Curt Landry’s Testimony | From Abandonment to Adoption

Psalm 27:10 says, “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take care of me.” Rabbi Curt Landry’s testimony is a powerful display of God’s provision and protection over our lives. His testimony describes a transformation from abandonment to adoption, as well as God’s powerful love that restores and redeems what has been broken and lost. 

In this podcast, join Rabbi Curt Landry as he takes you on an encouraging journey of his…

• Birth
• Adoption
• Radical salvation

… And how the Feast of Tabernacles is more than what we think. 

Listen now! 

There is an ancient mystery revealed in God’s Hebraic calendar. He wants you to discover more of who He is and His perfect timing. Don’t miss this encouraging Ancient Principles podcast. 

Transcription from Podcast (Revised for Readability) 

Shalom. Curt Landry here. The Bible is the best instruction manual for life. It contains eternal truths and ancient mysteries that equip and empower those who have spiritual eyes to see and ears to hear. As I always start, my prayer is in Matthew 13:16, “… blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear.”

Prayer to Start Our Time Together

“Father God, in Jesus’ name, I pray Romans 10:17, “So then faith come by hearing ,and hearing by the word of God.” And thank you, Lord. We decree this day, in prayer, Matthew 6:33, that we will seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all other things shall be added unto us. Because the ancient principles found in God’s Word are like a roadmap, they are timeless truths that equip you to make wise decisions in the world we live in today. And so Lord, I thank you for giving us answers to how to be able to walk in godly wisdom in troubled times.”

Curt Landry’s Testimony | Saved in 1989 during Sukkot

So I want to share a little brief of my testimony. I got radically saved in 1989 in the fall. 

It was during the Feast of Tabernacles (or Sukkot). My wife and daughter were living in Seattle at the time. I had promised my wife’s parents, my in-laws, that I would send her and my daughter back at least once a year. Praise God, I sent them back twice a year. 

Everything Was Just Perfect–So It Seemed

We had just built a new house. This is up in Issaquah, up on the plateau. And so we had the dream house, the two BMWs in the garage, and the wonderful neighborhood with all the kids in it. And so we were in yappy heaven. Everything was just perfect.

In fact, I was 36 years old. In my business, I was employee-of-the-year in a corporation. I can’t remember how many employees, but several hundred employees. My division had made millions of dollars in profit, so they made me employee of the year. So I was riding high, but in addition to riding high, I was getting high. 

I wasn’t like an avid drug addict, but I was a functional Seattle drug addict, where we smoked pot and snorted coke. And that was the “in thing” to do in the late ’80s in this corporate structure. 

• We drank too much.
• We smoked too much.
• We snorted too much.
• We drove too fast.

And yet we were making tons of money so that we could sit courtside at the Sonic games and had boxed seats at the Seahawks.

Meanwhile, My Life Was Crumbling

And this lifestyle was going on, and meanwhile, my life was actually starting to crumble, and I realized that at 36 years old, I had accomplished all my goals financially. I had a beautiful wife. And if you would have seen me, if you would’ve seen a beautiful wife and a beautiful daughter, you would think I had everything.

But I had nothing. There was this huge void. 

I Was About to Celebrate Myself When… 

So Christie and Megan had gone back to visit her parents in Oklahoma. I was in the house and I was in the consumer electronic business at that time. So, man, I put this heavy-duty, awesome stereo system in this master bath. I would put on my soft jazz, and it was like Bob James was right there in the bathtub playing music. So I put on the soft music, I went, and I got a bottle of crystal champagne and a leaded glass flute that was carved, these expensive glasses.

And I was going to celebrate myself. And I was just so full of myself. I just wanted to celebrate. 

So I opened the champagne, put the glass down, and got into the tub. And as I got into the tub, I didn’t even have time to turn on the music. I had the volume behind me. I couldn’t even reach behind me to get it on. And I never did take a sip of the champagne. 

The Next Thing I See Is a “Monitor”… I Am Ashamed

And the next thing I know, the next thing I know, understanding this is 1989, it’s like where the water is, the spigots, it’s like a monitor comes up. A monitor. And we didn’t have monitors then, yet this TV screen monitor flat screen comes up. And then the next thing you know, I’m literally in living color. I’m seeing things that I was doing in my life that I’m totally ashamed of.

Conviction

And I mean, it was like this conviction, not condemnation, but conviction hit me because at the same time that the screen came up, the same time, I knew someone was standing behind me. And the way the tub was, my back was to a wall, and then there was a side of the tub, but where the tub went up against the wall, I knew there was someone standing there. But I was terrified. I didn’t want to look back. I knew something, and someone was there. But even though I physically could see this man standing there out of my peripheral vision, I could feel His thoughts. And it’s amazing because I found myself saying, “I didn’t mean to hurt you.” I was experiencing the pain in this man behind me as I was naked in the tub.

On the “Monitor,” I See This… 

And I see these awful things that I did, which all of us do when we’re growing up. Maybe not everything, but all of us have things that we’re ashamed of. These images keep coming and coming. 

• Understand My Past… I Was An Orphan

But you need to understand that I was conceived out of wedlock. I was an orphan. Literally, days before, I was going to be an abortion. The Catholic priest at the air force base in California–where my dad, my biological father was–said, “Tell your girlfriend that there is another option other than abortion.” And so my father said, “Well, what is that?” 

The priest said, “She would have to leave Northern California in Modesto and go down to City of Angels in Los Angeles. It’s skid row, but there’s a hospital there, and she’ll have to give the baby over to the Catholic system. And she’s Jewish. I don’t know if she’ll do this or not, but she has that option.” And my biological mother took that option.

• I Was Considered a “Bad Baby,” and Felt Abandoned

So you need to understand that then, I was in this orphanage for 6 months. And I was colicky, and I was allergic to milk. And they found this out later–after 6 months of screaming, I learned from my adoptive mother that I was put in a special ward with the bad babies that cried all the time. 

And when my mother went in and chose to take me home for adoption, she found out that she could put me on goat’s milk, and the colic stopped. So I’m just sharing with you that I had an issue of feeling abandoned. 

Back to the Man Standing Behind Me

And so what was happening to me is that this man, who we now know is Jesus, was standing behind me, that He never left nor forsook me. Even through the most horrible things that we had done, I had done, my friends had done.

• Growing up in Southern California in the ’50s and the ’60s and the ’70s, there was a lot of bad behavior and a lot of things to get involved with, during the whole sexual revolution and the drug revolution and everything that was happening in Southern California was accelerated in the neighborhood I grew up in. 

And now I am looking at these things, saying, “I didn’t mean to hurt you.” And He’s forgiving me. 

• I’m Forgiven | Tears Washing Over Me. 

And He’s forgiving me. And it’s almost like His tears are washing down over me, but I’m being healed because I realize He never left me. As somebody who was an orphan and was left–and some of you who have a similar story–the Scripture says when your mother and father have forsaken you, the Lord thy God shall not. He shall not forsake you.

So the Lord was keeping me and the Lord was blessing me, and I got radically saved in a bathtub in 1989 during the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot). 

• I don’t think it’s an accident that I got saved on God’s calendar during the Feast of Tabernacles because of having a Jewish mother and not really identifying as being Jewish. 

Think About This… Feast of Tabernacles | The Birth of Yeshua

Now, in our culture–the reason I want to say this about the ancient principle–is that we believe…

• Jesus was born during the Feast of Tabernacles. When Joseph and Mary left Nazareth to go for the registration down to Bethlehem, we all know the story, there was no room in the Inn. 
• So all the hotels and the innkeepers were all full, and it says He went out and He was in a manger. But in our culture, as Jews that believe in Yeshua, if you think about it, I don’t see how a kosher Jewish family would put a Jewish child in an animal trough.

Think about this. Listen, I’m not trying to say for sure… I’m just provoking some thought here. They had sukkahs (booths or “tabernacles” to remember how the Lord’s provision and instruction as they wandered in the desert for 40 years) set up all over the nation of Israel, particularly in Bethlehem. 

• We believe, and this makes sense, that an innkeeper probably had a sukkah outside, a three-sided shelter.
• The Feast of Tabernacles, and the sukkahs, are to remind us of God’s provision, providing for Moses and the children of Israel as they wandered in the desert. 

Celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles

And on this sukkah, the three-sided shelter, we build one at our house every year, and we build them here at House of David, and we eat and we fellowship and we remind ourselves of this.

This is an ancient principle that it’s interesting for us at my house is… Christie and my’s home is an older home, and it’s all made out of Arkansas Stones–these big rocks. It is a beautiful house with wood beams and big rocks. It is a very sturdy structure. But then right outside at our front door, there’s a little courtyard and we set up a sukkah. And in that sukkah, we have palm branches on the top and we decorate it with lights. 

• But the lesson to our grandchildren and our children is, “You can see how fragile this is, next to our sturdy house.” But in the spirit, this fragile sukkah structure is where God kept us and protected the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to this day.

In the Spirit… 

• And in the spiritual realm, it’s good for a week to eat outside in the sukkah, to look through the roof and see the stars and remind your children that the God who’s protecting you, the God who is providing for you, the God of the ancient principles who has Kingdom authority actually put His testimony in those stars. 

He told Abraham, “And your children shall be as numerous as the stars in the sky.” 

If I could say anything to the non-Jewish Christians, the Gentile Christians, it is this: 

• You are grafted into those stars, into His family.  

If I could say this to all my Jewish brothers and sisters, it is this: 

• Those stars are a promise to you that God will never leave us nor forsake you.

If I could say this to my beautiful Jewish families in Israel, it is this:

• The Lord will never leave you. The Lord will never forsake you. You’ll never be uprooted from your land. 

Thank the Lord for Your covenant-keeping power. Thank you, Lord, for Your ancient principles that release Kingdom authority.

Back to My Salvation Story

So I’ll go back to my salvation story. I don’t know how long I was in there, in the tub, never turned on the music, never got a sip of champagne.

I guess, in a way, I was celebrating myself. I was celebrating my death. Because that day in the bathtub in 1989, during the Feast of Tabernacles, Curt Landry died, and I rose again, so to say, not physically died. Still, I spiritually died and rose again as a born-again Believer in Jesus Christ. 

My name is written in His book. When I got out of the tub, I felt like I had a nervous breakdown. I didn’t understand salvation. I called my wife in Oklahoma. She says, “What’s wrong with you?” My voice was so hoarse from literally heaving and travailing and crying. I’ve never cried as hard as I cried in that tub except when my mother died, the mother, my superhero. 

• My Jewish mother, Rita Landry, had the courage to go into the room where all the crying babies were and said, “I think I’m going to take that one.”
• That superhero, when she passed away, and I was 22 years old, was the hardest I’ve ever cried and wept in my life. 

I had wept that hard. When Jesus came and said, “You’re forgiven. I’m still never leaving you nor forsaking you.” 

See, you need to understand that this podcast is for you. On my desk, I have a whole other script that I was going to walk through today for this podcast of the 10 ancient principles that release Kingdom authority, apply God’s Word, and walk in kingdom authority. 

But God switched. The Holy Spirit came in here and switched this message to you to hear my testimony. Somebody needed to hear my testimony.

When I Talked to My Wife After I Was Saved… 

I called my wife in McAlester, Oklahoma, from Issaquah. I said, “I’ve had a nervous breakdown.” She said, “No, you didn’t have a nervous breakdown. You got saved.” I said, “Saved from what?” She literally had to explain the salvation message to me. I was radically changed.

And you know what’s interesting? Two weeks after making the company employee of the year, I was on the cover of their magazine, responsible for millions of dollars of profit. Two weeks later, the Jesus freak Curt got fired from the job because I wouldn’t shut up about what happened to me, and I just started telling people about Jesus. 

It’s a powerful testimony, but for those who have been forgiven much, God loves much. Is today your day? Is today your day in the bathtub? Is today your day when you say… 

• Father God, I need that kind of cleansing experience
• I need You to come and visit me. 
• I need you to let me know that You never left me nor forsaken me. 
• I need to be able to follow these ancient principles that lead me back to You as Father God

Prayer of Repentance

“Just Judge, Heavenly Father, I cry out, “Abba Father.” Lord, I confess that I am a sinner, and I’m in need of Your saving grace this day–Yeshua Hamashiach as my Lord and Savior. I ask you, Lord, to wash me white as snow. I ask You to cleanse me from all my inequities all the way back to the garden in my family line. Lord, I want to be a follower of the ancient paths. I want to be a discerner to put together prophetic pieces with Kingdom authority. I want to be one of those who know the times and the seasons of God and what they ought to do. Lord, anoint me with all nine gifts of The Spirit and your healing power. Lord, anoint me to speak a word of encouragement in season and out, and Lord, thank You so much for blessing me this day in Jesus’ name, in Yeshua’s name, amen.”

Well, thank you so much for joining me today on our podcast. And please go to curtlandry.com. Order the books and the material that you need to grow in the ancient principles that will release Kingdom authority. 

But also if you would go to our YouTube channel and subscribe to Prophetic Pieces, it’s going to be another level of ancient principles that are for modern times. In this program, Prophetic Pieces, I’m going to take current events and then describe to you prophetically what I’m seeing and hearing so that you can have a now-word and it can become a place where you go for prophetic pieces and a now-word that will help you make good choices and decisions for your future that is yet to come. And I want to say this. The best is yet to come. God bless you and shalom.

Bio

Curt Landry, founder of Curt Landry Ministries, and his wife, Christie, travel extensively, preaching and teaching about the Jewish roots of the Christian faith. Together, their passion is to empower families to live and leave Kingdom legacies and understand their own personal heritage.