The End of His Torment Came with an Encounter

Isaac Garcia had a violent upbringing and frequently saw things that scared him.

“There were a lot of things that I saw physically whether it was abuse or drive-bys or raids from the police happening; lots of crime, lots of gun violence.”

However, from the time he was five years old, there was something else going on—something he feared even more.

“I remember my parents putting me in bed and when they turn off the light, the, the room would be just saturated with what I thought were ghosts. I would physically see them, and I knew that I was supposed to be afraid. They wouldn't touch me. They wouldn't speak. They would just stand there and huddle around me. I would lay in bed stiff as I could, close my eyes and just let the storm pass.”

Night after night, Isaac also heard the same message.

‘“It was just this random thought that came into my head, and it specifically said, ‘If you die, you're going to hell.’ And I started to weep. I would hear the same thing so much that I really believed it. I believed that I was forsaken. So, because of that, I ran, and I ran hard.’”

Isaac spent his youth on the street, running with gangs and committing petty crime. Then, in his early twenties, he visited a church service. What he experienced there affected his view of God, even if it didn’t change his heart.

“I had always experienced darkness. But now, for the first time, I'm experiencing some form of peace and hope and some joy.”

Even though Isaac was intrigued, he went right back to his life. In 2010, he joined United States military as an Air Force firefighter and deployed to Afghanistan. 
Later, he married and had two kids. However, after three years, the marriage ended. Isaac was struggling more than ever.

“I'm still getting tormented. I was still running, full of anger, rage, pride, bitterness. There was such an emptiness, and I didn't know how to fill that. If it wasn't spiritual encounters that would torment me, then it was my fits of rage and my anger. Drinking, hanging out with friends, going out, nothing fixed it. It was always still waking up the next day and being completely empty.”

Around that time, he met Kelly, a single mother and a Christian. The two began spending time together.

Kelly remembers that time. 
‘“I started praying very, very seriously for him, for his salvation. I just asked the Lord for strategy on how I might show him the love of the Lord, and we came across a Bible. I knew he didn't have one, and so I bought it, and I said, ‘Hey, I'd like for you to just take this with you on deployment, maybe just as a reminder that I'm back here and I'm praying for you.’”

Soon after, Isaac deployed again to Afghanistan. He was asleep one night when something woke him up.

‘“For the first time ever, I had physically been touched by a demonic spirit. It grabbed my ankle and woke me up. The room is saturated with fear immediately. So, I close my eyes, I roll over. He was present because I could sense it; I am stiff laying in my bed. I can't move. I can't breathe. I'm full of fear. I grabbed that Bible out of pure desperation, and I sat up on my bed not knowing what to do with it. I put it up against my forehead and I said, ‘God, if you are as real as people say you are, you're gonna show me.’ And I open the Bible without flipping pages. And it goes straight to Ephesians, chapter six, “For your battle is not against flesh and blood.” And in that moment, I knew everything that I needed to know. I understood that everything I ever endured was a scheme of the devil. It was a spiritual battle that I had been in, and I knew what I was always searching for, and it was him. Believing in my heart, I just said, ‘God, I'm yours.’  I made a choice to follow.’”

“I get a call from Afghanistan,” Kelly recalls. “‘And he said, ‘Kelly, I don't, I don't even know what to do right now.’ And so, I really had the opportunity to lead him through the salvation prayer at that moment and teach him how to pray.’”

Isaac spent the next six months reading scripture and learning to recognize God’s voice.
“I was able to sleep for the first time in my life, not being tormented at night.”

Isaac came home and married Kelly the following year. Even though he had given his life to Christ, Isaac’s demons—spiritual and physical--continued to haunt him.
“‘I knew there were still some things from his past that he had to lay down, and God was preparing his heart for that. And I put my hand on his shoulders, and I said, 

“It's time. Are you ready?” And he broke.”’
‘“And that night, I would hear his voice, and he would say, ‘Are you ready to go to war?’” Isaac recalls. “‘And I would say, ‘Yes, Lord.’  And that night I went through spiritual deliverance.’”

That weekend, Isaac and Kelly also threw away anything they felt was displeasing to God. The darkness Isaac felt was gone forever and he was overwhelmed with gratitude.
“For the first time in my life, I knew what true freedom was spiritually. I was no longer oppressed anymore. I had such a joy overflowing out of me.”

Kelly agrees. “Joy has replaced the fear, so he operates in joy now.  There's nothing that would prevent you from being able to find that same freedom. You can't be too far; you can't be too broken. That's just how big of a God we have.”

“God is not a God of just wanting to save you,” Isaac declares, “But he's a God who wants to bless you and deliver you. He's a God of the blessed life, of being completely set free.”