Does God Really Answer Prayer?

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. Let's have an honest talk today about prayer, about suffering, about the goodness of God.

Does he really hear and answer the prayers of his people? It's time for The Line of Fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural and spiritual revolution. Michael Brown is the director of the Coalition of Conscience and president of Fire School of Ministry. Get into The Line of Fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH. That's 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks for joining us, friends, on The Line of Fire.

This is Michael Brown. Yes, I am still in COVID quarantine, so we are audio only and we are remote. So we are able to take calls. We are live. But if we sound a little different, yeah, a long story. But glad to be with you. Here's a number to call. And I've got some really pressing, urgent, spiritual things to talk with you about today and some really important practical issues to discuss.

And I would love to hear from you. 866-348-7884. That's 866-34-TRUTH.

That is the number to call. And before we get into the larger question about faith, about the goodness of God, about healing, about answers to prayer, I want to ask you a few COVID-specific questions. I was comparing notes with a colleague of mine. And right now I've got a dear friend, family friend, since the 1980s. He's in his mid-50s. He's in a life and death battle for healing. He needs a miracle. We've been posting daily on Facebook. Many thousands are praying.

It means the world to us. We're crying out for his healing. And this is, of course, COVID-related. Comparing notes with my friends, he said that he's lost at least a dozen people that he knows personally to COVID. I asked him, were any of them vaccinated? He said no.

He said no. As Nancy and I have compared notes, the first friend of ours who died, that's before a vaccine was even available. But out of the people that we've known who've died since vaccines were available, and it's sadly been a considerable number, we don't know any of them who were vaccinated. So I've never been anti-vax. If you listen to the show regularly, you know, I've never been anti-vax. I've encouraged everyone to really do the research to be very responsible and wise when dealing with your own health, not to minimize the threat of this. At the same time, we have the mandates, which everyone I know, even pro-vax people, we all oppose the mandates. We oppose the government overreach.

We are not confident in the way many things are being handled. At the same time, I've got plenty of vaccinated friends, plenty of my friends who are pro-vax family members who are vaccinated. The question is, though, if you come down with COVID, maybe you were anti-vax, maybe you almost died.

Have you changed your views about vaccination? I was just reading about, oh, I guess it's up to at least seven now conservative radio hosts who are all anti-vax. At least one of them on his show a number of times. Now, this was by, I guess, the late fall of last year.

The number was up to seven. But all of these men, very strong conservative radio hosts, some strong Christian conservatives, all of them anti-vax. All of them died of COVID. I just saw a headline about a woman in her 40s politically involved, and she was strongly anti-vax.

She came down with COVID, complications, she dies. So I'm wondering if any of you, these are anything but abstract issues. These are this is anything but just theory. Okay, we're talking about literally life and death issues. Absolutely life and death issues. Have you changed your view on COVID? Have you shifted your position? Are you taking it more seriously than you did before? Nothing's changed in my position because I've sought to be careful. I've sought to be very conscientious in my own personal lifestyle. Nancy and I are on day nine now.

So this thing's dragged on, dragged on. Some of you know that some of you suffered long haul symptoms. But have you changed your views? Did you have a position at one point and you no longer hold to that position?

866-348-7884. Now, look, at the same time, I'm raising these questions, especially to those who would identify as anti-vax. There is the lengthy interview that Joe Rogan did on his massively watched and listened to broadcast with Dr. Robert Malone. Dr. Malone, one of the developers of the MRNA vaccine himself, not anti-vax, but concerned about the current vaccination and very concerned about how the government is handling things.

So what is it like a three hour interview? One of the most sober-minded, careful-thinking Christian scholars I know has told everybody, just find the time to watch the interview. It's since been removed from YouTube on Joe Rogan's channel, which is massive. It's been removed from YouTube and others are saying that system and Twitter, of course, has blocked this man out now, removed him.

Dr. Malone from Twitter, this is a highly regarded, highly respected doctor on the front lines of developing the MRNA vaccine. And yet, and yet he's banned on Twitter now. So it's a complex situation. On the one hand, you have the censorship of big tech. On the other hand, you have the government overreach. On the other hand, you have questions about the safety of the vaccine or the efficacy of the vaccine. And then you have so many people dying of COVID who are not vaccinated.

And perhaps if they had been vaccinated, the symptoms, the ongoing development of the disease would have been less intense and perhaps many of them would be alive today. So I'm asking for your own thinking. I'm asking if you've changed, if your views have shifted.

866-348-7884. Now, that being said, we have had all prerecorded shows the last two weeks and then even yesterday starting off the new year. This is the first day we've been back live. We plan to launch with our brand new studio and we plan to launch with our brand new intro music and intro. That's not going to happen yet until we're all back in the studio.

A number of us on the team all got hit with COVID all in different parts of the country. But since it's been so long, since we have been live, as we were completely revamping the studio and doing other things, I'm going to open up the phone lines for anything you want to ask me about any questions, anything you want to talk about, anything you want to discuss. 866-348-7884. OK, to the topic at hand. The question of the goodness of God, the question of the trustworthiness of God. When I debated some atheists back in June, atheist agnostics on the That's Debatable program for Awakening TV, those are now available for free viewing. Most of them are all online, available for free viewing, even without a subscription to the network. They've posted those, which I'm really, really so glad to see. So you can go to Awakening TV on YouTube.

That's AWKNG Awakening TV. And if you just look for the videos, you'll see a number of these that I've done. So debating an atheist agnostic, one atheist in particular, look, the Bible promises all these answers to prayer. And you pray and this and this and this will happen. And people praying, it doesn't happen. Therefore, the God of the Bible is not real. The God of the Bible is not true. And sometimes you can wonder, is it random?

Sometimes you can wonder, is it just hit or miss? Oh, well, praise the Lord. He's good. You know what? Is that just a cop out? No matter what happens, no matter how things go, we just say, oh, well, praise the Lord. He's faithful. I mean, is there anything that could prove to a believer that God is not there? Or would they just come up with some kind of reason, some kind of answer? Well, you know, he answered, but in a way I didn't expect.

Or he answered by saying no. Or, well, he healed the person by taking them home. So now they're in heaven without pain. And, you know, are we always going to have a justification? Or is it that the atheists are looking at these things very simplistically, that God does put many conditions on prayer, that He does make clear how we have to pray in order to have our prayers answered? And if you will pray consistently, and if you will journal your prayers, that you will see over a period of years, over a period of decades, you will see the faithfulness of God.

Which is it? Are we in denial? Or are many of the atheists or agnostics and those who've lost their faith, are they in denial?

What is reality? Is there any rhyme or reason behind what happens? Why is it that this one is healed and another one is not healed? Why is it that this prayer is answered and another prayer is not answered?

You know, these are honest questions. I dealt with them in depth in my book, Has God Failed You? There's one chapter asking the question, does prayer really work? And in point to fact, I believe we provide some very solid, very important, very foundational answers in that chapter. But I want to encourage you, friends.

I've been following Jesus now over 50 years. I had the ups and the downs, the life challenges. I had many dramatic, supernatural answers to prayer. And then many other things afraid for not to be happy. How do we rest ourselves?

How do we put it together? I got some solid faith building for encouragement. And the phone lines are open.

I'd love to hear from you. 866-344. Thanks, friends, for joining us on The Line of Fire.

This is Michael Brown. Here's number to call 866-348-7884. And yeah, we were on our backup plan today. I'm home in COVID quarantine, day nine of having COVID. And still not entirely over it, but thankfully getting better each day. Nancy and I talk about solidarity. We came down at the same time, tested positive at the same time. And we're getting better at about the same pace.

Having some smiles and laughs along the way with it. It's dragging on. But, boy, so many of you have suffered so, so much worse. So many of you have lost loved ones or have just been debilitated by this foul disease. This is not from above.

This is this is this is not something that God sent in his love. So we we pray for grace on the many who are suffering. But we were going to be using our remote unit, which would sound exactly the same as being in studio. But I had some problems connecting with it today. We'll hopefully have that resolved for tomorrow. So it won't just be me on the phone.

And the overall quality of things will be much better. But I didn't want to go a day without being on the air with you and without being back up live. So eight, six, six, three, four, two. Let's let's go to the phones.

We'll start with Joe in Boston. Welcome to the line of fire. Hey, Dr. Brown, much respect for continuing the show. Thank you. I have called you before and you've helped me before. So I thought I'd call Frank to you and Nancy as well. I have covid. Might have to excuse me a little bit because I have a headache. So when I go through tests and trials, often I'll either blame myself for it and say, what did I do to deserve this? Or I'll I'll say, God, I didn't deserve this. Why are you doing me? So it's like one or the other. And neither is fun, but I'll try to see what God is doing through this, whether it be I need to repent or I need to learn something.

But it just seems like we are on my feet. Like, why so much? Like, why does he keep needing to send me tests and trials over and over? It just sounds it's like, why can't he bless me that much? You know what I mean?

And I know he does. I'm working on gratefulness. But it just seems to be like, why so much?

Right. Well, one thing for sure, Joe, is we're in a messed up world. And there are people that have very, very difficult lives in this world. On our first trip to India in 1993, I was just overwhelmed by the level of suffering that we saw.

It was like nothing we had ever encountered. And you realize some people are born into it, born into absolute abject poverty. And they live and die in it.

They barely have enough to sustain themselves any day of their lives. And that's how they live and die their entire lives. And that's it. And it was devastating and it was overwhelming. But the fact is, it's a fallen, messed up world with a lot of pain, with a lot of suffering. And Jesus himself said to his disciples in this world, you will have trouble.

You will have tribulation, but be encouraged to overcome the world. So, yeah, I've enjoyed amazing blessings over 50 years. I'm stunned by the goodness of God. I'm stunned by how much grace has been poured out. I'm stunned by all the joy I've had. I'm stunned at the ministry success I've had. I'm stunned at the incredible blessing on our families and on and on. And even though I've suffered some very painful, difficult losses and had some severe trials and tests, I look at my life overall as supernaturally blessed.

I look at my life as ridiculously blessed, especially compared to many in the rest of the world. And yet I know and yet I know that the greatest goal is for God to conform us to the character of Jesus, that the greatest goal is not outward blessing, but Christ-likeness, and that this world is something we're only passing through. And therefore, what matters is how we respond in this world, how we respond in faith. And look, sometimes we make wrong choices, and because of those wrong choices, we suffer. So we can't blame God for that. There are times when Satan's trying to attack us, and we don't use the weapons against him or the shield of faith against him. And we suffer simply because we're not vigilant.

But there are other things that we go through, Jill. And it could well be that as much as it's difficult and there's a bombardment and it's discouraging, it could be that God's great goal is not so much your outward blessing, but to make you more like his son, Jesus. And that forever and ever and ever, you will reap the rewards of that. And Nancy has often pointed out to me that as much as we look forward to eternity, this little season that we have here in this world, you know, however many years it is, is unique and special in God's sight, because it's the only season in which we get to walk by faith. It's the only season in which we get to be purified through suffering.

It's the only season where we have to live a certain way, whereas forever and ever and ever, it's not going to be the case. So I would just encourage you to say, Lord, I'm going to glorify you no matter what. And whatever situation I find myself in, rather than just looking for blessing, I'm going to look to build character. I'm going to look to build faith.

I'm going to look to build perseverance. And it could be that as you grow and pass these tests supernaturally, that you will see change come around you, or that when the change comes on the inside, that the outward circumstances will not be as important. That makes a lot of sense.

That actually did hit me, what she said to you. It's the eternal perspective. It's just having a greater perspective of what God cares about more than what we care about. And that's kind of often the frustrating part.

I don't want to take up too much time, but I just wanted to tell you that that was helpful. That it's just a matter of perspective, eternal perspective versus our perspective. Yeah, and look, Joe, there are things I've been through that are the worst things I've ever been through, and I wish I could have avoided them. But I wouldn't be the man I am today if I didn't go through them. I would not be who I am in Jesus today if I didn't go through those. And the fact is, there is no resurrection without crucifixion. I'd encourage you to go to my website or go to our YouTube channel, or ASKDR Brown, and type in Ehrman, E-H-R-M-A-N, and watch the debate that I did with Professor Bart Ehrman, a learned New Testament scholar and a prominent agnostic.

Does the Bible provide an adequate answer to the problem of suffering? So that's Bart Ehrman, E-H-R-M-A-N, and may the smile and grace of the Lord be yours. May His favor overtake you in every area of life. Hey, I appreciate the call. 866-34-TRUTH.

Let's go to Beth in Wagner, South Carolina. Thanks for calling the line of fire. Hi, Dr. Brown, I hope you and your wife are recuperating well, it sounds like you are.

Thank you. You asked the question that had anyone paid their mind about the vaccines after having had covid or, you know, seeing their friends had covid. I did not my husband and I did not get the vaccine. We questioned it and I had always been a healthy person.

And so I felt like that I would be all right, you know, if I got it and and I just began to take supplements and I, I did get it. I got it at the peak of Delta here in the South. And it was it was Delta. And from the moment I got it, I knew it was bad. And I from that evening until the next morning, I couldn't get out of bed. And I went to the hospital and first they sent me home. And then two days they told me to get monoclonal antibodies. And but the doctor didn't get the order in for about three days. And by then I was so sick, I went back in and and for some reason my husband didn't get it.

That was just a miracle. But by the time I went back in, they admitted me to the hospital. Then I spent 12 days in the hospital, very sick. And I wondered if I was going to die.

I did. And then and at one point you had posted on Instagram, I had my phone there and I was feeling very discouraged and and just trying to pray. But to have me on so much medicine, my mind was just, well, and you had posted something about I just feel like someone needs to know that God has not abandoned you. And I took that and I just felt like God was telling me not that he spoke audibly to me that you're going to be OK. You're going to get over this. And I did 12 days later, I got out of the hospital. And then a couple of weeks later, my brother in another state got covid and he he was gone in two weeks. Oh, sorry to hear that. Yeah, it was a rough time. But then I began to think, you know, should I have gotten the vaccine?

Just like you asked, should I should I have? And I, you know, I I started studying it and researching it again. And, you know, I had already done this and made my decision and I still couldn't feel right about it. But what I did feel and I had to stay right there, Beth. And again, so sorry to hear about the loss of your brother to covid friends. We'll be right back. And I've got some words of faith to encourage you on the other side. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural and spiritual revolution.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. I want to tell you a little story, friends. In nineteen eighty five, I got hit just a demonic thing with viral and bacterial pneumonia at the same time. Yeah, just a shocker here.

I'm twenty eight, twenty nine years old, teaching in in ministry school, writing my doctoral dissertation on the Hebrew word for healing. And here I am with pneumonia. And it was just crazy. And I remember I was in the hospital and, you know, had an IV in my arm.

So it's all all taped on. So there's tape on my arm and I was miserable for days. And, you know, until I started to break through and then suddenly just was relieved and healed. But I remember I wrote on it in Hebrew, on the other and I refer from Exodus fifteen twenty six. I am the Lord your healer. And I said a billion years from now where there hasn't been when there hasn't been any sickness in God's universe in all these millions of years at that point, he will not be the healer any more then than he is now. In other words, I proclaimed what I knew to be true about God, contrary to how my body felt. I was not in denial for a split second. I was not denying the reality of disease. I was not saying, well, it's not really there.

It's just lying. It was really there. But more real is the fact that God is the healer. Whether I experienced that grace at that moment, it turned out I did. There was a miraculous answer to prayer and a turnaround. And I knew it was going to happen after what, over a week in the hospital with no improvement. I just knew one morning it was going to happen.

Asked the students to agree with me in our ministry school, sent word and chapel that morning, and then when I was going to get my X-rays, because I got them every day, and every day they showed both lungs filled with fluid. On the way down, I said to the technician, I said, today is going to show a radical difference, a radical improvement. And he goes, sir, I can't. I said, no, no, I'm not putting pressure on you.

I'm just telling you. And he was stunned. He goes, one lungs completely cleared up.

The other is almost entirely cleared up. And I remember I called Nancy and I said, I'm coming home today. And she said, don't rush. I said, no, no, no, I'm telling you, I'm healed.

I'm coming home today. And then I was just pacing the hallway with the IV machines and all that. And the doctor sees me and I'm sitting in bed at this point, playing solitaire, playing cards, and he said, what are you doing here? He said, hospitals are for sick people.

Get out of here. So things turn on a dime. But God was no more the healer after they turned on a dime than before they turned on a dime when I was miserable. And I want to proclaim that the unchanging nature of God. This is not denial. This is reality.

This is millennia of people proving their faith in God and proving the faithfulness of God that He is who He says He is. 866-348-7884 is the number to call. So, Beth in South Carolina, thanks for holding through the break and through my story there. So you were saying that you began to ask questions. Should you have been vaccinated? Should your brother have been vaccinated? What did you end up concluding? Well, you know, I don't tell people that they shouldn't.

I feel like I tell them that they should research it. I'm not an anti-vaxxer, but I question that, especially after I had had it. I also know of a woman who had it and then six months later got the vaccine on the second shot. She had a terrible reaction and she was gone in three days.

So I know her personally. And so I felt like and I had research doctors who believe that if you'd had it, you should be careful with the vaccine, especially the second shot. And so I truly had researched it enough that even though it was a terrible price to pay to get some form of natural immunity, I just still don't feel like I made the wrong decision. We had prayed about it and I had researched it. And then there's the whole fetal cell moral issue of it that comes into play.

And I just I'm always been a pro-life advocate very strongly. And I just felt like maybe that we couldn't. And I don't know that that's changed. I'm not against people who get the vaccine. My parents have both had the vaccine.

They're older, elderly, and I I'm not against that. I just didn't feel like we could. And I still feel that way. I still don't want to get it. When I was in the hospital, several doctors and nurses tell me that when you get out, you just need to go get the vaccine as soon as you're better. And I didn't feel like like I could tell.

Yeah, well, especially, you know, once you've developed the strong natural immunity, which is so important in the midst of this, that it's questionable whether someone would then get the vaccine after. But thanks for your candor. Again, so sorry for your loss. And may the Lord grant wisdom. May the Lord grant wisdom. I appreciate the call. Thank you. It's 6634 Truth.

Just wondering if any of you have changed your views about vaccination by what you've lived through, what you've experienced, what you've witnessed. If your views have changed, give me a call. It's 663-487-884. OK, before I go back to the phones and I apologize for the poor audio quality today, we are on a backup of a backup system as we are not in studio because of covid and was unable to use my normal remote connection. So I've called in.

This is me calling in like you call in, except excuse me, I've called into my own show here. I just want to say a few things about faith. Faith is not denying reality. Faith is taking hold of the highest reality.

Let me say that again. Faith is not denying reality. Faith is taking hold of the highest reality. So it may be, for example, oh, I'll give you a sports analogy, OK, it may be that your team is doing really, really badly the first half of the year because you are missing your top three players, OK, so it's reality you are not doing well. There's no other spin to put on it.

But there's another reality, which is when these players come back, you may do so well that you blow out all the other competition. So there's there's a reality which is negative. There's a reality which is positive. And it's not that one is higher or lower. I'm just using this as a very weak illustration.

But but you get the point. For example, a reality may be that a particular sickness you have is incurable. But a higher reality may be that God has promised you healing. And if you'll take hold of his promise, you'll be healed. An earthly reality may be that your current situation is really bad and really difficult and really painful, but the higher reality, the faith reality is that God is going to use this for good. Or that that light will come out of the darkness.

Or the things that Satan meant for evil, God will will use for good. So it's it's really important to to recognize that there's an earthly plane and there's a spiritual plane in it. Look, I've been at this a while. I've been preaching since nineteen seventy three. I've largely been in Pentecostal charismatic circles. I have seen amazing, astounding, glorious. What jaw dropping answers to prayer. I have seen God work in ways where the only responses either fall on your face in worship or laugh with joy, that it seems so absolutely preposterous to see what God did, and I've seen all kinds of flaky stuff. And I've seen people. Guaranteeing healing and dying, and I've seen people allegedly speaking for the Lord, and it's got nothing to do with the Lord, so I've seen the good, the bad, the ugly, as many of you have as well. But this much I know.

I've documented it, I've tested it out, I've watched it for decades. And I want to encourage you to do the same thing. Look at the conditions that God lists for prayer, the requirements of perseverance and faith, for example, and praying in harmony with his will. Recognize the many passages in the Bible where people get discouraged. Why is that in the Bible? Why is it in the Bible where the psalmist is soaking his pillow with tears?

Why? Why are there parables where Jesus is teaching how you have to persevere in prayer? Because it looks as if your prayers are not going to be answered. Or it looks as if God is indifferent.

Why are those in the Bible? At the same time, if you will pray regularly, if you will learn to trust God, if you will pray in harmony with his will, document it, journal it, you will be stunned and amazed to see how many answers to prayer there are. There's always going to be a question mark. There's always going to be something where we don't have an answer. I can't tell you why this didn't happen. I can't tell you why this one was healed and this one wasn't. I can't tell you why this prayer was answered and this one wasn't. We're never going to have 100 percent perfect information in this world.

And look, it's presumptuous of us to even think that if God gave us the answer, we'd be able to understand it or we'd be able to handle it. But I'm telling you, journal it, document it, you will see the faithfulness of God. You will see the truth of the gospel. I just want to encourage you. He can be trusted with everything, with your very life.

God can be trusted. Let's go back to the phones. We go to Cheryl in Boston, Massachusetts. Welcome to the line of fire. Hi, Dr. Brown. I have a more positive note on this.

My son and I, he just called in about five minutes ago, Joseph. I came down with COVID. I'm going on day number 14. I feel so much better. But because I had so many trials and tribulations in my lifetime, God has made me this much stronger. So when I went to the COVID this time, I'm so proud of the faith that I had this time. I wasn't scared. I was not scared this time.

So the very thing we just talked to your son about, that the trials can make us stronger and more like the Messiah, more like Jesus. That's what happened. Stay right there. We'll talk on the other side of the break. Thanks, friends, for joining us on the line of fire.

Again, as soon as we are back after COVID, God willing, our brand new studio will be revealed for those who watch on Facebook and YouTube and listening on radio podcasts, our brand new introductory music, which we are super excited about, and our new intro. So that is coming your way. Don't forget to visit vitaminmission.com and take advantage of some of the healthy supplements there where you can get a special discount through Dr. Stengler.

We've used these supplements for years and find them second to none. And it's just our joy to pass them on to you at a discount. And then with every order, Dr. Stengler enough to make a donation to our ministry. So everyone is blessed in the process.

Back to the phone. So, Cheryl, COVID brings a lot of fear with it because we know people who have died or they were doing OK and next thing they're in the hospital fighting for their lives. Yet because you were saying because of the tribulations you've passed through, that you were really pleased to see that fear didn't hit you this time. And you got COVID.

Yes, like I said, I've got my son who's really suffered a lot in his lifetime. And so I have an eye. I've had a good life.

Don't get me wrong. I'm 62. I've had a beautiful life.

I've lost many happinesses, but I've also suffered with ongoing tremors and disturbances in my life really bad. And but I think because of that, like I said, I was a little nervous, but I just woke up every day with that attitude that God's got me. He's got me and that's it.

I'm not going to. And I just kept praying and I just kept praying over and over. I know, Lord, you have me. You got me in a little bit of fear set in a couple of days, I have to say.

But not like before. I didn't have that attitude of why me? It was always why me? Why me? I didn't have that this time.

And I'm so proud of myself. And plus, I have two beautiful living aunts that lives in Florida and her sister. They just turned 100 years old and they prayed with me. They prayed with me three times. That is something to get prayer from 100 year old relatives. Wow. God bless them. That is just amazing. Hey, Cheryl, the Lord's gracious and it's so good to see growth in your own life.

And, you know, let me say this. In 2 Corinthians 1, Paul talks about the agony that they went through, the suffering they went to the point that they didn't think they could even bear it. And he said, but then through the comfort we receive, we can comfort help others. If people want to just stop the cycle, why instead of you go through hell so you can help others going through hell, why don't you stop that?

Well, because in this world it's not going to stop. Because in this world there's going to be pain. But the grace that we receive in the midst of it not only builds us up and because it's joy in the midst of the trials, but enables us to minister to others.

Don't minimize that. If your life has been marked by trial and suffering, God's a redeemer. You could become embittered by it. You could become angry by it.

You could become unbelieving by it. You know, there are people who are atheists today. And the reason they became atheists is deeply painful spiritual experiences where it seemed that God let them down. And I'm not attacking them or faulting them.

I'm simply saying that's what happened. And they question how could a God be there or the God of the Bible be there? Because he let me down at my most painful moment.

And they feel that way. Others go through a hellish situation and their faith grows and their relationship with God grows. God's a redeemer.

What Satan and the world mean for evil, God can use for good. Let's go over to Ann in Huntersville, North Carolina. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Oh, my goodness, this is so hysterical. I'm just seconds from going to the bank.

And I was sitting here thinking, Lord, should I just hang up? It's so nice to talk with you very briefly. First of all, I wanted to let you know I'm the one that ran into you in Whole Foods many months ago and asked you a question and said I had been wanting to ask you. And I don't know if you remember, but it was quite an amazing thing. That's sweet. Thank you. Thank you. That was quite something. But anyway, because I had wanted to talk with you and I said, I can't ask you this question on the radio. And the Lord had me run into you at Whole Foods. Now, what are the others?

There is none. Isn't he amazing in the smallest things? Anyway, very quickly, you know, I felt immediately not to get the vaccine. Just impressed by the Lord.

Not to. I felt a real check in my spirit. And I'm in my seventies, but I'm into health stuff since I was twenty six. And I did the vitamins and of course, now I'm upping the D3, the zinc and the B, but I do a ton of vitamins.

I do a disgusting green smoothie every afternoon, which has everything but the kitchen sink in it. I mean, I really work on my health because I want to be around as long as the Lord can have me around to do his will and and I feel such a burden for people. And then I know there's no guarantee and I could certainly catch this, but I do I just have a sense of peace and faith that it'll be, you know, that God will give me antibodies and not death. I just feel that. I think this has gotten so politicized in the old days when we did vaccines.

They had I mean, they had years of, you know, experimentation, research, there's none of that here. And it is so incredibly politicized at this point. You know, it's just it's just it's just really not only disgusting, but bad that they would take from people just the simplest solutions like vitamins, like healthier eating, like not eating sugar.

You know, all of those types of things and, you know, things like ivermectin, I know probably get, you know, we'll get we'll get shut down for saying that or hydroxychloroquine or any of those simpler things they keep them from being related. And you are right. And it's something I've I've written about and spoken about. The politicizing is one of the most grievous things, because we're talking about people's lives here. And I understand that there are a lot of opinions. But censoring information and and, you know, I had Dr. Stanley on the air with me saying it's unprecedented for the government to shut down physicians from prescribing medications. Exactly. You know, and so and then you you have the reaction on the other side, you know, where you have everything as a government conspiracy and and extreme anti-vaxx position.

So it's it's it's it's a terrible shame that the greatest health crisis that we've lived through in many, many years has been so heavily politicized and stay healthy. Maybe we'll meet again at Whole Foods one day. That would be great. God bless you. And I pray for you a lot. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Eight six six three for truth. All right. Joan in South Carolina.

Time is short, but jump right in, please. Is that me? That's you, Joan.

OK, yeah, OK. I just want to say I have learned early in my walk with God that if we can, if we will thank him for the pain, he knows we can. He knows we trust him with everything. Thank him for the pain during the pain.

He knows we trust him with everything. And I have done that throughout my life. I have not had a lot of physical pain. I've had some emotional pain and I had to thank him for that, too. And at first you almost feel fake doing that. But the more you do it, the more you see how God works and honors that.

And I have told people from time to time this thing and they'll look at me like I'm crazy. How can I thank him for pain? But we know that he that he will not put anything on us that we can't bear and that he can't use for his glory.

And that's what that's how we know that we are supposed to thank him for everything. And that includes pain. And you know, Joan, the fact is many things we go through in and of themselves, they can be bad. They can be negative.

They can be destructive. But God remains good no matter what. And therefore he's worthy of praise no matter what. So everything is going wrong around us.

He's still good. When I make wrong choices that bring hardship, he's still good. When Satan's attacking, God is still good. And when mysterious things are happening that we don't understand, he's still good. And if we set that in our heart, we're going to praise him and worship him no matter what, that we're going to glorify him no matter what.

Yeah. How do you get thrown from that? How do you how do you get hurt in the midst of that? Because he remains faithful. When our eyes are fixed on him, he brings light in the midst of the darkness. He brings joy in the midst of the storm. All right, friends, thanks for putting up with our backup, backup plan today.

Hopefully we'll be back to normal audio quality tomorrow, live, taking your calls. And if I could just ask, as I've asked many on social media, pray for my friend Brad, he needs a miracle. Doctors are not giving much hope.

He's in his mid 50s. There's a whole long story with his family that makes this all the more critical that we see him healed. But God knows him. Brad, Father, we're asking you for Brad's life, asking you for a miracle on Brad's behalf. We're asking you to do what doctors can't do, but what you do all the time. And that's bring healing and that's bring life. We appeal to you for Brad's life that he may have many years ahead with his wife and kids as they serve you and glorify you together. Bless your friends. Back with you tomorrow. I. Another program powered by the Truth Network.