Former gay atheist Becket Cook is revealing new details about his remarkable testimony, showing how God can use anyone, anywhere to plant a seed that can lead others into the Kingdom of God.
‘Surprising Encounter’
In a recent episode of “The Becket Cook Show”, Becket introduces Joy Durham-Schafer, a Christian model, who was instrumental in his conversion to Christianity.
“On the set of a shoot in 2004, I heard that the model was a Christian. I thought it was gross,” Becket explained. “Years later, after I came to faith in Christ, she and I had an incredibly surprising encounter.”
In his book, A Change of Affection: A Gay Man’s Incredible Story of Redemption , he shares how he moved from Dallas, Texas to Hollywood and launched a successful career in show business.
“At this point in my life, I was very successful in my career as a set designer, production designer. I mean, I was doing covers for Vogue and for Harper’s Bazaar. I worked with a lot of pop stars like Katy Perry and Paris Hilton and Oprah. Like, everyone you can imagine – I worked with them. And I also started my own men’s fashion line that was successful. Our clothes were in, you know, L.A., New York, Paris,” he told CBN.
Despite all of his success, Becket said he still felt a deep emptiness.
“I went to all the shows. I went to all the after-parties. I was at this one after-party in Paris, and I remember, just everyone was there from the fashion world. I think Kanye was there that year, and I was kind of looking out over the crowd, it just struck me so profoundly. I was like, is that all there is to life? Just going to parties for the rest of my life, is this what it’s all about? And I really started to panic that night. I was overwhelmed with a sense of emptiness.”
During that time, Becket met Joy, a brand-new believer. On his show, he says her story of breaking off an engagement with a non-believer became a “seed” that would help turn him from a practical atheist to a believer.
“It was literally the first time I had met a Christian in Los Angeles,” Becket recounts. “That was kind of a turning point for me because I remember you and Frankie started dating and then you got to a point where you were like ‘he’s not a believer, this can’t go anywhere else’. And you made a really tough decision to break up with him.”
“It really touched me and kind of freaked me out in a way,” Becket continued. “[Frankie] told me the story of you breaking up with him and he said you collapsed on the floor and you were weeping. And he went to hug you and he said he could feel like the Holy Spirit on you. He sensed something supernatural was going on.”
“It was a frequency and a vibration of the Spirit moving and indwelling in me,” Joy explained. “I was so completely transformed. I didn’t even know who I was anymore.”
“I remember when he told me that story it was, maybe, the first spark of me thinking… ‘There must be something real to this kind of Christianity-thing.’ …It definitely planted a seed in me.”
But that is not the only “seed” God used that ultimately led Becket to turn his life over to Jesus and leave his gay lifestyle.
‘Desperate Prayers of Petition’
Ten years before meeting Joy, his sister-in-law, Kim Cook, felt a burden to pray for his salvation.
“I was doing a Bible study on Revelation and…that all of a sudden became my concern that if the rapture happens, you are not going to go,” she recounted. “I just remember being so burdened that you would not be in eternity with me.”
Kim says the Lord gave her Acts 16:18 as the scripture to stand on for Becket’s salvation.
“‘Lord please just save him,'” she had prayed. Appearing in a separate episode of his YouTube show, Kim explained, “I really wasn’t worried about you being gay. I just wanted you saved, and then let God deal with that when the time came.”
“God wants us to come with those desperate prayers of petition and bear everything to him,” she continued. “And then let him go to work…and then I have to trust [His] timing.”
“Your battles are won by being on your knees,” she added.
Becket gave his life to the Lord at a Hollywood church on September 9, 2005.
“It was like the road to Damascus moment,” he told CBN’s Faithwire. “God’s like ‘I’m real. Jesus is my Son. He’s real. Heaven’s real, hell is real. You are now adopted into my Kingdom. You are my child now.’ And I was so blown away I couldn’t stop crying for the rest of the time. I was crying because of two things: the joy of meeting God, and my sin. It was my most intense cry since I was an infant.”
Grace and Redemption
Cook said at that moment he knew who he was, and being gay was not part of his identity.
Becket asked Kim how she would encourage Christian parents and grandparents believing for the salvation of a loved one who is living an LGBT lifestyle.
“The most important thing that we have to do is love, and we have to have grace,” she replied. “You have to have truth, but I think the grace has got to be before the truth and that love.”
“Embrace prayer, do not turn your back, and keep loving them,” she continued.
Becket believes God is the ultimate writer of his redemption story, but he credits believers, like Joy and Kim, as being instrumental in opening his heart to the Lord.
“God is sovereign over all of it,” he shared during his podcast. “If you can rest in God’s sovereignty and know that it is his timing. It’s his will.”
“You can’t bludgeon or badger somebody into the kingdom of God,” he added. “It’s God’s work. It’s a supernatural act from God.”
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