Transcript
Speaker: Hello and welcome to From Dublin to Cleveland. I am Logan Howard and we're back. It has been couple minutes here. I think I saw the other day that it has been 28 days. It does not feel like it's been 28 days because there's been a lot of things going on in my life personally. um But it's been 28 days since we've sent something, so I apologize for that. That doesn't...
Speaker: does rest on me um but we're back and hopefully for a little bit uh we are getting towards the christmas season so don't expect that we're going to be here every single week but we're going to try to have some things come out um and if you've been noticing brendan has posted a whole bunch of things over on our second channel um and you can ah go check that stuff out but uh i do still need to introduce my co-host today which is brendan thomas merritt how are you doing brendan I'm great. Always great. I know that I pulled the Vanishing Act after the Irish revival, which was so good. It was too good.
Speaker: And promise but but we've got the three revivals happening here next year. am men's retreat, and which will be very very fun. We're talking...
Speaker: archery, low ropes, high ropes, kayaking, ah treasure hunts in the forest at midnight, a women's conference. It's all going down.
Speaker: It's all going down. But um yeah, not as exciting as ah what you've been up to last 28 days, you know, getting um getting married in a whirlwind romance and winning the lottery and buying yourself a mansion in California with 100 meter size swimming pool, you know, your life is so much better than mine. Oh, yeah. None of those things are true, folks. Not one of them. It's been a lot of busy in terms of church stuff, in terms of... um
Speaker: Yeah, it's been it's been busy. Our family has had a lot of commitments, and it's been it's been a blessing, but at the same time, ah challenging, too. So school's been busy, um and but thankfully Christmas break's coming up, so hopefully I can be able to get a couple more, couple at least some podcasts out here in a little bit, whether it's with Brendan or not, but it's christmas Christmas break, so that will be good. And it's a longer break this year than last year, so that's also...
Speaker: exciting. I get into January, I think the 5th of January, so that's quite an extended time. So, um with all that being said, today's episode, you probably clicked on either you clicked on it because you love us as a podcast and you're waiting for our next episode, or you clicked on it because of the title. And the title is, We Are Having a Debate Today. So,
Speaker: um We are debating hot a hot debate topic things. everyone's gonna be This is going to be a fight. There's going to be blood. There's going to be teeth flying out. No, that's a different kind of debate. But um it's not like a liberal versus a conservative debate. that's ah Are we fighting about illegal immigration? It's not a political debate not a political political debate. But still something that can get a little heated. And then we're going to be debating on dreams today.
Speaker: Should you settle your dreams or should you have no dreams? That is a good question, isn't it? they kind of dreams, Loski? Lowski. That Logan plus Prowski. Logan plus Lowski. Okay. That's a new one.
Speaker: Not bad, um but maybe not my favorite. remember um So ah the question we want to start with today, does God still communicate through dreams today? That is going to be our big idea. Does God speak through our dreams that we have at night? Maybe our dreams we have um for our future like does god work that way um there are two sides and probably more than that to this debate um there are some people that think because the bible is complete you know god doesn't need to use dreams for revelation um
Speaker: even though he can if he wanted to, right? um There's others that point to the prophecies in Joel or in Acts, which mention that God poured out his spirit. um And old men dreaming dreams is evidence that, well, that still happens.
Speaker: So we're going to try to get into what... Does God does got work work that way? How can we tell if it's a dream is um from God or not?
Speaker: Because maybe our dreams could be that we win the lottery, and is that from God or not? How would we know? um You mean gambling's okay? and Maybe it is. Who knows?
Speaker: We're going to talk about it. So um I guess we'll start with this, Brendan. What do you think? Do you think that does God work through dreams? We we know that it happens in the Bible, but do you think that it happens still today?
Speaker: Great question. um It absolutely happened in the Bible. There are innumerable examples. Yeah. And I would say 110%.
Speaker: Yes, he does. um i didn't know the significance of dreams when I was younger. um but I remember when I child having a dream and I saw... i just knew he was a guy called Chris.
Speaker: I just knew his name was Chris. And he was crying. And next thing, the Garda Siakana, what you would call the cops... came and arrested me and put me in their squad car.
Speaker: I must have been six or seven years of age. And I woke up thinking, oh my goodness, what the... But actually what happened very soon afterwards was I became a Christian and i became like a playground pastor, if you will.
Speaker: ah Skipped the first 65 books of the Bible and went straight to Revelation. Told people of the Antichrist and the regime were coming. And that just... get ready and before their heads are all chopped off.
Speaker: And, uh, if I had done led that time onwards, um, just about everyone in my life, including people in authority over me became absolutely rigged against me and just began systematically destroying me and crushing my heart and yada, yada, yada. a lot of years passed.
Speaker: But the dream would always come back to me. But a lot of years passed before I ever turned to God and said, God, what the heck was that about? And God said, well, I was telling you in advance that people were going to turn against you. Hard times were coming.
Speaker: People that you loved and trusted and who should have looked after you were going to come after your heart. um And I said, but who the heck was Chris? And then suddenly it hit me, Chris, it's Christ, minus the letter t And and i said, it broke Jesus' heart to see what was going happen to me.
Speaker: And i just thought, wow, that was really interesting. But now I had that, probably maybe about six years of age, and God gave me the revelation about 20 years later.
Speaker: But that would that's like the first dream I ever remember happened having. um And obviously it was pinpoint accurate to that situation. And so the season that was coming and it lasted just until I was 15.
Speaker: um But you know even in the New Testament, you know we do see verses like in Romans 12, six, where it talks about gifts of prophecy or in 1 Corinthians 12, four to six, it talks about prophetic gifts.
Speaker: And it's all just a way in which God reveals what cannot be humanly discerned, whether he's revealing the past, the present, the future, and things that can happen, could happen, will happen, should happen, things he wants to happen, but they're not going to unless he changes ways.
Speaker: um So that'd be the first thing that add, but biblically, yeah, yeah. There's, in the Apostle Paul's letters, there's very definite, um,
Speaker: mandate there or protocol that that it is for the body of Christ. yeah What do you think? So I think this... Or what have you thought over the years? Because I know I see. I would say this that that's probably the right way to look at it. Over the years, I think, as I was growing up, um I think I would say I was very much that, well, God can speak that way, that he doesn't.
Speaker: like He doesn't do that now. um Not saying that he couldn't do it, but for me personally, i would say most... I'd say all of my dreams are not what I would say. They don't align with scripture. They don't necessarily, most of the time they're either a fear element of it or something along those lines. And so I think God could use those. And i think that a lot of times when he's given them, there's a, there's a purpose behind them, but I don't think they're necessarily prophetic in their sorry general. This, um, So, but as i've I've gotten older, as I've started to learn to hear more from different types of people and to have conversations, I can see that um that God does work through that. um I've heard stories of Muslims who have never heard of Jesus Christ, never had anyone interaction with that, who have these dreams of um whether it's the Holy Spirit or Jesus coming and speaking to them and giving them the gospel, and they end up accepting it. And, you know, being world changers in their life or maybe even suffering as martyrs for choosing to follow Christ. So yeah obviously God does work through dreams um that he uses them to spread his gospel. And truthfully,
Speaker: And it's a reminder of that he doesn't necessarily need us to, even though he calls us to be witnesses. Yeah. He's the one who changes hearts at the end of the day. And he can do that with a physical person or without a physical person.
Speaker: um And so I think that's one of the things when people say things like, well, what about that um what about that person who never had somebody go and see them? Like they're on the other side of the world. They never met any other Christians and they die.
Speaker: what Shouldn't they go to heaven? No, they're not going to go to heaven because they've still rejected Christ, whether it was they heard about Christ or they didn't. um I believe that whether God sends people to them or he shows them, um by his his will he can work that way so um i would say that i've always felt that it was something that could happen but whether it does or not was a debate for me in my head as i grew up no i think that's very fair because even i i started off going to a catholic church then i went to the baptist church and then to the anticoastal church um and i was told to start my own um
Speaker: but i spent the longest time in the Pentecostal church. And a lot of Pentecostals, I don't know what like and in in America per se, but Ireland, they be seen as like, you know, the the wild one, the charismatic ones. But we're talking like, you know, Western hemisphere, white people, wild.
Speaker: It's really tame. And I would remember once every five or six years, someone would say, God gave me a dream. You know, I dreamed of the dream. And I was like, okay, Martin Luther King.
Speaker: And what did what did you see? And I would always think
Speaker: the arrogance of thinking that your dream was somehow so much more important than everyone else's. What made you think your dream was from God's? And none of ours were.
Speaker: I wasn't even having dream that I remembered. um But the idea of someone else being like, I've had a word from God. It just irked me. um But it's because even in the church culture that I was part of, it wasn't there.
Speaker: It wasn't talked about. it was never taught on. um So even things that nowadays, I would say, are 110% absolutely biblical, 100% through and through.
Speaker: i suppose I put a lot of... made too much faith in the people who were over me for a time, where until they said it... It didn't exist until they told it it wasn't true.
Speaker: um So you had some people saying, well, God has shown me this. God has said this. I got a picture and God will. But there was never any teaching to balance it.
Speaker: So they I just kind of thought that they were the wacky congregants. They were the ones you probably shouldn't spend too much time with or you might get infected. yeah am And then the 9th,
Speaker: on the ninth Of January 2017, God gave me a prophetic dream, and he he told me what would happen in the next two and a half years of my life.
Speaker: And ultimately, that I would leave the congregation I was currently part of. And i just saw tick, tick, tick, tick. tick tick Everything was just fulfilled, well apart with the exception of the very last part, with such incredible haste.
Speaker: But I suppose in the past, until it had been taught on from the pulpit, I would have regarded it with severe um suspicion.
Speaker: A heightened sense of suspicion, bordering on a fence. and Whereas nowadays, if I hear someone say something I haven't considered before, i'm less quick to write it off.
Speaker: i'm I'm intelligent enough in the word now to know that I don't know at all. And I was saying, I'm going bring that to God. And God, you just show me if there's anything to what they've said.
Speaker: If the whole thing just nonsense, if it was a word out of season, actually if they have a revelation or something, I don't. Yeah. So how would you say you could tell the difference between a God dream, a natural dream, or maybe even a demonic dream? How would you say that if, if you, for your, your experience, how would you explain that to somebody so that they could tell the difference of which is which?
Speaker: it's it' that It's a great question. And to be honest, you also have other dreams as well. I mean, for example, know the pregnant woman,
Speaker: women who and notice that lefties but don't say pregnant people in this channel pregnant women ah got them oh I got them good suck he's like mashed up dreams where like I was dreaming this and then was dreaming this and then this and actually it's because they were dreaming their dreams And the baby's dream was getting mixed up with it.
Speaker: That's right, I didn't say fetus, people, I said baby. In which case, the mother was actually getting the revelation of the two. um And you could liken that to Elizabeth, Mary's relative in scripture, where John the Baptist was, inside of her, he was pre-born, or unborn. know pre-born has become the more common word for some reason, as of late, but unborn, pre-born.
Speaker: um And... You know, he was given revelation as a baby. Aha! The savior is is is in the womb next to me. So there is that. There are the pregnancy dreams.
Speaker: You can have fever dreams or or dreams, you know, inspired by medication or sickness. I remember my brother and I were watching of the Rings, The Two Towers years ago.
Speaker: at Late at night. but he had a fever. our God love him. and he went about, and I was in the top bunk, and he was in the bottom bunk. And next thing, he woke up in the middle of the night, terrified that there were Uruk-hai running around the house and through the walls. He could just hear the... Like, you know, outside the walls of Helm's Deep.
Speaker: He was petrified. and And then what I would say is, between a soul dream, a demonic dream, and a dream.
Speaker: A god dream... We'll give revelation. We'll back up the word.
Speaker: And we'll give hope. Could be a word of correction. It could be a stop what you're doing for goodness sakes. Are you looking to make your life miserable? ah Because God does correct us.
Speaker: But there's always the potential for hope and redemption. um The colors are typically lighter because God is light. Um, so for instance, i remember years ago, just felt Holy Spirit say to go visit my grandmother out of nowhere one morning. And I said, okay.
Speaker: um and then
Speaker: my mother said, your grandmother's sick. And I said, that's okay. going to go help her anyway. And she said, no, you you don't know how to help sick people. You just be in the way. You stay here. I'm going to go. And I knew that I knew that I knew that I was making the wrong decision.
Speaker: But I let those words in and I stayed put in my house. And then we got a call about 20 minutes later. My grandmother had just had a heart attack. And then my dad was like, oh, I'm going to go down and then and help. And I said, I'll go too. I need to be there. And he said, and do what?
Speaker: Stand in the way. You can't help sick people. She's not even conscious. What would you do? And knowing that I was making the wrong decision, I chose to stay put.
Speaker: And then within the hour, i heard she was dead. And I was the last to know. Everyone in the family tree, every Harry, Dick and Tom in the town heard.
Speaker: I was the to be told. And it really, really messed me up. And I remember thinking, oh my goodness, God, is she burning in hell? And you had told me to go.
Speaker: i could have done something there, but I didn't. No, I prayed at home, but I knew i was supposed to be on the scene, on the ground. could have introduced her to Jesus before heart gave out.
Speaker: But this was before I even got activated, my Sierra gift. I remember having a dream after a few weeks. And I saw her, I was on a bank of green. There was a beautiful river.
Speaker: Something you'd see like in a Van Gogh painting. And she was on the other side of the river and there were rolling hills of green behind her. An amazing blue sky that was moving. Not the clouds, the sky. And she looked younger than I'd ever seen her.
Speaker: And said, don't worry about me. I'm fine. I'm with Jesus. I'm fine. and I woke up and I wanted to believe that I'd had a and experience with her in heaven.
Speaker: But I kind of thought, is this just my mind playing tricks on me? But afterwards, I overheard two people having a conversation about her. But her whole life long, she had had a recurring dream.
Speaker: Her mother and her sister died 50 years ago. And all throughout her life, she had a dream that she was standing on a bank of green. And there blue river. on the other side of the river,
Speaker: We're rolling hills in the background. She would see her mother and her sister. And they're like, it's not your time yet. You've got more living to do, but don't worry about us. We're fine.
Speaker: And I realized that in her dream, her recurring dream, God had taken her, a layer of her soul and spirit, to a place in heaven to see that they were okay.
Speaker: And in my dream, would it ever have spoken to her about this? I would have thought she was like, okay, I've got a crazy grandson here. And I'd been taken to the exact same place in heaven and seen her on their side the river.
Speaker: That kind of thing that you just can't manufacture. You know? yeah So that kind of thing gave me such hope and relief, because before that I felt like a scumbag who sent his own grandmother to hell, you know, by by being a coward.
Speaker: um Then you can have a soul dream. Which is just, you drank Coca-Cola and you ate cheese pizza while watching Netflix and chilling before you went to bed.
Speaker: And that's when you go to bed and you have a dream of TV show. Only you're in the TV show. and Or maybe you filled your head with some nonsense or your heart with a fence.
Speaker: And then you go to bed and you have a dream of the person you're offended with. And they just make you so mad in the dream. You're a little living. You just want push them in front of a train. It's not a God dream, but it is important.
Speaker: It's a heart check. It's like that Sam, search my heart and know me, oh God, know all my inmost thoughts. This is God saying, well, these are your thoughts. This is what's in your head. This is what's in your heart.
Speaker: I remember there being a pastor friend many years ago, and I would have said we were very close, at least closer than I'd been to any other pastor up to that point.
Speaker: And kind of just felt like at some point it just dropped me. i remember it really cut deep because I had really needed someone. I needed a guy in my life. um And I just felt so abandoned and rejected.
Speaker: And really, really wounded me. So much so that I was embarrassed by how hurt I was. i i didn't want to admit to myself that I cared.
Speaker: That deeply. yeah But I would go to bed and every night for months, his was the face I would see. And that's because it was a soul dream.
Speaker: I'd been wounded, I'd been hurt. I was holding arms on to that offense. So whenever I shut my eyes and fell asleep, his was the face that I saw.
Speaker: And then you can have a demonic dream. um i remember when I was 15, having a dream where I was in my dining room and we have glass double doors and sliding doors in my dining room that lead on to a stone patio.
Speaker: And you can't see it from the doorway, but I've got a grassy garden on the other side that. But I remember having this terrifying experience in the dream where I was looking at the window and I couldn't see onto the grass, but in my mind's eye, I knew there was a man-lion hybrid and he was running around in circles and it just freaked me out.
Speaker: And in my mind's eye, I knew he was leaving the grass, coming onto the gravel, onto the stone, closer and closer to the window. But just as this demon stood in front of the window to look at me, suddenly it's like a layer of my soul left the first layer of my soul. And there was a me, was me, looking at the back of original me.
Speaker: who was being observed by the demon. And telling you, I woke up petrified. You know that really ugly, dirty bed sweat? That's what I was covered in. And it should I was disturbed.
Speaker: Everything that day just went wrong. It just rattled me. And without even knowing demons would attack people in dreams, I mean, Job writes about it, that the attacks he experienced in his sleep were worse than what he experienced when he was awake.
Speaker: And his waking hours were pretty crap. Yeah. I didn't even know that, but I knew on some level that it had been a demonic attack. And I remember just saying, God,
Speaker: help. Heal me. Whatever needs to happen. And I actually prayed that I wouldn't dream again. and I didn't for several years. In fact, I don't think ever dreamed again until I told God, okay, I've gone long enough. if You can speak to me in dreams now.
Speaker: Um, but there was a show Netflix, a cartoon, ah kind of sexualized children. Big Mouth, or something? Or Big Love, i don't know. Little kids, but there's like a lion man sex demon or something.
Speaker: I remember when that show came on to... They're in the chat, listen to this, you can help us out. Send us an email, tell me what it is. I think it's called Big Mouth or something. But I remember when that show came out, the trailer was, you could not look at a YouTube video without this being the trailer.
Speaker: They must have pumped a fortune into the advertising. And there was a line in that. And I was like, that's scarily similar to what I knew was in the dream.
Speaker: um And then in 2017, when I began dreaming again, I would have dreams of wolves and foxes and lions and snakes all the time. And they would attack me in my dream.
Speaker: Maybe biting my legs, seeing their fangs into me. And when I woke up, I would have those fang marks in my flesh. Still do, to this day. They still haven't healed. And they're not full of pus, they're not pumping blood.
Speaker: But you can still see where my skin is just brown from the injury. That the attack I got in the dream manifested on my body. um So with a demonic dream, it's all about fear.
Speaker: It's all about lulling you into deception. It's about making you complicit with the darkness. But it is spiritual warfare.
Speaker: And then spiritual warfare is another category of dream where you're going to see the enemy and... You'll be conscious enough to make a decision to fight, stay in fright, or take flight.
Speaker: So, many categories dreams. Watch that. i'd love to hear your thoughts yes um so yes big mouth was what it was i just looked it up while you were speaking so yeah looks pretty horrifying um don't watch it in the trailer i don't think it's something christians would be watching nope nope not something we should recommend or would would recommend so um but uh to get back to our topic of dreams um I would think that if it was coming from God, it like you said, it has to fit with God's word. It can't contradict God's word. I think that's where a lot of Baptists, a lot of other denominations, why they...
Speaker: are afraid of dreams and despise it so much is because of people who are like Joseph Smith, who says that, well, I've got a revelation from God and it goes completely against what the Bible says.
Speaker: um And people have done that throughout history of saying I've got a revelation from God and it is not the Bible. So I think if you're going to get a dream, it has to align with what is yeah good, right, true, pure, um what fits in the Bible. They can't contradict and say that the Bible is wrong. um And so I think that's that's an important part of of dreams is that it has – that's how we could tell that this is from God is if it's something that is true and that it relies into what is the Bible. Yeah.
Speaker: And as far as you know those dreams that are soul dreams where we watch stuff or what we put in, it's important that we're careful what we're putting into our brains because I think that's also a gateway that Satan can use to have more of those demonic dreams as well. um I think a lot of the nightmares and stuff that we have are most often based off of things that we either have faced or things that are – are in life and what we're watching is we're allowing that to our souls. Um, so that sometimes leads into demonic fearful dreams. Um, I think for me, the two
Speaker: um Well, the one of the biggest dreams I remember as a kid, because I used to have and well, I said I had two recurring dreams i would have a lot. As a kid, I would have a dream of being at my house and there would be a huge um like snake on the wall. And I was very terrified of snakes.
Speaker: And so I would not want to be there very long. And so I'd try to leave. And then it would be like a um dystopian wasteland out outside of my house. And I would go to leave my house because I knew that there was a gas station down the road. And so I'd go to get food and that kind of stuff. It was just me by myself. My family was not at my house. But as I would leave, there would be two tigers that would chase me every single time across this wasteland to get to the... um
Speaker: to the or to the the gas station and I would get my food and then I'd have to wait for the tigers to go away and come back. And I remember being terrified of that as a child and I would have that multiple times. It was probably due to whether it was things I was watching or things that the devil was trying to to work in my mind because it was it just would always create a a state of fear and panic. It wouldn't need the hope or any of that kind of stuff. And then as I got older, um having worked at A grocery store, I would have a recurring dream of working at a grocery store on a Sunday and having hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people just like come in the store. um
Speaker: And like as I'm trying to lock the door, they're just like pushing against the door and pushing into the store. And I remember the the panic of that. And it would always happen when I was worried I was going to be late for an early day at work the next day, even when I was not working at that store anymore.
Speaker: um And so it it hasn't been until recently where God has removed that. And part of it is because I've let go of some of the hurt and the stress that i was allowing to stick into my life at that time.
Speaker: um And so I think that's that was where that was coming from. It was a lot of stress, pent-up emotion, um Some of the injuries and, well, the perceived injuries that I was gaining at this at this job. And so it would just keep coming back even when I didn't work at that job anymore. I had made a um a connection there. I had allowed there to be a connection with with people and not let it go and not heal from it. And so then it would return. Yeah.
Speaker: And so it wasn't just until recently, the last couple months that I've actually gotten to go into the same store and feel none of those emotions of heaviness and stress from it. And I would avoid it. that i would kind of avoid it. But healing is you need to take care of it and go through with it. So – Like I said, neither of those are necessarily, neither of those would I say are God dreams. They are more fearful, more afraid things. um But equally legitimate.
Speaker: What's that? Equally legitimate. Indeed. And so that's the the thing that they are still important because they say something about our souls. Right. um So...
Speaker: what do you think about this question if god gives a dream does it require interpretation so if he gives you something and gives you a dream does it then need to be interpreted great question thank why um let's go to the bible for this one you can have jesus stepfather joseph because you know it's christmas and when he was given a dream and told Don't go this way.
Speaker: Go that way. Herod wants to kill the shot. Hell, there's no symbolism there. That was ah was a directive. Direct, yep. um And then you'll have other um dreams, like when Daniel said I had a... Well, he didn't just have a dream, he had a vision in a dream, which is on another level.
Speaker: Yeah. um And he was shown um great empires that would arise. And now you could say that the beasts he saw were the demonic principalities over those empires. That's probably true.
Speaker: Um, but he was shown, let's say, the Empire Babylon. He was shown that it would be replaced in a day by the Persian Mediz Empire.
Speaker: Then it would be replaced by the Greek Empire, which happens in between the Old Testament and New Testament, but a a very clear, um
Speaker: There are very clear indicators that it was talk about Macedonia and then alex Alexander the Great. um If any of you have ever studied about the Maccabee Revolution and Alexander and and all that, and everyone who came in afterwards met before, those 400 years are absolutely phenomenal, and the Maccabees Revolution, definitely worth studying.
Speaker: um And you actually see everything that he saw about the Greek Empire takes place in those 400 years. He saw the Roman Empire. But for that one, he was so disturbed.
Speaker: Kind of like my wake up full of bed sweat level disturbed. and And then an angel had to come and interpret it for him. So there will be symbolic dreams God gives.
Speaker: And then there are ones which are just crystal clear. um I once had... um There are times I've had dreams where God told me, going to send a friend into your life, but you have to treat him very carefully because he's been sexually abused.
Speaker: That was a very specific command. I'm tell you, about one week later, met a very specific person who met that description. Not someone I had known before. I had known his name.
Speaker: Didn't think I'd ever meet him in person. Had no real desire to. um Maybe we'd spend a little bit of time together in the same room, but I kind of regarded him with an element of suspicion of anything, to be honest. um But God just knitted us together.
Speaker: And we became besties for a time. um Not talking about Logan, by the way, guys. um And then... There are other dreams I've had which are symbolic. In fact, most dreams I've had um required a degree of interpretation because they had such symbolism in them.
Speaker: And i had one dream where I saw tunnel. And I imagined going to the tunnel and seeing like m you like in a in a super... not superhero.
Speaker: and it's a superhero A secret agent or spy movie, the lasers, you know boom, boom, boom, boom. boom It being full of them. And next thing I was given a pair of shoes.
Speaker: It of looked like what Iron Man's shoes were like. And I knew that I would need those shoes to navigate the tunnel. Now I could see the start of the tunnel. I could not see the end.
Speaker: But I knew that if I went in, I would not get out for quite some time. But if I got out, I would not be the same guy who went in. And it was avoidable.
Speaker: Either side of the tunnel, there were beautiful green meadows. I could have stayed in them. But I knew that there was something to be earned and learned by going to the tunnel. And what happened then was a year, year and a half later, found myself in the dark night of the spirit. A year and a half long...
Speaker: season of losing everything being stripped to the very end of myself to the point where there wasn't heck a lot of me left but it was by putting on the shoes of the gospel of peace that was able to navigate all those attacks and not get lasered and fried to bits and and looking at my life now compared to where I had been I'm not the same guy I would not be able to do what I do now if I had not gone through that tunnel.
Speaker: I would not be able to maintain a single friendship in my life if I had not gone through that tunnel. I would not be able to be anyone's Bible teacher. Some people call me their pastor, which I take very seriously and appreciatively, but I don't call myself one.
Speaker: um The trust and the love people put in me, but i I wouldn't have been able to cope with any of this had not gone through that.
Speaker: So there'll be times when he'll speak in symbolism, there are times it's very, very accurate, very, very clear. and But you know what? Jesus is the word of God. And whatever word he speaks, he speaks for a reason.
Speaker: And sometimes, um you know, there can be a cost to clarity if you get something too easily. but but You wanted to pay for later on to some degree.
Speaker: and Sometimes you have to hack away at the interpretation. That is the fee, that is the cost. and And then there are so many people in my life now who literally are only there because they needed a dream interpreted.
Speaker: And someone gave them my number, someone gave them my details. And I think, wow, god look at all the people who wouldn't be in my life today if not for dreams. That's actually brought us together. Well, that's what has sustained our relationship.
Speaker: So um you've got all these different facts, factors and facets. What would your thoughts on that be? your and been a lot more I think for the most part, you would see that it is um pretty easily understood because God isn't always... um I don't think God likes to keep tons of secrets, especially if he's trying to communicate with you. He's going to can communicate very directly. um But sort of like you said, I think there are times that that symbolism is used. And we see that a lot through revelation. We see that through some of Daniel's dreams that there's pictures rather than there is exactly telling what nation it's going to be. And so I think God speaks through both, but even in both, it is understandable what it is you're seeing. It's not something that's so nebulous that can never be understood. It may not be immediately interpreted, but it will be,
Speaker: um shortly or ah within your lifetime, you'll be able to know what was your purpose behind that one that he was, if it's from God.
Speaker: So that's sort of my my thinking on the matter. He is a God of of order. Yeah. And he's not the author of confusion. so um yeah, he's he is Zaphon at Penea.
Speaker: That's what Joseph was called in Genesis when he became the Prime Minister of Egypt. Daphanet Spinea. um Historians and translators interpreted the god of mysteries or the god who lives and who speaks.
Speaker: And um he does both. And he conceals things in dreams and in the Bible for us, not from us.
Speaker: He hides secrets from the enemy, but he hides things for us. And it's the the joy and the honor and celebration of a king, to pick away at God's word and and get the interpretation.
Speaker: we've got some proverbs that it's like God playing hide-and-seek or peek-a-boo with a baby. You know? my goodness, where's that baby going?
Speaker: Peek-a-boo! the child's like... And that delight of... Oh my goodness, where where is daddy gone? Oh, there he is behind his hands. Wow, that explains why his body is still there. And that joy and that excitement.
Speaker: Because he loves to be pursued. he He loves when we pursue him, when we ask him, God, what what what what what the what? What's going on there? um And the excitement and the joy that we feel when ah when we get a word from him.
Speaker: Yeah. However it comes. So, do you think that believers should actively seek dreams? Do you think they should go out and be like, alright, I need to actively try to force a dream or, you know, ask God or slash demand from God that they should get dreams?
Speaker: That's interesting. I... I might have an answer for the first question you asked. I think... When you're expanding on it, they might be the more interesting answers.
Speaker: and I don't believe we should force it, because in Jeremiah, we're told about false prophets who... almost used your expression there.
Speaker: and read the Bible, but it's...
Speaker: yeah you know Yeah, I think we what you said is probably pretty pretty close the to the Bible translation, actually, that they forced themselves to dream. um they They made themselves dream dreams just so that they could then say, I have a prophetic word.
Speaker: I've had a dream. um But actually, they were dreams that they'd come rid from their own imaginations. um And I would say, always have a pen and paper beside your bed.
Speaker: Expect God's going to speak to you. Have a phone or a notepad. on you as often as you can, so if God gives you a word, you can scribble it down, or or you leave yourself a voice note. and But no, he doesn't talk to everybody the same way.
Speaker: um i mean, I live a very busy, active life. for I love being awake. and My phone probably starts pinging at 4.30am, it stops at about 1.30am. I've got a sweet spot of three hours there.
Speaker: So i dreams are the most useful way God can speak to me if he's got something worth sharing. One time I'm not on the phone to someone or this, that, and the other.
Speaker: um For other people, all their intimacies with the Lord will be filtered through the word of God, the scriptures.
Speaker: That's amazing. um For some, it'll be a feeling. And the feeling will just have words attached to it.
Speaker: Some will hear his audible voice. For others, it'll be visions. And of course, for not many of us, maybe most of us, it'll be a combination of different things for our lives. That's okay. um For some, it's newspaper headlines.
Speaker: They'll be going about their day. And think of like in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies, they had the graphic of the newspaper. And then you have like the Daily Bugle. yeah I know people and that's how God speaks to them.
Speaker: They just get newspaper headlines in front of their eyes. um For some, it could be billboards. For some, they scroll on social media and next thing, if prayer pops up, it's be described to their circumstance or situation.
Speaker: God has the whole world at his at his disposal. He speaks through his kids. That's why we can't neglect the gathering of believers. he speaks from one friend to another. He speaks from pastors to our flock.
Speaker: He'll speak through those he's gifted with evangelism. So he's got all the gifts at his disposal, all the people at his disposal, all the world at his disposal, every technique, more than you can imagine at his disposal.
Speaker: So i would say if you don't dream, pray to God. God, if that's who you want to speak to me, open my eyes to see, my ears to hear, my heart to know and understand. And if he does, he does. And if he doesn't, he'll speak to another way.
Speaker: But no, forcing yourself to dream, that could that could lead people to try to conjure a hypnotic state trying to force themselves to lucid dream or whatever.
Speaker: no. now i don't don't don't Don't try to force God to speak to you any way whatsoever because someone or something might speak to you.
Speaker: But it may not be the Lord. Yeah. It's the same, a big problem I have at Pentecostals is this idea that every believer has to speak in tongues. Can I be honest? If you go to a church where tongues aren't preached or believed in,
Speaker: My concern be, oh, I'm sorry, do all the are all those Christians like going to go to hell, in your opinion? and Or if you have people inside the building who speak in tongues, are they less Christian than you are?
Speaker: This kind of thing, where one gift is conflated above other gifts. I've seen that before, especially in Pentecostal churches. um Then I've seen Baptist churches.
Speaker: Where the only gifts they want in operation are gifts of teaching. And maybe they're okay with evangelism, but I never really see them on the streets.
Speaker: um The Bible gives about 20 gifts. So what happens if you operate under 18? I don't know. Do they say you're screwed? I'm speaking very generally here. andm speaking about...
Speaker: specific congregations I've seen. It's not like I'm projecting them in everybody, but we can all relate to this to an extent, I'm sure. um I've been in churches where Holy Spirit can give you ah any gift if you're a man or a woman. I've been in certain churches, and if you're a woman, you don't have that gift.
Speaker: It is what it is. um So we need to be, need to see the Lord's face. And say, God, you speak to me however you want to speak to me.
Speaker: You give me the gift you would have me operate in for your glory. But if you try to manufacture a gift or a channel through God, through God can speak to you, you actually open the door to aid demonic interfit.
Speaker: And you have to be very, very careful about that. um I've...
Speaker: I know a lot of people who have a gift of tongues. I have heard demonic tongues. Demons also have languages. i know people who have a gift of visions.
Speaker: And I know people who, I believe they're saying something, but they do not know the difference between God's voice and the devil's voice. um I've known people who had a gift of teaching.
Speaker: Um... But actually, they had basically been schooled in a and and in a demonic camp in Ghana. And they did not know the difference between angelic choirs and demons hissing, cussing, and speaking sheer wickedness.
Speaker: And they ended up bewitching their congregations. So we need to be very... very mindful of what God has for us. Always bring it to God. God, is this something you want me to do?
Speaker: Is this something you want to partake in? Does he want to speak to me and be okay with his answer? If his yes is a yes, great.
Speaker: If he says no, his no is no. Great. Stay in your lane. Yeah. Yeah. I i think you you nailed it on the head. I think God...
Speaker: um can and he does speak in different ways to different people. We have to clear what's in between us from listening, whether it's our sin or our... um What agreements we've made that is incorrect that we need to clear out. We have to let God have all of our heart and then he speaks. um We don't try to force it because, oh, well, so-and-so, they've had these dreams from God. So then obviously I should have these dreams too. So I need to i i need to you know drink a cup of milk every night so that I can get the dreams from God. There's nothing wrong with milk. I drink it by the pint.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Or, like you said, manufacture it. And it's not that's not how it works. In fact, um I've been reading through Jeremiah lately, and God even talks about this specifically. You can't manufacture what I speak. And so um he says in chapter 23, he says, I have heard what prophets have said who prophesize lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed, they are prophets of deceit for their own heart. They try to make my people forget my name by their dreams, which everyone tells his neighbor as their father got forgot my name for Baal. Basically, they um if a prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream, and he who has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. like
Speaker: a man Which one are you doing? and if If he's going to speak, if he has a dream that's... Okay, let them tell it. But who is speaking my words? Who is speaking the truth? And so um I think rooting a lot of what we do and what we're saying um and this kind of thinking of dreams has to be rooted in what God says, not necessarily what...
Speaker: man says or what people say or ways it works for them right or what you want god to say um because truthfully we all know those people who said god told me we should be together we should be married um Did God actually say that?
Speaker: Because two weeks later they said, God told me that we should break up. um it's ah It's used in the wrong way. And so even God gets upset when we say things that we're like, oh, this is God's word. This is the oracle of the Lord, the burden from the Lord.
Speaker: Is it God's word? Did God say that? Did God say that you have to chop off your hair and go bald and... Did God actually say that? Did God actually say that? Maybe, maybe not. But it all comes down to...
Speaker: tying it back to God's word, what is true from God's word. And he's going to be, make it very evident. And so that's why we title people like Joseph Smith and Mormons that it's false teaching because the doctrines that they're teaching is more, is more important than the Bible. They're saying it's more important that you can marry as many women as you want, that you can do all of that. I'm not finding one.
Speaker: What's yeah, I know. Right. Um, Yeah, so like ah yeah dreams in and of themselves are not always from the Lord. And so like Brendan was saying, you have to be careful about trying to force something that God may not speak may not speak to you that way. Yeah.
Speaker: I think i play a big element in this as well. um I think there are certain cultures where they're, they are more tied to spirituality in terms of they can, they're a little bit more spirit understanding. And I think God,
Speaker: reveals himself that way so that they understand and who he is. um I think in America we are more physical and materialistic and there's a bit less of us running into a dreams or, um,
Speaker: tongues or any of those kinds of things, because here in America, it's different. Um, but even inside of America, there's different cultures. And so in God speaks to you, how he can speak through you and understand you and get you to listen to him.
Speaker: Um, there are a lot of people who spend their lives ignoring what God's telling them to do. Um, And maybe they've had a bunch of people who have told them, hey, this is what you should do or this is what God – I think God is telling you to do, and they'll completely ignore it. And so um instead of worrying so much about the form that God is speaking to us, we should be worried most importantly about what is God saying and what does God want me to do? What is my – How do I obey him? What is my way to obey him? And um if we're ever confused about that, we can always go back to God's word about this is what he's telling us and this is what is true.
Speaker: So his word is not going to contradict. If it contradicts a dream, then it's not from God. If it's. backed up and supported, then that dream is something that may be from God. It could be still a way to to to discourage you or lead you astray, um so you always have to be careful, but um God's Word is the faithful thing that doesn't doesn't change, that is true and reliable, and so that's why it's always put up as a big important thing, because
Speaker: Where dreams change and where prophecies and all of that stuff can sometimes change over time, God's word doesn't change. It has been written down for centuries, passed down for centuries, and it is true and reliable.
Speaker: And so um we always would recommend tie yourself to that and then let God speak by clearing the rest of the stuff and sin and all of that out of your life.
Speaker: And let him speak the way he speaks to you because everybody's different. Amen, very good. um Given how many Irish people have gone to the over the last couple centuries and really flourished like bunnies, shall we say, and in terms of adding to your population growth.
Speaker: um I know St. Patrick's Day is celebrated very, very widely with you guys. Do any of you ever read... St. Patrick's work like his manuscripts Confessio his life story and a letter to Carotacus which is a letter he wrote to a Roman soldier who murdered his flock um they're the oldest written biographical manuscripts in Ireland do you guys just kind of go with the flow like you know March 17th everyone will agree or do you actually read his work
Speaker: I would say that um as a whole, it's probably more of the, oh, this is fun. It's a party. It's drinking. It's has the roots.
Speaker: Yes. um i Instead of focusing on where the roots and where it comes from, it's all the party part of it, which is the same thing that happens for Christmas is the same thing that happens for Easter. um We get caught up in the,
Speaker: event of it and not why is it there so um i'd say that's the most of it um what i try to do even with um you know um reformation day try to go and read the 99th or 95 thesis that he wrote um because it is good to know those things and you start reading them and you're like yeah that makes total sense why like yeah that's dumb you shouldn't have to pay to get your sins forgiven that's stupid who who came up with that some guy who wanted money um literally somebody felt sand some youtuber was just like hey let's get some money off these people like oprah and dwayne johnson it's like you know oh we have charity because you know uh
Speaker: Hawaii has been burned to a crisp, and if you give us money, we can fix it. It's like, aren't you two like the richest people in the island? Yeah. That's not how God works. It's how we as humans work. and so he he definitely Martin Luther definitely goes after it. but I try to do those things. I can't say I've read a ton of St. Patrick's works, but I do know we watched that movie a couple years ago. It was very good interpretation of what he was about. and um I think it's easy to get caught up in some of the things that we disagree with his thought processes in terms of um what he was doing. But I think there is probably more there of him, of God speaking and teaching him things differently.
Speaker: that we should value. Because one of the coolest things that has happened throughout time is as we've gotten further from when Christ was here and when um the Lord was here, yes, we've had those people who lead us astray and get us into believing that we need to pay to get our sins forgiven.
Speaker: um But ah at the same time, there has been very solid theological people who come along come along and take a step with better theology.
Speaker: To the point today where not only do we have God's word, we have words of the Holy Spirit speaking through people to interpret the word that we have in front of us to be able to understand it in the culture from where it was coming from.
Speaker: um that has not always been the case. So that has that is a blessing that even as the there's more tax on the Bible and its reliability, there is also more people who can support and approve and teach the gospel and the word.
Speaker: Yeah, very true. And sometimes you have to wade through the rubbish before you get to the good stuff, but it's worth finding it there. Yeah, the reason I even brought St. Patrick into it was because I liked what you said that there are some cultures which have more instinctive openness towards one revelation from God than other cultures do.
Speaker: And with St. Patrick... I mean, his... he He was a prophetic dreamer. 100%. When he was a slave here, he had a dream and God told him soon and very soon, I'm to set you free.
Speaker: um He had another dream in which he saw a boat or a ship and God said, okay, you're going go on a walk, a long walk, a lonely walk, a dangerous walk, but you're going see this ship and that's the ship you're going to get on yeah this island.
Speaker: Um, then he had, um, another dream, um, when he was a slave in Britain, which a lot of people never talk about for some reason.
Speaker: Um, and God told him, you'll be here for six weeks, and six weeks to the day, they're gonna let you go, which is what happened. um He had another dream in the in England or Scotland or Wales, wherever he was. i personally think it was Wales. People disagree yeah on where specifically. um And he was told in that dream he had a vision of a martyr, which is like, you know, a Christian who had died
Speaker: Some people would say, Ugh, dead people can't talk to you in dreams. Jesus spoke to Moses in the minute of transfiguration. There. Boom. And this martyr gave him a scroll, he opened the scroll, and he heard the voices of Ireland crying out in their sin and their sadness that they were spiritually dead and in need of a deliverer.
Speaker: And that's what inspired him then to come to Ireland again as a missionary, as an evangelist. um He also had a dream in which Satan himself, like a mountain, came down and was absolutely crushing him.
Speaker: And then he cried out, Helios, Helios, which was the Latin word for son, as in Jesus being the son of righteousness, being the light of the world.
Speaker: And as soon as he got that name, little pet name for Jesus off his lips, suddenly Satan was defeated and the physicality or metaphysicality the attack in the dream was broken.
Speaker: um So even, you know, ah for those who going to be celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Ireland and abroad on the 17th of March, shameless plug for Irish Day, and it is good to know the the spiritual roots of what you're celebrating and the and the historical and spiritual and religious roots.
Speaker: And for people who say, oh, Patrick was so amazing, he was such a great guy, he totally changed Ireland, and Ireland changed the world. Yeah. But a lot of those churches who commend him would also have shown him the door.
Speaker: A lot of those churches who, we are green! would also have told him to get the hell out and shut down that nonsense. Don't talk about this. You sit down. Don't talk to anybody.
Speaker: Treat him like a social pariah or excommunicated him. yeah Which is ultimately what the British church did. They hated what he was doing in Ireland and how he was doing it and then they came against him ah through blackmail.
Speaker: i But yeah, we just need to be open to the idea that God might do something or speak in a way that we're unfamiliar with, that we haven't seen before, and be open to learning, you know being open to growing, while still being vigilant not to be deceived, while still being vigilant not to get drawn into any old thing.
Speaker: um And how do we do that? By studying the Word, interrogating the Word, coming boldly before God's throne, and saying, listen, I heard someone say The earth is 6,000 years old.
Speaker: God, is that true? This person said the world is 4.5 billion years old and she really loves Jesus. is that take Take it to the world. This person said this gift is an operation.
Speaker: This person says it no longer is What's correct? and And I'm being humble before God. I'm letting him challenge us, letting him surprise us.
Speaker: And um while waiting for him to speak, choose to be faithful to revelation you already have. Indeed. Indeed. um So any other thoughts you had that you wanted to say before we transition to our Bible time that you were thinking of?
Speaker: Yeah, I'll just do a quick and little and survey, I suppose, of some dreams that people have had across history that have had a really big impact on the world.
Speaker: Oh, that's for station identification. and No, there are a lot of these. that I'll just do a few, though.
Speaker: just for any naysayers still out there.
Speaker: All right, so Robert Louis Stevenson, the author, um the story, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde came to him in a dream.
Speaker: um Mary Shelley, the writer of Frankenstein, the world's first science fiction novel, Also came to her a dream. Now at some point actually we will do an episode on this chick because she, her husband and their lovers, well they were there are nuts.
Speaker: And really involved deep, dark, nefarious things that the world is contending with today such as transgenderism, transhumanism. We're going to come back to this another week. But keep that in your mind. It came to her a dream.
Speaker: George Frederick Handles. Messiah. um Aura. Torno, think it's pronounced, um or Oratorio. um He first played this in a church in Dublin, actually, in Ireland. and But the music, world famous, came to him in a dream.
Speaker: um William Blake, Jasper Johns, salbo Salvador Dali, and scientists, inventors, and creative people got their inspiration from dreams.
Speaker: and Frederick Banting got medical advances about diabetes and dreams. Albert Einstein is known for a few different things, one of which is his study on the speed of light.
Speaker: Came through a dream. I'm going to butcher this guy's name if you're from India. This is why I'm butchering his name, because I'm not from India. Rini Vassa, Raman Nujan.
Speaker: um a mathematician. I don't know how people be happy to hear this, so how many people would judge him and say, why, God, why? he got his stuff from a dream.
Speaker: um The inventor of the sewing machine, L-I-S-O. Learned how to make it from a dream. um We can even go back to, like, you know Constantine, the emperor.
Speaker: He was in a battle once, and he looked up, and he had a vision of a cross. And he took it to mean he was going to win the battle, which he did. And that, you know, Jesus' hand was on his life. and But ah unfortunately for him, he decided to politicize Christianity, and actually sucked Holy Spirit out of it, and said, ha ha, how can use this for power?
Speaker: So, again, God's word is always great when people do with us Not necessarily. But, um again, came through through through through vision. So the Lord can always speak in any way he wants. He is God. He has that permission. Give him that permission.
Speaker: and Just makes everyone's life easier. um But I would also say, well, taking things to the word and seeking counsel and everything else. I'd also say the body of Christ needs to get better at praying for gifts of interpretation.
Speaker: Rather than churches coming against tongue talkers, why not pray for the gift of interpretation of tongues? Rather than churches coming against dreamers, why not pray for the interpretation of dreams?
Speaker: If someone's like, I keep seeing the same numbers everywhere I go, is God talking to me? Rather than saying...
Speaker: Just means you look at the clock at the same time every 24 hours, Jackie. Why not pray for the gift interpretation of numbers? You know? And if God is speaking, maybe we need more people to have the gift of actually knowing what he's saying.
Speaker: Rather than always fighting with people who seem to be picking up on this, and the other. Yep, that's a boss. Exactly. All right, so let's get in then to our Bible time. We're going to be in Jeremiah 17, verses 14 through 18. I'm doing the less controversial one because Brendan wanted me to do controversial, and I did not do it. So we'll do that. Jeremiah 18, something like God inflicting people famine. But he thought it might be a little bit too edgy for us. Yeah, a bit too edgy for us Gentiles.
Speaker: um But ah so we'll get into Jeremiah 17, and then we'll do our closing, which is we give our shout-outs of stuff we're watching or things that might be good for you guys to check out. um And so let's get into Jeremiah 17. So this is verse 14 through 18. It says, Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed. Psalm 119.
Speaker: indeed they say to me where is the word of the lord let it come now as for me i have not hurried away from being a shepherd who follows you nor have i desired the woful day you know what came out of my lips and it was right there before you do not be a terror to me you are my hope in the day of doom let there Let them be ashamed who persecute me, but do not let them or do not let me be put to shame. Let them be dismayed.
Speaker: Don't let me be dismayed. Bring on them the day of doom and destroy them with double destruction. So, Brendan, what's ah what do you take away from Jeremiah's words here?
Speaker: Famine one was less offensive.
Speaker: Just skip a chapter. Let's like let's start there.
Speaker: God is absolutely good. And he is a or he is a restore. And when he releases the word, however he chooses to release it, we say yes and amen. i remember my, several years ago, my dad had kidney disease.
Speaker: I forget exactly what it was called, but it was like one in a million. And it shot one of his kidneys dead. And he was on dialysis and everything else. His heart stopped three times, so technically he he died thrice.
Speaker: um Still alive, though. um Because he he got his Bible and he threw it on the floor. And when he was able to leave the hospital bed, he put his feet on that Bible. He stood up and he said, God, I'm standing on your word.
Speaker: Say the word and I'll be healed. Say the word, I'll be made out of At your word, mountains are moved, the seeds that are raging will come when you say the words. And you know what?
Speaker: You look at them today and you'd never be able to know what he's been through. um So of God is very, very powerful. It's active, it's amazing.
Speaker: However, he chooses to speak, but everything that's legit will be corroborated by scripture. um But in the same way, we do have spiritual enemies.
Speaker: And i was actually surprised that you read as much as you did. I thought you were to stop with the clappy part. um But you know what? The Bible talks about a lot of spiritual weapons at our disposal.
Speaker: Second Kings, the arrow of deliverance.
Speaker: Ephesians 6, the sword of the spirit. Genesis 3, a sword whose blade is fire. um 2 Kings 2, chariots of fire.
Speaker: Everything in heaven is on fire. No one's in pain, they just love flames for some reason. I think it's Jeremiah that talks about anvils and hammers.
Speaker: um We're told that heaven has storehouses full of hailstones and lightning. Why? the crack. Nah. For days of war. For days of spiritual war. The river of life, I'm sure, can become a tsunami if we need it to.
Speaker: We have no shortage of heavenly artillery. And in our spiritual vassals against the Empire of Darkness, God will rebuke those who come against us.
Speaker: God will fight those who come against us. God will heap fiery coals on demons' heads for us, for having raised their voice against us. So, um...
Speaker: Don't be afraid to get violent in your prayers, because these suckers, they'll be violent against you and me. Treat them as they deserve. and And yeah, use the artillery. Declare that the artillery that we have gets used against them, gets deployed against them, and that no weapon they have fashioned against us will prosper, but instead will turn around on them.
Speaker: That even the Lord would throw a net over them, trapping them. And they would know the pain of that moment. Because spiritual warfare is real.
Speaker: We're seeing it in so many areas of our lives today. um Singularly, individually, corporately, nationally, internationally, continentally, intercontinentally.
Speaker: The forces of evil are raging. And we need all the help we can get.
Speaker: But you got to be healed properly before you can fight certain foes. So ah do the work. Do the DIY. Do it yourself.
Speaker: Get yourself healed. And eight yeah, don't do it yourself. Do nothing without Jesus. i as well Let Christ in. Let him do the work on you. Yeah, let him do the work.
Speaker: yeah yeah myself I am a self-help book. Not going to work. Not going to cut it. And yeah, then when you're ready, get in the fight and dismantle the operations of darkness.
Speaker: What are you, Roseki? What's Jeremiah 17 saying to you? Yeah, I think you nailed on the head. it's ah he's His reliance is on God. And he said, look, i you're the one who heals me. You're the one who saves me.
Speaker: You're the one I praise. um Even when they say to me, where's the word of the Lord? And then, i mean, and he's... on a voice He's probably saying it exactly like that because that's he he has a situation where the priest just smacks him on the face and says, why'd you say that? How dare you say that that's true? um So there where's the word of the Lord now? What's the word of the Lord, Jeremiah? What's the word of the Lord? yeah That's probably what he's hearing in his head. yeah And, oh, let it come out. Come on. Give us the word of the Lord, Jeremiah. um
Speaker: Because they saw him as just, he was Debbie Downer telling all the... miserable things. And so he's like, well, look, I, I've done what you asked me, Lord. I did what you asked me to do. I followed, I led them as a shepherd. i follow you Um, I I don't, uh, I don't want this bad thing to happen, but this is what you've asked me to say. um and ah his is portraying of he wants them to you know bring their destruction on them. I think a lot of us think that ah there's there's two sides to this this view, right? Some of us go, oh, this is way too controversial. He's praying that people would die and that they would be lost in their trespasses and sins.
Speaker: I'm not exactly sure where he's going with that. i think I think in reality, he might actually be saying upon the destruction of the demons that are inside of in them. Because really, we talk about the war that we wage. We we don't wage against flesh and blood. It's not really against the people. It's the the attitudes, the heart, the um the sin that is within people that leads them to do these horrible things. We want everybody to come to know Christ, even if their name is... Kamala Harris, and ah we want them to come to know Christ, but it's the message, the demonic stuff that is behind them that more often than not has already consumed them entirely.
Speaker: That is that we war against. We war against that. um We don't war against the the humanic person. We would want them to be saved and restored. And I mean, if we didn't, we wouldn't have somebody like Apostle Paul who murdered Christians and threw them in prison and ends up being one of the great defenders of the faith.
Speaker: It can happen. um But at the same time, we do want evil destroyed. Even when it's in a human person, even when it's in somebody who um we've trusted or relied on and they've hurt us, we want evil destroyed.
Speaker: And so um there is an element of we want sin punished, even when it's not necessarily a demonic force. We want sin punished and God has to punish it. That's the only way. Otherwise, he's not who he says he is. He has to punish it.
Speaker: At the same time, he's so loving and forgiving that even when we sin and we fall away from him and we commit something against him, he doesn't immediately just destroy us. One of the things we've talked about in Ecclesiastes is, wouldn't life be so much better if every time somebody cut you off in traffic or somebody flipped you off or somebody was just completely unkind to you, that destruction came on upon them in that second? No, because I'm probably the one who's cutting them off.
Speaker: That they just got what the was coming to them. Every time they were unkind to us, they cut in line in front of us. they They were immediately struck by lightning. Wouldn't we think that's so great? And then, oh wait, what happens when we make a mistake? And then we're immediately struck by lightning. hmm okay whoops yeah or they gossip about us and their cut their tongue just falls out um like we wouldn't want it happening to us and so we have to be thankful for god's mercy um even to horrible evil sinners because uh newsflash where are those sinners um so he he we do want sin destroyed though we don't i know for me i don't want to live with
Speaker: a sin nature all of my life I want it i want it that destroyed. um that's worth That's worth dying so that I don't have to have my sin nature living with that for eternity. um and i'm Even thinking about it feels...
Speaker: It's unrealistic, and then that's probably the demonic forces trying to say, well, don't believe it. It can't be true. But it is. We'll be set free from our sin, and we'll be able to live at peace with other people and um even people who were like, how did you get to heaven?
Speaker: Maybe they caused this grief in life, um but we can be with them because our sin nature is we're going to be made new, and that's what's going to be so awesome. So, um yeah, good stuff from Jeremiah. um And it may seem to read Jeremiah that's pretty dark and God's opposing judgment, but god is God is going to do that one day here on this earth, and we want him to because it all has to be made right and evil needs to be punished.
Speaker: So, um, let's, uh, let me give us in prayer and then we'll do our normal sign out. So Jesus, we thank you so much for this day. We're thankful that you are a healer, that you are savior. Um, we're thankful that we can praise you, that you are good. Um, that, um, Lord, if, if it was a human person in your role, we, we would not be able to trust them because of the sin nature that we lives within them. But we're so thankful that are perfect without sin. um lord we're thankful that you are the one with the word um that even when people don't want to hear it uh and don't want to listen to it that um your word still goes forth lord we just pray that you would help us to clear the issues deep within our souls the struggles we have the frustrations we have the agreements we've made um
Speaker: that we shouldn't have, that are with lies. Lord, pray that you'd help us to clear all of those out of our lives, that we would um go on a fact-finding mission deep in our soul to heal those wounds that are um that are deep.
Speaker: um Lord, we know that you can come into them and heal them, and we pray that you would do that. You'd continue to be our our great physician who makes us new every day. And Lord, we know how much work it takes to do that, but we pray that we would do that so that we can hear your voice, we can hear you speak in our lives, we can see your hand working through us. Because when sin, um sin just blocks us and makes us not be able to see clearly. We're blind. um And Lord, I pray that you would help us to remove... the things in our lives that hold us back. I pray for each of those that are listening, that you would be with them, that you would encourage them through our talk. Lord, that you would give them boldness and the conviction to um get rid of things that are distracting them from being the people that you want them to be. I pray that you'd give us a wonderful rest of our our days and our evenings today, that whenever you're listening to it, that you would um ah just work in our hearts and teach us the things that we need to through what we talked about today.
Speaker: um Give us a good evening and a good rest of our day. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen. So, um shout-outs this week. I'll go first, because i I know this is something I always spring on, Brendan, because ah it's kind of last-minute thing. We've made it a thing, but... It was my idea. I'm the one who even suggested number of months ago. We said two, like, shout-outs. Logan was like, why? was like, just to support other people. was like, yeah, okay. And I'm the one who never comes prepared. But I'm going be selfish. I have one in my head, and when you hear it, you might think, shameless plug, is he having a laugh?
Speaker: But like he's just said. Well, yeah. i think i might I think I might be able to guess what it is, but I won't. i'll For my Watt.propile picture. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's see. So, for me this week, would say...
Speaker: so ah for me this week i would say um Oh, I've got one. So there's a, it's called a DRC racing. And what they do is they have these little um model cars. I think I used to have one on my desk. I don't see it here, so I can't pull it out, but there, Oh, I do. Here we go. No, it's like a little, it's that the back screen is just going to wash that out. So I'm going to try and hold it right in front of my face. It was better. a little Okay. We can see that one. Yeah. Yeah. It's just that little car. So it's a little tiny car.
Speaker: um And what they do is they put them on a track and then they have some sort of system that like shoots them, shoots these cars out and they race down there and they sort of like run into each other and wreck and all this stuff. And it's quite hilarious. The best bit though, is when,
Speaker: They're going down the track and um they wreck, but they wreck off the side and they have these little plastic minifigures that look like people. And they're like, oh, fatality, because the announcers act like it's real people. And so there's like these bodies that are like on the track. the cars are cook down It's just a plastic little person, and they're like, oof, that is a fatality. We've had a another death on the track today. um So really, i would say it's the announcers who do this, then the then the car is going down the track itself. But it's one of those things that unlocks a boyhood memory for me, because my life, i would spend ah I would spend my days on Sundays, I would... um
Speaker: get all of my little NASCARs, they're about that size, the matchbox cars, and I would line them all up and I would pretend they're having a race. And so I'd move each one at a time and be like, oh, that guy goes for a pass. And I would do this like every Sunday because there would be ah a race that I was watching.
Speaker: And so, yeah, it was that that was like a boyhood ah callback. And then these announcers just watching fatalities of a plastic person getting chucked into the sky, um was, it made me chuckle in a ways I have not chuckled in a long time.
Speaker: So, log and I had very different upbringings, you know, he was, you know, NASCAR, I was in my back garden with a bucket full of dirty water and mud and stones making potions the kid next door.
Speaker: But, hey, yeah, he had me in the s we're we're learning We're learning things. For me, I love violence. We're learning Brendan. He's out there concocting potions and spells. We each have our sins. We each have our sins. We each have our things we need to repent for.
Speaker: Anyway, what's what's your shout-out this week? Mine going to be really, really selfish because I didn't on this before. Ha ha ha. I'm going to advertise myself, guys. Christmas is coming. The goose is getting fat.
Speaker: Please put a penny in the purse of Brandon Thomas Marrott. Boom. It rhymes. I didn't even know where that sentence was going when I began, but I just said I'll find it along the way.
Speaker: So yeah, go on Amazon.ie.co.uk.com.f or whatever your country's thing above dot f or whatever your country's thinking above is And yeah, pick up a copy of the Panopticon and Reckoning, my two books.
Speaker: um Great presents for avid readers, for people of all ages. um It's a story of good versus evil, a story of the little man versus this big corporation of evil.
Speaker: um This big confederacy of wickedness. It's got certain elements which I didn't realize were prophetic when I wrote them, but elements that have kind of come to pass.
Speaker: um And there's ah there some positive messages of hope there too in the face of absolute hopelessness. Of... um Rebuilding your life when it's been broken or ruined by trauma. are Reclaiming destiny and the pursuit of purpose when no one believes in you.
Speaker: When every word people speak over you is antithetical to God's word. And the main character is a Christian as well. And he's kind of balancing his faith with everything else going on in his life.
Speaker: So it's fantastical. It's science fictional. It's dystopian. um He's put through his paces, let me tell you. But ultimately, the story of good versus evil and inspiring men especially to take on hope in the face of great adversity.
Speaker: And I think there are messages that we need in days when all the big industries that used to give those stories have gone woke. Anti-men.
Speaker: men Let's be honest, even anti-feminine. They have their own version of what they want a woman to be. um And they're distorting stories with the trans nonsense and yeah gay kids and all this crap.
Speaker: I think it's good to kind of get back to a more classic kind of storytelling. So, yeah, my shameless plug is myself. Yes!
Speaker: that Yes, and I support this message because and I'll give you another reason why you why you should pay for this book is because you will learn things about Brendan that you didn't know before. Because whenever you read something someone else has written, you start to see them and you start to learn things about them because you'll go, hmm, that's an interesting way. And then you start to think, you know, is this a true story? Is this coming from their history? And then you start to freak out a little bit and then you'll ask him questions and then you realize, no, it it was just part of the story.
Speaker: And then there are parts where you're like, oh. Oh, yeah, that's totally true. That was totally true.
Speaker: Yes. So, anyway, thank you all for joining us. We'll see you all next time. Have a wonderful rest of your week. Goodbye, friends. Cheerio.
Speaker: I was waiting for you to end it. I forgot that was my laptop.
Speaker: a That's in work either.
