>> I want to just tell, I just want to talk
about what happened to me, my testimony, basically,
because that's supernatural.
I was raised by a career military dad.
My mom was a southern belle.
I was raised with just such a great family,
and it's, I like to express that
because the truth is bad things can happen to anyone,
but good things, too.
So I played football, I wrestled in high school.
I had such a great upbringing. I was in SLD classes.
I didn't feel like I did very good
in, in school and stuff like that.
And so, when I didn't go play college football,
because that's what I did my whole life,
was played college football and I wrestled,
I really didn't know what I was going to do with my life.
I had nothing to do.
I was like, Man, what am I going to do?
I'm not good in school. I don't do good in school.
So what am I going to do now for the rest of my life?
That's when the devil really got a hold of me.
At that time, when the veil was over my eyes.
Actually, I started drinking at 18 years old
and like, the consequences happened so fast for me,
it was like immediate, you know.
By 19 I was already in and out of jails numerous times,
couple of DUIs. By the time I was 21 years old,
I was drinking and drugging like a pig.
I mean, it just, it happened to me
so fast, the consequences happened very fast.
I know now, today, the reason those things happened in my life
is because, you know,
God doesn't love you for who you are.
He loves you for who you're going to be.
God knew who I was going to be.
He knew I was going to have Jesus
and the devil knew exactly what he was going to
so he was trying to keep me pressed down
the whole entire time
because he knew the day was going to come
when the Spirit of the Lord would be upon me
and these things would happen in my life
that have happened today.
You know, by the time I was 29 years old,
if you can imagine what I can do in the age of 18 to 19
and one year, go ahead, try ten years.
I was in and out of jails, institutions, prisons.
I'd overdose on drugs and alcohol like six or seven times.
I literally one time was brought back with Narcan and paddles.
They brought me back to life from drug overdose of heroin.
And, you know, I'm sharing these scenes
because you can see how, how deep
and how far down I truly went.
And, and people right now could be watching
that are struggling with anything in their life.
You know what's powerful about, about God,
what's powerful about Jesus, this, this unfair advantage
that I talk about has nothing to do
with what, you can have anything going on your life.
It could be any, it could be any kind of addictions
or situations that are taking place in your life
that can be taken care of.
So, you know, at 29 years old, I was mentally,
physically, spiritually, completely bankrupt.
I had gotten so bad, you know, with drugs and alcohol
in and out of jails, institutions, my poor,
my poor mom and dad, man, like I just put them through so much.
And it's crazy that God actually used me, you know,
because that's how he is.
God always takes everything that's meant for evil
and turns it to good, God used me to heal my mom and dad.
Jesus healed me through them,
which is in itself is just an insane experience,
because God uses ordinary people,
anybody can be used by God.
You just have to want it, you have to hit that bottom.
So being a football player
all through high school and wrestling,
I was raised really well and I like sharing that
because like, it's not like I had a bad childhood
or anything like that and it still got me,
I mean, I could have had a bad childhood,
it would have got me. It doesn't matter.
Anything can happen in your life that takes you off that track.
And I just couldn't get out of that pit.
I lost my driver's license for the rest of my life
for all the DUIs I had,
I just felt like I was, I mean, nothing.
And see the devil used those things to continue
to just drag me down further and further.
So I got to the point where I'm like, Man,
I'll never be anybody. I'll never be nothing.
So all I could do was just go further
and further and deeper into this poor.
Like, I was like, Man, I'm never going to be anything.
It would just, it was worse and worse.
The devil was just stomping on me at all times.
And he was just using it more and more, pushing it down.
And like I said today, I know why.
And the same goes to anybody watching.
We all have a calling by God, the body of Christ.
So of course, at 29 years old,
which, believe it or not, March 25th, 2011,
which is coming up in a few days,
it would be 11 years, that I turned my life around.
You know, I was literally in a cell
and unfortunately I was in and out of jail a bunch of times.
There was nothing ever different.
The truth is, in order to change your life,
you got to hit a bottom. You got to have that anguish.
Anguish is sorrow, deep sorrow and deep pain.
And what burst from, from anguish is passion.
And that's what happened.
So I'm sitting here in this cell and I'm in just anguish.
You see pictures of me. I didn't even look the same.
I looked like a different person.
I just got off the phone with my mom and dad,
again, loving parents, mom and dad, great people.
My dad said, Son, I can't stop you from killing yourself,
but what I can do is stop you from killing your mother.
And he says, I'm done.
So sure enough, man, I went back to my cell that night and I was,
you couldn't get any more messed up.
You know, I'm locked up. I'm in my cell.
And the thing is, just like, just like that anguish hit me,
you know? And God comes to praying people.
I dropped to my knees in anguish.
And I asked and I cried out to God.
I didn't even know if I believed in God.
And I cried out and I said, Father God,
if you're real, please help me.
And sure enough, I heard a voice tell me like,
Have you had enough? And it was powerful, man.
And the obsession or drink or drug
was literally lifted from me.
Immediately it was gone. Immediately taken from me.
Just like that. It was supernatural.
It was just snatched from me from an alcoholic, drug addict,
heroin addict, couldn't even stay sober two days.
It's snatched from me.
But the truth is, I got delivered.
God delivered me. There's no doubt about that.
But it was up to me to make sure I did the healing.
And that's the key on continuing to follow God
and to stay healed.
So the rest of it came from that, man,
and the next few years, when I get out,
I get out from being locked up. And immediately, man,
I started, I didn't hit the ground sprinting,
I hit the ground running, you know.
And I started to change my life.
And I got involved right away in the Word of God.
And when I read the Bible, I started reading it myself.
I went to church with my wife.
I didn't even want to go to church.
She said, Come to church with me.
I didn't want to go. But I went.
And the first time I went, everybody's walking around
and I'm like, Man, I'm never coming back here again.
And as I was walking outside, a voice said to me,
Don't miss the beauty of the forest
because of some of the ugliness of its trees.
So the very next week I came back and when I came back
I literally became born again.
I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.
And the next day, immediately, the very next day,
I started reading the Bible every day.
I started reading God's Word the same way
Jesus would go, and go to the olive tree.
But I started going in there.
I started waking up early in the morning reading the Bible,
I still do that today.
You know, the root word of discipline is disciple.
I started reading the Bible every day,
and then I started going around,
walking in my house and praying over my wife and my children.
And I did this stuff all the time
and things started happening.
I started interceding for other people.
I started praying.
And you know what, man? God, miracles started taking place.
I lost my driver's license for the rest of my life.
It was never, it said your license has been revoked
for the remainder of your life. I got that back.
I went in front of a court, they gave me that back.
You know, I still didn't, I persevered
for a contractor's license.
I'm a 45 arrest, three time convicted felon.
I'm not even supposed to be employable.
I employ 40 guys. I got 20 trucks on the road.
That's all glory to God, has nothing to do with me.
You see, when God is for you,
nobody can be against you, period.
So God used me and raised me up.
And now, after these things happened, God knew who I was.
I didn't have Jesus yet and God was there.
I was like, I was just like the Jews, literally.
I was praying to God all the time.
But when I got Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
my life completely changed. So I've taken the Bible,
I've taken these principles and I put them into my life.
I don't just go to church and listen and walk away.
I live this on a day to day basis,
and now I've got this unfair advantage to life
because I take these principles, everything I do in my life,
and I put it in every square inch.
Jesus said He left us to do greater things than He did.
He healed the sick,
He casted out devils, and he raised the dead.
So if he says in his word, and all his word is true,
the principle in the Bible,
the Old Testament, the New Testament,
then that means those things are true.
So I've done those things.
I walk around on a day to day basis,
and in the morning when I'm praying, I ask God.
Lord, please give me somebody to bless and help
and to preach the Gospel to.
Immediately when I meet people, I bless them.
And when they ask me why I'm blessing,
I'm gonna say, because Jesus told me to.
You believe and I minister to them,
I lay hands on them if they tell me to.
I move like this all the ways of my life.
And that's what's happened from someone who's gone bad.
I've had so many supernatural experiences, you know,
Jesus healed my mom and my dad, literally
I laid hands on my mom and dad and Jesus
healed them completely. You know, yesterday
I was at my office, a guy came in
and I was able to give him a book, a customer.
I laid hands on him, changed his life, you know,
and it has nothing to do with me.
Anybody can be used.
I want to pray right now that anybody who's watching,
because you feel like you're ordinary.
It doesn't matter. Apostle Paul was ordinary.
You know, Moses was ordinary. God used these men.
He wants to use all of you. So I'm looking at right now,
I'm telling you, I'm praying in the name of Jesus Christ.
I pray that you get a boldness, that you start to go harder
for God, that you realize that He is there, that He loves you.
I pray that God fills
these people watching with the Holy Spirit,
that they will have a boldness and start preaching the Gospel
and doing the same things that Jesus did,
because all of us, not just me,
all of us who was watching, have the same authority.
You just have to connect and do it
and believe it. In Jesus name.