Here is the Audio version of Rick Bell’s testimony:
Here is my amazing testimony; Here is how I went from being an atheist to a Spirit filled Christian in 60 seconds.
Adopted at Birth
My story is almost too incredible to believe, in fact I would have a hard time believing it if I hadn’t lived it. My life started in 1959 as an unplanned pregnancy. My mother was a 17 year old Catholic school girl from an all-girls academy run by nuns, and my father was an 18 year old football star from a rival high school across town. My father had an athletic scholarship waiting for him at one of the biggest colleges in Louisiana, and my mother’s mother was pushing her to become a nun, so a baby was not part of the plan.
Since dating was strictly forbidden at the convent where my mother attended high school, and non-Catholic boys were to be avoided completely, no one is quite sure how the two of them were able to sneak around undetected and carry on the relationship that produced me. I met my biological father when I was 32 and he told me much of this information.
When my Catholic school girl mother was discovered to be pregnant, she was immediately shipped off to a home for unwed mothers in a neighboring town where she could have the baby in secret and the child could be adopted through the Catholic Church. In those days there was a network for placing unplanned babies with Catholic couples through the Catholic Church. The only stipulation for adoption was that the adoptive parents had to be members of the local Catholic Church. I don’t believe there was any screening of potential parents; the only requirement was that they had to be Catholic.
I was adopted by a couple in the small town where the home for unwed mothers was located. My adoptive mother was raised Catholic and was active in the local church, but my adoptive father had no affiliation or interest in the Catholic Church, or any church for that matter. My adoptive father was a hardened World War II veteran who shot down Kamikaze Japanese planes as a 17 year old gunner on a navy destroyer.
My adoptive father didn’t have any love for, of belief in God for most of his life. I now know that he suffered “soul damage” which demonized him as a result of witnessing so much death during the war. Dad would sometimes tell stories of being so close to the enemy Kamikaze pilots as they flew towards his ship, that he could see their faces as he squeezed the trigger and ended their lives.
Dad “converted” to Catholicism in order to adopt me, but it was all foolishness to him. Years later when I asked him what he had to do to convert to Catholicism; he laughed and said, “I just had to say I was Catholic, I was never really Catholic.” Although one of the stipulations for my adoption was that I be raised in the Catholic Church, my father never darkened the door of the Church once the adoption was complete, and I didn’t blame him because I also hated Church and saw it as a total waste of time.
My mother took me to Catholic Mass every Sunday until I was old enough to drive. I came through all of the Catholic rituals, including being trained as an altar boy, confirmation, first communion, and even DeMolay (which is a form of early training for the Masonic Lodge).
My escape was music. I was gifted by the Lord to be a very good musician and singer, so as a young boy I picked up a guitar and began teaching myself to play. I was told when I went to college to study music that I had a “genius level” musical IQ, and because of my musical talent, I was able to become a professional lead guitarist and lead singer at age 14 while I was still living at home. I began to earn money playing music and could afford to buy almost anything I wanted. My teen years were dedicated to playing guitar, hot rod cars and partying.
Growing Up In An Alcohol Addicted Home
My adoptive mother and father owned a business and came from a somewhat wealthy “country club” background. They were both basically good people and very well liked in our small community. They were the kind of people you enjoyed being around – as long as they were sober – which was almost never.
Both my adoptive parents came from a long family line of alcoholics. There was a generational curse of alcoholism that totally ruled their families, and killed nearly all of my aunts and uncles.
My adoptive mother was a very angry drunk. During working hours when she was sober, she was a passive, easy going southern belle. After 5 PM each day when she got home from work and got into the liquor cabinet, she transformed into a loud, cussing, obnoxious, sometimes violent, angry woman. My mother died from a massive stroke at age 56 while sitting at her desk in her office at 10:30 on a Tuesday morning. The doctor said the stroke was a direct result of smoking 3 packs of cigarettes a day and excessive drinking.
My adopted father was a good, very honest and hardworking man who quit school at age 17 to enlist in the United States Navy after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Dad came home from the South Pacific a damaged man, as so many war veterans do, and he tried to drown his memories with alcohol. My adoptive Dad drank 7 days a week, 365 days a year. He would become dark and sullen when he drank, and he and mother would end up in screaming fights that were deeply traumatizing to a young child.
My Dad only lived for 16 months after my Mother died. One Wednesday night the spirits of suicide finally talked Dad into taking the gun he had taught me to shoot as a boy, and putting it to his head for his final pull of the trigger. My adopted father killed himself.
I know this is heavy stuff, but life is this way when curses and demonic strongholds rule a family. I wanted you to have some background on my life to better appreciate what the Lord did to save and transform me, and how I came to write what you are reading now.
I Believed God Was About As Real As Santa Clause
As soon as I was 16 and old enough to drive, I decided I would never waste another minute in a Church, pretending that I believed in the fairytale I saw as Christianity. I was an atheist. In my mind, God was no different than Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny. I was a firm believer in ME! I told myself, if you can’t see it, it’s make believe. I lived by this rule.
Since my parents were incapable of parenting me because they were too drunk to walk by 7 pm each night, I basically raised myself, coming and going as I pleased. Before I bought my first car at age 16, I would just wait until my parents passed out drunk each night and I would take the car keys to my mom’s Cadillac Eldorado and go pick up my friends for a night of partying and drinking. I had no supervision because they only cared about the bottle.
I left home as soon as I graduated High School and went on the road as a full time musician. In 1980 I was 21 years old and had settled in Texarkana, Texas. I had two jobs; I taught Karate and kickboxing classes at a fitness center during the day, and I was a professional musician at night.
I was living my atheist life and proud of it. I laughed at anyone who claimed to be a Christian. My lifestyle as a musician and “Karate Guy” always provided me with all the ego, money, women, and parties I could want, so who needed God?
One September day in 1980, three young people walked into the fitness center where I worked. There were two guys and a girl in their mid-twenties and it was my turn to take them on the “sales tour” of the facility and sign them up. I did these sales tours every day, in fact, I was the top salesperson in the company and I had a sales closing ratio of nearly 100%. I saw this as just another easy sale to increase my monthly sales bonus, but little did I know these three people had actually been sent there on divine assignment to close the sale on me!
As I did my little sales pitch after the tour of the fitness center, I went right to the closing question and asked them to sign on the dotted line and join. To my surprise, I heard an objection I had never heard before; one of them said, “We will let you know tomorrow after we have time to pray about it”.
My sales manager had drilled into my head to always keep asking questions until you can get them past the objection so they will sign up today. The only question I could think to ask these three odd people was, “Pray? So what Church do you guys go to?” The answer I got began a supernatural encounter over the next few hours that no one saw coming.
One of these three Christians began to tell me about the Church they attended, describing it as a “Charismatic” Church. I had never heard the word Charismatic, so I asked if that was the same thing as Baptist, Catholic or Methodist. The answer they gave intrigued me; they said, “No, it’s not a denomination, and it’s really not anything like those churches you mentioned. At our Church we believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit”.
As ridiculous as it seems to me now, I had never heard anything like this before. Being raised a Catholic I can honestly say I had never opened a Bible and read a single word on my own. I then asked, “Gifts, does that mean you guys bring gifts to your Church and open presents all the time?” This was an honest question and not a sarcastic remark – I was slowly becoming interested in what these three Christians were saying because it sounded so strange to me.
One of them replied, “The gifts we are talking about are: laying hands on the sick, prophesying, speaking in tongues…” I immediately interrupted and said, “Hold on, what did you say about speaking with a tongue?” I had never heard of speaking in tongues and I certainly had never heard anyone do it, so this really got me interested. They replied, “We speak in a special language that God gives us”. I said, “So you speak in another language in Church? Is it Spanish? Is your Church a Spanish Church?”
“No, the language we speak is a heavenly language God gives us” they replied. I then asked them how they learned this heavenly language, and they said they don’t ever learn it, it just comes out supernaturally and it’s different for everyone.
OK, I’m really intrigued now. My atheist mind has no idea what these freaks are talking about, but I want a demonstration just for the entertainment value of it. I asked them to show me this tongue prayer language they supposedly have. They agreed to pray so I could hear for myself what they were talking about.
I Had Never Heard OF Praying In Tongues – Much Less Heard Anyone Do It!
They told me to bow my head and close my eyes so we could pray. I bowed my head and pretended to play along, but I kept my eyes open enough to watch what was happening. I wanted to see just what these weird people were talking about. All I really wanted was to hear how this “tongue talk” sounded so I could recount the story to my friends later and have a great big laugh about these kooky people.
The three of them were sitting in chairs in front of my desk and I was sitting behind my desk in my office with the door closed. I was anxious to hear what they were going to try and pass off as some “supernatural” language from God, so I listened. A minute or two went by and not a sound came from any one of the three of them. At this point I heard a little voice inside my head say, “See, this is all bogus. Get these freaks out of your office and stop wasting time with this foolishness!”
I was just about to open my mouth and tell these people I had to get back to work when one of the guys looked up and said, “Rick, I’m sorry, but the Holy Spirit said we can’t pray in tongues in front of you just to prove its’ real, because Jesus said He is REAL and He doesn’t need us to prove it!” He then looked me straight in the eye and said, “Rick, The Holy Spirit just told me that you could pray in tongues right now if you accept Jesus Christ as your savior. Rick, do you want to be Born Again right now?”
Suddenly something came over me. The cynical voice in my head that had been my constant companion since I was old enough to consider God went silent. This was my moment – the moment God had set aside for me, the illegitimate son, born as a mistake, who had lived a life mocking and laughing at God – this was my moment of decision. I can’t tell you why, but something in me at that moment wanted God.
I now understand that the Holy Spirit anointing these three Christians brought into my office was too strong for the demon spirits that had blinded and bound me. The demons simply didn’t see it coming and they were overwhelmed! As I write this the Holy Spirit is speaking to me that a Three Fold Chord is not easily broken, and that one can put a thousand to flight and two can put ten thousand to flight, and that’s why He sent them in there in three. Thank you Jesus!
As this stranger I had met only a few hours ago looked directly into my eyes and asked me if I wanted Jesus, I blurted out YES! I want to be born again! I want to have what you have! I had surrendered.
At this point the three of them came around my desk as I sat in my leather desk chair. They told me they were going to lay their hands on my shoulders and asked me if I was OK with that. I told them it was fine and I closed my eyes and bowed my head.
He Told Me to Forget What I Thought I Knew About God
One of them said, “The Lord is telling me to tell you that all you need to do is open up your heart and mind to Him, and forget everything you think you know about God. Forget anything you may have been taught in the past, because God is about to show you who He REALLY is”.
As they began to pray over me, I only heard the first few words they said and then it was like I was in a vacuum and could only hear something that sounded like wind. Within seconds of them beginning to pray a sensation began at the top of my head that I can only describe as a feeling that warm honey was slowly being poured over my head.
This slow, thick feeling of warm honey being poured over me continued down to my neck at a rate of about an inch every 5 seconds. As the warmth of this invisible honey reached my shoulders, I opened my eyes and looked up because I had never experienced anything like what was happening to me.
When I opened my eyes I was standing in white clouds, looking directly into the most bright, brilliant white light I had ever seen. The white of this light permeated every square millimeter of everything. This light was infinitely brighter than the sun we see in our sky, but strangely this light did not hurt my eyes when I gazed directly at it. In this bright white light I saw a man standing with His face towards me. This man was some distance from me, probably 40 yards in earthly terms, and He was facing me with this incredible white light emitting directly from Him.
Because of the intense brightness of this white light, I could not see the man’s face, but instead I saw a silhouette of Him. His arms were outstretched about waist level and reaching toward me. Because of the brightness of the light, I could not see great detail in His appearance, but I could see He was wearing a robe type of garment and his hair appeared to be about shoulder length. Although no audible words were spoken, this Man spoke clearly to my Spirit and said, “I am Jesus, come unto me.”
At this point I closed my eyes again and the same feeling of the warm honey being poured down my body resumed at my shoulders, the same place it had stopped when I looked up. As this warm feeling continued, something began to happen. I began to experience spasms in my jaws the same way you would in bitter cold when your teeth begin to chatter. My teeth were chattering uncontrollably as if I were standing in arctic cold, but I wasn’t cold, in fact I was very warm.
As this strange teeth chattering continued, a language unknown to me suddenly began to flow from my lips! I was fluently speaking a language I had never heard before. I spoke this new language for the next 30 minutes, and when I finally came back to my earthly senses, the three Christians were sitting back across the desk from me with their mouths open saying WOW!
I did not know at this time that this was an unusual conversion experience, and that most people don’t get such a dramatic and instant baptism in the Holy Spirit, so these three young Christians were blown away by what God had done in that office. They gave me a small pocket sized edition of the New Testament that night and spent a little time with me explaining what had happened, but to be honest, I was so excited and changed that I had trouble even hearing what they said.
When I open my eyes for the first time after my born again conversion where I spoke in tongues, I literally saw the colors of the world like I had never seen them before. I smelled fragrances I had never smelled before. My personality was totally replaced, bad habits and addictions and all, with a brand new personality – instantly. I was literally a new born baby, a new creature in Christ. This is no exaggeration; I was a different human being. My friends did not even recognize who I was. They told me it was like some alien had captured my body and replaced my personality. All I could do was talk about Jesus!
This story is real; this is exactly how I went from being an atheist to a Spirit Filled Christian in about 60 seconds. This is just the beginning of the story, because as you probably know, even though I was born again with this amazing experience, I had open demonic doorways in my life from generational curses and trauma. Even though I was on fire for God when I got saved, within a few years of my conversion I was experiencing great struggles caused by the demonic strongholds that had slowly become active again in my life. I was taught that demons could not do any damage to a Christian. That was a lie.
I hope this part of my story has been a blessing to you. The Lord placed upon my heart to write a book entitled “Boxing Blindfolded With Demons” because I spent 10 years as a professional boxer and trainer (that’s another interesting story). Many of the disciplines, mindsets, and strategies a fighter needs to defeat a foe in the physical world, surprisingly also apply in a different way to the spiritual world. The book should be available sometime in the Fall of 2017.
About the author:
Rick Bell is a former champion Kickboxer, an author, and is currently a full time musician/entertainer living near Austin, Texas. Rick teaches about deliverance and Spiritual warfare, and sometimes prays for those wanting help. Rick can be reached by email: Rick@RickBellWriting.com.
If you think you need deliverance, you can reach me by email. Unfortunately, I have been in this ministry long enough to learn that many people who contact me for help, are not serious enough to pay the spiritual price to get and stay free from demonic oppression; they just want quick relief because the demons are really bothering them. Some of these people end up wasting the deliverance minister’s time and resources.
I work full time and do not depend on any income from ministry. Anyone who would do deliverance for money is a fool, and I would not want to have to answer for that when I face the Lord. That being said, people who are serious about getting help will not hesitate to make a donation to the ministry they are asking for help. Many people reach out to me for deliverance and I must be wise how I invest God’s time and resources.
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