"I am the Lord your God . . . You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image," Exodus 20:2-4.

        I am Bishop Samuel Vagalas Kanco of the Lord's Vineyard International Ministries, a wonderful Christian church, located in Accra, Ghana, West Africa. Jesus Christ is my personal Savior. I am blessed to be the first person that Jesus called out of witchcraft in my family to become a child of God. Jesus commissioned me to "go and tell My people what I have done for you."

        My testimony concerns the Lord's mercy, grace and deliverance. It is also a confirmation that there is no sin that His blood cannot wash away to make a person's spirit as white as snow. My story is one of hope for the billions of people that wish to be delivered by Jesus that are ensnared and made captive by idolatry and from family witchcraft ties. My country's religion is based on a mixture of the worship of idols and ancestors. My family were worshipers of idols such as gods of sun, moon, earth, and trees, monkeys, snakes, etc. These were the only gods that we knew.

        MY FATHER'S SON

        I was born on Thursday 1st January 1960, the first son of Aloriga Kanco. My father named me Vagalas Kanco. I want to talk about myself how I met Jesus Christ and became born again. My testimony is about being delivered from fourth-generational witch doctor family spirits to become a child of God. I was born to a typical idolatrous home in Ghana, West Africa.

        My family originally came to Ghana from Upper Volta. They named the village Vea after their god in Bolgantaga. I was raised as a bushman and still have the jet-black markings on my face from Frafra Tribal ritualism. This mark across my cheeks confirmed my rites of passage to manhood. The scars were also Satan's marks of my spiritual inheritance as the eldest son.

        I am not a stranger to demons because I was born to become the fourth generation witch doctor in my family. As the eldest son, I was supposed to inherit my father's witch doctor position and supernatural powers. Thank God that Jesus saved me before this demonic mantle was passed to me. Nevertheless, my father was training me to step into his witch doctors' leadership.

        My father had a good mind, but he had inherited a passionate and headstrong character from his mother. She had brought her children up to be strong believers in witchcraft. She also took a great interest in relatives and friends, remembering the children's birthdays and anniversaries and deaths. She'd walk a long way to visit people, even visiting them in hospitals. It seemed my father spent his life busy with his witchcraft and serving his people. I must say, that I share my grandmother's hardheaded temperament.

        A CHOSEN VESSEL

        When Jesus rescued me out of the clutches of Satan, I had been a wizard for 12 years. Even so, God had other plans for my life. He chose me. He supernaturally saved, delivered, trained and called me. He wants to use my background to reveal to His church the mysteries of His Majestic authority over Satan's schemes and the power of deliverance. The Bible shows that each one of us must find Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. "It is the work of God by which each one of us, as a hell-deserving sinner can receive a new life. It is a second birth, a spiritual birth," according to Romans 8:23. I was actually translated from the kingdom of darkness and placed into the Kingdom of God. God made me a new spiritual being. Before receiving Jesus, my spirit was dead to God. I was governed through my soul (mind) and my flesh before being born again. After being saved, I became spiritually alive to become a son of God to be led by His Holy Spirit.

        Satan controls all pagan religions! It doesn't matter if it's the worship of Pan, Krishna, Diana or Thor. The faces behind the masks of these gods belong to Satan. Even if a person is an atheist, or whether it's the idol of power, money, knowledge, or some other ideal, still Satan is being worshiped.

        The true God says, "I am the Lord thy God . . . Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image (idol), or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God . . ." (Exodus 20:2-5).

        It's that simple. There are two religious systems in the world. Satan controls one. The other owes its allegiance only to Jesus Christ. Put simply, if a person is not a believer in Jesus as Almighty God, incarnate Jesus that came in the flesh to save him from his sins, he belongs to Satan.

        To sum up, the Bible shows that when Satan tempted Adam and Eve, they sinned (or fell) from a spiritual walk with God. Since that time, every person on earth is born under the curse of darkness. Jesus Christ redeems mankind and restores them to the Father. Therefore, my Savior, Jesus, returned me to the same original spiritual condition that Adam and Eve enjoyed before their fall into sin. So, I don't wear wizards' robes anymore. I have been washed in the blood of Jesus. Today, I stand in a glistening white robe awaiting His return. This is my testimony that I have written for his glory.