That opened up a door
that I wanted to close. Then I didn't know who
to go to, to close it. My parents, they'd send me
to a rabbi. A rabbi couldn't help. Rabbi, I'm hearing voices. There's a demon inside me. You know what'd he do. He would send me to
a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist, when you
are meshuga [crazy] like that, they didn't know what to do. So they would give you
electric shock treatment. And then you'd really
be meshuga. And I'm a Jew, so I'm not gonna go to
a priest or something. Death looked better
to me than life. I was raised in an
Orthodox Jewish home. I went to the synagogue faithfully
until I was bar mitzvahed. And I couldn't wait to
get out of the synagogue, but I did go on the high
holidays with my parents. If you said to me,
did I believe in God? I would have said,
I guess as a Jew, I'm supposed to say yes,
but I don't know. And I quickly learned
that I could be happy if I made a million dollars. I had a degree from a major
university in the United States. I had a job with the largest
stock brokerage firm in the world at that time. So I did something
I'm not proud of. I left my job. I left my wife. I left my daughter and I got
involved in what was called a new age meditation course. I was told that they would
teach me how to know things that were not programmed in my brain. And then I thought, well, if I could know this information
from the invisible world, then, I could know what
stocks are gonna go up. Then I could make a million
dollars in the market. Then I could be happy. So I took this course and I actually didn't
think it would work. They told me how to mentally
slow down my brain waves through mental exercise. And then when I'm in a passive,
almost a hypnotic state, I could invite an imaginary
friend into my head. And this imaginary friend would
give me information that had been never programmed
into my brain. So I went along with it, I'll
tell you between you and me, why I went along with it. They said, they'd give me my
money back if it didn't work. So I figured I'd,
I'd do everything they said, I knew it wasn't
going to work, but it did. And I knew things that were, had not been programmed
in my mind. And I thought I'm now
gonna be happy. And the power actually
started growing. And then I got involved
in something called astral projection. That's where your spirit
leaves your body. But then I found out once your
spirit leaves your body every night that you go to
sleep your spirit goes for a spirit walk. What if my spirit left my
body and didn't make it back in time, I'd be buried alive. And I have to tell you, I was so fearful that
I couldn't even sleep. And I was convinced that what
was inside of me was evil. It was actually a demon. I have tasted the power
of the dark side of the demonic world. And contrary to popular
opinion, it's not fake. There are genuine supernatural
things that are miraculous. Death looked better
to me than life. Life was too hard. I wasn't looking for God. I wasn't looking for religion. I was just looking to go
back to the way I was. I'd opened up a door that I
wanted to close and I didn't know how to close it. And I didn't know who
to go to to close it. For instance, my parents
would give their life for me, but they couldn't help me. They'd send me to a rabbi,
a rabbi, couldn't help. Rabbi, I'm hearing voices. There's a demon inside. You know what he'd do? He sent me to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist,
when you are meshuga like that, and they
didn't know what to do. So they would give you
electric shock treatment. And then you'd really
be my meshuga. And I'm a Jew, so I'm not going to go
to a priest or something. I knew there was
nowhere I could go. I was told there was a greater
power than that devil that was pulling me under,
that demon inside of me. And that power was
the name of Jesus. Did I believe in him? No, but did I have
nowhere else to go? I had nowhere else to go. And at that time I'd
been given a Bible by these Christian businessmen. We Jews have nothing to
do with the new Testament. We Jews have nothing
to do with a church. You know, when you're sinking
in the middle of the ocean, you don't care who
throws you a rope. In desperation, I prayed
of two word prayer: Jesus, help. I really didn't want to wake up. Life was too difficult. Well, I did wake up
the next morning. And I couldn't believe
what happened. That demonic thing that was
inside of me, it was gone, totally gone and replaced with
the greatest peace and love a human could have. I could not be afraid and
fearful if you gave me a million dollars, because this love
conquered all of my fear. It was the love that I had
never, never experienced. I'd never felt before. And I returned to my
wife and daughter and my marriage was restored. And I can tell you that
Joy and I have celebrated our 53rd wedding anniversary. My dad was angry
with me the entire time that I became a believer. All of those years.
You can't be two things You can't be the Jewish
and a believer in Jesus He wanted nothing to
do with the Christians. And he was really ashamed that
his son was a public believer in the Messiah. My mother observed how
my marriage was restored, how I became a good husband, a
good father, a good provider. And she said, you know, I
don't believe in this Yeshua, but Yeshua made my son a mensch. That means a good human being. I discussed with her,
why I believed in Yeshua. And one day she said a
prayer to know the Messiah. And then when my mom died, my father asked the most important
question he could ask me. He said, Sid, will you go to the synagogue
for almost a year with me and say Kaddish for your mother? And just as I was going to say, no, dad, I don't have time. I heard the voice of God. And I felt, God said, yes. Tell him yes. And you know, I went with my father every day
to the Minyan and I said the Kaddish and I put on the
Tefillin. One day, my father said, because I was being such
a good son in his mind, Do you still believe in Him? And I said, yes, dad, I do. I believe the blood of Yeshua
washes away my mistakes. And I am clean. I opened up my Tanakh and I read the 53rd chapter
of Isaiah it to him. It says we Jewish
people reject him, but he won't die
for his own sins. He'll die for our sins. And by his stripes, by the
blood that will flow from him, we will be healed. My dad said, Stop! You're
reading from a Christian Bible. You're talking about that man. And I thought to myself,
isn't that amazing? I am reading from a Jewish Bible and he thinks I'm
talking about Yeshua. I tell you, God is wonderful. He restored my life. He restored my family. My entire mishpocha [family] came
to know the Messiah. I owe everything to Yeshua and
I'm one grateful Jewish man.
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