It's Supernatural

SID: Hello. Sid Roth here. Welcome to my world where it’s naturally supernatural. It’s been stolen. One of the most precious gifts given to man has been stolen. Either it’s been demoted to the back room within a congregation or kicked out of the congregation. And yet Paul himself says he did this more than any man. Well my guest Corey Russell came from a nice Christian home, gets to college and does what so many young people do, goes berserk, gets into drugs, sex, parties, everything that goes on in college today. But Corey, about how many years ago was it you were in college?

COREY: It was about 16, 17 years ago.

SID: Okay. Today it’s so much worse. The pressures these young people have to go under. I mean, I don’t know how they can even exist in the environment there in most colleges. But Corey, you had a friend, a best friend, Zach. Tell me about him.

COREY: Yeah. I mean, he was the one I was running with like most of those kids who are getting into college these days and just getting destroyed by the spirit of this age. I never knew Jesus for myself. So I found myself giving myself to the things of this world. It increases in college. I’m running with my good friend. We’re doing the drugs.

SID: It’s addictive.

COREY: Oh yeah.

SID: Which means you just keep going deeper and deeper, and deeper.

COREY: Deeper. And the big drive for me was how high can I get. It was a seek for pleasure.

SID: Wait a second. Even though you didn’t have an encounter with the Lord, you knew you had a bit of a foundation. Wasn’t there any conflict at all?

COREY: There was initially. But I think the more and more that you just begin to get deeper and deeper into this water, you just find yourself to where you’re being pushed by a current that you don’t drive it any more, and that you’re being pushed along a stream, and you don’t make the decisions any more. And so everything was gone with the wind. It was a cry for pleasure, how high can I get. We were doing the drugs that keep you up four and five days a week at a time. My friend who had a praying mom, I had a praying mom, we had intercessors crying out for us, in November of ’96, my friend lost his mind for a season. He went out a little too far on drugs, and for the next four months he would sit there. He would look real deep at you, but never say anything. And were saying, what in the world is going on with him. Little did we know that there was a real war in the heavenlies going on over his soul. It culminated on February 1, 1997. I showed up at his house another day to hang out with him. He comes running out the front door, screaming, “Corey, it’s Heaven or Hell! Corey, it’s Heaven or Hell! You got to make a decision.

SID: You figured he really flipped.

COREY: Oh yeah. I’m like, this is the first real conversation I’ve had with him in so many months and he’s talking about Heaven or Hell. What in the world is wrong with him? And so I said, “What’s wrong with you?” He goes, “You got to make a decision.” I end up leaving. And it was known that his mom, a praying woman, led him through three days of a supernatural deliverance, pulled the power of the devil off of him and brought him back to the Lord. He gets saved and I get angry. Two weeks later he shows up at the university that I was at and he takes me to lunch, and he begins to share with me everything that was going on with him for those four months. He says, “Corey, for those four months the whole spirit realm was opened up to me. I was seeing angels. I was seeing demons. I was seeing what was controlling people. And Corey, I can see that you’re being controlled by real things that you don’t know about.” He said, “This went on for these four months and it culminated in the very last night. We were shut up in a little house and the voice of the Lord broke in the middle of our party, and the Lord said, ‘Satan is raising up an army, but I’m raising up an army, too, and I’m calling you out tonight, and I want you to go call your friends out.'”

SID: So how did you react?

COREY: I’m freaking out. I don’t know what in the world are you talking about. First off, for him to tell me I have demons or I have spirits that are attacking me, I’m like, how dare you. I put up with you as a good friend while you acted weird for four months. I said, “Dude, just shut up and take me back to school.” And so he takes me back to the college. By this time I had two DWI’s. My license was gone for 16 months. He pulls into the college parking lot and right before I get out of the van to say good-bye to him forever, the Holy Spirit filled the van. I didn’t know it was the Holy Spirit. I began to feel a presence enter the van and I’m literally feeling it come across my body, and before I know it, I’m beginning to shake violently like I’m having a seizure. I mean, literally like I’m having a seizure. And I began to see flashes of light and darkness like a tug of war battle in the spirit over my soul. And I felt that there was a real battle over every soul. He pulls in the back of the parking lot and he starts praying. And after a little bit he goes, “In the name of Jesus, I bind the Antichrist spirit.” As soon as he binds that spirit it manifests into a choke hold around my throat. I didn’t know what was happening. I just knew I couldn’t breathe.

SID: Something was choking you.

COREY: Yes. The demon manifested and I couldn’t breathe. And at that moment I had all these objections to Jesus mostly because you get saved when you’re older in life. You spend these years having fun and Christianity is something you do later. At that moment I knew I had to get out the name Jesus. I had to get out the name Jesus. So I go to say the name and I went, “Jeez” and the hole got tighter. “Jeez”, it got tighter. Sid, I tried about five or six times trying to get the name out, “Jesus” and the spirit would not let me say his name. My buddy is in my ear saying, “Say it! Say it! Say it!” I said, “I’m trying! I’m trying! I’m trying!” Finally I just remember taking a deep breath and with all the power inside of me just going, “Jesus!” like that, and the hole just breaking right off of me. And it was like someone came and breathed right into my mouth. And after a couple of moments I kept just saying, “I got air. I got air. I got air.” And then I heard a voice in my mind saying, “Now get out of the van, get on the pavement and give me your life. You’re mine.” Just like that. I jump out of the van, February 18, 1997. By those days we were sticking needles in our veins, smoke a bag a day, drink a case a day, threw away sexuality throughout those teenage years. And one touch of the supernatural power of God brought instantaneous deliverance, salvation and freedom right there.

SID: You’re telling me no withdrawal?

COREY: No withdrawal.

SID: Now that’s my kind of drug-free program. But what happened? You went back to your old high school. They probably couldn’t even recognize you.

COREY: Well I was in college at the time and I had a drug room of friends. My little brother, who was in the high school, was running with us. All of us had encounters like that one or bigger in their explosions. I end up leading my little brother to the Lord, who goes crazy for Jesus in the high school. And over the next six months we begin to see half the high school get saved and come to the Lord.

SID: Whoa. You’re exaggerating. Half the high school?

COREY: Half the high school was either coming back to the Lord, the backslidden and coming back, either saved for the first time, baptized with the Holy Spirit. Something was happening with over half of the high school.

SID: I’m going to tell you something, and I’m going to tell you something. Shortly after Corey had that experience he tapped into the greatest supernatural power of his life. You think that was something what you just heard, wait until you hear about this dorm that opens up everything you’ve ever wanted with God. Don’t go away. We’ll be right back.