Covenant With Jesus

You can have the whole world and still feel empty. We go straight at that lie with a personal story that spans more than 50 years: a teenage encounter with Jesus that changed everything, the painful quiet that followed, and the long detour into a hard and fast life that looked like it would end in ruin. If you’ve ever thought, “I went too far,” or “I wasted my best years,” we want you to hear this clearly: God didn’t leave, and your story is not finished. 

We talk about covenant relationship with Jesus as an all of life exchange, not a religious label. That includes the raw honesty of addiction, the weight of shame, and the moment God answers the cry, “I’ve created a monster,” with a shocking promise of purpose. We also share why the cross is not abstract theology to us, but personal love, and why being made clean is possible even after years of destruction. 

Then we turn to a practical blueprint for Christian living and discipleship from Ephesians 5:15 to 20: be careful how you live, make the most of every opportunity, refuse drunkenness and debauchery, and be filled with the Holy Spirit with worship, gratitude, and encouragement. If you want freedom that lasts and wisdom for daily decisions, this is a passage to live in. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review so more people can find it. What’s one “premature conclusion” you’re ready to lay down?

Transcript

Covenant Relationship Changes Everything

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It was a couple of years ago that I crossed a milestone in my own life, my spiritual life, but really my entire life. Because relationship with Jesus doesn't just involve our spiritual lives. It involves our entire lives. Relationship with him, covenant relationship with Jesus involves everything. What's mine is his, everything. And what's his is mine. Everything. What belongs to God, he gives to me his life in covenant relationship. And with mine, he wants. He wants my life, all of it, in covenant relationship. And so he cuts covenant with us, offering to us his life. If we receive it and believe that he offered it on our behalf, he considers that to be enough to be considered righteous. He imparts to us his righteousness. Profound, powerful. That was 50 years, the milestone for me is it was over 50 years ago, a couple of years ago. It was over 50 years. It was at that point, I should say now it's over 50 years. A couple of years ago, it was 50 years that I have been in relationship with the living God. I have been introduced to the Father, God, through His Son, God the Son, by His Spirit, Holy Spirit, three in one, one three, God. I get introduced into a relationship with Him by Jesus. And so His life enters into my life. Talk about a radical shift. My life changed radically at the ripe age of thirteen. I was thirteen years old. Give or take a month. Thirteen years old, and my life radically changes. And it looked like I was on a trajectory that was going to just skyrocket me immediately into a place of just absolute you know heaven. And his life contains that, his kingdom. He offers his kingdom to us, to me. At the age of thirteen, he offers me citizenship in his kingdom. And I said, Yes, and he accepts that. And I am clothed with his righteousness.

Saved At Thirteen And On Fire

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And seated in heavenly places with Christ. So I have dual citizenship in his kingdom, seated with him in heavenly places, and I'm here on earth right now. Powerful, powerful, powerful stuff's going on, man. And I've been given this at the age of 13, and then after a while, it seemed like things started to get kind of quiet. And not only quiet, but not everyone thought it was really interesting that I had come into a relationship with Jesus. Because I couldn't stop talking about him, telling people about him and about life with him. And my anticipation was that everyone's going to be just happy to hear that. Well, that wasn't the case. In fact, in many situations, it was just the opposite. Excuse me. I had people who began to really say negative things, ugly things about me, and reject me and not want to spend any any time with me. And I didn't really have anybody as a friend that I could lean on to talk to about what was going on for support network. I didn't really have anything like that. And so I kind of withered for a while. In fact, it kind of died out, and I I just in my mind relegated what took place to an experience that was really good, but that's what it was. It was an experience. And we did that. And I kind of did. I left things at that. And uniquely enough, God kind of left things quiet for a while. He let me just kind of explore what was going on in this world that we live in. And actually, in the society itself known as the world, the flesh, exploring anything that I wanted to, and I did. And I did. And by the ripe age of 21, I had created what I thought was a monster. And isn't it funny how we as people come to premature conclusions? And sometimes, oftentimes, at a younger age. I mean, 21. I thought, at the age of 21, I thought that people that were 30 were old and not really trustworthy any longer. And the good die young. So I intended to live my life in a way that by the time I was 30, I would be one of those that

Rejection And The Quiet Season

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was, you know, I was dead. I was done. And I was going to drain as much, yes, as much enjoyment out of life as I possibly could. And I tried to find it in all those places that I thought were available and would provide it for me. And I could go through a list of them, but it would be too lengthy. And in fact, you know, right now it's my life too boring. Just to say that I lived a rough life and a hard, fast life, life in a fast lane, I did. And so by the age of 21, God comes back on the scene of my life. God re-enters my life. In fact, he never left my life. If you want to know the truth of the matter, he didn't leave. I was the one who shut things down. I was the one who tried to control things, and he allowed me to do that because he was going to use that. In the end, he was going to use that. Not only against the powers of darkness, but he was going to use it as a means by which I was going to have a ministry reaching out to people who were experiencing something similar in their life. Sometimes involving drugs and alcohol. If you want to just separate the two, they're all drugs. Alcohol is a drug, but you know, drugs and alcohol. If you are stuck in that rut and in that addiction, man, I understand. Live there. That's what I'm talking about. A list of things that is too boring, addiction was one of them. So if you're an addict listening right now, there's hope. Don't come to a place in your life where you embrace that premature conclusion that only the good die young, and that, you know, it's over with anyway. So why not drain it for what it's worth? Because ain't worth much anyway, this world. This world in darkness? Man, you can have this whole world, but give me Jesus. I can say that from experience, but at the time, at 21, I thought, you know what? Uh my life, you know, it's pretty much I've I've lived it. I'm much shouldn't be taught to me anymore. But God comes back and he never left me. In which I thought he did, I thought my life was gonna wrap it up, and he comes seemingly back into my life, which is that he expressed himself again. And you know, a day to the Lord is a thousand years, and

The Fast Life And Premature Conclusions

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a thousand years is just a day because he lives around eternity, and so for him to not speak with me for a couple of years really wasn't that much in light of eternity, less than a whisper. Right? And so I'm going somewhere with this, because it's important for us to really be careful with not only what we think and say, but with what we do. Because our lives, you see, our lives coming to a premature conclusion oftentimes cuts us off from seeing things that God wants to give us. Because we are the ones who produce the barrier, not God. So he comes back in my life, he says, I'm gonna use you. And I said, I've created a monster. You can't use me, I create a monster. I said this to God, I said, I've created a monster. In tears I said it. He goes, I use monsters. In fact, that's my specialty. I make things out of monsters. I want to use you. And then he showed me a picture of himself on the cross, being crucified. And it was brutal and it was bloody, and he did it willingly, and he died on my behalf, so I didn't have to go through that. And he looked at me in this vision and he said, I did it for you. If it was only you, I did it for you. And I'm saying it to you who are listening. If you were the only one, God would have died on the cross for you. Jesus would have shed his blood for you, taken your place for you. He loves you that much and wants the relationship with you that much right now. And so God says I'm going to use you. And he begins to demonstrate himself to me and through me in ways that I had never known were even possible. And here we are living in the year

God Re Enters At Twenty One

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2026 right now, at the time of this podcast, June the 7th, 2026. And it's 50 plus years now that God has been at work within me. His life transforming me to become more and more like him, and he has received me completely, consumed me, and revealed to me that I can now die daily, I don't have to live daily under the pressures of those temptations and those ways of life that are destructive. Deadly, is that sin and death. They go hand in hand. I'm cleansed, cleansed by the blood. More powerful than sin. I'm cleansed. You can be clean. It's so good to be clean. Being burning down is so heavy, and God's grace and his glory are even heavier, but they're a different kind of heavy. They're not destructive heavy, they're heavy in revelation and power, and the kingdom of God and life. But there's some instruction that goes along the way, and we all need instruction. And sometimes we need reminders and we need correction. And there's a passage from the Bible, it's found in the book of Ephesians in the New Testament, chapter 5, in fact. Starting at verse 15, the Apostle Paul is writing to a group of people at a place called Ephesus. And Ephesus was experiencing a powerful demonstration of God and his kingdom. And it was just happening, it was rolling for years. In fact, the apostle John, after he had spent time on the island of Patmos, when

The Cross Vision And Real Hope

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he was released from his captivity, he was one of the senior pastors of Ephesus, the church of Ephesus. So it had some renown to it. And so the Apostle Paul, right? The Apostle Paul is writing to them, encouraging them, and his words, because they were anointed by the Spirit of God, they have relevancy to us today, because they carry with them that weight, that weight of glory, that weight of eternity, that weight of grace, that weight, that wonderful weightiness that doesn't weigh us down, but just causes us to be molded into the image of our Lord. Powerful. But the Apostle Paul goes, very clearly he goes, be very careful then how you live. Not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wow. Significant instruction worth hearing again. Ephesians chapter five, verses thirteen through twenty. Excuse me, verses fifteen through twenty. Be very careful then how you live, not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks

Ephesians Five Warning And Wisdom

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to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. There it is. There is the instruction. If you will follow these simple instructions, your trajectory in life is going to go straight into the heart of God. You're going to know him on a level that is greater than you had dreamed before, and the power of his kingdom is going to be expressed to you and through you in ways that are significant and meaningful, that impact the world that we live in and cause the kingdom of God to come and the will of God to be done in the earth as it is in heaven in our lifetime before we die. We get to experience the kingdom of God in the earth. And upon the return of Jesus Christ, his second coming, he is going to establish his kingdom in full on the earth. And he's going to rule and reign here for a thousand years until he brings about the final judgment. And then it's all going to be done, and we're going to have a whole new heaven and a whole new earth. But in the meantime, we have things to do while we are alive. And one of the things that we need to be doing is we need to be careful how we live, man. Not foolishly. Not wasting our time. Not giving ourselves over to these things that lead to debauchery. Debauchery is a way of living that just leads to more excess that drains life and doesn't give life. Excessively doing stuff. I remember alcohol. One drink was too much and a thousand wasn't enough. Debauchery. I always wanted more. Same thing went with other drugs. Same thing went with sex. Same thing went with music. You see, the outside influences started making their way inside, and the influence was negative. And yet the life of God working from the inside out brings about positive change. We are in for such a dynamic display of God's presence, his kingdom, his power, his glory on the face of this earth, both now and in the future, and it's increasing daily. As we speak, the demonstration of God and his kingdom across the nations is increasing. His power is finding its way into people's lives and through people's lives

Debauchery Versus Life From Within

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into the world around us. And the impact is being significant and it's being felt, and the powers of darkness are concerned because their kingdom is crumbling, being pushed back. The spiritual warfare is being won on behalf of the righteous, and God is influencing that, and the power of it is growing daily, and we need to be careful how we live. So we can be part of that and not subject to those things that destroy us and other people and mar the image of God. Because we are created in his image, and that image can be marred. Satan finds delight in that, but God finds delight in taking the things that were used against us, intended for evil, and turning them around for good, and he's doing that. Things that were used for evil in your life are part of the calling of your life. The good that comes out of it is going to demonstrate God's kingdom is greater when it touches people's lives and they are redeemed. But he does it through us. He's made a decision to do things through his covenant, and his covenant involves us. So he wants us to pray so that when we pray, it enables him to act on the earth through that prayer. Because we have been given stewardship in the name of the Lord to colonize planet earth with the kingdom. That's our commission. To see the glory of the Lord cover the earth as waters cover the sea. The knowledge of his glory just covering the earth. His kingdom come, his will be done in the earth as in heaven. That is the commission, and that is going to be accomplished.

Kingdom Mission Prayer And Stewardship

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We are living in days which it behooves us to be careful how we live. And so that's the word of the Lord today to you. Ephesians chapter 5, verses 15 through 20. Take some time and read it, meditate, pray into it, and let it change you. Let the Bible read you instead of you just reading the Bible for something to do or having that checklist taken care of. Right. This is a challenge, man. I'm pressing into things because I believe that sometimes we need to be challenged, and it's good when it's not condemning. You are so loved, you are so loved, you're so so loved that we get to do these things. We don't. It's not a thing where we have to do them. Or else. We get to do them. And why not? Hallelujah. Folks, we are living in awesome days, and it's our heart. Right here at Life Around the Fire, to be part of that, but also to see you be encouraged along the way. And to see you, for some of you, to see you come into the kingdom, to see you come into relationship with the Lord for the first time, for the first real time, to be born again. Let Jesus know that you have sinned against him and against heaven, and that you receive him as your Savior and your Lord. Things start happening when you do that, when you receive Christ as the Messiah. His spirit begins to work within you to change, not you trying to change yourself by doubling down and trying harder. That's religion. That's bondage. We're called into relationship. That's liberty, that's life, that's freedom. And to whom the Son sets free is free indeed. So we're free to get to do these things. Let's do them, man. And let's be careful how we live. Let's pray. Father, I thank you, God, once again for who you are and for how you're doing things, for what you're doing and why you're doing them.

Invitation To Be Born Again

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You alone are God, and you alone are worthy to be praised. Your works and your judgments are righteous, they're true, they're pure God. And we thank you for including us in your plans, in your purpose for this world, for eternity. God, we love you. We want to become more and more like you. So, Holy Spirit, we yield ourselves over to you and invite you to transform us from the inside out and teach us how to be wise and to speak to each other in ways that are uplifting, encouraging. Hallelujah. Lord, you're so good, and we honor you. And we pray these things, standing here in the name of Jesus, declaring them to be true, saying amen, so be it, amen. Amen, amen, amen. Amen. All right, folks, we love you. And if you have any thoughts, questions, concerns, please feel free to look us up on the web, type in Life on the Fire, or

Prayer And How To Reach Us

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you can type in Life on the Fire at gmail.com and send us a text, send us an email. We would love to hear from you, like I said. In the meantime, God bless you. Adios, amigos.