When I was about 11 or 12 years old I remembered my parents always used to watch the old version of the 10 commandments movie, but one particular night when I was that age my parents were watching “YESHUA of Nazereth” the 1978 version starring Robert Powell. When it came to the scene of YESHUA being crucified I cried like a baby and could not understand why the people were treating Him that way. So after the movie was over, I went to sleep and that night I saw a white figure in the corner of my room, so me being a child I couldn’t figure out how someone got into my room so I covered my head with the blanket and when I pulled the blanket down to take a peek the presence was gone. I knew something was different, but in a good way. As a child I would look at the sky or sit in my room and think about how the earth came to be. I even at one point began writing a children’s Bible that I never finished, but I always knew who ELOHIM was in a way, but I could not express how I felt into words as a child. I remember whenever a thunderstorm would roll through my parents would cut off the TV and all the lights and we would all sit in one room watching the lightning flash and hearing the loud booms of the thunder; and my parents would say “ELOHIM (At the time they said Lord) is doing His work. I was just so amazed and how powerful our Creator was.
In elementary school and middle school I was a bit of a nerd and I loved to read and write and I stayed on honor roll. But of course I was mocked and got joked on by the popular crowd and eventually I began to fall away from my academic ways to wanting to fit in with the crowd to become cool. And even despite me wanting to become cool, ELOHIM never allowed me to go so far. One example when I was 16 years old I worked at Congo Funnel Cake at King’s Dominion (Amusement park) and there were two employees around my age working as cashiers and they said to me “If anyone buys a funnel cake and a soda it will come it will come to $3.65, and if they give you the exact change do not ring it up, you can take that money and put it in your pocket.” And they showed me the amount of money they made by doing this scam. So shortly after that a man comes to window and orders the funnel cake and the soda and he gives me the exact change, so I did as my “so-called” friends told me and I pocketed the money. Suddenly, I felt a tap on my left shoulder, so I turned and looked and it was the manager and she said to me “I saw what you did, don’t ever do that again!” My heart dropped because I thought I was going to jail, but I knew then that I could not do what most people could do. An action like this could have led to a life of crime, but it did not because I got chastised early by ELOHIM. It is amazing when you look back on your life and see His fingerprints the entire time, we just have to recognize it and give Him all the praises for it. I remember another time when I was a child that my friends and I were throwing rocks at a new car which is not right to do. We all went home and a little while later there was a knock on the door, it was the owner of the car and they said that I was the one throwing the rocks at the car and the rest of people who were with me got away with it, so I was the one who got in trouble and they did not. This is just two examples, but ELOHIM would always punish me immediately, so my fear of Him grew. So I can honestly say I couldn’t figure it out as a child but as I got older I really understood the scripture that says:
Hebrews 12:7-8
“If you endure discipline, ELOHIM is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom a father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become sharers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.”
I can honestly tell anyone that this is true, do not despise the spankings that you get when you try to do something that is outside the will of YAHWEH, because He is molding you into what He wants you to be. However; when College came around I stepped into the world more but was still never wild.
I was never did drugs, never smoked weed, I was never the type to party or go to clubs, but I did start drinking alcohol and and fell into fornication. My family grew up Seventh Day Adventist until we switched to Judaism later on in my life (which I’m no longer a part of), so I always knew about the Shabbat. We never turned on the TV or worked, but when I got older I started going to the movies Friday night with a lady or going to a friends house to play video games because I knew that was not allowed in my parents house. Looking back on my life I truly see ELOHIM working in every aspect of my life and I see His mercy for all the evil I did in His presence especially growing up with a foundation in the Shabbat.
When I started to work at the sheriff’s office in 2005 that is when things started to change for me. I went to college and graduated with a Marketing degree, so when I began working at the sheriff’s office I spent the first five years on the job as the Public Information Officer, which means I had an office and was working from 8:00-4:30. I was the liaison between the sheriff and the media, I designed the brochures, newsletters, did the annual reports, took the pictures, and worked on the website and much more. The problem is that I trusted in man and was fearful of seeing what was going on around me. By this, I mean there were several transfer lists that would come out throughout the year, which meant that people would be transferred from a position they liked to possibly working night shift in the back of the jail with the inmates. This was something that kept every employee walking around on egg shells because even if a mistake was made an employee they knew that they would be stripped of their rank (demotion) or their position and be cast into the back of the jail to work.
Everytime the transfer list would come out I would get nervous and would run to see if my name was on the list and it never was. So after doing this and being nervous for five years, my worst fear became a reality. In 2010, I was approached by the Undersheriff who was second in command and he said “Being that the canteen officer quit, we are going to put you in that position in the jail for only a few months until we find a replacement, then we will bring you back into the Public Information Officer position.” That few months that he promised me turned into 9 years.
But, this was all a part of YESHUA’s plan although I could not see it in the beginning. I was terrified going from an office position to suddenly being thrown into the back of the jail with inmates, especially with the mindset that I would never have to. The inmates knew I was a rookie and they approached me saying they were going to beat me up, they would call you outside of your name, and look for any flaw on you that they could expose so they could embarrass you to make you fold or quit. I want to be clear that not every inmate was that way at all, but I have to tell the truth of the experience and how it felt. I honestly did not know that people could be that disrespectful and cruel towards others, and I certainly did not know they had such little respect for authority.
When it was time to get off of work I would go home and figure out how to quit the job and it was so bad that when the alarm would go off in the morning that I would be upset, because I loathed going into that place. Every time I thought I had an opening to quit that job and start another it would always fall through. YESHUA quickly taught me that I had to lean and trust upon Him and after a few years I went from being afraid to being bold, I went from being quiet to spreading the gospel to the inmates five years later. YESHUA taught me how to trust in Him and not in man as I did in the beginning. I eventually saw that YESHUA was sharpening and strengthening me for the plans that He had for my life. If I could deal with being hated on that job by staff and inmates then I would be able to handle persecution for sharing the truth of His word today. Whenever we go through a situation it is for our good so that we can be a complete vessel for Him. An example of the trust YESHUA was developing in me was one day I went inside of the dayroom where all the inmates were housed and the door slammed shut behind me. At this time there were no cameras available and none of the deputies were around to let me out, so when I went to the door to look for someone to let me out I heard the door buzz and it supernaturally opened on its own. I remember saying to myself “YESHUA is with me!” Another example was one day I was on the loading dock letting a truck delivery in when my radio completely died. The central control room that controls the doors opened a door that I did not ask for and there was no way I could because my battery wasn’t working. Suddenly, a deputy came by and he seemed concerned to help me out. He leaves and immediately a supervisor shows up and questions me about the doors and not wanting to hear that the situation was out of my control, the supervisor takes me to the office and writes me up unjustly. Sadly, I heard that the deputy that came to check on me was the one who reported me falsely. I was amazed that he would do that to me and then a week later I heard he got fired. My heart was grieved for him losing his job, I tell this story to show that YESHUA was showing me that I do not have to fight my battles because He sees everything. As you can see by now, my faith was growing stronger and stronger; however, ELOHIM still had much work to do on me.
As mentioned earlier, 2015 was the beginning of me spreading the gospel, yet I was being a hypocrite because of the women I was involved with outside of marriage. I had no clue what was about to happen to me. Wednesday’s were my early days because I had to be at work at 5 am and get off at 1 pm. So when I left the jail that day I called my dad and we went and had lunch together. After we finished eating we walked to our cars and talked for a little bit and my dad said to me concerning my fornicating ways “You know what son, you don’t know what that is holding you back from!” Then I realized that I was a hypocrite and it really hit me. But of course I did not stop immediately because I was having too much fun; however, those words always stuck with me. So a few months later I visited a female and left around 3 am and suddenly I did not feel so good about my actions, I said to myself “what is the point in all of this?” And that night, I vowed to give my life to YESHUA and stop living in sin. I never would have known that this was the point that He was leading me to, because once I vowed to give my life to YAHWEH and live for His Son YESHUA is when He began to speak to me.
In the summer of 2015 I was leaving the grocery store called “Martins” before they closed, and this man stopped me, he was dark skinned with bright blue eyes and shorter than me and he said to me “You are special man!” By the time I digested what he said, I turned around and he was gone. I kept asking myself, what does he mean by that and why did he stop me of all people? Suddenly, I started to remember the white figure that I saw in my room that night when I was around 12 years old when I cried like a baby after watching YESHUA of Nazereth.
In October of 2015, I prayed and said “Jesus Son of God, I trust You!” I did not get a response that night. When we were going to the synagogue I learned that the Son’s Name was YESHUA, but I was still saying Jesus as I was still unlearning the traditions of men, also the synagogues called our Father Adonai and not YAHWEH! I did not know the Name YAHWEH until He revealed His Name to me several times that summer, everywhere I turned I saw YHWH on social media, in books, or heard it through people, but I was still using mainly God. But the very next night would be the change forever on why I call our Father YAHWEH and His Son YESHUA and never interchanged the Names ever again.
The next day I felt led to pray the same prayer using Their Names and I’m sure now it was the RUACH HA’KODESH speaking to me knowing what I know now. When I prayed using His Name saying YESHUA, Son of YAHWEH, I trust You!” I had a supernatural experience that night. I was laying in bed and suddenly I was awakened out of my sleep and felt a power rush through me and I could not control my movements. The presence took my right hand and placed it on top of the lamp that was next to my bed and immediately thought YESHUA is The Light of the World and I cried! I knew He was real! I always believed, but this type of experience is unexplainable. An encounter with YESHUA like this changes your life forever, you go from believing in Him to thirsting for Him and wanting to completely live for Him. As I was driving to work the next day I was listening to Paul Wilbur’s “The Watchman” and when he sings the chorus he says “When you lift up your voices and call on ELOHIM He will come!” And i wept so much I could barely drive, because I literally called on His Name and He revealed Himself to me. I have had many supernatural experiences, I even had one recently in March of this year 2021 while recording live on Periscope before it closed, I was told by one of the viewers that they could see incense in my room, but the thing is I don’t burn incense nor do I have any candles in my room. Prayerfully, I’ll upload the short clip for everyone to see.
Then in November of 2015, I had a very vivid vision that I will never forget. I was walking down a path and there were thousands of people behind me but I could not see their faces. I kept going until it came to a dead end (which I believe was the time I was proclaiming Judaism and its traditions)so i looked around and then I saw another path and walked on it and all the people were still following me. The path led to an open field and there was a house out in the middle of nowhere but the window was open. So I approached the window and looked in, but did not see anyone, then suddenly this man approached and said “Enter in all you saints!” I was relieved and I went through the window and then four more entered in behind me and then the man’s face got really angry and he slammed the window shut on the rest who were trying to enter. I will never forget the fierce anger in his eyes as he slammed the window shut because once He did I immediately woke up. And my first thought was, what is a saint? We often use words in our daily life without knowing what they actually mean. For example, you will look at someone and say “You ain’t no saint!” We always know that the word is used to mean something good or holy. So I immediately looked up the word and it said “One who has given his life to the One true ELOHIM and believes in His Son” or “a person acknowledged as holy or virtuous and typically regarded as being in heaven after death.” And Revelation 14:12 says
“Here are the endurance of the saints, here are those guarding the Commands of YAHWEH and the belief in YESHUA.”
I was truly amazed at this and I knew that YESHUA was calling me out of this world to serve Him. It tied in perfectly because since giving up fornicating that summer I began to purge things out of my life. To this day I realize how narrow the path is and I continue to learn and grow and I just want to be found worthy to stand before The Son of Man.
I immediately began to seek His face more and began unlearning Judaism. However, it took me 4 years to actually commit and serve Him full-time as I felt He was telling me. I was still working at the sheriff’s office but I was still writing and doing Periscope live stream videos when I got home. Things on the job began to worsen and I felt it was happening to force me out of my comfort zone to leave. My 8 hour position turned into a 13-16 hour position five days a week on top of being drafted once or twice a month on the weekend which would include night shift. I still refused to work on Shabbat, so I ended up working nights after the sunset or on Sunday and still have to go right back to the brutal hours for five more straight days.
One day I was tested by ELOHIM to see what I would do whether I would completely walk with Him or not. So a mandate went out to the entire jail telling all the employees that there was going to be a mandatory draft list which included working on the Shabbat due to the fact that the jail was so short staffed. I said “I will not work on the Shabbat, but will work any other day you need!” So sergeants and captains got involved and eventually I got called into the Major’s office and he and a captain told me it was necessary that I work on the shabbat or risk being fired. I told them that I would not work on the Shabbat for them or the president. And a comment was made by one of them that one of the judges in the courthouse was a Jew and he works on the Shabbat if the court case goes over its time and I said “I’m not him! I’m going to serve YAHWEH fully and obey His commands!” Everything that I have shared about how YESHUA was molding me to die to self and live for Him was for moments like these, that I would stand for Him no matter what and trust Him. I did not get fired and ELOHIM blessed me for standing strong for Him.
So I began to pray to ELOHIM if He wanted me to stay at the job or leave the job to serve Him. And everytime I asked Him, He responded immediately, but I pulled a Gideon! Remember, Gideon said “YAHWEH if it is You let the dew be on the fleece and not the ground” and it happened, then Gideon said “Let the dew be on the ground and not the fleece” and that happened too. The problem is that I had several confirmations, but I was scared to leave because of bills and a mortgage that I still have to pay to this day. So my faith was strong, but at this point it wasn’t strong enough, though I want to be clear we cannot do anything on our own strength we need the RUACH HA’KODESH!
In 2016 I prayed and asked ELOHIM if He wanted me to quit and on my way to work there was heavy traffic and I ended up getting rear ended, so the police got involved and I was out for about 5 hours and eventually went to work, and everyone said to me “what are you doing here? You got in an accident!” I have always been a loyal person and did not want to let anyone down. That was my first clue that YAHWEH had other plans for me.
The summer of 2018, I prayed to YAHWEH if He wanted me to stay or leave the job and immediately I ended up with the flu and was out of work for two weeks. I prayed again and ended up with a serious sinus infection and was out for another week. This is significant because I always went to work and was on time, when I left I had over 1100 hours of sick leave, so the point that I’m making is that when I prayed something would always happen to prevent me from going to work.
Then comes the big one on October 15th of 2018, we had just finished celebrating Sukkot/The Feast of Tabernacles a few days earlier when we are required to live outside in tents for 7 days. So when I went back to work I saw things on the job had gotten worse and it reminded me of the misery I felt on the job and began to think of the peace and connection I felt with ELOHIM dwelling in tents and focusing on Him. So that night I prayed when I got home from work and said “Father YAHWEH in YESHUA’s Name I see that you want me to quit, so do you want me to walk out or do you want me to put in a notice?” That night I had a vivid dream of me driving to work, but I forgot my uniform and my equipment.
Then the scene switched and I was driving my car and it completely died on me so that I could no longer drive it, so I walked home. The very next morning on the 16th of October, 2018 I got on the highway to go to work and there was heavy traffic again, just like it was when I got rear ended in 2016. It felt like deja-vu. So I merged onto the off ramp and happened to look in my rear view mirror when I saw a van coming at me full speed! He hit me so hard that the car flew three lanes across traffic without getting hit by another car. The force of the impact was so hard that I could not stop the car because the brakes stopped working. I had no clue how far I was going to go before the car would stop. When the car finally stopped, I got out and saw that the rear end was completely smashed, the window was blown out and the car was totaled. Then I realized that the dream the night before was a prophecy. This car accident kept me out from October 16th until November 12th.
At this point the answer was clear for me, but I still went back to work and the final confirmation happened a few months later. I went in that morning and felt like i shouldn’t have been there and I already knew this, so I prayed for the final time and asked yet again if I should leave. And when I got inside the jail literally 10 minutes after praying an inmate approached me from the “Special housing unit” these are the inmates that everyone thought was crazy. And he said to me “Powell, just do it!” I said “Do what?” He said “You already know, just do it!” I said to myself there is no way that he would have known my situation or my prayer and I knew that YESHUA was speaking through him to deliver the answer to me. I was so excited and knew what I had to do.
I remember my mom asking me when she wanted to know what I was going to do and I told her “I’m going to quit because I feel like if I ask ELOHIM again then I will get hit by an 18 wheeler and will not get another chance.” So in June 2019 I quit and have been working for YESHUA ever since then. Our Father YAHWEH and His Son YESHUA are so merciful and Their mercy endures forever! He loves us even though we have strayed and sinned against Him, yet He calls us out of the world to serve Him and that He can live in us. If you feel The RUACH HA’KODESH speaking to you and you are delaying to give your life to Him, I encourage you to do so because I am a living testimony. Answer the call and you will not regret it, because one of my fears was, what if I got so complacent with the world and its ways that I never would have left. We should all want to be on YAHWEH’s time and His economy versus that of the world. Let us all die to self and live for YESHUA who died for us and rose again!
All praises be to our FAther YAHWEH and His Son YESHUA!