This is the Truth Network. Nakita, destroy, crash, demolish all competitions. Here it is! Yeah, and Mr. Koloff once again made his feelings very, very apparent.
It's been a long time, but the wave is over. That's a bad man. No, that's a bad man. No, that's a bad man. It's time to man up with Satan's nightmare, Nakia Koloff.
Well, I'm here in the studio today. I'm feeling very undereducated. With me today, the laughing you're hearing is Doctor, I didn't even realize, Dr. Joel Johnson.
Well, thank you. You know, the story is that when I was a child. I struggled in school.
Okay. I did too, for the record. Yes, I felt horrible. I was made fun of. I was also a large kid.
I weighed 250 pounds. You're a big guy now. Just for sure.
So people know you're big. Thank you. Thank you. But, you know, I was, you know, I was large. You know, kids called me hippo hips, thunder thighs, bamboobs, you know, all of that kind of stuff.
Man, they can be so. Kids can be so mean. No, no, no. It's true. But I struggled in school.
And so to see the transformation, and of course, that's Christ coming into my life and a lot of diligence and hard work. You know, you might start out with something in the beginning, but your future is not determined by how you start. It's how you finish. It's how you finish, not how you start. And, of course, I don't want to put the cart before the horse, but we see a lot of guys in the Bible start out well, but some of them didn't finish so well, right?
My upbringing, I don't look back with, you know, any regret. I mean, I actually feel fortunate to start out in what was the projects of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Wow. The ghettos, the projects, and by. By the time my mom got us out to the suburbs, I was going into the fifth grade at that point.
But I used that as motivation to improve my own life and move forward with things. But school, I have to tell you, again, I look back at not, and that's quite a, so Harvard, you're a Harvard guy.
Well, I, well. I don't want to get ahead here, but go ahead. Yeah, well, I started right out of school in ministry school, actually.
So I was in Bible school, graduated from Bible school, thought, you know, was done, going to be a minister and remember our years together at Acquire the Fire and all of that. Which is where we originally met. Yeah. Years ago, Ron Luce, Acquire the Fire. And it's kind of funny.
We got reunited. Let me just throw this out there, too. Maybe we'll get a little thoughts from you on this. We got reunited not that long ago in Israel, of all places. I mean, that, I mean, what are the chances?
I saw you over there, and I'm like, oh my goodness, that's not a childhood hero, but somebody that we've ministered together on the same platform together. Tag team. We tag team together. Yes. Back in the.
There it is. There it is. This guy's fast. You have to know that. Not only are his hands fast and the wrestling grip strength that he has, but he's also very quick-witted.
Well, I've had to actually work on that, Joel. That didn't come natural. Just so you know. You know, you talk about school and grades and all that sort of thing. I mean, it wasn't until my, this is true.
It wasn't until my senior year in high school. I actually figured out you had to have grades to get into college. Like, I just thought my football prowess, you know, my athletic ability and my good looks, wink-wink, would get me there. And then I had to crack down my senior year just to be eligible to get. And so that led me to junior college.
But it wasn't until my senior or my, excuse me. Transfer me to my four-year that, um I really embraced education at that point. My junior. And senior years of college. In fact, a little-known fact for some is: I graduated my senior year as one of the Either the third or fourth, uh, in my small college, academic, first-team academic all-American, believe it or not.
Wow. And graduated cum laude, which I'm like, what does that even mean? That's fantastic.
So I did embrace education eventually.
So, all right.
So, well, hold on, because again, I don't want to get too far ahead.
So, you grew up in California. Yeah. You work your way into a Bible. Where was the Bible college? It was my church had a Bible school that was there.
So, it's called the Bundet Life School of the Ministry. In California? In California, Roseville, California, right outside of Sacramento.
So, my church was a real transformative community for me. They really challenged young people to be bold, to stand up. It was kind of like the pre-Charlie Kirk, before Charlie Kirk.
Okay, like be bold with what you believe, be strong, like affect politics, affect your school.
So, I was a sophomore in high school, and I started with the help of my youth pastor. Church started our Bible school club, or I should say, our Bible club at school. And so we started that. And then I'll never forget it. One night I was at Youth group, and I remember feeling this profound call to go and preach the gospel on my campus.
So that next morning, I just felt that same thing. You need to go into senior square. I was a junior. I wasn't even allowed technically in senior square, but that's where everyone hung out around it right before after lunch, before the bell rang, and everyone went to class. And I remember I was in the cafeteria trying to like, I didn't want to do this.
And so I was there and I thought, well, maybe I'll invite some friends to school or to youth group from school and maybe that'll be good enough.
So I went over to this table of girls and I was like, hey, you guys should come to youth groups. I just want to save a table of girls. I'll introduce you to school. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. One of them, I'll never forget it.
She stood up and she said, You don't tell me about no youth group? I've had eight years of religious school, baby. Like, she started going off. And I started being like, well, it's not about, you know, religion. It's about a relationship with Jesus Christ.
And literally, the whole table of girls just like ignored me. And so this anger. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was talking still, but they were ignoring me. Yes.
So then I was like, you know, I started pacing back and forth in the middle of the cafeteria, my backpack on. You know that guy, backpack man? He'd be like, excuse me. I turned into backpack man at high school.
So I'm there in high school. I go outside. I have my backpack on. I bust open the double doors. There's this group of eight hoodlums that are sitting there, creased dickies, hooded sweatshirts.
I walk up to them and I literally said, this is like out of a movie. I'm like, the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, he died for you. Romans 10, 9 says, if you confess with your mouth, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you could be saved. Would you like to make that decision right now? I'm not joking you.
All eight of them said yes. I stood in a circle with them, led them in the sinner's prayer.
So now I'm going to senior square, but now I got me a posse. Like, yes, I'm heading to senior square. I hop up on this bench and I say, come around. I've got something. I was just going to say, did you jump up on a table or something?
No, a bench in senior square. Yeah. And I started saying, I've got something to say. I've got something to say. You got everybody's attention.
All of a sudden, there's about 400 people there, right? Wow, come on. 400 people. My high school was 2,000. There's 400 people there.
Attendance was 2,000. 400 people there. And I began to share, you know, God. Can change your heart, you know. Every day, um, you know, we come to school with a mask on.
You, you look popular, you look, you know, I don't know, happy, happy, whatever, hard, whatever that is, yeah, right, and but. Only Jesus Christ could heal my hurting heart, and he's the only one who can heal your heart. All of a sudden, my vice principal came up and said, Young man, step down. I look down on my vice president. This is California, right?
So it's kind of left coast. It's not like it's a few years ago, but still. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It wasn't a comfortable thing to do in California. It's much more progressive.
Then or now. Yes. Well, keep going. Yeah. So I just looked back at my peers and I said, Jesus can heal your heart.
He can change your life. My other vice principal came up. All right, young man, step down, right? And I look back down at them, and I look back at my peers, and what happened, I'll never forget because what I heard next. Uh I wasn't expecting.
I begin to hear some of my classmates say, Let him speak. And then another, let him speak. Come on, let him speak, let him speak, let him speak. And when I was done speaking, I stepped down. And my vice principal, he just, I mean, he freaked out.
He said, What gives you the right? What gives you the right? He was, he was mad, angry. And, you know, I didn't know what to say. I was, you know, and that you're junior.
You're 17.
So what I did say is I said, you know, the Supreme Court in the merchants case gave us our 10th student bill of rights that gave us our rights to share our faith on campus. And he was like, you know, he was so angry and frustrated. I looked over to my other vice principal and I said, you know, we've had a few suicides here just this year. And I said, you know, the only hope for that is Jesus Christ. And I know he's the answer for the broken heart.
And I know that he can heal the hearts of these students. That week, I did go to the principal's office. He said, Hey, you can never do this again on my campus. I looked at him and I said, You're reprimanded. No, no, I said, I can't promise you that, sir, but next time I do, I'll let you know.
Okay, that's what I said to him. I didn't get suspended or anything.
Well, that's good. The only thing better, Joe, would have been for you to look at the two of them and go, even you, even you could be saved. Even you. Even you. Talk about infuriating them.
I'm just reminded of the Pharisees, right? With Jesus. Like, who gives you the authority, right? This is Pharisitical stuff right here.
So, all right.
So there, we had this amphitheater. I started passing, that's like a Wednesday this happened. I started passing out flyers for two days that we were going to hold a rally in the amphitheater. That day, I gave a gospel message, and six people came to know the Lord through one-on-ones. 16 people.
Came to know Jesus Christ through that one afternoon of being obedient, bold, standing up, preaching as a junior on my high school. That's amazing. On the left coast. On the left coast. That's amazing, Joel.
That's incredible.
So you go through this Bible school after high school. Yeah, afterwards, I graduate. After high school. Yeah, I graduate. Yeah, I start in community college, but then there was a night school that the Bible school was held at night.
So I'd go at nighttime in the Bible school. I was, of course, involved with ministry at my local church and was there probably six nights a week. I mean, that was at 14 when I gave my life to the Lord. I was there, very involved in this community. It transformed my life.
It gave me father figures. It gave me examples of families. It gave me vision to say, man, I want to do my life like this. I want to live for God. I want to be a voice for Him.
I want whatever I do, whether I'm doing a therapy session or whether I'm teaching a college class or whether I'm doing whatever, I want to make sure. That Christ is overflowing first in my actions and then next in my words. Yeah. Nikita Koloff here, and I am excited. Did you hear the huge announcement, the big announcement?
Well, maybe it's a minor announcement. Anyway, Facebook, go look up my new fan page, Nikita Koloff Fans, and like it. And follow today. If you would like to support Kolaff for Christ Ministries, for a gift of $25, Nikita will send you his two CDs, Adoration and Declaration. For a gift of $50, Nikita will include his book, Wrestling with Success.
And for a gift of $100 or more, Nieta will include a signed copy of his newly updated life story, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption. Go to www.coloff.net. and donate today.
Well, and on that note, you know, you've, of course, again, I look at your. your resume And and there's and you have pulled up joeljohnson.org is what you're doing. There's a lot to, I mean, there's there's a lot to talk. We have to do more than one show because from coach to speaker to author, uh, host of wholehearted podcasts. I mean, there's a lot.
I thought I was doing a lot, dude. And I'm looking at your at your resume, and I'm like, man, I think this guy's got me beat. And I got you pinned? One. I think you pinned for the one, two, three.
Now, so at what point, I'm just trying to find the follow the bouncing ball here and the timeline here. Because, I mean, now listen, Harvard and Liberty University almost sound like an oxymoron, just so you know. No, truly. And then Texas AM on top of all that. At what point, kind of help me with the timeline here?
Like, Chris, we met again through Teen Mania. Yeah, yeah. Big, the big acquire the fire events with Ron Luce.
So, so what, what came? Did Teen Mania come first? Did the schooling come? And then you got with Teen Mania? Yeah, well, I was, I was kind of doing, I did Bible school.
A couple years of Bible school. Then I was working with my youth group. I ended up at an Acquire the Fire as a student. It was my senior year of high school. I was, I was, well, that the Bible school happened right after high school, but I was there.
I was transformed by it. It was, you know, in an arena. It was like nothing I'd ever been a part of. Then I brought the junior high and our high school group back to Acquire the Fire the following year. They gave a kind of a call to like, hey, would you like to be an intern?
We have an awesome internship. And they had. 500 plus interns on this campus, right? Like go garden, Garden Valley. Belly, Texas, yeah, at the time.
And so they gave this call. I went to an info meeting and I just couldn't shake it. I knew I was supposed to be there. I knew that I was, even in my college classes, I just knew that I was like, but Lord, I'm a little older. I'm like 21.
A lot of people come straight out of high school. And I just felt like the Holy Spirit in my English college class just spoke these words. Are you going to regret it when you're 25 that you didn't go when you were 21? And that sold it for me. Like that, just that confirmation.
I went, I was an intern for a year. Then I kind of was involved in the speaking mentorship that they made. And then at 23, I started speaking in arenas. Acquire the fire. Yeah, like not for 10 years.
Not host. No, I was co-host.
So this is what Ron would be, he'd be in two, we'd have two events in two cities. Yeah, right.
So Ron. Ron would be in one city Friday night, and then Saturday, all day Saturday, would be in another city. I was Ron flip-flop. Like, I was him at 23. I started doing that.
That's amazing. Now, you wouldn't know this. You would not probably not know this, but when I was on my way out to meet Ron and talk to him about and two of my buddies, Sting, wrestler Sting. I met Sting. Yep.
With you. Yeah. Yeah. And Ted DiBiase, the million-dollar man, Ted DiBiase. I know.
Here's what you maybe wouldn't know. Here's what you maybe wouldn't know. I was at the Greensboro Airport in North Carolina waiting to board a flight to fly to Texas to meet Ron for the first time and tour the campus. On 911. No.
A 911. And I was getting frustrated. I'm like, why aren't they boarding us? There's only like five people here to get on the plane. And then they finally came out and said, hey, you need to go check.
check the T V screens in the you know in the bar or whatever and I'm like What's going on? I mean, why are you canceling the flight? 911, dude. And. Ted was on his way to the airport.
Steve, because he lives, Stinger, because he lived in California, had not yet left his house to get to the airport. But all three of us were supposed to meet in Texas, come meet Ron, tour Garden Valley. And so that was put on hold. But actually, it was only put on hold for a few days. Once they started flying, then me and two other people were on the big 747.
Like literally, me and like two other people on that flight out to Texas. Like nobody wanted to fly. Yeah. I'm like, man, covered by the blood of Jesus. I'll fly.
Get me on the plane. We'll go meet Ron.
So anyway.
So that's where we, yeah.
So that, right?
Now, here's what's funny too, though.
So I'm in Israel and we're at this theater. And this guy comes up and says, Hey, you probably don't remember me, but my name's Joe Johnson. I'm like, dude, are you kidding me? Of course I remember you. Like, you're one of the main dudes.
How would I not remember you? And so we reconnected in. In Israel, of all places. Yeah. And here we are today.
Here we are here. Yeah, and thank you for the invitation to be here. No, it's great. We're going to have to. I'm looking at your, I think, I don't know who's more impressive, your wife's resume or your resume, but definitely hers.
No, no. People like me, but they love her. I mean, that's how it goes. Come on.
Well, I'm not even blowing smoke. She is, she is every person who meets her favorite person.
Well, I mean, I can understand why. And just because of all that you guys are doing, everything from so, so. The ministry's called I'd love to talk about Israel and get your impression there, but I want to touch and and we are going to have to do another show. There's just not enough time to cover everything.
So you guys, you and your bride have have a ministry, Casey. Yeah, CC. Have a ministry, wholehearted. That's the name of the ministry, wholehearted, which covers counseling, coaching, consulting, marriage, business, resilience. Man, Joel, that's like how long have you guys been doing this?
How long have you had wholehearted ministries?
Well, we did a relaunch, you know, well, we did a relaunch of it about eight years ago.
So we have been back. Full time Just cranking this stuff out, we recently, or I recently wrote a book. John Eldridge of Wild at Heart, New York Times best-selling author therapist. He wrote the foreword for it. Name of the book.
And The Whole Hearted Journey. And the subtitle is Seven Skills to Develop a Wholehearted Life in a Heartbreaking World. About eight years ago, I experienced symptoms of panic attacks. I was pastoring at a church and we were in an executive meeting and my chin would begin to tremble like a child. And um And really, what was happening is not only was it an intense environment, but It was also triggering the abuse that I endured with my stepfather, who was an alcoholic and highly abused, physically abused.
So your mom got remarried while you were. Yeah, we never got to that part. Yeah, but there were these tragic years. And the very last night that I would ever see my stepfather, he was in a drunken rage, punching holes through the sheetrock. Coming down the hall towards my room, threatening he was going to come.
How old were you at? I was sixth, seventh grade, right around there.
So like 11, 12, 13, 11, 12. Yep. So I was. Punching holes in the wall. Yeah.
Yeah. Saying he was going to throw me out my window, which was on the second story. Like just really traumatic. Yeah. And abusive.
That next morning after he passed out, my mom got him to bed. He went to work. My mom woke me up, woke my brother up. She said, hey, we're getting out of here. She had been slowly taking things out of the house for about six months, bought a tent trailer and a van.
And we went up into the Santa Cruz Mountains and hid out because he would track us down, go berserk. We feared for our lives.
So that was the next journey of our life, a super traumatic journey. And it was. being manifested Decades later, now in this instant where I was feeling. in a survival mentality. And once you have you survive a trauma, your brain just naturally wants to sink back into what you already know.
And so a lot of the hiding, a lot of the fear, Was manifesting in my body through my chin quivering like a child, and I couldn't communicate.
So here I am, years at the Acquire of the Fire, preached to over, spoke to over 2 million people, and now I'm in this meeting and I'm not being able to get my words out. Wow. And so that really brought it to a head. You know, I went to my physical doctor, nothing really wrong with my blood work. I went, you know, I was praying and, you know, spiritually, I was invested there.
So I just figured it must be emotional or mental. And I went to a therapist, and that changed the direction of my life. Opened the door, kind of opened the door for you to get wholehearted. Yes. And that's really the birth of wholehearted came out of my.
Out of this mess, and I think that anyone who's listening to this, you should know that it is almost 99.9% of the times your ministry comes out of your mess. And that's a powerful point. A couple things come to mind. We're almost out of time. We've got to do another show and talk about wholehearted ministries and what all you do there, but you and your wife.
What's fascinating is, you know, Lex Luger and I, another wrestling buddy of mine, do these camps called Man Camp. Oh, my kid. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. All your childhood schools are now administered.
Okay, Sting, Sting, right? He's at the event. He listens to me preach, right? I come down and he looked at me, and he's probably being over-encouraging. He looked at me and he said, That is maybe the best sermon I have ever heard in my life.
Come on.
Now that, that was okay, keep going. You had to make your day. I had to make your day. But I was just going to say, out of the other, I don't even know how many men at this point that over 20 years that we've had a minister at our camps, but many of those stories, your story, Joe, the stepfather, the abusive stepfather, or, you know, just that, that seems to ring, you know, unfortunately, over and over and over and over again. I feel fortunate I didn't have that.
My dad was an alcoholic, but he wasn't in the home.
So I didn't have to face that. But that said, I love the name wholehearted because that resonates with me too. One of our taglines is our hope is our goal as we bring men in is to empower them and equip them to be whole men. Living holy lives, wholly available unto the Lord. That's so cool.
Yeah, you know, so. But Jesus loves that too. Remember, he's in the synagogue. He quotes Isaiah 61. He says, I've come to heal the heartbroken.
Come on.
He came. This is his own mission statement. I came to make you wholehearted. Yeah. So, so.
So, here, okay, Wholehearted Ministries, Joel Johnson here, lovely bride Casey. Yeah. One day we're going to get her in the studio with us. But before we run out of time, we're going to do another show, but where can people go to learn more about Joel Johnson, about Casey, and Wholehearted Ministries? Yeah, joeljohnson.org.
If you want to find out more about me and my lovely bride Casey, if you're wanting to find somebody, Sessions towards resilience and healing the broken heart. If you go to www.wholehearted.university. And there's a nine-session course that churches, small groups can go through together, and it's so powerful, and so many people find freedom. Those are two great places to jump off, and you'll find a lot more when you're there.
Well, you just said a key word. I'm just writing down freedom because there's a lot of people out there that I have experienced are found. Yeah. Whether it's trauma or tragedy from a young age or something later in life, there's a lot of people that have experienced that.
So, freedom, healing, yeah, marriage as well. I'm so excited at joeljohnson.org. We actually just put up this week our brand new marriage book that's called Personality-Based Marriage. It takes the Myers-Briggs and helps married couples communicate. And it comes with an e-course, and it's totally free this week.
You just can download it for free. It's just go to joeljohnson.org. We want to get that into your hands. And not only that, there is a free, I'm giving away personally a free assessment and session on Zoom, and you can also. I'd love to meet you and help, and would love to just give you that.
That's $150 value for the session. It's a $220 free marriage course to help marriages. And we love marriages because there's generally kids tied to the success of that marriage. Yeah. And those children, like me.
Yep. We're trying to reach back. I want to make it generational. The wholehearted journey, Joel's new book, and I'm guessing Amazon, they can find these resources.
Okay, and Audible.
So thank you, Joel, for this session. I'm looking forward to coming back for session two. What an honor to be here with you.
So, and for all of you, Joe Johnson, amazing testimony, amazing story. Go check out the websites, check out the books. Go check out the free stuff. Who doesn't like free? Please, please.
Who doesn't like free? Until next time, continue. We appreciate you dialing in, supporting the show. Go out and just have a God-filled and live a God-blessed day.
