Latest / Witness the Wonder Christian Podcast: Supernatural Christian Testimonies, Miracles, and God Stories / We Had No Income for 27 Months But Every Bill Was Paid with Josh and Shelly Hankins

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We Had No Income for 27 Months But Every Bill Was Paid with Josh and Shelly Hankins · Witness the Wonder Christian Podcast: Supernatural Christian Testimonies, Miracles, and God Stories

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  Went 27 1/2 months without a discernible income and for 27
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  1/2 months we still managed to get every bill paid with no
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  income. Have you ever walked through a
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  season where everything felt uncertain, Where fear tried to
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  grip you and it looked like things weren't going to work
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  out? In this episode, Josh and Shelly
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  Hankins, host of the Gods Goodness Podcast, share how they
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  navigated 27 months with no income and how they experience
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  God's faithfulness every step of the way.
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  If you're in a season where you're learning to trust God in
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  the unknown, then this episode is for you.
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  Welcome to Witness the Wonder. I'm your host, Christina Smith,
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  and I'm joined today by fellow podcasters Josh and Shelly
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  Hankins, host of God's Goodness Podcast.
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  While our shows are different, they share a similar heartbeat,
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  telling stories of God's faithfulness and how he's always
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  at work in our lives. Welcome.
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  I'm really glad you're both here.
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  Thank you for joining me. Thank you for having us.
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  I want to start by giving our audience an opportunity to kind
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  of get to know you. So can you share a little bit
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  about who Josh and Shirley Hankins are?
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  Sure, like with many people, we're getting better with age.
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  And I always knew Jesus, but he was raised a Buddhist.
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  I wasn't always building a relationship with Jesus until
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  after we met in 2009. Once that relationship started
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  being built and things changed. Yeah, once I, I went into it, I
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  went all in and then I met her and she professed that she knew
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  Jesus and she really wasn't living like she did.
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  And, and a lot of the things that I didn't like, a lot of red
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  flags that reminded me of a carnival.
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  I, I couldn't walk away. I was like, I knew her.
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  There was a familiarity with her that I just knew.
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  And I couldn't stop thinking. I've never met her before my
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  life, but I felt like I always knew her.
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  And I think that was God's way of keeping me vested when my
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  spirit was screaming and screeching and I wanted to run.
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  And so literally everything I, I ever mentioned that bothered me,
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  she just quit. Like, I don't like that you do
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  this and she quit. I don't like that you do that
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  and she quit. And she would come to church
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  with me and, and literally she was so receptive to everything
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  that it was incredible. It was an incredible change.
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  It was quick for her, very quick.
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  Well, that's good. I love it.
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  That's how that's how the Holy Spirit works through US, right?
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  Leading us, guiding us, helping us along the way.
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  Some things are quick and then some things take a little
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  longer. You know that sanctification
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  process is very gradual. God is very gentle.
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  He's a gentleman and he'll only come in when he's invited.
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  Right, absolutely. I like to say a life is journey
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  of becoming like like becoming more and more like Christ.
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  You know, we're not immediately transformed.
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  We can't I mean God's God, he can do whatever he wants to do,
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  but it doesn't usually happen that way.
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  And so I want to start, you guys have a lot of amazing stories in
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  your life of what God's done, hence the reason for your
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  podcast. And, and I love that we just
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  connected from the moment that I met you guys and I was on their
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  podcast. So go listen to that.
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  Of course, I just want to start by giving you guys some space.
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  What do you feel like God wants you to share today about your
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  story in your journey with Him? Well, you know, God, he goes by
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  many names. And so we were going to tell you
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  a little bit about the different ways that we've become very
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  acquainted with God. For instance, Josh thought we
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  should tell you about our tithing and, and how that came
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  about because not everybody tithes.
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  People don't believe in it. Some people do, and.
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  And As for us, I don't believe in tithing biblically because I
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  don't think that's accurate for us.
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  But I do believe the church needs funds.
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  And so we call it tithing, but it's really just a 10% gift that
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  we give them under the guise of tithing.
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  And so, you know, obviously you need to church to function, you
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  need them to help the community, you need them to preach the word
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  of God and they can't do that off of thin air.
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  And so, you know, we tithed and I was, I was working one day, I
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  was at work and I was thinking, I really want to tithe.
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  And so I decided that I was going to bring it up with my
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  wife, but it's very hard for me to bring it up because like, I
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  was like, hey, honey, I want to give 10% of everything we make
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  and I want to give it to the church, right?
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  And at the time, she wasn't working, right?
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  So I was full time working for both of us.
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  And then I wanted to give away 10% of everything when I came
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  home. And I thought I was going to
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  have a battle. You know, I was like, I was
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  prepared at scriptures. I said, hey, honey, I think we
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  should tithe. And she said OK and and I didn't
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  had I had no fight. God had already planned it out.
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  God had already talked to her, already spoke to her heart
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  before I even had a chance to breach the subject to her.
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  Wasn't it wasn't long after that we decided to tie.
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  Then we tied our first check that I got called by an old job
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  that I was let go of too soon, that I had a contract that I was
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  supposed to be let go at a certain time, but they let me go
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  three months early and they paid me for those three months that
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  that they let me go early. And so I I got.
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  How much was it? Over 4000.
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  No size 9, it was like $9000 before taxes from, from this
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  payment that they I should have had.
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  It was almost $9000 before taxes.
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  And God made it very clear that it wasn't going to happen every
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  time. But it was just a showing of
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  faithfulness that I stepped out in faithfulness.
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  I stepped out with courage. I stepped out with the intent to
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  honor him with the best of my understanding.
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  And he rewarded that. And and it was a it was
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  incredible. And I'm not saying he's gonna do
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  it for everybody, but I'm saying that he will work on behalf and
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  you can test him in tithing. I was gonna say that's the one
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  area he tells us that we can try him is in the area of giving
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  that is actually scriptural. So honestly, I don't know that
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  it, I know that we can't say say that it'll happen for everybody,
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  but I really believe if, if we believe the word of God and
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  stand on it and are doing that in obedience to what he's
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  telling us to do, I think he'll, I think it will work because his
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  word doesn't return void. You know, I mean, I do believe
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  that if you're out there and you've been questioning whether
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  you should tithe or not, I honestly am a firm believer that
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  you should do it because the same thing happened.
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  I have the exact same story like, well, not the exact exact.
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  I was feeling that when was soon after my husband and I got
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  married that we were supposed to tie and I just it just was this
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  nagging the Holy Spirit just was like tithe, tithe, tithe.
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  It was not letting. He was just not letting up.
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  And so I went into my husband and I talked to him because we
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  didn't have a lot of money. We were literally living
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  paycheck to paycheck. And then I was sharing it with
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  my mother-in-law after a Sunday after church because we always
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  went to their house for dinner. And she's like, she's like,
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  Chris, if, if the Holy Spirit's telling you to do that, then you
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  need to do it. You need to go talk to Kevin
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  right now and you need to give that money tonight.
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  And I said, but Aggie, we won't have anything left.
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  She's like, well, do you have the money?
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  And I said, well, it's almost exactly like what's in our
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  checking account is our tithe. And if we give it, then we're
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  only going to have like 2 pennies left.
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  And she goes, I said, I don't know how we're going to eat or
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  anything this week. She's like, you will eat at our
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  house for dinner every night this week, but you're going to
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  give that tithe. And so I went and talked to my
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  husband and he told me, well, we're going to do it.
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  So we did it. Well, I worked for a company
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  that gave us what they called value shares.
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  They gave us shares of the company and when the when those
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  shares, those stocks hit a certain level, we could sell
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  them for the difference from where they gave it to us to
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  where we sold it at. So as once it hit that level, if
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  it kept going above, it just meant we got more and more
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  money. Well, we had had these stocks
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  for a long time and nothing was happening with them.
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  Don't you know, the day after I tied, we went to church that
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  night we gave our tithe. The next day the stock jumped 10
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  points and hit that target price continued.
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  It had to stay there for five days.
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  It continued to stay there for five days.
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  By Friday when I cashed it in, I got a check for $17,000 and it
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  totally paid off all of our debt.
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  We weren't living paycheck to paycheck anymore.
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  That is the faithfulness of God like and that is the power of
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  tithing because it opens up like it literally says try me in this
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  and see that I won't open up the windows of heaven and pour a
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  blessing that there is not room enough to contain.
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  That's what the Scripture says. And so I'm like, I love your
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  story because it reminds me of mine, but it also is the truth.
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  It's the word in action. It is what the word of God says
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  in flesh. You like, like Jesus came down
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  in flesh. It's the Word coming alive.
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  And so that's what I think it is for a lot of people out there
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  and I just love it. So moving along, what other what
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  happened after you started tithing like that?
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  Well, we'll Fast forward to I was working oil and gas and
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  Pennsylvania. We went from fracking 72 wells
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  one year to fracking to the next because of new governor change,
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  new policy changes. And so they laid off a half a
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  million employees across the state for oil and gas and I was
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  one of them. And so we went 27 1/2 months
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  without a discernible income because I kept looking for a job
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  in the same field, which there was none in the area.
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  Like I found one in Georgia that wasn't very helpful.
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  I didn't want to leave my home. And so it was, it was one of
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  those that we had a little bit of money saved over because I
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  was making pretty decent money, but not enough to cover 27 1/2
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  months. I had just bought a house.
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  And so, you know, we had our house payment, our mortgage to
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  pay, we had electric, we had gas, we had a sun at home.
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  You know, we had, we had responsibilities and I kept
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  having the Lord tell me to wait when I was trying to look for a
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  job, kept telling me to wait and, and I didn't and I kept
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  looking for things. And I mean, it was nothing.
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  There was literally nothing. I couldn't even get a job as a
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  window cleaner. Like there was 0 no
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  opportunities for me. I've had, I had people that I
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  would interview with that said, Oh, you're overqualified.
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  And then they wouldn't hire me even though I said, I'll still
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  do it. You know, I understand that.
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  I'll still, I still want to do it.
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  I need a job. They're like, no, you're just
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  too, just too low for you. I'm like, what?
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  And so I, I couldn't get anything and for 27 1/2 months
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  we still managed to get every bill paid with no income.
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  And you know, it was like it was, it was you could totally
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  tell that the Lord was involved. I mean, I from mailbox money,
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  that IA lawsuit from class action lawsuit from Walmart.
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  I worked at a Walmart for like a week and 1/2 in my youth and
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  apparently there was a class, class action lawsuit and I got
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  paid 419 dollars for, I don't even know how they found me,
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  right? I'd moved like 4 different times
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  since that time I'd lived there. And so, you know, I, I, all
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  sorts of things kept happening or I, I painted the roof of a
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  church or the ceiling of a church.
• 10:59
  I painted for lots of people. I, I did a lot of painting that
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  people just found out about me. Like I didn't advertise it.
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  And there's this, hey, you paint.
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  I'm like, kind of, I'm really good at it now, but maybe Shelly
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  can share some more stories in in that 27 1/2 months.
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  Well, since it was our first loan and he was a veteran, it
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  was a special kind of loan. And what they did for us so that
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  we wouldn't lose the house is they set it up where we only had
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  to pay $25.00 a month to keep the mortgage plan in place.
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  So we had that and then we had, we had over 10,000 in cash
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  saved. We paid off almost $12,000 in
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  credit cards. But then eventually that cash
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  runs out. And so it was just the wireless
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  thing because, you know, I would talk to the electric company,
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  all the utility companies and they just were very
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  understanding. They don't want anyone to have
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  their electricity or gas, whatever shut off.
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  And so everyone was just really willing to hear my story.
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  And it just kind of shared God's goodness every time I would talk
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  to somebody about like what we were, what was happening.
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  And I guess it encouraged the people to because they're like,
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  you know, it's like a wow, that 27 months, that's over 2 years,
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  no money coming in. I sold Mary Kay.
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  And so it wasn't, I wasn't like one of the directors or
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  anything, but it was just enough that it would cover everything.
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  And then the money would come in just before the bill was due and
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  I'd pay that. And there was just a
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  supernatural piece that came about for each of us, where
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  everyone around us was like stress and a worry.
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  Yeah, like Job's friends, they, you know, like we should feel
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  some kind of way. And, and we were aware that we
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  should have felt fear. And it was like being immersed
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  in fear. And yet somehow it could not
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  touch us. It was an incredible feeling to
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  be so aware that we were supposed to be afraid and there
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  was 0 fear involved. I mean, zero fear.
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  There was no worry. There was no anxiety.
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  We weren't yelling at each other, we weren't attacking each
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  other. It was incredible.
• 13:09
  Yeah, it was awesome. I went out when I do it again.
• 13:15
  It was good. Today's episode partner is the
• 13:17
  Birch Gold Group. Many people are asking how to
• 13:20
  protect what they've worked so hard to build, especially in
• 13:24
  seasons of economic uncertainty. Birch Gold helps individuals
• 13:28
  diversify their savings with physical gold and silver.
• 13:31
  If you'd like to learn more or get their free information kit,
• 13:34
  you'll find the link at christinasmithofficial.com.
• 13:37
  That's Christina Smith, official.com.
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  He gave me an opportunity to fast for 40 days since I didn't
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  have the excuse of work. I had a relationship with Jesus.
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  I just wanted a better relationship with Jesus.
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  I wanted to know him more. I wanted to know him at a level
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  that I didn't think I did. I was in Usher, I was in
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  children's ministry. I was checking all the boxes.
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  I was doing everything right and I still felt lacking.
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  So I fasted for 40 days and I invited my wife to join me.
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  She, she declined. I mean, I was, I was on my hands
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  and knees on my bedroom, face down.
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  I remember, I remember crying and telling God that I wanted a
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  relationship with him so bad that I was willing to not eat
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  again. And I mean, not just a little
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  bit. I mean, like ever.
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  Like I said, I wasn't, I didn't have a plan for a time.
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  I was like, I'm not going to eat again, even if it kills me.
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  Like I want this. And I was very sincere in my
• 14:24
  heart. I remember being, I remember
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  being very sincere and I was maybe 11 days in the fast.
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  I was about to quit. I used to smoke cigarettes.
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  I used to to do a lot of things I shouldn't do that.
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  I I remember I was going to go have another cigarette and I was
• 14:37
  blaming my wife. Of course, you know, I can't
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  quit smoking because she did something.
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  And you know, why blame me? Like, why take responsibility if
• 14:45
  I've got her to blame? If I can, I can have an eaver,
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  you know, And I went to the back of the kitchen to go get
• 14:50
  something to eat, to break my fast.
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  And as soon as I walked in the kitchen, I had a vision of
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  myself from a perspective of someone standing behind me,
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  looking at me in the bedroom floor 11 nights prior with my
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  hand, hands and feet on my hands and knees with my face down,
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  crying. And I could hear myself say, I
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  want a relationship with you. And then I heard from behind me
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  in the kitchen. I wanted more.
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  And I was. I was not hungry.
• 15:15
  I was full of joy. I quit smoking that day.
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  No, like cold Turkey. There was no.
• 15:19
  There was nothing added. There was like, there was no
• 15:21
  withdrawal. There was no anger.
• 15:23
  There was. It was, it was an immediate
• 15:25
  thing. And I finished my 40 days with a
• 15:27
  better relationship, knowing that I cannot succeed in the
• 15:31
  flesh even though my heart was willing.
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  But God is more faithful than me and that God wanted me more than
• 15:36
  I wanted him, so much so that he wouldn't let me quit on the
• 15:39
  promise that he gave me. And so I finished the 40 days
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  and it was, it was a very changing moment.
• 15:45
  Yeah. Shortly afterwards, she was
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  inspired. So she said, I want to fast and
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  will you join me? And I'm like, I don't know.
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  You didn't join me, You know, it's not very.
• 15:54
  And so I said, sure, how many days?
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  And she's like, I don't know. I was like, oh, that's crazy.
• 15:59
  And so, you know, but not like I knew the first day either.
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  And so the next morning she woke up, she said, I feel like we're
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  doing 4 days. And I said four.
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  I just did 40. What is 4?
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  And so I walked in the kitchen. This where God hits me a lot is
• 16:12
  in the kitchen. And I had a revelation that four
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  days is like 40 days for a married couple because a married
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  couple is 10 times more powerful when they're together than when
• 16:21
  they're by themselves was exponentially, you know, 10
• 16:24
  times exponentially more powerful with the two of us than
• 16:27
  it was with just me. So when it's just me and her,
• 16:30
  it's why the devil tries to break up marriages.
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  So when it's just me and I'm not married, he's got one person to
• 16:36
  come after. But when he's got the both of
• 16:38
  us, he's got 10 people he has to come after.
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  That's that's a whole squad. It's a lot easier to pick one
• 16:44
  guy off than it is to pick off a squad.
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  And so This is why marriage is such a tantamount tactic for the
• 16:50
  enemy to destroy. Because we are literally strong.
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  Stronger is 2. We're 10 times stronger with two
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  of us than we're just the one of us.
• 16:56
  Absolutely. That's scriptural too.
• 16:58
  But what is it if one puts 1000 of flight and two puts 10,000 of
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  flight, That's the scripture based on what you're talking
• 17:06
  about I think because it's talking about prayer and when we
• 17:08
  come into agreement. And so that is, I think
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  honestly, besides the fact that we're to be each other's help
• 17:15
  me, I think that is truly why God created the covenant of
• 17:19
  marriage basically of that right there, because together, like
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  you said, we are more powerful together than we are a part.
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  And I love the other thing too. That really came to mind, Josh,
• 17:29
  when you were talking about that, you doing that with her as
• 17:32
  her spiritual covering. I think that was powerful too,
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  honestly, because you know what I mean?
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  Not only she's got God, but she's got you right there with
• 17:40
  her. I think that you know, did it.
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  I have to know. Shirley, did you get your
• 17:46
  spiritual breakthrough in the four days?
• 17:47
  No, but we've been able to tell everybody about the power of,
• 17:51
  you know, a marriage and fasting.
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  And so it's gone beyond just that little four days.
• 17:58
  Might have been the whole point of it.
• 18:00
  Exactly, I think it could have honestly, it sounds like that
• 18:02
  was the whole point of it was for it to be a testimony of how
• 18:06
  God moves in that situation, in those types of situations.
• 18:09
  And so you kind of touched on it a little bit.
• 18:12
  I was gonna go here and you started to talk about a little
• 18:16
  bit through your fast, but as those types of situations, you
• 18:20
  know, the tithing and the going without your income for 27
• 18:24
  months as those types of situations were unfolding and
• 18:27
  and you're watching God do. How did your relationship with
• 18:31
  God grow through that season? I mean, our trust in him,
• 18:36
  certainly. So before you trust because
• 18:38
  you're told you have to, right? You read that you have to,
• 18:41
  you're told by others that you have to, that you know God is
• 18:44
  trustworthy. And what we did is we
• 18:45
  experienced that God was trustworthy, right?
• 18:48
  We didn't, there was no longer the the need to lie on faith on
• 18:51
  that or on discernment to know that God was trustworthy.
• 18:55
  We found out first hand, not only did God love us, the God
• 18:58
  was for us, but he was trustworthy and he was careful
• 19:00
  with us, right? He didn't abandoned us.
• 19:02
  He didn't, he didn't leave us. He didn't make us learn a hard
• 19:05
  lesson through pain, right? He, he really just, he just held
• 19:09
  us gently in his arms and carried us through every single
• 19:12
  pot our part of our lives. That was even a modicum of
• 19:16
  difficulty in those early years. You know you were sharing
• 19:19
  because you have a son. You said right, I was talking
• 19:22
  with my daughter last night and she was just sharing some things
• 19:25
  that are going on at her work and how she was having an
• 19:28
  opportunity to minister to one of her Co workers.
• 19:31
  And she was just telling me all the things that she had told
• 19:33
  her. And you know, I was both her mom
• 19:35
  and her youth pastor growing up. And so often as parents,
• 19:39
  sometimes I think we feel like, did we do enough?
• 19:44
  Were we so focused on ministry or this or that and reaching the
• 19:50
  whole people that God's put in our in our sphere of influence?
• 19:53
  More so as I was listening to her speak last night and share
• 19:57
  all the things, I was like she was listening.
• 20:00
  How did everything you walk through impact your son?
• 20:04
  Like have you seen now in like I was seeing in her that even
• 20:08
  though I didn't feel like I spoke directly to her in some of
• 20:12
  those things, that she was listening, she was picking up,
• 20:14
  she was observing and absorbing that that truth to apply to her
• 20:21
  own life. He was really young when we went
• 20:24
  through that. And so I don't think he he
• 20:26
  understood the magnification of the imminent threat that we were
• 20:30
  in. But being that we are the way we
• 20:34
  are and that we pray and that we talk to God and we encourage him
• 20:37
  to talk to God, his, he is such a sweet.
• 20:42
  He doesn't like it if we kill a bug like he is.
• 20:45
  He's got compassion in spades. He is by far not like his peers.
• 20:50
  He is by far just a loving little man.
• 20:54
  In fact, I, I baptized him. I went at our church and he
• 20:57
  wanted to get baptized and I asked if I could do it.
• 21:00
  And they had to go through because they're like, we don't
• 21:02
  know if you can do it. I was like, well, why can't I,
• 21:04
  you know, And they're like, nobody's ever asked.
• 21:05
  I'm like, why not? You know, I don't understand why
• 21:07
  somebody wouldn't want to baptize their own son.
• 21:09
  Like it's not, there's no special skill.
• 21:11
  You see, you don't have to go to school to baptize.
• 21:13
  You can just do it. And so, and so they said, yeah,
• 21:16
  you can do it. And I baptized him and, and you
• 21:18
  know, I've been trying to coach him on, on, on his belief.
• 21:21
  I want to make sure that he's believing because he wants to
• 21:24
  believe or he wants to learn. He wants to grow.
• 21:26
  And it's not just because that's what we do.
• 21:29
  And so he's he's him and I have, we're having regular
• 21:32
  conversations about that at night when we go through
• 21:34
  devotional. And you know, I because he can
• 21:36
  answer some questions, but I don't want his faith to be
• 21:38
  challenged when someone asked him a question he can't answer,
• 21:40
  right? I don't, I don't want him to be
• 21:41
  an existential crisis that well, God isn't real because I can't
• 21:44
  answer a question this guy asked me is like, So what?
• 21:47
  That's not what faith is about. You don't you don't have to
• 21:49
  memorize your Bible. You don't have to be a
• 21:51
  theologian. You don't have to be a Bible
• 21:52
  scholar. God calls us to to go to all the
• 21:56
  nations and tell him about his son.
• 21:58
  Tell him about what the goodness that he's done.
• 21:59
  He doesn't say that you have to be an expert in the subject.
• 22:02
  Just tell him if they have questions like, hey man, I don't
• 22:05
  have the answers, but we could look at it together.
• 22:07
  Let's look it up together. Let's ask my dad, let's ask my
• 22:09
  pastor, let's ask somebody and figure this out because that's a
• 22:12
  really good question instead of being challenged to the point if
• 22:15
  I give up. Well, it was really cool.
• 22:18
  It's since Josh was home in those early years, he was
• 22:22
  helping that current pastor where we were going to church be
• 22:25
  the hands of Peter Jesus. If people needed rides, he would
• 22:28
  give them rides. And it just, he saw him helping
• 22:31
  people so much that he was saying I want to be a pastor.
• 22:34
  And then years later, a couple years ago, yeah, two years ago
• 22:39
  or one, whatever it was recently, he was prophesied over
• 22:43
  that he would be a pastor and preach to the nation's.
• 22:47
  Well, I don't know if it was the nation's, but he would be a
• 22:49
  pastor. So maybe who knows?
• 22:53
  All you have to do is share about your experience though,
• 22:56
  and then it can God's goodness can just come through.
• 22:59
  It's just great. And it doesn't speak an expert.
• 23:01
  And the enemy definitely went after him when he was younger.
• 23:05
  He would have night terrors. He could 11:00, 11/30 to
• 23:08
  midnight he would have night terrors.
• 23:09
  He'd wake up screaming every night when he was about two and
• 23:12
  I'd console him. I would change his diaper and
• 23:16
  and put him back to bed and he was good the rest of the night.
• 23:19
  And we went on like this for months.
• 23:21
  And then one night I went up there and he was telling me he
• 23:24
  had this Mickey Mouse stuffed animal and he just tell me how
• 23:27
  Mickey wasn't talking to him and that Mickey need to do
• 23:29
  batteries. I'm like, he doesn't take
• 23:31
  batteries and Mickey doesn't talk.
• 23:33
  So we had a little bit of a prayer session right then and
• 23:35
  there and we got rid of Mickey. Well, I fed him to the dogs and,
• 23:39
  and we had, we had some strong, we had some strong prayer and he
• 23:43
  has not had a night terror since.
• 23:45
  And so if you know, you have to be, be aware that sometimes your
• 23:49
  kids aren't just having a moment.
• 23:50
  Your kids aren't just experiencing a bad day or sugar
• 23:53
  or red diet. Sometimes it's a demonic attack
• 23:56
  upon them. And, and the enemy absolutely
• 23:59
  wants to convince them and take them and challenge them and hurt
• 24:02
  them. And the more damage you can do
• 24:04
  while they're younger, that the happier he is.
• 24:07
  Because when they're older, they're already broken and
• 24:08
  traumatized and they're already trusting Jesus less.
• 24:12
  And so, you know, nip it in the bud if you suspect it.
• 24:15
  Praying is not going to hurt. Absolutely.
• 24:17
  Did you want to say something chilly?
• 24:18
  Well then. It'll be done, but that was
• 24:20
  eating. Oh yeah, I mean well.
• 24:21
  Getting ready to transition is why I was asking that question.
• 24:24
  I was going to transition. We can.
• 24:26
  Talk about them like the next phase that we were going to have
• 24:28
  to talk about was miracles. Right, God's, God's faithfulness
• 24:32
  isn't only seen in provision, it's often can be deeply
• 24:37
  personal. And I would, I know you've had
• 24:40
  some health issues and God's done some healing through your
• 24:44
  journey. I think not only with your son,
• 24:46
  but with you as well. Shelly, did you guys want to
• 24:49
  share a little bit about that? Yes, I would love that.
• 24:52
  So I wasn't always the woman I am today, and I used to party in
• 25:00
  college and one time. Hence red flags.
• 25:05
  At one point I passed out, my head slammed on the concrete
• 25:09
  basement floor of somebody's house.
• 25:11
  I probably had a concussion, but I just didn't Anyway, so I had
• 25:15
  17 years of chronic neck and shoulder pain.
• 25:18
  I, I was on muscle relaxers, painkillers, all the things,
• 25:22
  even smoking pot to help and nothing really, you know, really
• 25:28
  fixed it. However, there was this one day
• 25:31
  we prayed, we laid hands. I was in tears.
• 25:34
  I was like, I can't take this anymore.
• 25:36
  You have to lay hands, you have to pray.
• 25:38
  And so we were at home while we prayed with a small group of
• 25:42
  church. It was a Wednesday night,
• 25:44
  October 13th, maybe 2015, and nothing changed.
• 25:49
  But when we went home, I was in tears again.
• 25:51
  I'm like, you got to lay hands. You got to pray until we did.
• 25:54
  And so it was Josh and Nathan on Nathan's bedroom floor.
• 25:57
  And they just prayed. It was just simple prayers, you
• 26:00
  know, thanking God and just surely be healed.
• 26:03
  And he's like, how do you feel? And I'm like, I have a headache
• 26:07
  and I didn't often get headaches.
• 26:09
  And he's like, all right, we're going to pray again.
• 26:11
  And so we prayed again. He's like, how do you feel?
• 26:14
  And the headache moved to a totally different spot.
• 26:17
  And he's like, all right, we're going to pray again.
• 26:18
  The headache moved again. He's like, all right, we're,
• 26:21
  we're going to pray again because something's happening.
• 26:24
  Something's got to give. And so he prayed again, and then
• 26:27
  the pain, the headache, the pain, neck pain was gone.
• 26:31
  And it was gone forever. Like I didn't know.
• 26:33
  I didn't know. I was like, oh, this feels
• 26:35
  great. But there's always that, is this
• 26:37
  going to come back? And it never has.
• 26:39
  So that was the first time we realized that he has a gift of
• 26:42
  healing. I have the gift of faith.
• 26:44
  And so when you pair those up, it's a perfect combination.
• 26:47
  Absolutely, absolutely. I love that.
• 26:49
  I have the gift of faith too, by the way.
• 26:52
  I had a cool experience where I was sitting on my couch one day
• 26:55
  and I don't even know what I was doing.
• 26:57
  And all of a sudden it felt like a lightning bolt went through
• 27:01
  the top of my head and out my feet.
• 27:03
  And all of a sudden I heard the Holy Spirit say, I've just given
• 27:06
  you the spiritual gift of faith. And I was like, OK, I'm like, it
• 27:11
  was like the craziest thing. I was like, OK, God, I receive
• 27:15
  it. Well, I didn't know about that
• 27:17
  gift until after I got a tattoo that has faith on my wrist.
• 27:22
  So I don't know you can see that, but I thought that was
• 27:25
  really cool that that's my gift and then I have a tattoo of it.
• 27:28
  So it's just cool how God just shows up whether we know it or.
• 27:31
  Not I love it, I love it. I just love hearing all the
• 27:33
  stories because it really does help build our faith.
• 27:36
  You know what I mean? It really helps us build that
• 27:39
  trust in God just to like, not just to hear other people's, but
• 27:43
  I think it's important for us to share our own stories because
• 27:46
  that helps build our own, build up our faith, faith within us
• 27:50
  when we remember the things that God has done.
• 27:52
  Josh and Shelly have already shared powerful stories of God's
• 27:56
  provision, healing, and faithfulness, but this is only
• 28:00
  part of their story. In Part 2, they share what they
• 28:03
  walk through with their son during a really difficult season
• 28:07
  and how they saw God show up in a way they never expected.
• 28:12
  Make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss Part 2 of our
• 28:15
  conversation next week. And if this episode encouraged
• 28:19
  you, consider sharing it with someone who might need some
• 28:23
  encouragement, too. And remember, God is always at
• 28:27
  work in your story.