Navy Captain Shares His Secret

You know, you live your life for the Lord's glory. You never know how the Lord is going to use whatever the situation, whatever is taking place. And I have had several people that I have from decades prior, and they say, I want you to know, way back then, I thought you were stuck up, and I thought you were, you know, judgmental. He said, now I realize that you love Jesus. Jesus. Welcome to the Ignite with Mary Maguire podcast. How would you like to have the time of your life for the rest of your life? How would you like to defeat fear effortlessly, knowing for sure God is hearing and answering your prayers and directing your steps and making everything work for good? This is exciting. Here's the question. How would you like to ignite your life? Stay tuned. Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Ignite with my special guest, Butch Wilmore. The astronaut that was lost in space, remember that? Like, for nine months. He went up for 12 days and he spent nine months, right? It would be best if you didn't see it already to see the earlier. We did—this is part two. And you understand this a lot more if you stop. If you didn't see the first one, go back and see the first one. The first one really kind of just sets the stage for why this is such an important message, and it is— how we can be at one with God and, and, and literally be at the place where we have no fear, no fear, no anxiety, no depression, um, joy every day, go to God's directory, all those, we can have those. Those are not empty promises in the Bible. They're, they're actually true. Amen. And we get there very simply. How is it that we make it so complicated? We've got to do this and this. I love the Bible. And, you know, I just study the Bible all the time, cover to cover, and take notes prolifically after thousands of sermons, still take notes prolifically to sermons. But the fact of the matter is, he said, what's the most important commandment? He said, love me and love your neighbor. Then he says in Romans 8, 28, when you love me and love your neighbor as yourself, or you live for my purpose, his purpose is to seek and save the lost, then I'll make everything work for good. And I have been, Karen, I have been through more trials than most. Most of you don't know what we've been through. We've been through hell and back. And some of them continued for more than a decade at a time. We've been through there. And we thank God for every one of them. Because that's when you, if you don't go through struggles, you don't have faith. You're just a small kid, a small Christian. But when you have the struggles and you trust him and he comes through at the end, that ignites your life. Okay. And so you are ignited not as an astronaut. This is three space flights, right? Unbelievable. Of course, combat veteran, desert storm, test pilot. I mean, all the things that you've done. But you've got to get that earlier. We went through that earlier. We're not going to repeat that here. I want to spend time with you now. I know off camera, since the last podcast, you were saying some things that are coming to your heart. I want to just focus on you now. That set the stage. Now, I want to just share with us how this is manifesting itself in your life. Early on, so I was the operations officer at the weapons school. The weapons school is a bunch of top gun graduates come together and go into the different squadrons, fly with the squadrons, test them, evaluate them, teach them the newest tactics. So I was an operations officer at the weapons school. For the top... Yeah, for the Top Gun graduates together. Gosh. They were refurbishing our spaces. Kind of bright people. Oh, yeah, sharp people. Yeah. They were refurbishing my spaces. So I had in the hangar six-foot partitions like a rectangle where I put my office while they're redoing our spaces. And I had some younger officers who were going through flight training temporarily assigned. That's the stage. Late on a Friday, one of those junior officers was there. It was a three-day weekend. Nobody was there. The whole base was empty except for me and this one guy. And just my spirit shared the gospel with him. God moment. Just the two of us. I've got him trapped. He can only get out by me because of the way this partition is set up. He was dating a stripper at the time. And very worldly. And I started sharing the gospel with him late on a Friday. And finally got to the point, he said, it's obvious he thinks he's fine. I said, why do you think you're fine? It kind of hits on what you said in the last podcast, last show. He said, well, it's obvious. The Lord is showing me favor. I'm born in America, and I'm flying F-18s. And I'm like, oh, okay. Isn't that crazy? That's what so many people hold to this very thing. How you get reasoned to the wrong conclusion. So fortunately, I had my green helmet bag, and in my helmet bag, I used it like a briefcase, I always kept a little Gideon's Bible. And so I reached back, I grabbed the helmet bag, I got the Gideon's Bible out, and I opened it up. And I said, do you mind if I share some things out of here? And Barry, I knew what his answer would be because I outranked him. He's not going to say no. So I shared the gospel. I went through the Roman road. I went through Matthew 7, 13, and 14, the wide and narrow gates and that whole process. And I went through all that and just passion, 45 minutes sharing with him. And as I looked into his eyes, Barry, throughout the whole process, I could see that he did not care. He didn't care. I could see it through it all. Hard, hard. Hard. So finally I got the point, I said, you mind if I pray for you? I outrank him, so sure. Yeah, okay, go ahead. I bow my head, I pray, I open my eyes, and he's no longer there, he's here, right next to me. And he made his exit, said, I gotta go. Oh. I go home. I speak to my wife. I'm like, told her that. She's, you know, you plant a seed. Plant a seed. You know, that's, oh, yeah. Tuesday, three-day weekend, I come back. You can't get anybody saved. I can't get it. And you have no responsibility to get them saved. You have the responsibility to share. Well, listen to this. And trust God. And not lose your joy. Right. You can't lose your joy in the midst of all that. God's at work. Exactly. I get there early on Tuesday, three-day weekend. And one of the other junior officers that was waiting on training, who was temporarily assigned to me, was there. I mean, I get there first because I'm the opso. He says, sir, I've been struggling all weekend. I need to talk. I said, okay. He said, sir, I just got to confess. When I left, I left early like everybody else did on Friday. When I got home, I realized I had your green bag. He said, so I brought it back. It's for cell phones. So he said, I brought it back. He said, you were talking to, the guy's name was David. You were talking to David. He said, I just laid it down. I grabbed mine from behind you. I never knew he was there. He said, I grabbed my bag, put yours there. At that moment, you asked him why he thought he was okay. So I stopped on the other side of the partition. Six foot partition. He's on the other side. He said, and he said, I'm born in America. I'm flying F-18s. He said, that's me. That's me. He said, and then you shared scripture with him. He said, I couldn't leave. He stood there on the other side of the partition. He said, I can't leave. I couldn't leave. And I listened, he said, and I've been struggling all weekend. Oh my goodness. Very good. The Lord saved him. Brings tears to my eyes now. The Lord eventually came to our house two weeks. He saved me. He was dating a very, very moral young lady, but was lost. And he said, as he's studying the Word, he says, I can't marry you. I can't, you know, this unequally yellow. He's studying because we're sharing. We're doing a Bible study. I can't. The Lord saved her 11 months later. Here we are decades later. Wow. Three children love the Lord. Wow. Their parents came to know the Lord. Their pagan siblings came to know the Lord. simply because he heard the truth of God's word. Sharing it with one person, the Lord's meaning it here. We got to share at every opportunity. So I call that a twofer. There you go. Two for the price of one. Folks, when you're sharing your faith, you're rarely alone. You are. You have those private ones. Yeah. But more likely, when you're in the public square and you're sharing, people are listening. Amen. They're listening. And they're learning. And so you be aware of that. Sometimes I know who that person is a little bit about them. Right. And I'm speaking to this person, but I'm not really. Right. You know what I mean? Right. Amen. I'm speaking that will speak to their heart. They don't have the idea that I even know they're there. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly right. But I'm sowing seeds in their heart, even though I'm looking at this person. Right. This sharing faith thing is... It's amazing. And think about the timing. And it's 360. The Lord's timing. The Lord's timing. He brought him there. I didn't put him there. He brought him there at that moment that he needed to hear that young man give that answer. Yeah. I mean, the providence of the Lord. Wow. He is at work. And don't be shy. Go forward, Boca. People watch those conversations. I hear it continually all the time. I watched you do this. I was doing this. I have to come up and ask you. We had a Southwest Airlines guy at the counter, and we ended up with such a conversation. There was a line behind us. He says, can I walk you to the gate? I've been sharing some scripture with him and he asked some questions. I gave him some good answers and he says, can I walk you to the gate? I'm thinking those people behind me are going to hate me. I said, okay. He shuts off his computer and he takes our bags and we walk to TSA. Well, really. Sharing scripture all the way. Wow. So when we get there, I said, can I pray for you? And he said, yes. Now imagine this guy, he's quite a bit taller than us. a 28-year-old black handsome dude, and these two old folk. There you go. Indeed. I didn't think about it while later. You know all the congestion is just outside TSA when you're coming in, right in the middle of it. Oh, yeah. That alone. And then you know what he said at the end? He said, I took a picture of your ticket. He took a picture. I hope that's okay. I said, sure, but why? He said, I wanted to remember your name. Why? He says, because I'll remember this conversation for the rest of my life. Wow. How powerful. There's a moment. Yeah. Unprovoked. Yeah. I mean, you're always there. But then, you know, sometimes they turn and sometimes they don't. But no matter what you're going to leave, even the hardened heart. Right. You see no resources. You can't get away from the fact that there's a Christian that loved on them. Amen. You know, I've had an opportunity. You know, you live your life for the Lord's glory. You never know how the Lord is going to use whatever the situation, whatever's taking place. And I have had several people that I have, because of the position with NASA, so they've contacted me from decades prior, and they say, I want you to know, Way back then, I thought you were stuck up and I thought you were, you know, judgmental. He said, now I realize that you love Jesus and you are just wanting to share the truth. Yeah, yeah. I didn't know it then. That's their perception. Exactly. That they're putting on you. Exactly. You're not. You're expressing love, but they don't want to hear it. So they give all these reasons why you're so hateful or whatever. The gospel is the offense. We don't want to be offensive. Yeah. We want to love and share the truth because the gospel itself, because the gospel says you're not in control. The Lord's in control. And you have to answer to this individual, individual, this entity, this creator, this God, we are responsible to him. And that's what it says. And like we said in the last one, the thing that we have to do is share with them their sin. You know, have you ever told a lie? You ever had a lustful thought? All these things. So you're a liar and adulterer. That's what God's word would say you are. And bring them to that point where they go, you know what? I'm not so good, maybe. And their only hope is forgiveness. And I think we need to, I want to just real quickly share the gospel. God's character, holy, righteous, and just, he must punish sin. If he doesn't punish sin, every sin, then he's not the God of the Bible. Now, people say, you know, well, you know, he's a loving God. A loving God would never send me to hell. That's the perception. Well, they don't understand how great their sin is. Sin is infinite. My sin is infinite. And they don't understand the purity. Against an infinite holy God. Exactly. And so the only option to appease the wrath of a perfect, holy, righteous, just God the Father is a similar exact sacrifice. Right. That's why Jesus had to come to the earth. He had to become a man. Couldn't be an angel. Had to become a man. Had to live a life sinless, you know, without blemish. To appease the wrath of God the Father took the holy righteous just sacrifice. And that is only Christ. That is only Christ. And so he punished Christ for your sin. He punished Christ for my sin. He punished Christ for their sin. Wow. Everyone, if you will believe, that's the Romans 8, 28. It works all things together for good to those who love God. You've got to love God, and you call it according to his purpose. You've got to embrace it. For those that will believe, There's eternal hope in Jesus Christ our Lord. And it's our only hope because of his character and his righteousness and his perfection and his love, as you said. That's why he sent Christ, because he loved us. That's how much he loves us. He wants us to be in the purity, the awesome, holy purity of heaven. And worse, even one thought, and it's a lot more than that, There's no way. We can't enter heaven. It's not possible. We can't enter heaven. It's not possible. This divine plan, the only way we could possibly do it, for him to send his son as man and die, as you're saying. This divine plan, you just said. We say it so... routinely. It's awesome. It's awesome. He did that. He loved us that much and he suffered the agony. He felt those nails. He suffered just like we had the same pain. Amen. He did that for us. He heard the wrath of the Father. So that he could shed his blood as a sacrifice for us so that we can enter with his rose, right? You go back to the first verse, the first phrase of the first book, the first verse of the first book of the first book of the Bible. In the beginning, God. That says God is greater than all because he created the heavens and the earth. He was there in the beginning. What's the beginning? Keep reading, you'll find out. But in that moment, when he created, Barry, he knew you. We're a speck, and the vastness of the universe, the speck of this planet, the speck on the speck is us. But we're not specks. We are important. We are loved by God, because in that moment of the beginning, he knew you. He did it for you. That once in a summary of the Bible, before the foundation of the world, God the Father determined to represent God the Son with a redeemed humanity that would honor, worship, and glorify him for all eternity, in that moment of the beginning. He knew you and he did it for us. Love. That's why you did it. Wretched sinner that I am. He did it for you. He did it for me. He spends full time with us. Indeed. He's never left us. He knows every thought. Every single thought. That's how many his thoughts of us are like grains of sand. How can we comprehend how much he loves us? Indeed. And we just want to go and keep it to ourselves. Indeed. What was it that made you, if you don't mind me asking, What was it that made you, brought you to this point of seeing, ultimately it's the Lord, but what did he use to seeing this blessed truth and the joy in it and the excitement of sharing this blessed truth? I mean, because you're an encouragement. Trust me, brother. I'm sitting here listening. I'm like, wow, bring it. I am encouraged. So what was it? What was it? This is great. What was it? It was joy. It was joy. I was raised multi-generations. I have no excuse. All my life, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. And Karen and I just shared this, and we volunteered for everything. First married, little kids, and gave sacrificially money we didn't have, and we pledged it anyway. And we were all in. But we didn't have joy. Yeah. Most of you out there right now are not living in joy. It's a rare commodity. This is how you get joy. We prayed for joy. God, give us joy. We prayed earnestly, fervently for joy. Specifically for joy. We were doing everything else. We knew we were on the other way to heaven. We knew he was blessing us and directing our steps. But we didn't have joy. It was the missing element. Yeah. Boy, is that a big element. It is. So about two weeks later, we're at a banquet for the 50th anniversary of Santa Ana's First Settlement of God. And the speaker was Herb Ellingwood, who was the legal affairs secretary for Governor Reagan. This is 1973, okay? I'm an old guy. And the pastor sent me right next to the speaker, next to her. I didn't have any responsibilities that day. There was no reason for me to be at the head table. That was God. And for an hour, from the time we sat down, the time he spoke, he shared with me one story after another without interruption. He didn't eat his meal. He just, and he's laughing. He's crying. He's laughing. He's laughing. He said, even last night, you can't believe what happened last night. And I walked away shattered. Wow. I said, God, I want his joy. Yeah. When I get to heaven, I'm going to find Herb Ellingwood. Some punk kid, you don't even remember me. But because of you, and it was because of him, and we started sharing our faith intentionally. And instead of following all the outlines and points and all the rules, we just started loving on people, as he did. Yeah. And within two weeks, we were laughing one day, and we said, we've got joy. We have joy. You know we've had it ever since? Praise the Lord. With all the bad stuff that's happened to us. We lost our 49-year-old daughter, and I was dying in the hospital. All the things happened. There's a lot more that I even talk about. We never lost our joy. Amen. Never lost our joy. Isn't that incredible? Isn't that incredible? Because you have eternal hope. Yeah. You put it in perspective. God's Word says... Be joyful. Be anxious for nothing. Everything by prayer and supplication. It's true. It's true. Say that again because we can run through those scriptures so quickly. I'm going to go on to the next. Say those with meaning. Be anxious for nothing. Nothing. Nothing. But everything by prayer and supplication. Don't you want to be in a place where we have no anxiousness? Yeah. No worry. No fear. Knowing God's with you every moment. All of that. You can be a Christian and not have that. Most of you are in that situation. Most of you are in situations and you're praying. And what way God isn't answering your prayers? You know in James 1, he says, if you're double-minded, if you're praying and worrying at the same time, you're unstable in all your ways. Don't expect to receive anything from me. You're on your way to heaven, but you're not having fun. We're talking about this is different. And that's why this is so important. It is different. We're talking about an entirely different existence for you, for a lot of you. You can't be a little bit pregnant. You just can't. You've got to be all in. And the fun is that when you get all in, you could be stuck in space for nine months or it doesn't matter because God's there and he's using it. You can be on the controls of a spacecraft that has lost the ability to fully control in six degrees of freedom, which is where we were. Wow. And people say, wow, how did you get through that fear? And I'm like, wow. There was no fear. It was focus. I have a task. I've learned through this life that, you know, and the different events the Lord has used and providentially put me through that this is my most important thing. I'm not going to fear. I'm not going to stick my hand in a fire because I fear getting burned. Fear can be helpful in certain situations. But in those situations, they're detrimental. This is not a mindset. This is not a strong mind saying, I'm going to tough it out. No. You can't do that. No, you can't. This is easy. By the power of our Lord and said. It just happens without even, it's effortless, folks. Yeah. It's effortless. The byline on our book is defeat fear effortlessly. Because when you're living in this oneness with God, there's no fear. Why accept good when great is achievable through the power of our Lord and Savior? Praise God. And that's what we do. We accept okay. I'm... Great is achievable. And the mindset, it doesn't mean, like you said, struggles, trials, life is tough. It's going to be there. You're either in a trial, you know someone in a trial, or a trial's coming. Right? That's just what sin brings. And you get through one, he'll give you a bigger one. Amen. Exactly. And you get through one, he'll give you a bigger one. And you can't be joyful through it all. We're running out of time. Don't go ahead and share your faith. Particular stories pop up, spontaneous stories, whatever. Just things that randomly come up. Just very quick. Think about how you've been able to share your faith in fun, unexpected ways. In an airplane, on a street corner, praising the Lord. And like you said before, God bless. God bless. God bless. Give me two or three little tidbits. Oh, my goodness. On an airplane. Don't know what happens. This gentleman, he was actually older than me. He was from a different country. And we just got in a conversation, and the Lord orchestrated the events to go. This was years ago. You have a captive audience here. He can't get out. Exactly right. And just shared the gospel. And it turns out he says he was coming here to sin. He was coming from a different country to sin. That was sexual sin. That was his plan. Oh, my goodness. And he's just next. God puts him right beside you. Yeah. Not by accident. You just share the truth and share God's love. I don't ever know what happened with that. Yeah. But we share. You're probably going to destroy this trip. Well, who knows? Who knows? Possibly. His thought of what that trip was going to be. Exactly. Exactly right. So I just pray the Lord uses the truth of his word. Yeah. Because that's all we can do. I can't change a heart. You can't change a heart. But his word is powerful. I used to get very frustrated when I didn't lead him to the Lord on the spot. I didn't even get mad at God. I mean, I was so naive. I mean, God puts up with us, you know. I stopped that and realized I don't know where they are. It may be 20 encounters before they come to the Lord. I may be number two. Right. Or sometimes I'm number 20. But the point is we just move them. That's why we in our ministry say move them closer. We don't know where they are, but we want to move them closer to Jesus. Right. And in every respect, but the Lord brings the harvest. I'll bring one more. I was a young man, another young man and young officer in a squadron. I forget how our interactions was years ago. Again, I invited him to our home and Deanna and I sat and shared the gospel with him in our home. And we eventually prayed. But before we prayed, Barry, I saw it in his countenance. The Lord saved him as we were discussing this truth. We prayed. He prayed, you know, like the sinner's prayer. Yes. But the Lord saved him before that. Yeah. I know that. I saw it. Yeah. I saw it. I forget his name. I forget it. It's amazing. What about treasures in heaven? Land up in your treasures in heaven. And what's the impact on you? After you know you've had that experience, you're walking away, what's the impact on you? It empowers us. It empowers us. It's joyful. And you want to keep going. You want to keep, because why else, you know, why doesn't, why doesn't the Lord just take us? He saves us. Why don't he just take us to heaven? That's glory. Yeah. Leaves us here for a purpose to share this blessed truth. No, we just joined the team. Exactly. If you are a believer, a true believer in Jesus Christ. Yeah. Then you know the gospel. Yeah. You are a theologian in that respect. That's right. Go share what you know. That's right. We're in full-time ministry. Amen. People think I get saved, now I'm going to go to heaven. And they're just kind of waiting it out. There's nothing in the Bible that says that. I don't see that in Scripture. There's not there. The way I look at it, earth is boot camp. Yeah, right. And some of us wash out. Yes, sir. But those of us that graduate boot camp, now we're on the team. Amen. And we're warriors in the most loving sense of that term. Yes, sir. And we go out and love everybody. Amen. We're running out of time, folks. Yeah. And our goal is to get as many people into heaven as possible. I've said this so many times. It's so true. Our goal, our life purpose, God's left us here for this amount of time to get as many people as possible in heaven while there's still time remaining on us. And we're going to keep that as our focus. I mean, it's fun. It is. I hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love him. I can't even imagine what those things that I can glorify him even more as eternity goes forward. That's ahead of you. Ahead of us. With all your accomplishments, that's just prelude. God has plans for you. Think of what he's going to do with you from now until he returns. You have no idea. Fall for His glory. Amen. Amen. So we got to get in the game. Get in the game. Too many people sitting on the sidelines, literally, I go to church, like you said, frowning, go to church. They're not out actively sharing their faith. And see the joy that comes from all of it, continually living your lifestyle for His glory at all moments, as the scripture calls us to do. And we have other responsibilities. I have responsibilities as a husband. I have responsibilities as a dad. I have responsibilities to those that I work for and all that. We have those responsibilities. We have to meet those responsibilities. But in those responsibilities are all these opportunities we're talking about. Oh, man. They're not separate from. They're part of it. Think of the possibilities at any given church, whatever it is. Pastors, let me tell you, at the end of your sermon, say, go on, have a good day. Go out and impact the world. Do honor God. No. Yes. But so much more than that. Yeah. Send them out as disciples. Your job is to equip the saints for ministry. Okay. Amen. You prepare us, but then you equip us for ministry and you send us. How are they not going? Who's going to go unless they're not sent? You're not sending us pastors. That's not happening to the church today. Hear our hearts and hear God's voice pastors say, energize your people, ignite your people to go out and save souls and do that by just loving on them. That they have purpose every day to move everybody. Can you imagine if everybody in your church, Pastor, started having as their focus every day to move everybody closer to Jesus? Can you imagine the people that could be saved this next week? This next year? What is the impact on your church? Can you imagine? What if Christians across America started doing that? We could ignite America. No cost. Right. We can ignite America with your Bible. Right. In 30 days. Right. Let's do it. Just by doing just a simple thing we are, just loving God and allowing him to love people through us. I love that ignite. Let's get it. It is it, isn't it? Let's press. Isn't it? Let's fire it up. Let's go. Indeed. Man. Again, why be good when great is achievable? That's something my brother says. Wherever the Lord has you, you don't have to be in this position or that position or try to attain it. Wherever you are in that spot. You don't have to be an astronaut. No. You don't have to pedal car wax, thank God. You don't have to do that. And you don't have to be a, I talked in the earlier segment of this, this precious black lady in Fresno without any money. And she had the same joy. The oneness has nothing to do with money or ethnicity, anything. It has to do with oneness with God. How do you get oneness to God? Live for his purpose. And what's his purpose? To seek and save the lost. Allow God to love everybody through us. It's so simple. Why do we make it so complicated? Can you understand that? Can you explain that? Because we, well, we're sinners and we're susceptible to temptation and diversion and all that. That's why all this stuff like flat earth and did we go to them. I'm like, that's all just diversion. Let's focus on what matters. Aliens, yes or no. That's diversion. Christ. Let's focus on what matters. Christ. Christ. Praise God. Yeah. Listen to him. Indeed. Brother. You're amazing. Thank you. You've blessed me. You are. You've encouraged me. Praise God. Thank you. See you next time. If you enjoyed today's podcast, please let us know. Subscribe now to continue receiving my podcast and add your comments to help us attract more viewers. See you next time on the Ignite with Barry McGuire podcast.