FULL INTERVIEW with NICK VUJICIC!

first off thank you for being here it is awesome to be here Jordan I've been a big fan of yours and admire of yours for a long time um so when Dallas he actually told me I think when we were shooting uh the scene between Little James and Jesus like when I was going through hair and makeup um he mentioned that he had talked to you about it and that alone was really exciting and then seeing your conversation with Dallas was was really cool as well so it was a very moving scene he said what did you think and I'm like oh my gosh that was moved moved moved and it was amazing also be interviewed by Dallas but thank you for having me on your show and and hello to everyone out there yeah thank you for coming yeah I want to talk about that scene and about the um you know the the relationship between Faith and Healing obviously is something that uh I know you've talked a lot about it's something I've become really uh passionate about talking about um but I usually start from the beginning so your childhood like what was childhood like for you um and one thing that you mentioned in that interview with Dallas that I find fascinating and I've talked to a lot of other uh people within the disabled Community about it um but the moment that you realize or that you started to view your differences as like a flaw or as a weakness um because of how others were treating you I remember specifically that moment for me and I'll share that with you as well but um I'd love to talk about your childhood and then what was that moment where it shifted and you started to kind of think negatively about your differences Jake can I say I applaud you for doing a show like this this is amazing yeah look um such an honor just to share my story with you listeners a little bit um going without limbs if you if you're listening on audio you can't see that I have no arms and legs but I have on the bottom left of my torso a little foot a little appendage with two toes and my childhood um first and foremost so thankful that I had a loving home my mum and dad um it took my my dad quicker if you will to embrace the circumstance yeah um but my mum you know obviously she just had to go through a little bit more emotions and a different point of view as the mother um grieving and shock and questioning especially the fact that she had a lot of medical background as well yeah with no medical explanation and even my brother and sister born after me with no disabilities whatsoever does your mother have any guilt uh like because I feel like there's a mom guilt is a real thing especially you know uh her growing you I feel like psychologically sometimes you can Wonder like is this my fault somehow yeah well let's Deep dive into that then a little bit first so um she actually was a midwife and she was the head of like 300 births in a in a hospital per month and so she knew what thalidomide was she actually didn't even take caffeine no painkillers for headache or anything like that she was extremely careful with her pregnancy and she'd been seeing all her career these um drug addicted women having perfectly beautiful babies right so that was part of her grieving process like these women who didn't look after their pregnancy here I am looking after my pregnancy with all that I am and now I have a limbless child and what was interesting Jordan was they had three sonograms and they had no idea that I had no limbs until I was actually born wow and so it was a huge shock and they were just too excited right but my mom taught my dad there's something wrong he's not moving as much is small something's wrong even when I actually wanted to know if I'm a male or female uh baby um they said the legs were not in the way uh he's a boy for sure yeah um and so it was a huge shock the grief the the questions she first needed to know what happened and no one knew what happened and so she then figured out she couldn't blame the doctors but there was nothing that she did wrong either and so it's this grieving process of first of all Mourning the dream of a healthy baby now she had a healthy baby but with a few bits missing yeah and in in their faith in God I mean my dad was 27 when he planted their first church 11 months later I was born so it knew pastor church plant now the pastor's son being born without limbs I mean you can imagine so went through a lot of that shame girl like all that stuff but yeah we all go through those things yeah um so they um embraced me took me home they had an incredible Family Support Network around them even to the point where both of my parents parents said if you give them a third option we'll take him wow but they knew that you know No One's Gonna Love their son as much as you know they love them they love me and they were not thinking of adopting and that was the way that they thought we're just going to do our best and trust God in the rest now we love seeing adoption happen my friends actually have adopted special needs children that inspired me me and my wife are actually starting the paperwork to adopt children and wow sorry a child children we have enough you know we have four biological children but you know when you look at these kids who have disabilities you know it I know it you know it's different when when you have a disability so many things you and I could talk about the dynamic of I don't even know if you had siblings but yeah the dynamic of of them feeling like they're in our shadow you know mum and dad had to focus in on me more and what does that mean right yeah and then by then be treating my brother like a slave you know what I mean like feeling like I was entitled to him than having to do things for me and even my parents calling my brother Aaron to hold Moses's hands up you know what I mean very interesting so many things we could get into but my parents embraced me and they always said God has a plan for you don't worry about what people think of you in 1982 that's when I was born 1989 I was supposed to go to school 1989 the state law in education Australia disallowed me from being integrated into the mainstream school system I was supposed to be segregated a little did anyone know that my mom would be using the hands of God to then actually go in full respect and full humility but Mama Bear courage go there and say can we change the law and they did and so I was actually the first student that was handicapped basically wow to be integrated I actually was citizen of the year of Australia on National Television for that in 1990. and so all of this to say I was the only one going to school I was you know in a wheelchair and everybody looked at me and um you know I'd come home crying like why was I born this way I don't understand God loves me where is he so that was that was the childhood and how could any good come from this how could I ever find a wife at age eight I convinced myself Jordan that I'd never get married wow even if I got married I can't even hold my wife's hand I convinced myself that I would always be bullied that I'd never get a job that I'd always be independent that I'd never be independent that all these things just surmounted by the grace of God and mercy of God I had the loving home and I want to start there so that's that's the beginnings I love that I um there is so much I I really could talk my sister so I was in addition to my scoliosis and in cerebral palsy I I went through a bunch of um surgeries to correct my curved spine and my hips and um but I also have severe asthma so I was hospitalized from age like six to uh 18 probably four times a year because of the asthma and half of those times I would be in ICU I was intubated when I was 18 for two weeks um and so there was a lot like I spent a big chunk of my time in the hospital and my sis my I have two younger sisters and an older brother and my sister who's two years younger than me I remember as a little kid saying like it's not fair Jordan gets to go to the hospital I want to go to the hospital because she saw that like people bring me balloons and toys and all of this stuff so it it is such enhanced site whenever you look back it's such an interesting Dynamic um but yeah having a loving home was key for me as well because I my mom is the type of person um that no matter what I I told I could tell her today that I want to change careers and do I want to be a firefighter and she would totally support it she would send me a list of like places I can start training or like do whatever she could to support that and um because of that like just total faith in in my abilities even if you know no one else has that same faith in my abilities um she like that helped me believe in myself uh a little bit more and um the moment though that I began to because there were times I knew I walked different from other kids I knew my back was crooked I knew uh all of that but I didn't feel bad about it as a child other kids accepted me in elementary school and um you know I played with them the same way like there wasn't the insecurities yet and then I went to high school and it was my first public school um and I was just different enough that it made me like an easy target I knew nobody um and I I couldn't really find a group to fit in with i i bounced around I tried different clothes um I wore a wig just like a little afro wig to see if anyone would notice and no one noticed so it was like all of these weird tactics to try to be seen and try to to find my place um and then one day I remember these kids invited me to come sit with them and started talking about acting and uh they asked you know what I do so I told them I I act and at the time I had done a couple of little guest spots on like Nickelodeon shows or Disney things so I told them that and I was starting to get excited that like oh these people are showing interest they care and then they said oh I didn't know they let cripples on that show and that was the moment that uh I was like oh you know this thing that makes me different is bad this is something I need to be ashamed um and around that within that same year I was starting to have casting directors comment on it as well and say hey can you try it again without the lamp or can you tone the limp down um and things like that and it became uh this thing where I felt like I'd been given this um gift in this blessing of like in this passion for for acting I felt like I was given that for a reason but then I felt like God also gave me this curse that would prevent me from ever realizing um you know the potential of that gift uh so it was a weird weird relationship I had with my my limp and it you know I became suicidal as a teenager I dealt with severe depression um but that was the moment for me and I want to talk more about the moment that I started to see it as something to be proud of and something to embrace later on in life um but what was the do you did you have a moment for you that that um you started to to view that as a bad thing what a compelling story you have the whole thing have you written a book I'm working on it actually oh my goodness oh my goodness you gotta write a book um I may I may reach out for some advice in that and down the street you got me yeah um for me so your question was did I how was my journey on that yeah in that context for sure um I hated the idea that um that my parents would believe in a God who didn't make sense to me right and who was okay at that point to believe that he's still good even though I've asked for a miracle you read the Bible and you see these Miracles and you ask why not me like why don't you get and then you go to school and these bullies who tease you you know for me I looked at these kids and I'm like they don't they don't deserve their arms like why did you give them arms I ripped them off and give them to me you know what I mean and the whole um journey of wondering why was um sometimes all I could think of but I did have a joyous you know couple years like ages six seven eight it wasn't all depressed but the dark days came at age eight to twelve okay and so for me my my dad if I I knew I'm not going to be a firefighter right like um I knew I wasn't going to be a doctor um but my dad said Christian mathematics so my parents actually just so you understand my parents where they came from they fled communism regime of Yugoslavia in 1962 and 1969 they met in Australia they were in refugee camps they came to Australia with nothing wow to then they had a limitless boy and they told the Limitless boy listen be thankful for what you you have instead of focusing on what you don't have and God didn't give you arms and legs but he gave you a brain use your brain you're smart and don't be lazy and so they didn't buy me toys if I wanted something from the store I would make money vacuuming the floor for two dollars a week and then it would teach me how to save and be thankful for what I had and even give me a sense of dignity as well that I could do something yeah and so in that uh it took me a level of gratitude that if he gave me everything I wanted when I wanted I'd never be granted you know a person of gratitude which is to me the secret of all secrets where we come to God and it's actually this this this mindset that despite your circumstances even when you don't get a miracle you can be one he can give me arms like he doesn't have to give me answers I can pray for arms and legs but I don't need arms and legs I can have a pair of shoes in my closet today which I do just in case he gives me arms and legs or whatever it is I just know that I love him and he loves me now that was when I found him but pre those Seasons um of of trusting in Him I didn't want to talk to him um I I became number one at chess I became number one at math and that helped me to like have a foundation of confidence and um if I can't run track if I can't do football at least I'm smarter than you at math you know that was kind of like my coping mechanism which was cool um but but what I realized was people were judging me for how I look and I'm like well what if I judge you for your nose and your hair and your freckles and your shoes and the way you walk like I mean big deal like big deal I have no arms and legs but it was the point where you were sharing right you didn't think it was such a big deal until people told you about your limp and maybe that it was a bad thing that was as soon as I went to school and I'm like oh I am different but it's actually it's not a good thing and so at age eight I got angry because there were no answers and I prayed for a miracle there was no Miracles going on you know faith of a mustard seed can move mountains and today you know my passion you know a lot of people are saying these days in church as well just give do good you know be good and and basically God can't say no to your prayers because you pray in his will and blah blah blah well I'm sorry but he's perfect will for you number one is to go home to heaven and so that's why Christians are going to die so if you continue to pray God I never want to die and never want to die and never want to die guess what one day you're going to die yeah so same thing with cancer Christians die of cancer yeah but we know though which I didn't it was hard for me to believe it's like okay if you didn't give me this pain then why didn't you take it away so the First Fundamental principle is understanding that disabilities cancer sickness death came from sin and sin came from the fall of Man now we have mosquitoes biting us we have death we have cancer we have disabilities I wanted to believe Jordan that the Bible is fully true I wanted to believe in heaven the power of the Resurrection I knew I was a life I lied once I know if I stole one some of thief I knew that I wasn't perfect for heaven I just didn't understand if he really loves me where are my arms and legs so I actually tried to commit suicide at age 10. convince myself that he had forgotten me when he you know said in the Bible he has a plan for me he's like well it's not for me that that can't be for me um and so I tried to drown myself with six inches of water in the bathtub and uh it's very scary trying to attempt suicide you know sucking in water trying to figure out how much do you swallow before you inhale it and then you're done and it was premeditated for two years I've been thinking about it um and so uh the third time I rolled over though by the mercy of God God gave me a picture in my mind my mum and my dad crying out my grave wishing they could have done something more and I realized at that point there is something worse than having a limbless kid it's a limbless kid who commits suicide and yeah leaving that behind and so I didn't want to do that but it was done because uh it was not just because I loved them but it was because of their love for me their persistent love you're beautiful you're beautiful you're beautiful you're beautiful I just want you to know parents even if your children like get annoyed when you tell them just keep on telling them you're beautiful you're beautiful you're beautiful because that persistent love is needing uh needed in the soul because we're never going to go through life without resistance yeah but if you Embrace resistance that's how you get resilience no one gets resilience without resistance and no one's going to go through life without resistance and in fact if you're a Christian without resistance maybe actually not standing in the right place and so when you know that all fundamentally and principally by the grace of God I decided to stay didn't really talk to him for years real quick how I came to Jesus and got out of depression I was playing soccer but my foot so bad couldn't walk for three weeks I was in bed staring at the ceiling and I realized I have a choice either to be angry or the fact that I have no limbs for real or be thankful for my foot and you know with my foot I can be mobile and type on a smartphone and all these things and it was everything to me my Mobility um and so I started to have the attitude of gratitude at age 15 Read John chapter nine a man was born blind no one knew why that man was born blind and they asked was it because of his sin or was it because of his parents sin I want to unpackage that for a second yeah so people think that reincarnation is you know a new thingish no it's not so when they're asked Jesus Jesus was it because of his sin well of course it's not going to sin in the womb in his previous life now when I was 13 someone said I know why you were born this way he was done so that the word it was it was done because of reincarnation and I'm like what's reincarnation she told me that I was a bad boy in my previous life and now I'm coming back limbless because of my previous punishment basically from my previous life I'm like that is nuts that is crazy the other question they had to them was is it because of the parent's sin it's a meaning of punishment for their sin that now they are given by God as a judgment a child with no sight no we know that Romans 6 23 says the wages of sin is death so if it's punishing us for our sin we would be dead so Jesus said neither it was done so that the works of God would be revealed through him yeah and that's when Jesus spits on the dirt puts mud on the man's face and the blind man will change me Jordan was not another miracle what changed me was the process of this where Jesus is given the blind man a facial and the blind man doesn't say anything doesn't stop him doesn't question anything and here we are what's your plan God tell me what your plan is then I'll tell you if I trust you yeah wait what's going on he didn't even say that he stood there be still and know that I am God and he gave this man clay or mud whatever dirt with his saliva on his face and after he was done he saw and what was amazing is I realized um God has a plan for a blind man okay then God has a plan for me who am I to judge his plan and I realized more than arms and legs do I really really need arms and legs no I look at people with arms and legs and they're weeping and they're depressed and I'm like but you have arms and legs and we all know arms and legs doesn't make a difference it's not all that's cracked up kind of you know it's going to give you arthritis later on anyway that's what I found out but um and then um I realized what I really needed was my soul to be saved saved and restored and needing his peace and not knowing my purpose and and and having that Faith to know that that his ways and thoughts are higher than mine if he chooses to give me arms and legs it doesn't change how good he is he is God if he chooses not to give me arms and legs it doesn't change anything about God he is God and he is good if he can use me and that's when I gave my life a g at 15 years old said Jesus if you don't give me arms and legs can I just ask then use then my pain don't waste this yeah just use it and I'm all in and I gave my life to Jesus God if you give me arms and legs I trust you if you don't give me arms and legs I trust you now you have a scoliosis I've had a scoliosis I was also born with a rare degenerative disease of my spinal column okay at age 19 it was 2002 I had three holes in my spine it's called the searings you have to be born with it wow and they gave me a prognosis by age 35 I'm gonna have no back now at age 19 I'd already seen my first miracle as we prayed for someone with a crooked back I mean she was 65 degrees her legs were uneven in South Africa we laid hands on her her legs became straight her her her back became straight and she fell to the floor weeping out of joy and I'm like oh my gosh God is in the house I'm ready for my miracle and he didn't give me a miracle and he was like so ironic that he uses a man without arms and legs to then see other miracles happen sure and it was so surreal and then we prayed in South Africa and I actually saw probably six seven miracles in a row now even in my own back Jordan with doctors from Southern California they've actually seen over 14 years my three holes in my spine become two become one become none well medically unexplainable now I've seen the spiritual realm I've seen demons walking through my hotel room not in Africa in California I've seen the spiritual realm I've seen exorcisms I know God is real so do I know that God can do Miracles absolutely was it weird going into Macy's and buying my own pair of shoes absolutely do I believe that God can do it right now absolutely but do I know that when you don't get a miracle now that you can still be one absolutely yeah the last story and then I'll let you come back so I just want to share all that for us yeah yeah but it was amazing at age 24 when I was speaking in California and there was a little boy with no arms and no legs and he was so cute he he also had a little left foot just like me I was like oh my gosh uh and so I interrupted the sermon and I said can you bring him up on stage and I'm looking down at him his 19 month old Daniel Martinez now he wants to be a speaker and an author and blah blah blah and it was amazing I imagine this is um yeah long time ago I was 24 years old 16 years ago okay yeah up on the table with me in front of the whole congregations looking at me and I'm looking down in here and I put my little foot in his foot and he cried he smiles and everyone cries and his mother comes up and says thank you for being our miracle my heart the only thing that could come to my mind was thank you Lord I couldn't plan this if I was born without limbs and God said no to my begging my arms and legs at age eight so I could help this child know that it's gonna be okay and then if now he knows that if God has a plan for Uncle Nick then God has a plan for little Daniel yeah I I wished I'm sure you would wish as well like I wish someone came to our schools and told every bully to shut their freaking mouth yeah you know just like be quiet you know I never had a limitless speaker come to my school to tell him that but I went to his school and I told him that in a loving way in a compelling way and in a Winsome way that actually bullying completely stopped across the school wow he just graduated high school is getting his business management degree he wants to become a speaker and an author and blah blah blah and so I might give him a couple points of course right and so the amazing thing here is like you know I know Jordan who you are because of what God's done in you and how much you love him and trust him wherein you got a wife you've got three kids you're happy you got this show you going acting but it's the bottom line of not about our success it's about being where God wants us to be and whether that means we're a bedridden person who can't walk can't talk it was a person who actually couldn't walk couldn't talk who God used to convince me at age 19 to go out into all the world and preach the gospel because that man who couldn't walk couldn't talk because of Lou Gehrig's Disease Phil Toth in San Diego California when I met him he smiled and I knew before he was completely bedridden at age 25 that he actually started a website to encourage other bedridden people thinking this car this guy can't walk can't talk and he can reach hundreds of people I can walk and I can talk yeah so here we are today there's okay thank you for sharing all of that so no I love it I I'm uh processing it all you mentioning uh Lou Gehrig's Disease the person who uh in addition to my mom the person who uh for me was one of my biggest influences and Inspirations was my my grandfather who um it wasn't Lou gehr it was basically a form of Lou Gehrig's disease called uh Olive o Ponto cerebellar atrophy um and uh it's a mouthful but he had it uh he was the head of a hospital in Arlington Texas um for years he was a great doctor um the most patient loving compassionate kind quiet man I've ever known like he just listened and observed and we'd watched the Dallas Cowboys games together and old movies together and um you could just see him sitting there watching the grandkids and great grandkids playing and just how much joy that brought him uh but he he got this disease and his life expectancy when he was diagnosed was about five years and he made it 20 years with the disease because every day he'd get up and ride his exercise exercise bike and get dressed and do all of these things even if it took him three hours to you know get his pants and shoes and socks on because he knew as soon as he stopped that then it would all go downhill so he did everything as long as he possibly could and he passed away this will be four years ago this year um but there wasn't a day that I ever saw him complain or show any any bitterness or resentment he was just always so grateful for everything and such a rock in our family but such a role model for me because the times that I you know would feel bad about myself or or you know beat myself up over something or feel insecure um I always would think of him and how he you know lived his life um so it's interesting that that that was someone who gave you inspiration it's a similar type of thing um even the years the last two years of his life couldn't eat he had a feeding tube um he couldn't speak really because his speech was so slurred uh so he couldn't communicate he couldn't eat um he couldn't really move he was in his chair or in bed and uh he was still just as happy as he was when he was totally able-bodied um and that yeah it was such an inspiration but um yeah as far as the one of the big things that that's helped me as well since we have embraced my my condition and made a part of my character on The Chosen um it's the children that have reached out and the the parents of children and and just other people in general whether they have a disability or not um you know I've had kids reach out that have severe acne that felt seen with in that little James and Jesus moment um that have asked God like why won't you heal my acne like you know they have their insecurity is just as real as either of ours and um you know body image issues uh learning disabilities like any number of things yeah and um it's it's just been now I'm at a point and I want to ask you this question too when Dallas asked me if I would be comfortable using my my disability in the character I said yes but I was also terrified because I knew I would have to be more vulnerable as an actor than I had ever been before how old were you at that point uh that was let's see ish I think it was uh uh so you're already married you're already a father yeah yeah and this is real man yeah and it was like becoming a father definitely changed my perspective because I remember loving my children so like more than any more than I can ever even explain um and they love me too and accept me and I remember thinking I just had this thought one day that like if they can accept me as I am they wouldn't want me to walk any different they love the way I was um I'm their dad so if they can accept me like this why can't I accept myself if any of them walked like I do I would love and accept them without any issue like I I um would think they're just as beautiful as they are now and uh so that helped help help me be a little kinder to myself um but I still hated walking past a reflective surface I still hated seeing myself walk on camera um I was still that was at the Forefront of my mind and every audition every role that I got was don't limp don't limp don't limp um rather than just playing the character and uh so Dallas doing that it was terrifying but it gave me this Freedom um that I didn't really anticipate which was now I just get to act I don't have to worry about it I don't have to think about whether or not I'm limping and that's carried over into other roles I just did 1883 and worked on that for five or six months my character didn't specifically have a disability but um I wasn't worried about whether or not I was limping I was just playing the character and um it was liberating uh but Dallas asked me when he was just when he decided to make it part of the character he said if God could heal you right now just out of curiosity he was like if God could heal you right now um would you want to be healed and I told him no but I really would like in that moment I was like if I was being honest I would have said yes I would want to be healed but now a few years just a couple years later uh going through all of this getting to act out the scene where I'm literally you know not quite yelling but I'm I'm angry at Jesus for not healing me um that was a really surreal experience as well um getting to act all of that out and having him tell me that you know you will be healed one day it's a matter of time and all of the things that he says in the scene it was uh like running a marathon by the end of the day I was just totally oh my God the best way um and then the response after of all of these people I I've developed a really strong connections and relationships with a lot of the fans that have reached out that have disabilities or children that are bullied um and uh now for the first time in my life I genuinely if I had the choice I don't think I would want to be healed because I'm really enjoying being able to like using this now yeah for for good and um like you said you don't waste this pain like use it right and um I I feel totally uh you know there are still moments of insecurity of course but I I feel totally at peace with uh who I am and with the body that I've been given and um proud of it and and I I maybe my asthma if God God if you want to heal my asthma that'd be uh yeah we pray for that asthma too but the uh but as far as the limp you know it's something that uh I I think that's the thing I I want to ask like one if you had the option right now to be healed would you and then I want to dive into a little bit of uh you know the Faith healing and and how some people's opinion that everyone you know will be healed if they ask or have enough Faith uh I want to talk about that because I've I've come uh across some fans and people that have reached out and and pushed back against that scene a bit so I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on how to uh yeah okay yeah just start asking me there yeah um there are churches who first of all they they have no education whatsoever in how to even um Embrace a family affected with a disability and the number one Ministry for that is Johnny and Friends dot org Johnny Erickson Tada yeah 17 19 years old cracks her neck she's quadriplegic amazing a woman of God Ambassador for Jesus Legend still here with us and a dear friend of mine and she helped us in the early days um so it's first of all uneducated awareness there's just none um and then you have the Prosperity Gospel where these gen zias who was seeing gold dust in the room um are told to go and evangelize and just go out and heal people going out to the market streets and laying their hands on cerebral palsy wheelchair bound teenagers freaking people out it's those gen Z people who were told that who are also the ones who were praying for a car instead of getting a job yeah okay go get a job you want a car no God gives you arms and legs go get a job and go save up money you want to be generous good go make money and buy someone else a car it's it's this understanding unfortunately of his culture of moving in the spirit moving the spirit moving the spirit I'm going to dance on my bills instead of getting a job and paying off my credit cards it's it's it's so saddening so I'm talking about the extreme of extremes right there and that's the same extreme of televangelists who you know they own four planes and they've got one butt yeah and you know 25 000 people today die of starvation that that's the extreme okay yeah now in that setting okay now let's bring back the dial a little bit close to the middle ground are the people who say well you know you just need to have more faith well okay you don't know how much faith I have but the Bible says that I need to have faith of a mustard seed to move mountains okay and and God even healed People based on your faith not theirs in the shadow without anyone the apostles would walk by people and without talking to them without them even understanding what faith is miracles happen so God moves Beyond even our faith too arguably if you want to put it that way if we want to have a scientific doctrinal discussion here now I know we don't want to have that but I've had these discussions so I want people to understand this it's not based on your faith God knows the desires of your heart it's also nothing wrong with you asking God to still heal your child of cerebral palsy right you can love your child with all your heart and still pray that God still gives that child um a less of a burden of life whether it's a mental handicap whether it's cancer whether it's anything right and all these things um and there's nothing wrong with praying I want people to know don't feel guilty for hoping one day okay and you can still have contentment and be thankful and gratitude for every day and still still feel deep down it would be nice yeah right so I want parents understand that and and you having you know no arms and no legs Nick do you still want arms and legs well first of all I know that it's not dependent on how much money I give or how a b in I am to the Lord or some sin in my life there are some people are saying oh you you got the flu because of your sin shut up yeah you have the flu because you know uh you're not there's something wrong what are you doing where's the sin confess I'm like shut up right yeah all these things so even John Erickson Titus she said you failed to pray for me go for it I'm not gonna stop you am I happy today yeah would she love to get out of out of a wheelchair yeah absolutely so it's that freedom of knowing though that the number one Joy is abiding in him and he abiding in US so I think I covered that yeah all right now for me today Jordan you asked me okay um today like I'm looking at the clock but I don't know whenever this is going to be let's take they say this morning doesn't matter when this is uploaded today in the context of this question I'm 40. I got a wife four kids I'm fully content I've never been so happy I went through hell the last three years and it had nothing to do with my arms and legs I mean yeah we've had grenades at our home FBI bomb squad we've had spine drones kicked out of the bank I mean Jordan there's so much hell that we went through in the last three years okay I went through Counseling in February 21. needed 10 hours of counseling and um it was a rough rough three years we're going to talk about a lot all the time about it but I share that much with you today yeah but in the context traveling 78 countries so far yeah 2500 flights 3 500 speeches I've been on television to China yeah to a billion people do you know where I'm going on Saturday I'm going to India you want to know what they're doing in India I found out for 10 years I've been a mandatory study in the nation of India that every single public school student has an inspiration in a national country that has a religion called Hinduism not Hindu means that you and me are outcasts our mothers should have been divorced and ostracized from community and we had nothing we shouldn't even be looked at we should never reproduce God forbid we produce yeah that's Hinduism okay at its purest form 330 million Gods a lot of gods to a please to please in the Peace So wow very interesting now I'm a mandatory textbook study amazing now we're actually going to do a live stream into every single School across two states live stream and National Television once again so very very I've been there five times to now being 78 countries preaching the gospel to 9.8 million people in the countries that I could preach a gospel in and seeing 1.1 million give their life to Jesus Christ now when I was a kid begging God farms and legs I actually said God doesn't it make sense and wouldn't it be cool if you gave me arms and legs I'd go on Oprah win for showing me presidents well I was on Oprah or without arms and legs and I've met 24 presidents and prime ministers and the last one was Benjamin Netanyahu behind closed doors for an hour and a half and now he wants me to go and speak motivationally to every single School in the country and every around in the military defense we know presidents attacks presidents okay this is amazing we're talking about resetting all of sub-sahara Africa we're talking about preaching the gospel at eight billion people through life without limbs.org I mean we bought the domain 8 billion souls.com I'm now the chief of gen Z chairman for 22 denominations and their programming of discipleship and evangelism we completely resetting some Churches who actually completely want to reset so wow if two billion people which is a quarter of the world one in four people know who I am without arms and legs so if you ask me today would it be great to have arms and legs would I want it a hundred percent because it wouldn't ever be a question in my mind did I reach enough people without arms and legs because a core of the world one in four already have known me without arms and legs right so I kind of have an advantage over that now ask me three years ago I don't know yeah now I'm feeling like I have to stop praying for it this is weird dude yeah I'm actually starting to pray farms and legs wow I'm actually starting to pray arms and legs regularly fascinating it is fascinating it's very fascinating I mean that's yeah and I've never said that on camera right like I'm regularly now praying for arms and legs but I'm sure it feels so different is it different from the prayer as that eight-year-old or ten-year-old it's doing it completely like a different lifetime yeah and and it's not that I'm like and it's funny because you can relate to this you never get over the fact of having a limp you never get over the fact to having no arms and legs and it sucks when your wheelchair breaks down and people don't understand like today I was a little angry because it's really hard to find the right Q-tips for my ears I'm like I've gone through 30 different Q-tip Brands trying to get another human being who's trying to just clean your ears without poking your eardrum just these little things that people don't understand one of my most difficult things today was cleaning my ears wow but people don't say and that's being like and it's it's a highlight every single time I clean my ears yeah until we find the right Q-tip I mean it's like that is that like people don't understand though the long-suffering of the position I want people to understand this ready some of the people who are listening to this are actually one of the greatest prayer warriors in the world and those are the people who actually fix their eyes in Jesus Christ and he allows you to actually remain sometimes in the long-suffering to abide in him and depend on him just like never before so that you in your prayer life is in him and you actually pray you pray you actually probably pray more than your pastor okay and so we must understand that there is prayer worry intercession there's encouragement there's this incredible thing called technology I actually believe Jordan I actually believe this I believe that disabled home bound people according to the Luke 14 mandate we're actually about to become the most Spotlight is the first time I've ever seen this publicly so I'm just trying to process exactly how I'm saying this before it comes out of my mouth I see an army of a million people with disabilities to start their podcasts or Ministries or Zoom calls to encourage and I see armies being raised up and people who feel like there is no purpose will come to their home through the camera and what Jordan has been doing maybe you're supposed to also start doing be encouraged by this it's not Nick or Jordan it's God and whatever God did through Nick and Jordan is in him through him or him but that we were smarter than you and so it's it's also the the gift the gift of long-suffering the long-suffering state of being in need continually um I want to say what your Johnny Erickson Tardis said she said Jordan God ruthlessly perfects those who he royally elects and there are some people who go to church every single Sunday and you know they're hoping for a smooth week right oh my gosh are we here to sip a pina colada have you not heard about the Great Commission have you not heard that there are 70 million people with human trafficking have you not heard have you not heard 25 000 people died today you know like hello where are we it's amazing people don't understand the opportunity of having someone as a cerebral palsy church member person can they can smile and probably even evangelize better than your pasta or your youth pastor and you want to know what's amazing when people see a limp or a limbless man or some with cerebral palsy guess what happens their smile is noticed their smile is noticed yeah more than anybody and that's your story you see your story ain't done yet and so champions for the broken heart I would laugh Without Limbs we understand that it's more than just me and my story um we you know we talk about The Unborn we talk about the human traffic we talk about people with disabilities and that's our March theme each month we have a theme and uh I I would love to interview you on that show I love that yeah um that would be amazing um and uh I I I I think it's it's it's now I think it's now that we understand that it's beyond disabilities it's all about broken hearts and coming back to our misstep in theology that we're actually not getting where when you come to God he great does the greatest Miracle of all he saves you and he fills you with his Spirit but then you walk with him and you talk with him and you surrender to him and you see the blessings of God in that in his grace is sufficient Apostle Paul asked God three times please please take this from my side take this thorn God said no you know my grace is sufficient for you my strength is made perfect in your weakness you know you've been at this for a lot longer than me in terms of being in the public eye and and being a you know a spokesperson for for a certain community and and for uh offering you know hope and encouragement to people and now you know through the Chosen and through this character and the podcast that I'm blessed enough to to be beginning that I've started doing some more speaking engagements and um I've been traveling around doing that and it's it's been a learning process of you know trying to figure out all of the the logistics of it and figuring out the the structure and stuff that I want to work with but one thing that I've come across um that maybe you'll have some advice is the the people who do like you know you touched on the um the Christians who say you just need to pray harder and there are times where I need to catch myself or I've had to catch myself a few times among the thousands of positive comments of other people with disabilities that are reaching out and saying you know I felt like Jesus was talking to me in that scene and all of these amazing messages and emails that I've been getting um there's every now and then the one that says uh that scene was uh you know blasphemous that scene was uh you know God does want to heal you you uh God never would have not healed someone that asked like all of these things um and one one woman uh on Facebook I saw I was tagged on a video and she has a page with this ministry that she does and um and the video it was her just saying how disappointed she was in the chosen for doing that scene for portraying Little James in this way and um everyone's got an opinion I yeah well I I posted it a long response to it and as compassionately and as as gentle as I could and just explained um you know because she kept referring to Little James as as sick or broken um So I responded and was like Hey Little James here um I just wanted to say um I don't view myself as as sick or broken or um even in need of the type of healing that you're you're talking about um and I just wrote this long thing and and talked about all of the Christians all of the the Christians with disabilities out there that are never healed all of the Christians like we talked about with cancer that aren't healed um and the idea according to her that they weren't healed because they didn't have enough Faith or they didn't ask enough or they didn't pray hard enough um and to me you know I've never agreed with that or believed in that um and then she went on Facebook live I noticed uh responding to my response so I joined her Facebook live and uh we just had a little conversation hash it out I quickly realized I wasn't going to get anywhere yeah no um so that's kind of the the lesson I learned from that was like give me her okay there we go yeah let's go and Johnny no I'd love to like seriously you know what they've been maybe people don't even know who she is right I'd rather have a sit with somebody who actually everyone knows yeah you know and that's been in my brain yeah I won't take her oh I love you God bless you sure it's not about taking someone on but it's about having the conversation that actually needs to be said and I'm not going to mention who she was sure this this person that I'm about to tell you I went to this woman very prominent daddy very prominent very respected worldwide and I said when do we correct the church she said we don't and I totally disagree we have misstepped and you go talk to anyone in South America and anyone in Africa and ask them how did the Prosperity Gospel wave affect your continent where did it come from oh America aha that is reality I'm sorry but when it comes to Prosperity Gospel why would God ever deny your healing I would love to have that debate with people we we we're actually coming to a stage where I'm actually going to do a TV talk show yeah it's going to be unlike nothing um like anything else and and I'm just done um you know I'm 40 I've seen it I hate Instagram Facebook and I'm not a Christian just to complain about things you ask God for the solution and you figure it out and by the grace of God there is technology in people who are all thinking the same way where there are alternative ways to really continue to emanate without being bullied and block world and algorithms of Instagram and Facebook to be canceled yeah I mean you know we've been canceled we know what that feels like and so this is to me such an important show um a podcast that that emanates truth so thank you because outside of Johnny Erickson tada there aren't a lot of other people I mean there are some out there for sure and there are some wonderful speakers out there um and books gen Bricker is amazing too you gotta you gotta talk to her one day yeah um she's a friend of mine but I just feel this is such a beautiful moment for me just to meet you and and speak this way to the audience that you had Jordan I don't ever think I've ever had an audience like this where you can just out right share this stuff in such a comfortable way and just having the conversation but also not shying away from the most difficult questions so I love you man I love you too sorry if I said too much but I'm not but no no but this is this is really a passion of mine you know and I want people to know like we we will do what we're supposed to do and I'm not afraid of saying what you're doing that actually may be needing a different approach and perspective and I'm always open to having a healthy debate yeah always that's the only way to do it yeah I mean have the conversation let's have a conversation about how you can actually have a conversation about the broken foster care and adoption about the human traffic about the abuse do you know that one in three girls in America have been sexually abused by age 17 one out of five boys by age 17. sexually abused in America yeah we're the number one leading human trafficking nation in the world right now we tripled the quadruple in 24 months human trafficking in Texas we've tripled the quadruple wow of the annual data just came in insane is insane it's insane and so this is you can't talk about God and love without talking about the value of Life The Miraculous and the church actually waking up actually getting off the ventilator because some don't even know they're on you're mentioning like having some humility and and and uh I think when it comes to you know the Prosperity Gospel a lot of the people who I'm not saying that people haven't been saved for sure sure yeah no but but a lot of the people that are of the mindset that you know you've got to pray harder you're gonna you're gonna get what you're asking for you just have to do this yeah um there you typically in positions of of privilege they're typically able-bodied they they aren't um in need in the same way that some other people might be and uh I think that's it is so important for and I try to do this on the podcast as well I have people um that have different struggles different uh you know I had um Rami Yusuf who's a Muslim comedian who has a TV show on Hulu that's a hilarious show he talked a lot about being a Muslim teenager in New York right after 9 11 and what he experienced with that and you know having I had a father on who lost his daughter uh in a mass shooting and uh when she was 14 years old at Parkland in Florida I think it's so important to have conversations and to just listen to other people as a human being yes and to love them to have compassion for them even if you still come out of the conversation disagreeing you at least Can it can empathize with them and understand how they came to their conclusion how they got to where they are um and I think that the church in general that's been uh something I've I've had an issue with in in America in particular I think that that we have a bit of an ego in America and the American church at times where um there's not always that humility and and willingness to look in the mirror and to to ask the tough questions and to say hey what are we doing doing wrong what what can we um you know do to to lead with more uh you know compassion and empathy and and um I think that there is a lot of room to grow in all of us and within the church and um it's easy to become stagnant uh and that's one of the reasons I started this podcast was to grow as a person and to hear hear people and to share you know my story and and uh in hopes that it can help others you know maybe maybe do the same so I love it and I'm sorry if I came off strong but I'm just more angry at the churches you know more than anything um only because you know where here's some music to face a hundred thousand churches with 490 billion dollars worth of debt for buildings that was mostly emptied and we can't take a half a million kids off the foster care system I mean seriously dude yeah so forgive the Christians for being asleep and uh if this is a wake-up moment welcome I love you let's go let's get learning and let's move um yes and and and may we reach out to be the hands and feet and love people and preach the gospel with or without words yeah amen now I wanna before we we wrap it up I want to ask you um what I end all of my podcasts with and I gave you some uh I I gave you a little heads up before we started so um I always end by asking what is the thing that you love most about yourself oh gosh well let me let me reframe the question what what am I most thankful or me in my life first if I may preface it um any good that you see in me honestly with no false humility it's in him for him through him even the breath that I have is his um I'm glad I know the truth and that's truly Set Me Free from all the fear and anything that the world could ever give me or take away from me or tell me I know the truth um and uh I'm glad what do I like about myself coming to your question I love the fact that it was groomed by my parents that when people come up to me and they're a little awkward yeah they said look well they just don't know what to do do they shake your hand do they talk to you do they look at you do you do we ask you for help you know all these things I mean you and I could have 10 podcasts together actually on all this and break yourself like just that yeah no I'm actually tempted to think more about that with you um and figure what that looks like because so many people like a practical level like it's even people who actually have a heart for people with disabilities like hey tell me you know or a caregiver you know like because I've had caregivers and and uh there's people that that us like hey I'm helping someone with something do I do this do I not do this when do I lean in when do I go you know like and then anyway so um what I like though about what my parents basically taught me was just relax you know like don't be offended if someone asks you do you want help do you need help just right freaking relax you've never they've never seen anyone like you you know the kids are pointing at me they've never seen anyone like you yeah but what I love most was they they taught me just to to be myself and talk and just hi I'm like oh okay I'll do that and I said hi and they said hi back and I'm like oh I can have a conversation right yeah and in that conversation then I took it a little bit more and um started saying jokes like if it's a cold morning you know hey it's cold can't feel my hands and then you know the ice breaks you know and then they're actually conversing with me an eye level you know yeah uh and so I I think the humor part um has obviously really helped with all the beginning years of me learning the ropes of you know 3 500 speeches humor is always there yeah and I think humor is a wonderful thing it's like music it's like movies that really connect and open uh the heart in a way that brings down the barriers and so the preconceived ideas of what is he here now is going to make me feel sorry for him blah blah blah oh my God he can even make fun of himself right this guy's cool you know what I mean it's like addressing the elephant in the room because people don't know how to I don't know react yeah it's something to that uh I I'm really aggressive in my my Pursuit for of of working with filmmakers that I I admire or um finding other acting projects um and now I lead with my my limp I like when I'm sending emails to producers or casting directors I always put in a little note I mentioned like you know I have a limp I have cerebral palsy and scoliosis I tell them a bit of my story send them my my footage and then I always end the emails by saying I know this is a little uh unorthodox but I'm just trying to do anything I can to give myself a leg up pun intended um and it's something that instead of of worrying about it and and viewing it is a bad thing I'm like no I'm you know own it you know it's it's the hand that yeah we've been dealt so yeah I love that I love that approach you know kids come up and they ask what happened I just say see yeah that's great no I love that you were such a joy to get to know today you too I mean so this was uh such a blessing wife yeah I know we'll have to put it together yeah [Music]

Channel: What's Your Limp?

Views: 5,962

Keywords: nick Vujicic, life without limbs, limbless, motivation, motivational speaker, inspirational, inspiration, inspiring, Jordan Ross, the chosen, Little James, healing, healed, season 3, episode, what's your limp, podcast, christian

Id: wCXfjcvZQcg

Length: 65min 37sec (3937 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 11 2023