Hey there!
Welcome to the God's goodness podcast.
We are your hosts, Josh and Shelly Hankins, and we're here to share real stories of God's
power.
Stories of hope, healing and miracles that will strengthen your faith.
No matter what you're walking through, we want to remind you that God is good and He's
still moving today.
Let's dive in!
Today we have with us a special guest.
He's back again.
He's Pastor Rick Kardell.
You'll know him from sharing his 20th century adventures stories, even though we're in
the 21st century.
But they're still just as good as ever.
They are, I think they call that evergreen content, when you can listen whenever and
it'll still be powerful.
So with that, we're going to have Pastor Rick open us up with an opening prayer and then
we'll get into some more of God's goodness.
Holy Spirit, once again, we welcome you.
We know that we're so totally dependent upon you.
So we ask that the words of our mouth and the mentations of our heart will be acceptable
in thy sight, O Lord, our strength, in our Redeemer, in Jesus' name.
Amen.
I'd like to start by telling you a story about a flicker, a flicker prayer, F-L-I-C-K-E-R.
This is a story about how one time when I was on CTV Cornerstone television, I'm going
to share my testimony years ago.
So I'll start by saying this.
It was all working for the Lord at Bell Telephone.
And I always wore a nice suit, usually three-piece and a large cross of nails.
It was the same one that I wore at Mercy Hospital when I worked there.
I was certainly not ashamed of the Lord and the Lord used it to open doors to witness
the people.
One day, as I got on the elevator to go to the supply room, I met a Jewish man named
Spencer.
He commented on the cross and I said, there was a great story behind it.
And if he gave me his name and address, I'd send it to him.
He did and I put a typed version of my testimony and some other things to win him to Jesus
in an 8.5 by 11 brown envelope.
Somehow I lost his address and I couldn't send it.
But I believed that I would see him again year after year passed, yet I held on to that.
The total of five years went by and one day I saw him in the supply room.
I ran back to my office and delivered him the package.
I think it was in the 1980s that I was invited to share my testimony on Cornerstone television.
I took some intercessors with me, Chuck and Kathy Byers.
On the way up, we were praying both in English and in other tongues for the anointing of God
and the success of this ministry.
Someone prayed, Lord, let people that are flicking stations stop and watch and get ministered
to.
A while later, as I was sitting at my desk at work, I got a call from Spencer.
It was down in the lobby and asked if he could come up and talk.
Now, our office was one big open room with two desks here, up a few more feet, two more
desks, so others could hear our conversations.
No privacy at all.
No.
Spencer sat down and wept as he told me that he and his wife had divorced.
After a time, she called and invited him to a hotel.
He thought maybe they would get back together.
When he fell asleep, he was awakened by a loud thud.
She had brought a sledgehammer to kill him, but she missed.
Praise God for that.
She of course was now in jail.
Spencer went on to say that he met a young prostitute on the street.
He felt sorry for her and he took her in.
Soon, he found out she was on drugs and he said that he stooped so low that in the middle
of the night, he would go up into the Hill District to get drugs.
Then one day, as he was coming into the living room where she was flicking stations, he saw
me.
They watched.
He told her how he knew me and I had held a package for him for five years.
She told him that years before when she was on drugs, she went to what was Al Rowan's
Church in McKeesport and got saved and instantly delivered.
He said, well, if it worked before, it'll work again.
They went to a revival there and he told her that he would go to the altar with her and
if it worked, he would give his life to Jesus.
God was truly working.
The woman went to rehab and Spencer became a changed man.
I trust he's truly surrendered his life to Jesus.
He was touched by the love of the people who had known her before and how they embraced
her back.
I praise God for Romans 826, which says, likewise, the spirit also helped with our infirmities,
for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the spirit itself make an intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
So we say, thank you, Holy Spirit, for giving us the flicker prayer.
It proved to be most effective and only you know how many other flickers benefited from
it.
So there you got it.
You know, like you just mentioned before with the ripple effect in the water.
Like you don't know who you've reached.
And if you hadn't met this person, right, and he had still found Jesus, you would never
know that it was because of you.
You would never know.
Well, you would eventually when you're staying before the throne of God, right?
I think we all, well, not all, but I think a lot of Christians are worried about being
in front of God, right?
They're like, all right, here we are.
This is it.
He's going to bring back everything.
And I think we fail to miss the part where he's going to bring back all the things that
we missed that were perfect and awesome and lovely.
And he's going to shower us with phrases because Jesus did forgive us to those sins.
We are already judged and we are judged correctly, right?
And so we're worried about the negative.
And Jesus says, I can't wait to tell you about this brother or sister that you reached out
to.
I cannot wait to tell you.
You had no idea.
You want your whole life worrying about this guy and this guy is perfect.
He's healed.
He is saved because of your actions on my behalf.
Like I can't wait to hear those stories.
Like all the people that I'm going to do.
I was just oblivious to because I'm just going through my day acting like Jesus would act
being kind to people, right?
Helping people, doing things for people.
Next, you know, that's made an impact, a positive impact for the kingdom that we'll never, never
see on this earth possibly.
I mean, some people do, right?
If we only knew how many people we've touched in this life, yeah, but we will know on the
other side.
Yeah, it'll definitely warm my heart.
I can't.
I can't wait.
I love it.
I hope it was a joke with me.
Like opens up something.
I pulled out a single name.
Like, I got more.
I'm just doing one of them.
Well, I got another story for you.
Okay.
Mark 1124 says, what things swear you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them
and you shall have them.
That's faith.
It is.
When my wife and I divorced many years ago in 1981, the Holy Spirit said to tell Marilyn
Hickey.
She was one of my favorite Bible teachers.
Okay.
Still is.
She will use the information to help others.
Didn't you go on a mission trip with her and Wendy Lawson?
Yeah.
Okay.
This is later on.
This is, this is pre those mission trips.
Okay.
Yeah.
I called Marilyn Hickey ministries, but I never got to talk to her.
Either did I tell anyone from her ministry my reason for wanting to talk to her?
Well, knowing the power of faith and confession, I began confessing that God was somehow going
across my path with her.
At the time I was traveling a bit.
So I always looked for her when I was on a plane.
You know how you try to figure out how God's going to do something.
One of those times I went to Tulsa, Oklahoma for the word explosion or the international
charismatic Bible ministers conference at or Robert's university.
I was staying at my good friends, Rick and Anita's.
And let me pause for a moment and tell you how I met them.
One night at South Hills Assembly of God, we were having an all night prayer meeting,
just a few people.
We'd been praying in the, what we called the upper room when someone had a word that we
were to go down to the sanctuary.
Just the cross light above the baptistery was on.
So the rest of the sanctuary was very dim.
A man came in and was by himself a number of pews back.
I went over to him and he introduced himself.
He asked for prayer for his wife's salvation.
She was of a denomination but wasn't saved and she did not want any part of our church.
So we prayed for her.
Then Monday night we prayed again at a prayer meeting in my apartment.
A few days later she came to church with him and got radically saved, fell out under the
power of God.
She also soon received the unfilling Holy Spirit and spoke in other tongues.
They were only in Pittsburgh for a very short time and moved to Erie, PA, where she in simple
faith witnessed a people, got a lifeguard saved and baptized her in the pool.
She kept hearing the word, Reema.
And she called and asked us, what was a Reema?
Well, another godly lady, Teresa Lonzo, we were neighbors.
Teresa really walks so close with God.
We knew God was saying that Anita and Rick were to go to Reema, Kenneth Hagin's school
in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
We also told her that just put it in God's hand and sure enough, that's where they ended
up.
So that's how I got to be going to these meetings in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
They invited me.
So this one time I was there, I asked them to agree with me that God would cross my path
with Marilyn Hickey.
Well, Anita, who is a beautician, said, and I want you to agree with me that I get to
do Marilyn's hair.
The Lord showed me that I was going to be doing that.
So we agreed and we confessed.
At this time, I was not a pastor yet.
I told others, got them confessing with me.
I asked our pastor, Robert Owen at the time, if we could ever have Marilyn Hickey, as
a guest to do some teaching.
He said, well, Rick, you know, the bigger the ministry, the more they cost.
I don't know if he ever contacted her, but several of us began confessing by faith.
She was coming to our church.
Well, week after week, month after month, and year after year passed, but I was not
going to not hold fast to my profession of faith.
A total of 11 years went by and now I was a pastor at our church.
One night, pretty late, I was the only one at church.
I was in my office when the phone rang.
It was Marilyn Hickey.
She was calling for Pastor Rowan.
She felt that the Holy Spirit wanted her to come and do a revelation encounter at our
church.
I was so excited.
I think I gave her pastor's home phone number, but in the excitement, I didn't even think
to talk to her about my matter.
She came, praise God, I was in every service, but had other ministry duties and never even
got to meet her.
The last day of our meeting, when I got to church, I was led to sit in a different area.
We had a woman, Pastor Dodie Steen, lovely lady on our staff.
She was taken Marilyn back and forth from the hotel.
That morning in my Bible reading, I read Psalm 148.1, which says, praise you the Lord, praise
you the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights.
And for some reason, God was saying something to me about the heights that I wasn't getting.
I said, what is it, Lord?
Well, Pastor Dodie came over to me and said, Pastor Rick, we need someone tonight after
the service to take Marilyn to Sir Wickley Heights to her aunt's house.
I said, I'll do it.
So I had Marilyn Hickey in my car and savored every moment.
Undivided attention.
Yes.
And I told her my story about how 11 years before, God told me to tell her about my marriage
breaking up and she would use that info to somehow help others.
I told her how Anita and Tulsa prayed to do her hair, to which she replied, praise the
Lord, I'm on the board of regents who know her, you need someone in Tulsa to do my hair.
So she and Anita connected and became very good friends for many years now.
Marilyn knows how Anita got saved in spirit field and how strong of a woman of God she
is today.
She told me Anita is fruit that really abounds and she is.
So I've been blessed to go on several mission strips with Marilyn, Sarah and her son-in-law
Reese through the years with huge groups of people.
And I highly recommend going on one of her mission trips.
You'll learn so much, you'll see so much and you'll be used of God.
A short time after my taking Marilyn to her aunts, one of the ladies from our fellowship,
Arlene Tecca, who had been a part of our years of confessing, called me.
She said as she was getting ready for work, she was listening to Marilyn Hickey on TV
and she did share my story in a teaching that was an encouragement to others.
Of course, I sent for the tape and listened to it.
You're so awesome, God.
Surely, your words come to pass.
Lastly on one of those mission strips, Marilyn shared with the group how she and I met and
how she had invited me to meet her aunt.
Now her aunt was not Pentecostal yet.
So Marilyn was very watchful on how she conducted herself with her favorite aunt.
And as the aunt had her opinions about Pentecostal behavior, the aunt was sick and not feeling
well.
And I said, well, let's pray.
Well, I loudly rebuked the devil in a sickness and told him to leave.
Marilyn said, she thought, oh, no, not with my aunt.
When I left, the aunt was better and said, what a nice young man.
I really liked him.
Oh, and another thing, Marilyn did not cost us a lot.
As a matter of fact, she blessed us as a church financially for letting us, letting her use
our church.
The Bible says the steps of the righteous are ordered the Lord.
So I encourage everybody, hold fast to your confession of faith.
Hebrews 10, 35 through 36 says, cast not away there for your confidence, which has great
recompense of reward for you have need of patience that after you have done the will
of God, you might receive the promise.
I shows how important it is to have fellowship with one another.
So you know what each one, each other is believing for.
And then you can learn that.
Yeah, the agreement, power of agreement.
Yeah, because if you didn't know her desires, then you wouldn't have invited her to, hey,
I can't, I know a place for you to get your hair cut.
Yeah.
You never know.
So cool.
And God knows exactly what's on our hearts and what would mean the most to us.
And it's all different.
You can't surprise him.
And he just shows up in just the way we need him.
And it's always after we expect it to happen.
But it's always perfect timing.
All the time.
And it's even more intricate the later it is.
Like with my thing, my healing, it was 17 years of waiting to be healed of chronic neck
and shoulder pain.
And then Josh prayed one night, they laid hands, him and Nathan and Shelley be healed.
Why me be healed?
Jesus name and got it.
Well, not at first.
It's not a good chance.
Like it like I got a headache.
I asked her how it felt and she said it moved up.
It literally like the headache.
I didn't think a headache could move, but it literally moved to a different spot and
prayed again and it moved again.
He prayed again and moved.
And then finally it left and the pain has been gone since 2015.
Thank you Jesus.
October.
I think 13.
But who's counting?
You're just healed.
I mean, that's that's that's the miracle.
Oh, how long you've been healed is irrelevant.
I've been I've been healed.
I've been touched by God forever.
Amen.
And when you're touched by God, it you will never forget it.
It says experience.
It's absolutely.
Yeah, no one can tell you that there is no God when you've experienced him because
you know, you know, you know that they can say all they want, but you're like, whatever,
I know what I know.
And I just hope he shows up for them too in a way that can't be denied.
Yeah, we have time if you want to do another.
Okay.
Did you ever hear of a lady named Nora Lamb?
No.
Oh, see, you guys are so young.
All right.
Once again, this story goes back to before I was a pastor.
It was 1984.
The famous Chinese evangelist, Nora Lamb came to minister at our church.
I'd seen her on the 700 Club.
Her heart was for her people to be saved.
And if you haven't read her story or watched a movie, they made Billy Graham made a movie
of her called China cry.
I encourage you to do so.
Nora got saved and was imprisoned by the communists.
When she would not renounce her faith, they put her before firing squad.
When the guns fired, there was a blinding light in every bullet, mister.
She was pregnant while working, you know, ball, working in the salt mines actually and
given very hard work to do.
God told her that her son would be born in freedom.
She supernaturally carried her baby in the womb for 12 months and escaped.
Wow.
And her child was born according to the word of God in freedom.
Isn't that amazing?
She's a pregnant woman.
Yes.
Imagine how swollen that would be.
Oh my God.
How hard it would be to try to escape when your mobility, your breathing, everything
is so impacted.
Oh God.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
But God nowadays, they don't let you go longer than your due date.
Yeah.
That's nuts.
I don't think they cared.
Well, they were probably hoping that she'd die, you know.
Yeah.
But during the service, the service at our church, God told me she was going to call
me home.
She did.
She pointed at me, told me to stand up and said, God wants you to go to China with me.
I knew it was so.
But I also knew that it was not this trip that she told us about.
A year later, at another location where she was speaking, she did the exact same thing
with the exact same words to me.
I knew God was in it.
I registered to go, gave my deposit, and believed for God's provision.
I had some very good friends, Chuck and Kathy Byers, and they told me that they started
a new business.
It was a travel agency.
One reason was to supply me with some of my traveling needs.
They said they would supply me with plane tickets to San Francisco and the tickets back home
from Los Angeles, California.
Those were tickets that the New Orleans China mission strip was not responsible for.
Well, I really interceded for this trip.
And as the needed funds were slow in coming, you know, my patients, patients had a perfect
word.
We'll put it like that.
Those were tickets that I had to wait for from Chuck and Kathy.
And I didn't want to badger them or anything.
You know, so I really interceded.
And as a matter of fact, on the day I was leaving to go to California for the trip, I still
did not have all my monies.
And I still had not received my airline tickets from Chuck and Kathy.
But being the man of faith that I am, I came to work with my luggage.
I had to go to the airport right after work and Chuck called and said he would bring the
tickets at lunchtime.
That was close.
I called Lord Lamb Ministries and told them how much money I lacked.
I also reminded them of the two times Nora called me up with a word from the Lord.
What could they say?
I told them I was coming and believing God for his provision.
That was a bold step of faith.
When I met up with them, they had me sign a paper saying that I would pay the balance
after we got back home.
And so we were on our way.
Hallelujah.
We were to go from, I think, San Francisco to China and the Philippines, Japan, and then
spend a couple days of rest and relaxation in Hawaii and return to Los Angeles.
Now in the Philippines, the tour group boarded buses, which took us to different places
to minister.
Our Philippine guide, a red hot on fire Holy Spirit, Reima graduate, Reverend Norma Taneo,
took us to a leper colony.
Before the bus pulled out, she led the driver and his assistant to the Lord, preached to
us all of how important it was for all of us to be filled with the Holy Spirit and prayed
for each one who was not filled to receive.
People received, including the two bus drivers that she had just led to the Lord.
They began speaking in tongues.
Norma was the daughter of a diplomat.
And before accepting Christ, she had been promiscuous.
I believe she said that she was actually a prostitute.
Jesus had appeared to her.
She got saved and he told her that she was to go to the lepers.
She had three beautiful daughters who ministered with her.
And when she first went, the lepers were very poor.
And when she asked why there weren't any animals, she was told that the people ate any animal
that they found, even rats, if they found them.
Not only did Norma through wisdom, the wisdom of God, bring Christ to them, but she got programs
going where they learned to farm, raise animals, sow and do other things.
And now there were dogs, cats, chickens, goats.
It was certainly life more abundantly in this place.
God opened many doors for Norma.
She even had teaching sessions with the soldiers in the Philippine military.
She was truly strong in the Lord and the power of his might.
It was on the bus going to the leper colony that a lady named Nancy Sony sat next to me
and began to prophesy to me saying.
Now remember, I'm not a pastor yet.
I've given you a shepherd's heart and you will feed my sheep.
Well, I never thought I'd be a pastor.
I was more of a teacher and evangelist.
But I tucked the word on the back burner in my heart and said, well, if this is your word,
Lord, then you will bring it to pass.
Before I had left on the mission strip, Pastor Owen had asked if I teach a home group when
I got back.
I agreed to when I got home and he was meeting with us leaders, he said, now, in a sense,
you are shepherds to these people.
Hmm, I thought maybe there was something to what Nancy had prophesied.
We visited the hospitals at the leper colony.
They were nothing more than a big room, you know, in a bungalow like people lying on straw
mats on the floor.
There were only a couple of beds in the ladies hospital.
I got to preach.
I thought that the best way I could give them hope and faith was to preach about Jesus healing
lepers.
That's good news to a leper.
For sure.
Yeah.
There can't go wrong there.
As I preach, there was a commotion behind me.
The nurses came and were attending to the lady in the bed behind me.
They were crying.
And since Reverend Norma was interpreting what I preached, I asked her to find out what happened.
People here, the lady in the bed have been deaf.
Now she could hear.
Hmm.
I said, Lord, I know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, but she couldn't
hear.
He said, say that again slowly.
Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God.
So God's words contain healing.
The ladies hearing was coming to her as I preached.
How wonderful.
In China, we had these big crusades.
Well, many came to know Jesus has Lord.
Nor lay up was really anointed in.
We got to pray with people even though we didn't understand each other.
Now, before I left for China, I've mentioned this lady, Teresa, a real godly lady before
and some testimonies.
But she was a neighbor.
She came to me one night and she said that she had seen a vision of me being put in prison
for passing out bibles in China.
So we received it so that that could not happen.
When we got to Hong Kong before going into mainland China, I was informed that something
happened to my visa and I would have to stay in Hong Kong all by myself.
Oh boy.
What's your plan here, Lord?
I went for a walk on Saturday and I saw a sign that said Nathan Road Lutheran Church.
I went in and no one was there but an old man sweeping.
I found the pastor's office put a note under the door saying I was Bible teacher from America
on a mission strip with no land.
I would be in the service on Sunday and could I take a few minutes and share what God was
doing?
Well, the next morning I went and there was a young lady who spoke English and said that
the pastor said I could share.
Then she gave me a guest book to sign showing what church I belong to.
When she saw Assembly of God, she said, Assembly of God?
I said, yes, do you know what that is?
She said, Acts 2.
Then she said, my English is not good.
I cannot interpret for you.
I replied, you're a Christian, aren't you?
She answered yes.
Then I questioned her, do you believe the Bible, don't you?
She said yes.
Then I smiled saying, the Bible says you can do all things through Christ to strengthen
you.
You'll do fine.
She interpreted it as I shared some of the great things God had done in the Crusades.
In Tokyo, which was our last stop before going to Hawaii, Nora's son pulled me aside and
said since I had not had all my money, I was not going to Hawaii, which was only a few
hundred dollars off the trip.
I would be leaving the next day for San Francisco airport with many others that were not going
to Hawaii.
I prayed, Lord, what am I going to do?
I have $10 in a plane ticket from Los Angeles to Pittsburgh.
Should I call home and ask someone to wire me money?
His reply was, no, trust me, I've gotten you all this way without any money.
So as we were touring Tokyo on a bus, I told no one of my dilemma, but I just kept praying
in tongues within my heart.
Suddenly, a man stood up, made this announcement, if anybody needs a ride tomorrow from San
Francisco to Los Angeles, my son and I are from LA.
We have our nine passenger van waiting for us.
Thank you, Lord.
I was the only one.
When we got to San Francisco, the man was so jet lagged that he couldn't drive.
The son said he would drive and I told him that when he got tired, I would drive.
Well, the son drove about 20 minutes and said he had to stop.
I was now tired, but I thought I'd do it by faith.
It's an 11 hour drive and I began driving and praying in tongues, drawing on the power
of the Holy Spirit.
I drove for nine hours under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
They woke up refreshed and finished the trip.
The son said, I know how you did that.
I woke up a few times and heard you praying in tongues.
What another adventure in God that was.
Well, finishing up here, you know, about two days after I got home, did you believe the
same running, losing source that I saw on the lepers appeared on my arms and other parts
of my body?
Hmm.
I remember now that at the Leopard colony, we fearlessly laid hands on the sick, even
sensing a shield on our hands.
Although I didn't see lepersies disappear.
Fever's left the people immediately.
Now what was this?
I had perfect peace in my heart because I know the healing scriptures.
It was a lying wonder from the devil.
I read somewhere that it takes leprosy seven years to manifest.
I was not led to tell anybody or to go to a doctor.
I knew I was the healed of the Lord.
I continually spoke God's word to my body.
The symptoms that were attacking me were water filled blisters that itched insanely.
I praised God, rebuked even laughed at the devil because he was already defeated by the
blood of my Jesus.
One day I said, Lord, I know in my heart and in my mind that I'm healed, but my body doesn't
know it yet.
Is there some natural thing I can do to help and get rid of this?
Please tell me, speak a word to me.
Immediately he answered, sink oxide.
I went to the store and bought some, the itch went away.
Praise God.
Well, I fought that good fight of faith for nine months before every symptom disappeared.
Then I testified and my testimony defeated the devil and glorified Jesus.
The following year, would you believe at the same time the symptoms attacked again?
I did the same things and this time it only stayed nine weeks.
The devil tries to get us to think because of lying symptoms that we are not healed.
I say, hold fast to your confession of faith.
We defeat the devil with the blood of the lamb and by the word of our testimony.
So never again did the symptom return after that.
So I ask you people who are listening to this, are you standing for something in faith?
Don't faint.
Dear Saint of God, continue to stand on God's unfailing word.
The victory has already been won for you.
Hebrews 6, 11 through 12 says, and we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence
to the full assurance of hope unto the end that ye be not slothful.
The followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
I love that.
It's so powerful how God can continue to give us contentment, peace and joy through some
situations that seem hopeless, through some situations that seem pretty bad.
I look back at our 27 and some odd change months of unemployment and we never wanted
for anything.
And I likened it to being immersed into a sea of fear.
None of it could get in.
It was like I was infinitely aware that I should be afraid.
I was infinitely aware that there was not a good place to be.
Infinitely aware that this was this and I was content.
People were afraid for us.
It's like, no, it's right.
Right.
They were afraid.
And as I would want that, you keep that for yourself.
We don't need that.
That's a key thing, you know, that's why one of the reasons why I didn't tell anybody
or show anybody, thank God everything was under my clothes because I knew they would
say something like, oh my God, you better go to the hospital.
No, you don't open that door to fear.
When you know that you know that you know what God's word says, nothing can take that
away from you unless you open the door for it.
This reminds me of Jen O'Donnell's episode.
I think it was episode 11 in 2023.
And she concentrated on the word of God and she was healed.
Her body was healed.
I was sharing scriptures, the healing scriptures from a book called Healed by Gail T. Taylor
and she was healed of MS because I think, no, no, no, Lupus.
She was healed of Lupus, an incurable disease because she focused on the word of God and
the word is powerful.
The word is God.
And he heals us, it's his intention to heal us.
And I've been sharing some of those on social media.
So if you're interested in that, there's a playlist on YouTube, but it's just really
cool to see God showing up because Hebrews says that you cannot please God without faith
and you spoke that faith and you believed it, you felt it and eventually it came to pass.
And you're like in your faith devil.
There's a reason why faith is references to shield of faith and the armor of God, right?
It protects us and as a shield, it can be directed towards an attack, right?
It's not just something like your breastplate, which is always on to surround you from the
surprise attack or for the miss, right?
Your shield is directed towards the enemy's weapon.
So when the enemy attacks you, you put it towards him.
And I don't know if anybody knows about like medieval warfare, but if we're going to go
ahead and think of the shield, it's also a weapon.
You can hit somebody in the face with a shield.
You could turn on his edge and hit him, right?
And so the enemy doesn't know what he's coming after.
I mean, he does, but it's like he doesn't know because he keeps doing it.
That this, the shield of faith is a strong, strong defense against an individual attack,
especially, and it is a strong, powerful weapon against your attacker as well.
Right.
And so I think we need to remind him that that faith is a direction, right?
We point the faith in the direction we want to point it at.
We have faith all around us, but we have the particular problem.
We focus on that.
We put our faith towards that and we are protected from the schemes of the enemy right
there, like a shield.
I have something that the Holy Spirit reminded me of.
I have found this girl, Dakota Lee, in TikTok.
She's on, in YouTube and she shares about, she can see in the spirit realm.
And one of the things that God revealed to her was if evil came around her like a spirit,
an evil spirit, he told her to watch this and he focused it.
When she focused on God, it was like a, think of a glow coming off of him.
And then when she focused on him, the glow came on her and it expanded and it pushed
away the darkness.
So it's just pictured that in the spiritual realm.
So focus on God and not the bad stuff and the good will grow because what you think
about, you bring about, what you think about will increase.
Right.
And that's, it's important.
It's important for addiction.
It's important for any trial that we face.
Cause if we put our focus on the thing that God don't want to do that, another focus is
on that thing that we don't want to do.
But if we put our focus on God, we're protected from that.
That Matthew 633 says, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all
these things shall be added to you.
That's all these things.
So he will give you everything you need and it'll be right on time.
So just keep on believing what you're believing for and bring others into it with you because
that is powerful.
Fellowship is what God wants us to have with one another and with him as well.
So when we can speak life to one another and share what we're believing in, that is powerful
and just kicks the devil's butt.
Amen.
He, Jesus brought him to night.
Night is nothing.
So he has no power over us.
He's what we allow them to have.
True.
Right.
And I think a lot of us don't understand how deadly the adversary actually is and that
he needs to be respected, not respected in the respect that I esteem someone, but respected
in the fact that like mustard gas is something you would respect.
This is a fearful, hearty respect that this thing could hurt you, can kill you.
This demon, this chief demon can do all sorts of things against you if you let him.
And if you hold on to God, there's not a thing he can do to you, right?
Not a thing.
What can he do?
God says don't fear those who can destroy just the body alone.
Right?
So what's the only thing we're going to do?
Threaten you with eternity?
Oh no.
I've got kingdom come awaiting me.
So either I serve God here or I'm in heaven.
There is no lose for me.
I'm with Jesus here.
I'm with Jesus there.
You cannot take that from me.
Amen.
And that's why we can be bold in our faith.
Absolutely.
He's ever present with us.
Let's always remember that faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God.
So be strengthened.
Know all your healing scriptures.
Know who you are in Christ.
I have a CD that I play multiple times daily.
At night, if I happen to wake up at night, I put it on.
I got to sleep.
That's how I start to go to sleep with it.
It's called Heaven's Health Food.
It's all healing scriptures by Larry Hutton.
That's awesome.
I'll put that in the show notes for anyone who wants to put that up.
Very good.
Thank you so much for sharing these stories.
I love this.
I hope that the Lord spoke what he wanted to speak because I feel he wants to say something
to everybody in every episode.
And I hope this was a blessing to somebody and that somebody you can pass this on to
somebody if this has been a blessing to you or if you thought of somebody who could use
some encouragement.
Yeah, and you definitely want to share it.
Pastor Rick had been told that he was going to share the gospel to the whole world.
This has to happen.
You have to tell people you have to pray about it because God's word does not come back void.
I agree.
I love it.
And if this has been a blessing to you, we ask that if you are led to give, there are
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That would help us keep this assignment going.
And if you can't give, we would also accept prayers and greatly appreciate this.
I can feel them and I appreciate that blessing as well.
And with that, we'll talk to you next time.
Thanks for tuning in to today's episode.
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