Rejection, being bullied and hurt drove Richard to become isolated. A vision of hell allowed him to come to a point where Richard could confess Jesus as Lord and be set free from the dark forces that had intruded into his life.

Throughout my whole life of 28 years I have been in much distress.  I have been pushed to and beyond the boundaries and I became so isolated. I had much trouble making friends.  I was unable to trust anyone, couldn’t experience love, nor did I feel that I belonged.  In school, the bullying was constant with all the beatings and the teasing.

Throughout eight years of Primary and Secondary school, the same group of people bullied me countless times.  Thankfully I knew about Jesus and this helped me forgive those who hurt me.  Doing this set me free from anger, hatred, bitterness and revenge that I held towards those who hurt me.  All this helped me understand more the sacrifice Jesus made for our sins, and how with the help of Jesus, we can defeat evil without reverting to physical action or cursing.  At the age of 18, I decided that I would work hard, and at college I received the highest grades in my classes.

Satan circles all our lives trying to find our weak points, trying to make us stumble and sin.  He knows that any of us can turn to Jesus and become a soldier for God and he sees us all as a huge threat.  With God all things are possible.  Satan focused on my family.  He worked hard to cause my mom and dad to argue, shout, and fight.  My dad became selfish and thought only of himself and not of his children.  My dad did not take me out and do things other fathers and sons usually do.  The terrible and awful breakdown of our family is something none of us ever want to go through again.

During this time, I was in such a vulnerable position that Satan played on this by tempting me to steal some money from my father’s money box.  The temptation was so strong, as Satan presented me a mixture of truth and lies in order to get me to sin.  "Take the money; he owes you pocket money for the past three weeks and he hasn’t given you anything.  Just give it back next week."

One time I refused and said to myself, "No! I’m stealing; this is wrong; I won’t do it!"  I heard God’s voice saying, "Well done! I’m so proud of you ... you have done the right thing.  Stealing isn’t the way."

But the devil’s voice came back even stronger for the next few weeks, trying to make me steal the money again.  I knew it was wrong and refused to listen, but he kept on pushing me until I lost the will to fight back.  My parents found out and I was confronted.  The guilt that was left upon me ate through my soul.  I heard the devil’s voice laughing at me for days on end and I could see his grinning face wherever I went.

I felt lost ... felt like there was no hope.  Satan said to me; "Richard, you did a terrible thing, it’s time to move on ... there is nothing you can do now.  God made you feel guilty and so it is His fault."

I realised that what was about to happen was a life and death situation.  So I responded to Satan,"No! I am not going to blame God. It is not His fault!  I will not blame God for making me feel guilty because I was the one who did this act.  I will continue to go to church; I will bear this burden for the rest of my life.  Even if God sends me to hell, I will never blame Him, and I will never hate Him!"

That was a life changing moment for me when I chose to stand with God and not to believe the lies of Satan.  This I know fueled Satan’s fury and he stayed very close, waiting for opportunities in which he could tempt me to sin against God.

LIVING IN LUST AND ADDICTED TO PORNOGRAPHY

The biggest sin which consumed my life was lust and my addiction to pornography.  I did not know at all what I was doing.  Jesus for good reason warns us, "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’  But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matthew 5:27-28).

Jesus knows actions start with thoughts and because He loves us, He does not want us to have our thoughts filled with adultery.  Jesus wants only the best for us.  Thoughts come from God, the devil, or ourselves.  We must "...take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:5).

So many in our society are entangled and trapped by lust and pornography.  I pray they see that Jesus can set them free from this destructive obsession.

After the separation of my parents, the time came for me when I got my dream job.  I had to leave home from London to Edinburgh.  Satan had one more plan to hurt me, and that was to bring my mom and dad together, but in the process he made sure that my mom and dad would neglect my sister and I and the suffering and pain we were in for what they put us through.  I decided to stand up to my dad for his treatment towards my mom and to us, his children.

I took a few days off work to fly back to London to stay with my sister.  I was so busy and had lots of deadlines to meet, but I felt it was something I needed to do.  I decided to confront my mom at her flat and said that I want to speak to dad on the phone.  I gave him such a telling off for what he had done to me, my sister and my mom.

The most hurtful thing that I could ever hear from my own father was, “I don’t care if you’re depressed and how you feel about me and mom, but we are getting back together!  You’re so selfish -- it’s always about you, you all the time!  Whether you or your sister like it or not, me and your mom are back together.  You have to accept it, so tough luck!”

My parents were the only people left who were close to me and that as children you depend and rely on when the world is against you, but Satan turned them against me.  As I moved into my new apartment in Edinburgh, my parents wanted to come up from London to help me move but my mom made sure that my dad would not get in my way or make contact with me.  The day they were going to leave, my mother phoned me and said, “Your dad would like to see you and say goodbye and it would be nice to thank him for helping you out by moving your stuff."

I was very reluctant to meet him as I’m sure you can imagine.  I somehow said, "Ok, I will."

But later I called my mom up again, having second thoughts that:  I just can’t do it, I’m not ready to see him after all that has happened.  At lunch time at work, the day my parents were going to go back home, God spoke to me and said,  “It is time to forgive them, to make peace with your dad and your mom for what has happened over the three to four years.  Do not worry because I am with you!  You cannot live like this forever in hatred and bitterness and you are ready to do this.”

So I met my parents outside a local store, and shook my father's hand for the first time and greeted him.  We sat down at the cafe inside the store.  My dad and I were very nervous and tense because it was such a difficult situation for us to be in after so much conflict that had happened between us.  Later, as I was about to leave to go back to work, he took both of my hands and said, “Thank you so much, for coming to see me. I know it is difficult for you and it was such a brave thing you have done. Thank you again.”

I said, “Thank you for moving my stuff to my new apartment.”

He said, “It was a pleasure to do it for you.”

Our relationship is now back on track and stronger than ever.  It was God who brought us back together.  God knew I had to forgive my dad, but I was not ready to do so.  Six months exactly went by and then God said I was ready, even though I said, "No I’m not."  I can’t do this but God knew!

Months went by and my mom was worried about how I was feeling with meeting my dad for the first time, so she called me up and said, “One of my friends at our college - she is a pastor and very spiritual.  I told her about the situation and what you did and she asked if she could phone you up - if it was ok?”

And I answered, “Yes, it is fine.”

The pastor told my mom, “The Lord spoke to me and said not to call Richard until he says when I should phone him.”

Days went by and then she phoned me up.  We spoke for some time and then she wanted to meet me if I went down to London.  I went down over Easter in April 2010 to meet her on the weekend.

MY SPIRIT SENT TO HELL

During Easter week, I started to have rough nights and dream a lot.  This was unusual because I never dream and I always sleep straight through the night.  The night before I was going to meet the pastor, I woke up early in the morning.  I went back to sleep after a few minutes.  I suddenly found myself in the middle of space and I was taken across the universe at lightning speed.  I did not have any control of where I could go.  I just was pulled across space as if something was taking me somewhere.  I was in awe, shock and amazement with the scale and size of the universe and how beautiful it looked.  I felt so small ... as if I was a tiny spec of light in a vast black open space.

The stars shone brightly -- the galaxies came upon me so fast; it was truly breathtaking.  The galaxy that I was near had a golden bright sun in the middle. The stars and clusters were in a ring-like-shape orbiting around the giant sun in the middle. Huge clusters of asteroids were flying around me.  I started to speak out aloud, describing what I could see as if I was trying to tell the people at home, back on earth what I could see.  A huge asteroid came into view.  It slowly drifted across but then as the asteroid moved way, it revealed a planet which I had never seen before.

The planet was black and had a rusty surface, but the closer I got to it I could see the surface was hot and on fire.  I was heading straight towards it.  I knew what it was.  I knew where I was heading, but I didn’t tell myself this.  But thinking to myself:  Why? Why am I going there!  As I got closer, I saw huge lava rock mounts like volcanoes poking out of the planets crust.  Standing on top of them were people (humans); men and women, but they appeared as black figures.  They were burning and set on fire.  I came closer to the ground.  There was this vast black lake as far as the eye could see.

Pockets of black lava rock islands were scattered around this black lake.  Then I looked up into the sky and I saw - which looked at first like bats - but they were huge black winged demons.  They were flying in the distance towards me.  They were all set ablaze -- the fire from their bodies lit up the black sky in red.  I then started to hear and see people fall with me to this place.  They were all screaming, shouting, groaning in pain and agony.  I have never heard anything so terrible in my life.  I can still hear the cries and screams in my head right now.  The moment my feet touched the ground, I was on one of the black rock islands.

I stood there and said to myself: No matter what, I LOVE GOD and I will fight my way out of this.  Scorpions and huge lava worms were coming from the ground.  The scorpions were stinging at my feet and my legs, but I couldn’t feel any pain.  The lava worms were coming up from underground, attacking the people all around me, although I couldn’t see them.  One of the lava worms came at me; I tried to kill it but had no weapons of any kind.  I grabbed it with both hands.  It was so big that I couldn’t keep it from attacking me.  Its mouth opened and a smaller mouth came out which aimed towards my chest.

I woke up and sat at the edge of my bed.  It took a few minutes for the vision that I saw to sink in before I knew that I was shown hell.  I never felt so dead in my life.  It was as if my soul was ripped out of my body, but yet my flesh was alive.  It was an unpleasant feeling of emptiness, but I learned that I died with Jesus Christ in my sins, the day before Easter Sunday.

I had enough strength and finished my confession and suddenly I felt a huge force leave my body.  I was out of breath; exhausted as if two powerful forces were pulling my soul.

The pastor shouted; "Richard! Praise be to God! You are with Jesus, and you are saved!  Satan is defeated!  Your name is now in the Book of Life!"

I have expressed countless times how thankful I am and in awe of Jesus for freeing me and showing me the truth.  It is now my job to tell everyone of my experience.  Through the blood of Jesus I am set free and I am no longer a slave to sin.  I am renewed in my spirit.  I am a new creation, which is in the likeness of God ... created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

I Praise God for showing me how far away I was from Him and how dead in sin I really was.  He wanted me to cry out to Him so He could save me from my sins and wash me clean through the blood of His son.  When I was younger, I thought I was saved, but I was lost because Jesus was not the Lord of my life.  I was trying to live a ‘good life’ by following rules, and this does not make you right with God. You must have your sins washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ or else you will still pay for these sins when you die.

Yes, we have some difficult times ahead of us, but I feel stronger as each day passes as I am prepared for the things to come upon this world.

LED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT

Months went by and I was given a helper, the Holy Spirit.  He has helped me grow spiritually to increase my relationship with God.  I started to repent of my sins every night.  I started to pray and then I had the urge, the determination and willingness to read the whole Bible.  I have tried to spread and share my testimony around to as many people as I can.  I sent my testimony to my friends, but some refused to listen or didn't want to go into the whole religion - God topic.

I sent my testimony to Greg and Dave who run Changed Lives website.  He has shared many testimonies with me including his own, his brother, aunt and an ex-student of his.  I am now a prayer member of Changed Lives and every few weeks they get a prayer request and then they send it out to their members.  We then pray for the people who are in need of God's help, love, comfort and healing.

To explain in more detail below is what my pastor has said to me, that I bear fruit of the spirit and that I am now a new creation fresh and new in Jesus Christ.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.  (2 Corinthians 5:17)

To put it simply, when you get saved, there is a spiritual instinct placed within you.  You immediately begin to desire those things that pertain to God, His Word, His work and His worship.  This will not be a passing thing, but it will endure throughout life because of the presence of the Spirit in your heart:

• You have a passion for pointing people to Jesus. (Acts 1:8)

• You are a peace maker. (Matthew 5:9)

• You hunger and thirst for righteousness. (Matthew 5:6)

• You are eager to serve Jesus Christ and people.

• Your life story has touched many people. (Mathew 5:14)

• You give your time to pray with people and encourage them.

Remember:  You are the light that gives light to the world.  A city that is built on a hill cannot be hidden.  (Matthew 5:14)

To hear Richard's testimony on video please go here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRsW3j31H_I