The Eric Metaxas Show - Shawn Bolz

Episode Date: March 8, 2022

Shawn Bolz has a new book that could help you be prepared for what's just around the bend, "Encounter: A Spiritual Perspective That Will Shape Your Faith for the Coming Move of God."

Folks, welcome to the Eric Metaxus show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy p.m.investments.com. That's legacy p.m. Investments.com. Taxis show with your host, Eric Mettaxas. Folks, welcome to hour to the Eric Metaxis show. I want to remind you again, we're doing a fundraiser with food for the poor. In these crazy times, we all need to do something good. I'm asking you, please, if you listen to this program, go to metaxis talk.com and click on the banner and give something. Giving monthly may be the better solution. You can give a small amount monthly, but they really need our help. I'll talk more about that at the end of the program. But right now we're talking to Johns Merak. John Smirak, I want to remind people, you write pieces at stream.org. And there's a piece by Jason Jones at stream. which I put out on social media, helping us understand the context of where we are right now.

But let's go back to your article. You say that Lindsey Graham called for the assassination of Putin in a way, I guess for a United States Senator to do that, it is tantamount to what happened. that kicked off World War I before there were nuclear weapons, 1914, and that this is at least extraordinarily irresponsible, and he should be censured, Senator Graham. Absolutely. Because we're talking about millions of people could die because of him being so foolish in his position as a senator.

That's right. And I think the U.S. Senate should act to censure Lindsey Graham. So that, first of all, because he deserves it. I mean, he's tweeting like a 17-year-old Iranian terrorist in some safe house in the suburbs of Paris. He'd be insanely reckless, irresponsible, criminally foolish, and criminally reckless. It's wrong. He's encouraging someone's murder. He's encouraging a revolution in a force.

foreign country where there's no way to know how it would turn out. It could turn out far worse. You could have communists come back, actual communists come back. He doesn't care. Lindsay Graham doesn't care what happens in Russia. He doesn't care what happens in Ukraine. He never cared what happens in Syria. These neocons don't care about the people of foreign countries. They don't care if they all die or are all enslaved by Islamic jihadists. They care about feeling tough. They care. They care about briefly raising their flagging testosterone count by strutting and preening in front of the mirror like foghorn leghorn from Looney Tunes. I do declare that vitamin Putin is a literally Hitler.

Ah, I do declare. No, what? But to be clear, Lindsay Graham, when he said what he said during the Kavanaugh hearings, it really was heroic. It was his finest hour. but the problem is when you have people like Lindsay Graham, you cannot help that everything he does is a political calculation, that this was a political calculation more than anything else.

That's right. And, you know, Lindsay Graham votes for every left-wing lunatic that the Democrats throw up for the Supreme Court. If they nominated to Juana Brawley, Lindsay Graham would find an excuse to support her as a justice for the Supreme Court. So when he complained about Kavanaugh, all he was complaining about was, I thought we all just approved each other's nominees. I thought that was the deal. Y'all are cheating.

You all are cheating. I vote for your extremists. You should vote for our frat boy. It's not fair. So Lindsey Graham is an instance of everything that is wrong, not just with the Republican Party, but really with the human race. But maybe that's going too broad. Lindsey Graham votes against border control. Lindsay Graham voted against Donald Trump in 2016.

He boasted he did not vote for him for president. Lindsay Graham as head of the Senate Judiciary Committee did absolutely nothing to reign in the deep state. He would go on Sean. He would go on. Let's go back. Let's go back because this is to me important. In 2016, the Republican Lindsey Graham boasted that he did not. vote for Donald Trump. So he effectively would have preferred a Hillary Clinton presidency. Right.

To a Donald Trump presidency. Now it's fine. If you don't like Trump, it's America. But you are a leader in the GOP. And you, Lindsay Graham, stood bravely in saying that I did not vote for Donald Trump, just as George W. Bush and others did not vote for Donald Trump. Some of the Bushies actually voted for Hillary Clinton, which is an astonishing, absolutely astonishing thing. We should never forget this. You know, never forget and never forget because they'll never repent. Lindsay Graham on January 6th told the Capitol Police to shoot protesters. He said, you have guns.

Go use them. He literally told the Capitol Police to shoot unarmed non-man. violent protesters. If it were up to Lindsay Graham, there would have been 20 or 40 or 60 dead Americans like Ashley Babbitt. So it doesn't surprise me that this bloodthirsty, effeminate weirdo now is flirting with nuclear war with Russia because it makes him look tough. He may be bloodthirsty. He may be effeminate. He's not a weirdo. You need to take that back. All right. Okay. That went above and beyond. By the way, I am now calling for two wedgies, two wedgies, perhaps an atomic wedgy, but I don't like to go nuclear. That's right. That's right. Well, in my base at stream

dot org, I talk about nonviolent ways to deal with the Lindsay Graham problem. And yes, the U.S. Senate should censure him. I think they should actually impeach him, try him, and remove him from office. You know, like they did to Donald Trump for colluding with Russia. Oh, wait, that was all made up. This isn't made up. He's trying to start a nuclear war with Russia, just to make himself feel tough. He should be removed from the Senate in disgrace. He should be removed from public office.

The voters of South Carolina should realize he's been stabbing them in the back for 30 years, replacing their jobs with cheap immigrants, voting for pro-abortion nominees to the Supreme Court. He wanted to shoot down the January 6th. six demonstrators. And now he wants your kids to maybe die in a nuclear mushroom cloud. I don't know what drives this bizarre little man. He really should be wearing a flower print dress, handing out hymnals in the back of a Baptist church in some small town.

But anyway, Aunt Lindsay has got to be taken out of the Senate one way or the other. I prefer nonviolent needs. I think of him as if you remember, you know, John Ritter and Three's company. I think I think of Lindsey Graham as the Mrs. Roper of the Senate. I just want to be very clear. Or Aunt B. No, no, Aunt B is too good. The Mrs. Roper of the Senate, John, Lindsay Graham.

Look, let's be clear. He's done a lot of bad things. he's sort of, he's sort of, there are people like Lindsay Graham and Mitch McConnell who during Trump's tenure in office did some good things and said some right things. And I think it's because they are very astute politically. They can kind of read the wind. And they said, now's the time for me to be brave on this or to be brave on that. So it's not like they never do any good things. It's just that there's such political calculators that even when they do a good thing, it's for the wrong reasons. So I just want to be clear.

But he has a record of doing the wrong thing over and over and over again. You've been talking about some of it. But what he just did, John, again, to focus on this tweet where he's calling for somebody to assassinate Putin, I think for a U.S. Senator to do that, you are quite right. He needs to be censured by the Senate. This literally easily could have led to a nuclear war. this is not a small thing. This is very serious.

But remember, Donald Trump's mean tweets were a major, major problem for people like David French. Will David French denounce this mean tweet? Will never Trump questions? Will David French denounce this mean tweet? I'm holding my breath starting. Actually, I'm not going to hold my breath.

John, it's just a joy to talk to you. Ladies and gentlemen, please go to stream.org. It's important. Read his articles. Read Jason Jones's article stream.org. And more important, share them with your friends. John, thank you. Thank you. Everything we do. Generations. Generation is love and time. Hey, folks, I've got to tell you a secret about relief factor that the father, son, owners, Pete and Seth Talbot, have never made a big deal about. But I think it is a big deal. I really do. They sell the three-week quick start pack for just 1995 to anyone's struggling from pain like neck, shoulder, back, hip, or knee pain, 1995, about a dollar a day.

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That's inspireinsight.com. Go there. Hey, folks. As you know, I love to get to international sports stars on the program. And Albin and I tried very hard. to get the Jamaican sprinter, Hussein Bolt, on the program. But in the end, it didn't work out. I said, Abin, what can we do to salvage this disaster?

And he said, well, Hussein Bolt is not available, but what about Sean Bolts? And I was like, Sean Bolt, he's like a pastor in the L.A. area. Is he a sprinter also? Doesn't seem so. but I looked into Sean Bolts and it turns out I like this guy maybe more than Hussein Bolt. And I said, let's get him on the program. We tried to get him on the program. And you know what happened, right?

We got him on the program. Sean Bolt's welcome. I'm so glad to be here, Eric. This is awesome. I'm not going to ask you to sprint, but I'd like to talk to you about a lot of stuff. You're somebody that I've followed you a little bit and I thought when I heard that you had a book out, the book is called Encounter, that it would be great to have you on the program. So you're a pastor in Los Angeles.

Yeah, I'm a pastor in Los Angeles, but I actually do more TV ministry. I'm on TV like you are, and I do a lot of hosting a podcast. And we're creating a conversation for what God is doing right now. It's so easy to see what he's not doing. It's so easy to see what people are doing wrong and what the enemy is doing. But seeing what God's doing is really profound right now. I know that is true, and it's one of the reasons I want to. you on the program because a lot of people wouldn't know that because if you look around the news media

let's face it they're not covering things as they are that's putting it really mildly and there are dramatic things i just had dinner with mario marillo the other day and he started sharing things with me and i said why do most americans have no idea that there's revival happening lives are being changed you would just think it's it's hopelessness wherever you look and and in part because of the hopelessness, it's driving some people to God. So there's a good side to the ugly. But so you're the host, I'm sorry, you're the host of a program, obviously on TBN, but also your pastor of a church. And the title of your book, the new book that I want to talk to you about is called Encounter,

a spiritual perspective that will shape your faith for the coming move of God. What do you mean by that, the coming move of God? Well, you know, the last time that Christianity moved forward in a major way in America was during a period called the Jesus people movement. It was the late 60s, early 70s. And we'd about 18 million people get saved, not church-centricly around one church. But it started in Southern California,

but it went all around the world. And it was reported by news media and on the cover of Time magazine and all these places. And the least likely people group were the ones who were used to bring this, which was the hippie community. And so it's just really interesting

how God used the least likely. But I believe we're facing another season where there's a move of God. And before that happened, there was about 15 years of dark. where there was moral decay and free love, free drug culture, all these things started happening. People start leaving nuclear family. Just like today, nuclear family was down to about 8% during those years, just a few years.

And so people started to leave. Kind of iniquity was the big thing. Like, people, inequity being a wrong mindset through the way we believe psychologically, through the way we believe, you know, kind of humanism was rampant. A lot of socialism was rampant. And then Jesus showed up. Then the Holy Spirit came and just supernaturally brought his presence to the earth. and many people got saved. It was very easy, and I've talked to many pastors, and I don't know if you know this, but 85% of senior pastors in America today were saved during that period of time, whether it was as a result of that revival or just coincidence that it was that period of time.

Oh, yeah. And a lot of them are aging out now. It's a fact. You're right. And I want to get your story, too, Sean. So before you came to be the pastor of this church in Los Angeles, where did you grow up and when did you come to faith? Well, I grew up, my parents were first generation Christians, and my dad was a colonel in Air Force, and he's retired now. And my parents got stationed down here during that Jesus People movement. And so I was really imprinted by that. And I never had a time away from God. I always knew God. But I wanted to see if what we were seeing inside of church culture could work anywhere. And so I had started to go to, like, extreme missions.

I feel like I was the jackass missionary because I would go out just like to show Jackass and go to like red light districts and war zones. You'd like ride a mini bike off of a cliff with a Jesus flag type of thing? We would do really radical things and we would do missions at the same time in different countries, you know, whatever sport we could do or jumping out of airplanes or whatever. But we would see radical things happen, like the same things that were happening in charismatic Pentecostal church cultures. We would see that in the dumps of a war zone with children who were orphans who had no other alternatives or in IDP camps. And so I spent, you know, the last up until I was married, I spent about 20 years going to extreme places. to see if the kingdom would work in those places and the same way we see it. And we hear reports in church cultures around the world.

And I wanted to see if that was real. And so that was my background's a little extreme. I did extreme missionary tourism because I only went for like a week at a time. And then I also spoke in the church at some of the greatest churches in the world for many years. I usually speaking about 60 churches a year, but I've taken some time off because I'm producing right now. But man, it's amazing what God's doing right now if you have eyes to see it like what you said with Mario Murillo. So my background is I want to see if God will touch extreme places of culture and extreme places where people can't see God without the Holy Spirit showing up. So I'm in Hollywood.

I minister in Hollywood in Los Angeles. And I also do a lot of stuff with the poor still. You and I in many ways think very similarly. And it's exciting to hear you say this stuff. I'm in Manhattan in New York City. It's very similar to Hollywood. It's extremely secular. And you do get the impression that people have been so in.

unaculated against faith in the God of the Bible, that unless a miracle happens, unless God blows their mind by showing up in a way that people say, well, I don't know if God does that anymore. Well, when God does that, everything changes. And that kind of thing is happening. And so when you said you're producing right now, what are you producing? Because I know you're involved in entertainment somehow. So I do entertainment consulting, but right now we're producing a faith-based film for, actually a mainstream film with faith-based kind of seeds in it for children. So we're doing an animated film with Conrad cartoon studios. And then I'm also producing for TV in a couple more shows. And so I have a show called Discovering God on TV and we're doing some more stuff. But we really focus on when it comes to their faith-based stuff, I really focus on hearing God's voice because I believe that hearing God's voice is the secret sauce of Christianity. And it's what's really going to bring us into that place of seeing what God's doing and understanding his perceptions. And the book really goes into this where Solomon was the first one in history to ask

God. Can I think the way you do? Can I perceive your thoughts so that I can lead your people? And so the book really starts out. The first chapter goes into, what if we share the neurology of God, neuropathways, and we start to get, you know, illuminated thoughts from his spirit? Because Paul says in first Corinthians, too, the Holy Spirit searches the deepest parts of God and then relates them to us. And we have the perceptions of Christ. And the clearest image of that is when Solomon led the people of Israel. And so we've really been focusing on how do we connect to God. I mean, it's the most popular subject. Google, Christianity, what are Christians thinking about? Hearing God's voice is number one.

So I focused our ministry for the last 10 years on how does the average person hear God's voice in a way that affects them and the world around them, where they could translate what he's saying in a real way. Well, there is nothing more important. And, you know, it's a very hot debate, right? Because there are people, myself included, that sometimes get frustrated because of course I want to hear from God, but I haven't heard from him recently or I don't, you know, this is normal.

and I think I'm glad you address it in your new book Encounter because I think that people are hungry and listen the easy religious answer I can hear people right now and say, oh, you want to hear from God, read the Bible. Yeah, we already know that. So shut up, because we already know that. We know that God speaks to the Bible, but we know that he also speaks in other ways.

But I would say if you want to get a running start, like takeoff, like you want to, you want flight, the running start, the runway, read the Bible. The more you read the Bible, the more you're already thinking God's thoughts with him, because God will never speak in a way that contradicts the Bible. But I want to talk to you more about what you think people can do to hear from God, you know, other than read the Bible, which we should be doing anyway, but I think we can do it with a kind of expectation that God wants to speak to us.

through the Bible. Well, in the book is actually a bunch of encounters that I've had that help give people faith because a lot of times when you read someone else's encounter, it's hard to read because you have to digest the way that they think and the way that they operate and the way that their church background is. But I really feel like this book was written in a way that everybody can relate. And it's a series of encounters that makes you feel more known by God and closer to God because you start to see God's original image in his original design of how he designed us

that he thought of us for the equivalent of millions of years each before we were were even created and he was so creative as a as a father over us and so I go into some encounters that whether they're parabolic or they're literal I don't know but I think that when I say parabolic metaphorical like if it's god just related it that way so I'd understand it because Jesus did that so much of the parables so in hearing God's voice I think you know we we all whether you're conservative evangelical or you're charismatic or pentacola it doesn't matter it doesn't matter we all really do God's voice because conviction of sin when you feel bad about something that you didn't mean to do or that you intentionally did and then God shows you you shouldn't have done it, you will not lead

yourself in a conviction. So if you know you need to change in some area, that was the Holy Spirit. You heard from God or sometimes to give money finances. I mean, Jesus talked about finances 20 times or more. And so when you talk about like God showing you to give some of your money, we get grief as humans to give money away unless it's something that really gives us an emotional high. And tithing doesn't give us an emotional high. As a matter of fact, it's frustrating for most Christians, but there's something inside of us that says, I'm going to tie my value system to God. So a lot of us get compelled to give in ways that aren't comfortable.

And that's another way we hear from God. But then there's, on top of that, God is speaking to us in ways that transform our inner life. And then also help us to see our purpose. That's the most important right there. When we come back, I want to talk about that. We're talking to Sean Bolts, B-O-L-Z. The book is Encounter. Don't go away. In case you haven't been paying attention, the Biden administration has caused a

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also ship gold and precious metals safely and securely to your house. Call Legacy at 866-528-1903 or visit them online at LegacyPMinvestments.com. Well, my daddy left home when I was three and he didn't leave much. Tomorrow and me, just this old guitar and an empty bottle of boo. Folks, welcome back. I'm talking to Sean Bolts, B-O-L-Z. And if you thought I was being serious about wanting to get Hussein Bolt the sprinter on, actually that was a joke.

Okay, so Sean Bolts, you're the one that I've always wanted to speak to. I'm speaking to you now. the book is encounter and you're going through a number of ways that we can connect to God. Because a lot of people sometimes they get the impression that the Christian faith is very dry. It's very cerebral. So keep going. Well, and I would say, you know, we had this way, and thank you for having me on the show, we have this way of being wired.

God wired us for connection. And we see that all through the Bible because he's pursuing the children of Israel and he's pursuing the church for a deep connection. And if you take all the times of God spoke to the normal average person out of the Bible, we have nothing left. This is what God does. And he encounters us. And when he encounters us, it really gives us different options that aren't on the table right now. Like a lot of things we're dealing with politically or a lot of things we're dealing with the social justice issues, the way that the world would go after him is it's just, it's half vision. It's not full vision. And so we see

the options of half vision people. We see the options of a man's best effort. But we're looking as Christians for a result that we can't get out of our own skill, our talent, our education, our socioeconomic status, our racial background. We're looking at it. looking for a result that only God could bring in. When we really give our lives to Jesus and really surrender, we start to get options and our pursuit with them that cause us to have something happen that's not us, but is God. And that's a beautiful thing about the life of surrender is that God does something

through us that we couldn't do for ourselves. But that's really to affect the influence that we would carry too. Because I think we're supposed to be, and I go through this in the book, we're supposed to be more like Joseph's serving in Pharaoh's house, not on the other end of Israel, like going, oh, I hope someone saves us from this famine, but on the other end of actually influencing saying, hey, you had a dream, here's the interpretation, we're supposed to help the whole land by storing up,

and then we're recession proof when the recession comes of food or when the supply chain. And I feel like we're in that place again, where God's raising up people to have a word or to have a message for the pharaohs or to have it for the influencers so that we all go forward. We all move forward in God's plan. For God to love the whole world, not just churches,

not just Christians, but for the whole world, God has a plan. Well, there's no doubt about that. And of course, it's what you're saying is, is this is how God wants to use us to draw people to himself. Because we have supernatural access to the Lord of creation. And he wants us, like you mentioned, Joseph or Daniel, they're characters in the scripture whom the Lord uses to blow people's minds to say, I am God, I am real, I can help you. Why don't you turn to me?

you know and but but i but i think you're right i think a lot of christians that they don't really um they just don't have a sense that god could use them that way yeah we've been creating your conversations through our podcast i have a podcast called the exploring series and uh it's really interesting because we've had people in the marketplace and just who are working job normal jobs everywhere doctors and lawyers venture capitalists farmers and they've been sharing how they've heard from god and how it's made a difference in their career and so we're seeing this like what you see what Solomon had where he actually develops the whole city. It wasn't just the temple. It wasn't just the spiritual thing that we can see, but everything was spiritual. The city infrastructure,

transportation, the way they did agriculture, the way they did education judicial system. And it became a place of almost spiritual tourism where it says that every known kingdom would send somebody or else the leader would come to see how he ruled this kingdom. And the queen if she becomes, and this is in my book, she comes and she looks around and she sees what's happening. And she says, surely God loves his people, your God, because he raised. of a man like you and she begins to worship God, not because he evangelized her, but because she saw what God was like through him. And I really believe that this coming move of God isn't just evangelism that we've seen in the past, but it's also people seeing what does family look like. We're

wired for nuclear family, husband, wife, children. And so when you have somebody who has confusion in that area of what should family look like and they see something that has health in it, that has God in the middle of it, that's God's design. They go, I want that. Like, I don't care what I was choosing before. I want what you have. And so in the book, I'm giving a hope-filled perspective that God has wired us a certain way that works, not just, it's not a controlling wiring, but it's a way that he knew we would thrive. John 1010, where Jesus says you're going to live in abundant life. And so I believe we're wired that way. So when we come back to that wiring, when we display that revival happens. Well, it's interesting because I mean, I didn't think I'd bring

it up, but I've written, I guess in my book, if you can keep it, I write about Alexis de Tocqueville coming to the United States, 1826, whatever it was, and seeing prosperity, liberty, joy, and he sees that the churches are at the heart of it. And many people wouldn't even ask beyond that, they would just go, we want this. Where we are, we don't have this. Where we are, we have very dead religion,

we don't have liberty, we don't have, and here I see something going on. What is this? I want this. And people from around the world have, come to the United States and been exposed to actual Christianity just because they say, we don't know what you have, but it's infinitely better than what we had. And then, of course, they often discovered that at the heart of it is faith in the God of the Bible, institutions

dreamt up by people who believe in the God of the Bible. So this is a long history from Solomon, you know, through the founders and until today. Today. What else do you say? in your book again the book folks it's encounter we're talking to sean bolts b o l z uh who has a program obviously on t bn um and it's encounter a spiritual perspective that will help that will shape your faith for the coming move of god so you do believe sean that we are in a movement right now we're on the verge of something because many people have been saying this why do you say this well i say this for two reasons one is that there's more people according to all the missions groups whether you look at y-wam or you look at the highest missions organizations

Barna Group statistics, these kinds of things. There's more people being saved today on the earth than there ever has been by far. I think it's by 10 times. But it's mostly in the Middle East and China. And so we're seeing these movements and it doesn't really affect the Western world. So the average Christian in North America, the average Christian in one of these countries that may be watching today, you may not feel it. You may feel the political pressure, the financial, you know, we're in almost a recession because of inflation. So you may feel that.

But the reality is that if you open your eyes, God's bringing the kingdom and advancing it. He's setting up the Middle East and China. China for something that's a tipping point, really. I agree. We're going to be right back, folks, talking to Sean Bolts, B-O-L-Z. The book is Encounter. Hey, folks, if you listen to this program, of course, you've heard me talk at infinitum about my pillow and my friend Mike Lindell. Well, Mike has just announced that you will receive one of his books, and the book is

next level insane. It is called What Are the Odds from Crack Attic to CEO? It's his story. You will receive it absolutely. free with any purchase using the promo code Eric. Did you hear that? It would be a great time, by the way, to buy his warm and wonderful My Slippers. For a limited time, he's offering 50% off my slippers. We all wear them in my extended family, my slippers, check it out. 50% off. Go to Mypillar.com. Click on the radio listeners square and use promo code Eric. You'll also get deep discounts on all

my pillow products, including some overstock products, such as individual towels, blankets, its comforters and much more. Or call 800, 978, 3057. That's 800, 978, 3057. Use the promo code. Eric. Hey, folks, welcome back. I'm talking to Sean Bolz, B-O-L-Z.

The book is Encounter. Sean, we're talking about a lot of stuff. And one of the things, one of the themes here is that I think sometimes people think in religious ways that they keep in a little religious box. And they forget that God wants to use our faith to touch every. thing. And even when you're talking about the simple issue of liberty right now with the truckers in Canada, there is revival happening in those places that people are realizing we're in a war. People are trying to take away our liberty. And who are often the loudest voices is Christians

who say, yes, God wants us to be free. God wants us to understand how we're supposed to function. and we're not supposed to function the way Marxists do, the way socialist do, we're supposed to be free. And so, you know, you're getting stories at some of these truckers rallies in places like Canada. People get the microphone. I love it. And they're sharing the gospel of Jesus. Absolutely. This is something that God is doing.

It's amazing. Well, and I think of like every great move of God of revival that actually hit a nation, like Argentine revival, Welsh Revival, the UK revival of the 14, 1500s. It start with a little minority of Christians who weren't loud and were possibly even passive. And then all of a sudden something woke them up to say this isn't right. We need to stand against injustice. We need to stand for the kingdom. And it's happening again today. It's happening in America.

It's happening in Canada. And we're going to hear more and more that. You're one of the conversation leaders is driving a narrative of what God is doing and what Christians are doing, what people are seeing and the impact of their faith. I think when you read a book like encounter and help set up at the foundation in your heart to say, wait, God is with us in a really unique way right now. and I need to believe and see that. And I've got incredible feedback from the book, more so than any of our other books recently. It's just so crazy to see people who read this and feel like I have a vision now.

It's activated things that God's put in me from a long time ago and I'm ready. Like it's a now time. And I think that we need these kinds of resources right now. Well, I really do think that people, even when they don't know that it's God, God is speaking sometimes in circumstances. but do you write in the book about, you know, what we would call actual miraculous encounters about hearing from God, dreams, visions, that kind of thing? Yeah, so it's basically a series of encounters that I had, and I don't always write that way.

It's very vulnerable because it's things that shaped my theology and shaped what I'm doing now. And it's really, I had to kind of be detoxed from religion growing up in the church and thinking God was one way. And especially when you're, like, you're involved with denominations that are very, very stubborn. in their theology and they're not very, they don't always relate well to others outside of that. I had a kind of detox a lot of that so that I can look at the whole world, what God loved in the world. And so these encounters helped to bring me into a hopeful perspective of Jesus and what he can do through our lives and culture and in the greater world. And I think, you know,

I talk about things like the next move of God is going to be in the marketplace and the church will support it versus vice versa, where we see one church that has an incredible revival in their city. They have 2,000 people who could save or whatever and it's around that church. We're going to see people get saved in Wall Street. We're going to see people get saved in places because Christians are positioned there like a Joseph, a Daniel and Esther. So I talk a lot about these encounters where I see Esther's and I see Josephs and I see people being positioned in their faith. Just like a pastor's being called to start a church. There's people being called to start Bitcoin companies and with the same passion, the same calling that their pastor had. And we're starting to recognize there's no line between

sacred and sacred. It's all a life of God. It's all mission. It's all. It's all a life of God. It's all mission See, that's the theological error that a lot of Christians have fallen into. And you're really playing into the hands of the secularists. You say, like, I'm going to stand over here in my little religious corner. They're afraid to take it outside the realm where they feel that it belongs. But ladies and gentlemen, if you don't take it outside the building of your church, if you don't take it outside Sunday morning, you are wasting your time Sunday morning. the whole point of Sunday morning or for any of these things that you do in these little religious

corners is to prepare you to take it out into the world. And so that's obviously why I get excited, Sean, when I hear visions like this, when I hear your vision and your heart for what you're doing and what you talk about in this book. Well, thank you. I think there's a great maturing going on right now in Christianity. And I think the book helps people to see kind of a roadmap for what does maturity look like as a Christian. And how can I go deeper?

how can I do what we're talking about? Because it's so much easier when love is driving you to do it. When you see Jesus, but you see what he paid for, the reward, which is people he paid for. And you can see somebody not as the drug addict or not as just a coworker, but you can see him with his eyes at the end of the race with the trophy in their hand, like that they love him. And you begin to treat them even beyond what they're worthy of in the moment. And you start to see the connection. I think it's so different when you have that love-filled, hope-filled perspective, not only for someone, but also for the nation that you live in. And I think the book's going to really help you do that.

So I'm so excited that I was able to share today. Well, you, again, you're in L.A., but it sounds like you travel a lot or you have traveled a lot. Yeah, I've traveled for 27, 28 years, about 60 trips a year and a half of the, I'd say one third of those would be in other nations, and then the rest would be in North America because I have such a passion for North America, really to hear God and really connect to their vision. We talk a lot about transformation. And so it's a really fun topic to be able to even do podcasts on and some of the TV series we do. Well, I have a friend Ken Fish who's been on this program many times.

Oh, I love Ken. God, you know, Ken. He's an extremely dear friend. He was just on the program. And, you know, he is obviously in the Los Angeles area, but he travels so much, travels around the world. But I always think, wow, I want him, you know, I wish he could move to New York and just train people to do what he does here. Because this kind of stuff, I mean, there's a lot of aspects to this. but there's ministry that is, you know, it looks like ministry.

And then there's stuff like what we're talking about, which is how do you take it out beyond the church? But obviously you also move in the quote unquote miraculous. Yeah, I think that our secret weapon is that we do things in cooperation with God that we can do in our own strength. And when you have a moment with God with somebody, when it's God's ordained that moment in your believing he's going to do something, what would normally take 25 counseling appointments

or 15 life coaching appointments or 30 times in church happens in that second. And we are dealing with oppression on our nation like we've never seen. And we need spiritual tools. I love counseling. I love therapy. I've studied psychology. I've studied neurology. I'm not professionally, but I mean, I've studied it for years.

It's been one of my side passions. But what God can do in a moment to recalibrate us is what we need right now. And America needs an encounter with a delivering God. Jesus spent one fourth of his time on deliverance. And we need to see that. So I love what Ken does with supernatural miracles, healings, the prophetic. I see a lot of that in our own ministry. But I also equip people to do it like Ken does.

And we have the stories of the average household mom that believed one day just that I'm going to go after this. And she's seeing it too. So I love that it's not these aren't regulated to the ones who are gifted. I wasn't born under a certain star. I don't have a birth mark on my knee. Like God, this is our inheritance as Christians is to see the kingdom at work. And so I'm with Ken on that. I'm with you on that.

We're going to have to leave it there. just excited to talk to you. Sean Bolts is the author. The book is Encounter. Thank you, Sean. Thank you so much for having me on. I've looked at clouds that way. Now they only block your sons to laugh, to cry, used to bow, it's there. Folks, it's the Eric Metaxis show. I'm here to remind you. And, Albin, you are here with me to remind people that this year, okay, and this month, we have an opportunity to do something spectacular. And every time I say this, I put it as an opportunity because usually we say,

what can I do? I want to do something. What can I do? Well, we work with food for the poor. And every single year, we come to you and we let you know that there are children starving. While all this is going on in the world, all the suffering in the world, there are constants of suffering that don't change, except for the fact that folks like you give to food for the poor. Food for the Poor is on the ground in places like Honduras.

And they come to us once a year and we ask you to help us. And I'm asking you right now to go to metaxis talk.com and to give something. Now, if you give $88, now we all are supposed to give tides and offerings. We're supposed to give back. We're blessed to be a blessing. We know that. The question is, where do I give? Well, if my opinion means anything to you, I would say you can give.

give to an incredibly trustworthy organization called Food for the Poor. We vetted them and that's why we work with them. And they are helping. There are children all across Honduras and other places that are literally starving. We've talked about a film on this program called Mr. Jones, hard film to watch, not for the kids, but it talks about starvation in the Ukraine. Most of us can't even imagine what starvation is, what malnutrition. We cannot even imagine what it is. In that film, you see it happening, and it's in the Ukraine, right? Because of Russia. Interesting, right? But I want to tell you, it's happening now on another level in places like Honduras. One of the workers for food for the poor, Linda, who has been to Honduras, I'm not sure.

Actually, I do believe that she lives there. I want to play a clip from her. Let's play that. When you see the hunger, when you see the need, you go out on the field, even if they haven't eaten for one or two days. it makes us real, real sad. The more we do, the more we see the need. The more places we go, the more we find people starving. The more we see children are eating the leaves from the trees. Wow. I just can't get over this stuff.

When you hear this, you want to think this can't be happening today. It is happening today. The only difference between today and when things like this happened in the Ukraine because of Stalin is that we can actually do something about it today right now. You can go to metaxis talk.com and click on the banner. You can dial 844-8663 Hope, 844-863 Hope. Now, I just want to say again, it doesn't matter what you give. In fact, Albin and I have decided that no matter what you give, your name is put in a hat

and we will pick out three grand prize winners. So this can be fun for you. I would get my family involved, my kids involved, and say, what can we do to help kids that are starving, not very far away from American shores? These kids are no different than our own kids. And we have an obligation. We ought to know we have an obligation to do what we can, when we can. And this is asking very little folks, but when you think about it, a tank of gas is about 80. or whatever it is at this point in America, that number can feed a child for one year every single day for a year, 365 days a year.

$88 of our money goes that far with food for the poor. So I want to ask you to give. And again, whatever you give, you can also decide to give monthly, which is sometimes a brilliant thing because you just give a little bit monthly. It adds up to $88 over a year or $175. for two kids. I want to encourage you. 844-863, Hope, 844-8663, hope, or go to Metaxistalk.com. Click on the Food for the Poor Banner. This is a privilege. We are blessed to be a blessing. Please do what you can. Please and thank you.