My Journey

By Percy Jones

I want to thank God and the Lord Jesus Christ for using me to write such a great story. I was in the music business for twenty-six years and had only minor success and I retired from the business with the satisfaction that I gave it my best effort, but also a what if I would have made it sigh in my heart. I loved God and served him for many years, but nothing could prepare a person for something like this. The table cracking during the writing sessions reminded me of a teacher hitting the desk with a ruler to get the class to be quiet. Make no mistake about it the good Lord loved for me to sing to him the different gospel songs that I mentioned in the book and even some of my own songs from time to time but playing around and joking were not taken kindly of when it was time to go to work. I was disobedient one time during the process and I felt a burning pain in my foot after one of the writing sessions that I talked about in the God will not be mocked chapter of the book. The bottom line is we really are made in the image of God and we were intended to dwell with him on a daily basis. My point is that the veil was gone. That's how close we are to God. We think of God in some faraway place and he is, but he is also right beside us and he really wants to commune with us as a Savior who understands what we go through and feel. I want to thank everyone that helped me along the way especially my fiancée, Diamond. I also want to acknowledge my roots from southern Virginia to my current home in Fort Washington, MD. The events in my journey were incredible, but the main point was what my Savior Jesus Christ told me on the day he blessed me to have his spirit, "Tell my children to get right. I am coming back soon." Look at the events in the world now. Hey children of God, get right.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9781642582093

Book preview

What Is Happening To Me Am I Losing My Mind

Saturday, 06-03-17. Sitting in the gazebo enjoying the day feeling good. I had been going through a lot of what I thought were serious anxiety attacks that the Lord had delivered me from about three months earlier that had lasted about six months. The last three months of it were extreme bouts of a feeling of fear for no reason; just doing things that I normally would do. I have been driving trucks, dump tractor trailers, cranes, all kinds of heavy construction equipment; although sometimes the work could be dangerous and scary, this was nothing like that. I continued to pray, read my Bible, and talk to my pastor and sister to help me through it. I guess they thought it was stress since I had been going through so much for the last six or seven years. As hard as things would get, God kept me and kept seeing me through it all. At first, the problems and issues seemed normal, just a lot of them at one time, several months at a time before things would get better. In December 2009, I had my own tractor trailer and was making good money even though I worked a lot of hours, so I was not very concerned about it until about two weeks later when I lost the contract for the truck. Here we go. Money was very tight, but I continued to move forward trusting God. Let’s be clear. I really did trust God, but when you are in the storm, you can and at times will doubt God. I used to ask my sister– and brother-in-law about the difference in believing in God and what’s going to happen anyway. I eventually got my answer. Faith . That’s it, faith . If you have enough faith to pray to God, that’s all the faith you need. You see, I said I got my answer eventually, God’s time, not my time. I kept moving forward kept seeking God. Really, that’s all you can do. I was renting rooms for four years to rental applicants through an ad. There had to be at least ten to twelve people during that time or maybe more. I did meet and rent to two good dudes who stayed around for a year or so and helped to give me some stability and a feeling of family opposed to a rental business. In 2015, I met Diamond. Her name is Teresa, Teresa Gilchrist. We grew very close, very quickly. She lived in Laurel, MD, and I was and still am living in Fort Washington, MD. Still . After all the struggles. I was trying to walk with God and I was walking with God, but I still had junk in my life. A hustler. Not a drug hustler even though I have sold drugs before but not all that. I have always worked since I was fourteen. Raised well with my sister that’s a year older by my father, Rev. Percy W. Jones Jr. I sure do miss him. Okay, back to it. Diamond moved in with me eight months later and rented out her townhouse. Now, although that seemed spiritually wrong, and it is, it was a welcome to me. I was here and she was there, spending a lot of time together, so why not?

Fast-forward to around the end of March 2017. I had been spending a lot of time in my bedroom across the hall since I smoked cigarettes and I was defending myself in a court proceedings. Been studying law for several years and I do have skills. The outcome didn’t go in my favor and I was really legally ripped off, but that chapter is not over yet. A few times by the end of March to Saturday, 06-03-17, I had been feeling a demonic pull on my mind. I would pray about it and it would go away. One time, I had to get out of bed and go across the hall and really get a strong hold of God’s word, feeling that the demons were trying to possess me. Again, the Holy Spirit came through and the feeling left me. Woo! What is this? Why is this happening to me? I know I have some issues, but I still serve the Lord, so what’s happening? During that two- or three-month period at times, I was being seriously spiritually disciplined and had to get the gateway sins out of my life. I had been looking at porn pretty heavily and at times wondering why, because once the physical release comes, then here comes the guilt. Same thing with sex, I just started feeling real guilty about sex, like I did when I was going through the process of quitting drinking and smoking weed in 1998 but way stronger. I would pour a drink and try to bargain with God to let me drink it. This was not that. Not only did I feel like I was losing my mind, I also felt a strong demonic pull on my thinking.

Saturday 06 03 17, Feeling good looking at the sky and trees and listening to my tunes through my iPhone and my little portable speakers (love ’em) and most of all in my right mind, I really started to ponder that and how good God was to me. Just thinking that if God took his hands off me, I would be gone. So I was just talking to God, just grateful that he had kept me in my sound mind and thoughts of people who are not. Yes, there are some very unfortunate people in the world who were born or have had some type of brain trauma that affects their normal ability to think, so I was thanking God for maintaining mine and for that demonic pull not getting me. I said, Lord, I know I’m supposed to be doing a work for the kingdom, but I don’t know what it is right now, so I’m just going to enjoy this time of peace. I remembered once it was over the last time how good I felt, not the couple of times here and there but that ongoing six months period. A little later in the day, I felt that demonic pull again, really strong. I immediately prayed and cast it down in the name of Jesus. Oh no you don’t devil. You won't steal my joy, and it went away quickly. Now quick background. Raised knowing God. Been serving God for years, pushed forward in my gospel hip-hop career if you want to call it that and I knew that I had a good foundation in the word of God and had been seeking God daily. Not holier than thou but you know what I mean. Later that night, Diamond and I met with two of her sisters at a club in DC. Mixed spot all nationalities, a jazz spot, it was cool. Hadn’t been there long and, bam, here it goes again, strong, really strong. Now, I had not gone to the club much in the last couple of years especially without Diamond. You know how that is when you have someone in your life, there is no need to look anymore. And since she may read this someday, Diamond is beautiful, real talk. I couldn’t sit still, and a couple of days ago, she said she did notice it like what’s wrong with him? Why can’t he sit still? I was scared. I mean really scared. I didn’t know what was happening in my head. I had started researching demonic attacks about a month or so earlier and didn’t know if that’s what was going on or had I really done something wrong that I was not aware of. One night when it happened, I threw away all the porn in the house. It was not a lot, only four or five DVDs, and mostly where most people view it right on your phone. I haven’t watched any since and won’t. While I’m writing this, Lord God, please keep me from all temptation. Same with sex. I just told Diamond one day that I felt that it was drawing me from the Lord. She said she understood and respected what I was saying and that her respect for me grew with telling her. I need to give her the ring anyway.

Chapter 2

Holding Onto God’s Word For Dear Life

Monday, 06-05-17. The thoughts had kept going like that, a very strong demonic pull on my mind with heavy feelings of fear. Lord, I’m about to have a nervous breakdown. Way too many pain killers and coffee. Maybe the painkillers were effecting my mind. I have been taking pain killers for twelve years. For the most part, I take too many at times, but that’s the catch twenty-two with painkillers. If you really need to take them for any extended amount of time, you will be hooked on them. Now, I’m not as bad as I used to be. At one time, I was gobbling those things down like candy. The strong ones too, oxy 40 mg: four, five, and six a day. I didn’t snort them or shoot up or anything like that, but addiction is addiction. That’s why I really didn’t want to take them at first. I had a head injury at work in 2005, and had developed migraines along with severe back problems and a recent knee and shoulder surgery. Okay, so my body is tore up, but those pills can get a hold of you careful or not. Only by God’s grace am I still here. I called my sister and brother in law and they prayed for me, and again, those thoughts went away. That’s the (two or three are gathered) praying that connects to the Lord’s presence and he answers your combined faith. I felt better, but I was still worried actually thinking that I may not be strong enough spiritually to fight it if it continued to happen. I went to bed, but the next day, it came back. A thought, fear, dwelling on the thought and then consumed by the thought. This went on until Monday, 06-05-17. I was in the dump truck in Rockville out of my mind, couldn’t even think straight in a full panic. I kept praying, but it didn’t seem to be helping. I was supposed to be taking a load of stone to a site in Capital h eights, but I didn’t know where I was going even though I had been doing trucking in the same area for thirty-one years. I cried out to God, Lord, if it’s going to be like this, just take me now. I would rather lose my life than lose my soul from you. Somehow, I made it back to the quarry in Rockville, talking to my sister for a good bit of the time. She got upset with me, but I knew she didn’t understand that this was no panic attack or stress. This was something else. I asked God whatever this is to please please please give me peace and what I need to make it through it. I had been tried by the spirit before but never like this. Yeah, I have heard the verses from 1 Peter 4:12. Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you. This was a full blaze. In a few moments, a kind of calmness came over me, very very faintly telling me to hold onto the word of God. I was able to hold on not for dear life because at that time, life was really not a greater feeling than my soul being safe with Christ. By no means was I a spiritual giant, and to be honest, separation from Christ and going to hell had mostly been my driving force to serve the Lord; but over time, my faith and wanting to serve God grew. Back to it, during the week daily, I had to run to God’s word to get through every minute of the day to make it through each day . I was scared the whole time.

Friday, 06-09-17. I was working out of a site on Landover Road. I had every spiritual thing I could get my hands on. I had for many years listened to Christian radio in the mornings at work from the days of being in the tractor trailer between three and five in the morning until about eleven thirty. I had just got loaded and was pulling out to go dump the load when one of my favorite ministers came on and I found the teachings to be helpful over the last few years. I heard point by point steps on how to put on the armor of the Lord and how to pray to use it and to protect yourself from demonic attacks. For the next week every day, the sermons were on demonic attacks and a divided mind and how to protect yourself and how to be free of any demon that may have gotten into you. For years, I heard about putting on the armor of the Lord but was never told how to do it other than praying about it. I was on that word so hard I cared less about the job and pulled across the street into the gas station parking lot to get a pack of cigarettes and to hear the whole message and to write it down. I couldn’t keep sitting there, so I pulled a few blocks down the street into another parking lot and looked up the ministry to download the sermon. I sat there for a good forty minutes rewinding over and over not to miss one bit and wrote down every instruction and cried out to God right there in the truck to save me and forgive me. Later that evening, I talked to my sister who I know was getting tired of me, but she would never say that (thanks sis, I love you) and I told her what I had heard. She said she had never heard it either, but she was glad that I had gotten something to encourage me and keep me going. If I recall everything right, I do believe the minister also said to keep standing on the word, it will be hard but not impossible. Each day, the demonic attacks continued, each day getting stronger and stronger. I thought that I was about to be posed or that a demon had gotten into my mind even though I had not been involved in anything that would allow it. The minister said that day that once you are saved, you can’t be posed. The following scriptures became my rock:

GREATER IS HE THAT IS IN ME THAN HE THAT IS IN THE WORLD. (1 JOHN 4:4)

NO WEAPON FORMED AGAINST YOU SHALL PROSPER. (ISAIAH 54:17)

THEREFORE SUBMIT TO GOD RESIST THE DEVIL AND HE WILL FLEE FROM YOU. (JAMES 4:7)

Over the next few days, the demonic attacks continued stronger and stronger each day. Let me explain what I mean by demonic attacks. Not only in my mind, but in my mind’s eye. I have seen demons, demonic eyes and the devil’s tail. There would be incredible amounts of demonic pressure and force on my head with overwhelming feelings of fear and panic. But each time, I stood on the word of God those attacks would come off of me, not go away. You could tell that they were right there waiting for me to let go of God’s word. By this time, I had built up an army of scriptures to apply. Some were about peace to keep going:

BE ANXIOUS FOR NOTHING, BUT IN EVERYTHING BY PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION, WITH THANKSGIVING LET YOUR REQUEST BE MADE KNOWN TO GOD, AND THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING, WILL GUARD YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS THROUGH CHRIST JESUS. (PHILIPPIANS 4:6–7)

YOU WILL KEEP HIM IN PERFECT PEACE, WHOSE MIND IS STAYED ON YOU, BECAUSE HE TRUST IN YOU. (ISAIAH 26:3)

Chapter 3

The Power Of The Word Of God

There is a reason that I am writing these scriptures in capital letters throughout. They saved me. My life, my mind, and, most importantly, my soul. Here’s a couple of notes: (1) Once you are saved, you can’t be lost. (2) Whatever reason that you have that helps you to hold onto God, use it. Love, God has delivered you from something. You were raised in a family that taught God’s word to you or you just don’t want to go to hell. Whatever the reason, use it. During this time period, God was teaching me and giving me the strength to get through not only each day but each second. Yes, each second. Psalm 23 and I know this one by heart: THOUGH I WALK THROUGH THE VALLEY AND THE SHADOW OF DEATH I WILL FEAR NO EVIL FOR THOU ART WITH ME. I know that’s not all of it, and I don’t know how many times I said it, but that line leaped off the page into my soul. But that was not all of it. It didn’t just leap into my soul. It leaped into my mind, somewhere down the line even though I was going through these demonic attacks and yes even the devil himself. I started to say the word of God, these scriptures, and a whole lot more; and my confidence began to rise, not in myself but in the word of God. Somehow I came to know that once the attacks started to immediately grab my phone and read the word. Okay, not reading the word. I was yelling the word, over and over and over.

Monday, 06-12-17. Over the last couple of months, I had worked out of a site in DC and it was fairly chill. As soon as I had gotten my load and pulled out, my right rear tire caught a sharp piece of concrete that an excavator operator had been breaking up not too far from us that had rolled in the lane. All I heard was a pop. Most or all truck drivers know that sound. I got out and went around to that side of the truck a little upset and a curse word came to me, but I didn’t curse. I really didn’t want to either. It just came to me but had no effect. I had to take the truck to the tire repair shop not too far from the site. While I sat in the truck waiting for the owner to call me back, it was just the break I needed. That seemed to happen when I needed it, looking back on things. I was able to sit at the site way longer than I would have been able to. I would have been able to hear the word, but I would not have been able to take notes from it like I did while I was sitting there. When I went to get the tire repaired, one of the attacks came. I read God’s word. Read it, didn't stand on it. My feet were too shaken to really stand, but I did the best I could; and you know what, it was enough. God showed up. The spirit, I mean, showed up. Later that evening, I went to my doctor’s appointment and to the pharmacy. While in the doctor’s office, the attack tried to come on me, but I was able to stand on the word a little better. As I rode down the street, a kind of a spiritual swoosh went threw me. I began to praise the Lord and really felt better, hoping that it was finely behind me. Before I left the pharmacy to go home, I had a weird thought that I had done something to make it go away, even though I knew the thought was not right. That was not my doing. That was God’s doing. Hey, Buster free is free. Take it and go on.

Wednesday, 06-14-17. I got up that morning and went to work, but the truck needed repairing so I went back home. On the way back home, here it goes. Like I said each day, the attacks got worse and stronger. I felt the attacks, but I also felt the Holy Spirit, like back and forth. I was talking to myself quite a bit the entire time, but I do truly believe the Holy Spirit was helping me in some way. I was thinking about everything. All the things that may be keeping me bound. Cigarettes and the painkillers, what else? Something told me don’t worry about the other stuff, get free first, and we will deal with that later. By the time I got home, I had enough and I was going to pray and call on God and do whatever I had to do to get this thing off of me. I had been praying and seeking God every waking minute and the sleeping minutes were no good either. I went in my house and went up to my bedroom, praying on the floor, in my chair, crying, snot running down my nose, yelling that’s it: you not taking me over. I served the one true living God. Yes, I said that and I knew that, but this was not oh Lord, I don’t have money to pay my bills or I lost my job. So I said it and that’s what I did. I pumped my spiritual self-right up, and you know what? It didn’t work. Yes, I did okay for a few; but then, I actually heard one of the demons laughing at me, and then, it came to my mind that I still have you bound with the painkillers and the cigarettes, so I still have a gateway. I got up and first broke two packs of cigarettes up. Broke them up so I couldn’t retrieve them. Then, I took the whole bottle of pain pills that I had just gotten and flushed them down the toilet. Now, while I was going through this spiritual rampage, I felt what I believed to