God’s providence was clearly shown in Derrick Rhayn’s life from the moment he left the womb and was good as dead. Miraculously, Derrick, being a twin, was not only six weeks past his due date, but, being a twin, was well past when twins are expected to leave the womb. This turned out to be God’s sovereign grace as Derrick left his mother’s womb deprived of oxygen and the hospital he was at wasn’t equipped to help him. Yet the hospital’s new building, which was equipped to help him and due to open in two days, was able to be utilized to help him.
In spite of both this miracle and his Catholic upbringing, Derrick would end up pursuing spirituality in almost every form except the Way of Jesus. This ultimately led Derrick to severe spiritual bondage, demonic oppression and, finally, possession.
Yet God’s explicit pursuit of Derrick didn’t end with the miraculous circumstances surrounding his birth. Over the course of seven years, God revealed Himself to Derrick in the series of three supernatural dreams. Each dream featured a different member of the Trinity until finally Derrick had encountered Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
That these revelations were the grace of God, was made even more evident because, in the meantime, Derrick had jumped in headfirst into the New Age movement and, as a result of the demonic foundations of such practices, Derrick became possessed by demonic spirits. The demons forced him to do self-harming and crazy things until Derrick finally found himself calling out to Jesus. The demons left him immediately, but it wasn’t until Derrick had the third and final dream that he finally understood what he was missing all along: encountering the Word of God, repenting of his sin, and acknowledging the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
This is a special episode because podcast host, Justin Mayfield, had the honor of being a part of Derrick’s testimony over the period of several years. Listen along as you hear not only Derrick’s incredible, God-glorifying story but also the mistakes made and lessons learned as Justin helped lead Derrick to Christ.
Highlights
- Justin and Derrick initially did community development work together while Derrick was the president of Go Local, Tacoma's buy local organization.
- Derrick was a Quaker for five years, but as Quaker's generally don't emphasize the Bible, Derrick wasn't able to come to a knowledge of the Truth of the Gospel through them.
- The Devil oppressed Derrick into trying to take his life by crash head first into a utility pole on the freeway, but God miraculously protected him from being hurt.
- Jesus told Derrick that He wanted him to give his life to Him in the dream and Derrick told Justin this but Justin totally missed the opportunity to preach the Gospel because of shame in his life.
- Next time, Justin was ready when Derrick called him to do spiritual warfare over Derrick's apartment. Justin much more clearly (but not perfectly) proclaimed Derrick's need to repent of idol worship and acknowledge the Lordship of Christ.