Prayers And Proverbs

This is Hans Schile from the Finishing Well Podcast.

On Finishing Well, we help you make godly choices about Medicare, long-term care, and your money. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

This is the Truth Network. All right, for my YouTube channel, if not for God with Mike Zwick, just like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell so you'll be alerted when we have our next video. Welcome to If Not For God, stories of hopelessness that turn to hope.

Here is your host, Mike Zwick. All right, If Not For God with Mike Zwick, I've got my good friend Robbie Dilmore back here today, the Christian car guy, and we were talking about what exactly we were going to discuss. And I think what we're going to look at today is Proverbs 24, verse 16. And I've got the ESV right here in front of me, the English Standard Version, that says, For the righteous fall seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumbles in times of calamity. And you know, it's funny, we all stumble, we all fall, we all mess up. But that version of the Bible actually says that the wicked stumble in times of calamity so that we say, well, you know, we were as Christians, we have tough times, we get back up, we have tough times, we get back up.

But it says that if we don't, if we give up, when times are bad, it actually uses the word wicked. But Robbie, you've had your fair share of obstacles, right? Yeah, well, you know, it's interesting how you always end up with that it was the best of times, the worst of times, right? I don't, you know, there's no doubt that God used so many different trials in my life to, to really bear a lot of fruit. I mean, apparently, I needed a lot of, you know, I guess, you know, he is the gardener, and there's a lot of pruning when it comes to, you know, when you grow to be six foot six. He pruned much along the way, but I'm so grateful, because really, when I look back at any health problems I had, or business problems I had, or sin problems I had, you know, and a lot of times, I like the way Spurgeon puts this, that he says, you know, we often need to get a good whiff of our inner cesspool. Yeah, I was actually talking about good friend Christy Real, and I told her, I said, I've noticed, as God has taken me into new directions, as God has taken me higher, I believe in closer to him, I'll notice that when I start to hit these high highs, that the enemy will actually come in and try to ruin it.

I'll give you an example. I've been praying for people to be healed, and I have seen healings. I mean, I've seen amazing healings. Before Christmas, a few weeks before, at the beginning of December, I prayed for a lady, and when I prayed for her, I think it was her back or her knee or something, and I said, well, how do you feel now? After I prayed, she said, what are you, a magician or something? I said, no, I'm not a magician. I said, but that was Jesus. And there was another lady I prayed for the next day or the same day, and miraculously, instantly, she was healed.

So guess what happens right before Christmas? I become deathly ill. I mean, I become so ill and so sick that I just, what is going on here? So recently, and going back to yesterday, or two days ago, I had actually prayed for, I was driving down the street in Hillsborough, North Carolina, and I was going to this one lady's house, but the Lord told me to turn right. You need to go see this other lady. I have a older lady. I haven't seen her in a while, and I started talking to her, and after a while, she said, I needed to talk to somebody because I had lost my insurance. So I wrote her an insurance policy, which was great, but I started talking to her about the Lord as well, and I don't know where her husband is spiritually, but she's into it. You know, she's into the Lord, and so the end, I said, I was telling her about the people that I was praying for and seeing healings, and it's the Lord, by the way.

It's not Mike Zwick. I can't even heal this broken potato chip in front of me, but, and I said, what do you need prayer for? And she says, my knee has been killing me, and I prayed for her, and I said, how are you feeling? She stood up, and she goes, it's better, and I actually had to go to the restroom. So I went to the restroom, and I don't think they thought that I could hear them, but I could, and her husband said to her, he said, are you really feeling better? She goes, yeah, I'm feeling better, and so I believe that that was a witness to him, and I was sharing, and of course, when I pray for people to be healed, I'm sharing the gospel. Later on that day, I actually went to the lady that I was going to see at first, and we were just talking about the Lord. This lady's on fire for Christ, and, you know, I tried to get her an insurance policy.

She didn't qualify, but that didn't matter, and I spoke to her at the end. I said, what do you need prayer for? What's one thing that you need prayer for? And she says, I have this sciatic nerve, this back, and it goes all the way down my leg, and it's killing me, and it won't stop, and I prayed for her. I said, how are you feeling? She goes, Mike, it's better.

It's gone. I'm like, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Well, later on that afternoon, I get this phone call from somebody who was just absolutely nasty and just threatening to me, and I said, Lord, what is going on? And that night, I became depressed, but I started to praise the Lord, and I started to, you know, I started to feel better, and I just praised the Lord the next morning, and I spoke to my good friend, Christie Real, and I told her what was going on, and she says, Mike, she says, whenever the Lord starts to do a big or a good work in your life, she says the enemy is going to try to come in and aggravate you or try to stop you, and I said, the truth is, Christie, I said, I've met a lot of people, and a lot of people, when the enemy comes in to try to stop it, it works. They'll stop because they don't want the opposition, and she said something to me that was pretty cool. She said, Mike, she said, the truth is, this is higher levels, higher devils. She said, but if you just keep going on and you ignore the enemy trying to yap at you in your ear, then you'll be victorious because we've won the victory over the enemy.

You know, it's really cool. When you look at the 119 Psalm, you know, it's done in sections, and the dalud is the fourth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, but if you hear the word David, you hear the dalud in it, right, because it's dalud vav dalud, David, you might have heard people refer to him as, but nonetheless, so it gives you a good idea of his identity was, you know, a lot of people would say as the beloved, but if you do a study of that letter, it has to do with a really humble, low place, okay? It really does, and so the very first verse— God has definitely humbled both of us, Robbie, right? Well, you know, in order to grow in the faith, you got to get into the ground, right? And so the very first verse that is in the dalud section, and again, realize that King David wrote this, he said, my soul cleaved to the dust, Lord, quicken me according to your word. In other words, you can hear in this dalud section, it almost sounds like he's bipolar, because he goes from such lows to such highs in this section that you can kind of see that, oh my goodness, in order to get an unbelievable faith, right, you got to end up in the dirt. In other words, for that plant to grow, it's first got to die in the ground, and you can see that that's where King David takes us. The last verse, right? And if you just follow these verses, if you go through all eight of them, you'll see they're up and down, up and down, and then he lands on this with the last verse in the dalud section said, I will run in the path of your commandments when thou enlargest my hearts. So, you know, what a cool thing it would be, when you think about it, to literally run where God wants us to be with this great big whole heart that obviously King David had, but where it came from was the dirt, okay?

Because in order for your vessel to get full, it first has to get empty. And I often think that a lot of my life would be a picture of God letting the air out of my bag. Oh yeah, I mean, and sometimes you wonder and you wonder and you wonder, but Robbie, I see this with you, is that I think what the Lord wants to see, and when I look at Proverbs 24 16, it says, though a righteous man falls seven times, seven times he rises again, you know, the Lord knows that we're going to make mistakes.

God knows I have. But I'm reminded of the verse and it's Hebrews 12 verses one through three, and I'm looking at the New King James Version, but it reminds me, Robbie, that we're not alone, because it says, therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. And when I look at that, Jesus was persecuted.

Jesus, I mean, they tried to, the enemy tried everything that he could do to get at Jesus. And I'm thinking about when Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days, he tried to get him with his pride. He said, he said, you bow down to me. The enemy said this to Jesus.

He says, I'll give you the whole world. You know, and Jesus didn't say, no, you can't do that. He says, no, he says, I'm not going to do that. The enemy says, if you're really the son of God, turn the stone over here into a piece of bread and eat it. Jesus didn't say, no, I can't do it.

He didn't say that. He said, no, I'm not going to do that because the enemy was tempting him. Another time, uh, uh, the enemy came to him and I think he actually quoted, uh, it was the book of Psalms where he says, you know, jump off of this building and the Lord and his angels will save you. And he, and Jesus quoted back to him, Deuteronomy 6, 6, he says, do not test the Lord your God.

And so we are not alone. Number one, our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ went through just about hell on earth. Um, he, he was crucified on the cross. He was mocked.

Um, a lot of people came against him, but the cool thing was is he saw a lot of great victories here while he was on earth. Yeah, I I've been, um, my 2023 adventure has been in the book of Habakkuk. Right. And I came across these verses that literally blown my mind this week. I mean, I'm like, oh my goodness, because, you know, Habakkuk's actually a little hard to read. It's a little depressing because there's a lot of sin involved.

Right. And, and the setup at the beginning when he's going to see his vision is he's talking about the evil that he's seeing in his culture. And he talks about strivings and contentions and violence and iniquity and all these things. And then he says, therefore the law has gone slack. And it says, and justice never goes forth. And then he says the wicked encompass the righteous roundabout.

And therefore, you know, bad judgment goes forth. Well, what he's actually quoting, when you think about what he just said, and I'm, when I get to heaven, I'm going to ask Habakkuk this like Habakkuk, did you know kind of like Mary, did you know Habakkuk, did you know that you were quoting the 22nd Psalm there and that you would know that Jesus would be compassed about by evil, that, that, that, and again, where Habakkuk is going, if you go onto the second chapter, spoiler alert, he's going to the righteous will live by faith, but listen to what he, listen what he said. He said, the law will go slack when you look deep into the Hebrew of that.

And, you know, I would, okay. What he actually says is that the law would go silent. Well, Jesus, before Caiaphas, you might remember it says he held his peace, right? And Caiaphas charged him, like, I endure you, tell me, are you the Christ?

Right? And so when you think about it, I've always wondered, why did Jesus go silent right then? But the law doesn't need to stand to, to stand on its own. It stands without it. And so Jesus didn't need to cast his pearls before swine, right?

He was silent. So the law went slack in this moment. And the question is to back it, did you know? And then he said, he said this, which is amazing when you think about it, he's there with Caiaphas and he says, you said it, he said, you will see the son of man at the right hand of the father in glory and what he was quoting there, which Jesus loved to refer to himself as the son of man. He's, he's quoting Daniel chapter seven, where those guys who are obviously experts in the law would know that the Messiah was going to be seen by Daniel as the son of man and installed as the king of glory.

Right. And they would know exactly what that passion says. So when he says, you said it, and you're going to see the son of man, in other words, he's pretty much saying I'm then, which immediately, you know, they said, crucify him after he said that statement. But as I was perceiving, like Habakkuk was telling us so much, he's telling us number one, sometimes all sorts of shenanigans are going to go on about you.

And it would appear that the law has gone silent. You're not going to necessarily be hearing from Jesus right this minute. Cause he's not going to, he's not going to talk to all these people in iniquity and all this.

He is counting on all the writers to live by faith, right? You know, he's going to come through in the end of that and he's going to, and he's letting you know, at a time through a backing that he is right there and he is sitting at the right hand of God. And he is the son of man. And as I thought about this, Mike, just get your thoughts on it. You know, when I think about Jesus and he's in my heart, I don't necessarily think about him as a man, but he is, he is the son of man. He is still the son of Mary. And so what Daniel was seeing when you look at that passage in Daniel chapter seven, he was seeing a man up there because one is the son of man is, is the division that he described with the ancient of days. And so, you know, you see the cherubim affair in all these different beings up there in heaven. And then here comes this guy.

Whoa. Oh, that's Jesus. It's a guy that's the same guy who ate the fish, right? With Thomas and, and fixed breakfast for the disciples.

This guy is being installed right there. You get the picture. And I'd never really seen it so clearly as I was just thinking about, well, Habakkuk was describing and the, and the question I can't ask him when I get up there is Habakkuk. Did you know Habakkuk, did you know, you know, and I've heard this, I've heard this before. It says that the, uh, you know, we know that Christians as Christians will suffer persecution as Christians, we suffer opposition as Christians. We have hard times, but the world, the non-believers they suffer, they have hard times. They have deaths in their families. They have troubles. Um, but they do it without Jesus Christ. I mean, they do it without having a faith in someone, the son of God who can help them with everything. I mean, it's hard enough for me to do it, you know, walking with the Lord.

Cause I have tough times, Robbie, and I know you do too. I mean, I, you know, even, even with the truth network, weren't the towers just hit or something happened? Yeah, there were three that WSJS towers in, um, over a week's period of time, he cut down one, which again, this is life-threatening kind of stuff because these towers are, you know, whatever they are 300 feet in the air and the cables that support those are, you know, about as big around as your arm. And so to cut through one of these things, you don't just take a hacksaw and go do that, right? You got to literally use a very powerful saw in order to make that happen. And when you cut through something that has that kind of tension to it, when it cuts loose, if you don't know what you're doing, it's going to take your head off literally. And so this guy obviously was skilled at what he was doing and he was doing something really dangerous.

And then on top of that, which way is this thing going to fall and who might it fall on and who might it hurt in the process? Because there's people, you know, that could be around these tower sites. And so some of these times he cut it down. In fact, the last time in the, in broad daylight, like clearly, and it was, you know, pre-meditated as it could be cut down one few days later, he cut down the second and you would think, well, we had police out there. We had trail cameras, all sorts of stuff, but he had eyes on all that, figured out what he needed to do.

And it wasn't long, you know, come Monday, I think it was, or Tuesday, whatever, you know, he cut down the third one and wow. I mean, unbelievable. And there, and they, uh, wow. Yeah.

Well, I, first of all, I'm praying for the guy and this is what I saw with Stu is that he said, he's praying for this guy's salvation. Um, and then they're also trying to find the guy who did this. Yeah.

Cause you know, when somebody gets away with something like this, what's his next movie? You know, they keep up in the Annie and you know, feel invincible. Right. Right. Right. And so, you know, we don't know why, cause it seems insane, but again, you know, in equity, all these things that are back described, man. I mean, he was seeing this stuff and he, and he's, and he's asking why. Well, the, uh, you know, the, the interesting thing about all of this is that, you know, so when this happened and, and Stu saw Stu Epperson and the rest of you guys are here, you saw that somebody is trying to cut the towers.

You just decided to hang it up and say, Hey, this isn't for us anymore. Right. Oh, I can assure you that it wasn't even, in fact, you know, when it comes to Michael Carbone, you know, he reminds me a little bit of Clint Eastwood, you know, like if you mess with Clint Eastwood's girl, you're going to be in bad trouble. You know, like I remember one episode of, uh, this, this Spanish American guy was going after, um, um, Gunsmoke's girlfriend and, and, and, uh, this other guy walks up to me and go, senior, I'm glad I'm not you.

When Michael Carbone's on your tail, I'm telling you, uh, senior, I'm glad I'm not you. I mean, it, it, there's, it, it, it's a serious thing. Yeah. I mean, in order to, and wasn't always like this, but in order to be a Christian now in 2023, America, you have to have a little gusto. You have to have, you have to have a backbone because if not, you know, you're going to be torn apart by the enemy. But, you know, I love the verse in the Bible, Robbie, where it says, um, uh, it resists the devil and he will flee from you. So in other words, when you keep fighting, when you keep fighting, when you keep fighting for the Lord, and I know they say higher levels, higher devils, but, uh, jungle Jen and you, you remember her, she said, I like what she said. She says higher levels, higher angelic protection.

That's true. And, and, uh, my pastor who's Sam Hicks on Sunday said this, and I, it was really remarkable. Um, I've thought about it ever since he said it to say it and tremble when you pray. And he talked to what he was talking about is praying literally for governments like Daniel did like, you know, Daniel, obviously Satan trembled and a lot of angelic stuff went on when Daniel began to pray because this stuff couldn't go through from their standpoint. And so what a wonderful idea that, that you could be that bold as to go forth for your country to go forth for your family, like God, you need to come through here.

You need to go do this. You know, I found, I heard this fascinating lecture by this rabbi recently, because, you know, I love to listen to those guys. And, and he was talking about who they considered to be the strongest Jew of the, you know, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And you know who they would, and I never would have guessed this.

Who would you guess? Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, which three, which of the three would you say was the biggie from a standpoint of strength? I would say Isaac.

Correct. And you know why he said that? Because Isaac, Abraham was going to sacrifice his son. Isaac was the one who was going to be sacrificed and he went for it.

That's one way to put it. Yeah, that's interesting. But what they talked about was this, and it had to do with what you said, you got to be bold. They said, when Isaac prayed for Rebecca, you might remember she was barren and the Jews teach that she wasn't just barren, like, man, she was totally didn't have the equipment necessary in order to have children.

Okay. And so when he prayed to God, it says he entreated and it's a very neat word in Hebrew, what he said, it isn't, it's not your ordinary prayer. When he prayed to God that she would have children, that God literally was entreated. In other words, they're saying that Isaac was so strong. He got God to help his wife conceive. And if you can move God, you got what it takes, man. But the way he did that was through tremendous boldness. Right.

And what my friend Errol, um, who is the masculine journey with me and you know, he's an 81 year old saying, I dearly love. And I was talking to him about that just this morning. And he said, well, what Isaac was leaning on was God's promises.

Right. He was like, God, you told Abraham sand at the sea, buddy. You were talking about, you were talking about prayer, Robbie. Uh, it was just, I'm reading about the reformers and I was reading about John Knox and, and he just, he did not fear men. He decided he was going to do what he thought was right. And he made mistakes as we all do.

Uh, but he took some hard knocks. But, uh, bloody, bloody Mary, uh, who she said more than anything else, she feared the prayers of John Knox. And so many times we've talked about this before so many times that we think that we have to do this and we have to do that. And we have to share this and we have to, and all of those things are good.

I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that they're not, but I love the story that you told one time of, of if you, when you see, if you ever go to the beach and you see the seagulls and they're just kind of gliding, hanging up in the air and the air is holding them up. You said, it's kind of like what, what God does when we pray, because we can try to do it ourselves all we want to do it. But when we pray and when we ask the Lord to intervene, it's like, we're just kind of hanging out there with the seagulls, just with our arms out and God's holding us up.

Yeah. And in fact, there's verses, as you might guess in the 119th Psalm that are exactly right. Uphold me that I may live, you know, and, and another one that says, hold me up. They're, they're very thing that, and again, I love David went to the Lord with everything. I mean, you can tell through that Psalm that, you know, if I need strength, I go to the Lord. If I need, you know, nourishment, I go to the Lord. If I, if I need to hold my temper, I go to Lord. If I need to be bold, I go to the Lord because apart from me, what can you do, Mike? And that's why, you know, I've recently gotten into this is just the prophetic where the Lord can speak directly to you. And there's some people who may not like this and that's fine.

I mean, you're entitled to your opinion. Uh, but I have had so many amazing experiences recently where I've had these people come up to me and say, you know, Mike, I think the Lord wants me to share this with you. And they were right on the money.

I mean, they were absolutely right on the money. Um, but the most important thing that I'm seeing is to be quiet and have quiet time with the Lord and listen to him. And then he'll speak directly to me. I love to get a good word from somebody. I'm sure you've had people, other Christians, Robbie, who have come up to you and shared something with you. And you were like, wow.

But I know probably even more than that. You love when you're spending your quiet time with the Lord. And I've been doing that, uh, recently I've, I've been reading 10 chapters of the Bible a day.

I would recommend it. Uh, but just, you know, more than anything else, because sometimes we can read these devotional, sometimes we can read these other books, but there is nothing like the book, the word of God, the Holy Bible, the scriptures, uh, that will speak directly to us. And lately what I've been doing, Robbie is I've just been saying, Lord, where do you want me to go? And just randomly opening the Bible and absolutely amazing. I mean, this morning I actually opened up the Bible and I read the whole story about Samson. There's a part of it that we understand, you know, there's a part of it that we've all heard him and Delilah and cutting off the hair in the end of the Philistines, but there's other parts as well where he made some mistakes. I mean, he, uh, one night it says he went in to be with a prostitute, uh, and, but there was a part that was earlier than that. I said that, that he wanted to marry someone. And his parents said, we have plenty of Israelite women who you can marry. And he said, no, I want to marry this woman who's a Philistine.

And he ended up marrying this, this woman. And it said in the work, it said in the Bible, it said that because it was God's will. And so it's like, sometimes we see these things that happen to us and we say, man, that's kind of odd, or I wonder why God would either do this or allow us to go through this or for it to happen. But it says in Romans 8 28, that we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and for them who are called according to his purpose. And sometimes I just, I just want to praise God.

We know it's easy to praise God when things are going well, but lately Robbie, I've just been praising God through the storms. Right. And so if you're listening and while we, we hope we pray literally that, you know, the Jesus we're talking about, and if, if you don't and you go, wow, I want that relationship, you know, nothing would honor us more than, um, for you to pray with us right now. Right. And, and, and, and just admit that you, or just believe, right.

Cause that's where it really comes from. It's deep in your heart. Like, do you believe that Jesus really did die for you? And if you believe that and then admit it with your mouth and, and, and admit that he is the Lord of your life and, and, and believe, right, that he can raise you from the dead and, and that he covered your sin.

Right. And that if you will live your life for him, you know, if you'll pray with me right now, Lord, thank you so much for what you did for me. And, and I just pray that you would save my soul, help me to spend eternity with you in heaven, Lord, help me to know what it means to be a Christian and help me to be bold and standing for you and opening my mouth and letting the world know where I stand. And I pray this in Jesus name. So if you did that, we would be so honored, right? If you would contact Mike. Right.

How would they do that, Mike? Well, you can, uh, in the comments below, if you're watching on the YouTube channel or listening on the YouTube channel, you can actually comment below and say, I prayed that prayer and we'll try to get you in touch with somebody and, you know, get, get a Bible, get a, get into a good church and, and Jesus loves you. If not for God.

If not for God. All right. For my YouTube channel, if not for God with Mike Zwick, just like subscribe and hit that notification bell. So you'll be alerted when we have our next video. Yeah. Yeah. This is the truth network.