As John the Baptist proclaimed, He (the Lord) will baptize you with the Spirit and with FIRE (Luke 3:16). The vision of me standing in the midst of the fire, strangely enough, came to pass. I was not destined to die as my Father did, but to live being filled with the flaming fire of the Holy Spirit. 

    I wish to say to those of you who believe in generational illness, Jesus broke the curse at Calvary. When Jesus said upon the Cross, “It is finished,” He drew the line between the old to bring in the new. Just because something happened to someone else doesn’t mean it is going to happen to you! Friends, claim your freedom today. Remember the words of Jesus who said,

    “For this purpose, the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8).

  In His love and heart – Roy Roden

Eastgate Ministries:  email roy@eastgateoffice.org