His Hidden Secrets Finally Revealed But God Had Other Plans! - Larry Ragland

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Me and you talk. I'm gonna tell you what I think about you right now.

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And I just begin to tell God things that I never thought I'd ever say to God.

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How could you do this to me? I have given you everything. I have sacrificed everything.

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I have done without. I have not been able to do what other people do because of you.

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And I've given everything to you. And here I am. You won't even heal me.

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I preach healing. I preach deliverance. I preach prosperity.

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You've forsaken me. And I heard the Lord say to me, now are you done telling me about me?

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Let me tell you about you.

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Pastor Larry Ragland, it's great to have you here on Charisma. We had the opportunity to meet at

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the Armed Media Conference and so many people were talking about what you were doing on your

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YouTube channel, which is a part of your podcast. And all of this is really the big picture.

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But you've been pastoring for many years. We're gonna talk about that story and that journey.

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But it's great to be able to have you here on Charisma because God has highlighted you.

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And now we get to learn about why that is. So welcome to Charisma.

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Well, John, it is such a great honor. Of course, I've always respected Charisma.

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I've, like you said, I've been in the ministry now. I've been preaching now for 35 years,

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planted our church and been pastoring it for 30 years right now. And so we followed everything.

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And I'm thankful for a Christian media company that didn't stick to just the printed material,

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but then saw where God was moving. And when I looked over and I saw Charisma at the Armed

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Media Conference there, I thought, man, this is amazing because this is what the body of Christ

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needs. Voices like Charisma saying, hey, wherever the cloud is moving, the pillar is moving,

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the glory is moving. I want to move with it. So what a great honor it is to be on Charisma

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and to be with you, John. Thank you so much. Well, I'm honored to hear you say that.

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Wherever the cloud is moving, then that's where we want to be. And if you're seeing that in us,

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that is an answer to prayer, brother. We thank you. So I want to hear how the cloud has been

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moving in your life because being a pastor for 30 years, starting a church and now you're

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celebrating your 30th year, but you've been pastoring a little bit longer than that too.

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I know there has got to be supernatural stories in this. So tell me about the church and how God

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has led you for these last 30 years here. What are some supernatural things that God has happened?

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Wow, man, we need about three or four hours to talk about all that God has done. It's amazing.

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As you said, we started our church 30 years ago. We're claiming 30, of course, that's the age

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that Jesus began his ministry, the age of the priesthood. So we're really saying to our church,

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hey, we're just getting started. Just like Jesus was operating sort of in stealth mode.

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And all of a sudden he came on the scene and in three and a half years, literally changed the world.

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And we're not equating ourselves with that, but we're saying, hey, we are just beginning.

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And I believe the body of Christ is just beginning. And then you look around and you see the condition

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of the world. And as a believer, you just shake your head and you're like, I just don't see how

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anything could get any worse than it is. But the truth is there's a remnant and what we are going

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through right now as we've preached about, prophesied about, yet once more, the Lord said

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in the book of Hebrews chapter 12, I will shake everything, heaven and earth, and everything that

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can be shaken will be shaken, that which cannot be shaken remains. So when I look at our church,

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I thank God that we have been through so many shakings. We've gone through five building

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programs along that journey. My wife and I have had miracle after miracle after miracle happen in

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our lives. In each building that we've got, I just recently wrote a book and I detailed in that book

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the stories of the miraculous of how these things came to pass. They were just incredible.

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And then I get all the way to, I'm a pop all now, I'm very, very excited to be a grandparent.

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I have two grandbabies. And of all things, John, here we are, we're coming up on, at that time

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it was about 28 years into the church and miracle after miracle after miracle. And I thought,

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I'm going to slow down. I got my grandkids, we just decided to do this crazy thing, build a house

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in the middle of the pandemic. And so I don't know what we were thinking. And I was like,

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I don't know what we were thinking, but we finally did and got it finished. I'm sitting on the back

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porch and I'm thinking about what you're talking about, all the things that we've lived through,

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all the hard times, all the miraculous God pulling us out at the last minute. And I said,

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you know, God, I'm just going to settle down and I'm going to enjoy my grandkids. I'm going to enjoy

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this new house. I'm going to watch the sunset. And that's when the Lord just sort of laughed a

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little bit at me and said, no, no, no, no, you're just now getting started and you're about to be

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crazier, busier than you've ever been. So that's how we got to where we're at right now. So we give

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God the praise. It has been miracle after miracle after miracle of what God has done. And, you know,

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we can break some of those down, but it's just too many to pull out of top of my head right now.

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Yeah. So I, it's always amazing whenever we tell God our plans and our ideas, and we hear that,

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that Holy Spirit laugh in our, in our ears, but in our hearts too. And brother, you said something

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earlier about the, the, the year of the priesthood. Okay. So you're in your 30th year of your church.

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And as you were talking about that, this verse just kind of played in my spirit where the Bible

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says that Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man. And so like, as you said,

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the 30th year is when Jesus began his public ministry, brother, you got a wild ride ahead.

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I just feel it. So tell me about some of these things where God has been preparing you and growing

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you in wisdom and favor with God and man. It is so amazing that you just brought this story,

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because that is what I've literally been preaching on that. Cause that was the story of when he was

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12 years old, when they found him, when he was 12 years old, they found him in the temple. I call

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it, you know, I talk about the movie home alone. You remember when she's leans back on the plane,

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she goes, come on, you know, I just like, you know, Jesus, you know, he's back there. He's left

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behind. He's instead of home alone, I call it temple alone. And he, he's back in the temple

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doing his thing at 12 years old and Joseph and Mary both think that each one of them has them.

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And then they realized they've left him behind. And so they go back and they, you know, like Jesus,

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you know, the Kevin moment and they go back and they find Jesus there and they, and they say,

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what are you doing? What have you done to us? We were worried sick about you. And he said,

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did you not know I'd be about my father's business? And then it says from that point,

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Jesus grew in stature and in favor with God in man. And one of the most powerful things

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when you begin to realize is that inside that 12 year old, inside that baby that was in the womb

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of the Virgin Mary, inside that young man that was approaching into his twenties, moving his way to

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the thirties is the word of God. He is God, the creator of the universe, the one that, that,

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that made everything. But on the outside, it was a body. And, and, and the Bible says that,

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and I like to say it this way, everything that Jesus did, and I might be get,

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get a little pushback on this, but hear me out from the moment of the conception in the womb of

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the, of his mother to the point that he said it is finished and he knew no sin became sin so that we

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might be saved. Everything in between those moments, Jesus did as a man who happened to be God,

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not as God who happened to be man. And, and therefore what he did, he did it for not only

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so that he could move towards the point of dying for our sins, but to teach us by example. And if

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Jesus had to grow in stature, if Jesus had to have favor with God and with man, then who are we to

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not think that we have to have that? And the great Dr. John Maxwell says, you know, leadership is

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influence, nothing more, nothing less. So what, what I've learned from the great leader, Jesus,

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is that life is all about building influence, beginning to build relationships. You think about

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the conversations that Jesus had to have had with his disciples, the relationships that he probably

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had with them. This is the gospel according to the lay because it's not in scripture, can't prove it.

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But I just don't believe that Jesus, like we see in the movies, just this random guy walking along

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the sea of Galilee and says, Hey, you out there in the boat, walk away from your business, walk away

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from your family and follow me and I'll make you a fisherman. Oh yeah, who's this guy? Yeah, I want

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to follow him. No, they already had relationships. So Jesus had probably already had multiple

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conversations to getting to know Simon, getting to know his family, earning that trust. And I

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believe that's what the word of God meant when he said he grew in favor with God and with man,

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because favor is open doors to people's hearts. And that's what we're, that's what things like

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this is, is, you know, if, if people don't feel like they can trust you, if people don't feel like

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that they can relate to you, you can't speak into their life. And if you can't speak into their life,

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you have no influence. And if you have no influence, you are not a leader. You know,

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John Maxwell says, look behind you, is anybody following you? If nobody's following you,

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you're just taking a walk. You know, you're not influencing anybody. So these are the things that

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I've learned from that. And I, and I just, I say it humbly, I received what you said. I praise God

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for that. And I've told God, whatever you want to do in my life, I'm ready. I don't, I don't have a

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desire to retire. I want to serve you and preach the gospel until you call me home. And so Lord,

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you know, whatever we've been doing for 30 years to prepare us for that moment, then, you know,

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we say, here we are Lord, use us and speak through us. Yeah. You know, Larry, we were just talking

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about, you know, when Jesus was left at the temple and Mary and Joseph went. And so you said something

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where they left Jesus behind. And I know in our pre-interview here, you started talking about a

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time in 2007, where you might've left Jesus behind, but you had this realization of you got, you knew

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that you knew that you had to go back and get them. What was happening in your life? And tell me about

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that story. Okay. So in 2006, I was the, the typical preacher, because you, we, you know, we,

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we look at numbers and things like that. We knew that the year 2007 was coming. So just like every

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preacher in the world, we were preaching the year of the Holy spirit, the year of perfection, the

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year of completion is coming, the year of the Lord 2007. And I looked at the calendar and I realized

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that July the seventh, 2007 was going to be on a Sunday. I mean, we were really promoting it, man.

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We're going to have a big service that day, seven, seven, seven, and all of this. So I kept saying

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that seven was going to be the greatest year of my life. And I was preaching fire. I was,

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God was blessing the sermons and the, and the service and we were having tremendous,

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and we were just building towards 2007. Well, in 2006, as I'm building towards that, I was preaching,

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you know, on the road a couple of places and I, and I just got through preaching this message

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with my two young children were with me and my wife and we were sitting in a subway. I'll never

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forget this late at night. We're the only ones in the restaurant that get ready to close down. And

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we just had a great service. And we were talking about this building program that we were in,

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that we were just, it was just amazing what God was doing. And I thought, man, everything that

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I've dreamed that God would do in my life, he's doing it now. We've got this new building,

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doors are opening for us. We're sitting at subway and I'm just going on and on and on. And my wife

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is just looking down at, at the table and I said, what's wrong with you? And she just started crying.

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And she said, Larry, I can't, I can't stay silent anymore. I can't, I can't do this. And I was like,

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can't do what? And she said, I don't know who you've become this, you're one man on the platform.

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He said, you're, she said, you're a good man, but you're not the man that's sitting across from

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this table that I fell in love with, that I, that I risk it all for some way along the way,

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you've lost who you are. And I'm just sitting there going, what are you talking about?

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We've never seen success like this ever. And she goes, I'm just going to cut to the chase,

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man. I'm getting emotional right now. It's been that long and it's still wrecks me. She said,

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I love you, Larry, but I'll be honest with you. I don't know if I'm in love with you anymore.

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And she's like, I hate to do this to you tonight, but I just can't do this anymore. I'm in one year,

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one year, I'm giving you one year. If something doesn't change by this time next year, I will

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hate to do it. But, but Larry, I'm, I will leave you. I can't, I can't stay, I can't stay in this

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life because you, you're quiet. You don't talk to me. We are miserable. Have you not noticed that we

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are miserable? Have you not noticed that we don't talk anymore? All we do is ministry and is, I feel

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like I've been forgotten. I was stunned. I was just like, I do not know what you're talking about.

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And I started trying to do my thing, trying to stop the conversation. She said, you're doing it

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again. You're deflecting this. I'd rather not talk about it anymore. Just, I had to get that out.

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So I drive home that night. We are just, I mean, we're just totally quiet. My kids are laughing,

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trying to talk to me and I don't want to talk to anybody. And brother, and just, it was, that was

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the latter part of 2006. And in 2007, I promise you, this is like a movie. What I'm about to tell

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you, my birthday is January the eighth. Well, January 7th was a Sunday. I preached on January

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7th, on 2007, which I had prophesied for a year was going to be the greatest year of my life.

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I'm now into that year that if I don't change, everything's over. And on June, on January 7th,

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2007, approximately at 7 PM, I hit the floor in my, in my, in my living room and the worst pain

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I'd ever had in my life. And my wife was upstairs. She had, she had already sort of dozed off. My

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kids were in the basement and I was by myself and I just started screaming in pain. And she came

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down there and says, what is it? What is it? I said, I don't know. I've never felt pain like

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this in my life. And my stomach was just reeking in pain. I was sick. I laid on the couch and I

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laid there all night long. And then that morning on my birthday, on January 8th, I went to the

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emergency room and when I went there, they did every test in the world on me. They stuck tubes

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down my throat, all this kind of stuff. They sent me home with Nexium. They sent me home. They said,

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you've got stomach acid. Well, I went home thinking I had stomach acid and I laid there and I got

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sicker and sicker and sicker. And in a matter of days, I was, my temperature was 104 consistently.

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I went back in and they tested my gallbladder and said, you have gall, your gallbladder is infected.

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It needs to come out. So I'm in surgery, I'm getting ready in pre-op to have a same day

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surgery, have my gallbladder out. And my doctor comes in there and says, who told you you had

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gallbladder problems? I said, well, I don't know who it was. And he said, listen, I just did an MRI

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on you and you have enough poison in your body right now to have already killed five men. And

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he looked at my wife and he said, I can't even talk to you right now. I can just say right now,

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if you are praying personally, you need to pray for your husband. And they pulled me out basically

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and took me to the emergency room, I mean, to the operating table and left my wife there,

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wondering what was happening to me. But what had happened was my appendix had ruptured

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and it had completely ruptured and they had looked out, they didn't even know it.

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And the poison had spilled through all, all through my body. Well, when I woke up, I woke

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up in intensive care and I stayed in intensive care for several days. I got out and that was

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January of 2007. The infection kept coming back and coming back in the last, and right in the

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middle of all of that, you stop me anytime, John, but right in the middle of it, about the fourth

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month into those seven months, my house caught on fire. And so my kids were alone in the house when

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it got caught on fire. And I ran trying to find my kids as I'm going inside the house, I couldn't

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find my kids and they were outside screaming. And I found my oldest daughter, but my youngest

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daughter, I couldn't find. And she screamed at me and said, she's at the neighbor's house, dad. And

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she was just panicking. And I ran, I'd only been out of surgery now, major surgery, which they had,

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by the way, to back up, they had found out that the infection had killed my colon. They had removed

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a foot of my colon and a foot of my small intestine. And I was recovering from the surgery of that. And

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I jumped over a barbed wire fence trying to find my daughter. And when I did, I ripped my large

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intestine inside of me and didn't know it. And the poison began to spill into my body. Well,

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so my house had burned. I had been in the hospital at that point for the first five months of the

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year. And then later on, I started getting sepsis and I started losing my sight. I was basically

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going blind. And they put me in the hospital and they said, there's so much poison, you got more

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poison now in your body than you did when you're a appendix rusher. And they stuck a tube in my stomach

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and drained it. And I stayed in the hospital for 28 days. It would not heal. And on the 28th day

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of 31 days in the hospital, I called my wife, she was at home and I could hear my kids in the

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background playing. And I laid there and I just said, that morning, that morning before I called

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them, I'd say, God, I have went in hospital room after hospital room. I have laid hands on people

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who were dying of cancer. I've seen cancer tumors disappear. I've seen the lame walk.

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I've had preachers lay hands on me. God, I've given my life to you. Why can't I get out of this bed?

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Why can this not heal? I don't understand. And I just said, I'm just going to call my wife. And I

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was just depressed and I called her. And then we got to keep in mind, I'm in that year that I'm

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supposed to change. And I hear my kids in the background and they screamed, daddy, when are you

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ever coming home to us? And she said, I'm sorry, Larry. I'm sorry that they said that. And I said,

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no, it's okay. I said, I'm okay. I'm going to let you go. And I got off the phone and John,

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I'm going to tell you what happened. I looked at phone down and I said, me and you talk,

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I'm going to tell you what I think about you right now. And I just began to tell God

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things that I never thought I'd ever say to God. How could you do this to me?

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And many, many are watching right now. You know how I feel. I was like, I have given you everything.

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I have sacrificed everything I have done without. I have not been able to do what other people do

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because of you. And I've given everything to you. And here I am. You won't even heal me.

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I preach healing. I preach deliverance. I preach prosperity. You forsaken me. Look at what you've

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done. Look at what blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I heard the Lord say to me,

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now are you done telling me about me? Let me tell you about you.

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And he began to systematically, John, break me down. I detail it all in my book. And it was

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very difficult to even write about it. He began to reveal the real me. And at that point, I cried

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out to God and I said, God, what have I done? What have I become? How did I forget you? How did I

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forget my first love? How did I turn this into what I've turned it into? And brother, I laid

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there for I don't even know how long and nobody checked on me. Nobody checked my vitals. I wept,

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I cried, I repented. And when I felt the peace of God come on me, like I had not felt since I was

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first a believer, it was like a new, fresh anointing come on me. The door opened and that

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nurse came in and she said, Mr. Raggan, I'm so sorry. There was a mix up on the exchanges of the

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duties of the people we thought you were being taken care of. We had no idea that you'd been

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in here for almost an hour. Nobody checked on you. I looked at her, I said, ma'am, you didn't do that.

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My God isolated me to get me right. Two days later, I walked out of that hospital. It healed.

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It was incredible. The doctor was amazed. My marriage was restored. My children were restored.

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I rebuilt my house. And I'm telling you, 2007 was the greatest year of my life, but I had to go

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through something that I never thought I would ever have to go through to wreck me. And my marriage

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is who it is to my grandkids, my life, my ministry. I had to hit the bottom in order to become the

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man that she needed me to be. And long answer, but that's what happened to me. That is a powerful

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answer. Pastor Larry, as you were talking about this, I can just tell right now that people that

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are watching this, you can relate to what he did in that bed, crying out to God saying, I did this

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for you. I did this for you. I forsook everything else to serve you. And just putting all this on

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God. And then God just answered, are you done yet? There's so many times where in my own life,

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I have done that where things haven't gone my way. And I said, God, I've done this for you. I've

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done this for you. Why aren't things happening for me the way that they should? And God often does

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that. Are you done yet? Are you done yet? I want to get into more of your story in just a moment,

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but there is a holy moment right now. And Pastor Larry, I'm going to ask you to pray

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for people that are watching that are touched by that part of your story. We're going to continue

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on with this story in just a moment, but there is something powerful right now. And you're watching

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this, put in the comments, that's me. That story was connecting with me. That's me. We want to pray

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for you. And Pastor Larry, would you just pray for people right now that are going through that?

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Father God, right now, Lord, we've all been there. And God, whoever's watching, whoever's listening

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to this right now, God, I can feel in my spirit, Lord, that you are breaking them down and you are

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showing them right now, God, that you are not finished with them. And that Lord, many of the

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things that we have blamed you for, God, we have to take responsibility for. And that God, we're

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thankful that through your grace, you didn't abandon us, that you didn't throw us away like trash

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when we were abusing your grace and when we were abusing your calling that's on our life,

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or we were doubting your word that you spoke over us. Lord, we repent right now, God. We just,

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I just pray right now that whoever that person is, that they would begin the process of healing

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through the greatest thing they could ever do. And that's what I had to do in that bed,

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is I had to just repent. I just had to go back to my first love. I had to say, God, I'm sorry for

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what I've become. I'm sorry for what I've turned you into. God, it's not fair what I've done to you.

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And I'm so thankful. And listen, I want you to understand, be thankful that we have a God that

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can take it. He can take what you've said to him and he didn't throw you away when you said it.

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There is a purpose and a destiny for you. You know, I live by the principle of the big picture.

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When God dropped something in my spirit and he said to me, he said, Larry, you need to understand

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the principle of the big picture. My perspective of who you are, my perspective of who the world is,

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is so much bigger than what you can comprehend. And I'm saying this to the viewer and to the

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listener. You are channeling your pain through the funnel of your eyes and your senses. I pray right

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now that God supernaturally allows you to filter your pain and your situation through the grace and

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the mercy of God. I believe that God is touching you right now and he is honoring your repentance.

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He said, call unto me and I will answer thee and show you great and mighty things. If my people

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would turn, call unto me, turn from their wicked ways. So right now, as you are calling on Jesus

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right now, I believe he is, I speak, he is restoring you. He is rebuilding you. He is reminding you

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that he is not finished with you. And no matter what you've done, no matter what you've said,

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God says to you today, I can take it. I heard it. Listen, it doesn't change how I feel about you.

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Now get up, shake the dust off and understand that not only am I not through with you today,

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I want you to know I'm just now beginning to use you because it took you getting to this point

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before you would finally surrender to God in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. You know,

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if you related with what Pastor Larry just said and just prayed and you believe that there is a

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new beginning, right? New beginnings in the comment. Like I had, this is my new beginning.

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This is my new today. And we want to celebrate with you. We want to pray with you. And so just

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let us know that, you know, Pastor Larry, I think it was really interesting how you were prophesying

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in 2006, that 2007 was going to be your best year. And all intents and purposes, the first half was

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absolutely not the best year, but it set you up for the best year. I'm sure there was times where

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you were just wrestling with that prophetic word that God had given you. Tell me about that,

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wrestling with the prophetic in that timeframe. Well, I go back to, I'm a creature of habit and I

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go back to certain things that I always, God dropped in my spirit. And just as I spoke of

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a while ago about the big picture, the big picture, one of the things that God taught me was the big

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picture in that, you know, I would answer the phone during those times. You know, I remember standing

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outside watching my house burn, you know, while poison was pouring into my body and my pastor

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called me and cause I'd called him to tell him, pray my house is on fire. And I had got, he was

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in the middle of something. So he called me back and I just laughingly answered, this is pastor Jobe.

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Can I, can I help you? And he was like, what? I was like, yeah, I'm just standing here. I've got

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the anointing of Jobe on me. And he, and I began to tell him, and I just was laughing to keep from

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crying as I'm watching the fireman trying to put the fire out of my house. And, and so the big

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picture of Jobe is that, you know, Jobe couldn't see that got Jobe, Jobe couldn't see where it was

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going to end, but, but our God did. And, and, and the premise of the big picture is, you know, where

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I live in Alabama, for several years, I lived in a place where a train would come through. And many

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times I would be in a hurry and I'd be, you know, there's something on the other side that tracks,

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I needed to get to. And I think most people know where I'm going. And as I'm going, I hear the

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sound. I ding, ding, ding, ding. I'm like, Oh no, no, not now. And I was stopped by that train.

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And in the terrain of Alabama, it's not like out West where it's just flat. You can see forever

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in Alabama, there's, there's mountains and hills and trees. So when a train comes, you literally

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never have any idea when it's going to end. All you have to do is just sit there and wait.

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And, and there's car after car after car after car, and, and, and you can't do anything. But if you

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were able to just sort of like back to the future car, the DeLorean, and just sort of lift up,

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and at some point your perspective would change and you'd be able to look out the window and you

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could see the caboose. But so, so what I learned through the big picture is the big picture is all

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about who has, who has the perspective to see the beginning and the end. It's only the alpha and the

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omega, the beginning and the end. So every, every time you ever get stalled by that train,

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and the Bible says, he that waits upon the Lord shall renew their strength. So you're sitting

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there waiting. It is in that waiting moment. That's what I had to learn in that moment.

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That's what I learned about. Maybe God didn't really say no, what do you, because the answer

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is the Lord, yes and amen. What he really said was, I need you to sit there and wait. The answer is

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still yes, but you're not ready for the yes. You're not ready for it. Because if I was to drop that

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revelation, if God were to drop some of the revelations that he began to drop in my life

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post 2007, I would have abused it, John. I would, I would have turned it into a catchy sermon title.

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I would, I would have, I wouldn't have let it impact me and it would not, when it don't impact

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me, I can't impact anyone else. But out of 2007, my whole perspective of ministry and life change.

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Now, when I go into a hospital bed and a room and someone is being called me to be there,

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I'm still going to pray the prayer of faith, but I have compassion for that person in that room

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where I used to say in the name of Jesus Christ, get up and walk, come on, get up, get up right now,

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get up. Well, well, I remember people telling me to get up and I couldn't get up. So, so I still

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pray that prayer of faith, but I've been moved with compassion. And I think about Jesus being

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our example again, you know, Jesus was watching the funeral go by and the Bible says nobody's

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doing anything full of faith. Nobody was speaking faith words that, that moved him. The Bible says

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he was moved with compassion for the woman who had lost her son and her husband. And so, so 2007

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taught me that the most powerful revelations you'll ever get from God is in the waiting and in the

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pain. And I became the man that God needed me to be, the father, the husband, and of course,

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one day the grandfather and the pastor. And I believe even what God's doing in my life right now,

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to be on with you on Charisma Magazine's podcast, I'd be honest with you, I'm being real with you,

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John. If this door would have opened to me in 2006, I would have, it would have become such a

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prideful thing. I'm on Charisma Magazine, all this kind of stuff, look what God is doing.

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That ain't where I'm at right now. I'm just like, wow, thank you, Lord. Thank you Lord for just a,

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another opportunity to talk about you. I'll do whatever you want me to do. And he had to crush

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me in that moment. And I say to the Lord, thank you. Thank you for the crushing.

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Yeah. Thank you for the crushing Lord. That's a hard thing to say, but as in Psalm 46 says,

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God is our refuge and strength and ever present help in trouble. Therefore I will not fear,

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though the earth give way and the mountains will fall into the heart of the sea.

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And the later on in that chapter, he says one of the famous things. And I know this is really what

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we were just talking about where, yes, the Lord says yes and amen, but as it promises, but sometimes

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he says, be still and know that I am God. And, uh, you, your story has just exemplified that,

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you know, pastor Larry, you've been a pastor now for 30 years of your own church, 35 years in total,

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from what you said earlier, but now God's called you into a different type of media as well. So

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you're, you're launching into this new season where you're busier than ever.

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And you've got a lot of stuff going on. Um, I want to hear about that, but how are you also making

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sure that you don't fall into what was going on where your wife had that conversation with you in

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late 2006? Yeah. Well, one of the, the quick answer to that is what we're doing is I made sure that,

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uh, when God told me that my back porch, you know, you're going to start a YouTube channel

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called the big picture and you're going to be as you've ever been. And, and then he said,

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and you're going to love it because this is what you're called to do. But I knew what that meant

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was, okay, now go in the kitchen and tell your wife what the Lord just told you. So I walked in

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there and I told my wife, I said, you ain't going to believe what the Lord just told me. She's like,

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what, you know, here we are, we just finished building a house during the pandemic, you know,

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and she's wanting to slow down a little bit. I said, the Lord just told me, I'm going to start

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a YouTube channel and call it the big picture. And I'm a busy than I've ever been in my life.

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And I said, but not going to do this unless you come with me. I said, because I can't do this on

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my own. And she said, well, you know, I'll be Larry. This is the, she knew immediately. She's

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like, I know that this is what God has called you to do. You're 100%. I'm on board, but what she

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didn't realize what I'd already knew. And I, and in the same way with, you know, patients, sometimes

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you got to wait until it's the right time. I didn't want to tell her what I heard. And that was that

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she was going to do it with me. And my wife is, is, is an introverted, not an introvert. She's not

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the introvert. She's not going person, but she's just not the person that would ever get on camera.

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You know, she's just not that person. She's the behind the scenes. And if she needs to speak in

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the church, she will very powerfully. But the thought of her ever been on YouTube was no,

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that ain't never happened. But I knew, I knew in my spirit that God was promoting her. So yes,

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along the way I knew that and, and I, I made sure I involved her in everything that we're doing.

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I wanted her to know everything. I wanted her to see what I was learning, how I was learning it,

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the late nights that I would be sitting up training myself on how to do these things.

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I would make sure she saw me doing that, that she knew what I was doing. And at some point I said,

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Hey, you need to come on the show with me one night. And she came on the show when she did,

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it just clicked. And now, you know, our, our biggest viewership and our, we've built a family

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all over the world through our YouTube channel is the ones that me and her cohost together. So it's

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the greatest joy of my life to, to sit in the studio beside her and see God using her and expanding

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her boundaries and, and just enlarging her territory. So, so yeah, the way we've sort of

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covered that is we've done it together. Amen.

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Doing it together is, is really powerful. And I love that you saw greatness in her this time.

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Yes. But earlier on, you started telling me about when she saw greatness in you and that's the,

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that's the name of your, of your book. I see greatness in you. Can you tell us this,

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this story and encourage the viewers that God has just positive greatness in them as well?

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Okay. Okay. I've never been able to successfully tell this in public without crying. I want to say

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if I could fill this one off today, but a real quick backstory on the book, I see greatness in

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you and the title is I am in my late fifties at this point, and it's still, you can see when you,

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when you hear me talk about it and know that I'm being genuine when I say this, that I'm still

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affected by it to this day. And one of the things that I'm driven by is trying to help people who

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had, did not have a father, a father figure in their life, because I was raised in a, in a very

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abusive home by a man that beat me physically injured me several times. One of the stories

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that I detailed in the book when I was 10 years old and my mom was as many times had threatened

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to leave him. He went into the next room and brought a double barrel, 12 gauge shotgun into

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the room and loaded the two shells in it in front of me. It was the kind that has the two levels,

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the two triggers, pulled them both back, grabbed me and stuck both barrels into his mouth and put

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my 10 year old finger on the trigger and started screaming, pulled the trigger, pulled the trigger

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and in me now, in me now. And I was screaming out, I'm not doing, I'm not going to do that dad.

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I'm not going to do that. I love you. I love you. He goes, you might as well, because if you don't

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pull it, just be a man because you either pull the trigger now or you leave with your mother and I

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pull the trigger, but either way that you live the rest of your life knowing that you killed your

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father. So you might as well just be a man and do it. I was 10 years old and those are the kind

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of things that I went through over and over and over again and it scarred me. And for those that

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were raised in an abusive home, you can relate to what I'm saying is that, you know, you don't know

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this at the time, you learn it later on, but people will teach you that you will become the

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one that you hate. And it is true without God, you become that because he gets in your DNA.

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So he was a master manipulator, master liar. He had convinced everybody other than my family that

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he was the greatest man in the world, but he was a terror and he was a liar. And I did not become

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violent like him, but I became the master manipulator. I became the master liar and I

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lied my way all the way through high school. I became the jock of kids, I became the

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way through high school. I became the jock of captain, the football team, popular guy,

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looked like I had everything going for me, but I was miserable. I was a fake. I was a fraud.

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And I had somehow convinced this girl that I was this guy that she's supposed to be with. I was

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going to church where she went. I was playing the game. I was not serving God. I'd been raised in

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church, but I backslid. I was really there just for her to get her because she was just so beautiful

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and all this. I was pretending to be whatever she needed me to be. I genuinely loved her.

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And she obviously genuinely loved me, but she would love a fake and a fraud. And so she said

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yes to marry me. She was 18 years old. She had just graduated high school. She'd only been on

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high school for maybe two months. And I got arrested for one of the stupidest things anybody

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00:36:57,200 --> 00:37:02,800
could ever get arrested for. It's just insane. But as I'm standing in our hometown, our hometown,

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where we grew up, I was standing before the judge in that hometown. And he looked at me and just

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said, I cannot believe that you're standing here doing this. And she's standing outside waiting on

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me. And as I'm walking outside, I'm like, okay, everything my dad said about me is true. I'm never

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going to have anything. I'm a bum. I had one shot at happiness and I just blew it. So it's over.

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And everything he said, I'm going to be, I'm going to probably die or be in prison. I walked

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out there and I said, Sandy, I want you to do one thing, turn around and walk away.

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Keep the ring and find you a man that deserves you because it's not me.

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Because if you stay with me, I'm going to ruin your life. And she said, Larry,

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I'm not leaving you. And she grabbed my hand, John, and she said, I'm not leaving you. I said,

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I said, please walk away because you don't deserve this. Everything you believed about me

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is a lie. You now know the truth. That is not me. She said, I'm not leaving you.

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I said, why would you stay with somebody like me now that you know the truth?

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And that little 18 year old girl looked at me and said, because when I look into your eyes,

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I see greatness in you, Larry. I see greatness in you. It's in there. It's in there. And I'm

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not leaving you because I'm going to help you see it. So come on, let's go. She took my hand.

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And I was just like, I just froze. And I was like, don't do this. She goes, come on, I'm not

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leaving you. Let's go. She stayed with me, John. And at that moment, I realized what God was doing.

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God used her because she told me, she said, I didn't say that, Larry. God said that through me.

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God used me to say that to you. Just a few days later, I was in the altar. I was giving my life

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to God. I had recently dedicated my life to God. A few months later, we got married with no

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desire for ministry whatsoever. We had never had one discussion of, you think we'd ever be in the

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ministry? Nothing. We just wanted to live our lives together, serve God, American dream, go to church

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and serve God. We got married in May of 89. By August of 89, God said, you're a youth pastor.

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And by 91, I had planted my first church. And then in 94, I planted this church. But I take it all

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the way back to God using an 18-year-old girl to look at me for the first time in my life

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to speak that there was something good inside of me. No one had ever said that to me before.

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And it set me on a journey to do that for others. And that's why we call the book, I say,

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Greatness in You, but the subtitle is One Man's Story, But Everyone's Journey, because everybody's

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been broken. Everybody's been dropped. Even if you had a great father and a great mother, someone

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has wrecked you. It's all about identity. Think about what the world is right now. The whole world

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00:40:12,160 --> 00:40:18,000
is about identity. Who do you identify as? What do you identify as? It goes all the way back to the

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Garden of Eden. It's always been about identity, because if the enemy can confuse you about who you

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really are in the sight of God, then it's impossible for you to ever do what God has called you to do.

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So God may use an 18-year-old girl to look into your life and say, I see greatness in you.

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God may use a podcast to ignite something in you. The opening chapter, the opening introduction

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of it is called A Note from Sandy. And she basically lays out why she said what she said,

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and it's riveting. And in the introduction of the book, I say this, John, I say,

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everybody don't have a Sandy. And I'm fully aware of that. Everybody is not blessed to have a Sandy

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like me. So I wrote the book to be your Sandy, because by the end of that book, the same thing

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that happened to me with Sandy is going to happen to you. And it's going to ignite that God has

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called greatness in every single one of us. You say, well, I'm not great. Only God is great. I get

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00:41:17,280 --> 00:41:21,520
it. I get where you're coming from. But the reason we call it I see greatness in you is because

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you were created in the image of God. And when you finally see who you are, you unlock a greatness

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00:41:29,200 --> 00:41:33,760
that's in you that is beyond anything you could ever do in the natural. And it can only happen

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through the supernatural. You unlock the God DNA that's within you. And that's what it's about.

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John Bellen And God definitely has a track record of taking people that are unlikely and making them

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and calling out the greatness in them. I can think of Gideon right now where God told him,

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you're a mighty man of valor. You know, and also David, who was a backwoods shepherd boy,

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the seventh son of, you know, and forgotten about. And he's anointed to be king. And God takes Larry

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Ragland, who's standing before a judge. And you're thinking everything that my dad has said about me

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is true. But really, the react the the honest truth is everything that your father said about you

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00:42:18,080 --> 00:42:25,360
is true. And he spoke that through this 18 year old girl. And Larry, as we're wrapping up here,

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00:42:25,360 --> 00:42:29,920
would you just speak to that person that's watching that has stayed with us this whole time,

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that they don't believe that there's greatness in them, but their father sees greatness in them?

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Larry Ragland Yeah, I want to tell you that I walk around sometimes with a shirt on the on the front

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of the shirt that says I see greatness in you and he'd be surprised and it breaks my heart. How many

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00:42:44,960 --> 00:42:49,760
people will look at me and say, what do you mean? I see greatness in you. There's nothing. There's

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00:42:49,760 --> 00:42:55,680
nothing great about me. And it always is the conversation starter. And I'll say, well, okay,

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00:42:55,680 --> 00:42:59,040
were you creating an image of God? Let's start there. Were you? Of course. Everybody always

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00:42:59,040 --> 00:43:03,280
says, yeah, yeah. I said, well, then watch this. You are creating the image of a great God.

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00:43:03,280 --> 00:43:07,040
And I said, yeah, I get where you're coming from. We've all made mistakes. We've all sinned and come

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short of the glory of God. We've failed God. We've dropped the ball. We have hurt people. We have done

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things that we are ashamed of. Many of many of that are watching this list and this can't even

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00:43:17,440 --> 00:43:22,320
look themselves in the mirror. They hate themselves because of what they've done. And then many more

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00:43:22,320 --> 00:43:28,720
are so injured by what was done to you. I mean, I'm almost 60 years old. Do you understand? I still

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00:43:28,720 --> 00:43:35,200
cry when I think about what my father did to me. It's, I want so bad to have a great memory

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of a father and I don't have one. I don't have the great memory of a father in my life. I think

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about the book, I had no father with God. And I think about, you know, being a father to the

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00:43:46,640 --> 00:43:53,600
father, he came into my life and he brought people into my life that became the voice that took the

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00:43:53,600 --> 00:43:58,960
place of that horrible experience that I had. And maybe you're injured by what somebody said about

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00:43:58,960 --> 00:44:04,240
you. Maybe, maybe you're injured by what you said about others. Maybe you're a parent and you have

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00:44:04,240 --> 00:44:09,920
so many regrets and you're like, how could I ever look my kid in the face? How could I ever believe

477
00:44:09,920 --> 00:44:16,400
that God could ever use me? You know, I think about one time I heard this man of God talk about he was

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walking down this aisle in Jerusalem and a man had some vases that he had made. It was a potter.

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And he knew the industry and he said, do you have any, I see all this, but do you have any chosen

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00:44:29,440 --> 00:44:32,720
vessels? And he goes, I don't know what you're talking about. He said, yes, you do. Do you have

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00:44:32,720 --> 00:44:37,280
any chosen vessels? And he goes, okay, so you know your stuff, come with me. And he took them back

482
00:44:37,280 --> 00:44:41,600
in the back and there was a cabinet and he opened up the cabinet and the cabinet was filled with

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00:44:41,600 --> 00:44:48,080
deformed vases and cups and cups that was just unusable. And he called them chosen vessels.

484
00:44:48,080 --> 00:44:52,560
And the reason he called them chosen vessels is because they had all been on the same tray as all

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the other cups and all the other plates and had been made from the same clump of a lump of clay.

486
00:45:00,960 --> 00:45:06,320
But when they were put in the fire, there was something in that particular piece of clay

487
00:45:06,320 --> 00:45:13,440
that was not like what was in the others and the heat caused it to deform and cause it to set into

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00:45:14,160 --> 00:45:21,600
unusable place. So that potter knew that some people only collect the chosen vessels because

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00:45:21,600 --> 00:45:26,640
they're one of a kind. And he says, how much are they? He goes, well, you're going to have to just

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00:45:26,640 --> 00:45:31,120
make me an offer because they're priceless to me. I feel like that some of you, I feel like some of

491
00:45:31,120 --> 00:45:35,760
you have just been in the cabinet, you've been in darkness and you've thought I'm distorted,

492
00:45:35,760 --> 00:45:40,560
I'm broken, I'm unusable. But what you didn't realize, and maybe this podcast is going to help

493
00:45:40,560 --> 00:45:47,440
you realize, is that the fire maybe caused something in you right now to be revealed,

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to be a chosen vessel that God's about to restore and to set out. I believe God is calling the

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00:45:53,120 --> 00:46:00,080
remnant to rise. And maybe you feel like you don't fit in. Maybe you feel like, how can I ever come

496
00:46:00,080 --> 00:46:03,600
out of this pain? Well, the first step, as we've already said, is repentance. But then the next

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00:46:03,600 --> 00:46:09,440
step is to stand up and to cry out to God right now and say, God, here I am. Use me, I'm ready.

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I don't know how I'm going to do it. But God, I need you to restore the joy of the Lord in my heart.

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Because if you can restore joy, you can restore peace, then you can do anything in my life.

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So in the name of Jesus, I declare that today is the day of the restoration of everything

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the enemy has taken from you. In Jesus' name. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Pastor Larry Ragland,

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00:46:32,160 --> 00:46:36,720
thank you so much for joining us today here on Charisma. How can people find you? You've got

503
00:46:36,720 --> 00:46:42,560
your The Big Picture show, different places. Just tell us real quick how people can find you.

504
00:46:42,560 --> 00:46:48,320
All right. Easiest ways to go to LarryRagland.com or.tv, either one, LarryRagland.com. But if you're

505
00:46:48,320 --> 00:46:52,240
on YouTube, just search for The Big Picture with Larry Ragland. Subscribe to our channel. We're

506
00:46:52,240 --> 00:46:57,680
also on Faith TV, which is a Christian television network. We're all over Europe, America, if you

507
00:46:57,680 --> 00:47:02,720
have DirecTV. We're already on there. Or you can download the Faith Now app and you can watch us

508
00:47:02,720 --> 00:47:08,000
live there. Our church also streams there live on the Faith Now app, Solid Rock Church, the church

509
00:47:08,000 --> 00:47:14,640
our pastor here in Birmingham. But the easiest way to find all of it, LarryRagland.com. Amen.

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Pastor Larry, thank you so much for joining us today on Charisma. Thank you so much for

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having me, John. It's been a great honor.