712. Ray Patterson Shares his Personal Testimony - #3 - December 24, 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] Open in prayer. Father God, I thank you for anyone listening to this podcast today. Lord, I pray that you give everyone ears to hear and a heart to receive everything you have in store for them today. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

[00:00:37] This is Proverb 24 beginning in verse 1.

[00:01:07] Yes, a man of knowledge increases strength. For by wise counsel you will wage your own war. And in a multitude of counselors there is safety.

[00:01:20] Wisdom is too lofty for a fool. He does not open his mouth in the gate. He who plots to do evil will be called a schemer.

[00:01:31] The devising of foolishness is sin. And the scoffer is an abomination to men. If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.

[00:01:44] Deliver those who were drawn toward death and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, surely we did not know this, does not he who weighs the hearts consider it?

[00:01:59] He who keeps your soul, does he not know it? And will he not render to each man according to his deeds?

[00:02:08] My son, eat honey because it is good, and the honeycomb which is sweet to your taste. So shall the knowledge of wisdom be to your soul.

[00:02:21] If you have found it, there is a prospect, and your hope will not be cut off.

[00:02:27] Do not lie in wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous. Do not plunder his resting place.

[00:02:37] For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity.

[00:02:46] Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the Lord see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.

[00:03:01] Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the wicked, for there will be no prospect for the evil man.

[00:03:12] The lamp of the wicked will be put out.

[00:03:16] My son, fear the Lord and the King.

[00:03:20] Do not associate with those given to change, for their calamity will rise suddenly, and who knows the ruin those two can bring.

[00:03:31] These things also belong to the wise.

[00:03:35] It is not good to show partiality in judgment.

[00:03:39] He who says to the wicked, you are righteous, him the people will curse.

[00:03:46] Nations will abhor him, but those who rebuke the wicked will have delight,

[00:03:53] and a good blessing will come upon them.

[00:03:57] He who gives a right answer kisses the lips.

[00:04:01] Prepare your outside work, make it fit for yourself in the field, and afterward build your house.

[00:04:11] Do not be a witness against your neighbor without cause, for would you deceive with your lips?

[00:04:18] Do not say I will do to him just as he has done to me.

[00:04:24] I will render to the man according to his work.

[00:04:28] I went by the field of the lazy man, and by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding,

[00:04:37] and there it was, all overgrown with thorns.

[00:04:41] Its surface was covered with nettles.

[00:04:44] Its stone wall was broken down.

[00:04:47] When I saw it, I considered it well.

[00:04:50] I looked on it and received instruction.

[00:04:54] A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest.

[00:05:00] So shall your poverty come like a prowler, and your need like an armed man.

[00:05:08] Well, friends, I have a special treat for you today.

[00:05:11] I have Ray Patterson back, and Ray has been on this podcast two previous times.

[00:05:18] I will give that information to you in just a moment.

[00:05:21] But Ray, I'd like to thank you for coming back on.

[00:05:24] You're one of my favorite people.

[00:05:26] I love you to death, and you have so much wisdom to offer.

[00:05:29] So we just finished rereading Proverbs 24, and which verse spoke to you today that you'd

[00:05:36] like to share with the audience and tell us why?

[00:05:41] Well, thank you, Bill.

[00:05:43] The verse that I landed on is verse 6.

[00:06:01] And that is, you know, no matter what we're doing, we are in a war between spiritual and carnal.

[00:06:13] And majority of our wars are more spiritual than carnal.

[00:06:22] But by wise counsel, you will wage your own war.

[00:06:28] And in a multitude of counselors, there is safety.

[00:06:32] That tells me that we should not be surprised when we get pulled into spiritual wars,

[00:06:40] or even carnal wars for that matter.

[00:06:42] But we know that we're fighting against principles and principalities of the dark.

[00:06:50] But the part about being in the multitude of counselors, there is safety.

[00:06:56] And that reminds me that we need to be banded together and combined to survive these and to

[00:07:05] conquer the things that are coming at us.

[00:07:09] You know, I'm going to go to Psalm 1, because Psalm 1 is a real picture of exactly what you're

[00:07:17] talking about.

[00:07:17] We need to seek counsel, and yet we need to be discerning in who we seek counsel from.

[00:07:25] Your thoughts on that, Ray?

[00:07:28] Well, yes.

[00:07:30] Because counsel of the ungodly will lead us in the wrong direction.

[00:07:37] And that's why we need to be ensured that we are paying attention to wise counsels who are

[00:07:48] godly led counsels.

[00:07:52] Where we are these days in this country, to me, it's all the more reason why we need to

[00:07:59] return to the foundations of the country.

[00:08:01] And we need to be in the counsel of godly people.

[00:08:05] The founding fathers were definitely godly people.

[00:08:08] And they knew that this constitution and declaration of independence that we're under will only work

[00:08:19] for a moral and godly people.

[00:08:22] And it's clear then to see why we're in some of the battles we're in today and fighting for

[00:08:31] the things that we're fighting for.

[00:08:34] You know, I'm going to go ahead and stop you right there.

[00:08:37] And what I'd like to do is go over the two previous episodes that Ray was on.

[00:08:42] And Ray was on way back in episode 217, which was on January 31st, 2023.

[00:08:52] And the second time you were on, Ray, actually was June 25th of this year, episode 582.

[00:08:59] But it seems like a lot longer than that.

[00:09:03] Because even though you came on in June, we probably did that meeting way back in March

[00:09:10] of 23.

[00:09:11] Because I graduated on May 13th.

[00:09:14] And I know it wasn't right before we left.

[00:09:17] It was probably in March.

[00:09:18] But one thing I'd like to suggest to the audience is if you have the ability to do so, I would

[00:09:25] invite you to either get a piece of paper out or a notebook and take some notes.

[00:09:32] Because when Ray speaks, you should listen and you should take notes.

[00:09:37] And one thing I wanted to just mention is Ray has graciously accepted my invitation to be

[00:09:44] part of an elite team that I am putting together of people who have been on this podcast on Testimony

[00:09:52] Tuesdays.

[00:09:53] I'm trying to select 26 people that will come on every six months.

[00:09:59] So you'll be on every, you know, twice a year.

[00:10:02] But Ray, what I'm trying to do is accumulate a wide variety of people.

[00:10:07] People who have different things to offer.

[00:10:11] Now, I've got several pastors now from different types of churches.

[00:10:15] One is basically a Baptist church.

[00:10:17] And another one, he calls it a cowboy church.

[00:10:21] And I kind of like that.

[00:10:23] This man started in as an evangelist.

[00:10:27] God told him to start his own church.

[00:10:29] But I mean, I try to have a varied, select people.

[00:10:34] And what I do is people have different things to offer.

[00:10:38] And you have the business acumen that a lot of people are missing.

[00:10:43] And Ray, for those of you who do not know, is the coordinator of third year business school at Harris Bible College.

[00:10:52] And Harris Bible College, for those of you who are not aware, is also a part of Andrew Womack Ministries.

[00:10:59] And I would venture to guess, together, Ray, this is probably one of the top 10 worldwide ministries in the world.

[00:11:08] Would you agree with that?

[00:11:11] Absolutely.

[00:11:13] Absolutely.

[00:11:13] In fact, I'm not so sure about what it is in the top five.

[00:11:18] In terms of reach, and Andrew Womack Ministries is going to be launching here by the end of the month, I believe, a gospel truth network.

[00:11:32] His own network that will carry original generated content 24-7 and 365 days.

[00:11:45] And part of the reason for reaching out and for building his own network is he did not want to be constrained by some of the other networks that say you can do this, but only for this length of time.

[00:12:02] So it really gives AWM, Harris, Andrew Womack the ability to reach five to six billion people or more around the globe.

[00:12:17] And so it's exciting to be a part of that ministry and a part of this Bible College.

[00:12:22] You know what I'm going to put in a little plug here, because Andrew wrote a book called Do Not Limit God.

[00:12:31] And that is what we're talking about, because if you are under constraints, such as some of the other networks that have had him on, like Daystar, for example, and they may have limited some of the things that he was allowed to say on the air.

[00:12:50] And you said that, and you said it very well, if you are not underneath that happening and you have your own network, you can project whatever the Holy Spirit is leading you to project.

[00:13:05] So, Ray, I'm going to start this thing a little bit differently today.

[00:13:09] And like I said, it's probably been at least a year and a half since I have been in contact with you.

[00:13:17] So the very first thing I want to lead off with is what has the Lord been speaking with you lately?

[00:13:27] Well, I think it's, you know, what I've been feeling is an increased tempo and an increased need to reach out to younger people.

[00:13:48] And I think it's a little bit more than a year and a half since I've been speaking with you lately.

[00:13:57] But helping them understand the relevance for their time and our time.

[00:14:05] Just because I'm not a young person any longer doesn't mean that it's not my time.

[00:14:11] And part of what my time is about these days is making sure that I'm following his lead, his guidance, his direction to not only help people in the business arena,

[00:14:29] but to help people understand if they are in the business arena, they have to also be engaged in other mountains, in the seven mountains of influence.

[00:14:42] They have to be engaged and understand particularly now their connection to the political mountain of influence.

[00:14:53] Because if you have a business, the political ramifications, whether it be local government, state government or federal government are in your pocket.

[00:15:08] And the only way you can effectively deal with that and influence that is to pay attention and be involved.

[00:15:17] And I believe that, you know, God is calling us back to the founding principles of this country, which were citizen leadership.

[00:15:33] Not political tyranny by a few or even one.

[00:15:38] But in this country in particular, we are the kings, we the people.

[00:15:46] And that's why our documents start out with that declaration.

[00:15:51] We the people in order to form a more perfect union.

[00:15:56] And it's consent of the governed by the governed.

[00:16:02] For the governed.

[00:16:03] And that means it's our responsibility.

[00:16:05] Yeah.

[00:16:06] Our responsibility to be active and make sure our voice is heard.

[00:16:12] And there is no such thing as separation of church and state.

[00:16:18] No, there certainly in the old days, the way our government was initially set up, there wasn't supposed to be.

[00:16:27] And that is what our present government in Washington is trying to stuff down our throats.

[00:16:34] They are totally trying to dismiss God as not even being real.

[00:16:40] They want to take him out of every single aspect of our lives.

[00:16:44] And it's absolutely an abomination to God.

[00:16:47] And God will sit there and he's going to have judgment on us if we don't turn from our ways, according to 2 Chronicles 7.14.

[00:16:58] Your thoughts on that?

[00:16:59] Yeah.

[00:17:00] Well, it's absolutely true.

[00:17:03] And we have to repent.

[00:17:08] In other words, change our direction.

[00:17:11] For those of us who are believers, we have to change our direction from being a bystander to being an active component.

[00:17:21] And we need to help those who are lost, who want to deny the existence of God.

[00:17:32] We need to rise up in a third great awakening, which has already started.

[00:17:39] And bring people back to that biblical base.

[00:17:45] And back to the intent of the founding fathers.

[00:17:50] So, you know, I'm going to go ahead.

[00:17:52] I just want to ask you a question.

[00:17:54] Now, in your first time that you were on, you mentioned that your latest wife, your current wife, Sue, went to practical government.

[00:18:04] And when she did that, she ran for the school board and she got the most votes.

[00:18:10] Is she still in the school board?

[00:18:12] And how is that going?

[00:18:16] She still is very active in the school board.

[00:18:19] And I will tell you gladly that when her school board class, if you will, came in and turned a five-seat liberal board to a 4-1 conservative board.

[00:18:35] And then the one liberal that was on resigned later on.

[00:18:40] And so they appointed someone in his place.

[00:18:44] But the school board made very strategic and specific changes.

[00:18:52] And they had to put up with a lot of battles for that.

[00:18:55] But that's what they were elected to do.

[00:18:57] And that's what they did.

[00:18:58] They brought the American Birthright Standard into the civic standard.

[00:19:03] It's not a curriculum.

[00:19:04] It's a standard.

[00:19:06] Brought that into the school district.

[00:19:08] They had given the two biggest raises that had ever been given in the history of the school district to the teachers.

[00:19:17] And still 35 to 40 percent of those teachers resign.

[00:19:22] So it wasn't about the money.

[00:19:24] It was about losing control and losing the ability to indoctrinate students.

[00:19:30] In this last two years, that school district has risen in state standard scores from being well down into the bottom half to being number 20 out of 168 school districts in the state of Colorado in academic achievement.

[00:19:57] So positive change can be made.

[00:20:01] It can be made quickly.

[00:20:03] But again, it takes the movement of the people to get involved and to make that difference.

[00:20:11] You know, and I know in the state of Colorado, it's one of the most liberal states in the entire country.

[00:20:17] And I know the governor is a stated homosexual.

[00:20:20] He has a partner.

[00:20:22] And in that type of leadership, especially, Ray, looking at young people to see that the leader of that particular state is a man of that.

[00:20:35] We know that that is an abomination to God.

[00:20:38] And it's got to be awfully, awfully confusing for kids to really figure out what is normal in our country.

[00:20:46] Your thoughts on that?

[00:20:47] Well, when you see in various parts of Colorado where school boards are permitting the administration and maybe even promoting the administration to put in requirements at the state level that say,

[00:21:10] Well, if a student wants to be known by some pronoun other than their name, you have to call them by that.

[00:21:19] And you are not supposed to tell the parents that the students are doing that.

[00:21:25] And it's completely dismantling the family and parental rights because the first role of education should be from the parents and was intended to be from the parents.

[00:21:42] It's just there's other school districts that we know of that are saying, well, if you want to identify as a cat or a dog, we're going to put a litter box in the classroom so you don't even have to go to the bathroom.

[00:21:58] And if I had children, they would not be in that school.

[00:22:05] And we just have to stand up and make our voices heard.

[00:22:10] Just yesterday, this is a little bit off the school district side, but I got a letter from one of our state senators.

[00:22:18] I mean, our senator to the federal Senate.

[00:22:23] And he was lamenting the fact that a bill for supporting in vitro fertilization that he has sponsored for a couple of years keeps getting voted down.

[00:22:38] But I couldn't help but wonder why he thought that was a surprise when the same senator believes that we should have abortion on demand.

[00:22:48] So it's really totally confusing because the majority of those folks are totally confused.

[00:22:58] They're not going on the principles of the people who elected them or even on their own principles because they can't define what those are.

[00:23:09] Yeah, go ahead.

[00:23:10] Go ahead.

[00:23:11] I didn't mean to interrupt.

[00:23:13] No, no, it's just these are the things that challenge us in these days.

[00:23:21] And it's more and more and more the reason why we have to take a personal interest and make sure that our voices are heard.

[00:23:32] And people will say, well, my voice doesn't matter.

[00:23:37] My vote doesn't matter.

[00:23:39] I can't influence those things.

[00:23:41] Well, you absolutely can.

[00:23:44] Local level, state level and at the national level.

[00:23:49] If you get involved.

[00:23:51] You know, I think when I was still at Karis Bible College and somebody came and we had a speaker talking, I don't remember his name and I probably should, but I don't.

[00:24:06] And he came up with, I believe, an example where one vote made the difference in a particular race.

[00:24:15] And that is what you were talking about.

[00:24:18] And for those of you in the audience that are listening, if you are not currently registered to vote, you need to do that.

[00:24:26] You need to register to vote.

[00:24:28] This is going to be the most important election in the history of our country.

[00:24:32] On November 6th, I believe it is.

[00:24:35] I know it's a Tuesday.

[00:24:36] But hopefully, hopefully we're going to get this administration changed and we're going to get the recent administration, somebody who believes in God and believes in the core of our Constitution gets reelected.

[00:24:54] Your thoughts on that, Ray?

[00:24:56] Yeah.

[00:24:56] Well, yeah, we need to get people with those biblical principles elected.

[00:25:02] The one case that I know of was the case of Rick Green, who heads up Patriot Academy.

[00:25:12] He was a Texas state legislator.

[00:25:16] In one of his bids for the seat, he got defeated by about 30 or 35 votes.

[00:25:25] And he called one of his friends or one of his friends called him.

[00:25:30] And when he heard that word, his friend said, well, I could get you more than 35 votes.

[00:25:35] You know, I just didn't.

[00:25:39] And based on that, actually, Rick Green required or petitioned for a recount.

[00:25:49] And when the recount was complete, Rick won by over 50 some votes.

[00:25:56] And so it's a case where not only do we need all votes, we need all the votes to count and we need them counted properly.

[00:26:06] And the only way we're going to ensure that in this election is to have more people watching it than ever before and more people calling for not mail-in ballots and electronic ballots, but good paper ballots that can be counted and verified.

[00:26:26] Yeah.

[00:26:28] And especially now where they have early voting, it just makes it almost impossible to really track every single district, every single ballot.

[00:26:40] And I still am not sure if we'll ever have another real election that that's ballot.

[00:26:50] You know, I hate to say that.

[00:26:52] I really do.

[00:26:53] But in our country right now, with the administration, the way everything's going, I no longer trust the U.S. government.

[00:27:01] And it's an awful bad thing to say.

[00:27:03] I wish I didn't have to say that.

[00:27:05] But we need to get this thing turned around.

[00:27:08] And it's as simple as that.

[00:27:10] It is.

[00:27:11] And it's really not as hard as we like to think.

[00:27:16] There's a group of people that want to make us think that it's so hard to do that we won't even try.

[00:27:23] But the reality is by getting involved.

[00:27:27] And like I say, it's got to take involvement at the local level first.

[00:27:32] Because that is the first place you cast your ballots.

[00:27:36] And those local officials have a tremendous amount of influence at the state level.

[00:27:42] And then we need to watch who we elect at the state level.

[00:27:46] Because that has direct impact at, obviously, the state, but also great influence in the national elections, the federal elections.

[00:27:57] But we can bring it back if we pay attention and are educated and know how to do it.

[00:28:05] And the effort going on on the convention of states is extremely good.

[00:28:12] That's the Article 5 that was given to us by our founding fathers.

[00:28:16] And that was the relief valve for when government, federal government in particular, goes into overreach.

[00:28:26] But, you know, to me it goes back to just what we opened up with.

[00:28:31] We need a group of wise counselors.

[00:28:37] And we need to come together to pull this thing back.

[00:28:41] You know, and I'm just going to throw this out there.

[00:28:43] When you talk about wise counselors, Ray, there may be people in the audience right now.

[00:28:48] And they may not be going to church.

[00:28:51] And I'm going to go to the book of Hebrews where it says,

[00:28:54] You shall not forsake the assembling of the masses.

[00:28:59] And basically what they're saying is we need to surround ourselves with like-minded individuals.

[00:29:06] If you make Jesus the Lord of your life, if you receive him into your life,

[00:29:11] we need to have at least one or two, and preferably more than that,

[00:29:17] counselors in our life that can hold us accountable for things that we do in our life.

[00:29:23] Because we all are going to have issues in our life, Ray.

[00:29:26] And sometimes we just need to have a good buddy we can talk to.

[00:29:29] But like Psalm 1 says, you need to be discerning.

[00:29:32] You really need to be careful who you seek advice from.

[00:29:37] And we're getting ready to close, Ray.

[00:29:39] I hate to say that.

[00:29:41] I told you it'd be short.

[00:29:42] So if you would, I'm going to give you about three minutes.

[00:29:44] That's about all the time we have.

[00:29:46] So what I'd like to do in those three minutes is,

[00:29:49] if you would tell the audience why they have to receive Jesus,

[00:29:54] why they need to have him in their life, and then close us in a prayer.

[00:30:00] Well, it's any one of us that does not recognize that there is a power beyond us

[00:30:08] is kind of lost.

[00:30:10] And, you know, to me, in the founding documents,

[00:30:16] they talk about the laws of nature and nature's God.

[00:30:19] And if you spend any amount of time contemplating what nature has for us,

[00:30:26] what God has created for us in nature,

[00:30:30] and you see natural order of things,

[00:30:34] you literally need to come to the conclusion that something created this.

[00:30:41] It was divine creation.

[00:30:44] It was not a Big Bang.

[00:30:46] Well, the Big Bang was his word, and his word created everything.

[00:30:52] And so it's important to know that there is life beyond this earth.

[00:30:57] And in order to have a good life beyond this earth,

[00:31:03] you need to have Jesus as your Lord and Savior,

[00:31:07] because he was the second Adam.

[00:31:09] He was the offering that God gave us

[00:31:16] to bring us back into right standing with the Father, God.

[00:31:22] And he did that through the sacrifice of his own son,

[00:31:26] who was made to be sin,

[00:31:28] who knew no sin,

[00:31:30] but was made to be sin for our sins.

[00:31:34] And he took all of our sins away.

[00:31:36] And that is the only way

[00:31:38] that you're going to enjoy eternal life

[00:31:41] after this earth.

[00:31:42] So, Lord, I just, gracious God and Lord,

[00:31:49] God Almighty, we give you thanks and praise

[00:31:52] for your divine creation of this earth,

[00:31:58] all the things that are within it,

[00:32:00] and all of us who have been the beneficiaries

[00:32:04] of your great creation.

[00:32:07] And we ask for your divine guidance

[00:32:10] and influence to bring as many people back to you, God,

[00:32:16] as is possible.

[00:32:18] We know that it is not possible for everyone,

[00:32:22] because not everyone will believe.

[00:32:25] But we give you thanks for your word

[00:32:28] so that everyone has the opportunity

[00:32:31] to come to you, Lord,

[00:32:33] to come to you, Father God,

[00:32:36] in Jesus' name.

[00:32:38] And I would say amen.

[00:32:40] Amen.

[00:32:41] Ray, thank you so much.

[00:32:42] And you're always going to be welcome.

[00:32:45] You know, we'll see you in about five or six months,

[00:32:47] and we will pick up pretty much where we left off.

[00:32:50] But in the meantime,

[00:32:52] may the Lord bless you and keep you.

[00:32:54] The Lord make his face shine upon you

[00:32:57] and be gracious to you.

[00:32:59] The Lord lift up his countenance upon you

[00:33:02] and give you peace.

[00:33:04] Friends, please join me again tomorrow

[00:33:06] as we further explore wisdom today.