Celebrating Life in Recovery

Loss Of A Child

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Cheri Peters (Host), Michael Kontes

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Series Code: CLR

Program Code: CLR000027


00:11 Welcome to Celebrating Life In Recovery.
00:12 I'm Cheri your host and today we are going to look at all
00:16 the incredible promises God has given to us, His kids.
00:19 It is absolutely amazing, come join us in the café.
00:50 In another show we talked about the process of healing.
00:52 I found those in the book 'Search for Significance' by
00:55 Robert S. McGee, so we're going to cover some of that.
00:58 I first want to introduce you to everybody at the café.
01:00 Especially our guest, Pastor Mike you are our special
01:04 guest for the day.
01:06 I'm glad to be here Cheri.
01:07 We try to do this a thousand times. - 2000 times.
01:11 I know how and what happened each time?
01:13 Each time there are technical difficulties.
01:16 - the devil steps in and says you are not doing this.
01:19 Murphy is doing his job. - that's right, exactly!
01:22 I want to introduce you, there are a number people at the
01:24 Café visiting and we are going to meet a lot of you and
01:29 hear your testimony, so when we get to that point it will
01:32 be amazing and you will be blessed, absolutely blessed.
01:35 Mike I want to go through a little bit of what we have
01:39 covered in previous shows.
01:41 We are coming to the into this season, right. - yes.
01:44 So you as a Pastor, not only as a Pastor the man of God and
01:47 the things I know you have been through,
01:49 you can help us to understand this.
01:52 The first part of recovery, that we found, is to honestly
01:56 look at your stuff, to honestly say, exactly where I am at,
02:00 what do I need to know about God, and to the point where
02:03 sometimes I look at myself and think oh man!
02:06 I'm in such trouble because I am a mess, absolutely a mess.
02:10 I hear the Holy Spirit saying, Cheri that's okay, I know
02:14 that and I will help you in recovery.
02:16 So to be able to honestly look at that.
02:19 We are going to go through some of those things.
02:21 First of all I want to know, I know but I want the viewers
02:25 and the people at the café to get an idea of who you are,
02:28 And why I chose you to do the show with us.
02:33 To really make a long story short, basically my daughter,
02:38 my 3 and 1/2-year-old daughter, came down with
02:40 brain cancer in 1999.
02:42 I was two weeks away from going to India to do an
02:45 evangelistic series, I have been an Adventist
02:46 for a 1 and 1/2 years.
02:48 And being an Adventist for a 1 and 1/2, you had not only been
02:52 running from God, but kind of a bad guy?
02:55 When I look at you and I think who's going to believe that?
02:58 But it is true.
03:00 You know I was very disrespectful to my wife.
03:02 I thought my wife and my son, at the time, before my
03:05 daughter came around, a chain and ball to me.
03:07 They are ruining my life, I had things to do and you
03:10 are getting in the way?
03:11 I had an 'I' problem, I couldn't see past myself.
03:13 Here God had given me a beautiful wife, a beautiful son,
03:17 and my daughter came along and I saw that my dreams
03:20 couldn't be accomplished and I was chafing
03:22 under my responsibilities.
03:24 You know when Satan is the puppet master in your life,
03:28 and you are the puppet, you move, that's it, as he moves
03:33 his finger tips, so to speak, you follow his lead.
03:35 That's what I did, I followed his lead until finally my
03:38 wife began to really pray for me.
03:41 After a six-month period, I know it takes some people
03:45 a lot longer, I didn't do anything of myself, but the
03:48 Holy Spirit began to woo me and show me things in the
03:50 world and I gave my heart to Jesus.
03:52 You know what cracks me up? Is that I just got this
03:54 impression, I think, from the Holy Spirit.
03:56 The Holy Spirit is like six months eke, eke, I've been
04:00 following you forever, from the womb I've been working
04:03 with you and you think it took Me six months.
04:05 It took me a lifetime to even get you to look at God.
04:07 Some of us think, oh, it is just when we start sensing it.
04:11 But the Holy Spirit has been wooing us forever,
04:14 and when we start sensing it, He's kicked up the fire.
04:18 That is a great point, He has been there my whole life,
04:23 and most of the time we do not acknowledge, or know that
04:25 He is working in our lives until we have the opportunity
04:27 to look back in hindsight.
04:29 That 6-month period was especially unique for the mere
04:32 fact that I began to see spiritual things that are
04:36 spiritually discerned.
04:37 - Explain that for somebody that doesn't know.
04:40 We have people watching this show that has never been
04:42 baptized, they don't know what you are saying by that.
04:45 Okay that is a good point.
04:46 A lot times what takes place is people have a hard time
04:49 struggling with the word of God, concepts or principles.
04:52 They are really struggling, as they struggle they don't,
04:58 how can I say this, God says that you will know what
05:01 My will is, and you will know of Him when you submit
05:04 your self to Him. - actually know His voice.
05:08 You will intimately be able to understand what He is
05:12 calling for you to be able to do when your heart is
05:15 emptied out of all the garbage that literally you have
05:18 put in there, and others have affected in your life.
05:21 You can empty that out and all of your broken dreams,
05:24 all of the issues that - all the addictions,
05:27 - all the addictions and the bondage that comes with the
05:30 addictions, the physical bondage, the mental bondage, the
05:33 spiritual bondage, when you take these to Christ and
05:36 you just open the door per se,
05:38 He stands there knocking, when you take it to Him and
05:42 you say okay I can't do this anymore.
05:44 Then what you have done, because I believe the way of the
05:49 great controversy is structured per se, you will allow
05:54 Him to do things that otherwise would be, because of the
05:59 structure, very difficult to do.
06:00 When you say the great controversy, that's the battle
06:04 with the lies that the devil has said to us,
06:07 the things that we struggle with, and what God is saying
06:11 about who He is.
06:13 For this show particular, I would say, because we are
06:15 dealing with overcoming addiction, the great controversy
06:18 We are talking about addiction from my perspective is here
06:23 you have Satan telling people you will find happiness
06:27 in this area, be it competition, be it drugs.
06:30 - The area of competition.
06:32 - and everybody else is weighing you down, everybody
06:38 else is getting in your way, I cannot get my dreams met
06:40 with you a my way.
06:41 In the other side is of the great controversy is?
06:44 The great controversy is that you have this perspective
06:47 where Satan is trying to get this field in your life,
06:50 and the other side is Mike come to Me, Cheri come to Me.
06:53 I'll know the desires of your heart and I will give you them.
06:56 - I love you, do you know how much I have given.
06:59 I have poured out the treasury of heaven for you and
07:02 you are searching in a bass tournament, in a bass boat
07:06 try to find out who you are Mike? - exactly!
07:09 I have traveled the world and I was a homeless kid.
07:11 I have traveled the world because God wants to fill us up.
07:15 The devil says He doesn't, He wants to rob you,
07:17 it's like stop, He wants to pour out heaven.
07:20 So as your wife is praying for you, you're having this
07:23 struggle, this great controversy is so in your life.
07:27 She starts committing herself to prayer.
07:29 She commits to prayer, at the time I did not know it,
07:33 and another lady was praying at her job.
07:35 She wanted to leave her job, she was a massage therapist
07:38 at a gym and two people are praying for me that I have no
07:42 idea they are praying for me.
07:44 All I can say, prayer, I can't underscore the point,
07:47 when we pray the windows of heaven open up.
07:52 Because of my wife and her prayers with this other ladies,
07:55 the windows of heaven opened up.
07:57 After watching a couple things on TV, they blew me away,
08:00 I watched a girl in high school who went to her high school
08:03 dance pregnant, and gave birth to her baby, and put it in
08:06 the trash bin and went and finished her dance.
08:08 I saw that and the Holy Spirit said to me, Mike this world
08:12 is coming to an end, it's winding down.
08:15 I had never, I had seen it before and thought like every
08:18 one else, these things happen.
08:20 Yes they do happen, but look at the intensity of how these
08:24 things are happening daily, every 12 hours, every 3 hours,
08:27 as I saw that I came to a place where I watched
08:31 a prophecy show one evening.
08:32 An individual basically said, the preacher basically said,
08:35 if you die, do you know where you would go?
08:37 You know what? I knew exactly where I was going.
08:40 You know what? I realized I stood under the black banner
08:44 of the powers of darkness and basically gave my heart that
08:48 night to Jesus. - Amen, Amen!
08:51 What is your wife just shocked? Did she believe you even?
08:54 She thought I was crazy.
08:55 The next day I woke up, now you have to remember for 29
08:58 years at that time I had been claiming to be a Christian.
09:02 So when you profess and don't possess the Holy Spirit,
09:06 you can understand why sometimes people look at you.
09:10 - they don't believe you anymore!
09:12 They don't believe you so the next day I woke up,
09:13 the shame and the guilt I had been carrying my whole life
09:17 was lifted up and I cannot explain, everyone knows
09:20 the born-again experience, we do not understand how it
09:22 takes place, we can only see the affects.
09:24 I woke up that morning and went into the kitchen where
09:28 my wife was feeding the kids and I said, honey.
09:30 I said it exactly, I go honey I gave my heart to Jesus.
09:34 She looks at me and goes, that's nice.
09:40 It was like someone just poured the lemon juice in an
09:45 open wound, you know what?
09:47 As I walked away the Holy Spirit said to me, Mike what do
09:51 you expect her to think, you have treated her terribly.
09:55 You watch terrible things, you speak terrible things,
09:59 what she is basically telling you is, show me.
10:03 What is amazing to me, even with the Holy Spirit with you,
10:06 is that He is that nice and gentle to us.
10:09 He will not lie to us, when He says it,
10:12 you so know it is the truth, alright.
10:15 - so gentle. - exactly!
10:17 You know what? He says even the rebuke as Christ said in
10:21 His ministry with tears in His voice, I think we cannot
10:25 understand that concept because we carry so much baggage,
10:28 when we deal with people we think we are going to go to
10:31 our brother or sister and say a rebuke, and think we are
10:33 doing it in a very humble way. We have our fingers pointed out.
10:36 We're just exploding, what we need is more of Christ.
10:41 That is hard, even when I talk to addicts, when I tell somebody
10:46 I have put the worst of the worst words on the table and
10:50 I have never felt shamed by God.
10:52 I have never felt like He looked at me in disgust,
10:55 or He looked at me and was angry, I have never felt that.
10:59 I've always felt that He looked at me in truth and said,
11:03 think this way, walk this Way.
11:05 That, I think, is the beauty of God, is that He is able
11:10 to see Mike, or Cheri at a distance and to see that they
11:14 are coming back and they are marred.
11:17 Instead of running, instead of allowing us coming onto
11:21 the property and making justification of what we did,
11:25 He meets us there, the same way He came to Adam and Eve.
11:29 The same way He went out to Cain, He comes to us and says,
11:33 I love you, because He knows before we are even at the edge
11:38 of His property, He says I know why you're back.
11:40 He is not going to condemn us because right there,
11:43 the condemner is right next was saying, don't go back
11:46 because He doesn't want you.
11:47 God is sitting back and is saying, I've been searching
11:50 for you for years.
11:52 I want to pour into you, I want to kiss you on the face
11:56 every morning when you wake up.
11:58 I want to show you a life where you will laugh out loud
12:00 and be filled with joy. - Amen!
12:03 Out of bondage, how cool is that?
12:04 So in your walk, you said now you are turning around,
12:09 being the father that your wife has always knew you were.
12:14 being the husband, being the father, and things are
12:18 beginning to turn around for us.
12:20 We are baptized soon after, husband-and-wife together.
12:24 - got into the Ministry right away?
12:27 Not too long after, I was only a four-year Adventist and
12:31 I was pastoring, I was pastoring for Adventist.
12:35 A big responsibility and sometimes people come to me and
12:39 say, Mike you don't look worried, what is going on here?
12:42 I know God's going to do it.
12:45 I have come to the place where I realize you can be 1 year,
12:48 you can be 50 years knowing God, but bottom-line is that
12:52 if you become comfortable with how long for or become to
12:55 insecure on how short, you are limiting God,
12:57 and I don't want to limit God.
12:59 The Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit,
13:02 whether you have known God for 1 day or 100 days,
13:05 it is the same thing that is poured into you.
13:07 He will lead us in all truth - exactly.
13:11 Not myself, not you, not others, He will lead us.
13:13 If He is leading me in truth at the speed that He desires,
13:17 Jesus is walking before me like a shepherd.
13:20 He is taking me at the pace that I need to go,
13:23 I don't have to worry about where I am at.
13:26 How cool is that? How cool is that!
13:28 So now as that is turning, you said earlier that you are
13:31 going to India and find out your daughter has brain cancer.
13:35 I can't imagine that.
13:36 The first time I heard you say that, it was on a show and
13:39 we were dealing with something else and I remember it felt
13:42 like somebody had hit me in the chest because I thought
13:45 how do you accept and deal with that?
13:48 We were devastated for the first three days, there was
13:51 a lot of sadness, and friends and family and church members
13:54 came to the hospital.
13:56 The doctors began to notice that my daughter was
13:58 withdrawing because of the atmosphere in the room.
14:01 So I went to her and said honey, we are going to take
14:03 you for your birthday to Disneyland.
14:06 Her birthday was coming up in April,
14:08 and this was in January.
14:09 She looked at me with this real despairing look and said,
14:12 daddy I don't want to go to Disneyland.
14:15 That night my wife and I got on our hands and knees and
14:18 realize that we needed God in a special portion to be
14:22 able to walk through this trial.
14:25 We got on hands and knees and prayed for God to give us
14:28 the strength, and you know what?
14:29 He answered that prayer, the following week when we were
14:32 getting ready to be released to start her therapy.
14:34 - she had a brain cancer that was very rare?
14:40 Pontine Glioma, it's a cancer on the brainstem,
14:45 a brain tip tumor that was pushing on her ex-cranial nerve
14:48 and her eyes crossed.
14:50 They had put her on steroids to reduce the swelling in the
14:52 brain, from my understanding there are no children,
14:57 no known survivors from this specific cancer.
15:00 They usually, children who get this cancer, usually have
15:05 a lifespan after diagnosis of about 1 year.
15:10 Being a sports person I call it, the Michael Jordan
15:12 of brain cancers.
15:15 As you are getting this information to you, you are also
15:20 asking God to give us strength, we don't even know,
15:23 give us strength.
15:25 I was very fortunate to be able to be a born again
15:29 Christian for a year and a half, a born again Seventh-day
15:31 Adventist at this time.
15:33 I understood God's character, and as I was studying the
15:36 word of God when, I know some people have issues when they
15:39 study the Bible, and a look at the doctrines, and people
15:42 say I don't want to know about doctrines or these issues.
15:45 As I begin studying and I looked at the stories of the
15:48 Bible, I began to look at the teachings of what God has
15:51 shown through His church.
15:52 Again I see that Christ is the center of all these things,
15:56 did it help me to understand His character.
15:58 The more I can understand of His character,
16:00 not that I would raise my hand and say, yeah take all of
16:02 my kids to brain cancer, but that I would sit back and be
16:04 able to say, you know what, I trust You.
16:06 I trust You because I know Your true.
16:08 That does not mean that you don't cry.
16:09 That doesn't mean you're not sad, at times you might not
16:13 have a little anger, but you can say,
16:14 I can't understand these things.
16:16 I think a lot of times what takes place in addictions,
16:19 in grieving and healing, and a lot of times we try to
16:23 find cute answers of why these things are taking place.
16:27 To me ultimately, I had to come to a place, as I was
16:31 sharing with my brother earlier, that God formed this
16:35 earth, I wasn't even around the foundations
16:39 of this world when they were created.
16:41 How can I distrust the God who knows all and can do all?
16:46 I have to place my trust in Him and be able to say,
16:48 you know I know what You have done for me in the past.
16:51 I know Your love for me for the past.
16:52 I know that my daughter, who is really Your daughter,
16:56 You love her more than I love her, and because You love
16:59 her more than I love her, I need to be able to let go.
17:03 When I first gave my heart, I came to a place where
17:06 I said God I give you my children.
17:08 I said that in a prayer, I give You my children.
17:10 You know what, I thought I did.
17:12 Until you begin to have your children being pulled
17:14 from you, you realize the percentage you have given.
17:17 I had maybe given 70%, God was teaching me,
17:20 Mike, she is My daughter, My daughter.
17:23 A lot of people they think as Christians we escape all
17:28 the damage in this world, the genetic damage.
17:31 The cancers that hit us and all that, we don't.
17:34 We just have a hope that this isn't it and that
17:37 I have a God that is coming back for me.
17:40 We have that hope and we have to figure out,
17:44 when something like this happens, how much do we actually
17:46 believe of all that stuff.
17:48 Isaiah 41:13 says, "for I am the Lord thy God who said
17:52 "unto thee fear not for I am with thee. "
17:54 I think what needs to take place, regardless if it's at
17:58 work, in the home life, where ever we need to realize
18:02 that we do not serve a God who is just up on His throne.
18:05 When you read the stories in the Bible of how many times
18:09 God has come, and who was in the fiery furnace with
18:13 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego?
18:15 When you look at all the stories, who wept outside of
18:19 Lazarus tomb, you begin to see that our God is such an intimate
18:24 loving God, at times though He may not be with us tangibly
18:28 were we can touch Him, He has left His Spirit, which
18:32 I know I have tangibly felt in my heart and in my mind.
18:37 And saw in your child, tell me again what her favorite
18:42 story in the Bible was during this time?
18:44 When I heard that, I just wanted to weep.
18:47 I may weep if I tell it to you again.
18:49 What took place is when they let us go from a hospital
18:53 to begin and start her therapy, she looked at my wife,
18:56 Reagan and said, mommy, I think I'm going to die.
19:00 What do you do when a 3 and 1/2-year-old says that?
19:05 She was really shocked, she said, honey Jesus is there
19:09 for you, Jesus is going to be good and be here with us.
19:14 So that night my wife, the Holy Spirit spoke to her Cheri,
19:18 not only for my conversion, can I say praise God for
19:22 great wives, praise God for great wives.
19:25 You can say that a number of times.
19:27 Hallelujah, praise God, praise God for good wives.
19:30 She went on her hands and knees that night and said,
19:34 Father, Mike and I don't have the strength to get
19:38 our daughter through this.
19:39 She needs an adult sized portion of Your Holy Spirit.
19:41 Now watch the miracles that take place now.
19:44 Here is the domino effect, God says because you have
19:47 asked, I'm flicking over the dominoes and as she asked,
19:50 a couple days later my daughter out of nowhere said,
19:54 mommy, why did Jesus have to die for us?
19:57 Reagan opened up the Bible and began to read Matthew 26,
20:01 27, and 28 and explaining the closing scenes of Jesus'
20:06 life, and as she heard it, it was as if the Holy Spirit
20:11 would comfort and blanket her and she would be okay.
20:14 As you could tell us, because some people don't know,
20:18 do you know what I mean?
20:19 We are assuming that everybody watching this knows the,
20:22 closing scenes, so I know.
20:25 As Reagan began to share how God came to earth clothed
20:29 Himself with humanity was improperly taken in the trial
20:34 that never should have been at that time it was.
20:36 Was beaten, was spit on, thorns were stuck in His head,
20:40 finally taken out and put in the most horrible type of
20:44 torture, being pinned on the cross.
20:47 He did it while I was yet the most vilest of people, and as
20:53 He died and took upon the sins, the grief's,
20:57 the addictions, the pains of the world,
21:01 the whole time of Earth's history, sometimes we think
21:05 He died at that time, He took the addictions,
21:07 the pains of everything that humanity has gone through
21:11 upon the cross and His heart just bursted for humanity.
21:15 What took place was after, when you see that kind of love,
21:19 the love that streams through the cross of Calvary,
21:22 you are drawn to Him.
21:23 Then you realize that not only was He dying on the cross,
21:26 but He resurrected, He resurrected and made Himself
21:29 available to His disciples for a period of time afterwards.
21:33 Now He's in the heavenly sanctuary interceding and giving
21:37 His power for us, that is a type of, that is an assurance
21:41 to me that I don't server a dead God.
21:43 I serve a living God.
21:44 So now, with your daughter, she is listening to the story
21:49 in her response to the story is what?
21:51 What takes place is that as my wife tells her the story,
21:54 my daughter goes, okay, thank you mommy.
21:58 After that time, about three or four days a week, Arianna
22:03 would turn to mommy and say, will you read to me
22:05 Jesus on the cross?
22:07 What took place is a 3 and 1/2 year-old daughter found
22:13 comfort in a crucified King. - Amen!
22:17 Here she realized that, here is a King that will give
22:22 a free gift to a 3 and 1/2 year old, and here I was struggling
22:26 as a 29-year-old man, searching this pitiful world,
22:29 to fill the holes.
22:31 She found the whole as a 3 and 1/2-year-old.
22:33 And comfort in the resurrection,
22:36 God is going to raise you.
22:38 God is with you always, low I will be with you until the
22:42 end of this age, she found comfort
22:44 in it was very important.
22:46 As we put her in her treatments she began losing her hair.
22:49 She began putting an extraordinary amount of weight
22:52 - on because of the medication it was called the Cushing.
22:56 - Her eyes are crossing. - eyes are crossing.
22:58 People began looking at my daughter a little differently.
23:01 The medical term is called Cushing look that she had.
23:03 When we would go to church she began to notice that people
23:07 were looking at her differently.
23:08 They were saddened for her, she would no longer go up for
23:11 the children's story, she would watch her brother
23:13 and her friends go up.
23:14 I would say Arlie do you want to go up to children's story?
23:16 She would say no daddy, and to sit and watch her in the pew,
23:18 I would look over at her and she would be giggling as
23:22 she watched her brother and friends, it was like to some
23:26 degree she was weaning us as a family, just saying you
23:31 know what, I'm okay with Jesus.
23:34 What took place is really profound, two things that are
23:38 really huge, after Sabbath we went to a church potluck.
23:43 As we went to potluck, we were all eating, and at the park
23:47 you would have a play area in a place where you can eat.
23:50 The adults were sitting and eating, one of my friends was
23:54 watching the kids, and a child from a local neighborhood
23:56 had came with her father, and she was sitting at the bottom
23:59 and of the slide in the sandy area watching the kids play.
24:02 She couldn't run anymore because your equilibrium
24:04 was off because the cancer.
24:06 So she was sitting at the slide, her eyes are crossed,
24:10 she is heavy, and the child came in and went and saw my
24:13 daughter and goes, daddy what is wrong with her?
24:17 He didn't say this to be mean, she looks like an anomaly,
24:20 looked very different, and the father
24:24 didn't know how to respond.
24:25 The friend that was there didn't know how to respond.
24:29 Then my daughter looked at this boy and said, I'm in love
24:36 with God and that story was not told to me until later on.
24:42 When she said I'm in love with God, God did give her an
24:47 adult sized portion of the Holy Spirit because she had
24:52 fallen in love with Him.
24:54 - It comforted her. - her comfort came from her God.
24:58 So many times we have issues in our lives and we can't
25:02 find comfort and I look and say, you know what?
25:04 This three-year-old found comfort in her Savior.
25:08 Sometimes when I reflect on that it warms my heart,
25:12 it gives me strength.
25:14 I love your testimony, I can't wait to meet your daughter.
25:21 After you get done holding her, and kissing her face,
25:26 looking at her and knowing that she no longer is going to
25:29 be swollen, no longer going to have her eyes crossed,
25:32 not be able to stand up and play, but she's going to run
25:35 and be doing back flips so glad that you are there.
25:39 That she will actually get to sit with Jesus for the first
25:43 time in a physical way, because she has set with Him
25:46 during that time, I just can't wait.
25:49 We are going to go ahead and take a break.
25:51 I want to say we are going to come back and meet some of
25:55 the folks here, and then we will have you back up to tell
25:58 us how God has even blessed you, and you comforting
26:03 the parents that are going through this.
26:05 It is amazing that He says not only will I get you
26:07 through this, I love your family and will raise your
26:11 daughter because she died shortly after that. - yeah!
26:15 We are going to come back and talk about that.
26:16 Please stay with us, and if you are struggling with any
26:21 of this, I know that it is tough.
26:23 We are not making light of this, but we have a Savior
26:26 that says, I will help you through it.
26:28 I will get you through it and I will pour into you,
26:31 I don't care what age, whether you are 3 or 300,
26:34 God says I will pour My Spirit into you and I will get
26:37 you through this and I will give you joy.
26:40 Joy comes in the morning and that is something believable
26:43 to me, but I have felt that and I know that
26:44 Pastor Mike has felt it.
26:46 We will be right back, stay with us!
26:54 Think you've seen it all? Think again.
26:57 Cheri Peters is back for a second season of
27:00 Celebrating Life In Recovery, with more lives
27:04 more stories and more miracles.
27:07 Watch the shocking, the inspiring, and the incredible.
27:11 Check your local listings to find out when
27:13 Celebrating Life In Recovery comes to you, and get
27:17 ready for another dose of reality, Cheri style.
27:35 Ending the last segment was tough for me because hearing
27:39 this story before from Pastor Mike about your daughter,
27:45 I have never, I still can't get over my sense of that
27:50 must've been the hardest thing you have ever,
27:53 ever went through.
27:55 I can't believe that God could take that and turn it
27:58 around, but you had told me a story about your daughter
28:02 when she couldn't even make it to church.
28:05 Can you share that with us?
28:06 What happened is, we lived about 40 minutes from the
28:10 church and so one Sabbath morning we were all in the car
28:13 getting ready to go down, and this time
28:14 the doctors had told us the cancer had been reduced
28:17 by 30% and we were excited.
28:19 The same God that created the heavens and the earth can
28:22 take away cancer, we just don't know what takes place.
28:26 So getting on the freeway she vomited on herself.
28:29 That is not a good sign when someone has brain cancer.
28:32 So we turn the car around and took her back to the house.
28:35 As we set her up in bed, my wife looked over and said,
28:38 Mike you need to take Luke to church.
28:40 Then Arianna goes daddy, daddy and stuck out her hand.
28:45 She said, daddy, daddy and I go what is it honey?
28:47 She says, daddy, daddy, daddy and I said what is it honey?
28:50 She opened up her hand and goes, she had her Sabbath school
28:54 money, daddy would you take this and give this to Jesus?
28:59 I sat there and took the quarter and said, yes honey.
29:03 I put the quarter in my pocket, I'm driving
29:06 down to the church weeping.
29:07 The reason I'm weeping is here is this girl dying and
29:10 the only thing on her mind is Jesus.
29:13 Here's sometimes I struggle to pray for an extra five
29:18 minutes, I struggle to read an extra line in the Bible.
29:22 Not a chapter, only a line. - exactly!
29:25 And here's this girl pouring out everything.
29:27 When you stand in the presence of God, you really see
29:30 yourself. - who you are!
29:33 You see exactly who you are.
29:36 I realize that, though I had given my heart to Jesus and
29:40 knew He was working in a very powerful way of my life,
29:43 I have not arrived.
29:45 Sometimes we need to realize that.
29:48 I think sometimes when we come into these situations,
29:52 when we come in contact with people that we see going
29:55 through these things it brings us to a place of humility
29:58 to realize not only is this place, the earth is not our
30:01 home, but it also gives us to refocus on our own lines.
30:06 I know that God has used you since your daughter's death.
30:10 God has used you a number of times working with people
30:14 that have children that are terminal, have to go
30:19 through that, and you have sat there and loved on them.
30:22 A story that you don't know, this is probably a God thing
30:25 for today, as you like to say, God thing. - I love those.
30:28 The church that voted me in after I graduated from
30:32 Pacific Union College, two churches.
30:35 There was the Shingle Spring and Rancho Cordova Seventh-day
30:38 Adventist churches and they voted me in April of that year.
30:42 Unknown to one of the churches, the Shingle Spring churches
30:45 one of their elders daughter would will come
30:47 down with brain cancer the next month.
30:49 God was already orchestrating me to go into this family,
30:53 into this district and to walk them through what
30:57 we have walked through, and literally my wife and I
31:01 really helped Tony and Linda Walker and prepped them with
31:05 everything we did.
31:07 People would say, was that hard on you going through this
31:09 and seeing it again?
31:11 To some degree, but when you are, you can't transfer grief
31:16 and pain, so to speak.
31:18 - and comfort, the comfort that you had, they so needed.
31:24 The assurance that God has not forgotten that.
31:27 I told them to call me up, when ever he called me at
31:29 3 o'clock in the morning, 4 o'clock in the morning,
31:31 we would be on our knees with my wife.
31:33 God took us to a place where people, what they were going
31:36 through, we were going through different type of cancer
31:40 with their daughter and she ended up, I ended up burying
31:43 her in West Virginia, Huntington West Virginia.
31:46 But I was there and had the opportunity to be able to be
31:50 God's servant to this family through the situation.
31:53 Each situation is different, a lot of people think a death
31:57 of a child is the death of a child, No!
31:59 Each one is completely different, so I cannot stand
32:02 here today and fully tell you I understood everything
32:06 they went through, that I felt everything.
32:08 But to some degree there were some commonalities that I was
32:11 able to help them through. - Amen!
32:13 What's interesting to me as a Christian, the more I get to
32:17 know God, the more I look around, the more I deal with
32:20 addictions, I realize that this is not our home.
32:23 If we make our home here we will always be faced with
32:26 death and struggling and all that stuff.
32:28 God said I really am coming back to get you.
32:31 This is not it, the devil himself is going to attack you
32:35 on every end, you have got cancerous stuff that is going
32:38 to be in your body, we don't eat right, we don't think right,
32:40 we don't do all this kind of stuff and it's going to affect
32:43 who you are.
32:44 But I promise you to the extent that you allow Me,
32:47 I will bring healing and comfort, and it may not be life,
32:52 but it will be healing and comfort.
32:55 We have a hole in our hearts when a loved one passes away,
32:58 I believe that that hole in our heart will be there until
33:02 this side of the grave, until that great day comes.
33:05 I believe the reason God allows that hole in our heart
33:08 is to realize that this is not our home, there is going to
33:12 be a better place, because there is going to be, you know
33:15 there is things here about this world that are nice.
33:18 I'd love to be here with you, spend time with my 3ABN
33:22 family when I come here, but I got kids in the family.
33:25 - that fantastic wife. - and no one wants to say,
33:28 I want to go, but sometimes we can become so comforted and
33:33 in all rut of what is going on, that we lose the eternal
33:38 perspective that someday there is going to be no more pain,
33:42 no more scars, no more hospitals Cheri. Hallelujah!
33:46 What I would like for you to do for us if you could?
33:50 I'm going to introduce, bring some other people from the
33:53 café up, but I would like for you to pray with us before
33:57 you sit down and then come back and rejoin us before the
34:00 end of the show. Okay so let's pray!
34:02 Father we come to Thee now and thank Thee for the
34:05 opportunity of being sons and daughters of God.
34:08 It is through the merits of Thy Son, that we can even
34:11 stand here and share what we are able to share.
34:15 We thank You for working in our lives in such a way that
34:18 we can take the pains and the scars and the baggage of our
34:22 lives and You can transform those experiences to Your
34:25 territory, to Your kingdom.
34:27 We asked that each person out there will be able to take
34:31 the pain and experience of their feelings and lay them
34:34 down at the foot of the cross and have their experience
34:38 transform, so they can go out as a missionary to
34:41 someone else and use that experience to bring
34:45 more into thy kingdom.
34:47 - I want to add that You fill them with Your Holy Spirit,
34:50 that You fill them with a sense of who You are,
34:54 the incredibleness of God, that You give us truth about
34:58 who You are, the truth about who we are, and the fact that
35:02 You are so close to us in our struggles that You fill us
35:05 with joy and let that be our strength.
35:07 Even through trials, through illnesses that hit us, that we
35:11 stand with those illnesses in the presence of God knowing
35:15 that this is not our home.
35:17 I pray that we have covered the Holy Spirit in a number
35:20 of shows this time.
35:21 I pray, don't let us forget every day to seek after the
35:24 baptism of the Holy Spirit so that we are filled up,
35:28 so that we are changed, and so that we walk
35:30 out in this world and see Your face and hear Your voice
35:33 everywhere, in Jesus name. Amen!
35:35 Okay I'm going to have you back up in a few moments,
35:37 so don't get too comfortable.
35:39 Okay, I want to bring up Lisa, come on up.
35:44 As bring up Lisa, I want you to really get a sense of,
35:48 is that we all have things that we deal with.
35:51 We all have struggles that we deal with and it's the same
35:54 God that works for somebody with grief and someone else
35:58 with a whole other issue.
36:00 Lisa, we just met, and already I feel like you're
36:03 definitely my sister. - I do too. - cool, cool!
36:07 So tell me a little bit about yourself.
36:08 What do you struggle with?
36:09 What do you think of what Michael was saying?
36:11 Oh wow, what an incredible story.
36:14 He is so strong in the Lord really took him from a real
36:18 hard time in his life and his work in his life and brought
36:22 into where he is now, it is just a wonderful thing.
36:25 I know he is going to be able to help other people that
36:27 are struggling with this, sadness and grief.
36:29 I'm sorry that he had to go through such a terrible time.
36:32 My heart was just wrenched to hear the story.
36:37 My heart was just crying.
36:39 It breaks my heart, but I know that the Lord is going to
36:42 carry him and his family through this and they will be
36:45 able to help others that are dealing with this pain.
36:48 So your struggle is way different?
36:51 - way different, but yet it's an addiction.
36:53 I have come to grips with that, actually fear is an
36:58 addiction in my life and I am still dealing with it now.
37:03 Ever since I was 13 years old I've had fear, Satan has
37:07 attacked me with fear, fear of everything.
37:11 Not even knowing where that came from, start having panic
37:14 attacks, being afraid.
37:15 Yes panic attacks, being afraid, afraid to leave my home,
37:18 afraid to drive, I became enclosed in my house.
37:22 Satan has basically taken my life away for me, the joy that
37:27 Jesus wants me to have has left because it has just been,
37:31 I feel like a cup that has been poured in with fear.
37:34 Your husband said that there were many times were you
37:37 couldn't even go to the mailbox and get your mail.
37:39 Right, right, You were so afraid yes. - the phone rings.
37:43 - you couldn't answer it.
37:44 Well I might answer it but if they wanted me to go
37:47 somewhere I had excuses and reasons why I couldn't go.
37:51 I believe that God has a tremendous plan for my life,
37:55 and Satan knows that, so he is trying to put me in bondage
38:01 of fear so that I cannot be what God wants me to be.
38:05 Fully, and so to be here at 3ABN has been an incredible
38:10 miracle in my life.
38:11 For you to leave your house,
38:12 your 8 hours away from your house.
38:13 Not only am I 8 hours from my house, but I drove through
38:17 St. Louis. - is that not scary?
38:25 It's a beautiful place and I love the arches, or the arch,
38:28 it was so pretty to see.
38:29 I just want to say that, I almost could feel the Lord
38:33 carrying me through as I was driving along and thinking,
38:37 don't think about this, how far you are from home,
38:41 because whenever God is with me, it is my home.
38:44 Whew, I love that. - I am home.
38:48 I know there are so many people that are struggling with
38:51 this, that will not come out in the open and they will not
38:54 say, this is what I'm experiencing.
38:57 We're ashamed to say that, because there is nothing I can
39:00 put my finger on, it is not that I was stabbed or robbed
39:03 or some horrible thing, I just feel afraid.
39:06 It's like all of a sudden, one day it happened.
39:09 I just felt this horrible fear run through me.
39:12 And how do I make it go away? I prayed and I prayed,
39:15 and I prayed more and read my Bible more and I don't feel
39:19 anything, I don't feel like anything is happening.
39:21 You know what my favorite story in the Bible is this.
39:25 I'm Peter in the boat, and God is out here and saying,
39:29 Lisa just put your toes in the water and
39:31 get out of the boat.
39:32 - and your like I can't, there's water all around me and
39:35 is raging. - it's like I'm praying and praying for Lord
39:39 to do all this for me, but you know what?
39:41 He's waiting for me to take the step. - yes!
39:43 He is waiting for me to get out of the boat and actually
39:46 step out on the water so He can show me that He will
39:48 carry me, as long as I stay in the boat
39:50 and I'm like Ahhhh! I can't do it, can't do it.
39:53 He's like, it's because you haven't gotten out of the boat
39:56 and I can't show you what I'm going to do for you.
39:58 What is interesting to me about this whole thing is I know
40:03 that this is a reach for you to be away from home.
40:05 To step out, but what I meant you I was so blessed that
40:08 I would have never met you had you not stepped out of the
40:11 boat, do you know what I mean?
40:12 I am grateful to meet you.
40:14 You know what I would love to say, on our show I love
40:18 doing interventions, if you ever want to do an
40:21 intervention, let's you and I hang out in a treatment
40:25 program looking at fear.
40:27 - I want to do that. - okay. - I do!
40:28 Won't that be fun, because I would do that with you.
40:32 That would be wonderful, so I'm going to pray for your
40:35 fear and I'm going to meet your mom, right? - yes.
40:38 Dear Father in Jesus name, I rebuke this spirit and
40:41 anybody that is listening that is stuck with this fear,
40:45 this lie that nothing is safe, I rebuke that and just
40:48 ask you Father to let us feel safe in Your presence.
40:51 Let us be so filled with the Holy Spirit, that fear just
40:55 starts fading away, and I know You are not going to make
40:58 us ashamed that we felt it, but You are going to make us
41:00 feel joy that it is gone in Jesus name Amen.
41:03 You know what? I so love meeting you,
41:06 so love meeting you.
41:08 Okay Gerri come on up.
41:10 Gerri Craddige, right? - Craddick - Craddick!
41:15 What is really fun about hearing Lisa's story,
41:20 yours is way different. -Yes!
41:22 Go ahead and tell us about your story.
41:25 And bless us with God's intervention.
41:28 Okay, well let's see it was probably a year ago March.
41:34 I completely lost my voice. - completely!
41:38 Completely. - unable to speak? - No speech!
41:41 Why is that? A breathless whisper.
41:43 I had an upper respiratory viral infection and it
41:49 affected my vocal chords.
41:51 I went to the Doctor and he said you're left vocal cord
41:55 is partially paralyzed.
41:57 I was in a breathless whisper like this.
42:01 You know I so want to make a joke because my husband
42:04 would be celebrating, Cheri can't speak, Yahoo.
42:11 No, my husband Jim was very understanding here
42:13 I went to the Doctor and he told me there was hope.
42:18 This particular Doctor I wasn't really comfortable with,
42:24 so I went to another ENT and he said I can do something to
42:28 help you, and he said this is my favorite kind of surgery
42:33 because the results are so cool.
42:35 How fun is that?
42:37 So he told me that they would give me
42:38 a Montgomery Thyroplasty.
42:41 And that is? I mean what is that?
42:43 I have never heard of it.
42:45 I had never heard of it either, but it is made out of
42:49 silicone and what they do is they make an incision.
42:54 They go in and you are awake, you know you are sedated
42:59 but you are awake.
43:01 They put the implant in and they have you speak.
43:04 You are awake and they are in your throat? - yes!
43:07 Could you just imagine that?
43:10 To me sometimes some of those things just crack me up
43:12 because I think I want to see a video of that.
43:15 So you were speaking while you were still open? - yes.
43:18 And you spoke for the first time?
43:20 He asked me to count to 10 and so I did.
43:23 He said well that is not quite perfect,
43:27 but he had never heard me speak.
43:29 So this is me, so he put a little larger implant in.
43:33 Then he is sad can you count to 10?
43:36 I did, if they can you count to 20? And I did.
43:41 Everyone in the room almost started applauding and the
43:46 little nurse that had wheeled me down to surgery,
43:49 she started crying, she was so happy for me.
43:53 So the implant works with the other vocal cord to actually
43:58 give you back speech? - that's right, that's right.
44:01 When we talk about recovery, during that 15 months were
44:04 you praying? Were you saying God what's up?
44:08 I was anointed, I was anointed in January.
44:11 Some people say that healing is, that all of a sudden
44:15 it is just gone how and sometimes that's it.
44:17 Or God directs us to where we are supposed to be in order
44:20 to get the intervention we need.
44:22 That's exactly right, and I believe God gives the doctors
44:26 wisdom to help us. - exactly, exactly!
44:29 I just got my hip replaced, by a guy, I live in Idaho and
44:33 got it replaced by a guy in Philadelphia.
44:35 I remember that I called him up and said, I need a new hip
44:39 and I've had a disease since a little girl.
44:41 I was having pain every time I walked, and he said fly up
44:44 and I will give it to you.
44:45 From the phone call to flying home with a new hip was two
44:48 weeks. - wow, amazing, praise God.
44:51 It was so fun, I flew up there on my own and my husband
44:55 says, are you going on your own? I said it's only a hip.
44:58 On the way back from the hospital, what was I thinking,
45:02 what was I thinking?
45:05 I can tell you this, I felt like it was in a little box.
45:09 I would go to church potluck and I couldn't speak.
45:14 I would whisper, I'd have to get up to your ear and talk
45:18 like this, and if I was at a church fellowship dinner,
45:22 I would just sit there.
45:24 Because everybody is talking and I can't be heard.
45:27 So I know God uses doctors, God and this Doctor brought
45:33 me back, gave me back my life.
45:36 Amen, give me a kiss. How fun is all this!
45:42 Go ahead, thank you so much Gerri.
45:44 So we're going to have Pastor might come back up.
45:47 Pastor Mike, can you bring my Bible with you?
45:55 What did you think about the two testimonies,
45:58 that were very different? - incredible!
46:00 The two testimonies, but one thing I really noticed that
46:03 in the Bible Satan is called the prince of this world.
46:07 He is running havoc, it shows the pain that people
46:11 are going through.
46:12 There is a war going on, but there is also a reason why
46:15 Jesus is called the King, and Satan is called the prince.
46:17 You know when we started off with the show, honestly
46:21 looking at our stuff.
46:22 I want to go through some of the stages.
46:25 I want you to first, not wrap up your story, because you
46:30 are still breathing, so your story is still going on.
46:36 Who you are as a Christian, who you are as God lead you
46:41 burying your daughter, I know that all of that was so
46:45 difficult, but I also know that God has so anointed
46:49 you as a man of God.
46:50 You are spending your life bringing the truth of
46:54 who God is to those of us in recovery.
46:57 On August 2 of 1999 we buried my daughter, and a part
47:01 of me, a part of my wife, and a part of my son was
47:05 buried with her, but a miracle took place.
47:08 A couple of them, but I want to share one in particular.
47:11 This shows the goodness of God.
47:13 When I went back to school my senior year,
47:15 my wife became pregnant, it was not planned.
47:18 But when you do husband-and-wife activities you have to
47:20 expect husband and wife results.
47:22 So what happened was she became pregnant and her due
47:26 date was July 9, but doctors due date was July 16.
47:29 God's due date was a completely different date.
47:33 God's due date was July 28 of 2001.
47:37 Our son Micah Emmanuel Luke Kontes was born
47:41 July 28, 2001 at 5 p. m..
47:45 You're supposed to ask why is that significant.
47:47 Why is that significant, because I'm thinking,
47:49 what happened to August.
47:50 The reason that is so significant is because July 28
47:53 of 1999 at 12 p. m. my daughter passed away.
47:58 So two years to the day our son was born.
48:01 A day that should have been a day of grief.
48:05 And it still is, but what God was saying,
48:08 is I can never replace your daughter,
48:11 Mike if I was to give you 12 daughters
48:14 I could never replace Arianna.
48:16 So through that I look and realize that God,
48:21 His faithfulness, His goodness to me in just being able to
48:26 see what He has done and continues to do that gives me
48:30 the strength needed because I can test.
48:33 God says let us reason together, come, come with Me
48:38 Mike and I will help you, I can heal you in this situation.
48:41 But when we go back to what we started the show with,
48:43 even coming up to being honest with God with all our stuff,
48:49 with our grief, with our fear.
48:51 And with Arianna when you said, I don't even know how
48:54 to do this, God said, turn it over to Me.
48:56 The fact that He gave you, at that point, even your wife
49:00 the ability to pray for an adult portion of the Holy Spirit
49:03 during this time of her life.
49:05 I'm going to go from your story right now, to recap some
49:10 of the things about our recovery.
49:12 I want you from your perspective to speak on them for us.
49:15 So let me find them here, one of them was honesty.
49:20 Honestly looking at the situation
49:22 without lying to ourselves.
49:24 You're talking Lisa about panic disorders.
49:26 And when you lost your voice.
49:28 When I come in and have any social skills and am afraid
49:31 of everything in coming to God and honestly saying, God
49:35 please, please step in with your Holy Spirit and teach me.
49:39 The next one is affirming relationships,
49:42 surrounding yourself with folks.
49:43 My comment on the honesty is that we have to be honest,
49:46 the reason why is that when we come to that place of being
49:50 honest, opening up and allowing access for God to come in
49:54 and say, okay, I am going to do this.
49:55 When we are not being honest, what we are basically
49:58 doing is shutting the door down and saying,
50:00 I can handle this myself.
50:01 When you're being honest, the doors fly open and you're
50:04 basically saying, like Peter, I can't do this.
50:07 I need to keep my eyes on You.
50:09 If I step out of this boat, You are going to have to be
50:13 there and keep me, keep me safe.
50:15 Affirming relationships, does it matter when we surround
50:18 ourselves with people?
50:19 The prayers that I have learned through this grief
50:22 situation, I pray for people that are going through
50:24 any kind of addiction it is a very simple prayer,
50:27 but I believe it with all my heart.
50:29 Lord I pray that You bring the right people into this
50:32 persons life that will surround them, and give been the
50:35 encouragement, give them the happiness, give them the
50:38 atmosphere that is needed.
50:40 So many times in these situations, when you are already
50:43 despaired, Satan will bring a worker of iniquity into
50:47 your life that will say something to destroy you.
50:50 Now other times there are also good people, people who
50:53 have good intentions, that have not come into the
50:57 situation, did not know how to respond, and sometimes,
50:59 I don't know about you Cheri, but I can share this myself.
51:02 Sometimes I don't engage my brain, before I engage my
51:04 tongue and I had good intentions.
51:07 Sometimes by not thinking I say something.
51:11 So having people who are wise, people who are mature,
51:14 having people who are willing to be there by
51:17 the Ministry of presents.
51:19 When I talk about people surrounding themselves with
51:22 affirming relationships, find a Pastor like Pastor Mike.
51:25 One that has been there and is not going to come up to
51:28 you and do anything but give you comfort and try to
51:31 understand where you are from, coming from.
51:33 Whatever their addiction is, find the right Pastor,
51:36 find the right people, put yourself in a situation,
51:39 prayer groups and all kinds of stuff to
51:41 have people around you.
51:42 Right-thinking, I want to go to Hebrews 4:12 and
51:45 read this, because it is amazing, right-thinking.
51:47 "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than
51:50 "any two edge sword and piercing as far as division of soul
51:54 "from bone marrow, both joints and morrow and able to judge
51:58 "our thoughts and the intentions of our heart. "
52:01 So get in the word of God and figure how to think right.
52:04 In all situations you must be able to be in the word of
52:08 God because even when, once again Isaiah 41:13, "for I am
52:12 "the Lord thy God that says into the fear not,
52:14 "I will help thee. "
52:15 When you read it, you have to take it and apply it to
52:18 your life, like for me what we were going through these
52:21 addictions, people were going through something we know
52:24 that there is coming a time that were not going to have
52:26 addictions, there's eternity.
52:29 Wipe every tear away. - no more pain, no more sorrow,
52:32 no more death. - and even with Arianna before she left.
52:36 To understand the resurrection, for a 3 and 1/2-year-old to
52:40 understand the resurrection.
52:41 Getting to the word of God, but then we go to our
52:43 next point, and the next point is what you said,
52:45 spiritual things are spiritually discerned and the
52:47 presence of the Holy Spirit.
52:49 Let the Holy Spirit be your counselor.
52:52 I'm not saying don't get a counselor, don't talk to
52:55 a Pastor, but the Holy Spirit is the best counselor.
52:58 He knows me and knows God more importantly and
53:00 can reflect that to me.
53:02 You know what? As much as people come to pastors,
53:04 I would want to shared that not to rely on your
53:07 Pastor because your Pastor is an individual,
53:10 and the Pastor can make mistakes.
53:12 When you go to the Holy Spirit, who is the Comforter,
53:16 the Comforter, He will never take you or say anything
53:20 that is contradictory, or not bring you comfort.
53:23 And again the Holy Spirit, somebody says how to get
53:26 the Holy Spirit? How do I get the Holy Spirit?
53:29 Let's say you're watching these shows and you say,
53:32 how do I get it? You pray, it's that simple.
53:34 God I want the Holy Spirit to fill me up.
53:37 God says I long to give you the Holy Spirit
53:40 more then a parent longs to give good
53:42 gifts to their children.
53:43 I know that in this struggle, in this pain,
53:46 in these panic attacks, in these addictions,
53:48 you don't have it within you.
53:50 I'd know that the Holy Spirit will give you all power to
53:54 walk away from all this bondage and I will take up,
53:57 the Bible says, I will take up the yoke of this and
54:00 carry it for you.
54:01 I'm thinking, I'm so tired, carry it.
54:05 Carry it and carry me, that is the Holy Spirit.
54:08 The next one I know that you know all about, time.
54:12 Time is crucial, the reason why time is crucial is
54:15 because we have people, good people who do not understand
54:18 when you are going through an addiction, going through
54:22 grief, going through a recovery process, it takes time.
54:26 Sometimes what we do, is we feel Cheri, I know that
54:30 your brother passed away last week but I think you need
54:33 to get past it right now.
54:35 We have people who do not understand that you can't make
54:37 these kind of statements, we can't put a time on grief
54:40 because basically what you are doing, actually when
54:43 someone makes that statement, they are basically are
54:45 usurping the authority of the Holy Spirit. - exactly!
54:48 I know you have panic attacks, but I want you to stand up
54:50 anyway and get out of the house.
54:52 Lisa is like what? What did you just say?
54:55 Even saying Lisa, you don't trust enough in God to get up
54:58 and out of the house, that's not our place to go there.
55:01 That is not our place to say, we have to basically
55:04 realize, what does God want us to do?
55:07 We are out of time, I love you, I love you.
55:10 You know what, I was blessed, I was blessed.
55:13 We are going to be right back but I want you to know,
55:15 just get this show and watch it a billion times.
55:20 Because God wants you to get the fact that you can't do
55:23 it on your own, He has already done it, He wants to pour
55:27 into you and He wants to bring all that junk and give
55:30 you release, freedom from bondage.
55:32 Then He wants you to stand up full of joy, so sure that
55:36 God is God and that you are okay.
55:39 Your loved ones are okay.
55:40 We'll be right back, stayed tuned!
55:47 Cheri Peters uses the book, 'Coming Of The Comforter'
55:50 as a guide for the second season of Celebrating Life In
55:53 Recovery, written by LeeRoy E. Froom is a 320 page book
55:56 that offers every sinner the knowledge that the
55:58 Holy Spirit is available to all.
56:00 3ABN now offers this book to you for a suggested donation
56:04 of only $13 postpaid within the US.
56:07 Call 3ABN at 618-627-4651 or go online to 3ABN.org.
56:29 If we were computers,
56:30 we could solve problems in microseconds.
56:33 When I read that I can laugh because you know what?
56:37 I'd long to be a computer.
56:39 We all have to do it in time, but instead of focusing
56:42 on the garbage, learn how to trust God.
56:46 Learn about God, learn about Jesus, learn about the
56:49 Holy Spirit, make your commitments unto this search and
56:52 let the focus be on your recovery.
56:55 Not only on your recovery, but you know what?
56:57 Stop even looking at your junk, look to God,
57:00 look to Jesus Christ and let Him worry about your junk,
57:03 because He promised us that He will go ahead
57:05 and change everything.
57:07 God promises us that He who drew us from the very
57:11 beginning, who longs to heal us and knows us from the womb.
57:15 He will finish the work in us, so go ahead and just turn
57:19 it over, absolutely turn it over.
57:21 God has promised us the gift of the Holy Spirit to guide
57:23 us into recovery, more than that, into all truth.
57:26 The Holy Spirit will give you such a view of God,
57:29 that your Father you will learn how to behave,
57:33 you will learn how to walk away from stuff.
57:36 When Satan tells you lies, you'll see it from a mile off.
57:40 You absolutely will not be stuck, you absolutely will not
57:44 go back to your junk, you will not return to your stuff,
57:47 and the more and more you start focusing on God instead of
57:51 your junk, the more and more and more you will feel
57:54 the joy of the Lord.
57:55 I don't care what the junk is, I don't care if it's
57:57 health, and I don't care if it's grief,
57:59 I don't care if it's addiction,
58:01 I don't care if it's porn stuff, I don't care if it's
58:03 perfectionism, I don't care if it's a religious addiction,
58:06 and that is a tough one.
58:07 I don't care if it's workaholism, I don't care if you
58:10 have never learned to love in your life, God says turn
58:14 it over to me, focus on who I am and I will so teach you
58:18 how to live your life in a way that you will be
58:20 just blessed, blessed.
58:22 We have got to go, always remember that
58:24 God is crazy about you and me too!


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Revised 2014-12-17