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Consider joining the PRCUA this week. Welcome to If Not For God, stories of hopelessness that turn to hope. Here is your host, Mike Zwick.
If Not For God this week with Mike Zwick and Mike, we need him. It's If Not For God right now, right? It is.
It's interesting. There is so much negative stuff in the world going on right now. But what I try to do every day is I try to look for the positive. Here's a positive thing. The USA Today actually ran an article, and by the way, you know that the USA Today is not a Christian publication.
I mean, this is not a, you know, they're not part of the vast right-wing conspiracy. But the USA Today wrote an article, and it said why you should go to church not only for Holy Week, but every week thereafter. And what they did was they actually did a study of all of the people, all the different groups all across the country, and they showed that every single group that they interviewed became more depressed, and their happiness level actually went down over the last year. But they said that there was one group whose happiness actually increased over the last year, and that was Christians who regularly attended church, even through the pandemic. And, you know, it's funny. I always think that it's funny when the world actually catches up with the Bible.
You know, it's like, I mean, yeah, it happens all the time. I mean, as a matter of fact, here's the verse, Hebrews 10.25, Not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day approaching. And, you know, every day that goes by, you know, we can argue with people about this however we want, but every day that goes by is one day closer to seeing the Lord Jesus Christ returning.
And, I mean, I don't know about you guys, but I'm excited for that, and I'm ready for that day. And we were actually talking, we have our Tuesday night Bible study last night, and we were talking about it last night, where, you know, it says when Jesus, when he went to the cross, he was killed for our sons. And then he rose from the grave. He ascended up into heaven. Jesus actually said this.
He says he put Satan in everything under his feet. And Monday morning, we have our Monday morning meeting in Burlington at the Burlington City Park with Nanette Noel. And I went to the park, and when I went there, my back was absolutely killing me. I'd been lifting weights, this and that. And the whole time we were at this prayer meeting, something told me, you need to have these people pray for your back. And at the end of the meeting, I said, look, I said, guys, it's been a wonderful meeting, but would you guys please pray for my back? And they were happy to do it. They all got around me. They started praying for my back.
And I noticed, it wasn't three days later, when I went to the car, all the pain that I felt, it was just completely gone. And we serve a great God, right? But one of the things that I was thinking about after the whole thing had happened was, we don't need to be surprised when that happens. I mean, that's what we should come to expect. I mean, Jesus, he said, according to your faith, so be it.
I mean, you know, Jesus said, the same things that I do, he says, greater things will you do. You know, I hear people talking about this. Well, all over the world, in all these different countries, God is working miracles. We don't see that in the United States, and I've got a word for that, baloney. It happens right here. It's happening right now.
We're seeing revival happen right now in the United States. Yeah, there's a lot of bad things that are happening, but a lot of people are coming to Christ. Our friend Andy, been coming to our Bible studies. We've been praying for him. You know, we've got our good friend Wayne Dozier here. I mean, I've been introducing him to people, God's been introducing him to people, and you had a story where there was a guy who wanted to commit suicide.
Is that right, Wayne? Yeah, a few weeks ago, you actually made the connection there. You hooked me up with this guy.
I was able to actually have a conversation with him, and I knew where the guy was coming from. So just being able to talk to his heart and help him to see that there's more to all of this than what we understand. And ultimately, it all comes back to, well, God loves us, and He wants us to love one another. And he's doing a lot of that, I think.
I think he's doing a lot of that right now, especially over the last year. If you look at the statistics and what we're seeing in terms of if you talk about suicide, the suicide rate is up exponentially, especially in teenagers. You know, a lot of people out of work, you've got a lot of different things going on, right? So we try to give hope. We try to lean on God. Yeah, I mean, as a matter of fact, speaking of suicide, I remember when I was 14 years old, I had taken a bottle of pills, and I wanted to die, and God actually brought me through that. But Robbie, you were actually talking about if we had actually succeeded in our suicide, what are the consequences of that? Yeah. You know, I had some folks that were very close to me that had attempted it, and I was in the same position that Wayne was talking about where I was talking with them, and all of a sudden, God kind of just convicted me that, wow, had I succeeded back when I was 16 years old myself when I took the pills, same kind of thing, then, wow, not only would I have killed myself, but I would have killed all three of my kids, and at this point in time, five grandkids. Like, what?
Yeah. And it's like, you're not only a murderer, you're a mass murderer. So there's obviously huge consequences not only to the lives that you take, but since, you know, in my life, my wife's brother committed suicide, and the guilt that was passed around the family as a result of that is almost unthinkable.
So when you look at the consequences of this, you know, huge amount of suicide going on, you know, it affects generations, it affects a whole lot of things, and it certainly affects the guilt that's on other people. However, the people that are trapped there, I mean, it's like you said, Wayne, you've got to have a heart for them because it's a really hard place. Well, and being in that position, you know, you know that in that moment that really the only thing you can see is hopelessness. There is no hope. There's no hope in God. There's no hope in money. There's no hope in whatever it is that's causing your situation. There's something that's bringing this upon you. And like you said, you couldn't see all the lives you would have destroyed after that.
Not only that, but you couldn't see how this was going to turn out. You know, if we lean back on God's Word, He says, all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord. Well, all things includes the really, sorry, Mike, the sucky parts.
Like, you know, it includes all things. You know, when I was thinking about it a year ago, you know, again, God had me do some crazy things over the last year, some things that I didn't quite understand. And it's happened a couple of times over the last year. And each time, it seems like there's some ray of light that shows up directly afterwards.
It's really funny. It's like almost directly afterwards. Like, there's no hope. And then all of a sudden, I would have missed this one ray of light that showed up over here if I would have done that. Not to mention all the light after that. And we just don't know when the hurt stops, but it eventually stops. It eventually stops. It does, but then there's also those people where it didn't stop, right? And then you've got the family. And so you had a real experience with a friend of yours recently that you felt like God showed you some stuff.
Yeah. About a month and a half, two months ago, I had a really close friend from high school, a friend that I grew up with ever since I was old enough to ride a bicycle. I grew up in that neighborhood. And she had had some things going on that a lot of people didn't know about. An amazing woman, if you ever met her in person, you would think that this woman was just the rays of Jesus shining off of her.
Just happy. She brought joy to everyone. She was always lifting up others.
Always taking care of other people. The last time that I saw her, she was actually giving away. She ran a particular store. She was actually giving away her product to a customer who came in because he was a friend and she'd known him for a long time. She knew where he was coming from and she just kind of gave it to him. He was trying to pay her and she wouldn't take it.
This kind of young lady she was. So, again, a couple months ago, a month and a half, two months ago, we found out that she had done this. I've gone back and forth in my beliefs and what happens. We don't know. We just don't know. I had actually leaned a particular way in my beliefs around this particular topic.
What happens if you do this? I had a dream. It was probably actually about two weeks ago. In this particular dream, you'd have to understand the way I see things. This particular girl, any time that I saw her, a very specific song came to mind. I always sung it. I always sung it in my mind. I would sing it out loud.
It was crazy. Well, sing it because I think that's very helpful. When you sing it, I can immediately relate.
The song was, Hey Mickey, You're So Fine, You're So Fine, You Blow My Mind, Hey Mickey. If anybody's ever heard the song, it's a really good song. It sticks in your head. But every time I saw her, I thought of the song. Well, in this particular dream, and I'll skip to the piece that's relevant to this, but in this particular dream, I'm in this living room and I turn around and my sister is sitting on a couch. She's sitting on this couch and I'm looking at her and as I'm looking at her, I point to her and I start singing that song. Well, I look over to her side, to her right, my left, and I see another young lady that I know. I've known her again my whole life and I've always called her my sister from another mister.
I don't even call her by her name. I call her, Hey, there's my sister from another mister. Well, in this particular dream, whenever I had it, I believed it meant something very specific. I thought it meant, well, okay, my sister maybe had dealt with the same thing. And maybe this other young lady that I knew who was my sister, I'm a little thick sometimes, who was also my sister, maybe had issues with these particular things, with the mental aspect of it.
Just make it so the listeners can follow. I understand that essentially you had previously felt as though somebody who committed suicide, that they were committing murder and it would not, and they would not, that would not go well for them. Right. And I had actually derived that from something that I had seen in scripture. And the reason we're even talking about this, I think, is because we were talking earlier about how you really need to be careful with what you think you believe and what you want to stand on because God can change your mind in a heartbeat and you not realize it. And then, you know, you've got some things that you've got to go work out later on.
Right. And clearly he can decide that Judas, you know, isn't going to make it and he can decide that Mickey can make it. So, you know, these are things that, you know, some people really, you know, their theology will hold them back. But I've read something that Oswald Chambers said this morning that, you know, if you believe you understand everything, God can't turn on the light and show you what's really going on. Because you already have, he says, if you want the whole, this is Oswald Chambers now.
Today's April 7th. You can look it up for yourself. He said, if you, you know, just go across passages like that and you say, well, I understand this, then God can illuminate it for you because, you know, you're not giving the Holy Spirit any leeway. And what I hear you saying, Robbie, is that we have to be coachable and teachable. And so I don't know if anybody has ever been like this before, but I've sold insurance stuff for years, 17 years, years and years and years. And I can help a lot of people if they'll listen. There's a certain type of person I can't really help if they know everything and I tell them, oh yeah, I know that. Oh yeah, I know that.
Oh no, no, no. And it's like, if you're not going to listen to me, if you're not going to listen to my advice, I can't help you. And I think that God is saying the same thing, where it's that, you know, he wants to help you. He wants to be your father. He wants to give you advice.
He wants to, you know, and he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own. Well, yeah, but not if you don't listen to him, not if you won't listen to him. And so he does want to help us. He wants to help us in our everyday life.
He cares about us, but we have to go to him every day in prayer and we have to ask him, Lord, help me. You know, as long as we want to do it on our own, we're never going to get there. I mean, I think about the story that, you know, J.D. Greer told that one time of the, there was a group of kids from a school and the teacher said, all right, who did their homework? And the kids who said, okay, I didn't do my homework. The kids who did their homework actually carried the backpacks of the kids who didn't do their homework.
And it sounded counterintuitive, but about halfway up the mountain when they were doing their hike, the kids who were getting their bags carried who did not do their homework, they hated it because they didn't want somebody else helping them out. You know, well, 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ, he died on the cross for our sins and he said, all you have to do is you believe in me and you'll have eternal life. But we have to humble ourselves and we have to say, Lord, I need you. Remember that song? Lord, I need you. Oh, I need you. Every hour I need you. So until we're willing to sit down and say, look, I need you, Lord, you know, then we're going to miss the mark and we'll never get there.
And maybe if you're listening right now today, you're saying, well, yeah, I'm listening, I'm being entertained or whatever, you're not being entertained, whatever, you know, whatever it is. But, you know, the fact that you just say, Lord, just open up your hands and say, Lord, I need you. We all need you, Lord. We need you right now in this country, Lord. We need you to step in right now. We need you to intervene. We need you, Lord, I'm praying right now that you're going to intervene in marriages right now that seem to be broken, Lord.
I pray in Jesus' name right now for you to restore those marriages. I'm praying right now in Jesus' name for somebody who's thinking about committing suicide right now, that as you listen right now, you cry out to Jesus. And, Lord, we just pray that you deliver that person from suicide. I want to pray right now for somebody who's lost. Maybe you're just listening on the radio right now.
You don't even know why you're listening. Lord, I just want to pray right now that if you're listening right now and you don't know Jesus, I want to pray that you cry out to Jesus. I want to pray for miracles. I want to pray for supernatural breakthrough to happen right now in the United States, right now with the listeners, Lord. I want to pray for revival to break out because, Lord, we know that you can do it. And I know that over the past year, there's been a lot of bad things that have happened, Lord. But you are in control, Lord. You are going to make a way where there is no way.
In Jesus' name, amen. So, getting back to the story, which, you know, for people that have lost somebody to suicide that are struggling with that question, you know, I think the rest of the story is extremely helpful, Wayne, to share when after the dream how you did ask God, I need you, and he showed up and he shared you some interpretation you really didn't expect. Yeah, and I think that's kind of what we're talking about now is a lot of people need healing, not so much in the nation.
I mean, a lot of people are hurting at home and, you know, right in their own backyards. So, going back to that dream, I had seen that dream and whenever I woke up and prayed about it, I felt like God was telling me one very specific thing around maybe my sister and this other young lady that maybe they had dealt with the same issues, etc. And this was a couple weeks ago. Well, I was driving home one day and God reminded me of that dream and he said, you know, not audible and still small voice, and he said, you know, this was not for you. I need you to call this young lady's mom. And I hadn't spoken with this young lady's mom since she had passed away and actually before that. She was not at the funeral home when I went up there that particular evening for visitation. And God just kept kind of telling me to wait, just you'll know when.
She'd actually disabled her accounts. I mean, as a parent losing her daughter, especially daughter of this age, I mean, we can't understand it. Well, again, I'm driving. I hear Father say, this isn't about you. You need to call her.
This is what it means. And he started to show me, see, when I was looking at my sister sitting on the couch, I was seeing my sister, but I was calling her by this young lady's name. So I was seeing this young lady, but she was my sister in Christ, my sister in Christ. And to confirm it, he used the other girl from the dream who was beside her, who always called my sister from another mister, right?
Anybody who is my sister in Christ is most definitely, you know, my sister or brother from another mister, right? So I called up this particular young lady's mom and started a conversation with her and spoke with her. We spoke for a little while and I started to share my dream with her. And I told her that I felt like Father was telling me that I needed to share this with her.
And she told me in that moment that it was actually a question that she was asking, she was struggling with over the last few days. Because the same thing, she knew who Mickey was. She knew that she loved God and she loved people. She knew that she loved Yeshua, Jesus. She knew who she was, but she had also had doubts and things that she'd heard over time, things that, you know, we all change our minds about some certain things, but around suicide and how that affects your eternal life. And God in that moment was telling her that her daughter was fine.
Her daughter is okay if she's fine, she's with Him. We don't truly comprehend just how big God is, really. So again, you know, the story I think is remarkable that, you know, you're listening, you're asking, how do I interpret this?
This is what's happened. You know, Scripture speaks clearly that, you know, thou shall not murder. But it also speaks clearly that you're not supposed to call somebody a bad name. And so, you know, I don't know myself sometimes, you know, gee, how does this exactly work? And I don't think we know who's going to be in heaven. You know, I really don't think. But I mean, honestly, I could do something two seconds before I die. And then, oh, you know, is it in fact that Jesus' blood can cover that, you know, no matter what it is?
And, you know, clearly my prayer is to stay as close as possible, learn as much as possible, love God and love others, and we'll let Him be the judge. Well, yeah, for sure. I mean, matter of fact, and I also want to give a word of encouragement. If all three of us here have dealt with serious depression, is that right? Serious depression.
But I saw something. I want to give you a word of encouragement. It's from Scripture. Here's some verses that if you're depressed right now, I want you to believe and hold on to these verses. Psalm 9, 9. The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Psalm 23, 4. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Psalm 30, verse 5. For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime. Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.
Amen. Psalm 30, verse 11. You turned my wailing into dancing.
You removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy. Psalm 34, 17 through 18. The righteous cry out, and the Lord, he hears them. He delivers them from all of their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Psalm 42. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. Talking about setting your feet on the rock. How about Jesus Christ as the rock? He is the rock.
He is the rock. If we set our feet on him and we trust in him, I tell you what, we still have tough times, right? But we can kind of be like that USA Today article that says, you know what, even though we're going through tough times, we have the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords who's on our side, and he'll never leave us or forsake us. I want you to trust in that right now. Yeah, so if you've never done that, we just want you to know how easy it is to trust in him and to know that you do have that place in heaven with him. And it just starts out by saying, you know, Jesus, I believe you are who you said you are. You are the Son of God, and that you did come and you died on Calvary for my sins. And Lord, I believe that you can save me. And I believe that I can be forever together with you and those who love you. And so I ask that you would save me. In Jesus' name I pray. If you prayed that clearly, I mean, Mike would be more than thrilled, any of us would, if you would contact him at his website, email, whatever you want to do, because at the end of the day, right, it's If Not for God.
It is, and it's, you know, the email is zwickm8 at gmail dot com, z-w-i-c-k-m, like the number 8 at gmail dot com, zwickm8 at gmail dot com. We'd love to hear your, we'd love to hear your suggestions, we'd love to hear your comments, and we have another minute here. Anything else you want to say to anybody out there? I think the biggest thing is to know that he told us not to worry about tomorrow. Like, it's easy to say that out loud, but he told us not to worry for tomorrow. Tomorrow has enough troubles of its own, and if we can learn to just really sit still in right now and today, you know, maybe go listen to the birds chirp, you know, find something, music, whatever it is, find yourself in a place where you can just be still and realize that in this moment you're still breathing, that you still have purpose. The fact that you're alive now means that Father has purpose for you. You have something that you're meant to do. He tells us in his Word that he dictates the time and the place that we're supposed to live. So, all of us that are alive right now are supposed to be alive right now because there's people that we're supposed to influence, there's people who are to influence us, there's just so many myriads of ways that we touch the lives of those around us and they touch ours. And ultimately, again, it goes back to that, right? Love God, love people. If not forgot, not forgot.
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