 God says, be still and know that I am God. And that means that it doesn't depend on you and me and all our efforts. It just depends on God and His grace. This is Hope Today. I'm so glad you joined us. Hope you had a great Labor Day weekend. I know I did. Look, I'm still casual even through Labor Day weekend. By the way, I'm Tom. I'm here with Anna and Sydney. We have an important and incredible story today, Sydney. Yeah, coming up on Hope Today, from witch to ordained minister, you don't want to miss the God story of a woman named Cindy, who was a former high priestess from Western Pennsylvania, who had a supernatural encounter with Jesus, and her life hasn't been the same since. That's coming up in a few moments. You definitely don't want to miss this. I mean, Anna, I love stories and I love testimonies, but there are some that just really stick with you. And this one I really feel is going to be life transforming for so many of our viewers out there. Yeah, I remember when you first connected with this woman and started hearing her story and just the excitement of Sydney. Like we have to tell her story of what God did in her life to know that God can miraculously step into the deepest darkness is such an encouragement for us to bring hope into our darkness. And so, and also just the awareness of the reality of the spiritual world. We have the spiritual forces of God and we have the spiritual forces of Satan and to recognize that reality, to talk about it, is important because it's affecting our lives every day. It is. And we don't know all the things that go on in people's lives behind the scenes, but God does. One day God's just gonna kind of empty the world out. We're gonna see everything, everything, there's nothing that's gonna be hidden. And so, we know that God has a desire to save each one of us from those things that are in the world. In fact, we're right in the middle of telling our story. Sydney, you did it on Friday. I had the opportunity last week. I don't know, when are you coming up? Next week. Next week. Yeah, next week. So, all of our hosts are telling their stories and this is another God story that we're gonna be sharing today that you see that God enters into a person's life and changes everything, makes what was not into what he wants it to be and he has that for you today. I hope that you're seeking him and desiring his work in your life because that's what he wants to do. He wants to get on the inside and begin to put things to write. Listen, there's a lot of things in this world that have messed us up. The world of flesh and the devil, they've gotten in there and messed us up. God wants to get in there, save our souls, put ourselves to write, put us on the right path. You know, Tom, I think this is a really important conversation even when we're about to watch Cindy's God Story in just a moment because I was just at Marshall's over the Labor Day holiday weekend and really a lot of things that there's so many occult things, there's so many things that are like the tarot cards, the crystals, if you're burning sage, this is bombarding our culture and this is a reality. So I just want to encourage you today. I mean, I feel like if you've been shopping and you look around, I mean, Halloween stuff is all out. Like this is a very serious thing that we as Christians need to be aware. Well, you know, Cindy spent years in the occult until one day a supernatural encounter changed her life forever. Here's her God Story. I looked like your average citizen with, you know, three kids, parents that I came back my father was still a pastor. I would still attend holiday services at his church. I had to hold up that facade but then come holiday times for the occult which there are several throughout the year. I would be gone three, four, five days at a time because I had to go take care of the rituals. I had to go be in charge. I had to do this. I would leave my husband and my kids and it was not the easiest thing ever. It was, even then was hard for me as a parent to leave but I didn't know any way to get out. You know, the enemy comes to steal, conquer, destroy, separate, and he separates families and that's what he did with us because I always felt that my parents were more involved with the church and my other siblings than me. So I was always looking outside our house for somebody to love me. My father was a pastor, my mother was a nurse and then a teacher but I didn't learn till I was much later that I had an identical twin sister who tragically we lost at a young age and my parents kind of just really shut down and I can't imagine how hard it would be to lose a child much less lose a child and have a remaining child that looked exactly like them. It was very difficult for me to find affection at home. My parents were great parents and they gave me everything I could have but just emotionally it was a very different situation. My brother and sister were very hugged upon and kissed upon and me, I was just there. Into my teens I found a young girl that became my best friend but the funny thing was she wanted to go to church and I didn't. So she would all the time with my parents I started hanging with her mother who just was like became my second mom and started seeing in me and giving me the things my parents never did that love that oh, you're great, you're wonderful and then started to show me what she believed which was she owned a bookstore which was in a co-book store and she was in witchcraft. So she started to show me the powers of the other side that as a 16 year old are magical. I mean not just magical but like here I have power and it was something that I started to crave and she saw in me this ability, you know she would always tell me this is what you were born for and it was just wonderful. It was like I could have whatever I wanted. I just had to follow these dark arts to get there. So she just started grooming me more into that and showing me spells, incantations, how to have power over people, how to manipulate people because not only was it the incantations but you learn to manipulate how people think about you, how people perceive you, how they start thinking about their surroundings. This lady's like she had other connections in higher parts of the occult. So she saw in me something she couldn't continue to teach so she took me to other people to be groomed and I was starting to be groomed as a priestess as a leader in the occult. So there are three parts of the occult, the maiden, the witch and the crone or the maiden, the priestess and the crone and they started to initiate me into that maiden slot. So there are many different things you had to learn, very different trials you went through and initiations there's actually 13 total, surprise, surprise. Each initiation was a different power. Each initiation was a different task until you got to the 12th which was they gave you or pointed you a spirit guide which is nothing more than a demon that attaches to you specifically. There's one more final initiation that is to test your, really to test your, are you gonna be able to hang or are you gonna give all your loyalty to Satan and it was a given up a child. I became pregnant, I was only six months pregnant at the time, the day was May day or what we in the occult called Beltane and it is the day of renewal but this particular day my handler cause everyone that is being trained has a handler gave me something to drink and I became very ill and basically aborted the baby that evening but as I did it was my job to then lay her on that stone altar and give her away. It was a very dark time in my life where I had to make that decision and I felt I had no way out by that point. It was either lay this child on the altar or lay on the altar myself. There was no other choices and there's no way out. It's either do this or die. I moved out to Las Vegas because there was a church that they wanted to infiltrate and I came from a pastor's home. If anybody knows how to get into a church it is somebody that it was brought up in the church so they would use me that way but in that time I met a man who they never wanted me to marry so I met my husband who is we've been married now for 31 years but when I married him I lost my standing. I lost where I was going. I would have been a higher up person perhaps if I had not married him but God knew at that time what I needed. I didn't understand it. Shortly after my second child was born they said we're gonna move you home we have a position for you. There is a high priestess job in Southwestern Pennsylvania and we have groomed you for that so you're gonna come back and take over that position. When you're in the occult you're always looking over your shoulder because somebody either wants a position if you don't do what they want there's a punishment involved. If you do what they want and it doesn't successful there's a punishment involved. Being back home was hard I had to connect because I lived two separate lives at that point. I looked like your average citizen with three kids, parents that I came back who was my father was still a pastor I would still attend holiday services at his church. I had to hold up that facade but then come holiday times for the occult which there are several throughout the year I would be gone three, four, five days at a time because I had to go take care of the rituals I had to go be in charge I had to do this I would leave my husband and my kids and it was not the easiest thing ever it was even then was hard for me as a parent to leave but I didn't know any way to get out I knew this was my life and this is what I had chosen this is what I was made to do that's the biggest one they tell you this is what you were born to do this is who you were born to be and that's not always the truth. God has a plan he knows where we're born to do and we can be far more than the world and the occult I feared my life and I did all the time there was somebody always looking to take my position late 2013, early 2014 a young lady came to this area who wanted my position and like I said you're looking behind your back all the time because somebody wants you and which battling is a whole different ball game it's really hard to even get you to fathom I had done every incantation, every spell everything that I knew to try to get rid of this girl or at least subdue her and on July 14th, 2014 I was in a trance in a state of being that is not here on earth there's a plane between heaven and here and it's called the astral plane and that's where a lot of things happen in the spiritual realm with the occult Astral plane, you often get there by relaxation and you'll hear people talk about transcendental meditation and that will actually get you there you, it's an outer body experience your soul leaves and goes to the plane where you can do incantations you can actually have meetings you can, all kinds of stuff I think I joked a lot of times with people it was like Harry Potter dueling there was one witch on one side with one, one witch on the other and we were just kind of at that standstill like I didn't know what else to do I had done everything that I had ever learned and I had been in the crash for 30 years so I knew a lot of spells I knew a lot of incantations but I could not subdue this young lady and at that moment the name of Jesus came out of my mouth and this dark plane went completely light I watched demons run to the outskirts and I fell back into earth, into my body which is not a great feeling when you're in those kind of states because it's like waking up at a moment and your heart stops so I fell back into my body and I didn't know what to do I mean I was like okay now what? because I have said the name of Jesus that I have heard makes everything go away but I also knew that I wasn't serving that God I was serving his enemy and now here I am I had one Christian friend through the Renaissance Festival that I knew who I ended up calling who sat up with me all night and tried to explain to me, got me to her church did I accept Jesus on that night? No, it took me several days to really wrap my head around what I thought was real and what was really real and then God delivered me He baptized me and like all demonic energy stopped because Satan is such a legalist so once I was baptized he had no legal tie anymore and I started renouncing the things that I had done and the demons and the spirits just started to fall away and my continence started to change and towards the end my husband and I started to renew our relationship in 2016 by January of 2017 my husband was saved and he was baptized and that year we celebrated our 20th and wedding anniversary and we did it in the church going back to where he met me I was in my deepest dark and soulless place and in Psalms 139 it says even in the darkness I try to hide from you but your light is all around me when I said the name of Jesus literally that came out of my mouth we have that taste that part of the mouth I said the name of Jesus the light engulfed me I mean it took a very dark place and blew it up I mean I sometimes say I feel like Saul on that road to Damascus with that bright light that just flashed because he had God had to show him that he was real too if he had not shown me that Jesus was real and I really had to see it for myself or I would have never believed it I was so my heart was so hardened that unless he physically showed up I wasn't gonna believe it and that's what it took so tasting it by speaking the words of Jesus out of my mouth and then seeing it with my own eyes I mean it was just amazing I didn't think so at the time but now I really see the amazement of how much he was in control even in those dark places What an incredible God story by Cindy and Cindy we know you're watching we'll just say thank you so much for sharing your story for your courage for your bravery and just opening up I mean it is amazing that at the name of Jesus everything shifts everything changes deliverance happens redemption happens and you know just Tom and Anna just listening to our story and watching that there's just so much that comes to mind and I just think there's so many people that are in strongholds that are walking in a cult things they're just dealing with so many things but this just speaks and shows that through Jesus anything is possible and we see redemption like never before Anna That's right he truly is the chain breaker today if you're watching and you're struggling with something that just feels like it's bound so tightly around you whether it is fear depression, shame, guilt know that those things are from the enemy then he is trying to hold you down but when you are in Jesus Christ he cannot hold you down because Jesus has set you free and all you have to do is call on the name of Jesus You know I'm thinking of the verse He has translated us out of the Kingdom of Darkness and into the Kingdom of His own dear Son so all of us we don't have a story like Cindy's but all of us have come out of that Kingdom of Darkness and it doesn't matter how far in that Kingdom of Darkness let's say Cindy probably was pretty far over there but we were all over there we're all in this Kingdom of Darkness he's translated us now if you're a Christian into that Kingdom of His own dear Son our relationship with Jesus Christ is what God is offering to you today you know he makes that offer to us and says come unto me all you are weary and heavy laden I will give you rest what an incredible promise what an incredible thing but it starts with that relationship Cindy had to open that door of her life to Christ it took a little while for her to understand but she saw power in the name of Jesus power to translate her from the darkness to the light do you want that today? if you do you just need to open that door and say Lord Jesus come into my life be my Lord and Savior translate me into who you want me to be she really found who she was meant to be when she took that step so take that step today of crying out to God of seeking Him and entering into that relationship with Him you know Tom as you were just speaking I just want to speak to the person that is right now deep in occult practices that maybe you are looking at horoscopes that used to be me if you are looking at tarot card readings if you have crystals and you have sage those are occult things and the one thing just want to encourage you today get rid of those idols that are in your home do not go to the tarot card reader do not look for the horoscope to know what your future is all of these things right now are so embedded in our culture that the enemy is trying to stray us away from the truth Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and I am one of those that I was practicing occult things I didn't even know what was happening I remember going to sleepovers and there was a Ouija board all of these things that are in our culture but Jesus is saying this now is the time to turn from it you have no idea how many open doors that you're allowing into your life you're allowing into your home you're allowing into your family so right now I just believe that God just like put that in my spirit that it is time for you to cleanse out your house to go through your home and get rid of those things that have opened the door even when Halloween's coming up we see Halloween decorations are everywhere can we tell you something Cindy has told me is that that is it that it's like it's a belting like there's these holidays and these festivals that we don't even understand that we are entertaining so we just wanna pray for you right now so Father God in the name of Jesus I thank you for the person that's watching Father God I thank you Father God that you are redeemer that you are a deliverer Father God that you are the one that pulls us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light and Father God I pray for that person right now that has been on the fence so God that person that may have not even understood that horoscopes and tarot cards and sages and crystals and all of those things are opening them up to things that they don't even necessarily understand or maybe there's that person right now that the witch is watching and she saw Cindy's testimony and she feels so torn Lord God in the name of Jesus we just declare and decree Father God that they are gonna come to know you Father God God I pray right now in the mighty name of Jesus that you would encounter them Father God in their living room or their bedroom or wherever they're watching God thank you Lord Jesus and if you wanna give us a call to prayer line call us at 888-665-4483 well we're gonna take a quick break and when we come back we're gonna go into our day of prayer you don't wanna miss our topic for today we'll be right back. 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Welcome back to Hope Today we're so glad that you're with us on this Tuesday so we hope that you've been joining along with us through our 21 days of prayer and I love our topic for today because it is about protection over marriages and as we were just talking about the occult about the enemy and how he wants to infiltrate we know that in marriages is one of the one of the primary places that he's trying to go to to break down marriages to break down families because that is the core of communities of towns of the world and so today we want to pray over your marriage over your family but we also want to start by bringing God's word into this and it comes from Proverbs 24, 3 and 4 it says this, by wisdom a house is built and through understanding it is established through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures and you guys I just love this scripture so much because I have been around long enough and have also experienced a house where there has been a lot of breakdown and a lot of division and just the fallouts from that and then I'm also getting to experience building a new relationship where God is at the center and so when the scripture is talking about that wisdom about that knowledge and building a house whether that is a marriage whether it is a family that we face hardships even in those godly relationships where we need the wisdom of God as we have children, listen I have teenagers and whew I wish I could go back to the days of potty training being the biggest issues but we need wisdom every step of the way to build these relationships so that they can stay on course and glorify God. Yeah you know I love this verse in fact in the new living it says a house is built by wisdom and becomes strong through good sense which I love that it does come you know wisdom is good sense but I just you know I feel strongly that we need to just understand prayer we're in this 21 days of prayer we're in this time it's interesting related to Sydney what we just heard from Cindy is that she was trying to control her environment control the situation through incantations through all these witchcraft type things prayer is absolutely opposite of that it is relinquishing control to God it is not trying to control the situation it is saying God I am laying it all on the altar for you I am putting everything at your feet and saying God you take control do your will when sometimes I think as spirit filled Christians we kind of don't like the idea of saying I will be done but there's no greater prayer you can pray than I will be done because his will is what will be the ultimate reality for us the ultimate place where we want to be that's where you need to be today that's where we all need to be that place of trusting God through those hard times Yeah so important I like what you just said talk about laying it on the altar and so we're talking about marriages today and I just want to speak to you right now that maybe your husband or your wife and you have to in this season where it's hard marriage is hard hard work and we see the enemy fights all the time the moment you like I feel like when you you know I remember getting married and it was like on the honeymoon it was like whoop here we go you can feel the tension you can feel the stress you can feel the enemy coming at marriages because I love what Anna said because that is the beginning of everything that's the beginning of our families of our communities of our nation and our world and we see how high the divorce rate is we see in our families like many of us have come from broken homes and we see like the dissolve of marriage but today I just want to encourage you pray for your marriage and maybe it is at a standstill and maybe it's at a hard place put it on the altar and give your spouse back to God and watch what God will do pray for that person but put it on the altar today and one thing I love when we were watching Cindy's story we saw how she was in a place of darkness and then as God brought out how he literally knit their marriage back together again I truly believe that we are in a season where God is about to show up and show out especially when it comes on marriage and so even today if you like pray over your marriage sometimes you have to speak over your spouse speak over your husband speak over your wife and to clear the things of the Lord over them and ask that they be led by wisdom ask and pray like turn their heart of stone into a heart of flesh ask them to know the heart of the father like never before and so you know our prayer line is always open 888-665-4483 well we are so glad that you joined us for this very special hope today and we just pray that you would know that God is in the midst of your circumstance and the greatest hope that we have is in Christ and Christ alone and he is the ruler of our hearts