NRB Chronicals 2022 - TRUST: God's Unseen Power To Change The World

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Plus add an easy to use mobile app, available 24 hour roadside assistance, and more, and more, and more, and more, and more, and more, and more. and more, and more, and more, and more, and more. as a young child. But when I was 18 years old I was a freshman in college and I will always remember a young man little older than us. He tells a story, obviously a service, he tells a story of these young men who preach the gospel.

They get beat with rods, they throw them out, then they get beat with rods, they throw them out of the village. And myself, I don't love God like that. And I don't really want to serve him like that. But I had this profound sense that if I didn't surrender my whole life to God that night, somehow my life would not turn out how God intended. And partially, I believe, I know it was my mom's prayers, both my parents' prayers. And when I stood up that night to respond to the message, literally my whole life changed.

It's not an exaggeration. There was a hunger put inside of me for the things of God, for the power of God. And I told God two things.

You have my life, I'll do whatever you want me to do from this day forward. But I want to see everything in the Bible that you said is possible for a believer, and I want to know you. I don't want to know about you.

I don't want to know what some other guy said about you. And I literally set my heart to just be a theologian of the beauty of God, which everyone can do. Oh yeah, because you can see him as only you can see him. Yeah. That's a unique point of view that he gave you.

Exactly. One of the great privileges of life is to know God. And so tell me about that journey. Had you read the Bible much before that? I did some, but I remember, it's funny you said that, because I had this Bible my father gave to me, and I had not read it for the first, maybe a verse here and there. And then I just, literally, I would have my classes in the morning. I was a college wrestler, so we had wrestling practice in the afternoon.

And I would schedule all my classes in the morning, so right after lunch, I would have a window of time where I could just spend time seeking the Lord, seeking his presence. And I didn't know what I was doing. He likes it that way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's good. I still am not an expert, but I know a little more now. So where did you go? Like, here's this Bible your dad gave you, I'm curious.

And now you started to hunger, like, where did you go? Yeah, I believe I started in the book of John, and actually what I said, I don't even necessarily suggest this. I said, I'm not leaving here, so I begin knowing. And I remember, I prayed about everything I could pray about, and I thought to myself, this is so boring.

How do people talk to you? But I knew this one verse as a kid, talked about getting the Word inside of you, your little kid constantly, draw near to God, he'll draw near to you. I said, you can't lie. So I got, apparently I have to discipline myself to do this.

So I started at five minutes, ten minutes, and thirty minutes, then it became an hour, hour and a half. And I just said, I'm not leaving here until I know you. And if you want to talk about how this journey began, one of the number one things I tell people is, you will never trust a God you don't know. And so the foundation of a life of faith is knowing God. Yeah, you can tell, that certainly this is a life that's been changed, and a light that's been lit, right? The soul has come alive, and it's a bright shining light for a lot of people to find their way through now.

So, what happened next? Well, I actually told the Lord, that night I knew, I never conceived this, but I think this is like a key to life. When you choose to continually surrender, it unlocks aspects of your inheritance on the earth that you didn't even realize was there. I never desired to be in ministry, never desired to even preach the gospel publicly, but I saw myself, I knew I was called to preach the gospel, stayed in school, got a graduate degree about six months after that, supernaturally was asked for my first job in ministry, and then I served in ministry two years, worked at a church, and also started traveling. But at twenty-five, the Lord said, I'm going to take you around the world and open a door no man can shut, and it wasn't easy, it wasn't overnight, and that's another aspect about faith. There's perseverance, there's trusting what God has said, I'm still trusting some things God even told me back then, but I know that God is faith. Without exaggeration, my life is a testimony of the goodness of God. So you've been given this opportunity, it sounds like at this point in time, to preach in the gospel. Can you take me into one of those experiences, just one of them? Of preaching the gospel?

Yeah, like, man, I got a chance to go here, and then God put this message on me, and this is what happened. Well I'll tell you, one of the things that just jumped out of my mind when you asked the question is, my first time in the Philippines, it was maybe twelve, thirteen years ago. And so this is where your mom's from? No, no, my mom's from Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico, sorry, sorry. Yeah, Philippines, first time, we were seeing so many miracles at night. We would go from one village to the other, there was this group of pastors, network, and we would preach in a different church, but their churches would all come over and follow to the next village. But I remember one morning, I was really tired, they said, we're going to have a full gospel men's fellowship meeting.

And so I go to this meeting, and it's not a big meeting, it's at this doctor's house at the time. All I knew was he was a local doctor. And everyone just stops and thought, well I guess they're waiting for me to pray for this guy. And so I prayed for him, and the word of the Lord comes. And I didn't realize it, but he took that word, ran for mayor, became mayor of this town.

The current administration at the time when he ran was very corrupt, very known for corruption. So he went in as a believer, began to bring reform. But I remember in his house that day, that the power of God came so strong that day, almost like any revival meeting. And I like to learn things from God happenings. But what I learned was God, the presence of God, the power of God is not just interested in meetings. I love meetings, I do hundreds of meetings a year, so I'm not saying that, but it's just as prevalent in everyday life.

Well it is everyday life. That's what God's power is. Meetings are, and maybe you're familiar with the term, precepts in the 119th Psalm, it's repeated time and time again, but if you really look at that word in Hebrew, they're divine meetings. And sometimes they're divine meetings with just God. And sometimes they're divine meetings with you and me, and we get to hear this.

And however it works out, it's up to Him. Yeah, we just met a few minutes ago. When you keep those divine meetings, then all sorts of mad and unbelievable things can happen, and obviously happened in that town, because as you can see, the title of the book is Trust, God's Unseen Power to Change the World. Well wow, you changed what God did that day, as you prayed for that man, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Still a friend of mine, still seeing when I go back to preach once in a while.

The community is not underneath all this corruption anymore, right? Exactly, yeah, exactly. And even to this day, it is remembered by the pastors and the believers in that city, because when he became mayor, I went back subsequent trips, and he gave me the opportunity to pray for administration, and public declarations of what God was doing in that city. And so now the book, and we've almost, I ran you right out of time before we could talk about the book. I just love people's stories, so. Yeah, no, I'm a story person too. But I think this book is a practical book to equip people to live a lifestyle of faith, not just to trust God at salvation, but to actually trust Him with every part of their life. And I think that even what we've talked about today is my life, the goodness of God in my life, certainly not been without challenges, but part of the reason you want to live a life of faith is because you want to live what Jesus said, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and I love this part, to glorify your Father in Heaven. And you can't do any of that without faith.

That's so cool. Again, His name is Abner Suarez, and His book, Trust God's Unseen Power to Change the World. You can get it on Amazon, I would imagine. Amazon, also on the ministry website, abnersuarez.com. Right, but you better spell Abner Suarez, because a lot of people wouldn't know. That's just simply S-U-A-R-E-Z. Yes, sir.

Abner Suarez. Thank you, my friend. Thank you, honor to be on. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it.