Shaun Newman Podcast - #487 - Steve Holmstrom

Episode Date: August 30, 2023

Steve, along with his wife Cara, are the founders of Zinger Oilfield Supplies Ltd, an oilfield rental company serving northern Alberta since 2005. They have five children, and make their home in Drayton Valley, Alberta, Canada. For 20+ years he has enjoyed ministering to believers in local churches and in conference settings throughout Canada and beyond. He goes by the nickname "Oilpatch Pulpit". Let me know what you think Text me 587-217-8500 Substack:https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcast Patreon: www.patreon.com/ShaunNewmanPodcast

This is Matt Osborne. This is Pat King. My name is Martin Armstrong. This is Alex Kraner. This is Frank Oterazano, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Wednesday. Before we get to today's show, let's talk about a few of the episode sponsors.

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Anyways, let's get on that tail of the tape brought to you by Hancock Petroleum for the past 80 years. They've been an industry leader in bulk fuels, lubricants, methanol, and chemicals delivering to your farm, commercial or oil fuel locations. For more information, visit them at Hancock Petroleum.combe. Husband, father, business owner, author, and known as the oil patch pulpit. I'm talking about Steve Holmstrom. So buckle up. Here we go. Well, welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Today, I'm just a little. joined by Steve Holmstrom or the oil patch pulpit. Correct?

Did I get that right? I was about to say oil field and I'm like, you just corrected me on that. Thanks for coming in and doing this. Hey, my pleasure. Thanks for having you. It's, um, uh, I don't know. It's,

you're one of the names that's floated around, um, my periphery now for, I'm not going to sit here and blow smoke. I'm not going to say a year, but certainly months, like months. And finally I'm like, you know, uh,

we both have a common connection and, and Josh, Juan and he's like man you got a you got a and I'm like okay fine it'll happen I'll reach out and we'll see where it can go and you know I wasn't sure you'd respond and everything else because sometimes you get a quick response other times you don't and uh by happen chance here you sit and and uh gonna have a coffee with me and I'm excited for this right on well it's good to be here I I um I met Josh just it was just a couple months ago at the camp and uh and I love this cowboy redneck preacher and it's a funny story actually I met him I was speaking at this camp and I don't want to

give too many details I don't like to draw too much attention to some negatives things but one guy who was invited to speak at this camp he was preaching stuff that wasn't biblical it was just off and I knew that but you know you don't know how many people a lot of people don't know their bibles you know and I'm not going to get up and correct the guy I mean you know he preaches his message I'll preach mine, but I know that's not viable. Well, Josh gets up, I don't have a clue who this guy is. He gets up, takes his kids out of the meeting because he doesn't want them to hear it.

Then he moves right to the front row and starts glaring at this guy. And I mean like the most intimidating glare. And I'm looking at this, who the heck is this redneck cowboy? And I can see he is mad because this guy is preaching stuff that is just not in the word. And I'm, just watching him glare at this guy. And then he starts just making little heckling things like

little stuff, but just enough to let the preacher know this ain't cool. And I'm sitting there laughing thinking, I love him. Whoever this guy is, I have no clue. Afterwards, I get talking to somebody. I'm like, who is that redneck cowboy who's like, glaring down that? That's that cowboy preacher. I'm like, who the guy with man camp? And I'm like, no way. I'd heard about this man camp that was growing like, 250 people. But I didn't know. Well, that's why he came on. We talked about man camp.

Well, I mean, that's how he got put on my radar. Because I mentioned to you that I just came from men's club, right? You do Thursday mornings. And I was looking for different things for men. Yeah. And that's how Joshua got, you know, got thrown my way. There's this crazy cowboy. You got to go listen to them.

All right. Well, let's bring him in. If he's talking about men, you know, stand up and being men. and taking control of their, well, I mean, their life for sure to start with, and then starting to look forward, you know, help their communities and families and everything else. Anyways, sorry to interject, but. Yeah, no, I just thought it was funny.

And then he just, but he was just, he loves Jesus. He loves the word, but he did not love it when this guy started teaching all this other stuff. And I just, I just, we, we chatted afterwards. And then someone said, yeah, he's the guy with the man cap. And so we kind of connected. And then he was telling me some of his story. and then he had mentioned how he was on your podcast and how far that went.

I'm, I'm going to go listen to that. And then I listened to your podcast with him and loved it. And so I'm kind of Googled you and watching this Sean guy. Yeah, well, that's exactly what I am. I'm just a guy who's, you know, sitting here. Just trying to, you know, explore different topics. And certainly that was one that I've said this to him since, you know, I think, I don't know what you'll be, but we're in the 480s right now.

And certainly with all the other episodes we've done, we're well over 500 times I've sat down and had a conversation go out and everything else. And the thing with Josh Allen, it's not the most listened to episode. So there's been episodes that have had more downloads, et cetera. But I've never had an interview ever interacted like. It was almost like every person who listened to it, text me. Really? I'm exaggerating just a smidge.

but just to hammer home the point of, you know, like if I get a thousand people that listen to, for every thousand, sorry, for every thousand people that listen to an episode, I would say, you know, anywhere between three and five texts, let's just say, right? I don't know what that works out to a percentage, but pretty small. And I would say for Josh's, for every hundred, there was probably five to ten texts. Oh, really? And it lasted for like two weeks. And I'm just like, I was just, I'm like, what is going on with my phone right now, right? And it just, it really hit a chord. He had a way of his story and the way he just talked about, you know, his life and finding not only Jesus and the Bible and Christianity, but just in the way he said it and talking about the man camp and what he was trying to do and just some different things. And, I mean, it was, it made you lean into the radio instead of going, oh, yeah, sure, whatever.

And, you know, every once in a while you're going to have something like that. And it was cool to sit in this room. and do it. I was like, this is, this is something. Anyways. I think, too, I think there's something that happens when the freedom, and you're seeing this more and more, you're a freedom fighter. You are

pursuing liberty for the nation and you are putting, you are a voice for freedom. Joshua and I are Jesus followers. And I use the word Jesus followers over Christian because not all Christians are Jesus followers, but he is pursuing

Jesus. He is following Jesus. He is saying, yes to Jesus in a big way. What's happening is these two groups are colliding. And when they do, in fact, it's just a week ago, two weeks ago, I was in my, I have a little prayer cabin out in the woods. I built a little out of logs and I spend my mornings there. I built this beautiful little log cabin in the woods. And this friend of mine who's a gozillionaire showed up.

He's not a Jesus follower yet, but he finds me curious. And so he watches me and he, I don't know, he keeps me close. But we have great conversations. But he comes in and he sits down to the cabin and we were talking for a few and having a coffee. And he says, Steve, he says, what is it with, why is it that all the freedom fighters and all you Jesus people are all showing up in the same places? Like, what is it? You know, and I said, because the Jesus people are more,

at risk of losing their freedoms than any other group in society. And what you're seeing is if you're pursuing freedom and you're fighting for freedom, you will accidentally bump into Jesus all the time because that is what he is fighting for too. And so I think even why you get such a response is because a lot of your listeners aren't necessarily hardcore Jesus people, but a lot of them would be freedom people. And when you hear Jesus, It resonates with a freedom person. The Bible says it was for freedom that Christ has set us free. He's all about freedom.

And so you'll see that. You go to these rallies. And it's like, you know, you got F. Trudeau on half the trucks and you got a Jesus fish on the other. It's like, what the heck is going on? That is what's happening is these two are coming together. And I just find that I actually had a prophetic experience a few years ago. Some people call it a vision.

And I just had this experience. I was sitting in a parking lot in Calgary waiting for my kids. They were in the TELIS Spark Center. And this will happen. I'll be praying or I'll be meditating on the word. And I kind of get sucked into another place and I'll see things. And I had this call it a vision where I saw two giant world pools in an ocean. One was white and one was black.

The white one was bright, bright, bright white in the middle. And as you got further away, it got darker and darker. and the other one was just pitch black in the middle, and as you got further, it got lighter and lighter. And there's millions of people swimming around in the ocean. And people are getting sucked into the white one. Some are getting sucked into the black one, and they just vanish.

And there's lots of people, there's thousands of people right in between them. Well, I watched these two whirlpools start spinning closer and closer and closer and closer together. And nobody really wanted to get sucked into any of them. You know, they just were trying to avoid them. but as they got closer and closer it got harder to stay in the middle and I watched some people who saw the white one were scared and they swam away from it and they got sucked into the darkness these are people who you would never thought thought they would you know cheat on their wives

or would fall into some sort of perversity or would fall into some sort of sin and these people swimming away from this white one they get sucked into darkness other people saw the darkness and they were so horrified by how disgusting it was they swam the other way and they accidentally got sucked into the light. And I see that's what's happening in the world today. That's what's happening in Canada's. You got all of these people, many of them who had no intention on ever being Jesus people, but they see the darkness, they see the wickedness, they see the disgusting, vile stuff that is coming down the pipe, they see what they're teaching, our children in their schools, and they swim away going, hell no, I want nothing to do with that.

And they swim right into Jesus Christ because he is the way, the truth and the light, as Joshua loves to quote. And it is light. We are getting sucked into his bright light. Yeah, it's Robert Malone. Dr. Robert Malone talked about finding the truth. And I was like, how did you figure it out? And he, you know, I'm paraphrasing here, but he talked about backing into a light switch. And then he flipped on the light me, he's like, oh my, how do I get that light off again, you know? And when you talk about, I was just literally talking about this the other day, about Christianity and in general, Jesus Christ, I was just like a year ago, I wouldn't have never been down this road. I don't even, honestly, sometimes I wonder, I'm like, how on earth did I get here? But you talk about,

when you put it that way, it's like, well, I saw, I saw certainly the black hole. I saw the perversity of society and like just the lies upon lies upon lies and the closer you get me and tanner and a date we had the discussion about the truth and I was just saying you know I keep searching for what is the truth and when you do that you get closer and closer to you know or aiming maybe for for by doing the truth you aim for what is perfect and there's only been one thing that's been perfect on this land ever before I think which would be Jesus Christ, right? And you look at that and you go,

absolutely. Okay, well, then you got to pick it up. Because I, you know, and then you start reading, and listeners know this by now, but Steve won't. You know, I'm into Second Corinthians now, finally. Not finally. I don't know.

I was saying I was reading your book or listening to your book, and I'm like, I'm not through it all. The reason is because I'm like, if I get stuck on things, I have to chew on it, you know, and then you listen to it again, or you think on it or, and the Bible right now, which has been really fascinating to me

because I never thought it would be this like it would suck you in, right? Like I read like as a kid, got really fascinated with like Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit and Dune and all these like fictional stories, although they resemble parts of real life. And they were phenomenal.

And I didn't think something like the Bible would have that in it, you know? And then you, and then you start reading it. And I get, well, I was just mad at First Corinthians. I was really mad at it. I was like, I was just like, this, this, this, this, this, this can't go from, you know, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John being like, wow, that was, that was, that was something, that was something, folks, that was something to first Corinthians. And then I got, and then it's almost like, it knew what I was thinking, because at the end of it, I'm reading like the last couple of chapters. I'm like, oh, there it is. Like that, and then I got stuck there. You know, I just got,

stuck reading the same chapter over and over and over again. First Corinthians. Yes, First Corinthians. Yeah. It's just, it just like, I don't know why it bugged me. But when something bugs you, you don't, well, I've learned not to go, well, let's turn the light off and walk away from. It's like, no, you should probably stare at a little longer. I mean, that is COVID in a nutshell, right? It bugged some of us. At least that's my, my journey. It bugged me. So instead of just like turning the lights off, I tried doing that. And then it wouldn't relent, you know? And I can go through the many examples of why it wouldn't stop, but it just wouldn't.

So then the only thing to do is, okay, well, let's start asking questions about it. And one by one, you start picking and you start picking or you start pulling on the thread and then it starts to unraveling. Like, huh, Bible to me is no different. Honestly, if something's bugging me in there, instead of just closing it up and being like, well, I guess it'll just bug me for the rest of the time. You know, you start, well, why is that bugging it? You start asking the deeper questions.

and usually, you know, it doesn't take that long, and it's like, oh, all. Anyways, that's my thought process. Yeah, and the more you chew on it, the hunger you get. And the more you read it, the more answers you have. But it's a book, yeah, it pulls you in. And it's the only book. You know, I've heard someone say, you know, it's not just a book you read. It's a book that reads you.

And so it's, you interact with the Word of God. then the Bible says that Jesus is the word. I've heard people say who are not followers of the Bible say those words before. That it reads you. Yes. I find that fascinating. Well, you'll find that it'll flop open at times and it'll be exactly what you're struggling with. It'll be just exactly what you want.

You know, if you ask God to speak to you, more times than not, he will. If you have a Bible and you're willing to use it, he will lead you to the passage of scripture that speaks exactly to what you need in that moment. And it may not be what you want to hear, but it leads to life. Well, tell me, Steve, you got to, where you always like this, where you always, you know, because I think the journey, well, the journey is where the story is. And, you know, certainly being able to master your thoughts or maybe your tongue so that you can get your thoughts. thoughts out and converse is certainly really important for people that are struggling with trying

to make sense of a lot of things. But I'm curious, you know, was Steve always this guy? Or was he somebody else? No, when I was younger, I grew up in a Christian home. In Alberta? Yeah, I grew up in Red Deer. Okay. My actually biological dad passed away when I was nine months old. Suicide. He was He was actually a pastor who had a passion for the Northwest Territories and the Inuit people and he loved the North, but he was in a scudu accident and his head at horrible brain damage was in agony day and night, couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, and he had taken his own life. Nine months old, so I don't know the guy, we're living in like Kugalukuk, as far north as you can go at Inuit territory, like on the north shore of Canada.

Nine months old, dad kills himself. we move to Alberta. My mom remarries my stepdad, and I grew up in Red Deer. I don't remember anything before Red Deer. And so my mom loved Jesus with her whole heart, and she taught me about the Lord from a young age, but it didn't really stick.

And when I was, you know, in my teen years, I kind of just went the way of many and did my own thing. But I was about 19 years old, kind of a long-haired pot-smoking hippie living in killem alberta if you even know where that is i do do you yeah working for my uncle on his farm and uh he forced me to go to this little church and i hated it it was just a tiny little church and all these old ladies just stare at me and they knew i was a sinner and they made me feel like a sinner and i didn't like them and i didn't want to be anything like

them but he made me go because i worked for him you've got to come to church with us on sunday boy And so I had to go every week. And after, I don't know how long it was, there was this preacher. It was this redneck cowboy like a young Joshua Allen, but like an older Joshua Allen. He was this old cowboy redneck with a belt buckle and a cowboy hat. The last guy on earth that would lead a long-haired pot smoking hippie to Jesus. But he started preaching and I could just see the anointing on this guy.

And I could feel the presence of God. And I felt love when he spoke. And he would start, tears would roll down his face. And I knew it wasn't fake. And he wasn't. I watched him and I knew this is a guy who walks with God. Here's a guy who knows God. Here's a guy.

He at the end, he'd say, come to the front, give your life to Jesus. And I'd go, hell no. And I left. The next week, though, I had to go back. He was there for four weeks in a row. And so they had different preachers come through this little church? Yeah, he was an evangelist. That's what they call me.

an evangelist. You're not a pastor. You show up. You blow in, blow up, blow out. You know, sometimes they'll bring you in for a weekend. Sometimes they'll bring in, you know, for a few weeks. This guy came in for four weeks in a row. And he was the guest speaker for four weeks. After two weeks, my heart is just pounding, listening to this guy. And I heard that he was having a prayer meeting on Wednesday nights. And so I actually started going to his prayer meeting just to watch Norm cry, just to feel what was on this guy. So his name was Norm? Norm Bonk.

Yeah. Norm Bonk. What a name. Yeah. And he's like cowboy horse riding, like real, the real thing. Salt of the earth. Yeah, salt of the earth. And I never went to his altar call.

Four weeks in a row he tried to, you know, lure you to the front. He'd always preach Romans 8. Every week, it was Romans 8.1. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Man, I had so much condemnation in my life. I felt awful. I knew I was breaking God's heart. I knew I was hurting people.

I knew I was hurting myself. I didn't feel, I just felt dirty inside. And he's like, there's no kind of, like come to Jesus. You can be free. Anyways, after four weeks of listening to this guy, and I never, ever did go to his altar call. But on the fourth week, I went back to this old farmhouse that I was living in.

My uncle's farm had this old house that my grandpa had grown up in. And I was living in that one. And there was this old, I remember this old, just this old, lazy boy chair I sat in that chair and I said God

I said my life's just a bunch of broken pieces and I'm not really good in anything I don't have nothing to offer you but if you'll give me what's inside that man I will give you these broken pieces and I will live for you for the rest of my life

and that was my prayer and in that moment I didn't you know I didn't hear any angels singing or anything but I just felt a peace come into that room at that moment. And I knew I didn't own myself anymore. I knew that I belonged to the Lord. And next day I went, drove back to Red Deer just to visit some friends.

And I saw one of my old buddies who we used to smoke weed and party together all the time. Greg and bumped into him into the gas station. He's like, Steve, how's it going, man? Let's go out. And I said, brother, I said, you need to know. I just gave my life to Jesus Christ. I don't own myself anymore.

I'm going to serve the Lord now. I don't live like I did. He said, that's awesome. I respect that. Let's celebrate. I said, really? I said, yeah. I got stone that night.

And for me, walking with Jesus, it wasn't like a, it wasn't like a perfect 180. I gave my heart to him. I gave my life to him kind of one inch at a time, you know. But over the next number of years, you know, I began to just read his word.

I began to draw close to him. I just made time for him. make time for God in my life. And he started just taking me one inch at a time. And, you know, I kind of, like Josh Allen's story, you know, I got on fire for a little while. But then I got religious. And when I got religious, I got cold. And it was no longer about Jesus and following Jesus and pursuing Jesus and hearing his voice and being in his word.

It was more about church and sermons. and being a part of a Christian culture. And I kind of, I got cold. And I actually became a traveling preacher, like Norm Bonk, traveled, preached, and gone into full-time ministry, went to Africa, preached in every little hick town. Lived in a VW hippie van for about a year, preaching in every little hick town you never heard of. And I love God, but, you know, there was something missing, and people enjoyed me. my sermons, they liked listening to me, but I wasn't surrendered. I wasn't really surrendered.

I was more of a preacher than a friend of God's. And it was 2005, my ministry kind of all crumbled and fell apart. That's another, that's a long story. I don't know how much time you have. We got time. Honestly, I want to hear the story. Yeah. Well, I was pastor, well, I wasn't pastoring. I was evangelist in Calgary in this one church in Calgary and I was on staff and I was the evangelist. You know, the Bible talks about five different main ministries. It's Apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastors, and teachers, okay? So I'm an evangelist. I don't pastor a church. I come in. I am I'm an evangelist. Anyways, but this church, they loved me and we had a good connection. And so I came in and I preached there about once a month and there was this other pet there's other minister who was a

prophet and uh have you ever had a prophet on your show you're speaking greek to me right now they're fun we'll we can connect you with one sometime but this prophet uh he was on he he would he would come about once a month as well and a prophet these guys really hear god like ridiculously well like this guy would sit across from you and say Sean I can see when you were about years old your dad used to beat you behind a wood shit with a yellow stick is that true yes that's true well you know what god wants to heal your heart right now can i pray for can you forgive your dad and they minister to you and they speak to you i remember this guy he i mean he knew stuff like crazy i remember just ridiculous details of people's life because he just hears god really well he'd have

some prophets see-through vision some people hear like audibly some people many of them have dreams so i know a prophet who would have dreams and then the next day they'll tell you you exactly what you did yesterday or some prophets will tell you everything that you dreamed last night. Well, anyways, this guy was profound. He was a profound, amazing, he had a very powerful prophetic gift. And anyways, and in the early days, him and I were really close. He was kind of like a spiritual father to me and I traveled with him a little bit. But as the years went by, he started to just, you could just see his heart was just getting darker and darker. And I think maybe he was just getting arrogant. and proud because when you can tell people those kinds of details, people just worship the ground

you walk on. I mean, people would just fall over to try to just have a conversation with this guy. Anyways, I could tell he was going off. And I've noticed that just little things that gave me an impression that he was even just sexually, just not safe anymore, just the way he would minister to women and the way he would even pray for them, the way he would hold them when he prayed for them and different things. And I was getting alarms going off, like, this guy's going to hurt some people. And so I kind of had a head to head with the pastor of the church because the pastor leads the church and then the evangelist and the prophets and we just kind of come and help out, you know. But I told this pastor, I said, you need to deal with this guy. And I got right in

the pastor's face like, you need to get him on a short leash quick as bad stuff's going to happen. The pastor didn't appreciate it. I was a young kid 24 years old and I'm bossing him around. And he's like, I don't know what you're talking about. This guy's anointed and he hears God. And I said, yeah, he may hear God, but I'm telling you something. Women are going to get hurt, and he's going to wreck marriages, and he's going to clean you out financially. And I got right in the, and I was, you know, to be honest, I was just young, and I was sure I was right,

and I was in his face, and I got arrogant, and I told this pastor, if you don't do this, bad stuff's going to happen, and I point my finger to his face, and you're going to be responsible. Anyways, this pastor, long story short, he didn't like being told what to do by a young kid, cocky evangelist, and so he fired me, And he fired me. And then he told everybody in the church,

you know, Steve's not in a good place right now. You know, let's just give him some space. And so I lost all my friends in the day. And then all the churches that I often preached in, they all heard Steve Homestrums trying to stone the prophets. And anyways, my ministry crumbled in one day. All of a sudden I went from being this popular young, 24-year-old evangelist who traveled all over,

and I instantly had no ministry. And so I'm sitting at home, bored sick in my garage, chain smoking, you know, and just praying, God, please open a door, like, what am I going to do? And we just went broke. And, you know, I mean, evangelists don't make much money as it is. And, you know, you go and preach in a church, and they give you $300 or $500 or whatever.

But my ministry just died. And so, anyways, long story. short, I moved to Drayton Valley, Alberta, to get a job working for a rig jacker. It was the darkest moment of my life. I felt like I had totally failed in life because I had, all I wanted to do was inspire people to love Jesus well. And now my ministry was over and nobody wanted me to preach. And now I'm living in Drayton Valley.

Got working for this rig jacker, Cam Johnson, who I called him up. someone told me that he liked me and he owned a company and I'm like I have no skills no abilities don't have a clue what I'm going to do in in ministry or in life because I have no trade no nothing I call this guy up and I said hi my name is Steve Holmesstrom Steve Holmesstrom man I love you I listen to your preaching CDs in my truck and I said would you hire me I have no clue how to do anything he says absolutely yeah you come work for me he had owned a rig jacking company I said I've never even been in the oil field I don't even know what a rig looks like He said, don't worry, I'll teach you everything.

So I moved to Drayton Valley to go work for this guy. And he later on actually sold his company and went to the Yukon. Do you ever watch Yukon Gold? Sure. Cam's camp? That's who it was. He was. Cam Johnson, Cam Johnson from Cam's camp.

He later became a gold miner. We're still good buddies to this day. He actually took a week off here about a month ago, came down. He doesn't usually come home during gold mining season, but he came home for a week and came to visit me, He came out to my cabin and hung out. But we're good buddies. But he hired me.

And he took me out to the oil patch and told me how. And I started an oil field rental company at the same time because somebody had told me, I was talking to one guy and I said, I wish there was a business or something I could start, but I don't know how to do anything. And this guy said, you should start a light tower rental company.

Any idiot can set up a light tower. I said, what's a light tower? True story, Sean. I didn't even know what a light tower was. And, but I googled it and I'm like, yeah, I could set up a light tower. So when he hired me, I said, Cam, I said, I'm going to move to Drayton Valley. I'll come work for you. But I'm going to start a light tower rental company on the side.

And when I'm making enough money on my own, I'll quit working for you and I'll run my own rental company. And he said, sounds good. I'll make sure that the mortgage is paid until then. And so that's what I did. I moved to Drayton Valley, started Zinger Rentals. We're now the largest provider of light towers in the whole region. and it's just a fantastic oil-filled rental company. We now have generators, office trailers,

combo units, portable toilets, make millions and millions of dollars every year running this rental company. And ironically, this rental company now finances the ministry and we can travel and preach the gospel all over the world and I don't really care if the honorarium sucks because I don't need the money. So God has used this oil-filled rental company.

company to finance our ministry in the most beautiful way. And so anyways, it turned out to be a blessing. And you look back and you go, oh, thank God. This was brilliant. But at the time, it was just the darkest moment of my life. I felt like I lost my ministry. Nobody wants to listen to me. I moved to Drayton Valley.

I was broke for many, many years. And I just started drinking like a fish. And when I got to Drayton, I was drunk every day. In fact, you read my book or listened to it. first chapter is just me drunk in the garage for five years. That's from 2005 to 2010. I was drunk every single day and just in a really dark place. And I remember after being in Drayton for one year, that pastor who fired me sent me an email. And he said, Steve, I just, I need to repent. I want to say sorry. He said, everything you said would happen happened. He said, this prophet,

he ended up having sex with a bunch of the women in the church and did damage to a lot of a lot of marriages he molested two young girls underage he cleaned us out financially he ended up going to prison for the for the underage stuff

and uh and it yeah it was a sad sad story for him and I was I gotta ask then you know because this guy can talk to God right that's what you're saying can talk to God, he can hear God.

Why would God talk to a guy who gets that twisted? Or read the Bible. Most of God's friends were broken. You know, look at David. He was a man after God's own heart, and yet he was standing there on the balcony, he looked down and saw some beautiful woman in showering. He said, bring me that girl.

Well, she's married. Well, just put his, her husband's at war, right? Yeah, put him in the front line. Where are the battles the thickest? They did. Guy gets killed. He's sleeping with his wife. He made mistakes.

We all make mistakes. You know what? God loves everybody. God has a plan for everyone. God has a purpose for everyone. Most people don't say yes to God. Or some people say yes to God in a season. And then later on, they get sucked into the things of this world.

You know, and that's what happened to this guy. You know what? I rocked with him in the early days. He had a beautiful, beautiful heart. I remember traveling with him. I remember sitting in hotel rooms with him. I can remember this prophet just in his pajamas with tears streaming down his face. Just praying quietly, Lord, I know you're touching people today.

I know you're ministering all over the world. Please don't pass me by. Please, he was so humble. Please don't pass me by. I need you so bad. He was so desperate. He was like a little boy, just desperate for Jesus. And then the Lord would show up and speak through him and speak to him and give him visions and prophetic words.

He prayed, miracles would happen. I mean, he was truly loved the Lord. But what happens is, a lot of times, is when you get a measure of success in this world, or when you get riches, riches come in many forms, you know, it can be money, it can be influence, it can be favor, it can be, you know, millions of people listening to your podcast. And somehow our hearts get elevated. and when we lose humility, we lose God.

The Bible says, God gives grace to the humble, but he opposes the proud. You say, even if you're a Christian, absolutely. Even if you love Jesus? Yes, even if you're a preacher, even if you're a prophet, absolutely. And so pride comes in. And most of the greatest, some of the greatest ministers in the world, some of my heroes of the faith had horrible endings because they allowed pride to destroy them. And so I don't doubt that this guy heard God.

Don't doubt that God still loves him, you know, and cares about him. And if he was to repent and turn to the Lord and give him his whole heart again, I don't think he'd ever have the same influence because people aren't so quick to forgive as God. And people aren't going to, people remember when you molested a young girl. But God, God will forgive him and God will love him and God will find a place for him. It might be in some broken out of the way place, but God will find a place for him. to be used by him. But, you know, we're all, we all, the Bible says,

for all have sin and fall short of the glory of God. Most Christians make that verse about heaven and hell. They make it like, for all have sin and therefore you're going to go to hell. Most scriptures are not about heaven and hell. That's one of the biggest things I talk about in my book is that heaven and hell are not the main issue of the Bible. Most of the passages that we read are not talking about heaven or hell. They're talking about living a kingdom life. They're talking about experiencing God in this life and being everything that God wants you to be in this life.

But when we sin, we don't fall short of heaven per se. We fall short of the glory of God. So this prophetic ministry and the glory that surrounds it, he fell short of glory. And so, you know, each one of us, we have to, we have to, really walk I have to walk real carefully before the Lord because I know I love Jesus who all my heart right now but I know I could be that same guy I could absolutely fall and if I just don't walk with Jesus for a month if I just stop reading his precious holy written word if I stop feeding myself on the word of God if I stop making time for him each day in my

little prayer cabin I just start to get as dull as most of the other Christians I see out there And a lot of the Christians, this is the challenge with the church today. And people criticize the church. But Jesus loves the church. But the church is, for the most part, it's dull. The church is not burning. Most Christians, 70% of Christian men are just absolutely addicted to porn, battling with all the same stuff as every other guy out there.

Where's the victorious life that Jesus promised us? It isn't just for those who went to church one time, prayed a prayer, maybe he got baptized. The victorious life is for those who walk with him every single day. Jesus said in John, he says, you are my friends if you do what I command you. Some versions leave the last word, you. They just say, you are my friends if I command do what I, you are my friend if I do what I command.

And then people think, well, what are the commands of Jesus? And then they start making notes and they come up with like a hundred commands. of Jesus. That's not what he meant. What he said was, Sean, you are my friend. If you do what I command you, I'm going to speak to you. I'm going to ask you of things. I'm going to pull on your spirit. And if you're sensitive to me and you obey me, well, we walk together as friends. If you want to ignore me, well, you're a believer. If you believe in the Lord Jesus, you probably still get to heaven when you die. That's all you get. People make heaven this hard place to get to. The Bible says, All have sinned, sorry, says for the, for the, this most quoted verse in all scripture

and I'm stumbling over it. For God so love the world, John 316, for God so love the world, he gave his only son. Whoever believes in him. That's pretty easy. Whoever believes in him will not perish, but will have eternal life. How do you get eternal life? Believe in Jesus. Those who put their trust in him and make him Lord.

those who believe in him go to heaven. However, there's way more to Jesus than just a ticket to heaven. He wants you to learn how to hear his voice. He wants to be your friend in this life. He wants you to experience the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is not a place you go after you die. The kingdom of God is the realm of God's glory, his rule on earth. And if you want to engage with the kingdom of God,

if you want to experience him and have a little heaven on earth, well, it's more than just believing in Jesus. You've got to follow Jesus. You've got to say yes to Jesus. You've got to learn to hear his voice. You've got to follow that spirit who's speaking to you. And that's the kingdom life.

And that's what we're here for. Otherwise, I mean, all you need is an evangelist and an assassin, you know. Pray this prayer, give your life to Jesus. Shoot you in the head and you'd be an heaven. heaven. Why do we stay? Because there's more than just a ticket to heaven. I want to know him. Hallelujah. I want to know him in this life. I want to experience his presence. I want to hear his voice. I want to pray for the sick and actually see them healed. I want to pray for I want to see God build a successful family around me. I want to have an amazing marriage. I want to build a business

that is kissed by heaven. you know I want to you know if I was you I want to be the most listened to podcast in the world and I want to absolutely in rewire the brains of millions and millions of confused Canadians who don't understand truth you know I want to be successful I want to be kingdom kissed and so so the kingdom of God and saying yes to God and why talking with Jesus, I took the longest answer to the question you could ever answer. I took the longest answer to your question ever, but all sorts of people sin, and we all fall, and we all make mistakes. God uses all sorts of people who later screw up and flush

their, oh man, some of my favorite preachers, honestly, some of my favorite men of God who had the most amazing gifts totally morally failed at the end. Sometimes in their own, in their age like 70s, eight 80s and it's like oh God dude why why couldn't you just hang on to the end you know we all have to just guard our hearts you got to be well it's probably a good lesson to hear you know one of the things I go back to Alexander Solzhenitsyn with the the Guley Agar Capellago talking about Soviet Russia and he used to say you know speaking to the government that nobody's Like nobody plays out things over years.

It's everything so fast, you know? I'm just, you know, a younger kid, I guess. And certainly just a new father at that time. And then within the first 50 pages, I think it is. It might even be the first 25 pages of Goodleg Archipelago. He talks about the big game of solitaire and how certain moves take just time. And they happen over time.

And you're like, I've got to rewire my entire brain because certain things happen over time. And the reason I bring it up is you're talking about some of, what's bugging me as I'm like, well, why would, you know, why would a prophet get to talk to God? And God knows that in the future. I mean, God knows where he's going. So he knows he's going to do it. I assume, right?

Like, 100%. So then you go, so why would he do that? But in fairness, if, but if I play that thought process out, it's like, so if God only talk to people who were perfect, then he would talk to no one, right? I think. I think that would probably make sense, right? So it's interesting, though, because if I'm sitting here,

I'm just speaking in my mind and sitting here thinking through my thoughts, I go, you know, it's great to have the last year been when it's been, and certainly as I continue to have my journey with everything, but don't kid yourself, Sean, talking to myself now. The years could get stagnant. and in stagnation things will happen that you will not want to happen and you have to uh you know

um i don't know is it train your mind work your mind continue to uh um be consistent in and and you know having that journey because if you don't like you just pointed out with a whole bunch of people you fall it can come at any age at any time at any stage you're you're like you know you're in your 80s and you're still messing up it's like well why you you know like I mean um and everybody thinks they know what they would do with riches and fame and all that I'm I'm I know you know it's like I don't I don't know you know all Oliver Anthony is the new musician I don't know if you've seen his rich men North Richmond oh I watched that video yesterday okay well he loved it he's blowing up you know like I like he's been fascinating

to me because A, he sings with such heart. Like, you can hear his music. Like, the words just match who he is. And he went from, you know, like, making a YouTube video to, like, you know, people are saying, you got to put it on Spotify. And he has a video going, guys, I don't even have Spotify account. And so now he's got Spotify and I watched it go from when I first started listening to it. You know, it was like under 100,000 downloads or 100,000 listens of the song to now, like,

one of his songs has like 15 million. And it's just only going to go ballistic from there. And then I just read the story. story this week about him turning down $8 million. I can't remember how many trailers it was, a private jet, you know, we'll sell you out stadiums and he said, I don't want it. This is when I got into music. He was depressed. He was an alcoholic and he found God along the way. And I'm watching that and I'm like, you will be rich and famous because you said that. To me, they were trying to buy you off. Absolutely. And whether they realize it or not, that's what they

were trying to do. Of course. And he's like, no, that's not what I want. I'm like, I hope you stay that firm. And I hope, you know, it can be a lesson for people in the world that you can, because we don't have examples that. Everybody gets bought off. Yeah. You know, everybody chases at some point, you got to get paid, you got to put, you know, and it feels, I would say, you know, in just the most human sense, it feels good to be rewarded for your work. In saying that, when you're talking about the system and the way the system has been and trying to fight it, jumping at the first opportunity to have $8 million in solid stadiums and everything else and be controlled.

I mean, I'm fascinated. He's quickly becoming a guy just like, wow, that's cool. Like that, that to me is cool. And if we could have that become cool, I think we're in a pretty good stage in the world. You know? Well, I mean, he passed a big test there, a big test because it's hard for the rich. You know, this is what Jesus said. This is a statement that I think has been most very misunderstood by a lot of people.

Jesus said, how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for rich man to enter the kingdom of God. I remember a rich man one time who I was having breakfast with and this guy who's kind of mentored me a bit in business, but doesn't know the Lord. He said to me one time, this is years ago. This is before, actually, this is before I wrote my book on the kingdom of God

because I didn't really understand what the kingdom was. And this was kind of a moment for me that kind of transformed my mind on the kingdom of God. But this wealthy guy sitting across from me over breakfast, and we usually just talked about business. But this day we got talking about Jesus. And he was saying, you know, the thing I don't understand about Christianity is Steve. He says, you guys all interpret the Bible differently. He says, you know, one guy interprets a verse this way, another guy interprets it that way.

You know, what do I got to understand? Greek and Hebrew? I don't even want to, I don't even want to start. It just seems like too much work to read that book. And he said, I even heard, and this is a guy who's probably worth well over $100 million, you know. He said, I even heard there's a verse in there somewhere that says, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. The only verse he could quote, John.

And he says, what the heck is that supposed to me? And I said, well, you know, and at that time, I didn't even really know. But I just, you know, preachers feel like they have to have an answer. So, you know, I said, well, you know, it's true, man. You need to know when you stand before God. And I stand before God one day as business people. I said, we can't be just hoping that our good deeds outweigh our bad deeds. I said, it's not going to be easy for us to get into heaven.

and even as I was saying that sentence, I could feel the Holy Spirit shouting on the inside of me, bad, bad, bad interpretation, Stephen, bad. And I went home that night and I was like, Lord, what was that? I know you were talking to me. You know, when I say talking, I don't mean audibly. I hear God loud on the inside, but there's nothing going through my ears.

I said, what was that? What was that? And the Holy Spirit spoke to me and he said, Steve, you know the kingdom of God is on earth. Why do you always make it about heaven and hell? I do. You know, Jesus said the kingdom of God is here. It's near.

It's in your midst. It's all around you. That's what the message he preached. That's what John the Baptist preached. That's what Jesus taught his disciples to preach. The kingdom of God is here on earth. And he taught us how to enter in or how to access the kingdom realms. He said, why do you always make it about heaven and hell?

And I thought I'd do that. Every time I read a verse about the kingdom, I always think, well, it's a requirement to get into heaven. So here's this rich guy. And the Bible says it's hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. It doesn't say it's hard for them to get to heaven. It's hard for them to enter the kingdom. Heaven's one thing.

Anyone who believes in Jesus goes to heaven. The kingdom of heaven is a place, a realm on earth. That is very hard for the rich. to enter into. It also says it's very hard for those who don't have a childlike heart. Jesus said, Matthew 18. 3, he said, unless you change and become like a child, you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven. Is they saying that everyone who doesn't have a childlike heart is going to hell when they die? No, he's not condemning anyone to hell. He's not saying rich people to go to hell or he's saying you want to enter the kingdom, pay attention. Actually, in my book, I was,

went through all the passages that talk about who is disqualified from the kingdom of heaven. And boy, I'll tell you, if this is a list of who's disqualified from heaven, none of us are going to make it. Like nobody's making it. But this is Bible. These are the people that the Bible says will never enter the kingdom. This is coming from a couple of passages. But it says, the unchildlike, slanders, the selfish, those who call us discord or disharmony,

Man, that's like, that's pretty much. That's half my church too. That's human nature. You know, foolish talkers, coarse jokers. You ever tell dirty joke? Greedy, greedy, envious. Those who practice witchcraft, those who hate, those who rage, the immoral, the obscene, the sexually immoral, the impure drunkards, those who do not do the father's will,

thieves, swindlers, wrongdoers, idolaters, adulterers, adulters, men who have sex with men, those who engage in orgies, and those who have not been through many hardships. But, I mean, the point is, heaven is very easy. Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved. The kingdom requires walking with Jesus and living a very surrendered life. That's not to say nobody can do this, but the only way you can do this is not by trying to follow a list of rules.

okay I'm going to really try not to have orgies. Okay, I'm going to really try not to slander. I'm going to, no, no, no. You're not going to do it by following the rules. You've got to follow the Holy Spirit. And you have an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit. He'll keep you out of the orgies and he'll keep you from being a slanderer. He'll keep you from doing everything on that list.

You talk about coarse jokes and everything else. This probably isn't a course joke, but it's funny. He's mentioning orgies, folks. And I've always been told to have a voice for, or a face for radio. Like, most of us got faces that aren't involved in orgies, you know? It's just like... It's never been a real problem for me. Orgies have, it's never been a real big sin for me.

A real problem for me. Well, I don't know. I'm going to say most of humanity. But anyways, I'm teasing. But the greedy, you know, I mean, slanders, I mean, gossips. No, well, actually, you know, like, when you talk about speaking, like, you know, I don't know. The word that comes to mind is discernment. I don't know if that's the right one, but I've been like really pulled. I was really balked down with Corinthians. It was really bugging me.

And I just said this at the start. Anything specifically that I'd like to know what you. Just that there was such meat. Like when, you know, Matthew's, I think Matthew's great. I think Mark's great. I think Luke's great. And then I hit John. And John was like, like, I could have read that thing for the rest of time kind of thing. It was just like the way it was really. written everything about it just really aligned with how my brain worked. I actually wonder, I assume, and I have no idea, I have no idea, maybe you can tell me if this is wrong or put bullet holes in it, whatever, it doesn't matter, but I assume the reason why there's four books is there's going to be a whole bunch of different people that Matthew was

the way they needed it, or Mark or Luke, and then John, you know, and I just, I read John and I'm just like, oh, wow, oh, man, yeah, okay, and I couldn't put it down. You know, when, every, Everybody's had a good book, whatever it is, whatever topic it is, where you're just like, I can't put this, like I should go to bed, but man, I just want one more chapter, one more chapter.

And the way John's written was, was that for me. It was just like, wow. So I get the first Corinthians. And, yeah, I just, I was missing, like, Jesus being in it. Right. Like, I know, and everyone's,

well, he is in there. I'm like, well, yeah, I get it. But he's not alive anymore. more. This is people now doing out his bidding, his work, I don't know how to say it properly and this is you know, it's just, I'm like like, where is it?

And then I, you know, I can't, you know, I get different people and they can just recall it like, just like boom and they got it. I don't have that yet or maybe ever, who knows. But I get towards the end of it and I want to say it's 1st Corinthians 15. I started reading that and I was like, oh, there it is. Okay, fair enough. And so, like, I don't know what it is about that. Just that in the first four, he's alive well, speaking his parables, speaking to the people.

It's very like, here it is. There's no, you know, certainly it's people's accounts of what he said, you know. But it's about as close as you're going to get. And there it is. Well, the reason you love John so much is because John was the Lord's closest friend. He really was. He was his very best friend in this world. And as far as in the natural, in the flesh, nobody was closer.

He was the guy who literally put his head on his chest. They'd be sitting together. They were like so close. He was probably more like a spiritual, he didn't call him as his father. You know, God was father. But he probably was like a spiritual father. You know, I have spiritual father, spiritual mom. Some people have come into that understanding.

Paul, they talked about spiritual fathers and spiritual mothers. I think John had a real heart of sonship. And he really positioned himself as a son. And you'll find John is so different than Matthew Mark and Luke because he was such an intimately close friend of the Lord's. Even when you look at Matthew Mark and Luke, you'll see how do they end their books is Jesus floating off into the clouds, which is pretty amazing. If you saw Jesus float into the air, you're probably going to mention that in your story. I would agree. John doesn't even mention that.

That's not the that's not his favorite story. He ends by telling the story about the last time he had breakfast with Jesus. Like only a close, intimately close friend would, why, why is that the, what you want to leave us with? Then he tells the story about Jesus on the shore and they show up and he's cooking fish for them. And it's just, there's such an intimately close thing between John and Jesus. And you're reading the book of a friend. And so it's very special. It's very unique that way.

I'll often tell people if they don't know where to start in the Bible. I'm like, don't start in Genesis. Start in John. Read John. You will love John. He will give you a picture of Jesus in the flesh as a man, but as a man to love. You know? And then later, when you read, you'll probably really enjoy first, second, third John, and Revelation.

Because now John, in fact, the book of Revelation, also written by John, but now he's seeing Jesus. he's out he got so john wrote revelations yes what else did john right first second third john and revelation the end of the book ends with first second third john which is only a couple pages you can read all three of them in in in an hour and uh and then the book of revelations but the book of revelations john john's the only one who wasn't martyred every one of his disciples was killed i think every single one except john john was left on an island did die out on the island of Patmos. And out on the island, he had these glory encounters and he saw these visions, which people

for thousands of years have been trying to interpret, and many people interpret them different. But the book of revelation is the revelation of Jesus Christ. But now John isn't seeing Jesus as his BFF anymore. He falls, when he sees him glorified as God, he doesn't like jump up in his life. lap and they give him a high five like the old days he falls down like a dead man in front of him terrified you know like he when he sees jesus for who he really is it's like oh you are god you know like i mean you said you were god but now i see you are god you know and uh and so i mean revelations is different you're seeing john seeing his friend with a whole new set of lenses

well that um i don't know i i guess the only word that comes is it excites me because at the the day John you already heard how much I enjoyed John I didn't realize that's who you know this is how I guess I had no idea I didn't folks I didn't know that he wrote revelation when you get into revelation you will see like it's just visions and it's all sorts of imagery and pictures and you you don't know what is this and what is that but just allow yourself to get into John's head and wonder along with him what does that mean what are you seeing and you read the book of revelations You won't always know what you're, you won't always know exactly how to interpret it, but you will notice there'll be certain parts where you something inside you will say,

oh my God, we're living in this time right now, you know, like we are living, we are very likely living in the last days. And he was seeing visions of some of it was the last days, some of it throughout different parts of history. I mean, some of the stuff that's coming down the pipe right now. I mean, how could it not be last days type thing when you talk about people getting all of this, you know, all of this, you know, chips and all your identity being in a computer and pretty soon it's hard to eat or purchase or buy anything. I mean, I was experiencing that

at COVID, man, I was, with all of the freedom fighters who wouldn't get vaccinated. And, man, alive, it was like, we were second class citizens. Like, try to just go buy some groceries became work. You know, I mean, what's it going to be like when the 20th wave where things are only going to get crazier and crazier? Read the book of Revelation. You'll say, oh, my God, gosh, it's all in here. This happens. This is like, this is like probably 2026, 2027. Like, we're so close to getting to some weird days. Well, John saw so much of this stuff in visions on this island. And he wrote it all down and people have spent the last few thousand years trying to interpret it. And I think, honestly, I kind of, I think a lot of it will, we'll figure it out.

You know, hindsight's 2020. I don't look to the future and tell people, this is. is what's going to happen. But you get through 2022 and you go, oh my gosh, that was in the book. I know I read that part, you know, and you kind of see it later, you know. What a world we're living in. You know, I'm building an arc out in the woods. I haven't told you about that yet. But we were, when I was preaching churches during COVID, like they would literally get a fine. I go preach at some church because we weren't allowed to meet, but I got, um, uh, James Coates, Pastor James Coates, and Pastor. Oh, you had him on?

No, they're coming on in a week's time. Oh, nice. I feel like I did everybody, well, not a disservice. I think everyone thinks, I believe you're your own toughest critic. I'm just, you know, I'm like, why didn't I ever interview a pastor in the middle while they were getting arrested and everything else? So I feel like I'm trying to make up for lost time. I'm like, well, I'm going to go get them both on them.

And let's hear their story. James Coates and who else? Tim Stevens. Tim Steven. Where's he from again? There's one from Calgary and then the one from Emmington. All right on.

Yeah, I remember Coates. Yeah, he really took a stand and you know who else really took a stand? It was Rodney Fortin. Rodney Fortin. Yeah, Church in the Vine in Edmonton. You'd like him.

You'd like Rodney and his wife. Tracy, she was bold. The cops and the they would come to their door every Sunday and she would stand at the door. It was her job. She'd say, nope, you're not allowed to come in.

You know, and she'd start quoting the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. And, yeah, they got some massive fines. Like, I don't know if they paid like, I think it was like $80,000 or $100,000 in fines or whatever, but they wouldn't, they wouldn't bow to nothing. And they didn't get tossed in prison like coats. But, I mean, they didn't bow.

at all. And I remember preaching in their church during COVID, and it was like packed wall to wall. People were just on fire, worshiping Jesus. And it was fun because it felt like this could be the last time we ever worship. It just felt like, you know, when you have to break the law to worship Jesus Christ, boy, do you ever worship loud? Do you ever worship heart? You, I mean, people who don't even dance would dance. You know, it's like, here I am risking, you know, you You know, you could walk out the door and someone gives you a fine or this or that. But, no, they took a real stand, Rodney Fortin there at Church in the Vine. And then, and I remember going to preach for, I don't know, you ever hear of Art Lucier?

Yeah. In the Battle for Canada? Yeah. I've got his number of my phone and I've been meaning to get him on as well. So I'm, yeah. Good buddy of mine. We're actually doing some meetings this weekend in... He's in Saskatoon.

The Faithfire Freedom stuff. We're going there. Did he flyers? Do you know if he's flying in or did he drive? He's driving with a massive bus. He's got this huge bus and he brings everybody. I hook you up tonight. We're going there tonight.

I'm hosting. I'm kind of the host and then we got like Laurel and Tyler Thompson. You ever heard her on? Well, I've been trying to get her on. She's a fighter, that girl. Well, maybe I haven't told this story. In Ottawa, here's Sean, and I go there. And certainly, folks, it's the most peaceful demonstration I've ever seen, right?

Like, I can't even explain it. I think everybody's heard that story. The most confusing thing to me is, strange things are going on all the time. Like, I mean just like people acting strange, people saying strange things. I'm going, you know, I'm just, I don't know if this is factually correct, but in my mind, there's three types of people that went to Ottawa. There's the believer, meaning there's different, you can associate that in a lot of different ways. There's the non-believer, there is no God, and I don't care and screw him and whatever else. And then there's the guy caught in the middle going, what the hell is going on?

And I was the guy going, like, what is going on? And there was a bunch of us. Don't get me wrong. We talked about it. We're like, anyone going to, like, we're seeing all the same thing, right?

Anyways, it's like day three maybe there, Steve. And we're in the lobby of the hotel. And one of the ladies goes, we need to pray. And for the first time of my life, I'm like,

we're probably right. I don't know, maybe. And who's in that prayer circle? Laurelind. Laurelian. I don't know. I've just loved to talk to report that story because I don't know what I looked like at the time. I'm sure I, you know, all of us at that point had been going relatively hard. And, you know, it was lots of emotion and energy and had just driven across a, not a province, a country in the worst possible weather and all the tears flowing from seeing all the different people and everything else.

And the media not reporting it. And Trudeau saying he's got COVID for the 17th time and he's not going to come. Anyways. And then you're in this prayer circle, which I've never done before, which was extremely. extremely like at the time awkward but I'm like but I don't know what the heck is going on like I literally don't like the strange things are happening anyways I look over and Laura Lynn's in it my mic and I had heard a little bit about her before that obviously being in this independent media realm there's a lot of people that I certainly know what they're doing and I've seen videos past long but she's never been on the show I've been trying to get her on the show to no avail but once again folks I want to put this out there that it's like

Like, how hard is Sean tried? Well, I haven't thrown everything at her, but I'm starting to. And I'm sure that it will happen. When it happens, it'll be the right time and everything else. So it does not surprise me that she's there. It does not surprise me that Art Lucier, who I had no idea who was probably two weeks ago, got thrown at me and said, you should interview this guy. You'd like him. I'm like, yeah, sure.

Yeah. And I started reading up. Yeah, this sounds perfect. Reached out, got his phone number, never did anything with it because I was busy and then got trapped in Colonna. due to wildfires and all that and cancel flights and everything. So I've been kind of like, you know, side tracked, I would say. So no, it doesn't. Anyways, Art Lucia.

Yeah, okay. That name keeps coming out. I met Art back in 2018 and he started this battle for Canada. The first one was in North Battleford. And we had a thousand people show up for mostly like farmers just to pray for God to heal our nation and God save us and we're in trouble and we need your help and a thousand people showed up in who in the winter who how do you get people to go to north Battleford in the winter and a thousand and what if it isn't a hockey game yeah yeah exactly

a thousand people came to North Battleford for 10 days for 10 days and and we just worship the Lord and called on God and then but we've had Battle for Canada all over Canada We've had it in Eminton, St. John, New Brunswick, Winnipeg. We just were in Quebec, although we got shut down there. Can you believe that? Did you hear about that? I did, but you should tell the listeners. Yeah, we went to, we tried, we had booked this huge stadium, and they found out that we

were pro-life. We weren't even going there to preach pro-life, but they found out, well, everyone, the Catholic church is pro-life. You can't cancel somebody for being pro-life. We were canceled. We had this huge stadium book and all of the papers signed and everything and, well, $100,000 or more into this project. You know, there's advertising. There's all sorts of costs.

You got to pay for the hotels. The hotels didn't let us cancel. I mean, you book all these rooms and different things. And, yeah, the premier and their, what was it? They're one of the top dogs in politics there. They said, no, no, no, no. We're not letting the pro-life group come into Quebec. We have shut that door.

And so they canceled us. And so we ended up hiding. We ended up booking a room downtown in the old city. We got a room that would seat a, I don't know, we got 120 people up there in this upper room. And we just booked it under someone else's name. We just had kind of a quiet little, well, we were loud. but I mean we didn't really make a big scene because we didn't want to.

What a world that we're living in that we have to hide for a prayer meeting to worship Jesus Christ. But this is why the freedom fighters and the Jesus followers. Keep running into each other. Keep running into each other. Because even the people who aren't necessarily haven't met the Lord yet, they know there's something wrong with that. Because you're pro-life. You can't book a stadium anymore.

What's the world coming to when you get to? decide who gets to rent a facility based on what they believe, you know. Where's freedom of religion now? You know, pretty soon the Catholics won't be able to rent the stadium. I mean, it just keeps, it keeps going, right? Like, it just keeps getting a little nuttier. Yeah. You know, and to the point now where I think a lot of people are starting to,

more and more are starting to be like, yeah, this is, this is, you know, it's just, I don't know. you hope it ends but you know uh i think people are just getting used to it i think people are just getting used to being told what to do told what to think you know you ever you got the fighters who fight but i mean even a lot of the fighters only fight half of hard as they used to you know they'll fight you know they'll fight on some issues but they've let some things go and we need to really hold our feet you know we need to take back the ground even the ground we've lost you know i guess I'm a cup half full kind of guy.

But I mean, once again, look at what I keep discovering and everything else, right? I look at it. I keep running into great human beings in this country, specifically, well, specifically this country, because I try, I don't want content to be only Canadians, but at the same time, I think we do a very poor job of bringing Canadians onto different shows and really providing people to understand they have got community members and people in their community that are, that are,

you know, right next door to them, right? We focus so much on the United States. And I, if you're tired, sit on the bench and take a break. Honestly, get your energy back up because this is a marathon. This is not

a sprint. No, it's not. It's not. So, you know, and while you're taking a break, because I had to take a break, I had to I had to like, I don't know, you know, because if your life falls apart, you're good to no one. If you fall apart, you're good to no one. And so if you're tired, take a break. But understand, like, the game will still be going on. Yeah, this isn't over yet.

In Drayton Valley, we started preparing a place that I believe one day is going to be significant for our region. I was actually, this is back a couple years ago, I was driving down the highway. and I felt the Lord speak to my spirit and said, I looked at this beautiful property, quarter section. I felt the Lord say, buy it for me and I'll meet you there. So I found out who owned it, and I bought this corridor right on the edge,

you know, just outside of Drayton Valley, beautiful tree area. Who's going to meet me out in the woods in Drayton Valley? But whatever, I carved a big hole out in the trees. And that's where I built my cabin. I have my little prayer cabin out there and I built a stage and whatnot. And who anyone want to come worship, we're going to have a gathering all weekend long, bring your tent, bring your RV, bring your motor home.

300 people showed up. And we had a wonderful time. The presence of the Lord was powerful. And the next gathering, 700 people showed up. And then the next gathering, 1,700 people, almost 2,000 people showed up. 1,700 registered, but then there was a bunch of people who wouldn't register. It was kind of the end of COVID, and no one wanted to give you their email address. And that's fair.

And so 2,000 people come and worshiping the Lord out in the middle of the woods. And it was just absolutely powerful. And to see people just gathering. And so anyways, what were we've been working towards building a barn, a worship barn, where we can gather people, that won't fit 2,000 people, but maybe 4,500. And just a place where we can gather year round. and when we're just, just be being ready for next time the world goes crazy again. Well, it's nice to have a barn out in the backwoods on private land.

You know, I'd go preach for Art Lucier and Colonna during COVID. We'd get up, preach after I was done, sit down, the cop would walk in, write him a fine for $1,800. And he'd say, okay, thank you. God bless you. You know, and what a world, you know, just this is what we're, and you know what's going to come again. And it'll be hard.

It'll be harder and harder to gather right in the middle of town when you've got 100 cars parked in a parking lot. And so I see God really speaking to people, even farmers. I know farmers who are doing similar things, but people all over the nation, people are creating places that are not, I mean, it's not like you can hide. I mean, they know where you are. But you're out of sight and out of mine. Places where you're kind of out in the woods and you can park a couple hundred cars and you can gather and worship and you don't. have you know you don't have people driving by counting cars you know and so we've been we've been working on something like that and I just actually set up a sawmill and we're cutting all the

timber when the fires went through Drayton Valley my quarters got hit hard and so we had a whole bunch of trees that were burned but the branches burnt off but the trunks were still perfect so we've cut them all and we're now cutting them into like timbers and we're going to build this beautiful worship barn. And, uh, so is that the, maybe I, maybe I misunderstood, but early on, me, the altar. You mentioned, uh, the ark or, or building a boat or build, or at least my brain.

I call it. Yeah, I call it an arc sometimes. It's just, and that's the barn. Yeah, we're building a barn. Yeah. Noah built an arc for dark days. And, uh, he knew there was a rain coming. And, uh, they'd never seen rain. the days of Noah. They'd never seen rain, but the Lord said, build me this boat because something's

coming and you're going to need it. And the Lord spoke to me about building, we call it the altar, but I often just refer to it as an ark, you know, we're building something because there's a wave coming, there's rain coming, it's going to get dark. And we're going to have to, and not just me, but many people, we're going to have to have places where we can gather that are just a little out of sight and out of mind and do you want on the property? Well, you've got to get past the guards and the gates and the dogs.

When you go back to your story, you were talking about five years, 2005, 2010. Yeah. You lived in the bottle. Every day you're drinking. Mm-hmm. You know, you've, you've,

you've gone from being the hippie and given your life over. But now some way you found your way back to, every day you're you're not living a great life a great existence you're you're you're stuck in the bottle how did you what happened to pull you out of that are you sitting here across me and Steve who looks like he's you know put his life together and and you know the story you've been telling how how what it goes on yeah it wasn't like some lightning strike moment you know what it was it was it was five years here's the thing during that five years I was I was I still love the

I was still reading my Bible. I was still listening to, like, sermons. And in my heart, I was saying, God, I'm not going to stay in this place. I don't want to live here. I don't want to be a bad husband. I remember crawling into bed with my, with my, my, my three-year-old son sleeping with him because my wife would cry herself to sleep, you know, because I was so drunk every night. And she didn't want to sleep, you know, if I crawled, she'd let me sleep with her,

but I'd just hear her sobbing on the other side of the bed because she'd hear me stumbling into the bedroom. And so, you know, I'd often sleep with my son and I just felt like a loser, and I'm thinking, this isn't who I am. I knew it wasn't who I was. But I was just so hurt and I was so broken and I was so sad about my ministry being over

and I felt like God was done with me and he'd thrown me out. And I just felt like he must, I mean, the whole world forgot about Steve the preacher. I just figured God must have as well. you know and so i mean you just get into a low place and a lot of people are stuck in a bottle not because they're bad people or just you know it's like and now marijuana is so easy to get a hold of and everything else it's just they're just looking to escape from the pain of this boring world and

and so for me i just thank god i just started to you know as i kept in the word in word is life it gets inside of you and i just it's just solely started to get a hold of me more and more and more and I started to realize this isn't what I want I don't and even even even even even money during that season God was blessing us our company was growing we were making lots of money and but you know money didn't satisfy and alcohol didn't satisfy and I'd buy stuff and I buy anything I want we were to get to the place I remember thinking you know from being a poor preacher who made nothing was always broke and couldn't pay the bills and now I'm this young business guy,

sometimes making $100, $300,000 in a month. I have endless amounts of money. I can do whatever I want, and I hate my life. And I'm depressed. And I just want to be drunk all the time. And my wife hates me and she has no respect for me. And my,

anyways, I just started pouring in more, more Jesus, more of the word. And I started pulling myself out of there. And then I just started giving myself a day off. Okay. I'm not going to drink.

You know, tomorrow I'm not going to drink. And then it kind of got down to weekends. And, and, yeah, over the next couple of years, I just started to just take drinking very seriously. It was actually, it wasn't until 2014, actually. I finally just quit altogether. No, it wasn't even 2014. It was only like three years ago that I, 2014 was a big, big year for me.

That was the year that I got the revelation of the kingdom. That was huge. That was like, before that, it was kind of like, remember how I said it said Jesus? You know, heaven is a free gift. Anyone can, it's so easy. The kingdom, when I understood that the kingdom was only available to those who said yes to Jesus, now I had a reason to say yes to Jesus. Now I had a reason to quit smoking.

Now I had a reason, like, because he'd always been speaking to me about this and speaking to me about that, these little things, but I would resist him. Once I realized, I was missing out on. things in this life, not just missing heaven. I knew I was going to heaven, but I was going to miss out on his destiny for me in this life if I didn't start saying yes to him. That's when I started to say yes to him more and more and more. And so for me, it wasn't like a jumping out of the bucket. It was a slow crawl, but it was a growing revelation that if I don't say yes to God, I'm just going to have a miserable life. I don't care if I go to heaven when I die. I don't want to have a

miserable life, you know? And so, so I just started saying yes to God, but 2014 was the biggest year. 2014, he started asking for bigger stuff and, uh, and I've just been pursuing him real hard since 2014. I'm really, really curious. You know, you mentioned, um, in your drunken stupor, you're quite, um, quite, uh, what's the word I'm looking for here? Like, um, it's evident to you that your wife understands that you're a drunk. You understand that you're a drunk. She's upset about it. You're embarrassed by it.

I assume at some point you must have a conversation in your wife that must have been very interesting because whether it happened when you slowly started out of it or whether it's now been since then. For her to have seen how low you got to see where you're back to now, or where you're at now, that must be an interesting perspective.

for her to have had. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. Have you had that conversation? I remember her atlisten to her one time preaching to, she was speaking to a bunch of women. And I had never heard her say it like this. I hadn't heard her really explain.

I knew she was in a lot of pain during those days, but I mean, you know, she whined and complained and grumbled at times and she kind of made me feel rotten. But eventually she just stopped. And I think the Lord had just spoke to her and said, just leave him alone. Let me deal with him. Just stop trying to change your husband.

And so she just gave up, or gave me to God, is maybe a better way to say it. But I remember her talking, I heard her years later. She spoke to a group of women, and she said, my husband, and I don't think she even knew I was in the back of the room listening. It's the back of a church. I kind of poked my head in, and she starts telling the story about me drunk, wasted, stumbling, barfing here and there and everywhere. And she said, you know, I just couldn't even stand him. I couldn't even look at him. I had no respect for him whatsoever.

I just absolutely hated my husband. I want it out so bad. And she said, and then she just tears start streaming down her face. And she says, now he's my hero. That's what she said. Now I'm bawling in the back. She's like, now I just want to know Jesus like he knows Jesus. Now I just want to be more like him.

Like he is just this amazing guy who says yes to God and he lives a surrendered life. And so, yeah, I know it was it was a big. It was a horrible, horrible season for her, you know, to have to... I was a very selfish, self-centered person. But as so many young guys are. Oh, yeah. You know, and you get a little bit of success as a preacher. You know, a couple people patch you on the back and tell you, you know,

that was the best sermon I ever heard, you know, and you start to think you're somebody while you're as mean as a snake to your wife and you've got no time for your kids. And, you know, and, you know, but you think you're somebody. and God is so amazing, you know, and that he's willing, he doesn't throw you out. If I was God, I would have thrown Stephen Holmstrom in the garbage for sure, 2005, 2006. I would say, I don't use people like you. I don't use people like you.

You're selfish, self-centered, you're mean, you have no self-control. I'll find somebody else. But God doesn't. He's a father. And you've asked him to be a father. You've asked him to come into your life. And he says, all right. Do you ask for it, boy?

But I'm not afraid to spank you. And I will. And he will crush you. Not because he's mean, because he loves you. And he doesn't want you to be a dink. You know, he wants you to be beautiful. He wants you to be like Jesus. And so he crushes us.

And he used all sorts of circumstances to really crush me. And, you know, and he still is. He's still crushing me. There's still areas of my life where I'm, I'm really trying to say yes to him. You know, he still asks for more. And the thing about Jesus is the closer you get to him, the more he asks for. You know, the Bible says, Jesus says to John in the book of Revelation.

He's having a conversation. Now, this is the new Jesus, the glorified Jesus that you haven't read about yet. But John's having a conversation with Jesus in Revelation 3, verse 19, I believe. And he says, those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. Think about that. Jesus is talking to John. He says, those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. Now, John might have said, but Jesus, you said you loved everybody.

For God's who love the world. I thought you loved everyone. But the word love that he chose in that word, in Greek, it's not the word love that you normally see throughout the Bible, which is agape. God, agape is everybody. Agape is the most self-sacrificial kind of love. It says, Sean, I would die for you. That's the kind of love God has for everybody.

He died for the whole world. The word he chose, Jesus was the word filial. It's a different word for love, and it means intimately close friendship. It doesn't mean I'll die for you. It means I want to be your close friend. I want to tell you secrets. I want to walk with you. I'm going to do life with you.

We're going to be close. Jesus, this is what he says. Those whom I love, those whom I'm in intimately close friendship with, I rebuke and discipline. Meaning, the closer you get to me, the should. shorter the least gets. Some people will say, well, God doesn't rebuke me and discipline me. I guess I'm doing okay. No, if he's not convicting you about things in your life, if he's not asking you to change, it's because you're not a very close friend. The closer you get to him, the more he asks. And I can say at the, I often think of 2014. I mean, I've been serving the Lord since, you know, since I was 19,

but I think of 2014 really almost like where my new life began. That's when I really started saying yes to God. And I don't mean creating a list of rules out of the Bible and trying to be that. No, I mean hearing his voice and obeying. He asked for stuff. He asked for stuff the Bible doesn't even tell him to ask for. I often say that to the Lord. That's not even in the Bible.

Why do I have to quit that? Why do I have to start that? Because I told you to. So what's one of the things that sticks out to you? Like what did you have to quit? Well, one the hard was in 2014, actually the first one was smoking. I had to love smoking. And there's no verse in the Bible against smoking.

You know, I just smoked like a chimney. In fact, when I gave my life to the Lord, I still smoked right through Bible school and through years and years of ministry. And I just get a little bit, I'm a bit high strung at times. And so for me, I eventually quit cigarettes and I switched to cigars because I figured it was a little less bad. I don't know why I thought that. But anyway, I still inhaled all. the time so i mean i was and i was smoking those i like those uh captain blacks no i like the um what

are they called those um the sweet aromatic they used to now i don't know if they have those anymore they look like hand-rolled cigars backwards i love backwards i could smoke five six a day you know and a whole pack a day and i smoke them all the time but i remember the lord would often speak to me it's like steve i want you to give that up and i say god this doesn't affect my love for you you know I'm keeping a pure heart. I'm not walking sin. I've dealt with so much stuff. I gave up, you know, I'm not getting drunk anymore.

You know, I'd have a few beers or whatever. That's no sin. Jesus drank wine, you know. But I said, just leave this alone. You know, I just, you know, a long day. I go for a drive, smoke a cigar, and peace like a river flows through my soul. How can this not be godly? This is, it just helps me unwind.

Can we just leave the cigars alone? And he would, this voice, the Holy Spirit says, I don't know if you've read this part yet, but the Bible says that the Holy Spirit is the comforter. He's referred to as the comforter. Jesus said, the comfort, I will send the comforter to you. And the Holy Spirit said, I want to be your comforter. You always look to cigar every time you need to unwon.

Oh, God, just please leave cigars alone. You know, it's not a sin. It's not in the Bible. It's not a sin. No. And the Lord would say, it doesn't, it's a sin for you. It may not be a sin for everyone else, but it's sin for you because I'm,

God and I told you to quit. These are the conversations. And I remember, I'll never forget the day. Sean, I could take you to the place in Red Deer where I was out for a run in 2014, July the 24th, 2014. I'm open for a run because I care so much about my health while I'm smoking five cigars a day. And I'm out for a run and the Holy Spirit says, I want you to quit smoking. And I said, oh God, I love you.

You're everything to me. But I just got to say for the hundredth time, no and when I said no I felt like like like well I heard I heard the Lord say fine fine Steve keep your cigars but in that moment I felt like it was kind of like I'm walking away like not not in the going to send me to hell but it was a sense of I just made a decision and you're not going to like it and at that moment I looked to my left and it was just like that experience I told you but I have this prophetic experience where I see something that's not there. I look to my left.

I could still take you to the place where I was running. I looked to my left and I look into the trees and I see they're not there, but I see these two people. One is this really huge fat lady like round. She was so fat. And then she was, and then beside her was this little skinny guy on the ground. And he was chained to this computer and there was pornographic images on the screen. And, uh, and I knew.

knew intuitively they were both Christians. They both loved the Lord. And they both were called to soar like eagles in heavenly places. But they had a ball and chained. He was chained to this computer. And this fat lady is looking at him saying, you're never going to soar with that in your life. She's pointing her finger at him.

You're never going to soar with that in your life. And he's looking at this porn. He's like, yeah, I know, I'm never going to soar. I'm never going to soar. He's looked so pathetic. And I look at her, and she's chained to his four-foot-high cupcake. and so she's got her ball and chain and he's got his and both of them are called the fly but neither them can and I see this and I hear the Holy Spirit speak to my heart again and say Steve it doesn't

matter if it's cocaine or cupcakes if there's one area of your life where you give yourself permission to say no to me you will not reach your full potential and Steve Holmstrom I make note today you are a man who says no to God and I tell you, shun at that moment and I heard that like a sentence in my spirit resounding I burst into tears I fell on my knees in the middle of this running path and I shouted at the top of my lungs I changed my mind I changed my mind Lord wait wait wait wait just just a second I said I changed my mind I quit I'll never smoke another day in my life I swear just please just give me one more chance I will say yes to you.

And that was July 24th, 2014. And that was a yes. You won't find that in the Bible, but he asked me for it. And it was after that he asked for something else. And then he asked for more. And he just kept asking. And it's asking me to spend time with them. It's asking me to get up in the morning and to wait on.

And it's asking me to go for a walk in the woods. He loves being outside with me in the fresh air. He loves me being in nature. He loves meeting me. in solitary places. And so it was the beginning of a domino of yeses. But I'll tell you, the prophetic experiences, the dreams, hearing his voice, everything increased as I began to say yes to him more and more.

And baptism was a big deal for me too. I mean, we're probably running out of time. But when I was baptized in the name of Jesus, it was like then things went to a whole other level. Speaking of baptism, where did you I just assumed you got baptized in like 2000. You're saying since 2014 you've been baptized? All right, here we go. So some of your viewers may text you over this one,

but I was baptized. You know, it's funny. You sound like Joshua Allen right now. Some of your listeners, I'm like, I don't know. If they don't like it, they've already turned it off. They've already turned it off. And if they're enjoying it, then they're going to enjoy it some more. And they're going, could you go an extra hour?

You know? And so it's just like, I'm curious. I was baptized when I was 14 years old. Okay. Baptized in the name of the father, son, and the Holy Spirit. And that's what Jesus said. Go into the old world, baptize them in the name of the father, son, and the Holy Spirit. It's written and read, so that's how we do it.

And that's how we've always done it. That's how the Catholics do it. That's how millions of people, that's how 99.9% of all people have done it. They baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit. And when I was baptized, it wasn't really a powerful experience. It was just I wanted to be a Christian. But then later I walked away from God and whatever. After I'm walking with God for a number of years, I'm studying the Word, I'm looking at the scriptures,

and I'm wrestling with this thing in the Word where, and many people don't notice it, but anyone who you do a little Google search or just do a Bible search on the word baptized, look at, it doesn't take long. Look at every verse in the Bible that talks about baptism. This is a strange occurrence. Jesus says, Matthew 28, go into all the world, baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Then, after he says that, what's interesting is every single one of his disciples seemingly totally disobeys him. They all go out, every one of them, and they start baptizing in the name of Jesus Christ.

The first one is Peter I'm going to look this one up so I'm quoting us First one is Peter He goes out Acts 237 There's just Whatever

Not long after Jesus said Go baptizing the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit Peter gets up on the day of Pentecost When they went and they heard this They were pierced to the heart And said to Peter and the rest of the apostles brethren what shall we do

And Peter said to them repent and each of you be baptized In the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off

as many as our God will call to himself. So here, just after Jesus tells him, go baptize the name of Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Peter gets up in front of 3,000 people and says, each of you must be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Forgets to mention Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

Then later on, Acts 1048, you'll see Cornelius and a bunch of guys get baptized, or they get filled with the Holy Spirit. And Peter instantly insists, he says, he orders them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Go over to Acts 8 and you'll see Philip, the evangelist, he's preaching, people are getting healed, miracles are happening. And it says in Acts 812, it says, when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized men and women alike. But if you look in verse 16,

it says that they were simply baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. So Peter baptizes everybody in the name of Jesus Christ. Philip baptizes people in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Paul, the guy who wrote half the New Testament, Acts 19, he finds some disciples. They love the Lord. They're Christians. If they died, they go to heaven.

This is not a heaven and hell issue. Okay, once again, people make everything about heaven and hell. Baptism is not a heaven and hell issue. The thief on the cross, Jesus said, today you'll be with me in paradise, and he had never been baptized. Correct. So this is not a heaven and hell issue. This is an accessing the kingdom of God issue.

This is about you going to glory places issue. So Paul meets some Christians, they're believers, but he says to them, he says, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said, no. We didn't even know there was a Holy Spirit. He says, think about this. Paul meets some believers who don't have the Holy Spirit.

There's no power on their life. They're Christians, but they have no power. So quite a bit like most Christians in the world today. Love Jesus, but not a lot of power. He meets them the first question he asked them. The only question he asked is, into what were you baptized? Apparently it matters. did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?

No, we didn't even know there was a Holy Spirit. Into what were you baptized? And they said, into John's baptism. Well, if you told me you were baptized by the same guy who baptized Jesus Christ, I would say, good enough. Not for Paul. Paul the Apostles says, well, John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling people to believe in him who is coming after him.

That is, into Jesus. When they heard this, it says they were baptized. baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And then after they were baptized in the name of Lord Jesus, he laid his hands on them. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. They began speaking in tongues and prophesying. The power of God fell on them after they were filled with the Holy,

the power of God fell on them after they were baptized in the name of Jesus. And so here was my dilemma. Jesus says go baptize in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Every single one. You can't, I'll give you 100,000. if you can find anyone in the Bible who was ever baptized by anyone who even mentioned Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Except for Jesus.

But Jesus didn't even baptize anyone that way. Fair. He just said, go baptize them in the name. The reason I bring it up is that's where everybody's getting it from, right? Jesus said, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Yeah. You're saying after that. Everybody goes out and baptizes either in the name of Jesus Christ or.

or the name of Lord Jesus. Peter baptized the name of Jesus Christ, Philip and Paul baptized. Fast forward to today. Everybody baptizes in the Father of the Holy Spirit. Well, that's what I thought too. But I'm seeing this and I'm wrestling with this. Sorry, I'm just for my own mind.

I actually don't know the answer to that. Is that what everybody gets baptized in? Yeah, everybody does now. 99%. Yeah, the Catholics, here's what happened. early Catholic. I mean, wait a bit. We're talking three, for the first few hundred years of Christianity,

everybody's baptized in the name of Jesus, or Lord Jesus or Jesus Christ, but Jesus is the name that is never left out. It's the name above every other name, okay? A few hundred years later, people go, you know, and, well, you know, we should get back to doing it the way Jesus said to do it.

And so they dropped the name Jesus out of baptism. And for about 1,700 years, most baptisms, exclude the name Jesus. And they use the titles, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And so I'm wrestling with this. And I came to my conclusion, and people can interpret however they want. But here's how I interpret this.

Jesus never said, go baptize them into the titles. Father isn't even a name. If I asked you your name and you said, Father, I'd say, that's not your name. What's your name? Son, that's not your name. Even Holy Spirit is a description. It's not a name. Jesus said, go baptize them in the name.

It's not even plural. It's singular. Name, name, one name. Go baptize them in the name of the father and of the son. And of the Holy Spirit. Is it possible that Jesus was saying there's a name that Father's Son and Holy Spirit have agreed on? There's a name they're all connected to. Okay?

The Bible actually says that in Him, in Jesus, is the fullness of. deity in bodily form. I mean Father, Son, Holy Spirit, if you, if Jesus walked in the room right now, you don't have one third of God. You have all of God in bodily form. And so Jesus, he says, baptize them in the name. Well, you can spin it any way you want, but I can tell you, I know Peter what name he assumed Jesus was talking about. And I know what name Philip assumed Jesus was talking about. And I know what name Paul assumed Jesus was talking about. They all baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. And what happened was everyone they got baptized were filled with the Holy Spirit and had power

encounters with God. They didn't just get a towel and God bless you and a cup and thanks for coming to our church. It was an encounter with the Holy Ghost. And when I saw this in the Word, I started desiring. I have to be baptized in the name of Jesus. I'm not okay with the fact that I was baptized in a form that excluded the name above every other name. When you pray for the sick, did you ever baptize?

I mean, I don't know if you pray for the sick. When you pray for the sick, you pray in the name of Jesus. When you cast out demons, you do it in the name of Jesus. Why would I be baptized without the name of Jesus? And so I started wanting this. And I actually started asking pastors, would you baptize me in the name of Jesus? And nobody would do it. Well, that's not how we do it.

And I was watching this preacher that I listened to one time on a YouTube video. His name is Paul Keith Davis. And I like this guy. And he's a word guy. And one time he's preaching away. And he says, you know, if you really wanted to be. biblical. He doesn't go into it because this is a hot subject. This is split

churches, so you know. But he said, it's split churches whether you baptize in the father, the son of the Holy Spirit, or Jesus Christ? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. You'll get some heat. You'll get emails about this one. Well, let them email. Let them. Because what they say is that you're Jesus, there's a group called Jesus only

oneness believers. They have some bad theology. I'll just tell you that. And they baptize in the name of Jesus. And so when I talk like this, people will emailing you say, why'd you bring him on? He's oneness, Jesus only. No, I'm not. I'm not oneness, Jesus only. I don't believe a lot of the stuff.

They believe. They believe basically Jesus was his own father and it's kind of weird. I'm not oneness, but I am Bible. And the Bible teaches everyone was baptized in the name of Jesus. And so I'm listening to Paul Keith Davis and he says, you know, if you really want to be biblical,

we should be baptizing in the name of Jesus. When I heard that, I said, I knew it. I knew it. And I told my wife, I said, Paul Keith Davis just said, the biblical way to baptize is in the name of Jesus Christ. I said, man, if I ever got a chance to meet that guy or know him, I actually met him once, but I said, if I could connect with him, I said, I had to ask him to baptize me.

Because I even, I went to a spiritual father of my, I went to a pastor. No one was willing to rebaptize me. Like Paul, Acts 19, he rebaptized people who were baptized by John. He rebaptized them because they weren't baptized in the name of Jesus. When he baptized them the name of Jesus, the power God fell on him. And I said to my wife, if I could get Paul Keith Davis to baptize me in the name of Jesus, man. So anyways, I'm 39 years old.

This is eight years ago. On my 40th birthday, my wife comes into my den and she says, well, honey, I'm ready for your present? I said, okay, what's that? She said, I wrote an email to Paul Keith Davis's ministry. He lives in Alabama. She said, I wrote him an email and I said, listen, my husband watches all your episodes and he heard you talking about baptism and he just, I'm just wondering, if I was to fly my husband to Alabama, would you baptize him in the name of Jesus Christ?

He wrote back and he said he'd be honored to. She said, I'm buying you, I'm flying you to Alabama. I'm like, ah, so anyways, this, I flew to Alabama. My 40th, just after my 40th birthday, I flew to Alabama. And I met this guy and he met me at a hotel. He had some friends of his own to hotel with a swimming pool. And we went into the water. He baptized me in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And when I came out of the water, I didn't feel probably much different. But that night, I had prophetic dreams that night. And I wasn't a dreamer at that time. I didn't remember dreams. But for the next two months, I was having just prophetic dreams. Almost every single night I would dream and I'd wake up in the morning and I'd take notes. And I was seeing stuff, I was hearing stuff, and I would tell people, hey, I saw this in a dream. And they would say, that's exactly what happened to me this week.

And so I just watched my spiritual life come alive in a whole new way after my baptism. And so when I started preaching this and some people didn't like it, you know, because it was not how we've always done it. Well, I don't care how anyone, this is the beautiful thing about being the oil patch preacher. I'm not on staff at any church. I'm not ordained. I'm just a guy who loves Jesus. If you don't like me, shut me off. But you can't fire me.

You can't take my credentials away. I just preach the word of God. You disagree? Okay. I'm going to preach what I see in the Word of God. And so I started preaching this. And you know what? There was a few churches that all,

even one of my buddies who pastors the church in Edmonton, the summit. And he said, Steve, you know, I, he wrestled with it actually for a couple of years. and he's like, no, no, no, no, you've got to be wrong. You know, you can just do with what Jesus said. I'm like, well, whatever, you're missing it. But anyways, eventually, and this is chapter 17 of my book.

I listened to it last night. Did you? Oh, okay. Yeah, well, because for the listener, I've been listening. I'm on like chapter 10, I think now. And I'm just, like, I should be able to do it in a day, right? Like, it's not like it's this, like, it's not the Guleg archipelago that's like thousands of pages, right? and it's just like holy dinah.

And I don't mean to say that it isn't as impactful. I just mean the thickness of how many. But in saying that, whatever it is, you know, I just can't seem to speed through the subject, which I think is a good thing. I'm not mad about it. But anyways, you'd said, you know, 17's really, you know, be ready for that one.

And so I'm like, oh, man, this kind of came out of nowhere because we were talking about the Sunday. And I'm like, well, I can still, you know, I'm in peace. And then you're like, well, tomorrow, like, Okay, well, so I listen to chapter 17, so I have listened to it. Right on. But yeah, just understanding the name of the Lord is not syllables. The name of the Lord is the glory of the Lord.

And even baptism, I don't think it's about just saying it right. I don't want to give people the impression that, well, you know, my guy said it right, your guy said it wrong. No, no. The name of the Lord is the glory of the Lord. It's, you know, even the Old Testament, the Bible says that they built a house for the name of the Lord. well why would you build a house for a name why does the name need a house but then after they finished building the house for the name of the lord then it says the glory of the lord filled the house

why because that's what the name is the name is the glory uh like when jesus said ask me for anything in my name and i'll do it john 14 14 many people think that just means well just say in jesus name at the end of prayer and then he has to do it well have you ever prayed in jesus name and he didn't do it Yes. So is he a liar or did it not work? The name of the Lord is not syllables. The name of the Lord is the glory of the Lord. And when you understand that, then you understand when Jesus says, Sean, ask me for anything in my name. And I'll do it. What he's saying is ask me for anything in my glory. You get into my presence. You get into my glory. You ask for stuff. It'll happen. But outside of that, it's another word. and the same with baptism. When Jesus had baptized him in the name of the Father, Son, he wasn't saying, here's the syllables you got to use. He was saying, baptize him in the glory of the Father

and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. When I baptized someone, my prayer is, Lord, I want to dump them right into the glory of God. Why do I say Jesus? Because that's the name that all the power is connected to, is the name of Jesus. Why would you exclude that from a baptism? You pray in the name of Jesus for everything else.

Of course I'm going to use the name of Jesus in baptism. and plus since Peter, Paul, and Philip did it that way. I just assume I'm probably in good company. I baptize them in the name of Jesus, but my heart is that I'd be baptizing them into glory and that they're going to have an encounter with the Holy Ghost as a result of their baptism. And I have seen, oh, I can tell crazy stories.

I'll tell one. But I've seen many people have come to me later on and said, it all started after the baptism. I've re-baptized whole churches. One church, that guy was telling you was Summit in Emmington. He finally said, okay, Steve, you know what? I can't argue with it. It is biblical.

I've tried to prove you're wrong, but I can't. He said, fine. And he cut me loose. He let me preach. And I preached baptism in the name of Jesus to his church in the summit in Edmonton. And I think they were only about 80 people at the time. Everybody, the whole church.

We rebaptized the whole church. Everyone said, I want to get baptized again. And when I was done preaching, the pastor got up and said, well, first one in the tank is me and my wife. wife, we're both going to get rebaptized. I baptize them in the name of Jesus. Then we rebaptized the whole church. And I've had other churches. We've re-baptized the whole church because everybody, when they hear it and they see it and they read it in the word and they go, that's there. That's the Bible. That is what it says. Why would I want to go my whole life? Wondering if there might

be more for me if I was baptized in the name of Jesus. Explain to me Jesus in glory. being in it something doesn't compute okay glory maybe better way would be to say presence manifest presence you know when you feel him come into the room and that'll happen you know if the more you pursue him the more you say yes to him you will bump into his presence and that's it's his glory it's i've had it where and when you're in that place that's when you can ask for anything i one time I actually was walking, I prayed all morning and I couldn't, I was trying to enter in. I call it entering in, but I just couldn't, you know, and it doesn't happen normally. Just so you know, it's not normally that I just bump into his glory.

You know, I'm not walking in a cloud most days, but it's amazing when it happens, and it happens once in a while to those who really pursue him with their whole heart. And I remember one time I was praying all morning and nothing, and I had to go to work, so I walk upstairs, and I'm walking through my bedroom and I stepped into something. That's all I could. It just felt like, boom, I just stepped into something. And it was thick and I'm tingling from top, head to foot. And, and I said, Lord, I said, Holy Spirit is, is this your glory? Which, by the way, another name for glory is kingdom. Kingdom of God, the glory of God, the name of the Lord. It's all the same. If you enter into the name of the Lord, you entered into the kingdom of God. If you enter into the kingdom of God, you entered into the glory. It's a place. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, It's a realm. Most of the time you don't enter it, you just get touched by it, it gets shocked by it. You get blessed.

If you get healed, if your body gets healed, it's not because you stepped in. It's probably just got a little shock. You know, it's like electricity. You're not entering in. We're enjoying the light, but we're not being shocked by it. Most of the time, the kingdom of God is just impacting your life, but it's all around you. It's not necessarily surging through you. Once in a lifetime, you might get struck by lightning or touch the wrong wire and electricity

enters into you, but that's a very memorable experience. And I would say the same as with the glory. When you enter the glory of God, you feel it. And I remember this time I walked into the glory. And I said, Holy Spirit, is this your kingdom? Is this your name? Am I like, I said to the Lord, I said, how do you know if you're in the kingdom? Or how do you know if you've entered into the name of the Lord?

And instantly I heard the Holy Spirit say, you can ask for anything you want. and I'll do it. And I said, am I in right now? And the Holy Spirit, just as quick as I asked, he said, yes. And I thought I won the water. I'm like, so I can ask for anything? I'm like, I'm going to ask for something quick before I'm not in. I'm like, what am we going to ask for?

And I remember we had a really bad couple of months. I'd like to say I asked for world peace, but I asked for money. Okay, confession, full disclosure. We had had a bad couple months in our oil field rental company. Things were slow. The phone was not ringing. And I just, we just needed a breakthrough. I thought, I'm going to test this out on a real, I'm going to pick a, I'm going to ask for a job.

And I said, Lord, right now, in the name of Jesus, I'm assuming I'm in the name of the Lord. I'm in the glory. In the name of Jesus, I'm asking right now that angels be released, that you would bring me a new customer. You know, find new customers in the old patch is not easy. Keeping old customers happy is the goal because finding new ones can be hard. But I said, I'm asking right now that my phone will ring. I want a brand new customer. And I want him to ask me for, I was going to say a combo unit and an office trailer.

We rent these what's called a combo unit. It's got bathroom, light tower, garbage bin, all this. And we have office trailers. But as I'm asking the sentence, I hear the Holy Spirit say, no. Ask for a combo unit and a light tower, which didn't make sense because it's summer and the combo has a light tower. they ended with two light towers. But anyways, whatever. I just,

even that just told me that when you enter into the name of the Lord, you don't get to ask for whatever you want. You ask for what you're told to ask for, which, so you might say, you might want to say, God, give me a Ferrari, but instead he'll say, God give me humility.

But anyways, I hear the Lord say, this is what I want you to pray. So I pray, in the name of Jesus, I'm asking right now that angels be released to bring me a brand new customer, and I want him to ask me for a combo unit and a light tower. This is what I prayed.

And then when I was done, Sean, this is a true story. This happened. Okay? I took my phone, held it in the air, and I held my breath. And my faith was, Lord, if I'm in your name and I can ask for anything in your name and you will just do it like that, then I'm expecting that before I take my next breath. I'm going to get a phone call from a brand new customer asking for a combo unit and a light tower. And I held my breath for about a minute, maybe it was a minute and a half before I finally took a big gas.

And I was so disappointed. And then instantly I felt the presence leave and the glory left. And as soon as I took one step from the place I was standing, my phone right. And my heart jumped and I said, Lord, I said, you're 10 seconds late. But if this is a brand new customer asking for a combo unit

and a light tower, I will call it a goal. That's what I said. I will call this a goal. But I really wanted it to happen during my breath holding, you know. I look at my phone because I'm going to be, it has to be a number I don't recognize right new customer I save all my customers on speed though I look and it's my wife and I'm like oh so disappointed I'm deflated so fine I

answer the phone I had forgot that I had the company forwarded to her I look at my I answer I said hey baby what's going on and she said I'll never forget this she squeal I hear this she squeals on the other end of the line she says Steve you'll never believe it I just got a call from a brand new customer he wants a combo unit and a light tower I want I said I got to go I just bawled I just stood there and bawled my eyes out not just because of the money but it's like it worked it worked like you know the statistical odds even in the summer of anyone calling for a combo in a light tower when do you need two light towers in the summertime but the timing a new customer It was absolutely beyond the realm of possibility to me.

And I just stood there in bald and bald and bald. And I realized, wow, he meant it. Asked me for anything in my name. I'll do it. Ask me for anything in my glory and I'll do it. But this is the kingdom life. Sean is why we want to enter into his glory. We want to draw close.

This is why worship is so important. It's not because we just love sing a long time. We gather together in corporate worship. I'm driving to Saskatoon. Worship Jesus Christ with a bunch of freedom fighters. You know, and why do we worship at all these gatherings? Because it's in his presence.

It's in his presence. His fullness of joy. In his presence, we're transformed. And in his presence, miracles happen. And I wouldn't say the glory shows up in all of our meetings. I don't,

like those are special moments, you know. But that is the goal is to enter in and to, This is where I said. That scripture, it says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. It doesn't say all have sinned and fall short of heaven. Sin, if you're a believer, you sin.

Sin isn't keeping you from going to heaven. Sin is keeping you from the glory. Our disobedience, our unwillingness to obey God doesn't keep us from going to heaven. It's not throwing you in hell because you have a lustful thought or because you told a dirty joke. But when we choose not, not to live lives that please him.

We miss out on the glory. And most people don't care because most of the population is missing out on the glory. But a couple people, one here, one there. They're finding out, he's real, and his presence is real. And there are places in the spirit that you can go

if you're willing to hear his voice and obey and live a surrendered life. And so, you know, I tell people, you know, if you don't know Jesus, you know, start with believing. You know, put your faith in him, ask him, my heart forgive me for my sins i give you my broken life but then don't just stop there draw close to him

read his word say yes to him and don't look at other christians as the example because they're most of them aren't living it you got to look at jesus you look at jesus he is the example he's the only one who truly live the kingdom life he's the only one who entered the glory daily you know and so we look to him and it's a lifelong journey. And if I slide into the glory a dozen times in my life, it wasn't bad. You know, that was okay. Most people never enter in. And this is where Jesus said,

how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. Was he saying they can't get to heaven? No. He was saying they don't enter the glory, man. Rich people, the pride, the, I'm not against rich. I'm actually rich. But this is the challenge is to keep your heart humble. because it's hard for the rich to enter.

It's hard for those who are successful. It's hard for those who have big brains and the smarter you are. I would say, kind of jokingly, but it's true, you know. The dumb, ugly people slide right in a lot easier. You know, it's, if you're gorgeous and rich and successful and influential, how hard it is for you to say yes to God and to live a kingdom life. But the beautiful thing about the kingdom is it's not for the smart people. It's not more available to the rich or to anyone else.

It's for those who say yes and live a wholehearted life. And you know what? It's just like it is a kingdom. There's rules. There's ways. How is it that a prophet can one place, have absolute access to the kingdom and then later in life just absolutely go a whole other direction?

Because at one point in his life, he lived a kingdom life. And another point, he decided not to. You know, and so, hallelujah. I've been preaching for a while. It's time for you to talk. I don't know.

You have my brain chewing on a lot of different things, you know? When I first started this, this was not what it was supposed to be for. This is hockey. Yeah, well, you look at the room. I mean, I've had a couple. pictures fall off the wall so I've certainly got a I've got a it's it's you know I got to get on that I keep talking about it and I haven't I haven't fixed up the place and that

bugs me because I know but I'm chewing on where what to put where and what to put in but regardless you know I didn't want to talk about COVID I want to talk about I want to talk about motivational stories and things that really inspire and different things. I mean, what inspires more than maybe the story of Jesus actually to be very clear. But back then, you know, I joke about it, but like I just didn't, you know, like the Bible was a book that I never wanted to pick up. You know, in the middle of COVID, here's a funny story. Buddy mine who actually comes in here later today, Ken, we went to a political meeting, uh, a hidden meeting for politics to just talk about politics, to see if it was,

a realm of possibility of starting a new party to challenge the parties that be that are imposing all these COVID lockdowns. This is before the convoy. And in that meeting, they walked around with the Bible and I walked out of there going, that was some crazy religious cult that wants to, and that'll never work. And I laugh about that because I mean like, here I sit. And once upon a time, I didn't want to talk to COVID. And eventually I started to start. talking COVID. I would have said at the start, there's two things I'll never touch on here, because I just, you know, it was sports radio, you know, or at least I got my lessons from sports radio, and that's religion and politics. I talk about them all. I talk about everything now.

And so I go, like, you're, you know, it's funny. I'm like, oh, man, I'm sitting here listening. So I'm like, I never thought I, you know, I get to where, because, you know, I'm listening to your story and I'm like, I want to dig into all the different countries you went to and what you saw, but I'm like, you know, today, this is where it's gone. And so be it. I mean, it's like one of the things, some days I just, I feel like I have zero control over is where the conversation A is going to go. You know, I let it go where it wants to, you know, every time I try and force something, it just feels like, but we're going to pull this way today. All right, let's go that way. And, and, you know, I had my thoughts on the podcast when I first started.

I thought I was going to make a career for myself talking to NHL people. I was very close to that. I'm not saying the career point, but like very close to like having big names from the sports world on. I would say I was there at one point. I was just having all these. And yet here's where I sit. I talked to Paul Brandt about this one time. Me and him got talking after a podcast about, you know, I'm like, I don't know.

Like maybe I'm supposed to talk to a few different people Because he was telling me this story about going on a I can't remember if he called it a gospel tour But certainly where they sung I don't know Gospel songs, right? And he said there's nobody in the stands He said it was empty.

He said he was so defeated He said at one place he had like two people there sitting And he's just like, I don't know You know, look what are we doing? We're going to be broke And it makes zero sense to me But he felt like he's like, you know So I prayed on it

and he's telling me, you got it, you stick the path. And so, you know, they did. And he said it was funny because they didn't have near as much fanfare is what they do on a regular Paul Brandt tour. But he said at the end of it, they made more money than they had in any other way through merchandise and sales like that. And he said to make zero sense. And I don't know if I probably didn't get this on the podcast.

Because me and him, you know, it's funny. You sit, you do a podcast. And then afterwards he sit and you talk for, you know, you get to thinking, about different things. And me and Paul talked for, I don't know, an hour and a half afterwards. And he was telling me that. I'm like, man, that's a wild story, right?

Like, think about that. Paul Brandt. Yeah, you would think they would sell way more. On a regular tour. Actually, no. On a regular tour, yes. On a regular tour, I would have said, like, Paul, it makes complete sense. And then he tells the rest of the story.

I like, that doesn't make any sense. And, you know, I was talking with the boys today, you know, like, once upon a time, I didn't want to talk about COVID, but I was fully against what was going on. So it was probably starting to leak out of my interviews with athletes and stuff, because they'd say something. It kind of triggered me. I'm like, listen, we can talk about this. Well, we're not going to talk about it.

And so if you were listening intently, you'd understand that Sean was against everything that was going on with COVID. But I wasn't talking about it. I was meeting at nights, and we were meeting in different closed disclosed. And now it's like, for a little while, if you listen intently, you could tell something was changing. but I didn't want to bring it on the podcast I'm like that's my own journey and I shouldn't really but it's starting to bleed

it's like I'm holding water and it's just starting to leak out everywhere if that makes sense like I just the harder I try and control it it just starts boiling well popping out or leaking through or whatever and now I'm just like okay always embrace it you know like you keep coming up I'm like well let's have you on

Tanner and a day was maybe one of the first ones and people loved it and I'm not saying that's why I keep bringing them on I keep bringing them on because I enjoy our conversations. And certainly Joshua Allen, you know, he sat there and, oh, you're going to lose listeners. I don't know. I mean, I'm going to lose listeners because I talk about COVID.

I'm going to lose listeners because I bring on a conservative politician and they're liberal or they're not. And I'm going to lose, it's like if all, that's not why I started this. I didn't start this to, I started because I had lost something in life by stepping away from hockey. It was like, hockey had given me such meaning. This showing up to a brotherhood of group of people. and getting to play a sport I loved and it just it was you know and then you step away

and there's just now what and I found it with us I just and and but that means you have to let it go where it wants to go and right now it's like well we're gonna we're gonna talk some people that got some things to say about the things that cannot be seen you know and you know and that's drawn me close to the Bible which is a wild thing to talk about like I mean just that well I'm so thankful that you You just kind of let it go to because people need freedom fighters. They need people who are willing to talk about this stuff. And it's going to get weird again.

It's going to get dark again. And if you, you know, if you're not willing to talk about the stuff that's right in your face, well, it's going to kill people before we have a chance to, you know, warn them, you know. And I'm worried about, you know, I try not to be worried, I guess, anxious. But, I mean, I see stuff coming down the pipe. And I go, you know, I thank God for what's happening in schools in Saskatchewan, you know. You know, the premier's taking a stand and it's not letting some of this stuff go down. But, I mean, even some of the technology that's coming out right now.

And I go, man, a lot of people are getting sucked into it. Even some of my friends are just so excited, even about like AI. And I'm going, you know, I get it. You know, you can put in a little thing and it'll do your work for you. But what happens when you let a computer do all your work for you and think, for you pretty soon you stop thinking you know and my son that's he thought this was so great he's like look at dad i can do the a i can write a poem about you so he he asked the ai to write a poem about steve holmstrom and instantly in seconds there was this amazing poem written about this oil patch preacher

who preaches on righteousness and the kingdom of god and it knew my theology it know who i was it knew what i mean it was good but i mean it was too good i'm like man Like, how can this not be dangerous, you know? And you'd see these kids, you know, just zombies in front of their phones. And now they're coming up with these goggles that are like new, you know, take you into another universe. Well, that'll be fun for an hour a week. And then it'll be two hours a week. Then it'll be two hours a day.

And then pretty soon, these kids aren't even going to want to come into the real world because it's so boring. Here in this imaginary world, everybody loves them. They can have sex with anyone they want. They can just kill, murder, steal. and there's no consequences. No consequences. And then they take off their goggles and life is so boring and dead. And you expect them to go out and start businesses and influence society?

No, there's zombies, you know. Well, I look at the, although I agree with all that, I also look at the complete opposite way. I got a lot of hope. But now I just sit here and I think of the journey I've had. Like, there's thousands of people having similar journey. And, you know, like, I argued with this. Seth, you know, he's probably listening right now.

And I've had this argument with a lot of different people. So I come back from Ottawa. I said, you know, it could have been, it probably was all four, to be honest. But I said, you know, he's like, what happened? I said, oh, it could have been stress, no sleep, drugs and alcohol, spiritual. He says, oh, we all know it's spiritual, so let's have it out. And so we talked about it, whatever. And one of the things I said back then is, why is nobody talking about it?

You know, if so many people who listen to this have had a similar experience to you or a similar experience to I, why is nobody talking about? I don't know, deem you crazy. Yeah, but they thought we were crazy for talking about COVID. They still do. Have to probably, they think I just jumped off the deep end. I don't care anymore. It's like, you know, we each all have to live our lives. and if you want to go and believe that,

I'm probably wrong on some things and I'm believing nowhere. But regardless of, you know, if that's what they want to do, so be it. I'm like, so why is nobody talking about things that are going on that we can't see or these weird spiritual experiences that people are having? Why? And they'll deem you crazy. I'm like, well, they already deem me crazy. I don't really care.

I want to start talking about it. It's probably why I continue to start or continue to talk about it. Because I'm like, I'm, listen, I'm in this strange world where when I leave, leave my home. Things happen. It is so evident to me when I go away from my home base of my family, my wife, when I go, strange things happen. It is like clockwork. And Ottawa was the origin story. It was like the bell was rung and we go, here we go. Every time I walk away from my home, it happens all over again. And the nice thing is, though, since I started praying day, and reading the Bible, I found like a level of peace with it.

Like, I'm protected and I don't need to worry about things. But we certainly need to talk about it because people need to understand. Like I can't imagine how many people are walking around right now going, I'm crazy. Like, I've lost my mind because everybody thinks that. It's like, no, I'll sit here and say, I believe you. I would say you have to come to terms of it. You got to do it. I don't have the manual on what to do.

I would say that it's sitting right there, you know, and I'm pointing at the Bible right now. That's my personal thought, and everybody can have their own personal thoughts. It's worked for me, and it continues to work for me. But I've come to the realization that when I walk out the door, like, it's common. And once upon a time, I would say ignorance was bliss. If you didn't know about it, you didn't realize all the strange things were going on. But once you start to realize, then you start to, it just starts happening faster and faster and quicker and quicker. and, you know, if nobody's talking about it, how do you know how to deal with it?

Exactly. And that was COVID in a nutshell. We all said we were islands. Yeah. We all said that, you know, like I had no idea. I get text still to this day. You were a candle in the middle of the darkness that kept me saying. Because you talk.

Because I'd talk. But I didn't know what the heck I was talking about. I was just like, are we going to, are anybody going to talk about it? No, I'm the crazy one. Okay, I'm the crazy one. Well, let me be the crazy one. And I'm still the crazy one on the Sean Newman podcast talking about different things and talking about the Bible now. And everyone's like, well, you've gone down that road, have you?

And it's like, yeah, I have. And you don't have to follow. You don't even have to listen to this. You can skip to the next episode when I talk to Chris Sims next. And we talk about taxes and everything else. But this is part of it now because, like, it's going on and I'm trying to make sense of it. Henceforth, when you bring up all these different names, I'm like, yeah, I'm kind of interested. It's kind of like talking to all the doctors for me.

It's like, did I agree with everything you've said here today? I don't know. No, probably not. But I find it fascinating. And I don't expect everyone to listen to it and agree with everything Steve said. But I do want to try and push some people to think about it and push them to think about different things because I'm not doing that. I'm not doing my job anymore.

And I would say that's, I feel like what I've been kind of called to do. Like, hey, it's time to have some people on there going to move the needle a little bit. People are going to be uncomfortable. You're going to be uncomfortable. And I'm going to, oh, I don't want. want to be uncomfortable. I'd rather go back talking hockey. I'd go talk to Connor McDavid and see what he does every day and everything else. It's just for whatever reason, that ain't the plan, at least for right now.

It's going to be uncomfortable and we're going to keep moving forward and that's some of the fun of it. I think it would be pretty hard for you to, I mean, I think it would be harder to be a freedom fighter like you are and to be a person who's willing to talk about the things that people don't want to talk about it'd be harder for you to be that guy and then not allow the Jesus followers in once in a while because you're they're never going to be able to separate them again the people who love truth are going to be running with the Jesus people they may not join the club but they're they're going to be running side by side hand in hand for a very long time they're giving to the same organizations they're at the same events because we love truth and so I've been

think to me it just makes sense you know um it makes sense to just let it all in you know well i appreciate you doing this i appreciate you yeah yeah i don't know reaching out uh when you're in town and and and because this this is a thousand times better than trying to do it online or something like that like this is get a feel i'm going to start watching hockey though soon i was just asked to be the chaplain of the drayton valley thunder hockey team so well you know who owns the uh draughton valley thunder late and gray lane gray yeah he was sitting in your chair probably a week ago. Was it a week ago? Okay, yeah. He told me, yeah, he was talking about you.

Yeah. Well, it's a small world, but I appreciate you coming in doing this, Steve. I, um, I will see what people say. They're going to let me know one way or another. They may just ask you to meet down at the river for a baptism. Who knows? Who knows? Well, thanks again, sir, for doing this and safe travels on your way to Saskatoon. I'll be interested to see here, uh, hear how that goes. Can I say if anybody wants the audio book. Oh, absolutely.

Sorry, apologies. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. How do they find you? The free audio book, if you just send an email to feedback at oil patchpulpit.com and just say, just email me and just say, hey, Steve, can you send me a link to your audio book? And we'll send a free link to that audio book that you've been listening to. And they can also check out our website, oilpatchpulpit.com. on YouTube is the oil patch pulpit on YouTube and and the altar.

We have gatherings out there and the altar.ca. We have a few. But yeah, if you send an email, I'll send them a link to that video. They just got to ask for it. Free audiobook and we'll send them a link. Cool. Sounds good. Well, we will make sure that that's part of this and that people know how to get a hold of you.

Awesome. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Thanks again.