Testimony of Faith - Gabriel Chavoya, Part 2

From the Streets to the Altar Editor's Note: In our last issue, we introduced Brother Gabriel Chavoya who was born in Santa Clara, California, and was raised just south in the large metropolis of San Jose. When he was a young child, he saw his brother go to prison as an accessory to a gang murder. He promised himself that he would not get involved with that life style, but coming into junior high in East San Jose he was lured by drugs into becoming a gang member. He admits that the mentality of being part of the gang is twisted, almost brainwashed to believe that your "homies" are family, and criminal activities, including injuring rival gang members or robbing the innocent, are necessary to protect the gang's turf and securing respect for his gang. Gabriel knew this was against what was taught in his mother's pentecostal church, but he grew up into adulthood never really committing his life at the altar. He was baptized with the Holy Ghost in his early twenties, but he hesitated to be baptized in water for the remission of his sins. The lure of the gang life was too strong for him to resist. We left off in Part 1 where he reaches rock bottom. He has never returned a rental car, he has been involved in a police chase from which he escaped, but now he is about to be arrested as a suspect of a string of Subway robberies at the eatery...

THE ARREST C aught, shaken and told to put his hands up, Gabriel came out of the rental car - the very car he had driven a week before in a high-speed chase with the police. That chase had cost the car its back bumper. He left the engine still running when he got out, for there was no use in trying to speed off surrounded by a score of agents from the Merge Unit, San Jose's SWAT team, with guns drawn. He still was confused why there were so many arresting officers. Just seeing those guns made him frantically call out, "Jesus! Jesus,! Jesus!" Somewhere in his memory he remembered being taught in his mother's church that anyone who called on the name of the Lord Jesus would be saved. Fortunately he was not in possession of his gun, but he knew after he was searched they would find him in possession of something else. After being handcuffed he was put in the front seat of an unmarked luxury SUV. This was a first, for in previous arrests he was always thrown into the back seat of a squad car covered in plastic. This seat was leather and very comfortable. It was the only nice thing he remembered on that fateful day. While spending over eight hours in the holding cell for processing, all he could think about was wanting to go to sleep, for he was high on methamphetamine, and he had been awake for 48 hours. Since it was a Friday, he knew he was stuck to spend the entire weekend in jail until Monday or even Tuesday before he was brought before a judge. He still had no idea what crimes he was being charged with. “But honestly,” he admits, “I didn’t even care that they found the stolen rental car or the drugs that were on me. It didn't bother me that I was under the influence, or even that they found the baseball card folder full of stolen credit cards. All I wanted was for them to assign me a jail cell with a bed so I could sleep.” Late that night he was issued his county jail clothes and slippers and was taken to his cell where he could finally crash. On the following Monday, he was brought before the judge with his public defender and charged with two felonies and a list of misdemeanors with bail denied. He also discovered why he was arrested by the Merge Unit but was relieved he was no longer a suspect in the Subway robberies. Nevertheless, it was bad timing that he was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and all his past crimes he thought he got away with had caught up with him. He spent almost a month in jail before he was sentenced. During that time he called his mom who was now faithfully attending church. She told him she was praying earnestly for him for Gabriel feared he would be given a stiff sentence because of his previous record of offenses. He agonized what the judge would do. It was a long three weeks. The prayers worked! The judge was going to sentence him for at least three years in state prison, but he made available to Gabriel a drug rehab program under Proposition 36 passed by the voters of California to curb recidivism. His sentence would be commuted to a few months with a three year probation period of keeping a clean record under the stipulation that he particiSPRING NEWSVINE 2020 • 23

FINDING THE LIGHT IN JAIL A month in, he was put into the drug rehab program while being locked up. The counselor and teacher was a Christian. Every day, when the group of participants met they would sing, “Lord, Prepare Me to Be a Sanctuary.” “It didn’t matter where you came from, what religion you were, or how hardcore you were," Gabriel said. "Everyone in the circle participated in singing this song to open up our meetings." Gabriel would talk to his mom on the phone almost every day. Sister Elizabeth had now moved to Fremont, California, renting a room from a sister who was a member at Union City Apostolic Church. There, she was attending faithfully and participating in weekly Bible studies which ironically were called "cell groups". Gabriel asked her to please send him any handouts from her Bible studies. He told her about his group meetings and the counseling sessions for his rehabilitation. Sister Elizabeth was happy for him. He told her whenever a chaplain visited his cell block, he would always ask for a Bible. They indulged him for they saw how hungry he was to study God's word with them. Gabriel discovered while he was studying these lessons that he struggled to understand the King James Version. He requested and was given a Webster’s Dictionary and three additional versions of the Bible: a New Living Translation, an English Standard Version, and an NIrV Free on the Inside Bible translation used for prison ministries. He used these powerful tools for cross referencing so he could study the word of God for himself. This hunger for God's word started with just Gabriel, but other cell mates saw his intensity in his Biblical studies and began to meet with him. “I became enlightened with what I was learning, and soon other inmates took notice and started asking me if they could do a Bible study with me,” he said. In no time there were five Bible study groups meeting in his cell block. All members were from different ethnicities and races - highly unusual, for most prisoners stick to their own kind. "Here I was, leading a Bible study with no official training. We were just learning together.” It was then he noticed every night before lights out a group of inmates would gather together in a circle, hold hands and pray. “I felt that I wanted to be part of that group,” he said, “so I asked if I could join them, but I admitted to them, ‘I don’t know how to pray.’” The first two nights two of the men were moved by the Spirit to lay hands on him. He was thrilled that he felt an old anointing of the Holy Ghost come upon him and began to experience stammering lips. He just came short of breaking into tongues, a wonderful blessing that he had experienced in church a few years before. He remembers one of the group leaders was a homeboy called Kool-Aid who became a spiritual friend and confidant.

SPIRITUAL WARFARE Not long after that initial touch of God, a frightening event happened to Gabriel while Kool-Aid was on night-watch. Around 3:00 in the morning, Gabriel awoke and sensed a large, dark mass had come over him. He actually could see it. The entity began choking him. “I tried to rebuke it,” he said, but I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, until I finally gasped, ‘JESUS!’” He sat up, looked around at the cold, darkness of his dorm and noticed everyone was asleep. Kool-Aid, while keeping watch, noticed Gabriel sitting up and how upset he was. He asked if he was okay. Gabriel shakily said, “Yeah, I’m okay,” but then dropped to his knees at the side of his bunk and began praying. He had a difficult time going back to sleep, completely uneasy from his disturbing experience. The very next day, he was remembering what had happened the night before. He suddenly felt an anger rising inside of him. He felt violated that a demonic spirit had attacked him while he was asleep, especially when he was most vulnerable. The offense he felt burning from deep within gave him the audacity to invoke the dark mass to return. He was pacing in his dorm, fists at his side, muttering, “Come back. Come on. You want to attack me when I’m asleep? Come on, come back.” He wanted to confront it. He was certain he had conjured up the powers of darkness in that jail for the Bible studies he and others were enjoying. In fact, Gabriel discovered many men in there were backsliden Pentecostals or raised in a pentecostal church. Again, he challenged that demon to manifest itself. Today Gabriel cautions that he would not recommend anyone to try this because of what happened next. He felt fatigue come over him and lay down to take a nap. AGAIN, the demonic darkness came back. The nightmare was so real he might as well have been awake. This time it did not touch him, but he could sense its presence all around him. In his vivid dream he stood up in his cell. Nobody was in the dorm. The dark mass was floating up by the ceiling, flying back and forth. Gabriel pointed to it and said, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus!” Immediately it flew away and dissipated. After these experiences, he spoke to his mom on the phone and related in detail what had happened. He reached an epiphany and confessed to her, “Mom, I am done! I am tired of going in and out of jail, tired of running. When I get out I want to be baptized in Jesus’ name.” Sister Elizabeth said she was thrilled to hear this. However, Gabriel was determined to prove to her that this was not just talk. He knew the last time he tried church he had caused her great heartache when he stopped attending. But this was something he had to do for the sake of his own soul. "This time,” he said, “I was scared, because truly the enemy was after me." All that next week, he felt an evil power plaguing him. He couldn't shake it. It was physically draining him. He decided to try taking a one hour nap in a mid-afternoon. He remembers fully awakening feeling a vicious anger completely possessing him. He looked around the dorm suddenly getting the urge to hit someone, just punch someone in the face! What happened next startled Gabriel. Today, Gabriel admits that taking LSD has the risk that its effects can resurface months later without taking another dose. One of the those effects is hallucinations. But he also acknowledges and warns that taking LSD, hallucinogenic mushrooms, or other mind-altering drugs opens you up to demonic powers and possible possessions. You will see things that will shatter your sense of reality. Whether one will accept that

paranormal assaults do happen or they are a case of acute hysteria conjured up by drug use, it did not matter to Gabriel, for what he saw what happened next, to him IT WAS REAL! He saw the black entity tear itself out of him and jump into another inmate about twenty feet across from him who immediately started punching another inmate. But it didn't stop there. It jumped into a third inmate who screamed out with a wild look in his eye at someone near him with a vicious taunt, "Let's take this outside! Take it to the yard!" Both of them stormed out into the yard and began to beat the living daylights out of one another. Gabriel ran back to his bunk, dropped to his knees shaking, and began to pray for all it was worth! His prayer time intensified over the next few days. He felt a closeness to God and meditated on His word. To his relief and wonder, the next supernatural experience he faced was a divine vision that he believes came from God's holy presence. While he was lying down on his bunk, he saw himself walk into a building with his mom and another woman he did not recognize. As they walked through the building, they opened two large double doors into a sanctuary. They entered and walked down a center aisle up to the front to the second bench to their right and entered the pew: the woman first, then his mother and finally Gabriel nearest the aisle. In the vision, he heard some music playing and his mom praising God. He looked around and saw his mom's hands were raised, tears streaming down her face. He sat down, taking everything in what he heard and felt. He then stood back up, and suddenly his head felt very heavy. He heard an audible, distorted male voice that he could not make out what being said. That voice confused him and then his vision ceased. This all took place during a short period between April to July of 2005. During this time he was waiting for an available bed to get into an in-house drug treatment program outside the prison walls. One finally came available, and he was released from jail and placed into the rehab program on July 5. On the day he arrived, the program directors had a field trip planned for the participants to see a movie in a theater. It was the moving “The Passion of the Christ.” On July 7, his mom picked him up to attend her “Cell Group”. They got there about an hour early and Brother Eddie, the cell group leader, presented a Bible study on water baptism in Jesus' name. It was so concise and timely to what Gabriel knew he needed to do. He then attended church that Sunday, July 10, absolutely committed to getting baptized. sioned, they entered the second pew from the front on the right in the same order from the aisle: Gabriel, his mother, and his sister in-law. The choir began to sing, and he heard his mom worshiping God out-loud. “She was thanking the Lord that I was there,” he said. He saw the tears falling down her face. This time he did not sit down. It was so powerful, for he was overcome with emotion,. He was so blessed as he looked around and just took it all in. He did not know how to react with what he felt. In the vision, this was where his head had become very heavy, and the distorted, male voice confused him. But now, what actually took place was that he felt compelled to lift up his hands to worship. “As soon as my hands went up,” he said, “to me it was a sign of surrender - warm tears just started pouring down my face.” Gabriel and his mother hugged and prayed together. He remembered there was an evangelist named George Gillespie scheduled to preach. The words of his sermon spoken that day affirmed that he had but one goal: he was going to be baptized today. And he was! He was baptized in water and baptized again in the Holy Ghost! “My new mindset was on God alone,” he said, “and wherever He would lead me.” SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2005 One week later a young woman and her mother entered the sanctuary and sat themselves in the last pew on the farthest corner from the front of the sanctuary. The young woman asked, “Mom, where is that John the Baptist looking-guy with the beard that was baptized last week? Did he ever come back?” “Who do you mean? her mother responded. "Eddie was here to see him get baptized last week. He looked like John the Baptist?’’ “Oh, mija," her mother laughed, "You mean Brother Gabriel Chavoya. He’s sitting up front with his mom.” The young woman scanned the crowd up front and said, “Oh wow, that’s him? He looks totally different now that he’s clean-shaven and got a haircut!” Still looking at Gabriel, Julie picked up her three-year-old-son who began to fuss.

THE VISION REVEALED On Sunday morning his mom came with his sister in-law to pick Gabriel up for church. They walked into the foyer of the Union City Apostolic Church. Everyone was greeting them, shaking hands, and were very welcoming. As they opened the double doors into the sanctuary, Gabriel gasped! “Mom, this is it! This is the place!” he exclaimed. “The place I saw in my vision while I was locked up!” He was overwhelmed, for he was never before there in that sanctuary except in his vision. They walked down the center aisle and he recognized that he was replaying the vision now in real life. Just like he had envi

Gabriel Chavoya prepares to be baptized in Jesus' name.

To be continued...