Episode #10 - Bro. Shane Stewart

Thank you for joining us on another episode of Lifegate

Podcasts. Today we have a very special

guest, somebody who was very impactful and meaningful for

Lifegate Church, somebody who left a very big imprints on not

only myself, but many people inside of our church.

And we we're we're very blessed to welcome Presper Brother Shane

Stewart with us here today. Thank you for joining us,

Brother Stewart. With Cameron, with a Johnny.

It's an honor to be here excited about this.

I've certainly been enjoying all the podcast, all the episodes

I've got a chance to listen to have been really good and so

excited about what you guys are doing.

So mainly with the, with the podcast, we, we, we really want

to capture what made made the person, how God shaped their

life, basically, you know what I mean?

And well, I guess what, what started your relationship with

God? Were you, were you raised in

church with your mom and dad? Were they were they were?

Do they raise you in in church? So my story is that I am third

generation Apostolic Pentecostal on my dad's side.

I am second generation on my mother's side.

My great granny Dial was received the Holy Ghost many,

many years ago. She since went on to her reward.

That's my that was my dad's grandmother.

And then and then my Granny Stewart soon followed.

And then my dad at a early age got the Holy Ghost on my mom's

side, my grandmother, my Granny Queen, which is my mom's mom,

received the Holy Ghost and my grandfather soon followed.

And then it just went down. So and then, you know, I've

never known anything but this. So I kind of cut my teeth on the

Apostolic Pew. Just I made a joke last week

here at the church said, you know, I, I slipped under, under

the Pew many times while somebody was shouting.

So that's all I've known, you know, is that is this.

So I'm, I'm thankful today that 3rd generation on my dad's side,

second generation on my mom's side and my, my children are now

4th generation Apostolic. So.

That's awesome. Whenever you were when you were

growing up, did you, did you feel like like you just knew

from day one? Like you were like I, I know

this is for me. Did you have that experience

growing up or did you ever have any doubts in your mind?

You know what I mean? Man, I never questioned it, to

be honest with you. It was just, it was so ingrained

in US. You know, when I was a kid, you

know what, we had a drug problem.

We were drug to church, you know, Sunday morning, Sunday

night, Monday night prayer meeting, Tuesday night Bible

study, Wednesday night midweek service, you know, Friday night

youth service. And so we were always there.

If they were cleaning the church, mowing the yard, guess

who was going to be there? We were.

And so, you know, it was just always, something has been

ingrained in me ever since I was just a little kid.

And I never, man, I never thought anything other than

this. I mean, it's just I knew from a

very early age that the Lord had a call on my life.

The Lord didn't tell me, my granny did.

So he told you through her. Say it again.

He said he told you through her, through her.

That's right. That's exactly right.

So do you think that when did you, when did you first start to

feel like God was going to use you?

You know what I mean? When did you get that feeling

God was putting a call on your life to do something greater?

You know, so like I said, my granny, she always would call me

her little preacher man. And, and every man I can

remember every night, my grandmother and grandfather, we

live right next door to him. I stayed at their house a lot.

And every night my grandmother and grandfather would, you know,

they have their time of prayer and then she would read to me

out of the Bible. And my favorite, favorite Bible

story was David and Goliath. And so her Bible would just fall

open to, to first Samuel 17. So, so we, I knew that story and

I could just see myself, you know, every, like I said, every

day she would just tell me, Oh, you're my little preacher man,

little preacher man. But I, you know, so, but as I

grew, got older, I started to feel the call of God on my life.

And it was one Sunday night service.

I was 15 years old and a man, the Holy Ghost was moving as I

was in a little country church out in the middle of nowhere.

And that's where we went to church at the time.

And so, man, the Holy Ghost was moving people shouting and

dancing. And I had one of those, you

know, the Apostle Paul moments where I'm not sure if I'm in the

body or out of the body experience, you know, And so

everything around me went silent.

I mean, I could still, you know, kind of see everybody, what

everybody was doing. But some, like everything else,

went silent. And it's the first and only time

that God ever spoke to me audibly.

And it was the audible voice of God.

And maybe the Lord knew I needed that because I'm hard headed.

So. And so in the middle of all this

shouting, everybody worshiping God, everything gets quiet.

And when it gets quiet, the Lord speaks to me and he says this,

he says, Shane, Shane, preach my word.

And when I, when he said that man, I just broke.

I'm, I'm crying, you know, of course, like I said, everything

is going crazy around me. You know, it was a typical

Apostolic worship service and and I'm sitting there on the

front Pew just weeping, sobbing, you know, and so in because I'm

hard headed, I asked the Lord if the Lord, if that was you tell

me again. And so immediately, immediately

Lord comes back and he said, Shane, Shane, I said preach my

word and then everything come back.

Like I could see everybody shouting, everybody dancing.

And so it was really one of those God moments, the only time

in my life I've ever heard the audible voice of God.

And so it was man, it was a powerful moment in my life, 15

years old. I prayed about it for a week or

two, went to my pastor, talked to him and he tried to

discourage me and you know, just not not I don't think because he

just told me. He said that this is a hard Rd.

If you want to, you know, if you're going to walk, walk this

path. I have no doubt God may have a

call in your life, but I want you to make sure.

And so I appreciate that. And so before long, he had give

me an opportunity to preach. It was about five of the most

terrifying moments of my minutes of my life.

And so it was. But I knew the Lord had His hand

on me from that time, you know? And so I begin.

I started preaching around age 15.

Wow. So one thing you mentioned that

it's kind of been a recurring theme for us on these podcasts,

but it's the parents work in their child.

So for you, you mentioned you were always at the church and

you had not only your parents, but your grandparents.

Man, what an effect that can have on a, on a kid.

And that's just something we've been getting a lot of when

people feel like, oh, you don't need to be pushing it on your

kid. And you know, that's the new

thing in today's day. You don't let your kid figure it

out for themselves and don't push this on them.

But obviously they did it right. And you have no regrets about it

because I mean, you never you, you're put on the right path and

you're able to stay there. And it's such, such a blessing

to be able to have parents who are so invested in their kids

and even grandparents were so invested in you and, and, and

giving you that even from such a young age.

I just, I think that's awesome. Yes, I, I would like to say that

this world is pushing their doctrine on our, on our kids.

And so we better be doing our part to try to get the truth in

our, in our children. And, and I think faithfulness

has to be modeled in front of them.

And so if our, if our children are going to live for God and

they're going to look back and set where I'm sitting now in 20

years or 30 years, man, they better see consistency in the

life of their parents and grandparents.

And man, that just the childhood I grew up in it, it made me who

I am today. Now, I will tell you, my mom and

my dad both back slid, walked away from the Lord for a period

of time. My dad and my mom got divorced.

I think I was about four years old.

And so my dad went away from the Lord for a long time.

Matter of fact, I didn't even see him again till I was almost

seven years old. And then, you know, through a

course of events, I started seeing him every other weekend,

that kind of thing. In a week or two in the summer,

my mother got remarried. She got back in church and then

you know, and but I thank God for godly grandparents that were

always consistent and faithful. And my mom is my mom is in

church today doing great. They're they're great people.

My dad is yes, my dad has passed away several years ago, but I

will tell you this little quick story.

Before my dad had my dad had a a problem.

He he couldn't stay in church. He would come in, pray through

be in church for a few weeks, maybe even a couple months, and

then he would fall away. You know, there's he just, there

was so many things that pulled on him, tugged on him.

But when my dad was diagnosed with cancer, I started praying

and I said, Lord, I know you can heal his body, but I'm more

concerned with his soul. And so I want you to heal him,

but if you choose not to heal him, at least you know less.

I want things to be right. And so I was praying.

I was at work one day. I was praying, man.

I was just, the Lord was really working on me.

So I called my wife. I said, Monica, I said, I'm

going to go, I'm going to go see dad this afternoon.

At this point, he was very sick, very weak.

So when I got off work, I drove to his house.

I walked in and walked in the door.

I knew I was on a mission about the Lord had been dealing with

me all day. So I knew I was on a mission

from God. So I walked in the I walked in

the door. When I walked in, my

grandmother, my Granny Stewart, his mother was there.

My aunt, one of my aunts was there.

And then I have two cousins that are backslidden still today.

They were there. And so when I walked in the

door, I walked in and closed the door behind me and I turned to

my 2 cousins and I said, hey guys, we're about to have a

prayer meeting. And if you don't want to be

here, you might want to leave. And so I immediately, I, I said,

we're going to start praying. I turn the granny into my aunt

and aunt and I said, hey, let's, let's pray.

And so my dad was so weak. He was laying on the couch,

couldn't get off the couch. He was just, I mean, he just,

he, he, I mean, he was, you know, 110 lbs soaking wet at

this point. His cancers just destroyed his

body. And, and so I walked over to him

and I knelt down beside him. I said, Hey, dad, I said, I want

to, I've come today to pray for you.

And when I did, when I said that, immediately tears begin to

roll down his face and he said so much you don't know he is is

that I've been on the phone today.

I've called your mom. I've tried to make things right

with her. And he had been my mom and him

been divorced for many years at this point.

He said I've called other people that he he knew he had things he

needed to fix and make right. Him and the neighbor lived just

down the road. They had been in a argument for

some time. He said I talked to him today

and apologize and try to make things right.

He said, I knew you were coming. And so I said, well, Dad, I'm,

I'm about to pray for you. I said, you have repented of

your sins, obviously. And he said yes.

And tears just streaming down his face.

And I said, I'm about to pray for you.

And so we started praying about 30 seconds.

I reached over and laid my hand on his head immediately began to

speak in tongues. The Holy Ghost filled the room,

you know, and, and so it was very powerful. 2 weeks later, I

stood about his casket, you know, so thank God.

Thank God that he was, you know that he's a loving God, gives us

an opportunity so, so powerful. What a, what a, what a powerful

testimony. What, what encouragement would

you give to those who might find themselves in a situation where

they're trying to pray for a loved one or a family member

who's out? Because obviously you had to

live a long time where you maybe you felt like you were having to

pray for your father and hold out that folk.

What, what what? What?

Would you give advice to somebody who finds themselves in

that situation like? Never stop praying.

I'll be consistent pray and plead the blood of Jesus over

him. God keep him safe and deal with

their heart. Let him remember what it feels

like for your presence to be you know for them to be in your

presence. Let him remember what it feels

like the joy and the peace of the Holy Ghost Remind them of

what a good life it is living for the Lord.

And that's what I prayed and God just drawing keep your hand up

on him and pulling tug, tug on his heart.

And and then the hard prayer to pray is God, whatever it takes,

get their attention, whatever it takes.

And that's a difficult prayer. And I had been praying that with

my dad. It took a diagnosis of cancer

and ultimately a death sentence that led to a life, a life

sentence, you know, so, so man, consistency living for God.

And then also just consistency in your prayer like that unjust

judge, you know, just keep going back knocking, just keep going

back and saying, hey, God, we need you to, you know, I need

you to touch this. I need you to move in this

situation. Absolutely.

Yeah, that's a that's a prayer that Dad, dad always told me or

even growing up, he said he's the one number one thing to pray

for when you pray is just to tell the Lord whatever it takes

for you to get me to where I'm, I'm saved, whatever it takes.

I may not like it, and in that time I might be arguing with

you, but right now to do what you got to do, to make sure that

I make it to heaven, because that's what's most important.

Yeah, so many people are afraid to pray that prayer.

But man, when when you weigh things in in the balance of

eternity, no matter what we have to go through here.

It'll be worth it. It's.

Going to be worth it if if we're saved, if our, if our children

are saved. So you know that prayer God,

sometimes, sometimes people have to hit rock bottom.

Yeah, before they ever look up. And so that's difficult,

especially when it's someone that's close to you, a parent, a

child, you know, whoever you know, close friend, whatever.

But when you pray those prayers, you got to trust God that God's

got his hand on it and God knows exactly what it's going to take

to kind of reach their heart and, and to soften that heart.

So, you know, that's it's a hard prayer to pray.

And sometimes we got to be willing to take our hands off of

it and say, OK, God, instead of praying God, keep them from all

this stuff, yeah, you know, got them all back up and take my

hands off of it and let you do what you need to do because

their soul is the most important thing.

Another another thing that really stood out to me when

you're talking a second ago and just it's just a powerful

testimony is that you know, it it everything doesn't always

have to be right in your life, right?

Like every your parents not to be perfect for you to live for

God, right? And that's important, especially

when, you know, I think of some of the younger kids in our

church in that way, how they can grow from that.

I guess my question would be, you know, what kind of, I guess,

speaking from the influence that your grandparents had, what kind

of influence can we have in the life of those who might find

themselves like maybe they don't have a good father, a good

mother that's just going to tell them this is what this is what

the truth is. You know what I mean?

What kind of influence can others kind of have that maybe

your grandparents would have spoke to, you know what I mean?

Yeah. So I think the.

History of the body is so important, the body of Christ.

And so if if you're an elder in the church, maybe your grandkids

are not in church or maybe they don't go to church there, find

somebody to mentor, find somebody to pour yourself into.

We have we have elders in the church here that are, you know

that they are great godly examples.

And so I think that it's very, very important that children

that don't have godly influences at home, that they find those

godly influences somewhere. So man, if you got, if you know,

you got a young man in the church, but you got a season

saying an elder in the church that can man take him fishing

and talk about the Lord or, you know, take him to breakfast or,

or just there has to be somebody needs to be somebody in their

life that can, you know, mentor them and help them so that they

can see, Hey, I can live for God.

Because a lot of our elders, they didn't have anybody leading

them. They come, they come into this

brand new. I mean, they're first generation

apostolics and they're trying. They they had a lot of

resistance then that we don't even face today.

And so, but they're a testimony that, hey, you can live for God,

even though your parents may not or your may not have had godly

grandparents or whatever. But I think it's so important

that we have the ministry of the body.

And that's what I try to encourage our elders.

Hey, they're watching you, You know, they, they watch me as

pastor, they watch Sister Monica as his first lady.

They they see our other leaders, but they need to know that, man,

you can live for God even when, even if your parents are not or

your children, you know, or your grandparents are not.

So it's so important that we have godly examples in the

church. Yeah, and that and you know and.

A lot of people are probably thinking, well that, well,

Shane, that's, that's easier said and done.

But I will like to put a note in there that for us in particular,

when we were going through that as as high schoolers, you, you

lived that you and a couple other people at at Lifegate at

the time, you guys lived by what you preach by taking us as

little heathens and and trying your best.

And I was probably one of the I was probably the worst one.

But even still, you know, me and Kobe were competing for it.

But you still, you still lived it.

It wasn't just you said it, you lived it, you know, so that I

would like to put that in there. You actually did you.

And like I said, a couple others Brother Mac would would take us

and you tried your best to obviously it worked to some

extent because here we are. That's right.

So I want to put that in there. Absolutely.

So you you got the call to from God 15 years old and you got

that opportunity to speak. What kind of lessons did you

learn in that period of your life?

You know, oh man. Every step along the way I've

learned and grown, gleaned and the, you know, the ministry

journey has been, it's been pretty amazing, man.

I, you know, as a, as a 15 year old for the next three years, I

was under, under my pastor there, brother Carl Malone and,

and, you know, help me in a lot of ways learn to, you know,

study the word of God, really try to apply its principles to

my life. And then I was, you know, I've

always kind of been a revivalist.

I believe, you know, that God wants us to have great revival

there, that we should be reaching in the field.

One of the, one of the funny things is we, I was out door

knocking one day. I was young.

It's probably 17/16/17. It's outdoor knocking one day

and I ran into another group that were at the two young men

that were outdoor knocking. I won't anyway, but they were

outdoor knocking. And so I engaged in a

conversation with them and I'm very quickly realized I didn't

know as much as I thought I did. And so the Lord really got to

dealing with me. And he said, hey, if you're

going to be a witness, you need to know what you're talking

about. And so it made me want to dive

in. So because the Bible tells us

that we need to be ready to give an answer of those that ask.

And so when I couldn't come back and give biblical answers to to

the rebuttal, you know, I, I had to be able to the Lord really

start dealing me and saying you need to you need to dive into

this. If you're going to preach this,

you got to know it. You got to know.

It and so man, it really has a 1617 year old young man made me

decide you know what I need to get into the word of God.

I mean, I don't know. I don't know all I thought I

did, you know, So it helped me. Well, that's why.

You know, there's, there's a lot of back and forth with a lot of

people on, on licensing, right, with, with the UPCI.

But you know, one thing that I've learned just through my own

personal studies, like, and talking to Cam, I was like, you

know, one of the biggest reasons behind that is they want you to

prove or, or it, it motivates you to learn everything that

you're supposed to know and, and, and prove that you do have

the discipline to learn it. So I, I, I just throw that in

there too, because it's something that I've been looking

at and just like, OK, why, why is this so important?

Well, OK, this, this makes sense.

It's because they want to make sure that you want to make sure

that people are disciplined to know and are ready when that

time comes. And I think there's a lot of

people and I, I myself would be included that I'm, you know,

you're not. If someone came in and said,

Hey, let's, let's, let's debate. I'd be like, man, I'm not

intelligent enough for that. But it's, it's something that

it's like in the same thing. It's like, OK, well, that's why

I was like, well, I got to start digging in, especially because I

don't want to get to the end of time and become before the Lord

and God be like, you had all this time to learn all this

about me and you didn't, you said you love me, but you didn't

do the simplest thing of learning about me.

And that, that convicted me a little bit over the summer.

So I, I, I, I applaud that, Yeah.

So let me say this about about licensing while I'm here.

So while you brought that up, I have the, I have the privilege

of sitting on the district board now.

And, and so we have a licensing seminar every year and

candidates come and, and you know, we interview them, we

break up into subcommittees and we interview them.

And you would be surprised, maybe I'm a little hard when it

gets it, when it, when it comes to that.

But you would be surprised at, at, I'm sitting across the table

from, from somebody that's trying to get license.

And, and I asked a question like, explain to me the oneness

of God. And they're like, I'm like, give

me a scripture about the oneness of God.

I, I don't, I've, I've literally had them tell me this.

I, I, I don't know any scriptures on the oneness of

God. And I'm like, time out.

You're here getting license. You have been through this

training and you can't give me one scripture on the oneness of

God. There's a whole book you have to

read besides. There's the Bible.

There's like 6066. So you know, so, so, so my, my

thing is, is that man, we, we got to know the word of God.

And so when they come sit down in front of us as a, as a, you

know, a subcommittee and then the district board, I want to

know, do they know about the oneness of God?

Where other than Acts 238 can we find the plan of salvation

right? Because Acts 238 is our candy

stick. Everybody knows that, right?

But what about Acts 8, Acts 10, Acts 19, Acts 22?

What about John 3? Must be born again of the water

and spirit, you know? What about?

What about all that you know? So when they sit down across

from us, I want to know. Do you?

I'm not asking you who Melchizedek was.

You know what I'm saying? I'm not asking you something.

I just want to know, do you know basic biblical truths that you

can share with somebody else, right?

Because if you're going to be in the ministry, you got to be able

to share this truth. You got to be able to tell

somebody and be confident. About it.

That's right. That's right.

And lead them through the word of God.

Those scriptures need to be highlighted in your Bible.

They need to be underlined. They need to be you know you

need to put them in the back of your mind so that if somebody

asked hey, let me take you to let me take you over to this

scripture to show you so that we need to know you know, first

Timothy 316 great is the mystery of godless God was manifest in

the flesh just by the spirit scene of angels preaching the

Gentiles Amen received on the world believed up in you know

believed on the word received up in the glory you know so we need

to know that we need to know Deuteronomy 6 and four hero is

the Lord our God is 1 Lord we need to be able to say to tell

those scriptures and give a give an answer to those that ask So

man, it's important we know this truth Yeah and you know it's

crazy like. I don't know who else mentioned

it before, but like it's funny to me how the doctrine that we

believe in is. The most?

Heavily attacked too and, and what's crazier to me is like, I

mean, oneness has always been something that's kind of been

attacked, you know, from the trinitarian side of it and so

forth. But now it's not even just that

now you're, you're getting attacked even more so on

speaking in tongues, the Holy Ghost, what is the, the gifts of

the Spirit. And now they're even going after

baptism. So it's like it all well, you

don't really have to be baptized like man it you're just they're

they're not trying to attack each other.

They're like specifically trying to attack this one, which just

so happens to be us, which tells me it's like we must be on to

something. But it's crazy.

It it's true that I mean that was.

That's the book of Acts. I mean, it's the book of Acts.

So it was constantly under attack in the book of Acts.

You know it. But that persecution's what led

to great revival. And so, you know, had there not

been persecution, the church would have just been confined to

Jerusalem. But because there was such

persecution in in Jerusalem and it made the word of God spread.

And so the word of God is spreading.

We are having great revival. People are getting the Holy

Ghost, people are getting baptized in Jesus name.

And so thank God for that. But it's because there's such a

push back, but there's a hunger for God.

You know, we look at the world today and we, we know that, you

know, there's a lot of wickedness, evilness out there.

But there's also man, there's, there's also some hungry people

we saw. That a lot with what's his name,

the guy who just got killed, Charlie Kirk.

Yeah, I'm not not AI don't know much about him.

But I mean the amount of just uproar that happened with people

who are now just because of what he was and what he said.

They they're reading the Bible now they're wanting to learn.

I will agree with that. There's there's, there's a you

can sense that hunger in the world that there's, there's got

to be something here. Well, even.

Beyond that, I would say that the more that the denominal

world kind of morphs into one, one real belief, you know, the

more the other organizations like the UPCI leading the

charge, you know, but they stand out.

And we really do stand out in the crowd, still standing up for

something. We don't just morph into this

one kind of doctrine that's being spread around basically,

you know, so. You know Jesus name baptism.

If you can't see Jesus name baptism in Scripture, I mean man

you you need to ask the Lord to remove your the blinders off

your eyes because there is nowhere in Scripture ever did

they ever baptize in the titles Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

I mean it was always in the name of Jesus.

We got scripture after scripture tells us Acts 412 neither is

there salvation any other none of their name under heaven given

among men whereby we must be saved.

And so that name I tell our people here, we're baptizing

people. I tell him, I said, look,

there's nothing in the water. I, I, we, we feel this badge

through straight out of the tap. You know, there's nothing in the

water. The powers in the name.

And so when you come into the bride of Christ, you got to take

on the name. And so we have scripture after

scripture that says the name is what's what's important, you

know, So what would you? What advice would you be given

to I guess younger ministers who maybe who feel the call of God

in their life beyond just we talked about studying those

things, but how would you say you should be responding to the

to the call of God? You know what I mean?

What, what encouragement. So I think the first.

Thing to do is if you're a young man, you need a man of God in

your life. Let me back up.

Every person needs a man of God in their life.

I don't care if you're 5 or or 95, you still need a man of God

in your life. But if you if you're a young

man, you fill a call of God on your life.

Fill a call to to ministry, pulpit ministry or or any kind

of ministry. You need a man of God in your

life that you will submit yourself to.

And let me say something about submission while I'm here.

So submission begins where agreement ends.

And so when as long as we're always in agreement, Cameron

there, there's no need for submission, right?

But when disagreement comes with the man of God in your life,

that's when submission shows up. Hey, I may not exactly agree

with this, but I'm going to submit my will to to what the

man of God is telling me. And so, so I think the the first

thing is, is submit yourself to a man of God, somebody that's

that's seeking the Lord, following the Lord and, and, and

then just ask him, Hey, pastor, where, what, what can I do?

What's the next step? What do, what do you want me to

do? Work.

And, you know, because I believe, I believe in Bible

college. I believe in all that's great.

I think, of course they need to add it.

Bible college is how to work a paintbrush and a hammer and A

and A and a toilet brush and there you go.

Useful skills. I got to tie a trash bag.

Yeah, yeah. Change a light bulb.

I had to do that this morning, by the way.

So, you know, but all that, that all that's good.

But I think you've got to submit yourself to a man, to a man of

God. And then from there, as he gives

instructions, you know, obviously study the word man,

teach a Bible study, teach a Bible study.

I mean, that's what I'm trying to tell our young guys here as

man, find somebody to teach a Bible study.

And I mean, we're having amazing results across our movement with

P7 clubs, CMI, all those kind of things.

And so there there's people out there that want this.

You just got to go find them and you got to work in the Kingdom.

You know, I think it's so important that that if you're

going to be called the ministry man, you, you get your hands on

the wall and help pull somebody from the flames of the fire, you

know, and so well say, say. Say say you're, you're, you're

I'm hearing your words. I'm like, OK, well, I do want to

start a Bible study, but that can be a little intimidating.

I'll just being transparent. It can be a little intimidating

for someone to be like, OK, well, how do I start this?

How do I go about it? You are very good as as I've

heard and as we've heard and have experience with that.

What what would be your what would be your again advice on

that for someone like you're a little intimidated for the just

this idea of starting a Bible study with people and leading

the charge in that regard. So almost like tell you like

this. So one thing they tell us on my

job was, you know, I've worked for CentOS now for a long time,

almost 20 years. And so they told us, I'm coming

back around to your question. So, but they told us when you're

having a conversation with with one of your customers, it the,

you know more about uniforms than they ever will, right.

Well, if you've been, if you grew up in this and you know,

you've heard enough teaching and preaching through, you know,

over the time, you're going to know exponentially more than

what the person you're teaching the word of God to.

And so, and to be honest with you, it's, it's pretty easy.

There's a lot of biblical or a lot of helps out there.

Now, there are numerous Bible studies.

I know at Lifegate, man, we, we taught exploring God's word.

I still teach it here, you know, and so, but there's simple,

endless, marvelous lot. There's all kinds of these

script, all kinds of these Bible studies that you can take and

they just walk you through it. So, and when you walk in there,

don't go in there with arrogance, but go in there with

some confidence saying, and I mean, I, I know this because

I've heard this all my life. I've studied it and it be

prepared, you know, but but the other thing is, is that if you

have people in your church that are new to the church, they need

somebody to teach them. So a small group setting, which

is what we utilized at Lifegate when we were there, we would

take my family, Monica and myself and at the time our

children and we would, we would couple that with another, you

know, another family or two. Usually the brides were one we

had, I can't remember who was in that Bible study with us, US and

the brides, but anyway, and then we had Jason and Rachel Brister

and we had Amanda and Brian, Brian in, in our in our Bible

study. And So what we would do is we'd

make it, you know, we would rotate between homes when we

goes out of our house next week with somebody else's house.

And so we would do that because you're building, not only are

you teaching the word, but you're also building

camaraderie, building friendships.

You're, you know, you're building relationships and

you're connecting them to the church during that.

So I think it's so important that we build connections, make

connections while we're teaching the word of God.

And so anybody teach, anybody teach a Bible study.

If you're brand new to the church, you can teach a Bible

study. People can argue with your

theology, but they can't argue with your experience.

If you got the Holy Ghost, man, you got a testimony.

You can share that. You say, look, I don't

understand all this. I don't know all the details.

All I know is man, when I come up out of that water, man, God

fill me with the Holy Ghost, man, what a difference is made

in my life, you know? And so you got a testimony,

Share that. But.

It's speaking, speaking and all that we were talking about on

the way here. I said, you know what's crazy?

What I'm excited about this one for is so we got so many new

families and and we've moved grown so much with Lifegate

since you were there, that not many people or there's a lot of

people that don't know how integral a part you played in

the growth of Lifegate. I mean, oh, railroad Abed.

I mean, I can't think of oh, railroad Abed without the

Stewarts being there. You know, we would, you know,

like I said, as as little heathen kids, but even just

growing up, you know, outside of that, man, we had some, some

amazing services where, you know, when, when pastor would be

out of town and, and you would take over and it'd be like, all

right, we're about to get a fireball here today.

But it was nice. But I was like, there's such a,

the stewards were such an integral part of Lifegate's

growth that people now, you know, unless they were there,

they don't know about that. So it's, it's, that's what makes

this exciting. Yeah.

I mean, I think just just a testimony, that's one thing

people need to know is that Brother Stuart's not talking

from, he's not talking about platitudes or things that he

wants you to do. He's talking about things that

he has done throughout his life. You never got too big to teach a

Bible study. You know what I mean?

It's the call of God for everybody, isn't it?

So so I. I would like to take a moment

and and say to brother and sister Penton, thank you for the

opportunity. 7 1/2 years at Lifegate, You know, when we came

to life Gate, we and we had just walked through one of the

darkest times in our lives, one of the hardest trials in our

life. We had a pastor before that that

I was leaving truth. And at that point he even tried

to get me to turn my fellowship card in and I came to me and

said, Hey, I'm going this direction and I'd like for you

to come with me. And, and so I immediately said,

if you're going that way, I'm not going that way.

And I'm just, I'm not walking away from what I know.

I mean, I'm, I've got too much invested at this.

I was a young man at the time, you know, and so I've got too

much invested in this. I've seen my, my great

grandmother, my grandmother and my grandfather and my mother

live for God and hold on to this truth.

And I'm going to raise my kids in this.

So I'm not, I'm not leaving this.

And so we came to Life Gate Castle Dr. you know, and we got

there, it was literally a divided church.

I mean, it had a it had a wall coming out.

I mean, literally you had you had about 2020 or 25 chairs in

the front, about 15 in the back or something like that.

And so, yeah, I mean, there was literally a wall that come out.

And if you sit in the back, you couldn't see.

You just had to listen and walk by faith or sit by faith.

And so, but when we got there, I don't know, I think the church

was probably 2530, maybe, maybe maybe 35.

I don't, I don't. It wasn't much more than that.

And so we got there, you know what?

And when I got there, I had a conversation with a penton and I

told him, I said, hey, I'm not coming for a position.

I'm not. We need to heal.

We need to, I don't know how long we'll be here.

All I know is this is where the Lord told me to come.

And so for the next 7 1/2 years we were at Lifegate and man, we

saw great things happen. The church moved from Castle Dr.

bought the building on old railroad bed road and, and just

totally remodeled that, turned it into a church.

And man at the church just started growing and it

continued. And man, I thank God for what's

you know, for what God's done there.

And man, the beautiful building you guys are in now, what a

miracle, you know, thank God for that.

And so, but through those, you know, through those 7 1/2 years,

brother, brother Penton, sister Penton, they man, they trusted

us, allowed us to, allowed us to teach Bible studies, allowed us

to, to be involved. We were served as youth pastor

for several years, was assistant pastor for a while, just

everything that was going on Lifegate, we were trying, we try

to be involved in. And so we literally just tried

to put our hands on the plow, not look back, you know, And so

because I'm Kingdom minded and I, I realized that at the time,

I thought we may be at life gate for the for the rest of our

ministry. But that's kind of been my my

pattern is that wherever I'm animal buy in and I'm going to

get, I'm going to give it everything I've got because even

previous stops before we got to life gate, I, I thought I would

never leave. I thought I would be there and

continue to help grow that church.

But what I'm, I guess the point I'm trying to make is is that

when we got to life gate, God had a work for us to do.

And so we just try to get in and do that.

And brother and sister Penton allowed us to do that and we

learn a lot and grow, grew a lot, gleaned a lot from that

from that time that we were there.

I will tell this one funny story while I'm here.

I'm going to pick on your dad. Just a minute, Cameron.

So brother Penton, this is for you, Cade.

Cade was wanting to get baptized.

And so brother Penton is very green.

And so when if you've been through the colors test, brother

Sister Hughes, you'll know what I'm talking about.

All you life Gators. It's been through that.

And so we've actually done that here too.

But anyway, so Brother Penton is he's going to analyze

everything, all this kind of stuff.

And so Cade was wanting to get baptized.

And so I told Brother Penton. I said, hey, Brother Penton, but

Cade wants to get baptized. He's ready to get baptized.

And Brother Penton was trying to buy a baptistry and so he got

bogged down in the details of, of, of, of buying a baptistery.

And so I finally went to and this was rocked on for probably

four or five weeks. And I said, Brother Penton, if

you don't, if you don't buy a baptistery, I'm going to take

him somewhere else and baptize him.

So, so Brother Penton finally bought a baptistery and we

baptized cake. But anyway.

That's this is a push. He needed you.

Know it was the push he needed so I hope I was as much a help

to him as he was to me. That's the.

That's the. Baptistry we have now in it.

Yeah, we still still still use it.

Yeah. So that joker was heavy.

When you all would move it, man, I remember that.

So he he got him a nice one, you got him to get a good one.

And so, you know, this is kind of touching on this and and

don't have to get necessarily too, too deep into the details

on this portion, but this is one of the hardest things that a lot

of people face in church. And that's disappointment in a

human and a disappointment in a pastor.

And a lot of times that's where people turn away from God

because somebody didn't live up to their ideals and didn't live

up to what to the Bible's ideals, you know what I mean?

And so a lot of people end up getting bitter and kind of just

because naturally you're hurt. I mean, I would be hurt if

somebody you trust does that. I guess could you speak to

somebody maybe that like there's just because somebody fails, God

is still good. You know what I mean?

Sure, let. Me, let me recommend a resource

right here for this, too. It's called The Root of

Bitterness. I'm sorry.

It's called The Bait of Satan by John Verveer.

It is a great, powerful book. I try to read it every couple

years because there's going to be disappointment, there's going

to be hurt. There's going to be

difficulties, You know, I've had the privilege of pastoring here

for eight years. I know I'm not always done

everything like they wanted me to do it, you know, and I know

that I there have been times when people have left frustrated

with me or whatever. And and so, but I don't, it's

important we don't let that turn into a root of bitterness, you

know, And so there have been in our lives, there have been

several times where different situations, circumstances have

have led to hurt, you know, and, and, and I hate to use the word

church hurt, but you know, because I mean, it's just hurt,

you know, you just hurt. And so, man, when you're, when

you go through some of that stuff, it's so important to

understand that we're all still in the flesh.

We're all still battling the flesh.

And sometimes even leaders, myself, including especially

myself, make decisions that looking back, we may say, man, I

could have done that a little different or I could handle that

situation a little different. Or because I can assure you

every, every leader takes takes those decisions home with them.

They go home. I, I know somebody might go home

hurt, but they go home and they're carrying the burden of

that decision with them too. So when they so I think it's so

important that we step back and realize that although man may

have hurt us, God never has never hurt us.

And, and that even though we're in the middle of a battle, I

would, I've always said this, I would a lot, a lot rather walk

through the storm, knowing Jesus is holding my hand, then try to

go through it by myself. Because the Bible clearly tells

us that it rains on the just and the unjust.

The same storm that hit the wise man also hit the foolish man's

house. And so the difference was the

aftermath, how I came out after this, right.

So the foolish man built on the sand, but the wise man built on

the on the rock. And so man after the storm, the

wise man was still standing, his house was still standing.

The foolish man was not the aftermath is what was different.

And so when we face things in life, if we're built on the fact

that God is good all the time, you know, even in the middle of

my problem, even the middle of my trouble, even in the middle

of my situation, I don't want to charge God foolishly.

Job right. But I want to just say I'm going

to trust you. You know, I'm going to, I'm

going to, I'm going to keep my faith in you, even though I'm

dealing with this problem, even though I've been hurt, I'm still

going to trust you. And so through that, when you

have that understanding, you can say, man, God really is good.

And what what I found out is the older I get, the more I look

back and see that God was really developing me through those

times. He was working in me or maybe

sometimes he was working something out of me that that

had been, you know, that had been hidden.

And so the Lord's trying to take something out of me that was, it

was in my life that didn't need to be or, you know, or he was

letting. I was growing through the

process, you know. And so Joseph wasn't ready for

the palace till he went through the pit, through Potiphar's

house and through the prison. It took some time.

He couldn't have handled the promotion when he was still

wearing the coat of entitlement from his father.

So there had to be some stripping away.

And so he, that coat was stripped and then he gets into,

you know, he gets into Potiphar's house and he's, he

loses another coat, you know, and so contentment, I think, you

know, he was content. Everything that Potiphar had was

under his hand. And so he, he loses that code of

contentment. Oh, Joe thought, I'm not doing

too bad. I think I'll stay here, you

know, right. So and then God said, I'm not,

that's not what I promised you. There's a, you know, there's I

got something greater for you. And so he goes to the prison and

he gets down in there and all of a sudden, man, I, this is, you

know, I'm everything's under my hand.

The, the, the keeper of the jail.

You don't even know what's going on here.

I'm running everything. And, and then all of a sudden he

loses another coat and he ends up in, in the palace in front

of, in front of Pharaoh, you know, and God had promoted him,

but it was promoting him through peril, right through, through

the things. And so the key is, I think when

we go through things, whether it's somebody's hurt our

feelings or we're going through a battle or struggle, the key is

to step back and say, OK, God, what are you trying to teach me

in the middle of all this? What do you want me to learn?

What am I? I need to know God so that I can

grow. Because I'll be honest with you,

if I was Joseph, I wouldn't want to go back to the pit.

Nope. I don't want to go back to

prison, you know. And so the key thing is, is to

learn what you need to learn in those situations so that you

don't you don't have to repeat those you know or stay longer.

Or. Stay longer.

Yeah, I, I tell a story around here sometime, you know, that

years ago I'm, I'm walking through my front yard and I fall

in a hole, twist my ankle real bad.

You know, when I, I get up, I'm hobbling around, you know, I hob

around for a week or, you know, 10 days or whatever.

And I'm thinking, man, that stupid hole, it wasn't a hole's

fault, you know? And so I think I'm going to fill

that hole up. Well, six months later, I'm

walking to the yard and following the same hole again.

Whose fault was it? It was my fault for not filling

the hole up, right? So I didn't learn from my

mistake. So we got to learn from what

what we what we're going through so that we can grow and move

forward. Time I.

Kick one of Braden's toys. I wake up in the morning and I

kick it. You know, you kick a train or

something like like, OK, I'll get it here in a minute.

Then you forget about it. Then the next day you do it

again like I thought I moved it. No, there's nothing like.

Stepping on a Lego or a hot wheel at 2:00 in the morning,

you know, Yeah. It'll make you say all those

good, good, good words. Peter, James.

Paul. Hallelujah.

Oh yeah. So I guess, I guess one question

for you is, I guess having an experience because you've been

under several pastors, but you're also now you've been a

pastor for eight years and obviously oppressed, bitter, but

what do you look for in a church?

Wherever you're like, man, I want like, because we all we all

need somebody who's always like, you know, helping, but somebody

in your church like what's like speak from experience of being

the person who who, who helps further the the message out.

Maybe not from the pastor's side.

And then also as a pastor, what you look for was somebody who's

who's who's like, I want them involved.

I want you to I want, I want to help encourage them base.

I want to light their fire. So.

As a pastor, I think, man, you look for hunger if somebody's

hungry for the things of God, but it's limitless where they

can go. Faithfulness, man, I, I don't

know about you guys, but just having somebody that's faithful

means a lot. You know, it's, it's going to be

hard to hear. Well done thou good and faithful

servant. If you're not faithful, you

know, so a man, just faithful people.

I'll be honest with you, man, when we have some great people

in our church, God has really blessed us.

We have a young couple here and I'm not going to call their

names, but we have a young couple here came to us several

years ago. They were backsliders and came

to us and we just loved them, loved them where they were,

helped them grow, taught them Bible studies and and and man

that they're now a key part of our church.

I mean Sunday school teachers board member, I mean all the all

the things just great growth. And so, but they've they bought

in. They were faithful.

They were hungry for God. And so that's man, if you got

somebody's hunger for God, man, you can, you can work with that.

I don't care where they're coming from.

I don't care how far away they are.

If they've got a hunger for God, man, you can take that and you

can work with that. If they're going to be faithful,

you can take that, work with that.

So that's good. From a pastor's point of view,

we we've asked a couple with Lacombe and Brother Pendant, and

I don't know how much people are listening to it.

So we'll try to drive it home a little harder, but everybody

feels like when they're, when they're feeling a call that

especially from for men, it's behind the pulpit.

I'm a, I'm a preacher. That's all I'm going to do.

And you mentioned it a little bit earlier, but there's so much

more to ministry than just speaking from behind the pulpit

or playing an instrument or singing.

There's, you know, just all the different things that you can

do. So from a pastor's perspective,

what, what can you just put put some more on the emphasis or the

value of having people who are willing to not only be ministers

in those regards, but also be, be servants, be the minister,

Sunday school teacher, be the, the nursery teacher, the one who

doesn't get all the attention, but is really a pretty pivotal

part and, and in the church community as a whole.

Well, the Bible tells us this, Johnny, the Bible tells us that,

you know, the hand can't say the food that I have no need of

thee, you know, and, and so, but he puts all these different

parts in the body. So the body is not deformed.

And so not everybody's going to get up every Sunday and preach.

Not everybody can pastor. Not everybody's going to be the

adult Bible teacher. Not everybody's going to be the,

you know, teach the youth class. Not everybody's going to do.

Not everybody's going to sing. Trust me, they don't want me

singing. Matter of fact, Monica makes me

stand on the opposite side of the church.

So, so it's funny, so not everybody can, can do

everything. I, I'm not gifted, I'm not

talented when it comes to music or instruments, anything like

that. I don't, I, I, that's not my

thing. So I just get up and yell at

people all I do. And so, but my, The thing is, is

that there is a place in the church in the body for every

member, every member. And so, man, it's so important

that you find whatever gifting talent ability that you have and

put that to work in the Kingdom. There are.

It's amazing to me, the people that work behind the scenes are

just as important as the people that work up front.

So everybody sees we have, we have media people here that do

our media and stuff, man, when they're not here, I'm lost.

I'm like, I don't know where, how we're going to have church.

So, you know, if, if, if part of our worship teams here are not

here for whatever reason, vacation, whatever, you know,

man, I, I feel like we're missing an arm that day, you

know, And so if, if, if we have a live class, Sunday school

class teacher that's not here, then we're juggling trying to

figure out how we going to fill that role.

So nursery is, is important, man.

We have a, a, a, a team that takes care of the yard here, you

know, and so I'm thankful for every one of those guys.

Now here's the thing. Some of those guys are, they're

growing, they're learning, they're that, you know, so I

think that we need to find a way to plug everybody in to some

form of ministry. It may not be platform ministry,

but it is some kind of ministry because connection to the

church, connection to the Kingdom of God is so important.

And so we're, you know, I, I think that people have to have

to buy in, be faithful, but you also got to connect them.

And so I, I don't know if that answers your question, but

that's, that's, that's. Spot on SO.

So we kind of talked about some of the some of your early life

experiences, but have there ever been any like times in your life

other than whenever you heard the audible voice of God?

But like, maybe it wasn't a situation in your life.

Maybe the situation is somebody else's life where you said, I

know, I know that was God. I know he's real right now

because I you know, I know he's in the room.

Basically man, how much time you.

Got the the the it's man so many times so many times I've seen

God do so many great things. I'll tell you a couple stories

today about a few things that miraculously happened.

This was probably four or five years before we ever got to life

gate the church we were in. We had a lady literally fell

over dead in the in the church. I mean, had a heart attack, fell

over dead in the church. I'm, I'm not a medical

professional, but we had several nurses in the church.

I mean, they were pulse, no pulse, no breath.

She's dead. 911 ambulance is on the way.

We went to prayer. By the time the ambulance got

there, the lady was setting up alive.

So it's amazing, you know, the things that God did.

I mean, literally when I say literally fell over, like

slumped over the Pew in front of her, you know, like standing up

and then fell over. So I mean like, so it was very

dramatic. What a what a great miracle.

You know, there was no doubt God, God, you know, it's like,

wow, what a power and people. Try to say that that doesn't

happen anymore. That's just crazy to me.

I'm an all witness. You come too late to tell me.

Yeah. It's like how?

Can you know, I see that all the time.

Be like, well, that stuff stopped in the in the New

Testament that stops. It's like somebody forgot to

told God that because he still did.

Exactly. Exactly.

Yeah. It still happens.

I mean, and it's amazing the things that happen, man,

there's, there's so many things. I could tell you Kay, when he

was, when he was small, had a soy allergy.

This was actually when I was at Lifegate, had a soy allergy.

Man, that's a, that's a huge thing.

I know we're dealing with a lot of kids with allergies now.

We went to prayer about it, prayed and prayed and prayed.

It was a, it was a big deal, you know, big deal.

And so one morning Kay got up and he, he came to me said, I

mean, he was little. I mean, I don't know, 5 maybe.

And he came to me and he said, dad, the, the Lord told me he

was going to heal me, you know, and I'm thinking, oh, that's

five year old whatever, you know, But man, I said, what

really that's great. I believe that we're going to

pray that. So we started praying and, and

so man, next six months or so wrote, rocked on, rolled around

and he goes back to the go back to the doctor and he goes in and

the doctor says, man, I, I, you're not allergic to anything

anymore. So Cade calls me.

Now you got to understand, Cade calls me from his mom's phone

and he said, Dad, you're not going to believe where I'm at.

And I said, where you at? He said, I'm at Sonic.

I said, what are you doing at Sonic?

He said, I'm eating a corn dog and having ice cream.

You know, because he had not been able to do that.

You know, we had to make everything because everything

got soy in it. So he was a miracle.

You know, it was something God did.

And so, but man, the list could go on and on of miracles, things

that I've seen. But there have been some very

powerful services that I've been in conferences.

But I'm going to be honest with you, man, some of the most, some

of the most life changing. I don't want to throw that word

around just to be saying it was life changing.

But some of the most dynamic services I've ever been in have

been prayer meetings, have been communion services where we're

taking communion. I think it's because it's a,

it's a commitment. It's a, it's a dedication.

It's a, you know, consecration. And so, you know, we've searched

your soul. You're about to take communion.

You're asking God, God, if there's anything in me, you

know, cleanse me, make me pure, make me holy.

You know, let me, let me be like you want me to be.

And and so during those moments is when God draws near 20 when

he shows up, You know, we had we've had some of those services

here, you know, that where the power of God would just be so

powerful. I love the shout, I love the

room. I love all that women.

I'm for it 100%. And I've been in some great

services, you know, camp meeting conferences, numerous

conferences. And so I'm thankful for all

that. But some of the deepest moves of

the Holy Ghost have just been kind of a where the Spirit of

God lingers. I mean, you can almost see the

glory of God fill the house. And so man, it's so powerful

when that happens. And it's in those moments where

you can, the Lord can change you it because you've been in a

wrestling match and the Lord, when you wrestle the Lord

changes things, right? You're going to leave here

walking different Jacob. You're going to walk out of here

and you're, you know, you're going to no longer be Jacob,

you're going to be Israel. And so there's going to be a

great powerful thing that happens.

And I think we need more of those services.

I'm all about to shout. I want us to shout.

I encourage our people and let's get, you know, run the aisles,

you know, let's let's, you know, let's do what we let's do what

apostolics do. But but there also is a time

when we need to linger in the presence of God and let God

really do something in us. But like so.

Like, but how would how would but when, how do you think we

would we can develop more of that because that's a mindset to

an extent to come in there. Like, how would you?

Yeah, I think you're saying it's.

Like an intentionality. Intentionality.

You really want to get. Into the deeper things an

expectation. Kind of thing.

Yeah. Spiritual.

Disciplines, right? So if the only time you pray is

on Sunday, you're probably not going to get to a deep spot with

the Lord. You're probably going to be very

shallow, you know, and, and so if you, but if you learn to have

a relationship with him and you pray and you fast, I'm hungry

right now. But if you fast, you know, if

you fast and if you study the word of God and you're faithful

to the House of God, I think through those spiritual

disciplines, you can the Lord honors those.

So because you've been faithful over a few things, the Lord

said, I'm going to show up in this service and I'm going to

I'm going to show out today. Watch me do what I only I can do

right. So God comes in and he says,

man, I'm fixing it. I'm fixing just pour a blessing

into this house. My spirit is about to just step

in. And so, but it only again, if,

if you don't pray and you don't seek the face of God, then those

moments are rare. They don't happen very often.

Our elders, they had deep moves of God very often, but it's

because they were not so enticed with the entertainment of this

world. And so I think so many times we

get caught up with scrolling instead of praying.

We get caught up in in, you know, filling our mind with with

whatever, you know, some kind of entertainment instead of instead

of making time to really seek God.

But if we could ever get back to seek in the face of God, man, he

would, he would he look, he longs to be in our to be with

us. I mean, you know that he he

wants to show up. He wants to do great things, but

he wants you to want him to do that, you know?

So when? We were talking to Brother

Lacombe. He kind of echoed a little bit

of that world because we were talking about how the revival

services that his parents came at where you just came in,

walked through the door and got the Holy Ghost immediately.

And I was going to ask him, like, you know, why do you think

that we don't see that as much anymore?

Because you hear a lot of those stories.

And he kind of echoed some of the same sentiments that like

people now have so much going through their heads that

nobody's really like in the moment with God, like it used to

be, right? So getting back to that, I I.

Often pray, Lord, help me to silence all the voices in this

world so that I can hear you because God's not going to shout

over everything right it very often it's that still small

voice that speaks and so if you're constantly and we and

we're we're guilty of this. I mean, and I'm thankful for

podcast. I'm honored to be on today, but

very often we're always got something in our ear.

It's an earbud. We're listening to podcasts,

we're listening to auto book audio books, we're listening to

whatever music and all this kind of different stuff.

So God can't speak or you can't hear the voice of God if you

always got something. So there has to be a time where

it's just you and God, where you can say, OK, God, I want you to

talk to me now and, and like you're.

Saying individually any one of those things may not be wrong in

and of itself. But the.

Overload, at which we consume so much, means we don't have

anything. We're not hungry when it comes

to God. That's right, because I'm.

Thankful for Apostolic media. Yeah, Apostolic, you know,

content, you know, I'm thankful for that because we need that in

the world. I'm thankful for what you guys

are doing. We need that.

We need this voice. It's an Ave. it's an outreach.

It's an Ave. It builds faith and you know, it

helps spread the truth. I'm thankful for all that.

We need all that. But all things in moderation,

right? So if, if we're always

listening, if we're always watching, we're always

entertain, then we're then we have no time for God.

When you have no time for God, he does.

I mean, you, you cut out the most important thing, right?

And, and so thankful. We need, we need good godly

Apostolic content. But I also think if you spend,

you know, 12 hours a day listening to Apostolic content,

you're missing the voice of God, you know, So that's why so many.

Like nowadays you hear a lot more often where people are

focusing on when you pray and God protect my head, protect

what I see and, and really put a helmet on me because it's just,

there's such an attack coming on us just for our, for our minds

and what we take in. It's it's crazy how how amped up

it's gotten here recently too. Yeah.

And I mean. Just and not to be not to be old

man in the room, but you know what I mean?

Like just the the changes I've seen since I was a kid with

having dial up Internet, you know what I mean?

Where you had it was a it was an act of Congress to get that

thing booted. You know what I mean?

To now, you know what I mean? The convenience is really there.

I mean, we are, you know, second from anything, you know what I

mean? Constantly.

It's amazing. What we can find on this on our

phones, I mean, it is in an instant.

I mean, so that's amazing, Yeah. And it's no wonder.

Anxieties through the roof. I mean, you were like for

myself, like you go through a time where you're so used to

just if, if you're not physically doing something,

you're scrolling, like you said, going through TikTok, going

through these reels, you're constantly doing something that

now it's to the point where it's like, well, if I do put

everything down and I stop, I just like you feel like you got

this ADDADHD because your brain is just so wired and so just

ready to go. And that's just not the way

you're supposed to be doing it. And then of course we want to

medicate it and all that, But it's like, that's where, you

know, they talk about fasting is not always just food.

It's just fast your social media fast faster, Facebook fast,

whatever it is that might be. If it takes more time than God,

it's. It's an idol.

You know, and if it's something that if you, if someone brings

up, it's like, it's what I, I say all the time.

If there's anything that, you know, if God says, Hey, I want

you to stop doing that cold Turkey.

And I put up a fight and I'm like, no, I don't want to do

that. Well, then that thing has become

more important than God. And that's where it's like I've

been trying to work on myself. Like I don't want to have

anything. That's like if he said I need

you to stop just. You're done with.

That and I put up a fight then that's that's something that I

definitely there's a reason why he's telling me to get rid of

it, you know, because it's just that's what leads to all those

things because not. Everything's a sin.

Some things are just to wait. And so sometimes the Lord's

like, hey, you need to lay that down so that I can you can run

this race, you know? And so that's very sometimes,

and that's hard. It goes back to submission,

right? Of my submitting my will to his

will, you know, And so it's where we start to disagree.

If God, I'm not, I don't want to do that, you know, Yeah, you

don't want to do that. But are you going to be

submitted to what you because I'm trying to get you somewhere,

Abraham. Didn't want to kill his son, you

know so. I'll.

I'll let you get a little personal here.

You don't have to if you don't want to, but you know you,

you're coming to this church, your passion, this church.

And I've seen through Facebook, because I'm friends with friends

with Monica and I'm friends with Cade, and I think it's super

cool to see. For for Kade.

And for the your kids, how involved they are.

I can see it through the Facebook stuff, but I see Kade's

preaching at some of it. And then I see that I was

telling Camo he's up there playing the guitar.

He's better than I am ever was. You know, Dylan's playing the

drums, like you said, like take, I'll say get, I want a response

for the pastor's helmet on, but put let's put our dad hat on.

And, and how does that feel to, to see your kids so invested and

so involved and knowing that they're, they're, they're in

truth, just like you are? Man, that is it.

It's such a such a great honor to see that my children are

walking in truth, you know, there's no greater joy.

The Bible says and know that your children walking through.

So they're very involved in a lot of a lot of that things we

do here and most of it's by choice.

I say that because Dylan helps with Kingdom kids on on

Wednesday nights and it's not really what he wants to do, but

it but you know, I've kind of hey, buddy ministry is about not

just about what we want to do. Sometimes it's about what needs

to be done. And so, but he's a good sport

about it most of the time. So, but man, just to see, to see

them be so involved in in everything.

And you know, when we came here, I was about 15 people and it was

hard. It was hard for our hard for our

kids, but to to see where the church is at now, where we're

going. I mean, we're not where we want

to be, but the Lord's done great things and we continue to see

the church grow and move forward.

And the room we're in right now used to be 1 giant room.

We had to add another classroom. So we divided it, put another

door in because we were out of out of Sunday school rooms.

So I said that just to the just for the fact that God is doing

great things, but I want to it's a lot of it's because my family,

my children especially bought in and said, Hey, we want to help

see the church grow. And so I'm thankful for that.

You know, I'm thankful and I pray, brother.

I believe it was for the Wayne Huntley said this one time he

said, I pray over our children, not just his children, but the

children is church. God give them gifts, talents,

abilities and expertise that honor heaven and horrify hell.

And so I pray that over my children, God, I want, God I

want, I pray that you'd give them gifts, talents, abilities

and expertise that honor heaven and horrify hell because I want

them to use those giftings and talents for the Kingdom of God.

I Dylan's a good drummer. Kate's a good plays guitar.

He's good at it. JC can sing and they got all

that from the mom and from the Lord, so OK, he's preaching.

I saw that and he'll be speaking so.

Like his dad, yeah, unfortunately I think he's long

winded like his dad. So, but, but I'm proud of them.

They they're doing a great job. And so they're they're they're a

huge part of what's happening here at Green Hill.

So I'm thankful for that. And so man, just as just as

pastor, I don't want to do it without him as dad.

I'm super excited that they're they're wanting to give their

talents to the Kingdom of God. And I I so seven years of life,

Kate, had to have been a lot of funny, interesting things that

happened outside of the baptismal tank.

Any of that come to mind off top of your head?

Oh my. See, things I think about was

like when we went to, like when Colby and I went to because of

times you introduced us to the people's Elbow, OK.

I forgot about that. That's good.

That's so good, man. We had a lot of great times,

man, a lot of good stuff. I I remember, you know, I

remember with with the young people, all the youth group, you

guys would wait till it gets dark outside.

We play move over. May I remember that, you know,

instead of playing hide and go seek, you play move over.

And I remember one time I went and hid and the behind Rd. old

railroad bed, the building, we had an old church sign that

leaned up and I climbed behind that church sign.

I'm a big guy, so get behind there was difficult, but but I

got behind that church sign and I could hear you guys coming

around and I was sitting back there.

I'm just, I'm I'm trying not to laugh out loud, you know,

cables. Where did the Shane go?

Where's he at? We can't find him anywhere.

And I'm just like, man, I'm, you know, because it's dark back

there. So, so it was great.

So we have a lot of great memories.

You know, I'm in camouflage egg hunts at night, you know, and so

with running over the eggs in. The morning 0.

Yeah. So, you know, lot lot of great

lot of great memories. We had a great time.

I do remember we were going to youth Congress one time and

Jason Brister rear into the church.

I remember that. I remember that was to what?

Was that that wasn't the Oklahoma, That was the was that

the Louisville or Oklahoma? Louisville, I think.

It was Louisville, I think. It was my first one because I

remember just like we're in the van and we're all like falling

asleep and next thing I know it's just like bang.

I was like, whoa. I think he got out and said,

yeah, it was, it was either hit you or have somebody hit him in

the back. He's like, I'd rather barely did

anything to the van, but that was funny.

So there's a lot of things, man, a lot of great memories, you

know, man, I know, you know, brother Mullins has since went

on to his reward, but I remember a lot of times his cabin, you

know, just just hanging out the guys up there and doing a lot of

stuff. And, and so we man, we had great

memories. And then the then the spiritual

side of that is man, so many great memories of people get in

the Holy Ghost to church growing, you know, God just

working different miracles. And so thankful for that.

You know, I'm thankful for the experience of getting me a life

gate for 7 1/2 years. So yeah, there was.

I might cut this out, I don't know, but there was one service

we had. I'll never forget it.

And the reason why I bring this up now is because you were a

heavy part of it. Not that you I don't think you

were preaching. It was, it was, it was brother

Penny was preaching, but man, it was a, it was a service that was

so. I mean, the presence of God was

so thick and I was a teenager and, and new to it, but man, I,

it was the first time that ever. It was just in the middle of

preaching. You just, nobody could, nobody

could focus or anything. And, and you got up and you

started speaking in tongues and it was like, there's something

different about this. And then brother Penny went on

to give the interpretation. I don't know if you remember the

service or not, but that was like I, that was one of those

service. I tell my dad all the time.

I said that was the service. That was a service where I was

like, Holy Ghost aside, all that stuff aside, that was like, this

is what it must have been like in acts.

And I'm just like that. That was that was a service.

I'll never forget that. I forget what he was speaking

on, but I just remembered the end of it and I was like wow.

Man, those are some amazing times when God speaks to his

people through the through the gifts.

And so I think that's the reason why we are to, you know, desire,

earnestly desire those gifts because I think God can speak a

word to us directly through those things and so are through

those gifts. So we need, we need those

operating in the church. And so I don't remember exactly

the service you're talking about, but I have been in

several services where the Lord would show up like that and, and

speak and, and if people just respond when he's, when he

speaks, it's amazing what happens, you know, so.

I guess, you know, being yourself, being how, how do you,

how do you kind of yield to the presence of the Lord whenever

you feel like? Because some people really

struggle to kind of like get past that.

Is this just me thinking that or is God really moving on me to do

something that might be out of character?

You know what I mean? Yeah.

And so, man, I'll be honest with you, it's like, it's like

learning to walk. I mean, it's you grow into it.

The first time I was ever used in the gifts of tongues or

interpretation of tongues, man, I was nervous as a cat on a hot

tin roof, you know, so I was, I mean, I, you know, because

you're always struggling with that.

OK, is this me or is it God, you know, and so you're, you're

dealing with, with all that, all that because you don't want to

get in the flesh. You don't want to say they'll

saith the Lord and it really be dominoes.

You know what I'm saying? You know, so, so you have to you

know, and, and being sensitive that goes back to your prayer

life, learning to hear the voice of God, which is so important

because like I made mention earlier, there's only one time

God's ever spoke to me audible, but he spoke to me many times.

It's just learning to hear the voice of God and learning what

God sounds like to you. And so, but when those gifts of

the Spirit, when they start operating, man, my experience

is, is it sometimes God will give me the first word of an

interpretation and I, I may not know anything that's going to be

said after that. But if I, if I just yield myself

and open my mouth to that first word, man, the Holy Ghost just

starts, you know, it's the same way.

And so when the gifts of tongues, the gift of tongues,

when I'm, the times I've been used in the gift of tongues, it,

it's usually an overwhelming presence of God.

And it's man. I just, I feel it like I feel

man, this is, this is coming. I can feel it like it's

building, like maybe it's during the message, you know, I know

that man God's God's God's about to give us a word, you know, and

so I can feel it. And then it's just simply

responding, you know, surrendering.

It's an OK God, go ahead. And then when that comes, when

that comes up on you, man, open your mouth and let that out.

Nine times out of 10, there's usually a holy hush that falls

over the congregation, you know. And so when that hush falls over

the congregation, the Lord begins to speak.

And then obviously you're, you're speaking in other

tongues. So you don't, you don't know

what you're saying. But then there have been times

when you got to wait for the interpretation, you know, And so

sometimes, sometimes the interpretation comes almost

immediately. And sometimes they're just like,

OK, we're having to, we're waiting here.

We're waiting here to see what God, I was in the service couple

weeks ago, Tongues, tongues went forth and, and man, it's just

like 5 minutes of just, we're just waiting, we're just

waiting. But I knew God was about to

speak. You could just feel it in the

air. And so my encouragement to

people are #1 is to, to ask God or I would I want to be used in

those gifts, You know. And so we need, we need people

in the body of Christ because we need the gifts, the gifts

operating. And so ask the Lord desire,

earnestly desire those gifts and, and ask God for those.

And then when the opportunity comes and you feel the Lord

leading you, the devil is not going to tell you to get up and,

and, and give tongues and interpretation.

You know what I'm saying? Now you're flesh if you're not

careful, if you're flesh, especially if you're somebody

that wants the spotlight, you know, you have to be real

careful with that. But but man, it's such a, it's

such a humbling thing to think that God is going to somehow use

my mouth, my voice to speak directly to us.

And so man, just honestly desire those gifts.

Learn to yield to it. It's like I said, it's like

walking. You're going, you may stumble

and fall, but man, get back up and try again the next time at

the Lord's leading, you know, so so.

Obviously, with all that being said, you would, you would.

I don't want to say scoff, but you would.

You know, when when people try to say that the the gifts don't

happen anymore, tongues don't happen anymore?

That's just not a thing. Obviously from all the

experiences you've had, you can confidently say they do.

Yeah. We can sit down and argue

theology, but you can't argue. Again, you can't argue with my

experience. I've seen it happen too many

times. I've been in too many of those

services. I've heard the voice of God

speak through people multiple times.

We when we were when we were getting ready to leave Life

Gate, we were starting to evangelize, going to start to

evangelize. There was a there was a man

preaching as used in the gifts. I never met him before.

He didn't know me from Adam's house cat.

You know, he had no clue who we were.

We went to service that night. He preached, did a wonderful

job. And afterwards during the altar

service, he came to me, begin to talk to me and said, I feel like

the Lord's got a, got a word for you tonight and begin to speak.

And so he was. He was operating in the gifts of

knowledge, wisdom, prophecy, I believe.

And, and so he began to say things to to myself and to

Monica that he didn't know, had no way of knowing, never met

him. He didn't know anything about

us. But it was a confirmation that

that it was time for us to start evangelizing.

And so again, he didn't know that he had no clue.

He didn't know who he were. And then that same service, one

thing that impressed me about this particular man was that

Jaycee was, I don't know, she was 12 maybe at the time or

something like that. He asked me, says that your

daughter, she was sitting behind, behind me.

And I said, yes. He said, I feel like the Lord's

got a word for her. He said, but you're her

spiritual covering at would you come with me?

And so the gifts of the Spirit are never going to get out of

alignment with your spiritual authority and spiritual

covering. So just throw that in for good

measure. But this, this man begin to

minister to JC and begin to tell her some things that he had no

way of knowing man. And I told her when we got in

the car that I said you need to open your Bible right now and

you take a pen out, you need to write in the front cover what he

told you because it is a word for you for the next few years.

And it was man, it just, I mean, it was so powerful.

So you come too late to tell me the gifts of the Spirit don't

operate. I mean, you just, I mean, man,

people that argue with that can take a scripture, you know, and,

and I don't have time to get into that, but you know, like

they can take a scripture and and say, you know, that when

that which is perfect is come, you know, it's going to be done

away. Here's the thing, man, you've

just come too late to tell me that all these gifts are not

still operating. I've seen it happen.

I've been in those services, I've been used in those gifts.

And so I know what happens that's like miracles and I know

that happened. Then I could I got a list of

miracles. I could tell you.

I mean, it's just it's, it's amazing so.

Not to put you on the spot here and.

But. There's a lot of people who who

talk about, take the First Corinthians, you know, argument

basically when it talks about the gifts of the Spirit, and

they kind of try to contextualize the Acts 238

experience into the gifts experience.

You know what I mean? What would you say from your

experience is the difference between when the gifts of tongue

is operating versus that initial sign of the Holy Ghost that

people experience? You know what I mean?

Yeah. So the gifts.

Of tongues if they're operating there's going to be an

interpretation and so the the initial evidence of receiving

the baptism of the Holy Ghost with with tongues.

We find that Acts chapter 2 verse one through 4.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

You know the Holy Ghost fell on them and they're appearing them

cloven tongues like as a fire. And so when we begin to when you

begin to study that out begin to think about that the the gift of

the Holy Ghost is clearly for everybody.

Not everybody will be used in the gift of tongues and

interpretation. I do think that the gift of

tongues and interpretation is used for special occasions when

the Lord has a direct word for us.

But again, we see people, I would love to say on a weekly

basis, but not on a weekly basis, but very often hear

filled with the Holy Ghost and the evidence of that is speaking

other tongues. I always tell everybody, tongues

is not the Holy Ghost. Tongues is the evidence of the

Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is simply the

Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ living inside of you.

And so how do we know it's living inside of you?

Well, there's going to be some, some evidence that's going to

come forth. That's the gift.

That's the gift of tongues or tongues as the initial evidence

of speaking in, in ER, as initial evidence of receiving

the Holy Ghost. But then the gift of tongues

that they they operate in a different manner.

Most the time. Most of the time the gift of

tongues happens through my experience is they happen

through more seasoned Saints of God.

And so because they've learned to yield to that and and to

follow. But there if it is the gift of

tongues, there will be an interpretation of tongues.

And so those things operate in tandem.

They work together where if we may walk into service tomorrow

and we may have many people speaking in tongues and we

should Paul even said I speak in tongues more than you all, you

know, and he and so he's not telling us, don't speak in

tongues. He tell us, Hey, we need to do

that, you know, but then he goes on tells us, you know, but not

only do I speak in tongues, but you also need to be able to pray

in English and you know, and have a conversation with the

Lord, you know, so there's AI mean that's a whole study we

could get into. You would take longer than you

guys, but there's, I mean definitely, definitely there's a

difference in the initial evidence of receiving the Holy

Ghost and then in the the operation of the spiritual

gifts. While on that subject, just

because we're on that subject and I, I hope nobody listens to

this and thinks all he's talking about me.

But you know, there are some people who, and this was me

before I got the Holy Ghost. But you, you know, you're, it's,

you feel like it's hard. Not everybody gets the Holy

Ghost the first time they go to the altar and lift their hands.

And sometimes it, it takes a while and there's things that

you got to go through mentally or whatever the case may be.

So you know, what would be, I guess it would be give us some

encouragement on someone who's maybe struggling with the idea

of I'm trying to get the Holy Ghost.

I just haven't gotten it. What's you know, some people get

discouraged by that. What would be some encouragement

on that front from your experience for people who might

be dealing with something like that?

Seek. God don't seek tongues.

That's good. So because I think sometimes

we're so caught up in I've got to speak in tongues, I've got to

speak in tongues. That's how I know I get the Holy

Ghost. And that is true.

But here's the thing, you seek the presence of God.

When you seek the presence of God, you're seeking the Holy

Ghost. That is what it is.

It's the Holy Spirit, it's the presence of God.

So when you seek him, seek his face, just God, whatever I got

to do to be close to you. And then I'll be honest with

you. Sometimes there is a tearing up,

you know, a lingering. It takes some people, man, they

get the Holy Ghost just like that.

Some people it's some people it, it just takes a while.

I mean, they have a maybe they're, maybe they're shy or

backwards or intimidated or, and let's be honest, we don't make

it easy sometimes, you know, an Apostolic alter service.

And when we evangelize, we taught altar workers seminars.

And so when, when you know, and I try to tell them one of the

most chaotic places in the world is an Apostolic altar service,

right? Because what happens is somebody

gets up there and they start praying and 15 people get around

them and 15 people are hollering, you know, 15

different things. Let go hold on, you know, you

know, shout Hallelujah, you know, And So what I what we did

when we when we evangelize and we tried to we we taught these

altar works and we try to teach people.

Hey, you don't take all that man, it don't take all that.

And so one person needs to be helping give instructions.

Now let me just clear the air right here.

You can't teach anybody speak in tongues.

That's foolishness, right. The Bible clearly tells us that

the spirit gave the utterance the Spirit gave the ability.

I'm not teaching anybody, but I can't help them to know how to

entertain the presence of God and move into that.

I'll be honest with you, one of the greatest tools we had when

when we were on the on the evangelistic field and even in

our church today is my wife. She is uniquely gifted to pray

people through the Holy Ghost. Some people are just that way.

They know what to say, how to say it.

We were, I'll give you this illustration and I'll go back,

but a couple weeks ago we were preaching in Lanette, Alabama

for Brother Gary Mcneely and they have some Hispanic people

in their congregation. Well, I've never felt more

unequipped. I mean, I wish I could speak

Spanish, but so we're we're trying to pray the pray with

these people, but we're having to pray through an interpreter,

right. So we're having to trying to

help them through an interpreter.

So, but man, my wife is so you so gifted, so talented in that

she's working through an interpreter.

A lady in after service in the pastor's office, My wife gets in

there, sits down beside her and she's working through an

interpreter. Man, 10 minutes.

This lady's received the gift of the Holy Ghost, man, You know,

it's just amazing some people are gifted to do that.

And so I'm thankful for that. But the key I think The thing

is, is that we seek him. We don't see tongues.

And so repentance, you're not going to get the Holy Ghost if

you don't repent, right? And you're not going to get the

Holy Ghost if you don't open your mouth and speak.

You can't speak in tongues if you don't open your mouth,

right? So if you're sitting there with

y'all, you know, with your mouth closed, you got to say something

in order for the Lord to take control and to speak through

this most unruly member you know.

And so and so the only way you're going to do that is if

you open your mouth. So a lot of times if I was

praying with Cameron to get the Holy Ghost, I would say,

Cameron, open your mouth and say, I love you, Jesus.

Don't whisper. You ain't got to yell it, but

don't whisper just but you need to be audible.

And so if you're not audible, then we don't then we then then

God's not going to be able to speak through you, right?

So open your mouth, say Hallelujah, say Jesus, I love

you. And so when you do that, after

we've repented, then we begin to praise God and we begin to

praise God. We know that God inhabits,

dwells, lives in the presence of his people.

So when we begin to praise him, but some people are quiet,

they're intimidated. And so they have a problem

opening their mouth and saying something.

Well, it's very hard to receive the Holy Ghost.

People open your mouth. And so that's one of the

hindrances. Another hindrance would be if if

they're paying attention to everybody around them instead of

focusing on God. And so they're, they're trying

to listen to 15 people. And, and, and that's the reason

why I tell people if, if we're praying in the office with

somebody, a lot of times I'll tell them, Hey, hold on a

minute, you guys begin to worship, right?

Everybody worship and let, let me give some instructions or let

my wife give some instructions. And then what we'll do as we

move into that realm of worship, God's presence is going to

manifest itself. And here's the thing, I think

sometimes we think is apostolics, if if we slow down

and give instructions, we're going to lose the Spirit.

Well, God wants them to have the Holy Ghost more than you want

them to have the Holy Ghost. So you're not going to lose the

Spirit. The Spirit's still going to be

there. The Spirit of God's still going

to be there. So sometimes if they're going

1,000,000 miles in the wrong direction, you need to stop them

and turn them around. Yeah.

So because I've heard people that get in a such a repetitive

motion of repenting, God, I'm sorry, God, I'm sorry, God, I'm

sorry, God, I'm sorry, God, I'm sorry.

And, and, and we need to repent, right?

That's part of it. But there comes a point where

you need to stop repenting and start worshipping.

So if you'll start worshipping man, the Spirit of God then can

come in. And so it's just a matter of us

teaching, training, coaching, helping people, and that's just.

Understanding that when you repent it, that's it's it's done

right, It's a. Trust that's.

Right it. Sounds like there's also on the

on the Saints themselves, a discipline and a submission to

the man of God that's over that church, but also just in your

own self to know, you know, hey, if there's two or three people

praying over this person, I don't need to go and get

involved unless obviously if God is really impressing on you to

go in to go and pray for him. But you know, it takes some

discipline to just not flood each person that comes up there

because sometimes that can scare him off.

Sure. So let me tell you the story.

So years ago we were evangelizing, I was preaching in

the church North SE and West of here.

And we were, I had been preaching, we got to the altar

call and I had asked anybody that needed the Holy Ghost to

come forward. And so we had, I don't know,

four or five people lined up, needed the Holy Ghost.

And I was giving instructions about ready to start praying for

people and all of a sudden around from behind me comes this

hand like he's this person's fixing to lay their hand on.

And I'm like, we're not there yet.

I didn't know who it was. I was not paying a bit of

attention who was behind me. I was reached over and catch and

I said not yet. And I never even turned around.

Not yet, right. And so, because I knew where I

was giving instructions, we were building.

We were people were about to get totally ghost and so and then so

we went on we pray if we have four or five, get the Holy Ghost

that night. Powerful move of the Holy Ghost.

And then I realized it was the pastor that was about to lay

hands on him and so I went to him afterwards.

I said, pastor, I said, I want you to forgive me.

I didn't realize that was you. He said, no, I was wrong.

You were right. You were giving instructions.

I was about to step out of line. You needed you needed to finish

doing what you're doing. So, but me as an evangelist, I,

I was submitted to that man and went to him afterwards to say,

hey, I, you know, I so, but I'm afraid what would happen was

because I was still trying to give instructions, that person

may not have received the Holy Ghost that night because they

may not have received what they, the instructions they needed

right there. We got distracted.

So it was just the Lord that worked it out.

But man giving instructions, so important people do need support

when they're on in the altar. We have this we have this

misconceived idea in Pentecost that they got to be standing up

with their hands lifted. The Bible said the Holy Ghost

fell on while they were sitting. And so man, we've had people get

the Holy Ghost sitting in chairs in the altar.

I know the first person I ever heard say that was Brother Billy

Cole. And when he when he made that

statement, it was like, man, you could feel everybody.

And you know, Oh my Lord, you know, I can't do it that way.

But, and so, but just the, just the fact that we have these

misconceived ideas of man, this is how somebody's got to receive

the, they got to have their hands lifted, they got to be

crying. They got to be, you know, and,

and really, there's so many different ways people respond in

different ways. But here's the great thing about

the presence of God. It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter as long as you're surrendered and he'll

fill you with the Holy Ghost. And a lot of people need to be

baptized first too, because they carry such a weight, you know,

and so there's a reason why it's repent water baptism in Jesus

name and then filling of the Holy Ghost.

I know sometimes that's reversed in scripture.

You get the Holy Ghost, then you then you're baptized.

But some people really do need to be in the water before they

get the holiest. We've had many, many get the

Holy Ghost in the water here because it does something to

them. It lets them know and I'm clean

because a lot of times God may have forgiven them, but they may

not have forgiven their self. But when they come out of that

water after the Jesus name has been applied to him, it just.

I mean, it leaves a bird. Yeah, but it's also like I.

Would also imagine it's like a signal of submission and

obedience, you know, to to to the Lord to say, you know, I

mean this. I mean this, this is serious.

To me, and sometimes you can think it in your head that

you're serious about it, but sometimes you have to act it out

and prove it. So I I would I would throw that

in there. I was just going to say thank

you so much for for being with us today and that what we've

been talking about just the the wisdom you shared.

Is there anything else that you would like to any other

encouragements or anything like that you would like to share

with us before we kind of conclude may do we?

Have just a couple of minutes. I want to tell you, I want to

tell you a couple miracles that's happened since we've been

here. That's OK.

Let's do it. So just want to build faith and

I'll try to hurry. No, no.

No, no, no, you have so. So when we got here eight years

ago, church was, you know, I've been in several years of

decline. The Lord's blessed us and, and,

and God helped us turn it around.

So I'm and I'm thankful this is one of the oldest churches in

the district. This church was affiliated in

1949. So this church is 76 years old.

So I'm thankful for every elder that went before me that laid

groundwork to get us where we are.

You last year after District Conference tell you 2 miracles

that happened last year after District conference.

Brother Philip Harrelson was on his way.

We're going to have service that Saturday night.

My wife was coming to the church Saturday afternoon to prepare

for service, music, all that kind of good stuff.

I get a phone call from from a number I do not know.

I answer the phone call that that my wife had been in a

wreck, that he had climbed into the vehicle with her because she

was, you know, had been in this wreck.

So she was on the way to church out here on the four lane.

Somebody had come across and T boned her in the in the South in

the driver's side. So I jump up some shoes on head

out this way. When I get here, when I get out

to the where the wreck happened, I get out of the vehicle

immediately. I'm I mean, I'm just overwhelmed

because they have a sheet, a white sheet pulled over my wife.

And so I'm, I mean, I'm just falling apart, man.

I'm thinking, Oh my Lord, this is the worst thing.

You know, my wife is as been killed in this automobile

accident. So immediately a fire volunteer

fireman came running to me. He told me, he said she's not,

she's not dead. We put the sheet over because

we're having to cut her out of the car and we wanted to make

sure she didn't get more glass and stuff on her.

So they took her out of the car, end up Med flighting her to

Huntsville. Several people showed up at the

hospital that night, but it's just a pen.

We're one of them, Brother, sister, Cheryl.

There was some more, I can't remember all of who all was

there, but anyway, man, we prayed and the Lord worked a

miracle. She she actually came home from

the hospital that night. That's amazing.

So I. Mean it went from the emotion of

Oh my goodness, the Lord, you know, the Lord has taken my wife

home, you know, through this automobile accident to she's

home. And so it's it's a what a

miracle. You know what a miracle so it

could have been, could have been much worse.

Let me give you a couple just very quickly, another couple

miracles. So several years ago when we

got, we'd probably been here three years or so, maybe 3 or 4.

The Lord started dealing with me about opening a recovery

ministry at our church. And so I didn't know what we

were doing. I had no clue.

I started looking around at other Apostolic.

Recovery houses, recovery ministries.

And so we started looking for a house to rent.

We, we, there was no house to be found and nobody wanted that in

their home, which is understandable.

But so we just started doing everything we could do.

We started setting up all, doing all of our legal stuff, all the

getting all the paperwork set up that we needed, even though we

didn't have a house. We just started working in

recovery. My wife started teaching Bible

studies at a local recovery house here.

We started seeing some of these ladies come to our church,

started getting baptized. And, and So what was happening

was they would come, they get the Holy Ghost or they would

feel the presence of God and then they wouldn't show back up.

And I'm like, OK, we, we've got to have a recovery house because

if you're in our recovery house, then you have, you're required

to come to church, right? You're here Sunday morning,

you're here Wednesday night, you're here for any special

services, anything else we got going on, you're required to be

here. So it starts teaching

faithfulness and, and it requires them to stay in that,

you know, in the presence of God, which allows the presence

of God to work on them. So, and the Lord helps them

through through many things. So, so man, we have been looking

for a house, couldn't find a house.

We finally found a house not too far from here that the family

was willing to allow us to rent that house and they knew what

we're going to do. So we said, oh man, that's

great. So we signed a lease on the

House, signed a lease on the House, and then like 2 weeks,

no, no, no, no. The week before we were going to

open, we receive a call from the state fire Marshall.

State Fire Marshall says, I hear you're opening recovery house in

the area. You can't do that until we come

out and inspected it. And I can go ahead and tell you

you're going to need a sprinkler system put in that house.

Well, we knew that there are many recovery houses in our area

that do not have sprinklers. We didn't bring that up.

We just said, OK, so he came out inspected, said you got to have

a life safety plan, which is, you know, exit signs of, you

know, evacuation routes, all this kind of stuff.

And you got to have a sprinkler system.

So we reached out to a a local licensed architect with state.

This licensed architect had to drop a life safety plan, which

includes evacuation routes, all the square footage of the house,

all this kind of stuff. Now think about this.

We're in a rental house and they're going to require us to

put a sprinkler system in. Keep that in the back of your

mind. So we we end up talking to this

licensed engineer. We show her, she comes out, sees

the house, she buys into the program.

She's like, oh man, we need this in our area.

I believe in what you're doing almost.

We're going to cover the cost of your life.

Safe, safe. Wow.

We're not going to charge you anything.

Wow, OK, great. So wonderful.

So we got the life safety plan that was a few $1000 my car, our

chiropractor, because my wife was having trouble from the

wreck. She was having to go to the

chiropractor on a very regular basis.

We became good friends with a chiropractor and the

chiropractor knew about us wanting to open our recovery

house. He also through conversations,

you know, while he's cracking your neck, you know, he's, he's,

we're talking to him and, and we let him know that, hey, we got

to have a sprinkler system. He's so and I, I'm in, I'm in a

small group. They don't get our church, but,

he said. I'm in a small group with a guy

that owns Global Fire. Here in our.

Here in our area. So he said I'm going to put you

in contact with him. So him and my wife got in

contact. He brought himself and his

management team, came out, toured the house, said man, we

love what y'all are doing. We want to be a part of it.

What's the estimate going to cost us?

What's going to cost you $34,000 sprinkler system in the house?

We're thinking, OK, we're leasing a house, we're going to

put a $34,000 sprinkler system in.

I'm not even sure that the homeowner would want us to allow

us to put a sprinkler system in the house.

So we started talking to the homeowner.

Hey, would you, would you let us do?

Because we were a new entity, our recovery house, new entity,

there was not enough financial history to be able to finance

the house. So I'm trying to make a Long

story short. No, no, no, no.

So as much keep it going, so we we.

We start talking to homeowner. Would you do a two year lease to

own and then after two years we got enough financials we can go

to the bank and borrow the money.

Kemp first thought he's going to say yes.

Came back, said no, I don't want to do that out, but I will sell

the house out right to you. OK, what do we do?

OK, so now we got to have we got to have a down payment, right?

A down payment on the House and a $34,000 sprinkler system.

Wow. OK, Lord, you directed us into

this. We don't have that kind of money

on hand to do this. What it what do you want us to

do? So we started having

conversations with the man that owns Global Fire.

He come back and he said, you know, it's $34,000, but I think

I can do it for 27. Then he comes back and said, we,

I've worked with some of our vendors.

I think I can do it for 20. Then he comes back and he said

I've, I've, I've got it down some more.

I think I can do it for 14. Then he comes back again and

says, hey, I think I've got it down to $8000.

Wow. I'm like, man, that's awesome.

So, so we're thinking. And then the day they finished

the sprinkler system, he tells us we work with our vendors.

All we've been out is our labor and we're going to cover the

labor. Thank you Jesus.

Completely free. $34,000 Sprinkler system Thank you

Jesus. All right.

So in the meantime, we are trying to purchase this piece of

that this house, right? We're trying to purchase this

house. We needed almost $40,000 down

payment for the house, right? For the house and for the first

year's home owner and liability insurance.

So talking like, OK, Lord, what what we going to do?

How we going to get this right? And so we met with a local