This is Robbie Dilmore from The Christian Car Guy and Kingdom Pursuit, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build a kingdom. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds.
Enjoy it and share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Welcome to If Not For God, stories of hopelessness that turn to hope. Here is your host, Mike Zwick. Well, If Not For God with Mike Zwick. We've got our good friend Christy Reel back here. We've got Grayson over here. We've got Jeff Hoover.
Bob Meis just came in, was hanging out. Stu Epperson had a big lunch yesterday at the Mayflower for all the folks at the Truth Network, and we are excited about Thanksgiving and Christmas. But excited about the giver of gifts. We're excited about the Lord.
We're excited about the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, we were actually just talking about the gifts of the Spirit, Christy. So I was looking at 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and I'm looking at the New King James Version, and it says, Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant.
You know that you were Gentiles carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. Therefore, I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. There are diversities of the gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. For one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one in the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as he wills. And Kristi, a lot of the people who are listening to this right now, they go, Oh, see, that means certain people have the gift of healing. I don't have the gift of healing, so I guess I'll never have it. Is that what that means to you, Kristi? Maybe at one point it did, but that viewpoint has changed a little after getting to know Jesus. What do you mean? Don't just leave me hanging.
Oh, I was leaving you hanging, buddy. So when I first met Jesus, I didn't know anything about the gifts. I grew up Baptist, and I mean, praise God for the Baptist church. But they didn't really talk about spiritual gifts much outside of that scripture.
That was about it. And so when I started walking with Jesus that very first year, you know, when you spend a lot of time in the Word and really get to know God, things just start to happen around you. And so God started calling us to pray for the sick, and our very first healing miracle we ever saw was a dying kid live.
And the second one was a dying woman live. And then we started seeing all these crazy miracles, and at that time, I mean, I was still very connected to the Baptist church, and they, you know, a lot of them didn't quite understand what was going on because they had never seen or heard such things as I was telling. And so back then I was spending, I think I told you last time, I was spending about 12 hours a day in the Word and hours a day in prayer and fasting, and it was a tremendous, wonderful season with the Lord. And then after that season shifted and I spent less time in the Word and less time in prayer, I'm not recommending that. I'm just saying that was my season.
It's my story. I actually longed to be back at that first where I spent 12 hours a day in the Word. You know, I long for that now. But I had this thing in my heart that was kind of works based, and as long as I was praying enough and reading my Bible enough, I felt confident to pray for the sick because I had earned the right to do it because I had spent the time there. Well, when I didn't do it, I didn't quite feel that way. And anyway, the Lord spoke to me one day and he was like, you don't have the gift of healing. And I was like, praise the Lord.
And it took all the pressure off. And then I started praying for the sick again and I started seeing miracles again. And so what the Lord started showing me after that was that I have the Holy Spirit. And after that, I really let go of all the gift thing because it tripped me up. You know, when I started thinking something was my gift and that was about me and I had to earn it. I had to cultivate it.
I had to steward it. And I'm just not that great. I'm just going to be honest. And it's not about me anyway. It's Jesus. He's the healer.
He's the deliverer. It's the truth that set people free. And Jesus is the truth that sets men free. And so when the motivation changed and it came off of me to perform something and it became, you know, God wants to encounter his people and he's using us to do it. You know, we're the hands and feet. It took all the pressure off to have to operate in a spiritual gift. And I just feel like we have the Holy Spirit. And so we have access to all the gifts.
Yeah. So Ephesians chapter two, starting in verse eight, it says, For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. And so I heard you say, well, I felt like as long as I was kind of earning it, as long as I was reading my Bible, um, that, you know, and I, as long as I was spending plenty of time with God, then I would see these things.
And when I stopped doing these, then I would stop seeing these things. And you're not saying, don't read your Bible. You're not saying, saying don't spend time in prayer, but you're not. You're also saying this is not something that we earn.
It's a gift. I've heard this said before that in other religions, uh, you know, the answer to the way to get to heaven is D O. You do this, you do that, you do the other. And at the end of your life, if your good works kind of outweigh your bad, then maybe, just maybe you can make it into heaven. But with Christianity, it's, uh, salvation is spelled D O N E. It's the finished work on the cross that Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain.
He washed it white as snow. And so, you know, many times, you know, in the other religions that, you know, we kind of see how we do during our lives. And at the end of our lives, we get the grade on our test in Christianity. We're given the a the moment that we surrender our lives to Christ, that we give our lives to Christ. And then because of what he's done for us, then we look at verse 10 and in Ephesians Chapter two.
And it says, For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And tomorrow is Thanksgiving. One of the things, Christy, that I'm thankful for is I'm thankful that I am not going to have to go. I'm not going to have to wait to see if I can go to heaven based on my good works, because if I was going to go to heaven or hell based on my good works, I would split hell wide open. How about you? Me too.
Me too. I mean, amen for the blood of Jesus. You know, if I had to work for my salvation, I would have I mean, I would have been out the time I took my first breath. You know, I remember I had a group of folks, ladies came to my house one day and and they were showing me a pamphlet.
And I just want to be careful how I say this, but they were talking to me about works, works, works. And and, you know, there was one hundred and forty four thousand that were going to be saved. And I was like, well, honey, if it's only one hundred forty four thousand, I'm already out. I was out and so are you. I promise you, you're out. Yes.
Yes. But I did get to talk to them about Jesus that day. And to watch only Jesus can reveal himself to people, you know, and we can't get people saved.
Jesus has to reveal himself and to watch revelation come to people's eyes that Jesus is the son of God. And he's the Messiah is one of the most beautiful things I've ever witnessed. And it's good news. It's good news.
I mean, you were you were talking about in the last show about how you were in Atlanta and you saw this huge dragon over Atlanta and you were in this classroom of kids and you saw a huge dragon. But the good news is, is that greater is he who is within you, Christy, than he who is within the world. And so when we have the power of the Holy Spirit, we start to see God move. Is that right? That's exactly right.
That's exactly right. And that's exactly how we end up seeing nations saved in a day. And that's how we end up seeing souls saved and marriages restored and bodies healed and drug addicts come to Jesus and not only just come to Jesus, but they're free, like completely free, that they're not bound by chains anymore.
You know, those are the things that that that that we get to see. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if I told you this, I think I did, but I had a it was a quick dream. And in the dream that I had, there were a small group of people who were actually together and we were praying and we were crying out for the salvation of the lost. And it was a dream that hit me like almost no other dream that I've ever had, because I got to see God's heart for those who don't know Christ.
I got to see God's heart for those who are going to be perishing on the day of judgment. And you were talking about this in the last show that without Christ and with if we haven't hidden his word in our hearts, that we're up a creek without a paddle. But this was the little passage that came to my head and it was second Peter chapter three in the New King James Version. And I'll look at verse eight through ten. It says, But beloved, do not forget this one thing that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and is a thousand years is one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some count slackness, but his long suffering towards us, not willing that any should perish, but that all come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat.
Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. And I left out this verse, but it's verse eleven. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what mariner, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? And then in verse twelve, looking for and hastening the coming day of God because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire and the elements will melt with fervent heat. And then verse thirteen, nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. And we know that the world is getting bad, Christy, but we've got a hope of Jesus that's within us.
Right. Amen. And it says that before the second coming of Jesus, that God's going to pour out a spirit on men and women like we're going to see signs and wonders in the earth that's never been seen before in all of creation. You know, men are going to have dreams and visions. And and I just I just believe we're going to see a move of God in this day that's never been seen before in all of creation. And I personally believe that we live in the greatest days in human history because we get to actually watch Bible prophecy fulfill itself. Like we get to actually read the Bible and lay it beside our day and be like, oh, my gosh, this must have been what the wise men thought when they saw the star in the sky and knew that the Messiah had come.
This is the day that we're in. And I just believe that our redemption draweth nigh. But I also believe that the patience and the mercy and the love of God keeps him from coming back too soon, a moment too soon, so that all can be saved because his desire is that not one perish. Hell was not created for man. It was created for Satan and his demons. And God's intention is for mankind to be with him.
That's why Jesus came to redeem us back to the father. And yeah. Yeah, I mean, I you know, there there was something that I heard one time. There were these two guys who went out on a camping trip and it was, we'll say, Mike and Jeff. And so they went out one night and all of a sudden they were in the middle of the night. And, uh, uh, Jeff, Jeff had woken up and, and he says, Mike, he says, I want you to wake up. And he said, and I started to wake up and he goes, tell me what you see, Mike. And I said, well, I see there's some beautiful stars outside and I see the moon over there. And, and Jeff said, well, Mike, what else do you see? And I said, well, I think I see the big dipper over there. And Jeff said, well, Mike, what else do you see? And so I kind of looked up for a second and I looked around at some trees and I said, well, there are some trees over there. And, and Jeff said to Mike, he says, no, you idiot, somebody stole our tent. And so, you know, so the thing is, is that, you know, and that's what I see happening right now, Christie. I mean, I mean, it's so obvious that the Bible prophecy is being fulfilled, but people aren't seeing what's right in front of their faces.
They're looking at all these other things. And so, you know, I don't know about you, but, and I guess it is with you because every Tuesday now, every Tuesday night over it, just like Jesus in Burlington, we're crying out for revival. Is that right? Yes.
Yes. And you know, my revival can't come without a prayer movement. Like moves of God happen because people pray and it's usually not the masses.
I wish it was the masses. But it's usually a small group of people that just consecrate and sacrifice their self and their time and their whatever, and just draw near to God and cry out for revival, for a move of God in the church, for a remove of God in our own families. You know, we need a move of God, especially in a day where witchcraft is left, right and center. I mean, the, the amount of witchcraft that's going on is I have never, ever seen anything like it.
Now when I go into homes, they'll have spell books with incantations and, and these are Christian families, you know, and they're dibbling in witchcraft. You know, a Christian witch is lost. There's no such thing as a Christian witch, which I had somebody ask me one day. She used to be a witch and was dating a, or she was a witch and she was dating a Christian. And so we had talked about Jesus so many times and, and her Christian boyfriend said, well, maybe you could be a Christian witch. And she's entertaining the idea of being a Christian witch. And I just had to tell her, I'm like, sweetheart, that's not a thing. There's no, that it's Jesus plus nothing.
Wow. And so, um, yeah, there is a lot of stuff that a lot of people are doing right now. And, you know, we talked about this briefly with, with Justin, but you know, I know a lot of Christians who were checking their horoscopes and that's how they, I mean, is that. So, you know, I personally, I know that there's a lot of different viewpoints on angels, demons and, um, demonic activity and witchcraft and all those things. But my personal experience is that there are certain things that draw demonic activity in our life. You know, witchcraft is one of them. There's movies that we watch, um, that draw demonic activity, you know, and now a lot of our movies, it's teaching kids how to cast spells. And, um, I've watched several movies where, um, there's people that literally are named demon names, you know, there, I can't remember what they were, but.
There's a new Disney show, it's called Little Demon, I think. I mean, it's everywhere. It's, and it's becoming so normal that I really believe in this day, like we better have our lamps full of oil. And I believe what there's going to, I just believe that there's a divide, you know, I believe the fence is being removed and the devil owned the fence anyway, but I believe that it's being removed and the dark is going to get real dark and the light is going to get real bright. And there's going to be a clear cut difference between people who walk with God and people who speak Christianese and their life on the insides of Ravenous Wolf. And, um, and I believe those people are really going to suffer in the coming days because they're not going to have any oil in their lamp. And I'm not talking about lost people. Lost people are lost. But when we're talking about the church, when we're talking about Christians, people that have had encounters with God and we entertain demons on a regular basis. We do with TV, with music, you know, if you can tell in two seconds, if somebody is entertaining demons just by listening to their playlist on their iPhone or, or, or their Netflix account. Um, you know, and yeah, we do, we entertain devils and, and we compromise, um, the blood of Jesus and the gospel cheap.
We sell out cheap. And it's, it's really not worth it. No, it's not.
It's really not worth it. And I don't know about you, but I've, I've kind of followed. I followed the enemy when I was younger before I became a Christian and I follow Jesus now and following Jesus is a lot better. And the rewards are a lot better. And yes, it comes with tough times.
Yes, it comes with struggles. Uh, speaking of which, I mean, we, we were talking about this the other day, Christie, that the people who seem to come against us, it's not so much. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but it's not so much the unbelievers, but a lot of the people who come against us for speaking about angels or speaking about the miraculous or speed or getting excited about Jesus. It's actually fellow believers.
Is that right? Um, in my experience, it has been more than anybody else. And, you know, I know people call, you know, the Pharisees did this, but you know, a lot of these are not the Pharisees. A lot of these are our brothers and our sisters. And I believe that there's a grace walk where, you know, God really ministered to my heart one day when he said, all of creation is groaning, waiting on the sons of God to manifest the glory of our father. And when people come to me groaning or upset, it's an opportunity.
It's an invitation for me to manifest the glory of God and to love them. It's okay that they don't understand. There was a point where I didn't understand. There's, I'm going to look back at this time and be like, you were an idiot, you know, like there's, we grow in our understanding. We see in part and know in part and experiences, um, you know, the experiences that we have with God and the encounters that we have with God should produce wisdom inside of us.
And if it's not producing wisdom, then, you know, what's it producing really? But I think people just, sometimes they get scared of things they don't understand, and they've been taught that Christianity or being a Christian looks this way. You go to church on Wednesday and Sunday, you do this many songs, you know, this is it.
But they're not taught that it's deeper, that it's a love walk, it's a sacrificial life, and it's a pure life to where you really do take up your cross and follow Jesus. You know, we lay down the old life and, and, you know, I heard somebody talk about, um, you know, a sinful identity one day and he's like, well, I was born this way, but really we need to be born again. I was born, you know, I lived full of lust and sin and condemnation and all this stuff. I had to be born again. And Jesus tells us that we need to be born again.
Yeah. Jesus actually said in Matthew 16, 24, and I'm using the BSB here. He says, then Jesus told his disciples, if anyone wants to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. And yeah, I mean, it's, I don't see the easy Christianity anymore. And one of the things you were talking about the rainbow the last time, but so many of the churches or so many of the mainstream churches, when, when the world says something, it's like the church just gives them a second opinion.
They go, yeah, that's right. I mean, you know, I, I know I'm not perfect. I've made mistakes.
Christy, you're not perfect. And we're not saying that, but I mean, at some point, the truth is the truth. I mean, you actually, you told me years ago that you were, uh, I think praying for the unborn or whatever, and you had actually spoken to a guy and he had a sign up.
And he said, uh, you know, you actually told him, he said, well, I've, I've actually had an abortion. What do you think about that? Right?
Right. So we were, um, with a group of, they were calling the mothers to Washington to pray for an end to abortion. And this kid, I say kid, but he was probably twenties, you know, and he was holding up a sign as big as a Volkswagen and it had broken dismembered baby parts on it. And I don't think he realized we were on the same team and his message was super condemning. And, um, prior to that moment, God had been breaking shame off my life from having, um, I had two abortions from both of them and, and he would in a private setting in a safe setting for me, allowed me to, um, share. And then it never failed. Who was sitting across from me had the same experience. And, um, but this day I walked up to him and I said, I've had an abortion.
What do you want to say to me? And it was one of those moments where he could have cussed me out. He could have spit in my face.
I mean, he could have done anything. And, um, but what happened in that moment is I was able to minister to him the redemption of Jesus Christ. And every bit of shame that I had over having an abortion was removed from me. And so I was able to walk in full freedom, but I was actually able to invite him into redemption.
And that was beautiful. Yeah. I think your mom's part of a ministry. Yes, she is.
Um, or she was, and the name of it has slipped my remembrance. Yeah. So, yeah, you talk, talk, talk about redemption, but, uh, you know, speaking of the unborn or whatever your, your brother Cameron and I have talked about this a lot that, you know, in non-Christian societies, um, it becomes the survival of the fittest. It becomes about, you know, are you useful to society? If you're not useful, we can throw you away. And so you see in as many non-Christians today, and there's even some churches who say this, but that in many non-Christians, what they'll say is they say, oh, you know, there's, there's, there's an overpopulation or whatever. If somebody is not important enough, we can just get rid of the baby.
Well, your brother was paralyzed, uh, back in 2011. And I guess according to that, he's not really a useful member of society anymore. Well, they could just get rid of him, but, but to God, we all have a purpose and we all have it. We're all useful to God in a way, right?
Absolutely. And you know, the thing about abortion that I didn't realize is that it's not just taken out a person. It's taken out a whole genealogy. It's taken out that person's kids and grandkids and all the fruit of that whole line. So it's taken out a whole family tree. Um, and you know, there's nothing new under the sun. The King issued the same thing.
You know, they killed all the kids below two years old and, um, there's nothing new under the sun. But yes, that, that is true. We do have a, a society that, um, bases importance on things that are very superficial and shallow. But Jesus, um, you know, he's the only one that determines our worth and our value is that we were created in the image of God by God on purpose for a purpose. And if we were the only ones that needed saving, Jesus would have died just the same. You know, he would have got on that cross just for me personally.
He got on it just for Cameron personally. And, um, yeah. You got it on for your mom, for me, for Jeff, for Grayson and everybody who's listening. Um, but you know, as we, as we talk about all these things and I know, um, I know there's a lot of people who are listening right now and, and they may feel shame for something that they've done. Um, is there still hope for them? Absolutely.
Absolutely. You know, the power of the gospel, when Jesus died on that cross and was resurrected, he was seated at the right hand of the father. But what he did on that cross is he redeemed us back as if we had never sinned. It says that he removes our sin from us.
And so, you know, I dealt with, I went through decades of abuse and I really dealt with a lot of condemnation. And so one day the Lord, I just had this revelation that I was condemned before Jesus, but Jesus doesn't come to condemn us. It's his grace that sets us free from it, you know? And so, yes, I believe that the blood of Jesus redeems us back as if we had never sinned.
And sometimes it takes a minute for our heart to get with that reality. Yeah. And so now that we've been set free, now that we know that the love of Jesus has freed us from our sins, now we have the opportunity to share that with others. And, and, and you have something called the word of knowledge where you, where you're able to go to people, right? Yes. Yeah.
Yeah. And a word of knowledge, you know, it can, what I love about a word of knowledge is it instantly connects people to the father because it tells somebody something that only God would know about their life. And so that's the one of the things that, you know, prophecies deal with future words of knowledge deal with past or current. And, but yeah, it's the, that word of knowledge, the whole purpose of it or the purpose of any of the gifts are to connect people to Jesus. Really, that's the whole goal.
That's the whole purpose. You know, if people get healed and have words of knowledge and we tell prophecies, you know, and all this stuff, but if they miss Jesus in the midst of it, we've really gained nothing. You know, but if, if that one thing, that one word, um, connects people to Jesus, that's the goal.
That's it. And so the whole goal is to connect people to Jesus. The whole goal of this show is to connect people to Jesus. Trust me, there's, there's other stuff that we could be doing today. I mean, we've, we've both got work, we've got other things to do, but I don't know anything more important than having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And if you've never surrendered your life to Jesus Christ, I encourage you to ask him to forgive you of your sins today and turn your life to him forevermore. Thanks a lot, Christie. And if not for God. . . .
