Anthony Vasquez drifted away from God after a series of devastating heartbreaks made him doubt God’s love and presence. It wasn’t until he experienced a near-death encounter that he began to question his choices.
His Story
Anthony attended church as a teenager and enjoyed learning about God. But when his grandma died of illness and his cousin committed suicide shortly after, he felt abandoned.
“I felt like when I needed God most He kind of let me down. Like literally flipped off the sky. And I was like, ‘I don’t need you, I don’t need what you got. Obviously You don’t care about me. You don’t want anything to do with me. So I don’t want anything to do with You,” Anthony recalled what he said to God.
Not long after, he started using drugs and embraced a gangster lifestyle. He said that it made him feel like he was free—free from the issues of his past and free from any current problems. Anthony got married when he was 19 years old but still embraced the gangster lifestyle.
Leading To Near Death Encounter
“I didn’t feel seen my whole life and so I want to be feared,” he said. “And by the life that I lived, it made me both. I still got to play house, then I also would get to go play gangster. It’s cool to be a gangster. It was cool to be a womanizer. It was cool to be on drugs.”
Family life didn’t satisfy Anthony. Consequently, he was in and out of jail because of the lifestyle he embraced.
READ: INCURABLE DISEASE HEALED AFTER DISCOVERING THE LOVE OF GOD
Not long after, his wife filed for divorce. Anthony’s brother became a Christian and went to church with him.
“I like the people that were there, they seemed pretty genuine. Being real with God, I don’t even know what that meant, so I didn’t really know how to get there. But I hadn’t really experienced God, I just experienced Church,” Anthony said.
One night, Anthony got robbed. He willingly gave everything he had but then heard a gunshot.
Near Death Encounter Changed A Gangster’s Life
“A bullet hit the concrete next to my head. And then I felt like someone hit me with a sledgehammer in my shoulder,” he said. A few scenarios flashed in his head. “The police coming to my kids, his mom telling them that I’m dead. My kids here and then I’m dead. My mom hearing that I’m dead. I could visually see it all. And I was just like, ‘God, I don’t want to die like this. I don’t want to go out like this, doping in the street.”
Days after, Anthony’s heart was softened. “I fell on my knees and I just started crying. I’m like, ‘God I don’t know how to change. Either You help me or I’m done.’ All of a sudden, all this fear, all this darkness just went away. And I got up and I felt different inside. Like I had clarity of mind. Ao I called my brother, ‘Chris, I think I just met this Jesus dude, man. I need you to come tell me about Him because I think I just met Him.”
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Reference: The 700 Club
Header image: Anthony Vasquez [The 700 Club]. YouTube, 20 October 2022, https://youtu.be/dGIsMmLrz14
