I want to talk tonight I actually have a theme going on actually this is joking aside as this afternoon I was supposed to meet Kathy a certain place and I got ready and to leave and I and this rarely happens to me to be honest I'm not the spiritual as I started to exit door I felt like the Lord said I don't want you to leave until you spend some time with me so I'd done that a little bit in the morning so I'm like okay I call a text Kathleen said you know you have to pick me up here I'm supposed to just be here for a little bit so I just laid on the couch and okay what were we going to talk about and and I really felt like the Lord gave me just really simple like it's nothing I didn't know but I loved when the Lord begins to like create a theme because you know you're gonna be here for a few days and there's going to be a lot of different speakers and it's going to be wonderful and you know all of us have more to say there I'm going to be able to say in our sessions so I'm always like okay exactly what is it I'm supposed to talk about because we're each gonna play a part and I'm definitely not the whole su and and I felt the Lord's said talk to me about culture about developing prophetic culture and I do believe that you know one of the main responsibilities of a New Testament prophet and we're going to talk about prophets and hopefully I'm going to teach just some some really simple stuff to sometimes what's simple too one person is profound to another because how many you know we all learn at different places and and when we do questions and answers I really want to encourage you like you know what makes people really big is that they humble itself and say I don't know something and nothing's more frustrating to me that's kind of one of my pet pieces I go we do leader stuff all the time we say and then we get done and we'll have five six seven hundred thousand leaders in the room and say does anyone have a question and four people raised their hand I'm like for only four people like you talked for three hours and four people have a question like that would be impossible and there's this this thing about I don't want anybody else to know I don't know and we all know you don't know you wouldn't be here and that's why we go because we don't know either none of us were born with like all the information and so like I just really want us to just relax you know let down your hair just be you can be normal here within reason I don't know what normal is you know in the Old Testament prophets every time God came Nate or off their clothes like when don't be that normal you know when I was 20 I wanted to look good without a shirt at 40 I wanted to look good with a shirt and at 60 I'm like it's a lot easier just to turn the lights off or to go to bed so haha so I just I really believe that one of the main one of the main responsibilities and privileges of a true prophet is developing culture it might actually be the most important responsibility that we have is actually developing culture because culture is what actually shapes people culture I explained culture bill has some great stuff on culture by the way if you are interested you can probably just google Bethel TV and figure out what what messages bill spoke on culture because he's got two or three messages on culture there they're absolutely profound but I explained cultures that of invisible force it's kind of like it's kind of like being in a river and you you can swim against the river but it takes a lot more energy to swim against the river than it does just to go with the river and I noticed culture a lot usually in times like first-day-of-school ministry let's say first week of school ministry the students come and they actually don't realize it but they they have stepped into invisible river and right now I'm not talking about the river of God or anything like that I'm using the metaphor to describe an invisible force that wants to go a certain direction and when they want to go another direction it's kind of hard to explain but there's something keeping them from going that way and that's that's one way to explain culture lay culture takes you places you don't even necessarily want to be and culture typically depending on the kind of culture actually often makes you look better than you are I believe that Bell feels culture but I sound totally arrogant but I believe that Bethel's culture one of the things that happens is school ministry is your if you're here for a year I have all this amazing stuff happen through you but often you don't realize that the momentum like let me explain it this way you've never swam that fast before but you don't realize that you're actually swimming with a river and one of the reasons you're going so fast is because already a stream that's taking you and then you get out on your own you're like watch how fast I can swim you're like I did that faster at buffle and you know you don't and one of the things one of our kind of metaphors we say it's good that you warmed yourself that our fire but the question is can you start your own that's probably a very bad example today I just thought of that a little late so funny how often we use fire metaphor I'm like oh boy and so I want to tell you a little bit about my story I don't know how far we'll get into it and I and but my ultimate goal this week at least my part and these guys couldn't there they have freedom to you know venture off and do other stuff but my part at least is I want to talk about ultimately where I'm going is how do you build a culture how do you sustain a culture and how do you become a thermostat and not a thermometer you know jesus said if you're if you're you're hot and cold it's fine but if you're lukewarm he'll spit you from his mouth and lukewarm is room temperature lukewarm is what you do when what you are when you just are whatever everyone else is right yes okay no I'm right about that so I wanted so some of you probably many of you have heard my story but many years ago I'll just breeze through this part I had never sprayed down many years ago Kathy and I had been married one year by the way this is my wife would you stand so sorry sorry I shouldn't honored you first I'm so sorry I totally lost my brain 43 years we've been married July 19th this year met Cathy when she was 12 we got engaged and she's 13 that is a dysfunction absolutely true story people are like did she have a ring yes I had a job and and we I gave her her engagement ring at Christmas time I wrapped it and I think like 42 boxes you know big small small small small and then put it in a can so she had to work for our relationship it's been doing that ever since and and so yeah so and she was so and we have been together for 43 years or 43rd year we were together five years before that and we have four kids and eight grandkids and I want to say this like I love my kids but I would have grandkids instead had I'd known so we've been together a long time and I think it was about a year and a half after we got married Kathy somehow got pregnant and then she was like eight months pregnant now thank you for that insight after about the third we figured it out like Oh Lord that's what it was so and I had a nervous breakdown the nervous breakdown lasted three and a half years we were living in the Bay Area it's funny how God will use something like bad that he didn't cause and use it for good and uh we were having a conversation I don't know it's maybe a month or two ago and we're talking about part of trusting God is trusting the process that you're in that God somehow figures it out how to make it work for good you know how many know all things work together for good in the end so if it's not good it's not the end you know when something is bad is going on I think well that's the we're not the last that's not the last chapter of the book and by the way if you have a crisis in your life write a book about it it won't help the crisis but at least you make money and that will help anyway so that's what I do anyway some of your like this place is a cult so we were living in San Jose in the Bay Area I was managing a repair shop and I had a nervous breakdown and I I you know had panic attacks really bad panic attacks five six seven eight nine a day Kathy would change the sheets two and three times a night because I would sweat the sheets wet it was really really tough time in our life and we had gone to a little town called Weaverville think about this weaverville when you're in San Jose like you're looking for someplace you're like Weaverville sounds like the place for us and when I've gone there I think on our honeymoon and we're like and we had been talking you know we were together for a long time before he got married so you know we talked about like a Little House on the Prairie like Kathy should have been born like a hundred years earlier that's kind of her mindset you know she she splits wood yeah baby I'm telling you she shoots better than I do yeah I got three deer with a car on zero with a gun and I think I don't know how many she got I'd do a lot better with guided things so so we had talked a lot about living on a you know sometimes like a farm or in the mountains and so when I never break down about I think maybe a year into that we just started saying well maybe you know the pace of San Jose and the traffic and all of you who live in the city you know what that's like and and so we just went in one day and told my boss like we're done we're quitting and we sold our house it's sold three times in the first day and and and my boss the next day came in when he came in the shop he said hey I'm selling the shop and going with you so he sold the shop and bought a shop in Weaverville your he'd never been oh I think he had visited there to tell you she's never lived there and so we went to work for him and that's kind of our story in the midst of that we went to this little church kind of a cool story we had we were when caffeine caffeine I got saved we received Jesus the same day and went to this I had had a visitation when I was 50 my mother had psoriasis that was covered in her body and we had a prowler my mother was sleeping with a shotgun and I was sleeping with a rifle and we had this guy that was getting in our house three and four times a week it was very very traumatic I was 15 years old and I had taken a shot at this guy with my 22 rifle the night before and I wasn't a believer I wasn't raised to be a believer I wasn't raised to be an atheist I just raised to be a nothing you know and one night out loud I said if there's a God if you if you heal my mother I'll find out who you are to serve you the rest of my life and I'm audible voice said my name is Jesus Christ and how would you request it and next morning my mother was completely well psoriasis it was completely gone for her body and about a week later that voice came back the only time only two times I've ever heard the auto voice of God the voice of the Lord came back he said my name is Jesus Christ she said that if I healed your mother you'd serve me and I'm waiting so I spent Kath with Kathy Kathy was you know I met Kathy when I was 15 she was 12 and so for the next three years we were searching for God and finally we went to this place we didn't even know what it is a friend of mine that worked for me he said you got to come to this place you're gonna love it and it's a little place called the Hallelujah singers it was a house with about 110 to 120 30 kids packed in there were all extra addicts all hippies former hippies I didn't know what Jesus people were I actually didn't know I got saved in the Jesus people movement for 15 years and I started telling people who my leader was they got oh you were in this got saving the Jesus people moved him like we did we didn't even know so ignorant and and we were in this we we went to this and before that we were going to church to church and we would walk from church to church a lot and then we just sit in the back the church I especially and I would say you know the God that I spoke to me is not in this place and by the way he very well could have been I had no idea what I was looking for and then we went to this place with all these teenagers and they were packed in this house and by the way if you got there late my friend Steve said hey we get there late you have to sit on the lawn and they opened the they open the windows and put speakers in the windows and you sat on the lawn it was the Jesus people moving huh any of you saved in Jesus people movement yes there's some of the gray heads know what we're talking about right and so we went in there and they were singing songs like I was saying these songs and while they were singing the songs young people would stand up spontaneously remember we're in a house packed people up the stairs in the let me a half the people could not see what was happening they were in a in a bathroom and a bedroom not a bathroom in a bedroom or a kitchen outside so you can hear this beautiful music from outside from all around everyone singing and and people and young people would stand up and say Jesus delivered me from heroin jesus healed my cancer Jesus and then what like I'd never seen anything like this and I said the God who spoke to me I said together the guy who spoke to me is here and at the end of that message I'm sorry at the end of the worship a man his name's Ken Hughes probably maybe four or five years younger older than us not not much he said I was 18 Cathy was 15 and he said does anyone in here want to receive Jesus and we both raised her hand and and I had raised my hand four times before and truly nothing nothing happy and so after after the service was over at service you know that the little he talked for a little bit it's very simple and he came over and sat on the floor with us then he said you received Jesus in and you're like a little child I had never read the Bible I read on the third grade level when I graduated from high school I couldn't read a Bible my life depended on it really because it was King King James anyway you guys remember King James so I mean think about this they know in high school and I'm being serious I was in reading class from this from the sixth grade all the way to my 12th grade and I was still reading see flip run literally run flip run that's rise up I couldn't I had no reading comprehension whatsoever and so he said he explained the Bible really simply to us and he then he said to us you've been born again and he's just shared really quickly like very simply and then he said and you you're like a little child then you need a father and he brought two men to us younger like again three years old or maybe four than us and you know I was 18 so maybe maybe they were twenty-one or two and he said what's one of these men do you want to be your father I just picked the better-looking one and that man literally became our spiritual father and his name was art Kippur Minh and a couple of years later you know we got married and he got married like a year later and they became our spiritual parents are in Cathy Kippur Minh and I actually did his funeral I think 10 years ago and then when I had a nervous breakdown and we moved till we reveal as I told you kind of fast forward who actually moved to Lewiston which is about 45 minutes from here actually Lewiston is it's what's the fire is threatening right now which interesting cuz I walked Lewiston every day know every Sunday for a year the Lord told me to walk the borders of Lewiston every Sunday for a year and someone wrote me who had heard that story they wrote me XD yesterday mattel calculus so do you notice that Lewiston is protected on its borders and he said the Lord showed me it's because Chris walked the borders 35 years ago so I pray that that that prophecy remains true so we moved to Libreville a Lewis said I'm sorry and for a year I had no spiritual father and I had not known the Lord without a spot I mean the day I met the Lord the day we met the Lord we had spiritual parents and you know you don't know what you got til it's gone right and so for a year in the middle of a nervous breakdown and by the way when we got to Lewiston my nervous breakdown got worse instead of better I started seeing demons they would show up in the room I wasn't hallucinating they would knock pictures off the wall the lights would turn on and off and crazy visitations from evil spirits and and anyway I there that's a whole nother story I got delivered three and a half years the Lord delivered me in one night and I learned that there's one thing to get free it's another thing to stay free I got free I stayed free for complete week which by the way was a incredible miracle for one week I had no panic text remember I was having 10 and 15 a day I had no demonic visitations no panic attacks and then it started again a week later and the Lord said him to sit now I'm gonna teach you how to stay free and I'd like to say this I believe angels and demons travel at the speed of thought what you think about has everything to do with how you are Isaiah 54 oppression will be far from you for you will not fear what's that mean it means if you're afraid you attract the very thing you don't want so anyway the shorter story is and again this is a long story you're going to hear part of my story I just feel like I'm supposed to tell you this part of the story haven't told this part of story for a lot of years and so we were in Weaverville I'm enlisted and driving into we're ville working his shop there and I would cry all the way to work and say I I need a spiritual father I need a spiritual father I'd say to lord please give me a man that I can follow because I was five-years for years with a man of godly man and I was I felt like an orphan and one day I'm underneath this truck and I I'm literally I'm laying on on the creeper underneath his truck working on a truck and and I'm crying and I'm saying to the Lord under my breath Lord send me a father and the Lord says the man who owns this truck will be your father I'm like I hope he's a Christian you know it was a green Jeep Cherokee I got out from the I looked on the back window there was a fish sticker I'm like hallelujah at least the car saved the man came to pick up his truck in the evening I said to my boss hey when this man picks up the truck guy I'll collect the money I'll tell I'll go through the building he said fine man picks up his truck he's a man 20 15 years my senior and and I'm super nervous like my first date I am sweating you know have you ever been so nervous you just can't think of something to say you know so I've been waiting all day for him then he shows up on my video I took him through every single line of the bill or he took me 20 minutes to explain the bill to him and so then I follow him out to the car I'm like I'll walk you out to the car in fright oh this is the best service I've ever received you know he gets in the Jeep and we know we're in a town of 3,000 people and he gets in the Jeep and I'm thinking I'm never gonna see him again you know so I'm standing at the he's closed his door I'm standing at the window like a freaking orphan you know it probably it should have said choose me on it you know so he starts his Jeep up and I start panicking like he's gonna leave but I'm never gonna see him again you know which really isn't possible in Weaverville so I knock on his window and you know he rolls this window down and I said when I was underneath their Jeep and oh the Lord told me that you're you know the man who owns this Jeep will be your father and I'm like are you a Christian turns his Jeep off opens the door puts his arms around me and said I love to be your spiritual father and that man's name is bill Derryberry and that man still my spiritual father he was in church on Sunday by the way he's in his eighties and he really had a big impact in my life and he brought me to this little Pentecostal church you know Pentecostal you understand so I've been with the Jesus people then I the charismatic then I was with the Pentecostals so I've never been with anyone who valued the Bible [Applause] that was the joke there was a little bit of truth to the way they prophesied though didn't always have to use you know it wasn't always scriptural well the Pentecostals were cool because I really liked them because I have a lot of you know like my personality is kind of like and they they all like spoke in tongues before the prophesied that was kind of fun you know and we used to have a woman named grandma kale she was a very big been remembers and we knew if the spirit was moving because she get up on Sunday and when if the spirit was moving she and she didn't matter if it was preaching or whatever then am i telling the truth they were little and we're like woo the spirits moving and she had two themes she did not like movies and she did not like women with makeup and so she you know she'd rotate the themes but her props he's always had stuff to do with being at the movies when the Lord comes oh yeah I could almost do it yes and the Lord says on to you today that if you come back when he's at them when you at the movies and the Lord returns you shall be left behind except for she would do it in King James I can't they can't even remember that anymore and so I end up at this little church of forty people and then we're there for like a year then it grew to 40 people and then they introduce a pastor after a year and it's a hippie pastor with a flower child wife long hair sandals mustache and his wife looked right out of haight-ashbury it was Bill and Benny Johnson they became our pastors and we became very close friends within a month we had we were at their home or they were at ours four or five times a week and we became very very close friends and we even lived together for six months we did the kind of hippie commune thing not really but we did live with them for six months I remember Bill's very first message I was sitting on the second row you know and I'm used to Shep I yeah yeah I got my data you know in the past you know you have to yell like if it's going to be God then you yell that's what I was used to you know not with the Jesus people the Jesus people didn't yell the charismatic they didn't yell but we were yelled and so bill gets up there and stands behind the podium the entire message like how can a man stand behind the podium the entire message and be anointed it's not right and never raised his voice and I still remember weeping in front row in the second row and I said to myself I have never heard anyone teach the Bible like this like bill does you know what Bill does right he opens a Bible and he reads from the Bible and he doesn't even talk yet you're like oh my God where do you get that to this day I can't I'm still like and people quote the Bible Nago bill says I'm like no that was Jesus Christ actually absolutely true story i sat in the third second or third row and I never forget it I'd like Bill's teaching a Bible and I was like I never heard it you know job says it like this joke twenty-eight when I spoke it fell on them like rain that's that was my wrist at what happened to me I was like the entire service you literally have never heard anyone speak like that no hype not a good storyteller in those days not funny now Bill's funny now Bill's a good story I might not this is a long time ago not a good storyteller not funny not yelling and your sounds like and our church grew from 40 to 150 I mean you have to think like this is like revival right our church our city's only 3,000 people our church Lee holds 120 people if you sit people on the floor and one like people just packed into this little building listening to this man just talk about God as if God was his friend and I'm like this is where I'm supposed to be I mean here's if I have a point one here's point one there's something about being with the people you're supposed to be with and it's funny how the Lord can make know it's funny how the yeah oh no I just say it simply like the Lord has a way to get you there I don't think the Lord caused my nervous breakdown I don't think the Lord caused my demon visitations I don't think the Lord caused any of that stuff none of that stuff but it's amazing how he can use anything to get you at the right place and you know if I hadn't met Bill Johnson I'd still be in business students ask all the time like like did you have a vision for the kid me I had a vision for a shop with ten bays and Anna Anna Anna and a franchise of auto parts houses that's where I was going I had three auto parts Kathy and I had three apart stores and for repair shops I mean that's where I was going my grandfather was a mechanic you know you become what you think the most important person in your life thinks you should become and that was my grandfather he was the only man in my life who ever believed to me as a boy and I was walking his foot so and I was good at it I was good at you know fixing cars and building businesses I was really good at it and like this is what I'm doing I love doing that and I met bill Johnson I learn ously never wanted to do anything else in my life you know kids when they're 12 years old you say what do you want to do and they're like aha know you could ask me when I was eight oh my I'm gonna I'm gonna have a repair shop I'm gonna be a mechanic this is what I like I knew since I was a little boy like this is what I'm doing I was called to fix things people didn't even know me you go you're good with your hands like you you were supposed to fix stuff that's what I was good at and then I met bill and after Bill's first message to the truth I was already our youth pastor I didn't enjoy it but I like to serve Kathy and I we were called to serve and and when I heard bill the first time I'm like that's what I want to do the rest of my life I want to do that right there I want to do that right there can you teach me how to do that and I was so attracted to bill Kathy could tell you like I was so attracted to bill I was like I don't know who this man is but whoever he is I want to be with him like when I'm with him I feel alive I don't mean anything weird you know I'm just talking about like something something in me needs something in him and something in him I didn't say this in those days I couldn't wouldn't have known that but as an older man I say something in in him needs something in me and we just began to click and we'll grow together and I you know a year and a half later I came out of my nervous breakdown and in the middle of my nervous breakdown you know I was I mean fear was my demon it was my heroin I was afraid of everything hey I had paranoia Superbad paranoia I couldn't be in a car without rolling down the windows it could be snowing I think it rolled down the windows super bad claustrophobia and bill would say bill didn't even know any of that and bill let's say he did induced me go this is Chris valeton he's my friend he goes were angels fear to tread I'm like well that's calling things that are not as though they are that's for sure you know you find someone who believes in you right changes your life and people will believe in you once you're believable but not very many people will believe in you when you're not believable and so that man changed my life and we we we were together for a lot of years and then and then the story is that Bill moved and and that's a long story but the short part of it is he left Weaverville and and became the pastor of Bethel Church and Danny silk became our pastor I led Danny to the Lord I prophesied to Danny three months after he was that after he was a Christian that he would be the next pastor of our church Danny walked into our church after I hadn't seen him for a couple years and because our associate pastor was leaving he walked into our church just to visit just to say hi and I'm like hey you're supposed to be our associate pastor you're supposed to be the next pastor of our church Danny came on about a month later to be associate pastor and a month after that bill left it you should hear Danny tell a story it's not very funny dan he thinks he got tricked into being the pastor he's very cool so we were two years apart billon and Benny and Kathy and I bill was here and we were in Weaverville still with our building our repair shops and well you know I preached three or four or five times and we thought probably three times a week four times a week and we you know and when you're a small Church the elders do everything we were elders we did everything we had youth groups and you know deliverance groups and-and-and repossession groups and we had it all man and uh we just and so when bill and Benny left it was actually do you ever have a relationship where you need a break like I wouldn't have said it but when bill and Benny left like I think our relationship honestly needed a break not because we were like mad at each other but just because you know you just don't appreciate what you know what you have all the time you know that's two year break and then we my kids - Mike my my daughter and and my son-in-law we were leading a base in Colorado it was a why Wayne base and they asked bill to come and speakers during the renewal and Bill said why don't you come with us why don't you come with me and you can see your kids and we could connect again you haven't seen each other very much so we went to Colorado together it's like four feet of snow on the ground and we stayed in a cabin this little cabin you know why Wow Youth without money we stayed in this little cabin and we had this great ministry and again to make this story a little bit shorter I want to tell you about that but we had a great time ministering to them but we stayed in this little cabin for six days and it was a very little cabin it had a bathroom and and two twin beds and one twin bed like the bathrooms here one twin bed here and one twin bed here and there was no kitchen or anything just one it was basically one two rooms including the bathroom so in the middle of night I had to get up to go the bathroom till night and I would walk by Bill in the middle of night in his sleep he be saying Jesus I love you Jesus you're amazing in his sleep I need him to do that when I'm awake we've been a part for two years by the fifth day I got I was so wrecked I would lay in my bed and weep and so we the I think was five or six days we we flew home we flew to San Francisco and we're sitting and you know I don't know if you know Bill but bill don't talk like he's like a hermit I think Hermits talk he doesn't talk at all you can literally sit with Bill ya know it's been when you would drive for hours and if you don't talk you don't talk and when he does talk he's all huh that's good yeah I'm with you there it's like you don't keep the conversation going it's like driving with the brakes on so we're sitting we're waiting for the the little plane that goes ready and it's maybe we have this little layout or so we're having we're having lunch and I am wrecked like I am so afraid that if I say anything like I'm gonna say something's really stupid you know no you know this is something like I don't even know what I'm gonna say you know you ever just be so like you can't even raise your thoughts like I don't even know what's happening to me and so Bill's sitting there and and there's nothing happening we're not talking cuz I'm not talking and he never does so finally in the middle of the non conversation he looks up and said I want to start a school of ministry in Weaverville and I want you and Kathy delete it ready not me and I said okay and I think he's means you know like drive down Indians we're gonna have a night class so I'm like Oh sick so what day you want to do it he's like what do you mean what day I mean we're like we're gonna do this on Saturdays he's got no no I want you to leave your business and I want you to come start a school ministry and he goes and by the way I can't pay you because quote things are a little tight that's another story and I and in my heart like immediately my heart goes I was born to be with this man but I said I'll have to pray so we get home I walk in the house and you know Cathy you know we haven't seen the kids for months now so Cathy is like how are the kids you know how are they doing and I walk in hi honey how was your trip you know how are the kids am i fine I'm in love with a man wait I'm in love with a man she's like and I'm trying to get my composure back she say what what's wrong I'm in love of the man I was born to be with him this is a way before you know there was LTG be Tsz cute and she's like and so I explained to her the story but I'm in a bed in this in the in the in the cabin with this man for six days and I start telling her what happened and I said I was born to be with this man we were born to be with these people and my wife she's a very strong lady my wife is seems quiet but she's not a doormat and she's been with me since I was 15 and she said honey I asked one question and she said would we you know my wife's really particle-like what we can do their business I don't know well what are we gonna do it I don't know where we gonna live on how many idea I was born to be with this man [Music] I'll never forget this she said honey I've won I wanna would you I just want one thing I said okay that the Lord would talk to you the way he's talked to me that's the only thing that that seems very fair we're gonna uproot 20 years of business the house we built in the woods all of the dreams we have live in the woods well the next week she went to Morningstar you know one morning started with Joyner Morning Star Bob Jones I am [Applause] I'll tell you some stories tomorrow Bob Jones turned in be one of my spiritual fathers he still is when I go to heaven I see him all the time like I'm up there a lot [Laughter] so she goes the morning started for six days I think was seven days or something it was quite a long time and so every night we talked and every night I would say you know this Jesus talk to you no no no no no no it's the sixth day last day whatever six sevens whatever the last day was and you know and I'm like I'm heart for she is to like we're heartbroken like tell us no tell us yes tell us whatever but I'm in love with the man so on this I think the last day here ray Hughes is speaking and uh and he and he starts teaching like he does and then he he just puts the Bible away and says I'm not supposed to do this and then he says I just supposed to any starts talking about like coming down out of the mountains and going to Bethel there's some of you coming down all the mountains and going about there so Kathy calls me and she's like and she's on the floor weeping and while she's crying and older lady looks at her and says honey don't be surprised if what you heard isn't what he said she gets home of course we're all excited she gets buys the VC you remember the VCRs and remember the cassettes they go around and a little thing like this put him in there and we get the cassette we put it in fast-forward it he says I'm not supposed to be doing this and says nothing about Bethel nothing about mountains and she goes it's on the video I got the video we put the video in fast-forward just nothing about Bethel nothing about mountains and she honey I'm telling you he said you're coming down all the mountains and you're going to Bethel then she goes and when I was on the floor Allie said to me don't be surprised if what you heard isn't what he said so we'd go to Bethel that's another story sold our business the people we sold to multi-million dollar company we're gonna have a quarter of a million dollars to live on cuz Bethel had no money we get the Bethel where they're one month and the company we sold to went bank and took all of our stuff with them we lost our house we lost all four of our businesses we lost our entire crew and all we had was two old cars and our furniture that was it welcome to Bethel and we owed 1.8 million dollars and the Lord told us a week later we couldn't bankrupt I'm like cool we know what we'll be doing the rest of our lives and then we find out that Bethel has no money either a month after I was there I walk into the CFO's office and and and he's crying and I said Steve are you all right he said no I didn't know him I mean I knew him to say hi you know we're gonna staff meetings together I didn't know anybody but bill and I'm like what's going on and he had piles four piles he goes this pile is 120 days late this pile is 90 days late this pile is 30 days late and this is our current bills and we have a $40,000 payroll on Friday and we are overdrawn in our checkbook I said have you talked to bill he said yeah I just got out of there and he told me take $10,000 and give it to another Church best thing we can do is give when we're in trouble and he was crying and bill said we are a little tight a little tight I just want you to know like it isn't like all you know peaches and cream or whatever you like well we get to Bethel and we're there the first Sunday were there Kathy's there were there again lost our thing moved into a little apartment obviously incredibly tough time in our life and Bill introduces us and he says this is Chris peloton he's a prophet I never knew bill thought I was a prophet he's never used the word prophet around me he said this is Chris peloton he's a prophet he'll be the Bethel prophet now you know a prophet has no honor in his hometown but read who's not my hometown Weaver realized so all these people they've never seen me before it feels like he's a prophet really stuff what happened so people so I'm on staff now and and and I'm not getting paid I don't you pay for a year neither one of us and and staff members I had an office people staff members would come into my office who I don't know remember I don't know anybody except for Bill they stand in my doorway and confess their sins like you have to understand I had no idea why are they doing this like and there and I don't mean one I mean like they take turns I said in my door waiting like I know you're a prophet and I just you know I've had a struggle with pornography I just felt like I was supposed to come and tell you you know I don't want you to be like call me out and crowder no idea you had a problem with pornography too so so I'm like wow okay this is weird you know and I have really like specific words for the staff that I wasn't we know we always had prophetic ministry for 15 years and in a little mount Chapel we had prophetic teams prophetic ministry we'll talk about that another time but but this one not and so you know and I'm like made lots of mistakes in Weaverville like instead of a going-away party when we left we real they had like get out of here party now they love us but you know I mean we will talk about at some point you know so so I had all the staff like these 40 people who work for Bill is a very weird time anyway so what I'm they're like two weeks and we're building a prayer chapel now you have to understand we're building a prayer chapel by the word of the Lord not by money we're not paying our staff we're holding our payrolls we're not paying our suppliers and bill gets this prophetic word that we're supposed to build a prayer chapel which is totally bill bill is like he doesn't have any earthly like connection he's like frickin Moses we call him Moses he's not administrative he's not a builder people I feel as a builder like build no no no no it wouldn't trust bill with a hammer that would not be good no I mean obviously he's super talented but you get the idea it's like and he gets this he gets this prophetic word and a vision to build this prayer chapel and he draws it with it you know earth in the middle I'm lost you know worship has the earth in the middle and water flowing over it and it's got four sides north south east and west and it's got to put kill your you know heck would you call octagon octagon you know building any so he shares with the elders about this building and one of the elders says hey I'll be back I got to go home he goes home and he brings back plans for the identical shape with the earth in the middle octagon and Bill's like we're building this no money we're building this so I get there and there are right in the middle like they've you know they've like I think they've like cleared the land and it's $237,000 at the time and so you know so bill so we're in this meeting prayer meeting are you guys bored I'm so sorry like this so I'm sorry I told these stories for years but we're in this meeting prayer meeting I'm sorry prayer meeting before Sunday morning with all the staff right I remember I don't know anybody I'm Bill's friend and they don't really know like bill just introduced me as a prophet like what's a prophet like do we have but like is built is Chris gonna like it's gonna say prophet above the door like literally like people are like he's a prophet like is that a staff position prophet literally like we don't know like I'm like I have no idea like are you gonna like it's gonna I say I don't know I didn't know as a prophet till bill said I actually did have an encounter I'll tell you about tomorrow but so so what we're standing there praying and while we're praying you know 30 30 guys Muslims and I have this prophetic word so I lean over a bill who I have lots of confidence and bill knows me I know him and really well so I'm like had this prophetic word for you I want to give it to you in the permeance over he goes no just give it to me now I said no no no I want to give it to you when the prayer meetings over he looks over he goes give it to me I said okay the Lord told me that because you know we had a thousand people leave here our church split in half when we renew it when Bill embrace let me know and build this head like bill said I don't care if it's just me and Benny so I mean here it goes Moses no can just picture Benny in the front row and bill taking offerings you know like Bill's like I'm not changing I'm not changing the theme like we're gonna do God that's it no youth groups no home groups no nothing but Joe you know Nursery and Holy Spirit so a thousand people left and the Lord said this is the word because you did not deviate from the Commission I gave you I'm gonna raise the money for your prayer chapel all in one day as a sign that I am with you so have you ever prophesied something then you're like holy God moly what did I just do so you know so that right after that happened the anointing lifted and I'm like no have you ever had anything like that happen to you before I'm like you push sand then you were like come back so half an hour later the service starts I am terrified so I take my head and I put it underneath the seats during worship and they're worshiping you know around me and I have my I'm laying on my stomach underneath on my head's underneath the chair I'm like whole Holy Ghost Holy Ghost shout out on my Pentecostal and the worship gets over and Bill stands up and he to preach and I'm still under there about no no no no and I even turned Catholic I was like whatever works right now man lord please get me out of this mess you know and bill gets up and in his very like no you know emotional way shares about this prayer chapel and I figure out like he's gonna take an offering this morning and the ward was you can it's all going to come in in one day wait well I mean our offerings were like ten thousand a week at the most and we need two hundred thirty seven thousand and I'm underneath there and he's sharing and I don't know how long goes by it feels like forever then he said we're gonna we're gonna take an offering and I feel like what we're supposed to do is supposed to just come up and put the money on the stage and then we're gonna have people come and they're gonna have some folks come up and count it while you wait and we're going to add it up and then we're gonna tell you how much it is I'm like oh cannot get worse so I'm under there and I can hear you know you can hear people walking by like so when it was the offering time bill has people right and I hear people getting up and walking and then and then when that's all done bill said okay I'd like to have some folks come up about maybe five of you help count the money so and then he goes Chris I think you should help and I'm still under there in my I'm I shouldn't be counting so we count the money we're up there County I am so terrified we're counting the money we scooped it up in a little you know and words you know separating them into denominations and you know counting the money and in the and the account and Steve is adding him up on it literally on an adding machine he gets all done all the monies in and and you know he hits the total button and I had scraped up about fifteen thousand I said okay fifteen thousand times five boom board what's those short two hundred thirty seven thousand dollars and thirty seven cents came in that day and I'm like of course I are a prophet what's the problem I decree a thing and it happens GERD the death I'm just gonna I'm gonna land this plane now good the leaders are like good that plane needs to be landed I shared that story I feel like it's a great introduction for you and then tell that story for me because people are like I called to be a prophet but my pastor doesn't recognize me I'm called to be a prophet but my I'm in a denomination doesn't believe in prophets false prophets but not real ones thirty-five years earlier I was in the bathtub and I used to pray in there because truly because it was the only door that locked in our house and we had four kids and I'd sit in the bathtub clawfoot bathtub Kathy tell you and I would sit there for an hour while Kathy made dinner it was my break time afterwards so I got an hour to myself and then the kids were mine after that it was kind of our our tradition and I'm doing what I've done for years and years and years I'm in the bathtub and I'm reading my Bible and I'm praying it's nothing spiritual there's no stars no angels no singing and when I'm in there just a normal time with no feeling you all know what that's like Jesus walked through the wall never had it happened before since he walks to the wall and he's standing in front of me I would assume a vision but an open vision I see it with my eyes and he begins to say to me thirty-five years ago it was the year after my nervous breakdown was over he said to me many things stayed with me a half an hour and he told me about my entire life remember I'm just getting well from a nervous breakdown lots of things he said I've still never told anybody and when when the encounter was over I didn't tell my wife for a year truly because I didn't it was so precious I was afraid with where I had been I just didn't have the emotional strength for someone say that wasn't the Lord to be honest and the Lord looked at me and he said these are some of the things he said to me and I'm gonna tell you a few of them he said I've called you to be a prophet to the nation's you're going to stand before kings and presidents and prime ministers and mayors and governors and you are going to change the course of history and you were going to be like Daniel and you were going to lead Kings into the kingdom it was a long word and I laid there just like this in shock and the Lord turned to go in the vision and when he got to what would be the door of the bathroom he turned back to me and he walked back up to me and he looked in my eyes and this part I will never forget I could see the world in his eyes and he said to me history will tell us if you believe me he said to me history will tell us if you believe me and then he turned and disappeared in front of me history will tell us if you believe me it's 35 years before I came to Delta Church no I'm sorry that's not true it's 35 years from now it's 15 years before I came to Bethel Church before we came to Bethel Church no one had ever called me a prophet besides that vision no one had ever referred to me as a prophet and I carried this word for 15 years you know the first few months I'm like any day now Billy Graham's gonna call me actually the truth is I actually thought the President of the United States would call me I truly did now obviously you would all know that that's sort of waned after a couple years I'm like all right sort of the vision you know kind of waned and and the the the the inks of it the unction of it Wayne and years passed and when I got to Bethel I'd be walking through the hall and someone would again no one knows me someone would say hey you I don't know what this means but I saw you in the White House remember nothing for 15 years not a we'd have prophets come and they're like you're supposed to be in business this every prophecy I have is in business until I got to Bethel people say I saw you in the White House I saw you in the Capitol I saw you in the I saw you in the mayor's office and I remember like I wouldn't tell anybody I just keep it like Mary in my heart I didn't tell anyone like I know about this from 15 years earlier and my point entire point of my message people you know some of you many of you are in here and you're like God you had a god encounter like I know I have a big call of my life but my leadership doesn't recognize it and like between the promise and the palace is always the process if you figure out some way to get around the process and get to the Palestinian you're supposed to be you can't stay in the palace because it is the process to give you the character to stay in the past it's like you don't understand how frustrated in oh yeah yeah oh I understand how frustrating it and I'll tell you something else that I understand that you may not I understand how scary it is when someone introduces you as something that you never knew anyone else thought of and now you have to decide how you navigate favor because you go from no one knowing you to everyone thinks you're something amazing and gonna tell you something that is much harder than being unknown and Cathy could tell you I spent the next five years trying to figure out how the heck these people everybody thinks I'm supposed to do that can you you pray over me can you wave your hand over me can you touch me and anxiety began to come back because now people are putting pressure on you that you've never ready to yourself for and I have to spend the next six seven eight years to this day I'll just be totally transparent about four years ago the Lord elevated my place and every Sunday Ben knows I've told the whole staff like I have tons of anxiety like I I've never had social anxiety before but the pressure of people like I read your book I saw you and I just like I heard you did and it's like I I just me I'm just I'm just me I'm just the guy who wanted to be a mechanic like how did you build all this oh no whoa whoa whoa I have nothing in me that says I did this or bill and I did this or villain or the team to dislike what's happening here I have no idea how it happened look I understand how a thousand people got here I have no idea how ten thousand people got here I understand how we have 300 students in school I'm being totally honest and transparent with you I have no idea while we have 2,800 students this year I have no idea I don't even know what you're doing here they're earnestly don't like people show up like this I'm like what the heck it's the X Factor it's the X Factor you do what you do and when God's called you and when the time is right and when you find your people all of a sudden things happen you're like you scratch your head right people like you're so arrogant listen you can't be doing this in be arrogant like every night I go home and I mean I don't even there scam what these people are doing here you know a favor actually keeps you humble I am so excited you're here and if I could just end with anything I would like to say be patient hang in there a piece of the a piece of the thing that I didn't understand is enjoy the process sometimes you can be like when I get to the palace it's a it's a metaphor when I get to the palace life is gonna be so amazing I'm like you're gonna miss the joy of the process and having been the guy in the palace I'm like the palace isn't any better than the journey with Jesus like the palace is great but the journey is great too and I'll tell you the truth once you get to the palace sometimes you long you long for weaverville I can't tell you we've had lots of conversations lay awake at night tears and both were ice remember when life was simple remember when we can go in the grocery store nobody knew us nobody cared to talk to us the only thing people wanted to talk to me about is hey I got a problem my car and life was so much easier and the other thing is people hate you for no reason I don't they think you don't have feelings you're right terrible things about you it's like it like there's no truth and almost none of it and I'm like I say to Kathy all the time like they could write about true stuff in our life that's so bad they need to go to we reveal and interview people I grew up with like the stories are so much worse than what they put on there it's like but they can't do it because I write about myself before they get a chance to I'm gonna say terrible stuff weird stuff you know all we've ever wanted to do it's a truth we've got it wrong so many times but oh you really want to ever do is love Jesus that's all we've ever wanted to do and help people love Jesus is what we've done our whole life and sometimes you stand in front of people when you get it wrong and you're streaming and you don't get it right you don't practice your lines for you know ten hours before you speak it's all live no no editing and in an hour message people pick one thing out you said it's like oh my goodness do you know how long it takes to make one hour and a half movie eight nine ten months a hundred thousand shoots thousands of hours of film and we get up on the fly and share and hopefully get it all right um people scrutinize you and say things about you and people who hate you they don't even know you like how do you hate someone you don't even know and they they read your in your motives like the reason he did that like wow I don't even know what my motives are I'm glad you know them I bet you don't know your motives either you know why you did every good thing I don't even think like that I just moved forward but was this for me or for the Lord I don't know when at the end of the day when we get to heaven he's gonna go there's your pile and there's my pile whoa good thing there's someone there good thing there's something in your pile my pile looks so big till you put the fire to it and it's like wow pretty flammable stuff I built over there anyway can I pray for you would you stand please thank you for giving me an hour in 20 minutes donal have I ever done this in 14 years that message no in 14 years 14 times we've done this I think we've done this 12 times in 14 years actually I don't think I've I think I've told little pieces that story I've never made message out of it so you endured till the end and you shall be saved that's in the Bible I just pick them out just like that you see so I just said him just like bill can you put your hand on your heart you know the Lord values faithfulness I'm gonna say something I haven't thought through a bit probably close to being right I think the Lord values faithfulness more than he values any other single thing well done good and faithful servant let's say that's he values faithfulness at least as much as he values anything and I feel like I'm supposed to tell you that you're all really faithful but you're all you're already successful like you're not going to be more successful you're already successful the father really loves you and the favor of the Lord is on you I really mean like everyone who's supposed to be here in this room is here and the people who shouldn't hear this word they didn't come so this is not a group word this is specifically for y'all and the Lord says you're faithful and yours friend and that friends influence friends and listen to this and you're already successful you're already successful and I understand that you would love to have more success and by the way I would love to have more success too so no matter where you are in the journey if you love God you always want more I'm not talking about more stuff I'm just talking about you want more success in God but the Lord says you are already successful you are already successful because you're faithful unlike wood Danna was sharing about Jonah where Jonah did not do the word of the Lord you guys are doing the word of the Lord like you are faithful and I want to bless you as a father one of the things I've learned is that a father's blessing and I'd say a mother's blessing a blessing from an elder can be more powerful than anything anyone would articulate and I've learned what someone says bless you you don't just do it when you're sneeze when someone says bless me it can be a child I always say and I think it's always if I miss it's been very few times I always say I received that because I realized what's in a blessing you know if a Satanist came and said I curse you a lot of the people in this room would have anxiety because they believe it like oh what's gonna happen for witchdoctor in it in Africa said I'm gonna curse you some of us would have anxiety because we actually believe he has power do that but then we come into a culture of blessing and someone says bless you and you're like oh hi to you too and yet I think there's may may not even know it but they just released something like peace in the air like the disciples releasing peace and and I think it's important for us to go I receive that I'll take that for me and I'll take it for my kids and my grandkids and my great-grandkids because this isn't all about me and so I released blessing over you right now in Jesus name I released the blessing that Isaac gave Jacob I raised the blessing that Jacob gave Manasseh and Ephraim I released the blessing of the Lord over your life that Paul gave Timothy when he said I put my hands on you and I released a spiritual gift to you that you might be established and Lord I released a spiritual gift to every person in this room not just like a gift of prophecy or a gift of word of knowledge but the gift of favor and I stand as an example if God can do it for someone like me and I by the way I'm not an idiot I'm not a piece of junk but I'm also not the most intelligent person in this room and if the Lord can use me I believe he can use anyone in this room and I bless you with the favor that the Lord's put on my life and I release it to everyone all in Jesus name [Applause]
