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Scripture references: Jeremiah 29:11 (NKJV)

 

Pastor John Bendixen:

Raise your hands and let’s just praise Jesus. We praise You, Lord. You are our secret place, You are a hiding place. Under You, we found safety, we found refuge. You give us strength, Lord. Hallelujah. We give glory to Your name; we praise Your name. We worship You; we worship You and praise You. We honor You, Lord, Holy Spirit, we thank You that You have full sway in this house here today. And that everything that is said and done will bring glory and honor to the Most High, to the Father, to the Son. Hallelujah. Lord, have Your way, in everything that we say. We thank You. We thank you that so much of what has happened has already touched our hearts. We thank You that even now, the message that’s going to come, the testimony that’s going to come forth, will continue to glorify the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Before you sit down, just tell somebody; “I’m ready to receive,” and then you may be seated. 

 

Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Well, today is a really wonderful day, because I’ve been around Brother Tony Armstrong for a long time. You know, in private conversations, I’ve heard bits about his life and about his testimony. But I’ve never had the privilege of hearing the whole of it. So, I found out that neither has Eric heard the whole of Tony’s testimony. I’m grateful and thankful that we have an opportunity to hear his testimony today. Whatever the Holy Spirit is going to say through him, I have a great, I have a great respect for what he does for Brother Jerry serves him and he will spend on his own dime, he will take time out and go around the world to be with Brother Jerry. So why won’t you Welcome brother Tony Armstrong to the pulpit? Hallelujah. 

 

Brother Tony:

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. You know, I guess time could never pass fast enough. I’ve been here since Sunday; I believe I arrived here Sunday. Prior to departing Fort Worth, we had a meeting, the team that was traveling, and they handed out these itineraries. Now, my responsibility is Dr. Savelle, that is my ministry. That’s who I am called and have been called to serve. I take that with all of my heart. He’s very dear to me. Matter of fact, he’s ‘dad’ to me. Him and Ms. Carolyn are who I consider mom and dad, both my parents have gone on to heaven. My voice may be a little crackly, so excuse me, and I’ll explain that in a minute too. 

 

But I just, it’s such a privilege to have someone in your life that you can pour your life out to and do the best that you can, and that appreciates everything that you do. And so, I honor them. I would not be the man that I am today, or where I am in my life today if it were not for the Savelles. They took me under their wing, they accepted me, and I so greatly appreciate them. So, if they’re watching me, I love you, Mom and Dad. My name is Tony Armstrong. I’ve been asked to share my testimony with you. I guess, when I think about this opportunity, it’s amazing, because I wasn’t one who grew up in the church. So, I think about the mindset of a believer and their perspective on how they look at a person that I used to be and it’s what damages the population of the church because, in some kind of way, we feel like we have been privileged to judge God’s kids in the street. 

 

Well, I come from the streets. And I was raised by two lovely parents. My dad was in the military, my mom did what she had to do to make sure that we were comfortable and surviving. And in the process of that separation of time, it allowed me and my two brothers, I’m the youngest of three, but it allowed us to get influenced from the outside. Which in my case, matter of fact, in all three of our cases came from the streets. I’m going to try to condense this journey as much as I can but give you a few details of what transpired. I first of all, would like to thank God for allowing me a voice to share. And my prayer is that your perspective will be changed on what His ability is to do with those that we have judged, to not be good enough to be in the household of the Lord and the church. Amen. Amen.

 

I’m going to start from when we came back from Europe. My dad was in the military, he was stationed in Frankfurt, Germany. My brothers and I, we had moved from Watts, which is probably, most people know of Compton, California. Compton California towards Watts was like Beverly Hills. Okay. Watts was a dangerous place to live. So anyway, a lot of our behavior had been, probably developed, you know, living in that area. I came up through the era, the Watts riots, which happened in 66. I was around during the Black Panther movement, when some of you young people probably don’t have a clue what I’m talking about. But it was a movement where racism was so bad. You know, and you had, I mean, there was just, it was horrible. And so, when I think about the activities that I saw, there were people like Angela Davis, and Huey Newton, and Stokely Carmichael, who were the founders of the Black Panther era. And they would literally interact with us as young kids to draw us in.

 

Well, this was pretty much what drove me into the streets of Los Angeles. And so, I began to pick up little things that were not necessarily what we would consider proper things to do. Most people will say they were bad things to do. You know. And so, in developing that, I began to yearn for, I guess what you could say was that fast life. There were people that were around me that were deeply involved in that. And so that’s what become… But prior to arriving back to Los Angeles, and this is so embarrassing, but me and my two brothers, literally, got kicked out of Germany. The government took our passports and told us we could not stay there. We had to go back to Los Angeles. Okay. And I couldn’t understand as nice as we were, why would they want to do that? [Congregation laughs]. You know, I mean, gee whiz, who kicks nice people out of countries? You know.

 

But going through, I would say, an identity crisis, trying to identify ourselves as being tough and bad, and whatever it was, we were trying to prove. That took us back to Los Angeles. Now, on our trip going back to Los Angeles, my mom was sitting with us and bless her heart. Yesterday was her 87th birthday. So, they threw a party for her up in heaven. You know. So, I can only imagine what that party was like, you know. But bless her heart, she just, she did everything as a mother that she could do to try and raise three hard headed kids, you know. And that we were, you know. 

 

The influences that became attractive to me were more or less in the drug culture. And so, at a young age, we have what we call ‘gambling shacks’, that people would go and where they would run numbers, shoot dice, play cards, play dominoes, you know, gambling for money. And so, it was an older crowd. And what I would do for, quote, unquote, little side hustle to make a little change was.

 

I would go there to ask them what they needed. If they needed something from the store, I would go to the store for them, you know, cigarettes. The gentleman that used to own the store was an Asian man and he knew I didn’t smoke, he knew, and he knew I didn’t drink, but he was selling me this stuff, you know, to take back to the gambling shack. So, that was pretty much where my, I guess you can say the starting point. So, we have had, which was the Weed House. Now, the Weed house was where you would purchase marijuana. And so, they would give me a couple of dollars and tell me, “Hey, go buy me a few joints” you know, and so I would go. Well, I became a really smart person out there after a little while. 

 

Why do I keep going to the Weed house buying joints from him when I can take the money that they’re giving me as a tip and buy my own weed and sell it to them? And that is where it really initiated as far as being a distributor of drugs. I went through high school. You have to understand Los Angeles was a fashion show in school. It was how well you dress, what type of car you were driving, how much money you had in your pocket, you know, that’s who the girls wanted to be around. You know, it was all those guys who had that status. And so, I wanted to be one of those guys. 

 

I was playing sports, you know, and I was excelling in football and so I played baseball as well – did very well. So, I had that attention as well. But it was something about that fast life, you know, being involved in the drug culture that was attractive to me. Now, it was hard for me to accept that. I had an experience – my dad was in the military; my mom went through some challenges. I don’t really know what my dad was doing with his money, but I know I saw my mom working two and three jobs which was really kind of an overkill on her. And so, whatever I could do, because I liked nice things, I wanted to be able to provide those things for myself, so it really pushed me out into the street. 

 

So, now during this time, I’m sorry, I am trying to condense – because this could be a really long story. But, how many of you are familiar with the Crips, ok? Now the Crips is a gang that was originated in Los Angeles. It was – at one point, still to this day, it really has a horrible reputation. But there was this gentleman by the name of Raymond Washington and Tuki Whims who actually started the Crips. Those were my home boys, we hung out together. And so, the Crips was actually started as a result of another group of people from a certain part of Los Angeles that were gathering together trying to be bossy and control everything. 

 

Well, that organisation, the Crips turned out to be, I would say notorious for gang banging, killing, drugs, and everything above that. And so, because I knew Tuki and Raymond, we were good, I didn’t want to be somewhere where someone was controlling what I did. I’ve never been that type of person who wanted to be controlled by anybody or anything. And so, I did never really join, and so even during this time and process, for some reason, I had to leave the State of California or Los Angeles State to go to school. Once again, a nice guy like me, I don’t know why they wouldn’t let me go to school in Los Angeles with everybody else. But I ended up having to move to Pasadena, California which is where I began my high school time and stuff. 

 

In this era of time there was so many opportunities to develop and to grow in the knowledge of what was actually transpiring in the streets and so my niche was always hanging out with older people and being influenced by the things that they did. So, getting involved in the drug culture I was taught by some older people. I had at one point become their runner, but at the same time I am learning the process. And we, I probably did that up through around the eleventh or twelfth grade which would have been in the year ‘75. ‘75 is when I graduated from high school, so during that period of time. 

 

So, getting out of high school, I’m still playing sports. But I cannot shake the desire, or the hunger, or the fascination of being in the drug room. Because it’s fast money, it’s a lot of money. And I was able to do a lot of things that were interesting to me. Well, fast forward a little bit, I began to get rather large. And so, I started posting up what we call dope houses, drug houses, and what those are, is where people go to purchase their drugs, you know. So, here I am 20 years old, 19/20 years old. And I’m establishing myself in the quantities to be able to have houses where they’re selling drugs at. One day, in particular, I happened to show up at one of the drug houses. And some of my workers were in there torturing this guy. And it happened to be Pablo Escobar’s nephew. Now, I’m not sure if you know who Pablo Escobar is. 

 

But Pablo Escobar is probably one of the most notorious providers of cocaine, you know, to the world. And so, I walked in, and I obviously discontinued what was going on for the purpose of – that’s bringing negative attention to one of my dope houses. And so, we went through the process that we went through, and everything, set him free. Well, a couple years later, fast forward, skipping over a little bit. He and I ran into each other in Santa Monica, California. We were at a location and there were two ladies there. And he was dating one and I was dating the other. We happen to run into each other again. We met in the kitchen, and he walked up to me, and he says, “Man, I know you.” Well, when you’re trying to be low-keyed, and in that environment, you know, you don’t just accept people walking up to you talking about, “I know you.” I tried to blow him off and just ignore them. 

 

So, going back into where I was into the room, I told the young lady, I said, “Look, this gentleman is going to knock on this door. And at that point there, I’m going to need you to do what you need to do. Just keep yourself clear what could transpire.” So, he knocked on the door, he asked me to come back out, and I eventually came back out. And so, he told me, he says, “I’m the guy that you saved in the dope house that they were trying to electrocute,” because they were shocking him with these prongs that they had plugged in the wall. And so, I said, “Okay, da da da.” We went through a little conversation, everything. So, he says, No, he says, “My uncle wants to meet you.” 

 

I’m not really believing the story and all this, not really caring who his uncle was. Eventually I got connected with this gentleman. I won’t pass his name out. But he lived up in Santa Barbara, California. And so, he contacted me and asked me to come out. Well, there had gotten word that I was the owner of the overseer of this drug house, so quite naturally knew I was in the drug trade. So anyway, came out to Pablo – wanted to do something for me for doing what I did for his cousin after, excuse me, his nephew, after what was explained to him what was going on. And at this point here, this relationship started with me and this other individual. 

 

And the thing was, is that there was so much product of cocaine available. I didn’t have to pay for it upfront, but it was given to me on consignment. And that means that if I give it to you and you take it, you have a certain amount of time to pay me for it. And if you don’t, we start with your family. And then we get to you. Okay, and that means by killing them. By this time, I had already developed a pretty strong reputation, because the people that had taught me the drug game are now working for me. And we started putting together a system to move quantities of coke. Well, at one point, I didn’t realise that everything was going to happen as fast as it happened. And we went from selling probably 50 kilos of cocaine a week, to selling anywhere from 1000 to 2000 kilos a week, which became quite a bit of money. 

 

Well, during that era of doing this, and also traveling back and forth to Miami because I just like to go down to Miami and party. Well, one weekend I was down there, I met a young lady by the name of Griselda Blanco. Now, you may or may not know who she is. She was the cocaine queen. They used to call her the Cocaine Cowboy. So, she and I started having our we time together and, you know, hanging out and doing different things, and at a point, she started giving me drugs on consignment also. So, during all this process, we’re building this clientele and we’re moving cocaine all across the United States. 

 

And it was a matter of putting together a team of people that could be trusted. Now, my philosophy of moving cocaine at that time was any women that were 65 and older, they could drive for me. Okay, young people have a mentality that they want to speed. Older people are taking their time. You know, so going through that type of process, certain things started happening, I had a large number of people that were working for me. We had a crew that was, it was incredible. We moved a lot of drugs. Well, coming, narrowing in because I don’t want to get to… coming to a point where all good things come to an end. 

 

Well, I had taken a trip to Martha’s Vineyard, which is a resort on the East Coast. And I was trying to impress this young lady. So, I rented a jet and flew down to Albuquerque and picked her up and we went to Martha’s Vineyard, and I got this call. And the phone call was from my attorneys that I kept on retainer, and they said to me, “Don’t come back to LA, they just raided the ranch.” Now, let me back up just a little bit more for you because, in my time of playing sports, I did make it up to the professional leagues to the NFL. Okay, but unfortunately, because of my love for what I was doing, it ruined my career. I was brought into camp by Jack Patera, who was the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. And I went through training camp and actually had made the team when information was passed to him that I was fighting a case for distribution and manufacturing and that ended my career with the Seattle Seahawks. 

 

They automatically released me. I ended up going to the Canadian league up into British Columbia, played up there for a couple of years, and then went and played in the USFL for a couple of years. Well, you would have thought that man, make it to professional sports, you think that that would be… they got this word, they call greed. You know, you get into that status, and you begin to do things that you become greedy and that’s what I was, I was greedy. But the thing that impresses me so much above all this, was God. In the midst of my behavior and all that I was doing. He knew that one day, I would say yes to His will. 

 

Now, they raided the ranch. Obviously, a cost, well they took me in, I was able to make bail, which was a very large sum, but I was able to cover bail. Also, after they raided the ranch because of the mouth, you know, there was close to $30 million in cash and a little over half a ton of cocaine that they confiscated. Okay, at the time of the raid, and brother Joe will be able to tell you, you know, the activities and things that go on in that process but in the midst of this, not only was I greedy but they were greedy because what happened was, they showed up and raided the ranch without a search warrant and in America, that’s a violation of your rights. You know, probable cause is one thing. Documentation is something else. So, because of that, I was exonerated, I spent 18 months fighting for my life in the federal courthouse. I thought that at the minimum I wanted to do, was life in prison. 

 

They were trying to get me with the death penalty because of all the activities, all the murders and everything that was taking place in the drug culture and in the streets. But God. I could have never imagined on this day, February, the third or fourth or whatever – the fourth I believe it is – 2023, being at Heritage of Faith Christian Centre, South Africa, sharing with you, His grace. His grace and His mercy. I didn’t grow up in the church but in my latter years still doing the activity I was doing, to me it became a good place to go chase women. Go find girls. You know, and so that was my purpose. I wasn’t going to meet God, I didn’t have interest in God because in my world, I thought I was God. So, I began to hang out at the church, but little did I know [Congregation laughing] there is this Spirit called the Holy Spirit. He loses no battles. He gets what He wants when he wants it. 

 

And so, I’m in church one day and I’m sitting there, and something kept telling me, “Go down to the altar.” Like, “Go down to the altar, go down to God.” What am I doing at the altar? Well, eventually I went to the altar. They prayed over me. They took me in the back and dunked me in the pool [Congregation laughing]. They told me, they said, “All your sins have been washed away.” I looked in the water [Congregation laughing] I wanted to see where the sins were. I mean, usually when I take a shower or bath there’s, you know, dirt in there, there’s some body skin or something. And so, I said, okay, well, I began to accept that now giving my life to Christ, my life is going to be great. But it didn’t happen like that. It didn’t. When challenges came, I went back to what I was familiar with and that was the streets. How much time do I have? 

 

Understanding that, what was going on in the church was not attractive to me. And in most cases, those of us who have come from the streets are not attractive to what the believers in the house are standing for. You have drug dealers, drug users, prostitutes, pimps, thieves that are coming into the church being judged by their activities, as if though the body of Christ has never done nothing wrong. And so, I tried to probably rationalise and understand why am I going to get up every Sunday and go to church, and you have people who gossip about that, and people who’re talking about people for this, and these people who want to fight each other, and these people over here cursing each other out? I had much more fun when I was going to the nightclub and hanging out, you know, with the people that I was hanging out with on the weekend. So why? 

 

Well, God began to work and work in me. And He took me to a scripture that was in the book of Jeremiah. In that scripture, it was Jeremiah 18. Excuse me, let me pull it up here for a minute because I want to make sure that I quote exactly what it was that He said to me. He began to have things happen to me. In other words, to have people around me, that began to drop these little nuggets on me that made me start to make a little bit more sense. Now. The thing that I want to encourage you with today, I don’t know who in here needed to hear this testimony. But what I want to say to the body of Christ, “Don’t give up on those who have seen to fall short.” I am a testimony as I stand here before you today. I love God with all my heart. I have been on the mission fields; I have won hundreds to Christ. But at some point, or another, had they just thrown me away. I wouldn’t have that testimony. 

 

So I’m asking you as a people, please don’t throw them away. It’s kind of like they say, “Sin is sin, from the bank teller to the bank robber. Sin is sin.” So how is the bank teller being sinful? Well, when you walk out of the bank with a pin that you didn’t buy, you just stole something. Stealing is stealing. You know, but we have a tendency to want to make people like we are. And God has called us all to be different. The Scripture in Jeremiah 18. We’re here and I’m just going to paraphrase for the sake of time. So anyway, God had gone Jeremiah to Jeremiah to go to the potter’s house. Well, this was something very similar that happened to me. When the Lord told me to go to church. He wanted me to go to the potter’s house or to the church. And He said, “There, I will speak to you.” So, I went to church. And I began to learn things but in the process of Jeremiah’s experience, there was a potter there who was working on the wheel with a chunk of clay. 

 

That clay didn’t come out perfect. It didn’t turn out to be perfect on the first initial try, and that’s when He told me, “Tony restoration. I am restoring you.” So that that was marred. He could have taken it and thrown it away, but he chose to rework it. That’s what He did for me, people. That’s what He has done for me. He has chosen to rework me. Everything’s not going to come out perfect the first time. But if you will stick with it and don’t quit. Dr. Savelle taught me, “Don’t quit.” And I am so grateful. I was known to start some things and quit a lot of things. Even the things that I didn’t start, I quit. But Jeremiah in the process, began to become mindful of the things that God was actually doing in his life. 

 

Now, in Jeremiah 29:11, you know, paraphrasing. I know the thoughts that I have for you, thoughts that are good and not evil (Jeremiah 29:11, NKJV). These are scriptures that begin to form my life. Because what I did to believe was that God cared about me, in spite of whatever I had been through, He cared about me. He said, plans of peace and wellbeing and not for disaster. This is out of the amplifier, I’m sorry, let you know what I’m reading. Yeah, and not for disaster. And then even prior to that, there was a scripture that came out of the message. This is out of the Message Bible. I’m sorry. But out of Jeremiah 15, He says, but before I was shaped in my mother’s womb, He knew me. So, when I look back on my transition, I like to use the phrase, the prodigal child. I left my Heavenly Father and took a tour into the world. 

 

And He received me when I came back, with loving open arms. Body of Christ. I’m going to ask you today to step outside of your comfort zone, step outside of your box. And those that you have looked at and have thrown away, please rethink that. Because when you think about your life, and I don’t care who you are, you have done something that was not favourable to God. But He hasn’t given up on any of us. He loves us just the same. You know, I’ve had the privilege of being under the tutoring and mentoring, and love of Dr Jerry Savelle. And when I explained to you, he has taught me to become a man. He is so consistent in all that he does is such a man of integrity. I begin to cry out to God, that’s what I want. That’s what I want. The fact that I have had the privilege of traveling all over the world for him, was something that God chose. Because when I elected to attend the Bible school, 24 years ago, I didn’t have a clue what I was walking into. But I do know that it’s probably one of the best if not the best choice outside of my salvation that I ever made. Amen. 

 

God is faithful. In the midst of the opportunity of being able to play professional sports, to live the life that I have been able to live. There is no greater joy to me to winning a soul, than winning a soul to the kingdom of God. Because what that establishes is hope. You know, Jeremiah, what would have happened? Had he not gone to the potter’s house? Here better yet, let me tell you, let me say it like this: Tony Armstrong, what would happen had he not been receptive to the Word of God? And I’ll leave it to you to ask yourself that question. 

 

You know, Dr Savelle is such a teacher and all of his, his doings in ministry. Eric mentioned earlier today about our travels and I’ve been around him in massive crowds and I’ve been around him in small crowds. And he’s the same Dr Savelle, so consists so passionate and loving towards God. You know, he imparted this into us last year, in a sermon. He said we should be looking, watching, and expecting. Looking, watching and expecting. If you’re not looking for something, I’m going to help you out, you’re lost. If you’re not watching for something, you can classify yourself as being blind. And if you’re not expecting something, you’re wasting your time. 

 

You know, God is a God, of so much, everything. Is there anything too hard for the Lord? I want to leave you with this. In my heart, I am created to be a winner. In your heart you should feel the same. Second, never let go of your dreams. Dreams are inevitable. They’re a must. In order for you to move from one place to the next. It starts with a thought. And if you allow that thought to manifest into a dream, you will begin to see that you will achieve and accomplish more things than you probably are. Another good one is dreams have no expiration dates. What you dream 10, 20 years ago still exists. 

 

Here. Let me give you a quick story. Falcon 50, a dream of Dr. Savelle’s, 20 years ago. This week, he took his first international trip in his own debt-free airplane. The Bible says God is no respecter of a person. People spend more time criticizing, judging, and being critical of the success-stories of those who have laid the pavement for us, who have left a legacy for us, leaving a legacy for us. We’re judging them. Why can’t you just say next? If God did it for, I’m next. Stop making the critical comments because if you understood his journey and why he needed to have what he has, it would be, “Oh, okay.” But it’s important.

 

You know, we have a term, “I’m blessed by association.” So, Dr. Savelle is known all around the world as Favor. Now this is not going to be hard for you to realize, but that’s my dad, don’t we look like? Yeah, we look alike, so I’m blessed by association. That’s how kids do when they grow a little higher. But I’m blessed by association. You know, one of the things that was hard for me and still hard for me today is to understand why believers don’t believe the Word of God. That’s hard for me. See, he didn’t have to tie me down and beat me down and get me to understand that His word was true. But people struggle with where they are and why things are not happening and what’s going on. It’s all in the Word [Tony picking up his Bible and showing the congregation]. 

 

If you want to make your life easy, come to the Word. Spend time with God, He’ll speak to you. This is His conversation to you right here. We want to blame everything and everybody else for us not being able to process or to receive the things that we think God is trying to tell us, but we don’t spend no time with Him. It’s just like a relationship. In order to get to know each other, you’ve got to spend time. And the last thing I want to make, a statement that I would like to make to you, I don’t care what you are going through in your life; the Bible says, as long as the earth remains, it will be seedtime and harvest (Genesis 8:22). Now I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but one thing I do know, is all a seed knows how to do is sow, I mean, is grow. You so, it grows. 

 

I don’t care what you do with that seed, you sow it, it’s going to grow. So whatever difficult you’re going through, whether it be finances, relationships, friendships, peace of mind, health problems, whatever it is, find somebody that you know that may be having those challenges too, and sow into it. I began to watch Carolyn and Jerry Seville and how they gave. Like most people, I came into church, penny pinching, cutting God short for what I truly owed him. But I began to study the results that they were getting, and me and my brilliant mind came up with this; if I want what they’re receiving, I need to do what they’re doing. I pass that on to you. 

 

If you want to be successful in life, begin to sow, surround yourself with people that are smarter than you, get connected in a ministry that’s going to teach you, such as Heritage of Faith Christian Center, South Africa, where the Word is being taught to the students that graduated, if there’s any of you that are in here. Stay connected. 20 years ago, excuse me, 22 years ago, I graduated from which was at the time JSMI, which is Jerry Savelle Ministry International. I didn’t know how to quit because I’m hungry for more. I’m hungry for more. And if you’ll stay connected and make yourself available to serve. I commit to you this day you’ll achieve every goal that you desire. I want to thank you for allowing me this time with you and to share out of my heart to you. I didn’t do any of this to boast or brag about, you know, my affiliation and my lifestyle or anything. But I do realize this I’m not interested in numbers, but there’s at least one person in here that I know in my heart that I helped. So, thank you very much, God bless you.

 



Pastor John:

Hallelujah, you know, I have a military background. And I was forced to do national service and so many of you know my story. Then I went and I did the highest level of training in the military. And one of the reasons I wanted to do that is I wanted to test God in my life. I wanted to have a relationship with God. It was true and proven in the most difficult circumstances. The other reason was, rather personal reason, there was too much shooting going on with other people that were untrained – friendly fire. I’d rather be well trained and not have somebody shoot me if I’m going to get shot, let an enemy shoot, rather than my buddy sitting next to me shoot me. So, one of the best training that I could get. And I was taught, we were taught that our only defense was our buddy. And you were fighting for the man that was next to you. 

 

And, you know, you have a sense about these things when you’re around people for some time. And I have a great confidence that Tony has that kind of love for Brother Jerry, you know. That if there was someone that would try to harm Brother Jerry, I know, I have no doubt about this, that Tony would take a bullet for Brother Jerry. He would lay down his life for Brother Jerry. Well, where does it come from? It comes from the love and the care and compassion, the kindness that Brother Jerry showed him that restored his life. And so and so I, I’ve watched Tony, all over the place. I’ve watched him function around, you know, great ministers like Kenneth Copeland, Keith Moore. And while he respects them, he doesn’t try and connect with them. He’s there for one purpose. He’s there to look after Brother Jerry. And even though he’s met a whole lot of people, his singular purpose hasn’t changed. He’s there for Brother Jerry that has my respect and my love for him because of that. Hallelujah. 

 

That’s what the power of restoration can do. That’s the power of restoration. Glory to God. So, when you see God restoring people, you don’t yet know what their future can look like. And we’re all a future in the making. We’re all something beautiful in the making, in the hands of God. Doesn’t matter how bad our past was? Or how, you know, unlike Tony, you guys will know, unlike Tony, I went to try and make a bad past for myself because everybody that testified like Tony had a bad past. I thought I needed a bad testimony to be able to mean something in the pulpit. So, I tried to go and find a bad past, so I could make myself bad. And the Holy Spirit wouldn’t let me. Literally, he wouldn’t let me. And so, I don’t have anything spectacular, like Tony to talk about, you know, but that doesn’t change the fact that we love each other. We work together and we have the same things because God uses all of us in the same body. He uses us in the same body and uses us the way we need to be used. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. 



[Short Break]

 

Pastor John:

Call them people in the foyé (foyer). Call them people in the foyé (foyer). Tell them to come back into the church, the church [Pastor John speaking with an accent]. We don’t want to preach to them people that come back into the church. Otherwise, I’ll take my wife and she will put the whip to you. All I got to do is say, “Pastor Sharon says.” [Pastor John continues speaking in accent while congregation laughs]. 

 

Praise the Lord. Well, I mean, it’s always a joy to have brother Joe. We were just talking in the back there now for a moment. And it was just interesting that Tony gave his testimony, and Tony was on the wrong side of the law and Joe was on the right side of the law. And had they met each other at that given time, they would have been pointing guns at each other. And now they’re both pointing guns at the devil. Hallelujah, praise the Lord, praise Jesus, you all know brother Joe, just give him a warm welcome. 

 

Brother Joe:

I want everybody to stand up, I want a Holy Ghost roar. A roar, like in Braveheart. That was nothing. And I’ve heard it in South Africa, where there was no limits because no window, no door, no wall could keep that roar from going forth. And it was the roar of the Holy Spirit. John, lead us in a roar [Pastor John roaring; Yeah]. Hallelujah, the devil can’t stand that. Amen. Thank you, John. I tell people all over the world about that roar. Because I can tell you where we were, there was a nightclub down below us. There was some restaurants around. And when that roar came out, there was no containing it. It went through just like God can do. He can go through wherever He wants to. It doesn’t matter what the obstacles looked like. 

 

And what I told Brother John back there, I said, “Tony was going the wrong way. I was going the wrong way. We both going to hell. I just looked better than he did.” Okay, nobody like drug dealers. Everybody at that time liked the police. Now it’s totally the opposite. But we were both going to hell. And like he said, had we met each other, and you know, when Tony started naming names, he’s naming names from way back. But those names we knew too. So, in other words, didn’t matter if he was on that side or that side. You knew those names, but where Tony’s was to work with them, ours was to destroy them. But, but a lot of us was just as bad. 

 

You know, I always remember one time. We stopped a carload of people, they had whiskey and so this guy, one of the officers, took the whiskey and I seen him tightening up the cap. And I said, “Where are you going?” He said, “Well, I’m going to put it in the car,” in his car. Amen. And I said, “No, you’re not.” I said, “Hand me the bottle of whiskey.” He handed me bubble whiskey that young men were standing right there. I said, “Here’s what we do with it.” I poured it right out on the ground. I said, “Because if they can’t have it, you sure don’t need it because you stand for something and they’re going to think all you want is to steal their liquor or their drugs or whatever.” So, what we did is a lot of the time we didn’t take people in we just destroyed whatever it was. If it was pot we burn it. 

 

I just told Tony we got a whole carload one time. We didn’t know that the fumes off of it could get you high. Okay, and I’m not talking about a little drugs. I’m talking about a whole carload full, in the trunk or the boot. And so, we got gassed out of our unit, burnt the car and all the pot and we called for a fire department, you know because we didn’t let it go into the grass and all that. All of us we’re higher than a kite. And I always tell people, I never messed with drugs. But I can’t say I wasn’t high. Because I did get high that time off the smoke. You know, the smoke. The devil’s law he’s got smoke, but it affected us that night. I said, “I feel a little light-headedness,” you know, because how many know, we didn’t know what to, how to feel, you know if you’ve not had, you wouldn’t know how? 

 

Well, I want to give you a couple of four things before we get started into what I want to talk to you about. And there was something that happened in Australia, and I want to tell you about it. But, because that’s current things. But Brother Jerry has gave us four things. And I really made a number five, but it comes out in the four. And there was four things he told us from the beginning when we started working with Brother Jerry. And I’ve heard him say these several places. But number one is, shun the very appearance of evil. That’s one of his quotes, “Shun the very appearance of evil.” 

 

That’s one of his quotes shun the very appearance of evil. I didn’t say just evil, but appearance of evil. I’ll tell you this; One time we’re going to a meeting and Brother Jerry, they came to pick me up. And they took me to, I had to get to the meeting a little bit early. And they said, “Now we’re going to send the pastor’s wife back to get Brother Jerry.” And I said, “No, you’re not.” I said, “You send the male to go get Brother Jerry.” And they said, “What?” I said, “I don’t want a female going to pick Brother Jerry up.” What is it in front? Shun the very appearance of evil, not evil. We didn’t believe anything would happen. It was the point that if somebody seen him driving in the car that new him, they’re going to know that wasn’t Carolyn Savelle. So, shun the very appearance of evil. 

 

He tells a story about when he first started traveling, you know he parked his car, and he left the window down. Well, if it’s hot, you’d leave the window down. But somebody came by, and they threw a Penthouse magazine into his seat. Okay, in other words, what did we call it, it wasn’t hardcore porn, like you see now, but it still was bad, had nude pictures and stuff like that. And so, when he came back, and he seen that he thought, and the Pastor was with him, and if the Pastor would have looked in his car, he would have seen something that the appearance of evil. So, Brother Jerry said, from then on, windows were always rolled up, he locked his car. Shun the very appearance of evil. So, it doesn’t mean you’re going to try to do evil, just shun the appearance of it. I’m giving you some good advice, listen. And I didn’t come up with this, Brother Jerry did, okay. 

 

Second thing is a man, woman or child gift will make room for him. Tony’s gifts made room for him to meet all of what we would call a lot of the leaders in the faith movement. Your gift will make a room for you there, it makes a room for you to be able to speak, it makes a room for you to be able. Your gift not imitating somebody else just be yourself and let your gift come out. Somebody asked me one time said, “Brother Joe, you know, what’s it been like…” John, I think we did so many hours of TV, of what it was like to serve another man’s ministry and be able to feel your whole ministry. And that’s what happened, but it didn’t start out that way. 

 

We first came to work for Brother Jerry, it was because I knew good business. That was the number one and God said, everybody say God said [Congregation; God said]. That’s the whole thing. But he knew that I knew good business and he needed somebody to do the business. So, I came in, Joyce moved down to serve Jerry and Carolyn Savelle, we did the business. But in just a little bit he said, “I want you take over this.” Well, that wasn’t as much a comfort zone as the business was. So, I had to really pray and find out how do you do that? What’s my part to do that, Lord, to fulfill the vision that Brother Jerry has? How do I do that? What’s my part to help him do this? 

 

And so, I go to my prayer closet, which is I’ve always said, if you don’t know what to do, go back to your prayer closet, find out what God’s saying to you, and then you do it. So, it doesn’t matter if you’re a child. You know, I remember that I’ve seen people that the only one that could get to them was a child. You know, I remember a little girl she was probably about, I’m going to say six years old. And she was in our youth group like I told you, I don’t know how many heard last nights or yesterday, but our youth group was 3 to about 16 or 17. But she was one of the youngest ones. And we had taught her how to lay hands on the sick when the other kids weren’t feeling good. She would lay hands on them. And we told her she’d pray the prayer of faith; healed in Jesus’ name, that’s about all she could say, but hey. But she believed it. 

 

How many know it says, be as little children? Well one day she goes home, and her daddy is hurt itself. He’s hurt his feet. And so, she goes up and she said, “Daddy, could I pray for you? And he said, “No, Sisi, go on and play, go on and play.” He’s not a believer, not a believer. But he built his wife is a believer, children all been in church a long time, but he’s not a believer. And she comes over and said, Daddy, let me pray for your feet. Let me pray for your feet, God will heal them. Well, you know, I mean, that’s his daughter. But she’s going to be able to get to him more than if I went into pray for him. And he doesn’t like me or an older adult, he’s not going to pay no attention to it. 

 

She was persistent, she wouldn’t quit. She wouldn’t give up. And so, she finally went in, he said, “Okay, Sisi, come here, pray for my feet.” So, she prayed that little prayer she knew, I don’t even know what all she said, I do know she used the name of Jesus. And she said, “Thank You, Jesus for healing my daddy’s foot.” And the growth fell off in his boot. The growth fell off in his boot right then. He came to church the next week, still an unbeliever. But more of a believer, because a child, they don’t matter the age, it can be the oldest person in this church touches somebody, it can be the youngest one. So, it doesn’t matter if it’s a man, woman or child, your gift will make a way she used her gift. She might not even know she had one. But she did know that Jesus could heal. Amen. 

 

And then the third one is, Brother Jerry told us when we travel, and this can be totally different than I’m going to read it. Okay. Then he said, “Joe, our job is to bridge the gap between the traveling ministry and the local church. And when he said that I knew what he was talking about. Because years ago, we had to start having the big crusade, because a lot of times the church wouldn’t allow us to come in and do what we were called to do. And so, I knew what he was talking about. But if you really look at this, it’s not just talking about the local church, it’s talking about individuals. How do you bridge the gap between God and the devil? I mean, you got something happening here, you’ve got God wanting to settle it. You’re the one that’s bringing in and all of us can be that one that bridges the difference between the Holy Spirit coming in and taking care and putting the devil down. Amen! 

 

And then the last one he gave us. And this is probably one of my favorites, because I use it in a lot of, when I go to minister to pastors and organizations. We didn’t come to compete with you, we come to help complete you. So, in other words, whatever we have, our gifts, we want to put them with your gifts, not to compete with you, but to complete you. And I’m going to tell you what, that’s what each one of us have in us; in us right now. Okay, so I gave you those because I just want you to know sometimes what we flow under. Now I want to take you into Australia now. Okay, this just happened not too long back. When did we go, November? 

 

November, we’re going, I think you went to Melbourne [Brother Joe pointing to Eric]. I’m going to a church for a day and night service. And I’m in the day service and praise and worship going on. It was a whole Filipino band. And I mean, the praise and worship was just outstanding. And I love to hear some of the foreign voices come together. And so, during the service, I’m sitting there, the Lord says, “I have a word for Australia.” But he said, “This is not just for Australia. This is for the body of Christ.” And He said, “I want to take you back to Oklahoma.” You know, I love it when He wants to take you back because you’re getting ready to talk about something that marked you and change your life. But you don’t always know it did it at that point. Okay. So, I said, “Okay, Lord.” Now this is during the praise and worship. So, it’s not like we have hours to talk about this or think about it. I said, “Okay, Lord, where are we at in Oklahoma?” He said, “You’re in the field.” 

 

Okay, what do I do? I got in the field. How many of you know, you can make yourself think you’re in the field. Amen. I’m in the field. “What do we do in the field, Lord?” He said, “Well, I want you to look” and He said, “What do you see?” And now I’m starting to pick up the vision out of His Spirit. “Oh, I see the I see the oilfield workers.” He said, “That’s right.” He said, “What do you see?” I said, “Well, I see them working on the dairy, the platform. I see them up in the, where the tower is and He says, “Now you’re standing back, right?” And I said, “Yeah.” He said, “So when did that happen?” And I said,” One time with my father-in-law.” And He said, “That’s right. So, the people you’re seeing, they might not have faces right now. But you have experienced this.” 

 

And He took me back and I said, “Okay.” And He said, “So what happened?” And I said, “Well, we were standing in the field.” But John and his group were up on the platform. The workers were all around doing their jobs. You know, so one of them was way up in the tower, and they were all watching this, and the drilling machine was working. And what it was doing was going to bring the oil up, okay. And then all of a sudden, you could feel the ground shaking, weren’t doing anything, but you could feel it, almost like if you was anywhere around, and lightning struck right next to you, you’ll feel the percussion. I mean, it’ll shake you. Amen. 

 

So, I could feel the shaking. And then all of a suddenly, John, which was that Joyce’s dad was the boss, he said, “Get off the platform.” Now they were all working, and they couldn’t feel what was happening on the ground, but he felt it. And it was just slightly on the platform, from the ground under. But the platform had several things holding it down. So, we could feel it on the ground. But he knew what to look for. Stay with me, you know what to look for. There was a shaking, and that ground, and then pretty soon that platform started shaking. And he’s saying, “Get off the platform, get him out of the tower.” And when he said that I don’t know what’s going on. I’m thinking, man, what is getting ready to happen. And so, you see the guy come out of the tower, and he didn’t come out as slow as he went up. 

 

I mean, he knew what was getting ready to happen. That platform is shaking, this tower shaking, where the rod is going down and up, and they’re getting off that thing, and they get back out of the way. And all of a sudden, you could hear it. You could hear what was coming underneath that, the shaking part. Come on, you better catch hold of this. You could feel the shaking of the Holy Spirit. Amen. And it’s getting ready to blow. And when it did, they’re standing there, and they know what’s going to happen. And that pipe shoot so far up right where this guy was standing, now all the pipes up out of the ground because of the pressure that was under the ground, and it blows out a gusher.

 

And now they stood back in it, and they let that oil come right down on top of them, and run all the way down, because that’s what makes their money, and that’s what makes a big well. They had a gusher, but it started off with a little bit of shaking. And the Lord told me in Australia, “I’m getting ready to shake Australia. But not just Australia. I’m getting ready to shake the body of Christ all over the world. And you’re in the platform, now you’re feeling the vibration, but get ready, the platform, and it’s getting ready to explode and when it does, then the oil comes down.” What does oil represent? Anointing and Holy Spirit. We’re right in the middle of the most shaking I’ve ever seen. But everybody might not feel it. A little way from there, maybe 10 miles, maybe five miles. They didn’t feel it at all. But it affected the ones who was on that rig. Come on. Are you on the rig? It affected the ones on the rig. So, if you’re on the rig, it’s going to affect you. 

 

And ask the Lord I said, “Man, Lord,” I said, “Am I supposed to preach today or just give that word?” And He said, “You got to give that word before you can preach.” And I remembered and then we all exploded. Why? Because we were on the rig. But when the Lord said, “This is not just for Australia, this is for all over the world.” Because we already know there’s going to be a move of the Holy Spirit. We’re already feeling it. I can feel it shaking right now. But hey, we’ve not seen anything yet. And when it blows, and He said, “Now Joe, we’re all those guys out there saved?” I said, “No.” He said, “Were all those out there were they, you know, were they all believers?” “No.” He said, “But what happened when the oil came down? It covered all of them.” Well get ready, there going to be a lot of it don’t believe in the Holy Ghost and speaking in tongues. But man, when it comes down, and when they see it, and they feel it because there was no getting around what was happening.

 

And I’ll never forget, I’ve only seen it twice. Okay, I’ve only seen it twice. But I’m going to tell you it was one of the most… something I’ve not seen a whole lot. And so, when God said that He said, “Now, do you remember what I did for a young man you lead to the Lord?” And then I had to think again because now we’re talking oil field, okay. So, I’m relating it now was to old field thing. And I had a schoolteacher who used to come into my gun shop all the time. He came in all time. And he had asked me and let me show him. He’d say, “Could you order me this?” “Yes.” “Can you order me this?” “Yes.” The only one thing trouble, he didn’t had no money at all. So, he didn’t buy nothing. He just searches things out which you know, there’s nothing wrong with that. Amen? You might be looking at a car. But you know, you don’t have the money to pay for it or to finance it or whatever. 

 

So he came in one day, and I knew he was a Baptist. And I knew he was saved, but I didn’t know how he believed or anything. So, he came in one day, and he said, “Joe, God wants me to ask you a couple of questions.” And I said, “Well, first of all, if it has to do with God, are you saved?” He said, “I think so.” But he don’t really know. I think so. So, I just lead him in a sinner’s prayer. And he said, “Well, I was because I have confessed that prayer.” I said, “And I want to ask you, do you know the Holy Spirit?” He said, “No, I don’t. I don’t know the Holy Spirit.” And so, I laid my hands on him and got him filled with the Holy Spirit. Okay, speaking in tongues right there in the gun shop. 

 

You know what, it don’t matter, somebody comes in, they don’t like it they can go back out the door, come in later. Amen? When God puts you on assignment, you do His assignment. You don’t worry about what people think, Amen. And so, he come in one day, and he said, “You know, I heard you tell me that God speaks to you.” And he said, “I heard God speak to me.” Well, you know, when people say that you’re training and you’re working with, you really kind of want to know, “What did you hear?” Because there’s a lot of times, they get flaky. Amen, that’s what Norvel Hayes used to say, “You know, flaky.” And so, I said, “So what God tell you? He said, “He told me to buy some oil wells.” Well, we were all around us was oil wells. And they were for sale, you can buy them. And I said, “So, what area are you talking about?” He told me the area. So I said, “Yea I know, that area.” And I’m a banker. Okay.

 

And so, he said, “Yeah know, that area, there’s some good wells out there?” And he says, “Yeah,” and he said, “But I don’t have any money.” And he said, “So I’m going to go to the bank and borrow the money.” And he wasn’t asking me for a loan because I wouldn’t didn’t mix the stuff, you know, like that. I wasn’t in that part anyway. And so, I said, “So tell me a little more about this. How much money do you need?” “$100,000.” I’m talking back then, $100,000 is a lot of money, US. Okay. And I said, “Okay, so what kind of collateral you have?” “No, I don’t have any.” I thought… so now, now, my banking parts kicking in? Not the God part now.

 

How many know with God, nothing is impossible. But in banking, that’s not always the way it works. All right. So, I’m thinking, so you’re going to go into this bank loan officer, so I’m trying to help him, you know, and I’m going to say, “Okay, so what you’re going to have to do is go over there where the wells are, how many is there?” And he said, “There’s seven.” I said, “Okay, go in and find out what the production is on them”. You know, “How much are they making? How many barrels? How much is the one that has them for sale, how much is their profit and loss sheet?” Just look at all that, take all that with you to the banker? So, he said, “Well, they’re not working.” I said, “They’re not working?” He said, “No, they’re not producing, none of the seven wells are producing.”

 

And now, you know, when you’re trying to help people, and you don’t want to see them hurt, but you don’t want to doubt. Now I’m saying “So, so why do you want these non-producing wells?” He said, “Because God told me!” Now what am I do? I believe God speaks. I don’t know if He speaks to him, though. I know He can. But I don’t know if He did. So, I said, I said, “Well number one, when you go into that bank, they’re not going to loan you the money. Because you have no collateral. They’re non-working wells, they’re not producing, they’re not even pumping oil.” And I said, “They’re not going, they’re not going to finance it.” He said, “I’m going in.”

 

So, and now I said, “Well, I’m going to pray with you. In the name of Jesus, Lord, protect him, and Lord work miracles, if that’s what has to be done. Okay?” So, he comes back and says, “I’ve got the loan.” I said, “I can’t believe this.” Now, I didn’t say that to him. But I’m thinking, I can’t believe this. What loan officer will loan him a $100,000 without any collateral. He is a schoolteacher. No collateral, and the seven wells aren’t working. And so, I said, “Okay Mike, what are you going to do?” He said, “Well I’m going to get them producing.” And I said, “okay, have you already talked to any professional people at all?” “Yeah, yeah, I’ve talked to him.” He said, “but they’re pretty negative, Joe.” 

 

I was kind of negative too, okay. So, so I said, “So tell me a little about it.” He said, “Well, they went out and checked, and just told me there’s no oil here. They’re played out.” And he said, “But God said there, there’s oil there.” And he said, “So will you believe with me?” And I said, “Yeah, I’ll believe with you.” And the Lord said, “Well Joe, what did I tell you one time?” And I said, “Yeah I remember that.” I said, you know, I said, well what if we need, you know he’s talking about how all these foreign oils came from all these ungodly countries and all that. And the Lord said, “I could cause oil to come up right up in your cement floor here.” And I never forgot that. “That’s right, you could bring it from one of the other countries, they go dry. And we’re flourishing.” And I remember that. 

 

You know it’s funny how God can bring stuff back up in you, that he shares with you, to give you hope. And so, I said, “Hey, if there is oil going to come out of those wells, well, $10,000 a drill.” So, we know he’s got 10 drills, 10,000 apiece. So, he drills the first one. Guy comes to him afterwards, he’s real excited, goes out, “Did we see anything?” Said, “No. That’s a dry well. That loop, just forget about it right now. All you owe is 10,000 and forget about it.” And so, Mike come in, he said, “I don’t know what to do.” I said, “Go back to the prayer closet. Did you hear God? Did you not?” And I will say the same thing to you. Did you hear God – did you not? Because that’s what it all comes down to. If God said it, it is going to happen, and it doesn’t matter how it happens, it’s going to happen. 

 

And so, he come back, he said, “No, I still heard God.” He said, “Drill some more.” Now this one well is one he’s working on. Okay, he’s got six more, but the one is what he’s working on. Drills down another line. Guy comes back. There’s nothing there. Third time, down, nothing there. Fourth time, he’s 40,000 now. Guy comes up and he says, “Nothing there. Mike, you better quit while you can.” And he said, “No, keep going.” Five, nothing there. Six, nothing there. Seven. Nothing there. Okay. But then he comes back. He said, “Mike, I seen a little bit of a sign on the seventh time.” And he says, “Fact, I don’t understand this, because all the instruments, and all the science says it’s not there.” Come on, stay with me. It don’t matter what science says. It don’t matter what medical field says. It doesn’t matter on any of it. It’s what God says. And when He says it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen. Amen, and so Mike calls me and said, “Joe, it is going to blow.” And I said “Mike, go out and get under it.” 

 

Because he said it’s going to blow – they’re telling me it’s going to blow. He, I don’t know if he knew what I knew how it blows. And it blowed! That thing blew. And I mean, there’s oil everywhere. And then he starts working because now he’s got revenue. But he’s still got 30,000. So, he starts hitting the other well and he hit seven straight. Come on. Then he goes down to another location that they said there was none, because he’s got revenue now. And he said drill here and he hit the biggest well in that whole area. He became a multimillionaire, and he came in and bought every gun he wanted. He bought Corvettes. I mean, hey, he, but what I’m saying is, it was his faith activated and not turning back. 

 

So hey, we’re getting ready to blow. There are some businesses getting ready to blow. Come on, and when it blows, it is uncontrollable. I’m talking uncontrollable, but full of prosperity. But the glory has to all go to God. When he first came in the store, after they just started all blowing and hitting and everything. He came in and we just prayed right then, thank you Lord, because I got to say, I probably had some doubt, mainly because of what the people were saying. Amen. But that doesn’t mean anything at all. So, what’re you believing for? What do you need in your body? What do you need in your family? 

 

As Tony was talking, Tony won’t come back up and get a mic? I want you to pray over… I know there’s people in here right now, children are going wild. And if you’re watching by live stream, there’s people all over the world that their children are trying to go the wrong direction and really aren’t trying, they are. Me and Tony are both experienced. I experienced it with my younger son. I never seen it with my older son, or my daughter, but I seen it with my younger son. And I know God can turn it right around. But I want you to pray the prayer faith, for anybody out here who’s believing for your kids to turn around or husband’s, wife. Because hey, can be the husband hooked just as much as a boy or a girl. So, pray over them Tony.

 

[Tony Praying in tongues] Thank You, Father, hallelujah. Thank You Lord God, thank You. Now Father, in the name of Jesus, Lord, I just thank You, Father that this opportunity has presented itself Father for us to stand one more time at Your throne Father. And Lord, I ask You right now in the name of Jesus, that You would dispatch Your Angel’s Father, amongst every family, every individual, Father, that is struggling in any area with any family member, any loved one, any friend, Father, in Jesus’ name, Father. Lord, I thank You that Your Word declares Lord, that we can take authority over all these foul things in our lives, Father. In this day, Father, we stand in agreement because Your Word says Father, if any two agree on anything, it shall be established.

 

Now Father, I thank You Lord, that Mark 11:23 says that we can speak to the mountain. And if that is a mountain, and these here your people’s lives, Father. I thank you right now that they can make a confession of healing over every individual that they know Father. That may be going through a struggle some way somehow, whether it be with taking drugs, or selling drugs, Father. And in the name of Jesus, Father, You have taught us Lord that we can take authority Father, by pronouncing, Father, that it is done Father. So, in Jesus’ name right now, Father, I set my faith in agreement with theirs Father. That as we move divinely Father, into this world, Father into this Babylonian system, Father. That has arranged itself Father to try and defeat us. Father, we are overcomers, we are victorious, Father, and all that we desire to do we do Father under the Word that You have given us, Father. So now in the name of Jesus, Father, we settled it, it is done. We are victorious and they are coming home clean, washed and set free. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

 

Brother Joe:

Thank you, Lord. Thank You, Lord. You know, when I was getting ready to Minister, I knew I would share a couple about the explosion and the oil rig. But also, it just kept coming up in my spirit that, you know, when me and Eric go on meetings, we always talk about what we’re going to preach. But we don’t talk about each other on what’s going to come out because you don’t know, the illustrations that’s going to come out. You don’t always know. Could be something happened years ago or yesterday and that’s what’s so good about walking the walk of faith and writing the book of Acts. You never run out of stories. You never will. 

 

You know, I told the Lord one time I said, “Lord, I love telling stories.” And He said, “You’ll never run out of them Joe as long as you do what I tell you to do.” And so, He gave me just a little scenario, which is very simple as far as what, where and when. And Eric’s heard this because I, you got to know what, what does He want you to do? What’s your part? You got to know where it’s at and when it is. Because with any of those being out of portion, it won’t work. You know, I had a Pastor call me one time and he said, “Joe,” he said, “I’ve started this church, I thought I heard God.” And he said, “But it’s just not doing anything.” And he said, “I don’t really know if I’m forgotten now.” And I said, “Well”. And he came, left a very successful church to move to where he was at. So, it wasn’t like the church he was in wasn’t working. It was, but he moved to another location. 

 

So, I just was being led by the Lord and I said, “So your season….” I said, “When God spoke to you what He said?” He said, “Well, he wanted me to reach out and he wanted me to go to another area. And I turned that church over to a brisk and it’s still going very well. And so, I know God said, “Step out.” And I said, “Well, did he tell you when, maybe you did it too quick or not quick enough?” And he said, “No.” He said, “I really know that I could… I knew when He told me to turn it over to this other man, it was time for us to do it.” And then the last thing I said, “Well, what did He tell you where?” And he stopped talking. I said, “Well, we got it now. We hit it. We just hit it.” I said, “You’re in the wrong place. Wrong place.” He said, “I am. I’m in the wrong place.” So, see, we got the what, we got the when, he didn’t have the where. And so, I said, “So, what are you going to do?” He said, “I’m getting ready to move to that place.” I said, “So you already know where it’s at?” “Yeah.” God had told him to put a church there before, and he didn’t obey. Amen.

 

There’s nothing wrong with that, all of us have done stuff like that. So, when he moved the church to where he was supposed to be, it all started opening up. It was the what, where, and when. And when I’ve seen that, and this testimony is for somebody, I don’t know. But me and Joyce, when we were looking for our first home in Fort Worth, we already knew where the first one was, we come back from Brother Jerry, because God had already had us go down. It was already there, all we had to do is go in, move in. Okay, but that wasn’t the one where we were going to be from now on – that was just the starter home. And, sure enough, you know, when we got down there, it just fit us and everything, but then He said, “Okay, it’s time to reach out.” And He didn’t really want me in that location where that’s at, He wanted me to go into what we call a suburb of Fort Worth, or which would be Crowley Burleson, and stuff like that. 

 

And so, we started looking, and we found a house. And we knew that was the type of house we wanted, we felt good in our spirits about that’s our house, you know, and but then, and so we put down the escrow for it and everything. And so, whenever we took and went to close, I got a call from the owner, and he says, “Mr. McCroskey…” he said, “My wife has got cancer, she’s only got so many months to live, and she wants to move back into her house and die there,” because they had built that house. And so, you know, I didn’t try to preach healing to him. I didn’t do that. I just said, “No, you can move back in. You bring her back and move back in.” And he says, “And I’ll let you… the down money, we both put down, you can have that.” And I said, “No, not at all.” I said, “You bring her back, you move in.”

 

Because I just said, “I’m planting a seed.” What am I doing? What we thought we were going to do, and you know, we’re all excited about it and everything, but you know, when you hear God, and He said, tells you what to do, and He told me, He said, “Don’t take his money. Tell him yes, bring her home and put her there, give her comfort.” They were born again; I don’t know about anything else other than that. So, he came back. And so, me and Joyce started looking again. And it’d come back to what, where and when again. And so, we’re driving down the street. And the Lord just says, “Turn this way.” And so, I turn that way and went up there, and there’s a house, nice house there, and a house next to it. And I seen the guy going out, and he was getting ready to put up a sign. And it actually was a ‘for sale’ sign.

 

And so, I stopped, and started talking to him, and asked him about different things, you know, and he says, “Well, the reason we’re selling this house is we’re going through a divorce. And the bank is going to foreclose and it’s going to ruin our credit and we’ve got to sell this house, and we’ll just take what we owe on it.” He said, “We’ve been here a long time, we paid it way down.” And so, I said, “Well, can I get a hold of your bank and talk to him?” He said, “Yeah”. So, I called the bank and I said, “I don’t want to take the loan over. I just want to know what the payoff is going to be.” And he said, “I don’t want any escrow or anything, all I want is the payoff.” But when they shot back to me, I mean, it was so much below the market. Okay?

 

And I knew we’re going to buy this house. If we buy it, flip it, or whatever, we’re going to buy this house. So, we bought it. And so, we moved in. And then we just fell in love with the property, fell in love with everybody around it, because it was horse country. In other words, you could run your horses right out in the backyard. You had plenty of room, you know, we had horses. Beautiful home. And so, we just decided we don’t want to move. This is, so we knew this is the house we’re supposed to have. But then I didn’t know that – and we did get all the royalties that went with the property. Okay, all the royalties went with the property. And so, Brother Copeland, up in his Inn, he hit gas, a large gas deposit called the Barrett gas, and it was up in his area. Okay.

 

Well, it didn’t stay in his area. Because you know, when you’re associated with somebody, and you’re a partner with them, you get a part of what they get. And that gas oil came right down and went right across my partner, my place. And so, I started drawing royalties off of the gas coming into mine, because this was a big deal. Everybody in the ministry, our ministry, that owned houses, amen, and it was partners with Brother Kenneth, we all got royalties. And I’ve been drawing royalties now for over 30 years. We didn’t know anything about that now when we bought it. God did. God did. When Brother Jerry, when the Feds called us one time and said, “We’ve got some property across from you we want to sell and they said, “It’s 102 acres.” And I said we’re definitely interested. 

 

God told Brother Jerry. Here again, what, when and where? Okay. It might not be the when, can be the what and where, got to be the when. And that property came across Brother Jerry, he said God told him you can have all that property for anything you want to pay. But the only thing wrong. There were several people bought that for it was time for Brother Jerry to get it. So, the when won’t ready, the what and where was. He knew where the property was. He knew what I’m supposed to have that but when wasn’t there. Amen. 

 

So then one day, they called us and said, “You’re the only thing doing anything out here. So, we want you to buy this property make us an offer.” And of course, it’s kind of a funny story. Because Wayne, we had our attorney call them and then they told the federal, said, “We want to make you an offer.” And so, when we made him the offer, they said, “We’re not even going to turn that offering in.” So, they won’t take that. He said, “No, your government office called us and asked us for a bid, you are going to turn it in.” And they turned it in. But one thing Wayne said, he said, “Do any of you believe in miracles?” And they said, “No, we were for the federal government. We don’t believe in miracles.” We all chuckled about that. But when they called us back, they said, “We now believe in miracles.” [Congregation laughing]. 

 

1.5 or 7 million on the note, we bought it for 200,000 US cash. There would have been Realtors buy all of it. But it came into a ministry. The Realtors came wanted to know, “How did you get that?” And we Brother Jerry would say “God?” “Oh, really? No, really? How did you get that? Who did you know?” See, everybody thinks you got to know somebody? The One you got to know is right up here that does make the decision. So out of that, I think out of that ground the shaking, Amen, there was a shaking under that ground, we didn’t even know about. But out of that shaking, there’s been I’m going to say 3.5 million made off that 200,000. Now I’m going to tell you, I’m a banker. That’s good profit. That’s good profit. Amen. 

 

But that’s enabled us to do things like the Falcon 50, different things like that and build buildings, help people build buildings. What am I saying? You got to know three things. Know you heard from God and what’s your part? That’s the plot. You got to know where, where we talking about? That’s why Bridger, he talks a lot about people being placed in a church where you’re supposed to be, that’s where you’ll prosper. That’s where you’ll grow. Amen. But too many people get impatient and want to move out. John, you can pay me for that later, okay [Congregation laughing]. 

 

When I taught a class one time on the Holy Spirit and where to be and hearing God about where you’re supposed to be, what you’re supposed to involved. I’ve pulled up all the scriptures and a lot of them said,” Wherever you’re called, in what you’re called and wherever you’re called that’s where your prosperity and your peace will be.” And it’s still that way today. When you’ve been placed somewhere. You don’t let no devil run you out. Amen. You stay. I’ve been with Brother Jerry 41 years, had lots of opportunities to leave not because of Brother Jerry most of the time, but there was opportunities. But you know what? We were placed in a place, we knew when, we knew where and we knew what to do. And we’ve done that. And I’m going to tell you, every one of you in here, if you’ll just ask the Lord, what am I supposed to do? He’ll tell you; He’ll tell you how to do it. He’ll tell you when to do it and with that, that’s what it’s all about. 

 

You know, somebody said one time, “Well, you don’t have an inside trader in the stock markets.” I said, “We have an inside trader. He’s right here. It’s called the Holy Spirit.” He can tell you exactly what to do. He can also tell you what not to do. Amen. I’m going to leave that with you. Again, remember the four things, but also remember what, very easy remember, it’ll come right up in your spirit. What, where and when. So, in the name of Jesus, I pray over every individual in here right now, that has to make decisions, or has decisions to make right now that they will have a peace and they will know what they’re supposed to do, when they’re supposed to do it and how they’re supposed to do it. And with that God will get all the glory because that’s Who we give it to and whatever and how long it takes is not important. It’s just doing what you know God’s told you to do and fulfilling what His call is on your life and in Jesus’ name I pray that for everyone in here, including all of us, in Jesus’ name, John. 

 

John Bendixen: 

I’m just going to have a public conversation with Brother Joe right now. Because I sense by the Holy Spirit, he’s brought something out here that he has no idea what he’s done. Amen. So, Brother Joe, if I’m believing God to have some things changed in my life and in the natural, it doesn’t make sense that I’ve got to move some place to be in the will of God. But it requires me to move someplace, and I don’t move that place. Is there anything? Is God going to actually, is my faith going to work? 

 

Brother Joe:

No. Well, it comes back to just what Tony was talking about. 

 

Pastor John:

Right.

 

Brother Joe:

Grace. 

 

Pastor John: 

Yeah. 

 

Brother Joe:

Okay. Just because you miss it. He’s not forsaken you. He’ll bring you to another place or He’ll bring you to wherever He wants you so no if you’ve missed it, but if you know, then you do what He said. But no, if you’ve missed it, you missed it. And you know, I remember a long time ago, we’d say, if you missed it all you got to say, “Father, forgive me.” Now I’m on track again. 

 

Pastor John:

So that guy that missed it with the church. If he just said, “I’m sorry, Lord,” but he stayed there. God couldn’t, couldn’t do anything about that. Because he wasn’t in the right place. 

 

Brother Joe:

He wasn’t in the perfect will of God. 

 

Pastor John:

Exactly. 

 

Brother Joe:

He was maybe acceptable. Okay, but not the perfect. You will always remember 30, 60 and 100. It doesn’t matter if we talk in percentages or what it has to do with there’s an acceptable part. God will always accept you. But then there’s a perfect will and He wants you in His perfect will. He heard God in two of it. He just and really, he had heard the other one. But he didn’t want to because that was more like a hometown. Okay, so he remembered circumstances from back then. And so that’s why he didn’t go there to be at the first. But then he realized, I missed it. “Forgive me, Lord, I’m getting ready to move now.” 

 

I asked him, I said, “What are you going to do with the people?” He said, “I am going to ask them to come with me.” Because it was just a little ways. It wasn’t very, you know, it doesn’t have, it doesn’t matter. If I lay $100 bill right there and I tell you, prosperity is here, come get it. And you go over there. You’re not going to get it. No, it’s right there. But it’s there. Now you got to listen more. No. You missed it. Well, you got to go over here. Right here. It’s laying right here. And that’s what He does with us, John. So, if, we’ve seen people leave too early from the ministry and say that they’re supposed to go somewhere and, in our spirits, we knew they weren’t. We didn’t condemn them. We just prayed for them because we knew they could be making a mistake, some of them did and some of them repented, came back repented to Brother Jerry and they made it so yeah. We are all going to miss it at times, but we don’t have to, we don’t have to, and the Holy Spirit don’t miss it. Just be patient on what, where and when. Simple as that. Really. 

 

Pastor John: 

Thank you, Joe. 

 

Brother Joe:

You bet.

 

Pastor John:

Yeah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. So, you know, for us, we have to be in a place where we, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what God’s saying. If God is saying something, you got to obey God. Right? If you try and figure it out for yourself, and you’re trying to make something happen for yourself, because it’s more convenient, or it sounds better, or it’s easier on you, that doesn’t mean that God’s going to be on the blessing of it. Hello. Got to be led by God, and you got to allow God to do what He needs to do for you.

 

Brother Joe:

John, it says lean not to your own understanding. And it really means lean not to somebody else trying to talk you out of what God has told you to do.

 

Pastor John:

So, lean not on your understanding and don’t lean on to the understanding of someone who’s trying to talk you out of what God’s telling you to do. 

 

Brother Joe:

I never did that with the guy with the whales. 

 

Pastor John:

Come talk, Brother Joe. Switch his mic on again, please.

 

Brother Joe:

I never did that with the guy with the whales. Even though I was doubting because I knew that professionals had closed those whales down for a reason. But I still never would. I always agreed with him. I just I never said negative. So, when it looks like stuff like that, but you don’t lean to your own understanding because the eyeball in my hand. I could not lean to my own understanding. Alright, I said, “There’s no way he’s going to read out that socket.” Okay, you can’t and it’s the same way with God and that’s why with God, all things are possible. Amen. Amen.

 

Pastor John:

So, this is an important thing that Brother Joe’s saying, and I’ve just feel led of the Lord to go here for a minute. You know, it’s not the opportunity, or the lack of opportunity that was driving that man. It was the voice of God that was driving that man, you cannot be moved by opportunity, or the lack of opportunity. Because if you’re driven by opportunity, or the lack of opportunity, there will always be opportunities. The whole world is geared towards revealing opportunities. So, if you’re driven by opportunities, you will find them. And if you’ve got initiative, and you are proactive as a person, you will find opportunities, opportunities are not a signal that God’s in it. At the same time, if God tells you to go to a place and the lack of opportunity does not reveal itself, that is also not the voice of God. 

 

Well, if I go over here, this place seems to have a lot more opportunities than this place. Well, but God is saying: “Go here.” Well, but that’s where the opportunities are! But God is saying: “Go here.” So, what are you going to watch out for now? The opportunities, or what God says? And that doesn’t make sense, there is no opportunity there. There’s… God says: “Here.” So where do you go? You go to where God says. What, When and Where. You got to go where God says, not what opportunity says. Hallelujah. 

 

Abraham went to where God told him to go. And then that became the land that God said: “This is the land I give you.” In fact, he had a conflict with his cousin, and his cousin looked across and he said: “Look at all that green land, and look at that beautiful Syria, and that seems such a grand place to go to.” And because they were in strife with each other, Abraham said: “Well, you choose where you want to go.” And he chose the opportunity place. And in that opportunity place, he ended up losing his wife and his family and all the stuff that was with him. He lost all his wealth, he lost everything because he went to the wrong place. 

 

Abraham was led by God, and he stayed where God told him, and he got blessed there. Hallelujah. I can tell you that all of you sitting here today, are here because God said to me, it’s time for me to move my domicile my house, from Johannesburg to Witbank. And at that time, I said: “Lord, I don’t want to move from Joburg to Witbank, because what is in Witbank?” In fact, Pastor Sharon said to me, “If it doesn’t have a Woolworths food, I’m not moving there.” I said: “Well Lord, I don’t know about that, You better speak to Pastor Sharon.” Well, I did, because we that was our family home where we raised our children. It was a beautiful home and had beautiful property and we were blessed in our house. But He said: “Move.” 

 

So, I called Pastor Lynn, I called my dad who was alive at that time, and I prayed about it and then I spoke to Joe, and we got an agreement in that. And then I said: “Lord, you have to speak to Sharon.” And she went and she said: “All right Lord, well, if this is Your will.” And right then as she said that He took Johannesburg, that home, came right out of her heart, just like that. She said: “I’m ready to move because you want me to move. This is not the place I need to be. I’ll be wherever you want me to be.” And God has restored so much to our lives because we have moved. And look at what God has brought about in this ministry over the last 10 years that we have been in Witbank. Look, God has moved people from Bethlehem. And people are coming to church from Morgenzon. And people have moved from Joburg, and people have moved from Pretoria, and people are coming to the church from all over the place because this is the place, this is the place, this is the place. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. 

 

And we are believing God that there’s some things in my spirit about more property for the ministry. Brother Joe doesn’t even know it. You know, I haven’t got to that part yet in our conversation, but we are believing God that He has got some property for us, that MiXchange and we as a ministry can have camp meetings year after year, anytime, anyplace, anywhere. And we can have Holy Ghost fire meetings in a property that we don’t have to go and pay for every time. Hallelujah. And I’m in that process of what, where and when. I think I know where the where is. I got to just hear what the price is. And when I got to make the offer on it, hallelujah. I got one of the three. I’m just waiting for the other two to drop. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Glory to God. Hallelujah. 

 

How many of you are glad you came to the conference? Hallelujah. Wont you stand with me please? I am asking the Father, that you will be blessed as you go out. That you will be in peace, you will have joy and you will have conversations – mind you, not natural conversations, but conversations of the Spirit. Watch out for words that come out that give incorrect opinions about stuff, conversations of the Spirit. Be led and speak good things. Speak things of possibilities in God, not the opportunities of the flesh, but the possibilities of God. Hallelujah. Be at peace. Be in joy and allow the Holy Spirit to just prepare you for this evening, because we are going to have fire time. Do you agree with that? See you later.

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