Chobby

“I was a Triad branch leader in the Chinese Mafia, facing a machete in a mall, when I said the name Jesus — and the hand that stopped the blade came out of nowhere.”

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What they struggled with

Gang involvement Father wound Demonic oppression Shame Anger Spiritual warfare (post-conversion)

False refuges

Power / status / wealth Rage / violence

What this story reveals about God

Relentless pursuit Patience Shepherd's heart Defender Restorer Father's heart

Religious background

Protestant Christian

Main testimony theme

Secondary theme

Deliverance and freedom

How they came to faith

Supernatural encounter Hitting rock bottom

Content advisory

Before you watch

This testimony moves through severe childhood violence, Triad gang leadership, and three near-death encounters in rapid succession — machete, overdose, car crash — before reaching a hospital bed where a young man who had never read a book surrendered to God. What makes it worth watching is the precision of God's timing across every one of those moments.

What this story teaches

People who feel most unprotected in childhood will seek protection wherever they can find it — and the enemy knows exactly which counterfeit to offer. God's strategy here was not argument but demonstration: showing up in moments where no human power could explain what happened.

How God moved

The lie Chobby carried

I never felt protected — at home or at school — so protection became love, and the Mafia was the only place I could find it.

What Jesus showed him

Toby had believed his whole life that protection was love — because he never had it at home or at school, he sought it through the Triad's power and hierarchy. The car crash, the machete, the overdose — three moments beyond human control — shattered that belief and showed him the Triad could not protect him. Only God could.

Go Deeper

God is a god of healing and there's nothing impossible for him, there's nothing too big that he cannot heal. My encouragement is that God is able to renew and restore every part of life — even if it's a mental struggle or a learning disability — that God has a plan and that he has value and that shame is not his plan for you. And he has really new life all the way around. I'll say the same thing — I know it's not easy to get out especially when it becomes a lifestyle and identity, but if you get in a situation with that life, you're always in situations — you call on that name Jesus. It is the most powerful name. He is able to take a situation and take control beyond what you can do. My encouragement is to reach out to the Lord in your situation, in your encounters that you have, that you feel like you cannot get out of — you call on Jesus and he is real and he is able to show up beyond what you can imagine or what your capability of doing. Just go to the Lord and ask him — you might think this sounds so wild, but if God is real then call on him so he can reveal himself.

People who feel most unprotected in childhood will seek protection wherever they can find it — and the enemy knows exactly which counterfeit to offer. God's strategy here was not argument but demonstration: showing up in moments where no human power could explain what happened.

What you can take from this

This week, if you are in a situation that feels beyond your control — a relationship, a threat, a pattern you cannot break — say the name Jesus out loud into it. Not as a formula, but as Toby did: as the only name left when everything else has run out.

Unnamed entity

I would actually slip out of my body — almost like the sleep paralysis would take go to another level, almost like my soul is coming out of my body and I'm actually looking around at my sleeping body and seeing furniture but I also see the spirit world. It was very terrifying, very very scary.

Spirit of death

All of a sudden I just could feel that there was a spirit of death that was there — it was so strong that I felt like I'm going to die today and I'm going to be taken. I just could not get out of my mind.

Core lie

Growing up, protection translated to love because I felt so unprotected in my life whether home or school. The Triad offered protection and I saw that as love. My title, my rank, my name — that was my identity. I was a member for life.

Family weaponisation

My relationship with my father was not the best. He was probably the most violent person I knew growing up. That kind of took away a sense of safety in the household. I never felt I had that safe spot with my dad — and because there was no communication with my father, I wasn't taught to ask questions or practice communication.

1

I remember laying in bed and just saying God I want you to be my Thylo now because I knew that it was his intervention that saved me completely. I felt something come alive inside of me.

2

I open that New Testament Bible and as I'm going through the lines the words start making sense to me. I read the New Testament seven times in six months.

3

I got on my knees and I handed him the envelope. My leader picked me up and he said your file's done, you're officially out. I remember just feeling the weight completely lifted from that day.

4

I started telling them I said Jesus came into my life and I met with the big boss yesterday, I'm out. I'm telling all you guys — I apologize for getting you involved, I apologize for who I've been to you, but now I'm gonna follow the Lord.

5

I first decided to do a DTS — a discipleship training school with YWAM — it's a six-month training program. I thought I really got to get foundation in the Lord.

Isaiah 38:5

The words 'In three days I will heal you' appeared to Toby on the plane — the first time he had ever been able to read. He made a prayer bargain with God based on it.

Romans 3:23

Toby quotes 'we all fall short of the glory of God' when encouraging others that salvation and gospel-sharing are by grace alone.

Romans 1:16

Toby alludes to Paul's statement that the gospel is the power of God for salvation when encouraging others to share it boldly.

A violent man, feared by many, is stopped in his tracks by a divine intervention and immediately surrenders his life, then returns to those he led to renounce his former life.

A son who left his family's faith for a dangerous far country is brought back through crisis, with a praying mother waiting and God orchestrating his return.

After conversion Toby fasted over his name; his pastor received a prophetic word revealing CHOBY means 'Christ Heals Over Bad Years' — God redeemed the name itself.

Toby was supernaturally protected three times in rapid succession — machete, overdose, car crash — in situations where human survival was improbable.

Chobby's Christian Walk

Completely left the Triad. Got his GED and went to college — a man who had never attended high school and was dyslexic began reading the Bible seven times in six months and had his essays read aloud by his professor. PTSD and violent impulses broke. Sleep paralysis stopped. His name Toby was redeemed — his pastor received a word: 'Christ Heals Over Bad Years.'

I felt something come alive inside of me — almost like having breath for the first time, really knowing you're breathing, but it was inside my being.

PTSD and violent impulses — 'violence that I could not control, I thought how could I ever live without being fanatical because you live it, it's a lifestyle.' Also sleep paralysis — 'God help me sleep at night, sleep paralysis going away.'

PTSD, violence that I could not control — I thought how could I ever live without being fanatical because you live it, it's a lifestyle. God breaking that. God help me sleep at night, sleep paralysis going away. The weight of the Triad completely lifted from that day.

Prayer

The power of Prayer — Praying mother stood in the gap for Chobby.

Toby's mother prayed a prayer she said she had never prayed before in her life — that God would do whatever it takes to bring Toby to Christ. She told him this as he was leaving to fly back to Penang to confront a rival. She also received a word from God that Toby would be killed if the family stayed in Malaysia, and moved the whole family on that word. A childhood friend in Penang also handed Toby a New Testament Bible at the airport as he left — the Bible Toby would open on the plane and read for the first time.

Is today your day?

Yes — I'm Ready

Absolutely, He will.

You don't have to figure everything out right now.

You don't need to have all the answers.

If something stirred in your heart while you were watching or reading — that's not nothing.

That is the Holy Spirit gently knocking on the door of your heart.

Stay right here. There's no rush. The Spirit doesn't pressure or hurry.

Watch another video. Read a little more. Take your time.

When you're ready — even if “ready” just means a little curious — Jesus is ready to meet you.

You don't have to clean up your life first.

You don't have to pass any test.

You only need to say a simple “yes” to Him.

He will take care of the rest.

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

Luke 11:9

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