This is Sam from the Masking Journey Podcast, and our goal with the podcast has helped you to try to find your way in this difficult world. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Hello, and thank you for tuning in to 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, and you receive this word in love and in peace.
This podcast is my friend Wayne. One day I was driving down a street in Austin, Texas, and hurriedly trying to get across town and traffic to get back to my office. I wasn't paying too much attention to the things going on around me. I was only focused on positioning myself in the best possible lane on this road that would give me the best chance of getting back to my office the fastest way possible. You all know what I'm talking about.
We've all done it before. Anytime we get locked in traffic, in a hurry, trying to get to where we're going, we move from one lane to another, depending on which one we feel at the time is moving the fastest, and we just move our way back and forth in and out of traffic, and we tend to get upset whenever we choose the slowest lane by chance. And if you're like me, I always end up choosing the slowest lane. If a lane is moving fast, and I see it's moving fast, as soon as I pull over into it, it's going to slow down.
Oh, that bugs me. You guys know my pain on that one. That day, I was moving through that traffic in a never-ending rat race to get to the destination quickest way possible, which happened to be my office at the time. I had a lot of work to do. My mind was hurry, get back, try to finish it up for the day.
That was what I was thinking at the time as I was driving down this road. As I pulled up to this light out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man slumped over in his wheelchair. He had kind of a cowboy-looking hat on, kind of a crumpled-up cowboy hat. He was slumped over in his wheelchair with a sign.
He was holding a sign in his hands, and the sign says, asking for help. He was actually asleep in his wheelchair. It was a hot summer day, sun beating down, probably 100, maybe 100 degrees, maybe a little more, I don't know.
But I just remember it was hot because I was just wondering, wow, this guy, he's just sitting out there in the sun, in the beating down sun. It's hot, and he's asleep. So he was asleep when I passed by. As I passed by, I asked the Lord, how does someone like that, someone that is so broken and homeless, ever hear about you and receive you and their salvation?
How is that possible, Lord? And it just began to make me think about this poor man. I continued on my way through the light, and I thought about doing something for that man, but I heard one voice say to me, no, you're in a hurry. You need to get back to the office. So I was kind of startled by that selfish voice. I was like, well, you know, need to get back to the office. But then I heard a second voice.
It was a still soft voice, was full of truth, and it said to me, you are my hands and my feet. You should go back there and help that man. It was the Lord speaking to me, and he told me to go to the Walgreens that was also on that corner. He said, go back to the Walgreens and get the man these very specific items, these things, and give them to him. I went back to the Walgreens, turned around, drove my car back down. The guy's still sitting out on the corner at the light, and he still slumped over in his chair.
He's still asleep. I pulled up into the Walgreens parking lot, and I pulled out the pen, and I started to write down the things that God told me that he wanted this man to have. And he also told me to share the gospel with him, but he told me to get these things first.
They were very specific, and that's kind of what surprised me is how specific these items were. So I got my pen and paper in my car, and I wrote these items down. God told me to get the man Gatorade, protein drinks, sunscreen, water, deodorant, toothpaste, a toothbrush, and vitamins.
I wrote them down. I got out of my truck, took my list in the Walgreens, grabbed a basket and filled it up, and then I was headed to the register to purchase the things. As I was walking to the cash register, the man in the wheelchair had come into Walgreens, God's perfect timing and plan.
I walked up to the man and introduced myself to him and told him everything that I had in my basket that I was holding. I had one of those little carrying baskets that you can carry around, and I had that in my hand over my arm, and I told him everything in this basket is for you, and the Lord told me to get these specific items and give them to you. I then in that store gave him my testimony and told him that Jesus loved him. He told me he was baptized before when he was in jail in a horse trough of all the things. Praise the Lord.
Not only did he get to hear the gospel and my testimony, how Jesus changed my life in jail or in a prison, but the cashier and the other people that were also in that store got to witness and share the love of Jesus Christ. Only two were touched. I could tell. I could see it when I looked at them. I could see it on their face. Pretty much time stood still. Everybody kind of stopped and was listening what all this commotion was and what was going on and why I was talking to this man who I'm sure they'd seen every day walking out there and seeing this guy that was begging in a wheelchair for someone to help him.
Hallelujah. Jesus came to help that day. I went outside with him and saw all his belongings. Everything that he owned was sitting in a cart, a little grocery cart. He had put everything in. So I took each of the items that Jesus had me get the man, and I explained to him in detail why the Lord wanted me to give him each of the items.
And I told him how to use them, when to take the vitamins, how to put on the sunscreen and all the different things, use the odorant and use the protein drinks because it would give him strength and the Gatorade to keep him hydrated. So I told him and I went through it. Then I anointed the man's head with oil and I prayed a powerful prayer over him in Jesus' name. I pleaded the precious blood of our Christ over this man. I binded the unclean spirits that held him captive and I prayed against the infirmities in his body and strongholds in his mind in the name of Jesus Christ I did. I loosed the Holy Spirit in prayer over him to minister to him and to move him to repentance and lead him to salvation.
We had a beautiful moment together and the man was so happy and he began to smile. He began to tell me about how he was in jail several years back and gave his life to the Lord, but when he got out of jail slowly over time, he fell back in his old ways of drinking alcohol and using drugs and ended up homeless on the city streets where I had found him begging for someone to help. Jesus is so sweet. If only throughout our day we can listen to the sweet voice of Jesus Christ, the right voice and do what it says instead of the other voice, the voice that I heard first, the one that told me no, the selfish voice, the voice of the flesh.
They said I was too in too much of a hurry to help this man. All he needed was help and all Jesus needed was for someone to answer the call to help him. Oh, what a change there would be in the hearts of those God is calling to him in Jesus Christ. I say this because I don't always listen to the right voice and do what it says, but this day I did and I was blessed and that man was blessed. Thank you Lord for giving me this opportunity to be obedient to your word, your will and your purpose in Jesus name.
Oh, how my day was changed monumentally by obeying the voice of Jesus Christ. My brother's name, the man sitting slumped over in the wheelchair, asleep in the hot sun, sweat pouring down him with a little sign that said, help me. His name is Wayne Parsons and he's 62 years old. Please pray for him.
Everybody who's listening to this podcast right now. I met him at the Walgreens at the corner of Palmer Road in Tech Ridge in Austin, Texas. Hallelujah. You may see him there again someday.
I don't know. Maybe the Lord's lifted him up out of that place and brought him into a better place. That's what I've been praying for. And I believe God is faithful and he will do that for Wayne. I want to encourage everyone listening to this podcast to work on listening to the voice of God every day so we truly can be his hands and his feet. We can truly be his mouthpiece to this fallen world, to someone who needs encouragement, for someone who's begging for help. We can be that help to them and to all the people who have found themselves entangled in the world's sin, in the sin of the flesh and who are lost, broken and hurting like my friend Wayne.
How many Waynes are out there? How can we find them and help them and share the love of Jesus Christ with them so they can be drawn to Jesus through our kindness and through the great works of God that he had prepared for his children to do, to bring him the glory since the beginning of time, since the beginning of the foundations of the earth? What voice will you choose to listen to when you wake up in the morning? The voice of the selfish flesh that is only interested in serving self or the voice of the Spirit, the giver of life to all lost human beings and is always thinking about helping others? From our text I want to read 1 Kings chapter 19 verses 11 through 12. Then he said, Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, and behold, the Lord passed by. And a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind and after the wind an earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake and after the earthquake a fire.
But the Lord was not in the fire and after the fire a still small voice. Hallelujah. Glory to God.
I love that voice. The voice of God is that still small voice of truth. It just, when you hear the voice of God, it is sturdy and it has a foundation of truth and you just know it. And it may just be one word that has so much depth and knowledge and wisdom and understanding in it. You have to slow down and take your time to listen to the voice of God.
It's that voice you have to go deeper to hear. Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 through 4. God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, in upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. I'm here to tell you that name is Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, the Savior of the world.
Hallelujah. God's voice is his word spoken by his Son, and we can better hear God's voice when we have a relationship with Jesus Christ. The word who became flesh and lived among us, who died for our sins and was raised to life, and now sits at the right hand of majesty on high. John 1 verses 1 through 5. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
That day, on that street in Austin, Texas, in the heat of the day, while I was driving, aimlessly trying to fight my way through traffic, only thinking about myself, thinking about how quickly I could get home, bouncing from one lane to another, to another, to another. That day, on that street, the light of Jesus Christ shined in my friend Wayne's darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. John 1 14 goes on to say, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. We can better hear God's voice when we know God's word. We need to study it for ourselves so we can understand its meaning, so we can know the truth, and we can understand the truth. And when God speaks the truth to us, we know it's his voice that is speaking to us at that time, that still soft voice full of truth, and hope, and love, and peace, and kindness. 2 Timothy 2 15, it's a message to all of us. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. That day, on that street, I was a workman of God, and I knew his word, and I know the truth, and I understood it when he spoke to me. We are God's workmen here on earth. We are his hands and his feet.
We are his mouthpiece to those he wants to reach. God speaks to his workmen through his Holy Spirit like he spoke to me that day on that road. When the Holy Spirit speaks to your spirit, your spirit will recognize the truth and will focus in on it. You see, the first voice that I heard was not the spirit of truth. It was the selfish spirit of the flesh, and it was rattling around like a bunch of white noise in my mind until the spirit of truth, the voice of truth spoke.
And then my attention moved to it. We will focus on the voice of truth. Our attention will be drawn away from the flesh, the voice of the flesh, and the words of the flesh, and attracted to that which is of the Spirit, of the Holy Spirit, of God.
John 16 13 says, However, when he, the spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will tell you the things to come. That day on that street, he told me the things to come, that my friend Wayne was going to be blessed. Hallelujah. That he was going to love on Wayne and show his love to Wayne, to me as workman. If only I would obey that voice, if only I would listen to the voice of God and do what he says, then glory will shine.
The light will shine in my friend Wayne's darkness. Hallelujah. John 18 verse 27, when he was before Pilate, Pilate therefore said to him, Are you a king?
Jesus answered, You say rightly that I am a king, for this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. There it is.
There it is right there. Everyone who is of the truth, who has been reborn into the spirit of truth and filled with the Holy Spirit can better hear the voice of God. The Word of God says these are the sons of God, and if a son, then as a son, we must listen and do what the Father says.
And when I use the word son, this includes both males and females, both sons and daughters. Romans 8 verses 14 through 17, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God, or the daughters of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out Abba, Father. It says, Daddy, Daddy, Abba, Father, the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, sons and daughters of God.
And if children and sons and daughters, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. The voice of truth and of the Father is always characterized by the producing of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. If the voice does not produce the fruits of the Holy Spirit, then it is not the voice of God, the voice of truth, the voice of the Father. It is not Jesus Christ speaking into your heart. You're either going to walk in the spirit of the Father God and be led by the spirit of Father God, listening to his voice of truth, or you will be led by the desires of the sinful flesh and follow its filthy voice, its selfish voice. Me, me, me, me, more, more, more, more, I want, I want, I want, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme. That's the voice of the flesh. Oh, I can't go help this man.
I'm in too much of a hurry to get home so I can work, work, work. Galatians 5 16-22, I say then, walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish, but if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murder, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Against such there is no law. And those who are in Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the spirit, let's also walk in the spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another.
Let me add this. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit and let us listen to the voice of the spirit and do what the voice of the spirit says. Hallelujah. I have a battle every day within myself. This is a battle between the two voices that I hear every single day. The battle is which of these two voices I will choose to follow that day. I have the voice of the flesh chirping, chirping, chirping, poking, poking, and poking, trying to make me go one way. And I have the voice of the spirit, both of them always speaking to me throughout the day.
Which voice we choose to listen to, my friends, and we choose to follow, I believe will determine the quality of that day and the quality of our lives as a whole. I learned such a valuable lesson from my encounter with my friend, Wayne. Here I was driving through my city, trying to hurry and get back to my office to continue to work, work, and more work. Why? So I could get paid and make more money, more money, more money, and do more things and buy more things. Hurry, hurry, hurry. Gimme, gimme, gimme.
Come on, come on. I was not being very patient, gentle, or kind that day, trying to maneuver my way through traffic in a hurry. But in that moment, I was hardly being spiritual at all. My focus was more on myself and less about the things after God's own heart. God, who is infinite in wisdom, had prepared a blessing for me that day through this man named Wayne, sitting in a wheelchair with a message scribbled on a torn piece of cardboard with the words written, Please help me. You see, God had chosen me, Michael Bowen, to be the one to help this hurtbroken, hopeless man that day. And I almost missed my assignment and my blessing from God because I was too busy being led by my flesh and his desires to hurry back to my office to work so I could get paid.
Just another day in the rat race called life in the big city. You know what I'm talking about? We've all been there. We get caught up in that moment.
We get caught up in the flesh. Remember, the first voice I heard told me that I was in a hurry and needed to not stop and get back to the office because I had too much work to do. That was the voice of the selfish flesh.
Thank God. I slowed down my thinking and went deeper and tuned into the frequency of the Holy Spirit and heard the voice of truth. It told me that I was to go back and help the man because I was God's hands and his feet.
What a blessing it turned out to be. Oh, how great it is to be chosen to be used by God for his good works. I will never ever forget the day that I met my friend Wayne and the day God told me that I am his hands and his feet. I cannot tell you the joy and love that I was able to experience when I obeyed the voice of God and helped my friend Wayne have a good day. In the midst of his turmoil, in the midst of that summer heat, in the midst of his hopelessness and despair, I was able to help him.
And he was able to feel loved when his day was going so horribly bad. My hope for all of you who are listening to this podcast is that you begin to study God's word and go deeper into prayer and learn to listen to the still soft voice of truth and then do what it says. I pray that you will be able to say no to the loud and unruly voice of the selfish flesh and always let the voice of truth and love rule. I pray that all of you become the hands and feet of God and obey the voice of truth always so you too can receive the blessings of God and be a blessing to others and do his good works and help bring glory to God.
Ephesians 2 10, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. I'm going to end this podcast with this poem I wrote when I was in prison. It is for all of you out there who are struggling with trying to follow the right voice. When you have both voices ringing in your mind, in your inner being, which one will you follow?
I'm going to read this poem to you. It's called Choose Life. To exist is certain. Life is but a choice. The curse of death will happen by default.
Listen to his saving voice. Life is crying out from within you. Death wants to be your friend. Choose one or the other wisely.
They both can determine your end. The end of life is a new beginning and the end of death is just death to begin again. If you choose to become alive, you will only find it by grace throughout. Death is always waiting. Crouching at your door is sin. Be wise and accept life as a blessing. Open the door of your heart to Jesus and let him in. The stare of death is evil.
Blink once and it might just sneak its way in. One turn of the knob, mistakenly sin uncovered, will cause your certain end. Choose life, not death. For life is the enemy of death. And to death, life is no friend. Life is ready to save waiting and invitation carried along by holy winds.
The blowing of decision, a sound trumpet from within, an alarm-sounded calling. Holy Spirit speaks, old familiar friend. For Jesus says, if you open the door to your heart, faithfully I will come in. Choose life and live forever. Eternal life has no beginning or end. Death has no power to hold, not even the sting brought swiftly by sin. For Jesus shed his precious blood. He died so we could be covered and live. Life over death is our victory. This beautiful gift the Father, he does give.
Jesus is faithfully knocking. Open the door to his promised blessing today. Choose life over death triumphantly. Jesus Christ, your soul forever he will save. I just want to encourage you now to choose the voice that leads to life.
Because the other voice always leads to death. I love you all, and I pray that you too can find the freedom that I have found in Jesus Christ. Jesus breaks the chains. His voice is sweet music to my soul. His love is my reward.
This is the greatest life I've ever lived, living my life in Jesus Christ. God bless you all. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. 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.
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