I grew up in the Catholic Church having been born in Cuba. I turned away from the Catholic Church as a teenager because the "ceremony" of the church wasn't filling the void in me nor keeping my interest. I went wild with drugs, drinking and partying in night clubs. Being a musician help me fund that kind of lifestyle. One day I just got tired of my life going up in smoke and nothing to show for it. I tried stopping the drugs myself with no success. I knew that I needed God but didn't think that Christianity was the way to God because of associating Christianity with Catholicism which was all that I knew. I was told by a family member about santeria which is a form of voodoo mixed with Catholicism. I was told that the blood sacrifices were made to spiritual beings and that I could understand them as "angels" and that they would be my way to God. I saved the money required to go to Cuba via Mexico in 1996 and entered the "religion". I was baptized in the name of the "angel" that I was supposedly born under and went through the entire three week initiation which included denying any personal comfort. At the end of the initiation I felt something that I had never felt before and believed that I had found my way to God. I had been dating a young lady who was a Christian "backslider" at the time who had given me a little New Testament Bible which I had begun reading in Cuba. When I returned she and I argued about what I had done not being "of God". The entire time of this arguing, I spoke to God many times saying "look if I am wrong about this, You are going to have to show me because I felt something in Cuba". I continued reading the New Testament and one day came across a scripture saying "Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,"
(Col. 2:18) This scripture really hit me hard and made me wonder about a lot of things. The Lord was knocking on my heart door...
I finally agreed to go to church with my female friend. I went with her a couple of times and noticed that people were clapping, singing and shouting "hallelujah". I had never seen that in church before and asked her what type of church was it. She said that it was a undenominational Charismatic Pentecostal church. This church was also over a 2 hour drive from where we were living at the time. Well it just so happened that we lived a mile or so from an Apostolic Pentecostal church. We agreed to go that following Sunday and check it out. I was amazed at how friendly everyone was to the point of being a little cautious. People that nice on the streets were usually trying to hustle you! They gave us a gift of banana bread and everyone welcomed us there. We went into the sanctuary and the service began. With the start of the live music, people began to run, shout, dance and speak in other languages! I had really never seen anything like this before and was considering making a run for it except for the fact that I was feeling a Spiritual presence like I had never felt before. What I was feeling was so much more powerful than what I had felt in Cuba! I remember to this day what that message was titled which was "Let God be true and every man a liar" The pastor of the church talked about how the Apostles were the first church and that they had it right being personally taught by Jesus Christ. The message included how the salvation message that the Apostles preached was repentance, which is being sorry for and turning away from sin, baptism in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and the in filling of the gift of the Holy Spirit with the initial evidence of speaking in other languages which gives you the power to be what God wants you to be and overcome sin. I was amazed that I had never heard this message before but knew I was hearing the Truth in my very soul. It felt so good in the presence of God Himself. I knew that this was the real deal because I had recently experienced the fake deal! The preaching included a warning that if we don't know the Biblical truth for ourselves, then we be capable of believing and giving ourselves to anything right or wrong!
I began to tell the Lord how sorry I was for living the way I was living but that I needed His help to leave the drugs behind! As I talked with God, it was as if everything around me was now tuned out, including the music that was going on, and I entered a realm that I will never forget. I had an audience with the Almighty and He was showing me how much He loves me! Oh the love of God to someone like me! This experience was what my soul had searched for all of my life! Out of that dreamy state, I heard someone clearly ask "have you been baptized in Jesus name?" Knowing that it was clearly important because of my experience in Cuba, and considering the wonderful experience I was having with God, I answered that I had not been and YES I wanted to be baptized in Jesus name! Little did I know at the time that this was the only way that anyone was baptized in the first church formed by the apostles!
I fell in love with Jesus Christ that day! That was the day I took on His name. His wonderful name that is above all other names! That was the day that I entered into the authority that only comes via the family name of Jesus Christ. It was about a week later that I was filled with His Holy Spirit and spoke in another language as Jesus Christ spoke through me just like it happened in the Book of Acts of the New Testament Bible to those that believe! That was over 12 years ago and have never missed the drugs nor alcohol since my conversion by God! This fellowship with our risen Savior just gets better and better every day. What an awesome and joyful life I now live. The world always says "once an addict, always an addict". I have a Holy God that says "when the Son has set you free, you are free indeed." I am a living witness of this truth! I am now free from cocaine, free from crack, free from LSD, free from marijuana and hashish, free from cigarettes, free from booze and alcohol, free from pornography and other sexual addictions, free from cursing and foul language, free indeed! That relationship with the young lady who first prayed for me didn't work out and later the Lord told me about my wife. Two years before we met, the Lord told me that she was younger than I was, not from America and didn't have children yet. My wife fulfills that prophesy completely in every detail. We have been married now for over 9 years and have two beautiful and healthy children which happen to be a miracles themselves! The fertility doctors gave us a 2% chance of having children! If I began to write about all the miracles and deliverance that Jesus Christ has done for me, the world itself couldn't contain it! And to think, the best is yet to come! Soon...
As it is written" come quickly Lord Jesus" Amen