"²¹Jesus and his companions went to the town of Capernaum. When the Sabbath day came, he went into the synagogue and began to teach. ²²The people were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority—quite unlike the teachers of religious law.

²³Suddenly, a man in the synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit began shouting, ²⁴'Why are you interfering with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One sent from God!'

²⁵Jesus cut him short. 'Be quiet! Come out of the man,' he ordered. ²⁶At that, the evil spirit screamed, threw the man into a convulsion, and then came out of him." (Mark 1:21‑26 New Living Translation).

Notice in this passage, in the synagogue, the place of worship, God was there and the devil was there.

I was converted, filled with the Holy Spirit, and delivered from several unclean spirits in an open field in Dallas, Texas as I cried out to God. I had come to the end of myself and surrendered to Jesus Christ. It was a power encounter with God. I was a young man and I knew very little of what the Bible really said. This is where my journey began.

One night in a car, several of my friends and I who were believers had a Pentecost experience. We were in prayer when suddenly the Holy Spirit fell on each of us one person at a time. He started in the front seat and then went to the back, filling us with happiness, joy and laughter like I've never experienced. When we came back into town (this happened, parked off a country road) I spoke to some friends that accused us of being drunk. Sounds like Acts 2:12‑18 doesn't it?

One Wednesday night in a Southern Baptist Church, as we were singing from our song books, a young girl fell in the floor and began to shake violently. I had never seen anything like this in a Baptist Church. Her eyes were dilated and she began to speak in a masculine voice. I was terrified! To make a long story short, I read aloud from the Bible Philippians 2:6‑11. The demons in this girl cried out. "Don't say those words, I can't stand those words!" So I continued to read aloud this passage until the girl fell in the floor in front of me and began to bow at the Name of Jesus. For the first time in my life, I saw the power of the Word of God and knew that there was something in the Bible that the Devil didn't want me to know. This experience was life changing and eye opening to me. Yes, the girl did get delivered from the demons but that's for another time to tell.

Another time in a Pentecostal Church we were all singing and praising the Lord when suddenly a young girl jumped up and began kicking her legs up and down. The only way I can describe it was she looked like a chicken doing a chicken walk. I thought, someone needs to do something about this. I got up from the pew, and took authority over the unclean spirit that was tormenting her. Immediately the demon left her. She thanked me later for what God had done and told me how this spirit had been tormenting her.

Later in my life my wife was having a life and death health crisis. I was beside myself. I told my wife that I was going to go to the next town and talk to a priest. She said, "Go ahead." She was very much against the Catholics and her mother and her were often on the phone arguing religion. This was not good.

So, I went to the priest. I told him I want to confess my sins. The priest said, "You can't do that." I said, "Why?" He said, "Because you are not a Catholic." I don't think that reflected the Jesus that I know.

He did tell me to stay in the sanctuary of the church and pray. In that church there was a huge cross at the front with Jesus being crucified on it. I knelt down on my knees and looked up at the cross. I addressed God our Father and His Son the Lord Jesus. I told God my problems, and confessed to Him my faults and sins. All I remember after that was the sweet presence of God and His Spirit. I had an encounter with God.

I left the church and went home. When my wife saw me I didn't have to say a word. She knew I had an encounter with God. Then she said, "Leave it to you to go to the Catholic church and have an encounter with God!" But this changed her. She prayed and asked God to forgive her bitterness and strife against her mother. The next day she said to me, "Look at my stomach!" She had great swelling and now it was down so much as to be almost unnoticeable. She reconciled with her mother. God was changing her.

Our next encounter with God was with Communion, the Eucharist, the Lord's Supper, the Memorial of Jesus' Death, whatever you want to call it. Because we were not a member of that church we could not partake of Communion but were told that we may partake of it by desire. We would sit up front in the church and watch others partake and the Spirit of God was all over us. We would weep, and weep. For us it was all about Jesus and what His Sacrifice had accomplished for us. People would look at us and think, "What's with them?" Jesus and His work on the Cross were being revealed to us in such a way that it affected all our senses.

I later discovered that same presence in an independent Bible church through the act of Communion.

The point of my sharing these experiences is, that no matter who you are, or where you are, you can find the invisible God if you seek for Him with all your heart.

"But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." (Hebrews 11:6 KJV)

The same experience of finding Him and His presence can be found anywhere. For God has said, "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the Lord..." (Jeremiah 29:13‑14 KJV)