Trusting God in Crisis - Part 6 (The Miracle Morgan Freeman Missed)
The title can be a little confusing on this one. I made this video, as if speaking to Morgan Freeman regarding his documentary series titled “The Story of God”. That me a seem a little delusional to some, but remember 11 Time World Champion Surfer Kelly Slater, saw the video message I made to him, only three days after it was posted.
In this video, I began to explain the very basics of Christian salvation and this is a good message for anyone who needs better understanding of how we can be saved from our sins in Jesus Christ.
Transcript
(Transcript is auto-generated and will contain errors)
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:24:13
You know, you've traveled all around the world. Morgan Freeman. If you ever get a chance to see this and you've seen and looked and heard all that the world has to say about this divine God, I want to show you the miracle that you missed. I'm in the shower, and all of a sudden I hear this sound. I get out of the shower and I realize that it's my son wailing again.
00:00:24:16 - 00:00:54:23
Only the second time I've heard this in my whole life. I hurried into his room to find him laying on the floor on his stomach rigid, just wailing and wailing, and again I hear nobody is going to believe what you have done for me. Nobody will ever believe what you have done for me. I have to spend the rest of my life telling people because it is a miracle.
00:00:54:26 - 00:01:23:24
Everybody told me this is there's no way this could happen. You told me it would. God. And you did it. The following video contains copyrighted clips produced by National Geographic, which are being used lawfully for nonprofit teaching and educational purposes in accordance with the United States fair use copyright provision. Hi, I'm Michael Criswell, and welcome to part six of walking with God Through Crisis.
00:01:23:26 - 00:02:00:29
Seven years later. Now, the reason why I titled this video on YouTube, the miracle which Morgan Freeman missed is because of a clip that I'm going to be showing you in today's video, which came from a series that he did, I believe, back in 2015, a wonderful documentary series I felt called The Story of God, and it's Morgan Freeman with, partnership with, I believe, National Geographic flying all over the world, attempting to dissect and understand what it is that people from various backgrounds and religions call God, who is God to them.
00:02:01:05 - 00:02:26:16
What are their proofs of God? How do they worship God in all their different ways? And in this particular clip he talks about miracles, and he flies all around to investigate the divine power that people claim they have seen in their life. Okay, so I'm going to show this clip. I'm going to pull it apart and explain a few things, because I think it goes fantastic with the most amazing miracle I have ever seen in my life.
00:02:26:18 - 00:02:56:16
I can say this without fear of Overhyping this what you're about to see? I have never showed to anybody. Nobody has ever publicly seen these clips, these documents, these pictures in this video before now, I have shared a little bit bits and pieces of this story throughout some of my recording, some 330 odd recordings that I have on my YouTube channel, but nobody has ever seen the story told in this color with the actual images that happened and took place when this miracle took place.
00:02:56:18 - 00:03:17:02
I really believe in all humility before the God of the Bible and the Lord Jesus Christ, whom I serve and have a great deal of faith in that. I have never seen any kind of miracle that even comes close to what you're about to see. And the reason is, is because of how unbelievably complicated this miracle was for God to do.
00:03:17:05 - 00:03:39:09
I have said many times that I believe somebody being raised from the dead is a piece of cake to God, compared to what he will do that you will see in this story. I believe somebody being freed from dozens of tumors is not nearly as complicated. It is difficult as what God has done. This no financial miracle is nearly as complicated as what father has done in this.
00:03:39:11 - 00:04:06:19
There are times throughout history when God does things extraordinary to reach through as an evidence to a believing child of his, to then bring Himself and his name glory, and to make himself known the Bible to others. The Bible is full of miracle stories, and every single one of them we can know. God's explanation has always been to make himself known to others.
00:04:06:22 - 00:04:34:08
Throughout human history, men have had the desire for eternity. The Bible says that God has planted eternity in the hearts of men, but men cannot really understand it. Men have always believed for all of human history that there is a greater higher power that exists beyond us, and many men have put hope in it, and many men have built religions entirely huge religious systems all around.
00:04:34:08 - 00:04:53:22
The idea that there is a divine, there are those who have worshiped the stars, those who have worshiped the earth, those who have worshiped everything in between. There are those who believe in one God. There are those who believe in millions of gods. Throughout history, there's always been this question who is the right God? How can we prove who the right God is?
00:04:53:24 - 00:05:12:14
You know, I have really taken delight in to see the number of atheists that came to my, YouTube channel that want to point out my delusion for believing in God. And I, I really understand and I have compassion on them. I understand they believe it's a delusion, because when I look at religion, what I see is insanity.
00:05:12:22 - 00:05:37:27
I see billions of people around the world, all abso lutely believing they are 100% right, just as I do. Okay. Everybody believes they're right and everybody believes their God is the right God. Okay, I understand those atheists because I have an atheist in me. I have a part of me that has never lost the ability to look at something like this and say, how is that possible?
00:05:38:00 - 00:06:03:06
How could I possibly reconcile what I'm seeing here with this invisible person that I worship called God Almighty, the father of the Lord Jesus Christ? How is this? How can this be? Okay, so I've never lost the capacity to doubt that what I have seen and what I've personally experienced, is just a matter of coincidence or delusion. And guys, I have experienced many things.
00:06:03:06 - 00:06:27:10
Wait until you hear my remarriage story in India. I'm telling you it is extraordinary. I cannot wait to tell you because God took it to a whole nother level of complicated. But this probably is one of the tightest, most specific, sharpest, most amazing miracles I have ever seen in my life. So for thousands of years, men have debated my God is the right God.
00:06:27:17 - 00:06:54:08
Your God is the right God for one human being to another, with the love of Jesus Christ in me, who has transformed my entire life and heart, I would challenge anybody of a separate faith not to an obnoxious, arrogant battle where we can prove who is greater wordsmith and who knows more of their particular study or their particular history of their religion, and who can have more facts and theological debates as to why they're wrong or right.
00:06:54:15 - 00:07:22:13
No, I would want to just peacefully make one single challenge. There is a challenge that's made in the Holy Bible amongst a group of people who are debating about who the right God was, male. This God called Bael, or Elijah saying that the God of Israel, the God of the Holy Bible, was the real God. And there is this debate in our Bible, in the Holy Bible, between which God is the right God.
00:07:22:16 - 00:07:46:00
And God leads this man, Elijah, to do something that is absolutely extraordinary and he basically says, okay, here's what we're going to do. You prepare a sacrifice. I'm going to prepare a sacrifice. We're going to put all these pieces of meat. You pick your very best cattle, you build an altar, you build a ditch, you put yours here, I'll put mine here.
00:07:46:02 - 00:08:07:23
We're going to call upon our gods and the God that answers by fire is the one true God. And they said to him, this is good. I agree this is a good thing. And so 450 prophets of Baal did all their work. They set up their altar. They begin dancing and calling on their God to the point of cutting themselves.
00:08:07:23 - 00:08:31:05
And at one point Elijah, realizing they're calling on a God that's not there. And if he is there, he's a bunch of demonic spirits, which is what our Bible teaches us, is behind idols and false gods. They're actually devil spirits that are trying to court the worship of human beings for Satan rather than the one true God. And so he says to them, oh, perhaps he's gone on vacation.
00:08:31:05 - 00:08:53:08
Perhaps he's sleeping, perhaps he's busy. You should cry out louder, because what's happening is, is as these people are calling on their God, nothing is happening. And then, in accordance with the will of God is this man did not put his God to the test. He did not show up on a mountain and say, hey, everybody who wants to see you know whose God is God and let's call fire down from heaven.
00:08:53:08 - 00:09:10:23
And whoever he didn't put God to test. The Bible says, let it be known. He says as he prays, Oh God Almighty, let it be known. God of Israel, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Let it be known today that I am doing all that you have commanded. This is what Elijah says. And then he calls upon the name of the Lord.
00:09:10:25 - 00:09:46:08
And fire, the Bible says, comes down from heaven and consumes a sacrifice that not only was made there with the same meat and the same wood and the same stones, but he also had, I believe it was three gigantic, jars of water poured all over this sacrifice such that it was running all around in a trough around the, sacrifice and the Bible, the Holy Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sends fire down and laps up all of the water and consumes the entire sacrifice.
00:09:46:10 - 00:10:10:27
And in that moment, from that miracle wrought by that one man of faith, up against 450 prophets of a false God, he proved who the one true God was. Throughout human history. God has been pleased to do this a few times, and I'm here to challenge anybody who really has a heart to know the truth. I'm here to challenge any Muslim.
00:10:10:27 - 00:10:33:25
I see this again. In all due respect, I would challenge any Muslim on the planet. I would love for you to personally contact me and this is going to go for Muslims. This is going to go for Buddhists. This goes for Zoroastrianism. This goes for, Catholics, this goes for Mormons, this goes for New Agers, this goes for anybody.
00:10:33:25 - 00:10:58:20
This goes for Hindus who have at their discretion, they believe millions of gods. And I want to challenge any and everybody who has the capacity for the spiritual, who has a desire to know and believe in God, has your God as you've called upon him, ever been able to do anything for you? Like what you're getting ready to see?
00:10:58:23 - 00:11:19:16
The Bible says that the God who brings fire from heaven is the one true God. And I'm going to tell you something, there's another way you can know, and I would love to have answered this for Morgan Freeman, who says very, very pointedly, he says, how can we distinguish between that which is just random chance and that which many people believe is the hand of the divine?
00:11:19:16 - 00:11:44:10
He says, how can we know whether or not you're going to see this in this clip coming up? Now, most of us have a turning point in our lives, a pivotal moment where you wondered, how did this happen? Mine was 1989. I made three films, Lean on Me, Driving Miss Daisy and glory.
00:11:44:12 - 00:12:07:29
Did I make it happen? Was someone up there calling the shots, or was I lucky to try to understand this? I've arranged to meet a psychology professor who thinks we often mistake random chance for miracles.
00:12:08:01 - 00:12:29:15
Danny Oppenheimer, it's nice to see you. How are you today? I'm good. You? I'm good. Good. What are you doing? I'm flipping coins. Why? I'm looking for streaks. Streaks? Yeah. If you flip a coin enough times, you're going to get a streak. Really?
00:12:29:18 - 00:12:45:02
That's a lot of tails. Well, if I flip a coin twice and I get heads both time. Is that miraculous? No. Could do it 50 times and you get 60. That's a miracle. Well, yeah. If you get more than, then, you flip. Certainly. But how rare does an event have to be? Before we would call it miraculous.
00:12:45:02 - 00:12:54:18
1 in 1,000,000. 1 in 1,000,000,000. I'll choose billion. All right. 1 in 1,000,000,000. But let's try something.
00:12:54:20 - 00:12:57:29
All right.
00:12:58:01 - 00:13:23:13
Jack of diamonds. Six of spades. King of spades. Two of hearts. Seven of diamonds and ace of spades. Is it miraculous to have gotten the sequence? No, I mean, it's just the random selection of cards off the deck. Well, right. But this particular sequence, starting with the jack and then getting the six of spades, and then king of spades, it only happens one in about 14 billion times.
00:13:23:13 - 00:13:43:05
You draw six cards. So it's pretty miraculous by year 1 in 1,000,000,000 standard. So you're telling me that this is miraculous? Well, no, as you said before, it's just a random set of cards. What if it was first six digits of your Social Security number? What if it were the last six digits of your Social Security number, the first six digits of your phone number?
00:13:43:05 - 00:14:11:08
Sometimes it's not actually miraculous. Sometimes it's just probability playing its tricks on you all right, so how do we include the divine? Because there were people who really do think that there is divine intervention in these kinds of random plays. Absolutely. And nothing I'm saying here rules out the possibility of the divine. The fact that probability predicts certain things doesn't mean that there can't be divine intervention, but miraculous things that are so unlikely that you think it can't happen by chance alone.
00:14:11:11 - 00:14:39:28
They do happen, and they have to happen. It would be odd if they didn't, because with 6 billion people in the world, there are so many opportunities for something really unusual to happen. We would expect it to happen to some of them. There are religions all around the world that claim to have miracles. I believe there's a supernatural force that's willing and able to help many other religions to be deceived away from the one true God and experience the supernatural.
00:14:39:28 - 00:15:01:21
I believe in stigmata. I believe in praying statues of Mary, and I believe they're all a terrible delusion of Satan. They are a counterfeit designed to lead people away from the God of the Bible, the one true God. So there again, what is the distinguishing factor of the one true God from all other? I will tell you, the one true God can tell the future.
00:15:01:28 - 00:15:35:04
The one true God can tell a miracle in advance of it actually happening. In John 1429, Jesus Christ says, as he does multiple other places, just through his words and his actions, predicting the future. In John 1429, Jesus Christ, the living Son of God, said to his disciples, and those listening, I have told you these things before they happen, so that when they happen, you will believe.
00:15:35:07 - 00:16:06:27
Morgan Freeman I say this to you with great respect of who you are as a human being and of your amazing career. But I would say to you, my friend, you walked away from the one true faith that you clearly were taught in church. I understand walking away from religion and walking to Hollywood, I get it. Religion is horrible in my opinion, but I do not understand walking away from a Heavenly Father who loves you, who made you to be a little boy who climbs up in his lap in the light of his father, and who grows up to be a friend like Abraham of God.
00:16:07:03 - 00:16:22:28
To walk away from the living God who made you and created you. And I would just encourage you, you know, you've traveled all around the world. Morgan Freeman if you ever get a chance to see this and you've seen and looked and heard all that the world has to say about this divine God, I want to show you the miracle that you missed.
00:16:23:00 - 00:16:54:03
I want to show you the John 1429, the God that I worship in the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ, who indeed answered by fire in my life when I cried out to him as a person who loved money, and who was afraid of men, and who lived my whole life, and insecurity and the fear of what other people see, and this God, the living Lord Jesus Christ, answered by fire in my heart and burned off all that was in me that was not of the divine, all that was in me that was nothing like the Lord Jesus Christ, radically, completely changing me.
00:16:54:06 - 00:17:14:06
I want you to know that God answered by fire in my life I live by faith, believing that God will provide. I have seven years now of living in total faith, never asking man for a single dollar of support, never asking man to help me, to support me in anything in the building. The ministry, Morgan Freeman. My story has been watched a million and a half times on YouTube.
00:17:14:06 - 00:17:32:29
It's called Trusting God in the storm. I pray you'll watch it. It's a beautiful work of what God did for some little weakling who came to him in faith, who didn't come with him. I didn't come to God with a telescope. I didn't come to God with a microscope. I didn't come to God with anything fancy. I didn't come to God with a bunch of history books.
00:17:32:29 - 00:17:56:05
I came to God as a little child. Matthew 18 324 Jesus Christ said to all of his years, unless you change and become like a little child, you will never enter the kingdom of God. But all who come unto him shall receive rest for their weary souls. All who keep his words, John 851 will never see death. Jesus Christ proved over and over again that he is the one true living God.
00:17:56:05 - 00:18:20:23
And I tell you, 2000 years later, there's little bitty nobodies just like me. I'm just a nobody. I gave my whole life to this world in trying to chase after success and having everything that everybody told me would delight my heart, give me purpose, give me fulfillment. It fell flat. The steak I chased tasted like water. God gave me a chance and reached through and spoke to my heart.
00:18:20:25 - 00:18:39:25
I didn't create you for you to give your very best to the world. Come on to me, come on to me and I will give you life. I'll give you purpose. I'll give you peace. I'll give you rest. Contentment. I tell you the truth. I'm one of the richest people I know, Morgan Freeman. You could outspend me 1 million to 1, millions to one.
00:18:39:27 - 00:18:57:07
You've traveled around the world. You've eaten the best steaks. You've had the best wine. You've been on the best boats. You've been in the very best movies. You've experienced the best that life has to offer, my friend. I tell you, Thomas, a campus 500 years ago said the wealthiest man in the world is not the man who has the most.
00:18:57:07 - 00:19:21:16
He is the man who needs the least. And by what God did through the Lord Jesus Christ in my heart, the same Lord Jesus Christ who wrought the miracle that you're getting ready to see in this unbeliever story changed my heart. Answered by fire Mark 949 everyone will be salted by fire. He completely and radically changed my life and he made me a beloved son.
00:19:21:19 - 00:19:42:01
I was no longer running around like a scared little man, trying to find my identity and my love and acceptance in the world. I found it from an invisible God who writes of his story of reconciliation in the book called the Holy Bible. I found a peace and a joy and a rest and a contentment. I found an abundance of answered prayers.
00:19:42:07 - 00:20:05:22
Morgan Freeman if you ever see this, I challenge you to to subscribe to my channel. If you're really curious, if you really went out into the world to find God, if what you said around every other airplane trip was sincere, that you wanted to know, I tell you to stick around and and watch the life of one little guy, one little man who's experienced his God in extraordinary ways.
00:20:05:24 - 00:20:23:11
The God who has told me of the future in my life repeatedly, my friend, if I stood here today and I told you that God healed my broken heart, or rather healed my, you know, from a heart attack, or if he healed me from cancer. Like the story that you even saw in your documentary, you know, you can see how people quickly want to go.
00:20:23:11 - 00:20:41:25
But was it the miracle of God or was it the chemotherapy? My friend, you will not be able to say that when you watch this story. You will not be able to ask that question any more than you could ask. The question was that a coincidence? The fire just came down from heaven in Elijah's presence and burned up all that sacrifice and burned up all that water.
00:20:41:25 - 00:21:06:15
And 450 people around fall to their face on the ground to worship the God of the Bible and says, it is the Lord who is God. It is the Lord who is God. My friend, I tell you, I have seen this in my life. I've experienced it. God has answered by fire in my life, and God has told me in advance, Morgan Freeman, this is how you know who the one true God is.
00:21:06:17 - 00:21:41:18
He can change a person completely without them having any ability to do it themselves. He can change them completely. Oh, there's lots of Buddhists who've been changed. There's lots of people in your videos who've been changed. There's all kinds of change happening all the time. But this change I'm talking about testifies to itself. 2000 years ago, in the words of Jesus Christ, where when somebody puts faith in Christ, as Jesus Christ taught in John 717, incidentally, I wrote a book about it, John 717, Jesus Christ says to the whole world, if anyone wants to know, essentially, is he really the Son of God?
00:21:41:18 - 00:22:05:29
Everybody wants to go to a microscope or a telescope to find out who God is. But Jesus Christ came and said, if you really want to know who God is, if you really want to know if I'm of God or find some great teacher, or if I'm just a prophet, or if I'm a lunatic, he said. If anyone chooses to do God's will, that person will find out.
00:22:05:29 - 00:22:30:28
They will know by experience, the Word of God will become alive in them. They will see manifestations of Jesus Christ, his presence. I don't mean physically seeing God. I mean the Word of God. The words of Christ Jesus becoming true, becoming real, becoming actual fact in their life. Jesus said, if anyone chooses to do, it's of your own free will, if anyone chooses to do God's will.
00:22:31:00 - 00:22:54:17
Verse 16 of John seven says, the teaching, you hear my words, they are not my own. They come from him who sent me. And then Jesus said, here's the proof how you can know that he sent me. If you put my words into practice, you will experience God. Morgan Freeman I want to tell you one scripture that I sure know you must have heard in some church in Mississippi when you were growing up.
00:22:54:19 - 00:23:29:01
John 1421 223 Jesus Christ pivots the entire love in existence and knowing God on this one command, he says, whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my father, and I too will love him and show myself to him. The King James says, manifest Jesus Christ promised to any person of faith on this earth who wants to know who the true God is.
00:23:29:01 - 00:23:50:17
He says, if you will put my teachings into practice and incidentally, Morgan, most Christians don't even know all of the teachings of Christ. For 19 years, I had no clue I could have named about five of them. I never took the time to actually look at what the teachings were of Jesus Christ. When I began to put the teachings of Christ into practice, I began to experience exactly what he promised.
00:23:50:20 - 00:24:20:17
In that scripture. He says he'll manifest in verse 23. He says that he and the father will actually make their home with the person who loves him enough for having been forgiven of their sins. The work that Jesus Christ did to redeem us, to atone our sins, shedding his blood on the cross, Jesus Christ said, if you believe that I've been sent of the father and you believe my words, and you put my words into practice, in other words, you receive me in your life as Lord.
00:24:20:19 - 00:24:44:28
I'll not only manifest myself to you, but my father and I by the Holy Spirit will make our home with you. Now, this is an experience that Christians all over the world can testify to, that nobody can take away, no amount of atheistic reasoning, no amount of rhetoric, no amount of persecution or name calling, no amount of theological reasoning understanding.
00:24:44:28 - 00:25:10:26
Nothing can take away from the person who is truly walking with God by experience. Little green spaceships landing in my backyard will not remove the reality of God in my heart. Having put his words into practice and experience something like this. Now, before I show this to you, let me just give you just a quick little background. On October 30th of 2009, I'm living in $1 million house.
00:25:11:03 - 00:25:30:23
I'm being called the next Zig Ziglar. I'm a motivational sales training speaker. I've got a lot of clients. I'm making a lot of success, but my heart is absolutely gripped with tension. There's no peace yet. I'm calling myself a Christian. 19 years. I'm going to church. I'm trying to do a bunch of good deeds. I'm a leader in the men's ministry.
00:25:30:26 - 00:25:50:01
I'm watching the single parent moms cars on the Mother's Day. I'm feeding the homeless on Sunday nights. I'm doing all these good deeds, but I'm still wracked with tension and I'm still knowing deep in my heart something's missing. I'm calling myself a Christian. But the New covenant, the New Testament reality of being a Christian is not mine. It's left the building.
00:25:50:04 - 00:26:18:07
October 30th, 2009 I have a crisis in my life. God is allowing my circumstances to fall apart. He's starting to shake up all the things I've been building my my life on. And I cry out to God in a weekend of fasting and prayer. And I came to a place where many saints that have gone before me have called the white Funeral Day, where I decided that I was going to give up my whole life to the one who made me where I was going to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and have him save me.
00:26:18:07 - 00:26:39:22
Acts 232. That I was going to not only surrender my will to him, but I was going to actually abandon my will, that I was going to stop treating Jesus Christ like a good luck rabbit's foot, hanging him and his words like a bumper sticker on everything in my life, and hoping and praying that you know his name would bless all of my plans and my goals and my dreams.
00:26:39:24 - 00:26:58:12
And instead I got real with God. And I said, you know, the Bible says that if I'm in Christ, I've been bought with a price, I'm no longer my own, and that I should no longer live for myself, but for the one who died for me and gave himself for me. And I made that decision. I drew a line in the sand.
00:26:58:15 - 00:27:18:00
From that day forward, real suffering started to come into my life. It was not this great blessing. This guy did not open up, the sun did not shine and I did not hear. This is my son whom I love. With him I am well pleased. My life began to fall apart. But I had a peace in spite of the storm, in spite of the circumstances, I had a knowing that I was now right with God.
00:27:18:05 - 00:27:43:13
I had a knowing that in my humility God had heard my prayer, and from that point forward, God begins to move through my circumstances, move through the Word of God. He begins to supernaturally guide me and give me amazing guidance. Okay? He begins to manifest himself just as he promised. And by the way, this happens long before I became perfect, long before I knew all the teachings of Jesus Christ and could recite them and obey them and teach them.
00:27:43:15 - 00:28:08:14
But God began to get involved in my life nine months to the day of that October 30th, 2009. On July 30th, 2010. What you're going to see in this my now ex-wife leaves. She turns evil on me in a way that's only describable to those who've heard a lot of the story. Everything falls apart. She takes all of my money.
00:28:08:14 - 00:28:34:07
She takes all of my children. She takes virtually all of our possessions. She leaves. Totally turns against me, and in the end, spends close to $80,000 to destroy me in divorce court. When you see this, what you'll see and what you've missed. If you haven't watched this clip is God began to warn me. This little kid who was so scared and so humbled to go through this, I began to, as a child, trust in this Heavenly Father of mine.
00:28:34:07 - 00:28:56:04
And God began to warn me with all of these six, six, six sightings that I've talked about. And then the 555 sightings which showed me a page in the Holy Bible that I have that I would be delivered him telling me in advance. And then I began to see this number seven, seven, seven that would show up literally over 100 times throughout the worst crisis of my life.
00:28:56:06 - 00:29:16:27
And out of all of this, I was getting the sense that God was warning me every time something difficult what's happened, and that God was promising me in advance he would deliver me. And one day God had spoken to my heart and he said, if you'll fire your attorney and trust me in this divorce, I will deliver you, and I'll do it in a highly unusual way that will bring me much glory, not me.
00:29:16:27 - 00:29:41:24
That will bring him much glory. That is the story we've done to this point. There were many temptations for me to save myself. It's been a real struggle of faith. There's been a lot of pain and difficulty as I've lost everything in my life so far. And now this long awaited promise is about to come true. I challenge anybody of any faith that believes in any other different God to ask this question.
00:29:41:26 - 00:30:05:25
Has your God ever been able to do anything for you? Like this. Again, I say this with deep respect for your faith, but I just challenge you because the Bible says there is one way, one name under heaven by which men must give an account and be saved. It is the name of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ said, I am the way, I am the truth.
00:30:05:28 - 00:30:28:03
I am the life. No one comes to God the Father but by me. So I would challenge you. Has the God that you've been believing in? Has he ever been able to do anything like this for you? In our Bible, we have a teaching about what's called common grace. Common grace. The Bible says Our God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
00:30:28:06 - 00:31:02:23
He gives reign to the righteous and the unrighteous. He makes his son shine on the evil and the good. So our Bible teaches that God is graceful and still provides food. He still provides water. He still provides sustenance even for those who reject him. That's how merciful and kindness. But we also know that God does not listen to the prayers of those who reject him, and those who live in sin, and those who worship false gods and we know that God does not pour out blessings, telling people in the in advance of his amazing, miraculous ability and power to deliver them, for them, for their circumstances.
00:31:02:25 - 00:31:21:23
We know that there's a false power at work that does false miracles, false wonders, and false signs. And the Bible says God allows that. It says this in the book of Second Thessalonians that God allows this all around the world for people to be deceived, for those who do not love the truth and those who do not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
00:31:21:25 - 00:31:37:18
So this is my humble challenge to all of you who have a faith, but it's not in the God of the Bible, the Holy Bible, not in the sun, the Lord Jesus Christ. Has your God ever been able to do anything like this for you? And has he ever been able to tell you in advance that it happened?
00:31:37:24 - 00:32:02:05
Take a look. Okay, so you can see God is reaching through to me right there in that moment of desperation where I'm angry at him, I'm at the end of myself. And he still, even though I'm telling him how angry I am, he's actually reaching through by his grace, trying to comfort me. You're going to understand how powerful that moment is that I call an audio recording at the end of this story.
00:32:02:05 - 00:32:29:16
We're getting close. Hang in there. So that happened in June, but God continues to encourage me. He gives me enough strength to keep going, and I keep moving forward. Now, this puts us into September. There's this hearing set. There's a hearing, a trial being set. Now, even though I'm still not technically finalized in my divorce. Now, there's a hearing to violate me, in the parenting agreement that they've put together saying I'm in violation of all this stuff.
00:32:29:16 - 00:32:55:07
So that's set for, like, September 24th. Okay. So on September 15th, we get a piece of mail and I open it up and it turns out it's my final divorce decree. And I'm I'm on elated. I don't even read the papers because I've seen the proposed final judgment 100 times. I know that it's filled with things that are garbage, but there's a part of me that after almost two and a half years, I just don't even care.
00:32:55:09 - 00:33:20:14
If I had told the Lord for the weeks previous, I surrendered to the possibility that this was going to end in disaster, in spite of all of the warnings of everybody else. I just said, Lord, if I'm to participate in your sufferings, I consider it an honor. But I surrendered to it, and I said, Lord, I will receive from you whatever's coming, because you've told me that you will deliver me.
00:33:20:14 - 00:33:39:23
I don't know how. I don't know when. It may not be today. It may not be this year, but I'm going to choose to continue to trust you, and I'm going to choose that you will believe that you will deliver me in the storm and so now, on that September 15th day, I'm rolling through these pages, not looking at it because I'd seen them forever.
00:33:39:23 - 00:34:19:05
And I get to the back and I realize that it's been signed my divorce is final 911 September 11th. I instantly know that is not by coincidence. This is the scripture. Psalm 91 one. This is the spiritual 911 and this is the scripture that Larry had driven me to countless times when I would call him, just at the end of my rope, and he would help me either pray with me or get me to get my Bible out and read through Psalm 91 one.
00:34:19:05 - 00:34:48:26
So now I'm looking at this going, this was dated 911. I'm like, how cool is this? Right? I had no idea, but I am. I leave and I'm having the conversation. I'm like, guys, I'm divorced, I'm excited, and I kind of let out a big woo hoo! You know, I was excited and but my mom goes, well. And by the way, I forgot to tell you that for weeks leading up to all of this, my mother's been making all these comments about me having a jailhouse ministry because I didn't get an attorney.
00:34:49:03 - 00:35:08:20
And I'm getting all of this imputed income put in there, and I'm having all this financial stuff put in there. And since I'm not going to be able to pay it, I'm going to end up in jail. And so we're going to come and see you in jail. This was the the joke around the house. My mom would say this all the time out of her own fear to try to manipulate me into to getting an attorney.
00:35:08:22 - 00:35:23:04
So now that morning, I'm leaving with the divorce papers and she's like, oh yeah, that's good. But you still have all that stuff in there you got to deal with. And I'm like, well, you know what? I have to be in court on the 24th to fight my way to defend myself against the the parenting agreement that I'm in violation of.
00:35:23:11 - 00:35:44:06
Maybe God is setting this up so that I'll have an opportunity to get in front of that judge and reiterate the fact that I'm being wronged. I leave, I go to work that day. I'm at work. I'm checking my email. When I say work, that means Starbucks. I go there and I work on my little computer there at the Starbucks on there.
00:35:44:08 - 00:36:07:24
And, I check my email and it's the hearings been canceled. And I'm like, what? It immediately I'm thinking, is the devil playing some kind of a new joke here? What are they doing? I had just told my parents, I'm excited about being in front of court so that I can defend myself. Now the hearing is done. So I leave the Starbucks all upset and I'm like, God, I don't know what you want me to do.
00:36:07:24 - 00:36:25:12
Am I supposed to call them, help me out here? Why didn't you show me a six, six, six on this deal? Why do I feel like the devil is playing games? What's going on? A few minutes later, pull up to a stoplight car in front of me. Five, five, five. I'm like, that wasn't enough. I'm still thinking, God, why didn't you warn me?
00:36:25:12 - 00:36:46:27
I didn't see it. Six. Six. Six. What's this about? What do you want me to do? Very next stop. Different car. Five. Five. Five. Instantly I'm like, God, are you telling me that you canceled this hearing? That this is your deliverance? Yes. My God, I'm like, wow, I pull into the house. Guys, you're not going to believe this.
00:36:46:27 - 00:37:04:05
The hearings been canceled first thing out of my mom's mouth. Well, but I thought you wanted to be in front of court, because how else are you going to help defend yourself and get all this garbage taken out of the the final divorce decree? Mom, I have no idea. I don't know how. I don't know when, but my God is going to deliver me.
00:37:04:07 - 00:37:26:07
My mom has, ex NASA friend over. Michael, do you want to tell them what happened about your divorce? Yeah, and I begin to tell them about the seven seven sevens. God. Showing me the seasons almost over. He's going to deliver me, and I'm telling him just a little brief version of it, and, Yeah, but Michael's still probably going to end up in jail because there's all this stuff in there that, he can't pay.
00:37:26:07 - 00:37:44:07
And so he's probably going end up in jail. And I said, well, that's all right, Jerry. And also come see me in jail. Do you guys will bring me a cookie or two while you I said, guys, I'm just going to be honest with you. That's not even funny to joke about. I said this in front of all of them and and I said, I'm prophesying to you guys right now.
00:37:44:09 - 00:38:08:27
My God will deliver me. He has told me he will deliver me. I have done everything I could to be a fool for him to put it all on the line for him and to trust him completely. I don't know how, I don't know when, but my God will deliver me. Two days goes by. I'm standing in the kitchen washing some dishes.
00:38:08:27 - 00:38:20:26
My mom yells from the other room, Michael, I have a confession to make to you. I said, what mom? I read your divorce papers. She said, I went in your room to put something. I saw him there, I couldn't resist. I read them, but I scared them because I was afraid you'd come in and see me doing it.
00:38:20:29 - 00:38:34:10
She brings him out to the kitchen and says, now that you know about it, I'm going to go back to room slowly. I said, go for it. She gets into it, she starts to share what's in it. And I said, mom, I don't want you reading my divorce papers, but I'm not interested in rolling around in the mud with you.
00:38:34:13 - 00:38:44:12
If you want to roll around in the mud, you go right ahead. I know what it says. I don't need to hear anymore. My step dad agreed and said yes, and he keep it to yourself.
00:38:44:15 - 00:39:01:05
The next day this would be the third day. This is September 18th. Now she says to me something about something in the divorce papers. And I said, oh, that's not in their mom's. Or maybe I said, that wasn't there. I think it was something about an insurance requirement or something. And she goes, no, I'm telling you, that's that's not in there.
00:39:01:05 - 00:39:20:17
And I said, no, you don't. You didn't read the papers, right? I have read these things forwards, backwards 25 times. I know they're in there, Michael. I'm telling you, you should you should get it and read it. So I went in, got my divorce papers. Keep in mind, they had been in my house for three days. I never read the divorce papers.
00:39:20:20 - 00:39:48:03
I come and sit on this couch in this very spot right here. My stepfather was sitting right there. I begin to read through the divorce papers, and I'm going to tell you, it was the most unbelievable experience of my. It was like an out-of-body experience. I'm reading the divorce papers. I'm going, there's only a couple pages left. There's only two pages left.
00:39:48:05 - 00:40:26:18
There's only one page left. Everything was gone. Everything was gone from my divorce papers. The imputed income was gone. The $10,000 in attorney's fees gone. The $10,000 equalizing payment gone. The $200,000 life insurance gone, the me having to pay to get my kids and pick them up. Gone. Eight weeks of visitation, two four day visits. Gone. The 75% expenses gone.
00:40:26:21 - 00:40:54:13
All of it. Me having to check and get permission with a particular babysitter or, you know, get sent of my kids to the. Everything was gone and I began to cry my eyes out and I jumped up from this couch and I ran into my room because I knew I was getting ready to have a meltdown. And then this is what my mother finds.
00:40:54:15 - 00:41:26:05
I'm in the shower, and all of a sudden I hear this sound. I get out of the shower and I realize that it's my son wailing again. Only the second time I've heard this in my whole life. I hurried in into his room to find him laying on the floor on his stomach rigid, just wailing and wailing. And again I hear nobody is going to believe what you have done for me.
00:41:26:07 - 00:41:51:16
Nobody will ever believe what you have done for me. I have to spend the rest of my life telling people because it is a miracle. Everybody told me this is there's no way this could happen. You told me it would. God, and you did it. I couldn't believe my eyes. Even though God had told me all this time he would deliver me.
00:41:51:16 - 00:42:10:05
This was the most amazing evidence of God I had ever seen in my life. God supernaturally removed. And you say, well, Mike, how do you know it wasn't there? The first person I called said, Mike, how do you know they weren't in the papers to begin with? And I said, Todd, I have every single copy of the divorce papers since day one.
00:42:10:05 - 00:42:34:13
I can show you all of this stuff in it, but God would cover even those tracks days later from the shock, if you can imagine, when they had spent all that money to get this divorce paper and everything they have fought for is gone. Everything they lied about and put in the agreement is gone. Can you imagine what they felt?
00:42:34:15 - 00:42:53:16
So they had to file a motion for clarification to say, hey, and here's what I want to show you. I'm going to make it scroll down the screen right now so you can see where it shows. This was in the proposed final judgment. It was missing or removed from the final. This was in take a look. You'll see.
00:42:53:19 - 00:43:20:03
All of these things were in the proposed final judgment. And now they have been removed miraculously. Keep in mind, I never told anybody what the things were that needed to be removed. I made mention of four things to the magistrate and said, this is in there, this is in there, this is in there. But he replied, I can't help you.
00:43:20:05 - 00:43:42:24
You need to get somebody else to help you remember. So I was denied all of that. There was over 15 things that were removed. Who would have known what to take out. It was done by a judge that didn't do the final judgment. Are you following me on this? This is where it gets amazing. Okay. God miraculously removed and you're going, oh, my.
00:43:42:24 - 00:44:02:20
Come on. I don't want to hear this. The story's not done yet, I don't doubt. Oh, ye of little faith is doubting Thomas says to Jesus Christ, unless I touch with my hands, I do not believe. Unless I see him with my eyes. I do not believe in. Jesus says, O ye of little faith, come, put your hand right here in my side.
00:44:02:20 - 00:44:19:03
Okay, so that day I went for a run and I was so excited. And I was sitting down with my papers on the back porch, sitting right there, and I said, God, there's something.
00:44:19:05 - 00:44:41:20
There's something awesome about the day. Lord, help me know, I'm sorry I'm so emotional about this, but this is the most amazing thing. I said, God, I know that you're telling me something is unique about the timing of this. The date. What is it? So I'm sitting there on the back porch and I had just gone for a run.
00:44:41:22 - 00:45:22:23
And I'm asking the father. I'm like, Lord, I know there's something about these dates. Lord, help me understand. What is it? And I'm sitting there and all of a sudden God says, count the days and I'm like, what? What it what days? And all of a sudden I realize that God is telling me to count the number of days between the date that my ex-wife filed for divorce, which was July 30th of 2010, and the date that I received my divorce papers on September 15th, 2012.
00:45:22:26 - 00:46:04:09
It is 777 days and I just cried my eyes out. I'm like, God, thank you Lord, you you did everything you said. You validated me. God, nobody is ever going to believe this. This was incredible. Do the math yourself. September. I'm sorry. July 30th of 2010 to September 15th of 2012 is 777 days. Do you remember hearing me say, God, there's another seven, seven, seven on the way home from court.
00:46:04:09 - 00:46:34:23
God would show me 777 16 times in one day. So you can now see God was setting this whole thing up to show me he was going to deliver me. It gets better. I am wiped out. I am absolutely just blown away by what my God has done for me. And I get on my knees that night and I'm praying and I'm like, Lord, I'm right next to my dead.
00:46:34:25 - 00:47:00:04
And I'm thinking, and I said, God, thank you for September 11th. Thank you for ending it on September 11th. 911 he who dwells in the shelter of the Most High God will rest in the shadow of his wings. Psalm 91 one and then I said, God, thank you for the 777. Thank you for doing this in 777 days.
00:47:00:04 - 00:47:12:26
God, devil, to date all the numbers to validate your work. And while I'm on my knees.
00:47:12:28 - 00:47:22:02
God says, read page 777 and your Bible.
00:47:22:04 - 00:47:42:19
And I said, God, I would have already read page 777. I would have already read it. Lord, when you showed me the number all those times, God, I would have gone and read that. But I literally said, okay, Lord. Nevertheless, you told me to do it. I'm going to do it.
00:47:42:22 - 00:48:33:29
I opened up page 777 in my Bible, and immediately when I looked. I said, God, I now know why. I wouldn't have read page 777 because it's not even scriptures, it's the introduction to the Psalms. And I'm going to show you this on the screen. And I read these words, and I knew the God of the universe had delivered me and had done it in such an amazing way that the promise that he had said to me 18 months earlier, Michael, if you will trust me, I will deliver you, and I will do this in a way that is highly unusual, that will bring me much glory.
00:48:34:02 - 00:48:41:15
Listen to these words. Oh God, help me read these words, Lord. Thank you father.
00:48:41:17 - 00:49:27:17
The second paragraph says, Because God is the great King, he is the ultimate executor of justice among men. To avenge oneself is an act of the proud. God is the court of appeal. When persons are threatened or wronged, especially when no earthly court that he has established has jurisdiction, as in the case of international conflicts, or they're not able to judge as when one is wronged by public slander, or is not willing to act out of fear or corruption.
00:49:27:19 - 00:50:01:21
He is the mighty and faithful defender of the defenseless and the wronged. He knows every deed and the secrets of every heart. There is no escaping his scrutiny. No false testimony will mislead him in judgment, and he hears the pleas brought to him as the good and faithful judge he delivers those who are oppressed or wrongfully attacked, and he redress is the wrongs committed against them.
00:50:01:23 - 00:50:51:12
This is the unwavering conviction that accounts for the psalmist impatient complaints when they boldly, yet poor and needy cry to him, why have you not yet delivered me? How long, oh Lord, before you act, can you imagine what I felt in that moment, my friend, when I realized that this whole thing where I had played the fool and believed these numbers, and believed that God was on my side and believed the speaking through the Holy Spirit and the confirmation that God would deliver me, that he would do this without an attorney, that I could forgive my ex-wife, that I could not have to defend myself.
00:50:51:14 - 00:51:24:08
That I could have no resources to help myself, and that God himself would deliver me, and that I could trust him. Can you imagine how I felt? Can you imagine what this has done to my faith? Now, do you see why God has asked me to tell this story? Because this is not a mike, Chris. Well, story. This is a Child of God story.
00:51:24:10 - 00:52:00:20
This is a story about you and about your heavenly father, and about the enemy of your soul who wishes to steal, to kill and destroy. This is about you understanding that there is a devil who wants to wipe you off the face of the earth, who wants to destroy your family. This is about a devil who's behind a whole lot more things going on in your life, in your marriage, in your business and in your relationships and in your finances, than what you may be willing to understand at this point.
00:52:00:22 - 00:52:21:11
But it's about a God who is mighty and who is faithful. He wants to be more involved in your life, but he is a gentleman and he will not force his way in there. He wants you to take him more seriously. He wants you to believe him in a deeper way. He wants you to seek him in a bigger way.
00:52:21:16 - 00:52:42:05
He wants you to trust him more than you've ever trusted him in your entire life. Now, here's the most exciting thing, and I just thank you so much for watching this. I get so emotional every time I tell this story. I'm sorry. I mean, a new word to if you have this experience. God is so good. God is so good.
00:52:42:05 - 00:53:11:09
He's so amazing. What could he do in your life if you trusted him with everything you had? What could he do in your family? What could he do with your children? What could he do in your business? What could he do in your heart? If you trusted him with everything you had?
00:53:11:11 - 00:53:37:03
Seven years later, all I can say when I see this story again is wow, wow, wow is the Holy God of the Holy Bible. Great God Almighty, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Is he not unbelievably amazing? Is it not he who chooses the appointed time? Is it not he who is sovereign over all men, over all times, over all circumstances and God?
00:53:37:09 - 00:53:56:00
Is it not he who tells the beginning from the end? Is it not he who can tell the future in advance, and bring those things which are not into the reality that they are? Our God is an awesome God. I've learned so much more about what father has done in this story, and I've learned so much more about our father in Heaven, the God of the Bible.
00:53:56:03 - 00:54:22:06
Over the last seven years since this story happened. But I want to tell you two quick things. I was so amazed with what God had done on my behalf, bringing him my weakness and simply obedience and trust. And I couldn't see that the story would be trapped inside of a video file on a hard drive somewhere. So I took the time to assemble all the pictures, the six six sixes and the five five fives and the seven seven sevens and the picture out of my Bible.
00:54:22:06 - 00:54:45:20
And the amazing picture that 777 day divorce certificate. And I blew them up into a collage of gigantic, like, three foot by four foot collage that I have here on my wall in the house, so that no matter what I was going to go through in the future, no matter what difficulties and darknesses I faced, I've created an altar of remembrance of God's amazing faithfulness to me in my life.
00:54:45:22 - 00:55:03:23
I've looked upon it many times in prayer, simply walking past it and thanking God and bursting into praise for the gratitude of remembering all the wonderful things that God has done in my life. It's also served as an opportunity for me to tell other people who want to hear about my story in a quick way, and see it with their own eyes.
00:55:03:26 - 00:55:30:17
There's something so powerful about seeing this with your own eyes, but I want to tell you one other amazing insight that God gave me about this story two years later, when I'm deep in the study of the teachings of Jesus Christ, I come upon John 14:12-14. And this is where Jesus Christ taught that those like me who had faith in him would do what he has been doing.
00:55:30:19 - 00:55:53:03
And then he had the audacity to say, we would do even greater things than him, because he was leaving and going to the father. And he said, and I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the son may bring glory to the father. Now do you remember God telling me in advance that if you will trust me, I will do this in a highly unusual way that will bring me much glory?
00:55:53:03 - 00:56:11:07
See, that was what Jesus's first top priority was. Bring glory to your name, God, he says. And God says, I have brought glory to my name, and I will do it again. Well, I became a little discouraged, really trying to understand what Jesus meant by. Is it really possible that people would do greater things and what Jesus did?
00:56:11:07 - 00:56:28:23
I mean, I had never walked on water. I had never, you know, fed 20,000 people with a sack lunch before. And while I was praying that one day I really had a deep sorrow and a lament in my heart, and I said, father, I've never done anything as great as Jesus. I've certainly never even done anything greater than Jesus.
00:56:28:25 - 00:56:59:16
And all of a sudden it's like God said to me, Michael, what about the 777 day divorce? And in that moment, God somehow or another gave me this insight by essentially asking me this question what do you think is more difficult for me to raise somebody from the dead at the blink of the eye, or for me to arrange thousands of details over two years to have the result be a 777 day divorce, which I have told you about in advance.
00:56:59:19 - 00:57:32:00
And as I began to meditate on this, I began to realize the staggering power of God's sovereign hand to be sovereign over all circumstances and all people in all situations and all times in life. I began to realize, in order for God to tell me in advance that he was going to end my divorce on the 777th day, God had to look through the future and anticipate and know and see by his omniscience, the thousands of details involved in hitting a 777 day divorce.
00:57:32:02 - 00:58:02:26
Think about my schedule. Think about the times I couldn't make court. Think about my ex-wife schedule. Think about her two different attorneys. She changed their schedules. Think about the fact that God had to anticipate in advance that our divorce attorney, or rather, our judge, was going to retire in the middle of our trial. Think about the court of day closings, weather closings, national emergencies, holidays, the thousands of details over two years that God had to orchestrate.
00:58:02:29 - 00:58:20:20
And it's like God was asking me, Michael, do you not see that that is much greater than raising somebody from the dead? And it was like, I shrunk. And I said, yes, God, I see it. But then I said to him, but, father, I didn't do this. It says, I will do greater things than Jesus. And I said, Lord, I didn't do this.
00:58:20:20 - 00:58:45:20
And it's like God said to me, read verse 13. Verse 13 says, I will do whatever you ask in my name. So look at what happens. Jesus says, those who believe in him will do even greater things than him, right? But then he says, it's not really you doing it. You're participating by your faith. God is saying, Through Christ, I will do whatever you ask in my name.
00:58:45:22 - 00:58:50:21
Do you know what I had asked in the name of Jesus Christ?
00:58:50:23 - 00:59:19:24
Behind the scenes, my prayer had always been to God. Father, please give me a story that brings you glory. God, please God, bring me a story that brings you glory. God, please God, bring glory to your name. Let my life have evidence that you are the real God. I prayed for this over and over and over again, and here God was telling me some two years later, I will do whatever you ask in my name that I may bring glory to my father in heaven.
00:59:19:27 - 00:59:42:17
Oh, our God is indescribable. Never let anybody cause you to doubt. If you want to know this God, do. As I mentioned in the passage earlier where I said to you, John 717, Jesus makes a promise if you want to know God, do his will. Go learn the teachings of Christ by yourself in deep humility before this God, be sure of what you hope for and certain of what you cannot see.
00:59:42:17 - 01:00:01:22
The Bible says in Hebrews 11 six that without faith it is impossible to please God. That means you have to go to him even though you can't see him. Begin to put his teachings into practice. And the God of the universe, the one true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Israel, the father of the Lord Jesus Christ.
01:00:01:24 - 01:00:19:02
My father can become your father, and he can use your life and will do whatever you ask in his name to bring glory to the father. I hope you've been blessed. May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you and keep you in me. Help you to know you more, help you to know him more and more because you continue to seek him.
01:00:19:04 - 01:00:30:21
Do you faithful obedience. I'll leave this recording by simply saying, wow, our God is an awesome God. I'll see you in the next video.
