Recently. I watched a documentary about ‘encounters with evil’. Police investigative and psychological interviews (+ descriptions) of people who they considered evil.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some of the acts were gruesome, the detective work to find and convict them riveting. But one particular phrase really grabbed me:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nWhat is it like to come face to face with evil?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
While these heinous crimes were disgusting, there is a difference between those who do evil things and evil itself\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
I remember clearly the day I came face to face with actual evil. A spiritual entity that had so much power it captivated me. A master manipulator, this \u2018being’ was very personal\u2026 \u00a0<\/p>\n
It came directly to me, and tempted me to say \u2018yes\u2019 in the most devious manner. As a drug addict, regular binge drinker, wheeler and dealer – nothing really surprised or phased me. But this event changed the playing field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I was talking with a friend about how I was starting to have negative experiences while using drugs. Something where quite strange and he asked me:<\/p>\n
\n\u2018do you think that was a demon\u2019? <\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
As the word demon was mentioned, the death metal tape that was playing chewed up and stopped.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This was a quality deck and good tape – and had *never* happened before. I put a different tape in the other side of the player and hit play. As we talked the word \u2018demon\u2019 came up again and the second taped chewed as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My friend started screaming and ran out saying \u2018my brother worships the devil & is going to kill himself\u2019. (This sadly came true a little while later). I lay down bewildered by these events, and was confronted with this evil \u2018being’ immediately.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was as real and powerful as a confrontation with the police or aggressive drunk.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A large eye, (presumably attached to a being), started to close in on me from beyond the ceiling. I wasn\u2019t aware of the rest of the being, the eye was so powerful, so captivating it was all I could engage with. As it got closer, at the exact place where it was as close and big as it could be before I was scared, it issued a challenge:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\u201cCan you handle the rush of letting me in?\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
It was the most tempting event of my life, even though I somehow knew that if I \u2018let it in\u2019 I would no longer be in control\u2026<\/p>\n
I was a control freak – I *had* to be in control to protect myself. But even then, this was *incredibly* hard to say no.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This was true evil. It knew my weakness. It wanted my destruction. It played the *perfect* part to get me to willingly submit. Thankfully, other events in my life had laid a foundation so I knew that allowing entrance would be the end. Ironically, I *hated* the people and place that gave me the information that kept me safe – I saw them as evil!\u00a0<\/p>\n
Amazingly, I got up & went back out to the party, and this event was pushed out of my mind altogether until years later. I\u2019d love to know if it were the same night I ended up in hospital after a high speed chase, but it\u2019s too much of a blur to know.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Regardless, I think things would have been dramatically different if I had allowed this \u2018being\u2019 in.\u00a0<\/p>\n
How many of these types of things were \u2018forgotten\u2019? I really have no idea, but what I do know is, I was only fully aware<\/em> of the reality of this evil and the influence it had on me when it actually left\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
Years later, on a trip into the \u2018bush\u2019 to end my life, I started reading the Bible (which talked about demons quite a bit). It spoke things I had never imagined and had me riveted – I could not put it down!<\/p>\n
At one point, I said sorry to God for my sin, (all the bad things I had done). Up until now I didn\u2019t think they were bad, but as I went through the list, I suddenly wept & saw that these sins were against this God I didn\u2019t believe existed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He knew that I would sin, He knew that I would hurt people, He knew what a truly horrible person I would be, but He gave me life anyway. And more than that – He\u00a0loved me anyway! And even more that – He sent Jesus, His only Son, to die in my place anyway?!\u00a0<\/p>\n
To cut a powerful and long experience very short, I wept for quite a while and when I stopped?\u00a0<\/p>\n
There was SILENCE. It was a compleet shock to me:<\/p>\n
\n\u2018Why is it so quiet?\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Where are all those voices?\u00a0<\/p>\n
The voices had been incessant for years, but I wasn\u2019t really aware of them. Not until right now when they stopped. NOW I could tell just how full on, how loud, how destructive they were. CRAZY!\u00a0<\/p>\n
Finally I understood the meaning of the word \u2018peace\u2019. I had clarity, freedom from addictions and a completely different nature right away. I *wanted* to do good and please God, a 180\u00ba turn about that continues to amaze me 20+ years later!\u00a0<\/p>\n
I understand how real, how powerful and how tempting an encounter with evil can be. If you have had them, I don\u2019t think you are weird or mental. And I know the Answer to them\u2026there is only One:<\/p>\n
His name is Jesus, the Christ, the King – ruler of all, of whom the angels sing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Born & lived sin free, nailed to a tree, becoming a curse for you and me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then He rose again, defeating death and the full evil breadth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He doesn\u2019t trick or deceive, force or threaten. But He does offer you a secure place in Heaven.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In His home, with God the Father, your place prepared, with Him forever shared. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Adopted as a son, forgiven from everything ever done, with God becoming one.\u00a0<\/p>\n
#thankYouJesus<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
If you need help or are suicidal, please talk to someone, call a hotline – a friend – anyone, right now. Death is final and you have more value than you know.<\/p>\n
You are loved and special! Believe me – I know.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lifeline: 131114 \u00a0 24 hours.<\/p>\n
Lifelink: 08 9381 5555 \u00a0\/ Free Country 1800 198 313 \u00a024 hours.<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.suicide.org\/hotlines\/international\/australia-suicide-hotlines.html\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Recently. I watched a documentary about ‘encounters with evil’. Police investigative and psychological interviews (+ descriptions) of people who they considered evil.\u00a0 Some of the acts were gruesome, the detective work to find and convict them riveting. But one particular phrase really grabbed me:\u00a0 What is it like to come face to face with evil? While these heinous crimes were disgusting, there is a difference between those who do evil things and evil itself\u2026\u00a0 I remember clearly the day I came face to face with actual evil. A spiritual entity that had so much power it captivated me. A master …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18,240,136],"tags":[67,167,91],"class_list":["post-1774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-for-thought","category-newman-trip","category-suffering","tag-addiction","tag-demons","tag-satan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Satan-Demon-Evil-Eye-Red-bloodshot-Freedom-through-Jesus.jpg?fit=1730%2C1432&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pasDCW-sC","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1774"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1790,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774\/revisions\/1790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}