Latest / Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo / Melissa Huray: From Addiction To Sanctification; Hope, Bible Prophecy
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome to World View Matters, discussing controversial issues, discerning current events,
- 0:10defending biblical Christianity, no topic, off limits.
- 0:16And now, here's your host, David Firazzo.
- 0:20Friends and family in Christ, thank you so much for tuning in and watching, listening,
- 0:24sharing the podcast, praise God, we're living in exciting times.
- 0:28And I am excited to get to talk to new guests.
- 0:31It's a blessing to hear different people's perspectives and some of the people I get
- 0:35to talk to, men and women of God, I am so fortunate.
- 0:39But I'm going to bring in another new guest today.
- 0:41Her name is Melissa Hurray.
- 0:42She's a Bible teacher, author, host of the Hope Report.
- 0:46You can get that link on YouTube.
- 0:48And she spent 12 years counseling, struggling addicts as a licensed alcohol and drug
- 0:54counselor.
- 0:55And in 2018, became executive director of the Lindell Recovery Network.
- 1:00Now I interviewed Michael Lindell once, several years ago, I would love to get him on
- 1:05the podcast again sometime, but she's written two books.
- 1:09We'll talk a little bit about each one as we move through the podcast today.
- 1:13There's one right there, Radical Freedom.
- 1:14That's a devotional, which I'm going to let her explain.
- 1:17And then the other one is called Blackout to Blessing.
- 1:22And she's a native of Minnesota.
- 1:25Minnesota, as someone say from our neck of the woods, currently living in Lakeville with
- 1:29her husband and daughters.
- 1:30Her website is Melissa Hurray, hurray.
- 1:35com.
- 1:36So much to talk about with you today.
- 1:38Thanks for your time, sister.
- 1:39Good to see you.
- 1:40Hi, David.
- 1:41It's so good to be with you.
- 1:42I'm happy we connected.
- 1:44These are always divine appointments.
- 1:46Thanks for having me.
- 1:47Absolutely.
- 1:48I've wanted to get you on for a while, but then I talked to Andy Woods, and that's all
- 1:51I needed to hear as he gave you two thumbs up.
- 1:55So Melissa, let's talk a little bit about your background first and what your story, your
- 2:02brief testimony, then what brought your books about and we'll just go from there.
- 2:05Well, you know, I've got the addiction background and I think once the Lord frees you of something
- 2:11like that, he can move you into a greater purpose for your life.
- 2:15So about 15 years of my life was spent binge drinking, you know, a lot of teenagers get
- 2:20involved in that cycle of trying to fit in, trying to find identity.
- 2:24And even though I had, you know, I had received Christ as a child at vacation Bible school as
- 2:29a lot of people do, but right after that, I just kind of descended into rebellion and following
- 2:35the ways of the world, trying to find meaning.
- 2:37My father was an alcoholic, so I didn't have a secure grounding in the home.
- 2:42I know that's not an unusual story to a lot of people, but it led me to try and find
- 2:46attachment from the world.
- 2:48This, you know, this kind of went into a cycle of trying to find security and things that
- 2:53would never fulfill me.
- 2:54So I got married at a young age.
- 2:57I was 21.
- 2:58It was outside God's will by the time I was 24, I was divorced with a toddler.
- 3:03So I had continued drinking was a bartender and trying to kind of juggle this life of being
- 3:08a parent and then having this party lifestyle.
- 3:12And there were cycles of trying to put my life together that, that never worked because
- 3:16they weren't grounded in God, but at some point I went back to college.
- 3:19I got a degree or always looking at external things, thinking they were going to fix what's
- 3:24wrong inside of us.
- 3:25So I became a news reporter, David, in the city of Duluth, Minnesota, my hometown, and
- 3:30I thought I had, I had hit the jackpot, you know, small town news anchor, I was a weekend
- 3:36anchor and reporter.
- 3:37And I really thought this was going to heal my identity problem.
- 3:41Over those years, I was juggling this secret life, really.
- 3:45I was on the air doing reports and hungover and sick and getting through the broadcast
- 3:51and going on drinking at night.
- 3:53And my biggest fear was that people were going to find out what I really was, that I wasn't
- 3:58this community representative.
- 4:00So to fast track the story, the Lord was pulling me back through all of that.
- 4:05The Holy Spirit was drawing me to himself, bringing conviction, bringing shame.
- 4:10Every time I drank, it was another shameful experience and I didn't drink every day.
- 4:14That's another impression people often get of addicts is everyone's in the closet drinking
- 4:18vodka or, you know, at a crack house.
- 4:21It was very functional, I guess it's never really functional, but I was faking it well
- 4:26to the world.
- 4:27And it came a point where I knew this couldn't go on.
- 4:30My father had passed away of liver failure and I just decided I have to stop drinking.
- 4:35But the problem was I couldn't stop.
- 4:36Once I decided I needed to, I was, it was impossible.
- 4:41This came to a breaking point on August 22, 2003.
- 4:46I came out of a 12 hour blackout after the Minnesota State Fair.
- 4:50I surrendered to the Holy Spirit.
- 4:52We look at all these things in the world to fix us.
- 4:54And I came to that point where there was nothing in the world that could help me.
- 4:58So I made a decision, every addict has to make a decision.
- 5:01And I said, I don't want to do this anymore.
- 5:03I can't fix myself.
- 5:05And I said, one small kind of weak prayer, I said, please don't ever let me drink again.
- 5:10So it'll be 23 years in August.
- 5:12The Lord freed me.
- 5:13He lifted that burden.
- 5:15And I never wanted to drink again.
- 5:17Wow.
- 5:18That's amazing, actually.
- 5:20And I had to be God, right?
- 5:22Yeah, I can't take any credit for it because I had tried, you know, AA, outpatient treatment,
- 5:27medications, therapists, and they would work for a while, you know, there's, you
- 5:31have that initial, okay, I'm doing this thing.
- 5:34And then something would happen.
- 5:35And I'd drink again.
- 5:36I mean, that's the message I want to get across is that nothing could have saved me.
- 5:41But surrender, making the decision to surrender.
- 5:45So Melissa, how did you get connected to the Lindell recovery network?
- 5:49Well, I had been in the news business for a long time.
- 5:52That station I was at closed and at that point, you know, I think the Lord kind of prepares
- 5:56us for the next thing.
- 5:57I had become disillusioned by the whole revolving door.
- 6:00I'm doing the same stories again, grandma's marathon, the dragon boat festival, you know,
- 6:04these stories that come up year after year.
- 6:07And it was fun for a while, but I just started to tire of it.
- 6:11And I had been sober a couple of years at that point.
- 6:13I felt the Lord was leading me to help other addicts come out of addiction or former addicts
- 6:18in the case of myself.
- 6:20So I went back to school, got the addiction counseling license, did that for 12 years.
- 6:24Toward the end, I became very disillusioned again.
- 6:26I was, I was seeing 55 people a week.
- 6:28I was very burnt out.
- 6:30I didn't want to do anything rash or impulsive.
- 6:32I was seeking God.
- 6:34And one day I was at the mall and I saw the cut out of Mike Lindell by the pillow store.
- 6:38And I'm not the first person to say this, but I noticed how he would wear his cross,
- 6:42you know, purposely hanging out of his dress shirt, his trademark blue dress shirt.
- 6:46There's the Lindell recovery network dot org.
- 6:48Thanks for pulling that up.
- 6:50This is a platform of resources we put together.
- 6:52But I saw Mike Lindell that day and I, all of a sudden, you know, I knew who he was.
- 6:56Of course, everyone in Minnesota knows him.
- 6:58You know, and the my pillow guy, he's become much more since then, but I started searching
- 7:03up his name.
- 7:03You know, what, why, why does he first cross outside his shirt, found out he was a former
- 7:08crack addict.
- 7:09And I was just astounded by this news.
- 7:11I said, Mike Lindell was a crack addict.
- 7:14So I started going back to my treatment group and telling them, you guys got to go apply
- 7:18at my pillow.
- 7:19He hires addicts.
- 7:20He hires felons.
- 7:21You can get a living wage job there.
- 7:23So I was doing PR for Mike before I even worked for him is how I like to say it.
- 7:28And I got something in my heart that I wanted to work for him.
- 7:30I didn't know why I didn't know how I didn't know what that would look like.
- 7:34But it, you know, I kept praying about it.
- 7:37Handed up sending in a, it's a long story, but I sent in a job application.
- 7:41Nothing ever happened.
- 7:42Finally, they called me an in for an interview at the pillow store.
- 7:46My husband thought this was crazy.
- 7:47He said, you're already stressed out.
- 7:48You're working 50 hours a week and now you're going to go work at the pillow store on
- 7:51the weekends.
- 7:52And I'm like, I don't, I just want to get my foot in the door.
- 7:55I don't know.
- 7:55So I went to the interview and the lady looked at my resume.
- 7:59She's like, oh, you're an addiction counselor.
- 8:00You know, kind of like, why are you applying for this job?
- 8:03She said, Mike's doing some kind of thing for addicts.
- 8:06I don't know anything about it, but I'll pass your name along.
- 8:08You know, and I didn't think they'd contact me, but they did.
- 8:11So he, you'll love this part of the story.
- 8:13I went in for the interview.
- 8:14I was all nervous.
- 8:15Okay.
- 8:16I'm going to meet Mike Lindell had all my, you know, portfolio of stuff.
- 8:20And he goes and scrolls on a white board.
- 8:22He writes all this stuff with his vision for the platform of the website.
- 8:25He just pulled up.
- 8:26He got all done with that.
- 8:27And he said, well, I want to hire you.
- 8:29And I was like, oh, you do?
- 8:31I mean, do you want to interview me?
- 8:32Do you want to ask me anything?
- 8:34And this is just so, you know, classically, Mike.
- 8:37And he said, no, this is a divine appointment.
- 8:39I knew you're the one who's going to help me put together this resource.
- 8:43I mean, I thought it was crazy at first.
- 8:45I thought, is this really happening, you know, because I've been working at a clinic
- 8:48for eight years.
- 8:49And I had a really stable job, even though I was burnt out.
- 8:52And I thought, okay, I'm going to go work for Mike Lindell.
- 8:56It's been over seven years.
- 8:57It's been the best job I've had because he has let me lead my position by the Holy Spirit.
- 9:03He literally told me that, you know, I want you to pray about what God wants you to do.
- 9:07At first, it was counseling people at my pillow, building this resource we have.
- 9:11And then five years ago, it became the hope report.
- 9:13He was going to start this platform, you know, Frank's B. H. It's not Lindell TV.
- 9:17He said, one of these days, and I'm a show I'm going to call it the hope report.
- 9:20It's just going to be good news.
- 9:21He would say that are on the office.
- 9:23And I thought, well, that's not going to involve me.
- 9:25So what is amazing about that is that I had let the broadcasting dream kind of pass away.
- 9:31I said, oh, I'm too old.
- 9:32I'm not going back to a newsroom.
- 9:33That's crazy.
- 9:34I had the press pools and all that stuff.
- 9:37I don't want any of that.
- 9:38And he one day said to me, hey, Melissa, I didn't know you were a news reporter.
- 9:42I was like, well, yeah, you know, I was years ago.
- 9:45And he said, well, I want you to do this show.
- 9:47I've been hearing some things about your skills or whatnot.
- 9:50So we started the hope report in April of 2021.
- 9:54And it will be five years.
- 9:55Next month, yeah.
- 9:57Wow, praise God.
- 9:58What a great story.
- 9:59And I know you condensed that greatly for us.
- 10:02But I want to direct people.
- 10:04Sure, sure.
- 10:04You've got over, looks like over 1200 videos at hope, the hope report on YouTube.
- 10:13You do a lot of work.
- 10:14Love all your conversations with Andy Woods.
- 10:16Love him.
- 10:17And by the way, that's our mutual friend, guys and gals, Melissa's and my love, Andy.
- 10:23And by the way, speaking of, you are currently taking classes at Chaefer Seminary
- 10:30and working toward a degree in systematic theology.
- 10:33Tell us about that.
- 10:35Well, as I said at the beginning, I think the Lord frees us of the bondage of addiction.
- 10:39Once we are willing to surrender, we're willing to make that decision.
- 10:42I'm done doing it my way.
- 10:43I've tried all of that.
- 10:44I've always failed.
- 10:45And once I was done with that desperate desire to try to make drinking work, I knew it was
- 10:52never going to work.
- 10:53He led me through the addiction counseling, led me to Mike Lindell.
- 10:56And then he started expanding my vision.
- 10:58And this could not have happened without him.
- 11:00I had no interest in Israel.
- 11:02I mean, I'm kind of embarrassed to say that.
- 11:05Now, I live in Minnesota.
- 11:06I just thought that was a distant far off country in the Middle East, raised in a reform
- 11:10church.
- 11:11We didn't hear about prophecy.
- 11:12Not a rapture.
- 11:13That was crazy talk.
- 11:15But somewhere along the way, I ran into some Calvinists and they were bringing their
- 11:18eschatology in front of me and telling me why everything happened in 70 AD and reformed
- 11:23theology.
- 11:24God's done with Israel.
- 11:25And I thought, I need to investigate this for myself, which brought me into a study
- 11:30of the Bible to chronological reads through the Bible out loud on the livestream.
- 11:35You will find those on the hope report that they're probably not super engaging for people
- 11:39to listen to, but I did it to hold myself accountable.
- 11:42And God kept putting the right people in my path, Pastor Sharam Hadian, former Muslim taught
- 11:47me about the Abrahamic covenant, taught me that it's irrevocable, unconditional, everlasting.
- 11:52It's a thread that runs through the entire Bible.
- 11:55Once I understood the covenants, then he put Andy Woods in my path about maybe a year
- 12:00and a half ago.
- 12:01I began to consume his teachings.
- 12:03I just couldn't get enough of it.
- 12:05I went through all 84 of the coming kingdom series.
- 12:09And he's like, I don't know, I've never seen anybody really kind of take this material
- 12:13and run with it.
- 12:15But he became such a fantastic friend and teacher.
- 12:18And another divine appointment, he just said one day, him, Alyssa, I'd like you to come
- 12:22to the conference, the profcon conference.
- 12:26And this was, you know, his fifth annual with shape or seminary and profcon, and he's
- 12:30the president of chamber, of course.
- 12:32So along the way, I started taking some classes, I forgot to mention that.
- 12:35So being at this conference, I'm sitting at a table with Olivier Malnick, Dr. Paul Wilkinson,
- 12:40Andy, and I'm not saying this to, you know, all of this is so great.
- 12:44But it's like only God would put me here.
- 12:47There is no way I should be here.
- 12:48I'm like the only male at this conference.
- 12:51And I wasn't, you know, speaking from the stage, but he invited me to do an interview with
- 12:55him and also be part of the Q&A panel.
- 12:58So he has helped open doors, like the door with you.
- 13:01So I'm so thankful for that.
- 13:02Yeah, he's amazing.
- 13:03And by the way, I totally relate to what you're saying.
- 13:08I was speaking at these prophecy conferences for several years.
- 13:12And I'm not a prophecy guy.
- 13:14I'm more of a culture, biblical worldview.
- 13:18And yet God opened up these doors and I was speaking.
- 13:21And just with the speakers that were there, I'm looking at these names, looking at these
- 13:25men of God, many of whom were pastors for decades, I'm going, boy, like one of these things
- 13:30is not like the other.
- 13:31How do I fit in here?
- 13:33But yeah, God, yeah, God worked that in and praise him for it.
- 13:38It makes us, it helps us learn more and sharpen our, what God wants us to do.
- 13:44The Middle East meltdown, that's one of Andy's books.
- 13:47And we've talked about that Andy and I for years.
- 13:51I don't remember when I started interviewing him.
- 13:53Maybe it's going on eight years now on a different platform on a radio talk show.
- 13:57But here he's on monthly.
- 14:00I just love the Middle East meltdown because it just talks about the details, biblically,
- 14:05from this coalition of nations that are coming against Israel, surprise, surprise.
- 14:11And it's very, here we are today and I'm thinking, man, things are coming to life.
- 14:16Could you speak to that for a moment?
- 14:17Because I know you love that book as well.
- 14:19I do love it.
- 14:20So I taught through the coming kingdom that was 20 weeks.
- 14:24All on the YouTube channel.
- 14:26And then after that, I thought, next, I'm going to get into the Middle East meltdown.
- 14:30So I'm doing this Sunday nights on Lindell TV, we're in the last chapter this week.
- 14:34But David, you know, you look at the world and you see what Ezekiel had prophesied 2600
- 14:40years ago coming together right now.
- 14:42I'm talking about this 10 nation coalition, everything that's going on with Iran and possible
- 14:47looks, but expansion of the Abraham Accords, Saudi Arabia being a, a lame participant in
- 14:55this future war, but, but we're making those alliances and the nations are coming together.
- 15:01And Abraham Accords, you know, much of the world looks at this as a good thing, but this
- 15:04is a spiritual tie with Islamic countries and maybe foreign policy wise, it looks good
- 15:10and deal making wise, it looks good.
- 15:12But those of us who are studying the Bible, prophetically, know that all we can do at best
- 15:16is kick the can down the road and eventually prophecy is going to play out as exactly
- 15:20as the Bible foretells, but it gives us such a sense of hope seeing prophecy fulfilled.
- 15:27It's one of the greatest lights and the darkness for us as Christians that we don't have to
- 15:31fear this world.
- 15:32You look at it, you know, and you're like, it's going to hell in a hand basket.
- 15:35The kingdom is not here in any way, shape or form, but looking at prophecy, we have
- 15:40that stability knowing the Lord keeps his promises like with Israel, he doesn't break
- 15:44covenants, he doesn't, he doesn't break his promises to the church either.
- 15:48So getting into prophecy has helped strengthen my faith and I'm grateful every day that the
- 15:52Lord put this in my heart and I couldn't have done it myself, same as with the, the freedom
- 15:58from addiction, he gave me a love for Israel, he enabled me to see his heart for his lost
- 16:04people.
- 16:05I mean, you know, lost people to Islam atheists, whoever they may be, but the special
- 16:10relationship he has with Israel, that covenant relationship, that he will never break,
- 16:15that gives us security as Gentiles too, we know he's never going to break his promises
- 16:19to us.
- 16:20Amen.
- 16:21Ever lasting covenants.
- 16:24And you know, we can take God at his word, friends, for us what the word says, but prophecy.
- 16:32Let's just talk about Bible prophecy for a minute or two between one third and one
- 16:36quarter of the Bible, you know, estimates are closer to one third maybe of the Bible.
- 16:41That's a lot of scripture.
- 16:43And how many fulfilled prophecy, what other religion or religious system can boast?
- 16:49100% accuracy with fulfilled prophecies, Jesus fulfilling hundreds already before he returns
- 16:57in his first, when he was first here, just astounding and yet people overlook that, don't
- 17:02they, Melissa?
- 17:03Yes, they do.
- 17:04And it's sad to see pastors today, so many won't even touch prophecy.
- 17:09They won't touch the book of Revelation.
- 17:11I was in a church that taught the first few chapters, the seven letters to the seven churches,
- 17:15but completely skipped everything else.
- 17:18How can you throw out, you know, over a quarter of the Bible and you're right?
- 17:21What you say, it is such hope for us, seeing the Lord keep his promises and Israel.
- 17:27I mean, there are unfulfilled promises to Israel.
- 17:29If we say the church has taken those over, we're just dismissing a large portion of this
- 17:34covenant, no land promised, no Jesus reigning on the Davidic throne, no blessing, Israel's
- 17:40going to bless the entire world.
- 17:42So we can't cancel prophecy.
- 17:44We need to apply a consistent hermeneutic to the Bible, something I learned from Andy
- 17:48was literally consistently, historically, contextually, consistently through the Bible.
- 17:54That includes prophecy.
- 17:55So we don't just pick and choose what to allegorize and what we want to take literally and apply
- 18:00our own worldview to the Bible.
- 18:03We have to let it speak for itself and let it, if we're open to that, we're going to get
- 18:09a, you know, we're going to strengthen our relationship with the Lord because, as you
- 18:12said, he, he shows, he proves time and time again, he always keeps his promises.
- 18:18He never fails.
- 18:19He's the one constant that we have and trusting prophecy that helps us in our faith.
- 18:25We are doing people a massive disservice if we are not helping them.
- 18:29And as you said, prophecy is such a, it's proof that the Bible is true along with the
- 18:34eyewitness accounts and all the archeological discoveries, prophecy is one of the most
- 18:39important predictors of what's going to happen in the future.
- 18:44I want to do more podcasts on archeology.
- 18:46That's just something that is almost completely overlooked.
- 18:50And if you think about every time they dig something up over there in the Middle East
- 18:55or in that, you know, area, it either confirms or just, well, yeah, it confirms what was
- 19:02written in the scripture, pretty much the Old Testament and sometimes the New Testament
- 19:05too, either a people, places or events in history.
- 19:11And it just confirms the truth and accuracy of scripture.
- 19:14But I don't know, I don't know, there's just two, I think there's too much proof and
- 19:18people just kind of go, yeah, you know, what I'd rather just live my own life.
- 19:22But Melissa, before we go on in a minute, I'm going to pull up a video I found on your
- 19:27website where Mike Huckabee a year ago, I think it was interviewed you since we're name
- 19:33dropping, you know, Andy Woods, Mike Lindell, all the people at the table.
- 19:37Yeah.
- 19:38Before we, before we do that, though, I want to mention our conference coming up.
- 19:41You said before you got on the podcast, you hope you can make it over to Green Bay.
- 19:45First and second friends, I forgot to do this at the beginning of the show today.
- 19:48I just want to mention the World View Matters conference one more time, well, not one more
- 19:53time.
- 19:54We'll be doing it probably every day until the conference.
- 19:56But it's WorldViewMattersConference.com, that's the website.
- 20:00And our latest sponsor is Alpha Omega Gold.
- 20:04We're so thankful to have Christian businesses and ministries that are sponsoring, there's
- 20:08all the speakers.
- 20:09I'm hosting and then there's 11 speakers and there's, we're continuing to add to this
- 20:14sponsor list, this group of great people and businesses and ministries.
- 20:20So thank you guys so very much to be continued.
- 20:23So WorldViewMattersConference.com.
- 20:26So Melissa, Mike Huckabee interviewed you and now he's over in Israel, right?
- 20:32Interesting.
- 20:33It was called Radical Freedom, Addiction to Redemption and that was on Huckabee today.
- 20:39Which is what was that like?
- 20:40I know that your conversation was about your testimony, but my goodness, Taco with Mike
- 20:45Huckabee, what a blessing.
- 20:46There he is.
- 20:47Wow, I look kind of pale there.
- 20:49Yeah, it was incredible.
- 20:52You know, with this devotional, I had a great PR team.
- 20:55They got me 50 interviews and a lot of them were radio, some TV, let's see Fox 5 and
- 21:02DC, Janet partial.
- 21:04There were some bigger names in there at 100 Huntly Street, Flume to Toronto.
- 21:09It was for like a 15 minute interview and then I stayed overnight and I came home.
- 21:14But Mike Huckabee was my favorite and I was so looking forward to sitting down with him
- 21:18because the first words out of my mouth were, you know, I just want to congratulate you
- 21:23about your appointment as ambassador of Israel.
- 21:26And I said, I myself am a proud biblical Zionist supporter of Israel.
- 21:31And I think I was shaking in my hands for sweating.
- 21:33But once we got through that, he was so wonderful.
- 21:37He was so palm and just peaceful and he was very interested in the story, very engaged.
- 21:42And I loved by time with him.
- 21:44It was definitely a highlight of all the interviews I did.
- 21:47Awesome.
- 21:48So speaking of the devotional, let's talk about that.
- 21:50Let's go back to radical freedom, breaking the chains of addiction for good.
- 21:55And this is daily strength for recovery came out a couple years ago.
- 21:59Tell us about that.
- 22:02So just to kind of preface it, I had written this memoir blackout to blessing.
- 22:06And about side gods will, you know, I tried to make things happen.
- 22:10I got in with a publisher that was sort of the first one that came along.
- 22:14It didn't really do a lot of investigation.
- 22:15It's, I'm still very proud of the book.
- 22:17It's the story of just my whole life and leading to survival, you know, leading through survival
- 22:24and then eventual redemption.
- 22:25And that was a blackout binge drinker.
- 22:28But now, you know, I don't think we always need to be leading with the addiction.
- 22:31Once we've been set free, you know, in the world, you'll hear you have a disease, you're
- 22:35only one drink away from a drunk, you only have a daily reprieve.
- 22:39I believe we can be completely freed in Jesus and that he can deliver us from that.
- 22:44And we can put it in the past and move on with him.
- 22:48So I, I'm tired of leading with the addiction.
- 22:51I want to step into what the Lord is doing next.
- 22:53And I hope other people struggling can know that maybe the world has told you, you're
- 22:57hopeless.
- 22:58You're going to have this forever.
- 22:59Well, that's not true.
- 23:00So after, after that book came out, I sort of settled down for a while and then this
- 23:05other publisher approached me.
- 23:07I think it's always better when we let things come to us instead of trying to kick down
- 23:10doors.
- 23:11And this is broad street press.
- 23:13They're here in Minnesota, great publisher.
- 23:15They do a lot of big names.
- 23:17I won't name drop.
- 23:18But so they approached me and said, hey, we think you would be a great one to write a devotional
- 23:22on addiction recovery.
- 23:23We don't have anything like that.
- 23:25So I sat down.
- 23:26I prayed and the Holy Spirit began to bring to mind different memories of things that had
- 23:31happened in my life, not only drug or not drug, but alcohol related, but identity problems,
- 23:37a crisis I had in my marriage, struggles with food, struggles with idols, struggles.
- 23:41So I think this appeals to a lot of people, not only those who have dealt with chemical
- 23:45or behavioral addictions, but it was more of the what happened after what happened in
- 23:50the last 20 years of the Lord leading me, you know, the sanctification journey and how
- 23:55he has helped me with that.
- 23:56Yes.
- 23:57Yeah.
- 23:58And, you know, we don't hear that word enough.
- 23:59I think sanctification, it is a process that Lord willing every Christian goes through
- 24:04to some degree.
- 24:06It just being separate from the world, but also God working out his reshaping us, refining
- 24:14us, molding us into his image and speak more about that, Melissa, because I think it
- 24:19blesses a lot of people to know we're all in different paths, but this sanctification
- 24:23is a work of God and it is a process.
- 24:26Well, thank you going back to me being a young child receiving Christ.
- 24:30I heard the simple gospel.
- 24:31I was at Bible school kneeling in a circle and I knew John 3, 16.
- 24:35I believe that Jesus had died for my sins.
- 24:37I wanted eternal life with him and I received him, but then I went off into rebellion and
- 24:42the Reformed camp or Calvinists would say, oh, you weren't really saved.
- 24:46You didn't really believe.
- 24:48And I used to allow myself to be brought under guilt and condemnation about that because
- 24:53I had strayed so far.
- 24:55I had gone off and do rebellion and been a prodigal, but the Holy Spirit never left me.
- 24:59I had been sealed by the Holy Spirit at the moment of belief that's justification.
- 25:04I was rendered righteous in that moment.
- 25:07And then once I surrendered to my addiction, the Lord began to take me through that process
- 25:13of sanctification, which is lifelong, as you know, David.
- 25:16So we don't lose our salvation.
- 25:18Once we trust him, we are sealed.
- 25:20And then he begins to work in us, solace, character, defects, those life issues, those
- 25:25life controlling things.
- 25:26So that's a lifelong journey.
- 25:28But I think we have so much security in knowing he never leaves us or forsakes us.
- 25:32Amen.
- 25:33Amen.
- 25:34Friends, be encouraged.
- 25:35I encourage you.
- 25:36You can go to MelissaHarrade.com and you'll get to see the links for the book, especially
- 25:41that one right there, or you can go to Radical Freedom on Amazon and order it directly
- 25:46from Amazon.
- 25:47I think in fact, I think your website links to the Amazon page, so we encourage you to
- 25:52check that out.
- 25:53Melissa, less than two minutes, any closing thoughts on whatever Israel Bible prophecy, biblical
- 25:59worldview, whatever you like to share.
- 26:00What's on your heart?
- 26:01Did leave with our audience.
- 26:02Well, I'm just, you know, I'm noticing how, especially with the state of the world,
- 26:07you mentioned Ezekiel 38, the world is clamoring for security.
- 26:11And it's so easy to be drawn, drawn away into, I'm guilty of it too, into social media,
- 26:17into the news cycle, into podcasters listening to that.
- 26:20The only way we're going to make it is through discernment, is through wisdom and discernment
- 26:25that comes only from the Holy Spirit.
- 26:28So I would say to anyone listening today, if you have not received Jesus, we believe
- 26:33the rapture is imminent, he is coming soon.
- 26:36I think the world has told you you need to clean yourself up, you need to get right,
- 26:39then you can come to God.
- 26:41That is a lie.
- 26:42All you have to do is repent of your unbelief, you repent of whatever you've been trusting
- 26:46in, put your trust in Christ.
- 26:48He seals you with the Holy Spirit.
- 26:51You are rapture ready.
- 26:52That is the most important thing that you need to do today.
- 26:56Have a revelation of who Jesus is.
- 26:58Then he will help you with whatever comes your way, John 1633, take hard, I have overcome
- 27:03the world, nothing in this world will ever take you from the Father's hand.
- 27:09That's the greatest assurance and the greatest hope I can give you today.
- 27:13Thank you, Melissa.
- 27:14Great scripture in this world, we will have trouble, but Jesus said, take heart, I have overcome
- 27:19the world.
- 27:20Before that, he said, in me, you will have peace, not in these other things that we might
- 27:25be striving for.
- 27:26But anyway, Lord willing, we will do this again.
- 27:28Thanks for your time.
- 27:29God bless you.
- 27:31Friends, God bless you and as always, keep speaking the truth about things that matter.
- 27:36See you next time.