God used Matthew as an instrument of righteousness and inspired him to write this book for His glory and to edify the kingdom of God. Matthew was a hopeless slave bound in the bottomless pit of addiction and a surviving card-carrying member of the Body of Christ who supernaturally survived the horrors of the occult. Listen, Matthew was never involved with the occult whatsoever! Matthew became a high-profile, most wanted case, where the occult would deliberately and purposely try to murder him continually. He was just an infant in Christ trying to stay sober and find meaning and purpose in his life; his heart was extremely gullible, and he was, in fact, ignorant, naive, and uneducated about who or what the occult was. The occult loves people who are stained in unbelief and ignorance. Matthew was a persecuted Christian and a prospect for destruction. He lived in a satanic ritual for almost half a decade as he was about to be sacrificed to the devil. Matthew became fine-tuned in the devil’s satanic crosshairs and was about to become an object of martyrdom. The devil recruited a demonic swat team, the occult, to breach his life and the corridors of his Christian faith to murder him subliminally and quietly, like a tortured soul who goes down to Sheol silently.

This supernatural war dragged him into the bowels of the occult, where he would spend years fighting for his very survival against the devil, demons, witches, warlocks, satanists, and new agers, engulfed in the flames of demonic witchcraft, pharmakeia, satanism, curses, and spells. Matthew’s character and self-worth were assassinated; he was tortured, harassed, and humiliated in a cesspool of wickedness. The people of the occult are master murderers and architects of manipulation as they ruthlessly try to destroy their victims. The Holy Spirit became Matthew’s personal Evangelist because of the spiritual wickedness, demonic trauma, and humiliation he was about to endure. God said, “I am bringing you out of your spiritual Egypt and dividing the Red Sea of adversity before you, knocking down the giants in front of you where I am taking you to the Promised Land!” Matthew had to endure the cycle of adversity before he could be promoted to his divine destiny.

If you cannot sing in the pit and praise God in the prison, you will never make it to the palace!

Several years ago, God removed the veil of the natural from Matthew’s eyes, and Matthew was allowed to see the supernatural of wickedness for an extended period. Demons were encamping and surrounding him in every direction. As he recalls, demons were coming out of this supernatural portal with the objective: to ruthlessly and utterly destroy him. These were indeed the devil’s elite, the demonic spirits of old, the demons of the Bible that Christ so frequently spoke about. Don’t forget Jesus never interrogated or interviewed demons; He cast them out with a word. God gave Matthew the ability to see what happens in the supernatural when a Christian prays and how every Christian is protected by a heavenly host when the prince of darkness moves in for the kill. While Matthew was face-to-face with the demonic supernatural, he finally prayed, and the most gorgeous, vibrant light of heaven torched around him, a wall of fire, the consuming fire of the Holy Spirit, and he was utterly consumed in the peace of God, which transcends far beyond the mental capacity of the human mind. The heavenly light erupted in his presence and exploded like a bomb of Composition C-4, causing the spirit of fear to be incinerated. As the Holy Spirit surrounded him, he felt as if he was being gift-wrapped by the hand of God. He found himself in the eye of the Holy Spirit as the barrier of light was too bright to see through. God was manifesting His presence spiritually, tangibly, and physically right before Matthew’s natural eyes.

Eventually, Matthew would become one of the most prominent victims of the devil. “And the adulteress will hunt for the precious life” (Proverbs 6:26 KJV). He was seduced by a member of the occult, and his life would forever change from that day on. The people that pretended to love and care for Matthew were actually satanists, witches, and warlocks in the kingdom of darkness. These people masqueraded themselves as Christians, but tragically, they had a sinister plan in mind, to assassinate his hope, murder his character, and take his life. Matthew has endured the most wicked and diabolical schemes from countless members of the occult. The occult’s bowels are ridged with spiritual hatred for Matthew because he is a precious child of God who just will not die (Matthew has supernaturally survived multiple subliminal murder attempts on his life). The occult would use the poison asp from their tongues to devour his character and conspire to destroy his testimony to divide and conquer. Matthew has definitely been persecuted for his faith, but nothing is going to stop him. One persecuted Christian standing alone with his God completely shamed the devil, every demon in hell, and countless members of the occult. Nothing goes unseen under heaven! God saw that Matthew was a sheep surrounded by wolves and a sheep that needed a shepherd, so God became Matthew’s Shepherd, and the devil’s demonic agenda imploded like a house of cards. Little did the occult know that Matthew would have a St. Paul experience in just a few months and come face-to-face with God Almighty, where he became anointed by the Holy Spirit and a new creation in Christ Jesus. Matthew was now able to hear the voice of God (Rhema) with absolute clarity, and he knew something very special was taking place. No longer was he this naive, weak, arrogant, and carnal person; he was transforming into a lion of God. Whenever the occult would move in for the kill to take his life, Matthew would hear the divine voice of God (core shaking) speak to him, giving him instructions on what to do so he would not lose his life.

One night, Matthew was crying out to God in absolute remorse because of his drug and alcohol relapse. He was inflamed with a feeling of deep, godly sorrow because he sinned against his Heavenly Father. As he was wailing out to God, he was reading the book of Psalms, where he would eventually drift off into a peaceful sleep. Next, the impossible happened; Matthew was snatched out of his body where he would appear before the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in heaven. Matthew’s footsteps were able to touch the holy of all holies that no one is allowed to see. Still, to this day, Matthew does not know why God has favored him to see all this. Matthew was clothed and surrounded by heavenly royalty. As Matthew was looking in front of him, the Son of Man approached him, saying, “Matthew, I forgive your iniquities and remember your sin no more.” Matthew came back (utterly, utterly, utterly) consumed in glory and was absolutely speechless. Because of Matthew’s personal encounter with God Almighty and of what Christ said to him, the scripture Jeremiah 31:34 is forevermore written on the tablets of his heart. For years, Matthew wasn’t sure if he stood before the Lord or if it was an angel because he could not see His face. So a few years later, Matthew asked, “Lord, was that You who approached me, or was it an angel?” Immediately, Matthew received the answer he was looking for: the Lord whispered to him, “Who has the authority to forgive sin?” Only Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, has the authority to forgive sin! Matthew had another phenomenal supernatural occurrence take place on an eerie cold night: he was trying to brawl his way through another devastating and orchestrated relapse that was designed and architected by the occult. Matthew stumbled to the refrigerator, glorified in despair, intoxicated, and completely incognizant. Once he approached the refrigerator, he looked up at this candle with Christ embedded on it, with His arms open wide. What happened next was nothing but supernatural, like when God spoke to Balaam through a donkey. Matthew’s name immediately appeared above Jesus’s heart on the candle, and through the candle, heaven spoke, like the voice of thunderous waters; He said, “Matthew, what are you doing?” Immediately, he surrendered on bended knee to his Lord and Savior. As Matthew’s knee hit the ground, he instantaneously became stone-cold sober. Immediately after, he was led to start reading Isaiah 59. The working miracle power of God flooded his central nervous system, and he became sober, renewed, and restored. Lord, Matthew is yours, forevermore; faithfully. Sometime later, another extraordinary thing happened; Matthew was taken out of his body again, but only this time to find himself descending to the bowels of hell. He appeared in a dungeon with cages that went for miles with the most grotesque creatures inside. Matthew noticed that he could see and hear with absolute clarity. When he lifted his eyes, he saw spiritual, demonic, fallen angels that were absolutely putrid and disgusting, bound in cages of darkness. As Matthew was standing there, these creatures started to rattle the cages so violently that the noises filled his ears with pain! While they were shaking the cages, they started hissing and gargling (the most gut-wrenching noises that are so demonic and disturbing) because they saw a child of God standing in their midst. Matthew was able to see this horrid place for a brief moment. He remembers that he was clothed in fear. He did not have fear; he became an instrument of uttermost fear. He eventually returned to his body in absolute terror because of what he had just experienced.

Matthew is grateful because God uses Satan’s weapon of seduction against his very own kingdom. The devil seduced Matthew right into the arms of the Father, where he now takes part in the good fight of faith and exposes his demonic agenda. The devil has been trying to take Matthew out for the longest time. His final straw was when he sent the occult to breach his salvation and take his life but failed with embarrassment. Satan’s attempt to take his life led to his own personal defeat because he can now expose the occult, and he knows how the entire demonic network operates. Where is your sting, Satan? Why can’t the children of lawlessness carry out your will to destroy his life? The devil knows if Matthew can endure the pit and makes it through the prison, he will shape the world with the divine assignment God has for him. Matthew is standing firm on the spiritual foundation that God has laid before him. One person anointed by the Holy Spirit can bring the kingdom of darkness to devastation! The occult loves to see counterfeit Christians who are carnal and worthless in the kingdom of God because they are easy to devour and conquer. However, the occult cannot devour and destroy the true children of the cross because the children of righteousness have the power through the Holy Spirit to trample on snakes and scorpions and overcome all the power of the enemy!

It is a blessing to see the devil’s greatest victims transform into God’s greatest warriors!

“But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside.”—Job 23:10–11 (NIV)

A personal note from the author:

I was a victim of the occult; these people tried to utterly sabotage me and brutally murder me. I have suffered severe persecution to get this book into your hands. My deepest prayer is that this persecution will be a blessing to many, and I beg and plead for all readers to take this book seriously. My heart is that you hem yourself in God’s love! God bless you all! To God be the glory for ever and ever! Amen.