Oliver North: True Freedom

Good evening. Welcome to Voice in the Wilderness. I'm Don Noble at Pure

Heart Ministries, and I welcome you today with exceedingly abundantly and overflowing joy.

Today is July first, and in a few days we are going to be

celebrating one of the great and grand, glorious holidays of the year. Yes,

July fourth, Independence Day. I love it. I've always loved it,

I always will. I'm a true patriot, and I hope you are

too. I have a little special treat I'm reading from Oliver North's book titled

True Freedom, The Liberating Power of Prayer and Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North is a

best selling author, a syndicated columnist, and he was the host of Fox

News Channel's War Stories. I don't know if you ever got to listen to

those It ended in twenty sixteen. I did. I loved it. I

like war stories. He wrote a novel, Mission Compromised, and it won

a Gold Medallion Award in two thousand and three. Lieutenant Colonel North served twenty

two years as a US Marine, earning the Silver Star, the Bronze Star

for valor, and two Purple Hearts for wounds in combat. But I bet

most of you know him because of the Iran Contra affair, and at that

time, Allie North was on the National Security Council, he was a staff

member, and as you know, that was a political scandal, big political

scandal in the Ronald Reagan administration, and it involved the illegal sale of weapons

to the Cohomeni regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran to encourage the release of

America hostages then held in Lebanon. And then North formulated the second part of

the plan, which was to divert the proceeds from the arms sales to support

the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. Now, I don't know all the politics in

that, and I don't know all the truth in all of that. I

just know that Oliver North is a very godly man. You know, a

lot of times we don't know all the ins and outs of all that government

stuff. So I'll leave that there, But I'm going to share the opening

story of this book that he wrote, and the title of this chapter is

called The Proven Pathway to Freedom. I think that's appropriate considering that fourth of

July is just around the corner, and that's what we're all thinking about at

least I am. Now next week I will let you know that I'm going

to be doing part three of an evil, wicked plan. But I wanted

to save that for them because July fourth is almost here. Oliver North writes

a little a little ditty in here from Saint Augustine of Hippo, and Saint

Augustine writes this. He says, Lord, I seek you with all my

heart, with all the strength you have given me, I long to understand

that which I believe you created me in order to find you. You gave

me strength to seek you. My strength and my weakness are in your hands.

Preserve my strength and help my weakness. When you have already opened the

door, let me come in where it is shut open at my knocking.

Now I'm gonna go ahead and read chapter one, and I'm just saying,

you know, I really hope you enjoy this, because I learned a lot

about a man that if I listened only to the media, I would and

actually did believe this. Thought he was a horrible guy. I thought he

was a bad guy. I mean, that's that's how That's how powerful media

is. It can it can create people into being something that they're not.

But this little book is so powerful that this is the true Oliver North,

and he writes there I lay writhing in the North Carolina sand I could not

feel my legs. Piercing pain gripped my back as though someone had skewered me

with a railroad spike. How could this happen? Now? Of all times?

I wanted a medic and some quick relief, But God was about to

give me something better. In my pain, fogged panic, I had no

way of knowing that my whole life would turn on this moment. God has

protected and blessed me all my life, but for more than thirty years I

failed to acknowledge his active personal interest. Through all these years, he patiently

coaxed me toward the path to true freedom. I can see that now,

but I persisted in blundering down my own path in determined ignorance. As a

child growing up in the Catholic Church, I never doubted God's existence, and

I had learned to respect him deeply from a distance. Years later, God

showed me that he was closer to me than I was willing to admit.

My friends and I were driving through heavy snow late at night on a weekend

ski trip, It was nineteen sixty four, my first year at the Naval

Academy. Everyone had fallen asleep, including the driver. I jerked awake just

in time to see the headlights of the oncoming truck. Then we hit.

The carnage was terrible. One of my friends was killed and the other three

were badly mangled. In comparison, my injuries were relatively minimal. Head injuries,

crushed vertebrae in my lower spine, broken nose, broken jaw, broken

leg, and one damaged knee. But my surgeries and recovery kept me down

four months. I fought my way back sure I gave God his credit.

During my stay at the Naval hospital, I made it my daily habit to

wheel into the hospital chapel to pray, and God healed me so completely that

four years later I won the Brigade boxing championship. But my relationship with God

was still one sided. And I sent up my requests and he took care

of me. I simply wasn't listening to what he was trying to tell me.

See, prayer is like a two way radio, which is designed both

to transmit and receive. But my radio was stuck on transmit. I thought

more than anything else, that my own dogged persistence had brought me back to

health and allowed me to finish my academy training. I was determined to become

a marine, and I was sure there was no obstacle that was insurmountable.

God stuck by me through my year in Vietnam as I patrolled the so called

demilitarized zone. On several occasions, men standing right next to me were killed

while I was either untouched or back in action. In very short order,

God also saved me from another kind of disaster. In my zealous commitment to

the Marine Corps, I almost threw away two of his greatest gifts to me,

my marriage and my family. In the early nineteen seventies, I found

myself doing what I enjoyed more than anything else, training marines in Okinawa.

When I wrote to my wife Betsy that I would be missing my second Christmas

in a row with her and the kids, she took longer than usual to

respond. In her next letter, she wrote, I've had enough. I

want a divorce. Here's the name of my attorney, who I tried to

tell myself that I didn't care, that my work was the only true important

priority, but the honest part of me, the part that hurts so desperately,

wouldn't by it. The internal struggle took its toll. I ended up

in the hospital, my exhausted body racked with bronchitis, and my tormented spirit

mired in clinical depression. I reluctantly submitted to psychiatric care and then marriage counseling,

gradually recovering and ultimately reconciling with Betsy. But even through those excruciating days,

I still imagined that my progress and my healing were the results of my

own hard work. One early promotion followed another only because I was a good

officer, or so I thought, all the while God was preparing my wake

up call. In nineteen seventy eight, I had known Lieutenant Colonel John Grynold's

for about three years. He was on the fast track through the ranks,

top of his class at West Point, and highly decorated from his two tours

of duty in Vietnam. He had gone on to become a Rhodes scholar and

White House Fellow, and to earn a Harvard MBA. Oh, and there

was one other characteristic that set the Greynaalds apart from the rest. He was

one of those born again Christians, whatever that meant. Along with all the

usual training and administrative manuals on his desk, he kept a Bible right there

in plain sight, and he read it. Grnald's was assigned as a battalion

commander to the second Marine Day Division based at Camp La June, and he

honored me by asking me to come along as his operations officer. I was

happy to hitch my wagon to his rapidly rising star. In my new role,

I was third in command, responsible for the training and preparation of a

two thousand man unit for deployment to the Mediterranean. One morning, about two

weeks before we were due to deploy, our battalion was conducting a training exercise.

I had just adjusted the antenna the antenna on an armored amphibious vehicle,

and spurning the ladder on the side, jumped to the ground. Uugh,

big mistake. Instant memories of the nineteen sixty four car accident f lashed through

my pain racked mind. I had reinjured my back in exactly the same place.

Aside from the wish for unconsciousness, my one overriding thought was I just

blew my chance to deploy with these men. I knew, from having experienced

a similar re injury in a nineteen seventy three parachute accident, that I was

due for at least two weeks of hospitalization and bed rest. I lay writhing

on the ground, couldn't fill my legs, lost control of my bladder,

and before a medic could arrive, John Greynold's showed up. Next thing I

knew, he was putting his hands on my legs and saying, I'm going

to pray for you. Pray. I thought, I'm lying here in agony

and you want to pray. But what I said aloud was, uh,

colonel, don't you think we could just do this the usual way, you

know, like get the helicopter, go to the hospital. But Grnald's ignored

me. He called out, Lord Jesus Christ, you are the great physician.

Heal this man. In that very instant, the pain disappeared. Soon

the feeling returned to my legs. When I was ready, Grynald's helped me

to my feet. Astonished, I came out with one of the most inane

utterances of my life. I said, thank you, sir, at that

grind Y All grabbed me by the jacket pulled me up to his face.

Don't thank me, he said, Thank your Lord and Savior. He is

the great physician. You have to turn to him. That incident was the

two by four God used to break through my thick scaled resistance. I had

it in my head the freedom meant taking care of myself, forging my own

path through the jungle of life's challenges. I knew that God was there to

help, but I expected him to follow my lead. What I came to

realize was He had been leading all along, and that I had not done

well following. I had been placing my faith in myself, yet He had

been telling me over and over, You'll only be truly free when you know

and trust me. This realization profoundly humbled me. During the six months of

our Mediterranean deployment, I participated in Bible studies with Grynold's and managed to read

the Bible cover to cover. I learned that I had known a lot about

God, but I had not known him personally. I had sent a lot

of orders in his direction, and he even deigned to obey somehat some of

them. But I had been living in servitude to myself. Now I was

discovering true freedom, living as I was designed to live in relationship with God.

I had grown up believing in the vending machine concept of prayer. You

put in your quarter and you get back your selection, all neatly wrapped and

sealed. But now I've come to understand that prayer is freely flowing, two

way conversation with a person. In fact, prayer doesn't even require words.

While excuse me, When I'm consciously with God, that's prayer. When I

look to Him with an attitude of dependence, that's prayer. Prayer at its

best involves intimate, heart to heart communion with God, with or without words.

My friend Jared came to this realization the day he slammed his thumb in

his card door. The door was locked, his right thumb was stuck,

sending frantic pain signals to his brain, and his car keys were in his

right pocket. As he gingerly reached across his body with his left hand digging

for his keys, he whispered this plea simply Lord. Both he and God

knew exactly what he needed at that moment. More words were superfluous. John

Bunyan, seventeenth century author of Pilgrim's Progress wrote, the best prayers have often

more groans than words. Closely related to prayer is the concept of faith,

a concept that is widely misunderstood. Some people think faith is a power we

stir up within ourselves, and when we somehow muster enough of it, however

much enough is, God responds and answers our prayers. But according to the

Bible, faith is an attitude that acknowledged acknowledges my utter powerlessness, my need

to depend on God. John fifteen five, Second Corinthians twelve nine. Prayer

is the voice of faith and the pathway to true freedom. But that won't

make much sense unless we understand freedom, which can be conceived in a variety

of ways. There's the physical freedom that comes with a healthy body and independent

movement. There's political freedom, which is always a so much to me.

But we in the United States of America enjoy political freedom only because our nation's

founders had appropriated something even more basic, which for the purpose of this book

we will call true freedom. True freedom is the opposite of arrogant self determination.

It is submission to God's will. When I enthrone my own will and

pursue my own best, I severely limit myself. When I obey God,

I open myself to his unlimited blessing. Jesus himself said that if you obey

his teachings, then you will know the truth, and the truth will set

you free. John eight thirty two. How can you learn to trust God

enough to submit yourself to his will? Only by growing to know him?

Only by living life in conversation with him? Only through a life style of

prayer. Your creator and Lord wants to relate to you as friend and father.

He made you for one primary purpose, to live in intimate relationship with

him. When you fulfill that purpose, you find true freedom. Prayer makes

a difference inside us. Through prayer, our hearts and minds become attuned to

God's heart and mind, and we begin to think what he thinks and desire

what he desires. It's been said that if you've only seen an eagle in

a cage, you've never seen an eagle. An eagle was meant for the

wide skies and the cold winds of the heights. Just as the eagle was

meant to cast himself freely upon the wind, so we were meant to cast

ourselves on God, the mighty One, whose hand unrolled those skies like a

parchment. We were not designed to be enslaved to self, but to soar

freely according to His purpose and design. We are gods and only he,

only He can sustain our flight. Prayer Principle number one. Prayer liberates us

to live as we were designed, an intimate relationship with God. And so

that ends chapter one of the book True Freedom. And I tell you,

this man writes so much from the spirit. I mean, I was overwhelmed

looking at this book. It's funny. I've had this book for quite a

while, I mean quite a while, and I never opened it. And

I was thinking, hmm, for fourth of July, what do I want

to talk about? And then I found the book and I began looking at

the book and thinking, oh my goodness, this is it. I just

love you know. When he wrote I knew that God was there to help,

but expected him to follow my lead. What I came to realize was

that he had been leading all along, and that I had not done well

at following. I had been placing my faith in myself. Yet he had

been telling me over and over, You'll only be truly free when you know

and trust me. And that is the truth. That is such a truth

that you and I will only be truly free when we know and trust the

God of Heaven, the God of the universe, Jesus Christ, our Savior,

our healer, our friend. If you don't know Jesus, if you've

never ever made a decision to serve Christ or to know Christ as your friend

and savior, you can do that right now. Would you just pray this

prayer with me and just simply repeat after me from the bottom of your heart,

mean it with all of your heart. Just say, Jesus, I

want to know you today. I confess with my mouth that you are Lord,

and I believe in my heart God raised you from the dead. I

thank you that I've been washed by your blood and that all my sins are

forgiven. I thank you for the Cross. I thank you for what you

did for me, securing my eternal life with you. I thank you for

forgiving me of every sin. I thank you that I am clean now.

I want to serve you all the days of my life. I thank you

that I'm born again. Amen. If you prayed that prayer, would you

please email me at Dawn Dawn all lowercase Dawn at pure Heart dot today Dawn

at Pure Art Today and let me know that you prayed that prayer. I'd

love to send you something if you prayed that prayer. It's the most important

decision you've ever made in your entire life. I'll tell you that, Lieutenant

Colonel Olive North realize that this is a well decorated war soldier. But it

doesn't matter whether you're at the bottom of the totem pole or at the top

of the totem pole. You know at the cross we are all even,

and so we all need a savior. Amen. Well, I wish you

a safe and blessed great fourth of July. Enjoy your family, enjoy the

food, and remember why we are free. Amen. You can go to

www dot pureheart dot today and listen to this podcast again. You can download

the iHeartRadio app and listen twenty four to seven to the podcast. You would

go to Pure Heart Ministries podcast. You can email me at Dondawn at Purehart

dot today. And of course you can help support this ministry by sending a

check to Pure Heart Ministries PO Box eighty five, Valley Grove, West,

Virginia, two six six Oh. That's Pure Heart Ministries p O Box eighty

five Valley Grove, West, Virginia, two six o six. Oh,

please keep praying for me. I appreciate your prayers. Well, this is

Don Noble saying Shalom shalom, Peace be unto you. I'll see you next week