This is the story of a man who struck a bargain with Satan, the bargain of his life – and it was nearly the bargain of his death! Steve Avery offered the use of his right arm in return for £25,000. He lived to regret his bargain, but Satan got the use of his arm.
Steve found out the hard way that there is a good and bad supernatural. After his dialogue with the devil and dice with death, he then encountered … Jesus! This was in a hospital bed as he lay seriously injured and wishing he could die.
Steve Avery was 14 when he started reading books about the occult and going to palm readers. At 19 he was desperate for money and one day, he went into his bedroom and said: ‘Satan, if you’re there, I want to do a deal with you.’
The following account is in Steve’s own words.
My room went cold, and a voice said, ‘What do you want?’ I said, ‘Money.’ We had a conversation. He said, ‘How much?’ I said ‘£25,000.’ That was in 1972 and I was young and thought that was a fortune. In those days I could have bought three houses with that.
Satan said, ‘That’s a lot of money. What are you going to offer me?’I said, ‘What do you want?’ He said, ‘Your soul.’I said, ‘No, you can’t have my soul.’He said, ‘Make me an offer – your right arm.’ I said, ‘No, you can’t have my right arm, but you can have the use of my right arm.’ Satan said, ‘OK, what else are you offering?’I said, ‘The use of my memory.’
Satan said, ‘OK, and I’ll come back in 15 years for your soul.’
I was 19 and thought I would die at 21 anyway, so the deal was done. I had a motorbike, a 650 Triumph Bonneville. One day I was giving a lift to a bloke. I had a new helmet on and that saved my life. I overtook a car and there was an accident. My passenger was thrown into the hedge by the side of the road and I was lying in the road. Cars were stopping to help me, and then a man in a Mark 3 Zodiac saw me, thought I was just a pile of old rags in the road, and drove right over me.
The safety helmet was split from one end to the other. I had a fractured skull, brain damage, broken nose, seven broken ribs, collapsed lungs, broken pelvis – and my right elbow was completely crushed. They were going to amputate my arm, but decided not to. So I lost the use of my right arm, and cannot straighten it.
I also lost my short term memory and I went from 13 stone (182 pounds) to 7 or 8 stone (about 100 pounds). I didn’t tell anyone about the deal I had done with Satan, but while I was unconscious I was going through my life. I was in the hospital for nine weeks and from my bed I could see the cross on top of a cathedral. There was a man dying in the room and I asked God to leave him and take me instead, but He didn’t.
One day I saw Jesus standing in the room and I said, ‘Jesus, if You’re real, can I meet with you?’ I thought I was dying. Nothing was said, but a warmth, a light came out of His face and wrapped itself around me.
I was off work for nearly a year. My Dad got me a job at Debenham’s (a department store), but after a year I took an overdose. They pumped me out. Then I had a job as manager in a men’s boutique. I kept meeting Christian girls, and they witnessed to me about Jesus, but no one invited me to their church. I was desperate and took a second overdose. I hated myself.
It took ten years for the accident case to get to court and they offered to settle out of court – for £28,000. By that time, the 15 years were getting uncomfortably close.
While on a holiday in Majorca I met Karen, now my wife, and we started seeing each other. She moved in and later we moved to a house which needed some fencing work. I asked for a quote for the fencing from a man named Kelvin, a ex-black belt karate expert who surprised me by saying that he would pray about what to charge us. Kelvin got the job and did the work, and he also told me about God and invited me to a meeting in Fleet, Hampshire (southeast England).
I met him at a small hall where a man called Jonathan Fiddy was speaking to a group of about 18-20 people. I sat right by the door so I could get out quickly. There was a lady in a wheelchair and Jonathan prayed for her healing. I had never heard anything like it.
Then he said God had told him there were three people there who needed to make a commitment to the Lord. He told everyone to close their eyes and for the three people to raise their hands. I heard him say, ‘Thank you’ once, and then ‘Thank you’ a second time. I knew everyone must know that I was the third person, but I wasn’t going to raise my hand.
I wanted to get out of there, but I couldn’t move. Then he said, ‘God told me to wait,’ and he began praying in the name of Jesus that the person would be able to raise his hand and that Satan would not be able to stop him. As soon as he prayed, my hand went up. As soon as he said ‘Thank you,’ I put my hand down. At the end of the meeting he came and sat down by me and prayed for me.
When I got outside, I couldn’t stop crying. I had to sit in the car and compose myself before I could drive home. When I got home I was different, and Karen knew it. She had thought she was a Christian, but she realised then that she really wasn’t, and she gave her life to the Lord a few weeks later.
My mother thought at first that we had joined a cult, but later she also gave her life to the Lord. My father-in-law who disliked me also gave his life. Then my boss became a Christian. And a man from Reading who was a Freemason also got saved and came out of Freemasonry. He has since led a few Freemasons to the Lord and told many others about Him.
After our conversion Karen and I went through our house and threw out everything we thought was wrong – magic items, some modern art, cards, some books. We burnt it all. I had rheumatism and arthritis and the Lord took that away shortly after I became a Christian. My short term memory was nearly zero, but that has gradually come back over the years.
Pat Franklin writes:
In those early years of being Christians, Steve and Karen attended Jonathan Fiddy’s Immanuel Fellowship in Fleet, Hampshire (this church no longer exists). While there they came to know and love Barry Smith, the New Zealand evangelist who frequently came to Britain to preach the gospel and tell people about the end times.
For many years Steve and Karen helped Barry and his wife May to travel round Britain, holding meetings in many places. They also helped by sending out Barry’s books and tapes. The great evangelist died during a preaching trip to Britain in 2002 and doubtless went to a very great reward. Steve said he saw thousands of people come to the Lord through Barry Smith’s ministry.
Steve is now 58 and lives in a rambling old English cottage in the fens of Lincolnshire (eastern England) with Karen, their three delightful children, and four cats. For most of his working life Steve has sold double glazed windows. At the time of writing he is just starting in a new business selling power saving devices including heat pumps, geo thermal installations and PV panels which collect light and convert it to electricity.
We spent a delightful weekend at Steve and Karen’s home recently and consider it a great privilege to know this warm and loving family who are full of the Holy Spirit. I have put this testimony in writing so that people will be able to read it on the website, copy it to send their friends and relatives, and to pray about possibly inviting Steve to give his testimony at their church or house group.
Steve says that his ministry is witnessing to men. He told me: ‘I believe God wants me to be involved in many men coming to the Lord. The power of God is what we need. There is so much ridiculous stuff going on, phony revivals, Christians making complete muppets of themselves. We are in the last of the last days and it is a spiritual battle.’
We are having trouble posting a picture of Steve showing his injured elbow, which looks like a solid chunk of immovable bone. Satan probably doesn't want it on our website! But by the time this appears, hopefully we will have sorted out the technical problem with the picture. Steve has prayed that he will once again get back the use of his right arm, and this would certainly be a miracle.
He wanted the picture shown so that no one can deny the injury. He is believing that the Lord Jesus will straighten his arm. If anyone would like to invite Steve to speak, you can ring him on 01775 723852 in the U.K. From America the direct dialling would be 01144 1775 723852 His email iss-avery1@sky.com
