Surviving Agent Orange: Pastor David Friend's Miraculous Story of Healing

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We know it was Agent Orange's cause. We know that. We know it was cancer and it's a killer.

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And to this day, they still don't have a cure for it. Why is it my kidney,

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one kidney that's left, is functioning so well and doing so well? He said, well,

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there's only really one word to describe what just happened to you. He said, it's a miracle.

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And he took his pen and he wrote across the file and wrote the word, this is a miracle.

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Miracles are real and they are not just for special people. They're for everybody.

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And we need to have faith for those miracles. And with me today is Pastor David Friend of

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Quality Christian Living. And his mission in life is to help Christians live to their full potential.

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And Pastor David, it's great to have you here on Charisma. And we're going to share your story

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of how God has brought you to where you are today and the miracles that you are seeing in

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your life today. So David, it's great to have you here.

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Well, it's nice to be here, John. I appreciate the invite and I'm excited about this because

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anytime we talk about faith, we talk about miracles, we talk about Christians lives being

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changed, I get excited because that's what God wants us to live. Remember Jesus said,

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He wanted to give us life, abundant life. And the old devil comes to kill, steal and destroy,

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but he's got life. And that's what we want to talk about, how to live that great life.

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Yeah. So let's talk about that abundance. Could you first give us that definition of abundance?

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And what is the revelation that God has given you with the term abundance?

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Well, you know, I really like the word abundance. Matter of fact, at one time I was going to call

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my podcast, Abundant Living, and then Dr. Green, bless his heart, who passed away years ago,

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a short time ago, and his podcast was about abundance, living type thing. And so I

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held off from that. But because I believe that quite frankly, what I just mentioned earlier,

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John 10, 10, where Jesus was talking, he says, the devil comes to kill, steal and destroy,

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but I've come to give life and give it more abundantly. I believe that Christians live far

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below the life that God intended for them. And Jesus even said more abundantly. Each other

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translation says exceedingly abundantly, you know, those types of expressions. Jesus wants us to live

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abundantly. And I believe that in a lot of Christians live way below their life. I stayed

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away from being a Christian because I thought they were sad people and they weren't happy people.

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And the devil was lying to me about that. And you couldn't be successful and you couldn't have any

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drive or ambition and you couldn't prosper financially or couldn't, you know, live a really

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great life. And it was sad. Now, all of a sudden, when I became a Christian, I started reading with

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the word of God says, and it's just totally opposite. When you use the word abundance,

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you, you, people sometimes instantly latch onto this name it and claim it type thing where grab

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what you can get and grab it, blab it and grab it. And all those old corny statements that they said,

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you know, and that has to do with money and prosperity and all that. Well, I, I believe that

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tiny portion of it. Yeah, it does. But abundant living is living according to God's plan for our

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life, living according to God's purpose and plan and according to his will and based upon what the

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scriptures say, how we should live and God's remember God's scriptures, the word of God gives

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us 800, 8,000 promises in the word of God that he has for followers of Jesus Christ. So we need to

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live that abundant life. That means a happy, joyful life filled with joy and not to be anxious about

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anything. And I can just go on and on. So I believe in abundant living. I believe in a positive

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approach to life, not the power of positive thinking, but a positive form and a walk with God

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and a leaning upon the Holy Spirit and reliance upon the Holy Spirit who lives and dwells inside

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of us to then, to then come out and express who he is and who he wants us to be in Christ. And that's

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being happy, joyful, a smile on your face, even in the midst of trials. And the apostle Paul certainly

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taught that he learned how to be happy in the middle of, middle of whatever he was going through.

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So that's what abundant living is to me about. So I want to hear about your journey to understand

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of this abundant living, because you said that you stayed away from it because really Christians

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were not living in abundance. We're not paying a good, good examples, I guess, of the promises

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and purposes that God has for us. Yeah. I know you were in the military and you, you've served in

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Vietnam. Was this part of the way that God has brought you to him? Tell us that story.

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Well, I was raised in a Southern Baptist home. My mom and dad, we were Southern Baptists, but none

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of us were Christians. None of us, that may seem weird, but we had not, none of us had given our

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life to Jesus Christ. We just went through the process, go to church, go home, go to church, go

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home. Don't know why, but that's what you did. And, and, and when I saw that experience, and then I,

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when I started seeing people who were Christians, they talked about how people Christian,

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Christians should be humble and meek and lowly and not worry about being successful and not

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have any concerns about having a nice home or a nice car. And I was even told that that's kind of

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how Christians live. You know, we, we can't have those things because we're believers in Christ.

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So therefore we have to be very poor and very meek and very humble. And that's just, and that kept

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me away from receiving Christ. I went into the military, served my time there. I was not a

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Christian, went to Vietnam and God saved my life. I used to pray, God, if you're real, if you're up

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there, could you get me through this? I'm going to be here in the middle of the night, people

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shooting at me and a sniper fire coming in. And I would say, God, would you do this? And I, I didn't

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really know how to pray, but I knew there was God, but I just kind of stayed away from it. Then,

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when I became a Christian and a matter of fact, it was so still in me that we had a really nice

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home before we became Christians and nice cars and all that. We sold all that and got a modest

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house and modest cars and wanted to look more kind of like what we thought was what the Christian was.

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But then I started waking up and the Holy Spirit started waking me up and started showing me that

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Jesus wants me to live an abundant life. Paul said, I want you to be free of anxiety and worry

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and doubt and fear and all those, and the fruit of the Spirit says have love, joy, peace, patience,

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goodness, kindness, you know, on and on. All the wonderful promises of God started telling me that

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if I seek him first, then all these things shall be added unto me. And if you have dreams and desires,

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then put God first and your dreams and desires can come true. So it was a process that took me time.

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And when it all burst out though, I realized that we've got to live the life that Jesus

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wanted us to live. And it was a joyful, happy life filled with success and filled with joy

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and abundant living. So that's the process. That's the process. Okay, so you went into the

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military and you served in Vietnam. And so first off, thank you for your service. And I know that

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there was a chemical that was being used there that really, it had a purpose, but then there

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was a lot of negative effects from that. David, can you tell us this whole story and just take the

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time to do this? Because I think this is, this really needs to be told and I don't want it to hold

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back. Sure. Well, you know, when I was 18 years old, I was in college and I got a letter from the

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government saying that they were going to throw me out of college and put me up for the draft.

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And I would be receiving a notice. And so by when I turned 19 is when I got my notice and they said,

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uh, you're out of school and you're into the army now. So I went through my training, whatever.

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The next thing I know, I was called, I was not a Christian at this time. And I was called to go to

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Vietnam. I only had a two year requirement to be in the military because I was, uh, I volunteered

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for the draft just to get it over with kind of a thing, never thinking I'd go to Vietnam. We knew

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what Vietnam was, of course. And so then all of a sudden we got our training and off we went and I

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was sent over there. And, um, I can remember as we landed at the airport, there was a movie that was

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made called platoon that has a scene in it where they're walking across the tarmac and they see

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all the dead bodies laying on the grounds. And they looked at each other and said, what's that?

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And that same thing happened to me when I first got there and we landed and we're walking across

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the tarmac and we're looking, I saw all these bags filled with bodies. And I told, I asked them,

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I said, what, what in the world happened there? And they said, well, various reasons there died.

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But, but he said, but don't worry, you're going to be protected because we're going to do everything

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we can to keep you safe. Matter of fact, we're killing the jungle in order to give you an

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opportunity to be safe. And I said, well, how do you do that? He said, well, we spray something on

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it called agent orange, which is a herbicide that was a toxic herbicide that was designed to kill

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all vegetation. So when I went to Vietnam, I landed my, the compound that I was stationed at,

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I had to go out pretty much every night on the perimeter in the jungle and guard the perimeter.

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So they would spray during the day, all the vegetation and all the stuff in the trees would

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die and the shrubs wouldn't come back. And they were just killing off all that vegetation. And I

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remember asking my, my Sergeant, I said, Sarge, what, tell me what's, what's with this toxic stuff,

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you know? And he said, Oh, don't worry about it. It won't hurt humans. It won't affect humans. It's

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not a big deal. So you're going to be just fine. Don't worry about it. So we would literally go out

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on maneuvers and we would go out to check the areas to make sure the areas were safe, to rescue

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people in little villages, if they were going to be overrun by the communists. And we would get them

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on trucks and haul them out. Well, while all that's going on, this spraying is going on constantly,

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giant planes flying over. If you've ever seen crop dusting in the old way of, it was like that,

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only they were much bigger and higher in the sky and putting out massive amounts of Agent Orange's

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herbicide. Well, anyways, so literally we're, we're digesting it because, you know, when you're out

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in the, in the jungle and you're having something to eat, you're using your hands, the same hands

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that you use to push the vegetation away that was sprayed with Agent Orange, it was on your hands.

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You didn't have a place to wash them and you would eat the food. And so you were actually digesting

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that, that stuff. But then they said, oh, it's no problem, whatever. So then I came home from

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Vietnam in 1968, in October of 68 is when I, it's actually when I got out, I came home in March of

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68 was when I left Vietnam. When I got back, we started hearing reports that maybe that Agent

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Orange wasn't very good. Maybe there was a problem with it. Cause now lab rats and stuff are being

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killed. Well, they knew that for years. And then in 1969, only a few months after I came back,

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they stopped spraying Agent Orange. And so they just told people, we're not going to use it anymore.

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We find that it could cause problems. And, but for those of you who got sprayed, don't worry about

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it. You're all fine. So nothing, I never got treated. I was never told anything about it.

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And so I went through my life thinking I'm just fine. Everything's great for about 40 years.

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And then all of a sudden at about 40 to 45 years, I started developing something called cancer.

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And I had my first battle with cancer in 2001. And, and I lost my right kidney to it. And the

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doctors said it was caused from Agent Orange was caused the cause of that cancer. So I lost a right

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kidney to that. They pulled that kidney out, patched me all up and I just needed God to heal

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me so it wouldn't spread. And it, and God did. And I, a miracle took place in my life and I was

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perfectly healthy. When the matter of just a few days after the surgery, the treatments all stopped.

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There was absolutely nothing going on. And I thought, well, okay, well that's fine. I went

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through life. Everything's fine. Well, then another, approximately 15 years went by after that. And all

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of a sudden I had a physical at the Mayo Clinic and the Mayo Clinic saw me and said, your blood

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work, there's something wrong with it. And it doesn't look good. And they told me that they'd

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do further testing. And they said, well, we, we know for a fact now that you, you do have something

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like leukemia and it was multiple myeloma bone marrow cancer. And he said, it's very severe.

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It's extremely severe. This is, this is a terrible case and you've been suffering with this for years

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and there's no doubt in our mind that it was caused by Agent Orange. There's no question about it.

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And the VA, I mean, the Mayo Clinic even told me, go to the VA and ask for them to help you with

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this because it's going to be brutal. It's going to be expensive. And they looked at me and they

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said, you may only have six months to live. You're, you're in very serious shape. And when he said

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that, now I'm a believer now I'm, you know, when I was in Vietnam, I wasn't, but when I came back

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and became a Christian, when I was 25, when he said, you may only have six months to live,

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this is a very severe case. I said, so you, you're trying to scare me with heaven.

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And he, he looked at me and he said, wow, you really believe that? He said, I've never heard

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anybody ever make a statement like that. When you give them this kind of a announcement. And I said,

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well, I'm not afraid of dying certainly. So the worst that can ever happen to me is heaven. And

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that's pretty good. So that was the attitude we had. And we got treatment for it. And instead of me

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being dead in six months in about eight months time, uh, they couldn't find any sign of, uh,

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of cancer anymore. But I went on taking, uh, uh, chemotherapy treatments for eight years

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to be sure that's because that stuff, that agent orange gets in your system and it stays in your

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system the rest of your life. And they're even saying that to some people, the agent orange now,

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if you had children after you came back from Vietnam or exposed to agent orange, you had

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children. There's a chance that your children may catch something. So we had one child before I went

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to Vietnam and then we had another child when I came back. So our second child, I'm making sure

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that that she understands that get your blood checked from time to time, make sure that you're

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doing okay. Uh, and, um, I just thank the Lord. I mean, I'm alive. I, I was told six months and

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now he was, not only did I survive, but God intervened in a very special way. And I didn't

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even have to have what they call a stem cell transplant, which is pretty common when you have

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a leukemia or a bone marrow cancer, multiple myeloma that you have to have a, um, you just

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absolutely, you just have to have a stem cell transplant. And I said, well, let me ask you a

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question. If the transplant is successful, what results are we supposed to see? He said, well,

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you'll have to get zero readings in your multiple myeloma tests for you through your blood.

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And he said, and by the way, it's easy to follow this cancer because it's in the blood. And I said,

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you just said something very powerful because yes, it's in the blood. It's in the blood of Jesus

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is how I'm going to be healed. And, and I had a wonderful testimony over at Mayo, you know,

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when I had doctors and people talking to me, but he basically said that, you know, that it's,

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it's in the blood, it's easy to find. Uh, and he said, but, um, uh, you know, you're still going

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to have the stem cell transplant. And so I started praying. We started trusting, believing and said,

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we're going to get a miracle here. And I said, I'm believing for a miracle doctor. And he said,

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well, that's nice. And he passed me on the shoulder and says, that's great. Cause the doctors are

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people of science. Many of them don't believe in miracles, but in a matter of just months,

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eight months, uh, he looked at me and he said, uh, your, um, readings are unbelievable. And he said,

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matter of fact, you already have the same results as you had a stem cell transplant. So therefore

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you don't need to have a stem cell transplant. And I thank Lord only God's glory. I never had

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to have the stem cell transplant. A miracle took place. When the doctor looked at that,

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I said, doctor, how can you describe what happened to me? We know it was agent orange cause. We know

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that we know it was cancer and it's a killer. And to this day, they still don't have a cure for it.

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And so I said, so let me ask you a question. I only have one kidney. Cause I lost my first kidney

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to cancer caused by agent orange. And I had one left and you're trying to burn me on the inside

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out with chemo. Uh, why is it my kidney? One kidney that's left is functioning so well and doing so

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well. And he said, this is a doctor that told me at first he was doubtful. He said, well,

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there's only really one word to describe what just happened to you. He said, it's a miracle.

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And he took his pen and he wrote across the file and wrote the word. This is a miracle. And, uh,

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he said, there's no scientific reason that what happened to you that has happened to you and

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you're, and you're healed. And he said, and the fact that you don't, that you didn't have a, um,

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um, uh, you didn't have a cancer any longer is just a miracle. Wow. That's amazing. Pastor David.

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Wow. Well, you know, I thought my agent orange situation, uh, okay, it's over and it's done.

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And then all of a sudden it hit me. No, it's not done. There's a lot of people out there. So

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I did some research and I discovered there are 800,000 U S military veterans living up in the,

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in America today who were exposed to agent orange and have a strong possibility of coming down with

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some type of disease of various types of diseases. And so I started researching to find out how to

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help these people went to the VA. I've written two books on it and both of them are on Amazon.

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One has to do with Vietnam, a young man's story. The other one is Vietnam and PTSD and agent orange.

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And those books were designed to get help into the hands of veterans who are going through difficult

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times. And I have quite frankly met with hundreds of individual veterans who are suffering from

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various diseases and things that they couldn't understand where it was coming from. We found

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out that they were exposed to agent orange. They went to the military, they went to the VA,

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and they're now getting treatment. Some of them are on a hundred percent disability and are,

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their finances are being taken care of. Others are, have lesser disabilities, but nonetheless,

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many of them are suffering today, walking around with an agent orange exposure disease. And the

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military is doing a lot to improve the service and improve what's going on. But quite frankly,

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there's an awful lot of people out there who probably will come down with various types of

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cancers and other diseases based upon their exposure to agent orange.

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So pastor David, I love how you have faith for miracles and it's not just because of the

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miracles that have happened in your life, which those are, that's incredible stories. And we want

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to go deeper into that, but now you're seeing faith for other people's miracles and people's

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faith is being built. We're all given a measure of faith. How did you grow and cultivate this faith

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in your life to see these, these miracles? Well, John, I've got to go all the way back to when I

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first became a Christian. When we first found Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior, I remember

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went to a Billy Graham crusade and he asked everybody just as I am down on the field. I went,

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someone prayed for me and I gave my life to Christ and everything changed my perspective of

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Christians or whatever. So I went to church and I went to an assembly of God church where they

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believed in healing and they believed in miracles. And I thought, well, that's, that's okay for some,

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but I don't know about that. So I was there in the church service and I'm brand new Christian,

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25 years of age and my wife's with me. And so the pastor said, we're going to have prayer for this

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little boy up here. And he is, he has a need, he didn't tell her what it was. And we just want to

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pray cause he's facing surgery. And so I, so I said, well, I didn't say anything. I'm in the church.

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There's a group of us, maybe a hundred people in the church. And so then he said, could you all come

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down there? Well, that was unusual for me. So I walked down front and I saw the dad standing there

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with this little four year old boy in his arms. And the pastor just started praying. He didn't say

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what it was. He just simply says, well, pray that the surgery will go well and whatever. And as I

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closed my eyes and I started praying and I said, heavenly father, I just pray that you will heal

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this little boy. And, and as I closed my eyes, the Lord showed me a picture of this little boy's

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kidney and he had two kidneys. One healthiest can be the other one was diseased and there was no

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blood flowing through it. And, and the Holy spirit told me that's the kidney they're going to have

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to remove unless you pray and have faith to believe that he can be healed. So I started

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praying father in Jesus name. I prayed you'll heal him and restore him. I didn't know a lot of

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the classy prayer statements because I was a new Christian and I didn't even know what it meant when

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you said the blood of Jesus, you know, just brand new Christian. And I prayed and I said, Lord,

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would that blood flow through this little boy's body and heal him and the Lord show me this little

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kid's kidney open up just in my mind's eye. I saw this kidney open up and blood flowing through it

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and it grew and it went to almost the same size as the other one. Cause you know, kidneys, one's a

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little bigger than the other one. So it got to be just what's supposed to be. And it was healed.

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And so then the pastor was through praying and he, he dismissed the service. So I was kind of

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a little bit in shock, went over the pastor and said, pastor, could you have a second? This is

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new to me. I don't, this has happened to all Christians. So, you know, when, when you, when

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you're having faith to believe, and he said, well, what happened? And I told him, he says, oh my,

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oh my, he says, um, that little boy was going in to have his kidney removed. I said, oh, well,

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he doesn't need to now because it's been healed. And he says, well, that's nice. And I appreciate

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what you said. And he's a really great pastor, really a great man. But he said, you know, we

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have to wait and see now how God acts. I said, well, pastor, I'm just telling you it's done.

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And that, that little boy's, that's kidney is completely healed and restored. You watch. He

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said, well, we'll find out. Cause I was at a midweek service on a Wednesday and he said, Sunday,

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uh, we'll, uh, we'll report. Well, he said, but the little boy probably won't be here because he'll

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have surgery. So anyway, so Sunday comes around and the pastor calls up the man and the little

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boy, and he brings the little boy up front and he asked the father, he says, well, what took place?

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And he said, I don't, we don't really know for sure, but God healed him. And when they went into

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do surgery, the doctor said, wait a minute, wait a minute, something's happened. And his kidney was

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completely normal and had been restored. And he didn't need the surgery. There was absolutely no

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need for the surgery. And the pastor looked down at me in the church and I'm, I'm looking at him

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like, well, I, that's what I told you. You know, when you, when you become a new Christian, you

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want to save everybody in the world. You want everybody to know Jesus Christ. You want to pray

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for everybody. You want everybody to be healed. We have this birth of faith because now we've

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received Christ. We don't receive Christ because of our faith. We received Christ because of God's

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grace. But, but by, by that grace, we then receive a measure of faith. And that measure of faith gets

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us started. And, and the beautiful thing about faith is, is that Jesus talks about great, you

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have great faith. I've never seen such great faith in all of Israel to one person. Then another one,

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he says, you have no faith, you know, you have absolutely no faith whatsoever. And, and oh,

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ye of little faith. I mean, you know, those types of things are said. And so it really inspired me.

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I started reading the word of God about, well, then if there's little faith and there's great

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faith, then there must be medium faith and there must be in between faith. And so there must be

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levels of faith. And there really is, there really are levels of faith. There's confidence

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and trust in God. So then after that experience took place, I thought, I asked the pastor, can I,

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can I pray for other people? It would it be okay? And he said, yeah, that would be great, you know.

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And so I, I remember we had another service and a lady came up front and she was a probably a 50ish,

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and I'm a 25 year old, so she was in their fifties. I thought, you know, she was ancient.

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Now that I'm in my seventies, I don't believe that way anymore. But nonetheless, you know,

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this lady is standing there and I said, can I pray for you? And she says, yeah, I've got,

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I just need to be prayed for. And I said, well, let me, let me just pray for what the Holy Spirit

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put on my heart. You've got diabetes. And he's, she said, yeah, yeah, that's yeah, it's killing me.

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And she said, I've been suffering with it all my life. And I said, well, then let's just believe

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that God's going to heal that, you know? And so she said, how did you know? I said, well, I didn't

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know, but somehow I didn't know to explain to her that the Holy Spirit is the one that impressed me

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and gave me that the gift, you know, to understand what that was. I just simply said, you see, you

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only have to have to have faith. You only have to have all this training and education and stuff.

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The thief on the cross had no training. He didn't go to, he didn't go to Bible classes.

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He didn't tithe, you know, he just looked at Jesus in faith and said, you're an innocent man.

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I believe in you. And Jesus said, today you'll be with me in paradise. So we can approach faith,

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like the thief on the cross did. He had faith to believe in Jesus when he was hanging on a cross.

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If he did that and he was just an ordinary person, we can have faith no matter what we go through.

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So I prayed with this lady and I said, I really think you need to get a check. She says, yeah.

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I said, but I'm telling you, God healed you. There's no doubt in my mind. The Holy Spirit

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has told me that your diabetes has been healed. And she said, well, you know, diabetes isn't one

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of those things that gets healed. I said, well, I don't believe that. I said, because the Bible says,

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you know, that you take something to Jesus, you know, seeking first the kingdom of God and his

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righteousness, and then all these things shall be added unto you. Let's believe for that for you.

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Anyways, she went, I didn't see her for several days and she came back on another day. We met,

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she ran up to me and she said, she said, David, David, David, she said, the doctor said,

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my diabetes is completely gone and cured and healed. It's gone. And I said, I said, he's,

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and he said, that just doesn't happen. I said, no, it does happen because it did happen. And it

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happened to you. And I was very blessed at that time. I started reading an evangelist by the name

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of Smith Wigglesworth. Now Smith Wigglesworth is known as the man of faith. He wrote a lot of books

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on faith. So I got everything that he wrote and I read every bit of it. And I just soaked it up.

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And I was so excited about his life and what he was doing. And then the faith that that man had,

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and what was interesting, he died in 1946. I was born in 1946. And I said, Lord, did you do an

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impartation of faith from him that I get to receive that now? And the Holy Spirit basically

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confirmed that, yeah, you're going to pray for people and they're going to, you're going to see

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miracles. So the Lord just kept showing me miracle after miracle. A later time, there were many times

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where people were healed of various things that we prayed for. And it was always the healing power,

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Lord Jesus Christ, because Jesus is the healer, not me. And, but, but when I prayed for those people,

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it started to build my faith. And when I saw other people getting healed and I started watching

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people like old Roberts on TV and, and, and his, the way he prayed and whatever. And I thought,

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well, I don't know how real that is. And then I got to know him, got to meet him. I got to play golf

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with him later on. And, and I told him how his life impacted my life when it came to faith. And

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he was a great guy. He was a really wonderful man and what an honor it was to be with him. Well,

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anyway, so moving along with these subjects of how healing miracles take place, we were

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pastoring a church years later and a man in our church came up to me and said, I'm going in for

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surgery to have my hip replaced. And he said, it's completely shot. It's gone. And they have to tear

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it, take it out and remove it and put a new hip in. And I said, well, do you believe that Jesus

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can heal you? And he says, well, I hope so. And I said, well, wait a minute, wait a minute. I don't

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want to pray if you say, I hope so. I want to pray if you believe, yes, I believe he can and he will

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and he'll heal me, not just everybody else, not that he just heals, but he'll heal me because it's

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easier to pray for somebody else's healing many times than it is for our own. I think people agree

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with that. So anyways, they went to the hospital. They asked me to come over and I prayed or I

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annoyed him with oil, prayed like we normally do. Father, we pray for a creative miracle. We believe

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that you made this body, take it back to the condition it was the way you made it. And that

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that hip will be completely restored and healed in Jesus name. Well, then I left the hospital. They

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rolled him into the surgery. And when I prayed for the doctor's hands, the doctor came into the room

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and I said, doctor, before you do surgery on him, could I pray over your hands? And he said,

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yeah, I guess. And he kind of puts his hands out and he's kind of like acting like this is weird.

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I said, no, I just want to pray for your hands. I'm not going to touch you. I just want to pray

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for your hands. I prayed that his hands would be used to perform a miracle for the power of Jesus

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and that and that there'd be complete healing. And this doctor said, wow, thank you. That was

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wonderful. So anyways, I went back to the to the church. I got a call in about an hour and the

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family saying, you got to get back here, pastor. You got to get back. I said, why is everything's

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okay, right? And they said, yeah, well, yeah, more than okay. So I drove back to the hospital and

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there and the doctor's waiting for me and the family's waiting for me. And the man with the

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surgery is in bed. The doctor looked at me and he says, what did you do? And I said, I didn't do

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anything. I just prayed and Jesus healed him. Right. And he said, well, here's the x-ray before

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he went in and he and of course I can't read x-rays and his his hip was destroyed. Here's the

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x-ray what it looks like today. He said his his hip has completely regenerated itself and healed

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and he didn't need surgery. He said, I only feel bad that I opened him up to to open him up for the

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surgery and that that incision has to heal now. He said, but he is completely healed. His hip has

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been totally restored and completely healed. And I just believe that God wants to do that.

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And we got to remember that God's in the same healing business he was then. I've had the healing

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miracles in my body. I've had in my own body, but it's over time. I've seen so many people

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who needed healing. And now today we pray with people for with cancers and we've had people who

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who's a fella fell off of a horse and his his he had a brain hemorrhage and they said he had never

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walk again. He'd never speak again. He'd never whatever. So we went down and anointed him with

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oil prayed over him. And within a matter of days, he's walking in the hospital. Now he's back home

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and he's talking. He's walking. He's about 98% recovered from that thing. And the doctors like

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we didn't do anything. We just there was nothing to do, you know, except wait for the brain,

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the swelling to go down. Well, the swelling went down instantly and he was able to start

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functioning in his normal functions. And we just had one after another and after another of how

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God has touched one that was happening. I was doing my podcast on charisma and, you know,

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and I thought the Lord saying you need to write about this. You need to let other people know.

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So I did a series called Faith for Miracles. And and so I wanted people to understand that

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miracles are still alive and well today. Jesus is still the same yesterday, today and forever.

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And so therefore we've got to believe in miracles and claim them and walk in them and receive them.

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And so I completed a book. I just released it. It's on Amazon right now. And it's a book entitled

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Faith for Miracles, which is kind of comical. When I hired the editor, who was a Christian, but not

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one that believed a whole lot in miracles at first, she looked at the title and she said,

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um, I hate to tell you, but your title is grammatically incorrect. You can't say faith

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for miracles. You have to say faith in miracles. And I said, well, no, I can't say faith in miracles

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because my faith is not in the miracle. My faith is in the miracle worker, the Lord Jesus Christ.

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And she said, oh my goodness, you're right. And she had a revelation. And through editing this now,

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she has experienced a new faith and a trust in God for miracles. But, but I just believe that

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with quality Christian living, that's what our podcast is. This is one aspect of it,

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to have faith in miracles and believe for them and pray for even people that everybody else gives up

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on, never give up on, never give up on them. I always pray the guy in the wheelchair many times

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gets walked by and not prayed for. And I don't see people getting out of wheelchairs every time I go

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by them, but I do see people who were in wheelchairs or are no longer in them now. And thank God for

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those miracles. Yeah. So pastor David, I'm reminded of the story in the Bible where there's this man

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that came to Jesus and said, Lord, I believe help my unbelief. And I kind of relate to him a lot

366
00:33:01,760 --> 00:33:08,080
because I believe, but I know that I don't believe enough. I have faith, but I feel like I need to

367
00:33:08,080 --> 00:33:16,800
have more faith. How do you help people grow in their faith in practical ways? Well, what works

368
00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:25,040
for me is always using the word of God in the scriptures to strengthen my faith, because I

369
00:33:25,040 --> 00:33:31,200
remember the story of the, of the blind man and Jesus, remember he spit in the ground and made

370
00:33:31,200 --> 00:33:37,040
the mud and he put it in the guy's eyes and, and told them, you know, to wash it and whatever. And

371
00:33:37,040 --> 00:33:44,560
the guy's vision came and, and the people around Jesus and this man said, well, you know, what was

372
00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:48,080
the reason he was blind? Was he blind because of sin in his life or blind because his parents had

373
00:33:48,080 --> 00:33:53,520
sin? And Jesus said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. He was blind for another reason. He was blind so

374
00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:59,120
that basically he's saying, so I could do a miracle and that God will receive all the glory. And that's

375
00:33:59,120 --> 00:34:04,960
stuck in me. See, that's a scripture and we got to find scriptures that speak to us, that we claim

376
00:34:04,960 --> 00:34:11,120
that promise. Matter of fact, that story of that man mixing up the mud, I've used that for eight

377
00:34:11,120 --> 00:34:16,560
solid months going in and getting treatments for chemotherapy. When I would go in and the doctor

378
00:34:16,560 --> 00:34:22,880
would say, check my weight and we're going to go in and mix up a batch of chemotherapy for you based

379
00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:26,720
on your weight and your blood pressure and all that kind of stuff. And I'd say, great, have you

380
00:34:26,720 --> 00:34:32,960
ever heard the story about the miracle that took place because the mud was being mixed? That story

381
00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:40,160
now moved into my life and I claimed the mud, the chemotherapy that cleansed me and healed me of

382
00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:45,920
multi myeloma bone marrow cancer. So therefore, if you answer how do you get more faith, you got to

383
00:34:45,920 --> 00:34:52,000
find the scriptures that speak to you, the ones that really, really hit the nail on the head and

384
00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:57,920
you go in, that's good. I like that. And you claim that and you operate in that and see exactly what

385
00:34:57,920 --> 00:35:02,560
that scripture is telling you. The man says, you know, I need more faith. So that's he was just

386
00:35:02,560 --> 00:35:10,000
being honest. And I think we need to start off just like he did. Be honest, say, God, I need more

387
00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:16,080
faith. Can you give me more faith? He will direct you to his word. The Holy Spirit will direct you

388
00:35:16,080 --> 00:35:22,480
to his word. And then I tell people to find people who believe in healings or have had great

389
00:35:22,480 --> 00:35:27,200
healings and listen to them and listen to their stories to get a good book that tells them that

390
00:35:27,200 --> 00:35:34,320
tells them how to pray and how to seek the face of God and to believe and get that unbelief aside

391
00:35:34,320 --> 00:35:42,240
and then and start claiming that you can have greater faith and see miracles. Jesus basically,

392
00:35:42,240 --> 00:35:48,320
you know, talked about great faith and great miracles because the people just simply believed

393
00:35:48,320 --> 00:35:55,520
faith is is easy and yet people make it hard. You know, you're sitting on a chair and I'm sitting

394
00:35:55,520 --> 00:36:00,640
sitting I'm sitting on a stool right now. It's about 24 inches off the ground. I have faith

395
00:36:01,520 --> 00:36:08,320
in the stool, right? It means that well, that doesn't count. Yes, it does count. That's a tiny,

396
00:36:08,320 --> 00:36:12,720
tiny piece of faith. You get in an airplane and you have faith that it's going to take you to where

397
00:36:12,720 --> 00:36:17,360
you want to go without crashing on the ground, right? And people, some people won't fly planes.

398
00:36:17,360 --> 00:36:23,680
Well, that's that's their business. But when we whatever we do, we got to start finding pieces of

399
00:36:23,680 --> 00:36:29,200
faith that we have and start believing. I've got more faith than I thought I had. You know,

400
00:36:29,200 --> 00:36:32,480
people in church come up to me and say, well, pastor, every time you get sick or something,

401
00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:37,840
you get a great healing. And so therefore you've got great faith and you got great greater faith.

402
00:36:37,840 --> 00:36:41,760
I got no, no, no, don't tell me about having a me greater faith. I just want you to know that I

403
00:36:41,760 --> 00:36:46,400
just want to believe as soon as there's a problem, I'm not going to let my circumstances rob me from

404
00:36:46,400 --> 00:36:52,560
my opportunity to receive what I need from God. Paul said I learned to be content in everything,

405
00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:59,120
right? Good, bad, hungry, you know, full, rich, poor, whatever it was. He said I didn't allow my

406
00:36:59,120 --> 00:37:04,400
circumstances to rob me. So another tip about having greater faith is to don't allow what

407
00:37:04,400 --> 00:37:08,720
you're going through to rob you of your faith. Believe your faith, claim your faith. And when

408
00:37:08,720 --> 00:37:13,440
you don't see the answer right away, that doesn't matter. That doesn't matter. You don't feel

409
00:37:13,440 --> 00:37:19,440
defeated. You don't feel down because you didn't get the immediate answer like that. I've had people

410
00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:24,880
get answers to prayer sometimes a year or two or three years after I've prayed for them. And I

411
00:37:24,880 --> 00:37:30,320
believe that we don't ever let up. We don't ever give up. We stay focused. We believe and we find

412
00:37:30,320 --> 00:37:36,080
that bunch of scriptures, maybe they're half a dozen or more that speak to us that build our faith

413
00:37:36,080 --> 00:37:42,080
and get around positive people who believe in miracles. Amen. And I believe that will help in

414
00:37:42,080 --> 00:37:47,440
each and every one of us. Yeah. I'm going to ask you to pray in just a little bit. But before we do

415
00:37:47,440 --> 00:37:54,800
that, I know that your message about faith for miracles is not limited to just healing.

416
00:37:55,360 --> 00:38:01,200
Right. Can you tell me some stories and build our faith before you pray for people at the end of

417
00:38:01,200 --> 00:38:08,160
this? Could you tell us some stories of other types of miracles that you've seen God do

418
00:38:08,720 --> 00:38:15,680
that you've had that faith for? Well, when we started our church, we had a little group of

419
00:38:15,680 --> 00:38:22,240
people, about 20 of us, we rented a little motel conference room and paid a hundred bucks so we

420
00:38:22,240 --> 00:38:28,960
could have it for three hours. And I thought, well, Lord, we've got to prepare for something

421
00:38:28,960 --> 00:38:33,280
greater than this because you didn't have me leave my business and sell my business and go so I could

422
00:38:33,280 --> 00:38:37,600
have 20 people meet in a motel conference room for the rest of my life. So you've got something

423
00:38:37,600 --> 00:38:44,400
greater planned. And so therefore we started asking God to show us exactly what he wants us to do.

424
00:38:44,400 --> 00:38:49,680
Well, we got to where we had maybe, you know, maybe a hundred people was coming after several

425
00:38:49,680 --> 00:38:54,800
months. And but all of a sudden I thought, well, we've got if you got a hundred people, it's like

426
00:38:54,800 --> 00:39:01,680
the it's like the the plant that you put in a jar that's this big and you put a plant in there and

427
00:39:01,680 --> 00:39:05,680
it grows it to be a little plant this big. Right. Or you take the plant outside and you put it on

428
00:39:05,680 --> 00:39:12,320
the garden and it turns out to be a 10 foot wide, 15 foot, you know, bush. It's where we plant our

429
00:39:12,320 --> 00:39:18,000
seed for it to grow depends on whether it's going to grow or not. And so I prayed, I said, Lord,

430
00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:22,720
what do I need for this church to be at least a thousand people? And so the Holy Spirit said,

431
00:39:22,720 --> 00:39:28,480
you're going to have to rent a building. I went to the air park, rented a warehouse, 20,000 square

432
00:39:28,480 --> 00:39:36,000
feet with no income, small congregation, twenty thousand dollars a month for five year lease. I

433
00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:41,440
signed, I said, God, this is your church. So therefore this is your obligation. So by faith,

434
00:39:41,440 --> 00:39:46,080
we're believing you're going to supply it. The man that owned it was not a Christian. And yet he,

435
00:39:46,080 --> 00:39:51,680
we received a favor from him to to even lease the building because we were brand new church,

436
00:39:51,680 --> 00:39:56,480
didn't have any track record. That in itself was a miracle. The fact that we even got the building.

437
00:39:56,480 --> 00:39:59,920
Then on top of that, he wasn't even a Christian. He gave us three hundred thousand dollars worth

438
00:39:59,920 --> 00:40:03,600
of improvements on the building because he felt because it was a church, he wanted to make it

439
00:40:03,600 --> 00:40:08,960
nice. He, you know, he did that. So then we started the church and it just exploded and grew.

440
00:40:08,960 --> 00:40:14,000
And then he and his wife came to church the first Sunday and he got saved. And so, I mean,

441
00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:18,160
and the church exploded within a year. We were running, you know, eight hundred to a thousand

442
00:40:18,160 --> 00:40:21,440
people in church and within two years, we're running two thousand people at three different

443
00:40:21,440 --> 00:40:27,760
locations. Three locations. And I had none of that planned. God made it happen. So we needed

444
00:40:27,760 --> 00:40:31,840
to build our church. We needed money. I didn't have any. I went to the bank to borrow and I said,

445
00:40:31,840 --> 00:40:35,600
I need seven million dollars. And they said, well, that's nice. You know, and I said, you're

446
00:40:35,600 --> 00:40:41,120
going to have to talk to somebody and convince them. I went down the hallway to meet who the

447
00:40:41,120 --> 00:40:46,640
the big shot loan guy was. And they said, if you can convince him the loan, you're the money. Fine.

448
00:40:46,640 --> 00:40:51,360
But he's the only he's the final decision. I walked into the room and I looked at him and I said,

449
00:40:51,920 --> 00:40:58,480
Lanny, what are you doing here? God had planted a man in that office years before he he didn't

450
00:40:58,480 --> 00:41:01,920
even know I was a pastor. He said, you're pastoring. How long you been doing that? I said

451
00:41:01,920 --> 00:41:07,440
about three and a half, four years. He said, I saw your balances, your you guys, your incomes,

452
00:41:07,440 --> 00:41:11,440
you know, three, four hundred thousand dollars a month coming in here. This is incredible. What's

453
00:41:11,440 --> 00:41:15,760
happening? And I told him and I said, I need to borrow seven million dollars to build the church.

454
00:41:15,760 --> 00:41:19,920
We own the land and I won't go through that. But it was a miracle. I wound up buying land with no

455
00:41:19,920 --> 00:41:24,400
money. Wound up with thirty three acres, about thirty three acres with no money turned around

456
00:41:24,400 --> 00:41:29,440
and sold off seven of it. And that seven paid off the rest of the twenty six acres. We wound up with

457
00:41:29,440 --> 00:41:34,000
twenty six acres free and clear. And and so we're sitting there with no money. And now we own twenty

458
00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:39,200
six acres in North Scottsdale to build our church, which was worth a couple of million dollars.

459
00:41:39,200 --> 00:41:44,400
And we didn't have to come up with any money at all to do the deal. God made it happen where one

460
00:41:44,400 --> 00:41:48,720
person did one thing, another, but whatever it got orchestrated. Then we got our seven million

461
00:41:48,720 --> 00:41:53,440
dollar loan from him and we built this church. And so seven years, God's perfect number, seven

462
00:41:53,440 --> 00:41:57,440
years after we started the church, we wound up building a twelve million dollar church facility

463
00:41:57,440 --> 00:42:03,200
that seats eleven hundred people. And to God be the glory that that is a financial breakthrough

464
00:42:03,200 --> 00:42:07,680
and a financial miracle that we just had to believe God for it. Trust him for it, not do stupid

465
00:42:07,680 --> 00:42:13,680
things, not get myself in trouble, but take risk. In business, there's something called risk versus

466
00:42:13,680 --> 00:42:19,520
reward. If you take a big risk, you probably have a greater chance for a bigger reward. And I believe

467
00:42:19,520 --> 00:42:24,640
in that. And in churches, we've got to have to do the same thing. We've got to believe that our risk

468
00:42:24,640 --> 00:42:30,720
is really faith. And and we can believe for that and we can believe to be out of debt. We can believe

469
00:42:30,720 --> 00:42:36,480
to be debt free. We can believe to get our finances in order. We can believe that we can become a tither

470
00:42:36,480 --> 00:42:40,400
just by changing the things that you're doing in your life to become a tither. Once you do that,

471
00:42:40,400 --> 00:42:46,080
then you tie. Then God is responsible for your finances. When you start giving to him first,

472
00:42:46,080 --> 00:42:50,480
he's in charge of your finances. And then all of a sudden, the finances start coming forward. So

473
00:42:50,480 --> 00:42:55,840
to God be the glory in all those areas. And we've got to also believe that God can restore

474
00:42:55,840 --> 00:43:00,720
marriages. Let me give you a real fast one on a very, this is great. This is instilling my faith,

475
00:43:00,720 --> 00:43:05,760
Pastor David. This is wonderful. I'm sitting there one Saturday in church. It's a Saturday morning.

476
00:43:05,760 --> 00:43:10,080
I'm by myself. I'm getting, getting my notes and stuff ready, kind of organizing, getting ready.

477
00:43:10,080 --> 00:43:15,680
And all of a sudden the Holy Spirit says, call the Smith family. That's not their name, but I'm going

478
00:43:15,680 --> 00:43:22,240
to just say the Smith family. And I went, okay, I'll call them. And I'm striving to do my, now.

479
00:43:22,880 --> 00:43:30,080
And I'm going, now? I'm going, Lord, I've got this sermon I'm putting together for tomorrow. I've

480
00:43:30,080 --> 00:43:34,800
got to get ready or whatever. I'm going to be here all day. And the Holy Spirit basically telling me,

481
00:43:35,440 --> 00:43:42,240
call them now. So I put down my stuff, you know, and I get the phone out and back in the old days,

482
00:43:42,240 --> 00:43:49,200
you know, I had an actual phone that I, and so I picked it up. I said, hi, this is Pastor Dave

483
00:43:49,200 --> 00:43:57,520
at the Green City Church in Scottsdale. And he says, he starts laughing. And so I thought, Lord,

484
00:43:58,080 --> 00:44:02,320
is this what you're doing? You want to make fun of me? You know, you're, this man's laughing at me

485
00:44:02,320 --> 00:44:07,280
because I called him and I said, well, his name was Gary. I said, Gary, why are you laughing? I'm

486
00:44:07,280 --> 00:44:13,600
sorry, but I don't understand. He said, Pastor, no, no, no, no, it's not you. He said, 10 seconds ago,

487
00:44:13,600 --> 00:44:18,880
my daughter said, dad, we should never go to that church because it's a big church. They got a

488
00:44:18,880 --> 00:44:24,480
thousand people going and that pastor's never going to know, even know who you are. He'll never talk

489
00:44:24,480 --> 00:44:30,880
to us. He'll never call us. He has no way, he says, and she said, and so therefore I don't think we

490
00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:35,760
need to go to that church. And as soon as she said that, the phone rang and I picked it up and it's

491
00:44:35,760 --> 00:44:41,520
you. And he, that little girl, matter of fact, that little girl I saw last weekend when I went to see

492
00:44:41,520 --> 00:44:46,800
one of my grandkids and she came over to me, she says, you remember me? I said, well, sure I do.

493
00:44:47,760 --> 00:44:53,920
It was her dad. She was the little girl that was saying that pastor will never call you. So God

494
00:44:53,920 --> 00:44:59,440
performed a miracle to wake me up, to have me call at that moment, not an hour later, not 10 minutes

495
00:44:59,440 --> 00:45:04,320
later, the Holy Spirit was telling me. So if you want to see your miracles happen when the Holy

496
00:45:04,320 --> 00:45:10,560
Spirit speaks to us, let's do something and let's do it right now. So anyways, I could go on with

497
00:45:10,560 --> 00:45:16,960
those, but that's, please do. This is great. I love this. I mean, it's, it, your faith comes by

498
00:45:16,960 --> 00:45:23,120
hearing and hearing the word of God. And part of that is also the testimonies, you know, it's the

499
00:45:23,120 --> 00:45:29,760
testimony of Jesus, uh, as we read through the scriptures, but as we see how God works today,

500
00:45:29,760 --> 00:45:35,920
it builds our faith for today. You know, it's not just this happened with the apostles back in that

501
00:45:35,920 --> 00:45:42,720
day, but what is happening with pastor David today? What is happening in our world today that we see

502
00:45:42,720 --> 00:45:48,240
God's, we see God's hand at work and our faith is being built. And just you telling these stories

503
00:45:48,240 --> 00:45:52,000
is building my faith and building everybody's faith. That's, that's watching. We're going to

504
00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:56,080
get a couple more stories before you pray. Cause I gotta get, I gotta get a couple more, but I just

505
00:45:56,080 --> 00:46:00,320
want to encourage everybody that's watching, make sure you put in the comments. If you're believing

506
00:46:00,320 --> 00:46:05,280
for a healing, put in the word healing. If you're believing for a financial miracle, put in the word

507
00:46:05,280 --> 00:46:10,320
financial miracle or any other type of miracle. We want to believe with you. And so we'll be

508
00:46:10,320 --> 00:46:16,400
looking through the comments and replying to that. But pastor David, please tell us some more stories.

509
00:46:16,400 --> 00:46:21,680
This is so good. Well, I'll give you, I'll give you one that's very, very, very special to me. And

510
00:46:21,680 --> 00:46:26,800
one day I was on a, at church and I was in my office and a lady came in and wanted to talk with

511
00:46:26,800 --> 00:46:32,720
me. She said, pastor, my, my secretary was right there. So she came in with her and sat down with

512
00:46:32,720 --> 00:46:39,600
me and she said, my, my dad is near death and he's 93 years old and he's going to die and he's an

513
00:46:39,600 --> 00:46:46,320
atheist. And I said, oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. I said, well, let me go pray for him and we'll

514
00:46:46,320 --> 00:46:50,960
just pray that he'll receive Jesus Christ as a savior. He said, I'm so sorry to hear that.

515
00:46:50,960 --> 00:46:55,120
And she said, no, no, no, you don't understand. You don't understand. He's been an atheist for

516
00:46:55,120 --> 00:46:59,520
about 70 some years of his life. And his wife, my mama has been the same thing. They've been

517
00:46:59,520 --> 00:47:03,920
atheists and the whole family, they're all atheists and they all hate God. And there's a couple of

518
00:47:03,920 --> 00:47:09,920
them, I guess that are agnostic, but, but basically they hate God period. And they hate pastors.

519
00:47:10,560 --> 00:47:15,520
And I said, well, well then I, I guess I just need to call him and go over there and pray for him.

520
00:47:15,520 --> 00:47:19,520
And she said, well, if you do. And I said, well, wait a minute, just a second, let's just believe

521
00:47:19,520 --> 00:47:24,480
that God's going to give me favor. And that when I call, he'll receive that call. And she said,

522
00:47:24,480 --> 00:47:27,600
well, it's not going to happen. I said, well, that's according to your faith, but according

523
00:47:27,600 --> 00:47:32,320
to my faith, God's going to let me have a chance. So I said, I'm not going to pray with you. I'm

524
00:47:32,320 --> 00:47:37,680
just going to believe. So I picked up the phone and I dialed the hospital. Now my flesh said,

525
00:47:37,680 --> 00:47:43,120
when he answers, don't tell him you're a pastor because you know, that's, uh, he's going to hang

526
00:47:43,120 --> 00:47:48,720
up or cuss you out or something. Right. And I, but the spirit said, don't you dare wimp out on me.

527
00:47:48,720 --> 00:47:53,280
You know, and the Holy spirit telling them. I said, hi. And it, and I forget his name and save

528
00:47:53,280 --> 00:47:59,120
his Tom. And I said, hi, Tom, this is pastor David friend down at the dream church, you know, and

529
00:47:59,120 --> 00:48:02,240
I'd like to come over to your hospital and pray for you. I just believe that God wants to touch

530
00:48:02,240 --> 00:48:07,920
you and heal you and silence. And this daughter's looking across the desk from me sitting there.

531
00:48:07,920 --> 00:48:14,160
She's like this, you know, she's got her and I said, and he says, that would be great.

532
00:48:14,160 --> 00:48:18,560
And I had them on speaker and I said, okay, I'll be right there. And I hung up and I looked at her.

533
00:48:18,560 --> 00:48:25,600
She said, that, that was my dad. I said, yeah, God just performed the breakthrough miracle. We

534
00:48:25,600 --> 00:48:31,520
needed for him to receive his healing and Jesus as his Lord and savior. And she said, well, you

535
00:48:31,520 --> 00:48:36,480
think so. And I said, no, no, no, I know. So I'm that that just is not coincidence. So off, I went

536
00:48:36,480 --> 00:48:40,800
to the hospital, she'd gotten her car went, I met her at the hospital. We went into the room and

537
00:48:40,800 --> 00:48:45,360
here's a room with this man sitting there and he's, he's dying of cancer. He's got a horrendous tumor

538
00:48:45,360 --> 00:48:52,560
on his eye. That's outside. It, it was one of the awful things I think I've seen. And he's, you know,

539
00:48:52,560 --> 00:48:57,280
93 years old, weak as can be sitting on the edge of his bed, just leaning down. I walked into the

540
00:48:57,280 --> 00:49:03,200
room and it was filled. I felt like Satan had a whole bunch of his demons everywhere in that room.

541
00:49:03,200 --> 00:49:09,360
And, and I said, I'm pastor Dave from the church. I just called you and I want to pray for you to

542
00:49:09,360 --> 00:49:14,000
and I want to pray for you to be healed and give your life to Jesus. And he looked at me, he went,

543
00:49:14,720 --> 00:49:21,840
Oh, he could barely speak. I mean, just mutter and instantly there was a spiritual war taking

544
00:49:21,840 --> 00:49:27,040
place in that hospital room. These people were looking at me and growling at me and crossed arms

545
00:49:27,040 --> 00:49:34,080
and I mean, just, you know, get out of here. And, and his daughter was with me and she said, well,

546
00:49:34,080 --> 00:49:38,800
just let the pastor speak. And so, you know, how about a half a dozen people in the room,

547
00:49:38,800 --> 00:49:45,440
they're waiting for him to die. You know? And so I said, all right, well, let's pray. And I want

548
00:49:45,440 --> 00:49:49,680
you to receive Jesus and I want you to be healed. And I said, the greatest healing though, where we

549
00:49:49,680 --> 00:49:54,080
see Jesus Christ, your Lord and savior is spend eternity in heaven. And I went through my typical

550
00:49:54,080 --> 00:49:59,520
thing and I just prayed for him. And I said, so I'm just looking at him now. I got ignore, I got,

551
00:50:00,160 --> 00:50:05,040
faith requires to ignore the circumstances, everything that's around us, right? And I'm

552
00:50:05,040 --> 00:50:09,040
looking at him in the eyes and it's really hard because there was a terrible distraction right

553
00:50:09,040 --> 00:50:14,480
here, but I'm sitting there trying to find this tiny little isolate to look him in the eyes. And

554
00:50:14,480 --> 00:50:19,840
I catch his look. And I said, just repeat after me. I know you can't talk well, but just repeat

555
00:50:19,840 --> 00:50:26,320
these. And I led him in the sinner's prayer. And I said, now in Jesus name, I pray. Amen. Did you

556
00:50:26,320 --> 00:50:34,240
give your life to Jesus Christ today? Let me know. He went just like that. And the room was angry.

557
00:50:34,240 --> 00:50:39,840
I mean, they were angry, you know? And so I said, I looked at him and I says, well, you know, you're

558
00:50:39,840 --> 00:50:43,280
going to, you're going to be in heaven. I said, I prayed for your physical healing, but more

559
00:50:43,280 --> 00:50:47,280
importantly, your spiritual healing, you're going to be in heaven now and I'll see you someday in

560
00:50:47,280 --> 00:50:51,440
heaven. And he went, you know, and he, that's all he could do. That was about all he could do.

561
00:50:51,440 --> 00:51:01,520
So I left the room and so he died three days later. His wife came to church right after he died

562
00:51:01,520 --> 00:51:08,480
to our church, hadn't been in a church in 70 some years, to tell me that he changed, that he was at

563
00:51:08,480 --> 00:51:15,040
such peace, was in complete comfort for those last couple of days before he passed away. And she says,

564
00:51:15,040 --> 00:51:20,320
I need to know what he received. I preached the message, gave an altar call, and there she's

565
00:51:20,320 --> 00:51:25,360
sitting with her daughter and right in that church, she's raising her hand and, and receiving Jesus

566
00:51:25,360 --> 00:51:30,960
Christ as her Lord and savior. That's just a miracle from God to have a breakthrough to believe

567
00:51:30,960 --> 00:51:34,160
on the outside. We can just simply say, well, there's no chance that's going to happen. You'd

568
00:51:34,160 --> 00:51:38,080
take a miracle for that to happen. Yeah, it would take a miracle. And it wasn't a miracle. The fact

569
00:51:38,080 --> 00:51:42,480
that he even allowed me to talk to him was the breakthrough miracle that I got. God gave me

570
00:51:42,480 --> 00:51:48,720
favor when I needed favor. God protected me from all that evil and stuff in that room and to break

571
00:51:48,720 --> 00:51:54,720
through that, all that nasty stuff that was in that room for this man to surrender his heart to

572
00:51:54,720 --> 00:52:01,120
Jesus Christ and to receive Jesus as his Lord and savior. So we give God all the praise and glory for

573
00:52:01,120 --> 00:52:05,120
that one. And let me give you another one real quick. All right. All right. All right. I'm on this.

574
00:52:05,120 --> 00:52:10,080
Honestly, we could have a four hour podcast. I know we're not going to, but I got to tell you one

575
00:52:10,080 --> 00:52:15,200
that was so amazing. Another one that was so amazing where God intervened. I'm speaking these

576
00:52:15,200 --> 00:52:18,880
because there's a lot of people out there, I think they're listening in, who have unsafe family

577
00:52:18,880 --> 00:52:23,440
members and you might be giving up on them, but don't you ever dare, dare ever give up on someone.

578
00:52:23,440 --> 00:52:30,880
I prayed with my little sister for just until she was 44 years old. From the time she was 16 years old,

579
00:52:30,880 --> 00:52:35,600
she was a drug addict and she had major problems with alcoholism and drug addict, whoever, tried to

580
00:52:35,600 --> 00:52:39,360
pray with her, give her heart to Jesus with five, six, seven times, we had her emergency rooms,

581
00:52:39,360 --> 00:52:44,960
getting ready to die. And then finally she was 44 years old and I said, well, she's going to give

582
00:52:44,960 --> 00:52:48,880
her heart to Jesus this time. And off I went to the hospital and I went in the emergency room and

583
00:52:48,880 --> 00:52:53,840
I prayed with her and she opened up her eyes and we prayed. She was as clear as can be. And then she

584
00:52:53,840 --> 00:52:59,120
went back to sleep. And I thought, well, I think it took this time. I think, I think this is real.

585
00:52:59,120 --> 00:53:06,080
And so I brought my wife to the hospital the next day and I said, honey, my sister is here, Carol,

586
00:53:06,080 --> 00:53:13,040
and she gave her heart to Jesus. I believe this time it was real. And we walked in the room and

587
00:53:13,040 --> 00:53:19,600
she, Carol sitting up in bed, clear as can be, eyes are clear, medication, almost nothing. The

588
00:53:19,600 --> 00:53:25,760
nurses are going, she is just amazingly recovering from this. And she's sitting there with a big

589
00:53:25,760 --> 00:53:31,920
smile on her face. And we walk in the room and my wife says to her, well, Carol, did you give your

590
00:53:31,920 --> 00:53:37,520
life to Jesus? And Carol's sitting, big smile on her face. She says, Jesus came into my room last

591
00:53:37,520 --> 00:53:44,560
night and I gave him my heart. I received him as my Lord and Savior and he has changed me. I'm not

592
00:53:44,560 --> 00:53:51,760
hurting, I'm not in pain, I don't have any problems, just completely restored. But to 44, from 16 years

593
00:53:51,760 --> 00:53:57,280
of age, you know, we prayed for her. I got saved when I was 25, that would have made her about 27.

594
00:53:57,280 --> 00:54:03,760
So from 27 to 44, she just kept having all these drug problems and near deaths experiences and never

595
00:54:03,760 --> 00:54:08,560
gave up on her for her salvation. And at 44 years of age, she received Jesus Christ as Lord and

596
00:54:08,560 --> 00:54:15,920
Savior. Today she's 80. And if she was sitting right beside me, I'd say, Carol, what do you think

597
00:54:15,920 --> 00:54:21,520
about Jesus? She'd look at you and say, he's everything. He changed my life. And here she's

598
00:54:21,520 --> 00:54:27,600
physically just in terrible shape. But she's basically so spiritually alive in her relationship

599
00:54:27,600 --> 00:54:36,080
with Jesus. But that was an amazing miracle in my family. Another amazing one took place when I was,

600
00:54:36,080 --> 00:54:43,920
had a family member talking to me and they invited me to do the funeral for a person's mother who had

601
00:54:43,920 --> 00:54:52,000
died. And I said, oh, well, do you know if she was a believer? And they said, well, we're not sure.

602
00:54:52,000 --> 00:54:58,800
She's one of these people that believes in kind of a Hindu background, New Age Hindu background,

603
00:54:58,800 --> 00:55:03,360
where she just believed that, you know, there's the tree is a God and the grass is a God and

604
00:55:03,360 --> 00:55:08,480
animals are and tens of thousands of gods that they have. And they said, but we don't know, but

605
00:55:08,480 --> 00:55:12,160
all of her friends are anti-God and they don't want anything to do with Christians and all that.

606
00:55:12,160 --> 00:55:18,800
But she says, I went into her bedroom and I found a Bible that she bought like three months ago.

607
00:55:18,800 --> 00:55:26,320
And I started looking through it and, and I couldn't believe what I saw. And I, she gave me

608
00:55:26,320 --> 00:55:30,720
the Bible and I looked and I said, well, that's her handwriting. I said, she gave her heart to Jesus.

609
00:55:31,440 --> 00:55:36,240
This is her acceptance of Christ. And I said, this, and the Bible is like she'd owned it for,

610
00:55:36,240 --> 00:55:39,920
you know, for years. It was just, she'd gone through it and gone through it and right in

611
00:55:39,920 --> 00:55:44,800
her handwriting over there, Jesus is my savior. And oh, I'm so sorry, Lord, all those years I

612
00:55:44,800 --> 00:55:49,360
have my back turned against you. And I mean, just constant. And I said, she said, could you do the

613
00:55:49,360 --> 00:55:54,720
funeral? And I said, well, yeah, but will anybody come? And they said, oh yeah, because they don't

614
00:55:54,720 --> 00:56:00,320
know she's a Christian, that she gave her heart to Jesus. So we had a cemetery, went to a funeral

615
00:56:00,320 --> 00:56:05,600
home, about a hundred people showed up and I walked in and they all heard there was going to be a

616
00:56:05,600 --> 00:56:10,400
Christian pastor doing the service. They didn't like that one bit. Matter of fact, I walked in

617
00:56:10,400 --> 00:56:15,040
there and I said, hi, I'm pastor Dave. And they'd go like this and put their hand down beside and

618
00:56:15,040 --> 00:56:20,080
says, get, would you get this over with? You know, it was horrible. It was horrible. And it was,

619
00:56:20,720 --> 00:56:25,280
everybody hated me. I mean, it was, they wouldn't speak to me. They wouldn't look at me, whatever.

620
00:56:25,280 --> 00:56:31,760
So I went up front and with this Bible and I opened up this Bible. I said, by the way,

621
00:56:32,320 --> 00:56:37,040
this is what's your name's Bible. And I showed them the Bible and the daughter will confirm is

622
00:56:37,040 --> 00:56:43,120
that this is her, but yeah, I said, let me tell you what she wrote. And I started reading scriptures

623
00:56:43,840 --> 00:56:48,080
beside scriptures where she circled them, highlighted them and wrote on the side of it.

624
00:56:48,080 --> 00:56:54,160
This is what's changed my life. And Jesus is my healer and Jesus is my Lord and savior. And

625
00:56:54,720 --> 00:57:00,400
by the time I got through it, this, this mean crowd of a hundred people with like this and

626
00:57:00,400 --> 00:57:05,760
irritated, the hands started coming down, the faces started leaning in. They started getting

627
00:57:05,760 --> 00:57:11,680
tears in their eyes. And I said, and then the gal says, and I want all my friends to know Jesus

628
00:57:11,680 --> 00:57:16,080
Christ is their Lord and savior, because I want to see them in heaven. You know? And I said,

629
00:57:16,080 --> 00:57:20,160
this is, these are her words. And then the songs that she wanted, we played those.

630
00:57:20,160 --> 00:57:26,880
Then I did the altar call and I asked people to receive Christ. 90% of the people in that room

631
00:57:27,600 --> 00:57:31,840
lifted up their hand to pray to receive Jesus as Lord and savior. After the funeral,

632
00:57:31,840 --> 00:57:38,880
it was like a family, a family reunion. They just loved on each other. They come to me and hug me

633
00:57:38,880 --> 00:57:43,360
and grab me. Big old burly guys would grab me and say, I didn't know that she loved Jesus. I didn't

634
00:57:43,360 --> 00:57:49,120
know that, you know? And it was amazing miracle faith for believing for someone who was unsaved,

635
00:57:49,120 --> 00:57:55,360
who then received Jesus Christ. What a miracle situation that was to see and believe. But,

636
00:57:55,360 --> 00:58:01,200
but on the way to the miracle, we basically had a lot of circumstances that were Rob trying to

637
00:58:01,200 --> 00:58:07,200
Rob, trying to rob us from God's blessing. I had that with the elderly man. I had that with this

638
00:58:07,200 --> 00:58:12,160
lady who was a kind of the Hindu. I had that with the boy with the doctor and the surgery,

639
00:58:12,160 --> 00:58:17,200
the guy with the hip problem, all these had circumstances that made it look like, nah,

640
00:58:17,200 --> 00:58:23,600
it's not going to happen in my own life. I've had three major, major, uh, healings where I was

641
00:58:23,600 --> 00:58:29,680
basically sentenced to death and, uh, God intervened and, uh, and it's because of God's

642
00:58:29,680 --> 00:58:34,240
intervention and it's because of the healing power of Jesus that I can sit here and talk about these

643
00:58:34,240 --> 00:58:40,640
things today. Amen. Amen. Wow. My faith has definitely built over this conversation and

644
00:58:40,640 --> 00:58:46,640
it has grown. You know, we've talked about, uh, financial miracles. We've talked about healing

645
00:58:46,640 --> 00:58:52,800
miracles. We've talked about family faith miracles, salvation miracles. Pastor David,

646
00:58:52,800 --> 00:58:57,760
would you pray for the people that are watching that have put in the comments what it is that

647
00:58:57,760 --> 00:59:02,320
they're praying for, that they're believing for, that they need a miracle for? Would you just pray

648
00:59:02,320 --> 00:59:06,960
for them as the Holy Spirit leads you? Because I don't want to miss this opportunity to have you

649
00:59:06,960 --> 00:59:12,640
speak to them. And we know that the Holy Spirit connects us beyond time, beyond location,

650
00:59:12,640 --> 00:59:17,440
whether somebody is watching this for the very first time, they're watching it years down the

651
00:59:17,440 --> 00:59:24,640
road. God's word is true. He is faithful and he is forever. And so pastor David, would you please

652
00:59:24,640 --> 00:59:29,200
just share what the Lord has put on your heart to pray? All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father,

653
00:59:29,760 --> 00:59:34,240
we love you so much. We're so thankful, Father, for who you are, what you've done in our life.

654
00:59:34,880 --> 00:59:39,440
We're thankful for the word of God that gives us strength and builds our faith. We're thankful for

655
00:59:39,440 --> 00:59:45,200
the Holy Spirit who lives and dwells inside of us and encourages us. He's like, he's like having God

656
00:59:45,200 --> 00:59:49,520
inside of us, having a cheerleader, encouraging us to pray and to believe and to have faith and

657
00:59:49,520 --> 00:59:55,520
have trust in God. And so Father, Lord, we thank so much for that. And I pray for those who are

658
00:59:55,520 --> 01:00:00,560
listening in today, some may be people with great faith and they just are in agreement with me and

659
01:00:00,560 --> 01:00:06,320
they've experienced those same things. There'll be others that maybe have kind of a okay faith.

660
01:00:06,320 --> 01:00:10,000
They're kind of like, yeah, I believe sometimes, sometimes I question. Lord, there'll be some

661
01:00:10,000 --> 01:00:14,720
people that have very little faith and they have a very difficult time having faith. They believe

662
01:00:14,720 --> 01:00:19,360
that maybe their finances won't come through or that cold that they've got can't be healed or

663
01:00:19,360 --> 01:00:24,880
whatever it might be, Lord. Father, you love all of us the same, regardless of whether we have

664
01:00:25,440 --> 01:00:30,880
great gifts, whether we operate in those gifts, whether we have great faith, whether we lack faith,

665
01:00:30,880 --> 01:00:36,640
you have love for us. Because Father, it's not by faith that we're saved, it's by your grace.

666
01:00:37,440 --> 01:00:42,240
And when you give your grace to us and we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior,

667
01:00:42,240 --> 01:00:47,520
Lord, then you give us that measure of faith. That's the beginning of this incredible walk with you.

668
01:00:48,240 --> 01:00:53,280
And I pray for those who are praying that they would continue to pray, did not lose focus, not

669
01:00:53,280 --> 01:00:58,960
lose direction to trust in the Lord with all their heart, lean not on their own understanding or

670
01:00:58,960 --> 01:01:04,160
circumstances and all their ways acknowledge you. And then you will guide their steps. You will

671
01:01:04,160 --> 01:01:09,040
direct their steps. And I pray for those Father who are anxious and have problems with anxiety,

672
01:01:09,040 --> 01:01:13,680
problems with anxiety, Father, that they'd be anxious for nothing but everything through prayer,

673
01:01:13,680 --> 01:01:18,480
petitions with thanksgiving. They'll make their requests made known to you. And the peace of God,

674
01:01:18,480 --> 01:01:23,280
Lord, that passes all understanding will guard their hearts and guard their minds in Christ Jesus.

675
01:01:23,280 --> 01:01:29,120
Father, I pray for an impartation, Father, the Holy Spirit would impart greater faith in all those

676
01:01:29,120 --> 01:01:34,400
who are listening. If they desire greater faith, they will receive it in Jesus' name. If they want

677
01:01:34,400 --> 01:01:39,120
to have stronger faith to believe, they'll receive it now in Jesus' name and that they'll pick up

678
01:01:39,120 --> 01:01:43,600
things they had quit praying about and bring it back up and pray about it again and believe it

679
01:01:43,600 --> 01:01:49,120
again and not give up on it and trust God for it. I believe it. And Father, we call forth miracles.

680
01:01:49,120 --> 01:01:55,040
We believe that we now have faith for miracles, that we have the faith to trust you and believe

681
01:01:55,040 --> 01:02:00,640
that you are able to do exceedingly abundantly above and beyond anything we can imagine or even

682
01:02:00,640 --> 01:02:06,400
think according to the power, that's your power, that operates inside of us now. We don't have to

683
01:02:06,400 --> 01:02:12,560
look for it. It's already there. Those who know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior have great power

684
01:02:12,560 --> 01:02:16,960
operating in them to have greater faith. Bless them and keep them, Father. May your face shine

685
01:02:16,960 --> 01:02:23,440
upon them. Be gracious unto them, Father, and bless them in all they do, I pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.

686
01:02:23,440 --> 01:02:31,360
Amen. Amen. Pastor David Friend, thank you so much for helping us have faith for miracles.

687
01:02:31,360 --> 01:02:37,120
And I'm grateful for your podcast, Equality Christian Living, which is on the Charisma Podcast

688
01:02:37,120 --> 01:02:43,360
Network. And thank you so much for praying for us. Those stories throughout this whole episode has

689
01:02:43,360 --> 01:02:49,440
been so building of our faith. It has really stirred up something in me. And I know it's

690
01:02:49,440 --> 01:02:53,840
going to stir up something in so many people that are watching and listening. Pastor David,

691
01:02:53,840 --> 01:03:20,720
thank you very much for being with us today. God bless you. Thank you. Take care now.