#97 S4 EP 17: A Testimony of Hope and Healing with Joshua Macengill

And today we have a guest and his name is Joshua Marsengill and he is going to be talking really the what we really are fighting against when we are , when we are in spiritual warfare , and so she touched on it quite a bit , she went into depths of it .

But tonight or today we're going to be digging into why it is that we have these type of encounters and you know what again we really are fighting against .

And so in just a moment , josh , josh , he goes by , josh , he's going to say hello to everyone and introduce himself , um , himself , and outside of that , we're just going to go ahead and pray real quick before we do any of that . All right , let's pray .

We pray in the name of Jesus , counselor , any assignment of the enemy that will be sent back into the pits of hell where it came from . We pray in the name of Jesus once again , that your Holy Spirit will just have its way . In Jesus Christ's holy and maximum name , we say thank you . We say amen .

I have a ministry called Abundant Encounters , Because I had a ridiculous encounter with God as an atheist that brought me into the kingdom , and that was what my experience was , and I realized that as I began to become a Christian and be in the Christian world , that a lot of Christians are having encounters .

It was kind of a normal thing Some aren't and that was something that I felt like the Lord really drew my attention to and I was like I need to help people have encounters , and so I asked the Lord to show me how to do that , and what he showed me was look at how I helped you , and I mean I went from a place of not believing at all to believing ,

and I mean I went from a place of not believing at all to believing . And you know , one of the biggest things that got me from one place to the other was just to begin to really have a high value for experiences that I'd have with God , whether they were really small or really big , and I did . I had an open vision that brought me into the kingdom .

Some Christians know what that is . It's just basically almost like a dream , except for you're wide awake and in that open vision , this was after a suicide attempt . Oh gosh , yeah , this is me coming into the kingdom . The Lord woke me up that morning and I felt like a brand new person . It was weird .

It was like I had asked him to kill me and I think he did . It's a long story . Go ahead .

He knows me by and he calls me Josh , which really just messed me up , and you know , because I probably had heard from Christians that God was relational , but I just had never , it never sunk in , so I didn't have ears that could hear that , and so it was just alarming to me that Jesus was real and that he cared about me , and so that was like that's

like one of a lot of really crazy encounters that God , you know , showed me and brought me through and just real , practical , down to earth ways .

You know , I've definitely had amazing experiences with God in my prayer closet and those kind of things like that , but I realized that God was reaching out to me every day , all day long , and it was actually a lifestyle that we were being invited into , instead of just a moment .

So that's what I've been looking at and trying to help other Christians to experience . I found some tools that are really exciting for doing that , and one of them is inner healing , and that's kind of what our organization is doing now . It's inner healing and deliverance .

You know what I mean and it's that is , and it's like for me , just in everything that you said and just what I know about spiritual warfare , that's what the biggest part of the fight is acknowledging who Jesus is .

Yeah , and you know , with the reality that you were once an atheist , can you tell us what it was that you was fighting , more than anything as an atheist ?

And and so , and I had friends around me that had committed suicide too . So I don't even know if there was like a whole like situation going on in the place where I live .

Um , but it was , it was a normal part of life and I just thought , well , this is an option , and if things get too heavy , I'll just I'll check myself out and um , but you can imagine my heart was ripped apart , just completely broken and hard , you know .

And so when I realized , uh , you know , coming in , uh , to the kingdom , and all that kind of stuff , like , uh , the , the Lord made it all about relationship with him , and just over and over and over again , it was like relationship with Jesus , relationship with the Father , relationship with the Holy Spirit , and so everything was about connection and , you know ,

I became like zealous for connection . I wanted to . You know , I remember , you know Moses is like God offers him an angel . He's like go ahead and you can come , you can get up from here with this angel . And Moses is like , no , I'm not doing that , I'm not going unless you send your presence with me .

So that became my spiritual warfare , was realizing that , like man , I have to have God's presence , and then a lot of this other stuff goes away . But that was the war that I was in was like , just , I had suicidal ideations and , uh , things that even continued to happen after I got saved .

There was a , a lot of anxiety that I had got completely destroyed . Uh , when the lord I mean , you know , he came after me and that was like you're saying he just he came in into my life and rescued me , kind of like Paul on his way to Damascus . So he , this the the way that the father loves us so much .

You know , I'm sure that people were trying to reach me , but he cared about me enough that he , he did some of the work himself , and that that blows my mind . It's like the veil was torn so that he could come out , and so sometimes he does that and I'm so thankful to be the the result of that .

You know , sometimes god does his own evangelism , uh , really , really something , and I'm so grateful that he did . I'm sure christians tried to reach me and planted seeds , and I don't want to dismiss any of that . We all need the church , gosh , um , and we need our family , we need people and uh .

But it is amazing what god can do , uh , when we , when we do , prioritize that connection to him , because he he's the one that kind of cleared that stuff out , um , one of the biggest uh things that god has shown me was with suicidal ideations .

I used to imagine myself dying all the time . I mean , it was gruesome pictures that would go through my mind and all this . And then , one day after I was saved , I stopped having those moments and I was so excited . I was like God , you delivered me , I don't have to have those moments anymore . And so 30 days goes by .

It's like the Lord gave me a month me . I don't have to have those moments anymore . And so 30 days goes by . It's like the Lord gave me a month off . I don't know what happened , but then I had another episode of suicidal thoughts and I remember this . I said this statement . I said God , why did you let them back in ? And when I said them .

It's like the Holy Spirit just highlighted it to me and I was like it's like the Holy Spirit just highlighted it to me and I was like it's a them , it's a they , it's not me . I thought it was me the whole time .

I thought it was me having these thoughts and generating them from inside of myself , in some kind of pain or something that I couldn't resolve or whatever it was . And it wasn't me . It was actually just this mindscape or something and these things had territory . They had taken over this mindscape or something .

And , like these things had territory , they had taken over this area in my life . And so when I realized what God had done because I was kind of mad at him , you know I was like why did you let them back in ?

But when I realized , oh my gosh , no , what he did was he just equipped me , he empowered me by exposing things so that I would know that it was a them and not me and so that I could actually fight them .

And I mean , you know , I mean it took time because I kept coming , but after , after a while , I started to even laugh at them like this that's not me , I'm not thinking that , that's just these demons . You know , of course I'm casting out and saying that Jesus name , stop .

But sometimes some people probably need to hear that , like you know , just because you're fighting , the fight doesn't make you a problem . Like you just keep fighting , god is amazing , he will deliver us .

But you're also getting to a place where it's there's a normalization , where it's so easy to just dismiss it and because you're resisting , the devil and he will flee . That's exactly what that pattern looks like . It just you keep resisting and then it's like this is , you know , nonsense . I don't even need it , need to waste my time with this .

You know , and that's where I got to . That was a . It was a huge part of my spiritual warfare understanding , right there oh , that was deep .

So Michael has a question or a thought ?

call my name and I turn around thinking that somebody else calling my name turn around . They not even caught boom , don't even acknowledge I'm there . No-transcript . It had to be intensified because you probably didn't even know what was going on .

I was an academic , I was trying to push towards , you know , trying , you know I was climbing that mountain , mount Academia , and so , for me , the open vision , I thought , for sure , this is schizophrenia .

And I thought when and I was like I'm about the it just I realized there was so much more depth to what I was experiencing and I was like you know what this is so good that , even if I am schizophrenic , I need to follow through with this .

And because I just knew there was more to it , now the Lord had set me up , uh , because I just knew there was more to it , now the Lord had set me up , he knew what was going to happen . And like within two weeks , I was at , uh , a church service and um , and that was . That was not because I was looking for that .

I just I mean , I was still processing this crazy open vision . I wrote a book about it . It was like 45 minutes long and um and so , but I was still processing it and I didn't know where to put .

I didn't have a box , you know , I didn't have somewhere to put it or , and so uh , but the Lord had thought out this plan to get me into a church because I was going to help this guy start a business . It was , it was elaborate , and I was going to help him start a business and I just knew that he was .

Somebody had told me that he was a man of the cloth , so I was like I need to hear this guy speak and so I'll go to his church . And that was really the reason I went . It wasn't because I was trying to get saved or something . And so I go to his church , not knowing that the Lord is setting me up , and I'm just there to listen to Him .

Now , I've never experienced worship and it's just kind of a non-denominational word of faith . I think church and Hispanic , it was a Hispanic church . And so I go in and I don't know . I know business meetings . So I go to the front and I ask some people to move over . Well , I didn't know , that was his family .

I sit on the front row because that's what you would do in a business meeting . So I'm just clueless , you know culturally and everything , and so I sit down and I don't understand the worship music . I don't understand what's going on . You know , because I used to be a musician and I was like this is just three chords and this guy's messing up .

I was so judgmental about the worship . Now I'm a worship leader so it's really funny the way the Lord did that . But yeah , so I was . I remember , you know , I just wasn't getting it at first . But then he came up and he started talking about relationship with Jesus and that blew my mind . I was like , oh , wow , like this is what this is .

He planned this out and I mean I was , I was in tears , I was like head in hand , I couldn't , couldn't even look up , like I couldn't even give in to like the embarrassment or anything of the situation . I was just so like wrecked and I grabbed my friend afterwards and by the shoulders very dramatically .

I'm like I have to have one of those , I have to have a relationship with Jesus . And he's laughing at me because he probably knew how God is and he's like God set you up , dude , like he knew why you're here , like you weren't here for a business meeting . You're here because you need to hear this and anyway .

So he was like in the , in the know , you know , of course we , we had ended up with an awesome friendship and he , just , he , just , you know , helped me so much to know Jesus .

She was just like blown out of the water and I know she stood there and we began to talk for about it was probably about 30 minutes that we talked and then , you know , um , I said , so what about talking about the business ? She's like , huh , oh , oh yeah , like she forgot why she came .

She was just drunk , she was just , you know , embodied for a moment with the spirit and what was going on in the spirit , and so it was powerful . It's a powerful thing . Amen . When you have a plan and God's plan comes into effect , jesus , come on .

Yeah , yeah , yeah , that's powerful because all the time we have our agenda and we have our plan and then God , he just , it , just , it's like his plan becomes a cover , becomes a blanket over our top , of ours , and all we can see is his plan , our plan just went out the window and we just kind of like you know what I mean ?

Oh , I was supposed to been you know what ? Know what I mean ? So Michael has a thought , but you have a thought .

Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand the wiles of the devil . For we wrestle not against flesh and blood , but against principalities , against powers , against the rulers of the darkness of this world , against spiritual weakness in high places .

We got to look , we got to understand , look , you know , right there when it said we fight , we wrestle not against flesh and blood . That means we do not have to fight against our brothers and sisters in Christ . Amen . Our flesh and blood is other believers that had the same language , cut from the same cloth , which is Jesus Christ .

So stop fighting against your brothers and sisters . He tells his word that you got an art against your brother and sister . Go to them . That's why so many , I think that's why so many , so many people are falling by the wayside because you're scared to go and talk to them . But the first thing you want to do is oh , I can't wait till I meet Jesus .

We sit there and we see our brothers and sisters in harm because we done done something and the first thing we want to do is ignore them and push them to the side or push them by the wayside . But you're anxious to see somebody you haven't seen before . We got to realize that , look , we need to stop fighting against our brother and sister to christ .

Take that same fight that you have against your brother and sister in christ and put it to good work against the enemy . Come on . That's right . Yeah , that's right .

And you know , so many times and I got to say this because it's so customary , because I've said it before too we're so quick to tell people to go to hell and , being real , we're so quick to tell people to go to hell or try to be PG about it and say , screw off .

And I'm trying to be PG about it to other people , but when it comes to the enemy , when he comes at us , we don't have a word to say to him because we're scared of him . Tell Satan to go back to hell , that's right . You say it against your friends . You say it to your family .

Stop going to fight against your brother and your sister in Christ because they say we wrestle not against flesh and blood . Amen .

Satan is not part of the family , he's part of the division of the family .

He's the one that's depressed and broken and in a sad sack of nothing , no hope or anything . He's got no future . He knows all that and he's trying to put it on us . And I'm telling you , like you said , michael , he is not a part of our family . He is not and he's not going to father me .

When he was fathering me , I was a mess , I was a total mess . I mean , and mostly inside , you know , I mean I , and just like the devil , I look like an angel of light . You know that's what the Bible says . You know he's deceptively , you know nothing . That's what he really is . He's deceptively nothing .

You know we think maybe there's something to him , but there's really nothing at all and he just all his promises are empty and everything else and we . But God is not like that at all and when he started to father me now . Remember , I lost my dad when I was 15 . So I needed a dad . I just needed to be dadded really bad .

And when he started doing that , I mean I just realized that I belonged and that I was wanted , that he desired me , that he delights in me , that he desired me , that he delights in me .

I mean , some of that stuff was so hard to even admit at first , but when I started to really see it in the scriptures , I started to really feel like , oh , there's meaning to my life and God has a plan and he's a ferocious lion and He'll take care of these enemies that I got and this love that's inside of me , it , it , it can , it can come through me

now and it can , it can go to others and , um , you know so , just like you're saying , like man , this isn't about flesh and blood , like no , we have this amazing ability to absolutely just love each other and love the hell out of each other . You know what what I mean ? Love , love , love until there's no hell left in us .

Because love , I'm telling you , it's just , it casts away the evil and everything that has made its home inside of us . If it's in there , then when love comes , it can be completely replaced , and he's ferocious . He's a jealous god in the best way , because he's jealous for us man , um so um , tell us about your , tell us about your ministry .

I believe that if you feel like you're one of those people that just really doesn't do that or that hasn't had a lot of experiences with God and it's okay , but you want that then please connect with us . I have worked in my life as a Christian to try to find ways and tools that help people experience God because it just feels so important to me .

So if that feels like even a little important to you or like you've really struggled in that area , then that's what we're trying to do . We also do inner healing and deliverance . And demons are real guys . I cast one out of a person yesterday and it was one of the craziest things I've ever seen .

But we have authority over them , that's right , and he was trying to put on a show . I was like you're not doing that , you're not going to embarrass this person .

I really wanted to embarrass this person and the love that God has , for that individual was stronger than that demon's wanting to embarrass them and make them look like a fool , and so we were able to shut it down because of the power and authority that Christ has given us . And so this is , and I'm thankful that God uses this wonder .

He uses inner healing ministries all over the place . If it's from your church , you know you can use that . What we offer is confidentiality and you know , nobody , at abundant encounters , knows your people or anything like that .

So there's an extra layer of of confidentiality that you can come to us , uh , and you will get , because we hold that really high and um , and that's that's the important we have to come out of hiding and allow god to to heal , heal us from traumas . You know there's all kinds of things that we're dealing with . We've got . You know .

There's spiritual stuff , there's mindsets that we're dealing with , and then there's , you know , the system realities that we're dealing with as well .

All of that can be addressed in inner healing , because our God knows us , he gives us perspective , he helps us win battles and he is a territorial spirit and he likes to take over the mind space he likes to take over . You know the daily activities and everything else . That , um , that we're about , what our life is about is what he's about .

So , and that's what we're trying to do and we would would love to see you in the book . It's my journey . You know , I had a ridiculous encounter , a 45-minute open vision that I didn't mention . But I also had dinner with God . That was a very wild , very real experience where he baptized me in his love and I drowned in the Holy Spirit .

Thank you , jesus . He completely submerged , drowned in the Holy Spirit . Thank you Jesus . It completely submerged me in the Holy Spirit and I started praying in tongues .

And I'm telling you I am an analytical person , so that was a feat that I watched God take me from , you know , just not believing but wanting to believe or anything like that , and to just knowing and having a practical understanding of what what these things are and spiritual stuff is . And god speaks spirit .

Sometimes it's complicated to understand , but it's not because he doesn't want us to understand . I believe that when we give up our right to understand , that he does bring him . It gives us the ability to allow him to teach us , you know , if we just surrender and that , um , but that that's what we're about . We would love to have people come .

The inner healing sessions are about an hour long and um , and they can really change your life , because all we do is facilitate , so we just help you . Talk to god . Talk to him we where His sheep hear His voice . That's what the Bible says and it's actually true , and so we love getting to do this and we'd love to work with you .

That's right , and so take it from all of us that you're listening to that . Our beginning , it did not begin the way it will end Because , as Paul said for God , he , he said I have died and now I live , and so life before him . You've died to that and now is your opportunity to live .

All you're fighting against what it used to be , walking , what it is now . Come on somebody , just walking what it is now that's good hallelujah , please be encouraged . This is from my . This is my final word , um , and we're gonna ask michael to give his final word , and then we want to ask you to pray .

and grow as he grows you , because we gotta realize , look , jesus is not a wham bam .

Don't jesus like a side piece , picking him up when you need him . Continue to get into his word and follow him and let the relationship with him grow you . Let it grow you .

You've anticipated this time , and I believe that you're working in our hearts , bringing just resolutions and peace to places that were just embattled or anything . Lord God , you have solutions for us and your solution is always you . And so , lord God , we just ask for more of you .

Father and Jesus , we just thank you that you've made a way for us to be with the Father , and we receive it . We receive it . Thank you , lord , that you've made a way for us to be with the Father , and we receive it . We receive it .

Thank you , lord , that you're in this moment and that it's a real moment , and you desired it and you wanted it , and you do your healing work even now , lord , to bring us to peace , to bring us to solutions and anything that you have on your heart In the name , the mighty name , of Jesus Christ . Amen .

We hope that you felt like he was right there . All of us was right in your living room , in the car , with you at work , wherever you're listening to this at , the presence of the Lord , is here . We're grateful . So Again , grateful . So again , we say thank you , michael .