One day while Florent was pastoring a church in France, he was approached by an aggressive-looking lady who had been seeing floating green eyes and hearing voices. When Florent met with her, her eyes became filled with disgust and a masculine voice came out that said “I’m gonna kill you.” 

As he was recounting this story, Florent raised his eyebrows and joked, “That was an interesting way to start the conversation.” 

As someone who grew up with parents who were involved in the occult, Florent has found himself in situations like these a handful of times throughout the course of his life. 

Before Florent was born, his father turned to the occult in search of community after returning home from a devastating war. When Florent’s mother was pregnant with him, she called upon spirits to enter her body and incarnate her unborn child. Then when Florent was a young boy, he remembers playing under the dining room table with a truck while his father held a spirit meeting and attempted to heal a friend who was lying on top of the table. 

Florent jokes that his mother’s prayers for spirits to incarnate her son were answered, because he is now a believer filled by the Holy Spirit. But when Florent first became a believer, he saw strange, aggressive visions and heard voices that screamed blasphemous things. 

Most people would be terrified of these kinds of supernatural experiences and want nothing to do with them, but God used Florent’s unique background to give him special insight into the world of the occult. He now facilitates webinars on the occult, where he reminds believers that the enemy has very real power, but that Jesus has overcome the enemy. 

The way he found freedom from the hostile visions after becoming a believer was by implementing James 4:7 which says, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

When people get involved in the occult, they are usually seeking to hold back negative forces while seeking to find positive ones. But since they are denying God’s sovereignty, they instead look to rituals to do this. Florent points out that even crossing your fingers or knocking on wood could be considered “rituals” that seek to bring about a change without acknowledging God’s sovereignty.

People might turn to the occult to change things for the better, but sadly, they reject God who offers his children such power through prayer. They might look to the occult for community while they reject the ultimate global community…the church. Or they might approach the occult to obtain information (fortune telling), but they reject God’s Word, which contains all the supernatural revelation humanity will ever need. Everything that the occult offers is a weaker, cheaper version of what God already offers. That’s why Florent says that we need to treat members of the occult with Christ’s love. They are looking for everything that believers already have in Christ. 

After hearing the masculine voice come out of the aggressive-looking lady saying, “I’m gonna kill you,” Florent prayed, “Lord, you’re the one who delivers. I’m not. Set aside whatever spiritual forces are at work here. If it’s your will, deliver her.” Then it took three hours for the lady to confess all the occultic and sexual practices that were gripping her life, but at the end, she expressed repentance, faith, and a love for Jesus. At the end of their meeting, Florent asked her to close her eyes and tell him what she heard. After closing her eyes for a moment, a huge smile came over her face and she said, “nothing.” To this day, she still loves Jesus and serves him.

Praise God for being stronger than the enemy and for rescuing people out of darkness! 

Right now, Florent’s webinars are only available in French, but if you’re interested in joining one, email Florent.