Preparing for what's coming is not what you think...

I think hard times are coming, which is great motivating. And it's not a time to get fearful or scared. It's a time to prepare. If a person prepares, they won't be paranoid. And I think people should prepare three ways. Physically, emotionally, and then the third thing is spiritually getting a relationship with God as a father, because that's an answer to our fatherless nation.

Guys, help me welcome the one and only Victor Marks. Man, how you doing?

I'm doing good. Good to be with you, brother man.

I honestly, it's, It's. It's always good to have a few moments with a. With a powerhouse guest like yourself who's been through some stuff, come through some stuff, and chose to serve the world in a greater purpose. And having a few minutes with you before we even, like, technically went on air. Right. Is. I already know, but this is going to be a great interview and have. And great fun for both of us, so.

Well, it's. I, I appreciate you running the lanes that you do to make a difference. Thank you. Because we need that.

Thank you.

Our culture, our men need that big time.

Well, that's one of the reasons I wanted to have you on. You have one of the biggest hearts I've seen when it comes to what real masculinity should be or what it is. And, you know, people can find out more about it from the book, they can find out more about from the speaking and obviously social media, things of that nature. But I wanted to hear from your own words, just your own heart, what do you think is lacking right now in manhood?

Yeah, I would, I would. This is what I think is last. Lacking the, the reality of moral masculinity.

Because I think there's. There's a push for the masculine aspect, but without a moral foundation and a basis, it then it does become. I don't like the term, but toxic masculinity, guys bullying, weaker, lording over women.

Really just being punks until somebody steps in that room that they're not trying to be something they are. They just. They know who they are.

Yeah.

And that always changes it. And I've seen plenty examples of that. I was up in D.C. and me and one of my teammates, who. He was formerly with Delta, he was in the unit and we were invited to a dinner. You know, cigars. And I don't smoke or drink, so I just kind of stood around like, hey. But there were. There were some politicians and some money guys in there. A lot of talk.

Yeah.

The fellow who invited us was an old KG at the time, he was still, you know, a congressman. And the subject came up about ISIS and Iraq and fighting and all that. And. And we just sat there listening to people's opinions, and some of them had very strong, what we would call uninformed opinions or send data. Yeah. And, you know, we. We don't. They don't care. But then the guy started. Two guys started getting. And they were all known the political realm and whatnot, but they started kind of being disrespectful to the host, a senior statesman, just their tone. And he said, hey, guys, let me reintroduce my guest. I did it briefly, and then he reintroduced us. And he said, victor, didn't you just come from Iraq? And I was, yeah. How many times have you been over there now? It's like 18. I. I don't remember how many times at that point. 13. And. And then the other fella was up from a delta, these. So these two guys who. Obliviating. Who were actually.

It'S. It's a. It's a weird, bad example of men. And they got real quiet, and one of them apologized to us, and we're just like, oh, no, it's all good, man. And, you know, there was a point where one of them was bragging about cheating on his wife.

And laughing. And some guys around him were laughing. He was getting into detail how he was cheating with a. Like an intern. And then they look at me and I just, you know, I put off that vibe. Tell me when it's supposed to be funny, because I don't think that is.

No, not even close.

And it made everybody feel uncomfortable except me. So when I know I'm right and I hold fast to my convictions because of a moral position that I think it only bolsters masculinity the way God intended it to be. And I end up telling that fellow, isn't your dad a pastor? He's like, yes, sir. I said, well, I bet you he's praying for you. And I told him, man, be a true leader. Yeah, don't. Don't fall. And you know what? He end up getting a lot of trouble in politics. A lot of trouble. And I just thought, wow, God sent me there, I believe, to help give him a warning and a course correction. He didn't take it. So it's. I think we have to be careful, especially young men who they look to. I remember when Andrew Tate hit the scene, a lot of young men were following him because of his, I would say his charisma and his. And and then there were Christian men coming against him hard. And Pete would put me in the middle and say, what do you think? I just said, man, I think he's got great potential. He's a guy on a journey.

Yeah.

And, and, and I. I appreciate his moxie and all that, but if he finds the Lord, if he surrenders, man. What? And sure enough, I was watching him today talking about his relationship with Christ, and, man, he's.

He didn't realize he had. He had. Because I heard he went more towards the Muslim faith for a while.

Yeah. No, he's. What. What I saw was him talking about Christ today.

It's amazing.

Yeah. I was like, I know he had.

I know he had an interaction with Peterson, and I'm sure that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Again, Jordan's a great example of masculinity. You know, he's not a knuckle dragger. He's not a. An operator type dude. And. And I. I try to tell young man, look, if it was just about smashing and shooting, we'd have a pretty imbalanced world. Men run in their own lanes, and there are different types of warriors and there's different types of toughness. So I'd encourage young men. You need to be able to embrace a level of uncomfortableness and suffering without complaining.

Yeah.

Knowing there's a greater good. But not everybody's meant to go overseas or to, you know, And I see it. I see guys trying. Steve, I was. I had come back from Iraq. I was sitting in a parking lot trying to decompress. I was eating Chinese food, sitting on a curb. And, you know, man, I'm just tired, right. I'm just like. And this guy in the parking lot, there was a fitness center. And this young man comes walking down. He's in a, you know, T shirt, he's all swollen up. And comes. And I felt like, then here's the secret to any moral masculinity I have. It's the power of God's holy spirit. I believe in God's spirit, and I feel like I hear him often, but I felt like God was saying, reach out to this young man. And I was like, oh, but I'm eating my Chinese food. And the guy walks past me. He just kind of. And then I felt bad. I was like, lord. And then the guy, he got. Somebody walked right past in front of me. So I knew that. I said, hey, man, what are you afraid of? He styled. He said, what? I said, what are you afraid of? I kept eating. He says, I ain't afraid of You. I said, I. I don't. I don't. Yeah, I don't blame you, and nothing to be afraid of. He said, why would you ask me that question, man? I said, well, you walk and carry yourself like you're afraid. You're swollen up. You're very intense looking. You look angry, but it. You know, anger is a secondary emotion, so what are you afraid of inside? And then he was just like, well, why are you saying these things to me? Who are you? I said, well, I've trained a lot of warriors over the years, and I've seen a lot of boys become men, and I've seen a lot of men become shipwrecked because of they're embracing the wrong type of warrior mindset or mentality or masculinity and. And now he's just standing, looking at me like.

I don't even know what to say, but I guess I am. I said, has any man ever affirmed you that you got what it takes ever in your life? And he stood there and he's like. And he looked like a Viking, man. He was redheaded. Hey, stories.

I'm the world's smallest Viking. I actually have DNA, and I'm like, 5. 5.

So, okay, see? Which means they're hard to hit. And.

This guy just goes.

No. No one has. I said, well, I'll tell you, you have what it takes. And I know warriors, you're one of them, but you don't have to try to prove it, man. And he was just like, thank you, sir. Thank you. He's walking away, and I said, hey, you know, he's like, what's your name? I said, my name is Victor Marks. I said, if you want, you Google me, you probably find something. So I watched him get into his truck, big old truck. And he sat there and he Googled me. And then I saw him jumping up and down. He was so elated that someone with my past spoke into his life. So, yeah, I think young man and older men, you just got to find that lane you're comfortable in.

And then just running it. Otherwise you're going to waste so much energy trying to impress people that don't need to be impressed. Yeah, that won't give you any value for any effort you're pulling, putting in and just. Just be you. I said, we can't be better than the thumbprint that God gave us. Yeah, man, that's so good.

I was thinking. It had me thinking, too, you know, when. When I think, this is. I guess I'm gonna go down this in two different lanes. Lane number one is the man and lane number two is the spouse.

You mentioned a man having a, you know, at least multiple moral failures, at least by his own design and choices. I've been part of relationships where obviously I am on the other side of the moral failure. You know, picking up the pieces, you know, trying to believe in and having trust in, you know, this person I'm, I'm seeing or married to or whatever. And I'm trying to navigate the healing process. So there's a healing that happens obviously when the, when these events come up and these things are finally found out. We all know they, they eventually get found out. There's no such thing as stuff that stays hidden.

Right.

Especially if it's darkness. Yet at the same time my heart goes out to the people who choose the moral failure route replaced because it seems like they're self medicating from something else. Yeah, right. And then there's also the trust on the other side is how is this other person going to ever trust again? I mean, candidly. Yeah, that's probably one of my biggest struggles after being in business for as long as I have and marriage and things of that nature is repeated betrayals. And then, you know, you're entering into a new season of life and you're a new opportunity to create a new life. And everything looks good on the surface. I mean, I mean months and months and months go by and things have been great and communicate like all the things are there, but yet in the back of your mind you're like, where's, where's this rug coming out from under me?

Yeah.

You know, so maybe if you wouldn't mind just sharing on, on each of those lanes from the, from the moral failure perspective of maybe where the, that that triggers being caused in that human. Also in the, maybe the healing side of the person who's been betrayed.

Yeah, I, I think people who come from a troubled background and have trauma, possibly even from childhood, if they don't deal with it, it's going to come out sooner or later. And most of the time people feel their value of themselves is so low because they don't understand how God sees them. That at a certain point, even when their life is going so good, they'll pull the pin on the grenade and blow everything up. Yeah. Because success, honor a happy life. Just they're scared to death of something going sideways so they'd rather have control blowed up themselves. And again, that normally comes from abuse, sexual, physical abuse.

You know, mental abuse. And it's really sad to see people. The second thing I would say is they have to find their identity, who they really are, or else it's just.

You know, it's a lifelong struggle of, well, if I do this, if I'm like this, and you can watch social media and just see one person after another. Yeah. Who's comfortable with themselves, who's not. I actually sent a video to my wife, and I just said, honey, thank you for never being like this lady. You know, it's like that would be a real struggle for a woman to be so insecure that she puts herself out there in a way that dishonors her. So healing, you know, needs to be done.

Yeah.

And face it. And the other thing on trust issue, you know, the Bible, the only time I ever see trust is in the Proverbs, and it says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding, but acknowledge him in all your ways. He'll direct your path. I've only found that I can truly trust one person, and it's the Lord.

And.

I. It's in my marriage. It took me a long time to fully trust my wife, and there were no reasons that I wouldn't, outside of advice that my own mother gave me, which, in the sixth grade, she was drinking, and it was in our house, and I forget. She grabbed me and pulled me close and said, boy, don't ever trust a woman. Want to use you and leave you. And this kind of pushed me against the wall. My head hit, and somehow that literally cemented into my soul.

Yeah.

So here I am, got the woman of my dreams, and all of a sudden, I'm struggling to even get married, and we're engaged. I'm like, oh, no. If I do this, she's just gonna. I never get.

She started crying. Eileen started crying. She said, I know something's not right with you, honey, because your past. She said, we can cancel the wedding because we'd already sent out the invitation. She said, but I'm not going anywhere. And if it takes to your 85 and then you're comfortable, then we'll get married. And I looked in her eyes, and she meant it.

You have no idea how close I sitting right now.

Yeah, she meant it. That was good enough for my soul to take that step. I never forget her saying, I'm not your mom.

And it took years. Every year, I'm like, oh, well. And then I'd be very protective or jealous or like, things that didn't even make sense. That's when it's so important for Me to trust the Lord.

Not lean on my own understanding. Acknowledge him, Lord. He's like, I brought her to you.

She'll love you because of your love for me. This isn't any work of the flesh. This is God ordained. And that's what I had to think of year after year. And, you know, now we're. We're going on 36 years, and honestly, I don't know if I was at year 30, 31, where I just kind of went, oh, my gosh, I won. Yeah, I won there. I won it all. Never was cheated on. I didn't cheat on her. We had five children. We have five grandkids and business. In our early years, we were. We were successful, lived in Hawaii in ministry. God has always been faithful. We've raised millions and given away millions to help people that no one would even know about. And even to this day, I was telling my neighbor, he's like, hey, you know. You know, where have you been? I said, well, we actually recently got back from Iraq, where my wife and I led a team and rescued a woman who had been held captive for nine years. Oh, wow. ISIS and her family thought she was dead, but the work that we do there as a private organization and in different parts of the world, we have very strong intelligence network. We found her, and she was raped by isis, and she had two little boys. We rescued all three, and they're back home with their family. Took us six months to plan the operation. Wow. And. And literally, I just. I was just like, lord, we've done everything.

Now we just really want to win souls for Christ. The third part of our mission, we set captive free physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We want to see people set free spiritually, and we want to encourage and build up men, because could you imagine our society if men were masculine and moral and godly?

What.

What fathers, dads? What. What a. What a difference. A whole culture.

And we change generations instantaneous.

Oh, that's one of the things I'm.

Trying really hard to do with these. All the boys from prior marriage that aren't biologically mine that I still call my own, anyway. Oh, sure, yeah, the same with a daughter that was a, you know, pregnant waitress at TGI Fridays that we kind of adopted at the time that. How now I have two beautiful grandkids with, you know, from her, and, you know, now this amazing woman I've been dating now for a while, she has three boys of her own. You know, it's just.

It's.

It's funny how the stewardship of a Father of an intentional father can make a difference in the inner security of a man.

Yes. Yeah.

And I think that that's something that I'm witnessing.

Real time.

Honestly.

I'm watching men become men because they feel safe enough to become men.

I listen. They need the example.

Of men that have gone before them. As I told a guy the other day, older lions need to be able to speak to younger lions because it makes a difference. And, you know, thank God for stepfathers who do it right, for uncles who are godly and know, hey, without me pressing into this kid, he's going to go sideways pretty hard.

And.

That'S what I looked for growing up, because I didn't have stability as a father. I was like, where are the men that I can just take this from or that and appreciate nowadays with the Internet? My goodness. It is.

The opportunity for wisdom and growth and knowledge. It's at the push of a button, and then.

It is.

I do think the enemy is always constantly throwing a lot of buttons at you.

Oh, for. For sure. And. But he. Here's what it boils down to. It doesn't matter the number of temptations a man doesn't have to respond to him. That. That's like porn. I think people make way too much out of porn than it should be. It's like, come on. You know, somehow men believe the lie that, oh, I need this, or I deserve this, or I can't stop. It's like, those are all lies. Yeah. If you have the DNA of God's spirit inside of you. Yeah. That's more powerful than any fleshly desire or carnal desire. And, you know, we have a course online course. We offer these courses. One of them is called Restored, and it's a former porn star named Joshua Broom. He has, like, six years in the industry. He was number one, got all the awards. Me and him are doing this. How to be free from porn. And I'm laughing my head off because I'm like, dude, think about it. When. When God saved you, you got out of it. You met and married an amazing Christian gal, and you didn't sleep with her. You a porn site. You did not sleep with her until marriage. I said, here I am. My father was a pimp, a drug dealer. I have a, you know, not a great background. And when I met my future bride, I didn't sleep with her until we were married. And I. We're just laughing on this video going, what is the likelihood of this? Only God can get the glory from this. But it proves that it's More than possible. Yeah, more than possible.

So.

Yeah, so trust, trust is a big thing. When a man trusts the Lord, he'll hit what God can do in our lives. Now, now I'll tell you something personal because you know, he'll always grow your trust and. But, you know.

Yesterday I had to appear in court.

For.

A second degree attempted murder. A guy tried to kill me less than a year ago out here where we live. And it was an ambush and it was just him. He shot at me through a plate glass tinted window and I was actually just kind of checking on him and he tried to kill me, man. He's 36 inches away from the barrel to my head. And he missed me by two fingers.

And I drew my weapon, I put it on him. I felt like the Lord said, don't, don't kill him. I was like, okay. And he shot a couple more times. I'm like, no, no, don't. I was like, okay. And, and.

Because it, the killing's not a. Killing's not hard, honestly. I mean, to take someone's life, that's not hard. It's saving lives or being in the position where, you know, you could. But God's saying don't, that's the hard part. But I've heard the Lord enough and I trust him. Well, it kind of rocked me. I forgave him that night. But I was used to all the killing and all the craziness overseas.

And some stuff here when I was a kid, but I'm like, gosh, Lord, you know, here I am, I'm. I'm on the back nine of my life and I got a guy that all I was trying to do is help him and now he's going to try to kill me. And you know what? The Lord really spoke to my heart, encouraged me. He said, it's, it's the demons you can't trust.

Not the people so much. We focus on people and they are responsible for their actions. But there's a different level of warfare. We have a movie that's out right now, an eight part series on our online courses called the Unseen War. And this is the biggest thing I would encourage men to understand. The spiritual battle is what's the most important. Yeah, it's not the making money, it's not being popular. It's not even relationships. It's. If you don't get this understanding that we battle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, man, you're gonna, it's gonna be a miserable life. And you can see the People that don't get it and they're. They're casualties of the spiritual warfare. But when you do, like the film talks about man, complete victory. Authority over the demonic, zero fear. It's like, yeah. And my wife cracks milk. Had a pastor call and saying, hey, we need help. Somebody struggling with a demon. My wife yells out, it's just a demon pastor. Deal with it. I'm like, honey, I don't know. What do you know? So, yeah, we give too much. We give too much credit.

Every warrior has to be taught how to hold a sword.

Yeah.

That's the generation that goes back to that. I can't remember if we. If I. If we mentioned it before we hopped on air or not, but that.

That.

You know, that serving a person used to be concept. Right. So, you know, my. You don't know this. You know, I shared the one part line, one part lamb with you before we hopped on, but I'm covered in lions.

Oh, wow.

From my shoulder to my. My grandfather, who you actually remind me a lot of from. From a. Wisdom's sake.

Thank you.

And because I. I could sit and listen to him share wisdom all day long. And his nickname was Silver Fox.

Wow.

So flowing white hair had had a kind of a deep voice like you do, and.

Yeah.

Had a cadence. Very similar. And then, you know, I've got a. I've got a. The lion in the head of Jesus right here, it says one part lion, one part lambs tattooed on my chest. And I've got the. The armor of the lion here. And then the. The artwork is actually six different types of warriors all in one breastplate.

Wow.

So the Viking warrior, the Spartan warrior, the Asian warrior, the biblical warrior. And one of the things that comes to mind as you were sharing that story just now, different circumstances, but I feel the same spirit on it. And that's David in the cave with a knife. Opportunity to kill Saul totally chooses not to. And God blesses that decision for both of their sakes.

Yes.

You know, it's.

It ends up being.

It ends up playing out in many ways, obviously, you know, Saul, you know, dying in battle and all that kind of stuff. But it ends up being a bit of redemption for Saul for trying to kill David repeatedly. David having the humility to trust the Lord in the moment not to pull the. The figurative trigger, even though he had him dead to rights, you know, and so. And then. So they always say the greatest. The greatest strength or the greatest authority you could have is to have the ability to take a life, but not to.

Yeah.

You know, so that story reminds me a lot of that. That entire lion, the lamb, the warrior, the David, the. The Saul, the. The elements of that. It just, it reminds me a lot of that. And that makes me think about men nowadays. I'll use this. I'll use the word toxic just because it's the most known word right now. Toxic masculinity, from what I'm seeing, tries to operate in power and control, where it seems like a mature man or healthy masculinity, if you will, operates from authority and empathy or authority and character or something along really good.

Yeah.

You know, and I guess one of the things that I'm trying to. I'm trying to discern, this is where my heart gets in trouble because I want to make a difference in this world. I'll give you an example. When I was born, I was a firstborn on my mother's side of the grandchildren, my grandfather. I was just telling you about George Stallings, AKA Silver Fox. From the time I was born until the time he passed away, he used to introduce me, and I'm not kidding you, from infancy all the way up to everybody around him, as his little soul winner. And he had spoken that over my life, I don't know, year after year, so many times. So when I was a. When I was a professing atheist because I couldn't reconcile how God would put me through this hell on earth.

Right. Oh, if.

If he in fact was God and loved me and all this kind of stuff. And now I know better, but I didn't know better then because I was in the heat of it and he was still referring me to everybody else. He's my little soul winner. I'm like, I hate God. He's like, you're still my little soul winner.

You'll see.

And then he gave me another question. He said. He said, steven, it's time for you to start looking for the answers that you think you know. Basically, like, no, I'm sorry, the phrase. What was the phrase again?

Stop. Ask the questions for answers you don't already have. You know, so basically he wanted me to dig deeper. He wanted me to get past the bias.

Yep.

You know, past the acceptance. And. And I see a lot of men nowadays, a lot of. It's media and marketing. The eye and the irrigator are a real thing, especially for men. You know, I. I've personally intentionally stayed away from porn myself. One, because, you know, when I'm in with a spouse or whatever, I want to be committed to them. I want to See them as the object of my affection, so to speak. Not object. I mean the centerpiece of. Because I believe that God is anointed on that stuff.

Oh for sure.

But also the chemical stuff that it does to the brain. Right. So I see a lot of men that are, they're struggling with a variety of different things. Some it's worth that leads to choices. Some it's, you know, learning beliefs that leads to choices. Some it's trauma that leads to choices. Like there's all these different things. It just, it makes it seem so daunting.

To mentor boys who are in their 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s. In the men.

Yeah.

And, and, or reach the 17 year old, the 20 year old, the 25 year old right now. Like it's. I guess that's one of the reasons why I was excited to talk to you about it because I, you're one of the few people I know that are actually still trying to pursue it.

Yeah.

I can see it as a worthy pursuit. Right. I, I'm gonna be frank. I'm intimidated by it. When it shows up in front of me, I deal with it and I, you know, if somebody, God put somebody in my path and I can sense it that he wants me to work with him, I work with him, you know, but to go out there to Iraq and all these other hostile places or even in your own backyard and work with people who are largely to your point, you know, we would say they were broken on the outside looking on the outside. But you're saying no, there might be something el on the inside. Right. I don't know how you do it, man. I don't know how you do it. 1 and I don't know how to properly encourage the, the viewers and the listeners of this particular show, especially men. Especially men, how to stand up in their manhood. Because I don't think over the last, what, 40 call four or five decades there's been a departure from fathers.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

So there's no father who's. The, the mother can't train a father or train a boy to be a man or a father. Now she's going to try. She's going to do an amazing job. Right. I was largely raised by a single parent grandmother at the time. So there's, there's work to, I mean there's absolute great work that's done, but it's still hard to talk to a boy about manhood temptations if you're not a man.

Yeah.

You know, so I just rambled a little bit. But Those are the things that are in my head that I'm trying to like, reconcile and like, put them together because I've been trying to piece together. It seems like God has blessed me in the business world. And I use faith based principles. I try to build teams based on faith based principles. I, I try to treat people how I want to be treated. I try to use grace and mercy. I was a knucklehead leader early on because I didn't know any better. I try to lead from authority and not power. I try to work with people at their level. I try to, you know, give them encouragement, but also they need to kick, kick in the tush, Give them a kick in the tush. I, I let my mentors kick me in the tush. I don't have a problem, you know, so I like to remain teachable and, and moldable. But at the same time, I'm still really struggling to figure out how God wants me to use my gifts on this earth when I get blessed so much in the business sector. But my heart is called to the faith sector almost with that calling that my grandfather put on my life. And I've been trying to put him together, but I know I'm not called to be a pastor. I'm automatically an evangelist of sorts.

Right.

You know, so I'm this. It's really trying to, like, figure out. And I feel like God's been trying to mold me for a while now. Like, okay, this is going to be unique. It's going to be different. The world hasn't seen this before. And this is now. Now this is, this is, this is, this is your path.

Yeah.

I feel like I'm at the tail stages of it, but I can't see the end yet. Does that make sense?

Yeah, I, it makes a lot of sense. So I was in your position almost 40 years ago where my calling when I got saved in the Marine Corps nonetheless was endure affliction and do the work of an evangelist. And I'm like, I like the evangelist part. Can we do something about that first part?

Yeah.

And trust me, it has been a lifelong of enduring affliction, the physical, emotional, spiritual. But it's, it's definitely made me tougher. Right. And there are different levels of toughness.

Oh.

Physically, emotionally.

But.

I didn't fit in the church. I tried to be a pastor in.

A bland shun me, especially large churches. And that blew my mind. It's like I'm here to serve and it was like automatic threat. Like I was somehow a threat. It was weird. Well, and it turned me off churches for a while. It really did.

Well, of course. Yeah, of course. So, you know, there's a fivefold ministries of God's spirit, and evangelist is one of them. And evangelists are odd people, period.

It's almost like intercessors. True intercessors are people prophetic. There's always an oddity about them because they don't fit in even normal Christianity, because a lot of normal Christianity is very buffered by, hey, don't put too much on me. Hey, don't make me uncomfortable.

You know, so one, I learned how to just go, well, and here's the key. For any young men out there, man, and even for you.

For those of us who didn't have dads, the only answer for this is to understand God as a heavenly father. I mean, as a real father. And he's perfect in every way. And.

Spending time and communing with him, and that's always been hard for me because of the examples I've had. But communing with him, understanding the power of the Holy Spirit, of course, loving Jesus as a savior, he's the one that will direct our paths. And when it comes time for evangelists, you know, I've spoken, I've spoken in stadiums. I've done the stadium platform, and I've been one guy in a jail cell with a kid who killed somebody. Right. Or gang members are overseas praying with an ISIS fighter who would rather cut my head off. And each person has a unique calling for the time and the place that God puts us. So I, I don't believe God ever says, like, my background is martial arts and, you know, all that, the gundisarm. And man, I wanted to leave all that way behind. And the Lord was like, nope. I was like, gosh. Yet the Gunderson videos are over a billion views. Yeah. And it's given me platforms all over the world. And I actually saved my bacon a few times, but here I am.

You cannot imagine how many times I told the father, can I just get away from this martial arts thing? I'm more than the gun disarm. And now later in life, I'm like, okay, Lord, you, you were the worm.

On the hook, buddy.

Yeah, exactly. And, and, and you know, I was like, gosh, I'm sorry. Because I'd even have guys like well known martial artists that I highly respect, say, victor, that's a rigged gun you use. There's a trick. And I would say, thank you. That's the best compliment I could get from, you know, a Tough dude like you. But God gave me this speed, a non telegraphic movement and I've used it for his glory. Right? I think it's important with for men who understand business to make as much money as they can to fund real ministries, not just I gotta give. There's nothing more heartbreaking than to see money earned and given to stuff that's no eternal value.

Hey guys, I hope you're enjoying the show. Steven Scoggins here. I've got something that I think is absolutely blow your mind. Imagine taking your life and your business to the whole nother level. I'm talking about an eight figure level and beyond. You see, you've been working your butt off to build your business where it is now. But what if you could work smarter, free up more time, make more money and impact along the way? How much would that be worth to you? You see, I can prove that basic steps, basic mindset shifts and subtle changes can make the biggest difference. I want to introduce you to the eight figure mindset makeover. It's absolutely free and it's here for you. It's a powerful summary of my top strategies that help propel me from the streets, if you will, to upwards of nine figures in quote unquote success as we like to chase it. This is more than just tips though. It's a complete mindset overhaul with simple hacks that you can apply today to begin working your unprecedented heights in your own business. I would like the honor to share these types of things with you that turn my dreams into reality so you can experience the same type of joy and freedom that I now get to live out in my own day. In other words, it's time for you to build your own unstoppable enterprise. And if you're really ready to take it to the next level and elevate your life and your business, this is an absolute game changer for you. So if you want to take advantage of this free resource, simply go to the show. Notes can click the link or you can go to steven scoggins.com backslash8figure. That's steven scoggins.com Backslash8figure. Until then, much love. God bless. Let's get back to the show. Take care. You know what's really interesting about that is I have a. He's. He's more than an acquaintance, but we're not close friends. Why would call his friends? He's in ministry. His name's Sean Bowles. He's out of California. He does a lot of professional.

Yep.

You know, he's he saw some pretty crazy stuff. I got, I had after my embezzlement thing with my business, I went to one of his conferences, not expected to speak, and got called up to ask her question, which I actually had a question to ask him and Bob Hassle at the time. And out of, out of the, out of nowhere, all you heard it just was crazy. And then I got ushered back to a room with a dream interpreter that interpreted some dreams that I had, which was pretty wild. But that being said, that's a whole side story. That was my first interaction with Sean. Later on we did a show together and some other things. But what's really interesting to me is Sean and his team did us, did some kind of research. I guess it was maybe three years ago, maybe four years ago.

And the research was around the world's need to answer hunger, homelessness, disease, cancer. I mean, just pretty much the world's toxicity. Right. The, the junk that started with when the fall started. And he discovered that there is enough wealth in the professing Christian faith, meaning somebody would say, I'm a Christian.

Yep.

To actually answer the known number in accordance with the need. So let's say it's, let's say it's $16 trillion or whatever to solve these issues once and for all. The money is already in the hands and the possession of so called believers.

Yep.

Which boggles my mind because, you know, we go to God all the time and we say, God, please bless us with this. Please, please help, help my sister not die of cancer. Please, you know, please help the hungry and, and you know, please help my aunt with dementia or all of these different things that, that are, you know, that are in the world. Right. When he did that, that did something really, really interesting in my soul.

I want to know what kind of man that I can be to steward wealth in such a way to answer a lot of those needs. And recently, I'll share this with you and well, I guess we public because we're, we're recording this part public. One of the things that Chastity, who's the young woman I've been dating now for many, many months said to me recently.

She came to me, of course, and you know, part of, we share part of my, a little bit of my story I've had, God has blessed me with a reasonable amount of success. He made me earn it. He didn't, he didn't give it to me.

Yes.

He grew me as a result of that. He even told me when I was building the first business to begin With, I'm going to use this to build you. One day I'll call you out of it.

Nice.

I thought, I asked five years in, 10 years in, 15 years in, 20 years in like, is it time yet? And finally around 25 years, he finally said, yeah, it's time, right. What I thought was interesting was she pulled me to the side recently because I, a lot of the, a lot of the folks that I coach and counselor at this poach at this point in time, very, very high net worth individuals, some substantially more than myself, which is odd because, you know, I didn't graduate high school. You know, I didn't, I didn't, I don't have a degree. I got a GED at the, the extreme of it. Dyslexic, adhd, kid, all this kind of stuff. But yet God puts me in rooms all the time around. Very, very successful people who are largely very successful on the outside and have some loggings on the inside. And for some reason he uses me, he'll use me in both categories. One of our, one of my clients right now is a very high net worth individual and he's, you know, he's re, he has to rebuild a brand that he, he needed to just make an impact in the world. You know, that's one of the things that we started doing. So I say all that to say that she pulled me to the side recently and she said, you're, she says you're giving up on yourself, you're selling yourself short. You have the capacity to build a 10 figure business if you want to. Why aren't you doing it? And my answer to that in that moment was I don't have a why.

I don't have a why. Why would I go and go through the adversity and the things that I know it takes to build a ten figure organization?

I don't need, I don't feel like I need fame, I don't need credibility. I don't need, I don't need to. There's nothing in my cup that I feel like I need to, to move and prove. There was a long part of my life building the first company that of course absolutely helped me push through and build something because I felt like I had something to prove. And then God eventually took that away from me, which was a blessing. At the same time, he did use it as a leverage tool for one time. So I've been, I've been on the fence for like the last week and a half. Like, I don't. What's my why? Why would I do that. And the thing that kept coming up was that Sean Bowles conversation he had where he said, I actually had him send me the article, you know, a few months later and I gotta go back and find it, honestly. And I'm like, okay, all right, God, if you want me to do that, I'll step up to the plate and I'll do it. But you have to direct the path of the stewardship. You have to. Because I find that a lot of high net worth individuals and this is something that I use internally.

If I can afford two multi billion dollar houses, okay, I can only live in one at a time. So not. Why not earn one for my family and to take care of us and let's enjoy a nice lifestyle for the, for the, for the hard work and put in the hands of the plow. And why not take the resources that I would invest in that category and put it in a charitable arm that is highly governed by great stewardship. Because I don't believe that a lot of organizations do a lot of great diligence with the resources they're getting.

100.

So I don't know why I'm sharing that other than the fact of. I think all men are searching for something. And I wonder if most men are searching for their why.

Yes.

Right. Because if I could, if, if I have a. I was telling this to a friend of mine. We have. My chastity and I were having dinner with him, guy named Romeo, I know he's awesome name, awesome guy loves Jesus the whole deal. Having dinner with him. Recently popped into Salt Lake City because we're now in Utah. And he pops in and we're chit chatting. I was like, dude, I said, you know, I've got this thing and this thing and this thing is what's holding you back? I said, I haven't heard God say do it. Yeah, like with, with certain aspects of my life. Building the business, selling the business, pouring into specific people, even though it doesn't make logical sense. Buying specific pieces of real estate, all these kinds of. There's literally the, the flashing light says do it.

Right. And I haven't seen God say do it.

Right. So I told him, I said, that's why I'm on the fence, right? And I also being an entrepreneur for as long as I have and I think a lot of entrepreneurs resonate with this. There's a, there's a. Until you're more mature in your manhood, I'm going to say it that way. And your community. Yeah, there is a. There is a tax your family pays.

Oh, for sure.

Right.

I don't know. Again, I don't know why I'm sharing all this and being so vulnerable with you and the audience at large, but I just feel like there's an element of need in the world that can be solved by people that will step and actually step in the gap. Right. You know, I've got, you know, one of my goals is I want to, you know, I have a private plane that I'd like to have and stuff like that, but it's. And I'm not going to use charitable contributions to buy the thing.

Right.

You know, I'm gonna. I'm gonna leverage tax benefits and all kinds of other things I'm aware of in this. In this tax bracket. And.

Yeah.

Try to figure it out long term. At the same time, it doesn't define me.

Right.

I don't need three of them.

Right.

You know, and the only reason I would actually need it is if for some reason I have to be at different places very quickly, in and out, that kind of thing. So I don't know why I'm rambling about all that stuff. But that's. Those are things, yearnings and callings I think, man, men, myself included, are trying to navigate. It's like, what is. What is okay with pursuing wealth and then what is okay of like a toxicity of pursuing wealth, you know?

Yeah. What's. It's. It's being honest with yourself and having a very close relationship with God because the mind is never more clever than when it comes time for self deception. And the enemy of our soul, he'll just. He puts assignments on people.

Yeah.

Demons that study and stalk constantly trying to keep people on the perfect path. Someone like you, like, recently I spoke to a group of men.

Small group.

Some of the most affluent believers in America. It's a. It's a secret group. I'm like, when do I get a Dakota ring in the secret handshake.

But, you know, I. My message to them. And there were four billionaires in the audience. Right. And I said, are you mission ready physically, emotionally and spiritually? And I said, physically. I looked around, said, some of you just fat and. And they were like, and you can afford a trader? Yeah. They're like, what? What? Who the hell is this? And, you know, I said, look, I ain't trying to hurt your feelings, but some of you along the. You just gave up physically of keeping. Carry your temple and that says, can you at least pull your wife out of a burning house or a car accident? Can you. Do you have the strength to do that or defend her? I said, because in your time of need, it's just you. It will always just be you in that ultimate moment. But I said, y' all are very good at earning wealth. And I. I believe this. It's harder to be a Christian with wealth.

Amen.

Than a Christian who can just pay his bills.

Yeah.

And works his job.

Because while you're. When you can.

That's part of the reason why I'm scared of it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like, I don't know. I don't want to be the eye through the needle thing.

Right.

Like, I'd. You know, I give him. I give him everything I got now just to be with him.

Well, somebody. Somebody told me, I don't believe Christians should be wealthy. I'm like, well, that sounds like you, but it doesn't sound biblical. Here's the principle I believe in from Old New Testament combined. I believe there are kings and there are priests, and I'm generalizing. Kings go out for war. It's. It's bloody, but they bring home the bounty. And then they give a percentage to the priest.

You get in trouble when the priest says, I want to go to war with the king. And then they try to start being like a businessman, and it's not the lane they should run in.

Yeah.

But it's typically because of greed or their own self worth. They're like, oh, I want to make more money.

Yeah.

And vice versa. When the businessman wants to, he doesn't have a calling on his life to run a specific ministry, but when he gets on a board, then he's trying. Or like a great example, this great guy. First check he ever wrote me when we met, he heard me speak at a little luncheon, and we walked outside, you know, he goes, victor, he was an older guy. He goes, I. He says, I made it to the top on the corporate ladder. He said, but listening to you today. And that short little. To me, it was a pathetic little presentation. He goes, I realized my ladder's on the wrong building. Oh, yeah. And I said, I get it. I never get to give me a hundred grand. Just like that. He's like, here. And that was nothing for him. And he quickly found out, like, hey, you know, money doesn't put you in any position with me. I turn down money from people, I said, because I'm very careful about stewarding funds. And when people try to give me large amounts, I'm like, what does this mean? Did you hear the Lord on this? You don't you don't. Hey, you can't jump in my pocket now and I certainly ain't in yours. You know, I just may say thank you not, you know, I'm not going to hang out with your family and come to your kids bar mitzvah. And that's what a lot of ministry guys do. They chase money and it's like, what are you doing? Just develop relationship. That's how I counsel young men. But that fellow, I'll never forget later, he had this big vision of starting like a kids town, a boys town. It was beautiful. And he's like, hey, so listen, you know, and he's gonna, he's gonna fund it all, big money. And I met with him, I just said, hey, brother, that's. I prayed. God has not put any of that on my heart, not right now. He goes, what? What do you mean? I mean, look, I got the money. This, there's a need. I said, yeah, but I'm not hearing the Lord. And he got so offended, he got off the board. He's like, you know, because he's used.

To putting money in and getting control.

Yeah. And I'm like, yeah. And believe me, I've done, I've had guys that told me, I'll be on your board and it's how much I'll give. And I said, well, I appreciate it, but yeah, that we'll just have to pray about that. Men with money who try to use it as control get so offended. Well, this guy ended up starting his own non profit, built a camp. Do you know, a year and a half later he called me, he said, oh, Victor, man, I messed up. I said, you did? What do you mean by that? He goes, I thought just putting money and making something happen. He says, it's been the worst nightmare of my life. I says, business is easier, isn't it? He goes, yep. I said, because ministry doesn't make money, doesn't make ministry, brother. And he said, do you want this camp? It's fully furnished. I said, let me pray. I prayed and came back and said, no. He's like, ah, so the kings and the priest principle is very good. I think kings have to. Like you said, you got to make sure that the money that you've warded for.

Is being spent with a return on the investment of exactly what you expect.

Yeah.

Versus just oh, here and here. I don't believe in that. Like our organization, over the years we've received millions of dollars, but I can remember a time where I emptied my bank account to put back in the ministry?

Yeah, many times in business.

Yeah, right. It's. It's the same principle of we're on a mission from God to war in the arena or the land that he's called to. Somebody told another day, oh, you. Yeah, I bet you just get money to make yourself rich. I said, hey, man, I. I drive a truck and live on a dirt road. I said, I turned down a seven figure job about four years ago, and I actually prayed about it. And it was my brother who had an oil company, directional drilling. His company was valued about 150 million. He's like, brother, you got enough times overseas, you've death, right? He said, you're a grandfather, man. Just. Can't you just kind of, like, ease off a little bit? He goes, I switch out a million years. Just fly with me. We'll talk. Sorry, like. And I said, well, let me pray. I was like, father, is this what you want? Is this an off ramp? As a man, do you know the DOD Department of Defense Pentagon head chaplain called me General Soldier? He said, victor, would you be willing to travel to bases to speak to try to stop our men and women from committing suicide? I prayed and I said, absolutely.

Have you ever done the research? Do you know when suicide started versus how they escalated?

Tell me when.

As you see the removal of God in the military, suicide. And they. There. Oh, it's a parallel line.

It's a. Oh, it's parallel.

I did a lot of work myself with the Warrior Reset Program with the uso.

And there you go.

You used to go in there. Used to make me mad, because I would hear science, they'd have scientist speakers, which are great. I mean, they're. They're doing their job. And I'm. I praise God for them, but they would tell these. These young men and women in service that, you know, PTSD was permanent, and I don't believe it is.

Oh, no way. God made us to heal. I'm living an example of that. And I would get aggravated. I remember calling a general Tom, and I said, y' all don't care. Y' all don't care about these people. I said, you know, I just spoke like 16 times in three days. And my. My deal with the military was like, I'll speak, but I. I'm going to talk about the only source I know that has helped me. And if you don't like it, don't like it. Don't ask me. But I. Again, I think men who have the ability to earn wealth.

They'Ve got to do it very sensitive to the Lord and making a deal. Bigger doesn't mean better. Right. And it's like, well.

Sometimes it's staying smaller and being more profitable versus the headache and the, the logistics and the craziness of everything. Yeah, but, but you know, ministry, I tell people this, you know.

Business and workplace. It is a form of ministry in the sense of you're being a light in places where, in salt. Where people wouldn't go to church, tie them in the military or in different communities or overseas. I'm like, I'm in a mosque. One day I was in a mosque.

Doing prayer with the imam who had about 700 million followers of his thing. And people like, man, that's crazy. I go, well, he's not about to go to church with me anywhere. And I'll never forget he brought me to a persecuted group of Christians that ISIS had attacked. We walk in there and he goes, these are your people. Where are the Christians in America? Why aren't they helping them?

Yeah. And I said, because they're scared. So sometimes.

Look, I've brought businessmen and Christians, pastors overseas in high thread areas and it's. You'd be surprised how many pastors just absolutely fail. Yeah. I mean, you know, and I'm like, h, they have a failure of faith. And then I've had businessmen go, God bless you. I ain't ever coming back. This ain't my calling. But I'm going to fund you, brother. Yeah. Because that way I'm, you know, I'm getting a return in heaven. Yeah. And like we have a safe out. We have a safe house over in Cambodia and we just got two little girls. The mother was pimping them out. I mean, graphic details of bringing multiple guys in to rape the girls. They're little, they're young.

Yeah.

And the mother's having sex with some dudes all in the same room. And I'm like, okay, well, we'll pursue justice because we always do. We go after bad guys. And then we're going to take these girls in. And you know, like right now, Steven, we need to expand that house. We've got over 20 something girls. We need a big compound over there. And I've not even told. You're the first person I've ever told. I've never said publicly because I'm quiet about certain things, but like, man, we need a compound like triple the size because we have relationships with the military and police and Southeast, they're bringing kids to us. And then we're paying for our cowboy team and investigative team to Hunt bad guys who have money. They rape kids. Never. We just caught a 70, I think it was 72 year old American over there. And it was our team that ID them because of situational awareness and said something, something's not right. And I said, yeah, yup, put it on him. And FBI stepped in and arrested him and extradited him back. So all this stuff takes money to hunt. One guy was over a hundred thousand dollars for a year. And I tell people, was it worth it? You know, and then we've had organizations that have millions socked away and they go, we want to give the certain things. And I'm like, well, you can give to where our need is, but you're not going to control that. We'll be accountable. And they were like, well, we want, I said, no, no. Y' all want that story so you can raise money and act like y' all did it. We don't do that. We, we operate in high integrity.

Yeah.

And people, people get their feelings hurt. I'm like, yeah, I don't care.

Well, they get their feelings hurt because there's, in the world we live in, there's a. That's one of the reasons why I actually exited the construction industry or largely exited, is because of the simple fact of the lack of integrity.

Yes.

I mean that's, that's what I'm seeing more and more of. And I don't now it's, it's so pervasive that I think it's, it's not even willful lack of integrity.

It's a standard.

These are people that have not been trained to operate in integrity.

It's the standard. Brother, you don't know this. I had ownership in a construction company in Hawaii.

Did you really?

And we did really well. And it was based on the whole principle of high integrity. Like, I know I could upcharge, do that. And what I would do is charge a fair rate on everything, do better than they asked, and business never stopped. Yeah. And then the Lord says, oh good, I want you to go into ministry now. Yeah. And I actually tried to.

As my wife said, honey, you're not wanting to poke a hole in that boat, are you? Yeah, I said, not just yet. And the Lord, the Lord's like, I remember.

I gotta, I gotta spin off question on the, on the Kings thing, because I totally agree with you, by the way. Yeah. I've been told by numerous friends who've been around during my journey that are strong believers that they called, they, they called in me some that they call the spirit of David. David spirit. Because there's been times I could have easily compromised and chose not to. It's cost me millions of dollars. Not compromising, but I'm. I live at. Asleep every night, you know, so I feel good about that. But one of the things that's interesting is I've also been called a wartime general. So every time God has dropped me into a situation to start something from, from, from the beginning or whatever.

Yeah.

I'm the guy with a machete who's cutting down the trees. Everybody else can come along and then build the roads and all this kind of stuff. So I say that to say that I feel like God has called me out of the wartime general role. He hasn't really clearly defined the next general or kingship or whatever mantle he's got me. He's got. He's got. Waiting for me. And I know he's. And many times he might be waiting on me to lean into him for it. I'm trying to best my. To the best of my ability, but one of the struggles that I've had is I'm not used to being at war. I've. I've been at war for 45 years.

Right. No.

And then. And, you know, my, My, my Spartan shield and sword are hanging over there. And.

Yeah.

You know, I've got obviously a King Jesus behind me, and I got a Spartan helmet, King Leonidas helmet over here on the. On the. And they're real. And they're real. They're real things. Because my entire life has been an uphill battle.

Yeah.

Swinging it.

And.

And now I'm not swinging anymore. So now it's like, okay, well, what am I doing?

Yeah, here's the deal. You're moving from that captain, you know, into a colonel position, moving toward being a general. And each recommissioning sucks. There's. Because all you want to do is kick doors.

That's all I know how to do.

Right. And shoot bad people in the face and rescue the kids. Believe me, I get it because I'm. I'm a few steps ahead of you. Where I had. I was down in Coronado. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking to the teams down there. And, you know, I had a. A chief. Great guy and just. Great guy. He's like. He's like, brother, you said, you're getting too old to be the point. I said, well, I. I do feel like he goes, you are. I never forget. He's just like, you are. And I'm like, I know. He goes, but your next position where your God's Moving you into you influence millions.

Yeah.

And he'll still. And God will still always allow us to, like, come in. I. I think of one of my favorite generals from the Marine Corps, Chesty Pooler. And Chesty was in. And he was just a war dog, man, but he was in Korea and had a young officer next to him, and they got surrounded. And the young officers, like, he's like, sir, we're completely surrounded, and he's starting to panic. This. This untested, you know, Marine in battle. And here you get this seasoned, salty, testy puller. He looked there and said, yeah, he's a young man. He said, they've made it easy on us. We can shoot in any direction and hit him. And that just. Or a friend of mine who was on our teams, he was in Iraq and he was on Hadith the Dam. And he's a legendary Delta sergeant Major. Unbelievable. Greg and Ironhead. And, man, I did stuff with him in Burma, and then he came on a team course in Iraq. Just love this guy to bits.

But, you know, he was.

He's.

People put him in their books, and because he was walking on Haditha Dam under gunfire, handing licorice to his rangers who were hunkered down fighting, he's just walking on the dam. And I asked him one time, I said, greg, what? Sergeant Major? What. What about that? He goes, everybody thought I was being courageous. He says, victor, I had double knee surgery, and I just couldn't stay squatted down anymore. I had to walk it off. So he said, I didn't care. Oh, man. Also, one of his guys shot a dude, and the guy was, you know, screaming for the longest, and sergeant Major actually.

Ran down there, picked up the enemy, combative, slung him over his shoulder, ran back and dropped him at the feet of the guy who shot him. He said, you should have killed him, but now heal him. So it's. It's. It's those transitions of life where more responsibility, more wealth can be entrusted. And like you said earlier, I heard you say, I don't really need anything.

And that's when God says, well, you won't consume it upon your lust, because what if I bring you 10 times the amount or 100 times the amount, you'll steward it. And not only will you affect people, you are evangelizing by good works. And it's a powerful witness. Have you ever heard that podcast, Sean Ryan?

Yeah, actually, yeah. Heard part of it.

Yeah. So I was on that one. Did three of them with Sean. That guy got born again, and. And he's a former SEAL and CIA guy. There are people getting saved in all these, and guess what about none of them are going to church. Yeah, that's, it's, it's, it's where we are bringing the gospel, being a light.

I'm so glad you said that here. All right, so I know we're way over on time, but I think the conversation, we're just having too good of a conversation. So forgive me if I've gone a.

Little bit too far, but are we even recording? I, I, I've just been visiting what you said we got on. I don't care.

We better be.

Yeah.

One of the things that I'm thinking of is Jesus back here. One of the things that I see so much right now that.

Really, really hurts my heart.

Is people saying that Jesus said this or implied this without telling them when to go study for themselves to find out. And two, knowing they're lying about it.

To control.

Yeah.

I have a really. That's where my. So when we talk about a little bit of the stuff that's happening outside of church that is actually working, leading people to Christ versus stuff that's happening inside of church that's pushing people away from Christ. Not all cases, of course. There's some fantastic churches around the globe. Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

I don't know what to do with that.

Yeah. Be excited, because God is shaking the western church. I've been disgusted with it for a long time. And.

And I'm very vocal.

Yeah.

And when I speak, I tell people, well, I'm speaking like, I'm never going to be invited again. So I don't do anything to try to plan a better future. I had some guy over this big, big event. He's like, hey, you're speaking. And he goes, forget. He goes, it'll be really good for your speaking career. And I'm like.

Man, you certainly don't know me. I'm not trying to build a speaking career. I'm just trying to be faithful.

Yeah.

He says, but don't you need more speaking deals? I said, let me find out. I checked. I asked my team member, I said, hey, how many invades did I get last year? He goes, about 600. I said, no, I think I'm okay. I mean, hey, I think, I think.

You can take a break every now and again.

Yeah. The hard part is not being able to do it. And I'm sure many of those were like, you know, at a trailer park with two people. But I'm happy speaking to and doing what God leads me to. Do. And I've been very vocal against the church because I think the DNA is messed up.

That's what I'm. That's what I feel, sense and see. And it hurts.

Yeah. Oh, it's. It's. And think what it does to the Father.

Yeah.

Because he's like. Because if we were producing solid disciples and followers of Christ, not perfect men. Yeah. Because, man, I'm a great example of not being that, and I'm very transparent. But I. I'm like, this Jesus, who else will I follow? Yeah. Or I'm not gonna. Why would I want to. I have a friend who committed adultery on his wife, and he contacted me. He's like, hey, man. And we're friends.

Yeah.

He's like, hey. And he's a good businessman. And he's like, you know, churchgoer. He's like, I know you're going to be aggravated. And he's like, you know, I left my family. I'm shacked up with her. He said, but I really love her. I'm like, are you out of your mind? Did you just hear yourself love her? I said, and every time he called me, I would just grind him. I mean, really grind them.

Yeah.

And he'd be like, oh, man. You know, I said, tell me when I don't love you. You tell me when you don't think I love you. And bull. In this relationship, because I know you do. I said, how many other men are speaking to you like this?

Yeah.

He was none. I said, dude, you've just. You've yielded to your flesh into the lie of the enemy. And he ended up getting out of that. It was very good. Lost his wife until it lost his marriage. And I just said, hey, man, not all marriages make it, but godly men do. And, you know, he has actually since remarried, and he is on fire, for God.

That's amazing.

And his new wife, on fire, like, almost make me uncomfortable sometimes. So it's. It's not about perfection, but it's about being genuine and honest and getting a mission from God that can only come to spending time with him. Because when he puts them on your heart, it burns. Yeah, it burns.

Do what I'm missing in some.

Yes. Yeah. And. But let me tell you what's harder. Let me tell you what's harder than doing. Stephen is waiting.

Yes, there. Yes, there. There you go. It's. It's waiting. It's. To me, it's equivalent to some guy talking smack.

Just in your. And. And you're just thinking.

I also think it's worse. Waiting is worse when you've already been given a promise.

Oh, for sure.

Yeah.

Oh, gosh. It's like my. My bride, the Lord told me, this is your wife. This is who you've been praying for. I was like, great. I. Man. So I was like, hey, hey, we need to get married. And she's like, what? Hey, whoa. I'm actually dating on the guy. I'm like, he's a spawn from Satan. Drop him like a bagus. I said, you know, I'm the. And it was like a year, year and a half before she actually turned toward me, was like, you kind of cute. I'm like, and his showing. Yeah. And you know, thank God, because this I know if. If for some reason I could have got her and married her right there, we wouldn't have made it. We would not have made in a marriage.

Yeah.

Her foundation wasn't strong enough to walk with God. Neither was mine. Because as. As incredible as our life has been, brother, we've been through hell and back.

Yeah.

I mean, not to the edge. We've been through and back. Separated twice.

And I tell people we had to learn how to fight back to back, not nose to nose. That's why we have a marriage line on course. Thousands have gone through. And I tell people, if you're engaged, single, married, divorced, go through this online course because it's me and my wife speaking from my heart about pitfalls and landmines and. And people have done it. Are so grateful that they have. But it's. Yeah, I'm. I'm excited for you, where you're at.

Thank you.

And I do think, man, I do think what's coming in the future.

One requires a godly.

Spouse that can watch your back, that can love you, that can hold up your arms when you're.

Talking the first time. I've already seen examples of where somebody's are actively and trying to do that.

Yes. And. Oh, completely.

The other. The businesses I built with the prior marriages and stuff like that. I built the businesses in spite of the marriage, not with.

Oh, yeah. No.

You know, some. I told. I told my wife when we were dating, which is short because I was like, I want to get married. And I think. I think we dated for 90 days or something. But I said, even when we were friends prior to dating, you always made me. I. I wanted to be a better man of God when I was around you. Regardless. I just. That's. And I still do. And I think the right person will bring that out of a man. And because I'M like, babe, I would go through oceans, climb mountains, kill dragons, save children for you. And I literally have. Dragons have been evil men.

But a lot of times it was so funny. A lot of times I'll be like, honey, you know, they were shooting at me and mortared. And she was like, yeah, I was next to you, honey. Okay. I remember that mission. I'm like, oh, yeah, that's funny.

That's awesome. I'll give it. I'm gonna give you the last couple minutes for yourself. What is something that's on your heart that you feel like needs to be shared, that you have yet to share thus far?

I think hard times are coming difficult, which is great. It's motivating. And it's not a time to get fearful or scared. It's a time to prepare. If a person prepares, they won't be paranoid. And I think people should prepare three ways. Physically. I think every person. I'll talk to the men.

Men should have skill sets that you could at least make somebody very uncomfortable at the thought of a threat.

So, like, Sean Spicer interviewed me former. He's like, victor. Well, if you come into a room, people gonna know, oh, that's a guy. He says, but me, he says, man, I. I don't. I. I said, sean, Sean. I says, no, listen, it's never the size of the dog. It's the size of the heart and the dog for the fight. I said, you can always train with a blade, a pistol, basic driving skills. There are things a person can learn. Situational awareness. I've got my CIA buddy. We just finished a course, an online course for situational awareness. Unreal. It's stuff like that. You can prepare physically. You can lift, you can walk, you can. Flexibility.

There, you know, and if you have medical conditions, take care of it.

I just had a friend, he had a 90% blockage in his heart.

Oh, good gosh.

Yeah. And he was. I was like, dude. He goes, yeah, he's 10 years younger than me, so he got that fixed. And so don't put off things. And on the physical level, too. Some men need to check their testosterone levels and seek. Seek to get it up. But there was no anyone do there.

Testosterone is a hormone that helps regulates muscle mass, cardiovascular, decision making, and some guys, all of it. Yeah, it's.

It's. You have it a lot in your youth, which is why you're so youthful.

Yep.

And then as it dries up or it starts to decline. I'm on TRT myself. Have been three years.

Yeah, I've Been doing it since, I don't know, 15 years.

Yeah.

45. I was like. Mine was around 200. So. Yeah, just. Just do what you need to do emotionally.

Some men, you're immature in areas, so are you struggling certain things. It's okay to get counseling. Yeah. It's okay to find a trusted friend.

That, you know. Iron trumpets. Iron. You have goodies for each other. Yeah. One. One week, you may lift your arms up. Another somebody, you got to be honest with someone.

Yeah.

And it's not always going to be your wife. I have a great relationship. I can tell her anything. But some men, you know, if you're just stuck on something and work through to build yourself and your capacity for maturity, which means your emotions, you know, and look, there's a guy who would put his hand through a wall or a window, you know, once a year, and I had to just get counseling to get my stuff under control and work through things I never wanted to because of my childhood. And if. If anybody's wondering, go watch Sean Ryan. Yeah. The podcast. Watch that. You'll understand. Yeah, man. And then the third thing is spiritually.

Getting a relationship with God as a father. And it's like, I. You know, because that's an answer to our fatherless nation. Yeah. You know, you.

You.

There's.

There literally is no other benchmark to determine what it. Like what it means to be a father to someone else.

Right. And look, when I put my fist through a wall, I remember all the last times. It's been years. Hallelujah. But the early years were tough. And I remember, boom. I was just walking, and my wife and kids would do the typical, you know, oh, let's put a picture over it, and then we'll get some out of. I remember that last time, I said, no, don't. Don't put a picture. Like, my wife's. Like, honey, it's right by the door. Said, fine. When our guests come in, I want them to look at that. I want to feel the sting. I want to. I want to be able to look at them. That was me. That was my timber. That was how I express myself.

Yeah.

And it's totally embarrassing, but I would tell my kids, hey, that's not the. That's not the example of a heavenly father.

Yeah.

That's your earthly dad who fails at times.

Yeah.

Because I'm not relying on his strength, but. And then understand spiritual warfare. Please go watch the unseen war. It's on our website. Eight part series. Think there's a work deal with it to have authority over the demonic is the greatest thing I say a man needs these days because we deal a lot with the demonic. And it's, it's just I'm tired of men being afraid. Christian men. Like, what are you afraid of?

Yeah, they're, they're afraid of all the lies that are whispered in their ears.

That's it. I mean, that's it. It's like David ran toward the giant. Yeah. You know, and a bully, that's what the enemy, my wife always says. And the devil's such a bully. She hates it. He's just such a bully. And look, a lot of times you feel like a fifth grade kid and there's a seventh grader picking. Sometimes you just gotta, you know, make a fist and punch them in the nose as hard as you can. What you end up realizing is, oh my gosh, I've got, I've got the Thor hammer through God's power. Demons. I prayed for a pastor one time and after we were done, he goes, I can't believe how the demons listen to you. How you have the authority. I said, yeah. I said, you know, again, I'm happy, but I'm more happy my name's written in the man's book of life. But yeah, I said, pastor, you have the same authority. A person who just got saved a 10 year old has the same authority or the demonic, because the power of God that raised him from the dead, Christ from the dead, dwells in us. So, yeah. Can I pray for those men listening right now?

Absolutely. Welcome it, Father.

I thank you for every man listening. And I pray God that you would make yourself known to them in a way as a heavenly father that they've never known either ever. Or maybe on a different level where they can trust you, where they actually know you are so proud of them, you love them, you're excited for them and God, you're not waiting to crush them because you look at them through perfection of your son, Jesus Christ. I pray if there's a man that doesn't know you, God has never been reconciled to you. Pray that he would. I pray that he would simply say, jesus, I, best way I know how, believe you're the son of God, you did rise from the dead. And please forgive me of those things you're showing me right now that I know are wrong in my life you call sin. Please forgive me of those. And would you put your spirit inside of me to give me power to live a life that I can never live on my own? Please redeem the junk that I've done in my past and help me to be the best man, whether single, whether a son, whether a husband, a father in whatever capacity, a businessman, a person in ministry. Lord, someone in school, help them to be a light and salt right where they are. God, if I pray, if there's any women watching this, I pray they would not fall into the sin of comparison of what certain men they see, have and are and what their man lacks. That's a sin, woman. And you need to repent for that. You need to be grateful to God Almighty for what he's given you. And you need to be that agent, that partner, that sister in Christ that prays for your husband more than anyone else. Because trust me, no one else will more. You need to be the one that will protect him, that will intercede before him, that will hold up his arms, that will cheerleader him and. And then tell him the truth when he needs to hear it based on love. But don't tear him down, don't try to control them, but love him. See him like God sees him. Because in the role he's in, he's responsible before God for you and those children. So, Lord, I pray that you protect marriages, restore marriages. And God, I pray that you would bless those that are going to be engaged soon and going to get married. And we love you and we thank you for today. In Jesus name, Amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother, that was awesome.

You're welcome.

Guys, I'll put all the good stuff in the show notes, all that good stuff too, so you guys can find them. And all I could say, I know.

I hear my dogs coming in.

Dogs, this is time to wrap it up, I guess. Brother, I have absolutely enjoyed hanging out with you and talking to you. So thank you so much.

Hadn't this been good? I've enjoyed it too.

It's been great.

I've enjoyed it too. So if people do want to get.

Book.

It'S called the Dangerous Gentleman. Some Amazon, any bookstores I guess for this stuff. And then it's on Kindle.

So. And I always tell people, hey, if you're so broke you can't afford one, contact me through my website. We'll make sure we'll put one of your hands so that you can grow.

A servant leader right there.

Yeah, brother.

Thank you again, man. I can't wait to have you back on.

You know, I look forward to it as well.

I hope you liked that video. And if you did, make sure you check out this next video right here.

99% of it is subconscious, so it's where we have to really be introspective and go deep within ourselves. And this is why I say first. Money, memory. Let's deal with that. Write it down. See what lessons you've learned. See how that has permeated your life.