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– LIFE OF CRIME
Isaiah was brought up in church. By the time he was seven, Isaiah got saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. As a boy, he got caught up in gangs and was later involved in a drive-by shooting. Rather than go to a juvenile home, Isaiah was sent to the military. There, Isaiah got involved in the black market and learned how to make fast money. After his service time was up, Isaiah took his organizational skills and the discipline he learned in the military to run a prostitution ring. He became enormously successful: money to burn, expensive cars, and worldwide travel. Drug dealing came along with the territory. Deep down, Isaiah was not completely happy. He wanted the respect from his parents but his lifestyle caused his mother shame. His father disowned him and reminded Isaiah that worldly lifestyles result in death. His parents continued to pray for him.
On August 13, 1986, Isaiah was dealing drugs with some Columbians. As he got in the car to finalize the deal, one of the dealers pulled out a 38 automatic and fired a bullet in Isaiah’s head. He grabbed the end of the barrel and the next bullet went through his face throughout all the upper part of his mouth and throat and into the back of his spine. Then they pulled out their knives, stabbed Isaiah 16 times in his upper body, then threw him out of the car in the alley with the money in his pocket.
His wife, Carol, was on her way to Texas and felt like something had happened to Isaiah. Isaiah’s mother knew in her spirit that something was happening to her son. As he lay in the alley with blood pouring out of him, Isaiah could hear his father say, “You’re going to end up in an alley in a puddle of blood by yourself.” He thought to himself, “I’m too young to die! I’m really not all that bad!” God was calling on him to change. When Isaiah’s mother got the call that her son bled to death on the street and was dead, she said, “I have heard your report. But I got a report right here. Let me read you my report card.” She began to pray. Isaiah was already on the autopsy table and was cut open but his vital signs began registering. Mrs. Reed then told them to let the “real” doctor work on him and that her son would be alive when she arrived at the hospital. Doctors met her with more news: they couldn’t remove the bullets out of his head and that he would be a vegetable for the rest of his life. She asked everyone to leave the room so she could pray. Isaiah, with the bullet still in his head, later walked out of the hospital on his own power.
STILL ON THE RUN
Even despite God’s goodness, Isaiah continued to live in sin for three years after God raised him from the dead. On December 27, 1989, while doing drugs in a room with his friends in Hawaii, one lady friend got hysterical. Isaiah just wanted her to be quiet and felt like punching her. Instead, he asked if he could pray for her. Isaiah’s friends were stunned. Isaiah prayed for the girl, and he felt the Holy Spirit in the room. He told the Lord, “If you’re real, come into my life or else I’ll kill everyone in this room.” Isaiah watched as the Holy Spirit knocked down everyone in the room. “We were crying and repenting,” says Isaiah. They even got sober. “I never touched drugs again,” he says.
Immediately after accepting the Lord, police burst into the room (they had been under surveillance). He was in prison for four months and released. Two years later during his trial, the judge ordered him to serve 20 years. Isaiah accepted his sentence. One day the Lord told him to get his education. Miraculously, he was transferred from cleaning toilets into the prison education department. Isaiah got his GED and got an Associate Degree in Computer Science. Three years after he was incarcerated, Isaiah was released. He immediately went to work as the associate pastor at his church. He started his ministry in 1990.
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