Welcome to the Horns of Light Chronicles. Peter Berbalis chronicles his family story, prophecy, and testimony.
God's story unfolds, from his grandfather in Lithuania, Nazi Germany, the Russian Revolution, to Ronald Reagan in the fall of the Berlin Wall, the gospel spreading across Eastern Europe, how God called Peter to Petra, Jordan, and so much more as prophecy and testimonies unfold. And now, the Horns of Light Chronicles. Well, welcome back to Horns of Light and another exciting episode as we see all sorts of threads, breadcrumbs, whatever you want to call them. And here comes this new direction, but obviously teaching us something about such a time as this, the times that we live. And so we're going to pick up this story back on thinking about the Ukraine, and maybe we'll get into a little bit of Daniel. And so I'm excited. Here we go. Pete, where are we going? Sure.
Yes. The last time we talked a little bit about was in the Ukraine in kind of September, October of 2004. I ran into this lady who had a copy of the Bible that my grandfather has translated. Go out for a walk, the elevator opens. That lady who wasn't part of our group is there. She takes me to this like gymnasium kind of thing, stadium, and pushes me into a room and says, you need to be around these gifted, anointed people and throws me in the room and the door closes and all the heads turn. And there's this boardroom kind of table with these pastors from all over the world. And the guy motions for me to sit down and they just start grilling me about politics. And prior to that, too, just to recap, the Lord, it's kind of the first time ever Lord led me to fast for a country right as we were going. And when we landed, I think it was a one day thing. So I just kind of just the watching of this is just being how God allows us to partner with him in situations, whatever role, small role we get to play in it all.
He desires to partner with us as his creation. And so that's where kind of we left off and then kind of Ukraine at that time was heading into their election after talking politics with these guys. They questioned me about the election that was coming up at that point in time, which was the Bush-Kerry election. And the one pastor, Elijah Sunday, had kind of said, well, I'm assuming that all Christians are going to vote for George Bush.
And I said, well, no, that's not the case. The church is actually very divided in America as along racial lines and kind of got into that whole, you know, for the African-American community. It's much more about the needs of the poor, whereas in the American area, not the kind of white churches. It's much more about abortion and those types of issues. And so there's there's the church divided. And it's always been kind of a sad thing to me to see the split of Sunday. Billy Graham kind of mentioned it that typically, you know, the church is one of the most segregated, segregated places in America.
And that, I believe, is something that grieves the Lord's heart. But anyway, so that was so he I didn't have to write back. I'm in the stadium.
Don't know where I am. Need to get back to the hotel, get to drive with this guy. And he just starts telling me about, you know, his story and being called a monkey at airports. But because he can understand the language and speak the language, he understands what everybody's saying to him. The politicians in the area don't like him because he's able. His church was kind of met in the stadium, not a large stadium, but a kind of a smaller arena kind of thing.
And he was able to attract very large crowds, larger than they could at the political time. So he pulled over constantly and asked him what he did. And he just said, I laugh. And that was kind of just interesting. So it was kind of like getting a ride with a Martin Luther King of that country. And he's a black man from Nigeria pastoring the largest church in that country. And so it was just a very strange, very strange dynamics going on there.
So he drops me off at the hotel. At the same time, we got to meet with might have been the mayor, if I remember correctly, of Ukraine. And he talked about the poisoning of the president that had happened previously.
Victor Ushanko. That election was coming up right after we left. And prior, I think in 2002, what was likely to believe to be Putin in Russia. I think it was Putin at the time in Russia had poisoned him and tried to take him out.
And then kind of, you know, in this is what what role does the church have to play in politics. And the election broke out in Ukraine in 2004. It was basically rigged. Putin or the Kremlin's candidate won, but didn't really win. And what kind of sparked the overturning of that and brought a few more years, even though, you know, there is the corruption that exists in Ukraine, but a few more years of kind of Western freedom leading up to we'll see what happens as a result of this war that's going on. But it was the church really that did play a role. And at that time, the guy that took us on this trip to Ukraine told us the story that Pastor Elijah Sunday and his church gathered in Ukraine Square. And that was kind of the beginning of the turning that led to their Supreme Court.
I think they I don't know if they issued a new vote or something, but in the end, the Western leaning president did. Basically, the election was overturned and he became the seated president. And he thanked that pastor for gathering the people at that square. He set up a tent there.
Now, the pastor denied that he played. He was one who started the revolution. But then, you know, kind of the understanding I have from the guy that knew the situation was that he played a critical role in it all.
And the president of Ukraine did thank him for the role that he did play. So it's just an interesting dynamic in it all. So I guess, you know, I guess to me it just kind of shows that we as the body of Christ can play a role in seeing freedom prolonged until that day of Christ's return. So that kind of was my first introduction, kind of following in the footsteps of my grandfather, praying for the political aspects of the country.
And just kind of seeing God move in a situation. So that was back in 2004. And that was that election of 2004. And then 2006 rolls around.
There's a situation that happens related to the church that we were attending and close personal friends. And kind of that puts me in this 12-year desert that really ends up, I'd say, changing where my life just kind of drastically changes in 2018, August, September of 2018. Outside reading the Bible. And Daniel 12-3 is just really, really highlighted to me. And that verse is, as I'm doing my devotions, those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens and those who lead many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. And then verse 4, but you, Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. So as I'm reading that passage, it was, again, kind of like a light bulb going off.
And I just really kind of felt, and I'd love to know a lot more of the Hebrew of that to see if it is possible. But I really, really felt the Lord kind of highlight that there is a time coming where there were many will come into his kingdom as things get darker and as the time of his return draws near. And I really kind of do believe in its reference to the stars here that it also relates to Abraham. You know, the promise to Abraham that his descendants will be as numerous as the sands of seeing the stars in the sky.
And I don't know if there's a differentiation in the two of those one maybe being the Jewish people and the other being, you know, the Gentiles being grafted in. But it was just kind of a thing that to me it even seemed to make sense mathematically that unless there's some final large incoming into the kingdom of God that really for that word that was promised to Abraham to come true, there really does need to be a large influx into the kingdom at the end of the age. So reading that that was exceptionally highlighted. And then, you know, after that, that Micah 2-12 thing happens and go to Petra Jordan, but really what that Daniel 12-3 verse led to was really the first time in my life really long, longer extended kind of fast in August, September of 2018.
It was kind of one of those things of turn everything off, don't watch any TV, eat kind of a meager Daniel vegetables and rice during the week to get you through work on the weekends, kind of fast for a 21 day type of thing. And one of the things that really had a wondering about during that time was why did that angel show up in Galveston in 1992? I hate to jump in, but I'm gonna jump in. Yes.
So this is the first time I've ever heard that you did a Daniel fast. Yeah. And I'm trying to think back in my mind to when did you contact me? Like, was it, do you remember, was it August or September of last year? Maybe later than? Boy, I'd have to look about, yeah, that is interesting, the timing of that. I'd have to look that up. And the reason I say that is my wife and I, you see, last year, this is just a thread, you know, so we're gonna chase it a bit.
Last year at the NRB, National Religious Broadcasters Convention, not this last year, but the year before, I interviewed, you know, this is in 2024, no, 2023, excuse me. I interviewed a number of nutritionists, one of which was talking all about the foods of the Promised Land diet and the idea of eating the foods that are, if I'm not mistaken, it's in Numbers 8, something like that, where it says wheat and barley and pomegranates and figs and dates and grapes. There's seven of them in oil, in olive oil. And so she, you know, highly recommended eating these things. At the same time, Tammy and I decided to just do a fast with those for 30 days where they primarily were, we would eat no meat, we would eat no vegetable, I mean, nothing dairy, just simply vegetable products for what we thought was gonna be 30 days. Highlighting those very items, in other words, I eat a ton of pomegranates, a ton of dates, figs, wheat and barley, and I'm not talking about eating bread with wheat and barley, I'm talking about we got wheat, like raw wheat and raw barley, which is really, really fun to cook with, by the way. It's really delicious stuff, and then we have stuff to grind it if we want to make our own bread and all that kind of thing. So we had that kind of fast, and what started out to be 30 days, we felt so good and, you know, we were doing so good with it that we went on for another 60 days.
So we did it for over 90 days, which I think we started in July, so it was about at the end of that fast, if I'm not mistaken, that you contacted me. Very interesting. And to this day, Tammy and I, we might eat meat once a week on Wednesday nights at church or something, but for the most part, we just learned that, man, I mean, this is a wonderful way to eat, and you feel so much better, and we just feel like if God says that's good food, and he does, in Deuteronomy numbers 8-8, if I'm not mistaken, that's the passage where he talks about those very foods of the Promised Land, if God says that's good food, that's good food. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's really, I'll have to look that passage up and get into it, and it'd be interesting to look back at that first date of the, or, you know, I think we started with that radio show to see where that lines up, because the cadet was up in that August- Yes, we did do the radio show almost immediately afterwards, but I just find the whole thing fascinating, especially with the Daniel 9 and the idea of those stars shining, you know, all it has to do with light. Yes. And light is so connected to faith in Hebrew.
Interesting. The more faith you have, you know, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path is the first verse in the nun section of the 119th Psalm. And so, when you think about it, that if you don't believe, just like, you know, in the 16th Psalm, where David, you know, says, you know, he will make known the path of life in your presence is fullness of joy.
That path is made known through light, which is faith. Yeah. Yes. Yes.
Yes. And for me, what's just amazing to me is, you know, you look at Paul's conversion. Well, what happens there? A beam of light basically surrounds him. When Peter's in prison for his third imprisonment in the book of Acts, an angel comes and light enters the cell. Which is really interesting to me, too, because I know you're into Passover right now related to, I want to say Ruth, but it's not Ruth, it's Esther. And for me this week, I studied out Acts 12, and that was during Passover that Peter was in prison, and he finds out, you know, that James, one of his dear friends, has recently got his head chopped off and here.
But what's really interesting to me in that passage was that light comes into the cell. The angel strikes him and is on the side, I think, and the chains fall off, and on the side Jesus struck with sword. But what's really interesting to me in that verse, it kind of talks about girding himself up and putting his sandals on. And when you look at Exodus 12, how they're supposed to partake in Passover is kind of girding themselves and putting their sandals on and taking their staff. It's mentioned in that chapter of Exodus 12. So there's just a lot going on. And they're going out of prison in their own way, right?
In Exodus 12. It's exactly the right correlation, which, by the way, happens for every single believer that whether you realize it or not, man, you've been bound and you're getting out. And it's time to gird up, and it's no time to waste any time because a lot of stuff's coming really fast, but including the end of our show for today. So I know it leaves you on a cliffhanger. Me too.
That's exactly what good radio does. So we'll be back with a whole lot more in Horns of Light. Thank you so much, Pete. It was amazing. Thank you. Just so appreciate this time. Me too. God bless. God bless.
