"Two Lesbian Mothers Raised Me..." Ross Johnston's Incredible Testimony

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I was born by artificial insemination. I grew up in a lesbian household with two moms.

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You know, I'd never been to church, never heard a worship song, never heard a sermon,

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never heard of a Charisma News, right? Like, I had zero grid for God.

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Ross Johnston, it's great to have you here on Charisma. You have been seeing tremendous

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revival and I love your story of how God brought you to a place where revival is your passion.

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You've seen God do amazing things in California. We're going to talk about how that's spreading in

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powerful ways. Tell us what's going on right now with you.

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Yeah, well, what's really exciting is one thing that we've seen in California all throughout

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history is that when God does something significant in California, it not only touches America,

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but it touches the nations of the earth. So, what we've been seeing is three years ago,

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we started as a group of just young bucks, young kids just desiring God to move.

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And in a time, there was the most crisis and tension that we've ever experienced in our own life.

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And you know, what we started doing is we said, we're going to do what the Bible says to do.

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I know, crazy concept. And so, we were showing up at beaches, we're showing up at streets,

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we're showing up wherever we could set a sound system up, that's where we were at.

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And so, what we started doing is we just started doing open air worship, preaching the gospel,

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baptisms, and the wind of God just came on it and God started breathing on it.

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And what started with a couple hundred people per gathering in a few years here is turning to

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thousands of people showing up, believing for God to yes, touch California, yes, touch America,

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but ultimately to touch the nations of the earth. And so, it's been an incredible journey with so

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much more to come. But that's how this journey has kind of been for us.

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Yeah. So, you said three years ago, and as we're recording this, this is 2024.

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And three years ago, we were in the midst of the worldwide pandemic. And so, California was more

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shut down than the rest of the country. Now, I'm in Orlando, Florida, and I've only been to

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California a few times. But to be completely honest, people outside of California kind of

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look at California as a lost cause. But what you're telling me is that California is not a

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lost cause. Tell me about the start of these revivals that you've been seeing.

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Yeah. It's, you know, California definitely was a very interesting place and state.

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Four years ago in 2020, right, our governor was saying, you can't take communion, you can't

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worship, you can't gather. But ultimately, you know, the enemy always overplaces his hand,

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and he's never won. He never will. And so, what it actually did is it backfired because people

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like me who at the time, I actually wasn't walking with the Lord, which we'll get more into here in a

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sec, I started feeling this hunger and this stir and this faith in me like, oh my gosh, this is the

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moment that I was created for. And I know so many of us watching and listening had that moment in

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the past few years. And so, what ended up happening is I walked into a tent revival in Orange County,

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California. And when I walk into this tent revival, I see the worship leader on stage,

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and the Lord tells me, you need to connect with him. And I didn't know this guy at all. We had

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never had a conversation. Later on in the night, the preacher of that gathering brings the worship

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leader back on stage mid sermon and says, listen, you have a sound of revival that needs to be

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released across the state of California, and you're going to need a car to do this. And she

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hands him the keys to her brand new Jeep car right on stage. I've never experienced anything like

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this, weeping. I mean, people are just like sounds, you know, it was just one of those holy moments

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where you just didn't quite know what was happening, but you knew God was in it. Well, I end up

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connecting with him that night. His name is Joel, and we became really good friends. And we just

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started talking about revival history in California, right? Azusa Street, Amy Simple McPherson,

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Billy Graham launching his ministry, the Jesus People movement. And we just said, God, you've

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done it so many times here in California. We believe you're going to do it again. And that's

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what ultimately led us to go to Huntington Beach in 2021 and do an outdoor event. We didn't have

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any permits. Cops are coming up to us like, what are you doing here? I'm like, sir, I have the

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permit of heaven. You know, and that started the whole journey where here we are three and a half

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years later, we just did 31 cities across the state of California. And that's where the journey

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was birthed and where it really began. So what's happening at these revivals? So a bunch of people

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show up, there's, there's worship, like, tell me about what it's like for somebody that is

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just stumbling upon this. They might be walking by because I mean, yeah, you're going to attract

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Christians, you post something on social media, Christians like to get together. I mean, that's

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part of our DNA. But ultimately, you want to reach the lost. So tell me about that. What this is like

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for somebody that just stumbles upon this. Yeah, I think one of the best descriptions that we

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recently came up with, and, and this is really challenging sometimes, but it's been a blessing

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in regards to our gatherings is it feels like you're in a church building, but you're outside,

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like the presence of God, the peace of God, the hand of God, the voice of God, the saints are

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all together. Yet there is no walls. You're just in the open air. You're in one of the most famous

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beaches or streets, literally in America, going after Jesus, worshiping Him, lifting your hands,

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you know, preaching the gospel, praying for people who are sick, praying for people who need

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miracles, baptizing people in the ocean. So, you know, I would say if somebody stumbles across a

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gathering, they're going to be walking in just a normal everyday life scenario. And then all of the

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sudden they're going to be like, wait a minute, what am I feeling? What am I sensing? Why do I

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feel hope? Why do I feel peace? Why do I feel destiny? Why do I feel like there's something

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beyond me taking place in the atmosphere? And so I like to call it for maybe a lack of better term,

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like a holy chaos, right? Like the whole world is in tension. There's so many things going on,

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but for a moment, for a couple hours in a certain place, at a certain time, the presence of God is

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so tangible that nothing else matters but knowing who He is and making Him known. Yeah. Well, I know

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God gave you a dream and that's where these things came out of. So I want to talk about this dream,

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but let's back up a little bit because we mentioned your story a little bit here and there,

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but we're going to get to this dream in just a few minutes. But your backstory is really remarkable.

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I've heard you tell it a couple other times, but you did not grow up with a traditional family at

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all. Tell us about this. Yeah. I mean, my story, honestly, it starts on day one, right? So I was

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born by artificial insemination. I grew up in a lesbian household with two moms. You know, I'd

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never been to church, never heard a worship song, never heard a sermon, never heard of a charisma

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news, right? Like I had zero grid for God. And recently I actually asked my mom, because I was

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really curious. I said, mom, why, why did you have me? You know, and she had told me that ever since

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she was a young girl, she'd always desire children. Obviously she started living a lesbian lifestyle,

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but she started recognizing that her body clock was kind of running out. And she was like, man,

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if I'm going to have children, you know, it's going to be, it's got to be in these next few years.

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And so what she did, this was, you know, keep in mind, this was the early 1990s, right? She opens

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up a phone book and she found a laboratory. She walks in and says, Hey, I want to have a child.

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They put a list of about 10 donors or 10 men in front of her. And she chose one. They inseminated

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her with the donor. And nine months later, here I was. And so I was born in 1994 in Los Angeles,

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California. And so that is the journey of kind of where I was birthed from, where I began

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in regards to my natural bloodline. So just curious, have you ever found out who that,

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who that donor was? Yeah, I've never found out. I mean, the reality is you don't know how many times,

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you know, his DNA has been used, right? So you don't know how many half siblings you have.

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You don't know. I could be walking by half sibling every day and have no clue. I think there is ways

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to now, especially now in the culture we live in, there's ways to potentially find them. But

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for me, it's like, once I met the father, right, the father, our father, God, it was one of those

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things where it's like, I don't really have a desire. If it came across my life, I'm totally

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open to it. But there's nothing really pushing or pulling me like, I have to find out who this guy

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is. Yeah. I was just curious because I mean, that's, that's just kind of wild. So you grew up in

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this family without a father and two mothers. How did that affect your view of God? Yeah, well,

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like I always say like this, everybody's, you know, experience is so unique, right? Like growing up in

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my household, there was no talk of Jesus, you know, I had never been a church. But at the same time,

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it wasn't necessarily anti-God. What I mean by that is my mom wasn't, you know, flying a pride flag

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and saying, you need to affirm my gender and you know, things of that nature. It was just more so

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like, hey, this is how my lifestyle I live. We don't really need to talk a whole ton about it.

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But there also was no mention or no talk about Jesus, religion, faith, anything of that nature.

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And so when I got invited to church for the first time ever and I went, that kind of shifted

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everything for me because I didn't really have a tainted lens of God. I didn't have any lens.

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All I knew was when I walked into the church building, I felt something happen internally.

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I knew that God was real, that His presence was there. And I just wanted more of that. And that's

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what led me to the decision of coming to Jesus. Yeah. So tell me about this decision to come know

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Jesus and how old are you at this time? Because I mean, obviously this is a departure from the values,

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I guess, that you grew up with. So obviously there had to be some bit of a conflict with this. So

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tell me about that story. Yeah, I was 15 years old and my friend and her grandma would always go to

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church. And for some reason, I still don't know the reason to this day, they decided to invite me one

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weekend, you know? And it was like in high school, when you have a really good friend in high school

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and they ask you to go somewhere, of course you're going to go. So I'm like, sure, why not? Like,

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I'll go to church. I've never been, I have nothing against it. And we walk into the church service

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and you know, we're sitting in the back row. And now I say it like this when I preach, right? God

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will get you in the back row. And I'm sitting back there. And like I just said a few minutes ago,

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I just felt something internally begin to happen. Like I felt hope and destiny, and it felt like

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there was something greater and beyond myself. But not only that, I started to feel like this value,

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like, oh, I'm really seeing, I'm really cared for. There is a plan, there is a purpose for my life.

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And as I'm sitting in this church building, I go, well, there's no other explanation than

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God's real. Like there's nothing else outside of that. I've never felt this in my life. And I'm

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feeling it at this specific place where they say that God is alive. And they're talking about this

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man named Jesus. And they're talking about the Bible and the Holy Spirit. And so I went home

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that night after going to church. And you know, you got to keep in mind, I never had a conversation

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with God, right? Like I had never had a dialogue. I didn't even know what that meant. And as I look

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back on it, you know, 12, 13 years ago, this is really what I was saying in my heart is God,

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please don't let me just be a good person who reads a good book, goes to a good church,

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lives a good life. Like, God, I want to know you like that fire and that passion and that love and

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that peace and that joy that I felt. I want that to be the greatest reality of my life. And so

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sure enough, night after night in my room, the presence of God would meet me. And the next time

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I went to church, I just lifted my hand and I responded to the salvation call. And I said,

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Jesus, here's my life. And I didn't even know what that meant, but I knew that Jesus was real and

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deserved every part of who I was. Yeah. So then, then what happened? I mean, you, you came to,

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you came to know Jesus, you surrendered to him, but you're 15 years old. You can't drive yet.

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You're obviously still living with your mom. And tell me about how your relationship with Jesus

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grew because that's, I mean, we learned in Mark chapter four, that the sea that gets scattered on

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the ground, there's four different types of soil. And, you know, three of those aren't very good

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where they get choked up, they get eaten and scorched and die. So how did you remain in good

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soil? Well, it was a very unique situation. And I promise, I know when people share their stories,

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I'm not trying to say everything about my life is unique, but certain things definitely stand out.

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And I remember like when I, that first week that I either went to church or gave my life to Jesus,

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I can't remember exactly, but my mom and her partner ended up splitting, which obviously was

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like a whole nother dynamic, because now I'm going to church and it's like holy and presence of God,

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and I'm crying and I'm hearing about the word of God. And then I go home and it's like a whole

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different atmosphere, you know, but not only that kind of, I guess a fun fact is like you said,

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I couldn't drive. So guess who had to drive me to church? My mom, right? So my mom's taking me to

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church, going back home, coming back and picking me up. And so it was just such a unique scenario.

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But I remember the second week I was at church, the pastor came out to me and released the word

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of knowledge. And I had no clue what the gifts of the Holy Spirit were. And he's just like, man,

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Ross, I see leadership on your life. And I'm like, thank you. But what does that mean? Right? I was

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still so new to everything. And so long story short, that first year, year and a half, I just

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served in the youth ministry. And then I actually came to the end of my high school time. So I

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graduated high school and I went to college in San Diego. And for those four years in college,

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I'm so thankful nothing traumatic really happened. But I graduated college in 2016. And I figured out

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I had to pay this thing called rent. Right? And I'm like, oh my gosh, like life is at my front door.

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And so I made the worst decision of my life, talking about the seed and the four different

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way in the four different kind of paths that we take when the word of God or when Jesus gets

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implanted in us. What I did is since I wasn't rooted in a local church, since I didn't have a

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spiritual father in my life, I was going to church time to time, but I wasn't really spending, you

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know, quality, consistent time with the Lord. I decided when I graduated college, God, I'm going

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to put you on a pause here because I don't have the girlfriend I want. I don't have the house I want.

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I don't have the money I want. Right? Notice the word I a lot in that. And so I played the blame

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game with God. My heart became bitter. And then I walked out of intimacy with the Lord. And so for

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the next three years of 2016 to the end of 2019, man, it was the worst time of my life. Sure. I had

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some of the things the world told me to do. But ultimately, when I laid my head on the pillow at

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night, I felt empty and broken. And so that's what ultimately led me to 2020, where everything

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shifted for me once again. Yeah. 2020, you had an opportunity to actually have kind of a dream job.

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And so you kind of had to lay that down once God started giving you a different dream, his dream.

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Tell me about that part of your story, because this is this is pretty wild. Yeah. So 2020 comes

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in, like, seriously, I hated my life. Like, it was just like, I just had no purpose, no hope. I was

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doing the same thing over and over. Well, in early 2020, when I started seeing the pandemic and

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everything happening, it was really wild, because though I wasn't walking with the Lord, I felt

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this stirring in me. And I even heard the Holy Spirit tell me, Ross, if you do not stand now,

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you never will. And right at that time, I got offered a job to work for a social media marketing

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agency. You know, this social media marketing agency was one of the top in literally in America,

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maybe even the world. I was making good money. It was a remote job, especially during the pandemic.

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It was like the perfect, the perfect situation. And I remember for the first year I worked that,

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it was incredible. I was making good money. And then I started feeling this stir, like, okay,

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I've come back to the Lord, I've come back to Jesus, but I'm burning for revival. I want to

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see something happen in the nation. I want to get into the streets. I want to preach the gospel.

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I want to mobilize the church. I want to see a move of God. And so that ultimately led me to that

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tent revival, which has taken me along these last three and a half years of my life. So like you said,

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I got this amazing job, was perfect, especially during the pandemic. And then I felt the Lord

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tell me, you know, if you're going to lead a movement of revival, you're going to have to

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lay down this dream job of yours. And so ultimately, that's what I ended up doing.

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– Yeah. So tell me about following the dream that God gave you.

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– Yeah. Well, when I walked into this tent revival, that night was so catalytic on so many

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levels, right? I meet Joel, who I ended up leading the ministry with. He receives a prophetic word

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about revival in California, you know, but not only that, what we decided to do is after this tent

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revival, we decided it was time to get outside of the building. But before we went to Huntington

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Beach, before we did all these 31 cities in the last three years, there was actually a dream that

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came to us from a friend who's a prophet. And in this dream, he said he saw us standing on the beach,

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standing on a beach in California. And he said, Jesus appeared to him in the dream. First off,

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I'm like, I want dreams like that. Jesus appeared to me in my dreams, right? And so he sees Jesus

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appear to him to the dream, and he takes him down to the water. And he says, do you hear the sound,

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almost as if to say, like, do you see what's coming? And as soon as he said that, the ground

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began to shake. And when the ground began to shake, Jesus said these few things. He said this, he said,

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the land of California has already been prepared. He said, the victory has already come, and now is

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the time for the rains of my spirit. And as soon as he said that, a massive tsunami wave from the

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Pacific Ocean crashed over the shores of California. And in that dream, we were asking him,

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do you remember where we were at, like, logistically, like geographically? He said,

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yes, in Huntington Beach. And so we knew in that dream that God was speaking to us, we needed to

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get outside the building, we needed to worship, and we needed to go along the coast, the Pacific

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Coast, PCH, Pacific Coast Highway. And that's why we ultimately went to Huntington Beach in 2021,

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and God birthed the entire movement of where we and what we've been doing these last three and a

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half years. So that was your first crusade, or that was your first revival? Yeah, we didn't even

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know, like, we were just gonna, we were just going to the beach for like a two-day event, because we

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just wanted to do something. We had no clue it was gonna turn into a movement. And you know, people

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were coming up to me, Ross, how long you been a pastor? I said 30 minutes. Ross, what church is

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this? I'm like, I don't even know what to tell you. I just started going back to church like six months

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ago. So Joel and I go home after night one, and we're like, man, we got to give this thing a name.

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And so we named it California Will Be Saved. And that's what we've been doing for these last three

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and a half years. Yeah. So people thought that you had been a pastor for a while, or had been

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ministry for a while, and you jokingly said it's been about 30 minutes, and you were serious with

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that. Yeah. Tell me about what you were preaching, and how did God prepare you for that first message

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there? You know, honestly, it's the grace of God, because I had never preached a day in my life,

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and I didn't really have like this desire to be in ministry. Like, that never was on like my future

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vision board. Right. But it kind of, I kind of got thrown into it, because Joel would lead worship,

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and he was a phenomenal preacher, too. But he couldn't do that always. And so I was like,

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you know, we were kind of thinking, who's going to preach? And I'm like, well, I'll go for it,

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you know. And so at these gatherings, it was really simple. It was literally like a 10 minute

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gospel presentation. Very simple. Who Jesus was, what he did on the cross, and what is to come,

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the reality of eternity, the reality of separation from God, how you can be filled with the Spirit,

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come into his family, be saved from your sin, and know him, not just in this life, but for the

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future to come. And so honestly, man, it's really just a five, 10 minute simple gospel message,

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and then just inviting people to the altar to say, hey, if you've never given your life to Jesus,

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if you never made him your Lord, if you've never received him into your heart, and you want to be

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forgiven of sin, you want to get free of addiction and bondage, come respond to him. Or number two,

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if you had a moment like me, where you've walked away from God, you want to rededicate your life

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to him, come to this altar, and that's all we were doing. Yeah. Wow. I mean, I love preaching the

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gospel. I was a missionary for eight years myself, where I was focused on preaching the gospel all

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over 15 different countries. And so there's nothing like being on the streets and seeing people

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come to know the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and making him their Lord of their future and

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their savior of their past. And Ross, how have you changed during this time? Because now you've been

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doing this for three years. You had 31 different revival breakouts. How is the revival happening

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and sustaining in Ross? Yeah. I think what it comes down to is, I mean, we all know this, right,

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intimacy with the father is what guides our entire lives. You know, any relationship that doesn't

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have intimacy won't be a relationship for long. Right? So that's always priority number one. But

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then number two, this is some of the language that I felt the Holy Spirit give me, right? And I'm

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still processing it, but it's like, I've seen too much. I've heard too much. I've seen too many

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tears. I've seen too many homeless people get saved. I've seen too many bodies get healed.

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I've seen too many baptisms in the ocean. Like, it's like, I think another phrase I've been saying

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is this, is like, the hand of God is not too short. Right? His eyes are not blind. His ears

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are not deaf. His feet are not tired. Right? He's not a respecter of persons. Like,

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if you call out to him, he will respond. And so for me, I think what keeps me burning, even in

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moments where maybe it can feel a little normal, or maybe there's just a, you know, some moments,

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some days I'm a little tired, whatever the case is, I'm like, I've seen too much. I've came too far.

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There's too much on the line. There's too many prophetic words and dreams, not just spoken over

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my life, but spoken over our nation, spoken over my family, spoken over our generation. It's like,

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I can't give up and I must push forward at all costs and operate in the gift of faith,

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because nothing else will satisfy. What else am I going to do, man? Am I just going to go,

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like, I can't just work a job and make money. Like, I need to see the move of God in my generation.

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It's burning in me. And so I think when you take all those factors into consideration,

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it keeps you going because you're like, the God of the universe who knitted me and knitted you in our

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mother's womb, He's doing something significant. He's writing a story and His story and our story

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are converging in this hour. And there's nothing else that will satisfy the longings of my soul

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than knowing Him and making Him known to the world around me. Amen. Amen. That's good, Ross.

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You know, you mentioned a lot of people getting saved and baptized and healed.

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Share some testimonies about that. I want to hear some really good stories of what God's been

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doing in these last 31 events, 31 revivals, breaking down, breaking out along the Pacific

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Coast Highway there. Obviously, when you're doing 31 cities, there's so many stories. You're like,

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oh my gosh, like, how do I condense this? But there's always a few that I'll probably never

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forget. The first one that's coming to my head right now is we did an event in San Francisco in

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the Tenderloin District. If you don't know what the Tenderloin District is, just take a quick

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Google search. It's pretty insane. It's almost like a third world country within America. Like,

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I didn't even know that existed. And so we're doing the gathering, we're worshipping, we're preaching

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the gospel. I found out later because there was this couple walking by the gathering, they heard

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the music, the worship, and they stopped. One of our team members went over and started just talking

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to them, ministering to them, prayed for them. The lady's back got healed because she was in a car

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accident. They ended up staying. They were the first couple to respond to the altar. Incredible.

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But not only that, what we found out later through a team member talking with them,

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they actually told us they were on their way to a satanic ritual. Seriously, they were on their way

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to a satanic gathering. And literally, we call it like a holy interception. God's like, boom,

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catches them and is like, not today. You're my sons and my daughters. I'm going to heal you. I'm

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going to save you. That's incredible. Right? The second story I heard, we did an event a few months

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back in Fresno, kind of a city in the middle of nowhere, and we're preaching the gospel and we're

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going through the ministry moment. We heard later there was this girl at the gathering who she

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literally had written a letter that this was going to be the last night that she would be on the

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earth. Like she already made up her mind. Well, she came forward during the gospel. She came forward

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during the ministry call. And I remember looking at her because I didn't know this in the moment,

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but she got delivered, literally got delivered at the altar call. And whatever was in her came out

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of her. The third story that's coming to my head right now that I'll never forget is we were in

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Hollywood Boulevard. We shut down Hollywood Boulevard, which is incredible, a whole miracle

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in itself. There's video of that on your YouTube channel too, right? Yeah. We have a whole documentary

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of that because I still can't believe we did it. First Christian organization to ever shut down

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Hollywood Boulevard, insane. 2000 Christians showed up, but I'll never forget the altar call.

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We actually had a team member count. There was about 115 people that responded to the gospel call

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right there in the moment. We had about 38 baptisms that took place. I mean, we're baptizing

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people in horse troughs on the walk of fame, right? And so, I mean, there's so many stories

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that could keep going, but those are the three that are coming to mind right now. You know,

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those personal stories and that corporate story, it just blows your mind. Yeah. So, you've obviously

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grown to more than just you and Joel. Tell me about the team that God has brought around you.

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Yeah. So, God's given us an incredible team. There's a few on the worship team. There's another

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girl who handles like the logistics, and then we have a few that kind of just doing the dirty work,

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right? Loading in equipment, production, right? Making sure everything's going smooth on the day

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of the event. And so, there's about six or seven of us that have been pulling off these events.

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We like to say we're small but mighty, right? We're small but mighty. And so, just super grateful

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for our California Will Be Saved team. I love each of them. And there's been a few people that have

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come in the ministry and then moved on to different things. But yeah, so grateful for our small but

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mighty team. Yeah. So, you've seen these 31 different revivals break out. What are some of

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the lasting effects that you've seen? Because you've been doing this for just the first couple

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of years now. And God's opening up other doors for you and more opportunities because your focus was

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California Will Be Saved. But now it's bigger than that. Tell me about some of the lasting fruit and

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how God's launching you into the next thing. Yeah. The two things that come to mind is number one,

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I can literally see like specific people in my... Even right now, I can see them who they came to a

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gathering or they started coming around what we were doing and they got lit up with revival fire.

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I mean, they love Jesus and they were going to a church, but like something happened in them

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where they're like, I gotta take action. I gotta preach the gospel. I wanna pursue God more than I

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ever have. I wanna experience Him as much as I possibly can. And so, seeing people in our

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generation... What's one of the big questions for a lot of pastors? How do we reach Gen Z, right?

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Our gatherings have been like 70 to 80% Gen Z, which is incredible because it flips this script

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and it flips the narrative of Gen Z doesn't want God. It's like, no, if we represent Him right and

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we host His presence, our generation is hungry for Him. So, I think seeing our generation getting

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lit up with fire, with desire, with passion, and even this is coming to my mind right now,

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finding your place in the story. I alluded to it a little bit earlier. God's been writing a story

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and ultimately He's given each of us one of our own personal stories. And so, we just have to find

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that moment, so to speak, where His story and our story converge. And when our soul catches that,

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it's like we come alive. Like, oh my gosh, I'm not just here to live a good life and make some money

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and go to a Sunday service. Like, I'm here to usher in the kingdom of God on the earth and

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there's personal words on my life. So, that's the first thing. I mean, the second thing is seeing

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the church mobilize and unite. You know, when we first started, nobody knew who we were. We're

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just some young kids going for it, right? And over the last couple of years, we've had anywhere

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between five, 10 to even 15 local churches and pastors at each event who are praying with us,

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supporting us, getting their churches to come out. And so, seeing the local church get outside the

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four walls of their building and getting activated is so, so powerful because God's ultimate plan

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is the local church, right? And so, if the local church gets activated and equipped and transformed,

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they'll transform the city, the state, and the nation around us. So, those are the two

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things I think when it comes to lasting fruit. So, you said we need to represent the Lord rightly,

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and that's something that Gen Z is really looking for. How have we not been representing the Lord,

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or how have you been representing the Lord wrongly that is unattractive for Gen Z? And what are the

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things about the Lord that if we talk about Him the right way, is attractive for Gen Z?

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Yeah. I mean, I honestly see it a little bit differently in regards to like,

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if we have the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit in us, we're carriers of God, right? That's a crazy

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thought, but we're carriers of God. So, for me, I'm less concerned about the talk and, you know,

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what we're posting and what we're saying because really, Jesus said, out of the abundance of the

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heart, the mouth speaks. So, I'm more concerned with, are we actually hosting the manifest weighty

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presence of God, not just in our churches, but in our lives? Because here's the deal. I could say

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and speak a five-point sermon to somebody at the grocery store or wherever the Lord leads me,

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but if His presence and anointing aren't in me and flowing through me, it's not going to do much.

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It's just words, right? Jesus said in the book of John, the words I speak are spirit and life. So,

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that means as Christians, when we speak, we're not just speaking nice words to give people a

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goosebumps. No, we're speaking things that not only touch their mind, but touch their hearts.

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And so, for me, when I see representing Jesus well and how do we do that, for me, it's ultimately,

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am I carrying the manifest presence of God or not? I know that's a big statement. I know that's a

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little deep, but that's how I see it. Am I hosting God in my personal heart, mind, life, so that when

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someone talks to me, they actually sense the presence of God through me? That, I believe,

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is the greatest desire because I might not have the perfect speech. I might not have the perfect

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line, but if I have His presence, then I have everything that I need. Amen. That is so powerful.

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If I have His presence, then I have everything that I need. And I think so many times we just

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try to complicate it. We make it too complicated. But if we have His presence, we have everything

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that we need. And His presence is so attractive. It makes people want to be with Jesus. It makes

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people want to give their lives to Him and for Him. Ross, I'm going to ask you in just a moment to

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actually preach the gospel. But I know we've talked about Gen Z just briefly there, but

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you came from a background with the alphabet community. You said your mom wasn't waving

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around rainbow flags or everything like that. But I know a lot of people feel that that community

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is completely lost and that there's no hope. Can you tell us some testimonies specifically from

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your experience with that, especially with your background, how you've been able to bring Jesus

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and His presence to them? Yeah. So I'll share two stories that relate to that. But before I do that,

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I want to just share this because this is probably one of the number one questions that I receive,

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if not the churches receiving in this hour are asking, right? How do we reach the LGBTQ community

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with the gospel? And I think my greatest desire and what I believe the Lord has shown me is bring

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them to the table, right? Our world is so polarized where we just put a post up. We just put our,

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you know, who our favorite politician is. Listen, I believe in politics. I'm very outspoken on this.

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I believe we're the ecclesia, we're the salt and the light of the earth. But what I'm saying is,

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if all we do is post our beliefs, but we never invite somebody in to our lives, then that's a

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counterfeit, right? Jesus didn't go around preaching and then just said, all right, peace out, see you

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later, right? He preached and He declared the kingdom and He declared His values and His beliefs.

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But He also literally went over to their house. He literally sat at the table with them. It doesn't

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mean we live in sin. It doesn't mean we live their lifestyle, but what it means is let's actually

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have personal connection. And so my greatest encouragement to reach any community that we

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feel is disenfranchised or impossible to come back to God is when is the last time, I know,

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and I'm still looking for an opportunity to do this, but this is the revelation the Lord's given

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me. When is the last time we've invited them to have dinner with us? When is the last time we've

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invited them to have lunch with us and actually forget talking politics and your beliefs. What's

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your story? What's your family life like? What do you believe about Jesus? What do you believe about

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life? What do you believe about family? Like actually getting to the core root of somebody's

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heart. So that's my encouragement. But in regards to testimonies, there's three that come to the

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top of my head. Number one, I was actually at an event with Jenny Donnelly, who's an amazing friend

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and just like a spiritual mama to me, and she's leading the movement of a million women and doing

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all these incredible things. So she had this gathering and there's like three to 5,000 people

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there. And one of the literal pride, the Pride Festival speakers, actually happened to come to

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the event. She didn't want to be there. She kind of just went because she felt like she needed to

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go for some reason, right? And she was actually supposed to speak at the Pride Festival either

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the next day or the next week. Well, I came to find out because I talked to her personally,

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I actually happened to preach the gospel that night and she was there for the whole day. But

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during the gospel presentation, she responded to the gospel and gave her life to Jesus. She came

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up to me after the event and told me her whole story. And now she's plugged in at a literal

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Bible college getting discipled in the word. Incredible, incredible. The second one was we

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were in downtown San Diego last year. We were just in the Gaslamp district. There's a bunch of bars,

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clubs. We're just out there on the street. I preached the gospel and the first person to

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respond was a transgender man. There's actually a video of it on my YouTube channel. You can see it

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and he walks forward and I just give him a massive hug and he just starts breaking down, weeping,

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crying. It was absolutely incredible. On the third testimony, I wasn't actually there, but Jenny,

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my friend and my spiritual mama, she had an event and at this event, they showed up at the

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Capitol building, I believe it was in Wisconsin, and there was about a hundred protesters from the

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LGBTQ community. And one of the moms who was a part of the event walked over to the leader of

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the LGBTQ and said, listen, I would love for you to come over and have dinner with me. And the leader

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said, are you serious? Are you being serious? And she said, I absolutely am. And that person came

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over to her house, countered the love of the father and just got radically wrecked and moved

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by the heart of God. And so those are just some of the testimonies that I've been a part of and

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I've heard. That's amazing. You know, you talked about that she was invited to encounter the love

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of the father. You know, I don't want to miss this opportunity right now to have you who's been up

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and down the coast and many different cities across the country, sharing the love of the father,

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sharing the love of Jesus. I don't want to miss the opportunity to ask you to share with those

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watching right now. Yeah, absolutely. You know, when it comes to the gospel and the good news,

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I think sometimes, especially in America, we're used to Christianity. Like we're used to hearing

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about Jesus and God and religion. But I just want you for a second here to really just focus and

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take off any lens if you possibly can that the world has tried to put on you, that your mom tried

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to put on you, that your coworkers try to put on you, because ultimately this good news is better

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than good. It's the greatest news in all of human history. And this is what the news is, is that

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God literally created man. He created me, created you, right? And there's this scripture in Genesis,

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the first book of the Bible, when God created the heavens and the earth and created mankind.

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It blows my mind. It says this, it says that Adam and Eve walked in the garden with God. Adam and

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Eve were the first two people ever created and they walked in the actual presence of God. That's

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wild. That's crazy. But one day they sinned. What a sin. It means you missed the mark of holiness

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compared to a righteous God. They disobeyed the commands of God. And so there was a separation

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between God and man. Why? Not because he hates you. No, because he's holy. He's perfect. He can't

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have a relationship with somebody that is not holy like himself. And so God decided after this

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separation to do something incredible. He decided to send his one and only son, Jesus, to this earth.

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But here's what I think many people miss. When Jesus came to the earth, was he fully God? Absolutely.

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But he was also fully man. He had flesh and blood like you and I. He had emotion. He felt pain. He

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felt trauma. You know, I like to say it like this and I know this is not a laughing matter, but this

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is the reality. Jesus didn't come to this earth. He wasn't sipping on matches, watching Netflix,

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scrolling on Instagram every day. No, he was the son of suffering. The Bible says he was beaten

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beyond recognition. Why did he do that? He did that because he loves you. He did that because sin

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has separated us from the father, from God. And so he decided when he came to this earth to live a

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perfect life, to actually die on the cross, to actually take our sin on himself, to take the

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penalty that we deserve, to live the life that we can never live. And so when he was hung on that

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cross and died on that cross, he became the perfect sacrifice to forgive me, to forgive you of all of

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our sin and restore us back into relationship with God the father. But, but the story isn't over.

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And on the third day, he actually rose from the dead and was seated at the right hand of the

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father in heaven. Why does this matter for your life? This means when you surrender your life to

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Jesus, one day friend, you're going to be actually raised to life in eternity and spend it with God.

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And the Bible tells us that eternity with God in heaven, there is no disease, there is no sickness,

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there's no fear. No, he actually wipes away every tear from our eyes. And so I want to encourage you

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today, whether you've never surrendered your life to Jesus or you want to rededicate your life to

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Jesus, the Bible makes it really easy. God makes it really simple. He didn't say you have to do 10

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pushups, clap your hands five times and hopefully you find him. No. He said, if you would believe in

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your heart, if you would confess with your mouth that Jesus is the son of God, died on the cross,

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raised from the dead and made him your Lord, you would be saved, forgiven of sin. And not only that,

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you would receive his spirit, the Holy Spirit in you for all the days of your life. And so if that's

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you and you want to pray that prayer, just say this with me, just say, Jesus, I surrender my life to

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you. I make you my Lord. I receive you into my heart. I repent and I turn from all my sin,

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from all my mistakes. And from this day forward, my life is yours. Say this last thing, just say,

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Holy Spirit, Spirit of God, fill me now. And we just declare that in Jesus' name. Amen. In Jesus'

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name, amen. And if you responded to what Ross just prayed and led in that prayer, I want you to put

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in the comments that you prayed, that you prayed and you received the Holy Spirit. Your sins have

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been forgiven and you are starting a brand new life with Jesus. We want to be able to pray for

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you, to pray with you. So let us know in the comments. That's the best way to reach out to us

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right now. And then we'll see where the Holy Spirit takes it from there. But we want to be able to

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celebrate with you for that. Ross, how can people connect with you? I mean, this is powerful to see

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what God has been doing. And I want to make sure that people know how that they can follow along

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so they can see what God's doing next. Yeah. The best way to stay connected is if you go on any of

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my social media accounts, it's just Ross Johnston with two N's because somebody took my original

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name. So YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, all that. Please send me a message. Send me an email.

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I would love to connect. I would love to hear from you. If you're like, man, I want to come to an

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event, follow on social media. That's where we post all the updates. That's where we post the city,

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state, nations we're going to. So we'd love, we'd love, we'd love to connect with you and chat with

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you. Ross, thank you so much for joining us today here on Charisma. Thanks for having me.