I am SO grateful for this episode, y'all. Katherine came back to finish sharing her testimony, and let me tell you — the depth of vulnerability here is a gift.
I open this episode the way I always do: if I were the enemy, if I hated God, how would I go after Him? I walk through Acts 16 — Paul, Lydia, and the slave girl with the spirit of divination — because I want us to remember that the enemy doesn't show up looking like the enemy. He masquerades as light. He looks good. He feels good. Just like the fruit in the garden.
Then Katherine takes us on a journey sharing what it was like for her back to being homeless, living in her car during the early days of COVID, working in the cannabis industry, and chasing relief from Lyme disease she didn't even know she had yet — through crystals, yoga, meditation, an online persona she called "Kween." She gets real about some genuinely frightening spiritual experiences in deep meditation, a moment of total surrender in an empty Gettysburg alley, and how God used a complete stranger, who became such a blessing — her friend Joy — to bring her in off the streets and, ultimately, straight to Jesus.
We walk through her salvation story over that spring and summer of 2020 — slower and more gradual than my own radical, overnight encounter, which is one of the things I love pointing out.
Not everybody's testimony looks the same, and that's okay.
We get into discernment around things like yoga and Ouija boards, her physical healing after years of chronic pain (wait until you hear the dental story — mercury fillings, abscessed teeth, and a bill God covered completely), and the long road of forgiveness she walked, especially toward her dad.
I also make sure we touch on the difference between being saved and being filled with the Holy Spirit, because that's a distinction a lot of believers miss. We talk about the warfare that follows deliverance, why true healing has to go deeper than just learning to cope, and we close it out talking about restoration, healthy boundaries with family, and trusting God even when nothing in the natural world makes sense.
Themes covered: spiritual deception, New Age practices and discernment, addiction recovery, chronic illness (Lyme disease), forgiveness, deliverance, being filled with the Holy Spirit, restoration.
