Demonic Encounter: Tony Merkel's Chilling Experience in a Haunted House

0:00 And at some point he brings up the fact that the house is haunted. Well, there's seven ghosts in this house. Afterwards, he stands up and he he starts shaking his hands real violently. He's like, I feel this energy just coming through my body. His whole body was squeezed against mine and he puts his head on my shoulder and he does this long exhale. He just goes, this story that I'm about to share with you, I'm glad it happened to me before I was a podcaster, before I was doing this stuff. Because I could go into podcasting knowing that there is real evil in the world. It does exist and it's coming for you. And if you're not guarded, it can kick your butt.

0:44 I was, I radically rededicate, let's just put it this way, I radically rededicated my life to the Lord in 2014. Very miraculous day of my life. The Holy Spirit spoke to me and changed me instantaneously. It was miraculous. Anybody who knew me knows it was a miracle. And all I did was I just drove my truck and I thought about Jesus all the time. And I would listen to sermons, I would be praying. And so when you're living life like that, like Christ radiates from you. And I started building a relationship with a guy who was a receiver at one of the places I delivered to. And he was telling me this radical life story. And it got to the point where we got to current times. And he said, I said to him, well what's the next chapter of your life? He says, I don't know, I'm probably going to kill myself.

1:41 And my knee-jerk reaction to that was, man you don't want to do that, God's got plans for your life. Those are the exact words I said to him. And when I said it to him, his tune changed, his attitude changed. He got inquisitive like he never even heard the word God before. It was very weird. But I was like, this guy that lives in America, he doesn't even know what God is or who Jesus is. Like what? This was weird to me. And he follows me out to my truck asking questions. And I'm answering, but I said, hey man I gotta keep moving here. And he said, will you come to my house and talk to me more about this? And I said, yeah I'll definitely do that. So it was a Tuesday afternoon and we scheduled to be at his house that Saturday at 11 o'clock.

2:26 Leading throughout that week, the Holy Spirit started speaking to me telling me you are going to encounter strong spiritual warfare, very dark spiritual warfare. And I didn't quite understand what to do with that because this guy's asking about the Lord. In my mind, on Saturday he's coming to Christ. That's a no-brainer, it's a done deal. This guy is hungry for the Lord. And so I'm praying and being very confused that entire week. And so I go to my church that Saturday morning before I went to this guy's house to get a book, or not a book, the Bible. I wanted to give him the Bible. I wanted to give him a Bible because I knew he's going to come to the Lord and he needs a Bible. So I go to this guy's house, I arrive, I knock on the door and it goes for a few seconds, nothing, and then the door just seemingly opened by itself.

3:21 And I peek my head in and it's completely black in his house. And I just said hello. And he comes out from behind the door and he says, you came. I said, yeah I came. We scheduled for 11 o'clock. And he goes, most people don't come. And I was just like, okay, you know. It didn't kind of hit me anyway, but since then I'm like, that was probably my first sign that something was off. Because what do you mean by most people? You've done this before? Like what are you talking about? You know? So I go into his house, completely black. There were, there was pictures of pinup girls almost as a like wallpaper on his wall, completely covered the wall. And I was like, okay, it's interesting. And then I'm walking, he said we could sit at the dining room table and I'm walking towards the dining room table past a bookshelf.

4:09 And the Holy Spirit just said, be aware of the bookshelf. And I'm like, okay. So I'm aware of the bookshelf. I approach the table and there's two chairs, one on each side of it. There was a chair that sat between the table and a window. And another chair that sat between the table and a door. And the Holy Spirit said, sit down in the chair between the table and the window. So I sat down there. And we started talking. Him and I started chatting. And this is a three-hour ordeal. I was at this guy's house for three hours. And he, we're talking about hobbies and just different things. And at some point he brings up the fact that the house is haunted. And he says, do you believe in ghosts?

4:53 And I said, I mean, yeah, I guess people have experiences. I didn't really know where to go with it. And he goes, and mind you, this is before I was podcasting. I did not look at this stuff. He goes to me, well, there's seven ghosts in this house. And I said, oh, okay. Like I was like, all right, whatever. And I forget how he says it to me, but he basically describes how the ghosts came into existence in the house. And that was in the basement. And the basement was the door behind the chair that guy told me not to sit in. And he goes, you want to come downstairs and see? And I was like, no, I'm good, man.

5:35 We're going to just stay right here. We're going to hang out here. And he just kind of shrugged it off. I said, okay. And so I was like, check. Okay. All right. God told me. In my head, I'm thinking to myself, like now I think, like, what would have happened if I would have sat in that chair? Was there like somebody sitting, standing behind the door? I don't know. Was I going to be ghost number eight? I don't know. But we continue to talk and the topic of God comes up and we start really going in on who Christ is and what that means to us as people. And he starts getting real fidgety, like physically fidgety. Like I'm looking at him like this dude is really, really jiving with my message.

6:16 I'm really preaching a good one. And I said to him, man, are you ready to accept Christ in your life? Like, you seem like you're really ready. And he's like, yeah, I am. And I said, all right. So we prayed and we asked the Lord to come into his life. And afterwards he stands up and he starts shaking his hands real violently. He's like, I feel this energy just coming through my body, rushing through my body is what he said. And I'm just like, and I've done street ministry before. I've seen people who are on the streets and maybe aren't the most like mentally sane. And I've never seen anybody act that way after a salvation prayer. And he goes, I just want to give you a hug. And I was like, all right. So I thought we were just going to do like a bro hug. And he comes in full body, like his whole body was squeezed against mine. And he puts his head on my shoulder and he does this long exhale. He just goes, and I was like, this dude's weird, man. But I was like, all right. So we sat down and we started talking more and he does it again a second time.

7:24 And he stands up, starts shaking and he wants to give me a hug. We do the hug, same shoulder, exhale. I was like, okay, this guy's just a weird ball. He's a weird guy, man. But praise God, he gave his life to the Lord. And then we're sitting there talking and he goes, I want to tell you something. I said, what's that? And he goes, I'm a member of the church of Satan. And I was like, Oh, okay. So this is what God was trying to warn me about. And so he gets up and he walks over to that bookshelf that the Lord kind of warned me about. And he pulls out satanic literature and puts it on the table in front of me. And he says, I want you to take these out of my house. And I said, I'll take them out and I'll burn them. And when I said I'll burn them, he's standing over me and he yells at me really loud to not burn the books.

8:18 And so I said, all right, you don't gotta yell at me though. And we start talking a little bit for a third time. He starts shaking. I stand up, he gives me a hug. At that point, I'm exhausted. I've been there for three hours. I don't know what's happening right now, but I had to go. And when I left, I was driving away from his house and I felt like I was, like I left a piece of me there and I had a passenger with me. And I didn't understand that. I had no frame of thinking about this stuff. And that started about an eight to nine year process of me having this attachment to me. And it got to the point where I didn't even realize it was there anymore. I got kind of like numb to it. And it wasn't until I was at an armed media conference and a deliverance minister, long story with that, but he wound up praying for me.

9:14 And as he prayed for me, I felt this spiritual weight just lifted off me. And I felt lighter, almost almost physically lighter. And it hit me that that was, I hadn't felt that good since the day I went to that guy's house and he did that stuff to me. And I will tell you, about a year into this process, like it was like the Holy Spirit just turned that light bulb on for me. And I saw the whole thing clearly because for about a year I thought this guy gave his life to the Lord and I didn't understand what happened. But I knew that something spiritually happened to me. And it really hurt me for a while. And it hit me that the guy knew exactly what he was doing from the start. And people are like, of course, but I didn't know that. I didn't realize that. And I think what happened there was, I think he was probably familiar with demonic possession. And I think that he was trying to mimic what he thought the Holy Spirit would be coming into somebody after salvation.

10:19 And so I think he was, that act that he was doing was was something along those lines. But what he was doing with that exhale, I've been told by many people, that exhale was him, that physical touch in the exhale was him releasing demonic entities onto me. And I had no frame of reference for it. And so back to everything we've been talking about, I think that there is a strong, people need to be, to understand that they need to be strong in their faith, but also understand that the attack is real and it comes at you when you least expect it. And you need to be constantly prayed up and be praying against these things because you could be going through your everyday life just walking your walk and you come across somebody that has nefarious means towards you.

11:09 And that interaction becomes spiritual warfare. And that is exactly what happened to me. And I didn't have people around me to guide me through it. And that's why it was such a long drawn out process because I'm just, I'm basically in this spiritual desert alone getting my butt handed to me by demonic entities. And I didn't even know it at the time. I didn't even understand it. It just was happening to me. And so yeah, it's when you ask the question, that's the thing that comes to my mind the most is that that was something that happened before the podcast. And it wasn't until well into the podcast that I feel like that the fangs of whatever that was was released on me or off of me. And so I just really feel like people need to understand the spiritual warfare aspects of things and be prayed up real hard. And not just because like I'm the crazy paranormal supernatural podcaster guy that talks about these weird stories. But like if you're claiming Christ, you will have attack coming towards you. And not everything is just a coincidence.

12:19 And I'm learning that. I'm recently learning that. That the enemy will attack you in ways that isn't a demon coming out of the wall at you. It'll attack your finances. He'll attack your social existence with people in your life. Anything to separate you from other people that could have a domino effect to you separating your relationship with God. I think that the enemy plays the long game. And so the enemy knows to push certain buttons now because the domino effect five years from now will mean that this person's so far gone spiritually that they're just in the spiritual desert not knowing which way is up. And so I just think that we need to practice engaging in spiritual warfare on a daily basis constantly.