Pastors' Perspective - 06/17/2025

What is it that you read in your Bible today that either didn't make sense, you want some clarification on, we love to hear where you are in your walk with the Lord as you grow deeper, and we just love the questions that we get here on the program. 888-564-6173 is our number once again, and you can also send in your questions online, uh, via Uh, the pastor's perspective Facebook messenger or by DMing us

on the pastor's perspective Instagram. You can also click my forehead on Kwave.com, that gets you to the page where you can submit a question on Kwave.com, or if you're watching us on Facebook, YouTube or Instagram, there's the um Uh, scanner, you can scan the QR code there on the bottom right of your screen, and that will get your question to us too. But the best way, of course, is to call us when we're here live like today

at 888-564-6173. Brian Broderson is here. You already heard me introduce him, and we've also got author and apologist Doctor Bobby Conway, the pastor of Image Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Hello. Well, hello. That was a long intro. I'm out of breath. Yeah, that was a bit long-winded, and about the same thing.

Yes, where is he going? I agree. Well, I was kind of distracted, you know, having to put my own equipment together here and no respect around this place, you know, for pastor emeritus just. Gotta do everything yourself. Yeah, well, you know, you're not the lead guy anymore. Yeah, I know. I mean, it's obvious. People are just crying like, what are you doing here? Yeah. Do you work here? What's your name? Uh, just having fun. Bobby, how are you doing?

I'm doing really good. Yeah, good. I think it's, uh, it's been a nice day and just, uh, launched our product line at pondermerch.com. And so that's pretty cool. We've got, uh, 5 t-shirts and 5 canvases now available, uh, that correlate to the drawings and so I designed our logo for Ponder. And so, yeah, a lot of fun, looking forward to seeing this clothing line. Uh, and slapping the art on there, so we'll see how it comes together. Cool, very nice. pondermerch.com. And uh so, so what kind

of products are they? T-shirts or yeah, so t-shirts and canvas. So nice. It's the whole idea is the graphite apologist puts out these short videos of long drawings with a Hopefully meaningful message and then the art that I drew turns into t-shirt and canvas at ponder, and the idea behind ponder is it's art that we want you to think about that has a meaning, not just something cool. So it's kind of two things I'm launching at once graphite apologist and ponder. So the tortured soul, um.

Is that your favorite one, Brian? That was just a product of my brain. I just envisioned a tortured soul with just a bunch of mental mental pictures. Yeah, that was on mental health awareness. Yeah, that's um. It's pretty wild. Pretty, yeah, got some today that we're done, 5 done today, 1 on CS Lewis, 1 on. Um, Socrates, one on Soaring Kierkegaard, and then a few others, one coming up on, oh, another one on CS Lewis. So I'll be doing a lot of stuff. I'm gonna

do Augustine. You'll like this, Brian, so you know, Augustine of Hippo. So I'm gonna do a drawing of Saint Augustine, but I'm gonna have him riding a hippo as he's leading the city of man headed toward the city of God while he's reading his confessions. I'll, I'll take that one. That'll be good. And what, what's the Lewis one look like? Is it just, uh, like a portrait, like a facial? Um, yeah, the CS Lewis one is. Well, it's on my graphite apologist one, but it's, it's

not up as the actual video. It's basically what I did is I, I created Aslan and I put Aslan at a desk and then behind the desk is all these books, but then it's the desk of CS Lewis, and so he's Aslan sitting there and drawing. Very cool. That's good. Oh yeah, I see it. I see. I see it at the desk, yes, next, next to Francis Schaffer. Next to Francis Schaffer. That's right, yeah, and those will all be shirts too. I just, we only released 5, but the Francis Schaffer one will be up and, uh,

so yeah, be, be fun. I don't know what's too many products to put out, but you know, yeah, I think there's, uh, this is, this is cool stuff. I got a. Yep, it's on Bobby's rap Topologist YouTube channel. You just need to get a t-shirt for everybody in the Calvary network as a gift from you. Yeah. There's Winston playing the guitar. I just saw that one. Yeah that's right.

Very cool. All right. I like it. 888-564-6173 is the number to call us today here on Pastor's Perspective, and let's start with a question that was sent in online. This is from Evan who called in, you might remember Brian, this past Friday. He had a question about, um, mediums, and, uh, he also had a follow up regarding spirits. Can people who passed. Are there spirits around us and can they communicate?

No, no, OK, that was easy. Next question. Well, that would, that would be uh You know, like a ghost, and there, there's no. There's nothing in scripture that, now, of course, in scripture, we do have spirits, yes, but they're not the spirits

of people. So, a a person's spirit, when the person's spirit leaves the body, the person's spirit goes to Whatever Depending on their, their position with God, that kind of determines where they go, but they're in They're in that place, be it heaven or be it um hell, and they're not able to reaccess the the this realm. So, so the spirits that can access this realm are not human spirits, but what we would call demons,

demonic spirits. Bobby. Yeah, and I would add that If somebody has had an experience where they feel like a loved one maybe has shown up to them, uh, I don't, um, question the fact that somebody had an experience. I question the source of the experience. So I do believe that the demonic realm, uh, they can, you know, appear as an angel of light and bring about deception. So it's not unthinkable to think that demons could mimic.

Something um of a loved one, and that's just for the purpose of confusing theology, of creating, you know, a sense of, you know, belief that you can talk to the dead. I mean, I, I talked to a lady last week that she's talking to a loved one that's passed on and convinced there's something going on there. And I think as Christians that we have to put what we see in the scriptures ahead of our experience.

So if you lose a loved one, and you feel convinced that your loved one's communicating with you. Well, we're up against the problem because the Bible forbids necromancy. Uh, the Bible lets us know very clearly that, you know, our loved ones aren't interacting with us. So what do

we do with that experience? Well, we would go to the scriptures and we would see that, you know, to be absent from the bodies to be present with the Lord if someone's a believer, but we would recognize that even the evil one could do something. And you might feel good and think, well, how in the world, you know, could a demon make me feel

good like I'm connecting with a loved one. Well, if it means that you start to compromise scripture by putting experiences over The truth, then we played right into his hand. Any other thoughts, Brian? Uh, well, yes and no. I mean, I, I think just that this is real stuff, and I think we need to keep that in mind and we need to, as we, as we both have said, we need to make sure that we're understanding the spirit world.

Through the biblical lens because like, like Bobby says, you know, there are people who do have these experiences and they can become emotionally attached to one of these kinds of experiences, but in doing that, they're, they're setting themselves up, you know, demons, they, they're on a mission. They're not benign. They're not just gonna show up and. Make you feel better because you miss your loved one.

They have an agenda and the agenda is destructive. So I think, um, but sometimes they like, like Bobby referred to the passage from Paul and Corinthians, um, Satan transforms himself into an angel of light and, and then Paul goes on to say, and so it's no. Um, big surprise that his ministers will do the same thing. So yeah, did you ever listen to the podcast, The Exorcist Files? I did not.

I still think if you went back to season one, it's just so you know how like Justin Briley like or Dixon, just the production is so through the roof. It is, it is the production levels insane and I think on like Spotify, it was the number one download for a while there, but they just came out with a new season. And the stories, uh, they're just, they're, they're mesmerizing. I, I don't think we would agree with everything, uh, coming out of it, but I did find it really, really, um,

just intriguing to listen to. You know, I was listening to, um, did, did you ever listen to the Devil in the Deep Blue Sea podcast? No. So somebody just mentioned that to me the other day and it was or it is a podcast done by Mike Cosper and remember Mike was the one who did the uh the Mars Hill podcast. um, so it's one of those kind of long form documentary things, but he was dealing with the subject of demonization, demon possession, and he, he actually had a um.

He, he had a recording of a so-called exorcism of being led by um Oh, what was his name? Larson, Bob Larson. I don't know if you remember that name. Yeah, uh, boy, that guy's still going and he's, it's as kooky as ever. I was shocked, you know, because it's gotta be, gotta be in his 80s, but I mean, you know, they're supposedly casting out this demon and it was just wild. I don't think they were actually casting out a demon.

I think it was all, uh, fabricated, but, um, but anyway, oh yeah, 81 years old, look at that. My goodness, he's still around, still around, yeah. All right, 888-564-6173 is the number to call us today. And Darnell, we're gonna go to you after I read one more question that was sent in online. This one is from Graciela from Anaheim. I reconciled with the Lord eight years ago after walking away for 20 years from church. During that time, I was an addict to meth, and I now have schizophrenia.

Now I serve the Lord a church, yet I struggle so bad with sinful thoughts, and I'm not being guided from the Holy Spirit. My question is, the Lord delivered me from addiction and alcohol. Why doesn't he help me in renewing my mind? Bobby, what do you tell Graciela? Well, I mean, I do think it probably depends on the nature of what one is struggling with. Um, uh,

let's just say it has to do with lust. Um, you know, there can be all sorts of connections that, uh, relationally, uh, you get connected to and it can be a deeper form of attachment that you struggled with. So, Uh, it, it, I don't think it's a God won't deliver you. Um, it could just be that this is the harder one of the different addictions that you may have struggled with to deal with. Uh, you know, let's just say it's lust. We don't know what the issue is,

so it's hard to speak directly to it. Well, she said it was schizophrenia. That's what she has after all those years of doing. Meth. She now has schizophrenia, so she's wondering why the Lord won't, uh, OK, renew her mind. Yeah, that's, that's, that's kind of a mental health issue that it's different. Like, for example, you take um some of the addiction that

you've found freedom in. Well, there's freedom in Christ to overcome that, but when it comes to something like schizophrenia, this is a mental health issue that requires, um, God to do. We can't just heal ourselves from. You know, having some of these type of, um, mental

health issues in and of ourselves. So yes, God can show up and heal somebody that's an addict, but if somebody has MS or, uh, Alzheimer's or Parkinson's or schizophrenia or borderline personality disorder, I mean, you, you can do the work to help keep it at bay as best as you can. Uh, but here's the thing that's different when you're acting out in addiction and drugs and just burying yourself, there's

a violation there. When you're struggling with a true mental health condition like schizophrenia, uh, you know, it could be that maybe some of the drugs or whatever contributed. To the cause of that, but not maybe even exclusively, but I don't think that you're in a sense sinning against God if you're suffering from some type of a mental health issue in your life. And so the key is how do you glorify Him with this and how do you become informed so that you um aren't incapacitated

by it? Those would be just a few thoughts. Brian. Well, Yeah, and, and I think too there are. Some situations that we are just having to, to live with and and battle through by the grace of God. He, he gives us the The strength and the grace that we need to to persevere, but, um, because the question is why hasn't God taken us away? And um, You know, there, there could be some uh damage, irreversible damage that was done by the drugs that does happen

at times. And yet I think by God's mercy, we do have medications and things these days that can stabilize people with schizophrenia and allow them to live, you know, a somewhat normal life, but of course you've always got the issues of The obsessive thoughts and things like that that can come and sometimes even voices and that. And I've known so many people over the years and years of ministry that have battled with this and. And a lot of them have had the same question,

why hasn't the Lord healed me? And we don't know the answer to that, but it, I mean, it is a it is an, uh, it's a legitimate ailment of of physiological nature. It's not like, you know, like mental illness sometimes is. It's kind of, um, even when you talk about mental illness, it's almost like well the mind's intangible, the mind is non-material so then you sort of think of mental illness as. Not related to you and your body, but of course your brain and your mind are in some way related.

Nobody understands exactly what the relationship is, but, but the way your body works will affect the way your your brain works and the way your brain works will, will affect the way you think and and so forth. So all of that to just say that don't, don't be discouraged that you haven't been healed. Know that the Lord has

He's embraced you as his own. He's obviously forgiven your sins, he's restored you on many levels and just keep trusting him for the grace that he will give you to, to make it a kind of one day at a time, a really good friend in the UK who.

Uh, battled with severe mental illness for many years and came to faith and then, um, the Lord did a lot to, to bring him to a fairly normal living experience, but he had lapses at times and, and one of the things that happens a lot of times with people who are on medication for mental illness is they. They feel guilty that they're taking medication. They feel like, well, if I had more faith, God would probably heal me,

so I shouldn't be on this medication. So they go off of their medication and then their symptoms, uh, their, their symptoms come back, you know, sometimes with a vengeance, and this, this happened to him a few times. I remember where he was very stable, doing great. Still had his struggles, but he coped and lived relatively normal life and then he would decide, oh, I, I

can't be on these meds. I need, I need to get off these and he'd go off of them and then next thing you know, he's walking down the middle of the street naked, you know, and stuff like that. So, um, you know, again, thank God for.

Good people in the medical world, the psychiatrist who understand these things and can help people, um, but Thank God for His grace to that even sustains us even though there's not a complete healing and there might never be, but there could be, um, you know, Brian Wilson died last week of the Beach Boys and he battled with mental illness for many years. It was drug induced probably the majority of it, um, but he battled through it and he came through.

The other side and lived again, you know, a, a fairly normal life. So, um, but you have the Lord and he's with you and and he's helping you and just, you know, it's a day at a time Bobby. Yeah, it would be kind of like if again. Mental health issues like Brian said, can be induced through

drug use. In particular, schizophrenia, if there was cocaine or LSD usage, if somebody has a genetic predisposition, um, toward that kind of thing that is, um, you know, Alzheimer and, and, and, and, um, or schizophrenia, excuse me, in the parent's history, uh, that can kind of trigger that quicker.

Uh, but then it comes to like, let's say somebody struggled with cutting their physical body, and they become a believer and God delivered them from cutting, but it, it would be kind of equivalent to saying like, well, why doesn't God, you know, remove my scars? I mean, he delivered me from cutting. Well, those are scars from the past and sometimes drug use leads to scarring and and it. And it's something that you go, OK, I got to figure out how to make the most of this. What

can I do to, to live in this? And so just as sometimes people can cut and then they have these scars and they're delivered from that, um, use this as an example if it was drug induced to help others, um, you know, to stay away from it, to know what the consequences can be if if it's used in, in, in the kind of extremes that can produce something like that.

Graciela, thank you for sending in, I should say Graciela Gracias for sending in your question, uh, through the Kwave.com pastor's perspective page, and now we're gonna go to the phones 888-564-6173. We will start with Darnell in Fullerton. Hi there, Darnell, thanks for calling in today.

Um That the kind of prophetic ministry that Ezekiel had, uh, I don't know that we have those kinds of prophetic ministries today where people are talking about a judgment that's coming or uh details about in times events and things, you know, we have, we have a lot of scripture and we have hints and indicators about, you know, what things will look like, but whenever anybody gets Down to trying to get really specific about uh this is what God told me and this is what's gonna

happen and there's going to be a judgment here, there's gonna be an earthquake there and uh uh a massive tsunami is gonna come and wipe this out, you know, because these things have been predicted, but they don't, they never happen. So I don't, I don't know that there is such um An appointment by God to people with that kind of

ministry today. I think in what we call the tribulation period, there will be that, and we know that there are going to be two witnesses that will prophesy in Jerusalem, uh, during the tribulation period, and I think that they will be, uh, they will be once again like the prophets of old. So Bobby, what do you think?

Yeah, I agree. I mean, if you're teaching this passage, you want to be faithful to the original context and Ezekiel being the watchman, he's sent by God to warn the people of coming judgment and how to kind of get around that, right? When it comes to an application level, if I was teaching through this chapter.

I wouldn't want to say that we have the same message, but I would say something like, all of us, um, have warnings that we have to offer and sometimes God calls you to be a watchman in someone else's life and you might need to Somebody, uh, needs to hear the gospel, and they need to be warned, uh, of, of what it looks like to reject him or you know, it can play out, um, you know, with the spouse warning their husband or wife that if they don't change their behavior, it's going to

lead to consequences or warning your kids. So there's an element where all of us have to be willing to be God's watchman, the message looks different. Uh, I guess today we share the gospel to warn people. We're sort of watchmen in that way, but then as Pastor Brian said, you'll see more of that crystallize in the escaton. Yeah, and you know. I'm, I'm listening to this, um, history on, um, Savonarola,

and some, some people would know that name. Savonarola was a, uh, 15th century, um, Reformer, like, like a, a Catholic uh friar who became a reformer who was um Considered to be.

Very prophetic and he was um he was in the city of Florence at the time and he was predicting judgment and doom and the French army is gonna come and all of this, some of which did happen, but at the same time he was also included in that the return of Jesus and you know, very detailed descriptions about the the wrath of God and the judgment that Jesus was going to bring when he came and so forth.

And so, you know, the, the places where it seemed like he might have been getting a few things right in the big picture, he was getting a ton of it wrong. And, um, you know, so and I think this is what happens he was all involved in the politics of, of the, the city at the time and and and I think when when you get into that place like, like today, if we were to start.

Saying things very specifically about world leaders and you know this world leader is, is, is this and he's a type of the antichrist and he's gonna do this and this nation's gonna do that and you know, Israel's gonna and and some people do, they cross over the boundary and they start speaking like they are an Old Testament prophet. And yet it always has proven over and over again that um they weren't because the things that they say

uh ultimately don't happen. And so that's where you See that uh people can really get carried away with some of this, and especially if you get an audience and people are listening and they want to hear more than you, you just keep going further down that road. And what better way to get an audience than to upload videos on YouTube? I mean, that's what people do nowadays and then they got all these followers and crazy stuff, man, Darnell.

Thank you for calling us today on Pastor's Perspective. Gonna take a break and then we'll be back with more of your questions. Pastor Brian, tell us about the conference going on at Calvary Chapel or the Calvary Chapel conference going on. The Calvary Global Network conference. Yes, it's gonna be happening next week, as a matter of fact, 22nd through the 25th.

At Reliance Church in Temecula, California, the Way Forward ministry according to Jesus, it's going to be a great time of encouragement for all of those who attend, uh, who are in a variety of different areas of ministry. We're looking to encourage everybody who's serving in whatever capacity. So, conference. Calvary Chapel.com, get all the information and you can get registered and uh yeah, we'll be there a week from today, we'll be there, so.

Very nice. Join us. Conference. Calvary Chapel.com. It's break time. We'll be back with more of your questions. Jack Ledeen, you are coming up here on Pastor's Perspective, 888-564-6173. Hey, we are back on Pastor's Perspective. Thanks so much for joining us. Thanks so much for listening on the radio or maybe on a podcast or watching us on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram. We are here Monday through Friday from 3 to 4 p.m. Pacific time and we take phone calls.

Answer the questions you might have about the Bible, the Christian faith at 888-564-6173. Jack and Laine from Costa Mesa, California are on the line, and they've got a question for Brian Broderson and Bobby Conway. Welcome folks to Pastor's Perspective. Hi, pastors, um, the passage that we're, that we're, uh, been reading and, and, in hopes that you could, uh, shed some light on and possibly even pray with us is James 5:14 through 16.

Um, and it's are, are any among you sick, they, they should call the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. And their prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make them well. And anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of

a righteous person has great power and wonderful results. And so we just found out today that my wife Leine um tested positive for breast cancer. So, we're um on lean on the Lord and um And so we just wanted your thoughts and possibly um I mean I have some olive oil, I mean uh possibly some prayer, yeah.

Yeah, well, I mean, absolutely you can, and I'm sure you, you will pray for your wife, but the passage is is speaking of um going to the church leadership, the spirit spiritual leaders of the church. And asking them to do that, um, kind of officially, you know, coming and just we would like to be anointed with oil. My wife has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Would you pray for her? And then the elders of the church, so the elders would be the spiritual leaders of the church, the pastors would be the way we would normally refer to it today, um, and that's what James is instructing, uh, the, the sick to do. Hm. I got you. Our church. My church is, um, we, we have, uh, an online thread where we read a chapter a day. It's like 12 of us. And yeah, the pastors in there, um,

but we don't have a physical church that we go to. Yeah, we're a part of the church, but we don't go to a building. Yeah. Or do you connect with those folks, um, other than online? Do you guys ever meet up anywhere or anything like that? Uh, no, but we're real close to you guys, and, and I have a church building that I used to go to, and, uh, and I am a part of

their ministry. Yeah. One of the trees, and so. Yeah, we'll reach out to them and just let them know that you'd like to come in and receive prayer and I'm sure they would love to pray for you, pray for your wife. OK, and so they're, they're speaking of physical members of the church, right, yeah, OK. Yeah, can we pray for the Dean? Absolutely. Yeah. Lord, we do pray for Ladine and we know that this.

This news, um, comes with a, with a jolt, and so we pray for your peace to be upon her, and we pray for wisdom and how to proceed and we pray for healing, we pray for your touch. And so Lord, open up that door for the elders of the church to be able to anoint her and to pray for her. But Lord, thank you that we don't have to do that. That you hear our prayers as we lift them up to you any time and any place. So we're praying today that you would touch and minister to Ludin in Jesus' name. Amen.

Jesus. Amen. Thank you for calling in, Jack, and if everyone listening can keep Laine and Jack in your prayers, that'd be great. Now, let's talk a little bit about the anointing oil. Does it have, I mean, what is it about? And what kind of oil, like Jack mentioned, olive oil. I mean, is there some kind of, what is it? Because before people run out to the stores and buy olive oil, thinking it's going to cure everything, uh, explain the significance.

Well, there's different opinions about this, you know, um, and Bobby, jump in anytime you want, uh, you know, some, some people saw this, uh, you know, the good, good Christian, um, Bible teachers would have different perspectives on it. So somebody like Jay Vernon McGee, who most people have heard on this radio station for many, many years, he would look

at this as the oil was medicinal. And so this was something that was going to Um, you know, the properties in the, in the oil were going to lend to the healing of the person. So he wasn't looking at this as, um, there was a miraculous healing that was gonna take place. It's very, very practical. And, and yet others, of course, would see it as, you know, something supernatural is gonna occur, the oil is symbolic, say, of the Holy Spirit, doesn't matter

what kind of oil it is, doesn't specify. In those days, of course, it would have been olive oil, um. So, but the oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit, so it's symbolic of the spirit coming upon a person, the elders are laying their hands on them, so it's, you know, the idea is that you're being touched by

God through this and and healed through this. And of course, I've done this many, many times, and Bobby's done this, and, you know, as pastors, we have anointed many people with oil and prayed for them. The tricky part of the passage is um kind of what appears to be uh the promise of healing. So the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up. So, We've all also had the experience of laying hands on people and putting oil on them and praying for them

and them not recovering. So that's the challenge. OK, so what, what is James saying here? And that's why Bobby gets answered that part of the question because he is the great doctor. That's right, doctor, doctor Bobby. I thought you answered it great, you know, but what about the same thing? I'm like some people say medicinal, some people believe. But there was something special to it. But what do

we do? But what do we do with the seeming sort of almost guarantee in the, in the, you know, language that's used there. Well, I do think that I look at that like I would the Book of Proverbs. Um, the book of James is called the New Testament, uh, Proverbs, and the book of Proverbs, it's a mistake to take all of those proverbs as promises. Though you can, um, read it like that, they're almost like, I mean, Proverbs is wisdom and James is wisdom. Uh, I believe that if God is in it to heal,

then the faith will do that very thing. But you think of James, for example, uh, we know that he died a martyr's death, or we think of Paul the Apostle. And he had his own, you know, thorn in the flesh. We know that Timothy, the pastor of Ephesus, struggled with stomach issues. So this is not a guarantee for praying

away all sickness. In other words, that would be a real problem because we know that the reason that there's, you know, sickness is because of the fall, and Faith, no matter how much faith we have, we're not going to be able to faith away all sickness this side of heaven. But when God is in it for His glory to heal and faith meets him with trust,

the healing will be accomplished. But it's still not because of that person's faith, it's ultimately because of what God did and God even gives the faith. So he gets all the glory. Yeah, yeah, and, and some have thought, and I, I think there could be something to this, that the prayer of faith is.

The same thing as Paul talks about in Romans chapter 12, the gift of faith, where this is not faith that we have that saves us, but it's a special gift of faith at the moment that God gives where there's a certainty to the outcome rather than, uh, you know, we're not, we're not sure where this is gonna go. And, and so the gift of faith is like, um, faith for the extraordinary, I think is a way that we could.

We could define it. And I know that um I've experienced at times the, the gift of faith where God had just given me faith to know. That this particular thing was Going to certainly um happen the way we had asked for it to happen, you know, so often when we're praying, we're, you know, we're praying in faith, but we're praying with the Lord. We don't really know what you're gonna do.

We hope, hope you're gonna do this, but when the gift of faith is in action, there's like a certainty to it, you know, it's not, we're wondering, uh, if this is gonna go this way or not. We, God gives that faith to know that. The healing is gonna come. So, and some have thought that maybe that's the answer to the question of what, what is the prayer of faith.

The important thing is to pray. There might be even people who are listening thinking, well, maybe that's why there's so much sickness in the world and in the church nowadays because there's not enough of an emphasis on prayer, especially like this, where you actually go to the elders of the church and they anoint you with oil. Yeah, I, I think, you know, I, I do think that we should, we should be more inclined toward that.

I think a lot of times we, you know, we have modern medicine and so the natural go to is I got to go to the doctor, aspirin and call me, yeah, and you know, that's fine too, but we should. Start with prayer and see where we go from there. Uh prayer, um, in these moments, it, it's kind of tricky, um, when it comes to somebody asking because you want to pray believing.

And then yet, there's a part of you that's, you've been in ministry a while, you've been a Christian for a while, and you also are aware of so many people that had greater faith than maybe yourself, right? That you can think as you reflect on your own prayer and then. You realize that these prayers weren't answered, so I, I struggle with like that tension, you know, how do you deal with that, Brian, when you're praying?

And you know that you believe God can heal, but then closing out the prayer, but if you so desire not to heal, we trust you anyway. And then that almost sounds like a faith cop out, but it's, it feels like faith either way to me. Yeah, and you know, and some people would say if you, if you include, uh, your will be done, that right there is a lack of faith, you know, you just, you just.

He demonstrated that he don't really have faith. Well, Jesus said in his prayer, not my will but yours be done. So I think we're on good ground to say, uh, nevertheless, your will be done. But you know what I do, um, I always ask very specifically for healing. It's like, OK, Lord, we're right now we're asking you to heal. That's what we're asking you to do. And so we ask, and then, but If you have a plan that we're not aware of, then of course, we're gonna go with that plan because

we don't really have a choice. So Lord, just give us wisdom, um, if you have something else in mind here and the strength to go through that because, yeah, yeah. All right, 888-564-6173 is the number to call us for the next 10 or 12 minutes or so. We'd love to hear from you. Here's a question that was sent in online from Andrea. I work for a company where the owner says they are a follower of Christ, but their actions don't reflect that.

How should I go about working with them when I feel like my values are being compromised and I don't agree with what they are doing? Bobby, what would you say to Andrea? I just think in this world, we're gonna have to know how to not allow the way other people live, uh, influence the way that we live. We're called to be influencers, and when we're bumping into believers, that might not be living it out, we might, you know, in a loving way, ask, you know, what's going on.

Um, anything that you're struggling with, sometimes people have found a way to rationalize their behavior in the name of scripture. Uh, if it's non-believers that we're dealing with, well, you would expect that, and I would say that when you're in an environment and the darker the culture is, uh, if we realize our missions to be light, then the darker it is, the greater opportunity for our light to shine. Uh, and so we don't want to blame, uh, the darkness for being dark.

But if we have people professing to be in the light that are living like the dark, then we should just try to be a friend with them and ask what's going on and realize that, hey, we too could slip up and have some dark days as well and lose our witness. Uh, so Jesus, what's so beautiful about him is he came as the light of the world in a dark world. And he influenced everywhere he went, and his prayer requests weren't, hey, how do I get myself separated from these people? Uh,

they're going to mess me up. It was a solid faith, and it flowed out of a connection to the Father. He knew what his mission was, and I'd say just remember your mission, that you're to be a disciple of Christ and to shine for him. Andrea, thank you for sending in your question on Kwave.com. Let's go down to Vista. Scott, thank you for calling in today. How can we help you?

Gentlemen, thank you so much for taking my call, and I gotta tell you, I listened to you on the way home from work every day, and it's just a pleasure to hear the show, the program of everything, all the subjects, all the callers and your opinions, and thank you so much. I look forward to it every day. Well, great, thank you, thank you, Scott.

And I'm one of these guys that lot of pastors talk about in their uh podcasts and things I listen to on occasion where I'm one of those new excited, uh, guys that gave the life to Christ and I 44 months ago I did that. That's great about it. Yeah, that is so exciting. Thank you so much. And um I've got my story, my testimony as you, if you will, and um I'm just trying to do my part uh until I can start. Uh, continuing through Bible study and learning more and more scripture, um.

Anyway, I just wanted to call up and say this and thank you guys and tell you uh just a little bit about my opinion, if you don't mind, on the gal with the schizophrenia that wrote in or whatever. Um, you know, I think, uh, if it's, you know, if it's God's will, it's gonna happen here on Earth. If it doesn't, You just gotta be patient and, uh, if, and still, you know, reach out and serve God as much as you can. And if he decides that's gonna be the thing he's gonna do for you here on earth, then

so be it. Maybe she'll lose that, you know, and, you know, sadly, I, I'm a type that doesn't believe always in Western medicine, but I, I'm kind of a natural kind of a guy, and I, but I just, I, I just pray to God that, you know, This is, um, this will work for me. If it doesn't, you've got a reason for it. And, um, and I think that's really the thing I, I would say that we got to take home. Is that correct?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I, I mean, I think in the end that's, that's what we tried to encourage her with, you know, we, we, we live on this earth in this day and age. It's, there's so much greed and so much hatred and so much division and all kinds of crazy stuff, and, uh, we have the best of foods, the quickest access to things, the foods coming to your door and you know it we.

Uh, we sadly as as a whole get can get caught up in You know, all the things like gluttony and greed and all that, and I, I just believe that um If we stay focused on God, you know, we can That we're, we're in good hands and, and I'm just over overly excited but I also know that when I have issues at whatever I'm going through, whether it's work related or personal related, I just turned over to the Lord and you know something, uh, I stay focused and I,

you know, I, I've slipped on my thing sometimes and I felt the wrath of that, so to speak, um. And then I, I said no, no, no, I pushed back and I push back and things get better and better, and I, I say to the devil, throw it at me because you know what? I'm just gonna keep pushing back against you, buddy. Good. We'll keep doing that, Scott, and it's, it's great that you're following Jesus for 4 months. That is fantastic and Um, yeah, just keep pressing, pressing forward, and I'm sure that, uh,

the encouragement is appreciated. Thank you for calling in today here on Pastor's Perspective. Here's another online question. This one is from Letti. I've been asked by my daughter to respect her marriage and not intervene, but my daughter is in a very bad relationship. Her dad and I have been contacted many times because the cops have been called to her home due to their fighting that she claims has not been violent, but we all believe otherwise.

My daughter has told me that God wants her in this marriage and that we need to respect her boundaries, but I fear for her safety. I know God hates divorce, and I would never ask her to divorce her husband, but deep down inside, I selfishly wish she would. What does Scripture say about this? And as a mother, how do I just simply back off in a situation like this? Bobby, what would you say to Letty? Well, this is difficult because your gut feels one thing,

but your daughter's telling you another thing. And if you end up kind of saying what your gut thinks, then she might say you're overreacting, or she might put boundaries up with you, uh, or she might not feel safe sharing with you. So this is a tricky situation. And yet police are being called and typically we're not calling police.

Uh, just because we're, you know, yelling at each other. Uh, there's some kind of deeper fear going on, so my gut would say the same thing, and, um, I guess what I probably would try to do there is obviously, if you ever know anything's physical going on, uh, that's just whether it's a parent or a pastor or a friend, uh, you do whatever you can to help. I think.

In the meantime, uh, really just stressing to your daughter that that instead of just saying, hey, this is what I believe is happening, just say something like, I hear you saying this and I know that you're calling. And as your mom, I just want you to know that if there is anything else going on and you don't even feel safe sharing with me.

I just want you to know that that anything we can do to help protect you is of utmost importance to us, and I don't want to jump to conclusions if you're telling me this, but you know how stuff goes like this in abusive situations, people are fearful to talk. And so even if I have to use code language with you like.

Uh, you know, so you feel like he's getting extra loud and that means something, uh, then you can let me know because if she's fearful to say, hey, he's doing this because he might ask and then she's not going to feel comfortable lying, then I would come up with some kind of code language. That would say all you have to do is let me know this and I'm here for you. I want

to respect you. Tell her that, and I don't want to cause drama and I don't wanna create some weird scenario, but you need to realize that calling police is not a healthy thing in a marriage. Yeah, Brian, yeah. Yeah, and I think, I think she mentioned her and her husband are deeply concerned, understandably. And I would say everything Bobby said, absolutely. I would say just, you know, man, try to break through this

with prayer, just you and your husband covenant with each other. We're, we're gonna pray until we get a breakthrough here one way or the other and for protection over your daughter at that, at that same time. So that's what I would encourage and, you know, it is hard, uh. I, we don't know any of the details, so we don't know why she's insisting that she's supposed to stay in the relationship. Um, that, that's a little bit perplexing, but, uh, you know, prayer will, will break through it, so.

So we were talking about prayer earlier too, when it comes to sickness, is And I think it is the anointing of oil and all that that we just read about in the book of James. That's only mentioned for sickness. Like there's nothing, I mean, so the, the thing about putting oil on somebody, it doesn't talk about doing that for other, other things, yeah, like a crazy, you know, bad marriage or a child

who's rebelling. There's nothing like that. Yeah, because I, and I think, you know, sickness is something that's that's out of a person's entirely. And yet bad behavior is not. So bad behavior needs to be repented of, you know, it's not like you'd like put put oil on somebody and they're gonna be nice. They need to repent and they need to be, you know, convicted of their behavior is, is being sinful. So, but praying through these strongholds, you know, there are places where the devil.

We read in scripture that he gets a foothold in in people's lives and it sounds like with this anger and and this kind of. I mean, it sounds like there's something close to violence anyway. You know, this is, this is the kind of stuff that the devil gets in and really stirs up. So I think the prayer is against those. Dark forces and the sinful person who is the the perpetrator as well, praying that God would, you know, restrain that and break through and if need be, get her

out of that situation. Bobby, 30 seconds. I would just say that if you're a guy out there and you struggle being verbally abusive or even physical with your spouse, uh, get some help. I mean, that is like the worst form of bullying, uh, when it's just kind of like a, a big brother just kicking the tail out of his toddler brother. It's, it, there's just no place for that and and realize that that's a problem and get some help and find God's grace to change in that.

For sure. Thank you for those words of wisdom, Bobby, and we are out of time. Letti, thank you for sending in your question through the Kwave.com pastor's perspective page. We'll talk to you again tomorrow and today's episode will be archived on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and one other one, I forget. Oh, Apple Podcasts and Spotify, not Instagram. Anyway, we'll talk to you tomorrow on Pastor's Perspective.