The Devil offered me a Deal to become a Famous Pop Star...

He said, if you worship me, I will give you all of these things. He's telling me fame. He's telling me a relationship. He was showing me all these things and the earth was projecting the images of the things that he was saying. So I'm like, this is crazy. And so then I realized, oh wait, this is my time to choose. My name is Christina and this is my story. I was brought up in the church in Yonkers, New York in the eighties. So that was fun. And I was just around praying people. I was exposed to the environment of God at, you know, since I was a baby. And so because I was exposed to it, I don't know why it just seemed fake. Like when you'd see pastors touching people and them falling out, it just, it just seemed very theatrical, but nonetheless, I still had a knowing that God was real, that he loved me and that he was always with me. As I grew up, I couldn't wait to turn 18 because I just wanted to live my life. I felt like church was very limiting and very restricting as far as what I wanted to do, which was sing and dance. I just wanted to go out and perform and sing and make music. And so I did that. I was exposed to different world renowned producers and songwriters and artists and actually collabed with a few of them and was on the path for success. I was chasing fame. I was chasing the spotlight because growing up in America, you know, it's all about purpose and success and everything seems so shiny. And so like, especially being exposed to VH1 and BET and MTV, all of these things really played and kind of shaped what my idea, what my idea of success was. And it just didn't seem like I would get success in church or at least for God anyways. I always said that when I'm 50 or 60, God, I'll do it right. I'll go and I'll sing in church. I'll serve you. But right now, let me do me. So anyway, I was partying hard. I drank a little bit, but mostly smoked a lot. I smoked a lot of weed. I mean, sunup to sundown. It was the only thing that made me feel like numb to the voice of God because I would be in these environments, you know, in the clubs, being, dating these guys, even working in the studio, working in the studio with certain producers, you know, that were almost kind of putting me in a compromising situation, like writing lyrics that were blasphemous. And of course, I didn't really understand it then, but I felt ill in my spirit. So I would, I would smoke to kind of get rid of those convictions. It was a lot of fun things and a very promising future in music. One night after a long night of partying, I went to sleep like any other night and found myself floating in space. It looked like space. And I'm very, I have a lot of dreams. I've always had a lot of dreams that were very, like, seemed very real. So I knew there were messages from God or something. We know God speaks to us in our dreams. But in this case, it felt like I was there. Like, it didn't feel like the average, here's a message or here's just a dream to watch. I was there. I remember feeling the vibration of, of space, to put it as simply as I can. And I was hovering, I could see stars, I could see the earth beneath me to the right, in the back, looked like the sun, but it was shaped, not like a circle, it was shaped, it looked like, like a lake, just suspended in darkness. And I'm looking, I'm like, this is really cool. I'm in space. Wow. And I could feel everything. And then a being starts to approach me from the blackness, from the darkness. And the closer he got, the larger he appeared, I couldn't make out facial features or anything, but he was very large. He looked like he was bald headed, very long arms, long legs, muscular. The ends of his hands look like claws. And his legs just descended into the dark. It was like he was attached to the dark. He was attached to the darkness. As he approached me, I said, Lord, because in my mind, I knew this was a supernatural being. Remember, I wasn't walking with God like that. So I'm Lord. And he spoke and said no. But it was very interesting when he spoke, it wasn't like audible words, like I'm talking now, I felt them in my body was almost like telepathically in a way. And I would vibrate as he spoke. And it was such an eerie, dark, fearful feeling when he spoke. And he said, No, you know who this is? I immediately knew it was Satan. I immediately knew. After that, I was like, No, no, no, no, no. Because I thought I was on my way to hell. Like, I thought I was being greeted like I had died in my sleep. And I was being escorted to hell. Because when I tell you guys, I was just voluntarily turning my back on God, because I just didn't trust him. And it became so, so bad that I felt like God was ashamed of me. And I just felt so too guilty to go to God. So anyways, I'm saying no, no, no. And the being Satan, I'm just gonna say who he is. Satan said, Shut up. And he said, If you worship me, I will give you all of these things. He's telling me fame. He's telling me a relationship because I really wanted a marriage, like a really solid relationship, a marriage. He was showing me all these things. And the earth was projecting the images of the things that he was saying. So I'm like, this is crazy. And so then I realized, Oh, wait, this is my time to choose. Okay. No, I'm the daughter of Christ. No, I just said no to him. And after I said no, he called me the B word. And after that, after he called me the B word, it was like, something pulled me back, snatched me into a vacuum. And I woke up with a gasp of air. I don't know. It felt like I was out of my body because it was like, I was cold. I was shivering. I was breathing as if I hadn't breathed in a long time. And I'm like, What just happened to me? The first person I think to call was my mom. So I go in the bathroom and I call her and I tell her what happened. And she believed me. And she started to break down and cry and started to pray. She prayed over me. And I was just on my knees in the bathroom, just crying out to God, like, forgive me. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Like, I don't want to live without you. I don't want to not please you. Like, this is not a game. It was like the Lord allowed me to experience what was really going on. He like lifted the veil or allowed me to see and be in the spiritual realm to know who's really has authority over the earth, you know, right now. And I had to cancel my plans. I ended up flying back home. At the time, it was Florida. And that Sunday, the pastor was talking about the heavens, the first heaven being like our atmosphere, the second heaven being space and the third heaven being where God's throne is. And I was like, oh, my gosh, I was in the second heaven. I was in space. And it's true. Like, Satan does. He is a prince of the power of the air. Like, this is true. I was there. And it's like God allowed the fear of God to be my portion and to know it's just two kingdoms. There's the kingdom of God and then there's a kingdom of the enemy, whether you're aware of it or not. If you don't serve God, you serve the enemy, whether you're aware of it or not. And I was like, thank you, God, for showing me. I don't want to live for myself anymore. I want to live for you. And that just started a whole nother world of events. Like, everything that I built up with my singing and connections and my label deals and stuff like that, everything came crashing down. It's like you think that when you start following God, it's going to be like this grand, amazing thing. But everything around me was being destroyed. But that was OK because the Lord was doing the destroying so that he can build up what he wants to build in my life. And so I remember like feeling like, what do I do? What do I do? And God was like, just seek me, pray and grow. And God took me out of Florida and moved me to Los Angeles, which is ironic because Los Angeles is like the big, oh, it's the devil's playground. But God is doing a mighty work in the people over there because I encountered the Lord in a wonderful way. Like, he delivered me and I found a church that I was growing in and finding other people on my same level who are growing in the Lord so we can sharpen each other, pray. Like, it's so important to get into community. So anyway, so I'm serving in church, eventually like start serving in the women's ministry. They appointed me as like the lead of the women's ministry, which is very weird. It's like, OK, but I'm on fire for the Lord. And then out of nowhere, my husband and I get a call for ordination or like ordained for what? Pastoral ordination. Like, what is going on? And God's like, I make all things new. I make all things new. And he was showing me that he was reordering, rewriting my steps like he is a lamp into our feet and a light upon our path. Like he will first show us our feet and heal us and correct and fix us and correct us and mold us up. And then he starts to illuminate the path. All we have to do is just trust and walk on that straight and narrow path. And he lights up the way. And, you know, I kind of skipped over this, but when I moved to Los Angeles, I became celibate because that was a big thing for me. I was very, very sexually active, which was another thing contributing to my spiritual soulish demise and keeping me bound. And God was like, you need to close all those doors in addition to the music and stuff. And I met my husband and he was on the same path as me. And so we're married now. And God called us to Atlanta. This was during COVID, that, you know, the shutdown, we moved to Atlanta for bigger space, you know, wanting to get involved in a church out here. But when we visited a few churches, it was just something was missing. And the last church we visited, which was a mega church, I was crying the entire time in this church. I mean, so filled with grief. And I'm like, what is happening? I remember hugging my husband, like full of grief, what's going on? And the Holy Spirit spoke to me and he said that he wasn't here. And I'm like, okay, God, what do we do? And I mean, we went to prayer and just asking God, what do we do? Like, what are you calling us to do? Like, I don't understand. And the word we heard was go. Just that, go. Not go where? With who? With what? What resources? What are you talking about? Like, what does it look like? What does go mean? And that's all the only word we heard. And I'm like, okay, I started thinking, well, what do I have? Okay, we have a home, we have the knowledge of God. We don't really know many people out here, but we have a basement. And we have a few friends. I'm like, babe, let's just host Bible studies in our home. And so we did that. And that turned into starting a church, because on the second Bible study, this couple came who was old friends of my husband from college. And they're like, the wife called me the next day after Bible study. And she said, what you're doing is bigger than your home. Please use our space. And we started hosting Bible studies in their event space, which is beautiful. People kept asking us, is this a church? Are you guys starting a church? We're like, what? No, this is just Bible study. But we would feel convicted every time people would ask us that. So we're like, let's pray and ask God. Let's not just be so quick to say no. And after we prayed, it was a Friday night, we prayed. The next Bible study, which was the following Wednesday, I believe, the owner of the space we're in was like, I need to know if you guys are starting a church because someone wants to rent out our space on Sundays. And we're like, oh, okay. She's like, yeah, it's another church. I'm like, oh, sure. If they want to rent out, you can make money. Go ahead. She's like, no, I need to know what we're doing. She saw herself a part of it. And she's like, I had a dream last night. See, God speaks in dreams. Gotta pay attention to our dreams. She had a dream the night before. It was a Sunday in the stream. It was a church service and we were baptizing people in a blow up tub. And when she's told us this dream, we looked at each other and we're like, I guess we're starting a church. And I have to say, it's pretty amazing how God told her as opposed to telling us so that if we were to go to her, hey, God told us to start a church. Can we use your space? He told her. And fast forward, we have a church now and we actually did our first baptisms on April 28th in a blow up tub in the space. Look what the Lord has done. That's all I have to say. Like God is so faithful. All we have to do is trust in him and submit and watch him work and just be in this place of surrender. And yeah, I feel like if I'm going to leave something with you guys, it's to really trust in God. Like the world has its ideas for you. The world is going to push and flood your mind with what it says is success. What it says is happiness. What it says is fulfillment. And it's not. It's all lies. And what God has, like God is a God of, he loves us. And right now, this earth is really our place to choose to walk with him or not. And there is no gray area. It's just the kingdom of God or the kingdom of darkness. And you want to be in the kingdom of God. Like there's just, there's no question. And God is so faithful. And I don't know what the next 10, 15 years hold, but if any, if it's anything like the last 10 years, I know it's going to be amazing.