Olivia's Testimony

I’m the eighth born of my parents of nine kids; I was born in Lafayette, Louisiana. My mother had all homebirths except for my oldest brother and sister. I was homeschooled and grew up going to church. My parents moved to Louisiana from Colorado in their 30s to attend Bible college. As far back as I can remember, my parents always talked about Jesus, and our schoolwork was centered on the Bible. But they clearly were not fully surrendered to God's will; it was more so religion. They believed in the miracle-working power of God, but they still allowed sin in their lives and didn't seek after His will and ways. Looking back at my childhood on the outside, it looked like we had a good Christian life, but there was a lot hidden in the dark that nobody knew about, not even my parents.

 

As far as I can remember, I was molested from the ages of 5 to 11, and I was raped at the age of 11. I dealt with masturbation from the age of 5 to my adult life. Because of everything that I went through at a young age, in my teens, I was very stubborn; I dealt with a lot of anger and fear, and I didn’t trust anyone ever. I was always on guard. The only time I felt safe was outdoors. I was a tomboy and didn’t really have girlfriends; most of my friends were boys. I had seven brothers, too, so I was never a girly girl. I took on a hardcore demeanor, fight or flight; I would wear do-rags and hats and never wear dresses or anything girly, no makeup, nothing. I started smoking weed at the age of 11; if I would drink or smoke, it would always be in a small circle or by myself; I had to be in control of my surroundings.

 

Even though I was doing these things, I still had a heart for God. I would read the Bible and pray and talk to God. I never felt I had a chance to serve Him because of what happened to me. In My childhood, I remember being nine years old and telling God I never had a chance to serve him. In my later teen years, I started fornicating with my ex-boyfriend when I was 18. I knew him since I was 12. We were girlfriend-boyfriend occasionally but never really messed around until I was 18. I moved out of my parent's house when I was 19. I was pregnant with my first child, and I moved out before telling them I basically just packed my clothes and never went home. I didn’t talk with them about it; I just left.

 

After having my first child, I started seeking God again because I wanted to protect her and be the best mom I could be. I remember being high one night, and I got so paranoid that I would lose her that I quit smoking weed and drinking. I started seeking after God and reading my Bible and praying, and my ex-boyfriend started reading with me, and we would listen to teachings together. Before I left my parent's house, they started following the Hebrew roots movement and keeping all the laws, sabbaths, and feast days. So, I just went back to what I knew. Things seemed to be getting better, but I was still living in sin, not being married, and my ex-boyfriend was very controlling even though I was seeking God. He didn’t trust me; he wouldn’t let me see my family members at times, or he would give me a hard time if I went to spend time with my parents. He alienated me from friends and family; I just submitted to him and cut people out of my life for a couple of years. Then, when I was 21, I had my second child. He was the first one I had at home; I remember the night he was born. God told me I would have him at home; until that moment, I went to all my doctor's appointments. I didn’t plan on having a home birth, but once He told me I was having him at home, I was like, okay. I started getting everything I needed together and told my ex-boyfriend that God told me to have him at home. I didn’t have any pain; I didn’t scream anything; I felt the presence of God the whole time. I knew God's voice, but I was still trying to serve Him with works, aka the law. I was seeking hard after God and served Him to the best of my knowledge. I had a lot of trials and tribulations along the way. Then, I had my 3rd child at 23 and my 4th at 25. Those years just went together. I was still dealing with much mental abuse from my ex-boyfriend and wanted to make things right and get married, but he never wanted to get married; he was lukewarm at times. He’d get on fire for God but then return to old habits. He’d tell me that he’d stop doing drugs. I don’t remember how often he said this was my last time; I just gave up on him. Besides the mental abuse, he cheated on me more than once with different people, and that broke me; it was hard for me to trust him. We went back and forth for years. I would leave him and go live with my parents, and then he’d change for a little while, so I’d come back, but he would always return to his old habits. When I was 28, I had my fifth child with him, but things never got better between us, no matter how much I tried to please him. I split up with my ex-boyfriend in March of 2019; he wouldn’t give up smoking weed, he didn’t want to submit to God, and then he started following the black Hebrew Israelites movement, and then there was just a lot of rejection there was no hope in us serving God together because I wasn’t accepted in that religion. I knew everything he was listening to wasn’t right, and he got racist because, according to that movement, white people weren’t accepted by God. So, even though I was trying to serve God, it wasn’t good enough because I was the wrong race. He would say he couldn’t pray with me, I couldn’t speak in tongues, because that was of the devil according to their religion. I lost hope for us staying together, and I finally had to separate from him for the last time.

 

When I left and moved out with my kids, he would show up at my parent's house and take the kids when I was at work. It just seemed like there was no way out. I would try to get my kids back from him, and he wouldn’t let me have them, thinking that if he kept them from me, I would return to him. I’d call the cops, but because we didn’t have a custody agreement, I couldn’t get the kids, so I basically gave up and just turned away from God. I started drinking all the time, smoking weed now and then, just trying to drown the pain of everything that I had gone through in my life. It had been nothing but pain and me trying to overcome all the hurt that I’d been through. So when I couldn’t have my kids, I just gave up. My ex-boyfriend would allow me to bring them groceries and stuff they needed, but I couldn’t spend time with my kids; this went on for about six months.

 

In late September 2019, I met a woman, and we started dating. Everything started improving, and we moved in together in March 2020. She helped me get through many hard times not having my kids. She was there with me every step of the way, helping me get them back. I got custody of my kids in July of 2020. Everything started looking good, except that I still had to deal with my children’s father, who would verbally abuse me, and in December 2020, he physically attacked me in front of the kids while we were doing a child exchange. I ended up having a severe concussion and went through months of migraines every day and memory loss. I had my long-term memory but couldn't remember things in my day-to-day memory and tasks. It was hard. I didn’t know how to deal with all of it. No matter what medication I took, it wouldn’t help the pain. I would have just given up if it weren’t for my ex-girlfriend. She stepped up and took care of my kids. She brought structure to our lives, truly loved my kids, and accepted them as hers. We gained a whole family that I and my kids never had. Her parents took my kids as their grandkids. Everything seemed to be going well. I thought "This is how I’m going to spend the rest of my life."

 

But in late January of 2023, I got a call from my dad saying that my mom wasn’t doing well and that I needed to come and check on her. I called one of my brothers, and we went over to their house together, not knowing what to expect because my dad would never call us for anything. When we arrived, she wasn’t aware of who we were; she couldn’t talk. She just looked confused, like her mind was gone. We had to get her up to bathe, but she wasn’t eating anything, and we couldn’t get her to drink. We set up a bed in the living room and tried to make her comfortable. We started calling all of our siblings and told them to come and see her because she was on her deathbed. Four of my siblings lived out of state, so they started making plans to come down; this all happened on a Thursday, and by Saturday, most of my siblings and their families were at my parent's house. I remember walking into the house with one of my brothers on Saturday morning, and two of my brothers and my sister-in-law were bringing my mom to the bathroom, so I stepped in to help. We had to carry her because she couldn’t walk. After we got her in the bathroom, we got her on the toilet. I was sitting on the tub across from her, and my sister-in-law was on my side, holding her up because she had no strength.  As I was sitting across from her, I looked into her eyes, and I saw a demon that locked eyes with me, and it knew I could see it. It started to lock up her tongue, and she started to turn pale. I yelled for one of my brothers, and he came running in along with all my siblings there, and I told him I saw a demon. He started to pray and bind the demon, and it loosed her tongue. She started getting color back in her face, so we brought her to her bed, and we all started praying for her and casting out the demon. As we all surrounded my mom praying for her, my brother, Jason, told me to lay hands on her. Everybody continued praying over her and casting the demon out, and then my brother put his hand on top of my hand, and then as we were all praying, he put his other hand on my back. Suddenly a demon started screaming out of me at the top of my lungs. It was the same demon they were trying to cast out of my mom. It was passed down through our bloodline and in me as well, that is why I began manifesting when they were trying to cast it out of my mom. I had no control; I started manifesting, and it threw me to the ground. Three of my brothers started holding me down because it was throwing me around on the floor. My brother Jason put his hand on my head and bound the demon in me, and it went down. I told my brother to cast it out of me, and he told me he couldn’t because of my lifestyle; he said it would come back seven times stronger. I didn’t understand it then, so I went outside for a while and went back in, and everybody was still praying over my mom. I had to leave with my brother Tim, so we could feed our kids (his girlfriend was watching them), and after we cooked them dinner, we left to go back to my parents' house. When we pulled up, everybody was standing on the porch. I got down and asked my brother Jason if we could go for a walk, and I just started telling him things I had been going through. I told him how I would have dreams of cursing and fighting demons in my sleep, that I would have dreams of the Holy Spirit telling me to come back to Him, and that there’s no time left. Then  I told my brother I was just done with this life. I was tired of it, so I decided to repent and turn to God. We went into the house and headed upstairs. My siblings and their wives came up, and I started getting deliverance from 12 demons. They all manifested and came out to praise God.

 

When I went home that night, I didn’t know how to tell my ex-girlfriend what happened. I told her that I started to manifest demons and that I got deliverance, but I didn’t tell her about us not being able to be together yet. The next day, I went back to my parents. We were still praying for my mom to be healed. She started to move around and started walking that day. After that, my nephew, his wife, and I started doing deliverance on each other. I started reading my bible, listening to teachings, and building back my relationship with Christ. A couple of weeks passed, and I separated myself from my ex-girlfriend as much as possible. I was waiting for God to tell me what to do and how I could tell her that without hurting her; I didn’t want her to feel rejected. I prayed every day for her not to be hurt and that God would save her. I remember the Holy Spirit asking me how much I love her, and I said more than anyone I’ve ever loved, and He said then how can you send her to damnation and He just broke me. It was the hardest decision I’ve ever made because I didn’t know how to let her know it was nothing she had done. She didn’t grow up attending church like I did; she did nothing wrong in our relationship. We never fought or had arguments. She was good to my kids; she was their mom, she raised them for the past four years, and we had our own business. So, I just waited on God and prayed. I slowly started sharing with her that we couldn’t be in a relationship, and at first, she was hurt, but I told her what the Holy Spirit told me: if I loved her, I wouldn’t want to send her to damnation. She knew that I wasn’t trying to hurt her and that she didn’t understand everything, but she started reading the Bible with me, and we started listening to teachings; now she has accepted Jesus in her life, and we both repented of our lifestyle. She joined a mentorship in the Core Goup. Now we are both core sisters; won’t God do it?

 

I’ve seen God move powerfully since the two of us and three of my kids were baptized. I was worried about losing the family I gained, but when we told my ex-girlfriend's parents that we weren’t together, it didn’t change the way they saw me and my kids. They still accepted us. There’s nothing too big that God can’t change and work out for our good if we give everything to Him. It doesn’t matter how much we think we love someone; God loves them and us more than we could ever imagine, whether family members, friends, or loved ones; no one is too far from the love of God. He is all-powerful and worthy of all praise. I wasn’t searching for God, so I thought I knew him. I was running from him the day before my life changed. I was drunk and hungover. I drank every weekend, but God knew me and called me back to Himself; he knew my name in my dirty rags in the drunkenness and drugs; he gave it all for me, so I’ve laid down my life for Him; He has my yes. The goodness of God leads us to repentance. 

 

“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death.”

‭‭Revelation‬ ‭12‬:‭11‬ ‭Amen.

 

Rom 8:38 for I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor messengers, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,

Rom 8:39 states that neither things about to be, height, depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.