Kingdom Authority: Walking in Power & Influence with Pastor Chris Penn

This episode is a call to rise.

Kingdom authority is not passive it is bold, unshaken, and rooted in the power of the Holy Spirit. In this conversation with Pastor Chris Penn, we break down what it truly means to carry authority in both the Spirit and in the world around us.

Too many believers have settled for silence when they were called to govern, influence, and advance the Kingdom. Authority isn’t about control it’s about alignment with heaven, walking in truth, and releasing power wherever you go.

 In this episode:

•  What Kingdom authority actually is (and what it is not) 
•  How to walk in boldness without compromise 
•  Breaking passivity and stepping into spiritual dominion 
•  Carrying influence in every sphere faith, business, and culture 
•  Activating your voice with clarity, power, and conviction 

This is more than a conversation it’s an activation.

You were not called to blend in. You were called to stand, to speak, and to move with authority.

“Behold, I have given you authority… over all the power of the enemy.” Luke 10:19

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:08

Hey, good morning. Uh, we want to welcome you to Freedom Fire uh Church Podcast sponsored by Freedom Fire. This is Freedom Fire Kingdom Authority. This podcast is built around people that are tired of living under or beneath what Jesus paid for them to have. Uh, too many believers uh they believe they were filled with the Holy Ghost to just be silent. You were not. So we are here with my one of my closest friends on the planet, Chris Penn. Chris is coming up to bring the word this weekend. It'll probably be already gone by the time you get here, but we are grateful to have you all. So here we go. Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Amen.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

Um, you know, Chris, I think one of the biggest problems in the kingdom today is people live beneath what Christ died for them to have. Absolutely. 100%. You know, they I was just Tony and I were working on a video earlier. You know, Psalm 37, 4 says that when you delight in the Lord, he will give you the desires of your heart. Too many people are living beneath this thing. And you know, I know it's something you and I talk a lot about is how do you walk in the authority that Christ gave you? Yeah. Oh, go with it.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

So, so the way you walk, long lessons learned. Um, so the first thing is that you gotta understand is obedience. It's about obedience. Um, you gotta humble yourself and you gotta do what God wants you to do. Because there's no need for him to give you authority if you're not gonna go do anything. Amen. If you're just gonna sit around and take up space, why would he anoint you with the authority that he's given us? Yes. Um, you have the opportunity to walk in it. 100%. But you have to choose, you have to make that choice.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

You know, I I I saw this uh back where you're from on the way to Princeton one time. Uh, there was a church on the right, um, I think it's a Mennonite store or whatever, but there was a there was a one of those signs that people put you know sayings on, and they it said the choices you make today will have ripples across eternity. It's that learning to choose to walk in authority. There's so many people that sit in churches every Sunday, and they're just fat pew taker-uppers, is the only thing I know how to say it. They they get fed with so much, but do nothing for the kingdom. You know, I think there was a revelation in my life one time, Romans 8.28, we all know it, that he'll turn all things for the good of those that are called according to his purpose of love, the Lord. Right, right. When you step out in faith, even if you're stepping wrong, he still works this thing out. And, you know, it's been trial and error in my life, but he has always turned it out for the good. Now, some of those lessons were hard for me to learn. Um, you know, I would, Lord, I've done this, and he would say, Yes, but you didn't wait for me in this moment. But he would still use it. Yeah, and you know, even if you step out sometimes, um, I don't want to say wrongly, but without true direction. You know, uh I would I've been so blessed in life to hang out with some just unbelievable leaders uh in the kingdom and in the world. And one of the one of the things that I learned um in one of my previous positions, I worked for a retired two-star general, and he would always tell me, operate on 70% knowledge. Yeah, you know, because if you've got that, you can start to move forward. And it was one of those things that I've I've taken into my spirit. Um, there's a lot of times that I, you know, I think a lot of people have a have a problem trying to distinguish between their voice and the Holy Ghost. And I always tell them this if it's in here, I promise you it's the Holy Ghost.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

Yeah, you want to learn how to hear the voice of God. You put his word in you. Thousand percent. That gives him something to speak to you to where you recognize who it is. Yes, and then he'll start using his word to train you, to recognize his voice. Yes, and then you can grow in your giftings from there. Yes, but uh that's that's that's how he started training me. I was at home one time when I was still living at home with my parents, but it was way, it was back in 2004, I was just getting started. And uh we had a uh I had just been reading and I had read scripture that said, Oh yeah, a little faith. Right? And so I was looking for this little book I had that had all these numbers of a group of people that was all my age, we were gonna get together. I couldn't find the I couldn't find it. So whenever I started to walk out to my truck, I heard this voice say, It's not there. I ignored it and I kept walking. Keep in mind I had asked God to teach me how to recognize that voice. And so as I kept walking, two more times that happened. It's not there, it's not there, and I kept going. But the last time, right before I got to my truck door, it said, Oh yeah a little faith. I said, It's not there. I was like, Man, that's God. I was like, you just had that knowing then, sure. Like, that's God. Sure. I still opened the door and looked. Right. You know, it's like I still did it. And and it was almost like I could hear him laughing at me. You're like, you know, knowing I got it, but knowing I it's like get tickled, like you do with your kids, whenever you know they're getting something, but they're not. You know, and um so as I walk back inside and I walk through the door, my mom looks at me and she points over in the corner and says, Did you ever look right there? Wow. I walk over, I walk over and look, and it's right there. Wow. And so I learned that day a good lesson. Yeah, give him his word, put it in you. Yes, put his word in you, and then he'll use his word to teach you his voice. Yes, so you recognize it's him.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

Man, that's so good. That's so rich. You know, in in in life, I our stories, your yours and I story uh before Christ is very similar. You know, we we went down the path of the world. Oh, yeah, you know, and um we both got deep into uh the ways of the world. I never want to give the devil glory, but it was out of those lessons that I think you and I both begin to understand who God is. And and you know, I I don't subscribe to the to the AA world, but there's there's some principles in that in that book that are good. And one of them is we we don't regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. Well, I don't agree to wish to shut the door on it. Right. I shut the door, I slammed the door and boarded it up. We don't want those doors open, but those things in the past have taught us things to understand and to begin to understand his voice in our life. Yeah, you know, everybody's journey is is is different, um, but ours is very similar about coming out of that world of drugs and alcohol and all the garbage. Yeah, and it's one of those things that I look back on because God used that. It was the Romans 8.28 coming to life in my life. He said, I'm gonna use all of that and I'm gonna show you what I can do through it. And you know, being in the world that we that I have gotten to be in, and I know you have too, there are times that I I am comfortable talking to a crack addict or a governor, yeah, you know, because God will allow you to operate in these things, but you have to learn to trust his voice. Yeah, and that's how you do it. You put this in you, and then you know, the the word says that the Holy Ghost job, one of the jobs of the Holy Ghost, is to bring back memories of what's here. Yes, and there's times I'll be in conversations and it just boom, and I'm like, oh, that is in Psalm 1. That is in, you know, and and that's the that's when I begin to distinguish the Holy Ghost in my life moving. Um in my friend Eddie said the other day, favor is not fair. But what you know, in this thing, when we have God's voice in our life, we are walking in the favor, and he will tell us, hey, listen, go talk to that person. Or whatever it was you were looking for. It's it's not there, you know. So um, you know, the the the whole point of this podcast um is to teach people how to walk in kingdom authority. From the beginning of time, God said, Go and have dominion. Yes, that is in the book of Genesis. And we are still, you know, Adam gave up his dominion, Christ came back and got it and gave it to us. And so many times in life, we are waiting on God to move or tell us to move, and he's just waiting on us to pull the trigger. Go do something, go do something for the kingdom and watch how I bless it. Yeah, you know, uh, in your position, uh what's your official title at LIC? Do you have one? You say associate pastor. Sure. How long have you been serving under Pastor Christensen? Uh be 18 years in August. You know, one of the things that has always, I've always honored and looked at you. And by the way, for our listeners, I used to not like him a whole lot. Like a whole lot. I did not like him. Um but once the the Lord began to really work on me, I begin to see how you you're not served, you're serving the Lord by serving them. You're not serving man, right? But you're serving the Lord through them. Right. And you know, when I look at people like what you have done over this 18 years, if you ever got jealous, you never showed it. If you ever thought, oh, it should be me, you never showed it. It was always this the authority that God gave you and the grace that he gave you to do this. I've always honored that. Tell our listeners how walking in that authority has changed your life by serving under.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

Oh, well, God gave me a revelation early on in my walk that's helped me with that. And he showed me where Jesus said, I only do what the Father tells me to do. I only say what the Father tells me to say. Then He showed me another scripture where it's talking about the Holy Spirit and it says he only speaks what he hears. Wow. And God took those two scriptures, put them together, and gave me a revelation, and he said, To the level that you submit to your authority will be the level of authority that you walk in. Wow. And so I learned early on don't don't get out of bounds with my authority. Because if I want to walk and operate in my authority, I have to stay under my authority. And God called me there, and when he told me that uh early on, I went there in 2006 where I'm at now at Life in Christ. I started going in 2006. Pastor Chris and Pastor Sue came in August of 2008. When they came, God told me, be whatever they need you to be. Wow. He said, help them however you can help them. And so that's what I started doing. And um, did I always understand? No. Did the enemy try to fight me over it all? Yes. 100%. But you keep your mouth shut and you go seek God over it. That's what you do. There's a secret right there. Yeah. And so uh very rarely will I go to them and say, hey, I don't understand this. Explain it to me. Sure. Because majority of the time the Holy Spirit will reveal it to me before I ever need to have a conversation with them. Wow. And um so the main thing is is your heart behind it. Like I'm seeking, like I'm trying to be what he's told me to be. I'm trying to help them. I can't truly help them if I'm not 100% behind what they're wanting to do. Wow. That's a word for somebody that is for free. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:39

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

If so, I have to find something about what God has shown them. Yeah. That they have told us that we're doing, that I like, that I can support, that I can go to everybody else and say, hey, this is awesome. This is what happens when we do this. Forget all that other stuff. I just found one thing. It's okay. I just found one thing that I can speak about that I I understand until God gives me the revelation on the rest. Well, majority of the time you never even have to get to the rest. Right. Because you you're you're focusing on the good things and not the bad, and so it shows through your walk. That's so good. And yeah, so like the bad would be me not understanding, but it's not always my job to understand.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

100%.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

I'm not the shepherd. Right. They're the shepherd. Yeah, that's good. They're there there they are. So Jesus is the shepherd. Pastors are the under-shepherd. Yeah, everybody else's job is just to make the vision happen. Yes. And so all I need to really know is for what they need me to do. Yeah. And so if you can stay, and the devil will attack that. Come on now. But if you can stay on that and you can stay with that, then now you're doing what God's told you to do, and you're staying submitted to your authority so you're able to walk in it.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

You know, and that's the key. That you you cannot get out from under. It don't matter how what you think, it don't matter what the devil's telling you. It don't, none of that stuff. You go by what God told you. God said, This is where I'm supposed to be, this is what I'm supposed to be doing, this is what I'm gonna do. That's what that's dude.

SPEAKER_02 15:25

You know, um, I don't know if I've ever told you this. I I knew there was a call, I just didn't understand it at all. I knew there was something in me that I needed to get out to people, but I didn't understand at all. Like, you know, I was you know my story. I showed up, just so that our listeners know, I showed up at Life in Christ because of this guy, even though I didn't like him. Um, I was at I was at a local convenience store in Marion, high, like out of my mind. And this guy is in line in front of me and he invites me. And at that time, um, this has been I don't know how many years ago, um, but you all were doing Saturday morning prayer. Yes, and when he invited me to church, I got on the website, because I, you know, church wasn't my scene at all, and I saw this Saturday morning prayer time, and I thought, hmm, let's go see what that's about. I won't get a lot of preachy stuff there, you know what I mean? And that's how I ended up there. But when God began to do this work in my life and transform me from the inside out, it was, I knew there was something, there was a desire. I just didn't understand the desire. So, you know, I call the I call the office at Life in Christ, and I'm like, hey, I need to talk to the pastor. And you know, Life in Christ is a is a big church, and there's a lot for Pastor Chris and Sue to do, but he took the time and we went over, we were in the old building, and we go over there and he sits down in this room, and I will never forget this, you know, this guy's really tall, lanky, whatever. And he throws his legs over the arm of the chair, and he's like, So, what can I do for you? You know, and I'm like, listen, there's something in me. And he goes, Hmm, well, I'm gonna tell you like I tell everybody else, learn to serve and got up and walked out. Now I had the opportunity to either be offended or run with it, and I was like, I was kind of stung a little bit. I don't know what I expected, like this. You expected more. Yeah, this guy's gonna give me the bike, and oh, we're gonna feed no, yeah, no, no, no, just straightforward, straightforward anointing on him. Learn to serve, and so I thought, okay, I go home, I sit on this, and I'm trying to wrap my mind around what just happened. I mean, like, it wasn't that he was blowing me off, yeah, he said what he needed to say. I'm done, you know, and I thought, all right, how do I operate in this? What do I do with it? Right, and it was that revelation that you just had. I I remember going through the word. I I think I actually Googled, what does it mean to serve in the body of Christ? And it took me back to this. Jesus said, I came to serve. And then he looks at Peter and he asks him, Who do they say that I am? Well, Peter had this revelation from heaven, and then I started walking through the life of Peter. He was serving Jesus, right? Doing, doing like we probably all would, mess it all up, but he was doing it.

SPEAKER_00 18:55

Yeah, oh yeah, he sure was. Yeah. And guess what? He left his wife at home. Yes. No cell phone, no iPad, no, no address to tell her where he was gonna be so they could write letters back and forth. I don't know when I'll be back to see you. And you know, I'm not I'm not encouraging you to just throw your wife out at all. But what I am saying is he went home and he said, This man is, he knew. Yes, he knew it was Jesus, and he said, This man's asked me to follow me. Follow him. I'm gone. Yeah. And he left. Didn't know when he was gonna see her again. You know, and if you go back and watch these services, you'll hear some of this. Yeah, but uh, that are coming up. He he he did not say, hold on, let me go get my wife's permission. He did not say, well, my kids have a soccer game. Oh, come on. That'll start preaching. He did not say all of that other stuff. All he said was, Okay, I'm gonna follow you. Yeah, and he got up and he went and followed him, left his business, yes, left it all, and just went and followed Jesus. And so what we have nowadays is we have a generation that's trying to follow Jesus compromised. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. And it don't work that way. No. You know, you can't compromise with the enemy and walk in authority over the enemy. It don't work.

SPEAKER_02 20:37

So, you know. You know, I'm as country as a turnip green, and I grew up in the country. And I don't know how many of our listeners have ever tried to cross a woven wire fence or a bobbler fence.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

These pants women wear now. Never mind, you're right to cut that out. It looks like they ran through one. Yeah. Amen. You'll have to cut that. No. Edit. We're not editing that.

SPEAKER_02 21:01

We don't edit nothing. This is raw footage, man.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

Um I say that to them at church all the time.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

But, you know, as a as a young boy in the country, I would try to cross the fence, and sometimes my legs were too short. And I'd fall on that fence, and if you stay on that fence long enough, it'll cut you in half. And that's what people are doing in the body. They they're they've got one foot in the world, one foot in the church loosely. Yes. They they it's amazing to me how people can read the word of God and select what they want. You know, one of the key things is I begin to understand is I begin to take this word at face value and apply it to my life.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

And you know what it done? It it reflected such a mess in my life. You know, when I was getting sober, I was I was the king of reality. Man, I went to 15 rehabs, and they all told me the exact same information. You know, it's just regurgitated information. But it wasn't until the moment I looked in the mirror and thought, well, moron, you're the problem.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

Those 15 rehabs all had a common denominator. Yeah. It was you. It was me. It was.

SPEAKER_02 22:22

And it was people just like me. But when I looked in that mirror, I will never forget that moment and thought, Moron, you're the issue. It's not God. It was not your parents. It was not, it was me. And the only reason I got that revelation was because I was looking in this thing. You know, I was still, I was still in the world doing all the world crap, but I was seeking him. And he was he was transforming me and molding me, and he still is. But I got that revelation by looking in this and understanding that I was the problem. You know, you were just, when you when you have this compromise Christianity, bro, it's I want to say this for our listeners so that you understand this. This is going to be kind of tough language. If you want these things in this word, you can't be compromised. That's right. You have to, you have to lay down the things in your life and some of the things that you think you love. Because, you know, you ever see that picture of this little girl trying to hand Jesus this little teddy bear, and he's got this giant one? That's so true. Yeah. He's got so much for us. But we have to give up the little things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:51

You know? Yeah. I mean, yeah, even hobbies have to go sometimes. Oh. You know, for me, I one of my biggest hobbies was demolishing dirt. Wow. And I had to give it up. Yeah. Because all the time it took me to work on cars and all the time it took me to be able to get that thing ready and the money I spent on it and all that stuff in order to go do that was time I could be spending on things that God wanted me to do. Wow. Getting myself ready for it. So it came down to a point to where it was do a freedom class and teach people freedom at the church or keep derby in. So guess what? I had to walk out of the garage and not come back for two years. Oh wow. I had a 73 two-door impala in my garage. I was working on it. I was building it, getting it ready. And when it came down to that point, I had to walk out for two years. The tools, the welding rods, the dirt, the hammers, all of it. The car never moved, all that stuff stayed. I never swept around it, I never cleaned around it. I went in the garage getting a lot more, parked my law, left. Wow. I did not go in there to touch that car until I could go in there and move it and not touch and not want it. Wow. And so it took two years for that to happen. And when I finally could go in there and not have a desire to start building that car, then I called a friend of mine and I said, I got something for you. Did you give it away? Yep. Out.

SPEAKER_02 25:20

Praise the Lord. So it's gone. And you can give it away.

SPEAKER_00 25:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:24

That was the amazing part. Yeah. I think so many people come into the church, and you just gonna run this rabbit while it's hot. You so many people come into the church and they expect everything to change. Well, here's the thing: in your spirit, things begin, they they instantaneously change with the Lord, but it's getting our flesh in line with that. You mean that two years. You know, I'm sure in two years that crossed your mind a lot.

SPEAKER_00 25:57

Oh, it did. And what crossed my wife's mind was why is there still a mess in the mind? Amen. But that's if she just had either you go clean it or it's gonna stay there until I can, you know. Right. That was my mind. I didn't say that to her, but that was my mindset is I can't go in there right now with that. Right. It's just like someone coming off of drugs. Yep. You can't just turn around and go right back into the trap house and administer to them because you you ain't far enough out from it. You don't have it behind you enough.

SPEAKER_02 26:26

How many times have you heard that? I'm gonna go back and I'm gonna save them.

SPEAKER_00 26:29

No, what you're gonna do is we're gonna have to come rescue you.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

Yeah, you know, I there's an analogy I've used with all of our kids, and and by the time we got to Kinley, I mean, when I told her she just rolled her eyes because she'd seen everybody else do this, I would ask them to stand on the kitchen table and I would I'd look at them and say, pull me up. Well, they could, but I'd snatch them off of that actual this was our kitchen table. I would snatch them off of that, and and I'm like, this analogy is so powerful because they'll drag you down before you ever drag them out. Yes, you know, and we've seen that, and you have to crucify your flesh. It was there, was when I first got sober, it was wild to me. I don't know if this happened to you, but I was scared to go outside, I was scared to go anywhere. And in the fear wasn't from the Lord, it was my flesh, but I was so afraid that I was gonna bump into somebody, you know, and then I read in the book of Job, I I most people blow right past this, but what Job feared happened. You ever seen that part? Oh yeah, I can't, yeah. God's gave me a lot of revelation there too. And when when I read that, I thought, okay, I can't be scared of this anymore because it's gonna happen. Yeah, you give it a legal right, right? I gave it a legal, I was given it a legal right. And the very first time I went out, like out, other than just like to church or to work or whatever, right? I went out and guess what happened? I bumped into the guy, and it was so crazy, man. He had all of these drugs and all the stuff, and he goes, Man, I heard you're sober. Is it because you want to be? And I said, Yeah. And he opens up this cooler of all this stuff, you know, and I'm like, but immediately the Lord jumped into the situation and gave me courage that I didn't have in the flesh, but I had in the spirit. Yeah, and I begin that, I think that was the moment that everything began to line up in my life. Of I begin to understand there's a spirit, and then there's this flesh deal. Because something came inside of me, and it was like this lion just stood up. The lion of Judah really stood up in my life in that moment and said, No, I'm good. And I walked away, and there was never a look back.

unknown 29:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:06

And from that moment on, then I can start to get out into the community. I can start to go out into places and I wasn't walking in fear.

unknown 29:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:15

And but so many people don't they don't give the Lord this opportunity to move in their life. You two years, man. Two years you sat with that car. You know, but you were giving the Lord this opportunity to really work in your life, but you had a part to do in this. Yeah, that's the problem. They all I see this as a pastor. People want God to do what God has already gave them, given them the power to do in their own life. Yeah. Listen, we got a part in this.

SPEAKER_00 29:48

You know what happened? Four freedom groups later. Wow. I saw what's two years. Yeah. Oh two per year. Yeah. We had we had a freedom group, then we had a conference. I had a freedom group, then we had a conference. So four freedom groups later, I see the results and what it's doing in people's lives. Come on. And that becomes more important to me. Yeah. Than me getting out on the track for a few minutes. That's what became more important. Wow. At that point, when I realized what was happening in the people's lives, what they were getting free from. Because the very first freedom group that we ever did, my wife and I, we sit. Were you in it?

SPEAKER_02 30:34

I was the first one.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 30:36

So cow, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 30:37

We sit in our audience, though. Sorry, I'm not forgetting. No, it's good. But uh I want you to forget about it. Anyways, so the very first one we did, my wife and I sit down, and we're there night one. Night one, we're thinking we're all just gonna get together, introduce each other, get to know each other, eat. The very first person speaks up and says their name, they're saying they say hi, my name is, and I'm blah. And they just start puking it all out. I'm like, you don't know us yet. I'm like fire, bro. He just starts puking it out, and then the next person, and then the next person, and I'm like, I got so overwhelmed. I said, God, I don't need to hear them. I said, I said, I just need to hear you. I said, and I'm sitting there in the spirit realm, I'm doing this. Like, I'm not doing it naturally in front of them. Right. But in the in the spirit realm, I'm going, I don't need that. I don't need to hear all that. I just need to hear what you want me to say because I don't have to know anything other than your words. And because it was so old, I was not expecting to hear the stuff I was hearing. Right. And um, and then God just took over, and I saw that group, and then the next group, and then the next two groups, and it was like, okay, I was like, I get it now. Like, I'm seeing what's going on in these people's lives, and as long as you stay compromised, you're not gonna see that. Come on, bro.

SPEAKER_02 32:07

That is so you were seeing the fruit of the labor that you were you were sacrificing in your own life. When you begin to see the fruit of what's what the Lord is doing in your life, you know, I had a moment um I think you were over the jail ministry at the time, and the former jailer in Cricket County had asked me to come in to the inside. I don't even know, I don't even know if I'd talk to you about it or if I cleared it with probably against all regulations of what you're supposed to do. But I got there that night, and there was another pastor, not from our church, was there. And right as we got ready to go in, he said, Man, I gotta go. Um, has something sports. Compromise, you know, and the jail that may have been a good thing. Oh, it was it ended up being exactly what the Lord, I wasn't supposed to go in by myself, right? But they allowed me to. And in that moment, I truly began to see what God had designed for me. You know, that's when this desire of, I knew he was doing something in my life, but I didn't know what it was. It came, it came out in that moment, and I was able to like, I'm sure it was an awful sermon, but I knew I knew right then, hey, this is what I was built for. You know, I was built for this. And I didn't even know, you know, I tell people this, and I this is a nugget I want you all, all of our listeners, to grab. You may not know everything about the word of God. That's okay, keep learning, right? But you have a testimony, absolutely, don't ever forget that. And in that moment, I thought, oh Lord, I don't know how to prepare a sermon. I don't know how. And the Lord said, They overcame the enemy by the blood of the Lamb. And this is this conjuncture word, and the word of their testimony. And I knew enough about the word to know this. Okay, I've got a testimony. I don't know anything else, and I know I'm washed in the blood, so let's roll. Yeah, and I I stood there and I was like, hey, 21063. That was my prison idea. Right. I've been in khakis more than any of y'all. Let's talk. This is what the Lord can do if you will just submit to him. Here I am standing here. And you know the difference? I get to walk out through the door.

SPEAKER_00 34:54

Yeah. You know what I tell them? The only difference between me and them is I didn't get caught.

SPEAKER_02 34:58

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 34:59

Hey, I didn't. I spent 33 hours locked up. Wow. It's not like I can go in there and tell them, you know, like, yeah, I spent five years, you know, in the hardest prison in the country and all of that. No, no, no, no, no. They'll see right through that anyways. Yeah. Because they're gonna know you're fake. 100%. And so um, just go in there and be real with them. You know, I told them like I spent 33 hours, somebody come got me out, but I never had to come back because God showed me how to keep from coming back. Oh, that's so good. You know, and um that was the biggest thing for me is uh, you know, I'm trying to maintain. I agree. Um when you have shepherds that call themselves shepherds, let's put it that way. That place other things above a sheep. Come on, they're either not called to be a shepherd, anyways, so that makes them a wolf, or they're irresponsible, which is Ezekiel 34. Oh wow. Or we can go on over into John 10, and they're a Pharisaic spirit, and they're not a shepherd, because the higher land's not a shepherd. There it is. And so a true shepherd puts the sheep before anything else. A true shepherd puts the sheep's health, well-being, and care above everything else. That's it. It doesn't have this mentality that there's a jailhouse Jesus. Uh-oh. Well, I heard that so many times. It has the mentality of these people are getting their lives changed. Yeah. And I'm going in here to show them what it takes to stay out when they get out. Come on. And um, I I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 36:49

Some of our listeners can throw it in the comment because I'm sure they can attribute it to whoever said it, but um, somebody somebody said one time, a shepherd should always smell like sheep. That's such a true statement. You know, um, you can't you can't shepherd people if you're not in the field with them. You can't you have to be in the you have to be in it. And I, you know, when I was preaching in the jails, uh, and by the way, and this is truly my heart. It's nothing has changed. I love being a pastor of a church. I it it's it's one of the greatest honors that God has ever given me. But I love there is something different about going into a jail and preaching the gospel because I've been there, you know, I spent a lot of time there, and my heart beat is for those broken people because I wasn't broken. Yeah, I understood it. And going into that, Victoria used to, she used to laugh. She would get she would get tickled at me because on Thursdays, that was the night I got to go in, right? Is that the night you guys would go? Yeah, Mondays and Thursdays. Mondays, okay. I never got to go on Mondays, but I go on Thursdays to the inside, and I would be giddy, like from the moment I woke up on Thursday, and I would come home and she would, she would laugh, she would be on the couch in our house, and I would come in, I'm like, you're not gonna believe this. The Lord just wrecked this thing, you know, and he just took off, and then she was like, Why don't you just go in there every doc? You know, they let me or I would, you know, because I love that heartbeat of broken, and that's that's the heart of a shepherd. You know, when you have that heartbeat for broken, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:35

A shepherd goes there to help take freedom to them. Yes. Oh, that's good. Yeah, a hireling or a wolf goes there so they can go tell everybody else on the outside that's where they go. Uh-oh. Wow. There's revelation. There's revelation. They're more concerned about the accolades they get for going on. That's rich. Oh, we can go. I could offend some people right here. We could go there with my heart.

SPEAKER_02 39:03

You know, uh, you know, listen, if the word offends people, that's a thin problem. Yeah. It's what I've learned. Yeah. Um, and it was doing those things, learning to learning to be there and serve those guys and do like you you said, teach them how not to come back. And that was such a that was so fun. Yeah, you know, because I would see some of them later on in life, and they're like, hey bro, everything changed in that moment. You know, and I'm like, praise the Lord. It was never me. It was never me. And if it ever becomes about me, I'm gonna quit. Yeah, you know, but to teach, and I I would tell them, listen, it's pretty simple. Read this, believe it, apply it to your life, and move. It we make it so hard, and we we get in these discussions about, you know, I'm not gonna chase that rabbit right now.

SPEAKER_00 40:03

Oh, we can we can be part of Mark 16, but we can't do all of it. Yeah, you know, oh we can go win the loss, but we can't cast out demons. Uh-oh. Weird, huh?

SPEAKER_02 40:13

Yeah. It's it's that it's learning to walk in the authority that Christ gave us. You know, there's very few sermons that I I preach that I don't touch Mark 16 somewhere because it became an anthem in my life.

SPEAKER_00 40:27

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've preached a lot of it the last couple years too. Um almost every sermon I get into.

SPEAKER_02 40:32

I we got we got there's a there's a Lady Mira in our church, and every time I say Mark 16, she starts cackling because she knows I'm gonna run it. Because it's it's such an anthem in my life because I begin to understand this is for me. Yeah, he gave me this ability, and he's just waiting on me to move in it. You know, we can truly lay our hands on the sick and they will recover. Yeah, we can cast out demons, we speak in other tongues. Yeah, you know, all these things, and and and you hear that theology sometimes that says, oh, we can do this, but we can't do that. There is no I can't in this word. I can through him. Yeah, it's never me, but it's through him I can. I have this ability. Yes, you know, and so, well, Chris, I'm grateful that um you came to join us. Oh, it's okay. Um, I want to encourage our listeners, listen, uh, share our podcast, go out and tell people about it. But most of all, listen, uh, Chris Penn is gonna bring some absolute heat this weekend. Get on our website, um, YouTube, Facebook, all the stuff that we do. I don't know. Uh I have no part in that. I just stand here and talk. That's my job. Um, but get on these things. Uh I do know this. We have an app, Freedom Fire Church app. Go on your app store, get it. It tells all of our media and it in all of our upcoming events and get plugged in. Um, and if you're listening and you're not in this area, reach out to us. We will find a Bible-teaching, Bible-believing church in your area and send it to you. I promise you. They're out there. And if if we can start driving an hour, oh, come on. If it's listen, and if we can't find one in your area, we'll help you move here. We love you that much. Um, but I want to thank you all uh for listening. But listen, get back on our app and find these services with Chris Pitt. They're gonna be life-changing services. Hear me. That our church has been on a 21-day fast, believing and praying for what he's bringing. And everywhere I have saw in the word, when you pray and fast and believe God, guess what? God does shows up. Amen. I want to close this in prayer. Father, we love you. We thank you. We thank you for men of God that are willing to lay out their lives, even their derby cars, for your kingdom. God, that's that's that's what this is all about. We want to be kingdom movers. We want to be in your kingdom, doing things that you show us how to do as a good king. Father, we love you. We thank you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. See you next time.