July 11, 2024 • 46 mins
In this episode, we delve into a profound story of brokenness, healing and restoration within a family. Pastor Don Hughes and his son, Pastor Kevin Hughes, join Pam to share a candid conversation about their journey from deep relational wounds to miraculous healing. You will be encouraged to believe for your own prodigals and see how your relationships can be mended through forgiveness, transparency, and God's love.
For more information about Pastor Don's Bible college and resources, visit Rev House School of Ministry. and find his books on Amazon. www.rhsom.com
Connect with Pastor Kevin and learn more about Firebrand Youth at Abiding Church on Facebook and Instagram. @firebrandyouthatl
Thank you for supporting the show! www.jesusgirlroar.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hey, guys, welcome to the show that gives you the tools you need to break through
into all you were created to be, to live your life full of hope and purpose.
I'm Pam Raimi, and Jesus Girls, let's find our role.
Music.
(00:24):
Hey, hey, hey, Jesus Girls and guys, thank you so much for joining us today
on the Pam Sam Raimi show.
And wow, do we have an incredible show for you today.
It's a show that you are not going to want to miss because we're going to be
talking about some real brokenness in a relationship,
(00:47):
in a family, within a family, and how God supernaturally and miraculously healed this relationship.
And you're not going to want to miss that because God has a way of stepping
into our broken mess and healing everything and anything in our lives that needs
(01:11):
to be healed. And that's really where we're going today.
I am so happy to introduce you to our two amazing guests.
We have today in the Jesus Girl Roar studio, father and son, Don and Kevin Hughes.
Pastor Don, it's so good to have you here. Don Thank you.
I've been expecting this for a while and very excited.
(01:33):
Honored that you asked us to be on today. Oh, well, we're so honored that you
said yes, and you live in Tulsa.
Yes, and I'm going to learn a little bit.
We're going to learn a little bit more about you, but But your wonderful son,
Kevin Hughes, who was ordained just last Sunday.
So, Kevin, I would like to call you Pastor Kevin.
(01:55):
Welcome back to the Jesus Girl War Studio. Thank you. It's so great to be back here.
You were here. And to our listening audience, Kevin was here on the 17th of
May and shared a riveting testimony,
of some things that he went through on his journey, just being transformed.
(02:17):
As God is constantly transforming all of our lives, right, pastors?
And so I'd like for you to go back
and listen to Kevin's testimony because we're going to kind of pick up.
But one of the things that became
very obvious in that testimony was a brokenness between the two of you.
(02:38):
And that's where we're going to go in a second. But before we head there,
Pastor Dawn, could you tell Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I know that you pastor a church in Tulsa.
I know that you have a Bible school. So tell us a little bit about you.
Well, I started to, before Sunday, I was going to say, I'm a third generation
minister, but now we have a fourth generation.
(02:58):
So the Hughes is going to continue.
That's exciting. My grandfather was a minister years ago in California.
My dad, he was in the ministry for 50 plus years. He's in heaven now.
And I do have a church. It's called Rev House Fellowship. It's actually in Broken
Arrow, which is a bedroom community in Tulsa.
We have an online school of ministry where you can earn your associates,
(03:19):
your bachelors, and we're launching our master's program in November.
You can earn those degrees in kingdom theology.
And then next spring, we're going to launch our doctorate program.
And I'm an author, and my eighth book is going to press Amazon the 28th, 26th of July.
And then before the year's over, I'm going to write my ninth that I talked to
(03:41):
you about before we went on the program. My goodness, you are one busy guy.
You are one busy guy. So tell us about the book that is released,
that is being released on, the one that's being released this month?
Yes, July 26th. July 26th. Tell us a little bit about that book.
It's called The Third Day Preparing for Manifestations.
And how it came about is many times in the Bible, Old and New Testament,
(04:05):
there would be a phrase of something amazing that happened on the third day.
Jesus rose again on the third day.
Abraham offered his son Isaac on the third day.
You know, the road to Emmaus, when he manifested himself to his two disciples, it was on the third day.
And then we end the book, which is interesting because, you know,
(04:26):
the end from the beginning, the last chapter, I'm going back to Genesis chapter
one and what God created on the third day, but then bring it into the prophetic.
So, wow, that sounds so exciting. Exciting.
And also you're getting ready to do an audio version of this book,
correct? Yes, ma'am. Yeah. Well, I can't wait.
I cannot wait to read this book and to dig into a lot of your material.
(04:49):
How can our audience, can anybody participate and enroll in your school?
If they go to rhsom.com. So it's Rev House School of Ministry, rhsom.com.
All of the classes are on there. There's a signup sheet. There's a registration.
There's many different ways that that the students can pay. And we want to make it,
(05:11):
where students can afford to go to school. And really the vision of Rev House
School of Ministry is threefold.
People that have calls on their life like Kevin that have never been able to
move their family to another state to go to a school of ministry.
So we did a two-year curriculum.
It's online. It is in the books now where people can go on our bachelor's program.
(05:33):
And then I'm really excited. He's already enrolled.
The third Monday in November, we're launching our master's program,
and it's going to be 24 hours, intense,
12 Monday nights in a row on my newest book that came out in May,
which was interesting because your pastor, I gave him the book because of what
(05:53):
he started teaching Sunday.
And this one's called The Kingdom, the Seed, and the Soil. Oh my gosh, I love that.
I love that title. And here's what the Lord said to me last fall.
He woke me up at four o'clock in the morning. He said this.
He said, son, son, the seed is never the problem. It's always the soil.
And he began to bring to me, he said, how many people can sit in congregations
for weeks, months, years, never see the fruit, never have the breakthrough.
(06:19):
And so we go in depth looking at the four different types of soil and asking
Holy Spirit to reveal to every person which one they presently have in their
life. That is so powerful because that's our heart.
That's a condition of our heart that I can't wait to read that book.
That sounds phenomenal.
(06:39):
So we're going to go ahead. I'm going to have you repeat that address at the end of the show.
And we'll drop that information in our bio section because I'm sure a lot of
our listeners are going to want to know about your school and your resources, your books.
And let's parlay over here to your son, Kevin, Pastor Kevin.
The last time we talked to you, we learned that you're a power lifter.
(07:02):
We learned a lot of different things about you.
And you have lost an entire person, 120 pounds, which is amazing, amazing.
But another incredible thing has happened to you recently, and that was last
Sunday, when you were ordained as the youth pastor of Abiding Church.
(07:24):
Talk to us a little bit about that, Kevin.
Yeah, it's been in the making since the first of the year.
Just been super excited about it. I sat down with the pastor December 31st, actually.
And I said, I'm not saying that God has said this, but it's just been kind of
tingling in my heart and I'd like to throw my name in to the hat, you know, in the ring.
And he said it's kind of already been on my mind as well.
(07:48):
But he goes, you know, as you know, Pastor Craig, he doesn't make rushed decisions. No, he does not.
So we've just been kind of rolling with it. And I've been building those relationships
with the students organically.
You certainly have. It's been amazing. Yes, you have.
We've really been teaching them the foundational stuff that I really want to kind of get back into.
And it's been really good. And last Sunday, it kind of came to full fruition.
(08:11):
Came to full fruition, not only that you were ordained as our youth pastor,
which is so exciting, Kevin. Congratulations.
But also you have graduated with both your associate's and your bachelor's degree
from your dad's Bible college. How cool is that?
Yep. Obviously, I went to New Life Bible College back in 2007.
(08:33):
I had almost just shy of two years worth of credits there.
And I started his associate's program, and we started talking to the college
that he's accredited through, and they said he actually has enough for his bachelors so.
It's all just perfectly working out in the right time. God is so good.
God is so good. And, you know, as I'm looking at the two of you,
(08:54):
and if our audience could see you, they would go, wow, these are two men,
father and son, who have probably always just been mano a mano.
You know, everything is simpatico. We got it going on. That's how people would look at you, right?
They would go look at you. You know, you're both respected pastors.
(09:18):
Here you are, fourth generation Kevin pastor in this rich spiritual heritage of your family.
So let me just ask you, and whichever one of you wants to pick up this ball
first. In fact, I think I'm going to go with you, Pastor Don.
Has it always been simpatico? No.
The simplest answer first, no, but not because of Kevin.
(09:42):
Really? I'd like you to speak into that. Because of me.
That's something you don't hear a lot of fathers say. When I was cutting my
teeth and the men that I was looking to to mentor me in ministry. Mm-hmm.
I learned some things the wrong way. And what I've learned and what I want our
listeners to hear is when you transition and you grow in God and in ministry,
(10:05):
there's as many things you have to unlearn as you have to learn.
There's some things you've got to let go of. And I told you before we started,
I was self-righteous because I had this image in my mind of how I was supposed
to be and how my kids were supposed to be.
And what most people don't realize is the pressure that church people put on preachers' kids.
(10:28):
They have a whole different level of expectation for them than their own.
And I let that filter through my mind to the point that I took it out on my boys.
And you have to remember, I was a kid having kids. I made a lot of mistakes
out of my just not knowing.
And I joked with you, thank God for grandchildren, because I always joke.
(10:50):
We get a second chance. God gives you a second chance to get something right with your grandkids.
He said it, and Donnie said it. Dad, there's things you do with my kids you
never done with me. We would have gone to hell if we were doing it.
I said, well, I've learned a lot. A lot of water's gone under the bridge since that.
And my mistake that I made was the ministry became my mistress.
(11:10):
Boy, there it packed that just a little bit for us. It became more important than my family.
The other day, I apologized to my boy's mother, my first wife.
And her answer back, Kevin saw it, was, wow, you've never apologized.
What did that feel like for you when you apologized to her? It was a relief.
(11:34):
Now, there's been a level of restoration. I mean, you can ask my wife who's
sitting behind the screen today.
There's several Thanksgivings we've gone to her house with her husband because
my boys are there. That's our kids. And we eat together, and I'll go up and give her a hug.
But before God could restore us, he had to restore me.
I love, Pastor Dawn, how you take that on yourself and that you give God the
(12:04):
glory for healing that part of your heart and for owning it.
Because I think sometimes with our kids, it's kind of like my way or the highway.
A lot of parents think I'm the parent.
But I'll tell you, I know as I also have adult children, I have needed to ask
for their forgiveness many, many, many times.
And a lot of for the same reason that you and I talked about before the show
(12:29):
is that legalism, that that legalism of having to have it the right the way
we taught were taught that there's no grace.
I loved how you talked about throwing grace at the foot of the cross.
Can you say share that with our listeners? The new book that I'm working on,
the last chapter is going to be when the woman was caught in the act of adultery.
(12:52):
Of course, my thing is, where's the man?
Thank you very much. Why was it he brought into the situation?
I'm with you on that. Where was that guy? Of course, my joke is always,
well, he was probably one of the elders that they used to set Jesus up.
He brought him up. They don't want to bring him into the situation.
So what did they do was they caught this woman, and they throw her at the feet
(13:14):
of Jesus, and all they do is they said, now Moses in the law said.
So here's what I teach this. You minister from who you sit at the feet of.
So they could only reveal the law because that's all they said at the feet of.
That's all they said at the feet of. But here's what happened.
They threw the law at the feet of grace.
Grace is a person, and his name is Jesus Christ. And his name is Jesus.
(13:38):
And when the law was thrown at the feet of grace, grace said,
I don't condemn you. Isn't that beautiful?
That is so beautiful. It's life-changing, absolutely life-changing.
Do you see that change, Pastor Kevin? Do you see that change in your dad that
he's talking about right there, that instead of,
(13:58):
honoring the law, that he's honoring grace, the grace that is Jesus?
I do. And the funny thing is, is I sent my mom and dad a joint message on like
May 18th or 19th, right after the podcast aired. And I'm like, hey, this is out.
You're going to hear some things that you probably haven't heard before.
(14:19):
They both listened to it.
And my mom responded, if I'm being honest, a little hastily,
and I'm like, oh, here we go.
Oh, 1985 is bringing all back brought up right now.
And my dad, the way he responded with grace, I was like, okay.
I even texted him like, just, she's not well health wise right now.
(14:43):
And they just kind of picked it up and we're both apologizing.
And I was called my brother and I'm like, I sent him screenshots.
I'm like, look at this, bro.
It took 30 something years for this to happen. But wow.
Wow. If I'm being honest, though, sometimes I look at my dad and I'm like,
I don't know if I'm going to fully believe what he's saying or,
(15:05):
you know, what he's cooking.
But everything, every corner we turn around, it's he's still there. It's still correct.
Pastor Don, how do you feel when your son says something like that?
Now? Yeah. When he says, you know, I'm still watching. I'm watching to make
sure that he's going to follow through.
How does that make you feel? Here's the deal. and he'll understand this and
(15:27):
you and your listeners will.
Forgiveness and trust are two different things. Amen. Yes, they are.
Forgiveness, we have to do immediately because God does. That's exactly right.
Trust takes time to be restored. Yes, it does.
I lost the trust of my son.
I don't blame him. I did. It's my responsibility to make sure my actions lined
(15:52):
up with my words that Kevin can see, once again, my dad has my back and I know I can trust him.
And I mean, already our relationship, I mean, even today, just having playing
golf and having fun and having a great time together.
You know, one of the things I love about the Jewish people is they think everything is spiritual.
We try to say, well, that's just playing golf to them is spiritual.
(16:15):
Having a meal with the family, that's spiritual.
What we did today on the golf course, which might have been fun and the natural,
but it was a spiritual thing. It was something that we talked about.
We laughed. We had a good time.
Knit together. It knits your hearts closer together.
And I think it's also because what God's been doing in him and me individually
and at the same time together.
(16:36):
It's a corporate thing. Like he's getting ready to talk to his youth tonight about.
Yeah. We actually have been talking about coming together and traveling some as well.
So wonderful. Wonderful. As you know, I do first impressions here.
So we're looking at maybe hosting...
Ministry of Helps meetings, and then me ministering to the young adults on Saturday
(16:56):
night, and him doing the main church Sunday mornings, and just kind of doing
big conferences together a couple times a year.
Wow. So you are planning future in ministry. Oh, yeah.
I'm involved with a ministry called Love and Unity, and we do regional Zooms
every week across the nation, and now Canada and the Philippines,
(17:17):
and we do regional convergences. We don't call them conference.
We call them converging, coming together.
We just finished our national, which is in California every year. It's the largest one.
And we've already put his name in the hat that next year we want to do something
for the whole family, for children and youth.
His name has been thrown out to take and do the whole weekend,
do youth ministry for these kids. Oh, my goodness. Congratulations.
(17:42):
How wonderful is that? It would
be amazing. I would actually want to take some of my youth here. Yeah.
Good idea. That would just be so awesome. I bet you have no problem getting
volunteers. No problem.
No problem whatsoever.
Let's go to California. I'm actually from California. But I actually just got
back from California last week. Yeah, me and my mom.
(18:04):
But let's talk a little bit about, first of all, I love so much,
Pastor Don, again, how you take ownership.
Ownership and do you find
in the body of Christ that that is a difficult thing
for for parents maybe
in particular a lot of times we expect for our
(18:25):
kids to kind of just fall into line but for parents to
take that ownership of where they made mistakes and go to their children humble
themselves before their children and apologize do you see that as being something
that God is really using more to bring the prodigals back into the fold?
(18:47):
You know, we know that God is long-suffering, right? Yes, he is.
And we expect that from him.
But then in turn, we don't want to give it to other people.
Hmm. And that was, again, a big mistake with me is I never allowed any grace
anytime any of my kids would do anything that, you know, and it was,
(19:08):
it was, it was really a pride thing with me because I thought if they do anything,
it's going to affect how people look at me. It's going to make you look bad. Yeah.
And, um, you know, our whole life is about prodigals and prodigals is coming home.
It's not how we left. It's how we come back. Boy, isn't that a word? Yeah.
(19:28):
You know, you heard and I heard Kevin. I mean, he was right.
I was listening to you two on the podcast and I was like, dang,
I never heard some of that stuff.
No, it's story. But it was powerful. It was powerful.
And it touched me and it hurt me and it hurt me from what I caused.
And I think that parents need to give that to their children the same way we
(19:55):
expect God to give it to us. That is beautiful.
Well said. Well said. Kevin, you wanted to speak into that. Yeah.
I want to refer to the pastoral side of that. And I'm not saying that my dad
was like this, but I feel that a lot of the pastors, when you're in a regular
job and you work your 40 years, you retire, you go on social security,
you live off your savings.
(20:16):
When does a pastor really retire? Do they retire?
Do they hand their church over to somebody else? And I feel like a lot of pastors
nowadays, as they're getting older, they're afraid to turn their churches over.
And because of that, they almost don't want their children speaking in the pulpit.
Maybe you can speak about this, Dad or Pam, because they're afraid to turn that
(20:39):
church over to them because they might be considered less than now because they're
no longer in that full-time ministry position.
And I feel like a lot of kids, PKs like myself, ran in the past and made the
bad decisions because we saw that we never had that opportunity.
Or if we did, we have to just go do it on our own.
(20:59):
And I think if fathers would allow their children, boys or girls,
to minister with them more, you would see a lot more bigger things happening in churches.
How do you feel about that, Pastor Don. No, he's right.
I, you know, listening to him say that, there's two sides to that coin. I know some pastors that.
(21:23):
Turned it over to a literal son, and it didn't work because they were fearful
of giving it to someone else.
They so just wanted to keep it in the family that their son actually didn't
have the gifting or the call.
The anointing to do that. That's why we're hearing a lot today about spiritual
mothers and fathers and spiritual sons and daughters, because my job as a natural
(21:47):
father and my job as a spiritual father, because I have spiritual sons and daughters across the nation.
Every true spiritual parent should want their kids to do more than they did.
Oh, boy, that's so true. And my whole life at this point, whether it's with
Kevin and Donnie, my grandkids or my spiritual kids, is there's a day coming
I am going to pass the baton.
(22:07):
You know, Elisha did twice the miracles that Elijah did when he was when Elijah
was being caught up in the whirlwind.
Elisha said, my father, my father. Well, he wasn't his natural father. He was spiritual.
He was a spiritual father. But his spiritual father poured into him.
And I, you know, there's a day coming, who knows with what God has with Kevin
and I, he might end up pastoring the church I have right now. Who knows?
(22:29):
I mean, whatever God wants to do, but everything I'm seeing happen right now
with him and his brother and me and both of them, I'm also seeing happen in the spiritual.
And I'm seeing men and women of God. Here's the deal. If I'm going to pass the
baton, first of all, I have to die to myself.
Boy, that's not my church. It's not my ministry. It's not my anointing.
(22:50):
It's God. It's God. It's God. I'm simply a steward.
And, you know, he's right. You know, I'm not looking to retire from ministry.
I think my retirement is when I breathe my last breath and I go home.
But at some point, I'm going to move into that grandpapa stage of ministry where
I pass the baton to him and this next generation.
I say, I'm going to encourage you to run the race now. I'm going to push you.
(23:14):
And I got your back. And you've got your back. And I want to equip you.
I want to equip you to run this race and to carry this where God wants you to go.
You know, I'd like to go back, if we could, and talk about, here you are,
father, son, two pastors.
You have come back from so much brokenness in your relationship.
(23:38):
And again, we want, as our listening audience, we want to refer you back to
Kevin's testimony on May 17th, which is the inspiring journey of transformation.
But we saw brokenness to the point in your relationship where it looked like it was unrepairable.
I think a lot of families are living like that right now.
(24:02):
And here's what I'd like for each of you to speak into, prodigals.
Are the prodigals coming home right now? Are we seeing the prodigals coming home in this season?
Let's give our parents hope.
You want to go first? Go ahead. You know, it's interesting. I shared with you
before we started the broadcast,
(24:23):
a couple of years ago, the Lord spoke to me and said, go and tell churches as
you travel to get ready because prodigals are coming home and they have to have
a safe environment to come home.
You know, if you look at Luke 15, the father didn't say, well,
I'll accept you back in the house, but you're going to have to go through six
months of counseling and deliverance.
Amen. And here's why. Because the Bible says he came to himself before he came to his father.
(24:49):
Wasn't he came to himself in the pig's pen and then
he came to his father and the interesting thing is he
kept rehearsing what he thought he had to say to his
dad to be accepted yes i've sinned against you i've sinned against god i've
messed up i've done all these terrible things and you know what the daddy sat
there and let him talk and when he was done he didn't even acknowledge what
(25:10):
his son said he turned to the servants and go get the calf ready yeah here's
That's an expectation that my boy,
matter of fact, the Bible said, it didn't say the father, the son saw the father far off.
It said the father saw the son,
which means dad was looking and expecting for those kids to come home.
Prodigals need to know it's safe to come home. And let me tell you,
(25:32):
sis. Boy, that's a beautiful word. Here's how we're going to find out how mature our churches are.
What are we going to do when prodigals
come home and they're the ones that talked about us when they left?
Yes. Can we still bake a cake and throw a party and put up a banner and have a great time?
And run to them. And run to them. Run to them. Be standing on our porch going,
(25:53):
I know he's going to be here. I know she's going to be here.
And see them afar off and run with all of our might to our adult children.
Come on. That's what we've got to do. That's right.
Boy, that's a great word. That's a great word, Kevin. Pastor Kevin.
For me, as the child, I'd like to speak to the parents to say, you have.
(26:16):
You've got to accept them with love as they are, no matter where they're at.
The prodigal son came back humble, but they're not all going to come back humble
because there's hurt there.
And you have to accept them with open arms, ready and willing to go through
all the pain and willing to listen.
If you don't listen, you can't fix things. So you've got to listen without getting defensive.
(26:40):
That's good. That's very good. And be willing to go through those pains with them.
And I think even being willing when your child comes back and says,
I've changed, to say, okay, I believe you.
I believe you, instead of saying, you'll never change.
(27:01):
And I think, I mean, I've heard this, you know, you'll never change.
And talk about, so what I hear you both saying is, don't slap that down.
Don't slap that down like you're saying pastor dunn make it
safe there was that one time in arizona and i don't mean
to rehash things but it had in the
previous podcast it was really cold in arizona extremely cold for some weird
(27:24):
reason which you would never expect either by the way and i turned myself in
to the police for something that i didn't do just so i could get out of the
cold i was sleeping in the jail cell he came and picked me up and he dropped
me off on the side of the road and said, you're still not coming home.
Now I learned from that lesson, but that's where, where I was just referring
(27:44):
to is you have a child that's crying out no matter what it's for.
That might be the opportunity to say, let's have that moment.
Let's go to Waffle House.
Let's have that meal and let me find out where their heart is.
Are they wanting to come home because they want to get out of the cold or are
they truly repentant? Are they really wanting to change. Yeah.
(28:06):
Yeah. Boy, those are good words. Those are good words. Pastor Don.
You know what? And what he said is the truth. And here's the sad part. And he knows this.
I let someone I was involved with at the moment.
Taught me out of what my heart wanted to do. Oh, my goodness.
So you had a tug on your heart during that time.
(28:27):
Messed up. Messed up. And you know what?
It's not just me and Kevin, me having a second chance with him.
He had to take a second chance with me.
That's so beautiful. And he has. And here's the way, you know,
he probably sees fruit of a certain way with me different.
But what I watched ever since he came to this church.
(28:48):
Him and i talk sometimes a couple times
a day i love that so every other day throughout
the week dad i'm thinking about this i'm praying about this i'm i'm getting
this revelation what do you think about this have you ever thought about this
story and i'm back in the back i'm just saying this is such healing i mean i
said well yeah but you know what here's the deal here's why parents won't do
(29:08):
this they can't extend healing until they understand they need healed first.
Boy, there is a mouthful right there. It's so true.
The greatest healers are those that have been healed. The greatest people that
walk in forgiveness are those that have been forgiven much.
That's right. Until I was healed of the internal struggles within me,
(29:30):
you know, another podcast, my grandmother molested me when I was six years old.
I got introduced to pornography and things I should have never been introduced to at that age.
Those are things I had to get get healed and walk through in my life. Yes, you did.
And it wasn't until in the last several years God did some deep,
deep internal healings in me that I was even ready to be able to be the daddy,
(29:53):
that he should have always had.
I love so much what you just said, Pastor Dawn, because that is absolutely true.
We have got to run after our own healing because I look at it like this.
When our emotions which if
we're not healed our emotions drive the bus the
(30:15):
our emotions will end up driving every single thing we do and say and unfortunately
if we are so broken which i can relate to this where we're so broken that our
emotions take over the bus the ride gets bumpy
and the ride does not just get bumpy for us.
(30:38):
It gets bumpy for everybody on that bus with us who must also live with our emotions.
And so that's really what it is. We've got to heal.
It's time for the church to heal and to go after our own emotional healing.
Because also, like you said.
(30:59):
Forgiveness is a gift that's free trust
man we got to prove ourselves come
on we got to prove ourselves that is that
is there's a consistent change in how we do life in order for somebody to trust
us and as parents we've got to be able to walk in that right come on you know
(31:21):
the church can't the the pulpit pastors can't heal bleeding sheep when the pulpits
boy that's a word right Right there.
It's start, everything in the kingdom flows down. So we've got to get the pulpits
healed. We've got to get ministers healed.
And then the other part I don't think is going to be difficult.
And my concern, and what I love about Kevin, when I watch him speak to the youth,
(31:43):
and I've been saying this to pastors for several years, transparency has to come back to the pulpit.
You can't have this schism, this chasm between you and your people that they
don't ever think they can reach there.
They need to know your mistakes. They need to know you're a person that has
issues and struggles and how you overcome them.
And sometimes when you have a bad day, you don't always do everything right.
(32:06):
People can relate to that more than just someone that they see that's never
made a mistake. Amen. Amen.
We are all in need of a Savior. We are all in need of a Savior.
We'll go ahead and start to wrap this. But Kevin, I would like for you,
Pastor, to speak specifically to the prodigal.
(32:30):
And then, Pastor Don, I'd like you to just, in a final word,
to our listeners, whether you're a prodigal or whether you're a parent,
waiting for a prodigal to come home.
I'm just reminded of that scripture in Isaiah, I believe it's 60,
where he says, and your sons and your daughters are going to be carried on the
(32:52):
arm and then your hearts will throb and swell with joy.
And so many parents are waiting for that day.
So, Pastor Kevin, I'd like you to speak, if you could, give us a word for the prodigal.
I'd like to start off and just preface that as a prodigal, having once been
(33:13):
a prodigal myself, it wasn't my parents that made all the wrong decisions.
Thank you for saying that. And that's one thing that I do want to say.
As much as I'd like to think that back in the day, it's not the case.
I obviously made quite a few bad decisions.
But as a prodigal, speaking to a prodigal, you've got to find peace in yourself.
(33:34):
Get into a church, even if it's not one your parents go to.
Get into a small group, a community group. Churches have small groups.
That's the best place to get into. Get to know people like-minded.
Find that culture. And then start to work on the relationship with your parents.
But you have to work on you first, just like he said a few minutes ago. go.
(33:55):
You have to be willing to be healed inside and start to forgive before your
parents ever ask for forgiveness.
That is so well said. And it's kind of like what your dad just said,
the prodigal in the parable, he first had to realize he was in a pig pen.
Before he could go home, he had to see where he was first and know there was
(34:20):
something better for him.
That's a great word. That's a great word. Thank you so much.
Pastor Don, what would you say to parents, other than to have that safe play?
I think those that are listening and will listen, as parents, here's the key.
You have to be willing to give the same grace and mercy to your children that
(34:41):
you give to everyone else. Oh, that's so good.
First and foremost, that is your ministry.
And that was, again, sis, that was my biggest mistake. I never looked at my
kids or my spouse at the time as my ministry.
I looked at the building and the walls and the chairs and the people because
that's kind of how I was taught by mentors. And it was wrong. It was not right.
(35:02):
And too many ministers, too many parents put everyone before their kids.
And so you want to get mad when your kids do the wrong things,
but what if we've created that atmosphere for them? Boy.
And just put so much pressure.
And I think when I probably, when I first repented to Kevin,
I don't know, I might be speaking out of turn.
(35:24):
He can correct me if he wants to, but he might've said, okay, well, let's see.
You know, the words sound great, but.
Like he said a while ago, is this for real? Has he really changed?
Is he really going to go the test of time?
And I just want to say, parents, forgive your kids the same way God forgives you.
Love your kids unconditionally the same way you expect God to love you unconditionally.
(35:47):
And listen, as we end, sis, here you go.
All of the Hebrews 11 great warriors of the Hall of Fame of Faith,
if we looked at their a resume, you would have never attended King David's church
if he started one in Kennesaw, Georgia. Isn't that true?
But here's why. All of those people, everything they did was under the law. That's right.
(36:10):
When Hebrews was written, it was now under grace, and not one mistake they ever
did was mentioned in Hebrews 11, only their victories. Only their victories.
Isn't that Isn't that wonderful? And when Jesus looks at us, he sees victory.
He's constantly leading us into triumph. He's constantly leading us into success.
(36:33):
That's what he's doing. Wow. These are such great words. Pastor Kevin.
Really quick. And you notice what the father did with the prodigal son and what
parents need to do with the prodigal children.
Don't bring up the past. Oh boy.
Yeah. I'm going I'm going to high five on that one with you guys.
Yeah. And I'll tell you, I'm a mama bear.
(36:56):
That can happen. It can slip right out of your mouth and go on.
I didn't mean that to come up, but it is easy. You have to put a guard over
your mouth because it's so easy.
That's a very, I love that you said that because we do have to let that go.
Our children are not always looking for our pearls of wisdom. Are they, Pastor Don?
(37:18):
No, no. At least I'm one of them.
Me too, but maybe they're not always. Well, what a joy and an honor,
a great, true honor it has been to have both of you, father and son, on the Pam Raimi Show.
And I know that God is changing so many lives because of your testimony.
(37:44):
Pastor Dawn, could you please tell us again where our listeners can find you?
And we're going to drop this information in the bio section where they can find your Bible school.
And your books and your online messages. As far as if they have any questions
about the school, they can go to rhsom.com. It stands for Rev House School of Ministry.
(38:05):
They can also find all of my books and products on Amazon.
And the one I was telling you about, The Kingdom of the Seed and the Soil,
I forgot to tell you, I've never done this in any other book,
but I actually have a study guide that goes with it. How wonderful.
I've never done that before. And so they can find us there.
They can get all the questions answered, or they can just friend me on Facebook,
(38:25):
and I've got room for some extra friends left.
I'd be happy to let them begin to follow us and see what God's doing in their
life. Oh, that's wonderful.
Well, we're going to get all that information in the bio section.
Pastor Kevin, how can our listeners find you?
Biding Church, every Sunday at 10. If you have a youth and you want to send
them, every Wednesday night at 7 o'clock, we'd love to have them.
(38:45):
It's called Firebrand Youth, right here at Abiding.
And you also have YouTube, pardon me, you also have a Facebook. I do.
And you talk a lot about what you're doing with the youth on the Facebook.
So would you be fine with us dropping that information in the bio section?
And ATL is the Instagram for the youth, and then just Kevin Hughes for myself.
(39:08):
So if you're anywhere in the Woodstock, Georgia area, feel free to come to Firebrand.
And that is Wednesday nights at 7 p.m. Yes, yes.
So, well, that's just great. It has been, again, such a joy to have you both.
Thank you very, very much for being here. For our listeners,
(39:28):
we're so happy that you have taken the time to join us today.
If you would like to pray for us, we would so covet your prayers.
Thank you very much for that.
If you would like to partner with us and donate to our ministry,
you can go to JesusGirlRoar.com.
We're going to drop that information in the bio section.
But most importantly, we want for you to know that Jesus is for you.
(39:53):
He is fighting your battles, and he is absolutely unequivocally crazy in love
with you. Have an awesome day.
Music.
Hey, guys, welcome to the show that gives you the tools you need to break through
into all you were created to be, to live your life full of hope and purpose.
I'm Pam Raimi, and Jesus Girls, let's find our role.
Music.
(00:24):
Hey, hey, hey, Jesus Girls and guys, thank you so much for joining us today
on the Pam Sam Raimi show.
And wow, do we have an incredible show for you today.
It's a show that you are not going to want to miss because we're going to be
talking about some real brokenness in a relationship,
(00:47):
in a family, within a family, and how God supernaturally and miraculously healed this relationship.
And you're not going to want to miss that because God has a way of stepping
into our broken mess and healing everything and anything in our lives that needs
(01:11):
to be healed. And that's really where we're going today.
I am so happy to introduce you to our two amazing guests.
We have today in the Jesus Girl Roar studio, father and son, Don and Kevin Hughes.
Pastor Don, it's so good to have you here. Don Thank you.
I've been expecting this for a while and very excited.
(01:33):
Honored that you asked us to be on today. Oh, well, we're so honored that you
said yes, and you live in Tulsa.
Yes, and I'm going to learn a little bit.
We're going to learn a little bit more about you, but But your wonderful son,
Kevin Hughes, who was ordained just last Sunday.
So, Kevin, I would like to call you Pastor Kevin.
(01:55):
Welcome back to the Jesus Girl War Studio. Thank you. It's so great to be back here.
You were here. And to our listening audience, Kevin was here on the 17th of
May and shared a riveting testimony,
of some things that he went through on his journey, just being transformed.
(02:17):
As God is constantly transforming all of our lives, right, pastors?
And so I'd like for you to go back
and listen to Kevin's testimony because we're going to kind of pick up.
But one of the things that became
very obvious in that testimony was a brokenness between the two of you.
(02:38):
And that's where we're going to go in a second. But before we head there,
Pastor Dawn, could you tell Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I know that you pastor a church in Tulsa.
I know that you have a Bible school. So tell us a little bit about you.
Well, I started to, before Sunday, I was going to say, I'm a third generation
minister, but now we have a fourth generation.
(02:58):
So the Hughes is going to continue.
That's exciting. My grandfather was a minister years ago in California.
My dad, he was in the ministry for 50 plus years. He's in heaven now.
And I do have a church. It's called Rev House Fellowship. It's actually in Broken
Arrow, which is a bedroom community in Tulsa.
We have an online school of ministry where you can earn your associates,
(03:19):
your bachelors, and we're launching our master's program in November.
You can earn those degrees in kingdom theology.
And then next spring, we're going to launch our doctorate program.
And I'm an author, and my eighth book is going to press Amazon the 28th, 26th of July.
And then before the year's over, I'm going to write my ninth that I talked to
(03:41):
you about before we went on the program. My goodness, you are one busy guy.
You are one busy guy. So tell us about the book that is released,
that is being released on, the one that's being released this month?
Yes, July 26th. July 26th. Tell us a little bit about that book.
It's called The Third Day Preparing for Manifestations.
And how it came about is many times in the Bible, Old and New Testament,
(04:05):
there would be a phrase of something amazing that happened on the third day.
Jesus rose again on the third day.
Abraham offered his son Isaac on the third day.
You know, the road to Emmaus, when he manifested himself to his two disciples, it was on the third day.
And then we end the book, which is interesting because, you know,
(04:26):
the end from the beginning, the last chapter, I'm going back to Genesis chapter
one and what God created on the third day, but then bring it into the prophetic.
So, wow, that sounds so exciting. Exciting.
And also you're getting ready to do an audio version of this book,
correct? Yes, ma'am. Yeah. Well, I can't wait.
I cannot wait to read this book and to dig into a lot of your material.
(04:49):
How can our audience, can anybody participate and enroll in your school?
If they go to rhsom.com. So it's Rev House School of Ministry, rhsom.com.
All of the classes are on there. There's a signup sheet. There's a registration.
There's many different ways that that the students can pay. And we want to make it,
(05:11):
where students can afford to go to school. And really the vision of Rev House
School of Ministry is threefold.
People that have calls on their life like Kevin that have never been able to
move their family to another state to go to a school of ministry.
So we did a two-year curriculum.
It's online. It is in the books now where people can go on our bachelor's program.
(05:33):
And then I'm really excited. He's already enrolled.
The third Monday in November, we're launching our master's program,
and it's going to be 24 hours, intense,
12 Monday nights in a row on my newest book that came out in May,
which was interesting because your pastor, I gave him the book because of what
(05:53):
he started teaching Sunday.
And this one's called The Kingdom, the Seed, and the Soil. Oh my gosh, I love that.
I love that title. And here's what the Lord said to me last fall.
He woke me up at four o'clock in the morning. He said this.
He said, son, son, the seed is never the problem. It's always the soil.
And he began to bring to me, he said, how many people can sit in congregations
for weeks, months, years, never see the fruit, never have the breakthrough.
(06:19):
And so we go in depth looking at the four different types of soil and asking
Holy Spirit to reveal to every person which one they presently have in their
life. That is so powerful because that's our heart.
That's a condition of our heart that I can't wait to read that book.
That sounds phenomenal.
(06:39):
So we're going to go ahead. I'm going to have you repeat that address at the end of the show.
And we'll drop that information in our bio section because I'm sure a lot of
our listeners are going to want to know about your school and your resources, your books.
And let's parlay over here to your son, Kevin, Pastor Kevin.
The last time we talked to you, we learned that you're a power lifter.
(07:02):
We learned a lot of different things about you.
And you have lost an entire person, 120 pounds, which is amazing, amazing.
But another incredible thing has happened to you recently, and that was last
Sunday, when you were ordained as the youth pastor of Abiding Church.
(07:24):
Talk to us a little bit about that, Kevin.
Yeah, it's been in the making since the first of the year.
Just been super excited about it. I sat down with the pastor December 31st, actually.
And I said, I'm not saying that God has said this, but it's just been kind of
tingling in my heart and I'd like to throw my name in to the hat, you know, in the ring.
And he said it's kind of already been on my mind as well.
(07:48):
But he goes, you know, as you know, Pastor Craig, he doesn't make rushed decisions. No, he does not.
So we've just been kind of rolling with it. And I've been building those relationships
with the students organically.
You certainly have. It's been amazing. Yes, you have.
We've really been teaching them the foundational stuff that I really want to kind of get back into.
And it's been really good. And last Sunday, it kind of came to full fruition.
(08:11):
Came to full fruition, not only that you were ordained as our youth pastor,
which is so exciting, Kevin. Congratulations.
But also you have graduated with both your associate's and your bachelor's degree
from your dad's Bible college. How cool is that?
Yep. Obviously, I went to New Life Bible College back in 2007.
(08:33):
I had almost just shy of two years worth of credits there.
And I started his associate's program, and we started talking to the college
that he's accredited through, and they said he actually has enough for his bachelors so.
It's all just perfectly working out in the right time. God is so good.
God is so good. And, you know, as I'm looking at the two of you,
(08:54):
and if our audience could see you, they would go, wow, these are two men,
father and son, who have probably always just been mano a mano.
You know, everything is simpatico. We got it going on. That's how people would look at you, right?
They would go look at you. You know, you're both respected pastors.
(09:18):
Here you are, fourth generation Kevin pastor in this rich spiritual heritage of your family.
So let me just ask you, and whichever one of you wants to pick up this ball
first. In fact, I think I'm going to go with you, Pastor Don.
Has it always been simpatico? No.
The simplest answer first, no, but not because of Kevin.
(09:42):
Really? I'd like you to speak into that. Because of me.
That's something you don't hear a lot of fathers say. When I was cutting my
teeth and the men that I was looking to to mentor me in ministry. Mm-hmm.
I learned some things the wrong way. And what I've learned and what I want our
listeners to hear is when you transition and you grow in God and in ministry,
(10:05):
there's as many things you have to unlearn as you have to learn.
There's some things you've got to let go of. And I told you before we started,
I was self-righteous because I had this image in my mind of how I was supposed
to be and how my kids were supposed to be.
And what most people don't realize is the pressure that church people put on preachers' kids.
(10:28):
They have a whole different level of expectation for them than their own.
And I let that filter through my mind to the point that I took it out on my boys.
And you have to remember, I was a kid having kids. I made a lot of mistakes
out of my just not knowing.
And I joked with you, thank God for grandchildren, because I always joke.
(10:50):
We get a second chance. God gives you a second chance to get something right with your grandkids.
He said it, and Donnie said it. Dad, there's things you do with my kids you
never done with me. We would have gone to hell if we were doing it.
I said, well, I've learned a lot. A lot of water's gone under the bridge since that.
And my mistake that I made was the ministry became my mistress.
(11:10):
Boy, there it packed that just a little bit for us. It became more important than my family.
The other day, I apologized to my boy's mother, my first wife.
And her answer back, Kevin saw it, was, wow, you've never apologized.
What did that feel like for you when you apologized to her? It was a relief.
(11:34):
Now, there's been a level of restoration. I mean, you can ask my wife who's
sitting behind the screen today.
There's several Thanksgivings we've gone to her house with her husband because
my boys are there. That's our kids. And we eat together, and I'll go up and give her a hug.
But before God could restore us, he had to restore me.
I love, Pastor Dawn, how you take that on yourself and that you give God the
(12:04):
glory for healing that part of your heart and for owning it.
Because I think sometimes with our kids, it's kind of like my way or the highway.
A lot of parents think I'm the parent.
But I'll tell you, I know as I also have adult children, I have needed to ask
for their forgiveness many, many, many times.
And a lot of for the same reason that you and I talked about before the show
(12:29):
is that legalism, that that legalism of having to have it the right the way
we taught were taught that there's no grace.
I loved how you talked about throwing grace at the foot of the cross.
Can you say share that with our listeners? The new book that I'm working on,
the last chapter is going to be when the woman was caught in the act of adultery.
(12:52):
Of course, my thing is, where's the man?
Thank you very much. Why was it he brought into the situation?
I'm with you on that. Where was that guy? Of course, my joke is always,
well, he was probably one of the elders that they used to set Jesus up.
He brought him up. They don't want to bring him into the situation.
So what did they do was they caught this woman, and they throw her at the feet
(13:14):
of Jesus, and all they do is they said, now Moses in the law said.
So here's what I teach this. You minister from who you sit at the feet of.
So they could only reveal the law because that's all they said at the feet of.
That's all they said at the feet of. But here's what happened.
They threw the law at the feet of grace.
Grace is a person, and his name is Jesus Christ. And his name is Jesus.
(13:38):
And when the law was thrown at the feet of grace, grace said,
I don't condemn you. Isn't that beautiful?
That is so beautiful. It's life-changing, absolutely life-changing.
Do you see that change, Pastor Kevin? Do you see that change in your dad that
he's talking about right there, that instead of,
(13:58):
honoring the law, that he's honoring grace, the grace that is Jesus?
I do. And the funny thing is, is I sent my mom and dad a joint message on like
May 18th or 19th, right after the podcast aired. And I'm like, hey, this is out.
You're going to hear some things that you probably haven't heard before.
(14:19):
They both listened to it.
And my mom responded, if I'm being honest, a little hastily,
and I'm like, oh, here we go.
Oh, 1985 is bringing all back brought up right now.
And my dad, the way he responded with grace, I was like, okay.
I even texted him like, just, she's not well health wise right now.
(14:43):
And they just kind of picked it up and we're both apologizing.
And I was called my brother and I'm like, I sent him screenshots.
I'm like, look at this, bro.
It took 30 something years for this to happen. But wow.
Wow. If I'm being honest, though, sometimes I look at my dad and I'm like,
I don't know if I'm going to fully believe what he's saying or,
(15:05):
you know, what he's cooking.
But everything, every corner we turn around, it's he's still there. It's still correct.
Pastor Don, how do you feel when your son says something like that?
Now? Yeah. When he says, you know, I'm still watching. I'm watching to make
sure that he's going to follow through.
How does that make you feel? Here's the deal. and he'll understand this and
(15:27):
you and your listeners will.
Forgiveness and trust are two different things. Amen. Yes, they are.
Forgiveness, we have to do immediately because God does. That's exactly right.
Trust takes time to be restored. Yes, it does.
I lost the trust of my son.
I don't blame him. I did. It's my responsibility to make sure my actions lined
(15:52):
up with my words that Kevin can see, once again, my dad has my back and I know I can trust him.
And I mean, already our relationship, I mean, even today, just having playing
golf and having fun and having a great time together.
You know, one of the things I love about the Jewish people is they think everything is spiritual.
We try to say, well, that's just playing golf to them is spiritual.
(16:15):
Having a meal with the family, that's spiritual.
What we did today on the golf course, which might have been fun and the natural,
but it was a spiritual thing. It was something that we talked about.
We laughed. We had a good time.
Knit together. It knits your hearts closer together.
And I think it's also because what God's been doing in him and me individually
and at the same time together.
(16:36):
It's a corporate thing. Like he's getting ready to talk to his youth tonight about.
Yeah. We actually have been talking about coming together and traveling some as well.
So wonderful. Wonderful. As you know, I do first impressions here.
So we're looking at maybe hosting...
Ministry of Helps meetings, and then me ministering to the young adults on Saturday
(16:56):
night, and him doing the main church Sunday mornings, and just kind of doing
big conferences together a couple times a year.
Wow. So you are planning future in ministry. Oh, yeah.
I'm involved with a ministry called Love and Unity, and we do regional Zooms
every week across the nation, and now Canada and the Philippines,
(17:17):
and we do regional convergences. We don't call them conference.
We call them converging, coming together.
We just finished our national, which is in California every year. It's the largest one.
And we've already put his name in the hat that next year we want to do something
for the whole family, for children and youth.
His name has been thrown out to take and do the whole weekend,
do youth ministry for these kids. Oh, my goodness. Congratulations.
(17:42):
How wonderful is that? It would
be amazing. I would actually want to take some of my youth here. Yeah.
Good idea. That would just be so awesome. I bet you have no problem getting
volunteers. No problem.
No problem whatsoever.
Let's go to California. I'm actually from California. But I actually just got
back from California last week. Yeah, me and my mom.
(18:04):
But let's talk a little bit about, first of all, I love so much,
Pastor Don, again, how you take ownership.
Ownership and do you find
in the body of Christ that that is a difficult thing
for for parents maybe
in particular a lot of times we expect for our
(18:25):
kids to kind of just fall into line but for parents to
take that ownership of where they made mistakes and go to their children humble
themselves before their children and apologize do you see that as being something
that God is really using more to bring the prodigals back into the fold?
(18:47):
You know, we know that God is long-suffering, right? Yes, he is.
And we expect that from him.
But then in turn, we don't want to give it to other people.
Hmm. And that was, again, a big mistake with me is I never allowed any grace
anytime any of my kids would do anything that, you know, and it was,
(19:08):
it was, it was really a pride thing with me because I thought if they do anything,
it's going to affect how people look at me. It's going to make you look bad. Yeah.
And, um, you know, our whole life is about prodigals and prodigals is coming home.
It's not how we left. It's how we come back. Boy, isn't that a word? Yeah.
(19:28):
You know, you heard and I heard Kevin. I mean, he was right.
I was listening to you two on the podcast and I was like, dang,
I never heard some of that stuff.
No, it's story. But it was powerful. It was powerful.
And it touched me and it hurt me and it hurt me from what I caused.
And I think that parents need to give that to their children the same way we
(19:55):
expect God to give it to us. That is beautiful.
Well said. Well said. Kevin, you wanted to speak into that. Yeah.
I want to refer to the pastoral side of that. And I'm not saying that my dad
was like this, but I feel that a lot of the pastors, when you're in a regular
job and you work your 40 years, you retire, you go on social security,
you live off your savings.
(20:16):
When does a pastor really retire? Do they retire?
Do they hand their church over to somebody else? And I feel like a lot of pastors
nowadays, as they're getting older, they're afraid to turn their churches over.
And because of that, they almost don't want their children speaking in the pulpit.
Maybe you can speak about this, Dad or Pam, because they're afraid to turn that
(20:39):
church over to them because they might be considered less than now because they're
no longer in that full-time ministry position.
And I feel like a lot of kids, PKs like myself, ran in the past and made the
bad decisions because we saw that we never had that opportunity.
Or if we did, we have to just go do it on our own.
(20:59):
And I think if fathers would allow their children, boys or girls,
to minister with them more, you would see a lot more bigger things happening in churches.
How do you feel about that, Pastor Don. No, he's right.
I, you know, listening to him say that, there's two sides to that coin. I know some pastors that.
(21:23):
Turned it over to a literal son, and it didn't work because they were fearful
of giving it to someone else.
They so just wanted to keep it in the family that their son actually didn't
have the gifting or the call.
The anointing to do that. That's why we're hearing a lot today about spiritual
mothers and fathers and spiritual sons and daughters, because my job as a natural
(21:47):
father and my job as a spiritual father, because I have spiritual sons and daughters across the nation.
Every true spiritual parent should want their kids to do more than they did.
Oh, boy, that's so true. And my whole life at this point, whether it's with
Kevin and Donnie, my grandkids or my spiritual kids, is there's a day coming
I am going to pass the baton.
(22:07):
You know, Elisha did twice the miracles that Elijah did when he was when Elijah
was being caught up in the whirlwind.
Elisha said, my father, my father. Well, he wasn't his natural father. He was spiritual.
He was a spiritual father. But his spiritual father poured into him.
And I, you know, there's a day coming, who knows with what God has with Kevin
and I, he might end up pastoring the church I have right now. Who knows?
(22:29):
I mean, whatever God wants to do, but everything I'm seeing happen right now
with him and his brother and me and both of them, I'm also seeing happen in the spiritual.
And I'm seeing men and women of God. Here's the deal. If I'm going to pass the
baton, first of all, I have to die to myself.
Boy, that's not my church. It's not my ministry. It's not my anointing.
(22:50):
It's God. It's God. It's God. I'm simply a steward.
And, you know, he's right. You know, I'm not looking to retire from ministry.
I think my retirement is when I breathe my last breath and I go home.
But at some point, I'm going to move into that grandpapa stage of ministry where
I pass the baton to him and this next generation.
I say, I'm going to encourage you to run the race now. I'm going to push you.
(23:14):
And I got your back. And you've got your back. And I want to equip you.
I want to equip you to run this race and to carry this where God wants you to go.
You know, I'd like to go back, if we could, and talk about, here you are,
father, son, two pastors.
You have come back from so much brokenness in your relationship.
(23:38):
And again, we want, as our listening audience, we want to refer you back to
Kevin's testimony on May 17th, which is the inspiring journey of transformation.
But we saw brokenness to the point in your relationship where it looked like it was unrepairable.
I think a lot of families are living like that right now.
(24:02):
And here's what I'd like for each of you to speak into, prodigals.
Are the prodigals coming home right now? Are we seeing the prodigals coming home in this season?
Let's give our parents hope.
You want to go first? Go ahead. You know, it's interesting. I shared with you
before we started the broadcast,
(24:23):
a couple of years ago, the Lord spoke to me and said, go and tell churches as
you travel to get ready because prodigals are coming home and they have to have
a safe environment to come home.
You know, if you look at Luke 15, the father didn't say, well,
I'll accept you back in the house, but you're going to have to go through six
months of counseling and deliverance.
Amen. And here's why. Because the Bible says he came to himself before he came to his father.
(24:49):
Wasn't he came to himself in the pig's pen and then
he came to his father and the interesting thing is he
kept rehearsing what he thought he had to say to his
dad to be accepted yes i've sinned against you i've sinned against god i've
messed up i've done all these terrible things and you know what the daddy sat
there and let him talk and when he was done he didn't even acknowledge what
(25:10):
his son said he turned to the servants and go get the calf ready yeah here's
That's an expectation that my boy,
matter of fact, the Bible said, it didn't say the father, the son saw the father far off.
It said the father saw the son,
which means dad was looking and expecting for those kids to come home.
Prodigals need to know it's safe to come home. And let me tell you,
(25:32):
sis. Boy, that's a beautiful word. Here's how we're going to find out how mature our churches are.
What are we going to do when prodigals
come home and they're the ones that talked about us when they left?
Yes. Can we still bake a cake and throw a party and put up a banner and have a great time?
And run to them. And run to them. Run to them. Be standing on our porch going,
(25:53):
I know he's going to be here. I know she's going to be here.
And see them afar off and run with all of our might to our adult children.
Come on. That's what we've got to do. That's right.
Boy, that's a great word. That's a great word, Kevin. Pastor Kevin.
For me, as the child, I'd like to speak to the parents to say, you have.
(26:16):
You've got to accept them with love as they are, no matter where they're at.
The prodigal son came back humble, but they're not all going to come back humble
because there's hurt there.
And you have to accept them with open arms, ready and willing to go through
all the pain and willing to listen.
If you don't listen, you can't fix things. So you've got to listen without getting defensive.
(26:40):
That's good. That's very good. And be willing to go through those pains with them.
And I think even being willing when your child comes back and says,
I've changed, to say, okay, I believe you.
I believe you, instead of saying, you'll never change.
(27:01):
And I think, I mean, I've heard this, you know, you'll never change.
And talk about, so what I hear you both saying is, don't slap that down.
Don't slap that down like you're saying pastor dunn make it
safe there was that one time in arizona and i don't mean
to rehash things but it had in the
previous podcast it was really cold in arizona extremely cold for some weird
(27:24):
reason which you would never expect either by the way and i turned myself in
to the police for something that i didn't do just so i could get out of the
cold i was sleeping in the jail cell he came and picked me up and he dropped
me off on the side of the road and said, you're still not coming home.
Now I learned from that lesson, but that's where, where I was just referring
(27:44):
to is you have a child that's crying out no matter what it's for.
That might be the opportunity to say, let's have that moment.
Let's go to Waffle House.
Let's have that meal and let me find out where their heart is.
Are they wanting to come home because they want to get out of the cold or are
they truly repentant? Are they really wanting to change. Yeah.
(28:06):
Yeah. Boy, those are good words. Those are good words. Pastor Don.
You know what? And what he said is the truth. And here's the sad part. And he knows this.
I let someone I was involved with at the moment.
Taught me out of what my heart wanted to do. Oh, my goodness.
So you had a tug on your heart during that time.
(28:27):
Messed up. Messed up. And you know what?
It's not just me and Kevin, me having a second chance with him.
He had to take a second chance with me.
That's so beautiful. And he has. And here's the way, you know,
he probably sees fruit of a certain way with me different.
But what I watched ever since he came to this church.
(28:48):
Him and i talk sometimes a couple times
a day i love that so every other day throughout
the week dad i'm thinking about this i'm praying about this i'm i'm getting
this revelation what do you think about this have you ever thought about this
story and i'm back in the back i'm just saying this is such healing i mean i
said well yeah but you know what here's the deal here's why parents won't do
(29:08):
this they can't extend healing until they understand they need healed first.
Boy, there is a mouthful right there. It's so true.
The greatest healers are those that have been healed. The greatest people that
walk in forgiveness are those that have been forgiven much.
That's right. Until I was healed of the internal struggles within me,
(29:30):
you know, another podcast, my grandmother molested me when I was six years old.
I got introduced to pornography and things I should have never been introduced to at that age.
Those are things I had to get get healed and walk through in my life. Yes, you did.
And it wasn't until in the last several years God did some deep,
deep internal healings in me that I was even ready to be able to be the daddy,
(29:53):
that he should have always had.
I love so much what you just said, Pastor Dawn, because that is absolutely true.
We have got to run after our own healing because I look at it like this.
When our emotions which if
we're not healed our emotions drive the bus the
(30:15):
our emotions will end up driving every single thing we do and say and unfortunately
if we are so broken which i can relate to this where we're so broken that our
emotions take over the bus the ride gets bumpy
and the ride does not just get bumpy for us.
(30:38):
It gets bumpy for everybody on that bus with us who must also live with our emotions.
And so that's really what it is. We've got to heal.
It's time for the church to heal and to go after our own emotional healing.
Because also, like you said.
(30:59):
Forgiveness is a gift that's free trust
man we got to prove ourselves come
on we got to prove ourselves that is that
is there's a consistent change in how we do life in order for somebody to trust
us and as parents we've got to be able to walk in that right come on you know
(31:21):
the church can't the the pulpit pastors can't heal bleeding sheep when the pulpits
boy that's a word right Right there.
It's start, everything in the kingdom flows down. So we've got to get the pulpits
healed. We've got to get ministers healed.
And then the other part I don't think is going to be difficult.
And my concern, and what I love about Kevin, when I watch him speak to the youth,
(31:43):
and I've been saying this to pastors for several years, transparency has to come back to the pulpit.
You can't have this schism, this chasm between you and your people that they
don't ever think they can reach there.
They need to know your mistakes. They need to know you're a person that has
issues and struggles and how you overcome them.
And sometimes when you have a bad day, you don't always do everything right.
(32:06):
People can relate to that more than just someone that they see that's never
made a mistake. Amen. Amen.
We are all in need of a Savior. We are all in need of a Savior.
We'll go ahead and start to wrap this. But Kevin, I would like for you,
Pastor, to speak specifically to the prodigal.
(32:30):
And then, Pastor Don, I'd like you to just, in a final word,
to our listeners, whether you're a prodigal or whether you're a parent,
waiting for a prodigal to come home.
I'm just reminded of that scripture in Isaiah, I believe it's 60,
where he says, and your sons and your daughters are going to be carried on the
(32:52):
arm and then your hearts will throb and swell with joy.
And so many parents are waiting for that day.
So, Pastor Kevin, I'd like you to speak, if you could, give us a word for the prodigal.
I'd like to start off and just preface that as a prodigal, having once been
(33:13):
a prodigal myself, it wasn't my parents that made all the wrong decisions.
Thank you for saying that. And that's one thing that I do want to say.
As much as I'd like to think that back in the day, it's not the case.
I obviously made quite a few bad decisions.
But as a prodigal, speaking to a prodigal, you've got to find peace in yourself.
(33:34):
Get into a church, even if it's not one your parents go to.
Get into a small group, a community group. Churches have small groups.
That's the best place to get into. Get to know people like-minded.
Find that culture. And then start to work on the relationship with your parents.
But you have to work on you first, just like he said a few minutes ago. go.
(33:55):
You have to be willing to be healed inside and start to forgive before your
parents ever ask for forgiveness.
That is so well said. And it's kind of like what your dad just said,
the prodigal in the parable, he first had to realize he was in a pig pen.
Before he could go home, he had to see where he was first and know there was
(34:20):
something better for him.
That's a great word. That's a great word. Thank you so much.
Pastor Don, what would you say to parents, other than to have that safe play?
I think those that are listening and will listen, as parents, here's the key.
You have to be willing to give the same grace and mercy to your children that
(34:41):
you give to everyone else. Oh, that's so good.
First and foremost, that is your ministry.
And that was, again, sis, that was my biggest mistake. I never looked at my
kids or my spouse at the time as my ministry.
I looked at the building and the walls and the chairs and the people because
that's kind of how I was taught by mentors. And it was wrong. It was not right.
(35:02):
And too many ministers, too many parents put everyone before their kids.
And so you want to get mad when your kids do the wrong things,
but what if we've created that atmosphere for them? Boy.
And just put so much pressure.
And I think when I probably, when I first repented to Kevin,
I don't know, I might be speaking out of turn.
(35:24):
He can correct me if he wants to, but he might've said, okay, well, let's see.
You know, the words sound great, but.
Like he said a while ago, is this for real? Has he really changed?
Is he really going to go the test of time?
And I just want to say, parents, forgive your kids the same way God forgives you.
Love your kids unconditionally the same way you expect God to love you unconditionally.
(35:47):
And listen, as we end, sis, here you go.
All of the Hebrews 11 great warriors of the Hall of Fame of Faith,
if we looked at their a resume, you would have never attended King David's church
if he started one in Kennesaw, Georgia. Isn't that true?
But here's why. All of those people, everything they did was under the law. That's right.
(36:10):
When Hebrews was written, it was now under grace, and not one mistake they ever
did was mentioned in Hebrews 11, only their victories. Only their victories.
Isn't that Isn't that wonderful? And when Jesus looks at us, he sees victory.
He's constantly leading us into triumph. He's constantly leading us into success.
(36:33):
That's what he's doing. Wow. These are such great words. Pastor Kevin.
Really quick. And you notice what the father did with the prodigal son and what
parents need to do with the prodigal children.
Don't bring up the past. Oh boy.
Yeah. I'm going I'm going to high five on that one with you guys.
Yeah. And I'll tell you, I'm a mama bear.
(36:56):
That can happen. It can slip right out of your mouth and go on.
I didn't mean that to come up, but it is easy. You have to put a guard over
your mouth because it's so easy.
That's a very, I love that you said that because we do have to let that go.
Our children are not always looking for our pearls of wisdom. Are they, Pastor Don?
(37:18):
No, no. At least I'm one of them.
Me too, but maybe they're not always. Well, what a joy and an honor,
a great, true honor it has been to have both of you, father and son, on the Pam Raimi Show.
And I know that God is changing so many lives because of your testimony.
(37:44):
Pastor Dawn, could you please tell us again where our listeners can find you?
And we're going to drop this information in the bio section where they can find your Bible school.
And your books and your online messages. As far as if they have any questions
about the school, they can go to rhsom.com. It stands for Rev House School of Ministry.
(38:05):
They can also find all of my books and products on Amazon.
And the one I was telling you about, The Kingdom of the Seed and the Soil,
I forgot to tell you, I've never done this in any other book,
but I actually have a study guide that goes with it. How wonderful.
I've never done that before. And so they can find us there.
They can get all the questions answered, or they can just friend me on Facebook,
(38:25):
and I've got room for some extra friends left.
I'd be happy to let them begin to follow us and see what God's doing in their
life. Oh, that's wonderful.
Well, we're going to get all that information in the bio section.
Pastor Kevin, how can our listeners find you?
Biding Church, every Sunday at 10. If you have a youth and you want to send
them, every Wednesday night at 7 o'clock, we'd love to have them.
(38:45):
It's called Firebrand Youth, right here at Abiding.
And you also have YouTube, pardon me, you also have a Facebook. I do.
And you talk a lot about what you're doing with the youth on the Facebook.
So would you be fine with us dropping that information in the bio section?
And ATL is the Instagram for the youth, and then just Kevin Hughes for myself.
(39:08):
So if you're anywhere in the Woodstock, Georgia area, feel free to come to Firebrand.
And that is Wednesday nights at 7 p.m. Yes, yes.
So, well, that's just great. It has been, again, such a joy to have you both.
Thank you very, very much for being here. For our listeners,
(39:28):
we're so happy that you have taken the time to join us today.
If you would like to pray for us, we would so covet your prayers.
Thank you very much for that.
If you would like to partner with us and donate to our ministry,
you can go to JesusGirlRoar.com.
We're going to drop that information in the bio section.
But most importantly, we want for you to know that Jesus is for you.
(39:53):
He is fighting your battles, and he is absolutely unequivocally crazy in love
with you. Have an awesome day.
Music.
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