Engage Your Destiny - Ben Peterson

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to pray dot com. I'm Ben Peterson, the CEO
and founder of Engage Your Destiny. Please follow this profile
for more engaging content that we have crafted specifically for
military veterans and the warriors at heart. Also head to
our website to see how you can support ministry to
our active duty military. Now I charge you to take

(00:21):
today's message and use it to engage your destiny. Hello,
and welcome to the Engage Your Destiny podcast, where your

(00:44):
destiny is our mission. Guys, it's great to be with
you this week. I know we've been out of the
loop the last couple weeks. There's been a lot of
travel as we are expanding our ministry to our locations
and God is really opening a lot of doors around
the country and around the world. But I wanted to
bring a very specific message to you today, not to

(01:04):
get political or to choose political sides, but to be
a voice into the times that we're in. And I
feel a deep conviction that it's so important to talk
about what is happening in our world and the events
that are taking place, and to bring us back to
what the Bible says and really what I feel God
calling us to in this hour, which I know in
the future and at different times, may not be popular

(01:24):
and it may not go with the standard of culture,
but that's not what God has called us to. In
a time of a lot of confusion and chaos, I
want to bring us back to a place of peace
and trust in God. And that's why I want to
deliver a short reflection on the assassination attempt of Donald Trump.

(01:46):
Last Saturday, as my wife was putting our son down
for an app, I got a text message from saying
has Donald Trump been shot? Question mark? And immediately seeing that,
I thought no way. I went and went on social
media and then I turned, you know, on the news
and saw the footage and I was like, oh, it

(02:06):
looks like they looks like they stopped it from happening.
And then and then the footage continued to develop as
this was it within minutes of it happening. And then
I saw the blood pouring down his face. And I'll
be honest, in that time, I was shocked. I was disturbed,
and I was angry, and I began to really look at,

(02:28):
you know, what was taking place, and as it began
to unfold, being even more honest with you, I wept.
I was so angry as to what our country has
become and how violence is being used to stop freedom
and to halt liberty. And that is where I believe

(02:49):
that we are in a very dangerous hour in this nation,
as there are people who do not want freedom to
take place where humans, where people with God given rights
have the ability to run for office, to speak their mind,
to live in freedom without being murdered or killed or

(03:13):
being abused in any way for following the convictions of
what they believe is right and is true. And I
really look at the situation and this is what is
taking place right now. Is one of the reasons that
I love America. I love that we live in a
place where freedom has to be fought for. It makes

(03:34):
me angry and upset that it is being fought for
in this way. But after processing it, I really came
to the conclusion that I would rather live in a
place where true freedom has to be fought for, where
true freedom has to be taken a stand for. Otherwise

(03:54):
you're living in a place where control has taken over,
and you're in a country where you do not have
personal freedoms. And this is the great experiment of America.
This is the great experiment of what it means to
be an American and to have the freedom of opposing
views and people not believing and not agreeing with you.
But I think it's incredibly sad that anytime great men

(04:19):
have risen up to fight and to fight for freedom,
they've been attacked. And so now Donald Trump is with
the names of some of the greatest people in the
history of our country, of Ronald Reagan, of Teddy Roosevelt,
of Abraham Lincoln, of John F. Kennedy, of Bobby Kennedy,
and these were all men that had deep conviction and
were standing. They were standing for truth, and they had

(04:42):
great beliefs in what they were doing, that it was true,
and that it was fighting for the common man in
every way. And so with that, as I share some
of the emotions and the things that I struggled with
and how angry I was, But then the reflection of
how what we experienced last Saturday is why the cause
of freedom is so worth it. I began to look

(05:04):
at God's word, and you know, I could get into
all my personal political beliefs here, but this is not
the space for that. At this time. I want to
draw us back to God and what we're called to.
And this is where this last week I have devoted
much more time to pray and to spend time with God,
and to pray for our country, to pray for our leaders,
to pray for our place in the world, as we

(05:25):
are the most powerful nation in the world. And I
don't think people truly grasp but the decisions that are
made from Washington d c ripple down and they effect
to the four corners of the world. I'm reading from
Acts chapter twelve, verses one through twelve, and I think
it's worth it to take the time to look at
these scriptures and to reflect on a very similar time
where people were being murdered for the cause of freedom
and for the cause of Christ. It says in verse

(05:48):
one about that time Herod the King laid violent hands
on some who belonged to the Church. He killed James,
the brother of John, with the sword, and when he
saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter,
also was during the days of unleavened bread, and when
he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering
him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him.
Intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people.

(06:10):
So Peter was kept in prison, but ernest prayer for
him was made to God by the church. So I'm
gonna pause there before continue reading and really look at
So we have two characters here in antiquity. We have James,
the brother of John, who's murdered, and we have Peter
who's been kept in prison. Two specific people. And then
what takes place is earnest prayer is made for Peter

(06:33):
by the church. And then let's see what happens next. Now,
when Herod was about to bring him out, on that
very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with
two chains, and centuries before the door were guarding the prison.
And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to
him in a light shone in his cell. He struck
Peter on the side and woke him up, saying, get
up quickly, and the chains fell off his hands, and

(06:54):
the angel said to him, dress yourself and put on
your sandals, and he did so. And he said to him,
wrap your cloak around you and follow me. And he
went out and followed him. He did not know what
was being done by the angel was real but thought
he was having a vision. When they had passed the
first and second guard, they came to the iron gate
leading into the city. It opened for them on its
own accord, and they went out and went along one street,

(07:16):
and immediately the angel left him. When Peter came to himself,
he said, now I am sure that the Lord has
sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of
Herod from all that the Jewish people were expecting. When
he realized this, he went to the house of Mary,
the mother of John, whose name was Mark, where there
were many gathered together and were praying. Here's the point.

(07:37):
We have two examples here, two characters from ancient antiquity.
One is James, the brother of John, the other is Peter.
One is brutally murdered for his faith and for freedom,
and the other is spared. And the catalyst to this
entire experience in what saves Peter's life is the church praying.
And so we see in Acts twelve, verse five that

(08:00):
Peter's kept in prison but ernest prayers made for him.
Then the rescue takes place, and as Peter then goes
to Mary's house, he then sees that everyone is still
praying here's the point in the hour that we're in.
If we do not pray for our country, people are
going to die. And when in these scriptures the church

(08:21):
rises up and steps into a place of faith, a
place of boldness, a place of actually making an impact
through their faith, through their consecrated prayers, this is what
shifts the culture and the entire atmosphere of what is
possible in Peter being saved from prison and an angel
coming and actually protecting him and saving him. And if

(08:41):
we look at what took place with Donald Trump, it
was within millimeters of us sitting here talking about the
death of a former president as opposed to him being
saved and merely nicked by that bullet. And so the
fact of the matter is is that we are called
in this hour not to judge, not to hate, not
to blame, and not to a hughes, but to pray.

(09:01):
We are called a step into the place of going
before the almighty God, who we actually have to believe
can do the things like setting Peter free from prison,
like saving Donald Trump in that moment. And we have
to believe that God is on our side and that
he can do exceedingly abundantly above anything we could ever ask,
one think or imagine. And this is where what we're
all yearning for in this moment, what we are all

(09:23):
struggling for, and what we all want is justice. Even
today is the Secretary of Secret Service is standing before
the Commission and she is giving her answers and being
berated and attacked for what she did or didn't do,
which I have no problem with. She needs to be
held accountable. As all of this is taking place, we
are all wanting and looking for justice so that the

(09:43):
right prices are paid. And this is where I want
to call us back to scripture and what God calls
us to do as Christians in Romans twelve nineteen to
twenty one. And this may be uncomfortable for some of
you and most of us. It says, beloved, never avenge yourselves.
That is a form of avenging, of revenge, of taking
actual action for yourself in a time of in a

(10:05):
time of violence. But it says, leave it to the
wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine,
and I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary.
If your enemy is hungry, feed him, if he is thirsty,
give him something to drink. For by doing so, you
will keep burning coals on his head. Do not overcome
by evil, but overcome evil with good. Guys. This is

(10:29):
not popular, this is not fun, This is not what
anyone wants to hear. But it is the word of God.
It is the inspired word of God through Paul, where
he is in a time where the Church is under
immense persecution and they want to take the fight into
their hands and use violence as part of their weapons
of how they're going to do warfare. But God's word
says it is not by Mighty, it is not by power,

(10:50):
but it's by My Spirit. And so if we want
to see a change in our nation that is not
going to create cataclysmic events one after another that are
going to cause more violence and more insanity in our
word world, we have to turn to God in prayer
because vengeance is his, justice is his. And if we
want to see justice on the things that have been
done of the people that are trying to destroy the
cause of freedom by trying to kill Donald Trump, then

(11:13):
we are only going to create more evil by using
the same tools that they are using. We will overcome evil,
not with evil, We will overcome evil by doing good.
And so what does that come back to. That means
praying for our country, That means praying for our leaders,
That means praying for justice. That means putting our faith
in God and not in our hands alone. So often

(11:35):
in life we want to take things into our own
hands when things struggle, when when we're in a bad situation,
and yet God is always trying to teach us that
we need to go to him first. We need to
turn to him first, We need to cast our cares
on him, knowing how much he cares for us well.
So I mean, if he's trying to do that in
your personal life, then why wouldn't he want you to
do that on a national scale with the future of
our country and the most powerful country in the world.

(11:56):
Now is the time not for vengeance, not for rebellion.
Now is not the time to turn and try to
gather and to create more us in them. But it
is to pray and to pray to the Lord of Hosts,
the Lord of the harvest, for his work to be done.

(12:19):
We are not here to seek revenge. We're here to
seek that which cannot be found on this earth, and
that is what is found in heaven, and it is
his will being done on the earth, and him bringing
the avenging, him bringing the vengeance, him bringing the repayment.
He's called us to feed our enemies. He's called us

(12:42):
to give them a drink. He's called us to do good.
And so this is where we ask the Holy Spirit
to show us where we can do good in the earth,
where we can bring love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness,
and self control. And I'm reminded of the screw Tape
letters in one of the moments where the demons are

(13:03):
having a conversation around how much they love war and
how much they love violence because it only creates more pain.
The people that survive the war and survive the violence
come home with PTSD and with trauma that they then
spread that trauma to their kids and to their families,
and on and on and on and on it goes.
And this is where we have to pause, and this
is where we have to recognize that we are not

(13:25):
in an earthly battle of flesh and blood and trying
to kill you know, bad ideologies or ideas or people.
We are in a spiritual war, not flighting by might
or flesh, by by the spirit. We are in a
place where the enemy is trying to use all of
these things to bring more hate, so that he can
bring more destruction and fear and anarchy. But God is

(13:46):
not calling us there. He's calling us to be agents
of peace and of love and delayed on our lives
so that we can advance the gospel, which is that
for God so loved the world that he gave his
only son, and then whoever may believe in him will
not perish, but have everlasting life. And so that is
where we are called to be agents of peace, agents

(14:07):
of prosperity in the souls of men. And we are
called to be the people that are going to lay
down our lives for another. And if the time comes
where the lines are drawn, the only person that we
can truly look to for our answers to lead us
into guide us is the Holy God who founded this
great nation and wanted to create a place where freedom

(14:31):
could live, so that men could worship freely without tyranny.
And so let us not be agents of tyranny as
tyranny is taking place, but to the agents of love
and of peace and to bring the Kingdom of the
Gospel into this madness. Thank you so much, and God
bless you