A Gleam of Light: A Guest Post by Witch's Slave No More

The blogger, Witch's Slave No More, continues his story of a journey out of mind-control and manipulation in this second guest post. To read the first part of his story, click here.

You know, I had heard that even a single match lit in the darkest of caves can create a fantastic force of light that can be seen from hundreds of yards, even miles away.

When I started to read the Bible again, I could see that light, but it was not enough to make out that the light WAS the Lord Christ. The light was of Good origin, I knew this much, but it was not enough to say who was casting it and certainly not enough to fight off the evil that was subduing me.

She continued to try to sell me her lies, but I was only lending a deaf ear to what she had to say as I started my studies. Proverbs was my first book, and I loved it dearly. The wisdom is deep and so very simple to understand. I prayed for protection and read verses over and over again from the book of Psalms. As I continued to study, I noticed that certain things began to happen to my abuser. Over the next year, I saw the following changes in her: a spider bite from a brown recluse which resulted in the loss of a toe, a torn ACL (knee joint) which required surgery, contraction of diabetes and several diabetic seizures, multiple lice infestations, lupus, total decay in about 6 different teeth, severe bone density loss, more than I can actually name.

My God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety. He is my refuge, my savior, the one who saves me from violence. -2 Samuel 22:3-

When the time felt right, I took my stand. I had my family praying for me and I was going to at least try for my freedom. I could hear the Lord pounding drums in my chest. She came to my door and I stood my ground, telling her that Witchcraft is wrong and I cited the scriptures that I knew...

God, you've walked out on your family Jacob because their world is full of hokey religion, Philistine witchcraft, and pagan hocus-pocus, a world rolling in wealth, Stuffed with things, no end to its machines and gadgets, And gods—gods of all sorts and sizes. These people make their own gods and worship what they make. A degenerate race, facedown in the gutter. Don't bother with them! They're not worth forgiving! -Isaiah 2:6-

But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars—their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death. -Rev 21:8-

She stood her ground by reiterating what she had said before about the Bible being fickle. When I asked her proof, she could not respond with anything besides cusswords. I had caught her off guard.

She had promised not to make me practice witchcraft again, but still, it wasn't over. I wanted these horrible games she was playing to be over and done with once and for all, but despite the wishes of my God, my family and myself, the war for my soul continued. However, getting her to stop was a step in the right direction, but I knew that if I didn't keep reading that Bible, her willpower would overthrow mine and she would once again command fully. At the time I felt like I had won a battle, but slowly witchcraft's principles gradually and subtly leaked from her. So I read,

Wake up! Rise to my defense! Take up my case, my God and my Lord. Declare me not guilty, O Lord my God, for you give justice. Don’t let my enemies laugh about me in my troubles. Don’t let them say, “Look, we got what we wanted! Now we will eat him alive! -Psalms 35:23-25-

I studied and started going to a non-denominational church. The preacher reminded me of the one I knew at that little Church of Christ where my spirituality was born. The community of church can give you something that no other group of people can: bravery, even in the midst of terrifying adversity. Since church provides friends that will listen and help, it was no wonder that she didn't want me going on a regular basis. In less than a month I was truly prepared to make that final step. Within that time, the Lord gave me the strength to study and prepare for perhaps the greatest spiritual battle of my life: to at last end my relationship with this witch and to save my soul...Until next time,

Witch's Slave No More

Alone In a Corner

It is my great privilege to have the blogger ‘Witch’s Slave No More’ post his experience on the Cult Next Door.

I met this wonderful man on e-harmony and soon realized that he did indeed understand what it was to have your trust in God crushed and your belief in human beings trampled.

I have been truly blessed to have a mate that not only listens sympathetically but also empathizes with his whole heart.

Truly this is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in my eyes.

I met this site's current head writer known as "Toxic Sheep No More" on eHarmony last year. One of the things that we quickly established was that we both were victims of spiritual abuse. She, however, has undergone a more classic case of cult abuse whereby a leader, of remarkable charisma, employs arsenals of altered scripture citing that runs inconsistently with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

My history of being spiritually abused comes from a place that is overlooked by most: I was the solitary victim.

After a painful and bitter divorce (which I am no longer bitter about), after a long and difficult battle with my desire to smoke tobacco and marijuana, and after a year solid of pure loneliness (lonely, as in not having even had a date of even just a PLATONIC nature), I met a woman who would take the next 3 and 1/2 years of my life and try to brainwash me into submission. I became a victim of a solitary cultist. You see, where a church cult targets a group of people, a solitary focuses on one victim. During this time, I was brainwashed out of my Fender bass guitar, several computer components, a car (which she traded in for $5,000) and what I estimate to be around $12,000 cash.

However, the money wasn't the worst part. I was conned out of my religion and convinced that faith was futile. At a very gradual rate, this person started to change my perception of God.

Let's start from the beginning. I was raised in a Church of Christ and was taught to love Jesus, Savior of all that put their faith in Him. My parents, as all good parents should do, encouraged me to grow my faith. For the first 3 years or so, they took me to church and I LOVED going to Sunday school, hearing about this "lamb of God", and hanging out with my church friends during service. Our pastor got very sick and my parents didn't like the new pastor so they stopped going and I had to as well. The new church they went to made me uncomfortable and I never quite found a church-home again like that little Church of Christ . Through my teenage years and my early 20's, I didn't fit in anywhere. In my mid-20's, for a short time, I found a Baptist preacher that really seemed to know what he was doing, but then my wife and I divorced and I had to move.

A year after the move, I met the woman that I will only refer to in pronouns. She began citing obscure Bible verses, ones that focuses on the wraith of God, instead of His love. For example, how God sent plagues onto Egypt , but she would conveniently leave out parts, saying that they were to be overlooked because they were a part of a different story. This didn't make sense to me, but she was someone who was willing to talk about God (even though she never listened or took my point of view into any consideration) and talking about God with someone, really felt good. She had an answer for everything, but nothing she said had any real basis of truth to it and after a while, I got sick of questioning what she thought was right. A lonely person like me, craving attention and a listening ear, anyone's ear, will listen to the silliest garbage and eventually accept the garbage as truth. After I stopped questioning her and started buying into her Biblical misdirection, she said that the Bible had no real basis for fact at all, since "it was written by man and it changed every couple of generations to keep up with the times." She had no real proof of this, of course, but she was still reeling me in, like a worm on a hook. I had started to believe that the Bible was pure lies. Then she started to tell me that the "real" god wants us to worship solstices and the equinox and light candles and chant and cast spells to "protect" others. It seemed far fetched, until I did it a few times and I invested a lot of good money for cheesy merchandise. Her next step was to tell me that there were two gods! One that was older than the God that I had believed in... that was pretty much a stumbling block on her part. I could start to see a little bit of light in the dark cavern that was my life and I started to pick the Bible back up again...

That story I will have to tell next time.
"Witch's Slave No More"