{"id":12465,"date":"2024-03-03T22:56:28","date_gmt":"2024-03-03T17:26:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/03\/casting-spells-mans-occult-ouija-board-obsession-obliterated-after-radical-encounter-with-god\/"},"modified":"2024-03-03T22:56:28","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T17:26:28","slug":"casting-spells-mans-occult-ouija-board-obsession-obliterated-after-radical-encounter-with-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/03\/casting-spells-mans-occult-ouija-board-obsession-obliterated-after-radical-encounter-with-god\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Casting Spells&#8217;: Man&#8217;s Occult, Ouija Board Obsession Obliterated After Radical Encounter With God"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-cbn-component-name=\"wysiwyg_editor\">\n<p><em>\u201cI was very involved in the occult, channeling spirits, casting spells, playing with Ouija board six to eight hours a day \u2014 all of those things.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s how military veteran and artist Timothy Gagnon described his early years, explaining how he descended into evil practices as a young man.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Listen to them on the latest\u00a0episode\u00a0of \u201cQuick Start\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"482\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/playlist.megaphone.fm\/?p=CCBNC3640195386\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Now, decades later, Gagnon is on a faith-filled mission, releasing his \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Illuminated-Messiah-Bible-Portraits-Jesus\/dp\/1424566606\/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=\">Illuminated Messiah Bible<\/a>,\u201d an artistic look at the Scriptures that depicts Jesus from Genesis to Revelation, with the artist creating 66 illustration panels that come together to create a life-size portrait of Jesus on the cross.<\/p>\n<p>The project is a major departure from his past interests.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was raised in a kind of \u2014\u00a0for lack of a better word \u2014 Christmas and Easter Catholic family,\u201d he said of his background. \u201cWe didn\u2019t really attend that much.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gagnon said he lived at the time as though God wasn\u2019t an important facet or priority in his life. When he hit the sixth grade, he recalled an oral report assignment he was given. Unsure of what to do, he went to the school library and stumbled upon books on the occult.<\/p>\n<p>That introduction to the topic led him into spell-casting, playing with Ouija boards, and channeling spirits, among other similar activities \u2014 things he did \u201call day long\u201d and \u201call night long\u201d with two of his friends who also descended into the same practices.<\/p>\n<p>Gagnon said these spells weren\u2019t empty practices \u2014 that something happened when he would engage with the occult. He said he and his friends interacted with three entities that claimed to be an angel, a demon, and a \u201clost spirit in purgatory.\u201d In the end, it was a true encounter with the demonic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I would cast spells, when we would channel spirits, we would experience supernatural events and things that we couldn\u2019t explain,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s like a drug.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One day, though, something happened that stopped him in his tracks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was casting spells in my room and channeling spirits and I felt a presence that was greater than anything I had encountered before,\u201d Gagnon said. \u201cAnd I instinctively knew it was God approaching.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He continued, \u201cIt was the spirit of God that was approaching me, and I was terrified.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gagnon said he assumed God was coming to kill him because of his occultic practices. So, he ran out of the house \u201cin a panic\u201d and went straight to a local Catholic church where he promptly entered a confessional and told a priest all he had done.<\/p>\n<p>While Gagnon thought he could outrun God, he recalled feeling the Lord\u2019s presence in that confessional.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGod started to speak to my heart,\u201d he said. \u201cIt felt like every atom in my body was just shaking from His presence, and I remember Him saying to me, \u2018Stop it. Enough is enough. Come and follow Me.\u2019 And that was enough. I said \u2018yes\u2019 to God.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gagnon said he immediately stopped all of his occultic activity and had a \u201chunger for the things of God\u201d and the Bible.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had this encounter with Jesus,\u201d he said. \u201cI had this born-again experience. But I didn\u2019t know there were words for that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The relationship intensified years later, when Gagnon joined the military and met his flight commander, a Christian who started sharing his faith and witnessing to Gagnon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe gave me my first real Bible with no pictures in it,\u201d he quipped. \u201cAnd he started to teach me the Word of God.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s when Gagnon started painting pictures from various scenes in the Bible. As the studies persisted, so did his artistic ability to recreate them. It set the roots for Gagnon to mix his art and faith, something he does in his new \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Illuminated-Messiah-Bible-Portraits-Jesus\/dp\/1424566606\/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=\">Illuminated Messiah Bible<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Decades later, Gagnon is helping inspire other believers through this special version of the Bible \u2014 one complete with his artwork.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI made 66 messianic portraits,\u201d he said. \u201cJesus in every book of the Bible. \u2026 Think of it like a painted devotional.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gagnon continued, \u201cAll of the 66 paintings \u2014 even though they\u2019re individual paintings, they combine together and they form a 12-and-a-half foot cross.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Find out more about the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Illuminated-Messiah-Bible-Portraits-Jesus\/dp\/1424566606\/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=\">Illuminated Messiah Bible<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www1.cbn.com\/cbnnews\/world\/2024\/march\/casting-spells-mans-occult-ouija-board-obsession-obliterated-after-radical-encounter-with-god\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI was very involved in the occult, channeling spirits, casting spells, playing with Ouija board six to eight hours a day \u2014 all of those things.\u201d That\u2019s how military veteran and artist Timothy Gagnon described his early years, explaining how he descended into evil practices as a young man. Listen to them on the latest\u00a0episode\u00a0of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[]},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12465"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}