Following Jesus – Is It Boring?

Welcome to this episode of Ignite, and we have none other than my pillow, Mike Lindell. Thanks for having me. We have been friends for a lot of years, and we've shared the stage together a lot. Yeah, but never together. Never together. Yeah, you go, you go, you go, you go, you go, you go before me. We've had a lot of fun. And I, you know, I've watched, if I dare say you grow in your spiritual maturity from just kind of knowing, always being exuberant, but coming into a deep walk with the Lord. Right. And in all the epic stuff you're doing, we can't talk about it here, but epic stuff you're doing. Thank you for doing that. But I just want to talk about this one thing. Why is it that wherever you go, no matter where you speak, no matter how dark it is, you're telling people they need Jesus. Why, why is that so important? Well, that's what it's all about. I mean, that's that, that is it. You know, I want to, I kind of bring it back a little bit. You know, I always, I always, you know, use mathematics to say that God existed. I'd say that in my life, I'm going, this was a one in a million. This was a one in a billion, or this thing never happens. When you add them together, when does it become a mirror behind? So I would try and confirm this and over and over. And God was always chasing me. Well, you all see me on TV wearing my cross and everything. Well, I hadn't done a full surrender. You know, I quit everything in January, 16th, all my addictions in January, 16, 2009. But that, you know, that was the desire for the drugs. It was a, and one of the things that happened there was a friend of mine came to me the month prior. And we were equal in every way. We were functioning at X. We had both started cocaine in the early 80s and then turned to crack and then in the 2000s. But I had heard a rumor. He had found the Lord four years earlier. And I hadn't seen him. And he showed up. Now, remember, my state of mind at that time, I was reaching looking for any hole I could find. I was living in the woods in a house, staring at the ceiling, nothing left. My pillow was just a little blip on the radar. I remember you said one time, I'm not sure if it's a cocaine or the Holy Spirit that inspired me to do my pillow. That was a dream. That was definitely the Lord. That was the Lord. But, you know, I stayed up a lot, but when I did stay up, it was quality. But my friend came to me out of the nowhere, Nick Banslone and Dick came walking in. He had been straight for four years. I had heard it. I go, Dick, what are you doing here? He said, the Lord led me here. He says, what are you doing? And I said, you know what? As long as you're here, I said, I got a question for you. I said, is it boring? And he said, no man in any way. Oh, man. I went after him for two. You don't do boring very well. But two hours, but I had all other kinds of questions for him because at that point, he was my hope, but it wasn't him that was my hope. My hope was that he had thrown Jesus, this Jesus, right? And so 2009 came when I, you know, I quit all my addictions and at that point, you know, was that my bottom? Well, if I didn't win one more day, my calling would have been gone. You know, I knew that. I knew that one more day, my calling would be gone. And wherever that path would have been, you know, we all have callings and mine would have been gone. And, and you, I'm going to fast forward now to February 18, 2017, everybody. Okay. All right. 2017. And I went in. It was, it was actually Operation Restore Warrior. It's like a retreat. I'm not a veteran, but it was another divine appointment I had. And went in there and, and this place, it was like, you know, you get your hearts restored. But it, for, for me, it was turned on that day where I did a full surrender to Jesus Christ. And it was, it was something I never experienced. It was, it was like, what I expected, you know, I kept wanting that. I go, what is, you know, I'd with my gallon, she's had this relationship. I'm going, I believe in God. I believe in God. You know, I go to church. I went three times this month, you know? We have a lot of friends who believe in God. They know who he is. I know Jesus is not a God. But the change that day, it was like, it was all, it was all lifted to him. It was like, I was able to forgive myself for something. For my past things I had done that were hanging on me. There's like a shame in this. And the inside me that, that I wasn't worthy, just things that were just lifted and him forgiving me. And, and it was, I, it was at that point, I couldn't describe it as just a big relief of going, whoa, this is it. And, and it was amazing because two months later, here's a guy, if you read my book, that couldn't, I wasn't very good at talking. You need to read his book. Yeah, yeah, one of the odds. But in my book, you know, I went, I wasn't, my biggest fear was speaking. My biggest fear, bar none. You know, you read, you know, but I look back and it was fear of rejection. You don't get rejected if you don't talk. And if you to told me back then, that I'd be going around doing evangelistic speaking and speaking out for Jesus, I would say, yeah, all right. Well, I was two months later, I was through, we did a big US bank stadium. It was a big evangelist event. A US bank saved 50,000 people. And I told just a little bit of my story and talked about Jesus and let him prayer. I had never prayed in front of here, 50,000 people. But two weeks later, I was at a amusement park with my granddaughter and she, all these kids came up, millennials, you know, 20-year-olds and stuff come. They come up. Here were all these Christian bands and Christian speakers. And they came up and they're going, you changed my life. I found Jesus, I found Jesus. And, you know, they've seen the hope in me that I had seen in my friend, yeah, God can change you. And to use my story to bring hope and that hope is Jesus. So what I want to say is people, what we have now is an opportunity in history that's never, I don't believe it's ever been anywhere that we've never been this time we're in right now. Before this, trying to buy, before all this happened, I was sitting with the guy and we were, I didn't know him and we were talking and he says, he says, Mike, he says, you know, people don't look to Jesus unless things are bad. They don't look great, they don't look for God, they don't look for Jesus. And he said, he goes, it would take the great depression to bring this country back to God. And I looked at him and I said, no, I said, I said in the great depression, I believe they had God and they were praying for physical things like, you know, food and shelter. But I said, right now we have something better, we have addiction. Now this before this pandemic, I said, we have addiction. People are praying for their souls and praying for that. And so they're looking for hope. Okay. So, but now, I think we're right now as a country. Now everybody's looking for hope, everybody that hope. That's why we're in the biggest revival in history because I can sit out there and talk about Jesus and they're going, Mike, is that really the answer? Yes, it's really the answer. It's so simple. We're looking at the greatest revival in history. I tell people, this is the best time in history to be alive. This is going to change. What's going on now? God has had his hand in all of this. I don't care what you want to talk about. All this stuff going on, it's on his timing. It's not on my timing or your timing. It's on God's timing. And you think, how, when things get bad, remember that, when things get bad, then people look for hope. The hope in Jesus. The darker it gets, the easier it is to share Jesus. Absolutely. If the trope had been elected, it would have been back to business as usual. The church had been laxed days ago declining. No, everybody, you know, a great statistic. And while we won't get into that, you said, if he was elected, he was, but we won't go there. But, you know, everything, God's got everything under control. Who knows where that's going to go? That's another subject. I'm talking about God. Here's a big statistic. Over 80% of the unchurched right now. These are hard statistics. Over 80% of the unchurched know the world's out of control. Yeah. Yeah. Would like to believe over 80% of the unchurched would like to believe there's a God who can solve the problem. They're looking for somebody to tell them. Right. And they already have at least one person in their life that they trust. We can evangelize American 30 days if we wanted to. Right. But only one percent of us are Mike Lindell's. Only one percent of us share. Well, he got, what do we say to those people out there to get everyone? This is the time. Personal responsibility. Everybody. You can't just go to, you know, if you know Jesus, you better be telling people about Jesus. That's it. I mean, there's a way to, what do you wait for a day when, you know, I'm going to wait till things are really bad. I'm hello. Now it's the time. And they're not going to church. They're not going to church. The only way we can reach the lost and they're not bad people. They're lost people. We can get all mad. They're lost. They're blinded. And if we don't tell them who's going to tell them, it's up to us. It's right down to you and me and all of us watching here. We have to ignite people. Yeah. You have to bring them. Like even on my Linda recovery network, when I have, it's the best online help for addicts. It's free. It's free. But you know what? They go there and they're going in and they're seeing all these whole matches that are just like them and they're going, how did they make it through? And all the answers, the same answer, Jesus. Jesus. They're going, there's got to be another answer. Well, you know what? Let me tell you out there. Everyone that's out there right now in the situation that we're all in and different, you know, different things that were, but this terrible place where at, if you, if you look around and you see people that have a piece, they're the ones with Jesus. And if they're smiling, they're happy. They're Christians. And you're going out. How do we get through this? How do we get to us? And you know what? And people, I want to tell everyone to, we always look back and you say, oh, this is the worst thing. You look back. I can look back in my life. But when we get way out here to this great place, we're going to get to. And you look back, all this had to happen. And the reason that's happening is like you said, if everything would have been great and everything going right, back to the same old, same old status quo church, it was going, the church was going like this, an older age and lesser people, less people. Now I'll tell you what, they're everybody's engaged going, well, they're just reaching for hope. Where is it? Where is it? Hello, it's right in front of you. We have it. We have it. We got it. It's all around you. You just got to reach down your knees and surrender to Jesus. This is a busy. I know. And I want this as never one thing. I want to tell you all out there. You know, when I used to be, but you know, before I got saved, before I surrendered, a full surrender, I would do prayers that, you know, in my life, I've had guns to my head, swords to my throat. I've had you name it. But you know what? When I would get in, when things were bad, I would sit there and go, God, please get me out of this. I'll never do it again. I mean, you get me out of it. But then there's some things I prayed for that wouldn't come to pass. That wouldn't come and I go, I'm going, God, why, you know, why didn't this, you know, why did this happen when I prayed for this? Well, let me tell you, it might not have been God's will. Actually, it wasn't God's will. Well, where is God's will? God's will is in the Word. So if you stand the word, I can tell you this. You stay in the Word and then your prayers can be proactive and they line up. When you're praying, they line up. Okay. And it's a miracle. Then you're going so for all out there, all of you out there that know Jesus, you get out there and you evangelize. I mean, you go, you get this is the time, this is the time where you know, everybody is just the reaching and you're going, you're going to say up to you, do it a few times, they're going to, it just comes natural. You're going to go, really, is that the hope? Is that the hope? You know, they want to know, you're in a church. I mean, and you have the church, the church is right now. If you got a church and there's a very few people, hello, you're not marketing your church right, because there's people out there looking starving. They're starving for the world. The church right closes doors. What's that all about? No, no, no, no. Yeah, it's starving. I took you this that long time ago. When you and I get to heaven, it's not going to matter how many pillows you sold or bottles of a car wax I sold. That is not going to be a discussion. It's going to be how many are people in heaven because of our influence. Yeah, yeah. And that's why every you have influence. You have immense influence. You're using your influence. That's why I wouldn't have you on purpose. Yeah, it's all about using your influence. Everything I'm doing, everything I'm doing, you know, I pray about things I'm going to do to be proactive and to do what I'm going to do. I'm just out there not doing, you know, they're, they're, this is what God's having me doing. I align, I use that, I always use Proverbs 3, 5, 6, you know, all you have. Plus to the Lord with all your heart, lean on, lean on your own understanding and always acknowledge him and he will guide your path. Even the bad guy. And I'm telling you, I went down some pretty bad paths, you know, you know, when your drug dealers do an intervention on you and you're on crack. His drug dealers cut him off. They cut me off. Yeah, no, my drug dealers cut me off in Minneapolis back in 2008. I couldn't, I had been up for a couple weeks. They cut me off. I run out of crack, head down to the streets of Minneapolis, come back upstairs, couldn't buy crack anywhere, come back upstairs and run them, still sitting up. He goes, how'd that work out for him? And here's what he said to me. He looked at it because I would always tell him that he goes, he goes, man, you've been telling us this, my pillow thing is just a platform for God. And you're going to come back someday and help us all when you quit out of this addiction world. We're living in two of those guys work for me. No, I'm born again, Christians. You know, so when you sit and you pray, you know, where's my calling, Lord? We're all called. And once you have Jesus to spread the word of Jesus, that's number one right there. So if you line up your calling, if you line up your calling with that, with your bigger calling, it becomes powerful, right? I've been at this platform. You've got a big platform. So you're spending your using it to speak out. I think I've been at this for a lifetime. Okay. You've been at it for a few years. You're already pasted me or at least we're side by side fighting this fight. I remember one night right right quick. We were in Colorado Springs. I forget it. I don't know. I know the organization. It's all Christians. I know that. Okay. And you sat with us. You didn't eat. You were working on your notes. You're working. Yeah. Well, you're just working. You're so nervous. Okay. So then you get up. You didn't even look at you. You started talking about Jesus. And we all looked at him. He said, he did all the time. And you became an evangelist right in front of our eyes. No ways ever freaks the gospel better than Michael and Dale right in front of our eyes. I just speak cuts on my heart and what's real. You know, that's why you know, for me, that was my worst thing. If you can take me and be as a speaker if he can help for Jesus anybody can because that was my biggest fear. You know, I'm writing these notes and I'm looking at notes and we had the event coming up. We're having a hundred of our closest friends under backyard this evening to hear this guy. He's got he's just he just flew in. He's got to go out there to met it. Last word, why should they all every one of them watch this right now. Be sharing their faith. Well, that's what we're here for. I mean, I mean, I mean, it's still it's right now. Why would you not want to share what if you have Jesus? Why would you not want to go out and market that to the world when we have the best opportunity in history right now? You know, this is the best time in history. Never never going to get if you don't use this time. How are you going to face God and go? You know what? You were told to go evangelize at that time. Why didn't you? Why didn't you? Well, you know, I just went I went to church though. You know, well, if you know, you know what you're supposed to do. But they turn around. I don't know. Finish it off. How much fun is it? Oh, it's a lot of fun. You know, how cool is it? I did, you know, when I asked my friend, I said, it's boring. I didn't ask him, is it fun? I just didn't want it to be boring. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing when you know that you're doing what you're supposed to be doing for the Lord. And you know, and it is then anything can come out. You all know that stuff I've been attacked. I've been attacked at everything. You name it. It's happened. But even my, even my company, the 2500 employees, they all, their faith, it just builds over because they're going, God has protected us and protect us and stood, you know, and people come. They see that as a miracle. You guys look around you now and you're going to see one of the biggest miracles coming. But you've got to look at the little miracles that are right here right now and look at the opportunity we have. And this is the opportunity. People don't look for hope until things are bad. And that hope is Jesus. That's why we're in the biggest revival in history. You've got to be a part of it. You know, don't don't you know, turn off the TV and get out and talk to your friends. Call up your call up your family members. Call up this. Have a little Bible studies and talk. Thank you. Blessings. God bless you. Go get them out there. All right. God bless you. God bless you. You're awesome. Come on, everybody.