Brandon thank you, Welcome!
Could you please start sharing, where you're from, why you're here and a little bit of
your salvation story?
So my name is Brandon Bravo.
I'm from San Antonio, Texas.
I'm currently an intern here at the internship at Hungry Gen. C'mon let's give him a round
of applause.
We are so happy to have you and would you please start sharing, how was your life like
before you met Jesus Christ and how did you get saved?
Amen, so my salvation story is one of a rejection of a father.
I grew up on the Southside of town in San Antonio, primarily known for prostitution,
drugs, violence- just a very urban community.
So I grew up in a single-parent household.
My mother would work up to two jobs just to take care of us.
My siblings were raising me, helping her.
So My father was never really home, he was an alcoholic.
My father was a womanizer, he was a heroin user, just in and out of the streets.
Vividly coming home finding needles in his arms walking home from elementary school.
So these are the kind of things I would see growing up, as well as physical abuse in the
home.
And so just having a lot of anger, anxiety, depression, anger of seeing this.
So I grow up with this impression of a father, So my father ended up doing fifteen years
in prison for a good majority of my life.
So, when he was released, within a year of his release he ended up passing away.
He had hepatitis C and cirrhosis of the liver due to his avid heroin use and alcoholism
he didn't want to stop.
I was told later on by family on my father's side that it was so bad when they send him
home to pass, they were injecting him with heroin because morphine just wasn't enough
for him.
So once he passed, it was as if something in me just snapped.
The generational curses, I believe at that moment was activated.
He had nine brothers all of them died-heroin, drugs, they were all involved heavily in the
Mexican mafia.
And I say this not to brag but to give you a context of high-ranking members in organized
crime.
So I was very susceptible to this lifestyle.
So as I grew older, began high school, became of age, started partying, started selling
drugs myself, involved heavily in the streets, heavily in the gang life, knowing strip club
managers on a first name basis.
Just living the full life of the world and the nightlife and everything that had to offer
was my life.
Became a father in 2008, I decided I wanted to change.
I had not encountered the Lord just yet, but I wanted to change.
So, when my child became five years old, I was with probably the worst time of my life.
I went through a three-year custody battle.
My son came home one day with bruises on his arms and to make that part of a long story
short, there was physical abuse in his home.
So I went through a three-year legal system and in Texas, it's almost impossible to win
your child.
So during this time, I was depressed, I was taking short-term disability at work, I was
under anti- depressants.
I was trying my hardest not to take matters into my own hands because I was very involved
in that lifestyle and it was very easy for me to "make phone calls" to fix this.
And so trusting that the legal system would work.
I was deeply depressed, deeply under medication, doing my best to do things right.
So the final verdict came and the judge says no.
Overwhelming evidence, social media evidence, teachers testifying and it was a no.
Little did I know the Lord was working the whole time behind the scenes and I will get
to that point.
And so, while this happened, I blasphemed the Lord, mind you I had people tell me- go
to church, people praying for me, I didn't want to hear that because the reality in my
mindset at the time, was that if God was real, why would he allow these children to suffer.
And so this was my mindset at the time.
So I didn't want to hear anything about church, Christianity, none of that.
So I decided in that moment that I was going to take the law into my own hands.
To make the long story short, I'm sorry, I decided to take this man's life.
I had set it up in my mind, I had set it up with friends, we were tracking social media,
I was doing everything I can to take this man's life because in my mind that was the
only option I had left.
On a Saturday night, in a drunken rage, while this was taking place, God encountered me
in a vision, on the highway.
If you're looking in your car, it was as if the screen came on my window.
True story, and the Lord showed me, I was about 35 years old in the vision.
I was fully suited which is a term for being tattooed from head to toe suited, and my oranges,
oranges is another term they use for prison inmates.
I was fully suited, my son was about thirteen in the vison.
What the world would call gothic, you know had hair on his face, hoodie over him, black-painted
nails, this was the vision I was getting.
He was visiting me in my vision and he was telling me how much he hated me.
He was so angry at me and in my vision, I'm trying to plead with him that I did what I
did because I wanted to protect him.
And he says yes, but where are you now?
Where are you when I needed you the most?
And in this moment the vision clears.
By the grace of God, I don't know how far, I must have been driving miles.
I pulled over immediately and I wept and I wept and I wept and I heard a voice saying
trust me and follow me.
This is what I heard.
C'mon, let's just give a round of applause to Jesus.
Wow, what an incredible encounter.
Wow.
And so, from that moment on, what started to happen in your life that started to draw
you closer to God.
Yes, so seeds of prayer work.
I didn't have a praying family, a praying grandma none of that.
But I remember people along the way that would say, I'm praying for you or go to church and
these seeds were starting to activate.
So then I visited a church from a family member and I went to church.
And isn't it funny when you're in those moments that the worship is just for you, the message
is just for you.
It was as if the Lord was preparing my heart for my true father.
So here comes the altar call, I am wrecked.
The Lord is ministering to me so strongly.
As I come to the altar, I felt consuming fire fall on me.
And I heard a voice saying I have every hair on your head numbered.
That I knew you before you were formed in the womb of your mother if you don't know
this is written in Jeremiah.
I had no ideas, but I heard it and had an encounter with my heavenly Father.
My earthly father never showed up, but my heavenly Father showed up in that moment.
C'mon our God is so good.
Wow, what a touching testimony!
You know, I just, I must pause in this for a second and I just feel like this is for
somebody in here- more than one person.
You're listening right now, sitting here or watching online and God is speaking to your
right now.
He's pouring liquid love upon you.
That you'll experience the true love of the Father that you have never known in your life
through this testimony.
Let it be a seed of your salvation and your restoration in Jesus' name.
Brandon continue, sorry.
It's ok.
So I want to say this, Pastor Lana.
I turn 35 years old this year.
My son is now 13 years old and I'm being used in the ministry of deliverance and he comes
with me to cast out the very demons that kept me in bondage.
C'mon, let's give a round of applause to Jesus.
Praise the Lord!
That's so incredible!
Wow, that is so incredible.
So you're here now in internship, serving God, you know going hard after God, going
further, learning more, going deeper and what would you suggest to people who might find
themselves maybe in a similar extreme situation or maybe there is someone who just does not
know the Lord as their father.
What would you tell them?
I would say this Pastora, everybody has a similar situation as far as being fatherless.
Maybe it wasn't as hard as drugs but maybe you grew up in church and your dad was a Pastor
was never there.
The feeling of abandonment still hurts, right.
Our father sometimes gives us presents but are never present.
So I just wanted to share that with you.
If this is your story, you're doing everything you can to fill it.
Whether it's the nightlife, drugs, parties even relationships maybe even through children.
I hear so many stories Pastora but really it's an emptiness that a father never gave
you.
Let me tell you, you have a heavenly father.
One who created you that does have every hair on your head numbered, that does know you
before you were formed in the womb of your mother.
That delights in the details of your life.
I encourage you, I challenge you to come even at the altar today.
I believe that this story is meant for not only everybody in this room but for a young
boy in the live stream or a young girl in the live stream that is going to watch this.
Just to know that you have a heavenly father that loves you more than any earthly father
could ever love you.
Amen Amen Amen Wow Thank you, Brandon, this is so wonderful.
This is gonna really truly transform somebody's life.
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