Richard

“I was a drug-dealing Navy sailor who flew to Haiti to consult a voodoo priest, was training to become a warlock, and then a light knocked me to the ground in my apartment and I spoke in tongues for the first time.”

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What they struggled with

Drug addiction Alcohol addiction Occult involvement Demonic oppression Sexual addiction Shame Suicide attempt Spiritual warfare (post-conversion)

False refuges

Drugs Alcohol Sexual behaviour Power / status / wealth Occult practices New age Plant medicine

What this story reveals about God

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

Religious background

Main testimony theme

Secondary theme

Deliverance and freedom

How they came to faith

Supernatural encounter Relational influence

Content advisory

Before you watch

This testimony moves through drug dealing, occult initiation, voodoo rituals in Haiti, demonic sleep paralysis, and a physical encounter with God that knocked Richard to the ground. It is heavy in spiritual warfare content but told with clarity and joy by a man who came through all of it — what makes it worth watching is how precisely God tracked him across every false refuge before he was ready to be found.

What this story teaches

People who are genuinely hungry for truth — even when they are looking in completely the wrong places — are closer to God than they think. The same drive that took Richard to Haiti and New Orleans was the drive God used to bring him home.

How God moved

God tracked Richard across every continent, every false refuge, and every occult doorway — speaking to him in New York when he was suicidal, in Greece when he was crying on a beach, through a light during sleep paralysis, and finally knocking him to the ground in his apartment. He did not wait for Richard to clean himself up. He showed up in the middle of the mess, again and again, until Richard was ready to hear.

The lie Richard carried

I'm just lucky — I have the gift of getting away with everything, and if I find the right thing — money, women, travel, power — I'll finally feel fulfilled.

What Jesus showed him

Richard had spent his entire life believing he was 'just lucky' — that his gifts, his faith, his ability to get away with everything were his own — never recognizing that a divine hand had been on him since birth. The occult world recognized his calling before he did and tried to recruit it for darkness.

Go Deeper

Ask on the island of Crete in Greece I asked — I didn't say Jesus show me who you are, I said higher power whoever you are, whoever they are, who are you and show up. I promise you if you ask just say highest power who are you Jesus Christ Yeshua will show up and he will show you because the Bible says if you ask you shall receive and he wishes that none would perish but all will come to repentance. He will put you down the path like he did with me if you have the right heart. Go alone and just say highest power whoever you are show up and mean it — like mean it from deep within. I promise you it won't be Muhammad it won't be Buddha it won't be Islam it won't be crystals it won't be none of that it will be no Voodoo Gods it'll be Jesus Christ who shows up in your life if you keep seeking. Be real with yourself — if you know that this ain't it, you know. The fulfillment that Christ will give you is undeniable, unexplainable, it's a knowing that you can't communicate to people who don't know. Some of you are coming out of witchcraft and drug dealing and all that and you're like oh I don't know if I want to do this — just hold on tight because you want a roller coaster and you might be going down but you're gonna come right back up.

People who are genuinely hungry for truth — even when they are looking in completely the wrong places — are closer to God than they think. The same drive that took Richard to Haiti and New Orleans was the drive God used to bring him home.

What you can take from this

If you have been seeking meaning in something that keeps leaving you empty — whether that is money, travel, relationships, or spirituality — try what Richard did on that beach in Crete: go somewhere alone this week and say out loud, 'Whoever you are, show up.' Mean it.

Unnamed entity

Experienced sleep paralysis twice — once at UCF with knocking on closet door, once at ex-girlfriend's apartment with a demon approaching to enter him, laughing telepathically 'I got you now, it's over.' Was completely paralyzed, could not move.

Counterfeit spirituality

Voodoo priests, mediums, warlocks, and shamans all told him true things about his past to gain his trust, then lied about the future and his calling. They told him he was 'called to be a warlock' and that his great-grandmother was a witch — exploiting his real spiritual gifts and hunger for purpose to recruit him into the occult.

Identity theft

Every occult practitioner he visited tried to put him under their covering and claim him as their trainee — a warlock in New Orleans, a shaman from Brazil, a voodoo priest in Haiti. The enemy was attempting to counterfeit his real calling as a pastor and leader by recruiting him into demonic apostolic structure.

Incubus

The night he gave up pornography, saw two shadows — incubus and succubus — by his bed. Felt overwhelming lust to watch porn or sleep with a woman. After conversion, these same spirits attacked his pregnant girlfriend in a dream, appearing as him and attempting to have sex with her — exploiting the soul tie from fornication.

Succubus

Succubus present alongside incubus at his bedside the night of conversion, and then attacking his girlfriend in a dream post-conversion.

Progressive entrapment

Drug use escalated from drinking and smoking weed in high school, to Adderall mixed with alcohol at UCF, to dealing marijuana, then cocaine, Molly, lean, pills, and eventually running a multi-state drug operation making over $100k/month — each stage deeper than the last.

Self-condemnation cycle

Post-conversion, the enemy tormented him with the command not to confess his past infidelities to his wife — 'don't tell her everything because if you do it could affect the child health-wise.' Sustained psychological pressure to maintain a double life and secrecy even after conversion.

Family weaponisation

Both families opposed the marriage. His brother told him 'wait till you find out it isn't Jesus.' His wife's father is a Freemason and her family practices Haitian voodoo — the voodoo priest in her family brought ongoing spiritual warfare including dream attacks. The warlock who had been training him called persistently after conversion.

Isolation pattern

In New York, paranoia caused him to cut off everyone in his life — his best friend, cousins, everyone — leading to his first suicidal episode. The same pattern repeated after the missing drug package, with the enemy convincing him everyone closest to him was against him.

1

Halfway through the book of Romans I finally came to the revelation that Jesus Christ is the highest power — Lord means Master. I said it out of my mouth and I really believed it in my heart and I meant it.

2

I gotta get rid of all my altars I gotta get rid of all my crystals — Egyptian crosses, pure gold, all types of stuff — I don't care I'm not pawning I'm getting rid of everything. I made a bonfire and I burned everything.

3

That night was the first time I gave up pornography. I said I'm done — I'm not watching porn, I'm not having sex until marriage, I'm done.

4

I just kept saying Jesus I would walk around and say Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus I just didn't know what to do I just say Jesus Jesus like leave like Jesus leave.

5

Sharon took us to LA Fitness the hot tub and LA Fitness and we got baptized right there.

6

I went to a library and sat there for a whole week just typing up all my sins — almost a 20-page paper — just typing it all up and weeping in the library. Everything I could remember. I made a throwaway email address and just emailed it to that address and just being dead — I forgot the password, forgot the email. I was like I'm done, these are all my sins.

7

I called him and I was like hey bro like it's rich — I robbed your house me and my friends. How much was it? He said about two to three thousand dollars. I was like what's your Zelle I'm gonna send you five thousand right now.

8

We joined that Ministry — TLR, The Last Reformation with Torben Søndergaard — they were in the streets teaching us how to lay hands on the sick so they could be healed, cast out demons early on.

Romans 10:9

The scripture Richard was reading when he came to faith; he also uses it in his closing prayer invitation to viewers.

Romans 1:1

The pastor by the lake told Richard to start in Romans; reading it convicted him and led directly to his conversion on December 1st 2019.

Mark 16

Sharon cited Mark 16 to Richard about casting out demons, healing the sick, and speaking in tongues as signs for believers.

John 14:6

Implicit in Richard's declaration that Jesus is 'the highest power' and 'the Lord' — the exclusive claim of Christ as the way.

Matthew 7:7–8

Richard quotes 'if you ask you shall receive' directly when encouraging viewers to call on the higher power.

John 3:16

Richard paraphrases 'he wishes that none would perish but all come to repentance' when encouraging viewers to seek Jesus.

John 14:2

Wife's heaven vision included mansions — Richard references 'the Bible says he prepares a mansion for us in heaven.'

Acts 2:4

Richard spontaneously spoke in tongues at the moment of conversion — directly parallels the upper room Pentecost experience.

Richard was knocked to the ground by a blinding light at the moment of conversion, manifested demons, and emerged radically transformed — mirroring Paul's Damascus road experience precisely.

Richard spent years in reckless living, squandering gifts and resources, before coming to himself and returning — the song 'Reckless Love' about leaving the 99 for the one was the moment he first felt God's presence.

Richard spontaneously spoke in tongues at conversion with no prior instruction, paralleling the disciples' initial Spirit baptism at Pentecost.

Richard burned all his altars, crystals, and occult objects in a bonfire immediately after conversion, directly paralleling the Ephesian believers burning their sorcery scrolls.

Richard describes his pre-conversion life as misery, depression, and suicidal emptiness — God breathed life and purpose into what was spiritually dead.

Richard's Christian Walk

Married his girlfriend and is raising their children together. Adopted his wife's younger brother who is now a videographer and church leader. His own brother got saved and now serves as a leader in his church. Repaid a man he robbed 12 years earlier with $5,000. Gave up drug dealing entirely, threw away pounds of weed and equipment. Healed of laryngopharyngeal reflux disease he had for nine years.

I went from being a player to just one woman, from alcoholic to not drinking at all, from all this porn to only with one woman — it was a big change but it was worth it.

Pornography addiction — 'that feeling that I used to have in my stomach it was just gone' — removed at a single moment the night of conversion when he screamed the name of Jesus at the incubus and succubus by his bed. Never returned.

Pornography — 'that feeling that I used to have in my stomach it was just gone.' Adultery and sexual immorality with multiple women. Alcohol addiction — 'I was alcoholic I mean I was drinking all the time.' Drug dealing and drug use. Occult involvement — witchcraft, voodoo, crystals, altars. Suicidal depression. Demonic oppression including incubus and succubus spirits.

Prayer

The power of Prayer — Persistent Christian friend who showed up uninvited stood in the gap for Richard.

Richard (the man from the liquor store on Halloween) texted him almost every day inviting him to church, and when Richard stopped responding, showed up uninvited to his apartment in Washington Heights, took over his lease, and bought his TVs just to get him to join the Navy — an act of grace Richard could not explain. Later, Sharon, a Spirit-filled woman he found through a New Age roadmap, prayed for him consistently, discipled both him and his wife, and physically took them to LA Fitness to baptize them. A barber named Paul played Christian music and held firm in his faith despite Richard's pushback — and turned out to be the lead worshiper at the very church Richard attended for the first time. A pastor walking his dog stopped when Richard opened his Bible by the lake and told him to start in Romans.

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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