When I was a young boy, I had an experience that left me perplexed. My grandmother, who was a very spiritual woman, had come to visit us from her homeland in South America. One day while we were attending church together, I asked my mom if I could go sit up front with my grandmother. She agreed since she was busy attending to my younger sister. During the congregational prayer, I remember kneeling next to my grandmother and closing my eyes. It was during this time of prayer that I experienced something I can”t fully explain in words, but I believe it was the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It really scared me, and I remember running down the center aisle of the church crying and searching for my mom.
When I was 18 years old, I had another strange experience in the form of a very vivid and seemingly real dream. The dream laid out to me was a room with a golden picture frame sitting on a windowsill. As I walked over and began to pick up the golden frame, I heard an audible voice declare to me an unfamiliar Bible verse (Galatians 2:10). As for the picture itself, it began to slowly change, frightening me out of sleep. Even though I have come to understand the meaning of the Bible verse for my life, the fluid-moving picture is still a mystery to me.
At the age of 31, I became a born-again Christian and placed my faith in Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. In the months leading up to my long-awaited baptism, I began to experience some very strange encounters, but unlike the other experiences, these were both physical and spiritual in nature-some powerfully good and others frighteningly evil. As a countermeasure to the evil I experienced, I invited more than 200 people to my baptism, in which I gave a personal testimony that was not soon forgotten by those in attendance that memorable and blessed day.
As for the spiritual journey that led me to write the book Dark Morning Star Rising, it began over 15 years ago with yet another strange encounter with members of a different religious group. This providential meeting soon led my curiosity down an unfamiliar spiritual path. Along the way, I learned and experienced another faith, and in doing so, I put my own faith and doctrinal beliefs to the test. A year into my journey, still wondering why God had clearly led me down this path, I received the answer by way of His Word: “Blow the trumpet and warn the people” (Ezekiel 33:3). This text and the insights gained through more than a decade of study and research have given me the conviction that I have a message to tell the world.
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