All right. So good to have you guys here today.
What a night last night with Adam and Tina Curry,
my wife and Ned, and we all went out for some
steaks and amazing conversations. So glad you
guys are here. Oh, my goodness. Revival in the
restaurant, Sopra's Grill in Bernie, Texas. And
we had such a good time, and I'm still buzzing
from it, actually. I had a hard time going to
sleep. Annette just conked right out. She's tired.
Same thing happened to Bev. She conks out. I'm
up with my eyes wide open. I almost felt like
I had a spiritual release. Oh, totally. I don't
know. Okay, Adam and I on the way back, Adam
sat in the front seat with me and Tina rode in
the back seat. So they're talking, we're talking.
Adam kept saying, there's something special about
Beverly. There is something on her. He said,
the Holy Spirit is all over her life right now.
And I'm like, I know. She had the, remember that
commercial, the high pro glow, you know, the
dog food commercial? You've got that glow. I
mean, literally the Holy Spirit. And it's really
cool. We were talking about how, and we'll get
into this in a minute, but, you know, this is
all just pre -show. But y 'all's perspective,
just hearing each of your perspective, y 'all
are coming at the same thing, the same experience,
which we'll get into. from a completely different
angle. And to hear both of you tell it and see
your visceral, physical reactions, it's beautiful.
It's a beautiful thing. So we'll get into that.
So I'm so glad you're here. Thanks for taking
time out of your extremely busy schedule to spend
a weekend with us. Anytime we can get to Fredericksburg,
Texas, we're going to move every mountain we
need to move to get here. Somebody's got to suffer
for Jesus, right? Somebody's got to suffer for
Jesus. That's what I say. We lived in Nashville
before. Somebody's got to suffer. And then we
live here. Somebody's got to suffer. Stop Hawaii.
I don't know. We'll see what happens. Let's go
ahead and get a word of prayer. Love to always
lift up our listeners, too, and those who are
watching and joining us online. So let's pray
together. Lord Jesus, Abba Father, you are so
good to us. You continually keep our minds blown
by your goodness, your mercy, your grace that
is so real, so true, so powerful. Father, you
know our heart and our desire to see faith, family,
and freedom exalted in our nation and across
the world. But Father, even more than that, to
see your kingdom expanded in our time, this sliver
of time that we get in this world. And however
long you tarry before coming back, we get an
opportunity to move the needle of the kingdom.
And so, Lord, we literally, we pledge our lives,
our fortunes, our sacred honor to this cause.
And that is the cause of truth and the cause
of the kingdom of God. Holy Spirit, we welcome
you into this conversation today. You would lead
us and guide us, would literally help us navigate
the conversation. We want to go where you want
to go. And we want to do the next thing you tell
us to do. So thank you for Steve and Bev getting
to be with us this weekend and getting to be
here today for this podcast. And for our listeners,
we want them to be encouraged. And they'll learn
how to live up in a down world, look up in a
down world, and learn up in a down world. They'll
look to you, the one true king. We say all these
things in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Thank you,
brother. Cause the last will be the first. Well,
we want to welcome you to Living Up in a Down
World. We are excited that you're here today.
Annette is not with me today. I promise she'll
be back. I don't know if I'll ever get her on
camera, but we'll get her back on the audio podcast
for sure. But she had another thing going today.
But I have some very special guests with us today.
And just two people who have become some of my
favorite human beings. And we have Steve and
Bev. Is it Bev or Beverly? I know it's Bev from
him, but I want to make sure we're not encroaching
on your... Okay, all right. Well, Steve and Beverly
Maxwell, we are so thrilled that you're here
today. I'm just honored that we get to sit at
this table and have a conversation about what
God's up to in the world. So welcome to Fredericksburg.
Thank you for welcoming us. We are excited to
be here with one of our favorite towns in all
the world. But same to you and your friendship
as God has put us together and we're developing
all sorts of cool stuff we're going to talk about
today. And so we're honored to be here. We truly
are honored to be here. There's a lot of things
happening right now. I mean, we get to do this
stuff and we get to do it together. What's exciting,
you know, I'm 63. I just turned 63 this year
and that's about to in another week. And at this
age in my life, in this stage, I'm more excited
about life than I've ever been. You know, I've
got friends who've gone into this stage of life.
We call it leveling up, level six, you know,
moving to 60. And they just start to coast towards
retirement. Retirement's not even in my vocabulary.
It's not even a biblical concept. And so let's
do this. How do you retire with everything that
God has given us and putting us here at this
time in our nation's history and world history?
I don't know. I don't know how you do that. And
why would you want to? Well, I turned 63. Or
am I 63? I can't remember. Well, you're born.
But I don't even have that thought, you know,
because we've got to keep moving forward. It's
an exciting time to do that. It is. There's so
many things. We all have our... fingers in a
lot of pies. I mean, not only am I involved in
the church world, but I'm involved in the carnivore
world, the health wellness world. I'm involved
in podcasts on that and speaking at events for
that. Then also, the Lord has opened doors for
me to be involved in Austin and our capital,
the state capital, and be connected there. I
was there this last week, got to pray to open
the Senate session, which is my third time to
do it. And this time I said, I'm praying in Jesus'
name, and if you don't want me to come back,
That's okay. I'll still pray outside, you know.
I understand. And they had no pushback, no problem.
And by the way, our Latunic governor, Dan Patrick,
he gave me the green light. He said, I want you
to pray. You pray like you pray. And so there
was a script, but I didn't have to stay on script.
Oh, absolutely. He's an ordained minister. He's
a fire. He's a firebrand for God. So we've got
great people in the Texas capital. I know in
Florida, the two last free states, right, in
the United States, but more coming online right
now. Did you know that I saw this just recently,
the Ten Commandments. As of a week and a half
ago, there were 12 states that have come online.
They're putting forth bills now to get the Ten
Commandments back in our schools, public schools.
Now 15 states have come online. It may be more
than that by now. Interesting you say that. We
were in some meetings this week in Houston with
Matt Staver, which Matt's a great attorney for
the freedom of faith and all that. But the Supreme
Court has had like three critical rulings in
the last couple of years that allows the church
and God's people to stand. for righteousness
in the community. And for example, the Ten Commandments,
that's all legal now. And so what he's saying
is, it's like we've been under this, you know,
when you buy, you have a dog and you got the
invisible fence thing. And we've been under this
window of time where we've been punished for
our faith. And now the Supreme Court's ruled,
no, you can go. Like the coach, Coach Kennedy,
we prayed on the field and they reversed all
that. Right story there. So what's happened is
the church is... God's people are just now becoming
alive again, but we still have that invisible
fence. Yeah. It's time to go on offense. There
you go. The kingdom of our enemy has been on
offense. It's time for the gates of hell shall
not prevail against us. We are to be on offense.
Absolutely. And it's all good. It's all good.
And for those that don't like it, they don't
like righteousness. We've got a problem. You
know what I mean? Wow. You want to do the right
thing in your communities, in your neighborhood.
and bring forth that righteousness. Absolutely.
That's why you're here. That's why you have a
church. Absolutely. And I want to ask you a question
along that line. I don't know how long ago it
was, but this began to get on top of you. You
begin to feel this, we've got to do something.
We can't just sit back and watch our nation slide
off the cliff. And then you and some other guys
got together and developed this amazing organization
that now we're thrilled to partner with you on
and do what we can to get you guys out there
even further. CDF, Citizens Defending Freedom.
Tell us a little bit about how that started and
came about. Exactly right. After the 2020 election,
first of all, I'm a business guy. I'm an entrepreneur.
My business partner is here in Texas. We spent
almost 10 years here in Texas. I was in the military
out here and got out of the military, and we
stayed a few more years. So Texas has always
had this connection with Texas. We love Texas,
but we moved back home back in 90. So we're busy
building businesses, but it's almost like it
didn't matter. Our generation, we've seen a lot
of good people. that were elected as our leaders
that did good things. But it just slowed the
progression down of sliding down this slope.
So when the wrong party got in that believed
in the wrong things, it just sped the process
up. Right people get in, it slowed it down a
little bit, but it still progressed downward.
You notice that? I did, absolutely. So that was
the backdrop. But then the 2020 election really,
okay, what happened here? This was unusual. And
just... God ordained several meetings there in
the next 60 days that really put us on this path.
And one of them was we met with Senator Ron Paul.
And in Mar -a -Lago, we were at a meeting down
there. Rand Paul, not Ron. Rand Paul. And after
about an hour and a half of talking to him, he
finally told us what we know today. You see the
Doge stuff today. He was already doing that.
Yes, he was. No one was listening. But he was
doing it. Exactly right. So he said, Steve, these
guys couldn't get a job as a janitor in most
places. He said, I can go back to Kentucky and
become a doctor and feed my family. These guys
can't. This is the best job they ever had. And
here's why. And so we've come out. He said, the
only way we're going to rebuild the country is
going to be a revival, a reformation. It's got
to start from the bottom up. There it is. So
that's what we went home with. And we're going,
oh, my gosh, how do we do that? Second big meeting
just a few weeks later with Mike Ferris. Mike
was running Alliance Defending Freedom. They'd
been in this fight for a long time. For those
that don't know Mike, he got homeschooling legalized
in all 50 states. He started Patrick Henry College.
He's an incredible warrior for the kingdom. Roe
v. Wade. Roe v. Wade. He was a big part of Roe
v. Wade getting overturned. That was his crowning
achievement. He didn't retire. He's doing other
things now, but he stepped away from ADF. But
a great man of God. But Mike came and met with
us for two days. In fact, he had not traveled
for a year because his wife had been sick. Somehow
we get a hold of him through another God connection.
He comes to my office and he spent two days with
us and said, Steve, here's what needs to happen.
Nobody's been successful at building. And what
it is, let me just give you a quick illustration.
So what was happening is our government agencies
were going, they were all the way down in the
weeds, all the way down into your school boards,
into your local governments down here. And what
they were doing were forcing these things that
went against the will of people and definitely
went against the will of God. For example, DEI
or Title IX, Johnny going to Sally's bathroom.
So the ACLU, for example, would come into your
local school board, these attorneys, and your
local school board is part -time. They're not
in this world, but they would come in and attack
and threaten them. If you don't let Johnny go
to Sally's bathroom, we're going to sue you.
The school board attorneys there, his or her
job is to keep them out of a lawsuit. So they
kept sliding back. The only opposition to this
giant in that local school board meeting was
a mom or a dad with three minutes and a microphone.
So the question became, as an entrepreneur, I'm
saying, okay, what does that mom need to counterbalance
that? And what she needed was real intel, real
information inside that, what was really going
on. She needed her own little media outlet where
she could get her little story out there. But
more importantly, she needed her own attorneys
right there. Yes. So what we did, we built a
legal entity, really, where we're in the grassroots.
Now, ADF and Matt Saver, I mentioned earlier,
those guys are up here. We work with them hand
in hand. But what we needed was someone who could
be at the policymaking level in the legal world
to counter. And so that's what we did. Wow. That's
where CDF came from. And I can tell you today,
I think we're 130 -0 in four years. We win, and
that's what Mike told us, didn't he? Mike told
us, Steve, if y 'all can put this in place, you'll
win 9 out of 10 times. It's just we haven't been
there. Right, that's it. So that's where CDF
came from. Wow. And so then as we progressed
and began looking at the whole fundraising world
and how that worked, our board began getting
on our knees and said, Lord, this is not, we've
got to do this your way. So we got in the word,
and what we kept hearing back from God was just
go to the remnant. Just go to the remnant, the
remnant church. The promise to heal a nation
goes to God's people, not the heathens, right?
The promise to do all these things, God said,
if you'll get right with me, I will make it happen.
So we started going to looking for pastors. You're
a rare breed, brother. But we only need a remnant,
right? Yeah, there you go. That's right. Gideon
started with 30 ,000 and trimmed it down to 300.
Absolutely. God never uses a majority to take
over anything. He takes five loaves and two fish
and feeds 5 ,000 people. That's right. So that's
what we started doing. So the church now becomes
this embassy. And you know that because you're
doing it here. You've seen the effects of that.
So we take it upon, the pastor takes it upon
himself to educate that church. on our Christian
heritage, and then we set up a biblical citizenship
group, and we just keep an eye on everything.
And CDF comes to town, we're just your partner,
right? We're your ministry partner to help provide
what we provide when the time comes. Y 'all have
been a massive blessing to us. I met you, I don't
know, a year and a half ago, maybe, something
like that. I'm not good with time. Annette would
know the date. But to the moment. So I remember
meeting when y 'all brought a Remnant Alliance
group, four guys came and spoke. Rick Green was
another. Kay Carl. What an amazing guy. And of
course, Pastor Rick. I mean, what a man. What
a man of God. And you came as well. And you spoke
and you lit my fire. I mean, it was already lit,
but I didn't know where to go with it. This is
what it was. And this is what I'm finding out.
A lot of pastors, I meet with a group of young
pastors. They just don't know where to go, and
they don't know. They're where I was, and it's
like, I've got this fire. I know I need to do
something, but I don't know what to do. What's
my first step? And, you know, most people, I
mean, you remember back in high school, they
give you an essay and you had to write a thesis
sentence. It would take me a day to write a thesis
sentence. And once I had that, I knew where to
go. You're going to manifest something here.
That's a bad memory there. Trigger. But we need
that on ramp. We need that. And that's what you
guys provided for me. And also, you provided
for me something that I know you maybe don't
hear this enough. But when I knew that there
was somebody in my corner, it emboldened me.
I had grown up under always respect authority,
always yes, sir, no, sir. I'm a West Texas kid.
Grew up with all of that. Well, that went for
government, too, where I had this high respect,
high value, as we should. And yet our government
had gone a direction that they were not earning.
They were not honorable, honorable, as I say.
They were not honorable, able to be honored.
So at that point, so when y 'all came and said.
You can step into your pulpit and basically say
exactly what God has told you to say. And we
got your back. And I believed you. This is a
fundamental that I think our seminaries have
really messed up. Yeah. And so because most pastors
have that thought process and they've never been
trained. Okay, how do I engage? Right. How do
I do this? That's what we do. That's our ministry.
And so we teach them how to do that. But the
main thing, we want to be there behind you to
stand with you. And to protect you as you do
it. Because there's plenty of enemy out there
that doesn't want to do it. But when you study
the Bible, I'm a lay guy. I'm not some seminary
grad preacher somewhere. Doesn't matter. I love
Jesus. And I look at Daniel. That's probably
a bonus. Yeah, probably. Maybe. Some days, definitely.
But, you know, Daniel, you can't pray anymore.
Man's law came down. You can't pray anymore.
You have to pray to Nebuchadnezzar or whatever.
Daniel, there's only a... Wall, by the way. Did
you know that? It was only a 30 -day law. Interesting.
Most Christians would say, okay, I'll go hide
for 30 days. I'll go back to bed. No, Daniel
opened the windows, opened the doors, and he
said, basically, watch me. I'm not going to obey
man's law if it supersedes God's law. God's law
comes first. We call that civil disobedience.
Well, civil disobedience. The founders called
it the law of nature. There it is. You understand
William Blackstone and all what that means. God's
law comes first. Nature follows God's law, which
God's law is the Bible. Literally. Word of God.
This is legal 101 U .S. and the U .S. founding,
right? And then man's law comes third, but it
must follow the law of nature. Yes. Or it's considered
pretended law. Yes. We are entitled, the Declaration
of Independence, entitled to break that law.
Exactly. Declaration says you are mandated to
do so. You must do so. So look at what our founders
did. They came in and said, no, the king is doing
these 27 things. It's against God's law and nature's
law. We're going to fight against it. We will
not comply. And we signed our death warrant.
Just like Daniel did. Just like Rahab did. Yes.
Just like Esther did. She signed her death warrant
to go before the king. Just like Paul did. He
ends up stoned, left for dead on a road, and
he gets right back in the game. So how are seminaries
missing that? Yeah. I don't know, but I got a
feeling Satan's involved. I have a feeling, too,
because there's been some indoctrination on their
part. So I was fortunate to go to Howard Payne
University here in Texas, and they have the Douglas
MacArthur Academy of Freedom. They were teaching
us how to engage. Our poli sci department was
get involved, get engaged. So I got mixed messages.
I come out of that school and I did a crossover
program with them. So I come out like ready to
go. And it was in my DNA to engage. I've never
been one to set back on anything. And so, but
then I go to seminary. It's exactly the opposite.
They're telling us, you know, in these church
growth classes and these seminars, and they're
saying, you know, don't ever go there in politics.
Don't ever, you know, you need to protect your
congregation because of this bogus 1954 LBJ bill.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it is bogus. I don't even
use the word politics. It's called leadership.
It's called decision makers. We are commanded
in God's word to find our own decision makers.
Yeah, yeah. And it started in Exodus. Yes. For
Jethro, a sheep herder. And Father -in -law Moses,
when he said, here's what you look for when you
find a leader. You've got to have decision -makers
below you that can handle a lot of these decisions.
And what do you look for? Fear God, trustworthy,
which means they do the right thing behind the
scenes when nobody's looking. They don't take
USAID money, right? Right. And they hate dishonest
gain. We as Christians, that's who we're supposed
to be selecting. There's a difference between
selecting and electing. Electing is popular content.
We select our leaders. There you go. So how that,
anyway, I get all fired up about it. No, no,
I get it. It's a bunch of bull. Yeah, it is.
It's a bunch of bullcrap. It is. And what's happened,
though, is it's happened so slowly over a long
period of time. It's Frog McKettle syndrome.
So we've got a complete culture going, waking
up. Thank God for COVID. I mean. Thank God for
COVID. Thank for that cold. Thank God for that
cold that got blown out of proportion. The plandemic.
But here's the thing it did. It opened our eyes.
You know, that happened, and then the 2020 election
happened. All those things were eye -openers.
I heard a speaker say not too long ago, he said,
we need to thank God. That was our wake -up call.
That woke up America to not everything is as
it appears to be. I talked to our Senator Rick
Scott. I have his personal cell. We talk often,
and I was sharing with him. A few weeks back,
I said, Senator, you guys, you better, I'm just
going to caution you. You need to get this right
because I think of the people we lost. I've lost
family members. We've all lost people during
COVID. There was a lot that went wrong there
that was pure evil. Now we're seeing all this
exposure of Doge. And I'll get to what God shared
with me, you know, in the story later. But you've
got one time to get this right. It's a miracle
we're not protesting big time right now. The
American people are watching. They are saying,
you better get this right. Yeah. Because it opened
up. Yeah, it did. Yeah. It'll close. But God
turned it for good. And it is now affordable.
People can see. Yes. Maybe what we couldn't see.
It was not. It had it not. And I've used that
same language. I just say there's a window open,
and we don't know how long that window will be
open, which means this is not the time to rest,
sit on our laurels, you know, rest and sit back
and go, oh, okay, go get them. Go get them, Elon.
Go get them. Go get them, President Trump. Go
get them, J .D. No. For God's people, our mission
is not to save a country or save a city or save
a county. Our mission is to extend the kingdom
of God. There it is. He is returning soon. It's
a race to the rapture, I call it. Wow. So our
mission, what family member do I have that does
not know the Lord? It's a race to the rapture.
Because the next time I believe this thing implodes
is when God sucks us out of here. Yeah. And there's
no more resistance to this. Yeah. Right? Yeah.
Once the salt is gone and the light's gone, it's
going to get nasty. It's exciting to be here.
It is. We've got to put the pedal down. In this
season of history, in this season of time, we
get to witness and be a part of what people have
prayed for, believed for, sought God for, this
end -time harvest that's already beginning. We're
seeing revival breaking out across the world.
My goodness, college campuses blowing up. I mean,
it wasn't that long ago before college campuses
were holding up Hamas signs and anti -Israel
signs, and now that has been so overwhelmed.
You know, remember during the election season,
he said, too big to rig? Well, it's kind of a
similar thing. There's such an overwhelming move
of God across the world, but especially the United
States right now, that it's overwhelming all
these little voices that are out there, these
little handful of groups showing up. What we're
finding is these little voices had a megaphone.
Yes, they did. It was like the Wizard of Oz.
Yeah. It's this big smoking mirror, but really
we've pulled the curtain back and there's a little
weaselly little man pulling all the leaves. Yeah.
Right? Yeah. That's what we're discovering right
now. There it is. So we're in the midst of a
game changer on the planet. Oh, it's exciting.
And more people are waking up to it now. Something
that's hot on my heart and yours too is to wake
more pastors up to it. Pastors have lived in
such fear for so long. To their defense, we mentioned
it, but they were taught not to go there. And
so they didn't. So now you're 55, 65 years old.
You've been leading a church. You've never stepped
into the arena before. Not long ago, it's probably
been three, four years ago, BLM was going crazy.
And I saw this photo online of these guys in
hoods and all standing around somebody they just
beat the snot out of. I don't know, the guy may
have even died. And they were standing there
with their phones filming it. It was horrible.
Smoke in the background, fire. It just went all
over me. And I had not stepped into the arena.
And I posted one little post while Annette and
I were on a little getaway. I posted it, closed
my computer. I was saying, I cannot believe this
is happening. I just said it out loud. We came
back. I had hundreds of comments. I thought,
wow, that's cool. I'll start pulling them up.
They were all negative. They were all saying,
who do you think you are? You don't know what
you're talking about. And these were white people
defending BLM, right? And I'm going, and I had
one attorney, one girl, she's training to become
an attorney. She wrote, you're in my house now.
She wrote this threat like. Like, how dare you?
You need to stay in your area. You're in my house
now. That lit my fire. We first started CDF.
We were taking a stand with the books and all
the stuff in schools and stuff. We were getting
riddled. George Soros, Media Matters is his organization,
and they were ripping us all kinds of stuff.
I told you we had access and can find ways to
really look at who's writing all this stuff.
What we found out is most of that is all generated.
It's all paid for. They could be real people,
but they're paid to do that. You know what I
mean? Yes. Even that's a fake world. I've come
to the conclusion, my partner says this all the
time, my business partner, the only thing I trust
anymore is God's holy word, period. There you
go. Because everything else is some kind of slide.
Everything. Everything's leaning. One way or
the other. Absolutely. Taking truth and adding
elements of truth, but with, with deception and
you mix the two, it never comes out right. The
math doesn't work. Yeah. And what people, you
talk about, I'm sorry. You talk about the revival
and what's happening. There's a, there's a, God
tells us in his word, he puts, he puts this yearning
in us. Yeah. You know, Bev and I were talking
last night that we went home after dinner, but.
Everybody is yearning for something. It may be
a marriage that's struggling. It may be a child
that's struggling. Everybody's got something.
It's by design. Yeah. Because this is not our
home. And if this became heaven for us, we wouldn't
thirst for heaven. Yeah. So that thirst is for
God and his love and acceptance. you know that
purpose that he gives us the way i say that is
is our dna remembers eden but our spirit longs
for heaven and in the meantime we're stuck here
in this fallen world That's that's in the process
of redemption, but it's not there. And we're
told in Romans eight, it's going to there's going
to be a day right now. It's groaning. It's crying
out. And that's OK. When we have that perspective
of there's something in me that remembers Eden.
There's something that knows there was a better
time before this. But there's also my spirit
that longs for heaven. And so I'm going to use
that as a little segue into what you've recently
experienced. You know, I've gotten to know you
and. And now, thankfully, getting to know your
way better half. I call mine my way better half.
I always say I'm married up. My stock always
goes up when people meet me. Come on, brother.
I feel it. I'm with you there. But getting to
hear some of your story, and we were on this
text group, and then during Hurricane Helene,
you were just mobilizing. I mean, you were moving
things and getting things set up, and I was on
those. So you are giving us great prayer points
and prayer targets, prayer flares, we call them.
And so we were involved in that, and then all
of a sudden, I mean, something happened, and
it was a game changer for a lot of people, but
especially for your family. So who would like
to tell us that experience and what happened?
I'm going to turn that over to you. Oh, yeah,
we've been on a journey. As you stated, you know,
the hurricanes. And Steve was real involved with
so many pastors and people that were helping
for the hurricane relief on that and the election.
Just a lot of stuff going on, right? And in the
midst of all of that, he was working 20 -hour
days, literally. I knew that. Four -hour sleep
might be overstating some of this. And that was
going on for weeks and weeks. And during that
time, he was having... he just wasn't feeling
great he was having some discomfort in his shoulder
he hurt his elbow so he thought it was radiating
from that but we went to the he went to his doctor
was getting checked out going through some things
it was just going slow and i said steve why don't
we just self -pay go over to tampa have that
scan thing done check it all out and be done
we did and everything was fine checked out fine
his heart numbers were better than mine everything
was great um So we're rocking into November.
It was November 10th was a Sunday, the day before
Veterans Day. And we'd had a great day. We'd
gone to church that morning and we'd come home
and had a nice afternoon together. He had been
working. He was working the phone. There was
a lot of things going on in his world at that
time. And he can talk more to that. I really
am not even qualified to talk to that. But it
was some pretty things that were very disruptive.
to the kingdom of darkness that he was working
on. It was a big deal. It was life and death
rescue stuff. We had gone down, watched the sunset
that night, which is our custom. Every opportunity
we can, we'll catch a sunset, and we'd come back.
Anyway, he was working until about 11. We went
to bed, and he was just restless, couldn't get
comfortable. And he leaned up. He goes, oh, my
Lord. I said, what is it, honey? He said, I just
can't. I've got this feeling again. And I don't
know what hit me. Something came over me, and
I popped up out of that bed. And I said, well,
let's get up and move around and see if we can't
get you feeling better. And while you're at it,
why don't you take an aspirin? I've never done
that before. And we go in. I said, well, let's
check your blood pressure. His blood pressure
is always normal. And it wasn't normal. And I
took it again, and it was worse. And I took it
again, and it was worse. I said, get your shoes
on. I'm calling 911. Which we'd already decided
this Friday before I'd done a big scan test.
Right. And this shoulder thing would only come
up every once in a while. So I said, well, if
that does it again, let's just call 911 and get
it done. Because I had one more test to do where
they put the camera. Right, right. Let's just
get in the hospital and get that done. So this
is the Monday after that Friday. So anyway, called
911 and ambulance and fire truck showed up. They
were triaging him, hooked him up, EKG, everything
was fine. And the EMS guy looked at me and said,
we'll take him in. We'd agreed, get him checked
out and see what's going on, see if they can
figure out anything. So you weren't on a gurney.
He got up and walked to the ambulance. He told
you to get your house together and shut down
and then come on. You walked to the ambulance.
She came later. He said, Ms. Max, we'll take
your time, button up your house, we'll meet you
down there. So he left, blew me a kiss, and I'm...
Get in my house. I'm 15 minutes behind him. And
the EMS guy had said, where do y 'all want to
go? And I'm processing, looking at him. Okay,
where do we want to go? And he said, why don't
you go down to Advent Sebring? It's the closest,
and they have a heart center, which I didn't
even know that. I'd never been to this hospital.
It's the other direction of where we normally
go. I said, okay, let's go there. So I load up,
and I head down. to the hospital, and I get there.
I'm here to, you know, they brought my husband
in to be checked out, and he wasn't in the system
yet. I had a moment of panic. Am I in the wrong
place? I've never been here before. But about
that time, two of the EMTs that had just been
at my house come walking around the corner, except
this time they don't look the same. Oh, boy.
They're disheveled. They look like they've been
in a war. Blood on their shirt. What is going
on? And they're walking to me with a beat, just
had a beat on me, and they weren't smiling. One
knelt at my feet. One sat beside me and said,
we just need to let you know what happened before
you go back there. He coded on the way to the
hospital in the ambulance. He was gone for over
15 minutes. But we got him hooked up, got back
on the road, and we got him back about five minutes
from the hospital. So the next thing I know,
I'm being whisked back. to the ER to meet with
the doctor. And there's two surgeons back there,
a male and a female. And she begins to triage
me. I see Steve not good. You know, I don't know
what I'm looking at, but I knew it wasn't good.
Right. She whisked me into another room and she
just starts drilling me on what, what's going
on. And I, so I told her about the test. I told
her the numbers and she said, you know, this
could be this, but she goes, I think it's a heart
attack. She goes, but do you see these numbers
right here? I said, yes, ma 'am. She goes, these
numbers are not sustainable for life. Wow. His
pH was 6 .99. His lactic acid was 20. Wow. She
goes, he's probably not going to survive the
procedure. Most doctors will tell you there's
nothing they can do. And I looked over at the
other surgeon, and his body language was completely
closed. He wouldn't even make eye contact with
me. And in his defense, he probably thought the
merciful thing to do is to do nothing. Right.
But this girl was a believer. I found out later.
And she took my face in her hand and she says,
if you give me permission, I will try. Wow. And
I said, please try. So she was the miracle that
she gave God room, you know, on it. Two o 'clock
in the morning on November the 11th, she just
happened to be there in this place we knew nothing
about. Wow. God just took us there. And the fact
that he coded in the ambulance, you know, I think
only 12 % of the people that have the Widowmaker,
which is what he had, survived. Wow. So at that
moment, she's gone. I give her permission. I'm
alone. I'm alone in this room. Five minutes.
Everything has just changed. But if you'll allow
me to tell you the story of what, at that moment,
I was not afraid. And I see that with all humility.
No, there's no arrogance in me. So I was not
afraid. I was mad because I knew, I knew at that
moment, so many dots were connected. God had
been telling me, he had been warning me. He had
been preparing me for this moment. And I knew
it was a spiritual attack. And I began praying.
against it out loud, then no, devil, not tonight.
This is not how this ends. This is not where
this ends. We're going to walk through this in
Jesus' name. We're going to do this. And the
reason I'm so confident, there were so many things.
I can't even begin to tell you all of them. But
two weeks prior to this heart attack on November
the 11th, my son had come in on his way to work
and said, Mom, I just had... He goes, it wasn't
a dream because it woke me up. He said, I just
had this vision. He goes, the house was on fire.
I woke up and the house was on fire. There was
smoke everywhere. My room was full of smoke.
He said, I smelled it. He said, I'm looking for
a fire. He said, but as I'm up and walking around,
it just began to dissipate. He goes, but I fully
expected to smell like smoke. Well, I didn't
know what to make of that. I said, well, honey,
I'm glad it was just a dream. You know, have
a nice day. Didn't think, I just didn't think
that much about it, right? I didn't know what
to think. A week later, my daughter had the same
dream in a different house. She goes, Mom, it's
as if someone struck a match, a torch under my
nose and woke me from a dead sleep. She goes,
and I raise up and the room is full of smoke.
She said, I can't see the nightlight across the
room. Wow. And as she begins to get up and move
around, she goes, the smoke began to dissipate.
Well, she's a Christian counselor and has some
colleagues and friends and a network of people.
And she just put the word out. She goes, listen,
is there anybody that can speak into this? This
is what's happening in our family. This is, you
know, is there, has anyone got a word? Through
a series of networking and people, this woman
in South Florida contacted Megan. And she goes,
yeah. She goes, This is a word from God. This
is a message from God. It is urgent. It is for
your family. Your family is about to go through
a trial by fire, an all -consuming fire. She
goes, but you're going to walk through it, and
you're not going to smell like smoke. You're
going to come through and not smell like smoke.
And in that room at that moment, the Holy Spirit
fell on me. In a way I have never experienced
before. And I knew that I had to contend for
my husband. I knew it was not a time to cry.
It was not a time to be fearful. It was a time
to contend. My children began to come in. They
look at each other. They realized what it was
too. And I'm so proud of their reaction. And
with the people that were there at that moment,
we began organically every hour, only hour, in
agreement to pray, contending that this was a
trial by fire. We were going to come through
this, and we were not going to smell it. We were
going to walk through it. There it is. We were
just believing. There it is. And that continued
on through the entire process. And the people
that God sent, the prayers. Your church, Steve
and I are on a thank you tour. We made a promise
to God that any door that opened, we were going
to be that one leper that comes back and says,
thank you, because we know we were supernaturally
healed. We get to see what prayer does on the
other side. Yes. The night that I got that text,
I'm on a text group with a lot of pastors that
you're connected with. And immediately I called
out to Annette and I said, Annette, you got to
see this. And I said, we both knew immediately
it was a spiritual attack. I mean, because we
knew what you're into. We know what you're doing
and how you're moving. And I began to pray. We
began to pray. And I said, Lord, not this one.
He can't. He's too important. And he's such a
pivot point for a lot of different things. Because
I know you've got your finger in a lot of pies,
but they're all important. And they're all. at
one level or another, and we just begin to contend
on that level. And I announced it to the church
on Sunday and said, we've got to pray for Steve
Maxwell. We prayed for you guys by name, calling
your name out, and we put it on our prayer list.
We have a prayer chain that goes around, and
we put that on that list. And there's something
to be said for contending when Jesus told that
story of the persistent widow. It's almost an
annoying story. I mean, somebody standing at
your door, banging on your door, waking your
whole household up. They all slept in a big room
together. And he said, you've got to be like
that persistent widow. Until you get what you
came for, which harkens back to the Jacob story
at the River Jabbok when he wrestled with the
man, capital M, all night. He said, I will not
let go of you until you bless me. In other words,
he would not let go until he got what he came
for. Now, he walked with a limp the rest of his
life, but don't we all? Hopefully. Oh, don't
you know? Absolutely. Some of us walk with two
limps. We've both been down that track. Of course,
we fall. followed along with all that. We paced
along with you guys. And when we began to hear
of just the hope and the miraculous little things
and the movements and, of course, your kidneys
shut down, there were so many things happening.
I mean, you were really in a fight for your life.
When I came out of this, you know, seven or eight
days later, of course, I didn't know what had
happened. I'd gone. So back up. I'll tell my
side. Back up to where you were in the ambulance.
I did not realize. Now I'm rambunctious. I'm
ready to get out of there. I'm saying, good,
let's go. And so about the third night I was
awake, fourth night, I was best at it. When everybody
leaves tonight, I'm going to read you a bedtime
story. And the doctors do a report every day
and give an assessment. I had five or six doctors
working on me. And she began reading these assessments
from day one. And that's when it hit me that
I was supposed to be dead. They'd basically given
me up for dead. No hope. Brain damage. But my
kidneys had shut down 100%. My lungs had shut
down. They were full of fluid. E. coli had gotten
in my bloodstream and my lungs. Staph infection.
Staph infection. The liver shut down. I mean,
I was in bad shape. And I think the second night,
the Tuesday nights, when it all came down, you've
got to tell about Pastor John Friedo and what
he did and what really helped set the pace. And
then I'll talk about where I was. That's okay.
But you've got to tell them about how God brought
all these people out of the blue to help you
and our children during that time. It was amazing.
Just to confirm and to encourage, you know, God
would send somebody. He sent someone every day
in a miraculous way from, oh, to encourage me.
This is my story. This is what they told me.
Don't you believe it. You keep believing. You
keep believing. You keep believing. Just story
after story. had an infectious disease doctor
because the day that was really the belly of
the whale there was no good data you know like
apollo 13 the guy said well what do we have on
the spaceship that's good right there wasn't
anything that was good except that he was still
here that was um that was a miracle in itself
and we were just you know but the doctor um Steve
had been intubated in the field, and he had aspirated,
and his lungs were full of E. coli and staph
in his blood. And he had a 105 fever and, you
know, packed in ice. And one of the infectious
disease doctors came in and sat down, and he
told me the stats. And then he sat down next
to me, and he took my hand. He says, but I feel
like I need to tell you something. This was a
young, good -looking specimen. I mean, he looked
like the picture of health. And he said, two
years ago, that was me. And I said, what? Wow.
He goes, yeah. He goes, I had strep throat, and
it went to my heart. And I was intubated, and
they had called my family in and blah, blah,
blah. You just keep praying. That sort of stuff.
Wow. You know, that sort of stuff that people
would share with me. It was just crazy. But this
one particular day, the belly of the well, Pastor
Freed from Lakeland, who I had never met, but
had been working with Steve on hurricane relief.
Yeah, Remnant Allowance Pastor. And he came up
to the hospital and, you know, came in, prayed.
prayed over Steve, anointed him, and put an anointing
cloth on him, and had a really sweet time of
prayer. And then he looked at me, and he began
to tell me the story, remind me of the story
in Mark 5 of Jairus, Jairus' daughter. And he
went through that whole story with me and how
Jairus is with Jesus in this crowd, and it's
just this throng, and there's so many things
happening at one time. And the messenger runs
up. And says, Jairus' daughter has died. And
Jesus just turns to him. He was a religious leader.
He was the synagogue. And he says, do not be
afraid. Just believe. And he started walking
towards Jairus' house. A couple of the disciples
went with him. And they got there. And the Bible
said that there was a crowd of people. And they
were wailing. carrying on. The Bible says causing
a commotion. And Jesus walks up and said, why
are you causing all this commotion? The child
is not dead. She's asleep. And they laughed at
him. And he cleared him out. He told him to go
home. He said, don't need you here. Leave. And
he took a couple of disciples, mom and dad, went
in the room. Little girl get up. She was 12 years
old. She started walking around the room. He
looked at everybody. He said, don't tell anybody.
Give her something to eat. Let's go. And then
that pastor looked at me and he said, now, Beverly,
people who believe live like they believe. He
goes, that means that you get up, you present
yourself well, you eat, you drink, you lay down
at night in peace, believing that God's got this.
Beautiful. It was as if... That just pierced
my heart. I was already doing that in my own
feeble, imperfect way. But that gave me a scripture.
That was not an ask from Christ. That was a command
to me. This is what you do. Here's your, stake
this scripture right here. Beautiful. So. We
were praying every hour on the hour, so I invited
him. It was time to come out and lead the prayer
this hour. So he went out into the lobby, which
was full the whole time. I mean, with 30 to 50
people, the outpouring was probably the most
unbelievable of anything, of people that would
come and pray, earnestly pray. So he goes out
and he addresses the group and he says, thank
you for being here. The Maxwell's are so grateful
that you are here and for your support is, but
we're going to ask something because if there's
anybody here that does not believe, if there's
any unbelief in this circle, we love you, but
we're going to ask you to leave. And you just
let it. I love that. I know exactly where he's
going with that. Go downstairs, get yourself
a Snickers bar, get a Coke, figure it out. Or
not. We're still going to love you. Yeah. But
if there's any unbelief here, you're not helping.
Yeah. We need you to leave. That's good. Because
we are only believing. And in agreement, it's
like a cool breeze. Oh, yeah. You could feel
it. And when we joined hands that hour in agreement
to pray, it was different. And it was different
the rest of the week. It affected the entire
hospital. Yeah, it was powerful. From the security
guards all the way. That's what revival does.
The water level rises everywhere. If it only
happens at one church, I'm going, that's not
real revival. It may be awakening for that church,
but real revival spills out into the streets
and the water level rises everywhere. You know,
during a flood, everything's touched. Y 'all
know, you've been there, done that. Living in
Florida, you've been there, done that. Everything's,
nothing is left untouched when the water rises.
And so that's what revival does. So whether you're
in a hospital, It doesn't matter where you are,
whether you're at the Austin Capitol. Something
unusual happens, and everyone knows it. They
may not be able to tell you what it is, but something
happened. Wow. John Freed, Pastor Freed, we've
been to his church. There were so many pastors
that came. And they all bring different things,
right? Whether it's a Baptist or Pentecostal
or everything in between, they all bring something
and they're all part of the tapestry of the body
of Christ. They bring something. Yes, folk life.
Yeah, it's beautiful. Every one of them. Beautiful.
Several supporters here in Texas. You know Kyle.
Yeah, yeah. They all flew out and prayed over
me. It was just an incredible outpouring for
us personally, but the Spirit of God, how the
Holy Spirit came into that. Yes. It's fundamental.
I don't know if I was supposed to do a commercial
for Advent Health. I think they're going to do
a video. They want to get this out to the entire
community. Beautiful, beautiful. So God continues
to move there. There were so many, there were
pastors, Latino pastors from Texas that would
send me audio prayers. Oh, I love that. And I
would just pray them out in the room on my own.
Oh, love that. What a great idea. You know, and
maybe I had experienced this in degrees, but
the Bible talks about the Holy Spirit, just the
comforter. Yes. I don't have words to articulate
what I felt, but it is as if I was standing in
a fire, a literal fire, but I was completely
insulated. I could almost hear the flames. I
could hear the noise. I could feel it, but I
was completely insulated. I felt joy. I felt
joy. As bad as this was, and I wouldn't wish
it, I wouldn't take a million dollars for it.
Because of what I experienced and how that deepened
my faith in a way that really nothing else could.
It's not natural. It's supernatural. And that's
what people need to understand is that. You can
live up in a down world. I mean, it's the name
of our podcast, but that's not just some cute
name. I came up with that in college when I wrote
a paper. I was charged to write a paper on any
topic I want. And I just, Lord, what should I
write on living up in a down world? Okay, I like
that. And I went with it. It's sort of a Zig
Ziglar type thing. Over the years, it's stuck
with me. That's why we call this podcast that,
because we can. We can live above the line, above
the fray. Everybody's losing their mind. I always
get a picture of when the flood started, when
the rain started coming, and everybody's beating
the doors of the boat to get in. And Noah's going,
you had a chance. But it's all above the noise,
all above. What you felt. So the Greek word,
the Koine Greek word is the parakletos. That's
for the Holy Spirit. And it means the one called
alongside to help. But it also means comforter,
counselor, intercessor, friend. All of those.
And you got to experience those. facets and more,
I'm sure, many more of that. Those are just some
of the names that go along with that word parakletos
or paraclete in the Greek. And so you experienced
Him. You experienced not only the power, and
everybody gets enamored with the power of the
Holy Spirit, but not many people get as enamored
with the person of the Holy Spirit. He truly
is a comforter. He's a counselor when you need
Him to be. Our pastor at church had been leading
us into a better understanding of the Holy Spirit,
which I didn't have a great understanding of
that. It's almost like he's the ignored person
in the Trinity. But I had been really trying
to dial into that and praying for that. Beautiful.
Wow. Did God answer my prayer? Wow. Did he ever?
You know, did he ever? Whatever he chose, whatever
that was. Yes. I'm grateful. I'm just grateful
because I feel like he is not a stranger. No,
he is not. And I can see that on you both. And
it's interesting because Annette and I were actually
wondering because we didn't know your spiritual
background. We're like. You know, I wonder if
they believe in the Holy Spirit. They believe,
because some don't. I taught on six months on
the Holy Spirit in this church to Lutherans and
Catholics and Baptists and Presbyterians. This
is Fredericksburg, Texas. That's right. And we're
in the belt bug of the Bible Belt here in the
Hill Country. But I taught it biblically. And
I said this, the Holy Spirit's not weird. People
are weird. And the people that are weird with
the Holy Spirit were weird before they had the
Holy Spirit. So don't blame the Holy Spirit for
weirdness. It's not a fair. It's a bad label.
But what happened is the enemy has taught people,
Pavlov's dog response, that if he can expose
you to negative, bizarre, weird people. that
claim the Holy Spirit, then it inoculates you
from wanting, isn't that genius? What a great,
if he can cut off the very source you need, you
know, Acts 1 .8, when the Holy Spirit comes upon
you, you will receive power and you shall be
my witnesses. Starting here in Judea, Jerusalem,
Judea, and Samaria, other parts of the earth.
So the very thing we need, we get inoculated
to. And we see that in the... We see that in
the government realm. We see that in the cultural
engagement realm. The MO of the enemy doesn't
change. He's actually quite predictable. You
know, as a Christian businessman, I think the
arena up until this moment, believe it or not,
that most reflects the Holy Spirit, the Spirit
of God, is the business world. Why? Because the
entrepreneur knows the risk that has to be taken.
There's always risk. You talk about pastors having
fear. Think about that. Think about that phrase.
A pastor has fear. We all have them. I'm not
condemning here. But in business, you have fear.
But if you don't overcome that fear, you succumb
to it and you go out of business. So that's why
I love the entrepreneur. I love the business
leader because there's a connection there. And
for the pastor that's out there like you. You
have that connection with business people. It's
an instant connection because of the risk. It
is. You overcome that risk. So the Holy Spirit
in our business life has guided us so many times.
We could have a whole podcast just on that. We
will. Another time. We could get a partner in
here one day and talk about how God did this
and God did that. We heard this and we heard
that. We're totally against what the world says
to do. We did it God's way, and God showed up
in a mighty way. And that's what the journey
we're on is. It's not about comfort. No. It's
not about comfort. He doesn't really care about
our comfort. This is an awakening for me when
I realize he cared more about my character than
my comfort, and he'll do whatever it takes to
get my character sharpened, and the comfort may
or may not come. Romans tells us God's mission
for you and me as his believers is to be conformed
to the image of his son. Digest that. He left
the pearly. Yes. Yeah. Philippians chapter 1
talks about how he let go and did not hang on
to divinity, to his divinity. He let it go. Amazing.
Yes. Oh, I thank the Lord the Bible gave us that
human side. Don't you? Wow. Mm -hmm. Because
he loved us, he loved his daddy. He wanted to
please his father. That's what I'm supposed to
do. So that word. Yeah, whatever. That word.
It cost me everything. Oh, so you got to hear
this. I'm nerd out on Greek. So when it says
that he, for the joy set before him, he despised
the shame. The word despise means to step over.
It literally means. So when you despise something,
you step over it. And it says he despised the
shame. He stepped right over the shame. I mean,
like it wasn't even there, not even a speed bump.
He steps over it because he's looking to the
cross. He sees, and the beauty of it is he saw
what's on the other side of the cross. On the
other side of our obedience is victory. It's
this abundant life that John 10, 10 talks about.
You know, when people quote John 10, 10, they
quote the first part of it more than the last.
First part is the enemy seeks to steal, to kill
and destroy. Everybody's, oh yeah, it's terrible.
But Jesus flips the script and says, but I came
that you might have life, have it more abundantly,
have it to the full. That's what he saw. And
on the other side of our, when we, when we despise.
When we despise the temptation, despise what
he despises, we step over it. And that to me
is what Jesus did. He simply stepped over it
like it was a speed bump. I mean, just kept going.
Beautiful. Yes. Step over it, despise it. Yeah,
we've, you know, we've redefined some words differently.
But when you get back and you start mining out
the jewels of the word of God, that's one of
those jewels. And I go to Revelation 12 too all
the time. You know, John's looking down the portal
of time to our generation. And he says, they
defeated him who's Satan. That's who we're fighting.
Yes. By the blood of the lamb. Yeah. It's been
done. But the two thirds of this equation is
on me. Yes. Blood of the lamb, word of my testimony.
Yeah. What does that look like? Well. Personally,
I need to have my life clean and straight and
all that. But in my community, I'm just standing
for righteousness. That's it. That's it. In his
kingdom. And then they did that courage. They
did not live their lives so much that they shied
away from death. Dude, that's how we win. That's
it. You see it beginning to work. There's countries
coming alive. You're seeing people. Yes. Well,
I've got to ask you a question because along
that line, you've got to give us a little bit
of what you saw on the other side of the veil.
on the other side of the threshold. Well, the
last thing I remember before waking up to this
beautiful girl in my face eight days later was
we have a long driveway, and we have cattle guards,
and cattle can't get in here. So I remember going
through past the last cattle guard, and the ambulance
turns to go toward the hospital, and the engine
is ramping up. And, Pastor, the next thing I
remember, I literally come up out of the gurney,
out of the bed and the ambulance, and there's
no light. I just walk right into the presence
of the Lord, and I'm in outer space. And Jesus
himself, I didn't see his face, but my spirit
identified it was him, comes to me and puts his
arm around me just like this. He says, Steve,
I want to show you what's going on in the spiritual
realm. And the next scene is we're in space,
and I was sharing with you last night, I don't
know how to describe it except think of flat
screen TVs because there were breaks in these
things. But as high as you could see in outer
space, as low, as far as you could see everywhere
were these scenes of things going on on Earth.
And some were good and some were not good. And
you speak by thought there. and the thought came
was i see everything i see everything and then
the next thing is a darkened scene uh and it
was that night i've been working bev mentioned
it earlier i've been working on raising some
funds we're trying to get rescue some girls we'll
call them sex trafficking and that was a scene
and there were three points of light that were
coming into that scene and the darkness had to
flee and that's the thought that darkness must
flee and then i go into another classroom setting
you know in in same outer space and and he begins
to share with me the glory of god and how powerful
it is and how moses wanted to see it but he said
you can't you see my goodness you can't see my
glory wow because it's so holy it will we will
evaporate in his presence wow but hebrews chapter
one Chapter 1 says that Jesus is the radiance
of God's glory. So what he was sharing with me
is when you have Christ in your heart, you become
those three points of light entering that darkness.
Beautiful. Working with me because now we're
together. Yeah, co -laboring. We're co -laboring
together. So that's what you're doing. You're
working to push back darkness and the darkness
must flee. Wow. And I could go on and on about
that, but it was just, it was like, yeah, the
coach is taking me up. Get ready to get back
in the game. And the next thing was a pep talk.
He shows me the totals of heaven. And there's,
again, as far as I could see, there were millions,
millions, millions of saints, saints that have
gone on before. And they all had jobs. And they
were looking at me with a smile on their face
and said, go, keep going, keep going. It's like,
man, when you get up here, you can't do any more
down there because there's a lot more to do up
here. But keep going. We're watching you. You
know, we're behind you. The Lord's behind you.
You know, that wasn't me. It was for all of us
on earth that had the light. It was a beautiful
scene. Matter of fact, about, what, three or
four days after I came to and I was totally back
in the game, that same scene came to my hospital
room. And that was with me. I had her in bed
with me because I couldn't get warm. And so that
night, I said, honey, do you see them? Oh, my
goodness. But I believe you see them. I said,
honey, they're right there. Wow. It was all the
saints just smiling. And you know they're here
right now. They're here. That's what I want to
share with people. The dimension of the spiritual
realm is right here. It's right here. But here's
the thing. People tend to lean towards the negative.
So they, oh, there's demonic activity all around.
As though that's bigger than what's going on
than this. It's a theater full of people. You
know, I heard a pastor say this this week. Actually,
it was Art Alley that said this at a function
this week. He said, he gave this illustration.
He said, let's say you're a football fan. I mean,
an avid football fan, Texas or whoever, Aggies,
whatever. You're an avid fan. They're in the
championship game. And you find out Saturday
night at the championship game, your wife says,
hey, we've got an appointment we've got to make.
We cannot get out of it. You go, golly, we've
got to get out of the championship game. Okay,
honey, so you go, and while you're there, somebody
slips up and says, hey, your team won. What are
you going to do if you're an avid fan? You're
going to go home. You're going to watch the game.
So you're home watching the game. You already
know you won. So if you're down by 21 points
at halftime, does that worry you? Not a bit.
And the illustration was, that's how we should
live as Christians. This enemy is defeated. Isaiah
tells us there's coming a day we're going to
look at Satan, and the world's going to go, is
this the guy we feared and troubled? This is
a joke. That's exactly right. We have the power
of Christ is in us. We have the power. He is
supposed to be on defense. The gates of hell.
That's it. That's it. We're supposed to be on
offense. Yeah. And somehow we'll miss it. I think
that's coming back. I do too. He's afraid of
us. Yes. So those saints are up there and they
are rooting us on. Oh, man. I saw one family
member I knew. The rest of them were just, I
never got to go in. I just got to see what they
were doing. And Jesus then turned to me. He said,
Steve, Joel chapter 3. He said, I'm exposing
the light to all corruption in the world. And
I'm calling the nations to the valley of decision.
Wow. Joel chapter 3. And those who have a choice,
they can receive me or they can reject me. But
here's the challenge. Here's what I'm here to
talk about today. The final harvest has begun.
I'm about to fill the portals of heaven with
my people. I could tell your friends. Yeah, that's
it. That's the message. That's the message. Two
perspectives. Yeah, we're not here. This is so
beautiful, though. Yours was having to... Get
past your own fears and fight through your mind
wars because you were in a mind war. The Spirit's
saying, be at peace, rest. He's bringing people
along to tell you that. Your mind's trying to
tell you other things, and you had to really
fight and contend for your peace. Every thought,
every thought to the obedience of Christ. So
you were fighting your own war while you are
getting surgery of some kind. I mean, I'm not
talking about, I'm talking about spiritual surgery.
The Holy Spirit took you and Jesus to show you
some things so that you could come back and tell
us to not be afraid. Don't be afraid and don't
quit. Don't quit. Stay the course. I've only
gotten one verbal word from God. I mean, I've
got friends that hear God all the time. I'm like,
how do you do that? You know, one time it was
after a really hard crisis. I'm driving out 87.
I'm beating my steering wheel. I'm mad. I'm like,
Lord, why? This is. I trust you, but, you know,
this is really hard. It was heart -rending. And
I heard these words, stay the course. Three words,
not complicated, something I can actually remember.
I'm a simple guy. So I'm just like, that's it.
And that was all I needed to hear. That was about
four years ago. And I hear that word 10 times
a day right now. I hear it just as though I heard
it that moment. And that's what you got. When
the Lord so impacts your life. He implants something
that will never go away, can never be shaken,
can never be taken. No one can take it away from
you. You know what he said to you, and you know
what he said to you. I know what he said. That
means we never have to be afraid again. That's
right. Another interesting story in all this
is Beth had a second cousin that we don't see
often. She's a believer. She goes to church with
my mom. She had a vision as well. The day this
happened, I believe, the day all this happened,
she didn't know what had happened. But she got
a vision. She had to get a hold of my mom. She
went to my brother -in -law, my sister -in -law
to do that, where the enemy had come after me,
was trying to take me out. The vision is me in
a hospital bed, hooked up to all this equipment.
But an angel, a 15 -foot tall angel, said she
felt it. The angel felt the entire room. It had
its wings over me protecting me from the enemy.
Three days later, she has another vision. The
angel's gone. The enemy come back to get me again.
But the prayers of the saints held him back.
So we're here to say prayer works. We've seen
prayer work. Don't quit praying. Beautiful. Pastors
that listen to this or anybody in the name of
Jesus doing any work for his kingdom, do not
give up. Continue on. It's all a part of this
tapestry that he's working out. When I came home,
the first day I was home, I have a private Bible
time every morning for years. And I was just
pondering that whole scene. And I'd say it humbly.
Now, Beth says, her second cousin said it was
Gabriel. Beth says, no, I rank him. But that
little voice told me, Lord, the Spirit of the
Lord said, Steve, I sent the angels to protect
you until war got out. Once the word got out,
the prayers of the saints are enough to hold
back the enemy. So that's a message I want to
give to people. Don't give up your prayers, your
prayer life. The fervent prayer of a righteous
person availeth much. We saw that happen, not
just in I didn't die, but the fast recovery in
one week. Oh, yeah, miraculous. I'm walking out
of the hospital. You're dancing out of the hospital.
Yeah, dancing. It was a bad dance. I get it,
but it was a dance anyway. But how did that happen?
My heart was. back to 100 my lungs were clear
that night i had 105 degree temperature it went
down to zero by daybreak and you regained your
kidney function you regained kidney function
100 they're talking about kidney replacement
wow shock seven times five shots directly in
the heart with epi shots they said there's no
way seven shocks from a paddles you're gonna
survive your kidneys will not survive that they
survived everything survived so the miracle was
not only I was saved from being killed, but there's
no damage, no brain damage. Still questionable.
But no brain damage. I feel better than I've
ever felt. Brother. And so we're just saying,
Lord, just show us where to go. Yes. Give it
our all and don't fear anything. That's it. That's
it. We've got bracelets for the girls using that
phrase. All my daughters and my soon -to -be
daughter -in -law. And we put that scripture
on there, Matthew 536. Do not fear, just believe.
That's Beth's message. Do not fear, just believe.
And a pastor said, man, I fear maybe this. Do
not fear, just believe. Just believe. Do what
God tells you to do. Get in the lion's den. Because
there are souls to be saved in the community.
There's a righteousness to stand up for. We're
going to face him one day. And he's going to
say, well done. There it is. And I'll close with
this because I love this illustration. Because
in one day that week, that same week, I studied
the Matthew 7, I think it is, where the Bible
says, Jesus tells these supposedly pastors, depart
from me, I never knew you. And they said, what
do you mean? We cast demons out of you. What
do you mean you don't know us? And the next day
I studied Rahab. Rahab. She made it to the faith
hall of fame. How does a pastor not make it into
heaven? Yeah. By not knowing God. Yeah. And Rahab
is on the front row hall of fame. And I think
I come to a layman's conclusion. Rahab risked
her life. Brother, you got it. Right? Yes. Does
that make sense? Yes. I'm looking up something
while you're talking in the scripture. These
people in the hall of fame, they all risked their
lives. They all laid down their most precious
everything, whatever it is. They feared, but
they overcame it and said, I fear and love God
more than I love myself. That is the message
to everybody out there. We stand for righteousness.
We stand for the king. The enemy is defeated.
We put him first, his kingdom, his righteousness.
All these things will be added unto us, including
saving a nation, including your children coming
to know the Lord, including being healed. Wow.
It's interesting in Revelation chapter 21, listen
to this verse. Jesus himself is speaking to John
on Patmos Island, right? John's just like, he's
having, he's seeing that open outer space probably
like you did. And he says, I saw a holy city,
the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from
God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
He goes on and on. And he says, he'll wipe away
every tear from their eyes. Just such, whoa,
life, right? And he says, he who is seated on
the throne said, behold, I'm making all things
new. So we know there's a massive restoration
coming. He says this, the one who conquers will
have this heritage, that inheritance of all he
just said, and I will be his God and he will
be my son. But now he turns the corner. He flips
the scripts in verse 8 of Revelation 21. But
as for, and he begins to lead, give a list of
those who will not inherit, those who are going
to perish. The first out of the list, let me
just tell you some of the names on the list.
The faithless, the detestable. As for murderers,
the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, liars,
their portion will be in the lake that burns
with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.
But you know what the number one is? But the
cowardly, the faithless, the detestable. Number
one on the list is the cowards. The cowards.
Exactly. Right there, Revelation 21a, number
one on the list is coward. When I read that,
my wife treated me to this verse one day. She
said, have you read this? She said, we cannot
be afraid. This is my wife. She's fire. She's
dynamite. She is. And she's a woman of faith.
I'd probably read that scripture at some point,
but I wasn't swimming in Revelation 21 no more
than I swim in Lamentations. So I was like, no,
I haven't seen that. And we begin to really think
that through and how the first thing on the list
is the cowardly, the timid, the fearful. What
is he saying about following Jesus? And what
is one of our greatest marks of being a follower
of Jesus? They love their lives, not unto death.
No fear. No fear because they understand this
is a pale shadow. This is a bad copy of the real
thing. Exactly. This is just boot camp right
here. This is getting us ready. The real thing
comes later. I remember Dr. Jack Taylor saying
that this is not real. What we're experiencing
now has massive consequences for your eternity.
You've got to get that right. But this is a bad
copy of the real thing. And the enemy's been
trying to replicate and counterfeit it ever since.
But I'm telling you, there's something coming
and you got a glimpse. And you've given us a
glimpse in our mind's eye or sanctified imagination.
And, you know, turning, I think it's easy growing
up. And now looking at our societies today, it's
so easy, especially in the Western society, to
get distracted from what's really important.
Yes. You know? And so we wind up, there's a great
essay I think I wrote many years ago, it's called
The Tyranny of the Urgent. And the urgent things
get in the way of the important. Yeah. The important
is seeing things through the prism of spiritual
eyes. And what we're seeing In our country today,
I believe it's all orchestrated by God, but I
share with several people at the meeting on Tuesday,
but when you have a president give a speech and
recognizes a 13 -year -old cancer victim, and
you see faces in the crowd that can't respond
to that, what that is is a soul that's been given
over to a depraved mind. Yes, absolutely. Reprobate
mind. We live in a spiritual world. And so seeing
it in spiritual eyes becomes the important. Yes.
All of a sudden, maybe it's not me rushing to
get, I'm using a stupid example here, get in
front of the line of food at your church. It's
understanding that maybe that person right here
needs to hear a comforting word or the waiter
needs to know we're praying for her. Yeah. You
know what I mean? Yes. Yes. Every day. We all
can do it. A friend reached out to me this morning
and said, pray for me. I'm feeling very impatient
right now about things. We've got so many things
on our schedule. I can't get to the things I
feel like I need to get to. And I said, you know,
what if I just threw this out. What if those
interruptions. are the preparation you need for
what you're trying to get done. What if those
interruptions are the will of God in that moment?
Of course, he wrote me back. Great perspective.
Thank you. He didn't get sympathy, but he got
just maybe a different perspective. Could it
be those interruptions and those things that
we think are not important are actually the important
thing, whether it's a person, a situation, circumstance?
Same thing. It's a mindset. One sidebar to this
whole journey that we were just on. And that
just illustrated it beautifully is that as the
body of Christ, we don't have to do this alone.
You know, in Mark chapter two, when the four
friends lowered their paralyzed friend down through
the roof to see Jesus and Jesus saw that and
he looked at the man, he said, you know, your
sins are forgiven because of their faith. It
matters who you circle. Yes, it does. Well said.
Because you have a circle that is praying for
you, that is holding up your arm, you know, that
is with you. And that is the Holy Spirit. Yes.
Getting all that together. And that is one thing
that I feel like this whole experience really
brought to life to me, that this is spiritual.
Yes. And how woefully unprepared I was to my
own. I'm disappointed in myself. But God put
me on a fast track. Yes, that's His mercy. It's
His grace. And I was telling you this, but just
a little bit of time I've spent with you and
your wife, and the nuggets that you've spoken
to me, I can't articulate to you how the Holy
Spirit has taken that. It's blooming, and I am
so grateful for people who have courage. to speak
out and to love people because people are messy,
right? We're all a mess. We're all a hot mess.
We're all a hot mess. We're all a mess. I think
there's a great awakening happening. It's just
such a beautiful tapestry. As I travel the country
now, of course, we're sharing this story now.
There's so much thirst, and I know we're going
to speak to your people tomorrow. I'm excited
about it. I'm so looking forward to it. And what
I found, and I don't know how many times we've
done this now, 14 or 15 times now, but her message
that God's given her is the most profound. Mine
is encouragement. You know, mine's real easy.
Precious in the sight of the Lord. Your best
day on earth is that day here, right? But her
message, and don't fear. But her message just
resonates somehow. And I think it's because there's
an old Chinese proverb that says, when the student
is ready, the teacher will appear. Oh, wow. And
I think our nation is ready. There's a thirst.
And God reacts to the hunger and the thirst.
He's attracted to it. He's attracted to it. Yes.
He shows up. James 4 .8 is so simple. I'm a simple
man, so I like simple things. Draw near to God,
and He will draw near to you. One verse. Just
a few words. Draw near to God. He's asking for
us to initiate movement. And however that looks,
maybe humming a hymn, it may be putting on Godcaster
and listening to worship or in the car, turning
your cab into a cathedral, right? I mean, just
your shower into a temple. I mean, we're just
with Him. And that praying without ceasing, which
we talked about at the beginning of this. I love
what Brother Lawrence and Frank Laubach. did
that little booklet called Practicing the Presence
of God, The Practice of the Presence of God,
where it's an ongoing conversation. I don't say
amen hardly anymore because it doesn't stop.
I go to bed in the middle of a prayer. I guess
I keep God on hold all night. I wake up and go,
and as I was saying, Lord, usually it's good
morning, Holy Spirit. Good morning, Abba Father.
Good morning. And as I was saying. You shared
with us last night about grace in a way I'd never
heard in my entire life. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Well, you know, there's a lot of, there's a movement
in grace right now. Grace movement. Grace is
cool now. You know, it's trendy now. And unfortunately,
it's an aberration of biblical grace where it's
turned into this, you know, I'm okay, you're
okay. It's very humanistic. I mean, it's got
that whole secular humanist bent to it. But biblically,
grace is literally God's power. God's strength,
God's ability, God's authority, and God's favor
to do what we cannot in and of ourselves do.
And the reason I came to that conclusion, I did
a deep dive study years ago and found various,
there's an amalgam of definitions that I pulled
from. But also realize this, the Bible says that
Jesus was full of grace and truth. And most people
define grace as... undeserved favor. It's just
unmerited favors, the classic definition. And
I remember hearing that thinking, that is so
one -dimensional. It's got to be multifaceted
like a diamond under a halogen light. When you
turn it, you see the facets. And that's why I
went into this deep dive study of grace. And
I realized that more often than not, grace is
power. It's God's power. It's God's dunamis.
We get the word dynamite from that. It's explosive
in nature, and it's the power for working miracles.
It says that in the early chapters of the book
of Acts, it says that the disciples were working
great miracles and signs and wonders. It says,
and great grace was upon them all, not unmerited
favor. Power, ability, authority. They were walking
in the grace of God. Once I learned that definition
and did that study, I never saw grace the same.
Now when I use the word grace, it may be in a
mixed crowd and they may be thinking one thing,
but I'm thinking power. I'm thinking authority,
our authority in Christ. Oh, grace is not soft.
Grace is what God's riches at Christ's expense.
Which is great. There's a facet. There's a facet.
That's good. It is true. And authority and ability.
He enables us through grace. You look at Ephesians
2, verse 8, classic. We are saved by grace through
faith, right? Or by faith through grace. But
it's by grace through faith. The only thing that
can save and change a human heart is the power
of God. The grace of God. Not unmerited favor.
power of God. That's what changes the human heart.
So, so I do want you to read that word different.
Now, when you see that word in scripture, think
of this other definition and it will begin to
expand that one verse. Yes. Brother. You're required
to do that. It's the same grace, the same power,
the same dunamis that raised Jesus from the dead
that works in us, it's scripture says. You have
firsthand, brother. You're a Lazarus, brother.
That's the power that helps you forgive the unforgivable.
Absolutely. That's the power that helps you overcome
the addiction. Absolutely. tempts us are the
things that we love we love those things and
that grace gives you in the flesh gives you the
power yes to turn away from that yeah you know
practically speaking yeah well the word ability
also means to be enabled so it enables you to
overcome to say no to sin to say no to unrighteousness
and to say yes to godliness the scripture says
and so now forgiveness is a supernatural work
of the Holy Spirit. It's not something our flesh
can do. When I hear humanists and psychologists
and people, therapists, talking about forgiveness,
it's at such an elemental level. True forgiveness
means not only do I forgive my neighbor, On the
surface, I also now begin to pray for them. And
you move from contempt to compassion. Where that
person you were so angry with and all your friends
were telling you you're right to be so. Do you
know that for every step you take away from the
cross, you have 12 people patting you on the
back saying you have a right to be mad. You have
a right to feel that way. But when we turn back
to the cross, I say, I don't have any rights.
I died. Dead man has no rights. I died, and I've
now been raised up and seated with Christ in
heavenly places, so I don't have any rights.
All I have is permission. All I have are privileges.
No entitlements. Yes, Lord. Okay, I get to do
this? Okay, we go. There it is. There it is.
And we can let go. Release. The old let go and
let God. I used to think that was a silly little
cliche. Now I'm like, that is real. There is
a letting go. That's called trust. And really,
doesn't it all come back to that? And it's a
spiritual daily discipline. Absolutely. For me.
No, for all of us. For me. Everybody. It's a
daily. How many times have I said, Lord, it's
yours already, but I'm letting go. Yes. I'm releasing
it and acknowledging that this is under your
control. First Thessalonians chapter five says
this, it says, pray without ceasing. That is
a mandate in the actual, it's an imperative in
the language, which means it's a command. It's
not an option. Pray without ceasing. And that
is how we walk in that grace. That's how we live
in it. So that when you're walking through the
store and people are smiling at you and looking
at you unusually, why? It's because there's something
on you. You've put on Christ like a garment and
you're walking in through H -E -B or Walmart
or Publix. We had Publix in Tennessee. You're
walking through the store in aisle four and people
are just looking at you and smiling. Why? Because
there's something different. You're attracted
to it. Wow, we could go all day. We got a workout
to get to, brother. We're going to go pump some
iron. Well, listen, I want to thank our friends
for staying with us. We went so long, we wore
out our cameras. We lost batteries on two cameras,
but our middle one's good to go. And we want
to say thank you for being with us today. And
go to livingupinadownworld .com. There you can
get all things Living Up. And really, you can
get this podcast. You can get our audio podcast
as well. and our archives. And you can like us,
you can subscribe. I also want to say thank you.
There's some folks donating to this project,
and I want to say thank you for that. That means
so much to us. Value for value. You're saying
if this brings value to you, then I want to bring
value back. And so thank you for doing that to
our friends that watch, that listen, that support,
that come to meetups that we get to do and get
to meet people. And we're so happy to do it.
We're here for you. That is... Mine and Annette's
heart is to help you live up in a down world.
And when I say down world, I'm not putting the
world down. I'm simply recognizing that we live
in a fallen world, according to God's word. And
we get to live up in it and make a difference
and be those points of light that you talked
about, Steve, to be that life giver, to be salt
and light in our world, speaking out. for the
things of God. So thank you so much for joining
us. Thank you for being, I literally could do
this all day long with you two. Iron sharpens
iron. We did it. We did it. We get to do it again
twice tomorrow. Iron sharpens iron. So as iron
sharpens iron, the countenance of one friend
sharpens another. And when we get together, so
what you were talking about in the hospital.
We just sharpen one another. So again, thank
you. If you like this, hit subscribe, like, all
that stuff helps us. But also send it to friends
who might want to hear a little bit about heaven
and a little bit about what it means to live
this thing out in real life with the person and
work of the Holy Spirit active in our lives.
We love you. God bless you. Have an amazing day
on purpose. All right, I'm going to stop there.
I'll let you do the tag on. Yeah, that'd be easier
than just trying to hit a cue. Oh, gosh.