Hey everyone, my name is Austin, and welcome
back to another episode of the Unfiltered Faith
Podcast. If this is your first time tuning in,
I'm so glad you're here. And if you've been here
before, welcome back. Today I'm sitting with
someone who knows what it means to be completely
transformed from the inside out. His testimony,
it will change you, inspire you, and remind you
that freedom is possible. So I'm going to let
him introduce himself, and we're going to get
started. Well, hey everybody, I'm Mike Noland
and I'm excited to be on here. I'm looking forward
to talking about my story, man. So let's start
from the beginning. Can you take us back from
the start? What led you down to the path of addiction
at such a young age? Yeah, man. That's a, that's
a good question. Cause I know right when it started,
I was raised in church. My parents were pastors.
And so I grew up in church and honestly had a
really good childhood for the most part, and
my parents were pretty involved in the Salvation
Army, if you're familiar with it. They were pastors
for the Salvation Army, but they're called officers.
And when I was about seven, they decided to go
back into the Salvation Army. They had started
a church in San Diego, and for whatever reason,
they decided to go back into the Salvation Army,
and that moved us up to Idaho, Twin Falls, Idaho,
which was... different than San Diego, but still
good when we first got there. I just enjoyed
playing sports and just being a kid and my parents
were God fearing people and all that stuff. But
when I was about nine -ish years old, I went
and hung out with some kids from the church that
my parents told me to stay away from and ended
up at their adult cousin's house and was molested
at a very young age. And that messed me up pretty
good. It was the first time I drank. It was the
first time I was exposed to pornography. And
from then on, man, about as early as 12 was when
I really started drinking and using drugs on
a pretty regular basis, typically to just escape.
If I didn't want to feel something, if I didn't
like the way just the situation was going, I
would medicate. And I pulled away from church
because it happened with somebody whose family
attended my parents' church. So I really... Kind
of went the opposite direction after that and
really started partying a lot and using a lot
of drugs. It was mostly to just escape stuff
that I didn't want to deal with, didn't want
to feel. And never ended up really talking about
that until I was 38 years old. So that was something
I buried for a very long time. What were some
of the darkest moments during your battle with
addiction and what did life look like in that
season? It's a good question too. There's a lot
of dark battles, a lot of dark seasons. I'd say
though, for a very significant period of time,
I didn't think that I had a problem because I
was always working. I had a good job, owned homes
and was super successful when it came to work
stuff. I had an addiction problem that progressively
got worse the older that I got. Marriage didn't
fix it. Having kids didn't fix it. And those
aren't really dark times though. I didn't feel
like it had this grip on me that it ended up
having at a later point in life. I had problems
with it. But I think I was functioning a lot
better. When it really got bad was when I was
38, I got divorced from my now ex -wife and had
legal problems and ended up in treatment for
the very first time. The first time I went to
rehab, I was 38. I went to the Salvation Army
because my brother was the intake coordinator.
But the darkest moments were after I got out
of that program, I relapsed about six months
later. So I made it about a year sober. And then,
oh my God, I do a relationship with the wrong
one and started using heroin, cocaine, meth pretty
regularly and intervenously. And those two years
were the darkest moments during my addiction.
It got so bad. I OD'd, ended up in jail a lot.
I thought I was going to die that way. I thought
I was never going to be sober again. I would
even beg God to either kill me or free me, one
of the two. And it got real bad, man. Anything
you could possibly imagine happening. When you're
using drugs like that, uh, intervenously happened.
Uh, it was probably the worst two years of my
life. Those moments sound incredibly heavy, but
somewhere in the middle of the darkness, something
started to change. Was there a particular turning
point where everything began to shift for you?
The first time I got clean in 2018 with the Salvation
Army, I got sober for about a year. That was
when it initially started to change for me I
finally started to see in that period of time
that maybe hope was possible that I could live
a life that didn't involve Drinking or at the
time I was drinking and popping prescription
pills. So that was when it first started to change
But when it really really really changed was
after that two -year period I told you about
that started right around when kovat started
and It got towards the very end of it. I kept
trying to stay stuck in my addiction and use
drugs. And everything that I tried stopped working.
And at the time that it happened, I thought everything
was falling apart, but I realized now it was
just God actually putting my life back together.
I lost cars, house, everything that I owned.
Like I'm not talking about just a few things.
I'm talking everything. I had nothing at the
end of it. No clothes, no place to live, no nothing.
But. At the end of it, I almost got arrested
and could have been charged with multiple felonies,
but the cops let me go, which was crazy. And
two weeks later, I wound up in the Los Angeles
Dream Center and saw the first significant period
of sobriety after that really two year dark period.
I never thought I was going to see, I didn't
think I was ever going to be clean for a day,
but I made it through about four months in that
program. Before I left and had some struggles
after it, but that was really a turning point
That was when I realized God loved me and that
he had been patient with me And even though I
tried to do everything possible To go the way
that I wanted and God kept pulling me back in
which is pretty cool How did you first encounter
Jesus during your struggle? I mean I was raised
in church. I knew God from a young age I believed
in Jesus when I was a kid and childhood trauma
kind of led me in another direction so I knew
God kind of the way that my parents told me that
it was, but when it finally became real for me
or the first encounter with Jesus, like for real,
for real, even though I'd had times where I'd
gone to church and done some other things, but
it never really connected from my head to my
heart. Through that period of two years when
I was hooked on heroin and using drugs intervenously
with needles and all that, about six months before
I had all ended, I was getting down on my knees
almost every day, begging God for a miracle,
like begging God to set me free, just begging
God to do it. And I wake up or stay up all night
and the next day I would just do drugs again.
And then day after day, I just kept using, using,
using, and I would pray and beg God for a miracle.
And then all this crazy stuff happened. They
got me out of Seattle and down to LA to the Dream
Center. I was on a prayer walks. We would do
prayer walks every morning at six a .m. And I
distinctly heard the voice of God, not audibly,
but in my head, in my heart. When I'm walking
on this prayer walk, I realized, man, I've been
clean for 30 days. I didn't think I was ever
going to see a day of sobriety again. And God
said, there's your miracle, right? And so that
was a time where I really encountered God in
a new way, where I was like, dang, I prayed for
something, like vehemently pray for something.
And then I now see it coming to fruition. That
realization in that moment just made me realize
how much God loved me. There's something transformative
about knowing you've been truly set free. Was
there a moment where you knew that God had broken
these chains from you? Fast forward past that
story I told you, I left the Dream Center early
after four months. I love the program. I love
the place, but I got this wild hair and decided
I don't need to be here anymore. I'm good. And
I left eight months early, which at the time,
I regretted almost instantaneously. Now I'm happy
that I did cause things have worked out great.
But at the time I thought I was good and I left
and I relapsed two more times after that. One
time when my dad died and another time five months
after that. And I made a decision after the second
relapse to go into a program called team challenge,
which is a 13 month discipleship program. It's
not necessarily for teenagers. There's hardly
actually any team programs for team challenge.
Most of it's adult. And I kind of walked into
that program with very little hope because I
tried to get free before and I tried other things,
but nothing really had worked. And I was kind
of at this point where I was asking God, just
let it be over. I didn't want to relapse anymore.
I didn't want to hurt people that I cared about.
I didn't want to hurt myself anymore. And about
a month and a half in, I went to a Sunday night
chapel and there were guest speakers. And they
spoke a word and it was like the voice of God.
I felt like everything that I've been praying
about for that entire month and a half, like
they were saying exactly what I was just talking
about to God, like literally the same day. And
I couldn't stand up. I fell on the floor. I ended
up on my knees, then face down on the floor in
that chapel. I was on the floor face down for
about 15 minutes, soaked the floor with tears.
And I believe in that moment that I was supernaturally
delivered at a radical encounter with Christ.
like the most incredible encounter where I haven't
thought about using drugs since. That was almost
two years ago. So I don't use nicotine anymore.
I don't use anything, which is crazy because
I use nicotine for pretty much my entire life.
Going back to when I was 12, that moment was
an encounter with Christ that changed my life
forever. Wow. Praise God. And after that surrender,
life often takes a new direction, even if it
doesn't become easy right away. What did your
life look like immediately after surrendering
to Christ? Free, finally free. I started thinking
different. 2 Corinthians 5 17 says, therefore,
if anyone is in Christ our new creation, the
old is gone, the new is here. And that first
now hits different for me. Like the old is gone.
The new is here. My life has changed. I don't
think the way that I used to. It was a constant
struggle for me, man, where every night I would
fight like just constant. thoughts of relapse.
If I was getting periods of times of sobriety,
that's all I would think about at night. I would
sometimes even try to go to bed early just so
I wouldn't have to think about it. And that stopped,
man. So immediately after I was in a program,
a 13 month program that I had committed to, and
I said I would finish it no matter what. So there
was a temptation to leave, you know, I'd be like,
well, I'm good now again. But I was like, nope,
I'm going to do this. And that was a great choice
because I spent a lot of time with God, man,
a lot of time in His Word, and I was able to
connect at a church that I'm very involved in
now and be mentored for that entire time, get
one -to -one mentoring and discipleship. Now
I actually go back to that church on Tuesday
nights and do the opposite, and I'm the one mentoring
people with similar struggles to mine. So I just
dove in, man, and tried to make the most of that
time that I was there, spend time in the Word,
prepare for the next season and all that kind
of stuff. Now, the discipline of reading the
Word every day has become complete desire. I
do it every day. It's not like, oh, wow, I do
it every day. I do it every day because I just
love spending time with God. I love being in
His presence and I love reading this Word. And
He reveals things to me through His Word. And
that's what it's been like ever since. I do everything
I can to spend as much time in the presence of
God that I can. And my number one goal in life
now is to tell people what Jesus did for me because
if He did it for me, He can do it for them. and
spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, you know,
that Jesus died for our sins and raised again
three days later. And that's the glorious news
of the gospel is that he's alive and all you
have to do is believe in your heart, confess
with your mouth and believe in your heart and
you will be saved. And so that's all I want to
talk about is that to whoever will or won't listen.
And that's one of the reasons why I started my
podcast is to share my story and other people's
stories. That's why I like coming on stuff like
this with people like you as much as possible
because I just hope it helps somebody. Absolutely.
And that kind of support is so crucial. But there
are so many who feel stuck, like their story
is beyond redemption or they feel like their
story is beyond redemption. But what would you
say to someone who's listening right now who
feels like they're too far gone? No such thing
as too far gone. Salvation is available for all.
Anybody who calls on the name of the Lord will
be saved. That's what Romans 10 13 says. All
who call. on the name of the Lord will be saved.
And it doesn't say if you've done this but not
done this or you've been bad in this way and
not bad. And I am the worst of the worst when
it comes to sinners. I've used drugs. I've been
sexually promiscuous outside of marriage from
a very young age with lots of different. Women
after I got divorced, I got a girlfriend and
was promiscuous and we weren't married. We were
doing crazy stuff, man. And we were doing crazy
amounts of drugs and stealing things from stores
and arrests. And again, OD and all that crazy
stuff. Anything that you could possibly imagine.
I feel like in that time, God turned me over
to my flesh. He turned me over to what I desired
more than him. And ultimately it led me to losing
everything. But repentance just means that you
turn and go the other way. It means that you
have a change of heart or a change of mind. And
in Acts 2 .38, Peter's first sermon after Pentecost,
it ended by him saying, repent, be baptized,
receive the Holy Spirit. And that's available
to everyone. It says 3000 were added that day.
So that's all you got to do. You just got to
repent, which means that you confess and forsake
your sin and turn and go the other way. And then
start trying to figure it out. It doesn't mean
everything's perfect right away. It doesn't mean
that you aren't going to have struggles. You've
sowed bad seed for a long time. Some of that
will still come to harvest. And when you start
sowing good seed, eventually through time, that
good seed will start coming to harvest. And you'll
start to see that come around, but you just got
to keep pushing, man. Psalms 34, four says, I
sought the Lord and He answered me and delivered
me from all my fears. So when you seek the Lord,
His word says, that he will answer you and deliver
you from all your fears. So I would say just
keep seeking God. Nobody's too far gone. And
when you seek him, when you knock, he'll answer.
And when you seek first the kingdom of God, all
those things will be added to you. And that's
everything, man. And it doesn't matter what you've
done, doesn't matter where you've been, you have
a place at God's table. And the answer to that
and the way that you get a place is through Jesus,
what he did on the cross. There's so much hope
in your words, and yet we all... wrestle with
lies at some point. What are some lies he once
believed about yourself or about God? How do
you now see through the lens of truth? I believe
that God didn't love me. I believe that I had
made so many mistakes like we talked about. I
was past the point of forgiveness. I believe
that no matter what I did or no matter what happened,
ultimately I was going to fail or mess up or
relapse again. So I'd always be like, if it's
going to happen, I might as well just do it now.
And all of that is lies directly from the pit
of hell, man. God does love you. God created
you for relationship. And even back as far as
the Garden of Eden, he walked with Adam and Eve
in the cool of the day. He created them for relationship.
He freed the Israelites from Egypt in the Exodus
story. And it says in Exodus 19, four that he
brought them on Eagle's wings to himself. basically
said, I brought you out of there to myself to
have a relationship with you. And ultimately,
Jesus paying the price that we couldn't pay puts
us back in right relationship with the holy God.
It tore the veil and that's what God wants. And
so when you commune with God, when you pray,
when you read your word, when you spend time
with him, those lies will start to fall off and
the truth of his word and what he thinks about
you will start to permeate through your very
being. It'll become part of you. So it's difficult
in the beginning to get disciplined, but once
you start to do it after a while, it becomes
a desire and God's worth is truth and feelings
change. Uh, but the truth doesn't. So I would
say dive into God's word, learn what it really
says about you, who you are in Christ, your identity
in Christ and how he feels about you. And that
stuff will start to fall off. So when those lies
start to fall away, We begin to stand on what's
real and lasting. What's one truth about Jesus
that keeps you grounded today? He's the same
yesterday, today and tomorrow. So he doesn't
change. He's faithful, true to his word. If he
said it, he does it. So that's the main thing.
He's the same. He doesn't change, you know, in
a society and the world where people are always
changing and adapting chameleons to just fit
in or, you know, get what they want or manipulate.
You don't have to worry about that with Jesus.
You can believe that what his word says, you
can believe that it's true and you can know that
he doesn't change. So consistency, man, God is
faithful and consistent. And you find that as
you, as you commune with them on a regular basis.
I know it's not like a broken record when it
comes to that, but you'll find that you start
to get to know his character and his character
is constant, true and faithful. So you've come
such a long way and now you're pouring back into
others. How are you using your testimony today
to help others find freedom? Yeah, man, that's
a good question. A lot of different ways. I have
a podcast called Redeemed and Restored that I
just launched literally a little over a week
ago. And I share my entire story on that. I thought
it would take one episode, man, but it took me
four, a different episode because of all the
craziness. I didn't share it to glorify it in
any way, shape or fashion. I shared it to show
people how bad it really got so they could see
how much of a miracle it was when Jesus took
over. And then now I get to hang out with people,
man, and talk to them about their testimonies.
So I just get to share all the time, man. I'm
constantly reminded of my brokenness, which is
a good thing. And I get to constantly share my
story through that. But on Tuesday nights, I
go out to a church that I connected with through
the Teen Challenge program. And I get some mentor
guys. I do one -to -one mentoring. I was just
there last night. And I love that. That's my
favorite night of the week, man. I just get to
spend time one -on -one with people sitting at
a table. And I've seen guys give their life to
the Lord right there, man, just talking. And
it's just most incredibly humbling thing to be
able to sit there with somebody and just talk
and then see the light click on and see that
they want to invite Jesus into their life. They
want to turn their life over. And that's my favorite
night of the week, man. So I love doing that.
And I do a lot of other stuff too. We have a
recovery meeting at my church that I'm involved
in on Monday nights. And I got the thing on Tuesday
nights. I was going out to a clean and sober
house on Wednesdays and doing some more mentoring,
but my wife coaches track. So track season just
ended. So I'll probably get back out to doing
that on Wednesdays. And then I serve at my church
on Sundays as well. So anytime I can, man, if
I have an opportunity to share my story, I'm
going to share it because you never know when
your story might be the catalyst to somebody's
Miracle which has nothing to do with my story
except for the fact that it's a testimony of
Jesus and Revelation 19 10 says that the testimony
of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy That just
means if he did it for me he can do it for you
So if I don't share it shame on me, but I'll
share it any chance I get That's such a beautiful
way to reflect God's grace. What is God currently
teaching you in this season of life? Patience,
you know how to wait waiting is a time that we
can grow in our relationship with God. I always
had this vision of this person I could be if
I would stop drinking, if I would stop using
drugs, nicotine, all that kind of stuff. And
I could never do it. But when I'd lay down on
my bed and think about the future, I'd be like,
maybe someday I could be that person. And now
it's like, God has freed me from all these things
and I can start to see his plan and his purpose
starting to take shape. but it can get really
tempting and very easy to jump ahead of God's
plan for your life and try to think that I know
best. I have proven time and time again, if anybody
ends up going listening to my full story, you'll
hear that I've proved time and time again that
I am not the best pilot of my own life, but God
is teaching me just how to wave. When you abide
in Christ, like John 15 says, and you just spend
time with Him and you commune with Him, whatever
happens, happens, man. Whatever God wants to
open up, whatever doors He wants to open up and
good with, whatever doors He wants to shut. All
right, man, whatever plan I thought was right.
I'm not going to get too attached to anything.
Romans 12 .2 says, you're not conformed to this
world, but be transformed by the renewing of
your mind. Then you'll be able to test and prove
it, prove what God's will is, is good, pleasing.
perfect will so when we just let God's Word and
time with him transform us then we learn what
God's will is and that'll come when it comes
so that's the main thing man patience and waiting
on God and not rushing things and letting letting
him open up the right doors looking back and
looking now what does freedom grace and redemption
mean to you now compared to when you were still
in your struggle they mean everything because
I never thought I was going to be free but I
am and I never thought redemption was possible,
but I stand here, sit here, redeemed, right?
And that is all possible because of the grace
of God, because he sent Jesus to sacrifice and
be our substitute because we can't be in the
presence of a holy God when sin is in the picture.
That happened as far back as the Garden of Eden
when sin came into the world. From that time
on, we needed to be rescued. And Jesus, because
of His grace and His mercy, rescued us. So, it's
everything. Because the only reason why I'm free
is because of Jesus. The only reason why I'm
redeemed is because of Jesus. And the only reason
why I didn't get what I deserved is because of
Jesus. And He paid the price, man. By His stripes,
I've been healed and I'm just so thankful and
grateful. I don't care what else happens now,
man. I'm on bonus time. And then on top of it,
I've been blessed with an amazing life, with
an incredible wife, all these things that I don't.
deserve considering what I've done and what I've
been through, but God has blessed me in so many
ways. But all that's just the cherry on top,
man, because of what he did on the cross. I'm
free, man. I get to live in eternity with him
and that's good enough for me. But I'm just so
thankful for what Jesus did for me. And that's
the gospel. He's alive and I'm free because of
him and it's available to anybody. Wow, what
a powerful testimony of redemption, resilience,
and the relentless love of Jesus. Guys, please
go to the link in the description and go to the
Redeemed and Restored podcast. You have an amazing
story. Thank you for your vulnerability, your
honesty, and for allowing us to not only just
see the pain of your past, but the purpose God
has made from it. Your story is a reminder that
no one is too far gone, and that even in the
darkest seasons can become the soil where freedom
takes root. To our listeners, if you're struggling,
if you're walking through addiction, shame, or
just feel like you're barely holding on, I want
you to hear this loud and clear. You are not
alone. There's a savior who sees you, knows you,
and loves you. And just like that, like you heard
today, he's still in the business of helping
people and setting them free. If this episode
stirred something in you, reach out. Until next
time, keep seeking those fresh perspectives and
keep having those unfiltered conversations with
others to better understand the world around
us.