Dear Amy:

Well to tell that story would take a book, which I am writing. But, here is a brief story about how I came to do Spiritual Warfare and Deliverance work:

To tell the story about how I became involved in spiritual warfare and exorcism/deliverance I have to go back a few years beforehand to the 1970s.

I was baptized in a Baptist Church in 1971. Soon afterword I felt a calling to ministry, possibly missionary work. The issue of spiritual warfare interested me, but I was more interested in evangelization on a Church level, and perhaps the military chaplaincy as a career. I was at the time a member of the North Central Region Special Services Corp of the Civil Air Patrol specializing in search and rescue and then went Active Duty in the U.S. Air Force.

While I can relate some things from childhood, it was in the Air Force that I first had a truly close and personal experience with spiritual evil (there was plenty of physical evil going on with the war in Southeast Asia, but, this experience was in the States in a barrack).

A man came into our squadron whom I believe was possessed. Once he arrived strange things started happening. The barrack was divided into two bays. This possessed man was in the other bay from me. Both myself and another airman starting noticing strange behavior from the guys in the other bay. They were rowdier than usual, meaner, abusive, and just seemed to have a personality change. When my friend or myself pulled night guard duty we noticed that the men in the barrack were not sleeping as well as when before this possessed man arrived. They were fitful.

Then one night something happened to me. I saw what looked like two white cloud formations coming together. A then saw a figure of a head appear between the two clouds. At first I thought I was seeing a vision of Jesus. I quickly found out otherwise. The image I saw was Satan, or one of his demons. My body went into a brief convulsion.

When it was over (it lasted only a few seconds), I got up and woke up my friend and told him what happened. We prayed not only for what happened to me, but for that possessed man and the whole barrack.

What was interesting is that our Sergeant happened to be Pentecostal, and so was my friend. My friend told the Sergeant what was happening and even the big tough Sergeant prayed for us and for the whole squadron.

In 1975, still in the military, I accepted a call to ministry and began doing evangelistic work. My interest in spiritual warfare, however, was developing. After I was discharged in 1976 my wife and I moved to Texas where I joined up with Father Hill from the Presidential Commission on Pornography and Obscenity. (that is a whole other story). While doing anti-pornography work I again was confronted with real evil. I was threatened by organized crime thugs, attacked in the press (back then only conservative Christian were anti-pornography), and sometimes attacked by demons.

Also in the time period between 1976-1980 I began to feel a specific call to spiritual warfare ministry. I worked as a bus pastor with one of the Baptist mega-Churches bringing in more than 700 kids to Sunday School, did evangelization, was finally ordained in 1979 but was moving fast in the direction of spiritual warfare.

One would think that that 1979 was a good year, but it was not. No sooner than I was ordained and embarking on formal ministry, the Wichita Falls, Texas Tornado hit. This, at the time, was billed as the worst tornado in U.S. History. It was a F5 with a base more than 1/2 mile or 1 mile wide. It destroyed the southern half of Wichita Falls, killed 57 people, injured 100s. The house we use to live in, but had moved out a few months earlier, was totally flattened. Nothing was left. It took me more than one hour to find the property. If we had been in the house at the time we would have surely died. The tornado was also the stressor for 100s of marriages ending. Mine was one of them.

A failed marriage for a minister in the Baptist world is like the unforgivable sin. This made it effectively difficult to do formal pastoral work. I laid low for the rest of 1979. The divorce was finalized in November. In the spring of 1980 I moved back to Iowa.

The tug of a calling into Spiritual Warfare strengthen. I knew this is what God was calling me to do, but the divorce hit me hard and I began to fall away from God. The interest in spiritual warfare remained and I began doing things like ghost busting. I couldn't wait for God's green light, and I was on the outs with God anyway, so I went against Satan without God's protection. Not a good thing to do.

Satan seduced me into the occult and new age. By 1982 I had been brought to the very edge of pure evil. Fortunately, I stepped away from that edge. As expected this made Satan angry so he attacked my mind with ferociousness to the point that I wanted to kill myself.

In November 1982 I decided to give in and kill myself. I planned it carefully. Like many suicides I wanted to leave no loose strings so I picked up my mail on my way out to the spot where I planned to do the deed.

In the mail was a letter from a poetry publisher accepting one of my poems for publication (I was a poet in addition to all else). Even though this publisher was fifth rate and not really a feather in my poet's cap sometimes with suicides any positive news at all can be like a slap in the face. That is what happened. I did not kill myself (obviously ),

A couple years later I was applying for membership in one of the writers associations. To be a member one had to have so many publication credits. I was one credit short. I normally did not admit to publication with this fifth rate publisher, but now I had to.

I called the publisher and asked for verification that they published my poem in 1982. They said they never heard of me and never published my poem. I told them that I was holding a letter from the publisher that announced the publication. They went ahead and polished me in their 1985 edition.

Now the issue is, why or how did I get that letter back in November 1982? Maybe the publisher misplaced my poem and also, somehow, lost my name in their database. Maybe an angel brought it. Either way, that letter saved my life. If I had received the letter one day later I would be dead, and probably in hell, right now.

Being a stubborn bull-headed person, this mini-miracle of timing had no effect on me. I continued on with my new age, occult, and stupid activities until September of 1985.

Right after Labor Day I woke up one morning, went to the bathroom to brush my teeth, looked in the mirror, and my life changed.

In the mirror I could not see my eyes. In place of my eyes were two black holes. I say black, but this was blacker than black. It was an abyss. God was giving me a vision of the state of my own soul (which was dead) and of hell. This caught my attention.

Right there on the spot I said, "This must stop" referring to my occult involvements and estrangement from God. From that moment on I became the prodigal son returning home to the Father.

By the end of 1986 was back home in the Church (Protestant).

Then in 1987 it happened. I felt this tug, this draw, this irresistible urge, this calling to do spiritual warfare and exorcism work. My response to this calling was not positive. I looked up to heaven and said to God, "Forget you. I am not going to do this."

Well, God does not force anyone to do anything, but he is a mighty persuader. He made me an offer I could not refuse (and no, there was no horse head involved ).

The next day after I refused God's calling, this couple and the wife's sister moved into the apartment next to mine. The sister came knocking on my door that afternoon. I no longer remember how I came to know this, but this woman was demonized and needed help.

I shook my head knowing what was happening. God was saying, "Okay, you are going to turn me down? I will put a hurting and wounded person on your doorstep and see what you will do."

What could I do? I had to deal with her. To turn her away would have been cruel and very unChristian. This woman became my first professional case.

God got me. I have been doing this work ever since.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary