Hello, my name is Jamie, and this is my testimony.
I want to start by saying that before I believed in God, I wasn’t brought up into any religion.
Around 1994 – 1995
My first experience with the unknown was when I was around 10 years old. I was with my parents at my uncle’s house, and they were doing a séance for fun, as no one was a believer in anything. I remember that they had set up letters and a glass on the table. They were all asking questions and laughing at each other, no one took it seriously. So, me being the cheeky little kid that I was, asked this so-called spirit some silly things like how big her boobs were and other dumb things a cheeky kid would think of. The glass moved but everyone just blamed each other for the movement, and I went on to play video games as the adults continued the séance.
It was not long after this day that weird things started to happen around my parent’s house, which they had only just finished building. There were strange noises and banging sounds on the walls, which I originally thought were birds and I started feeling scared of the dark. At the time I didn’t believe in ghosts or spirits, but I had a strong fear of the dark which everyone thought was from watching horror movies. I remember having nightmares all the time, but I also thought it was from watching horror movies, so I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t want the movies to be taken away. I saw that my older brother had a dream catcher and thought that was exactly what I needed to help me sleep, but it didn’t help at all. Someone in the family also introduced me to talking to crystals, which made everything worse.
One morning I was home alone when my parents were working, and I was eager to play my PlayStation. I jumped out of bed excited to play video games and as I walked past the kitchen, I noticed that the oven dial was turning. I didn’t understand why this was happening as I’d never used the oven in my life. I was watching it turn and then started laughing because my first thought was that my mum had preheated the oven to cook something for me for lunch, although that makes no sense now. As I continued walking to the lounge room, I started hearing banging all over the house. Again, I didn’t believe in spirits at all, so even though I thought it was weird, I ignored it and continued to play PlayStation. The noises became louder and more violent, but I continued to ignore it.
Soon after, the phone rang in the kitchen, and when I answered it, all I could hear was static and screaming, so I hung up. It rang over and over again, I assumed it was a prank call, so I just started yelling at whoever the caller was, then I left the phone off the hook. I went back to playing my PlayStation but the banging on the walls continued even louder than before, so I got scared and left my house.
Not long after this I felt the blankets on my bed move and had a cold feeling of fear, but I thought it was just my imagination, so I rolled over and went back to sleep. The following morning my parents were both at work again and I was home alone. When I woke up to shower and looked at myself in the mirror, I was shocked to see that my forehead, cheeks, arms, legs, and even my private area was covered with this writing that looked like symbols I didn’t recognise. I freaked out and got in the shower to try to clean it off. It was written very neatly in a fine pen and the same shapes repeated over and over, covering my body.
So many things were going through my mind, being confused and afraid is an understatement. I went to my friend’s house and explained what happened, but he didn’t believe me. Then he looked at me strangely and said, “What’s that under your chin?” It was more of the writing that I hadn’t seen when I was facing the mirror. He still didn’t believe me as he said, “why didn’t you wake up if someone wrote on you?” I had no answer.
I wasn’t the only one in the house who experienced strange things. A few months later I remember my mum coming into my room and telling me off for taking the sheets off her bed in the middle of the night. She said you idiot don’t do that because you’ll wake up your father, I explained that it wasn’t me, but she didn’t believe me. Around the same time my sister had a new boyfriend and one day when he came over, he asked her if the house was haunted because of the strange feeling he had, but she just nervously laughed it off. When he was staying over one night, he woke up to see my sister standing at the bedroom door and he asked her what she was doing, but then realised that my sister was actually asleep next to him.
After all these experiences, I STILL DIDN’T BELIEVE.
Around 1998
The Black Hooded Demon
My family had moved house by this time, and I had not had any creepy experiences in this new place, but I was still afraid of the dark. I still thought this was from watching horror movies, so I didn’t think anything of it.
One afternoon my cousin and I were taking my dog for a walk. We were a few streets away from my parent’s new house, and my dog started growling at something ahead of us, which was out of character. As we looked around, about 10 meters ahead in the middle of the footpath was a black hooded figure, hunched over, standing side on to us. Although it didn’t have a face as it was a solid black figure, we could tell it moved its head in our direction to look straight at us.
At the time it was hard to process what it was, both my cousin and I were left very confused. This thing was solid black and it wasn’t casting a shadow, which was odd. It sort of looked like the pictures you would see of the Grim Reaper or the Dementors from the Harry Potter movies. As it looked away from us and floated into a house, my cousin and I confirmed what the heck we’d just witnessed and ran home to tell the adults, who of course thought we had made it up. I now believed there were such things as demons or ghosts, as I wasn’t alone in experiencing it this time.
Around 1999
The Lady at the Beach
It was summer and I got a call from my cousin that they were heading to the beach the following day to do some spearfshing, which was something I loved to do as a teenager, but I didn’t have the right equipment. I begged my parents to buy me some fins but they wouldn’t let me buy them because they had a fear of sharks. I told my cousin that I was keen to join him and the rest of the family and not to worry as I was a good swimmer. I didn’t tell my uncles that I didn’t have fins and they didn’t notice as I was already in the water when they hopped in.
We were swimming from reef to reef searching for crayfish and after such a long swim, I started to get tired. I told my uncle, who now noticed I didn’t have fins, and said I would wait for them on a small reef rock until they were done checking ledges in the area. They all disappeared pretty quickly, and I noticed that this reef was only big enough for one person to stand up on, so if the tide came in, I wouldn’t be able to stay there and I didn’t have enough energy to swim back to the beach. I didn’t even know which direction the beach was, all I could see was water. I fell on this rock a few times and it was getting very slippery. I started to panic and thought I was going to drown.
For the first time in my life, I prayed to God in my mind and said “God, if you’re real, stop the tides from coming in or help me somehow”. As I finished praying, a lady popped out of the water behind me! She scared me because I hadn’t seen anyone around when I was looking for my family. I thought it was just good luck, not that God answering me. She asked if I needed help, and if I wanted her to wait with me until my family returned and I said yes. About ten minutes later my family returned and they could see someone talking to me beside the reef I was standing on. My uncle asked the lady if she was spearfishing as well, but she said she just enjoyed swimming in the ocean. I asked my uncle If it was ok to swim back to the shore with her, he didn’t mind and on we went.
The lady was around 50 or so years old and wore an old-style dive suit with a full round-style face mask. I held her hand all the way back to the beach and I was exhausted by the time we returned. She talked about how beautiful the ocean was and told me “Don’t let a bad experience like today stop you from going out in the ocean.” She said I was a very strong kid and to “never give up”. I thought she was just being nice, but then she said, ” By the way, did you pray by any chance?” I was shocked, but couldn’t believe she would know that I prayed, so I hesitated and said no. She said “Well, I was told that someone out here needed my help”. I was in shock, I told her thank you and I turned around to look at the ocean, but when I turned back, the lady was gone. I ran over to my other family members who were waiting on the beach and explained everything to them. They all laughed and said it was a coincidence.
Around 2001-2002
Seeking God
At this point, I was seeking God because of the miracle I’d experienced at the beach. I wanted to learn about Him, as I knew nothing at all. I had a family member who went to church, and I was told she had a personal relationship with God and had seen many miracles in her life. They also explained that she received the Holy Spirit and could speak in an unknown language, which sounded ridiculous to me at the time. Anyone who knew me would know that I didn’t care about anyone’s feelings and would tell someone to their face if I thought they were crazy. I thought, if I go to this church and it’s a cult, I’ll just tell them they’re crazy and continue searching.
I went along a few times and saw miracles and speaking in tongues but honestly, I thought it was all staged to make money. My auntie asked me if I wanted to receive the Holy Spirit and get baptized, and I had nothing to lose so I got changed and got into the baptism tank. I was on a stage with hundreds of people watching and the pastor asked if I believed Jesus died and rose again on the third day, I said “yes” and down I went into the water. I can’t say I felt any different when I came out, but it was nice that everyone at the church was so happy about it.
Next, I was asked if I wanted to receive the Holy Spirit and I agreed, but I was still skeptical. I went out the back with a few people where they started praying for me and I was copying them, saying “Hallelujah Praise the lord”. After about 5 minutes, a warm feeling come over me and my tongue changed. The feeling was strange but also nice. I was confused, as I know I continued to say “Hallelujah Praise the Lord” in my mind, but the words sounded different. They told me that I received the Holy Spirit, and I was happy but, in a way, I still felt the same as before.
Later that night at my auntie’s house, when everyone went to bed, I stayed awake for hours, still having the fear of the dark. When she noticed and came to see if everything was ok, I explained my fear of the dark and that I felt scared in her house. She reassured me that nothing evil was in her house, but I could still feel it. She put her hand on my shoulder and prayed for me and within a few seconds I felt cold and had goosebumps. She opened her eyes as I felt the cold leave my body, and we both said at the same time “Did you feel that?”, it was very weird. My fear of the dark has never returned since.
After a month or so, I left the church to do my own thing. I was still young and chose to follow my friends, as I was 16 or 17 at the time. My parents started to go to this church after I left and have been going ever since.
Around 2006
I was healed and ignored God
Around this time, I had lot of anger, and I was experiencing anxiety and depression. I was a bully and got into many fights. I was using martial arts as an outlet to control my anger, which also helped a little with my anxiety and depression. However, the martial arts also fueled my ego which meant I got into more fights than before. I had no respect for anyone, I treated girlfriends like objects, and I enjoyed the feeling of people fearing me on the street or workplace.
One day I started to have pain in my whole body starting from my knees, and they had big red blotches that were very painful. I thought it was just something from karate at first, so I ignored it. The following day the rash spread, and I was exhausted from a sleepless night in pain. I went to the doctor who just took a sample of my knee and sent it to the lab for testing. On day 3 or 4, both my elbows and knees were covered in this painful reddish-purple rash that kept spreading.
I hadn’t slept for a few days because of the pain, so my parents took me to hospital. As they were driving, they were praying for me, but I refused to pray as I had left the church and no longer spoke to God. I didn’t want to be a hypocrite and only pray when I needed his help. I was scared to die but I was also stubborn and just accepted it because I wasn’t going to pray.
The emergency doctor saw all the marks all over my body and had no idea what it was, so he called more doctors to get their input. As I screamed in pain and anger, I heard one of the doctors say he wanted to get his camera and take photos for research because he hadn’t seen anything like it before. I felt like a lab rat. One doctor pulled my mum aside and told her that if it was to spread further, I might not make it.
The doctor left for about five minutes to get me something for the pain. At this time both my parents were praying for me, and another doctor came to check on me and could visually see improvement in me. He thought that the previous doctor had given me the shot, but they hadn’t returned yet. By the time the first doctor returned, I had no more pain, I was just tired, so we went straight home.
Within the next few days, all swelling and rashes were gone, and I was back to normal. Even after this healing, I didn’t pray or return to the church.
Around 2007
GROWL
At this stage, my parents were attending their church regularly and they constantly annoyed me by judging my life choices. I didn’t like their church and at the time just repeated what everyone says about Christians being brainwashed. One day I had a friend coming over to visit and my father said “Good, I’ll preach to him”, and I got angry and said, “YOU BETTER NOT”. At that exact moment, I heard something scream loud in my ear like a deafening growl. I jumped back and said “WHAT WAS THAT?”. My father just looked at me confused and said he didn’t hear anything, so I freaked out and went into my room.
2008
Knock knock
I’d told my previous experiences to my new girlfriend, and she didn’t believe me, but it didn’t bother me because my experiences are pretty crazy. One time watching a movie alone at my house we heard someone knock 3 times on the wall above our head, she got scared and I said to her “I thought you didn’t believe me?” Then I provoked whatever the banging was and said do it again, and it did which freaked her out and she told me to shut up. I also remember watching a movie at her house and the picture frame she had above her bed went flying across the room which again freaked her out, but I was sort of desensitized because of my previous experiences.
2012
Fix my demisters
I used to drive an R33 Skyline and for about 4 months I’d been meaning to get my demisters fixed because they were not working at all. Early one morning when I was driving to work, my car windows were fogging up and I couldn’t see out of my windshield at all. So, I put the windows down and continued driving with my head out of the window. I thought it was a good plan until I ran a red light by accident and almost crashed into another car. I panicked and swerved, then pulled over to the side of the road with my heart in my throat. I took a few minutes to recover and just jokingly said “God, fix my demisters”. Without touching anything, they turned on. The sound of the fans starting on full speed scared me but then I just laughed all the way to work. I couldn’t help myself and when I got there, I told everyone what happened to me in the car, but they all just thought I was a nutcase.
2022 – 2023
I’d been living in my house for about a year and my side neighbour’s new dog was constantly barking all day and night. It was annoying but I kept it to myself, hoping that they would do something about it or that someone else would complain so there would be no issues between me and my neighbours. After 6 months of this, I was losing my mind so I knocked on their door and ask if they could please do something about the barking. Their response was basically “well, what do you want me to do about it”. This annoyed me because your pets are your responsibility and the reason the dog was barking all the time was the poor thing was neglected.
A few months later, nothing had changed, and I had COVID and a headache and all I could hear was this dog barking. I was angry, so I went outside and yelled for the dog to shut up. I’d also witnessed this guy hitting his young son who was about 3 years old multiple times. I could hear this guy say awful things to his children and he would scream at them which triggered me, I saw him as a bully, and I really wanted to hurt him.
Around the same time, my back neighbour broke my fence when they were having some landscaping done. It wasn’t the neighbour himself who broke it, it was the landscaper, but when the landscaper attempted to fix it, he made it worse. I was angry that they left it like that as I felt that they didn’t have any respect.
I also had a fairly new neighbour on the right side of my house who ran over my garden with his car not long after moving in. I flipped out and wanted to hit him for lack of respect as well. I tried really hard to control myself and warned him about watching where he parked and not driving over the garden, but it took all my willpower to stop myself from going over there to fight with him.
By this point, all the neighbours around my house had done something to trigger me. Not much had changed for me in terms of enjoying the feeling of being able to bash bullies and I felt as if they all were just picking on the right person. I lost my temper one day and screamed out to God
“GOD if you’re trying to send me a message about loving my neighbours, I’m not you, I HATE them. You say let vengeance be mine, well do something about them, because if you don’t then I will”.
Months went by and between the dog barking and the neighbour yelling at his kids every day, I lost it. I went to his house knocked on the door and told him exactly what I thought of him. I’m grateful he didn’t come outside because my goal was to hurt him in such a way that it would set an example for all my neighbours to fear me and leave me alone. I went home and I still had the anger and felt that nothing was solved.
About a week later, I stumbled across a video on YouTube from a Christian who spoke about forgiveness. He explained that if you don’t have forgiveness for someone who has wronged you, then God would judge you the same, it was a reap what you sow sort of message. So, I prayed about it and humbled myself, which wasn’t easy. I visualised every person who I had bullied over the years and asked for forgiveness and I really meant it, I didn’t just say the words. I truly felt horrible for the things I used to do, for the person I used to be and for the people I’d hurt due to my pride. Then I started to forgive every single person in my life who had wronged me, from school kids to family members, friends and ex-friends, people at work, bosses, and my neighbours, I just let it all go. I didn’t expect to gain anything from doing this I just felt that if what the video explained was true, then I needed to repent.
The following day I felt completely different and I thought it was just the steroids the doctor prescribed me for the staph infection I gained from jiu-jitsu a week earlier. I thought that was the reason why I felt amazing, not God. One week went by and I still felt amazing, I had more energy than ever and was just overall happier. By this time I wasn’t on any medication but still didn’t think it had anything to do with God or forgiveness until I noticed that one of my neighbours had his house for sale, and then the other had his house for sale within the same week. I thought to myself, what are the chances?
After a month or so both neighbours moved out and the one who ran over the garden had apologised and he left on good terms. I noticed the other neighbour had only moved down the street, I was grateful he was no longer next door, but truly just felt sorry for his kids still. I noticed that only he had moved in with the guy next door to him, not his whole family. Also, after some time, my back neighbour came to my house and apologised for breaking my fence and offered to pay to get it fixed, which I wasn’t worried about anymore.
What I learnt from this was that vengeance was God’s, not mine. He could have relocated that whole family anywhere and they could have split up anywhere and I would have just figured that the neighbour would continue acting the same way towards his family, but instead, God placed him one house away so I could witness that vengeance will always belong to God and not me.
Deliverance
The YouTube video that I mentioned earlier wasn’t just about forgiveness, it was also about deliverance. I did not believe that I could have a demon influencing me at all, but I had nothing to lose so I copied the prayer the video said. I found out later that the reason I felt different was from being delivered from something. The only reason I believe this is because after I prayed for deliverance, and I felt like a weight had been lifted from me, there was something in my new house that started running around in the roof. It sounded like big boots stomping around. I’m the first person to think it could be a bird or mouse or something, so I went to check and saw nothing.
When I would leave the house, the noises would get worse trying to scare my wife and daughter, and whenever I checked, I wouldn’t hear anything, but I could feel a cold chill in one of the rooms. This still wasn’t enough for me to think anything of it until my daughter started to get nightmares and became afraid of the dark. Then one day I woke up and said to my wife “I just had a really weird dream”, she looked at me and said, “Me too”. When I described my dream and she had a very similar dream the same night, that confirmed it for me. I fasted and prayed in the spirit in every room of my home, and nothing has happened since.
2023
Wake up at 5:11
A few weeks later, I found myself waking up at exactly 5:11 in the morning 3 days in a row. I just figured my body clock was being weird, as I would always choose sleep over waking up that early. Then on the third day, I saw a few people on Twitter blaspheming God and the only comment I made in return was “There is more evidence that shows God is real than not”. Then obviously, being the internet, people had a meltdown over my comment. I didn’t care, I felt it was right to say something because after so many years God never gave up on me even though I always gave up on him.
The fourth day I woke up again at 5:11 and now even my wife thought it was strange. I had no idea why, so I thought to myself, what if it means something? I looked up biblical 5:11 and the very first thing I read was Matthew 5:11:
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
I was speechless.
After all of my experiences, I finally feel like I now have a relationship with Jesus and have found the fulfillment that was missing in my life. No matter how many times I turned away, God was always there for me.
