Welcome to Relentless Heart. May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you through His work here. First, below, are 12 things I believe are important for you to know about this ministry, right up front. God bless you as you read!
- Michael Chriswell
1. The Narrow Path
“Small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” - Mat 7:14
This ministry believes in, walks in, and teaches the cross carrying, self-denying, world-hating, faith walking, narrow path Christianity, which most professing Christians hate, including me for 19 yrs. Jesus Christ preached this as the only path to eternal life. My teachings started with the basics of knowing God, turning from counterfeit Christianity, and getting free from the world and sin, etc. Eventually, we moved past the elementary teachings about Christ (Heb 6:1), into deeper waters of learning to discern God’s personal will for our lives, take up our cross to do His will, patiently wait on Him, persevering through all suffering, and believing by faith for God to do the impossible, where it is His will. Today, we teach that if your Christianity is not yet the hardest thing you’ve ever done, it is not yet the Christianity which can save you! (Acts 14:22, Rom 8:17, Phi 1:29 ) True Christianity can only be done with His grace!
Famous Christians Who Were Honest About Just How Hard Serving Christ and Holding on in Faith Really Is
Adoniram Judson
“My tears flow at the same time over the forsaken grave of my dear love and over the loathsome sepulcher of my own heart” (Ibid., 388). He retreated for forty days alone further into the Tiger-infested jungle, and wrote in one letter than he felt utter spiritual desolation. “God is to me the Great Unknown. I believe in him, but I find him not (Ibid., 391.). “If I had not felt certain that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated sufferings”
Brother Yun
“Faced with such a dim future, I grumbled and complained to the Lord, and even accused him, “O God, I just want to serve you and spread your gospel, but now I’m stuck here in this cell and cannot even walk. You’re weak and failed to protect me! It was at this lowest point of my life that I bitterly complained to the Lord. I was 39 years old but saw no hope or future for me. I told the Lord, “When I was young you called me to preach your gospel in the west and south. How can I do that now? I’m sitting here in this prison with crushed legs and I’m resigned to rot in this place until the day I die. I’ll never see my family again. You have cheated me!” I felt just like Jeremiah. I was overwhelmed and it seemed as if the Lord had abandoned me to rot in prison forever. I cried out to the Lord, echoing Jeremiah’s words, “Oh God, why have you afflicted me so that I cannot be healed? I hoped for peace, but no good has come. Please Lord, do not despise me. I had so much grief stored up inside me, and it all started to gush out before the Lord. I sobbed, “Lord Jesus, just like Jeremiah said, everyone strives against me and curses me. I can’t take any more. I’ve reached the end of myself.” I wept so hard that my eyes became swollen from all my tears. Many times I asked him why I was in such pain. I could bear it no more. My heart was downcast and I was ready to give up.”
Gladys Aylward
“I was almost in despair. All night I worried and prayed, prayed and worried. I was at the end of my tether. If only I wasn't saddled with all these children, I thought bitterly. Nobody else bothered about them, why did I have to get myself and them into this mess?”
Charles Spurgeon
“IT is very unpleasant to our poor flesh and blood to suffer. Physical pain is a grievous infliction; mental agony or spiritual sorrow is still worse. Irons around the wrists can be worn till they fit easily; but when the iron enters into the soul, how it rusts the heart, and eats into the spirit! Perhaps, to some minds, that is the hardest of all sufferings which is not deserved at all, but which comes because we do not deserve it; I mean, that suffering which innocent persons are called to endure because of their innocence, when they are slandered and oppressed and persecuted, not for evil-doing, but for well-doing.”
Elisabeth Elliott
“And when I stood by my shortwave radio in the jungle of Ecuador in 1956 and heard that my husband was missing, and God brought to my mind the words of the Prophet Isaiah, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee.” You can imagine that my response was not terribly spiritual. I was saying, but Lord, You’re with me all the time. What I want is Jim. I want my husband. We had been married twenty-seven months after waiting five and a half years. Five days later I knew that Jim was dead. And God’s presence with me was not Jim’s presence. That was a terrible fact. God’s presence did not change the terrible fact that I was a widow and I expected to be a widow until I died because I thought it was a miracle I got married the first time. I couldn’t imagine that I would ever get married a second time, let alone a third time. God’s presence did not change the fact of my widowhood.” - From Her Book, Suffering is Never for Nothing
Samuel Rutherford
“If ever you would pleasure me, entreat the Lord for me, now when I am so comfortless, and so full of heaviness, that I am not able to stand under the burden any longer. The Almighty hath doubled His stripes upon me, for my wife is so sore tormented night and day, that I have wondered why the Lord tarrieth so long. My life is bitter unto me, and I fear the Lord be my contrair party. It is hard to keep sight of God in a storm, especially when He hides Himself, for the trial of His children. If He would be pleased to remove His hand, I have a purpose to seek Him more than I have done. Happy are they that can win away with their soul. I am afraid of His judgments. I bless my God that there is a death, and a heaven. I would weary to begin again to be a Christian, so bitter is it to drink of the cup that Christ drank of…”
Madame Guyon
“About this time I fell into a state of total privation which lasted nearly seven years. I seemed to myself cast down like Nebuchadnezzar, to live among beasts; a deplorable state...This state of emptiness, darkness, and impotency, went far beyond any trials I had ever yet met. "Is it possible," I cried, "that I have received so many graces and favors from God only to lose them;—that I have loved Him with so much ardor, but to be eternally deprived of Him; that His benefits have only produced ingratitude; His fidelity been repaid with infidelity; that my heart has been emptied of all creatures, and created objects, and filled with His blessed presence and love, in order now to be wholly void of divine power, and only filled with wanderings and created objects! I felt in myself such a pain as I never could bring any to comprehend, but such as have experienced it. I had no support, no confessor, no director, no friend, no councillor. I had lost all. And after God had taken from me one after another, He withdrew also Himself. I remained without any creature; and to complete my distress, I seemed to be left without God, who alone could support me in such a deeply distressing state.”
Amy Carmichael
“Do you still hold fast to your faith that He maketh your way perfect? It does not look perfect. It looks like a road that has lost its sense of direction; a broken road, a wandering road, a strange mistake. And yet, either it is perfect, or all that you have believed crumbles like a rope of sand in your hands. There is no middle choice between faith and despair. We are facing a crisis in life.”
Moses
“I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now---if I have found favor in your eyes---and do not let me face my own ruin." - Numbers 11:14-15
Elijah
""I have had enough, LORD," he said. "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." 1 Kings 19:4
Jeremiah
“O LORD; remember me and care for me…think of how I suffer reproach for your sake. When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God Almighty. I never sat in the company of revelers, never made merry with them; I sat alone because your hand was on me and you had filled me with indignation. Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous and incurable? Will you be to me like a deceptive brook, like a spring that fails? O LORD, you deceived me, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long. - Jeremiah 15:15-18, 20:7-8
Job
"May the day of my birth perish, and the night it was said, 'A boy is born!' That day—may it turn to darkness; may God above not care about it; may no light shine upon it. May darkness and deep shadow claim it once more; may a cloud settle over it; may blackness overwhelm its light. That night—may thick darkness seize it; may it not be included among the days of the year nor be entered in any of the months. May that night be barren; may no shout of joy be heard in it. May those who curse days curse that day, those who are ready to rouse Leviathan. May its morning stars become dark; may it wait for daylight in vain and not see the first rays of dawn, for it did not shut the doors of the womb on me to hide trouble from my eyes. "Why did I not perish at birth, and die as I came from the womb? Why were there knees to receive me and breasts that I might be nursed? For now I would be lying down in peace; I would be asleep and at rest… Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in? For sighing comes to me instead of food; my groans pour out like water. What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me. I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil." - Job 3:1-13, 23-26
Apostle Paul
"At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.”
- 2 Tim 4:16, Rom 8:36, Phi 1:21, 1 Co 4:9,13, 2 Cor 11:23-29
2. The Mark 5:19 Call
“Go tell how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” - Mark 5:19
In 2011, the Lord commanded me to begin telling the story of all that he has done in my life. Since that time I have shared all of God’s, and Satan’s, dramatic dealings with me, as I walked with God through the loss of everything and into this ministry, through my journal recordings. As a result of this call, some have accused me of promoting myself, rather than Christ, yet nothing could be further from the truth. There is no Michael Chriswell faith, obedience, testimony or teachings, except by the Spirit and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am the weakest, most pathetic person I know, among those who serve the Lord faithfully. Indeed, as you will see in my ministry, His grace has been sufficient, and His power has been visibly made complete in my weakness.
3. God’s Stumbling Blocks
He will be a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes men fall. - Isaiah 8:14
When you read the Bible carefully, you see that even before Jesus became a stumbling block, God intentionally placed things that would be easily misunderstood and misjudged in the lives of his servants. Abraham sacrificing Isaac, Joseph’s dreams, Moses marrying Zipporah, Elijah’s clothing, Hosea marrying a prostitute, Ezekiel’s bizarre actions, Paul’s imprisonment, John’s exile, etc. This is another way God tests and separates the true from the false. Those who do not have the Spirit of Jesus Christ (religious or not), trip over these things, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Cor 2:14). As Jesus said, they cannot see beneath the surface and make right judgments (John 7:24). So too, God allowed stumbling blocks in my ministry, when I publicly shared the following:
God’s use of numbers to providentially guide me to Scripture
My two ex-wives unfaithfulness and apostasy
Declaring I am a false prophet if Persis didn’t come back
My remarriage to Lisa, while both ex-wives are still “alive”
When God finally told me to stop paying child support
The shame of a 78 yr. old woman who believed Satan’s lies over God’s truth and shrank back in fear from doing His will
When a man offered to get me into NZ illegally like Paul’s escape in a “basket over the wall”
4. The Prophetic
"I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown. But you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable. - Jeremiah 2:2,7
“I have become a sign to many.” – Psalm 71:7
Nearly all the testimony, the teachings, and the pain of God in the Bible, are all rooted in the unfaithfulness of two women, (figures), Israel and Judah, both of whom God considered His wives, both of whom he divorced (Jer 3:8-11). Remarkably, nearly every suffering, every evil suspicion, every misunderstanding, ever trouble, and every persecution against this ministry, are all rooted in the unfaithfulness, and apostasy of my two unfaithful wives. God redeemed all that trouble with the mercy of my 3rd and finally faithful wife (My Beloved Lisa). God’s prophetic purpose in all of this has been to give us an earthly representation of his heart. As you listen to my story you will feel, as perhaps never before, God’s great pleasure from your faith and obedience, and His great anguish from your unfaithfulness, or apostasy. (Gen 6:6)
5. Their Unfaithfulness Doesn’t Nullify God’s Faithfulness
What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness? Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. - Romans 3:3-4
The parting of the Red Sea, the backing up of the Jordan, and the walls of Jericho do not cease to be amazing wonders, proving God’s power and faithfulness, even though Israel became so apostate. The same is true for this ministry. None of the miracles, the remarkable answers to prayer, or the incredible spiritual insights in the messages, cease to be part of God’s faithfulness and goodness, just because my first spouse never repented of her unfaithfulness, and my second spouse never came back from her apostasy, even though I was convinced she would, just like God was convinced Israel would. (See Jer 3:7) Their unfaithfulness, does not nullify God’s faithfulness through this ministry.
6. God’s Strange Providence
Jan 31, 2013 - 42 days after producing Trusting God in the Storm, and one hour before walking into court where my ex-wife tried to remove the story from the internet, I saw this remarkably timed 666 (warning), 555 (deliverance) combo. I won in court without having to say a word. The story was never taken down (1.7 million views) and tens of thousands emailed me to tell how the story had such a dramatic impact on their faith in God.
For God does speak—now one way, now another—though man may not perceive it. - Job 33:14
Starting in 2009, to train me to recognize spiritual warfare, God began showing me the number 666 over 100 times, each time in connection with strikes that came at me through my ex-wife in the divorce. God has now guided me for 14 years in one of the most bizarre providences, using numbers, with the inner witness of the Holy Spirit, to lead me to passages of Scripture, which gave me real-time guidance as to His will (Psa 25:12). Many stumble when they first hear this, mistaking it for the occult practice of numerology. Even I had to initially believe by faith God was doing this. However, “wisdom being proven right by her offspring” and “a tree being recognized by its fruit”, when you see that God tells me over and over in my story of what will happen, and then it happens just as He told me, you will have no doubt that this really is just a strange providence God chose to speak to me.
7. They Twist My Words
“There has never been anything wholly of God but the strategy of the Evil One has been to fasten to it some implication, some insinuation, some interpretation, or some suggestion that would make it questionable or perhaps even “dangerous.” He even did this with the Lord Jesus Himself. He did it with Paul all through his life. A good thing can be made its own enemy, by being either confused, or taken out its true meaning. - T. Austin Sparks
“All day long they twist my words; they are always plotting to harm me. They slander me without ceasing. - Psalm 35:15
If you are new to this ministry, perhaps you will one day come across, or be asked about, the dozens of videos on YouTube accusing me of being a false prophet/teacher, a deceiver, a demon possessed cult leader, etc. The crowds were always divided against Jesus, and it is no different with me. At first glance, the videos can be convincing (Pro 18:17), so I wish to show you an unedited 8 min video from a professing Christian who most zealously feels the God given need to warn you about me. A tree is always recognized by its fruit, so let’s have a look and discern the fruit and spirit behind these types of videos.
8. It’s NOT a Cult
“He has an online psychotic religious cult.”
– Keri Chriswell (ex-wife’s statement in court, Nov 12, 2019)
Just before taking down most of my videos from YouTube and setting up a private online gathering place in Feb 2023, Satan’s newest public accusation against me was that I am a cult leader. Let me state the truth plainly. 1. I believe I have authority and responsibility as a minister to rebuke those who come to my teachings, and who disagree with sound doctrine, and those in sin (Titus 2:15). 2. I have no “secret access” to truth, or to God, that you can only get through me. 3. Your following Christ and having eternal life, is not dependent on me, or your following my teachings or ministry, although some have chosen to follow me, as I follow Christ (1Co 11:1). 4. A person is not condemned when they stop following my teachings, unless they also leave the truth and sound doctrine of Jesus Christ (Lk 10:16). 5. I have always taught, “Go to God NOT to me. A cult leader would never teach that! 6. Having faithful followers does not make me a cult leader, any more than it has made any of the Lord’s previous servants. This is yet another Satanic attempt to cast evil suspicions on the work of Christ in this ministry, in order to cut off the sheep from the life giving truth in one of His servants mouth!
9. My Greatest Weakness
After 10 years of being called every name in the book, I answered the fools according to their folly (Pro 26:5), in hopes they would see the sin of their slander and false accusations against me. I made this video where for 30 minutes I pretended to confess to every evil thing they ever spoke against me.
“I have made a fool of myself, but you drove me to it!” - Apostle Paul, 2 Corinthians 12:11
My greatest weakness in ministry, has been my inability to give up hoping that a tare can become a wheat, or an Ishmael can become an Isaac. All through my teachings, their runs a noticeable stream of my frustrated efforts to get people to believe me, to look beneath the perplexity of some of God’s dealings with me, and to see I truly am His servant. I always thought if I just showed more Scripture, gave more evidence, or waited a little longer, that they would eventually see the truth. Nothing has been more fascinating, or frustrating to me, than the stubborn spiritual blindness I see in some of those who have been closest to me and the ministry. You can tell two people the same teaching, and one will say “It’s blessed of the Lord”, while the other says, “It’s the teaching of the devil.” (John 7:12) I hate that about Christian ministry! I am slowly becoming more like Jesus in this way, who said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear”, and if they didn’t, He said, “Leave them; they are blind.” (Mat 15:14).
10. You May Eventually Hate Me
The world hates me because I testify that what it does is evil. - John 7:7
This ministry was initially embraced by tens of thousands who took encouragement by watching me walk through my suffering. However, when I began proclaiming that they too must turn from their sin and the world, and must suffer in their flesh to walk with Christ, in the obedience that comes by faith, many were offended. Some then twist my words and cast evil suspicions on me, in order to justify themselves. The TRUTH and the Cross of Christ is deeply offensive to the nature of man. It has been one of my greatest sorrows to see some who showed such promise, whom I cared so deeply for, to end up in a spiritual ditch, because when I loved them enough to tell them the hard truth, they were not willing to let go of that fear, that lie, that sin, that tradition of man, that idolatry within their heart. Rather than trust God for the grace to be free, they instead struck back at me. Jesus warned against being offended by Him and His ways (Mat 11:6). Have I now become your enemy by telling the truth? - Gal 4:16
11. God’s Banner: Miraculous Timing
You have raised a banner for those that fear you. A rallying point in the face of attack. - Psalm 60:4 NLT
God has allowed the enemy to come against this ministry like a flood, creating all kinds of confusion, but he also raised up a standard against him (Isa 59:19). To balance all of His perplexing dealings and stumbling blocks in my ministry (i.e. Persis’ apostasy), the Lord, in His mercy, placed a remarkable seal on my ministry, by arranging every single major event in my life, in the last 14 years, into precise Biblically significant time periods. This includes nine major events completed in 777 days, and a precise match between every time period in Noah’s flood, and my 1st remarriage to Persis, which ends in a flood of “death”, and then finally Lisa on Day 370, the day Noah came out of the Ark to start his new life. It is an unprecedented display of the Sovereign God’s power who says, “I choose the appointed time.” (Ps 75:2), and it must be seen to be believed, but I have yet to meet anyone who get their finite mind around this.
12. God is Fully Justified in my Suffering and I Love Him So Much
All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of His covenant. - Psalm 25:10
By God’s mercy, I have now completed 50 years on this earth. I estimate that 43 of those years have been filled with suffering and affliction, as can be seen and heard throughout my testimony. There have been a few times, where I have cried out in such anguish that I was tempted to quit the ministry. There have been a few times, where I thought God was going too far with me, even being cruel. HOWEVER, I would not trade one moment of my pain, if it removed any of the spiritual blessings that have come to my heart, my life, my walk with Christ, my ministry, and my beautiful marriage with Lisa! Following the Lord, we both have “lost” our life, in order to find it! He has not allowed Satan even one place to boast that he overwhelmed us, or put out our hope, our faith, or our love for God. There is not one instance of pain, loss, or persecution, that has not been worked by the Lord, for our good and His glory. NOT ONE! Lisa and I thank Him so much for all the painful refining, lest we stand before Him ashamed on the Day of the Lord! He has truly turned death, death, death, into LIFE, LIFE, LIFE!
The greatest desire of my heart is my Heavenly Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. I just want to see Them, to gaze upon Them, for all of eternity. Aside of those things given to me by God, (ministry, Lisa, etc.), this world has nothing for me anymore. My definition of happiness in heaven is just staring at, and marveling at the Lord Jesus Christ, and God the Father, on their throne…WOW!!! Everything I have done in this ministry, to the best of my ability, empowered by His grace, has been done to obey Him, because I love Him! It has cost me much to follow Jesus. I have lost most of my family, my friends, and my dignity because there are so very few who will fully surrender their lives and walk with God like this. They love this life and this world too much. To walk with Christ, for me, has been a very lonely road, but there is no other I’m willing to travel, and God was merciful enough to give Lisa and I to each other for the final stretch home, to keep us from collapsing on the way (Mk 8:3)!