Actress Kimberly Elise, recognized for her work in films like The Manchurian Candidate, recently opened up about her spiritual transformation—embracing faith in Jesus Christ after stepping away from new-age beliefs.
Reflecting on her upbringing in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Elise told CBN News that while her family instilled Christian values, they didn’t actively attend church or study Scripture. “I sensed early on that something essential was missing,” she recalled.
“I was going to church and got baptized when I was 16, and, unfortunately, I didn’t have the benefit of any discipleship, any development, any real understanding of what it truly meant to be a follower of Jesus,” she added. “So, I quickly went back into the world like teenagers do, and finished college, met my husband … at the time, got married, and then that segues into Hollywood and moving to California.”
During her time in Hollywood, Elise noted that God had blessed her with gifts and how they were to be used in a “certain way.”
“I didn’t know Jesus, I didn’t know the Holy Spirit, but I knew that God had blessed me and given me certain gifts,” she said. “And, so, when I went to Hollywood, I just knew there were certain things I would not and could not do because of the gift that God had given me.”
In 2019, however, Elise admitted that something didn’t add up in her life despite having a successful movie career.
“Different things converged that made me realize I’m not making the choices that I should be making,” she said. “I’m not making good choices.”
“I was very into … the whole New Age thing,” the actress said. “And, again, moved away from God and was like, ‘The universe and crystals.'”
Although she was “pretty deep” with these practices, Elise warned that the New Age has no end goal as it’s a “constant search.”
“The thing with New Age is it’s a constant search; it never ends,” she said. “You’re always looking for this other answer, and that’s why it’s… so broad and so wicked … it’s a bottomless pit, and there is no truth in it, but you believe it is because it’s kind of close enough to sort of resonate in some way, but it’s all just a lie.”
Through this season in her life, she cried out to the Lord, asking Him, ‘Are you there? Do you see me? Do you love me? Do you know me? I can’t hear you.” Little did she know He would send her someone who would point her to Him.
That prayer would be answered two weeks later when she met a Christian woman who was the mother of one of her friends. “The first thing she said is … ‘God loves you, God wants you to know that He loves you, and He hears you, and He sees you,” Elise recalled.
“It was an answer to that cry,” she said. “After that, she just called me regularly and would pray for me.”
Following that experience, Elise desired to know more about Jesus and read the Bible.
“One morning, I woke up with just this strong calling to go get a Bible,” she said, noting she didn’t have a copy and had never read it. “I went, and I got a Bible, and I sat down, and I didn’t know where to start. I Googled, ‘Where do I start reading the Bible?'”
She would begin with the book of Matthew in the New Testament, where something clicked with her as she read the genealogy.
Read the complete story at ChristianHeadlines.com
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