Sharron Hungerford

This is Hans Schile from the Finishing Well Podcast.

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

This is the Truth Network. Welcome to If Not For God, stories of hopelessness that turn to hope. Here is your host, Mike Zwick. If Not For God with Mike Zwick, we have my good friend Sharon Hungerford back here again, and she, her son actually, Michael, comes to our Bible studies now, and he is a true, true disciple.

He loves the Word. She's got another son, Chris, who's actually serving our country overseas right now, and we appreciate all the soldiers and everybody who is serving our country, but we're glad to have you back, but today we wanted to start it off with, and I felt the Lord wanted me to share this, was 2 Timothy chapter 4, and I'm going to be looking at the New King James Version. For a while this was my favorite chapter in the whole Bible because it really shows what the end results are and how things can get tough, but in the end we win. Here it is. I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead and his appearing in his kingdom, preach the Word. Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and teaching, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn away their ears from the truth and be turned aside to fables.

It's happening in America today. Verse 5, but you be watchful in all things. Endure afflictions. Do the work of an evangelist. We need to tell people the good news of Jesus.

Amen. Fulfill your ministry, and here it is verse 6, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight.

I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will give to me on that day, and not to me only, but also to all those who have loved his appearing. And if we love Jesus, and Sharon, I know you love Jesus and the folks here at The Truth Network, we love Jesus. We're looking forward to that day of his appearing, but as you go on, it talks about some of the persecution that Paul had gone through. Demas, who was an apostle, actually left him. So many people left the faith.

He said, only Mark is with me. So we do go through tough times, and I know a lot of things that we've talked about is I've had several prophetic dreams where, Sharon, I've seen that there may be a food shortage. There may actually be even a shortage of water. There may be tough times that are coming, and when I say may, I really think they're coming, but I'm just saying may. But I really do think they're coming, and I think that we have to be prepared. And so, Sharon, you're helping to prepare people for the tough times that are ahead. Is that right?

Yes, it is. I mean, I think we need to be spiritually prepared first, and, you know, all the disciples were under heavy persecution in the end, and to think that it's not going to be that way when we're facing, I believe, the coming of the day of the Lord. I'm not saying it's going to happen even in my lifetime or my children or grandchildren. I don't know that, but I do believe that God is telling the bride to get ready. I do, and, you know, it's interesting that you say that, and I know what you're saying.

I think it's coming soon. I do, and I could be wrong, but, I mean, it seems like all of the signs, all of these things that the Bible has prophesied, they're coming true today. I mean, you know, one of the things that we were talking about before is that for so long, Christians have been told, you know, this is how your life is going to be better. You become a Christian. God's going to bless you. He's going to bless you financially. He wants you to have this, that, and the other, and all that stuff, and I do believe that God wants to bless us, but it also promises us in other verses as well that, you know, you look at Philippians chapter 1 verse 29. It says, for it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him. So just because we're Christians does not mean our life, does not mean our life is going to be easy, and I know many times when we're talking about this, and listen, there's some people on the Truth Network or whoever, and there's differing opinions on this who say it's pre-trib and we're all going to be out of here before it gets bad, but I know you and I think we, well, we may be around for some bad stuff.

Is that right? Absolutely, and I believe this time, I believe we're in birthing pangs right now, but as, and when we hear the word tribulation and persecution, but I believe it's a refinement of, like a refining fire that we're going to have a baptism of the Holy Spirit by fire, and that it's like God being the silversmith and removing the dross from the church. If the church will make herself ready, it's very clear in Revelation 19 7 that, and says, and the bride has made herself ready, and our bridal attire is going to be the righteousness of Christ. I mean, we're going to where it's about putting on his righteousness, it's about winning his return to come back.

I mean, it's going to look like the Garden of Eden, but the difference between the Garden of Eden and what's happening is that Jesus himself has won our freedom and victory, so if we had eaten of the tree of life after we had sinned, we would have been in that permanent state of sin, but Jesus has given us that freedom, and so it's going to be perfect. It is going to be perfect, and we were, I think we were looking at a little bit earlier this morning at Ephesians 2, and what people always look at is Ephesians 2 verses 8, and 8 through 9 they look at it, and it says, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast, and so we're good Protestants, right? We believe that we're saved by grace through faith, and that's it, and we can't earn anything, whatever, but I do believe that there is a verse in there that a lot of people leave out, and it says in verse 10, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them, so it's saying that we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. We're not saved by our works, but because we're saved, we're going to want to serve others. We're going to want to serve the Lord. We're going to want to tell people about Jesus. We're going to want to help people fight spiritual battles, fight the spiritual warfare, and I know you do that. Absolutely, and you know our sins are forgiven. It's our works that we're judged on, yes, and so, but we were, Jesus came to undo the works of the devil, yes, and so we're to do the same thing with our works. It's very important.

Yeah, we, I mean, we have to, and one of the things, you know, we have our friend John Perry here, who is, he's actually, he plays basketball with the Truth Network, and he's got his website, and it's Baller Nation, and you can find that on Facebook, so if you get a chance to check that out, we may put a video up there as well, because he's taking this video, but you know, it's interesting. I think for so long in our world and in the way that we live, we've always seen it as we go to church, the preacher preaches, and then that's it. That's his job. The preacher's job is to preach, and that's the end of it, and I know, I feel like the Lord woke me up several years ago with that, where that, well, hold on, it doesn't have to end there. That's not the end-all be-all.

That's not, sure, that is part of it. It says in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 25, it says, do not forsake the gathering of yourselves, as some of them have done. But in addition to that, where it says in Ephesians 2 10, where it says that we were created to do good works, we were created for works, Jesus actually even said it himself.

He says, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. And so, here's another problem. Here's where some of us get stuck. Here's where some of us have a tough time, is that we're sitting here and we're saying, I want to do all of these good works, and I want to tell everybody about it.

I want to put it on Facebook, Instagram, everywhere else, because I mean, if everybody doesn't know about it, well then, it's not really that great. Well, Jesus actually said himself, he says, when you give with one hand, don't let the other hand know what one hand is doing, so that your works may be done in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you openly. And so, one of the things that I've seen in my own life, Sharon, is that sometimes it's like, I've got to make sure that I'm doing the right things for the right reasons, because sometimes we can do the right things for the wrong reasons.

In other words, I could sit here and say, hey, I want to have this show every week, so that everybody will look at me, and look at how great I'm doing, and I'm such a great Christian, stuff like that. If I say that, I'm missing the point. Do you find sometimes that people can be doing all of the right things, but if they're doing it for the wrong reasons, can it cause problems?

It absolutely causes problems. We call it navel watching. We end up just looking at ourself and judging ourself, and God never meant for us to judge ourselves. And I think about the great commission, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned, and these signs will follow those who believe. In my name, they will cast out demons. They will speak with new tongues.

They will take up serpents, and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover. We're to be about doing all of these works.

We are, and one of the things that I've seen, and I'm sure you've seen this too. I'll give you an example. When I first started selling books, I would sell books door to door, and sometimes the hardest part about me selling books or knocking on those doors was the thought process before I did it. Once I went ahead and knocked on that door and I started talking to people, I realized it wasn't that tough, and I'll give you another example of something that just happened to me recently. I go out, and when I'm selling life insurance, I go out and I'll share the good news of Jesus Christ, and I've been doing it for so long it seems to be pretty easy to me.

I love to do it. I get joyful. So many good things happen from it, but I realize when I'm not in that situation, if I'm out at the gym or if I'm out at the pool or if I'm out at the grocery store, I won't say anything, and I'm thinking to myself, why am I doing it in one situation and not another? And so what it is is it's this fear. It's this fear that I have of, oh gosh, it's going to be so bad. Well, you know what happened the other day, Sharon, is that I was at the pool, and I just felt the Holy Spirit tell me this. This lady walked by, and she said, my back is hurting. And I said, I was scared. I said, well, I believe in the power of prayer. And she says, me too. And so I said, what's your name?

Ruth or whatever it was. And I prayed for her. And she said, Mike, when you prayed that prayer for me, I felt it in my back.

Oh my gosh, what a blessing. But you know what? Sometimes we can talk ourselves out of doing these things, and we could say it's going to be awkward. We don't want to talk to this person.

They're not going to want to hear us or whatever. But from what you've told me, the stories that you have of spiritual warfare, where you fought the devil face to face, and you've won, where it's like at the end of it, you're like, that wasn't that bad. Or we can do this, I think was one of the stories that you said, right?

Right. I remember when I first learned learning about spiritual warfare, I was bartering with God. I said, I believe demons are out there, but I don't want to see any. And he probably laughed. And then the first thing I saw was this black spot floating through my house. And I saw a slash, a white slash. And I know it was the angel sword, just getting rid of the demon.

I didn't have to do anything. And I saw God. He just, he just showed me, I thought, well, that's nothing to be afraid of. And so, but I've had numerous stories.

I'm not sure which ones you're thinking that. Yeah. No, I mean, I, you know, I'll give you an example as well. I one time, and I think I've told this before, but I was in a situation where I was living in right outside of Greensboro. And I remember one day I committed a sin. It was a sin I shouldn't have done. And all of a sudden the fireplace started to open and close.

And in the natural, it was impossible because it was locked and it was close so it couldn't move, but it started to move. And I could feel a demonic presence that was in there. And then the person that I was with, they said, God, forgive me, God forgive us.

And so as soon as that person said that it, it just, it just all stopped. And so it's, it's, you know, I think sometimes we think that this, it's this really hard battle and sometimes it can be tough, but you know, your friend, Joel, Joel Isley, one time I actually heard him say, he said, there's a battle between good and evil. And he says, and Jesus wins the battle.

And he says, you know what I've learned? He says, it's not even close. No, it's not even close.

Definitely not. He wins. I mean, we can read the end of the book.

He wins. And you know, I've, I've shared my story about this young man again that tried to kill me with a knife was hearing demonic voices and, and, but Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. He stood in front of me as a shield. We had prayed that he be our shield, rear garden, a wall of fire. And he was, and we've had people in our counseling, counseling time that the enemy had just taken. It seemed like taken over. You would have thought they were possessed, but they weren't possessed.

And slither on the floor like a snake. And we've had turnover like a rotisserie chicken. Yes, we've just had, but we've seen God. I mean, what it changed was our prayer life and God wants us to pray his word. This is the greatest spiritual warfare that you can do is when we take his word and read it back to him.

Being an intercessor is like being a secretary. We're watching over his word and then we're reminding him. And so when I'm praying alone, a lot of times I will take his word and I'll say, God, you made this promise. This is what you've promised to your people. And I pray a lot for Israel.

I say, save your people. And he tells us not to give him rest day or night until Jerusalem becomes a praise in the earth. And what's going to make that happen is when Jesus returns. And he is returning. Absolutely. He is returning. He is returning. And I'm waiting as the bride.

Yes, yes. And so one of the things that I love about you is that if the Lord speaks to you and tells you to do something, you listen. And I realized this a little while ago and I was praying and talking and talking to the Lord. And I realized that it's not that God doesn't always speak to us.

It's just that sometimes God speaks to us and tells us to do something and we don't want to do it. That and listening for his voice. Most people don't even expect God to say something to us, but he is waiting on us to hear.

And that's the thing. I mean, just being a widow, I have time to hear his voice. And he's my companion. I mean, I live to hear his voice. And that's so important.

We need to just listen. And he does want to speak to you. So if you're thinking wrong thoughts, ask forgiveness and expect to hear from him.

Yeah. There was an old song and it says, Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He made it white as snow.

And so that's one of the great things too. And we were talking about how God forgives us of our sins. The devil has come to destroy, to steal, to kill. And he wants us to think. He tries to remind us of the things that we've done in our past. But in the Old Testament, God actually says, he says, I will forgive your sins and I will remember them no more. So if he's telling us that he's not even going to remember our sins after we ask for forgiveness and if we repent, well then if somebody else has sinned against us and they've asked for repentance, we're really not even supposed to remember their sins.

Absolutely. You know, if he's not remembering our sins, why should we? And actually I think it grieves the Holy Spirit about the work that Jesus purchased for us. And that really moves my heart to think that I would grieve God because I didn't believe. Christian's greatest sin is unbelief. Probably fear and unbelief, I would say are probably two of the greatest sins.

And if we need to be on our knees and on the floor, it's over not believing God is who he says he is. And he is who he says he is. One of the things that we were talking about before the show started is there was a guy named G. Campbell Morgan.

He was a famous Christian from the late 1800s, early 1900s. But there was, for a while, he was so close to his daughter and they would go on walks, they would spend time together, this, that, the other. And then all of a sudden for about three months, he just wasn't seeing her as much, she wasn't spending as much time with him, whatever. And then he had a birthday come up and she said, dad, I surprised you, I got you something. And she gave him these slippers that she had knitted together. And he said, this is great. He said, so the slippers took you three months to make. And she said, how'd you know that? And he said, because for the last three months, you haven't really spent any time with me.

And you haven't seen, you haven't done any of that. He says, listen, he says, I appreciate you giving me these slippers. He said, but I would rather that you would have spent time with me and bought me a pair of slippers. How important is it, Sharon, and I know you see this, how important is it for us to spend time in prayer, spend time in the word, spend time alone with God, because yes, I know it's important for us to do works and to feed the poor and to do all these other things. But could it also be important that we don't leave our first love?

Absolutely. If you're engaged, what do you want to be doing? You want to be spending time with the person that you're engaged to. You want to be talking. You want to be listening.

You want to learn who they are. And that's why God says you've left your first love. I mean, he wants our time. God's all about family.

He's a, he's a family man. He puts the lonely in families in Psalms, you know, and it's, he loves us. He wants our time.

He does want our time. And, you know, the, when you were talking about hearing his voices, it says, it says in John, I believe it's John 10, he says, John 10, 14, I believe it says, my sheep hear my voice. We are spiritual beings. God is spirit. And those who worship him, worship him in spirit and truth. We don't see ourselves as spiritual beings.

I don't believe. And we need to work toward that because that's how we worship God. And he does speak to us. He's, it's not usually an audible voice. It's usually a still small voice, but we hear him and we have thoughts and the thoughts either come from God, they come from ourselves or they come from the enemy.

And, and so we need discernment to learn where these thoughts are coming from. So it's God, he's waiting for us to hear him. He tells us to hear his voice.

And, and, you know, it's interesting. I heard, pastor Chad years ago, he, he, he gave an illustration, gave a story where there was a whole bunch of noise and everybody was talking in the church and he said, get real loud. And what happened was, was he said, so he whispered something and nobody could hear what he said. And then he said, do the same thing. And he said, there, there was a young man who he spoke into his ear and when he was done, he said, I want you to tell everybody what I just said.

And he, and the young man was able to hear it because he spoke right into his ear and he took the time to actually listen to him. We're not going to be able to stop all of the distractions. The world is going to keep going on. The news is going to keep coming on. There's going to be all these things that are trying to take place of God, you know, take the place of God and sports, or it can be any distraction at all, whatever it is. And I'm not saying any of those things are bad, but I do also believe that unless we take time to be quiet and we take personal time to say, Hey, no matter what, I'm going to take this time.

I don't know. Maybe it could be a month at the beach, Sharon. I had a wonderful, well, two weeks at the Outer Banks. But the Lord told me to stop being busy and to get away and seek his voice.

And I didn't realize how tired I was because I'm in battle a lot. And, but just the rest, the walks on the beach. And I met a young woman on the beach. I just, she was by herself.

I said, Oh, you're by yourself. And, and she just poured out her heart to me. And then after it was over and I said, can I pray for you? And so we prayed after it was over. She said, I saw you coming.

And I said, I'm not going to pour my heart out to this woman. So the Holy Spirit was already operating and knew she's here, but it was exactly what I needed. And, and so God knew that he had this divine appointment and that's what he does. He has divine appointments for us. And we just have to be alert where to be those, that watchman that he's called us to be, to be alert, to be available. And, you know, if we're thinking about herself and just not being alert, we miss those opportunities, but praise God, you know, I had that opportunity and, um, and it just changes, you know, to be used by God.

What greater gift is there? Yeah. I mean, other than, yeah.

Yeah. I mean, you know, when you say that it says a greater love and no man than this, that he laid down his life for his friends. And so we are grateful to Jesus Christ for laying down his life for us and that Sharon, and you know, this is that it says in scripture that all we have to do is believe for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Maybe if you're listening today, you've never given your life to Christ. You never said yes to Jesus. We ask you right now, just to pray with us, Lord, forgive me of my sins. I'm a sinner. I have turned away from you, Lord, but I give my life to you, Jesus.

I accept you as my Lord and savior in Jesus name. Amen. And, and Sharon, we really enjoyed having you back. We hope to have you back sooner than later. I love being here. Thank you, Mike.

If not for God. Imagine having peace of mind in these turbulent times, peace of mind may be the most valuable of all assets. Feeling secure in your financial future is worth its weight in gold and in emotion. Liberty Bankers Insurance Group can help provide you with that most precious life affirming sense of security. We work hard to create smart and innovative life, health, and financial plans that help ensure your family of not just the stability that you deserve, but the future potential you desire to create a generational legacy of peace of mind. Liberty Bankers Insurance Group, for life. Not all products available in all states. Visit LBIG.com for additional terms and conditions. This is the Truth Network.