Interview With Robby

This is Rodney from the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we explored manhood within Jesus Christ. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Sit back, enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

This is the Truth Network. All right, for my YouTube channel, if not for God with Mike Zwick, just like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell, so you'll be alerted when we have our next video. Welcome to If Not For God, stories of hopelessness that turn to hope. Here is your host, Mike Zwick.

All right, If Not For God with Mike Zwick. I've got my good friend, Robbie Dilmore, back on the line, the Christian car guy. And man, we've got some car stories for you. Robbie's got all sorts of stories.

I love the story with Johnny Hendrix. I mean, we could go on and on and on. But we were talking about this, and I was spending some time with the Lord. And Robbie, you were saying that Jesus actually said that my sheep hear my voice. And I've heard really this more from you than a lot of people, but that we can hear directly from the Lord, and that the Lord drops words into our minds. The Lord gives us insight into what we need to know, and it's a daily thing. But you believe that we can actually hear from the Lord. Is that right, Robbie?

Oh, it's one of my favorite things. You know, the first sermon I ever paid attention to in my life, I don't know if I ever told you this, I would consider it some of the best advice I ever got in my life. As I went to this sermon by Dr. Redhead in Greensboro, he was the pastor emeritus at First Presbyterian in Greensboro. And he gave this sermon. It was the first time I was not a Christian when I heard it. But he got my attention as a car salesman that did not want to be there on a Sunday.

It was my only day off. And what he said at the beginning is he said, you know, you've got two ears and one mouth, and when it comes to prayer, do the math. So he says, oh yeah, you've got a mouth to talk, but in prayer you should be listening twice as much as you're talking.

And I was like, what? And he said, well, if God is really God, then he probably knows all the stuff you're saying. But what needs to happen is you need to know what he's saying.

And that can come through obviously the Bible and reading the Bible, but the other place it comes from is literally going to the Lord in prayer and then shut up and listen. And so he, that day, he had us go through an exercise and he said, you know, you got to let go. He said, I want you to sit there and I want you to relax. And I want you to let go and let go and let God.

And I want you to picture a place that you've been. And he took us through several things like that. And he said, now I want you to picture that Jesus Christ himself is walking down this aisle of this church. And he sits down in the pew right next to you. Now I want you to listen. And we all listened.

And I thought, man, you know, if I ever become a Christian, this, this, this is something I'm going to use. Well, about maybe two years later, it was a while. My son ran away at the sun at the top.

It was, he was eight years old and he ran away and, um, man, scared, scared, scared, scared me. And so, um, um, after I tried everything I knew to do about, you know, one in the two in the morning, we were out of places to look, search the police that were out there. And finally I thought, man, I don't know what else to do. I'm going to try that crazy prayer. And so I went back into our bedroom and I laid there and I let go. And I let it go. And I let God, and I did all the things that, that, you know, to just relax and said, okay, God, I'm listening. And after some time I heard very clearly in my spirit and I liked the way it says it in the song of Solomon.

It says I slept, but my heart was awake behold. Uh, my beloved is knocking. His voice is knocking. And the idea is Jesus, his voice has a pull to it that no other voice you'll ever hear does.

And when he says something to you, you feel it in your heart, it's got a different pull to it. And so when it says his voice is knocking, I like that. So that night, as I was praying, I heard that voice knocking and he said, Jesus, Jesus said to me, I got this Robbie, you know, within 10 minutes, you know, this police car pulls up on our driveway and this policeman says, you know, it's a funny thing.

I was down on Lee street in Greensboro and I saw this little kid getting in a car with people I knew he shouldn't be getting in the car with. And, you know, it was Leslie Dilmore. And, you know, my wife thought I was nuts when I came out of the bedroom and said, I've talked to Jesus. But that was the beginning of many, many, many, many, many, many discussions. And, and even to this day, um, you know, it's a new year. And as I was telling you, you know, um, I just finished my word of the year for 2022. Um, and it finished memorizing the song of Solomon, which is what he had led me to do. And so I asked him, you know, where are we going after the song of Solomon? Cause he went, you know, and, and he says, well, I want you to memorize the book of Habakkuk. And I was like, what?

And I was really, I was like, I'm not sure that can't be right. You know, cause that, that thought had never ever crossed my eye. Why would I want to study the book of Habakkuk?

You know, like what's up with that? I really, that's what went through my spirit. And he was very clear, like, no Robbie, I want you to work on the book of Habakkuk.

And so, you know, for the last three or four days, man, I've started that journey. And I am so glad I can't even begin to tell you the joy that's in my spirit as a result of things that he knew about Habakkuk that I never had considered at all. Number one, that, that, you know, if you know me well, that I, since I memorized the 119th Psalm, I've been very, very excited to understand the idea of statutes and the word statute in Hebrew is two letters, a het and a kuf. And if you hear those sound of those letters, you hear this H sound and then you hear a Q sound.

Okay. Well guess what letters Habakkuk is made up of. And the idea of Habakkuk is actually a hug from the bosom, a deep hug. And so when you think about it, Habakkuk was hugging God throughout the book of Habakkuk. And so I'm very excited really to go on this journey, uh, with the burden that Habakkuk, you know, saw. So that, you know, that that's, that's really good. I there, you know, the, the word of God says, and while you were looking at this, the verse came to my mind, it was Proverbs 10, 19.

And it says, when there are many words wrongdoing is unavoidable, but one who restrains his lips is wise. And I'll tell you a story real quickly. Uh, I was very sick, um, over right before Christmas. And at one point I couldn't even really get out of bed. It was hard to move. And I had spent hours and hours and hours a day, uh, uh, in bed.

And I was spending hours a day with the Lord and I couldn't get out and work because I'm usually go, go, go, go, go. And, uh, my wife's brother came to town and I was still a little bit sick or whatever. And, and I remember one day she actually came to me and she said, well, Mike, it, it seems like you don't want to spend time with us or whatever.

And I said, no, no, no, that wasn't it. And she says, well, you were up there in your secret place. And I was like, yes, because I've had, I've had people like share with me and we've, we've been praying with people and talking with people and they have specifically talked about spending time in the secret place of God.

And, uh, I started talking to her and I said, I don't know if you meant that in a good way, but I took it in a great way. And, uh, we started talking about it, Robbie, and we realized that it's important that both of us spend time in the secret place because the enemy wants to keep you busy, man. The enemy wants to keep you busy. The enemy wants to keep you talking. Um, I've heard some people say that the enemy doesn't mind if you're doing ministry all day, but he wants to keep you from spending time in prayer, spending time with God. And then, and then, and then finally, what we're, I think what we're talking about is really just hearing from God and listening to God because, you know, so many times we can think, oh, that's just me thinking those thoughts. A lot of times, I don't think that's the case at all. Um, now sometimes, obviously, I mean, we think this or think that whatever, but there are times where, where you, where you're sitting there and you have an idea and you go, wow, wow. And it's like, that is from God. I mean, I've had God tell me, don't buy this house. Yeah. I didn't listen, but how'd that play out for you?

It ended up working out, but there were problems. Um, that, you know, I've, I've had, I remember the times when God has specifically told me to do something. Like wear your seatbelt. Wear my seatbelt or, or, or when God has told me you need to stop really doing ministry with this person.

You need to stop hanging out with this person. And everything in the natural seemed right. Everything in the natural seemed good and I ignored it. And then down the road, there were problems. Um, you know, a friend of mine said one time they, uh, she said, uh, I see the bridge out ahead for you with this situation that you're in and I didn't see it, but she was right.

Um, but then they can also be some incredible learning experiences as well. Um, and sometimes God speaks to you in the still small voice. I was going through something on Twitter today and the Lord told me, he said, if you keep going, they're going to stop you from following any more people. And I said, and I believed him, but I said, I just want to see, I want to test it. And like the second or the third person that I touched and said, you're unable to follow more people, but it was kind of a cool reminder, Robbie, that we can hear his voice.

And, and, and as it says in the word of God, that my sheep hear my voice in another, they will not listen to, um, that doesn't mean the enemy doesn't try to speak. Oh yeah. But there, there, there is, well, you know, one of the stories for you, I always will remember is the name of the show itself that, you know, you came in, you said you want to do a radio show. I said, great. What do you want to call it? And you didn't know you really didn't, man.

I remember you saying the Michael's wick show. And I said, no, something about that just doesn't seem right. And then I said, go pray, go, go find out what you think God wants you to name it, man.

And it was not long. And you called me back and you said, if not for God, man, I went, oh, wow. You know, it was so obviously the name of the show and, and, and think about what that has been and what it has meant.

Um, it, you know, for me personally, I I'd love it. And I think it's so incredible, but it's, it's a fascinating thing, you know, that I've spent a lot of years, just as far as my quiet time doing things, I thought that I should be doing, you know, this Bible study or this thing through this app or whatever, but in the 119 Psalm, it says, or my steps in your word, that not any iniquity would have dominion over me. Like, oh, wait a minute. I hadn't thought about that. Let me ask Jesus what I should study next when I made that change.

Oh, maybe 10 years ago. It's been a while, but it was like, I went to light speed in what it is I'm studying because somehow or another, he knows exactly. I'll never forget when he told me to memorize the 13 Psalms. He had to ask me to memorize the 16th Psalm, which made all kinds of sense to me because I loved, love, love the 16th Psalm.

In fact, Cameron Horner introduced me to the idea of in his presence, his fullness of joy at his right hand or pleasures forevermore. I love, love, love that verse, the last verse in the 16th Psalm. But when God asked me to memorize the 16th Psalm, I could see, oh, now you're going to show me how he got there to that verse.

So how exciting. Well, then after that, he said, well, now I want you to memorize the 13th Psalm. And I'm like, what in the heck's the third, you know, the same thing like a back, like, man, I didn't even know what the 13th Psalm was. And I was like, man, I hope it's not long. Well, the very first verse in the 13th Psalm, how long, oh, Lord.

It really is. You know, I had to laugh when I opened it up and I'm like, okay, well, the good news is not very long Psalm as far as that particular, but I hate to think I really, really do. I hate to think of the richness my life has enjoyed since I memorized the 13th Psalm, because there's so many things about that Psalm that are just unique to the Psalms and that I just, you know, it really is how long, oh Lord, will you hide your face from me? You know, how long will I seek counsel in my soul, having sorrows in my heart daily? I mean, those, those lines that I think about every day, um, are really, really a big part of the joy of my heart that he gave me, but I never would have thought, but the idea again is order my steps in your word.

Order my steps. One of the things that I've seen Robbie is that when the Lord speaks to you or when the Lord speaks to me, he tells me to do something. There's, there's a few different options you've got. You could ignore it. I mean, you can just say, no, God, that's not what I want to do.

You can do it or you can put it off. Well, we all know that saying no is disobedience. And, um, I was just reading somewhere that it said that, uh, disobedience is like witchcraft. Um, you know, not obeying the Lord is like witchcraft.

So that's bad. We know that if we say yes, we're following the Lord and we're supposed to do it. But, but I think a tricky situation can be where we say, yeah, that sounds good. Let me think about that, God. Let me, let me kind of ponder that.

Cause I don't know. I've gotten in trouble with that. I mean, you know, I've learned that when the Lord says to do something to do it right away. Um, our friend, Rick Pearson, you've interviewed him several times on your, on your show and I've interviewed him as well, but the Lord had a word for Rick. And he said, I've interviewed him as well, but the Lord had a word for Rick.

And I don't remember what it was. It was just the Lord is pleased with you or something like that. And I was like, oh, I need to send that to him. And then the Lord, no, send it right now. And I sent it right now and the Lord and Rick said, I received that.

Thank you so much for sending that. And it's like, how many times have it's like, have we not said no, Lord, I'm not going to do that. But we, we think about it and we go, that's a good idea and we don't act on it. And then later on we go, oh, I should have done that. Christie, uh, Christie real who, and by the way, it's funny, you're talking about what you were talking about before, because I've listened to your CD of where you were preaching at the revival and it was you and Christie. And I've listened to that probably four or five times recently. And it was excellent. I keep listening to it again and again and again. And, uh, you told the story about Leslie, about where you lost your son and you told the story, but it's something else that you had told earlier about the Presbyterian church and, uh, about what he said. And you're like, the guy was saying all this stuff. I don't remember anything else that he said, but I remember that. And it's like, man, what are the chances that I've been listening to that CD again and again and again? And then this show, you start talking about that.

As far as I know, we've been doing shows together for two years. I don't ever remember you talking about either one of those things. That's funny. Cause it really is from my perspective, the two best pieces of advice I ever got was one listening prayer and to get up an hour early, every morning and read the Bible. Those two things are like a number one critical is as far as my disciples. Yes. And you, you kept saying this again and again, when you were preaching, you said, let go and let God that's it.

That's it. I mean, I, how much, how many troubles, how many problems in my own life could have been avoided had I have just let go and let God, you know, how many times when I wanted to do it my own way. And when I was digging in and the Lord was, was blocking something from happening, but I kept pressing in because I wanted it and it ended in disaster. And so if you're listening right now, maybe there's a situation you're saying, man, I'm trying to make this work and maybe it's just keeps blocking and, and it's not working out and there's a problem. It's like one problem after another, it just doesn't seem to be working out. And you go, well, I've just got to keep trying. Maybe there's there, there is something to persistence, but ask the Lord, maybe the Lord is saying no. And maybe that's not what you want to hear.

And that's been tough for me to hear Robbie. Yeah. I, you know, love the wisdom that's in that movie, Rudy, where the preacher says, you know, to undeniable facts, there is a God and I'm not him. Right.

And, and think of the bandwidth. It's one of the ways that I think as I've gotten older, the more I've allowed God to be God and quit trying to take on his job description and, and give that to him and pray about it rather than work on it. You know, in other words, trust. Okay.

And go to him that it's so much more effective and gives me so much more bandwidth to work on things that I actually has told me. But it's interesting as you were telling, as you were talking about that, you know, there's a book I've seen it where everything he's laid on your heart to do is all it's all in that book. I'm just telling you, you'll get a chance to see it. I know.

Cause I got to see mine just for a brief moment. And it was not anything like you might think. I, you know, I was in prayer one night and, and the Lord asked me, you know, what do you want to do?

You may have heard me tell this story. And he said, I want to serve you. And he said, do you?

And, and he didn't say that with condemnation, but he opened up that book. And when he flipped through it, all these things that he'd laid on my heart, those very things you're talking about, all was just like coming at me at a thousand miles an hour. And they were all very simple, like call so-and-so send that text, what you're saying. And man, and as I saw them, they were all easy enough to do. And I just was like, man, I can repent of this. I can see what it is I need to do. And, and I got out and I wrote them all down because it was just like, man, I can do this.

I can do this. I can do this, but I just know from experience, there's a book and you'll get a chance someday to see the book and you'll see all the things that you knew that he had, which were a matter of obedience. And the neat thing about the word obedience, I don't know if you ever put this together, it's really cool.

The word David Dalud Vov Dalud is that the letter Dalud means to serve, but it also, when you put the Dalud and the Vov and the Dalud, it means the beloved. Okay. Well, the con then a connection is that if you love me, you will do my commandments. Okay.

In other words, if you, if you truly love your wife and you know, she wants you to do something, you're going to serve her. Right. Right. That's right. And so the Lord's like that if you love him and he puts it on your heart to send that text, man, send that text. You'll be so glad you did. Yeah. What do you have to lose?

Right. I mean, you know, the, you, you know, if it's from the Lord too, and we were talking about reading the word of God, uh, the Lord has shared with me recently. And I don't know if I shared this with you, Robbie, but I was incredibly sick. And I, I, I, when I got up from the sickness, the Lord had laid a bumper sticker, an old bumper sticker that I used to see on my heart.

I hadn't seen this bumper sticker in forever. So one night I'm like, I got to get out of the house. I can't stay here any longer. And I'm driving, going to Walmart.

I cut this guy off. I get right behind this car. And what do I see? The bumper sticker. You know what it says?

What does it say? Are you following Jesus this closely? The Lord had spoken to me, Robbie. And if you're listening right now, I believe the Lord is speaking to you through this. The Lord had spoken to me, Robbie, that you're doing a lot of stuff in ministry. You're driving around. You're sending out your show. You're talking to people. You're sharing the gospel.

And that is awesome. It's good to do the work of the Lord. But are you following Jesus this closely? Are you spending time in the word of God? Are you really spending time in the secret place?

Unfortunately, Robbie, it took me getting really sick to where I couldn't move to realizing that, Lord, this is exactly where you want me. You want me to spend time with you. Yes, it's important to spend time with the kids.

Yes, it's important to spend time with the wife. Yes, it's important to do ministry. But man, if you're not spending time alone with the Lord and listening to the Lord, listening to the Lord, then who are you listening to? Yeah, and it gives for me personally, you know, actually, when I first start my prayer time, which is fairly extensive, I probably spend the first hour of it trying to get in his lap. I mean, literally, I want to be there in the Father's lap with Jesus. I want to be with the Holy Spirit.

I want to be in the presence of all three. And I want to get a God hug. I want to feel their arms around me, literally, or their hands, as the case may be.

And I want a sense from them of what I need to know, where are we to feel loved. And I really, you know, just find that as a really, like, man, I mean, if that isn't first, I feel like I'm out of order. Like, first and foremost, you know, my dove in the cleft of the rock in the secret place of the stairs, let me see your countenance, let me hear your voice, because your voice is sweet and your countenance is comely.

I mean, those words kind of just echo in my mind in the morning, like, man, this is what he wants. And the second to the last verse in the Song of Solomon is also particularly cool. It says, Thou who dwelleth in the garden, thy friends hearken to your voice, cause me to hear it. There's a lot in that little verse, right? It says, where are you dwelling? In the garden.

Okay. And then it says your friends, and probably the reason your friends do hearken to your voice is because you dwell in the garden. I'm just saying, and then what's he saying? Cause me to hear it. And he wants to hear your voice.

So there is something to use speaking because he loves your voice, but believe me, he wants you to listen to. Well, it's interesting that you say that, because I just interviewed a guy named Pastor Cliff Sutton from Just Like Jesus Ministries. He was at the revival. He was the guy with the mustache.

You might've seen him the first night. Really nice guy. And we have a prayer every Tuesday night at Just Like Jesus Ministries. And if you want to go over there and check it out, check it out.

They're over in Burlington on, I think it's 2420 Corporation Parkway, and they're there Sunday at 10 AM. But it's absolutely amazing where he was talking about, you know, prayer is the one thing that the Lord tells us to do without ceasing. You know, I was thinking about Revelation 2, starting in verse 1, it says, to the angel of the church of Ephesus.

Right. These things says he who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear all those who are evil.

And you have tested those who said that they are apostles and are not and have found them liars. And you have persevered and have patience and have labored for my namesake and have not become weary. Nevertheless, oh, that's gotta be tough. I have this against you that you have left your first love. Remember therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the first works or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. Man, that's rough. You know, you get to the end of your life and you go, man, Lord, you know, the Lord's saying you did some good things, but don't leave your first love.

And different people have different ideas what that means. But one of the things that I think about when I think about leaving your first love is just spending time in the secret place. Like you said, spending an hour in the morning, just hearing from God, spending some time in prayer, whether it's what I'm doing, reading 10 chapters in the Bible, whatever it is that you feel like you need to do, I would encourage you to continue to spend time in the Word of God. And before we finish up, I wanted to pause a moment here to thank one of our program supporters, and that's High Point Financial Design over in High Point, North Carolina. We'd just like to say thank you to our friend Ronnie Kleinert and his son Brad Kleinert and all of the folks at High Point Financial Design for their positive feedback and encouragement of our ministry.

With this sponsor shout out, we recognize High Point Financial Design and their investment focus on intentional planning and abundant living, continued blessings to High Point Financial Design and If Not For God. And maybe you're listening and maybe you've got your finances straight, but are you right with Jesus? Just ask him to forgive you of your sins, surrender your life to him, and it's a wonderful journey. You start reading the Bible and get into a good Bible-based church. If not for God? If not for God. All right, for my YouTube channel, If Not For God with Mike Zwick, just like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell, so you'll be alerted when we have our next video. So we'll see you next time.