| Jesus sets us free
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As a small boy, before going to bed, I would always recite my prayers and one to Saint Rita of Cascia to persevere in prayer. I remember being tormented in bed at night by what I now know was an evil spirit, touching me and breathing over me, making me shiver and have fear of the dark. My parents, however, not familiar with “spirits” dismissed it all as my imagination. When I was a teenager, however, I discovered I had medianic powers (due to the fact that in Sardinia our ancestors were worshipping idols): I could predict the future on certain occasions; I would dream about my friends getting injured and the next day it would happen. This frightened me. I never tried to exploit them, but I kept quiet about them as I didn’t want my friends to think I had psychic powers or be scared of me. Emotional Break Down Or Evil Spirits? Then something happened in my family that had a huge effect in our lives. My younger sister Sabrina started going out with a friend of mine. They were utterly in love, but his mother became very jealous of their relationship and, before they split strange things began to happen to them. The boy would became very violent for no reason and he always had car or bike accidents whenever he came to our house. My sister would feel a very dangerous “presence” next to them, and when she went to cross the road, she would feel something trying to hold her still in the centre of the road. My family were divided into two groups: those who believed that my sister was having a nervous breakdown and those, including my mum and I, who thought something else was happening to her. Then one day my mother and older sister took Sabrina to a Franciscan church in another place for mass. Before the mass started, Sabrina started having very strange reactions. One of the friars who knew her prayed for her, and he received a revelation that Sabrina had been cursed. He also told us that it would be “very difficult” to get rid of. Later we discovered the curse was given in a form of powder in a cup of coffee that she had drunk at the house of her boyfriend’s grandmother. Strange Voices Came Out Of Her God was always a step ahead of us, however, because this friar turned out to be an exorcist, so he would pray for her weekly. I had never experienced anything like this before: during prayer three people would have to hold my sister down. It was just like the story of the epileptic boy in the Bible in Mark 9.14,29. My sister shook and convulsed and threw herself on the fl oor, foaming at the mouth. It was horrible. When the friar prayed over her three different strange voices would come out of her. One was that of an old woman who screamed “she is mine, I will never let her go”. In spite of this, my brothers decided to take Sabrina to a psychiatrist, where she was examined, but nothing wrong was found with her psychologically. To please them my mother even took her for a blood test, but nothing turned up there either. The manifestations were very regular: Sabrina would become rigid like an old woman crippled with arthritis, she would get an evil look in her eyes and she would talk like the witch in Snow White. She had to spend most of her time secluded in her room because my father didn’t believe any of this and because her behaviour was uncontrollable. She was frightened to go to Mass too because of the sudden manifestations, especially at the sight of God’s house. We endured all this for five years and, in spite of all the prayers, Sabrina seemed to be getting worse not better. We Tried Everything We tried everything – putting blessed water and salt in the
cooking – anything that might protect us and confirm that we
were God’s family. My mum and I would pray and say the rosary
whenever we saw a turn coming on. Although I believed in God I wasn’t
leading a very Christian life however, as I was sleeping with my then
girlfriend and generally living as I wanted. The Truth Will Set You Free It was while I was in England that my mother, Sabrina and my brother Marco got involved with the charismatic renewal. The whole prayer group they belonged to began to pray for Sabrina’s deliverance and she began to regularly attend the meetings, in spite of her problems. She has confided in me that over these seven long years, while she has struggled with this terrible spiritual oppression, God has taught her to walk with Him and to surrender to Him, especially because on many occasions, during the manifestations, she couldn’t control her strange behaviour. “I love you so much Sabrina” and she in turn felt compelled to say “me too”, as she realised it was Jesus speaking to her It was at a large charismatic meeting organised by the prayer group that the invited speaker who had got to know Sabrina, told her that the real block in her complete deliverance was that she had failed to give up her medianic powers and concretely renounce satan. When he said this, Sabrina, found herself, against her will, punching him in the stomach and she started to swear and scream at him. But later she followed his advice. In fact every day for some time, she had to consciously reject these medianic powers, and turned to Jesus, so they would not take her over again. Afterwards, during the teaching the same speaker told her “I love you so much Sabrina” and she in turn felt compelled to say ”me too”, as she realised it was Jesus speaking to her. At that moment she felt her healing had become complete. On the other hand things weren’t going well for me in England in my marriage and I was feeling helpless, so when Sabrina told me of a Charismatic day retreat happening in Sardinia for Pentecost ’99 I decided to go. This was an incredible experience. My family and the prayer group in Sardinia had been praying for my conversion for a long time and they all seemed to know me and were very welcoming. The word of God for the day was from Baruch 4 “Have courage my children, cry out to God and He will set you free”. I really cried out to God because of all the emotional pain I was in and I received the grace of repentance. I then felt my whole body burning as I was baptized in the Spirit and I asked God to give me a new heart. And He did: He physically removed my heart of stone and replaced it with a new heart of flesh. I asked God for the gift of joy so, whatever was happening in my life, I would always be able to praise Him and share this gift with others. I felt like a new person. Premonitions About Bad Things Happening To People Stopped The Baptism in the Spirit had an immediate effect on my spiritual life. Now the medianic dreams and premonitions about bad things happening to people stopped, instead I started to get visions and revelations about Jesus during Holy Mass. As I gave my life to Christ I found He had purified my spiritual senses to use for His glory, instead of them being dominated by the evil one. Satan didn’t frighten me any more because I knew the power of prayer, particularly the gift of tongues, which I could use if I felt I was being attacked spiritually. I felt such a relief as I was liberated from all the fears that had dominated my entire life. Things are still a struggle in my marriage. It has been very hard for my wife to accept what has happened to me, because I have changed so much. Also because I love Jesus and want to put Him first in my life, she experiences this as a rejection of her. I trust though that God is going to work through all this, and use it all, just as He did the terrible years that Sabrina had to endure. If it hadn’t been for Sabrina’s terrible affliction, none of our family would have been interested in coming closer to Jesus, and now half of my family have been baptized in the Spirit and are leading a true Christian life. Sabrina now works hard for the Lord. She is very spiritually gifted and because of what she has gone through has very good discernment in spiritual matters. She also has a great gift in praise and is involved in the music ministry in Sardinia. I too, now, just want to live the rest of my life for Jesus, and to do his will in every area of my life. PRAISE BE TO GOD THROUGH WHOM ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!
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I
grew up in Sardinia, the youngest son of a big Catholic family with
4 boys and 4 girls. The people in Sardinia are very religious people
and outwardly very Catholic, but they are also very interested in
the supernatural. Palm reading, fortune telling and all kinds of new
age practices are very popular with many people and it is often these
activities that have more infl uence in people’s lives than their
Christian faith. 
