Former lesbian now working for the Almighty - Implores others to seek the Lord

When she lived a lesbian lifestyle, Jody-Ann Spence was labelled an abomination by one of her parents and scorned by some members of the church community.

But the 33-year-old has ditched that life, and is now using her testimony to win souls for God's kingdom. For the past six years, she has traded her tomboy appearance for skirts and dresses, and swapped her sex toys for her Bible. Making the transition was far from easy, and Spence implored the Church not to shun the LBGTQ community should members approach them for spiritual guidance.

"There are some churches where the members will create excitement on the homosexual community and condemn them as if they are the worst, but they have feelings. How can you say you love God who you cannot see but don't love humans? I remember going to a church where they created excitement on me. I remember I saw a woman coming from church and I just needed prayers and counselling and the way she responded to me was really embarrassing. The response that I got broke me," she said.

"But thankfully I went to a church in shorts and merino because that was what I had, and a man prayed for me and I was delivered. I remember a prayer mother put her jacket on me and she walked with me into the church and up to this day she has not given up on me," she said.

A member of the New Jerusalem Healing and Deliverance Ministry located in downtown Kingston, Spence said she is looking forward to getting married and starting her own family while walking on a path that is pleasing to the Almighty.

"God is going to work it out for me. He is not finished with me as yet," she said.

Spence said that as a child, her father dressed her in a certain way to shield her from sexual predators.

"He wasn't the type who would allow me to show my body, so he started dressing me like a tomboy, not knowing that it was doing something to me spiritually. Female modesty was needed but I was wearing boy pants and sneakers. By the time I got to primary school, I started having some feelings that I didn't understand, but I was somehow attracted to girls. I didn't know what to do at that time," she said.

Spence said that by the time she got to high school, older girls approached her and "things just started happening".

"A part of me knew it wasn't right and I was wondering what was happening to me, and from there I realised that I was being initiated into something and things just went out of proportion. I remember wanting to stop and I would cry and pray about it as I knew it was wrong. I would drink and smoke rapidly just to forget about it but it was not helping," Spence added.

She said that at one point, she used to get angry whenever she was pursued by members of the opposite sex.

"There was a time when I was pepper sprayed [by the security forces] and I was treated like a man. They said I was behaving like a man so they were going to treat me like one. I couldn't be upset because I know the Lord was using them to get me out of that lifestyle," she said.

Then in 2019, Spence said she had a life altering out-of-body experience. Claiming her spirit temporarily left her body, the woman said she levitated and saw a man and a woman, who tried to take her away.

"I pulled back my hand and that was when I reached back into my room and the angels of the Lord were there dressed in white. I continued to have other encounters and I just knew something was happening," she said. By early 2020, Spence got baptised. Her transformation was not welcomed by her peers.

"I had to go through some major prayer and fasting sessions. The gay and lesbian community does not let you go so easy, so I remember a time when they would just pop up in my yard. I would just come out my house and see females bathing naked as the day they were born in broad day. The temptation was just coming and I cried out to God for deliverance and begged God to remove them," Spence said.

She told THE STAR that she is not condemning the community she was once a part of, but is imploring same-sex couples to repent and seek the Lord.

"I am saddened as the minds have gone astray. It is a spiritual thing and deeper than what we think. When I see them on the road, I beg God to deliver them like how He delivered me. It is just a cloud of confusion and some of them don't know how they got into it. Some of them it's from their lineage that has come back to visit. People don't know how deep and dangerous homosexuality is. I am begging them to seek the Lord while He can be found. It's not easy to break away but it is worth it. Just pray against it and break that homosexuality lifestyle," Spence said.