July 10, 2025 • 27 mins
What happens when a hardened drug addict and dealer finally stops running from God? This extraordinary redemption story takes us from the depths of addiction to the founding of a transformative ministry.
Growing up in the "free-range parenting" era of the 90s, our guest began accumulating felonies by age 17, eventually spiraling into intravenous drug use and manufacturing methamphetamine. Through raw, unflinching honesty, he reveals how his addiction destroyed not only his own life but impacted others—particularly introducing his future wife to intravenous drug use, a shame he carried for years.
The turning point arrives in an unexpected spiritual encounter at age 22, when after flushing methamphetamine down the toilet, he experiences what he describes as a divine visitation—complete with overwhelming emotion, tears, and a vision of Jesus. Yet remarkably, even this powerful moment wasn't enough to immediately transform him. "Like Jonah," he explains, "you can't run from the Lord... He's going to hawk us down."
True transformation finally takes root during incarceration for drug manufacturing at age 24, though full surrender to faith wouldn't come until age 30. This journey leads to the founding of Freedom Lighthouse in Waveland, Mississippi—a free rehabilitation ministry focusing on the critical "second phase" of recovery when individuals must maintain sobriety while facing real-world temptations.
Perhaps most compelling is his revelation about healing: "The world told me my brain needed healing, and I finally found out it was my heart that needed healing and my brain would follow my heart." This profound insight forms the foundation of his approach to recovery, which has led to countless transformed lives.
Want to learn more about Freedom Lighthouse or find help for yourself or a loved one battling addiction? Visit freedom-lighthouse.com and discover how spiritual transformation can break the chains of even the most desperate addiction.
- If you would like to be a guest and share your story, click this link: https://thepromoter.org/story/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jarrod (00:00):
I couldn't just hit the off button once I turned it on,
so where that rave would go onfor a night or a weekend, you
know, for me the bender wouldkeep going for weeks after.
Ron Meyers (00:11):
Where were your parents with all this going on?
They didn't recognize somethingwas wrong with.
Jarrod (00:16):
So it was again in the 90s and early 2000s.
It was more free rangeparenting.
They were starting a businessand at the time they were pretty
consumed with that business.
You know, they were around, nodoubt they were there, but me
and my brother were slick, wewere manipulators.
And so my brother was so slickthat by the time they started
(00:37):
realizing my addiction waspopping up, they really tried to
clamp down and control.
And but the more that theywould try to control, my
rebellious spirit would flare upand it would rebel out even
worse.
So the more they would try toget a grip on the situation, the
worse it would be.
Ron Meyers (00:52):
Wow Well, what was the breaking point?
Jarrod (00:55):
By the time I was 17, I got my first four felonies.
Um, that was not the breakingpoint, but the for it started it
the.
Um, my attorney attorney toldme you can either go to RID
program at Parchment or you cango to rehab.
You know, 18 years old, Ipicked up another felony, a sale
charge for three and a halfgrams of marijuana.
And so that's when the judgesaid you can go to RID program
(01:18):
or you go to Parchment.
So I went to rehab, secularrehab, for the first time in my
life.
I didn't want to change, but Iwent to a 30-day rehab and a
seed was planted in me that Icould never go back and get high
unashamed again after that.
So from 18 to 22, I got out.
You know, I started usingintravenously and next thing,
(01:39):
you know, me and my brother getlinked up in Hattiesburg with
this criminal organization, I'llsay.
And these guys were some reallybad people, some importers of a
lot of drugs and they weregiving them to us on the front
for next to nothing.
So it was a recipe for disasterfor somebody with an addiction
like mine the amount of moneyand drugs and damage I did to my
(02:01):
brain and damage I caused inother people's lives, and this
four-year window was justincredible.
So by the time I was 22 yearsold, I'd had enough, I was done
selling drugs.
I only wanted really to destroymyself and I was really done
doing that.
I was really tired, sick andtired of being sick and tired,
that old cliche.
So I called my mom and I said,mom, I need help, help me find a
(02:22):
place.
And this was genuine.
I said, mom, I need help, helpme find a place.
And this was genuine.
I really wanted out at 22 yearsold.
And she found this place inCalifornia through Dr Dobson's
focus on the family.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
And so my mom was the spiritualleader in my house.
Not that my dad wasn't a greatdad and man too, but my mom was
the one, the true spiritualleader in my house, and so she
(02:44):
implanted the word of God in meat a very young age.
It just didn't take root tilllater on.
I ran from God for a long, longtime, knew of God, but didn't
truly know him, knew about him.
So I went to this place called aSunrise Ranch in Riverside and
I got to my first 30 days and Iknew I was just scratching the
surface on the work that neededto be done.
So I signed up for anotherseven months of their sober
living program.
Well, I had F8 three semestersof college.
(03:06):
Well, this sober living programoffered to take you to college
every day and pick you up, bringyou and drop you off and pick
you back up, and so I chose todo that part of their program.
It's called TEACH was theacronym and so I completed my
first semester of college and Ifelt like, wow, I could actually
do something, you know.
And but I was working the 12steps.
Now I was sold out.
I was sponsored 180 meetings,90 days.
(03:28):
I was working the program andthat was it.
You know I had it and you knowI had seven months in treatment
and then another three months ofsobriety and I met my wife in
rehab out there in California.
She's from Canada and we met outthere and we got apartments
Once we finished treatment.
She had an apartment rightabove mine.
I moved in with a roommate andso, and we had three months of
(03:52):
sobriety and then we startedhanging around with some of the
folks who were in treatment withthat relapse and we just we
went right back to our addictionand so I introduced her to
intravenous drug use and totedall the shame that came with
that.
You know she was there forRitalin and alcohol and
combining those two, which was aserious addiction for her, but
I brought her to deeper anddarker places than she had ever
(04:15):
been.
Of course, my addiction gotworse, as it always gets
progressively worse, and so weended up moving back there, back
to Mississippi, after about twoyears of running amok and we
took a break in a relationshipfor about a year.
Now I'm running around like achicken with my head cut off,
cooking crystal meth.
(04:36):
I got to back up.
Now this is what happened andthis was a game changer for me
and 22 years old, I'm living inCalifornia, we finished rehab
and I'm living.
I'm at my wife's apartment andI got this meth and it scared me
so bad it didn't have all thenegative side effects and the
negative side effects would keepme away from it for periods of
(04:57):
time.
So I got this stuff and I putit up one night and I quit and I
got something to eat and Islept, which was incredible to
do with that drug in the firstplace.
I woke up the next morning andI heard this voice and I said
flush it, flush it.
Well, I had like an eight ballleft and I didn't even think
about it.
It wasn't even a contemplationbeing had.
I just went and grabbed a bagof dope and I just flushed it
and went and sat on the couch.
(05:18):
And if I would have known whatwas fixing to happen, I would
have flushed that dope yearsbefore.
But this was my time.
I sat on the couch and justwaves of raw emotion and
euphoria just started pulsatingthrough my body, just like over
and over, and tears just startedstreaming down my face and I
didn't even know why I wascrying.
And this was about 10 minutesof this.
(05:39):
It was the best feeling I'veever felt in my life and I had
been to some very artificialeuphoric places before.
But this was real, it wasgenuine.
And I looked over at my wifeand she was.
I said I don't know what'shappening.
She said I don't.
I don't know what's going oneither.
I said but it feels right, itfeels cleansing, it feels like
purifying.
And so I went and stood in thekitchen and I was leaning up
(06:01):
against the counter and it wasat that moment it dawned on me
that I was in the presence ofGod and I felt these arms come
and hug me, wrap around me andjust the tears started coming
down even harder, like myvisions.
It was messy, like my visionsall blurred up and and I look
down and I'm staring at thattile on the floor and my tears
(06:23):
come together and drip down andas my vision's clearing up, I'm
staring at Jesus and his facewas ambiguous, but it was clear
as day in my heart that it wasJesus revealing himself to me
and that I was in his presence.
And so I pick up the phone andI call my mom and I said Mom,
you won't believe what justhappened.
And she said Son, you're 22years old.
Most people won't have that intheir lifetime.
(06:44):
She said what are you going todo with it?
And you think I would have justgot it all together and sold it
out to the Lord.
No, I tried to run from the Lordfor another two and a half
years in my addiction, anothersix years in sobriety.
I tried to run for anothereight and a half years.
Like Jonah, you can't run fromthe Lord.
(07:05):
He's everywhere.
You're not going to get awayfrom him and he's going to hawk
us down.
He's not going to force himself, but he'll woo us, he'll pursue
us and he'll make it veryawkward for us to keep running
from him and so veryuncomfortable.
And so at this time I got thiscalling put on my heart of rehab
.
That's all I knew, and I didn'tknow that the two were
correlated.
I thought I was running theshow.
(07:26):
Still, you have to have a20-year-old, still not even
lukewarm with my faith.
Had God revealed himself to me,think that I would have sold
out?
No, not this stubborn,rebellious child.
So I moved back to Mississippiand I get into manufacturing
methamphetamine and my addiction.
You know the end result.
I wasn't even selling it at thetime, I was just making it for
(07:47):
myself.
Really.
Ron Meyers (07:54):
Well, I just had to pause for a minute.
You see, in a puddle of tears,something that was Jesus.
You felt Jesus, you called yourmom to me would stop me, but
there was something that wasstill pulling you to the dark
side.
Jarrod (08:07):
Yeah, yeah, wow.
And then he was after me at avery young age.
I could never really deny Jesus, nor the devil, because how
prevalent he was.
I accidentally, about eight ornine years old, messed with a
Ouija board with my neighbor andI opened up some portals to
hell.
And I know that now Godrevealed that to me in my walk
with him that that's really whenthings got out of hand.
Ron Meyers (08:29):
So what was the age where you finally said the
party's over Jesus, let's dolife?
Jarrod (08:35):
All right.
So 24 years old is when I gotsober and then I was in
incarceration for manufacturingmethamphetamine.
That's where it happened for me, a shift in mentality.
Now I didn't sell my heart outto the Lord for another six
years after that.
I wanted it.
I started working out.
I started doing Bible study injail still lukewarm, but I was
(08:55):
doing Bible study.
I started writing.
I didn't know it was beginningin these Addiction 101 classes I
teach today life skills, copingskills, and then couple that
with the word of God.
So I started doing those thingsand I kept doing those things
when I got out but I knew only amatter of time before I was
going to go back out and gethigh again.
I knew it.
So we decided to move to Canadaand that's where I started
(09:15):
pursuing this calling that Godhad put on my heart years before
.
And so well, not initially Forthe first three years.
I got into hockey, boxing, and Iwas working out five, six days
a week.
I was this endorphin.
I needed endorphins and massiveamounts of them, and so I was
pretty much addicted to hockeyand boxing and working out, but
(09:38):
it wasn't destroying my life andmy family, so I was gung-ho
with that for three years.
And I got three years into mysobriety and I said, okay,
you're physically tough, you'rephysically strong, but you're
still emotionally andspiritually weak where it
matters and you need to dosomething about that calling
that God put on you.
And so I said, okay, well, I'mgoing to go back to school.
I'm going to go to school foraddiction counseling and finish
(09:59):
this degree out.
So I got my uh, a trios college.
I went to finish my addictioncounseling degree and then I
interned with Salvation Army ata homeless shelter in Oakville,
ontario, and I fell in love withthe work, still lukewarm, got
to imagine this is hard toimagine that I was still
lukewarm through this, but Iknew that it was a calling.
I knew it was more than just anine to five, even though they
(10:20):
ended up hiring me on and payingme.
So I ended up going to work forthem for two and a half three
years and then we moved back to.
We decided to move to TampaFlorida and I got a job in Tampa
Florida as an addictioncounselor at a methadone and
suboxone clinic.
Now, keep in mind I neveragreed with that philosophy of
(10:41):
recovery at all, but I wanted towork with addicts.
I wanted to counsel addicts, soit was the first opportunity I
could work in the States withaddiction, so I jumped on it.
The FBI fingerprinted all of theemployees and decided to let me
go.
My felony record was expunged.
I had 12 or 13 felonies rackedup over the years.
I was on a run from US Marshalsat one point for five months.
(11:01):
They didn't like seeing allthose felonies on my FBI record,
even though I was veryforthright about my past with
them.
I mean, they fired me and itkind of crushed me and
devastated me.
I was like I really didn'tagree with this philosophy.
And now they fired me.
You know, no, I didn't staydefeated though.
I got up and I said, ok, I'mgoing to go further.
My education with psychology.
You see, I was still thinkingthis route and so I'm glad the
(11:25):
Lord was leading me this routefor a lot of good reasons that I
know now.
So I studied, I tried to do allthe self-help gurus and the
psychological avenues forhealing to heal my brain.
The world told me that my brainneeded healing and I finally
found out, when I sold out tothe Lord, that it was my heart
that needed healing and that mybrain would follow my heart.
And so all the worldlyBand-Aids I was sold my whole
(11:46):
life.
They never worked and I had tofind out the long, hard route.
I finally surrendered.
I finally waved the white flag.
Ron Meyers (11:55):
What age was this?
I was 30.
You were 30 years old.
30 years old.
You know, when I met you lastweek, fit man, look good, never,
never thinking a story likethat.
But you know, it goes to showyou that there are people out
there walking around that justlook like they should be on TV,
but there's hurts in them.
And today you are a counselor.
(12:17):
Tell the listeners what you'redoing today You're helping
people become free.
Jarrod (12:22):
Yeah.
So all that was?
You know, genesis 50, 20 is oneof my favorite scriptures.
I say favorite a lot when Italk about the word of God, but
I have a lot of favorites inthere.
And you intended to harm me,but God intended it for good to
do what is now being done thesaving of many lives.
You see, god had a plan and whyhe allowed all that.
So he rolled out some thingsfor me.
(12:43):
I moved back from Tampa with mywife that was a miracle of God
in itself that we could agree tomove back here to Mississippi
and I started escape addiction.
I started doing outpatientcounseling and so that started
out very slow and very much hadthe enemy in my ear the whole
time telling me to quit andthrough people often telling me
every reason why I should not bedoing that.
(13:04):
If I would have listened, wewouldn't be here talking today.
So escape addiction led me to2020, started to formulate the
Freedom Lighthouse nonprofit.
So I was charging very lowprices for outpatient counseling
.
But the Freedom Lighthouse theLord gave me a different vision.
We were going to take guys infor free and it was going to be
(13:25):
once we got them.
A second phase is what the Lordled me to do, and I believe in
inpatient.
That's a necessary step formany.
But I'm more concerned aboutwhat the Lord led me to a second
phase and sober living,transitional living.
I'm more concerned about whatthey're going to do when they
have some freedoms and somemoney in their pocket and the
ability to make a poor choice.
What are they going to do then?
Because we're going to separate.
(13:45):
We're not going to do it.
The Lord's going to separatethe wheat from the tares there
in second phase.
And so we started setting upthe nonprofit of the Freedom
Lighthouse and we took our firstofficial residence in in 21.
And so that's been quite thejourney and it's led to all
kinds of connections and justbringing God glory all over and
just meeting so many amazingpeople like yourself.
(14:08):
So where is Freedom Lighthouse?
Freedom Lighthouse is inWaveland Mississippi, six month
to a year long program and mostneed the year I'm not very
rarely-.
Ron Meyers (14:15):
And you say you do this for free.
Jarrod (14:17):
Well, I don't get paid a thing.
Ron Meyers (14:19):
No, I mean for the clients out there.
Jarrod (14:22):
The clients get to come in for free.
Well, I don't get paid.
No, I mean for the clients outthere.
The clients get to come in forfree, but once they pass that
grace period and get acclimatedand they're ready to start
working, then they'll pitch inthe pot, but that's just to keep
rent and the lights on and thebills paid.
I don't make a dime as thedirector, nor do I ever want to.
He's given me other ways tomake money with a clear
conscience.
I don't believe in monetizingthe word of God.
Ron Meyers (14:45):
So how has business been in the last few years?
Jarrod (14:48):
So it's been awesome.
We've had some amazing results.
So I'm going to tell you theguys that stayed and finished
the year, they're all doingamazing and of course, we've had
a lot.
You know, we've had some thathaven't stayed and finished the
year.
Ron Meyers (15:01):
So it's never too late for anybody listening for a
whole new beginning, is it?
Jarrod (15:07):
No 17-year addiction, the last eight intravenous.
I've been to some dark anddesperate places.
If the Lord could polish me upinto something halfway decent,
he can do it for anybody.
Ron Meyers (15:16):
So right now you have the microphone, Can you
give someone hope that may belistening?
That is in an addiction stageof life?
Jarrod (15:23):
Yeah, yeah, I'll just add the one latest thing Just
last October, the Lord birthedthe church in Bayside community.
It's one of the poorestcommunities, if not the poorest
community in Hancock County.
Through us, through his bodyand what we were doing with the
Freedom Lighthouse, he birthed anew church body for what I call
a church house or Sundayservice.
(15:43):
Right, we are the church bodyand so and he made me the pastor
of that I didn't do any of this, how it all came together, I
could not claim it, I did not doit, I did not think about it,
orchestrate it, it just all cametogether.
So let me tell you, if the Lordcan take somebody like me, just
bottom of the barrel junkie, Iwas a bottom feeder, I was one
of the most selfish individualsyou'll ever meet, one of the
(16:04):
most stubborn, just brawlers,fighters, just nasty individual,
very lustful, very much awomanizer, misogynist, I mean
whatever negative label theenemy can put on somebody.
I owned it and owned it proudly.
And so if he could takesomebody like me and humble me
to the point and that was whatthe addiction was about bringing
(16:26):
me to my knees, you see, theaddiction brought me to my knees
the humility, but it was thestruggles in my marriage and the
pain in my cousin's death thathad me truly surrender.
And now I have to staysurrendered every day.
That's not a one and done.
Born again is not something youjust do one time and you get
dunked in that water and you'reclean.
(16:47):
As a matter of fact, 1 Peter 4says baptism not the removal of
filth from the flesh, but thepledge of a clear conscience
toward God, and so we have topledge that every day.
We have to die to ourself everyday and pick up our cross and
follow after him.
I know where my will got me.
It got me destruction, chaos,misery and death.
Now I should have been deadnumerous times.
(17:07):
I didn't get in all thosestories today, but I was dead
inside.
I was a dead man walking andthe Lord Christ came by one day
and he said it's time to get upout of that grave you built for
yourself.
It's time to live.
I want to give you life.
Ron Meyers (17:21):
Well, how do people get in touch with you?
Or Freedom Lighthouse.
Jarrod (17:25):
Oh, that's easy.
They can email me or they cango to the website
freedom-lighthousecom.
Ron Meyer (17:31):
Freedom-lighthousecom .
We're just about out of time.
I would like you to have anuclear prayer for our listeners
out there listening right now.
Jarrod (17:41):
All right.
Well, we invite the Holy Spiritin for that, because he's the
one that prays through us.
All right, thank you, ron.
Lord, heavenly Father, we justcome to your throne boldly to
just praise you this morning andthank you for all that you're
doing in our lives.
I thank you for my brother Ron,and you giving him this
platform, lord, and giving himthese gifts to use to promote
(18:01):
your kingdom, lord, and that heis sold out to his relationship
with you, that he can spend therest of his days lifting you up
and glorifying you, magnifyingyour works, lord.
So I ask you to continue to bethe wind behind his sails and
ours and everybody in thekingdom, lord, that you just
continue bringing your churchbody together.
We don't care aboutdenominations, lord, we care
about you and living inrelationship with you, lord.
(18:24):
That you can just keep freeingpeople from all forms of
captivity that's, addiction,religious bondage, lord, and
legalism and that you can bringthem into relation with you and
that intimacy, lord, that closeconnection, and fill them up
with your Holy Spirit.
Lord, I believe that you arepouring your spirit out on all
flesh, lord, raising up an armyright now, and that you have
(18:46):
chosen people like me the leastlikely suspects, the black sheep
, the round pegs in the squareholes.
Lord, you have chosen peoplelike us to make examples out of
us, so that people can see yourmiracle power flowing through
our lives.
I ask for your will to be doneand for every listener out there
today, lord, that you justbless them.
You come and meet them withyour Holy Spirit in your
presence right now, lord, andjust shower them so that they
(19:08):
can just have the most amazingday, lord, and they can keep
having that and living for youfrom here on out.
We love you, jesus, and wethank you so much for loving us
that we could love you and oneanother, and we lift all this up
in the mighty and powerful nameof Jesus Christ.
I couldn't just hit the off button once I turned it on,
so where that rave would go onfor a night or a weekend, you
know, for me the bender wouldkeep going for weeks after.
Ron Meyers (00:11):
Where were your parents with all this going on?
They didn't recognize somethingwas wrong with.
Jarrod (00:16):
So it was again in the 90s and early 2000s.
It was more free rangeparenting.
They were starting a businessand at the time they were pretty
consumed with that business.
You know, they were around, nodoubt they were there, but me
and my brother were slick, wewere manipulators.
And so my brother was so slickthat by the time they started
(00:37):
realizing my addiction waspopping up, they really tried to
clamp down and control.
And but the more that theywould try to control, my
rebellious spirit would flare upand it would rebel out even
worse.
So the more they would try toget a grip on the situation, the
worse it would be.
Ron Meyers (00:52):
Wow Well, what was the breaking point?
Jarrod (00:55):
By the time I was 17, I got my first four felonies.
Um, that was not the breakingpoint, but the for it started it
the.
Um, my attorney attorney toldme you can either go to RID
program at Parchment or you cango to rehab.
You know, 18 years old, Ipicked up another felony, a sale
charge for three and a halfgrams of marijuana.
And so that's when the judgesaid you can go to RID program
(01:18):
or you go to Parchment.
So I went to rehab, secularrehab, for the first time in my
life.
I didn't want to change, but Iwent to a 30-day rehab and a
seed was planted in me that Icould never go back and get high
unashamed again after that.
So from 18 to 22, I got out.
You know, I started usingintravenously and next thing,
(01:39):
you know, me and my brother getlinked up in Hattiesburg with
this criminal organization, I'llsay.
And these guys were some reallybad people, some importers of a
lot of drugs and they weregiving them to us on the front
for next to nothing.
So it was a recipe for disasterfor somebody with an addiction
like mine the amount of moneyand drugs and damage I did to my
(02:01):
brain and damage I caused inother people's lives, and this
four-year window was justincredible.
So by the time I was 22 yearsold, I'd had enough, I was done
selling drugs.
I only wanted really to destroymyself and I was really done
doing that.
I was really tired, sick andtired of being sick and tired,
that old cliche.
So I called my mom and I said,mom, I need help, help me find a
(02:22):
place.
And this was genuine.
I said, mom, I need help, helpme find a place.
And this was genuine.
I really wanted out at 22 yearsold.
And she found this place inCalifornia through Dr Dobson's
focus on the family.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
And so my mom was the spiritualleader in my house.
Not that my dad wasn't a greatdad and man too, but my mom was
the one, the true spiritualleader in my house, and so she
(02:44):
implanted the word of God in meat a very young age.
It just didn't take root tilllater on.
I ran from God for a long, longtime, knew of God, but didn't
truly know him, knew about him.
So I went to this place called aSunrise Ranch in Riverside and
I got to my first 30 days and Iknew I was just scratching the
surface on the work that neededto be done.
So I signed up for anotherseven months of their sober
living program.
Well, I had F8 three semestersof college.
(03:06):
Well, this sober living programoffered to take you to college
every day and pick you up, bringyou and drop you off and pick
you back up, and so I chose todo that part of their program.
It's called TEACH was theacronym and so I completed my
first semester of college and Ifelt like, wow, I could actually
do something, you know.
And but I was working the 12steps.
Now I was sold out.
I was sponsored 180 meetings,90 days.
(03:28):
I was working the program andthat was it.
You know I had it and you knowI had seven months in treatment
and then another three months ofsobriety and I met my wife in
rehab out there in California.
She's from Canada and we met outthere and we got apartments
Once we finished treatment.
She had an apartment rightabove mine.
I moved in with a roommate andso, and we had three months of
(03:52):
sobriety and then we startedhanging around with some of the
folks who were in treatment withthat relapse and we just we
went right back to our addictionand so I introduced her to
intravenous drug use and totedall the shame that came with
that.
You know she was there forRitalin and alcohol and
combining those two, which was aserious addiction for her, but
I brought her to deeper anddarker places than she had ever
(04:15):
been.
Of course, my addiction gotworse, as it always gets
progressively worse, and so weended up moving back there, back
to Mississippi, after about twoyears of running amok and we
took a break in a relationshipfor about a year.
Now I'm running around like achicken with my head cut off,
cooking crystal meth.
(04:36):
I got to back up.
Now this is what happened andthis was a game changer for me
and 22 years old, I'm living inCalifornia, we finished rehab
and I'm living.
I'm at my wife's apartment andI got this meth and it scared me
so bad it didn't have all thenegative side effects and the
negative side effects would keepme away from it for periods of
(04:57):
time.
So I got this stuff and I putit up one night and I quit and I
got something to eat and Islept, which was incredible to
do with that drug in the firstplace.
I woke up the next morning andI heard this voice and I said
flush it, flush it.
Well, I had like an eight ballleft and I didn't even think
about it.
It wasn't even a contemplationbeing had.
I just went and grabbed a bagof dope and I just flushed it
and went and sat on the couch.
(05:18):
And if I would have known whatwas fixing to happen, I would
have flushed that dope yearsbefore.
But this was my time.
I sat on the couch and justwaves of raw emotion and
euphoria just started pulsatingthrough my body, just like over
and over, and tears just startedstreaming down my face and I
didn't even know why I wascrying.
And this was about 10 minutesof this.
(05:39):
It was the best feeling I'veever felt in my life and I had
been to some very artificialeuphoric places before.
But this was real, it wasgenuine.
And I looked over at my wifeand she was.
I said I don't know what'shappening.
She said I don't.
I don't know what's going oneither.
I said but it feels right, itfeels cleansing, it feels like
purifying.
And so I went and stood in thekitchen and I was leaning up
(06:01):
against the counter and it wasat that moment it dawned on me
that I was in the presence ofGod and I felt these arms come
and hug me, wrap around me andjust the tears started coming
down even harder, like myvisions.
It was messy, like my visionsall blurred up and and I look
down and I'm staring at thattile on the floor and my tears
(06:23):
come together and drip down andas my vision's clearing up, I'm
staring at Jesus and his facewas ambiguous, but it was clear
as day in my heart that it wasJesus revealing himself to me
and that I was in his presence.
And so I pick up the phone andI call my mom and I said Mom,
you won't believe what justhappened.
And she said Son, you're 22years old.
Most people won't have that intheir lifetime.
(06:44):
She said what are you going todo with it?
And you think I would have justgot it all together and sold it
out to the Lord.
No, I tried to run from the Lordfor another two and a half
years in my addiction, anothersix years in sobriety.
I tried to run for anothereight and a half years.
Like Jonah, you can't run fromthe Lord.
(07:05):
He's everywhere.
You're not going to get awayfrom him and he's going to hawk
us down.
He's not going to force himself, but he'll woo us, he'll pursue
us and he'll make it veryawkward for us to keep running
from him and so veryuncomfortable.
And so at this time I got thiscalling put on my heart of rehab
.
That's all I knew, and I didn'tknow that the two were
correlated.
I thought I was running theshow.
(07:26):
Still, you have to have a20-year-old, still not even
lukewarm with my faith.
Had God revealed himself to me,think that I would have sold
out?
No, not this stubborn,rebellious child.
So I moved back to Mississippiand I get into manufacturing
methamphetamine and my addiction.
You know the end result.
I wasn't even selling it at thetime, I was just making it for
(07:47):
myself.
Really.
Ron Meyers (07:54):
Well, I just had to pause for a minute.
You see, in a puddle of tears,something that was Jesus.
You felt Jesus, you called yourmom to me would stop me, but
there was something that wasstill pulling you to the dark
side.
Jarrod (08:07):
Yeah, yeah, wow.
And then he was after me at avery young age.
I could never really deny Jesus, nor the devil, because how
prevalent he was.
I accidentally, about eight ornine years old, messed with a
Ouija board with my neighbor andI opened up some portals to
hell.
And I know that now Godrevealed that to me in my walk
with him that that's really whenthings got out of hand.
Ron Meyers (08:29):
So what was the age where you finally said the
party's over Jesus, let's dolife?
Jarrod (08:35):
All right.
So 24 years old is when I gotsober and then I was in
incarceration for manufacturingmethamphetamine.
That's where it happened for me, a shift in mentality.
Now I didn't sell my heart outto the Lord for another six
years after that.
I wanted it.
I started working out.
I started doing Bible study injail still lukewarm, but I was
(08:55):
doing Bible study.
I started writing.
I didn't know it was beginningin these Addiction 101 classes I
teach today life skills, copingskills, and then couple that
with the word of God.
So I started doing those thingsand I kept doing those things
when I got out but I knew only amatter of time before I was
going to go back out and gethigh again.
I knew it.
So we decided to move to Canadaand that's where I started
(09:15):
pursuing this calling that Godhad put on my heart years before
.
And so well, not initially Forthe first three years.
I got into hockey, boxing, and Iwas working out five, six days
a week.
I was this endorphin.
I needed endorphins and massiveamounts of them, and so I was
pretty much addicted to hockeyand boxing and working out, but
(09:38):
it wasn't destroying my life andmy family, so I was gung-ho
with that for three years.
And I got three years into mysobriety and I said, okay,
you're physically tough, you'rephysically strong, but you're
still emotionally andspiritually weak where it
matters and you need to dosomething about that calling
that God put on you.
And so I said, okay, well, I'mgoing to go back to school.
I'm going to go to school foraddiction counseling and finish
(09:59):
this degree out.
So I got my uh, a trios college.
I went to finish my addictioncounseling degree and then I
interned with Salvation Army ata homeless shelter in Oakville,
ontario, and I fell in love withthe work, still lukewarm, got
to imagine this is hard toimagine that I was still
lukewarm through this, but Iknew that it was a calling.
I knew it was more than just anine to five, even though they
(10:20):
ended up hiring me on and payingme.
So I ended up going to work forthem for two and a half three
years and then we moved back to.
We decided to move to TampaFlorida and I got a job in Tampa
Florida as an addictioncounselor at a methadone and
suboxone clinic.
Now, keep in mind I neveragreed with that philosophy of
(10:41):
recovery at all, but I wanted towork with addicts.
I wanted to counsel addicts, soit was the first opportunity I
could work in the States withaddiction, so I jumped on it.
The FBI fingerprinted all of theemployees and decided to let me
go.
My felony record was expunged.
I had 12 or 13 felonies rackedup over the years.
I was on a run from US Marshalsat one point for five months.
(11:01):
They didn't like seeing allthose felonies on my FBI record,
even though I was veryforthright about my past with
them.
I mean, they fired me and itkind of crushed me and
devastated me.
I was like I really didn'tagree with this philosophy.
And now they fired me.
You know, no, I didn't staydefeated though.
I got up and I said, ok, I'mgoing to go further.
My education with psychology.
You see, I was still thinkingthis route and so I'm glad the
(11:25):
Lord was leading me this routefor a lot of good reasons that I
know now.
So I studied, I tried to do allthe self-help gurus and the
psychological avenues forhealing to heal my brain.
The world told me that my brainneeded healing and I finally
found out, when I sold out tothe Lord, that it was my heart
that needed healing and that mybrain would follow my heart.
And so all the worldlyBand-Aids I was sold my whole
(11:46):
life.
They never worked and I had tofind out the long, hard route.
I finally surrendered.
I finally waved the white flag.
Ron Meyers (11:55):
What age was this?
I was 30.
You were 30 years old.
30 years old.
You know, when I met you lastweek, fit man, look good, never,
never thinking a story likethat.
But you know, it goes to showyou that there are people out
there walking around that justlook like they should be on TV,
but there's hurts in them.
And today you are a counselor.
(12:17):
Tell the listeners what you'redoing today You're helping
people become free.
Jarrod (12:22):
Yeah.
So all that was?
You know, genesis 50, 20 is oneof my favorite scriptures.
I say favorite a lot when Italk about the word of God, but
I have a lot of favorites inthere.
And you intended to harm me,but God intended it for good to
do what is now being done thesaving of many lives.
You see, god had a plan and whyhe allowed all that.
So he rolled out some thingsfor me.
(12:43):
I moved back from Tampa with mywife that was a miracle of God
in itself that we could agree tomove back here to Mississippi
and I started escape addiction.
I started doing outpatientcounseling and so that started
out very slow and very much hadthe enemy in my ear the whole
time telling me to quit andthrough people often telling me
every reason why I should not bedoing that.
(13:04):
If I would have listened, wewouldn't be here talking today.
So escape addiction led me to2020, started to formulate the
Freedom Lighthouse nonprofit.
So I was charging very lowprices for outpatient counseling
.
But the Freedom Lighthouse theLord gave me a different vision.
We were going to take guys infor free and it was going to be
(13:25):
once we got them.
A second phase is what the Lordled me to do, and I believe in
inpatient.
That's a necessary step formany.
But I'm more concerned aboutwhat the Lord led me to a second
phase and sober living,transitional living.
I'm more concerned about whatthey're going to do when they
have some freedoms and somemoney in their pocket and the
ability to make a poor choice.
What are they going to do then?
Because we're going to separate.
(13:45):
We're not going to do it.
The Lord's going to separatethe wheat from the tares there
in second phase.
And so we started setting upthe nonprofit of the Freedom
Lighthouse and we took our firstofficial residence in in 21.
And so that's been quite thejourney and it's led to all
kinds of connections and justbringing God glory all over and
just meeting so many amazingpeople like yourself.
(14:08):
So where is Freedom Lighthouse?
Freedom Lighthouse is inWaveland Mississippi, six month
to a year long program and mostneed the year I'm not very
rarely-.
Ron Meyers (14:15):
And you say you do this for free.
Jarrod (14:17):
Well, I don't get paid a thing.
Ron Meyers (14:19):
No, I mean for the clients out there.
Jarrod (14:22):
The clients get to come in for free.
Well, I don't get paid.
No, I mean for the clients outthere.
The clients get to come in forfree, but once they pass that
grace period and get acclimatedand they're ready to start
working, then they'll pitch inthe pot, but that's just to keep
rent and the lights on and thebills paid.
I don't make a dime as thedirector, nor do I ever want to.
He's given me other ways tomake money with a clear
conscience.
I don't believe in monetizingthe word of God.
Ron Meyers (14:45):
So how has business been in the last few years?
Jarrod (14:48):
So it's been awesome.
We've had some amazing results.
So I'm going to tell you theguys that stayed and finished
the year, they're all doingamazing and of course, we've had
a lot.
You know, we've had some thathaven't stayed and finished the
year.
Ron Meyers (15:01):
So it's never too late for anybody listening for a
whole new beginning, is it?
Jarrod (15:07):
No 17-year addiction, the last eight intravenous.
I've been to some dark anddesperate places.
If the Lord could polish me upinto something halfway decent,
he can do it for anybody.
Ron Meyers (15:16):
So right now you have the microphone, Can you
give someone hope that may belistening?
That is in an addiction stageof life?
Jarrod (15:23):
Yeah, yeah, I'll just add the one latest thing Just
last October, the Lord birthedthe church in Bayside community.
It's one of the poorestcommunities, if not the poorest
community in Hancock County.
Through us, through his bodyand what we were doing with the
Freedom Lighthouse, he birthed anew church body for what I call
a church house or Sundayservice.
(15:43):
Right, we are the church bodyand so and he made me the pastor
of that I didn't do any of this, how it all came together, I
could not claim it, I did not doit, I did not think about it,
orchestrate it, it just all cametogether.
So let me tell you, if the Lordcan take somebody like me, just
bottom of the barrel junkie, Iwas a bottom feeder, I was one
of the most selfish individualsyou'll ever meet, one of the
(16:04):
most stubborn, just brawlers,fighters, just nasty individual,
very lustful, very much awomanizer, misogynist, I mean
whatever negative label theenemy can put on somebody.
I owned it and owned it proudly.
And so if he could takesomebody like me and humble me
to the point and that was whatthe addiction was about bringing
(16:26):
me to my knees, you see, theaddiction brought me to my knees
the humility, but it was thestruggles in my marriage and the
pain in my cousin's death thathad me truly surrender.
And now I have to staysurrendered every day.
That's not a one and done.
Born again is not something youjust do one time and you get
dunked in that water and you'reclean.
(16:47):
As a matter of fact, 1 Peter 4says baptism not the removal of
filth from the flesh, but thepledge of a clear conscience
toward God, and so we have topledge that every day.
We have to die to ourself everyday and pick up our cross and
follow after him.
I know where my will got me.
It got me destruction, chaos,misery and death.
Now I should have been deadnumerous times.
(17:07):
I didn't get in all thosestories today, but I was dead
inside.
I was a dead man walking andthe Lord Christ came by one day
and he said it's time to get upout of that grave you built for
yourself.
It's time to live.
I want to give you life.
Ron Meyers (17:21):
Well, how do people get in touch with you?
Or Freedom Lighthouse.
Jarrod (17:25):
Oh, that's easy.
They can email me or they cango to the website
freedom-lighthousecom.
Ron Meyer (17:31):
Freedom-lighthousecom .
We're just about out of time.
I would like you to have anuclear prayer for our listeners
out there listening right now.
Jarrod (17:41):
All right.
Well, we invite the Holy Spiritin for that, because he's the
one that prays through us.
All right, thank you, ron.
Lord, heavenly Father, we justcome to your throne boldly to
just praise you this morning andthank you for all that you're
doing in our lives.
I thank you for my brother Ron,and you giving him this
platform, lord, and giving himthese gifts to use to promote
(18:01):
your kingdom, lord, and that heis sold out to his relationship
with you, that he can spend therest of his days lifting you up
and glorifying you, magnifyingyour works, lord.
So I ask you to continue to bethe wind behind his sails and
ours and everybody in thekingdom, lord, that you just
continue bringing your churchbody together.
We don't care aboutdenominations, lord, we care
about you and living inrelationship with you, lord.
(18:24):
That you can just keep freeingpeople from all forms of
captivity that's, addiction,religious bondage, lord, and
legalism and that you can bringthem into relation with you and
that intimacy, lord, that closeconnection, and fill them up
with your Holy Spirit.
Lord, I believe that you arepouring your spirit out on all
flesh, lord, raising up an armyright now, and that you have
(18:46):
chosen people like me the leastlikely suspects, the black sheep
, the round pegs in the squareholes.
Lord, you have chosen peoplelike us to make examples out of
us, so that people can see yourmiracle power flowing through
our lives.
I ask for your will to be doneand for every listener out there
today, lord, that you justbless them.
You come and meet them withyour Holy Spirit in your
presence right now, lord, andjust shower them so that they
(19:08):
can just have the most amazingday, lord, and they can keep
having that and living for youfrom here on out.
We love you, jesus, and wethank you so much for loving us
that we could love you and oneanother, and we lift all this up
in the mighty and powerful nameof Jesus Christ.
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