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Welcome to the God's Goodness podcast where our mission is to encourage and highlight God's

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Goodness and modern-day miracles. We are your hosts, Josh and Shelley Hankins. Today we have

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with us a referral actually of God's madcap missionary, Wendy Lawson. She had recommended

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Michael Boyd to be on the show with us. He's actually been a speaker at the men's breakfast,

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so some of you may already know him and we're going to have him open us up with an opening prayer.

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Oh, thank you. Dear Heavenly Father, I just thank you for this day. I thank you for this

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sunny day and I thank you for this podcast. So I just ask you right now in the name of Jesus to

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cover us right now as I speak, Lord. Allow my voice to speak through you, Heavenly Father,

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and I just pray and I thank you and I give you all the glory in the name of Jesus. I pray, amen.

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Amen. Thank you. Thank you for being with us and coming on. Wendy was impressed by your story and

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thought it could actually benefit others, so we wanted to have you on. Thank you. So where would

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you like to start? Well, first I would like to start off by saying, before my mother passed away,

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she had 23 years clean from drugs and alcohol, and my father who was still with me is a strong

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Christian that have a nice Christian group called Voices for Christ. And the reason why I talk,

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I say that in the beginning because when I give my story, it talks about the foul things that I've

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been through with my childhood. And I don't want people to think that my mom still do drugs and

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stuff like that because she don't. And being I'm the oldest child, I experienced her changing her

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life and I experienced Christ changing her life. And that was my first witness of Christ changing

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my mom. As a young child growing up in the Hill District, it was like a bittersweet type situation

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because I was used to everything backwards. Hate was love, love was hate. It was like a dysfunction

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junction. My mom was 14 years old when she had me, but she was always out in the street life,

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so my grandmother raised me. And in her household, I would be confused because I would see the TV say,

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say no to drugs and then I look in the kitchen and they're drinking and smoking and partying.

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So I was confused. So my childhood was robbed from playing in the playground and

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rattling bikes replaced with shooting dice and being around the pimps and players listening to

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their lingo and that type nature. So I fell in love with that. So as I started getting older,

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my grandmother passed away in front of me. She had a stroke and you know, my mom at that time,

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she just had me. So she was still young. So we started going house to house. So that was my

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time to learn to run from our problems because we would go from house to house to house and nothing

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was, how can I say that, structured because everybody was partying and everybody got high.

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And this is what I seen at a young age. And as I continue on talking, I just pray that people

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that's listening that you be covered from this because poverty is real. And I don't want people

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to fall in love with my ignorance at that time because some people fall in love with ignorance.

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I want you to fall in love with the praise of my conversation. But at that time growing up,

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like I said, my childhood was robbed. So I was always seeing adult things. I always see like my

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mom changing to like hope or clothes and always go out and I would be home by myself. Then she got

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pregnant by another guy. And after she had my little brother, I was just have to watch him

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because he was never around. So I was like a brother father type situation. And then she got

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pregnant again. So it was five of us. And I tell you, it was like a hurtful at the same time

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blessing because I was happy to be alive. But at the same time, it was hurtful because we never

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had food because I always experienced my mom always party and and drowsy. Like, how do I say

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that? Not from the drugs of heroin. So she would be not from that and me being the oldest brother,

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I used to have to go out and steal from different stores and robbed to make sure they eat.

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It was really sad at that time because I really wanted to go out and be a child, but I couldn't

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because I had to make sure my little brothers and sisters eat because my mom was always happy.

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So as I started getting older, I started running away. And I started running away,

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hanging around with guys that was raised like me, no food, no money. All we had was each other.

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So we went from stealing dogs to fighting dogs to stealing cars. From stealing cars,

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we went to then we started selling drugs. And you have growing up, you had different type of

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hustlers. You had people that sold drugs. Then you have people that sold drugs and robbed people.

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I hung around with people that sold drugs and robbed people. I fell in love with it.

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I had that a drilling and rush by putting a gun in my hand and asking people for their money to

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take it home to my little brothers and sisters. So as I started getting older, I started getting

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good at what I do, robbing people. And I'm not going to, I'm never going to forget this night.

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It was a night where when you're out in the different areas in the hood, they tell you

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different things that you're not supposed to do. Like if you're driving in a car,

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you're not supposed to drive with three or four people. That's how you get pulled over.

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I just bought this Marnie Carlo and a friend of mine who allowed me to stay at his house sometimes

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was like, Hey man, I need a ride. But I was like, you can't because I got three people with me.

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You told me don't ride three or four deep. And he cussed me out. And this one under peer pressure

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was real. So I felt bad. And as I was walking down the hill for him cussing me out, I see three guys

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in a court. And I'm like, Hey man, what you guys doing? They said, dude, would you like to make a

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couple of dollars to give us a ride? And I was like, Hey, my friend already cussed me out. So yeah,

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I'll give you a ride. But I didn't know that was going to go rob a bank. So as I'm driving,

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those guys are cocking our guns. And I'm like, Oh man, I didn't sign up for this. And they were like,

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Hey, would you like to come with us? And being that I didn't have like no father role model,

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or nobody to tell me to just say no, something I will say yes. So I said yes to their, you know,

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yes to them asking me to go rob. So I ended up going with them. I went from being a driver to

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going in the robbery with them. And from that robbery, they didn't tell me that I have no

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wear masked. They just told me to just hold the gun and point the gun at them and get the money.

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So I ended up doing that. And I'm seeing my face. And now my face is all over the news.

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You talking about hurt, like scared, confused. I was so hurt. Like now I'm like, now I'm on the

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news. My family's mad. Now I'm going to run because I didn't want to turn myself in at that time.

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Oh, man. So my dad, who I got in contact with had me turn myself in. And then I'm going to get

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in seven and a half to 15 years in prison. And from that time in prison, it was like a scary but

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comfortable situation. And that's where my friends are at. So I got my time. And you can find Jesus

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in jail as well. We've had a lot of guests find Jesus at the Allegheny County jail. Yes, you can

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find Jesus. Is that where you went by chance? Well, that was that was the first headquarters.

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But it went from juvenile was my elementary. Allegheny County was my high school.

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Weston Penitentiary was my college. So I ended up going through the county. They sent me to

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seven after 15 years. Once it can't peel. Now I'm in here with grown ups. Now I'm like holy

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guacamole because I'm not used to this. Where it's a whole different world. You got gangs. You got

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men turned to women. It's just sad. It's a whole different world in there. And you have to choose

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wisely in those type of situations. You either open up that Bible and don't close it. Or you

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end up in a game because you have to have somebody in there because because if you're

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lonely in there by yourself, you're gonna be getting hurt really bad. So I chose Christianity.

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And it was the best choice ever made because going to church and that other Christians,

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they just have preachers come in and speak to us. It was pretty cool. But I didn't learn my lesson

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there because I ended up getting out and it was still hard. No food, no money. And then my younger

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brother wanted to be just like me and I'm getting more time than me. He ended up getting 17 and a

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half to 30 years because he wanted to be just like me. And he had 16 shootings. So it's sad to

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talk about him sometime because I've never really got a chance to hug him and say I love you to my

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brother because he was always separated through incarceration. But I ended up getting out of

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prison and I started doing the same thing over and over again selling drugs, robbing people

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until I got shot. I got shot in my back because a childhood friend shot me in my back because I

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thought I can trust him. And thank God I didn't die but I ended up going to California to the

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hospital because I didn't want to go to the hospital here because they would start asking

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questions. So I went to the hospital in California, they patched me up and I stayed with my uncle for

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a while. Then I started moving around California but I was bored. I was missing Pittsburgh so much.

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And my uncle was like you can't bring Pittsburgh down here. It's a totally different world because

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the gang violence will grab you and just you won't be the same. So I kind of listened to his advice

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and I'm going back to Pittsburgh because I didn't want that gang violence there because it's a little

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different to Pittsburgh gang violence than California gang violence. It's a totally different

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ball game because of the cultures. Yes because that's where everybody that's where it started at

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California. Pittsburgh is imitation of that and I didn't really want to get involved with that

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because I just fell in love with robbing people and just hanging on my own little affiliation.

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I was so used to that but just doing drive-bys and stuff like that that wasn't my thing.

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So coming back to Pittsburgh I met my first daughter's mom and she was nice but I wasn't

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really ready to settle down yet because of my activities I was into. So she got tired of my mess

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and says you know what you got to go. I was like please don't leave me. So she ended up quitting

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me and I'm meeting my wife that I have now who is a Christian. The difference between my first

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daughter's mother and my wife now is that I was doing the same thing with my first daughter's mom

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running on the streets acting the fool but my wife now grabbed the hold of me and started praying

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over me. Praying over me asking Jesus to clean me up and cover me and she took me over her grandmother's

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house who's a strong Christian woman and she gave me a spiritual weapon. I'm talking about from the

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top of my head to the bottom of my feet and she told me Jesus is the way. So I start changing

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slowly but surely the guys that I used to hang around with I start praying and asking God to

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remove them away from me and I will try my best to stay out of trouble. So I went from me hanging

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with my friends every day to them not calling my phone. I'm like man they ain't calling me what's

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going on. So I had to start calling them like hey man what's going on buddies why don't you call

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me and they were telling me what they're into but something was telling me not to do it and I

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was like all right man we gotta go without me and the prayers start working. Sounds like it. Yes so I

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went from me hanging with them every day and me asking God to please remove them to them stop calling

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me. So me and my wife got married we've been married 11 years we have a beautiful daughter

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and she had two children before I met her so total I have four children. All girls? Three girls one

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boy and two dogs. Perfect buddy. Yes yes yes but can I back up a little bit? Yeah okay this is when

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I knew God had his hand on me because we used to throw little block parties okay and that was

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with a little crew called MOB and we used to go to different neighborhoods and rob people jump out

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the car with a gun take belongings and whatever and go back to the hill. This for the one particular

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night we had a block party and my crew pulled up and said what's up man we're going to the South

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Sack you coming and I was like no I'm not coming this night because I'm trying to get on the girls.

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So like oh man it was calling me all kind of punks and stuff oh man I'm like I'm not going.

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So the next morning I'm seeing a lot of my friends crying I'm like what are you guys crying for?

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They said you didn't hear? I'm like no what? They said your best friend Dilan got killed and I'm like

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what? But someone told me not to go okay and lo and behold my best friend Dilan got killed.

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I'm sorry to hear that. Yeah me too I mean he was a good guy but we don't listen to those

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callings to tell you don't do it the consequence is going to be hell or jail you know and

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sometimes we got to learn from those type of situations so we can make better decisions for

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ourselves and that was the first time I experienced my one of my best friends Dilan through the things

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that I was doing in my life then after a while I started getting numb to death because I thought

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it was pretty much the thing to do because everybody was dying especially from the activities that we

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were into so he ended up dying then my other friend that was in the crew ended up dying

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and from the same type situation robbing people because that's all we were known for our crew was

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known for smashing grabbing stores to jacking people and I only have two friends at it I crewed

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today it was seven of us and they all either all of them did and maybe one's in prison during life

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because of our activities the other two are pretty much out hustling and you know doing the same

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old ignorance but Christ changed me and that's the big picture of it all if I can tell anybody

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first through my conversation in this podcast that don't fall in love with the ignorance that

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I'm talking about because when I was young I fell in love with the ignorance and the ignorance

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kept my journey in a dark place and it took me a long time to get it but I have it in the name

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of Jesus I thank him for that because I thought what I was doing was okay because I didn't have any

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positive role models the role models I had well it was like manipulators one minute they would say

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go to school get your education next minute hey come here you hold this package for me

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I'm like oh you just told me you go to school to get my education you're not making any sense

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so it was like a crabs in a barrel type situation they didn't want to see nobody come out of that

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so I just thank God that I make it made it to see 50 years old I've been through so much just

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living in a jungle and God covered me through this jungle it's truly a blessing because I

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didn't see so many people get shot I don't see so many people start doing drugs just lost in the

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system and the only way you can get out of that is through Jesus so what I do now is I'm a youth

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director so all the things that that I've been through I try to get back to the inner cities

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and what I'm learning to do is not to put pressure but to put praise because pressure

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buzz pipes and some people don't want to change some people just want to just grow up and die

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without God and some people want it but they have to see your pure heart so a couple of things I had

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to do was I had to stop smoking a weed second thing I had to do is I had to stop drinking

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because I didn't want to be a walking contradiction I didn't want to say hey you stop smoking weed

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then I go home and I'm smoking a joint I didn't want to I didn't want to start that so I had to

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clean myself up first so when I do talk to people they can see a pure heart in me not perfect not

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about a long shot but all the things that I wanted to do as a child I'm doing now I had so many cars

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growing up but I didn't have no driver's license now I have my driver's license yeah

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it's the little things just the little things that you're supposed to do but instant gratification

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is real and if you're not taught to do the right things you're going to do the wrong thing so you

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can get it even if you are taught temptation is very difficult right so if you haven't been taught

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what chance do you have like almost none yes almost no chance without somebody being there for you

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yeah it's really hard it's really hard well it's hard if you make it hard to me

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and in my situation I knew that you got to look both ways before you cross the street

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or you'll get hit by a car but I would just cross the street anyway not even caring

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and I did that for a long time just being a crash dummy until I got tired because you can feel lonely

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now I'm a happy loner with Christ I don't have a lot of friends now but the friends I do have that

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God put my life they're married men they're not the cheaters the players that I like hanging around

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like I used to like hanging around I got a couple of married friends Phil and Pat who I love dearly

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through his church a Pittsburgh South Alliance church and it's an awesome awesome guys and

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we talk about life love leadership we talk about it all when you're ministry with these young

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gentlemen is it just young youth men or is it women and young ladies as well so do they have

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like a certain level of respect they give you because you've gone through it versus someone who is

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you know fresh off the bus with their little I don't know cute suit on and just waving at him

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smiling without ever knowing a struggle when I first started they didn't I had to keep coming

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every week and me talking to them about different things now they're like that's him then yes they

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still smoke weed yes they're still into the little things that they're into but God can only take

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care of that I can only plan to see and let Jesus water it but they do listen and I believe they

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listen and they do respect me when they see me hi mr. Mike how you doing today they're very respectful

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and I love it mm-hmm I truly love it yeah that's nice yeah I wouldn't expect kids to change your

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behavior overnight you know it took you how many years say I'm so grateful to hear that you do that

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for the youth in your area it is difficult to find a lot of people with a heart for

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disenfranchised poverty stricken peoples let alone just the kids and you come to it from

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a place of knowledge of a place of knowing what it's like to go to bed hungry a place that knows

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what it's like to not have a father figure immediately present every day to help reinforce

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certain things you come from a place where you know what it's like to have drama with your

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apparent and to learn horrible lessons like all the things that it could be taught you picked up

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all the wrong ones I really respect that you went through that and don't want someone else to go

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through that I was thinking the other day of like heroes and villains right like hero origin stories

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villain or they're always the same whatever makes a hero and a villain is the same it's it's a story

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of tragedy trauma loss except what a villain does is they they want to hurt other people so other

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people hurt like them or as a hero says I don't want anyone to ever hurt like me again and so for

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these kids you are a hero under that premise of what I'm speaking yes sir so I'm very glad that you

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glad that you do that that these these kids these young adults they really need positive in their

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life yes they need Jesus yes they need God but they have you to deliver it to them and I am very

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grateful for people like you we use specifically because you're sitting here I'm very grateful to

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you for what you do that's a sacrifice of your time of your emotional state of your spirit of

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your physical body like you are sacrificing daily for them and this is how God wants us to treat

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each other exactly I'm very happy to have met you thank you this shows the importance of relationships

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because you know if you didn't have since you didn't have the relationship with your father

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you went to the next best thing and it was that family that you created with those other brothers

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in the hood so to speak and then the power of the praying wife over you and the power of Jesus

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changing you gradually and you're like mmm and then now you're quality over quantity in friends and

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that's the way to go is quality for sure because you only have so much of yourself to give you

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only have so much in your cup and when your cup is in full you're not worth anything to anybody

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so you want to be filled with Jesus and be able to pour into those relationships for others

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so I think that's just it's highlighted in this story can you see the definitive change

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between the way you were growing up in the way that your son and daughters are growing up now

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it's like it's night and day right it's a truly a blessing and the reason why I say it's a blessing

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because I have excellent kids they're not perfect but they're excellent in my eyes they all work

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two of them got their own place they're responsible they all got the driver's license

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and they listen to me they listen to me and if I can give any advice to any parents

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look for warning signs please look for warning signs for babies because they might sometimes

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they might want to this they might not want to talk but their body is telling something different

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so I pray right now in the name of Jesus to look for warning signs for our babies and give

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your children a hug hugs are so important to our children right now so important so I pray that

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mothers and fathers give their kids a hug I agree with that amen I've heard before in this sort of

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practice we like to use in our house that you spell love to a child T I M E and by giving your time

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you are creating an atmosphere of love in their hearts that they know that they're seen and I

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think that's very important that we know as people we're seen especially as young people

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and we don't have to be seen in a light of wonderfulness and perfectness just to be seen

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at all by someone who's not going to judge you who's going to come to you where you are who's

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going to love on you anyway like Jesus would and then we have people like you and and other people

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in your ministry that also come to them where they are and love them with Jesus in and through them

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and and that's a perfect place with imperfect people and that's great I love the variety of

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guests we have it's just so neat because God can do anything he can change any life and with him

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everything changes truly like night and day so how old were you when and it didn't take obviously

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but when you were in jail and you first read your bible and you first started believing that Jesus

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could be away how old are you at that point well I knew about Jesus as a young child because of my

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grandmother and my grandfather but to really focus on Jesus I was a grown man I could actually say

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in my 30s so I could actually listen to him but as a child I see my grandmother drink and after

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she drinks she would burp up scriptures I'm sorry that's all right it's all right yes we're all

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yes you're talking about spirits and scriptures as soon as she drank her bottle in jay you'd be like

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what in the world but as a child I've seen so much pain and praise and the Lord just in my household

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because we didn't have anything all we had was music prayer and pain all in that in one little

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house and I've seen it but that's where I was confused that because I will see my family pray

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help me Jesus help me Jesus and at that time it was still being in that situation

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I didn't understand the pray for comfort in that now I understand what comfort comes from because

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I live in a jungle now and I'm covered in the name of Jesus I'm not worrying about what's going on

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now because I know Jesus got me and my family yes so yeah 100% yeah that's great I think it's so

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tremendous that you also overcame misrepresentation of Jesus through people who are fallible which

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you know I also did not come to Jesus fully until my 30s as well because I was my not not for any

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like my my origin story is not as dark as yours but I was taught to not like Christians I was

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taught to treat them in a different light and to challenge them at every point and and I think

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it's great because now I I know what the arguments are now go ahead I already know I already had

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that one it's one of the first things I went to when I accepted Christ is I want to know the truth

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of what I was attacking oh that's real and so people people can't come at me with those because

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I already know been there and done that okay yep so when did you realize that this the gut feeling

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when you had not to go places when did you realize oh my gosh that's been the Holy Spirit the Lord

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has been trying to talk to me all my life like when did you realize oh that's the Lord speaking to me

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well that's a good question but just married to my my wife now I just really been focusing on

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the Lord and listening so maybe 20 years ago that I really start focusing on the Lord and him

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dealing with me that's when I knew that God is with me and I'm truly thankful for him being with me

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because when you've been through so much like myself and you fall in love with negativity

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you're so used to that dysfunction and when you listen to somebody say no no more and I stopped

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doing all that and people get mad at you because you're not doing a dysfunction no more you know

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something change and I had to stop listening to the dysfunction that I was I fell in love with

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because that was killing me spiritually so I say about 20 years ago after I met my wife and

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through the little trials and tribulations I had with her and then the prayers and then me

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listening to the prayers and then me acting on the prayers that's when I knew that Jesus is real

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I love that she beat you gently with prayer oh my goodness just just paraded you with it and pounded

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you with it like wheeled in scripture like a kudril against you and she did it so softly you had no

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idea that it was an attack from her man and I thank God for my wife I mean we're like day and night

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we're was the opposite but opposite attract and I love her so much for just her just having a patience

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the patience and I'm glad that she's saying something in me because sometimes you could be

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so blind you don't even see the goodness that you have in yourself and I'm glad that she let me know

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that I'm a good person because I will always use the excuse I ain't nobody I ain't nothing I will

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always say that and I am somebody you are yes and you are absolutely yes and the prayers worked

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so now I'm thankful truly thankful you know every single one of us is somebody that God saw so much

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worth in us in our failures that he still sent his son to die for us right so who are you well

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I'm a child of God who else would send their son for me you know would you sacrifice your son for

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somebody and be a lot harder for us I think then imagine how hard it was for God not for somebody

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for everybody right it doesn't matter what you did he sent a son for you because you know deep down

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God can't imagine spending eternity without you that's it that's you it's always been you you're the

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one and that applies to everybody God is so tenderhearted that I envision him like a kid on Christmas

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morning you can't wait for his parents to wake up for us to spend eternity with him like just

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an excitement right the air of excitement the smell of excitement like electricity in the air that he's

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like when that day comes and you're all before me singing praises to me and glory to me I am going

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to be so happy to see each and every one of your smiling faces that to me is a tremendous thought

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that you know we always think of this servitude for God and we forget the fact that he created us

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for that relationship so he wants this relationship too and it's not one-sided like he cannot wait to

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see us mm-hmm man say something absolutely okay now my mom she got busted with drugs and she ended

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up the one time in Muncie and she told me when she seen those women in there she wouldn't herself

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open that Bible up and it didn't close it mm-hmm okay and when she got out of Muncie

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God just blessed her so much because she went from shooting heroin to going back help another

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heroin addicts she became a drug counselor she's ended up doing so much for Jesus it was like man

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she went back to where she started getting high and helping other people helping them get housing and

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oh man it was just a wonderful sight to see me being the oldest child seeing my mom we living

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in drug houses from her always night and from the dope to her up and giving people hope it was

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awesome to see I bet that was very awesome awesome yes you know we hear the warriors for God but she

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was like a commando for Christ yes she was in it truly because she knew what it was yes she knew

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who the enemy was in that she knew she experienced the enemy so she knew how to save people from it

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she knew how to direct people out of the hole towards Jesus because she experienced it yep you

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know praise God for people like her who use their experience to bring the kingdom forward

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yeah my father funny little story that I guess when he got out of the army I was so

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anxious to meet my father who can't deny me because I look just like him so I ended up running away

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and going to the south side to look for him ended up finding him he was in the court talking to his

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buddy one day and I was like are you my dad they just started crying like oh my god you're Michael

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so we end up getting close but he couldn't handle me because of my my behaviors I was so

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I fell in love with stealing cars and and he wasn't used to that as a child like and it didn't have

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you for a lot right he didn't know how you didn't know who you were really correct so I couldn't

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take you have to stop that no you got to be good I'm like what please I'm gonna go do this I'm

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gonna do that so I didn't stay with him long but we got it as I start getting older I start getting

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a good relationship with him but I ran away from home and I'm going back to my mom on the hill

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because I wasn't used to how can I say that constructive criticism or I wasn't used to

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discipline that's the word I didn't want discipline at all so I ran away from my dad because I wasn't

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used to the discipline and went back to the ignorance the easiness the easiness yes but

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it had his own challenges yep so which hard do you want to choose and choose your heart man yep and

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as I got older and I'm going back to my dad you see it was like a boomerang of love you

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thought a boomerang out it's gonna go right back to you so his prayers work because as I got older

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and I'm going back to him and then my crime that I did that robbery I went to my dad and my dad

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prayed over me and had me turn myself in and then that's when Christ started working with me

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and changing my life then I started having Bible studies in jail and then I got a certificate

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to bend like holding Bible studies it was just beautiful mm-hmm yep that's amazing I love that

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story I love where your mom fits in I love where your dad fits in I love the transform it's a

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transformation for your whole family yep right and so many people are blessed as a result of it not

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just the immediate part of your family but everybody whose lives you touch everybody's

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lives your mom touched everybody who's ever listened to your father speak about the Bible

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right all these lives have been changed because of your family what a legacy I can't wait to see that

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in the kingdom right like hey I want to see his legacy here let's see what this is oh my goodness

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is like 350,000 people here it's amazing can you imagine how many people are going to be touched

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by the people you touch yes it's truly awesome I tried to I'm gonna say save my brother because we

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had like a can and able relationship mm-hmm he was like so upset with me not going back to the ignorance

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and he stayed there so you remember I told you the judge gave him 17 and 30s 30 some years

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God blessed him to get out but he was so institutionalized that he didn't want to change

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he only knew one way so he got out from doing all that time for those young guys to kill him

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and they killed him because people were scared of him he didn't want to change his life all he

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wanted was to do crime and install fear in people and I told him man you got to change your life

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man you need Christ in your life mm-hmm it's like man I ain't going back to jail I said yeah we know

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man I'm sorry to hear about that too my man yeah yep that's rough how many years ago was that

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actually this just happened maybe three years ago so this is a fresh one fresh one man like

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my mom passed it seemed like God knew what was going on because he called my mom home first

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so she probably had to deal with all this pain so he called my mom home my brother got out of prison

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from doing all that time to get killed it was just like come on we have to accept Christ

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there's no other way you have to change because these are the end times everything you can just

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see it you can smell it this is crazy everywhere you look everywhere you look the heart of people

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the the things that we do the things that we cries acceptable and the things that we decree is

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unacceptable man you're right there are definite signs in the hearts of the people yep I'm glad

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that there are people like you that are help putting it back together trying you know every day

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God never said everyone's gonna make it to heaven I'm sure that's ideal right but narrow is the road

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and few are those that find it and so I'm glad that you are pointing the way that you're standing

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in front of that road and waving your arms for anybody that'll come to you and leading them

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down that narrow road I'm glad that there are people like you out there thank you Jesus wants

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that relationship with all of us and one of the important things that the Holy Spirit won't let me

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let go of is you had mentioned Michael something about listening and when you hear the Holy Spirit

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your gut if you're you're like oh that's my instincts well that's the Holy Spirit speaking to you

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and one of the ways you get closer to somebody and build that relationship with them is spending

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time with them like you said with the kid T I M E but then also listening because you don't build

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that relationship with somebody with you talking the whole time you have to let them speak back to

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you correct and you'll be amazed at what God says when you sit there and actually listen like you

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can ask a question and then sit and be quiet and wait for him to answer you it's amazing so just

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find that special place even if it's bathroom and so he can speak to you because he can give you

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such revelation that's life changing for not only you but then others and then you have that legacy

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all because you listened and built that relationship so so good well do you have anything else

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you want to answer oh I feel good I'm grateful no bomb it's amazing how God can just change everything

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from feeling a lot of nothingness and having not good things in your life to the abundant life

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God wants that abundant life for us I'm really proud of you thank you thank you very much I'm

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really proud of you thank you it takes a special kind of person to overcome so much and be obedient

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it takes a special kind of person to do that and I'm very proud of you I'm very proud of where

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you've come from and where you are now thank you and I look forward to seeing where you're going

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oh man to the top in Jesus name one more thing like I tell the kids in my program that they're

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saving my life not only am I trying to save their life when I come every Thursday and Friday to

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speak to them and they listen to me speak that's helping me because where I came from it was wild

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and dangerous and for me to change my life for Christ and I got 30 kids looking at me and I'm

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talking to them that's a blessing from God and for them to listen to me man truly awesome

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yep thank you for sharing your story with us I appreciate that and I hope the listener appreciated

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it as well if you feel blessed by this episode we ask that you pass it along to a friend and also

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we have a fundraising campaign that helps with our audio expenses so if you go to gifsengood.com

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and look up God's goodness podcast you can give there or you can reach out to me and give other

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ways we have Venmo and PayPal and then also if you could rate it in Spotify or iTunes that will

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also help the algorithm note that people are liking it and it'll pass it out to more people and then

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more people can be encouraged and with that we'll talk to you next time