Q&A With Koloff- #58

This is Andy Thomas from the Masculine Journey Podcast where we discover what it means to be a wholehearted man. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds.

Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. He weighs 123 kilos. The Russian nightmare, Nikita Kolov. Welcome to another episode of Q&A with Kolov, the Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back to another episode, another segment of Q&A with Kolov. That's right, questions and answers where I flip the table. Well, do you flip the table or do I flip the table?

I don't know. This is where you get the opportunity to ask me questions and typically these are not rehearsed, they're not submitted, they're just spontaneous questions and so I have no idea what you might ask. Hey, if you'd like to get a personal phone call from the Devil's Nightmare, well, the Russian nightmare, Nikita Kolov. Then hey, submit your questions to kolov.net.

Go to my website, kolov.net, submit your questions or at least a request that you'd like to be on the Q&A show and you'll get a personal phone call from me and we'll talk and answer your questions. With me today though, in studio, I have a pastor, man of God, Cory Oliver in the studio with me today. Cory, welcome to the Q&A with Kolov. Oh, I appreciate you having me, Nikita. Well, it's great to have you here and great to have you in studio. A lot of times, like I just said, I'll make a personal phone call to somebody but it's a lot of fun too to have them in studio and be able to look eye to eye with that individual. And so here you are, but I said pastor Cory Oliver, so tell our listeners just real quick.

I mean, where do you pastor? I know you've got a family. Tell them real quick a little bit about you. Well, thank you. I'm Cory Oliver. I'm saved, sanctified, full of the Holy Spirit and God's no respecter of any man, woman or child.

But He loves us and He wants to fill us with His presence if we say yes to His will and His way. Nikita, I serve Orange Chapel just outside of Chapel Hill, Carrboro area. I have... North Carolina. North Carolina.

Because we have listeners all over the world. That's why I have to qualify. Yeah, well, the Carolina Blue. There you go. Chapel Hill. And yeah, I have a beautiful bride named Vera and two adult sons, Brandon, 24, recently married to Christina, and my youngest son, Jaden, 20 years old. Not married. Not married.

Single currently. All right. Yeah. All right. Now, they live in Chapel Hill. Where are they? Well, my son is in the Air Force, Brandon, and he is there in Kansas.

Okay. And Jaden, the 20 year old, the youngest, is on Hatteras Island in Buxton, North Carolina. What's he doing there? He lives on the island and he works and... Wow. Yeah. Enjoying island life. Yeah. That was one of my former appointments years ago.

I served Hatteras Island for a good number of years out there on the coast. Suffering for Jesus. You out there in ministry? Yeah.

Yeah, you remind me of my daughter, Kendra, and her husband, Brandon, who are suffering for Jesus out in Maui, Hawaii. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Like everybody should be so rough, right? Right.

Maui, Hawaii. And Brandon, if you're listening, thank you for serving our great nation. So, yeah, appreciate him serving in our military. And so, well, very good. So, you got the pastoring thing going. Now, we met in Fort Middle South Carolina a while back at a conference. They have this conference every year called Vision, Vision Conference, Morning Star Ministries, Fort Middle South Carolina, Pastor Rick Joiner. They've been having this conference, I didn't realize, like 25, 30 years. And it's always the tail end of the year.

They ring in the New Year celebrating, worshipping Jesus. Hundreds and hundreds of people that attend these Vision Conferences. I love, Corey, the name of it, Vision, because that fits right in with me. Like, I'm the guy who likes to review, you know, take some time and review the past year, but then set time to look, seek the Lord for what, set goals and what the next year might look like. So, the Vision Conference is perfect for me. Like, Lord, give me a vision for the future and let me learn from this past, you know, the past years. So, anyway, but we met there and we just connected, right?

We just kind of hit it off. Well, Nikita, and you model Christ in what you were just saying, because Jesus, remember, unrolled the scrolls, looked at Isaiah from the past and said, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. And that was helping to execute moving forward. And vision is a preferred future. So, yeah, we look at the past. We kind of make revisions and ask God, where's the next step even? And, yeah, I think that that's just the mantle of leadership you have in your life.

I appreciate it. I'm reminded of a scripture, you know, the one that comes to mind, there's a number of them, but one is, as many are the plans in a man's heart, but the Lord's purposes prevail, right? Exactly. But my takeaway with that is, we're still supposed to plan, right?

Without a vision, the people perish, right? So, we're still supposed to plan, but I think the key is, I think, you jump in on this, chime in on this, I think the key is plan, but submit those plans to the Lord that allow Him, I call it, I say that, allow Him to call an audible if He needs to, or if He wants to, and say, I think we're going to tweak that plan slightly and do this. You're on the right path, you're on the right track, but let me tweak it and steer you over in this direction. What do you think?

Absolutely. I do believe that. I also believe that He will let you work diligently towards something and then just say, okay, stop.

And that was certainly a part of my past, whereas I was invested into a lot of leadership. And then, you know, almost in a short period of time, everything was just shelved, and I said, God, what about this? He says, it's okay, it's there. Go back to where, you know, you first, you know, kind of like a first love, but it wasn't that way. And just, you've got this now, it's not going away. And I was kind of like shocked because I was like, this is it. But no, God works a mosaic in our life.

I mean, many, many dimensions. He just wants us to be yielded. Yielded.

Well, that's the key thing. Yielded in the Word that comes to mind is obedience, right? You said He'll allow you to do this, and then He'll say stop, or here's what came to mind.

If you're not yielded or submitted or walking in obedience, and you don't stop, then the Word that came to mind, Cory, was crash. Oh, yeah. Well, a perfect example of, yeah.

Boo, go ahead. A perfect example is just Abraham. You know, all of that vision, all of that leadership to the very point to where he finally gets the promise. And then he takes him up to Mount Moriah with Isaac, and God will supply the sacrifice. He had that dagger above his heart, and that could have been, you know, and then God stops that plan and says, okay, I know that you're vulnerable, Isaac's vulnerable, but I was vulnerable, too.

Will somebody trust me by faith? So, you know, there's all those, I mean, so, yeah. A lot of dynamics at work there, isn't there? Exactly. But I think the key operative words here, and we're going to move on and get to your questions. Okay.

Are words like submit, which not real popular in many circles, yield, surrender, obedience. Those are some real key words, right, that we'll just embrace those. Man, the journey, not that it won't be without its trials and tribulations, but the journey will just be so much more fluid. Anyway, all right, let's move on, though. This is the Q&A with Koloff, and let's have some fun here and give you the opportunity to ask a couple, three questions, and here we go. Fire away. Well, I know that you are a man of God, and you're deeply entrenched in the Word, so I wanted to kind of ask someone seriously that would kind of open up your listeners heart to who you are.

Okay. Because we hear your testimony, but then sometimes the why might not, we might not get there, I don't know. So to you, Nikita, who is Jesus and why? Who is Jesus and why?

Well, for me, He's everything. I mean, prior to my salvation, prior to 17 October 1993, I lived for me. I mean, I lived for myself. I mean, my motives were different. I mean, the reason why I did everything was different, and it was me, myself, and I. That was the focus.

What's best for me? If you had met me back in those BC days, Corey, you would have met not only the Russian nightmare, but a guy who would, the perspective was, it's my world, you happen to be living in it, Corey, and if you don't like it, don't let the door hit you on the rear end on the way out. You know, that would have been my attitude and my perspective. And all of that shifted when I was introduced to the man Jesus in October of 1993. I knew the story. I had heard the story prior to that.

You know, the man, you know, spikes driven through his hands and feet and the spear through his side. But the story never made the 18 inch trip from my head down to my heart. But on that day, he entered my heart. He says, open your heart to me, invite me in.

I'll come sup with you and move with you. And I did that. And life went from a life of success and unfulfillment to immediately a sense of fulfillment that morning from that decision. And then everything changed.

It's been an incredible journey of sanctification since then. And so he's my all in all. He's my everything. He's my my rock of which my life is now built on. He's my foundation. And my goal is each and every day, come the end of the day, is to leave a mark and not a stain.

Wow. That if I'm going to call myself a Christ follower, that I want to do my absolute best to honor him today and live a life that's worthy of him today, honor him. Hopefully fully pleasing in every way. Thoughts, words, action. Which leads to bearing fruit for every good work and then growing, maturing in the knowledge of God. And by the way, for those in case you're wondering, I essentially just quoted Colossians 110. Yes.

A life scripture. Anyway, there's the short answer to your question. OK, this one's going to be a little bit more of a challenge. Oh, my gosh. More than that one? OK. All right. Here we go. Because you just that was kind of your starting place and then your M.O., right?

OK. And you do have the rock now. So what has been your darkest moment or pain since you've been a born again follower of Jesus Christ? And how did you come through or overcome?

And how did it change you if it did? That's like 10 questions. That's not one, Cory. Hey, I got to take advantage of this. Wow.

That's like 10. Well, my biggest struggle and I've been transparent, I feel, in other conversations and other Q&As. But my biggest challenge, if I'm totally transparent and very vulnerable, has been in relationships with the opposite sex and more specifically marriage. That's been a real struggle for me.

And, you know, there's not enough time on this show really to go into all of the details on that. I believe it takes two to dance. You can tango by yourself, but it's just not the same thing. You can cha-cha by yourself, but it's always more fun when you've got a dance partner, right?

Or at least can be, right? But that's been very challenging. Relationships has been, and the Lord has taught me through really those failed relationships, kind of where my own shortcomings and how I contributed to that, while at the same time even highlighting some of their shortcomings that contributed to that failed relationship. If I remember part two, three, and four of your question, because I think part of it was how did you overcome that? And the short answer is just the grace of God and not going the direction I chose to go so that even though that relationship may have failed, I didn't run from God, I ran to God. I didn't draw away from Him, I chose to draw closer to Him.

And so my relationship with Him has become more and more and more and more important in terms of that intimacy that I have with Him, that if I'm never in another relationship again, I have that relationship to lean on and be content and okay with, and if should He bless me or grace me with another relationship at some point in the future that I walk into it with a different perspective than I've had from any other relationship in the past. Praise God. That's good.

I hope that answers your variety of questions. It was very good. I did kind of, I'm trying to get my money's worth, you know what I'm saying?

I hear you. But you know, any masterful theologian has to ponder and say lie and think on these things, so yeah. Okay, let me see here where we're going to go because I have, okay, okay, I'm just going to ask you this one then because you are, this is a nationally syndicated broadcast, right? Well, worldwide. Worldwide. People worldwide can listen to this segment right here. Okay, fantastic.

Well, this will help, be helpful then. What do you sense God is saying today? And I'm talking about 2022, some people said we're in a new era, which I kind of see.

Some once again use that same language of a season. But what do you think God is saying to us today? And I think, you know, in all of what we see, biblically, historically today, and what is the greatest need for the world and how can the church respond? The body of Christ. The greatest need is Jesus.

That's the simplest answer I can get. That's the greatest need, Jesus. I mean, all of the division and angst with people and ethnic groups and governments and just everybody, you know, kind of fighting against each other at the very core, at the very foundation, Corey, is Jesus. That if people were to just surrender, submit their life to Him and then follow the simple commandments that He gave when they asked Him, what's the greatest commandment? And He said, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And in the second, it's just as great, love others as yourself. If at a very foundation, if we just, all of us just embraced that, I think we'd see a very different world and eventually we will. I think it's called heaven. Exactly.

We eventually will actually get to experience that. Those who are Christ followers, okay? And the other part of your question is, and essentially it's a message that I am, the Lord currently has me parked on, that I am ministering to the body of Christ. Right. And that is to be ready, to be watchful, that even, I'm reminded of Matthew, I think Matthew 24, either 2413 or 2513, that He said, nobody knows the hour or the day when the sun is going to return. Now we know this from Scripture. He is returning.

Absolutely. We know that. He's coming back. And for those out there, whether you believe it or not, that's really honestly irrelevant at this point.

He is coming back. And if you don't believe it, you know, eternity is a long time to be wrong. Absolutely.

A painfully wrong way. You might want to consider or reconsider that the Bible is truth, absolute truth. Okay, so what I believe is that everything we're seeing going on is setting the stage, I like to use the word foreshadowing. I mean, you could go all the way back to the garden and see how it was a foreshadowing of the coming, of the coming marriage supper of the Lamb, starting with that very first marriage, and once Christ comes back for His bride and we celebrate that at the marriage supper of the Lamb and then we spend eternity with Christ. So, I believe He's saying, you know, get ready, you know, be ready, help others get ready.

You said, how can the church embrace that? Help others get ready. So don't just be ready yourself.

Oh, I'm ready. I'm like one of the five virgins, wise virgins that's ready for His return. Because even though the bridegroom is maybe delayed right now, He's going to come like a thief in the night. So you better be ready. He said, I'm going to come, when I come it's going to be quick. Go read Revelation chapter 20, 21, 22. He said, when I come, it's going to be quick. So it's like a blink of an eye.

So if you're not ready, then you end up being, I guess, like one of the five foolish virgins who weren't ready, who didn't have their lamps filled with oil and were just not ready for the bridegroom's return. So be ready, stay ready, and help others get ready. That would be my answer to that. All right. That's fantastic. All right. We've got time for one more.

Oh, wow. Have you got one more? I do. I have three more, but one is fine. Okay. Okay, Nikita, let's do something fun.

And we're just going to wrap it, blast these. Favorite color? Black.

Okay. Man in black. Because the Johnny Cash, come on. I fell into a burning ring of fire and went down, down, down. The flames went higher. And it burned, burned, burned that ring of fire, that ring of fire. I hope I just didn't turn off a bunch of lids.

They're like, I ain't ever listened to that show ever again. Hey, but I want to tell you why. And typically on Sunday mornings, I usually wear black pants and black shirt. I wear a colorful sport coat a lot of times.

But as a reminder for the sinful life that God put me out of and now that I'm a saint. Right. Okay. All right. Very good.

Even though I used to be an automotive paint and body man, so black is not really a color. Moving on. Bible verse, I think you already said your favorite Bible verse. Colossians 1.10. Colossians 1.10. Look it up. What's the life verse?

Colossians 1.10. All right. Well, look it up. Can't tell you.

All right. Bible story. Bible story.

Gosh. I don't know. Sermon on the Mount. Sermon on the Mount.

Praise the Lord. Favorite food? Mmm. Food? Just in general? Yeah.

Like. Cheesecake. Cheesecake.

There you go. And Derek Queen Blizzard. He already brought up cheesecake in the previous episode.

Derek Queen Blizzard. I love cheesecake. Okay. Also favorite day of the week and why? Mmm.

My Sabbath day, and that doesn't necessarily have to be Sunday because I'm not a legalist. Exactly. Yeah. So my Sabbath is whatever day I just pause, hit the breaks, and pause to reflect, to regenerate. Am I saying that right? Regenerate.

It can be. I mean, you're in Nikita. Reinvigorate. I am still learning English. Remember?

Russian nightmares. All right. Still learning the English language. Reinvigorate. Re-energize. Re-energize my spirit, man. Rest my mind. Rest my body. So that each day, one day of the week, that can be different days for me just because of my travel schedule and all that. So, yeah.

My Sabbath day. Well, I don't know if anybody's ever asked you those questions before, but. No, you pulled up some good ones, man. Yeah, man.

You pulled up some good ones. We've got our pastor, Corey Oliver, in the studio today with The Devil's Nightmare and Nikita Koloff. Tune in for another segment, another episode of Q&A with Koloff.

Go to koloff.net and submit a request. And you, too, can be aired worldwide. And let all your friends here, you and I, converse. God bless you, Corey. God bless you, Nikita. Thank you, God, for Truth Radio. God bless you.