Welcome to the God's Goodness podcast, where our mission is to encourage and highlight God's
Goodness and modern-day miracles. We are your hosts, Josh and Shelly Hankins. Today we have a
little bit of a rainy day, so you might hear rain in the background, but it's going to be amazing
because we are having a fireside chat with Pastor Rick Cardell. He's back with us for a second chat,
and he is going to be sharing some more stories of what God has done over the years through him,
and it's just amazing. You're going to love it, and with that we'll have him open us up with an
opening prayer. Oh, our extraordinary God, our loving Father, our Savior, blessed Holy Spirit,
we thank you for being here with us and opening the hearts and ears and the eyes of the understanding
of all those that are listening. We look to you to order our conversations a right and to
cause your word to pierce in a loving, gentle, healing way into the hearts of our hearers.
We ask it in the name of Jesus, amen and amen. Amen. Thank you. At where would you like to start
today? Well, I'd like to start with the charismatic renewal experience that I had years ago,
after I was saved, being raised Roman Catholic, like I had mentioned in the last time we got
together. That's what I knew the most, but God uses us all and everything that we've learned and
lived, and in His great wisdom, He grows us right where we are. So being a newborn again Roman Catholic,
my quest was to get everyone I could to know Jesus. One day I was in a religious article
store in the Penn Circle, Indy's Liberty, and a lady named Ellen worked there and we got to talking.
She invited me to a Catholic Pentecostal prayer meeting at Sacred Heart Church in Shadyside.
Well, Catholic I knew, but what was Pentecostal? She said that I'd love it. She said a priest and
a nun lead it, and I prayed and God spoke to my heart go. How the prayer group actually got
started was when someone who had been badly burned was healed in answer to the prayers of a few people
who got together to seriously pray. And that's the story that I was told, but it was a small group
and the young woman who played the guitar and led the singing had received the infilling of the Holy
Spirit. To my knowledge, she was the only one who said that she prayed in tongues. Being as this was
something mysterious to me and she did not do it during the meeting, I questioned her. I said that
I would like to hear somebody speak in tongues, but I thought I might be scared by it. She explained
with great confidence, peace, and gladness that it was something beautiful and ministered peace.
It was a sign of God's nearness and presence with us. So she began to play her guitar and
sing in other tongues. She was right. What a blessing it was. And that was the first time
that I had ever heard anybody speak in tongues. During this time, the 1970s, there was a great
charismatic renewal that actually began at Duquesne University and spread all over Pittsburgh
and the world. There was a front page cover story in the Sunday Roto magazine telling this
phenomenon of glosalalia, which is speaking in other tongues. Prayer meetings were springing up
everywhere and God strategically raised me up new friends, brothers and sisters in Christ,
who like me were hungry for God and everything that he offered. Pastor Ray Patterson from the
Oakmont Baptist Church received the infilling of the Holy Spirit and it transformed his church.
He was a solid, sold out, Pentecostal Baptist that the Lord used to teach and disciple multitudes
of people. There were a bunch of us young adults who fellowshiped together and we called ourselves
the God Squad. Some of us hitchhiked everywhere or took public transportation to be on every prayer
meeting we heard about. Home prayer meetings, meetings at St. Peter's Catholic Church in New
Kensington, Sacred Heart and Shady Side, St. Francis Hospital, Church of the Brethren in
Squirrel Hill, Oakmont Baptist Church and the Charismatic Conferences at Duquesne University.
Well, one day a couple of us were on our way somewhere hitchhiking in Oakland when a van of
Harry Christianists picked us up. It was very hot and they really smelled a body odor. We tried to
witness to them but they kept on chanting. By this time we had been filled with the Holy Spirit
and so we loudly prayed in tongues until our ride was over. It was so funny. I don't know if they
knew what was going on but God sure did. My friends and I had many daily experiences involving God's
presence with us and you know it continues to this day, every day with Jesus, sweeter than the day
before. We were determined to let God use us however he wished. One brother, Paul Kress,
and I teamed up and under the training of the nuns at St. Francis Hospital, one of whom was
Sister Margaret Rose, went room to room visiting patients and praying for them. People got saved
and healed. Praise God. This was a great training for my pastoral care ministry today. It is encouraging
to allow ourselves to be Christ's hands extended to help others. Are you listener? Letting God use
you in practical ways every day? God works miracles in the normal events of each day.
Look for them and be a part of them because God is eager to use you.
2 Chronicles 16, 9 says, for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth
to show himself strong in the behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward him.
When you're a willing vessel you get to see the most amazing things and then after it you're like,
wow, that was really cool. So you went from Roman Catholic to believing in Christ in a different
way to tongues, to healings. You've seen healings through that. How wild of a roller coaster was
that for you to go from such a sedentary Roman Catholic kind of background to a moving faith,
to a moving God, to a moving miracle wielding Jesus? Well, to me it was gradual in that it
happened. It's like you're picking up speed and not knowing it. You're going at a faster pace,
but it's like normal for you. But people would see the difference in us and you're like electrified
by your faith in Christ because you want everybody to know Jesus the way that you've come to know him.
Yes, for sure. Enough to start a podcast. There you go.
I was hearing so many stories of God working miracles today that I'm like, people have to
hear this. I can't keep it to myself because they would be encouraged too. We definitely need
encouragement these days. Our witness says one of the most powerful things that there is. The
Bible says that we in Revelation we defeat the devil by the blood of the Lamb by the word of our
testimony. I encourage people to share everything Christ is doing in your life. I also encourage
all you listeners to keep a log or a journal or whatever and take time to think about how God
worked in your life for the day and write it down because it really helps to go back and review
those things. Wow, does it stir up your faith? That's what David did. He got in tough spots.
He would remind himself of how God always got him through. I started to note in my phone with things
like that to look back on. Let me tell you more about this great outpouring. The Bible says
let everything that have breath praise the Lord. Life is so exciting walking with Jesus
every moment of the day and I remember one evening going by myself from Oakmont, Pennsylvania to the
St. Francis Hospital meeting. I hitchhiked for a while. I walked a lot. By the time I got to the
prayer meeting they were actually in the closing moments. As we stood there in a circle,
God gave me a word of knowledge. That's a word, something that you have no way of knowing,
but God reveals it to you to be a blessing somehow. So God gave me a word of knowledge that
a leg was being healed. One lady said she knew that was for a relative of hers who was supposed
to be there that night but had not showed up. Some of us went into a room off to the side and
suddenly the lady came rushing in with a relative who had just arrived. God's timing.
And hey, did she ever have a leg problem? Her leg was so much shorter than the other that she wore
a platform shoe that had been made especially for her. God said he was healing a leg so we decided
to go for it. She sat down, took off her shoe, and I took her foot in my hands and prayed a simple
prayer asking God to do this miracle. Suddenly the power of God did it. He lengthened her leg
right there in front of us. That must have been a slight dizzy. It was, but when it happens it's like
wow, but this just happened. We were thrilled and awed and the young lady had to go home,
barefoot, hallelujah. The meetings at Russ Bixler's Church of the Brethren in the
Squirrel Hill area during this outpouring of Holy Spirit was filled with blessings and the
expectancy was always high. You know, if you didn't get there early you actually could not get in.
Even if you had to stand as you got in, you just leaned against the wall or shifted your weight
but mostly you were caught up in the singing, the praising, the tongues, the interpretation,
the prophecies, the testimonies, the pure joy of gathering together with other people in Jesus' name.
People from almost every denomination were there. They would pray for the sick or people would get
healed through a word of knowledge, one of the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit listed in 1 Corinthians 12.
They would always invite people to accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. And if anyone
wanted the baptism or the infilling of the Holy Spirit, they'd take you into another room and pray
for you personally. One night I took advantage of the opportunity and went for prayer. A man came
over to me, laid his hands on my head, then he said, you're already filled with the Holy Spirit,
you're trying too hard to speak in tongues. Trying too hard I thought. I didn't even know
it was to try. You know, we have these preconceived ideas. I thought that God would overpower me and
I would suddenly find myself speaking in another language. I thought God would make it all happen.
I sure didn't know. I did want to lay to say some sounds but I thought that God was one that forced
it out of you and that you had to feel something. So I didn't want to do anything wrong and wasn't
I supposed to have some kind of glorious feeling or something, you know, which I didn't have.
I wish someone would have instructed me in this matter and that's why today I always inform people
of how you put yourself in a position and what your cooperation with God in the matter is.
Well, the devil, planet, a thought in my mind that any sounds that I may have wanted to make or utter
that they were only words from the Latin mass I had been raised Catholic, okay,
that I had heard growing up. So I didn't attempt to speak them. When I went home to my room all
alone, I said, God, I want everything that you have for me. Please fill me with your Holy Spirit.
Let me speak in tongues. Then I made a sound. I had this thought, you know, what harm is there in
muttering a sound? And so it was like a syllable. I just said a sound. And then I found myself saying
other utterances. And I knew by the witness of the Holy Spirit in my heart that I had received.
I, some people do, but I didn't have any kind of ecstatic sense of the supernatural power of God,
but I knew beyond a shout of a doubt that what I had received was real. In Acts 2, 16 and 17,
this is how Peter explained the unfilling of the Holy Spirit, Pentecost. This is that which was
spoken by the prophet Joel, and it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out
of my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men
shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Listener, have you received this wonderful
experience that is God's will for every born again believer? If not, you can. What would be
your best advice, giving that you felt so lost because you you weren't instructed in how to have
this heavenly language? What would be your best advice to those that are struggling now that
that are at the cusp that they believe but are afraid to have an utterance for whatever reason,
that they're saying gibberish, that they're self-doubting, that that's not God speaking through,
what would be your best advice to give someone? Well, I'd say a couple things. First of all,
talk to other people about their experiences, how they receive, because so many of us are similar.
Another thing is realize that you can't even speak in English if you don't use your voice and your
tongue. So how can you speak in another language if you don't? It's a cooperative thing. We are
God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. And even when we accepted Jesus,
we had to believe in our heart and say with our mouth. So your mouth, your words are always involved
in your faith. The kingdom is voice activated, they say. It actually is. It actually is. And it was so.
I've told people when those things in the restrooms and that came out,
motion activated, faucets and paper towels, I said, well, that's like it is with faith things.
Faith without corresponding actions is dead. Your words have to speak it forth. It helps to
envision it. God's given us this wonderful mind that is sanctified with his word. And that's where
he shows us pictures, visions and things like that. And we can paint a picture with God's words,
you know, and envision it, believe it. The Bible does say without a vision, the people perish,
right? So if you don't have a picture of it in your heart, in your spirit, then how can you
look forward to it happening? So it reminds me of that one story. It's a very brief story of two
farmers that prayed for rain. But one farmer actually planted seeds. So which farmer had greater faith?
The one that planted the seeds, because he knew he had faith that that rain would water his crops,
that he would have a crop come in. So he planted for it. And so, you know, it keep being when he
said that you have to have that faith. You have to have works towards it. You have to move toward
what you believe. And so I think that's a pretty important message for everyone of us.
When I first came to this church, Pastor Robert Owen, a great man of God was a pastor. He shared
his experience with us as a young Welsh boy over in Wales. He said he was sitting up in the balcony
and heard a message about receiving the Holy Ghost. And he said, okay, God, I want this.
And it says in the Acts that when the Holy Spirit came, they, the people began to speak
in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. So by faith, going to speak,
and he began to speak for sounds. And sure enough, there's something it's like priming a pump.
You get something on your, coming out of your mouth almost went into tongues.
And then it comes up out of your spirit. It's wonderful. It's powerful.
And it's yet it's so natural and normal for a Spirit-filled Christian because I spend
most of my day throughout my day. I'm praying in tongues, you know, I'm cutting my grass. And for
hours, I'm just out there speaking in tongues. And when we do that, the Bible says that we are
building ourselves up on our most holy faith by praying in the Holy Ghost. And it also says to
be filled or be being filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in songs and hymns and
spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts unto the Lord. So it's our responsibility
to walk into things of God. He gives us the ability. And it's just like when if you want to be used
in healing, you got to step out and pray for people who need healing. For us, you can't,
it's like the farmer you talked about. You can't see any results. We've seen many miracles with
healing. We've heard many miracles with healing. And I'm a big proponent of you have to try, right?
So if you don't try, you know, like Wayne Gretzky would say, you miss 100% of the shots you don't
take. So who's going to be healed if you don't pray? Nobody, nobody. But if you pray and they're
healed, awesome, if they're not awesome, because you still pray, you still have been a connection.
And God says, Hey, not yet. Yeah, right. And, you know, we get so bent up when we see
in action that we assume it's us. We assume that we did something wrong. We assume and it causes,
I think a lot of us to have a limp. And I think we forget that God is the authority that our faith,
the faith of the person you're praying for, is immaterial compared to the power of God.
God doesn't need our faith. He enjoys it. He enjoys watching us. He enjoys feeling our faith. He
enjoys us coming to him with that faith. He doesn't need it to work. That's not what gives him power.
He had that power already. And so I think we need to keep that in perspective that sometimes our faith
isn't as strong as it should be, but it doesn't, it should not keep us from praying, right? And
praying for more faith. And when you step out to do something, that's when the power is released,
not before, sometimes maybe before. But, you know, when you need it, if you step out,
it's like plugging in our steps of faith or like plugging in to the power of God that is in us.
Can I share another experience? Okay, this happened during those years. And I'm so glad,
like I encourage people write things down because when you write them down, you always have them
to go back to. And I encourage people write a book about your experiences. Anybody can write a book.
Anybody can write a book. So I call this account the Crooked Creek Experience.
There was another young man, well, I had been saved for a year, I guess a year, and there was
this outpouring all over the place, like I said. And there was this young man who had gotten saved
in our time and filled with the Holy Spirit. And he was a carrot red, curly, afro white man
with a beard. His name was David. David was the son of the Presbyterian minister in our time. Uh-oh.
And his mother was a teacher. David was a very independent thinker who endeavored to follow the
Lord down any exciting path. His family had a trailer located a good distance away at a place
called Crooked Creek. Well, David invited me to join him for a week of prayer and fellowship and
fasting as we were led. It seemed good to me. So his mother drove us up in their car and left us
until the week was over. We read our Bibles, we prayed, we talked, laughed. One morning as I
awoke, the Lord said to me, I want you to go to Ford City today. Ford City, I've been there a few
times with some of the prayer group from Mount St. Peter's Church, but I was always a passenger in
the backseat, never paying any attention on how to get there since someone else was always driving.
How was I to get there? Were we anywhere near Ford City? Okay, God, I'll go. But you'll have
to show me how to get there. As I walked outside to tell David, he said to me, I know the Lord told
me you're going to Ford City today. Oh, God works. They had a little kayak type boat and David somehow
hooked a motor to it. And he said the Lord told him to take me up the creek to the river, then
motor up the river until we saw a man on the shore. He would give me directions. So we set out on this
adventure. Sure enough, up a ways we saw a man and David left me off and drove away in the boat.
Talk about faith. Okay, I asked the man if he could tell me how to get to Ford City. He said to go
up over this embankment through this yard and there was Ford City. Wow. Yeah, this is God. When I got
to the street, I thought, no, no, Lord, where should I go? And he said, go into the grocery store
across the street. So lo and behold, I ran into a lady from that prayer group that I'd only been to
a few times. She told me how to get to the church and that there was a prayer meeting that evening.
It was great. And during the meeting, I saw two visions. One was of Lot's wife, when she looked
back and became a pillar of salt. The Lord said, never look back. Never look back. If you do,
you too, in a sense, will be like a pillar of salt and not able to go forward. The second vision
was of Noah's Ark with the words written, trust and obey. Trust and obey. No matter what man may say,
do what I say. Trust and obey. So I shared these words with the group to encourage them in the Lord.
And at the end of the meeting, a couple came to me saying that they didn't always come to that
meeting, but the Holy Spirit told them to come and take a young man to a certain place afterwards.
I shared my story of how I got there, but I sure was depending on God to get me back. Well,
I went with this couple who drove me away and then into a woods. They showed me a railroad
trestle saying that somewhere over that trestle were a couple of trailers. They drove away and
left me. When I carefully began walking over the trestle, then went over the water, a scripture came
to me. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. And you know, I just said that over
and over. And then I looked down at my feet and guiding me was a bluish white light. The word
truly led me over the trestle and through the woods and right to the trailer. Can you trust God?
Absolutely. Implicitly. It's pretty incredible. Like there's a lot of incredible in that leg in
your crooked creek story. I can relate. I've been in the backseat of a car before when people
are going places and I said, all right, let's go. I don't know what that is. I was looking at the
window. I was looking at the fall leaves. I have no idea what road we're on. And for you to get
instead of just driving there, that you take a modified kayak because somebody else had a vision
that you were going to go that way and meet somebody on a bank. And you did. And this person
basically said, it's right behind you. Forty is right here. It's right here. You're here. Welcome
here. And then the Lord tells you to go to a grocery store where you meet someone that's familiar
to you and tells you about the Bible study. At the Bible study, you meet a couple that would
normally not be there that you got to share your story with. And then they lead you to
lead you. It's incredible after incredible after incredible after incredible. That's a powerful
message of how God guides us. And I love that at the end, it seemed that you were a little uncertain
with even with everything that's happened, right? Because you had the scripture come to mind and
you're saying the scripture over and over and over again. And then when you look down, you see the
Lord is a lamp unto your feet. Exactly. Right. You see it. And I'm guessing that that helped
alleviate any other doubts you had for that evening. Absolutely. Completely. I think you're
like, that's it. I'm done Lord. I'm done doubting. How incredible. That's such an enriching story.
I feel really blessed hearing that. It's not often that we get to have physical, tangible things
occur to us from the Lord. Right. We get the word, we get maybe something from someone else that got
placed in someone's heart. We hear a song on the radio. I was like, Oh man, like this is for me.
It's speaking to me, but very rarely do we have these moments where our feet are glowing as we're
walking. And to me, that's a very tangible evidence that God works in our lives. You know,
watching someone be healed, watching a leg be lengthened in front of you. That's a very tangible
experience. And, you know, obviously speaking in tongues, I think the other two, the healing and
the glowing of the feet are harder for us to deny than speaking in tongues because there's still that
air of like, am I doing it right? You know, and if I don't know what I'm saying, right? I think
I'm giving up my heart is in the right place. I'm giving God everything I have, but I don't know
what it is coming out. Right. But with the others, it's clear. God is working. It's clear. There is
no doubt. There is no room for doubt. And, you know, unless you have that burning fire inside of
you when you speak, like, which is not forever, not everybody has that that moment. There are
very few things that God does that are visible for us. And I think it takes such tremendous faith
that he knows we don't need to live off of faith completely that he's willing to reveal himself
for us. He's like, yes, you believe. So here you go. Those of us that have still struggled with
our faith journeys, he gets us not as concrete like that so that we can work on our faith on our
own. I think this is such a powerful motivator for us as believers. There is a place that we can get
to where God is tangible, right? That he operates in this world, not just beyond, but in this world,
right in front of us. And all we have to do is pay attention. All you had to do was look down
to see it. We just have to see where he is. But you had that word on your heart. So you could,
the Holy Spirit could remind you of that too. Right. Somewhere along the line, I had put it in there.
And each, like this didn't all happen at once. You had to take one step at a time to see,
okay, what's next? All right, I did that. What's next? But you were that willing vessel. And then
you got to see the tangible miracles, modern day miracles. That's so neat.
Imagine how you'd have been stopped if you'd have balked at the first one. I need you to
have a fort city. I don't think so. I wouldn't be here sitting today sharing it. Right. And at any
point in that journey, if you just said, Lord, that's just too crazy. I can't. Can you imagine
how different things would be if at any point you hesitated? You were blessed. Others were blessed
by your obedience. I hope that encourages other people to be obedient. That when they hear the
Lord telling them to do something, they do it instead of making excuses. Instead of finding out a
way or trying to tell God, who by the way already knows everything, a reason why you can't do something
to just do it. Right. Yeah. It's through faith and obedience that we inherit the promises of God,
that we walk in the promises of God, His provision, everything. The Holy Spirit is so
vitally important in our walk with God. Yeah. I would hazard to say that it would be impossible
for us to have an experience with Jesus if it was not for the Holy Spirit intervening in our lives.
It would be completely impossible to recognize who God is or the sovereignty of God without the
Holy Spirit being a part of us. I have time to tell you another quick story. Okay. Sharing the Holy
Spirit. Perfect. Okay. The things of the Spirit filled life are new and they're fresh every day.
Being a Roman Catholic, I wanted others in our church to discover what God has freely given.
I was very attentive to every reading of scripture in the church services at the Catholic Church.
The gospel, once you know it, seems so simple. Why weren't people at St. Irenaeus Church getting it?
I thought. Religious tradition was like a turning wheel in a hamster cage. There was a lot of
repetitious movement, but nobody was going anywhere. One night, I read a gospel tract and had a
question about it. So I knocked on the rectory. That's where the priest lived, the door, and was
invited in. The priest was meeting with a man who was a very fast talker and they evidently were in
need of a CCD, Comfort Attorney of Christian Doctor and teacher for the sixth or seventh grade boys.
And I had asked him a question that I had in this tract that I had read in this tract and
he just kind of changed the subject. He never got an answer to it. He said,
how would you like to teach the sixth and seventh grade boys CCD? I was honored and I accepted the
challenge. I always taught them, though, the Bible and what the good news of salvation was.
During this time, I was required to go with our CCD coordinator, lovely lady who lived down the
street from me, Irene Rybecky, once a week to a teacher's class. Irene also was a saved and
spirit-filled believer. Well, a priest and a very skinny, sickly woman who had emphysema and smoked
habitually and coughed incessantly taught the class. They certainly didn't seem to know Jesus
the way that we did. They thought nothing of using a cuss word now and then and we sure tried to get
through to them. One day before Irene picked me up to take me to the class, the Lord said that I was
going to teach the class that night and I was to share about the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
When I told Irene, she got real nervous. She told me she didn't think that would be a good idea and
I better not. When we got to the class with the others, father, so and so, and the sick lady never
showed up. So the stage was set, the door was open and I proceeded to take charge of the class by
engaging the class in conversation about the Holy Spirit. Irene and I shared our experiences and a
couple of people received the baptism in the Holy Spirit just like God said. Well, we never saw the
priest again. Unfortunately, it turned out he ran off with a well-known older godly man's wife who
was beautiful and younger than her husband. I only tell this because not everyone who is in a place
of authority necessarily knows the Lord, will know them by their fruits and hopefully these
individuals repent it and they, that they too, I pray, receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
But the Holy Spirit, how he leads us and their adventures, every day adventures in God.
You never know what you're going to get, but you know it's going to be good. Yeah, I always say
God is always up to something good, always. Well, you know, he takes what the enemy meant for evil
and uses it for his good. Right. It's the only language he knows is good and so he can make
your worst day good. Right. That Jeremiah 29, 11 through 14, you know. For I know the thoughts and
plans I have for you says the Lord. Plans only for good, not for evil, always to bring you to an
unexpected end. When you seek me and search for me with all your heart, I will be found of you
and I will turn away your captivity. I think a lot of us get stuck in our moments and we forget.
I know not my wife and I because we've gone through some things with God knows. We know,
we shared it in other podcasts, but we went through without any incident. We went through without
losing faith. We went through without going at each other or treating each other as an enemy to each
other. We went through things that some people would crippled by the fear of and he delivered us.
We went through 27 and a half months of unemployment, no income at all. And we always had what we
needed when we needed it. Sometimes it was in that five day grace period of like, hey, you got to
pay it or you're not, but it was always, always, always, always we had it through happenstance,
through, hey, would you be willing to paint this? Sure. I should have written down how all the weird
ways that money came. And it was just like one thing worked together with another as woven together.
And it was just amazing that I wish I would have written everything down. And so now can bring
it all back to you. Oh yeah, I'm sure. Bring it all back. I'm thinking of the time I got. I worked
at a Walmart for two weeks and there was a lawsuit that I knew nothing about and all of a sudden I
had 400, yeah, two weeks. Yeah, I hated it. They did not treat their employees well. They were not
looking to better themselves. They were looking for servitude. And anyway, I got $410 from a lawsuit.
I knew nothing about three years after I worked there. You know, and here we go. How are we going
to do this mailbox money? Thank you, Jesus. Right. And so now when we have things that happen, like,
you know, when I lose my job and I go get another one, nobody's worried. Nobody's upset.
Right. I look at it. This is a vacation. I'm going to have some time off. I'm going to enjoy my time
off. I'm going to enjoy my unfettered time that I can do things. I can go out with my son and
walk the neighborhood and talk about where God made this and God did this. Like this was a beautiful
time. Beautiful time. That's in everything you thanks because it's God's will for us to give
thanks in every situation. And when we do that, things don't get cluttered with the fears and
the unbeliefs and the doubts because our mind has stayed on him. And we trust in him. He keeps us in
perfect peace. I had the mindset that I don't know what he's going to do with me tomorrow.
But I know what he did with me yesterday. Right. And I know that he is faithful. And he holds
tomorrow. That's right. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what tomorrow holds so long as he's in it
with me. I don't care what tomorrow has. I don't care about the pain that could possibly be because
I know that I have him. And I wish more people had that, that more Christians had that stance.
I've met many a fearful Christian and I thought, how can this be? I'm very blessed
to have gone through the things. I know my wife is blessed to have gone through hardships because
it has only gone as closer to God. Yeah, you definitely have to look for the good in it. Even
a red light. Like, oh, I have time to do some more makeup or time to pray for somebody. You know,
just look for the good in that time. Like you could be avoiding an accident because of that red
light. It might be making you late. But what's the good from it? You know, I actually shared with
one of my coworkers the other day, she had shared with me a story about how she followed the GPS to
get to Children's Hospital with a patient in the back that was not doing well. And she knew to go a
different way, but GPS had her go another that said it would save her extra amount of time because
of traffic. And she followed the GPS instead. And she felt bad that she didn't go the right, the one
way. Even though the one way was so clogged that it said 54 minutes and she got there in 26 minutes,
right? And she felt bad that she didn't do what she thought she had to do. And I shared with her
that maybe she was being saved from something that she's not a believer from something that she
didn't know was down the road. The very next day, she was late for work. She woke up late on accident,
came to work only to find out that her partner that day, paramedic, had a doctor's appointment. So
her being early would have been pointless. And so I got to share as like, it sounds like someone's
trying to prove something to you, right? You clearly needed the rest and all things work out for his
good. Right. And I got to be able to share that with her like, not everything at surface level,
what you think it is. Sometimes you're spared things because you're supposed to be spared things.
And so it really made her think and something else happened that day that it's not coming to
memory right now that I was like, remember, right? I got to throw that in there again is like, look
at this. And so there's been a lot of positive reinforcement with that. Good. I love these stories
and bringing God's goodness to the world. It's my jam. It certainly is the name of your podcast.
Yes, God's goodness. Now, if you'd like to come along and partner with us and help us with our
podcast, expense, audio expenses, we have a fundraising campaign in giftsandgo.com. And if
you look up God's goodness podcast, you'll find us there. And there's other ways to give if you
reach out to me. We do other ways too. So if you're more comfortable with those, we can work that out.
And we would greatly appreciate all the help and prayers. And also if you were blessed by this
or any of our episodes, we ask that you send it along to a friend. And also if you rate it,
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ask that you do that as well. And with that, we'll talk to you next time.