I Tried to Debunk Miracles and Found a Living Savior

I'm Seger and I'm 35 years old. I was raised Catholic. I always went to church with my parents. I did my communion and confirmation. I just went with my parents and experienced nothing. I had nothing to do with faith. I asked my father, "When can I leave the church?" He said, "Actually, you're not supposed to leave, but if you want, you can after your confirmation." So I did my confirmation, and shortly after, I left the church. I just started living my life.

I lived a life of going out, partying, going to Ibiza. I had my job and a good life, but I didn't get any satisfaction from it. My language was very coarse. I didn't care about anything. I attached little value to the things I had. We thought it was all funny and fun to do, but it was actually a pretty empty life. I also gamed a lot. When I came home from work, I wanted to game immediately. I can say it was an addiction. I met my current wife when I was about 19. Eventually, we wanted to buy a house. At 26, we bought a house together and moved in.

Then 2020 came. Corona arrived, and there were all these stories of people getting sick. Young, healthy people were dying. I thought of myself as young and healthy, so I wondered what was happening. It was tense.

We had a family visit; my parents came to see us. Shortly after, I found out I tested positive for Corona. I thought, "This is dangerous." My parents are older and have health problems. I was quite worried that something would happen to them. I shared this with my sister. My sister was already a believer; she had been for a while. I always told them, "What you believe is nonsense. It doesn't exist. It's fake. You believe in something that doesn't exist."

My sister sent a video of someone being prayed for and healed. I thought, "This is fake. This is staged." I wanted to investigate to prove to her that it was fake. I started watching all those videos. I thought there must be someone saying, "This is fake. We staged this." I came home from work every day with an urge to prove to her that it was fake.

I saw deaf people who could hear again, demons being cast out, people who couldn't walk walking again, and legs growing to equal length. I thought, "This can't be. This is staged. We've heard of so many of these things, and they always turn out to be fake." So I wanted to investigate.

After a year of investigating, I couldn't conclude that it was fake. Then God started working on me. All kinds of things happened in my life that made me think there must be something more. I think I secretly started praying, asking, "God, are you there? Is this all real?" I saw small things in my life. I said, "If this happens, then I'll believe," or "If that happens, then I'll believe." Many of those things happened. They were really small things. "If I find two euros on the street, then I'll believe there is a God." And it just happened; there was a two-euro coin on the street. That was bizarre, but it still wasn't convincing enough.

I actually came to faith when my wife was pregnant with our first daughter. God showed me many things in that. Life, the beauty, the love—I saw that back in creation. I didn't believe yet. I went from not believing there was a God at all to thinking there must be something. Those were the first steps where God showed who He was. The things I saw were not from myself; God made me aware of how beautiful His creation is and who He is.

I was looking up at the stars, thinking, "What a powerful thing." When you look up at night and see those stars, it's too extraordinary how it all works. We live on a beautiful blue-green planet, and we feel safe here, while out there it is so hostile. How are we so protected here?

Eventually, through the map of The Last Reformation, we invited someone who lived nearby in Enschede. I asked, "Can you tell us more about God?" He cheerfully said, "Sure, I'll come by sometime." He came to our house on a Wednesday evening and shared the gospel. That evening, we accepted Jesus, as far as we understood what it was. From that moment, our lives radically turned around, and we started following Jesus.

He invited us to church. We went every Sunday. We were also hungry to go onto the streets to see the miracles. Fortunately, this was a good church where we went onto the streets to pray for people and see what Jesus has for them, showing that Jesus wants a relationship with people. We could see that through everything we experienced.

If you pray for someone, lay hands on them, and they are healed, that is such a confirmation of His word. It is wonderful to see. Sometimes I have to ask three times, "Did it really happen?" I don't believe it myself, but it really happens. That people are healed really touches me because in that, the love of God is visible.

A bit later, I was baptized in 2022.

I prayed a lot for my wife because she stayed behind a bit. She was still my girlfriend then. She stayed behind, and I wanted to go forward. I wanted to show her all kinds of things from the Bible. "Look, this is real. This is truth. This exists." When I came to faith and was full of Jesus, my wife thought I had gone completely crazy. There was some friction between us. Friends of ours also said, "Your relationship is breaking. You've gone crazy. What are you doing?" But I couldn't stop because I really knew Jesus. Once you know Jesus, you can't go back.

Eventually, God said to me, "Don't try to convince her yourself, but pray for her." So I started praying for her. It took about a month. I had been speaking to her for five months, saying, "Look, this is real." After a month of praying, she also came to a living faith. She started believing for herself and standing on her own feet.

The moment I got to know Jesus, something really changed in my life. The love, the fullness of who He is—that is so different from anything I ever knew. How I used to try to get satisfaction from jokes, being tough, doing fun things—that was actually empty, degrading, and destructive.

Since I got to know Jesus, I know He is real and there is hope. I know what real love is. The beautiful thing is that He confirms Himself. What you read in the Bible, you will experience in real life. You get to know Jesus in a personal way when you accept Him.

I repented of my old life. I laid down all the things I did. God did that in a beautiful way—not radically all at once for me, but step-by-step. First, my desire to go out and those kinds of things went away. Later, the coarse language, swearing, and disrespect were taken away from me. Even later—I think there were about three months in between—God said, "It's also done with the gaming." That actually went very easily. I didn't have to do anything for it myself. You can give it to God, and He takes it away from you. You don't have to do it of your own strength.

The beautiful thing is that it is in the Bible, and I have experienced it in real life. I can experience the love of what God has for everyone. We don't have to carry it ourselves.