September 26, 2025 • 40 mins
What if the behaviors you think are “socially acceptable” are actually forms of self-sabotage holding you back? In this episode, we dive deep into the hidden patterns we often normalize and explore how shifting from worst-case survival thinking to imagining best-case possibilities can transform your story. You’ll walk away with fresh perspectives on resilience, clarity through storytelling, and the freedom to see yourself as more than your past.
This episode is with Kristan Swan.
Kristan Swan, M.Ed., is a facilitator, entrepreneur, and lifelong learner who helps people discover clarity through story and reflection. She created "Discovering your Spiritual Autobiography," a non-denominational workshop that invites participants to explore their beliefs, share their stories, and learn from one another in an intimate group setting. She's also the author of "Spaghetti in the Wall," a journal designed to cultivate discernment through thoughtful prompts.
Find out more about Kristan Swan by visiting https://kristanswan.com.
Listeners can join Kristan’s community at KristanSwan.com to sign up for her email list. Subscribers receive updates on upcoming Discovering Your Spiritual Autobiography courses, posts from The Experience Collective, and exclusive discounts on her journals and workbooks designed to spark reflection and clarity.
🔑Rob Z Wentz is a Leadership Communication Expert. Rob teaches, trains, and develops people and organizations to become exceptional communicators and leaders. With Rob, leaders find clarity, take action, and succeed with integrity, making them “the expert” in their industry.
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🔑Rob is also a Christian entrepreneur, founder of The Unstuck Movement (on all social & podcast platforms), best-selling author, social media marketer and strategist, award-winning radio personality, speaker, and influencer. For over 20 years Rob has been leading people to communicate at a higher level.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:24):
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Unstuck Movement.
As always, I'm your host, Rob Z true testimonies, A breakthrough
or what we talk about here on the show.
And today I'm super excited to have a good friend of mine and
an incredible author, Marshall Peters on the podcast.
Marshall has a book out be encouraged stories of the
supernatural. We're going to trust me, you're
(00:45):
going to be encouraged today with what we're going to be
talking about. We're talking about supernatural
encounters. We're talking about the Lord our
Savior God, Jesus Christ or the faith journey, spiritual
encouragement and and how we truly hear God in our lives.
And Marshall, I love to jump in right off the bat with a
powerful question. You say in chapter 10 on in
here, get under authority that Papa knows how many times it
(01:09):
will take us to hear something before we actually hear it.
What does that mean? What does that mean specifically
and how did that apply to your life when you actually heard
God? How did things change?
Oh, wow. So the first thing I would tell
you, Rob, is just let me be a pastor for a minute.
(01:29):
It means we're not a failure. Thank you.
Because God will tell us something.
We'll feel like we're in horrid disobedience and and in truth,
we are in this. But then he, he redeemed and
tells and tells and tells and tells as he works in our life
through you. You mentioned the word journey
as he works in our journey through life to bring us to the
place of surrender and trust regarding issues in our life
(01:52):
that he's taking us through. And he may know it's going to
take me 48 times to hear something before I finally go,
Oh my God, just. And if you don't believe that,
ask my wife. Because yeah, there's that.
So what it means is that we're not a failure because, and you
(02:14):
and I already talked about this,he is a far better shepherd than
we are a sheep. And that's part of that.
It's like, Marshall, your faith doesn't make me Father.
It's I am father to you and I amyour shepherd and you're my
sheep. And I understand out of my
absolute holy, incredible patience of I'm going to need to
(02:35):
tell you this so many times before it's finally going to
sink in. And you know what?
Each one of those times is not adisappointment to God.
It's a joy to him because he understands we're getting closer
and getting closer to this part of me being conformed into the
image of his Son because he loves me too much to leave me.
(02:57):
That's a whole lot to just that itself.
But it, it's, it, it's that whole process.
And if we change our view about who Father is and who Papa is
toward us, things become positive, not negative.
And then the Holy Ghost begins to convict us of righteousness
instead of judgment. And so it's a good thing
(03:17):
specifically, you know, like with this book, I've been told a
long time by by dozens of people, hey, man, you need to
write these stories down. You need to write, please write
these stories. Please write these stories.
And so we finally did wrote, wrote a whole bunch of stories
way back in 2014. So this is what, 11 years ago
now and, and then so, so we wrote them.
(03:41):
I wrote them up for my, they were mainly for my family and we
wrote them and my wife is like, you know, this is really
personal. Some of these are intimate
because they're, you know, they're 2:00 in the morning
conversations, other stuff. They're really intimate.
I don't want to publish them forthe for the public because their
(04:02):
family stories and things like that.
And then and then ten years later, and so I laid that down.
You know, there's a whole thing of death of a vision, etcetera,
etcetera. So we wrote the book, gave it to
our family, a couple close friends who had encouraged us to
do that and then laid the whole thing down.
And lo and behold, 10 years later, just supernaturally out
(04:23):
of nowhere, God tells my wife, lays it in her heart, it's time
to publish your stories. And supernaturally, that night
we absolutely, we accidentally met with a publisher having
dinner with one of my best chimney sweep friends.
I had no idea what his wife did.She's a she's an editor and
helps publish. And I'm like, Oh my goodness.
And the Holy Ghost is going to see.
(04:45):
So the idea that, yeah, he tellsus things over and over and over
and over. Some of that is to prepare us
for when we actually do surrender because the timing, as
we know, is timing is is is is The thing is a thing that's so
important. The timing was right.
So then we published the book, put it out on Amazon, designed
(05:08):
to encourage believers and non believers.
So believers to trust and walk with Papa and expect the
supernatural activity of of father in their life and for non
believers to be jealous and encouraged to go God, if this
actually is you, I want to know and to open their hearts.
And we've seen, you know, both those things happen.
(05:30):
So that's pretty cool. I would say so I would say
definitely pretty cool and and Ithink God does do this too.
Like you saying you, you wrote the book just for your family 10
years. It just kind of sat on the shelf
and was just used internally, I think for your family.
I, I think God does this to us at times to prepare us, right?
So like we, we, we've created the thing that he, we know he's
(05:53):
been telling us to create, but then he has this kind of, it's
just for us initially it's like just so we can do it, so we can
be encouraged, so we can strengthen our faith by doing
the thing. And then over time he allows us
to release that or maybe never does.
I mean, for some people, maybe it never is released, but I
don't have to think it would because these are, these are
like testimonies and, and you know, the power of our testimony
(06:16):
is everything. And so I, I just find that
interesting. I've heard that multiple times,
like somebody create something they knew God was telling them
to create, but they don't feel like they're supposed to release
it or they, they don't even wantto release it.
And then it ends up happening years later when the time is
right, when they're ready. Because God, he also has to
prepare our hearts for those sorts of things, like to be able
to put that kind of stuff out there.
(06:37):
And you know, because it, it canbe vulnerable, like your, your
wife said, like Barb said, it can be, it can expose you and,
and you know, tell your stories and things like that.
And I think we have to our, our hearts have to be ready to do
that because that can be, that can be a lot if you're not
prepared for it and God doesn't.If, if we listen to his timing
and follow his timing, he's going to make sure we're ready
(07:00):
for what he's going to put us out there to do.
And I I just. Yeah, this was a timing issue.
And more and more and more as I,as I see, as I'm seeing some
things, this was definitely one of those timing issues and
that's what he does. Yeah, and it I've seen it in my
own life and just, I'll just give you an example from my own
personal life. Just recently, Charlie Kirk's
(07:21):
passing really lit this and I'm sure lit this in millions of
people, millions of Christians across the world.
But for me, I've been, I know God's been telling me for years
to make content like my the video content that I make
online. I know I'm supposed to be
speaking the word. I'm supposed to be, you know,
speaking Jesus into people's lives.
And I've shield away from it, fear of fear of a couple of
(07:42):
different things, criticism. What are people going to say
then also, I'm not ready. I don't know enough yet.
You know, all those sorts of things.
And just like my own personal self doubt around that.
And just over the past couple ofweeks, I've been like, no, I, I
clearly felt God released me of that.
No, just go do it. Like it's time for you to go do
this. And, and like you said too, he's
(08:05):
going to keep reminding me. And it's not like you said
something really good there a second ago.
I'm always looking for themes inthese shows.
You said your faith doesn't makeGodfather right.
So my faith in him, he, he's, he's the father.
He's he's God no matter what. And he's not like he's not
disappointed that I haven't donethe thing yet.
(08:26):
He knows how long it's going to take me.
And that is, that is so reassuring.
Just hearing you say that, it's like, right, God knows that I'm
not going to do this the 1st 80 times that he tells me to do it.
He might be telling you to do something for 30 years that
you're still not doing yet, right?
But he knows you're going to eventually do it when you're
ready, but he has to keep reminding you of it.
(08:48):
And you're right, it does build and build and build and build.
But the the main point is we usually we would be discouraged,
but God is not discouraged. He is patient and that's just
not, you know, sitting back withhis arms folded with his with
his foot tapping, waiting. No, he already has the big
picture and actually bothers heart as he's revealed it is
(09:09):
he's excited about that day whenwe hit that surrender or the aha
moment and it and or the breakthrough moment.
And he he in some ways he can't wait for those days to happen.
So he's patient with joy and expectancy.
As opposed to what we normally get from the enemy, which is
(09:29):
conviction, condemnation. We feel bad about ourselves.
God's discarded us. Yeah, yeah.
No, the opposite. Yeah, the exact opposite that.
And I mean your book is called Be encouraged.
I'm literally that is very encouraging right off the bat.
And that takes a that takes a a world of pressure off knowing
that God knows how long it's going to take you to do
(09:50):
something and that he's not looking at you at like, will you
get it together already or he's not going to go take it and give
it to somebody else. He's waiting to prepare you for
when it's time to to do the thing.
So before we go any further, I just want to welcome people
here, introduce, introduce you to the show the unstuck movement
to this platform was created to help you find breakthrough in
your life. So I bring incredible people on
(10:12):
here who have had a real true breakthrough in their lives.
So they have a true testimony toshare with you.
To give you an example. No matter what you're going
through that it's possible for you to find those same
breakthroughs. And if you persevere with
patients and with faith, you aregoing to find those
breakthroughs in your life. Or sponsored by the Connected
Leaders Academy. Make sure you check out
Connected Leaders Academy com over 500 heart centered
(10:35):
entrepreneurs from all over the world helping each other grow
and also the pro podcaster Academy.
So if you're somebody who wants to launch a podcast, but you
don't know where to start. It's confusing too many nuts and
bolts. I want to help you become the go
to authority in your space. I want to help you make
incredible, long lasting personal and professional
connections and also build an identity around what you do.
(10:58):
How do we streamline the process?
If you have a podcast, how do you streamline it?
Make it an easy process. How do you monetize it so it's a
real functional, revenue generating part of your
business? I would love to help you do
that. You can join the wait list right
now at robzwentz.com. Marshall Peters with us today is
going to be sharing his real life encounters with God that
bring hope, strengthen faith, and highlight the extraordinary
(11:21):
in everyday life. The extraordinary in everyday
life stories help everybody who who's who knows him, who's read
his book, experience encouragement and fall deeper in
love with Papa God. I'm curious because you have
some stories in here about angels.
One of the stories that I just read, Marshall was so good.
(11:41):
I believe it was get under authority.
I think that was the one is where you're riding.
Oh no. Is it riding in the car with
angels? Right.
Riding in the car with Angels. So, you know, let's go down that
one, yeah. That's a powerful one.
And you had, you've had encounters with angels.
What do? What are the angels that have
shown up to you first? You could tell that story, if
(12:04):
you'd like, about riding in the car with angels.
But what have the angels revealed to you in those
encounters about God's love? So let me answer, let me try the
second question first because wecould take 1/2 an hour for the
first question. The absolute love and direction,
care and shepherding of the heart of God and the person of
(12:27):
God and the finger of God. I mean, just it it what they
share is the is the thing you need that they were sent for and
that Father knew you needed, whether that's, you know, a
corrective thing or an instructive thing or a hug.
But in my case, it happened to be a ride because my car broke
down. I think supernaturally broke
(12:48):
down and and father needed Father wanted to encourage me
and probably the most devastating moment of my life.
I like to say you don't get to see the red, the seas of the
red, the walls of the Red Sea part to your feet are in the
water of the Red Sea. I mean, you know, desperate
moments. That's when God's come through.
(13:09):
And that was one of those desperate moments.
And it really was a pinnacle point in my life.
I'd given my life for the sake of the gospel.
I'd given up everything when I was a kid.
You know, my my dad never understood.
He goes marsh you, you can be a doctor or lawyer and I don't
know why you're going to be a pastor, but you're wasting your
life. And I'd so I'd given it all up
(13:30):
to go pastor. Did your dad, was he, did he
believe in God? Not at that point.
He was not a believer. He was a cop.
And it's seen all the ugly things of life and just really
wanted very little to do with who who, who Papa was at that
point. And but he also understood that
there was something different inme that it happened early.
(13:52):
I was different. And so he understood that, but
he didn't understand. And so I'd given up my life to
go be a Patrick on the seminary was in Michigan church planting
and had had done that for for almost five years.
Was it was it was God, it was crazy.
It was wonderful fulfilling yourgiftings.
(14:15):
And then God says, well, I'm going to have you resign and
move. And I'm not even, I'm not even
going to tell you what you're going to do yet you got 4 little
girls. And God goes resign and move.
And I wasn't ready to hear that word at all.
And my wife told me a year aheadof time, she goes, I think the
Holy Spirit is just telling us we need to go resign and get
(14:36):
under path, get under a ministrywhere we can learn about all
these things that are broken outand get some more experience in
the, in the supernatural realm, in the charismatic realm, all
these, all these different things.
I'm like, yeah, no, God didn't tell me that.
So, but I, you know, I, but that's one of those he tells you
(14:59):
so many times before you finallyhear it.
And in my case, it took a supernatural experience of
riding in the car with angels for me to, for, for, for me to
hear it and the, and the audiblevoice and all these kinds of
things that were compressed into, into a divine moment.
And, and he did so people are probably going.
So what's the story? Well, I had, I told my wife,
(15:23):
because we've gone to it a couple times about resigning,
resigning, resigning. And God was pulling my heart
toward that. And again, this is the only
thing I've ever wanted to do since I was nine years old.
And I knew the calling. I knew the surety of it.
And so I told my wife, you know,On this date, I'm going to make
that decision. We're either going to resign or
(15:45):
I, I don't know, we're going to keep the.
But my heart kept going. Yeah, Father, I had given I, I
promise I would go. I would, I would move to Lansing
and I would give my life here. I would be a pastor for.
I just wouldn't be a guy moved around.
I would give my life and God's good.
I well, that's a really nice promise, but did I ask you to do
that devastation moment number one that morning when I in my
(16:10):
quiet time and I said, you know,no, my seminary professors told
me that. And but also, that was the kind
of guy I was. And so I knew in my spirit, I
just knew, you know, let the peace of Christ rule in your
heart, make the decision for you.
I knew in my heart that I was supposed to resign against
everything I was. I was burning every last bridge
(16:35):
to obey a subjective voice of the Holy Ghost and with four
little kids and four little girls that were 643642 and new
big decision. So but I went down and I'm in
tears. I'm telling my wife that God
said resign and move. So I, we at that point we have,
(16:59):
we have 4 little girls like I mentioned, we have three of them
with the chicken pox. One of them really bad chicken.
I mean she had them in her eyes.It was just horrible and the
worst kid to be to be sick. I won't name her because they
don't embarrass her, but she's got she's you always say if you
have a bunch of kids, sometimes you have that worst kid.
Well, she was the worst kid. I need to put the part out of a
(17:20):
junkyard in, in Ann Arbor, whichis about, you know, a little
over an hour, hour 15 away. And it was going to be an easy
thing. I said, listen, I'll drive over
there. I'll get the part.
I'll take my daughter. I wanted to name her.
And, you know, at least I'll give you a few hours of break.
And so we, we got, we're drivingout of Lansing and I hear this
very bad clunk that happened in,in my car.
(17:43):
I'm driving getting ready to turn on I-96 to, to Detroit.
And I hear the clunk. And I'm like, that's not good.
That's a very bad clunk. And I go to get off and Rob, the
car is filled with a not a person next to me, but a voice
next to me. That's all I can say.
There was an audible voice of that said Marshall, it's OK,
(18:05):
keep going. So what do you do when you hear
an audible voice next? You Yeah, you argue with it.
And I'm like, no, that is, did you hear that clunk?
That is not a good clunk. And again, then I hear just kind
and gracious Marshall, it's OK, keep going.
(18:26):
So then take the exit. I went straight and then took
the took the next exit, which that rather than turn around and
go home, I then went straight and took the exit to Detroit.
And in the middle of a there we had a middle of a trip, which
was the hour 50. There was a there was between
two exits. There's like 10 miles and, and
(18:47):
all of a sudden the car, the carjust, it's running, but there's
no more. If you press on the gas, there's
nothing. So the, the clutch disc had
separated. So the car wasn't broke, it just
the clutch had broken. And we coasted to, we coasted to
a stop and I pulled off the road.
I've got my daughter beside me with chicken pox.
She's in her pyjamas. I'm in the middle of, of
(19:09):
Michigan now. And the joke is Rob, the joke in
Michigan in the middle there is,it's so flat.
You can see 20 miles. And if you hop up on top of a
piece of paper, you can see another 20.
So I got out of the car. I looked both ways.
There was nobody on I-96, not a soul.
And I don't, I was just there a little while ago.
And I'm like, how did that happen?
(19:31):
That's just there was nobody. And I took my daughter in my
arms and I said, and just out ofme, Rob spills this guttural
thing that was like, father, would you please tell me I did
what was right? The decision would please tell
me that I don't know where that came from, but immediately a car
(19:53):
pulls up just to a plain brown 4door Chevy citation.
I mean as ugly a plain car as you and I'm a car.
So this is like it just pulls upout of the middle and it's gets
to a stop. Now at this point, I didn't
realize this car was not it wasn't there and now all of a
(20:15):
sudden it's there. But I didn't realize that it's
like it's like for for for divine purposes.
Papa suspended some things in mybrain that didn't allow me to
make a like, where did that go? No, it just pulled up and a
little old lady rolls the windowdown.
So it didn't, you know, no powerwindows, rolls the window down
and says you look like you coulduse some help.
(20:38):
So I'm being familiar with the roads.
I said, yeah, if you could just take me up to the next exit.
I can make. I call my wife, she can come
rescue me and it'll all be good because we were poor, you know,
living on shoe string soup as a pastor of church planting and
stuff. So, yeah, So I, if you can do
that, that'd be awesome. So we start to get in the back
(20:59):
of the car, Rob, and in the middle of the back seat.
Now remember, the car skidded toa stop.
So anything in the back should have, you know, fallen forward.
There's a Bible, like a Gideon Bible right on the back seat,
right on the edge. And I'm like, huh.
So I look at the the older gentleman who's driving and I
say, oh, you guys got a Bible back here.
(21:20):
And so to lay the background, I am a Baptist pastor or
charismatic Baptist pastor from Lansing, MI.
And my wife and I that morning decided to move to Pennsylvania
to help start a church. That's the context.
All righty, this guy, he's like 80 years old, looks like a
little old little frail grandpa puts his arm over the seat,
(21:43):
looks at me. I'm in, I'm behind the the
passenger looks at me and he says the following and I can
still hear this Rob. He goes Yazer.
I'm a Baptist pastor from Lansing, MI.
My wife and I are going to Pennsylvania to help start a
church. And at that point I lost it.
I just, I literally, it's like, OK, that's when it broke.
(22:09):
I was undone. It just, it broke.
And so, you know, I asked him ifhe can take me up to the next X
and he's glad to. And I'm just weeping in the back
seat and beginning to tell him my story.
We get to the exit, go to now inmiddle of Pennsylvania.
We have sheets, there's 711, etcetera, etcetera.
(22:30):
Well, in Michigan they have a quality dairy and it's the same
kind of thing. So we get up to the quality
dairy. You know, it's all glass front,
right? So I, I, I, I'm not stupid at
this point. I take my daughter in my arms
and I go to the phone booth. Now this is one of those phone
booths in the front, just a partial one.
It wasn't where the door closed,but just a partial 1.
I call my wife, collect and and give her all the all the
(22:53):
instructions and I turn around. I give him the thumbs up.
Now I can see him in the in the glass, but I turn around.
I give him a thumbs up, let him know everything's good.
I turn back around to hang the phone.
Oh, oh, I'm sorry. Before I get out of the car when
we drive up, the guy goes, I'm supposed to pray for you.
(23:14):
And this man prays down heaven like I've never heard.
I, if I, if I, if I, if I open my eyes, I swear the car wasn't
glowing inside. It was just it was, it was
amazing. But what that did in my heart to
encourage me Rob was was just was was stunning.
(23:35):
Anyway, so I'm on the phone, I turn around, give them a thumbs
up. We're good.
I hang up the phone and I turn around and they're gone.
Not backing. They're gone.
And I'm like, Oh my God. And then it then then all of a
sudden mental clarity, you know,it's like I goes boom, OK,
you're back. And I'm like, Oh my, I had just
(23:57):
I mean, we're we're supposed to be angels unaware.
Oh my God, I had just been visited, chauffeured by Angel
and I'm like, Father, you are you.
I have no words. You are too kind.
Because it was the exact thing Ineeded to hear.
Because all my life, I'm, I'm 35at this point, I've given my
(24:21):
life and God's going, no, I'm going to have to go do so.
I have a different plan for you.And that's what it took in my
case. So, yeah, I was chauffeured in
cars. And then my next very thought
was Papa, a Chevy Citation. Really.
That's it. You know, not a, not a, a
Corvette or a Mustang the way. So the way anyway it would, you
(24:46):
know, it's one of those things that at the time you needed it
got part of the Red Sea when I needed it the most.
And that's how he decided to express it.
In in the most and the I love it.
Like the Chevy Citation, the oldthe old people like the most
unassuming way possible, right? Nothing flashy.
Absolutely. Nothing snazzy about it.
(25:07):
Marshall. I love that story in the book.
It was so I don't know you telling the story right now.
I got the same feeling. I just like like just I can't
even imagine the I know what youmean, like the there's kind of a
veil on your eyes where you you're not like logically
thinking about why is this happening right now?
How is this all happening until they're gone and then it lifts
(25:27):
and you're like, oh, wow, that those were angels, right?
Because in the midst of it, it'salmost like, almost like a, like
a, like you were like in a dreama little bit.
I'm curious, like your mindset when you were in the car when
all that was happening, was it like, I don't know, I guess was
it like you were in reality, were you kind of like in a place
(25:49):
of God? I'm in reality because.
I mean, I know you're in reality, yeah.
And I, and I'm directing to the exit.
I know where the quality dairy is.
I know all of that. I'm calling my wife.
I'm all in the middle of it. But then you're just not
realizing you are being entertained by the by, by
servants of, of Papa who are coming to do that.
(26:10):
And we've seen other things. I mean, we've had angels in the,
in the church that people see. I couldn't, but everybody else
could. We'd seen a we'd seen an Angel
save a guy from a, from a railroad from being crashed into
a railroad thing one day with the kids.
It was really cool. And then who disappeared after
the railroad train crossed and he was drunk and then he fell
(26:30):
over. So we've seen them before.
And I was aware, but I wasn't aware at all, Rob.
And that was part of that was a necessary part of the story as
as I look back. I'll tell you, you know,
something that happened to me probably about a year ago and I
look back on it, I'm like, man, I really missed my opportunity
there. But I truly believe this was God
(26:51):
working through somebody. I came outside of a dollar the
Dollar Tree here in Altoona, PA with my son Max.
And there's a guy sitting on thebench.
And he, he was sitting on the bench waiting for the bus.
And he looked up at looked up atme and he asked me for some
money. And so I gave him a couple of
dollars and I could tell he was like, he was really high.
(27:13):
He was on on drugs, you know something.
And I gave him the money and I said, I said, God bless you,
man. And he looks up at me and he
goes, thank you, Rob. And I was like, I froze.
And it was one of those moments where I was like, did he really?
Did he just say my name? And I didn't have the, I don't
have the courage or I was just so dumbfounded.
(27:34):
I was like, all right. And I just walked away.
That was the whole encounter. You know.
Well, I look back, I'm like, it was such an encounter because I
was, I was like, I was so dumbfounded.
Like I could have been like, I wanted to say, how did, how did
you know my name? Like I later on I thought like,
why didn't I ask him a bunch of questions?
But it's like I almost, I almostcouldn't, I don't know how to
(27:57):
explain it exactly. I was so like in shock and I'm
like, Max, did you hear him say my name?
And he's like, yeah, he said, thank you, Robin.
I'm like, I've never seen that guy before in my life.
And so I was thinking about thatand I'm like, God, what did,
what did that mean? Why did that happen?
And what I felt God tell me was remember that I'm, you know,
that I'm, that I'm everywhere, especially in the, in the lowest
(28:18):
of people, the people you see that you think are, are broken.
This guy was obviously on drugs.Like I'm in those people.
And I don't know if that guy wasan Angel or if God just spoke
through him in that moment. I, I, I don't know.
But it was one of those things where I, I know what you mean
cuz I was in kind of like a dazeuntil later on and it kind of
lifted. I was like, that was wild.
(28:39):
So. It's like a rain stop story.
I'm talking to a guy yesterday in the gym about that because
I'd given him the book and he's reading.
He's kind of blown away. He's so he goes well, why didn't
you guys talk about it afterwards?
I don't know. We were just so blown away that
you couldn't really talk about it.
You just had to process for a while what it just happened.
(29:00):
Yeah. And like when they said they're
going from Lansing, MI to Pennsylvania, did you ask like
which church where, where are you going in Pennsylvania?
Do you? Do you Never asked them?
No, I was just, no, that was, that's when everything just
broke, man. Like everything broke.
That's crazy questions. I was just at that point.
I'm sorry. It was all about me, you know?
(29:25):
It's like you weren't, you weren't even supposed to ask
because they were basically theywere you, they were, they were
there taking you from Lansing toPennsylvania.
Like so because logically you'd be like, well, that's weird.
Where what, where are you guys going in PA?
Right. We're doing the same thing, but
you didn't even bring it up. I'm.
Just saying you said they were me because they were me.
You know, there, there's a depththere that they were but you
(29:47):
know, but they were ministering angels and they are all around.
If we will just open our eyes tothe possibilities and say, OK,
Father, I don't know what all this is, but you know, if it's
real, I, I surrender and I'll also see because both of those
are true. And I'll and I'll and I'll
follow you and, and I'll look for your goodness and kindness.
(30:10):
Yeah. And and then you know what
things happen. So, so.
And that's what that's what the book's about.
It's just to encourage people's heart to actually believe and
expect and then ask God to go. Would you?
Would you use a little old me? Yeah.
So, OK, real fast, we're going to pause to shout out the
sponsor of the show. Take one minute to do that.
When we come back, I want to talk about what you you alluded
(30:33):
to this. I want to know more what
happened to you at nine years old that shifted your entire
life And we'll we'll dive into that when we come back.
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We look forward to having you join us.
Take care. And I absolutely love these
stories because it's like just the and I want to talk about
1:00 here in a minute. The mundane in life, the small
things that can happen, the really pay attention to how God
is moving in your life. But but I'm, I'm super curious
about nine years old, What what happened that shifted your life
(32:25):
that that called you into to ministry at such a young age?
So it's a Sunday night in, I'm in Florida, we're at a Baptist
Church, my mom and me and then my other two brothers and my my
youngest brothers, all four of us boys, my mom.
And for some reason I'm next to mom.
That's how I guess it was supposed to work out.
(32:46):
And it's just during the church service.
And no offense, but my people aren't necessarily the best with
the Holy Ghost, if I put it thatway.
And. I begin message.
I begin to weep. I just felt this presence.
(33:08):
Just settle and come down. Now, this can mess up your
theology a little bit. That's OK, I get it.
But I'm nine and in the middle of the service while the
pastor's speaking. I just begin to weep
uncontrollably. Rob can't stop.
My mom's like, stop it, stop it.Wait, why are you crying?
And I don't know. I'm nine, I'm a mess.
(33:33):
It was just the Holy Ghost and he and at that point he came and
he gave me a couple gifts, but Ididn't know about any of this,
but he gave me two gifts. The first, the first gift is
just really special and, and, and present to me.
And you'll see this if if we just talk when I sense his
presence, I begin to weep. That's that was one of the gifts
(33:57):
he gave me. And the second one is that he,
he, he just, he separated me forsome things and he put in me a
passable gift, then an encouraging gift that I just,
that I began to carry. So all of a sudden I just, well,
I mean, it was a couple years because I had to get to like age
12 at that point. But even at 9, my heart and my
(34:20):
passions began to change for some things for God and some
some family things happened. So at some point I was the only
one of my whole family going to church.
I literally as a 10 year old boywould walk to church and and
walk home. It's about a mile.
No big deal. I just something in me had a
burden and a passion to go at. I pastored my junior high
(34:44):
school. I just did.
I pastored my high school, I just did.
People would just come and and be and and and be encouraged,
whether they were believers or non believers, depending on what
the need was. That's just that just began to
happen. I don't know if you ever saw the
movie Bruce Almighty, but if yousaw the movie Bruce Almighty, at
(35:04):
the end of the movie when thingsare all falling apart, people
start coming to him and confessing sin and brokenness.
That was my high school experience.
I mean, there were a lot of other things, but just that's
what happened. And it was so.
And I always told my wife, you know, I did this.
So when we went on, on my 20th, the 20th anniversary high school
graduation thing, I went down toFlorida and we went to that.
(35:28):
And for most of the entire evening, I just sat at the table
and there was a line of people coming waiting to talk to me.
Yeah. You know, they say it's like,
it's like when you left high school, you just start from
right there. Yeah.
Well, my wife is like, I guess she really did So.
But it just, it puts something different inside me and robbed
(35:51):
my hearts and my passions and mygiftings were already coming
out. Even as a junior high kid
sometimes did was just hug somebody and.
And there was power, an encouragement that went through.
Sometimes it was just a listening ear, and I'm horrible
at listening, but it's what you do.
And people just walked away loved and encouraged.
(36:14):
So yeah, that happened at 9. I didn't ask for it.
I wasn't seeking anything. It just pop it in his kindness.
That's yeah. So that was that was several
things. It's really, it's really
interesting, isn't it? Like because God is not a, he
hasn't picked favorites. It's, you know, like there's no
(36:35):
reason and you didn't do anything to earn that, right?
It's just that's what he gave you and there was no rhyme or
reason for it. So like receiving, that's why
they're called gifts. You receive a gift, you did
nothing for it, and he gave it to you.
So here, let me share this 111 little tidbit too, that that to
me is one of the most precious parts of it.
(36:56):
So you know, I, I know about theweeping and I know about the
encourage impact that. And so that's all good.
But I, my oldest son, he'll, he'll, he'd be really
embarrassed if I this we're in church and he's nine years old.
And I hear the Holy Ghost just go turn around and look at
Nathan. And I look at Nathan and I can
almost see the same exact thing that happened.
(37:17):
It's like I see a thing descend and land on his shoulders, and I
begin to see him weep. And now in my case, nobody knew
anything, you know, it's like itwas not a pretty experience.
There was snot and mucus and nobody knows what they want and
this. Is the middle of class.
(37:38):
Holy Ghost. Now I go over to Nathan and I
put my arm around him and begin to pray and bless him, bless
what God's doing and explain to him what's happening.
And he carries that even today. And Oh my goodness, you know how
precious the Holy Ghost was. Tell me, let me watch it and
then see him, you know, deposit some same things in in one of my
(38:00):
kids. So yeah, there's that.
Wow, that's incredible. I was reading the one, the one
chapter in the book. Some of the some of the I love
like the subtle kind of stories.There's the one about the rain
where you guys are helping somebody move and you yell for
the rain to stop two different times and it stops.
(38:21):
But there's the other one where you're one of your neighbors who
was drunk, was driving out of control, coming towards you.
You're carrying. You're.
Carrying a large part of a wall out of your house and you go to
back up because you think he's going to hit you, so you back
up. So to get out of the way and
it's like you, you said in the book, like you hit a wall, like
(38:43):
you couldn't back up then LED you.
Forward, right, So. It LED you forward, which in
turn he actually if you would have backed up, he would have
ended up hitting you. Oh, yeah, I joked.
I divot into my front lawn. You know, how'd grandpa die?
Well, at 11 O clock at night, the drunk run him over in his
front wall where he was carryingin his front yard while he was
(39:04):
carrying a wall. Yeah, that would have been the
story. But instead the whole, you know,
just I, I really did. I slammed into a wall and I
couldn't go that way. So I had to only go another way.
And he only missed me by a couple inches me and then the
front step by a couple inches both ways.
I have no idea. But I bless Ray.
I pray for him. And it it was a story.
I sort and I think like that sort of stuff because I think a
(39:26):
lot of times in life, especiallyif you're a non believer or if
you're agnostic or if you just don't or if you just don't know
how to watch out for God and listen for him and feel his
presence. There's things you'll call
coincidences that are by no means a coincidence that the
world will write off as a coincidence.
Right. So as I was reading that, I was
(39:47):
reminded of a, of something thathappened to me when I was, I was
probably, that was probably 10, maybe 11.
I was riding my bike. I was in Sinking Valley and I
was leaving my friend's house. And in between my friend's house
and my house was like this. It was a fairly small hill, but
enough of a hill that you couldn't see over the other
side. And this, this girl Angel, which
(40:08):
I guess it's interesting that her name was Angel.
Now that I think about it, I don't even know why.
I don't even know why I rememberher name's Angel because I
wasn't even friends with her. But she lived.
I was on the right side of the road.
Her house was over here on the left.
And as I was staring at her house, I started to drift on my
bicycle, you know, because I waslooking a certain way.
So I was going a certain way. And I drifted into the, I
drifted into oncoming traffic, which sinking valley.
(40:30):
There's not much traffic. And it's like the country and
all of a sudden over the hill comes a car.
The car hits me. I fall under the hood of the car
and it's an old man in the car. And he goes, son, you know, I, I
can't remember his exact words, but he's like, son, are you OK?
Are you OK? And I was fine.
I was like, yeah, I'm, I'm fine.And I got back on my bike.
(40:54):
I like fell onto the hood of hiscar.
I got back on my bike. I left and I rode off.
And I, I've thought about that many times later, like anybody
else driving on that road, the speed limits, I think maybe 45,
you couldn't see over that hill.I've because I grew up in
Sinking Valley. I ended up driving, I'd drive on
that road fast, like faster thanI should.
And most people did. And by the grace of God, it was
(41:17):
an older man who was going, He had, he couldn't have been going
more than 20 miles an hour because he barely hit me.
Like he barely, I barely even maybe like scrape my knee.
I should have been dead. Like I would have been anybody
else in that situation. I would have been dead 100%.
And I think back to that becausethat was just like a subtle, I
(41:38):
can just chalk that up to coincidence that by coincidence
there was an old man driving going very slow when anybody
else would have been going fast enough to easily kill me.
And I think back to that like, there's no coincidence that God
spared my life in that moment. And yeah, it's just little
things like that. I think that in in society, we
can write them off as whatever, but when you know the Lord and
(42:00):
you know how he works, you know those aren't coincidences.
Yeah, he will accomplish his purposes so absolutely.
And God, I don't, I I wouldn't be surprised if this is going to
be really bad. I wouldn't be surprised if my
guardian Angel is an alcoholic for some time.
She's like had to protect me. And yeah, we all have those
(42:24):
experiences, you know, where father really did protect our
life. There was one time Rob going to
college. I was just, I know I fell asleep
in my car driving 4 hours and I don't remember a thing.
And till I got to the turn off from my college, you know, it's
the middle of the night thing from 2:00 to 6:00 AM and all I
(42:47):
heard was Papa go, I hate you. I took care of you.
Yeah. Yeah.
You could call it coincidence orbad memory, but you know, yeah,
he's he's he's far kinder. When we say he's kinder than we
deserve. That's just not a little phrase,
Rob. It's it's flooded with so many
(43:08):
memories of his goodness and kindness to us that he's been
bountiful to us, as Psalm says. Talk about forgiveness a little
bit because I mean, forgiveness is the the biggest thing I'd
say, you know, in order to, you know, open up, forgot to open
his floodgates up, we have to forgive.
You know, it says in even in when you're in when you're in
church and if you're going to goto the altar, you've got to
(43:30):
leave 1st and go forgive. You know, whoever that person is
that you need to forgive in yourlife and it can really unlock
those spiritual encounters. So can you talk a little bit
about forgiveness and how that'splayed into just your
development spiritually in your life?
Yeah, it's always been a struggle.
It has absolutely always been a struggle.
(43:53):
I mean, I, I understand for forgiveness to me is you've
taken your hands off the neck ofthe person and said, Father, I
will trust you in that person's life.
I trust your heart. I trust your activity, whatever.
I trust you, I will not move against them.
So, you know, that's that. That's forgiveness.
(44:15):
Let me let's say three things really quick.
OK, first two things to to just real quick passages.
And then if you don't mind, I want to mention the Charlie Kirk
thing in a different context. OK, so first of all, Mark 11, so
Jesus is talking about say to this mountain.
(44:36):
If you look there it is as it is.
Then when he says that, then it's like, and if you have
anything, if you have unforgiveness in your heart, the
miracles in our life, the big things are linked right there by
Jesus himself with our unforgiveness to believer, to
believers and unbelievers, to people.
(44:57):
We have to be a forgiving peopleto watch God do the things.
I mean, Jesus on the cross, forgive them, forgive them.
The second one, that's Christ mein second Peter 1, he say, he
says add to your goodness, your faith goodness.
And he goes through a whole listand if you like it anyway, and
(45:18):
then he goes if you're struggling, basically this is
Marshall's rendition. If you're struggling in anything
like this, you have forgotten, you have forgotten the you have
forgotten the kindness and goodness of God and, and it,
it's actually linked to forgiveness.
Let me see if I can find that real quick.
(45:38):
Just for what it's worth, because I, I just, my mind is
just gone. So I, I forget.
Let's see for if you possess these qualities, they'll keep
you from being ineffective, unproductive if anyone does not
have them. He is nearsighted and blind and
has forgotten that he's been cleansed from his past sins.
Oh my God, forgiveness again is linked now, if you don't mind.
(46:00):
So, you know, here's the deal. I am still learning.
I'm, I'm almost 70 and I'm stilllearning.
I'm still learning. It's still difficult.
It's supposed to be difficult. But it also when we understand
the kindness of what God has done for us because we are the
ones who deserve the punishment,not them.
We are. I'm responsible for me.
(46:22):
I don't pronounce condemnation on anybody.
Jesus to the woman, you know, caught in adultery.
We don't pronounce condemnation,we forgive.
That's what we need to be known as a belief as as as a church.
It's my conviction that stuff really isn't going to happen
until we as a church get the idea of forgiveness down.
Now, let me get real specific. Charlie Kirk, you know, we know
(46:44):
he was killed. I was directed to Acts where
where the king killed James the the apostle and it says that he
saw that the crowd loved this and he and he took Peter captive
and he was going to kill Peter the same way.
Because all of a sudden the crowd loved this.
(47:05):
And I'm not trying to be offensive here, but there's a
big crowd that loved that Charlie Kirk was killed.
Some, some just blatantly admit it.
Some of them are harboring it, but they love that.
And we know the plan of the enemy.
We know that the schemes of the enemy and we know there will be
more deaths, more deaths, more deaths.
(47:25):
Why am I saying that? The church got together and
began to pray that Peter would be released and then, you know,
supernaturally Peter was released.
The whole point of this is they had to pray in a forgiving
spirit. Trust me that God would
effectively hear and move on their behalf.
(47:47):
We as a believer people need to pray for those who stand against
the love of God. And you just haven't understood
that they're still in rebellion.They haven't surrendered yet
because they don't know how goodGod is yet.
But we need to instead be able to release and pray and bless.
(48:07):
And it says they prayed now it says fervently.
You can also say continually. Both those are true.
We need to pray in in a forgiving spirit for our for our
nation and for the hearts of ourfriends who have absolutely
unfriended, dis friended, hate our guts because we stand for
God is good. Jesus is Lord and it's better to
(48:30):
surrender to Him. I don't know if all that makes
sense. I'd love more time to tie it
together. But with those three thoughts
moving mountains, God gifted Godcoming through in our life with
the stuff and then watching thatthe enemy does want to take
things out and we need to be people in forgiving prayer that
change God's heart and that change God's things.
(48:53):
Yeah, yeah. I just, I wanted to make sure we
touch on it 'cause it, it's one of the most important things and
one of the hardest things to do it.
It can be really, really difficult and you have to like
forgive, not just once or twice.You got to do like 100,000 times
right sometimes. And and then you usually have to
do it again when it comes up. It would just keep coming up,
(49:15):
right. And so you have to choose that.
And it can be, I think in our society, one of the hardest
things to do. We want justice, but know that
that judgment comes from God andit has nothing to do with us.
But we have to pray for people in our lives that we don't
necessarily want to. And I just love.
(49:37):
I just love that it's so countercultural.
It's honest. It's honestly the most like like
kind of punk rock thing you could do, right?
When you think about it, it's like so against the grain.
So important that Erica said I forgive you.
Yeah. Well, yes, it really is it.
It still remains difficult. I mean, in my heart of hearts,
I'm still a Pharisee. I'm the older brother and Papa
(50:02):
still continues to work that through in my life.
I want to be rule oriented. I want to be performance
oriented and weekly, almost daily Father's like, no, it is
not your. It is not your obedience that
makes me your Lord. I am your shepherd.
It is not your you know it's not, it's not your repentance
that makes me good. It's I mentioned this.
(50:23):
It's not your faith that makes me your shepherd.
I just am to you, whether you, you know you like it or not, I
am. So don't just worry about
surrender. Love me and quickly pronounce
forgiveness. I hope to in one of my next
messages at at the church, I hope to someday talk about you.
(50:45):
You talk about the easiest way to take the the weapon away from
the enemy and turn it back on him.
That's forgiveness. You know those movies where the
guy or points a gun at somebody and they go right, quickly takes
it away and has it pointed back.That's what forgiveness does to
the enemy. And we need to be people who are
quick to forgive, understanding that the Lord has forgiven us
(51:06):
everything. So if that helps me, and with my
Pharisee heart, that still remains.
And as Papa's working that through.
So yes, he could. He's still telling me, yeah,
he's still patient with me aboutthat very thing, although it's
probably been 1,000,000 millionsof Times Now, so.
It's so encouraging, Marshall, because you, I mean, you
(51:27):
oftentimes will think like people have made it.
People are, you know, especiallyyourself.
You write an incredible book about all the encounters you've
had and all the times got to showed up in your life.
But it's still the work in progress.
The stuff, the stuff that you would think would not be there
anymore still shows up because that's part of the human
experience. That's part of having this,
this, this flesh suit on. It's like all the stuff that
(51:49):
comes with it and it's it's, it's par for the course.
Don't be shocked by it. And that's something I've had to
really give myself grace with islike, Rob, it's OK.
Like you're not going to get ridof this stuff That would that
would then you would have no need for your faith in God.
World, flesh and devil every dayuntil we die.
(52:11):
Yeah, world, flesh and devil. Yeah, always there.
That's good, man. Thank you and thank you for
this. This has been such a great
conversation. We're going to have to wrap it
up. I can talk to you for hours,
which we will off the podcast, but I'd love to have you back on
at some point in time to maybe tell more stories.
Just go deeper. I think that would be
incredible. I want to encourage people to
(52:32):
get your book right, be encouraged stories of the
supernatural. If you were encouraged by this
episode, this book will encourage you even more.
And they you can just go to right, go to Amazon and pick
that up and. Yeah, be encouraged and then
hyphen stories of the supernatural or you know my name
if it's something you're interested in.
That's great. If you meet me on the street,
go. Hey, man, I want to know about
(52:53):
your book. If I have one, I'll just give
you one. That's part of what I'm harder
is to give away a bunch of them if you want to go find and I'll
just give you 1. If you can find Marshall on the
streets of State College or somewhere near State College,
PA, just tell him and you'll geta free book.
Well, if I have. If you have right, yeah, I'll.
(53:14):
Mail it to you. I'll pay the price.
I'll pay the post, I will pay the postage.
Get you one. It'll be good.
There you go. Awesome.
I love it. Marshall, thank you so much.
It's so good talking to you. Another true testimony.
A breakthrough. Until next time.
This has been the unstuck movement.
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Unstuck Movement.
As always, I'm your host, Rob Z true testimonies, A breakthrough
or what we talk about here on the show.
And today I'm super excited to have a good friend of mine and
an incredible author, Marshall Peters on the podcast.
Marshall has a book out be encouraged stories of the
supernatural. We're going to trust me, you're
(00:45):
going to be encouraged today with what we're going to be
talking about. We're talking about supernatural
encounters. We're talking about the Lord our
Savior God, Jesus Christ or the faith journey, spiritual
encouragement and and how we truly hear God in our lives.
And Marshall, I love to jump in right off the bat with a
powerful question. You say in chapter 10 on in
here, get under authority that Papa knows how many times it
(01:09):
will take us to hear something before we actually hear it.
What does that mean? What does that mean specifically
and how did that apply to your life when you actually heard
God? How did things change?
Oh, wow. So the first thing I would tell
you, Rob, is just let me be a pastor for a minute.
(01:29):
It means we're not a failure. Thank you.
Because God will tell us something.
We'll feel like we're in horrid disobedience and and in truth,
we are in this. But then he, he redeemed and
tells and tells and tells and tells as he works in our life
through you. You mentioned the word journey
as he works in our journey through life to bring us to the
place of surrender and trust regarding issues in our life
(01:52):
that he's taking us through. And he may know it's going to
take me 48 times to hear something before I finally go,
Oh my God, just. And if you don't believe that,
ask my wife. Because yeah, there's that.
So what it means is that we're not a failure because, and you
(02:14):
and I already talked about this,he is a far better shepherd than
we are a sheep. And that's part of that.
It's like, Marshall, your faith doesn't make me Father.
It's I am father to you and I amyour shepherd and you're my
sheep. And I understand out of my
absolute holy, incredible patience of I'm going to need to
(02:35):
tell you this so many times before it's finally going to
sink in. And you know what?
Each one of those times is not adisappointment to God.
It's a joy to him because he understands we're getting closer
and getting closer to this part of me being conformed into the
image of his Son because he loves me too much to leave me.
(02:57):
That's a whole lot to just that itself.
But it, it's, it, it's that whole process.
And if we change our view about who Father is and who Papa is
toward us, things become positive, not negative.
And then the Holy Ghost begins to convict us of righteousness
instead of judgment. And so it's a good thing
(03:17):
specifically, you know, like with this book, I've been told a
long time by by dozens of people, hey, man, you need to
write these stories down. You need to write, please write
these stories. Please write these stories.
And so we finally did wrote, wrote a whole bunch of stories
way back in 2014. So this is what, 11 years ago
now and, and then so, so we wrote them.
(03:41):
I wrote them up for my, they were mainly for my family and we
wrote them and my wife is like, you know, this is really
personal. Some of these are intimate
because they're, you know, they're 2:00 in the morning
conversations, other stuff. They're really intimate.
I don't want to publish them forthe for the public because their
(04:02):
family stories and things like that.
And then and then ten years later, and so I laid that down.
You know, there's a whole thing of death of a vision, etcetera,
etcetera. So we wrote the book, gave it to
our family, a couple close friends who had encouraged us to
do that and then laid the whole thing down.
And lo and behold, 10 years later, just supernaturally out
(04:23):
of nowhere, God tells my wife, lays it in her heart, it's time
to publish your stories. And supernaturally, that night
we absolutely, we accidentally met with a publisher having
dinner with one of my best chimney sweep friends.
I had no idea what his wife did.She's a she's an editor and
helps publish. And I'm like, Oh my goodness.
And the Holy Ghost is going to see.
(04:45):
So the idea that, yeah, he tellsus things over and over and over
and over. Some of that is to prepare us
for when we actually do surrender because the timing, as
we know, is timing is is is is The thing is a thing that's so
important. The timing was right.
So then we published the book, put it out on Amazon, designed
(05:08):
to encourage believers and non believers.
So believers to trust and walk with Papa and expect the
supernatural activity of of father in their life and for non
believers to be jealous and encouraged to go God, if this
actually is you, I want to know and to open their hearts.
And we've seen, you know, both those things happen.
(05:30):
So that's pretty cool. I would say so I would say
definitely pretty cool and and Ithink God does do this too.
Like you saying you, you wrote the book just for your family 10
years. It just kind of sat on the shelf
and was just used internally, I think for your family.
I, I think God does this to us at times to prepare us, right?
So like we, we, we've created the thing that he, we know he's
(05:53):
been telling us to create, but then he has this kind of, it's
just for us initially it's like just so we can do it, so we can
be encouraged, so we can strengthen our faith by doing
the thing. And then over time he allows us
to release that or maybe never does.
I mean, for some people, maybe it never is released, but I
don't have to think it would because these are, these are
like testimonies and, and you know, the power of our testimony
(06:16):
is everything. And so I, I just find that
interesting. I've heard that multiple times,
like somebody create something they knew God was telling them
to create, but they don't feel like they're supposed to release
it or they, they don't even wantto release it.
And then it ends up happening years later when the time is
right, when they're ready. Because God, he also has to
prepare our hearts for those sorts of things, like to be able
to put that kind of stuff out there.
(06:37):
And you know, because it, it canbe vulnerable, like your, your
wife said, like Barb said, it can be, it can expose you and,
and you know, tell your stories and things like that.
And I think we have to our, our hearts have to be ready to do
that because that can be, that can be a lot if you're not
prepared for it and God doesn't.If, if we listen to his timing
and follow his timing, he's going to make sure we're ready
(07:00):
for what he's going to put us out there to do.
And I I just. Yeah, this was a timing issue.
And more and more and more as I,as I see, as I'm seeing some
things, this was definitely one of those timing issues and
that's what he does. Yeah, and it I've seen it in my
own life and just, I'll just give you an example from my own
personal life. Just recently, Charlie Kirk's
(07:21):
passing really lit this and I'm sure lit this in millions of
people, millions of Christians across the world.
But for me, I've been, I know God's been telling me for years
to make content like my the video content that I make
online. I know I'm supposed to be
speaking the word. I'm supposed to be, you know,
speaking Jesus into people's lives.
And I've shield away from it, fear of fear of a couple of
(07:42):
different things, criticism. What are people going to say
then also, I'm not ready. I don't know enough yet.
You know, all those sorts of things.
And just like my own personal self doubt around that.
And just over the past couple ofweeks, I've been like, no, I, I
clearly felt God released me of that.
No, just go do it. Like it's time for you to go do
this. And, and like you said too, he's
(08:05):
going to keep reminding me. And it's not like you said
something really good there a second ago.
I'm always looking for themes inthese shows.
You said your faith doesn't makeGodfather right.
So my faith in him, he, he's, he's the father.
He's he's God no matter what. And he's not like he's not
disappointed that I haven't donethe thing yet.
(08:26):
He knows how long it's going to take me.
And that is, that is so reassuring.
Just hearing you say that, it's like, right, God knows that I'm
not going to do this the 1st 80 times that he tells me to do it.
He might be telling you to do something for 30 years that
you're still not doing yet, right?
But he knows you're going to eventually do it when you're
ready, but he has to keep reminding you of it.
(08:48):
And you're right, it does build and build and build and build.
But the the main point is we usually we would be discouraged,
but God is not discouraged. He is patient and that's just
not, you know, sitting back withhis arms folded with his with
his foot tapping, waiting. No, he already has the big
picture and actually bothers heart as he's revealed it is
(09:09):
he's excited about that day whenwe hit that surrender or the aha
moment and it and or the breakthrough moment.
And he he in some ways he can't wait for those days to happen.
So he's patient with joy and expectancy.
As opposed to what we normally get from the enemy, which is
(09:29):
conviction, condemnation. We feel bad about ourselves.
God's discarded us. Yeah, yeah.
No, the opposite. Yeah, the exact opposite that.
And I mean your book is called Be encouraged.
I'm literally that is very encouraging right off the bat.
And that takes a that takes a a world of pressure off knowing
that God knows how long it's going to take you to do
(09:50):
something and that he's not looking at you at like, will you
get it together already or he's not going to go take it and give
it to somebody else. He's waiting to prepare you for
when it's time to to do the thing.
So before we go any further, I just want to welcome people
here, introduce, introduce you to the show the unstuck movement
to this platform was created to help you find breakthrough in
your life. So I bring incredible people on
(10:12):
here who have had a real true breakthrough in their lives.
So they have a true testimony toshare with you.
To give you an example. No matter what you're going
through that it's possible for you to find those same
breakthroughs. And if you persevere with
patients and with faith, you aregoing to find those
breakthroughs in your life. Or sponsored by the Connected
Leaders Academy. Make sure you check out
Connected Leaders Academy com over 500 heart centered
(10:35):
entrepreneurs from all over the world helping each other grow
and also the pro podcaster Academy.
So if you're somebody who wants to launch a podcast, but you
don't know where to start. It's confusing too many nuts and
bolts. I want to help you become the go
to authority in your space. I want to help you make
incredible, long lasting personal and professional
connections and also build an identity around what you do.
(10:58):
How do we streamline the process?
If you have a podcast, how do you streamline it?
Make it an easy process. How do you monetize it so it's a
real functional, revenue generating part of your
business? I would love to help you do
that. You can join the wait list right
now at robzwentz.com. Marshall Peters with us today is
going to be sharing his real life encounters with God that
bring hope, strengthen faith, and highlight the extraordinary
(11:21):
in everyday life. The extraordinary in everyday
life stories help everybody who who's who knows him, who's read
his book, experience encouragement and fall deeper in
love with Papa God. I'm curious because you have
some stories in here about angels.
One of the stories that I just read, Marshall was so good.
(11:41):
I believe it was get under authority.
I think that was the one is where you're riding.
Oh no. Is it riding in the car with
angels? Right.
Riding in the car with Angels. So, you know, let's go down that
one, yeah. That's a powerful one.
And you had, you've had encounters with angels.
What do? What are the angels that have
shown up to you first? You could tell that story, if
(12:04):
you'd like, about riding in the car with angels.
But what have the angels revealed to you in those
encounters about God's love? So let me answer, let me try the
second question first because wecould take 1/2 an hour for the
first question. The absolute love and direction,
care and shepherding of the heart of God and the person of
(12:27):
God and the finger of God. I mean, just it it what they
share is the is the thing you need that they were sent for and
that Father knew you needed, whether that's, you know, a
corrective thing or an instructive thing or a hug.
But in my case, it happened to be a ride because my car broke
down. I think supernaturally broke
(12:48):
down and and father needed Father wanted to encourage me
and probably the most devastating moment of my life.
I like to say you don't get to see the red, the seas of the
red, the walls of the Red Sea part to your feet are in the
water of the Red Sea. I mean, you know, desperate
moments. That's when God's come through.
(13:09):
And that was one of those desperate moments.
And it really was a pinnacle point in my life.
I'd given my life for the sake of the gospel.
I'd given up everything when I was a kid.
You know, my my dad never understood.
He goes marsh you, you can be a doctor or lawyer and I don't
know why you're going to be a pastor, but you're wasting your
life. And I'd so I'd given it all up
(13:30):
to go pastor. Did your dad, was he, did he
believe in God? Not at that point.
He was not a believer. He was a cop.
And it's seen all the ugly things of life and just really
wanted very little to do with who who, who Papa was at that
point. And but he also understood that
there was something different inme that it happened early.
(13:52):
I was different. And so he understood that, but
he didn't understand. And so I'd given up my life to
go be a Patrick on the seminary was in Michigan church planting
and had had done that for for almost five years.
Was it was it was God, it was crazy.
It was wonderful fulfilling yourgiftings.
(14:15):
And then God says, well, I'm going to have you resign and
move. And I'm not even, I'm not even
going to tell you what you're going to do yet you got 4 little
girls. And God goes resign and move.
And I wasn't ready to hear that word at all.
And my wife told me a year aheadof time, she goes, I think the
Holy Spirit is just telling us we need to go resign and get
(14:36):
under path, get under a ministrywhere we can learn about all
these things that are broken outand get some more experience in
the, in the supernatural realm, in the charismatic realm, all
these, all these different things.
I'm like, yeah, no, God didn't tell me that.
So, but I, you know, I, but that's one of those he tells you
(14:59):
so many times before you finallyhear it.
And in my case, it took a supernatural experience of
riding in the car with angels for me to, for, for, for me to
hear it and the, and the audiblevoice and all these kinds of
things that were compressed into, into a divine moment.
And, and he did so people are probably going.
So what's the story? Well, I had, I told my wife,
(15:23):
because we've gone to it a couple times about resigning,
resigning, resigning. And God was pulling my heart
toward that. And again, this is the only
thing I've ever wanted to do since I was nine years old.
And I knew the calling. I knew the surety of it.
And so I told my wife, you know,On this date, I'm going to make
that decision. We're either going to resign or
(15:45):
I, I don't know, we're going to keep the.
But my heart kept going. Yeah, Father, I had given I, I
promise I would go. I would, I would move to Lansing
and I would give my life here. I would be a pastor for.
I just wouldn't be a guy moved around.
I would give my life and God's good.
I well, that's a really nice promise, but did I ask you to do
that devastation moment number one that morning when I in my
(16:10):
quiet time and I said, you know,no, my seminary professors told
me that. And but also, that was the kind
of guy I was. And so I knew in my spirit, I
just knew, you know, let the peace of Christ rule in your
heart, make the decision for you.
I knew in my heart that I was supposed to resign against
everything I was. I was burning every last bridge
(16:35):
to obey a subjective voice of the Holy Ghost and with four
little kids and four little girls that were 643642 and new
big decision. So but I went down and I'm in
tears. I'm telling my wife that God
said resign and move. So I, we at that point we have,
(16:59):
we have 4 little girls like I mentioned, we have three of them
with the chicken pox. One of them really bad chicken.
I mean she had them in her eyes.It was just horrible and the
worst kid to be to be sick. I won't name her because they
don't embarrass her, but she's got she's you always say if you
have a bunch of kids, sometimes you have that worst kid.
Well, she was the worst kid. I need to put the part out of a
(17:20):
junkyard in, in Ann Arbor, whichis about, you know, a little
over an hour, hour 15 away. And it was going to be an easy
thing. I said, listen, I'll drive over
there. I'll get the part.
I'll take my daughter. I wanted to name her.
And, you know, at least I'll give you a few hours of break.
And so we, we got, we're drivingout of Lansing and I hear this
very bad clunk that happened in,in my car.
(17:43):
I'm driving getting ready to turn on I-96 to, to Detroit.
And I hear the clunk. And I'm like, that's not good.
That's a very bad clunk. And I go to get off and Rob, the
car is filled with a not a person next to me, but a voice
next to me. That's all I can say.
There was an audible voice of that said Marshall, it's OK,
(18:05):
keep going. So what do you do when you hear
an audible voice next? You Yeah, you argue with it.
And I'm like, no, that is, did you hear that clunk?
That is not a good clunk. And again, then I hear just kind
and gracious Marshall, it's OK, keep going.
(18:26):
So then take the exit. I went straight and then took
the took the next exit, which that rather than turn around and
go home, I then went straight and took the exit to Detroit.
And in the middle of a there we had a middle of a trip, which
was the hour 50. There was a there was between
two exits. There's like 10 miles and, and
(18:47):
all of a sudden the car, the carjust, it's running, but there's
no more. If you press on the gas, there's
nothing. So the, the clutch disc had
separated. So the car wasn't broke, it just
the clutch had broken. And we coasted to, we coasted to
a stop and I pulled off the road.
I've got my daughter beside me with chicken pox.
She's in her pyjamas. I'm in the middle of, of
(19:09):
Michigan now. And the joke is Rob, the joke in
Michigan in the middle there is,it's so flat.
You can see 20 miles. And if you hop up on top of a
piece of paper, you can see another 20.
So I got out of the car. I looked both ways.
There was nobody on I-96, not a soul.
And I don't, I was just there a little while ago.
And I'm like, how did that happen?
(19:31):
That's just there was nobody. And I took my daughter in my
arms and I said, and just out ofme, Rob spills this guttural
thing that was like, father, would you please tell me I did
what was right? The decision would please tell
me that I don't know where that came from, but immediately a car
(19:53):
pulls up just to a plain brown 4door Chevy citation.
I mean as ugly a plain car as you and I'm a car.
So this is like it just pulls upout of the middle and it's gets
to a stop. Now at this point, I didn't
realize this car was not it wasn't there and now all of a
(20:15):
sudden it's there. But I didn't realize that it's
like it's like for for for divine purposes.
Papa suspended some things in mybrain that didn't allow me to
make a like, where did that go? No, it just pulled up and a
little old lady rolls the windowdown.
So it didn't, you know, no powerwindows, rolls the window down
and says you look like you coulduse some help.
(20:38):
So I'm being familiar with the roads.
I said, yeah, if you could just take me up to the next exit.
I can make. I call my wife, she can come
rescue me and it'll all be good because we were poor, you know,
living on shoe string soup as a pastor of church planting and
stuff. So, yeah, So I, if you can do
that, that'd be awesome. So we start to get in the back
(20:59):
of the car, Rob, and in the middle of the back seat.
Now remember, the car skidded toa stop.
So anything in the back should have, you know, fallen forward.
There's a Bible, like a Gideon Bible right on the back seat,
right on the edge. And I'm like, huh.
So I look at the the older gentleman who's driving and I
say, oh, you guys got a Bible back here.
(21:20):
And so to lay the background, I am a Baptist pastor or
charismatic Baptist pastor from Lansing, MI.
And my wife and I that morning decided to move to Pennsylvania
to help start a church. That's the context.
All righty, this guy, he's like 80 years old, looks like a
little old little frail grandpa puts his arm over the seat,
(21:43):
looks at me. I'm in, I'm behind the the
passenger looks at me and he says the following and I can
still hear this Rob. He goes Yazer.
I'm a Baptist pastor from Lansing, MI.
My wife and I are going to Pennsylvania to help start a
church. And at that point I lost it.
I just, I literally, it's like, OK, that's when it broke.
(22:09):
I was undone. It just, it broke.
And so, you know, I asked him ifhe can take me up to the next X
and he's glad to. And I'm just weeping in the back
seat and beginning to tell him my story.
We get to the exit, go to now inmiddle of Pennsylvania.
We have sheets, there's 711, etcetera, etcetera.
(22:30):
Well, in Michigan they have a quality dairy and it's the same
kind of thing. So we get up to the quality
dairy. You know, it's all glass front,
right? So I, I, I, I'm not stupid at
this point. I take my daughter in my arms
and I go to the phone booth. Now this is one of those phone
booths in the front, just a partial one.
It wasn't where the door closed,but just a partial 1.
I call my wife, collect and and give her all the all the
(22:53):
instructions and I turn around. I give him the thumbs up.
Now I can see him in the in the glass, but I turn around.
I give him a thumbs up, let him know everything's good.
I turn back around to hang the phone.
Oh, oh, I'm sorry. Before I get out of the car when
we drive up, the guy goes, I'm supposed to pray for you.
(23:14):
And this man prays down heaven like I've never heard.
I, if I, if I, if I, if I open my eyes, I swear the car wasn't
glowing inside. It was just it was, it was
amazing. But what that did in my heart to
encourage me Rob was was just was was stunning.
(23:35):
Anyway, so I'm on the phone, I turn around, give them a thumbs
up. We're good.
I hang up the phone and I turn around and they're gone.
Not backing. They're gone.
And I'm like, Oh my God. And then it then then all of a
sudden mental clarity, you know,it's like I goes boom, OK,
you're back. And I'm like, Oh my, I had just
(23:57):
I mean, we're we're supposed to be angels unaware.
Oh my God, I had just been visited, chauffeured by Angel
and I'm like, Father, you are you.
I have no words. You are too kind.
Because it was the exact thing Ineeded to hear.
Because all my life, I'm, I'm 35at this point, I've given my
(24:21):
life and God's going, no, I'm going to have to go do so.
I have a different plan for you.And that's what it took in my
case. So, yeah, I was chauffeured in
cars. And then my next very thought
was Papa, a Chevy Citation. Really.
That's it. You know, not a, not a, a
Corvette or a Mustang the way. So the way anyway it would, you
(24:46):
know, it's one of those things that at the time you needed it
got part of the Red Sea when I needed it the most.
And that's how he decided to express it.
In in the most and the I love it.
Like the Chevy Citation, the oldthe old people like the most
unassuming way possible, right? Nothing flashy.
Absolutely. Nothing snazzy about it.
(25:07):
Marshall. I love that story in the book.
It was so I don't know you telling the story right now.
I got the same feeling. I just like like just I can't
even imagine the I know what youmean, like the there's kind of a
veil on your eyes where you you're not like logically
thinking about why is this happening right now?
How is this all happening until they're gone and then it lifts
(25:27):
and you're like, oh, wow, that those were angels, right?
Because in the midst of it, it'salmost like, almost like a, like
a, like you were like in a dreama little bit.
I'm curious, like your mindset when you were in the car when
all that was happening, was it like, I don't know, I guess was
it like you were in reality, were you kind of like in a place
(25:49):
of God? I'm in reality because.
I mean, I know you're in reality, yeah.
And I, and I'm directing to the exit.
I know where the quality dairy is.
I know all of that. I'm calling my wife.
I'm all in the middle of it. But then you're just not
realizing you are being entertained by the by, by
servants of, of Papa who are coming to do that.
(26:10):
And we've seen other things. I mean, we've had angels in the,
in the church that people see. I couldn't, but everybody else
could. We'd seen a we'd seen an Angel
save a guy from a, from a railroad from being crashed into
a railroad thing one day with the kids.
It was really cool. And then who disappeared after
the railroad train crossed and he was drunk and then he fell
(26:30):
over. So we've seen them before.
And I was aware, but I wasn't aware at all, Rob.
And that was part of that was a necessary part of the story as
as I look back. I'll tell you, you know,
something that happened to me probably about a year ago and I
look back on it, I'm like, man, I really missed my opportunity
there. But I truly believe this was God
(26:51):
working through somebody. I came outside of a dollar the
Dollar Tree here in Altoona, PA with my son Max.
And there's a guy sitting on thebench.
And he, he was sitting on the bench waiting for the bus.
And he looked up at looked up atme and he asked me for some
money. And so I gave him a couple of
dollars and I could tell he was like, he was really high.
(27:13):
He was on on drugs, you know something.
And I gave him the money and I said, I said, God bless you,
man. And he looks up at me and he
goes, thank you, Rob. And I was like, I froze.
And it was one of those moments where I was like, did he really?
Did he just say my name? And I didn't have the, I don't
have the courage or I was just so dumbfounded.
(27:34):
I was like, all right. And I just walked away.
That was the whole encounter. You know.
Well, I look back, I'm like, it was such an encounter because I
was, I was like, I was so dumbfounded.
Like I could have been like, I wanted to say, how did, how did
you know my name? Like I later on I thought like,
why didn't I ask him a bunch of questions?
But it's like I almost, I almostcouldn't, I don't know how to
(27:57):
explain it exactly. I was so like in shock and I'm
like, Max, did you hear him say my name?
And he's like, yeah, he said, thank you, Robin.
I'm like, I've never seen that guy before in my life.
And so I was thinking about thatand I'm like, God, what did,
what did that mean? Why did that happen?
And what I felt God tell me was remember that I'm, you know,
that I'm, that I'm everywhere, especially in the, in the lowest
(28:18):
of people, the people you see that you think are, are broken.
This guy was obviously on drugs.Like I'm in those people.
And I don't know if that guy wasan Angel or if God just spoke
through him in that moment. I, I, I don't know.
But it was one of those things where I, I know what you mean
cuz I was in kind of like a dazeuntil later on and it kind of
lifted. I was like, that was wild.
(28:39):
So. It's like a rain stop story.
I'm talking to a guy yesterday in the gym about that because
I'd given him the book and he's reading.
He's kind of blown away. He's so he goes well, why didn't
you guys talk about it afterwards?
I don't know. We were just so blown away that
you couldn't really talk about it.
You just had to process for a while what it just happened.
(29:00):
Yeah. And like when they said they're
going from Lansing, MI to Pennsylvania, did you ask like
which church where, where are you going in Pennsylvania?
Do you? Do you Never asked them?
No, I was just, no, that was, that's when everything just
broke, man. Like everything broke.
That's crazy questions. I was just at that point.
I'm sorry. It was all about me, you know?
(29:25):
It's like you weren't, you weren't even supposed to ask
because they were basically theywere you, they were, they were
there taking you from Lansing toPennsylvania.
Like so because logically you'd be like, well, that's weird.
Where what, where are you guys going in PA?
Right. We're doing the same thing, but
you didn't even bring it up. I'm.
Just saying you said they were me because they were me.
You know, there, there's a depththere that they were but you
(29:47):
know, but they were ministering angels and they are all around.
If we will just open our eyes tothe possibilities and say, OK,
Father, I don't know what all this is, but you know, if it's
real, I, I surrender and I'll also see because both of those
are true. And I'll and I'll and I'll
follow you and, and I'll look for your goodness and kindness.
(30:10):
Yeah. And and then you know what
things happen. So, so.
And that's what that's what the book's about.
It's just to encourage people's heart to actually believe and
expect and then ask God to go. Would you?
Would you use a little old me? Yeah.
So, OK, real fast, we're going to pause to shout out the
sponsor of the show. Take one minute to do that.
When we come back, I want to talk about what you you alluded
(30:33):
to this. I want to know more what
happened to you at nine years old that shifted your entire
life And we'll we'll dive into that when we come back.
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We look forward to having you join us.
Take care. And I absolutely love these
stories because it's like just the and I want to talk about
1:00 here in a minute. The mundane in life, the small
things that can happen, the really pay attention to how God
is moving in your life. But but I'm, I'm super curious
about nine years old, What what happened that shifted your life
(32:25):
that that called you into to ministry at such a young age?
So it's a Sunday night in, I'm in Florida, we're at a Baptist
Church, my mom and me and then my other two brothers and my my
youngest brothers, all four of us boys, my mom.
And for some reason I'm next to mom.
That's how I guess it was supposed to work out.
(32:46):
And it's just during the church service.
And no offense, but my people aren't necessarily the best with
the Holy Ghost, if I put it thatway.
And. I begin message.
I begin to weep. I just felt this presence.
(33:08):
Just settle and come down. Now, this can mess up your
theology a little bit. That's OK, I get it.
But I'm nine and in the middle of the service while the
pastor's speaking. I just begin to weep
uncontrollably. Rob can't stop.
My mom's like, stop it, stop it.Wait, why are you crying?
And I don't know. I'm nine, I'm a mess.
(33:33):
It was just the Holy Ghost and he and at that point he came and
he gave me a couple gifts, but Ididn't know about any of this,
but he gave me two gifts. The first, the first gift is
just really special and, and, and present to me.
And you'll see this if if we just talk when I sense his
presence, I begin to weep. That's that was one of the gifts
(33:57):
he gave me. And the second one is that he,
he, he just, he separated me forsome things and he put in me a
passable gift, then an encouraging gift that I just,
that I began to carry. So all of a sudden I just, well,
I mean, it was a couple years because I had to get to like age
12 at that point. But even at 9, my heart and my
(34:20):
passions began to change for some things for God and some
some family things happened. So at some point I was the only
one of my whole family going to church.
I literally as a 10 year old boywould walk to church and and
walk home. It's about a mile.
No big deal. I just something in me had a
burden and a passion to go at. I pastored my junior high
(34:44):
school. I just did.
I pastored my high school, I just did.
People would just come and and be and and and be encouraged,
whether they were believers or non believers, depending on what
the need was. That's just that just began to
happen. I don't know if you ever saw the
movie Bruce Almighty, but if yousaw the movie Bruce Almighty, at
(35:04):
the end of the movie when thingsare all falling apart, people
start coming to him and confessing sin and brokenness.
That was my high school experience.
I mean, there were a lot of other things, but just that's
what happened. And it was so.
And I always told my wife, you know, I did this.
So when we went on, on my 20th, the 20th anniversary high school
graduation thing, I went down toFlorida and we went to that.
(35:28):
And for most of the entire evening, I just sat at the table
and there was a line of people coming waiting to talk to me.
Yeah. You know, they say it's like,
it's like when you left high school, you just start from
right there. Yeah.
Well, my wife is like, I guess she really did So.
But it just, it puts something different inside me and robbed
(35:51):
my hearts and my passions and mygiftings were already coming
out. Even as a junior high kid
sometimes did was just hug somebody and.
And there was power, an encouragement that went through.
Sometimes it was just a listening ear, and I'm horrible
at listening, but it's what you do.
And people just walked away loved and encouraged.
(36:14):
So yeah, that happened at 9. I didn't ask for it.
I wasn't seeking anything. It just pop it in his kindness.
That's yeah. So that was that was several
things. It's really, it's really
interesting, isn't it? Like because God is not a, he
hasn't picked favorites. It's, you know, like there's no
(36:35):
reason and you didn't do anything to earn that, right?
It's just that's what he gave you and there was no rhyme or
reason for it. So like receiving, that's why
they're called gifts. You receive a gift, you did
nothing for it, and he gave it to you.
So here, let me share this 111 little tidbit too, that that to
me is one of the most precious parts of it.
(36:56):
So you know, I, I know about theweeping and I know about the
encourage impact that. And so that's all good.
But I, my oldest son, he'll, he'll, he'd be really
embarrassed if I this we're in church and he's nine years old.
And I hear the Holy Ghost just go turn around and look at
Nathan. And I look at Nathan and I can
almost see the same exact thing that happened.
(37:17):
It's like I see a thing descend and land on his shoulders, and I
begin to see him weep. And now in my case, nobody knew
anything, you know, it's like itwas not a pretty experience.
There was snot and mucus and nobody knows what they want and
this. Is the middle of class.
(37:38):
Holy Ghost. Now I go over to Nathan and I
put my arm around him and begin to pray and bless him, bless
what God's doing and explain to him what's happening.
And he carries that even today. And Oh my goodness, you know how
precious the Holy Ghost was. Tell me, let me watch it and
then see him, you know, deposit some same things in in one of my
(38:00):
kids. So yeah, there's that.
Wow, that's incredible. I was reading the one, the one
chapter in the book. Some of the some of the I love
like the subtle kind of stories.There's the one about the rain
where you guys are helping somebody move and you yell for
the rain to stop two different times and it stops.
(38:21):
But there's the other one where you're one of your neighbors who
was drunk, was driving out of control, coming towards you.
You're carrying. You're.
Carrying a large part of a wall out of your house and you go to
back up because you think he's going to hit you, so you back
up. So to get out of the way and
it's like you, you said in the book, like you hit a wall, like
(38:43):
you couldn't back up then LED you.
Forward, right, So. It LED you forward, which in
turn he actually if you would have backed up, he would have
ended up hitting you. Oh, yeah, I joked.
I divot into my front lawn. You know, how'd grandpa die?
Well, at 11 O clock at night, the drunk run him over in his
front wall where he was carryingin his front yard while he was
(39:04):
carrying a wall. Yeah, that would have been the
story. But instead the whole, you know,
just I, I really did. I slammed into a wall and I
couldn't go that way. So I had to only go another way.
And he only missed me by a couple inches me and then the
front step by a couple inches both ways.
I have no idea. But I bless Ray.
I pray for him. And it it was a story.
I sort and I think like that sort of stuff because I think a
(39:26):
lot of times in life, especiallyif you're a non believer or if
you're agnostic or if you just don't or if you just don't know
how to watch out for God and listen for him and feel his
presence. There's things you'll call
coincidences that are by no means a coincidence that the
world will write off as a coincidence.
Right. So as I was reading that, I was
(39:47):
reminded of a, of something thathappened to me when I was, I was
probably, that was probably 10, maybe 11.
I was riding my bike. I was in Sinking Valley and I
was leaving my friend's house. And in between my friend's house
and my house was like this. It was a fairly small hill, but
enough of a hill that you couldn't see over the other
side. And this, this girl Angel, which
(40:08):
I guess it's interesting that her name was Angel.
Now that I think about it, I don't even know why.
I don't even know why I rememberher name's Angel because I
wasn't even friends with her. But she lived.
I was on the right side of the road.
Her house was over here on the left.
And as I was staring at her house, I started to drift on my
bicycle, you know, because I waslooking a certain way.
So I was going a certain way. And I drifted into the, I
drifted into oncoming traffic, which sinking valley.
(40:30):
There's not much traffic. And it's like the country and
all of a sudden over the hill comes a car.
The car hits me. I fall under the hood of the car
and it's an old man in the car. And he goes, son, you know, I, I
can't remember his exact words, but he's like, son, are you OK?
Are you OK? And I was fine.
I was like, yeah, I'm, I'm fine.And I got back on my bike.
(40:54):
I like fell onto the hood of hiscar.
I got back on my bike. I left and I rode off.
And I, I've thought about that many times later, like anybody
else driving on that road, the speed limits, I think maybe 45,
you couldn't see over that hill.I've because I grew up in
Sinking Valley. I ended up driving, I'd drive on
that road fast, like faster thanI should.
And most people did. And by the grace of God, it was
(41:17):
an older man who was going, He had, he couldn't have been going
more than 20 miles an hour because he barely hit me.
Like he barely, I barely even maybe like scrape my knee.
I should have been dead. Like I would have been anybody
else in that situation. I would have been dead 100%.
And I think back to that becausethat was just like a subtle, I
(41:38):
can just chalk that up to coincidence that by coincidence
there was an old man driving going very slow when anybody
else would have been going fast enough to easily kill me.
And I think back to that like, there's no coincidence that God
spared my life in that moment. And yeah, it's just little
things like that. I think that in in society, we
can write them off as whatever, but when you know the Lord and
(42:00):
you know how he works, you know those aren't coincidences.
Yeah, he will accomplish his purposes so absolutely.
And God, I don't, I I wouldn't be surprised if this is going to
be really bad. I wouldn't be surprised if my
guardian Angel is an alcoholic for some time.
She's like had to protect me. And yeah, we all have those
(42:24):
experiences, you know, where father really did protect our
life. There was one time Rob going to
college. I was just, I know I fell asleep
in my car driving 4 hours and I don't remember a thing.
And till I got to the turn off from my college, you know, it's
the middle of the night thing from 2:00 to 6:00 AM and all I
(42:47):
heard was Papa go, I hate you. I took care of you.
Yeah. Yeah.
You could call it coincidence orbad memory, but you know, yeah,
he's he's he's far kinder. When we say he's kinder than we
deserve. That's just not a little phrase,
Rob. It's it's flooded with so many
(43:08):
memories of his goodness and kindness to us that he's been
bountiful to us, as Psalm says. Talk about forgiveness a little
bit because I mean, forgiveness is the the biggest thing I'd
say, you know, in order to, you know, open up, forgot to open
his floodgates up, we have to forgive.
You know, it says in even in when you're in when you're in
church and if you're going to goto the altar, you've got to
(43:30):
leave 1st and go forgive. You know, whoever that person is
that you need to forgive in yourlife and it can really unlock
those spiritual encounters. So can you talk a little bit
about forgiveness and how that'splayed into just your
development spiritually in your life?
Yeah, it's always been a struggle.
It has absolutely always been a struggle.
(43:53):
I mean, I, I understand for forgiveness to me is you've
taken your hands off the neck ofthe person and said, Father, I
will trust you in that person's life.
I trust your heart. I trust your activity, whatever.
I trust you, I will not move against them.
So, you know, that's that. That's forgiveness.
(44:15):
Let me let's say three things really quick.
OK, first two things to to just real quick passages.
And then if you don't mind, I want to mention the Charlie Kirk
thing in a different context. OK, so first of all, Mark 11, so
Jesus is talking about say to this mountain.
(44:36):
If you look there it is as it is.
Then when he says that, then it's like, and if you have
anything, if you have unforgiveness in your heart, the
miracles in our life, the big things are linked right there by
Jesus himself with our unforgiveness to believer, to
believers and unbelievers, to people.
(44:57):
We have to be a forgiving peopleto watch God do the things.
I mean, Jesus on the cross, forgive them, forgive them.
The second one, that's Christ mein second Peter 1, he say, he
says add to your goodness, your faith goodness.
And he goes through a whole listand if you like it anyway, and
(45:18):
then he goes if you're struggling, basically this is
Marshall's rendition. If you're struggling in anything
like this, you have forgotten, you have forgotten the you have
forgotten the kindness and goodness of God and, and it,
it's actually linked to forgiveness.
Let me see if I can find that real quick.
(45:38):
Just for what it's worth, because I, I just, my mind is
just gone. So I, I forget.
Let's see for if you possess these qualities, they'll keep
you from being ineffective, unproductive if anyone does not
have them. He is nearsighted and blind and
has forgotten that he's been cleansed from his past sins.
Oh my God, forgiveness again is linked now, if you don't mind.
(46:00):
So, you know, here's the deal. I am still learning.
I'm, I'm almost 70 and I'm stilllearning.
I'm still learning. It's still difficult.
It's supposed to be difficult. But it also when we understand
the kindness of what God has done for us because we are the
ones who deserve the punishment,not them.
We are. I'm responsible for me.
(46:22):
I don't pronounce condemnation on anybody.
Jesus to the woman, you know, caught in adultery.
We don't pronounce condemnation,we forgive.
That's what we need to be known as a belief as as as a church.
It's my conviction that stuff really isn't going to happen
until we as a church get the idea of forgiveness down.
Now, let me get real specific. Charlie Kirk, you know, we know
(46:44):
he was killed. I was directed to Acts where
where the king killed James the the apostle and it says that he
saw that the crowd loved this and he and he took Peter captive
and he was going to kill Peter the same way.
Because all of a sudden the crowd loved this.
(47:05):
And I'm not trying to be offensive here, but there's a
big crowd that loved that Charlie Kirk was killed.
Some, some just blatantly admit it.
Some of them are harboring it, but they love that.
And we know the plan of the enemy.
We know that the schemes of the enemy and we know there will be
more deaths, more deaths, more deaths.
(47:25):
Why am I saying that? The church got together and
began to pray that Peter would be released and then, you know,
supernaturally Peter was released.
The whole point of this is they had to pray in a forgiving
spirit. Trust me that God would
effectively hear and move on their behalf.
(47:47):
We as a believer people need to pray for those who stand against
the love of God. And you just haven't understood
that they're still in rebellion.They haven't surrendered yet
because they don't know how goodGod is yet.
But we need to instead be able to release and pray and bless.
(48:07):
And it says they prayed now it says fervently.
You can also say continually. Both those are true.
We need to pray in in a forgiving spirit for our for our
nation and for the hearts of ourfriends who have absolutely
unfriended, dis friended, hate our guts because we stand for
God is good. Jesus is Lord and it's better to
(48:30):
surrender to Him. I don't know if all that makes
sense. I'd love more time to tie it
together. But with those three thoughts
moving mountains, God gifted Godcoming through in our life with
the stuff and then watching thatthe enemy does want to take
things out and we need to be people in forgiving prayer that
change God's heart and that change God's things.
(48:53):
Yeah, yeah. I just, I wanted to make sure we
touch on it 'cause it, it's one of the most important things and
one of the hardest things to do it.
It can be really, really difficult and you have to like
forgive, not just once or twice.You got to do like 100,000 times
right sometimes. And and then you usually have to
do it again when it comes up. It would just keep coming up,
(49:15):
right. And so you have to choose that.
And it can be, I think in our society, one of the hardest
things to do. We want justice, but know that
that judgment comes from God andit has nothing to do with us.
But we have to pray for people in our lives that we don't
necessarily want to. And I just love.
(49:37):
I just love that it's so countercultural.
It's honest. It's honestly the most like like
kind of punk rock thing you could do, right?
When you think about it, it's like so against the grain.
So important that Erica said I forgive you.
Yeah. Well, yes, it really is it.
It still remains difficult. I mean, in my heart of hearts,
I'm still a Pharisee. I'm the older brother and Papa
(50:02):
still continues to work that through in my life.
I want to be rule oriented. I want to be performance
oriented and weekly, almost daily Father's like, no, it is
not your. It is not your obedience that
makes me your Lord. I am your shepherd.
It is not your you know it's not, it's not your repentance
that makes me good. It's I mentioned this.
(50:23):
It's not your faith that makes me your shepherd.
I just am to you, whether you, you know you like it or not, I
am. So don't just worry about
surrender. Love me and quickly pronounce
forgiveness. I hope to in one of my next
messages at at the church, I hope to someday talk about you.
(50:45):
You talk about the easiest way to take the the weapon away from
the enemy and turn it back on him.
That's forgiveness. You know those movies where the
guy or points a gun at somebody and they go right, quickly takes
it away and has it pointed back.That's what forgiveness does to
the enemy. And we need to be people who are
quick to forgive, understanding that the Lord has forgiven us
(51:06):
everything. So if that helps me, and with my
Pharisee heart, that still remains.
And as Papa's working that through.
So yes, he could. He's still telling me, yeah,
he's still patient with me aboutthat very thing, although it's
probably been 1,000,000 millionsof Times Now, so.
It's so encouraging, Marshall, because you, I mean, you
(51:27):
oftentimes will think like people have made it.
People are, you know, especiallyyourself.
You write an incredible book about all the encounters you've
had and all the times got to showed up in your life.
But it's still the work in progress.
The stuff, the stuff that you would think would not be there
anymore still shows up because that's part of the human
experience. That's part of having this,
this, this flesh suit on. It's like all the stuff that
(51:49):
comes with it and it's it's, it's par for the course.
Don't be shocked by it. And that's something I've had to
really give myself grace with islike, Rob, it's OK.
Like you're not going to get ridof this stuff That would that
would then you would have no need for your faith in God.
World, flesh and devil every dayuntil we die.
(52:11):
Yeah, world, flesh and devil. Yeah, always there.
That's good, man. Thank you and thank you for
this. This has been such a great
conversation. We're going to have to wrap it
up. I can talk to you for hours,
which we will off the podcast, but I'd love to have you back on
at some point in time to maybe tell more stories.
Just go deeper. I think that would be
incredible. I want to encourage people to
(52:32):
get your book right, be encouraged stories of the
supernatural. If you were encouraged by this
episode, this book will encourage you even more.
And they you can just go to right, go to Amazon and pick
that up and. Yeah, be encouraged and then
hyphen stories of the supernatural or you know my name
if it's something you're interested in.
That's great. If you meet me on the street,
go. Hey, man, I want to know about
(52:53):
your book. If I have one, I'll just give
you one. That's part of what I'm harder
is to give away a bunch of them if you want to go find and I'll
just give you 1. If you can find Marshall on the
streets of State College or somewhere near State College,
PA, just tell him and you'll geta free book.
Well, if I have. If you have right, yeah, I'll.
(53:14):
Mail it to you. I'll pay the price.
I'll pay the post, I will pay the postage.
Get you one. It'll be good.
There you go. Awesome.
I love it. Marshall, thank you so much.
It's so good talking to you. Another true testimony.
A breakthrough. Until next time.
This has been the unstuck movement.
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