Richard

I stumbled upon pornography around age 10 or 11. I knew it was wrong. I even figured out how to clear my history. And then I would just find my way going back to it. That was really the open door for the enemy to come in. By college I was watching porn every day, gratifying myself every day, watching it at work.

He started talking to me about being a gay Christian and how that was possible. I even got this book called God and the Gay Christian. I came to a crossroad where I was thinking that I could be gay and also Christian. I was going to church and I was dating.

There was so much shame and condemnation. It was a cycle of shame and condemnation and guilt this whole time. I felt like I had too much blood in my ledger. I was like I've already had sex out of marriage, I've been in sexual perversion, I've been watching pornography — sin sin sin sin.

I was rejected by my father. I had men who kept leaving in my life. I was constantly abandoned or rejected. And now the person who I thought I could be with has also rejected me. Rejection is an open door for the enemy to use. This was another stake in my heart, another nail in my heart.

He's casting out the spirit of suicide and I'm like — suicide? I had no idea that there was these suicidal ideations and the spirit of death was upon me. I've always been so independent and hardworking that I never really wanted to say that I was really depressed, but I was. And the spirit was upon me.

I always kind of felt a little different. I kept getting called gay and bullied about that. I felt like I wasn't the person that I should be. The enemy kind of perverted this wanting to be validated and to have male friendships. I was being educated demonically.

My church didn't really invite the Holy Spirit in as much. There were these performances — we're singing, we're doing these productions, we're dancing, but there was no intimacy with the Holy Spirit to really guide me into truth. No conversations about how to deny my flesh, how to crucify my flesh, how to resist temptation.

You could feel the warfare there in the new corporate workspace. I was working at the front desk and people would come around me — they didn't want to cuss. There was a spiritual atmosphere of resistance to the gospel in that environment.

Leviticus 18:22

His mother showed him this verse when he asked about homosexuality; it confirmed it was wrong but left him without a way out.

1 Corinthians 6:9

One of the scriptures Richard read himself about homosexuality; confirmed his belief it was wrong but deepened discouragement.

Hebrews 4:12

Richard paraphrased the word as a double-edged sword cutting between soul and spirit — he believed reading the Bible was delivering him.

Romans 8:3–39

Richard read this passage in full as his direct word to LGBTQ viewers — the law cannot save, but the Spirit empowers freedom and nothing separates us from God's love.

Isaiah 43:1

Richard quoted 'You are mine' from Isaiah as the word God spoke over his identity after transformation.

Jeremiah 31:3

Richard opened his closing prayer with 'I have loved you with an everlasting love' — the anchor of his message to those still in bondage.

Genesis 1:26–27

Richard cited God creating man male and female in His image to reclaim his body as beautiful and holy, not shameful.

John 4:10–14

Richard used 'living water' in his closing prayer — contrasting false refuges with Jesus as the only source that truly satisfies.

Matthew 11:28

Richard quoted 'Come all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest' in his closing prayer as God's invitation.

Richard grew up in church, wandered into the LGBTQ lifestyle, and returned to the Father — the Father running to meet him is mirrored in the rooftop encounter.

The deliverance dream — decayed grass blossoming into flowers after darkness is removed — directly mirrors the valley of dry bones coming to life.

Richard explicitly identifies with the woman at the well — not yet complete but immediately beginning to evangelize after encountering Jesus.

Richard prayed for scales to fall from viewers' eyes referencing Paul; his own deliverance dream and sudden freedom from addiction mirrors Paul's sudden transformation.

Fired for his faith during Pride Month, Richard was escorted out but unharmed — a modern lions' den where faithfulness cost him his job but God provided.