1
“The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them has the light shined.” (Isaiah 9:2)
My name is Randy Reaux. I was born a third-generation rice farmer in southwest Louisiana, where I farmed with my father and brothers until the early 1980’s. It was then, at the age of 26, while walking in the darkness of sin and in the shadow of death (the beginnings of a heart condition), that God shined his light upon me. Raised as a Catholic, I was taught that I could pray to Mary and other special saints for the healing I was looking for. All the rosaries, however, and prayers to these saints did not help.
Then, one Thanksgiving weekend in 1980, I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ at the foot of the cross and made a commitment to live for him. It was after this that all of my symptoms miraculously left. For the first time in my life I came to know Jesus Christ as my Healer and Savior. I also soon learned that Jesus is the only mediator we have between God and man, and not Mary or any other dead saint, as I had been taught. (Learn more about this subject in another book, Is Mary Appearing?)
“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;”
(1 Timothy 2:5)
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no one comes to the Father, but through me.” (John 14:6, NAS)
“…and whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:13-14 )
What I began to see was that I had all the right church papers and documents declaring that I was a Christian. Water Baptism papers stating that I had been born again and cleansed from sin as a baby; First Communion papers stating that I had repented (by confession) and received Jesus by receiving the communion bread or Eucharist; Confirmation papers declaring that I received the Holy Spirit; and so on.
Bur what I did not have was the miraculous, life-changing experience, the hatred for sin, and the supernatural signs of the Holy Spirit’s presence that everyone in the Bible experienced when they were born again, repented, received Jesus and were filled with the Holy Spirit. The Roman Catholic religion had only given me a counterfeit (a substitute) for the real thing, through sacraments. The Bible declares that it is not cults, atheistic or pagan religions that offer people a substitute for Christ (or antichrist). But it is religions who name the name of Christ, who preach His name, that offer people a form of godliness with no power.
“Having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away.” 2 Timothy 3:5
2
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (1 Corinthians 5:17)
“And I will give you a new heart—I will give you new and right desires—and put a new spirit within you. I will take out your stony hearts of sin and give you new hearts of love.” (Ezekiel 36:26, TLB)
“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)
This was only the beginning of a whole new life and of learning the truth about the one true God and Jesus Christ. In the weeks and months to follow, I began to see how the Roman Catholic religion had given me a counterfeit for real salvation through the sacraments (I hope to make this clear in the following pages). To start with, I had been told that I was already born again through the sacrament of infant water baptism. In reality, though, I was not born again until that November day in 1980, when I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ.
The first thing I did was buy a Bible and began to read and to hunger to learn all about Jesus Christ. It was only within a few weeks that God sent an old friend to my house to see me. He had also become born again a few years before. He prayed with me to be filled with the Holy Spirit and fire, which the Scripture speaks of. Not long after, I began to pray in a new prayer language of the Holy spirit, called tongues. I soon began to hear the voice of God within me for the first time, giving me clear direction and setting me free from all the lies that I was taught and believed my whole life.
“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:” (Matthew 3:11)
“And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:4)
Jesus told his disciples that He would send them the Holy Spirit after His departure. He (the Holy Spirit) would teach them all things, including how to pray (John 14:26 and Romans 8:26). Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit, and not Mary, to teach us how to pray. Praying to Mary and praying the rosary is a counterfeit for the real prayer-life Jesus gives us through the Holy Spirit.
I too was once caught up in this empty, false way of approaching God. But when I surrendered my life to Jesus, He opened my eyes, and His truth set me free. He will do the same for anyone who truly wants to follow Him.
“I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness. But shall have the light of life… And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:12, 32)
3
“Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” (Acts 2:38)
As a child growing up, I was always troubled and broken hearted over certain sins that had control over me, and I always desired to be free. As a good Catholic, I was taught that if I confessed my sins to a priest and offered God a penance, I could be forgiven. I would walk away feeling forgiven for a little while, but never set free.
The Holy Spirit revealed to me that this sacrament of Confession and penance was just a counterfeit and a false peace that I was given. Not only was I never forgiven, but I never could overcome my sins. That was because the real power over sin (called remission) and real forgiveness comes only when one repents of all sin to Jesus and offers their life to him (not penance) to follow and serve him. This sacrament of confessing to a priest and offering God a penance is a counterfeit for Repenting to Jesus alone and offering him your life, to set you free from sin and use you for his purposes.
“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; …Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.”
(Acts 3:19, 26)
To coincide with this false peace of confession and penance was the false teaching of a place called Purgatory. Purgatory does not exist and is not found in the Bible. It is the perfect deception to believe that even though you don’t allow Jesus to set you free from sin in this life, you have another chance after you die, in Purgatory.
“There is no eternal doom awaiting those who trust him to save them. But those who don’t trust him have already been tried and condemned for not believing in the only Son of God. Their sentence is based on this fact: that the Light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than the Light, for their deeds were evil. They hated the heavenly Light because they wanted to sin in the darkness. They stayed away from that Light for fear their sins would be exposed and they would be punished.”
(John 3:18-20)
“For if we go on deliberately and willingly sinning after once acquiring the knowledge of the Truth, there is no longer any sacrifice left to atone for [our] sins [no further offering to which to look forward].
[There is nothing left for us then] but a kind of awful and fearful prospect and expectation of divine judgment and the fury of burning wrath and indignation which will consume those who put themselves in opposition [to God].”
(Hebrews 10:26-27)
4
“Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
(John 6:54)
I mentioned earlier, how that once I was filled with the Holy Spirit after repentance, I began to hear the voice of God for the first time. In John 16:13, Jesus promised that once we received the Spirit, He would lead and guide us into all truth – if we really desire to know.
One of the very first things I wanted to know the truth about was whether or not the Eucharist really was the body and blood of Jesus, and if I was really receiving him at communion. The Catholic church told me that once I confessed to the priest and offered penance, then I could receive Jesus through the Eucharist. The Bible tells us, however, in Acts 3:19, that we can receive the presence of Jesus only after true repentance and then being filled with His Holy Spirit. So, which was true? God spoke two scriptures to me – one in Jeremiah and one in 1 Thessalonians – that would finally set me free from the prison of Roman Catholicism.
“For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:13)
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“For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” (1 Thessalonians 1:9)
Through these two scriptures, the Spirit revealed to me that, one, the sacrament of the holy Eucharist was a false hope of eternal life – a bread with no eternal life in it, like a broken cistern with no water. And, two, that the Eucharist was and idol, made with man’s hands, and worshiped as God. The Bible tells us in Acts 17:24-25 that Jesus does not dwell in anything made with man’s hands, nor can he be handled with our hands: This is idolatry.
That is why I know now that it is the Holy Spirit, and not the holy Eucharist, that is the true presence of Jesus in the earth today. Because with this filling of the Spirit comes supernatural signs of his presence. Such as, the gifts of tongues, faith, healing, miracles and more. Signs which never happened to me by receiving the Eucharist. This sacrament of receiving Jesus through the holy Eucharist is just a counterfeit for receiving and being filled with the true Holy Spirit.
In 1 Corinthians 11:24, 25, Paul repeats the exact words of Jesus at the last supper: “…do this in memory of me,” meaning, to keep fresh in our memory why He died for us, and not as a way of eating Him physically. John 6:63 tells us that His words were to be spiritually understood. He is a Spirit and can only be received spiritually and not by physically eating Him.
In John 6:48-54, when Jesus told us to eat his flesh and drink his blood to have eternal life, he was speaking to us in parables. A parable is like a riddle with a hidden spiritual mystery or truth that no one can understand the real spiritual meaning of until he is born again, having his eyes and ears opened to hear what Jesus was really saying. (You can learn more about the true meaning of this parable from John 6 in another book or on HisGreatLight.org, under the topic: Eat My Flesh and Drink My Blood.)
“And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. …Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.” (Matthew 13:10, 11, 13)
Jesus came as our example, and lived a life filled with the Holy Spirit. This gave Him the victory and power over every sin, over all sickness and disease, and a relationship so close to God, His Father, that He heard His clear voice from day to day. Then He told us that through the power of His blood and the power of His Holy Spirit, we could live this same life that He lived, and that we have to desire and pursue after it.
But most do not want it, nor believe it is even possible, much less desire and pursue after it. This is what all men are commanded to repent from. This is the root of all our sins.
6
“…he then added, ‘Here I am. I have come to give my life.’” (Hebrews 10:9-14, TLB)
He cancels the first system in favor of a far better one. Under this new plan we have been forgiven and made clean by Christ’s dying for us once and for all.
Under the old agreement the priests stood before the altar day after day offering sacrifices that could never take away our sins. But Christ gave himself to God for our sins as one sacrifice for all time and then sat down in the place of highest honor at God’s right hand, waiting for his enemies to be laid under his feet. For by that one offering he made forever perfect in the sight of God all those whom he is making holy.”
I awoke one morning to once again hear the words of the Holy Spirit that would guide me into even more truth. The first word was this scripture in Hebrews 10, and the second word I heard was “Transubstantiation”. This is the Roman Catholic sacrament where I was taught that at the sacrifice of the mass, the priest claims to change bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, to offer it up daily for the sins of the people. But the Holy Spirit clearly showed me in Hebrews 10, and also in Hebrews 9:24-28, that Jesus’ sacrifice only had to be offered once, for all time; not over and over again as the priesthood in the old covenant did.
In the new covenant, Jesus put and end to an elite group of priests who offered the same sacrifices over and over again, and has now made every born again, spirit-filled believer a priest; not to offer Jesus again and again, but to offer their own life daily on their cross, to die to sin and live for Him.
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“And he said to them all, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1)
“Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.”
(1 Peter 2:5)
Receiving the Holy Spirit is receiving the supernatural power of the life of Jesus inside of you – to enable you to deny every temptation and weakness to sin – to help you with a new prayer life, so you can hear and receive from God – and to empower you to do the same miraculous works Jesus did, to benefit His kingdom.
“But you shall receive power, after the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto me.” (Acts 1:8)
“And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues… they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” (Mark 16:17)
“Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works that these shall do.” (John 14:12)
7
“And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.” (Matthew 24:4-5)
You may ask why I need to be so blunt and straight forward about the Roman Catholic church and its teachings. The truth is that hell is full of people of every denomination, including precious Catholic people that have been deceived to settle for a form of counterfeit Christianity; a substitute for the real Jesus instead of a personal, life-changing experience; Catholic people who were taught and who believed that they were already born again at infant water baptism, that they were already forgiven of their sins through confession and penance, and that they had already received Jesus through the sacrament of holy Eucharist, but who never were set free from their sin nature and who never received the supernatural power and faith that comes with being filled with the real Holy Spirit.
I love the Catholic people that I was born and raised with and work amongst every day. That is exactly why I hate the doctrines and teachings of the Catholic church that are destroying these same people. Destroying them with the false peace and false hope of eternal life that they are offering them through the sacraments. In the book of Revelation, chapter 2, verse 6, Jesus told the church in Ephesus how much he too hated the doctrines of the Nicolaitans (a priesthood-people cast system). My only motive and hope is that at least one person who reads these truths will be set free from these religious idols to experience a true, life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ and God the Father, which can only come through real repentance and surrender and being filled with the real Holy Spirit and power.
“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. …If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”
(John 8:31, 32, 36)
“And what union can there be between God’s temple and idols? For you are God’s temple, the home of the living God, and God has said of you, ‘I will live in them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people.’ That is why the Lord has said, ‘Leave them; separate yourselves from them; don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you and be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters.’”
(2 Corinthians 6:16-18)
Randy Reaux, Evangelist
Scott, LA