This man right here went from being a sold-out atheist wanting nothing to do with God to having such a radical change that now he is preaching across the world to millions of people, sharing his testimony and seeing the captives set free.
Growing up, Isaiah Saldivar recounts many times that the enemy (Satan) tried to end his life. In fact, he had so many near-death experiences that his family members would say, "Man, Isaiah must have a strong calling in his life."
He almost drowned as a child; he fell out of a car and was dragged underneath a trailer for about a mile. He even accidentally hung himself when he was 12 years old.
Let's talk about that.
One day he was hanging out with a friend in this big metal barn, and there was this long metal chain hanging that was used to pull out engines and transmissions.
Isaiah would say on the Sid Roth show that he just got done watching American Outlaws, where they were hanging the outlaws, and as a joke, he put that chain around his neck and started swinging on the chain, telling his friend, "Hey, look at me, I'm Jesse James."
As they were just messing around as kids do, as he was swinging there, he noticed his friend riding his bike around, and then he headed out of the barn. He just remembers swinging there in the barn all by himself.
Now to mention, he was hanging about four to six feet off the ground with his hands by his sides while looking at his feet. This chain was so tight that it was actually strangling him. The way this chain was wrapped around him, there was no way he could have gotten himself out of it, as his body weight was pulling on the chain, which was causing it to tighten.
Then something unexpected happened.
He could feel these soft hands come between his neck and this chain that was wrapped and twisted around his neck. The chain opened up, and he fell to the ground.
He immediately crawled to the side of the barn, trying to catch his breath as he was struggling to breathe, while at the same time bleeding from his neck. He looked back at the chain where he was just hanging, and the loop in the chain that his neck had been wrapped up in was so tight that at that moment he realized something supernatural happened, that something was fighting for his life. It was like something wanted him dead, and then something else wanted him to live. Not knowing that it was God keeping him alive that day.
For about 2 weeks, his neck was bruised and cut up from that chain. His parents thought maybe he was suicidal, but Isaiah would state many times that he was never suicidal; he was just making a joke, and it didn’t turn out as he planned.
Another time, as a teenager, he overdosed. Doctors stated that he should be dead, and they did not understand how he was still alive; it was a miracle.
Then a month before he got saved, he was at a hotel party and he was on the 13th floor. It was about two o'clock in the morning when all of a sudden he heard this voice telling him to jump off this balcony that he was on.
Again, Isaiah states that he was never suicidal; he never wanted to end his life.
So while he was at the hotel, this overwhelming voice, as he puts it, was saying, "Jump, just jump off this balcony." It was so overwhelming that he actually found himself looking over the edge of the balcony.
At the same time, he was hearing this voice telling him to jump. He heard another voice saying, "Go lie down and go to sleep; go lie down and go to sleep."
He backed away and went back inside, and yes, he eventually ended up going to sleep. Not knowing or even having a clue that he was going to be saved a month later,
In January 2011, Isaiah was a self-proclaimed atheist. He grew up in a Christian home, going to church as a kid but not really knowing who Jesus really was. and as he grew older, he pretty much started to reject God all together and have nothing to do with Him.
His whole life was described as this two-sided personal life, where on one hand he was a smart kid, a straight-A student, did well in school, and he even graduated at the age of 16 and went to college, but on the other hand, he has this dark side to himself.
He was really into music; he was in a metal band. Living such a dark and sinister life behind closed doors.
On one day, Isaiah's sister was begging him to go to church, and she would say, "Just go to church one time, Isaiah." and he would respond that he didn’t believe in God and didn’t want to go.
After months of his sister begging him to go to church with her, Isaiah gave in. He told his girlfriend and said, "Hey, lets just get her off our backs and just go one time."
This was a moment in Isaiah's life that would forever change his life.
In January 2011, Isaiah stepped through the front doors of the church and could already feel that something was different. (You can catch the full video on Rooted Expeditions) Isaiah, his girlfriend, and a friend sat in the very back of the church. As the service was going on, he would make these inappropriate jokes about the pastor's wife to his friend, pretty much making a mockery of the whole situation at the church.
As he was sitting there in church, he heard the preacher say during the altar call, "If you want God, if you want to encounter God, come forward."
Now, if you didn’t know, an alter call is when people come down to the front of the church where the stage is, where the preacher usually preaches, and this is where there would be an encounter with the Holy Spirit in some type of way, whether it be healing, prayer, or in this case, a first-time encounter with God the Father.
At this moment, it wasn’t a joke anymore; this was something real. He felt something pulling on his shirt, not knowing it was the Holy Spirit drawing him in, as the scripture says, "No one comes to the Father except through Jesus Christ." Which is the Holy Spirit. (John 14:6, "Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life."
He could feel that something was drawing him to the altar. He didn’t understand or know why this was happening, and surprisingly, he went all the way down to the front of the stage.
As he was at the altar, he closed his eyes and said, "God, I don’t eff'n believe in you, but if you're real, I'll give you everything." He said if he moves out of state, he will break up with his girlfriend. He would even leave the job he had set up for law enforcement.
He said all that, believing God wasn’t real, but even as an atheist, as he was saying all that, somewhere deep down in him, at that moment, he wanted God to be real.
Then as he said those things, immediately he heard the audible voice of God say, "Isaiah." Now this shook him to the core, because he actually heard God speak and call him by his name. He was thinking, out of the billions of people in this world, he called him by his name!
God spoke and said, "Isaiah, I don’t want 99.9% of you; I want everything. I want all of you." After God spoke this, he went into this trance and received a vision; he could see these bright lights. It was like he was in another world, another dimension of some sort.
He wasn’t at the altar any more; he was somewhere else. As he was in this trance, God began to speak to him and told him that he was going to preach to all nations, that he would travel, and that he was going to see revival.
What he saw 12 years ago is exactly what God is doing in his life today. This was a true radical change.
So he comes back from this trance or out of body experience, and he finds himself back at the alter and finds himself shouting and speaking in tongues. Immediately he tried to cover his mouth, like what is happening here, having no clue what he was saying.
He finds his girlfriend standing by him, not knowing how long she had been there as he walked up to the altar by himself, and he didn’t want her to think he was crazy for speaking in tongues. He couldn’t contain what was flowing through him. He was crying. And if you knew Isaiah, then you would know he was not the type of person to cry for anything, for anyone; his heart was that hard.
Many might not believe this encounter, but this was such a supernatural and radical change. He even had literal dirt coming out of his eyes—not spiritual dirt—but he was actually wiping his eyes and there was this dirt coming from his eyes.
At the time, he didn’t know that the scripture speaks of dirty scales coming off, like what happened to Saul before he was surnamed Paul.
At the time, he just knew something was coming out of his eyes. And as this was happening, the pastor on stage started speaking and saying, "Right now, God is moving the dirty scales off of your eyes."
When service was over, it was like Isaiah was a completely different person; nothing looked the same, the church looked different, and the people looked different. Colors looked different; everything had changed.
He told his girlfriend, "Hey, I just have to get home." When he got home, he started throwing away everything that didn’t have to do with God; he was throwing away movies, his music, and even his video games. Anything that was going to get in the way between him and God, he was throwing away. He stayed up for like three days just crying and trying to get closer to God.
He was seeing things in such a spiritual way that he was seeing angels and demons around his college campus. Even though he went to church as a kid, he had no idea about spiritual gifts.
It was like one second he was a self-proclaimed atheist, and now he is an all-in believer in Christ. He broke up with his girlfriend, and he dropped out of college with one month left to graduate, at which point he would become a police officer.
At this point, Isaiah was sold out to Jesus.
He immediately started preaching and sharing his testimony with hundreds and hundreds of people who would come to his house. He would preach to his family and friends; he was seeing people accepting Jesus in their lives, being healed, being delivered from demons, and it started all inside his home, which, by the way, he was living with his parents at the time. This all happened within the first year of his being saved.
12 years later, his fire and excitement for God continue to grow.
Isaiah has witnessed and continues to witness God working a miracle in his life. He has preached and reached millions of people across the world. He even has his own YouTube channel. (Isaiah Saldivar) What God has done in this man's life is another example of what God can do in yours.
That does it for today's supernatural story. Until next time, God bless.
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