THE TRANSFORMATION

THE TRANSFORMATION

By Ken Simmons

It was 1968, and as I recall it was in early summer when I had an encounter with the Lord that radically changed my life. A few years earlier I had accepted Christ as my Savior, but I was frustrated, wondering why I had not been truly transformed as described in 2 Corinthians 5:17, 

*“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new”.

My life didn’t seem to reflect what that passage described and it bothered me that I still struggled with the same things, and I wanted and needed a transformation. 

This happened at an Assemblies of God church gathering in Orange, California. The speaker that day was an ex-con and former heroin addict named *Larry Reed, whose life was so radically changed that he seemed to radiate the love of Jesus when you were in his presence.

Following his message I approached him inquiring about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, especially about tongues, as I had serious misgivings about speaking in tongues. I began asking him questions about this experience when he placed his finger over his lips as if to say to me, “Hush, be quiet” and he then gently laid hands on my head. I immediately felt a strange feeling in my stomach that seemed to be bubbling up in my body. I later learned that this was the fulfillment of a scripture that says, “Out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water.” (See John 7:38).

I soon found myself on the floor, and whether my eyes were open or closed, all I saw was light. And the Spirit of God was moving over and through me in wave after wave, and it was then that the Holy Spirit revealed to me that the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead was now living inside of me (see Romans 8:11).

That was the beginning of the revelations that profoundly changed my life, revealing to me that we are the temple of God and the Spirit of God lives within us. When I learned that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit live inside of me it was literally life-changing!! (See 1 Corinthians 3:16).

One of the changes that I noticed was a new passion for Christ. When I spoke it was with a boldness that I’d never experienced before, and this first happened in a room full of prisoners at the California Institution for Men (CIM) in Chino. Following my message all of the prisoners in the hall made decisions for Christ that day.

The next thing I noticed was that seemingly everywhere I went I was encountering people who were lost and wanted answers and I was leading souls to Christ.

Prior to this time I had begun attending services at the Garden Grove Community Church, where Dr. Robert Schuller was pastor, and he asked me to teach a Sunday School class of high school students. In retrospect, this was a mistake because I was a new believer, and I knew next to nothing about the Bible.

During those classes we began learning from the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John when some of the students began asking me, “What’s all this business about Jesus casting out demons from people?”

Being the expert (not) I replied saying something like this; “Well, Jesus was a contemporary man and He was going along with the superstitions and mythology of His time.” My answer was out of ignorance, and that soon became quite evident.

Shortly afterward Dr. Schuller next asked me if I would speak to a group of young adults at a home meeting in Anaheim on Friday night. Since having been baptized in the Holy Spirit only a few weeks earlier, when I began to speak something I had never experienced before began to happen. As I spoke to the group of 20 or so people at the home meeting the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit was felt by everyone in the room and a sense of awe came upon all. With eyes open as wide as saucers, they looked around at one another as if to say, “Do you feel it too?”  

About that time a young man in the back of the room stood up and he began to ask me what seemed an intelligent question, when without warning he suddenly began to jerk around and convulse, and he then started to howl like a wolf at the top of his lungs. Here was this well-dressed young man, howling so loud it reverberated through the room, and all the while he had a terrified look on his face. It was apparent that this experience scared him down to his core. Everyone else in the room was terrified as well, including me.

Suddenly I knew what was happening, and I knew what had to be done. My stupid comments a few weeks earlier about demons being a matter of superstition were front and center in my mind. I then knew that this young man had a demon, and I also knew that I had to go to him and set him free.

I tenuously walked over to him, and before I could say anything, a deep, guttural voice came out of him saying,

“He’s mine, I’ve been in here for 16 years and I’m not coming out.”  

About that time the I felt the Holy Spirit flooding into me, giving me courage that I had never known. I then commanded this demon spirit to come out, and when I did he fell to the floor and began flailing around and screaming as if being tortured. At one point I thought this thrashing around might kill him. Again, I said, “I command you in the name of Jesus to come out of him,” and following one final scream the demon spirit left him and he was set free. Deliverance is never pretty, but when **deliverance happens it is amazing because one who has been in torture is finally set free.

Later that evening I received a call from Dr. Schuller asking if I would meet him at his office the following morning.

On Saturday morning I drove from my home in Santa Ana to his office in Garden Grove and as I walked in he pointed to the newly built 13-story Tower of Power and he said to me,

“Ken, I like what I’ve built here and I don’t want anything going on that would threaten it. I think it best if you and your family found another place to worship.”

I replied, “You’re probably right. I think I’ve accomplished what I was sent here to do.” That was the last time I saw Robert Schuller.

Following the events at that meeting in Anaheim that night, I never anticipated what would happen afterward. After moving to Lakeland, Florida to begin a ministry there, for the next several years it seemed I was encountering people who were tormented by evil spirits, and although it was nothing I ever wanted, and certainly nothing I ever sought after, I seemed to be chosen to be God’s instrument to set these people free.

The word spread and a man in Michigan heard about this man in Florida who had the power over demons, and he somehow persuaded his neighbor, who was in torment due to demonic influence in his life, to drive non-stop except for food and gas, to come to my meeting in Lakeland. When the Christian man came through the door I had no idea that the man coming in after him was his demon-possessed neighbor, but when that man entered the room he simply looked at me, and when our eyes met the power of God knocked him against the wall and he was set free.

It was situations like this that seemed to happen frequently during my years in Lakeland. The rest is history, and is chronicled in my true life story “The Prodigal Diaries.”

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**For many years I had mistakenly believed our body, soul, and spirit are transformed according to 2 Corinthians 5:17, but I recently learned that it is our spirit that is perfectly and completely transformed when we are born again, because Christ is in us, and in Him is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Our spirits are perfect when we are born again. Our body and soul have not been transformed, because after coming to Christ are bodies are still the same, and our souls still have our imperfect personalities and tendencies, and therefore will never reach this level of perfection in this lifetime, but our soul can and will grow in knowledge and improve, and it will be gradually transformed by the renewing of our minds. As far as the body is concerned, it can benefit from what we learn in our souls in the areas of healing, etc. but it will never experience total transformation until we receive our new bodies in the next life.

**Larry Reed passed away on May 27, 2008

***Deliverance, not to be confused with exorcism. Deliverance occurs when the power of the Holy Spirit sets someone free from being tormented by demonic spirits. Exorcism is a religious ritual that is rarely effective. It is this writer’s experience that the demons pay little attention to exorcism, but deliverance in the power of the Holy Spirit makes the demons flee. 

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These, along with many other similar experiences, are chronicled in my true life story "The Prodigal Diaries." That book, as well as my novel "Jeané Rose, the Face of Courage," can be found on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Christian Faith Publishing, GoodReads, Kobo, etc.

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*Larry Reed passed away on May 27, 2008

**Deliverance should not be confused with exorcism. Deliverance occurs when the power of the Holy Spirit sets someone free from being tormented by demonic spirits. Exorcism is a religious ritual that is rarely effective. It is this writer’s experience that the demons pay little attention to exorcism, but deliverance in the power of the Holy Spirit makes the demons flee.