Latest / Witness the Wonder Christian Podcast: Supernatural Christian Testimonies, Miracles, and God Stories / Hope for Autism Parents: A Miracle Story
Transcript
- 0:00I would go in the basement to do laundry and I was crying and I
- 0:02like, I didn't want this for him.
- 0:04We were at our wit's hand. It was very difficult.
- 0:06He lied a lot. He was hiding things and he was
- 0:09full of guilt and shame and he didn't tell us and he was living
- 0:12a secret life. We were oblivious to it.
- 0:25What do you do when your child is struggling and nothing seems
- 0:29to be working? When you've tried everything,
- 0:32you've prayed, and you're still watching them go through
- 0:35something you can't fix? If you've ever felt that way,
- 0:39you're not alone. In this conversation, Josh and
- 0:42Shelly Hankins share what that looked like for them, from their
- 0:45son's healing to the way God met them in their hardest moments.
- 0:49This is going to encourage you if you've ever felt overwhelmed,
- 0:53unsure, or at your breaking point.
- 0:55If you want more conversations like this, real stories of how
- 0:58God shows up in people's lives, make sure you're following
- 1:02Witness the Wonder on your favorite streaming platform
- 1:04because this is exactly what we do here.
- 1:07Let's jump into the conversation.
- 1:09Your son has a healing story as well as parents.
- 1:12Yes, you know, what was it like to continue trusting God, you
- 1:18know, through that process? If you want to share a little
- 1:21bit about what your son was facing and how God turned that
- 1:25around. Sure.
- 1:28So our son had OCD and you know, I don't know what it started.
- 1:33I don't know if if it started when he was born, you know, on
- 1:37the spectrum, OCD, autism, ADHD, they're all, they're all in the
- 1:41spectrum. You know, everyone's narrow
- 1:42divergent now apparently you just the levels of it.
- 1:46And so he started displaying more extreme behaviors with OCD,
- 1:52like he couldn't touch metal doorknobs.
- 1:54You couldn't touch metal period. Like he would eat chips through
- 1:57his shirt, like you would hold the chips with his shirt.
- 2:00When he would wash his hands, he'd wash his hands once, and
- 2:03then a second time, and then a third time all the way to his
- 2:05elbows to the point where his hands were red and raw because
- 2:08he had to wash them every single time he touched something.
- 2:11He was. Wearing the gloves, yeah, so
- 2:13bad. Yeah.
- 2:13And when he touched things, we set things down.
- 2:15He had to set them down with both hands and he had to press
- 2:17it into place. If it wasn't perfect, you had to
- 2:19keep doing it over and over and over again.
- 2:21And if he kept failing, he'd he would like ride in place like he
- 2:24was being electrocuted or if he was possessed by a name he.
- 2:27Would just like and meltdown to the floor.
- 2:31It was nuts. Yeah, I'm not sure I would have
- 2:33demonstrated. That, Yeah.
- 2:34There you go. You're welcome.
- 2:41No, we were at our wit's end. And I mean, I would go in the
- 2:43basement to do laundry and I was crying and I like, I didn't want
- 2:46this for him. We had taken him to therapy and
- 2:49and they're like, hey, we think this is OCD.
- 2:51And I'm like, hey, I know. Well, no autism.
- 2:54Autism. Yeah, They say you have to go to
- 2:55a like a higher, you know, licensed Dr. to classify him as,
- 3:00diagnose him as autistic. And, and I started studying up
- 3:04about OCD and, and there's flare ups in your life and one of
- 3:07them's at 10 years old and that's how old he was.
- 3:09I was like how, why? How do you get a flare up of 10?
- 3:13Apparently hormones as you're growing.
- 3:15COVID. Yeah, and and the late and the
- 3:17late teens, I guess is when another flare up will happen if
- 3:20you have OCD. So we, we were at our wit's
- 3:25hand. It was very difficult.
- 3:26He lied a lot. He was hiding things.
- 3:28But we didn't know he, he still, he still acted upon the same
- 3:32premise that he always had, right.
- 3:34And he was full of guilt and shame and he just didn't tell
- 3:37us. And so he was living a secret
- 3:40life. We were oblivious to it.
- 3:42And you know, I kind of came to a head after a while and, and,
- 3:46you know, when prayed for him and nothing happened, like, we'd
- 3:49pray for him, pray for him. And I went on a men's retreat
- 3:52out in the woods. And it wasn't really retreat.
- 3:55He was kind of like camping, but with a bunch of Christian men.
- 3:59And I remember they went up to this lodge to go to the prayer
- 4:02servers. So the gods are going to sit
- 4:03back here and talk to God. It's really the whole point,
- 4:05just being alone and talking to God.
- 4:07And so I'm like sitting in somebody's gravity chair looking
- 4:10up at the Starks as I'm praying to God.
- 4:12And he just pretty much reminded me who he made me to be.
- 4:16And so when I came back from that, that trip, I, I grabbed my
- 4:20son to me one night and I pulled him close and he didn't like
- 4:23being touched at that point without permission like he
- 4:26needed. And he just let me do it.
- 4:28And I held his head right against my chest and I just
- 4:30prayed for him. And I was about halfway through
- 4:33the prayer when Shelly finally overheard she was doing dishes
- 4:35and she came over and she started adding her, her, her
- 4:39holy two cents to it. And I remember the difference
- 4:42was, is how I felt in my heart when I prayed.
- 4:45I remember the difference was that there was a difference on
- 4:48how I felt, how I was structuring a prayer wasn't like
- 4:50a generic prayer. And I, I pretty much declared
- 4:56him healed in the name of Jesus through this prayer.
- 4:59And when he went to get ready for bed, he washed his hands one
- 5:02time and he went to bed and he hasn't, he hasn't had an issue
- 5:07or a flare up or anything since. And so, and we were all worried.
- 5:12We all had like kind of PTSD from it, you know, like, you
- 5:15know, I'd like touch him with a pencil once in a while, just
- 5:17kind of poke him because that was one of his triggers.
- 5:19And he'd look at me like, what are you doing?
- 5:21And he'd secretly confided to me later that he was afraid that
- 5:25when I touched him, he would freak out, right.
- 5:27So he was, he had PTSD as well. He was scared that he was still
- 5:31suffering from it. And so like we're we're testing
- 5:33each other's water, like I'm going to poke the bear and he's
- 5:36like, and he's, he's good. And to this day he still worries
- 5:42that things that he does is still OCD esque.
- 5:45It's like, I mean, everybody does little things, little
- 5:48nuances, little patterns that they do, that they have to do
- 5:52that that's just what they do Is that that doesn't mean you have
- 5:54OCD. You know, I was like, can you
- 5:56open the door without problem? Yeah.
- 5:57Can you eat food without problem?
- 5:59Like, yeah. Well, then you're probably OK.
- 6:02And he just still has worries and issues because that's how
- 6:04deeply it affected him. And I really believe it had a
- 6:08lot to do with that night or the the subsequent nights before
- 6:11that when he was having his night terrors.
- 6:13I really believe that something harmed him behind the scenes
- 6:16that we weren't aware of. And I think parents should be
- 6:19aware that when your children all of a sudden develop
- 6:21personality problems or it may not be hormones, it may be an
- 6:25attack that they had suffered or still suffering.
- 6:27And and, you know, we're oblivious to it because they
- 6:30seem fine. You know, autism is on the rise,
- 6:34like, or like there's been an increase, I should say, in
- 6:38children with autism. And so there's a lot of people
- 6:41that are going to be listening to this that couldn't be facing
- 6:46similar situations. What would you share with them?
- 6:49How to how to handle this with their own child?
- 6:54I would, I would encourage them to look at it from the
- 6:57perspective that God looks at us, right?
- 7:00How frustrating it must be for God to look at us, being us and
- 7:03doing the things that we do and how, how, how he puts up with
- 7:06our idiosyncrasies, our nuances, our own little neurodivergence
- 7:11that we do. He can't possibly be pleased
- 7:13with us, but he is. He loves us.
- 7:15He let his Son die for us. And I, I would suggest that we
- 7:18take that same grace to our children, that that they are
- 7:22loved, that they are, they're wonderful, and that they may be
- 7:25going through something that we don't understand, but God does.
- 7:28And I would take that to prayer and I would pray for them.
- 7:31Coming up is the autism related research Josh discovered that
- 7:34gave him hope for what his son was facing.
- 7:37If you're a parent or you know someone walking through a
- 7:39similar situation, you're going to want to hear this.
- 7:43And if conversations like this are encouraging you, helping you
- 7:46see how God is at work in your life, would you consider
- 7:48supporting Witness the Wonder? Everything we do is about
- 7:52bringing hope through stories like these and helping people
- 7:55recognize that God is at work in their story, too.
- 7:58To partner with us, visit christinasmithofficial.com.
- 8:01All right, let's jump back in. In one of those rabbit holes
- 8:04that I went down looking at autism and, and things like that
- 8:08when concerning my son, I found a website callednids.net and it
- 8:13stands for neuro immunodeficiency something I
- 8:16don't know if he has syndrome something.
- 8:18And in it, this doctor was reporting how autism has grown
- 8:21exponentially from when they first discovered it till now.
- 8:24And sure, some of it might be reporting issues and, and
- 8:27whatnot, but he believes that for it to have such an increase,
- 8:32this exponential increase, that it has to be disease related.
- 8:35Berkite is it's giving, it's giving epidemic numbers to
- 8:38something that is psychological, sociological and has nothing to
- 8:42do with diseases. And he found something called
- 8:44NIDS where he called NIDS where when you're an infant, your
- 8:48body, your brain shuts off blood vessels to certain parts of the
- 8:51brain to protect it from infection.
- 8:53So when you get a vaccine, for instance, the vaccine doesn't
- 8:57cause autism, but it does cause your brain to stop or shut blood
- 9:01vessels in your brain to protect it from the disease you entered.
- 9:04A diaper rash can cause it multiples like I have a cold.
- 9:07I know a kid has a cold a lot. Well that could cause it too.
- 9:09And what happens is when the infection passes, the brain
- 9:12sometimes forgets to unleash those blood vessels and unlock
- 9:16that part of the brain. And they act like they have
- 9:18autismlikesymptomsandsothisdoctor@anids.net would give a treatment, I guess,
- 9:23to open up these blood vessels and saw, you know, some kids
- 9:26would, after 14 years of being a non verbal autistic, tell their
- 9:29parents they loved them for the first time in 14 years.
- 9:32And so. And he says that yes, autism is
- 9:34real. If, you know, he gives them this
- 9:35medication as treatment and they don't get better, they probably
- 9:38actually have autism. But the people that the other
- 9:41people, most of them actually show a significant change.
- 9:44And so, you know, we've got Tylenol links to possible cases
- 9:48in autism, which, you know, they did studies from that 2013.
- 9:51So it's like not a new idea, but this is what happens.
- 9:54This might be one of those things that it's not autism.
- 9:56If it, if it can be caused by a drug or caused by a vaccine,
- 10:00it's probably not autism. It's probably nids and it's
- 10:03something that's treatable. And I would, I would literally
- 10:06just recommend to any parent, any loved one that has a family
- 10:09member, just look up the website nids.net and discern for
- 10:12yourselves and, and if it's right for you, try it.
- 10:15And if it's not, then don't. Absolutely.
- 10:17I think one of the things like God, you know, with signs and
- 10:20wonders, God can absolutely heal your child.
- 10:23Right on spot, you know what I mean?
- 10:24Like with faith and prayer, that can happen.
- 10:27But one of the things God does too is He gives us wisdom and
- 10:31insight to know what to do. It's just that's just God
- 10:36working in our life on in on an everyday basis.
- 10:39And so I love that you not only shared how God delivered your
- 10:44son through prayer, but that you're also sharing the
- 10:47practical, the actual wisdom that God LED you to find to help
- 10:52in that too. So thank you so much for doing
- 10:55that. You're well appreciate that.
- 10:56Yeah, there's because as I'm as wants.
- 10:58To help. As I was listening to you, I was
- 11:01thinking of a friend. I'm like, Oh my gosh, I'm going
- 11:03to have to like cut this right away and send this to her
- 11:06because she has a son that is has autism and he's like, I
- 11:10think 21 or 22 or something like that.
- 11:13And I'm like, what if this is the answer?
- 11:16You know what I mean? For him to live a normal life,
- 11:18you know, like, not that you can't live a normal life with
- 11:21autism to live. More normal.
- 11:23I'm more normal, right? Like, right, like I don't, I
- 11:26don't want to like offend anybody out there that, you
- 11:28know, by the terms that I used in just trying to say, you know
- 11:33what? There's there's there could be a
- 11:35better way, a more right Yeah, for them.
- 11:40But when you look at all those moments together, you got your
- 11:44obedience like how he provided and provision and healing.
- 11:48What does that reveal for you about who God is?
- 11:53Well, we get to know him on all. He has many, many names, like
- 11:57over 50 names. And so we know him as Jehovah
- 11:59Jaira and the provider, Jehovah Nisi and Rafa.
- 12:03So healer got a peace. We just know him so much more
- 12:07intimately and, and then we can hear from him the more we get to
- 12:11know him. And it's just really neat.
- 12:14I was thinking of like what we're doing now because we're
- 12:16sharing God's goodness with the world, because it's very, very
- 12:19discouraging right now, all the stuff that's going on, but God
- 12:22is still at work and they don't share this kind of stuff on the
- 12:24news. Nope.
- 12:25Absolutely. So for someone listening who may
- 12:29be wondering if God is really at work in their own life, what
- 12:33would you want them to hear today?
- 12:35That God isn't distant, That God isn't a far away.
- 12:39Often times in our struggle we feel that God is the farthest
- 12:43away it could possibly be. And I think the problem is, is
- 12:45we're too close to the issue. And if you would liken yourself
- 12:49to an artist painting on a canvas and you're trying to
- 12:52paint a small detail in and you're really close to the
- 12:55canvas, you lose focus for the entirety of the rest of it.
- 12:58And by stepping back, you can actually see that what the big
- 13:01picture is, right? So if I'm looking, if I, if I,
- 13:04someone walks me in a room and they put me in front of a door
- 13:07frame and I'm like nose to nose with it and then they turn the
- 13:09lights on, they say, what are you looking at?
- 13:11I might not have a clue because it's right in front of me.
- 13:13And I think a lot of times what God is doing is that he is right
- 13:16in front of us and we don't have a clue that he's right there
- 13:19because we can't identify what it looks like when we're that
- 13:21close to him. We're so used to him being at a
- 13:23certain distance away for us to recognize him that we're not
- 13:26used to being in his arms. We're not used to being carried
- 13:29by him. And I just want to encourage
- 13:31people to know that he like the the poem footprints in a sand
- 13:34that, you know, this is the part where he carried me.
- 13:36And this is the part where he was dragging me and I was
- 13:38kicking in St. bots parking out in the poem.
- 13:40But he he carries us. He loves us.
- 13:42He he nurtures us. He doesn't want anything bad at
- 13:46like when he decides like the 10 commandments and he talks about
- 13:50sin. These aren't things that he's
- 13:51trying to restrict us from doing.
- 13:53These are things that harm us and he's trying to keep us from
- 13:55harm, right? He is no more guilty of
- 13:58punishing us for eternal damnation than a mother is
- 14:01guilty of killing her kids when she tells him not to play in the
- 14:05street. He's just trying to give us
- 14:06rules for right living. He's not trying to enforce his
- 14:10oppression on us. He's not trying to enforce
- 14:11anything else. He wants us to live free,
- 14:13healthy and happy lives. And so he sets forth rules to
- 14:17help make that easier. And he is with us like 100% of
- 14:21the time. There is there's no place you
- 14:23can go. Like, for instance, if, if I'm
- 14:25like, you know, I think God's turned his back on me.
- 14:28So I'm going to turn my back on God and I and I turn around,
- 14:31he's right there still right in front of me.
- 14:33And then I'm like, well, no, God, you don't understand.
- 14:35I turn my back on him again and he's right there, right in front
- 14:37of me again. Like he doesn't, he doesn't give
- 14:39us the chance to ever be a part right.
- 14:42He respects our privacy and he wants us to come to him on it,
- 14:46on our on our own. So that shows like an intimacy
- 14:49with him that says, Hey, I trust you with this problem.
- 14:51I know you already know it, but I want you to hear it from my
- 14:54lips. Then I trust you.
- 14:55And this is where this intimate relationship with him comes.
- 14:58And and you're allowed to be upset.
- 15:00You're allowed to yell at him. If you think you're hurting
- 15:02God's feelings, you're out of your mind, right?
- 15:05This he's, he's not just the God of the universe, He's God of his
- 15:08own emotions as well. You're not, you're not hurting
- 15:10his feelings. You're not telling him anything
- 15:11he didn't expect to hear. And and so when you had your
- 15:15cry, you had your yell, you had your moment.
- 15:17Just make sure you come back, make sure you come back to him
- 15:20and, and you don't have to be done to be done being angry with
- 15:23them either, right? You could be going through some
- 15:26things and, and really just need to, to yell at him.
- 15:29And one day you may, and I hope it's soon, figure out that he
- 15:33has never been against you, that he is for you, and that he is
- 15:36not holding you accountable to your anger and he is not blaming
- 15:40you for your trauma in the past. It has created the person that
- 15:43you are today. He doesn't look at you and say,
- 15:46wow, if only you weren't abused when you were three, if only at
- 15:508 years old you had listened to your parents, you wouldn't be
- 15:52having this problem now. I don't know what I can do with
- 15:54you. He doesn't.
- 15:55He doesn't do that. He doesn't blame us for our past
- 15:57trauma. He looks at us and says, I'm
- 15:59glad that you're here now. And often times we look at him
- 16:04from across A room and it's like a pile of garbage in the middle
- 16:07of this room. This is our sin.
- 16:08And we say, I can't go to him because I had this big pile of
- 16:12sin in the way. I better start cleaning this up
- 16:15before I can go to God. And that's not what Scripture
- 16:17says. Scripture says that while we
- 16:19were still sinners, he sent his Son to die for us.
- 16:22And so when we realized that God walks around that pile onto the
- 16:27science side that we're on and he puts his arm around us, he
- 16:30says, man, that's a lot of garbage.
- 16:33Let's get started. Not you better get started.
- 16:36Let's get started, right. He works with us through that
- 16:40and he's he's able to go around anywhere in the room he wants.
- 16:43We don't have to clean the room for him.
- 16:45He knows it's dirty. We're not going to grandma's
- 16:47house with the plastic on the furniture.
- 16:49You know, he knows that your house is a demo.
- 16:51It's cool. He's OK with it.
- 16:53He's still going to knock on the door, still answer the door.
- 16:57And he is for you. Absolutely.
- 17:00Amen, Shelly. God has done so many amazing
- 17:02things in your guys's life, but what is he doing now?
- 17:07So I was looking for a way to make extra income because,
- 17:12Grant, we all need extra money. And I was like, what am I good
- 17:16at and what do I like to do that I can make more money doing?
- 17:19And the next day I was curling my hair in the bathroom where I
- 17:23get my downloads. And he's like, why don't you
- 17:26talk about me and share it with the world?
- 17:30And I was like, OK, And then I went to YouTube University and
- 17:34like, what does that look like? And so I figured, oh, a podcast.
- 17:38And then I got this list. Everyone, everyone says, get
- 17:42this mic, get this, get this, get this.
- 17:45And so I was telling people at work, am I one, the one guy at
- 17:49work, he worked at a recording studio in India.
- 17:53He's like, no, no, no, don't listen to that.
- 17:55You want this mic? You want this, this equipment.
- 17:58And he and I, I got it approved by the the pastor at the church
- 18:05who was very familiar with audio stuff.
- 18:08And he's like, yeah, he's right. And I was like, OK.
- 18:11And so I knew what to get. And then he even taught me how
- 18:13to use it and, and he let me borrow microphones until we
- 18:19could afford our own. And so like, it was just like
- 18:22when you're in walking in the will of God, he will just lay
- 18:26out everything, you know, and just one thing after another.
- 18:31So I figured it would be great if he could join me.
- 18:34And so we started recording some episodes like where the idea
- 18:37came from. And then a little bit about us
- 18:40because we have our own miracle stories, like he, his dad had a
- 18:43vasectomy and he was stillborn. So that's a miracle.
- 18:47Raised Buddhist, but he's sharing God with the world.
- 18:50That's a miracle. So like there were all these
- 18:52things and then and then God just leads us to the next person
- 18:56and the next person. And it's just so cool because
- 18:59we'll have people share what the Holy Spirit wants them to share.
- 19:02Like we have no agendas. No, like we're going to talk
- 19:05about this. We're going to talk about this.
- 19:07But when you play all the episodes together, it's like a
- 19:11well curated playlist and everything just flows from one
- 19:15thing to another, one episode to another.
- 19:17And it's just so neat because someone will talk about
- 19:19something. It's like, oh, we talked about
- 19:21that last week or the week before and it's just just so
- 19:24neat how all the different connections and then a lot of
- 19:28people, even they know each other and he's just grown it and
- 19:33it's just really cool. I love it.
- 19:36And I hated it. Yeah, at first.
- 19:39I'm, I mean, I, I'm, I'm fairly introverted.
- 19:42I seem extroverted because I, I have ADHD and and I like to
- 19:45match the personalities of people around me.
- 19:48So I make no, make no mistake, I wear masks.
- 19:51Most people try to hide them. I will tell you up fraud.
- 19:53I wear masks. I can't help it.
- 19:56And I, I hated doing it. I hate, I hated the whole
- 20:01concept of it. I hated ruining part of my day
- 20:03for it. Like it, it just, it just
- 20:05murdered my soul. And I would tell the guests that
- 20:09like on the show, like, I don't, I don't want to do that.
- 20:11Like, I hate this. And she would got mad at me.
- 20:13She's like, hey, don't do that. I don't like when you do that.
- 20:14It's like, all right. So I just kept it to myself,
- 20:16myself loathing, like, I hate this.
- 20:18We just kept it to myself. And then one day, again, walking
- 20:21into a kitchen, I heard very, very distinctly that, but this
- 20:28podcast was wasn't just hers, it was mine because we're two
- 20:32people get married, you know, 2 become one.
- 20:35And so we'll go back to that same lesson that I learned about
- 20:38the the exponentially more powerful and right back to the,
- 20:41Hey, you're cleaving on your wife.
- 20:42This is this is my podcast. He just told the person who's
- 20:45going to listen and and actually implement it because I would
- 20:49have like, OK, Lord, whatever, Like, you know, I'm not going to
- 20:51do that. You know, that I don't have any
- 20:53desire to talk to anybody. So we talked to the one that
- 20:55did. And so I had a different set of,
- 20:59of attitude adjustment, you could say from the Lord about
- 21:03this podcast and what we do with it.
- 21:06And so I don't, I don't begrudging.
- 21:07I like to tell the story now because I love it when God
- 21:09humbles me. I learn everything the hard way.
- 21:12And God knows that he's he's no stranger of taking this tool out
- 21:15from underneath me. I love it.
- 21:18Two things. One, most people have prayer
- 21:20closets. Josh has a prayer kitchen.
- 21:24That's where God speaks to him. Most people, God speaks in their
- 21:27prayer closet, but no, he speaks to you in your prayer kitchen.
- 21:30So I love it. And then too, I feel you, Josh.
- 21:33I totally feel you. Because when God told me to
- 21:36start this podcast, I'm like, God, you know how I hate being
- 21:39on camera? I hate this passion, but you
- 21:42told me to do it, so I'll do it. And you know, he's faithful.
- 21:47He knows I love talking to people.
- 21:48I'm a people person. I am an introvert sometimes
- 21:51because I, but not anymore really.
- 21:53I, I can't really say that anymore.
- 21:55I used to be somewhat of an invert and introvert, but I just
- 21:59love people and I love talking to people.
- 22:01I love hearing stories. I love sharing stories.
- 22:04Honestly, that was Jesus too, right?
- 22:06He loves people and that's what we're called to do is love
- 22:09people. And I get to meet lots of them
- 22:12doing this podcast. So I love it.
- 22:15I just didn't want to talk to people either, you know?
- 22:17I see stammered a lot about that one.
- 22:20Got a lot of excuses, you know? But, but, but, but, but Lord, I
- 22:22stutter. He's like, no, you're doing it
- 22:25great. Exactly like I'm hearing from
- 22:27like I interviewed a guest recently and they were like,
- 22:30wow, from a year ago to now, you have like grown so much in your
- 22:35in your interviewing and everything.
- 22:37I was like, oh, that's Jesus. He knew what was in there that
- 22:40needed to come out. And you know, Shelly, do you
- 22:42have any last minute encouragements for our audience?
- 22:45You know, God is always there. He's going to show up.
- 22:49And my favorite Bible verse has always been ask and you shall
- 22:52receive and just go and enter into His courts with
- 22:56Thanksgiving and praise that basically takes you right there
- 23:00in the throne room. Picture him and then just ask
- 23:03Him. Lay it out what's on your heart
- 23:06because He will show up. He will answer you.
- 23:09Some people like to do journaling.
- 23:11They'll ask a question, but be prepared to write what He says
- 23:15because he wants to talk to you and he wants to have that
- 23:17relationship with you. And when you have that
- 23:21relationship, it changes everything.
- 23:25And, you know, he will speak to you in all kinds of different
- 23:30ways, whether, you know, it's heart-shaped rocks,
- 23:34heart-shaped, you know, paintings on the sidewalk.
- 23:38Just when you look at the right moment, they're like, little God
- 23:42winks. And it's just a way that you can
- 23:44feel his love. An example, I love when I'm
- 23:48finished parking in a parking spot and the song ends right
- 23:51there and then, like, like, oh, I love that.
- 23:54And you just ain't makes him laugh.
- 23:57He's like, but it's just a way that he speaks to me.
- 24:01Then just like, yeah, she likes that.
- 24:03You know, I get all the green lights.
- 24:04He doesn't. But like that, that warms my
- 24:07heart. I love it.
- 24:08So God wants just be on the lookout and he will show up and
- 24:12show off and just ask him to do that.
- 24:15And the things that you will see and feel.
- 24:20And it's just, it's just really, really cool because what you
- 24:23seek you will find. And so Matthew 633 says seek
- 24:26first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these
- 24:29things will be added unto you. So just seek him out and just
- 24:34see how good he can show off. I love that, I love it.
- 24:40I totally agree. Probably doesn't make much sense
- 24:43when she was talking about heart-shaped rocks and
- 24:44heart-shaped spray paint. But when I was unemployed for
- 24:48the 27 1/2 months and after my 40 day fast, God started waking
- 24:53me up at about 3:00 AM and I used to wake up with, you know,
- 24:57yes Lord, here I am. And then I just go back to bed
- 25:00and after probably about four days of that, I, I just thought
- 25:05maybe I should just start walking and, and talking to him.
- 25:08So I was walking the neighborhoods where we lived at
- 25:113:00 in the morning. And one of these mornings when I
- 25:14was out walking and just talking to him and I wasn't really
- 25:16hearing a whole lot from him. I'm just talking to him, just
- 25:19morning time with him. And I told him it was a little
- 25:23light rain, a little light drizzle going on.
- 25:25And I love that. So it didn't deter me.
- 25:29And I said, Lord, I don't, I don't know why you get me up in
- 25:32the morning. I don't understand why you want
- 25:34to have these talks. I feel like I'm doing all the
- 25:36talking. And he said almost audibly in my
- 25:43ear, but through my own voice, it's because I love you.
- 25:46I was like, you know, I, I have a hard time taking that
- 25:49receiving that because my father usually displayed a lot of
- 25:54conditional love, like I had to perform in order to receive the
- 25:58praise. I had to perform in order to see
- 26:00the love. And I believe that we really
- 26:01treat our Heavenly Father like we, we were treated by our
- 26:05earthly father. It's because it's the only basis
- 26:07we know, the only basis we understand.
- 26:09And so I put my head down because I couldn't look him in
- 26:12the eye essentially in my mind. And when I looked down, right at
- 26:15my feet, right where I'd stopped in the road, was a heart spray
- 26:18painted on the street, right dead in front of me.
- 26:21As if he knew, I say, as if as if he knew that at that moment,
- 26:26in my weakness, because he knew that I couldn't make eye
- 26:29contact, that I would look down and I would see that to
- 26:31reinforce what he had just told me.
- 26:34It was the most incredible thing.
- 26:35I couldn't wait to share it when they finally woke up hours
- 26:38later. Oh my goodness, I love it.
- 26:42You know, God is so good because and I love how he does similar
- 26:47things like in my alters of gratitude episode, that it was a
- 26:51Thanksgiving episode. I share a very similar story,
- 26:54but with a bird. And so you definitely need to go
- 26:57watch that episode because that I don't know, it's just the
- 27:01coolest thing and how God shows us how much he loves us.
- 27:04And that's what he did for me through a bird.
- 27:06And I love that he did it for you through a heart shape, heart
- 27:11spray painted on the concrete. So that's awesome.
- 27:14I love it. Josh and Shelly, thank you so
- 27:16much for sharing your stories with us today.
- 27:18If you want to listen to well, First off, go like and
- 27:22subscribe, witness the wonder, but go and follow Josh and
- 27:27Shelly's podcast, God's Goodness.
- 27:29It's God's goodness podcast, correct?
- 27:32Go follow their podcast because there's lots of stories on
- 27:34there. And I'm going to be on there as
- 27:37well. And so you can go listen to my
- 27:39story. I share a lot more in depth
- 27:41story there than I have even shared here on Witness the
- 27:44Wonder. For the record, you guys got a
- 27:46lot more stories out of me in your podcast than I've even
- 27:50shared of my story on here. So go follow them, like
- 27:54subscribe and do the same for Witness the Wonder.
- 27:57You know, I appreciate you guys so much for coming on here and
- 28:00sharing all your stories. And to everyone who's listening,
- 28:04my hope is that this conversation encourages you to
- 28:09reflect on your own life and notice that God is always at
- 28:13work in your story, too. Thank you for having us.
- 28:17Thank you. You're so welcome.