THIS is a time when God is pouring out treasures of wisdom. The apostolic and prophetic era in which we are living is bringing us new dimensions of Jesus’ light. The Scriptures are being understood with far greater clarity. There is an unprecedented revelation of the power and manifestation of the Kingdom of God. God is raising a spiritual edifice made of people who understand the spiritual arena and operate in the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
The level of revelation depends on the level of love and commitment we have to witness God’s work manifested on the earth. We must also understand the pain God suffers as He watches the world being dragged to hell.
Several times, He has permitted me to experience His pain so that I might become aware of His burning desire to set souls free.
I WAS IN HELL
Human suffering is something that has marked my life. I have been through very difficult situations. I suffered several years of both verbal and physical abuse that progressed as far as attempted murder by means of strangulation. This occurred at the beginning of my adult life. During this brutal attack, I was dead for several minutes. At that time, I had not yet received salvation through Jesus, so my soul descended to hell. As I was being strangled, I was surrounded by dark shadows that came for me. I was terrified. I fought for life with all my might, but my efforts were useless. Little by little, my body surrendered until everything stopped. The pain stopped and I no longer felt the suffocation. My soul descended into a black tunnel, as though sinking into a deep abyss. I heard voices crying in deep suffering. Slowly, hundreds of beings whose flesh was eaten away approached me. Their bony hands touched me and tried to cover me. Others pulled me from side to side. The horror was indescribable. I screamed, but my voice was lost in the void. There was light in the background, but it was not part of where I was, nor was there access to it. Darkness was all around me. I felt as though all hope had been lost and was now gone forever. My soul shuddered with oppression as I fell into the deep abyss.
It was then that the miraculous hand of God brought me back. Today, I know it was the grace and favor of Jesus that never left me. That experience drives me to fight for lost souls at any cost.
Unfortunately, it took six more years before I met the power of God and His redeeming grace. The trauma of my years of violence and fear led to great emotional instability. I spent two years in therapy with a psychiatrist. During that time and due to my condition, my two children, aged two and three, were taken from me. The pain tore me apart. My soul sank into pits of desperation and agony. The loss of my children stripped me of my desire to live. It was this desperate condition that led me into the New Age and the occult. As it often does, pain clutched me in its claws. I was easy prey; through continued lies and deceit, my soul was further torn to shreds. I was diagnosed as a chronic schizophrenic. Tormented by circumstances andspirits of self-destruction, I lost the ability to think coherently. I tried to commit suicide and was confined to a psychiatric hospital. It was there that the grace and mercy of God reached me and changed my life completely. (You can read my testimony in my book High Level Warfare.) The pain I suffered gave me sensitivity and compassion for the victims of fear, desperation, and sickness. Having been there myself, I understand that they are trapped and tormented in the shifting sands of the soul, unable to get their footing or find a way out. I hate every form of pain and fear, as they are weapons the devil uses to hurt people. These are the instruments of the empire of darkness to control and subjugate trapped humanity. Living through years of torment and depression filled me with a holy rage against satan and his destructive work. Setting souls free through the power of Jesus my Redeemer is one of the most important missions in my life. From the time I accepted the Lord as Savior, I made it my goal to be satan’s number one enemy for as long as God would give me life. This call manifested itself the day of my salvation. The first thing that came to my reborn spirit involved how to set the other people in the psychiatric hospital free as well. I knew one thing instantly: if I was there because I had been possessed by demons, then they had the same problem. And, if I was delivered by the power of Jesus of Nazareth, surely they could be, too. The next day when the pastor came to visit me, the first thing I said was, “How can we set the captives free? They are prisoners just like I was.” Since he was not a scholar of deliverance and this was not a popular teaching in those days in the days when this kind of revelation went largely unnoticed, he replied: “The Bible says that ‘these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues …’” (Mark 16:17 NKJV). He went on to ask, “Do you believe?” With firm conviction, we left my hospital room to set the demented free, one by one. Fifteen days later, 80 percent of the sick had been delivered and healed. To God be the glory! Later, I began to study in the theological institute that belonged to Pastor Christian Gomez’s church. I devoured every book on deliverance that I came across. I understood that this was the beginning of a victorious life in Jesus. Every believer had to be set free in order for the life of the Lord to shine from within, unhindered by blockages. When the Lord called me to establish my first church, traditional deliverance was a fundamental part of our function. In the majority of cases, we had magnificent results. In others, we were not as successful as we wanted to be. It was as though a piece of the puzzle was missing and it prevented us from having total victory. Today, after much growth and increased understanding of the spiritual world, I realize how God helped us in our weakness and in the elementary knowledge we had at that time. T HINGS T HAT N O M AN H AS C ONCEIVED But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9 NKJV). In the beginning of the 1980s, the Lord released a wave that was the dawn of the prophetic movement. There was not as much revelation at that time; yet, the simple, passionate love for seeing souls set free allowed God to reveal more truth. As a result, we came to understand the circumstances that give demons the legal right to torment people. God in His grace supplies all of our lack, but He desires to fill us with wisdom and knowledge. His wish is for us to be mature children with spiritual intelligence. For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding (Colossians 1:9). God desires to reveal to us the deep things of His Kingdom. The light and understanding of the mysteries of the Most High are revealed to us in the measure that we walk in love: My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:2-3). The Lord has things for us that have not yet been revealed to other generations. God makes the Church grow from glory to glory and from light to light. The things preached from pulpits today would never have been digested 100 years ago. The great evangelist Charles Finney changed history during his lifetime. Some time ago I heard a story from someone whose ancestors knew him personally. Before he died, he told me, he burned his personal book of revelations saying, “They are not ready for this,” and he destroyed a document that today would be of great inspiration. If this is true, it is indeed a great loss. Jesus said: “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear” (John 16:12). There are things we cannot handle because of our immaturity, our hardness of heart, or our religiosity. Jesus knows which revelations we may or may not be able to understand. When Jesus ascended into Heaven, He could not tell His disciples all that He would have liked to share. However, He gave the promise of the Holy Spirit to teach us all things and to help us understand the things Jesus said. This means that the Spirit brings different depths of teaching, in accordance with the level of our spiritual growth. A person who aspires to great spiritual wisdom and intelligence must spend more time with Him than others. This individual must love God and others and seek answers from the Holy Spirit. Then the things that “eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man” (1 Cor. 2:9 NKJV) will be revealed. Sometimes I meet people who ask, “Where did you get that? We never heard that before!” Well, God says that there are things that have never entered the heart of man, yet He wants to reveal them to us. They are biblical. They have always been in the Scriptures, but they have been closed and veiled so others don’t see them. He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, ‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand’” (Luke 8:10). We have entered a prophetic era and must understand these things. God is empowering this generation with more understanding than those of the past. The same way that science and technology advance, the Word of God is also being revealed in a higher way, to advance the Kingdom of God more effectively. As we spend our time fighting over words and letting “small foxes” (see Song of Sol. 2:15) rob God’s work, millions of people will remain in pain and perdition. They are all waiting for our spiritual growth so they can see the glorious manifestation of the sons and daughters of God. This is a book that will take you to a different, deeper understanding of the spiritual world—both the realms of God and the world of darkness. It is my prayer to raise a generation of people who can set the captives free with less effort and greater effectiveness than ever before.