Hey, my name is Leland Minchew. I’ve been following the Lord for the past 4 months. I want to take this opportunity to share my testimony with you, and maybe if you have problems believing, then I hope this will help. Now most of us don’t really think of the supernatural and no, I’m not talking about fairies and wizards and stuff like that, but the supernatural things of God and God has zero limits. I myself, I have experienced much to prove that God is real, yet there are people who don’t have evidence that He is real, and some people just want to argue about it, but not me. I want to help young believers and show them that God is so much more than what they understand in the natural. 

I’m going to start off by saying that God has given me a second chance at life. A new beginning. He has given me that new found faith. When I was 9 years old I accepted Jesus into my heart. That is just the beginning of my story. After that particular Sunday, I remember going to school and telling my classmates, but some of them said that Jesus and God are fake, and it really discouraged me, and made me confuse about my life, and question some stuff. At that time, my parents started arguing and they would bring me and my two older brothers right into the middle of it and one night I got curious and searched up adult content on Youtube and it opened me to a world of filth. Later on, when I was in the 6th grade I remember kids at school showing me what adult websites were and when I went home I started to go on them and that’s when it got even worse. I used porn to escape. When I watched those videos it gave me some sort of sense of identity. Now between then and my sophomore year of high school, I started to learn how social media worked and things got even worse from there, and all of this stuff would cause me to act out at school and at home. I got grounded more times than most but when I did get grounded, I used to pray and something inside me would actually mean it, but as soon as everything started to go good, I would fall away from praying and it would begin this endless cycle. Then my sophomore year came around and that’s when I put my lips to my first vape, and what I felt from it was like nothing else, and I started wanting it more and more, slowly I was becoming addicted to it. Eventually it pulled me in and I couldn’t break the addiction and I felt comfortable in it. Then one Christmas came around and I felt like everyone hated me; especially my dad, so I left and went to live with my mom. My junior year goes by, then my senior year of high school, and I got my first job. Slowly that job was making me more and more mad at life. I hated everything more than anyone could imagine and it corrupted me. It was by the end of my senior year of high school that I found weed. I went to a coworkers house and I asked if I could smoke some of his weed and he said yes, and low and behold it was the best feeling ever. From then on, I did it day and night and in a way, it was like the devil knew if I kept on getting high and getting this synthetic joy, (that only lasted for a minute) then I would never stop, and that was the case. There was only one time where I did go sober and that was for my Memaw’s funeral. After the funeral, I made alcohol, porn, and vaping a part of my everyday life. I would go on benders for weeks on end. I’d never be home, except for a few nights here and there until I got a new job traveling the roads, putting in glass on canopies. I worked with people that were major potheads and that’s the only thing I did, besides work. I eventually got fired, which was my first sign from God. Then I got my second sign from God, and that’s when weed became illegal. Usually the third time is the charm and in this case it was, because I didn’t realize that God had been warning me. I was so blind by the lust of the flesh, that I lost all focus and then the third warning came.

One particular night, I felt something off, as if something bad was going to happen. As the night went on, the feeling got worse and I texted one of my buddies asking him if he could get me some weed gummies if I picked him up and took him to the store that sells them. He said yes, and I went and picked him up and we headed towards the vape store. He went inside, and while he’s inside I went on FaceBook and didn’t realize that all the stuff I was indulging in, was on my FB feed, but at the time, I was completely clueless. Now at this point, my buddy comes out and I took him back home and then I went home. That feeling that something bad was going to happen got a whole lot worse, it was like something was trying to warn me, but I kept on ignoring it. I took one of the gummies and I start to get a little high. I got on my phone and went on an app called Monkey; its an app where you basically facetiming people. I felt my heart rate go up, and at first I wasn’t worried, but then it got even. I tried doing any and everything that I could think of to get myself to calm down, but it got worse and I felt my life slipping away. I knew I had messed up, and all of a sudden I felt God take control over my body and I began to sober up. Then he started to sing through me; it was a song like no other. The only parts that I remember in that song is God said “His voice will sound like a siren” and “He will become the man I want him to be”. After He got done singing, I remember staring straight into my TV and all of a sudden I see each and every sign that I ever asked for in my life, but chose not to look for. I started to beg God for mercy, to give me one chance and I was saying I’m sorry and I was screaming it while cry. Then I felt as if I picked up a knife and stabbed my own heart, which later God revealed to me was a physical representation of a Psalm where it says “the bows of the wicked shall be broken and their swords shall pierce their own heart”. All of a sudden I was laying facedown on my mattress and basically being judged (I don’t have words to describe what happened) then I remember being before Jesus and He told me to depart from Him for had never known me, then I started falling into hell. I heard demons singing and they were saying “welcome to hell, you’re forever damned, there is no escaping, there is no quenching the fire, you’re forever damned”, as I felt what seemed like worms digging into my flesh. I finally arrived to where I was falling to, and all of a sudden, I started to feel people grab hold of me and it was weird but I did feel fire and it burned on the inside and how the bible describes it is very true. All of a sudden, two demons approach me and pick me up and carry me away and they were humiliating me and doing all sorts of stuff to me, stuff that the physical body would never be able to handle. I used to be able to feel the pain when I thought about it, but God has blocked that from my memories. Then I heard a voice saying “Give him one more chance I know he can make the right choice this time” and then I saw a bright immersive light and He said to me “take my hand child” so I did and He brought me to this place of peace, that was like a bright summers day; there was a stream of water on one side and a giant field of grass on the other and I bowed down before Him. He told me to stand up so I did, then he said to me “you have a choice to make go make it” and immediately I hugged Him. The next morning I ran late for work and when I got to work, I checked my FaceBook and it was nothing but posts about God. Everything on my page was about God and it made me think about what happened that night. The devil thought he could use that but it didn’t work. I was still doing the things I used to do but this time I just felt disgusted with myself, and this happened for a few nights, until one night, I went into deep prayer and I laid everything down at the feet of Jesus. After I finished and said amen, I heard God tell me “Go spread My Word for all to hear”. I immediately said “yes”, as I’m saying yes, I’m crying tears of joy because I knew that God was calling me to spread His Word and to help others find their new found faith just like he helped me find mine. 

So please know this, if you are going through stuff and you think it’s too late for you to come to Christ, just know that you’d be wrong, because Jesus is the King of forgiveness, The King of those that think they have gone too far. He truly is and He is able to redeem anyone. So let me ask you; what is your new found faith?