If Not for God is Back

Welcome to If Not For God, stories of hopelessness that turn to hope. Here is your host, Mike Zwick. Hey, this is Mike Zwick with If Not For God with Mike Zwick, and I am back with my good friend, Robbie Dilmore. Robbie, it's been a while, man. It has, but it's so good to be back on the air with you.

you know, if not for God is happening every single day in everybody's life. It's been really amazing how many times I've thought back to shows that we did and the way God, you know, came through in really some strange times. Cause I mean, we did COVID together. That's when I first got on the radio, man. I mean, I think I first got on the radio and it was January of 2020 when I got on there, we weren't expecting any of this stuff.

And then all of a sudden it just hit us like a hurricane. And I tell you what, you talk about a good time to start to be on the radio. It was when COVID was happening because people were freaking out. They were worried about death. And here we have Jesus for them, you know?

If not for God, you know? If not for God, man. Five years later. Five years later. And Robbie, I know since the last time we did a show, you were actually the pastor, the interim pastor over at Ashboro.

What is it? West? West? West Ashboro Baptist Church. Yeah.

And now you're the pastor at a church in Ramser. Is that right? That's correct. Kildee. Kildee Church.

Has named after the bird, right? The Kildee bird.

Okay. Apparently they had a lot of Kildees in their fields and they named the road that way. And next thing you know, they put a church on the road and you got it. But that was in 1910. And you know, God keeps his church intact and he continues to build as he did through COVID.

You know, that reports came out just last week that the church is on the rise again. It's growing again. You know, it was in big decline. Oh, yeah. But, you know, you reach the bottom at some point in time, like the stock market, and then it's going to go back there.

There is that V, but, you know, it's a perfect time to get in on what God's doing. And so it's a great time to get back on the air and see what God is doing, right? Absolutely. And I remember the last time we were on the air, I think it was, I don't know if it was 22, 23 or whatever. But right around that time is when I started to get excited about the whole healing movement, the healing.

And we were over at a church, and just like Jesus Ministries, where we go. And by the way, we are doing a healing service where we're going to be praying for people on May the 18th. It's just like Jesus Ministries over in Burlington, North Carolina. It's 2420 Corporation Parkway. And so we've got a lot of people coming in.

We've got people coming in from Canada, people coming in from Texas, from South Carolina. And I tell you what, I've noticed every single time that I feel like God is going to do something big in my life. The enemy comes in and just tries to ruin everything, man. But you know what? Nobody can stop what God is doing.

And I am excited for what God is doing. God has taken me on a journey through the whole healing thing. You know, that was actually one of the things that got me interested in Christianity was because I was in college. I was told that there was no such thing as God. I grew up going to Calvary Baptist, and I think you used to go there for years, right?

Oh, yeah, for like 30. And I remember getting out of school, and there was a young lady who told me, she said, you need to give your life to Jesus. You need to give your life to Jesus. And then what happened was, was one day I finally said, okay, I'll do it. But my dad, who was an agnostic, who was not even a Christian, ran across a book, and it was about a guy who was a faith healer down in Argentina.

And I read the book and I looked at it and I said, oh my gosh, I said, there's got to be something out there. And that was one of the things that really got me interested in, I guess, spirituality, but even more so in Christianity, because this guy would pray for people and he would tell them to read the Bible. He would tell them that they needed Jesus. He would read the Lord's prayer and then they would just be supernaturally healed. And that was one of the things that got me, got me interested in Christianity.

And so then I, you know, that's kind of one of the things that got me sucked in. And I would listen to the truth, truth network every single day before I went to work in the morning. I would listen to John MacArthur. I would listen to David Jeremiah. I would listen to Chad Harvey, the guy from Raleigh.

I would listen to Charles Stanley and all these guys. And I was so hooked on the word of God, But the healing thing was kind of what got me in there. And I think it was around 2010, we started to go to Raleigh First Assembly, which is now Cross Assembly. And they were sort of walking in the healing movement. But there was a lady named Nanette Noel.

And in around 2015, I would go to her house and she would literally be praying for people. And immediately people with back problems, people with, you know, knee problems, people who couldn't even walk, people who had broken wrists would just throw off their brace from their wrist and were completely healed immediately. And I said, this thing is real. And then in, I guess it was 2022 or 2023, I started to pray for people and I had always prayed for people, but there was a lady, I think you know her, you know, Cameron Horner, right? But it was his sister, Christy, you know, we did the Burlington revival.

You did, you remember? I absolutely do. And we were at Just Like Jesus one night. And she said, Mike, she said, I actually saw Jesus walk up to you and put a gift inside of your chest. And she said that when I saw that, she said, she said, he gave you a gift.

And so I thought nothing of it. And we were all leaving the church. And she said, Mike, she said, I'm not leaving here tonight until you pray for my back that's been hurting for 20 years and until it's healed. And I prayed for her back and it was supernaturally healed. And ever since then, I would start to go out and pray for people.

But after that, Robbie, I had a dream about a friend of mine who was walking in the healing movement. And his name is Jason Hamlet. And he came on and he was giving me an IV in my dream. And I had no idea at all what he was talking about. And so when he was giving me the IV, the next day I started to talk to him.

And I realized that he had been walking in the healing movement for so long. And he started to teach me, you know, kind of what the Lord had showed him. And I started to do the things that he showed me. And praise God, you know, Jesus started to just supernaturally heal people. And it not about a trick or it not about a technique or anything like that because Jesus is the healer But at the same time I wanted to learn from somebody who had gone through it and who was doing it And since then I just seen some supernatural healings I saw I think it was last week or the week before, there was a guy over in Hillsborough, North Carolina, who had a broken neck and he had a brace on his neck.

And I prayed for him and he took the brace off and he said, I'm fine. He said, I'm moving around. I'm fine. And so Jesus is the healer. Jesus gets all the credit, but I do believe that healing is something that points people to the truth of Jesus, because Jesus said, he said, even if you don't believe me for the works that I do, he said, or even if you don't believe me for the words that I say, excuse me, he said, believe me for the works that I do.

And you've got a great healing story yourself with, was it Pastor Little? Oh yeah, absolutely. Absolutely miraculous. When I had cancer, I had lymphoma, In fact, it was pretty serious. I was told it was killer cell lymphoma, that only three people in the country had had it, and none of them had lived more than a couple months.

And my sister at the time worked at University of Michigan Hospital. She got the pathology. She was like, oh, Robbie, this is bad. And they were lining me up for chemotherapy. I had tumors all over my body because lymphoma is in your lymph system, so it goes through your whole body.

And this one was in my skin. It was a cutaneous lymphoma. And so everywhere you looked at me, I was covered in these tumors.

So it was pretty obvious that, you know, there's something really bad going on here. And I was still working because, you know, I wasn't going to quit just because I felt, you know, kind of okay. I just looked like a freak.

So I was back in my office, and all of a sudden this pastor came by, and he came up to the F&I office, actually, and he said, God has told me there's somebody in this building at this dealership that needs to be healed. And my good friend who also went to that church said, oh, you must be talking about Robbie. He's back in his office. He's got lymphoma. We're really concerned about him.

And he goes, oh, well, I'll go back there.

So at this point in time, 1996, I'd been in Christ about five years and had gone to pretty conservative churches.

So I wasn't familiar with being anointed with oil. I certainly wasn't familiar with being laid hands on. right however you know i was like okay if that's what you want to do i don't understand and i don't necessarily have the faith for what happened but nonetheless he laid hands on me and he prayed for me and so his faith was able to actually get through the fact that this seemed really weird to me okay so he lays hands on me he prays and when he prays i know that something has happened like If you feel this, I don't know, like the hair stands on your end or whatever. I just knew that something had happened. Of course, all I could do was just thank him.

This is wonderful. And that was a Friday afternoon. And that Monday, I was supposed to start my chemotherapy treatments. And I got up that morning, and I didn't have one tumor, not one. Of course, a lot of people were praying.

We know it was God that did it, obviously. But I'll always credit that very strange experience of that man towing, saying, God, there's somebody here that needs to be healed. And if he didn't do it all, he certainly started the ball. Yeah. However that worked.

But what I do know is it's documented and it's in a few books. WXII did a special on me over two or three things that have happened in my life like that called Miracles Among Us. It's at my website, christiancarguy.com, if you want to see that. But nonetheless, it was absolutely miraculous. They did a biopsy of the places where the cancer was, and they're like, oh, wow, the cancer turned on itself and ate itself.

Isn't that something? And yeah, well, we know where it came from. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I remember when you started this, Mike, actually, I was like, what in the world is going on? Yeah.

I was like a little skeptical, right? Yeah, yeah. And I listened to it and I thought about it and all that kind of stuff. You know, I just became more intentional in praying for people and I had an opportunity to pray for them for healing, right? I was just like, okay, God, you know, clearly you did it for me.

You know, who can you do it for? And it was about, I don't know, maybe two years ago in the spring, this lady called and I could tell in the countenance of her voice that something was wrong. And she was telling me about what was wrong with her car, whatever it was. And I said, how are you? I said, what's going on?

And she says, well, you know, I've got stage four cancer. You know, they're saying I don't have but about a month. Right. And I said, wow, that's really, really hard. Do you mind if I pray with you?

And so, you know, I just prayed like you would. It was nothing. You know, I just prayed. Again, it was God that did what he did. But I just prayed.

I was like, okay, God, this poor lady is hurting. She didn't call for prayer. She called for whatever the other thing was. But I was like, okay, God, this is what you're doing. and I prayed and about a month later she calls back.

And she goes, I just have to tell you, man, I am cancer free. And your prayer that day, it changed everything. Obviously God changed everything and there's probably lots of people praying for it, just like in my case, right? And just like your back or whatever else, there's lots of people praying, so who knows? We know it's God.

But that one, if that wasn't, wasn't freaky enough, okay, to get Robbie's attention that, you know, Mike Zwick is onto something here.

Now, when did this happen when you... That was about two years ago.

Okay. Okay. And so last spring, about this time last year, Dr. Carson came and spoke at our church. You know, I was interim pastor at West Ashboro Baptist Church, and we went...

Now, are you talking about, and you say Dr. Carson, are you talking about... I'm talking about Dr. Dwayne Carson, who's Dr. Date the Word Carson.

Okay, okay. He and I went to lunch after church like you normally would. And I think it's called something 21 or something in Nashville. And the lady behind us, a little old lady, her chair flips over and she goes down on the floor and she's blue, man. And I mean, it's like, and her daughter's freaking out and the whole restaurant is like all eyes are on her, right?

Yeah. And I didn't even know one of the members of my church was a waitress there. Her name is Amber. and I see Amber down there ministering to her and God just put it on my heart and said, go pray for that woman right And she not responding Like there it doesn look like anybody home I mean it like I don know what going on other than this is serious Like, it's horrible. And so I just bend over and, again, talk about a simple prayer.

You know, it was just like, you know, and Amber saw me and I said, is it okay if I pray? She goes, please, Robbie. And so I just, I just prayed something like, God, help, you know, this poor lady, you know, this is, this is tragic. Her daughter, you know, Lord, help us. Come be with us.

You know, whatever I said, I can't even tell you. But what I know is, the lady sits up. She just comes back. And the whole restaurant, you know, everybody sees this. And the whole restaurant just can't believe it.

And by this time, they've called the ambulance, right? And they're about showing up. And the ambulance is there. And she, I mean, she stands up. She goes out with the ambulance.

They check her out, man. They're like, no, she's fine. and she walks back in and finishes her lunch that's it that's it she was blue man she was on the floor and i and yeah it's god is amazing man you don't know exactly what was going on you know god knows well you don't have to know exactly what i don't care you know i got to see it and i got to see that god got a lot of people's attention because again it was a sign that oh when something like this goes on praying might be a good idea oh yeah well you know and it's it's it's funny because you get excited about this stuff and we talk about the good stuff. There's been some challenges with this too, man. Oh yeah.

I remember when I, cause you know, when, when this whole thing happened, I, you know, I spoke to my friend Jason and one of the things that Jason told me, and it really, really helped me. He said, what I realized, he said, when I was younger, he said, I, we would sit and we would say, God, would you help this person? Whatever. God, would you please help this person, whatever? And he said, not always.

He said, but very few of those prayers would get answered. And then he said later on what I realized, he said he would go through the New Testament and he would see the disciples who were praying for people and they were getting healed and all of this. And he said, and this is what he told me that I never forgot. He said, why are we asking God to do something that he's already given us the authority to do?

So an example of that would be, and this is why I wish I had my Bible and all that stuff, but there was, I think it was Peter. There was a guy who was sitting there. He was begging, right? They're on their way to the temple. They're on their way to the temple.

And what Peter did not say was he said, God, would you heal this person? He looked at the man and he said, he said, silver or gold, have I none? He said, but I tell you right now, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk. And so what he did was he took the authority that Jesus gave us, and he said, in the name of Jesus Christ, get up and walk.

So in other words, what Jason would say is he says, we don't have to ask God to do something that he's given us the authority to do.

Now, if I have to say this a thousand times, I'm going to say it a thousand times. I am not the one who is healing anybody. If anybody goes around and says, I'm healing people, no, no, no, no, no, no. Stay away from that. But what I'm also saying is this, is that what I can say is I can say by the blood of Jesus Christ, and whatever I say, by the blood of Jesus Christ, and sometimes the stuff that I say, I don't even know what I'm saying, Robbie.

I'm just, but what else? I just go back to the spirit. Yeah. The spirit is groaning.

Okay. And we all live by the same spirit. There's one spirit. And so the spirit that's inside of me is in the spirit that's inside of you. Right?

And so to me, it's fascinating. Have you ever noticed that you're on a particular track of something that you've been working with God and studying all of a sudden, and you got two or three friends that are working on exactly the same thing at the same time? 100%. You know why? Same spirit.

Yeah. It's the same spirit. And he's doing the same kind of stuff. And so while you're praying with this person, because don't think you're praying for them necessarily as much as you're praying with them, because I assure you, they want to be healed. I mean, and we're not just talking about physical healing.

You know, spiritual healing is way, way, way bigger deal.

Well, let me give you an example while you're on that track. I was over in Eden, North Carolina, and this is when I was going around and praying for people and just everybody was getting healed. It was amazing. I mean, and there was a lady that I was with, April Stacey, if she's listening, she watches the stuff.

So April Stacey, and she had had problems with her eyes for years. And so I prayed for her. I think she had a sciatic nerve or whatever it was. I prayed for immediately. It feels better.

I prayed for her sight. She said, I can see that praise God. And she got so excited that she had a neighbor who was down the street. And if you ever meet somebody and they're in a bad mood and they're not in a good place, I literally, her and I, we drive over to this guy's house right around the street. And she goes, you got to have this guy pray for you.

And so I prayed for the guy. I talked to the guy and immediately nothing. And I'm like, what's going on? He had had, I don't even remember what the physical ailment was, but I started to talk to him and I said, maybe God has me here for another reason. He goes, okay.

And I said, do you have any unforgiveness in your heart? All of a sudden the guy started to cry. And, you know, we talk about deliverance, you know, this guy started to receive. How did you know he had unforgiveness in his heart? It was the Holy Ghost.

All right, right. Right. It wasn't me, right? But I just felt led to ask him the question. And he started to cry and he said, I'm mad at God because I feel like God took my wife away from me.

And I asked God that he would let her live. And so I started to talk to the guy and he prayed. And right then and there, he forgave God and he had a peace that came over him and he started crying.

Well, do you think that that guy needed his arm to be healed more? Or do you think that he needed to be able to get right with God? And so I think sometimes you and I have talked about this before. I think sometimes we try to put God in a box and we say, God, this is what you need. But, but God knows.

And then, you know, this past Sunday, there was a lady, I think her name is Jill. And she, she reminds me so much of my cousin, Elizabeth. I want to call her Liz, but she was at the church and she was, she was just crying and she said, I need prayer. And she was having some issues. There were some stuff going on and she heard leg and her knee hurt so bad And there was another lady there named Sky who was friends with her from the church I said I want you to come over here Sky I want you to watch this.

And so I started to show, this is what I do. I show people the videos of people who have been healed because it builds their faith. A lot of times I'll show them videos of other people who have been healed because they say, well, if God did it for somebody else, why not do it for me? And so I said, this is what we're gonna do. And I said, I started to pray for her, but I said, I'm not asking God that he's going to do something because he's given us authority through the Holy ghost.

Do you remember when Jesus, when Jesus said, he said, it's better for you that I leave and I go up to heaven because you're going to have the helper who comes with you, the Holy ghost. And so I start to pray for this lady and this, I prayed something like this. I said, you know, I said, Lord, I just thank you, Jesus, that you died on the cross for Jill's sin.

So that Jill knows that just by believing in you, she has eternal life. And right now by the blood of Jesus Christ, I cast out any spirit of, I think she had arthritis, arthritis, any spirit of knee pain. You must leave right now at the mighty name of Jesus, because it says in your word that by your stripes, Jill has been healed. And it says in your word that you're the same yesterday, today, and forever. And it says in your word that you're not a man that you should lie.

And we give you all the praise and we give you all the glory in Jesus name. Amen. And I looked at her and I go, Jill, say, thank you, Jesus. And she goes, thank you, Jesus. I said, I want you to walk around now and test out that knee that's hurting so bad that you can't even stretch out.

And she goes, oh my gosh. She said, I can stretch it out. I can do this. I can do that. And I said, God, God healed you.

But then what I did was instead of just saying, that's great. The Lord let me, I said, who's somebody else who's hurting? Jill, I want you to go pray for this other person right now. And Jill prayed for the first person, felt a little bit of relief, but she prayed for another guy named Jeff who was having so much pain in his back or whatever. And she prayed for his back.

And immediately he said, I feel better. And what that did was it gave her the confidence that there's nothing special about Mike. There's nothing special about Robbie, but we're just followers of Jesus. And Jesus said in his word, this is not, not my words. He said, those who believe in me, he said, these works that I do, he said, greater works will you do.

And then she has the confidence that she can do it, not Jill healing anybody, not Mike healing anybody, not Robbie healing anybody, but he has given us the authority by being Christians, by being followers of Jesus, that these works that he did, we can do the same works and even greater. And you think about the power of that. We can talk on the radio, we can do a lot of stuff, but when you actually see God do something, or you hear a word from God in your own spirit, and you know that you're convicted. We're talking about before we did the show, my brother, when he heard a word, there is a God and I'm not him. They convicted him and the Holy Spirit got him and all of a sudden God becomes real to you through something that you see.

It's like, oh, well, clearly God's in this. God's with me. Oh, God really cares about how I feel. Whatever that may be that God becomes real, then all of a sudden, right, faith and testimony. Your testimony, my testimony are, you know, part of what we keep around to sense his presence and to be available for other people.

That's it. There's a verse in, I think, the book of Revelation where it said, they overcame by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. And then the other part after that, it said, and they love their lives, not even unto death. And so, you know, what I've also seen, Robbie, is I've seen people, they get excited about stuff and then it doesn't happen. I mean, I drove up to Pennsylvania to pray for a guy who was dying of cancer.

And a friend of mine and I, we were excited. He was going to be healed. And then a few days later, he died, you know.

So, you know. I had a dear, dear friend. I did her funeral. We prayed. Oh, we prayed.

We laid hands. We anointed with oil. We did everything that we felt like God was leading us to do. But think about it. She was healed.

She was healed. I think one time you said, I think it was Tony Evans who said, And he said, you're either healed or you're healed. If you know Jesus. Right. You're either with family or you're with family.

Right, right, right.

So you look at the book of Job and you look at times where it doesn't happen. But at the same time, I want to get to a point, and this is the point that I've gotten to, where there are times where it still doesn't happen and God is still God. He's sovereign. We praise him in the good times. We praise him in the bad times.

But I want to see it happen a lot more. and I have seen it happen a lot more. But one of the things that I've seen, Robbie, is the more that I pray for people to be healed, the more they're healed. The less that I pray for people to be healed, the less I see people heal. Isn't that funny?

But what God's been putting on my heart a lot lately is, Robbie, if you're in a telephone conversation with anybody, pray. If you're meeting with, talking to them, pray. If you bring God into whatever it is that it is that you're doing with it in an interaction, then obviously, you know, you're giving him the spotlight. It's at some level that people see that that's what's truly important, then let him do what he's going to do. But it really has been convicting to me.

Yes, it might be healing, but it might be, you know, like you said, something completely different that that they got going on in their life, and they realize, oh, man, I hadn't thought about God in a while. Robbie just prayed. I bet I could pray. Whatever it is that we're setting an example with our life, and when you begin that practice, you'd be amazed.

Well, Robbie, aren't you going to pray before we hang out?

Well, we had a little Bible study one time over in Burlington. What do we have, two minutes? Yeah. I was over at a Bible study one time in Burlington, and a guy said something. And he said, he said, I asked people, he said, if you could ask God to answer one prayer for you today, what would you ask him for?

And he would pray that prayer. And there were so many people who would come back to him and say, God answered that prayer.

So thanks, Robbie. Pray that prayer today. How fun. Great to have you back. Great to be here, Robbie.

Thank you. I think it always ends with, 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.

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