#109 S4 EP 29: Jeffrey Wilson's Testament: Overcoming PTSD Through Faith

Honey , you doing okay ?

We pray in the name of Jesus that you will just have your way . Let your divine power work through us and in us . We pray in the name of Jesus that you just have your way . We counsel any assignment of the enemy that would be sent back into the picture head where it came from , for it has no power , no authority and no dominion . But we do .

We pray in the name of Jesus for the one that has no desire to know who you are . We pray in the name of Jesus for the ones that want to know you but don't know how . We even pray for the ones that knows you but fell astray . We pray for everybody , all your people . We pray in the name of Jesus again , that you would just have your way .

In Jesus Christ's holy and maximum name , we do pray , we say thank you . We say amen and amen .

That desire has gone and passed since then , but're going to ask um jeffrey to say hello hello , it's so great to be with you guys .

God knows your heart , god knows what you want , he knows what you need , which is more important than what you want . But the relationship comes from the asking , doesn't it ?

If you're not willing to open yourself up and talk to him , then you can't expect to be in relationship , and everything that comes in our lives through Christ is because of that relationship that we're allowed to have now , because of that relationship that we're allowed to have now because of the cross . So I love it . I love what you guys are doing .

I was a firefighter paramedic as a young man and entered the military initially to become a pilot , was in an accident and went and did other things , did some spooky things in the federal government , with another agency and then eventually the violence of that was difficult for me , not because of my faith , but just because of the emotional impact of it .

And so I sought a life of peace and went to medical school and became a surgeon and was working towards finishing my vascular fellowship when the 9-11 attacks happened and immediately went back on active duty . Like so many people , just felt the need to serve .

And so in that capacity , I deployed with the Marines and then ran into some folks from my spooky past when I was downrange and they recruited me to join the Joint Special Operations Command SEAL team to serve with them as a combat surgeon . And so in that capacity , I got to see a lot of things , good and bad .

I got to experience and do things that impacted me in both good and bad ways . Suff , see a lot of things , good and bad . I got to experience and do things that impacted me in both good and bad ways , suffered a lot of loss . I've lost an enormous number of teammates , sadly , and saw things that were hard . But I think you know PTS .

Before we get into the scriptural and biblical side of the cure for PTS , to understand what PTS is is just what it says post-traumatic stress . When you've suffered a trauma , you have a psychological and emotional impact of that , and I would argue that if you are a combat veteran , you have PTS Like that's my , that's my take on it .

It's not some few that are broken or less strong that suffer PTS If you have seen and done the things that happen in war . That's an unnatural state for the man that God created . He didn't intend for us to experience those things , and so it has an effect more on some than others , of course , but all of us have it .

Unless you're a sociopath , you have some degree of PTS if you suffered those things , and so you know coming to terms with that is important because it doesn't just impact the veteran .

We know that there's more than 20 veteran suicides a day in our country right now , all related to PTSD , and so it's a crucial for the veterans , but it's crucial for the next generation too , because this is a disorder that not even this . I shouldn't even want to call it a disorder . We've actually changed it .

It's now no longer called PTSD , it's just PTS , because disorder implies it's abnormal .

It's normal to have PTS after these experiences , but the point I'm making is that it affects the next generation too , because when dad is not well , when dad is not right , he's not being a godly father , a godly husband , not because he doesn't want to be , but because he's just not emotionally available .

That affects his wife , that affects his children , that affects an entire generation beyond him . And so this is a problem that I think we tend to make about the veteran , but it's really about an entire generation and the next generation that are impacted by this , because we were at war for over 20 years .

We're talking about millions of people and all of their offspring , tens of millions of people affected by this , outside of just the horrible statistic of suicide .

And so I have a real passion for this , because I am someone who suffers from PTS and I've had to figure out my way with the help of the VA , but also , more importantly , with the help of my church and pastors that I've worked with Because I believe that the cure for PTS or maybe not cure , but the treatment for how to manage it in your life comes through

God and through the gospels and the scriptures that he shared with us , and there's not enough emphasis on that . So that's sort of my , that's sort of my overview of PTS and where it is in my life , um , and , and what we try to to do .

I lead , uh , I'm a full-time writer , a novelist , as you know , but my , my side gig right now that I'm passionate about for the last seven years is I lead a men's military ministry at a very large church , grace Family Church in Tampa , and there we deal with this issue weekly on all our campuses that have this group , and we see that its impact is no less

now than it was 10 years ago , and so making that available , making the spiritual side available , I believe , is really key .

And keep on happening and , if I'm—y'all correct me if I'm wrong , but you know you , it's like almost like your mind shift back to where you was Correct when you have that . And you know , imagine how many addicts that kind of shift back to those traumatic experiences or abusive people , men and women . That's an abusive relationship .

So their mind can just kind of switch back to that , that that moment , and then they have to come back from that . And you know , I said all of that to say that I believe it's truly possible . You don't necessarily have to be in the military to have this type of , I guess , reaction to life . What y'all think .

But whatever your trauma , whatever and one of the mistakes people make is they try to compare their trauma right , they're like well , I don't want to talk about my problem because you know I have this problem , which seems so minor compared to this other guy or girl that I know , and that's a very unhealthy way .

Your trauma is your trauma and it is definitely definitely not unique to the military , a hundred percent .

That thought back up , no matter how many times you try to forget about it . Say like with me , you know being shot . You know , at at one point in time uh , during the holidays , like fourth of july , all I gotta do is hear a firecracker and it go off .

Or I can hear somebody at a shooting range on the far distance , you know they firing their guns , and it takes me to that state of putting me back into that , into that time frame . Why was that ? And you know to go through stuff like that , to have those flashbacks .

It's a very scary place to be , because you know the things that you went through in life and you know how you had to endure certain things and certain things that you might not have been proud about doing . You did .

And the moment you get into that , those moments of that flashback , it's like I don't want to have to do that again type of feeling , and I'm gonna tell you it is a very , very , very scary place you want to remind the audience of what you're talking about and tell Jeff what you're talking about .

Well , you know , when I was growing up , I was involved in the gang and I wound up being shot three times in my side and once in the back of my head .

And you know that was a point in my life where , you know , I thought that I can get the enjoyment from the streets , get the love from the streets , get the love from the streets and you know , when you result back to , you know , getting your love from the world , as we say it , you know it will lead you down to a path very quickly and it's hard to get

out of that lifestyle , but you gotta continue to . Once you get out of that thing and you get into the love that you really get from the people of God and God himself . It's almost like playing tug of war . You know you both had the ultimate goal of getting to the next as the winner's circle .

But pulling something to have a resistance against it , does that make sense ?

And I think that the mistake that people make on the I want to talk about the spiritual side , but on the emotional side and psychological side , the mistake people make is that they're looking for a cure and I sort of corrected myself when I used that term earlier because there isn't a cure .

You're looking for a way to make it go away , and that's not the right approach and most therapists will tell you that's not the right approach . You can't make it go away because you're asking yourself to forget an impact in your life . You can't forget that , any more than you can forget the birth of your child , nor would you want to .

So it's really more about coming to terms with how to deal with the emotions , deal with that trauma , rather than trying to find a way to avoid triggers and find a way to make the memory go away . If you can deal with it emotionally and psychologically , then you can make it so that it's less of a struggle to deal with .

But I think that the key is to find the spiritual component of that and that's where we as a culture are lacking right , because the VA doesn't focus on that , the our secular world doesn't focus on that .

And yet it is the most important piece , because I think that and I'll speak from experience I don't want to generalize about other people , but what the traumas that I experienced affected me psychologically , but they very , very seriously impacted me spiritually , and what I mean by that is I was a believer when I went on my first deployment and I was a believer

when I got back . But the nature of my faith changed dramatically . I never stopped believing . I had what I like to call a crisis in faith . It wasn't a crisis of faith . It wasn't a doubt that there is a God . I know some people struggle with that , but much more common is people questioning what they believe about God .

Because when you see things and do things that are so horrific , when you see here's a good example If somebody gets drunk and drives their car and crashes their car and they're injured , that's horrible and you feel bad for them , but you're like well , that's a consequence of what you did , right , like I feel bad for you and I pray for you that you'll be well

. But you know there's not an , there's not an unfairness to it . But if that same man runs over a four-year-old in a driveway now , you can't deal with that trauma because now there's a fairness component , that is , that child did nothing wrong and suffered under this consequence . And when you go to war , that's what you see .

You're like what did these children who were killed in the killing pools in Afghanistan or Iraq , what did they do wrong ? Where

was God ? And you start asking these questions about the nature of God . Why would God let this happen ? Where is God in this situation ? And those are the wrong questions to ask , but they're natural , right , like we grow up in high school we're picturing that the Jesus of the oil painting with the perm petting the lamb , right Like that loving Jesus .

Where is he that he would allow this to happen ? And it takes some time to figure that out and some people aren't willing to put in that time . I have answers to those questions in my life now , but the questions themselves are normal and healthy . And then you feel guilty that you're mad at God .

And I will just tell you , if you're out there listening you're mad at God because you're asking these questions . God can take it . You're not bothered . You're not bothering that your , your anger doesn't bother God , he's , he's cool , he's , he can take your anger . So let yourself work , work through those things and find answers to those questions .

But if we don't address the spiritual side of it , I just don't think you can get all the way to emotional and psychological healing without bringing God into the equation . Jeremiah 17 , 14 , right . Heal me , o Lord , and I will be healed . Save me and I will be saved , for you are my praise . These are not just bumper stickers .

These are scriptures designed to apply to our life when we're struggling , and I think that there's just not enough emphasis on that .

And you would , I believe that you would hurt yourself more than help yourself to deny it , to deny what you've been through , to deny the pain , to deny the suffering , and you know , and everything that's attached to that trauma , everything that's attached to that trauma .

But you gotta get in a position where you can own that the trauma is there and really walk through and see , and y'all know I say it all the time what is God saying to me in this ? What's going on in my life right now ? Why am I being feel like I'm being haunted by the past ? Why do I feel like , why do I keep having these flashbacks ?

Why is this and why is that ? And just simply talking to the creator , to the master , to the one , and , like you said , he understands our feelings , he understands we get mad , he understands a whole lot of what we feel like he wouldn't . But the reality is is that he , he knows the plan . He , he knew what he desired you to be from the beginning .

He knew the end before the beginning ever happened . You know what I mean , so you know , this is why we got to . We have to lean not onto our own understanding , to trust in the Lord and lean not onto your own understanding . Trust in Him with all of your heart .

I tell my men not only is he okay with you asking the hard questions , but the good news is he actually has answers for that . If you'll look , if you want to just be angry and push God out of your life , you have that choice . He loves you enough to let you choose him or choose not to be with him . But what a horrible life you've chosen to live .

Rather than asking the hard questions and then digging in , be in community with fellow believers , get into the scriptures and find the answers , because they're there .

It's to cover up something that's an imperfection of the car , like a rust spot , or you put a Band-aid on a wound . But we have to realize that the band-aid and the bumper sticker are temporary fixes , but God is everlasting fix . But sometimes we treat God as a temporary fix instead of letting the band-aid be a temporary fix .

We try , even in our Tier 1 series and Sons of Valor series , our thriller series , to show a realist portrayal of the sacrifices made by our workers and their families , and in that we can share the message a bit . But separate from that on the spiritual side , we've written two things . One I personally , by myself , have written a book called Wartorn .

That is not an action thriller , it is fiction , but it's very much based on reality and it's a book that we have used in the ministry to help minister to the men's finds his way to downrange while on deployment and then that faith is stolen from him when a suicide bomber kills his best friend , who is the one that brought him to Christ , and so he gets

angry , spiritually he goes through . This is a book designed to teach about that and to show the effect of the wife and all that she dealt with , which we haven't talked about much . And so there's that book , wartorn . And then we also have a thriller series , you know , because that's what we're known for .

We saw an opportunity here to share some of this in an action . People out here that aren't going to go read a self-help book and they're not going to go read you know what I mean but they'll read a good action thriller . And so we have a series Shepherds that help from 10 bigger Christian publishers .

As you know , the first book , dark Intercept , came out a couple years ago .

There's three books out in the series , a fourth one coming next year , but this is a series about a Navy SEAL who is broken physically , mentally and spiritually , is being forced out of the Navy , medically retired after an injury , and he is dealing with a crisis in faith , and so one of the themes of this entire series is the idea of crisis in faith .

We address it through an exciting action thriller series . His childhood friend , his daughter , has been kidnapped and he asked Jed to help him find her .

The other aspect of the book that I am very passionate about that is not separate from PTS , but in addition and that's the idea of spiritual warfare we dig very deep , using biblical principles , into the idea of good versus evil and that spiritual warfare that rages all around us , and so we've created a universe in this series of books where the shepherds is an

organization designed to use their faith in combat to fight the evil in the world , the idea being that every war , every conflict , whether it's Nazi Germany or Osama bin Laden or whoever you want to talk about , that , that's Satan , that is the devil using man to tempt him into horrible things so that they can , so he can advance his agenda .

And what is Satan's agenda ? To keep as many people from God as possible . Right To sow doubt , to sow anger , to sow fear , and so that's sort of the theme of this book , or all the books in the series shepherd series .

We dig really deep into that idea , but we set it in an entertaining action thriller series that's actually now been optioned for television by sony affirm . So we're hoping that tv series will come out once these strikes are all over um , so that we can reach even more people with that message sounds good , wow .

And it's awesome Because you were saying you've been in the Navy SEALs and you went to see a surgeon and it's just like wow , you've been busy .

The best way to find our books , to know what you want to buy , is to go to our website , andrews-wilsoncom , because we have a description of all the books , including the Shepherd series , and then links to whoever your favorite is , so you can click and go and buy the books . They're available in Kindle and paperback hardcover . We also are huge in Audible .

That's the wave now . The new , growing way to consume stories is Audible . It's not something I ever did , because I'm not like a businessman traveling around . That's what I always pictured , right , books on tape . Remember when we were kids . And now it's become a huge market .

Actually , 30% of our sales are on the Audible platform and for the Christian series , the Shepherds , we have an amazing voice actor named McLeod Andrews who narrates the books . It's really , really good . So if that's the way you like to consume them , you can do that .

But Andrews-Wilsoncom has everything you need to know about how to find our work , including the Wartorn book , which I wrote by myself .

But we have to write a book right now every three months because we release , we've got multiple contracts and we have to release four books a year , and then on top of that , we have these new film and TV deals that are very busy .

So we're struggling to keep our heads above water and make sure that our families and our wives and children are getting enough time with us , and so we're just maxed out bandwidth wise in terms of where we could go .

But I love that idea Like everybody has their own way that they consume stories now , and you almost have to be in all of those if you want to really reach people , right , people that read , read and people that watch videos , watch videos and people that watch youtube's what youtube and audio they're all their own little pots and people that do that just do that

. So I love that idea .

God is still able to use your story . He's able to take the good , he's able to bring you into the place , into the purpose and the plan that he desires for you . Amen . So that's my word . All right , jeff , you go ahead and give your word and give us a prayer as well .

And that does define you , and you know , jeremiah 15 , 19 is one of my favorites for dealing with men in trauma , and it says therefore thus says the Lord if you return , then I will restore you Before me , you will stand , and if you extract the precious from the worthless , you will become my spokesman .

That's the promise of scripture , and there's hundreds just like it that say if you can find your way to surrender your trauma to God , he can restore you and use you for his purpose , like it says in Romans 8 , 28 . So please find , help , find whether it's in your church or wherever you need to find it .

You need to find your way back to God , because that's where the healing begins . And I'll say a blessing and a prayer over this amazing ministry you guys have going right now . Father , god , we thank you , lord , we thank you for the opportunity to come together in your name , god .

We know that when we do that , you are here , we can feel your spirit moving . The three of us and everyone listening , we know that you are opening hearts and minds to the power of your word , to the power of restoration that comes through Jesus Christ .

God , we just ask that , if there are people out here struggling , suffering , that they'll turn to you , that they'll find their way to you , because only in you does true healing take place . God , we just pray for those people who are struggling .

We pray for this ministry that it will continue to reach the lost and continue to reach the believers who are struggling with their own issues . We thank you , god , for this chance to come and bring your light into the world in Jesus name , Amen .

We need to put it down and don't let those things dictate who we are and whose we are , because when we carry those things across and on us . You know , we wind up dictating what we should look like or who we should be . What we should look like or who we should be , instead of allowing God to show us who we are and what we should do .

That's my word .