And at some point he brings up the fact that the house is haunted.
Well, there's seven ghosts in this house. Afterwards, he stands up and he starts shaking his hands real violently.
It's like, I feel this energy just coming through my body.
His whole body was squeezed against mine.
And he puts his head on my shoulder and he does this long exhale. He just goes, ah.
Tony Merkel, it's great to have you here on Charisma.
And we met at the Armed Media Conference and you have a very powerful testimony.
And I was so impressed at your journey of how God has brought you from being a truck driver to a full time podcaster.
But you're not just talking, you're sharing some stories and really getting confessions of people that wouldn't necessarily have a platform.
And you're bringing people to Jesus in a powerful way.
So, Tony, welcome to Charisma.
Hey, I appreciate you bringing me on. I really do.
So, Tony, I just made mention of your testimony of coming from a truck driver, listening to podcasts and now being the podcast maker.
Let's talk about your podcast first and what you've been doing since 2017.
And then kind of work backwards and kind of tell that story.
But what is your podcast? And it's called The Confessionals.
Tell people about that.
So The Confessionals is a name that I thought up while I was driving truck and I didn't know what to call my show.
I knew what I was going to be doing, but I interview people on their experiences with the supernatural realm, paranormal cryptids.
You know, people talk about having experiences with aliens, alien abductions.
And that's what my show is. I interview people and have conversations that have had experiences.
And I didn't know how to go about naming the show.
And so I was thinking, OK, so what are they doing? They're talking about their experiences.
They're talking to me about their experiences, like they're confessing what they've been through, that things that aren't really normally talked about.
And I was just like the confessionals. And that's how I came up with the name.
And looking back on it, I wish there was a little bit of a better name, just in the sense that when people come across the show, the confessionals, they don't know what it is.
They probably think I'm a priest and something like that.
We're going to do confession, but it's confessing all the weird stuff you've been through.
And I've been doing it for almost eight years.
January 20, 25 will be eight years and I launched January 19th, 2017.
And we're coming up on 700 episodes now. So lots of lots of stories.
That's amazing. Yes. So there is lots of stories.
And I want to say that these types of stories that you highlight on your on your podcast,
these conversations are ones that people oftentimes don't feel comfortable opening up about.
They don't want to admit they don't want to confess that they've had this experience or that they've had this,
whether it be an adoption, an abduction experience or just running into something that gave them the creeps, whatever types of creatures that are out there.
I mean, right behind you, you have Sasquatch on the poster there.
You've got a picture of a UFO right there, a schematic, I guess, of a UFO on the other side.
There's a lot of unexplainable things and people don't want to talk about it because it kind of makes them sound weird.
Now, apparently you don't mind being considered a little bit weird.
How did you get people to actually talk about this stuff with you?
So it was something that I think God has just ordained from the beginning, to be honest with you.
I was driving my truck through Philadelphia and down Germantown Pike and the Holy Spirit,
I don't believe I was praying if I remember correctly, and the Holy Spirit came on to me and just said,
you're going to be a podcaster and you're going to work with Wes Germer from Sasquatch Chronicles, which was a podcast I had listened to.
Never knew the guy, never talked to him before.
And I went home that night, told my wife what I felt the Holy Spirit telling me so that she would be my witness when it happens.
And a month goes by and I'm not really thinking about it.
I don't know what to do with podcasts. I'm a trucker. I'm busy.
And then I backed my truck into the dock one night at work and I got a phone call from Wes Germer.
And he came across me in a forum and thought I had a Bigfoot encounter.
And I was like, no, never saw a Bigfoot man. And we talked for about 45 minutes.
In the next conversation, he's encouraging me to become a podcaster.
And I'm just like, OK, this is what's happening. It's starting.
And so from the beginning, it's been something that God has called me into doing and kind of laid the path for it.
So it wasn't too hard. I had I had run a Facebook group about Bigfoot because that was my that was my my my gateway drug.
I was just like Bigfoot, you know, and it's fascinating.
You know, there's a lot of there's there's a lot of stories and people who have these interesting experiences in the woods or they see big footprints.
And it really rises a lot of questions for sure.
Yeah, it absolutely does. And it's a topic that has been around for a long time.
And I so I was talking to a guy through my Facebook group that had seen two of these things on his farm in Western Pennsylvania.
And so I reached out to him. I was like, hey, man, I'm starting this podcast.
You want to be my first interview? And he said, sure.
So I think I called it pharmacies to Sasquatch or something.
I didn't know what else to call it. And in the beginning of the show, you know, you're learning how to be a podcast.
I mean, 2017, there was no blueprint for this stuff. I mean, it was such a new industry.
It still is. But like.
I approached it in the beginning as if I was a journalist, and so I knew Todd's story and I would I would write all these preset questions trying to.
So I was terrified. I was I don't know how to interview people.
And so I started doing that. And in the first, I don't know, let's say 10 to 20 episodes, I just was like, this is not working.
Like, I don't I'm not a journalist. I'm a conversation guy.
I talk to people and it shouldn't be this hard to do these interviews.
And so I scrapped the notepad. I stopped coming to the table with preset questions.
And I just I have I have the general gist of what they've been through.
And I introduced them. I let them share their experience and I let the questions unfold as they come.
Conversation unfolds as it comes. And I think over time, people have heard the show get a gist of how I am.
And they feel comfortable talking to me because I'm not really like I don't really have an agenda outside of getting your story out there.
I mean, that's just literally what it is. I believe that we're supernatural beings living in a supernatural existence.
And I think these people's experiences are part of that. And by us sharing these experiences with the world,
having open conversation, it doesn't make it sound so taboo and crazy.
And therefore, I think that it's doing a service where people are starting to feel even more comfortable coming forward, admitting they've been through things.
We get emails from people saying, I thought I was the only one. No, there's hundreds like you.
And so it's been a really an interesting journey how it all unfolded.
But I think from the beginning, God's been in it and has really just got the ball rolling.
And I do I think that I'm a weird mixture of a person that's that's uniquely qualified to do this because I have interest in these things.
I have the gift of gab. I also I'm an entrepreneurial spirit kind of person.
So you put this on my plate. I only know how to do one thing and it's to treat it like it's a job.
And that's what I did from day one. And I also am somebody who looks at my finances as it's something that's been given to me by God.
It's my job to steward it. It's not my job to blow it on things.
So I feel like I'm just this I'm a very unique person for this that God has put in a position that I've been able to prosper and have this as a job and be able to hire people and do it.
I try to do it as responsible as I can as far as what he's been given to me because it's I feel like it's a huge responsibility and weight on my shoulders to carry this show because it's you're walking this this line of.
Crazy stories and experiences that not everybody is going to believe people who are opening up and sharing that with the world and also the spiritual implications of this.
It's it can be a lot to juggle at times for sure.
Yeah, you know, it said that the greatest trick that the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he doesn't exist.
And I think that's a big reason why people shy away from talking about these things is because the devil has done a good job of convincing the world that he doesn't exist.
Therefore, that these strange things don't exist and people are just crazy.
Nobody wants to be considered crazy, so nobody talks about it whenever these things happen.
Now, tell me about some of the things that have affected you, because I know as you talk about this in a way, you're opening yourself up to spiritual warfare.
Not in a way you are opening up your yourself to spiritual warfare, not that you're necessarily opening the door like somebody would be playing with the Ouija board or other occult type things.
But because you're exposing it, you're under attack yourself.
Can we talk about that for a little bit?
Yeah. So doing this stuff definitely gets a target on your back.
And I use the example at times where, you know, I'm a big basketball fan.
I know you guys are in Orlando, the Orlando Magic.
I look at it as a game almost where if you say you're a Christian and you're just riding the bench, nobody's going to guard you.
And even worse, if you say you're a Christian, you get put in a game and you're just standing at half court and the game's going on, you're not participating.
Nobody's going to guard you.
As soon as you start becoming a problem, that's when the opponent pays attention to you.
And that is something that I've experienced throughout the years doing this.
It's something that, you know, I don't really I don't really have a great understanding as to how it all works.
But I know that in the spiritual realm where these wars are happening and between God's angels and these demonic principalities, somebody like me doing what I'm doing, it's like I'm almost like a glowing green.
You know, it's just like I stand out in a dark room and I feel like at times I do things and it's like all eyes get put on me.
And it it's something that I've had people over the years tell me you got to be careful.
And I agree. You got to be careful.
But when God calls you to do something, he's I firmly believe he's going to protect you and guide you through it.
And it's not to say I've done it perfectly.
I've done I've done things that I've regretted over the years.
I've done things that I've misstepped on and I'm like, oh, that was a really bad decision.
And I walked in ignorance thinking God will protect me.
And and it's it's not it's not always the most pleasurable experience going through the stuff.
You can get carried away with some of the stuff like when I when I first started really understanding this idea of portals,
I was fascinated by it because I just it wasn't until probably about two years ago, three years ago,
that it really started becoming a thing on the show where people I had a frame reference to understand that this is actually something legit.
And I got I got really interested in it.
And I remember there's a woman, her name is Dr.
Laura Sanger, and I had her on the show. And the first time I had her on the show is right around the time that I started learning about this stuff
and how like, you know, portals and the astral realm and all this stuff.
And I forget what her and I were talking about.
But last month, I was at a conference in Utah.
And right before I left, I sat down with her husband and her for dinner.
And we were fellowshiping and talking.
And she remembers she told me she remember the first time we talked.
She said she walked away from the interview thinking I had an unhealthy interest in topic of portals.
And I and I confirmed to her, you're absolutely right.
I did. I absolutely did.
I was infatuated with it.
And it put me I put myself in positions with that infatuation where I feel like I I overstepped the line on certain things.
And and I and I regretted it on a spiritual level where I feel like I
disrespected the Lord, but also like I felt like God gave me a lot to be trusted with.
And I felt like I abused that at certain points.
And, you know, like, for instance, I there's a guy that came to my studio and he's in Kentucky and he has some really wild stuff happening.
And he talks about this this magical cave.
I don't know how else to call it, but it's huge.
Thirty foot ceilings goes back for miles.
He's been exploring it his entire life. He hasn't explored the whole thing yet.
And in the same conversation, he shares with me that he saw a portal in the woods around the cave and he was able to take a picture of it.
And he showed me the picture.
And it was like I've seen a lot of pictures and people say, oh, it's Bigfoot in the trees like that's it. That's a shadow.
And or it's a tree. This was a glowing sphere in the woods.
And when you zoom in and look at it, you can see how it's actually going behind one of the other trees in the foreground.
It was definitely something that was actually there.
And he said he took his his camera. He's not tech savvy.
He has an actual camera, digital camera, and he takes his camera.
He takes a picture of it, looks down and then looks back up and it's gone.
It happened that fast. So he actually got the picture of it.
That set me off. That set me off.
I was like, what the heck? Like, I got to go visit this property.
And we went out there and we visited the property and hunting for portals.
Not a good idea. It's it's just a door.
I don't want to say just it's a doorway. It's a doorway to another realm.
And things go in and out of that.
And you're hunting down and trying to hunt down the doorway where things are coming in and out of.
Not a good idea. I don't I don't I don't like I don't even like talking about it anymore.
It's something I regretted. I felt convicted about by it by.
And the people I was with have since also felt like we overstepped that line.
And traditionally, I try to I try to be a person that I know where my boundary is and I stay 20 feet away from the boundary.
I don't want to walk the fence. I don't want to walk that line of, you know, oh, I can explain it this way.
And it's still OK. I just I just want to stay away from it.
Like I like I know where we're where God's called me to do.
We do go out and into these areas and, you know, like things like we had an area,
another area in Kentucky where somebody had experience with an upright walking canine creature in the woods one night.
Terrifying story. An upright walking canine creature.
That sounds like what we would say is a werewolf. Yes.
I don't know if I should say we're so the newer culture, people are calling a dog man.
OK, I've heard that too.
I think what we're dealing with is something that has different origins.
So when you talk about werewolf, I think it's more ritual.
I think that people there are rituals that people will wear.
I don't know if it's exactly the generic term Satanist,
but there will be people who go through these magical practices where they'll wear the skin of a wolf
and they'll do rituals trying to transform themselves into a wolf skinwalker type stuff.
And on that premise, me and the guys wonder if what people are are doing and seeing,
are they actually transforming their bodies or are they doing dark black magic
that when other people come across them in the middle of that ritual, they are seeing what is being projected out to them.
So there's that aspect.
There's also the more ancient thing where people think that these are creatures roaming the woods.
There's also the aspect of people believing that these things are created by governments.
We have several different stories that fit all those categories with this specific idea.
But anyways, we went out there into Kentucky and we put ourselves in the environment.
And this is where we feel like is our wheelhouse.
So we believe that God has called us in our own rights to show the world that the supernatural realm is real and it exists.
I do that through my podcast in these conversations.
And my guys that I go out with, we're all Christians coming from different denominations.
I'm the most charismatic of the group, but we all have the same motives.
And what we believe is if this stuff is happening to people in these areas, we don't need to go asking for it.
We don't need to conjure things. We don't need to pull out Ouija boards and stuff like that.
We just go out into the woods and exist in these environments to see what happens around us.
Sometimes things, sometimes weird things happen around us and we go out there.
We pray before, during and after.
But yeah, so when it comes to the spiritual warfare stuff, I think that it's going to happen,
but you have to be on guard and know the boundaries and limitations.
And there's been a couple of times where I've had to learn the lesson the hard way for sure.
Yeah. Now, if you're comfortable, it'd be interesting to hear how you've learned that lesson the hard way
and how you've actually learned that lesson and how God's kind of brought you through some of those things.
But I also want to just kind of open up the door. No pun intended.
But a lot of these supernatural things that we experience, people experience,
you've got the Sasquatch behind you, the poster, these things that you're looking at,
they are supernatural things or spiritual things coming into a physical world.
There's a bit of crossover, but there is also this these Nephilim,
which is kind of the which Genesis chapter six talks about.
And then you have the Nephilim tribes in the promised land that God told Joshua and Caleb to wipe out completely.
So these things have been in our in our historical Bible.
And so we're kind of seeing some of these things that might be Nephilim or kind of calling them that.
What's your take on that? And if you're OK talking about some of those things as well.
Yeah, so I think that that is definitely something to be thought on and considered with this stuff.
And it's something that I started thinking about in, I'd say, 2017 when I started the podcast.
I remember having you know, I never was taught about Nephilim in church.
And growing up, it was just something that never popped up.
I went into Bible college and never heard about Nephilim.
And it wasn't until I heard an interview with a guy named Gary Wayne
and he started talking about his Nephilim and I'm just like, what is this?
And I started looking at it and I started like like a light bulb went on my head.
And, you know, when you brought up Sasquatch, Bigfoot, people have these experiences.
And what's weird about them is one, we can't we can't ever really get the evidence for this thing.
Like it's been around for, you know, at least the 50s, you know, in a pop culture sense.
And people, thousands of people all over the country have said that and in Canada have seen this creature.
But we can't ever get evidence of it. And, you know, there'll be evidence there.
It's like large footprints and you're following a trail of these tracks and all of a sudden they're gone.
They're just gone. Like where did it go?
And it starts making you think like, is there a supernatural element to this topic of Bigfoot?
And then when I heard about about the Nephilim and I started looking into it and especially in Enoch,
which, you know, even that alone, I was like, oh, man, like, should I even be considering what's written in Enoch as something to be considered?
And it wasn't until I realized that there was parts of Enoch that were actually quoted in New Testament.
I was like, OK, so the writers of the scripture did read Enoch and they use it as a reference.
But in there it talks about how the Nephilim came into existence.
But not only was it like humans, but the fallen, they did this with animals and plants.
They wanted to defile all God's creation.
And that's when I started thinking like, is this some kind of remnant offspring of what happened a long time ago?
And it just started like clicking in my head.
You know, if if these things are remnant of something that happened a long time ago,
it might explain why some people's experiences with these creatures are more supernatural than others.
And I try to try to understand it in terms of like DNA.
My my my brother and sister, I have a brother and sister who are twins.
And, you know, like we're Puerto Rican and my my sister, she is she just looks like she's a white girl with blonde hair.
And her twin brother is darker than me and looks like like the Puerto Rican Mr. Bean.
And I'm like, they're twins and they look so different.
And just started making me think, could it and maybe I lack the proper scientific understanding and terminology with this.
But could there be a situation where the remnant offspring of what happened?
Some of them have characteristics and traits of their supernatural fathers of long ago and not others,
explaining why some seem to be supernatural and some seem to be natural.
People talk about these things, speaking to them mentally, like there's like this telepathic communication.
And, you know, I know it sounds kind of crazy at first,
but I've heard not only the telepathic communication with with Sasquatch, but a lot of other things, including like demonic entities.
So people having, you know, hauntings in their homes and experiences like that, they'll often not often,
but at times they'll reference the fact that it would communicate with them.
But telepathically, in fact, just before I hopped on with you, I was talking to a woman who when she was a kid in southeast Ohio,
very rural Appalachia community, she said the closest Walmart was an hour away.
Weird things would happen there. And you have to side note, you have to consider, are these territories of ancient entities as well?
I don't think people tend to think about where we live today as what lived there before.
And is there something that's trying to claim domain over a geographical area?
But she said, and this is going to sound crazy, but it is what it is.
She said that she saw as a child this like black panther in southeast Ohio sitting on a tree stump.
And this was in her backyard near a shed.
And then instead of jumping off the tree stump, it stretches leg out and stood up on two hind legs and walked.
And that was the beginning of an experience where as a child, she would see this thing.
And it got to a point where there was a relationship involved and was communicating with her.
She couldn't remember if it was telepathic or verbal, but she didn't have doesn't have a clear image as to how that it was like fragmented, fragmented memories.
And on the surface, you're like, that's crazy.
But she even said on the interview, she thinks that this might have been a demonic entity.
And it's showing itself to her in certain ways.
But she talked about how when it would move, it would have like a black mist.
It would disappear into a black mist.
So it's obvious that this is a supernatural being that she encountered as a kid.
And I've heard other people talk about this very thing and going back full circle to what I mentioned earlier about the
different origins of different things.
There was a guy that I had years ago on the show who talked about working at Area 2, which is near Area 51 at Nellis Air Force Base.
And it wasn't his direct experience, but it was a story that was passed on to him from people who were there.
Something escaped one of the buildings and the rumor was that it was some kind of cat man creature that they were experimenting on in the base.
And so you go to that, which sounds like it was some kind of experiment that escaped to this panther cat man thing that this lady sees that as a kid
disappears into a black mist, but then she said that it had like a chain that it was wearing and it had a dog tag.
And it told her that it's a warrior, a soldier.
I'm going to go somewhere with this.
So you have that piece and this is like taking people's stories and you start seeing the similarities.
You have that story.
Two people that don't know each other.
They don't know each other.
I don't know each other.
No.
And I'm about to bring in a guy from Canada now.
So there's a guy in Canada who I talked to and he said that he was having these lucid dreams and it was repeating.
And he was having this interaction with this what we talked about earlier, the dog man type creature in like this lucid dream state.
And it's something that I hear commonly talked about now where people say in this lucid dream state, it's like you're there and it's real.
It's places you've seen.
You've been there before, but there's little pieces that are off.
It's like stranger things in the upside down.
And he has this ongoing communication with this entity and this entity.
And I had him on for two recordings.
And the second one, I questioned the more on it.
And I'm glad I did because he would say things about this entity and how it was it was like it was nice.
It was good, kind of like the girl and the cat man thing.
And it was saying things to him and he was believing it.
And what it was saying wasn't necessarily false.
But the way it was delivering the message was very one sided.
And at one point, this thing says that there was a great war and it was between entities like it and these cat like entities.
And there was this great cataclysmic event that happened and the land parted and the war ended when the water rose.
And if you just think about the geographical aspect of it, just like Bigfoot here in the United States is where people are saying they're seeing this upright walking canine entity creature.
You go across the Atlantic to the Middle East and people often are saying that they see the gym and the gym is a demonic entity that often shows itself as a black panther.
And so this thing is talking about there was this war between two entities and something cataclysmic happened.
Water rose and separated the two. Could that be Noah's flood?
And so on top of that, this guy talks about this old war that happened.
But then it says there's a war coming and the army that's coming is coming to rebuild the earth and fix it.
And we're going to fight against it, but we know we're going to lose.
And I'm like, hey, man, that sounds kind of like the coming of Christ, the second coming of Christ, man.
And he's like, you know, that's a good point. I was like, how do you not see that?
And so like he said things that made me feel like whatever he was communicating with.
And it may not even be the true form. So like he's saying he's talking to something that is upright walking canine creature.
But it might be a depiction of something that that is projecting to him.
And so it may not be the true form of whatever he was talking to.
But this it became very clear to me that whatever he was communicating with was was telling him truths, but a very one sided view of it.
And and so anyways, I just took you down this path.
I don't even know where how we got here. But Catman and stuff.
So, yeah, well, that's what I was hoping to get to get with our conversation, some great stories.
And actually, I have a story that from an episode that that you that you did an interview with somebody that actually had a
I think it was an ancient giant called into a radio station or something.
I forget it was in one of the islands and you were like, let's go talk to him.
Let's let's go figure this out. Yeah. What happened after that?
I missed that next part because I think it was just a short snippet promoting the episode and I missed what actually ended up happening after that.
Yeah. So that is supposedly in the Catalina Islands.
There there were giants and supposedly there still are giants.
And there is one man or giant Luddy McCode, I think is how you say it.
Yes. And supposedly he's still alive to this day and he exists on the islands.
Like, I don't know the full story. My friend Joel is the one who did the research on it.
And actually, I think, yeah, I think it was Joel.
But he basically long story short, this giant went away.
And when he came back, he restored order on the islands and he's some kind of like king giant or something like that.
But supposedly he's still he's still around today.
And I'm not I'm not really the one to tell the whole story because I don't I don't I didn't research it.
But when he said that he's still alive today, I was like, well, I guess I know where we're going.
I mean, an interview with a giant, you know, like, why not?
But there's also like there's so people there are people who believe that their their their blood line comes from Nephilim.
And there is this thought that the R.H. negative blood line is like a Nephilim blood line and that I forget what the percent how the percentages break down.
But there's like 15 percent of the world is R.H. negative.
Don't quote me on the exact numbers, but I'm just generally.
And of that 15 percent, 90 percent of those people tend to have paranormal encounters and experiences, supernatural experiences.
So there's definitely something that's kind of weird with that and up with that.
But there's a guy in Virginia who he's an older man and he he said he'll come down to the studio to talk to me.
Our comic connection is another podcast.
But it seems like he might be one of these people. And to the point where him and his siblings all had to have a second row of teeth removed in their childhood.
He's I think he's close to 70 years old now. And I have never talked to the man.
I've never even seen pictures of him. But from what I understand, one of his fingers on each hand looks like it's doubled, like they sewed his fingers together as a child or something.
And like it's like extra thick fingers on one on each hand.
And he and he has six toes. And that's a common thing with Nephilim giants and stuff.
And so I think that there's probably still a remnant of some kind of Nephilim origin today.
And people will say, well, how did that how does that work? How is that possible with the whole flood thing?
And my answer is, I don't know. All I know is numbers 1333 says there clearly were giants in the land and that was post flood.
And and is it something as simple as God cleansed the earth and the rebellion continues to this day?
So could they have just done it again? Could there have been a remnant that survived in a supernatural way?
There's people who's ventured into saying that these these are supernatural beings.
So they were able to go into other realms during the flood or go off earth.
There's a lot of I know it sounds wackadoo ways to look at it, but reality is when you look at the scripture, they survived the flood.
Somehow they were post flood. So whether they survived it or they came back, it's clear that they are there.
And so I don't know. Yeah, those there's so many more questions that I'd like to ask,
but maybe for another time, because I want to make sure that we we talk more about your specific story because we've talked about some of these amazing interviews that you've had, the stories that you've told on your podcast.
The question that I have for you, Tony, is what are some things that have actually changed, Tony, and throughout this process?
Because as you're having these conversations, as you're asking questions and hearing answers of somebody else's life that has been changed by a supernatural thing,
I know your life has been changed by a supernatural encounter as well.
I mean, so I mean, obviously, in meeting Jesus is really is really powerful.
And but like, tell me more about how Tony has changed and Tony has grown in this.
So when I started the show, I.
I didn't really have a total understanding of where it was going to go, I just knew that God called me to do it.
And so I was doing it. And like I said earlier, I don't need rehash it.
I feel like at times I've done it imperfectly and I and and and I feel like God.
God knew that, though, you know, God knew that I was going to be feeling my way through this.
And. I didn't totally have a understanding as to the depths of the spiritual realm.
I still don't. I still don't. But it's much more complex than what I originally thought.
And. It's much it's much more darker and.
And real and. Involved in our everyday life than what we understand, I think, traditionally understand.
I think people go through life and, you know, something bad happens.
And our natural knee jerk reaction is not to say this is spiritual warfare.
And I think we're learning. I'm learning throughout the show that that is the case.
And things can stick with you for a long time, especially if you don't even know it's really there.
You know, I kind of talked to you guys, I was talking to you before we started recording.
And this is something that happened to me before I was a podcaster and carries me through today
because it laid the found this story that I'm about to share with you.
I'm glad it happened to me before I was a podcaster, before I was doing this stuff,
because I could go into podcasting knowing that there is real evil in the world.
It does exist and it's coming for you. And if you're not guarded, it can it can it can it can kick your butt.
And I. I was I radically rededicate.
Let's just put it this way, I radically rededicated my life to the Lord in 2014.
Very miraculous day of my life.
The Holy Spirit spoke to me and changed me instantaneously.
It was it was miraculous.
Anybody who knew me knows it was a miracle.
And I all I did was I just drove my truck and I thought about Jesus all the time.
And I would listen to sermons, I would be praying.
And so when you're living life like that, like Christ radiates from you.
And I started building a relationship with a guy who is a receiver at one of the places I delivered to.
And he was telling me this radical life story.
And. It got to the point where we got to current times and he said, I said to him,
well, what's the next chapter of your life?
He says, I don't know, I'm probably going to kill myself.
And my knee jerk reaction to that was, man, you don't want to do that.
God's got plans for your life. Those are the exact words I said to him.
And when I said it to him, his tune changed, his attitude changed.
He he got inquisitive like he never even heard the word God before.
It was very weird. But I was like, this guy's lives in America.
He doesn't know what God is or who Jesus is. Like, this was weird to me.
And he follows me out to my truck asking questions and I'm answering.
But I said, hey, man, I got to keep moving here.
And he said, will you come to my house and talk to me more about this?
And I said, yeah, I'll definitely do that.
So it was a Tuesday afternoon and.
We scheduled to be at his house that Saturday at 11 o'clock, leading throughout that week.
The Holy Spirit started speaking to me, telling me you are going to encounter strong spiritual warfare,
very dark spiritual warfare.
And I didn't quite understand what to do with that, because this guy is asking about the Lord.
In my mind, on Saturday, he's coming. He's coming to Christ.
Like, that's that's a no brainer. It's a done deal.
Like this guy is hungry for the Lord.
And so I'm praying and being very confused that entire week.
And so I I go to my church that Saturday morning before I went to this guy's house to get a book or an eye book.
The Bible. I wanted to give him the book. Yeah.
I wanted to give him a Bible because I knew he's going to come to the Lord and he needs a Bible.
So I go to this guy's house. I arrive. I knock on the door and it goes for a few seconds.
Nothing. And then the door just seemingly opened by itself.
And I peek my head in and it's completely black in his house. And I just said hello.
And he comes out from behind the door and he says, you came.
I said, yeah, I came. We scheduled for 11 o'clock. And he goes, most people don't come.
And I was just like, OK, you know, it didn't kind of hit me anyway.
But since then, I'm like, that was probably my first sign that something was off.
Because what do you mean by most people? You've done this before.
Like, what are you talking about? You know?
So I go into his house completely black.
There were there was pictures of pinup girls almost as a wallpaper on his wall, completely covered the wall.
And I was like, OK, it's interesting.
And then I'm walking. He said we could sit at the dining room table.
And I'm walking towards the dining room table past a bookshelf.
And the Holy Spirit just said, be aware of the bookshelf.
And I'm like, OK, so I'm aware of the bookshelf.
I approached the table and there's two chairs, one on each side of it.
There was a there was a chair that sat between the table and a window and another chair that sat between the table and a door.
And the Holy Spirit said, sit down in the chair between the table and the window.
So I sat down there and we started talking.
Him and I started chatting. And this is a three hour ordeal.
I was at this guy's house for three hours.
And he we're talking about hobbies and just different things.
And at some point, he brings up the fact that the house is haunted.
And he says, do you believe in ghosts?
And I said, I mean, yeah, I guess people have experiences.
They really know where to go with it.
And he goes and mind you, this is before I was podcasting.
I did not look at this stuff.
He goes to me, well, there's seven ghosts in this house.
And I said, OK, like I was like, all right, whatever.
And and I forget how he says it to me, but he he basically describes how the ghost came into existence in the house.
And that that was in the basement and the basement was the door behind the chair that got told me not to sit in.
And he goes, you won't come downstairs and see and see.
I was like, no, I'm good, man. We're going to just stay right here.
We're going to hang out here. And he just kind of shrugged off.
OK, you know, and so I was like, check. OK, all right.
God told me it would. I'm in my head.
I'm thinking of myself like now.
I think like what would have happened if I would have sat in that chair?
Was there like somebody sitting standing behind the door?
I don't I don't know. You know, like, was I going to be ghost number eight?
I don't know. But we continue to talk.
And the topic of God comes up and we start really going in on who Christ is and what that means to us as people.
And he starts getting real fidgety, like physically fidgety, like like I'm looking at him like this dude,
like is really, really driving with my message.
I'm really preaching a good one.
And he he I said to him, man, you ready to accept Christ in your life?
Like, you seem like you're really ready. And he's like, yeah, I am.
And I said, all right. So we prayed and we asked the Lord to come into his life.
And afterwards, he stands up and he starts shaking his hands real violently.
It's like, I feel this energy just coming through my body, rushing through my body is what he said.
And I was like, I've done street ministry before.
I've seen people who are on the streets and maybe aren't the most like mentally sane.
And I've never seen anybody act that way after a salvation prayer.
And he goes, I just want to give you a hug. And I was like, all right.
So I thought we were just going to do like a bro hug.
And he comes in full body like his whole body was squeezed against mine.
And he puts his head on my shoulder and he does this long exhale, just goes.
And I was like, this dude's weird, man.
But I was like, all right.
So we sat down and we started talking more and he does it again a second time.
And he stands up, starts shaking and he wants to give me a hug.
We do the hug, same shoulder exhale.
And I was like, okay, this guy's just a weird ball.
He's a weird guy, man.
But praise God, he gave his life to the Lord.
And then we're sitting there talking and he goes, I want to tell you something.
I said, what's that? And he goes, I'm a member of the church of Satan.
And I was like, oh, OK.
So this is what God was trying to warn me about.
And and so he gets up and he walks over to that bookshelf that the Lord kind of
warned me about, and he pulls out Satanic literature and puts it on the table in
front of me. And he says, I want you to take these out of my house.
And I said, I'll take them out and I'll burn them.
And when I when I said I'll burn them, he's standing over him over me and he yells
at me really loud to not burn the books.
And and so I said, all right, you don't got to yell at me, though.
And we start talking a little bit for a third time.
He starts shaking. I stand up.
He gives me a hug. At that point, I'm exhausted.
I've been there for three hours.
I don't know what's happening right now, but I had to go.
And when I left, I was driving away from his house and I felt like I was like I
left a piece of me there and I had a passenger with me.
And I didn't understand that I had no frame of thinking about this stuff.
And that started about an eight to nine year process of me having this
attachment to me, and it got to the point where I didn't even realize it was there
anymore. I got kind of like numb to it.
And it wasn't until I was at armed media conference and a deliverance minister.
Long story with that, but he went to praying for me.
And as he prayed for me, I felt this spiritual weight just lifted off me
and I felt lighter, almost almost physically lighter.
And it hit me that that was I hadn't felt that good since the day I went to that
guy's house and he did that stuff to me.
And I will tell you about a year into this process, like it was like the Holy
Spirit just turned that light bulb on for me and I saw the whole thing clearly
because for about a year, I thought this guy gave his life to the Lord and I
didn't understand what happened.
But I knew that something spiritually happened to me.
And it really hurt me for a while.
And it hit me that the guy knew exactly what he was doing from the start.
And people are like, of course, but I didn't know that I didn't realize that.
And I think what happened there was I think he was probably familiar with
demonic possession.
And I think that he was trying to mimic what he thought the Holy Spirit would be
coming into somebody after salvation.
And so I think he was that that act that he was doing was was something along
those lines.
But what he was doing with that exhale, I've been told by many people that exhale
was him that physical touch in the exhale was him releasing demonic entities onto
me.
And I had no frame of reference for it.
And so back to everything we've been talking about, I think that there is a
strong people need to be to understand that they need to be strong in their
faith, but also understand that the attack is real and it comes at you when you
least expect it.
And you need to be constantly prayed up and be praying against these things
because you could be going through your everyday life just walking your walk and
you come across somebody that has nefarious means towards you.
And that interaction becomes spiritual warfare.
And that is exactly what happened to me.
And I didn't have people around me to guide me through it.
And that's why it was such a long drawn out process, because I'm just I'm
basically in this spiritual desert alone getting my butt handed to me by demonic
entities.
And I didn't even know it at the time.
I didn't even understand it.
It just was happening to me.
And and so, yeah, it's when you ask the question, that's the thing that comes to
my mind the most is that that was something that happened before the podcast.
And it wasn't it wasn't until well into the podcast that I feel like that the
fangs of whatever that was was released on me or off of me.
And so I just I just really feel like people need to understand the spiritual
warfare aspects of things and and be prayed up real hard.
And not just because like I'm the crazy paranormal supernatural podcaster guy
that talks about these weird stories, but like if you're claiming Christ, you
will you have attack coming towards you and and and not everything is just a
coincidence.
And I'm learning that I'm recently learning that that the enemy will attack
you in ways that isn't, you know, a demon coming out of the wall at you.
It'll attack your finances.
He'll attack, you know, your social existence with people in your life,
anything to separate you from other people that could have a domino effect to
you, you separating your relationship with God.
Like I think that the enemy plays the long game.
And so the enemy knows to push, push certain buttons now because the domino
effect five years from now will mean that that this person is so far gone
spiritually that they're just in the spiritual desert, not knowing which way is
up.
And so I just think that we need to practice engaging in spiritual warfare on a
daily basis constantly.
Amen.
Tony, I know that in just a second, I'm going to ask you to pray for the people
that have been watching and listening, because I know that that story that you
just told, there are people that are watching and listening that they're like,
I've had an experience just like that, and I haven't felt the same since.
And I want something to change in my life.
And they haven't been able to shake it, just like you explained that, you know,
wasn't that necessarily that exact same situation, but you've related to that.
And Tony, would you just take a moment and just pray for those people?
And we've only got about a moment left, but I just don't want to miss this
opportunity where you've had this experience and you've had this deliverance
in your life.
Could you just pray for somebody that related to what you just shared there?
Yeah, absolutely.
Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing the people who are listening and got to
this point to hear these stories and my frame of mind and Lord, anything that I
have said or that may not be the most accurate thing, I pray against anything
that I might have said that might lead somebody in the wrong frame of mind and
thinking.
Those people that are remaining Lord and are listening to this right now, I pray
that anybody who's going through spiritual attack, spiritual warfare right
now that feels like they're in a spiritual desert and they don't know which
way is up.
They know that there's something off, but they can't put their finger on it.
Lord, I pray that they have a light bulb moment that they understand that this is
spiritual warfare in its own right.
And what they're going through is an attack by the enemy and that they start
praying against it in pleading the blood of Christ over their life, their family,
their property, their home, everybody that's in their life Lord, that's
surrounding them.
We bind any principality that is attacking anybody right now in a spiritual
realm, we bind them in the name of Jesus and cast them into the pits of hell Lord.
You take them and you do with what you want with them.
But Lord, we pray that the people who are listening right now and going through
these spiritual struggles that they start turning to you, they start learning
the kind of power that they hold through prayer and that you're calling them to
be engaging in this spiritual warfare and not to just be sitting there and
taking a beating, but to engage and start praying and fasting and coming to
understand that you are calling them to be a participant in this battle against
good and evil.
Lord, I pray that if anybody out there right now does not know you and is
listening right now, that maybe through the words that I had to say that maybe
they've gone through supernatural attacks in their life and they've always
just thought that it was just they were weird about it.
Lord, I pray that they come to know you, that they realize that this is not just
a weird thing, but it's actually a cosmic supernatural thing and that there are
principalities warring for their life right now and that they come to
understand that and they turn to you and they accept Christ and what he did for us
on the cross 2000 years ago.
I pray these things in your name.
Amen.
Tony Merkel, thank you so much for joining us today here on Charisma.
How can people find you?
They can find the Confessionals podcast anywhere on YouTube, Apple, Spotify,
the website is the confessionalspodcast.com.
All right.
I definitely encourage everybody to go check that out because he has got amazing
conversations and gripping stories like you just heard.
So Tony, thank you so much for sharing these powerful stories with us today and
thank you for what you're doing shining a light on the darkness that's out there.
Thank you.