Eric, welcome. Share with us, your life before what happened, the chaos and how you got to meet
Jesus and what Jesus did for you. I've been a Christian for 20 years but for 40 years,
my entire life, I have struggled with addiction to things like pornography and sexual things and even
though as I was a Christian, it still plagued me and four years ago, it came out that I was having
an affair and I lost everything in one weekend because of it. Even though I was a Christian,
it was still a struggle in my mind and my heart and everything and I couldn't break free from it
and I lost everything that weekend, my marriage, my children, both my jobs. I became homeless and
that was the day that God said, it's time and then He started me on a journey of rebuilding my life
but He started from the ground up. He had to break me down and then about six months later, when God
had given me a small business and about six months later, I started that business in my friend's
garage while I was living in his basement. I still had lost so many things in my life but God was
slowly rebuilding those things, bringing it back, conversation after conversation, these kinds of
things with people, all sorts of stuff and He took me to the lowest point in my life standing in that
garage. One day, He came to me and held a divine mirror up in front of me and said, you are the
man, you did this and I had nothing left because He exposed everything in me. He brought it all
to the surface and He said, you have no excuses, that's it. It's done and that was my lowest day,
the lowest day of my life and He kind of let me to wallow in that for a couple of hours. He let
me understand really who I truly was, that Holy Spirit Divine exposure and then after that He came
back to me that same day and He said to me, you are a fighter. I've allowed these circumstances
to be stacked up against you for a reason. You've lost everything. Everything has been taken from
you. You have been turned against by just about everybody around you because of your sin. But I've
allowed the circumstances because I called you to be from the moment you were born to be a fighter.
You've been one your entire life. The problem is you have been at war with everybody around you
since you were a little boy. So it's time for you to get into the right fight. Stand up and get out
there and start fighting for the hearts of the people around you, now go and when He said that
to me, something inside of me changed permanently and I stood up and I couldn't help but just move.
I was so broken and because of the shame and everything inside of me for so many years being
lying and hiding and I couldn't just stand up but God stood me up and said, go and that day He sent
me out after my daughter. My adult daughter who want nothing to do with me and He drove me to her
work and I marched in that door and I said, I've got one thing to say to you, I love you
and what I didn't know was that morning, she had reached her lowest point ever and God told her,
Don't give up. Don't quit. Don't throw in the towel and He said to her or she said,
she started crying out to Him, I just want someone to tell me they love me and that was the day, God
broke my heart and sent me after my daughter but that began the process in my life of rebuilding
and God knew that I had to stand up and fight and the biggest battle ever started from within me.
He started bringing it out of me and He started taking me to the darkest places in my life,
the deepest darkest places, the scariest places, we all know those spots in our hearts and minds
and He started taking me there. A couple years later, He took me to some counseling in Montana
and in the middle of that week, He showed me, I have never truly rested in that salvation
that I've been given. Hebrews chapter 3 and 4 talks about resting in Christ, sitting on what
He had finished and completed and I realized, I had never been that because I thought He was
going to reject me just like everybody else had and I knew the only way to heal was to give Him
access to my entire heart and I couldn't do it. Largest leap of faith I ever took was hiking up a
mountain that week and when I got halfway to the top, I told the Lord, I'll sit and rest as soon
as I get to the top and He said, no stop right here, sit and rest and as soon as I did that,
two footsteps to the left, I sat on the ground and I started bawling, 40 years worth of pain,
40 years worth of rejection, all the stuff from a little boy, all the trauma started coming to
the surface. God said, Do not move until I tell you to, stay here and I fell asleep right there
on the ground and I cried and I cried and I slept and I woke up and God said you can move
along. He told me to stay there until I tell you to move and He said, you can move and after that,
I started making my way back down, I got to the bottom. I started driving away in my truck and
God said this, two people went up that mountain today but only one came down, that sad, scared,
broken little boy was laid to rest up there and He said to me, I did that. Enter into My rest,
your strivings have ceased. Come on, give God a shout of praise for that. That's so awesome.
This shows us how when we surrender completely our pain, our issues, our heart breaks, everything to
God and give our problems into His hands, He'll put peace into our hearts and Eric can you tell
us what happened afterwards and how God continued to restore your life? So even through all of those
things, I still struggled with those things, I still hid them and I couldn't break free from
them. I had accountability software on everything, even the toaster. I mean I went to meetings, I did
all these things and I still couldn't get away from it until the Raised to Deliver conference.
The Sunday morning, I went forward for prayer. I thought, I was leaving because I had to get to
a birthday party. God drove me to the front and I stood there praying. I don't know who it was,
hands up in the air, eyes closed, someone started praying over me and they moved on,
then somebody else came and started praying over me also and they started praying this prayer and
they just prayed and prayed and they started getting more intense and more intense and all
of a sudden, they started saying things like come out of him right now, come out of him,
get out of him and I'm just bawling, come leave him, just go, get out of this man and then he
said, leave and never come back in Jesus Name. I turned around and walked away. I didn't realize
till about two or three days later that I had been delivered from 40 years worth of addiction
to pornography and sexual addictions. Come on. Give God a shout out praise in this place.
Hallelujah. That is so awesome and what did God continue to do for you? God has continued to show
me what it means to be a man. He showed me what it means to be a husband. I lost my marriage but He
showed me. He took me to a place in my own heart, He came to me once and He said, am I your beloved
and what He meant by that was am I the only thing you have if the only thing that I could give you
is who I am, will you take that and He showed me how to be a husband because we are His bride
and He taught me how to do those things and He's walked me through this healing process
with people, person after person but He showed me how to be a man. God will not take the burden
from off your shoulders men, He's only going to strengthen your back, widen your shoulders
and you know steady your footing. He's not going to relieve it, the pain won't go away,
the addiction will not solve the pain and you have to confess it and get it out in the open.
Come on. Give God a shout of praise. Hallelujah. That's so awesome to see what God has done in your
life and Eric, what are some word of advice for people, for men or maybe some people that
have lost everything like marriage, with kids and everything and maybe they find themselves in your
position where they were for years in addiction, they can't get set free from, what word of advice
can you give them? I had a prophetic word spoken over me at a different church and the man came
to me and spoke exactly what God had been speaking to me. He said to me, Do not give up.
The second half of your life is coming. The second half of your life is coming. I've got a double
blessing and a double portion but do not give up. Give it all to Me and the other thing and I have
to say just don't quit. Don't quit. It'll be hard, it'll be difficult but don't quit and the other
thing is it has to be spoken out loud. You have to confess it. It'll be the scariest thing you've
ever done but that's the beginning, that's where it begins. Come on. Thank you so much Eric. Thank
you. Come on, let's put our hands together for Eric and what God Almighty has done in his life.