Katelyn’s Testimony - Overcoming Sin

My name is Katelyn, This is my story of overcoming sin. I was raised in a Catholic home by a family that attended church on Sundays. I never read my bible growing up or did much beyond going to church. I would have always told you I believed in God, but even the demons believe and shudder.

You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.
James 2:19 NASB

I did not understand what the scripture says about how our lives must look if we call ourselves Christians. I started practicing sin at a very young age. I struggled with perfectionism and people-pleasing for almost as long as I can remember. These sinful practices led me to practice lying and cheating throughout my time in school and at home. When I was in first grade, I tried to cheat on a spelling test for the first time because I feared that I didn’t know the words and wouldn’t get 100% on the test.

“But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Revelation 21:8 NASB

I had many problems as a child that I didn't know how to overcome. I would lie and manipulate people to hurt them because I had so much hurt in me and didn’t know how to turn to God for help. I had rage that would come out when things weren’t going my way, and I would want to hurt people. I was disrespectful to my parents and did not honor them in the way I spoke and behaved towards them. I would pick fights with my dad and say things to intentionally hurt him. I continued to practice lying, stealing, and cheating. In high school, I started practicing sexual sin and idolized sports, people, and myself. I cared more about having people like me than about being honest. I also went back and forth between wanting to please people, but then desiring selfish ambition more. It was selfish ambition because I only cared about myself and not having people hate me. I was jealous of people and coveted other people’s lives because I hated myself, and I had hatred for other people. Scripture says this is the same as murder. I had a love deficiency towards people and did not love properly. All the while claiming to believe in God and calling myself a Christian. 1 John 3 and 4 lay this out. I was a hypocrite and I didn't even know it.

When I was 15, I was diagnosed with a genetic disorder called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, I was also diagnosed with multiple other things. This means that the connective tissues that made up my tendons, ligaments, and linings were breaking down, and I didn’t produce intact collagen to repair them. I was also told that I was having heart problems. I was told I had to stop playing sports or I could end up in a wheelchair. I was getting worse and worse, and the amount of pain I was in was increasing very quickly. I developed a lot of food allergies and struggled to digest foods because my digestive system was not absorbing things properly. After my health issues continued to get worse in high school, I was not able to play piano, play sports, ski, or do most physical things. I wasn't able to eat much food. I stopped caring about my life, other people, or anything else in this world. After my junior year of high school, I was having panic attacks a lot. I was depressed, and I was broken mentally and physically.

Because of all this, I tried to find ways to comfort myself. I ended up getting into a relationship with a guy who was emotionally and physically abusive to me. The relationship was filled with manipulation and lies. During this time, I was living in a fog of bondage, oppression, and torment. I was so oppressed and in bondage that I could barely hold a conversation with people at times because I couldn’t see out of my own mind.

When I was 17, I finally started reading my bible. It took everything being stripped away from me to humble myself and ask God for help. I came out of the relationship I was in and spent time reading the Bible. I started examining the things people had taught me about God growing up. I wanted to see if the teachings I learned were in the Bible. I wanted to genuinely understand God and what the scriptures said, because I realized that there is powerful truth in His Word. I was learning that just because someone calls themselves a Christian, it doesn't mean the things they say or do line up with God's Word. I did my best to live out what I knew at that time, but I still struggled with sin and did not understand what it meant to die to my flesh or to stop practicing sin. I didn’t know that you could be set free from sin and that the Holy Spirit could help you to stop practicing sin. I didn't even know that you could master sin.

So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh⁠— for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
Romans 8:12-14 NASB

When I got to college, I was still trying to live out what I knew. The Holy Spirit taught me to start a bible study in my dorm room. However, because I was not solid in truth, I started hanging out with people who partied, drank, and did drugs. Eventually, after hanging out with them for a while, I started to get involved with drinking and going to parties. This led to more sexual sin, drunkenness, and seeking my identity in things other than God. I was still having a lot of health issues, food allergies, and depression. All this time I claimed to be Christian, but I was a hypocrite because I was not living what God commands of those who claim to follow him. I would judge people who were Christian, I would judge them for doing the same things that I was doing. I continued to cheat, lie, and steal from people. I would steal clothes from my friends and my sister.

In my sophomore year of college, I had a desire to stop practicing sin, but I still did not know how or what scripture says about sin. I stopped doing the sinful practices I knew were wrong and desired to walk out the Word again. It was very lonely for me because I had surrounded myself with people who lived in sin, and I no longer wanted to partake in these things.

In my junior year of college, I got involved with a ministry and wanted to be obedient to God and to actually stop practicing sin. I was baptized in the Holy Spirit in the fall of 2020 and started speaking in tongues. However, I developed pride in hearing from God, I was listening to what any spirit said, not knowing that I was to test the spirits to see if they were from God. I had no idea I was to test the spirits.

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
1 John 4:1-3 NASB

I was listening to spirits telling me things that did not line up with scripture, and I had pride. I thought I was better than other people, even though during this time I was still gossiping, lying, slandering, being a coward, and an idolater. Eventually, I ended up leaving the ministry after going back to sexual sin. I was a hypocrite and had intentional sin because I knew this was wrong. I have since learned that all the sins I practiced were not pleasing to God. I stopped speaking in tongues and stopped reading my bible. I lied to people for months about my sin and kept it hidden.

Finally, in the spring of 2022, God gave me a choice. I either stopped practicing sin and do whatever He commanded of me, or I chose to continue living in sin. He told me I will never get to call myself a Christian again if I choose sin. I settled in my heart and told God that I wanted to live for Him, but I needed Him to show me how to live an obedient life. Throughout the previous few years, He had taught me a lot about what was not in the scriptures that I saw people practicing, but I still did not fully know how to live what is in the Scriptures. He would tell me people were worshipping a different Jesus, but I didn't understand how to worship properly.

For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully.
2 Corinthians 11:4 NASB

I stopped practicing sexual sin, started praying, and asking God to bring me someone to teach me how to live the life of a Christian that is pleasing to Him. God had talked to me about how people were not speaking the truth, meaning they were not speaking what the Bible says, so I had stopped going to church buildings. I started reading my bible again, and God started teaching me that we have to stop practicing sin. He showed me that I needed to repent and bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance;
Matthew 3:8 NASB

I learned that if I kept practicing any of the sins I had before, I would go to the lake of fire because I was actually a child of the devil.

Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.
1 John 3:7-8 NASB

To realize that if I continued practicing sin, I would go to the lake of fire because I was actually a child of the devil, I had to truly have faith and believe that God was actually going to do the things He said He was going to do in the Scriptures. I had to realize the Scripture lays out who God is, and I had to believe Scripture over what the Christian world typically teaches about Him.

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:18-23 NASB

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 NASB

I have learned that if you are going to call yourself a Christian, you have to actually believe the Word of God and learn to live in His Holy Spirit. The true gospel of Jesus is that He brought us grace to teach us to stop practicing sin, to be righteous (conform to the divine will of God), and to wash our robes, to be Teleios (perfect, complete, mature, lacking in nothing).

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,
Titus 2:11-12 NASB

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.
Hebrews 12:22-24 NASB

Jesus only did and said what the Father told Him to say and do. He did this through the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit He gave to us to teach us to stop practicing sin so that we can become new creations. We are to live in the freedom of not practicing sin. He came to give us one heart and one mind with the Father so that we live our lives conforming to the divine will. This way, we will inherit the kingdom of God and have eternal life with Him.

Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel.
John 5:19-20 NASB

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed,
Luke 4:18 NASB

And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them.
Acts 4:32 NASB

As I truly started believing these scriptures, I learned how to stop practicing sin. I started doing what the scripture says to do, and when I learn I was doing something wrong, I asked God to help me stop. As I lived the scriptures out in obedience to God, He has healed me of all my physical problems, including my food allergies, different sensitivities, mental health issues, anxiety, and depression. I stopped engaging with demons because God taught me there is a spiritual root to all of these things. I have learned to ask Him for my way of escape when tempted to sin, and He has been faithful to show me. He has taught me how to stop listening to demons. I have learned that we are supposed to stay in constant prayer, talk to God at all times, and ask for His mind in situations. Scripture tells us that this life is to be lived conforming to His divine will. We cannot just say we believe and think that everyone goes to heaven; it does not say this anywhere in scripture. If you practice sin and do not repent, scripture is very clear about what happens to you. Everyone needs to know to repent because the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. This is what scripture says.

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is athand.”
Matthew 3:2 NASB

No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.
1 Corinthians 10:13 NASB

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
James 1:2-8 NASB

The more I learn, the more I live out the word, meaning the more I do the things in the scriptures, the more I see the same things that I see in the Bible happen to me and others around me. I have seen people healed, God has taught me how to lay hands on people and pray for them. I have seen people be baptized in the Holy Spirit, I have seen people stop practicing sin, I have seen and lived through persecution, and I have learned God’s mind on situations to know how He wants me to handle each thing. God has used me to cast demons off of people, and I have watched people, including myself, learn to produce good fruit in all situations. I have never experienced true peace and contentment until I was obedient. I have peace and contentment, and I know I'm truly loved by God. He has taught me how to live in the Spirit. I didn’t understand true freedom or how not to live off of emotion or the feelings until God taught me to live in the Spirit.

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh⁠— for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
Romans 8:1-25 NASB

I pray that my story will help and encourage everyone who reads it.

References: