Satan’s lies had this young man bound and defeated. He desperately needed to be . . .

Set Free

By Byron Parker

Growing up, I had every opportunity to become a happy and good person. Some of my earliest memories are of going to church with my family and learning about Jesus and His love for me. My parents were Christians, and I respected them and their beliefs.

As a young child, I had a tender heart toward God and knew I had to be saved from my sins in order to make Heaven. From time to time I prayed and tried to get saved, but I do not remember ever having a real change of heart. It seemed that each year found me drifting farther and farther from the precepts I had been taught.

While still in grade school, I acquired a taste for rock-and-roll music. I wanted to be like the kids at school, and I found myself wishing that our home wasn’t quite so strict. As I grew older, for a time I tried to stay clear of things that would get me into trouble with the law. When I was exposed to drugs, I initially wanted nothing to do with them. But my life wasn’t above reproach by any means, and the words that I used around my friends at school weren’t repeatable at home.

When I was in my early teens, I tried to pray one more time, knowing that I needed to be saved to escape God’s judgment. I claimed salvation, but shortly after that an evil thought went through my mind. I didn’t understand that the enemy could interject things into my mind, so I threw overboard the whole idea of my being saved.

Early one February morning, about a year later, my mother became deathly ill. I loved her dearly, and I made a promise to God that if she lived, I would do all I could to get saved and serve Him. But she died, and my heart was broken. Amazingly, I never felt bitter toward God, but I had no real desire to serve Him either.

A fast trip downhill

The following summer I decided to see what it would be like to get high on marijuana. I liked it, and that began a fast trip downhill. When I started high school that fall, my desire to excel academically was gone, along with the goals I had set for myself just months before. A few weeks into the school year, I had a drug overdose. I felt like I was dying, and I thought about my father and about how carefully he had raised me. I felt terribly grieved, but after I recovered, I still kept going my own merry way. All I wanted to do was skip school, get high, and do just enough to barely pass my classes.

I kept getting farther from God and doing myself more harm. When I did go to church, I generally wanted to be under the influence of drugs. How convicted I was if someone asked me to pray! Yet, I always managed to say no.

As time went by, and I became more bound by the enemy of my soul, I started to realize what a rotten time I was having. I felt terribly ashamed. I knew I wasn’t in control of my life at all.

The Lord allowed me to go through several very undesirable situations during that time. He spoke powerfully to me through them, but still I wouldn’t yield. My friends could see that I wasn’t enjoying myself. I was trying to be my own master and trying to keep the devil from completely taking over my life. At the same time, I remember thinking how stupid it was for people who weren’t saved to try to be so careful about the things they did. They were going to Hell anyway, so what difference did it make? So there I was—part of me struggling to maintain control and another part wanting to let go of any restraint.

God was still calling

About the time I turned seventeen, I was getting my fill of the “wonderful” time I was having, waking up in the morning upset at life with nothing to look forward to except going to Hell. I felt I could never get saved because of the lies the enemy filled my ears with, but the Lord still called after my heart.

I remember sitting on my bed, realizing that I actually wanted God. But the devil had me fooled into thinking I could never do without the rock music and everything else that I loved in one way, yet hated in another. I told Satan I hated him because of what he was doing to me, but there seemed to be no escape. I simply wasn’t my own master.

Thanks be to God, my story doesn’t end with me in that miserable condition. One summer, during the church’s annual camp meeting, held in Portland, Oregon, where I lived, the Lord had a big surprise for me. I remember my father making a comment, “I sure hope you get something out of camp meeting this year.” His words hit home, because I knew I needed something good to happen in my life.

God spoke to him

On the third Sunday night of camp meeting I came home at 9:30 from running around town. I was depressed and miserable, so I decided to go to bed early. About ten minutes later the phone rang. It was a friend of mine who wanted me to come to church and pray. It caught me off guard, but I told him, “No, I don’t think I will come.” I went back to my room feeling very low. The Lord was speaking to my heart. A few minutes later the phone rang again. This time it was my father wanting me to come and pray. I declined again. After I hung up the phone and went back to my room, I was really starting to count the cost.

Before long, I heard footsteps coming up the walk. I knew what they were coming for. My father and my cousin’s husband wanted to talk me into going to the church to pray. I finally told them I would pray right there in my room. By then, a couple of others who were concerned about my soul had arrived, and we had a wonderful prayer meeting. The people around that neighborhood were used to hearing rock music blasting from that room, but that night they heard prayers instead! After pouring my heart out to God for a time, I prayed through to real salvation. The peace of God flooded my soul!

There was still a week of camp meeting left, and it was quite different for me to be singing the hymns with respect and bowing my head during prayer. The last night of camp meeting, the Lord impressed upon my heart that I needed my sanctification. After praying awhile and asking Him to sanctify me, something wonderful started to happen inside. He answered my prayer in a marvelous way.

About a year later, realizing how much I needed to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost, I traveled to the Midwest camp meeting in Murphysboro, Illinois. The Lord certainly drew some consecrations from me there. On the last Friday night of camp meeting, the Spirit came down in power and filled me with that experience.

I fell in love with the Midwest camp meeting and wanted to go back again and again. Later, I met a very special young woman there and moved to Fort Smith, Arkansas, in hopes of marrying her and serving the Lord there. Before she and I were married, I questioned her on where she stood with regard to the Gospel, because I was very concerned about having spiritual unity in our home. I’m thankful she felt the same way about the Gospel as I did. We were married shortly thereafter.

Consecrations tested

Nearly two years later, we had our first child. When she was five weeks old, we had her dedicated to the Lord during a Sunday morning service. It was a very moving time for both of us, but little did we realize how soon the Lord would be testing that consecration.

The next day while I was on the job, my boss came and wanted me to go with him. He seemed to be in a big hurry and told me that I didn’t need to bring my tools.
After we had driven awhile, I sensed that something was wrong. I asked him jokingly, “Did someone die or something?” He said, “Yes,” and that changed everything. Then he told me it was our baby. I could hardly believe him, but as we neared the house and I saw all the commotion, I knew it was true.

Before that day, I had no idea that the death of an infant could hit you so hard. The Scripture came to my mind which says that the last enemy to be destroyed is death, and how it stirred my heart. It just made me aggravated toward Satan, because I knew he was the reason for every bit of sorrow and heartache there is. The next few days it seemed that the shadow of death and the presence of the enemy was hanging around our house like a cloud. We had to plead the Blood of Jesus and rebuke the enemy, but the Lord came through and caused the enemy to flee. Our hearts were broken, but the Lord healed the pain. We knew that God’s ways were best and that our baby daughter was in a better place.

The Lord has since given us two healthy children. He has carried us through easy times and not so easy times. I am thankful that today we still have spiritual unity in our home.

I appreciate the spiritual deliverance the Lord gave me, and His ongoing presence in my life. My desire today is to be ready for that day when Jesus comes to take His people Home, because I want to spend eternity with Him.

Byron Parker is the pastor of the Apostolic Faith Church in Los Angeles, California.