CGR FRIDAY 061623 Part Two

My passion is the fight for freedom. My father fought for a World War II defending our country. Today, we are no longer fighting with guns. Instead, we are fighting an ideological battle for control of our country by contributing to causes that support your constitutional rights.

I am Patriot Mobile. That was a shooting gallery up there. I could hear the tremble in his voice. She suffered a very severe being. The video is pretty graphic.

Justice for us seems almost impossible. It's not fun to watch somebody die, and they knew she was in mortal peril. They have not asked the hard questions. Why was the Capitol intentionally unsecure that day? The FBI had information about security concerns before January 6th. They're out for blood, and they're getting it. They appear to be winning. Were the actions of the Capitol Police out of line? Were there violations in use of force?

Now I describe it as an inside job. I'm ready to do whatever God calls me. There's an old Chinese saying my ancestors learned before the Communist Party took over our country. The family is the essential unit of human society, and that you must have honor and defend your family. But it's not always easy to do.

When the regime gives the order, you have to kill. My heart was pounding. I felt my body bouncing and twisting on the floor. They put numbers on our shoulders, then separated us into rows of even and odd numbers.

I was number nine. My brother, he's still in prison, and my sister, she was sent to a labor camp without a trial. But there's one piece of evidence they haven't been able to destroy yet.

I left everything behind. If I can't expose what they did to us, then all of our suffering would be for nothing. Welcome to Chosen Generation with your host, Pastor Greg Young. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should shoe forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. And now, Chosen Generation, where no topic is off limits and everything is filtered through biblical glasses. And now, here's your host, Pastor Greg.

And welcome back to Chosen Generation Radio, where no topic is off limits and everything filtered through biblical glasses, hour number two. Yesterday, we had the pleasure of having Raynard Jackson on for a little bit, and we talked about the importance of dads. And I shared the story of Hallmark going into a prison and offering cards to prisoners on Mother's Day. And 100% of the prisoners came and got a card and filled one out and sent a card to their moms. And they were so excited, the morale improved in the prison and the warden was so excited, he invited them to come back for Father's Day. And Father's Day came and they set up their tables and they set up all their cards and they opened the doors and invited the prisoners to come in. And not one prisoner came to send a Father's Day card to a father, not one, not one. That's the significance of dad.

And I'm very, very pleased to have with me today Dr. Chris Salle as we discuss this, Dr. Chris Whaley, excuse me, Dr. Chris Whaley with me to discuss this very important issue of fatherhood. He was known as the Masked Saint. He was a WWE legend. And actually, did you know Sting? I believe it's Sting, right? Yeah, no. Sting was getting in when I was getting out.

Okay. I had a chance to interview him in 2002 at NRB. And yeah, and met him down in Anaheim and did an interview with him and his story back down there. So you were in, I was a kid in the 60s. Yeah. And late 60s and early 70s, I watched the WWE. Well, it wasn't the WWE then, it was a bunch of guys in masks and what have you.

Yeah, I need to correct you. I wasn't, I wasn't in the WWE. I worked against some of those guys.

But no, whenever I was in wrestling, I got in 1978. In those days, they had territories. There were 26 territories all over the United States. Florida was a huge territory.

Georgia, the Carolinas and Texas had three territories. So Vince McMahon Jr. inherited the WWE or WWF and you know, that guy is an amazing marketer and he turned a fledgling little territory into a multi-billion dollar business and he's the one who changed professional wrestling because once you go national and international, they shut down all the territories and all the big talent went to the WWF at that time. But I was not in the WWE. They were really getting cranked up whenever I was getting out. Very good.

Very good. Well, and when did you come to the Lord? When did that transpire for you? Yeah, I got saved my first semester in college.

I followed a young lady that I met when I was 16 years old. I never planned to go to college. I majored in lunch in high school. Both of my parents, neither one of my parents had any education. My dad had a third grade education.

My mom had a seventh grade education and it was never pushed in my household. But this young lady that I met, a godly young lady, knew what she was going to do. The Lord had already put it on her heart that she was going to be a high school math teacher. And so I followed her to college. She took me to church. And I heard Dr. Jess Moody preach and God got a hold of my heart. And I accepted Christ in September of 1973. So talk to me about now you so were your were your folks at all engaged or involved in Christianity or did they become involved in it? My mom grew up as a Jehovah's Witness. Oh, wow.

Okay. And when I was a little boy, but she's very smart lady. And she had a lot of questions about the Jehovah's Witness movement. And she would ask her dad and her dad told her that wasn't for her to know. When she married very young, my my dad moved to Central Florida.

He was a long distance truck driver. And while he was on a trip, one day a pastor was knocking on doors in our neighborhood. And he knocked on our door. And my mom said, I've been praying for somebody like you for a long time. When she invited she invited him in.

She asked all those questions. He shared Christ, she accepted the Lord. And she was the beginning of the spiritual heritage of our family. She was just fellowship from the Jehovah's Witness movement.

Imagine that. And then later, my dad came to know the Lord. So it was it was late in my adolescence that my folks came to know the Lord. But your dad was in the house and was a part of your life growing up, although I'm sure as a long distance trucker, my next door neighbor's father was a was a long distance trucker. They were based out of Chicago, but he lived in California. And and he was with I think was transcontinental.

And you know, he'd be gone for a month, two months at a time. Yeah, my dad was gone quite a bit. He his dad died when he was like three years old. So he did not have a father growing up. Okay. He did not know how to be a dad.

Sure. I mean, that was one of the things that I told my wife, you know, some problems that I had being a dad. And I we were celebrating our anniversary, I'll never forget. And we were driving back and she I said, Anything else I can get you for anniversary? And she said, Spend more time with me and the kids. And it upset me, I pulled off the side of the road. And I said, You know, I don't know how to do what you're asking me to do.

I never had that in my life. So I and she helped me to become a better dad, because they're spending time with your kids is very, very important. And I tried to make up for my early part of my fatherhood.

And I think I did a did a much better job. It's interesting. You know, our kids, my wife and I have been married since 1986. And and because of an illness, there's an 18 year difference between our eldest and our youngest, and nearly an 11 year gap between our our second child and our third child. Wow.

Yeah. And so it's and so it's interesting to listen to them because with our oldest two, I had two businesses. I traveled a lot.

I traveled domestically and internationally. We had a lot of money, we were we were pretty well off. But, but there was a sacrifice as it related to that we were always very actively involved in church.

They were raised in a Christian home. But but there was still, you know, they talk about they're like, you know, dad, we were there. And and when we had have time together be wonderful. But you weren't always there. And with the younger ones, because I became so I became very ill. So they have an entirely different dad experience than the older kids. I was always there.

But I also had these, you know, physical I had I had physical challenges, and I had some some things going on that were that were different than than what the older kids had experienced. Right, right. Well, you know, I think it was the columnist Charlie Shedd, who said that no little child will think more of God than he thinks of his own father. And so it is, you know, it is so so important in today's world, especially in this woke world that we're living in, that dads step to the forefront and do what God has called us to do. And that is to be the priest, the prophet and the provider of our home. And I'm praying that people that listen to this and young men, especially that listen to this will step up to the plate and do that. It's so critically important to be exactly what you said and and and over and over again, the studies show that that that that dad image is so reflective in their relationship with Father, God, and and how and how they, you know, how they perceive that that that situation. It it's a big responsibility.

It really is. And, you know, when when my daughter was born, we were a part of a wonderful church. I was not in the ministry at that time.

I was in wrestling. We were living in our dream home on a lake in Lakeland, Florida, and we were a part of this church. And I had a wonderful pastor who preached on the family for a month.

Every year. Well, we still we still have our Bibles from those days with the notes from his messages on on the family, you know, how to be a good father, how to be a good mother. And I, I took that, you know, when I became a pastor in 1988, I did the same thing every year until 2013. That's when I was no longer a senior pastor, but became an associate pastor after that.

But every year I preached on the family for a month because Pastor Greg, there's very few that are doing that today. And parents especially need that from the church and pastors need to be preaching on the family. So I was making a couple of notes to ask you because as you mentioned, we the hope is is that there will be young men, young fathers, and and maybe not so young fathers that will hear what we talk about today and take some of these things and apply them. One of the things that's happening is is that men are being minimalized in our culture. If a man actually steps up, you know, the idea of patriarchy has been turned into evil. It's considered medieval. You're considered a misogynist if you if you attempt to exert what God has has called men to be in language.

Because the language has been has been hijacked, I believe, and and meanings have been changed. But the fact of the matter is, is that there is a difference between a man and a woman. And a woman shouldn't be a man and a man shouldn't be a woman.

Hey, man, I don't know if you saw Matt Walter's. Yes. What is the woman excellent woman? Excellent film. Wish everybody could see that.

It was great. But, you know, one of the difficult things that I think today, Pastor Greg, is that boob tube sitting in our living room. You know, when after I wrote my first book and people were talking to me about making it into a movie, I had actually wanted it to be a TV series because one of my heroes on TV was Michael Landon. Michael Landon put on some great moral programs. You know, today, if you look at and I don't watch mainstream TV, but from what I read, they make the father out to be a bumbling boob. The mom is promiscuous and the kids are rebellious. It is a very dysfunctional home life that they are showing the kids in our nation. And that's not the way it should be. But Michael Landon, I mean, the little house on the prairie and they didn't make the preacher or the pastor out to be a bad guy on that show.

Right. And then, you know, he had Highway to Heaven and it was just good moral stuff. And nobody is putting that on TV today. And I think that's one of the things that's infiltrating our homes is his kids are watching his stuff on TV and thinking that this is the way it should be.

It's really a shame. I had Dr. Robert Epstein on earlier this week and he has a brand new project that they're working on and it's called My Morals. And the focus of it, the goal of it, it's mymorals.org is the website, is to get people talking about morality and why morality is so critical, why our nation must return to morality. We've got to return to and not man's subjective view of morality, but God's absolute perspective on morality. We won't survive without that.

Michael Landon Absolutely. I agree with you wholeheartedly. And I think that, you know, big part of that, Pastor Greg, is preparing our kids to leave the nest. You know, God gives them to us.

He doesn't give us any instructions in their hands when they come out. The instruction that we have is from God's word. And if we follow God's word, it's amazing how precious parenthood can be if we follow his instructions.

Absolutely. And, you know, when those kids are growing up, they're expecting us to give them that direction and preparation so that whenever they leave the nest, they are prepared to leave the nest. Now, sadly, today, you know, even in sports, they have the participation trophy where everybody gets a trophy and they do not learn about winning and losing.

They don't learn about failure. That was, you know, as a pastor, I had people that would say to me, you know, well, we're leaving the church. I'd say, why? They said, you don't have enough for our kids here.

And I said, well, I've already lost them, so I'm going to go ahead and say this. But I said, hey, ma'am, you know, everything that they get could be gotten in the home. Anything they get at church is extra. That's icing on the cake what they get at church. But what they should learn about God and the things of God in the home and also in school, we never expected the school to do all the teaching for our kids.

What they got in school was extra, but we prepared them at home. You know, something else to pastor, not to interrupt you, but something else, too, is, you know, there's an 80-20 rule that exists in churches. And I know you're aware of it. All pastors are aware of it. Twenty percent of the people do 80 percent of the work.

Eighty percent of the people just sit on their butts. My response to that would be if you don't think that there's enough going on at the church, why aren't you stepping up? Fix the problem.

This is a family. If you're at home and you're in your family and you're in your house and the house looks like crap and there's dishes all over the place and it's a mess, do you sit on the sofa and bitch and gripe and complain? Or do you get your butt up and you start working on cleaning up your house? I mean, look, if you if you if you don't like what you're seeing going on, then then raise your hand and volunteer and say, hey, can I help? It looks like you guys could use some help, because that is really what the deal is. The deal is, is we need more volunteers. The deal is, is we need more people helping. OK, so so rather than pick up your your marbles and leave.

Why don't you why don't you submit, which is what you're supposed to be doing, and work in the body of Christ and do something to help. Right. Just a thought.

I don't know. Maybe I'm out of my mind. I agree wholeheartedly. But sadly, sadly, what we see today in our in our nation and churches is that's what we pay the preacher to do. Oh, I agree. Well, and and and well, and even more sadly, even more sadly, that 80 20 rule also applies to the preachers, because better than 80% of pastors that are pastoring churches have to be by vocational, they have to find an outside income, because the church can't pay them can't pay them.

So they're they're sacrificing their marriages, sacrificing their kids, sacrificing their lives, burning up their physical bodies, doing double duty, and not getting paid for it, because they've got to work somewhere else, in order to put food on the table and keep a roof over the heads of their wife and their kids. Yeah, very sad, but very, very true. Very true.

So and I know that wasn't our topic for today. But I mean, since we since we went there, you know, that means the truth needs to be shared. And people need to understand that they really do need to understand that that's the that's the ill condition in part of the church today as well. And it's why the progressives have come in, and been able to take over the churches.

So the reason they've been able to do it. Yeah, yeah. Very sad, but very true. I wish that I wish that there were more, more people in the limelight, shedding lighter what you just said, because the majority of the people have no idea what, you know, a young pastor goes through who is by vocational, no idea whatsoever, do not know the, like you said, the sacrifices that he is making all over the place.

And somebody needs to be sharing that. And I'm glad that you're doing it. Well, I appreciate that. I appreciate that they they really do. I mean, these young men that are coming in, and and giving their lives to the Lord and their and their wives are on board with them. And they're they're committed to seeing the gospel advanced, but they need support and they need help in their local communities.

And and dads need help to I want to get back to that as we as we kind of close things out here, because that's the other side to this. Men are now number one, they're devalued consistently, then they're isolated. Because they're because they're told you're you know, there's there's there's a duality of message. You're supposed to do this on your own. But you're worthless. And we don't want you and we don't need you. All right. What a horrific message.

Right? Well, if I could give one thing, I want to make sure I get this in before we close out here. Every dad needs to be his daughter's first date. I have two girls, both of my girls are grown, both of my girls are married. But when they were growing up, we allowed them to date when they were 16.

For some people that some parents that may be too early for them. But our daughter, we allowed her to start dating when she was 16. And so I told her, I said, I'm going to be your first date.

I'm going to show you what a date should be for a godly young lady. And so I took her to her favorite restaurant. I let her order whatever she wanted to order.

I didn't care how expensive it was. And then after we ate, I gave her a locket. I had her mom and dad's picture in it. And I said, this is your purity locket.

And she went, Oh, dad, dad looking around. I said, No, this is your purity locket. Never give your purity to anyone other than the young man that you're going to marry and spend the rest of your life with.

And then after you get married, you can give this locket back to mom and dad. And I just had a list of life lessons to share with her after that day, I mean, after that meal. And then we went to her favorite movie that she wanted to see.

And that's amazing. In those days, you could actually go to a movie and not be embarrassed. And afterwards, I took her for dessert. We went home. I walked her up to the front door, kissed her on the cheek and said, anything less than this is unacceptable as a date. And so every father ought to be their daughter's first date and every mom ought to be their son's first date to show them what it is for a godly young man and a godly young lady to go on a date.

So I want to make sure I got that in faster. I love it. I love it.

I really do. And and I and I want to let me close by just saying this, you're you're you parent till they're about 13. Once they're 13, you've done all the parenting you're going to do as far as as the as just the trying to grow them up.

From 13 to 18. You're preparing this relationship so that you can launch them but also so that you can be the one that they call for life counsel. And you've got to build that bridge and build that relationship.

And it happens in that five years. And if you do it right, you will be when they make big decisions. You'll be the one they call, you'll be the one that gets to pray with them. You'll be the one that gets to talk to them. They may not always take your advice, and that's fine.

But you'll be able to be engaged and involved and have a have a part in their life. And man, I'm telling you, I've got five kids, four grown. And the greatest experience I have is when I when they call and I answer the phone and they say, Hey, here's what's going on.

What do you think? Yeah, hey, you know, my, my oldest daughter became a high school math teacher like her mom. And I'll never forget, forget, after her first day of school, she called me. And she said, Dad, I just want to thank you. And I said, for what she said, thank you for the way you brought me up. Thank you for teaching me about authority. Thank you for disciplining me whenever I was wrong. And she just went on this litany of things that she thought that she thanked me for. And she said, These kids are the spawn of Satan. Oh, that's great.

We got to jump. Listen, the masked saint.com is the website, the masked saint.com. Dr. Chris Whaley, Dr. Chris, thanks for being with me today. This has been a great time and a lot of fun being with the I greatly appreciate it. Thank you so much, Pastor Greg, I really appreciate the opportunity to be on your program.

Absolutely. And Happy Father's Day. Happy Father's Day to you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, we're gonna take a break and we come back. Tressa Michener is going to be with us. United States versus Tressa Parker, we're going to talk about how faith played a role in turning her life around.

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Get yours today. These statements have not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Negro products do not treat, reduce, cure, or prevent disease. My passion is the fight for freedom. My father fought for a World War II defending our country. Today, we are no longer fighting with guns. Instead, we are fighting an ideological battle for control of our country by contributing to causes that support your constitutional rights.

I am Patriot Mobile. You can support Chosen Generation and make a tax-deductible donation by visiting www.chosengenerationradio.com. And now, back to Chosen Generation with Pastor Greg. And welcome back to Chosen Generation Radio, where no topic is off limits and everything is filtered through biblical glasses. I'm your host, Pastor Greg.

You know, folks, and it's interesting because we just talked with Dr. Chris about Father's Day and the importance of dads and kind of setting the right target and just the different things that are associated with that. My next guest did not have the opportunity to have that in her life. And as a direct result of that, she faced a lot of challenges. I thank God that he got a hold of her and that he has turned her life around. But I want to introduce you to Tressa Minchner.

And you might have heard her story as Tressa Parker. I want to welcome Tressa to the program. Tressa, good to have you. Thanks for being with me today. Thank you.

It's my pleasure, Pastor Greg. So you were beginning to tell me kind of in the break, you know, we were talking about, you know, the importance of keeping your kids on track and the importance of holding the line. And, you know, that really is, that's part of the role as a parent is just to say, okay, look, this is what's right.

This is what's wrong. We're going to hold the line here. And you're going to have to do the right. And if you're not, you know, and you get to that age, you know, where you can be on your own, then I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to cut you loose to show you. I'm willing to take you back. I still love you, but you can't, you can't act the fool and still be under my roof.

Can't happen. I totally agree with that Pastor. So talk to me your situation, broken home, a small child, and some pretty hard and horrific things to have to deal with. Talk to me about what was going on in your life. Okay, so I came from a very broken home. My mother was an alcoholic.

My father, he really wasn't there. By the time I was five years old, they had already separated and actually in the middle of a divorce. So my mom had a boyfriend and actually he tried to molest me at the age of five and me not understanding life very, very young. I ended up being a very, very rebellious teenager, not wanting to listen, not wanting to do the things my mom was trying to tell me to do correctly. And I ended up skipping school and doing a lot of things. And I found myself 15 years old in a juvenile detention center. At 15 years old in a juvenile detention center, pregnant, there was the shame, the embarrassment of being pregnant, but I just couldn't find, figure out my life and why it was so spiraled out of control. I was 15, but my boyfriend was 21 at that time. So by the time I was 19 years old, I had two children and my boyfriend was very, very rebellious.

I mean, very, very abusive. And one thing led to another, he was actually in the, in the selling drugs. And I was trying to get myself out of this very, very abusive relationship with the two children I had.

So this is how I ended up in the lifestyle of selling drugs. Of course, I knew that it was not right to do these things, but I was doing these things, not blaming anyone, but doing these type of things, trying to get myself into another lifestyle or better situation out of the abuse. So one bad decision from I think my early childhood is just like it kept having the, the bad decisions were building blocks just for me to end up in a situation where I was in so much bondage that I couldn't even figure out how to get out of it.

It was like it snowballed on you. You, you just, it went once, once you had made one bad decision, then, then that slid you into another one. Again, as you said, not making an excuse because you were making choices along the way. But, but you, you were not able to find the strength or the, or the guidance or the direction to be able to change gears and and move away from that and, and find some other means by which to, to live. Right.

Absolutely. So I found myself selling these drugs and I end up making a lot of money and these drugs end up getting a nice house for me and my children. The cars, everything that they claim that you want for the riches of the world. I had the cars, the home, all of these things, but it was just something in the inside of me that just kept screaming out that like, it was a huge void in my life and I could not figure out what is this void?

I have all of these things now that the world say will make you happy, but I was totally unhappy. And so I found myself on my knees, crying, crying out to God, because I was saying, Lord, if it's a God, help me, help me. I'm tired. So as I was screaming out to God and crying and one of my sons came in one in my room and I grabbed one and put one in one arm and the other son came and I put him in the other arm and I was just crying and it was asking what was wrong with me. But at this time with me holding him, I was just seeing God, help me, help me. I'm tired.

If it's a God, it has to be a better life than this because I'm so tired. And three days later I found myself indicted by the federal government. Wow.

Wow. So they were watching you and you had reached a level where you were moving enough substance and enough money was traveling through your hands that the federal government, you got their attention. Well, what happened actually, it was a lot of different activity. So a person that I was selling the drugs to end up getting caught and this person ended up selling me, setting me up. So that's how I got my indictment.

And it happened three days ago. Well, and I, you know, interestingly, right, God's answer to your prayer to get you out of that was you had to get busted. You had to get busted.

The cycle had to get broken and you had to get busted. Very quickly, years ago, we were ministering to a men's home and the leader of the men's home had had a problem with meth and he'd gotten clean and then he got back on it. And he literally was having a meeting with his dealer and he was so far in debt that he was going to sell his wife and his stepdaughter into sex slavery to pay his drug debt. She overheard it and they snuck out the window and came to my house. And they stayed in our living room. We hid them for a period of time.

And he finally figured out, I mean, he would go on overnight binges because he was loaded, right? And so one day he showed up at our home and he tried to run me over with his truck. I dove out of the way and he hit the tree. And so the police came, they took a report and we ended up going ahead and charges were filed. And I had to go and bear witness, which was, I mean, I didn't want to, but it was what was necessary. He was given a restraining order, all that kind of stuff.

Well, he managed to be able to sneak a letter through that was sent to me after we moved here to Texas. And in that letter he wrote and he said, Pastor, I want to thank you. He said, if God had not taken me out by your hand, by your witness and put me in prison, I know I'd be dead today. But because of that, I've been able to get straight.

I've been able to get really straight and I'm never going to touch those drugs again. And he never did. Praise God. Amen.

Amen. So now we have a situation, Tressa, going back to your story. You got indicted. You're looking at some, I imagine some pretty significant charges. If you're living in that kind of a house and you're living that kind of a life, then you're moving a lot of drugs. You're moving a lot of money.

And that means potentially a lot of time. What were you looking at? I was facing 30 years to life in prison. Wow. Wow.

And so I know it's in your book and we want folks to get the book, but give me an idea. So you had prayed this prayer. You said, God, help me.

Three days later, bam, this happens. Did you look and did you say, God, was there maybe a better way? Well, I found myself just understanding that when I got indicted, I didn't know anything about the law and I didn't know anything about the Lord. I understood that I had said this prayer, asking God to help me. But all of a sudden, as I was laying in the little cell that they had gave me, because they put me in a 23 hour lockdown sale, I could only come out one hour. That was to shower and to use the phone for 10 minutes.

And you could do a small little walk for exercise, but then you had to go back in your cell for the next 23 hours. So I found myself, I had always heard Psalms 23 and I found myself with some ministers that came in. I had asked them, could one of them, could they come to my little food tray? And so when the lady came over, I didn't have a pen and I didn't have any paper, but I had a little small pencil they gave me. So I took that pencil and I asked her, would she give me the words to Psalms 23?

And she did. So I wrote Psalms 23 on the floor of the cell I was on, I was in. And when I stayed up all night long, memorizing Psalms 23, the Lord is my shepherd and I can hold it verbatim. I'm sure I stayed up all night, memorizing that Psalms, all of a sudden I realized when I laid my head down on the bunk that they had gave me, I realized that three days later, three days earlier, prior to this, I had everything. Now I didn't even have a little, a window to look out of.

And so, but for whatever reason, I felt a sense of peace that all of the stress, all of the headache, all of the burdens, all of the things that seemed to heal me so in bondage that now it was a relief. And one thing that I saw that I never saw on the streets, because if you're doing some, if you're dealing in larger drugs, you don't see the impact or the effect that you have on your community. All you see is the money that you're getting.

So now I'm seeing the impact of people coming in these, in these, in these jails on drugs, you know, family members coming in there. And I was really crushed because I never saw this in this light that I'm now seeing this in. Now, all of a sudden I'm asking God to forgive me because this is something I never saw.

And I'm wanting to help every single person, even though if I'm, I mean, I have directly sold drugs to this person, but now I'm wanting to help these people because now I see the, the part or the, the part that I played on my community with hurting my community, hurting others, damaging families. And I was just crushed. So at this time, all I wanted to do is get, have a deep dive in the Bible to find out how did I get this way? What was wrong with me?

What happened? But I started realizing there was nothing wrong with me. It was just the guidance and my culture and the things that I had went, went through, had developed a childhood paradigm. And so what happens is when you're not taught right, you can't do right. So when you start continuously making bad decisions, just like you say, it's like a rollercoaster, you keep making bad decisions and it keeps going on until something has to break that cycle.

So this calls my cycle to break. And now I had a Bible in my hands while I was constantly renewing my mind day and night to the things of the Lord. So now it's everything was looking totally different.

I was looking at it out of a different lens now a different light, and it was the light of God that was entering me at this time. And so it was changing my whole perspective about life where all I wanted to do was help and give to others. It's interesting as you're sharing your story, you know, I think about, I used to watch movies. Now you can't hardly watch a movie because they all have crazy messaging.

But I used to like to watch movies. And one of them that I liked to watch was the movie Untouchables. And in that movie, you've got, you know, kind of the story of how they brought down Al Capone.

And Al Capone was, you know, was was pushing liquor. And one of the things he says, you know, as well, you know, we're just pushing, you know, you know, entertainment and what have you. And it strikes me as you're sharing your story, that, you know, that that, you know, probably your original concept was as well, you know, people just want to get high and have a good time.

And so we're just providing a means for people to get high and have a good time without seeing the ugly underbelly of what was what it what was really going on when you got when somebody got hooked on those drugs when somebody when somebody couldn't get loose, and and and it's and and then they became a drug fiend, it's quote unquote, and we vilify that and it's not a good thing. But we also don't recognize that they are now a victim as well, of a of a of a cycle. And you saw how you were a part of that cycle.

Yes, absolutely. And all I wanted to do was change the cycle. And so I had began to pray, ask God, you know, I asked him to save my life with the salvation prayer in Romans 10, nine and 10. So I had been beginning to just pray. And I knew that in the book of ask God talked about the Holy Spirit, if that when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you shall receive power in the back.

Amen. And I was in my cell one day, just praising God and just thanking him that I didn't get hurt, didn't get stabbed, didn't get robbed, all of these things that you see in movies, none of that never happened to me for for whatever reason I was killed, I was doing the wrong things, but I was still kept away from things. And I was just praising him. And it was in I was in my cell by myself.

And it was like 100 degrees outside this day. And all of a sudden, I heard a wind come in my sail. And when I heard the wind come in my sail, my mouth just started shooting a cold like I was in a cold winter. And then when I was trying to hold my mouth down, I began to print an unknown tongue shut up.

And I just was trying to hold it down. And God was baptized in me and hands over my heart, like my heart and don't like a heart transplant. And I knew in the scriptures that it said he would take that heart of stone out and give you a heart of flesh, a heart that he could write his words upon. And so at this time, I knew what was going on and that he was baptized in the Holy Spirit. So it just gave him gave me another measure of praise, because the situation I went through and the things that I was doing, he didn't count it against me. He still came and had a relationship with me and allowed me to develop this relationship with him, even in a jail cell by myself, because I came to him, I was very naive, but I came to him, just like he said, in the Word of God as a child. And I came to him, everything I read in the word, I believed it. I didn't question him. I didn't go all off course, why this, why that I did ask him questions of why but God still answered those wise. But what I say is, he came in that sale in the jail sale. So I know for a fact that God wants and desires to have a relationship with every single person that he can and will allow him. And if you and if you allow God, he will redeem the time in your life.

If you if you follow the assignment, come on, come on, preach that assignment. He redeemed the time in my life, he restored my life. Now I was facing 30 years to life, I actually was sentenced to 132 months, which was 11 years, when they took me back to the when it first of all, when they when it was time for me to get sentenced, my prosecutor recommended to me, he dropped it down and recommended that I get 16 years in prison because I had never been in trouble. So he recommended that I get 16 years in prison, the judge took a recess now by this time, two years that went by and I was very, very much into the Word of God. So I didn't see the judge as a judge anymore. I didn't see my district attorney as the district attorney anymore. I didn't see my attorney as the attorney anymore. I saw them vessels of God, helping me to get to where I needed to be.

So the judge took a recess as soon as the prosecutor recommended me 16 years when he came back, he said, I'm not going to give her 16 years, I'm gonna give 132 months, which is 11 years. So when I was going back to my cell, one of the bellows came to my cell, and he asked me he said, How did it go? At that time, he asked me How did it go? The Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, It's not over yet. So at this time, God was teaching me about the power of life and death in our tongue and how we can create our own environment, how we can create the life that we are 2018. Hallelujah, yes, yes.

All these things. So I knew right then I didn't want to speak the wrong word. So I just told the bell if it went well. So as God kept teaching me about me creating my own environment, we create my own atmosphere as he's as he was teaching me these things. I always spoke his word, I never confess what I saw on television, or I practically stopped watching television if it wasn't teaching me the word, because I know that the TV programs people to believe what what they see, right. So I've always heard it. It's not television is tell a lot vision because so many lies on the television.

Come on. So I constantly stayed away from the television and stayed in the Word of God. But I will always say that I know God is going to deliver me and honor me because he spoke that Psalms. That's the end of Psalms 91.

He spoke that in my spirit that I'm gonna deliver you and honor you. So I already knew that I was not going to do the time and I constantly told everybody that I'm not going to do the time God has a purpose and a plan for me, he's going to use me modeling, which I didn't know what prophecy was at the time. But every time a a, a person came into the into the jail, when I got to a jail where I wasn't in a 23 hour lockdown, I don't care what minister it was. When they came in, none of them knew each other. I didn't know them. But everyone would pick me out the route and say God is going to use you mightily.

So I couldn't figure this out. And so one of the girls in the dorm she said, I trust the wise every time out of all of us women in here. Every time somebody comes in here, they pick you out of the group and say the same thing. God is going to use you mightily.

And I said, You know what, I don't know. But then when I went back to my Bible, God started teaching me about prophecy. As I started learning more about prophecy, I started learning that God's word would not were not returned to him void. So as I was constantly in in there, start studying the word and learning about God. And I had began to work at a dentist office and in a prison, because everybody works there. So I was working at a dentist office one day.

And the I had always told the dentist that, you know, I'm not going to do this time. But he was like, Yeah, trust everybody say the same thing. So one day, he fought the phone ring, and he picked up the phone and we picked up the phone. I saw tears running down his eyes.

But he was it was tears running down his ass, but he was smiling like joy. And he said, this trust of the phone is for you. You going home and I registered but it didn't register. So I picked up the phone. And I it was the lieutenant down at the captain's office. Then she asked me this trust.

I said, Yes, this is Trestler. And she said, Your judge just went back and reduced your sentence. So lo, you got 30 minutes to get off our compound.

So I'm sending a your she said a guard should be already be there waiting for you. 30 minutes to get out of here. I had to get out of there. So I had come on at that time.

So I did five years of time. And God immediately immediately released me from prison by the power of my words and by the power of what me creating my own environment, which I created an atmosphere of God and positivity, because every single woman that will listen to me, what God taught me, I didn't start a ministry. When I got out, I started my ministry in prison in jail. Every person that would listen to me, I taught them the Word of God is God taught it to me. And I will teach them about the Holy Spirit. I'll teach them about salvation. I will teach them about the gift of righteousness that God had gave us. Everything the Lord taught me because I was trying to tell them to let go of your past.

Because God has something for he's giving you the free gift of righteousness, where you could be right standing with him. Yes, I taught everything that God would teach me. And it's so much in my book, because God, God gave me the steps. And as I applied everything that he was teaching me, that's what changed everything.

And that's what broke all the bond. His word, his word, you speaking his word created that environment. And this is, that's the word of faith.

And this is what people don't understand about the word of faith movement. We're not saying, Oh, I'm God. No, we're saying I am speaking as a vessel. One of the things God has me teaching in India is I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet not I, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by, and this is the King James version. It's why I own it's why King James is so important, because it says, the faith of the Son of God. So when I speak, if I'm listening to the Holy Ghost, which was which I should be doing, then when I speak, it's his word, I am just simply coming into agreement with the Word of God. And it is manifesting in our lives.

That's what's supposed to be happening. And we speak under the authority. That's why the sons of Sceva, who are you? Because they didn't know. They didn't know. Paul we know. Jesus we know. We don't know you.

Well, you know what? They know you Tressa. They know you Tressa, because you speak under the unction of the Holy Ghost.

And the Spirit of the Lord speaks through you and in you. And wow, I have, real quick, we're going to run out of time here, but real quick, how are your boys? My boys are fine. They're great.

They're doing well. I'm still teaching them the things, you know, because they're in their twenties now. I'm still teaching them the things that I've learned.

I have five grandchildren now. I have, oh, and God blessed me with an amazing husband. Oh my God, I can't thank God enough for him. I mean, I mean, he really topped it off when he gave me this amazing husband because he's so supportive. I mean, he's just a man of my dreams. I just can't thank God enough because he's an awesome man of God.

He's just so lovable, fun. We got married like 12 years ago and it's still like every time I step out of the bed, I say, God, I thank you. We're out of time. Tressa Michener, you can see on the screen, her website, Tressa Michener, and her book is looking out from the inside, looking out from the inside of the United States versus Tressa Cuvia Parker. And I would just want to encourage you to, to read her story. Yeah. This is, this is like that book from prison to praise.

Okay. Same thing, Marlon Carruthers, same, same kind of story from prison to praise. This is, this is man, this is, this is fire and it will light up your life.

Get this book, Looking Out From Inside. We're going to take a break. Hour number three coming up, Dawn Jan's joining me and then Carmel Melamed after that. Thank you, Tressa, for blessing us today.

Hang tight for just a second. We're going to take our break. We'll be back right after this. I'm your host, Pastor Greg. You're listening to Children's Generation Radio. Get more at the website, ChildrenGenerationRadio.com. We'll be back right after this.