Hi, this is Roy Jones with ManTalk Radio Podcast. Our mission is to break down the walls of race and denomination. Your chosen Truth Radio Broadcast will be starting in just a few seconds. Thank you. This is Jesus Breaks the Chains. Hello and thank you for tuning into this podcast, which is a part of the Jesus Breaks the Chains series.
I'm evangelist Michael Bowen, and I pray that the Lord blesses you greatly. So I decided to go back to Key West. I knew where to go, and I just figured that I'll just go down there and get drunk and high and see what happens. So before I left West Palm Beach, I went into a grocery store and stole food, bottles of wine and beer, and a cooler with some ice.
I loaded it into my car and took off and headed for the Florida Keys. After a few moments of driving, I began to feel a great amount of shame, guilt, and hopelessness as I drove down the highway. I began to drink the alcohol and smoke the last bit of crack that I had. Once I got to Miami, I stopped and called my mom. I knew she was worried about me because she hadn't heard from me in a few weeks and probably knew I'd relapsed.
That was kind of my pattern. I'd always call my mom every five or six days, at least once a week, and she hadn't heard from me in a few weeks. And that was typically when they haven't heard from me, they know what I've done that I probably relapsed and I'm out running around smoking crack and stealing and doing all the things that you do when you're addicted to drugs. So I got her on the phone and when I spoke to her, she was very upset and she asked me what in the heck was I doing and I told her that I wanted to call her before I went to the Florida Keys. I told her that I was sick and tired of smoking crack, but I could not stop.
I told her I loved her and I hung up the phone. Then I took off down US Highway 1 at a high rate of speed once again, headed for Key West and more than likely destruction. I'm going to read to you the article that was in the newspaper the following morning. It's from the Miami Herald.
The date is March 22nd, 1997. The title of the article is this. Deputies use spikes to stop fleeing car on US 1. Driver reached top speed of 136 miles per hour.
This is the text of the article. Metal spikes stopped a motorist driving erratically down US 1 at speeds up to 136 miles per hour early Friday. Charles Michael Bowen, 29 of Palm Beach Gardens, refused to stop his car for Monroe deputies at mile marker 89. At that time, he was traveling 71 miles per hour in a 45 mile per hour zone, deputies said. Bowen was also seen passing in no passing zones and turn lanes, said Deputy Becky Herron, Sheriff's spokeswoman. Deputies radioed colleagues down the road telling them to look out for the 1997 Infinity, Herron said. Deputies put out stinger spikes, metal spikes embedded in a rubber strip that poke holes in tires small enough to make the car stop without hurting the driver. To stop Bowen at US 1 and Cocoa Plum Road in Marathon. He was charged with fleeing and eluding police, driving under the influence of alcohol, possession of cocaine and drug paraphernalia, and reckless driving.
In the Infinity were beer and wine bottles and a pipe with crack cocaine residue, Herron said. That newspaper article is from the front page of the Keys section of the Miami Herald newspaper in 1997 when the Florida Highway Patrol chased me for 40 miles. I was driving through the Florida Keys at night and had my sunroof open and I was angry because I was addicted to drugs and could not stop using them. I hated myself and I hated being a drug addict who had let everyone down. I was headed for the seven mile bridge on the bridge and wanted to hit the crest of that bridge at 150 miles per hour to see what would happen.
At 29 years old I was already sick and tired of being addicted and could not take all the devastation it had caused and I was ready to end it all. I was yelling out of the roof, the sunroof of my car. God, you made me like this. It's your fault that I am this way. You did this to God.
God, you made me like this. Well, to my dismay, God had other plans for me that night. Instead of me trying to jump my car off that bridge, just before I reached the bridge as I entered Marathon Key, the police had set up a roadblock with stinger spikes that would flatten my tires. I did not make it to the bridge and I was arrested. I remember being pulled out of my vehicle at gunpoint and taken to jail and being put on suicide watch. I was ready to end it all that night on the seven mile bridge.
Now let's fast forward to 2014. I've been released from prison for the second time, but this time, however, I've surrendered my life to Jesus and he set me free and I'm loving my new life in Christ. I'm driving down the highway and I begin to feel God's presence in the car with me and I began to weep. I began worshiping him and praising him and yelling out loud at the top of my lungs.
Yelling out loud at the top of my lungs. He was so good. Then I heard him say, no, I made you like this. You see, God waited 17 years to respond to my yelling at him out of that infinity driving through the Florida Keys at 136 miles an hour back in 1997. God is patient and his love endures forever. He will never leave you or forsake you and he is with you through the good times and the bad.
I love Jesus. Please give him a chance to change your life like he did mine. You can even yell at God if you're mad about your life.
Just don't expect an answer until you are ready to surrender your old life to him so he can change it. The word of God says that God knew us before he formed us in our mother's womb. We are chosen in Christ before we are born. God creates each one of us for a purpose. We're predestined to be conformed in the image of his son.
He sets us apart from the world to be loved by him and to be used by him to be his precious children. Now reading from from the Bible in the book of in the book of Jeremiah in chapter 1 verse 5 the word of God says before this is God they're God's words before I formed you I knew you before you were born I sanctified you that means to be set apart I ordained you a prophet to the nations. Ephesians chapter 1 verses 3 through 6. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him and love having predestined us to the adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace by which he made us accepted in the beloved. Psalm 139 verses 13 through 16. Now this is King David in the Psalms who's crying out to God and and and being tender in the moment and telling God what he how he had created him and how how he had formed him in his mother's wombs. Verse 13 starts for you formed my inward parts you covered me in my mother's womb I will praise you for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made marvelous are your works and that my soul knows very well my frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed and in your book they all were written the days fashioned me when as yet there were none of them the book of Romans chapter 8 verses 28 through 30 and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God to those who the who are the called according to his purpose for whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren moreover whom he predestined these he also called whom he called these he also justified and whom he justified these he also glorified you see my friends listening to this podcast I was not born to be a drug addicted maniac trying to drive my car off the seven mile bridge while yelling at God through the sunroof that he made me like this I was born to be his precious child I was born not to have a spirit of fear but rather a spirit of power love and sound mind you see that spirit of fear had me hating myself so much and so fearful of trying to move forward as a drug addict in my life I wanted to end it all I was so fearful and and and and and crazy in my mind I mean who would do something like that drive off a bridge like that at a high rate of speed but God but God did not give me a spirit of fear but rather of power love and sound mind I was born to be filled with his Holy Spirit and to be used by him in this world that I was born into I was created by him and predestined to be his witness and to help him save the world through this plan of salvation one soul at a time I was formed by God in my mother's womb to be his disciple to be his evangelist and to go into all the world and make disciples of the nations and to preach that gospel to preach his gospel to every creature I was made by him to love him and to be loved by him and to praise his holy name and to worship him every day of my life and that is what I'm doing right now and that my friends is what I was doing in 2014 when God finally answered me and said no I made you like this hallelujah I want to tell everyone listening to this podcast that God made you for something greater than where you are in your life today if you're not surrendering your life to Jesus Christ yet then you can do it right now if you have walked away from the Lord then today is the day that you turn around and go back to him he is right there waiting for you repent turn away from your sins and turn to God now in Jesus name go to your knees in prayer and ask God to forgive you and to save you like I did on that prison chapel floor tell Jesus that you're giving your life to him and that if he saves you then you will serve him the rest of the days of your life and then and only then will you be changed this world can't change you money can't change you making yourself pretty can't change you nothing can change you but the resurrection power of Jesus Christ and have a relationship with him ask Jesus into your heart now all you need to do is trust Jesus and give your life to him and he will take you places you have only dreamed about I encourage you all to do this now and you will not be disappointed this is what I did in 2013 on that prison chapel floor and since that day I've not had a desire to drink alcohol or use drugs as a man of God and disciple of Jesus Christ I am now the head and not to tell I'm a good man I'm a good husband and a father to my children I'm a good son to my parents about five years after I got out of prison my parents came up to me one day it was the day it was March May 20th that's my sobriety date that's the the day that I my first clean day of my life was on May 20th it was 2014 and because May 19 2013 I went to prison and and and in that prison Jesus changed my life so the last day I ever did drugs was May 19 2013 and May 20th when I woke up in that morning in that jail in prison I never did drugs again from that day so on that day I probably in 2019 my parents I I was sitting in at a chair at their house and I felt them come up behind me and you know how you're sitting there and and you feel someone kind of a presence behind you so I turned around and they were standing next together next to each other together and they had this funny look on their face and I turned around I was kind of startled what are y'all doing there they kind of look look I didn't know what they were doing and I said what are y'all doing they said come here so I stood up and they pulled me close to them and they said to me we are so proud of you son we know you're never going to do drugs again and and that was just such a wonderful moment in my life and and it's just a a marker in my life where where I really knew my parents really knew that I would never do drugs again and and I'm just so grateful what the Lord has done in my life and he'll do the same thing for you anything you're struggling with you give it to him give your life to him now I'm an evangelist to the hurt broken and lost and I'm a missionary in Liberia West Africa Jesus changed my life when I gave it to him once I surrendered my life to Jesus and began to worship and praise his holy name that is when he is able to show me my true identity in him no longer a slave to addiction and sin I have been set free by the king and when the king makes you free you're free indeed hallelujah praise the Lord I want to tell you everybody listening to this podcast it has been my honor to be able to share this story with you about the seven mile bridge and how I yelled at the top of my lungs out of that sunroof traveling at ungodly speeds reckless speeds yelling at God you made me like this it's your fault you made me like this and uh and then 17 years later he turned it around and and when I gave my life to him and uh I was driving down the road and his sweet presence came in the car and I began worshiping praising him as as a as a man of God as a disciple as his disciple and and and and and and I remember and I just remember the presence was just so thick in that car I began to weep and cry and after 17 years he waited so patiently and answered me no I made you like this hallelujah it's just so wonderful I just want to tell you my hope is for you to understand that no matter where you are in your life like I was on that seven mile bridge in total um despair and hopelessness wanting to end my life it doesn't matter where you are in your life or what you have done if you give your life to Jesus Christ he can change you and make you into what he created you to be and he will deliver you once and for all from all of your distress I'm going to end this podcast with this poem I wrote when I was in prison it is for all you who have found yourself lost at sea with no hope like I did when I was on that seven mile bridge yelling at God this poem is called lost at sea alone at sea is a wanderer adrift now lost track of time sun scorched and without guidance a prisoner of this ocean in my mind lost on the waters of self-reliance with a paddle made out of broken dreams frantically calling for anyone please come hurry and rescue me how lonely is this ocean once your arms are all paddled out sitting perched on pieces of wreckage sharks circling to feed on my doubts the ship that I that sailed me into my bright future now has dreadfully fallen apart smashed by the storm of my addiction not at all what I intended from the start searching the painful horizon no signs of life can be found waves are crashing in tragic melody chords of regret making ominous sound God's mighty spirit is calling the giver of light to all things holy spirit always shining forth beacon to all lost human beings a light house standing tall on a cliff for all his lost ships at sea the mark of his safe harbor a place of rest and peace for you and me a compass of sure direction he is the wind that makes me come about he delivers power into my sails he is a rudder of guidance in the midst of my doubt God has given me a new vessel this ship will for sure sell me home headed back navigated by his glory no longer do I travel alone now as I turn for safety only his spirit knows the way I am headed for God's safe harbor now the waves finally obey the stars have become my music dancing across the beautiful night the bear jumps over Orion my new heading takes off in flight no more wasted movements no need for orange life vests God now taken over my journey given this sailor much needed rest my life is now good weather in this ocean I am no longer alone sailing along in calm waters pointed towards Jesus who will carry me home I love you all and I pray that you too can find the freedom that I've found in Jesus Christ Jesus breaks the chains he is my safe harbor and the light that always carries me into my bright future this is the greatest life I've ever lived living my life in Jesus Christ God bless you all in Jesus name I pray thank you for listening for more information on Michael Bowen's ministry sons and daughters of thunder visit sonsanddaughtersoffunder.org and remember there is no addiction in Jesus Christ Jesus breaks the chains this is the truth network
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-07-02 17:35:56 / 2023-07-02 17:43:05 / 7