Latest / The Lila Rose Show / E259: I Was Raised By 2 Moms -- Until I Met My Heavenly Father w/Ross Johnston | Lila Rose Show

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E259: I Was Raised By 2 Moms -- Until I Met My Heavenly Father w/Ross Johnston | Lila Rose Show · The Lila Rose Show

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  When she walked in, they put a lineup of about 10 men in front
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  of her, and she chose one. They inseminated her.
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  And then nine months later, there I was.
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  My grandma has no father. My mom has no father.
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  I have no father. So you could see that orphan
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  spirit kind of going through the generations.
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  I never had a conversation with the Lord.
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  I didn't know how to commune with the living God.
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  And I'm on my knees, I'm crying, then I'm laughing.
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  Am I going crazy? But what it was is for the first
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  time in my life, my heart experienced the presence of the
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  Father, you know. Raised in a lesbian household,
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  he grew up without a father. He wouldn't have a father figure
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  until he had a supernatural encounter.
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  At age 15. Welcome back to the Lila Roche
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  show. Today I sit down with Ross
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  Johnston and we discuss family dynamics, same sex
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  relationships, growing up in a household without one or the
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  other, a mother or a father. We talk about the divine
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  Providence of God and how God works through relationships to
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  bring us closer to him. We also talk about ongoing
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  revival that I believe is happening in our country right
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  now and the cultural shifts that are also taking place.
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  The goal on this show is to share the good, the true, the
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  beautiful so that we together can flourish as human beings in
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  this life and the next. Thank you so much to everybody
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  who has been subscribing. The quickest and easiest way for
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  you to support this show is to hit that subscribe button.
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  over there. Leave us five stars and please
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  write us a review that helps the show grow and reach more people.
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  And I read every single one of those reviews when you leave
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  them. It really is encouraging and
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  helpful to me to know what you guys are thinking.
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  I hope you enjoy this episode. Ross Johnston, welcome to the
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  podcast. Such an honor to be here, heard
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  so much about you and just excited for, I think what God's
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  going to do through this podcast today.
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  So. Let's do it.
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  Amen. Thank you.
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  Thanks for coming in. I know it wasn't too far.
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  We're SoCal people over here, which is great.
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  Yes. You were in LA before, right?
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  I was in LA, then went to College in San Diego, and then
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  now live in the beautiful Orange County.
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  Nice, what brought you here? Honestly, you know, in 2020 when
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  the whole world kind of shut down and it just seemed like
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  everything was in chaos, I actually told myself I would
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  never live in Orange County. But then in 2020 when I saw I
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  was like, really the only place open there was amazing churches
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  and ton of believers. I was like, you know what, I'm
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  going to give that a shot. And now here we are, you know, 3
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  1/2 years later. You're an OC guy now, are you?
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  Like I'm going to stay here forever.
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  Oh, when that sunshine hits and then you go to the beach and
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  they have great acai balls. Oh my God, I don't need to pray
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  about this one. I know that I'm I believe I'm
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  supposed to be here. It did help during COVID that
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  this was the place that was open.
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  I think a lot of people left. Lai know a ton of people.
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  We were living in the East Bay and everything shut down and if
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  you weren't vaccinated, you were not even allowed to eat in
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  restaurants. Gosh, that's how bad it got
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  there. I.
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  Think we easily forget that, right?
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  Like, that wasn't 20 years ago. That was four years ago, you
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  know? But so much has happened in our
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  world and so much happens every single day.
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  But I'm like, I don't want to be stuck in the past, but I also
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  don't want to forget the past so that if something tries to rear
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  its head like that again, as the church, as believers, like we're
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  ready to say no, we're taking a stand.
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  Like, we're not going to back down from this.
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  So just a crazy thought. Yeah, totally.
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  I think that for, in my view, the craziest part about that
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  time was the fact that in California, the abortion clinics
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  were given permission to remain open.
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  Wow. But the churches were commanded
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  to close like you were not allowed to worship at your
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  church, go go to Mass. You couldn't go to Mass.
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  And then they opened that a little bit after time.
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  But then they kept the abortion clinics open the whole time.
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  You can end life, but you can't pursue spiritual life.
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  Or receive the gift of life in Jesus Christ from the Eucharist,
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  like which is as a Catholic for like we want and we're starving
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  for the Eucharist. So it was it was.
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  That was a particularly dark time in my view, but anyways.
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  I just be to. God, I feel like the lot God has
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  brought our our country thankfully, like for all of the
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  the devastation of COVID, including the lives that it
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  took, but there's been so much I think, thankfully healing since
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  then. So.
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  And a theme we can find from that as we dive into the topic
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  today is like even the most darkest, hopeless, godly
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  situations, when the Spirit of God gets a hold of somebody, he
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  can use their life to turn things around for his glory, you
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  know? And so it's like we look back on
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  that and we're going to stand against it.
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  We're going to push back. We also recognize like God
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  raised up so many voices, men and women in our generation to
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  say, hey, this is your moment to use your voice.
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  This is your moment to speak to the world and now we're seeing
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  those people do incredible things for the Lord self.
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  Such an honor. All right, your story is very
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  captivating. And I think there are, I don't
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  know if the number is it's in the hundreds of thousands, but
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  there are a number of people, it's a minority in our country
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  who have had a similar background to yours.
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  You were raised by two moms and, and I say 2 moms, I'm going to
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  say 2 parents, but two women and one was your actual mom
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  biological, another woman was her lesbian partner.
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  And you have a journey that you have to share about that.
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  And then, of course, you now have a testimony that you're
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  beautifully sharing around the world.
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  So I'd love to just start with your.
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  Childhood, totally. And what that was like growing
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  up. And let's start with when did
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  you first realize that you were being raised differently than
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  other kids, Most of their kids anyways, at the time.
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  Well, I always say like this, a baby only knows what a baby is
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  taught. So as I'm growing up, I have two
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  moms in the household and I'm looking around, but it's not
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  really hitting me. They're like, Hey, everybody
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  else typically has one mom or one dad, but I remember about
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  probably 10/12/15, that age range, I started to really
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  recognize like, wow, my life looks a lot different.
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  You know, like I'm going home and I have two moms.
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  I don't have a dad to play catch with.
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  I don't have a dad to talk to me about, you know, how to fix the
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  car or whatever the situation may be.
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  And I remember my mom sat me down around that age range as
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  well. And she just started telling me
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  like, hey, you know, this is the lifestyle I live.
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  This is why I chose to have you. This was that process.
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  Obviously it was, it was much more broad because I was young,
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  but that's when I really started to understand that my life was a
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  a bit different. Also around that time frame, 15
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  years old and we're gonna backtrack a little bit here in a
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  SEC, but that was the time when I actually first went to church.
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  I had never read the Bible, never heard about Jesus.
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  I mean, I had no grid for anything about God or
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  spirituality. And so when I encountered the
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  presence of Jesus, I was like, Oh my gosh, I have, you know,
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  the Bible says taste and see that the Lord is good.
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  Well, the opposite of that is every person is tasted and seen
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  of the world sin and it isn't good.
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  And so when I actually had that encounter with God that shifted
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  everything because I was like, I want more of this.
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  Who is this Jesus? I want to know about the word.
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  I want to learn about his death and his resurrection.
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  And so that's what really started the journey of
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  ultimately recognizing my life look different and then as well
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  as my spiritual journey. So tell me more about your
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  childhood, how your mom got together with her partner, how
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  you came into the world. Yeah, give us more of that.
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  Background So recently I started asking questions because you
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  know, you just life happens, you're busy.
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  I'm in full time ministry. But I asked my mom.
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  I said, mom, you know, why did you want to have a child or you
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  know, what was that process like?
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  And she told me that ever since she was a young girl, she
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  actually used to date boys. She told me this, she used to
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  date boys and what happened is that about 18 or 19 years old,
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  her mom, which is my grandma was diagnosed with the cancer and
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  passed away in six months. And so you can see as I started
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  asking questions in that moment, that six month transition, a
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  woman hit on my mom. Now my mom initially said no,
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  but then from that moment on started living a lesbian
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  lifestyle. And So what you see?
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  Which that woman who was hitting on.
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  Her no, actually, just a different woman yes but what you
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  can see in that time frame is that's the the sneakiness of the
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  enemy. We're in a moment of hardship.
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  My mom's heart is, it's tender. She's losing her mom, her mom's
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  dying of cancer. The wicked enemy comes in there,
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  places a lie about her sexuality.
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  And from that moment on, because she didn't have the Holy Spirit
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  or wasn't walking with Jesus, she started living a lesbian
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  lifestyle. And so, you know, she still had
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  that desire, though, to have a child because we believe that's
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  God-given. That's God-given for every
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  woman. They desire to have a child.
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  And so when it came to about 3031, she started thinking, man,
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  my body clock is ticking. You know, if I'm going to have
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  children, it's, it needs to be in these next few years.
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  So back in the day, there's a thing called phone books.
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  And so she opened up a phone book.
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  She found a laboratory, walked in and said, hey, I want to have
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  a child. You know, what does this process
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  look like and how do we get started?
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  Was she in a same sex relationship at this point?
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  Yes, she was. She was with a different lady
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  previous to the one that I grew up with, and so in that moment
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  when she walked in, they put a lineup of about 10 men in front
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  of her and she chose one they like.
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  Actual physical men. Not physical men, just like it
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  wasn't even necessarily pictures.
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  It was just like high age, eye color, very basic
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  characteristics. And she chose one.
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  They inseminated her. And then nine months later,
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  there I was. And so that was how that process
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  began. And you have a brother too.
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  Correct. Yeah.
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  So he's about four years younger than I and he is from the same
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  donor. So we are 100% Blood Brothers.
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  Now, what's really interesting is if you take a picture of my
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  mom and I and you place it side by side of our faces, we look
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  absolutely identical. She played sports growing up.
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  I love sports. She's very type A, I'm very type
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  A. Now with my brother, I mean, I
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  wouldn't say he looks nothing like me, but you can tell that
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  he has different genes, different characteristics.
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  Now, we've never seen, I've never seen what my biological
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  father looks like. So I don't know obviously what
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  his traits are, but my brother, I would imagine, probably picked
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  his traits up. So it's a once again a very
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  interesting dynamic there. Have you ever tried to find your
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  biological father? You know, I've never really had
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  this desire to. I'm not opposed to it.
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  Like if one day I get a message on Instagram, hey, I believe I
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  might be your biological father. I'm open to a conversation.
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  I'll preach Jesus, I'll preach the gospel, hope he gets saved.
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  But really, I think a big component of that is because I
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  met the Heavenly Father at such a young age.
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  That void, though, it's still there to some degree in the in
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  my natural heart ever. I think every person desire is
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  designed and desires to have a relationship with their father.
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  When God came in and filled that void, I was like, Oh my gosh,
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  I'm a son of the King. I'm filled with his spirit.
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  I've been saved. I'm going to spend eternity with
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  him. And so that God void on the
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  inside of me was filled with God himself.
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  So I say it like this, until you know the Father as your personal
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  Father, the world will father you.
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  And so when I met the Heavenly Father, suddenly that desire
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  kind of left me. But I'm definitely open to it.
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  So tell me more about what growing up was like.
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  You've got this mom, and it sounds like you're super close
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  to your mom. Yeah, we had a great
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  relationship. You know, my mom was working 40
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  hours a week. And so when she was working
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  where I, where I daycare, we're at sports.
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  The other woman who my mom was in a relationship with was the
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  one who typically stayed at home.
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  She'd pick us up from practice, you know, cook us meals here or
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  there, take care of us, do things of that nature.
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  But you know, even before, before I gave my heart to Jesus,
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  I never called the other lady mom, right?
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  And the reason for that is it because once again, the design
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  of God is to call one woman mom and 1 male dad.
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  And so for me, it was always this interesting dynamic because
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  I love my biological mom. I felt more connected with her.
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  But a majority of the time I was with the other lady.
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  And so once again, I didn't have the spiritual language for this.
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  I didn't have the revelation. But growing up, I started to
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  feel that kind of divide or that pull.
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  Like, OK, I'm grateful for this other woman because she's the
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  one who takes care of everyday life, but I feel like there's
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  something missing here. And that's what really, once
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  again, when I got saved and met Jesus, I started having these
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  questions and ideas and working through this with the Lord.
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  Did you feel connected to what did you call her growing up?
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  I just called her by her name. Oh, OK, call.
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  Let's just call her Jessica. Jessica OK, just for the sake of
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  the conversation. So I'm, I'm curious if like the
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  connection that you felt with Jessica, it's almost like she
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  was a nanny or a babysitter. I mean, did you feel super?
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  Connected to her. Like very intimate or was it
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  more a little formal? Like what was that relationship
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  like? I would say it was a little bit
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  more than that, but it was one of those things where I could
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  feel she saw me as like a literal son, but I can never see
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  her as my literal mom. Does that make sense?
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  So it was like I, I knew she wanted to love me and I knew she
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  cared for me and I was grateful for that.
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  I think any person is grateful for anybody who cares for them,
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  but I can never connect on a heart level to the degree that I
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  connected with my biological mom.
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  And so before you have any grid for design and God and Jesus,
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  it's like, it's a little bit frustrating because you're like,
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  I have this person who cares so much for me, but I can't seem to
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  get to that same level, right? And so that was kind of a
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  challenge that I started recognizing not only as I grew
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  up, but even now as I think about it, I'm like, man, wow, I
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  wasn't able to get there in my heart.
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  And I believe that's God's protection in some degree
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  because we are designed to be connected with our biological
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  parents. Did she and your mom have
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  language for that at the time? Like, hey, we're both mom.
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  You can call one of us mom, one of us, Mama.
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  How did you start getting into the zone of calling her by her
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  given name? Jess.
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  Let's say it's Jessica, right? My mom actually tried her best.
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  She'll even tell me till this day, I tried my best to make you
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  a masculine man. I want, I taught you how to hold
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  the door open, how to take care and honor women.
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  You know, she, she tried her best, but obviously she wasn't
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  operating the role that God gave her.
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  So there's only so much, there's only so far she could go in
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  that. So in regards to calling one mom
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  mom, one mom Mama, we never had that conversation.
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  I just always call my biological mom mom and always called the
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  other lady. How?
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  Did you even know it was your biological mother?
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  She was your biological mother. She had that conversation with
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  me. I don't remember what age I was
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  at, but she told me to some degree.
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  Once again, I'm 1011 years old, so there's only certain language
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  that she could use that I could understand.
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  But I remember having a conversation to sit down where
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  she explained to me, you know, I wasn't born the way that most
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  children are born. And she gave me kind of the
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  overarching, you know, what this looks like, how, you know, open
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  the phone book, went to a laboratory, that kind of story.
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  And then from that moment on, even before that, I just always
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  called her mom. So it didn't really change
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  anything. I was just like, oh, I just have
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  a different story, right? Because once again, I didn't
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  have the Holy Spirit at that time either.
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  It is interesting because you're saying Jessica, the other the
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  partner, her partner at the time was the one you're doing most of
• 13:54
  the they're taking. Was that including, I know you
• 13:57
  don't remember it, but from what you know, was that including
• 13:59
  when you were, you know, one year old, 18 months, you know,
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  taking a bottle? Or was your like, was your, was
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  your biological mom able to take time off from work to really
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  like be able to be primary care for a season?
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  Or at what point did it become Jessica doing the primary care?
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  So when my mom was officially pregnant with me, she was with
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  another lady. They split up and then my mom
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  got with the lady that I was raised with at about one years
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  old. So there's about a two year time
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  gap there where really it was just my mom and I.
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  And so I don't know what the full dynamics of that.
• 14:31
  I don't know if she actually did those specific things, but she
• 14:34
  definitely took care of me and was the one who fed me, nursed
• 14:36
  me all those incredible things, which I'm very grateful for.
• 14:39
  But now that you're asking me this question, I want to ask my
• 14:42
  mom, I want to find out like mom, what happened in that
• 14:44
  because that those two years are kind of like it's kind of blurry
• 14:46
  a little bit. I'm not quite sure.
• 14:48
  So I'm excited to find out. Yeah, interesting.
• 14:50
  Yeah. And I And then when your brother
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  came into the world, he was born.
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  Do you have memories of what that dynamic looked like because
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  your bio mom is the one birthing him.
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  I'm going to guess nursing him. But then Jessica is it sounds
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  like doing like kind of more kind of typically feminine role.
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  You know, again, traditionally Speaking of being the caretaker
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  more than your mom, who was the breadwinner it sounds like, if
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  I'm understanding correctly. Totally.
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  Yeah. You're understanding correctly.
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  So my biological mom, though she was working the 40 hours a week
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  and Jessica was not, I always felt the most, you know,
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  feminine love and care for my biological mom.
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  You know, Jessica, whether she was trying to do this or not, I
• 15:34
  just never felt that from her. And that's not to say she
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  doesn't love or doesn't care. I just was never, I was never
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  able to feel that or connect on that level.
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  And so obviously when my brother was born, I was only three or
• 15:45
  four years old, so very faint memories.
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  But I could imagine just thinking back on pictures that
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  I've seen, they were both a part of the picture.
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  But you could tell without a like, without a shadow of a
• 15:55
  doubt, that my biological mom was the one who was the most
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  more motherly, more motherly and taking and taking over that
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  role. So was there ever a point when
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  you're growing up where where you thought, hey, I don't have a
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  dad? Did that ever hit your mind?
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  I know you mentioned later on when your mom sat you down and
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  talked to you about the circumstances of your conception
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  and things like that, you had that realization more clearly.
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  But do you remember any moments where you had a sense of, oh,
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  other kids have dads? I don't have a dad.
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  It was, it wasn't that exact thoughts, but that's what was
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  happening. I just didn't have the language
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  for it. So for example, I go to baseball
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  practice and I look around and most of the, most of my friends,
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  their dads are there, you know, coaching them up, getting them
• 16:36
  ready with their cleats or whatever, whatever the they look
• 16:39
  like. And then I'm kind of sitting
• 16:40
  there going, Oh, I don't, I don't have that now.
• 16:43
  I never saw from the perspective of like they have a dad.
• 16:45
  I don't have a dad. I saw more from the perspective
• 16:48
  they just live a different life than what I'm used to now.
• 16:50
  Obviously as I grew up, I started a record, recognized
• 16:53
  that I had a father wound. It's called, I like to call it
• 16:55
  the orphan spirit. What I mean by that is though I
• 16:57
  had food on the table at a roof over my head, I never had a
• 17:01
  father who spoke life into me, who spoke identity and destiny
• 17:05
  and calling into me or even just taught me the practical things
• 17:08
  about being a man. How do I pursue a woman?
• 17:10
  What am I supposed to do financially?
• 17:12
  Like I never had anybody to go to.
• 17:14
  Now my mom tried her best to be that person, but at the end of
• 17:17
  the day, she was not able to be that.
• 17:19
  So it was one of those things where once again, when I met
• 17:22
  with the Father in heaven, that shifted everything for me
• 17:24
  because I'm going, OK, I might not have a natural earthly dad,
• 17:28
  but now I have a father who I can glean from, look to and
• 17:32
  learn from. But not having a natural father
• 17:34
  was very challenging because I felt lonely.
• 17:37
  I felt like nobody truly saw me. And that's not a diss on my mom.
• 17:40
  She loves me to death, but I was missing the other half of God's
• 17:43
  design speaking life into me. I know a lot of families that
• 17:48
  whether by choice design or by tragedy or accident, right there
• 17:53
  is the dad is missing in the household, right?
• 17:55
  The dad passes away, the dad abandons the family.
• 17:58
  It is a lesbian household. This there's some other issue
• 18:03
  that means the dad can't be there.
• 18:04
  And so, you know, there's a lot of children growing up today
• 18:07
  without dads, and there's a number of children growing up
• 18:09
  with moms, but it's more fatherless homes than motherless
• 18:12
  homes. And so, you know, there's a lot
• 18:15
  of different reports and social data on the impact of that on
• 18:19
  kids. And, you know, we could probably
• 18:22
  have the whole conversation just on that.
• 18:24
  I know you talk about that a lot in your testimony and your
• 18:26
  content. But I'm curious if you remember
• 18:30
  the first time feeling you mentioned the cleats at soccer
• 18:33
  practice, but feeling what you're calling the orphan
• 18:36
  spirit. Do you have a memory of when you
• 18:38
  first were like feeling this sense of fatherlessness in your
• 18:43
  heart? I don't have a specific memory,
• 18:45
  but it was like a consistent day in and day out where my life was
• 18:49
  pretty good. I had a good grades.
• 18:51
  Family life wasn't, I mean, it wasn't like we didn't have any
• 18:54
  incredible trauma or very heart, you know, challenging
• 18:58
  situations. Life was OK, but in the deepest
• 19:01
  places of my heart and of my soul, it just kind of felt like
• 19:05
  I was by myself. Like I felt like I was floating
• 19:07
  through life and I didn't really have any nobody there that I
• 19:11
  could that had my back, right? And I knew my mom loved me and I
• 19:14
  knew I had a brother and I knew all the I knew all the right
• 19:17
  things, but my internal reality was not backing up to that.
• 19:21
  And so that's really the the memory that I consider the most
• 19:25
  vivid. It's just kind of living, you
• 19:27
  know, going through middle school, high school sports, in
• 19:29
  my beginning stages of college, even a little after I got saved,
• 19:32
  just kind of feeling like, wow, OK, I have everything that I'm
• 19:36
  supposed to have, but there's something in my heart where I
• 19:38
  feel like nobody truly sees Ross.
• 19:41
  Nobody knows my heart and and really understands what I'm
• 19:44
  feeling and what I'm sensing. So those are, I think, the
• 19:47
  earliest memories of that. Did you have a father figure
• 19:49
  growing up? I know also in a, in a number of
• 19:52
  a lot of the stories of a ton of women, by the way, again,
• 19:55
  whether it's by accident, by tragedy, by design, there's a
• 19:59
  father not in the picture. There's sometimes an intentional
• 20:02
  effort to like let's find a man to be a father figure to.
• 20:04
  To these kids, like a grandfather, an uncle, somebody
• 20:08
  in the community, the church, something like that.
• 20:10
  Well, here's what's interesting. So my mom's mom, my grandma
• 20:13
  passed away when she was 19. But my grandma became a believer
• 20:17
  in Jesus the final 3-4 years of her life.
• 20:20
  So my mom had a little bit of a church experience then.
• 20:23
  But then on the other side, my mom also never knew her father,
• 20:26
  right? So she, I, she.
• 20:27
  Didn't grow up with the dad. She did not grow up with the
• 20:29
  dad. Now my mom has three siblings.
• 20:31
  I've met them once in my life and that's it.
• 20:33
  So I have no gram, I never met my grandma, have no clue who
• 20:37
  grandpa is. All I know is my mom's three
• 20:39
  siblings. So growing up, the only family
• 20:42
  that I know is my biological mom and my biological brother,
• 20:45
  right? So it's this very interesting
• 20:47
  dynamic where it's like what happened to the family, like
• 20:50
  where are we? Like there is no.
• 20:51
  Why wasn't she connected with the siblings at all?
• 20:54
  I'm not, I'm not 100% sure on that.
• 20:55
  I just think, you know, I think it might be just a family
• 20:57
  situation where they weren't the most connected growing up.
• 21:00
  Did they live far away? I don't even know what I think
• 21:03
  they might have lived in Arizona, which we grew up in
• 21:04
  California, So what, a couple hours away.
• 21:06
  But there was never like, there was never like a a disrespect or
• 21:10
  like a bad conversation. There just seemed to never be a
• 21:12
  connection there. Well, I think sometimes if you
• 21:14
  don't have a dad in the picture and the mom is passed away,
• 21:18
  often they're the ones doing the family unions.
• 21:20
  You know, they're the ones doing the get together, kind of like
• 21:23
  holding it down. And if there's not someone
• 21:24
  assuming that role of like the matriarch or the patriarch, then
• 21:27
  he can fall apart. Yeah, and, and once again, this,
• 21:30
  this leads into a bigger conversation.
• 21:31
  But why the family unit is so critical because it's not just
• 21:34
  one person. We are all interconnected.
• 21:37
  And when there's no leader, no spiritual headship, no, no
• 21:41
  spirit of God at all, right? You just see it crumble.
• 21:44
  But that also gives me excitement and hope because I
• 21:47
  get to be the one and my brother as well, get to restart this
• 21:50
  lineage and this and leave a Jenner and leave a legacy.
• 21:53
  So as challenging as it is, I'm also focused on the future and
• 21:57
  hopeful towards that as well. And did your grandpa abandoned
• 22:01
  the family or did he pass away? What happened to him?
• 22:03
  Growing up, my grandma, when she got saved, had a best friend at
• 22:08
  the church. And for some reason that best
• 22:11
  friend stayed connected with my mom.
• 22:13
  And so as we grew up, my mom would tell me about this lady
• 22:16
  who was my grandma's best friend and who was a believer.
• 22:18
  Now, I was young and I wasn't a believer yet, so I didn't see
• 22:20
  any value in that. I was like, OK, just a cute
• 22:22
  grandma who, you know, goes to church.
• 22:24
  Awesome. But as I became saved, I was
• 22:26
  like, wait a minute, I want to hear the story.
• 22:28
  So this year this lady is still alive.
• 22:30
  She's 91 years old. Her name is Gwen.
• 22:33
  Precious love Jesus raised a raised a Christian household
• 22:37
  Christian children incredible I was asking her the story she's
• 22:41
  91 and vibrant I'm. Like asking her what happened
• 22:43
  to. Grandpa and she told me that one
• 22:46
  day she walked into at that time like a bowling alley, like an
• 22:49
  arcade, something of that nature.
• 22:50
  Saw my grandma by herself, walked over to her, started a
• 22:54
  conversation. Her friend at the time wasn't
• 22:56
  even saved. They both were not saved.
• 22:58
  Long story short, Gwen becomes a Christian, surrenders her heart
• 23:02
  to Jesus, and she invites my grandma to church.
• 23:05
  My grandma goes church and this is what Gwen's telling me.
• 23:09
  Live and direct. She's like your mom did not
• 23:11
  respond to the altar call. She did not respond to
• 23:13
  surrendering her heart to Jesus. They go outside of the church
• 23:16
  service. And here's why this is so
• 23:18
  powerful because for those who will hear the rest of this story
• 23:21
  as we talk about it, now that I'm in full time ministry, we do
• 23:24
  outdoor events, right? My grandma is outdoors, which
• 23:28
  back in the day was not a thing at all.
• 23:30
  And for some reason, the minister happened to be outside
• 23:33
  as well. He walks out to my grandma and
• 23:36
  her friend. And my grandma asks, can Jesus
• 23:39
  save somebody outside? Basically saying, I'm not in the
• 23:42
  church building. I'm not, you know, in the
• 23:44
  service, but can Jesus still meet me here?
• 23:46
  And surrenders our heart to Jesus.
• 23:47
  So there's this, there's this whole undercurrent of a family
• 23:52
  of a generation, and you can see God's sovereign hand in it even
• 23:56
  in the midst of brokenness, which I think brings hope to me
• 23:58
  and so many people across the. World.
• 24:00
  But what happened to your grandpa?
• 24:01
  We, we don't know. Yeah, I, I believe it might have
• 24:04
  been just, you know, a night where they hooked up and that
• 24:07
  was that. So he was never in the picture
• 24:09
  for your mother. She was raised by a single mom
• 24:11
  basically. And then when, and then you were
• 24:13
  sharing about how when she when your grandmother got this cancer
• 24:17
  diagnosis, she was a she was a newer Christian.
• 24:20
  She'd been a Christian a few years, thanks be to God.
• 24:22
  And then she got this cancer diagnosis. 6 months passes away
• 24:25
  must have been excruciating for your mother and your mother had
• 24:29
  siblings and and so they're all doing it in this together.
• 24:33
  But then she discovers how she believes I'm a lesbian.
• 24:36
  She kind of as this attraction. Again, this is your story, not
• 24:39
  her. So whatever you're comfortable
• 24:41
  sharing and you know, we can move keep moving forward.
• 24:43
  But I am I do think there's so much generational impact that we
• 24:47
  have on each other. I mean, that's how God designed
• 24:49
  us, right? Have you had conversations with
• 24:51
  your mother about what she was going through in her heart?
• 24:55
  She didn't have a dad. She's losing her mom.
• 24:58
  You know, when you were, when she was pregnant with you, there
• 25:00
  was one partner she ends up breaking up with that one ends
• 25:02
  up with another woman, the Jessica lady.
• 25:04
  Has she shared anything about her journey and what she was
• 25:07
  struggling with as she was going through these movements and
• 25:10
  starting to live the same sex lifestyle?
• 25:12
  She has. So my perspective is kind of
• 25:14
  like, you can see the ripple effect, right?
• 25:15
  My grandma has no father. My mom has no father.
• 25:19
  I have no father, right. So you could see that orphan
• 25:21
  spirit kind of going through the generations.
• 25:24
  So I believe in that moment. Now, my mom hasn't used this
• 25:26
  language. What she told me is in that six
• 25:28
  month period, you know, that they put her mom, my grandma on
• 25:31
  some pretty heavy medication, which really just kind of
• 25:34
  mentally was just a kind of messed her up.
• 25:36
  So she would share stories about her mom.
• 25:38
  My grandma would be in the bathroom for hours and my mom
• 25:40
  would have to knock on the door and check on her or, you know,
• 25:43
  she was bedridden. You know, all these really
• 25:45
  challenging heart heartache situations.
• 25:48
  And then once again, like we shared earlier, that is when the
• 25:50
  enemy crept in. And my mom had never been in a
• 25:53
  lesbian relationship. Dated boys has.
• 25:55
  She been attracted to women before that.
• 25:58
  I have not asked her that specific question.
• 25:59
  I do not think she was, but she might have been.
• 26:03
  And so in that moment, you know, she said no.
• 26:06
  But then that little lie that if you give a lie any sort of room,
• 26:10
  it takes a mile and then it takes a lifestyle.
• 26:13
  And so it's such a wicked. Man had never been there for
• 26:15
  her. Exactly.
• 26:16
  So, you know, again, I'm not saying that you will become a
• 26:20
  lesbian if you don't have a father.
• 26:22
  That's obviously not true. Nobody's doomed to anything.
• 26:25
  And that's also not the story for most people who are raised
• 26:29
  by single moms. Of course not.
• 26:30
  But I do think that there is, there can be patterns there
• 26:33
  where you know, you, you are affected.
• 26:35
  We are affected as human beings by the way we're raised.
• 26:38
  And, you know, we've had some amazing conversations exploring
• 26:41
  on this show, exploring homosexuality for, for men and
• 26:45
  the childhood impacts on many men, not all, but many men who
• 26:48
  experience same sex attraction and later on live a lifestyle.
• 26:52
  I think in the future we will be exploring the the female
• 26:55
  homosexual temptation experience.
• 26:58
  But we can keep moving too, because I know you only have so
• 27:01
  much visibility. It's your mom's story.
• 27:02
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  experienced, God's design will always bring his blessing.
• 30:02
  It'll always bring life. It'll always bring fruit.
• 30:05
  And so when people are in these challenging situations and they
• 30:07
  don't know where to turn and they don't know what they even
• 30:09
  believe about sexuality, it's like you can root yourself on
• 30:12
  the word of God and the Spirit of God and ultimately find out
• 30:16
  who you really are and what God designed you for.
• 30:18
  And that's the only reason I'm able to even sit here today with
• 30:21
  you, right? Because most people who have
• 30:23
  these different ideas, technologies or experiences,
• 30:26
  they just find themselves floating off into life and it's
• 30:29
  like they never find the, they never find the purpose and they
• 30:31
  never find the Lord. So it's like an encouragement
• 30:34
  them, no matter where you find yourself today, you can come
• 30:37
  from the most broken family. I don't know anybody except my
• 30:40
  biological mom. That's about as as tough as it
• 30:43
  can get, right outside of not knowing anybody in your
• 30:45
  biological family. And if God can meet me, if God
• 30:48
  can save me, then he can do it for you as well.
• 30:51
  I think that hunger you're describing, that orphan spirit,
• 30:54
  it sounds like it was for a dad, but it was also just like you
• 30:57
  said, you didn't have an extended family.
• 30:59
  You didn't grow up with any of that.
• 31:01
  So it's like it's just a missing piece.
• 31:03
  I want to hear about meeting Jesus for the first time and
• 31:07
  what that was like. And then I also want to hear
• 31:09
  about what happened with Jessica in your household.
• 31:12
  I guess it's all kind of happening around the same time.
• 31:14
  Yeah, so at about 15 years old, a friend and her grandma, it's
• 31:18
  like I was surrounded by women like my whole life.
• 31:19
  It's like. And to go back on one of your
• 31:21
  questions about like the men, the men aspect.
• 31:23
  Father figure, Yeah, you had. One yeah my mom tried but the
• 31:26
  the the issue is is 99% of her friends are part of the LGBTQ
• 31:31
  community. You.
• 31:31
  Mean they were like lesbian women.
• 31:33
  Yeah, yeah. Or they were men who are living
• 31:34
  homosexual lifestyle. So it's like they are not the
• 31:37
  best example on how to be a masculine man, how to operate in
• 31:40
  that. So it's like she tried, but it's
• 31:42
  like it's trying. It's like trying to fit a
• 31:44
  triangle into a square. It's like there's no way.
• 31:47
  It's not congruent. It can't work.
• 31:49
  You know what I mean? So you don't have any memories
• 31:51
  of like a male role model? I do have like a few baseball
• 31:53
  coaches here and there who kind of saw the situation, not
• 31:56
  necessarily from a spiritual perspective.
• 31:57
  They just recognize like, man, this, this kid doesn't have a
• 32:00
  father figure, no men in his life.
• 32:01
  And there'd be seasons where maybe they'd pick me up from
• 32:03
  practice or Take Me Out to eat or I'd yeah, at their houses and
• 32:06
  things like that, which I'm super grateful for.
• 32:08
  But there was never like a solidified this person is
• 32:11
  somebody I can look up to as a mentor in everyday life.
• 32:14
  Now to answer the current question, when I first got
• 32:17
  saved, so I was invited to church at 15 friend and her
• 32:19
  grandma. I'm sitting all the way in the
• 32:21
  back row some. Female friend or.
• 32:22
  Male, yes. Female friend and her do.
• 32:23
  You have a lot of female friends, by the way.
• 32:25
  I definitely did, but I also, I never really had an issue.
• 32:28
  I was very quiet and very shy growing up.
• 32:30
  Believe it or not, people see me now preaching like that guy,
• 32:32
  quiet. I'm like, yeah, I was very like,
• 32:34
  didn't talk to women, did like just kept to myself.
• 32:38
  I didn't really know you. I probably wasn't going to have
• 32:39
  a conversation with you, was not confident in my voice.
• 32:42
  And so 15, my friend and her grandma invite me.
• 32:44
  I'm all the way. I'm sitting in the back row of
• 32:46
  the church until this day. I have no clue what the preacher
• 32:48
  said, what songs they sang. But for the first time in my
• 32:51
  life, I started feeling something on the inside of me.
• 32:54
  Like I felt that warmth, that embrace the Spirit of God.
• 32:58
  And I was like, I remember going home that night, you know, I had
• 33:01
  never had a conversation with the Lord.
• 33:02
  I didn't know how to commune with the living God, right?
• 33:05
  And I'm on my knees, I'm crying, then I'm laughing, I'm somber,
• 33:09
  then I'm joyful. I'm like, am I going crazy?
• 33:12
  But what it was is for the first time in my life, my heart
• 33:15
  experienced the presence of the father.
• 33:18
  And I was like, wow, I don't, I've never, I've never
• 33:22
  encountered or experienced anything that is this
• 33:24
  incredible. So I went back to church the
• 33:26
  next week. But here's the crazy thing.
• 33:27
  My friend who invited me didn't want to go with me.
• 33:29
  So I'm like my the second week ever in church, my, my lesbian
• 33:34
  mom's dropping me off at the church, which, you know, it's
• 33:36
  just this crazy story. And I remember the the pastor
• 33:39
  just said, Hey, if you want to surrender your heart to Jesus,
• 33:41
  you know, we want to lead you in that.
• 33:42
  So I just lift my hand this. Is not the second.
• 33:44
  This is the second week, second week of service.
• 33:46
  And I just, I pray, I just confessed with my mouth and I
• 33:49
  believed in my heart that Jesus was Lord and raised from the
• 33:51
  dead and I became born again and that started the, the spiritual
• 33:54
  journey. But in that exact week of that
• 33:57
  happening, my mom and her partner, Jessica just got in
• 34:01
  some really intense, like, not physical fights, but just, you
• 34:03
  know, intense fights. And they actually ended up
• 34:07
  splitting up but divorcing. They weren't actually ever
• 34:10
  married. But till this day, they still
• 34:13
  live in the same household. So once again.
• 34:16
  So wait, your your mother and her former lesbian partner are
• 34:22
  no longer romantically together, but they still live together?
• 34:26
  Correct, yes and you know I don't know the all the dynamics
• 34:30
  of it, but they. Told you this.
• 34:31
  Yes, yes, well, I mean, I was also living it right.
• 34:33
  So I was like, I go to church, I'm encountering the presence of
• 34:37
  God and then I go home and it feels like a spiritual war, you
• 34:40
  know, because one, on the natural level, they're obviously
• 34:43
  arguing and it's not the atmosphere of the household was
• 34:46
  just not good. But then secondly, I didn't have
• 34:48
  language for spiritual warfare. I didn't understand that there's
• 34:51
  more than just the natural realm.
• 34:53
  So I'm feeling all these different things like church is
• 34:55
  like incredible house, home life is like horrible, right.
• 34:59
  And so that was that week was just a, a divine week, but also
• 35:03
  a week where if there was a shaking happening in in the
• 35:06
  house. How did they communicate that
• 35:08
  with you? You, you and your brother, where
• 35:11
  it was Jessica and your mom and you felt like you were a family.
• 35:15
  Then there's a big fight. They separate, but Jessica's
• 35:18
  still in the house. Was she still caring for you
• 35:21
  guys? What did that dynamic look like?
• 35:22
  Well. Number one, it didn't really
• 35:24
  feel like family, right? It's like we operated like a
• 35:26
  family, but there was never like a familial connection, right #2
• 35:33
  My, it's challenging because my mom and Jessica, though they
• 35:36
  weren't like growing up, they weren't, I never saw them show
• 35:39
  affection. They didn't sleep in the same
• 35:40
  room. There's obviously some emotional
• 35:42
  attachment there. So my mom is trying to lead as a
• 35:45
  mom, but at the same time, she's in a very emotional situation
• 35:49
  with her partner. So it's like very challenging
• 35:52
  because it felt like you had to choose sides are like, are you,
• 35:55
  am I going to, am I going to choose my biological mom's side?
• 35:58
  Am I going to choose Jessica's side?
• 35:59
  Like if there's ever conflict in the House.
• 36:01
  Exactly. And then you have my younger
• 36:03
  brother, who at the time is 10 or 11.
• 36:05
  I'm, I just like there's so many dynamics.
• 36:07
  I'm just learning about Jesus. Then my my mom and her partner
• 36:11
  are splitting up. Then I have my younger brother
• 36:12
  asking me questions. I mean, it was how?
• 36:14
  Did you know they were splitting up though if they stayed in the
• 36:15
  same house? Because they were just, you
• 36:17
  could just hear the arguments sometimes and then, you know,
• 36:20
  obviously I was old enough to, you know.
• 36:21
  Like did were they wearing like wedding rings they took off or
• 36:24
  like what was the sign that we are a couple and then the sign
• 36:26
  that were because they already weren't sleeping in the same
• 36:28
  bed. They lived in the same home.
• 36:31
  When they break up, they're still in the same home, still
• 36:33
  wants to be in the same bed. How did you tell the difference?
• 36:35
  It was just my biological mom just saying, hey, we're no
• 36:38
  longer in a relationship, you know, and it's just.
• 36:40
  She they like shared that with you guys.
• 36:42
  Yeah, yeah. And it was just like an
• 36:43
  assumption, like even though they weren't physical and
• 36:45
  weren't sleeping in the same room, it was just like assumed
• 36:47
  you're in a relationship, but really there wasn't really any
• 36:50
  relational aspect at all. And then that split, so to
• 36:53
  speak, was just kind of like a like a physical affirmation,
• 36:56
  like, yeah, we are no longer going to be in a a romantic
• 37:00
  relationship at any, in any aspect.
• 37:03
  So this is one weekend. You have just given your life to
• 37:08
  Jesus Christ by word and in your heart, and you are experiencing
• 37:12
  A consolation from God that you've never experienced before.
• 37:16
  You have this explosion of love in your heart.
• 37:18
  You feel like he's your Father. Are you calling him your Father
• 37:20
  in your prayer? Well, actually I didn't.
• 37:22
  I didn't even have that language.
• 37:23
  Like I'm just like God's meeting me.
• 37:26
  I just felt loved. Yeah, I just felt loved and I
• 37:28
  was like, this is more than just a divine supernatural being,
• 37:31
  right? Because many people know God is
• 37:33
  God, which he is, but he's also a father, right?
• 37:36
  So I'm experiencing that emotional, tender heart of the
• 37:40
  father where it's like, son, I just love you.
• 37:43
  I just want to embrace you. I care about you.
• 37:45
  I formed you and created you. I knit you together in your
• 37:47
  mother's womb. Because I don't know if you were
• 37:49
  going to go here, but a lot of people either, they'll say,
• 37:51
  well, without your mom, Ross, you wouldn't be here today.
• 37:53
  And I go, listen, the way my mom decided to have a child is not
• 37:57
  God's design 100%. I'm clear on that.
• 38:00
  But at the end of the day, my mom isn't the one who formed me
• 38:02
  in her womb. It was the Father in heaven who
• 38:05
  knit me together, formed me, chose me before the foundations
• 38:09
  of the earth and decided to bring me to this earth.
• 38:12
  And so when I started recognizing that I'm like, I'm
• 38:15
  not just floating through life, my mom wasn't the only one who
• 38:18
  decided to I'm not just here because of my mom.
• 38:21
  I'm here because of a supernatural God and Father who
• 38:25
  desired me, who loves me, and now I get to be in relationship
• 38:29
  with Him. How beautiful.
• 38:31
  That's so powerful what you just said, because I think when it
• 38:35
  comes to whether it's artificial insemination or IVF is another
• 38:39
  really hot button topic, right? Or any pregnant, you know, an
• 38:43
  unplanned pregnancy, you know, premarital sex.
• 38:45
  They didn't want the baby even and they're like, I didn't want
• 38:47
  this baby. But then they choose the baby
• 38:49
  because they want to give the baby the chance of life and the
• 38:50
  baby's born. And I think people will say,
• 38:53
  well, that is that baby like if it came into the world through a
• 38:57
  way that's outside of God's design.
• 38:58
  IVF, artificial artificial insemination outside of
• 39:01
  marriage. No, that God creates every life
• 39:04
  and soul for love equally valuable and created an image.
• 39:09
  And that doesn't mean in human terms and measures we can't do
• 39:12
  things outside of in, in terms of the process of bringing life
• 39:15
  into the world. That's not part of the design,
• 39:17
  but the the life is still the design.
• 39:19
  So we can do all kinds of processes that are not the
• 39:21
  design and still create life. And the life is still the
• 39:24
  design. And I think that is where
• 39:27
  there's so much consolation, where God, look what God can
• 39:29
  bring out of the worst circumstances, the most
• 39:32
  unplanned pregnancy, the IVF clinic, like look at this human
• 39:35
  life that is still, that is fully beautiful, fully loved,
• 39:39
  fully designed, fully created. And that doesn't justify the
• 39:42
  the, the path that was used, but the life, of course, is
• 39:46
  justified. And so I think that some people
• 39:48
  I think can't separate in their minds, but that separation is
• 39:51
  really important. Yeah, because we're not
• 39:53
  affirming to go outside of God's design to bear a child, but
• 39:57
  we're also not. We're also recognizing that if a
• 40:00
  child comes into existence and a woman is pregnant, that life is
• 40:05
  imago dei in the image of God. And therefore, as followers of
• 40:09
  Jesus, you can't box a sin. You can't say you're only here
• 40:12
  and not there. We're like, wait a minute, wait
• 40:14
  a second here. We care about all life, all
• 40:16
  people, every soul, every child, every baby.
• 40:20
  And you show me not to turn this whole thing into, you know, a
• 40:23
  stand. But that's who we are.
• 40:24
  The voice God's giving you, voice God's giving me.
• 40:26
  But at the end of the day, what a privilege and an honor that we
• 40:30
  get to say, your own family might not even want you and you
• 40:33
  don't even know us, but we care about you.
• 40:35
  We pray for you. We want to stand for you.
• 40:38
  We want to, we want to provide for you.
• 40:40
  We want to bless you. What other community or group of
• 40:43
  people is willing to embrace, even though even willing to
• 40:48
  embrace those who might come out of a situation they don't even
• 40:51
  affirm? Who is it who's willing to do
• 40:53
  that? Nobody.
• 40:54
  So it's like for me, that's why when I came into the church and
• 40:57
  I came from a broken family, the church literally became my
• 41:01
  family. That pastor was not just some
• 41:03
  guy who preached on a mic. He was like he felt like a
• 41:06
  father to some capacity. Those friends that I met weren't
• 41:09
  just because I was in high school and you know, you're
• 41:11
  supposed to do no, that felt they felt like brothers and
• 41:13
  sisters. So the dynamic in God's design
• 41:17
  of relationship, I say like this, we are made for heart
• 41:20
  connection with God and heart connection with one another.
• 41:23
  And most people only have one of the two, but God designed us for
• 41:26
  both. And so for me, I'm like, wow,
• 41:28
  what a privilege that we get to stand for life and that I get to
• 41:31
  be through my, my own testimony. I get to stand in the face of
• 41:36
  all the critics and all the noise and say, no, no, no, God
• 41:39
  has a plan, He has a purpose, He is real.
• 41:42
  And if you surrender your heart to Jesus, watch what we'll do
• 41:45
  with your life. I think about to all the babies
• 41:48
  that are created, the IVF, God's children, life, sacred,
• 41:53
  beautiful and the children that are right now in in frozen.
• 41:58
  There's a million babies, estimated embryos, human lives,
• 42:01
  sons and daughters who are frozen.
• 42:03
  And there is this effort being made for by some to do embryo
• 42:06
  adoption. We've touched on it on the show
• 42:09
  before, but we're hoping to do a episode just on what that looks
• 42:12
  like. Because for some couples who
• 42:14
  struggle with infertility, that can be potentially a beautiful
• 42:17
  path because it's a form of adoption, right?
• 42:21
  I'm curious your take, though, on adoption, because you're
• 42:24
  talking about your relationship with Jessica.
• 42:26
  And she didn't ever adopt you, it sounds like formally, but she
• 42:30
  was their caretaking for you and as best she knew how.
• 42:32
  And which was, in a way, a beautiful thing because she was
• 42:35
  not your biological mother, but she was willing to help raise
• 42:38
  you, which takes a tremendous amount of love to do that.
• 42:42
  And I do hear some people criticize adoption by saying
• 42:46
  that, oh, they're not going to bond as well with their parents.
• 42:49
  And we've interviewed adoptees before and they're like, of
• 42:51
  course there's, you know, for many of them, a question in
• 42:54
  their hearts of what I want to know my biological mother,
• 42:57
  father. But there's tremendous beauty
• 43:00
  and joy and a feeling of being loved by their adoptive parents.
• 43:03
  Like you can have, there's an amazing adoptive parents and
• 43:07
  adoptees out there and family. So it's a beautiful, it's a
• 43:10
  beautiful thing. But it does have the, you know,
• 43:16
  that that element of this is not, you know, there is a
• 43:19
  missing bio parent in the picture.
• 43:22
  And so what's your take on adoption?
• 43:25
  And I know you come across that in your ministry and I'm sure
• 43:29
  you've talked to many adoptees. Well, this is the tension that
• 43:32
  we live in, in a fallen world that we have these situations
• 43:35
  and circumstances where there is no perfect solution.
• 43:38
  There is no, well, that was really challenging and we're
• 43:41
  going to do this and everything is rainbows and butterflies and
• 43:43
  sunshine. It's like, unfortunately, that's
• 43:44
  not there. But once again, this is where we
• 43:47
  start talking about especially in a lot of everything that's
• 43:49
  happening in our culture right now with Charlie, with politics,
• 43:52
  like we're recognizing there is more than just what your eye can
• 43:55
  see, your ear can hear, what you can touch and what you can
• 43:58
  taste. We are living in a spiritual
• 44:00
  reality. And so the question is this, if
• 44:03
  there is a child who doesn't have a home and they're going to
• 44:07
  be adopted, would you rather have that child go to a group
• 44:10
  home, a family that has 20 other children?
• 44:14
  Or do you want them to go to a house with people who are
• 44:17
  desiring to love them, provide for them, teach them who Jesus
• 44:21
  is? It's like it's a no brainer.
• 44:23
  So I tell you, when it comes to adoption, it's a rough, it's not
• 44:27
  pretty, it's not smooth. There is no like, man, if we
• 44:30
  just do this one thing, everything else is figured out.
• 44:32
  But I'll tell you this much, there's no perfect answer.
• 44:35
  In that sense. But I want people, I want
• 44:38
  children who are going to go into households with people who
• 44:41
  know who Jesus is and have the heart of the Father, because
• 44:44
  though it might not be their biological father, they're going
• 44:47
  to represent the heart of every person's heavenly Father.
• 44:50
  And if we can get to that place, I think that's how we bring the
• 44:53
  most healing and see the most breakthrough in this area.
• 44:56
  I think that's true and I think from the stories I've heard, and
• 44:59
  again, everyone's story is different.
• 45:00
  There's people raised by their biological parents who suffered
• 45:03
  tremendous trauma. So it's not like, oh, if you're
• 45:05
  adopted, you're going to be traumatized.
• 45:07
  That's not true. I think it really depends on a
• 45:09
  lot of circumstances, the personal, you know, the heart of
• 45:12
  the person, engaging personality.
• 45:14
  There's so many factors. So there's no one-size-fits-all
• 45:17
  with this or one story fits all. But I will say I've I've talked
• 45:21
  to so many adoptees that have had the most beautiful
• 45:24
  experience and some that are, you know, and then others that,
• 45:28
  you know, had to overcome that feeling that wound of like, why
• 45:31
  wasn't I wanted by my bio parent?
• 45:33
  And and then so many in betweens, you know, everybody
• 45:36
  has their own their own path. Look at Queen Esther, right?
• 45:39
  Let's take it to the Bible for a SEC.
• 45:40
  Queen Esther, we don't know much about her parents, but we know
• 45:43
  they pass away. They're not there.
• 45:45
  Her uncle Mordecai adopts her, right?
• 45:47
  Her life story started off horrible, rough, didn't have the
• 45:51
  parents, and then we find her a few pages later.
• 45:54
  She ends up through the supernatural favor of God,
• 45:57
  becoming the queen of a Pagan land.
• 45:59
  Then she gets she gets word that all of her, all the Jews, all
• 46:03
  her people are going to be massacred.
• 46:06
  Mordecai, her uncle, comes here and says, Esther, you are the
• 46:09
  only really what he's saying is you're the only one in a
• 46:11
  position of power that can speak to the king to turn this edict
• 46:14
  around. Queen Esther basically gives him
• 46:16
  what I call like a cute Christian response.
• 46:18
  Like I can't really do it. Like I'm just the queen.
• 46:21
  I'm just a woman. Like if I go to the king, like
• 46:23
  he's not going to listen to me. And Mordecai sends back a
• 46:25
  response. He says, what if you were born
• 46:27
  for such a time as this? In essence saying, what if God
• 46:30
  puts you in this exact position? He's turning with the enemy
• 46:33
  meant for evil and he's going to turn it around for good through
• 46:36
  your life. What does Queen Esther do?
• 46:37
  We know the story. She approaches the king.
• 46:39
  The king hears a request and flips an entire edict so that
• 46:43
  all the Jews are saved. Not only are they saved, but
• 46:46
  then they're able to be blessed through that situation.
• 46:48
  So what's the point with all this?
• 46:50
  Regardless, once again of what your family situation look like,
• 46:53
  we are not affirming and we don't want broken families by
• 46:55
  any means. But the point is this, if even
• 46:57
  if you found yourself in that situation, which gosh, you
• 46:59
  probably know the stats on this, how many people don't have a
• 47:02
  father in the household? How many people don't have two
• 47:04
  biological parents? Then if you add another layer,
• 47:06
  how many actually were raised with spirit filled followers of
• 47:09
  Jesus? You know it just gets smaller
• 47:10
  and smaller. But man it once you surrender
• 47:13
  your heart to God and you surrender your heart to Jesus
• 47:15
  and you get filled with Him, your life is no longer dictated
• 47:19
  by the world, no longer dictated by politicians.
• 47:22
  Your life is now led by the Spirit of God.
• 47:24
  Those who are, this is Romans day, those who are children of
• 47:26
  God are led by the Spirit of God.
• 47:28
  So there is hope, there is encouragement, there's destiny,
• 47:30
  there's a call on your life, but it starts with surrendering to
• 47:33
  God in the midst of the brokenness.
• 47:35
  You know, I think that's the hope and the beauty that I see
• 47:37
  in the midst of all these challenging, you know, topics
• 47:39
  that we're talking about. I think if we had a little bit
• 47:43
  more faith, right, and we have to just pray everyday.
• 47:45
  God, give me faith like I believe, help my unbelief, you
• 47:47
  know, like give me the gift of your vision, really like vision
• 47:51
  and hope in you and faith in you.
• 47:53
  God has greater plans than we can imagine for our life.
• 47:57
  And that doesn't mean that, you know, we're all going to be like
• 48:00
  rich and famous and have no suffering.
• 48:02
  That's not what that means. What that means is we are going
• 48:05
  to live an adventure of becoming who we are.
• 48:09
  Called to be. And experiencing more joy and
• 48:12
  peace and purpose then we could even fathom if we are following
• 48:18
  God. And if we don't do that, we are
• 48:22
  not going to live the life or become the person we were
• 48:25
  designed to be. And what a tragedy that is if we
• 48:28
  live halfway, if we live lukewarm, if we just throw the
• 48:32
  ultimately throw our life away or try to live it by our design,
• 48:35
  constantly clinging and, you know, clutching at whatever we,
• 48:38
  our little ideas are. Because God's ideas are always
• 48:40
  best, better. They're always bigger.
• 48:42
  They're always better for us as well As for the rest of the
• 48:45
  world. 100% yeah. And I always tell people like
• 48:48
  the reality is you have to understand not every moment is
• 48:51
  created equal under heaven. What I mean by that, the
• 48:54
  generation that we are living in right now, we have such an
• 48:58
  incredible opportunity. There is no, there's never been
• 49:01
  a perfect generation or a perfect world.
• 49:03
  There's chaos, there's plagues, there's famine, there's there's
• 49:06
  upheaval in nations. But here's the point.
• 49:09
  Right now we are living and I believe in a generation where
• 49:12
  the Saints of the past, the men and women of God who have gone
• 49:16
  before us, the great cloud of witnesses that we see in the
• 49:18
  book of Hebrews. I believe they're standing on
• 49:21
  the edge of having looking at us and saying you have no clue the
• 49:25
  opportunity you have. We have a wide open window right
• 49:28
  now in America, in the nations to see, I believe, one of the
• 49:32
  greatest harvest of souls that we've ever seen in all of
• 49:34
  recorded. History.
• 49:35
  I agree. Physically more.
• 49:36
  There's more people on Earth than there have ever been on
• 49:38
  Earth before. Yeah, think about that.
• 49:40
  The souls that can be saved. But here's my mind is that we
• 49:44
  are God's solution on the earth. If we don't open our mouths,
• 49:48
  very little happens. If we don't move our feet, very
• 49:51
  little action is taken. And when I look at a life of
• 49:54
  somebody like you, Lila, right, People see you now.
• 49:56
  Oh, Lila, she's pro-life. She speaks at all things.
• 49:58
  You are just another woman, just another mom.
• 50:01
  But what happened? God birthed.
• 50:04
  It's something on the inside of you that was beyond yourself.
• 50:07
  To move. To move to speak, to stand for
• 50:10
  God. And now look where you're at
• 50:12
  5-10, fifteen years later. And so I think we have to take
• 50:15
  people off of like, just like I honor men and women of God who
• 50:18
  have standings and, and podcasts and all that.
• 50:20
  But we, we were just being faithful in our everyday life.
• 50:23
  That's such what you're saying resonates so deeply.
• 50:25
  And I've been actually thinking about this a lot since Charlie's
• 50:28
  murder. And and like probably the thing
• 50:31
  that like annoys me the most or whatever is when people are
• 50:34
  like, good job, Lila, like keep it up.
• 50:37
  Like you're, you're doing this out there and like, I'm going to
• 50:39
  go not do it, not do any, like I'm going to.
• 50:42
  Again, not that they're not doing anything, but kind of this
• 50:44
  sense of pathetic, apathetic. And again, I'm not saying this
• 50:48
  everybody needs to do a podcast or do pro-life activism per SE,
• 50:51
  but I do think we're all supposed to get out there.
• 50:54
  I do think everybody who who listens right now should pray
• 50:57
  outside an abortion clinic at least one time and pray against
• 51:01
  the murder of children and for the saving of souls and lives.
• 51:04
  I do think that we are all called to speak the truth about
• 51:08
  life, sex, marriage, the faith, not just one time in our life,
• 51:13
  you know, and some like 1 moment when we had this one
• 51:16
  opportunity, but find ways, ask God on a daily basis to use us
• 51:20
  to share the gospel. And if we don't invite God to
• 51:24
  use us and be open to the Spirit and be courageous and taking
• 51:28
  opportunities and, you know, putting ourselves out there
• 51:30
  occasionally, what are we doing? And I won't even take it a step
• 51:33
  further, right? Like it's so easy in our
• 51:35
  culture, especially because we live in like the highlight
• 51:37
  culture with social media, which we both use social media full
• 51:40
  time, but it's so easy to get stuck in like titles and labels,
• 51:45
  right? Like, well, Ross is a Christian,
• 51:46
  Lila's a Catholic. This person believes that like
• 51:48
  just pause for a SEC. We all agree on Jesus dying on
• 51:52
  the cross, raising from the dead, and we believe in the
• 51:54
  power of the Holy Spirit. Let's start there because so
• 51:57
  many people are so focused on having are.
• 51:59
  You with me? Yes.
• 52:01
  So many people are focused on the outside issues where I'm
• 52:04
  like, listen, the people in the world who aren't saved, they
• 52:08
  could give a RIP if I'm a Christian and you're a Catholic.
• 52:10
  They don't. I'm a Christian too.
• 52:12
  Is a thing like Catholic? Catholic just means universal
• 52:14
  Christian. Exactly, but what I'm saying is
• 52:16
  that's the label and the ideology of people is they're
• 52:19
  just going to say, well, you're that you're this, you're this
• 52:21
  you're that. I'm like pause for a second.
• 52:23
  The outside world doesn't care. They are hurting, they are
• 52:26
  broken. They're on the path that leads
• 52:28
  to destruction in hell and you and I as followers of Jesus
• 52:31
  Christ, filled with the spirit. How the think about this for a
• 52:35
  SEC. We get the opportunity to
• 52:37
  partner with God now in our Christian sphere.
• 52:40
  That's just like normal language, but just just like
• 52:43
  zoom out for a SEC. You're telling me that God of
• 52:45
  the universe gives you and I as sons and daughters an
• 52:48
  opportunity to operate with his spirit on this side of eternity.
• 52:52
  That is a mind blowing thought. So when people see me like Ross
• 52:56
  is the preacher evangelist, like pause.
• 52:57
  I was just being faithful at the grocery store at 9:00 PM.
• 53:00
  I was just preaching Jesus at the gym, and God decided to pull
• 53:03
  the curtain away and give me a stage.
• 53:04
  It might not be a stage for you, but I'll tell you this.
• 53:06
  Much we might not have the stage tomorrow, like we're not even
• 53:09
  promised tomorrow. I, I might not be here tomorrow.
• 53:11
  We don't know. We just do what we we're
• 53:13
  faithful with the day. Yeah.
• 53:15
  And so I just want, I want this to be like a commissioning to
• 53:18
  people. No matter where you stand on
• 53:20
  what church you go to, how you practice worship, whatever the
• 53:23
  case may be, obviously there's heresy that that's that's a
• 53:26
  whole other topic. But the point is this.
• 53:28
  Let's keep the basics, the basics.
• 53:30
  And let's believe that if we actually open our mouth and
• 53:32
  share Jesus everywhere we go, that people will be saved and we
• 53:35
  can reform our society together so that Jesus prayer Father, let
• 53:39
  your Kingdom come, let your will be done on earth as it is in
• 53:41
  heaven would actually take place in our generation.
• 53:43
  And that's what I believe for every time we do an outdoor
• 53:45
  event, every time I go to a public high school, every time
• 53:47
  you go to a pro-life debate. We are believing for the Kingdom
• 53:51
  of Heaven to become the reality on the earth we're living in
• 53:53
  today. Amen.
• 53:56
  Amen. I think there's so much
• 53:58
  opportunity. That's a beautiful way to think
• 54:00
  about it, of what God can do in our own lives, in the lives of
• 54:02
  the ones we love in our culture. And I think we're just all
• 54:06
  called to get into the end of the game, as they say, one one
• 54:10
  way or another. I do like, I mean, we talk about
• 54:12
  this a lot on the show. Like I do pray for more
• 54:14
  Christian unity because I do think we have unity in the
• 54:16
  spirit. We have unity and core
• 54:18
  theological teachings of the faith with the Bible, many
• 54:21
  aspects of what the Bible teaches.
• 54:23
  I I, I just love the Eucharist so much.
• 54:25
  Jesus is I believe Jesus is I believe the Eucharist is Jesus's
• 54:29
  body, blood, soul and divinity. I got to go to Mass this morning
• 54:31
  and receive him like, you know, so I'm like, I want everyone to
• 54:34
  have that. But anyways, that's that.
• 54:36
  I'm sure we could talk about that more.
• 54:38
  And you have you clearly are given the gift of his Spirit and
• 54:41
  I see God's spirit and blows were well, you know, and it
• 54:45
  unites us and we are united in baptism and what a blessing that
• 54:49
  we have been given that we are now called to to share. 100% you
• 54:55
  know the truth is this is like we are living in the beginning
• 54:59
  stages of awakening. There is no more questioning
• 55:01
  that like when you see that. In our country, what's happening
• 55:04
  right now? I agree.
• 55:05
  You know, when you see what's happening where people are
• 55:07
  saying I'm going to church for the first time, I've never read
• 55:09
  a Bible, I'm buying a Bible, I'm taking my family to church for
• 55:11
  the first time in 20 years. Whatever the circumstance is
• 55:14
  like that is not just because there was a tragedy, like yes,
• 55:17
  there was a tragedy. What happened with Charlie
• 55:19
  Kerith? That's because there is a seed
• 55:21
  that has been planted in this nation of America of revolt.
• 55:24
  Every generation, first great awakening, second great
• 55:26
  awakening, Azusa three, are people perfect?
• 55:29
  Our nation's perfect? Of course not.
• 55:31
  But the truth is this, our generation, we have not seen
• 55:35
  that yet. So you know what one of my
• 55:36
  greatest prayers is in this season of life is God.
• 55:38
  Give our generation a story of our own.
• 55:41
  Instead of just fighting and standing with you and I, we will
• 55:44
  fight and stand to the last breath in our body.
• 55:47
  I want to see a mass awakening where eyes where the eye where
• 55:51
  the hearts of people are open to behold and see Jesus for who he
• 55:54
  truly is. And what a privilege.
• 55:56
  Once again, an opportunity that we have right now to say, you
• 55:59
  know what God, whatever that looks like in my life, whether
• 56:03
  it's 1000 people or my Co worker next to me, I'm going to be
• 56:06
  faithful with that. I'm going to be faithful.
• 56:08
  I'm going to obey and I just, I just feel like there's this
• 56:11
  moment that we have to step into as the body of Christ or we
• 56:14
  don't just say, OK, cool. We got a president that, you
• 56:16
  know, kind of agrees with us. And you know, we got the, we got
• 56:19
  this happening. And it's like, no, no, just take
• 56:21
  us, just zoom out for a second. This is such a special moment we
• 56:24
  live in on the earth. Don't miss your moment and
• 56:28
  receive the call and destiny of God on your life.
• 56:30
  And so I just pray that this would be like that commissioning
• 56:33
  that people would get sent out. They would get hurled forth into
• 56:36
  whatever sphere that God has for them, filled with the Spirit of
• 56:39
  God. And I'm just telling you it's
• 56:40
  one of the best times on the earth to be a follower of Jesus.
• 56:45
  We have the wind is not blowing against us.
• 56:47
  It is blowing from behind us. And sometimes this type of
• 56:50
  language people don't like because it it takes like
• 56:52
  priority off God. I'm like, no, God is God.
• 56:54
  I'm just a man. But I do have his spirit and I
• 56:57
  do have his anointing. And I want to do everything that
• 56:59
  Bible tells me that I can do, so let's do it.
• 57:02
  I, I totally agree. I think it is a special time of
• 57:05
  revival. And I mean, so in, in our
• 57:08
  Catholic faith right now, there's the Jubilee year every
• 57:11
  25 years is a Jubilee year. Special grace is Jubilee of
• 57:15
  hope. There's the Eucharistic Congress
• 57:16
  that just where they took Jesus in the Eucharist and they
• 57:20
  actually proceeded through the streets of LA, They went to
• 57:23
  downtown LA. This was a few weeks back when
• 57:25
  there were even some of the riots, more recent riots they
• 57:31
  had. But Jesus here in Orange County,
• 57:33
  they so there's, there's all of that and we're seeing like
• 57:36
  thousands of people, like there were 50,000 people last year.
• 57:40
  I got to be there with for the Eucharistic Congress in
• 57:43
  Indianapolis. And now what you're describing
• 57:46
  there is all of this. I mean, there was a 15% increase
• 57:49
  in church and mass attendance the weekend after Charlie was
• 57:52
  murdered. Incredible.
• 57:54
  You kind of mentioned that. You've mentioned you're seeing
• 57:57
  though yourself because you're on the streets, You're
• 57:59
  proclaiming the gospel on the streets.
• 58:00
  You're leading people in worship on the streets.
• 58:02
  Tell me more about what you're seeing.
• 58:05
  I also want you to hear you explain what the Azusa Street is
• 58:08
  because you mentioned that. I think a lot of people don't
• 58:10
  know what that is. OK, yeah, so the Lord kind of
• 58:12
  gave me 3 s s. We're talking about this off off
• 58:14
  camera school streets and Saints.
• 58:16
  So last year I was asked to preach at a public high school
• 58:19
  in California. It sounds crazy, right?
• 58:20
  California, a public public school preach the gospel.
• 58:24
  And I'll be honest, I'm just, I'm just transparent.
• 58:26
  I said yes because I was like, I'm a preacher.
• 58:28
  I've if I say no, that looks bad.
• 58:30
  That's honestly my thought. How do you get asked?
• 58:32
  To speak at A at a. Public school as a.
• 58:34
  Preacher, there's a Christian Organism, a Christian club on
• 58:36
  the campus. They can invite a guest speaker.
• 58:38
  So there's this one student and one faculty member.
• 58:41
  You can start a club at any public school and then they can
• 58:43
  just fill out a guest speaker form.
• 58:44
  Boom. So I got invited to speak and it
• 58:46
  was so powerful. I did a few schools like, oh
• 58:48
  this is awesome, you know, whatever.
• 58:49
  At work, you just go and speak in a classroom and like students
• 58:51
  can come for pizza or whatever. So there's a, so they usually
• 58:54
  have the clubs during lunch hour.
• 58:55
  So when the bell rings for lunch, the Christian club just
• 58:58
  starts inviting students. They usually have free pizza,
• 59:00
  something like that. And then you get about 20
• 59:02
  minutes and you know, they can do whatever you want.
• 59:03
  They can do a Bible study, they can preach the gospel, they can
• 59:06
  pray whatever, you know, whatever they felt led to do.
• 59:08
  And obviously they, they know, bring me and I'm going to preach
• 59:10
  the Gospel, right? And so I did a few schools and
• 59:13
  it was powerful, right? Like God moved.
• 59:14
  Some students really encountered Jesus.
• 59:16
  And you know, it was, it was an amazing time.
• 59:18
  Well, I was at a church about a month later after this and this
• 59:21
  girl walks up to me. She's like, Hey, Ross, you
• 59:22
  Remember Me? And I'm like, I'm so sorry.
• 59:24
  Like I don't remember, but like, just remind me how we met.
• 59:27
  She's like, well, I was going to this Christian club you spoke
• 59:29
  at. These are her exact words.
• 59:30
  She said I hated every second of it.
• 59:32
  She said, I thought God was fake.
• 59:34
  I didn't like the pastor. All these things, right?
• 59:36
  She goes, Ross, I don't know how to explain this to you.
• 59:38
  Now keep in mind, she she doesn't know Christianese,
• 59:41
  right? She doesn't, she's she's not in
• 59:43
  church. She she's not raised in a
• 59:44
  Christian household. None of that.
• 59:46
  She was. Ross.
• 59:46
  I was sitting at the top of the steps because at some of the
• 59:48
  schools we speak in the gymnasium.
• 59:49
  So she's like, I'm sitting, I'm sitting at the top of the steps.
• 59:52
  She said when you gave the moment to respond to the Gospel.
• 59:55
  I don't know how else to explain this to you, but the best
• 59:58
  language I have is it felt like somebody wrapped a rope around
• 1:00:00
  me and pulled me down the steps. She said I gave my heart to
• 1:00:03
  Jesus. I went to church that next
• 1:00:05
  weekend and decided to get baptized and I talked to my
• 1:00:09
  younger. I know I talked to my younger
• 1:00:10
  sister, preached the gospel to her and she got saved.
• 1:00:13
  My mom just split up with my dad, started living a lesbian
• 1:00:16
  lifestyle and said when I told her about what happened she said
• 1:00:19
  she wanted to know who Jesus was.
• 1:00:21
  When I heard that story, it took me from like God and.
• 1:00:24
  You had no idea until. No clue.
• 1:00:26
  It took me out of this, like you know this like cute
• 1:00:28
  Christianity, like God. Also in the high schools you're
• 1:00:30
  doing something so good to like, wait a minute God, there is a
• 1:00:34
  move of your spirit. Long story short, I went to
• 1:00:37
  about 4030 to 40 high schools In the last year across four
• 1:00:39
  different states. We saw over 1000 students
• 1:00:41
  surrender their heart to Jesus. I just got in touch with about
• 1:00:44
  100 other high schools for this next upcoming school year.
• 1:00:47
  So number one, God is moving in the public schools of America.
• 1:00:50
  The gospel is being preached, the presence of God is being
• 1:00:53
  encountered. I'm talking the bell rings for
• 1:00:55
  them to go to class. I had a line of an hour long of
• 1:00:57
  students who are not in church coming up to me with tears in
• 1:01:00
  their eyes saying, Ross, I'm going through this.
• 1:01:02
  Ross, can you help me understand this?
• 1:01:04
  Ross, I want to know who Jesus is.
• 1:01:05
  This is not normal. This is not normal, right?
• 1:01:09
  Secondly. You've never seen anything like.
• 1:01:10
  Never seen. I mean, there's obviously
• 1:01:11
  organizations that I know that have been in high schools, but
• 1:01:13
  I'm talking on this mass. Scale not normal.
• 1:01:16
  And I mean pro-life work, we're adjacent to a lot of like
• 1:01:19
  evangelical ministries and things like that and pro, you
• 1:01:21
  know, chastity and whatever. And there is something
• 1:01:24
  happening, yes, in the last two weeks, but in the last year plus
• 1:01:29
  like there is something happening.
• 1:01:30
  Yes. And so then pair that with the
• 1:01:32
  streets, that's where it all started for me in 2020 when
• 1:01:35
  Governor Newsom in the state of California that we live and say
• 1:01:37
  you can't go to church, you can't worship, you can't take
• 1:01:39
  communion, you can't do anything.
• 1:01:41
  I was like, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
• 1:01:43
  You're, you can't dictate how we decide to worship.
• 1:01:47
  That is up to the Lord, not up to you.
• 1:01:49
  And So what we did is we started doing these outdoor events.
• 1:01:52
  Imagine there's a full sound system on the beach and we
• 1:01:55
  started worshipping, praying, talking about Jesus, sharing the
• 1:01:58
  gospel. Will it turn into what we now
• 1:02:00
  know as California will be saved?
• 1:02:01
  We did. We did about 34 events and four
• 1:02:04
  for years. Owl outdoors.
• 1:02:05
  We shut down Hollywood Blvd. 2000 Christians showed up.
• 1:02:08
  Wow. Huntington Beach.
• 1:02:09
  We went to San Francisco City Hall the week after the largest
• 1:02:12
  pride festival. So many other cities.
• 1:02:14
  How do you get the word out? How do people know it's
• 1:02:16
  happening? Through social media and
• 1:02:17
  mobilizing local churches, pastors.
• 1:02:19
  Used to be like, hey, we want to invite you guys out.
• 1:02:21
  We're going to be worshipping God on the beach.
• 1:02:22
  We're like, hey, we want to unite the church.
• 1:02:24
  We don't. We just, if you call yourself a
• 1:02:27
  follower of Jesus and you want to see people save, come join
• 1:02:29
  us. That's all we would say.
• 1:02:31
  And it started with 200 and then in two years it grew to 2000.
• 1:02:35
  And so the streets, the purpose of that is, is you can see,
• 1:02:37
  especially in American history, the first great awakening,
• 1:02:40
  second great awakening and then I'll talk about as you see here.
• 1:02:42
  Give me 5 seconds. The men and women of God of the
• 1:02:44
  past, when awakening hit, they weren't just inside a building.
• 1:02:48
  They were taking their voice to the streets.
• 1:02:50
  Why? Well, number one, they were
• 1:02:52
  shifting public opinion. Number 2, they were bringing the
• 1:02:55
  presence of God to people that might not ever step foot into a
• 1:02:57
  church building. And #3 what happens is worship
• 1:03:01
  is what's going on in heaven. So when you take worship to the
• 1:03:03
  streets, all of a sudden darkness starts to leave,
• 1:03:06
  Depression leaves, anxiety has to go.
• 1:03:08
  We've seen people delivered. I mean, we've seen miracles,
• 1:03:10
  We've seen everything. So that's why we're doing that,
• 1:03:12
  because we want to take the presence of God into every
• 1:03:15
  sphere of society, schools, streets, churches, beaches,
• 1:03:18
  parks, wherever, wherever it may be.
• 1:03:20
  And that's what kind of started that whole journey for us.
• 1:03:23
  Wow. And then Azusa St.
• 1:03:24
  Azusa St. Yeah, credible story is about
• 1:03:26
  the 19 O 319 O 5:00. Somewhere in there there was a
• 1:03:29
  black man. Why do I say that?
• 1:03:30
  Why do I bring up his race? Because at that time,
• 1:03:32
  segregation and racism was at an all time high in America.
• 1:03:36
  There's a man by the name of William Seymour and he was
• 1:03:38
  living somewhere, I believe it was on the East Coast.
• 1:03:40
  And he was he wanted to learn more about the Holy Spirit.
• 1:03:43
  Now at that time and even even today, this is this is a
• 1:03:45
  controversial topic, but I'll just share the story for the
• 1:03:47
  sake of time. And so he wanted to learn more
• 1:03:50
  about the Holy Spirit. And so he went to this like
• 1:03:52
  theology class and he said, Hey, I want to sit in in this class.
• 1:03:55
  Well, he was the only black man in the whole class.
• 1:03:57
  So the professor told him, because you're black, you can't
• 1:03:59
  sit in here. Now he could have easily in that
• 1:04:01
  that's obviously sin. We don't agree with that as
• 1:04:03
  follows of Jesus. He could have easily went home
• 1:04:05
  and said, God, I tried God, I I showed up, you know, pity party.
• 1:04:09
  But you know what? He.
• 1:04:10
  Did. Yep, pity party.
• 1:04:12
  He sat outside the classroom and learned about the Holy Spirit,
• 1:04:15
  learned about the Scriptures. He he still learned, heard from
• 1:04:18
  the. He wasn't allowed in the
• 1:04:20
  classroom because he was black, so he sat outside just enough so
• 1:04:23
  he can hear. Long story short, he moved to
• 1:04:25
  Los Angeles in 19 O 419 O 5. The church invites him to
• 1:04:29
  preach. He preaches on the power of the
• 1:04:30
  Holy Spirit and they didn't like it.
• 1:04:32
  So he preached in the morning. He was supposed to come back at
• 1:04:34
  night. When he came back at night, they
• 1:04:36
  locked. They locked.
• 1:04:36
  They literally locked the church doors on him and said you cannot
• 1:04:39
  preach here. So he went down the street to a
• 1:04:41
  house called Bonnie Bray. Bonnie Bray St.
• 1:04:42
  Bonnie Bray House started a prayer movement with 10 people.
• 1:04:45
  In about a week or two, it turned into hundreds of people
• 1:04:47
  coming to this prayer meeting. They moved into a building on
• 1:04:50
  Azusa St. which is a street in Los Angeles, downtown LA.
• 1:04:52
  And it led to a worldwide revival.
• 1:04:54
  Miracles were happening. People were getting saved.
• 1:04:57
  News media would come and encounter Jesus.
• 1:05:00
  I mean, just incredible stories that led to what we would call
• 1:05:03
  the Pentecostal movement. And now for the last 100 years,
• 1:05:06
  this one revival has touched almost every nation on the
• 1:05:09
  earth. So us Californians and us who
• 1:05:12
  have history in LA, we are living in what we like to call a
• 1:05:15
  land of revival, rich with moves of God.
• 1:05:18
  And so we're not trying to do something that's never been
• 1:05:21
  done. We want to re dig those wells.
• 1:05:23
  We want to see the outpoint of God's Spirit take place and not
• 1:05:26
  just touch us, not just touch America, but touch every nation
• 1:05:30
  on the earth. There is an opportunity for us,
• 1:05:35
  thanks be to God, and it's very exciting to see you just saying
• 1:05:39
  yes, whatever, wherever God spirit might move you.
• 1:05:42
  And you're saying yes. I need to go back to your story
• 1:05:45
  for a moment because you talked about experiencing this love and
• 1:05:49
  then later you'd connect it to fatherhood, which was a missing
• 1:05:52
  piece of your childhood. Can you share more about what
• 1:05:55
  that was like to in your mind realize, oh, I didn't have a
• 1:05:58
  dad? God is my dad, my heavenly
• 1:06:01
  Father. This is what it means to have a
• 1:06:03
  father. This is what it means for my
• 1:06:04
  identity as a man. Yeah, let me start with the end.
• 1:06:06
  Let me start with the end 1st and we'll reverse engineer it,
• 1:06:09
  so to speak. Many people, when they come to
• 1:06:11
  God, they see themselves as servants, but not as sons.
• 1:06:14
  What do I mean by that? We do serve God.
• 1:06:16
  We are called to bear fruit in our lives.
• 1:06:18
  We are called to the Great Commission.
• 1:06:20
  We are called to lead people to Jesus.
• 1:06:22
  But God doesn't desire relationship with us just so He
• 1:06:24
  can get things out of us. He doesn't need anything from
• 1:06:27
  us. God, he has all power, He's all
• 1:06:30
  sovereign. He can handle it.
• 1:06:32
  He's a I call him, he's a big boy, right?
• 1:06:34
  He can take care of it. He's the God of the universe.
• 1:06:37
  So why does that matter? Because if you only see yourself
• 1:06:39
  as a servant, then you're only confident in your identity up
• 1:06:42
  until what you can accomplish. Well, I spoke to 10,000 people.
• 1:06:47
  I'm doing really good. Well, what happens if you don't
• 1:06:48
  speak ever again? Oh, man, I'm a horrible this.
• 1:06:50
  I'm a horrible that. No, that's because you have a
• 1:06:52
  servant mentality. Sonship is no matter what I do,
• 1:06:57
  the Lord loves me that that doesn't mean we have greasy
• 1:06:59
  grace right? Where we just live in sin.
• 1:07:01
  We take advantage of people. We do what?
• 1:07:02
  No, no, it means this, that at the end of the day, I'm a son or
• 1:07:05
  daughter of God. So everything I do in my life
• 1:07:07
  flows from that place. What did Jesus say?
• 1:07:09
  He said out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth will speak.
• 1:07:12
  So ultimately, whatever is on the inside of you will
• 1:07:15
  eventually come out of you, right.
• 1:07:17
  So this is a big factor for followers of Jesus because I'm
• 1:07:20
  not basing my relationship on God on what I can do or what I
• 1:07:24
  can accomplish, but I'm basing it on what he's done for me.
• 1:07:28
  And that frees me up because if, if this podcast releases and
• 1:07:31
  Lila says, man, that was the worst podcast ever, I know you,
• 1:07:34
  I don't know, you wouldn't do that.
• 1:07:35
  Not going to. Happen.
• 1:07:36
  If I'm based on being a servant, I'm going to think, man, did you
• 1:07:40
  got? How many views?
• 1:07:41
  Am I going to get, you know, is my social media falling going to
• 1:07:43
  grow all this? But if I'm a son, I go.
• 1:07:45
  Even if Lila thought that was the worst, my father knows my
• 1:07:48
  heart and he hears why I said what I said, because I want
• 1:07:51
  people to know who he. Is and he's the one who matters,
• 1:07:54
  right? So He's the one like nothing.
• 1:07:56
  All of the praise or the worldly fruit as we can see it, even if
• 1:08:00
  it's good fruit compared to the heavenly reward of being a
• 1:08:05
  daughter and a son of our Father in heaven, that alone being in
• 1:08:09
  his house as a son or his daughter, nothing else matters
• 1:08:12
  in comparison. So how does that connect to my
• 1:08:14
  upbringing and the question you asked me when I started to
• 1:08:17
  recognize before Jesus that I had, I didn't know as an orphan
• 1:08:19
  mentality, but that's what I had when I met the Father.
• 1:08:23
  Now suddenly I'm like, let me give you a practical example.
• 1:08:26
  Growing up, I had food at my house, but when I would go to
• 1:08:28
  other people's houses, I'd I'd try to eat as much food as I
• 1:08:30
  could, get as many snacks, drink as much as I could.
• 1:08:33
  Why? Because I felt like I don't know
• 1:08:35
  what's going to happen tomorrow. I don't know if I'll have
• 1:08:37
  enough. It was this me against the world
• 1:08:39
  mentality. Let me try to get as much as I
• 1:08:41
  can because no one else is going to take care of me.
• 1:08:43
  But when I met the Father, Father in heaven, now I'm like,
• 1:08:46
  it's not up to me. He's going to take care of me.
• 1:08:48
  I'll never go hungry. I'll never bake for bread.
• 1:08:51
  If I'm submitted to him and I'm pursuing Him and I'm walking in
• 1:08:53
  holiness and righteousness, and I'm filled with His spirit, I
• 1:08:56
  will always be taken care of by my Father in heaven.
• 1:08:59
  So that's how that shift really took place for me, because not
• 1:09:01
  only did I feel His love, but I began to experience the fruit of
• 1:09:05
  His love. I felt free in my heart, free in
• 1:09:08
  my mind. I'm not attached to anybody
• 1:09:09
  else. Nobody else can bring me down
• 1:09:13
  because I'm not attached to you. I'm attached to him.
• 1:09:15
  So that was such a hard healing. And let's be honest, I'm, I
• 1:09:19
  think there's always these processes we're in.
• 1:09:21
  I'm not saying I'm perfect. I'm not saying I'm 100% in this
• 1:09:23
  area. Man.
• 1:09:24
  I've definitely grown so much from being an orphan to becoming
• 1:09:28
  a son and recognizing that God is my father.
• 1:09:31
  And if I have him, who can be against me?
• 1:09:33
  Did you end up finding a father figure?
• 1:09:38
  A mentor that could help you learn more about God the Father
• 1:09:42
  and follow God the Father and and our Lord Jesus Christ.
• 1:09:44
  Thank God for this man named Chris, Chris Adair.
• 1:09:47
  He knows who he is. He was at the first church I got
• 1:09:50
  saved at and for like that six month period, took me out to
• 1:09:53
  eat, brought me over to his house, took me through the
• 1:09:56
  scriptures, was just just being like a father to me.
• 1:09:59
  And then that was like the first season of my life, first year I
• 1:10:02
  got saved. Fast forward, graduate high
• 1:10:03
  school, go through college and now I have a spiritual father is
• 1:10:06
  what I call spiritual father. What I mean by that is just
• 1:10:08
  somebody who I do life with, hang out with his wife and kids
• 1:10:12
  challenges me. He's not impressed by my
• 1:10:14
  following. He's not impressed by how great
• 1:10:16
  I preach. He wants to know how my heart's
• 1:10:17
  doing. He wants to know, are you
• 1:10:19
  honoring people? Are you loving people?
• 1:10:21
  Right. So absolutely, I'm a big
• 1:10:24
  opponent of having spiritual leaders in your life who have
• 1:10:27
  walked further than you, have walked longer than you, and who
• 1:10:30
  are willing to share things with you that maybe other people
• 1:10:34
  don't want to share with you. They're more concerned about
• 1:10:36
  your heart than what your hand can do, right?
• 1:10:39
  So yeah, I'm so grateful for those men of God in my life.
• 1:10:42
  That's so beautiful. I, I feel like one of the number
• 1:10:45
  one pieces of advice we give on this show, especially when we've
• 1:10:47
  done like some call in segments is get a spiritual guide, get a
• 1:10:50
  spiritual director, get a mentor.
• 1:10:52
  We are not made to do this alone.
• 1:10:54
  And we need people who can really know us well and speak
• 1:10:58
  truth to us. Not that they're going to tell
• 1:11:00
  us everything and tell us exactly what God wants us to do,
• 1:11:02
  because God will reveal that over time and guide us one step
• 1:11:06
  at a time. But to just help us grow in
• 1:11:08
  virtue is really a big part of that.
• 1:11:11
  Think of the family, uni, right God's of original design for
• 1:11:14
  people before you ever talk about the church and spiritual
• 1:11:17
  fathers. What did he do?
• 1:11:18
  He put a father in the house who led spiritually.
• 1:11:21
  He put a mother to be a helper. Come alongside that.
• 1:11:23
  Then there's children who, what are they doing?
• 1:11:25
  They're receiving like what we would call an impartation.
• 1:11:27
  They're receiving a spiritual deposit from their parents who
• 1:11:30
  have walked longer and further and have experience, right?
• 1:11:33
  That's God's original design. And then then when the church
• 1:11:36
  comes in, he now says, hey, all right, there's something that's
• 1:11:39
  going to be similar. It doesn't overtake the family.
• 1:11:41
  It doesn't replace the family unit, but it's very similar to
• 1:11:44
  the family unit. Why?
• 1:11:45
  Because we are the body of Christ.
• 1:11:47
  Some are the arms, some of the legs, some of the ears, some of
• 1:11:49
  their mouth. But at the end of the day, we
• 1:11:51
  all come under the head. Who?
• 1:11:52
  Jesus Christ, So what an opportunity we have.
• 1:11:55
  This is why relationships are so critical.
• 1:11:58
  And it's hard because we live in a transactional culture, right?
• 1:12:00
  And I'm not saying you can't be best friends with everybody.
• 1:12:02
  You can't have a relationship with everybody.
• 1:12:04
  Your brain would explode, right? You and I probably understand
• 1:12:06
  that really well. But we can do our best with
• 1:12:09
  those that God has given us around us, first and foremost,
• 1:12:11
  our family and of course, the local body of Christ around us.
• 1:12:14
  Let's build relationship, let's do life, let's be there for one
• 1:12:18
  another. Let's pray, let's get into the
• 1:12:19
  scriptures, let's pursue Jesus together.
• 1:12:22
  And I think our cultures come into that place where we've
• 1:12:24
  tried all the worldly ideas of this and they've fallen shore.
• 1:12:28
  And now people are saying, well, number one, I need to get right
• 1:12:30
  with God. Awesome.
• 1:12:31
  Once you get right with God, get right with people.
• 1:12:34
  What does your mom think about your conversion about your
• 1:12:38
  ministry now? Are you guys still close?
• 1:12:41
  Yeah, it's a very interesting situation because she's one of
• 1:12:43
  my financial donors. She supports the ministry on a
• 1:12:46
  monthly basis. Mama, she loves you.
• 1:12:48
  I'm, I'm convinced that my mom would lay her life down for me.
• 1:12:52
  She loves me that much, you know, so.
• 1:12:53
  Beautiful shout out to mom. Shout out to mom.
• 1:12:55
  I'm so grateful for her. We want to cry.
• 1:12:57
  I know, I know. She she actually got a tattoo on
• 1:13:01
  her wrist when she was like first had me and it's the
• 1:13:04
  sunshine because she says I'm her sunshine.
• 1:13:06
  So my mom's love for me, what a beautiful person.
• 1:13:09
  I know my mom's love for me is so deep and she is somebody who
• 1:13:13
  has always been there for me, supported me and everything.
• 1:13:15
  She obviously didn't agree with when I say don't agree.
• 1:13:18
  She didn't stop me from becoming a Christian or stop me from
• 1:13:20
  coming to church, but she didn't agree with the beliefs.
• 1:13:22
  But she said, I love you so much, Ross, that I'm willing to
• 1:13:26
  take you to church. I'm willing to pay for your
• 1:13:28
  summer camp. I'm willing for, you know, watch
• 1:13:30
  your content, pay financial so financially into your ministry.
• 1:13:35
  And I, I was sharing this with you off off camera.
• 1:13:37
  You know, my mom and I, we've had some really real
• 1:13:40
  conversations about Jesus, about faith, about life, and I believe
• 1:13:44
  she is as close as she's ever been to surrendering her heart
• 1:13:48
  to Jesus. Because once again, in the
• 1:13:49
  culture we live in, because of labels and, and, and, and
• 1:13:53
  communities and groups and politics, it's so easy to see
• 1:13:56
  people based on those things. But at the end of the day, no
• 1:13:58
  matter how loud somebody is for whatever 'cause it is, it goes
• 1:14:01
  against the design of God. There's somebody God desires,
• 1:14:04
  There's somebody that God wants relationship with.
• 1:14:06
  The same way we needed the Father, they need the Father.
• 1:14:09
  And so for me, I'm believing for my mom that she would encounter
• 1:14:12
  the same love, the same embrace, the same God who met me would
• 1:14:17
  meet her. And I believe that day is as
• 1:14:20
  close as it has ever been. And I can't wait to be there in
• 1:14:23
  that moment and just say, mom, I've always loved you.
• 1:14:26
  But welcome to the family of God, welcome to the Kingdom,
• 1:14:30
  welcome to the Spirit, welcome to being saved.
• 1:14:33
  And in one day spend eternity with him.
• 1:14:36
  Your faith in your prayers for her mother a lot and she sounds
• 1:14:40
  really like an amazing human being an amazing person.
• 1:14:45
  Does she if you can share is it is part of what might be holding
• 1:14:49
  her back because first I'm going to say faith is a gift.
• 1:14:53
  Faith is a gift and we can pray that we can have our
• 1:14:55
  strengthened and pray that others receive it right, but
• 1:14:57
  it's a free gift given to us by God.
• 1:15:00
  Has she, has she expressed it all like, OK, what's holding me
• 1:15:04
  back as I'm I'm a lesbian like I'm living?
• 1:15:06
  Is she still actively pursuing that lifestyle?
• 1:15:09
  Is that really for her the biggest question mark?
• 1:15:12
  I know for some Christians, leaving that behind has been
• 1:15:16
  really hard. And today there is there are
• 1:15:18
  some people who are like, I'm a Christian, but I'm gay and I'm
• 1:15:21
  practicing the gay lifestyle. There's a gentleman, Joe Dallas,
• 1:15:24
  who's been on the show. I don't know if we've released
• 1:15:26
  this episode yet, but he was living here in Long Beach and he
• 1:15:31
  was practicing the gay lifestyle and he was saying, I'm a
• 1:15:34
  Christian. Christians are like you can be
• 1:15:36
  gay and Christian and practice the gay lifestyle.
• 1:15:37
  So anyways, I'm asking I'm I'm I'm curious if you can share if
• 1:15:41
  that's part of the part of the hang up for your mom.
• 1:15:43
  I. I don't know fully Rex.
• 1:15:44
  I don't fully know her heart, but I have heard her say things
• 1:15:47
  like well, and, and to me, this is actually a good sign.
• 1:15:50
  What I what I mean by that is she says something to the effect
• 1:15:52
  of, well, you know, I'm living a lesbian lifestyle, which means
• 1:15:54
  she recognizes that. Yeah, that is not compatible
• 1:15:58
  with being a follower of Jesus. That's not God's design.
• 1:16:00
  See, when people say that, I think as Christians we go, oh,
• 1:16:02
  pushing away like, no, no, they're actually closer because
• 1:16:05
  they actually recognize that it's sin.
• 1:16:08
  They recognize that it's not God's heart for them.
• 1:16:10
  So man, that's that's something's the biggest battle,
• 1:16:13
  especially in with the story that you were just talking
• 1:16:14
  about. If somebody says they're a
• 1:16:16
  follower of Jesus and they're also gay, that feels like a more
• 1:16:18
  uphill battle than somebody who's like, Hey, I don't follow
• 1:16:21
  Jesus because this is the lifestyle I live.
• 1:16:23
  Like they are recognizing the hand of God in the way he
• 1:16:26
  designed us. So I think that is definitely
• 1:16:28
  what's holding, you know, my mom back to some degree.
• 1:16:31
  But here's what I share with people like regardless of what
• 1:16:34
  the sin issue is, once God begins to work on that heart,
• 1:16:38
  Paul said it's the apostle. Paul said there's some plants,
• 1:16:40
  some water, God brings the increase.
• 1:16:42
  So my faith is what I've shared the gospel, I've said the name
• 1:16:45
  Jesus. She's encountered the presence
• 1:16:47
  of God through my social media contest.
• 1:16:48
  So there's seeds that have been planted in water and it's just a
• 1:16:51
  matter of time till the increase comes.
• 1:16:53
  Does she listen to your interviews?
• 1:16:55
  I'm not sure how many, but she definitely listened to some.
• 1:16:57
  We love you and respect you. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:16:59
  No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I.
• 1:17:00
  She listened to. I told her once.
• 1:17:02
  I told her what? She's a great guy.
• 1:17:03
  I said every podcast that I go on mom, like I always honor for
• 1:17:06
  you and I always tell I always share how much you've loved me.
• 1:17:09
  And this is just being we're just talking about our stories
• 1:17:13
  and she totally understands. She's super great.
• 1:17:15
  She's super, she's amazing. How do you speak to people who
• 1:17:19
  identify as LGBTQ? I mean, we're talking very
• 1:17:21
  personally about your mom, but let's zoom out.
• 1:17:23
  I mean, there are some numbers that say 1/5 of millennials and
• 1:17:27
  Gen. Z identify as LGBTQ.
• 1:17:30
  It's like become this, like we were talking about earlier, it's
• 1:17:32
  this very public identity that people feel that is their true
• 1:17:37
  identity they're proud of. You know, there's a community
• 1:17:40
  associated with it and you feel connected and you feel
• 1:17:43
  understood. And, you know, there's a
• 1:17:45
  political movement around it. And it's become this huge thing,
• 1:17:48
  more than ever we've seen in our country before.
• 1:17:50
  And your ministry, obviously because of your personal story,
• 1:17:55
  I think has a real impact, can have a real impact there.
• 1:17:59
  What have you seen? Have people talk to you when
• 1:18:02
  they, you know, encountered your stuff.
• 1:18:03
  So like the more we talk, I think actually we have way more
• 1:18:06
  in common than we think. Let me explain what I mean by
• 1:18:07
  that. It's funny because like I'll get
• 1:18:10
  pushed back from like the LGBTQ community.
• 1:18:12
  You hate gays. Like you know, they'll see my
• 1:18:14
  clips talking about my story. You're using your mom's, your
• 1:18:16
  mom is clickbait. I'm like, all I'm doing is just
• 1:18:18
  sharing my story. Like that's your perception.
• 1:18:22
  But then I have even unfortunately some Christians
• 1:18:24
  who like don't agree that I talk about it so or like don't agree
• 1:18:27
  on the means, like being doing it in the streets or sharing it
• 1:18:30
  on podcast. So it's like I have non
• 1:18:32
  believers and believers who are both like coming against it in
• 1:18:35
  some degree. I'm like, that's such an
• 1:18:36
  interesting dynamic. But you know, the reality is
• 1:18:40
  this. I'll, I'll share if you can't
• 1:18:41
  tell. I love sharing real life stories
• 1:18:43
  to bring the point across, to make it more real.
• 1:18:45
  I was at the airport a couple weeks ago and I'm waiting for
• 1:18:48
  this flight. I'm standing next to this guy
• 1:18:50
  and I just start up. I just start up a conversation
• 1:18:52
  and I'm like, oh, like, what do you do?
• 1:18:54
  He's like, oh, like I'm an artist.
• 1:18:55
  And he starts telling me that he paints for the LGBTQ community
• 1:18:58
  and just some sexually graphic things, like, OK, interesting.
• 1:19:01
  And then I go, well, you know, I'm actually in full time
• 1:19:03
  ministry. You can tell he's kind of like,
• 1:19:04
  OK, like, he kind of like, didn't want to talk anymore.
• 1:19:06
  And I was like, I was born by artificial insemination and grew
• 1:19:09
  up in a lesbian house. And he starts going like this,
• 1:19:10
  like, like, OHK, OK, Like, like you're an ally, you know?
• 1:19:14
  And I go, you know, but I don't believe that it's God's design.
• 1:19:16
  And I believe. And then I just start talking
• 1:19:18
  and he, he talks. He conversated with me for a few
• 1:19:20
  minutes and then he walked away. Why do I share that story?
• 1:19:23
  Because everyone wants to share the the stories where it's like
• 1:19:25
  in the moment he gets saved. And I believe in that.
• 1:19:27
  And I've seen that. That on his knees to say Jesus
• 1:19:29
  my life. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 100%.
• 1:19:31
  But the point is this, I think sometimes even as people who
• 1:19:34
  have great hearts and want to share Jesus, when we feel
• 1:19:36
  tension and conversations, we kind of like shrink back a
• 1:19:39
  little bit in those moments of tension.
• 1:19:42
  Don't overcomplicate it, right? Like just simply share the
• 1:19:46
  gospel and, and here's the reality.
• 1:19:48
  This is, this is a phrase that I think is so important,
• 1:19:50
  especially in the in the vein that we walk in.
• 1:19:53
  A lot of people are all about truth with very little love or
• 1:19:56
  people are all about love, love, love, a very little truth.
• 1:19:59
  There we are not just we are called to have both.
• 1:20:02
  So I'm not just saying, hey, man, you're an absolute Sinner.
• 1:20:05
  Horrendous. You're going to go to hell like
• 1:20:07
  nobody's ever going to. I mean, I'm sure there's like 1%
• 1:20:10
  of people like, Oh my gosh, you're right here.
• 1:20:11
  I am Jesus. But like, treat people like
• 1:20:14
  people. Be real with them, be honest
• 1:20:16
  with them, but say it in a way like you actually care about
• 1:20:18
  them. People can tell when you're just
• 1:20:20
  trying to get an ideology to them versus you care about them
• 1:20:23
  from your heart. That's a big difference.
• 1:20:25
  So I always tell people, yeah, share your testimony.
• 1:20:27
  What did God do for you? How did he save you?
• 1:20:29
  What did he deliver you from? How do you heal your family?
• 1:20:31
  How do you heal your body? And then #2 just share the
• 1:20:33
  reality. Like Jesus is a real man.
• 1:20:36
  He really died on a cross. He really did raise from the
• 1:20:38
  dead. And he's coming back one day.
• 1:20:39
  And he did that and he's God, and he did that because he
• 1:20:42
  wanted to restore relationship with the perfect God.
• 1:20:44
  And until we have that as a human, until we have the Spirit
• 1:20:47
  of God in us, there's a void. So if you want that void filled,
• 1:20:50
  I can lead you in that, you know, just keep it simple and be
• 1:20:53
  real with people. And regardless if they walk away
• 1:20:55
  or they receive the, the, the call for us as Christians is
• 1:20:59
  not, we can't dictate what decision they're going to make.
• 1:21:02
  That's not our responsibility. But we do have a responsibility
• 1:21:04
  to open our mouth and share it with them and the choices
• 1:21:06
  between them and the Lord. Amen.
• 1:21:09
  That's beautifully said. You know what my vision is?
• 1:21:11
  What We're all in heaven, of course, ultimately, but in this
• 1:21:15
  life we have your revival. What you're doing on the beaches
• 1:21:19
  and on the streets and in the schools and all the different
• 1:21:21
  people doing their different pieces of that and all the
• 1:21:23
  worship and the conversion that's happening.
• 1:21:25
  And then all of us go together, same liturgy, same Eucharist.
• 1:21:31
  On Sunday, we receive Eucharist together.
• 1:21:33
  We hear the same Gospel, it's all different gospels, it's the
• 1:21:36
  same gospel. Then you go out on the on the
• 1:21:38
  streets, into the beaches and you keep doing everything you're
• 1:21:41
  doing. And we do both because I feel
• 1:21:43
  like someone's like, I'm going to do a Protestant church over
• 1:21:45
  here or I'm going to go do, it's like, let's all go to Mass.
• 1:21:47
  Because I do think that is what the Jesus meant to give us.
• 1:21:50
  It's one gospel. It's said in every language
• 1:21:52
  across the world, on every continent and every nation.
• 1:21:54
  And it's 1 Eucharist. It is one body, one blood, but
• 1:21:58
  at the same time, what you're doing, I believe, is the Spirit
• 1:22:01
  is leading you. Those conversions are real.
• 1:22:05
  And I think there's meant to be Christian unity.
• 1:22:07
  And that's more than just like a nice thing.
• 1:22:09
  We say ecumenical. We're all ecumenical.
• 1:22:11
  It is a shared body. That is the church.
• 1:22:14
  It's one baptism for the remission of sins and it's 1
• 1:22:17
  Eucharist. And then it's also the worship
• 1:22:19
  and the praise and the, you know, the beaches and the, and
• 1:22:22
  the streets and the schools and everything else.
• 1:22:24
  And I just think that is, you know, I was Pat Lincione, you
• 1:22:26
  know, shout out to him. He's a, he's a the mentor of
• 1:22:28
  mine, someone who's amazing. He did this little video, not a
• 1:22:31
  lot of people I think have seen yet.
• 1:22:32
  But he's like, yeah, what if you can do your Protestant church
• 1:22:35
  and worship service, like do that?
• 1:22:37
  Like, of course the Spirit's moving there.
• 1:22:39
  That is clear. But then let's also go to Mass
• 1:22:42
  and receive Eucharist under one body.
• 1:22:44
  And let's all be together and we can all have these different
• 1:22:47
  manifestations of the Spirit and these different, you know,
• 1:22:49
  approaches and ministries. And what would that look like?
• 1:22:52
  What would that tell the world? Well, I know this much.
• 1:22:55
  You know, Psalm 133 says how beautiful, how pleasant it is
• 1:22:58
  when brothers and sisters dwell together in harmony.
• 1:23:01
  It's like the anointing oil that came on to the priest of Aaron
• 1:23:04
  and it started at the top of his head.
• 1:23:06
  It dripped down to his robe. And basically saying this, there
• 1:23:09
  is a, there is an anointing or a presence of God that comes in
• 1:23:13
  the place of unity. And I think what's happening
• 1:23:16
  once again, we don't, we're not trying to piggyback, but we do
• 1:23:18
  want to be real. What the Charlie Kirk situation
• 1:23:20
  is we're seeing, people are saying, you know what, we might
• 1:23:23
  not see eye to eye on all theology.
• 1:23:25
  We might not agree on all theological matters, but can we
• 1:23:28
  at least come to a place where we can stand together?
• 1:23:31
  Can we at least come to a place where your worship might look
• 1:23:34
  different than my worship? The way I take the body and
• 1:23:36
  blood of Jesus might look different than the way you take
• 1:23:38
  the blood and body. But let's do it together.
• 1:23:40
  Let's have a conversation. Let's I want to do life with
• 1:23:43
  you, Lila. I want to, I want to, I want to
• 1:23:45
  hear about how did you meet Jesus?
• 1:23:46
  I want to hear what is God? How is God moving that mass?
• 1:23:48
  How is God moving here? Like I want to at least have the
• 1:23:51
  ability and the openness to say, even though we don't agree, the
• 1:23:55
  world is looking at us. What is the final thing Jesus
• 1:23:58
  prayed in John 16 or 17? He said they will know you by
• 1:24:01
  the way you love one another. The world it.
• 1:24:04
  They don't know it and they don't have a language for it,
• 1:24:06
  but they are desperate to see the followers of Jesus unified
• 1:24:10
  together. And when that takes place,
• 1:24:13
  suddenly I believe there's going to be like a mass awakening to
• 1:24:16
  an even another greater degree, another greater.
• 1:24:18
  Degree chills. That's part of the mission of
• 1:24:19
  this show. I don't like talk about that a
• 1:24:21
  lot public. I'm letting you guys all know.
• 1:24:22
  But you know, we obviously talk about human formation and
• 1:24:25
  becoming the best person we can be and like these cultural
• 1:24:27
  issues, but I want Christian unity 100% badly.
• 1:24:30
  And, and it starts honestly, Lila, like I know we're, we're
• 1:24:33
  literally on camera right now, but this is where it starts.
• 1:24:35
  It starts at the table. Welcome.
• 1:24:36
  To the show it. Starts at the table.
• 1:24:39
  What did Jesus do? Well, he didn't affirm sin, but
• 1:24:42
  he brought the sinners where to the table to eat, to talk that
• 1:24:46
  he could actually see them. They could see him.
• 1:24:48
  It wasn't just an ethereal concept or theology.
• 1:24:52
  It was hey, I'm right here in front of you.
• 1:24:54
  Hey, what's going on in your heart?
• 1:24:56
  Why are you making that decision?
• 1:24:57
  Why? He wanted real authentic
• 1:25:00
  encounter in relationship. So though we're this is not so
• 1:25:04
  we're not Sinner where we've been set free from sins.
• 1:25:06
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally Jesus.
• 1:25:08
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. The point.
• 1:25:10
  The point is this. We can see that as like a
• 1:25:11
  shadow, like as Christians, let's come to the table
• 1:25:13
  together. Coming together.
• 1:25:14
  Let's have relationship, let's meet, let's talk, let's do life
• 1:25:16
  together. Yes, that's what I want.
• 1:25:18
  Yes, thank you for coming on the show and sharing your beautiful
• 1:25:22
  testimony. And I think it's just really
• 1:25:26
  beautiful to see what God has done in your life.
• 1:25:28
  And thank you for being so open to share it with so many, many,
• 1:25:31
  many people. How can people find you?
• 1:25:33
  And any last words you feel called to share?
• 1:25:37
  The easiest way to find me is just first and last name on
• 1:25:39
  social media. Ross Johnson 2 ends because
• 1:25:41
  somebody has the original username.
• 1:25:42
  Pray for them in Jesus name. But we love you Ross Johnson
• 1:25:46
  with 2 ends. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:25:48
  I would say, you know, my final words are this is like we're
• 1:25:51
  living in the moment where it feels like the storyline of God
• 1:25:55
  is converging with the storyline of our personal lives.
• 1:25:57
  What does that mean? We many people have a
• 1:26:00
  recognition of God, of the divine, of the supernatural, but
• 1:26:04
  there's a difference when it's not just in your mind, but it
• 1:26:07
  transfers to your heart. The best language I have is it
• 1:26:10
  feels like God is knocking on our personal hearts.
• 1:26:12
  He's tapping us on our shoulders.
• 1:26:14
  His eyes are gazing upon us and he's giving us an invitation
• 1:26:19
  into a place or I believe we have never seen before.
• 1:26:23
  That's not a pressure, that's a privilege.
• 1:26:25
  And so I encourage every person watching.
• 1:26:27
  If you've scratched everything, Lila and I said today, if you
• 1:26:30
  have never surrendered your heart to Jesus, that's the most
• 1:26:33
  important thing. Get right with God.
• 1:26:34
  Why? Because there's a real eternity.
• 1:26:36
  There's a real heaven and a real hell and sin separates us from
• 1:26:38
  God. Confess him as Lord.
• 1:26:40
  Believe him in your heart. You'll be saved.
• 1:26:42
  Once you've done that and you're plugged into a local community.
• 1:26:44
  Now it's time to arise and shine.
• 1:26:46
  We are the salt and the light of the earth.
• 1:26:49
  We've been commissioned by, even given His anointing and His
• 1:26:52
  spirit to what? To usher in heaven on earth.
• 1:26:55
  That is such an amazing opportunity.
• 1:26:58
  If the time is not now, when will it ever be?
• 1:27:01
  And if it's not you, then who will it ever be?
• 1:27:04
  So I challenge you and I encourage you.
• 1:27:06
  This is the moment that we were born for.
• 1:27:08
  Let's step into it. Amen.
• 1:27:10
  Thank you, Ross. Thank you so much.
• 1:27:11
  God bless you and we'll see you again.
• 1:27:13
  Yes, I'm sure we're taking over a Socal over here.
• 1:27:16
  So yeah. Thank you.
• 1:27:18
  I hope you all enjoyed this episode with Ross Johnston.
• 1:27:21
  I found it very inspiring. Make sure to subscribe the show
• 1:27:25
  if you're not already subscribed and make sure to share this
• 1:27:28
  episode with a friend or someone that you love.
• 1:27:30
  Thanks so much and we'll see you next time.
• 1:27:32
  A huge thank you to our partner EWTN, the largest religious
• 1:27:35
  broadcaster in the entire world. EWTN is reaching millions of
• 1:27:39
  people every single day with the beautiful truth of the gospel.
• 1:27:42
  You can watch new episodes of the Lila Rose Show 24 hours
• 1:27:46
  before they hit podcast app over at ewtn.com slash on demand.