Heather Bellamy spoke with Claire Hine

Claire Hine

Claire Hine was a medium by 10 years old. She had her own spirit guide and could read people's minds. Heather Bellamy spent time chatting with her about her past in the Occult, her search for love and a powerful encounter with Jesus that changed the course of her life.

Heather: What happened when you came to Britain? Did you turn over that new leaf or did you go back to your old ways?

Claire: I flew back on the Saturday and as soon as I came back I phoned Greg and said, 'Something's happened to me in Spain. I can't explain it. After all of these medium experiences, I've experienced something unlike anything that I've ever had before and I know I have to go to church.' So on the Sunday, I think it was a Sunday evening; we went to Plymouth Christian Centre. There were 500 people in Plymouth Christian Centre that day and there was a special guest speaker called David Carr, who was amazing. It was totally unlike anything I ever imagined church to be. I was imagining pews and I went into this church and it was absolutely vibrant. Everyone was on their feet singing in tongues; I'd never heard tongues before. I'd always thought the spiritual was in the occult. I never realised that God is the author of the spiritual and we're made for the spiritual. I walked into this church and I knew it was real. I absolutely knew it was real and it was unlike anything I'd come across. Out of 500 people, because we were late, I had to sit right in the front row in front of everybody. People in the balcony were all looking at me and David Carr out of all of those people he pointed right at me and he said, 'God says don't turn over a new leaf, have a new life' and I knew that God had heard me.

Heather: After that radical encounter in PCC all those years ago, what happened then? Did you surrender to God? Did that mean you were sorted in terms of all that you were coming out of?

Claire: I definitely wasn't sorted at that point, but I absolutely knew that Jesus Christ was the truth. You know we're made for the spiritual and I'd been operating out of a source of power, which I thought I was controlling. I had a spirit guide, which I felt I knew what he looked like, I knew everything about him, but when I came to Christ it radically changed my point of view of what actually had been my life.

I went to Plymouth Christian Centre for about a month and I didn't hear my spirit guide and I didn't do anything occulty. I was sat up in the balcony one Sunday singing songs of holiness to Jesus. All of a sudden I felt the presence of the spirit guide sit on my left hand side in the balcony. Greg was with me. He'd really helped me learn my Bible and know the truth. I felt the spirit guide right next to me and I'd trusted this presence all my life from as far back as I can remember. It had come down through my family line. My family had been spiritists. This presence was there right next to me. It felt very different to what I'd experienced before and I thought I don't want you. I just felt it; I don't want you in my life; I don't believe that you're the truth and I felt what was almost like an anger coming at me and I'd never felt this anger before from this presence. I heard him say, 'You're not really saved'. It was in a horrible voice; it wasn't even in the voice that I was used to hearing and I felt this overwhelming urge to throw myself off the balcony because I was better off dead than being a Christian. I wasn't going to go anywhere, but Greg was aware that I was in a lot of pain and I was crying. He said, 'What's the matter with you?' and I said, 'Oh I don't know there's something really wrong', because I couldn't really explain to him what was happening.

I went to see the Pastor of that Church and he'd not really dealt with much in this line before, even though when you're filled with the Holy Spirit a lot of Pastors and leaders they do know about deliverance. This Pastor knew that I needed deliverance, like Jesus delivered in the Bible from evil spirits. He knew I needed that, but he wasn't very experienced and what was with me knew that he wasn't very experienced. I went along to see him on the Wednesday after he prayed and fasted for a few days and I went through a list of all the things that I'd done and as I'm going down through this list, about the third thing on the list, I found myself flung back against a wall and it was physically impossible; the power that I thought that I was using, actually was in control of me and I lost complete control of my body. I know that this is other people's experience too. This is not unusual when people have been in the occult, when it shows itself it isn't nice. It's a wrong source of power. God is the only legitimate source of power. In the Bible it says that if you go to this wrong source it'll kill you. It's not that God is a killjoy and he wants to spoil our fun; he's saying son if you go down that road this is very dangerous, that's why you go with me, because I'm life itself and that road leads to death.

I found that to be true that day because what was with me manifested itself. I was somewhere in the back of my mind thinking this is mega, there's no way I can get free of this. When the pastor prayed in the name of Jesus, and I knew the man had no power, I absolutely knew he had no understanding of how to deal with this, but as he said in the name of Jesus, I felt the presence of Jesus Christ the Son of God stand in front of me and what was in me had to leave. It had no choice. It was like full light went into my body and what was with me had to go. That is quite scary, but this is the absolute truth of what happened to me. This is the proof of the pudding that Jesus is who he says he is and there is an enemy, but Jesus Christ has overcome the enemy.

Heather: Did that mean it had left permanently and that meant you were free?

Claire: It was amazing because it did definitely go and there were two things with me; a spirit of divination that allowed me to read fortunes and see into people's future; and the spirit guide. I left the church feeling quite peaceful, but when I got back to my flat with Greg, fear started to well up in me. Actually looking at what I had been involved with I became terrified. I felt the presence of the things that had been with me trying to get back and I thought, well what is allowing that? I didn't realise that I'd created legal platforms like a helicopter pad. I'd done stuff in my life that had opened the door. I'd been born with that influence in my family, but the more I'd delved into it and the more I'd gone that way, I'd opened doors which were legal ground for the enemy to come and be in my life and they were trying to come back on those grounds.

We ended up at Chris and Kerry Cole's house at three o'clock in the morning. Chris had made the mistake of saying to me one day; you can come to my house night or day and I literally took him at his word. I was completely demented and terrified. Greg bundled me into the car and I ended up coming to their house three in the morning knocking on the door. As soon as I walked through the door Chris said, 'The blood of Jesus' and I was completely instantly in my right mind and it had no power over me. That's the power of God. I sat with him from three in the morning until six in the morning bringing out all the iniquity and all of the stuff I'd been involved with; sexual relationships; all of the different things that I'd done. Greg was really shocked and it was shocking, but I had to get that sorted. It was like a pair of scissors. There was a black cloud over me and it was like strings attached to me. As Chris and Kerry prayed, it was like the strings were broken. I came out of their house six o'clock the next morning and I've never ever been the same since. That was 24 years ago and I can say that I've never had to battle those things again. I've had to look at intimidation. The enemy does try to intimidate us and make us have fear over things, but that is the only weapon that he has after you have the blood of Jesus.

Heather: How did you start to encounter Jesus and walk in a relationship with him after that?

Claire: Well I knew nothing, but I started reading my Bible. I started at the front in Genesis and read all the way through to the end at Revelation. I did that about five times to wash out any rubbish that was in there in my thinking. I knew Jesus as Saviour obviously because he'd met me head on; we'd had a collision. He is an absolutely amazing Saviour. I knew him as Lord because he has ultimate power; he came to destroy the works of the evil one. The word actually means to dissolve the works of the evil one in the Bible. He is absolutely Lord over all things and everything's under his feet, but then it became a love relationship. I was very religious when I became a Christian and I was, 'Don't you know Jesus is alive?' to everybody and I wanted to convert everybody because I knew it was the truth. I soon realised that was not what he wanted and that he was a gentleman and he doesn't invade your life. He is there constantly with his hands open waiting for people to acknowledge who he is and to know him. I had this amazing time of God showing me that he was not just the lover of my soul and a bridegroom longing for the bride - that's biblical language - but also that he's my Father. I found that very difficult that relationship, because my Dad had no empathy growing up. He was an absent father. Emotionally I hadn't felt understood, so for God to reveal himself as a Father was massive and it's the most beautiful thing; it's incredible that the God of the universe and creator of all things; heaven and earth and the vastness of it would choose of all the names of himself to call himself Father. It's just astonishing.

Heather: And obviously God has also given you a husband, Greg and children. Tell us about your children.