God's Supernatural Healing

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Everybody drives a Crescent. You should too. DriveCrescent.com Hello, this is Matt Slick from the Matt Slick Live Podcast where I defend the Christian faith and lay out our foundations of the truth of God's Word. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Want a copy of Kolov for Christ Ministries? Go to kolov.org, kolov.org and make a donation of any amount. A note? You want my latest book and you'll receive a personalized copy of Nakita, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption.

For Kolov, it's time to man up. As God still does the miraculous. I got an incredible interview lined up today with a dear friend of mine, Pastor Chad Nelson up in Mount Clemens, Michigan and our paths crossed just a few years ago on an event called Quest and life for Chad would forever change because of something that happened there on the event at a night of worship. And just a little quick background. Chad married to Jennifer.

He's got three wonderful children, a senior, an eighth grader, a fourth grader, Quinn, Marin and Reed. And Chad launched Planet of Church up in Mount Clemens called Journey Church and I've been blessed to fly up there and be a part of that church for a weekend. And we're going to talk to Chad. Chad, welcome to the show. Glad to be here, buddy. Well, it's great to have you. And, you know, I just kind of teased our listeners there with just just a little bit on on the opening. And what do you say? We just have a conversation today and just share with our listeners just how God still does miracles.

I'm looking forward to it. Well, a little more background there and perhaps you can elaborate on this. I know you spent about five years out in Missouri, but give our listeners just a quick backdrop. Obviously, I introduced you and your family, but give us a little more background. You're originally from Michigan.

I know you're out in Missouri, but give us a little backdrop. Yeah, so I was brought up on the west side of the state, which is Grand Rapids, went to Christian school there within my church. And so it was a kind of interesting dynamic. Never felt like you could ever leave that building right with your church being in your school as well. But I had a calling on my wife at about 10th grade. I knew I needed to be in ministry.

In what way? I had no idea and got married at a very young age of 21. And somewhere along the lines, about six years into our marriage, a friend came over to my house and said, Chad, if you don't answer this call of ministry, you've been putting it off.

If you don't answer this call tonight, I believe you'll never do it. And that was the wake up call I needed. And from there, decided to dive into ministry. Started off by just serving for two or three years in my church, just to learn how to be a servant. From there, just dived in and the first youth pastor position in Flint, Michigan. Then from there, went to New Baltimore at a great, great church there and then started feeling the call to plant a church in a city called Mount Clemens, Michigan, where there was just a lot of need, a lot of homelessness, a lot of poverty. And we just really felt like that's where God had called us.

But, you know, God had other plans for us. And we walked through the doors and decided not at that time, but we went down to Missouri and spent five wonderful years down there with just great, great people. And then decided that God had opened the doors for us to finally accept that call to come to Mount Clemens to plant a church.

And we did that about three years ago. So we've been three years into this church plant, loving every bit of it, definitely some trials, but we know God is faithful. So we've been up here for three years and just seeing God do some miraculous things. Well, that's pretty amazing.

Let's back up just for a minute for our listeners, because, you know, there may be some that, you know, we use that expression a lot, you know, a call to ministry or calling on our lives. And you made reference to, you knew at an early, I think you said 10th grade. Is that right? 10th grade that you felt the call of God on your life. Is that right?

Yes. So when you say that, just to help our listeners out there, when you say that, a call to God, how did you know? How did you know it's God calling?

Give a little more detail on that. Yeah, so I was at a youth service, and we had a pastor who was an evangelist, meaning going all out throughout the world and sharing the Gospel, and at that time he had an altar call asking for people that maybe felt that they wanted to give their lives to God outside of just living a relationship with him, but maybe be willing to see what it would look like to say, God, use me. Here I am. Use me whatever way you would like. And if it's in full-time ministry, if it's a ministry while we continue to work in a secular field, whatever it may be. And so I went down front, and I was prayed for, and I just could not get this feeling of God saying to me, I want you. Will you have me? Will you serve me for the rest of your life? And at that moment, I was confused as though, will I be a follower of Christ the rest of my life, or will I go into ministry? And as I was talking to that evangelist, he said, I want you to hear this clearly. It is God is asking.

Do not be confused. He's asking you to serve him in ministry full-time. And I had a complete peace about it. I went home, talked to my parents that night, and my dad said, you know, Chad, at a young age, someone had prophesied that over you. And I never wanted to tell you that, because I didn't want you to feel pressured into doing something because someone had prophesied that over you. And that night, I knew, in whatever way, I didn't know how, but here I am, God, use me, send me. Well, that's pretty good. And you know, when I think about, especially the term or the word calling, you know, my view, and I think you might agree with me, is every single individual technically, you might say, has a calling on their life.

Absolutely. We might define that as a purpose for being here, that God has a purpose for every single one of us, and a plan for our lives, or we might say, a calling. And to your point, you know, some are called into ministry, like you just explained, as you had felt confirmed, confirmation from your dad and from others, this evangelist. So there's a confirmation there and a peace in your heart that this is something that I'm supposed to do. And so others, like if you're listening out there, you may not be called into ministry, maybe you're called into the marketplace, because we need strong, sold-out believers, followers of Jesus, you know, who are in car sales, who are in insurance sales.

I had lunch yesterday with a dear friend of mine who's been an insurance salesman for 17 years, and that's his calling. But it's also his ministry. So understand that, you know, you may not be called to a pulpit to preach or go to seminary and get a diploma or travel the world like I do as an evangelist, you know, or all the things that Chad is doing, planting a church.

But that said, your life has a purpose, there's meaning to your life, and there's a plan that the God of the universe has for you, which is why you're here. And so, Chad, so then you, as you already kind of shared with us, you did some volunteer work in the church, you did some youth ministry work, and then you went down. And what it sounds like to me, that even though you felt Mount Clemence was where you were supposed to be, it's an interesting part of your story, because as I'm listening to it, and this is great too for our listeners, as I'm listening to your story, you're like, I felt certain we were called or supposed to go to Mount Clemence, but there's a little five-year detour in there, down to Missouri. And in a sense, you might say, or maybe you could enlighten us to this, training ground, right? The experience you got in Missouri may have just been a setup or training for when you eventually planted the church.

Absolutely, absolutely. And when we were down there, so many lessons learned, and being able to learn how to just simply love people extremely well, love people where they're at, and we were able to start a ministry for an organization, a crisis center, and they just needed someone to come in and have Bible study with people that were transient and were living in this center, maybe because of the tornado that happened in Joplin down there. You know, I don't know if you remember, about eight, nine years ago, a great big tornado went through there and wiped out a good portion of Joplin, and so a lot of people would, during that time of rebuilding or finding a new place, would live in a place called the crisis center. So we were able to make that move within the crisis center and just serve people and have a ministry for people that didn't know what way to turn. And what that did is it helped me, prepared me for when I did move to Mount Clemens to have a heart for homeless people, to have a heart for the less fortunate that I don't know that I would have had before time.

Yeah, there you go. So it sounds like God was just preparing you along the way, and so you go to Mount Clemens, and as you said, is it somewhat of an impoverished area, or I know you mentioned homelessness and the less fortunate. So God put you right in the middle of that, right in the heart of that, right?

Yes. The county seat, Mount Clemens is the county seat, and so we have every local county courts, county jail, everything, and what we find is a lot of times when people are released from the county jail, this is the nearest place because they're in, it's in Mount Clemens. And so not everyone has a place to go back to, not everyone has a family member that says, hey, we're going to take you back, you know, whatever. And so we have a lot of people that are still even dealing through addictions that once they leave jail, they go to the quickest place where they can feed that addiction that they have been craving for however long. And so we find that a lot in Mount Clemens is just people that don't have another person, don't have a group, and then when they find a group of people that are going through the same situation they are, it's kind of like I belong.

It may not be sleeping under a roof or anything else, but they're with a group of people that are going through the same hurts and sorrows that they are, and that can be comforting to them sometimes. Yeah, and I've seen firsthand the work you're doing up there, which is amazing, Chad. You know, you've brought me up there a few times to do some ministry, which gave me then the opportunity to meet some of the people that you're working with, reach out to the community and see firsthand the impact and the difference that you are making there in Mount Clemens.

And so, you know, I just commend you. Your heart is bigger than Texas, as one expression goes, and so I know it's no surprise to me how God is just continuing to bless what you're doing there. And our paths would cross just a few years ago on an event called Quest, and we would be introduced, and little did I know, and I kind of teed things up today by talking about the miraculous and that God still does miracles, and so I want to transition to some of that story of how we met on this event. But then what happened while you were there as we were having a night of worship, and little did I know that you had MS, that you had multiple sclerosis, and I just know on the night of worship, the Lord said to me, go pray for Chad. And so I come over and lay hands on you and pray for you, and the next thing I know, you're bolting out the door, and I'm like, where's he going? Is he coming back?

What's he doing? And then they come over to start explaining to me, go, no, no, he's got, people with MS can't do it, they can't run like that, they can't do that. And I'll never forget, Chad, like when you came back in, you're like, you're cute, look at my hands, and man, you were like, you figure something out, and you're like, who turned the music up? And I'm like, dude, nobody turned the music up.

I mean, it's like the same volume it was when you left, you know? Because you were supposed to be fitted the next week with hearing aids, and that appointment was already set, and you went on to explain to me about 17 lesions on your brain. Talk a little bit about, really, just give us a quick backdrop on, I think 2013, the symptoms for MS started happening, and then the miraculous happened in 2017 on our event.

Yeah. So 2013, I started having migraines, which was something that my doctor said is not just normal to all of a sudden start having migraines. And so he sent me to a neurologist, and through a battery of tests, they decided at the end, once they were able to pull a fluid out of my spinal cord and see that it was not clear, and sent that away, that you do have multiple sclerosis. And there's different forms of multiple sclerosis. There's a slow form where people can run.

People can run marathons in their 50s and 60s that have had multiple sclerosis for 20, 30 years, and you would never know it. But my form was more of a quicker developing, and really having a hard time coming up with clear thoughts, which is hard when you're a pastor on a Sunday and delivering a message to say, oh no, is today going to be the day where I can't clearly communicate, you know? Right. But every Sunday, God was faithful to give me the clearness that I needed to communicate.

But just even stumbling when I was walking, they were talking about taking my driver's license away just because I had some blackout episodes, but my hearing, like you said, I couldn't open my hands fully anymore, and it was hard for me to grip things. And it just became something that was a daily battle, and to see the way I went downhill on a faster-than-normal way was hard for my wife, it was hard for my kids, obviously hard for me. And yet we still had this, about that time, about a year or two later, God continued to start working this idea of going to Mount Clemens, and I'm like, wow, God, I'm willing to do whatever you ask, but what a hard thing to do, because I can hardly communicate, I can hardly move around, and planting a church is not the easiest thing you're ever going to do. Right. And I was not sure that that made sense to me, but yet, nonetheless, God, here we are, use this. Yeah. And would you even have the strength, or would you even have, yeah, right, not only the cognitive thought, but even the physical strength and the endurance to be able to do that.

I know, because my pastor, 16 years ago, planted the Refuge Church in Concord, Kannapolis, and so I know the labor intensive that he went through to get that thing one off the ground, and then for it to continue. Yeah. So you, so we're together that night, you come running back in, and all of a sudden you have mobility in your hands, and you think.

Yeah. Your ears. You come up and pray for me, which, you know, is a little intimidating in itself.

I mean, just brush the knife here. Put his big paw on your head and say. We lay hands on you.

For you, I guess. And I said, sure. And, you know, as I had put my hands up, it's like God took a filter and ran it through my body's the best way I can explain it, and started with my head, and I felt it go all the way down to my toes. And I think one of the first things I said to you is, Nick, someone turned up the music, and you're like, no, no one's turned up the music. I said, well, it sounds so loud to me, but I wasn't used to, you know, my ears basically popped, and I wasn't, you didn't realize how bad your hearing was until you were set free of your sickness, you know.

Wow. And the hearing loss, and all of a sudden you go, wow, I didn't realize how bad it was. And I'm looking at my hands, and I'm moving them, and I'm fully stretching them out, something I have not been able to do in three years. And it felt like the best way I can explain MS for me is someone took a bungee cord and wrapped it around me. My body just felt hunched up, and I felt like that cord was instantly cut, and I could stretch out, it felt so good. And the first thing I said is, I gotta run, because, Nick, I've not been able to run or anything like that in years, so I took out that door, and I ran all the way down a big hill, all the way down to this big place called a praise barn, ran all the way back and up that hill. You know, it's a mile and a half, but it felt so good because it's something I had not been able to do in years. Wow.

And just instant freedom. Yeah, and I'm happy coming, like, pouring sweat, and I'm like, wow, it's amazing. And so we got just a few minutes left for our listeners, but I want to finish this story, or we'll have to have you back another time, which maybe we'll do anyway if you have so many stories. So you go home, and correct me if I'm wrong, you go home, I know you testified before your church and shared the testimony, but then you found out you didn't need hearing aids, so you found that out, and then your doctor, to test, did another spinal tap, and he goes, don't get too excited. You know, if it's clear, then okay, maybe, and if it's cloudy, then, you know, and it comes out clear, and he's like, um, let's send it off for a test. So as a doctor would do, right, a good doctor, and still not convinced that you're healed, because we're talking about the miraculous, God's healing power, and so that happens. And long and behold, you have more scans of your brain, and when I mentioned the lesions, for those who don't know, it's like dead spots, right, Chad, on your brain, and something happened that, I always remember this, so your ears are healed, the fluid is clear, he sends a report back, and he asks this question, how does something dead come back to life, right, isn't that what your doctor asked? Exactly, when you take the brain scan, and again, he said, Chad, now I've seen over 10,000 people in my lifetime with multiple sclerosis, no one's ever been set free of this. We can help maintain it, and then when you come back, and you look at the brain scan, and see that every single lesion is gone, and even the ones that were black, not all lesions can make your brain die, but the four that I had that was actually dead, he says, how does something that had become alive again? And to see that neurologist on a faith journey of discovering who God is has been amazing.

Yeah, because what was his background, like Indian or something, what was his background? No, no, he's always just said, I've never, he went to church a couple times as a kid with grandma, and that was his faith to him at that point. Right. And he said, I always believe in science and everything else, but now he's on this journey of discovering who God is, because he can't make sense of this healing. Right, he can't explain it, right? So it's unexplainable, it's in the realm of the unreasonable, right?

That's right. And so eventually, eventually, as we kind of wind this story up, eventually you get notified by him, and folks here's, so if the miraculous and Chad's healing is not exciting enough for you, here's the cherry on top. What ended up happening with this doctor in this journey of faith? Yeah, so he has been attending a church, attends small groups, and has said, listen, I don't know where I'm going on this journey, all I know is that there is a creator that healed Chad, because this does not just happen, and so I want to know this creator. Come on. And he's on a faith journey. Come on, come on. So can't deny, he can't deny, even the doctor can't deny the miraculous, so.

Yep. Well Chad, our time's just about up, I mean, it goes by always way too fast, but what an amazing story, and I can't thank you enough for coming and sharing some of your story with our listeners. We will have to have you back sometime.

I'd love to do it. And for those of you out there, you know, you're listening, listen, maybe you're out there, you need a healing, maybe you need a touch from God, and Chad's story inspired you today, maybe lifted your level of faith, just another notch to understand God is still in the healing business. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And it's just a matter of, you know what, you don't need Nikita Kolov to lay hands on you, you just have to have faith and believe and bow your heart and bow your head and just receive. Receive your healing from him today. Just receive your healing from him today. And so let that be an encouragement to you.

I always like to end with just maybe a short story or something that, you know, somebody has emailed me. If you want to email something to me, go to kolov.org and you can shoot me an email. And this particular story says, Crying tears of joy and thankfulness to have just had wrestling legend Nikita Kolov do a call with myself and my dad in his nursing home rehab center to chat it up with us about wrestling. But more importantly, give him encouragement and lead us in a word of prayer. My father, Bill, grew up watching the old NWA at the Norfolk Scope in Virginia, and this call just shot his spirits to the sky. Tim Luleys, I think is how you pronounce that name. I hope I didn't mispronounce it. But hey, if you have a story, if you'd like to email me a prayer request, if you'd like to send me a letter of encouragement, how I've encouraged you or how this show encourages you, kolov.org.

You can go to that website and shoot me a direct email. I want to tell you what, we're going to have more miraculous stories. Real man, you just heard a real story from a real man. This is real talk.

Why? Because it's time to man up. The reason God put this show on my heart was to challenge men. And for you ladies out there, because I know it's not just men who are listening to this show, I'm finding out there are more and more and more women who are tuning in as well. And if you're listening out there, dial in each and every week, because we're going to bring some amazing stories, not just stories of the miraculous and God's healing, but also athletes and entertainers who love Jesus, pastors and ministers and evangelists and businessmen and women from a variety of backgrounds. So thank you today for joining us on It's Time to Man Up.

God bless you. Men, I would like to challenge each of you to consider spending five days with Lex Luger and I at Man Camp, pursuing the heart of God. Ladies, if you're listening, we'll send your men home, better equipped to be men of God, godly husbands and godly fathers. That appeals to you. Give them your blessing and encourage them to sign up today at mancamp.info. Pastors, if you would like to bring Koloff for Christ Ministries and Man Up Conference to your community, go to koloff.org and email me. Remember this, It's Time to Man Up. ...