Welcome to the God's Goodness podcast where our mission is to encourage and highlight God's
goodness and modern-day miracles. We are your hosts, Josh and Shelley Hankins. Today we have
with us a special guest. His name is Yol Ben Israel and he and I met through a Facebook group
called Christian Podcasters and you are just gonna be blessed by what the Holy Spirit has
led him to share today. And if you're new to us I want to thank you for joining us. I'm so glad
you found us and if you're a longtime listener or at least a one-time listener and you love
podcasts please rate it in Spotify or Apple Podcasts so people can know that people are
liking it and then the algorithm can share it with more people and then more people can be
encouraged. So we're gonna have Yol Ben introduce us, oh before we get going, we'll have him do an
opening prayer and then we'll get into it. So thanks for being with us. Thank you all so very much
for having me on and yes I'm about to get us in an opening prayer as well. Thank you. King Yahweh,
we thank you so very much for this beautiful opportunity to come together and to talk about
you to glorify you, to pour out our hearts regarding what you have done for us, what you're
doing inside of us and what you're doing through us. We thank you so very much for this time on
your Shabbat to be able to relax and to focus on you as well and I pray that you continue to pour
into all of us. Everybody who is working on this podcast, who the hosts, whose people are working
behind the scenes, the audio editor and the audience who will listen to this episode and future
episodes as well. I pray that you will continue to use this podcast to advance ultimately your
kingdom of heaven and to invite lost souls into the kingdom of heaven all for your glory. We
thank you and we love you so very much and it is in the authority of your son that you sent to
die for us and that you resurrected. It's in the name of your son, the Messiah, and the Holy
Shabbat that we thank you our King. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you for that. So where would
you like to get started? I know you have a lot to share, so let's go ahead. Yes, yes, so I would
like to start, I guess at the beginning of what your audience and kind of like give Mr. Fowle who
I am because people, people may be like, well, who is, who is this guy? Yeah. That's the same as you
guys interviewing. We find a lot of interesting people and the Holy Spirit's guiding us to everybody,
so you never know what you're going to get. Really interesting journey. Yes, indeed. Yeah,
so my name is Elyquen Lies-Sed already. Yo, el bin, bin ye sra'el. And my journey to kind of give
you, I guess, a truncated version, but to give you enough details so that you, so that you can
know more about me. I was born in Southfield, Michigan, to two lovely parents, my mom and my
dad. They worked together for a time, but they divorced when I was relatively young. So I spent
most of my life growing up with my mom and my younger brother. I still keep in time, keep in
contact with my father as well too. And we have a beautiful relationship actually. I feel like
Kenyawa, he's really doing something beautiful between the two of us as regards to my father and
his son dynamic. And so my mom, she would take my brother and I to a place called the Kingdom Hall
of Jobless Witnesses. So essentially, I was born into what is called, it's a real long name,
the Watchtower Bible Man-Trak Society of Pennsylvania, aka the Jobless Witness of the
nomination to make it short. So I was born into this, the Watchtower Society. And for the most
part, I really loved the organization. I still love the people till this day. And so my mom took
us when we were relatively young, my brother and I, and we were frequent in Kingdom Halls. So much so
that I really became interested in this book called The Bible, because for me, I feel like I've
always been this really deep existential thinker, always questioning. And I feel like my mom, she
had like the patience of Job, entertaining all of my questions, like, you know, why is the sun
hot or why is the sky blue or why do the clouds look like that and like cotton candy, whiskey,
and the sky like, what's up with everything? What's up with this thing called life? So me
asking all these questions, and The Bible just seemed to be this beautiful book, this library,
if you will, that really helped engage the reader to think deeper and to think in a intellectual
way. Yes, but I think also in a spiritual manner, that really helps us understand the purpose of
life while we're here and our Creator is and things of this nature. So I went to the Kingdom Hall
and I got so fascinated and I began to have a zeal for this religion. And to the point where I
matriculated into what's called the Theocratic Ministry School. And so essentially, this school
is basically like a seminary, so to say, for for Job's witnesses to teach us how to share our world,
you ask Job's witnesses to the outside world, essentially. And so I just remember getting my
very first talk, because they call sermons talks. And so my very first talk or sermon, it was actually,
it was a Bible reading. And so I remember just taking that they gave me a small white slip.
And I took this white slip home and they had the portion that I was going to read a scripture.
And I just remember just pouring over those scriptures, just reading those scriptures over
and over and over again. So the point where I try my best to almost memorize it, because I didn't
want to miss a period, a comma, exclamation point. I want to make sure that the reading was perfect.
And so the time the night came, and my family came to support me in this endeavor, my first
public Bible readings. And I went up there, I read it. And when I got done reading, I heard this
thunderous applause from the audience and just to look up and to see my mom smiling and to see
my dad and to see my brother and all these familiar faces, all my loved ones just showering me with
this support, just chilling in me along the way of this, me taking more steps deeper into my spiritual
journey. That got me hooked. And so I began to go from there to give more public sermons, public
discourses. And then I went to what is called a field service or door-to-door evangelism.
And so you all may know that they, when we go from door to door, sometimes you get people who are
really just their side, they really, sometimes they're excited to see you. They're excited to
talk about the Bible and they're excited to talk about God and religion and what's going on in the
world. And then you have others who, you know, they're not so excited. They close their minds and
we knock on the door and they say, we're not home, but we heard you say you're not home, so you're
kind of our home. And so I went through that for about, for years. I was a Joe's witness for decades.
And then there came a time where I became a teenager, I became 18, the fast forwarded. And
I began to go through this identity crisis, this existential identity crisis about myself. And
essentially what I feel like really was the catalyst for this was, I think it was, it was two
things. One, I really do think that it was, yeah, really trying to get me to ask him deeper
questions than I was already asking him when I looked back at it at 2020. Then also too,
I went to a high school that was, it was very multicultural. And so seeing all these different
cultures, it really began to provoke or galvanize me to want to know more about my own culture.
You know, I guess for those who are African American, they would know that we, I guess we
could all come to a point where we're searching for our culture. We're trying to trace it past
slavery and go beyond slave shifts. And we're trying to find out, you know, what do we come from,
our ethnicity and things of that nature. I mean, so I got to a point within my
spiritual journey within this religion to where my ethnicity began to wrestle with my
Joe's witness religion. And I feel like this wrestling really began me, my journey to really
know Yahweh, who I called Joe back then on a, on a much deeper level. And so fast forwarding,
when I graduated high school and I'm still wrestling with this question and this nagging
question of who am I, why am I here? And I'm also asking, I'm getting to the point where I'm asking
God about the condition of the African American. I'm asking him a hard question about slavery.
Why did slavery happen? The transatlantic slave trade, 400 years of slavery? Why did all these
things happen? And so I'm asking him these questions. And he's such a good father. And I feel
like no question is too big for him. And no question is intimidating to him because he,
he answered me in such, such a beautiful way. I feel like, because I was going to my religion,
and I'm also to my, to the elders and asking them questions. And to tell you all this too,
to be even more transparent, I actually called the headquarters in New York City.
And to the top.
Yes. Yes. I want answers.
Yeah. Yeah. Like I look, I went to the big wigs.
I need to know.
And I, yes, I need to know. So I asked some questions about, about slavery and about
things that happened in American history, trafficking Americans. And I just couldn't
find any satisfactory answers. But I think this is a, is a lesson that I, that he wanted.
Yeah. I want to meet a gleam. And I think this is going to bless the audience as well.
Is that sometimes when we have questions, we go to our religion first, and we don't go to the
creator. Even today, when I think about me being, being a millennial, sometimes I'll go to Google
first or I'll go to a chat GPT first as opposed to going to King Yahweh first. And so I feel like
he was teaching me that lesson that he wants that intimacy. He wants that tells us to start
that conversation with him and ask him those hard questions because he's only going to reveal to us
the pristine, pure, unadulterated truth. Right. So I went to my mother's basement because there
was some things happening within America that were really just perturbing my, my, my, my spirit.
Like for example, when Trevor Martin got killed by George Zimmerman, these, these like this began
to really just, just really saddened me in a way, saddened me about the state of America. And, and,
and me thinking that America has gotten past this rather, I guess, soft mark or juvenile
attitude of discriminating against people because of that they have a certain skin color. So I,
I remember vividly like it was yesterday. I walked down into, to my mom's basement and I got on both
knees and I put my head to the basement floor and I began to pray to Joe for God and to ask him
just about, about everything to ask him what, what like to ask him questions like, who am I?
Like why are my people going through such, such a struggle within America? I believe I asked him
about police brutality and, and, and everything. And lo and behold, he guided me back to his word.
And when he guided me back to his word, he took me to duty around in me chapter 28. And
it was so beautiful because I believe that the King of heaven, King Yahweh being our father,
he knows each and every one of his children individualistically. And he already knew how
much of a history nerd that, that, that I already was. And I feel like he was playing to my forte
regarding reading history. So I will always read about history, especially when it comes to
African American history. And I began to read the Bible to read it around me 28 and to line up
different things that happened within African American history. And to, I guess, to kind of
fast forward a little bit more. I realized that a lot of things that have happened to African
Americans, the root of it is sin. The root of it is disobedience. The root of it is deviating
from our loving heavenly father and from the King of heaven and going our own way. As it talks about
within scripture in Isaiah 53, we have all like sheep. We've all gone our own way. And that blew
my mind. But then also upon doing further research, King Yahweh began to reveal to me that I actually
had bloodline ties to Abraham, Isaac and to Jacob. And once he revealed this to me, things really
start to make a lot more sense. So I began to really embrace my Hebraic identity being a man
of Hebrew ethnicity. And this is where I came into like a fork in the road with my religion,
because I began to read the Bible more and more, not so much so with the running commentary of the
West Tower Society and with their canon, their canonical literature, but just me, the Father,
and I feel like the Holy Spirit just guiding me. And I kind of feel like the Apostle Paul,
when scales begin to fall off my eyes and I began to see that what my religion was teaching me as a
Jehovah's Witness, it really wasn't congruence or harmonious with what the Bible was saying to me.
And so after getting this new information, in my zeal, I went on Facebook and I, you know,
as a quintessential millennial, I began making a, I made a Facebook post about what I was learning.
And this eventually caught wind of the leadership of the Kingdom Hall that I was going to.
And so I, yes, man, oh man, yeah, yeah, you are spot on.
And so I remember distinctly, it was a Thursday night and we had switched Kingdom Hall. So at
this point, my younger brother Dominique wasn't going to the Kingdom Hall. I was more so more
zealous for the religion. And my mom and I, we had switched going from a predominantly African
American Kingdom Hall to a predominantly like, like a white Kingdom Hall. And I'm still active.
So I'm reading from the stage. I'm carrying the rolling microphone. You're dedicated. You are in
it. Yes. Yes. Like, like, like I am needy. Yeah. There's a lot of Christians, they want to dedicate
themselves to sharing Jesus door to door. And yes, you know, like, that's a dedication. And you're
and you're like, wait a minute, I'm going in the wrong direction. I need to pivot just a little bit
to go along with the Bible. The word says the truth. And then so what happened next?
Yes. So I remember distinctly one Thursday night, I was going into the Kingdom Hall.
And I got this tap on my shoulder. And it was a dear brother of mine, brother Rami. And he
whispered into my ear and he said, you know, you don't have to carry the microphone tonight.
And I was like, Okay, this is very interesting. So I just I always say so I sat down. And it was a
regular normal meeting, you know, they went through the Watchtower study and they went through the
different publications that they have. And then but after the meeting concluded, I got another tap
on my shoulder. And it was from another dear brother who I still have have love for brother
Nico Salamos. And he asked me said, Do you mind coming to the to the back room for a minute?
And I was like, again, like, this is very interesting. I'm like, Okay, so I picked up my
my black briefcase with my Bible in it, the new new world translation, whether Joe's win is you.
So I had that. And I'm following him to the back room. And in this back room,
he Nico, he was he opens the door. And in the back room, there are seated two other one yet
two two elders, and one younger brother. So it is Nico, and then there are three other brothers
within this room. And they asked me to sit down. And so I sit down and Nico proceeds to sit down.
And what he does is he takes out his iPad, and he begins to scroll. And he scrolls on he's on
Facebook, mind you, and he scrolls up to the post that I had recently posted about the new
information that I've been learning about about me being a hero about my my age, like ancestry
about us, about us, we should do our best to strive to to honor the laws of the Bible to
to live as the Bible says. And he began to ask me he began to say, So what's up with these posts,
man? Like, like, this is like, what is going on with what you and these posts like this is not
what we teach within the West tower society. And so I began to articulate and to elucidate
what I was learning. And long story short, and you guys you caught caught caught already,
they they really didn't, you know, it didn't go over to too well. So, what they did was I was
stripped of all of my privileges of carrying a microphone of going out from door to door evangelism
from speaking from giving public talks. And after a series of more conversation about me
learning the Hebrew language, I mean, learning that Jehovah is one pronunciation, but then seeing
pronunciation like Yahweh and seeing Yeshua and reading the Hebrew more and more and seeing that
that this book that we call the Bible, and this is maybe shocking to some people, but it wasn't
written in 16th century Elizabethan English. Originally, it was written, it was written
it written within Hebrew. And when I began to really study this out, one meeting sealed the
deal for me. And this this with a fork in the roll comes to me actually leaving and and being
what they call disassociated from the West house society. I went to my friend's house Mattel,
a very, very good friend of mine. And he said that, you know, I haven't been seeing you at the
Kingdom Hall lately, what's going on with you? And so I said, man, I look, I got to share with you
what I've been learning. And I was so excited. I went to his home, sit down on this couch, put
out my phone and I was showing him God's name Yahweh and within Hebrew. And this was on the
Bible Hub website. And this was the moment when I feel like King Yahweh was showing me that I'm
leading you in another direction. I pulled up the website Bible Hub and I was showing him about
the name and like, yeah, like, so like, here's the letter, yo, then the hay and the wall and the hay.
And here's the vocalization. And without missing a beat, he said to me, he said, we should not be
on this demonic website. Once I heard that I began to get emotional, because that's when I knew you
are that that was going to be the last conversation that I was going to be able to have with Mattel,
because I was going to have to leave the organization, the religious organization,
because the thing is, you don't know you're being brainwashed while you're being brainwashed.
And you don't know that people are controlling information that you can look at while you're
in the middle and midst of that particular organization. And I just had this thought
being pressed on me that if you stay yoel, you are going to become just like that. And so I
decided that what I need to do is I need to write my letter of this association within
from the organization. So I did that. And so I broke away. And for a long time, it was it was
just me, the Bible and my Heavenly Father King Yahweh just just me. I feel like during this time,
it was I was going through this deconstruction period of my faith, everything that I learned
from the West Tower for those because I left when I was about 22 for those 20 plus decades
have been it was all being deconstructed. And that can be a very scary thing, especially when
you're by yourself. And I know that with the younger generation, generation Z generation Alpha as
well, that they go through that as well, millennials to but I love how loving our father is and how
I feel like he held my hand through the entire process and showed me that just like how I called
Abraham and Genesis 12 to leave what was familiar, leave your father's house, leave your country,
leave your kindred and go to this land that I'm calling you to go to. I feel like he was doing
that with me. And he was guiding me on this journey to not a religion, but to actually enter into his
his kingdom of heaven. And that's that that I guess leads me into probably the this is the
punchline of the entire story. Being a Joe was witness. We are I guess the hallmark was
the whole door to door thing warmers are known for you know, being on their bicycles and
being going to an evangelism as well too. But that's like that's the hallmark for us going from
the door and preaching the good news. But but the punchline is I didn't hear the good news
until I left the organization that was supposed to be preaching it. I didn't hear
the good news until I came across a man by the name of Dr. Miles Monroe.
During the summer of 2022, my wife and I were celebrating the biblical feast feast of weeks
and in the Vatican is 23. And I just had this I don't know if you all have ever had this feeling
of like, yes, I'm reading my I'm reading the word and I feel like I'm being a quote unquote good
unquote good believer. But simultaneously, I feel like something is still missing. And with me,
that something that was missing is I feel like I was missing something regarding the good news
message. Because at this point, yes, I left the watchtower society, but I fell into two other
religions messianic Judaism or messianic Talmudism. And then I didn't when it comes to messianic
Judaism, I kind of put my big toe into the pool. I did not in cannonball all the way in, but I left
that one. Then I fell into another religion called Hebrew Israelism. When I say I cannonballed and
and plunged into that one. Yeah, like I was soaking wet and everything but regarding that particular
religion. But within that religion, I feel like something was still missing. And that was the
good news. And so I came across Dr. Miles Monroe. And I heard him talking with a guy named Benny,
and I had never heard of these two characters before he's two men. He was in Nassau Bahamas.
He was talking about the good news. And he was saying he kept on saying that, yeah, you know,
the Messiah priests about the kingdom of heaven and it's a rival. And I was like, huh? What is he
what he's talking about? Like, no, he preached about he preached didn't preach about something else.
And so this began to really pick my curiosity. And I went to the Hebrew text of Matthew. And when
I read it for myself, you all, because I was really cynical because I was like, I was like,
nah, like, I don't I don't know if Dr. Miles is here. I don't know if he really knows knows what
he's saying here. But when I read it in the Hebrew text for myself, and I actually saw the plain
words of our Messiah of our rabbi what he said in the Hebrew text, I was like, whoa, this is actually
what he what he preached. And this is actually what I need to preach. But when I read it, I read
five words within the Hebrew and I'll say them real fast, and I'll take it to translate it and
conclude here. But I read in Matthew 417, five words in Hebrew, which essentially mean to repent
or to change our mindset because the Kingdom of Heaven has arrived. And when I heard this,
I probably did the same dance that you all did when you all played the funky music intro to your
podcast. Because as and I feel like I'm an evangelist, but I'm but I also I love to write as well too.
I mean, I love to break down scripture. I feel like this was the biggest missing puzzle piece
that finally come and finally clicked for me. And then the Bible began to really make sense
because I began to look at the Bible not so much as a religious book anymore, but to look at it as
a kingdom book. And the overarching theme of the Messiah's ministry was all about the Kingdom of
Heaven. And I began to see it from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And it just blew me away. And it
still blows me away today how King Yahweh can take us from a point where we are so zealous
for our religion, but we're not zealous for a relationship with him.
And how he took me from being zealous for, I guess, almost like the apostle Paul being so zealous
for his religion, so zealous for phariseism. But then on that road to the mass, because he encounters
the way the truth and the light falls to the ground, being humbled, being blinded for three
days, but then his eyes finally being open, I think both physically, but also spiritually,
that there was so many things that you haven't learned yet. And we have a loving Heavenly
Father who is the King of Heaven who wants us to, who is waiting for us to show up to his
classroom, so to say, so he can teach us about his Kingdom of Heaven curriculum. And so yeah,
and so that has really been on my heart to share and to learn more about the Kingdom of Heaven.
And I guess what I'll do is, it's here, why I think that this is the good news message,
why it's so important. I feel like the good news message about the Kingdom of Heaven,
it's so important because for the Israelite, for the Gentile, for the Jew, for the Greek,
and I talk about this within the book, A Little Thoughts of a Kingdom Citizen,
we all have lost something. And what I mean by that is, we all have lost this inheritance
called the Kingdom of Heaven. And when I look in Scripture, I see that our first parents, Adam and
Eve, they didn't really lose their religion, but they lost their relationship with the King of Heaven
via having citizenship within his Kingdom. And when I read Scriptures like Genesis 126,
and when Heavenly Father says, let's make mankind an art image and our likeness,
and let them have dominion over the entire earth, that's exactly what I feel like we were all created
for. And the only way that we are going to have true dominion in a way that that's not
in a totalitarian manner, that's not in a dictator-esque manner, but in a way that's loving,
that's kind, that's caring, that's reflecting all of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, is if we are born,
born again, born from above, through water and the Holy Spirit, and when we're born twice, and we
now are filled with the Holy Spirit, and we're now reconnected with our home government, with the Kingdom
of Heaven, to where we can now advance our Father's government by healing the sick, by raising the dead,
by cleansing lepers, by casting out demons, anywhere where there's darkness. We just like our
Savior, just like our Rabbi, the Messiah, Yahushua, we are able to bring Heaven to earth, and I feel
like it's just really up to us as citizens of Heaven to make this place called earth look a little
bit more soul-like Heaven. So yes, and one last thing, I've been looking at what I get, what's
called in the scripture the keys or the keys of Heaven, and how Matthew 16, the Messiah, he talks
about giving us the keys, the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and I think that this will be very
encouraging regarding your audience. I think this is going to bless the audience as well too,
regarding one of the keys of Heaven, one of the principles is this thing called Kingdom Commonwealth.
I think that as believers when things get tough, I think especially financially, and it's crazy,
I'm saying this because I just got done stressing out about finances and things of that nature,
but I feel like I think this is going to help somebody as well, put things in perspective.
Within a Kingdom, the economic system, it's called Commonwealth, and what that essentially means is
that the wealth within a Kingdom is common because all of us, all the law-abiding citizenry,
we all have equal access to the King's riches, to his wealth, and to his resources. And so that
means that if I am in need of something, whether it be food, whether it be water, whether it be
clothing, whether it be shelter, whether it be finances, whatever it may be, this means that
as long as we are law-abiding citizens, and as long as we seek the Kingdom first and his
rights, since we are right standing with the government by being law-abiding citizens,
then the King, since he owns everything and he owns everybody who was on earth, he can shift
resources, wealth or riches to his citizenry whenever they need it. Now I guess a
prime example of this is when the Messiah and Matthew 21, he was telling his students that
it's time for me to be crucified essentially, and he told them that when you go to this certain place,
go and unhook this coat from this donkey, and if anybody asks you, everybody says,
well wait, what are you doing? That's my coat, that's my donkey. He tells them that the Lord
has need of it, the Lord needs this, and right away they're going to send it to you.
And so what that speaks to me regarding Kingdom Commonwealth is that within the Kingdom of Heaven,
we don't own anything, but we have access to everything. And so what that means is that
before the Messiah, before he was born, there was this man who was grooming this donkey,
who was feeding this donkey, who was taking care of it every day, every month, every year,
until it came time for the owner of it, the owner of that donkey, his Heavenly Father,
said, my son, he needs this now to fulfill Zechariah 999, to fulfill prophecy. And so when it came to
that point, I think that person realized that I was just meant to be a sublime steward and a
magnificent manager over what the Kingdom of Heaven put under my managerial care. I didn't own this
donkey, but the owner owns it and the owner needs it. And so that's what Kingdom Commonwealth is,
is that both in the Kingdom is common, and King Yahweh the owner, he owns everything and everyone
on earth. And so whatever we need and whatever moment he can call for because he owns it, he made
that donkey, he made that coat, and he used his son to talk to his disciples, his students,
and say now's the time for me to fulfill my mission and to die for your sins and to bring the Kingdom
of Heaven back to earth. And this donkey is me fulfilling prophecy. And when you go ask him
for it, tell him that the owner needs it. And so I feel like that, I pray that that's going to encourage
somebody that if you're out there and you're listening and and you're going through like hard
time struggling to make ends meet financially or you feel like you're always lacking something.
I would just encourage you to, if you're not already a citizen, to want to become a citizen
of this beautiful Kingdom called Heaven, and to know that within this Kingdom, the provision is
army directional. It can come from any direction, not just your job, your nine to five or what you're
doing on the side or whether you're a solopreneur or what have you, it can come from any any direction.
And we see this all through our all through our scripture. And so I would like to encourage the
listenership that will tune into this is that we serve the King who is doubly rich and doubly
infinitely rich. He owns everything in Heaven and he owns everything on earth. And so as long as we
come to him and put him in his Kingdom first, then we'll lack absolutely, positively nothing.
Mm hmm. For sure. Amen. Yes. And so I pray that that that that that that's a blessing to somebody
out there who's listening. I pray that that that that I guess maybe sharing my testimony and me
sharing about the Kingdom and how the Kingdom is really how we through the Kingdom of Heaven,
by being a citizen in the Kingdom of Heaven, being filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, it's
really going to help us to make to make the world and ultimately a better place. And it's
really going to help people to see that there is a Creator. There is a an ultimate God, ultimate
Judge, a King who loves us and he wants us not to be stressed out, not not to worry, not to
to listen and to believe the lies lies of Satan and the adversary, but to actually come back home,
to come back and to enter into his Kingdom and our very lifetime within our very generation.
I am reminded of Matthew 633. You mentioned it. Seek first the Kingdom and its righteousness
and all these things will be added to you and use. You were seeking answers and you're like,
I'm going to the Bible. Some people say the basic instructions before leaving earth.
The one part and they may think Jesus is the one we need to go to first for answers. We were
having a conversation at Christmas dinner and my niece, she's young and young. She was talking
about this one topic and of course my mom being the grandparents, she just spills it. She's like,
you shouldn't do that. But then I'm like, did you consider asking the Bible and seeing what the
Bible says about that? And she's like, no, I didn't even think about that. And I'm like, yeah, this
is like things that people don't generally think about, but it leads you to the right direction
because you're like, oh my gosh, I've been going in the wrong direction this whole time. And then
you got answers and that, you know, he discipled you, God discipled you personally and that's what
he did for my husband as well. And, you know, because nobody came alongside him once he,
you know, got baptized. I accepted Jesus and it was a congratulations handshake and then
you're on your own. Good luck, you know. Wow. Cultivate away. And so mom stubborn and so is God
and he got through to me and he continues to work in my life and the hardest ways possible for me
because that's the way I learned. I can relate. But he led you both to the truth and
him and when you were seeking that relationship, it opened up a plethora of knowledge and truths
and it was life changing for both of you. That's right. Absolutely. I bet a lot of people weren't
expecting that at the beginning. Like, oh, how's the Jehovah's Witness and I'm like, just just wait.
Yes, yeah, it's, it's man like it's the journey has been so amazing and I always say Hollywood
couldn't have written a better script. And I feel like the, the best story is told by our heavenly
father. The best journeys are directed by him. The best testimonies are formed by him. And yeah,
like there's, there's no better person to go to. But whenever we feel like we are just stuck or
that we're losing in life in general, that who better to go to than the creator of life? Who
better to go to than the manufacturer who created, who knows us, who knows how we work, who knows,
who knows our thoughts, who knows how we think, how we move, who knows our secret motives, who knows,
who knows our agenda when people can't see it, who better to go to than the one who is omniscient,
who knows everything about us that maybe even our spouse may not even know. But the, but the king
who formed us together in our mother's womb, he knows us so intimately who better to go to and
to ask questions than the almighty King Yahweh. And so I'm the journey that, that he's given me.
And I feel like I'm still on. It's blessing of an adventure. And you're like, I'll do the
hardship, the ups and downs, the roller coaster ride that he took him, that I feel like I went
through. I wouldn't change anything because I feel like it all worked together for our good.
Anything he allows us to go through, he could turn that test into a testimony. He can make our
message into our message. And I feel like that, I feel like that's what he wants to do with every,
every single person who seeks him earnestly and who seeks him with the pure heart as well.
For sure. What a difference it makes leaning into him.
Life changing. Absolutely life changing. My life has,
since I left the watch tower and since, since I've been reading the Bible in Hebrew and studying it.
And yeah, my, and learning that, that the kingdom is here and that it's our existential reality.
Yeah. My life has never been the same. It has been radically optimized in ways that, that I can,
that I couldn't even dream up in my wildest imagination.
I'm part of this group called Kingdom Seekers. There's an app and every January they do a 31
day wisdom challenge. And so I've been part of it all this year. And Pedro Deo, he was talking about
the third heaven authority. Basically there's actually a book written by Mike Thompson called
third heaven authority. And he talks about when you're praying from that third heaven, like from
the throne room of heaven, you're over the circumstances instead of praying from the
circumstances in your earthly realm, like the first heaven. And like, it's like,
depending on your perspective on where you pray from, it can like level up your prayer.
So like if you're praying from your circumstances, it's like 30 times powerful than just doing nothing.
But then when you pray from your third heaven authority, it's like 100xing it.
And it just changes things. And I was thinking when you talked about God can change this change,
he owns all the resources. And we went through 27 months of no and one week of no discernible
income. And we didn't lose the house, the utilities, nothing and every we had an interruption in service,
nothing. And God kept showing up. And we kept tithing on every single dollar that came into the
house, every scrap, even it was $2 on 20 bucks. We just kept given because you can't out give God
when he owns everything, he can make it come in. And right. Yeah, you know, we're ambassadors here.
This isn't our home. So of course, God owns it. It doesn't belong to us. And so we shouldn't want
to have this world. This isn't for us. This is this is for us to go and reach out and tell people
of his word and of his son and of his deeds to give him glory. It's not supposed to be something I
hold attachment to. And I'm very grateful that God manages the resources he gives to me because
sometimes I can be an idiot. And I really need someone who knows what he's doing in charge of me.
And I'm so very grateful that God is to have one. Yes, I want to give this kind of like a
parable because I kind of like this will help people to understand all the more so what it's
like to operate within the kingdom of heaven. And also I think operate from a kingdom mindset
as well. And so I give this parable of the kingdom of heaven being like a millionaire
who walks into a Walmart. And this millionaire, he he has money and he has millions. So he goes
around and he buys whatever he wants, food, clothes, the latest and greatest electronics,
whatever, whatever his heart desires, he buys all that stuff and with his money, with his credit card,
with his finances. And he walks out the store and he goes back to his home. But then there's this
second man who walks into the same Walmart and he has nothing within his pockets. He has no money.
He's like, I mean, just just just broke as a joke. He's been late. He's been late all the
late off the job. He got fired. The economy, it's been rough on him. And he goes and he's walking
around the Walmart and he's looking looking at all the food and the rotisserie chicken and looking
at the clothes and the big screen TVs. He's like, and he has faith that he said, like, man, you know,
one day I'm going to be able to go back home to my family and provide this for them. But as he's
walking out of the Walmart, he he encounters the owner of the Walmart. And the owner of the Walmart
says to him, you know what? You've been coming to this store. And you've been just so nice and so
respectful to everybody to the staff, to the new cashier, to the trainee, to the janitor, to everybody
within the store. And we we watch you on our cameras. And you're just so faithful to this store. And
you she were she everybody everybody was such love and such respect. I want to I want to do
something for you and the owner reaches into his pocket and he pulls out this 24 seven access key
card. And he gets it to the man and he says, you now have access to this Walmart 24 seven,
no matter what happens, just use this card, it'll be it'll be open to you have access.
And whatever you want to get for it, just just get it. But the man says, I don't have any any money
though. I don't have I don't have a wallet. I have nothing I have a bank. I don't have anything. And
the owner says, don't worry, it's all on the house. And the owner walks away. Out of that scenario,
I would I would rather be not the millionaire. I would rather want to be the man who has that 24
seven access card, because that's what the kingdom of happiness like in democracies in America.
We spell wealth M O N E Y. But in the kingdom, wealth is wealth is spelled a C C S S access.
And so being able to access what we need from the owner, our heavenly father, we are able to
go to him whenever whenever we need to pray to him whenever we need to ask him whatever whatever
we we want, whatever whatever we have, what's on our heart. And we are able to not just rely on
America's economy, but we're able to rely on a far more superior economy called the economy of heaven,
which the last time that I checked heaven, the economies of heaven has no recession,
no bankruptcy. The stock market is not crashing. No inflation. It's always super abundant. It's
always a thriving economy. And I believe that's what the kingdom of heaven is like. It's just
like that man who got this 24 seven access card, and he can go and he can get whatever he wants,
because the owner says, I'm covering you, I will provide for you. Just trust in me. That is what
you have. Man is what I'm giving you. And everything that you need, everything that you
everything that that needs to be provided to you, it will come from the owner. And that's what I
feel like it's like living within the kingdom of heaven. We I feel most Christians miss out on that.
And that's why we have the story of the prodigal son or the older brother that stayed behind
feels some kind of way. But he actually had access the whole time. And he just didn't realize
what he had. Wow. Wow. He was he was like a prisoner because he didn't know how to use the card he had.
Wow, that is so true. That is so true. Wow.
You know, I'm so very grateful to have you today. You are, you know, you've come from a lot. And I
appreciate the discernment you used while going to the word. I appreciate that God spoke to you
through the word and shifted your perspective enough to align yourself with Jesus. It's just
an incredible journey. And it's not something that you could do alone that clearly God is behind
you and inspirational for you. And the Holy Spirit is leaving you. Thank you for being on this show.
Wow. Wow. Hallelujah. Pray I thank King Yahweh for you all. And I thank King Yahweh for for this
beautiful podcast ministry that he has you are doing together. And that is my sincere prayer,
key invitation that this podcast will continue to thrive and continue to be that beautiful
invitation to him by people into the kingdom of heaven to enter into it. And I just I just thank
you all that you allowed me to to speak and to share my heart and to share how good the king of
heaven truly is. So thank you all so very much. I truly appreciate you all. Thank you, sir.
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