Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Saved by Grace podcast, bringing you stories of hope, restoration, and God's faithful love.
Speaker: I'm your host, Sylvia Puentes.
Speaker: Hi, and welcome to another episode of Saved by Grace.
Speaker: I'm your host, Sylvia Puentes, and today I'm excited to have Josephine Daru on the show.
Speaker: Josephine is the author of Beauty for Ashes, Healing the Wounds of Your Soul to Receive True Deliverance.
Speaker: Josephine, welcome to Saved by Grace.
Speaker: Hi, thank you for having me.
Speaker: Josephine, today you're, so you've just written this book that basically just speaks on your testimony and your God story.
Speaker: It's a powerful book.
Speaker: It's
Speaker: already touching lives.
Speaker: It just got released earlier this month or about a month ago, right?
Speaker: Two weeks ago, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, awesome.
Speaker: So Josephine, why don't you start with giving us a little background on, you know, did you grow up in a Christian home?
Speaker: What's your faith background?
Speaker: Okay, so actually I grew up Catholic.
Speaker: We were very religious, church every Sunday.
Speaker: Yeah, so I grew up Catholic.
Speaker: I'm the oldest of five.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So you, you grew up Catholic and, um, you were, you had, did you have a true relationship with Jesus?
Speaker: Did you know Jesus like, you know, intimately, or did you know him from the religious aspect?
Speaker: The religious aspect.
Speaker: I did not know Jesus at all.
Speaker: We prayed to Mary.
Speaker: Uh, we did the rosary, like constantly.
Speaker: I had a rosary in my bag everywhere I went, we were always doing the rosary.
Speaker: Even if we took like long trips, I'd have the Mary statue with me constantly trying to keep us safe and stuff.
Speaker: So yeah, I did not know Jesus at all.
Speaker: The way I do now, I did not have a relationship with Jesus.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But a church, everything was like Mary focused.
Speaker: So yeah.
Speaker: So what happened that, you know,
Speaker: transition, well, transition, but brought you to that place of knowing really who God is, knowing Jesus and receiving him truly as your Lord and Savior?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So, um, yeah, so growing up, um,
Speaker: Like I said, we were very religious church every Sunday.
Speaker: My mom, she, we took a trip one day to the Philippines.
Speaker: We took a trip to the Philippines, I'm sorry.
Speaker: And she got hit with witchcraft.
Speaker: We came home and she felt like she was like dying.
Speaker: She had all kinds of symptoms of she couldn't eat.
Speaker: She was weak.
Speaker: She couldn't sleep.
Speaker: She was depressed.
Speaker: She kept going in and out of the ER and they couldn't find nothing wrong with her.
Speaker: And my dad happened to tell one of his coworkers who led us to a lady in our area,
Speaker: And they said she was a faith healer.
Speaker: And my mom was relieved because she was actually going to fly back to the Philippines to get healing because there's a lot of faith healers out there.
Speaker: So she was very relieved that there was one like 30 minutes away from our hometown, right?
Speaker: So she goes out there.
Speaker: And so I grew up knowing, like, I saw the supernatural right before my eyes.
Speaker: We went to this faith healer.
Speaker: And she, like, right when we walked in, there was, like,
Speaker: rows of chairs facing her way.
Speaker: She had Mary statues everywhere and she knew what was wrong with my mom.
Speaker: She knew that someone had done witchcraft on my mom, like in the Philippines, I guess someone was envious of my mom or something.
Speaker: And, um, so I saw like right before my ex, I saw my mom go through, like, she was like weak in bed and then all of a sudden she's like healed and doing normal things again.
Speaker: So we, I grew up going to this, this faith healer, um,
Speaker: And she was like a grandma to me, you know, like, so I grew up going to her and, and, and I just saw a lot of supernatural things happen.
Speaker: I never really went to the doctor.
Speaker: If something was wrong with us, we'd go to see her and she would heal us very supernaturally.
Speaker: So anyways, I grew up, I took my kids there and everything and fast forward in my adult life.
Speaker: I'm married and one of my close friends, um, like very close family friend, um, had flown in and I always had, uh, I don't know, just, I guess, I guess like weird vibes around her.
Speaker: And, um, and it was very weird.
Speaker: Like one day she just flew in, she wanted to come visit and I was like, okay, but there was like really weird vibes.
Speaker: And, um,
Speaker: she literally stayed for 24 hours after she left.
Speaker: Um, so after she left, I started to have panic attacks.
Speaker: I was depressed, had anxiety.
Speaker: Um, uh, it was bad.
Speaker: I was, I had thoughts of harming myself and, and I'm not a suicidal person.
Speaker: It just came out of like nowhere.
Speaker: I was having dreams of snakes and all this happened like, just like quick, like it was like overnight.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So I'm like, Oh my gosh.
Speaker: And, um,
Speaker: I'm sorry.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, um, so I knew that there's a spiritual thing and I kept going to the doctors, um, and they couldn't find anything wrong with me.
Speaker: So I was going to the doctors and they were saying that I had a postpartum depression and my daughter at the time is three years old.
Speaker: So I'm like, how could I have postpartum three years?
Speaker: How could that
Speaker: years later, you know, so, um, so I wasn't able to do the same things.
Speaker: Uh, I couldn't, I have three kids.
Speaker: I couldn't pick them up from school and drop them.
Speaker: Well, I couldn't do normal things.
Speaker: So I had to move back in with my parents who live like 10 hours North of me.
Speaker: And, um,
Speaker: my husband quit his job and I started looking for help.
Speaker: I Googled actually spiritual healers because the lady that I grew up going to, she had passed away.
Speaker: So I was like, okay, what do I do now?
Speaker: And I believe in the spiritual realm, right?
Speaker: The doctors weren't helping me.
Speaker: So I went, so I went online and I Googled spiritual healers and that led me to the occult into the new age.
Speaker: And I was,
Speaker: working with witches, with warlocks.
Speaker: Yeah, and we did rituals.
Speaker: When I contacted them, I told them what I was dealing with.
Speaker: And they were like, okay, you know, you pay this much amount, we can find out this and this.
Speaker: And they knew things about my background.
Speaker: They knew the girl's name, they knew things.
Speaker: And I was just like, wow.
Speaker: And I started dabbling into witchcraft.
Speaker: I saw crazy things.
Speaker: I was seeing like I saw demons.
Speaker: I saw Satan, you know, I saw crazy things happen.
Speaker: One of the witches while during the ritual, she actually got possessed in front of me and it was it was so crazy.
Speaker: But I
Speaker: Going through all this, actually, I was getting worse.
Speaker: So I just felt like I was getting weaker.
Speaker: I had more intense fear, unnatural fear, and it was bad.
Speaker: So I was literally isolated in my room.
Speaker: I couldn't even step foot out my house.
Speaker: I was so afraid even just to leave the house, almost like a spirit had me caved in.
Speaker: I was trapped in my room.
Speaker: And one day, it was my mom's birthday, and I remember one of the close family friends, she was there and she like walked upstairs and I came out to greet her and I literally saw black smoke fly off of her onto me.
Speaker: And it was so supernatural, like so sci-fi and I was like, oh my gosh, who's gonna believe this, you know?
Speaker: But I went to greet her and I saw it like literally like black smoke like fly onto me.
Speaker: And I was just like, okay, and I greeted her anyway, but then I went back in my room and I got on my knees and I was praying to Mary, like,
Speaker: Okay, I don't know what that was.
Speaker: Protect me, blah, blah.
Speaker: And then literally after that day, I felt like death.
Speaker: I was so weak.
Speaker: And I couldn't even walk from my bed to the bathroom.
Speaker: I had to get on my knees and crawl to the bathroom.
Speaker: I was so weak.
Speaker: I felt like death.
Speaker: And luckily, my mom was off that that following day.
Speaker: And I told her how I felt.
Speaker: And I was just like so weak.
Speaker: And she helped me.
Speaker: you know, just like food and everything.
Speaker: Cause I was just so weak.
Speaker: I couldn't do anything and you know, it was bad.
Speaker: And so my daughter, we were going to the Catholic church at the time.
Speaker: My daughter, I used to do,
Speaker: it's called a novena to Mary where it's like 90 day prayer, like stuff like that.
Speaker: And so I was doing that at the time, but there was a Jesus one that I never did.
Speaker: And my daughter was like, mom, why don't you try this one?
Speaker: Have you tried this one?
Speaker: I was like, oh, I never really prayed to Jesus before.
Speaker: And I was like, okay, I'll try it.
Speaker: So I did the, not even 90 days, I forget how many days it was, but I did the novena to Jesus.
Speaker: And I was doing that and I remember just feeling so weak and I just got on my knees
Speaker: And I, it was like, I just hit rock bottom.
Speaker: I was so weak.
Speaker: I had like no life in me.
Speaker: And I remember I had my music going.
Speaker: I just blasted my music and the door was closed and I just got on my knees and
Speaker: with my head on the ground and I was just groaning and crying out to God, like, God, help me.
Speaker: I know you're real.
Speaker: Like, I believe the supernatural realm.
Speaker: I know you can heal me.
Speaker: I don't know what's going on with me.
Speaker: The doctors don't know, like, what is going on?
Speaker: Like, why am I seeing all this?
Speaker: You know, I was just groaning and just crying out to God, like, where are you?
Speaker: Help me.
Speaker: I'll do anything you want, you know?
Speaker: And literally within that week, God put a lady, a Christian lady in my mom's path.
Speaker: And she called, my mom had told her what was going on with me.
Speaker: I mean, she called me and was like, hey, I'm a born again Christian.
Speaker: And I was like, what is that?
Speaker: I don't even know what that is.
Speaker: She was like, okay.
Speaker: She's like, well, I just want to pray for you.
Speaker: You know, if you want to come by to the church.
Speaker: And I was like, yeah, sure.
Speaker: She happened to live two hours away.
Speaker: So we went to go see her.
Speaker: We drove up to the church.
Speaker: And I'm thinking it's going to be like how I went to the super, I mean, the faith healer growing up.
Speaker: I'm thinking it's going to be something like that.
Speaker: So we get in the parking lot and I'm just like, I'm freaking out, not knowing.
Speaker: I'm like, why am I so afraid?
Speaker: Like, why?
Speaker: You know, like, I didn't understand it.
Speaker: And I was in the car trying to just contain myself and like, okay, Josephine, stop.
Speaker: I'm literally going to walk into the church.
Speaker: This is fine.
Speaker: Like, you know, like, chill out, you know?
Speaker: And so anyways, I get up the courage to go and I meet with these elders.
Speaker: There's probably like five, six of them.
Speaker: And they gather around me and they're like, tell us what's going on.
Speaker: And I'm sitting there just like shivering and shaking.
Speaker: And I tell them what's going on.
Speaker: They're like, okay, we're just going to anoint you with oil and pray for you.
Speaker: And then they just start praying and just commanding things out.
Speaker: And all of a sudden just...
Speaker: wails and screams and I was it was wild and I was like wow and it's crazy because I was still aware of what was going on so it's like I had the back seat and I'm washing but there's something else you can feel something else looking out my eyes and I was just screaming and they're like saying tell Jesus to come help you and they're like yell for Jesus and I was like Jesus help me but at the same time as I'm saying that these wails and screams are coming out of me
Speaker: And then all of a sudden it probably felt like a good five minutes.
Speaker: And then after that, it was just, I was at peace at complete peace and my body was relaxed and I was no longer cold, no longer shaking.
Speaker: And I was like, wow, that, that was Jesus.
Speaker: Like I just had an encounter with, with God.
Speaker: I knew he was there.
Speaker: I could feel him like literally pulling these things out of
Speaker: And I was just like, wow.
Speaker: And they were like, they told me, you know, they told me the gospel, which that was the very first time I ever heard it, that he died for me.
Speaker: And I was like, he died for me?
Speaker: Like, what?
Speaker: I never heard this.
Speaker: You know, and it was so powerful.
Speaker: And yeah, and that just changed my life.
Speaker: And I'm...
Speaker: I continued to go through deliverance after that.
Speaker: For the most part, a lot of the things got, were taken away, but I was still dealing with the fear
Speaker: So I continued to go through deliverance and the Lord revealed to me that there were doors open that generational curses that needed to be broken.
Speaker: So I went through this long, maybe like two and a half years and the Lord moved me to, he led me to a Holy spirit filled church, which I love my church right now.
Speaker: And it's a deliverance church and I got a lot of deliverance and healing there.
Speaker: So praise God.
Speaker: And that's all in the book.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Amen.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, um,
Speaker: the first thing that, you know, your story resonates a lot with my story.
Speaker: And as I'm hearing you, I'm reliving my own experiences.
Speaker: And, you know, one thing that I always share, and I know that sometimes it may be hard to hear, but that the spirit realm is real.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: You know, and just like God is real, the enemy is real.
Speaker: And he, you know,
Speaker: the witchcraft, the mediums, the tarot card readers, everything, they hear, they hear, but they're not hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So they're hearing a demonic spirit speak to them.
Speaker: And these spirits are familiar spirits, are monitoring spirits.
Speaker: And I know that this may all sound very...
Speaker: out there for some listeners, but you know, again, you know, the word says my people perish for lack of knowledge.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And you basically almost lost your life.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, I was suicidal when the Lord rescued me.
Speaker: So all of the path
Speaker: that the enemy takes us on unbeknownst to us, because I did not know that I was in the path.
Speaker: You know, I, I, I wasn't sure that God existed, but I sure didn't think that I was walking with the enemy, you know, and I'm sure the same for you and all of his path is a path of destruction.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And then Jesus says, but I have come that they may have life, life abundant.
Speaker: And,
Speaker: Your testimony speaks on he is faithful.
Speaker: He is loving.
Speaker: He is a deliverer.
Speaker: He's a healer.
Speaker: And today I was thinking about how the old man, when we receive Jesus as our Savior, and he just comes and he does a work in us that only he can do, right, of healing, of deliverance.
Speaker: He makes us whole.
Speaker: He doesn't patch us up.
Speaker: He makes us whole.
Speaker: And he says, come as you are.
Speaker: you don't have to try to figure this out i'm gonna you know through the power of the holy spirit i'm gonna do this that that um it comes to mind in second corinthians it says um you know when we receive christ we are the old man is gone and the new create and we are a new creation but it's a process to become that new creation right yeah we
Speaker: we may be instantly delivered from some things, but it's still a process to become that new creation.
Speaker: Like you still had to walk out deliverance for, from fear, you know, and all of that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And there's those things in my house, in my house that I had to get rid of.
Speaker: Like the Lord was just revealing things in the house.
Speaker: We had to literally clean house, you know?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I want to dwell in the house and I felt him telling me like, I can't dwell here as long as these things are here.
Speaker: Like they need to be out.
Speaker: So we got rid of,
Speaker: there was like, we had like Buddha statues and like, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I'm glad you bring that up because yes, that's another reality that things that were hanging on our walls and even music, you know, and again, this is not to be real, uh, religious mindset or anything, but you know, like, um,
Speaker: these will cause influences in our home.
Speaker: So like, like you said, you know, this Buddhist statue, I had tons of Buddhist statues throughout my house.
Speaker: Like, you know, yeah.
Speaker: And the Holy Spirit will walk you through.
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: And, and, and shine a light on that has to go, that has to go, that has to go in order so that, you know, his spirit can come in and just dwell and take over.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Amen.
Speaker: Amen.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I'm excited about your book and what God has already done and what he's going to continue to do.
Speaker: This is a powerful testimony on not only his love and his faithfulness, Josephine, deliverance as well.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And yeah.
Speaker: Share about your book.
Speaker: Okay, amen.
Speaker: Yeah, so the Lord, I wrote it in obedience to the Lord.
Speaker: He told me to write it.
Speaker: When I got saved after going through deliverance, I remember just being on the floor after deliverance, and then I was like, I telling my mom, I was like, I feel like God wants me to write a book.
Speaker: Like, I'm just hearing that right now.
Speaker: And she's like, okay.
Speaker: And then after more deliverance, I kept hearing that.
Speaker: I was like, I hear it again.
Speaker: Like, God wants me to write this book.
Speaker: And I was like, I never even thought of writing a book.
Speaker: You know, I don't know how to do that.
Speaker: And I remember we went to service one time,
Speaker: And we had an apostle come visit and the apostle called out.
Speaker: He said, someone in here is going to write a book.
Speaker: And he said, if God's putting on your heart, come, you know, come forward.
Speaker: And I remember I couldn't come forward because I was manifesting in the back.
Speaker: So I didn't even get to come up.
Speaker: But no one else came up and I knew that was for me.
Speaker: And I prayed like, God, if you want me to write this book, teach me, show me, you know, because I don't know where to start.
Speaker: I remember Googling stuff and I just didn't, I couldn't figure it out.
Speaker: And sure enough, he showed me that it was three years later and the book was a prayer three years later, praise God.
Speaker: And yeah, I just want people to know about deliverance.
Speaker: Like, you know, deliverance is like the enemy, like you said, is real.
Speaker: He's a real thing.
Speaker: And he kills, steal and destroy.
Speaker: And he doesn't want people to know he's a real thing.
Speaker: Just as much as God is real, the enemy is real.
Speaker: And he wants to keep people like, like he doesn't want them to know that he's real.
Speaker: Actually, I was saying that today, that one of the things that he does is to keep us in a place of thinking that he doesn't even exist.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because if he doesn't exist, we don't perceive him as a threat.
Speaker: Or if we knew that, that we were following him or, you know, anything like that.
Speaker: I mean, I always say he doesn't come dressed in a red cape with a pitchfork.
Speaker: You know, he comes in us in a way that we don't even realize that it's him.
Speaker: Um, and, um,
Speaker: And a lot of the things I was doing, I'm sorry.
Speaker: No, what I just wanted to mention, and then I want you to say what you're going to say.
Speaker: You mentioned generational curses.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So your mom had this sudden illness come upon her that completely debilitated her.
Speaker: And then basically that came upon you.
Speaker: you know, so, you know, generational curses are, you know, well, it's something that will get passed on from a generation to the next generation.
Speaker: And that's why it's so important that we just renounce and close the doors and, and just, um, you know, follow the Lord.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, it says the iniquity, the sins of our forefathers will fall to the third and fourth generation.
Speaker: So, uh,
Speaker: was a lot of occult practice and stuff, you know, unknowingly on my mom's side.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, but those are broken in Jesus name.
Speaker: But, um, and what she thought she'd got healing from the faith healer, actually after getting saved, my mom's now saved, my friends were saved after getting saved, that witch actually manifested through her during a prayer.
Speaker: So, and
Speaker: So it's nuts.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because, you know, that's where also the deceiving comes in.
Speaker: He will make it okay for some time, letting us think that everything is okay, you know?
Speaker: And that's just him deceiving us, the enemy deceiving us, you know, the demons deceiving us.
Speaker: to keep us in bondage.
Speaker: And, you know, and if we're in bondage, we can't, we don't even know that we can't get to the place of everything that God has for us, who we are called to be and what we are called to do, you know?
Speaker: Josephine, if there's a message and then I want you to share how, where can we go to get your book to keep in contact with you, connect with you, where can our listeners go?
Speaker: Um, okay.
Speaker: So you can get my book on Amazon.
Speaker: It's called beauty for ashes, healing the wounds of your soul to receive true deliverance.
Speaker: Um, so that's on Amazon and I, you can also get it.
Speaker: I have a website.
Speaker: It's, um, bloom B L O O M by Ava sky.
Speaker: That's A V A S K Y E. So I have a small shop that the Lord put on my heart.
Speaker: Um, so we, we make just like merch, like
Speaker: hoodies and teas and stuff with scriptures.
Speaker: That was like all I wore when I first got saved.
Speaker: It was just, you know, just having God's word.
Speaker: So yeah, I have the book on there as well.
Speaker: And what else was it that you wanted?
Speaker: And then how to stay connected with you.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: So I have Facebook, it's just Josephine Datu or on my Instagram.
Speaker: It's beautyforashesofficial.
Speaker: Awesome, awesome.
Speaker: If there's a word or a message that you can leave our listeners with, what would that be?
Speaker: Jesus loves you.
Speaker: Amen.
Speaker: Yeah, Jesus loves you.
Speaker: Hallelujah.
Speaker: Yeah, amen, amen.
Speaker: So Josephine, I went to the Lord asking him to impress a scripture on my heart for you, for you, for your testimony, and this is where he led me to.
Speaker: it's Romans 10, 14 and 15.
Speaker: So I'm going to read it to you.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: How then can they call on the one they have not believed in?
Speaker: And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?
Speaker: And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
Speaker: And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news.
Speaker: Amen.
Speaker: So I thank you, Josephine, for your obedience in writing this book.
Speaker: And I thank you for your obedience and giving God your yes.
Speaker: Because it's not only about you.
Speaker: It's not only about me.
Speaker: It's about the lives and the souls that are waiting for us to do what he's called us to do.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So thank you for being on.
Speaker: Thank you for sharing your amazing testimony.
Speaker: And go order her book.
Speaker: It's
Speaker: an awesome, amazing book.
Speaker: Um, revelation on deliverance.
Speaker: The spirit realm is real.
Speaker: Deliverance is real.
Speaker: Um, and like she said, Jesus loves you.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Amen.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Amen.
Speaker: Josephine, if you wouldn't mind closing us out in a prayer.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, sure.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So thank you, Father.
Speaker: Hallelujah.
Speaker: Thank you, Holy Spirit.
Speaker: I just thank you, Father God, for this live.
Speaker: I thank you for this opportunity, Father God, to just get on this live with my sister, Father, and just
Speaker: Lord, just share my truth, God, of what you did, God, that you are a healer.
Speaker: You are the deliverer, Father God.
Speaker: I just thank you, Father God.
Speaker: And I just pray that you give the viewers eyes to hear and ears to hear, Father.
Speaker: May you be glorified, Father God, through this life, Father.
Speaker: And I just thank you, Father God, for what you're doing, Lord.
Speaker: And yeah, I just praise you and I thank you, Father God, in Jesus' name.
Speaker: Amen.
Speaker: Amen.
Speaker: Well, this has been another episode of Saved by Grace.
Speaker: Look forward to seeing you next time.
Speaker: Thank you for tuning in to Saved by Grace podcast.
Speaker: Do you have a God story that you'd like to share with the world?
Speaker: If so, please send us a message to savedbygracepdcst at gmail.com.
