Holy Spirit Within

Holy Spirit Within
Dedication

The Spirit Within and the Beast Without book answering the question of Who is the Holy Spirit, is dedicated to my Lord who saved a wretch like me from the grasp of the enemy of our souls (Satan) and chose to use me as a tool by which to bring forth His purpose. I hope that this Holy Spirit Within book blesses you and brings forth a passion to seek God's Holy Spirit Power diligently.

Holy Spirit Within
Introduction

Brandon always knew he was different. The unusual thoughts that he had, the constant reoccurring dreams and the paths that he chose as a young man were but a shadow of things to come. The events of the future would one day confirm the dreams that he had growing up as being prophecy of future events. The Bible says that you can tell a tree by its fruits. The Truth of the words of this book can be found in the fruits of the author. From these visions and events, he has created one of the largest, most SON-sational Spirit filled Christian websites online known as Christianity Oasis.

In the world, in which we live, some things that occur are hard to understand and even harder to believe. This is a true story of events that took place, which agree with that statement. Here is Truth ... There is a force out there that is attempting to overtake us all; it is Satan. There is another force out there that is protecting us from him; it is the Holy Spirit. It is a battle for souls. This battle is called Spiritual Warfare, and like it or not, you are right in the middle of it. Let us begin, shall we?

Chapter One

The Unwelcome Guest

It all began as nothing more than a few close friends hanging out while on vacation. It was at a local hotel that the terrifying events began. Brandon and a couple of his friends (Mark and Anthony) were staying at a hotel relaxing, drinking and listening to music. They chose to stay at a hotel, because they would sometimes have friends visit, and at a hotel they had the amenities such as the pool, Jacuzzi and the hotel bar. The bar was excellent because they could all drink and not have to drive home, so they needed no designated driver. Best of all, was that they did not feel responsible for the condition of the place that they "partied" in afterward. They knew that the housekeepers would clean up their mess, from the night before.

On this particular late evening or maybe it was early morning (who really knew back then) they were forced to wind down the evening's events, at the repeated request of hotel security due to noise complaints. The music was turned down and after an hour or so, all of their invited guests decided to depart for the evening. They said their good-byes and each went their separate ways. Brandon and two of his closest friends, Mark and Anthony, went down to the hotel's lobby and bought some snacks. After returning to the hotel room they started watching a movie on television, which was already half over.

As they were just getting into the movie, Brandon began hearing some faint, strange noises that seemed to be coming from the ceiling. He asked the others if they could hear the strange noises as well. Mark and Anthony both confirmed that they could also hear the strange rustling noises, up in the ceiling. They spent a few minutes trying to determine what the noises were, but could not figure out what it was. In their physical condition, tired and coming down from being inebriated, the three didn't give too much thought to the noises and instead turned up the television, to drown out the strange sounds. That worked fine for a while, but when they tried to sleep that night, they continued to hear the strange noises, which resulted in a restless night.

The next day they decided to stop staying at that certain hotel due to the annoying sounds, which echoed from the ceilings. They left and checked into another hotel, took in their luggage and began to inspect their room which they found to be satisfactory. However, no sooner had they gotten unpacked, they started hearing the same strange noises, that they heard at the previous hotel, coming from the ceiling. At the previous hotel there was the standard flat ceiling, but this hotel had those two foot by four foot acoustic ceiling tiles that were held in place with metal frames.

At first, the noises were faint, but soon the noises increased in volume and intensity. In the bathroom, the ceiling tiles even started to rise up and down violently, as if there was an enormous wind of some sort lifting them, but since there were no windows in the bathroom and the air conditioner couldn't have caused enough air flow to cause this reaction, as it was a wall unit located in the living area and the tiles that were lifting up were in the bathroom, they knew that it had to be something else. They began to sense a strange and uneasy feeling and felt very uncomfortable. They checked out of that hotel within a few hours of checking in. They chalked the strange events up to some sort of coincidence or string of freakish events.

They checked out of that hotel and were going to go and stay at another hotel instead. The only problem was that Brandon's truck was missing from the parking lot. Had it been stolen during those few hours? The only keys to the truck were on Brandon's key-chain hooked to his belt loop. What in the world was happening and why? What could they do? They informed the hotel management and asked if anyone had seen anything and asked if there was any security footage. The answer was, "No." Security cameras were not as popular as they are now.

They had no choice but to have a friend named Richard bring Mark's car to them while they sat in front of the hotel and waited. When Richard arrived, Brandon loaded the car with their belongings and took Richard, back to his own home and then Brandon, Mark and Anthony went to another friend's house to use their phone book to look up other hotels in the area. As they pulled up, lo and behold ... Brandon's truck was parked there in the front of their friend's apartment building.

They parked behind the truck and started checking the truck for signs of break in and/or damage but there was neither. Again, nobody had a key but Brandon and it was still on his key-chain. It was as if the truck was transported from one location to the other like you see in science fiction movies and happened during a couple hour window.

The only thing different about the truck was that the clock on the dash showed the wrong time and would not change. It was flashing 1134 ... Which is hell upside down and backwards. With everything else that was happening, that was such a minor concern, at the time, that they went into their friend's house and got the address to a close hotel and headed there, where they would try and figure out what was happening.

They were now checking into a third hotel. They performed the usual ritual of bringing in luggage and inspecting the rooms. After they had been there several hours, they went down to the hotel bar and had a few beers and played pool. When the hotel bar had to close its doors, they returned to their hotel room. The evening had begun to come to an end and Brandon decided to retire to his own hotel room. They had separate rooms because this hotel was not a suite with two separate rooms and a couch like the previous hotels were.

As he was leaving his friend's hotel room, a light fixture, which was located in the dressing area, began to turn off and on repeatedly, even though the light switch was in the off position. As Brandon would walk away from the light, the light would go off and stay off. When he would re-approach the light, it would come back on immediately. Keep in mind that technology was not like it is now and the lighting was not controlled by a motion detector.

This strange occurrence happened several times. He showed his friends the phenomena, and they all three concluded that it must be a short in the wiring, but secretly, they each remembered the events at the other hotels and wondered ... What was really going on? But, being young men, in a prideful generation, they did not want to show fear or concern to one another and just pretended that they were not being affected, in any way, by these events. Even though, it seemed that the weird events from before might be happening again. They decided to just forget about it and get some sleep.

After Brandon said his good-nights, went to his own hotel room and began winding down from the days bizarre occurrences. He was wanting to get a little rest so he showered and then turned on the television, but turned the volume down very low as to be able to fall asleep. Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary at first. It was actually peaceful for a while as he was watching television in a nice cool room.

However, once he had gotten settled in, he began hearing strange noises similar to mumbling, and the noises slowly evolved into voices which seemed to be coming from the return air duct, just to the left of his bed. He used the remote control to turn off the television and listened more closely to see if he could understand what they were saying. As the voices became clearer, it became obvious that these entities were able to see in his room, judging by the statements that they were making, their description of the room and saying out loud, what Brandon was doing.

He got up, turned on the lights and inspected his room. Everything seemed to take on a different appearance than earlier. It was like he had entered into the Twilight Zone. He searched every closet and even under the bed. Most eerie of all, was what he saw in the return air duct vent ... There were silhouettes of faces, hiding within, gazing back at him and whispering to one another. They said, "He can see us." Brandon believed that it was probably the people staying in the room next to his and that they could somehow see into his room, through the return air duct vent on their side. Or, maybe it was transients that had somehow gotten in the air duct system. What else could explain this?

It was then that Brandon called the hotel management and reported the incident and suggested that either the neighboring occupants were invading his privacy or perhaps transients had somehow gotten into the air duct system. To him, that seemed to be the only logical explanation. A few minutes later, but what seemed like an hour, a representative from the maintenance staff of the hotel, came to his room and performed a thorough inspection of Brandon's hotel room. When the hotel representative finally removed the grill to the return air vent, Brandon was astonished to find out that there was only a solid walled, empty two foot by two foot area, making it physically impossible for anybody to have been hiding in the air duct.

There was no back wall vent which would have allowed the neighboring room occupants to look into his room. But, how was one to explain what he had seen with his own eyes? After Brandon repeatedly insisted that he had seen someone's eyes inside that vent and that he was really hearing voices coming from the return air duct, the hotel representative contacted the management, by two way radio, and the management offered Brandon a new room, if he chose to accept it. Brandon declined the offer and instead of moving all of his personal effects to another hotel room, decided that he would just go stay with his friends in their room. The hotel representative left with a look of both very deep concern and curiosity.

Upon arriving at his friends' room, he found Anthony asleep and Mark watching television. Brandon told Mark of the eerie events that took place in the other room. Mark then began to tell Brandon that earlier, while he was watching television, the light that they had watched flicker off and on before when Brandon would approach it, was flickering frantically as if to draw his attention away from the movie that he had been watching. He continued on, saying that he looked over at the light and after only a few seconds, he returned his attention to the television show that he had been watching and noticed that the young woman in the movie, had aged by forty years or more. Had she aged that much in the few seconds that he had his head turned?

Out of curiosity, Mark said that he looked at the TV guide's description of the movie. It mentioned nothing of the woman aging. As he continued to watch the movie, it showed nothing to represent a change in her age. They pondered on these strange events, but could find no logical conclusion. Mark decided to go back to watching another movie, while Brandon paced, trying to figure out what was going on. These strange events had occurred now at three different hotels. Noises in the ceilings, bathroom ceiling tiles flying up and down, a light going off and on, voices and eyes in a return air duct ... What was going on?

After a few minutes had passed, Brandon was walking towards the dressing room and the floor show began. The light, in the dressing room, which had demonstrated unusual tendencies earlier, began to flicker off and on again. After watching it for a while, Brandon noticed that the flickering appeared to have a pattern to it. Brandon asked aloud, "Is there someone up there?" The light flickered twice and then the light fixture itself started twisting back and forth and began to rattle violently. Brandon called out to his friends, and asked them to come where he was at, as to have confirmation of what he was witnessing. Anthony woke up and joined Mark as they entered the area where Brandon was standing. They all watched in amazement as Brandon talked to a light fixture and it appeared as though ... It was responding to Brandon's questions and even began to use knocking on the ceiling to answer the questions as well as the lighting.

After a few moments, a crude method of communication was established, as Brandon began to actually have a conversation with this unknown entity. Using flickers of light and/or knocks, to respond to Brandon's questions, the entity would answer by flickering the lights off and on only once, if the answer to Brandon's questions was "No" and twice if the answer was "Yes." This same procedure was used with knocking on the ceiling as well. One knock meant "No" and two knocks meant "Yes."

Referring to the entity spinning the light fixture above him, Brandon asked aloud, "You could have dropped that light fixture on my head, couldn't you have." There were two flickers. Brandon was almost certain that it must be transients in the crawl space in between the different floors of the hotel. I mean, what else could it be? He would soon find out who this mysterious intruder was.

Brandon then asked the entity if it was a good witch or a bad witch, referring to a question that Dorothy had asked in the movie, The Wizard of Oz. He received no response. He then realized that the question that he had asked was not posed as a yes or no question. He asked again, but differently this time. He asked, "Are you a good witch?" One knock occurred. This meant that the answer was "No." It was not a good witch.

Then he asked, "Are you a bad witch?" There were two strong knocks, which meant "Yes." He then asked if the entity was out to harm him and one flicker of light flashed. That more gentle no answer seemed to relieve Brandon somewhat, in this mysterious situation. He then asked the entity if it was evil. Immediately ... Two loud knocks were heard. They were loud enough to be heard down the hotel hallway.

Brandon, still thinking that it had to be a transient, perhaps in need of money, came up with an idea to drill a hole in the ceiling of the closet, with a pocketknife to put money in the ceiling. It was a great idea, Brandon thought, but by the time he had reached into his pocket for the bill, rolled it up and returned his hand to the ceiling with the bill ... To his bewilderment, the hole that he had just drilled with the knife was filled with some sort of putty.

Not believing what he had just seen, Brandon asked Anthony to tell him what he saw. As Anthony looked inside the closet at the ceiling, he responded, "The hole has been filled with some kind of caulk." Brandon then walked toward the entry door of the hotel room and repeated this drilling procedure into the ceiling, next to the front door. He rolled up the bill again much quicker this time and stuck the bill into this new hole, which he had drilled with the knife. The three friends decided to leave this hotel too as these events were just a bit too strange for their liking. They gathered most of their belongings and hurried out of there and headed down to the hotel lobby to check out and get the balance of any money due on the second room which had not been touched as they planned to check into yet another hotel.

While standing at the check-out counter, they noticed that the expensive chandelier which hung two stories above them in the lobby started twisting, shaking and flickering, just as the one in their hotel room had done. As the three looked around, other people in the lobby were looking up at that chandelier, so Brandon and his friends knew that they were not the only ones seeing what was happening with that giant light fixture.

Panic overtook them because it was obvious that this entity was following them through the hotel ceilings and they decided that any refund that they might have gotten back was not that important and departed as fast as they could. The three young men were very glad to get out of that place and wanted only to find another place to rest and forget about what had transpired. They, all three, still believed it to be a transient at that time. It really seemed to be the only logical explanation they could come up with. How wrong they were about the unwelcome guest.

Chapter Two

Back to the Future

You know, most would imagine that if someone experienced such peculiar events that they would have run home and hid. Yes, it was very weird and even frightening, but Brandon was used to living in fear for most of his life growing up. Let's take a quick journey back in time, which may explain some of the reasons for the choices that Brandon has already made in our story and the choices that he will make as we proceed, shall we?

When Brandon was very young, his parents divorced as many married couples began to do around that time. As you probably know, it has actually escalated and become quite common these days. People go from "Hello" to "I do" to "Goodbye," in record time. But, did you know that this perilous phenomena is actually prophecy from the Bible? Referring to the latter days, Jesus said in Matthew 24:12, "And because iniquity [sin] shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold."

Back to our time machine field trip ... The story goes that Brandon's biological mother left his dad for another man when he was about five years old and it was decided that Brandon would live with his dad who was a decent enough guy who owned a couple used car dealerships and worked very hard. As it is with those who have money, he had no problem finding another wife. He soon remarried and his new wife was no fan of Brandon and she made that crystal clear as often as she could. She had children of her own from a couple of different men in her past. She would always whisper foul remarks to Brandon saying that he was no part of HER new family and constantly threatened him about being taken out of his dad's will. Being a child, he did not even know what that meant at first, but she was kind enough to explain his unfortunate fate often and in great detail, according to her plans. He was not going to see one penny.

As the years passed, Brandon became very lonely, confused and a tad bit depressed as he was being shunned by this woman who now lived in his house and even her children got in on the action. He would spend most of the time in his room. He rarely was allowed to go out in the back yard unless she had some work for Brandon to do. But on those rare times he was out there he would walk around alone singing sad songs and worrying about what the day would bring forth.

It was about this time that Brandon began hearing from his invisible friend. The voice could be heard audibly but was like it came from inside of him. The voice was very gentle, kind and very calming. It was very different from the way he was used to being talked to. This new invisible friend said that his name was "Link" and that He was there to bring Brandon peace. This new friend would spend time with Brandon and He was a great comfort to Brandon. Things started to look a bit more hopeful. But, a funny thing happened on the way to the Land of Hope. His stepmother was not going to see that boy happy. Her own words, not mine.

After years of mistreatment and as Brandon grew older, he decided to talk to his dad about what had been going on around the house behind his back. That was a very big mistake. His dad's new wife denied everything and of course, he believed her. Brandon did not really understand it at the time, but he supposed that it was his dad's only choice. After all, she had her children as her witnesses and everyone around them believed her to be a "trophy wife." His dad probably did not want to rock the boat and end up losing her.

After Brandon had told his dad about what she had been doing, she got even worse and the torment increased dramatically, including a lot more isolation in his room. But, Brandon just spent more time with his invisible friend. One day she heard Brandon talking with Link and when she asked Brandon who he was talking to and she was told about his invisible friend, this upset her beyond words. She told Brandon that Link was not real and that he was to stop talking to him or she would have Brandon put away. He believed her. That is when he stopped talking with Link.

One evening, when his dad came home from work, she held a "family meeting" and she told his dad that Brandon could not stay at their home during the day anymore and that she would start taking him to work with his dad right after school and every morning during the times that school was out, Brandon was to go to work with his dad in the morning and stay at work all day long. She said that he was a bad influence on her children. She smirked at Brandon after her meeting was over. She thought that this was punishment, but Brandon absolutely loved it.

His dad was much kinder to him when she was not around. Brandon loved when he and his dad spent time alone together. His favorite part of the day was when they would go to a doughnut shop on the way to work in the mornings on the days that he was not in school. He loved working around all the cars and kept everything looking as good as he could for his age. He learned everything he could about cars.

Brandon dreaded going home at night though, because the moment that he arrived, it was like she could sense the joy within, even though he and his dad would both stop smiling and laughing from the conversations that they were just having on the ride home. When they entered the house, they both seemed to just act as if they were dead within in an effort to keep her off Brandon's back.

Some days she seemed to see through it and she would start up with all the evil whispering to Brandon, just out of earshot of his dad and get on to Brandon for anything that she could imagine. Her favorite fit to throw, was claiming that Brandon had dirtied up her curtains, couch or something, by walking by and brushing her precious belongings with his filthy clothing from working and off to his room he was sent with no supper. In his bedroom, which was more like his prison cell, his stuff was wrapped in plastic because she claimed that she believed that he would destroy his gifts that they "paid good money for." As you can imagine, birthdays and Christmas were no big deal to Brandon.

As time passed she began to make up even worse things about him and told his dad that she could not deal with him and that it was either him or her ... One of them was leaving. Within a week Brandon was put into a Military school in Roswell, New Mexico which was about four hours away. His dad promised that he would get Brandon out of there and that he could come home if he would try it for a year. Now, let me tell you something that you probably already know. A year is a long time to a lost, scared and confused child. But, Brandon wanted to be with his dad again, so he tried. Most Military schools back then believed in very strict discipline. And this one was no different.

During his stay at this newest spiritual prison ... Brandon endured more confusion, fear, torment, constant harassment and an occasional "blanket party" which is where older military cadets would cover you with a blanket and beat you with broom and mop handles to "build character" or to punish you because your shoes were smudged after the sergeant smashed them with his boot heel or rubbed his fingers all over one's freshly polished brass medallions, before inspection. He had no idea what violence to expect from one day to the next. It was one long blur of anguish. This went on for a year.

The long awaited day of promise finally neared and though his dad had never visited during that year, his dad promised that he would come on graduation day and that Brandon could come back home. Brandon was so excited getting everything ready to go. He stayed up most of the night shining his boots and brass, ironing his slacks and shirt so his dad would be proud when he saw him at graduation. The next morning, he tried to call his dad, but he got no answer. He thought that he must be on his way. (They did not have cell phones back then.) Well, his dad was not on his way. He never showed up. He would not answer any of Brandon's calls. Brandon was left standing alone. It was then that he thought of Link for a brief moment. But, he had doubted his existence for so long that his mind wandered to other concerns.

Brandon began to do anything that he could to get in trouble. But, that just got him more punishment which included millions of push ups, running and something they called "tour duty" which was actually just walking back and forth for hours wearing fatigues and carrying an unloaded rifle, in very hot weather. Brandon had to come up with a better plan to get to go home and one day, he did. During Athletic training, Brandon hid a pole vaulting pole (long and flexible) that they used that day behind some stacked metal and a shrub and that night he tied sheets together (because his room was on the second floor) and proceeded to sneak out of the window, grabbed the pole from its hiding place and pole vaulted the fence. He was free at last. Or was he?

The police found him soon thereafter. Perhaps because there are not many twelve year old boys with a military haircut, walking the streets at three a.m. in a city which has a military institution. Needless to say, the police took him back to the military school and they contacted his dad. (Hey! He answered the phone for them? I guess he got his phone fixed by then.) The military school had a strict policy about keeping young boys against their will who refused to stay and caused such problems. His dad was told to come get his son.

When the commanding military officer came out of his office after talking with Brandon's dad and told Brandon to go to his room and pack his things because he was going to be picked up by his dad ... Brandon was excited to the point of being giddy. It appeared that his plan had worked. His dad was coming to get him. He thought that he had it made in the shade. He was finally going home after a year of fear and torture. But, he was wrong.

When his dad and his wife arrived to pick him up from the military institution. Instead of being taken home, Brandon was immediately taken to a place called Cal Farley's Boys Ranch in Amarillo, Texas. His dad explained that his wife had made it clear that Brandon was not to come home now or ever. He told Brandon that he had no choice. This place that they called a Boy's Ranch was another nightmarish place with daily torture. There are articles online now which explain the various types of abuse that took place in that horrible place back then, so I will not go into detail. Suffice to say, Brandon was not going to accept it.

As time passed, the same thing happened at the Boy's Ranch as did at the military institution. Brandon's running away and his creative chaos made them kick him out of that place too. His dad received that dreaded call asking him to come pick up Brandon immediately. Surely this would solve the going home problem, Brandon thought. Surely his Dad would have to allow him to move back home now, right? Not a chance.

The next plot that was pulled out of his dad's new wife's bag of tricks was having Brandon legally ousted from the family and placed into the system under the care of the State where he would be riding the foster home roller coaster. They used his actions at the military institution and the boy's ranch as evidence that Brandon was out of control and they could no longer allow him to live with the other children fearing he was a danger to them. One has to admit that it was a pretty crafty plan that she devised despite it being evil. At either rate ... Her plan worked.

Brandon was now officially a ward of the State. Some of the temporary homes were not too bad, but some of them were down right dreadful and some to the point of being deemed as dangerous. Brandon still lived in constant fear and torment in one way or another and never knew where he would be living from one moment to the next and with whom. There were some really bad youngsters staying in these places. Some were there for some serious offenses like assault, robbery and rape.

At one of the foster homes where Brandon lived at for a while, the "Dad" was a former marine who was training his own biological son to box and even created a boxing ring of sorts in the back yard for him. Pretty cool dad, huh? Don't bet on it. This gentleman had a unique sparring ritual. Every evening after dinner, the kids were made to "get in the ring" with this guy who was much older and bigger than all of them. And wouldn't you know it, his sparring partner of choice was always Brandon. Now, in this particular arena, the rules were a bit different than most boxing matches which one might see on television. In this event, Brandon was not allowed to punch back, which gave that son of a ... Jarhead, a wee bit of false CON-fidence.

Now, keep in mind that ole Brandon had worked for his dad since he was very young, polishing cars, sweeping parking lots, doing vehicle body work and fixing engines and then he had endured the military institution rigorous training, where exercise was used as punishment for lost and troubled boys and then he had lived at a Boys Ranch working as a ranch hand while being physically abused and after that he had been moved around to foster homes for years which all had some pretty rough rascals who were abandoned into the system as well and they always liked to fight.

The day came when Brandon had experienced enough of that getting beat on every day by some wanna be contender nonsense and let's just say that Brandon gave him a serious whooping. It felt good to hit him back, but at the same time the satisfaction would never outweigh what he would now endure from the bully's ex-marine dad who was cursing and threatening Brandon fiercely. He was ranting and raving about the severe punishments that were on the path ahead for Brandon.

Of course hearing those extremely serious threats of physical violence and seeing the marine gearing up by drinking whiskey ... Brandon knew that he had to run away to avoid serious reprisals from the muscular two hundred and twenty five pound trained monster who was getting drunk and who was not a happy camper. So, that is what Brandon did. He ran away. It was just before eleven p.m. that very night at the concerning age of fifteen, when he disappeared, never to return.

Yes, I suppose that one could say that Brandon had become accustomed to being abused, confused, afraid, tormented, listening to evil whispers, threatened and being where he was not wanted. Perhaps this is why he would not immediately run and hide when he was experiencing the evil events in the hotels, years later. Now, let's head back to the future to see what will befall Brandon next, shall we?

Chapter Three

You Can Run, But You Can't Hide

It was now over a decade later, just before eleven at night in the parking lot of the hotel where the latest eerie events had taken place. Brandon and his friends sat in the truck and discussed going to Brandon's house, but could not find it within themselves to end their very rare vacation even though they could not find a way to explain away the mind blowing occurrences which had been happening.

It just seemed wrong to surrender, because of a few unexplained circumstances, despite how wild those circumstances were. So, they left there and checked into separate rooms at yet another hotel. They did this because in some hotels, one room only provided two double beds which were simply not adequate for the three men, but they all hung out in one room at the beginning of the evening. They sat and talked of the strange occurrences which they had all witnessed at the previous hotels.

As the conversation went on, many questions arose, such as how did the individual(s) follow them from one hotel to the next hotel? How could this individual travel through the hotel ceiling crawl spaces so quickly, as to go from room to room and then show up in the lobby, messing with the chandelier twenty feet up in the air? Was there even enough room between the floors to accommodate a person? Why was this individual doing this? Was he or she acting alone? They wanted to be certain that the events which occurred at the other hotels were not going to happen here before Brandon left for his own room. Several hours passed and everything appeared normal.

It was five thirty in the morning when Brandon decided that it was safe to go to his own hotel room for a few hours of sleep. He said his good-byes and retired to his own room. Upon entering, everything appeared serene. Exhausted from the incredible incidents, he reclined in the lazy-boy chair and using the remote control, turned on the television and decided to just drift off to sleep. He was glad to have some peace at last.

That serenity did not last long. After only a few moments, he began hearing some strange creaking noises, coming from the ventilation system, up high on the wall, just to his left. He listened more carefully and he began to hear whispers as he had before and then he could see shadows inside the air conditioning vent, near the dining area. He could not believe what he was experiencing as it continued to escalate. It was happening again.

He supposed that the transient or whatever it was had somehow followed him to this new hotel. Remembering the crude method of communication that he had with the entity before, he asked aloud, if it was the same person. To his astonishment, he heard two knocks. At this point, a morbid curiosity overtook the fear and he decided to remove the vent grill himself, instead of embarrassing himself by calling the hotel management again. He placed a chair under the vent and after finding something that he could use, he removed the screws that were holding up the vent and cautiously removed the cover.

He inspected the interior of the vent shaft and to his surprise, he found a small empty one foot by two foot space, which was obviously too small for a human to be inside. He did not know how, but the voices must have been coming from somewhere else and were echoing into the room, but what of the silhouettes and eyes? He decided to place food, cigarettes and a little money in the small space, before replacing the grill, in case whoever it was could reach into the small area somehow. He replaced the vent grill and closed the vent air flow direction gear to prevent him from being able to see into the vent and more importantly, to prevent whatever it was from being able to see out.

As he returned to his chair and slowly looked back at the vent, he watched as the mechanism, that controlled the vent air flow direction, began slowly opening by itself until the blades were fully opened. His eyes stayed glued intently on the vent as the screws that held the vent onto the wall began unscrewing by themselves. As he looked around the dimly lit room, he heard a faint drilling sound and began to see a bunch of pencil lead sized holes being made in the walls and ceiling which created bright slivers of light, which emanated from these holes and then, as mysteriously as they were made, the holes were being filled with what appeared to be caulk or putty.

This meant that there was more than one entity because of the amount of holes being drilled, in many places, at the same time. Brandon remembered drilling the holes, in the previous hotel, for the rolled up bill and knew that these entities were copying his act for some reason. It was then that Brandon knew that he was both right and wrong. He was right that something had followed him from the other hotels. But, he was very wrong ... It was not a transient.

Brandon sat there, in that lazy boy chair, almost paralyzed in shock, as shadows started appearing everywhere, in particular under the front door. It appeared as though someone was standing outside and then would walk away and come back to stand in front of the door again. Brandon jumped up and raced to the door, and swung it open, only to find that nobody was there. How could that be? It only took a few seconds to get from the chair to the door. But still, there was nothing there, just a long, empty hallway.

He looked down the hall in both directions, but there was nobody within eyesight. No sooner would he shut the door and return to his seat, that the shadows would come back and appear to pass back and forth at the entry door. He sprinted back to the door and swung it open and again there was nobody there. He repeated this act three times, with the same result. There was just nobody out there.

However, the last time he opened the door he noticed that an exit door which was about twenty yards from his door would open and close by itself. Brandon watched as the exit door would slowly open all the way and then close itself again. But nobody was entering or exiting that door. Brandon returned inside his room and locked all of the locks on the door and even locked the chain lock. But, did he really think that this would help keep these entities out?

What was going on and why was this happening to him? He watched as the occurrences continued. Knocking on walls and ceilings, holes being drilled with slivers of light shining from each hole and then the hole disappearing. The drilling sounds, shadows, noises and voices were just too much. Suddenly he felt a jolt of panic, which drove away any curiosity that he may have still had. This was getting just too weird for him and he felt that he could not take it any more. So, he left immediately and went back to his friends' room.

Upon arrival, he told the others of the strange events that he had experienced in the other room. After all they had seen, they had no doubt that he was telling the truth. They talked for a while, but could not understand what was happening. They decided to try and sleep. There was nothing else to do. Brandon sat on a chair in the corner of the room. He looked at the alarm clock on the nightstand. It was now daylight, almost eight o'clock in the morning. Exhausted, he finally drifted off to sleep.

It was now seven thirty the next morning. They had slept for almost a full twenty four hours, as they had not slept in days, due to the strange occurrences. They looked around to be certain that it was safe to rise. They arose, showered and went downstairs to have breakfast in the hotel restaurant and they discussed what had been happening and their options on what to do at this point of their "vacation." After much discussion, they decided to just carry on, as they had originally planned and thought that maybe they were just so tired, that their minds were playing tricks on them.

Nobody really believed that theory though, they just wanted to forget what had happened and try to enjoy the rest of the time they had. They spent the day at the pool, laying in the sun and talking about the events that had transpired. When evening came, they had dinner at the hotel restaurant. Then they went to the hotel bar mingling with the other hotel guests, shooting pool and just trying to have fun as to forget the terrifying events. They stayed until the hotel bar closed. Then they had something to eat at the hotel snack bar. It seemed like they were intentionally staying away from their hotel rooms.

They did eventually return to the hotel room though, at about three o'clock in the morning, and all seemed serene. They just sat and talked about the events and tried to plan the last few days of their vacation. They all fell asleep, at about six o'clock in the morning, without incident. They awoke that afternoon, ordered room service and watched movies on television. Since they had awoken at about three o'clock in the afternoon, they could not sleep. At about five o'clock in the morning, the same things as before started happening again.

All three experienced the same "visions" if you will. The shadows, sounds of drilling, holes in walls and ceilings, whispers, flashes of light and knocks on the walls and the ceilings. These men were educated, well grounded and fearless men who refused to accept what they were seeing, but who could deny it? There must be an answer. They spent countless hours, trying to figure out what and/or who it was, that was doing this. There must have been some sort of logical answer. But, after several hours of this, they began to become very weary and even more concerned. Brandon had no idea who or what it was that was doing this and really did not care. The three decided that they would depart, yet again, and go to another hotel. They were determined to lose this entity. When they got on the road, they would watch for anyone following them and lose anyone who tried. They just wanted it to stop. But, it had just begun.

It was about noon, when Brandon and his friends left that hotel, still refusing to end their vacation. Maybe it was pride, or maybe just ignorance. They just would not surrender their vacation time to some unexplained freak show. They watched for being followed on the way to the next hotel. They even took back streets to be certain that they were not being tailed. They drove around for over an hour before they felt it safe enough to find a hotel to stay at. They pulled into the hotel parking lot and looked around for any familiar vehicles from the previous hotels. It seemed to be okay.

They checked into this latest hotel. When they first arrived, everything seemed to be tranquil, as usual. They ate and were watching television. The movie Distinguished Gentlemen was playing. Brandon went to the bathroom and noticed that the toilet paper roll was spinning back and forth by itself. Wanting to assure himself of what he was witnessing, he called out to Mark and asked him to go into the bathroom and tell him what he saw. He would always do this when he saw something strange, as to confirm, in his own mind, that what he was truly seeing, what he believed was happening. He would not tell them what he saw and then would ask them what they saw. It always matched.

Brandon stepped out of the bathroom and Mark reluctantly and very slowly stepped into the bathroom and after looking around for about ten seconds, he replied, "I see the toilet paper roll spinning by itself." Brandon returned to the bathroom and they both searched the bathroom trying to figure out how it was doing it, but to no avail. It really seemed like they just could not accept any supernatural explanation, at least openly. Though it was quite obvious by now that all of these events were just that ... Supernatural.

About this time, they joined Anthony in the other room and the three watched as the floor show of the previous nights began to occur again. Drilled holes, beams of light penetrating through the holes, mumbling, shadows, knocking on walls and ceilings and other incidents were in full force. All three sat in a fearful awe as they bore witness to the terrifying sights. After watching this for hours, in fear, Brandon's friends drifted to sleep as to escape the horrifying sights. Brandon, left alone, decided it couldn't be much worse in his own room and went two doors down to his own hotel room where he entered what would prove to be ... Even more frightening events.

After only a few seconds, he could hear that all too familiar drilling sound exposing holes in the ceilings and walls which emitted so many streams of light from the holes, that it looked as if it were a laser-light show. He screamed out loud, "What is that noise?" Suddenly, he heard a voice, as though a whisper coming from the walls, say that it was a looking-in device which enabled the viewer to see inside the room.

He then saw those same shadows, which he had seen at the other hotel, walking back and forth underneath the entry door. Brandon looked out the peephole and this time he saw orange shadowy figures walking to and fro in the hallway, as though wandering aimlessly, and, there was one lime green shadowy figure standing on the outside of his hotel door.

These figures were somewhat transparent, but were definitely shaped as humans. The colors were fluorescent in nature. There was something moving all through their bodies, like a television screen when the television station is off the air, but it was moving left and right in a wave as it traveled up and down within their shapes. Brandon then went and sat down on the edge of the bed, pondering on what he should do. Suddenly, a set of clothes that he had changed out of, when he entered the room which were lying beside him on the bed, literally began to rise up off the bed and dance around.

Brandon was frozen with fear, at what his eyes were beholding. The clothes that hung in the closet began moving back and forth through the clothes rack like someone was sifting through them. Not believing his eyes, Brandon arose and without getting any of his belongings, hurriedly went back to his friends' room to get them to come bear witness to the phenomena. As he traveled down the hallway, he noticed that there were no lime green or orange colored entities which he had seen earlier, when he looked out of the peephole.

It took quite a while to wake his sleeping friends. It was as if they were in a coma or something. When they finally awoke, they had a dazed look on their faces, which would stay upon them for several hours. Brandon told them what was going on in his room and asked that they would come and verify the extremely extraordinary phenomena that he was seeing. They very reluctantly agreed to go view the strange things that were happening, which Brandon had told them about.

As they all three entered Brandon's room, the drilling of holes was still in progress. What appeared to be spittle was dripping from the ceiling in many areas of the room. As they approached the bed, where the clothes had been dancing earlier, the clothes were resting quietly on the bed. Brandon told them that the clothes had been dancing about earlier, and after all they had seen over the past few days, his friends did not find it difficult to believe what he was telling them. About that time, the clothing rose again. They did not dance about as they had before, but rather stood up as though someone was wearing them. All three confirmed with one another that they were seeing the same thing.

Brandon moved his hand back and forth above the clothing to be sure that this was not being done by wire or twine, by the entities. The clothing in the closet began to rock and roll again, swaying back and forth. The humming from the drill became louder. The holes were being drilled at a more rapid pace, and all this became too much for them to bear. It was then that Brandon knew that this entity was not only of a supernatural nature, but potentially dangerous and he just wanted to leave and go to his house. The vacation ... Was officially over.

They gathered Brandon's things and they all left the room and went to the other hotel room to gather all of Mark and Anthony's belongings. However, they could not find the coil wire which was taken out of the vehicle daily because of the disappearing truck magic trick a few days ago. At the time, they assumed that it was just some thief with a master key for that vehicle make and model. What else could it be? Now, the coil wire, which was seen seconds before while gathering everything together, is missing. They turned the room upside down looking for it because they just knew it was there. But ... It was not there. Did the entity take it? Was the entity trying to keep them from leaving? Whatever ... They were not staying.

It was seven thirty in the evening. They decided to go buy a new coil wire so that they could leave and escape these strange events. Mark stayed and took all of their personal effects to the lobby, on the hotel cart and checked out of the hotel while Brandon and Anthony went in Anthony's vehicle to get a new coil wire for the truck. They agreed to meet out in front of the hotel. They picked up the part and headed back to the hotel.

They returned to the hotel to pick up Mark and put the new coil wire on the truck. They decided to leave Anthony's car and just take the truck and pick up Anthony's car later that evening. They left the hotel and immediately headed for the secure feeling of Brandon's house, vowing never to return. There is no place like home. They hoped that this entity would just go away. But would it? They could run but could they hide?

Chapter Four

Run Away

As Brandon and his friends were on the drive home, running away from potential danger at the hotels, Brandon began to reflect back to another time when he was running away. He was fifteen years old and ran away from the foster home with a boxing ring, to escape retaliation from the ex-marine Dad. Brandon started thinking more about what had taken place after he became a runaway. He recalled that he had no money and nowhere to go. He just could not stay there. He knew that his mother lived somewhere in Austin, Texas so that sounded as logical of a place to go as anywhere else. He would need to hitchhike the distance from El Paso, Texas to Austin, Texas which is about five hundred and seventy five miles.

He began the journey, but did not get as many rides as he had hoped and ended up walking a lot of the way. He looked young and did not have a threatening appearance, so he got some short term rides though. Sometimes the people who gave him a ride would stop and get him something to eat and there were even a couple of people who gave him a few dollars too. He was very thankful for that. On the downside, he would not hitchhike at night so he had to sleep under an overpass when it got dark. That is a frightening place to sleep for the fear of rolling off of the ledge up at the top. Not to mention the occasional drifter who would pass by.

It took three and a half days, but he was getting very close to his long awaited destination. He was about fifty five miles from Austin and was feeling anxious, but hopeful. Would he be able to find his mother? If so, what would his mother think about him just showing up unannounced after all of these years? Would she turn him in for being a runaway from the State? It mattered little because he had nowhere else to go. It had been about an hour and a half since he got his last ride and it was a couple of hours until it would get dark and he did not want to sleep under an overpass again so he was hoping to get to Austin before dark.

Just then, an eighteen wheeler pulled over to the side of the road about seventy yards ahead. Brandon ran up to the truck and the man inside asked where he was headed. Brandon told him that he was on his way to Austin. The man said that he was going through Austin and could give him a ride all the way. He climbed up into the truck and they pulled onto the highway. Inside the cab of the truck was very cold and that was nice because Brandon was hot after all of the walking that he had done. It felt great to sit and rest.

The truck driver was a brawny man who introduced himself as Jack. He seemed nice enough, but something was off about him. He gave Brandon a strange feeling, though he could not figure out why. Unlike the others who had picked him up before, this guy talked the entire time. He was very inquisitive about Brandon and asked one question after another. Brandon supposed that this was a normal way to be out in the world and answered the questions from this stranger truthfully. He seemed nice enough and had given him an apple and bottled water when he entered the truck. What could it hurt?

When Jack found out that Brandon was looking for his mother and discovered that he had no money and nowhere to stay, Jack offered to get him a meal and rent him a motel room where he could use the phone book to call around to see if he could find his mother. Jack also said that he was going to grab a quick bite to eat but had to keep on driving. That sounded great to Brandon. Things really seemed to be looking up.

Just as they had entered Austin, the big truck squeaked and squealed as it exited the highway and pulled into the parking lot of a run down looking motel with a restaurant in the parking lot. Jack seemed to know his way around the place and knew right where to park the big rig. Once they got parked, Jack handed Brandon some money and told him to go to the restaurant, get a table and to order Jack a double cheeseburger with fries and a sweet tea and said that Brandon could order whatever he wanted, while Jack checked into the motel for Brandon. This was just getting better and better.

You have to understand that Brandon had always lived in a very strict and structured environment and all of this freedom was something very new to him. Being able to order anything that he wanted from a menu had never happened before. When he sat down, the waitress brought him a menu and he told her that there was another person coming and gave her the order for what Jack wanted and asked for time to look at the menu. He was bewildered trying to make a choice but ended up ordering chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese and iced tea to drink.

After about twenty minutes, the waitress brought both food orders and placed them on the table and refilled Brandon's tea glass. Jack had not arrived yet and Brandon did not know if he should begin eating or not. He decided not to because it did not feel right. So, he sat there and stared at that great smelling food. However, he was starving so he did take a french fry from Jack's plate, while he waited. It was the best fried potato he had ever eaten.

It was about ten minutes after that when Jack finally showed up at the restaurant. He came over to the table and without saying a word, immediately started eating. Brandon started eating too and it was cold by then, but delicious. The waitress came by and gave Brandon his third fill up on tea when Jack, who had not said a word during the meal, asked her for the bill. It looked like it was time to leave. Brandon hurriedly finished his meal as Jack headed toward the cash register. It seemed Jack was eager to get back on the road and Brandon was excited to get to the motel room.

They quickly walked across the parking lot and when they got to the motel room, Jack pulled out a key and opened the motel room door. The room was very small and smelled bad, but it was better than sleeping under a bridge, Brandon thought. He expected Jack to hand him the key and say farewell but instead Jack said he was going to clean up and take a short nap before he got back on the road. This was not what was supposed to happen and it made Brandon feel very uneasy.

Brandon noticed that there was only one bed and asked where he was supposed to sleep and Jack said that the bed was big enough for the two of them and not to worry about it. Then Jack began removing his clothing, right in front of Brandon who turned his attention to the television. Jack went in and turned on the water to the shower and told Brandon that he could take a shower next and after that, he could pay Jack back for the ride, meal and motel room that he bought for Brandon. He smiled devilishly at Brandon and slowly shut the bathroom door.

Brandon was stunned, but had not fully grasped what was happening until he saw the handcuffs hanging from the bed posts and ties hanging at the base of the bed. As his eyes wandered around the room, he saw a half used jar of Vaseline on the nightstand next to two condoms. It appeared that Jack had been preparing the motel room while Brandon was ordering the meal at the restaurant. No wonder it had taken so long. Brandon felt sick to his stomach and he began to panic.

He knew that he had to get out of there, but he had no money and where would he go? If he tried to hitchhike this guy might find him. He glanced around the room for ideas, knowing that the clock was ticking. He looked over at the bathroom door and noticed that it opened inward towards the bathroom. It was then that he came up with an idea. He untied one of the ties from the foot of the bed and grabbed the belt from Jack's pants which were lying on the ground from his disrobing and created a rope of sorts and tied it to the bathroom door handle and the other end to the tie which was still attached to the foot of the bed that was closest to the bathroom door.

Uh oh ... It did not reach. He had to come up with something else to extend the reach. He threw the bedspread off of the bed and grabbed the top sheet and twisted it up, much like he had done when he escaped out the window at the military institute. He added the sheet to the middle of his rope invention and pulled all of the slack out. It was super tight and looked like it would work. He did not know what to do next. He could hear the shower water running and would use it as an alarm while he tried to think of what to do.

He looked down and saw Jack's pants again and noticed that his wallet had fallen out of them when he was removing the belt from the loops. Brandon reached down and picked up the wallet, while listening intently for the shower to turn off. He opened the wallet and as he stared at those bills, he knew exactly what to do. He took the cash out and threw the wallet on the ground. He felt that it may have been deemed as being wrong to take the money, but not as bad as the attempted rape of a minor, or worse. Ole Jack may have been a serial killer.

He quietly opened the motel entry door. It was now dark outside and he stepped out of that would be torture chamber and headed toward downtown Austin, which he could see on the horizon. He did not hitchhike for obvious reasons. He crossed the road and walked against traffic for about a mile and then turned onto a street to get off the access road to the highway and walked into an apartment complex parking lot which was about two blocks away from the highway and sat by the pool. He laid down on a lounger and fell asleep. It had been a long and extremely strange day. But ... He had made it to Austin.

At about seven the next morning, he awoke to a security guard shaking him and asking him to leave the apartment complex grounds. Brandon jumped up and did as he was told. He figured that Jack the Raper would be long gone by now if he was able to get the bathroom door open. If not, Brandon figured that he had until noon or so when the housekeepers would find Jack locked in the bathroom and get management to release him. He also believed that Jack would not report him for taking the money because anyone who looked at the motel room scene would know exactly what was going on. It would be the last time that Brandon would see or hear about ole Jack. He began to think about Link and how He brought Brandon such comfort. Brandon felt at that moment like he did when he used to talk with Link.

Suddenly, Brandon snapped back to reality from the terrifying memory from back when he was fifteen years old and was driving home with Mark and Anthony trying to escape the evil entities from the hotels that they had been staying at. As he drove, he pondered on his current situation and he thought of how ironic it was that, like with the Jack saga ... He was now running away again and he was fleeing a hotel that had a monster in it. Very strange. A few minutes later and he and his friends were back at his home. But, would they be safe at his home?

Chapter Five

There's No Place Like Home

It was approximately nine thirty in the evening when Brandon, Mark and Anthony finally arrived at his home. It was quite a distance to his house from the last hotel, that they had stayed at, so Mark and Anthony had fallen asleep in the truck and would not budge when Brandon tried to wake them. He knew that they were exhausted from the events of the past few days and felt that they were safe on his property. He decided to let them sleep a while, before waking them.

Brandon entered what he considered to be his castle. He was glad to be in a place that he was familiar with and felt safe. But that sense of security soon departed when he heard that all too familiar sound of what the entity called his looking-in device. Its loud humming seemed to echo through the house. He could not believe that it had followed him to his own home. He felt a sense of righteousness or power, since this was HIS home. He asked aloud what the entity wanted. The distinct voice responded with one word ... "YOU."

Just then, sparks of light started emanating through the newly drilled holes in the walls, as the voices started becoming louder and the words that were spoken became fiercer. Brandon tried to escape the voices that he heard and left the master bedroom and went into the master bathroom. As he watched, items such as towels, rugs and the shower curtain started turning from their original colors, to a light shade of red and becoming a darker shade of red with each passing moment. He left the bathroom and returned to the master bedroom where the same things occurred, as almost everything in the room started turning blood red. He left the master bedroom and entered the living area to find that the walls in this room were already blood red.

The light fixtures also appeared to shine a glowing red, though there were standard clear bulbs in the fixtures. He repeatedly heard the threatening voices, with promises of pain and anguish to him and all those that he knew. A plant which was hanging from the ceiling, in the living room, came alive and spun and shook as he passed by. It then proceeded to extend one of its green branches and move slowly toward him. He quickly walked away from the planter as to avoid the branch, which was growing longer as if to reach him. As he made his way through the entry hall where family pictures hung, large red X's suddenly appeared over the faces of the individuals in the photos, as the voices repeated their threats.

Suddenly, the front entry door started to shake and rattle violently, as if someone were trying to break the door down. It all became too much for him to bear. He swung the door open with no idea what he expected to find, waiting outside the door. To his surprise, there was nothing there. He walked outside and his friend Mark was sleeping in the truck while Anthony was standing alongside the vehicle, looking very spooked. Brandon spoke to Anthony, but he would not respond. As though, he had seen a ghost. Brandon looked up in the sky, at the dark night sky. In defiance, he said aloud, you cannot turn the sky red. Suddenly, the entire sky turned blood red and the voices started repeating their horrifying words of doom.

Brandon noticed that a fire hydrant, was casting its shadow upon the ground. The shadow of the fire hydrant suddenly turned into the shadow of a young child and then the voices began whispering at first and then growing louder and louder as they repeatedly said; "We want the child," and "The child shall be ours," and then the shadow of the child, grew horns. Brandon could not take any more. His mind was so full that he felt like he was going to pass out.

As fear overtook his mind, he fell to his knees and said, "Help me, God. I don't know what to do."

As he knelt there helpless, begging for God's help, suddenly a massive storm from the West with the strongest winds he had ever experienced blew in and the red skies immediately vanished. As Brandon looked around astonished at what was happening, looking up at the sky, he asked aloud, if this was God. The skies lit up with lightning, like he had never seen the skies do. Thousands of single lightning bolts flashed in the sky over and over. A hard rain began to fall, which he would later find out, that the rain was a form of Baptism. He stood there in the pouring rain with his eyes gazing into the heavens and every time Brandon would ask a question of God, the heavens would fill with lightning, but only when a question was asked.

Anthony approached and as Brandon looked into his eyes, he could see that Anthony was back to normal. He and Brandon stood and watched the power of God. The strength of the winds was able to bend the trees over enough for the tops of the trees to nearly touch the ground, yet they felt no wind. The two woke up their sleeping friend, Mark and all three went inside the house. The walls which were red before had become as white as snow and seemed to glow brilliantly.

Any of the light switches, which were in the off position before, were now on and the bulbs glowed as though they were beacons. The televisions, which were also off before, were now on and each had a religious show on them. A Crucifix with Jesus on it, which had been hanging on a wall, was now hanging by a string, at the sliding glass door. But, who put it there? Brandon went out the sliding glass door and was standing on the back porch gazing into the heavens.

Brandon continued to ask questions concerning why this took place and the skies would continue to light up, in response to his questions. Suddenly he heard a new voice, unlike the other voices he had been hearing for the past few days. This voice was gentle, and the voice said that one-third of man belonged to Satan and that one-third belonged to God and that the remaining third were undecided. The voice said that there is a battle for souls going on. The voice began to share many other things with him. At one point, a train whistle blew in the distance. The voice said to get them to the train; you are the gatherer. As he stared into heaven, a lime green glowing face appeared in the East sky. It looked like what you would picture Jesus as looking like, from most of the paintings one might see in a Church.

After a few more minutes of communing with his new friend, Brandon returned into the house. He went throughout the house looking for anything new or different. When he got to the master bathroom, he heard the gentle voice again, and it said ... Look. He looked up at the ceiling and a transparent lime green colored hand with outstretched fingers proceeded towards him and when he was touched by it, he felt a jolt go through his entire body. The voice said, "Do not fear; I am with you." Then, two things he had always believed were corrected; the voice said that it is okay for a man to cry and then said that the heart and the mind are two separate storage places. Brandon had no idea why the voice would feel this was worthy to share, but he understood what was being said.

Brandon went into the living room and the Cross which was hanging at the back door was now atop an old family Bible. Brandon was then told by the voice that whenever Brandon felt a certain feeling inside of him, after asking a question of God, the answer from God was "YES." But, that if he did not feel this feeling, the answer was "NO." Just then, he experienced the feeling that was being referred to. It was the same intense chill, which he had experienced when the lime green hand touched him in the bathroom. He was then told not to trust anything else, either from his mind or of man. The voice also told him that this new gentle entity lived within Brandon's stomach, which Brandon thought strange. Had the voice said heart or mind, it would have seemed more logical, but who was he to debate logic with his new friend?

This continued on until the sun rose and Brandon went outside and walked through a puddle of water. He noticed that as he walked, there were two sets of footprints coming out of the water and he truly knew that he was not alone. As he walked, he pondered on the events of the past week and he remembered the lime green transparent figure which stood at the door of the hotel room while the orange figures roamed the hallways and it was then that he discerned that it must have been a good entity of some sort, perhaps an Angel or good spirit watching over him. Because the lime green hand in the bathroom, the lime green image of Jesus' face in the East sky and the lime green transparent figure at the hotel door were the exact same color.

As he listened, he seemed to be able to hear all sorts of sounds he normally would have just ignored or missed. He then saw two bright lights inside of a bluish-green bubble which came from the sky. He suddenly heard the voice again and it repeatedly said, he who is first will be last, and those who are last will be first. After hours of listening to, and learning from this new friend, he returned inside and went to sleep. As he lay there drifting off, he wondered if it was over. Would this new friend abandon him now that he was safe? No, this was just the beginning ...

For the next three days Brandon did not eat anything. It was as though a change was taking place inside of him. He could feel it. When he finally did eat, his diet had changed, though not intentionally. He would only eat certain foods such as fish, chicken, vegetables and fruit. He would not leave his house for several days as he felt it was a sanctuary of sorts. As the week passed, he regained his strength and courage and would venture out during the daylight hours only, always making sure to be home by dark. As the days passed, Brandon started feeling different inside. His good qualities seemed to have been amplified and his bad habits were diminishing. After two weeks, he was no longer afraid to stay out after dark. He had been renewed somehow. He had been changed from within.

Chapter Six

New Genesis

In the weeks that followed, Brandon and his friends opened a Church, as he was told to do by his new friend. They filled it with new furniture, appliances and desks. They even built an awesome altar. The walls of the Church were draped with religious and spiritual pictures. They worked very hard getting this building to be exactly what it was supposed to be which was a spiritual sanctuary and finally, it was ready. The gentle voice also told him to open a free service called New Genesis Miracle Workers and to advertise in the newspaper that the service would try and help anyone with any problem, from depression to missing children to healing. Brandon did as he was instructed and the calls poured in.

During the first few days, there was a fog like mist that filled the building causing a cloudy haze. They could not figure out what it was. It was not smoke, but similar to that fog that one encounters in that state of mind between sleep and awake. It had a pure scent to it. They decided to take pictures of the Church and noticed that in a few of the photos, there was also a haze on the photographs, just as it was in the main forum, only it was lime green on the photo. Brandon was all too familiar with this color and was excited about its presence being in the Church. It would blur the picture somewhat as though something was in between the camera and the item being photographed. They examined the pictures for quite some time, but could not figure out what it was. They wanted to be sure that it was not just the film, so they went out and purchased more film. It happened again with the new film. They decided that to be certain that this lime green glow on the photos, was indeed something spiritual, that they should purchase another camera. So they purchased a new camera thinking this might solve the mystery of the photographs, one way ... Or another. The new camera revealed the same lime green glow in the photographs. He was now sure that the lime green haze on the photos was definitely spiritual, by nature. He also knew that it was a good thing, because of the color representing good, in the past days.

Brandon was sitting in the computer room, still pondering on the pictures that they had taken the night before. He decided to take even more pictures around the Church, to see if the lime green haze would be on these new pictures. The first few photos were normal. They had nothing out of the ordinary on them. Then he suddenly felt that intensive chill feeling, that the voice had told him to be aware of, and to trust in. The feeling was coming from his right side. He took a picture of the area, to his right, where he felt the feeling emitting from and when the photo had developed, the photo came out with the lime green haze, as it had the previous evening. He called his friends into the main room and had them watch as he would take a picture of one area, show the picture to them and show them that it was normal. But, then he would seek out the origin of the feeling which felt like an intense chill, and told his friends now watch and would take another picture of that area and the lime green fog like haze was on the picture.

This took place for hours. At one point, he took two pictures of the same area which was in a corner of the main forum above the receptionist desk. When the two photos had developed, Brandon heard a faint voice saying the word "difference" in his head. He looked at the two photos and there was a difference in the photos. One had a lime green circle on the acoustic ceiling tile above the desk. He showed his friends the photos and they all looked up at the ceiling where the lime green circle was on the photo. They were astonished to see that there was a Cross being formed, without hand, right before their eyes. They stood in awe. It was exciting and even a bit scary at the same time. They continued taking pictures and everywhere that he would sense that spiritual chill, he would turn and take a picture.

One time, Brandon took a picture of Mark and when the photo developed, there was a figure of a man standing behind him. They looked closely at the picture and a very peculiar feeling overtook them as they watched as it fully developed and saw it slowly change into an orange shadow like entity with deep eye sockets and pale skin. They freaked out and ripped the picture up and threw it outside the building. They could not help remembering the eerie events which took place just over a month ago in the hotels and feared it was about to start again. It was at that time, that the voice of his new friend taught Brandon how to pray for the evil entities to be removed from a specific place or even a person. It was very confusing to him at first, as he did not understand everything and he then understood the true meaning of these words ... Some things are hard to understand and even harder to believe.

He sometimes questioned it all himself, but could not doubt what he had seen and felt and the gentle voice and how it helped him when he was so very afraid. About this time, Anthony said, "Hey, it is hailing outside." They went outside and saw a beautiful rainbow extending to the earth from a large white cloud. As they took pictures of this rainbow, they saw a large dark black cloud racing towards the large white cloud from the west. Empty film containers were being tossed about like crazy, as they photographed the whole event. As the black cloud neared, the white cloud sent out a single lightning bolt and it hit the black cloud, which appeared to cause the black cloud to retreat a bit, only to continue on its path toward the white cloud. A massive display of lightning occurred as the black cloud touched the white cloud. They seemed to entangle one another and what appeared to be fists proceeding from the white cloud were seen and photographed. After a brief period of time, the black cloud retreated to the south, but the white cloud stayed stationary. Brandon asked aloud if the war was over and a single lightning bolt came from the white cloud.

Suddenly, there appeared a lightning bug which blinked off and on, in front of Brandon's face. An eerie feeling came over him as he heard the gentle voice from within say that they sought the child. He asked aloud "What child?" and "Where is the child?" A single bolt of lightning appeared in the east sky. He felt a tugging in his soul to follow the bolt of lightning. He thought how crazy it sounded, then figured that it was no crazier than anything else that he had experienced over the past month, and decided to pursue his belief. He asked aloud if he should head towards the bolt of lightning, in the east and a single bolt of lightning from the large white cloud, confirmed his belief. Brandon, Mark and Anthony piled into a vehicle and headed east, having no idea where they were going.

As they traveled, Brandon would ask which direction they should go. He would ask do we turn here and Mark and Anthony would watch for the lightning. If a bolt of lightning was seen, he would then ask, which direction they were to turn and await an answer. A single bolt of lightning would appear in the direction they were to travel. The strangest thing of all, was that during the entire ride, there was never any lightning, unless Brandon asked a question. He did not know if this was some wild-goose chase or not, but he felt compelled to find out.

This method of giving directions took them south on Lamar, east on Highway 183 and south on Cameron. As they came to Highway 290, he asked if he should turn east on Highway 290; nothing happened, so they continued down Cameron. He asked if he should go as far as Fifty First Street and nothing happened. He asked if he should turn on Glencrest Street and the lightning bolt appeared and the thunder rang out. As they traveled down this street, there were trees which covered their view of the sky, which kept them from seeing any lightning, so he asked aloud what he should do.

Suddenly, a firefly like the one back at the Church came in front of the windshield and appeared to dance and spin, as it blinked off and on. It then sped away and turned left onto Belfast Street, and of course, Brandon was hot on its ... wings. The firefly finally stopped and hovered over a certain house and then literally exploded, sending bright lights emanating from it. They pulled up to the house and turned off the engine. It was dark, about 9:30 p.m. What were they to do? Brandon asked if he was to go up to the door. Both Mark and Anthony yelled out, as they both saw the lightning. Brandon, having no idea what to say to these people, once he got to the door, proceeded up the walk, and upon arriving at the front door, he saw a bunch of baby things such as a stroller, crib and things of this nature. This gave him more confidence as he remembered the words of the gentle voice earlier which said that they seek the child.

He rang the doorbell. A few seconds later a short, dark-haired man came to the door. Brandon, not knowing what to say, blurted out; "There is a child that is in danger. I do not know how to explain it, but I was sent here to help."

The man looked at Brandon with confusion and fear and said, "There is no child here," as he slammed the door closed.

Glad that it was over, Brandon hurriedly went back to the truck and pulled away. Feeling very incomplete, he asked if he was supposed to go back to that house. The skies lit up ... He said, "But not tonight, right?" Nothing happened and he knew the answer and asked, "You mean now, don't you?" The skies lit up. They pulled into the Capitol Plaza parking lot, which was a few blocks from the house that he had just left, for Brandon to be able to think of what he should say to these people when he would return. They must think I am a nut, he thought. He started begging not to have to return, but the reaction was clear ... He was going back.

He pulled back up to the house on Belfast, and he slowly exited the vehicle and walked once again up the narrow path to the front door. He rang the door bell and the man returned, but this time he left the chain lock on the door, as he opened it, just enough to see his visitor. Brandon asked if he believed in God. The man said "I don't know just go away, I am calling the police." He then shut and locked the door.

Brandon yelled through the closed door, "I mean no harm. I was just sent to warn you." Then whispered to himself; "I think." He felt compelled to leave his phone number on a piece of paper, on the door and asked aloud if he could leave now and the skies lit up. "Finally," he thought to himself, as he briskly walked toward the truck.

As he opened the door to the truck, he noticed an ominous looking van that was sitting across the street from the house where he had just been. There were at least two people in the van. The driver was looking directly at Brandon, just staring at him. Brandon stared back at the man, thinking how strange it was for them to just sit there at that hour. The men in the dark van started the vehicle and squealed their tires as they drove off. Brandon thought to himself, was this the danger that he had come all this way to prevent? Was it this simple? He headed back to the Church both confused and drained from the night's events.

The ride back to the Church was quiet. They pulled into the Church parking lot, and another friend of his came to his mind and he felt that eerie feeling once more. He thought, "Oh no, not again." He asked God if there was a problem with this person and the skies lit up. Keep in mind, there had been no lightning since they left the stranger's house on Belfast, and not so much as a single bolt crossed the sky unless Brandon had asked a question. That is what made it so hard to ignore and is the reason he followed it then and was going to follow its instructions now.

Not to mention the fact that he knew that the gentle voice inside saved him from the terrible events a month ago and had no intention on failing his new friend. Brandon got on the phone to call this other friend that he sensed was in trouble. Mark stood in the hall and Anthony stood at the front door making a physical chain of communication among the three, as to be able to know if the lightning struck. While Brandon was talking to his friend, as to be able to know what the skies were doing while way back in the back office of the Church, Anthony would yell out when the lightning occurred and Mark would yell out and Brandon would hear. As silly as it sounds, it would prove to save Brandon's life that night.

Brandon asked his friend Gidget, "What's up, anything new?"

As he listened for the yelling out of Mark and Anthony, she replied "No, not really." He told her of the evenings events and how he had a bad feeling about her. Knowing of the incidents that had occurred to Brandon as of late, she recounted her day to him. She told him of how she had went to the grocery store and gotten some chicken for a surprise meal that she was going to bring to Brandon and his friends that evening. Suddenly Mark yelled out and Brandon asked God if it was something to do with the chicken. Again Mark yelled out. Brandon listened as Gidget told him about the rest of her day.

Finally she said, "You know what is weird, I was about to sample the chicken, a minute ago, but had this thought that I was not to eat any of the chicken until you had eaten some of it." Brandon asked her where she got the chicken at. She answered, "HEB," which is a grocery store chain. Thinking that something must be wrong with the chicken, for some voice to tell her to have Brandon eat the chicken first, Brandon asked God if the chicken was poison. Mark yelled out. It was now certain ... The chicken was poison. He asked her to return the chicken to the store and ask them if there was something wrong with it. She reluctantly agreed. They hung up and Brandon told his friends of the event.

About forty minutes later, Gidget called back, from the HEB crying, and explaining that the people in the meat market had told her that the chicken was no good, because it and many others were in a refrigerator that was not working properly and had spoiled. They apologized and replaced the tainted chicken that she had purchased, with fresh. Brandon was shocked at her words and said that he believed that he would pass on the chicken dinner. He hung up the phone and praised God aloud for saving him from that. He started thinking about the child again and knew that if those bolts of lightning told of this matter, that the child incident was certain as well.

He started thinking of the lightning bug, the infant's stroller and playpen and could not believe that he had ever even doubted the voice, especially after all he had seen over the last month or so. He started remembering the hotel events and shook his head as to remove the horrifying thoughts, of his past encounter, from his mind and went to tell his friends of this latest information. This would be the point where Brandon would seek to improve the communication between he and the gentle voice that lived inside him.

A few days later, Brandon answered a call at the Church from a bank in another state, asking for a reference on a past employee named Sarah Johnson. (Her real name is being concealed for obvious reasons.) Brandon was about to say that there was never any employee here by that name, when that familiar voice whispered the word; "Listen." His thoughts began to be changed to the night he and his friends went to the house on Belfast and of the child. He then asked the bank representative, what street address the individual gave as a home address, as for him to confirm that this was a legitimate call, for security purposes.

Brandon was astonished at the man's response. He said, "Belfast street in Austin Texas."

He thought to himself, "How did the mother of the child get this phone number?" Then he remembered that he had left his phone number on the door of the house on Belfast. He told the bank representative that Sarah was a very good person and that he recommended her highly.

The man said "Thank you," and hung up.

Brandon sat and wondered, "Why did she leave the state in the last few days? How did she know it was okay to use Brandon as a reference? Did she also hear the gentle voice?" He knew nothing and would never hear anything about her again.

Chapter Seven

Taking Care of Business

There was to be a full moon that same evening. Brandon thought that perhaps the old superstition of the full moon bringing out evil was true, so he had warned all of his friends of the upcoming evening. That evening, many calls were made to Brandon regarding abnormal activities in their homes. One in particular claimed that it was very cold in the house and that strange occurrences were happening. Brandon decided to go and check it out. Upon entering the home, he found that it was freezing cold inside. He asked her why she didn't turn off the air conditioner and she answered that the air conditioner had not been on. On the wall thermostat, the temperature was turned to eighty five degrees, but there was no way that it was eighty five degrees in that home. It felt closer to forty degrees. Brandon opened both front and rear doors to allow the warm air outside, to increase the room temperature.

There was a small dog in the house. As Brandon stood and watched, the dog continually barked towards the corner of a room. He just stood there barking at thin air. After being there for about ten minutes, Brandon began to walk around inspecting the house. He saw a plant begin to turn back and forth by itself from the still position, reminding him of that awful evening one month ago. He went into one of the bedrooms and looked around. As he stood beside the bed, he felt something reach out from underneath the bed and touch his leg. He knew something was there. The residents of this home were very frightened and asked Brandon not to leave. He would end up staying awake and watching the house all night while they slept. Bad thoughts continually attempted to enter his mind. He found the only way to ignore them was to talk with the voice inside.

Morning finally came and all was back to normal. In his mind, he understood that thoughts are truly things and that what you believe in, good or bad, will come to pass. He realized that he had planted a seed of fear in the minds of others when he warned his friends of the night of the full moon, which had caused them to worry. Worry turns to fret; fret turns to evil. We should not be ignorant of evil being an existing force, but evil has no power without giving it power by way of thought, which opens its realm. He was truly sorry that he misinformed his friends, by telling them of the full moon and its ability to increase evil activity, but he did ask God the night before to take their fear from their minds and give it to Brandon instead and God did.

The Miracle Workers service was growing more popular every day. There were hundreds of calls a day, wanting answers to different questions and very unique requests of every type. Brandon felt the presence of bad. He searched diligently but to no avail. He asked aloud, Is there something bad in this room. That feeling (that the voice had told Him to expect) inside of him said yes. He panicked and started tossing many items from the Church into the dumpster outside. All pictures, books, trinkets and anything that did not have a religious or spiritual meaning were tossed. He started to feel better and didn't care which of the items were bad, but was just glad that any of the items which may have contained the bad in it, was out of that Church. The Church had returned to its sanctuary-like self. When he had opened the Church and flooded the walls with religious pictures and sayings, he had never actually read some of them. That night, he decided to do so and read each one daily.

While wandering around the Church, he came upon a picture that after reading it, sent chills up his spine. The title on the picture was "Do You Wonder Where We've Gone?" The story read as follows: "We've gone to live with Jesus, we're sorry you're alone ... Many of your friends and family are missing and you know in your heart what has taken place. We tried to tell you, if only you would have listened and accepted Jesus before the Rapture. You must understand, your last chance is now. Though it won't be easy, it's not too late. Accept Jesus into your heart and believe in Him. Never bow down or take the mark of man. (Revelation 14:9-11) This will become law, but you must resist. (Ephesians 6:10-15)

The New World system will try to convince you that life will be better. Don't be deceived; it's one of many lies they will tell. (Revelation 14:6,7) Take what you need from my house, what once was mine is now yours. These things will help to build courage and faith. (Ephesians 6:16) Read the books of Revelation, Isaiah and Daniel. These books will help you understand and instruct you what you must do. To accept Jesus is eternity in Heaven. (Revelation 15:2-4) To reject Him is eternity in Hell. I tell you these things not to scare you but, because I care for you very much. Pray continually for you will need strength for the battles ahead. Never give up hope, for Jesus wants no man to perish. You must decide. Listen to your heart and know these things to be true. If you want Jesus to be Lord of your life, repeat this prayer. Dear Father, thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus to die for my sins. I believe in my heart that You raised Jesus from the dead, and I confess with my mouth that Jesus is my Lord. Pray now and be strong. Remember the Lord is always with you. Signed, A Friend in Christ."

After reading these words, Brandon felt energy and had a new outlook on things. He got his Bible and as he read the various Passages from Scripture, referred to him in those words from the picture, he discovered what his purpose was. Everything became very clear, and his discovery was answered in his soul once again with that familiar intense chill feeling. Brandon read from the Book of Isaiah that night and marveled at the way this man foretold of events that were to come to pass from 800 to 2800 years away. He also read from the books of Daniel and Revelation and began to learn of the events that would occur soon which were called the "End Times."

As he read, Brandon's mind wandered back to a reoccurring dream that he had as a child and even into his teens. The dream occurred many times. In the dream, there was a Giant that would rise up out of a ravine and chase him until he caught and killed Brandon. He pondered on the dream and associated it with the story of Antichrist rising from the pit and killing Christians. Was God revealing what would happen to him even before Brandon had become a Christian? Was this a prophecy? He knew ... This would be the way he would die. He felt compelled to share more about the End Times and to show people that the end was indeed coming. But, he had to learn more. He had to study everything. And he did.

Brandon went to a local Christian store in search of more books, pictures, etc. for the Church. When he would touch certain books, he would get that certain feeling in his soul that the voice promised he would get. Several books gave him this feeling, so he decided to purchase all of them. As he gathered the books to take them to the counter, an old man who was limping and carrying a cane approached him. He asked Brandon to assist him in finding something with the Ten Commandments on it, assuming that Brandon worked there. The man had a speech impediment making it difficult for Brandon to understand him.

The gentleman explained that he was looking for a page marker for his Bible that had the Ten Commandments on the border so that every time he opened his Bible, he would see them. The old man turned to Brandon and said that he had experienced a stroke and that since that time this was the only way to put something into his mind on a permanent basis. He told Brandon that if Brandon wanted to put anything in his mind permanently that he should do the same. He also told Brandon that there was a special plan for Brandon. At the end of the conversation, Brandon offered to purchase the book marker for him, but the man rejected his offer and said, "Never forget this, young man: What God gave you freely, give freely." Brandon thanked his new friend and watched him as he hobbled away.

That evening, Brandon tried to start reading one of his new books and could not comprehend one single sentence. He thought that perhaps he was reading the wrong book first, since he had received that feeling when he touched each book, so he asked which book he should read first and touched each book. After the fourth book, he came across one that sent that feeling ringing through his body. So, he started to read it and the contents were amazing.

It explained in great detail of the feeling that God had promised him when he asked a question. The book was about a young boy that had befriended the Holy Spirit. The information in this book not only told him who He was, but why the Holy Spirit was there. The Holy Spirit was sent after Jesus rose to Heaven, to be a Comforter to believers. It went further to say that the Holy Spirit would actually speak to those who were believers, IF, they would listen. (Hebrews 3:7) and Brandon believed that the voice he had been hearing was from this Holy Spirit. But, was it?

As he thought on this, he became aware that perhaps the lime green haze that had been appearing on the pictures he had taken at the Church, the color of the Hand that came from the ceiling and upon the face in the East sky might also be the Holy Spirit. The book had said to ask the Holy Spirit to come and sit with you and that Holy Spirit would do so. He decided to test this and asked if the Holy Spirit would come and stand beside him. There was a cool breeze-like feeling beside him immediately. It was the same feeling that he had days before as he watched the Cross being made on the ceiling of the Church.

Brandon took a picture of a different chair sitting next to his desk. The picture developed and looked normal. He then asked the Holy Spirit to sit in that chair. The tingling feeling, that he was to expect in his soul, answered "Yes." He then took another picture of the same chair. As it developed, that familiar lime green haze appeared in the picture, but only in the chair. In the area around the chair, the picture developed normal. He asked if this was the Holy Spirit and the intense chill inside of him went crazy. Brandon read the book aloud to his friends, and afterward they discussed what they had learned and eventually fell asleep on the floor of the Church.

Below are just a few of the pictures taken of the Holy Spirit of God which reveal the color of the Holy Spirit of God. Click on the images for a more in depth view.

He and several people went to breakfast, as they had always done. One of them asked Brandon if it was going to rain, as if to test him, because he had just told them all about the Holy Spirit. It was a partly cloudy day with no rain clouds in sight, at that time. Brandon asked aloud if it was going to rain. That feeling inside of him tingled, so he told this individual, "Yes, it will rain." As they left the restaurant a few minutes later, it began to rain right as they opened the door. That night, they decided to read more from their new book. Brandon would read to them as they listened intently, however, the words began to make no sense. It spoke of evil spirits and the likes which seemed contrary to the gentle and peace filled books that he had been used to. Brandon decided to go back and reread the prior pages to them from the previous night to refresh their memories, but they could not get into it and the desire to recapture the feelings of the previous evening turned into a quest to see the Holy Spirit again.

So they grabbed the camera and took pictures of the room. One particular picture had a fog-like haze, however, that picture was not lime green, as it had been. It was orange, similar to the one they took before and destroyed. Brandon got a bad feeling and asked if the entity in the picture was evil, remembering the night he looked out the peephole of his hotel door and saw the orange shadowy figures. The feeling in his soul said, "Yes." They took the picture to the rear of the building, cut it up and burned it until there was nothing left of that photograph.

There was still a bad feeling in the Church, and remembering the night that they had thrown all of those items into the dumpster, he asked if they had accidentally brought something bad into the Church that day. The answer was "Yes." They got every item that they had purchased that day and put it into a pile in the middle of the main forum. He would ask one by one if the item was bad. The answer was "Yes," to each one of them.

After breaking and throwing several items into the dumpster, Brandon could not help himself but question why these items were bad, since they were religious in nature, so he asked aloud, "Can inanimate objects possess evil of themselves?"

The answer was "No."

He remembered his readings in Revelation a few nights earlier, in particular Chapter 13, of Antichrist's image being set up. He then asked, "Can an evil spirit get inside of an inanimate object?"

The answer was "YES."

Brandon wondered how inanimate objects which possessed no life could hold evil spirits. This answer came to his mind; "The items are alive in this Church because of faith." In order not to throw away everything in the Church, Brandon had to figure out another way to rid the place of unwanted guests.

He then remembered that the next chapter in the book that they had been reading which they could not understand while reading, explained about evil spirits, spiritual warfare and exorcisms. It also explained of how to keep your house and family safe and free from unwanted spirits. After the past few hours, he now felt that they would better comprehend what was written, in the book. They returned to the book and read the chapter again and this time, it made perfect sense. The words really hit home. The book said to say these words aloud, "Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, please remove any bad spirits from this dwelling."

They returned to the main forum and said these words aloud three times with every bit of faith they could muster. They could actually feel the room change. They grabbed the camera again and took a picture of the area where the orange shadowy figure had appeared and it was now clear. Now it was time to put the good back in, so he decided to read the Bible aloud to his friends. Brandon started to figure out that the Holy Spirit would talk to him not only in voice form and from within the spirit, with the intense chill, but also through old men at Christian book stores and books written by other spiritual souls. But, he remembered the voice's warning from that crazy night ... "Trust nothing but the intense chill feeling." He would trust the gentle voice and request the feeling as to confirm, as he was told to do.

That night, the Holy Spirit told him that he could also ask in the Word. The procedure was simple. He said to ask anything in Jesus' name, open God's Word (the Bible) and point, and that with faith, God would answer. The very first time he tried this, he asked inside himself, "What is my purpose?" He opened God's Word and pointed.

The scripture was Isaiah Chapter 11, Verse 12. It read, "And He shall set up an ensign for the nations and shall assemble the outcasts and gather together the dispersed from the four corners of the earth."

Brandon reflected back to the night that God had saved him and when he had asked God what his purpose was and God told Brandon that he would be a gatherer. In addition, this chapter was mentioned in the picture titled, "Do You Wonder Where We've Gone," and that Brandon had highlighted that particular chapter. That was the only place in his entire Bible that he had highlighted a few nights ago and this was the first time that he ever asked in the Word. He pointed right at the same verse out of all the possible verses in the Bible. Now that is awesome.

Brandon loved to read the Bible and some of their new books and he loved to commune with the Holy Spirit. From that point on, Brandon decided that he would never make a decision without first consulting the Holy Spirit. Brandon received a call from a reporter from the city newspaper because they had heard of Brandon's unique business practices. Brandon's first instinct was to allow the reporter to interview him, but to keep secret about the things that he knew and that had been happening because people would think he was nuts and put him away. But, the Holy Spirit told him to tell the reporter what he experienced, and as Brandon knew, you don't say no to the Holy Spirit. He told the reporter that he was available to be interviewed a little later that morning and they set an appointment. He was very nervous and hoped that he did not say anything to cause problems or disappoint the Holy Spirit. He could not wait for it to be over with.

"What is your service about?" This was the reporter's first question.

"We provide a service where we help others that cannot find help anywhere else," Brandon responded.

"What type of services?" the reporter asked.

Brandon answered that they were helping people, find missing children or lost relatives, removing evil spirits, healing, etc. He added that his newest idea was a Christian match-making service.

The reporter's next question was the one he dreaded, "Where did you come up with this very strange idea?" Brandon, remembered the Holy Spirit urging him to tell the reporter what had happened. Brandon told the reporter of all the events that had occurred from the hotel rooms, to date. The reporter listened as Brandon told him this story without saying a word.

Brandon told him everything hesitantly at first but became more at ease, as the story went on. When Brandon finished, the reporter was silent for a few moments and then finally asked, "Are you serious?" He also asked if Brandon would allow him to write a story in the newspaper about these events.

Brandon said that he did not know and would have to get confirmation. The reporter asked "From whom?"

With reluctance, Brandon responded, "From the Holy Spirit."

The reporter said, "This is too wild," and asked to interview Brandon again.

He said that he could not agree to another interview at that time and would have to set up an appointment later, if it was to be allowed by the Holy Spirit.

Chapter Eight

Business as Unusual

That evening, they had a call about a missing ten-year-old child. Brandon felt for the mother and asked the Holy Spirit of the child's whereabouts. The Holy Spirit told Brandon to get a map. He laid the map out on the desk and would run his finger along the map until he felt that Spiritual feeling that he was taught to await before making decisions. This unique process led his finger to West Texas, to the area where the Rio Grande was located. He was also told that a captain in the army was involved. The next day, Brandon called the mother of the missing child and told her of his findings. The mother said that her ex-husband lived in El Paso, Texas and was a captain in the Army. She contacted the authorities and the child was found there and she was then able to be reunited with her child.

That night after having read from the Bible and the Spiritual books with his two friends, Brandon looked over at Anthony who was staring at a certain picture of Jesus on the wall. Anthony was beginning to cry. Brandon asked him why he was crying and Anthony said that the eyes in the picture of Jesus were moving. When Brandon looked at the picture, the Holy Spirit moved inside of him so much that he felt as though he would black out. As Brandon continued to look at the eyes of Jesus in the picture, the eyes literally turned from the direction that they were looking and looked directly at him. Now, I am not talking about how some pictures have eyes which seem to follow you when you walk by. This was a whole different situation. The eyes in the picture became real.

The entire room, which was well-lit, became dark and a bright light emanated from Jesus' face. The feeling that the Holy Spirit had promised him was flowing through him like crazy, and though he did not understand this, there was no fear and the feeling was SON-sational. All three saw the same thing, which meant it was no illusion, but in fact, really occurring. Jesus smiled at Brandon and something entered the minds of all three people. It was described by one as a thought entering so fast that you could not catch it. Before they knew it, all three were on their knees, head bowed down and each speaking to God in private.

Brandon had never really pondered on Jesus, but instead focused on God and his new friend, the Holy Spirit. The sense Brandon received from Jesus was somewhat different. It was more gentle and calming. As he was praying, Brandon asked, "Jesus, are you going to stay with us?"

Instead of the feeling he would usually get, he heard the gentle words of Jesus say to him, "I'll be with you forever." Then Jesus said louder, "Preach," and Brandon promised that he would. Brandon understood a new truth ... Jesus, was the voice that he had been hearing in his head, all along as Brandon would come to find out that Jesus is the Word of God and the intense spiritual chill that he felt, was the Holy Spirit. God was the Heavenly Father. Three separate entities but somehow all one. This is known as the Trinity.

The three of them sat there for another few hours just listening to the Lord and thinking, never speaking a word. All three were glassy-eyed and shocked that all that they had been studying in the Bible was now alive before their very eyes. After quite a while, they began to talk to one another and each spoke with a renewed faith and a desire to learn as much more about Jesus as they could. Misty-eyed and full of life, the three sat and discussed the events that had taken place as of late.

Brandon left the room and went to look at another picture of Jesus in the Church and found that it did the exact same thing and knew from that moment on that it was not a particular picture, but rather the Spirit was able to enter the image. He asked about this and heard Jesus tell him that the pictures were alive because of Brandon's faith. The room that they were in was called the Jesus Room from that day forth. The other two drifted off to sleep with peaceful looks on their faces, while Brandon wrote of the events of the evening in his journal, as he had always done. What an awesome night. Then Brandon said, "Goodnight, Holy Spirit," and went to sleep.

The next morning, the three of them and a close friend who had been a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, whose name was Larry, went to the courthouse. Mark was in trouble with the law for his third D.W.I. that he had committed several months prior. While in court, the individual who was being judged, just prior to Mark had two D.W.I.s and the judge sentenced him to three years in prison. The individual was crying as the bailiff handcuffed him and escorted him away to ship him off to prison. The court then took its recess and the four of them and Mark's attorney went downstairs during the recess. Mark said, "Since that guy only had two D.W.I.s and I have three, it looks like I will get at least three years in prison."

Brandon looked at Mark and said, "Like I told you a few days ago, you will not stay one day in jail." Mark's attorney told Brandon not to give his client false hope, because it did not look good at all and that Mark was looking at some serious time in prison.

Mark found it difficult to believe that he would not serve any jail time with the incident that had just taken place in the courtroom moments before and said; "Maybe I can get out on a work release program."

Brandon, shook his head and said, "I say again, you will not stay one day in jail." Then, Brandon said; "Time will tell."

After a few minutes, they returned to the courtroom where the bailiff called Mark up to the bench to appear before the judge. Mark and his lawyer stepped up and took a seat at the empty defense table. The prosecuting attorney began to recite to the judge the facts of the case and stated that Mark had two D.W.I.s in the past, was on felony probation and had just received yet another D.W.I. She spoke with contempt in her voice, as she reflected the young man's past history of mischief. When she had finished talking, the judge sat there for several seconds in silence as he contemplated the fate of this man before him.

Then suddenly, a change overtook that courtroom that you could feel and the judge looked at Mark and said, "Keep up the good work young man," and actually commended him on his progress. (Keep in mind that Mark was present in court for violation of felony probation.)

The judge said that he recommended a continuance of the remaining six months that Mark had left on his probation, and then asked the prosecuting attorney if dropping the case was acceptable. The prosecuting attorney answered cheerfully, "Sure, why not."

The judge slammed down his gavel and said, "Next case."

Both Mark and his attorney returned to the area where Brandon, Anthony and Larry were sitting with astonished looks on their faces. Mark's attorney even returned a one-thousand dollar check that Mark had just paid him and said, "I have no idea what just happened and because of the turn of events, I am returning this portion of the retainer."

Mark looked at Brandon and said, "You knew this was going to happen, didn't you?"

"Yes," Brandon knew. That courtroom had been Holy Spirited.

Brandon returned to the Church to find that Anthony had received a call that his grandfather only had two days to live. Anthony requested time off to go and see his grandfather one last time, before he passed on. Brandon was told by the Holy Spirit that his friend's grandfather was not going to die and Brandon told Anthony what was said. Anthony believed him and called and told his mother the good tidings. His mother told Anthony that the doctors had already diagnosed the man's condition and the outcome was certain and that he needed to come and visit. Anthony decided not to go and instead held onto his faith in the Holy Spirit's promise that his grandfather would not die. The next day, his mother called with a tearful voice and said, "A miracle, a miracle, your grandfather is going to live," giving credit to the doctors, but Brandon and his friends gave credit to God.

The next day, a good friend of Brandon's asked him to pray for her friend who was very ill with an incurable disease. Brandon found out more information about the disease and asked the Holy Spirit in the Word if this woman was able to be healed. The answer was, "Yes." He asked how and the Lord said that Brandon was to touch her with compassion and it would be done. Brandon doubted his own ability to do this and feared that he would fail and tried to forget all about it. He decided to go back outside to think about what he was going to do. As he exited the building, two large lightning bolts went across the sky. He looked over at Mark who looked curious because he did not understand why the lightning was sounding off and Brandon was unable to explain it.

Brandon did not want Mark to have doubts, or think that Brandon did not know why this was occurring, so he moved his lips pretending to be talking to the Holy Spirit. This would prove to be one enormous mistake on Brandon's behalf. They returned inside with no further explanation from Brandon. Later, Brandon and Mark got in the truck to go see a friend and as they drove along, a very hard rain moved in quickly and it became impossible to see out of the windshield. They pulled the vehicle into a Luby's restaurant parking lot to wait out the storm. Brandon asked aloud if there was something wrong. No answer was forthcoming. But when he asked if God was mad at him, the thunder rang out so loud that it shook the truck violently.

Thinking that this must be a mistake, Brandon repeated his question, and the thunder immediately shook the truck again even harder. Fear overtook him as he asked what he had done wrong. He then remembered the two lightning bolts and suddenly remembered about his doubt in touching that woman to heal her and his act of pretending to talk to God in front of Mark and suddenly he knew that he was wrong. The two lightning bolts represented his two mistakes. He asked God to forgive him. No response.

He suddenly became very tired and wanted to sleep because he hadn't slept very much lately and had the audacity to start to doze off during God's floor show. A very loud thunderous bang awoke him and the left side of his body went numb. He asked God if He was still angry with him and the sky lit up with lightning. Brandon tried to make excuses, but God was not buying. Over and over again, the lightning would cross the sky when Brandon would ask, "Are you still mad at me?" Mark was sitting on the other side of the front seat, dealing with his own issues of his lack of faith issues.

Brandon told Mark that something appeared wrong with Mark and that he should tell him what it was. Mark told him that his faith kept fading in and out. Although he believed everything, he would go to sleep and wake up with negative thoughts. Brandon said that there must be something that he was not telling him. Mark replied, "There is something I have been thinking about." He began to tell Brandon a story of his youth and that once he had read a satanic curse book and had put a curse on a man and that the man became ill, near death. Brandon told him that God forgives all but felt that there must still be more. Mark proceeded to tell him that one night long ago, two devil-worshiping friends came to see him in a vision.

Brandon wanted to know what else there was. Mark said that he could not remember and Brandon explained to him that the mind was like a computer and that you had to open the door and think about the subject you were talking about and the mind would look it up. Mark then said, "Oh, yeah, in the vision, the two devil-worshiping friends told me that they were going to kill all of my family and me, because I wanted out of the group." Apparently that scared Mark enough to bury the memory so deep, that three years later it would come out in his dreams and haunt him enough to mess with his newfound faith. Brandon told him that he had to face his fears or they would haunt him forever.

Meanwhile, as Mark was dealing with those fears in the vehicle, Brandon was still being rejected by God. Suddenly, Brandon asked Jesus to ask His Father to forgive him and immediately the numbness went away. The rain stopped and the thunder did as well. It was an awesome display of grace. Jesus had saved Brandon from the wrath of His Father. Brandon and Mark decided to talk about it and afterward they knew what the fear of God meant. Brandon and Mark became closer, for they had been through hell and now the wrath of God together and all in two months.

Anthony, who was supposed to have met them at the friend's house where they were originally headed, was hindered when the storm hit. He showed up at the Church, just after Brandon had returned and said that somehow he had gotten lost which was very rare for Anthony. Brandon knew that this had nothing to do with Anthony, and that God delayed his arrival to have His talk with Brandon. Being punished by God is like being punished by a good parent. When it is over, there is no more anger. Brandon did as he was told, concerning the woman with the disease.

A few days later, a man named Jerome who was visiting the Church was watching the rain along with two other individuals, when Brandon overheard them say that the rain was unstoppable. Brandon stepped out the door and the rain quit. Brandon stepped back inside and said, "Is that better?"

Jerome laughed aloud and said, "Are you trying to tell us that you stopped that rain?"

Brandon re-opened the Church entry door, and the rain started once again. As he walked back inside he said, "What do you think?" Brandon told Jerome that he had little faith and that God would show him a sign. He suggested that Jerome go to what was known as the Jesus Room and check it out.

A short time after, Jerome entered Brandon's office with tears in his eyes and looked as if he had seen a ghost. He did ... The Holy Ghost. He explained that his left leg went numb. Brandon told him that numbness was God's sign of lack of faith (Remember that Brandon had experienced the same numbness earlier for his own lack of faith.) After a few minutes, the numbness went away, and Jerome talked like it was a coincidence. Brandon told him to go back into the Jesus Room and when he did, his leg went numb again. Brandon entered the Jesus Room and said, "What do you think now?" This was the beginning of Jerome's faith.

Chapter Nine

Prove All Things

Later that day, Brandon received a call from a woman that he had been talking with about God. In their earlier conversations, this woman had explained to Brandon that she was miserable, thinking of suicide and that everything in her life was going wrong. The Holy Spirit revealed to Brandon that she had a hidden problem. After continual prompting by Brandon, she finally confessed to him that she had been seeing a married man. He then told her that if she would simply end this relationship, that things in her life would go back to being good again. She was hesitant about ending the relationship. However, she called Brandon that same evening to tell him that she had ended the extramarital affair. A few days afterward, the married man's wife had called her to thank her for giving her husband back. The wife knew all along and was about to divorce him. Her ending the relationship had saved their marriage and family.

The Holy Spirit told Brandon that he needed to go visit his friend Larry, who was raised an atheist and at times, showed faith in God. Upon arriving at Larry's house, the outside air was unusually still. As Brandon looked around, he told Mark and Anthony that this was the calm before the storm. They knocked on the door and asked Larry to come outside on the front porch to talk. He was in a very irritable mood. They had been talking for a couple of minutes when out of the blue, Larry blurted out that he believed that Brandon was a false prophet.

Brandon said nothing, but his two friends were astounded at this man's words because they knew Larry had witnessed many strange events that should have him believe and rebuked him for what he was saying, but the man continued to state his new belief. They reminded him of his faith earlier that month, but he held firm to his new belief. Brandon told him that he should concern himself with who had put that thought in his mind, God or Satan ... And why. They reminded him of how they had been friends for several years and that he had once visited the Church and how he had cried and said he could feel God's presence in the Jesus Room, but all of this was to no avail. He refused to hear their words.

All of a sudden, the winds picked up and Brandon told him that this was to be the start of a sign and for him to listen, but he refused. Larry lamely said that it had been windy off and on all day, and that the sudden strong gusts were nothing more than a coincidence. He repeated over and over his accusation each time they would try to reason with him and then suddenly blurted out, "Brandon, if you're a true prophet of God, have God give me a sign." A smirk came upon Larry's face as if he felt he had won the Spiritual battle.

Instantly, the exterior lights that ran along a stoned path in his yard came on all by themselves and got brighter with each second. They were even humming very loud. Now, that would be an acceptable sign for most. However, the lights coming on by themselves was not the sole reason that had Larry was amazed. The most interesting thing about this Spiritual occurrence (besides the lights coming on by themselves, at the moment Larry made his demand for God to give him a sign) is that these lights had not worked for many years, because all of the electrical power lines to these lights were rotted and needed to be replaced. As the lights emitted their Heavenly glow, Larry stood up with a look of shock and fear and said in a very mousy voice, "Who did that?"

Brandon responded, "It was the Holy Spirit who did that. He is showing you the sign that you asked for."

Larry cracked a smile, but then remembered he was supposed to be in denial and returned to his prideful state of mind and said, "Tell God to turn on a light in the sky," (because it was evening). Brandon warned Larry not to tempt God. Brandon became filled with the Holy Spirit and began to preach for half an hour trying to reason with his old friend, but any man who bears witness to what had just happened, when he knows that the lights had not worked for several years and just pretends it away, cannot be reached while still in that state of mind and possessing a hardened heart. He needed time alone to ponder on what he had seen and heard.

Brandon decided to leave Larry and let God work on him. The last thing Brandon told him was that pride cometh before destruction. The next day, Larry called the Church and complained of not being able to breathe. Brandon told him that he would pray for him. His breathing returned to normal immediately. And thanks to God's grace ... So did Larry. They were friends once more and Larry knew the truth once again. Brandon began to increase his prayer time and became much closer to the Holy Spirit. He read more of the Bible every day.

He asked God to remove all selfishness and pride from within him and to let the Holy Spirit take over him completely so that he would not sin or mislead anyone accidentally, because he knew that he was just a man. He and his friends fasted and ate and drank nothing to show their faith and obedience. Brandon started preaching to large groups of people at a time and he noticed that his new gift of being able to express his thoughts by way of words and his new knowledge of God's Word ... Were a great combination.

Over the next few days, they received many calls from people such as rape victims healing, mothers wanting their sons out of jail, people claiming to be harassed by devils, sick people, some needing money, some wanting work, some wanting away from abusive husbands, some caught up in adultery and confessions of other sins. Each was resolved in a manner in which the caller probably did not expect. For example, one lady told Brandon that she wanted to get away from her husband because he was abusing her. Brandon told her that within three days, she would be away from him. Two days later, the woman called back crying saying that her husband had left her and had taken everything including their children. Brandon explained to her that she had received exactly what she asked for from God, because she had failed to mention to Brandon that the true reason she wanted away from her husband, was because she was dating another man and therefore committing adultery.

Brandon explained that God was being fair because God had given her what she wanted and also what she deserved and all within the 3 allotted days that Brandon had told her it would take for her to be away from him. The woman's sister, after finding out about this event, came into Brandon's office and asked for a job because after hearing what had happened with her sister became curious about God. Her name was Judy. As the days passed, the Miracle Workers aspect of the Ministry was growing strong and the Church was full of the Holy Spirit. Many others started joining in on the daily Bible study.

There was one aspect of the Miracle Workers service that became a problem though. It was the Christian dating service aspect and it was dissolved by Brandon that very day, because of what a potential female client had said to Brandon during an interview. She said that she wanted more than one man. That she, as well as a friend of hers who was already a client of the Miracle Workers Christian dating service wanted to get as many dates as they could get as to find the richest and sexiest guys. She smiled as she said that she wanted two men. One to be her husband and another to be her lover, and was concerned about Brandon's confidentiality policy because she said that she did not want these two men to ever meet or find out what she was doing.

Then she began to whisper the words that burned into Brandon's mind and heart. She said, "And to think, I will have you to thank for that," as she started moving seductively toward the other side of the desk where Brandon was sitting. She was obviously trying to seduce him. She had chosen the wrong individual. Obviously the idea did not sit well with Brandon's calling, so he had her escorted off of the property and immediately closed that aspect of the Ministry within the very same hour.

The mother of a missing child had been calling the Church repeatedly for days. She was begging for some help in having her child returned to her. She said that she had found out where her child was, but did not know how to go about retrieving her child. This case seemed odd from the start so Brandon had someone investigate the situation and go to interview the mother. After reviewing the findings, Brandon contacted a reporter, local television stations and got all the necessary paperwork from legal institutions to proceed in retrieving the child, which apparently had been taken by a family member several years ago and the authorities had surrendered the search.

Brandon spent countless hours helping the mother prepare for a court appearance as to present evidence against the person who took her child. A few days later, Brandon paid for the woman to fly to Austin, Texas to appear at the court hearing. He had everything set up so that the reporters would be there just as both parties arrived at the courthouse so that if for some strange reason that the evidence was not strong enough to prove the truth, that public opinion would become a factor and assist her in prevailing.

The mother never showed up at the airport. She called hours later to say that she had missed the plane, which seemed very strange to Brandon, since she claimed that she had not seen her child in many years, and one would assume that she would be very eager to be reunited with the child. Brandon had to cancel everything that he had arranged at the courthouse and looked foolish to those involved. A new court date had to be set. As the days passed, many questions arose as to the validity of the mother's claim. Brandon became very concerned about the mother's true intent and decided to go interview her himself to see if he could discern the truth of this matter. Brandon and a few friends piled into a vehicle and headed for the city in which the mother resided.

On the way to the mother's home, Brandon was telling a story, to those in the vehicle with him, of how he and a friend were walking to Corpus Christi, Texas from Austin, Texas when he was younger, and how when they had gotten most of the way there, his friend became tired and walked across the road and started hitchhiking back the other way towards Austin, even though they had traveled 90 percent of the way. The point of the story was to show how some people surrender their goals, aspirations and even their dreams, when it would be easier to just keep going.

About that time, there were two men on the road that they were traveling on. One was on either side of the road and one had his thumb out in the direction of Austin, where Brandon and his friends had just come from, and the other had his thumb out in the direction of Corpus Christi, Texas which was the direction Brandon and his friends were heading. God was putting a period at the end of Brandon's story.

Brandon then began to tell of the parable which is written in the Bible about the field and the tares. This is a story told by Jesus, speaking of the end of the world and how the good and bad people would be separated and the good would go to Heaven and the bad would be put into the fiery depths of Hell. When he got to the end of the story, they were coming upon a hill. At the top of the hill, just a few yards off the road was a very small, old shack that was completely engulfed in flames. Everyone in the vehicle just stared at it and knew that it was yet another period, on Brandon's sharing the story from the Bible.

They finally arrived at their destination and after hours of discussion with the mother in her home, got back in the vehicle and headed back to Austin, with the mother on board. She had agreed to go there to be interviewed by reporters the next day. The woman was very talkative, but little she said made any sense and hardly any of it was to do with her missing child. Several hours had passed, since they had seen the shack that was on fire, yet it was still burning when they passed by it again on the way back. People were just driving by as if it were not on fire and the flames seemed not to be destroying the shack. It was quite a sight to behold.

The next day the mother and Brandon's friend were to go downtown to speak with authorities regarding the case, but she would not go. She was asked by Brandon to take a polygraph as to the validity of her words, but she denied that as well. When they returned to the Church, Brandon had her brought to his office. Brandon told her that something was very wrong with her story and that he did not believe that her child had been taken from her. Finally, she admitted that she had gotten tired of being a mother and sold her child to another family member, but could not locate them and that she now wanted the child back, because she could get more help from the government with a dependent. She was sent home on a plane immediately. Brandon learned a valuable lesson that day. All of this time he had been so self righteous about helping this woman retrieve her child, that he had never asked the Holy Spirit what the truth of the matter was. He was deceived ... By both the woman and his own pride. From now on, he would ask the Holy Spirit for guidance in every matter.

Just then, Judy asked to speak to Brandon and informed him that her mother was very concerned about her working for such a strange individual and that she thought that Judy was involved in a cult and that Brandon was a false prophet. Judy told Brandon that her mother wanted to come to the Church and bring the pastor of her Church, which was a very popular religious figure at one of the more prestigious Churches in town. He had his Sunday morning television program and everything, so Judy's mother felt that he would be an excellent choice to prove Brandon to be a false prophet.

Judy, with a look of challenging curiosity, asked if Brandon was willing to meet with this pastor as to make her mother feel more comfortable and to prove himself. Brandon accepted the challenge, despite knowing it would be more of a witch hunt than a meeting and sharing of thoughts between fellow Christians, but he remembered how God proved to Larry that Brandon was indeed a true prophet by turning on lights with rotted wiring and had no problem with someone wanting to prove all things. (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

Chapter Ten

Pastor Prophecy

The next day Judy's mother and two men who were dressed in suits entered the Church and requested to meet with Brandon. As they waited, they spoke with Judy and looked around the lobby filled with religious artwork and other Christian items. Brandon would later find out that during this time, prior to meeting Brandon that the head pastor had told Judy that he would prove to her that she was being deceived by a false prophet. As they entered Brandon's office, the two men introduced themselves as the head pastor and associate pastor of a specific Church. They immediately started questioning him about his beliefs, his ministry and his unusual methods. He answered all of the questions and the two men would just nod wisely. After only about 10 minutes, they stood up and said that they had heard all they needed to hear.

Brandon walked them out of his office and down the hall. They entered the lobby, and the head pastor stopped suddenly, when he was in earshot of all those who were present within the Church and asked Brandon if he could ask Brandon a question. Brandon said, "Sure."

The pastor asked; "Where does the power to heal come from?"

Brandon answered that the power was God's power and through Jesus' name, the Holy Spirit performed the deed. The pastor chuckled to himself, like a little school girl, and said, "No, young man ... The answer is that through His stripes, we are healed." He was simply quoting Isaiah 53:1-5. This Scripture is saying that we are forgiven for our sins and can now receive grace by Jesus paying the price. Not that the miracle of healing occurred because Jesus was whipped.

Brandon asked the pastor his own question ... If the Scripture that he had just quoted meant that the only way to heal was by the stripes upon Jesus, how is it that healing occurred in the Bible before Jesus was on Earth such as was done by Elisha in 2 Kings 4:17-37. The Bible is quite clear that a man could pray for someone to be healed thousands of years before Jesus was crucified such as was done for Abraham in Genesis 20:17, not to mention the custom of the Levite priests healing the Israelites mentioned all through the Book of Leviticus. As God said in Deuteronomy 32:39 ... It is He that heals.

This reply from Brandon embarrassed the pastor and as he looked around at all the faces awaiting the reply of the famous television star pastor. He had none, so instead of bowing out gracefully to God's truth ... He said that this man is a false prophet, as though he were God. One of Brandon's friends began to rebuke him harshly, but Brandon motioned for him to be silent. For Brandon knew that to debate with another in such a state of mind and heart would prove to be futile. The mother and the two pastors asked Judy to go to dinner with them where, she later revealed, that they quoted Scripture to her and tried to convince her to stop working for Brandon. But, she loved her job and really liked Bible study and told them that when they preached to her that she could not feel the Word, like when Brandon would read to everybody and asked to be returned to the Church. When she returned, she apologized for what her mother had done and told Brandon all that had been said by the pastors regarding him, and Brandon told her not to worry, but that God would reveal the truth to all those involved.

Two weeks later, Judy received a phone call from her mother. She told Judy that the reason that she had come to the conclusions that she had, regarding Brandon, was that Judy's sister, (which is the one that asked Brandon to help her get away from her abusive husband, but it turned out that she was not being abused by her husband, but instead was committing adultery and God revealed the truth to her husband and this caused her husband to leave her) had made up many bad things about Brandon to get back at him for telling her that she was wrong and that the mother had recently found out that the statements were not true.

She also told Judy that the pastor that she had brought, to prove Brandon a false prophet, had lost his Church and television program. He claimed bankruptcy and his wife divorced him and he was ousted from his own home, by his wife. He had no place to go and ended up moving in with Judy's mother until he could get onto his feet. How ironic it was that he was forced to live with the one who brought him on the witch hunt. You have to admire God because He does not play around when He wants to get His message across. He is so very worthy of praise.

Later that day, Anthony saw a magazine cover at the checkout line of a grocery store and the headline was claiming that a Cross could be seen glowing on the moon when it was full. This was an evening that the moon was to be full, so the three went outside and looked through binoculars to see if they could see anything. With the limited power of the binoculars, they could see very little. Mark then remembered that their friend Larry had a very powerful telescope that Larry was always bragging about. They decided to ask Larry if they could come out and use it.

When they called Larry to ask if they could come to his home and use the telescope that night, he reluctantly agreed as it was late. They headed out to Larry's house, eager to know the truth of this supposed Cross on the moon. It was one of those nights, where it was so clear and bright that it almost looked like daylight at times out in the country where Larry lived. They expected to see the Cross on the moon very well out there away from the city lights.

When the three arrived, Larry met them out at the front porch. He was acting very peculiar again. As if he was in some kind of a haze. He didn't even acknowledge or greet Brandon or Mark, yet he was focusing all of his attention on Anthony. He grabbed Anthony's hand and hugged him. He looked at Anthony's necklace of the Cross of Jesus and told him of how he had been feeling poorly as of late. They considered this very strange behavior since he had never acted in this manner before toward Anthony whom he usually barely acknowledged. Before he took them to the telescope he wanted to show the three of them something new that he had purchased, in one of his many barns full of valuables.

As they were walking towards the barn, Brandon and Mark felt an extremely strong feeling of fear pass through them. So much so that Mark almost passed out. Larry couldn't get the barn doors open so he asked Mark to help. Mark tried with all his power, but he couldn't even budge the door. The barn was just recently built less than a few months before, so it wasn't like the door was rusted or anything. Then Larry walked back to the door and opened it up without any problem at all. All three of them were feeling very strange and they all noticed something strange about Larry. It was as if he was suddenly full of hatred and bitterness. Unlike the usual Larry who was usually very happy when they visited, with the exception of the time that Larry asked if Brandon was truly a prophet, for God to give him a sign and some lights that did not work, suddenly turned on by themselves. A very violent and hateful feeling was emitted, from his spirit.

After Larry had shown them his many new items that he had recently purchased and placed in his new barn, he brought them the telescope from a hidden area in the garage. After a 30 minute lecture on how he obtained the telescope, he told them that when they were done to put it back in the barn and lock up. Larry then slowly wandered back to his house to go to sleep. They set up the telescope and all three took turns looking up at the moon with the high powered telescope, but could not find a Cross anywhere on the Moon. It was just a bunch of nonsense. Obviously, never believe anything without first proving the truth of the matter. They all three started feeling like they were being watched from the bushes and the trees which surrounded them. They began to feel things touching them and they decided it was time to go. Being extremely spooked by the supernatural events around them, due to similar past experiences, they locked up the telescope and began walking back up the path to where they parked the truck which was also surrounded by trees and large shrubs. While they were walking back they all saw hundreds of sparkling eyes looking at them from the bushes. This is a common enough occurrence with all of the wildlife but again, there were hundreds of eyes watching them. There was no wind whatsoever on this night, yet as they were walking they heard a massive amount of crackling leaves out in the brush as if something or someone was walking along with them, in the hidden darkness.

The Bushes were moving and then the wailing and hollering noises started as if it was an enormous pack of wolves and hyenas from the various noises that were heard. The entire time they saw the eyes looking in at them from all around them from the bushes. They felt that light headed feeling like right before you faint and then they all felt things touching them again. It was getting more and more intense with each passing moment. The Holy Spirit then informed Brandon, who informed the other two that these entities in the bushes were evil spirits and they were surrounding them. The Holy Spirit told him that these entities thrived on fear and that they should not fear because He was with them to protect them. They understood that the evil spirits were comfortable out there because of Larry and his worldly ways. Everyone has had the feeling once or more in their lives, were they were at a place that they just felt very uncomfortable and all they could think of was being at home where they did feel comfortable. These evil spirits are the same way, they want to be in a place where they want to feel at home and out there in the country with Larry at least on that night, they felt very comfortable and they were coming out because they knew that these three Christians were invading their space.

As the three continued down the dark path, and being extremely alarmed after finding out what was out there with them in the country, another more powerful inner peace overcame them to where they felt much calmer. They knew that the Holy Spirit was there protecting them and that is what made them feel more at ease. They all three repeatedly said ... "Holy Spirit, you are welcome here, please join us," (out loud and in silence). After several minutes, but what seemed like hours, they made it back to the truck and departed quickly. As they were driving along the extremely long driveway to the main road, they still saw the eyes in the bushes. After they got out onto the main road, the Holy Spirit informed Brandon that the evil spirits were left behind. They all praised God, for once again protecting them from the evil ones. After several minutes on the road, they all three felt that light headed feeling again and they heard an extremely loud and deafening noise in their head.

At about the same time Mark who was sitting in the back seat looked down at his wrist and noticed that his Jesus bracelet was gone. He looked around the truck but couldn't find it. Brandon asked God if the bracelet was back at Larry's. The spine tingling answer was, "Yes." Brandon asked if they should go back and get the bracelet. There was no answer rendered, which usually suggested a test was ongoing, or the decision was up to him. Brandon told the others that they were going back to get the bracelet. Mark asked if maybe this might be a trick of the devil to get the three back out there where they had just experienced all the evil spirits in the woods. Brandon said that the Holy Spirit was with them and that they were going back to Larry's house to get Mark's bracelet, because it was important to Mark. Just then, they passed a Corvette sitting off the side of the road with its lights off, but as soon as they had passed the car, it turned its lights on and raced passed the truck that they were in. The Corvette took the same exit that they were going to take, but turned right at the next light, as Brandon turned left. They assumed that it was just coincidence.

When they got back to Larry's property, they parked by the barn that Larry took them to, as there was a separate drive off the main drive to that barn. Brandon asked the Holy Spirit where to start searching for the bracelet. The Holy Spirit told Brandon that an evil spirit was holding the door closed when Mark was trying to open the barn door for Larry earlier, and that the bracelet was removed from his arm at that point. Mark went over to the barn where the Holy Spirit said the event took place and sure enough, there laid the bracelet. They all three praised God and departed.

On the way back, when pulling up to a stoplight, the same white Corvette, from about twenty minutes earlier, pulled out at the same exit as before, squealing his tires and flew by and disappeared within seconds. God told Brandon that the faith to return to get the bracelet, despite the fear they had, was a test of their faith. Upon return to the Church, the three were physically, mentally and spiritually wiped out and drifted off to sleep.

The next day began with a loud, deafening sound of thunder. Brandon and Mark went out front to watch the floor show. God was using the thunder and lightning to speak with Brandon again. It was cool and a light rain was falling upon the two of them. Brandon told Mark that God was warning them of someone that was coming to the Church, the next day. They both fell to their knees and were worshiping God. Brandon said, "I love you Father," and a large booming thunder rang out which was so loud, that it set off all of the car alarms in the parking lot. There are no words to express the feeling one experiences to be allowed to witness the power, love and glory of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Brandon and Mark returned inside the Church and watched the movie, Jesus of Nazareth which is an excellent movie version of the story of Jesus.

The next day a visitor came to the Church just as the Holy Spirit had warned. There was a young man knocking at the front door of the Church, asking to speak with someone who worked at the Church named Leticia. He was allowed to enter, to share what was on his mind. It was an old boyfriend of Leticia's who had been calling her lately, according to him. She was not there, at that time though, as the Church was closed at the time of his visit. He became very irate, because those who were opening the Church for the day did not know where she was.

Later, Brandon would find out that he wanted her to quit her job at the Church. He began to speak loudly and use many foul words, in the Church. The young man was escorted from the property immediately. When Leticia arrived for work, she asked to talk with Brandon. Leticia told him that she was being torn between two worlds, a desire for the old love and a new love for Christ. Brandon told her that she should ponder and pray upon this because, according to the past history between Leticia and this young man that Leticia shared with Brandon, he had left her years ago and suddenly showed back up wanting her to come back to him out of nowhere.

Brandon also told her that whatever she was going to choose, to please choose quickly, as this drama was disruptive to the Church. She seemed very confused as to what to do. Should she choose a man who broke her heart and dumped her for another woman years ago, and now wanted her back because the woman he left her for, left him ... Or should she stay with her new love, Jesus. Brandon told her that she should consider having both her ex boyfriend and Jesus but, she said that her old boyfriend did not believe in Jesus. Brandon told her that it was apparent that she was going to return to him, but that he was not allowed on the property again. She said that the real problem was that he did not want her to work for Christians. Brandon reiterated his concern and sent her away.

Brandon praised God that the Holy Spirit had warned him the day before of this man coming to the Church. Brandon was told by the Holy Spirit that Leticia was going to leave soon. Brandon wondered if there was something more he could have done. God told him that they must choose. This law of the heart would prove to break Brandon's heart many times in the future.

Chapter Eleven

Reaching and Teaching

Brandon, Mark and Anthony worked away from the Church most of the day as to be able to financially support the Ministry. After they had completed the tasks of the day, they watched a few spiritual movies. Later that evening, they had Church. They would all read from the Bible, talk about things that bothered them and would spend time communing with the Holy Spirit. During the group talks, one of the Church members named Trish began acting very strange. She was ranting and raving about many different personal matters. She was constantly getting drunk and doing things that would later shame her, staying away months at a time, only to return and ask for help to get her life back together, which Brandon would always help her with. This time, she said that she needed money and had personal matters to deal with. Brandon gave her money and she disappeared ... Again.

It is sad to see someone choose their old world after returning to God. As it says in the Bible, it is as a dog returning to their vomit. (2Peter 2:20-22) Brandon would share little bits of the events of the past with the people who had recently joined the Bible study. He would share with them the great power and mercy of God and how God was always there to save him. Brandon taught them to ask God in secret to be answered openly. (Matthew 6:6) He taught them to beware speaking aloud, because Satan could hear as well and that sometimes he would show signs that could deceive them. He also taught them that the devil could not read your mind, but he could plant thoughts by way of your senses using worldly avenues such as television, gossip or past memories to name a few. Satan, knowing a specific thought was within your mind, would then set off triggers regarding said implanted thought. This is how he deceives.

It was now Halloween ... Brandon decided that he would not acknowledge this holiday any longer, but instead would start celebrating All Saints Day, which was the next day, on November 1st. It is similar to the End Times in that there is a time of evil spirits running around and then a time of Saints having their time. In Church, they were studying the Book of Genesis. There was a man named Enoch briefly mentioned. They decided to search for more literature on this man named Enoch. Brandon found a book called The Book of Enoch and began reading aloud out of that book to the group. The Book of Enoch was very descriptive and spoke of God taking Enoch up to Heaven and showing him what Heaven looks like and introducing Enoch to the Angels and explaining to him what each of the Angel administrations and job descriptions were.

It spoke in detail of the passage in Genesis, Chapter Six. It explained how some of God's Angels looked down on Earth and found that the women were admirable to these Angels and the Angels decided to trade God's presence and go down to Earth and mate with these human women which was a decision that would prove to change the world. The offspring from the Angels and women were Giants. These fallen Angels taught mankind about vanity, pride and war by teaching them how to create mirrors, weapons and other things seeking to have humans become evil.

As time passed, these Giants were killing off humans with war. God heard the prayers of the humans and passed judgment. The fallen Angels were sent to Hell, until Judgment Day. The Giants which were the children of the fallen Angels and the human women were sentenced to walk to and fro on the Earth until Judgment Day as evil spirits. These entities work for Satan and are the ones that haunt Christians in an attempt to get these saved Christians to return to their old ways.

At the time Brandon was reading this part in the book to the group, they all heard a very loud noise in the alley behind the Church. They immediately went out back to see what the noise was. It took no more than twenty seconds to get to the alley behind the Church, by way of the back door, but when they arrived, it was quiet and no vehicles were in sight. However, when they looked at the dumpster, it was full and even overflowing with giant Halloween items. There was everything from giant skeletons and witches to giant tombstones, etc. The strangest thing was how these items got in there. The dumpster was so full of these items, that it would have taken a very large trailer to fill it. How would anyone unload a large trailer, and escape in the twenty seconds that it took for them to get to the back door leading to the alley? There were so many items in the dumpster that it looked like a haunted house had been unloaded into the dumpster.

Suddenly the air felt very still and they all knew something was very wrong. They returned into the Church and came to the conclusion, that the Giants, which were now evil spirits, were just making their presence known after being read about from the Book of Enoch. Brandon decided that in the best interest of the newer people in the group, to put away the Book of Enoch and return to reading the Bible. Brandon remembered the evil spirits that haunted him and his friends several months back and now knew more about these entities, and their origin. Brandon and his friends despised Halloween from that day forward.

They woke up late the next morning and rushed out to make their appointment only to find that the vehicle they had driven to the Church, failed to start. They tried everything to get it started, but to no avail. They were stranded. Finally, they had someone bring them another vehicle. When it arrived, they headed off for their appointment, late but they still believed they could make it. But, on the way, a vehicle sped in front of them and cut them off. This angered Brandon and he took the side road and went over a curb in an attempt to get in front of the vehicle that had passed him. Suddenly, the tire blew out and he pulled over. They were stranded yet again.

As they sat there, Brandon pondered on why God would allow this to occur. He heard in his mind that he was to be more patient with mankind as they knew not what they did. It then came to Brandon's attention that he had been in such a rush to get to his man's world obligations that he had forgotten to pray. He then prayed right there on the side of the road. They had the tire repaired and decided to cancel the appointment. Later that afternoon, they had another place to be and on the way another car sped past them, and cut them off again with Anthony driving. This time, Brandon told Anthony to just pull over and forgive the individual. Just then a police car sped past them and pulled over the vehicle that had passed and cut them off. They praised God for teaching them to forgive because had they repeated the morning's events, they would be the ones pulled over by the police.

When they returned, Jerome, who worked at the Church, was acting very strange. He seemed to be mad at everybody. Brandon asked him what was wrong and he said that his girlfriend had not called for a few days and he did not know what was going on with her. Brandon asked the Holy Spirit what to say and he was told that the woman was bad and that this would be proven, if Jerome would go to a specific place that evening. Brandon told Jerome what had been said. Jerome was both surprised and upset about the response. He said that Brandon had no right to say such things. Brandon said that he should go where he had been told to go as to confirm what was said and truth would be known.

That evening, Jerome went to the pool hall that Brandon had told him that the Holy Spirit revealed to him and of course, he found his girlfriend kissing up on three men at a pool table in the back of the pool hall. He was heartbroken. Jerome did however find out what he wanted to know and now knew the truth. Jerome immediately returned to the Church and told everyone about the event that took place. Jerome became even closer to Brandon from that point on. He began to spend most of his time hanging out with Brandon and the others.

Leticia, who was telling everyone that she was still undecided about what she was going to do about her boyfriend, asked for the day off and said that she wanted to visit with family. Brandon told her to let him know if she was going to be at Church that evening or if he needed to get someone else to fill in. During Church that night, Leticia called and spoke with her best friend, Judy at the Church. She said that she was running late and would be about fifteen minutes late, but that she was on her way.

Judy announced to all those in Church about what Leticia had said. Brandon told everyone in the room that Leticia would not be coming back, as that is what he was told by the Holy Spirit. Everyone looked surprised at him because, she had just called to say she would be there soon. Judy even started mouthing off and saying that her friend would not lie to her and that she would even bet Brandon that Leticia was going to be back. Brandon refused to bet but, repeated what he had said ... Leticia would not be back.

A few hours later, just before Church ended, Leticia called and told Judy that she was going back to Illinois and would be back in a month. But, alas ... They would never see her again. Brandon felt sorry for Judy and they all went out and had ice cream. Brandon praised God for revealing the truth again. It may be painful at times, but it can truly enhance the faith as it did in this case. Brandon pondered on how almost one month earlier he was told by the Holy Spirit that Leticia would be leaving forever.

The next day, Brandon saw the word Hanukkah on the calendar as he changed the calendar page for the month. The Holy Spirit told him to study and to teach of this date as it was to be a very important date in the future. It is a Jewish holiday symbolizing the ousting of Antiochus Epiphanes who was a cruel enemy of the Israelites. There is an eight day period where the Jewish people would exchange gifts, rest from work and just have fun. The Menorah was created in those days and is still used even today, so Brandon went and bought a Menorah and decided to celebrate the Hanukkah, since the Holy Spirit said that it was a holiday that was a Shadow of Things to Come.

On the Menorah, there are eight candles which are to be lit, one at a time, each night for eight days. Brandon also found out that the true Sabbath, God's day of rest for the Jewish people, was to be held from sundown on Friday evening, until sunset on Saturday evening and that Sunday was not the Sabbath, but was the Lord's Day. This is the day which symbolizes the resurrection of Jesus. They would also hold these two days as holy days, from this point on. It is so important to distinguish between the two holy days.

Christmas neared and Brandon wanted to give Jesus a wonderful and meaningful gift for His Birthday. He decided to build an altar atop of the Church for God. He would need some supplies first. He and his friends went to a local stream and collected twenty four stones and brought them to the Church. They climbed up on the roof of the Church and placed twelve of the stones in a circle, representing the twelve tribes of Israel. Then, they placed a Cross made of twelve of the stones in the center of the circle representing the twelve Apostles. Every night after Church, they would climb a ladder and go up and worship at this altar. It was an awesome feeling and experience.

One night, while coming down from the roof after praying, Brandon, Mark and Anthony saw flashing lights and men running towards them with flashlights yelling for them to freeze and drop to the ground. They saw that it was the police and did as they were told. After being frisked, they were handcuffed and forced to lay on the ground, right in front of the Church entry door. The police questioned them about what they were doing on the roof. They told the police that they were worshiping the Lord, at their altar.

To confirm this, the police went up on the roof and found the altar, but still did not believe them. At that point one officer asked them where the fourth person was, who was on the roof with them. Since there was only Brandon, Mark and Anthony upon the roof, the three insisted that they were the only ones there. Several of the police officers reported seeing a fourth entity and demanded that the three give up the name of the fourth individual that they had witnessed standing next to the three.

It was at this time that Brandon knew that the Holy Spirit was with them on that roof while they were praying and told the officer that it must have been the Holy Spirit who was the fourth person that they saw with them. Of course, the police did not believe him and were searching the surrounding area diligently. After about a half hour, the police realized they had made a mistake because the Church sidewalk that these three men were being forced to lie down on, in handcuffs, belonged to these three suspects. They finally released the three of them. The police left puzzled and hurriedly.

A week or so had passed and it was Christmas day. They had placed a large and beautiful Christmas tree in the Church a few weeks earlier and decorated it with an array of ornaments, lights and decorations as is customary. This was to be the first Christmas in the Church and in fact it would be the first Christmas that they would celebrate together, since the spiritual warfare events at the hotels several months back. They spent most of the day praying and communing with the Holy Spirit.

Late that evening, Brandon got a call from a person whom he called a scribe because they did all of the journal note taking for him. Brandon wanted a day to day documentation of events kept, due to the unusual circumstances that they were involved in, just in case it was ever needed and this individual, kept those records. The person called to tell him of a vision that she had and asked him to come quickly, as to hear what God had told her to tell Brandon. On the drive over, Brandon doubted that this were true, as he could not figure out why God would need to tell someone else of a vision, instead of just telling Brandon himself.

He arrived at the home of the scribe and entered the house. She looked very excited and asked him to come and see something. She showed him what appeared to be a dead rosebush, with one single rose on it. She began to tell him of a dream that she had. She said that, in her dream, she heard a list of names that she could not make out, but then heard the names Rudolph, Benjamin and the gatherer whose surname shall be ... Brandon's last name. (Keep in mind that all of the names and relationships have been changed in this book as to protect the privacy and even lives of those involved.)

Brandon loved this scribe and feared that the evil entities or those humans who serve them, may come after her and her children if he was not very careful as to show no open partiality so, he began to slowly downplay the relationship from that day forth. It was a very difficult thing to do, but failure to do so would have been selfish and dangerous for her and the children because many enemies oft times go after the ones who their target loves. He felt he had no choice, at the time. He had to put the matter in God's Hands.

The scribe continued by saying that the voice, in her dream, told her to tell Brandon that if he went straightway for seven years, that he would die, but to turn around and he would live forever. She was then told to tell Brandon, that which is desolate in winter will sprig and the scribe saw her rosebush in her vision. When the vision had finished, she awoke and went to the rose bush in the living room and found that the bush which was dead the day before, had a new, single rose on it. Keep in mind that Brandon had given this scribe that rose bush which was left behind by a woman named Gidget, who Brandon and his friends helped move a while back.

Another strange thing was that he had been told the same thing that she claimed to have heard, that crazy night several months ago and that he had not told this woman of those words. He was told on that absolutely amazing day when God saved him, that he was the gatherer and that he had to turn his life around, if he was to live forever. But, the bloodline that the scribe heard recited to her, was not given to Brandon at the time.

The unknown names and then, Rudolph, Benjamin and the gatherer ... Was this Brandon's lineage? Brandon decided to look into his family tree and found that the last name of Rudolph, was an ancestor of his. Of course it was. As far as Benjamin ... Paul was from the tribe of Benjamin. Could Brandon be a descendant of the tribe of Benjamin? Could Brandon be from the lineage of Paul the Apostle? With everything else that had been happening, he would not doubt it. Time would tell.

It was now the first day of the New Year. Brandon believed that what one did on the first of the year, would be a foundation of sorts, for what they would do for the entire year so he spent most of the entire day communing with the Holy Spirit and in prayer. He received a call from Trish who had once worked at the Church. No matter who they were or what the reason was as to why they left, most every one who ever got to know Brandon, would always keep in touch. That is because the things they experienced while there, were too much to just pretend away. Truth has a way of reaching deep within.

There was another call from a woman who said she needed groceries for her and her children. The Church was well known for donating funds to worthy causes as they could, as well as performing miracles in peoples' lives. Brandon asked the Holy Spirit if this woman who was asking for money was for a truly worthy cause, as he did with each request the Church received, the answer to the question was ... "Yes." So, they bought her and her family an abundant amount of groceries.

The rest of the day was spent looking back on all that God had done for them in the eight months that had passed, since the crazy night. Brandon, Mark and Anthony went over to Jerome's apartment because he was being evicted. His manager found out his electric had been cut. Jerome had told them of how she entered his apartment and degraded him with words. She told Jerome that he was being evicted because he had no electric. The electric company was requiring $240.00 and Jerome did not have the money. Brandon called the electric company and made financial arrangements and they turned on the electric, the same day. Jerome called the manager and told her that the electric was back on and she said that she was on her way to his apartment. Upon arriving, she saw Brandon and his friends leaving the apartment and after more degrading and scolding, she told Jerome that she was now going to evict him for having too many occupants in the unit.

After being told of the manager's latest problem, Brandon decided to write the manager a letter to get her to back off of his friend Jerome. It was obvious that she was biased because Brandon's friend, Jerome was a black man. Brandon used the law, the rules in the rental contract agreement and even her own words against her decision and made it clear that there would be a legal reaction, to her action of evicting Jerome. The letter was hand delivered and within an hour, she was back at Jerome's door. She asked Jerome to please come outside. She apologized and told him that she was not going to pursue the eviction. Jerome returned to his apartment with a smile and a renewed spirit ... The Holy Spirit.

Chapter Twelve

Wine, Women and Wrong

A woman called today and asked that Brandon would call her back. Her name was Gidget and she was the one who had left the rose bush that had bloomed in the winter, in the scribe's vision. She was also the one that almost gave Brandon the poison chicken. Brandon asked the Holy Spirit if he should return her call because he was reluctant to do so. He was told that he should call her. He then discerned what the vision meant. That which was dead in winter, was going to be coming back to life. The vision that the scribe had, was now in visible expression. It was Gidget that was coming back to life.

He called Gidget as he had been told to do by the Holy Spirit. She told Brandon that she had been doing some very bad things after she moved away, but was now back and trying to get closer to God. She asked to meet with Brandon. He agreed to meet her but was very concerned due to the poison chicken issue and her sudden reappearance. But, then there was the vision and the Holy Spirit wanting him to talk with her. So he did. There were several people that went with Brandon to meet with Gidget. Brandon decided to spend the day at the lake as a break for his friends. Gidget showed up with her children. They all barbecued, played football, talked and just relaxed. Brandon still did not feel right about letting Gidget back around because of some of the words she spoke when she left almost a year ago, so after the day at the lake was over, they said their good-byes and he and his friends returned to the Church and played Bible-opoly.

In honor of the Rose bush vision, over the next week or so, they continued to meet with Gidget out at the lake and would all even spend the night out there. They set up tents, made bonfires and all just enjoyed each others company. Many of them would swim and others would fish in the lake. They ate a lot of fish during this time. It was enjoyable for all and smiles and laughter were abundant. But, all along Brandon felt that something was not right. Perhaps he was simply holding a grudge from past events.

Larry called and said that he had a dream that Brandon was a false prophet ... Again. This is not an unusual event with Larry, as he was very old and loved attention. He was an atheist before God proved His existence to Larry. This was the same man who had demanded that God show him a sign and God turned on the lights that had bad electric wiring. Mark was the one who answered the phone and told Larry that he should not say such things because he was already shown, by God himself, that Brandon was a servant of God. Larry just continued to speak foul things and finally just hung up. That evening, Larry's favorite thing in the whole world was taken from Larry. His dog died of old age. This dog was like a child to him. He called and apologized for his words, in his own way and all was forgiven ... God does not play.

Later that day, Trish called drunk, as usual, and asked to be helped. She was at a country music club and claimed that there were some drunken men hassling her in the parking lot and that she was very afraid. Brandon, Mark and Anthony jumped into a truck and headed for the club. Upon arrival, they saw two men at Trish's car and Brandon went up and told her to go park her car by Brandon's truck. One of the two guys that were hassling her, played tough guy and told Brandon that he liked to play bumper cars on his way home when he was drunk. Brandon supposed that was some sort of threat. Brandon said ... "Then, let it be so."

The two men walked away, with a puzzled look on their faces because of what Brandon had said. They went to their car murmuring and cursing. As they were on their way headed out of the parking lot, they began arguing with security and in an attempt to escape from security's pursuit, sped up and wrecked into another car which was parked in the parking lot and then another and another. They were however able to get their vehicle to continue to operate and escape, with the bouncers chasing after them until they left the parking lot. Brandon said to his friends ... "They got to play bumper cars on their way home after all."

The bouncers then came to talk with Brandon and his friends. All five of the bouncers walked up very aggressively. Each was wearing long black trench coats like they thought they were the characters in the movie, Tombstone. Still angered about the guys who had just wrecked into the vehicles in their parking lot, they told Brandon to leave immediately. Brandon told them what his business was there. He said that he was there to save a friend from being molested by the two men who were so inebriated that they just wrecked into cars.

Brandon also said that if the bouncers had been doing their job properly, none of this would have transpired, because their drunken customers, who were obviously over served alcohol, would not have been harassing his friend and she would not have called him and he would not have had to come rescue her and the bouncers would not be asking him to leave the parking lot. They looked as if they were in a daze and all five bouncers started walking off in different directions as though they were lost. Brandon and the others left without further incident and took Trish to Jerome's house because he was always up late. Anthony followed them in her car to prevent her from driving drunk.

Trish had many problems from her past. Family violence and lost loves were pressing on her heart and caused her to drink heavily. Brandon attempted to talk with Trish but she was so intoxicated that she did not know what she was doing or saying. After about ten minutes, she started yelling and running off into the distance. She went and hid behind a dumpster in an apartment parking lot. Brandon and the others found her passed out next to a dumpster. They loaded her into a grocery store buggy which was next to the dumpster and rolled her back to safety. They put her on the couch for her to sleep off her buzz. When they returned to the apartment the next day, she was gone. They heard from her weeks later. She had gotten a job as a waitress at the club they that rescued her from. Ironic, is it not?

Today was the one year anniversary of a hail storm that was experienced at one of the hotels that they had stayed at during their spiritual warfare events. They began to talk and recalled how the hailstorm hit during the middle of the day and since the weather was nice beforehand, the door to the hotel room was open. This door opened up into the living room, since this hotel room had bedrooms on either side. The hail began suddenly and hailstones started flying into the living room all the way to the kitchen area on the opposite side of the room.

Brandon came out of one of the bedrooms and Mark, who was dozing off while watching television in the living room awoke Anthony in the other bedroom so he could watch the crazy and strong hailstorm. The news reported, the next day, that the hail storm was one of the worst hail storms to hit that area. There were many vehicles damaged by the hail. The truck that Brandon was driving was outside in the hotel parking lot with all of the other vehicles yet it was untouched by the hail storm when all of the vehicles close to it were dented, dinged and damaged. Brandon praised God.

Being instructed by the Holy Spirit, Brandon warned Mark that there was a female who would show up soon and she would ask the whereabouts of the child. Mark knew that the warning about the woman coming was real because he had witnessed so many supernatural events in the past year from many other warnings from Brandon which did come true.

An example of this is the time that they were all leaving town to go to Corpus Christi and one of the guys with them, who was an old friend of Brandon whose name was Geraldo, said he forgot something and needed to return home real quick. Brandon warned Geraldo that if he was to return home, that he would find his wife with another man. This made Geraldo furious at Brandon for even suggesting it and demanded that Brandon take him back home. When they arrived, he asked Brandon and his friends to come with him to prove Brandon was wrong.

Upon entering his apartment, his wife was alone and Geraldo began looking around and asked her if she was expecting any company and she said "No."

Then, Geraldo began cursing Brandon and saying, "You see, not everything you say ends up happening." About that time, there was a knock at the door. Geraldo's wife got a very frightened look on her face and Geraldo stopped his ranting and looked at Brandon. You could have heard a pin drop. Brandon told Geraldo to finish the game and open the door. When Geraldo opened the door, there stood a tall male stranger with popcorn and movies. Geraldo's wife quickly started explaining that it was only a friend and that he was merely going to entertain her while Geraldo was out of town. Brandon, Mark and Anthony left Geraldo and his wife, screaming at one another.

Yet even knowing this and many other instances just like it, Mark did not heed the warning from Brandon concerning the female who was coming who would ask about the child. It occurred several days later when Mark met a woman at a club and the first thing everyone noticed was that this woman was trying to separate Brandon from Mark. These three guys were almost always together. They felt closer than brothers.

After just a couple of hours with this new woman on the scene everyone noticed that Mark became more and more distant and was acting completely out of character. When it was time to leave, Mark took off with her by himself when the others went to eat together as usual and they all met up at the restaurant. After they ate, Mark again left alone with this woman again and they all met up at a friend's house. Upon arriving, Mark went alone with this woman into a bedroom where Mark would tell everyone later that they sat down on the bed and all of the sudden the woman asked him a strange question. She asked ... "Where is the child?"

Mark, remembering the prophetic warning several days before, knew this was the woman that he was warned about, but was under some sort of spell and just did not want to believe it, or did not want to surrender his new acquaintance. Mark replied, "I don't know, why do you ask?"

She would not answer his question, but would continue to ask again and again, "Where is the child?" Mark still didn't want to believe that this woman he was with was the one that Brandon had warned him of.

The woman then tried to lure Mark away from his friends by inviting him to go with her to her to a place in a different city. She said that she didn't want to stay at the house they were at, because of all of the blood on the bed. Just as Mark was going to ask her what blood she was talking about, he stood up with her and on the bed where they were sitting was a giant puddle of blood. It looked fresh yet neither of the two of them was bleeding. This knocked some temporary sense into Mark and he got up and ran out to tell Brandon of the events occurring with this woman.

The woman who owned the home they were visiting, overheard Mark telling Brandon about the blood on the bed and ran into the bedroom that Mark was in, since that was her children's room and she was worried about blood being on the bed. Moments later, she came back and said that there was no blood anywhere. Mark heard the strange news but, as in a haze, soon directed his attention back to the woman. Mark looked around for his date but she was nowhere to be found. Mark ran outside and the woman was sitting in her car.

She began begging him to go with her to this other city again. Mark immediately fell back under the spell again and decided to go with her despite what had just transpired in the room. He was about to leave with her when Brandon came out and persuaded him to ponder and pray about this first. It took time but Mark finally conceded and left with Brandon and Anthony. They left that house and went to Brandon's house. Mark was under the spell for the rest of the night and he even refused to go inside Brandon's house and insisted on staying in the truck and listening to a song titled ... "Victim of Love," by the Eagles. Keep in mind he had known her less than four hours. When Brandon and Anthony returned to the truck the next morning, Mark was still listening to that song.

The spell was finally lifted off of Mark a little later that morning and he was very thankful to Brandon for saving him from this strange individual. The prophecy did come true. This woman did come to Mark and ask the whereabouts of the child. This woman did make Mark see a puddle of blood that was not there. This woman did have a spell over Mark. He would have gone with the woman, even though he knew something was wrong, had Brandon not stopped him. There was no telling what was in store for him. Perhaps the woman's boyfriend or husband was waiting? Or perhaps Mark would have been the centerpiece of an old fashioned devil worship ceremony with Mark being the sacrifice. Only God knows.

Chapter Thirteen

Good Friday

It was Good Friday which is a very holy day in Christianity. One of Jerome's brothers came by his apartment and told Jerome that he should not be hanging around all of these white people, referring to Brandon and his friends. He even offered Jerome money to rid himself of his strange new friends. He continued by suggesting that Brandon and his friends were probably some sort of cult or worse. Jerome returned after his brother had left and told the others what was said. They asked him what his own reply was to what his brother had said and Jerome said ... "Nothing."

Jerome did not even defend Brandon, even after all Brandon had done for him. He failed to mention to his brother the story of Brandon defending him against his apartment manager who was evicting him for the same type of prejudice that his brother had. He also failed to mention Brandon assisting him with paying his bills, teaching him the Bible and counseling him with his many personal problems. Brandon asked Jerome why he did not say anything in his defense and Jerome responded ... "Blood is thicker than water." Brandon was both hurt and disappointed. Brandon told him that Jesus died around 3 p.m. on this day around two thousand years ago and that at around 3 p.m. on this very day, God would show Jerome a sign that would confirm this truth.

They were all sitting around the apartment that afternoon talking and at exactly 2:17 p.m. the electric suddenly went off in the apartment. They all looked at each other with a look of concern and excitement. They were all used to signs by now, but one can never get over that feeling it gives you when it occurs. They checked the exterior breaker and while outside at the main breaker box, many people in the apartment complex came out and started looking around. One person yelled, "The electric is out on the entire street." After some investigation, it was a major part of the city that had its electric cut for a few minutes. Even radio stations, when they came back on, were saying the city had no idea what had occurred.

But, Brandon knew the Truth. It was God who had cut off the power in order to confirm the words spoken from Brandon concerning the timing of the death of Jesus and to remind Jerome of how Brandon had kept him from being evicted a few months earlier because ironically ... Jerome's electric being cut off was the source of his problem back when God helped Jerome through Brandon. Jerome had a change of mind and heart and decided to keep Brandon, as a friend. Wise choice.

God also chose this time to show Brandon, through Scripture that Jesus died on the Cross on Thursday, not Friday. Many people, including Brandon, at the time, believed that Jesus was put on the Cross on Friday, because that is just what we are taught to believe. But in truth, it was Thursday that He was put on the Cross. I will explain briefly ... This is proven by a statement that Jesus made when He shared that He would be killed and then He would be in the Earth for three days and three nights, and then He would rise (resurrect) after those three days and three nights. Well, let's do a little math, shall we?

The Bible is very clear that Jesus was crucified and died before dark on a specific day and was resurrected on Sunday morning, according to Scripture. (That is why Church is on Sunday and why on calendars the week starts on Sunday, being the first day of a week.) Therefore, if Sunday morning is the day Jesus was resurrected, in order for it to be three days and three nights, as Jesus said ... One must count Thursday to Friday as being one day and one night. Then Friday to Saturday as being one day and one night and then Saturday to Sunday as being one day and one night. This makes Thursday the correct day of the week that Jesus was crucified and died. Not Friday. If you like, you can check out this Good Friday Bible study to better understand this Truth. Always remember though, that although the timing of the death of Jesus is of interest, what truly matters is why Jesus died.

During Church that evening, Brandon was told by God that one of the people was planning to leave, but did not specify which one. Brandon told Mark and Anthony that one of the people there was plotting to depart in secret. He told them that the reason was because they had someone from their past on their mind and had been communing with them and planned to move in with them soon. You see, Brandon was providing these people with free Bible study and teachings and he only asked that people be honest and if they ever wanted to stop attending, to just let him know, so that he could arrange for another to be able to occupy the limited space that they had at the time. But, as with all those who feel in their heart that they are doing wrong, a few felt the urge to sneak off for some reason.

So, Brandon decided to try something out as to discover who it was that was going to leave. He decided to take photos of all of the people that were there that day and see if any of the images were distorted as it had been with Mark, some time back, when he had an evil entity behind him. Each photo turned out with perfect clarity, except for one. When he came upon Gidget, he clicked the button on the camera. The photo had some frightening things on it. Orange distorted figures.

As to not concern Gidget, they did not show her the photo. Brandon said for the photo to be kept, as a reminder that God revealed the truth before it occurred. It was Gidget that was going to depart and she did, within the a few days and for the reasons that were foretold. That which was dead in winter, did sprig (return), but chose to return to her old way of life again, despite the same outcome each time which was tears and fears. Mankind has free will and must choose for themselves.

About a week after that, Judy received a disturbing call from her mother during Church. She returned from her call and was crying frantically and told the group that her mother was diagnosed as having cancer. She went on about how the tests revealed a baseball sized tumor and that she had little chance of surviving the operation. Judy was crying and would not listen to any of the hopeful comments made by those in the room. Brandon told Judy not to concern herself because it was not cancer.

Judy stated again that a doctor had told her mom this and her mom would not lie. Brandon repeated that her mom did not have cancer. Judy continued to mourn, although she should have known to listen to Brandon by now after all she has seen and heard. This is understandable though when fear or doubt overcomes a soul, but faith conquers all fears and doubts. A few days later, Judy came screaming with joy into the Church. She said that her mother called and said she was diagnosed incorrectly and that it was not cancer.

The next day was the day that they celebrated what was called the Pentecost. It is a seven day period which they celebrated for God saving them after the hotel events. It begins seven days before May Second and goes through the Second of May. They did not work during these days, but would relax and just have fun and praise God. It began to thunder outside, which always made Brandon go and see if it was God. After what had happened in the past, he could not help himself but take a peek outside, every time it thundered.

As he was looking outside, the song on the radio said, "He's talking to you in the thunder." Brandon went outside and God began to speak to him with the thunders again. God does not need thunder to talk with mankind, it is just that thunder was God's way of getting Brandon's attention. Oft times we are so enveloped in what is around us and our day to day agendas that we become too busy to listen for and to hear Him. God uses all sorts of ways to communicate with mankind. In the Book of Job, God says, I knock and knock and they will not listen, so I come in their dreams and speak with them ... Think about that, some of your dreams may be God talking with you. They are called, visions.

God told Brandon that He was happy with the group having feasts and fun during the Pentecost week, but that they had failed to erect a monument and write an oath covenant. God told him to take twenty four stones and place them as they had on the top of the Church, but this time to go to a particular spot at the lake where they had once stayed. God said that it was to be built on the evening of May 1st and gave specific instructions as to many things and where it would be placed. As you have probably guessed ... They were there at that lake as instructed.

There were several of them that went to the lake that evening. They set up tents, made a bonfire and had a meal. They were talking and waiting for midnight, which was the time that they were to erect the monument. It seemed like it took forever for the time to arrive so that they would get to go build the Altar. At midnight, they headed out to find the spot. They walked for quite a distance down a tree covered hill with stones as a path. They followed a bend around the lake and even had to walk about fifty feet along a very narrow ledge that had a thirty five foot drop off to the lake below.

Then, they came upon a lagoon of sorts. The Holy Spirit had shown them the place where they were to build the altar. It was a beautiful location that God had chosen. They looked around and found the spot and gathered twenty four large stones as instructed. Brandon and Mark went out about twenty five feet into the water and the others would bring the large stones to them in a row from the bank. They would go underwater and place the stones in the form of a circle with a Cross in the center. It was very dark and cold and it took about thirty minutes to actually build the altar, but when it was finally finished, it was awesome. This would be the first of many altars that they would build in a body of water.

After worshiping there at the altar for a while, they were all physically exhausted, but Spiritually uplifted. It was getting late so they headed back to camp. It was very cold on the way back because they were soaking wet from being in the lake and they were glad that they were returning to the warm bonfire back at the campsite. Upon their return, they all sat and talked and enjoyed the serenity that the lake has to offer at that time of the morning. As you can imagine, they did not sleep for the next several hours. They were just too excited. The next day they returned home. It was a great Pentecost that Brandon would remember forever.

Chapter Fourteen

Christianity Oasis

The Church was going well. In the beginning, it was more like a group of friends reading the Bible and sharing thoughts, but as time passed, it became more of a Bible study school. Brandon decided to start documenting the spiritual growth of each person who was being taught of the Bible. He would teach them for several hours a day and then give daily tests. He would then test them again at the end of the week and then a major test every seventh week, and keep written documentation of these tests, for each person. He felt that this would make it easier for the others to keep what they had learned, in their minds and hearts. There were several different classes such as Basic Bible Knowledge, End Times, Holy Spirit, Spiritual Warfare, Effective Prayer, etc. Everyone was very excited and took to the new grading system, like fish to water. This was to become an intense study and research of the Bible that would last for three years.

Brandon loved to study God's Word. Not only to read the Bible, but to really study the depths of the Bible seeking the hidden truths within. The prophecies, God's grace, the Gospels and the End Times were His favorite topics. It became his sole passion in life. He focused on the End Times most, because God had told him to do so. Being that the End Times prophecy was based on events that were yet to occur and were coming soon, he felt compelled to know all of what was to be and to share it with the unknowing and lost souls in the world.

He had a simple method of discerning what the Bible taught ... He was to begin with no preset ideas, from past beliefs or any opinions of others. Whatever the Bible said, was taken literal. (Taking into consideration the symbols that were used at times, the parables used to cause the audience to ponder deeper, etc.) This is the way he taught all others as well. Some believe that certain aspects of the Bible are not to be taken literally, because some of the events and stories appear to be too far fetched to believe but after the encounters that Brandon had experienced, he knew that nothing was impossible with God. This includes God's Word. (The Bible)

After years of this type of intense study, and running the Church, Brandon decided that becoming an evangelist would better serve God. As it was, he could only reach as many souls as the size of the Church structure could occupy. He felt that he would be able to reach more lost souls and bring them to God, if he would evangelize on the streets. He felt that for him to preach to the choir or to preach to only believers in a Church, was a waste of his gifts and knowledge. There were many others that had been called with the administration of preaching to believers, but Brandon's administration was different. He was different. The Holy Spirit confirmed his belief and he closed the Church and began to evangelize. He needed to create methods of advertising. He needed ways to reach the lost.

Brandon and a few of his friends created an awesome End Times Timeline. They wrote it out on five wooden tables that were eight foot long and four foot wide each. The tables were created to be portable. They were made of two by fours, plywood and plexiglass. The tables were painted and the extremely extensive and detailed Biblical timeline details were hand drawn out on the tops in various colors of permanent markers and after many months of work, the table tops were covered with the plexiglass to protect the writing from the elements. The four foot by eight foot tables were built to last. They would attach the individual tables together with bolts at either end, when they set them up for display. The End Times Timeline Table was a forty running foot timeline which began at Creation and showed Biblical details and prophecy all the way to the present day and even to future events.

Brandon then decided to demonstrate this timeline table on street corners in and out of town as to reach more souls than he was at the Church. So, he and his friends would set up this forty foot timeline table at various locations and answer any questions that those who stopped by to take a look at the timeline table, may have. They put up signs explaining what the Tables were and placed them on the corners at traffic lights to bring in the people. As you can imagine ... This unique creation drew quite a crowd and the crowd drew even more curious souls.

The point that the timeline tables were making is that there has been about six thousand years which has passed from Creation to present day. It was also shown through Biblical Scripture that God said that there would be six thousand years and then a one thousand year period of rest known as the Millennium. However, before the Millennium would arrive, there would be a time known as the End Times which is a period of escalating horrible tribulation that those on Earth would have to endure. So, the timeline table was simply proving that the End Times were near, and that people needed to be prepared. Brandon had found his administration ... His Calling. It all made sense now. He was to spread the Truth to all those that he could. But, he had no idea that God had much bigger plans. He was just getting started.

They had a hot-line phone number and created tapes that would give a daily spiritual sermon about specific topics on getting prepared for the End Times. They sent out fliers to residential homes and businesses and even handed them out on cars in parking lots everywhere they went. They would answer questions in the evenings from the callers that either received a flier or heard the daily messages. They did construction work to provide finances for the Ministry when they needed to and would set up the timeline tables on the other days.

Brandon had been studying the Bible and any religious books that he get his hands on for several years now. Then one day, he was told by the Holy Spirit to create End Times studies and put them on the Internet as to be able to reach more people with God's Word. With the help of his few friends and of course the Holy Spirit, they created an End Times website. Brandon was very careful to make the End Times study program one hundred percent Biblically sound. The response from the website was astounding. The letters just poured in with questions about many different topics. Brandon had found his new newest method of advertising. It was sharing the Truth online.

One may ask ... "How does one answer the variety of questions that are asked?" The answer is that some of the trained people in the group would respond to the minor questions, but if the question was something that required Brandon's attention, he would deal with those. The reason for this is that Brandon was not only very close to God and was led by the Holy Spirit, but he had a past that was ... Let us just say that experience taught him thoroughly and that the seeds of truth from these past experiences allowed him to reach the heart of lost souls imprisoned in darkness. In short, he understood the depths of their questions, because he had been there. Everything from the loss of loved ones to alcohol to Spiritual warfare and everything in between.

One could say that he had been the chief of sinners in his past. In particular during the years after he ran away from the foster home up until God saved him from the evil spirits at the hotels who followed him home. Brandon came to find out that God had him endure those things from his past, so that he would be able to reach and teach others who were on the same paths without judgment. Kind of like the old cliche' that an alcoholic is the only one who could reach another alcoholic. The reason that this is true is because ... One who had been there before and had conquered its hold, through God's love and grace and was able to escape the trap of the mind and spirit, truly understood what the other was experiencing and therefore would have the patience and compassion to show them the way home. Most elect to just judge them and send them away. Brandon believed in God's Grace and that is the way that he counseled those whom he encountered for he had received the same grace from God.

With God still showing Brandon that He was always there, Brandon and his friends continued in patience and persistence in their assigned task of getting the Word of God out to the people by way of the Internet and any other means possible. The completed websites became very popular and they could barely keep up with responding to every call, letter and Instant Messages that they were receiving from the websites visitors. Add to that, their day to day responsibilities which required much devotion and time. Brandon loved it.

Then the concept of Christianity Oasis was born. It would become the ultimate sacrifice to God. It took many years to create the Christian online community. The intent of Christianity Oasis was to provide Christians with a safe place to hang out on the Internet. It would also be a place for those who were lost and troubled, to be able to receive free counseling and learn of God's grace and love in an environment free of judgment. It would be a haven before Heaven for those who knew God and a place to find God for those who were lost. The place became absolutely awe inspiring.

As time passed Christianity Oasis became massive. It had thousands of pages of Christian activities and entertainment which provided those who came to explore the Christian community on the Internet with thousands of avenues by which to learn and receive Christian encouragement as they sojourned along the Christian path. There was everything from Bible studies to Christian programs to Christian counseling to Christian books to Christian games. The Christian site was getting better and better every day. There were thousands of people visiting the Ministry, by way of the Internet, per month. This was a much better tool to reach and teach as to share God's grace and Love much quicker than the ways he had been using for several years. But, God was not even getting started.

More than anything, Brandon longed for the more spiritual days of his past. He knew his true purpose was to be revealed during the End Times. He couldn't wait for the very Spiritual days to be restored. He knew it was not right to long for the End Times as they would be so very horrible for many, but he secretly hoped for them to come soon so that he could finish the game and go home. He still remembered the dream that he had so many times growing up of the beast which ascended from the pit and chased Brandon until he killed him. He knew it was Antichrist and that he would in the end, kill him and yet Brandon feared it not. He believed that he would not be taken away in the Rapture as most seek to be, but would stay and lead others to the Truth during the End Times.

He knew who he was. Above all, he wanted to feel more alive, like he did in the days when God talked with him in the thunder and he and his friends chased fireflies around town. He just missed the adventure I suppose, though he could still feel God's presence in everything around him. He understood that it was part of the rules of faith, that when you are called by the Lord, there will be many days that will appear ... Normal. Many days will be filled with trials and tribulations, which will seem overwhelming, but God never gives us too much to handle, He is just testing us to be sure that we are worthy. Then, there will be days when God reveals His Love and Glory and this is what makes it all worth while. Brandon would carry on and fight the good fight, as this was the way of the path that he had been chosen for and that he had chosen to follow.

The Holy Spirit was such a comfort and Brandon spoke with Him constantly. The Holy Spirit and Christianity Oasis were the only things that filled that void within him. It was the unquenchable desire to be doing more. To be feeling more. To be what he was to be. He knew the End Times were getting closer and closer. He could feel it. The only thing that he could do now was to exist here in this realm and show others the way to Jesus by way of Christianity Oasis and wait for the End Times so that this adventurous Spiritual saga, would continue. And continue it did, just not the way Brandon had hoped. It had just begun. Never forget that when you acknowledge the presence of the Holy Spirit within ... The beast is without.

If you would like to find out what happens next, after the creation of Christianity Oasis as well as learn more of the events which took place after Brandon had escaped from Jack the raper, but before Brandon was saved ... You will want to keep an eye out for the next book, which will be available soon. Until then, you may want to choose to sojourn through Christianity Oasis. A world of true Christianity ... Faith, Friendship, Family, Fellowship and Fun-tastic Adventure.

Please feel free to consider our Christian Ministry as your passage to peace and your Christian haven before Heaven as it truly will become your very own Holy Spirit filled sanctuary in this vast and extremely dangerous desert wilderness, known as the Internet. Come and sojourn through our Christian Community with 100% free SON-sational Christian entertainment, Christian activities and Christian resources which will truly enhance your faith while enLIGHTening your Christian walk path.

Take good care and never allow the worldly winds to extinguish the flame within you as many may come to depend upon its Light. May God bless you abundantly with that which He knows that your soul needs most.

The Adventurous Journey Continues...

Copyright © 2000-2023 All Rights Reserved.

The Spirit Within and the Beast Without
The Holy Spirit Within Resources

Christianity.com ... What is Holy Spirit Power? The Holy Spirit is your power socket. Jesus gave you the Spirit so you can access his power because you can't do anything without him.

Crosswalk.com ... What is the Holy Spirit & What Does He Do? Jesus said before he ascended to heaven that the Holy Spirit would come and dwell within us as a believer. With that, He empowers us to live victoriously for the cause of Christ and glory of the Father.

Got Questions ... What is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit? The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the action by which God takes up permanent residence in the body of a believer in Jesus Christ.

Holy Spirit ... The Spirit Within and the Beast Without was created by a soul who was lost and hurting. Get to know the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit power will change your life. This is one of the most awesome gifts you will ever receive or share.

Knowing Jesus ... 16 Bible verses about Indwelling Of The Holy Spirit - 1 Corinthians 3:16 - Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

New Covenant Church of Philadelphia ... Anointed with the Holy Spirit and with Power - Anointed with the Holy Spirit and with Power ... The word of God proclaims peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.

OpenBible.info ... 100 Bible Verses about Holy Spirit Dwelling Within Us - 12 helpful votes. Helpful Not Helpful ... You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.

The Gospel Coalition ... Ways We Experience the Holy Spirit - In 'Jesus, Continued,' J. D. Greear explains why having the Holy Spirit inside you is better than having Jesus beside you.