Rob's story: Ascent out of darkness

The only term I can think of to describe the majority of my childhood is religion. Not just any form of religion, but deep legalistic religion. Although I was born in New Jersey, my family moved to Florida when I was very young where they became heavily involved in a local church. I can actually describe the rest of my childhood experience as a rather positive one - up until a certain point that is. I can remember waiting and waiting every Saturday for the Sabbath to be over at sundown so that I could do something fun. My parents were very involved in the study of the book of Revelation, and I developed a deep fear of the end of the world at a young age. I was being taught Bible stories but I had never heard that I was made one with the Holy Spirit through the cross of Christ, and could move in mighty power to bring a loving God to a dying world. My view of God was a rather fearful one, and I was taught to live my life according to most stipulations of Old Testament law, or that I would not "make it." My education consisted of various small private schools where I usually took the title as “class clown”. My father was a Seventh Day Adventist lay Pastor, and I looked up to him very much. We would always do fun things together such as camping and miniature golfing on Saturday nights. The year that I turned 10, my mom became pregnant with my first brother, Ryan. We went on vacation to visit some family in New Jersey, but my dad could not come due to previous work commitments. It was while we were in New Jersey that he and my mother spoke on the phone and had a conversation that made everything as I knew it change forever. I can remember when we got back to Florida and I woke up the next morning to find Dad was gone. My world as I knew it was shattered. My brother was born right in the midst of all of this chaos and my mom desperately needed somebody to help her pay the mortgage. Soon enough, she found a roommate and helped her move into our house. Before long, her roommate became my babysitter, and once my mom went off to work, this woman would take me to a nude beach or teach me things that I should have never learned at 11 years old. It also wasn't unusual for me to be molested by some older girls that lived down the street. I was so confused that by the time I turned 12, one of the only things that I could dwell on was suicide. I felt that I was the cause of the divorce and that if I had never been born, none of that would have happened. Shortly thereafter, my Mom and I  found cocaine hidden in our house mate's room. The police were called and that was the end of that fiasco. My mother was a complete emotional wreck, and many times told me that my brother and I were the only things keeping her alive. Since the divorce she had completely lost her faith in God, and so had I. I could not understand if this God was so loving, why he destroyed my family. I began to develop a deep anger and hatred toward God and all Christians in my heart. One day when I was home alone, I remember going into the bathroom and locking the door. A giant steak knife accompanied me and I was planning on using it as a tool to help me escape from this world. As I held the knife to my wrists, my entire childhood flashed before my eyes. A sudden fear came over me because I did not know what would happen to me after I died and it scared me so bad that I dropped the knife and ran out of the bathroom. Just a few years before, I had found my school principal dead in the bathroom and when I tried to tell somebody, everyone laughed at me because they thought I was joking. This scenario played over and over in my mind as I contemplated suicide, and it seemed like the spirit of death just began to follow me everywhere I went. My mother started to bring home different men from bars that she would go to each night. I grew so lonely that I started to beg her to let me go to public school. She finally conceded and my first day of 7th grade, I climbed into a school bus for the first time in my life. I was harshly ridiculed and mocked because of how sheltered I had been my whole life, and within weeks I had a brand new crowd of friends and a brand new identity. I had found my “nitch” with the Gothic crowd. Those who had long black hair, wore heavy dark make up, listened to satanic music and carried chains under their trench coats. I instantly took to them and they began to teach me their ways. One night when I slept over a friend’s house, I was forced to do drugs, touch women and get drunk. This caused even a deeper hatred and depression to rise up within me. Needless to say, I failed my first year of seventh grade, and had to do it over. By age 14  I was an alcoholic. I would chug pure booze morning, noon and night, smoke various drugs and study my satanic bible that I had been given as a gift. Suddenly, all of my friends around me began to die. One of my good friends was accidentally run over by his mother, another one died of cystic fibrosis and the list goes on and on. I began to practice heavy occultism and witchcraft including but not limited to: the Necronomicon, séances and the worship of the dead, devil possession, Ouija boards, black magic, spells, and the art of sacrifices.
As I descended deeper and deeper into the darkness, I began to have one on one interactions with the spiritual realm and with demons. On one occasion I prayed to my father satan and sold him my soul in exchange for the power that I requested of him. In the years following, I did see many of the things I desired come to pass. At the age of 16 I had moved out of my Mother's house and in with a witch who also was teaching me everything she knew such as astrology, palm reading, etc.. We were not together long before she took my belongings and ran off with another man. This drove me to attempt suicide for the second time in my life. Just as I was about to end my life with a bottle of pills, I decided to ring my good friend that I had met in school years ago. He eventually talked me out of the suicide and my life returned to “normal” for a season. Most of my friends were now expelled from school or in jail for various reasons such as bomb threats, drug busts, etc., but I was determined to live my life with purpose. My purpose became to hate God and counteract Him in any way that I could. I remember going back to the church I grew up in one last time to see if there was any hope. All they did was judge me by the way I was dressed and the earring in my ear. I had had my last straw with these... "Christians."  I began to listen to music that spoke of torturing, raping, killing and mutilating Christians and then destroying their churches. I began to write poetry and songs consisting of this subject matter as well as deeper issues. I had built a small altar in my room to satan, and at some point my mother finally found out just how deep into these things I was. These practices are real, and one of my good friends knew someone who had even sacrificed her own baby. One night as I was going out, my mom fell on her knees before me and screamed “Son! Please don’t do this! Please don’t ruin your life like this! Please come back to Jesus!” My mother had decided to turn back to the tiny measure of faith that she had and cling to whatever she had previously known about God. I was possessed by many demons and in that instant one demon rose up within me and took control of my voice. “Woman”, it said, “Do not EVER speak that name in my presence again!” Then I left her crying on her knees and ran out the door. Whenever I would hear that name “Jesus” I would shudder. A few days later, my mother came to me with a “proposition”. “Son”, she said, “I’d like you to come to a Christian music festival with me.” “No!” I yelled. "I'm a satan worshiper!" “Why would I want to go to a Christian Music festival?” I thought to myself. Then suddenly, an idea came to me. There was going to be 90,000 Christians at this festival and it would be my chance to prove to as many of them as I could that their “God” was a liar and that satan was the true father. I decided to go, and after much preparation, I took all my literature and we were on our way.
         There are of course too many details to recount here; however what I will tell you is that I was successful for a couple of days. I was getting drunk and doing drugs and just having fun until I went to see a “Christian Metal” concert. I love metal music, and I absolutely loved the concert - however what I did not like was that they would proclaim the name of Jesus with boldness in the heavy music that I thought was only to be meant for father satan. After the concert, I had a chance to meet with the lead guitarist who spoke with me for quite a while. He told me that he also was a satan worshiper, and that Jesus had changed his life. I had never in my life heard a story like his before but I almost instantly rejected it. A few nights later, I went to check out a “worship concert” that was being put on. Many of the people in this concert were clapping, dancing, singing, crying, lifting their hands toward the sky, etc. I had never seen anything like this because in the religion that I was raised in, most of these things were prohibited. These “worship bands” had drums, electric guitars and were actually encouraging the people to dance and go crazy for this “god”. I was very intrigued by it but I proceeded to mock them and laugh at them so as not to show my interest. Before long it was like this hungry desperation was bursting out of my being and I just had to know if this God was really who the Bible said He was. At that moment, under the stars in the midst of some beautiful mountains, I cried out to God and told Him that I would give Him one more chance to reveal Himself to me. My desire however was that He come at that very moment and show Himself to me, more real than the people that were around me. Before I knew what happened, it was like a strong wind that knocked me to the ground. No one else around me felt it, only I did! Following this experience I found that I was stuck to the ground in a near fetal position on my knees, and I could not get up no matter how hard I tried. It was like there was a twenty ton weight on my shoulders. The next thing I felt was a strange tingling moving through my arms and I watched them as they lifted up toward heaven. I actually felt dozens of hands around my body and under my arms as they lifted up, although there was no one there in the physical. At that moment I felt like I was in the middle of what can only be described as the bliss of heaven. It was an ecstasy so unspeakable, so astounding! In that same moment I heard a voice whisper in my spirit “I forgive you”. I knew that it was Jesus Himself speaking to me! And I could do nothing more but cry and repent before God and ask Him to save me. I then heard Him say, “Everything that you have been through will now be turned around and used for MY Glory.” Although at that time I did not know exactly what that meant, I trusted Him wholeheartedly and knew that I just had a radical encounter with the God of the universe. Although I was a satan worshiper just 5 minutes ago, I was now hammered drunk on the Holy Ghost, and would stop at nothing to release His Kingdom. I went immediately back to the friends that I was previously partying with at the festival and preached my socks off to them! I told them what Jesus had done for me and about the encounter that I just had. I told everyone I could find including my mother who almost fainted from excitement. The details from this point in my life are too many to write outside of my full length book which is yet to be released, however, I had a great bonfire and burned over 2,000 items including CD’s, clothing that was used in service to the enemy, movies, pornographic material, etc. Almost every desire and sin addiction that I had given myself to vanished on the very night, however it was nearly 4 years before I was completely delivered from all the demonic activity that I had been involved with due to the renewing of the mind as spoken of in scripture. It took me nearly 5 years of studying the scripture on my own to even have a clear understanding and interpretation of the Gospel outside of the only interpretation that I knew. It wasn’t long before I began seeing crazy signs and wonders. Tumors shrinking, demons coming out, blind eyes opening, cripples walking! It all started to make sense. No one had ever told me that Jesus died as me. That every naughty thing I'd ever done had died in His body, and I was raised with Him, in Him! I suddenly realized that my old nature had died in Him 2,000 years ago - and that He had traded me my sin for His blissful righteousness! It was hard for me to believe with the things that I had done, that God could look at me and see me as His own Son. There is no greater revelation or ecstasy offered on the planet than to know that you have been made right with God forever - and it had nothing to do with your own efforts. With that in mind, I became so lovedrunk and full of the Holy Ghost that I took it to the streets, I took it to revival crusades, into restaurants, into satanist clubs and eventually to over 30 nations of the world by age 25! There were many fall outs in my family life due to my radical conversion as a “Born Again”, some of which my Seventh Day Adventist family labeled us apostates to the faith and threatened to kill us. Sometimes the police even had to be called, however I glory in the sufferings of Jesus and would never change this calling for the world! God brought me my beautiful wife in 2007, and together we continue to go into both the darkest places and the farthest nations (including our own) bringing the transforming fire of God to a world in need! Within the past two years, we have ventured into every single country in Central & South America, Haiti, and some of the farthest reaches of the USA and Canada (we base in Fairbanks, Alaska, USA) to bring the bliss of this glorious Gospel of Christ - this message that is literally too good to be true! We have one boy named Titus Obadiah, and this just in - one more on the way! We look forward to connecting with believers around the world for a revolution of His glory  - please like us on Facebook at Facebook.com/KingdomDwellers and visit us online at www.KingdomDwellers.com.
If you would like to have us in your region please contact us via FB or email Info@KingdomDwellers.com

– Rev. Rob Radosti Jr.

P.S. If you think my testimony is heavy, you should hear my Wife's. ;)