The Power of Faith, with Pastor Bill Winston

he inspired me through the power of truth. This is out Loud with Gianno called Welcome back to out Loud with Gianno Calledwell Today, I have a very special show plan for you, my listeners. My guess is Dr Bill Winston, who was actually my pastor from back home in Chicago. Dr Winston is the founder and senior pastor of Living Where Christian Center, a nondenominational Christian church with more than twenty thousand members located in Forest Park, Illinois, which is

a suburb right outside of Chicago. He's also the senior pastor of Living Word Christian Center Tuskegee, which is in Tuskegee, Alabama. He's the founder of Bill Winston Ministries, a partnership based global outreach ministry that reaches over eight hundred million households worldwide through TV and radio programs. Dr Winston also has eight hundred and eighty two national and international churches and

ministries under his spiritual Covering through Faith Ministry Alliance. If all of that's not enough, Dr Winston is also an author, an entrepreneur, and educator and a veteran with so many wonderful programs and initiatives to spread the Word of God and help people succeed in life. And all I can say from personal experience is Dr Winston is truly a wonderful and amazing man who has had a profound influence on my life. Let's go well, I'm super super excited

about having you on, Dr Bill Winston. I've been a part of your ministry since two thousand and five. I remember coming into the church and what that experience was like, and more importantly, I remember when I first saw you on television and had dynamic you were. And I must say that you've made an incredible impression upon my life. You've influenced a lot of my decisions, and you've been a mentor to me since two thousand and five without me even knowing you personally, But of course I know

you personally now. So I want to thank you for joining us today, and I think it's going to be a blessing for all to hear you. It is my privilege. Jan I thank you. I thank you so much. So for those listening who may not know much about you, let's start with your early life and your personal journey. You were born in Tuskegee, Alabama. What you like growing up in Alabama during the age of this is most of our parents were Tuskey German and so the legacy

of that was very present in the Tuskegee area. And so Tuskege itself small town, but but at a big legacy had Tuskey German and also had the sixth the largest VIA hospital in the in the country. And so because of that segregation in that time, you have most of the physicians who African American came to do their internship and so forth at the VA Hospital in Tuskegee. And also you had the university, which look at the Washington founded in one and that had the professors and

so forth and so on. So you had these three professions there. So when I look at my life growing up, I went to the school that's elementary school, which is a lab school of the university, and we had to visit Carbon Museum once a year. We had French in the third grade, we had all of us had by the fourth grade, we had carpentry, and we had all this. We had to have made a lamp and so forth,

and so they were grooming us really for leadership. Just about everybody, myself and Lionel Richie and whoever else grew up with us. The person everybody grew up we're going to save. So all of us we had something in us. And that's a lot of times how people see themselves as the way other people see them. And so we

all were taught really that we weren't missing anything. So I wasn't eager to integrate because we had everything and we were taught things that that Normally most of the people who finished elementary school with me went away to boarding schools in the north and so forth. I had to say, uh, they're at Tuskegee High School because the dad said he didn't have that kind of money, and so I stayed there and so but growing up there

was really experienced. But what it did, it worked on my esteem, which is I think you know eighty of what somebody can do and perform and how they can see themselves. So that was the foundation of it. I've finished undergraded Tuskegee and ended up going ROTC and flying fighters and that was a background of that. Wow. And you talk a lot about your military service, and we we certainly honor and thank you for your service to

this great country. I'm really intrigued to know, especially knowing the kind of man that you are, how is that experience being in the military at such an interesting time and fighting and flying fighter as a fireplan. There's a couple of things about that. One is that it what it did, it pulls on a potential in me that I never knew I had. And the word potential means

hidden abilities. And what happens is people don't want to make a step because they don't think they will succeed or whatever have you, but not knowing of what has been placed in them. Every one of us has a gift. I don't care who you are, what country you are, You've got a gift and a gift will make room for you. The Bible didn't say your education, would it say your gift? Would it will make room for you

and bring before great men? Not down on education. But what I did is is I had to fly and compete. And that's where you go to pilot training. Where I went in uh San Antonio, Texas at Randolph Air Force Space. But when I got there, had thirty and other students in the classes coming from universities, and we had to learn progressively that we could do things that we never

thought we could do. And he started that a little light airplane that had to propel it, and you progress right on up into the supersonic jets, and then you've got your assignment. And I ended up going to war and so forth, and Fawn and a lot of people don't know it, but I wrote the op ed on this that you can go and be in the military inside of war without hating. They think you have to hate to be on the other side, but you don't.

And um that it was a military experience that I had, and I have been trained there in leadership and leading a flight and so forth. Now that means you've got to be making decisions on the split second, and you just have to develop some leadership qualities that that I didn't even know I had in me. So I wrote that book on Spirit of Leadership. The name is Spirit of Leadership, that everybody's a leader first of all, and that all leadership is spiritual. So as I developed that,

it really taught me how to lead. So when I came out of the military and went to work for IDM, that I was in training for a year in each one of those classes at four schools I had to go to, and three of those schools they didn't even know me, but they wanted me to be the president of the class. And so for now, I didn't choose this. I didn't. They come from all kinds of schools, either, league, universities and so forth. But I think leadership qualities can

be detected. I think people can sent them and so forth. It's interesting how the Bible says the blind leaders of the blind, meaning that they have no vision. And I think one of the real qualities of it is vision. Look at the Washington head vision, George Washington Carver head vision, and because of it they could leave will and expand and so forth. And one so Tuskegee the growing up there, the legacy of that, I think part of that book at the Washington legacy of educating people and so forth

and teaching. I think that's still on me right now. You know, you've mentioned something which I think, uh shows great parallels to where we are today, when you talked about you being in the military and you you're fighting against the enemy, but yet still not hating someone. And now we're in an environment of our politics where it's you're a Democrat, you're a Republican, you're an independent, progressive, you're a libertarian, and everybody's fighting against each other, ether

everybody hating each other. You look at social media and you see nothing but hateful comments coming on all sides. Can you go into why you think that is well? I think that's part of the results of Adam and Eves fall in the Garden. I think that they got into selfishness, and I think many times hate is rooted in fear and selfishness, and love is just the opposite.

It's a product of faith. And so I remember when I was in IBM, and I was now turning the corner and kind of doing well in my sales and computers, and my boss called me in boss's boss, who happened to be African American. He was he was trained by in the chairman's office, and at that time he had two branch managers in the United States and and one without on the West Coast, and one was in Chicago, which was my boss's boss. And he called me and they Billy, why don't you come on in. Let's see

what you do, how you're doing on your accounts. So I came to start talking to him, and then I was talking to him about my accounts, and and I said, now, this account, this CEO here, I think he's kind of an idiot. And he so forth, he said, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute, don't say that, I said, sir. He said, don't ever do that. That's what he said, call him a name like that. I said, well, you know, we're behind closed doors. And so he said, no, no, if

you call him that long enough, you'll believe it. And if you believe it, you'll treat him like that. And IBM does not treat its customers like that. I never forgot that. You see, you can be on the opposite side and not hate, because hate takes you to a whole another level. And their fruit to hate. There's a

fruit to actually doing that to your neighbor. And the op ed I just read and sent over to you, it's on this thing called the man who went from his this good Samaritan, he went from his place, and next thing, you know, he fell into some need, and and three religious to religious people passed by him. And and then one man who was a Samaritan who was rejected, he came by and and he bandaged up his wounds, so forth and so on, and Jesus said, well, who

was neighbored to this man? And and so I'm just saying that he was teaching me a lesson about how to treat people, because part of what drives hate is people feeling that they have been put down there for some reason, disdained some of the words. Kim has a word for it, but yeah, yeah, and and they get

like that, and you who is it? Will Roger says he never looks out on a person or something like that, or book at the Washington says he never looks down on the man without picking him up, and that whole thing. But I learned that, and I learned to treat my marketing reps like that. When I got into management and

and learn to treat people like that. The next thing, you know him in the in the ministry, and you've got to look at people as in according to what God says they can be, and not so much of how they're performing right now, because many times they don't come up to your you know, professional standard. But you've got to teach them. And so that's that's my piece that I learned. That was a heavy piece. Now I understand all of this is scriptural because it says faith

work it by love. I didn't I don't think my boss's boss went invested too much in the scriptures. But but the company taught those principles because it knew that every seat son there's a harvest to it, and that if you say that long enough, then the harvest of that will come forth in your actions towards that customer client. Next thing, you know, IBM will get the business, so lose the business and so forth like that. So it's

that that's that's what I learned from that. But hatred, this thing is going around today and it's almost like almost like a plague, and what happened, Yeah, that's the ons agree with you. We're going to continue that point in the moment refers. Here's a quick word from our sponsor. It's almost hard to look at the news. It's hard to look at social that there's so much division, and it's like people are living in different realities. It's like, okay, this is right. Well no, I think this is right,

and it's hard to come together in unite. That's because they're not living but faith. See when you when you get over into faith, which is what I teach, then it's amazing how you can see the unseen. You you can you can operate in a way that that that would cause you to see things as they should be and not so much as they are. Let let me, let me be un example, the Bible even talks about if a person that we're talking faith now, it talks

about in Hebrews chapter twelve. It talks about that if I go around somebody and and they're bitter about something, that they can talk about it to me long enough that I'll eat the fruit of their bitterness. If if I'm not protected now, if I'm not aware of what's going on, that I could eat the fruit of their bitterness and many be defiled. Let me give you a case in point. This is faith talk. Now, this is in the marketplace, this is at IBM. So I'm coming

up for promotion. Shows what happens. Some guys from headquarters come down from some of the top exacts. They come down because they want to see me. And so there's the presentation at the branch office. I've got a portion of that presentation. So I'm gonna give a presentation. Okay, my part. Well, that night before the presentation, I stopped our friend's house. Well he's been mistreated, and he's been

mistreated as a member of the another race. So he said, you know those people that blah blah blah blah blah blah, mistreated their prejudice there, this and that. So I I sit there and just get a just get a dose of it, you know. So I go home and sleep on it. Now it's growing inside of me. Say, and that's why the scriptures tell us take heat what you hear. I don't hear too much of that news because because when it starts coming off wrong, I'm not I don't. I just can't eat it. So what happens is I

got up the next morning going to the presentation. So when the boy cities gave the One of the managers gave the presentation, another one gave his. Now it's my turn. I'll come up to give my part the presentation. The branch managers looking over all of us, and I didn't know it, but it was a setup. They were coming down to our branch office to see me because I think they were going to take me back up the headquarters from next promotion. Well, I started fishing, well, I'm

this bitterness is starting to come out. And one of the exact acts it said, let me ask you, Bill on on this right here. So I said, well, look at it. You can see it right now. I mean, it's plainist day I put it right. I've said this before, you know, just nasty. Well they left. Once they left, my boss came in my office. He I won't use the language, he used, What did you do? I should? Well, I was going through the pres said Bill, when that

attitude come point? What what if? What's happening to you? I said, well, you know this friend of mine told me about my friend of mine didn't rumping the friend plan at the seed and it began to take you and you began to particular way just by based on who you are around there, so you can stop a whole race that way. You know what's interesting on that point in terms of you can stop a whole race. And and I want to I want to kind of

tell you something that you may not even realize. So I grew up in the church, went to a bunch of different churches. My grandmother was or still as a minister, a pastor, and we went to a lot of churches that weren't really teaching the word in that way. It was kind of emotional, it was it wasn't rooted in truth. So I thought growing up being black was a disadvantage. I thought that I wouldn't be able to do certain

things because I was black. And then I went to your church, and I begin to hear things that you would say, and you would say, it's not up to the government here. You don't depend on government to take care of you, know, you would tell you would say things like it doesn't matter what color you are, you can be successful. You begin to put thoughts into my head that I had never heard before, never heard before, And a lot of times in the communities that I

grew up in, that was what they taught. They taught that you weren't going to be successful because you were black, you or you would be marginally successful. You would maybe you get become the manager of the company versus being the owner of the company. Took a different word with regards to that. And honestly, and I'm gonna say this, I know you're not political, and you don't get political

and all that. Part of the reason I'm conservative is because of the messages in which you taught on a regular and consistent basis, were about self empowerment and allowing faith in God to take you to that next level. And I'll be honest, I wouldn't be here right now talking to you if it wasn't for those messages. How did that come about in your life? Because I'm hearing echo Kildhood. And we were just brought up for We

never saw ourselves as the underdogs. Never ever. I never thought that I didn't have any reason to integrate for what you know, I mean we had it. We we were I mean you know, I mean they were all a big community. And Dr Kenny, who was a general practitioner, he taught me tennis and and and I had over here. My brother went on the campus, he graduated, finished high school.

In three years he went up on the campus after every day Monday to Friday to draw um and be trained by Mr Love and architecture, and he went on to Howard uh in architectal Engineering and finishing masters. And so I mean we we didn't, we didn't need it. The thing when I put that in me, I've found out that no one can stop me from eaching my destiny but me. That's what I found out. No one

can stop me from reaching my destiny but me. And when you look back at it, people said, well, you know God is running the world, and so what, No, he's not. He's not running the world. God is running the church. The church should be running the world. And when you get people kind of just that's a little bit of adjustment in their thinking all of a sudden, they're not so quick to blame. I went one time, well I can just tell you a lot of stories,

but we have we bought our first shopping mall. Well, they, first of all, they didn't want us to buy it because pretty much predominantly now we have mixed community in our church, but predominantly African American. They didn't want us to buy it. It's thirty three acres and yet that Forest Park, Illinois, right on the western edge of Chicago city limit. And so what happened was that was tried

to first stop that. Well they couldn't stop it. Why because you know, people told me, well I passed, that you're gonna have tough time, and they really, you know, don't particularly want you to buy that, and so forth, I said, so what what difference does it make? And then when we got them all, we're gonna build in that thirty three acres our auditorium for a church. And so here we are, and we're gonna build it. We're

gonna we've just bought it. Now we're gonna have services in it in an area that was a big box store, like a big home lumber depot, and so we we had cleaned it up and gonna have services there, and they made an ordinance with the city council that we could not have services there. Well what happened, I said, Okay, God, what do I do? So I he said, go to bed early and wake up early and pray. And I did. And he said just go read the mayor Romans after

thirteen and read one versus one through seven. I said, okay, so I did. I went there, and the mayor jumped up in the middle of that and said, Reverend, I don't know. We voted that you can't have services in there, but maybe I can do something about that. The whole thing turned around. But notice what I didn't do. If I had eaten those bitter fruit again, if I had come up again, and and I asked one of the people on my board, I said, what do I do.

He's a lawyer, he said, sue him, pastor. I said, okay, how long will that take? He said, no, take about five years. I said five years. I got to be in there tomorrow night. I said, now, no, think of something else. I asked the person in construction on the board. I said, what do I do? He said, there's another place upside up north. I can build it out and we could have services there. I said, that's not what God told me. He told me have services right here

on these thirty three acres that we had purchased. Well what happened. I'm just saying, through faith and love turned it right around. And that's an example love it and that's happened to me all the way through pass the wins, and that is so interesting. And I know that people want to hear more. Let's pick that up right after

we come back after break. This is I think something that's particularly of interest to me because I know, you know, for my listenership, we have folks of all faiths that that listened to the to this podcast on a weekly business and I'm so thankful for that. And I've expressed my faith on many occasions, especially through my book Taking for Granted, where I talk about you specifically and and

being led by God to do particular things. Now, I want to know from you, what role do you think UH faith should be taking now in this environment, because those are a lot of people who are lacking faith. A lot of folks are just plainly hopeless as to as to what to do next. And I'm and I'm gonna be honest with you, I've had moments where I

felt like I wasn't properly a line. I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and I've not talked to you about this, but you know, I've been thinking, Man, I've had all this success, I've worked hard, and God has blessed me and favored me to be where I am. I'm not married yet, and you know all these things that, uh, that I really want in life. And I've even sent you, you know, text measures like hey, I'm I'm seeing this

young ladies. You know how picture, et cetera. And you always tell me to, you know, just pump your brakes and just hear God and just move forward in that direction. So I'm intrigued to know, for a lot of people who are listening of different faiths, what would you tell them your your religious beliefs. And I know you're not really wanted to talk about religious beliefs. And you can believe religion comes from the Greek religion, which translates back

to bonders. But your theology, your views, and what role religionship play in today's world. Well, here's here's what it can happen if you ever learn about faith one, what it is, how it comes, and what it can do. If you ever learn that it'll give you all the comfort in any situation that you will ever be in.

It doesn't make any difference because if you learn to see faith as a servant of the believer, you can have your faith do things and work for you while you're asleep, and faith will be working in our faith literally connects you with God's ability literally, and once that happens, God goes to work for you. Now you're not making God do something, but God is fulfilling a promise. So every promise of God in the Bible takes faith to energize it, to faith to give it the power to

bring itself to pass. And and so once you learn this, and see how Jesus cursed the victory and while he was sleep the victory with it away, how Jesus to stop the storm. And I'm saying, one thing after another, everything he did he did as a what I call a samples son, showing you and me how we can do that. I got my wife by faith, and you're gonna have to get you out of faith. But it's it's, it's, it's it's the best way to do it because now I've got I've got God in it. I've got God

in it. And what God promised he is watching over to make it good. And I'm saying, all right, let's take a job. For example. Somebody says, well, you know, things are down, jobs are scared, so forth, all right, here's my wife when when I was sound in in seminary, and and and now I'm in seminary and going full time and we need someone working in the house. And my wife said, guys went to sound around some of these employment agencies, but they said there are no jobs.

Everybody's getting laid off. So what does she do. She comes back and we're going to buy because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And we come into bottle and find a promise that says, my God shall supply all your need. No notice what she's doing. Now, we're about to apply faith. So she begins to take that and do what it says. Because

the Bible is a success book. So she begins to take that what says and begin to take all the related scriptures and put them on three by five cards and past them all over the house. Why because the Bible says keep the word in your eyes, in your ears, in your mouth, and in your heart. So she's pasting them. I go to refrigerator, redeemed from the curse. I go to the bathroom. I mean, it's one on the top

of the daughter too. But she's continuing to say it because we have no idea how much we are ruled by our confession, just the words we say so even when you when you're joking and you say, oh man, I'm dead because you're laughing. People say that and they said, oh man, you make me sick, and all of a sudden, you've got you've got to watch that because what where you are now normally is a result of what you

thought and what you've spoken. That if we've been designed to live like God, I mean to operate like our father. And the way he got things done is spoken words of what Jesus did, he did with words. Okay, no, so what does she do? She began to confess it. Long story short. Friend of mine came over to the house and in my classmate. He said, hey, Bill, Uh no, Veronica, is Bill in the house? Yeah, he's in the house. Oh, by the way, you got the job yet. I was

going to listen to see what she said. She said, I sure do. Now, this is faith. Now, faith calls things that be not though they were. That's what it does. That's the difference that when you say that around certain people, it's oh no, wait a minute. And this is what he said, Well, where is it? She said, Well, I don't know exactly where it is, but I got it. Okay,

Notice people think you're little cuckoo. Why why because you said that, But but if you look at it, Notice how you get the temperature in a room to rise. You take the thumberstat and turn it to the temperature you want, and then it happens. The same thing about your tongue. Take your tongue, take it to the place you wanted, and then everything will rise to meet that place. You follow one him saying I do. And I have a perfect example for that is something that I learned

at your church. You you invited a speaker his name was fair Great for a finance conference, and he's somebody that's out here now. He's still doing pretty well. And before you brought the speaker and you were teaching on Joshua one in three every place of the soul of your foots are tread upon that about giving unto you. And at that time I was about eighteen years old, I think. And you kept teach on it every Sunday, every Sunday, and they began to take root in my heart.

So now I had a desire for real estate. But how am I going to get involved in real estate when I'm living at home and you know that much money I was working for the federal government at that time. Part time, I was saving money, but you know, I'm still working. So it's a big mindset to have, and I think that's incredibly important. And you're talking about shifting your mindset and really how to really save a lot

of people in these marginalized communities. They have to be taught something, they have something, they have to hear it over and over again. So I'm going to your church, and I go to this conference, and I go to sit at this well. At this point, actually I'm going to the conference and this the freeway traffic was back going to Chicago. But I kept feeling lad to go. I thought I was gonna be later, miss it or something. So I ended up going. And I get out and

people are waiting outside because they couldn't get in. It wasn't yet open. Something like wow, okay, maybe there was deception trying to keep me from going. So I ended up they opened the doors. I went in the bathroom and I came out and it seemed like they were putting people back out because they were let into early. So anyway, I meet this gentleman, older African American gentleman with his son and he goes up to the door, seemed like an important guy because they say, how many

people do you have? Said, just me and my son. And I walk up and I say, can I be your son? He says, yeah, me and my two sons. So we go in the tables and the auditorium, et cetera. And I'm sitting down at the table and and I'm talking to the gentleman and he said, so what do you do? And I'm a young man, I'm eighteen years old. I said, well, I work with the federal government, et cetera. I said what do you do? He said, well, I'm a real estate investor. I said, really, wow, how did

you get into that? And he said, well, at first I was a janitor and my boss was talking about real estate, etcetera, etcetera. I got some training and now I'm a multi millionaire. So I'm like, what, how's that even possible? And oftentimes you will say, hey, even in the Kingdom of godam jenitor can become a millionaire of jet Jet. That's what you said. So everyone seemingly was

coming that was coming into it. They were hearing our conversation about real estate, and they started coming around the table and sitting with us, so I collected everyone's in nation. I kept meditating on the scripture, and all of a sudden, I call up this realtor that I met that night, and I sat down with her and we're talking about real estates. So she's like, well, I need to check your credit, et cetera. So she checks my credit and she says, well, your credit came back to zero. And

I said, how is that even possible? I thought it was like as loads of four hundred or something. She said, that just means you haven't developed any credit yet. Because I say, okay, and I'm about to demonstrate this point really quickly on faith so people can really really understand it and take it home. I talked about it in my book Take It for Granted. If you want to know more, I put the scripture in it, etcetera. So I'm saying, how is it a zero? She said, well,

you got to develop your credits. I say, okay, Well, now that I've been listening to the the pastor wins and I know I need to go get this scripture and build faith for it. So somehow I meet somebody at work and they had a list of scriptures and they said Hey, this is the scripture that I used for my house. And I said, wow, no credit, She said her for her credit. I said, okay, wow, let me take this. I started confessing it every day, upon it

to myself and all of us. Sudden, I had these ideas of what to do with this one credit card that I had. I began to use it and pay it off, immediately, use it, pay it off immediately. My credit in one one time became a seven thirty, from a zero to a seven thirty. And I know people are listening, like, wow, how is that even possible? I was working the system, but I want people to understand the practical. Uh, the practical. So it was I was led to do something, an action. I had to take

a step. Faith without works is dead. I had to take a step, and that step in it of itself, I began to use this credit card, pay it off multiple times a week. I was actually doing this. The credit card company noticed this. They raised my credit limit by a lot, and then my credit shot up. That's how it happened. But it still took some direction by God to make this happen. And I want people to understand how practical this is, because oftentimes when we talk

about faith, people think of it. It's kind of like, oh, spooky and ghost and how this happened. But there's a practical measure to it. I remember you talking about how you can plan a seed and God will bless you with the promotion on your job. Never thought about them how it can happen anyway. See, people have separated God from work. Hey, they have. They've taken and said, well, I go to Sunday, go to church on Sunday, and the rest of the week I leave God in church.

I'm out of good working. And that's not the Hebrew concept. I want to give a special thanks to Dr Bill Wilson for the first half of our amazing interviews, and be sure to tune into part two of this great conversation. If you're enjoying the show, please leave us a review and rate us with five stars on Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. If you have any questions for me, please email me at out loud at ginger

Street sixt dot com. Again, that's out Loud at gingerish Street sixties dot com and I'll try to answer them in our future episodes. You can also find me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and parlor that's at Giano called blow g I A N N O called Well, last name c A L D W E L L. And if you're interested in learning more about my story and personal in there that please pick up a copy of my best selling book titled Taken for Granted, How Conservatism Can Win back to

the Americans and Liberalism Failed. Very special thank you to our producers Stephen Calabria, researcher Aaron Klingman and executive producer Debbie Myers, and of course speaker New Gingridge, part of the Ginger Street sixty Network, part of the Gainer of Street sixty network