A Letter to My Catholic Friends

Chapter 1

I was born I Cuba, and because I was Cuban, I was Catholic. I studied to take the first communion, but I never did take it. I would go to church sometimes, just to please my friends. At church, I expected to feel God’s presence somehow, but I never felt it. At that time everything was in Latin, so I did not understand a word. I knew I had to kneel, sit or stand because everyone else did it, but it did not make sense to me. I really never wanted to go to church, because I found it pretty boring.

Once, my young aunt took me to the church because she and her boyfriend had broken up. She sat me on a pew and went to light a candle to a saint that had an altar. I entertained myself by looking all around and observing everything. I saw small altars on the sides and a big altar at the back where Jesus was. I saw it had a preferential place, and it occurred to me that my aunt was wasting her time at the small altars, and maybe she should ask Jesus directly. When she came to get me, I suggested it, but she paid no attention.

The next door family included a mother and three grown daughters who would go to mass early in the morning every day. When they moved in, I was impressed with all their veils and rosaries and walking to church so early. No one in my family did that. Pretty soon, terrible fights started to break out in their home. Since windows were open and there was no air conditioning at that time, I could hear the horrible things they would say to each other. I started pondering, what good was so much church doing for them? I lived with my grandmother and quite a few aunts and uncles, and we lived in peace. I told myself that they had to go to church so often precisely because they fought so much.

One day there was a country fair in town. It had a carousel and Ferris wheel, which I was particularly looking forward to. My young aunt decided to take me to the fair , but to my disappointment, she told me not to ride the Ferris wheel. I promised I would not because I was an obedient girl and I wanted so much to go to the fair.

My aunt took one of her friends from next door and we went to the fair. After a little while, my aunt saw her boyfriend and went to talk to him, leaving me with the next door neighbor. She said to me, “Why don’t you take a ride on the Ferris wheel? I was surprised and explained, “My aunt told me not to get on it.” She answered, “Oh, no, she told me you could get on the Ferris wheel if you wanted to.”

Elated, I ran to the wheel, bought my ticket and got right on. The ride started and in one of the turns the wheel stopped when I was at the top. There I was, enjoying the view of my small town with its red tile roofs and the mountains beyond. I looked down and saw my aunt standing by our neighbor, shaking her fist up at me.

When I was finally let off, my aunt, very angry with me, said, “Didn’t I tell you not to get on the wheel?” I explained, “But Jane here told me that you said….” Jane, interrupting, stated that she never said such a thing. I looked at her in the eye and told her, “Yes, you did!” repeating what she had told me. Jane denied everything, telling my aunt that I was a liar. Something rose up in me and I told her, “Now I know why you have to go to church every day! It’s because you sin every day, and you have to confess it!”

I was surprised to see that my aunt was trying to hide a smile. When we got home, I did not get punished. But I pondered and concluded, “If Jane goes to that church, I’d better stay away from it.”

So, I did not go to church, but if someone asked me, I said I was Catholic. Later when I moved to the U.S., if someone invited me to church, I would say I could not go because I was Catholic.

If anyone approached me to tell me about Jesus, wanting to pray for my salvation, I would tell them that I could not, because I was CATHOLIC! I would stop them cold in their tracks. I thought they were out of line talking to me about anything spiritual, because I was Catholic.

But I never went to church.

Chapter 2

In time, I started getting interested in the supernatural. I was curious about several things. I wanted to know where flying saucers came from and what they wanted here. I read every book I could find about flying saucers at that time. I was interested in “pyramid power”, poltergeists, apparitions, etc. I wanted to know if these things were real. I read books about cases of poltergeists where it was reported that things would appear or disappear mysteriously, furniture would move around and strange sounds were heard. I read and read to try to find a reason. I marveled at these things and read explanations that scientists had for them, which really did not convince me. I would ask myself if there was an unseen world here with us. John the Baptist said:

“Reform your lives! The reign of God is at hand!” (Matthew 3:2)

At the end of May 1977, my husband informed me that our daughter would be going to camp that summer. The two previous summers, I had not wanted her to go camping. “She is still too young,” I would tell my husband. As a super-protective Cuban mother, I imagined a number of terrible things that could happen to her if I were not around. This time, my husband won. Our daughter would go to camp.

I tried to get used to the idea, and I started planning her trip. I took my daughter to a JC Penney store near our house to get some things that she would need, and I took the opportunity to teach her to shop for herself. “My daughter is growing up,” I kept telling myself. “I have to cut the umbilical cord.”

She selected her things, and I gave her money so that she could pay. I told her, “Get in that line, and don’t let anyone get in front of you. When you pay, count the change carefully! I will be waiting for you here.”

“Here” was about 15 feet from the cashier. I stayed there, contemplating the fact that my little girl was becoming a young woman. In silence and lost in my thoughts. I heard a voice that told me, “Buy that book!” I looked to my right where the voice had come from, but there was no one.

I looked to my left, and my eyes fell on the face of Charles Colson on the cover of his book, Born Again. His face brought to my mind the Watergate scandal during Nixon’s presidency. Because of this scandal, Nixon had to resign. Watergate had upset me considerably, because it reminded me of the political atmosphere of Cuba. I thought this great nation was going down the same path. This idea made me sick, and I stopped reading or watching the news at the time until Watergate was over. I did not want to see the faces of Nixon, Mitchell, Colson, etc.

Jesus gave him this answer: “I solemnly assure you, no one can see the reign of God unless he is begotten from above.” “How can a man be born again once he is old?” retorted Nicodemus. “Can he return to his mother’s womb and be born over again?” Jesus replied: “I solemnly assure you, no one can enter into God’s kingdom without being begotten of water and Spirit. Flesh begets flesh. Spirit begets spirit. Do not be surprised that I tell you, you must all be begotten from above.” (John 3:3-7)

And now I saw Colson’s face, smiling at me, from the cover of the book.

“No way. If that man gets a penny of mine from the sale of this book, I’m not buying it.” I found myself answering mentally to the invisible voice. But the invisible voice repeated, with great authority: “BUY THAT BOOK!!!”

Something happened deep inside of me. Something strange as if the inner me had split into two persons. One person resisted buying the book; the other was desperate to own it. This second one was the stronger, and grabbing the book quickly, ran to the cashier to pay for it. The first person, amazed, watched my feet as they ran to the cashier, while thinking, “But I don’t want to buy this book. Colson wrote it. I don’t want it.” The first person reached the cashier and asked abruptly, “How much is this book?” The first person was ashamed of the desperation reflected in my voice and the surprise of the clerk. I paid for the book in a hurry and went to get my daughter.

Paul said:

The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; The two are directly opposed. This is why you do not do what your will intends. (Galatians 5:17)

My inner self agrees with the law of God, but I see in my body’s members another law at war with the law of my mind; this makes me the prisoner of the law of sin in my members. What a wretched man I am! Who can free me from this body under the power of death? All praise to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord! So with my mind I serve the law of God but with my flesh the law of sin. (Romans 7:22-25)

I started reading the book. I couldn’t put it down. It gave insider details of Watergate, things that had not been published.

Colson tells of his pride because of the advancement in his career. He reached the status of advisor to the president of the nation and it had gone to his head. He was full of himself, a VIP. He tells of his fall and how he found himself in the mud, humiliated, and with the threat of a jail sentence.

A friend tells him about Jesus and what Jesus had done on the cross for us. I read this with interest, because I had never heard nor read about the final sacrifice of God to redeem the human race. His own Son, without sin or spot, His pure and holy blood poured on Earth for us, to snatch us out of the hands of the serpent, Satan, into whose hands we had fallen since Adam and Eve disobeyed God.

Paul said:

It is as Scripture says: “There is no just man, not even one.” All men have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and with sin death, death thus coming to all men, inasmuch as all sinned. It is precisely in this that God proves his love for us, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Faith in the heart leads to justification, confession on the lips to salvation. (Romans 3:10, 23; 5:12, 8; 6:23; 10:13, 9, 10)

Later in the book, when Colson, desperate, realizes that the only person that could lift him up and help him was Jesus, he decided to believe in Jesus and wishes to ask Him to come into his life. He prays, “Lord Jesus, I believe you. I accept you. Please come into my life. I commit it to you.”

Such a simple, short prayer, and it changed his life completely. When I read that prayer, I told God, “God, I am going to say that same prayer for me.” I said that simple prayer, and my life completely changed also.

I did not know it, but I had entered through the door into the Kingdom of God. I did not know it yet, but all the questions that I had about the supernatural would be answered.

He therefore said to them again: “My solemn word is this: I am the sheepgate…..I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be safe…..” (John 10:7, 9)

My first change was a yearning to read the Bible. When my daughter was of school age, we enrolled her in an Episcopal school near our home. We had to buy her a Bible, and we found a small, red Bible with pretty illustrations that we thought was perfect for her. However, it was rejected because it was not the correct version (which was King James). We did not even know at that time that there were different versions of the Bible! I knew that the red Bible was somewhere in the house, and I mobilized the family to find it.

I started reading that Bible hungrily, and I felt that God was talking to me personally.

Paul said:

This means that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old order has passed away; now all is new! (2 Corinthians 5:17)

My second change was also immediate. Until then, only dragging me through the street could anyone have taken me to church. Now, I desired intensely to go to church. But I did not know which church. I knew the Catholic mass and also the Episcopal services, and I found them boring. I had Baptist friends, and I knew that they were not allowed to drink. I did not know other denominations, so I told God, “God, you know that the Catholic and Episcopal churches bore me, and the Baptists won’t let me drink. You tell me which church to go to!”

At that time I had my own business of Commercial Interior Design. I graduated from the school of Architecture in Havana, and after working in Houston in three large architectural offices, I decided to open my own business. A lot of architects contracted me to do the interiors of their projects, and my office was doing large projects, such as hotels, government buildings, college buildings, banks, etc. My office would do the space planning and select all the interior architectural finishes, colors, and window treatments, then select all the furniture, furnishings and equipment, together with their finishes, fabrics, colors, art work and interior plants.

As president of my corporation, I tried to project a very professional image. Two days after having asked God to tell me what church I should go to, I had a business lunch with a woman vice-president of the bank with which I did business. She was a lovely lady, very professional.

Over lunch, I felt an urge to tell her of my desire to go to church and not knowing what church to go to. I controlled myself, because in the business world I was in, no one ever talked about God, church or religion, and I thought it would be too personal for a business lunch. I had to guard my image. What would she think?

Suddenly, I could not repress myself any longer, because it was God dealing with me. I told her, “You know, Ann, the strangest thing is happening to me. I feel like going to church, and I don’t know what church!” She said, “Oh, I am so worried! My daughter is going to a church, and I am so worried about it!” I asked why, and she said, “Well, strange things happen–they speak with tongues and I don’t know what else happens there!!”

At that moment, I felt something like little bells ringing inside of me. I told my friend, “What is the name of that church?” I wrote it in a paper napkin, knowing that I had God’s answer.

I drove by the church to see if I liked it. When I found it, I saw that the building was a contemporary design, very attractive and impressive to an architect. I felt that God, knowing what I liked, had chosen that church for me. It was an Assembly of God, non-denominational.

In my first visits to this church, I cried and cried during the services. They were cleansing tears, tears of repentance for having been away from God for so many years. I started learning and feeding my spirit with the word of God.

Chapter 3

Soon, I desired the baptism with the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues.

God, speaking through the prophet Joel, said:

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; your old men shall dream dreams your young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit. (Joel 2:28, 28 KJV)

Jesus said:

I send down upon you the promise of the Father. (Luke 24:49)

When the Paraclete comes, the Spirit of Truth who comes from the Father, and whom I myself will send from the Father, he will bear witness on my behalf. (John 15:26)

Yet I tell you the sober truth: it is much better for you that I go. If I fail to go, the Paraclete will never come to you, whereas if I go, I will send him to you. (John 16:7)

Wait, rather, for the fulfillment of my Father’s promise, of which you have heard me speak. John baptized with water; but within a few days ye will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. (Acts 1:4, 5)

Peter said:

You must reform, and be baptized, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, that your sins may be forgiven; then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. It was to you and your children, that the promise was made, and to all those far off whom the Lord our God calls. (Acts 2:38, 39)

With that purpose, on a Sunday afternoon after church, I called the church office to ask how I could receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The secretary asked me if I was a Christian, and when I said, “yes”, she said, “Come right over, because we are having baptism tonight, and we are having a meeting in 20 minutes to prepare the ones receiving the baptism.”

I hurried to the church and the secretary told me to follow the associate pastor, because he was in charge of the baptism. We entered a conference room. I looked around and realized that everybody had duffel bags and towels. I started to worry.

The pastor started saying that the baptism we were preparing for was a commandment of God and asked us to state our names the reason we wanted the baptism.

I realized that the baptism planned was water baptism by immersion. When it was my turn to speak, I told the pastor that there was a misunderstanding because I had already been baptized…when I was a baby. I definitely wanted to go home. The pastor started to talk to me, but I did not hear him, because I heard God tell me, “THAT’S WHAT I WANT YOU TO DO!!!” Shocked, I interrupted the pastor, “Yes! Yes! I will do it!” to his amazement.

They had to give me towels and white robes. I was ashamed! I had not come prepared and had to take my underwear off. I was very concerned about the wet robes so they gave me a double portion! The secretary assured me it would be okay.

I was baptized in front of the whole congregation, and from the water I went up the stairs to the women’s dressing room. When I reached the top, I thought I was going to faint, and I steadied myself holding to a counter top. I was surprised, since I had never fainted. I did not know it until later, but at that moment, God granted me the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

I thought I still had to seek it. A few days later, I went to the front after the service. I asked a minister for the baptism. He prayed for me very fast, because there was a line behind me, waiting. Since I did not start speaking in tongues, I looked at him expecting. He told me hurriedly to go home, that it would happen.

Frustrated, I went to the church’s library. My reasoning was that, if through a book I received salvation, I could also receive the baptism with the evidence of the tongues through a book. I found a book written by a Charismatic Episcopal priest, Dennis Bennett, titled, The Holy Spirit and You. When I read the book, I arrived to a paragraph that said, “If you have received the baptism and don’t speak in tongues yet, all you have to do is open your mouth and start” (my paraphrase).

I was elated. I ran to my prayer place (my side of the bed at the time) with the book. I told God, “Look, God, this book says all I have to do is open my mouth and start. Here I go, God!” I opened my mouth and a strange language started flowing.

I got scared, so I ran and sat at the kitchen table. I was sure that it would not happen again. I tried to convince myself. I started to speak in tongues again!

This language has helped me to pray the way God wants me to pray. It is the Holy Spirit helping me with my prayers. Sometimes, after I have prayed in tongues, the Holy Spirit gives me the interpretation of those prayers, and I understand what I was praying. The prayers are so beautiful, that I know that on my own I am not able to pray them.

Luke said:

After that they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, near Jerusalem, a mere Sabbath’s day journey away. Entering the city, they went to the upstairs room where they were staying: Peter and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alpheus, and Simon, the Zealot party member, and Judas son of James. Together they devoted themselves to constant prayer. There were some women in their company, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. (Acts 1:12-15)

When the day of Pentecost came, it found them gathered in one place. Suddenly from up in the sky there came noise like a strong, driving wind, which was heard all through the house where they were seated. Tongues as of fire appeared, which parted and came to reset on each of them. All were filled with the Holy Spirit. They began to express themselves in foreign tongues, and made bold proclamation as the Spirit prompted them. (Acts 2:1-4)

Paul said:

A man who speaks in a tongue is talking not to men, but to God. No one understands him, because he utters mysteries in the Spirit. He who speaks in tongues builds up himself. Thank God, I speak in tongues more than any of you. (I Corinthians 14:2, 4, 18)

Chapter 4

Now I was calling God, “Lord”. The Lord started to reveal many things and do several miracles in my life. I am writing here of one of the first ones. It happened this way…

In the summer of 1977, my husband and I vacationed on the island of Cozumel. I went to the market there every day finding lots of silver trinkets that I couldn’t resist buying, because the prices were so low compared to the prices in Houston. I bought rings, earrings, chains, etc

One thing I found that impressed me was a crucifix but without the cross behind Jesus. It had rings behind the hands to pass a chain through. It was different. I liked it and bought it for myself. I would give the rest of the jewelry to my children, I thought.

On the way back home on the plane, I took all the trinkets out of my purse to look at them again. My husband saw them, and when I told him that some were for the children, he asked me not to give any to our son, because he did not think men should wear jewelry.

When we arrived home, I spread out the trinkets on the kitchen table and called my daughter, telling her to pick what she wanted. I also put my cross there, but asked God not to let my daughter choose it!

That instant my son bounced into the kitchen, took a look and said, “Can I have one?” I told him, “No, your father does not want you to wear jewelry.” He insisted so much that I finally gave in, saying, “Alright, but take only one.” My son quickly extended his hand and took my silver Jesus!

A little frustrated, I told him, “Alright, you can have it, but you cannot wear it to school or to play or to the movies.” “But where can I wear it, then?” he asked. “To church. To church and nowhere else!” “Alright,” he said and we agreed.

Weeks later, the weather turned rainy, one of those times in Houston when it rains and rains, and it seems that you will never see the sun again. Going to my son’s bedroom, I spied the silver chain all by itself on top of his chest of drawers. The terrible thought assaulted me that he had lost the silver Jesus after all.

When he came back from school, he confessed that he had lost it, and that his father had helped him look for it, but they could not find it. “I was in the yard, playing with the dog and realized it was gone,” was his explanation. He took me to see the place where he lost it, near the roots of one of the big trees in our yard.

“Well,” I said, “you will have to help me look for it when it stops raining.” I started thinking about this new project. I would subdivide the lawn into one-foot squares with the help of stakes and string. Then I would search each square, uprooting the grass if necessary. This presented a problem. I would offer my husband a professionally planted new lawn, at my own cost. I doubted he would go along with it, but I would try. That silver Jesus was lost somewhere in the grass, and I was going to find it.

It kept on raining, and one Sunday after church, I realized the clouds were breaking up and the sun had started to shine. Time to go out and search! I went to the garage to get the stakes that I knew we had and the ball of kite string. I looked thoroughly but could not find either stakes or string.

“Very well,” I told my son. “Tomorrow I will get what we need, but now we are going to use these small hand rakes and we are going to start looking.” We settled in the area he had shown me where he and his father had already looked. I started raking carefully, overlapping my strokes so as not to miss anything.

The grass was very high and had not been mowed because of all the rain. Pretty soon I realized how tough the job was going to be, almost impossible. Coming out with each stroke of the rake were lots of dry grass clippings and dead leaves. To the point of bursting into tears, I said, “Oh, Lord! You know I don’t want this because of the money. It was very cheap! It’s that I just don’t want this Jesus lost in this mess!”

What a crazy thing to tell God! I started to feel embarrassed when I heard a voice in my mind telling me tenderly, “Don’t worry. Don’t look for it any more. I’ll give it back you!”

I thought, “Wow! God spoke to me! Yes, it was the Lord!” Then I heard another voice in my mind mocking me, saying, “And what makes YOU think God talks to you?” I almost agreed with this statement, but then I pondered, looked into myself, and discovered that I was sure that the Jesus would appear. I told that second voice, mentally, “If it was not God talking, how come I’m so sure that it will appear?” This seemed to silence the other voice.

I told my son we were ending the search, and I hurried back to the evening service of the church.

Next day, home from work, I thought about going to search for the silver Jesus with the beautiful weather we had. I remembered what God had said and held myself back.

Tuesday, back from work, I sat at the kitchen table to read the mail. My son bounced in, put the silver Jesus on the table and looked at me. I told him, “You did not find it. God gave it to you.” He agreed. I asked him to tell me how it happened.

“I was playing with the dog,” he said. “I tripped and fell on my face, and the silver Jesus was right there in front of me.” It was in the same place where we had been looking, but this time, it was on top of the grass, so he could not miss it. I picture an angel sticking a leg out to trip my son so he would land with his eyeballs exactly on the Jesus figure!

Chapter 5

I learned that there is a spiritual world. This spiritual world includes our planet, the second heaven where the bad spirits are, and the third heaven where the angels and the throne of God are. I learned that there is a war between God and his angels and Satan has his angels (demons).

Satan and his angels have human helpers here on Earth. These are the practitioners of the occult, such as witches, santeros, workers of voodoo and candomble, mediums, white or black magic workers, levitators, fortune tellers, healers, vaticinators, etc. These people can do miracles helped by the forces of the occult, empowered by Satan. These miracles are sometimes imitations of the true miracles of God. These spirits can haunt houses, help people get what they want (including harming other people) and help those who want to make their living through the supernatural, by practicing it. Be careful if you feel an attraction to these things. You could get trapped and contaminated.

God has His supernatural for you. All you have to do is seek it. God said:

You shall not let a sorceress live. (Exodus 22:17)

Do not go to mediums or consult fortune-tellers, for you will be defiled by them. I, the Lord, am your God. (Leviticus 19:31)

Should anyone turn to mediums and fortune-tellers and follow their wanton ways, I will turn against such a one, and cut him off from his people. (Leviticus 20:6)

Let there not be found among you anyone that immolates his son or daughter in the fire, nor a fortune-teller, soothsayer, charmer, diviner, or caster of spells nor one who consults ghosts and spirits, or seeks oracles from the dead. Anyone who does such things is an abomination to the Lord, and because of such abominations your God is driving these nations out of your way. (Deuteronomy 18:10-13)

God has his helpers also, and they are those that follow and obey the teachings of Jesus Christ, that study the Word of God, that believe it and act upon it.

Jesus taught about the Kingdom of God (the Kingdom of Heaven) and how this Kingdom had already reached the Earth. This Kingdom is right here with us, at our hand. It is invisible, but just as the wind is invisible yet we see the consequences of the wind, so is the Kingdom of God.

If a hurricane is approaching, you don’t see the wind, but by faith you take precautions, tape your windows and protect your house. You can use this same faith to live in the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God goes across and beyond the material, achieving those things that are believed impossible.

When John the Baptizer made his appearance as a preacher in the desert of Judea, this was his theme: “Reform your lives! The reign of God is at hand.” (Matthew 3:1-2)

From that time on Jesus began to proclaim this them: “Reform you lives! The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” (Mathew 4:17)

Jesus said:

As you go, make this announcement: “The reign of God is at hand!” Cure the sick, raise the dead, heal the leprous, expel demons. The gift you have received, give as a gift. (Matthew 10:7-8)

“This is the time of fulfillment! The reign of God is at hand! Reform your lives and believe in the gospel!” (Mark 1:15)

He also said to them: “I assure you, among those standing here there are some who will not taste death until they see the reign of God established in power.” (Mark 9:1)

But if it is by the Spirit of God that I expel demons, then the reign of God has overtaken you. (Matthew 12:28)

The reign of God is like a buried treasure which a man found in a field. He hid it again, and rejoicing at his find went and sold all he had, and bought that field. Or again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant’s search for fine pearls. When he found one really valuable pearl, he went back and put up for sale all that he had, and bought it. (Matthew 13:44-46)

The door to the Kingdom of Heaven is Jesus. The way to the Kingdom of Heaven is Jesus. Only through Him can you enter the Kingdom. This is salvation, this is to be born again. You are born into the Kingdom, and the Lord gives you supernatural power to heal the sick, raise the dead and cast out demons.

Then he summoned his twelve disciples, he gave them authority to expel unclean spirits, and to cure sickness and disease of every kind. (Matthew 10:1)

Jesus now called the Twelve together and gave them power and authority to overcome all demons, and to cure diseases. (Luke 9:1)

Paul said:

To him whose power now at work in us can do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine… (Ephesians 3:20)

I am not talking about religion. I am talking to you about a relationship with God. Religion is not important. Judaism is the root of Christianity. The first “Christians” were all Jews, including Jesus. The pagans started to call the people who followed Jesus’ teachings “Christians”. These Christians did not have a religion but a relationship with God through Jesus.

It does not matter if you are Catholic, Episcopal, Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran…any denomination that you are, you must desire a personal relationship with Jesus, who is the head of the church. If you are having personal relationships with saints, or high officials of your church, but do not have a personal relationship with the head of all of them, who is Jesus, Son of God and God Himself, you are wasting your time.

Not only are you wasting your time, but since God stresses in His word that he is a jealous God, you are making Him jealous. What would your husband or boyfriend do if you made him jealous? He could leave you, divorce you.

You shall not bow down before them or worship them. For I the Lord your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their father’s wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation. (Exodus 20:5)

You shall not worship any other God, for the Lord is “the Jealous One”, a jealous God is he. (Exodus 34:14)

For the Lord, your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. (Deuteronomy 4:24)

You shall not bow down before them, or worship them. For, I the Lord, your God am a jealous God, inflicting punishments for their father’s wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation. (Deuteronomy 5:9)

Lest the wrath of the Lord your God, flare up against you, and destroy you form the face of the land; for the Lord your God, who is in your midst, is a jealous God. (Deuteronomy 6:15)

When you pray, ask God the Father, as Jesus told us to do:

On that day you will have no questions to ask me. I give you my assurance, whatever you ask the Father he will give you in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you shall receive, that your joy may be full. (John 16:23-24)

You can petition directly to God the Father, in the name of Jesus. You do not have to ask someone else, a saint or even Jesus, to petition the Father on your own behalf.

On that day you will ask in my name and I do not say that I will petition the Father for you. The Father already loves you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came from God. (John 16:26-27)

And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so as to glorify the Father in the son. (John 14:13)

Keep your eyes, your heart and your hope in Him, only in Him, and live in the miraculous Kingdom of God!