The Confessionals - 820: Exposing the Doors That Grant Spiritual Access

Episode Date: December 19, 2025

This conversation features Tony and Vlad exploring the unseen mechanics of spiritual warfare and the idea that many supernatural encounters and spiritual struggles begin not with intentional invitation but with unrecognized access. Through personal testimonies, deliverance theology, experiences with darkness, and reflections on trauma, unforgiveness, fear, and compromise, they explain how “open doors” function spiritually and why manifestations often surface long after access has already been granted. Their dialogue weaves together encounters in the woods, church-related warfare, inherited and environmental influences, and the concept of legal spiritual ground, presenting darkness as operating methodically rather than randomly and emphasizing discernment, responsibility, and the necessity of identifying and closing doors before they escalate into deeper conflict.Please pray for Tony's wife, Lindsay, as she battles breast cancer. Your prayers make a difference!If you’re able, consider helping the Merkel family with medical expenses by donating to Lindsay’s GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/b8f76890Become a member for ad-free listening, extra shows, and exclusive access to our social media app: theconfessionalspodcast.com/joinThe Confessionals Social Network App:Apple Store: https://apple.co/3UxhPrhGoogle Play: https://bit.ly/43mk8kZThe Counter Series Available NOW:The Counter (YouTube): WATCH HEREThe Counter (Full Episode): WATCH HERETony's Recommended Reads: slingshotlibrary.comIf you want to learn about Jesus and what it means to be saved: Click HereBigfoot: The Journey To Belief: Stream HereThe Meadow Project: Stream HereMerkel Media Apparel: merkmerch.comMy New YouTube ChannelMerkel IRL: @merkelIRLMy First Sermon: Unseen BattlesSPONSORSSIMPLISAFE TODAY: simplisafe.com/confessionalsGHOSTBED: GhostBed.com/tonyCONNECT WITH USWebsite: www.theconfessionalspodcast.comEmail: [e-mail]'s YouTube Channel: God's Voice TodayMAILING ADDRESS:Merkel Media257 N. Calderwood St., #301Alcoa, TN 37701SOCIAL MEDIASubscribe to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/2TlREaIReddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/theconfessionals/Discord: https://discord.gg/KDn4D2uw7hShow Instagram: theconfessionalspodcastTony's Instagram: tonymerkelofficialFacebook: www.facebook.com/TheConfessionalsPodcasTwitter: @TConfessionalsTony's Twitter: @tony_merkelProduced by: @jack_theproducerOUTRO MUSICJoel Thomas - PhotosynthesisYouTube | Apple Music | Spotify

Hey, everyone, before we get to this week's show, this is just your weekly reminder to please continue to pray for my wife, Lindsay. She is battling breast cancer right now, and we're praying for complete healing in Jesus' name. Thank you. Merkel. Media's here. This was all circulating around the base that a giant had been killed, but no one was supposed to talk about it. I saw three long, boning fingers, reach up underneath the door, curl up to grab it, and then disappear. When he came over to me, dude, he slithered over to me.

And this giant comes out of the cave and they're all frozen. And he starts running and firing up this giant. With a giant moves, he's got a spear in one hand and he's running really fast. And spears Dan holds him up like this. Somebody else, shoot him in the face, shoot him in the face. They basically decapitated. When he got about something pulling at my leg. And I look over and there are two small gray entities pulling it.

And they're literally, I'm getting pulled off the bed. I reached my hand into this bush and I touch air. Couldn't breathe and I couldn't move because I know I'm seeing a monster. Welcome to the show, everybody. You were listening to the Confessionals podcast. I am Jack Merkel and I'm glad to be here. And wait, you're not daydreaming. This is reality.

You don't need to open up your eyes. You're already awake. I promise you because you're listening to the Confessionals podcast. This is part of the 12 days of Christmas, and we wanted to release an extra episode today on Friday, just so that you all have a little bit of something to listen to before the weekend. We've been doing a whole bunch of extra content, membership giveaways, merch giveaways,

and next week we'll be putting out some extra videos for members. So if that interests you, go ahead and become a member today because you may even have a chance at getting an annual membership just from having a membership for a week next week on Christmas Day. that would be at the confessionalspodcast.com slash join. Also, if you have an encounter or a story you'd like to share on the show, go ahead and shoot us an email.

Our email is contact at theconfessionalspodcast.com. That's contact at the confessionalspodcast.com or go to the website, hit the contact section and you can reach us that way as well. Either way works for us. Just get a hold of us. Also, if you want some Merk merch before the holidays, well, actually, would technically be a little after the Christmas holiday, but you can get it for the new year. That's at Merkmerch.com. We have the new Rake t-shirt design, which I believe is sick.

I've mentioned it many times. I love the shirt. I have the shirt. I wear the shirt. It's fantastic. Also, next year, we're coming out with even more designs. We're revamping the store, and we're going to have a blast doing it. And I know you guys are going to enjoy all of the new designs that we come out with. So if you want something before the holiday season is over, go ahead and check it out at Merckmerch.com. Also, you can go ahead and check out Merklefilms.com. If you want to stream anything, before the holidays are over. While you have some downtime, while you're sitting at home, chilling,

playing with your new Christmas gadgets and eating some cookies and drinking some hot cocoa, go ahead and stream some Merkelfilms.com. We have a whole bunch of awesome stuff over there, documentaries, action documentaries, all of the cool stuff that you guys know that we've talked about before, but I know y'all enjoy. I enjoy it. So check it out atmerckelfilms.com.

And without further ado, I'm going to say this. Vlad was awesome to have as a guest. He just had some incredible insights. Vlad's channel on YouTube is God's voice today. He also has God's voice daily. But Vlad's been doing this for only a little over a year, I believe, from what I remember. And it was remarkable to hear his testimony, where he came from, how he got to the point that he's at right now, from being in ministry with Billy Graham and doing deliverance and other things with,

David Wilkerson. It was honestly so incredible here how he came from that to doing what he's doing now on YouTube where he, similar to Tony, was called specifically to do what he's doing today. So Vlad's story is incredible and I just want you guys to enjoy it on a Friday as we wrap up the week. And without further ado, let's get to Vlad right now. I just this is the Tennessee state, right? Yeah. Yeah. I love Tennessee, man. this is my refuge. That's where I learned my English. That's where we went into the United States. We had two churches sponsor a move and that were from East Tennessee. Was it right here? Yeah.

Kingsport, Tennessee. Yep, it would be right over here. Are you all right talking about why you came here to the country? Yeah, okay, cool, because I think that would be fun to talk about too. What did you ask me? What was the question that you asked me from? Have you experienced any kind of super-examil encounters? Yeah, you asked me a few minutes ago, huh?

Yeah. It's about the woods. Yeah, you asked me about the woods. about if I had a supernatural experience in the woods, right? Yeah, it's like, wasn't there something you experienced in the woods? Yeah. That one time? Yeah.

And I've had a lot of different experiences. And I've had like one that I go to every time with the experience, you know? But leading up to that, I mean, I think the first time I ever had an experience in the woods was with Jack. Jack and I in Pennsylvania, well, more me than Jack, I would go out in the woods and just go hiking because I was, like I said, I was really into the Bigfoot thing. And I was a truck driver and I was like, these people are morons. Like, you can't find Bigfoot. Like, this thing is out, if this thing is out there and people were saying it was in Pennsylvania, there's a lot of reports in Pennsylvania, and I was like, this thing's out there. I'm going to go find it. And it's not going to be that hard.

It's huge. It's this huge thing in the woods. We're going to find it. And so I would go out on weekends looking And the one time I found this one place. It was a prisoner of war camp in Pennsylvania from World War II. And it was one of the few prisoner of war, almost every state. Oh, almost every state had them. Almost every state had prisoner war camps. But very few had prisoner war camps where they actually interrogated the Nazis, that they brought Nazis to and interrogated them.

This prisoner war camp in Pennsylvania was one of those places. So I was like, man, this, and it has ruined. there's like these ruins in the middle of the woods from it. At one point, it was a child, a kids, a Christian kids camp, like a summer camp. And after the war, some church bought it. And, and it's all ruins now. And I was like, man, if we go find this place, like, spend a night there. You know, it'd be kind of cool just to spend the night. Yeah, spend a night in the woods, you know, at the ruins. And, you know, maybe we'll catch a big foot or something. And so I pulled Jack with me. and we get up there and we finally get there.

We got there late and we're kind of rushing to get our gear together and go out in the woods. I have night vision cameras and all that. And so we get our stuff together. We go out and we're hiking through like really tall overgrowth, way taller than me, taller than you. And it's kind of spooky because you're walking through like this game trail with all this overgrowth, and it's like you're walking through this narrow hallway.

You do not know what's just on the other side of that, you know, and you're just like, this kind of creepy. And I, uh, we get to this one spot where it's just kind of like the trail died off. And I, I pull out, uh, what's called a K2 meter and just reads electrical, uh, currents. And if, if there's an electrical current, depending on how strong, the lights will get, go from, like, green to red, you know? So I told him turn off, or I told him, turn off, or I told him, turn off my camera so that I wouldn't have interference.

And I turned it on and I just held it out. You know, it's a visual thing and it just reads the environment. And it starts bouncing. And I was like, we're out in the middle of the woods. I'm like, this shouldn't be bouncing right now. And then just as it's bouncing, he's filming. And I look at him and I'm like, this is actually bouncing. I don't know what I'm doing.

All of a sudden, off in the distance, distance we hear this, like really loud, long, drawn out yell. I'll be running the opposite. It's on camera. It's caught on. Like, our reaction was caught. My reaction was caught on camera. Like, as it goes, I'm like, oh, look right at the camera.

And I was like, oh, my gosh. Like, we caught that on camera. And I was like, we're done for the night. Like, this is, I've, I've made it. Like, I found what I was looking for. Like, we got that scream. And we get back to. The truck, and earlier that night, it was raining, and Jack had put his camera on the hood of the truck to grab his bag or something, and the camera fell.

And we pick it up, and it's working. And so we go out, and when we come back to review the footage on his camera, we got the footage, but no audio. Because the mic cord actually snapped. We couldn't see it in the dark, but the mic cord snapped when it fell. So there's no audio of that screen. Just my face doing this. but yeah that was the first time and then I was charged in the woods I had something charged me in the woods yeah so I feel like I'm turning this into show about me let me uh I'll

tell you the the quick version of that because I think most of the audience knows um with the story I just told you I don't tell often so I think that's probably news for people but um yeah I was I was in an area here in East Tennessee about 30 minutes away. And I was out there at two, three o'clock in the morning. Do you go by yourself? No, it was me and my friend, Joel. Well, it was four of us. It was me, Jack, Joel, and Ward and Jack were back at base camp,

and me and Joel went out into the woods. And they say with these creatures like Bigfoot and stuff, and there's these smells that come with them, that you can smell them come in. And people describe it sometimes as like a sulfur smell or trash smell, like disgusting, like almost like a mix between different nasty smells. We had that come in. We had that come in. We had that come in.

And it would come in and go away, come in and go away. And I got sick to my stomach. I was dealing with an upper respiratory infection. I didn't know it at the time. I just knew I was really sick. And the smell kind of like triggered. And I was just like, I got sick to my stomach. And so I stopped, we stopped walking down this one trail and I just kind of like squatted down.

And all we had was a night vision camera on a handheld tripod. We were just trying to do like a vloggy style type trip out there. It wasn't like a big documentary production. And I set the tripod down on the ground and I'm squatted down so I can see, because I flipped the monitor so I can see me in frame. and we went lights out, so lights are completely out, and I'm just like trying to get my stomach together, and we had that smell come in, and then we hear something in the woods

right behind the camera walking bipedally in the woods behind the camera. And we both hear it, we both acknowledge it, and at one point, at some point I stand up then, and so now you're seeing me from like here down, from torso down, because the camera's on the ground and I was squatted.

And we're acknowledging that we hear something and I can't remember it's all caught on camera. So I mean, I just can't remember how it all played out.

I think we hit the lights. I think the lights went on and because we heard that walking and then all of a sudden there was something in the woods there. And we had,

and we had on a camera, a tripod, the shotgun microphone. So are you familiar with mics instead? Oh, yeah. So you know, yeah, so you know that shotgun microphone is meant to pick up the audio directly in front. Whatever's behind the camera, the audio is not going to pick up great. We picked it up. That's how loud this was.

That like, we're standing there and all of a sudden something comes running at us. And I have a 10 millimeter on my hip and you see me, I pull it out and because like literally this thing is going to blow through me. Like it was right there. Like we it was charging us. And nothing. It ran right up to the camera. Like you could hear it run right to you.

And we're looking right there and there's absolutely nothing. And I'm like, and I'm like, what the heck? And there was this whole like moment where you're confused. we both experienced it, me and Joel. There was no, like, did I imagine that? No, we both reacted to it. Joel yelled. I pulled my gun out.

Like, we, there was something there. And probably like 20 seconds later, you hear that yell again that we heard in Pennsylvania. It was a little different. This was more of like a high-pitched scream, but it was behind us. And it was just like, like real. you would go and like try to experience that. Well, so we have a unique situation with that. So actually this is a good transition to get into with what you do.

Me, Joel, and Ward very much feel like God has called us to expose the supernatural realm, to reveal the supernatural realm, to bring. people do the understanding that the supernatural realm exists and it's real. I was called to do that eight years ago with the podcasting, right? And these guys have their own stories to share on how they felt God called them into this direction. And so it has been an interesting journey where you start out doing something because God called you to do it. and it evolves and he brings people alongside you on the same mission and it kind of goes in this direction of that you never could have imagined yourself but God just kind of took the reins

and put things in position for that to happen right um and you and I have you were saying before we start recording um some I think it's almost kind of wild how similar our origin stories are with this. Well, I think when you experience something like what you described, you can't walk away unchanged, right? It does something to you. All of a sudden, you believe that there's so much more to the naked eye that you can see.

And so I was choked by a demon in the middle of the night, like 3 o'clock in the morning. It was like a shadow person. It was a shadowy, figury thing. And so up until that point, I grew up with a father who was family of nine kids. He was an underground pastor in USSR. And I've seen exorcisms.

But after a while, I moved to the United States. I didn't see a lot of that here. I felt like a lot of churches here were more like, like Boy Scouts of America. You know, a lot of ritual, not much power. All right. I want you to keep going, but I just want to make sure I heard you right. You said your dad was an underground pastor in the USSR. Yes.

Wow. Risk is life preaching the gospel in Kiev. Wow. Okay. I mean, I remember they would meet up in the woods in different places. And it's interesting, you know, when the back is against what, Some people would say that sounds like a cult. Yeah.

Well, they have to hide from the agents in the Matrix, from the Matrix, right? But, you know, so I've seen some supernatural stuff. And so once you see it, it's hard to and see it. But then I didn't really experience it until I was much older in Columbus, I live in somebody's basement. It was me and my older brother were rooming. And there was a lot of stuff that they were doing in that house, you know, a lot of witchcraft kind of stuff that I wasn't aware of.

It kind of sort of knew the people that I was renting the room from. from the basement from me and my brother. They let us stay there for. I was in transition. I just moved from Tennessee from this place to Ohio. And in the middle of night, I hear the footsteps like 3 o'clock in the morning walking towards me. And I thought it was my brother because he was like in the corner of the basement. It was a fully furnished basement.

I had, there was this bar area where I was able to squeeze in a mattress between the bar and like the wall. And I was sleeping there. And so the restaurant was not far. And so I thought it was my brother just walking. to the rest of it, but he jumped on his bar, and then I look up, and it was a shadowy, like a shadow person. I was like, yeah, it didn't look happy either. Couldn't see the face, but it could tell I wanted to destroy me.

And it went straight from my throat. I mean, it was choking me out, and I couldn't do anything. So I was just trying to squeeze. I was trying to do everything I could. I mean, I was, I wasn't, I'm not a small, small guy. You know, I try to do everything in my power. And deep, deep inside, there's this, like, inner voice. My mom, she always told me that, like, if you're ever in a spiritual world,

fair, just saying Jesus' name. And I heard mom's voice. Mom's still alive today. So it's not like mom was speaking from the other side. Right, right. But I heard that kind of like echoing in my spirit. And so in barely I squeezed it out. It said, in Jesus name, and then just went, just vaporized. Wow. And so when you experience kind of like what you've experienced and I experienced, then going forward, like, well, you can't just pretend like that didn't happen. Right. And so you've recognized that there's so much more to that. And the name of Jesus, when I said it, and just vanished. And then that led to working in the hospital in college.

I was working as a nutrition aid that was delivering trays, taking orders. And I would talk to people, like right as they came out of surgeries, I would talk to them lunchtime, but by dinner time, they're crossed over. And so some of them flatline came back and told me their stories. Like, man, I flatline came out of my body. I was in this valley. And I saw this man in a white robe, told me, go back, it's not your time.

I was like, who do you think that man was? So he said, Jesus, he told me it's not your time. Go back. So I kept hearing it over and over and over. And that's why I was like, man, wouldn't be awesome. To create a show and document these things, kind of what you're doing. And so because to me,

it was kind of weird that you go to church and people don't talk about it, supernatural. Yeah. It's more of just a structure. but there's so much more that we don't know, and ignorance is not bliss, you know. What you don't know is destroying you.

And so I thought, man, it would be really cool to start recording people's experiences. And that kind of what started me off on this journey. That's wild. So you, what were you doing at the hospital? What was your job? I was a nutrition major. Okay.

I was a nutritionist. And kind of to compliment that major, I got a job working in the hospital, taking their orders, and delivering their trays. And so you're delivering a trays of food or whatever to people, and you're running into a lot of people every day then. And some of them are dying, coming back, and having stories to tell.

Yeah, and it's interesting. I've never met a person on their deathbed who rejected. So I had this rule where I had to pray for one person a day. Okay. I made this rule. I don't know why I just came up with this rule. And no one ever told me no. when you're on your deathbed, you're desperate.

It doesn't matter if you're an atheist or not. You'll take any hope, anybody to pray. So that was an eye-opening experience just watching people transition. Because if you think about hospitals like an airport up or down, and I'll never forget this one guy was talking to it. He had a hellish experience. He came back. He's like, there's just demons here.

And so I'm not scared of him, but he is scared of him. He's like, I have Jesus. But I can tell his faith wasn't secure. And once you see stuff like that, every single day. You hear angelic experiences. You hear people going to hell and coming back and talking about it. It's kind of hard to unhear and unsee,

especially you see the pain in their eyes as those that have hellish experiences. And like, this is real. This is very real to this guy. And so all of those experiences combined, I was like, man, one day I'm going to create a show and I'm going to call it God's voice today. What is God doing today? And it's going to be so cool. Kind of kept sleeping on that idea.

And I kind of gave up, I recorded Ken Hoven from jail once. He went to jail, this is a Kenyhoven guy. You recorded them while he was in jail? Yeah, it was really? It was like 15-minute increase. This is the way I'd like to talk to. He's an interesting guy. Since then, he had some ups and downs.

I kind of lost touch where he's at. But back then, he was, there was a lot of things happened. He talks a lot about the dinosaurs and stuff. Very interesting guy to talk to. He's so knowledgeable. And I remember I was doing those collect calls to jail. It was like 15 minute increments that would drop off. It's like, your time is over.

And I had to call again, pay the whatever fee, and then talk to another 15 minutes. Wow. And so I recorded and I was just like, you know, I listened back to my interview. I remember thinking, man, I'm not good at this stuff. Like, English is my third, fourth language. Like, I'm not very good at this stuff.

This is, I'll let the pros do the interviews. And so I kind of put it away. And then I get a dream. And this dream, I'm like on the edge of the forest. And this dream is one of those things. I've only had one or two like that, where I was like, there was a regular dream, but then there's like, there's some kind of boost, like a rocket boost,

and I'm going through this tunnel, like almost like a near-death experience. And when I got on the other side, it was like intense. There's a lot of motions and feelings just go super fast. And then I got out on the other side, and it's like colors, everything so vivid. I remember just like, I can move everything. It was like I was more real than this. And I'm in this four.

near the forest, edge of the forest, this house. And subconsciously, I thought it was like in Ukraine somewhere. I've never been to this place before, but it felt like I've been here before, you know. And half of my family was with me. I come from family nine kids. Half of my family was me in the house. And I knew that there's half, the other half, are walking towards the house with Jesus. And I was waiting for him anxiously on this, at this place.

And I could see the windows and then see through curtains. And I remember thinking, like, any moment now, Jesus is going to walk up to the door. And so my older brother, I see like silhouettes, the shadows walking by. And the door opens, and my oldest brother is like, hey, Jesus is not coming in. I might want to say bye to him. And I'm like, Jesus is not coming in. So I run out and I see in the distance there's a man in the white robe. And he's walking parallel to the forest.

He's about taking a hard left and not be seen again. And so I was like, no, no, no. So I was on a dead sprint, just yelling his name, Jesus, Jesus. And I could see where he vanished in the forest. So I was just running to that spot. I get to that spot and I see Jesus is standing right there and I'm breathing hard. And he's look at me, puzzled. I'm kind of like, you're right?

So I look at him and I'm like, are you Jesus? Trying to figure out. Like, is Jesus not Jesus? Like, yes. And we spoke, it wasn't telepathy, but it was more like spirit. It's hard to explain. It was like, the knowing. I don't know.

It's hard to explain. I didn't see his lips moving. And he says, yes, I'm Jesus. And when I heard that in my spirit, I started crying. The reality of who I was speaking to sunk in, and I just started crying like a little baby, and he's just like, wow, all I said was your name. Oh, no, no, no.

I said, if you're Jesus, tell me what my name is, because you would know. And he said, your name is Vladimir Proknevsky. And I just like, on my name, he's just crying. Like, wow, this is Jesus. He knows me. And he was just puzzled. Look at me puzzled.

He's like, wow, all I said was your name. And you already believed me and crying. And it's kind of like, wow, that's amazing. And then he got serious and he looked at me and he said, Vladimir, I have a message for you. He said, you and your wife, there's a great calling on your life. And back then, you know, we're just married not that long. And we were like cats and dogs, you know, still trying to learn our ways.

And he says, there's a great calling over your life, but you guys need to work closely together. That's what he said. So in order for it to come to pass, both of you have to be on the same page. And I thought that was interesting. And by that point, I already quit the podcast idea. I just put all my equipment that I bought. And he says, oh, and by the way, that God's Voice Today thing that you want to do the podcast. I was like, oh, what about it?

He said, don't worry, don't worry, I'll help you with that. And then I look, and there's this entourage. Like, these people I didn't see before. There's like silhouettes. I couldn't tell who they were. And when I looked at Jesus, he wasn't, you know, growing up, always thought Jesus was kind of like a tree hogger. Like some come to me, I love you, no matter. A hippie picking lilies.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, like the lamb. You know, I just love. It's so about love. This Jesus, though, was standing before me was, I don't want to say ripped, but he was, he was muscular. You can tell he was somebody who, like a soldier kind of type. His robe was tightly fitted, and his chest was kind of popping out. It looked like he was ready to fight. And I remember when I was talking to him, he was very kind and loving to me, but at the same time, I knew that this is not somebody who want to disappoint, like make mad.

He spoke to me with love. compassion. And it's, I saw his eyes. I saw his, his teeth where you can tell us just a man from a different century. Like, you know, in America, everyone has perfect teeth. But I just, you know, when you, if you ever run in from somebody from like a third world country, just different kind of, just clothing even, for example, it's, well, one time I got stuck in the elevator with Amish people at Ohio State University Medical Center where I was passing trays. And they had a certain scent from their clothes. It was the same, like, when I was with Jesus, he had that similar kind of sense, like older clothes.

You can tell it, just not modern. Everything was about it was like ancient. And there was this sort of entourage, and there was this giant ladybug to his waist. It was standing next to me, or next to him, to his right. And when I looked at this giant ladybug, it waved at me. And I felt this love for this. I don't know what. To this day, I'm still not sure what it was.

But anyway, so at the end, Jesus was like, listen, I got to go. go. He was in a hurry somewhere to go. And I didn't see him anymore, but they went around the corner. There was some kind of door, and it was taking them a while to open. And he was stern. I was like, hey, what's taking so long? Let's go. Let's go. We've got to go. I remember things like, wow, Jesus is very serious. He's not somebody who you want to play games with. And when I woke up, immediately, I pick up my phone and call my father. I was like, Dad, I had this dream. So I tell him the whole thing. And when I get to the ladybug part, because I almost discounted the whole dream because of that giant ladybug.

I'm like, that's weird. Why would there be a ladybug? And when I get to the ladybug part, and I tell my dad, dad, there was this ladybug. And in Russian, literal translation, we call it Bojera Karovka, which means God's cow.

Literal, in Soviet Russia, we call ladybugs, God's cows. And so I was like, dad, there was this ladybug, God's, and I said, God's cow.

And immediately when I said in Russian, it hit me different. I was like, whoa, God's cow. What is that all about? So I started doing research, and there's like certain parts of Italy. They're called Shepherdess of Christ.

There's all these different things. So something that I almost discounted the dream, actually gave me more faith to push through and persevere. So I never forgot the encounter with God. And so Dan, he told me he will help me. I thought that, Tony, I thought I would wake up next day and I'll have a podcast. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But he took me through his own school, sent me to work for Billy Graham and Internet Evangelism. Really? I worked as a web developer. Learn how Internet evangelism works. Wow. I became a national spokesperson for Samarance Perce Operation Christmas Child. They were seen with those shoeboxes.

And so in last, gosh, how many years since like 2016, 17, I got to speak at hundreds of different churches, media events, just got to practice sharing my testimony. And then worked for Sid Roth, the communications manager, worked for all these different people. And so now looking back, and I just started the podcast, like not even a year ago. And eight months, 100,000 subscribers. Once the time was right, everything, I saw how. all these little things that he put in place, how it all, before I was getting discouraged. I'm like, man, what am I going to start this? It's not happening for me. But now looking back, zooming out, everything was perfectly crafted. He put all the right experiences in my way.

One compliment, even like something is simple, we're talking earlier, being a waiter for a long time, in the hospital setting and in the restaurants, that's where I learned my English. That's where I learn how to interact with people. All of that, in the end, control. to this journey, to this calling that he put him hard. That's wild, man. That's really, that's really wild how all that kind of unfolded for you. You know, I was saying before we started recording how God kind of put me in a position where he called me to do this podcast as well.

And I can relate where it's like it didn't happen overnight, you know? I mean, I was telling you, I didn't even start YouTube until two years ago. It's crazy. It was like he was training me in his own way as well. And I find it really interesting how, and you said at what point, was this like 10 years ago that this happened? Yeah, 10 years ago, that dream and then that journey of, and it's interesting because right after that dream, I get fired and let go from this job that I thought it was going to. And then he took me just completely redesigned the whole journey for me, gave me an opportunity to work for Billy Graham.

And then now it's crazy because a lot of times people think that, why am I doing this thing? It's not even closer to be able to God called me to do. I'm like, man, be faithful in little and more will be added to you. There's a reason why you're here in this season because there's a lesson, there's a nugget that you've got to learn. A lot of times when you don't learn those lessons, they always repeat. Sometimes you see that a lot.

There's certain problems just keep repeating, like on the little. loop. Because it's kind of like you keep flunking the class. You got to just learn. Sometimes you just got pause and ask yourself. That happened to me, like, what lesson am I not learning in this season? Why does this thing keep repeating in my life? The quicker you learn, you graduate, move on to the next thing. You got to get your reps in. And I mean, there's a lot of people who probably find themselves a situation where they're like, why does this keep happening to me? And it's like, well, for one, you probably, should move past the victim mindset of it and try to figure out literally why is it

keep having you, like analyze the situation instead of just like passively being like, I don't know why this keeps having me and just keep doing the same thing. Smacking your head off the wall. It's not going to do it. Definition of insanity, right? Yeah. Doing the same thing except expecting different results. Right. And like you were talking about how like, why am I over here doing this when I know God called me to this? It's just like, that's training. Like, If you think about athletics, right? I mean, I just saw on Instagram a couple days ago, LeBron James was doing Pilates with his wife.

Like, yeah, that's cute, you know, husband, wife, time, and stuff. But you don't make the amount of money that he's made over the last 20-plus years being a professional athlete by wasting time and energy on things that aren't going to be fruitful. You know, he's doing Pilates. But is he going to be doing Pilates when he was 20 years old? Probably not. But at 40, I'm going to be 40. So yeah, he's going to be 41 in December.

Like, you're doing Pilates because you're trying to make sure your body's in right shape to be playing with a bunch of 20-year-olds, you know. But is his job to do Pilates? No, his job is to play basketball and be one of the best in the world. But he's putting the reps in on other things in the training for his job, right? And so the same way where, you know, we can be speaking to the audience right now. It's like, like, in the same way, You find yourself.

Like, for instance, I'll use me as an example. You know, with everything that I do now, I wouldn't always do that. I was a truck driver. And I felt hopeless as a truck driver. I knew that I'm the kind of person that needs to connect with people. I knew it was the kind of person that enjoys talking with people. And I found myself in the exact opposite, alone in a tractor trailer for 12 to 14 hours a day. And I'm like, you know, why?

And I started the podcast. God called me to do it. Like literally the Holy Spirit said, you're going to start a podcast. You're going to do it with this guy who I'd never met before. I didn't know him. And a month later,

that guy's calling me, telling me I should start a podcast. We didn't know each other. And I'm cutting it short because the audience understand, I'll tell you the story real quick. Like, so the Holy Spirit said to me, you're going to start the podcast

with a guy named Wes Germer who has a podcast called Sasquatch Chronicles. I think I told you that before we started recording. But West called me like a month later. And he has asked me about coming on his show and I was like, I'd never had a big foot encounter man. I can't help you with that. But we just started talking. And he's encouraging me in the first conversation to start a podcast after the Holy Spirit told me that's what I was supposed to do and I was going to be working with him. And so I knew that this was from God, right? But in that, in the middle of that, knowing the call,

I'm still driving truck and hating every moment of it and not knowing why, it's not happening faster that I can dedicate more of my time to this podcasting that I'm passionate about and that I know he called me to do. And there's confirmations and all that. But looking back on it, it's like I was putting the reps in. What was I doing while I was driving truck all day long? I was sitting there and listening to people talk, listening to how people communicate. I listened to a ton of Joe Rogan and how he communicates with people. And I wasn't even like studying. to, it just kind of happened, right? But I was also listening to people that I was learning from, like Dr. Michael Heiser, and listening to people talk about the unseen realm, the supernatural realm,

and the intricacies of it. And never one time from then until now have I tried to be something I'm not. I'm not a theologian, but I didn't need to be. I just needed to listen to theologians because I had to put my reps in. in order to get to where God wanted me to be. It was your school, right? Exactly. Exactly. You were making a living doing it, but at the same time, you're learning all these gifts.

And probably in the process, it didn't feel like you were, you just probably felt like you were driving in a truck and not really doing anything with your life beyond that, right? I can't tell you many times I call my wife literally crying. Like, I remember the one time I was pulling some freight to the back of the truck, and I was doing it the unsafe way.

There's these giant rolls of cloth that they were in the back of a 48-foot trailer. I had to get it to the end so they could pick it off. And nobody's helping me because it's a union place. So, like, I have to figure out how to do this myself. And so I took these straps, and I hooked it to the end of the, and I was just pulling it and hooking it, pulling it. And when I got to the end of the truck, I hooked it, and I pulled and it slipped.

And I fell off the back of the truck. And they had a sawhorse there that we were throwing the rolls of cloth on. They would pick up with a forklift because these really big rolls. And I fell on my back, on my back on the saw horse. and I already had a bad back and I really jacked my back up that day and I was so like mad and frustrated

and I called my wife and I was just like I literally was crying and I said I feel like I broke my back can I please just quit my job and she's like not yet I'm like you don't understand and I but it's

it's a journey yeah it's tough when you're in thick of it it feels like it's hard to zoom out and see like how is this adding to what God wants me to do. Right. But patience is a big one. And a lot of people struggle with that. They're working jobs that they hate and thinking. But I think there is a point where you can overstay.

Because like, for example, right before I jumped to do what I did, everything was pointing you need to do this and I kind of was scared. And at some point, you got to take a kind of like take that leap of faith jump and you pray and hope that the parachute opens. I mean, that's kind of the process. There is a step you got to take because otherwise, God will tap on somebody else's shoulder to do. Was there a moment for you that was like that? Oh, absolutely.

Oh, yeah. It was rough. I remember even, like, early on, I overstayed at this job where I was passing trays for way too long. Like, five years I was working there. And I was listening to this preacher. And, like, I had no peace, no joy. You know when you overstay, when the peace, joy, everything goes away. But, like, you're there because it pays the bills.

there's comfort security and you're scared what's out there. And I apply to all these like 70 different places. And nobody's calling me and this and that. I'm washing dishes. And I'm listening to this person preach. And he says something like, I never do anything it takes away my peace. He said,

one time I was supposed to do a schedule. This is a well-known preacher. It was scheduled to speak somewhere. And on the way to the airport, and he was like the main preacher, already thousands of people expecting him, on the way to the airport, he said, I had no peace.

Peace went away. And he just kept praying. There's no peace. And so he quit. He's called and canceled the whole thing. They got mad at him. Well, come to find out, the plane that he was supposed to be on crashed. No.

Everyone perished. And so that is why I don't do anything that takes away my peace. And if you do things that takes away your peace, you're going to have a broken marriage, broken relationships, financial issues. And I started looking through all the things that were happening at the time as I'm listening to. I'm like, wow, I barely know my kids. I'm always working. My relationship is my wife. Not the best.

finance is not the best. I was like, I have no peace, no joy. So in that moment, I was like, you know what? I'm going to quit my job. I had so much peace about taking that leap of faith. I was like, I'm going to do it in faith. I had this peace to do it. I don't tell everybody to just do it. But in that moment, I had this revelation. You can't live in my revelation. You have to have your own. And so I came home. I said, babe, explained to her other situations. I have so much peace about walking away. Like, I feel like I overstayed. And she's like, thank God. Like, you. you just miserable? Like, we don't see you. And I was like, well, I'll tell you what? It was my weekend off, my only weekend off. Like, if I have come Sunday, this was a Friday, if I have the same piece come Sunday, I will write in, you know, put in my two weeks notice.

Come Sunday at the best weekend my life. I had so much peace, so much joy. I typed out with a big smile on my face, my email to both of my supervisors, come to work on Monday, like 10.30, I think. And 10.30 something, I get an email from a place. It was like graphic design place. There's like, hey, I know you applied like six months ago.

But are you still interested in this? And during that two weeks, I transitioned to a full-time graphic design job, dream job, double the salary, everything. But it's like it was always there. God was waiting for me just to take that step of just trust me on this. But I tried to do it my own way. And I'm, you know when you overstayed. You know when it's like, yeah, I'm overstayed by about six months in this role. Because you won't have peace.

You won't have joy. you will feel like you're not growing, you're not moving anywhere. So there's a difference and you need discernment, obviously. Yeah. But my son was the messenger for me.

I overstayed about a year driving truck because I was terrified. I was scared to step out on my own. Especially when you have family and kids. It only gets worse and worse and more responsibilities, yeah. It was one of the few companies that still paid health insurance 100%.

And I was like, why would I leave that, you know? And so a year goes by where I had people in my life telling me, you should just do this podcast full time. I was like, no, I'm not ready for that. And I had the easiest run at the company because I had built a side hustle that, you know, was equivalent to a full-time job. And so I just took a short run at work.

So I was doing maybe like as a truck driver, I was doing like eight hours a day, which was not bad at all. But, well, I should say I was doing eight hours a day, but then they would always tack on to things at the end of my day to extend it because they don't want me just working hours a day. It's weird. And I just remember I was at a point where I was dumping all my time into the podcast when I wasn't in a truck.

And I was staying up until 2, 3 o'clock in the morning doing things all the time. I would come home from work, go to the office in our house, and work, work, work. and we had just had my daughter and probably about five, six months before that and my son was three. And it was a Monday morning I came downstairs to get my coffee to go upstairs to get ready for work.

And my son in his diaper, three years old, maybe not a diaper. I don't remember. I remember he was shirtless. And he comes walking over to me and he says, Daddy, where are you going? And I said, I got to go to work today, man.

I got to drive my truck. And he, as I'm walking, the stairs, he turns around and says to his mom sobbing that daddy doesn't want to spend time with him. Oh. And I was like, well, I think something needs to change. And I cried a lot that day at work. And I pretty much knew what I was going to do at the end of the day, but I waited until that Friday to really know. And I was like, yeah, it's time. And so I wrote my resignation. And two weeks later, I was done. And I didn't make a big special announcement on my show.

or anything like that because I was terrified. And quite frankly, like, you know, you know, like you have a podcast, you have a YouTube channel that, you know, both of ours are above 100,000 subscribers. You live a public life. So there are certain things that you're just like, eh, I don't know. I just keep this private, you know? Like, people don't need to know everything. And being scared, I was like, there's no need to announce this, you know?

So I remember there was a season where I was just driving my, I was podcasting full time. And I'm talking to people and they're like, you know, referencing me as like, you know, you as a trucker. I'm like, yep. I'm just like, think what you want, you know, but I think as my ambition, because my, I have, I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but I have crazy ambition. Like, I get ideas and I just run and go. Same here. And so.

I can't know how to stop. Yeah. At some point, people are like, I don't think he's driving truck anymore, you know, but. And that's, I think that's a gift from God, to be honest with that, that ambition, because not everybody has that. Yeah, no, I think you have to nurture that. But it's interesting, though, Tony, like, think about this. If you didn't step out in faith and do what you did, because a lot of, like, walk by a cemetery,

a lot of people that went in the ground with their dream, the calling that they had went in the ground, they never actually did anything about it. But it's scary, but what's worse is not doing it. Because of your faith, because of doing what you did, how many millions of people were impacted by your work? A lot. you know and and that's kind of a challenge to everybody people have i talk to people every day and

they have these dreams and things that they believe god spoke to them but they're scared something's holding the bad fear is such a weak emotion but it can paralyze you yeah and sometimes you know there's freedom on the other side of fear and you know we all know that every all the good things that the lord has free is outside your comfort zone most people just want to stay in that comfort zone but nothing good ever happens in your comfort zone yeah that's when you kind of become like a or you just, you don't learn, you don't grow. Dude, it's terrifying to think about going to the grave, not, two parts of it.

On the spiritual Christian side of it, like, it's terrifying to go to the grave knowing you didn't fulfill what God specifically called you to do. Like, not even fulfill, try, right? But then on the human side of it, you have dreams, desires, passions that, you know, a lot of them are from God, that you operate in fear,

and never even try, and people going to the grave that never even tried the dream that they always had their entire life, or the dream died because they felt like they got too old. Brother, I've been surrounded by people who are in their 60s who are just starting YouTube. And I'm like, you're never too old. Yeah, you have all this wisdom to carry over. You're never too old. Yeah. All your life experience, it actually makes you that much more.

I remember I was going to this one church, and the dad was a pastor, the father and the son, both were pastors. And when the father was speaking, I mean, you can tell this stuff, this guy lived this stuff. There's a lot of wisdom in what he was. And the younger, the son, you can tell the, it was good, it was a good sermon,

but you can tell he was lacking depth, right? And so for the older people, he says 60 years old starting a YouTube channel, man, that's not, that's actually a good thing. That's a leverage. It's not a crutch. You're starting out, you have all this wisdom

that you can teach the younger generation. And they're hungry. They're looking for wisdom. Yeah, they very much are. So you mentioned about at the hospital and the NDE stuff, and you see that reflected in your channel. There's a lot of NDE experiences that people are sharing, you know. And there's other things, too.

But with your channel, is there a focus on the NDE, or is it a focus on the supernatural? The supernatural, like, you know, they had this lady call me and she was saying how she was into, witchcraft, and this and that. And a phone rang, and she picked up the phone. This was like in the 90s back from those when the phones, not rotary phones,

but more I guess those old school phones, right? And she picked up the phone, and it was a spirit talking to her directly from hell. Really? So stories like that, people, anybody who experienced supernatural things that not necessarily near death experiences, but something that really shook them

and strengthened their faith. Right? Because when devil exposes himself to you, and is like taking a chance. You can either scare you off and you just go on being passive, or do the opposite and actually like, wow, this stuff is real. And so my job, what I feel like the Lord called me to do is to expose darkness, show the tactics, the things that have been used in his kingdom to kind of get people in his funnel. Because it's always slow and gradual. It's the little compromise. It's the Ouija board. It's the Loretta card reading. It's from a young age being abused or something like that.

is a big one. So it's interesting. I've probably interviewed in the last 11 months, like 2,000 phone calls, maybe a little less, because it takes like six plus phone calls per day. And the trajectory is very similar. It's always, they open a door. There's an open door, unforgiveness through abuse. And if you don't deal with it, it just grows. And eventually you hit rock bottom. And so these tests, I'm there to kind of capture that and show people that look, This stuff is not harmless. Ignorance is not bliss. What you're doing.

Listen to this kind of music. Doing these kinds of things. Actually opens doors to so many more. I remember this one guy was telling me how he, I forget somebody decided to take their own life or something. He wanted to communicate on the other. He was very depressed. And so he figured out a way to take drugs or something.

That opened up portals. And sure enough, he opened a portal and he fell through this portal and he saw this darkness and everything. else. But he told me something interesting. I can't remember all the details. It was, it was like early on. But I never forgot the little detail that he told me. It's like when you open up portals through drugs, different things, there's a way to open up these demonic portals. It's like he said, it's like you poke a hole in the veil and they come through. And when you move out of that place, this was a particular apartment. He said, because when he came back, he was rescued. He was so excited

to be back not to be in that utter darkness. But when he looked in the shot, like in this house where there was dark air, like a closet, he said he felt them there and he knew that he opened a portal. And so a lot of times I think of people that move out of the place and somebody moves in and they see demonic activities because somebody that was there opened a portal. Like for example, the house that I moved into was owned by a witch, like a well-known witch in the area. In fact, her shop burned up because it got so hellish out. She had a witchcraft shop.

And I didn't know this until I moved in that place. And my twin brother was pulling up directions to come to my house. I gave my directions. But instead, he put in Google search and it brought up her shop. And he's like, wait a minute, why is your Andrews attached to the shop? And both come to find out

that was the house she lived in. But every place I move into, I anoint the doors with oil, pray over it. My father always did that. You kind of like closed those demonic portals, but not everybody knows that. So ignorance is not bliss.

So my show, when I present things like that, is not to scare people, it's just to show them, look, there's a lot more than we think. There's a lot of different things that are happening in the spiritual world. And, you know, it all looks different, but it has the same kind of trajectory. They operate through legal things. Like, you actually give them power by opening, when you have fear, when you give into fear,

if you have a thought, just because you have a thought, doesn't mean it's your thought, but if you ruminate on it, if you, you know, lean into it more, it actually opens doors to other things. So those kinds of things, you know, they're, it's telling. It shows a big picture how the enemy is so creative and he'll use. And very patient, too, I might add. The enemy will wait a long time. Yes.

And very patient. And so that's kind of the things I'm learning. It's not necessarily near death experiences at this point. That's more of just exposing darkness. Yeah. Dude, I found your YouTube channel. And apparently you were at Armed Media a couple years ago. And so I didn't, whenever I reach out to somebody, I don't expect them to know who I am,

but it was kind of cool to know that we come from. Well, that story was interesting. So I was sitting exactly a year ago. I think this happened like last year was August or something. I was sitting in our media and you were on stage with somebody who I worked for Sid Roth and he was on staff with me. Paul Duval. And you were sharing your story. And I remember like, man, this guy's story is so cool.

And you kind of were doing the stuff that I kind of enjoy. And I'm like, man, I wouldn't be awesome. Did you? Like, oh, this is what I want one day. and had zero subscribers, nothing. And a year later, I was sitting here with you. I didn't know that. That's so cool, man.

And I was sitting there. I remember exactly where I said, and I saw you on stage. You shared how, you know, your trucking story and all this stuff. And I remember, I think you were like nearing $200,000 or something like that. No, no, no. That week we had just crossed 100.

Yeah, yeah. I remember it was just around 100. Yeah, yeah, that's what it was. Exactly. Just signorelli, that same day passed 500,000. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You made that connection. And I just remember sitting there like, oh, man, wouldn't that be cool to be in?

And you shared your journey how you came out of trucking, this and that. I was like, man, I would love to be in Tony. She was going to be cool to have something like, like, Lord, when am I going to do this? Like, when? At that point, it was eight years. He's like, well, actually, right now. And so it's funny when you reached out. I was like, I know exactly what Tony is.

Wow, that's cool, man. That's really cool. So you're talking about the complexities of the supernatural realm. And you said something that I often will use as an imagery, you poke a hole in the veil. And that hole when you poke it, it grows. And it becomes a thing. And once you, once that, that damage is done, you've literally, like, you've took the door off your house. And you don't even have a door to close the outside off to.

And until you, until you take the proper action. right, but most people don't even know it. And so they invite this stuff into their life, into their homes, and they don't know how to get rid of it. There are people out there who actually will go around closing these portals. Their ministry is they travel the world. They get put on an assignment by God. In fact, one of the ladies, Rebecca Greenwood, I interviewed her a little while ago.

The interview is going to come out probably next month, I'd say. But she's one of those people. She'll go and engage in spiritual warfare through prayer. Wow. And she has some wild experiences, man. Like she had Lilith walk up behind her and her team while they're doing a prayer circle out in the woods somewhere. And it's pretty wild stuff. But like these portals, these doorways need to be closed off.

And you said how you anoint your home and stuff. I never, like I told you, I was raised Pentecostal. I wasn't unfamiliar with people being anointed in oil and stuff, but where I grew up in, the community that I grew up in, the idea of anointing your home wasn't a thing. And it wasn't until we moved here to Tennessee. I experienced some strong spiritual warfare that I was like, I'm going to do everything I can.

brother, I'm talking every doorway, every window, every mirror, computer screens, closet doors, everything that is an opening in my house was like, anointed in oil, I spent hours. Like, my house was very slippery. Like, I was just like, I'm out of oil. Give me some vegetable oil. I was like, but it's, I don't, I look at it at a completely different light now. and even the unforgiveness. So the act of these kind of things

open up those portals into your life. And that's why Jesus himself, in Mark, he was talking about healing. And we focus on him saying, pray that you'll receive it, believe that you already received it. But I think it's verse 25. Mark 425, I might be wrong.

But he says, but you need to forgive. like forgiveness is such a thing, it's such a strong thing that goes overlooked. People, you know, it's like, oh, yeah, forgive, forgive it. It's deeper than that. Like, there's something with forgiveness where if you're not forgiving, it really invites a prison cell into your life. You put yourself into a cage.

You put handcuffs on you because of the unforgiveness in your life. And that's a hard thing, man. Like the human nature, it's hard. Like, it's hard to move past certain things that you've been wronged with. And you want to take... Because it's justifiable, right? That hurt me.

Therefore, I can... The least I can do is not forgive you. You know, you're lucky I don't put you into ground. But they already forgot about it, but you're the one that's still holding into that and it's opening up holes. But something else, you know, somebody else that was on my show.

This guy was very interesting. We were just talking about. He was a former Amish guy. And he was into witchcraft. But something he told me that really stuck with me. And I look at praying in tongues totally different now. So he was saying how as a child, he would, at 10 years old, he came to the altar to pray, to ask Jesus into his heart, but the devil showed up instead and gave him a better offer and he took it. And so at 10 years old, he started

worshipping the devil. And then he figured out how astro project, leave his body and roam around. But the interesting thing is that he noticed that his mother wasn't visible when he was moving around, he went to different places, different houses, and you could see people everywhere. And he said, he was confused, why? But he says, when you pray in tongues, it's like you become invisible to the supernatural, to like the witches and the world ox.

I thought it was, it's like he says, it's like there's a bunker. It says, when you walk around your property, do the same thing. It's like it becomes invisible, kind of like imagine virtual world. And all of a sudden, it's called like a, there's like a bunker, I guess.

It covers like this little shell that covers you completely become invisible to the enemy. me. And I thought that was interesting. I mean, whether it's true or not, it definitely encouraged me to pray more. Yeah. Man, if that has that kind of effect on the spiritual world, they don't even see me. That's wild. That story that you just shared is so complex then, because not only what you just shared with the invisibility to the spiritual realm, but the fact that he responds to an altar call in church, in church, which, like, more so in the earlier days than now. It just hasn't come up. But, you know, physically, a church is a building. So, but also the church is a

battleground. Like, this is one thing I'm really hammering over the last year or two on the show is that we are in a spiritual war every day. And the church is a battleground. And to think that the, the enemy is not there fighting is ridiculous. And I was very comfortable in a lot of churches. But I tell you what, here's an example. This is a great example. I interviewed not recently within several months ago. I interviewed this lady, this girl.

She went to a Bible school to get closer to Jesus. In the administration, she was going through the admin. And the lady that took her up to her house that worked in the Bible school was over the whole thing. was a witch. And she, oh my gosh, she went there to get to know Jesus. Instead, she got warfare. And that was a story in itself. But yeah, the enemy is in the church and very comfortable. If you think about logistically, he's on his way up to the altar. There's warfare happening in the spirit realm around him. He can't see it. He's emotionally, I don't want to say emotionally, because I feel like that's degrading.

He's feeling this spiritual pull to go and have, to respond to the altar and accept Christ to his life. From point A to point B of him traveling physically there, there's this warfare happening around him, and the enemy literally intercepts him. Like, there was a mission there. He was on a mission. God was on a mission. There was a war going on.

and his mission was to respond to an altar call for salvation, and he was literally cut off by the enemy and steered him down the wrong path. Like, people have to understand how logistical this warfare is. It's not just an idea. Like, it's actually happening around you, and at times you see it manifest in these ways where you were so close to the finish line, And then the curveball happened. And so, like, you're saying he got cut off at the altar by the enemy.

He goes into witchcraft as an Amish person. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Like, not just witch, just all in. Like, he just got. And there was a minor detail. I can't remember he said that that year the church did some kind of mistake. They opened doors to something. So the church compromised somewhere.

I can't remember what exactly it was. But that year, so there was, like, an open door, so to speak. And he said the experience was like a good, and, you know, got on one. shoulder, devil and the other shoulder kind of thing. And one presented an offer and the other one and they decided to go with the devil. But yeah, it's happening, which kind of reminds me now thinking about,

for example, David Wilkerson is the person who kind of let me to Christ. Really? Yeah. Oh, he used to listen to David. Brother, you have a, like, I feel like we're not even tapping your story. David Wilkerson? Oh, brought me on my knees. Billy Graham? Billy, I kind of worked, I feel like that's another thing that I've worked, come from like a Pentecostal kind of stuff, but I worked for

Billy Graham, a Baptist, and then I worked in all these different ways. But it was good. And as a Samarance Purr's Operation Christmas Child, National Spokesperson, I got to go to different churches. I mean, I spoke at hundreds of engagements over the last year, there's 21 states. And just sharing my testimony.

That's all I was saying that I shared my testimony, my shoebox testimony. But I got to be in Methodist church and Baptist, Presbyterians, all these different ones. But you know what's interesting? I used to be just, it's either us versus them. When I went to all these churches, I felt God everywhere I went.

And it kind of changed my mind that like, look, man, all these differences, like, let's all agree that Jesus is the only way. And all these other things, it's kind of like an ice cream shop where just different flavor, and I don't understand it, I like my flavor better. But it's not something to criticize and judge maybe. So, again, opinions are like noses. Everybody's got one. They usually has a couple holes in them.

That's kind of what God showed me. It's like, love them. Don't tear apart. because I felt God everywhere I went, and there were godly people in all of those denominations. So I kind of stopped processing things through denomination anymore. Because, man, the devil works on everybody. That's wild.

He doesn't discriminate with denominations. But ignorance is not bliss. You got to know. And it's not enough to just know. You've got to know and apply it because information without application is just entertainment. And, man, that's terrible to know so much. You meet people that know everything about a certain area, but that haven't done anything. I'm like, it's almost worse to know and not do.

I much rather know little. It's kind of like that example. I'd much rather fight a guy who knows 10,000 moves, but only practiced him once versus a guy who knows one, but practiced it 10,000 times. And less is more. It's better to know the basics and really exercise than just kind of spread yourself and not apply. So as soon as I learn something, I'm quick to apply it. The quicker you apply, the quicker you learn, the quicker becomes part of your daily walk. And so anyway, that's been my journey, learning, growing, developing.

But I tell you one thing, the enemy is real. And it's unfortunate I interviewed this one guy who said he was a believer for 50 years going to church. He thought that demons, that's Hollywood. He's like, that stuff is not real. He was a Christian 50 years in church and didn't believe in any of that stuff. man, no wonder that guy had so many issues, you know? And so that's kind of my journey is to, first of what, to learn more for myself. Like the reason why I started podcast is because I wanted to know more as well.

I wanted to show people to look this stuff as real, but also because, you know, when you live in the third world country, when you live in the first world country, you don't need much faith to get by. You don't have money. Somebody can help you out as a bank. They can lend you this and now. You don't have food to go to food bank. when you live in the third world country, if you're sick,

God doesn't show up, you're dead. Like the amount of faith it takes to live in that country versus first world country. So, you know, what you don't use, you lose, right? What you don't use diminishes. And unfortunately, in first world countries,

faith is much weaker. That's why we see more miracles and things of that nature in third world countries because they have to exercise. Faith is like a muscle. You got to exercise it. And I remember when I was working in the hospital,

this guy, Tom Fisher's, I don't know if you ever, back in the day he was on YouTube, he'd do street healings. He would just come up to people like, hey, hold my cameras. Like, hey, let me, what's wrong with your knee over here? Watch this. And Jesus' name, need you healings. And it's just the like, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, what's going on? What's going to do my money? You know, and Tom's like, that's Jesus, love, let me tell you know, I preach the gospel in a fool with signs and wonders, right? And so it was interesting because I was in the hospital. I was like, man, I'm going to pray for one person a day. I'm going to do the same thing. And so, watching these testimonies, these videos that he recorded actually built my faith because

seeing is believing when you see it. You start believing. I start having dreams about healing people before I started stepping out. And that's the way I look at these testimonies. When you listen to them, it builds up your faith. It encourages you. And it's interesting because last week, this is true story. This is so cool. So I found this Tom guy Fisher 13 years ago on Facebook. And I call, like, send him a message. We had a quick phone call. call, maybe one or two phone calls. And this guy told me he ministered like 25,000 people over years, you know. And so I shared him, I think, no, at that time, the God's voice that dream didn't even happen, but that's when I was choked by demon. I was just sharing it with him

the thing. And so last week, Tom calls me. He's like, Vlad, he's like, he left me a voice magazine, I can even play it here. It's like, hey, this is Tom Fisher. We talked 13 years ago. I was like, I was on YouTube and this video popped up and said, Vladimir Prochnivsky is like, Wait a man, this is not the guy that... So, long story short, 13 years later, we reconnected. But the crazy part is that he called me, it was a Charlotte, North Carolina number. I'm like, you live in Charlotte? I'm in Charlotte.

Back then I was in Columbus, Ohio. He's like, oh, no, we recently relocated to Vero Beach. And that's where... I used to work in Vero Beach, Florida. But the interesting thing is that we lived literally, like, less than a mile apart for like six, seven years in Charlotte, near university area. We'd probably shop at the same places. Didn't even know. Wow.

Anyway, so he's coming up on the show, somebody I really want to, because his videos build my faith so much to where it encouraged me to actually step out and to pray for people. And that's kind of how I look at content creators like you, you know, people in the space that showing, demonstrating, look, there's so much more than what you see. And, you know, you got to know, you can't be ignorant. I agree. when you were a kid growing up your family comes here your dad was an underground preacher

what was that environment like I mean you're talking about the differences between the Christian church in America versus what was the USSR like I mean you're talking somewhere along the lines you referenced about maybe your dad

casting out demonic demonic entities out of people or healings and stuff. Like, you're talking about, like, the manifestation of miraculous things, the supernatural. Mixed with persecution. Right. Like, what was that environment like for you guys? Well, you know, remember how we're talking about the poking the veil? Yeah.

You know how sometimes people describe this one guy recently says, like, you know, when you land in Africa, it's like, you just feel dark energy. You just know. And the way I look because there's so much witchcraft, there's so many holes in the veil. It's just all just there. It's like the trash, the sewer, you know. And that's kind of how the eastern block was. And in the 90s, I mean, it was just a lot was happening. The country fell apart.

There was a lot of, there was like 500-something mafia's in Moscow alone. And there's just so much death. It was normal for me to see bodies. It's just, you saw it all the time. So the environment was very dark. How old were you? I was, I moved around I was 12, 12 and a half, 13 somewhere. Right before 9-11, which is an interesting.

We can get into that. But, you know, living in all of that, my dad, it's interesting because I recently talked to my dad. By the way, I asked him, it's like, Dad, can you just write a book about your life? He's like, people want that? I'm like, yeah, it's kind of interesting. And so in 48 hours, it's like, I got 148 pages. What?

Wow. And you know what? I'll give it away. If you go to God'svoistate.com slash Tony, I'll give it away for free. Oh, sweet. I'll just have to remember that. You just made that up on the spot. I give me for free because I need a try.

translated. But I was just recently talking to him and I was like, Dad, like, man, how cool that you went through all the hardships and stuff like that. And now you live in the United States. You don't have to worry. Life is good. Man, I have just thinking about things. It's like, you know, Vlad, I was actually, I missed those days because I was like I was like a lean athlete. Now, Christianity is like a full contact sport. It's like, we were lean. We were, if Holy Spirit didn't say we didn't move, you know, that have dreams and visions of street address. Where to go for church? If you didn't obey Holy Spirit, you got written up and arrested.

So they really had to. There was no like anything goes. They would pray for hours in tongues in the middle of nowhere and spirit. And somebody get up, prophesize, say something. It'll be a confirmation. I mean, the way the church was moving was not anywhere I've seen here. It was very different. They had prophecies and confirmation, prophecy, confirmation.

It was moved by that. And so when I talked about, when I talked about, to him, like, man, dad, like, wow, you're here in comfort security. Like, this is the dream, right? Isn't that what everybody wants? He's like, I miss those days. I really miss him. He was, he's like, I was busy, busy populating the kingdom of heaven.

But, you know, a lot of times people think, well, it's dangerous living those parts. But man, if God wants you to be there, you're the safest place is on assignment. That's where God wants you to be. It's kind of like we were just talking about YouTube journey and you get heat and stuff like that. And so sometimes it's just tempting, just shut it all down. Like, man, you just get a job somewhere else. Like, sometimes it gets hard, right? All this stuff.

Like, you can't, you're human. It's just hard to process. But then you remind yourself, this is where God called me. This is where, this is what I was made for. The safest place is here. What am I scared of? And so it's a process of continually dying to self and reminding yourself why you do what you do.

It's so easy to just get cut up and doing things to zoom out and remind yourself, like, why did I start this to begin with? And so anyway, that's a whole concept. But talking to dad, his journey, his faith, what he went through is just unbelievable. Like, you know, one day when I cross over and I find out that if they tell me that my parents were angels, I'll believe them. Because they're just, my mom, my gosh, she would stay up all night and she would make socks and underwear for us out of clothes, the donated clothes, old clothes with holes in them,

like transformers, she would transform them into something. We have to take turns to go outside to play. because we have enough shoes for everybody in the family. I mean, it was hard. We grew up in, like, rice and potatoes pretty much. I was jokingly said that we were vegetarians before it was popular. So, yeah, it was hard. But, man, sometimes people say, like, wow, I'm so sorry you had to go through it.

I'm like, man, I'm sorry you didn't. Actually, you know, that sandwich doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I sometimes look at these pastors that have been through so much, and they get on stages that I know that my relationship with God will, I'm not saying never, but compared to my mom and dad, man, I don't know, their relationship is like, because they have so much depth, they spent so many years going, like they had to trust God completely,

like the life of death situations. I remember one time I was in Florida, and I was criticizing somebody. Just being honest, just saying something, it wasn't anything horrible, but I misspoken instantly when I said something about this servant of God, I instantly, I had this gut feeling like, I should have not said that.

Why did I say that? And so I hop on the plane. I'd land. My phone rings. I pick up the phone. My mom's like, hey, Vlad. Hey, I was just praying. The Lord told me you criticized this service.

Something that I can't remember the details. And so I just kind of like encourage me to repent. And I was like, wow. That's the kind of relationship my mom has with the Lord that, whoa. He told her because that was too, I don't know what I was, that I couldn't hear it. In my God, I knew that I should have repented right away.

But he told my mom because he knew that he can trust my mom with that message. And that's just one of the examples that my mom had. And she was an atheist. Like, I don't know the whole story because she truly, she won't, my mom won't share a lot of details. She just kind of keeps to herself. But I remember there's one story I have to tell you. This one is crazy. And I just recently found out.

And I'm probably missing a lot of details. But my mom was an atheist. She said over my dead body that I will join Christians. My dad has already started, he was an alcoholic for years. And so he became a believer, started already going that route. My mom was still, mm-mm. And they were married. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. And family, back then, you know, family nine, but back then I think that's just one or two. And I think her friend dropped off like a vodka-making machine in her house. She had to go outside of the country or outside of the city. And it was illegal. And it was interesting because every, Every night out of that vodka machine, spirits came out. There were like mermaids and cartoon characters, like different, like the, she doesn't go in detail,

but they would come up close to her face and she'd go, ah, and come back. And it's like every night after night after night. And eventually she got so scared she wouldn't go back and talk. Like, oh, and minor, major detail, my father was away on a working trip for a couple weeks. So he wasn't there to help her. and she was like they live in the apartment complex. She was scared to go back home, so she would stay outside for as long as possible

before she can go. And finally she went to my grandmother, and she told her, and my grandmother was a believer. And she was like, oh, my goodness, you need to go to church. And so she ran to church. That was like her introduction to the supernatural.

But it's interesting if you drive by, like a liquor store, you see beer, wine, and spirits. Yeah. Gives you a totally different meaning. Yeah, totally. See all of that. So your mom comes to Christ because the enemy was very apparent and real.

Yeah. It's wild. The supernatural, right? Yeah. But like what's that song? That one worship song, what the enemy meant for evil, God turned it for good, you know? And it's just like the overstepping at times. For instance, I'm in a season like that myself where with my wife, we were on, we were just, we were on this like, this track.

And, you know, like, I had just gotten back from filming a TV show with Troy Brewer. and I just spent like days with Troy and Joseph Z and Alan and she's being filled up right as a as a as a man and um I knew my wife had gotten uh like gone to the doctor to to be tested you know because they were they were they weren't sure what she had and uh we prayed about it there with them uh but I really didn't believe she had cancer like I was like she ain't got cancer. Like I like God, like I'm on like we're on a track here and then she doesn't have cancer. That ain't happening. And so when she got testing her and it's like, I'm not like that's not. And so when we prayed about it and stuff down in Texas, like I was like more like me just doing due diligence. Like I was just like, oh, I'm sorry about all these men. Let's pray about it, you know.

And then that week, not even a week later, find out that she has cancer. And bro, I can't even tell you how it happened, but there was a very apparent shift in me and in her almost immediately. For me, it was immediately. Like, I was like, I had just signed a book contract to write. And like literally God's doing all this stuff. And all of a sudden, bam. And I was like,

we're going to get through this. And then I'm going to spend the rest of my life kicking your teeth in. And that's where I'm at right now. Like when I told you earlier and I've been saying this publicly in different places, like I've becoming more militaristic. And I don't even know what that means totally. I don't know exactly how it looks. And I don't know how it's going to look from five years from now because I hope that I

grow as a soldier. But like all I want to do for the rest of my life is make him ever regret that he attacked my wife. And she's in the same situation. She doesn't know it yet. She's not like me. She's very introverted. So people have been talking to her, like my pastor's wife said, you know, God's not just calling Tony. He's calling you too. I just want you to know you're being called in ministry as well. And like, and my wife's like, you know, I'd rather just sit here and be quiet and support my husband, you know. But that's the rest of my life, man. Like the blueprint's been laid, you know, and that's where I'm at right now. I just, um,

I want to get as close as possible for the rest of my life to my father so that whenever I show up to the fight, he's right there next to me. It'll make you a lean athlete just like my father was talking about. Dude, when you're talking about that, that's how, like, I'm like, that's what I, one, that's what I want. That's what I desire to see in the church here in America. And then my question is, how do we get there? How do we get to the point where we have, we have millions upon millions. of potential soldiers. We have millions and millions of soldiers

that are at different stages of their training. How can we get to a point where we're on the same page and we are mean, lean, and on the front lines? I tell you something that recently I interviewed this lady, and she was possessed. I mean, anything bad that you can think of

happened to her. And Angel Gabriel appeared to her. It talked, like, she can hear him and said, this is Angel Gabriel. This is the first and last time you speak to me, like on this earth, I think that's how she took it. But here's what you need to do and told her

three-day dry fast and four-day water fast. This is in order to, you know, certain spirits come out only through prayer and fast, and there's different strongholds and things of that nature. And she said when she did the three-day dry fast, which is crazy to me, like no water. I've done like a five-day, but it was water, but three-day no water.

She said, it was tough. And four-day, followed by that. with water, she said she physically, or she heard audibly, chains broken off. And I think that's what, I don't see enough, I think the lifestyle prayer and fasting is going to be very important. I think just this whole, in the first world country especially, where we submit to the flesh too much. And I'm just, you know, contrast, compare, contrast my life in Eastern Europe and here, third world,

first world, I see how important it is prayer and fast. man, you tell any Christians, just like, can you press for it? And man, they'll struggle. Fasting for them, you know, I remember my dad fastening like 20 days. Something crazy like that. Like that was normal. Like the old church, like the church over there live lifestyle prayer and fasting. That's just like, that's just a norm.

And here I don't see a lot of that here. So, and I'm guilty of it myself. I mean, first world country is like, come on. You guys have pals here in Tennessee. I don't know if you've been to PALS yet. I haven't. Oh, it's delicious. Wait, what is it?

Pals Burger. Oh, Pals Burger. Okay. I don't need to derail because it's some good food here. You know what I mean? It is. It is. Yeah. Hard to say no. But I do think that there's something there. When you fast, there's this, I remember when we did a lot of fasting, not by choice, but when your stomach is fully become arrogant. When you're fast, when you tell your body, no, you listen to me, you submit to me. There's something happens. You feel things you don't, you've never felt before, emotions. You haven't. It's easy to pass. It's easy to pass. by a homeless person when your stomach is full and everything else. But when you're hungry, you're fasting, and all of a sudden you notice things you don't notice. You haven't noticed before. And there's something about strongholds too.

Fasting just takes care of it. And a lot of people just controlled too much. They're just kind of like fog. And fog lifts. Anybody who fast knows that you have clarity like never before. Yeah. And so that's something that the Lord lately has been kind of like on my heart. Like I need to incorporate prayer and fasting.

more in my life. I feel like it's where it starts because mom and dad are big on that. They fast, like every other day kind of thing. They never stopped that lifestyle. And I think that you hear better when there's no noise, right? And something else my dad said. It's like, you know, when I was on fire for the Lord, he said, I was so disconnected from, didn't read newspapers, books. I was, we were just, it was just, there was no noise. And these things, you know, I think that's another thing that just keeps you, if the devil can just keep you busy and distracted. I think that's another thing. It requires just intentionality. It's not that it's impossible. I remember one time I had a lunch with this Ukrainian guy at one of the conferences,

and he was there from Ukraine, and he's just like, oh, I would never move to United States. I'm like, why? It's like, oh, everyone to know that comes here becomes so passive and lukewarm. He's like, I just don't want that to happen to me. I remember thinking like, well, I mean, it's like, I get your point, but the same time, like, you should learn how to overcome it. It's probably a good thing to But yeah, when you're around comfort security, it's like the boiling lobster. I hate to use that example, but, you know, if you throw a lobster in boiling water, it'll crawl out. But if you just slowly turn up the heat, it'll boil with that even though. And so that's how passivity creeps in and just slowly over time.

You don't notice it. One little compromise here leads to another compromise here. And before you don't use them out, you're like, wow, how did I get here? And I think that's why the enemy is so patient, just keeps you busy, distracted. good things. I mean, I've seen people in ministry can get so distracted with good things. Yeah. But it's still a distraction. Very much. You know, it's funny

you bring up the word distraction because that's something that I've been really, I guess, honing in on that realizing that the battle between God and Satan and the complexities of the spiritual realm and these

fallen angels who rebelled against God, the goal the goal isn't to one day be able to chop the head off of God because the war isn't about killing God. It's about killing the ones God loves. And so it's a war where they're distracting us from God. It's not a matter of will you worship Satan. It's not a matter of will you, will you um i can't i can't think of any other examples right now it's it's literally can we just get your eyes off him that's it we if we can get your loyalty broken to him and your eyes off him we win it's it's the distraction aspect is such a huge piece of this and that's why i'm

fighting it myself i've been realizing uh how distracted i get with what i do and my my life and and I understand like right now I'm in a season where I am very distracted like I'm doing a lot more stuff that I didn't have to before because my wife was she is my partner and so like she handles a lot of stuff she still is but it's like you know like for instance you know I dropped the kids off of school and in about an hour from now I have to picking them up from school you know and it's just like I'm crunching so much in my schedule and I'm getting distracted and And, you know, the other day, I went to bed. Well, I didn't go to bed.

I'm sleeping on the couch right now because my kids are waking up in the middle of night. And I don't want them waking mama, so I stay up on the couch so that I can intercept the kids. And so I'm not sleeping great. And I'm laying there on the couch, and I'm like, I haven't read my word today. It was like 11.30. And I was like, the distraction set in. And I was like, I've been very distracted, you know. And I didn't read my word.

be completely transparent. I was laying there and like, I'm tired. I'm going to bed. But in that moment, I was very aware that I was being distracted. And again, it comes into the military side of it, militaristic. I'm like, we're going to do better tomorrow. Tomorrow when I wake up. And I was in my weakness there because looking back at, I was like, just get up and just put the, put the, put the motion, like you're feeling it. Put the motions in and I didn't do it. But I went to sleep and I was like, okay, I see the tactic, you know. And so I woke up the next day with this like energy to not be distracted, right? And then I think it was like last week, if I'm thinking, remember correctly. And then the last, not today, but two days ago, I woke up with this like, I called my pastor last night to talk about it. I woke up with this like, I don't know how to describe it other than like a spiritual groaning. Like, um, my, this, my, my, this, my, my, my, my, my, spirit was groaning for the opportunity to share like my faith with somebody and uh the next day yesterday morning woke up again just this groaning like just like just like i literally came in here

yesterday and i was like all right i'm gonna i'm gonna do my interview because i had somebody else in here yesterday and when i pick up the kids i'm going to stop by the grocery store and i'm going to buy mom flowers with them so i'm going to be that example and like a lot of that stuff goes in my head too i want my son to see how to treat his wife and all that stuff. But the reason why we're going in there get mom flowers, so that's the excuse. I'm going to look for somebody that I can buy their groceries for and share the gospel with them, right? I got out here late yesterday and didn't happen, but that plan didn't happen, but the groaning was there in the morning and the focus and not distraction of what God wanted was there. And I didn't pray.

about it. I didn't, I didn't spend time yesterday morning saying, Lord, please give me an opportunity, but he read the heart. The groaning was there. He heard the cry and he presented an opportunity where I could just, I mean, brother, I had like, I had those Holy Spirit goosebumps. Like, I had the opportunity to share yesterday that was just amazing, you know. But if we're distracted and we're not seeing we're distracted, it's like becoming. fat, you know, you're not fasting and you're just not putting the reps in and you're getting, you're just, you don't know what it is to be hungry spiritually, you know, and so it's, you're bringing up the fasting aspect of this and there's, I feel like fasting and I'm not like a

theologian, I don't, but I feel like fasting is something that we can do in the physical that has spiritual reps to it. Like it's us working out spiritually, but something we do in the physical to work out spiritually. Does it make sense? Well, absolutely. And it makes you think about this. If you fast from technology and food and just sit there, it makes you realize how dependent you are,

like how you are almost like addicted to those things. And it's cut off the two things, food, and like being distracted from entertainment, all of a sudden, it's like, whoa, who am I? What's going on? I like this quote, you don't always get your goals, but you always get your standard.

And I think just a lot of people where they struggle with it, just never took the time to set a standard. You know what I mean? Yeah. Because you always default to your standard. Whatever your standard is.

And most people set high goals, but there's no standards. Kind of like when you work out, there's the safety bar where you drop it always falls to it. That's the way I look at. It's like, I think Michael Jordan,

somebody says, wants to make a decision, they never revisited again. They made that firm decision. Because a lot of times, that lukewarm actually if you think about lukewarm being the middle is the worst place because you too much bandwidth is like unresolved loop that's never been closed it's like once you commit once you get clear everything clears up and it's most people just need to just make a firm

decision once you make the firm decision it's like it's like my situation when I was still working that job that I hated but I was just kind of like I knew I had to make a decision but I was kicking the can down the road but once it made that firm decision like that's it This is it. All of a sudden, peace, joy, clarity came because you committed. You cut something out. You made a firm decision.

And as I talk to these people, you know, I talk to hundreds of people, I'm seeing a lot of it is just people just have a shaky standard. Once you raise your standards, like, I don't care who doesn't pray it. I'm going to pray it. I don't care who doesn't read the word.

I'm going to read the word. And it's just standards. Who you are. Like, I go to the gym. That's my standard. I do X, Y, and Z. That's my, like, as a business owner or you have a standard.

You don't, it's like, if I don't make this many calls a day, my business suffers. My standard is at least this many phone calls from me to function. And I think if everyone just kind of got a pen and paper, got along with God, and really set higher standards, keep yourself to higher standards, it's hard at first. It's like running is tough when you're out of shape. But once you get in shape, it's not that hard at all.

You know, I know people run like 20 miles a day and they're fine. But it's like the standard. is where most people just don't take the time. They just go, and time flies. Time goes by so fast. And I just highly encourage everyone to get alone and put some standards in place. That's really, I feel like that's really encouraging. I hope people will find it really encouraging.

Just to understand that like the difference between goals and standards. When you said that quote, I was like, wow, wow, wow. I'm going to have to pull back the transcript and just get that quote written down. I got somewhere else. There's no copyright in that, hopefully. Yeah. I mean, it's just, it's so true. I mean, you set goals, but without the standard to achieve the goals, the goals usually don't get met. And that can go for careers, that can go for spiritually, that can go for getting out of bad spiritual situations, you know, like people can be

so lost in a spiritual fog where they're having, you know, demonic oppression, demonic attacks. people go through and you've talked to people like this. I've talked to people like this. It's like it's not just a one-time thing where they had sleep paralysis. They're constantly having sleep paralysis. They're constantly being attacked by demons. And you can have the goal of, I want to get away from this stuff, but what's the strategy? And you have to be honest with yourself, you know?

Like, what is the strategy to stop this demonic oppression in my life? you know and sometimes you have to look in the mirror and realize that there is a spiritual component to what you're going through that is happening because of your lack of consistency with your pursuit of seriousness when it comes to your relationship with God and I really believe that you know what you said there the goals and the standards are two separate things And the sooner people realize that, things get better. Yeah, and people in third world countries, the reason why they see more miracles

is because you just have higher standards. What's that saying? I forget who said it, but something about if some of the Christians to convict them, I forget how it goes, but basically, Matt told they butcher that one. You can all run the last one. And sometimes, you know, you will hear people working. Like, there's one example that pops in my mind.

And I remember thinking, this guy, I didn't know he was a Christian, but at the end he was like, I'm a Christian too. He was like whispering in the workplace, right? I was like, wow, I would have never guessed that you're a Christian, you know. There's no fruit. Your standards are pretty low.

So I think it all goes back to, you know, like the third world countries, for example. The standards are higher. They do things that others aren't willing. You've got to do what others aren't willing to do. Who's willing to fast? Who's willing to pray? Who's willing to search and dig deep? And I think a lot of people's problems would go away

if they just did things that others, first of if they made a firm decision. If you truly believe that God it heals, how can you walk by a person who's sick and not pray for him? If you truly...

And I think it just takes faith. You've just got to be faithful in little. Start praying for your headache to go away. Most people don't even just run to a pill right away. It's small. I remember early on my marriage, I've been married for 15 years. My wife was 20 when I got married.

When we got married, I was 23. And I remember on first, 21st birthday party, I invited a bunch of people for a sushi party. I was going to make sushi for everybody. And I was very excited. And right before the birthday, I had to pay tuition where I stayed and something happened. It wiped me out, completely. It wiped me out.

I didn't have enough money for rent. So I'm like, oh, my gosh. So I went to the closet and I was like, Lord, I'm being responsible. I'm not over here, party and doing, making bad decisions. trying to be a good provider. But man, either you show up or it's going to be embarrassing. I don't want to reach out to people and ask for things. Next day, Tony, like these checks come in the mail, like refunds from,

there was like a grant from Ohio State or from some things. Anyway, just enough cash to pay for my rent. It's like supernatural. I was like, wow. And then, well, the party is the next day. And I don't have enough money for supplies. And I went in the closet again. Like, Lord, that was awesome.

but have people coming over, I need a miracle. And I was asking in faith. I was believing it was going to happen. The next day, second round of checks came in, right? Wow. But think about most people's first choice. And again, I'm a human being. We go in and not faith all the time.

Most people would have probably rent to a credit card or something, opened a new credit card, open this and that. It doesn't require much faith to do that. But what if you first decided to seek first. the kingdom of God, His righteousness. What did he ran to the father first? I'll give you another quick example. Again, you've got to be very creative in the first world country to exercise your faith.

My youngest brother, Dimitri, I remember he was telling me, on purpose, he was working, he would not bring lunch to work. And I'm not saying to do this, but he did it and it worked. He said, he just wanted to exercise faith. And so he did not bring lunch. And he's like, Lord, I pray that you provide for my lunch today. And he says, Vlad, I kid, you're not. People pop in.

He's like, have an extra apple. You want it? Someone's like, I have a bag of chips. you want. And his lunch would be provided. I mean, it wasn't like Chipotle Barrito or anything. I love Chipotle, by the but it was still God provided for his lunch. It was not hungry. But again, it's this faith thing, it's a muscle. You've got to exercise it on small levels. You don't start trying to move, you know, 500 pounds. Start small.

Start believing God for little things. Just praying, you know, for example, headache instead of running to get a pill or something, just stop and pray for it. Did nothing happen? Pray again. Nothing have. Pray again. Well, at least you're exercising your faith. It takes time. I remember my sister, and I hate to call her out on this, but she's like, oh, fly, I want to start the YouTube channel. It's now. I'm like, oh, she said something about like, she already recorded.

Oh, I asked her, how many videos did you post before? She's like, well, I started, didn't work. I think I recorded three videos. I'm like, can you imagine going to the gym three times and expecting to be, like, cut up? And it's like, no, like record at least a hundred. And then come to some kind of conclusions, right? When some people might say, like, well, I've never seen anybody get healed. I'm like, well, how many people should pray for?

Yeah, put in the reps. See what happens, you know? Anyway, put in the reps. That's kind of like the theme. And in faith. And sometimes put in the reps, even when you don't feel like it. Just believe that this is what you've got to do. Sometimes you wake up in the morning.

My dad was telling me an example of this one, a wealthy businessman that he was mentoring, he wanted to pray, but he could, he wanted to get closer to God, but he couldn't just pray for more than like a minute. And so my dad for like a whole month, he would come and pray with my dad. My dad would just pray with him. And now this man is doing amazing things, prayer life, but you got to break through, you got to put in the reps. You got to break through the distractions, the noise, the things. And the best way that I know how is through putting in the reps. Just setting the alarm clock, wake up and just even if, for example, the gym, if you want to get fit.

Even just by going to the gym, just walk around and turn around and leave. And then do the same thing next day. And then next day. And then you'll pick up a weight or something. Slowly but surely you'll bump into somebody. It will show you the ropes. But you've got to just commit. You've got to commit that you're not going to quit.

Same thing with prayer. Just wake up five minutes, one minute. Start small. And then every day increase little by little. Before you know it, that channel will, your conversation with Lord will open up wider and wider, you'll hear them better. And that's, I think it all goes back to the basics. All goes back to the basics. Vladimir, where can people find you? God's VoiceDade.com is where you can find my YouTube channel or God's Voice Daily. I have two.

One, a post daily, the other one weekly. So I'm going to call you Vladimir P. How do you pronounce the last name? Prognetsky. Sorry. Prognifsky. Say that like five o'clock in the morning. Sometimes like, what's your name? I will not. You call me just Vlatsky.

There you go. Perfect. I appreciate you coming out today. Thank you so. I think it was a good conversation, man. Enjoyed it. Awesome. The complexities of growth.

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