Rene Martinez spent the majority of his life in and out of jail, breaking into homes, stealing guns, dealing drugs, and getting into fights. He had no guidance or purpose. Now, he’s preaching about God all around the world.<\/p>\n
Martinez was exposed to Satanism at a young age. Raised in a single-parent home in Leisure City, Florida, Martinez remembers his mother sacrificing animals over him as part of her religion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just demonic,\u201d he told Fox News. \u201cI started seeing demons when I was a kid. They haunted me my whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the age of 12, Martinez turned to a life of crime. “It was a really crazy life,” “Level” Martinez told CBN News in an interview.<\/p>\n
He said, “I saw a lot of my friends die and I got like close to 50 dead friends and the rest of them are doing life in prison. I mean like I was involved in gangs ever since I was a little kid and I started gang banging in 1989 and I did it all the way til like 2011.”<\/p>\n
Level said crime was a normal way of life and he escaped death numerous times.<\/p>\n
“I was on a death bed several times,” he explained. “I was in a coma at the age of 14. My whole life I was in and out of jail and just had so many close encounters with death and I never realized it was just God protecting me the whole time.”<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember the time the gun jammed in my face,” he told CBN. “I remember the time the bullet grazed my head. The other time the bullet whistled by my ear. The times I was running through the backyard and they were shooting at me. All the times I got shot at. All the times I was half-dead, but I was still alive.”<\/p>\n
But becoming a dad made Level want a better life for him and his family.<\/p>\n
“So my daughter was born and I was like man I gotta really like get my life together because all I ever did was rob drug dealers, that’s all I ever did and sold drugs,” he said. “I was like man what am I going to do for my daughter? How am I going to provide for her?”<\/p>\n
Martinez decided to transition from the streets to professional bare-knuckle fighting, eventually signing a pro MMA contract. He soon gained international recognition, defeating three-time world champion, Ricardo Mayorga, in Nicaragua.<\/p>\n
Still, he felt something was missing: “I had the money. I had the fame. I was doing the gangster music. But I was empty inside,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
His mother, who had once dabbled in witchcraft, had become a Christian. She began praying for him and her prayers were answered in a powerful way.<\/p>\n
In 2013, Martinez had a supernatural experience with God that completely changed his life. He shared how, when he was recording gangster music in his garage, he heard Jesus speak to him, saying: \u201cI spared you for such a time as this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw my whole life flash before my eyes \u2013 when a gun was jammed in my face, when a bullet whistled by my ear \u2013 I almost died five or six times \u2013 and all my friends that died. God set me free for a reason. I repented right there.\u201d<\/p>\n
“I go in the projects. I preach to the gang bangers, prostitutes, drug dealers,” he told CBN. “I’ve gone places where people shoot up heroin in front of you and I go inside the prisons. I go in the juvenile prisons as well. This is what God told me to do. He said go. Go make disciples of all nations.”<\/p>\n
“God sent me back to those places where I came from,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I take the tub on top of my truck and I baptize them according to Acts 2:38 in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost. And I do it right there in the projects,” shared Level.<\/p>\n
The people he has saved continues to bring Martinez hope.<\/p>\n
“The spirit of God draws the people in. It’s amazing what God does. You see people pulling out pistols, giving it to their friends and just going in that water and coming out just crying out to Jesus. It’s amazing,” he said.<\/p>\n
The newly released documentary “The Warrior Level” is Martinez’s first-hand account of how he went from leading a life of crime to sharing the Gospel.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so thankful that you chose me when I was nothing but a gangster and a thug, Lord,\u201d Martinez prays in the documentary, adding he hopes his story reminds others \u201cgoing through the fire\u201d that with God, all things are possible.<\/p>\n
The full story of his life can be seen below.<\/p>\n