Demonic Encounter: Tony Merkel's Chilling Experience in a Haunted House

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And at some point he brings up the fact that the house is haunted.

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Well, there's seven ghosts in this house. Afterwards, he stands up and he

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he starts shaking his hands real violently. He's like,

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I feel this energy just coming through my body.

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His whole body was squeezed against mine and he puts his head on my shoulder

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and he does this long exhale. He just goes,

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this story that I'm about to share with you,

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I'm glad it happened to me before I was a podcaster, before I was doing this

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stuff. Because I could go into podcasting knowing

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that there is real evil in the world. It does exist

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and it's coming for you. And if you're not guarded,

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it can kick your butt.

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I was, I radically rededicate, let's just put it this way, I

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radically rededicated my life to the Lord in 2014.

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Very miraculous day of my life. The Holy Spirit spoke to me and

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changed me instantaneously. It was miraculous.

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Anybody who knew me knows it was a miracle.

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And all I did was I just drove my truck and I thought about Jesus all the time.

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And I would listen to sermons, I would be praying.

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And so when you're living life like that, like Christ radiates from you.

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And I started building a relationship with a guy who was a receiver at one of

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the places I delivered to. And he was telling me this radical

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life story. And it got to the point where we got to

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current times. And he said, I said to him, well what's the next chapter of your

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life? He says, I don't know, I'm probably going to kill myself.

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And my knee-jerk reaction to that was, man you don't want to do that, God's got

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plans for your life. Those are the exact words I said to him.

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And when I said it to him, his tune changed, his attitude changed.

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He got inquisitive like he never even heard the word God before. It

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was very weird. But I was like, this guy that lives in

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America, he doesn't even know what God is or who Jesus is. Like what?

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This was weird to me. And he follows me out to my truck

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asking questions. And I'm answering, but I said, hey man I gotta keep moving here.

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And he said, will you come to my house and talk to me more about this? And I

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said, yeah I'll definitely do that. So it was a Tuesday afternoon and

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we scheduled to be at his house that Saturday at 11 o'clock.

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Leading throughout that week, the Holy Spirit started speaking to me telling me

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you are going to encounter strong spiritual warfare,

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very dark spiritual warfare. And I didn't

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quite understand what to do with that because this guy's asking about

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the Lord. In my mind, on Saturday he's coming to Christ.

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That's a no-brainer, it's a done deal. This guy is hungry for the Lord.

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And so I'm praying and being very confused that entire week.

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And so I go to my church that Saturday morning before

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I went to this guy's house to get a book, or not a book, the Bible.

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I wanted to give him the Bible. I wanted to give him a Bible because I

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knew he's going to come to the Lord and he needs a Bible. So I go to this guy's

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house, I arrive, I knock on the door and it goes for a few seconds, nothing, and

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then the door just seemingly opened by itself.

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And I peek my head in and it's completely black in his house.

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And I just said hello. And he comes out from behind the door

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and he says, you came. I said, yeah I came. We scheduled for 11 o'clock. And he

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goes, most people don't come. And I was just like, okay, you know.

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It didn't kind of hit me anyway, but since then I'm like,

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that was probably my first sign that something was off. Because

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what do you mean by most people? You've done this before? Like what are you

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talking about? You know? So I go into his house, completely black.

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There were, there was pictures of pinup girls almost as a like

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wallpaper on his wall, completely covered the wall.

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And I was like, okay, it's interesting. And then

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I'm walking, he said we could sit at the dining room table and I'm walking

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towards the dining room table past a bookshelf.

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And the Holy Spirit just said, be aware of the bookshelf.

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And I'm like, okay. So I'm aware of the bookshelf.

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I approach the table and there's two chairs, one on each side of it.

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There was a chair that sat between the table and a window.

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And another chair that sat between the table and a door. And the Holy Spirit

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said, sit down in the chair between the table

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and the window. So I sat down there. And we started talking. Him and I started

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chatting. And this is a three-hour ordeal. I was at

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this guy's house for three hours. And he, we're talking about hobbies and

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just different things. And at some point he brings up the fact

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that the house is haunted. And he says, do you believe in ghosts?

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And I said, I mean, yeah, I guess people have experiences.

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I didn't really know where to go with it. And he goes, and mind you, this is before

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I was podcasting. I did not look at this stuff.

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He goes to me, well, there's seven ghosts in this house.

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And I said, oh, okay. Like I was like, all right, whatever.

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And I forget how he says it to me, but he

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basically describes how the ghosts came into existence in the house.

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And that was in the basement. And the basement was the door behind the

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chair that guy told me not to sit in. And he goes, you want to come downstairs

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and see? And I was like, no, I'm good, man.

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We're going to just stay right here. We're going to hang out here.

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And he just kind of shrugged it off. I said, okay.

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And so I was like, check. Okay. All right. God told me.

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In my head, I'm thinking to myself, like now I think, like, what would have

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happened if I would have sat in that chair? Was there

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like somebody sitting, standing behind the door?

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I don't know. Was I going to be ghost number eight? I don't know.

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But we continue to talk and the topic of God comes up and we start really

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going in on who Christ is and what that means to us as people.

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And he starts getting real fidgety, like physically fidgety.

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Like I'm looking at him like this dude is really, really jiving with my message.

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I'm really preaching a good one. And I said to him, man, are you ready to

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accept Christ in your life? Like, you seem like you're really ready.

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And he's like, yeah, I am. And I said, all right. So we prayed and we asked the

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Lord to come into his life. And afterwards he stands up and he

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starts shaking his hands real violently. He's like, I feel this energy just

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coming through my body, rushing through my body is what he said.

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And I'm just like, and I've done street ministry before. I've seen people who are

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on the streets and maybe aren't the most like

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mentally sane. And I've never seen anybody

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act that way after a salvation prayer. And he goes, I just want to give you a

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hug. And I was like, all right. So I thought we were just going to do

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like a bro hug. And he comes in full body, like his whole

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body was squeezed against mine. And he puts his head on my shoulder and

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he does this long exhale. He just goes,

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and I was like, this dude's weird, man. But I was like, all right. So we sat

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down and we started talking more and he does it again a second time.

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And he stands up, starts shaking and he wants to give me a hug. We do the hug,

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same shoulder, exhale. I was like, okay, this guy's just a

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weird ball. He's a weird guy, man. But praise God, he gave his life to the

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Lord. And then we're sitting there talking and he goes, I want to tell you

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something. I said, what's that? And he goes,

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I'm a member of the church of Satan. And I was like,

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Oh, okay. So this is what God was trying to warn me about.

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And so he gets up and he walks over to that bookshelf that the Lord kind of

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warned me about. And he pulls out satanic literature

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and puts it on the table in front of me. And he says, I want you to take these

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out of my house. And I said, I'll take them out and I'll

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burn them. And when I said I'll burn them, he's standing over

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me and he yells at me really loud to not burn the books.

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And so I said, all right, you don't gotta yell at me though.

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And we start talking a little bit for a third time. He starts shaking.

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I stand up, he gives me a hug. At that point, I'm

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exhausted. I've been there for three hours. I don't know what's happening

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right now, but I had to go. And when I left, I was

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driving away from his house and I felt like I was,

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like I left a piece of me there and I had a passenger with me.

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And I didn't understand that. I had no frame of thinking about this stuff.

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And that started about an eight to nine year process

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of me having this attachment to me. And it got to the point where I didn't

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even realize it was there anymore. I got kind

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of like numb to it. And it wasn't until I was at an

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armed media conference and a deliverance minister,

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long story with that, but he wound up praying for me.

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And as he prayed for me, I felt this spiritual weight just

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lifted off me. And I felt lighter, almost

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almost physically lighter. And it hit me that that was, I hadn't felt

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that good since the day I went to that guy's house

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and he did that stuff to me. And I will tell you, about a year into

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this process, like it was like the Holy Spirit just turned

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that light bulb on for me. And I saw the whole thing clearly because for about a

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year I thought this guy gave his life to the Lord

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and I didn't understand what happened. But I knew that

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something spiritually happened to me. And it really hurt me for a while.

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And it hit me that the guy knew exactly what he was doing from

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the start. And people are like, of course,

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but I didn't know that. I didn't realize that. And

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I think what happened there was, I think he was probably familiar

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with demonic possession. And I think that he was trying to mimic what he thought

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the Holy Spirit would be coming into somebody after salvation.

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And so I think he was, that act that he was doing was

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was something along those lines. But what he was doing with that exhale, I've been

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told by many people, that exhale was him, that physical

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touch in the exhale was him releasing demonic entities onto me.

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And I had no frame of reference for it. And so

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back to everything we've been talking about, I think that there

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is a strong, people need to be, to understand that they need to be strong

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in their faith, but also understand that the attack is real and it comes at you

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when you least expect it. And you need to be

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constantly prayed up and be praying against these things because

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you could be going through your everyday life just walking

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your walk and you come across somebody that has nefarious means towards you.

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And that interaction becomes spiritual warfare.

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And that is exactly what happened to me. And I didn't have people around me to

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guide me through it. And that's why it was such a long drawn out process

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because I'm just, I'm basically in this spiritual

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desert alone getting my butt handed to me by demonic entities.

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And I didn't even know it at the time. I didn't even understand it.

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It just was happening to me. And so yeah, it's when you ask the question,

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that's the thing that comes to my mind the most is that

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that was something that happened before the podcast.

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And it wasn't until well into the podcast

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that I feel like that the fangs of whatever that was was released

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on me or off of me. And so I just really feel like people need to

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understand the spiritual warfare aspects of things

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and be prayed up real hard. And not just because like I'm the

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crazy paranormal supernatural podcaster guy that talks about these

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weird stories. But like if you're claiming Christ, you will have

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attack coming towards you. And not everything is just a coincidence.

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And I'm learning that. I'm recently learning that.

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That the enemy will attack you in ways that

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isn't a demon coming out of the wall at you.

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It'll attack your finances. He'll attack your social existence with

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people in your life. Anything to separate you from other people

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that could have a domino effect to you separating your relationship

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with God. I think that the enemy plays the long game.

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And so the enemy knows to push certain buttons now because the

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domino effect five years from now will mean that this person's so far gone

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spiritually that they're just in the spiritual desert not knowing which

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way is up. And so I just think that we need to

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practice engaging in spiritual warfare on a daily

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basis constantly.