Restoration: Rick Joyner - Part 2

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This is the Truth Network. Once a world champion wrestler, now a champion for Christ. Once the Russian nightmare, now the devil's worst nightmare. And your tag team partner, Nikita Kolov. It's time to man up. All right, back today, the devil's nightmare, Jatoita.

Hey, just a taste of the old Russian days, the old wrestling days. I am back in the studio with Rick Joyner, Morningstar Ministries, and it's such an amazing first show we have with him. I'm like, there's just too much to this man.

There's too much to talk about. So, Rick, welcome back for a second show. Good to be here.

Well, it's great to have you back. And we got some of you on show number one, some of your early life and growing up in Richmond, which by the way, very familiar with Richmond, the Richmond Coliseum. Many memorable matches I had there at the Richmond Coliseum with the Nature Boy, Ric Flair, and so many others. And I don't know if we have time to get into it today, but I know you had a little taste of professional wrestling over the years with Reggie White, right? Yeah, Reggie was a great friend. Tell that story. Take a minute and tell that story.

It's so funny. Well, Reggie and I have been almost best friends, maybe best friends for several years, and he was asked to do a wrestling event. Yeah, with WCW, I think, back in the World Champions of Wrestling. Yeah, WCW.

Charlotte Coliseum. And, well, he and his family were staying with our family, and I had to help Reggie memorize his lines. Wait a minute. They had a spin for Reggie? Hang on here.

Why didn't I have that when I wrestled? Anyway, go ahead. Oh, yeah. We knew the whole plan. We knew what was going to happen. We knew when it was going to happen.

They laid it out for me. I'm sorry. I hope I am not just... Bursting somebody's bubble there. Yeah. Wait a minute. Wrestling is not all real?

Well, some of it is, for real. Well, anyway, I had to help him memorize and know what to do. His story.

His part of the story. So my wife and I go up in the stands to watch it. I tell you, I wasn't up in those stands very long before I said, the safest place in that building is in the ring. These people are crazy.

Wrestling fans can be a little crazy. And Julie would sometimes turn and ask me, what's going to happen next? And I would tell her, and everybody would turn around and look at me after it happened.

Everybody in our little section. How'd he know this? Exactly. But she, knowing what's going to happen, still got so excited, twice the ushers came and made her get down off her seat. Because wrestling, believe it or not, for those who aren't wrestling fans, I mean, it draws you in. Your wife was evidence of that. I loved it. It drew her right in.

It was so much fun. Even though she knew, it still drew her in. And that's funny. The ushers had to ask her to get down two different times.

Oh, yeah. And she was embarrassing me. And I don't embarrass her.

You don't get embarrassed easy, but she embarrassed you that night. Of course, we went backstage, met all the guys. I had a great time. But I see the draw. For whatever reason, it just has a worldwide, it's like a magnet. And when you're in that atmosphere, as Julie experienced, when you're in that atmosphere, there is a tendency for you to forget about the fact that it's entertainment and just get caught up in the story, right?

Oh, yeah. I mean, it is so captivating and so interesting and bizarre at the same time, but it's compelling. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Well, you're not the first to tell me that sometimes what was happening outside the ring was more entertaining than what was happening inside the ring because of the fans. And there was a time, Rick, well, of course, back in the Cold War era, how do you introduce me whenever you're introducing me? The most hated man. I used to think it was the most hated man in the world, but then I found out he got demoted.

He was only the most hated man in America. In America, in wrestling, in America. But I can tell you, I mean, half a dozen times I had fans jump over the barricades.

And the very first time, the Great American Bash against Rick Flair actually get in the ring and get his hands on me. And that was my first introduction to... Some of these fans can be a little bit crazy.

Not just a little bit. There was something way beyond that. I knew you had a personal experience in the world of wrestling with Reggie.

And so that's a great story. Now, Rick, what are some... Before we jump into, I wanna talk about, get more into your books, but also in Morningstar Ministries and what all it's involved in. But what are some hobbies for Rick Joyner?

What is Rick like to do when he's not writing books and speaking around the world? Well, I ride my motorcycle whenever I can. You rode it here today, to the studio. Rode it here today from Charlotte. And I love doing that. We ride up in the mountains a lot and all. Did that for years. Also, I played golf for many years and love that game.

Very relaxing, right? And it's biblical because it's just to test yourselves to see if you're in the faith. And I can tell within three holes if someone's... Where their Christian maturity is. I have to say, I've said many times, golf will humble the greatest athlete. I don't care how great an athlete you are, it will humble you. And I like that, it'll test you. Yeah, I tell you, it is one of those games that you can't beat it. Nobody's totally beaten this game. You may have a good round every now and then, but it's really challenging. But it also is... I used to tell people, you can either go through the great tribulation to be purified or play golf.

Either one of them will purify you. Well, and what's funny, at least for me anyway, it only takes... I mean, you could play 18 holes, hit 100 bad shots, but it only takes one good shot for you to come back again and wanna play again, right?

That's exactly right. You remember that one. And then you think, I should be on the tour.

Why am I not on the PGA Tour playing at the Masters? Hello. Well, that's wonderful. And what is it... Let me ask you this, though, too, about... What is it about men and motorcycles?

What do you think? Well, my dad had motorcycles when I was a kid. Okay. One of my first memories is riding on a little scooter he had.

I'd stand up in front of him. Then he graduated to Harley-Davidson's and would take me for rides on those things. I just loved it. And most of my life, I've had a motorcycle. Okay. So men just gravitate to the motorcycle. I guess the freedom of it, too, right? Just... Yeah, and you're out there, you just see so much more. You can't see in a car what you can see on your motorcycle. Right, right. You know, and you're out there in it.

Right. And I find that I can pray better on that motorcycle than anywhere. It could be because I'm always so close to death. With some of the crazy drivers on the road. Oh, man, I had one lady coming into my lane today that was... Really? Oh, yeah, she was about to push me over. Oh, my gosh. You get on the interstate, people don't look, you know.

No, yeah, they don't. And I've ridden for my 50th birthday. I bought myself a motorcycle, my present to myself, and I've enjoyed it. I've enjoyed riding. I don't do it a lot.

And it's been a while since I have, but I enjoy it. So, well, let's pivot here. Let's transition, Rick, and talk about Morningstar Ministries. Because you...now, when did you get a vision for or...how many years ago did you launch Morningstar Ministries?

Well, I was actually...it was 1985. Okay. I wrote my first book, finished it in 1983, put it in a drawer, because I'd been so buried in it, I didn't know if it was good or not. Was that the two trees?

Two trees in the garden. Okay. And then I put it in a drawer for two years. I said, after two years, I'm going to take it out. And if I like it, still like it, I'll seek a publisher. Got accepted by the first publisher I sent it to. And when they sent me back the blue line to approve it, the printing, they had changed a lot of what I was...of my message.

I mean, really changed the meaning sometimes to the opposite of some things, I believe. And I just said, I'm not going to do that. So anyway, I decided to publish it myself, and I started Morningstar as a publishing ministry to publish works where the truth wouldn't get compromised, where we get to say what we get to say, and editors are not going to edit it out. Well, I had no more vision for Morningstar than that at the time. And then one day when I was at my airport, I heard the voice of the Lord say, Morningstar is going to be bigger than this aviation business, which at the time, the FAA said it was one of the two biggest in the country of its type. Right. And I just...I was like, what? How is that going to happen?

Am I really hearing the Lord? And of course, the rest is history now. It had explosive growth, like my aviation business did, but it started with the publishing, the books, the message, and quickly Two Trees was a bestseller all over the world.

How many countries? What do you think? I know we talked about it on the last show, and James Robinson was impacted by it, and what do you think it was about the content of that book that really impacted James Robinson, but then thousands and thousands of people all over the world are wanting a copy of this book?

Can you distill it down into something? Well, I think what I did was I said, look, there is a message in these two trees that the whole rest of the Bible elaborates on, and you're going to eat from one tree or the other. The tree of knowledge of good and evil, and that tree has a good side and an evil side, and the good that comes from that tree is just as poisonous, just as deadly, as the evil is.

There's human goodness. There's human idealism and all that is in conflict with God, and then I showed how out of Cain and Abel, you see these two seeds from these two trees. You see it, and I traced it throughout the Bible, right? Saul and David, they're both eating of a different tree and in conflict, and you see this, Jacob and Esau, I mean, it's a conflict you see grow over and over and over again, and it's the same thing.

They cannot abide together, these two seeds. You're going to eat of one tree or the other, and I elaborate on what the tree of life is and tree of knowledge of good and evil, and I guess I did it pretty well because people liked it and they read it, and it took off. I never ever have had to advertise that book. In fact, we advertise in our own circle. We let people know when a new book's out, but normally we trust the Lord to do the marketing. And Rick, would you say, now I know, I think one of the more popular, I mean, there's so many of your books that, again, it's not just tongue in cheek when I say there's so much content and value and wisdom and knowledge in these books you write. I know The Final Quest, it was a pretty popular one. I guess I'll say it that way, but... Well, it was the most popular I've ever read. Okay, so The Final Quest is the biggest seller that you've had by far.

By many times over. Okay, The Final Quest. And was there one book, and it might be hard, it's like somebody asked me, what was your favorite match, Nikita?

And I'm like, I had 454 matches in 1986, how do I distill down to one match? But was there one book, did you say, out of the really dozens and dozens and dozens, I'm thinking you're nearing 100 that you've written, but was there one that maybe has stood out or was maybe more fun for you to write than another, or you just, what would you say? Well, truth has to be timely to really have an impact. I mean, I've read books before and not even liked them.

I've not even liked them. Read the same book 20 years later and say, this is the best book I ever read. But it wasn't on time for me the first time. Now The Final Quest hit timing for a lot of people, and it's stuff we're seeing unfold today. And it's still relevant today. It's unfolding.

And so I think that is one factor. And I think I've been blessed to be able to write and release books in a timely manner. This book, I think, may become one of my biggest. The one I'm holding my hand.

The second American Revolution slash Civil War. Yep. Brand new. The reason I think that is because I just got all this media attention in Newsweek and New York Times and tabloids, even overseas. Right. And I said... Exposure.

Go ahead. I've been around this. That's free advertising. That was a God thing. I didn't make that happen. That's free advertising. That's right.

I didn't make that happen, but... Good, bad, or indifferent. It's free advertising. Right.

But I think this is a very crucial knowledge that we need to know to understand what's unfolding right here in our country, especially. As we talked about on the first show, for the warfare, the supernatural, the spiritual warfare, I mean, the angels are real, the demons are real, Satan is real, God's real. It's real. It is all real. It's real. Matter of fact, way more real than what we think of as reality. Yes. It talks about this being a shadow of the heavenly things. So all of this that we call real only has the substance compared to the heavenly reality that a shadow does compared to you. Right.

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DriveCrescent.com. Which, again, there's some out there who are like, man, I just, you know, I've found anyway. I don't know if you ever, they're like, ah, I just don't want, man, let me just live my life. I don't, I don't really want to dive into it. I understand that. Sure.

Right? You know, that's all I did for them until I met the Lord. And then that realm became far more, because we, becoming a new creation, that's literally translated a new species. Once you're born again in Christ by his Spirit, you're not flesh first. You're not this nature first. You're that nature first. At least that's what we're supposed to be growing up into.

We should be more at home and more comfortable in the heavenly realm than we are in the natural realm. And when you're born again, it's like when you're born, you don't even know what this baby's going to look like when it gets old. You're just starting your journey in life. The same is true when we're born again in Christ. That's not the end of the matter.

That's the beginning of the matter. We're told in places like Ephesians 4, many places, we're called to grow up in all things into Christ. And I don't know anyone's quite there yet.

In fact, yeah, you bring up a good point. You say you'll grow up in Christ. And I've illustrated or highlighted, I said, yeah, grow up, not grow old in Christ. Grow up in Christ. So I've been in church 50 years, well, that's great. Well, how mature are you?

Yeah, or we've really grown into his image, or we've become like him in doing the works that he did as his body, that he uses to do his works now. And so I just encourage all the listeners out there, because they can, I mean, is there, Mike, I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but where would they find your books? I mean, I know that you got a bookstore there at the Morningstar property, but where else were they? Online? Well, they've been in, they're online, they're in most bookstores. One of ours was number one bestseller, like Barnes & Noble and other big book chains.

You can usually find them anywhere, but if not, you can go to Morningstar.org and find us and get them online. But yeah, they're pretty available. Yeah, and or visit the property. Now, let's talk about that. Let's talk about, let's transition to, and that's a good word, by the way, what you were just saying, but let's talk about, so Morningstar Ministry starts out as a, in a sense, a book publishing company, but then God says it's gonna be bigger than your aviation business. And which, so I'm thinking, okay, because I know you got schools, I mean, you got the K through 12 school, you got MSU, the university, Morningstar University, so you got the schools and I mean, and ministries, I mean, that impact the world. Do you even know how, like, you don't know how many books you have, do you even know how many ministries are now under the banner of Morningstar?

Any idea? Roughly. No, I don't. We have a lot.

I know it's a lot. You can connect on so many levels, but I know, I don't even know how many churches we have, honestly. That are connected, right.

That are connected. Yeah. And... All over the world.

We have... Yeah. Yeah, there is... Because I go to your conferences, people come from all over the world to go, to attend the conferences at Morningstar. Well, our footprint is basically 80% international. Right. Our, you know, only about 20% of the people that we reach are in America or in the US. Wow. So we're mostly international, at least the last time we checked that out was the fact that...

Right. But yeah, we were at one time in every country, we had publishers in most, all the major languages. One time our books got translated into 40 to 50 different languages, every book.

Wow. So we were all over and sometimes we had the number one bestseller in many countries at once. And so we've had a real successful time getting the word out, the message out. Well, and I know you have Morningstar TV, you've got the Morningstar Journal, which I think I just recently learned is now a 30-year-old publication in and of itself, and people can subscribe to the journal, they can plug into Morningstar TV and watch... Yeah. And we have our conferences, our conference center. Yes.

And we have our leadership retreat center up in Moravian Falls. Let's touch on that. In 2004, you purchased a property that was, speaking of making the news, had made the news prior to 2004, some if they remember back to the old PTL days, right, with Jim and Tammy Baker, but you were able to purchase that property in 2004. Now it went through...

I've seen pictures, Rick. It went through major, major renovations. And even just recently, after a nine-year legal battle, you have finally gained the favor of finishing that tower on that property, which I'm excited for you guys about that. But talk just briefly in our last few minutes here about the purchase of that property and how God led you to that and your vision for that and Morningstar's future. Yeah. Well, Reggie used to wear me out, Reggie White.

We're supposed to get that PTL property, back when they had all the troubles. And he really had a vision for it and all, and I introduced him to Jim Baker. If you know how small Jim is and how big Reggie was, it's like that movie Twins. Yeah. Yeah.

If he ever saw it. Richie was huge. Yeah. Yeah.

But they just knit together. Jim Baker actually became like the pastor of the Green Bay Packers. They loved him. He would go up and speak to their team, and I always believed, because I felt like the Lord had shown me in 1988 that property was going to be restored and become a testimony of God's power of redemption and restoration. If you take the first three chapters of the Bible and the last three, everything between those six chapters deals with one essential subject, restoration. Chapter three of Genesis, we have the fall, everything until the last three chapters of Revelation where you see everything gets restored. Back to the tree of life, everything is restored that was lost by the fall. So God's main ministry right now, mission is restoration. That includes, it starts with redemption, reconciliation to God, but then we have to be restored. We have to be healed and delivered and so many things to restore His nature in us.

But it is a process. Well, anyway, I think I didn't want that property. I never have a vision for it. That was Reggie's vision. I wanted him to do it, and I was always on Reggie's boards and stuff, but I had no vision for us when he started to do it. But Jim Baker told me as soon as the first time he came to our ministry, you're supposed to get that property.

And I'm just going, don't tell me that, no way. And I didn't want to run a hotel and a conference center, I want to be in missions. But anyway, a developer came up who had bought the whole thing and wanted to develop the whole thing, and he wanted to give us that section, the Grand Hotel and 50 some acres, the tower and all that for a tiny fraction. Jim said he had paid $65 to $75 million to build that, and we bought it for $1.6 million.

$1.6 million. Yeah. And you know, every closing is a miracle that it actually gets done. This required 16, I think, different closings to all happen on the same day at the same time before we got that. And I'm just sitting there the whole time saying, it's going to work.

This will never happen until they come out and they say, okay, now your turn. I felt like the little puppy that had caught the train. You know, now what do I do with this thing? And I remember I was walking through all the property with all the reporters, you know, it was still national news. And they all asked me, you really think you can restore this place because it had degenerated. It was terrible. I saw pictures. Yeah. Yeah. It was the homeless who were living in it. I mean, yeah, it was bad. Oh, it was. And they asked me, you really think you knew this?

I'm going, I don't know, this is worse than I thought. But we went about, I feel like that's the way a lot of people are. And some of the people that God's led to us, for them to be restored to me, they were in worse shape than that property. But I think it's a sign and a symbol. And I'd committed myself to be a slave, a servant, say, if this is the job you give me, I'm going to do the best I can at it.

But I can't say I ever wanted to do it. But as soon as we get there and get it fixed up and all, it's like, this is the most perfect home we could have ever had for our ministry. And we would have never built anything like this ourselves. Right. Because of the conferences and all the visitors we have come in from all over. Yeah, everything about it fits for us. Well, you're listening to Rick Joyner, Morningstar Ministries.

Go find out more about Morningstar Ministries. Buy the books, like for real, a brand new book today, The Second War. The American Revolution Civil War, right? That's his newest one. You heard him talk about the final quest and two trees and the garden. And if you have never surrendered your life to the Lord, man, restoration could be yours today. So when we come back on our next show, we're going to talk about the restoration of that building and then something else I want to talk to Rick about as well. So I appreciate you tuning in today.

Come back again and subscribe, download the podcast. Let me know if you make that decision to give your life to Jesus. 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.

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