Rebecca Duffett spoke with Jason Marshall

Jason Marshall

Last year Jason Marshall released his autobiography, Into The Fire. He became a Christian at a really low point in his life over 17 years ago. In his own words, "For too long my life had felt pointless and empty. Crushed by years of rejection, I was locked into an endless cycle of drug abuse and dependency. It wasn't until some new friends offered to pray for me that everything changed." Rebecca Duffett chatted with him to hear his story.

Rebecca: In the first part of your book, you go into quite a bit of detail about your life before you became a Christian. How did you get into that destructive place?

Jason: I think the main reason was my family background. The kind of trouble we had growing up. Dad was an interesting character, to say the least. He was involved in the drug scene himself, drank a lot and all that kind of stuff. Then my parents divorced when I was young. I think those kind of things set a foundation for me, that from that point life just deteriorated until I really got into a complete mess.

Rebecca: How old were you when you became a Christian? I believe it was a dramatic experience?

Jason: I was 20 years old. I had been quite heavily in the drink and drug scene for nearly five years at that point. I was certainly not valuing myself and my body or anything else. I was in a rotten place. I was depressed and my mental state was not healthy.

At that time I met a Christian. He came to my flat which was where I was normally; I had 'druggys' around and all that kind of stuff. He came in because he was a friend of a friend and I started to talk to him. There was just something about him that was very different and unusual and as a consequence of meeting this guy, him and a bunch of friends started praying for me.

From that point things started to shift in me, in terms of what I was thinking about and where I was focussing my energy. To be honest it wasn't an easy process. I honestly thought at one point I was losing my mind, but it wasn't until later that I met up with these guys again and a whole group of Christians and they started to talk to me about Jesus. Eventually they prayed with me.

It was the moment I met the Holy Spirit that totally changed everything for me, including all the addictions and everything else that I had and all the issues that were there. It was quite literally a Damascus road moment for me. It changed everything. Most noticeably the desire for the drugs and all that stuff went. Knowing the presence of God and engaging with God in such a powerful way obviously set a marker for the rest of my life.

Rebecca: Were there still some things you struggled with quite soon after you became a Christian?

Jason: Not so much at the start. There was a big euphoric season and it's very much like people say, a honeymoon period, when you first become a Christian. It was through probably three, four, five months where I was just so close to the presence of God and so consumed by the presence of God. It was amazing.

I've been a Christian now for about 17 years. It was later on that journey that I realised that some of the foundations of my thinking and belief systems needed to be changed. That happened as I faced different circumstances and situations and realised that my coping mechanisms weren't particularly healthy. That's not to say that God wasn't there or even that closeness necessarily went; it's just that my focus shifted quite a lot and it was during that time that God was clearly healing a lot of my emotional pain.

Rebecca: Do you know what happened to many of the friends you had in the earlier part of your life? Do you still see them or keep in contact with them?

Jason: Sadly not really. The thing about the drug scene is that it's not just doing the drugs, it's the whole environment; it's the social aspect of it; it's the routine. It's almost a religion with the process of making joints, sorting out mixes for bongs, or sorting out a line to snort. The whole process becomes a very intense and focussed thing. To be out of that was probably a healthy place for me at the time. Consequently a lot of those guys I don't have any particular contact with other than the occasional Facebook message these days.

Even during much of my school years, I didn't have much contact because I moved around. You tend to lose touch and lose connections with people as you move. I grew up in Bristol, and then moved to Bournemouth. I lived in Derby and I now live in Surrey. Because of those movements it's hard to maintain relationships; though I would be very happy to do so.

Rebecca: What has been the highlight of your Christian walk so far?

Jason: I don't think there's been one point, other than knowing that first contact with God and that revelation and experience. It was more than just a choice. It was a physical, tangible experience that transformed my life. Other than that I would say that there have been markers all the way through that have been just incredible highlights. On a very natural level, meeting my wife and getting married was a major thing. I never thought I'd be married, let alone to such an amazing girl as I've got. That was quite a high point. Then having my children has been an incredible high point, to the point I've been in floods of tears just as they've been born; I've been there for all three of them. Those things are amazing. Then I guess the other experiences that I've had of watching people be healed and where I've seen the miraculous happen has been amazing. Not because of anything I've done, but just to witness God's activity in people's lives and healing and freedom and deliverance in people's lives has been amazing. I think there's a whole raft of things that have built up positive experiences for me rather than one particular high point.

Rebecca: Finally, what would be the main message that you want to give out to anyone who read your life story in the book?

Jason: I did a lot of soul searching before writing it because, I don't know about you, I always question my motives, why am I doing this sort of stuff; why am I writing a book? I wondered if I was just trying to build a platform for myself; trying to be famous. I came to the conclusion that I just wanted people to know an experience and have hope that God is real and tangible and that each of us have stories and those stories are really important. I wanted to communicate the reality of God's existence in people's lives. My story is just one of I don't know how many millions of people who will tell you very similar things; freedom from addiction; freedom from drugs; freedom from pornography; freedom from depression. You know the stories just go on and on and I think I just wanted to add my story to the list of ongoing testimony of the activity of Jesus in our lives.

You can buy Into The Fire for £5.69 from Cross Rhythms Direct.