SAVING MY FAMILY BY STEVE KOSKI

     My family and I welcome all to share our journey to the Lord. Maybe your current situation has you looking for answers that might be found in our testing from the Lord, or maybe just need an encouraging word, which reminds you He is listening to your prayers, I’d like to pray that you find both in the pages of our book. I can guarantee that He is listening for your prayers, maybe thinking that you’re not getting the answers you need or that your prayers are so improperly worded that He really doesn’t understand what you want. Be assured that as the Bible states our Lord Jesus sits at the right hand of Father God, interceding on our behalf. He receives that mangled prayer that you send to Him and molds it into the perfect prayer and then presents it to the Father for an answer.

     In our story—and indeed it was our trial—I had to gain knowledge of what exactly is the armor of God and how to apply it to my life and my family’s situation. I would like to think that we are a practical example of putting on and wearing the entire armor of God. There are many experiences in our story that some may find hard to believe or even understand. I can comprehend this, but what I would like everyone to know right from the start is that all that is written and told by me in our book is true and happened as written.

     I’d like to say at this point I have a real passion for the Lord. Sometimes it comes out with a warrior attitude in my writings and in speech because in our story that’s how I had to react to it (a demon), and that’s who I became. This book was written after all of these events transpired. Really I believe and admire the true warriors, those who can pray for hours on end to the Lord, the so-called prayer warriors. I keep the Lord on my mind much more now than I did when our story began. He was pushing me to a point where I could be used to glorify Him and His work through our story. I hope and pray that I do Him this honor. Many of us wonder why we were created, why we are here, and what we are supposed to accomplish in life. I recently heard Dr. Tony Evans’s sermon where he explained this quite well. In a nutshell he said that if your purpose furthers the Lord’s kingdom or His name, then you’re on the correct path to finding the calling, which you are supposed to accomplish. Wow, sound words of wisdom there. Maybe that means that this book is my life’s calling. This is the reason I was put into this world, namely to tell our story so that someone else may benefit from our trials.

Also, I have no formal religious education. I’m certainly not a scholar. In fact, I hope I spelled scholar right. I am just a student of the Bible like most. I will refer to myself as the pastor to my family in our story. I am referring to my biblical responsibilities to be the teacher to my family.

     It is my sincere prayer that our book causes many to search out the true teachers of the Word of God. I have listed our favorites in the front of the book, those whom I believe teach the Word correctly. We hope to become a reason that brings new believers, or those who have strayed away, to Him through those teachers and resources listed. There are four of us in our family. I have asked each to write an addition to our story from their points of view in the hope that some who read this may find comments or ideas to help them solve some issue they are dealing with and discover the courage to continue to fight the evil that has invaded your home or family member. You must find the Word in the Bible that gathers strength in Him and call on all of heaven through Christ to fight your battle so that our heavenly Father releases His angels to answer your prayers. This can happen. Have faith, strong faith that our Lord Jesus is a man of His word, is able to do all, and does walk with you … always.

Yours in Christ,

Steve

CHAPTER 1

     I wonder if the best place to start is at the end. Today through faith by the grace of God my immediate family—wife, son, and daughter—and I are saved by our Lord Jesus Christ. Our walk to Him was not short and certainly not easy. We have experienced blessings and trials that tested our very being and sanity, both from the Lord by visions and visitations as well as evil through demonic experiences, many of which I will relate to the reader in this book. The Bible states, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).

     It is this one verse that sets up our entire story. It states the challenge my family was about to face; however, it also is the very footing I needed to keep me based in the Word of the Bible and remember who the Enemy truly was in our struggle and who was really in control of everything. How do you know when you receive these visits from either good or evil? When truly experiencing spiritual events for the first time, it’s so far out of the normal that you will understand what John said during his explanation of his revelation, “Immediately I was in the spirit.” To those readers who have not yet come to call Jesus your Lord and Savior, John is one of the apostles of Jesus, and this passage refers to John being taken to heaven in spirit and shown what is to come in the end of the age, the end of the world as we know it today. Revelation is the last book of the Bible explaining what will be our future here on earth. I was also shown visions in this manner.

     My name is Steve, husband of Sharmalie, my lovely wife, and father to Danielle, our firstborn, and Aaron, our son. We called them honorable number-one daughter and honorable number-one son, which worked out great because there was no sibling rivalry there! I was born and raised in Pittsburgh as the son of two of the greatest parents anyone could ask for. My father worked for a shipping company, packing boxes mostly, and my mother worked as a crossing guard for the kids during school transit hours. Being born and raised in the same home for all of my early life really gave me a sense of security. Actually my dad served in the US Air Force during the Korean War, and when he returned, he built the house that we lived in. During my early years we attended a Catholic church, but here’s where that part of my life and my parents’ lives really slipped. My dad and I would go every Sunday morning to pick up his mom, my grandmother, Bubby as we called her, and go to church in Braddock. Bubby would go downstairs during service and sit near the front to soak up as much as she could. Dad, my cousin Dave Terk (who was like a brother to me), and I would go to the balcony, where the organist played. Dave and I were both only children. We grew up very close and are even closer today through the bond of our Lord and our earthly family. I always tell everybody that I’m an only child because my parents reached perfection on the first try. Why try again? Dave and I would mostly screw around, and I could never tell you what the sermon was about when it was time to leave. My dad had his head down in his hands, and I’m not sure if he was in deep prayer or sleep. Sadly I never had a deep chat with my parents about God or Jesus. During these trips Mum never came with us; however, she surely believed in Jesus.

     During the end days of my mum’s life I was certain she believed in Christ, and as I was sitting at her hospital bed, I asked her flat out, “Mum, you believe in Jesus, right?”

She answered in a weak, “Uh-huh.”

     In my early years I went to Sunday school in church, and it was always my mum who sat with me, helping me remember the Lord’s Prayer and more. She had set the wheels in motion and really got my course to find the Lord in detail going much later in my life. As the last day for her life began here on this earth, I had to drive back from Washington, DC, as a friend of hers called me to say that she looked really bad.

     “You should come home as quickly as possible,” the friend said. She had already been taken to the hospital, and I arrived just before she slipped away into unconsciousness.

     I said, “Hi, Mum, I’m here.”

     She relaxed. She tried to say something, but it was not understandable. The nurse told me that there was nothing else they could do for her but try to make her as comfortable as possible and move her into a private room so I could have this last time with her. They asked if I would like someone to come and pray over her, and I said, “Yes, a priest.” That was how she had grown up. The Father arrived and asked if I’d like him to give her last rites. I agreed. Here’s where I’m sure she was saved. He pulled out the vial of holy oil and leaned toward her to bless her forehead. With her eyes closed and already unable to speak, even unable to squeeze my hand, she sat up, turning directly toward the priest and the holy oil. Wow! The Father was a bit taken aback by this and shared a glance with me. I just simply smiled and said to him, “She’s ready to go home, Father.”

     You see, I believe in all of the promises of the Bible. My parents’ deaths were not a time for tears. Sure, I was upset that they were not here anymore, but I knew where they were going. Really I was jealous. While I was sitting by Mum’s bedside, waiting for the Lord to come and get her, I prayed, thanking Him for her. She had done all that she could do here now. “Take her home, my Lord,” I said, “It’s time for her to receive her reward.”

     This little episode with the holy oil would come back into play later in our story, as I knew this would be an answer to a prayer and the only way out of a situation that had developed (as you’ll soon read).

     Stepping back in time long before my parents passing on to the Lord, Sharmalie and I met up when I was twenty-four and she was a smart nineteen-year-old. We met in a bar in Georgetown, Washington, DC. I spied her from across a crowded bar. She was sitting at the bar, not talking to anybody really, which was strange, I thought, because she was beautiful. It was my lucky day! I had never had the courage to talk to women out right. It was just fate or the blessing of the Lord really that she was sharing a house with another girl who at the time happened to work in a restaurant that I was a manager of, and she actually introduced us later that evening. She likes to tell me that she actually spied me as well, sitting at the bar on top of the dance floor, and that I stuck out because there was this one spotlight that was highlighting my hair just right. She says it kind of looked like a halo. One thing led to another, and before you know it, we’re married and popping out babies. Sharmalie has a special draw to her. She is British, and she has this killer accent to a Pittsburgh boy fresh out of the mills. She speaks so that you want to listen. Well, it worked on me—hook, line, and sinker. One of the best sayings I’ve ever heard is something some other British guy said to Sharmalie’s sister, although it applies to all four of them. Read this with a British accent: “She’s got eyes wot takes ducks off water.” She was born in England, and she was well-traveled because her family was living in many parts of the world, the Bahamas being one of them. Her mother is pure British, and her father was Sri Lankan, an intelligent, talented civil engineer who always wore a cravat. They saw many parts of the world while she was growing up. Sharmalie came here to go to beautician school and learn to cut hair. That’s when we began dating. The great thing is that I have never had to pay for a haircut in thirty years. I wonder what that works out to in savings for not ever having to pay for one. I’ll bet it’s a lot. Sharmalie has three younger sisters, all currently living in England, as is her mum.

     Danielle is now an accomplished doctor of occupational therapy. She has two children of her own, living in the Richmond, Virginia, area. Aaron is an extraordinary wizard with computer servers and all things technical, stuff that I have difficulty understanding when he tries to tell Sharmalie and me something about his work. The kids are both products of the ’80s and grew up with this stuff. When they call me and say, “Daddy, send me a text,” I say okay, pick up my little post-it pad, write out a short note, put it in the envelope, and mail it! Cue the eye roll from the kids.

     In the past none of us were truly saved or aware of what had to be done to be with God. We weren’t bad or doing any crazy stuff that one would associate with evil. We would be considered normal by all means of the word, a normal middle-class family with middle-class problems—not enough money to meet the bills, kids getting ready for college, not attending church, but still wanting some kind of supernatural help to get all the things wrong in our lives straight. Of course Jesus wasn’t about to answer that kind of prayer before He put us through trials that would move us to where He could use us. At this point in time I had started a small business that’s still small today. We had overwhelming debt in credit cards (more than $40,000 from business and personal usage), two mortgages, and a growing IRS debt in excess of $80,000. (It’s a long story.) It seemed no matter how much I made there was never enough, and the balances never came down.

     Then the beginning to the proverbial yellow brick road to—in this case heaven—was made available. Out came the first installment of the very popular Left Behind series, so this is the moment our story begins—the spring of 1996 when I actually began to read the books. I didn’t actually seek it out. My beautiful wife went to the local library and brought home a copy of the book in CD form. I really hate to read. I’m a listener, not a reader. If I hear it, I will remember it. If I read it, stuff usually leaks out quickly. So I started to listen and was quickly hooked.

     I remember somewhere early in the series, the means to salvation were revealed. I got down on my knees and reaffirmed what I thought I had already done and gave my life to Christ. It felt good. It felt right. Only this time I prayed out loud, speaking it with my lips. Before this moment I always considered myself one of God’s children, but truly I was not. One very important piece was missing. I had not prayed the prayer of salvation or the sinner’s prayer with my lips, speaking my faith into existence by declaring Jesus as my Lord and Savior, asking Him to enter my life. I thought just knowing about Him and praying to Him and asking for things to be done was enough. That was a big mistake. I needed to acknowledge Him before men so that He would acknowledge me before the Father. This is when the Holy Spirit truly entered me for the first time.

     Saying this prayer with your lips is important. Consider what the Bible states, “Then God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). God speaks things into existence, and therefore, so must you when you are saying and asking for eternal salvation through Jesus. The Bible says that “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9–10).

     Spiritually things started to heat up when I was truly saved. Up until this point I had failed my family, not being its pastor, not taking the responsibility to help save their eternal souls. It really hadn’t entered into my thought process before this point; however, I’m positive that the Holy Spirit entered me at this time and began to move me onto a track that would lead me to become strong in the Word of Christ and instill a desire to teach and move my family to Him.

     Demonic influences can take many forms as Jesus shows us in the Bible. I began to read the Bible, even though, as I said, reading is not my thing; however, for some reason the Bible took on a new meaning for me. I’d pick it up from time to time and read, but I really did not understand what I was reading. I wasn’t gathering the meaning correctly. I thought I was, but as I grew, I learned that I had a lot to learn! I wanted to learn what the Bible really meant, but because of family pressures, I knew that church was off the radar screen for the time being. Even the mere mention to my wife of going to church was always met with a response, “You must be kidding.”

This response of hers really sticks out in my mind: “I can only imagine what my sisters would say if they knew I was going to church.”

Even though Sharmalie brought the book to me, at this point in time she was the furthest from God of any of us. The mere mention of God or church brought on a verbal assault, which usually led to her leaving the room or house, not wanting to deal with the subject.

Even the thought of what a family member might think served as an obstacle for us. But I always remembered this: When we take our final breath here on earth, the next person we are going to see is the Lord Jesus during judgment. He will review my life, not taking into account what anyone thought of me. It will just be me and the Lord. There won’t be any lawyers to plead my case, no jury to decide my fate, just the one who knows all things. If I wanted to, I could even go through my whole life not obeying Him but thinking things were good until the moment when Jesus would look at me with burning and piercing eyes and say, “Depart from Me. I never knew you.” Oh, my God, what a horrible thought. At that moment the ground would open up, and you would be separated from Him in everlasting torment, in a dark, hot place with sulfurous odor permeating everything, a sense of loss that could never be fixed, for this will be for eternity!

     So in late 1996 my interest and growth in the Word of the Lord started to take on the form of listening to our local Christian radio station, WAVA 105.1 here in the northern Virginia area. I began to listen and quickly developed a passion for some of the pastors and teachers on the programming list. From 8:00 to 11:30 a.m. with a daily diet of hearing the Word and having it explained to me, I began to quickly grow in knowledge and understanding of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. Each of these pastors who taught the Word put it into terms that I could understand and verified its truth, showed me that it was not their meaning of the Word but that of the Lord’s unyielding commandments.

     My knowledge of demons and even angels for that matter at this time in my life was really lacking. This is one of the greatest tools of evil—ignorance. If you don’t know and don’t recognize a threat, why would you try to change it? Sitting in church and hearing about demons is completely different than your faith growing so strong that you actually try to do something to fight evil. When one is strong in faith, he or she will have the motivation to save someone.

A demon in my own home was about to make its presence known, turning my world into chaos. He resided in my wife and was about to change everything of value that I held dear—my family.