Just The News Please

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Introducing first, from Lithuania, he weighs 123 kilos, the Russian nightmare, Nikita Kolod. Now, the Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up. What a joy, what a privilege, what an honor to have this man in studio with me, to have him back, really, I should say. It's been probably, I don't know, well over, I think two years, but Frank Mickens, welcome back to the Man Up show.

It is a privilege. So good to see you in person. And good to have you here with us in studio. And I know you've got a lot going on. I want to have you back, just how much you've got going on, all that you're doing.

And for those who maybe don't know who Frank Mickens is, give our listeners a quick backdrop. I mean, we have some relatability here, because you have a bit of a television background. Sure. But yeah, share some of that.

I'll try to condense it for time here. But yeah, I spent about 20 years in television news from the time I was a senior in college at Syracuse University up until 2020, right before the pandemic. I was in television news. I was a news anchor in Indianapolis. I'd done anchoring, investigative reporting, reporting, anchored in all different times of day.

Loved it. Had a dream to go to network news and was heading in that direction and made some connections, had some interviews. All of that was kind of happening. And in the middle of all of that, God interrupted my prayer time one day and said, Hey, Frank, you've made your career an idol. And I knew it was the heart of God.

I knew it was him. And I began to just ask him good questions like, OK, what do you want me to do? And I did surrender my career at that moment. I said, OK, Lord, I know I can't do anything without you. I surrender my career to you, whatever that means.

Didn't know what that meant. And within six months I was out of television news. I turned down an extension.

I gave up the whole idea of going to network. I had a news director call me and offer me basically a job. And I said, no, I had a college professor wanting to hire me at a particular college.

I said no. And I had been launched into ministry. And this was right before the pandemic hit, not knowing what was going to happen. And so from that point, I just began to see God about what do you want me to do? I'd always been a preacher. I'd been ordained like 15 years prior to me leaving TV.

But I knew God was doing something more intense in my life and my wife's life as well. And we just started having prayer gatherings. We started having worship services. We started having revivals. We started reaching out to people that we knew.

We moved from Indiana to North Carolina. And all of this sounds glamorous, but all of it was just kind of the toe in the water and, okay, we're walking on water with Jesus kind of stuff. Yeah, step of faith, right?

Faith, faith, faith. And so now we're still doing it. We're still in revival.

We're still seeking awakening in the world as well. So let's get a little more back story. So you're here in the Winston-Salem-Greensboro area. Born and raised here?

Grow up here? Or how did you get to the Carolinas? Well, my family is in Virginia.

Mom's family is in Virginia. And I've had some family in North Carolina. But I was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi.

Okay. And ended up here when I took a job at the CBS affiliate here and spent most of my career there. And so we had all of our children here. And since we've moved back, we've had another child born here. So all of our kids were born here. Really had roots here. We had family in this area as well. And so when we left Indiana, it just felt natural. And we just felt a tug on our hearts as well. It's just the place to be.

To be here, yeah. The Carolinas. Of course, you know, if you're not from the Carolinas, I call myself a Carolinian at this point. I've lived in the Carolinas as long as I've lived anywhere else. You know, Siberia or Moscow or anywhere.

Right, right. And or Minneapolis. But I love the Carolinas. I mean, just the southern hospitality, the people, the food.

I mean, I just love it. It's God's country. I had a guy, I was on the phone with a fellow in Indiana earlier this week, and he said, yeah, that's God's country, isn't it? And I said, you got that right. Exactly right.

It is God's country. So how many children now? Four.

We got a one-year-old toddling around right now. So you've had another one since even I had you on the show last time. That's correct. Yeah. Wow. And everyone's been asking all the right questions.

Like, Frank, are you okay? You know what causes that. You know what causes that.

You know how to fix that. All these things. Yeah. Okay, so one.

And he has been a joy. Okay. So we've got four beautiful young ones now. Our oldest is going into high school. Okay.

So we've got kind of, we've got a high schooler, we've got an elementary, we've got a middle schooler, and we've got a toddler. Wow. So pray for us. Yes.

You're out there, pray for Frank. And so your lovely bride is a part. Chastity. My wife's name is Chastity, and we've been partners since it'll be 17 years in October this year. 17 years. Yes, sir.

Yeah. Did you guys meet in college? How did you guys meet? We met in high school. In high school? In fact, we were just home a couple of weeks ago, but we grew up about five minutes away from one another and didn't know each other until our senior year, maybe two months before we graduated.

It was the first time we had a conversation. Okay. And she won't admit it, but she knew what she had. Yeah, right. That's right. From day one.

A couple. It took convincing later, but you know. And since she's not here to defend herself. That's right. We can actually say that.

We can say these things. So might she qualify, or might we say a high school sweetheart at that point? I would say so.

Yeah, she was the only person that I could say had my heart when I was that young. Yeah. So yeah, yeah. Well, that's pretty amazing.

And it's been a wonderful journey. So let me ask you this, though, you mentioned, you know, being ordained, I mean, 15 years being ordained. So grew up in church, or how did that, your faith.

Certainly. Yeah, when did that happen? I'd love to tell you that one. So my dad, and I know this is right up your alley, my dad had a real conversion. My dad was born again right before my very eyes. My dad, very intellectual, very smart, you know, kind of could argue for any and all religions, but then had a real breakthrough in surrendering his life to Jesus Christ when I was about seven years old. And I just saw the tenderness come on. I saw just this change of heart, the servant art. He always was a kind person, but just this servanthood and my dad, but before the time he passed, you know, he was writing songs to help children memorize scripture.

He was a Sunday school teacher. I mean, he, before my very eyes, changed. You saw the transformation. My God.

Nobody could deny the change. Yeah. And prior to that, it was, you know, kind of a more conventional story. Mom went to church, we went with her, dad stayed home.

Okay. And I never really got the full story. I think it was when his father died, you know, he kind of was open to ideas about what happens when you die. And he just knew Jesus was for him and I watched him walk down the aisle and join the church. I saw him baptized. And so what happened to me as a seven year old was I began to acknowledge the need for a confession. And it wasn't a year or so after that I got baptized, but, you know, honestly didn't follow Jesus. I knew Jesus was who he says he was. I knew I was saved, but I wasn't a follower.

I wasn't a disciple. And it didn't happen until really adulthood when I surrendered my life. And it was when I was reading Rick Warren's good old book.

Right. The Purpose Driven Life. The first four words are, it's not about you. And I read those words and I began to just cry out to the Lord and wept like a baby on the floor of my apartment. And I said to the Lord, if you're real, and I knew he was, I give you everything.

And just reading that those first few words, I realized I had lived my whole life for me. And I began to think about people I hurt and how the results of my sin had been so detrimental to other people. And I knew I had to follow Christ or it was not going to work. So that that's when I just really began to thrust myself into reading the word of God. I mean, I had this insatiable desire to read God's word, know his word, memorize his word, tell people about his word.

I became an on fire Christian at that time. And I know there's people out there listening right now to your story who can relate from in a variety of ways, whether it's coming to faith at a very young age and or but not yet fully surrendering until, you know, years later. I know there's a lot of those stories that are out there and others who have yet to surrender their life or let's just say fully surrender their life. Like maybe you're out there listening to Frank's story and you have yet to fully surrender your life. But no regrets in doing that at all, right? Oh, gosh, no.

Beautiful. I mean, I began to discernibly know God. He began to teach me himself, his character, his person, his purposes, his his the things that he holds important. And I began to be more passionate about the things that he didn't like or hated. And I didn't want to be around those things. And so my my coworkers, I was in the news at the time, my coworkers to this day could tell you.

They saw me go from a guy who didn't mind being out late on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night to a guy that they couldn't find on those on those evenings because I was either in church or at home reading the word of God. I turned off television. I didn't even have cable. I couldn't even watch TV. And I was working on television because I would come home and I would just want to read God's word.

It was insane. It was just inexplicably an experience with the spirit of God. So that kind of really kind of leads into my next question, which is so really are you in a way kind of answered my next question. But, you know, out there in the world, you know, and you're out there in the secular world.

I mean, you're a newscaster. Right. And and your faith.

Did you find it? Let me ask you that. Did you find it difficult to be out there in that world while at the same time your faith is growing?

You're growing as a Christ follower. I know you said your fellow workers could see the changes where they how receptive to it were they. Oh, it was really fun. Yeah. The answer to your question initially about how was it easy or how easy was it?

Very difficult and didn't get easier. You know, just to kind of take a 30,000 mile look at the world. I think all of us will recognize it's different today than it was even 10 years ago. I mean, we're really living in a time where what is truth? Right. People don't want to agree on what truth is.

And if you can't agree on what truth is, you certainly aren't submitted to God. And so there's just all of these alternatives to God's will. And and these things with the seas have been planted over time. And we saw things springing up over time. But even when I was in the news business, there were a lot of discussions about how we're going to cover certain things.

And I wanted to be a voice of of balance. Hey, if we're going to cover abortion, let's let's talk about the roots of why we even have this debate. Can we talk to the church? Can we talk to pastors?

Can we talk to people that can explain the biblical foundations for why people believe abortion is sinful and these kinds of things? Right. So these discussions were happening. I felt like I was an ambassador for the Lord in that newsroom. You know, people will tell you that I didn't beat him over the head with the Bible or anything like that.

I'm a very relational guy. And that was that was part and parcel of the job. But it was still you could feel the tension over wanting to bring God's truth into the way we covered news.

Right. And, you know, it was always difficult, but I had to pray and ask God to give me wisdom. And the more that I submitted to God, I mean, I was having a Bible study at the at the station. You know, after hours, you know, it was obviously volunteer, volunteer, volunteers. But I knew that I had an assignment as a as a believer to bring and diffuse the fragrance of Christ wherever I go. And so I became, you know, an advocate for Christ at all levels of the station, you know, and there are other believers there. So I don't want to make it sound like I was the only one. But there's not the boldness. I think we all would love to say we have.

It's not there until you really know you're not alone. You're listening to the Truth Network and Truth Network dot com. Nikita Koloff here and I am excited. Did you hear the huge announcement, the big announcement?

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You're listening to the Truth Network and Truth Network dot com. So we had a lot of great conversations. We brought things up about how we're going to cover things. But the more and more things became more mainstream, such as homosexuality and Pride Month and pride parades and things like that. You know, I was I was put in a position once where we were asked to and this was not in North Carolina, this was in Indianapolis, but I was asked if I was interested in marching or walking with the station in a pride parade. You know, and I just, you know, kind of didn't even get into that conversation. I wasn't even going to respond to that. I think everyone knew where I stood. Right. Did they respect that, the fact that you had, you know, that you didn't compromise your beliefs and chose not to engage or be a part of that?

I think they did. You know, what does Peter tell us? He says that we should always have an answer for those who question about the hope that we have within us and do it with gentleness and respect. And I think it's the method.

There has to be a mutual honor and respect. You know, I might not agree with what you believe because I know it's wrong, but I know there's a way Holy Spirit will minister to you. And it's not my job to convince a person.

It's my job to walk through an open door, not to knock the door down. And this is something that I had to learn over time. Certainly I had moments where zealous Frank got came, came in into play. But I learned early on that there's not a whole lot of witness that is effective when it's me doing it has to be the Holy Spirit.

And there's a fine line there because, you know, you can read your Bible and know the truth. Right. But if you're not accessing and illustrating that truth with the love of God through His Spirit, it can become actually what the enemy does. Right.

He takes the word of God and perverts it. Right. And that's not what we want to do. So I had to learn some of those lessons. Yeah. Yeah. Good lessons to be learned. Let me ask you this.

So the interesting timing of the Lord pulling you out of that world. You know, you think you talked about how things have changed over the last 10 years. Well, things have seems like dramatically changed over the last three years, especially three or four years. And even for some, not everyone, but for some, you know, the expression out there now is it's kind of like people always thought wrestling was fake. Right.

Sure. And we try to help them understand nothing fake about wrestling. The reality is, I feel when I'm slammed on a concrete floor, I feel the effects of that.

Now, it was entertainment and the outcomes were predetermined, but my body feels the effects of that. Well, what I'm leading to is, you know, now there's a terminology in the news world, which is interesting how the Lord pulled you out of that before the term fake news really came into the forefront, I think, just in the last couple, three years. Do you think that, here's the question, do you think have, and it's just hypothetical, but if you had still been involved in the news industry, would it be more difficult now as a Christ follower with that tagline on news media, mainstream media, than it was then?

Yes, it'll be much more difficult. You know, one of the scriptures the Lord put in my heart when I had that moment with him before I left TV when he said, you've made your career an idol, the scripture that he took me to is where it says you cannot serve God and money. Either you're going to love one or hate the other, right? You just can't. There's no middle ground. Either you're on board with God or you're serving something that brings you wealth on this earth. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, treasure on heaven. So there's this dividing line that Christ invites us to.

It's called carrying our cross. And it's painful. And I think today it would be more painful. I would have to do what the Spirit of God told me to do. And I think that is maybe even why the Lord called me out of it, because it was probably best that it happened on, quote unquote, my terms. Right. Because I think I would have been put in positions where I would have just, for lack of a better term, protested and said, I can't and I won't do it.

I can't and won't report that or I can't and won't say that. You won't compromise your faith in that regard. So that's interesting. We have relatability in the sense that, you know, I walked away from pro wrestling under my own terms, little knowing 11 months later, I'd find myself at an altar surrendering my life to Christ. Wow. And now the Lord using that career as a platform to be able to share the good news.

So so let me touch. I'm glad you brought that up again on the on the your job has become an idol, because there's probably others out there listening right now that might even relate to that, that their job has become an idol. So the fact that the Lord brought that revelation to you, right, that, hey, because whether it's a job or I've had guys say my wife, you know, is an idol, my children have become an idol in my life. That's possible. Yeah. Yeah. And so so address that for for a moment. The Lord brings that revelation to you and then asks you to lay it down. Well, it was progressive. Thank God for his mercy.

Right. That he knows exactly how to speak to us and win over the course of two and a half years. Prior to that moment, my wife and I had been in this ongoing conversation and we had been in an ongoing conversation with the Lord. What's wrong? We just discerned we don't have the same peace with God. You know, we were we were involved in a church, but it just didn't seem to fit.

We we didn't seem to really find a community where we were. I was having a lot of issues at my job with coworkers kind of doing some interesting things. And I'm like, man, this stuff just seems to be coming at us. And the best way to really describe it is I felt like Jonah in the belly of the whale, really. Like I'm asking God, what's my responsibility? Where have I stepped ahead of you, behind you or away from you?

And what do I do to correct it? And so I had this this kind of cry to the Lord and I think he knew the moment that I was going to hear him. I'm not saying that he wasn't speaking, but I think because I was so enamored with my profession and some of the perks and the fact that we were we build a new house and a really nice community. These things can be intoxicating. Right. But I got so tired of not feeling like I was walking with the Lord that my ears were open in a moment when he said that.

And so it's progressive. I think we all know that it's possible that we are in a place like that. But until we really investigate, why are we not at peace with where we're working or or even why is the the tangible things I get from my job not enough? When we begin to mine and investigate that, God will speak to us about what it is. It might not be that you need to leave your job.

It might be that you need to do something else or. But I think a lot of us, particularly in Western church, have that same temptation in the Western world. Yeah, we're very, very we get just almost lulled into a sense of security, a sense of comfort as well. Right. You pose some very great questions, Frank. You know how you said it ahead of God. How am I ahead of you? Am I behind you? Did I step? Somehow I knew that I was not in step with God. There you go. There you go. And those are some great questions for those listening out there.

It might be something for you to consider for your own life. You know, are you ahead of God? Are you falling behind or even sidestepping him?

Right. Or not in step. I like what you say, not in step.

Well, tell us tell us what tell us what Frank Mickens is up to now. So I mean, yeah, fill fill us in on what you guys are doing. Well, we're still living by faith, walking by faith.

Second Corinthians five seven says we walk by faith, not by sight. And so we're doing crusades. We're doing outreaches. We've got an outreach coming up in August here in our city where we're doing a city wide outreach and we're going to preach the gospel of Jesus. We're going to be giving away backpacks for the kids.

We're going to have bounce houses, games, snow cones, the whole thing. But at the center of it is we're going to be preaching the gospel. We're going to be praying for people. We're going to be offering healing, salvation, all of those things to people.

And it's a it's a collaborative effort. So our ministry is called Faith Fire Worldwide Revival Ministries. But we've got other churches coming alongside us. We've got Child Evangelism Fellowship that's involved as well. And we're trying to do our best to be the body of Christ doing the work of God's kingdom.

OK, so that's here on stateside. We do those things, but we also do international ministry. You know, I was in Honduras in April. I was in Kenya in February.

And we do a few different things. You know, I was there really as a ministry to the church when I was in Kenya in February, preaching in the churches, ministering to the pastors, ministering to the members in Honduras. I was part of a team where we were doing crusades, nightly crusades, and we were praying for people. Folks were coming to Christ. People were getting manifesting healing in their bodies and all of these kinds of things. So we have this this kind of concentric circle, right?

The Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth. So we we don't just do things overseas. We do things here at home as well. Yeah. Locally locally and home being Greensboro. That's right.

Greensboro, North Carolina. Because I follow you on social media and I see you're doing a lot like you can do like some worship, some worship night. Yes, sir.

Right. Like like Friday night worship. OK. And again, that's about the body of Christ and it's about the body of Christ coming to the father. One of the revelations the Lord gave me is that he wants people to meet him as a father.

There are a lot of us who are struggling. Jesus says, I will not leave you orphans. And in other translations is where he says, I will not leave you comfortless. But in other translations, he says, I will not leave you orphans. And the spirit of God showed me once how a lot of people don't know him as daddy.

They don't know the spirit of adoption. Yeah. So we we try to present an atmosphere where people come to the Lord and we we just worship him as father. And people are coming and they're finding freedom from anxiety and stress.

We've seen physical manifestations of healing. People are coming to Christ, rededicating their lives to God. And I believe that's really where we are as a church.

Right. God wants us to come back to the foundation that is unshakable and that is him. To him as God, him as father. He wants us to know that he's the same God generation to generation to generation who comes and possesses his people.

And ministers deeply to our very needs. So that's what we're passionate about. OK. And so if people want to how how can they where can they go to like if they want to financially support you or just follow what you're doing, prayerfully support you? Where could they go? What's the what's the Web site?

How could they find out where you're going to be and what you're doing? Our Web site. And it's faithfireworldwide.com. Faithfireworldwide.com. I want to encourage you to go check out Frank's Web site and at very least prayerfully support what he and his family are doing.

You heard him say he walks by faith. So check him out. Great to have you back on the show, Frank, as always. And great to have you be so faithful and listening week in and week out. And we just appreciate you in supporting the Man Up show. Go out and have a God filled, God blessed day.

Until next time. This podcast is made possible by the grace of God and your faithful prayers, support and generous gifts. May God bless you for your continual contributions. Go to Koloff.net and donate today.

Hi, Nikita Koloff. Be sure to check out the Man Up show now available on television, broadcast and podcast. Go to MorningStarTV.com or the Truth Radio Network. Check out your local listings or better yet, download the Truth Network app today. If you are enjoying the Man Up show, would you help us spread the word? Tell your family, tell your friends, tell your neighbors to download, subscribe and leave a comment. Nikita Koloff here.

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