Test, Testimony, Testify!

Everybody has a story. Some people were tested by addiction. Some were tested by trauma, pain, rejection, prison, loss, or the streets. But what happens when those tests become testimonies powerful enough to help somebody else heal?

In this raw and inspiring episode of The Blinded Truth Podcast, we sit down and unpack how two people from completely different walks of life turned their pain into purpose. Through serving others with love, compassion, respect, and authenticity, they discovered that recovery is bigger than background, status, or where you come from.

This episode is proof that sometimes the greatest healing happens when people simply feel seen, heard, and valued.

💥 This conversation is for:
✔️ People in recovery
✔️ Families affected by addiction
✔️ Those searching for purpose after pain
✔️ Anyone who believes love and respect can change lives

If this episode speaks to you, don’t keep it to yourself. SHARE it. COMMENT your biggest takeaway. TAG somebody who needs encouragement today.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Welcome to the Blinded Truth Podcast, where real stories meet real feelings. We are your hosts, Destiny fans and co-host. Today's episode is titled Test, Testimony, Testify. Everybody wants the testimony, but not everybody talks about the test. The hard parts, the uncomfortable seasons, the experiences that didn't break you but built something in you. Today we're talking about what it looks like to serve from a place of love, even when you don't share the same background as the people you're called to help. Because sometimes it's not about having the same story, it's about having the same heart. Two people led by purpose, choosing to show up for others in their recovery journeys. Not because they've lived the exact same life, but because they've been through their own tests that taught them compassion, patience, and unconditional love. And through that love, we get to witness something powerful: testimonies, being born into real life. Not by force, not by perfection, but by simply showing up, serving, and allowing God to get the glory through it all. This episode is powered by Destiny is by Choice Support Services, because your journey, your voice, and your truth mattered. So I want to welcome Henry and Sharona. That's it, all right? Yes, you did. Um, to today's episode. And we kind of got to have a conversation with you, kind of like a pre-appetized conversation with you all, what a couple weeks ago? Well back in February, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:38

Um sweet donkey, shut up.

SPEAKER_03 1:41

He's a fan. Um and we walked away from that conversation. Was like, we like them, we like their story, we like what they're what they're doing.

SPEAKER_04 1:52

Um we like couples.

SPEAKER_03 1:55

That that I don't know how to put that.

SPEAKER_04 1:59

That love each other.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

Love each other and they're real.

SPEAKER_05 2:02

Yeah, and they give you something else. You know, trying to work into our relationship.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Right.

SPEAKER_03 2:09

So um, but most importantly, like we love that you all love, like after hearing your why behind what you do, we love hearing like that y'all do it out of love, which we saw that when we met with you all, because we and I was talking to um my good friend Belle earlier, and I was just like, some people in the Christian community don't do things out of love. They do things to exploit people. And I know you had your your history with that. Um, and it just leaves people to chart, but we actually felt like, oh no, they are doing things out of love and out of compassion. And it was just like it wasn't forced, it wasn't nothing that you all were like, yes, and it wasn't perfect, y'all didn't show up in like suits and a collar, y'all was just like we're here with coughing and we're just chill. We was like, yes, we dogged. They are not sponsored. So anyway, you taught us if you know about you all, but can you kind of like tell our our audience like who you are, what you do, so that way they can get a reference out?

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Yeah, um, I I'll start kind of from the beginning. So the Lord put a call into my life two years into my salvation. It was first Peter 4 10, the scripture that was spoken our church that says each of you should use whatever gift you've received to serve others. And uh when I was uh a little wilder and younger, I was doing uh music in bars and nightclubs, but I took that same gift and talent I was given when I heard that scripture and started writing music for the Lord. And that that's really where the I would say their ministry work started. Um, and uh I do gospel hip-hop of uh releasing my third album in May, and I've I've just been able to go through West Virginia, Southwest Virginia, North Carolina, meet a lot of awesome people. I mean, people that are, yeah, I've met pastors and worship leaders, but we've met stage playwriters, we've met people that have conquered addiction, that have also started like recovery programs. I mean, people that have truly been rescued by the Lord. And um, you know, that that ministry went on for about eight years, seven or eight years uh up till now. And in uh what was it August 24th? They came to us and asked us to launch a celebrate recovery program in our church. And that's something for her and I to do together as husband and wife, you know, with the music. I was she was always there, but uh the music, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, she was always there praying for people, and um, but I felt like the music was more of me because it was like it was my music, but and I was more of the face of it, and this is something now that as husband and wife we can do together to to celebrate recovery.

SPEAKER_03 5:10

And so with celebrate recovery, that's with the Hope Center Ministries.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Well, it's they they attend the program. Uh Celebrate Recovery, anybody can just drop in and from the public. Uh the Hope Center, uh, which their home is located, it's considered the Rhono Call, but it's in Boone's Mill. They attend our church at New Life Christian Ministries, and they attend our celebrate recovery program. So it was 32 men, yeah. I think 32 men from there, and probably 50 or 60 people on average of a program total with Hope Center.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

So and the interesting thing about the Hope Center, too, is it's a it's a Christ centered recovery program. So it's in in-house for a year. So our church sponsors them. Part of their recovery is what they do in their curriculum and stuff, but it also requires them to attend celebrate recovery. So the reason it was so important for us to have one in our church is that you know, they're connecting with us regularly on Sundays, they're coming to like the men's groups and things like that. It's good for them to be in that celebrate recovery. And the interesting thing is it's not just them that's coming, like there's other people from the church, other people within the congregation coming out, you know, men and women alike that can kind of come in and just help get life together with all of us that are broken.

SPEAKER_03 6:19

Which I mean is is great for you all as church because a lot of churches don't recognize addiction. They don't they don't recognize that. And so they kind of like shy away from like, oh, we don't have that problem. Yes, you do. Um and if you don't, then you're not welcoming people into your your sanctuary and making them feel welcome. Um at first, I think we had talked about I had uh was set with in a meeting that um I was asked to come into because I think our program was trying to partner with them with Hope to kind of see how we could help our participants attend their program. And it was like, yeah, it's a Christian, you know, recovery center. And I was like, no, I don't get anything, because I just have heard horror stories, and I was like, I don't want to be a part of that. And when I sat there, I have to say I was very like guarded up. I didn't want to hear anything until um one of the representatives, you know, she started telling her own story, and I was like, okay, so tell me about the program. And it it just opened my eyes where I was starting to like say, if you want to, if you need a higher level of care, um, maybe this should be your route. Um, because some people need that extended um point of time. Like I think we only have here one, and that's the rescue mission, but you're still in a centralized area where I think that takes you out outside of your and I can speak on some of this.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Uh I counsel one of the men that hope that we graduated in February Free Scott, uh played the program, and they are very regimented and routine to get you into somewhat of a normalcy of life while you're there, so that when you graduate, you maintain that. I mean, you have to work, you have to read your Bible, do Bible studies, they do, I think, church there on Saturdays every morning. Um, so they're very regimented to getting the guys into like what's what it's gonna be like when you leave this house. Uh it's a great program.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Yeah. And you know, they do fun too. So it's not just like when you think of regimented, a lot of times people think like it's just the structure, but they build in the fun times, they build in like that male bonding and teach you that it's okay to have a good time and you don't have to bring in the drugs or you know, the alcohol or whatever it is that you struggle for. So that I really like. Um, it also teaches them to kind of give back to the community because they do a lot of like volunteer work through the like through the church and things like that. And it just um I don't know, it helps them experience real life while they're going through recovery because you know it's it's one thing to live in a house and recover while you're there, but when you get back out in the real world, right? Like you have people that fight, you have you know, relationship issues, you lose your job, like finances sometimes happen. And um, yeah, I mean it's just it's just it's good. It gives them a it just you know, it helps them transition from not coping with life and covering it up with a drug to okay, now I've got to face this while I'm sober, and this is how I'm gonna move through.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

Yeah, so it I think uh the their former director probably worded it the best. He's he said, as crazy as this sounds, my goal is not to get anyone sober, my goal was to build a relationship with this person and Jesus, and it's through him that we'll find the sobriety. So it's yeah, it's Christ-centered and it's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 9:57

So what I want to ask, what was your defining test in life that changed how you see people and how you serve them today?

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Uh maybe you might. Okay, so and I may get emotional, but uh, you know, I that's okay. It's real, it's real. But you know, like I just I grew up in a very broken home. I had a father who was an alcoholic. I watched my parents file a lot. I love both my parents, you know, they were they were awesome and they still are. Um my father passed away, and he struggled up until two months before he passed away, and he passed away with cancer that came from cirrhosis, that came from the drinking, he you know, cocaine, the hard drugs of life. And in my mind, I grew up with all of that. So when this was presented to us, it was just for me anyway, it was a way to just bring healing to all of it because everything has to have a good purpose. You know, and when you look back, I I can stand as a human and say I hate it that my dad went through all those struggles. But on this side of it, I want to be the person who says, okay, this person is having that struggle. What can we do to help them? Maybe I wasn't the one who was supposed to help my dad, but there's so many other people out there that are like that. And what I understand on this side of it is they're just they have not just dealt with the issues from their past, you know, like the drinking, the drugs is just a symptom of whatever is the root issue. And that I think was my defining moment. Like, you know, we messed up in life. We, you know, like we said we were gonna share that on another episode, crazy relationships. But you know, like based on the way we've grown up and the things that we go through, we experience life and we make decisions in life, and then you have to get to that point where do I continue this or do we make something good out of this? And when you know when you partner with the Lord and you let him lead, you know, it's like Romans 8 28 says, He works all things for good, and that's all things, whether it was our mistake or someone else's, he works them for good.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

So for me, I just I truly felt God remember my life when I when I gave my life to him. I felt that that fire that we all feel when we first come to Lim. Sometimes it dies down just as we proceed in life and get back into our routines that um when God put me on the stage. I remember one of my biggest prayers was um never let me forget every time that you give me a platform, whether it's speaking a word or a music, uh talking recovery programs. It's okay to be excited that you got a lot of people in front of you and people are there to kind of see you and stuff, but it's take the ego out of me because that's what I struggled with when I was beforehand. It was I was very selfish, egotistical, and everything was about maintaining this image that that you don't realize the time is fake and no one really cares about.

unknown 12:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

So I just I just pray to God and like keep me humble. I'm up there always for you, and and he's done that, and that's that wasn't.

SPEAKER_03 12:46

And so and you you kind of gotta when you're helping and served by the people, you gotta have that out the way anyway, because there's been times working in a residential treatment where my myself get in the way, and now we're clashing. And then one of us gotta bow down, and it's probably not gonna be them. So I need to kind of be like, check myself and be like, so what really about this is triggering me or making me upset because now we we here, you know, and I've had instances where it just they say you get more flowers of honey, and I've had to kind of like so I'm sorry, that can happen. Um because it can really, it can your ego can really make it break somebody. Right, you gotta have the empathy for it.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

Yeah. Yeah. I think that's one thing I can say over all the years, is that people, one thing that people have said, and this is not to put any attention on us by any means, is that a lot of people open up and just start talking to us because they sense the sincerity in what we do, the genuine us. We don't go back and say, hey, we just talked to someone, so we heard no gossip about people.

SPEAKER_03 14:20

He says that at work random people will go to and tell them. Yeah, and I'm like, they if they don't for a reason, like I don't be knowing why. I'd be like, you know, you're a peer, right? They they they can sense when somebody is real, like that connection. So I have to ask you, like, how do you show up with love for people whose stories may or may not look like yours? Like, you know, sometimes I know with you, you said that you have a connection. Um sometimes when we have that connection, it it can like for me, I have to try not to get too involved, whereas like or like being with or maybe connecting with somebody that maybe my story is a little bit too much in their story, and I have to be like it's too real for you. Yeah, so how do y'all show up for that?

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Well, I mean, I guess I guess in my mind it's just being real, it's just being real with people, right? Because ultimately I think about what the Lord has done for me, and I think about what he's forgiven me for, I think about how he still loves me, knowing who I was before him, even in the beginning, like when I knew him and you know, I would fall and make mistakes, like he kind of stood behind me and supported me and got me back up. And that's ultimately what we're here for is to encourage people. You know, judgment belongs to the Lord, and he judges people based on art. And at least in my point of life, I keep showing up because I just recognize that there's a root issue that has to come out, and you have to sometimes look past the anger, you have to sometimes look past the fact that maybe people are pulling themselves down with the drugs and recognize that hey, there's an issue in there, and if you can just get them to bring those walls down and just let a little bit of the love of the Lord come through, like the Lord can turn them around and transform. It's not us, it's not us, but because I've been forgiven and because of the grace that I've received, I have to pour that back out, right? Like I knew when I was lost, and now I'm failed. Why would I not let people know about the freedom that comes from that or the chains that are just broken and you can walk around and not feel like you have thousands and thousands of pounds of past that you're just dragging around with you? It's that's I would say that's that's why I chose it.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

Well, and I think when you're real with people, because there's this I'll just speak for me. Before I started going to church, I would drive by the church in the neighborhood we lived in. I would just see these what I would call senior citizen people coming out. And in my mind, not being a part of the church, not really having a relationship with God at the time. I mean, everybody's broken. So we're very open with people about um things that we've been through, uh, you know, in like whether it be in our marriage or just our life before we met each other. And when you're like that, you're like, I don't care. But for me, you know, it just shines a light out and gives them a little bit of a single church.

SPEAKER_04 17:36

So uh question what is the hardest part about being a man? For me, it's like a temptation and it's not the normal temptation, it's not women, it's not drugs, it's like when I go in the store, I see a slot machine. It just I just want to play it.

SPEAKER_06 17:54

You know.

SPEAKER_04 17:55

So kid and a kid. Yeah, it's growing up video games. Um, so what's the hardest part?

SPEAKER_00 18:01

Like um, I I'll say almost what you just said, the enemy knows your weakness. That's not my weakness, at least I hit me with that. He can put you know, these slot machines in front of me all day, or or now like alcohol in front of me, which is what I used to struggle with, and with a party in, and that's not gonna bother me. What I struggle with now is anger issues. Sometimes there's things that just flick, uh it's always a mouthful, it's flip uh fleshly fuse, and there's things that just make my blood pressure go zero, you know, and I'm like, and uh, you know, and but that's my struggle. So the enemy's gonna put something that he knows is gonna flick that fuse in front of me. And it's just over the over the years, and it takes time. I stay in God's word, I read scripture every morning. Uh, I can't say I pray every single day, but I do pray on a regular basis. And just having that relationship and especially rooting through the word, something can hit you, and then instantly a scripture comes to you and speaks to it. And if it's something that's getting ready to set my anger off, then I can say, No, the word says this, and just it just rates it back down before we make so you know, and I think like the way I grow up, like I learned little that if I could be in control of things, life would be peaceful.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

So I I would say I'm no longer a control person, but because of those roots of control, I like to try to fix stuff. Oh, and so friend, I know. I'm like, and so I would be doing something for way too long, and I'm sitting here looking back, like, wait a minute, I am more invested in this person, and that I think is a struggle for me because I find myself pulling people along, and that's not how the Lord designed it to be. These toss of seeds, they gotta walk out their own faith, they gotta walk out their own journey. So that I think that is my struggle. Knowing boundaries, yeah. I know is okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

There's there's some people, and we both just went through some similar situations of trying to, I don't want to say over help someone because that sounds bad, but we probably went in a little too too too far with them. Um, and you gotta seek the Lord's guidance on that because there's some people that keep the Lord makes telling you, hey, just pick up the phone call once a month, once a week. And with people, he's like, I need to meet this person face to face, have lunch with them. I mean, they'll give you guidance and all that, and um, yeah, we both been in the things a little too deep.

SPEAKER_03 20:20

I have to say, like, anger, and and mine, it's it's not been like the little stuff, it's been stuff with like my kids. Like, there's been moments I've had to like, I'm going up to the school, and I hear my friend, you're a public figure now, and what would the Lord say? And I'm like, because I'm like rigged, like and then I have to be like, what's the words to say? Because and I think me getting braces with the red god is like I'm gonna show because sometimes I'm gonna fix my mouth and say something, my lip get caught on the top part of my braces, and I'm like, now I'm stuttering, I was like, get it. I ain't saying it, I'm just gonna be quiet. But man, it's like when you grow, people think that's it, okay, you've grown, but then there's like more pieces of like growth.

SPEAKER_00 21:17

Now mine is dealing with the well, and no one is gonna come and pat you on the back and say, what a good Christian, what a good person you were today.

unknown 21:27

But if if they've if they already know your character, if you act out of character, they'll be quick to call that out.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

So yeah, you gotta be very careful to nobody or something.

SPEAKER_03 21:40

So through you all serving, has anything come out of you that you didn't expect? Like, oh, I didn't know I was capable of doing that, or you know, like did you find something within yourself that you didn't never see?

SPEAKER_00 21:57

I would say just We were talking about this before we started, just the praying for like the random people. Um, I was always kind of kept to myself, and it's kind of weird, like I'm on the stage doing music in front of people, but when it comes to these private, intimate prayer things, like I was I struggle with those. And um just being able to pray for people, um, even without knowing what they need. Like the Lord has called me a few times, just go go to someone who's already at the altar and just pray for them. Lord, I don't know what they love. And he reminds me, I do, you know, to go pray for them. So I think for me that that kind of brought that uncomfortableness out of me, and and now I'll just you know, your Walmart knew prayer and all right up to you and Massie can tell you pray for you.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

Well, I think um what I have noticed anyway is that at least on this side, and maybe I've noticed it before, but I've noticed that what we do every day, people are always watching. People are watching all the time. And there are people that that are watching you for years, do you know, and they're not necessarily looking for you to break. But I was thinking of this one lady and I used to work with her, bless her heart, and I remember her telling me, she's like, I've watched you and it's helped me open up our relationship again with the Lord. And I wasn't doing anything, I wasn't preaching, I wasn't praying for her, I was just being real every day. And and I think we forget that, and I think I can sort of speak to this when he was on stage, right? I could have easily fallen into well, I'm not really up there performing, I'm not doing anything. But that was his calling. My calling was just to walk out in faith every day, and there were people around being ministered and I didn't know it. Like I didn't have to do anything but be me and like God do all the work and get all the glory. So I think I've just become more aware of that, and I think especially like with addicts and stuff, because there's so much going on, they just need to see people consistently loving them, they need to see people consistently not falling back because they have an outburst or something like that that they're here and they're true, and these are people that you can trust. I I think that's definitely something that the Lord's maybe more aware of.

SPEAKER_03 23:58

I think consistency is the word because uh a lot of them really don't have that structure and consistency. So when they and it could be a little bit scary for them because they're having like somebody that okay, you can every day consistently show up and do this exact same thing. Um I think that that part is the main part because they don't have some have that, you know. Think about it, some of them didn't grow up in stable houses, families and or they just didn't have stability, period, you know.

SPEAKER_05 24:40

So I think for everybody consistency is what keeps them coming back, or you know, just you know, keeping up with their person.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

Yeah, let I mean letting them see something different. I mean, because you're right, a lot so many of the people grew up with a traumatic childhood, and let's be honest, that's I heard we had um it was a prophet who came in and he laughed and he's like, Everyone always says that your childhood's the best years of your life. And he's like, most people spend their entire adult life trying to overcome their childhood, and you know, he he made it a joke, but it's very real. I mean, most of the things that we deal with, and people don't want to talk about that, and a lot of times they don't even know, they don't even recognize until they get to a certain point in their recovery that hey, I'm still dealing with this stuff that happened to me as a child. So they need the consistency, they need that love, they need someone to not walk out on them and not abandon them. And it doesn't mean to carry the burdens because we gotta learn to say no, gotta have boundaries, those are healthy, but you know, just to be there and say, hey, I'm here for you, you know, when the time is right, I can't carry you through this, but I'm gonna be here and that's just something I think the Lord equips you to do.

SPEAKER_03 25:51

Yeah, you can't not do that in your own strength. Have y'all have you all witnessed a uh moment of a testimony unfolding um like unfolding right in front of you?

SPEAKER_05 26:02

And what did that do to you in terms of it?

SPEAKER_00 26:06

Um speaking while girls came in to tell your entire um this man had a true face-to-face encounter with Jesus. And I can't tell the story, but just if you hear it, you'll know without a doubt. Yeah, it was in prison. He was in uh Believe Federal Prison. Uh he's from West Virginia. We brought him in for a guest speaker night. He shared his testimony. This lady came down. God bless her. I don't know who she was, she had never been to the program before. Um, but you could tell he was getting ready to open the altar, but he hadn't officially made the call to do that. She started walking down, and she had a cave. And he he was praying for her, and I was praying for some other people, and all of a sudden I looked back, and this woman just falls out the floor. And and he was he was sharing with us some of the stuff that had happened, and he said that she she requested prayer for two things. She says she came in and could not see at all out of her right eye. And I prayed for her for once, and I covered up her left eye, and he started holding up fingers, and she said, I can't see. He says, You're going to. And he prayed the second time, and then he did it look like this, and that was holding her finger, and she started throwing her finger. She was holding up, and she came in with crippling arthritis pain. This was what he said she said to him, and she left out there with no pain. So it's just that's probably I don't want to say the first time, but that's probably one of the most powerful I guess movements of God that I've seen because he's still healing people today. It just takes that faith as a mustard to you for it to happen. And this woman came down there and she was ready to be healed, and it just it just touched me. I mean, I just I love seeing stuff like that. When because you don't see that all the time, but when God allows you to just witness that, what's he saying? This word, you know, blessed are those who don't see and believe. Well, you got you let me see, and I already believe, Lord. So it's like you gave me the privilege of seeing someone get healed, and it just it just touched me.

SPEAKER_01 28:17

Just go ahead. No, well, I was gonna say it's even prior to that, I think you should tell the testimony of um with Brandy. Like with the song and Brandy, just the way the Lord sets things up.

SPEAKER_00 28:29

Yeah, so um after I wrote this going back to the beginning of my music ministry. So after I wrote my first song, one of my prayers to God was, God, I need a confirmation that this is the path you want me. Because I was in a lot of stuff of busy. My heart was in the right place, but I know God didn't want me in all that stuff I was in. And I wrote a song called Welcome Home, where I tell a story of three people, three different seasons of life or ages, who all leave this earth under three different circumstances. The one thing they all share was their love of Jesus. That's where the title from Welcome Home, we hit Welcome Into Heaven. The second verse was about a young lady that neither her nor I knew, but she lived in the community we lived in. She went to school with our two oldest kids. I think she was a few breaks ahead of them, and they didn't know her either, uh, but they knew who she was. And she was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer at age 14. Uh, she would go out for treatments, the school with all these pet rallies and uh make bracelets and t-shirts. And I remember some local businesses even put her name on the sign and so we're brand for you. Just it's just an awesome showing of not only guys club, but community love. And this young lady passed away about a year after she graduated. So I I wrote the second verse of this song without saying her name because I don't know her, but I used what I could find in news interviews, articles, and stuff to write the second verse of the song. So I get the song done, and I felt this urge to go to this uh lady by the name of Randy Plater, who at the time was on our worship team. And I'm over at Brandy's house getting the vibe down for this chorus, and and I share with her the story of this young lady. I said, Well, this is what the second verse is about. And she looked at me and she said, This is about so-and-so, isn't it? I'm like, Do you just remember the story? And it was on the news, you know. I said, I haven't told anyone but my wife. And um Brandy said that she was a nurse that took her for over four years.

SPEAKER_05 30:28

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 30:31

Always gets me home.

SPEAKER_01 30:32

And the great thing about it was Brandy was also the one that led the young lady to be bored before she passed away. Wow, so it's like when we think about testimonies, a testimony is not always like in a moment like a big feeling. Sometimes God is building up a testimony that He can only get the credit for. Yeah, and it just takes time to build it together.

SPEAKER_00 30:51

So it kept going from there. Like we shared that testimony and an event that Nicole was at, didn't know Nicole, but she came up in order of how we were performing. She came up after Brandy and I, and where Nicole had lost her teenage son to sickle cell disease. She said, I was supposed to be here to hear y'all's testimony. And I remember telling her after that, I said, God, just connected us, we're supposed to do something together. Here we are, eight years later. I was taking her all over the place. She's lighting me to everything. We're just working together in the kingdom, which is what we're supposed to be doing.

SPEAKER_06 31:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:22

Uh quick question.

SPEAKER_04 31:24

A lot of people are free to talk about God and talk about Jesus. But uh, what gives y'all the courage to be the speak out and be at the moment? Because you know, like in the climate we are in right now, uh the world is a very dangerous, craziest part of the and what gives you the motivation to continue to share the words or the news in the first place.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

Well, you just you can't have fear. I mean, I I can think back that there was probably a part of time in my early in my faith when I just wanted to tell everyone about the Lord. I can't remember there was a time that I didn't want to share it. Um, what I think is that the Lord is in control, and if my persecution is gonna come, right? I mean, all the apostles were persecuted, like if you look at that, bluster you and you're persecuted, right? I mean, it's and that's just gonna happen, but I can't walk around in fear because I should be more fearful where they may spend an eternity if I don't share. And with that being said, you can't be like crazy. You know what I'm saying? Like, you can't be like that the crazy Christian that you know our old pastor used to joke about that sometime. Like, you've got to be real, like you have to. I'm not gonna walk in the middle of the fight and all of a sudden start trying to talk people and get them saved. Like, you gotta trust your discernment, you gotta wait for the Lord to open the door. And I think it was Paul who's like, you have to be all things to all people, like you have to be connected to someone, I think, before you can begin to do that. But you know, it's like if the Lord says to do it, I've got to trust that you know, I don't want to get in the way of what he's asking me to do.

SPEAKER_00 33:03

Yeah, and for me, I always remind myself that yes, there's I can I can show you who Jesus is without mentioning the Bible, without saying I'm a Christian, without mentioning the name of Jesus, without quoting the scripture. I can show you who he is through my actions too. And that alone when you just love people and and they see that you're smiling through some chaotic storm in your life, they're gonna be intrigued. They're like, how are you getting through this? Oh, glad you asked. You know, and there's a time and place for everything. You always have to throw scripture at people or sometimes that can they come across as an attack or something to them and they're not ready to proceed, so you can just order to have a conversation about it.

SPEAKER_04 33:47

And the the reason I asked that question is because I was uh into prison and stuff like that. I became a member of the Nation Concert and all that and then O D.

SPEAKER_05 34:04

I saw the light and darkness and all that stuff. And then I went to jail and subject. I I get it, you know.

SPEAKER_04 34:19

Um at one point I wouldn't even say the words you said, I was just like, no, you know, and now I'm going back to church and uh accepting out of my life again because my mom, she's an ordinary minister, and uh me, my mom, my sister used to clash over that a lot. And then for me to know that you know he is real, you know, and she I mean it's saying I'd rather believe and get there and find out that he's not real than not believe and get there and find out that he is right. So now it's like I don't need nobody to tell me I I actually know because you know I will ask him like back in a lot of times, if you real show me. But he'll show me the whole time. But it took something really tragic to make me sick because I was fighting to get back. It was it was I could have easily went to the other side, but it was that that calm. It was it was nothing that I thought, you know, like when they go down, you're like, it's gotta be that's what I mean. It wasn't like I just wanted to have it's good to see people also.

SPEAKER_03 35:40

I think it goes back to your word decision about the old tasting sea. Like I used to be that that uh my cousins had to get on me all the time. I was that was because I had gone through chemotherapy, like I had gone through things that should have killed me, and I would be like, you need to be leaving and stop, you know, and she was like, Jeremiah, you cannot make people believe. And so for me, I had to really, I used to hear it on time in church, oh takes to see that the Lord is good. I used to say, like, oh taste to see that the Lord is good, but then I had to really find out like what that meant. Like, I can't force you to, that's like you trying something. Like, I can't force you to say, here, take this and drink this. You have to on your own terms and own time see, like, okay, well, maybe I do like it. Let me take a sip. You know, I don't like it, okay. But I think that's what you all would like saying. Like, you can't, and it does get frustrating when you see people like like that's on my aircraft on my camera. I love God. I just uh it's it's sometimes frustrating because how the world is now it's like you don't so yesterday it was raining, today is hot, y'all don't see what's going on in the world, you know, like still ain't that so much. Okay, so I think well, let's keep moving.

SPEAKER_00 37:19

Well, I think it's just everyone, everyone has that mindset of I got time to do. Yeah, you know, I gotta clean myself up for something like that. You're never gonna be clean enough ever. If you have that mindset, you'll never be clean, especially in the flesh. We're never gonna be clean enough to be in those presents and uh be good enough for now. That's what the race is for. Yeah, you know, it's the encounter, right?

SPEAKER_01 37:40

You know what I'm saying? It's just it's the encounter, right? When we say we taste and see, most of us who have encountered the Lord, like I was in and out of church, like you know, my I always think it was so crazy. My parents paid for me to go to private school, you know what I mean? Like, I know the life I live, the irony of like them putting me in a private school, and I remember learning Genesis 1-1. But now when I kind of just look back on the encounter, I encountered Jesus in 2014 at an Easter service, and it was in my most broken spot when I felt the most abandoned, when I felt the most alone. And once I encountered him, and it was like I left different, life didn't change, right? Like, I didn't all of a sudden go home to a perfect marriage and bring kids, but I left different, and all of a sudden, like the way I began to deal with life was different. That I think is what makes the difference for all of us, like, and that that is my hope, you know. When we talk about what we want to see in in the program, if they encounter the Lord just like if they encountered it at the hope center, that's it. Like God's got them. Like it's it's not my place to teach them. I mean, I we do teach people about the Lord, it's not our place to do that, but it's not my place to save them. You know, like it's just we're we're called to be obedient to the Lord, but we're not always responsible for the results because that person has to accept, you know, so that the encounter is so important.

SPEAKER_04 38:55

I I think though, uh, when it comes to the miracle part, uh people they refuse to acknowledge the miracle because if they did, they had to acknowledge God. You know, and like when I was out and using and living that life, I remember one night I'm in an um abandoned apartment with a bunch of my friends and we're all using, and it's raining, and I'm looking out the window, and I look back at them, I look out the window, and I'm like, I'm not gonna be here with y'all for much longer. I'm I'm gonna get my life together. And they're like, he ain't doing that, you know. Yeah, and I hop along the OD since then, you know, and three years I've been working to get better, you know. So I understand the miracle part of it, you know, and I understand of hearing him would not answer this call. I understand, and I understand the part about running from it too. And I think that was the part that kept me out there that long because I knew once I gave my life to him, I would have to do right. I had to do his will and my will, you know, and that free will thing is uh slippery slow because a lot of times I want to do what I want to do, you know, not what he is asking of, you know. Um and it gets hard sometimes because you know, being the good guy all the time is it's not easy, you know. You got to be the better the bigger person in situations, um, you know, and and actually uh you got you know, you you you you you got it. I can't I can't curse you out right now. I'm gonna go to pray, you know. I'm gonna go pray. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:45

Um I don't want to say too much, but uh I had something had gone on with my nephew, and family prayer, and I was trying to be like, what are you gonna find? I was like, Lord, I hope they have a good weekend. But if something happens where they don't get to go, the show will be done, but I'm not being mean guys. I was like not trying to be because with the situation that happened, it really had me to the point I wanted to text and come up like you lost your mind, like to the other person, but I cannot I got a shout out, I can't say ninjas is mine. I was gonna shout, ninjas is yours. And it was kind of I just kept saying, hmm, ninjas is mine. So and I was like, so when I was praying, I was like, well, we done if if it I ain't trying to be mean, you know, but so if somebody is listening right now and they're in the middle of their test and can't see their purpose yet, what truth would you speak over that?

SPEAKER_01 42:12

It's just it's Romans 828, God works all things for good, and and our delayed disobedience is still disobedience. So we we have to tear down ourselves and lay our flesh down in the middle of the test because ultimately we sometimes make those tests harder than they need to be. And and that's the reality that we come to and there are things that we don't have control over, and you know, it's always easier to say that on this side, right? It's easy to say that, but you got to sometimes take your own advice, and that's that's what it boils down to is trust in the Lord, trust in his ways. And you know, God knows it all, he knows the beginning and the end, everything in between. And we forget sometimes, like on this long timeline, we are like a blip right here, right? But we've got all this before and after us, and what is happening with us today impacts so many things that may come. Like, you know, that test you're going through might be something where your child learns something to do differently, or all of a sudden they see a different way, and now you're breaking generational curses that you don't even realize that you've been carrying for years, but you've got to stay consistent to doing it God's way, not our way. You know, it's like when you you laugh about we do remember vengeance belongs to the Lord, but sometimes like our flesh comes in and we gotta take over again. It's like, Lord, I'm sorry, I'm I'm the passenger here. Let me get out of the driver's seat and skin over again. And thanks for correcting me quickly.

SPEAKER_00 43:35

And I'm sure everybody can think of something like present day that you just just realize what was happening three years ago, but you didn't realize it three years ago because you're in the midst of it. And there's a scripture where Jesus says that now you don't know what I'm doing, but soon you will. And and I always think about that. Like, you know, I look back and not to go into specific scenarios, but like I said, the the stuff that Happened two or three years ago. God, why didn't I get this opportunity? Why didn't I do this? Why didn't you know not that you're questioning God, but you're just like, why is this not happening for me, Lord? I love you, my heart's with you. And then two years down the road, you say, Oh, something bad happened there. It's a God's being protect me, God.

SPEAKER_01 44:16

We just talked about that. Well, and you know, we were talking about this too. Sometimes the Lord is preparing you for something for the future. And you need the skills that you're picking up, you need to manage and you need to peel back whatever you're overcoming right now. Because in your next battle or the next thing that God has planned for you, you need to be able to rely on those, right? Like we haven't learned patience and we haven't learned love. I mean, and you know this when you're working with people in recovery, like your patience get tested, you know. I'm like, I mean, why are they not taking this advice? Like it would turn their life around so quick, don't they see? And you want to kind of jump in, but you know, they've got to get through that. And I think that's the important thing to remember, too, is sometimes what we're doing today, what we're gonna do is preparing us for the next battle.

SPEAKER_03 45:00

That's the that's the joy of being a peer. We have you know, we're we're supposed to be supports and guides, we cannot tell you what to do. Sometimes is it a gift and a person? Uh yeah, absolutely. Because like, see, that's what I'm like, um, I have a member now.

SPEAKER_00 45:23

I'm like, we talked about this, and they're like, yeah, but I did this because and I was like it's the whole needle horse to learn, but you can't make those type thing, and it's a very frustrating, very frustrating.

SPEAKER_03 45:39

Sometimes you have to be like, okay, go, best friend. Great, and then you sit there like muting the phone, so I think that sometimes I gotta be looking at me like that you know I know his angels be having side conversations with him about me, like heavenly father is us again.

SPEAKER_04 46:06

Let me tell you what she did. Man, this this is popped in my head. The other night I'm going to work, I'm going down the highway, straight out there, is what, three lanes? And the car coming straight towards me.

SPEAKER_05 46:22

Yeah. I'm like, am I really saying this right judge?

SPEAKER_04 46:32

I hate the lights like that, do, do, do, do, and I get over. I'm like, man.

SPEAKER_01 46:39

I'm glad you invaded that. I know I work insurance for my regular job, so I just went into insurance for me.

SPEAKER_03 46:52

Uh what's the question you always asked at the end?

SPEAKER_05 46:55

Oh, uh, if you could uh tell yourself your younger self something you'll need for or should you put it.

SPEAKER_00 47:14

No, it's it's funny because I actually have a song on the album where I'm talking to the younger version of myself. It's funny that you asked this question. So I wrote song lyrics like I was talking to the younger me, and it's just just seeing like a physical like a visual of literally me right now standing in front of a 20-year-old me, I know the 20-year-old me would not listen to anything I have to say anyways. I mean, he was just he wouldn't. He's like, I uh I've got money, I've got my charming personality. I don't need you know, that's that's who I was back then. Um but if I if I had to pick some type of advice that just to give that they would listen to.

SPEAKER_01 47:51

Um I just I look back and I would say that you ain't gotta have it all together. Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 48:00

Like you don't have the same time with her death, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:02

You do not have to have it all together, and you don't have to put on an image and you don't have to look perfect, and just trust that God's got you. You know, it's uh you look back, like especially like there's a young lady who's been on a diet recently and she's posting her stuff on Facebook, and like I remember getting married at 99 pounds, and I remember, and this is this is just what I mean though. Like, I remember thinking, like, God might start.

SPEAKER_06 48:24

You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 48:24

I'm like under 100 pounds, and it just like I will I needed someone to speak that life over me. Even if I didn't receive it, I needed to hear it over and over, not the fight, not the argument, just you're good.

SPEAKER_00 48:36

Well, I think for me, like the the lifestyle that I ran with, like the bar hopping club and stuff like that for 10 or 15 years. It's when you get out of that, you quickly realize that everyone that was oh man, I'm always gonna be down with you, so you're always gonna be down with a party. Yes, the minute you get out of that lifestyle, and it's nothing, no judging on them. But when you're trying to better yourself, you quickly realize, well, why aren't you answering your phone? I texting people you text me all the time when I was like, Man, getting downtown to such and such fly, yeah, I'll be there. But now you're not talking to me because you know, just just to focus on, just just remember like it. Sometimes it's better when your circle is smaller. Yeah, Jesus had 12 disciples, he didn't have 5,000 social media followers. That's right.

SPEAKER_04 49:26

When you find yourself, you lose everybody else. Yeah, it's good. I like that.

SPEAKER_03 49:29

Yeah, that's good. Yeah, that's the that's the hard part, I think, because like, and I think I think that was hard for me. Well, not hard, but when I first started um getting into ministry and speaking, like I was I was kind of nervous to tell my friends, I don't know why, because they've always been supportive. But now they're even like even more supportive. Like even when I do my mom, and and actually I heard one friend tell me, like, you see your fate rocks made me go back to church.

SPEAKER_00 50:08

And I was like, see, that goes back to what she said that someone's always watching, yeah, and then they may never say a word to you because we're not intended to know all the the goodness that happens out of our actions, but there are always people watching it. Yes, always you can't get a me.

SPEAKER_03 50:30

So you just listen to the blinded two podcast, test testimony, testify, powered by destiny is by choice, support services. If you take anything from today's conversation, let it be this your test has purpose, and every challenge, every moment that stretched you, every experience that shaped your heart, it's all part of something bigger. Because when you choose to show up in love, when you choose to serve, when you choose to pour into others, that's when testimonies begin to take life. Not just in you, but in the people you impact. You don't have to share the same background to make a difference, you just have to be willing to show up with the right part. And when you do, God gets the glory every single time. Remember, your destiny is by choice, not by chance.

SPEAKER_02 51:31

And until next time, keep walking in the truth.