[music] Hey guys, welcome back to the Bros. We're in the backroom of the sanctuary, where the conversation happens. We got a little bit of a different episode today, obviously we don't have John, we don't have Bill here today. They're usually, they're at the camp as, you know, we're recording this. When this comes out, they'll be home. So no need to worry about them, they're safe. We're here today with Sister Linda Greer, I call her Granny. You guys know her as Granny, she's been on the podcast before. She's been on episode 11 when we talked about why it's Halloween dangerous. And we've talked about, we've had her on episode 22 talking to Judas with Granny. You guys seen her before, we've been, we've had several different ministries tied up in different branches of ministry. We have the youth, obviously seen the Turner Family Band. And we have the Holiday City Refuge Church of God, which many of you know us from. You know Granny from the Holiday City Refuge of God. And she's here with me today. I'm wondering a little bit about some music stuff Granny. We talked last week with Sister Lee, and she was, she was, she's with a Turner Family Band. And we talked a little bit about how, when you came in, how much of an impact it made. And obviously with the things that were going on around the beginning of our ministry with the Turner Family Band. It was a little bit of a, a little bit of a different movement. Can you talk about what that, that was for you coming into that ministry string rather than just being in a church string. It was, it was a music string for you. Well, I love to sing. I love to play the piano. And I love the connection it has with, with the Lord. Right. And so when, when I joined in singing with the Turner Family Band and realized that people actually enjoyed hearing me sing. Seeing me sing, whatever. It was a surprise. But a wonderful surprise. And made me want to do it more. And made me want to share all the time everything I could. Because it seemed to be a blessing to people. I remember we talked about this last week with Sister Lee. There was a one episode, or not one episode, I'm calling them episodes. One video that they did, it was when Loria did a song, "Mate No Grave." And that song ended up blowing up figuratively. And it was reaching thousands of people that we've never seen before. Never witnessed our video getting that much recognition. And then when that happened, it was a little bit different. It was a little bit of getting used to seeing people get to recognize who we are. And then shortly after, you got to be on one of the videos with us. And, oh, I don't think I was part of that process yet. But you did a song, "Leave It All Behind." I think was that the first song you did? No, it wasn't the first song we did. But it was the first song that people really got a hold of and loved it. That song right there has been pulling people into this ministry. They see it, and they see "Leave It All Behind." That's the one song that everybody always asks for. It's either "Leave It All Behind" or one of the classic songs that you guys sing. Well, we sing a lot of classic songs. We don't sing a lot of new songs. Today, I sang a new song. I just wrote it and sang it. What was that? Oh, is it released yet? Yeah, it's on there. What happened was, I also have that Granny shares the Bible ministry. Oh, yeah. And we were reading about Abram, and he wasn't called Abraham yet, but it was Abram. And we were reading about how God was talking to him. And God was telling him about his covenant, what he was going to do for him. And Abram, the Bible says he believed in him, and it was counted for righteousness. But then Abraham asked him because God was talking about his seed. And Abraham said, "All I have is this Eleazar of Damascus. I don't have any children." And he was asking God, "Do you give me some children?" I mean, that's what he was doing. And because he'd already talked about Abraham's seed. And so after teaching that, I thought of this how it sounds unreal these days because we've gone through all those naming and climate and all the people that just say, "Well, anything you want from God you can just have." But it's almost like it's been a bit of a backlash where people are, they don't really ask God for what they really want. They don't. It's like, "Man, I shouldn't ask him for that." That's frivolous, I shouldn't ask him for that. And people have gotten where they don't really ask God for what they need. I mean, really ask him and believe that he's going to do it. And so that's what Abram was doing. He was saying, "Well, you know, if you're going to bless me, I don't have any children." And I need children, I don't want to leave everything daily as azer of Damascus. So Abram was asking God. And it just touched my heart and I sat down and wrote this song about my hands being open for you to hold, for you to fill up, fill. And Lord, I've just got my hands open for you. And so I just wrote it and then I put it on, turn the family band. It's a simple little song and it's probably not going to get thousands or millions of views. I don't know. All I know is that it made me like people call me up and they ask me to pray for certain things. And I don't have any qualms about asking God for what they need. But I wonder if they feel like they can ask him for what they need. That they can lift up empty hands and seek for him to fill their hands. I'm wondering if people feel like they're not worthy of asking themselves. Or they don't think that God will answer them. And when I ask God for people's help, I ask it for them. What I mean, it's like he died for them, just like he did for me. And I know a family that's, their finance is horrible. They're having a struggling time. And when I said, Lord, here's my hands. Fill them up with your will, what you want to give. You know, I imagined that family and imagined what they needed and imagined is, you know, really, I guess that's where you have faith is. You're imagining faith. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence. So not things not seen. And I imagined them, him putting that in my hands, their need. They need, they need God to let the Social Security Department give them disability. They need it. And so I was imagining him doing that, filling up my hands with that. After I sang that song, the song to me is, you know, it's not a great tune. It's not great words. But it was out of my heart that if Abram needed to ask God for things, and he was a friend of God, how much more do we that feel a lot farther away from him than probably Abram did? Right. But we need things, and we need to, he's the only source. It's not like, you know, we can go somewhere and ask for it unless he shows us to go to that place and ask it. But the only way, a lot of times, that anything like that we really need, the only way it really gets done is for God to move. And that's, you know, that's why I sang that. And that's where going back to enjoying doing the music, glad to do the music, is because it is a way of feeding souls, feeding people, feeding them with a song, feeding them with the anointing, feeding them with the words, with the music, and until, until their cup runs over. You know, and it does sometimes, sometimes somebody will listen to a song and they're shouting, and they didn't know they were going to shout. Right, right. That's where they heard that song. And boy, when they heard it, they sort of shout and goes, "Good help it!" They're telling you, and that's what's so great about being able to sing and play and feel the music, feel the songs. That's why I think, I feel like the Lord is present with me more when I'm listening to music, and I feel like he's really ministering to me through the, and not always through the words. Sometimes it's just the instruments that's being played because of the such an anointing that the people that have that are playing those instruments. And it's important, very important, just like the turning from a band has been really, even the instrumentals, people are listening to that and getting blessed by it. I was talking to Bill about some stuff about, you know, he's having a hard time with some things, and I talk to him about, you know, if you're really asking the Lord, and this is out of my understanding. Because sometimes when you're asking for things, you don't know how to respond to the moving of God. Sometimes it's a little bit of a halt. For me, sometimes I just go to the drums and I start playing the drums because that's where I normally feel the moving of God. But sometimes it's not there. But I was telling Bill that if you feel like the Lord is moving on you to get on that instrument, to play, there's somebody out there that needs to hear that instrument to play for them to get a blessing because the Lord is moving through it. Sometimes the Lord will move to that instrument through you for having that anointing to play, and the Lord will bless you and the other person that's listening to it. I think music is very important with ministry because without that it would be a pretty boring world around, you know. That's I have a pillow that Sister Debra's mom gave me, and it says life without music would be flat, would be flat. And it's a B flat, life without music would be flat. And it would, and I was thinking about you, about some of you don't know about how Brother Jose plays the drums. And some of you do, but in our church we know that the drum playing is anointed. And the way we have learned that it was to begin with was when Brother Michael was alive, and he would sit right by the drums, and when a song would really get to him, he would start playing the drums with Brother Jose. He'd be playing him. He would bless me so much too. You knew that he was hearing that anointing flowing through you, and it was blessing him because he is playing the drums with you. I remember, distinctively, we were playing a song, and I felt the Lord move through me, and I was playing a little role on the drum set. And as I'm playing that same role, I see Brother Michael in the corner of my eye, he's sitting right in front of the drum set, and he was rolling the same exact role that I was playing. And as soon as I saw that, I felt like the Lord blessed me so much there is. The Lord blessed him too. It was so good. He felt the anointing when you were playing, and I'm sure that just made you want to play just that much better, but much harder. Right. So music blesses us, and music blesses the people that we're playing for. Talking about Bill, I remember a time that we were in a revival. Some kind, I don't remember exactly where it was. But he was playing at the altar, and I thought he was there playing at the altar, and I was just going on praying for people and everything. All of a sudden, it was like something just got up and moved. You know, like something happened. And I went, "Well, what was that?" And then I looked up and there was Bill on that bass. I mean, it was like it moved. The Spirit of God moved. He got on that bass. I'm telling you, he got on that bass and the Spirit of God began to move in the altar. And so when you talk about, "Well, he should play at the altar," or whatever, just be led of the Lord, Bill. Just be led of the Lord, because it isn't just you playing. It's the spirit of the Lord moving sometimes. It's the anointing that we're giving into. The anointing of God is moving through us. It's allowing other people to be blessed by it as well. But Pappal was such a blessing to me, man. Just seeing how the Lord moved on him. There was a time, I don't know how it'll go here, but there was a time, right before he was really, really that sick. And he was getting sick. But at the time when he was feeling his wrist, his pulse, and he was in that chair. And it looked like he was getting tired kind of like about it passed out. But I was just worried so that because usually he's playing the drums with me and playing the air drums with me. And then I looked over at Sister Lee, and I saw her. It's so an emotional state that she was praying as she was playing. And then all of a sudden, while the music is playing, and this is just the Lord moving, I felt like the Lord told me. I forget the exact words he said, but believe it, oh, all that little faith, believe it so that I can do all things. And then as soon as he said that to me, Pappal just jumped up, and he started shouting. He started jumping, and you know, it was a Pappal shout. It was just him shouting around. And it lifted me up so much to see that because he was just literally feeling his pulse. Like he was, you know, going to go to sleep. Like his heart was slowing down. And it lifted me up so much that no, the Lord still can move. The Lord still can do things. It doesn't matter the condition that people are in. It's am I willing to believe that he can and he will. And Pappal always believed. He knew that Lord had shown him that he wasn't going to recover. He did. But he knew that the Lord was going to help him because the sign on our church says helped and kept. And he preached that message. That's why it's up on all in our church. And he knew the Lord was going to help him. He knew the Lord was going to keep him just as well as all of us. And the day that, actually the day that he went home that night, people had come over and everybody was praying for him. And he couldn't get up, but his feet were going like this. He was dancing on that dance and sitting there. You know, he was, he was filling the Lord. But he, God used him to help our church get started. I don't know if everybody knows about that. Maybe I ought to tell it. Go ahead and tell it. When we got, when we moved up here from Arcadia, we moved up here because Pappal was in trouble. Brother Michael was not Brother Michael. He wasn't saved. And he was in trouble. And he had gone away from where we lived in Arcadia and come back here to Bartow where his mother lived. And then he had called me and me and Lee came up from Arcadia to be with him. And so we went, that was right around New Years in 1989. And we had a revival in the church that we were going to. And I asked the Lord, I said, "Lord, if you're dealing with Michael, let him come in and start getting ready without me asking him to go to church." Before he would never go to church. Oh, no. Never did. Oh, no. Well, once in a while, if they had food, he would. But not to go to church. Exactly. Yeah. Not to worship. He'd come to eat some food. But that day, he came in and started getting ready. And he went to church with me. And I'm not sure if it was that day or the next. I can't remember that because it's been a long time ago. But he was sitting in the church and it had been an altar call. And the Lord spoke to Michael and said, "I won't call you again." That's a scary thought. That's what he said to him. "I won't call you again." And when he had his eyes closed, when he heard that in his mind, and it was the Lord speaking to him, and he knew it was the Lord. You know, I don't know if he'd ever heard the Lord speak him before, but he knew that was the Lord. And a man was standing in front of him and said, "Do you want to go to the altar?" He said, "I guess I do. I think I do." So he got up and he went, he could have walked out, you know. But he didn't. He got up and he walked down to the altar with the thought, "I'm going to make a deal with God." That's what I thought too, yeah. We'll make a deal with God. That's the kind of man he was. And so he got down there to make a deal with God, and when he got down to the altar, all of a sudden, the Lord just opened his mind to how he had treated me, how he treated Lee, how he treated his family, and everybody's friends. And he saw himself, and he didn't want to be like that anymore. And he asked the Lord. He said, "If you'll help me, I'll serve you." That was the beginning of that covenant between him. Yes, he did. He helped him always, and he served him always. He had to get loose from, well, he smoked for a long, long time. He had to get loose from that, the Lord delivered him from that, from alcohol, from drugs, from everything that he once did, and moved us back here and moved us to Highland City, and all around us was that. I mean, next door, next door, next door, next door, all of it was drugs, and alcohol, and partying, and all the things that Michael had always been smoking, smoking pot. All the things that he'd always been involved in before that, here he was right in the middle of it. But God knew what he had done. He knew what he had done in his life, and he did not go to it. He didn't hang around it. He didn't go to it. He was so thrilled. And when I used to pray for Michael, I'd say, "Lord, he'll love you if you're saving." That's what I'd tell him. He'll love you if you're saving, and he saved him, and he loved him. There was a time when I remember him saying there was a tobacco pipe with tobacco that he had, and the Lord showed me to throw it out. As soon as he threw it out, he went to go turn around to go look where it was. But the Lord said, "Exactly. I'm not sure." But he said, "Don't look left. Don't look right, and don't look back." He said, "Just keep going forward." And then he wanted to look back and see where it fell out so he can go back and get it. But then he just kept on driving. That's because the devil spoke to him. He said, "You can't live without that." Yes, that's what he said. The devil told him as soon as he threw it out. "You can't live without that." He started to look back. But by the time he made a couple of miles to his mama's house, he was delivered. He never wanted it anymore. And he had smoked since he was a boy. But God delivered him. And God delivered him from drugs. God delivered him from alcohol. God just made him a new creature. So when he got saved, I was looking around to see where my husband was. Because he was such a new creature. It was, "Where is he? Where is my husband?" It's like, "What's wrong?" No, not what's wrong. Well, it was right. But it took me a while to get used to him being saved. I mean, it was so great that the Lord did that for him. But you know, Brother Michael also was involved in music. He always wanted to make a CD or make a recording. He was in the bluegrass, right? He loved to play. He loved to play the mandolin. He loved to play the guitar. And he loved to sing. And we've got a recording of him singing with us. And we've got it on our online things. People can get it. It's called Rejoice. What was it called Rejoice? No, that's our new one. That's a new one. This one was old-time religion. Old-time religion. Anyhow, that's on there. But Michael had a different kind of voice that I loved. I loved to hear him sing. And he loved to sing. And so it was all of us, you know, for a long time. But our church, we just were small for a long time. We didn't do anything online. And then right before he died was when we got started for the Turner Family Band and everything we've done since then. And so God helped us to go through losing him by having this outlet. It helped us to be like Lee started a song a day. So it helped us to have to do, you know, you're already committed to do it. And if you know anything about our family, God has to say stop for us to stop. Once we get started doing something, he has to say stop. Because we won't stop unless he shows us. Because to me it's so important to be faithful to what he wants us to do. So four years ago, more than four years ago, we started singing a song a day. And we keep doing it. And some days we go, I don't know what song we're going to do. Today I had the right one. But you know, there's plenty of songs to do. But I'm just saying, you know, after a while you've sang a bunch of what you know. And of course there's... Press me with a song a day, 1500 songs. And there's songs way back there that nobody listens to anymore. So we could... Go back to them and do them again. Yeah, sing them again. But anyhow, it's been comforting to sing. It's been comforting to minister. To all the people we get to. You know, it's taken the hardness off of losing him. It's been better. Because we had the opportunity to do this. And sometimes the Lord gives us those songs that help us to remind, to remember those days. Because I was on the road to... I don't know if Lee's Burger or what, we were trying to... we were going to a baby shower. And there was a bluegrass station that just randomly popped up on the radio station. Because Netta is a van. The way the radio works is that you put it on one station and all of a sudden it switches it by itself. Because I guess it's a sticky button or whatever. We'll play Joy FM and randomly go into another station and have to keep it in 106.1. While I'm driving up there, it changed by itself and it was a bluegrass station. And I recognized one of the songs. So I was just like, I looked at it to see what station it was. And I saw it and it never changed. And I was just like, I heard a song that Pat Ball usually always sings. I don't remember the name of it, but I remember one of the parts of the song without the tune. Obviously, I can't sing very well. I said, no clouded day, no clouded sky or something like that. I forget what it was. It was an old... It was a redback in the song that it was. But... ♪ Oh that land of cloudless day ♪ That's the song right there. ♪ Oh that land of an unclouded sky ♪ That's it. That's where it is. And I heard that song. And it put Pat Ball in my mind and it really just helped me remind me. And it was like a bittersweet because the song was talking about the place he was. But it also reminded me of how he used to play that mandolin. Because the mandolin was just playing back there and it really blessed me. But yeah, the Lord does that to us. It just gives us those songs to help us remember and to bless us. It was really good. Music is such a... Well it transports you. And it's not supposed to... I mean I know that all kinds of music can transport people into different moods in their lives. I'm not trying to say it's only gospel music. And I don't mean transports you in the way of losing your mind over it. But it causes you to worship the Lord in ways that you'd forgotten you could do. The music helps you to be able to worship him. And like David, the Bible calls him the sweet psalmist of Israel. And David played that harp and Saul was helped when he played it. And the devil was on him so hard and the music just helped him to get well from it. And so that's really what the Lord I think wants to do with music for all of us. He wants us to lose sight of all the troubles and the cares sometimes. I remember a long time ago we sang this song, "Forget your troubles, come on and get happy." I already know if it's a gospel song. But I know that sometimes that's what music does. It helps you to forget your troubles. You come on and get happy. You just chase those blues away. You feel better. You're helped. And I hope we can still keep doing this. I hope we can keep doing it where people are actually moved away from their troubles and moved into a place of communion with the Lord. We're not really different than a lot of the mood. I don't know how to describe it because I don't know what it's called. But there's praise and worship songs where they sing all over and over and over the same lines and stuff like that. We're not that. We don't do that. But I don't even know if we do it at all. I'm just saying, there's songs in the hymnal that instruct you at the same time they thrill you. So I talked to Sister Li last week about that too. I said, there's some songs that will be on repeat. It seems like they're just, and the Lord does it sometimes too with the music that we play in the church. Or it will be a certain part of the song that's just juicy as far as the worship goes. But then there's some songs out there that like set a fire down to my soul that I can't contain that I can't control. It literally just keeps on playing that whole thing over and over and over. I don't even know if there's verses to that song. But that song is designed to get you to almost cry. But there's not a power in that song because it's just an emotional song. But when you have a song that is like that one song, Go Crowded Day. It's a song that has a promise in it. That song that you can look to and like you said, it has instruction in it. There's the scriptural based that can get you. It's power. There's power in it. And that's the difference between hymnal, a song that is based in scripture, a song that is based in power versus a song that is emotionally going with making you want to sit there and melt because you're thinking about a fire or something like that. And it sounds a little bit like cliche or whatever. The power behind the songs is really important to me. I will never take that away from anybody when you're singing that song, when it has scripture, when it has the Lord's promises in it, in a future. It's amazing to listen to those songs. It is. We have them all though. We don't really have to do a lot of picking and choosing because we have them all. And I just thank God for all the songs that He's given us. There's one song that I wrote that I'm just going to bring it up. It was after Michael died and I was going through some really hard places. And I sang this song and I wrote it because of the hard place I was going through. And it says, I want to go with you. That's what I want. And all of it, all it was was thinking about the Lord coming and all of this trouble that I was having and trying to just get my mind off the trouble and put my mind on going with us, just going with Him. I think that if we could get past, and it's about everything, about politics and everything else, if we could get past a lot of Christians, all of us Christians, could get past our being so absorbed in all the troubles that are going on today personally and in our country nationally and in our neighbors and everybody else's lives, we could somehow come loose from a lot of those troubles and just consider how close we are to the Lord's coming. And just want to go with Him. If nothing gets solved, if everything is just as big a message as it's been, just I don't care what matters to me, I want to go with you. That's all I want, I want to fly up in the air and go with you. Yes, I want to go with you. And you consider that, brother Jose. Me and you sitting here, I'm sure you got cares and troubles. You wouldn't mind leaving. Right, that's the truth. You wouldn't mind leaving them at all. I just want to go with you. And I feel like if us Christians, I think that's what's really happened to me lately. It's like, yes, I've got things I'd like to happen. I've got people I know that need to get saved. I've got other things ambitions maybe about what we could do and all that can be done. But yes, I want to go with you. I want to see what you look like Jesus and I want you to grab me with you. If you've never had, and some of us women know this, you're a man so you probably see it differently. But if you've never had, it's kind of sentimental, but if you've never had a man wanting you to be with him all the time, I'm feeling of a man wanting to be with you all the time. That's where it was with me and Brother Michael, he wanted to be with me. And if I left, he would say, "Oh, please don't leave me." He would say that because he wanted to be with me all the time. And that feeling of somebody wanting you, and that's what's going to be like when the Lord comes. If we've lived with him daily, day in and day out, we've lived with Jesus and he's lived with us. And finally, he gets to come and take us home. I want to go with you. I don't want you coming and going and leaving me. I want to go. And that's all I want. I think that's a lot of the thing to do with you reminiscing all that stuff too. There's a more precious reason to go. And not taking anything away from Jesus because Jesus is the man you need to go. He's going to take me to Brother Michael and he's going to be my brother. He's not going to be my husband. But can you imagine a brother, I'm talking about the deerness of a brother that's gone. We went through life together and now we're brother and sisters. There's no nagging wife syndrome or stubborn husband syndrome. None of that stuff. There's just brotherly love, sisterly love. Because all there is is love. I know. And just him coming and saying, I want to show you around. I've been up here for over many years. It's been four and a half, about four and a half. Look at my bluegrass corner. I know, let's go to that bluegrass corner. We'll get you on that piano and I think you can play just right for us. All I know is, oh, I want to go with you. The many treasures that get up to heaven. You mean Sister Alice Henson? My mom, I'm a daddy. And I mean my daddy, he couldn't have gone if God hadn't got a hold of him on his deathbed. But God did. I mean, I've said this before, that when I get to heaven, I'm going to be the, you did it woman. I'm going to have wings, because I'm going to fly. I'm going to fly across the sky. I've got to get you done in this podcast one day. I'm going to fly through the air and I'm going to say, you did it. You did it. And everybody, I'm fly across it. Looks like they weren't going to make it, but they did. I'm going to say, you did it. You did it. Oh, man. Would that be wonderful? That'll be amazing. God. That'll be so amazing. Oh, nobody else might want to hear it, but I think God will. I mean, for me, there's people I know that once they make it, it'll be a relief. Yes. Because they were living a life that was heading in the direction of hell. Yes. And there's plenty of people out there that know that they've had some people. I'm not sure, a lot of people, but there's some people that've had that near-death experience, that's changed their life for the better. And whenever the Lord spoke to them, when it changed them, and when they went to heaven to meet the Father, they were so happy. I'm pretty sure. Oh. Oh, it was not. We talk about my daddy. You want me to talk about him? My dad, he was called, "Wow, Bill." Bill's got several people he's named after, but this one, this one, this one, this bill part came from my daddy because he's a lot like him. But he was called, "Wow, Bill," and he was a cowboy for a long time. He came from Pennsylvania, in Reading, Pennsylvania. It was like a city built in a bowl, and that was anything like him. He ran away because he didn't live that life, and he came down to Florida and became the Florida crackers, a cracker of all Florida crackers, because he loved going fishing in streams, and he loved walking across the pastures, and he loved riding his horse across the pastures and finding cows, and anyhow, he was a very wonderful to me, a wonderful daddy, but he didn't want to serve the Lord. He wasn't saved. And one day, I was up on the main street of Arcadia, and it was a time they had some kind of thing where everybody was out on the street doing whatever they do, and we had a piano out there, and I started singing "How Great Thou Art," and I sang it as loud as I could, and it echoed all down the streets of Arcadia. I knew you could hear me singing down every street. I knew it. Well, I'm singing it because I thought, "You know, this is giving glory God in this old town of Arcadia that's always kind of been a rough town, and I'm singing "How Great Thou Art," and I see my daddy coming down the street. He's way down the street when I see him coming, and he's walking, walking, and I'm over here on this side of the street. He's walking on the other side of the street, and he's watching me, and he's looking at me like, "I can't believe it, I can't believe it." You know, he's just walking down the street and watching me, and he goes on, and I keep singing it, and he goes on, but that was one of the most wonderful experiences I ever had, because everybody in the town knew that I was Bill Stewart's daughter, and he looked at me like he was so puzzled that I could do that. So, I'm real to him that I could do that. You weren't playing a piano. I was. So, you were playing a piano? I was playing "How Great Thou Art," and I was singing it to the top of my lungs. I was singing it just as well, just as strong as I could, huh? You knew how to play piano. Oh yeah, I played the piano since I was 12. But I mean, he knew that I sang in church, but he didn't expect me to be on the streets of Arcadia singing, where you could hear me all up and down the streets. That's she? My dad. In a different town. Oh. My daddy. Well, that's where we lived. Right, right, right. That's where we lived in the Arcadia. But what I'm saying is that in that town where it wasn't really, you know, it wasn't really, it didn't really happen, you'd do like that. No, that didn't happen. That's like being over here in Holland City and doing that here. Right, and everybody hearing it up and down the streets. But this was a town, this wasn't like our town here, this was a town with a main street and stores all up and down it. And I had no idea that my daddy would be coming when I started singing How Great The Arc. I had no idea, but I saw him and I saw him watching me while I'm singing and looking at me like, I can't believe it. Might have drawn him, that's what it was. It was one of the most wonderful days to me because my daddy was lost. And I don't know if you have time for me to tell this. Got time? Okay. Let me tell you, I went to his house one day and he and this man, they had a table outside his house. And you know, like a lot of people do when they have one of those burn piles, they sit around it and talk. Well, he had a table. And they sat around it and drank and talked. And so this man that was with him, when I got there, I parked my car there and I sat on the hood and talked to them. And of course, I'm always looking for a door to talk about the Lord. And so, you know, I was kind of fishing around for that opportunity. And this man said, I'll tell you what, and daddy was sitting there listening, he said, if you can tell me the answer to this question, you can tell me everything you want to do about the Lord. You can tell me anything and everything you want to tell me about the Lord. I said, oh, okay. What's the question? So he asked, what is the most common name in China, past name in China? Brother Jose. It might not have been the day before, but maybe the day before, the day before, I just read that. You know, that was God right there. It was. I just read it. And I believe it's Chang. I can't remember if that was for sure it, but I think it's Chang. And I said... I'll be at that point, that time. Is it Chang? He was upset. But daddy was sitting over there looking pleased. And see, daddy wasn't quite drunk, but that man was drunk. So I started talking about, oh, I knew about Jesus, about him coming to die on the cross and save us because he loves us and because God loved us so much he sent him to us and that we could be saved if we'd repent of our sins. And I mean, I just told everything I could possibly think of because I wasn't telling him. He is about passed out. That's telling my daddy. And he was listening. He was. Because he was so pleased that I had done that. And the right answer. He knew you were smart. He just knew I had the answer. You know, I just had read it. The Lord did that. But then this is the reason that I know my daddy's saved. When he died, he lay down a bed, I guess to take a nap or something, and somebody found him dead later. So it wasn't like I got to talk to him or anything like that before he died as far as about Lord. But so I didn't know, you know, I didn't know if he'd gotten saved. I hoped because brother Jose, I had really prayed for him. How far after this conversation with this person, was it that he? Probably several years. And several years of me talking to him, he said, "Linda, I can't change." That's what he said. He always said, "Linda, I can't change." And so, but what happened was we had a prayer meeting at our church many years after he died. And I didn't know whether he made it or not. And we were praying a different way. We prayed for each individual request as it came in. I remember. You remember? And then the last one I asked for prayer for my brother and sisters. Because they weren't serving the Lord or weren't close. And so I asked that, and when I did, and I got down to pray, I heard my daddy. He said something like, "Yes, I want them saved to something like that in my mind." And when he said it, he was just like me. He had the same mind. Mind of Christ. He had the same way of looking at things. As I do, I knew he was saved, and I knew he had made it to heaven. There was a mental image that you gave us about what he was doing in your mind when you looked up at. I remember you saying that he was worshiping. Was that how it was? I can't remember that part. I'm glad you reminded me of that. There was a part in church where you said that he had his heart opened up, and he was worshiping as you had that recollection. And then when that happened, it made you really want to do the same thing. You were like this, and then you did the same thing that he did. It was a mental image that in my mind that showed somebody really like. Hallelujah. There's a thing that people do when, so there's this thing in poverty, Brother Don, I've talked about where people when they're in the church, they have this thing where they put their hands down like this to release everything that in their life they want to let go of, and completely empty out everything that does not belong in there, and then they open up with their hands opened to receive from God. And that was the position that you showed, that you said that he was in your mind. Oh, I had forgotten that. Yeah. I remember that. I remember that. I just knew he was in the same mind that I was in, and when he talked to me, it was no longer you're a Christian, you're trying to get me saved, that it wasn't that anymore. It was in the same mind, same accord we were, and he was glad that we were praying for his children. Wow. So, I mean. Heart opening. Yeah. Hands up. Yeah. Daddy. Yeah. And so that's why I say I go there, I'm going to see him, and after he died I didn't know if he was saved or not, and I cried many days until finally I just woke up one day, and I just said it doesn't do any good, so I quit crying, because he meant so much to me. Yeah. I remember, I don't remember this, but they say this. That when my brother was born, I was four years old when he was born, and we were in a wreck, and taking him home from the hospital, and I was looking back at him as before seat belts. And I was in front seat looking back at him, and we had a wreck, and my eye flew to the windshield and cut the back of my head pretty bad, and they took me to the hospital, and this is what they say about me. I was four years old, and I don't remember it. They said, you can hear me all over the hospital saying, I want my daddy, I want my daddy. All over the hospital they're hearing this little girl's voice going, I want my daddy, I want my daddy. And you know, that's what the Lord, he heard, he answered, he's in heaven waiting for me. So you know when I say I want to go with you, that's what I want. But I also want to be here, as long as the Lord wants me to be here, I want to sing every song the Lord wants me to sing, I want to preach every message the Lord wants me to preach. I want to see you blue, I want to still build blue, I want to see, I want to see, I've already seen the Lord really changing dawn, and brother dawn, and helping Sister Lee, I mean I'm seeing things that it's amazing that God is doing, but you know I'm 75, I don't know how much longer I'm going to be here, but if he comes, we'll all go. Right. Well I'll go, remember that day, this is a, we were doing a balloon release, and we were outside, and we just let the balloons go, and it was like we were doing the rapture, and every one of us were in a different part of the yard, and we just let go of the balloons, and we watched them all go up, and they ended up going together, they ended up clustering together, and going up, and then a sister Annie said that she said, that's how the Lord's going to do it, he's going to draw us out of where we are, and we're all going to go up together as a unit. I might be at work, you might be in a nursing home, or someone might be at work, but then you're all coming. Brother Michael's in the grave. And we all go up together. Amen. And it's that glorious day. Hello, you know I want to go, and I'll tell you something, do not forget that he's coming. Right. We're doing things, but do not forget there's a goal. Right. That is the goal. See, I've had a hard time keeping my mind focused on the Lord for a very long time, and before, and obviously before when I had the ADHD, and it was hard for me to focus on anything, you know, and the Lord would sit there and say, are you thinking about me? You know, keeping me in your mind, and even in church services where sometimes you get convicted. Are you thinking about the Lord's coming? And the answer would be like, no, I have so many things in my life that I'm worried about. I don't think about the Lord. I should. But when the Lord filled me with the Holy Ghost that night, ever since, all I could think about is the Lord. All I could think about is Jesus. All I could think about is the Holy Ghost blessing me every time I get a chance to get a blessing from God. It's just, how do you, how do you not think about the Lord when you are blessed that much, that, you know, like every day I work, ever since, all I could think about is the Lord. All I could think about is Jesus. All I could think about is the Holy Ghost falling down in our church and blessing every single one of us. And every time I talk to Bill, I think about the Holy Ghost. All I'm thinking about is, I don't know how you can go. Now you're just a vessel, now you're a vessel, and you are responding as a vessel because you're letting him get up in all in the parts of every part of you. And I know there's going to be times where, you know, these cares in this world will get inside. No, you don't. I mean, there will be. There will be. I'm being granny to you now. Be granny to me. But I'm saying-- You don't know. There's going to be times like that. Okay. There doesn't have to be times like that. There won't be--I don't want to do the times. You take it--when it's a care, you take it to the Lord because He said, if there's anything that's going to make you stay here when He comes, it's going to be you being bowed down with the cares of this life, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the things that are going on in this world. The pride of life. Yeah. Well, those kind of things. Right. And I'm trying to think of the Scripture exactly. I didn't bring my Bible. But He was just warning us to not be bogged down with the cares of this life. And that's why God sent the Holy Ghost. The top of the Holy Ghost in the Old Testament is that Eliezer of Damascus, the one Abraham spoke of, I think, what was His servant, He sent him to get Rebekah. So Rebekah did not have to find her way to Isaac by herself. We do not have to find our way to Jesus, the bridegroom by ourselves. The Holy Ghost has been doing that. We got the Holy Ghost helping us to find Him. He is not a long way off. He is staying in the same caravan, you know, up ahead is Eliezer. Here's Rebekah, here's all her little maids coming behind her, but here's all His men, but He's staying close because He's guarding her because she's the bride. He's bringing her to the bridegroom, and the Holy Ghost is guarding us. He's guarding us, He'll help you, and He'll bring you all the way. And so when you feel the cares of life trying to take a hold of you again, brother, look ahead to the Holy Ghost, you know, I'm depending on you, and I got my eyes on you. I know that's definitely been a lot easier with the Holy Ghost and being completely delivered from ADHD and not having to worry about, you know, distracting or anything. Tonight, in prayer meeting, I mean, there was no distraction there either. I mean, it's just the Lord just been really helping me and just keeping my mind on Him. I wish everybody that this podcast or everybody that, you know, comes to our church and everybody that I meet would, I wish that they all get the Holy Ghost because everybody that has these cares in this world, everybody that has troubles that they go through, I feel like the Holy Ghost would be the answer to, you know, to keep thinking on the road and not worried about the cares. You know, it just, these cares are nothing. They're just worldly cares. And there are things that when you ask the Lord, happy with Him. He takes care of it. Yes, He'll do that. He takes care of it. He wants us to ask Him. You know, I don't, I, the boldness that the Holy Ghost gives us has been a blessing as well because just praying for somebody just because they've asked or said something about them. Like, I've got a headache. The boldness is go up to them and just pray for them right there and then at the spot, you know, just to pray for them. It's the Lord just gave me that. Neda said when we were going to church Wednesday night, what was it Wednesday night? Yeah, no, it was Sunday night. I told her I said that you're going to church tonight because you're still laying around. And we're getting ready to go. And she said, I've got this really bad headache. Well, as soon as she said that, I put my hand on her forehead and I just said, headache, you got to go. And the name of Jesus, you can't stay, you know. And I said, I believe the Lord to take care of it. And I told the kids, you know, they're tired. You all get the rest. The Lord's going to help you. And the Lord has delivered. And Neda is not having that. It was the heat exhaustion that she was feeling. But the Lord delivered her from that. And she's not having to deal with that. The Lord couldn't heal her. And I believe because of the faith and the boldness that we have to do as the Lord showed us to do. And it's, I wish everybody had the Holy Ghost to be able to do that. That's what I want. Well, when I preached Sunday about it being the living water that he offered that woman at the whale. Just had to ask for it. Yes. Yes. And the fact is she wasn't even saved. She was a centerwoman. And the Lord was saying, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that said to they give me to drink, you would have asked of him and he would have given you living water. He's offering her the Holy Ghost. But then later on in John chapter 7, it says that he was speaking of that living water. But he was speaking of the Holy Ghost, which was not yet given because he had not yet been crucified and rose from the dead. But he still meant that if you ask him, you can have that living water. And I honestly feel like that somebody that the Holy Ghost can enter has to be somebody that really loves God. You know what I mean? He knew, he knew her. He knew that maybe she had lived in sin her life in her life. But he knew that she loved him. She knew that she loved God. I believe there's people in this world that are lost or are not saved. But they're down deep. There is a love of God in their hearts. They want to know him. They would love to have the Holy Ghost. They would love to have the strength to live for God that they don't have. And that's where the strength comes from. Jesus washes us in his blood and his blood makes us clean and gives us strength too. But then when you receive the Holy Ghost, you have power in your life. And that power will help you to be all that God wants you to be and will help you to have your mind clean and focused. So I don't know what's ahead about this living water, but I felt it the other night when people were praying around the altar really praying earnestly. Just say it like you did. You had to get to a certain place where you were willing to just accept anything God would send you. And I guess that's what a lot of that really seeking God hard for the Holy Ghost is. But see my experience is the Holy Ghost filled me the day I got saved. I wasn't praying for him. I was just praying. And Brother Langford laid his hand on me and suddenly I began speaking another language that I did not know. And I knew I was filled with the Holy Ghost because I've been raised in it all my life. I knew it was, I knew. But I, oh, it wasn't like, well, that's just the Holy Ghost. No, it was like, I'm filled with the Holy Ghost. But that was there, that was, there was a love for God. And there was a true mind of worship. Yes, desire. Every single person that I've talked to about the Holy Ghost, that is the, that's how it's just common numbness. That's what it tested. You have to have. For God and the mind for worship. I can, I've asked for the Holy Ghost 14 years. And it just seemed like it just kept on getting like bird. The burden became heavy to the point where I couldn't, I couldn't bear anymore. And I felt like I was too much to ask for. And then it felt like I wasn't the one that was going to get it. And it made doubts that the devil would sit there and spew lies to you that you're not worthy enough to have the Holy Ghost. But then the day that I got filled with the Holy Ghost, it was, I was in, like I said, I was in a, I was in a spirit of worship and I was loving the Lord. That was it. And I wasn't asking for the Holy Ghost. I was just thanking him for everything he's done in my life, everything that he's, that he's pulled me through, everything that he's done for my family. And without everything that he's done, I wouldn't be where I am right now. And he, you know, while, as I was saying, Lord, I worship you, he filled me as I was speaking. And my tongues just started flowing. And, you know, I know, I know I've held back a lot of different times now that I look back, you know, because brother, brother Brandon, who's been on the podcast before, we all know him, he's been, he was praying for me. And he said, brother, you were, you went four times speaking in tongues, but you stopped it every time. And I didn't even know. I was just trying to worship God. And he said, you stopped it. You need to just let the Lord move. And I did. And I was on the floor. At the end of it, when I came to myself and I saw that there was six people looking down at me worshiping the Lord. And I just rested in the Lord. I just felt like that was the right thing to do. And I got back up and I kept on praying because I wanted that same exact feeling. I just kept on chasing it. But that's what I did. I went in Mama's room and I was at my mother's house when it happened. I went Mama's room and there were people in the house and I didn't go be with them. I went Mama's room, closed the door and just looked out the window and let the Holy Ghost witness and witness and witness because I knew then that I didn't have to live it by myself. And that's hard. You've done it many years. It's hard. And it was hard for me before I got saved because I wanted to serve the Lord, but I didn't have the salvation first. And then I didn't have the power of the Holy Ghost. But the day that God saved me, he filled me with the Holy Ghost that same day because he knew I needed that power. And from then on, I always allow the Holy Ghost to have his way because I'm a vessel. When you're a vessel and sometimes the flesh wants you to do your own thing, but the Bible calls being filled with the Holy Ghost the rest. It's where we rest from our own ways and let the Holy Ghost have his way. Maybe that's why I feel like you need the rest of him. You're resting? Yes. It is the rest that God gives. And so that's what your goal is, is to let the Holy Ghost lead you. You know, Rebecca, when she was being brought to Isaac, she didn't know where she was going. She really didn't know much about it. Perhaps the servant was teaching her about the family and all that. But she had agreed to go. And she trusted him. And that's what we're doing. We've agreed to go. We want to go. But we have to trust the Holy Ghost to lead us and to never let us drop us off anywhere that's not the goal. We're gonna make it all the way. The Lord's help. We're gonna make it all the way. That's the thing. Let the Lord's help. I'm glad that we had this conversation. It was really good. A little bit all over the place, but I'm glad that we did. It was a blessing. I'm sure someone out there listening is going to get a blessing as well. If you're guys out here watching, we thank you. Please hit that follow button on top or wherever it is in the bottom of this Facebook page. And if you're listening to our audio platforms, hit the like button and the share and the follow button too. That way you never miss an episode from that we drop on Wednesdays. Thank you guys for listening. Thank you guys for watching. We appreciate everything we want. And you come back next week and see what we have for you guys. Have a good night. Good night. [BLANK_AUDIO]
