“I was very involved in the occult, channeling spirits, casting spells, playing with a Ouija board six to eight hours a day—all of those things.”
That’s how military veteran and artist Timothy Gagnon describes his early years, explaining how he descended into evil practices as a young man.
Now, decades later, Gagnon is on a faith-filled mission, releasing his Illuminated Messiah Bible, an artistic look at the Scriptures that depicts Jesus from Genesis to Revelation, with the artist creating 66 illustration panels that come together to create a life-size portrait of Jesus on the cross.
The project is a major departure from his past interests.
“I was raised in a kind of—for lack of a better word—Christmas and Easter Catholic family,” he said of his background. “We didn’t really attend that much.”
Breaking News. Spirit-Filled Stories. Subscribe to Charisma on YouTube now!
Gagnon said he lived at the time as though God wasn’t an important facet or priority in his life. When he hit the sixth grade, he recalled an oral report assignment he was given. Unsure of what to do, he went to the school library and stumbled upon books on the occult.
That introduction to the topic led him into spell-casting, playing with Ouija boards and channeling spirits, among other similar activities—things he did “all day long” and “all night long” with two of his friends who also descended into the same practices.
Gagnon said these spells weren’t empty practices—that something happened when he would engage with the occult. He said he and his friends interacted with three entities that claimed to be an angel, a demon and a “lost spirit in purgatory.”
In the end, it was a true encounter with the demonic.
“When I would cast spells, when we would channel spirits, we would experience supernatural events and things that we couldn’t explain,” he says. “It’s like a drug.”
One day, though, something happened that stopped him in his tracks.
“I was casting spells in my room and channeling spirits and I felt a presence that was greater than anything I had encountered before,” Gagnon said. “And I instinctively knew it was God approaching.”
He continued, “It was the spirit of God that was approaching me, and I was terrified.”
Gagnon said he assumed God was coming to kill him because of his occultic practices. So, he ran out of the house “in a panic” and went straight to a local Catholic church where he promptly entered a confessional and told a priest all he had done.
While Gagnon thought he could outrun God, he recalled feeling the Lord’s presence in that confessional.
“God started to speak to my heart,” he says. “It felt like every atom in my body was just shaking from His presence, and I remember Him saying to me, ‘Stop it. Enough is enough. Come and follow Me.’ And that was enough. I said ‘yes’ to God.”
To read the full story, visit our content partners at Faithwire.
Reprinted with permission from faithwire.com. Copyright © 2024 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.
Join Charisma Magazine Online to follow everything the Holy Spirit is doing around the world!
James Lasher 
Abby Trivett 
