Avodah Talk w/ Matt Walton
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Avodah Talk w/ Matt Walton
Paul Marc Goulet: Salt, Light, and the Spirit: Transforming Every Kingdom
What if God has given you authority over far more than just seven cultural mountains? Paul Marc Goulet, former pastor of International Church of Las Vegas, reveals a paradigm-shifting perspective on kingdom influence that will forever transform how you see your purpose.
After nearly three decades leading one of Las Vegas's most influential churches, Paul discovered that true impact happens when believers move beyond gathering within church walls to actively transforming every sphere of society. "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our God," he shares, challenging us to see our workplaces, neighborhoods, and relationships as divine assignments.
Paul's remarkable journey from suicidal hockey player to kingdom builder illustrates the power of a transformed identity. With disarming honesty, he reveals how God healed deep childhood wounds and repurposed his therapist training to help others find emotional wholeness. His practical insights on hearing God's voice, distinguishing divine thoughts from mental noise, and healing unconscious lies offer a roadmap for anyone seeking deeper spiritual connection.
The conversation takes an unexpected turn when Paul opens up about surviving two strokes, experiencing divorce despite his leadership position, and receiving a divine call to Madagascar where he's now training 100,000 leaders annually. His audacious vision to provide 55,000 pairs of cleats to young rugby players—each branded with Jesus' name—demonstrates how practical needs open doors for spiritual transformation.
Whether you're building a business, raising a family, or seeking your purpose, this episode will equip you to see your everyday work as a kingdom assignment. Paul's wisdom on leadership as influence rather than control, on hearing God's voice in practical ways, and on maintaining spiritual disciplines will empower you to bring heaven's culture into every relationship and responsibility in your life.
What's up guys? This is Matt with A Vota Talk, or the Real Matt Walton. This is your hub for all things Kingdom, business, businesses, ministry, business strategy. My goal is to provide as much value, minute by minute, each podcast that you listen to. So let's get to it. Welcome back everybody. This is Matt with A Vota Talk, or At the Real Matt Walton, depending on how you found me, and today I've got a really special guest. I'm very, very excited about it. But first I got to give y'all an update.
Speaker 1:So there's been a lot going on with just personal life and I really want to encourage everybody with with disciplines and working on your health. I have been waking up early still and consistently still working on my eating and dialing that in and really working on disciplines of like pushing through hard things, so setting goals, and specifically with running I hate running, but now I'm starting to really enjoy it and so pushing through those barriers. When you get to two, three, four, five minutes or half a mile and you don't feel like it, you're out of breath and you're trying to get control of your breath and then you're able to push those barriers. So that same thing happens within business or within life we get to these barrier points and it causes a lot of people to fall out. And so when we push through those, that's where the breakthrough happens. And so I've seen that starting to happen within my health and my disciplines with exercise drop significant weight and now trying to put back on some weight, um, when it comes to muscle and uh, it's really cool to watch um, no results happen.
Speaker 1:And push through those, no results happen. And then all of a sudden, three, four weeks later, you start to see some results happen and you're like, okay, this is, this is worth it. So, um, continue going. I know there's a lot of you that listen to this that are on that same journey. So, continue going, push through those moments to where you're not seeing results, the motivation goes, like that spirit that you started these new disciplines is gone and you no longer feel like it. Well, continue to go, because I promise you it's through that action that you will find that motivation again and it's through that discipline that you will then find yourself being motivated to continue going to your next level. Always be going to your next level. We see Jesus doing this with his disciples, like continuously taking them to the next level of things, and so that transfers to every area of business.
Speaker 2:Anyways.
Speaker 1:I want to get into and introduce you guys to Paul Mark Goulet. The first story at first we didn't really meet during this time, but there's a Bible study here in Las Vegas that's called KWM and Kingdom Wealth Managers and if you're in Vegas it's every Friday at 930. And it is just a special one. It's full of entrepreneurs and kingdom business people and Paul was speaking at one of those Fridays and I just felt the Holy Spirit all in that room but all over him. I had a guest on here a few months ago, mark and Mark McClune. That the same thing. I really felt the Holy Spirit all over him. Then we struck up a connection and have been buddies ever since and kind of the same thing.
Speaker 1:Mark actually made the connection to Paul and I and we went to coffee a couple of weeks ago and then now here he is. So he is a author, he pastored ICOV for about 29 years. A number of things I mean. I'm going to get to know him more with you guys today, but grandfather philanthropist, I mean, is just doing incredible kingdom work. We'll get into the story of Madagascar and what God's doing with him in Madagascar. He's a pioneer and a leader within the leadership space, and we're going to get into all that today. So, paul, thank you so much for coming on. It's an honor to be here.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I want to start with first with your books. You don't have to spend too much time on that, but I know you've authored, I think, three of them, and there was one quote that I want to share with everybody out there and then just get an explanation and share what you feel like the Lord's leading you to share on that. But the quote was there aren't just seven mountains that God has given you dominion over, but hundreds of kingdoms, great and small, that need heaven, that need the anointing, that needs you.
Speaker 2:That's actually a new book coming out called, called Cracking the Code. Okay, because I believe that for many, many, many, many years that I was guilty of it too is basically, we wanted to get people in the church and everything was growing your church doubling it and so I got here 30 something years ago, and so I took I wasn't a pastor, but I took over a church. I felt it was either penance Maybe I'd be here for a couple of years. I was a therapist and I was a good therapist and I had a large counseling center in Sacramento. I had an encounter in the Philippines where I said God, I'll do anything. Well, bam, and I don't hear voices or see angels, but I get thoughts, and the thought was you're going to pastor a church in Las Vegas. I thought get thee behind me, satan, I'm not going to pastor. First of all, I'm an old hockey player, I'm not a. You know, for me, my pastor was, like always, perfect blue blood, and always I was a bad person, sometimes in my past and I had some challenges in my life. So I thought, nah, so as a therapist, I could help people. So long, long, long. Story short, I had the ability. I had the ability to help people, which was good. So I did support groups and I had 17 therapists working for me and it was a wonderful life. I was doing great until God called me to Vegas to pastor and I had no idea what I was doing.
Speaker 2:So, and at the beginning, all you want to do is grow the church, and that's good. It's not a bad thing. I love church. I go to my son's church. He goes to the pastor of the mountain church in Summerlin, so I attend his church at nine o'clock when I'm in town and I love it. So I realized through the years that the best thing I could do is turn people into world changers. Jesus said I'll give you the keys to the kingdom. And then in Revelations 11, 15, it says that the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of my God. Ultimately, when I get to heaven, I should go here's a kingdom I impacted for you, lord. Here's another kingdom. This is entertainment. This is entertainment. This is pools like you're an amazing company. This is counseling, this is athletics. So I got this idea.
Speaker 2:And my friends I had some really great friends from Bethel they're all my buddies and Lance Wallenau, he's my friend and they talked about the seven mountains. I said, well, that's seven mountains, that makes sense. And because it's refocusing your interest, not just in terms of accumulating people in a church, but empowering them to go change the mountains. But then I realized, as I studied the word, it wasn't mountains, it was kingdoms. Everywhere you look, throughout the Bible, it's kingdoms. And the New Testament is all about Jesus would tell his disciples. Tell them, the kingdom is near. Why? Because I'm called to be salt and light, matt. If I'm salt and light and I can train my people to be salt and light, I can change schools, I can change hospitals, I can change the legal system, I can change the government, I can change sports. So I really shifted.
Speaker 2:I wrote a book called the Keys of the Kingdom which was based on this principle that they're not just mountains, there's kingdoms. So that way you're not talking about seven major influences, you're talking about the local PTA club, the local teachers union or student union, the local soccer academy, the local football teams. You're literally saying there's thousands of them. So if every Christian goes, oh, I'm not talking about becoming the next president, I'm talking about changing my neighborhood, I'm talking about changing my company, like you're doing with this company.
Speaker 2:Matt walked me through it and this place is insane. He's way ahead of the curve and I'm sitting there all fired up and he's got Donovan, who I've known for 20 years, who was a battalion commander, battalion chief in the fire department. I've known him when he was battalion chief and I watched him rise and he's just, and then he retires and he comes and works with you and I'm thinking you got a great team Leslie's here and then your dad's here, your mom's here and your, your wife. I'm thinking you're really building this company right, but when you build your company, you're, you're bringing salt and light into society. That's my issue. My issue is I'm not against bringing people and growing my church. I did that for 29 years and there was thousands that came and thousands watched online. It was good, none of it was bad. But the last 10 years I shifted my focus to all. Right now, how are you going to go change your world? Go, take one of the kingdoms, go influence it at the beginning and maybe you can take it.
Speaker 1:Make sense, absolutely, absolutely. So when you talk about your hearing from the Lord some of these things, you have these thoughts. I think a lot of people have a hard time knowing if that's the Lord or knowing if that's their thoughts. Right, how did that happen with you? Was there a time in your life, whenever you or maybe even still to this day where you're like, okay, lord, is that you? And how do you decipher if that's the Lord or not?
Speaker 2:Well, I've had a lot, Matt. I've had in psychology and then a doctorate. I haven't finished my thesis so I don't really have it yet, but I finished all my courses. But my mentor, dr Dobbins, taught me that every single day there's a couple of influences in my brain and you've got Satan that speaks to my mind every single day, to my mind, to my brain every single day. Thoughts that are destructive, demonic, stupid, whatever. But every single day, thoughts that are destructive, demonic, stupid, whatever. But every single day God speaks to my mind. Thoughts that are creative and divine. And then society speaks to me and mentors speak to me, and people speak to me, media speaks to me, but ultimately there's this unconscious dynamic right now in heaven. That's why the Bible says take every thought captive.
Speaker 2:So, matt, to be real, practical and to help your friends, every morning I spend an hour to two hours, usually about 45 minutes to an hour, just studying the Bible. I have a notepad next to me and I take notes to every thought that comes up. Sometimes it's notes about what I'm reading, sometimes it's just stuff that comes up, random thoughts, and then I'll go usually for, like, I try to walk 10,000 steps a day, so minimum, and so I'm big into health and so I start my prayer walk. So I'm walking in my neighborhood and I'm praying and I'm taking care of my body, my soul, my spirit. I'm trying to, I'm trying to be a whole man. It's a work in progress. So then by the end of that two-hour timeframe I've got lists, I've got little boxes. So when I achieve it and then I put priorities like today, that's number one, this, like today's Thursdays Today's a Thursday, project Thursday. Thursday Thursday oh, that's a Friday. Oh, that's by Monday, that's more long-term. So every day I'll make my list and I'll sort through priorities every single day. Some thoughts are just random, some are from spaghetti from the night before or pizza the night before, but some are God.
Speaker 2:Thoughts Like text Bill. So I'll text Bill Bill, how you doing I. Thoughts Like text Bill. So I'll text Bill Bill, how are you doing? I can't believe you're texting me. I go what is it? Who told you? I said no one told me. I was in prayer and your name came to mind. So I wanted to make sure you're okay. No, I'm not okay. I just lost my dad. So I just that happened.
Speaker 2:This past week I sent something to a friend which came to my mind. I sent it and he just lost his father and he was messed up. So I'm sitting there in my prayer time just crying for him, and it was a beautiful time. But that brings us closer together. See, that's salt and light.
Speaker 2:But the way God moves is not by angels in a room, although they're there and they are working. It's not by writing on the wall, although that can happen too. It's literally by God speaking to our brain to inspire thoughts that are creative and divine. So, if I can focus more on those thoughts, it's like even our brains are Wi-Fi. None of our lines are connected here, it's all. There's little gaps between our neurons and there's little synapses at the end of every neurological wire and it sends electrochemical messages to. That's why your health is so important. That's a whole other issue. But every single day, so just like my neurons are not connected, I've got to connect with God and try to tap into those thoughts, and I only can do that by writing it down and then checking it off, prioritizing it, and sometimes I'll just sit on something Like one thing I sat on for a whole year.
Speaker 2:It came to my mind. I thought that's the dumbest idea in the world and a year later it was revelation. But then there was a process and I've got people that I trust, matt. So the beginning is that Every morning I do that. But then there's a process where I have I've been in therapy for a long, long time and I have a counselor and I believe in that. I have my pastor, I have I'm surrounded by eagles, by world changers around me. So just the other day I contacted the. I had this crazy thought and I contacted the new ambassador of Israel. He's a friend of mine and I just asked him a question. He said what? Yeah, you find your eagles and they're in for the rest of my life. So most of my eagles have been there 20, 30 years, most of them.
Speaker 1:You talk about mentors and getting around those eagles. Do you approach them? So if somebody comes into your life, do you ever approach them and say hey, would you mentor me? Has that ever happened to you? Or how do you? Or do you just reach back out to them and say hey, you know I have this question or here's some encouragement.
Speaker 2:Well, because I was trained as a therapist, I don't ask that question. I'll tell you why because it's a loaded question. Okay, so when someone says I want you to mentor me, that usually means I want you to be my daddy, I want you to be my coach, I want you to be my conscience, I want you to be something. And I tell him I said no, I don't mentor anybody. Now I said but I will be your friend. If you can accept that I'm your new friend, here's my phone number, I'll be your friend. So that's what I tell everybody, literally everybody. Also, I don't ask anybody to mentor me. I literally like with John Maxwell. Who not going to mentor you? So I don't ask that question of anybody. What I do, though, is I start I picked up all his books.
Speaker 2:I've probably read every John. Well, until in the last five, 10 years, I've probably read 15, 20 of his books. I would go to his seminars, so I'd go there and buy his stuff, and at the end of every seminar, I'd go walk up to him, shake his hand. John, I really appreciate that You're one of my mentors, but for me it doesn't mean what everybody else means. For me, it just means I'm reading his books, I'm listening to his podcasts, I'm listening to whatever he has at the time. Does that make sense? Absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I tell people don't ask people to be your mentor, because it's not healthy, it's not, it's a loaded question. They'll probably disappoint you or you'll probably disappoint them. Just make them your mentors. Like, my mentors are John Maxwell, dr Dobbins I've got a couple of people that are at that level who I consider my mentors and Tommy Barnett. Tommy Barnett from Phoenix First, oh my goodness, what a stinking legend that guy is. He's been a mentor to me, but I'll never take his time. He's busy. I don't need a new dad, I already had a dad Love it Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Well, I think one of the things that you go back just a little bit, we talk about the lies. There's a prayer that God had put on my heart was silence, the lies in my own head. Yeah, cause there's so many thoughts that come into our mind that are just lies from the enemy. Silence, the lies from the enemy, yeah and uh, you know, just give me I'd heard, I'd heard a portion of this somewhere. I think it was through Jamie Winship that I had heard this.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you know who Jamie Winship is, but he's awesome and it dramatically started to change how I was able to filter through those thoughts coming in, because you know, we hear things that are lies from the outside that we can then start to believe about ourselves and believe about a scenario and then that can start to shape our identity. So I want to get into, like, that identity. I think a lot of people struggle and maybe we think we have our identity tied up in Christ, but then we find out through whatever that oh man, it was in a job, it was in my business, it was in something else or an accolade that we have. How do you work through that and how do you start to root yourself in Christ so that your identity can be in Christ and Christ alone?
Speaker 2:What a great question. There's a great scripture says we see through a glass dimly. My mentor Dobbins told me this. He says you don't live with the facts of your life, you live with the interpretation of the facts of your life. David said create in me a clean heart, o Lord, and renew a steadfast spirit in me. Paul said in Romans be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So the real, I call it the vat in. You can call it the mind if you want, but I call it the vat, you can call it the heart if you want.
Speaker 2:Whatever biblical framework you want to use, it's there and what it is. It's all my memories and all my education and all my bad experiences, all my trauma, all my good. It's all there in my unconscious. Right now we're all conscious in this room. If I was sleeping I'd be unconscious. If someone knocked me out I'd be unconscious.
Speaker 2:Some people are semi-conscious, but conceptually in your unconscious. Your first three years, they say your self-concept is largely formed. But that's all unconscious. When you're zero to three, how do you file experiences? Dad is God and mom is a goddess or whatever In your brain we believe in the tooth fairy, we believe in the Easter bunny, we believed in all those crazy Santa Claus why? Because as children, your brain doesn't have the maturity to process things. It just files things and sometimes it files things wrong. So in other words, like I remember one person I counseled her, dad left when she was six. So by three, they say your self-concept is largely formed. It can be changed and it can be added to, but largely that's your foundation. Like the foundation of these pools are important. I watch what you did out there Foundationally super smart, really, really smart. I don't think anybody will ever have a problem with their pools that are built here. Wow. But conceptually, from zero to three, our concept is being formed by mom, dad, school experiences, nanny experiences, daycare experiences, all that's under right, but it's all unconscious and it's not filed well. So that means that a little kid doesn't go. I'm really upset right now. Dad left my home, or I saw mom and dad yelling, screaming, or my mom screamed at me and got impatient with me. We don't have those tools when we were young. What do we do? We just follow the experiences. And then, by five, they say your God concept is largely formed, which means how you see God. So you're talking about how do you change your identity it's back to Romans 12, be transformed by renewing of your mind.
Speaker 2:So what I encourage people to do is create a clean heart. So I spend time cleaning up my brain, my mind, my heart. I'm getting rid of stuff, lord, I forgive so-and-so. I forgive so-and-so. I'm reinterpreting such and such. It's like I've got a cross right here. Right, this was a torture device, but we, as Christians, we're a cross. Now, this one has special meaning to me because it was my mom's cross. She's in heaven now. But every once in a while I just reached down and grabbed my mom's cross. I thought, okay, I feel the love of my mom with me. So what I'm talking about is that, basically, as adults, now that we're adults, we have to reinterpret our past. This was bad, now it's good. I was paid a lot of money to help people do this, because we just have to start getting our hearts clean, forgiving, keeping you clean, asking God to forgive us for our shortcomings, forgiving others, reinterpreting our past and consciously doing it as a work assignment every morning. Okay, yeah, my dad left when I was six.
Speaker 2:Like this one lady, her dad left when she was six. She always had poor self-esteem, always, always. So finally, her husband, who was a deacon at the church, said can you please help my wife? I said, well, I'll go to the counseling center. I met with her so I knew there was something in her, that her mind, her history, that was polluted, that made her feel like garbage. So we wanted to find it. Help us, holy Spirit, find that stinky thing in there that causes her to feel bad about who she is, her self-esteem. Esteem is how you value yourself. Self-concept is how you see yourself. So finally, in counseling came that her dad left when she was six.
Speaker 2:I said, well, how do you interpret that? Not, how do you feel about it. How do you interpret that? Well, I must've done something wrong. I could have done something better. I said, in other words, you blame yourself for your father leaving your mother. It doesn't make sense, does it? But that's childish thinking, it's not adult thinking. So let's take this out of your mind. And is there another way to interpret that? I don't think so. Well, I'm a mentally healthy person, more or less. I said can I throw out a couple options? She goes yeah, I said could it be that your dad left because your parents didn't get along?
Speaker 2:Let me ask you a question Did your parents you remember your parents arguing, oh yeah, all the time, screaming All the time. I said, well, maybe he left because of this and not because you did anything wrong and you weren't a good girl. I said who do you think's right Me or you? Did he leave because you weren't a good girl? Or did he leave because your parents didn't get along? I think he left because my parents didn't get along. Okay, good, that's an interpretation. You change your interpretation. You believe I'm right and you're right now? Yes, all right, how do you feel? I'm angry that he left, that he didn't consider how to affect me? Done, now, you've got a healthy interpretation. Does that make sense? Absolutely?
Speaker 2:And once she did that, then what can she? Instead of feeling lousy that she doesn't measure up, what does she do? I feel I feel mad at my dad that he didn't think about how it would affect me and didn't follow up, but he wasn't involved in her life, thinking all right now, okay, what can we do about that? Well, I can write him a letter that he'll never get because he's gone. I can forgive him biblically. Yes, we can do that. Let's talk about how to do that. She was empowered. She was completely healed. It started with one bad cancerous cell in her brain, in her mind, and that got reinterpreted and that's how she changed. Did her self-esteem change? Yeah, we had to take out the landmines. So what I've done through the years, whether I'm training leadership or training people, I said, if you can get healthy and have a better way of interpreting life, you'll become a more successful person.
Speaker 1:It makes me think about, when I go out and evangelize, some of the questions that well, how things have changed with evangelizing, because there's a lot of therapy that happens out there. There should be. So it used to be with me. I would go out there and just kind of slap them across the face with the Bible and then I learned, okay, that's not a good approach at all.
Speaker 1:So I started asking questions and really getting through to the lies that we believe about ourselves, like, what are the lies that you believe, what are the lies that somebody else has told you? And then, once we kind of get those, you don't have to answer me. This is what I tell them. You don't have to answer me, but work through this and then ask God, the father, what he thinks about you. And there's so many people I'm a terrible father, I am this, that and the other, and it's like well, I guarantee it.
Speaker 1:Whenever you allow yourself to become aware of the lies and then you ask God what he says about you, he's then going to invite you to understand how to be a good father. And so it's actually sparked a lot of really good conversations and moments to where I'm able to get through to them, not slap them across the face with the Bible, but then allow them to do an exercise outside of that conversation, to work through the lies, to replace it with truth, like John 8, 31 and 32 says. You know, I am the way, the truth and the life, and so if we can expose the lies, become aware of the lies and replace that with truth and scriptural truth, what God says about us, then that's how we get to the root of things and we can start to have our identity be rooted in Christ and Christ alone.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent, coming back to self-esteem, coming back to who we are, because it doesn't matter if you're a billionaire I've got a friend who's a billionaire it matters that on the inside you're clean and you're healthy and you're thinking right. So, yeah, we start cleaning out our vats. Right, we start cleaning it out, forgiveness, reinterpreting. But then what you're saying is 100% true it's we start filling it with truth. When I was a young man, I accepted Christ at 20. I had these little three by five cards and I'd write verses on it and I would memorize. Because I didn't have a car back then, I had a bus. So I'd go to university in a bus and I'd go to hockey games in a bus and practices whatever. And so I'd memorize I can do all things through Christ. Who gives me strength? If God before me, who can be against me? So not only do we clean out our minds, our vats right, our hearts, we fill it with truth.
Speaker 2:That's why when you say evangelize, basically it's good news, it's we're telling people the good news. When we read the Bible, it's all good news. So we replace the bad news about who we are with the good news about who we are. But if we don't get rid of the bad, literally we'll reject the truth. So that's why it's important to clean it out while we're filling up. So that's you're. You're spot on. Probably why you had more success in evangelism because you're bringing the good news and the good news is all right. So they believe that about themselves, they believe that about God, they believe that about their future. What happens when, all of a sudden, you give them truth? You're spot on. I love that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that, that is I think it. I think then you start to allow them the alleyway to figure out who God really is. I watched a video that you did where it's like yeah, god's not some angry God up there waiting to smite you.
Speaker 2:You know, it's not just like yep, paul messed up.
Speaker 1:you know, and I mean we see so much grace and mercy all throughout scripture and him. Continue to partner with people that continue to mess up. Reasons why I love the story of Abram, or Abraham, because he was you read like the stories that came before him. What Abraham did differently was he built an altar to the Lord, and I feel like that's part of our sanctification, at least for me and my sanctification process, to where you realize, man, I have an altar that I can go sacrifice myself, my flesh, my past, whatever, on that altar. All right, I want to get into. You talked about receiving Christ at 20. Ever on that altar, all right.
Speaker 1:I want to, I want to get into. You talked about receiving Christ at 20 and just briefly, there's. There's so many young God's doing so much with young people right now and I see a move happening with young people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Baylor, they had that big. They're talking about a revival of Baylor right now.
Speaker 1:I love that, I mean, and it's, it's incredible. It's incredible. There's so many young people that are giving their life to the Lord and you see people like Charlie Kirk going to these campuses. I love Charlie. Tons of kids around Hungry, hungry. Cliff Kinectly I don't know how to say his last name, but he and his son go speak to that. Speak to the 20-year-old Paul. I guess what happened in that moment? Hey, why give your life to God?
Speaker 2:Well, that's a great question. Like you said, I wrote a lot of books and I think it's 15 now because I've written books and workbooks. So, if you want to get resources because I'm not into sales, paul Mark Goulet on what's it called Spotify. So Paul Mark Goulet on Spotify and I've got resources to help you grow. Everything that people buy goes to Madagascar, which we'll talk about later on. I don't keep it, it just goes right to help. They sell little girls and boys for $5 in Madagascar. So for eight years I've been working on helping the nation, which is. We'll talk about that. But I really believe that we're at a point right now that young people are tired of the garbage and they're looking for something real where it could be a Russell Brand. Of course, he's not young young but I think there's something that's happening right now that's drawing people to the truth.
Speaker 2:So at 20 years old, I accepted Christ. I was playing hockey for the University of Ottawa. I played semi-pro in Europe when I was 15. I had lots of success. I had girlfriends. I had success. My dad was the president of a large company. A corporation At some point is what's going to fulfill your needs.
Speaker 2:I didn't come from a down and out family. I came from an up and out family and at 20, I was so disillusioned because I had a lot of success young, and I had talents and I had all those things, but I was empty. And so then I started sedating myself with abusive alcohol, abusive drugs mostly marijuana, thc. I never got into the heavy heavy stuff, but I became really disillusioned with life. And then one night after a hockey practice, a group called Athletes in Action came to our dressing room and shared the gospel. I'd never heard the gospel.
Speaker 2:I grew up going to church twice a year, like a lot of people do. Like this Sunday is Easter, so go to church. I'd go to church twice a year and, um, I didn't have a relationship with God. I really didn't. But that night they shared about Jesus knocking on the door of your life. Behold, revelations 3.20,. Behold, I stand at the door of your life. I knock. They talk about John 10.10,. The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, but I've come to give you life. So here I am, 20, and I was actually contemplating suicide.
Speaker 2:In my dorm room. I had a picture of my Godson and that kept me alive. He ended up joining the military. He was a ranger, did five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, super war hero. But when I was young I'd look at his little picture and I said I can't kill myself because of him. I'm his Godfather, I can't do that.
Speaker 2:That night they came with the gospel. Jesus is knocking on the door of my life. He wants to give me the abundant life I'd never heard about a personal relationship with Christ. I'd heard about religion. Religion turned me off. Church turned me off Abundant life. That turned me on. And so I looked for them after on campus. I couldn't find them and it's a big campus, university of Ottawa. I loved it, I loved my experience there.
Speaker 2:I couldn't find them, but the day before Christmas I think it was actually the 23rd of December, going into the 24th I was at my brother's house for Christmas and my brother is 11 years older than me. He is a rock star in my mind, kind of like a surrogate dad. My dad was First Special Forces. I wear his ring to honor him. But he's First Special Forces Killed a lot of people in the Second World War. If you've ever seen the movie the Inglourious Blank, that was based on my dad's unit, the devil's brigade, and so my dad was part of that and so obviously he was damaged. But back then we didn't talk about PTSD. So my dad was successful but not emotionally healthy. So I hadn't talked to my dad for about a year because I was mad at him for whatever.
Speaker 2:So my my dad gets there the 23rd and I thought I'm going to talk to my dad. So he came in and he would just shut down, wouldn't talk to me for a long time. So when he came in he didn't say hi to me. I was so mad. I went in my room, started packing my bags and my brother my brother says Paul, what are you doing? And I said I'm getting out of here. He said why? I said because I hate dad, I can't be in the same house. And he said Paul, what's going on? So 11 year olds, older than me, and I just share my heart. And I was hard. I didn't cry, I was hard, hard. And he says you know what you need? I said no, mickey, what do I need? He says you need to receive Jesus Christ as your savior and Lord.
Speaker 2:The same thing I had heard a week and a half prior and I said I'm never going to receive Christ. We tried religion. It doesn't help. He didn't argue with me. He got down on his knees, started praying like this I'd start crying.
Speaker 2:I fell to my knees. I mean it was weird, because a minute ago I was hard as rock. The minute he fell to his knees something hit me and I was on my knees crying. And so that night I I remember he gave me a book on prayers. Here I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, Because I'd go to bed every night drunk or stoned. And so that night I had nothing. And so he gave me a book, a prayer book, and I prayed little baby prayers. Christ came into my life.
Speaker 2:The next morning I woke up early and I said God, okay, you want my life. I said I want two things Heal my relationship with my father, because that was broken. Going back to my VAT right, Our relationship with our dads is really important. Heal my relationship with my father and give me a love for life. Because I was suicidal. I really was. I was depressed, very depressed. So the next morning I wake up and everybody's asleep. I wasn't stoned or hung over. It was weird, it's kind of a weird experience. And I walk into the kitchen nobody's there, All the lights are off. I look in the living room there's one little light.
Speaker 2:My father's sitting there and he goes come on, come here, paul, we need to talk. I'd never forgot I. I looked at him and I said you're real. And from then on I never turned back. I got off of drugs, I stopped chasing women, I stopped fighting. I was a big fighter in hockey. I stopped fighting and I became peaceful. I found Christ. I mean, of course, the journey was long. I needed a lot of healing and I learned how to be healed in my relationship with my father and I ended up leading him to Christ. It's just the story is too long for this show, but yeah, it was a real deal.
Speaker 2:So what are young people needing right now? We come from jacked up families. 50 to 80% of kids are being raised without a dad right now. Homes are broken. Why are they? And they sex, the drugs, the power, the lying it gets. What is it? The philosopher Pascal said in every person's heart there's a God-shaped vacuum that only God can fill. Well, that's what I discovered. I tried all these things and the only thing that really worked was Christ. Christ in me, the hope of glory. So I did receive Christ and then later I was filled with the Holy Spirit and I read my Bible.
Speaker 2:I moved in with people from Campus Crusade for Christ, literally because my roommate was a drug pusher, it was, so I didn't get out of the dorms. I got in with staff members from Campus Crusade for Christ Bill Bright's in heaven now I honor him Changed my life. I would wake up every day and I had real, real strong Christians with me. I went to a Bible study Friday night. Instead of getting stoned, I go to a Bible study. It took me about a year to find a church because I didn't even know what church you go to, what religion you go to, what denomination you go to. I had no idea, but I would go to any Bible study there was.
Speaker 2:And then I had one of the people from Campus Crusade just disciple me, sit with me every day, work through a little book and help me understand who I was and talk to me about sin, and that made me mad. I'm supposed to be feeling good, yeah, but you let God take care of the shit in your life. It was awesome stuff. I mean there's a lot of setbacks, but I never turned back, never turned back. So I think that's why a long answer to a short question, that's why 20 year olds right now are turning to Christ. I think they're just so sick of the world that they need Christ, and he is. Christ is real and his spirit is real.
Speaker 1:Amen, yeah. So he said something I never turned back and there's a lot of setbacks, but I never turned back.
Speaker 2:I love that. Never turned back. I love that.
Speaker 1:So then I want to kind of pivot into your pastoring days, yeah, and I want to talk about just that growth that happened. I guess that time how long, you know, just briefly, was that time you know, receive Christ, you received that calling over your life. You know for God to say, you know you're going to be pastoring. And then really I want to get into some other things, like what, the growth of ICOV man, because I know you had, I believe I know that you had like a hundred. There was 150 people that were um working alongside you there. I know you had a lot of people that have been um instrumental in my life. That came right alongside you underneath you, learned underneath you, however you want to describe that Maybe you learned a lot from them, jeez. So, and then the impact that God allowed for you to have on a national standard or national scale. So just ICOV, that growth leadership within there. Chat about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, as you know, I wasn't trained to be a pastor, so when I took over a small church of 200.
Speaker 1:No seminary.
Speaker 2:Well, I went to seminary but I studied psychology, okay. So I went to University of Ottawa, then Ashland Seminary, ashland University in Ohio, but I wasn't trained to be a pastor because I didn't see myself as that good. I saw myself as I was a broken person that God redeemed. So I feel very comfortable with hurt people because I was a hurt person. So, long story short, in 92, we took over the church. There were 200 people there and it was just I'd known the pastor because I was his counselor, his friend, his support, you might call it. So I knew the church and it was a very broken church. He was a great pastor. I was not a good pastor, I'm a good leadership trainer and he was a great pastor. So he'd go to the bar at 2 AM and pick somebody up from a bar and I mean he was a shepherd, he would go and get that one Didn't matter where he was. He's a great man. His name is Robert Douglas, great, great man. He led it for five years and I took over after five years and led it for 29 years.
Speaker 2:But I basically had to go. I didn't know what to do. I said, listen, I'm not okay, you're not okay, but god loves us and the church grew. So my messages were simple god can heal you, and there wasn't all that much to my messages, but god loves you and so I help people get healthy. I thought if I have a healthy church, the church grow, which it did. Then I discovered that if I invite the Holy Spirit into the church, our church, god would do amazing things. And so long journey for 29 years, and I'll tell you that in five minutes. My thing was Ephesians 4.11 from the very beginning, if I equip people, equip the saints for the work of the ministry.
Speaker 2:When I was a therapist I found out that hiring therapists and training therapists was better than me doing all the therapy. So my first counseling center started with one. At the end I had 17. So that's my last counseling center. I started with one, at the end I had 17. In Sacramento. It was monstrous, probably one of the largest Christian counseling centers in America at the time. It was awesome. We had 400 and something in our support groups. It was amazing, successful.
Speaker 2:So I understood the idea of multiplication. Like Huckleberry Finn, I can paint the fence or I can find people to paint the fence. So this is good for business. You can do everything and that's a dish and that's you could have a pretty decent life. But if you start adding people, you make more money and you have more freedom. If you learn to multiply yourself through them, now you've gone from addition to multiplication and then it's exponential.
Speaker 2:So at the church, that's honestly get healthy, train leaders to be healthy, equip them, empower them, recruit them. Equip them, help them get healed, empower them, release them in their job responsibilities. So we had like when I left, we had four or 500 volunteers that were actively involved in doing the work of God. I think we had a hundred and something employees, 105 employees. I think it became a very, very big, big deal or big thing, I don't know if it was a big deal. It was a big thing and we had, I think, eight staff members in Europe and we helped start churches around the world.
Speaker 2:God did it. So I give him all the glory, but he took the simple principles of become healthy, train leaders, be filled with the spirit, recruit, recruit, recruit, recruit, empower, get them healthy, train your team. And, of course, then I just sucked in everything that was Maxwell. 80% of my time was spent with my 20% of my church. So they're the doers, they're the givers, they're the ones that are really going to do something. 80% of my time was spent out there, so that was, and I use those simple principles.
Speaker 2:The same thing happens in a business and then you add things like your attitudes. That determines your altitude. For me, I'm a big attitude guy, so I work with my staff, my volunteers. Attitude how you look at someone, how you treat someone, how they feel, do they feel the atmosphere? Salt and light. That's salt and light. Salt and light biblically is. Am I going to influence everywhere I go? So I teach people and I do this around the world now I did it in Madagascar recently.
Speaker 2:I did it in France the other day is basically find out their name, find out where they're born, give them one compliment. Do it at the Starbucks line, because we live in a world that's very critical and very divided. I walk up to someone and say, hey, man, I'm Paul Barculay, how you doing? I don't give myself a title because that distances people, even when I had titles. Now that I don't have titles, that's easier, but when I had a title I didn't like it. I didn't like it. I tell people just call me Paul, mark, call me Paul. Call me Paul, mark, call me whatever you want, but because titles would separate me. So I go to people now and you follow me around. Matt, we'll go to that. We were together for coffee.
Speaker 2:Notice what I did. Hey, what's your name? Where were you born? Why? Because it's important. It was Jesus of Nazareth. It was Paul of Tarsus, I don't know why. It's God's secret code. You find out their name, you find out where they're born and then you give them a compliment I love your shoes A sincere one. Now, people can manipulate that for sales, true, but what if it's sincere? What if you actually do care about people? What if you actually love people? You want to know their name, you know it's important where they're born and you want to give them a compliment. And, if time permits, you get deeper. You ask more questions. Show me a person who has the right questions. I'll show you an intelligent, successful person. So that's my gig right now.
Speaker 2:That's my 30, 29 years of the International Church of Las Vegas. At first it was called West Valley Assembly of God. Then I changed it to West Valley Assembly. Then I changed it to the International Church of Las Vegas, because the vision changed from a community church, from something that was very denominational. I didn't want it to be denominational at all, no-transcript. I had these principles because I wanted to go from surviving to thriving, thriving to addition, addition to multiplication. And I knew it was by pouring myself into my staff, my volunteers, my team. That was a smart.
Speaker 2:I could tell you all my mistakes I made in my life. That's an easy one too Through therapy I get those, and through altar times. But the good thing is that was a good thing and God just went and he grew it. I think he grew it way, way, way, way, way beyond my capabilities. I always tell people I'm the donkey, ride me into Jerusalem, jesus, way, way, way beyond my capabilities. I always tell people I'm the donkey, ride me into Jesus, ride me into Jerusalem, jesus, because I'm really just a donkey. I'm an old hockey player, an old fighter, an old drunk. I am. That's what I was, and now I'm redeemed. But it doesn't take away that I'm still Paul Mark Goulet, I still have a history, so I'm not all puffed up with myself.
Speaker 2:I thought, yeah, I could tell you stuff that I've done and people that are in my inner circle. You go what I could show you my phone and the phone numbers I have my dad. It was really good at this. He taught me this. I give him credit. He said, paul, all men bleed red because he saw his friends die. 50% of his brigade died in battle and then he became a president of a large corporation and I was always enamored with people. He goes all men bleed red, paul, they all bleed. And so everything I've done. I give God all the glory because he took an old, drunk hockey player, a Canadian, who ended up having this amazing life and now I'm 67.
Speaker 2:Yes, I know I look 47, but I do take good care of my health, like you talked about today. I do oxygen chambers, I do supplements, I do 10,000 steps a day. I'm taking care of me because this is the temple of the Holy Spirit. I want to make sure that I'm taking care of this thing so I can go further for Jesus, because one day I will die. But at the end I want to go. The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of my God and you helped me change it just a little bit. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I want to talk about the Holy Spirit real quick. I just got just a question. So, as a believer, we get full filled with the Holy Spirit and I think when we get into different things businesses, church, you know, whatever those things are standing in line at the grocery store we can invite the Holy Spirit in. I guess my question is because when I pray over events like we'll go out and do these tent revival events on Tuesdays and these evangelism events and I'll invite the Holy Spirit in, Is that biblically accurate? 100%, Okay, 100%. Now, if you have the Holy Spirit as a believer, you can still invite the Holy Spirit, I guess. Just help me understand that. What a great question.
Speaker 2:I like your question. It's my favorite question. Okay, now we're going to get in Holy Spirit, which is super cool. Well, when we receive Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit. Because how does Christ enter us? Literally, the Bible says Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, intercessing forevermore. He's at the right hand of the Father right now. But when we receive Christ, we're actually receiving His Spirit. Remember, in Luke, chapter 24, he says I've got to go so that I can send the promise of the Father. The promise is the Holy Spirit, it's the Spirit of Christ. So that's why Jesus had to go, so that he could send the Holy Spirit, his Spirit.
Speaker 2:So how is Jesus in, can be in 8 billion people at the same time? Because when you invited Jesus in, who came in? The Holy Spirit came in his Spirit. That's what the Holy Spirit is. It's the Spirit of Jesus. He came in and filled us, right, he came in and entered us.
Speaker 2:We become born of the what Of the Spirit? Right? We're born of the Spirit. That's what the Bible says. Not born of water, we're born of the Spirit. That's what happens when we are born again. We receive.
Speaker 2:So whether you're Baptist or evangelical or you're Pentecostal, we're all born again If you've received Christ. Like I work with evangelicals, I work with Baptists, I work with the 28 versions of Baptists, I work with the 30 versions of Pentecostals or Charismatics, call yourself whatever you want, ultimately we're Anabaptists. We've received if you read what an Anabaptist is, just check on, Google it but we've received Christ. We've had the most of the second baptism. I was baptized as a baby. I was born again as an adult and then I was baptized as a believer. So that's when you received the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2:But there's a difference between receiving the Holy Spirit and being full of the Holy Spirit. Doesn't the Bible say that Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit? It didn't say he just had the Holy Spirit, he was full of the Holy Spirit, didn't in Acts, chapter 10, they walked into I can't remember the town and there were believers in Jesus Christ. He says have you received the Holy Spirit? I totally believe in that encounter with the Holy Spirit where we become full, and the word full is baptism. When you read I could go through a lot of scriptures but I won't bore you with that or we don't have time for that but conceptually, when I received Jesus, I received his spirit. Done, we're going to heaven, we have the Holy Spirit in us, 100% true, but there's an experience.
Speaker 2:When did the disciples receive the Holy Spirit? When they believed in Christ? In Luke, chapter 24, when Jesus breathed on them and said receive the spirit. Or did they receive it on the day of Pentecost? Listen, we're all going to heaven.
Speaker 2:I'm glad I'm not going to argue with anybody. However, I came to the belief that I could be filled with the Spirit Filled, and that that filling can be several fillings. And I can't. It's not coming to my mind, but Paul at one point said and be filled with the Holy Spirit. So the concept of being filled is something that's really cool, because I do believe I can ask for the Holy Spirit to come into this room. I believe I can pray that he baptizes me, which means overflowing, overspilled, overfilled. But I also believe there's times where I said Holy Spirit, come and fill this room, come and overwhelm me with your spirit. I've experienced it. I believe it's biblical. I believe I could go through hours of it of discussions with anybody that wants to.
Speaker 2:However, I'm answering your question. Is it proper to say fill me? Is it proper to say fill this room? And remember when the spirit left the temple. They called it Ichabod. The spirit has left. So, as a believer in Jesus Christ and with all my Baptist friends and evangelical friends, why not ask for the Holy Spirit for more? Whether you believe in the classic baptism and then people get stuck on things like tongues or whatever else, why are you getting stuck on one of the gifts? Where's the harm in going? Holy Spirit, come and fill me in this event. Come and fill the stadium. I 100% believe it's true. I 100% believe it's biblical. I have a story I could tell you if you're open, if we have time.
Speaker 1:Let's hear it.
Speaker 2:You want to hear it? Yeah, all right. So I'm theologically trained by. I went to a brethren's seminary. I was discipled by Caps Crusade for Christ, not a charismatic organization Well, wonderful one.
Speaker 2:So my training was not in the Pentecostal realm but I believed theologically in the filling or the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I believed in it. I believed I had the Holy Spirit, but I believed that being baptized or being filled with the Spirit was biblical. I didn't know about the rest of it. So I literally. So theologically, I believed in it, but I had not experienced it.
Speaker 2:I was very intellectual so I graduated with high honors from graduate school, summa cum laude, johnny cum laude. I can't even remember what it was. It was as high as you can go. So I'm not a stupid person. But I was always praying for that filling of the Holy Spirit but never experienced anything physical, like wow, like wow. But theologically I believed I had the Holy Spirit. That was good enough for me. I was Baptist and Brethren and all the other organizations. We were happy. But theologically I thought I'm still going to pray for that baptism or that filling, overfilling. I actually became a pastor in Las Vegas where I had never really experienced the full baptism, the filling because I believe there's degrees of filling, just as we ask him for more. And so.
Speaker 2:I was. Literally, when I came here I didn't know what I was doing. I was really. I was pathetic. I was just such a pathetic pastor I really was. I still, to this day, believe I was pathetic, but I believe that I love God and love people. So he helped me, right? God helped me not be that pathetic. I started fasting and praying. I'd done it one time in my life, one day oh, this is 92. So I've been a Christian since 78., so 14 years, and I'd never really been baptized in the Holy Spirit and never really been overfilled, only fasted one day of my life in the first 14 years I came here. I was so pathetic I said I know biblically it talks about fasting. So I started fasting every week, thursday night to Friday dinner, so usually 20 to 24 hours. I would not eat. I'd go into the desert in the winter and go on Mount Charleston in the summer and I would just literally just pray. See God, cause I was. So I did not know what I was doing, so I thought I better fast. You know what I was doing. So I thought I better fast. You know, I know it's in the Bible, right.
Speaker 2:And then one day I'm on top of the mountain in Mount Charleston and I something hit me. It was the weirdest thing because I couldn't intellectually understand it but I literally started dancing on top of mountain in Red Rock chanting. It must've been tongues, I'm not sure, but it sounded like native Indian and I thought am I literally losing my mind right now? I did and I thought. But it sounded like native Indian and I thought am I literally losing my mind right now? I did and I thought, but it sure feels good. So if I'm losing my mind, the stress of being a pastor doing something I'm not good at, fire away, and I remember dancing on the mountain and dancing. And then I went to church that Sunday I'll never forget because we'd grown from 200 to I think we're about 600. Yeah, we grew from 200 to 600 in like six months. We're about 600.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we grew from 200 to 600 in like six months and without the real infilling or the baptism or call it whatever you want. And so I'm there and the worship starts and I just started laughing. I don't know why. I had the joy of the Lord. It was the weirdest thing. My wife looked at me and says what's wrong with you? Stop laughing. I said I can't, I just something hit me and I went up there and I just said I don't know what it is, I can't describe it, but I'm experiencing something internally that I can't explain, and it was joy. I don't know why. The first time it hit me was dancing on the mountain looking like an idiot, and the second time I just had this indwelling joy and that was the beginning of my journey with the Holy Spirit. So I know it's a there's many, many more stories.
Speaker 2:I don't want to scare anybody, but I want to encourage people. What do you got to lose? My Baptist, my Lutheran friends, my Catholic friends. I was with a businessman one day. He was going through a hard time, very, very successful guy. If I told you his name, you'd know it, and it was like I call it pre-evangelism, pre-church time, but I'm salt and light right. So he's going through a really, really rough time. I said can I give a recommendation? Just try it and see if you like it.
Speaker 1:He goes, yeah sure.
Speaker 2:And I said listen, tonight, before you go to bed, ask for the Holy Spirit to fill you. Not born again yet, haven't even prayed the prayer, right, and I thought, man, I'll throw in another one and see what happens. Comes back a couple of days later at the gym, he goes. What did you do to me? I said what do you mean? He goes. I prayed that prayer. All I want to do now is read the Bible and give stuff away. I said nice. I said I have an organization with inner city kids. They're looking for computers Done, and he ended up giving I don't know how many he gave that day. It was really kind of incredible.
Speaker 2:But I really believe that when, if you dare ask, I don't care what your background is, if you're a Buddhist, if you're a Muslim, if you're a Catholic, if you're, I don't care what you are Invite the Holy Spirit into your life and if you're open to it, he's a spirit, he's real and he loves to be invited in. Invite your Holy Spirit into your business. Invite your Holy Spirit into the counseling center, into your counseling practice. Invite the Holy Spirit. Can I tell you another story? I'm buying a car, true story. True story I'm buying a car. You say can you invite a Holy Spirit into a purchase of a car? You better believe it. Why? Because when I need help, I need the Spirit. I can't function without the Holy Spirit. So I'm in there and then they bring me to the finance manager tag, add a bunch of things. I don't want go over my budget. I set a mark of three. I think my mark was $300 a month. That's all I want to spend. So I'm sitting there and I'm getting nervous and I'm feeling the pressure because they're good. They're really really good at it and I'm sitting there going literally. Not that you always feel it, because Holy Spirit's not a feeling, but you can feel it sometimes. So I'm sitting there also, I felt the Holy Spirit Enter the final signing in the final, and the head of the finance of the car dealership turns around, goes what is that?
Speaker 2:I go. Well, what do you mean? He goes. I felt something I said would you like to know he goes? Yeah, I said it. I invited the Holy Spirit in to this room during these negotiations. It ends up that his wife was a Christian and he was backslidden. Well, what happens? The Holy Spirit loves him, never gave up on him, but decided to enter the room in a greater measure. You've seen a greater measure right when you've had your meetings on the streets or whatever you've had business meetings. I mean I walk into this business, it's so I feel the Holy Spirit here because you've invited him, right Bam.
Speaker 1:That's your answer. Yeah, I mean so. I've experienced that. I experienced that quite a bit. Most recently it was preaching out on the streets. There was times, and so it didn't look like the way that it had normally looked. It looked a little bit different than the way that I was accustomed to. I was very charismatic, if you will, in my preaching. Then God started to strip me of me in between preaching and I didn't realize that. I felt like a fish out of water during the season and I was praying before we decided to move our, our evangelism to the tents, to right by the liquor store. We were a little bit further down Now. We moved right by the liquor store and we had a uh. God gave me this, this idea, vision to do back up a truck right there. We set up our tent, we have a grill, we have all these resources out there. That way the dope dealers, the drug addicts, everybody could hear over an earshot, but not so close that they wanted to go do their stuff somewhere else.
Speaker 1:And I was just praying, the Holy Spirit just fill me up before that and just became extremely emotional.
Speaker 1:Next thing, you know I'm getting up there and I don't stop when I speak, and especially whenever I get to go on, but all of a sudden I was stopping and thinking about what I was about to say. Next, and it was just the anointing of the Holy Spirit fell on that place and you could see people, god affecting different people and touching different people throughout. It was one of the most incredible times that I've ever had, because I stepped off or stepped away, and I have no clue. No clue what I said. I have absolutely no clue. I couldn't tell you to this day what I said, but the amount of comments that came from what God was doing in those moments was unlike any other time, and so then, what God shared with me was, like Matt, I had been stripping you of you and of your flesh and of the things that was making me speak in different ways before, and I'll share that on another podcast, but it was incredible, man, and I want to talk about.
Speaker 1:We're kind of going off, which I really like this the one thing that's not talked about within the church that I hear is led and spirit-filled. There you go.
Speaker 2:I think every denominational person out there watching go. I've heard of being spirit-led. How do you're spirit-led? You're led by the Holy Spirit. You're filled. You're led by every day, whether you're preaching or building a business or speaking in front of a political event. Keep going.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the dividing wall between being able, I guess, to be filled. I don't even know if this is a thing. This is the way that I would look at it, though, as a believer. The thing that would hinder you is sin, maybe, from receiving the full Holy Spirit, or what God has for you, sin in general and repentance, and using repentance as a way to get closer to the Lord, if you will, and as an entryway into getting closer to the Lord. It makes me think of Acts. You know, repent and be baptized, but just sin in general, in the state of the church, in the state of pastors, and just thoughts on that. Thoughts on why sin isn't talked about so much to this day, why health isn't talked about, why we see a lot of believers out there that are serving their version of God rather than a biblical God, because we're not preaching sin anymore and we're skipping over things. Thoughts on that. That's a loaded question. I'll get in trouble here.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 2:So, I brought one book. I give my books away and everything goes to Madagascar but I wrote a book called the Five Powers of God, which helps our experience with the Holy Spirit be relevant and logical For me. I speak more to non-Christians now. When I was a pastor for 29 years, I spoke Christianese, but now, as a Christian, I need to make these things relevant, logical in terms that are not Christianese. So I try to because, see, most people are really open to God. Our packaging has been bad.
Speaker 2:So even the term sin. They won't like the term sin, but it's biblical and what it means is missing the mark. When a New Testament believer heard the term sin, literally, they were using the Greek term archery. You miss your mark, you're missing a target. So no one had a problem with that. I remember when I first heard the word sin, I thought I hate that word. It sounded religious Sin. We've all missed the mark. We all make mistakes. A lot of people tell me I'm not a sinner. Yeah, we all are. Have you ever made a mistake? Yeah, then you're a sinner. So am I as a pastor? When I was a pastor, did I sin sin? Of course I did. I missed the mark so many stinking times.
Speaker 2:What we did is we made the term sin religious and not practical. We should talk about sin because we all missed the mark. And then, as Christians, what we tend to do is cover everything. Like you said, we'll jump over certain verses. Why? Because we don't want to offend people. We don't want them to look good and sound good and smell good, but not be good. That's what Jesus said. You whitewashed sheffielders, you brood of vipers On the outside you're all nice and shiny, but the inside you're a bunch of dead bones. Boom, boom, boom. That's Jesus. Like how to make friends and influence people. That was not Jesus. Jesus spoke the truth and a lot of people got mad. I always say this. He says listen, the truth will set you free, but at first it makes you really mad. So should we be talking about sin? One hundred. But we should be using terms because it's been so religiousized. I made up a word that we have to use terms with normal people because we're in the normal world Right now.
Speaker 2:I've trained the government of Madagascar. I wrote curriculum for the whole country, literally, I had to take out everything that was Christianese and I wrote eight values for the country that the president picked. I thought, okay, tell me what you want me to write. And they told me, write about this. We're writing about values. Done, give me the eight values. I actually took the eight values and I wrote it in non-Christianese. I trained his whole government. Then I trained thousands of entrepreneurs. Why? Because you have to restructure your country based on values.
Speaker 2:When I missed the values, what am I? I said I missed the mark. When your business is not value-based honesty, integrity, good service go through your list of what your values, the core beliefs of this organization here, those are your values. When you get off the values, are you sitting? Will people like that term? No, because it's a term that's become so connected to weird stuff that I actually choose to say have you ever missed the mark? Have you ever made a mistake Done?
Speaker 2:Then we all sinned, because my job is to make the Bible clear to non-believers. Because there's so much religion there's very few relationships anymore. They know religion. They know enough religion to hate it and they know enough church to hate it and they know enough hypocrites to hate it. So my job is to be salt and light, like.
Speaker 2:I walked into room one time and it was just like the presence was. It was awesome. And I had a guy who was very wealthy go, I want what you have. I go, what do you mean? He goes. I don't know you got this energy on you. You got something on what is that that you have? I want that, Literally, just like that Cause powerful, rich, powerful people. They see stuff and they want it. And then I said, well, if you really want to know what, you can talk about a little later, not in front of this group here, but let's sit down and talk about it if you're really serious. So we did. Why? Because I'm trying to make the Bible, which has been taken out of context. It's a first century. The New Testament is first century.
Speaker 2:When he said sin, it meant archery, missing your mark. Nobody has a problem with that. If anybody says they've never missed a mark, they're liars. Bible says if there's anybody says they have no sin, they're a liar. The truth is not in them.
Speaker 2:So I think as a church, we're to come into the church. Our focus is that, instead of come in so I can train you, equip you, go, change your world. I think the second big problem that we see with the church as a whole is it becomes experience oriented. So, like you go to some concerts right now Christian concerts, they're filling stadiums. I'm glad about that. It doesn't mean they're changing the world until they take it into their business, into their career, into their family. Do you see what I'm saying? So I think that's what we need to see. We need to see an outward centered church, we need to see a quipping church. And the other thing is we need to take this concept of something being spiritual and secular. That's not biblical. Everything was spiritual in the Old Testament and New Testament. So what we have now is come into the church because it's spiritual.
Speaker 2:Get into the ministry, which means come and serve at the church or get paid for it or volunteer. No, real ministry is what you're doing in this company. That's real ministry. Street witnessing is just another form of ministry. So when you're building a company that glorifies God, when you build a company that's prosperous, when you have values-oriented company, you are literally doing spiritual things.
Speaker 2:I think the church says come and experience this and they base their value based on numbers. Oh, my church has grown to 500 or 400 or a thousand. That's the wrong. You're putting the emphasis on the wrong syllable. In other words, your emphasis is wrong, pastor. Your emphasis should be how many people have I trained to go change the world? Jesus started with three, then 12, then 70, then 120, and 500. That was his entire ministry. Of course he spoke to the multitudes, but that was the multitudes. Look at who he trained and equipped. That's what we have to go back to as pastors, and some are doing it really well. So I'm not at all putting shade on all churches in America. There are wonderful, wonderful churches that are doing actually this. Your church is probably like that, but there's a major problem and there has to.
Speaker 1:Okay, I want to. I want to talk about we're going to kind of start wrapping up. I want to get into Madagascar and really get into. We'll have to get an update on Madagascar and talk about, you know, just some things you're most excited about before we get into that Cause. I want to wrap up with the Madagascar and how that all came about.
Speaker 1:I want to talk about leadership. I know that's also another thing for you. That's something that I started studying, leadership last year. Whenever I was in class, I started to study leadership. I had always relied on my natural ability to lead, you know, and and then you, you start to understand things that I really need to start to study leadership. And so I read Maxwell books. I read some of Maxwell one of Maxwell's books actually that started to change my whole perspective. Craig Groeschel started to consume these different podcasts that put me on to just different levels of leadership, and it was I was always exposed, or always had this idea of leadership because of certain people in my life, of this top-down leadership you know of you pay attention to my title and it's my title, is the reason why I am a leader over you, and rather than trying to go off of influence and try to influence them, and that transformed my world.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love it.
Speaker 1:I started to understand that because I looked at it just like that, because that was a leadership that I saw, yeah and so, um, and then, you know, there was a time, when I first came out to Vegas, that I was really looking like, okay, I really want to get around good leaders and really good leaders. And I started to pray towards that. God started to put me around leaders. I just didn't have good leaders in my life that I looked up to. That I was like, okay, this is how I want to be, and then started to have people come into my life that I'm like that's it, right there. Because there's people from afar like what you're talking about, Like you know, Tim Tebow was one. Don't know the guy I knew that is what I like. He has something.
Speaker 1:I grew up with a dead Christianity. You know we go to the four wall church. That's it. Don't go outside of that. We have church on Sunday, Wednesday, maybe you know one of the times throughout the week, and that's where it ended. Right there, we're not business as ministry, we're not any of this. So through studying scripture, through studying leadership, God started to reform me, and that was going back to the fish out of water. I'm like, yeah, this is uncomfortable. Leadership, isn't this? Like you're doing this wrong. You're correcting people all the time and you need to follow me because I have this title. What I have found is more of that influence, and I know Maxwell talks about that as well. Thoughts on leadership today and just how your journey of leadership, everything doesn't matter.
Speaker 2:If it's the government, it doesn't matter. Are we bold enough as Christians, to invade every kingdom? And then we influence people, so, like every morning, that's why I spend an hour to two hours preparing myself for the day, because I want to be filled up with his word, with his spirit. I want to have all the garbage gone so I'm filled up, to be spilled out. So a leader is someone that influences salt and light. That's all leadership principles. And then I think, really the goal in leadership and you have to read the material For me, if I'm a healthy person, so I wrote 30 days to emotional health, 30 days to spiritual health, 30 days to relational health, because if you're healthy, you're going to have a better influence, you're going to be salt.
Speaker 2:Jesus looked at his disciples and said you're the salt of the earth, you're the light of the world. He didn't say he was, he said you are. So think about that for a second. If I'm a leader, I should walk into every room and influence it. For God, it doesn't matter how bad it is, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2:When I first got saved, the mistake, leslie, that I made and Matt, was that I was told hey, jesus is coming back tomorrow. Don't get out of the schools, get out of politics, get out of education, because don't polish the brass on a sinking ship. That's what I was told. I thought that doesn't make sense to me, so I didn't listen to them and I went for my education. Then I leadership is all about believing that you are the person that can influence the atmosphere in a room, in a family, in a company. Leadership is not control, it's influence, like you said. So when you study the five levels of leadership that Maxwell came up with which is just super good, I won't go into it, but conceptually I spend most of my time in my Bible, but also in leadership material, what's going to help me? I read. Like when I did my doctorate last year, I read this book again From Good to Great, oh, my goodness Jim Collins, I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it was my third or fourth time reading it, but for some reason the lights went on this time and I got it. Who's on the bus and are they are in the right seat? So I was running a large organization and I also had a. I was given a federal grant by the government to help. It's called the Dad Inc or the Fatherhood Program. So I started that years ago. I got the grant $5 million grant which is great. So I had to look over all my. We had a school, international Christian Academy. We had the sports academy that we started, the International Sports Academy.
Speaker 2:So for me is I believe that if these leadership principles are true which, like I said, we're always getting more right the Bible is the great place and we get more mentor coaches wherever we're going to get that information and we start implementing into our organization. We start then training leaders. I don't want to be just one good leader, who's salt, I want to then train leaders. So who are your 10 to 12? So, like I'm starting with my buddies, I'll be in Houston next week and we're doing something called the growth journey, and this is for Christians, non-christians, outside the four walls. It's all about saying listen, businessmen and businesswomen, we want to go on a journey with you and it's going to take. It's going to be five levels of leadership and five levels of growth. We're going to help you grow and we promise by that happening you'll be in a journey with us, your company will grow, you'll grow, you'll be happier, your family happier, because we're going on a journey. So what have I discovered? Leadership is actually a journey, not an event. There are great events around here, great leadership events, but Maxwell taught me years ago I went into France and I started something called Equip it was the leadership curriculum and we just started training people 120, I think, was the first level one and then we said we'll be back in six months, so we would pick a city and spend three years three years going there, training and then following up.
Speaker 2:I don't know how many of these people are now. We're in 34 cities now. They went from just experiencing an event to a journey, which was a relationship. So no one's really doing that in the US. So I've got some buddies one guy from a famous MMA fighter he's in the Guinness Book of Records and another guy who's like a real. I mean, he spoke at Yale not too long ago and impacted one of the princes of Saudi Arabia. The guy's amazing.
Speaker 2:The three of us are getting together, we're going, we're taking it outside the four walls of the church. It's not going to be a Christian event. It's going to be a leadership event that, if people can actually go on a journey with us, they will literally change their families, their industries, their companies. People focus on experiences, not on journeys. So that's what. So June 27th and 28th 2025, we'll be in Pittsburgh for our first one. Houston, we're doing a whiteboard next week. This week we're doing a whiteboard finalizing all the details of it.
Speaker 2:But you want to talk about leadership Like you're the owner of a business and everyone around you. You're training once a month. That's teaching people that life is about a journey, not an experience. We have to get away from a great experience. When I was a pastor, I brought in some of the most famous people and I thought did that really change my congregation or they were just a hired gun to come bring a good message and experience or maybe hype? So I've really revisited my experience. All my mistakes I go. I would have been more growth focused. Now I'm more growth focused, so maybe these will be my best years. Yeah, I'm praying it will be.
Speaker 1:Okay, that make sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it does.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like that about. Okay, so what is before? I got another question.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Fire away.
Speaker 1:Keeping up with these questions. Uh, when you talk about, um, the lessons that you learned, yeah, I know. When we met for coffee that one day, yeah, you know, I've got a lot of plates spinning and I like that. I like to do 10, 15 different things at one time. But I also like to be hyper-focused on things to the point to where, if I, if there's something that needs to be done, a new level that needs to be gone to, then I'll lock myself in my office for weeks, develop whatever needs to be developed and then implement it to my team, and then we start rocking and rolling. And that's my way of having five, 10, 15 things going and then just focusing on one thing and then getting back to those things, but ensuring that I have the right people that are advancing those things. And I also make sure that you know I I'm big on time blocking, yeah, and also I've started buying back time, yeah, whether if you're talking just through time blocking or through actually paying people to do different things.
Speaker 1:So one thing that I won't compromise on is my family, you know, and it's time with my family, you know, and no, but it's still a struggle, you know, when you have things. You have a lot of, you know. Um, I'm grateful I have my family with me almost every single place that I go and that won't change, no matter if somebody comes in and fills, maybe, a role that they're doing. They will still be right here or I will be right there while they're doing what they feel called to do. So the question is conversation starter would be lessons learned to somebody, cause I know you're a very high achiever. You like to, you like to do a lot of things. I do. You've got a lot of things going and have had a lot of things going. What'd you learn from all that? Like, what would you learn just from?
Speaker 2:Okay, mistakes that I was. I'm like you. I love to do a lot of projects. I get bored. They say when I was growing up I had a little bit of ADHD. And they say but they say some most successful people in the world have ADHD. So I'm a little bit ADHD. I do get bored, but that's part of my spiritual and emotional and intellectual DNA. If you look at the fivefold apostles, prophets, pastors, evangelists and teachers, if you've read your Bible you know there's five. But that's in the corporate world as well.
Speaker 2:I'm an apostle, hashtag entrepreneur. Not that I want a title, but I'm really good at starting things. And then I'm really good at structuring things. But then follow up. Goodness gracious, I better follow. I better hire someone to follow up and make sure that all the widgets in the right place. I know where the widgets should be, but after a while I just get bored.
Speaker 2:I'm an entrepreneur, I'm a starter. I'm like Paul, a chief architect. I can go into a city. I can go into a company. I do executive things. I go into churches and I go into nonprofits and companies and I'll just read their mail, I'll just analyze it, I'll meet their staff, I'll interview people and then I'll give them executive. I just came back from an organization where I got to write the report. Now it's like whoa, I enjoy it because I'm apostolic, I'm entrepreneurial.
Speaker 2:Thinking Makes sense. Salespeople are evangelists. Salespeople are evangelists. Customer service should be a pastoral type of person. So every gift mix, every biblical gift mix, has a parallel corporate gift mix Makes sense.
Speaker 2:So I learned that. I learned that everything spiritual is actually secular. Everything secular is spiritual. I learned that I learned that the greatest achievement is going to be built through a team and I think sometimes I ran ahead of my team. Sometimes I get bored and run off to other things and left them with the plates spinning. I could have done a much better job.
Speaker 2:My dad used to say this. He called it Peter principle. He says, paul, be careful that you'll rise to your level of incompetence. Oh, that's interesting and I think I never saw myself as a big deal or a mega church pastor or all the stuff that God ended up using me for. He's wise enough. I never planned that. I think I rose to my level of incompetence in different ways and the only thing that got me as far as I got is I did surround myself with pretty good people. I surrounded myself with pretty good people, but I think I ran ahead of them. That was one of my mistakes. I ran ahead of them. I could have done a better job of.
Speaker 2:What I think you're doing now is just making sure you're maintaining that growth initiative or growth pattern. You want your company to grow. Then you're investing time and energy to make sure your team grows. I think I did learn that. I learned that now.
Speaker 2:And so people say, go back and take a church. Or I was offered a university. I said, no, I don't want to do any of those things. I'm just waiting on God for the next chapters. That's where Madagascar came in. That's where these trainings are coming, in Pittsburgh and then St Louis, and then New Brunswick and Houston and then here. So I think we're going to do four or five a year. That's it, because then we have to go twice a year to that city, and so I've got to be careful that I'm really committed to that growth journey and I don't run ahead too far with these people. So that's another thing I learned. I made so many mistakes, but I've learned. Hopefully I've learned a lot of things, but I learned some things and I'm charting this next chapter of what does my life look like? Because it's different, because I don't want to just repeat it. I repeated I don't want to go back to my old ways. I want to go. I want to go into the new realm.
Speaker 1:So it takes a lot of growth there. It takes a lot of changing my thinking, because I tend to fall back in my old patterns Makes sense. Oh yeah, Madagascar. I know that was how that was, when we had talked on the phone. You'd share a little bit with me about that. I would love to know how you got into that. What, just what? What happened?
Speaker 2:All right, long story, this is amazing. In an hour you've gone through 30 years of my life, madagascar's eight years. So I'm going to go through eight years in about six minutes, seven minutes. Eight years ago because I've spoken in front of a lot of people and I'm known as a leadership guy, and so I was invited to Madagascar to train 6,000 pastors and leaders Big, big event, big event, a good, good event and I mean it was amazing. They wanted to know about healthy believers. So I wrote a whole curriculum called healthy leaders, and then healthy, healthy believers, and then healthy leaders, and so it was great, phenomenal. I mean, here's people in Madagascar. 36 million people live in that country.
Speaker 2:I didn't know the country at all, I didn't do a background check, I just went, oh, oh, gee, one day at the leaders leading me on the streets and little girls are looking at me like I'm Santa Claus, and I go what's up with these kids? They go oh, they think you're their hope because you can buy them for $5 a night. I go what do you mean? Sex tourism is big in that town. I got so mad. I went to my room. I started crying. I was mad. I'm not mad at God, I was mad at little kids being trafficked. I was mad at these kids, thousands of kids on the streets. They're either in gangs or they're being trafficked and and, uh, you know, they're poor. I'm so blessed and I just was overwhelmed and open sewers, it was just horrible. The movie, movie, movie. Madagascar is fun, animals dancing. You don't see that? I mean, there are beautiful areas there and the president's phenomenal, he's helping change the country. But it was at the time, eight years ago. It would be bad. So I told God, I'll do anything, god, to help these kids. I'll do anything to help these people. So I thought doors are going to open up and then they stayed closed and I thought I'd raise a bunch of money. But nobody in the US, like I, wanted to buy those kids involved in soccer and get them cleats, and a lot of them didn't even have shoes on. And I want to do practical stuff. It's fish and loaves of bread, it's companies, it's buildings, it's whatever. So I think that way.
Speaker 2:So then I got I retired from the International Church of Las Vegas and I didn't know what I was going to do. You don't know, but I had two strokes and a brain bleed and I almost died. I was in the back of an ambulance and I was dying and they're going stay with us, mr Goulet, but by this time I'm looking down on them. My soul and my spirit were like on the top of the ambulance. I'm kind of like looking down. It looked like that to me and and, uh, I said God, give it all away.
Speaker 2:So when I retired from the church, I gave up everything, salary, everything. I gave up. Um, I gave up, um, the grant, federal grant. I gave it all up. I gave up. I had 140,000 people reading something called a miracle every day, right? So I had a lot of people reading my stuff every day. It seemed to be working and helping people.
Speaker 2:I walked away from everything. I was having struggles in my family. My health was not good. I got into a program called the Amen Clinic in California where they therapy, medication, oxygen chambers, because when you have two strokes in a brain bleed, trust me, it affects you. I didn't think it affected me that much physically, but I didn't think that emotionally I'd be affected, but it did. So I was kind of limping along for a couple of years there and so by the time I retired things were going rough in the family. I just thought I need to get well, I need to prioritize my family, I need to prioritize my health, and so I just retired March 11th of 2022.
Speaker 2:I walked away from literally everything and I thought, all right, I'll get healthy. And I did. I mean, by the grace of God. 17 months after I started treatment, he goes Mr Goulet, here's your old brain, here's your new brain. You've been completely healed. Go back to work. I thought what do I do? I didn't know what to do anymore. And so, long, long story short, I was in prayer one day and I didn't see an angel. I didn't hear a voice but in my brain, go to Paris and I'll tell you what to do when you get there.
Speaker 2:Now, that's a risk, because the church didn't give me a long pension. They gave me six month pension. So I didn't have a pension and I didn't. I opted out of social security when I was young, so I didn't have social security. Thank God, I had retirement, I put money aside, I had good investments. So thank you, jesus, I'm going all right.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'll use mileage. So I use mileage to get there and I had a friend that wanted me to to to do some little speaking here and there and cause I've done a lot of stuff in Paris. So I get to the airport and he forgot to pick me up, so I used mileage to get there. I had no money coming in except for my retirement stuff that I put aside personally. And I'm going, Jesus, I flew here for nothing, I'm freaking out, and I call a friend of mine.
Speaker 2:His name is Jean. I said Jean, jean. I said I'm at Paris. No one picked me up. This other guy forgot me. I don't know what to do. I used my own. I didn't have a ticket home and one way ticket to Paris to find out the will of God. It's like Abraham leaving Ur. It's like I literally was. I had no idea. I had no idea.
Speaker 2:So Sean says I got a friend, so he called his friend. His friend put me up for a night in a, came into town in Paris and I went there to stay at his house. And I go where you been? He goes Madagascar. I hadn't been for four years. I go wow, tell me about it, because, remember, I made a commitment to God that I was going to do anything, but all the doors were closed. He goes. Yeah, the president is saved. He loves Jesus and he wants values.
Speaker 2:Curriculum would you write it? I went to Paris to be invited to write curriculum for a whole country. So I wrote the curriculum. It was accepted by the government and they flew me in for four weeks and I trained his whole government and then he goes hey, paul, you want to go to Israel with me, with the president. So I went to Israel with his family and with my buddy, eric and Chantal, and we all went to Israel and we had Bible studies together and we grew really close. It's Matthew 28, disciple nations. So here I am, saying no to all these opportunities and I said yes to going one-way ticket to Paris with no, not a lot of money. And God says you said Madagascar. Four years later I'll give you Madagascar. So then I finished that four-week segment, came back here and continued my counseling journey, continued my health journey and then I started writing more and long, long, long. Story short, the journey came around. I helped with the homeless here downtown.
Speaker 2:I went through the pains of a divorce. It was not my choice, but I'm sure I was part of it and went through the pains of a divorce. Never expected divorce. So therapy helped, prayer helped, went through the pains of divorce. I thought I'll never be a pastor again and I thought, okay, god's going to use me somewhere. And at the time I just still deep in therapy, still deep in counseling, making sure my health is good. I thought I'll go help people more miserable than me, because when you're a Christian and you get divorced it's bad. When you're a pastor and you get divorced, you're the devil's cousin. So I went through a really, really hard time and I'm not putting any shade on my ex. She's an amazing person. I bless her. I don't have time for that negative garbage, but I can tell you that I went through a horrible time.
Speaker 2:But the Bible tells me Micah, chapter three, I think. It says what does the Lord require of you, man? Put to love justice, to do mercy and to walk humbly before your God. So I told myself the only thing that makes me really feel good is when I help people worse off than me. So I got super involved with the homeless here. We'd go to tunnel and we helped the homeless and it was a clinic. I was finishing my doctorate at the time and I did six months there. It was amazing. I thank God for that experience with the homeless. We had some tremendous success. And then I was asked to help with the veterans and we did a big event at the Allegiant Stadium and because I'm good at organization and I'm good at leadership training, I formed all the teams and got it ready and then handed it off to them and they ran the event and so I've been.
Speaker 2:And then after I finished that then I think it was I said God, what do I do next? And I get a text from Madagascar hey, paul, would you train a hundred thousand leaders a year? I thought let me pray about it. So I want to see if it's my assignment, because I don't need to do anything right now. I just do it because I'm.
Speaker 2:I don't have a title anymore, I don't have a job title, but I have a big yes to God. I'm not married. So I've got 13 grandkids and my family's doing pretty well. Now God's really touched it and I get along well with my ex and I'm going. Okay, god, I'll go anywhere you want because I can. Now I literally have no responsibilities but to help.
Speaker 2:So I get a lot of phone calls from people because of my, like the movie Taken. I have a. I have a set of remember when he calls. He gets a phone call and he goes. I got a particular set of skills. Remember that his daughter was kidnapped. I have a particular set of skills. I can help people and I don't care about titles, I don't care about money, money will come in. I have no, I have zero. I have no worry about any of that. But I gave a big yes to God. So now I started training a hundred thousand leaders a year in Madagascar. I just came back, trained thousands and thousands of them. I provided some fish and bread to the rugby team.
Speaker 2:I get a phone call. Someone says, hey, can you? So my goal is to train 100,000. I don't know how I'm going to do it. People say how are you going to do it? I don't know. Do you have a staff? No, do you have money? No, I said yes to God. They asked me. I said yes, I'm my needs help. Would you help him? I said sure. Literally, I'm on call right now.
Speaker 2:I get phone calls from all over. Some are the lowest of the lowest, some are really really, really powerful people that call me up because they know I'm not in it for me. I already had my near-death experience. I know that I'm going to heaven, I don't know when, that it is no-transcript. Get to Madagascar, train the people. And I was asked to help with this guy. So I got on the phone and said, sir, how can I help you? He goes, well, we, we have a rugby team that wants to go to the world cup qualifiers and he says but we, we lost our sponsors, we have no cleats, the women are playing barefooted. First of all, have you ever played rugby? No, yeah, my wife was the captain of the rugby team, that gentle little dub there that.
Speaker 1:I just what the heck.
Speaker 2:Well, we need to talk. I played rugby a little bit. Long story short. I go all right. So what do you need? I need 32 pairs of cleats. I prayed about it. I try to share the vision with people, but in America, well, who cares about Madagascar? I'm more caring about.
Speaker 2:So I thought, all right, I don't have a salary coming in, but I'll find money. So I told the gentleman. I said I'll buy them, go get a price, I'll pay for him. So I sent him money and it was more money. So he bought medical equipment for the trainers. So literally the girls, the women played with the rugby cleats that I bought them and they went to the world cup in Dubai. They ended up in sixth place. So I I was just in Madagascar because he put on exhibition matches so I could see.
Speaker 2:I said, sir, listen to this, you're a little freak out. It talks about how we should be out there in the world. I go, sir, if I buy you shoes, would you give me permission to tell them about Jesus and train them in leadership? Because, remember, I want their salvation but I want to disciple them. What's a secular term for discipleship? Leadership? I don't use the term discipleship. Can I train them as leaders? He goes absolutely.
Speaker 2:I said how many kids in the rugby federation? He goes 55,000. I said, sir, would give me. If I get your shoes, would you give me permission to tell all 55,000 about Jesus and and and help train them in leadership? Oh yeah, I said you can give me permission? Yes, I said do you have a building I can use? He goes yeah, I've got a stadium. I said can use it whenever you want, you can use it. Well, what about having matches? Yeah, so I got a stadium. I have access to 55,000 kids. I just bought cleats for these girls to play in and now I'm their hero. And when I walk in, I met them and they're so. Thank you so much. You bought us cleats. It's so awesome. So now I have a vision of buying 55,000 pairs of cleats. I want every kid in the federation to have cleats.
Speaker 2:You say that's stupid, that's secular. No, it's not. Jesus gave them fish and gave them loaves. I'm believing God. For 55,000 pairs of shoes? Oh, I thought I had it out of Canada. But if you're a Canadian person and you can be a nonprofit and I can I can get 55,000 pairs donated, I think. But if I can run it through you, I don't have a Canadian nonprofit. They want a giving letter. So that blocks.
Speaker 2:I said God, maybe I'll start a factory there. So I was going to go buy a factory. So I went online and tried to am I going to buy a factory? Two days before I left, I had a phone call from a prophet Really, I don't say that term lightly. I think he's the only prophet I really know, a guy that really is just a real one. He goes hey, I'm just calling you. I hadn't talked to him in 10 years because I just had you on my heart. What's that? What are you up to? I told him. He says well, I want you to meet a guy. He says who is he? Well, he starts factories in countries. What kind of factories? Shoe factories.
Speaker 2:So now I've been in negotiation with a guy that will probably start another shoe for kids. I want to put 55,000 pairs of cleats on these kids and I want to put Jesus on the side and I get to tell them and teach them about Jesus. Yeah, it's, it's way bigger training a hundred thousand. I don't have the budget for it, but I have the. Yes, I don't have the budget for 55,000 pairs of shoes, but God's putting it together. I want to get a pair of shoes on every kid that plays and I want them to know where it comes from.
Speaker 2:Now, when I get there, he gets what he shows me. He shows me a building. He says I have a vision for a sports academy. I said, well, I had one in Vegas. I started a sports academy in Vegas. I started at a small school sports academy. I thought it'd take me three years to get these kids good, because we're competing against big schools. First year, we won. Second year, we won. Third year, we won fourth year. Year one we had a kid sign with Real Madrid in Salt Lake City. I think it was a year later, two years later, my grandson signed with Real Madrid pro-contract at 13 to go to Real Salt Lake City. So do I believe invading the kingdoms of this world? Yes, do I believe that Madagascar is going to be 100% transformed? Yes, and I've spent eight years doing it and I'm actively involved in doing it now. So I've committed to a hundred thousand and I've committed to 55,000 shoes because I want to win 55,000 kids to Christ and I want to disciple them, hashtag, train them as leaders.
Speaker 1:I love it. Okay, so we're wrapping up, man. I, I, uh, I just want to thank you for my pleasure coming on. Man. I, uh, uh, I just want to thank you for coming on, man. I, uh, I've got so many other questions that we could we could get down into, but we'll save that for for another episode. I, uh, man, just want to thank you for coming on, man. It's awesome to watch just the Holy spirit move and uh, and to to learn from you, um, and just to hear your heart, man. So we're going to pray for those 100,000. We're going to pray for the 55,000 shoes. We're going to believe that. Anybody out there that has a heart to help with that, reach out to me, reach out to Paul, let them know how can people find you so?
Speaker 2:internationalresourcecenterorg or com whatever International Resource Center. Why? Because we just want to resource people, so just go to international International Resource Center. Why? Because we just want to resource people, so just go to international. Thanks to Kingdom Wealth managers, mark McCoon and his team, they actually developed the landing page for me for free, thank you, because I have no staff and I have no budget. I only have Jesus and friends like you. So, yeah, if you want to help International Resource Center and or contact Matt, because I want to bring Matt to Madagascar because basically it's training companies, it's training.
Speaker 2:I mean, I don't know how to start a shoe factory. I have a guy that knows how, but I don't know how to run a factory. I'm just. I'm just a guy you know how to I walk through your factories, like maybe he should help run factories. I don't know. I just know that if I give a yes to God, he'll provide the rest. And I know we're going to pray. I want to pray for those that want to say yes, but I do want to pray for people that have been through divorce, because Christians listen, been through it, done that, got the t-shirt, got the scars. It's not good.
Speaker 2:The Bible says God says he hates divorce. That's true. Why? Because it's painful. God hates divorce, but he doesn't hate you. He doesn't hate me and you're very much a Christian and God can use you and your journey's not over. I don't know who needs to hear that, but I know I needed to hear that and I had some really close friends in a pool. One day my friend was telling me God's going to still use you. I go no, he's not, I'm done. God's going to use you. No, I'm done, I'm divorced. I got the big D word. It's interesting, but as Christians, we have no problem with someone struggling with drugs or alcohol or whatever thing, but if a Christian goes through divorce, somehow we put them aside and we call them a second-class citizens. I just want to.
Speaker 2:This is the first podcast that I've told people I was divorced and there's a reason for that. It's been three years. I love Jesus, I love God, I love people, I love life, but I feel for all the other Christians because, do you know this? 40 to 50% of Christians get divorced. The divorce rate has skyrocketed amongst Christians, but we don't talk about it. So because I'm a mental health guy, I'm going to talk about it. So I had a guy a year ago say would you write a book? And I said I'm not ready. But now it's been three years and I've had my journey and I'm in a good place. So now I'm going to talk about it because I want to talk to the 40 to 50% that feel you're second-class citizens. You're not.
Speaker 2:You just went through a divorce. Don't blame your spouse. Don't accept all the blame. It definitely takes two to tango and the devil hates you and he hated your marriage. So if you went through a divorce, I just want to tell you right now I'm going to find resources. I've not written anything now, but I will find resources for you. So if anybody I don't know I feel led. If anybody has been through divorce and you're a Christian, don't drop out of church. I love my church. I go every single week. Don't run away from God and blame God for your divorce. It wasn't his fault either. What I want to encourage you to do is let me help you find resources to help you navigate the divorce that you went through as a Christian. Because if 40%, we're not talking about it. So I'm taking the rabbit out of the bag today and I'm opening up the discussion. I love you. God loves you. He has a plan for your life.
Speaker 1:Awesome Thank you.
Speaker 2:I want to thank you for Matt and Leslie and I want to thank you for Aaron. I want to thank you for the whole staff here. What a tremendous company. I'm so impressed. I get hope by being with them today. So, lord, I just release such a blessing on them. I release a period of multiplication. May their company continue to double, quadruple. May their team continue to grow. May it be healthy and strong. Father, may you protect them, lead them not into temptation, but deliver them from evil, for thy is the kingdom, the power, the glory, forever and ever. So, lord, I release blessings on them more than they ever imagined. I thank you for this podcast. May it grow, grow, grow, grow in influence, and I'm declaring that in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. And touch everyone that's been through the pain of divorce. Touch them right now. Touch them right now. God hates the pain you've been through. It's not his fault. He loves you and he's got a plan for your life, and I bless you in Jesus' name. Amen, amen.
Speaker 1:Beautiful man, that was awesome. Bam, that was awesome.