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PRCUALife, protecting life through all its stages. 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've got Justin Newp back today. I've just really had a really had a good time getting to know you this morning, Justin. You know, I wasn't planning on this, but we ended up talking yesterday on the phone and I was just going to confirm that, you know, we're meeting today. We ended up talking for like an hour.
We did. Just a really easy guy to get to know. Really nice guy.
I can tell you're also filled with love. I think so many times we see people, you know, we've seen the exorcist and these people are real serious. That's right.
Yelling at people or whatever. But, you know, Jesus actually tells us and he commands us to love other people. That's right. But he also tells us, he says, feed my sheep.
That's right. He said, do you love me? He says, then feed my sheep. But we were talking about this a little bit before, but you know, there are some people who may say in some, uh, there's some doctrine out there that says, Hey, this stuff, the casting out demons and healing the sick or even prophecy that happened in the first century, but it doesn't necessarily happen anymore. What do you think of that, man?
Yeah. The first thing I want to say is, um, I love what you said about that, about Jesus and his, and his love because Jesus operated in love. So a lot of times when Jesus would perform a miracle, when he would cast out a demon, when he would heal the sick, he was coming from a place of compassion. And I always want my heart to be there.
If I ever get to a place to where I'm ministering to people, and this goes for any pastor, any minister, any person that is, is praying for someone, if it becomes a ticket or a number, or, uh, you know, this is not a client. Do you know what I'm saying? Yeah.
Correct. But sometimes when, when you do it a lot, it's easy to slip in that mentality. So you have to step back.
And I think that's why it's important. Like you said, to spend time with Christ and allowing to get his heart for people, because then you'll operate out of a place of compassion. And I promise your authority and your power is going to be more when you're operating out of compassion instead of routine.
Yeah. So you have to have compassion on people. You have to care about people.
I've heard it said before, and I'm sure you have too, that people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. And so it's really cool. But you know, I've got a friend of mine, Jeff Hoover. He's not here this morning, but he grew up Baptist. What he said was there was one time where they were doing a mission trip. And he said, when they were, it was at some camp or something like that. And he said, during the day, he said, they would go out, they would witness to people. And the, the Christians who would go out and witness to people, they would, you know, they would see fruit. People were getting saved. All these good things were happening. But then at night when they had their worship service, one of those same girls who was going out and witnessing to people who was a Christian, actually, they would actually have to, I don't know, like hold her down or keep her in the back of the room or so she could not move because she was literally, she had a demon and she would grow claws. And she would, and she kept saying, I believe at night, she says, I'm here, I'm going to get the worship leader. And he says, Mike, that kind of threw everything that I had ever been taught. It threw my doctrine on its head because I was always told that Christian, Christians could not have demons, but what do you think, man? Yeah. So, um, that's a big argument and I think a big hindrance for a lot of people as well for, I think a lot of people believe that demons exist. I don't know anybody with the argument out there that says, Hey, they just don't exist anymore. I don't know if they went on vacation, but they don't, right. They must've got a good deal.
Myrtle Beach this time of year, I hear is nice. You know, so, um, but, uh, a lot of people fumble around in that. And I realized that a lot of, a lot of arguments, a lot of kind of in-house debates, uh, can get a little tangled up in wording. And so I began to do a little bit of study myself and, uh, you know, under the help of some, some other, uh, scholars and theologians that work with the original text and the original language. And I found that the word possession in the Bible is actually a really poor translation.
And so you can look up Greek scholars on this and, and, and, and, you know, take it to them, but they'll agree that the word in the Greek, which is actually diamondism. I is closer translated demonized, not demon possessed. And the reason that I even get into the semantics of that, uh, you know, of this is because the word possession communicates ownership. And so I would a hundred percent agree with people that say Christians cannot be demon possessed, meaning Christians cannot be owned by a demon. Christians can't be demon possessed, but they can listen to this, possess a demon. They can't be possessed by a demon, but they can possess a demon.
You're like, whoa, wait a minute. Where are you going? Where are you going with this? Right. Um, but in the Bible, people will say a Christian can be oppressed, but not possessed. But again, that language is not in the Bible. Only the word demonized is, well, what does demonized mean? The word demonized means they are under the influence of a demon. What does under the influence mean? Well, it could, you could be a level one influenced to where maybe you're like Paul and there's a messenger of Satan that's buffeting you.
Maybe there's something that is attacking you that is on you, whatever. Uh, or you're the Garrison demoniac, a level 10, right? Cutting yourself in the tombs and there's every which way in between. And so this is where we start to discuss, okay, now that we've communicated a more accurate language in the Bible, can we discuss how it could be actually possible that like your friends experienced this woman who is showing the fruit of being a Christian could actually be dealing with not a demonic attack, but a demon that is living internally in need of being cast out.
Absolutely. And so some of the listeners right now, they're saying, well, Mike, why are you, why are you doing these shows on demons? Why are you doing these shows on healing miracles, all this stuff? And I'm like, I'm doing this because I've experienced a lot of the things that talked about. Um, I was telling you on the ride over here for a little bit, but I said that I was actually in my room, um, one and good and bad, by the way, I've seen that's right. So, but I was in, it was in my room one morning and this was before our baby was born. And I was last summer and all of a sudden I woke up and I saw something on the wall that it looked like a centipede, but it was huge.
So it couldn't have been real. And within probably less than a second, it went from above the baby's bed to over our bed right before it got to me. I said in the name of Jesus go and it disappeared. So this stuff happens.
There was another time, and this is, we talk about, you know, cessationism or whatever, but healings to miracles still happen today. Yes. I told you I was at the pool last year and all of a sudden this is don't try this at home, but you see a bad storm and it's lightning outside, whatever. I'm not telling you to try this.
So don't do this, but I don't want to get sued. But, um, you know, what I'm telling you is this, is that the storm cloud was coming right at me. Yeah. And I just had, I had actually had a dream. This is what happened. I had a dream and in my dream, right before I woke up that morning, it says there was a voice that told me that says you need to have more faith. And I said, okay, I'm going to have more faith. The storm was coming right at me. And I said, Lord Jesus, I said, this storm is not going to come right over the pool. And friends, I'm not lying to you.
I'm telling you the truth. That cloud literally went, one side went around the pool this way. The other side went around the pool that way. And I stayed in the pool. And so I know that miracles happened today.
I mean, there was another story in the, and this is a true story as well. Gosh, it was 12 years ago, but I was struggling with sin at that time. And so I'll never forget. I, uh, had a one night stand like you talked about in the first show, but I woke up the next morning and all I could feel was death that apart with a young lady that I was with. And so I remember I just, something didn't feel right. And so I ended up, I said, okay, well, I went to go get a test, uh, to get checked out or whatever, or HIV, STD, stuff like that.
And so they did a quick test and it, and it came back and it said negative. No, but a couple of weeks later, and I'll never forget this, the guy called me up and he says, Mike, he says, do you remember me? And I'm like, no, he's like, I'm the guy from high point. And he's like, you need to come in here. And I'm like, okay.
And so I drive to this place in high point where I took the test. And he says, Mike, he says, one of the tests for HIV said no. And one of them said, yes. And so I said, holy crap. Oh my God.
I had, by the way, I had no plans of sharing this on the show. Yeah. One of the tests said, no, one of us said yes. And I said, wow. And I remember I went back to, uh, the place where I was living that night and I prayed and I was like sweating. Remember where Jesus was sweating in the, in the garden of Gethsemane. But finally I kept praying until I heard a voice and it said, it is gone.
And so I actually went back in and I got the test done and they retested it and they said nothing. Yeah. And so I ended up going to Duke university. Cause I was trying to figure out an answer to this, right? Yeah. Cause this is, you know, sure.
If this stuff doesn't happen today. Okay. So, but I went and I went to a, it was Duke university and there was the head guy there. He was, he was, he was the guy who studied HIV and stuff like that. And the guy said, all right, I'm going to go talk to him. And he's like, well, he's like, it could be possible that your body fought it off.
My body did not fight that off. That was God. So this stuff happens today. Yeah.
What are some miracles that you've seen? Oh my goodness. I, uh, uh, I'm sure she'll be, she actually coming out with her testimony soon, but we have a close friend that, uh, just, uh, stayed with us recently who, um, had a tremendous miracle take place to where he, she actually had her, her gluteus maximus muscle was torn from the bone and her doctor said that, uh, they couldn't repair it because it had literally begun to deteriorate.
I guess if you don't address those things, uh, soon they, uh, soon they begin to lose their integrity and you can't fix them. So he said, it'd be like literally putting, threading a needle through hamburger meat. And, uh, so she was just left like that. And, uh, she received some prayer and, uh, I mean, fought for this miracle and then eventually God miraculously healed her. And it's funny.
I mean, literally she's running three miles after that. Like you can't explain it like, like a medically documented miracle. So these things are here.
They're a valve of available for us to get our hands on. And the funny thing is, is the doctor after they did the MRI, they said, you know, maybe it was never torn in that, like in the first place. And I'm like, she's like, okay, sure. You know, it's funny. We'll try everything to get on it, but I want to, I want to do a little plug here because there's a scholar by the name of Craig Keener, who actually has a two volume work where he has spent years finding doc medically documented miracles. And he wrote a two volume work on that to where you can literally read testimonies of healings, miracles, dead raisings, all of these things.
And, and, and, and most of them are actually medically documented thousands, if not millions. And, uh, it's, it's a great resource for encouragement. He's got a larger two volume, like a scholarly work. This guy puts out like a book a week and, uh, not really, but, um, and then he's got more of a, more of a digestible version.
I can't remember the names of it, but the author's name is Craig Keener. Stuff like that just keeps you fired up. And, um, I think, you know, the early apostles experienced that on a regular basis and that's why they were so crazy for their faith.
They saw in front of their face what Jesus could do and they just believed it. Yeah. I mean, there was a book that came out a while back and it said, I don't have enough faith to be an atheist, but on the way over here, you actually said something to me that I thought was pretty interesting. You said, Mike, you said the atheists aren't necessarily the ones who are, are really, I guess are the biggest problems. You said it's actually the people who are spiritual or that. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, yeah, yeah. I'm not saying that, you know, atheism is not, is not an issue. I think it's less of an issue than it seems to be blown up in our mind.
We think, because I think if you challenged most people who don't believe in God, they're more agnostic than they are atheistic. But, uh, what I see on the rise, and this is just personal observation, is a type of spirituality outside of Christ, i.e. the new age, that takes ancient, ancient witchcraft from other religions and has now polished it up.
Do you know what I'm saying? And then it's being incorporated into our culture because the enemy is very cunning in the sense of he will take these witchcraft practices and he'll slide them into regular culture so that he can use more doors to begin to demonize people. And then you don't realize that you've been practicing this thing and you begin to look up the origin and find out it's got its roots in ancient Hinduism or something like that, or it's, it's, it was actually created to worship a false God. And we know that Paul says that when the pagans worship idols, they're actually worshiping demons.
He says that in Corinthians. Wow. I mean, that's, you know, people today would say, well, that's harsh. Um, sure.
Well, if it's true, don't you need to tell people? Correct. Yeah. And this is, this is a, this is a, what they did throughout the new Testament. This is a warning of love. Um, this is saying, Hey, this is not a religious thing. This is not, Hey, you know, don't do this cause it's bad or blah, blah, blah. Uh, this is, this is, you know, crying out to people, uh, saying, Hey, there's danger in this.
Uh, you don't want to be in bondage to this. So I think that's why these conversations are healthy. People be like, why, you know, like you said, why are you talking about demons? Well, number one, cause Jesus talked about Satan more than anybody else, but he talked about him with a purpose not to inflate him, uh, but to expose him because we see that as things are exposed, the Bible also says that when things come into the light, they become light. The enemy, the biggest things he'll use, the biggest bondage he'll create in your life are things that remain in the dark. Wow. You know, I, I actually had somebody say this to me the other day and she claimed to be a Catholic Christian and I'm seeing there are more and more people who are saying this actually just saw something the other day was, uh, that up to 50% of Christians who are in America, self-identifying Christians believe that other religions or other people who don't have faith in Christ can go to heaven.
Is that true? Or, uh, I mean, uh, observationally, I think, yeah, there's a lot, a lot going on with, uh, professing Christians and, and, and our, our openness, uh, to, uh, progressive Christianity of, of all inclusive, you know, inclusive, inclusivism and things like that. I mean, you can get into the discussion of what, what the early church taught on, uh, on views of final judgment and things like that. So there were some early church fathers that had a view of what's called universal reconciliation, not to be confused with universalism. Universalism is that all roads lead to heaven. Uh, but there was a view in the early church that said, ultimately, uh, that people after death will be purified and will ultimately come to God through Christ.
But I think what people are doing nowadays with, uh, just wanting to tolerate everything is just trying, just really just, if you challenge people, they don't have any basis for it. And that's the thing. I always go back to the scripture and I'm like, yeah, you know, I'll listen, we can chat about it, but ultimately the scripture is going to be my authority on it. If I can't find it in the scripture, then I don't really think it's worth, you know, discussing whether this is, this is real or not. Well, yeah, I mean, Jesus actually said himself, he's, it's, uh, John 14, six, he says, I am the way, the truth and the life. He says, nobody gets to the father, but by me, he was pretty exclusive.
Yeah, it was pretty excellent. You know, John, and we all quote John three 16 for God, so love the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. But it also says in John three 36, he who believes in the son has life, but he who does not believe in the son has been condemned already.
And so, you know, I remember seeing a sign when I was up in, um, it was a Calvary Baptist when I was a kid and it said, what is popular is not always right. And what is right is not always popular, but, um, yeah, I mean, if, if, if everybody's just going to heaven, um, and, and, you know, then, then why even bother, I guess. Yeah.
Yeah. But, you know, the question I have to ask is where is this deception coming from? And that's where it becomes important to have these spiritual types, these types of conversations where we recognize these are demonic doctrines creeping into the church. And I say this in love, but the doctrine, the doctrine that Christians can't have demons not be possessed, but have in need of Christians cannot need deliverance, um, bumps up against that because it disqualifies you from the ministry of deliverance. Now, if it is possible for a Christian to need deliverance and Christ wants you to be set free and you come to me and you're dealing with something that is, you're like, this is controlling. This is, I've been trying to fix this problem for five years and nothing seems to work and it's controlling me. And I'm like, well, brother, you can't have a demon.
So you don't need deliverance. Just read your Bible and pray more. I feel like you can be, you could, you could venture into doing a great deal of harm to somebody by turning them away instead of saying, you know what, maybe this issue is demonic because I'll tell you what Jesus never cast demons off of people. He only cast demons out of people.
And so either you're dealing with a heavy attack or there is something internally. When I say internally, I don't mean that the demon is living in your spirit. If the Holy spirit lives in your spirit, then a demon cannot be there, but people will make the argument. If you are a temple of the Holy spirit, how can the Holy spirit share a space with a demon?
And I say, he doesn't. Well, I say that the demon doesn't live in your Holy spirit, but your body and your soulish realm, your mind, your will and emotions, as everybody knows, is still susceptible to attack by demons. So if you can think an evil thought, can you think an evil thought? Well, that thought has entered into your physical mind. Can a Christian, can a spirit filled Christian commit the act of adultery? Can you commit the act of adultery with the Holy spirit in you?
Yeah, I'm pretty sure he's pretty grieved over that, but you're not eliminated from having the freedom to do that. The other argument people will bring up is man, Hey, Hey, light and darkness cannot mix. And I say, Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. You've misquoted that verse. Paul says light and darkness should not mix.
He says, what business do light and dark have together? And he's talking about the Christian non-Christian union. So he's saying they shouldn't dwell together, but sometimes they do because we all know a Christian can marry a non-Christian. How can that union take place? If the Holy spirit's in one Christian, not the other, how can they be unified?
Well, I asked the same question to how can a Christian actually be demonized and be in need of deliverance. And you actually said that in 2009, you had, uh, you had been, uh, you got saved. And then after that you started going to church. That's right. You said there came a point, was it 2016 where you were actually on the floor for 30 minutes? Is that right? Yeah. I didn't have any language for it.
Okay. And that's what I said early, you know, in, in one of the past episodes is, you know, my testimony was that certain things I was set free of. I no longer cussed. I no longer wanted to sin, but I was still dealing with the, the, I would say stronger than a temptation, but I was driven towards alcoholism. I remember I quit drinking beer when I first became a Christian, because I was in, I didn't share this, but I was an everyday drinker. Um, I was heavy drinker. And so I thought, well, it's more civilized to drink wine. So I'll switch over to wine. That was now that I'm a Christian, I'll drink wine. And I found myself drinking two bottles of wine.
I'm like, well, that's not working. You know what I'm saying? And so in 2016, not that my drinking was like that, but in 2016, I was still dealing with, with controlling, uh, panic attacks. And hear me when I say this, I'm not saying that all of these issues are always demonic, but I am saying that the Bible says that sometimes they are either caused or influenced by a demon.
That's what I'm saying. But I was dealing with a type of anxiety that was constant and I'm a Christian. And I'm like, I don't want to deal with this anymore. And when I received prayer that time, where I told you, I fell to the floor, it felt like electricity was running through my body.
I mean, there was an instant change. And so I was set free from those, that anxiety that that was in 2016. So we're talking six years later, I've not had a panic attack.
I've not dealt with anxiety. So from my personal experience, I received deliverance. Was that an attack? I don't believe so. I believe that was a spirit that actually left my body.
It was tormenting my physical body. You see in Luke chapter 13, the woman Jesus prays for that is bent over for 18 years. He says, daughter of Abraham, Jesus didn't use that terminology with everybody to call her a daughter of Abraham was to call her a believer in God. And he said, should I not lose this woman from her bondage whom Satan has bound for 18 years. And he cast a spirit out of infirm of infirmity out of a believer in God, a woman. So he's not like, well, I'm sorry, ma'am. You know, that that's not possible.
You can't, you know, he just sets the woman free whom Satan has bound. And that's it. And this is not something that's just theoretical. I mean, you've experienced Christians and I've seen, you know, videos and you put them out there. You actually said that, and I thought this was interesting on the way over. You said that, Mike, you said that Jesus, when he cast out a demon, it wasn't like this private thing. That's correct.
Yeah. So most people argue because we do have a few public deliverances recorded on our YouTube channel. Some of those are intense.
So I warn you if you do go to watch them, but, but hey, Jesus, the ministry was intense. Um, but yeah, he, uh, a lot of people will argue, Hey, this is something that should be done privately. And so we do, we started off actually doing a lot of private deliverances.
We still do. We invite people in our home and we talk to them because sometimes it could take two hours to work through some of the issues. And people are like, Oh, you're not loving. And I'm like, no, I just sat with that person for three hours talking about their, their family history because they're there. They have unforgiveness that is bound up in this thing that we need to work through because it's really important that you not only get set free from the spirit, this unclean spirit, but it's important that you forgive your relative that abused you.
You forget your traumatizer. You forget, not forget, but forgive the people that have hurt you that, you know, that's also going to bear fruit in someone's life. But Jesus, you know, going back to what you said, Jesus, wasn't taking people into the home in a room and saying, all right, everybody out and working through this private deliverance. Listen, there's scriptures. If he was, he was in the synagogue casting out demons in front of the religious people, he was in the streets and they said they were bringing their demonized to him at all hours of the day and the night. And he was casting out demons in the spirit. And I always tell people when they come for deliverance, I say, uh, Hey, dignity is not a fruit of the spirit.
So I'm sorry, but if you want to keep your dignity and pride, it's probably going to be really hard to see you get set free because we know that the Bible says people in pride are in opposition to God. Wow, man. And so, wow. Yeah. That's uh, so, you know, some, and this is probably my favorite passage in the Bible. I believe it's Luke, Luke 18, 10, where he says there were two guys who went up to the synagogue one Sunday or Saturday and Saturday.
Right. And one of the guys said, Lord, I thank you. I'm not like this other man. He says, I give 10% of my money. I don't commit adultery.
Basically. I'm a good person. He's the second guy.
Couldn't even look up in the, in the center, beat on his chest. And he said, God have mercy on me, a sinner. And Jesus says, the truth is this is the second guy, the guy who humbled himself, went away, justified, uh, not the first guy.
I mean, so it's almost like, Hey, do you want to be set free from this or, or do you want to have your pride? And man, it's, that's, that's, that's good. Mary Magdalene is known as the woman whom Jesus cast out seven demons, who was also, uh, you know, part of the group of women that first saw his resurrection and were actually the sent ones to the apostles. They brought the message of Jesus's resurrection to the apostles and they were, they were known.
These women were known that this promiscuous women woman was known to have been completely set free. Of demonic bondage. And the Bible does not shy away from, from revealing that. Wow.
And it, and it's absolutely worth it. And you know, and when I think about this stuff, man, I just, you know, we could do a hundred shows and we can't tell you everything that you could find out. And you know, what I would encourage the listeners to do is to check what Justin is saying by the Bible, read the word of God. You know, one of the things that I saw with you was that when we were talking on the phone, instead of saying, well, Mike, I think this because of this, whatever you would go back to scripture and you said says in the book of Mark, it says in the book of Matthew. So if there's something that you're unsure of, go back to the Bible. And if what he's saying or what I'm saying today goes against what the word of God is by all means, don't listen to it. But if what we're saying just goes against what you've been taught, that's right. The word of God is where we have our ultimate authority.
That's right. Jesus himself says when he comes upon the Pharisees, he said, you nullify the word of God by your traditions. Is he saying traditions are bad? No, he's saying, but if your traditions elevate themselves above the word of God, then you're actually going to see powerlessness because you believe it's a sense of pride.
And that's what they were doing. They continued the, you know, the religious leaders kept adding to the law, adding to the law, adding to the law until their own personal laws had elevated themselves over the word of God. And so it's healthy to sit back and say, Hey, which, which of my traditions are actually helping the purposes of God and which of them are hurting and get those things out of there, man. Like we want to see the gospel go forth. We want to see people respond to Jesus unhindered, whatever I need to get out, whatever I need to shake off, I'm willing to do because I've only got one life here. I want to spend it serving Christ and seeing people get set free.
Amen to that. If people want to check you out more, your YouTube channel and also your TikTok, how would they find you? You can search either my name, Justin Noop, K N O O P or Unshakable Kingdom and find it. And then our YouTube channel is specifically under Unshakable Kingdom. So if you search that, it should be one of the first couple that pop up. Thanks a lot. Absolutely. 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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