Here we go! My super, über long collection of testimonies and dreams!
I grew up in Christian home with devout parents, taught about the Gospel of Jesus and of God. Sundays were mean to me, but not as mean as Mondays because that's when I had to go back to school. I hated going to church. I viewed it as super boring, so I had to whine and complain as my parents dragged me to the services. In church we sat in our chairs, standing only to sing, but all I wanted to do was run around and waste my enormous energy. Initially, church was a time for me to play with my curly-haired blonde best friend there and draw pictures together. My friend was a few years younger and absolutely adored me. She was fascinated with my great artwork, and so I taught her how to draw people, which she copied everything I drew. She did everything I did, and we loved to bring our baby dolls and play "Babies." A few years later my friend's family moved away, and I was becoming old enough for children's Sunday School to occupy my attention. In the services I never showed interest in listening to the sermons but enjoyed the fast-paced modern praise music, sometimes springing forward to dance in the isles, much to my mother's chagrin. I was a typical little kid whose name spelled trouble. Now as a teenager, I have come to love church because I participate in worship and listen to the sermons. I don't care too much for teen Sunday School where teens gather with all the "cool Jesus" Christianity stuff, rock music, snacks and soda, Wii games, and high schoolers clumping together to hang out and talk as if church was some kind of social party. Instead I prefer the church services, the reasons being I'm shy, more comfortable surrounded by adults, love the awesome sermons, and just want to focus on glorifying God - not whispering and giggling with other kids while the youth pastor's talking and not learning as much as my spiritually hungry self wishes to devour. That's not the reason why I choose to remain a Christian, however... My faith has wavered from time to time in the past but no longer. Retrospecting to the past and having new "events" occur is more than enough convincing, by my own experiences, that God is quite real. "Enough convincing, Lord, I know You're there."
Events
Reading Jazmyn's story about bed-shaking has aided me in reminiscing my earliest memory of strange occurrences. I believe them to have been spiritual. At the time, I was possibly close to five, I did not understand what was going on. I was a little girl gently falling unconscious in my cozy bed covers when all of a sudden my bed began to tremble violently. I remember my eyes snapping open in shock. My frightened screams carried into my parents' bedroom, and they rushed in to find me sitting up in my sheets bawling. I relayed to them that "my bed was shaking!" It had ceased quivering when I screamed. My dad exchanged glances with my mother then leaned down to speak soothingly, "Calen, those were angels shaking your bed." I merely stared at him, his presence and words calming my fear, but the event itself was nerve-wracking. The next morning I was up and about, probably forgetting the whole thing. There was nothing to worry about; they were only angels. Jazmyn's testimony has made me recall what I'd forgotten long ago. When you hear the word "angel," you'd automatically picture them to be kind, beautiful winged women that bring peace and joy and watch over you. In reality, angels have no specific gender but mostly appear in a masculine form, and not all are nice. There are two main kinds of angels: angels of God and angels of Satan (demons). If encountering an angel, to test the spirit you'd have to ask whom they serve, and they cannot lie to that trap question. No demon will ever admit loyalty to God. Whatever had shaken my bed didn't seem so friendly, alarming me like that.
Myview
Mitford
It's the Illuminati Lizard People. They send the Little Grays to shake Earthlings' beds. wink
No, seriously what is going on is *Hypnic jerk*. Do you ever wake up suddenly to a falling sensation and a strong muscle twitch just after you have fallen asleep or feel your bed was shaking?
These strange sensations and muscle twitches are known as a hypnagogic myoclonic twitch or *Hypnic jerk* If this has happened to you on more than one occasion, do not worry, you are not alone. Close to 70 percent of all people experience this phenomenon just after nodding off, according to a recent study at the Mayo Clinic.
Most experts agree that this is a natural part of the sleeping process, much like slower breathing and a reduced heartbeat. The occurance is well known and has been well documented. However, experts are still not completely sure why the body does this.
The general consensus among researchers is that, as your muscles begin to slack and go into a restful state just as you are falling asleep; your brain senses these relaxation signals and misinterprets them, thinking you are falling down. The brain then sends signals to the muscles in your arms and legs in an attempt to jerk you back upright. This misinterpretation that takes place in your brain may also be responsible for the *falling* dreams that accompany the falling sensation or the feeling that your bed is shaking. These *dreams* are not really normal dreams, as they are not produced from R.E.M sleep, but rather more like a daydream or hallucination in response to the bodys sensations.
While this phenomenon happens to most everyone, studies have recently begun to link occurrences of *Hypnic jerks* to sleep anxiety, fatigue, and discomfort. People who are having trouble sleeping or cannot get comfortable in bed appear to experience the sensation more often throughout the night. It is especially more common with people who are trying to fight falling asleep or have deprived themselves of sleep for more than 24 hours.
Researchers believe that the lack of sleep from sleep anxiety or sleep deprivation confuses the muscles and the brain. The muscles continually attempt to relax and shut down for rest, while your brain remains awake creating continued *misinterpretations* of falling or loss of balance which causes the body to jerk and shake the bed.
Scientists and researchers continue to study sleep twitching and jerking in a small capacity, but state that the sensation is completely normal for our bodies and is *of little medical significance*. Our bodies go through several procedures of shutting down and preparing for an extended period of rest. *Hypnic jerking* is just one of them. It does not appear to cause damage to the body and poses no danger to our physical well being.
No, seriously what is going on is *Hypnic jerk*. Do you ever wake up suddenly to a falling sensation and a strong muscle twitch just after you have fallen asleep or feel your bed was shaking?
These strange sensations and muscle twitches are known as a hypnagogic myoclonic twitch or *Hypnic jerk* If this has happened to you on more than one occasion, do not worry, you are not alone. Close to 70 percent of all people experience this phenomenon just after nodding off, according to a recent study at the Mayo Clinic.
Most experts agree that this is a natural part of the sleeping process, much like slower breathing and a reduced heartbeat. The occurance is well known and has been well documented. However, experts are still not completely sure why the body does this.
The general consensus among researchers is that, as your muscles begin to slack and go into a restful state just as you are falling asleep; your brain senses these relaxation signals and misinterprets them, thinking you are falling down. The brain then sends signals to the muscles in your arms and legs in an attempt to jerk you back upright. This misinterpretation that takes place in your brain may also be responsible for the *falling* dreams that accompany the falling sensation or the feeling that your bed is shaking. These *dreams* are not really normal dreams, as they are not produced from R.E.M sleep, but rather more like a daydream or hallucination in response to the bodys sensations.
While this phenomenon happens to most everyone, studies have recently begun to link occurrences of *Hypnic jerks* to sleep anxiety, fatigue, and discomfort. People who are having trouble sleeping or cannot get comfortable in bed appear to experience the sensation more often throughout the night. It is especially more common with people who are trying to fight falling asleep or have deprived themselves of sleep for more than 24 hours.
Researchers believe that the lack of sleep from sleep anxiety or sleep deprivation confuses the muscles and the brain. The muscles continually attempt to relax and shut down for rest, while your brain remains awake creating continued *misinterpretations* of falling or loss of balance which causes the body to jerk and shake the bed.
Scientists and researchers continue to study sleep twitching and jerking in a small capacity, but state that the sensation is completely normal for our bodies and is *of little medical significance*. Our bodies go through several procedures of shutting down and preparing for an extended period of rest. *Hypnic jerking* is just one of them. It does not appear to cause damage to the body and poses no danger to our physical well being.
Well everyone can take this for what it's worth...believe it or don't ...I have had these experiences for years. The jerks, I will agree are very explainable. They are a "natural" thing. The bed shaking however is "supernatural". I don't agree with pyschics or mediums but I do know that it is the presence of a spirit that causes this phenomenon. The paralysis is also caused by spirits. I was actually awakened last night to a fierce shaking and awoke to find a spirit leaning over my bed. When u get in those situations u don't need a catholic priest because they are not the only ones who have the right to cast out spirits. We all have that privalege. Call on the name of Jesus and they must flee. It doesn't mean that they won't continue to return but Jesus' name is always available. God bless!
I was maybe ten or twelve and getting ready for bed when the next queer thing happened. Every night I prayed, either standing up, kneeling by my bedside, or sitting or laying down on the sheet-covered mattress. It was a regular night, and I had remembered how I used to pray for God's guardian angels to watch over me at night and protect me from the mean, bad angels that loathed me because I was God's little princess. That's what my Lutheran parents taught me to pray, as well as praying for others, right after I'd prayed the Lord's Prayer. I hadn't done this in a long while, so I asked God to send down His heavenly angels again to guard me as I slept and keep away evil. This is where things got weird. Right when I'd ended the prayer with "Amen," (1) the whole atmosphere shifted in my room. The change could literally be felt, it was a tangible feeling I know I did not imagine, as if oppression in my room unnoticed before was forced to evacuate, and a calming peace remained. The oppressive air was lifted. I was puzzled but not scared. All around me was a light, warm, fuzzy peace oozing all over the place giving me no sense to fear. I surveyed the bedroom with a strange, suspicious look on my face before slowly climbing into bed.
As a thirteen-year-old I somehow buried myself in witchcraft, intrigued by the spells and the results some boasted about on YouTube and blog sites. I especially found mermaid spells alluring, because one time I crossed my ankles and had my hair in its naturally wavy/curly appearance, and a girl commented to me how I looked so much like a mermaid. Taking fun quizzes I did a few "What Mythological Creature Are You?" types and usually scored as a mermaid. I thought if I could somehow get a fish tail my life would be so much more interesting! Of course watching H2O: Just Add Water helped influence my want to be a mythological creature and have a more exciting life. So I looked up some spells, found something promising with good reviews, and filled my bathtub with warm water, sprinkling in table salt. I turned off the lights. I recited the printed out spell out loud then waited for a feeling or voice to tell me what to do next, which the spell said would happen. I got an urge to lay down in the water, so I obeyed. Then I got out and pulled the drain. The next few days I was constantly thirsty. Drinking eight water bottles every four hours. My mom was concerned, wondering if I had to go to the doctor, and I ate a lot of Goldfish, chips, and crackers because I craved the salt. My legs ached and felt heavy as lead, but I was unperturbed, expecting the possible side effects listed. It was to be a month before the spell said the transformation would be complete. Touching water would morph me into a mermaid. Keeping dry would mean I stayed human. A week or two before the month ended I had a few brownish splotches on my legs I hid from my parents. They were scaly to the touch. Other people, not all, received similar results. Then one girl's post on a blog rang as clear as day like an alarm bell: "Guys, you gotta stop doing those spells! My friend, she did mermaid spells and then outside her house spirits started calling her name, and now she's afraid to go out of the house! Her dad also had a dream where a spirit appeared by her bed while she was sleeping. This is scary. You have to stop." I was skeptical on the post's credibility, but it opened my eyes a bit on what possible dangers I could face. Some day later I hinted to my dad, "I'm becoming a mermaid." I don't know why I decided to confess, but it was for the best in the long run. He caught on quickly. "Calen, are you doing witchcraft?" I hesitated. "Yeah...but...but Dad, couldn't I be a mermaid and a Christian at the same time? I promise I'll read the Bible everyday!" He shook his head, a frown firmly planted on his lips. "No, Calen. You cannot serve two masters at the same time. And God abominates witchcraft." (Matthew 6:24) (Deuteronomy 18:9-13) We then sat down at the table, and he read to me a Celtic myth, which is about a creature with the upper body of a man and lower body of a fish appearing and teaching fishermen the arts and magic. I repented before God and hadn't realized the splotches disappeared until later.
An amazing event occurred while I was showering as a fifteen-year-old. Occasionally after hearing a song I like, especially if it had a catchy tune, I would replay it in my mind, but this is different, and no, I'm not schizophrenic, and I doubt this was a hallucination. One morning, and all this happened only once, a man with a lovely voice was singing in my head. He sang softly to me in a lullaby, and I was still half asleep, stepping into the shower, enjoying the gentle voice but not really listening. It was relaxing, and so was the hot water. It was Phantom of the Opera's "Music of the Night." In case you're unfamiliar with it, these are the lyrics:
Night time sharpens, heightens each sensation
Darkness stirs and wakes imagination
Silently the senses abandon their defenses
Slowly, gently night unfurls its splendor
Grasp it, sense it, tremulous and tender
Turn your face away from the garish light of day
Turn your thoughts away from cold unfeeling light
And listen to the music of the night
Close your eyes and surrender to your darkest dreams
Purge your thoughts of the life you knew before
Close your eyes, let your spirit start to soar
And you live as you've never lived before
Softly, deftly, music shall caress you
Hear it, feel it secretly possess you
Open up your mind, let your fantasies unwind
In this darkness that you know you cannot fight
The darkness of the music of the night
Let your mind start a journey to a strange new world
Leave all thoughts of the life you knew before
Let your soul take you where you long to be
Only then can you belong to me
Floating, falling, sweet intoxication
Touch me, trust me, savor each sensation
Let the dream begin, let your darker side give in
To the power of the music that I write
The power of the music of the night
You alone can make my song take flight
Help me make the music of the night
It's a creepy song, in my opinion, and I really had no idea why it was playing out in my head with the male voice treating me as if I was a baby in a rocker. I've heard the song before but don't know it very well. So, I was showering with this singing going on, and the voice suddenly grew desperate and demanding simultaneously as if it eagerly desired to tell me what to do, still maintaining it's musical melody. "Turn your face away from God! Turn your thoughts away from God! And listen to me.....only then can you belong to me..." I was seriously alarmed when these lyrics slithered past my mind, eyes wide as saucers. I recognized who it was. The solo singing was more aggressive now, and I felt I had to do something... I yelled in my head, "In the name of the Lord, stop singing to me!!!" Then I listened. Silence. Joy bubbled inside me, and I began singing a song of praise out of sheer happiness (where did that joy come from?). I sang "Indescribable," a favorite Christian song I'd memorized. Less than halfway through came the humming of a choir in the background to my exalting song. I got distracted by the beautiful voices flowing like water through a flowery meadow but continued singing to the end of the song, the angelic voices intensifying in power. When my voice terminated, thousands of breathtaking voices resounded loud and clear, singing gorgeously and triumphantly, "HALLELUJAH.....HALLELUJAH!!!!!" (2) I was momentarily paralyzed in awe, hardly believing this was happening. I shivered like crazy although not cold, goosebumps rising from the power, feeling emotional and overwhelmed. This was rare and my first. To this day I've never heard these angels again. The thing was, these angels incessantly sang with a victorious attitude all day long, even while I was at school. I never grew tired of it but was grateful they quieted down during class sessions so I could concentrate. However, once I stepped into the hallways again, thousands of voices blasted right at me in their celebration. I observed early on whether anyone else was aware of the singing, maybe acting odd. I spoke not a word, because obviously no one was hearing anything out of the norm. I didn't want people to think I was crazy.
The following event occurred three months after I turned sixteen. After mentioning the story to my mom, she brought up a surprising addition. As it was a major test of faith for me, my mother was tested in her faith as well. She stood by my father's side while he searched on his computer the remnants of a mysteriously corrupted document ("Demons are capable of messing with technology," he noted a few months later, which was his theory), while any other document on the same program were unharmed. Only the document containing my work for school were lost...supposedly forever. "I can't find it," Dad shook his head. "Yes, you can," Mom urged. Mom stated with a sure expression how she prayed tenaciously, and the results led to the Holy Spirit guiding my dad to a software that had the ability to recover my crashed document. <<
Dramatica Angeliqua
This is a personal testimony of mine, the first one I've ever recorded in detail but not the first I had experienced. It is the most recent event that had happened to me. Copied and pasted from my computer:
2/15/12
Here's an inspiration for you:
I am still shocked by what happened today after high school. Every student has to write a chapel talk and present it on a specific date in the year, and I had been postponing it because I was reluctant to do it; therefore, I waited until the last minute. Today was really pressuring for me because all the teachers came up to me to nag me about my speech and that it had to be done NOW because my practice presentation is tomorrow. I threw back a few resistant complaints and cried twice out of frustration and stress. I had a pretty bad day today on February 15.
When I got home, my mom was stern with me, telling me she had gotten a call from one of my teachers, and they had also noted I may have a sign of depression. I acted snappish and felt like a jerk.
I trudged upstairs to wash my face, and when I patted it dry with a towel, a thought came to me in a very quiet voice saying, "You need to have a talk with God. You cannot hide this from Him, and you cannot get through your problems alone. Go talk to Him." Now, this was merely a suggestion that the Holy Spirit strongly recommended me to do in what appeared to be a thought of my own... but the words didn't belong to me. I could have turned down the suggestion if I had wished to, but I was feeling like crud and agreed that I needed to converse with God.
So I began, wracking my brain for something to say and how to address God with my issue, "God, I'm sorry that I haven't been talking to You normally in a while. I've only been running to You when I needed help, and I feel like I haven't properly had a Father/daughter talk for so long... I realize that I can't just think about myself when everything's fine and suddenly need Your help when life goes wrong. Please forgive me. But Lord, I ask again for Your help because I'm feeling depressed, and I don't know how I'll get my entire speech written. Lord, I really need You to give me the strength and motivation to finish my paper and to take away my depression. Amen."
I was sobbing a bit (for the third time) because it's so emotional for me to pray to God. I often cry when talking to Him because I love Him... I came back downstairs and sat at the kitchen table with my mom. I felt so strangely at ease, and I had the strongest urge to give my mother a hug and a kiss. I told my mom of my prayer to God and how I suddenly felt calm afterwards. We both knew God had immediately and willingly taken away the horrible feeling in my heart. He had heard me.
My mom and I began on my speech, going over brainstormed ideas written on a scrap sheet of paper, and I typed away on my iPad (with a separate keyboard that links to my iPad through wireless BlueTooth) with my mom helping me along. My dad finally came home from work, for we could see, sitting by the window, that his car pulled in the driveway. Supper was ready, and afterwards I returned to working on my speech. All of a sudden, the Pages document crashed, and I was unable to return back to my essay. I could open up any of my other Pages documents, but not the one that had crashed: the one with my speech. I started having anxiety attacks, and my mom asked my dad to figure out the problem and recover the document (he's an engineer and a whiz on technology). My mind retrospected to earlier in the afternoon to the voice in my head that told me now was the time to speak with God and and to my prayer, trying to follow the voice's advice that I couldn't do this without Him, but I didn't have much luck calming myself down with those recent memories. I tried to assure myself that God was in control of everything that happened. And I had nothing to fear. But still...I was doubting.
Then, with such love shining in her eyes, my mom gazed directly at me, took both of my hands into hers, and said, "Have you ever heard of faith?" I was astonished, and I could only stare at her, dumbfounded, as she looked at me with such intensity...full of love!
"Mom, you read my mind," I could only answer.
She smiled. "God will do anything for you if you will only have faith in Him. You need to trust in Him completely that everything will work out."
Then we prayed together, still holding hands, for God to help my dad retrieve the document again. I still doubted that even if I put all my faith into God saving my speech document (which if it was never found again, I would burst into tears), the document would never be recovered, and all my hard work and effort would be lost. I was extremely worried and afraid something bad would happen. "But Mom, what if my paper's gone?"
"It won't be," she assured me confidently. "Your dad will find it again, I promise you. Put your trust in God, and your paper will be found. There's no reason to be scared because He is in control and always there for you."
I found myself holding hands tightly with her as if I was afraid that if I let my hands go, then God wouldn't recover my chapel talk document. It was a silly notion, but I felt rather safe and peaceful holding hands with her. I didn't want to let go. My mom casually suggested I write down any thoughts pertaining to the essay that could be added. I was hesitant and timidly explained to her I didn't want to write at the moment. She smiled as if she was amused and stated, "Are you afraid that God won't save your speech if we let our hands go?"
I sighed. "Mom, you read my mind again." So, I cautiously unlaced our intertwined fingers, breathing an inner sigh of relief when I found I was still in a calm state of mind. A Bible verse came to mind, and I told my mother, "Jesus said that if I had faith as small as a mustard seed, I could say to this mountain, 'move' and it will be done. Nothing will be impossible for me if my faith in God is strong enough." (Matthew 17:20 Paraphrased)
(An hour later)
My dad traveled back downstairs with my iPad and some pages printed out. He told me my speech document had corrupted, but he was able to copy the manuscript and email it to me. The pages printed out were the manuscript, my speech with a few strange symbols added here and there. I deleted the weird text from the document and – ta da – my document was a new one with my speech in it! I was so excited and thankful to God for supporting me as much as He did. I couldn't thank Him enough for what He had done. I later told my mom that I believed the Holy Spirit spoke to me through her because of the overwhelming love pouring out of her, and she said she believed so, as well, because she felt the love of the Spirit (yeah, at that time my mom had been acting freaky like she was somebody else). I also concurred to my mom that the Spirit aided my dad in recovering my crashed speech. He had no idea how or why it crashed when all the other documents were perfectly fine. Definitely something bizarre happened!
My mom and I came to the conclusion that God chose the right time for my document to crash on me. He allowed it to happen at the perfect time: after my dad had come home (to fix it for me later on). He let it crash on purpose, I believe, so that I could rely on Him and try to convince myself over and over: Everything will be fine! Everything goes according to God's plan! Trust in Him! He was helping me grow stronger in my faith as I had asked Him. This was where a Bible verse came to mind along with a mental image of Jesus standing on the waves and one of His disciples, Peter, coming toward Him before realizing he was walking on water and panicked. He cried out, "Lord, save me!" Jesus caught him so Peter wouldn't sink and said to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" (Matthew 14:22-31 Paraphrased)
When those verses came to mind, I had asked God, "Lord I want to have faith in You. Please strengthen my faith!" In this case, God was doing exactly that. He caused my iPad to do a weird thing so my faith would grow even more.
Yes, my faith has been strengthened even more, and after my confrontation with God, I felt His strong presence linger in the house, made obviously known. I'm just in a state of shock and admiration for what a wonderful Father He is!!! My speech is finally done, for I have been working on it for 8 hours. I'm relieved that it's over with and so proud with what I've written! Too bad I wasn't able to do any of my other homework. Still, I knew that God had helped me even if it wasn't what I expected. When you ask God for help, He often aids you in surprising ways you do not expect or would not hope for. Whatever the reason God chooses to do it that way, He must see very good results and that this, whatever it is, is the best way out of all the possible choices.
"And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." (John 14:13 KJV)
Yeah, that's my story. On February 22nd when I was leaving art class early so I can get to chapel (the auditorium called "Assembly" by the middle school and "Chapel" by the high school, although not church-related) where I would meet Mary Heyward and Kaylie, two of my classmates who were also going to give speeches, I went into the restroom to wash my clay-covered hands. Before I did that, I prayed to the Lord to give me the strength to speak and to calm my anxiety. Butterflies were wildly dancing in my stomach, and I knew I couldn't do this without God. When I had said, "Amen," the bathroom door suddenly opened and a girl casually walked in. I immediately went to washing my hands and pretended nothing happened.
"But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." (Matthew 6:6 KJV)
I had prayed in secret, and God rewarded me openly with my chapel talk presentation and with the compliments that soon followed for weeks after. Countless people came up to me in shock, saying that my delivery was powerful and inspirational; one person had even admitted my speech made them shiver (because of the power). I couldn't do it like I did without a supernatural force such as God. I humbly refuse to take all the glory, because I insist it was God who had delivered the speech, not me. So I'm giving all the credit to the Rightful Owner. He is faithful to me as I am faithful to Him, and I declare that without God I am nothing. I am nothing without God.
2/15/12
Here's an inspiration for you:
I am still shocked by what happened today after high school. Every student has to write a chapel talk and present it on a specific date in the year, and I had been postponing it because I was reluctant to do it; therefore, I waited until the last minute. Today was really pressuring for me because all the teachers came up to me to nag me about my speech and that it had to be done NOW because my practice presentation is tomorrow. I threw back a few resistant complaints and cried twice out of frustration and stress. I had a pretty bad day today on February 15.
When I got home, my mom was stern with me, telling me she had gotten a call from one of my teachers, and they had also noted I may have a sign of depression. I acted snappish and felt like a jerk.
I trudged upstairs to wash my face, and when I patted it dry with a towel, a thought came to me in a very quiet voice saying, "You need to have a talk with God. You cannot hide this from Him, and you cannot get through your problems alone. Go talk to Him." Now, this was merely a suggestion that the Holy Spirit strongly recommended me to do in what appeared to be a thought of my own... but the words didn't belong to me. I could have turned down the suggestion if I had wished to, but I was feeling like crud and agreed that I needed to converse with God.
So I began, wracking my brain for something to say and how to address God with my issue, "God, I'm sorry that I haven't been talking to You normally in a while. I've only been running to You when I needed help, and I feel like I haven't properly had a Father/daughter talk for so long... I realize that I can't just think about myself when everything's fine and suddenly need Your help when life goes wrong. Please forgive me. But Lord, I ask again for Your help because I'm feeling depressed, and I don't know how I'll get my entire speech written. Lord, I really need You to give me the strength and motivation to finish my paper and to take away my depression. Amen."
I was sobbing a bit (for the third time) because it's so emotional for me to pray to God. I often cry when talking to Him because I love Him... I came back downstairs and sat at the kitchen table with my mom. I felt so strangely at ease, and I had the strongest urge to give my mother a hug and a kiss. I told my mom of my prayer to God and how I suddenly felt calm afterwards. We both knew God had immediately and willingly taken away the horrible feeling in my heart. He had heard me.
My mom and I began on my speech, going over brainstormed ideas written on a scrap sheet of paper, and I typed away on my iPad (with a separate keyboard that links to my iPad through wireless BlueTooth) with my mom helping me along. My dad finally came home from work, for we could see, sitting by the window, that his car pulled in the driveway. Supper was ready, and afterwards I returned to working on my speech. All of a sudden, the Pages document crashed, and I was unable to return back to my essay. I could open up any of my other Pages documents, but not the one that had crashed: the one with my speech. I started having anxiety attacks, and my mom asked my dad to figure out the problem and recover the document (he's an engineer and a whiz on technology). My mind retrospected to earlier in the afternoon to the voice in my head that told me now was the time to speak with God and and to my prayer, trying to follow the voice's advice that I couldn't do this without Him, but I didn't have much luck calming myself down with those recent memories. I tried to assure myself that God was in control of everything that happened. And I had nothing to fear. But still...I was doubting.
Then, with such love shining in her eyes, my mom gazed directly at me, took both of my hands into hers, and said, "Have you ever heard of faith?" I was astonished, and I could only stare at her, dumbfounded, as she looked at me with such intensity...full of love!
"Mom, you read my mind," I could only answer.
She smiled. "God will do anything for you if you will only have faith in Him. You need to trust in Him completely that everything will work out."
Then we prayed together, still holding hands, for God to help my dad retrieve the document again. I still doubted that even if I put all my faith into God saving my speech document (which if it was never found again, I would burst into tears), the document would never be recovered, and all my hard work and effort would be lost. I was extremely worried and afraid something bad would happen. "But Mom, what if my paper's gone?"
"It won't be," she assured me confidently. "Your dad will find it again, I promise you. Put your trust in God, and your paper will be found. There's no reason to be scared because He is in control and always there for you."
I found myself holding hands tightly with her as if I was afraid that if I let my hands go, then God wouldn't recover my chapel talk document. It was a silly notion, but I felt rather safe and peaceful holding hands with her. I didn't want to let go. My mom casually suggested I write down any thoughts pertaining to the essay that could be added. I was hesitant and timidly explained to her I didn't want to write at the moment. She smiled as if she was amused and stated, "Are you afraid that God won't save your speech if we let our hands go?"
I sighed. "Mom, you read my mind again." So, I cautiously unlaced our intertwined fingers, breathing an inner sigh of relief when I found I was still in a calm state of mind. A Bible verse came to mind, and I told my mother, "Jesus said that if I had faith as small as a mustard seed, I could say to this mountain, 'move' and it will be done. Nothing will be impossible for me if my faith in God is strong enough." (Matthew 17:20 Paraphrased)
(An hour later)
My dad traveled back downstairs with my iPad and some pages printed out. He told me my speech document had corrupted, but he was able to copy the manuscript and email it to me. The pages printed out were the manuscript, my speech with a few strange symbols added here and there. I deleted the weird text from the document and – ta da – my document was a new one with my speech in it! I was so excited and thankful to God for supporting me as much as He did. I couldn't thank Him enough for what He had done. I later told my mom that I believed the Holy Spirit spoke to me through her because of the overwhelming love pouring out of her, and she said she believed so, as well, because she felt the love of the Spirit (yeah, at that time my mom had been acting freaky like she was somebody else). I also concurred to my mom that the Spirit aided my dad in recovering my crashed speech. He had no idea how or why it crashed when all the other documents were perfectly fine. Definitely something bizarre happened!
My mom and I came to the conclusion that God chose the right time for my document to crash on me. He allowed it to happen at the perfect time: after my dad had come home (to fix it for me later on). He let it crash on purpose, I believe, so that I could rely on Him and try to convince myself over and over: Everything will be fine! Everything goes according to God's plan! Trust in Him! He was helping me grow stronger in my faith as I had asked Him. This was where a Bible verse came to mind along with a mental image of Jesus standing on the waves and one of His disciples, Peter, coming toward Him before realizing he was walking on water and panicked. He cried out, "Lord, save me!" Jesus caught him so Peter wouldn't sink and said to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" (Matthew 14:22-31 Paraphrased)
When those verses came to mind, I had asked God, "Lord I want to have faith in You. Please strengthen my faith!" In this case, God was doing exactly that. He caused my iPad to do a weird thing so my faith would grow even more.
Yes, my faith has been strengthened even more, and after my confrontation with God, I felt His strong presence linger in the house, made obviously known. I'm just in a state of shock and admiration for what a wonderful Father He is!!! My speech is finally done, for I have been working on it for 8 hours. I'm relieved that it's over with and so proud with what I've written! Too bad I wasn't able to do any of my other homework. Still, I knew that God had helped me even if it wasn't what I expected. When you ask God for help, He often aids you in surprising ways you do not expect or would not hope for. Whatever the reason God chooses to do it that way, He must see very good results and that this, whatever it is, is the best way out of all the possible choices.
"And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." (John 14:13 KJV)
Yeah, that's my story. On February 22nd when I was leaving art class early so I can get to chapel (the auditorium called "Assembly" by the middle school and "Chapel" by the high school, although not church-related) where I would meet Mary Heyward and Kaylie, two of my classmates who were also going to give speeches, I went into the restroom to wash my clay-covered hands. Before I did that, I prayed to the Lord to give me the strength to speak and to calm my anxiety. Butterflies were wildly dancing in my stomach, and I knew I couldn't do this without God. When I had said, "Amen," the bathroom door suddenly opened and a girl casually walked in. I immediately went to washing my hands and pretended nothing happened.
"But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." (Matthew 6:6 KJV)
I had prayed in secret, and God rewarded me openly with my chapel talk presentation and with the compliments that soon followed for weeks after. Countless people came up to me in shock, saying that my delivery was powerful and inspirational; one person had even admitted my speech made them shiver (because of the power). I couldn't do it like I did without a supernatural force such as God. I humbly refuse to take all the glory, because I insist it was God who had delivered the speech, not me. So I'm giving all the credit to the Rightful Owner. He is faithful to me as I am faithful to Him, and I declare that without God I am nothing. I am nothing without God.
Not long after, I got into an argument with a Wiccan witch/medium on Gaia Online, trying to convince her communicating with spirits was dangerous, and demons existed just as well as angels (she disagreed, only believing in benevolent entities). As a medium, and like any medium, she summons supposed ghosts of the deceased. These so-called familiar spirits, I attempted to explain, were a mere, commonly used disguise to deceive the gullible human by malevolent entities. I can say the same for aliens, since they're ghostly and tend to leap from the spiritual realm as some stories I've read indicate in researching aliens. In that process, as I cared enough to confront and warn her, I searched demonic sites and videos to show her evidence that not all angels were sunshine and lilies. In doing so I had unknowingly opened a door for demonic attacks. For two nights in a row I was plagued with very uncomfortable dreams associated with satanism on February 18 and 19. The first included an altar with a lit candle and an inverted pentagram, and the second was crossing over a 666 landmark to be protected from some kind of curse. Before the second dream was a visualization of three snow white angels with hard, cold eyes devoid of love and warmth gazing down at me. Out of all that whiteness were luminous violet eyes. I dreaded a third dream completely expected to come, so I spoke up about it to some friends. They supported and prayed for me, one person saying she experienced the same thing when on some dark websites. I felt relieved and somehow knew those dreams would bother me no longer.
Kekku.
Dramatica Angeliqua
Kekku.
When I read your post in the guild about your demonic experiences, I suddenly remembered a horrible time in my life when I had experienced demons myself. My story is the exact same as yours. I read a few demonic articles online out of curiosity, and after that, I had experiences where I had dreams and literally could feel the demons around me. This was also after I was saved. I won't go into too much detail, as I don't want to cause you any more harm, but I just want you to know that you're not alone.
So how did I overcome it? How is it that I no longer fear? It's because I remember the scripture that says, "He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world." I also remember that God is infinitely more powerful than the enemy. Which, of course, means that the Holy Spirit is infinitely more powerful than demons. Do not worry. Pray to God and remember that He can't ever be defeated. Constantly pray. I have prayed for you as well.
So how did I overcome it? How is it that I no longer fear? It's because I remember the scripture that says, "He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world." I also remember that God is infinitely more powerful than the enemy. Which, of course, means that the Holy Spirit is infinitely more powerful than demons. Do not worry. Pray to God and remember that He can't ever be defeated. Constantly pray. I have prayed for you as well.
Thank you... You don't know how much this means to me...
It's no problem. 3nodding Take care, and be strong.
Footnotes:
(1) Amen - Said at the end of prayers, in Hebrew it means "So be it" or "So shall it be."
(2) Hallelujah - Commonly used as a means to express celebration used by both Christians and non-Christians alike; used in worship songs; in Hebrew it means "Praise the Lord."