Spirit, Truth and a Faith Boost with Andrew McLennan

00;00;01;09 - 00;00;28;05
Dave Quak
Welcome to Sunburnt Souls. I'm Dave Quak and on this show we explore life and faith and our mental well-being as a pastor that struggles with mental illness. I get to chat to people like me, people that love Jesus and follow the way of Christ while dealing with the messiness and brokenness of lives. Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode.

00;00;28;07 - 00;00;35;13
Dave Quak
Well, Sunbunrt Souls You guys are blessed this morning to have Andrew McLennan. Andrew, thank you so much for coming on this morning, brother.

00;00;35;16 - 00;00;36;09
Andrew McLennan
Great to be with you.

00;00;36;09 - 00;01;00;05
Dave Quak
Dive. It is my pleasure. And Andrew, you got your fingers in many pies. You've got into all the World ministries, which is your own ministry. You've got faith boost, which is your short five minute podcast of encouragement. You've got let's Go deeper. That is just getting launched. You've also been a co-host on 2020 working at Vision Radio. You do a lot of speaking, a lot of preaching.

00;01;00;06 - 00;01;04;15
Dave Quak
Thank you so much for cutting space for coming on Sunday and souls for the well.

00;01;04;15 - 00;01;16;18
Andrew McLennan
It is my pleasure. Dave and I love sunburnt souls. I love what you're doing. I love your story. You were a guest on Vision Radio recently. That's how we met. And I was just really touched by your honesty and your vulnerability and just your story.

00;01;16;18 - 00;01;20;29
Dave Quak
Yeah. Thank you. Andrew, what have you been doing lately? What's your life like at the moment?

00;01;21;02 - 00;01;33;22
Andrew McLennan
It's pretty hectic, as well as all those things you just listed, I do. I've got three kids, and they're the most important part of my life. Yeah, one's 19, one's turning 18 in 2 days time and one's turning 14 next week.

00;01;33;22 - 00;01;34;07
Dave Quak
Nice.

00;01;34;07 - 00;01;42;22
Andrew McLennan
And, I just try and focus on them as much as I can, and then I after them comes work and church and doing all the things that I do.

00;01;42;25 - 00;01;46;06
Dave Quak
Do they come for a wave with you, Andrew, or are you surfing by yourself?

00;01;46;09 - 00;02;00;15
Andrew McLennan
I wish yeah, we don't live on the coast, so I grew up on a beach, so I've served all my life. My, my kids have learned to surf, like all Brisbane kids do. But, yeah, you know, unless you live on the beach, it's tough to really get into surfing. But, like, you know, sign up on a Malibu.

00;02;00;16 - 00;02;00;23
Andrew McLennan
Yeah.

00;02;00;26 - 00;02;09;10
Dave Quak
Yeah, that's super cool. Let's go deeper. Let's talk about let's go deeper. That's your newest kind of initiative. What is that and what are you excited about there?

00;02;09;15 - 00;02;27;07
Andrew McLennan
It's a long interview. It's at least an hour and a half where I just really dig into people's stories, because I think in church we hear testimonies and it's usually the good bit and it's like, well, God did this and it's like, wow. And there's nothing wrong with that. I'm all for that. Yeah. But you know, the reality is all of us have got a story and a journey.

00;02;27;07 - 00;02;47;01
Andrew McLennan
And I'm talking Bible heroes to present day Christians like you and me. And this challenge is this trials. And so I really want to capture people's whole story. The highs, the lows, the faith that saw the answer to pray. But maybe the faith it didn't. Yeah. And just really dig deep and also have people meet Jesus and also what God's doing through them today.

00;02;47;01 - 00;02;55;11
Andrew McLennan
So that takes at least an hour and a half. But I'm so excited about I've already recorded one. I'm going to record a few more next couple of weeks, and these will be released very shortly.

00;02;55;12 - 00;03;11;14
Dave Quak
That's excellent. It sounds encouraging. It does seem a little bit like your kind of vein to get into stories, because I noticed even on your Faith boost podcast, there's like 20 of Abraham and 20 of Noah. You know, you get right into the story there.

00;03;11;16 - 00;03;29;27
Andrew McLennan
Oh, I love the Old Testament. So, you know, as a new Christian in the book of John was my favorite book in the Bible. But I'd have to say Genesis is my favorite book. Now, I've I found Jesus in the book of Genesis. I've found God, his presence, his identity in my life in the book of Genesis. So I love every book of Genesis character from Adam onwards.

00;03;29;27 - 00;03;34;25
Andrew McLennan
I just love them all. You know, especially Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. They're my faves, really.

00;03;34;25 - 00;03;51;05
Dave Quak
So the patriarchs, I'm glad you've said that, Andrew, because I've always wrestled when people have said they've had to go with the Nephilim, and why did they leave so old and all these other questions. Now I know I'll just give him your email. Andrew.

00;03;51;08 - 00;04;09;05
Andrew McLennan
And then I'll just give a really simplistic answer, because, you know, I look for truth in the Old Testament that we can apply today. Yeah. And knowledge is not something that you can apply. You know, Paul said in the book of First Corinthians that knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. Yeah, love is in action. Knowledge is just information.

00;04;09;05 - 00;04;25;20
Andrew McLennan
So I'm all about action. So on my Faith boost podcast, I'm bringing out an Old Testament story, Old Bible Hero with a New Testament application. In other words, what did Abraham do that we can do? What did no one do that we can do? What did Isaac do that we can do? What did Rebecca do? Rebecca is one of my favorite characters in the Old Testament.

00;04;25;20 - 00;04;39;12
Andrew McLennan
What a legend. Yes, what a woman. She's like the Wonder Woman of the Bible. What did she do that we can apply today? So I'm all about the application. So as far as you know, explaining the dinosaurs and then the underwater sea creatures and all that crazy stuff. No idea.

00;04;39;17 - 00;04;53;06
Dave Quak
Yeah. And I think a lot of that supposed to be a mystery. But I agree with you. So much of Genesis is a revelation of Jesus. It's just steering to the redemptive story. Hey, tell us about the redemptive story in your life. And you're you're a man of faith. How did that happen?

00;04;53;11 - 00;05;10;12
Andrew McLennan
Yeah, I was brought up in a non-Christian home and my family were farmers, you know, on my grandmother's side. Apparently, we can trace our ancestry back to the one of the first groups of Europeans across the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. All right. Went out and staked out land near Dubbo. And so I was born out near Dubbo.

00;05;10;12 - 00;05;29;11
Andrew McLennan
I want a sheep property. I got a lot of relatives out there and, just a typical old Aussie farming family, which in New South Wales, especially, a lot of them weren't Christians, you know, a lot of drinking, a lot of gambling, a little fighting. Yeah. You know, as a kid, I mean, it wasn't all the time, but I, you know, there were mornings I woke up my dad and grandfather.

00;05;29;11 - 00;05;50;29
Andrew McLennan
Bingo. And it was blood on the walls, broken furniture. My dad drank a lot. My grandfather drank a lot. And so no faith, really. The only church involvement was weddings and funerals, which are fairly rare. So, you know, at the age of 17, after bumping into heaps of Christians and being evangelized by so many people, I finally yielded my life to Jesus.

00;05;50;29 - 00;05;56;28
Andrew McLennan
And it probably took about, yeah, I'd say 5 or 6 years of being evangelized by Christians before surrendered.

00;05;57;05 - 00;06;08;03
Dave Quak
And you got a heart for evangelism yourself. Now, is that because, you know, you've got, you know, the people in your life went after you and loved you and shared the gospel with you? Is that is that where that comes from?

00;06;08;05 - 00;06;25;09
Andrew McLennan
Yeah, I don't think so, because I think it's more a case of, you know, when you get saved, God has puts his gift on your life. And yeah, I remember as a brand new Christian, because we did sell the farm and move to Manly Beach when I was a kid, after seven years of drought, and I had this great view of Manly Beach up on a hill, we lived on a cliff called Queenscliff, which is a north into Manly Beach.

00;06;25;16 - 00;06;41;27
Andrew McLennan
And I remember I got saved and not long after, I'd look at the window at this beach with thousands of people on, and I just had this burning desire to tell people about Jesus. Yeah, well, I didn't think that was something I conjured up or did as a reaction to people telling me about Jesus. God just put this desire in my heart to help people know him.

00;06;42;02 - 00;06;45;25
Dave Quak
Yeah. That's awesome. And then that led into ministry vocationally as well,

00;06;45;27 - 00;07;01;13
Andrew McLennan
Yeah, yeah. So I am at the age of 20, I was reading the Bible one New Year's Eve, and when God said to Jeremiah again, Old Testament truth, your youth, but I've called you, I'm going to send you, and you're going to speak when I command you. I felt that burn in my heart, and I'd never been overseas before.

00;07;01;16 - 00;07;22;22
Andrew McLennan
And I feel like God was saying to me, you're going to go overseas and preach. And within three months I was in Papua New Guinea and these mission organizations, this supernatural series of events, I never even met anyone from PNG before. And then after that, about a year or so, I spent a year in West Africa as a missionary, so that I spent four years in England, basically going into Eastern Europe, Africa, evangelizing the UK, and really from then until now.

00;07;22;22 - 00;07;27;24
Andrew McLennan
And I've, I've always done my best to do trips into different parts of the world preaching the gospel.

00;07;28;00 - 00;07;33;24
Dave Quak
That's awesome. And it's an exciting way to live. I mean, that's a good way to spend your early 20s especially.

00;07;33;26 - 00;07;59;23
Andrew McLennan
It just shaped me and my time in Papua New Guinea. They were experiencing up on the. It's a coastal town called Madang. They were experiencing what we would call Christian revival. Yeah, the book of acts. You know, I'm talking about cripples walking blind people seeing dead people being raised to life, like churches being birthed supernaturally, young men and young women being taught the Bible, running into a village and literally praying for someone dead and then coming back to life stuff you you find hard to believe.

00;07;59;23 - 00;08;19;23
Andrew McLennan
But I saw it all firsthand, and so that really shaped my faith. I guess my understanding of what revival looks like, that it's not a meeting, a hyped up meeting where we worship the three eyes, but it's when the Holy Spirit moves in society and saves the lost and the church grows, you know, powerfully and yeah, young leaders get rise up is to me, revival is a is a whole lot of things.

00;08;19;23 - 00;08;24;29
Andrew McLennan
And I had the privilege of seeing it in PNG and then in West Africa again in Nigeria it's saw the same stuff.

00;08;25;05 - 00;08;40;21
Dave Quak
Yeah, that's powerful. What a what a way to start your faith journey as well. With that as the baseline, I agree with what you said about revival too. Like when it happens like that organically by the Holy Spirit where only he can get glory, where there's no formulas. I mean, that's that's beautiful.

00;08;40;24 - 00;08;46;22
Andrew McLennan
Yeah. I mean, if you study church history and including the book of acts chapter two, none of the disciples knew what was going to happen. They were just.

00;08;46;22 - 00;08;48;09
Dave Quak
Praying. Now there was no Runcie.

00;08;48;09 - 00;09;09;01
Andrew McLennan
And God turned up. Yeah. And in PNG it was the same. It was a missionary from Australia, a builder. His wife was a nurse. They went there. They were very humble, hardworking people. They started a church under a coconut tree in Madang, this coastal town with 12 people. And you know, within a few years it had grown to 2000 people in a town of 20,000.

00;09;09;04 - 00;09;34;18
Andrew McLennan
And all these young people started site and they were freaking out these missionaries, because all these young guys are running into villages and praying for people who are sick and dying and dead, and they're getting healed. In the missionaries. Half the town didn't even believe the stories that I'm hearing because I was like, far fetched. It was the perfect couple to oversee a revival because they were the most like the guys, especially, Pastor Ryan Baker, so Aussie and so cynical and just didn't believe half the things he was being told.

00;09;34;18 - 00;09;36;05
Andrew McLennan
You know.

00;09;36;07 - 00;09;46;27
Dave Quak
I love that. That's so good. I especially love how God put it in the hands of the locals and the and the young crew just going out, you know, readily sharing the gospel and seeing miracles. Super cool.

00;09;46;29 - 00;09;52;04
Andrew McLennan
Look, I could talk to you all day about the miracles that happened right there. It's just amazing. Amazing stuff. Yeah.

00;09;52;05 - 00;10;01;14
Dave Quak
Oh, I love revival. And even culturally, that was a pretty scary time to be in PNG like that. You know, a bit of tribal tribal warfare and a lot of that sort of thing was pretty ripe in those days.

00;10;01;14 - 00;10;20;22
Andrew McLennan
Oh yeah. Yeah, I've, I've driven through a tribal, although the aftermath of a tribal war, guys walking down the road with axes and shotguns coming back from a tribal battle, you know, I mean, a couple of guys in this four wheel drive that luckily, the driver was a chief from another village, and they they basically stopped their vehicle with their axes and guns and made a stop.

00;10;20;24 - 00;10;36;08
Andrew McLennan
And, you know, as the Aussie guy, you thinking, wow, what's going to happen here? And then they all spoke in the local dialect and turns out they just want to lift. So about 20 of them jump in the back of the full drive the ute. Yeah. And then they start singing songs. And I said to the guy driving the chief, I said, what are they singing about?

00;10;36;10 - 00;10;43;09
Andrew McLennan
And he's like, they're singing songs about the guys from the other village, because he said, they know their names, their enemies, and they're singing about how they're going to kill them tomorrow.

00;10;43;10 - 00;10;43;25
Dave Quak
Oh, well.

00;10;43;26 - 00;10;48;21
Andrew McLennan
And, so yeah, it just experiences like that. Really interesting. Just wild times.

00;10;48;23 - 00;11;01;20
Dave Quak
Yeah. That's awesome. And I appreciate you giving us a bit of your backstory. As you know, we talk about faith, which you were obviously all over. You're a man of God. And then we also speak about mental health. Have you had a journey with mental illness or anything in your life?

00;11;01;25 - 00;11;08;23
Andrew McLennan
Yeah, absolutely. Dave and I just want to say, I don't think of myself as a man of faith and inclined to be a man of faith. I'm just a Christian, you know?

00;11;08;23 - 00;11;09;26
Dave Quak
But yeah, I do talk.

00;11;09;26 - 00;11;32;00
Andrew McLennan
About faith in faith person and my definition of faith is really just being obedient to what God's called you to do. I don't think it's something we work apple conjure up or trying, you know, strive for. I think it can be something that people strive for and it can wear them out. Yeah. But, absolutely. You know, when I got saved, I was probably looking back, a manic depressant.

00;11;32;05 - 00;11;49;14
Andrew McLennan
Okay. And I think my dad was too. That's why he drank so heavily. And what I mean by that is there were days, Dave, I was living on Manly Beach in Sydney, you know, sun shining surf friends. We were the cool crew with the local kids. A few of my friends turned professional in different sports and we thought we're pretty cool.

00;11;49;14 - 00;11;57;23
Andrew McLennan
We thought we'd beat and everybody else, and there were days and sunny days in summer in Sydney where the surf was good, everything's good, all these beautiful girls are in it and I would just feel sad.

00;11;58;00 - 00;11;58;28
Dave Quak
Yeah.

00;11;59;00 - 00;12;15;11
Andrew McLennan
And I didn't know why. Yeah. So I'll just. I'll just be sad and everyone will let me clear them. What's wrong with you? And I'd even say there's something wrong with you is you look so, No, I'm just like, I don't know, I actually don't know. And I had no control over it, and I just was like.

00;12;15;18 - 00;12;28;22
Andrew McLennan
I just felt sad. Yeah. And some days I just wanted to go away from people. And it's like this dark cloud would descend upon me. I didn't know why, I didn't know what was going on, and I had no way of fixing it. It just was really, really dark.

00;12;28;24 - 00;12;48;19
Dave Quak
Yeah, like the darkness. I mean, the the very word darkness is what a lot of people seem to hell. A lot of people seem to express it when there's deep sadness. Now, even as your reminiscing about those times, you can see it's physiologically affecting you. How long were you walking with that, Andrew?

00;12;48;22 - 00;13;06;25
Andrew McLennan
Probably a couple of years, you know. But the problem is you're you're not sides and you're in the party lifestyle because we started drinking and. Yeah, and doing recreational drugs in those days when I grew up, hard drugs like heroin and, you know, injecting speed, maybe. And and none of my friends wanted to get in that path because every beach had a heroin addicts.

00;13;06;25 - 00;13;21;08
Andrew McLennan
And you just saw what it did to them. But we smoked drugs, you know, so you know, you do when, you're getting hammered, you and drunk, you're partying and you're sort of up at parties and you, you're kind of laughing and giggling when you're stoned and that. And then you're surfing with your mates. So it kind of masks it.

00;13;21;08 - 00;13;36;04
Andrew McLennan
And so I think I had it for a couple of years, but I masked it by having these times of up through drugs and alcohol and partying. So I'd say at least two years. But it got to the point where I couldn't even in grade 11 at school, got to school. I just I couldn't deal with the stress of school.

00;13;36;04 - 00;13;46;24
Andrew McLennan
I couldn't I was getting anxious about school. I'd always been one of the smartest kids in school, but I just couldn't. I couldn't face the pressure of exams. Oh, I was a wreck. I was a mess.

00;13;46;26 - 00;13;53;20
Dave Quak
Having the, old school sort of farmer dad and grandad. How did that go when you maybe tried to communicate that with dad?

00;13;53;21 - 00;14;10;02
Andrew McLennan
Well, I didn't I and this is a thing in retrospect, I think we can understand why I was so sad. My dad, was a chain smoker and an alcoholic, and he passed away when I was in grade eight. Suddenly he got a brain tumor, all right, and had a stroke walking up some stairs. Half his body was paralyzed.

00;14;10;02 - 00;14;26;03
Andrew McLennan
That was on a Friday. And he passed away on Sunday, man. And so yeah, you lose you lose your dad and and as a, you know, a young teenager, you know, I just sort of shook it off and it was sad and everything else. But I didn't cry at the funeral. I didn't show emotions. I and so that was, you know, half the reason was sadness.

00;14;26;03 - 00;14;40;16
Andrew McLennan
And him and my mum had never had a happy marriage because they were both heavy drinkers and smokers. And so I guess I had a backdrop of sadness my whole childhood and didn't realize that that stuff had affected me so much. Because if you'd asked me back back then, when I was a teenager, does that stuff affect you?

00;14;40;16 - 00;14;50;26
Andrew McLennan
Always did not know why I'm good, you know, like I'm fine. But it had affected me because we're little sponges when we're kids and we take it all in. So that was probably the cause of the depression, but I didn't know that.

00;14;51;03 - 00;15;06;19
Dave Quak
Yeah, that's really deep anger at 14 is the worst age to lose your father. I don't think there's ever a good age, but that's your formative years. It's when you're transitioning from a boy to a man. I can't imagine the worst pain and the worst time for you at that point.

00;15;06;21 - 00;15;29;15
Andrew McLennan
Yeah, it was horrible. And people that were listening to this, obviously, God's working on your life and he's he's here to help you as well. And it's really weird. I remember the day of the funeral, my sister and I went to the beach afterwards because, like, what do you do? And yeah, and when country people like, no one talked about feelings in those days, even though we live in the city where country people, no one asked me how I'm doing now and said, are you okay?

00;15;29;15 - 00;15;42;26
Andrew McLennan
And I went for surf or what else do you do? I got free, so I went for surf. That day was a school day, so the surf was pretty empty and my sister's on the beach watching me, my younger sister, and there was a dude out in the world. I know this sounds weird. This dude that there would have been.

00;15;42;28 - 00;16;05;08
Andrew McLennan
He looked like Jesus, you know? And, you know, in the surf in those days, especially when you look, you know, 14, you're a kid and there's a grown man like grown man is didn't talk to 14 year old kids. Not when I was in that age group because I was a grown and he was an adult. And I just remember he came out to me, guys, hey, yo, my head's small and his face, and he was really nice and almost loving and caring with that, knowing what I'd just been through.

00;16;05;11 - 00;16;26;27
Andrew McLennan
And it was kind of weird. I've even back then as a non-Christian, I thought, it's almost like God was saying to me, you're going to be okay. Yeah. And just a little seed was sown. This Jesus look like, in a sense, it's quite funny looking back, but, yeah, I honestly think it was God speaking to me through this Jesus lookalike surfer just saying to me, are you okay?

00;16;27;04 - 00;16;35;25
Andrew McLennan
Here you go. On my you know, and I said all good things, you know, and it actually set a little seed in my life. So I think God's always there even though we face tragedy.

00;16;35;28 - 00;16;43;28
Dave Quak
So you walked with that from that early age when you became a Christian, was there still a sense of the sadness in the darkness that rested on you.

00;16;44;01 - 00;16;59;26
Andrew McLennan
Yeah, this is the problem. Like I prayed this in his prayer and I felt like his weight lift off my shoulders. I felt the joy, the Lord. And it was just amazing. Like I knew my heart had changed. But what I found over the next few months I'd be with Christian people again, just like my old non-Christian friends.

00;16;59;28 - 00;17;17;04
Andrew McLennan
And that sadness would come upon me again. And I didn't know what to do. And I remember one on this Christian camp once and everyone was happy and chatting, and all these Christian kids from different churches were there, and I just felt that sad. And so I'd actually go away and walk on my own just to get away from people, because I just felt like I couldn't even smile.

00;17;17;04 - 00;17;30;23
Andrew McLennan
It was weird. It was. I mean, looking back again, it was a spiritual thing. So yeah, it hadn't left. It was still my my spirit was saved and my heart was renewed and made new. But my emotions and my mind was still on renewed.

00;17;30;25 - 00;17;42;09
Dave Quak
Yeah. What did that lead to Andrew like? I'm intrigued because, you know, you prayed this in his prayer. You got reconciliation with God, a weight lifted off your shoulders, and then the weight comes back.

00;17;42;11 - 00;18;03;00
Andrew McLennan
Yeah. And so what happened was, I went to church one side and thank God for church, you know, and if you're a new believer or, you know, even a Christian and you're watching this, I'd really encourage you go to a local church. A good Christian church teaches the Bible. Yeah. So many times in my life, God has spoken to me in a church service through someone preaching or through the worship or through prayers.

00;18;03;00 - 00;18;22;17
Andrew McLennan
And I went to this local church and, this guy's preaching about how when he was so he, he didn't have enough join his life. And he said, I started to confess Joy. And he he read out some Bible verses talking about the power of confession. And look, I know there's been what we call a hyper faith movement in the 80s and there were excesses, and a lot of people have dismissed that.

00;18;22;17 - 00;18;42;10
Andrew McLennan
But I don't think we can throw it all at the window because Jesus definitely said, speak to mountains. Don't just pray and ask God to move mountains. He said, you talk to the man's. And and this guy was basically preaching about that. If you got a man in your life, speak to it, command it to go. So Dave, I just started to when I felt those sadness times come on me, those dark clouds.

00;18;42;12 - 00;19;02;27
Andrew McLennan
I just started to speak to the man and I just started to speak to the depression, speak to the sadness, command it to go. And I started declaring joy over my life and saying, I have the joy. The Lord, you know I am a joyful person. Jesus has given me joy. I started to, you know, wage a good warfare, as the Bible describes, to to to stir that joy up.

00;19;02;29 - 00;19;08;03
Dave Quak
Okay. What did that physically look like? Like, are you looking at yourself in the mirror or are you declaring it over?

00;19;08;03 - 00;19;24;16
Andrew McLennan
Think over the million like this and like you don't look in the mirror. Like I said now, I didn't look in the mirror. I'm very mirror of us, but, you know, I, I would just go for walks. Yeah, me. And it's funny how certain things work for us, even to this day. My favorite time to praise when I walk.

00;19;24;19 - 00;19;47;04
Andrew McLennan
Yeah. So I'll just go for walks of mine. I just speak and confess and declare. I would also look up Bible verses about joy, and I'd use these to declare him my life. And so that's what it look like. It looked like a guy walking on his own in private, usually at night or when there's no one around, and just declaring and speaking joy over my life and just rebuking the sadness.

00;19;47;04 - 00;19;57;21
Andrew McLennan
And, you know, in those days, I know it sounds really simplistic, but no one really used the term depression. They use sadness a lot more. So I would rebuke the sadness from my life, and that's what I said.

00;19;57;21 - 00;20;04;02
Dave Quak
So it was like a sustained sort of pushing back against the darkness, declaring light, pushing it back.

00;20;04;07 - 00;20;23;16
Andrew McLennan
Yeah, yeah. And I would say, Dave, after a month or two, it's like that dark cloud. It just it just stopped, you know, from that day. And so now I have I had sad times. Absolutely. Have I, you know, face challenges. Yeah. More than maybe most. I've just had some horrible things in my life but you know, and so I still get sad.

00;20;23;16 - 00;20;43;20
Andrew McLennan
But that, that clinical depression when you wake up on a perfect day, when there's no logical reason for you to feel sad or depressed and, there's nothing in your mind or in your world that that is making you sad. Those days have actually stopped. Just that unexplainable depression. It's actually stopped. And that doc that has stopped descending upon me.

00;20;43;20 - 00;21;01;24
Andrew McLennan
And I believe what has happened is God has set me free and also give me self-control, which is a fruit of the spirit. Because I believe through self-control, we can actually control our own emotional state. Because I was very wishy washy, emotional, I was up and down like a, you know, yeah, I was very easily swayed, as the Bible says, emotionally.

00;21;01;26 - 00;21;12;10
Dave Quak
Okay, this is cool. So the original dark cloud lifted with spiritual warfare. When you feel sadness descending again, do you address it the same way now?

00;21;12;12 - 00;21;29;00
Andrew McLennan
Well, I haven't really had to, except for a couple of years ago when I went for a really difficult family situation in two years ago, I was doing the same thing. I was walking through the house. I was finding scriptures on joy that tears my last for the ninth season. But joy comes in the morning and I started to declare that joy again.

00;21;29;00 - 00;21;46;12
Andrew McLennan
I even yeah, look, you know, I go to a spirit filled church. Not everyone does. I do okay, that's how I got saved. I even got oil. Olive oil, and I anointed the doors and the walls in the house I was in and just said, these walls are now joyful walls. This room is their joyful room. This house is a joyful house.

00;21;46;12 - 00;22;06;00
Andrew McLennan
And that was just my expression of faith. I'm not saying that's a formula we can all follow, but I just use the Word of God to declare and speak it over my life, over my family, and over my emotional and mental state. And I can honestly say they've the joys come back again, you know, like the joys just bubbled up and high school that my circumstances become perfect.

00;22;06;00 - 00;22;15;20
Andrew McLennan
No, I'm still in some really challenging circumstances. But you know what? The joy is bubbling up in my life again. And I just believe that's the Holy Spirit in the Word of God.

00;22;15;22 - 00;22;36;07
Dave Quak
I love it. Andrew, we got to stay on this because a lot of the listeners and the people I encounter have trouble discerning when it feels dark. What is God? What is the enemy? What is a mental health condition, and what is the messiness of all of that? In your case, you said before that you did feel like it was very much a spiritual attack.

00;22;36;10 - 00;22;37;14
Dave Quak
How did you know?

00;22;37;17 - 00;22;57;14
Andrew McLennan
Yeah, that's a really good question. I mean, look, I don't think I did know back then, okay? But here I am. You know, 30 plus years later, I can now look back and say it was spiritual. But all I knew back then was it felt like on a sunny day, a dark cloud descended on me. It just felt like this dark cloud.

00;22;57;16 - 00;23;06;19
Andrew McLennan
Not that I could physically see it, that cloud, but it felt like I was under a dark rain cloud and everyone else was in the sunshine. Yeah, that's probably the best way to describe it.

00;23;06;19 - 00;23;23;00
Dave Quak
I now appreciate that you did approach it with the Word of God and with truth. I mean, Jesus, when he's attacked, he retaliates with truth from Scripture and he speaks from the Word of God. Did you ever come across piercing the darkness in your journey? Andrew? Do you know that book?

00;23;23;00 - 00;23;24;22
Andrew McLennan
Yeah, yeah. That book. Yeah, I remember that.

00;23;24;22 - 00;23;28;25
Dave Quak
Because that was a big classic with this. Did that did you find that sort of teaching helpful?

00;23;29;01 - 00;23;47;25
Andrew McLennan
Yeah. Look, I think, there's definitely a place for spiritual warfare. And I think for me, the most important spiritual warfare is for our own personal life. I think the the sphere that God's really given us authority over, Dave, is our own life, our own mind, our own emotions, our own bodies, our own financial state, our own families.

00;23;47;28 - 00;24;08;02
Andrew McLennan
I'm not big on, you know, addressing the spirit. I have a communist Russia. Yeah, Korea. Unless the Holy Spirit leads you, great. You do that. But I think I think God's given us a little far over our own lives, first and foremost. So you definitely, to this day, I mean, I was driving down to the Gold Coast this morning for a surf, and I love doing this.

00;24;08;02 - 00;24;24;07
Andrew McLennan
It takes me an hour to get there and I just pray in the car, listen to worship music. And even towards the end of that prayer time, I just started just to resist the devil from my emotions. Resist the devil from my mind. Resist the devil from my life. Just every now and then it's good to give him a slap, you know, make sure he's not doing something.

00;24;24;10 - 00;24;48;20
Dave Quak
I agree, because I think complacency can allow him to have way more authority in our lives than he deserves. Psalm 42 I was reading that the other day. I think it's David. But even if it's not, the psalmist is saying, why are you downcast, O my soul? And then he sort of start speaking to himself. I'm I guess I'm trying to put legs on on this process for people who want to start really starting to wage war.

00;24;48;20 - 00;24;56;22
Dave Quak
And he says, you know, why are you downcast? I'm a soul. Put faith in God. And he's speaking to his soul almost like giving himself a pep talk.

00;24;56;23 - 00;24;57;13
Andrew McLennan
Absolutely.

00;24;57;13 - 00;24;59;22
Dave Quak
Did you find Psalms like that helpful?

00;24;59;22 - 00;25;17;25
Andrew McLennan
Absolutely. And I did hear teaching, you know, along those lines to not that first Sunday in the church. But, you know, I heard someone teaching about that, you know, speaking to your own soul. And we see David, in the Bible, when the people wanted to stone him and all their wives had been kidnaped and taken hostage, and he was feeling really sad.

00;25;17;25 - 00;25;37;10
Andrew McLennan
And the Bible says he encouraged himself in the Lord. And I interpret that as meaning. Yet you speak to your emotions, you speak to your mind and you just. Society is so soul. Be joyful in the Lord. You know soul, have peace. I'm a big believer in talking Dave to myself. Look, I said I planted 25 fruit trees in the last house I lived in.

00;25;37;10 - 00;25;50;21
Andrew McLennan
And, and some of those fruit trees didn't look very healthy. And I used to speak to my fruit trees, like to command them to live. I said, command them to bear fruit, and, and and I'm being to see, after a few years, those trees really start to flourish. I also took care of them. I wore them with fertilizer.

00;25;50;24 - 00;25;54;28
Andrew McLennan
I got rid of the pests and the bugs. But I'm a big believer in the power of the spoken word.

00;25;55;00 - 00;26;13;16
Dave Quak
Yeah, and I think Jesus was to, like you said, the mulberry tree in the mountains. And he does give us a lot more authority than we probably give ourselves. I mean, you know, I like a lot of what he's given us rests in us. And the same power that raised him from the dead lives in us. You know, there is something to be said of this.

00;26;13;18 - 00;26;32;03
Dave Quak
I think what I like about you, Andres, you seem to be able to do this without it getting kooky. Where someone's in the driveway declaring a car to appear. Yeah. You said, you know, some of this stuff got hijacked in the late 80s with the the unhelpful things. I'm just glad that you're waging war spiritually, and it's working.

00;26;32;06 - 00;26;47;12
Dave Quak
I want an example of someone who's felt the darkness and has been able to get through it spiritually, because we're all on a different journey. Some of us do it spiritually with a combination of medication. That's where I'm at at the moment. Did you ever have to take medication in your journey?

00;26;47;14 - 00;27;04;12
Andrew McLennan
Well, I didn't, but again, when I was a teenager, I don't know how old you are, Dave, but antidepressant, it's weren't such a thing when I was a teenager, so it wasn't even something I heard of a man. Insane. Antidepressants? No. I know lots of people that have taken anti-depressants, and it's been really good for them. And look, I'm not against medicine.

00;27;04;12 - 00;27;20;04
Andrew McLennan
I'm not against doctors. Like even that revival in PG. The lady was a nurse, a missionary, and and even the guy said one of the times, something happened. He got something in his eye and a like a splinter or something. And it was really affecting his vision. And and they were praying and praying for his vision and it wasn't getting better.

00;27;20;04 - 00;27;36;29
Andrew McLennan
And he went to the doctor and the doctor just simply remove this splinter out of his eye. And he's I got better. And it was almost like a light bulb moment for these missionaries. It was seeing this incredible revival that, you know, God can use doctors. God can use surgeons, God can use medicine. You know, like, I'll be honest with you, I've flown all around the world.

00;27;36;29 - 00;27;55;02
Andrew McLennan
I hate being on planes in the last couple of years. When I go on really long trips, I go to the doctor now and I get a sleeping pill prescription because I just can't handle being awake on those planes for like 15, 16 hours. And so I unashamedly take sleeping pills on planes because I just don't want to be up, you know, like a zombie for 15 hours in a plane.

00;27;55;02 - 00;27;57;27
Andrew McLennan
So there's nothing wrong with taking medication.

00;27;57;29 - 00;28;09;19
Dave Quak
Yeah. You and me both. I think that's you get past a certain age where you're like, I'm not going to endure 15 hours anymore. Give me the sleeping pill. I light it up and. Yeah, yeah, load up and have a good snooze. Sometimes it's better than the snooze that I.

00;28;09;22 - 00;28;26;20
Andrew McLennan
Will, I will. Last time I went to Brazil and that was like 14 hours to Dubai, 14 hours to Brazil. That was a couple of years ago. Was so long. The guy next to me just had, like, the ones you get from the chemist, the organic ones, you know, minute minutes all in on something like. Yeah, he had those ones, and I had the doctor ones that have been prescribed.

00;28;26;26 - 00;28;35;27
Andrew McLennan
So we swapped. So I had the mannitol and, you know, organic to save the chemist ones and the sleeping pill from the doctor. I've never slept so good in my life.

00;28;35;29 - 00;28;38;25
Dave Quak
He would have felt the same as well. Go from that truth to that.

00;28;38;26 - 00;28;56;00
Andrew McLennan
Yeah. He didn't. I didn't sleep as good as he gets. Made his. You slept on light years. Best I've ever had my life. But some. Yes. Is nothing wrong with medication. And yeah, we talk about revival and people getting healed. Some people don't get healed. I don't know why. Yeah, one of the guys in Papua New Guinea who really inspires me mentored me.

00;28;56;00 - 00;29;17;19
Andrew McLennan
He was a pastor. He it sounds unbelievable, but probably 13 to 14 times he literally saw the dead rise to life. But you know, his own son died a few years ago. Too young, you know, tragically. Yeah. And so, yeah, God uses him to raise the dead, but his own son dies prematurely while he's a young dad with a couple of young kids.

00;29;17;22 - 00;29;33;21
Andrew McLennan
You. Yeah. So it's faith. Is not this magic formula that you just wait. This one. You have this perfect life. And like you said, your faith is not something we can go into the driveway and declare we're going to get a new Hummer. Because my interpretation of faith and this, what I talk about in the podcast, is faith is a response to God.

00;29;33;24 - 00;29;53;26
Andrew McLennan
So read the book of Hebrews chapter 11. All these heroes of faith was simply responding to God. So God told Abraham, you're going to have a son at 99. I mean, you can conjure this stuff up. You can't go to your nursing homes. That preaching to there all these. Yes. What if you believe God, you're 99, you're about dead, but you're going to have a son like you can't do that stuff.

00;29;53;26 - 00;30;08;19
Andrew McLennan
But. But God told him he was going to do what he would by, you know. And Samson, he can't just come beat up, you know, and kill a thousand guys. The jawbone of a donkey. Like it doesn't happen, you know, you get tired after about five and then you're done. And so faith is a response to God. They.

00;30;08;19 - 00;30;25;24
Andrew McLennan
So for me, yeah, I felt God stir my heart to speak against the depression, to speak against the that I was responding to God. I was responding to a message I heard in a church. And that's what faith is. It's a response. It's not just deciding you're going to believe for something. I'm just not inside. I don't think it works.

00;30;25;29 - 00;30;34;08
Dave Quak
I agree, what you're talking about is a response to God's leading. Like he's the initiator. He's like, okay, Andrew, this is the path for you. And then you respond like that.

00;30;34;14 - 00;30;49;04
Andrew McLennan
Yeah. And you respond to the Word of God. Yeah. The greatest responsive I've ever made in my life. I've just been to the written word of God. I read something in the Bible and I feel my heart stood, wow. You know, and my step out in my prayer and I say, God, this is what your word says. And this is the activation of faith that we all need.

00;30;49;04 - 00;31;09;02
Andrew McLennan
And look, when I was in Papua New Guinea, revivals going on, I almost died. I drank some water in a village, a remote village. I got malaria the same week and it's almost unbelievable. He's me. I'm got malaria and hepatitis at the same time. I'm so sick. I'm going yellow. I'm losing way. I lost like 30 kilos. I was almost dead and I was dying, you know?

00;31;09;02 - 00;31;26;08
Andrew McLennan
And everyone thought I was dying. But they didn't have the guts to tell me. I thought I was dying. I didn't have the guts to say that led. And I'm dying and I'm fighting this fight. And I just kept ringing the bell. Ring the bell and the one. And I'm throwing up every I couldn't eat. And the one verse that spoke to me was, you know, you know, by his stripes we are healed.

00;31;26;10 - 00;31;41;01
Andrew McLennan
That we might live for righteousness. I think it was in that first Peter verse and it was just that, that we might live for righteousness. And it wasn't the part that says by stripes you were healed, but that we might live for righteousness. And I say, God, you want me to live for righteousness? God, you want me to live in?

00;31;41;01 - 00;31;53;18
Andrew McLennan
I had to fight internally this battle for life and death. I for several days I was hovering, you know, between the two, just with that one verse. So faith is a response to the Word of God. And as you said, the leading in the Holy Spirit.

00;31;53;23 - 00;32;10;18
Dave Quak
I love it. Actually, Neil asked me the other day when I was on vision a really similar question, like, what's the Word of God mean when you're in the darkness? And it is so valuable to have a truth that trumps your truth, truth that trumps how we're feeling in the moment. Because we need it. Hey.

00;32;10;22 - 00;32;11;17
Andrew McLennan
Oh, absolutely.

00;32;11;17 - 00;32;20;26
Dave Quak
We just need it. We just need it. Especially when we're not thinking clearly. When we're not making rational decisions. You know, it's. There's a really beautiful gift from God for us.

00;32;20;26 - 00;32;36;10
Andrew McLennan
Yeah. Well, you know, we go back into that revival. I went in PJ, that really shaped me. They were all about the word of God and the Holy Spirit working together. You can't just have the Holy Spirit there, and you can't just have the Word of God, because you can get really dry and dull and cold, but you need both working together.

00;32;36;10 - 00;32;49;13
Andrew McLennan
And Jesus was an example, and he was the word made flesh, but he was baptizing the Holy Spirit at the River Jordan. He was empowered by the spirit that you've got to make the Word of God your anchor. So for me, I don't care if I feel it. I don't care if I see a vision or a dream.

00;32;49;13 - 00;33;05;03
Andrew McLennan
I don't care if I sense it. I don't care if it's prophesied over me. All I care about is it in the Word of God. Is it a New Testament truth? Because if it is, that's my truth. The Word of God trumps my feelings. It trumps my opinions. It trumps what other people say about me. It trumps anything in this world.

00;33;05;03 - 00;33;07;02
Andrew McLennan
It's the word of God first.

00;33;07;04 - 00;33;15;09
Dave Quak
And like you said, word and spirit together. You know, sadly, in the past some denominations have had one or the other mish mash them together and you are unstoppable.

00;33;15;16 - 00;33;15;29
Andrew McLennan
Amen.

00;33;16;03 - 00;33;20;00
Dave Quak
What's your mental health? Not like now, Andrew. Like how you track and now.

00;33;20;03 - 00;33;40;20
Andrew McLennan
You good, as I said, went through a pretty major family situation. 2 or 3 years ago there and it was hard. And so what I did is I just stayed consistent. I went to church as often as I possibly could every Sunday. Yeah. Sometimes twice a Sunday. I got up every day at 5:00 because that's what works for me.

00;33;40;20 - 00;34;00;20
Andrew McLennan
And I prayed. I put my worship on my headphones, my Bluetooth headphones, and just played the worship music. So my mind would go to a good place and on just prayed and prayed and prayed. Sometimes for an hour, sometimes two hours. I couldn't get through the day without that prayer. They don't start my day about seven. And the other thing lots of exercise.

00;34;00;23 - 00;34;20;09
Andrew McLennan
I I'm a big believer in endorphins from exercise and, you know, especially when you're over 30 high cardio. So something that makes it really sweat and get worn out like, you know, again, in the gym, on the treadmill for ten minutes or doing a few weights and checking your phone, that's all good. But I love high cardio. So like yesterday, for example, I did some stair running.

00;34;20;12 - 00;34;36;27
Andrew McLennan
Then I went to the gym and did weights. I serve as you know, I went back into the boxing gym not to fight anybody, but just to do the high intensity cardio. I was in a fight as class, hitting meets a lot, hitting bags a lot, holding mitts for guys, doing a lot of skipping. Just literally just wasting yourself.

00;34;36;27 - 00;34;56;08
Andrew McLennan
Yeah, right. I think there's something about wasting your body. It just, It's almost like you rest so well after that, you sleep better. Yeah. And the other thing is diet and just eating healthy. And I didn't allow myself to have any alcohol. Not that I ever drink heavily, but I didn't want to rely on a glass of wine every night as an example to relax.

00;34;56;11 - 00;35;08;28
Andrew McLennan
And I didn't trust myself, so I didn't touch any alcohol for about 18 months. Not even a glass of wine socially. Anything like that. I just was very strict on my diet. Lots of exercise, lots of prayer and just focus on my kids.

00;35;09;00 - 00;35;10;02
Dave Quak
Oh, that's a good game plan.

00;35;10;07 - 00;35;40;17
Andrew McLennan
Yeah, and I kept it simple because, you know, I had days where I just was feeling awful and, you know, it just horrible. The emotions and the turmoil and all these things, these horrible things. And you've just got to have a really solid, easy to apply game playing and being a cannibal. So I told my past, and my good friends who are mature Christians, I'd tell them before I made any major decisions, even, you know, things like emailing and texting in response to things that are being said to you by someone.

00;35;40;20 - 00;35;50;15
Andrew McLennan
I checked first before I sent messages, so I didn't want to leave out of my emotions. I just had to leave our principles out of the Word of God, out of good sin, wisdom, and advice from others.

00;35;50;17 - 00;36;20;15
Dave Quak
For anyone who's listening on the similar path where they're fighting darkness or any of the mental health conditions, and at the moment want to go after it spiritually only not medication yet, even though that's a possibility for a lot of people. That advice is golf, exercise, eat, sleep. Sometimes it's the easiest. I remember when I started my journey, my doctor said, I've got three brilliant words for you, and I thought it was going to be this super profound, like life changing, and it was eat, sleep, exercise.

00;36;20;22 - 00;36;28;23
Dave Quak
Like, it was really like just going back to the basics. But then with the spiritual weapons, how does one develop the spiritual muscles, in your opinion? And.

00;36;28;26 - 00;36;49;16
Andrew McLennan
Well, reading the Word of God, the New Testament, praying about scriptures and just confessing scriptures, saying them out loud, there's something about speaking the word. You memorize it better. Yeah. Joshua, chapter one, verse eight. You know, it says if you meditate in my Lord day and night, if you study that word, meditate, the Hebrew word, it means to matter.

00;36;49;17 - 00;37;12;17
Andrew McLennan
Okay. And if you've ever seen footage of the Wailing Wall in Israel, in Jerusalem, they've got the the tour is the books of the Bible. And they doing this and they muttering the Bible is speaking it. I believe it's a Hebrew tradition is a Jewish tradition. They muttered the word of God. And I can only say from my own experience, not just about joy, but about being loved and the you believe.

00;37;12;19 - 00;37;42;14
Andrew McLennan
I would get a verse like John 316, which we all know, and instead of reading it mentally, I would just start walking and saying, For God so loved Andrew McClennan. Yeah, that he gave his only begotten son, that if Andrew would only believe in him, he would not perish but have everlasting life. And I would sometimes meditate on that one scripture for an hour, just walking around, praying and asking God to reveal that truth to my heart, so that I got these revelations where God loves me, you know, and then I'll do it about, identity.

00;37;42;14 - 00;38;02;11
Andrew McLennan
And I do it about joy, and I do that. Fear is a really fearful person, Dave. Growing up and I, when I was in pain, especially at night, I'd go walking and just meditate on one verse about fear. You know, fear not, for I'm with you, says the Lord. And I just speak that word over and over, and I'd personalize it and say, fear not, Andrew, says the Lord, I'm with you.

00;38;02;11 - 00;38;12;01
Andrew McLennan
You know, I'll walk with you through the through the flood and through the flood. And I would just speak these verses over my life. And it just really built my faith in those areas.

00;38;12;04 - 00;38;30;06
Dave Quak
I think that's that's brilliant. And I think that's the thing about your spiritual appetite. You know, if you go to Christmas dinner and binge eat at lunchtime, the last thing you want is more food at dinner. But with spirituality, if you start feasting on the Word of God, you're hungry again. And then you get that satisfied and you're hungry again.

00;38;30;06 - 00;38;32;11
Dave Quak
It's like self-perpetuating.

00;38;32;13 - 00;38;59;23
Andrew McLennan
Amen. Yeah, it's so good, so good. And again, you know, I'm just sitting here thinking, gee, if I was listening to this lovely, you know, this guy's got it all together. No, I don't, you know. No, I've had a lot of struggles and challenges. I'm still in the middle of some right now, but all I can say is that, you know, faith does come into our heart when we just meditate on the scriptures and we believe the scriptures and we speak the scriptures, and, you know, it's not a one size fits all for everyone, but I just want to encourage everyone listening to this podcast today.

00;38;59;23 - 00;39;20;16
Andrew McLennan
Make the Word of God the first and most important part of your life. That's something I've done years ago. So that means let me give you an example, Dave. When I was a young, single girl, I'd never been married before, didn't even have a girlfriend. As a Christian, I work with this girl here and I got on so well, we just, you know, when you click with someone, you just feel like you just gel with them and it's pretty.

00;39;20;16 - 00;39;36;04
Andrew McLennan
And she was my age and we were colleagues at work, and we just used to laugh at work and joke all the time. It was really innocent and fun. And I remember one day I was sitting next to the computer with her, and I had this feeling I could spend the rest of my life. This girl, like, she was just like, wow.

00;39;36;05 - 00;39;57;19
Andrew McLennan
Just so nice and so funny and da da da da. But then you know what? I went home. Then I said, hey, Missy, she's not a Christian. What does the Bible say about relationships? Well, the Bible says, do not be unequally yoked, you know, and that light and darkness shouldn't go together. And so I could have let my feelings decide my choices in that time.

00;39;57;19 - 00;40;12;21
Andrew McLennan
But I thank God had her teaching about put the Word of God first. So I decided, you know, she's not a Christian. I can't even entertain the idea of relationship with her. And what's weird is just before I went to PJ, this is when how long ago this was, I was walking to the train station with her.

00;40;12;21 - 00;40;27;20
Andrew McLennan
I never told her I was a Christian because at work I just kept it on the day and like, because, you know, you don't want to be marginalized in the office in that. And on walking to the train, I said, I want to tell a secret about myself. So what is it? I said, I'm a Christian. And she said, what?

00;40;27;22 - 00;40;47;21
Andrew McLennan
I said, I'm a Christian. And and she's since when? I said, I've always been a Christian. And she literally just freaked out, went, wow, she has no way. And she actually started swearing and swearing. It's it's weird. It was like she freaked. Yeah, yeah. From that day on day, our relationship was not the same.

00;40;47;24 - 00;40;48;14
Dave Quak
Yeah. Okay.

00;40;48;14 - 00;41;03;26
Andrew McLennan
And she actually said to me, she goes, you know, people think I'm a witch because I'm really into the occult and stuff like that. I'm so can you imagine if Dumisani had listened to his emotions and started going out with this girl? Yeah. Hating and hoping she's going to get saved when they come. And he would have been with a witch, you know.

00;41;03;28 - 00;41;11;21
Andrew McLennan
Yeah. You know, but the point is, is it was an example where I didn't let my emotions rule my life. And it because it felt so right.

00;41;11;24 - 00;41;12;21
Dave Quak
Yes.

00;41;12;21 - 00;41;29;23
Andrew McLennan
But it was so wrong. And I let the Word of God decide what I did in that moment. And that has really been my motto until now. And have the Word of God is first, whether it comes true or not, whether I see an answer to my prayer, I don't care. The Bible says pray and believe. I'm going to pray and believe.

00;41;29;23 - 00;41;33;06
Andrew McLennan
Whether I see the answer no, I don't care. I'm just going to stay in on the word.

00;41;33;09 - 00;41;51;25
Dave Quak
I think that's so powerful, Andrew, and so potent at this time in life, where everyone faces the right to do something on their feelings over any other external force or external voice or external, you know, word, we we need to be anchored. And it's not only for the hard things like that's a hard word to get because she was awesome.

00;41;52;02 - 00;42;19;09
Dave Quak
She was an awesome girl. Obviously it was for God's best, but it's even good when we mis diagnose ourselves and say things like we're a loser or anything. The Bible doesn't say that, so we're in contrary to scripture as well. Like in your example, you were saved from something. God also uses the Bible to save us to something, to our identity, to our sonship and daughter ship, and to the fact that we are called as his children.

00;42;19;16 - 00;42;25;26
Dave Quak
And that's our baseline position. And his baseline position to us is love. Even if we don't feel loved.

00;42;25;26 - 00;42;27;14
Andrew McLennan
That's profound and that's powerful.

00;42;27;14 - 00;42;41;07
Dave Quak
There's a lot of truth there, a lot of truth in the bottle. Andrew you know you got you you mentioned before you focusing on your children. You've got some cool projects coming up. What do you pray and hope that God does in the next decade in your work.

00;42;41;10 - 00;42;54;20
Andrew McLennan
Yeah. Look that's a good question Dave. I just want to do what God calls me to do. Yeah. I just want to look back on my life with no regrets and just say, I did my best. Yeah. And none of us do things perfectly, and none of us do as much as we want to do or what we thought we would do.

00;42;54;20 - 00;43;12;03
Andrew McLennan
And, you know, I pastor church for 18 years. I started the church, you know, with my then wife and five people. And it grew and we end up with a building which, you know, was worth a few million dollars. We somehow bought a building by miracle. And, you know, but that season in my life, I wasn't the perfect pastor, wasn't the best pastor in the world.

00;43;12;03 - 00;43;29;05
Andrew McLennan
I did my best. So I guess I just I don't really know what it looks like. I want to keep influencing people through, obviously, radio and podcasting and preaching, and I just want to do what I feel God calling me to do. And again, I'm going back to my earlier point being a good dad right now is probably my biggest focus.

00;43;29;05 - 00;43;47;16
Andrew McLennan
I want my kids to know that they will love well, that, that dad put them first. And I'm pretty much done that the last three years I've, you know, not focused on myself, you know, as far as, you know, doing what I want to do and placing myself, I've just put them first and just be the best that I possibly can.

00;43;47;18 - 00;43;49;16
Dave Quak
My hunch is you're not going to regret that.

00;43;49;18 - 00;43;58;14
Andrew McLennan
You know, I don't think I will, and I don't regret it now. I love my kids so much. And yeah, we've got such a great relationship. I just love being with them and just hanging out with them. It's just the best thing ever.

00;43;58;21 - 00;44;08;19
Dave Quak
That's awesome. As we start towards winding up, Andrew, is there any other, advice or even just prophetic insight you want to share with the guys about today's discussion?

00;44;08;21 - 00;44;25;13
Andrew McLennan
I really felt that thing about putting the Word of God first, and it's a decision I may make. A decision to put the word of God first in your life, that whether you see it come true in your life or not, whether you feel it, you know, or anything like that, it's like not the Word of God comes first.

00;44;25;13 - 00;44;44;19
Andrew McLennan
And that why you've got a map for your life, which is it's permanent and it's eternal. Yeah. And it's something you can stand on the rest of your life. I think it was Martin Luther that his great revelation that he brought to the world was that the word of God and the Word of God, only you know, he was all about just what the Bible said, the New Testament Bible, that's it.

00;44;44;23 - 00;45;02;13
Andrew McLennan
Not what the Catholic Church of the day said, not what he's feeling, said his friends or family. And the second thing that I just really felt when you prayed and they prayed a really powerful prayer before we started. Today is just that that God loves you. And everyone listening to this podcast, God loves you and you'll most probably not perfect.

00;45;02;13 - 00;45;18;20
Andrew McLennan
My life's not perfect, and you might have made some mistakes, and you might have done some things wrong, and maybe haven't done some things that you felt you supposed to do. And maybe you are struggling with mental health. But I really want to remind you that God loves you. And he cares about you. He knows how many hairs are on your head.

00;45;18;23 - 00;45;38;26
Andrew McLennan
And the Bible says, you know, a righteous man may fall seven times, but seven times he gets back up again. And some of us have made some really bad choices and some big mistakes. And if you've done that, God still loves you. And I just wanna encourage you to stand up again, get up again, shake the dust off, confess your sins to the Lord, and ask him to forgive you.

00;45;38;26 - 00;46;03;21
Andrew McLennan
Because the Bible says he will, and he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But just stand up again and just let God love you as His Son or his daughter, and just let God work in your heart. And don't let any past mistakes or choices or decisions block you from God's love for you today and his blessing that he wants to bless you with today.

00;46;03;23 - 00;46;12;28
Dave Quak
Amen. Andrew MacLennan. It has been a delight chatting with you. Would you mind finishing off by praying for us and we'll call it an awesome day.

00;46;13;00 - 00;46;34;17
Andrew McLennan
Love to dive! Lord, we just want to thank you for every person listening to this podcast. And God, I pray for their hearts right now. I pray for their emotions. I pray for their minds. I pray for their bodies. Lord God, let all of us have holistic health. Let us be healthy Néanmoins God let. And if anyone suffered any trauma or abuse from their children or even as adults, Lord, I just pray they would know you're healing.

00;46;34;17 - 00;46;54;11
Andrew McLennan
You said the Lord heals the brokenhearted. This is your word, God. This is not my word. This is your word. And Jesus, you said you came to set the prisoners free. So I just pray for healing. I pray for release right now of healing. I pray, Lord God, for opening of doors, little prison doors, that people could be set free and they could walk in your free and they could walk in your liberty.

00;46;54;11 - 00;47;12;14
Andrew McLennan
They could walk in the joy and the peace in the love that you promised God. We ask you to bring healing to every person. If anyone listening hasn't got a local church prayed, show them a good local church, a community, a family of believers they could connect to and be loved in Lord God and just and be blessed in as well.

00;47;12;16 - 00;47;30;17
Andrew McLennan
And I pray for the podcast or something. So what a great name. What a great podcast. I pray for day that you just open up incredible doors from all over the world into different nations, different peoples lives. Lord God, that this podcast would bless way more people than we ever imagined it. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray.

00;47;30;19 - 00;47;33;08
Dave Quak
Amen. Amen. Thank you.

00;47;33;11 - 00;47;37;13
Andrew McLennan
I love you, Dave. Thanks for.

00;47;37;16 - 00;48;00;28
Dave Quak
The more candid conversations on faith and mental well-being. Check out some bentos.com. You can subscribe to our podcast on any major provider, or contact us directly to book us to preach or speak something. That souls is a faith based ministry, and we want to thank everybody so far for their generous support. If you want to get behind us, pray our message reaches the ears of those that need to hear it.

00;48;01;01 - 00;48;10;23
Dave Quak
Feel free to donate financially online, but if you feel obliged or manipulated to give you better off shouting a loved one a coffee instead. I'm Dave Clark from Sunburned Souls.