April 24, 2025 • 32 mins
In this conversation, Doug Greathouse interviews Daniel Ochoa, author of 'Time is Running Out.' Daniel shares his personal journey of faith, the importance of spiritual growth, and the urgency of being prepared for the return of Christ. They discuss the significance of biblical prophecy, the need for discernment in a world filled with conflicting messages, and the role of personal testimony in witnessing to others. Daniel emphasizes the importance of examining one's faith and living a life that reflects a true commitment to following Jesus.
takeaways
- Daniel's journey from a nominal Christian to a committed follower of Christ.
- The importance of reading the Bible for transformation, not just information.
- Witnessing and sharing personal testimony as powerful tools for evangelism.
- The urgency of being spiritually prepared for the return of Christ.
- Understanding biblical prophecy as a means of preparation, not fear.
- The significance of accountability in the Christian faith.
- Daily habits that foster spiritual growth and readiness.
- The role of discernment in navigating prophetic voices and teachings.
- The need for a balance between grace and accountability in the church.
- Living with the awareness that time is running out for everyone.
Sound Bites
- "Walking in faith means staying in obedience."
- "God's biggest desire is our transformation."
- "We need a balance of grace and accountability."
- "You will know them by their works."
- "I want to help you be a better follower of Jesus."
- "Time is running out for all of us."
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Background
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Doug Greathouse (00:05.966)Daniel, can hear me. I am doing great. Just to know, just to let you know, because sometimes surprising, as soon as you hop in the room, we start going live on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube. So we are live, but we do the recording live. Everybody knows like we're going to do the run through at the beginning. I just want to make you aware that we're live on social channels right now.
(00:01):
Daniel Ochoa (00:08.349)Doug, how are you doing?
Daniel Ochoa (00:32.457)Okay.
Doug Greathouse (00:34.914)The correct way to say your last name is Ochoa, is that right? All right, nice, nice. And you can hear me just fine, all the audio is good? All right, and you're good with everything that I sent you beforehand? You just had a chance to look that over? Awesome, awesome. Any questions for me before we get started?
Daniel Ochoa (00:37.425)Yes, that is correct.
Daniel Ochoa (00:43.368)Everything's good.
Daniel Ochoa (00:48.434)I did.
Daniel Ochoa (00:54.313)no. I think I'm good.
Doug Greathouse (00:57.294)All right, I'm going to, of course, edit this part out of the official recording that goes live. And I'll kind of do a countdown, and then we'll actually get started for the recording, unless you have any questions before we get started.
Daniel Ochoa (01:08.881)No, I think I'm good.
Doug Greathouse (01:11.252)Awesome, awesome. right. Three, two, one. Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the Profitable Christian Business. I am so pleased to have my guest Daniel Ochoa with me today. He has authored an amazing book. I believe it's called Time is Running Out. We're gonna dive into exactly what that means. It's Good Friday everybody. it is, I think it's almost opportunistic.
that Daniel is joining us on Good Friday today because I think we're going dive into a lot of things about Jesus and His coming back. So, happy to have you here, Daniel.
Daniel Ochoa (01:46.311)Well, thank you. I'm glad to be here.
Doug Greathouse (01:49.302)All right, so first I want you to kind of give a brief introduction about yourself. Tell a little bit about your book. We're going to dive into it a little bit later, but tell us a little bit who you are, why you wrote the book, all of that.
Daniel Ochoa (01:59.219)Well, you know, I grew up in a Catholic family and, you know, I was brought up Catholic and, you know, I discovered one Christmas morning that there was no Santa Claus and my mother explained to me the truth about Christmas, but her knowledge of Scripture was very limited. And she basically just told me that Christmas is about Jesus's birth. And that was pretty much it. And I'll tell you, Doug, for the next 33 years or so, God was like Santa Claus to me.
I just felt that as long as I was living a decent life, what I felt was a good life and respecting others and doing the right thing, that I was in good standing with God. And it wasn't until my early thirties that I was sitting in in church and the pastor was talking about the road to heaven and hell. And when he said that the road to heaven is very narrow and only a few find it.
Doug Greathouse (02:29.58)Mmm.
Daniel Ochoa (02:50.695)I mean, that was like a wake up call. I didn't hear anything after that. I just pictured this eight lane highway in the middle of rush hour and all these people on the eight lanes that's going to hell and then an off ramp. Every once in a while a car getting off, they're going to heaven. And I kept hearing my conscience telling me, what makes you think you're on that off ramp? Just because you go to church? Because you own a Bible? I mean, it really...
affected me, Doug. I mean, it bothered me. And I went to the pastor after the sermon and I said, you know, ask him if we could have lunch. He said, sure, we had lunch a few days later. He explained the gospel, but then he did something that no one else ever did. He told me there's a cost to follow Jesus.
And, you know, he said, now we're lucky living in America. It's not going to cost us our life where it does in other parts of the country. He said, but it's going to cost you your time. It's going to cost your finances may cost your reputation may cost friends, but it's going to cost you. And I'll tell you, that was an eye opener. And that night I got on my knees and I accepted Christ and I've never looked back and I was, I've been fully committed. And what made me write the book was.
After that experience, I realized how many of my friends, how many other people that go to church every Sunday were just like me. Because at that time when I heard the sermon, I'd been going to church for about seven years. I've been involved in Sunday school classes. I've, you know, involved in church activities, but it really, I never really died to myself, if that makes sense.
Doug Greathouse (04:24.588)Yeah, wow. We're going to dive into all of that. was actually talking to a friend yesterday and I told her that you were coming on today. She's like, I would have so many questions to ask. I was like, well, hopefully I do well and I ask the questions for you and we get those questions that she wanted answered. But I like to kind of start off kind of fun. So we're to have some getting to know you questions first beforehand. So if you could time travel to any biblical event and witness it firsthand, where would you go?
(00:22):
Daniel Ochoa (04:33.009)Yeah.
Doug Greathouse (04:54.614)and why.
Daniel Ochoa (04:56.039)I think I would go to the book of Acts, that time period, the first church, and only because, you know, I know every, most people would pick a time with Jesus, and I would love to see a time with Jesus, but I'll tell you, when I did a study on Paul and saw how committed he was after being stoned, after being shipwrecked, after being flogged, and he just kept going, you know, I'd like to see that.
Doug Greathouse (04:59.629)Mmm.
Doug Greathouse (05:22.168)Yeah, yeah, man, talk about dedication.
Daniel Ochoa (05:25.069)yeah.
Doug Greathouse (05:28.364)Yeah, that would be awesome. What's one normal daily habit that has had the biggest impact on your spiritual life?
Daniel Ochoa (05:35.495)I think reading God's Word. But it's not just reading it for information, it's reading it for transformation.
Doug Greathouse (05:43.674)Yes, let's kind of dive into that a little bit because I know a lot of people, they think, okay, I'm doing well. read, like I, for instance, have the daily Bible app on my phone, right? And I read that every day. But are you doing it just to check something off your list, right? That you're being a good Christian or are you really doing it so that you can get to know him and get to know his word and to live your life according to the way that he wants you to live it, right?
Daniel Ochoa (06:06.181)Right. Yeah, you know, I've always said that going to church, reading the Bible, going to Sunday school class, that's the easy part. The hard part is taking what you're learning and actually applying it in your Monday mornings.
Doug Greathouse (06:18.798)Yeah. And I do a lot of business coaching as well. And a lot of it comes down to that. I can tell you all the things that you need to do. Right. And you can read it like I once had when I was actually in the career when I had a career. I once was getting going up for a promotion and I said, I've read all these books, all these books on leadership, management, all these things. And my guy that was interviewing me said, I don't care how many books you read. How many of those books have you applied? Right.
Daniel Ochoa (06:45.393)Yeah.
Doug Greathouse (06:47.296)It's one thing to have the knowledge, it's almost useless to have the knowledge and not apply it.
Daniel Ochoa (06:51.785)Yeah, I always like using the example of being on a diet. Just because you buy a diet book doesn't mean you're on a diet. Just because you read it doesn't mean you're on a diet. It's when you start applying what you're reading into your daily life that you're now on a diet.
Doug Greathouse (06:59.042)That's right.
Doug Greathouse (07:07.746)Yeah, yeah, yeah, awesome. hopefully, and hopefully that may convict a few people that might be watching this and say, well, I might need to actually start applying some of these things in the Bible that I'm reading and not just checking it off my list. My next question for you is if someone made a movie about your life, what would the title be and who would play you?
Daniel Ochoa (07:28.967)my gosh. I would say the title, you know, I always tell people that my life is like Forrest Gump. And the reason is, is because if you've seen the movie, have you seen the movie? Okay. You know, he goes through a lot, but things always work out for him. And when I look at my life, you know, I've lost everything twice.
Doug Greathouse (07:30.925)You
Doug Greathouse (07:42.198)I have, yeah, a couple times.
Daniel Ochoa (07:51.353)I've started several businesses that failed. and, but things always just work out, you know, I'm not rich, you know, by no means, but God does take care of me and, and I don't know. And I have a passion to wake people up. So I think the name of the movie would be, you know, on a dark road, waking up to sleep in something like that. And, as far as who would play me, I would, I would say Jim, Jim Cavie. So, and, and now.
Doug Greathouse (08:11.714)Wow. Wow.
(00:43):
Doug Greathouse (08:17.998)Yeah, he's played the biggest role in history.
Daniel Ochoa (08:21.393)Yeah, not because he played Jesus in the passion, it's because how bold he is to his faith.
Doug Greathouse (08:27.094)Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. I love Jim Cavisio. We do a thing called the fill-in-the-blank question on every one of these Prophet Christian Business episodes. So your fill-in-the-blank question is, walking in faith means blank, even when blank.
Daniel Ochoa (08:44.859)Walking in faith means staying in obedience even when it goes against the worldview.
Doug Greathouse (08:53.676)Hmm. Yes, that's been something that's been going on in my life lately. I found the more obedient the things more things tend to work out for me. Right. It's just funny how life life works like that when when you do the right things like you're supposed to do, even when it sometimes doesn't make worldly sense how it just tends to work out in your favor.
Daniel Ochoa (09:02.001)Yeah.
Daniel Ochoa (09:13.873)Yeah.
Doug Greathouse (09:16.646)We also do a question called the secret question and our secret question is, or your secret question rather, is what is the secret to turning your testimony into the greatest tool for impact?
Daniel Ochoa (09:27.281)I think it's telling the whole truth. Even the parts that you wish you didn't want to tell. And I think, you I do that in my book. You know, I share about my divorce. I share about how I lost the house over just, you know, making a bad decision. I share about how I got into drugs. And I think when you share the truth and, you know, the apostles did this, you know, when you look at the New Testament.
You know, I'm sure that they didn't want to put in there that Peter denied Jesus three times, but I think that's what makes it so reliable. And I think when I witnessed the people, you know, I share my story and if they ask me tough questions, I share the truth because I think it, it makes them understand, how, how can I say this? It, it makes it more real for their life.
Doug Greathouse (10:22.434)Yeah, yeah. I was just having a conversation with someone the other day might actually been on the podcast about you don't win people over by, you know, just reciting the rules of the Bible, right? You won them over through your testimony through, okay, this is where I was. I was I was in maybe not the same situation, but I was in a dire situation like you might be right. But I found Jesus and I found that Jesus always works things out for my good, right? For, his glory and my good. So
Daniel Ochoa (10:34.536)Right.
Doug Greathouse (10:51.854)I think that's powerful and not just, you you don't just take the rules and say, you got to follow these rules. wait, I don't want rules. I want a savior, right?
Daniel Ochoa (11:00.807)Right.
Doug Greathouse (11:04.436)Awesome, awesome. I have a question about what sparked your deep focus on biblical prophecy and end times teaching.
Daniel Ochoa (11:12.253)Well, it happened about eight years ago. I was working for a company and my brother was working for the same company and we had offices right down the hall from each other. And he got into this first and he would come to my office. Dan, I want to show you something in the Bible. And he'd show me something and he's trying to put pieces together. And I would throw out the famous verse that everybody throws out. Nobody knows the day of the hour. And I would say, Manuel, no one knows the day of the hour. And after about a month of this, of him coming in my office a couple of times a week, I finally said, Manuel.
Nobody knew about Jesus's first coming. What makes you think you're going to know his second coming? He said, that's not true. I said, who knew? He said, the wise men. And I'll tell you, Doug, something ignited in me that just, I started just going full force into eschatology.
Doug Greathouse (11:51.704)Hmm.
Doug Greathouse (11:59.714)Wow. So I never even thought about that. The wise men knew that that. Yeah. Yeah, that that's pretty crazy.
Daniel Ochoa (12:03.687)And the shepherd knew, the shepherds knew. Now they were told by the angel, but I think God's word tells us too.
Doug Greathouse (12:13.598)Now, I want to kind of go into the book a little bit. I have had not had the chance to read it. I'm going to pick it up for sure now that you've been a guest on the show. And I'll kind of get some inside hints as we go through this interview. I'll just go straight to what my what me and my friend were discussing the other day. One of the things that it points to in the end times is 10 Kings and I kind of had my mind trying to wrap around who are those 10 Kings?
(01:04):
Daniel Ochoa (12:38.441)Now, I don't have an answer for that and I don't even get into that in my book. I get more into the timing of Jesus's return because, know, after, like I said, when my brother said that the wise men knew and I said something inside of me, you know, lit on fire. You know, one night I was laying in bed and I thought to myself, did God really give us the book of Revelation, the book of Daniel, but then tell us you'll never figure it out? No.
Doug Greathouse (12:42.059)Okay.
Daniel Ochoa (13:04.753)So here's the key, Doug, that you and your viewers need to understand. And I'm not the one that figured all this out. So I hope your audience doesn't think that I'm some genius and I figured all this out. It's from following very educated people who've been studying eschatology for their whole life, practically.
and listening to them and then being able to put all the pieces together. But I ask the question, how does God in His wisdom keep people for the last 2000 years when Jesus came and the disciples asked Him when the end time would come, how does He keep people for 2000 years to think He could come at any day so that way we stay alert and we stay focused, we stay obedient, but then on the generation where He does come, how does He reveal it to them?
Well, it's a genius the way he did it. The main prophecy that needs to be fulfilled, which is the last piece of the puzzle, you don't allow it to be fulfilled until the last generation. And that's Israel becoming a nation in 1948. Without that, no one can figure out the timing that I talk about in my book.
Doug Greathouse (14:12.846)Mm-hmm.
Doug Greathouse (14:17.133)Yeah.
Doug Greathouse (14:20.652)Yeah, that's so true. you have any other? This I just know because I'm interested and the audience is interested. Can you point to anything other than Israel becoming a state as far as signs of what's coming?
Daniel Ochoa (14:34.377)Oh, I'm trying to think. Not really. mean, there's a lot of other prophecies before Israel becoming a nation, but that's the key that fulfills two prophecies. It fulfills the fig tree prophecy and it fulfills the Hosea prophecy. Those two prophecies, when you line it up with 1948, I mean, you're like, you can't argue it.
Doug Greathouse (14:58.818)Yeah, and you see the state of the world. think just the state of the world. think war, talks about wars, it talks about so many other things that are so evident in today's world, right?
Daniel Ochoa (15:12.039)Yeah, and what a lot of people don't know is when the disciples asked Jesus, when would this happen and what is the time? And Jesus started off with, there'll be false prophets, there'll be wars and rumors of wars, there'll be famine. Did you know that lines up perfectly with the seven seals in Revelation?
Doug Greathouse (15:29.87)Mm-hmm. I think I had someone point that out to me before as well. Yeah
Daniel Ochoa (15:33.265)Yeah, and so, you know, everybody always just dismisses that. Well, we've already had false prophets. We've had wars and wars. But why would Jesus... We have to ask the question, why would Jesus say there'll be wars and rumors of wars when there were wars and rumors of wars when he said it?
So why would he say it? Because he's talking about a specific wars and rumors of wars. And when it comes to the false prophet, it says that they will deceive many. We've never had, when you look at the world, you know, these people that claim to be Jesus and, you know, they had a couple hundred followers, that's not many when you're looking at it globally.
So I believe the first thing that is going to happen is there's going to be a false messiah. Now it doesn't have to be a Christian. It can be Islam. It can be for the Jews. It can be, you know, a new church where you're going to see millions of people follow them. And it's those false prophets that are going to start the wars and rumors of wars. They're going to ignite them.
Doug Greathouse (16:13.123)Mm-hmm.
Doug Greathouse (16:32.718)Yeah. Yeah. I'd love to know your insights into this. Like a lot of people dwell on this, right? They think Jesus is coming any minute. It puts a lot of fear. Like for me, it gives me hope and joy. for people, guess for people that aren't saved, it cause a lot of fear. And also even for those are saved, it gives fear for your relatives, fear for your friends that may not be saved, right? So how do you help move from panic to peace?
when it comes to that Jesus is coming.
Daniel Ochoa (17:05.641)I remind people that prophecy wasn't given to us to create fear in us. It was given to us to prepare us. I said, you know, a good example is the disciples. Jesus told them all that they were going to suffer greatly. And it wasn't to make them scared. It was to give them strength, to prepare them mentally. I mean, let's say that I'm wrong.
and about the timing and everything. I mean, I really haven't caused any damage to anybody that believes what I believe or to myself or my family. But if I'm right and I'm not mentally prepared, I mean, you know, the Bible talks about in First Thessalonians that God is going to send a great delusion. If you're not mentally prepared, you may fall into that delusion.
Doug Greathouse (17:52.035)Mm-hmm.
(01:25):
Doug Greathouse (17:58.178)Yeah, yeah. I was funny because I was away on a trip recently and I was talking to somebody and they were talking about how their son was just drifting. And that concept kind of comes into my mind. Often we are just comfortable, we are drifting, we're not really on mission. We're just sitting here in our comfort zones, not doing what God has called us to do or to be who God has called us to be because we, I think,
knowing that Jesus is coming, I think no matter when he's coming, we should have some sense of urgency, right, in fulfilling our mission for him. So, yeah, I'm glad you brought that up.
Daniel Ochoa (18:30.397)Yeah.
Doug Greathouse (18:38.22)So in your book, you emphasize urgency and action. We just talked about this. are one or two daily practices believers can implement to be spiritually ready?
Daniel Ochoa (18:46.883)I think we answered this in the previous question is, you know, reading God's word for transformation. If you're not being transformed, you're not going to be ready. I mean, you know, we learned in the Bible that God's biggest desire for our life is to be transformed to the likeness of His Son.
And if we're just reading for information, because that's what I did for six years. It was nice having the knowledge, but I wasn't applying it into my life. I just wanted the knowledge to look smart when I go to Sunday school class, you know, and I'm sitting there and I'm able to answer a question.
And I would say the other thing would be is to examine ourselves. Like Paul suggested that we examine ourselves every once in a while to see are we really in the faith or are we just going through the motions.
Doug Greathouse (19:39.118)Yeah, I know this is cliche and I think you to be of a certain age to remember this, what would Jesus do? Bracelets, right, that were out there. I think, yeah.
Daniel Ochoa (19:45.415)Yeah. And most of the, not to cut you off, but most of the people who wore those wouldn't know what Jesus would do.
Doug Greathouse (19:54.325)Right, but I was having a Bible study the other day with my church and this was an off-campus Bible study that we started and I was talking to the guys, was like, it was a men's Bible study and I said, you know, I just often think if Jesus was placed in our world today, how would he be interacting with people, right? I could see him at the grocery store encouraging people, right?
just loving on people. And I think sometimes we're just walking around in this world with our heads down, focused on self, right? We're not looking at the people around us and saying, how can I show them the light of Jesus? So, that would be my message for anyone watching this, like think about that. How, I know it's hard, we get so obsessed with self and we think, you know, let's look at the world around us. What would Jesus be doing in yours?
Daniel Ochoa (20:32.346)Right.
Doug Greathouse (20:48.526)When you go to the grocery store, what would Jesus do in that situation? If he sees somebody that's struggling or feels like they have maybe an unhappy face on, he'd want to see why they have that unhappy face and encourage them. So, awesome. So how has your personal relationship with God changed as you studied end times prophecy?
Daniel Ochoa (20:59.913)All
Daniel Ochoa (21:08.049)Well, when I first became a Christian and I realized for six or seven years, I've been going to church and I wasn't even saved. you know, I became on fire and I witnessed to hundreds of people in my lifetime, you know, in stores, on a plane, you know, everywhere. you know, every time I talk to people, if a door opens up, I'm going to use that opportunity to try to talk about God.
And when I started studying eschatology, now back up a little bit, when I was doing that, witnessing to hundreds of people, I had a job where I had to travel and visit clients all day long. And so it gave me a lot of opportunities, but then I got a job where I was sitting in an office. And so I didn't have the opportunity like I had. I would still witness, you know, when, when opportunities came. But as I got into eschatology, I'm telling you, the fire is active again about
wanting to witness to people not about end times, just about are they right with God? You know, and I am on fire to witness to Christians about end times. So those who are believers, want them to see what I see. But the problem, Doug, is no one wants to hear it. I tell people all the time, give me an hour and a half, a Bible and a whiteboard. And let me show you what I've learned in the past eight years.
Doug Greathouse (22:10.776)Yeah.
Daniel Ochoa (22:30.083)and you see for yourself, but no one has taken me up on that challenge.
Doug Greathouse (22:36.642)Yeah, that's crazy. It's crazy how we prioritize worldly things over getting right with God. Right. And I think it goes back. I think your book, Time is Running Out, people don't believe that. I think that's part of what it is, is people think and it's we had this conversation about young people the other day is that they think they have all the time in the world. Right. Like sometimes they can't they don't figure out what they want to do with their lives, et cetera, because they think they have all the time in the world.
Daniel Ochoa (22:41.725)Yeah.
(01:46):
Doug Greathouse (23:04.46)The same can be applied to our spiritual life. We think we have all the time in the world to do what God has called us to do, but we need to take some urgency to it, right?
Daniel Ochoa (23:12.775)Yeah. Alexander Sholdaneatsen said this, you know, we're always complaining that life is short, but we live each day as if there's no end to them.
Doug Greathouse (23:23.694)That's very, very true. Yeah, yeah. I also want to know this. So what role does spiritual discernment play in navigating a world filled with other prophetic voices and all these conspiracy theories?
Daniel Ochoa (23:36.033)my gosh, you know, I always tell people because a lot of times people don't want to hear what I have to say or I try to point out something and I say, look, look for yourself.
You you gotta read the Bible for yourself and discern for yourself what the Bible is actually saying. And, you know, because the world's gonna tell us one thing. And I think, you know, when you are talking about, you know, people think they have all the time in the world, I think that's one of Satan's big deceptions that he's doing is to convince people that we are not at the end times and that you got plenty of time.
Doug Greathouse (24:17.358)Very true, yeah. Yeah, that's crazy. And I think, you know, we have a yearning a lot of times. Now, I think there's a happy medium, you know. I think if you go to a church that's all doom and gloom and fire and brimstone, I don't think that's the answer. But also just going to a church that makes you feel good, I don't think is the answer either. Right. So I think there needs to be a little bit of both. God loves us. We know that, right. But there is...
Daniel Ochoa (24:36.32)Yeah. No.
Doug Greathouse (24:46.954)also the world and the devil out there, right?
Daniel Ochoa (24:48.507)Right. Yeah, I've always said that, you know, I think one of the biggest mistakes that churches make today is it's all about grace. There's no accountability of man. And we need to bring that back. mean, we need a balance of both. Yes, it is all grace. But our accountability to God shows whether or not we truly believe. I mean, it's like James said, you know, works without faith or faith without works is dead.
Doug Greathouse (24:56.524)Mm-hmm. Right.
Daniel Ochoa (25:14.945)And, you know, I always like using the example, you know, if you go up to an apple tree and you see the apples and they look delicious, you can tell the apples don't give the tree life. It just shows that the tree has good life. And that's what our works do. It shows whether or not we truly believe. And that's why Jesus said, you will know them by their works.
Doug Greathouse (25:15.811)Yeah.
Doug Greathouse (25:29.879)Yeah.
Doug Greathouse (25:37.73)Yeah, yeah, yeah, you cannot like, once you've been in, I'm even just sidestep the word Christian. Once you've been in relationship with Jesus for a while, right? Because I really believe that's what you strive for is relationship with Jesus. You don't strive to be a Christian, right? Christian is just a label. You can then, you can look at someone else that kind of has said, yeah, I'm a Christian. And you can, through the spiritual discernment, you can say, yeah, but you're not should bearing the fruit, right?
Daniel Ochoa (26:06.429)Yeah.
Doug Greathouse (26:07.534)You might have some spiritual immaturity about you, guess, right?
Daniel Ochoa (26:13.181)Yeah, you know, it's funny you're saying that you didn't like using the word Christian. When people ask me if I'm a Christian, I always say no. And they say, what are you? I say, I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. And the reason I do that is because Christian, you know, the meaning of Christian has lost its true meaning decades ago. And when you say you're a follower of Jesus Christ, it just shows it has more teeth. You're more committed.
Doug Greathouse (26:22.848)Exactly, yo.
Doug Greathouse (26:38.274)Yeah, I totally agree with that. totally agree with that. Yep. So anybody that I interact with now, that is like what my heart is. It's like, I want to help you be a better follower of Jesus Christ. I don't want to help you be a Christian. I want to help you know the Lord. So, yeah, that is awesome. So thank you, Daniel. This has been a great, great interview. If you would just tell us a little bit about more about your book and where people can find it.
Daniel Ochoa (26:52.446)Yeah.
Daniel Ochoa (27:06.045)Okay, well 80 % of the book, know, the subtitle of the book is called, Am I Really in Good Standing with God? So 80 % of the book is about that. It, you know, it walks you through the whole process. You know, chapter one, you're going to learn who God really is. You're going to learn the true meaning of Christmas. Chapter two is called,
(02:07):
changing the road I'm on. Once you recognize who God is, you're on a new road. You gave up your old life, you're on a new life. Doesn't mean you quit your job and you change everything, but you are on a new road. Chapter three is called relationships and it gets into, okay, now that you're on this new road, it's about building a relationship with God. And then chapter four is called kingdom minded. Okay, now that you have a relationship with God,
your focus should be more Kingdom minded than Earth minded now. And it will slowly change. And what does that look like? All these chapters talk about what that road looks like, the obstacles that you're going to face. And then chapter five is time is running out. And that's where I get into all the prophecy and all that and why I believe that we are the generation that's going to see the return of Christ. And, you know, and we narrow it down to, you know, a pretty significant timeline.
Doug Greathouse (28:21.998)So that, I love how you outlined that because it's kind of like we were just talking about, how do you get into a better relationship with the Lord, with Jesus Christ? And you take the idea that time is running out, now is the time to get a better relationship with Jesus. So.
Daniel Ochoa (28:40.849)And I do put Doug in the last chapter, you know, could I be wrong? Yes. And I put, but it doesn't change the fact that time is running out for all of us. There's no guarantee that any of us are going to put our heads on our pillow tonight. No. Yup.
Doug Greathouse (28:50.318)That's true.
Doug Greathouse (28:55.074)that we're not promised tomorrow, no matter how old we are, whether we're seniors, whether we're teenagers, you know, we're not promised tomorrow. So we need to live today as Christ would have us live it.
Daniel Ochoa (29:08.393)And they can, your listeners can find my book on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, all the major outlets. I also have a website called timeisrunningoutthebook.com. There's a link to the Amazon book page there. And I also have a YouTube channel called Life on the Narrow Road.
where I put out a video once a week. A lot of times I talk about end times, but sometimes I just talk about, you know, the struggles that we have and, you know, it's kind of like a mini Bible lesson.
Doug Greathouse (29:41.388)Nice, nice. So we're gonna put all those links in the show notes. Make sure to go check out the book. I'm going to go get it for sure. I have one last question, Daniel, that I ask every certain person that comes on here because I feel like there's usually, if I don't ask it, there'll be a stone left unturned. And what a great analogy is Jesus is turning us, turned the stone away. So it came out of the tomb, but what.
Daniel Ochoa (30:01.929)You
Doug Greathouse (30:08.226)What piece of wisdom do you have to pass on to any of the listeners that you might not have shared already?
Daniel Ochoa (30:14.015)wow.
Daniel Ochoa (30:19.837)I mean, I would go back to, and this is what I always tell people, you know, to heed Paul's counsel and examine yourself. I mean, there's so many people that I know that never examine themselves to see if they're really in the faith. And I know that they're not because I see the things, how they live their life and they go to church. And, you know, we need to examine ourselves. Am I really committed? You know, has it cost me anything since I've been following Jesus?
Doug Greathouse (30:50.67)Yeah. If I could add to that prayer, just prayer in general, how often are you, what is your prayer life like? Right. Because a lot of people go to church and have no prayer life. And that's really, go to church, you don't really have a relationship with Jesus because you might read the word and get, and have a relationship that way, but you don't have a relationship where you're communicating with the Holy father. And then when you are praying, a lot of people, especially in our American culture are praying for things.
for things to work out for them. They don't pray any repentance often, right? Going back to examining yourself, like, what have I done that I need God's forgiveness for? I've always heard that first you glorify the Father, right, in your prayers, and then you ask for repentance, and then you are able to bring your concerns and cares to Him, right?
Daniel Ochoa (31:41.681)Right. And there's times Doug, I pray just, I just praise God. That's it. That's my prayer. You know, cause I don't know. Sometimes I feel guilty when I am always asking for stuff. you know, but I always end my prayer with, if it's your will, let it be done.
Doug Greathouse (31:47.532)Yeah. Yeah.
Doug Greathouse (31:55.104)Mm-hmm.
Doug Greathouse (32:01.504)Exactly. Yep. Yep. I cannot recall. Well, I can probably. It's been it's been numerous times. But when we are us as a family have had a plan or I have had a plan and it's not worked out the way that I do daily planning. Right. I have this and I do daily planning in it. God. But I let God take control. Right. God, your your ways are more than mine. And I always find when I let him take charge.
Daniel Ochoa (32:21.65)you
Doug Greathouse (32:30.602)it always works out better in the end than when I try to do it. So thank you again, Daniel. This has been amazing. And until next time, entrepreneurs, keep moving forward.
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Daniel Ochoa (32:32.684)Yeah.
Daniel Ochoa (32:43.315)Thank you, Doug.
Doug Greathouse (00:05.966)Daniel, can hear me. I am doing great. Just to know, just to let you know, because sometimes surprising, as soon as you hop in the room, we start going live on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube. So we are live, but we do the recording live. Everybody knows like we're going to do the run through at the beginning. I just want to make you aware that we're live on social channels right now.
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Daniel Ochoa (00:08.349)Doug, how are you doing?
Daniel Ochoa (00:32.457)Okay.
Doug Greathouse (00:34.914)The correct way to say your last name is Ochoa, is that right? All right, nice, nice. And you can hear me just fine, all the audio is good? All right, and you're good with everything that I sent you beforehand? You just had a chance to look that over? Awesome, awesome. Any questions for me before we get started?
Daniel Ochoa (00:37.425)Yes, that is correct.
Daniel Ochoa (00:43.368)Everything's good.
Daniel Ochoa (00:48.434)I did.
Daniel Ochoa (00:54.313)no. I think I'm good.
Doug Greathouse (00:57.294)All right, I'm going to, of course, edit this part out of the official recording that goes live. And I'll kind of do a countdown, and then we'll actually get started for the recording, unless you have any questions before we get started.
Daniel Ochoa (01:08.881)No, I think I'm good.
Doug Greathouse (01:11.252)Awesome, awesome. right. Three, two, one. Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the Profitable Christian Business. I am so pleased to have my guest Daniel Ochoa with me today. He has authored an amazing book. I believe it's called Time is Running Out. We're gonna dive into exactly what that means. It's Good Friday everybody. it is, I think it's almost opportunistic.
that Daniel is joining us on Good Friday today because I think we're going dive into a lot of things about Jesus and His coming back. So, happy to have you here, Daniel.
Daniel Ochoa (01:46.311)Well, thank you. I'm glad to be here.
Doug Greathouse (01:49.302)All right, so first I want you to kind of give a brief introduction about yourself. Tell a little bit about your book. We're going to dive into it a little bit later, but tell us a little bit who you are, why you wrote the book, all of that.
Daniel Ochoa (01:59.219)Well, you know, I grew up in a Catholic family and, you know, I was brought up Catholic and, you know, I discovered one Christmas morning that there was no Santa Claus and my mother explained to me the truth about Christmas, but her knowledge of Scripture was very limited. And she basically just told me that Christmas is about Jesus's birth. And that was pretty much it. And I'll tell you, Doug, for the next 33 years or so, God was like Santa Claus to me.
I just felt that as long as I was living a decent life, what I felt was a good life and respecting others and doing the right thing, that I was in good standing with God. And it wasn't until my early thirties that I was sitting in in church and the pastor was talking about the road to heaven and hell. And when he said that the road to heaven is very narrow and only a few find it.
Doug Greathouse (02:29.58)Mmm.
Daniel Ochoa (02:50.695)I mean, that was like a wake up call. I didn't hear anything after that. I just pictured this eight lane highway in the middle of rush hour and all these people on the eight lanes that's going to hell and then an off ramp. Every once in a while a car getting off, they're going to heaven. And I kept hearing my conscience telling me, what makes you think you're on that off ramp? Just because you go to church? Because you own a Bible? I mean, it really...
affected me, Doug. I mean, it bothered me. And I went to the pastor after the sermon and I said, you know, ask him if we could have lunch. He said, sure, we had lunch a few days later. He explained the gospel, but then he did something that no one else ever did. He told me there's a cost to follow Jesus.
And, you know, he said, now we're lucky living in America. It's not going to cost us our life where it does in other parts of the country. He said, but it's going to cost you your time. It's going to cost your finances may cost your reputation may cost friends, but it's going to cost you. And I'll tell you, that was an eye opener. And that night I got on my knees and I accepted Christ and I've never looked back and I was, I've been fully committed. And what made me write the book was.
After that experience, I realized how many of my friends, how many other people that go to church every Sunday were just like me. Because at that time when I heard the sermon, I'd been going to church for about seven years. I've been involved in Sunday school classes. I've, you know, involved in church activities, but it really, I never really died to myself, if that makes sense.
Doug Greathouse (04:24.588)Yeah, wow. We're going to dive into all of that. was actually talking to a friend yesterday and I told her that you were coming on today. She's like, I would have so many questions to ask. I was like, well, hopefully I do well and I ask the questions for you and we get those questions that she wanted answered. But I like to kind of start off kind of fun. So we're to have some getting to know you questions first beforehand. So if you could time travel to any biblical event and witness it firsthand, where would you go?
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Daniel Ochoa (04:33.009)Yeah.
Doug Greathouse (04:54.614)and why.
Daniel Ochoa (04:56.039)I think I would go to the book of Acts, that time period, the first church, and only because, you know, I know every, most people would pick a time with Jesus, and I would love to see a time with Jesus, but I'll tell you, when I did a study on Paul and saw how committed he was after being stoned, after being shipwrecked, after being flogged, and he just kept going, you know, I'd like to see that.
Doug Greathouse (04:59.629)Mmm.
Doug Greathouse (05:22.168)Yeah, yeah, man, talk about dedication.
Daniel Ochoa (05:25.069)yeah.
Doug Greathouse (05:28.364)Yeah, that would be awesome. What's one normal daily habit that has had the biggest impact on your spiritual life?
Daniel Ochoa (05:35.495)I think reading God's Word. But it's not just reading it for information, it's reading it for transformation.
Doug Greathouse (05:43.674)Yes, let's kind of dive into that a little bit because I know a lot of people, they think, okay, I'm doing well. read, like I, for instance, have the daily Bible app on my phone, right? And I read that every day. But are you doing it just to check something off your list, right? That you're being a good Christian or are you really doing it so that you can get to know him and get to know his word and to live your life according to the way that he wants you to live it, right?
Daniel Ochoa (06:06.181)Right. Yeah, you know, I've always said that going to church, reading the Bible, going to Sunday school class, that's the easy part. The hard part is taking what you're learning and actually applying it in your Monday mornings.
Doug Greathouse (06:18.798)Yeah. And I do a lot of business coaching as well. And a lot of it comes down to that. I can tell you all the things that you need to do. Right. And you can read it like I once had when I was actually in the career when I had a career. I once was getting going up for a promotion and I said, I've read all these books, all these books on leadership, management, all these things. And my guy that was interviewing me said, I don't care how many books you read. How many of those books have you applied? Right.
Daniel Ochoa (06:45.393)Yeah.
Doug Greathouse (06:47.296)It's one thing to have the knowledge, it's almost useless to have the knowledge and not apply it.
Daniel Ochoa (06:51.785)Yeah, I always like using the example of being on a diet. Just because you buy a diet book doesn't mean you're on a diet. Just because you read it doesn't mean you're on a diet. It's when you start applying what you're reading into your daily life that you're now on a diet.
Doug Greathouse (06:59.042)That's right.
Doug Greathouse (07:07.746)Yeah, yeah, yeah, awesome. hopefully, and hopefully that may convict a few people that might be watching this and say, well, I might need to actually start applying some of these things in the Bible that I'm reading and not just checking it off my list. My next question for you is if someone made a movie about your life, what would the title be and who would play you?
Daniel Ochoa (07:28.967)my gosh. I would say the title, you know, I always tell people that my life is like Forrest Gump. And the reason is, is because if you've seen the movie, have you seen the movie? Okay. You know, he goes through a lot, but things always work out for him. And when I look at my life, you know, I've lost everything twice.
Doug Greathouse (07:30.925)You
Doug Greathouse (07:42.198)I have, yeah, a couple times.
Daniel Ochoa (07:51.353)I've started several businesses that failed. and, but things always just work out, you know, I'm not rich, you know, by no means, but God does take care of me and, and I don't know. And I have a passion to wake people up. So I think the name of the movie would be, you know, on a dark road, waking up to sleep in something like that. And, as far as who would play me, I would, I would say Jim, Jim Cavie. So, and, and now.
Doug Greathouse (08:11.714)Wow. Wow.
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Doug Greathouse (08:17.998)Yeah, he's played the biggest role in history.
Daniel Ochoa (08:21.393)Yeah, not because he played Jesus in the passion, it's because how bold he is to his faith.
Doug Greathouse (08:27.094)Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. I love Jim Cavisio. We do a thing called the fill-in-the-blank question on every one of these Prophet Christian Business episodes. So your fill-in-the-blank question is, walking in faith means blank, even when blank.
Daniel Ochoa (08:44.859)Walking in faith means staying in obedience even when it goes against the worldview.
Doug Greathouse (08:53.676)Hmm. Yes, that's been something that's been going on in my life lately. I found the more obedient the things more things tend to work out for me. Right. It's just funny how life life works like that when when you do the right things like you're supposed to do, even when it sometimes doesn't make worldly sense how it just tends to work out in your favor.
Daniel Ochoa (09:02.001)Yeah.
Daniel Ochoa (09:13.873)Yeah.
Doug Greathouse (09:16.646)We also do a question called the secret question and our secret question is, or your secret question rather, is what is the secret to turning your testimony into the greatest tool for impact?
Daniel Ochoa (09:27.281)I think it's telling the whole truth. Even the parts that you wish you didn't want to tell. And I think, you I do that in my book. You know, I share about my divorce. I share about how I lost the house over just, you know, making a bad decision. I share about how I got into drugs. And I think when you share the truth and, you know, the apostles did this, you know, when you look at the New Testament.
You know, I'm sure that they didn't want to put in there that Peter denied Jesus three times, but I think that's what makes it so reliable. And I think when I witnessed the people, you know, I share my story and if they ask me tough questions, I share the truth because I think it, it makes them understand, how, how can I say this? It, it makes it more real for their life.
Doug Greathouse (10:22.434)Yeah, yeah. I was just having a conversation with someone the other day might actually been on the podcast about you don't win people over by, you know, just reciting the rules of the Bible, right? You won them over through your testimony through, okay, this is where I was. I was I was in maybe not the same situation, but I was in a dire situation like you might be right. But I found Jesus and I found that Jesus always works things out for my good, right? For, his glory and my good. So
Daniel Ochoa (10:34.536)Right.
Doug Greathouse (10:51.854)I think that's powerful and not just, you you don't just take the rules and say, you got to follow these rules. wait, I don't want rules. I want a savior, right?
Daniel Ochoa (11:00.807)Right.
Doug Greathouse (11:04.436)Awesome, awesome. I have a question about what sparked your deep focus on biblical prophecy and end times teaching.
Daniel Ochoa (11:12.253)Well, it happened about eight years ago. I was working for a company and my brother was working for the same company and we had offices right down the hall from each other. And he got into this first and he would come to my office. Dan, I want to show you something in the Bible. And he'd show me something and he's trying to put pieces together. And I would throw out the famous verse that everybody throws out. Nobody knows the day of the hour. And I would say, Manuel, no one knows the day of the hour. And after about a month of this, of him coming in my office a couple of times a week, I finally said, Manuel.
Nobody knew about Jesus's first coming. What makes you think you're going to know his second coming? He said, that's not true. I said, who knew? He said, the wise men. And I'll tell you, Doug, something ignited in me that just, I started just going full force into eschatology.
Doug Greathouse (11:51.704)Hmm.
Doug Greathouse (11:59.714)Wow. So I never even thought about that. The wise men knew that that. Yeah. Yeah, that that's pretty crazy.
Daniel Ochoa (12:03.687)And the shepherd knew, the shepherds knew. Now they were told by the angel, but I think God's word tells us too.
Doug Greathouse (12:13.598)Now, I want to kind of go into the book a little bit. I have had not had the chance to read it. I'm going to pick it up for sure now that you've been a guest on the show. And I'll kind of get some inside hints as we go through this interview. I'll just go straight to what my what me and my friend were discussing the other day. One of the things that it points to in the end times is 10 Kings and I kind of had my mind trying to wrap around who are those 10 Kings?
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Daniel Ochoa (12:38.441)Now, I don't have an answer for that and I don't even get into that in my book. I get more into the timing of Jesus's return because, know, after, like I said, when my brother said that the wise men knew and I said something inside of me, you know, lit on fire. You know, one night I was laying in bed and I thought to myself, did God really give us the book of Revelation, the book of Daniel, but then tell us you'll never figure it out? No.
Doug Greathouse (12:42.059)Okay.
Daniel Ochoa (13:04.753)So here's the key, Doug, that you and your viewers need to understand. And I'm not the one that figured all this out. So I hope your audience doesn't think that I'm some genius and I figured all this out. It's from following very educated people who've been studying eschatology for their whole life, practically.
and listening to them and then being able to put all the pieces together. But I ask the question, how does God in His wisdom keep people for the last 2000 years when Jesus came and the disciples asked Him when the end time would come, how does He keep people for 2000 years to think He could come at any day so that way we stay alert and we stay focused, we stay obedient, but then on the generation where He does come, how does He reveal it to them?
Well, it's a genius the way he did it. The main prophecy that needs to be fulfilled, which is the last piece of the puzzle, you don't allow it to be fulfilled until the last generation. And that's Israel becoming a nation in 1948. Without that, no one can figure out the timing that I talk about in my book.
Doug Greathouse (14:12.846)Mm-hmm.
Doug Greathouse (14:17.133)Yeah.
Doug Greathouse (14:20.652)Yeah, that's so true. you have any other? This I just know because I'm interested and the audience is interested. Can you point to anything other than Israel becoming a state as far as signs of what's coming?
Daniel Ochoa (14:34.377)Oh, I'm trying to think. Not really. mean, there's a lot of other prophecies before Israel becoming a nation, but that's the key that fulfills two prophecies. It fulfills the fig tree prophecy and it fulfills the Hosea prophecy. Those two prophecies, when you line it up with 1948, I mean, you're like, you can't argue it.
Doug Greathouse (14:58.818)Yeah, and you see the state of the world. think just the state of the world. think war, talks about wars, it talks about so many other things that are so evident in today's world, right?
Daniel Ochoa (15:12.039)Yeah, and what a lot of people don't know is when the disciples asked Jesus, when would this happen and what is the time? And Jesus started off with, there'll be false prophets, there'll be wars and rumors of wars, there'll be famine. Did you know that lines up perfectly with the seven seals in Revelation?
Doug Greathouse (15:29.87)Mm-hmm. I think I had someone point that out to me before as well. Yeah
Daniel Ochoa (15:33.265)Yeah, and so, you know, everybody always just dismisses that. Well, we've already had false prophets. We've had wars and wars. But why would Jesus... We have to ask the question, why would Jesus say there'll be wars and rumors of wars when there were wars and rumors of wars when he said it?
So why would he say it? Because he's talking about a specific wars and rumors of wars. And when it comes to the false prophet, it says that they will deceive many. We've never had, when you look at the world, you know, these people that claim to be Jesus and, you know, they had a couple hundred followers, that's not many when you're looking at it globally.
So I believe the first thing that is going to happen is there's going to be a false messiah. Now it doesn't have to be a Christian. It can be Islam. It can be for the Jews. It can be, you know, a new church where you're going to see millions of people follow them. And it's those false prophets that are going to start the wars and rumors of wars. They're going to ignite them.
Doug Greathouse (16:13.123)Mm-hmm.
Doug Greathouse (16:32.718)Yeah. Yeah. I'd love to know your insights into this. Like a lot of people dwell on this, right? They think Jesus is coming any minute. It puts a lot of fear. Like for me, it gives me hope and joy. for people, guess for people that aren't saved, it cause a lot of fear. And also even for those are saved, it gives fear for your relatives, fear for your friends that may not be saved, right? So how do you help move from panic to peace?
when it comes to that Jesus is coming.
Daniel Ochoa (17:05.641)I remind people that prophecy wasn't given to us to create fear in us. It was given to us to prepare us. I said, you know, a good example is the disciples. Jesus told them all that they were going to suffer greatly. And it wasn't to make them scared. It was to give them strength, to prepare them mentally. I mean, let's say that I'm wrong.
and about the timing and everything. I mean, I really haven't caused any damage to anybody that believes what I believe or to myself or my family. But if I'm right and I'm not mentally prepared, I mean, you know, the Bible talks about in First Thessalonians that God is going to send a great delusion. If you're not mentally prepared, you may fall into that delusion.
Doug Greathouse (17:52.035)Mm-hmm.
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Doug Greathouse (17:58.178)Yeah, yeah. I was funny because I was away on a trip recently and I was talking to somebody and they were talking about how their son was just drifting. And that concept kind of comes into my mind. Often we are just comfortable, we are drifting, we're not really on mission. We're just sitting here in our comfort zones, not doing what God has called us to do or to be who God has called us to be because we, I think,
knowing that Jesus is coming, I think no matter when he's coming, we should have some sense of urgency, right, in fulfilling our mission for him. So, yeah, I'm glad you brought that up.
Daniel Ochoa (18:30.397)Yeah.
Doug Greathouse (18:38.22)So in your book, you emphasize urgency and action. We just talked about this. are one or two daily practices believers can implement to be spiritually ready?
Daniel Ochoa (18:46.883)I think we answered this in the previous question is, you know, reading God's word for transformation. If you're not being transformed, you're not going to be ready. I mean, you know, we learned in the Bible that God's biggest desire for our life is to be transformed to the likeness of His Son.
And if we're just reading for information, because that's what I did for six years. It was nice having the knowledge, but I wasn't applying it into my life. I just wanted the knowledge to look smart when I go to Sunday school class, you know, and I'm sitting there and I'm able to answer a question.
And I would say the other thing would be is to examine ourselves. Like Paul suggested that we examine ourselves every once in a while to see are we really in the faith or are we just going through the motions.
Doug Greathouse (19:39.118)Yeah, I know this is cliche and I think you to be of a certain age to remember this, what would Jesus do? Bracelets, right, that were out there. I think, yeah.
Daniel Ochoa (19:45.415)Yeah. And most of the, not to cut you off, but most of the people who wore those wouldn't know what Jesus would do.
Doug Greathouse (19:54.325)Right, but I was having a Bible study the other day with my church and this was an off-campus Bible study that we started and I was talking to the guys, was like, it was a men's Bible study and I said, you know, I just often think if Jesus was placed in our world today, how would he be interacting with people, right? I could see him at the grocery store encouraging people, right?
just loving on people. And I think sometimes we're just walking around in this world with our heads down, focused on self, right? We're not looking at the people around us and saying, how can I show them the light of Jesus? So, that would be my message for anyone watching this, like think about that. How, I know it's hard, we get so obsessed with self and we think, you know, let's look at the world around us. What would Jesus be doing in yours?
Daniel Ochoa (20:32.346)Right.
Doug Greathouse (20:48.526)When you go to the grocery store, what would Jesus do in that situation? If he sees somebody that's struggling or feels like they have maybe an unhappy face on, he'd want to see why they have that unhappy face and encourage them. So, awesome. So how has your personal relationship with God changed as you studied end times prophecy?
Daniel Ochoa (20:59.913)All
Daniel Ochoa (21:08.049)Well, when I first became a Christian and I realized for six or seven years, I've been going to church and I wasn't even saved. you know, I became on fire and I witnessed to hundreds of people in my lifetime, you know, in stores, on a plane, you know, everywhere. you know, every time I talk to people, if a door opens up, I'm going to use that opportunity to try to talk about God.
And when I started studying eschatology, now back up a little bit, when I was doing that, witnessing to hundreds of people, I had a job where I had to travel and visit clients all day long. And so it gave me a lot of opportunities, but then I got a job where I was sitting in an office. And so I didn't have the opportunity like I had. I would still witness, you know, when, when opportunities came. But as I got into eschatology, I'm telling you, the fire is active again about
wanting to witness to people not about end times, just about are they right with God? You know, and I am on fire to witness to Christians about end times. So those who are believers, want them to see what I see. But the problem, Doug, is no one wants to hear it. I tell people all the time, give me an hour and a half, a Bible and a whiteboard. And let me show you what I've learned in the past eight years.
Doug Greathouse (22:10.776)Yeah.
Daniel Ochoa (22:30.083)and you see for yourself, but no one has taken me up on that challenge.
Doug Greathouse (22:36.642)Yeah, that's crazy. It's crazy how we prioritize worldly things over getting right with God. Right. And I think it goes back. I think your book, Time is Running Out, people don't believe that. I think that's part of what it is, is people think and it's we had this conversation about young people the other day is that they think they have all the time in the world. Right. Like sometimes they can't they don't figure out what they want to do with their lives, et cetera, because they think they have all the time in the world.
Daniel Ochoa (22:41.725)Yeah.
(01:46):
Doug Greathouse (23:04.46)The same can be applied to our spiritual life. We think we have all the time in the world to do what God has called us to do, but we need to take some urgency to it, right?
Daniel Ochoa (23:12.775)Yeah. Alexander Sholdaneatsen said this, you know, we're always complaining that life is short, but we live each day as if there's no end to them.
Doug Greathouse (23:23.694)That's very, very true. Yeah, yeah. I also want to know this. So what role does spiritual discernment play in navigating a world filled with other prophetic voices and all these conspiracy theories?
Daniel Ochoa (23:36.033)my gosh, you know, I always tell people because a lot of times people don't want to hear what I have to say or I try to point out something and I say, look, look for yourself.
You you gotta read the Bible for yourself and discern for yourself what the Bible is actually saying. And, you know, because the world's gonna tell us one thing. And I think, you know, when you are talking about, you know, people think they have all the time in the world, I think that's one of Satan's big deceptions that he's doing is to convince people that we are not at the end times and that you got plenty of time.
Doug Greathouse (24:17.358)Very true, yeah. Yeah, that's crazy. And I think, you know, we have a yearning a lot of times. Now, I think there's a happy medium, you know. I think if you go to a church that's all doom and gloom and fire and brimstone, I don't think that's the answer. But also just going to a church that makes you feel good, I don't think is the answer either. Right. So I think there needs to be a little bit of both. God loves us. We know that, right. But there is...
Daniel Ochoa (24:36.32)Yeah. No.
Doug Greathouse (24:46.954)also the world and the devil out there, right?
Daniel Ochoa (24:48.507)Right. Yeah, I've always said that, you know, I think one of the biggest mistakes that churches make today is it's all about grace. There's no accountability of man. And we need to bring that back. mean, we need a balance of both. Yes, it is all grace. But our accountability to God shows whether or not we truly believe. I mean, it's like James said, you know, works without faith or faith without works is dead.
Doug Greathouse (24:56.524)Mm-hmm. Right.
Daniel Ochoa (25:14.945)And, you know, I always like using the example, you know, if you go up to an apple tree and you see the apples and they look delicious, you can tell the apples don't give the tree life. It just shows that the tree has good life. And that's what our works do. It shows whether or not we truly believe. And that's why Jesus said, you will know them by their works.
Doug Greathouse (25:15.811)Yeah.
Doug Greathouse (25:29.879)Yeah.
Doug Greathouse (25:37.73)Yeah, yeah, yeah, you cannot like, once you've been in, I'm even just sidestep the word Christian. Once you've been in relationship with Jesus for a while, right? Because I really believe that's what you strive for is relationship with Jesus. You don't strive to be a Christian, right? Christian is just a label. You can then, you can look at someone else that kind of has said, yeah, I'm a Christian. And you can, through the spiritual discernment, you can say, yeah, but you're not should bearing the fruit, right?
Daniel Ochoa (26:06.429)Yeah.
Doug Greathouse (26:07.534)You might have some spiritual immaturity about you, guess, right?
Daniel Ochoa (26:13.181)Yeah, you know, it's funny you're saying that you didn't like using the word Christian. When people ask me if I'm a Christian, I always say no. And they say, what are you? I say, I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. And the reason I do that is because Christian, you know, the meaning of Christian has lost its true meaning decades ago. And when you say you're a follower of Jesus Christ, it just shows it has more teeth. You're more committed.
Doug Greathouse (26:22.848)Exactly, yo.
Doug Greathouse (26:38.274)Yeah, I totally agree with that. totally agree with that. Yep. So anybody that I interact with now, that is like what my heart is. It's like, I want to help you be a better follower of Jesus Christ. I don't want to help you be a Christian. I want to help you know the Lord. So, yeah, that is awesome. So thank you, Daniel. This has been a great, great interview. If you would just tell us a little bit about more about your book and where people can find it.
Daniel Ochoa (26:52.446)Yeah.
Daniel Ochoa (27:06.045)Okay, well 80 % of the book, know, the subtitle of the book is called, Am I Really in Good Standing with God? So 80 % of the book is about that. It, you know, it walks you through the whole process. You know, chapter one, you're going to learn who God really is. You're going to learn the true meaning of Christmas. Chapter two is called,
(02:07):
changing the road I'm on. Once you recognize who God is, you're on a new road. You gave up your old life, you're on a new life. Doesn't mean you quit your job and you change everything, but you are on a new road. Chapter three is called relationships and it gets into, okay, now that you're on this new road, it's about building a relationship with God. And then chapter four is called kingdom minded. Okay, now that you have a relationship with God,
your focus should be more Kingdom minded than Earth minded now. And it will slowly change. And what does that look like? All these chapters talk about what that road looks like, the obstacles that you're going to face. And then chapter five is time is running out. And that's where I get into all the prophecy and all that and why I believe that we are the generation that's going to see the return of Christ. And, you know, and we narrow it down to, you know, a pretty significant timeline.
Doug Greathouse (28:21.998)So that, I love how you outlined that because it's kind of like we were just talking about, how do you get into a better relationship with the Lord, with Jesus Christ? And you take the idea that time is running out, now is the time to get a better relationship with Jesus. So.
Daniel Ochoa (28:40.849)And I do put Doug in the last chapter, you know, could I be wrong? Yes. And I put, but it doesn't change the fact that time is running out for all of us. There's no guarantee that any of us are going to put our heads on our pillow tonight. No. Yup.
Doug Greathouse (28:50.318)That's true.
Doug Greathouse (28:55.074)that we're not promised tomorrow, no matter how old we are, whether we're seniors, whether we're teenagers, you know, we're not promised tomorrow. So we need to live today as Christ would have us live it.
Daniel Ochoa (29:08.393)And they can, your listeners can find my book on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, all the major outlets. I also have a website called timeisrunningoutthebook.com. There's a link to the Amazon book page there. And I also have a YouTube channel called Life on the Narrow Road.
where I put out a video once a week. A lot of times I talk about end times, but sometimes I just talk about, you know, the struggles that we have and, you know, it's kind of like a mini Bible lesson.
Doug Greathouse (29:41.388)Nice, nice. So we're gonna put all those links in the show notes. Make sure to go check out the book. I'm going to go get it for sure. I have one last question, Daniel, that I ask every certain person that comes on here because I feel like there's usually, if I don't ask it, there'll be a stone left unturned. And what a great analogy is Jesus is turning us, turned the stone away. So it came out of the tomb, but what.
Daniel Ochoa (30:01.929)You
Doug Greathouse (30:08.226)What piece of wisdom do you have to pass on to any of the listeners that you might not have shared already?
Daniel Ochoa (30:14.015)wow.
Daniel Ochoa (30:19.837)I mean, I would go back to, and this is what I always tell people, you know, to heed Paul's counsel and examine yourself. I mean, there's so many people that I know that never examine themselves to see if they're really in the faith. And I know that they're not because I see the things, how they live their life and they go to church. And, you know, we need to examine ourselves. Am I really committed? You know, has it cost me anything since I've been following Jesus?
Doug Greathouse (30:50.67)Yeah. If I could add to that prayer, just prayer in general, how often are you, what is your prayer life like? Right. Because a lot of people go to church and have no prayer life. And that's really, go to church, you don't really have a relationship with Jesus because you might read the word and get, and have a relationship that way, but you don't have a relationship where you're communicating with the Holy father. And then when you are praying, a lot of people, especially in our American culture are praying for things.
for things to work out for them. They don't pray any repentance often, right? Going back to examining yourself, like, what have I done that I need God's forgiveness for? I've always heard that first you glorify the Father, right, in your prayers, and then you ask for repentance, and then you are able to bring your concerns and cares to Him, right?
Daniel Ochoa (31:41.681)Right. And there's times Doug, I pray just, I just praise God. That's it. That's my prayer. You know, cause I don't know. Sometimes I feel guilty when I am always asking for stuff. you know, but I always end my prayer with, if it's your will, let it be done.
Doug Greathouse (31:47.532)Yeah. Yeah.
Doug Greathouse (31:55.104)Mm-hmm.
Doug Greathouse (32:01.504)Exactly. Yep. Yep. I cannot recall. Well, I can probably. It's been it's been numerous times. But when we are us as a family have had a plan or I have had a plan and it's not worked out the way that I do daily planning. Right. I have this and I do daily planning in it. God. But I let God take control. Right. God, your your ways are more than mine. And I always find when I let him take charge.
Daniel Ochoa (32:21.65)you
Doug Greathouse (32:30.602)it always works out better in the end than when I try to do it. So thank you again, Daniel. This has been amazing. And until next time, entrepreneurs, keep moving forward.
(02:28):
Daniel Ochoa (32:32.684)Yeah.
Daniel Ochoa (32:43.315)Thank you, Doug.
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