so I come from a Christian background the oldest of five during the birth
my mom had a difficulty in complication which one of the reasons why you can see
one of my eyelids is a little bit smaller than the other one my family
immigrated to the United States at the age of 13 so I didn't speak any English
I didn't have any friends and on top of that this is when all the insecurities
that I thought that started to surface I remember skipping a keyboarding class
as a freshman in high school because I was so embarrassed to stand in front of
a group of 25 students so I come from a Christian family I mean we've read the
Bible went to church Ukraine yeah I had we had no television and no
telephone it's how Christian we were I mean very
devoted soccer team soccer was the only thing that we were permitted once a week
to play but it was very very devout and so I grew up learning about God and
everything and there in the United States here at the age of 13
insecurities because of my physical appearance and on the top of that
because my optical nerve was damaged I had migraine headaches every time my
head get exposed to the Sun I knew that committing suicide is gonna land me in a
bad place and so I started to develop these chronic chronic insecurities
suicidal tendencies where I begged God to create an accident where I will die
and so I escaped through accidents without a scratch and my parents now
they know that but at that time they did not know that my parents are the best
parents in the world I had a great family I had a friend I had a church but
these insecurities because of my physical appearance and that's before
the social media creeped in and and I remember you know I prayed with you many
times during those days where you would ask people to play at place their hands
and TV my television black-and-white television was so greasy because my
hands were going there all the time I prayed for God to heal my eyes it wasn't
because I have a problem with the vision out of four siblings and both parents
I'm the only guy with tall glasses so I have really good vision I don't have a
problem with the vision it was my self-esteem that was connected
to my physical appearance a problem with and so after many many
attempts of prayer for healing I started to lock myself in the room and read the
Word and God started to change something in me and he said this he said Adam felt
ashamed of his body not because he gained weight he didn't
felt ashamed because somebody else showed up who was better-looking than
Adam Adam felt ashamed is because of what he ate
and God says you've been eating from the fruit of your self-image instead of my
image I said Lord when I read your word he says you're reading my word you're
not eating my word and at the age of 14 I started to lock myself in the room for
40 - 30 minutes every day and not read the Bible but eat the Bible and the Lord
convicted me and he said stop looking in the mirror in the bathroom to find who
you are he said what you see in that bathroom is a skin stretched on a
skeleton he said what you see in this mirror is your true identity a crazy
pastor Benny the crazy part today I still have the same body yeah but none
of you are distracted with my eyes and the reason why is because I'm not
distracted people don't ask me today you know what what happened to you did you
have you been through an accident you know what happened - did you have a
surgery is something people no longer asked me of that was before that was the
only question every person asked they didn't ask me my name and when you're 13
and 14 and you're aware of something is wrong with you and people ask you about
it like that just that just hurts today nobody does I'm still the same guy well
on the outside on the inside I'm a completely different person and the Holy
Spirit as a teenager at the age of 13 at the age of 15 at the
age of 16 17 18 19 I started to go into my room lock myself and eat this word
and then I started to experience become aware and not of my physical appearance
but of His spiritual presence and I really want to just encourage every
single young person there is something better than taking your life it's laying
it down
Vladimir thank you young man you can go to your seat and listen God
has a call on you go for it okay Vladimir give me a second why don't you pray for them
if you're watching us right now and you're in a similar situation maybe you
already have something loaded you have a gun loaded you got pills maybe that
you're taking or cutting yourself because you don't know who you are
maybe you've been abandoned moved from foster home to a foster home or maybe
your own parents disowned you and called you with name maybe your victim of
molestation or rape and somebody messed with you sexually or perhaps you look at
yourself in the mirror every single day and you call yourself fat ugly worthless
and that you have no purpose and you have no meaning there's a reason why my
eyes are still the same I believe God wants to use what he did with me to
encourage you it doesn't mean that you're gonna be a preacher but you will
live a life of meaning and you will live a life of purpose but you don't find
purpose in the university you don't find purpose in a degree you find purpose in
God's presence and when you find his presence you find meaning to your life
you can be the wisest and the richest person like Solomon and he still said
life is vanity and vanity because without God's presence you don't find
your purpose and when you find your purpose
listen you find you begin to appreciate yourself not because you love yourself
but because you love Jesus and so I'm just gonna pray right now for anybody
there who are maybe your kids just need to watch this I need to share this and
need to tell your kids to just watch this part and the whole
service I believe that God is going to encounter some of you I believe some of
you are gonna stop eating from the forbidden tree of your physical
appearance and the comparison you get on social media and the comments you get
from people who are bullying you you're gonna stop eating from that because
that's making you sick and that's making you aware of your nakedness which makes
you feel ashamed of yourself when in reality all you need is to eat from the
tree of life which tells you who you are in Jesus and then you will be aware of
the presence of God in your life who's always there in your life and he was
calling to you right now and says Adam Lucy where he says John where he says
come to me where you at I want to talk to you I want to be with you let's just
stretch your hand so the father in the name of Jesus I pray for every single
young person right now God that the enemy is bringing the thoughts of death
and suicide and tells them that their life has no meaning and their life is
worthless and if I pray for those who contemplated suicide already I come
against that spirit of death I come against that spirit of destruction I
come against you Pharoah in Jesus mighty name and I command you to lose that
young person lose their mind lose their sleep lose their thought pattern in
Jesus mighty name devil your time has expired
in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth the son of the Living God who can
complete life and more abundantly I command you to loose your grip I don't
a young man I don't that young woman out of that young kid in Jesus mighty name
and I prophecy into their life right now and they will live their life will
have a meaning they will not die and they will not blow their brains up and
they will not take their life they will not waste their life they will not wreck
their life but they lay it down and Jesus will pick it up and use it for his
glory in the name of Jesus Christ