Speaker 1: 0:01

It's time now to get the hell out of your life. A weekly broadcast with real people sharing real struggles and offering real hope. Today's show will encourage, inspire and empower you to face life's challenges with a bold confidence and renewed hope. Now let's join our host, ron Myers. The promoter.

Ron Meyers: 0:22

Well, listeners, it is so good to be with you today. Last week we had a terrible tragedy in this country Charlie Kirk, one of us, a believer, a follower of Jesus, one that boldly proclaimed the truth among college campuses, and he was taken out by a bullet silencing his voice. And so I was puzzled, I was concerned and I was saddened, and I thought of my friend, paul Renfro. Paul has written some books on the darkness in this world, the spiritual forces that are against us, so I had to call Paul. I said Paul, I need clarity. I want my listeners to understand the battle that we are in light versus dark. Paul, so glad to have you with me today. How are you doing?

Paul Renfro: 1:12

Oh, thank you, Ron. It's great to be with you, and I just love your audience, because not only do they receive the are they hungering and thirsty for righteousness, but from you and your guests they're really receiving a combination of encouragement and wisdom that they can implement in their own lives. So what a great bunch of people to be with.

Ron Meyers: 1:33

The shooting of Charlie Kirk, a voice in the Christian community. Now, my first thought these are my first thought is this is a demonic spiritual warfare. The battle has been going on, but it's almost like I felt that Satan has really turned up the heat to take out a voice like that. Am I right to think things like that? Is this a spiritual battle between good and evil?

Paul Renfro: 2:02

Well, you're on the way to right, and that's kind of how the conversation goes in our world. Let's move it to a biblical framework, and then we'll get to what's right faster. How about that?

Paul Renfro: 2:15

That sounds good, because good and evil are not really the primary topics in the Scripture. The primary topic in scripture is God Almighty and his desire to be reconciled with human beings. And so right away, the listener needs to understand that we're not talking about religion. We're talking about Almighty God, who is holy and never does wrong. And before he even made human beings, one of the archangels got the big head and rebelled. This is the one that we know as Satan. So because of that, god then made us right where he had exiled the fallen Lucifer. Now, why would he make us very weak and mortal in the same place that he had exiled Lucifer? This says a lot about God Almighty which are beyond the scope of our conversation in our time frame.

Paul Renfro: 3:11

But what happened with Charlie Kirk? You're right, it is warfare, but the warfare is continual and erupts into the public eye, you know, courtesy of our 24-7 news cycles and our 188 news broadcasters. The warfare is unabating and is continual, and you might say it's on the macro scale, at the world level of nations. It's also against us, like if you're supposed to be preaching in a church but stuck in a traffic jam. You know, there's all kinds of things that can occur and they all are symptoms of that warfare, but ultimately God is the master of it. In Revelation 13.8, you can look it up, lister God reveals that the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world, and the profundity of that is earthbending and will totally demolish all your religious categories. Because Jesus somehow had a body and was slain even before the angels were made, the archangels were made before we were made or before creation existed. And we know that God is outside of time and that's kind of how that works, I guess. But the point is that God has always been in control. And lastly, on this reply, apostle Paul talked about the hidden mysteries of God In 1 Corinthians, chapter 2, it is very, very germane to this topic and in verse 8, in verse 7, he talks about the hidden wisdom of God, but now revealed. Then he says if they had known, talking about the kingdom of darkness, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. And so because what happened? Well, because Jesus died.

Paul Renfro: 4:55

Listener, you can be reconciled with God. Almighty you, little old you, for all your faults, for all your flaws, for all your weakness, for all your faults, for all your flaws, for all your weakness, you can be reconciled with God, because Jesus paid your offense in full. And that's not all. You were born as a spirit. That's why he said flesh gives birth to flesh, but spirit gives birth to spirit. And you have to be born as a spirit. But that's not all. And he said I will send the Holy Spirit and he'll fill you. So you got three legs up on the devil. Who does not have?

Speaker 4: 5:27

the.

Paul Renfro: 5:27

Holy Spirit and has no reconciliation with God. So far from being at the bottom of the heat in the world of spirit, we're at the top, and that's why we live by faith. That's why Paul said we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen, for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. And so these are considerations that we take into account when we look at this dread event for our nation and the others that take place so frequently and receive attention courtesy of our broadcast system.

Ron Meyers: 6:01

A lot of people ask why does God permit these evil beings in the kingdom of darkness under Satan to continue existing? Why does God permit them and their interference in our lives?

Paul Renfro: 6:14

Remember what Jesus said foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. That's Luke 9, 54. He said if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me, and that's Luke 9, 23. And Apostle Paul testified about it in Galatians 2, 20, when he said I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, in the life. I live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me, and so this is really what we're, this is the road we're on. He's a Lord, it's a war that he has permitted and he keeps them in existence.

Paul Renfro: 6:57

Remember, in Colossians, chapter one, Paul says all things are in him, of him and for him, and he holds all things together. This includes the devil and it includes demons and it includes the kingdom of darkness. And that seems kind of strange. If you have kind of a black and white view of good and evil and those things, just dig into the scripture and throw off the usual boundaries and see who God is and how he acts, because that's what we're all about. So God uses the kingdom of darkness as a scalpel for humanity. He wants us to know, and Paul says in Galatians 3, the law was a tutor for us that we might learn salvation by faith and our reconciliation by God's appointed means, which is Jesus' death. So in the same way, by God's appointed means, which is Jesus' death, so in the same way, the kingdom of darkness is like his surgical tool he tests us. Paul describes that in Romans 5.

Paul Renfro: 7:51

Peter describes it in 1 Peter 1. It's also a provocation to seek him, and so Paul drew upon that heavily when he was preaching on Mars Hill in Acts 17,. That the kingdom of darkness and all the falsity and all of the deception that evil spirits practice, is all permitted by God to provoke us to seek him. So we have the choice. And Ahab, in 1 Kings 22,. He had the choice of listening to the prophets sent by God, micaiah, or listening to the hundreds and hundreds of evil spirits in the mouth of his false prophets.

Paul Renfro: 8:29

Now, apostle Paul had to deal with the enemy as well, as we well know. But he describes it directly in 2 Corinthians 12. So look these up, listener, because these will give you instruction on why God permits these evil beings. Of course they're eternal spirits and they're tireless, and we know that from experience. Right, and so it also provokes us to cry out to the Lord, and it's the same way we train our dogs. It's how God keeps us on a short leash. So if you perceive that there are enemies attempting their influence in your life, then look to God. What does it say? Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. This is very simple. That's James 4, 6. So this is so elegant a solution, but really the fulcrum of this lever which way will you go? The fulcrum is your choice.

Ron Meyers: 9:21

Very well put. So to kind of shorten that up, god allows it because he wants us, as we battle with these principalities of darkness, to draw closer to him, because he's already defeated the darkness and we cannot do it on our own. We can only do it with Christ alive in us. Is that, in essence, what you're saying?

Paul Renfro: 9:45

It is, and that's why the Beatitudes are. You know, the Lord composed the Beatitudes as very first teaching in the New Testament, as the books are laid out. Because what does it say? Blessed are the poor in spirit. Well, that makes no sense at all. Because if our great enemy is an evil spirit, an archangelic spirit who has been exiled and then God made us here, well, we died spiritually when we were on Eve and sin every day. But the Holy Spirit gives us rebirth by faith in Christ. So Jesus said you must be born again. That's what it means. It's not just a mental exercise, it's not just a group of beliefs I have, it's not just a Sunday morning habit I have or an everyday habit I have. It is a person coming to live in me and it is a Holy Spirit of God. That's what we need because we're poor in spirit. So you said it very well.

Ron Meyers: 10:39

Yeah, and even a stronger term we are united with Christ. We are united with Christ.

Ron Meyers: 10:48

And so that's, we have to understand our identity in Christ and the power we have through the Holy Spirit. So today, someone's listening that still is grieving the loss of children by shooters, the Charlie Kirk and all the other evil atrocities, and they're scared. They don't know what to do. And they're scared. They don't know what to do. What would you, paul, tell them? What hope would you give them to bring them out of that dark slump that they are in?

Paul Renfro: 11:20

Well, you can tell, my first answer is going to be to be a student of the Word of God. See in the Scripture, in our normal human words, god reveals the unseen world, and so these dread and terrible things that occur it might be a cancer diagnosis or the other things you've listed what did Paul say? And that was 2 Corinthians 14. He said what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. And so our action begins with the scripture.

Paul Renfro: 11:51

We can't just go off in our own ideas or what we heard on YouTube, or some preacher or what have you? Okay, and then, secondly, we must recognize that everything in the world is agreement. Everything, even God himself, embodies personal agreement as a trinity, and the way he made us male and female in his image, how are two the image of three? Because multi-personal agreement is required and even electrons have to agree with nuclei, atoms have to agree with other atoms. Everything is agreement, including the kingdom of darkness. And because they have no fertility or fecundity, they have to be very legalistic about agreements and contractual in the way they operate. This is the number one. Then this is the third thing that you can do, listener is you just simply verbally because you're a creature that speaks commit yourself to the Lord and say I identify with God Almighty, I establish my agreement with the Holy Spirit of God. Holy Spirit, fill me to the max, every day, again, again and anew and anew, over and over, like the apostles did in Acts. And I need your help with this persistent interloper and interference, this demon of alcoholism or this demon of persistent sorrow, this demon of chemical imbalance, this demon of controlling compulsions, whatever. You know, there's quite a number to choose from. And so well, let me, we don't choose them. Let's rephrase that there's quite a number who may be assigned to torment us or make or trip us up and that kind of thing. Well, that's no worries, there's no need to be afraid, listeners and viewers, because the Holy Spirit lives in you.

Paul Renfro: 13:38

Do you think he's weaker? I think not. But what's the only thing he needs? He needs your agreement. When you give him your agreement and he's free to operate, then you just pay attention, and that's kind of the adventure of the Christian life. Just pay attention. And that's kind of the adventure of the Christian life, just pay attention. A couple of verses that may be helpful along that line for the listener to look up later Isaiah, chapter 50, verses 4 through 9. Just that one will give you plenty to work with. Isaiah 24 through 35 are extremely potent about walking every day with the Holy Spirit. For instance, isaiah 30, verse 21, says you'll hear a voice behind you saying this is the way. Walk in it. And so that section of Isaiah is extremely potent for life in the Spirit.

Ron Meyers: 14:26

A lot of people and I'm one of them. When I heard this with Charlie Kirk, I got angry.

Speaker 4: 14:32

I got angry about this.

Ron Meyers: 14:34

And it's almost like I felt the Holy Spirit remind me of a verse that what the devil means for evil, God can turn to good.

Paul Renfro: 14:43

In other words, it's like yeah, that's Genesis 50 by Joseph.

Ron Meyers: 14:46

And it's like God was saying Ron, the story's not over. There is something that's going to come out of this. The hope is that there's going to be little. Charlie Kirks raised up all across this nation. He's gone, but he had such an impact that let's go through that little time of anger but also look at what can we do to spread the good news. What can we do? Let's turn that anger into a anticipation or something of what God is going to do, because God allowed this, god allowed this, no matter how we feel about that, but the story's not over. You know what's that saying? The opera's not over till the fat lady sings. Well, the fat lady hasn't sung yet and I think she's getting ready to what do you?

Paul Renfro: 15:30

think there's every indication. People have always thought that since the Lord ascended to heaven. So we have to be modest in our assessment of the heavenly timetable as it manifests within our linear time. However, let's just put it this way In Gethsemane, what did Jesus tell the three disciples? Watch and pray. And at the end of his discourse about the end times, what did he say? Watch and pray, and how do we watch? One is we're continually holding up the Bible next to our video feed, or whatever.

Paul Renfro: 16:03

And so, the point being, it's always a war. The variable is not whether there's a war, the variable is what we're aware of and how we respond to it. Now I'm angry too, let me just put it that way. I'm angry too, and without naming names, I can just tell the listener the assassination of Charlie Kirk a political assassination and he is his whole mindset, as one deeply embroiled in the lab is that he is confined within an echo chamber of self-reinforcing consensus bias and if you're interested in surveys and statistics, you can look up that term consensus bias. Well, we can be too. That's why we don't stick our head in the sand, but we're aware of what goes on around us.

Paul Renfro: 17:02

Look at Apostle Paul's example. When he wanted to preach in Athens, he went to the headquarters of the pagan philosophers. When he wanted to preach in Ephesus, and the circumstances in Ephesus, he went straight into the battle. And this is the amazing thing when you read at Ephesus, which is Acts 19, many people were saved and Paul's people were healed by his handkerchiefs. And then guess what?

Paul Renfro: 17:29

Then this tremendous event of demonic power occurred for the Jewish itinerant exorcists and all of a sudden, it says listen to this, ron, everyone who believed brought out their magic scrolls into the public square and burned them, and the value was estimated at 50,000 drachma, which is about 30 years of wages. How is it that they knew the value? Because there was a ready market for those magic scrolls. We have to be alert to these consistent influences of evil and there's no better alarm system than knowing the word of God. You can tell from listening to me that I've spent a lot of time memorizing and learning and it's paid off for me, but not only that, for people I influence. So, listener Ron, I really want your listeners to get it that, if anything else, this Charlie Kirk assassination should spur us to bring the hurt upon the kingdom of darkness with the Word of God.

Ron Meyers: 18:32

Before we conclude our conversation today, I'd like two things from you. If you would Offer some hope and encouragement to our listeners, and then will you close us out in one of those? Paul Renfro prayers.

Paul Renfro: 18:48

Well, if there's anything powerful about me, you know that it is the Holy Spirit within me, because I am poor in spirit and I'm more than meek, but a hunger and thirst for righteousness, and it's turned me into a merciful person who makes peace and also endures persecution for the Lord's sake, and that's the Beatitudes, that is a Beatitude attitude. This is what gives me hope and I guess if there's a theme to this podcast, the theme is that verse in 2 Corinthians, 4, 4.18, I'm pretty sure it is. And that is we do not focus on what is seen but on what is unseen, for what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal. Now, that includes your spirit. You, listener, if you have put your faith in Jesus being born again, means that you've got more. You're back to the condition of Adam and Eve when they were first created Body, soul and spirit. But you've got more. They were not filled with the Holy Spirit and you are. And so what's the hope? John 14, 23 is so beautiful.

Paul Renfro: 20:02

The poor disciples. They were so befuddled by Jesus' cryptic statements there after they had the Last Supper and he announced the new covenant, covenant of his blood, and then he explained it to them in John 13 through 17. And what did he say, sam? They said, hey, we don't know where you're going. How can we follow you and get what he says?

Paul Renfro: 20:18

He says if anyone loves me, he'll keep my commands and my father and I will love him and we'll make our home in him. This is profound because in John 15, he's talking about I go to prepare a place for you, and he's using the word home repeatedly, but he talks just as much about God's home as our home, and that home is together. So we can be any more hopeful than the knowledge that the home of God on earth is in you and in us who follow Jesus. Now, obviously, when you consider this, it produces poverty of spirit, mourning, meekness, a great deal more quickly, because it's very embarrassing if God Almighty lives right within you and you realize, man, I'm really the weak link in the chain here, but he's rushed his end to fill every vacuum, and so it's really, really beautiful to know him and to walk with him.

Ron Meyers: 21:18

That is so well put, paul. And one last thing your website. How do people find out more about you in your series of books?

Paul Renfro: 21:27

Oh, thank you so much. It's the Unseen series, in which I write about the unseen realm and some of the mysteries that God kept hidden for so long, and the website is ParadigmLighthousecom Paradigm P-A-R-A-D-I-G-M, lighthousecom, and there you can get a free book as well. If you fill out that welcome greeting in the contact form, I'll send you the prequel to the Unseen series, which is titled how to Unveil the Unseen and Live as a Spirit. So it's very germane to what we've been talking about today. It's only 54 pages, so even people who aren't big readers will get a lot out of it.

Ron Meyers: 22:10

Well, paul, thank you again, God bless you, and we'll talk to you again very soon. You got it, and now close us out in prayer.

Paul Renfro: 22:19

Lord God, there is no prayer that's more justified than reflecting to you the greatness of your glory, and we praise you and glorify you because you made all things and then you orchestrated outside of time this great drama in which you're saving human beings to be your companions for eternity in the unseen world and, in fact, replacing those angels who betrayed you with us who are loyal to you. And so we're asking you that you, holy Spirit, would fill us again today, fill us right now, and enable us to demonstrate the loyalty, the admiration, the respect and the agreement that you earned fair and square, by orchestrating this great plan and including us as your eternal companions. We really cry out to you with confession and humility, not simply because we did, you know, some X, y, z wrong, but because we are incapable until you reform our flesh in the afterlife. We are incapable of the loyalty that only you can provide within us, and so we're calling out to you and casting ourselves upon you, because you have brought us into this unseen world, for which we are extremely incapable. And so we're calling out to you, brought us into this unseen world, for which we are extremely incapable. And so we're calling out to you, lord Jesus.

Paul Renfro: 24:00

We ask that everyone influenced by the assassination of Charlie Kirk would fall into this same humility, mourning and meekness that you promoted when you called it blessed and when you said that such people were the royalty of the kingdom of heaven. We're asking for this. We're asking that his family and everyone who has a gigantic hole in their lives as a result of his assassination, lord Jesus, we ask that you would rush in and fill that vacuum with, just like Ron said earlier, all those little Charlie Kirks that will rise up and multiply your voice of righteousness in this world. For, truly, he was an example of someone who hungered and thirsted for righteousness, and a peacemaker. So we're asking you, holy Spirit, to make us like that, make us like Jesus, and help us to deny ourselves every day in the same way, to come before you with humility, hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Ron Meyers: 25:04

Listeners. It was very important to me to bring this program to you this week because a lot of us are confused, upset and angry, but remember this greater is he that's in you than he that is in the world. Friends, you're going to get through this. It's going to be. Something good is going to come out of this. I absolutely positively believe that I'll be back next week with another episode of Get the Hell Out of your Life, available on all podcast platforms. Please share this program with other people Until next week. This is Ron Myers, reminding you that I love you, jesus loves you, and when you give Jesus your heart, you not only get the hell out of your life, but life will begin to make sense.

Speaker 1: 26:04

Today's show is proudly underwritten by the Christmas City Gift Show. Mark your calendars for November 7th through the 9th and experience the magic inside the Christmas City Gift Show inside the Mississippi Coast Convention Center located on the beach in Biloxi, mississippi. For more information, visit ChristmasCityGiftShowcom. If you would like to be a guest and share your story of God's amazing grace, visit our website, thepromoterorg, and click the share your story tab button. Thanks for listening. Join us next week for another edition of get the hell out of your life real stories, real struggles and real hope.

Speaker 4: 26:46

Hi, I'm Dr Andrew Farley, host of the Grace Message. Got a Bible question, struggling with a personal issue, Wondering about a tricky verse. At BibleQuestionscom, you'll get clear, grace-based answers in 10 seconds or less. No fluff, no confusion, just practical biblical truth. Ask anything anytime and experience the power of God's love. Visit BibleQuestionscom. That's BibleQuestionscom your go-to for biblical clarity. Christmas City gifts and food over 300 booths guaranteed, to put you in the holiday mood.

Ron Meyers: 27:37

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Speaker 4: 27:44

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