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#24: From New Age to New Life (Interview with Shane Miller)
29 Plays3 days ago
This episode is going to dive into the reality of what so many of today's culture, including those within the church, are facing. This interview deals with the existence of the dark side which too many in the church are not aware of and or just do not want to face.
Rich sits down with his nephew Shane Miller and has a rather honest conversation of his own spiritual journey. Shane grew up in a single parent home as his father abandoned his family when he was a young child. Later his mother remarried a godly man who adopted he and his sister. On the outside you would see a nice, respectful teenager who is hard working and would play by the rules. Shane represents the many students that attend your youth ministry, your church, or your Christian School. On the outside they look OK but on the inside his heart was full of rebellion and doubt toward God.
As a young man he became extremely successful in the EDM club scene where he was a highly successful promoter in the Cincinnati OH area. Everything was looking good for him as he was involved in all the world had to offer-including an offer to move to LA and get to the next level in the EDM scene. During this time, he began to dabble into and then became extremely involved in the occultic practices the new age has to offer. Listen to his story and rejoice in the beauty of God's grace. It has only been in these last few years the Shane has sincerely come to a place of humble submission to Jesus.
Shane now has started a YouTube ministry and other social media platforms as he is an Acts 17 model to connect with those who are also seeking just like he was for so many years.
https://www.youtube.com/@shanetmiller
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Transcript
Introduction and Background
00:00:00
Speaker
well welcome to the next gen matters podcast this is rich brown episode 24 i have with me my nephew shane t miller and shane is going to be telling his story of what it means to come to faith in christ later in his life he's in his later 30s now growing up in the church growing up in a christian background going to christian school everyone thinks he's got it together Oh, is he got a story for y'all.
00:00:27
Speaker
Shane, welcome to the next 10 Matter Podcast, which is a show for ministry leaders seeking to move beyond overwhelm and move into leading with clarity, confidence, and consistency. Shane, I'm so glad you're here. Yeah, I'm pumped to pumped to finally do this. so He calls me Uncle Richie just to poke the bear. I mean, come on, man. You can't outlive that. You can't, Shaney. That's how I've always viewed you.
00:00:49
Speaker
so Well, I've known him for all his life, right? But anyway, Shane, we're going to go back. and And listener, we're actually going to deal with some stuff that is on some of the hard some of the hard conversations. And yet the beauty is the grace of Jesus is so lavish and is so powerful. And that's why, listener, I want you to hear his story.
Family Challenges and Faith Struggles
00:01:12
Speaker
So Shane, let's go back. your Your mom, my younger sister, three years younger than me, Delene, my sister, and I are still basically like best friends. We were considered ourselves best friends in high school. i was a senior. She was a freshman.
00:01:27
Speaker
Four years later, I'm a senior at Liberty. She's a freshman at Liberty. But there there was a young man that came into her life and she gave herself to him in more ways than one.
00:01:39
Speaker
And she found herself pregnant before they were married. And that, of course, is your older sister. And then you came along a couple years later. We realized as family that we family there was an abusive situation going on.
00:01:54
Speaker
Yes, verbal and yes, physical and a lot of mistreatment and even in even into just to some of the hard, hard things. And if for you, of course, growing up, that's kind of normal because that's your home.
00:02:07
Speaker
And yet I know as a little guy, I'm talking, dude, you're one, two, three, four. And you're seeing Aunt Jane and Uncle Rich, the youth pastor and his wife and, you know, grandma and grandpa in ministry. Your gramps is, you know, my dad, a senior pastor. And then you get into Christian school and your mom's working at church and a secretary. So we're going to walk through some of that.
00:02:28
Speaker
Going up through being a little child, going into, then course your dad leaving, God providing a godly man to come into my my sister's life. Yeah, praise Jesus.
Rebellion and Skepticism
00:02:39
Speaker
Oh, yes. And just what a godly man that my brother-in-law is. But let's walk through some of that and how this relates even to your view of God, the Father, Jesus, the Savior, the Rescuer.
00:02:49
Speaker
take Take me through some of this. Yeah, I mean, i I think that our view of God, obviously, is how we... I mean, that quite literally forms our relationship with him. And I didn't really understand that until, I mean, yeah i mean, I'll sleep with them in the last few years.
00:03:05
Speaker
My view of God was, of course, the cosmic cop, right? Because that's how, you know, when when you don't have the correct father figures, earthly father figures, you know, scripture says that he's the father that, you know, he's he's the father that that our earthly father was not, you know, and I think that that obviously forms you into, I don't want to blame everything on past trauma, right? Because I think that there's a, I think that there's a point in your life when you have to face those things and the Lord helps you, helps clean your heart and helps you heal from those things.
00:03:38
Speaker
But yeah, i mean, my, my, your question was my view of God from yeah how that started. So, so
00:03:49
Speaker
I've always grown up to be the Doubting Thomas, right? That's my middle name. Yes, yes, yes, you have been. And so I'm just one of those people that that really has to really has to see it to believe it.
00:03:59
Speaker
And I don't want to think outside of the box of intellectual intellectuality. So, you know, i I always just did what I was told. I checked the boxes. And I think that rebellious spirit in me from, you know, not having the father figure around definitely showed its head when i when i got out of high school yeah and that's where i viewed god as deep down i probably knew he was there but you know i think i viewed god as he's just trying to control me he's just trying to just like kind of my father situation right right that's how i viewed my my now dad who adopted me my stepdad at the time yep you know you're just trying to control me you're not my real dad all that you know good stuff now i look back and i'm like thank you lord but um but
00:04:41
Speaker
But, uh, but yeah, so I don't know if that answers your question
Success and Emptiness
00:04:44
Speaker
entirely. but Well, I remember even back with you at middle school, even into high school, we lived miles away. I was in Seattle here in near Chicago. So that is a few miles away, but but you know, once or twice a year seeing each other when we'd fly back, and we'd have some good conversations on, you had these, we now use the term apologetics.
00:05:03
Speaker
and you had these like, how do I know God is real? How do I know the Bible's real? And we would we go out for you know, fast food. And I just remember walking you through some of the basics, you know, Josh McDowell 101 type stuff or whatever, and just trying to really encourage you to see that that the truth is real, and and the Word of God is real. But yeah, no matter what I put down on the table, you were still like,
00:05:28
Speaker
But how you prove it? Exactly. And I knew that. And my sister's like, how'd it go? How'd it I was such a punk. How did you deal with anything? Here's the back story. So your mom was like, how'd it go, Rich? How'd it go? And like, well, he's listening, you know?
00:05:40
Speaker
I bet. But I could tell like you were in in this intellectual sense of playing chess. i was trying. I was really trying to understand. I was trying. yeah You were seeking. Yeah. yeah so then you you attend moving here you know living here in cincinnati at that point as as a middle school high schooler cincinnati christian school yeah you know and you graduate from the christian school and yet You're still not buying it, right? No, I was not buying it. i had great ethics classes, by the way, that I loved. That was my favorite class.
00:06:07
Speaker
They thought outside the box, but I felt like everybody else outside of that was very much just like spoke Christianese. And I could just kind of see through the the bull crap, you know, of of a lot of the,
00:06:18
Speaker
religious i don't want to say elites but the religious uh yeah uh structure or at the school I was in and i mean you could sit here all day and nitpick that but people blame it on church hurt they blame it on all the things that went wrong in the church but I know now that I think that's just a heart issue that I had and a stubborn heart issue pride you know which will get you and the enemy does that and he attacks us as kids too which is what happened in my case so yeah yeah And then going through your twenties and this is what I observed. And if I'm wrong, step right in, you know, I'm loving you as your uncle, loving my sister as a dear friend and my sister, my heartbreaking.
00:06:59
Speaker
It really did. I mean, my, my kids, your cousins, you're also buddies. I mean, we have a very, people will get it. We have a very tight tight family. Yeah. And they're pulling for you. And then,
00:07:13
Speaker
Listener, if you've been watching some of this with me, and then my youngest son, Ryan, who's you know seven years younger than you, he's going through not everything you were going through, but similar as where he receives Jesus, about a 20, 21-year-old. Now, throughout your 20s, now you're out there locally going to University of Cincinnati, clubbing the whole, I mean, you're you're just yeah you're just doing it. I mean, you're you are the prodigal son, go for it. Exactly. Right?
00:07:39
Speaker
I did it all. Yeah. I mean, I, I went bars every weekend, multiple times a week, you know, chased after everything the world lies to you about and that the enemy lies to you about trying to be cool, you know?
00:07:52
Speaker
but I mean that that's what took me into my later 20s which because I started at the bar promoting promoting when I was in college to pay for my school because I didn't have a good relationship with my parents at that time and I refused to go to a Christian school which they would have helped me figure out to a college university yeah I wanted to stay here with my friends and stuff so so yeah I had to earn money so I did it that way and after after college you know the party kind of ends and you're kind of standing around like
00:08:22
Speaker
what do I do now? You know, the only thing that I had for going for me was the, the club stuff. So I turned that into, that moved into graduated into doing music, doing shows, doing live events. electronic music is where I, is where I fell into. Uh, that's just what I like. So that's what I did. And, I scaled, I scaled those companies. I scaled my, my electronic music, uh, event production company, pretty big actually. in these three States at least. So like Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, like we were the, you know, cause Cincinnati is right in between them. The tri-state We were like the team, you know, that, that brought in all those big events. And then we moved to festivals and then, yeah. I mean, you're well known, right? You're very connected.
00:09:06
Speaker
big, but like i just look at that as just filthy rags now, you know? Yeah. but not in a shameful way. I think that's what formed me in that, during that time, you know, getting involved in the things that the EDM music scene does, which is all about new age and, uh, you know, you've got everything from, I mean, all my friends did witchcraft, very common.
00:09:24
Speaker
It was not frowned upon. it was actually looked at as good thing. it was good magic. So, I mean, i have a YouTube channel too, guys. If, I mean, I go more deep on that stuff there, but that's not, we're going to try to focus more on, my walk with Christ, but in a nutshell, there was a lot of that going on and i was getting sucked into that.
00:09:41
Speaker
Yeah, now this is even into your though. Yep. Right. And I'm 36 now. Right. So as you're walking through being successful, i remember you when you share your, well, I mean, i mean in the business sense, yeah yeah you know you're crushing it. I mean, yeah LA even wants you to move out there. yeah Go West Coast, West Ad, right? So they want you to go out there a few years ago. Yeah.
00:10:01
Speaker
So I so just sped it up to like, let's now pick it up about two, three years ago. During the time from your early 20s to the next 10-ish years, while you're and even in the business world i remember you you had good jobs insurance companies i mean you were you were doing well on the business side yeah but yeah i had it together did you really in the middle of this success What were you also feeling on the inside?
Spiritual Realizations
00:10:29
Speaker
I, I, so I never stopped seeking the Lord, or at least truth. Right. so I was studying all kinds of stuff. I was looking into apologetics. I got really into like end times prophecy. I loved, I mean, I smoked a lot of this. So like, I, I thought, I mean, you know at that point my mind was expanded. So I was just very, I'd go into these deep topics, you know, I love ancient archeology. I've always loved history because of grandma.
00:10:54
Speaker
So that that actually, the ancient archaeology stuff is what started to push me on the path towards like new age because of like Atlantean culture and all that. Yeah. And then, because then you have to look into the flood, right? Did you do Egyptian as well? Oh, yeah. Because dude, that is so wrapped up. Yes.
00:11:08
Speaker
that's huge in the occult yeah i know why yeah look at the symbols right i mean you see that stuff when you take certain things too so it it all it all goes back to every rabbit hole leads to jesus right that's what they say and it's so true that's what it was for me but it took me like 10 years of doing of like going through all that stuff so anyways so yeah i was seeking truth and that's how many people in new age that's what happens is that You're seeking for truth. New age is very takes a lot of Christian principles and things from the Bible. And that's why it seems true. But it's just there's an it's a never ending hamster wheel. Right.
00:11:44
Speaker
you You have to do this to get to get to this next level. And then you have to it's because you didn't do that. It's all works based. Right. So obviously you never reach the top. But there's spiritual verbiage and there's spiritual language. And it seems to work too in a temporary sense. Yeah. Very temporary. Yeah. You can find peace. There are some good things about it You can find peace. You can find, you find how to heal things inside you. Right. But outside of that, I mean, there's no Jesus.
00:12:09
Speaker
There's Christ consciousness, which we could talk about that a different time. You know, and I'll hear that phrase. Yeah. That's a huge problem. don't hear that phrase. And I think there's some believers that think, oh, that they're, they're a Christian. No. that is deception do you find now that you're out of that and you're in christ do you find that there are people in the church that are playing with that a hundred percent it's getting i don't want to speak this because i don't i don't like speaking things over with my words but it's gotten it's gone up a lot so you're probably more aware of it very aware of that i have a big heart for that for my my ministry right so i know you
00:12:42
Speaker
yeah so anytime i see that i i correct where i can like in my church and stuff yeah astrology is another one that's yeah yeah it starts there so take me back to two years ago what was god doing and i want you to share with them the story you share with our with your uncle peter my brother-in-law where you take about an hour on your youtube episode and really walk through your own salvation but we're going to speed this one up yeah go into that moment where you had that, that experience of what finally, yep.
00:13:13
Speaker
Yeah. The one 80 moment. That's the one that, the one that some people go, well, this is too freaky for me. yeah I'll turn it down a little bit. Well then read your gospels y'all. Cause there's some freaky stuff there. Test everything to scripture, please. Don't just trust me or any of us.
00:13:29
Speaker
Okay. So It was really about four years ago technically at this point, which is crazy because i did the math wrong the other day too. And I was, it's been, it's been a long time surprisingly, but 2022 is when I, is when i is when I guess my real conversion happened, 2022, 2023.
00:13:47
Speaker
in, in 2022, that is where I was kind of at the peak of my career wise, you know, like you said, l LA was trying to move me out there to do, to, you know, absorb my company and, you know, I was going to run all these huge festivals out there and they were just basically going to use me for it. That's of what they do. And then spit me out, I'm sure.
00:14:09
Speaker
But they made it sound all great and grand. And it was during that time that I was also at the peak of my new age exploration, I'll call it, where I was literally communicating with the universe is what i thought it's really spiritual i don't want to say everything's a demon because i think there's other things involved too but those things were communicating with me through numbers it's very hard to explain unless you are in new age or have have given yourself over to these spirits but basically you think you have a spirit guide and it's just supernatural things happening all around you constantly the more you feed it the more it presents itself you open yourself up to exactly you're you're allowing those open doors to be there and
00:14:53
Speaker
So, I mean, I was like, this is obviously real. I'm seeing stuff and that's what the enemy does. He gives you the counterfeit because the Lord works over time, right? Usually the Lord works over time and he teaches you lessons through the fire. Right. And whereas Satan will be like, you know, well, if he's going to make you wait, I'll give it to you right now. So it was a lot more instant gratification. it Sounds like the temptation that was given to Jesus. Sounds a lot like it, doesn't Yeah.
00:15:19
Speaker
He has no new tricks. You want, you want to rule? You can rule now, just bow to me. So, you know, the enemy is defined by the apostle Paul as the angel of light. He masquerades as an angel of light. It looks good. I'll hear people say a lot in the business world. And even now filtering into the Christian space is the phrase you've already used it, the phrase, the universe.
00:15:40
Speaker
What? Such a lie, such a lie, man. It just makes me sanctify. Not, not at people. Cause I think people just deceived. They're, they're deceived. Exactly. That's why I like talking about this stuff.
00:15:53
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, around that, this is when I was at the height of all that, right? And I pretty much decided at that point that that this is the right way. This is the the real path.
00:16:04
Speaker
now what was the real path new age okay yeah the universe being able to to trust the universe trust tarot cards trust you know all these occult numerology numerology yeah did you feel you had a spirit guide or or plural oh yeah i thought i did it and her name was sophia which turns out to be a gnostic god by the way that i found out later and sophia took you out of your body this is where she met me outside my body this is where people can get a little like oh come on really yes
00:16:33
Speaker
It's absolutely real. You're going into the spirit realm illegally. You can do it through astral projection, which I was just about to start doing, by the way, je which is why I think the Lord he got you then yeah thank thank you yeah really so or you can do it with substances which is what i did it which is really why the lord i look back at his grace and i'm just like man i mean every single day i still just thank him over and just full of gratitude but the protection involved and you know i i've received christ as 10 year old so i still believe that that the lord and because of all the prayers from you guys that
00:17:11
Speaker
the Lord was watching me, you know, as the prodigal son. And I just think about his love. Yeah. Let me call a time out with that. If you don't mind here. Okay. you had this, let me say this active public act of faith,
Conversion and Transformation
00:17:27
Speaker
theologically speaking, where I would tend to think is where so many of the church are that grew up in the evangelical church home and church.
00:17:36
Speaker
They have this experience with the Lord. where God is wooing them in what he does praise him. And yet maybe it was, it wasn't a true conversion yet, but he was getting your attention.
00:17:51
Speaker
And then all this time, you know, he was preparing you as you're pursuing all these other things. And then he said, now, he's going to, in a good way, break us down to, until we repent, truly repent and not put our trust in the stuff, but put our trust in him.
00:18:14
Speaker
Because as we get into BC, you know, both your life before Christ and we flipped the script really quick in our conversation. Now, what I now see in you, Shane, is something I never saw when you were 10 or 11 or 12. Um, 12.
00:18:27
Speaker
Even as we're I'm here in town, up here in Cincinnati, as my my nephew just graduated high school, and hearing our conversations the last two years, you constantly talk about Jesus. You constantly talk about Jesus. Dude, that never was on your lips when you were young. yeah That's where I say God was getting your attention.
00:18:46
Speaker
But anyway, I don't want to digress with that, but I think that's powerful. The God was, you know, I'm going to get you. And at that time he pulled you in now. Okay. So you actually have an experience which freaks you out. Yeah.
00:19:00
Speaker
And then I remember you telling me in here in this home where I'm shooting this episode or right now, my sisters yeah two years back and you told me, I'd love to have you share with them what the reality was. If this, then that. Remember?
00:19:14
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can tell we haven't, we haven't practiced this We're just having a conversation. No, we're off the cuff here. Yeah. Cause I'll never forget this story. So yeah, it changed my life. so my 180 moment was, yeah I was at the height of all of those things I was just mentioning. And my pride was absolutely astronomical.
00:19:31
Speaker
And I went to do this substance. Can I say it? DMT, which you might have seen that on like Joe Rogan or whatever, but now it's marketed to people as like wellness, which is.
00:19:44
Speaker
and don Okay. I'm not going to talk about that, but yeah, avoid anything ayahuasca or DMT because it's. extremely demonic. But, yeah, so I had done this thing like four or five times and you leave your body when you do this. So DMT is, uh, is the chemical that's excreted in your brain when you born, when you're born and when you die.
00:20:02
Speaker
so there's something there with like the afterlife of being able to cross over. Right. so people take that intentionally to have a not a body experience to leave your body so you go out flow outside of your body and your are spirit so you're totally unattached from your vessel you're fully aware but you're in a different place wow so yeah so i did that thing and i'm not going to glorify it and sit here right the first four times that i did it it was amazing right or i thought it was and then the fifth time
00:20:34
Speaker
which you should never be doing it that many times, let alone or once, let alone like five times in a year. so yeah. And then on top of all this stuff i was messing with, so it was open doors everywhere, spiritual doors open, wide open for the enemy and I wasn't in Christ. So I had no protection.
00:20:49
Speaker
And, but I said, had a feeling about around the fourth or fifth time. I'm like, you know, I just feel like I'm being lied to or deceived. Wow. I just feel like when I'm over there that and you kind of meet these entities too, which again, I'm not going to go into details for kind of meet these other entities, your spirit guides, things like that. And and they seemed like very nice to me, but I kind of had this feeling that they were going to turn on me.
00:21:15
Speaker
And I just had this weird, I don't, I mean, I obviously know now that it was discernment. it was the Holy Spirit, I believe, pulling me. And I said, okay, this time that I go that i go in, go into the spirit realm, the fifth time we did it,
00:21:29
Speaker
I did you do it with your friends and I was like to myself I was like God God of the Bible Yahweh you know God of Abraham like Isaac and Jacob if you are real and if Jesus is real then I want to know like that's why I'm that's why I'm going in I want to know if this is deception m and He answered, I went into the spirit realm, which is an illegal backdoor of entering the spirit realm. The Holy Spirit can take you there. Right.
00:21:58
Speaker
But that's the Lord purposely veils the spirit realm from us and lot of spiritual concepts and in scripture, because he doesn't want us to be so focused on that, that we're not focused on our mission here just to share the gospel.
00:22:11
Speaker
So i
00:22:15
Speaker
asked him to present himself and he did. I, when I came to kind of from this, the trip that I was doing, I opened my eyes and everyone else was that I was with was still kind of like lean back, like, you know, in the spirit realm. So I did it again.
00:22:33
Speaker
hit it again. And then when I did it that time, I just completely freaked out. i I opened my eyes to try to get out of the experience basically. And I tried to like my soul, like to go back into my body and it's like, it wouldn't latch back into my body.
00:22:52
Speaker
I thought it was stuck and I thought I had passed away or I thought I died. I thought I died in the spirit realm and I thought maybe that I had overdosed or something because you're still conscious. It's just different. It's hard to explain. wow I thought that I had died and that I was trapped there and I thought that I was separated from God forever.
00:23:11
Speaker
Which it's there's no feeling there's no adjective to describe that here on earth. It's just a feeling of complete dread. like because God is every love, right? God is everything that is good. Even nonbelievers benefit from God's love, right? Mm-hmm.
00:23:30
Speaker
So, because the Holy Spirit, you know, dwells, you know, in our midst. And when you don't have that and you think you're trapped there forever, I mean, wow yeah I believe that the God showed me hell, a version of hell. I was just thinking yeah that, Shane, of the eternal separation. By the way, is what it is listener, if you're watching this on YouTube, you may,
00:23:53
Speaker
Shane, your body language right now, you're shaking. Yeah. Oh yeah. Cause you're, you're, you're praise Jesus for grace. mean, even talking about it. know I can see it. So if you're listening, you can't watch it on YouTube. I'm watching my brother here and it's like, and we're not trying to exploit this. And once again, our focus is on the grace of Jesus.
00:24:12
Speaker
don Take us to this. You come back. Okay. I come back. I, I, I'm like, okay. Now I know. Let's go. that Because because they basically the Lord had revealed that these were demons that I was dealing with or entities that were not from him, right?
00:24:27
Speaker
Rebellious entities, lowercase l. And I was like, all right, now I know that if demons are real, then Jesus is real. So I have to make some serious decisions like him immediately. So I shut down all my businesses. i shot shut down shot down the deal with LA.
00:24:46
Speaker
I lost all of my friends. I lost my girlfriend. I lost my house. I lost my truck. I lost everything.
Growth and Ministry
00:24:52
Speaker
but that's the, that's where the Lord is so cool though, is because he knew exactly what he needed to show me because I'm so hardheaded and I had so much pride and I was so full with obviously very spiritual full of, um, of,
00:25:07
Speaker
you know demonic spirits and all of it i mean i had welcomed it all in he had to break me of that and he knew exactly what he needed to do and uh some of us have to fall harder than others i'm just glad that i that i latched to him that time i feel like that was my chance for resist the devil and he will and he will flee draw near to god and and he will draw near to you cleanse your hands you sinners purify your hearts you double-minded and it's written to believers that passage but exponentially even to the young believer that's the act of repentance you had to begin cutting things off because you knew if i'm gonna lean into what this gospel thing is yeah so what what brought you to you knew the gospel you could articulate it you could probably air quotes lead someone else to jesus oh yeah intellectually yeah
00:25:58
Speaker
But walk me through that moment where you really felt that sense of surrender. So I kind of had, that was my epiphany moment, right? But then it translated into, I actually started reading scripture with an open heart. Cause I'd always read scripture and I looked at it like a book report. And when you read, you can read scripture and not get anything out of it because you a hard heart, right? So because my heart was- And the teacher is not in you. Exactly.
00:26:21
Speaker
yeah oh yeah true the true the author of the word holy spirit he's gone yep so yeah that's that is yeah that's good point so i started reading scripture with uh and i asked the lord to reveal himself when i when i read and that's where he started to speak to me through scripture that's why for unbelievers especially people like like younger people like you know might be in your youth groups there's a lot of them that may be seeking you might have doubts but the The one thing I always tell people and I, and I just, so i disciple people a lot. guys that have come from the music scene, things like that are just people that I know from the world that yeah yeah they always ask me, how do I, how do I, I just Bible so boring to read. And I'm like, first all I'm thinking the Bible is the coolest book ever read. Like, even if it's it's it's a wild book, man. Yeah. And it tells it all. yeah and Every answer is there, but everyone runs and prays to rocks instead.
00:27:15
Speaker
anyways so i always tell them to ask the lord to reveal himself when you're reading and to ask him to soften your heart and uh truly seek him with an open heart and then he will he'll answer so and scripture is one of the main ways how he how he talks to us right so did you have that moment where you basically just poured your heart out to the lord and just said i'm yours the first moment I felt baptized in the Holy Spirit was, yeah because i believe I believe I was saved, i had the Holy Spirit, but I was not baptized. Well, let me back up on that.
00:27:51
Speaker
Baptized in the Holy Spirit. When you're saved, the Spirit comes into you. Right. So you are. i I was already saved. Right. but But I'm saying like the first time i actually felt the like the head to toe, like a baptism of the Spirit, which I mean, that's just how I describe it. But the first time I felt that was when I, when I made my first large act of obedience, okay which was turning down the LA call. So when I got off the phone, cause that was, that was, that was the pivotal moment. That's where everything led to. If I turned down this deal, I'm done. Like, right like I don't know, I'm not going to call it blackballed, but basically from the industry.
00:28:28
Speaker
so I turned the deal down and when I got off the phone, I just head to foot. I'm like, what was that here and that's where i feel like that was a moment with the lord when that undeniable we have those moments of surrender and we have those moments of where we cut everything off the lord replaces it over time with with well was gonna say he replaces it with himself that oh yeah that you, this is where I'm i'm getting the weeds little bit, but biblically, technically, you know Romans 8, 9 says, if you have not the spirit of God, you're not of his.
00:29:11
Speaker
So he was in you, but to have that, let me say that victorious sense or that victorious win, And I'll use the word feeling.
00:29:21
Speaker
You know, I understand what you're saying. That you felt like they were now like, he he he really filled you. Like we're told by the apostle Paul to be filled with his spirit. Right. And when as you go through life, I think there those periods where his presence is just, it was his presence. And now you felt that, that,
00:29:37
Speaker
that victory and the filling right meaning that he's moving he was kind of like it was like a confirmation you know how the lord speaks so you're you're so once i felt that i was like he's real you know there's not he is he's he's an actual person yeah like he's in he lives in me right that's so cool you're now in the bible this is back couple of years ago right two three years ago you're now in the bible three yeah three years ago you begin to minister to those that who've rejected you and even those that maybe don't yet know you, but I mean, for example, not to make it a show, but on the gram, how many followers you had?
00:30:20
Speaker
Dude, I got pulled through the mud. No, I'm saying how many followers before you, you know, before Jesus? I don't know. My personal Instagram, like,
00:30:31
Speaker
4,000, but then I lost 2,000. I mean, to me, followers don't really matter, but I mean, all my business accounts- What I'm saying is like you had all this, let's say,
00:30:44
Speaker
living for the enemy, you know, living for yourself, you had all this influence. Oh, But as soon as you become public for Jesus, oh yeah the hit came, you know, the the pushback came, right? So you have this desire to reach out to those that you knew who were in the scene, but you also had this, God put this heart in you to YouTube it, but then all of a sudden take your abilities and your skills that the enemy was using and now redeem it yeah for him oh yeah walk us through now what you're doing you've created your own ministry yeah so it was interesting i got so I I after after being in isolation with the Lord after losing everything you know I drove drew close to him I sought him every day hours and hours and hours every day for a few months actually here at my parents house I
00:31:35
Speaker
was like, okay, you know I've kind of just been sitting around for a year now. like What are you going to do with me, Lord? like I have peace, but I'm also still kind of depressed you know because you have your flesh. and then But i still no matter what, I'd live in a box if I had it.
00:31:49
Speaker
I've always been like a go-getter, but I didn't have anything. I didn't even have friends anymore. or my girlfriend or anything so i was like you know when are gonna but what i realized he was refining me to step into ministry to take my story online and i had a very clear word from him that that I needed to start that I needed to start start to digital discipling because that's where a lot of my skill set was in you know I'd scaled all those companies and all those different you know all those social media pages for those companies and stuff like that so I was like you know I'm going to use my marketing skills to to create content a little bit of a different world than what i was used to but my very first tick tock that I made went mega viral and the problem with that was that it was calling out the evm industry for for a demonic
00:32:38
Speaker
it It was a days of Noah thing. Okay. An event that I was like, that's the days of Noah. Like these people don't know that they're doing all these things. Right. I don't think, but they're being influenced by, by so in a spiritual way to, to put on these events.
00:32:51
Speaker
So it went like mega viral and i had like national DJs calling me out being like, you were just booking me like like a year and a half ago, whatever. i had people putting hexes on me which all kinds of stuff man then on my personal accounts like on instagram like you know i was sharing the gospel everyone's like you're in a religious psychosis even though they're the ones praying to rocks i'm the crazy one yeah you know it's like so but yeah i still have a big heart for those people and that that's where i feel called to do so i started a youtube and that the lord just blessed it and took it took it and it's
00:33:26
Speaker
it's it's it's doing amazing right now. Comes challenges, but I just, i I was able to leave my corporate job to do that full time. So yeah, my heart is to share the gospel and spread to the nations. It is. Yeah, it is to expose darkness.
00:33:40
Speaker
And I love the fact that you're using the tool that we're using right now. You know, social media, digital, YouTube. None of us have an excuse why we shouldn't be using social media to reach people. Tell us some of the wins how you look at go wow the people you ministered to let's walk through maybe we're gonna wrap this up soon but walk us through some of them the the stories of grace it's just every day there's just like so i had this huge long prayer list right of like 100 names and i always add and remove right to depending but there's usually those like 100 names and and
00:34:19
Speaker
I've prayed for those people for quite some time. And I learned over time that instead of trying to, you know, point fingers or like, this is the truth, you have to listen, it was more about your testimony. So I learned to pray from a distance and to just like you guys did for me.
00:34:33
Speaker
And I've been marking names off that list. People- What marking names? So when, when someone has either come to the Lord or they've come to me out of nowhere and been like, Hey, I want to hear about Jesus.
00:34:45
Speaker
These are people that I'm praying for okay from my past life. Okay. Just praying for, or maybe they see my stories and stuff. But other than that, we don't talk really anymore. Okay. People that have reached out to me and been like, Hey, can I come to your church with you? People that have never, that you would never think like so far from God, uh, didn't even grow up in church. a lot of them.
00:35:05
Speaker
So I'm the guy that gives everyone Bibles. I ship Bibles to people all the time. i That's where my heart for discipleship takes in. right So sometimes it'll come in the form of you know somebody has a and an issue you know like there's a lot of like people trying to unalive themselves like there's a lot of depression in the music scene oh there is yep uh mental illness most of it a lot of is spiritual i would argue i would agree yeah so because jesus is the chain breaker you know so it's just so cool man i could just like i'm gonna get emotional just thinking about just what he can do with a surrendered heart
00:35:42
Speaker
Because you know everything that we do, right it's the power of
Conclusion and Reflections
00:35:44
Speaker
the Holy Spirit. We have the power of the Holy Spirit that lives within us. and the more willing we are so the more at least this what i find is that the more the more surrendered or willing that i am he does let me go even deeper to to refine me even more that the the valleys can be even deeper so sometimes it hurts a little bit you know the things he has to purge you from but it is worth it so if you're willing to go that deep he'll do it but yeah man and and just the way that he the way that he speaks so clearly when you're in so much good communion close with him he he'll do anything with anybody
00:36:17
Speaker
anything you have a heart for apologetics yeah take a minute talk about that okay well apologetics was what I always studied leading up to my leading up to my so full surrender moment. So I think that the biggest thing for me, I think you could look around, right? And you can you look around, you know, there's a creator, right? That's just basic science. So that i never I never didn't believe there was a God. I just didn't believe necessarily that Jesus was God.
00:36:48
Speaker
or that maybe other religions weren't kind of mixed together with it so it was like why is scripture canon right why are the 66 books of the bible why are they so accurate well one of the main things that that got me with apologetics was the the prophecies that were fulfilled in Jesus lifetime from the old Testament to the new Testament.
00:37:09
Speaker
And I think that gets overlooked. A lot of people worry a lot about the end times prophecies, which can be kind of like misconstrued a lot, but looking at the 330 some odd prophecies that Jesus fulfilled in his lifetime on this earth just blows my mind.
00:37:24
Speaker
Like 30 pieces of silver, you know, from, uh, this is written in Isaiah 600 years before Christ. And, and, uh, you know, watching or looking in, I mean, it's physically impossible for anybody to do that, even if they were trying to, I do realize that Jesus did do certain things specifically to fulfill prophecy, but it's just too accurate. If you were to look at all those, that was a big piece for me that, that really kind of like shut the door on any doubts. The unity of scripture. It's insane. It's yeah.
00:37:54
Speaker
It's, I mean, Shakespeare couldn't write the couldn't write scripture and it was you know written on what? Five planets from 40 different authors over- Five planets? Or five continents, sorry, Jesus. Okay.
00:38:06
Speaker
There goes the universe thing again. gosh. i Rebuke five different continents from, you know, 40 different authors. Right. And, and, yeah you know, over how many, how many different, how many thousands of years, but they all told the same unified story. Right.
00:38:24
Speaker
So how, how is it not the inspired word of God? And you could talk manuscripts all day. You could talk like Westhoff and things like that. But i think that's getting into the weeds. And scripture is very clear that you faith like a child. If you try to try to be too intellectual, then you're never going to understand the mysteries of the gospel. so So Shannon, I want to thank you so much for your time and your, your, uh, sharing your life and being very honest. God is good as we see how God has allowed you to go through some very difficult times.
00:38:53
Speaker
back to, you know, dad leaving you when you a little, little boy, and yet having godly people in your life, uh, and then your own or myself, but many others as well. Thank you, Lord. But also then having,
00:39:06
Speaker
biblical truth surrounding you yeah as you are still fighting through everything, but I'm going to figure this out myself. And then hearing where god rescued you oh yeah in the middle of darkness called by name because he is the light come on yeah and now to see a great physician your light which is him in you shining let your light so shine yeah you have a tremendous ministry that many of us are not called to let's be honest oh yeah we use this all in different your mission field and your your people yeah right are people that are that you get because you were there yeah so if people want to reach out to like check you out what are you doing and like what kind of social platforms do you use that kind of thing so youtube that's one of my primary platforms it's just shane t miller you can google it or just look it up on youtube i will drop links uh in the description as well things absolutely and then yeah instagram and tiktok as well if you just look up shane miller you should find me
00:40:04
Speaker
Okay, cool. yeah And I want to thank you for being part of this podcast. I hope that you can see the power of God in an individual's life. You've got students that maybe you know or you're aware of who are playing with this stuff. But i also realize we i look back at my day, we will have students that we don't know.
00:40:27
Speaker
is playing with his stuff, which means we, ministry leader, have to be prayed up, because Jesus said, these things come, deliverance, the idea here of victory over the enemy by prayer and fasting. And we need to be aware, that's my encouragement to us, is we need to be aware of who is in our midst
00:40:49
Speaker
And taking seriously what we have. Youth ministry is all about playing the games. I'm like, come on. Yes. yeah I use games for a resource to create connections for relationships.
00:41:01
Speaker
Yeah. But we teach the word. Amen. teach the word. Amen. The word the apostle Paul said, like one of the last things you ever wrote. in 2 Timothy 3.
00:41:12
Speaker
He goes, I'm in chains. In chapter two, I mean, he says, I'm chains, but the word of God is not chained. So as you teach the word of God, and as you watch the students' responses, and if they're they're visually pushing back,
00:41:25
Speaker
then just keep praying harder. And I would say, ask them, say, how are you doing? How how are things going? Ask them how you're doing. And on another thing too, want to add, listener, if if you realize they may be playing with some of this stuff, I would say really it encourage yourself to look into godly, good and godly resources, other other podcasters, other YouTubers, et cetera, books, et cetera, that resources that can help you understand and even lead them into the search for biblical truth. Yes.
00:41:57
Speaker
Yeah. Don't forget Jesus loves you. That's right. He certainly does. And he is the victor. He wears that victor's crown. Come on. Amen. my brother Y'all have a great week. Take care.