It all starts with being intimate with God

I want to talk about Jesus for a moment now and I want to talk about shoes, what does Jesus have to do with shoes? I remember one time when I was receiving missionary training and this woman was teaching us how to discern the Voice of God, she was also telling us about the character of Jesus Christ, all the existing names of Jesus and all the characteristics about Jesus.

And then she told us: I want all of you to get out there until you receive a Word from God and can experience the Presence of God. I said, ok I was in Concorde in New Hampshire in the state of New Hampshire and so I went out and went into the field, here are these beautiful trees, the pines and the granite that is typical of New Hampshire, I was standing there worshiping the Lord but at the moment it's like He was physically present in front of me.

I didn't see it with my physical eyes but the preacher Oral Roberts was like, you know you know you know it's like that and I knew clearly, convincingly that Jesus was in front of me at that moment. And He was a little bit jealous and He told me: hey, do you think that what you are experiencing now is great? let me give you a glimpse of what heaven is.

Can you imagine a very dark day and suddenly lightning strikes and illuminates the entire sky and for now you can see everything well illuminated? and so was my glimpse of the sky but it was magnificent, the trees were full and translucent like something i had never seen, the colors were colors i had never seen but the best part of it was the joy that overwhelmed, filled my whole heart .

The Bible speaks of that inexpressible joy of glory, and do you know what that really means? It is having so much joy that you don't know what to do with your own body, it's like knowing that, but when you have so much joy inside of you, it's like you don't know how to express so much joy physically, and that's how I felt at that moment when the Lord It gave me that, it was an overwhelming, consuming joy.

When I was in college I was an American football player and I got to play American semi-professional football and you always kind of realize a strong guy there, stocky but in the midst of that experience that the Lord provided me in that field. I was totally alone with the Lord The Lord told me: hey, let's dance alone and I found myself dancing with Jesus, I went crazy dancing alone in that field. And I remember that there in my mind I said: I hope no one is watching me.

But that joy was so great that I had to do it and then the Lord spoke to me again and said: what do you want? I'm going to give you whatever you want, so I looked at my shoes, at that time I was working with a youth group, I was a member and the acronym was YWAM, there is another way of looking at those acronyms: Youth Without Money (laughs) like this that I saw my dilapidated shoes with holes in the soles and I said: Lord I would love to have a new pair of shoes and again the thought struck me again and I thought: hey Solomon asked the Lord for wisdom to lead an entire nation and here I am asking the Lord for shoes and I said to myself: what an idiot you are, what have you done?

So I went back to the building and then I was passing through the corridor of the building and I was asking myself: was that God or my imagination? Did I imagine this or did I fabricate it? Then one of my friends comes out of one of the rooms in the living room and I see this guy every day, he says: hey Doug Tony! I say: ok, he says: you don't understand I was in my room a moment ago and the Lord just gave me a directive, I say: well, what did he tell you? He said: I just bought a new pair of shoes, the most expensive running shoes there are. He asked me: how big are your feet? and we were the same size and I have wide feet.

So he gave me the shoes and I went back to my room and I said to myself: well, the shoes are very nice but much better is that I can enjoy this type of relationship with Jesus Christ, that He is personal and that He speaks to me directly.

So we see today in America, people spend an average of 3 minutes in prayer because they don't know the joy of knowing Him, we don't understand the sublime majesty of Jesus and the average Christian man spends only one total hour in a year reading the Bible. so that's why we don't even understand what this Bible says, we don't even know it anymore. So when I had that experience of the shoes, a new way of experiencing Jesus began in a personal and wonderful way.

I started traveling around the world preaching the Gospel in different parts of the world. During my life I have preached and prayed for some 200,000 people throughout different countries. I have been to 45 countries in many of those countries 12, 15 to 20 times and I have experienced the majesty of Jesus everywhere I go.

I remember once I went to Mongolia, everyone there is Buddhist, Christianity just arrived there in 1995, Campus Crusade was the first group to arrive there. At the moment, a Pastor from the Assemblies of God arrives, right now only a hundredth of 1%, that is, not even 1% of the people there. And God tells me: go to Mongolia, you have to take a flight to Chicago, then travel over the North Pole, arrive in Beijing in China and then from there you take another flight to Mongolia. So when you arrive you take the slowest train in the world at 100 degree temperatures, there is no air conditioning on the train and we arrive at our destination four or five days later ready to die.

And then I approach a Pastor and I say: Pastor, what is your plan? And he tells me: well, I would like to start a Church here, I say: when? he says: well, I'm going to pray for seven years and then we're going to start it, that was on a Friday and I told him: brother, why don't we start it on Sunday? he says: but we don't have people! And this is in Mongolia, the vast majority have not heard of Jesus, of the Bible even once in their lives.

But then I got into the Presence of the Lord within my own heart and I said: Lord, give me a strategy, what should we do? that particular town has no water, you have to go to a well to get water. At that time I had a drama team and a dance team with me and I told them: well, let's go to this well, we're going to be there and we'll see what happens, we're going to meet a lot of people who come to get water there at the well.

So all day Saturday we were there doing our presentations and at night we went to another place. And on that day, 112 Buddhists converted to Jesus Christ, 112. It's about an hour and a half for each person, so you need a big team. And the oldest Buddhist monk in the entire area was one of those 112 people who gave his life to Jesus Christ. He had served the Buddha all his life.

Then we went to another part of the city and all these people were in a school building and there we started doing our presentations, it was like a vacuum cleaner and they all came out of the school building and came up to us. I remember well that we were there preaching the Gospel and the director of the school came out and said: these people come from the devil, and he said: if you follow them, these whites are going to go to hell, don't listen to them and all the students they said the following: we have never heard these words before, this message had never come to us; please let us listen, we want to hear it and decide for ourselves so she finally withdrew and at the end of that presentation 300 people came to Jesus Christ, all Buddhists.

You have to understand: everything starts with shoes, it starts with the Person of Jesus, having that intimacy with Him, knowing the Voice of God in your own life, spending time with Him. You don't pray because you think it's not valuable, you You think that it will not make a difference but you have no idea of the power that is in prayer, prayer changes everything brothers.

Pray for your children, pray for your grandchildren, seek the Lord, especially you men. Men: you need to pray, brothers, take time out of your day. I know that you are busy, you need to make money to go to work, I understand but look what I do with myself. The flesh does not want to pray so I say to my flesh, I extend my hand and say: hey you are going to pray and I slap myself and I say: hey stop that and start praying because it is not with a sword It is not with an army, it is not with human strength, it is with the Spirit of God.

Knows? God does these things through us. And I remember that next day when we planted that Church, about 130 people came to the Church that day and the mayor of that city came and I remember the questions they asked us because when this type of Church is started there will be many questions and one you have to have the answers. And a woman raised her hand, she said: we adore mountains, we adore trees and natural objects; All our lives and for 1500 years we have worshiped these beings. Whom do we worship now? And I told her: now you can worship the one who made all those things and who made you too and then she said: oh now we understand.

Brothers, sisters, I want you to have that experience too, I want you to have moments like that too. you know? We were recently at the Downtown Crossing there in downtown Boston at the Rogle's train station and we ran into a Chinese student who had never heard the Gospel of Christ once and we had the opportunity to lead him to Jesus Christ.

you know? there are many Chinese who believe that Creation was all created by birds. If you go to Mongolia and ask: who made us? the birds will tell you, they believe in that. And to be able to tell them: no, there is a God, there is a Creator, a living, real, creative God. Do you know? In the world there are two and a half billion people who have not heard the Gospel. How will they listen if there is no one to preach to them, how will they know if we do not go to them?

Downtown Boston is an amazing place to preach the Gospel. I would tell you that half the world goes through the Downtown crossing, you have to know about forty languages to be able to speak there in that place. One time I got to sit there with Turks, they had never heard of Jesus like that in a personal way. They are so curious about Jesus, they ask him a thousand questions, most of them are not going to accept Christ on that first occasion but they have never heard the message. Brothers, sisters, do you know who lives in your city?

The world has come to you and yet we spend the day at home, in the stores, at work, why not give Jesus a little time and have a personal experience with Him?

You know when you have that personal experience with Christ wonderful things happen. By the way, another Church that we planted there we added 300 people to that other Congregation, if you want to check them Erdenet is the city in Mongolia where we added these two churches, a truly amazing story. But when one hears these stories one can then tell them to young people like these.

And yesterday Joe Campbell, who was playing soccer with you? The players come here, the young people who were playing soccer, they were playing soccer with some Vietnamese, all Vietnamese yesterday. And these guys have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ before and at the end of the game they had, Joe tell them what happened.

Joe: So at the end of the game I asked: can I pray for you or with you? and they were very open, they were attentive, they had never heard about Jesus Christ before. So I prayed with about ten of them and each one of them accepted Jesus Christ.

Pastor: And one has the opportunity to transmit this type of stories to young people like these, thank you, good job. I remember one time my son was in Dorchester one time and he was in one of these home projects over there he was ministering and he would describe it as the crowd and the group was ahead of him, and there was another guy way over there on top of him. He stood on a ladder and God said to him: Jeremy grab him.

Jeremy is 6'3'' so Jeremy went after this guy and the guy started running and Jeremy went after him and grabbed him and the guy said what do you want, what do you want? Do you know you have to give everything, you have to give everything for Jesus. My wife and I have given everything all the time we give everything, I cannot tell you how many times I have had the privilege of emptying my wallet of all money, I assure you it is not a big deal because there is not much money but you transmit that to people.

So the guy says: you know? I don't care what you have to tell me. And Jeremy had just bought a very expensive watch and he said to this guy: if you let me tell you this story that I have to tell, I'll give you this watch and the guy looked at it and said: alright, go ahead, you've got me; It is a very nice watch I like it.

It is good to relate these things to your children, what matters is the Kingdom of God. So this man, this male listens to Jeremy for 30 minutes and tells him: you don't know who I am, I am the owner of the drug business, I control and sell drugs in this neighborhood. And Jeremy looks at him and says: let me tell you something this is a very important and significant moment in your life, your life is now hanging in the balance, this is not a decision that you can put off until tomorrow.

And he says: do you know me? Jeremy tells him: no, I don't know you. He tells him: I'm going to court tomorrow, it's already my third strike, the judge is probably going to put me in jail and Jeremy tells him: if your life is hanging in the balance right now, what are you going to do? and he asks: what can Christ do for me? Jeremy tells him: well the first thing he's going to do is transform your life, he asks him: are you going to get me out of jail? well no, you are probably going to go to jail for all the time you have to go but the Lord is going to be with you for all the time you are there and he says to him: well I am going to give my life to Jesus.

So this man prayed with Jeremy and then he asked him, well what do I do tomorrow? And Jeremy tells him: well, do something you've never done, tell the judge the whole truth, you're crazy, he told him, he's going to put me in jail for 30 years, not 20, and Jeremy tells him: see if you tell the truth, God will be with you. If you lie like you always do, the Lord will walk away from you so tell the truth.

Do you know what happened? this man went to court the next few days, threw it all in front of the judge. The judge was absolutely surprised, if someone independently wants to know the name of this person I can tell them and the judge said this to this man: I have known you since you were a young man, this is the first time you have told me the truth. Your life says the judge is different, you will not go to jail; I'll keep you out of jail. A true story.

This guy never sold a single drug again, he cut himself off on the bargains, he texted and texted Jeremy almost every day and you know what he was asking him about? Biblical questions, he couldn't leave the Bible, he fell in love with it, he was reading the Bible four or five hours a day, his life was transformed, he goes to Church on Blue Hill Avenue and now he is one of the leaders of his Church, look what God can do when one transmits the Gospel.

It's always interesting to me I've always been on the mission field, we've been to many parts of the world, we've lived in Europe many times, and once I ended up again in the same building where I told this story in Concorde New Hampshire, and so on as I walked down this building and I remembered I said: wow Lord this is where it all began, it was here the story of the shoes where I first met you, it was here the first adventure. For me Jesus Christ is everything, it is He alone.

So at that time there in Concorde in that building I knelt down and worshiped the Lord and I thank the Lord for that personal, intimate relationship with Him. And after that I went to church and I was there worshiping the Lord and there was a lady close to me and at the moment I saw her turn around violently and began to stare at me like that, I checked my clothes to see if everything was fine, everything was fine. Then the woman left.

I said: good. I continued to worship the Lord, the service ended and I am in the reception of the Church and this woman comes in again and tells me: during the service God spoke to me, he told me to leave the Church, go to Maysey's store and buy the best pair of Italian leather-soled shoes I could find there and give them to you, and the Lord even told me your shoe size.

And do you know what the Lord was saying to me at that moment? and I want you to get this. Just as we enjoy Him and His Presence so much He enjoys us, He enjoys, He wants to be intimate with us, He loves it when you go crazy and worship Him and spend that time with Him so brothers, sisters: spend time with Him. He is not deaf, he keeps talking, he knew you before you were born, he knows what you need; He wants to take that relationship even further because sooner or later you're going to find out something.

I remember a time when I was managing a school and a man came to the school, the guy was crazy, he offended everyone and I said to him: what are you doing in my school? He says: hey I don't like you I don't want to have anything to do with you but God ordered me, he told me that I had to be here. I said: ok tremendous. We always divided into small groups, everyone in my small group abandoned me and I said: tell me your story.

He said: I'm a Vietnam Veteran. When I was in Vietnam one time I got drunk because my best friend had just died next to me and then I started taking drugs. So I went to a village that same day drunk, high, took my machine gun and killed everyone I could that day. I went to jail for 20 years.

I had psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, everyone trying to help me. And I told him: with my school we are going to New York and we do evangelism and he said: I am going with you. He came with us and there we are in a park in Brooklyn, I start talking to a guy who is homeless and this man tells us: hey I have a story that I want to share with you. I am a Vietnam veteran tells us this man.

And he says: when I was in Vietnam there was a young man with a bomb on his back and this suicidal young man with a bomb on his back was going towards 20 soldiers and this homeless man says: I shot and killed the young man but I have never I couldn't recover from that so he says: now I am homeless on purpose, what I want to do is torment myself for the rest of my life for having killed that young man.

And I told him: well, look, I have a guy here who did something much more horrible than what you did, he is a Christian and he needs to talk to you. So the three of them are there and the three of them start talking. The Pastor says: hey me too, I was a helicopter pilot and these three started talking; The interesting thing is that these two traumatized men had once been with this Pastor in the same helicopter that he was driving. This man, the first one who came with me, who had killed, massacred all these people in Vietnam, who was depressed every day of his life, despite being a Christian, despite being seeking God, despite being in my class, listens to the testimony, the account of this other man points to him and says: I am going to tell you the following, there is no sin that you can commit that God cannot forgive.

And when he said this for the first time in his life as he said it he found out for himself that it was also true for his own life and he also received deliverance by his own Word and began to worship the Lord and forgot about the other man, and came home with us; this was in New Hampshire and this first traumatized veteran then brought his psychiatrist and psychologists and social workers to Christ because they said see if you can change God is real.

So when you do something for Christ He sets you free, He works miracles in your own life. And then one says: well I can tell others about Christ but I don't want to, but when one simply does it out of obedience not desire He puts us in situations that will bring liberation while we testify, they will liberate our own life and then one can experience the Grace of God in a personal way. Amen? hey, good stuff, what do you think? Amen.