Chaz Ortiz was addicted to drugs and deep in the New Age. It was his lifeline. But that’s until he encountered Christ.
Chaz Ortiz
Drugs and New Age practices were what kept Chaz going. He couldn’t live without it. He was so addicted that he started stealing things just so he could buy drugs.
Chaz was a store manager for five years. And in those years, he was using Percocet and he didn’t tell anyone.
One day, he stole two phones from the store he worked for and sold them. But he was duped by a stranger who deceived him with fake iPhones.
“I’m walking out of the mall and there’s this guy walking in. I’m holding the door for him as he’s coming in. He’s holding an Apple bag. And he asked me, “Hey bro, do you want to buy these phones from me?”
“I just give him the money I got from the stolen iPhones I sold.”
But it turns out that those weren’t real. So he went back to his workplace and stole more phones. Then he ended up losing all the money he made at the casino trying to make more.
This all happened in one day. Also, he was caught by his manager and told to turn himself in. Chaz didn’t want to, so he flew to Atlanta. And that was the beginning of his involvement in the New Age.
Drugs and the New Age
One night, he told one of his friends, “Man, I’m tired of running. I’m due for a change.”
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But he didn’t know he would get hooked on something he wasn’t expecting. He discovered the New Age practices and started doing them.
“But then, I started doing meditation; I started going all deep into the new age. Because I’m thinking that’s what saved me from Percocet,” he said.
His dedication to the New Age got so deep to the point that he believed the “Bible was fake.”
“They gave us the Bible to keep us enslaved. They don’t want us to know that we are our own guys and we can manifest whatever we want. So, I’m like, “Jesus is not real. I don’t believe in Jesus,” Chaz recalled.
“I was going crazy with this new-age stuff.”
But one day, a friend of his came to help him with his small business. This friend was so passionate about Jesus that he started sharing with Chaz. Chaz wanted people to believe he was a Christian because many of his customers were Christians. He didn’t want to lose them.
“I wouldn’t tell anyone that I’m not a Christian. Because a lot of Christians are buying my clothes. I didn’t want them to stop buying. So, basically, I’m just using God’s name to make money,” he said.
At the Park
But one day, a stranger came to him at a park and started sharing Jesus with him. And through that, Chaz’s heart was softened. So, when a stranger approached him to share the Gospel, he was attentive.
“I don’t come to this park; I don’t come to this area; but God told me to come down here and I will speak to someone. “I realize that someone is you,” the man said to Chaz.
Because of that, he started going to church. Many days he would go to church and there was nothing.
Until one day.
From Drugs and the New Age to Freedom in Christ
One night when he attended church, God encountered Chaz.
“That’s the first time I heard God speak to me, and I knew it was God. I repented, on my knees, and I started crying uncontrollably,” he recalled. “I woke up the next morning feeling like a veil had come off my eyes. The colors got brighter. Everything started to change around me.”
“I’m living for God now.”
Chaz surrendered his life and everything he had to Christ, even his business. He is now sober and has nothing to do with drugs or the New Age. He realized that, apart from God, he couldn’t really do anything.
“Put God first, trust in Him, and give Him everything. Don’t try to hold anything for yourself. And don’t think you can do anything by yourself. Everything is spiritual. So once you get a stronghold, the only way to get rid of a stronghold that is spiritual is through Christ. No one can do it on their own,” Chaz concluded.
Header image: Jenn and Chaz [Jenn EXpsychic]. YouTube, 17 June 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkSWSZGP4RQ