Tom Jordan, broadcasting journalist, shares personal stories of various Divine encounters when he needed them the most.
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I can remember. I mean, there's, there's
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different stories. I've had so many of my life,
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where I feel like I've had interactions with God, you know,
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if you want to call him Supernatural, I call them,
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whatever spiritual it, because I do believe there's the spiritual
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world that's all around us. I also believe there's, there's
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good spirits and there's evil spirits.
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And the good spirit, I would believe more not Spears, and Per
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se, but just angels and what not that kind of thing and
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interactions. And but really there is there's
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God, there's good. And there's evil, and I can
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remember when I was a young teenager, there's a few
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experiences early on that weren't really dramatic, but
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there were, there was something pulling up me.
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That was showing me that I wouldn't live in a life.
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That was was good. And it was, it was leading me
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into more out of hiding. Anxiety or what not.
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But I can remember it as being a teenager in high school coming
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home from high school and just not being a proper frame of
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mind, if you want to put it that way and going to bed and just
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crying out to God. God just please speak to me.
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Show me how I can get out of this life and have some meaning
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in my life, and it wasn't long after that.
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I remember sitting in a canyon and with a buddy of mine, One
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afternoon after school I was probably, I was 18 years old and
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we're sitting this Canyon. And I'm looking also probably
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not in the best frame of mine and I'm looking in this Canyon
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that a fire had just ripped through it and not long after
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that but it didn't get the whole Canyon.
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But part of it was just totally just taken out.
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It was black, it was Barren. It was you know, those when a
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tree gets burned, what it looks like it's like a black bone is
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what it looked like. And there's a Another area that
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was a garden like and Lush that had not been burned by the fire
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and I really felt the strong presence like and basically
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telling me Tom, this is your life right now and this is where
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it's heading and I'm looking at this burned-out Canyon that was
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had no life in it as dry as a bone blackened and what, you
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know what a fire looks, what happens to a landscape and fire
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goes through it because that's your life.
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You can choose that. Or you can choose over here,
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which is Lush. You could have a great life.
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Full of good things fruit. You know, abundance enrichment,
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not necessarily materially, but fulfillment.
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And I thought, okay, this is, and I knew what it meant I
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meant. Okay, I'm not going to follow
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God, am I going to follow the world?
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And my own desires are more and more this trajectory I'm on.
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I'm going to die and I remember, I went home that day and I
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thought I just feel like I can encounter with God and I asked
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my brother if I can go to church with him and That led me off
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into this life where I've had many experiences that I believe
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cannot be explained. Other than the fact that God has
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intervened, many times in my life, you can call miraculous,
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you can call it just total intervention that's from outside
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of what we would consider the normal world.
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You know what we you know, interact with one another.
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You and I can are talking about now, will this is something that
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to me could not be explained and it came from a plea to God.
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Odd. I can share some of them if you
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like sure the stories you know, one was I my wife and I we had a
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baby, a daughter who was born Beauty her name was Emily and
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she we found out a couple days after she was born.
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She had a severe heart defect. We wonder why she wasn't eating.
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Well, we found out that she was Gravely ill that part of our
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heart. It was informed, which meant one
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of two things either she's going to have a heart transplant or
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she's going to have a procedure called the Norwood procedure,
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Norwood. And I hadn't heard what that was
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before. But it was explained to me what
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it was and we said which one was the best.
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We ask the question, the Physicians, the expert, the
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surgeon, or like we can tell you to totally up to you, those are,
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how am I going to know which one is the best way to work to go?
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And they said you're going to have to really just investigate.
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If it was my kid, I wouldn't know what to do.
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That's what these multiple surgeons and Physicians were
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telling us. Both were serious.
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Both were tough heart. Transplant means a life of
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difficulty, but you can be saved, but we didn't know if she
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was a candidate for that and only way to know she's a
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candidate is when you finally open up her chest and you could
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look at the heart and that was going to happen to him in a
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decision. The other one was the Norwood.
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So I went on a walk and my wife's, we were staying at a
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friend's house which was near this Hospital.
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Loma Linda Medical Center in California, experts in this
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field. Field.
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And I went on a walk and I've is Vin very few times in my life
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where I felt desperate. This is one of them because it
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was this is on me and my wife. But I cried out to God like I
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very few times in my life have and I said God have no idea what
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to choose. How can I choose this?
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Please speak to me. Show me a sign and I'm crying as
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I'm walking. And I'd clueless the doctors
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don't even know which one's the best.
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You know, what do I do? I'm a dad.
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I want my daughter to live, you know, we're desperate.
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It's like we're in his other world. you know, if you've ever
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felt like that we would so desperate where everything just
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seems fake around you and all your just zoned in on this one
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thing this is life and death right now and that's where I was
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and crying out to the Lord and like show me, show me a sign and
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I remember stopping And I do get choked out because this was
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unquestionably God, I remember stopping in the middle of the
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street. Crying for an assigned and I
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look up and there's a street sign.
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It says Norwood on the side. I was walking on Norwood Street.
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Well I would walk down the street and I stopped at this
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Crossroads in The Crossroads was Norwood and whatever street I
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was on, I'd never heard of that word and he showed me a sign, it
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said Norwood. And then my wife walks out of
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this house, we were staying and I said it's used cry.
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Wouldn't know that I said, honey, look at the sign and she
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looked And she cried by this God, you know, we chose Norwood.
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It. Turns out they cracked.
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Open her chest. She would not have survived with
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a heart transplant, and this was the absolute right decision.
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She still died a couple months later, but the surgery was a
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success. But there are other
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complications that she had, but we had two months with her and
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we had a tremendous piece and we got to know her during that time
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frame. And I would, I would describe
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that is an intervention that God intervened in my life.
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He heard the Cry of someone who was desperate and had no other
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option. And a lot of times we say that
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the only thing I can do is pray which means there's no hope,
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right? But to me, the more I've been
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seeing those types of situations and I've been in them that is
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the greatest hope because when I've been at that at the end of
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my rope and I've had no No other way to go except to look up.
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God is always answered me. And it's just this amazing
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things that have happened. There was another time I had a
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similar feeling of desperation where I was in a predicament
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where I had anger. A lot of people's a young man, I
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was probably 20 21 years old and I had The situation as a young
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man, I was dealing with something that I thought, only a
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man who was of Greater age than that.
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I would know how to handle this and I didn't know what to do and
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I had no one in my life. My my parents at that point in
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my life didn't want to have anything to do with me.
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My family didn't my friends always though the most lonely.
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I was it the most alone. I'd ever been in my life as a 21
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year old guy. And I felt like I didn't have a
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father, and I was completely clueless about what to do with
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my situation. So I cried out and I was really
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truly a one of those end of my rope moments, that there was an
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individual that I can accurately point to that, I felt cared
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enough about me, loved me, or would even guide me step in.
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And I prayed for some type of Father Figure.
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And so his lungs crying out on my knees.
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Literally I get a phone call and it was a lady who I had not met.
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Who had said, I said hello. She said is this Tom?
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I said, yes it is. She goes.
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Tha my name is Linda. I'm a I work at the church and
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it's a church of about three or four thousand people.
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And we're going through our, I'm just cleaning up my files in
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here and looking through different folders and I was
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putting something back up on the Shelf here and a piece of paper
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falls out on these files and I go to pick it up and I put it
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away and it had your name on it and I don't know who you are,
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but I was putting it back and I felt God was telling me in that
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moment, at that moment called this man call Tom.
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He needs you to call him right now.
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She says, so I'm calling you. She goes.
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I are you okay? And I said, no, I'm not, I'm
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not. Okay and but it was right?
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As I was praying that God would show me as a sign that he cared
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about me. That's what I was really asking.
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God, show me that you're a, my father, except don't have one
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right now. I've had three dads none of them
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right now. Want to be in my life that will
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change. Thankfully, it's it was a moment
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in time, a phase, but at that moment I needed to know, I had a
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father and God showed me in that moment that he's my father and
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we talked at Length with this this woman but she was
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encouraging me. Seek God.
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He's your father. And I can tell you can from that
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moment on there has not been a day that has gone by where I
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have not known with without a shadow of a doubt that God is my
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father's. Walk of with me every step of
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the way and it's tangible. It's real, I have a relationship
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with God as my father as my God is my Lord.
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He corrects me when I'm I made mistakes.
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I made plenty of my life but as the years Gone by he has shown
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me I think as any good father would that he loves me.
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He forgives me, he's going to hold me accountable but in a
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loving way that a strong dad would a strong man.
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And what he's taught me is to do the same with my kids.
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I'm going to intervene into their lives.
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I care about them deeply more than they know that I care about
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them. So my I have two sons and two
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daughters. There's nothing they can do
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that. Would make me not love them.
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Um, there's a lot they can do that, would make me want to
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discipline them and chastise him as a good father, and a loving
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way. So they'll learn and they'll
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have an abundant life. And that's what's happened to
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me. I'm 52 now.
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And that was when I was 21 years old and I'm telling you, there's
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not a day that goes by that, my father in Heaven is real.
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And it's I prayed now daily. I have to because I need him and
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he's he's been faithful to the. I pray daily.
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I read my Bible every day in as tremendous.
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Yeah. The end of your life, if you
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knew it was the end of your life and you had about 30 seconds to
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wrap up. And explained what the most
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important things in life to you were looking back and knowing
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there's not another day forward and what you had hoped to
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accomplish. Hmm, I would say that a lot of
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things that we think we want, we don't really want, don't seek
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those things that I'm talking about.
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There's a lot of good things, career stuff, good car.
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We don't really want those things.
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We're band. Boozled.
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I guess at the word that into thinking that we do, what we
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really want is a deep abiding security, strong foundation and
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strong hope. And if you seek those things and
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you're content with that, all these are the things I got a
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car, I got a house, I got a beautiful wife and kids.
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I got a job that I'm grateful for those things.
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God my father provides me, but what does he want?
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And why does he want the most important thing?
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What does he want? He wants me to have a
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relationship. With him through Jesus Christ,
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it's exclusive through Jesus. We have this relationship with
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the god, the maker of the universe seek Him First, and his
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righteousness, and all these other, things will be added unto
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you. And that would be the message to
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his message to my kids. If I had one more thing to say
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to them and that was it. Don't lean on your honor,
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standings seek the Lord and his righteous has his kingdom with
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all your heart mind, soul, and strength.
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All these other things will be added unto you and you'll get
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things that you never even asked for.
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That you are blown away that you receive and they're really good
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things and people would ask you why you so different.
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I only because not because of anything, great thing I've done
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but God has been faithful to me. So I guess that's it. 30
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seconds, seek the Lord, he loves you.
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He always. Yeah.
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Starting. Now they got to go a minute. 45
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gonna get, can I get two minutes on it?
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Seek the Lord with all your heart through Jesus.
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Christ who will live inside of you and guide you.
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And as there's, there's no other way.