- So, I knew that when John said,

"God told me," he wasn't making it up.

So, "I had a dream about you,

and in that dream, youwent with me to India."

So I walk into this temple

and the first thing Isaw was an elderly woman

bowing down and worshiping a stone calf.

I had never seen anything like that.

You can see it in a video on a film,

but when you see it inperson, it's different.

She earnestly prayed.

She was not going through some ritual.

She poured out herheart to this stone cow.

And I hear an audible voiceover my right shoulder,

right into my ear in English.

No one has ever told her.

And it broke me.

Still breaks me.

(upbeat music)

- All right, well, welcome everyone

to this very first episode of The Lesson

with none other than Gordon Robertson.

- And the anointed Ashley Key.

- Yes, we are here.

The gifted Gordon,

and he likes to refer tome as the anointed Ashley

so I refer to him as the gifted Gordon

because he is very gifted.

And I'm excited

to get this going.- Yeah, and let's underline

all believers are gifted.- Yes.

- And that's the wholepurpose of The Lesson,

and this particular one,we want to focus on:

What has God Given toEvery Single Believer?

- Yeah, empowering thebeliever is what we want to do

and what this podcast is really all about.

But let's talk about kind of the-

- Let's talk about you.

- Okay, all right.

Let's go there.- So the question:

How did you get here?

- How did I get here, meaning, today?

- Mm-hmm.

- Which interstate did I drive?

- No.- Oh, okay, no, not that.

- Just how did you get to theposition where you are now?

- Well, I mean, wheneverpeople ask me that,

I say it's literally, Imean, the grace of God.

There's no other explanation.

But to go a little bit deeperinto God's grace over my life.

So, I mean, are we talkinglike CBN, like all of that?

- We're talking about whatever

you want to talk about.- Okay, all right.

Well, I've been at CBN now for six years,

which is kind of crazy.

Started out as a social media.- Seems like it's

just yesterday.- I know, I know.

Started as a socialmedia marketing producer

for the Club.- Fresh out of college.

- Fresh out of college.

And it was really in that season,

maybe a year or two before that,

I felt like the Lord wascalling me back to Himself.

I grew up in a Christian household,

went to church,

Christmas, Easter,pretty much every Sunday.

I mean, we weren't like super regular,

but my dad was in the military

so sometimes he would be gone.

So I grew up knowing God.

And I would say I got saved,

I think I was in early middle school.

And that was my firstencounter with the Holy Spirit.

And it was after worship

and I just felt this overwhelming presence

and I couldn't stop crying.

I was just weeping, weeping, weeping.

I mean, the transition happened,

they moved into announcements,and I was still crying.

And my mom took me to the bathroom

to try and see what was wrong

'cause I wasn't able toreally talk or anything.

And I think something clicked for her

and she looked at me and she goes,

"do you feel God's Spirit?"

And it made sense to me.

I had never been really taughtabout the Lord's Spirit.

I mean, there wasn't anything,

I didn't have headknowledge at that point.

It was just something that I was feeling.

And I said-- You had an experience.

- I had an experience and I said, "Yes,"

and then she asked me, "doyou want to accept Jesus

into your heart?"

And so it was right there

in the bathroom of the localchurch that I was saved.

And then from that, I mean,I do remember driving back

also with my family in the car.

And I just remember looking out the window

and I was just so joyful.

I was like, I felt refreshed.

So that was, I would saythat was my first experience

with the Holy Spirit, and then,

fast forward to high school, college.

I definitely...

I didn't have a community of believers

to really pour into me.

I wasn't really involved in church.

Again, we would go, but it was,

the church kinda fell apart

and then we were trying tolook for another church.

So I definitely let theworld tell me what was okay.

But even while I was sinning,

I was still calling myself a Christian,

I'd be ministering to people at parties.

(Ashley and Gordon laugh)

I'd be like, hey.- Quoting Bible verse.

- You don't know God?

Like, you don't believe?

Oh my gosh, you should.

I mean, seriously, thisis straight-up truth.

But anyways, it was my junior year.

I just felt this desire.

I should also say, by this time,

my family had really started going

and committing to churchand being surrounded

by a community of believers.

We started going to church.

Actually, my pastors,one of them works here,

so she's a "Club" producer now.

But anyways, they started going

so whenever I would come back from school,

fall break, winter break,I would go to church.

So I was being fed and Iwould have these encounters

and I would feel the Lord's conviction.

But then I'd go back to anenvironment that wasn't...

- College lifestyle.

- Yeah, college lifestyle,party lifestyle,

that whole thing.

But it stuck with me.

Something kept resonating with me,

like, you need to go to church.

You need to be in a community of faith.

You're not surrounded by that.

I really started experiencingthe weight of my sin

and understanding that weight.

And so I started going back to church.

I mean, I would go by myself.

Sometimes, I'd go the day after partying.

I would wake up and go to church.

And I would have those encounters

and I would come backand be in my dorm room

and listen to worship music

with my headphones on justbawling, bawling my eyes out.

And it just progressively,

I like to say that the Lordwooed me back to Himself.

It was an encounter after anencounter, after an encounter,

to the point where I waslike, "I can't ignore this.

I have to start walking theway He is asking me to walk,"

which is letting go of things,letting go of boyfriends,

letting go of differentthings that I was doing.

And so that was a journey

and then I graduatedcollege and got a job at CBN

and my life changed forever

in all of the best ways,in all the best ways.

- Well, tell us aboutthat part of your journey,

'cause I think one of thesignatures of you spiritually

is righteousness, that you just,

it just glows off of you.

The Bible talks aboutthe beauty of holiness,

the righteousness thatliterally, you carry that.

How did you get that?

- I mean, I would just say it's

just obeying God and listening to His Word

and staying true to His Word,

saying no to certain things,

started to really walk in purity,

whether that was sexualpurity or purity of heart.

The Lord really led me into that

because that was an issue in my own heart

that I hadn't really given up to Him.

But I would say just obeying Him.

I mean, it was hard

because that's kind of counter-culture

to our society and our world today,

but I just, I listened to Him.

I mean, I just...

The scripture that says it is His kindness

that leads us to repentance,

that could not be more trueand evident in my life.

God was never, He never showed me anger.

And that's just not His nature.

We think that He, it's out ofHis anger and His condemnation

that we, like, "Oh, okay, God,I'm so sorry, let me repent."

Not to say that He can't do that,

but He chooses kindness to cause us

to change the way we thinkand to change our mindset

and to say, "Wow, God, you're so loving.

I've experienced thatlove on a tangible level

and I want more of that."

And out of that desire, I wasable to walk in righteousness

and purity and all that.- Amen, yeah.

Righteousness, peace, and joy,

that is a gift of the Holy Spirit.

- Mm-hmm.

- Yeah.- Yeah.

But, enough of-- That's how you get it,

but you don't grieve that.

You don't use that as a license

- Yeah.- to go do

what you want to do.

You allow the goodness of God to woo you

to the point where youwant to be all in with Him,

- Mm-hmm, yes.- not occasionally in

- Yep.- or Sunday morning in

or when you're listening- Yeah.

- To worship music in,

but, "God, could you pleasecome in and inhabit my thoughts,

inhabit the heart desire."

And it's that surrender of that,

that you don't wantsecret places in yourself.

- Yeah, and I would say,just to continue briefly,

'cause enough about me, Iwant to know more about you.

(Gordon laughs)

The black sheep

of Gordon Robertson's family.- The black sheep.

The black sheep

or the Robertson family.- Yeah, but I would say,

after I came to CBN, it was honestly just,

CBN is such an incredibleblessing in my life.

Sitting under the teaching of you

and your dad and Terry and Wendy,

just being in the studio,

getting pictures of guests andthen hearing your ministry,

hearing the prayers,the answer to prayers,

I learned so much, and in your chapels.

'Cause we would have every Monday,

we would have big chapels,

and I learned so muchfrom you and CBN, and-

- I gotta say that I don'twant anybody sitting under me.

What I want is, for whatever revelation

has been given to me,- Yeah.

- I want to impart that

so that people can havetheir own direct connection.

It's-- And that happened.

- I'm really careful with pronouns.

If it becomes my ministry

where people are sittingunder me, that's wrong.

It's all about Jesus.

- Yeah.

- And please follow Him.

Please have that directconnection with Him.

- Yep.

- In that, what happens is

you're trying to reproduce Him in others.

This is what Jesus has done for me.

- Yep.

- This is my testimony.

The Gospel according to Gordon.

- Yep.

- Is there a Gospel of Matthew?

Yeah, is there a Gospelof Mark, Luke, and John?

Yeah, those are really good ones.

But at the same time,

Gordon has had encounterswith a living Jesus,

not some person in a book,

- Yeah.- but a person

that stepped out of heavento meet me where I was.

- Yep.

- And He will do that for you.

- Amen.

- You can have your own direct encounter.

So what is the Gospel of Ashley?

What is that direct encounter?

And it's through that,it's that word of testimony

that causes people to believe,

that yes, you can pray toJesus and get an answer

and get an encounter

- Yeah.- and not know Him as,

some far away God,- Yeah.

- but very real.- Yeah.

- I think I'm preaching.

- I think you are preaching,

and you're preaching exactly

what we want to preach on this podcast

because we want everyone to.

- I don't want you to sit and under.

For me, obviously I wasraised in a Christian home.

I was baptized at age five.

I had a very dramaticencounter with the Lord,

both in my childhood,

and then a whole seriesof encounters with him,

literally, where I would talkwith him on the back porch.

At the same time, and it's curious

how negative things can get planted.

At the same time,

I saw the cost that mymother and father paid

to be in full-time ministry

and to launch CBN, the a whole decade.

This isn't a one-off thing,

but the whole decade of the 1960s

was an enormous personalstruggle for them.

- Wow.

- And it's kind of strange to be conscious

that you're poor and that you're lacking.

We would go visit my grandparents

and on my mother's side,

he was the president of a paint company,

on my father's side, he wasa United States Senator.

And so you get to staywith the grandparents

and boy things were different.

At home it was powdered milk and soybeans.

And at grandmother'shouse, it was roast beef.

And it was a different experience.

And so those things were whywould you give up that life?

'Cause both of them have,

and live the way we're living.

We never went hungry,

so I know God always provided,

but I saw the struggle

and boy just something switched on in me

where I don't want that.

I want money.

(Gordon and Ashley laughs)

And didn't...

- I'm sure a lot of peoplehave that realization.

- I didn't want a ministry.

Then at age 12, I gotbaptized in the Holy Spirit

and a small little churchoutside of Columbus, Ohio.

We were visiting my grandparents.

And so it was 1970 and hada real dramatic encounter,

followed up a real encounter with the Lord

at the Western Wall in Jerusalem in 1969.

- Wow.

- And I made a vow, Lord,if you show me your power,

I'll serve you.

And boy did he answer?

And I was caught up in a white cloud

and couldn't walk or talk.

- At the wall?

- No, at the church in Columbus, Ohio.

At the wall, I saw some things with

the practice of Judaism,

that had grown up in Virginia,

you just don't see.

I've been invited to Barmitzvahs and one Bat mitzvah

and had a lot of Jewish friends in school.

But I never really encountered that here,

here to see the earnestness

of men dancing with Torah scrolls.

That was something thatreally bonded me to Israel

and something I've triedto reproduce in my children

where each one of them,

I took them individually to Israel

and baptize them in the Jordan River

and then went to pray withthem at the Western Wall.

It's interesting, they all got it.

They all got that experience.

But here I am flat on my face

and a small little church,

Full Gospel Churchoutside of Columbus, Ohio,

and literally caught up in a cloud.

I mean, I don't havewords for that experience.

- At 12 years old.

- That haven't touched me.

- Wow.

- And when heaven touches you,

your body reacts, I could not walk.

I could not talk.

And they had to carry meout of that service...

When these things, manifestations happen,

sometimes people reallydon't know how to respond.

Mom and dad did know,

they knew something dramaticjust happened to their son.

But yeah, at the same time,

my grandparents were devout Catholics

and they were not used to

these kinds of Holy Spirit encounters.

And so they snuck me into the house...

- Oh my gosh.

- My grandparents, what haveyou done to our grandson?

- What was their response?

It wasn't us.

- I don't think they ever found out.

- Oh, wow!

- If they did, I didn't know.

I just know I was beingcarried in the house

'cause I could not walk.

And that was an experience.

But I have to say by age14, I was pronounced rebel.

'Cause I did not want to fulfill that vow.

- Wow.

- I did not want to serve,

I didn't want to pay the cost.

And so I literally ran away from ministry

and literally tried todisqualify myself from ministry

and became remarkably rebellious.

And, but just like you,

I'd be at parties in college

and I would be quoting Bible verses.

And...

- That's so awesome.

- My roommate senior year,

we were really, were very close

and he nicknamed me a couple of nicknames,

but one of them was a Bible boy.

- Oh my God.

- So I was constantly quoting,

but I didn't leave that track.

So my track was,

what's the best way to getmoney and power and position?

And so I became a lawyerand went to law school

and became a partner in a law firm.

But profoundly unhappy in that.

And it was like two lives,

would I occasionally go to church?

The answer is yes.

Would I occasionally give?

Yes.

From a worldview point of view,

was I Christian in my outlook?

Yes, I couldn't denywhat had happened to me.

I couldn't deny that

there is a God and Jesus is real.

I couldn't deny it,

but I didn't want to live for him.

I certainly didn't want tofulfill my vow and serve him.

That wasn't part of Gordon's plan.

- Well, what was theturning point for you?

- The turning point forme was John Gimenez,

the Pastor of Rock Churchright here in Virginia Beach.

He was a rebellious preacher's kid too.

And he went far away from God

and landed in prison,

but God sent messengersafter his own heart,

which is the promise.

Promise in Jeremiah chapter three,

sent messengers after his own heart.

And John in turn became a messenger to me.

- Wow, that's awesome.

And I thought I had disqualify myself.

I thought, sort of made my bed.

And so it's time to just lay in it.

The one good thing in all of this is

I married Catherine who's a Christian.

- Amen.

- That got drilled into me.- Shout out to you Catherine.

Don't marry a non-Christian.

So I'm married a Christian.

And we had just had a baby girl,

but I was struggling and John knew it.

And the different pathways of my life

were becoming extraordinarily divergent

at this point in time.

So John knew it,

I'd gone to him to seeksome advice from counsel.

And he had, I didn't know it at the time,

but he had actually gone to my father

and asked for permissionthat God had spoken to him.

You need to reach God.

- Wow.

- And so he had gone to my father to,

and dad said, yeah, dadknew what was going on.

He knew I was in trouble.

So we had talked, and sothere was a relationship.

And so he had the phone numbersand all this kind of stuff.

But nothing that he had said, I had taken,

I was kinda hard.

And he called me up one day and he said,

Gordon, I had a dream about you.

I knew enough about Rock Church,

I know enough about John.

I had gone to Rock Churchwhen I was 7, 8, 9 years old

and beginnings at Lens Avenue.

You will go into the church meetings

and there was no church bulletin

to let you know, oh, it was coming.

It was, we're going to come in here

and have an encounter with the living God.

That was what was happening.

We didn't know what that was going,

how that was going to takeshape on any particular day.

So I knew that when John said,

God told me he wasn't making it up.

So I had a dream about you.

And in that dream, youwent with me to India.

And inwardly, I chuckled,

it's like Sarah being told,you're going to have a baby.

Like sure, I'm going to go

on a mission trip to India.

That is so not happening in my universe.

And I chuckled.

And I said, all right,well, when are you going?

And it was a Thursday afternoon.

And I said, well, I leave Monday morning.

So my lawyer brain kicked in,

I knew India didn't have normal relations.

You had to have a visa asa US citizen to get India.

Thursday afternoon, planeleaving Monday morning,

no way, no how you're not going to be able

to get that visa in a day.

That embassy's closed Saturday, Sunday.

And so the words came out of my mouth.

Okay, John, if you canget the visa, I'll go.

I didn't know.

- Little did you know.

- That God had already prepped John.

- Wow.

- And God had already known

what my response was going to be.

That I was going to be the lawyer,

looking for the angle and not tell John,

hey, well, you kind of crazy.

I ain't got no that.

And I didn't know the fix was in

that John had a visaexpediting service all set up

and he was waiting for me to say that.

And he said, great, where's your passport?

- Oh my gosh.

- So my passport was at home.

He sent someone to my hometo pick up that passport.

The passport got pickedup within a half an hour.

This was back in the daywhere they used to be

counter or counter service on an airplane.

You could put a package on the counter

and the airline woulddeliver it to their counter.

- Okay.

- So he got it to WashingtonDC by five o'clock or six.

It was one of these, huh?

and a visa expediting service picked it up

at the airline counter.

- Wow.

- And at 8:00 AM the next morning,

my visa application was first in line.

- Wow.

- So he calls me the next day

and the test turned to chuckle.

- Yeah.

- I could tell- Okay Gordon, well.

he was really happy.

Hey Gordon, I got your visa.

And so now I'm stuck 'causeI'd give him my word.

Well, when you give yourword, you give your word.

- Yeah, what was your reaction?

- Oh, no.

I got hours to completelyrealign my schedule.

I'm a partner in a law firm.

Okay, so everything got moved.

And Monday morning I find myself

on an Air India flightout of Kennedy to Delhi,

and then overnight in the Delhi Airport,

which I don't recommend anybody.

And then from there down,was still called Madras.

This is years ago now called Chennai,

spent a night in a luxury hotel there,

which was kind of odd.

And then we get up and wego to the train station,

which is like time travel.

And you really can't conveythe sights and sounds

of a train station in India or the smells.

It was something else.

12 hour train ride to a localplace called Rajahmundry.

which means city of the king.

So I'm going to the city of the king.

- Come on.

- You can't make it up.

- God couldn't have wrote it better.

- And there, I'm thinking, okay,

John's got me along and I'mseeing stuff I never in my life

thought I'd ever see.

And so I know at the end of the,

she's going to ask me for money.

- Was it your first time in India?

- Absolute first time.

- Okay, okay.

- India is, there are two reactions

that Americans have to India.

One is how do I get on thenext plane out of here?

And the other reactionis what can I do to help?

'Cause you see extraordinarypoverty, heartbreaking poverty.

And India has changed a lot since 1994.

So India is certainly on itson its way to modernization

and there's a rising middle class.

But at this point in time,

very few cars, most peoplewere on bicycles or walking

and animals in the street.

It was remarkable.

People still to this day,

draw water from the village well.

- Wow.

- So it was time travel

and oddly, similar to Bible days,

the woman at the well,

I mean people walking milesin sandals, that's normal.

- Yeah, so what happened?

- So I'm there thinking, okay,

I'm here doing my bet for God.

And at the end of this,

I'm going to write a checkfor Mission to India.

And a couple of days into it,

John came to me and said,

God spoke to me andyou're supposed to preach.

He's having a series of meetings

and huge crowds, 15,000.

And so my first sermon was

to a group of Hindus inRajahmundry, India, 15,000.

- The first time you've ever preached?

- There was one time where Ispoken a church when I was 12,

right after that encounter.

But I had not spoken in a church,

my first time preaching,

age 35, 15,000.

And so I just, things Ilearned at my dad's knee

and rep to sermon and prayed Noah,

that'll get your praying.

I was praying and did my bet

and sat down and didn't knowhow to do an altar call.

Didn't know how to preach a sermon.

To my amazement, peoplestarted walking forward

on their own.

- Wow.

- Conversions werehappening based on that.

That's when I kinda went, something's up.

This ain't me.

- Wow.

- I didn't know, at the time,

Brahmans never convert because to convert

means you lose your property

and you lose your position in the culture.

Instead of being the highest cast

to become a no cast Christian.

- Wow.

- And your family disowned you.

So it's a real, it's a big deal.

A Brahman couple came on

and just kind of amazedall the local pastors

'cause they came up to me

and I'll never forget what they said.

Your words pierced our hearts like arrows.

We cannot help but believein this Jesus you preach.

- Wow.

- That floored me.

That wasn't me.

Something had happenedthat I could not explain.

That was a first of a series of miracles

to make a long testimony short.

At the end of the week,

we're all prepping toget back on the plane.

I'm kind of relieved, okay.

Something weird has happened.

I gotta process this,

but I gotta get back to practicing law.

And John comes back to me and says,

I had another dream about you.

I'm supposed to get on the plane tomorrow,

but you're supposed to stay.

To this day, I do not know why I said yes.

Everything in me should have screamed...

But I said, yeah,

I was staying in a cheap hotel

in Rajahmundry, $10 a night.

And so, I'm with one of the local pastors

and John gets on the train

and I'm waving goodbye.

I turned to the pastor,

well, what do we do now?

And he says, I don't know.

You're supposed to be on that train.

I don't know why you're here.

- Wow.

- I don't have anythingplanned and walked away.

So here I'm on my own.

There is a dear friend of mine,

Sessile, who grew up in Fiji,

who was with me,

but there's no agenda, no nothing,

but God was up tosomething, God had agenda.

And that night I got upearly in the morning,

I thought it was about noon and,

not noon, I thought it was about dawn.

And I thought I had jet lag.

And so I just got up and walked outside

and prayed and asked God to forgive me

for my decades of rebellion.

And what do you have for, he was kind..

could you forgive me?

And then got this urgeto walk into the city?

And I walked down to theRiver, which is their temple.

And I thought we'd had seen,

I thought we had big crowds of 15,000

and here the entire townwas out for Hindu Festival.

I didn't realize, I didn'tknow anything about Hinduism.

And it was the Night of Shiva,

which is one of the biggestfestivals on the Hindu calendar

and the entire town,

they have their worship timebetween midnight and dawn,

because their belief is that,

that's when the demons are sleeping

and you can actually get access to God.

So I walk into this temple.

I first prayed, God has it okay?

And he assured me, yeah, I'll be with you.

And the first thing Isaw was an elderly woman,

bowing down and worshiping a stone calf.

I'd never seen anything like that.

You can see it in a video, on a film,

but when you see an inperson, it's different.

She earnestly prayed, she wasnot going through some ritual.

She poured out herheart to this stone cow.

And she put in front of the stone cow,

vegetables and fruit on aplatter with incense sticks.

She was poor.

I knew that that must havecost her a fortune to do.

And she placed the incenseso that the smoke curls

would go to the stone cow's nostrils.

Blew me away.

I had three reactions, two reactions.

First one was anger andMoses throwing the tablets.

And how can you do this?

How you made in the image of God?

How can you possibly bow down to a calf,

what do you think?

The second one was a challenge.

All right, you pray to your stone cow,

I pray to the living God.

And we're going to see who gets an answer.

And so I'm going through those reactions.

And I hear an audible voiceover my right shoulder,

right into my ear in English.

No one has ever told her and it broke me.

Still breaks me.

Yeah, here we are.

27 years later, it still breaks me,

that no one's ever told her.

And from that point forward,I couldn't live for me.

If there are people who haven't heard,

who don't know,

how can I be so selfishto keep this good news

that I need to do anything in my power?

So that was first week of March,

April Fool's Day, I'm in themanaging, partner's office.

And I said, I need to resign.

I need to be released fromthe partnership agreement.

- Wow.

- We had these thingscalled golden handcuffs.

And so it was one of those God things

that his father was a pastor.

One of them, he was the Bishop of Virginia

for the Episcopal Church.

And so he first wanted to know,was I going to another firm?

And I said, no, I'm leaving.

I'm not even gonna stay in America.

And so while I think we canmake that happen for you

and one of the grace and favor

and July 4th weekendand things move rapidly,

Catherine had, she was working

and she had to changeeverything in her life.

- Wow.

- Evelyn was a year old, year and a half,

and we left everything.

There had been a series of dreams

where I had gone to China

and talk about total life transformation.

Just everything about,everything had changed.

And you have these encountersand it absolutely changes you.

I like to tell peoplewhen you have a dream

and you have a vision,

the way to know that it's from God

is that you can't say you had it.

You now say it has me.

That change your pronoun.

The ownership is the other way.

- Yeah that's good.

- This is now I have to do this.

So cars got sold and what couldn't be sold

and transferred, got put into storage.

And it was probably a badidea to store any of it

'cause, what's the point?

And moved everything to the Philippines

and was on a series ofdreams and revelations.

I was going to train Filipino missionaries

to take the gospel to Asia.

Started Asian Center for Missions.

Later that year started CBN Asia.

My father had sent me outwith a really strange message

that Gordon, some peopleget into the Bible

just because they'd beget somebody.

And so it's like, okay,

you want me to have more children?

Okay, I'm good with that.

But now later on, it took a while for it,

for me to really understand,

because I had watchedhim and mom build CBN.

I knew how to build aChristian television industry.

- Wow.

- So it became, how do youbeget CBNs in other cultures?

And for me, it was just remarkable.

I saw it.

- Yeah.

- And what others said was impossible,

and every one I started, Iwould first get the call.

This is impossible, whatyou're proposing is impossible.

I said, well, yeah, thatjust means God's in it.

All right, thank you for the confirmation.

And so within five yearsthere was CBN Asia,

CBN Indonesia, CBN Thailand,

CBN Hong Kong, CBN Beijing, CBN India,

all get birthed out.

It was a great time, best timesin my life, very thrilling.

Just what God did.

It was one of theconfirmation words I got.

God kept asking him for detail.

And he said, look tothe nations for our work

or work in your daysthat you wouldn't believe

even if I told you,

which is a verse from Habakkuk.

And it was, I kind of took it to,

stop asking me 'cause

just look to the nations

'cause I'm going to work at work

and God work or work.

- Wow, wow.

That's all I have to say.

I don't know if youguys can hear the tears,

but Holy Spirit.

We don't have any tissues.

We need, it's on the list.

But wow, I just...

- I'll bring out my reserves.

- Yeah, I just, I get teared up

every time you tell that story

and I've only heard it a few other times.

I mean, just 'cause it's so powerful,

it's powerful to see how God literally

flipped your world upside down

and just created a heartof flesh inside of you

and in such a deep desire.

Not just for yourself, that's the thing.

The moment for you wasno one told her about me.

That's remarkable, and that's the gospel.

It's not about us, it's about him.

- He's always seeking to save the lost

and many Christians don't get that hard.

- Yeah, a lot of people don't, yeah.

- It took a revelation.

- Yeah.

- The apostle Paul says thelove of Christ compels us.

- Yes, 100%.

- And when you have thatlove, you can't help.

How can you love your neighborand withhold the gospel?

And the answer, no, you can't.

You have to let them know,

even if they resist, evenif they're hard as hard,

even if they say bad things to you

and reject you and all of that,

love never fails.

- Yeah.

- If you're speaking truth in love,

which is one that all of us need to watch,

are you doing it in love?

If you're doing it inlove, love never fails.

- Amen, yes and Amen.

So now that you know alittle bit more about us,

some of our encounters.

Yeah, I mean, really,

I think it's beneficial for people

to just hear a little bit about

our own personal journeyswith God and the Holy Spirit,

because out of thoseindividual encounters,

there's unity between you and I,

and between lots of believers,

that, hey, we wantothers to experience this

because it's number one, the Lord.

But I think also a lot of people,

and I know you're passionate about this.

A lot of people don'trealize it's actually

our inheritance as Christ followers.

But a lot of times we aren't taught

or shown that encounterslike that can happen.

And so I think that...

- That just can happen.

Should happen.- Should happen.

- Yeah, exactly.

- And there's a big difference.

One of the great things that God showed me

in those five years in Manila

is a reread of the New Testament,

reread of the Old Testament.

But in the reread, particularlyfrom the Greek sources,

I figured out that these were for people

who had had encounters with aliving savior, a risen savior.

They were written specifically for people

with that shared experience.

And if you don't havethat shared experience,

a lot of it is going tobe a real mystery to you

because you don't have it.

It's Mosaic trying to tell somebody,

what does a mango tastes likeif you've never had a mango,

is kind of like a peach,but it's not really...

- But it's not.

- It doesn't have that fuzzy skin.

If you don't have the experience,

then you don't even havea shared vocabulary.

- Yeah.

- So the first and foremostis to share the experience

over and over again we would see Jesus.

People wanted to see him

and that's the experience to have,

see him, have the encounter with him.

Don't get it second hand.

- Yeah.

- 'Cause secondhand don't work.

You need to have yourexperience, your gospel.

This is what Jesus did for me.

- Amen.

- And then from that experience,

the other stuff starts to make sense.

- Yeah, and I mean,

that's what we're going totackle with this podcast.

Today's just kind of anintroduction of who we are,

why we're doing this, but moving forward,

I mean, we're going to get into Scripture

and we're going to get intosome Scripture today as well.

- All right.

- But yeah, we're justgoing to get into scripture.

We're going to go divedeeper into the Greek

and the Hebrew of some of these things

to really get to the root

and to just showcase what the truth is

and really to open the eyesof believers everywhere

and to empower them.

- Amen.

- Yes, and Amen.

- So let's start off.

- Okay.

- Ephesians chapter one.

- Ephesians chapter one, there we go.

On our handy dandy.

- Is God stingy?

- God is not stingy.

- Are you sure?

- Yes.

- Why are you sure?

- Because I've experiencedhis non stinginess.

- Right, if you're caught in to,

God has not given me that gift,

or God has not given me that revelation,

or God hasn't done this,or God hasn't done that.

I always invite people, number one,

go out on a cloudlessdark night and look up

and do what Abraham,what God showed Abraham.

God's not stingy.

- Wow.

- That is a big universe.

- Yeah.

- He created all of that with a word.

When you have that,

then come back and startto tell me, God is stingy,

or God hasn't done this,or God hadn't done that.

- Yeah.

- I like to tell people,

God has given you a lot of gifts

and you just don't realize it.

Here it is in Ephesians.

So let's just read the Scripture.

- Yeah.

- God and father of our Lord, Jesus,

who has blessed us withevery spiritual blessing

in the heavenly places in Christ.

So there's nothing left out of that.

In the original Greek, it's "panta",

it means everything.

So if you're looking for spiritual gifts,

if you're looking for prophecy,

if you're looking for wordof knowledge, word of wisdom,

gifts of faith, miracles, ifyou're looking for healings,

go back to this.

God has already given it to us

in the heavenly places in Christ.

Now there's a lot to that.

That, how do you take itfrom the heavenly places

and bring it here?

- Yeah.

- And that is by faith.

- Wow.

- But realize God's not stingy

and the heavenly places,there's a great reservoir.

An infinite reservoirof blessings for you.

You appropriate that by faith.

The first sermon of Jesus, thekingdom of heaven is at hand.

Time is fulfilled, that meansnow time is fulfilled now.

The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

I can reach up and grab it.

It's right there.

The kingdom of heavenchanged your thinking.

- Yep.

- So think about the richness of God.

Think about all heaven,

every single spiritual blessing.

- Yeah.

- Think about that.

How big is that?

How big is possible?

Change your thinking.

- Which actually is the meaning,

the accurate meaning of repent.

- "Metanoo."

- "Metanoo."

- Change your thinkingand believe the good news.

So what's the good news?

God's not mad at you.

- He's not stingy.

- He wants to open up hishand and give you blessings.

He wants to do all of these things.

He wants so badly for you to have it,

that he was willing to give Jesus for you.

- Yeah.

- For God so loved the world,

I mean you, you're in there.

- The world, everybody.

- The world, that he gave.

Giving is part of the gospel.

he gave- He gave.

His only begotten son.

The biggest, the most precious thing too.

He gave, that whosoever,there's you again.

- Whosoever.

- Whosoever would believein him would not perish,

but have everlasting life

and then have all of that righteousness,

all of that peace, all of that joy.

The amazing thing is we don'thave to work for it at all.

- Amen.

- There is a fight of faith.

There is a struggle of faith.

The world does want to come at you.

There is an enemy of our souls,

but in that fight of faith,

which is a fight of belief.

So what do you believe?

Do you believe the good news?

Do you change your thinkingand believe the good news?

Or do you go back to thenegative way of thinking?

So fight that good fight of faith.

- Yeah.

- Believe the good news.

And when you believe thatyou have already received,

then you will have it.

- Amen, I don't thinkthere's anything else

to say after that,

other than,I'm not preaching again.

Other than yes and Amen to it, to it all.

Well, I think we should cut it there

and continue next time.

- I want to have one more question.

- Okay.

- I want you in.- Yes sir, yes sir.

So tell us how you got thefaith to believe for prophecy.

- The faith to believe for prophecy.

Okay, so...

- That's part of theevery spiritual blessing.

- Yeah, that's true.

- And I call it the gateway gift.

If, in prophecy, you can getreally complicated with it,

but I like to make it really simple.

God speaks, you repeat it.

- Yes, and amen.

- Don't add to it.- Super simple.

- Don't subtract.- Yeah.

God speaks, you repeat.

So don't get into,

I gotta be like him

and be cast to theground, foam at the mouth.

And I'm like, no, God speaks, you repeat.

- Well to answer your question,

so you played a part in this because.

- I was, all right.

- Yeah, so, well.

- I thought you were doing it before.

- I was, but I didn't,

again, I didn't have the words

to understand or theknowledge to understand.

Okay, well that's prophecy.

I just understood it as,

hey, I think God just told me something

and I'm supposed to tell you this.

So I'm going to share it with you.

- Let's go back to that.

- Okay.

- 'Cause I think that'swhere a lot of people are.

- Yeah.

- And it's sort of how Iread the New Testament.

New Testament is for people

who've had the experience

and what it does is gives

an intellectual comprehensionof framework, if you will,

for what that experience is.

But it doesn't replace the experience.

If you don't have the experience,then walking into that,

you're not going to understand it.

But if you do, what I tried to do

is take that initial experience

and say, here's the framework.

And then give that construct

so that you have confidence going forward.

I can have this all the time.

I have this every spiritual blessing.

It's not an on again, off again thing.

- Yeah.

- It is not a, God is not stingy.

He's always speaking,he's always communicating.

He's always doing this.

The question is, are we listeningand how are we receiving?

- Yeah, yeah, preaching again.

I mean, this is good.

No, this is great.

Like, this is why we're doing this

to allow you to do this now...

- What was your first time of hearing God?

- First time hearing God.

Well, okay, so at this time

I had graduated college, wasgetting involved in my church,

basically just myrelationship with the Lord

just grew exponentially.

And I would say it was one Sunday.

I just, again, it was like during worship,

it was after worship.

And I just felt this,

it's oftentimes just a still small voice,

just something that comes into your mind

and it's a still small voice

and it's something youdidn't really think of

and it's for somebody else.

And so I felt really compelled.

I was like, I have to,

okay, so this is for that person

I have to share this with that person.

And I did, and again,

I didn't really know what that was.

Again, I didn't put the words to it.

Like, oh, I just prophesied over somebody,

or I just shared a word ofknowledge with somebody.

I just knew I had to dothis because God told me to,

and I heard the voice of God.

So I just did it.

And then from there again,had similar encounters,

and then people would observeand come alongside of me

and say, you have the gift of prophecy.

You have the gift ofyour word of knowledge.

And I was just like,okay, awesome, you know.

But then it went to a whole nother level

when I was asked to cohost700 Club Interactive and pray.

And I remembered, I said, hmm, yeah,

you guys pray on the showand give words, knowledge.

I've never done that before.

I've never given a word ofknowledge on live television.

So I was definitely nervous,

and all of those experiences,

I didn't even thinkabout, I was just nervous.

I was like, oh my gosh,

what if nothing comes to mind?

What if I'm faking it?

What if it's not me?

How do I know if it's God?

All of those experiences that I had left

and it was as if I had never had them.

And I remember coming to youbeforehand, just kind of like,

hey, so I'm praying tomorrow with you,

we're doing this tomorrow,

and you just looked atme straight in the eye

and said, rivers of livingwater will flow from you.

And it was scripture.

So you can't argue with scripture

and I'm not going to argue with you.

I'm not going to argue with my boss.

So I just was like,

but also it was the HolySpirit speaking through you.

And it just was like,

okay, yes, all right, well,

God, you're just going to have to do it

because it's not me.

And you also reiterated that,

that it's not about you.

It's the Lord and he'sgoing to move through you.

He's not going to leave you hanging.

I'm not going to leave you hanging.

And so we did the show andthe Lord showed up, so...

- Which he always does.

- Which he always does.

Yeah, so that was kinda my...

- He always does, he's looking for you

to always take that first step.

- And it's scary 'causeyou have said that,

yeah, you've said that

faith is actually spelled R-I-S-K, risk,

because you do.

- It's a great one.

- Yeah, it is, and it's...

- It is.

- Because you do come,

oftentimes, the enemy likesto throw fear and doubt

and say, well, do you really have that?

Do you really operate?

Can you, how do you know?

And so you really haveto just believe that God.

- He hasn't changed his tactics

since the Garden of Eden,

did God say, he always,

it's a very subtle way of sowing doubt.

It's ingenious how aquestion can pierce into

what was certainty and are you sure?

And nah, yeah, I'm sure.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- I'm sure.

- Yep.

- God has spoken.

Jesus promised, yeah.

- Amen.

- He's got this.

- Yeah.

- So...

- Yes and Amen.

What about you?

- My first time with Word of Knowledge

was part of the Answer Campaign in Manila,

back in 1994, it was afterthe encounter in India,

I had gone back and resignedand now what do I do?

And I don't have a job.

What do I do?

And it was before I got employed at CBN,

that didn't come until July.

So I got on a plane and dad said,

we'll go see what is happening in Manila.

So I got on a plane and went to Manila.

We were doing an Answer Campaign.

This was back in the days where CBN

would blitz a particular country

during Easter and..

- Blitz meaning?

- Blitz meaning, you buyup all the time slots

on Good Friday or...

- Oh, for TV, okay.

- On Saturday or on Easter Sunday night.

And you'd try to prime time block,

where you blocking out that.

In the Philippines, it was oneof our most successful ones.

Absolutely incredible, but in the

aftermath of those broadcast,

I wasn't there for thebroadcast I came in afterwards.

They were doing follow up.

And so I went out with a local church

and following up from the Answer Campaign,

we all had our t-shirtsof the Answer Campaign,

we had material and we weredoing door to door followup.

And so with this wonderful Christian,

and he's the lead on theteam and along for support,

and we go into this neighborhood,that's kind of a poor,

lower class neighborhood in Manila.

And I'm standing in the street

and we're getting readyto go into the first,

and I said, Lord, I don't know what to do.

Which is a great prayer.

- I love that, yeah.

- And I thought it would be good

if I got a word of knowledge.

And so, let me be a blessing here.

And can I get a word of knowledge?

And so pray that nothing happened,

heavens didn't open,

angels didn't come downand give me scrolls.

It was just simple prayer,

Lord I don't know what I'm doing.

So we're go knock on the door.

And this young boy opens it up, about 17.

And we come in, he can understand English,

but he can't speak English.

And so I don't speak a bitof Tagalog, few words, I can,

kind of manage, but at thispoint, I didn't know anything.

And we come in and westart talking to him.

I noticed he's looking down at my sneakers

and I had a brand new pair of sneakers.

And I could tell he wanted my sneakers,

that, he was like, things weren't,

it wasn't a household of means at all.

So that just drove me deeper into prayers.

Like, I don't know, can I hide my feet?

And the lead was talkingto him and to colleagues,

I didn't understand a word.

And my role then was to intercede.

And so, I'd kind of forgotten the prayer,

but I said, okay,

I asked for that andLord can give me a word.

I got one word, so I askedfor a word of knowledge,

I got a word, the word was education.

- Yeah.

- And so I being all righteous and Holly

wanna argue with God,

like, God, do you not see where we are?

Do you not see that

he want my shoes, do you not?

Do you not understand?

And it turns out it wasGordon who didn't understand.

so education.

So I don't know what to do.

What do you do?

God's given you.

God, I clearly didn'tcome up with that word.

And so conversation goes on and finally,

I just leaned into my friend.

I asked him about education.

God just spoke that word to me,

ask him about education.

And so he looked at me like, are you nuts?

But he went ahead and asked.

And the next thing I knowthat young boy is crying.

He had been the first person in his family

to be admitted to a college.

- Wow.

- For generations, they'd neverhad anybody go to college.

- Wow.

- He was very good at school.

And he had gotten into college.

But the reason he was home

is that his mother had comedown with a mental illness.

All of the money for his college

was going into her medical treatment.

And as a 17 year old,

his dreams were dashed andhe was looking hopeless.

Did God know what he was talking about?

Yeah.- Yeah.

When I heard this story, all right,

we're hooked up with God.

Where's your mother?

She's upstairs.

We're going to pray foryour mother right now.

God's going to do a miracle.

- That's amazing.

- Long story short, she got healed.

He went to college, thelocal church with my,

they adopted this familyand God turned it around

because of one word, one word.

- Just one word.

- So by all means,

realize you have noidea what you're doing.

- And that's okay.- Good thing.

- Yeah, that's a good thing.- And that's okay.

- Yeah.

- Let God do his thing.

He's a big God.

He's got the whole universe.

Boy, does he have it figured out.

And he can give you the one word.

- Wow.

- That will Pierce througheverything and touch that need.

And he is there for transformation.

- Wow, what a note to end on.

- Yeah, I think I'm preaching again.

- And yet again, it's...

- The guy that said he would never preach

and never be a minister, itjust seems to come out at me.

- Rivers of living water.

- Yeah.

- Amen.

- After that transformation in India,

I would literally preach to anybody

and I would be in my roomand just be preaching.

I couldn't stop it.

- Wow.

- I do talk about the ministry of angels

and that was one of my first encounters

where I actually heard them.

'Cause I'm literally preaching

to the walls in my hotel room.

And I heard this voicesay, is this the same man?

And then they started to laugh.

- Wow.

- And then they figuredout I could hear them

and they shut up.

And I was one of myfirst angelic encounters.

- Wow.

- Is this the same man?

- Wow, well, we'll get into that, also.

Also we'll get into a lot of things,

but I hope that everyonewho's watching or listening

just is encouraged toknow that this same power

is available for everyone.

- Yeah.

- All you gotta do is believe and receive.

- Who has blessed us withevery spiritual blessing

and the heavenly blessings.

That's us, that's to the entire church

and that means to the entirechurch in the world...

- Yep, yes and Amen.

- You got me crying again.

- Well that's okay.

Holy Spirit is here.

All right, well, next week

we will continue this conversation.

Maybe we'll bring upsome of the scriptures

that we weren't able to get to today,

but also we will betalking about the apostles

and how we are all apostlesand how we're sent.

We're all sent by God to do his work.

- That could be a toughone for most people.

- Well, get ready to receivethe truth, all right.

- The difference between theApostle John's use of that word

and Apostle Paul's use of that word.

- Interesting.

- Two different usages inthe same New Testament.

- There we go, we're going to tackle it.

But a couple of things,

make sure you guys subscribewherever you're watching,

subscribe to CBS YouTube channel.

If that's where you're watching subscribe,

download CBN Family app,

or just subscribe on ApplePodcasts, Spotify, whatever,

so that you're notifiedfor our next episode

and all the future episodes.

They're going to come outevery Wednesday at 4:00 PM.

Also make sure to leave a comment below,

again, however you're ableto with any other topics

that you want us to tackle.

We want to hear from you guys.

also leave us a review if you can.

That would be amazing.

And yeah, thank you guys so much

for listening and watching ourfirst episode of the lesson.

- Amen.

- Amen.

See you next week.

- Next week.

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