652. Josiah Gallegos Shares his Personal Testimony (#2) 4/23/24 - October 1, 2024

[00:00:06] Welcome to Wisdom Today. My name is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. In this podcast we will be exploring the book of Proverbs.

[00:00:21] Let's open in prayer. Father God, I thank you for anyone listening to this podcast today. Lord, I pray that you would open everyone's ears to hear and heart to receive everything you have in store for them today.

[00:00:34] I ask this in Jesus' name, amen. This is Proverbs 1 beginning in verse 1.

[00:01:05] A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel to understand a proverb and an enigma, the words of the wise and their riddles.

[00:01:21] The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

[00:01:29] My son, hear the instruction of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother, for they will be a graceful ornament on your head and chains about your neck.

[00:01:42] My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, come with us, let us lie in wait to shed blood. Let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause.

[00:01:56] Let us swallow them alive like sheol, and whole like those who go down to the pit. We shall find all kinds of precious possessions. We shall fill our houses with spoil.

[00:02:11] Cast in your lot among us. Let us all have one purse.

[00:02:17] My son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your foot from their path, for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood.

[00:02:29] Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird, but they lie in wait for their own blood. They lurk secretly for their own lives.

[00:02:41] So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain. It takes away the life of its owners.

[00:02:50] Wisdom calls aloud outside. She raises her voice in the open squares. She cries out in the chief concourses.

[00:03:00] At the openings of the gates in the city, she speaks her words.

[00:03:04] How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge.

[00:03:16] Turn at my rebuke. Surely I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make my words known to you, because I have called and you refused.

[00:03:27] I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, because you disdained all my counsel and would have none of my rebuke.

[00:03:38] I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your terror comes. When your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind.

[00:03:51] When distress and anguish come upon you, then they will call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me, because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord.

[00:04:10] They would have none of my counsel, and despised my every rebuke. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled to the full with their own fancies.

[00:04:24] For the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them. But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure without fear of evil.

[00:04:41] Well, I'd like to welcome you Josiah. We just finished reading Proverb 1 and I always look forward to the beginning of the month because we get an opportunity to begin the book of Proverbs all over again.

[00:04:55] So Proverb 1 is the foundational proverb of the entire book. So if you would, Josiah, please share with the audience which verse really spoke to you today that you'd like to give a few details about.

[00:05:08] Well, thank you, Bill. I would like to direct everyone to Proverbs 1 verse 7. It says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

[00:05:24] So this verse really speaks to me because a lot of people think they can do things without God, and that's not true actually. And fearing God is not being afraid of him. It's acknowledging him, and it's being in amazement of what he's done in the past.

[00:05:44] And when you recognize that God is God, that is the beginning of knowledge. And then it says in the next segment that fools despise wisdom and instruction. And true wisdom comes from God.

[00:05:59] It says in Proverbs 9 that the fear of the Lord is beginning of wisdom and fools, according to the Bible, are those who despise wisdom and true wisdom comes from God. And I could go on about that, but that's what really spoke to me.

[00:06:29] And that's what God basically turns away from it and doesn't want anything to do with it. So I'm glad you brought that up. But what I'd like to do, Josiah, is I'm going to welcome you. And what I'd like to do is go over the fact that Josiah is not on for the first time.

[00:06:46] He was actually on episode number 537. Now that was a ways ago. It was earlier this year, it was April 23rd. But whenever I have a guest on for the second time or third time, I really encourage everyone to go back and take a peek at that.

[00:07:07] Because a lot of times I am piggybacking off of the questions that I asked the first time. And for those of you listening for the first time, Josiah has signed on basically. He is going to be part of a regular team that I am going to be having on a regular basis.

[00:07:28] So he will be coming on every three, four or five months. And I don't know exactly how many people are going to be on for sure. But he will be on and that will be after Christmas. So look for him maybe again in January and February.

[00:07:45] But I really would like for people to get to know you personally, Josiah. And first of all, Josiah, I'm just going to remind anyone that didn't listen to that April podcast is that Josiah is a young man. He is only 21 years old soon to be 22 next month.

[00:08:05] Oh, oh gosh, I can't undo this. Okay, we're going to do so Josiah your birthday has already happened. We are doing this October 1st. So anyway, I can't correct that. But so anyway, happy birthday, Josh, Josiah.

[00:08:23] But anyway, this is a special broadcast because when this publishes on October 1st. This will actually be two and a half years since I began this podcast Josiah so what are your thoughts about this special invitation.

[00:08:40] I'm just really blessed Bill. It says in Revelation that we overcome by blood lamb the word of our testimony, we love our lives, not even to death. And I believe it's important for us to testify of what God has done in our lives over.

[00:09:00] I mean, from days to months, years. It's very important to testify of how good God is and what he's done in our lives because that is what glorifies him. So I'm just excited to testify what God has done in my life.

[00:09:18] Well, that is so good. And you know Josiah as I listened to earlier podcasts, and this is going to be podcast number, let me see 657, I believe 652. So you are going to be episode 652.

[00:09:38] And Josiah, as I get better at these skills, because this when I whenever I do testimonies, I use a different skill. I'm not using my teacher skills that I do on my daily podcast on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

[00:09:57] But on this one, I serve more as an MC. And this is your time to shine, Josiah. So I'm not going to try to take any more of your time. But it's an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to work inside me.

[00:10:12] So as I'm hearing your answer, the Spirit will lead me and guide me to ask the questions that will make this just a unique testimony. And every time for anyone listening to these testimonies every Tuesday, every single one is unique and has something different to offer.

[00:10:33] So Josiah, what I'm going to do is pick up because I listened to your previous podcast prior to beginning this meeting today. And what I'd like to do is just kind of bounce off how some of these things that you talked about earlier are now working in your life.

[00:10:50] And the first thing you talked about is that you like walking, looking like and speaking as though you are a king. And I know that to me speaks about your identity in who you are in Jesus. So if you would just share with the audience how you feel you're doing in that area and have you experienced any growth?

[00:11:16] Yes, sir. So I would say that that's something I am still developing in walking in your identity in Christ is amazing. But it also sometimes can be a challenge because we don't live in a perfect world. And sometimes things don't go the way we expect them to go.

[00:11:39] But I have gone through some challenges in walking in my identity, though, even with my shortcomings God has been faithful. I just brought me back to that you're righteous because I'm not perfect. And when I was talking about that a while ago, it's something that the Lord just brought real strong to me is that you are a king.

[00:12:04] And you see yourself like this. And so I started to just think and read about the way the kings acted. And the greatest example is Jesus, he is the king of kings and Lord of lords. So what did Jesus do on this earth? Well, first off, he came and he humbled himself.

[00:12:26] He became a man, which for people who don't even understand if you're God, you said I'm going to become something as small as a man insignificant compared to the entire universe. That takes a lot of humility. But Jesus knew that he was here on this earth for specific reason.

[00:12:51] And so it says he humbled himself even unto death, that God himself died on a cross for us. Jesus was the perfect example of what a true king is. Someone who serves his people. And that is what Jesus did when he was here on this earth.

[00:13:12] And so for the last year or so, God has promoted me to a position of leadership in my church. And he's been teaching me to serve in a position of leadership.

[00:13:27] And one of the things he's taught me from the word of God is discipling people. Discipling people, this discipleship can be in many different forms now for us believers. It's us being discipled by the Holy Spirit through the word of God.

[00:13:43] But he was teaching me how to disciple people into how to become a leader at the position I was. Because whenever you're a leader, you're not supposed to have the mindset of you're going to be there forever.

[00:13:58] And then you move on. Your mindset is you're there to succeed and raise up people to succeed you. So I could keep on going about that, but that's the biggest thing that Jesus has been teaching me is how do I become a real king?

[00:14:15] And the first step to becoming real king is humility. And second is serving your people.

[00:14:25] Well, you know, I'm going to go ahead and stop you right there, Josiah. It's like every word that comes out of your mouth has impact and it has power. But I do want to go to the 13th chapter of the Gospel of John.

[00:14:38] Now, the greatest to me in history, the greatest display of humility was when Jesus died on that cross and he humbled himself so that all of the people who would follow him.

[00:14:54] And that includes us today. And even people are going to be born a thousand, two thousand years from now. But he did that on the cross.

[00:15:02] But in chapter 13, this was after the Last Supper and he had just had the Last Supper with his disciples and he got up and he got a basin of water and he demonstrated humility by washing the feet of his disciples.

[00:15:18] I just think that is one of the greatest displays. And basically Jesus is telling us, Josiah, is I came to serve and not to be served.

[00:15:30] What an awesome, awesome display. One of the other things that you talked about, and I really would kind of like to talk and see how you're doing in this is that you mentioned that there was a period in your life as you're basically,

[00:15:45] I believe when you were like, you know, 19 or 20 is that you were struggling with believing all of the promises that the Bible tells us.

[00:15:57] Now, Josiah, I know that that is something that many people listening today often overlook because they'll read something in the Bible and they'll go, wow, is that for me?

[00:16:09] And they might not even ask that question. They don't know about, wow, that's a promise I can hang on to.

[00:16:15] But if you would, Josiah, share with the audience about how you feel about that now. And are you now beginning to believe everything that God has promised for you in the Bible?

[00:16:29] Yes, I am. It's still a process because we have to renew our minds by the word of God and that's how we're transformed.

[00:16:39] And so my mind is still being transformed at the moment. But during those times where I was struggling in believing certain aspects of the word of God for myself,

[00:16:49] now I believe the entire word of God, I believe it is the truth and that it is life and that it is power and it is strength.

[00:16:58] But when it came to the individual myself, that's where I had the most struggle and that's because I was struggling my identity in Jesus.

[00:17:09] One thing that people need to be aware of is that your identity doesn't come from you, it comes from Jesus.

[00:17:17] So if we look in Hebrews chapter 12, it says we need to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith.

[00:17:23] This is Hebrews chapter 12. I'll just read the first part.

[00:17:27] Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin which so easily ensnares us.

[00:17:37] And let us run the endurance race that has set for us looking unto Jesus.

[00:17:42] That is how we lay aside every weight and everything that is every obstacle is standing our way is looking unto Jesus.

[00:17:49] And the more I look unto Jesus, the more I forget my problems.

[00:17:55] When I was in third year for business school, there was a financial problem that I had.

[00:18:02] There were three times that I couldn't make payment and there was a part of my mind that wanted to panic,

[00:18:13] and I was going, oh, I'm going to get kicked out. This is very problematic.

[00:18:17] Maybe I should just hand it in.

[00:18:20] But instead I had faith in Lord of God and I believe that he had put me in Cares Bible College Business School for purpose.

[00:18:28] And I stood on that and it says in James that faith that works is dead.

[00:18:34] And so the way I acted out that faith, my trust in the word of God was just by showing up regardless and believing that God could come through for me.

[00:18:43] Wow, that's really so good. Go on continue. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt.

[00:18:48] Oh, no problem. So faith is very important and that's just trusting in God.

[00:18:57] Now, faith can be now one thing that can slow down faith because it says Jesus said all we need is faith as small as a mustard seed in order to tell a mountain to move for us.

[00:19:12] It's from a place to another place. One thing that people don't understand or just don't realize is that unbelief can hinder the work of God in your life.

[00:19:28] And that's where you need to tell Jesus help me with my unbelief and unbelief can come from your mind.

[00:19:35] It can come from every single sense of your body and that's where you need to tell Jesus and just just tell him that Lord, I need help.

[00:19:43] I help my unbelief the father who had the son that was struggling with that that foul spirit.

[00:19:51] He said Jesus, I believe help my unbelief and that's something I've had to do recently is just say Jesus help my unbelief.

[00:19:59] I believe you but help me with any part of my life that has unbelief.

[00:20:05] You know, I want to piggyback up on what you said. First of all, everything you're saying is really on.

[00:20:12] But for those people unfamiliar with the book of Hebrews, I want to make the association be with what you're saying setting your eyes on Jesus.

[00:20:23] Because here we are demonstrating the faith that God has placed in us.

[00:20:29] But this is the beginning of the 12th chapter of Hebrews and Josiah, I just want to bring to your remembrance that that comes immediately after chapter 11.

[00:20:42] Chapter 11 is the great faith chapter.

[00:20:47] So if you demonstrate all of the faith that the great leaders of faith in the history of the Bible,

[00:20:56] if you look at all of the 11th chapter of Hebrews and then you catapult into the beginning of chapter 12,

[00:21:05] it really sets the tone for exactly what you have just talked about.

[00:21:10] So I just wanted to bring that to everyone's attention.

[00:21:13] And friends, if you're not familiar with Hebrews, I'm going to give you a homework assignment.

[00:21:19] I'm going to ask you to read chapter 11 of Hebrews and then follow it by chapter 12.

[00:21:26] Do that tonight if you would. I believe it will increase your faith.

[00:21:31] So Josiah, what I'd like to do now the last time we met, and this was in April.

[00:21:37] And what I want to really bring out is the fact that your podcast published in April of 24,

[00:21:47] but we actually were together almost a year prior to that.

[00:21:54] And I really need to bring that out for anyone who chooses to go back and listen to that first earlier podcast.

[00:22:02] But Josiah, you were getting ready to go on your mission trip.

[00:22:05] And you mentioned the fact that you were going to have a skit that you were going to be part of.

[00:22:13] And you were a little bit concerned about how effective that skit would be.

[00:22:17] So if you would just share for a moment, how did that skit work?

[00:22:21] And were the people in Germany receptive to it?

[00:22:26] So it's really funny you bring that up because I believe it was about a week after I was with you mentioning that.

[00:22:36] I was in Germany and we were performing this skit for our leader.

[00:22:41] And we hadn't met her before she was the leader for the branch in Germany we'd be working with.

[00:22:47] And when we were so proud of this skit, we thought it was incredible.

[00:22:51] When we demonstrated it to her, she said this is really bad.

[00:22:55] That's when our heart sank.

[00:22:57] Then we had to rehearse for an extra two hours and I believe that was about four or five days prior.

[00:23:04] Or no, I'm sorry, not prior.

[00:23:06] After that, we had to relearn everything basically and we're confident.

[00:23:14] But the power of that skit, it really did affect a lot of people.

[00:23:19] We got a lot of very positive and very negative reception.

[00:23:26] Some people realized that it was somewhat of a pro-life skit because it's about a girl who's trying to find fulfillment in her life.

[00:23:38] And by doing that, she looks for fulfillment in a man and then that man leaves her for another woman.

[00:23:44] After that, she tries to find fulfillment in just entirety as a people.

[00:23:49] That didn't work.

[00:23:50] Then she resorts to drugs to numb her pain.

[00:23:54] That doesn't work either.

[00:23:56] Then she thinks that harming herself, cutting herself would benefit her.

[00:24:01] None of those things satisfy her and the entire time.

[00:24:04] So the way this skit is set up, it's a girl searching and she's searching this wall of people.

[00:24:10] So we're all on this wall.

[00:24:12] We're standing there still as can be.

[00:24:14] She's searching for us, but the interesting thing is that behind us entire time was this tall man in white just waiting for her to make a move and waiting for her to say something to him.

[00:24:28] So fast forwarding back to when she's on the ground and just all hope is lost.

[00:24:35] She cries out and that's when the man in white makes a move.

[00:24:42] It's really a powerful skit where when he makes a move that all these cares of the world, because that's what we were demonstrating.

[00:24:51] So we're the cares.

[00:24:52] We're the sin and trouble of the world.

[00:24:54] We grab this guy and we nail him so this is basically us nailing Jesus to the cross and we cover him up in a grave.

[00:25:03] We think we've won.

[00:25:05] Then he just comes back to life and just punishes sin and death and he's with her and he's comforting her.

[00:25:16] So a lot of people were very impacted by this skit.

[00:25:21] I had, we had 14 people saved.

[00:25:28] It was amazing.

[00:25:29] And this is in atheist Germany.

[00:25:32] Yes, many people may not know this, but Europe is a very atheist country, especially after communism and Nazism were in power for a while, especially communism.

[00:25:44] Communism was in power for a lot longer than fascism was.

[00:25:48] And it really affected the spiritual state of the countries that were ruled by the Soviet Union.

[00:25:55] So we're talking to a lot of atheistic people and about 14 of them got saved.

[00:26:04] So praise God for that.

[00:26:06] But yeah, it was it was amazing.

[00:26:09] And all we did is we prayed and we the entire time we're going this is worship unto Lord.

[00:26:14] We are worshiping the Lord with this skit and we're going to bring people into the kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit with them seeing the skit.

[00:26:22] So we did everything unto the Lord.

[00:26:24] We put our all into it and we succeeded.

[00:26:28] We saw people come into the kingdom of God that day and seeds were planted.

[00:26:32] There are so many people we talked to, and I believe a good chunk of them will receive will that seed that we plan on the inside of them will come to fruition at the right time.

[00:26:53] Well, that's that's really good.

[00:26:55] And and I'm going to go to the Gospel of Luke and kind of piggyback a little bit what you're talking about, because when you talk about people who are atheists, Josiah, basically the name of Jesus is confrontational to them.

[00:27:11] So what I want to do is just quickly go over Christ brings division.

[00:27:17] And I'm going to be beginning in Luke 12.

[00:27:20] I'm going to begin in verse 49.

[00:27:22] It says, I came to send fire on the earth and how I wish it were already kindled that I had a baptism to be baptized with and how distressed I am till it is accomplished.

[00:27:37] Do you suppose that I came to get peace on earth?

[00:27:40] I tell you, not at all, but rather division for from now on five in one house will be divided three against two to against three father will be divided against son and son against father mother against daughter and daughter against mother mother in law against her daughter in law and daughter in law against her mother in law.

[00:28:06] So Josiah, just kind of want to amplify the fact that exactly what you are demonstrating through your testimony what you just said is exactly what happened that Christ brings division and people will flock to Christ because of the demonstration that you provided in that skit.

[00:28:29] And then there are going to be other people who are absolutely disgusted and don't want anything at all.

[00:28:35] And they just probably just left because they were so disgusted.

[00:28:39] Is that pretty, pretty accurate.

[00:28:43] Yes, it's accurate, but it also went into the extreme that we were yelled at.

[00:28:48] We didn't understand because they were speaking in German or another language, but that is very accurate.

[00:28:54] There were quite a bit of people that were disgusted and some of them just left, or some of them just yelled at us for a little bit.

[00:29:01] There's also another time where the enemy tried to hijack our performance by bringing in a pimp in his girl and them trying to dance with us and trying to be a distraction because she was just horribly dressed.

[00:29:18] Yeah.

[00:29:20] But yeah, it was a fantastic time.

[00:29:24] God taught me so much in that trip and he just birthed confidence in me with the ability that I have the ability to preach the gospel and that I have more in me than I realize.

[00:29:37] Well, Josiah, I want to stop you right there because I know there are people listening right now to this particular podcast, Josiah, that they have given their heart to Jesus.

[00:29:50] They go to church every week and yet they're still not confident in their ability to share.

[00:29:58] So what you're saying is vitally important and that reminds me of what you said earlier on your previous podcast is that you mentioned the fact that when we did IAGs that you had to make an outline of a sermon.

[00:30:15] And you didn't like that because doing that made you unable to hear the Holy Spirit telling you what to do.

[00:30:24] So I wanted to ask that specific question and you said now that you realize you have the ability to share the goodness of God and how he's changed your life.

[00:30:36] How has that continued to grow?

[00:30:39] And please share with the audience how important that is that you get that concept that God will give you the words to say at the right time.

[00:30:49] Yes, sir.

[00:30:50] So I believe that any person who comes into Kingdom of God first off needs to have read the Word of God and needs to have received the baptism Holy Spirit because without knowing who Jesus is, which is Jesus is the Word of God.

[00:31:09] Without knowing the Word of God and without having a relationship with the Holy Spirit, it's going to be a lot harder to be able to minister to people who mostly don't even know.

[00:31:20] Who God is, they hear the name and they go, okay, well, it's just God.

[00:31:26] For me, I believe the one way that you can build confidence is by putting yourself into uncomfortable situations.

[00:31:36] It didn't all start with me just going to Germany and that's how my confidence was built.

[00:31:42] From the Holy Spirit prompting me to give words to people and it's really funny because for the first part of my first year Bible college, he had me give words to girls.

[00:31:59] I was going, that is ridiculous Lord.

[00:32:01] I don't want to do that.

[00:32:02] There is going to think that I'm just trying to get a relationship with them, but God was faithful and the words I gave those girls really bless them and it made an impact on them.

[00:32:13] So my confidence was built that way.

[00:32:15] It was also by praying for people and by seeing the power of God work in their life.

[00:32:23] And in Germany, it just went into high gear to where I was able to preach with power and with confidence by the help of Holy Spirit and by him being faithful even when I was not.

[00:32:36] And just allowing me to see people healed by his power even when I was limiting him and God will meet you where you're at.

[00:32:47] Exactly.

[00:32:48] Yep.

[00:32:48] You know, God will meet you where you're at and Josiah, this is what I'm going to do.

[00:32:53] You probably don't want to hear me say this, but I'm going to cut you off because I want to keep these testimonies fairly brief.

[00:33:02] And I know that you are going to be coming back on and it gives people a reason to want to join next time they see your name Josiah.

[00:33:12] So I'm going to leave you there.

[00:33:13] And all I'm going to ask you to do is very quickly lead us in the sinner's prayer right now.

[00:33:22] Yes, sir.

[00:33:23] I have to remember the sinner's prayer because I haven't done a long time.

[00:33:31] So, so Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner and I ask for forgiveness.

[00:33:39] I believe you died for my sins and rose from the dead.

[00:33:44] And I want, I turn for my sins and I invite you to come into my heart and my life.

[00:33:52] And I want you to be my Lord and my savior.

[00:33:55] And I thank you that you have heard me and that you have heard my cry to know you Jesus and I want to know you Jesus.

[00:34:04] I want to know who you are in my life and show who you are in my life.

[00:34:11] And I thank you that I am a new creature from here on out.

[00:34:16] I am born again and I've been made new by the power of your blood in Jesus name. Amen.

[00:34:23] And Josiah, thank you so much.

[00:34:26] And I am going to give a blessing.

[00:34:29] Now may the Lord bless you and keep you.

[00:34:32] The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

[00:34:36] The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

[00:34:41] So before we close Josiah, everyone look for his name when you look at my daily podcast on Tuesday.

[00:34:50] And remember every Tuesday is testimony day.

[00:34:53] Josiah will be coming back on in about three, four or five months.

[00:34:58] Until then, please join me again tomorrow and we will continue to explore wisdom today.