Preface

This ministry I am sharing with you here has been hewn in the trenches. My training began in the womb as I wrestled
with my twin much like Jacob wrestled with Esau. I too, was born second, my parents not knowing beforehand they had a
second son arriving 5 minutes after the first – what a grand entrance. And what a set up for rejection right out of the shoot.
But my Heavenly Father was fashioning a warrior.
I was born into a “Christian” home in a protected and well-to-do family. It’s hard to understand why my parents
didn’t know they had twins because my father was a medical doctor and surgeon. He was very busy but cared about us very
much. My mother also had a good heart and was very intelligent. She was a librarian and read everything. We were raised
with prayer at the meals and bedtime. Neither parents were saved until shortly before they died.
This training in the trenches has no resemblance to attendance in Bible School but it has been the course prescribed by
the Master Potter to form this particular, unique ministry of counseling and deliverance. It’s been a get down and get dirty,
life-long trek. We could call it the “School of the Spirit” for the main teacher for me has been the Holy Spirit of God. For a
long time, my perspective was, “woe is me,” and my favorite scripture was, “You worm, Jacob,” but after awhile the Lord was
able to help me understand that He had a purpose and that I had been enlisted in Boot Camp and was in special operations
training. The understanding that most of our battles are over our calling has given me strength and vision to be able to press
through to victory and help others do the same.

Boot Camp Growing Up: I have 2 sisters and of course my identical twin brother. I was hyperactive and manifested
extreme behaviors as a child. I was uncontrollable at times and had many fits of rage. By high school, I was very unstable
emotionally and sometimes had bouts of rage, fear, shame, unworthiness and terrible headaches. In college I developed
bleeding ulcers. The doctors almost removed my stomach when I went into a three-day coma. The torment was physical,
mental and emotional. My father did every medical test and treatment available but nothing helped. He took me to the best
psychologists in the country. After their diagnosis of schizophrenia, manic-depression, their treatments and therapy brought no
relief. None of them were able to offer any hope.

Boot Camp Fear: One of my first in depth training areas had to do with my mind and the fears I was dealing with. I
read 2 Cor. 10:3-5 that told me to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. For months I dealt with every lousy,
ugly, negative thought. I grew weary and frustrated with this battle. The focus was the incredible fears that would take me
over. I had the thoughts come constantly and I prayed and brought every thought down by using Mt. 16:19, “Whatever you
bind on earth,” so I bound these thoughts and replaced them with God’s word. The thoughts came right back! God’s word
said I have not been given the spirit of fear but power, love and a sound mind. I realized finally, that I was dealing with a
spirit. So I not only took the fearful thoughts captive, but also bound the spirit of fear that was speaking the thoughts to me.
BINGO! The fear stopped (for a little while, anyway). When it came back I asked the Lord how it could come back and I kept
seeing my mother. I thought the Lord was showing me she needed prayer so I prayed for her. The fear persisted. After
repeating this many times, I realized the fear was somehow coming from my mother. Over months of working on this (you can
see what a lightning fast learner I am) I finally put her in God’s hands and didn’t allow that fear to come any more. So I
learned that fearful thoughts have power and a source – the spirit of fear that can be somehow projected from a person (even
dear mom). When I finally got a grip on this setup, I was able to have some sustained freedom from fear. My mother later
came to me and told me her duty in life as my mother was to worry about me every day. So that’s what she did and had hosts
of help from the demons tormenting her.

Boot Camp Demon Possession: Just out of college I had a peaceful little house on a beautiful stretch of beach at
LaJolla Cove. The delight of my days was running on the beach and body surfing. Who would have thought all hell could
break loose here? I received a call from an old high school classmate who was just released from service in Viet Nam and
heard I might have a place he could stay. Why not. My little place had an extra bed, just a few feet from mine, and I invited
him to come. While sleeping he relieved the horrors of Viet Nam but remembered nothing the next day. The nights were
beyond belief. Over the weeks that followed, my world became darker and darker; visions of murder, violence, depths of
depression, thoughts of suicide, death. The transference of spirits from him to me was closing in to take my life. I struggled to
choose life. I was actually driven by the demonic forces he had picked up in a séance in Viet Nam. It was years before I
gained the full understanding of the spiritual dynamics I had fallen victim to. Our faithful Lord Jesus kept me alive to learn
valuable warfare lessons of dealing with transference of spirits, curses and oppression from one person to another. I learned
about open doors and how demons use people as channels. I fasted and prayed which actually weakened me further and came
to giving myself to depression and death. For 3 days I was taken over by those demons and lived in a flaming hell with
torments jerking me around inside my body.

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 At church one night those demons must have known that their time with me was just about over because when I
walked in the door of the church, they took me over and wanted to kill. Instead of being able to destroy, they actually froze me
up so I couldn’t move. A man there spent the whole night casting out a handful of very nasty demons. When the sun came up
they finally departed, leaving me in a shattered emotional fog. It took several months before my body stopped shaking. It took
over a year to get strong in the Lord again.
Over the next ten years I developed a deeper relationship with God and began getting answers from His word on how
to pray. I realized I was in a life and death battle with demons that were tormenting me. I found another church in San Diego
where the pastor stopped the service when I walked in the back door, and ordered me to come up for prayer. I must have had
some neon sign on me in the spirit that cried “HELP!!!.” I was suicidal during that time and he prayed for me everytime I
came. I studied what he did, how he prayed and searched the word for answers. Answers came very slowly. I don’t believe
one must go through these traumas to be effective in deliverance ministry but through these boot camps I gained inside
information on how the spirit world works. They also developed in me a deep compassion for the sufferings of people who are
tormented and imprisoned. The Lord has fashioned in me a passion to see the captive set free. I praise Him every day for His
priceless sacrifice to make a way for ALL people to walk in liberty.

Boot Camp Intercession: I was being pressed into God for survival. I went from church to church for help. After
about a dozen churches, I found a little group of people that knew how to pray. They prayed for me and for the first time in my
life I had a measure of peace and some freedom from anxiety and pain. I was beginning to experience the power of prayer and
learned that as I would seek the Lord He would answer. The next 5 years He put my in a house of prophets and intercessors
where I spent 75% of my days in prayer and seeking the Lord. These were the years of growing deep roots and learning
discernment by consistent, intense exercise.

Boot Camp Witchcraft: I was met at church one day by an hysterical friend who said that Penny had been
kidnapped by satanists who were going to sacrifice her that night. He gave me the address which was a good 4 hours drive
away. I asked everyone I knew to go with me but no one could. I finally got in my little car and prayed up a storm all the way.
At the destination, I walked into the front door and yelled out her name. I heard her faint answer in the back room. I ran back,
opened the door, grabbed her and started for the front. I was met by a whole group of really nasty people. They tried to grab
me, bite me, and all the way were violently cursing and threatening me. I didn’t have a clue if I could get out. I yelled really
loud, “In the name of Jesus I bind you.” They all fell backwards to the floor, some writhing like a snake, some snarling like a
wolf. We ran to the car and took off in a cloud of angel dust. As we left they were cursing and saying I couldn’t get away with
this and they would kill me, get other covens to curse me, etc. My life was an incredible roller coaster of terror for about 3
years. Every kind of sickness, pain, torment would just come on me one after the other. I finally developed an understanding
of how witchcraft and curses worked and how I could effectively break it.

Boot Camp Heart Discovery: By now I had learned a great deal about the authority I had in the name of Jesus and
had countless opportunities to exercise the gifts the Lord was developing in me. I was like an assault trooper, just let that
enemy stick his head up and it’s over for him. But then a new season of training began, as my friends would affectionately put
it: “Art is discovering that he has a heart.” In other words, the answer to all of life’s challenges wasn’t always “just blow ‘em
away.” It was time to learn about hurts and healing. The Holy Spirit started to put me in touch with deep wounds in my soul
(ouch!). I came to impasses with clients that had recurring struggles that weren’t helped by my cannon blast at demons. In
fact, I learned that the battle this time was not with demons but with parts of their soul that had been broken in trauma and had
been frozen in that wounded state. I had to toss a ton of religious training and thinking out the window to make it through this
boot camp. I was pressed into God and His word for answers on this one. He opened an understanding about double-
mindedness. He showed me how we are broken and the dynamic reality of Jesus Who came to heal the broken hearted. He
never failed as long as I could keep out of the way enough for Him to minister. As I would invite the broken soul to come out
and talk, The Lord Jesus would manifest Himself to them right there and bring the healing and deliverance. It has been the
most awesome experience to witness thousands of broken souls (including my own) come to wholeness in the love of Jesus.

Boot Camp Calling: Our battle is over our calling. I have learned that no one involved in spiritual warfare is here by
accident. We don’t look for a war, we are drafted into it by our Lord Jesus. The Lord is our commander and personal trainer.
We are His workmanship created for good works (Is. 49:1-5). God’s call on our life is on us at birth. The demons know our
calling as well and strategize to stop it at all costs. Praise be to God Who always causes us to triumph in Christ Jesus!

Boot Camp Forever???? Sometimes we wonder if we will ever graduate. We do graduate from high school as the
top cat senior who knows it all and has the world by the tail only to enter college as the lowly freshman who is everyone’s
doormat. This is progress. We grow wiser as we grow more humble with each “promotion.”