SPEAKER_01: Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Hall.
SPEAKER_01: I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior.
SPEAKER_01: Embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Today, be encouraged with a word from my guest speaker.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Born for War podcast.
SPEAKER_02: So last night I went to the Lord and just began to ask him what he would like me to present this morning.
SPEAKER_02: And you know that we've been in the middle of a cosmic war, Satan, demons, and the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: Steve's been bringing that, and I know that there's uh still several weeks uh left on that series.
SPEAKER_02: Uh Steve didn't necessarily say, you know, I needed to go with that theme, um, but I really felt like the Lord wanted me to share some of my story along the lines of the cosmic war.
SPEAKER_02: And so I'm gonna follow along that theme, not exactly as Steve has, but I'm gonna share a little bit like of my perspective, my story, and what I've encountered uh throughout my lifetime.
SPEAKER_02: Um, how many know that God has a plan for your life?
SPEAKER_02: Raise your hand.
SPEAKER_02: How many believe that it's a good plan?
SPEAKER_02: All right, I know that Jeremiah 29.11 is coming to your mind right now.
SPEAKER_02: Let me read Jeremiah 29.11 for you.
SPEAKER_02: For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you.
SPEAKER_02: Woohoo! Plans to prosper you not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
SPEAKER_02: Woo-hoo! All right, how many that does that pump up anybody else?
SPEAKER_02: His plans are good not to harm us, but to give us hope and to give us a good future.
SPEAKER_02: How many know that that's that's a wonderful verse in the Bible, probably one of my favorites.
SPEAKER_02: But did you know that that verse comes with a condition?
SPEAKER_02: Everybody knows Jeremiah 29, 11, but nobody knows Jeremiah 29, 12 and 13.
SPEAKER_02: How many know that most of the promises of God come with a condition?
SPEAKER_02: It means if you do this, then he's gonna do this.
SPEAKER_02: And here's what it says in Jeremiah 29, 12 and 13.
SPEAKER_02: Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
SPEAKER_02: Woo-hoo! That's good news too, right?
SPEAKER_02: How many are glad that when you pray, he'll listen to you?
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't fall on deaf ears.
SPEAKER_02: He actually hears your prayers, he responds to our prayers, but then listen to verse 13.
SPEAKER_02: You will seek me and find me when you seek me with half of your heart.
SPEAKER_02: One of the things that Pastor Steve talks about, probably every Sunday it comes up.
SPEAKER_02: Be wholehearted.
SPEAKER_02: Be all in.
SPEAKER_02: Worship God with all your heart.
SPEAKER_02: He's not looking for half your heart, he's not looking for 99% of your heart.
SPEAKER_02: You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart.
SPEAKER_02: So if we read the whole thing together, his plans are good for us, not to harm us, to give us hope and to give us a future, a good future.
SPEAKER_02: Call to him and he'll listen to you.
SPEAKER_02: Seek me and you'll find me when you seek me with all of your heart.
SPEAKER_02: That's a wonderful promise that I hope that you're taking advantage of.
SPEAKER_02: So so we all agree God has a good plan for us.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah?
SPEAKER_02: Um, how many know that uh the the uh devil also has a plan for you?
SPEAKER_02: Not as many hands went up that time.
SPEAKER_02: One of the things that uh that it some of you might might might have been thinking, even with this series, like, man, we seem to be talking about the devil a lot.
SPEAKER_02: It's like, should we be talking about the devil this much?
SPEAKER_02: And you know, like it's all about Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_02: Not the devil.
SPEAKER_02: Um, Satan's demons and the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: Well, let me just say it's fine to talk about the devil.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, we should.
SPEAKER_02: It says in 2 Corinthians 2, verse 11, in order that Satan might not outwit you, for we are not to be unaware of his schemes.
SPEAKER_02: The enemy has a plan for you, and it's fine for us to kind of uncover that plan because how many knows that it would be hard to fight a battle if you didn't know who you were fighting?
SPEAKER_02: So, one of the reasons that Pastor Steve is doing this series is he's wanting you to know your adversary.
SPEAKER_02: He's wanting you to know because then you're able to fight more effectively.
SPEAKER_02: So, so what is the devil's plan for us?
SPEAKER_02: Uh, Pastor Steve, I think, used this in a sermon a week or two ago.
SPEAKER_02: The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy.
SPEAKER_02: The thief, the devil, comes only to steal, to kill, and to destroy.
SPEAKER_02: But then God says, I am come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.
SPEAKER_02: Can I can I get on a soapbox for just one second?
SPEAKER_02: Is that okay?
SPEAKER_02: It's been my experience in 25 years of pastoral ministry that the enemy is okay for you not to die.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I know what it says here that he wants to kill you, and how many know that he has been effective at that for some people?
SPEAKER_02: But you know what I've found is even a more effective scheme that the enemy has is to just steal your destiny, steal and distract you from your dreams, and then let you live.
SPEAKER_02: How many have ever run across somebody that says, Man, I would go to church if it weren't for all those hypocrites?
SPEAKER_02: And you know what?
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes they're right.
SPEAKER_02: Because the enemy has worked his scheme well.
SPEAKER_02: He's allowed us to live, but we're like the church that he says is at the last days.
SPEAKER_02: We have a form of godliness, but we don't have any power.
SPEAKER_02: So it's fine.
SPEAKER_02: Come come on Sundays, fill a seat, even lift a hand in worship, and then forget about God all week long till next Sunday when you're here again.
SPEAKER_02: He's fine with that.
SPEAKER_02: The devil loves that kind of Christianity.
SPEAKER_02: Did you know that the statistic is that I think eight out of ten people in America are Christians?
SPEAKER_02: I I don't know where I heard that statistic.
SPEAKER_02: You know what that means?
SPEAKER_02: That means, or or or claim to be Christians.
SPEAKER_02: That means that eight out of every ten people that you meet on the highway in traffic are Christians.
SPEAKER_02: But how many know that you can call yourself a Christian without actually living a Christian lifestyle?
SPEAKER_02: So this whole series is not meant to just scare you, or it's really meant to equip you to rise up to fulfill God's purpose, God's plan, and push back from the enemy's plan for you.
SPEAKER_02: So as I was thinking about my life, and just kind of as Pastor Steve has been preaching and and um about you know the kingdom of God and and how the devil fights us, and and kind of um there's demonic activity around us, and there's this cosmic war, I just really kind of had said, God, where should I begin with my life?
SPEAKER_02: And so I thought I, you know, I've only got 30 minutes, I might have to go a little longer because I felt like I needed to start in the womb.
SPEAKER_02: I don't have a womb, by the way, I'm just holding my stomach.
SPEAKER_02: Where does it start for me?
SPEAKER_02: In the womb.
SPEAKER_02: No, um, when my mom was pregnant with me, um, both my uh my mom and dad were traveling ministers and uh and then pastors for a number of years.
SPEAKER_02: And um, so they lived in Michigan and they used to travel around and go to churches and speak and minister.
SPEAKER_02: And so she was pregnant with me, and they were about to go minister at this church in um uh a town that was about two or three hours away, kind of two and a half hours away.
SPEAKER_02: And so they uh were getting ready to leave town, and somebody ran a stop sign and uh hit their car.
SPEAKER_02: And so it it didn't do any uh they they were fine, they were okay, they weren't even hurt at all, uh, but the car was not drivable, so they you know got it towed and they called the church and and was telling them, like, hey, we're not gonna be able to make it tonight, we were in an accident, and so they said, Oh, that's fine.
SPEAKER_02: Uh but then a friend called them up and said, Hey, we heard you were in an accident.
SPEAKER_02: Would you like to borrow our car?
SPEAKER_02: So they said, Well, we're fine.
SPEAKER_02: Um, we have a car, um, maybe we should go.
SPEAKER_02: So they called the church back and said, Hey, we'll be there after all.
SPEAKER_02: So they were about two hours away on their way to the church, and it was snowing, and uh my dad lost control and went off into a ditch and wrecked the car.
SPEAKER_02: So they wrecked their friend's car, they wrecked their car.
SPEAKER_02: They were in two accidents in one day.
SPEAKER_02: Well, the the worst part was my mom started hemorrhaging after that accident.
SPEAKER_02: And so when the church came to get them and pick them up, they took her to the emergency, and um, but then the church uh they went back to the church and they had their meeting, and the church began to intercede for my mom and for me.
SPEAKER_02: And her bleeding stopped.
SPEAKER_02: So, how many know that sometimes the enemy has a plan to take us out, but the Lord will step in and he'll save us?
SPEAKER_02: So, when I talk about from the womb, God literally has saved my life from my mother's womb.
SPEAKER_02: On several occasions when I've spoken, I've not uh been secretive.
SPEAKER_02: I felt like the Lord years ago wanted me to just be very vocal about the sexual abuse that I had as a young man from about the age of eight to eleven.
SPEAKER_02: I was sexually abused by somebody in my dad's church for a number of years, and it really, really messed me up.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, really, especially as a teenager and even a young adult, uh, rig really wrestled.
SPEAKER_02: Um, but how many know that God is a healer, not just of our physical body, but of our mental, our emotional health?
SPEAKER_02: Um, and he really did heal me.
SPEAKER_02: I went to college around that time, and one of the things that you know I really did not want to do was go into ministry.
SPEAKER_02: And so um my both my brothers were pastors, um, uh my mom and dad were pastors at that time, and I wanted to be a school teacher.
SPEAKER_02: So I went to college, I got my degree, and uh, when I got my degree, um just about a month after I went through the graduation, and then I was entering the teacher's ed program, uh, the fifth year program, um my dad called me into his office, and he said, uh, he said, Brian, he said, I know that you you know have your degree, you're about to enter the teacher's ed program.
SPEAKER_02: He said, but um, you know, our church has grown, we're to the point where we wanted to add uh an associate pastor on.
SPEAKER_02: Would you consider uh becoming the associate pastor and the worship leader?
SPEAKER_02: And um, and then he got a piece of paper and he wrote down a number.
SPEAKER_02: And I was kind of looking over at my wife, and we were sitting across the desk.
SPEAKER_02: He turned it around and he slid it across and he said, Here's what I can pay you.
SPEAKER_02: And I looked over at my wife, and how many know that when you're married, you don't even have to say anything?
SPEAKER_02: But the look on her face was basically, mm-mm.
SPEAKER_02: You just went four years to college so that we can, you know, make a living.
SPEAKER_02: And uh, so but I did tell my dad, I said, I will pray about it.
SPEAKER_02: And so we left the office, we're walking down the middle aisle, uh, out of the church, and my wife turns to me and she goes, We're not gonna do it, right?
SPEAKER_02: I said, No, not a chance.
SPEAKER_02: And so we walk out, we get in the car, and we're sitting in the uh in the parking lot and about to leave, and I turn on the radio, and um a song comes on, and we're just kind of sitting there, just listening for a few minutes, and it was a uh a girl named Crystal Lewis that used to be a pretty famous Christian singer, and uh she starts singing this song.
SPEAKER_02: It says, All I had to give was a broken heart torn apart.
SPEAKER_02: That's all I had to give.
SPEAKER_02: All I had were empty promises, and I can't remember the next word, but it's all I had to give, but in return he gave me love and wonders untold, and in return, I'm getting all the words wrong, but it's basically in return he gave me peace and wonder and powers and treasures, all these things.
SPEAKER_02: And then he gets to the bridge, and it's like if you were like me, you didn't have a lot of gold, position, money, you didn't know wealth untold, but I'm glad he didn't look at the things that I had, but in turn gave me all that I need.
SPEAKER_02: Key change, and in return, and right at that key change, I look over, and I'm just listening, you know, and I'm not really thinking anything.
SPEAKER_02: And I look over, and my wife has big old bucket tears just rolling down her cheeks.
SPEAKER_02: And she and I look at her and I start crying, and I'm like, we're gonna do it, aren't we?
SPEAKER_02: And she goes, I think so.
SPEAKER_02: But but here's the thing, and the reason that I tell that story is because when we talk about the kingdom of God, one of the things that Pastor Steve asked us to do, if nothing else, is to quote the Lord's Prayer every day and to read Psalm 23 every day.
SPEAKER_02: Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
SPEAKER_02: Do you know that from the moment that I said yes to God's plan, I've never wanted.
SPEAKER_02: My shepherd has always provided for me.
SPEAKER_02: Here's what it says in the Lord's Prayer Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_02: Not my kingdom come, my will be done.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Jesus said, pray it this way, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_02: Let me give you another reminder.
SPEAKER_02: Matthew 6, 33.
SPEAKER_02: But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
SPEAKER_02: Seek first.
SPEAKER_02: Seek first the kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: You know, a lot of people when it comes to the whole tithing thing, they're like, Does the church need my money?
SPEAKER_02: Does God need my money?
SPEAKER_02: Here's what I found.
SPEAKER_02: I found that really tithing is the test to find out whether God's first.
SPEAKER_02: Because you you you typically find out with your money who you belong to.
SPEAKER_02: And so when he asks us to tithe, it's not because he needs the money, it's because he needs your heart.
SPEAKER_02: He needs you.
SPEAKER_02: He wants you, he wants to be in control of everything in your life.
SPEAKER_02: So here I was, I was going this way.
SPEAKER_02: School teacher, school teacher, school teacher.
SPEAKER_02: And God was like, but I have this other plan.
SPEAKER_02: And and I would go to bed at night.
SPEAKER_02: I remember even in my teenage years when I was just really rebellious and not even really serving God all that that zealously.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I was going to church, you know, but and I'd have dreams about semi-trucks driving into stadiums, and I'm on the and I'm on the stage in these dreams.
SPEAKER_02: And I've got a microphone, and I'm like singing, and I'm preaching, and there's thousands of people, and I'm like, that'll never happen.
SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm I'm nobody.
SPEAKER_02: How could I ever do any of that?
SPEAKER_02: And I have dreams of of just me doing ministering to people and in hospitals, and I mean I just had all these dreams, but I couldn't wrap my brain around.
SPEAKER_02: I was like, no, school teacher.
SPEAKER_02: School teacher.
SPEAKER_02: See, because when I thought of ministry, I thought of my parents and how people treated my parents.
SPEAKER_02: And my dad, I was just telling somebody down here that came up for prayer in the first service, and they were talking about just kind of having some somebody that hurt them in the church.
SPEAKER_02: And when I first started ministry, um I had um basically it was it was kind of a started uh pretty pretty rough because the some people on the board at that church wanted us to hire a youth pastor instead of a worship leader.
SPEAKER_02: And um so you know, they basically kind of told my parents, you know, you're just hiring Brian because he's your son and it's nepotism, and it's um, and and so we kind of got the brunt of that.
SPEAKER_02: And so we were uh at a youth camp right after we got hired in ministry, and you remember, I didn't want to be in ministry.
SPEAKER_02: I was like, I it was uh it was it was God like kind of forcing me and to say yes, like go my way, and then all of a sudden the first thing that I encounter in ministry is a bunch of hurtful people, and I'm like, this sucks.
SPEAKER_02: If this is what ministry is, like I'm out, like I'm gonna go be a school teacher.
SPEAKER_02: But you know, I'm leading worship at this camp, and this lady calls me and my wife up, and she he says, I just feel like there's I just see a lot of wounds on you.
SPEAKER_02: And uh she said, I feel like that um that if you're gonna make it in ministry, how long have you been in ministry?
SPEAKER_02: We're like two months.
SPEAKER_02: She's like, Yeah, okay, this is good.
SPEAKER_02: If you're gonna make it in ministry, then you're gonna have to have the skin of an alligator, but the heart of a dove.
SPEAKER_02: You're gonna have to have thick skin, but you're gonna have to keep your heart right.
SPEAKER_02: So then we went home after that camp.
SPEAKER_02: My dad um had us over and he said, I know it's been tough the last few months.
SPEAKER_02: He said, but um, he said, we've been in ministry now for 30-some years.
SPEAKER_02: And he said, There's a tendency as pastors when you're working with people to uh when you get hurt, especially to just kind of start keeping them keeping them at arm's length.
SPEAKER_02: He said, You can't do that and minister effectively.
SPEAKER_02: He said, To minister to people effectively, he said you have to bring them in close.
SPEAKER_02: And he said something I'll never forget.
SPEAKER_02: He said, You bring them in real close to you, so close that they can stab you in the back.
SPEAKER_02: And then he said, But remember this, Brian, when they stab you in the back, that's when you look the most like Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That's when you look like Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: So we we started ministry, and I had all kinds of things that we were doing.
SPEAKER_02: I was leading worship, and and it was good.
SPEAKER_02: And in my uh brain, we had these uh these things called revivals.
SPEAKER_02: How many have heard of revivals?
SPEAKER_02: Okay, um, somebody, you know, look up that scripture that talks about revival.
SPEAKER_02: It's not in there, the word revival is not in there.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, but we understand the concept, right?
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so revival.
SPEAKER_02: We would have these revivals, and uh I grew up Pentecostal.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we were the crazy ones.
SPEAKER_02: All right.
SPEAKER_02: Now you guys are looking at me cross-eyed.
SPEAKER_02: They're like, I'm not sure about this guy now.
SPEAKER_02: So I grew up Pentecostal, which means we were spirit-filled, speaking in tongues, holy rollers, if you want to call us.
SPEAKER_02: And uh, and so uh we would have these things called revivals.
SPEAKER_02: And so basically, what a revival was is that a minister, guest minister, would come in his RV and he would park in a parking lot and plug in the sewage and the uh the electrical, and then we were now in revival.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, and and it was basically a series of meetings.
SPEAKER_02: So it was Sunday morning, Sunday night, Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_02: And then and then some of these would go for weeks.
SPEAKER_02: We'd have like weeks of revival, and a lot of people would get saved.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it was awesome.
SPEAKER_02: It was one of my joys of my upbringing.
SPEAKER_02: But there was kind of an unspoken rule.
SPEAKER_02: There was an unspoken rule uh when we had revivals that the guest minister at some point was gonna call the preacher's kids out and prophesy over them.
SPEAKER_02: So we all knew, me and my two brothers out and the youngest, that this was coming.
SPEAKER_02: So we were ready, like it could happen at any time.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, and so, and it happened every single revival.
SPEAKER_02: They'd say, Where's the preacher's son?
SPEAKER_02: You know, bring him up.
SPEAKER_02: And my my oldest brother's name was Wayman.
SPEAKER_02: Um, no, I don't have a lisp.
SPEAKER_02: Not Raymond, it's Wayman.
SPEAKER_02: W-A-Y-M-A-N, Wayman.
SPEAKER_02: That was my dad's name.
SPEAKER_02: Um, and then he was Wayman Jr.
SPEAKER_02: And he's nine years older than me.
SPEAKER_02: And this is the prophecy that uh my brother would always get.
SPEAKER_02: They'd call him up and they'd say, Wayman, um, I see you being a pastor of pastors.
SPEAKER_02: You're an apostle to the nations.
SPEAKER_02: And my brother would, you know, like, and I'm talking different ministers, different revivals, like through the years, he kept getting this word, apostle, pastor of pastors, and you know, awesome word, right?
SPEAKER_02: So then my middle brother would get a prophecy too, typically, and I call him prophecy boy, because literally prophecy boy was prophesied over everywhere.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, everywhere we went, in the grocery store.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, he was just a prophecy magnet.
SPEAKER_02: I even saw at one point that they he was in the bathroom, and the speaker said, There's a boy in the bathroom.
SPEAKER_02: Go get him.
SPEAKER_02: Make sure he washes his hands first, but bring him in.
SPEAKER_02: And and they'd bring him in.
SPEAKER_02: And this is the prophecy that my brother would get prophecy boy.
SPEAKER_02: They would say, I see you in a crowd of people, and there's every tribe and every tongue, there's every color, there's every culture, and there's this massive uh crowd of people, and you're at the front and you're leading this procession with a banner that says praise and worship.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm I'm I'm talking about like different events, different speakers, different places, same terminology, crowd of people, banner, praise, worship.
SPEAKER_02: So basically, he's like the praise and worship leader to the nations.
SPEAKER_02: Now, you don't prophesy over the two oldest and leave out the youngest.
SPEAKER_02: So they'd eventually call me up too.
SPEAKER_02: So I'd they'd call me up and they'd lay hands and they prophesy over me.
SPEAKER_02: And this is the word that I got over and over again.
SPEAKER_02: You are so special.
SPEAKER_02: You're unique.
SPEAKER_02: And and I'm like getting this over and over again, like, you're special, you're special.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, am I special needs?
SPEAKER_02: Am I what do you mean by special?
SPEAKER_02: And I'm just getting this word over and over again.
SPEAKER_02: And and I'm thinking, like, what is so special about me?
SPEAKER_02: So then um, you know, time passed, and we were um, you know, in ministry for a while.
SPEAKER_02: I was doing young adult ministry um as well as worship ministry.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, they put me over a um like about a hundred churches because there was wasn't a lot going for the young adults in many of those churches, so I helped them start young adults' ministries.
SPEAKER_02: Then we started doing tours over the summer, you know, going different places, going to the nations, and um, and and and God was really moving and it was powerful.
SPEAKER_02: And so I was uh I was at this young adult um camp and I was leading worship, and I'll I was kind of doing the whole, you know, have you ever been to like a retreat where it's kind of like just an electronic atmosphere, like it's not the typical service, it's like just you can feel the energy in the room.
SPEAKER_02: And I was I was so pumped up, and I was like, God wants to use you guys, and I and I'm I'm playing the keyboard and I'm like, give him everything that he wants, give him your time, give him your clothes, give him your car, give him.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, I'm I'm naming like give him your everything, whatever he's asking, give it.
SPEAKER_02: And so I I'm kind of making this call, and everybody's like, oh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02: And then inwardly I'm praying, and I said, Lord, what do you what do you want from me?
SPEAKER_02: And he said, I want your songs.
SPEAKER_02: I was like, Oh, really?
SPEAKER_02: I said, because nobody else seems to want them.
SPEAKER_02: I've showed them to everybody, and nobody cares at all.
SPEAKER_02: He said, I want your songs.
SPEAKER_02: So the the event finished, and at the end of the event, I went to the altar and I had this folder with all my chicken scratch on it, napkins and um envelopes and papers and all my lyrics that I'd scribbled down, and um, and I took that folder and I laid it on the altar, and I said, Okay, Lord, these songs belong to you now.
SPEAKER_02: I said, I'm and and and I kind of felt as I was doing it, he said, and leave the results up to me.
SPEAKER_02: Just let me do with them what I want to do.
SPEAKER_02: I said, Okay, I'll write them, and then you do whatever you want to do with them.
SPEAKER_02: And um, and then I kind of forgot about it, honestly, but I really sensed that it was kind of a defining moment for me.
SPEAKER_02: So, meanwhile, while I'm writing songs and I'm doing all of these crazy things uh for the Lord, these young adult ministry, um, I just I had this idea when we were going on this missions trip.
SPEAKER_02: And uh we had about 15 people going.
SPEAKER_02: And so I I was reading this book, The Prayer of Jabez.
SPEAKER_02: How many remember the prayer of Jabez?
SPEAKER_02: All right, if you ever read that book.
SPEAKER_02: And there's this uh chapter in the book where it talks about all the undone things, where you there's all these things that that left undone, if but you can go after them if you you know believe.
SPEAKER_02: And I was reading that part of the book, and I came to the to the team, the the 15 people, we were having a prayer meeting and just kind of a prep time.
SPEAKER_02: I said, What if like we believed that this year when we go to Honduras and we go to El Salvador, that we would leave the nation completely changed?
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, do you guys believe that?
SPEAKER_02: And they're a bunch of young, young guys.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, do you believe that literally if we do everything that we possibly can, we pray, we fast, we put our all into it, that we can leave these nations completely changed.
SPEAKER_02: You're like, yeah, we believe it, Pastor Brian, let's do it.
SPEAKER_02: So so we start praying and fasting.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes God would wake us up at three in the morning, and we we I said, if God wakes you up in the middle of the night to pray for Honduras or El Salvador, I said, just do it.
SPEAKER_02: So we start praying.
SPEAKER_02: It was like three months, and we prepped and we raised our money and we um set up everything.
SPEAKER_02: So we get over there to Honduras, and when we're in Honduras, um there was this ministry that we were partnering with, and we had a drama ministry.
SPEAKER_02: And in this drama ministry, we were uh we were basically training their people how to do drama in street ministry.
SPEAKER_02: So we're training them and doing all this uh out getting ready for all this outreach stuff, and the guy that's head over the ministry comes walking in, he's like, You guys are not gonna believe this.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, What?
SPEAKER_02: He said, I just got a call from the president's office, actually, the president's wife's office from Honduras.
SPEAKER_02: I said, like the president, president?
SPEAKER_02: She's like, he's like, yeah, the president.
SPEAKER_02: And he said, in a couple days, he said, when we go to that orphanage uh and minister to all those kids, he said that they're gonna come and see what we're doing.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, wow, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_02: He said, You guys, uh, can you guys kind of like pretend to be our team and do your dramas and stuff because we're not very good yet?
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, okay, we could do that.
SPEAKER_02: So, and he said, and we'll do one drama too, you know, just not to lie or anything, but like, like, you're our team.
SPEAKER_02: So we go, and the um, I mean, it was the full entourage.
SPEAKER_02: The president of Honduras, his whole you know, security detail, the president's wife, and they set up these really like god gaudy looking chairs, you know, um, far away from the kids, but and then we had a stage right there, and they were just like basically just like watching you know, and everything we were doing.
SPEAKER_02: So we did our dramas and we loved on the kids, we gave them a bunch of gifts, and we're just talking to them and praying with them, and then the president and his wife drove off, and that was it.
SPEAKER_02: So that was Honduras, and then it was El Salvador.
SPEAKER_02: And I had to leave a little early, but I was there for the training part, and there was about a thousand kids at this uh this youth conference.
SPEAKER_02: And uh our 15 people basically divide we divided them off into twos, and then we divided their groups off into 40s, and we started teaching them the dramas, and then they had rented a bunch of buses, and they were gonna bus out all these kids to San Salvador, all over the city, I think 60 locations, and do drama and street ministry.
SPEAKER_02: And so uh we finished the training, then I had to go home for a wedding, so I didn't get to see the the tail end of it.
SPEAKER_02: But uh I went back home, went to the wedding, and then the team came back.
SPEAKER_02: When the team came back, basically I got a phone call and we did a little debrief, a couple phone calls, and uh I I was beaming from ear to ear when I got there.
SPEAKER_02: I was like, okay, guys, let's do you want to hear what God did?
SPEAKER_02: They're like, Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: I said, remember we prayed that God wouldn't leave these nations completely changed?
SPEAKER_02: And they're like, Yeah, that's what we prayed.
SPEAKER_02: I said, let me tell you what God did.
SPEAKER_02: I said, I got a report from uh the ministry in Honduras, and I said, the president and his wife were so impressed with what they saw.
SPEAKER_02: And they're so they said, we're so frustrated about the orphanage situation um in Honduras, all the whole nation said, What you guys did is what we want to see in every orphanage in Honduras.
SPEAKER_02: He said, So we're gonna fund you to put a staff together and we're gonna give you keys to every orphanage in the whole nation.
SPEAKER_02: And he said, You're gonna do exactly what you did, uh, what we saw.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to do that in every orphanage.
SPEAKER_02: Pretty cool, right?
SPEAKER_02: So we're they're all like, Yeah, God did it.
SPEAKER_02: Wonder what God did in El Salvador.
SPEAKER_02: I said, Well, I got a call, call on that.
SPEAKER_02: I said, uh, in in El Salvador, I said, we're not talking about people raising their hand and saying a prayer.
SPEAKER_02: I'm talking about people that filled out cards that said, I want to serve Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And then they've distributed those to hundreds of churches all over the city.
SPEAKER_02: I said, You want to know how many cards that we got of salvation during those two days of ministry?
SPEAKER_02: They're like, What?
SPEAKER_02: How many?
SPEAKER_02: I said, over a hundred thousand cards.
SPEAKER_02: Pretty cool.
SPEAKER_02: Let me share this verse with you.
SPEAKER_02: It says this many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.
SPEAKER_02: Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.
SPEAKER_02: School teacher.
SPEAKER_02: School teacher, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_02: I really sensed in my spirit as I was prepping last night.
SPEAKER_02: When it comes to the cosmic war, and probably the only point and probably the only thing that I hope you remember is this question.
SPEAKER_02: Are you in the cosmic war?
SPEAKER_02: Have you signed up for his plan for your life?
SPEAKER_02: The moment that you say yes to his plan, school teacher, school teacher, school, I'm not talking about you have to come be a pastor and be in ministry.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just saying his plan.
SPEAKER_02: I was going this direction.
SPEAKER_02: And God said, That's not where you're supposed to go.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to be here.
SPEAKER_02: And the moment that I said yes, guess what happened?
SPEAKER_02: I enlisted in a war.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that exciting?
SPEAKER_02: Now I'm in battle.
SPEAKER_02: But you know what the promise of God is?
SPEAKER_02: I'll go with you every step of the way.
SPEAKER_02: I'll be your rear guard.
SPEAKER_02: Nothing, no arrow that flies by day, no destruction or pestilence that wasteth at noonday will come near you.
SPEAKER_02: You're now mine.
SPEAKER_02: So when I was at CFNI, I had a chance to record music that has been sent around the world.
SPEAKER_02: And um it was kind of the first time anybody even cared about my music.
SPEAKER_02: Um because, you know, it's it's a tough market to break into, but when the moment that I went to CFNI, uh the eyes of the world, it was a worldwide kind of platform.
SPEAKER_02: And I wrote this song, and when I wrote the song, I didn't think much of it, uh, except I, you know, I felt like it was anointed, we recorded it.
SPEAKER_02: And then I was invited to this to this church a year later, and they had taken that song that I recorded, and they had recorded it for for their kind of ministry, and it was a massive, massive church.
SPEAKER_02: And um there was the buildings probably sat about six, seven thousand people, so it was a big, big auditorium.
SPEAKER_02: Um, the worship was terrible, by the way.
SPEAKER_02: I did not enjoy it.
SPEAKER_02: Um, it was a big, big choir, it was a big orchestra, and there were ten songs that they were doing, and everybody sat down, and then the song would play, and then everybody would clap.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, this sucks.
SPEAKER_02: Like, there's nobody, this is a concert, this isn't worship, but they called it worship, you know.
SPEAKER_02: And then in the middle of the the, or I'm sorry, at the very end, at the last song, they start playing, and I recognize the melody.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, that's my song.
SPEAKER_02: And so they start playing, and the choir starts singing, and then all of a sudden I feel the presence of the Lord just go into the room.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, whoo, wow.
SPEAKER_02: And then spontaneously people stand up and they start singing at the top of their lungs and raising their hands, and they're singing my song.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, wow, that is so cool.
SPEAKER_02: And God speaks to me and he said, It's amazing what I can do with your yes.
SPEAKER_02: And then he brought me back to that moment where I laid those songs on the altar.
SPEAKER_02: And I literally said, God, I forgot about that.
SPEAKER_02: And as soon as those words left my lips, he spoke to me and he said, I didn't.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't.
SPEAKER_02: He said, The moment that you laid those songs on the altar, he said, I saw this moment and many others.
SPEAKER_02: He said, Your yes allows me to spread my kingdom work through you and throughout the world.
SPEAKER_02: I wonder this morning, what dreams have been buried.
SPEAKER_02: I wonder, I mean, you could be like me.
SPEAKER_02: It couldn't happen through me.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just, I mean, you know what the you know what the real problem is?
SPEAKER_02: Is I the first thing that I do in the morning is typically look in the mirror.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know about you, I get in, brush my teeth, and I'm looking at myself, and I I see me.
SPEAKER_02: What if?
SPEAKER_02: What if you saw yourself through God's eyes?
SPEAKER_02: What if he had a role for you to play in this cosmic war that you never even dream possible?
SPEAKER_02: What if he wants to shake nations through you?
SPEAKER_02: What if he wants to start businesses that fund the kingdom through you?
SPEAKER_02: What if he wants to write songs through you?
SPEAKER_02: Write books or affect people's lives for eternity through you?
SPEAKER_02: And all he's waiting for is a yes.
SPEAKER_02: All he's waiting for is to say, don't do your plan.
SPEAKER_02: Why don't you try my plan?
SPEAKER_02: And guess what?
SPEAKER_02: When you try my plan, I'm gonna be with you every step of the way, and I'm gonna empower you, and I'm gonna anoint you, and nothing is impossible because you have me with you.
SPEAKER_02: What if it is possible?
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Foreign for War podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We hope today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with Pastor Steve's sermons, books, and blog, visit Steveholdonline.org.
SPEAKER_00: God bless.