The Holy Spirit Insider with Timmer J

What Happens When You Ask for the Holy Spirit and Actually Use the Gifts

• Tim

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Hello, ladies and gentlemen. This is Timmer J, and I want to invite you to my podcast. And I'm glad you're here. Today I want to talk about the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit. And I want to start out by reading the verses of Scripture. And we're going to be talking, uh starting with the verses in chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians 12 1 through 11. I want to come, I want to read those verses, and then I want to describe each gift individually. And then I also want to share my experiences with those gifts. So as I read along, uh I welcome you. But first I want to start with a word of prayer. Lord, I just thank you, Father God, for just my listeners out there. I want to thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to be able to talk to them and to be able to share my experiences with them, Father God. And I just ask you'd help me, Lord, to share my experiences clearly, that they'd be able to understand and that they'd be receptive, Father God, to what I have to say. I just pray, Father God, for just a clear communication between me and my listeners. And I thank you and I pray for their protection. I pray for their lives. I pray that you just bless them, Father God. I pray that you just bless them wherever they may be lacking in life, wherever they may be feeling, I don't know, down, bummed out, just kind of the way the culture is right now. I just pray, Father God, that you just uplift them with your spirit, Father God, and give me the ability, Lord, to share words of encouragement with them, Lord, as I as I teach them and share the things that you've done in my life, and that I can encourage them to let them know that you'll do the exact same things and even more in their lives. So I just thank you for this opportunity, Lord. And so thank you. And that's it. Amen. Um first I want to talk about uh I want to read uh 1 Corinthians chapter 12, starting with verse 1. This is Paul talking. He's writing, he wrote 1 Corinthians. It says, now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other, you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says Jesus is cursed, and no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God, who works all of them in all men. Now to each one, the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another, the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another, faith by the same Spirit, to another, gifts of healing by the same Spirit, to another, miraculous powers, to another, prophecy, to another, distinguishing between spirits, to another, speaking in different kinds of tongues, and still to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same spirit, and he gives them to each one just as he determines. So these are the gifts of the spirit that are available to each and every Christian. And I've been a Christian for over 40 years. And so in my earlier walk, I went to a church that didn't even acknowledge the gifts of the spirit or even acknowledge the Holy Spirit. And it wasn't until I went to Dallas that we attended a church that started teaching on the gifts of the Spirit, and where I started to learn more about the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is just, I don't know, uh, is just uh it's the third part of the Trinity. You have God the Father, you have Jesus, his son, and then you have the Holy Spirit. Before Jesus left his apostles, he told them that he's gonna send them a comforter, the Holy Spirit. And that was at Pentecost. So when he left, he said, Go into the upper room and wait, and I will send the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit came upon each and every one of them. Now, prior to this, they're expecting Jesus to be king and to overthrow Rome and to deliver the Jews from Roman uh captivity, not necessarily captivity, but but uh Rome was governing Judean lands. So they kind of had this thing that they were going to overthrow the Roman government, at least felt that they could through everything that they saw Jesus do. Well, here Jesus is crucified, and here all their hopes are dashed. But um there again he was dead, he was he was crucified, dead, and buried, rose again on the third day, and he appeared to them after uh three days later. He he appeared to them, and he showed them the wounds in his side, or the wounded side, the wounds in his hands, and he showed them everything. And there's a lot that it could go to a lot of different directions, but but as he showed them, they had faith because this is the same Jesus that they walked with, they knew, they they dined with, they they just knew him intimately. They just they were best friends while you know they were just were together all the time, so they knew, and he knew Jesus. And when he was raised from the dead, they knew that that was Jesus who was raised from the dead. And as a little side note, um, all the apostles died really horrible deaths. And the reason why they chose death over rejecting Jesus was because they knew Jesus was the true thing, the real thing. Nobody dies for a lie. I mean, going back in history, and I'm not a big historian, so I don't know all the facts, but during the Nixon presidential campaign, um there was a Watergate hotel break-in where he bugged the hotel and did some things. And next thing you know, it was one of those things that all the things that culminated together to make him lose office. Well, prior to him um giving up and and walking away, he actually uh there was I don't know how many men that were that were partnered with him in this thing, in this conspiracy, and they all knew about it. And they couldn't keep a secret for I mean, these are the like I don't know how many men, eight, twelve of the most powerful men during the Nixon presidency that were trying to cover this thing up, and it got out, and they were trying to band together to keep this this thing going, and they ended up, you know, divulging everything. So everything got, you know, divulged, and and Nixon um had to leave, leave office. So anyway, um I say all that to say that here is the most powerful man in the world that could not keep a secret for I think it was less than seven days. And here, the followers of Jesus, they went to the death with him. I mean, they knew he was the real deal. And I mean, to see what they saw, to see the things that he did, I mean, it w it must have been just incredible. I mean, I I don't know, once in a while I catch a episode of The Chosen. I watch part of the series, and it kind of is a group of people that depict depict or it's it's it's a story of Jesus and his disciples and their their kind of their their lives back then, and it's kind of the story evolves, kind of showing the way they would have lived back then, which I find really interesting because when I read the Bible, I just kind of think that these people didn't have really I mean they don't talk about their personalities or anything like that. Or the movie the the series the chosen, they go into the different personalities and they just they display the personalities, and it's just kind of cool because it brings humanity into the Bible. Because there's a couple places in the Bible where, you know, the the apostles are bickering and and what have you, and and you kind of see that in the chosen. So these are just real humans, real people. But I'm just saying that to say that all 12 of them, 11 of them went to their death. They were crucified, crucified upside down, sawed in half, stoned, beaten with rods. They all died horrendous deaths. And the reason why they chose to die because their choice was either to reject Jesus or to die these horrendous deaths. And 11 of them chose that, chose these horrendous deaths because they knew he was the real deal. And so, but the only one that didn't was John. And he was uh placed on the island of Patmos in prison for I think the rest of his life. And he was poisoned and some other things, but uh he wrote he wrote parts of the gospel out while he was on this island. So anyway, um, I know it's kind of a kind of a long, long journey from the spiritual gifts. But uh anyway, I mean, so when Jesus, when he appeared to the the apostles, he went, uh he told them, go up into the upper room and wait for the the Holy Spirit, for the gift of the Holy Spirit. And so anyway, when the gift of the Holy Spirit came, these guys, prior to the gift, prior to the Holy Spirit, were up in this upper room, the door locked, and they were scared, man, because I'm sure the Jews who hated Jesus and hated the apostles uh were looking for them or on the verge of looking for them and finding them and killing them, and they had the authority of the Roman government to do this. And the Romans weren't all keyed in on the apostles because, you know, um Jesus claimed himself to be a king and and their power, their power was was threatened. And so the apostles are in this upper room, and they're, I'm sure, just scared to death because they don't know what's going to be knocking on the door or breaking down the door to come and get them. And everybody saw them, so they know they knew who they were. But the Holy Spirit filled the room and filled each and every one of them. And when the Holy Spirit came, all of a sudden he just filled them to the top, from the top of their head to the soles of their feet with this with the Holy Spirit. And I'm telling you, I've had that feeling in my life. And that's different from uh giving your life to Christ. When you give your life to Christ, there's a change in your heart. God starts to move in your heart, and and there's this inner change, this inner, wow, that's that's you know, you're just thinking to yourself, this is incredible. This is really, there's something that changes on the inside of you, and you can't put it into words. You can't really even describe it, but you know that there's a change there, an instantaneous change when you give your life to Christ. And so, but when you get baptized in the Holy Spirit, that's that's a whole different thing. That is that is the presence of God in on steroids. I mean, I know that's maybe an old term, but just it's an incredible infilling of the Holy Spirit. And when He filled, when the Holy Spirit came upon me, and and I was filled with the Holy Spirit, it just the Lord showed me visions for two hours. Two hours of of many, many things. And throughout this podcast, I want to share some of those things. Um, but anyway, um part of the things, the different things that the Holy Spirit showed me, and that the Holy Spirit started working through me were the spiritual gifts. And so some of the spiritual gifts, I'm not sure I've had every one of them working through me. And some of them have worked when I needed it, and some of them they they kind of come and go, but um the one, well, I'll go through each and every one of them first. How about that? Um, one of the spiritual gifts, we'll just go with start with number one and go all the way down. The word of wisdom is a word of God's knowledge of what is going to take place in the future. Now, God will show you something. See, the devil has also a counterfeit. People go to fortune tellers to try to find these things. People go to uh in the old testament, even uh um King Saul was trying to use through trying to find out different things. You'll see people in the Old Testament using divination or or or um say witchcraft to be able to find out what the future holds. And that's what people do even today. They go to um, you know, play different games or read tarot cards, or I don't want to get into it and describe any of this stuff because I really don't know a lot about it. But I just know that for everything that God has, Satan has a counterfeit. And when God gives it to you, it's it's just solid, it's good, there's a purity about it, there's a solidness about it, it jives with your spirit. If you've given your life to Christ and become born again, there's a certain discernment, there's a certain um there's a certain discernment that that I think comes upon you because when you give your life to Christ, you're no longer part of this world per se. You're still here, you're still living, you're still, you know, stubbing your toes, you're still going through life. But there's a there's a difference in that the Lord starts working your life and lifting you up and above the circumstances of this world. And so anyway, when you get the the the Holy Spirit working in you, um let me just hang out one second. But that faith just reared up, and I was able to just speak to him with more uh force, I guess. And um, I was able to make my point, but it wasn't a point where, oh, I won that debate. I I just really, you know, stuck it to him or whatever. It wasn't that at all. It was it was it was God's love flowing through me, but it was it was a forceful thing. And it was just um it just kind of really reared up strength, boom, sent it to the guy and just really touched his heart. The Lord touched his heart, used me to touch his heart. He just sat sat there and he just looked at me and just, I mean, I just whatever the Lord told me to tell him and what we talked about was just right on the money. So I mean, when you're witnessing to people, especially, you know, um, yeah, the Lord just really gives me, I'm I'm really hitting on this, on this knowledge now. The Lord does give me uh a knowledge um of different situations. Um just when people come and knock on the door, we've got some cults in the neighborhood that will come and knock on your door, you know, or knock on the door and and try to witness to you. And I'm gonna jump ahead here. And there's a dis well, let's see, hang on a second here. Hit faith, gift of healings. Now let me just keep going. I'll keep going in the direction I'm going here. I'm just gonna go on the list. Uh, gift of healings. This is the word gift where God's power flows through you to heal other people. Um now, when you pray for people, um, you don't like when you pray for people's healing, um, sometimes, I mean, very rarely, will you God heal that person that second, that moment? It doesn't really happen that way. It can happen that way. But when God heals somebody, when you pray for somebody's healing, that healing may take time. It may be the next morning, it may be uh, you know, weeks, you don't know. But you're praying in faith, praying for their healing, and that's pretty much all you can do. And, you know, since a lot of times when I pray for people, I never see them again. Um, but um, I never see them again, but um, sometimes I do. Like, for instance, um I was talking with a co-worker, and we were in his office, and he was uh he was talking about his wife. We were just talking just as a Friday. And I worked the weekends, so I started um, you know, so I worked the weekend, so we crossed past, and it was Friday. It was the end of his week. So we were just talking in his office for a while, and he talked, he's talking about his wife, and his wife had had they were trying to have kids, and she had five miscarriages. So I thought, wow, you know, and then he said that it just really touched my heart. And it just, something about it just really there was like a heaviness there. Uh, more than just the natural heaviness that you you when you hear something like that, but it was just really kind of a heaviness. But Dave, do you mind if we pray about this? I think we should just pray about this. So I closed his office door and we just prayed, and we lifted his wife up in prayer. And I just prayed. I said, Lord, I just prayed that you heal her, Father God. I said, Lord, you know, Dave's been to doctors and they don't know what's wrong with his wife, Father God, but you know what's wrong with this wife. And right now, Lord, I just ask that you heal her from the top of her head to the soles of her feet, front to back, side to side, Lord, that you completely heal her, 100%, Lord. I just pray, Father God, for your healing virtue to fill her up and to heal her right now. And so we prayed that prayer. And, you know, and man, I tell you what, the Holy Spirit just fell in that office. This is at a workplace, doors closed, the Holy Spirit just fell so strong that after I got done praying, he was just there and he was like wiping his eyes, and I was wiping my eyes, you know, because you just kind of get your eyes just kind of water up because you you're just the Holy Spirit falls, and it's it's a spirit of God that drops, and it's a spirit of a loving God that just drops and just fills you. And man, we just sat there probably about, I don't know, 45 seconds a minute, just speechless, just trying to recover. And and it was really just quite a wonderful thing. And and long story short, um, we ended up, you know, moving on both our jobs. We moved on to, and I never saw him again. Well, I happened to bump into him at uh Valley Fair in Minnesota. And here he had two, his wife had two kids. And so it's like five years later. So these kids are probably, I don't know, four and three, five and four, and they were just running around there. And I was just, I was, I didn't really put two and two together till later, but and his wife was there, and I don't even know if I really met her, but she must, he must have said something like, That's the guy that prayed for you. And she just came up to me and just gave me the biggest hug. I mean, not a big bear hug, but just came up and put her arms around me and just held me for for probably 30 seconds and didn't say a word, just held me, and then and and I just kind of held her and and I just kind of nodded, you know, and and later on in the day she saw me again and she just walked to me and just held me. And it was just um it was just here, he his wife ends up having two kids. So this is one of the few times that I got a chance to see the result of a prayer when I prayed for somebody for their healing. And it was just such a such an incredible thing. Um another time too, um I was working with a guy as working at the uh Minneapolis Convention Center, and I was in the banquet staff there. So, long story short, it was one of those things where um when you're working on call banquet, you you get called for different banquets, but you're not working there full time. It's like an event. Like you get called for maybe the weekend, maybe a day or two. It depends on how long the event is. They're not very long, but it's like it's like 12-hour shifts and it goes on. But anyway, the one guy I was working there, uh he and I used to got we used to got pretty close. He is this black guy from Chicago, and and he was just a lot of fun. I really enjoyed him. He just, you know, we just see each other at work and he lived down in cities, so we never got together outside of work. But when we got together during work, uh, we just I'd I'd look at in the kitchen there and I'd say, Gerald, and I'd give him a great big bear hug, come up, give him a great big bear hug, and he would just be smiling, you know, and we just laugh for a little bit, and I'd have to go off and do the banquet stuff, and we just cross paths and get a chance to talk to him once in a while and maybe have a break and coke with him later on. But um anyway, uh I was there one time, and um Gerald had asthma, and he had this, he would have, I think he had one of those things that you you uh spray into your mouth. Um, but he had asthma. And uh anyway, it long time passed, and I came into the kitchen, and uh I was I was getting ready for work, getting ready to punch in, and I was looking for Gerald. And this Barb was there, and this this other lady in the kitchen. I said, Barbara said, Where's Gerald? And she said, she said, uh, you don't hear what happened? I said, No, what happened? And she said, he had some kind of an asthma attack, and they had to bring him down to HCMC, uh, which is a hospital in downtown Minneapolis, and they had to bring him down there and they had to uh put him in a coma. I I guess an induced coma. I don't know how that's pronounced how they say that, but anyway, they had to put him into a coma and they couldn't get him out of it. And it's been like about two weeks. So they induced him into a coma, and all of a sudden now they can't get him out of it. So, right away, the Lord in my spirit, the Lord told me, He said, the Lord told me, or the Holy Spirit told me, go down there as quick as you can. And so, anyway, I waited for the end of my shift, and I think I think that might have been the end of my shift when I was in the kitchen talking to Bart. So, anyway, I went down there, and this is kind of how the Lord works. And I went down there and see HCMC, there's parking outside around the hospital, but normally I I I've only been down there a few times, but I think you end up having to park in a park room. Very rarely is there any parking out on the street, but they're again here. The Lord told me to do it. I went down there, boom, parking spot right in front by the front doors, a free parking spot right there, zoomed right in there, got out, and you know, ran inside and talked to the receptionist and asked her where I asked them where the ICU was. And so anyway, she told me, went up there to the ICU, and there's Gerald. And there was a there was like a little waiting room. There was like this little waiting room, and there were some ICU um beds in this area. And so there was this lady sitting there, and I thought, well, that must be Gerald's girlfriend because he talked about her before. And so anyway, I talked, how's he doing? And she said, Wow, they still can't get him out of the coma. And she said, You can go in there and talk to him. He said, He'll he'll when he he knows you. Oh, well, when he hears somebody talk to him, he'll flicker his eyes, meaning that he knows you're there, but he they just can't get him out of the coma. And so I thought, wow. So anyway, I went in there and said, Hey, Gerald, how are you doing? And he his eyes flicked a little bit. And so I thought, well, I'm just gonna pray because the Holy Spirit told me to come down here to pray for him, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna pray for him. So I put my hand on I think his ankle, and I just said, Lord, I just I just lift up Gerald to you, Lord. I just pray, Father God, that you just get him out of this coma and that you bring him, Lord, that you restore his body to perfect health, Lord. So from the top of his head to the soles of his feet, front to back and side to side, Lord, I just pray, Father God, for a healing for Gerald. And there again, I prayed for for a healing for him, and it didn't happen instantaneous, but it it, you know, and so next thing you know, um, a person came in with he was a like a cleanup guy, kind of a janitor. Wow, janitor, he came in and he was cleaning up the area, and he asked us if we could leave the area so he could clean up. Um, so anyway, we did, and and uh and I said, Well, I think I think I'm gonna hit the road here, and then because she was she was there too, and then so I said, All right, I'll see you later, you know. And then I left. So um that was it. And then the banquet served um on-call banquet. Um the demand was down, it was summertime, so I didn't go back there for like a couple of months. And so anyway, got called again to a banquet, some something going on. And I walk in, and I'm walking down the hallway, you walk this long hallway before you get to where the time clocks are, and I see Gerald, and he's walking, and he's got a cane, and I said, Gerald, I can't wait to say, I said, How you doing? And and he just Tim, and he just had a great big smile for me, you know, and I just gave him a gentle hug. I didn't want to knock him over. And I just, you know, gave him a squeeze and hey, how you doing, buddy? You know, and and he was just walking and stuff, and uh, and then he just kind of started tearing up, and I and I I didn't really think much out of him. I thought, well, he must have you know really missed me or whatever. I don't know. But but anyway. Um, so later on I asked Barb, I said, and it happened a couple other times. Every time I saw him, I said, Gerald, and all of a sudden he just started tearing up. I said, I I ran into Barb later on that day and that night. I said, Barb, I said, every time I talked to Gerald, I said, he looks at me and he starts tearing up. I don't get it. And she goes, You didn't hear the rest of the story. I said, No, what's the rest of the story? And and she said, Well, she said, you know, when you went there and you prayed for him, I said, Yeah. And that girl that was with, I said, yeah, his girlfriend. She said, no, she said, that was not his girlfriend. She said, that was his sister that came there from Chicago, and she was there to give the doctors permission to pull the plug on Gerald. Pull the plug, meaning pull the plug and let him die. That's what she was there, and she is waiting for the doctors. So when the Holy Spirit said, go down there as quick as you can, right now, and had that parking spot open to me open for me in the front of the hospital. See how this all jives together. I went there, prayed for him. And when I left, he came out of his coma. They're waiting for the doctors to come, and she is ready to give him permission to pull the plug, you know, and they were there, I don't know where they were, but all of a sudden he pulled out on that coma, and that's what he was weeping about. And he just, you know, so I mean, that's that's the gift of healing right there, is that when you pray for somebody, you might not know what's gonna happen or when it's gonna happen, but you just have faith, you step out there and you pray for somebody. And even though, you know, like like if I'm if I'm even out somewhere and somebody's having a hard time or maybe has a bandage, I'll ask them, I said, do you mind if I pray for you? And and I've never gotten turned down. People always say, sure. And I just pray for them, I pray for their healing, and I don't I don't take it for granted. When somebody, when, when somebody comes across my path that is hurt or something like that, um, or in pain or something, I just pray for them because I just believe the Lord is going to heal them. May not heal him that moment, but he'll heal them later on. And I just share all this to say, you know, there's nothing special about me. I mean, I've I've been following the Lord for like 40 years, and the Lord baptized me and he gave me a lot of the gifts of spirit, but he can do the exact same thing for you. There is nothing special about me. I'm not perfect. I still make mistakes, I still drop the ball, but um and sometimes I don't follow through what the Lord has called me to do sometimes. Sometimes either I'm scared, intimidated, maybe it's not the right moment, maybe I think I don't have enough time or something. And I know I've dropped the ball there. And in those times, when I get alone with the Lord, I feel a little bit of conviction, not guilt, but a conviction where the Holy Spirit said, Oh, you kind of dropped the ball on there. And it's I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Lord. You know, because you know, when I pray, I just I pray to the Lord, I pray to God, I I pray to the Holy Spirit, I, you know, and I because they're all the same. They're they're they're different parts of the same. That the triune God, uh, there's the Holy Spirit, there is the Father God, and his son Jesus. And they all kind of are the best way to describe it is it's like water. You have water, and there is water in liquid form, water in solid form, as an ice, and water in a gas form like steam. It's all separate. It's all different forms of the same water. And that's what it is with with God. It's all the same. Um so anyway, I uh when I miss the when I miss the boat, man, I just so if I if the if the Holy Spirit asks me to do something, and sometimes I don't do it, or miss the boat, or miss that opportunity, or don't I'm not as I don't pursue it as well as I should have and miss it, then I just say, Lord, I'm so sorry. So, you know, and and the Lord's very forgiving and very loving, and he doesn't hold that against you. He knows, he knows. That that or just we just make mistakes sometimes, and he just forgives you and you just move on. So, but um anyway, that's my stories on the gifts of healings. And I also want to touch on too there there's just some shenanigan ministries out there over the years, or they just fake this healing and stuff like that. Don't be deterred by that. Um there again, pursue the gifts of the Holy Spirit, pursue the Lord, give yours give your life to the Lord, pursue them in prayer, reading the Bible, pray, pray an hour in the morning, read your Bible every day. And as you do that, you'll be able to build your spirit up. You're your spirit man, your new man, um, as you as you feed your your spirit, it it just it just brings you closer to God. The Bible says as you draw closer to God, he draws closer to you. So there's this relationship, and you're talking about a relationship with the living God, a relationship that a relationship with the living God who spoke the world into existence. I mean, God just didn't take a ball of mud and start planting trees on it. The Bible says he spoke it into existence. He said tree, and there was tree. He spoke a landscape, mountain range, universe, and it just all appeared. He spoke it into existence. And this is the same God that when you give your life, when you accept his son as your Lord and Savior, as you accept his son as your Lord and Savior, and ask him to come into your life and be your Lord and Savior, ask him for forgiveness of your sins, realize that you're a sinner, ask the Lord to forgive you, ask him to become Lord and Savior of your life, and give your life to him and start walking with him, start walking towards him, that that there's this all of a sudden the things in your life are just going to change. And there's this closeness that just develops and it there's no end to it. There's no end to it. It ebbs and flows. Sometimes it gets it gets really deep, and sometimes you feel like it's not there, but when you feel like it's not there, it's not God that's walking away. It's sometimes you haven't spent enough time with them, and and maybe there's other things going on. But anyway, um, I'm gonna keep going with uh gifts. Gifts of miracles. Um gifts of miracles is something that flows through you. It's supernatural, enables you to do something supernaturally, it's beyond the thinking of man. Now the gift of miracles, I'm trying to think as far as miracles per se. If I did anything, and I I nothing comes to mind right now as far as the gift of miracles. But um, if you heal somebody and they get healed right away, that's more of a miracle. Like the gift of healing is something that doesn't necessarily happen instantaneously, but if you pray for them and it happens right now, that can be a miracle. That could be a miracle. Um here's something in our lives that I could consider a miracle. Um years ago, I mean, there's a lot of things the Lord has has done in our life, my wife and I. Um and these could really be kind of like blessings. I I'm not sure exactly how you how you can draw the line between the two. But like for instance, years ago, my wife and I were looking for property to um we were living we live in an apartment, and we were growing out of our apartment. And so we're looking for a property to um to to build a house on. And so there was no property at all anywhere. And we look, we there were everything on the that we'd find in the newspaper at the time. Um there wasn't um there wasn't much to choose from. I mean, you had to go this is years ago, so there was no real computers, there was no real uh Redfin or different online realty companies per se right then. Um it all had to be done um through the normal MLS at the time. Maybe it was a little bit of online stuff, but not a whole lot. I think it was just coming on that that was just starting to happen using the computer to buy real estate as something relatively new. Um But anyway, long story short, we worked with some realtors, and there was just no property out there to build. And though all of a sudden, just out of the blue, I was driving down this road that that um that uh all of a sudden there was 10 acres for sale, and it was at a real good price. Long story short, we bought that 10 acres at a real good price, and we bought the neighboring 10 acres at a real good price. So the Lord opened up this door that all of a sudden there was nothing to be found. All of a sudden, boom, we had 20 acres. And so uh we built this house and we built this beautiful house. The the first lot we bought, it was 10 acres. It was 300, if I remember right, 350, 350 feet across by I I think it was 1,100 feet or 1,300 feet long. So it was kind of a long, 350 feet across, 1100 feet. I couldn't get that wrong, but it was it was about the size of maybe uh a stick of gum. And then we bought the next neighboring 10 acres, and that was the same size. So anyway, we had built this house there, and it wasn't a grand house or nothing, but it was a it was a nice house, and we had this 650-foot long driveway, and so it was on top of a hill, and we could look out the back and it's just beautiful scenery. We were surrounded by sod fields, and it was just you could see storms. It was wonderful, it was really pretty up there. And we had a uh a duck pond in front where geese would land, and we had a wooded area off to the side there. So it was just really kind of a cool place. And anyway, I was just thanking the Lord one day, and we were there for a couple years, and I said, Lord, I just I I just was laying on the grass and I just was there and just thanking the Lord. I said, Thank you so much, Lord, for this property. I just thank you so much. I mean, Lord, we didn't deserve any of this. And here we're in a brand new house on 20 acres, and I got a duck pond. I never thought that I'd have a pond in my front yard. And I just I just I just was there thanking him. And as I as I'm thanking him, he he he tells me, says, Timmy goes, I want you to sell the property. And right away I said, no hesitation at all. I said, All right, Lord, because I I heard his voice clearly, and I know what his voice sounds like, you know, and I so I knew it was from him. I said, All right, Lord, whatever you want, you know. And so anyway, so I got, I I said, Lord, all right, Lord, I said, My wife is on her way home. But and I said, I want you to confirm it to her. I mean, because this is a big decision. And when these big decisions like this happen, I want it to be confirmed between my wife and I. So anyway, um, I'm in the house. I heard the garage door open up and close, and I opened up the back door, and I met her. I opened the screen door. I said, honey, I think the Lord is calling us to, and she said, sell the house. And I said, Yeah. And she said, Yeah. I said, she said, the Lord told me that on the way home at she told me the stretcher road highway that she's coming home on, where he he talked to her about it. So all of a sudden it was like there was no hesitation. It was all of a sudden we called the uh uh local realtor and told him, said Mel said, you know, I said, the Lord, he was a Christian, so I told him, I said, the Lord has called us to sell our house. I said, you don't have to get the best price for it, but I want to get a good price for it. So if you could just put it on the market, you know, that'd be great because we're, you know, we don't know where we're heading next, but you know, the Lord's the Lord calls to sell, so we're cool with it. So anyway, he made the arrangements, blah, blah, blah. We ended up selling the house. But before we sold the house, um, before we moved into the house, we lived in this apartment in Elk River, and it was just this beautiful apartment. It was in town, it opened up to the Lions Park downtown. It had pine trees in the back, it was a walkout, sliding glass door, patio in the back, and it was situated in such a way that the sunset the other side of the building. So it was always cool. And it was just really a out of all the apartments in Elk River, two-bedroom, two-bath apartments. That's the one we had, and it was really nice. And so we wanted that apartment back. And so I called Wendy, the apartment manager, said, Wendy, I said, I said, let me ask you this. I said, I said, we're thinking about moving back. Um, and we'd like to know if our old apartment is available. She said, No. She said, the guy is there. She said he's not gonna move. She said he's been there the whole time. He he pays our rent on time, he loves it there. He's gonna be there forever. And I said, Oh, okay, all right. Well, thank you anyway. So, anyway, I was looking at apartments, and this is probably about maybe three months before closing or something. So, anyway, I started calling around. There's different apartments available, and so I did I wasn't too much in a hurry. But then as we got close to closing, like within a month or so, I started calling around again, and there was no apartments available. The ones that we called on earlier were all rented, and there wasn't any uh others available, any good ones anyway. And so there was this one apartment complex that was in Elk River, and it was just kind of oh, it was just wasn't ideal. It was, it was, there was no no area for the kids to play, no nothing. Um and so we just um and I we I took my wife to there and we took a look, made an appointment, took a look at the apartment, and it was one of those where it was set up for a handicapped person. So there was no cupboards on that on the on the ground. There was the upper cup upper cabinets, but when it came to the cupboards along the wall on the ground, they were there was a lot of them gone because it was set up for somebody in a wheelchair. Like, say if they wanted to wash their ditches, they'd have to roll their wheelchair up um to do the dishes, or if they wanted to access the microwave, they'd have to roll their wheelchair up. So there wasn't any cabins. A lot of the lowers were gone. And the the um electrical plugs were up high, and it was just not situated very well at all. It was it was set up for a wheelchair, meaning some of the walls are gone, so it was kind of open, and it just wasn't set up for family at all, really. And there was no place to to for the kids to play. The parking lot was it was just surrounded by by really parking lot and busy streets. So it was just a noisy apartment in the center of of this area, and we just were not happy at all, you know. And and it just was kind of like, man, you know, I just um and there again, the Lord calls the cell, so I wasn't begrudging that. Um and I called Wendy again and uh and asked if that apartment was available. And uh she said no, she said it's still not available. So anyway, we're getting ready to sign the contract. This is like like a week before closing. And um anyway, it's like uh I could see, and I felt a little disappointed, you know, but but anyway, um we're getting ready to sign the contract, and I think we signed it at home, and I was getting ready to drop it off the next morning, and my wife said, Why don't you try Wendy one more time and see if our apartment's there? And so I called up Wendy and I asked her if our old apartment was available, and she says, You're not gonna believe this. She said, That guy got up in the middle of the night and he packed up everything and he left. And she said, We just got done shampooing the carpets. The apartment is yours if you want it. And it's like, oh my gosh. That's that that was the Lord coming through at the last second, and he's done that before a lot of times in our life. But I'm just saying, you know, I don't I don't know, we're the bridges between that's a blessing from the Lord or that's a miracle. I don't know. But all of a sudden, we had our old apartment, the one we wanted before. And so um anyway, I just share that. That's uh that was for us. Uh uh So that was about the uh gift of miracles. Uh the next gift of the Holy Spirit is the gift of prophecy. Um, I've had a few words for people. Like I mentioned the lady at the office that I had a word for her. I don't know if that's necessarily that was like a word of knowledge. It wasn't necessarily a prophetic message. Um I remember one time we were at a prayer thing up in up in Toronto, Canada, and we were having lunch at a at a uh like a cafeteria type thing, and we invited somebody to our table that we never saw before. And there was a pastor from California who the past our pastor who invited us up to go with him. Uh he was good friends with the pastor from California. And here was this guy sitting at this table by himself, and we asked if he was with the uh the seminar that we were at. He said, Yeah, he was. And he invited and the uh California pastor said, Why don't you come on over and sit with us? And so we invited him over in this, and and so we were talking for a while and and we got some of their food. And and uh anyway, the the Canadian, the uh California guy, he he said, elbowed me gently, he said, Prophesy to him. And I said, Well, all right, and I I I still don't really prophecy is words in English given to an individual through the Holy Spirit, like the Lord will give you words in English, and so what the Lord gave me is when He said when the the California pastor said, Prophesy to him, I didn't have much experience in prophecy. And so anyway, but what the Lord showed me right away, instantly, was a picture. And he and I had this napkin, this is paper napkin, and I drew this kind of shape on it. It was kind of a oh, I don't know, not necessarily a heart shape, but kind of that. But it was just, you know, without the detail. And I I shared it with him, I said, and I split it over to him, I said, Does this mean anything to you? And he said, I'm a minister, I'm uh in the mission field, and he goes, That's the island that I'm in a mission field. That's my mission field, is that island. And so he just he said, That's where I mission. That's the picture of my island that I'm in a mission, I'm I'm a missionary at. And I just was like, wow, you know, so anyway, I just I just paused for a little bit and just, you know, I just paused for a little bit. And when you're with other Christians and other Christian ministers, they know what you're doing. So I just paused and waited on the Lord and just waited for the Lord to say something to me about what he wanted to share, wanted me to share with this guy, and the Lord put it in my heart to share with this guy, that when the guy ministers on this island, he didn't want him to minister and walk along the coast of the island, but he wanted them to wanted him to go to a coastal town, then go to the center, back to the center, which I think was the capital of that island, and then to go back to another coast. It's kind of like a bicycle spoke, kind of to go back and forth like that, but not to go along the coastline. So that's what I shared with the guy. And so he was just really, you know, we were all just kind of like, wow, you know, but but anyway, that's that's um, that's kind of my experience with prophecy. I've little words of people, but I think that's really probably the probably the only thing that I've ever any time I've ever experienced the gift of prophecy. I've had a lot of prophets prophesy to me about different things that have given me prophecies, huge prophecies, long prophecies, prophecies that are anywhere from a couple minutes to to five minutes where they've shared stuff with me. And me and my wife and the things they've shared is just like they've been sitting in our back seats. So, I mean, to me, it's a the gift of prophecy is as real as any of them. And people have shared prophecies with us that it's just like, man, my wife and I were just talking about that at home, or we were just talking about it on the way there, or thinking about it, or talking about it a week ago, or trying to come up with some sort of plans or or some sort of um situations or something. And and this these people would prophesy the exact thing that we needed to know at that time. And it was just amazing. So the gift of prophecy doesn't necessarily work strong in my life, but I've seen it work and I've received prophecies that were just fantastic, and they were just really timely and really insightful, and they were full of wisdom and knowledge that the Lord just gave us for the situation that was in front of us. It just was really good. Um, and the next gift of the Holy Spirit is discerning of spirits. Now, the discerning of spirits is really um it's uh it's discerning of spirits. Let's see, this gift is this is a gift of spiritual insight into people, places, and things around you. Spiritual insight. Spiritual insight. Um like the Lord will show me a particular person uh where they are, like if they're born again, if they're dabbling in something in the occult that they shouldn't be, or something like that. And it he won't give me details like that, but he'll just give me details about where they're sitting. And um, and it's not just even where they're sitting. My wife and I can be driving through the countryside, and the Lord will give us insight into what's going on in that particular area. We won't necessarily know any of the details of what's happening, but when it but we'll be able to discern that something's going on here. Like we drive in different parts around the Twin Cities in Minnesota, and there's always certain areas that all of a sudden you drive in, there's there's just a darkness, a darkness there. And um and I remember, you know, this is kind of there again. There's a darkness in certain situations, and it wasn't until like years later, and even after, that I talked to one gal who I used to work with, and she was a witch, part of a covenant in that group. And her car broke down. So anyway, we worked at the same place. We worked in Maplegre, it was quite a ways away. I had to go like 10 miles the opposite direction of work to pick her up and then go past, practically go past my house to go another, you know, 20, 25 minutes to get to work. And so anyway, I gave her a ride to work like that for I think it was like at least a week, maybe two weeks. And I talked to her and she explained to me. And she just said, you know, this is what I believe, and this is what I do, and stuff like that. And but she also claimed that she was a Christian. And I told her, I said, Ann, I said, you know it doesn't work that way. And she goes, I know, I know, you know. I said, I'm not getting on you. I said, I just you can't mix, you can't mix being a white witch with Christianity. It just doesn't, it just doesn't work with like mixing water and oil. You just you just can't do it, you know. And so anyway, but I say that to say that in this particular area, before I even knew this gal, that when my wife and I would drive, we'd just feel this darkness in this area. And then later on, after finding this out, that that was probably the reason why we felt this darkness. And there's other instances where the Lord will give me a gift of discernment. And what's I tell you what, this is kind of neat too. And that is that when it comes to this whole AI stuff, um, this artificial intelligence stuff you see on X, stuff you see on the internet, that's AI-generated videos or what have you. Um this gift of discerning of spirits, this gift of discernment, that is um, I believe that's really gonna come in play in the future. I think all the gifts, the all these gifts are gonna come to. They're always, there, there's no these gifts are timely for today. These gifts have always been timely from way back in Jesus' time all the way to today. But this gift of discernment, discerning spirits, that's that's gonna be something that uh I think is gonna be really a gift that's gonna be needed to be able to tell. Um, boy, and uh there's to be able to tell what's going on today in our culture, per se. Um to be able to discern, to be able to discern, it it takes on different shapes, different forms, too. In that um like when you're listening to a minister preach, sometimes I mean you sometimes you can tell, and there again, see the Lord doesn't just reveal everything to me, so it's not like I'm a mind reader or anything like that, but the Lord will just reveal to me, like when a when a pastor is talking or preaching or hearing something, there's almost a spiritual weight to his words. If he has spent time in prayer or if he spent time with the Lord and he's preaching, there is a spiritual weight to his words. It's different. It's different from somebody who's just studied the word and put together a sermon using the Bible, as opposed to somebody who's spent time with the Lord. There's a big, big difference. And you can tell that. Um, I've been to to churches where they're big and beautiful, and I'm, you know, people are making big salaries, I guess. I don't know, but they're just big, beautiful, spotless churches. And I've been there, and it's like there is no Holy Spirit here. There is nothing here. The presence of the Holy Spirit just is minimal if at best, if they're even there at all. But and I've also been to churches that have, you know, peeling paint and holes in the carpet, and and just, I mean, they're just kind of tattered. And the Holy Spirit is just there, and the pastor is just there because he is just seeking the Lord. And there is just such a big difference. The Sermon of Spirits goes through. I mean, I put on here people, places, and things. People, the Lord will give you uh will be able to you'll be able to discern what's what's discerned this uh how do you describe it? Kind of not the spiritual weight of a person, but where they are in the spirit. Are they into darkness or are they into light? The Lord will reveal that. He won't necessarily reveal the details. Sometimes he reveal that he doesn't want you to be with that person or near that person. When it came to taking Anne to work, I uh I knew Anne, so I did. So don't just take any any you know stranger or something that's in somebody that's involved in some darkness and take them in your car and put yourself in that position. Don't do that at all. You need the gift of discernment to be able to do something like that. And uh even then be super, super cautious and if err on the side of keeping yourself safe, no matter what. No matter what. Um because I've seen people that that weren't didn't have the maturity to really have, say, a gift of discernment, and they've done foolish things. I've seen Christian people who were strong Christians, and I don't know, they just did some things that I thought, uh, well, I mean, if the Lord's calling you, I mean, uh was one gal, she used to pick people up hitchhikers, and she was a uh single lady, or her husband died, so she was a widow, and she felt that was her calling. And I just was like, Well, I said, Boy, I just hope that you're just really following the Lord here because you know, I don't think I'd be picking up strangers out in the middle of the country somewhere, hitchhikers. So anyway, but anyway, that's what she thought her calling was. So again, that's one of those things that I just prayed for, prayed for her safety and then moved on. Um uh people, places, yeah, like I mentioned, you know, driving to certain areas because um when it comes to the spirit uh like Satan and demonic activity, like they're they're they're kind of geographically there's different areas, like like it's it's sectioned off. Like Satan has his areas of of of of uh of influence, and then he has areas where he he's not that influential because that's one thing. God is omnipotent, he can be anywhere, anyplace, anytime, all at once. Satan is not like that, he just has his network of demons, and he's very limited that way. And just to give you a heads up, you know, people always equate, you know, Satan and God is the same doing battle, blah, blah, blah. You know, like they're they're equal and they're not. They're not. You know, Satan is a fallen angel, God created angels, so Satan is a created being created by God, and Satan can only do whatever God allows him to do. And and God sent his son down here, Jesus Christ, so that we could, his only son, one and only son, that we could become children of the living God. So Jesus is like our older brother, and he gave us the ability through the gifts of the Holy Spirit to be able to defeat what Satan does. So anyway, that that's kind of a a little bit of a sideshoot. Um, places of things around. Yeah, so different places. Some are some are dark, some are not, and you just have to kind of discern. And there's also common sense, too. I mean, you just don't go down a dark alley somewhere and and just I don't know, think you're gonna be safe. Just as time goes on here, and the last days will be a great increase in wickedness. So you have to really, you know, use common sense in a lot of these things. So um, and things. Spiritual discernment in things. Um, we had uh one of our church members, uh, their daughter went overseas to one of the Scandinavian countries, and she was in band. So she did kind of a, I think it was uh either high school or college that they did some kind of a traveling thing where they went over there and played in band. And she came back and she she gave us this little sculpture, it's kind of a little rock sculpture with eyes and stuff, and is made out of stones glued together. I forget what it's shaped like. It's just kind of a little, little, I don't know, troll little guy with arms and legs and a big head or something. It is small. It was only, I think it stood up maybe six inches. It was just a little tiny little figurine. And um anyway, she gave it to us as a gift, and it's kind of cute, you know, and and we put it up on our on our shelf in our living room, and you know, and it was like it was there, and there was something about it, and I couldn't really put my finger on it, but the longer it was there, the more I noticed this thing. And pretty soon it kind of felt like it was almost like staring at us across the room. I know it sounds silly, but it felt like that. And so I asked my, you know, and I just kind of was like, it kind of went on for a couple days. And I just asked my wife, I said, you know, this is do you think do you feel something coming from that thing? And she said, I do too. She said, yes. She goes, I can't put my finger on it. She goes, it looks like it's looking at me. It's like I said, I said that's exactly the way I feel. So anyway, we took this thing and we brought it up to the dumpster. I took a hammer and I smashed it to a bunch of bits and threw it in the dumpster. So anyway, but that's the spiritual discernment. So it's just we saw this thing and we just felt this. This I don't know what it was, but anyway, we got rid of it. We didn't uh, you know, and and kind of like uh I sometimes I go to garage sales, roommate sales, and I buy stuff, you know, that'd be sales, some a yard sale or something, and I'll buy something. And a lot of times it's just inoculus. I mean, I buy tools, I buy an old book or something like that. But once in a great, great while I'll buy something and I don't think nothing of it, you know, and I'll just put it in my trunk and then bring it in the house and set it on table with the other things I buy, and I'll sit there. And like I said, this happens very rarely, very, very rarely. But all of a sudden, it's just like one of these things that I have, one of these items, like mostly it's it's mostly a book or something. And it's like all of a sudden it's like, eh, there's something about this book. And it looks like any other book, normal, no stains, no rips, no tears. And there's something about this book that's not right. So I just take it and I'll just throw it. I'll just throw it in the garbage. And just whatever was in it or attached to it is is, of course, out of the house. And being a child of God, you don't have to, you don't have to fear this stuff because you're a child, you're a blood brought bought Christian. Jesus died on the cross for you, man. And when you accept him as your Lord and Savior, that he becomes, he becomes your elder brother. Your sh his shed blood covers you, man, and protects you. He surrounds you. You have angels working in your behalf, you have the Lord working on your behalf, you have Father God looking over you, you got the Holy Spirit working the gifts through you. There's just so much joy and so much peace and so much whatever. Living a live living a Christian life is just it's really an exciting, an exciting life. Um, there's just so much to it. So, anyway, I'm sharing all this as uh just to kind of motivate you. And I'm going to touch, yeah, I went, I touched on a lot of different things here. But as I'm reading the Bible, kind of going through my Bible and I was preparing this podcast, I was coming across a lot of different scriptures that I haven't read for a while. I've got a lot of different highlighted um scriptures in my Bible. And uh so I'm gonna touch on some other things, but I sure covered a lot today. But I just wanted to say that uh spiritual gifts, I mean, a lot of churches, they don't even talk about the Holy Spirit, let alone spiritual gifts. I mean, I've been doing I grew up in a Lutheran church, man. We didn't talk about anything about the Holy Spirit at all. I didn't, I you know, they they pray in in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Well, who's the Holy Spirit? Nobody knows, you know, at least at least when I was growing up. But it wasn't until it wasn't until that I my wife and I moved to Dallas, Texas, that we got involved with the Spirit-Filled Church. And we really just uh, man, we we we learned a lot. And I tell you what, you know, becoming a uh giving my life to Christ as a Lutheran, um it was it was um just kind of going through the motions. I mean, growing up, and I'm not saying every Lutheran's like that, I'm just saying up from my experience that when it came to the people in our church and me and and the young guys there, I mean, we just partied. You just partied on Saturday, and you put on your suit and your your fake smile and showed up for church Sunday morning. You know, it was it was nothing. There was nothing there. But I didn't know because that's how we grew up. That's just the way it was. So, but uh it wasn't until I got involved with the uh the full gospel church um that it wasn't that I started to to really get an understanding of who the Holy Spirit is. And the Holy Spirit is so relevant for today, for new believers, for mature believers, it doesn't matter. The spiritual gifts are there for you to operate. And and you, these different things are going on with these medicines, people getting hurt. I'm telling you what, you just need to, and I too just need to go out there and just start praying for people because God works miracles today. There is no doubt in my mind, and I hope I've encouraged you to walk deeper with the Lord because man, this is it. And I think I think time is wrapping up. I mean, the uh the Bible says in the last days there'll be a great increase in wickedness, and you kind of see it. It's no doubt that culture is happening, you see all kinds of stuff going on. And you know, the Bible says when those things start to happen, you start seeing signs, so that's uh that's a pretty good indication. I'm gonna I'm gonna be returned. So if you have not given your life to Christ, I encourage you to give your life to Christ. Give your life to Christ now. You know, I spent a lot of time talking about the gifts of the Spirit, and I don't know if maybe it has put in the uh cart for the horse. But you know, we're all gonna die, and a lot of churches don't even talk about heaven and hell anymore. Um I mean, heaven is just this just this wonderful place that God created for all his for all his people. And it just heaven is a the Bible says it hasn't even entered into the heart of man or the mind of man what God has prepared for those that love him. Now the Bible says that God created the world, the whole earth, everything we see in six days and rested on the seventh. When Jesus was left his disciples, he said, I go and I'm gonna go and prepare a place for you. So he's been preparing a place for us for the last two thousand years. And it hasn't even entered into the heart of man, the things that are in heaven. I mean, I can't imagine. When I got baptized in the Holy Spirit, I just it was just such an incredible, incredible feeling. Um, I can't I can't even imagine what what heaven is going to be like. But there's only going to be two places. There's going to be really the saved and the unsaved, and God gives his free gift of salvation to anyone who wants it. It doesn't matter how bad you are, how good you are, it doesn't matter any mistakes you've made. It just doesn't matter. God knows about it. He wants you to come to him and ask for forgiveness. He wants to give you his free gift of salvation. You don't have to earn it, you don't have to work hard enough, you don't have to be good enough, you don't have to have a clean haircut. All you have to do is receive his free gift of salvation. And when you do that, you become one of his children. And you've, from that point on, you are destined to heaven. Now, for those people who have rejected Christ in their life, they're gonna, they're, they're, they're gonna face a whole different kind of judgment. Once you give your life to Christ and once you start following the Lord, he's got so many cool things for you to be able to do, and he's gonna lead you in some so many cool directions and so many things that he's created you to fulfill in order to bring glory to his name, but also just for you to enjoy and to be rewarded for. And I'm just telling you, man, on a scale of one to ten, it's a thousand, the life that he has for you. It is so wonderful. And he's created a place, and and heaven is gonna be our eternal home. I mean, this place, I mean, the earth right now, man, it's it's going downhill. Make no mistake. This this place is dying. There's nothing anybody's gonna do about it. But so anyway, when we get to heaven as a Christian, you know, we're gonna be judged, not, I mean, we're not gonna be, there's two judgments really. There is the judgment for the saved and the unsaved. And basically, for the Christian, it's gonna be, you know, we're gonna be rewarded for the things that we did and and probably not get some rewards for some of the things we didn't do. So there's gonna be that, but we're gonna be in heaven. And, you know, there's not gonna be any jealousy. Some people are gonna have done a lot for the kingdom, some people are gonna have not done so much for the kingdom, and some people are gonna be surprised that you didn't think they did anything awesome than they're gonna be, but there's not gonna be any jealousy that this person has a big, big place and or a big house, I guess, and this person has a little house. I don't know how that's all gonna work. But I remember listening to some lady and she was saying that she, the Lord showed her a taste of what heaven is like, and and she said there's no jealousy in heaven. People will just know that that person that has a bigger place or got more rewards that they earned them. They did it. They they did what you know the Lord called them to do, or or they followed through, or, or what have you. And and for the others, they're not. But she says there's no judgment because the people just look at it at that person or this person and say, Oh, they just they did what the Lord called them to do. So there's you know, it's just it's all cool. And so but for the unsaved, there's not gonna be it's a there there is no um for the for the people who have rejected Christ, there's there's just there's there's no in-between. There's hell. There's you got heaven and hell. There's no in-between. And once a person goes to hell, there's no going to heaven eventually. You're just in hell forever. Um there's a book that I read. It's uh 23 Minutes in Hell by Bill Weiss. And I I really encourage you to pick up a copy of that. And that kind of talks about what hell is gonna be like. And hell is a terrible place, but it wasn't created for people. It was created for Satan and his demons. That's where they're going. Um but in the meantime, before the very end comes, um if you die and you accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, you're gonna be going to heaven. If you did not receive the Lord Jesus, if you did not accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, or rejected Him, you're gonna go to hell. There's no other there's no other alternative. And I mean, there's people that reject Christ, and there's people that, well, I'm not sure, so I'm not gonna I'm not gonna make a decision one way or another. And I'm just telling you, not making a decision is making a decision. That you've you've place yourself on the way to going to hell. And God doesn't send anybody to hell. We all choose it. That the people that go there, they chose it. Now, I don't know how it works. I mean, there's a certain when it comes to kids and babies and young little toddlers and stuff like that, there's a grace there, there's there's different things that that come into play, and I'm not sure of all the details. But I know that God is fair and he loves us, and he's fair and he's just. But I say all that just to say that what I want to do is give you an opportunity to give your life to Christ. Because if you if you've listened to this podcast for this long a distance, and I've shared with you the gifts of the Spirit, and as other things I've shared with you in my life, I want to make sure that you end up in heaven. And I have a prayer of salvation. And like it's it's salvation is a free gift. And really, um there's four steps to it, really. And what I'll do is I'll just share with you the four steps. Number one is admit your spiritual need that I'm a sinner. All of sin and fall short of the glory of God. One sin, uh, and it's a sin that separates us from God. And so we are born into sin. We are born into rebellion. That's what our natural state is. Since Adam and Eve took a bite of the apple and didn't listen to God, listen to the serpent, listen to Satan that took a bite of the apple. Um, ever since then we've we've had this rebellious nature inside of us. We just have it, have it. Uh you can just tell it. I mean, you just see it. And little kids that aren't disciplined, you see how they act. We have this natural nature just to rebel. Um number two, repent, be willing to turn from your sin. Repent. Be willing to turn from your sin. As you as you um when you give your life to Christ, um re willing to turn away from your sin. Stop doing what you were doing. And as you start your walk with Christ, there's going to be times when you stumble. There's times when you're gonna when you when you go, when you do some things that you shouldn't be doing, and you know you shouldn't be doing, but maybe you do them anyway. Anytime that happens, you can go right to the Lord and you say, I'm sorry, Lord, I dropped the ball. Please help me to just continue. Give me the strength, Lord, to keep carrying on. Turn away from your sin. And number three, believe that Jesus Christ died for you on the cross. When he died for you on the cross, you know, he paid the price for all of our sins. Um I mean, when he was uh when he was crucified, when he was beat up by the the Roman garrison, I think it was I think it was he's he was beat by between 60 and 800 guards at that time, or 800 soldiers at the time. I mean, they're pulling his beard out, spitting at him, putting a crown of thorns on his head, beating him over the head with sticks, um, spitting, and and so he went through all that. Then he was crucified, nailed to the cross. And there's I I I read an article from the Journal of the American Medical Association that described in detail the steps of crucifixion and what Jesus went through. And it was incredibly, incredibly painful. I mean, I mean, it was probably the it was worse, it was the worst thing that you could probably experience. Uh just a little side note. I mean, when they crucified him, you know, the that says that um they nailed him to the cross through his hands, but uh Journal of the American Medical Solation said that it was possible that they nailed him through the carpal tunnels through the wrists. So every time that he uh moved, I mean, it was a spike driven through his his carpal tunnel, um, through his wrists. So anyway, believe that Jesus, okay, and then receive through prayer Jesus Christ into your heart and life. So anyway, here's the four steps. I'll just go over them again. Admit your spiritual need. I am a sinner. Repent and be willing to turn from your sin. Number three, believe that Jesus Christ died for you on the cross. And number four, receive through prayer Jesus Christ into your heart and life. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna lead you in prayer to be able to give your life to Christ. And and uh and I hope you pray with me. And just rewind this and listen to it again to to be able to get the whole thing. But uh yeah. So anyway, like I said, there's just there's just uh two ways. Once we die, we're either we're either uh followers of Christ, we're either saved or unsaved. And there's just no two other ways. And if if your church isn't talking about hell and doesn't mention things like the mark of the beast coming around the corner, or hell, um or you maybe your church coggles some sin that's happening that God tells you not to do, but but your church is saying, oh no, that's okay. You know, that that's if if your church is doing those things, it might be time for you to find another church or find something online. But uh anyway, I'm not gonna go too far there. I'm gonna I gotta end this podcast. But anyway, here's what to pray. Here's what we're gonna pray. So I'll just lead you to prayer.

unknown:

That's it.

SPEAKER_00:

So here we go. Dear Lord Jesus. I know that I am in a sinner. Uh that I know that I am a sinner and need your forgiveness. I believe that you died for my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I now invite you to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow you as Lord and Savior. In Jesus' name, amen. Now, if you pray that prayer, as simple as it was, if you pray that prayer, I want to know that the Bible says that you are a new creation, that you are brand new. At this point, after praying that prayer, the Bible says your slate is wiped clean. Nothing. The Bible says that God takes all your sin and throws it into the sea of forgetfulness. Now I don't know what that means, but it means that he doesn't remember it anymore. I don't know how he does it, but he's God and he tells the truth, and he says, I forget your I remember your sin no more. That means he remembers our sin no more. So that means, man, you're sin free. If you prayed that prayer with me now, you are sin free. You are a new creature, a new creation. He will replace or has replaced your heart of stone with a heart of flesh. And what that means, I mean, when I say heart of stone, you see people out there that can be some of the most vicious, hurtful, cruel people. And once they give their life to, and if they give life to Christ, God will give them a heart of flesh and turn their life 180 degrees around and give them compassion for people and love. And God creates, He communicates to us through our heart. He softens our heart. As we read his word, as we study, as we spend time praying. And when I say pray, I mean you don't have to get any kind of position. You can just talk to him like I'm talking to you. You can talk to him like he's your best friend. I mean, there is a holiness there, there's a respect there, but there's not this necessarily this fear. I mean, there's a there's a reverence that you when you talk to God, but but just talk to him like you would your best friend because as you draw closer to him, he draws closer to you. There is this love that's just gonna start, he's gonna just start, just start softening you and growing you and maturing you and loving you, even through all your mistakes. There's times that you're gonna make a mistake, there's times that you're gonna drop the ball, don't worry about it. Just say, Lord, I dropped the ball, I'm so sorry. Because he already knows you dropped the ball. So, and and and don't not tell him because he doesn't want that to get in the way between his relate your relationship with him. He doesn't want the things that your mistakes just say, Lord, I'm sorry, I dropped the ball, I made this mistake, please forgive me. And and it's it's instantaneous. I mean, it again, into the sea of forgetfulness, he is remembered because he doesn't want the sins, the little mistakes that we make. He doesn't want those little things to start becoming a wall between you and him, thinking you can't, you can't uh approach him because of these mistakes he made. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Just say, Lord, I'm sorry, please forgive me. Boom. You don't have to list them each and every one. He knows them, you know them. Just say, Lord, I'm so sorry. Boom. All of a sudden that relationship is there. Draw close to him, spend time with him in your car, just praying, speaking in tongues. I don't even think I talked about that. The tongues uh of the night gives the spirit. But I'll have to talk to him another time. Tongues interpretation, tongues. I did not talk about that. But anyway, tongues like a prayer language and speaking in tongues, and that's uh that's another thing here, but but just spend time with God, and I'm telling you, your life is going to become so rich. You'll start doing a walking on water thing over all your problems. The Lord will lift you up above all your problems. He'll start giving you hope where there is no hope, just like we found land to build a house. He'll give you hope. He'll make ways where there where there isn't a way, he'll make opportunities for you, he'll protect you, he'll watch over you, he'll take care of you, he'll just love you. He'll just there's so many things that he wants to do for you. And it just doesn't end. It just doesn't end. He he just loves you so much. There's no end to it. So anyway, I just um I love you guys. I'm glad you're here. Thanks for being here. And I just pray, Lord, I just pray for my listeners. I just pray, Father God, that you bring to remembrance everything that I've I've um shared with them, Lord, and and give them insight as they read their word, Lord, and as they start their walk with you, Lord, that you just continue to to bring them deeper, Father God, and to to give them hope and to just just give just just make their life super rich, Father God. Thank you, Lord, for all that you're gonna do in our life. Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name. I pray. Amen. So anyway, I better stop this podcast. Um, but I'm glad you're here. Thank you for being here. I'll come up with another podcast here in the future. It won't be this long. But I just felt that there was a lot of things I needed to touch on. And so, anyway, um, if you can financially support this podcast, that'd be great. Um, but you don't have to. But anyway, I love you and take care, and we'll podcast together later. All right, bye-bye.