 You know we as Christians especially we as ministers can become so easily distracted But my guest evangelist Joshua Kelly wants to talk to you about first love now This is an important message and I believe if you get this revelation within your heart It will set you up long term in your walk with Christ Evangelist Joshua Kelly my friend glad to be with you glad to finally have you on the program here So talk to me about what the Lord is doing through your ministry tell the viewer little about yourself It gets a little introduction and then there's a word. I know you want to give us here. Okay. Well, my name is Joshua Kelly I'm with Joshua Kelly ministries. I've been saved ever since I was 14. God radically changed my life I was shaking under the power of God for five hours at 14 years old God radically changed my life I went from Unforgiveness towards my mother the father to one day just completely loving everything and everybody loving Jesus You know, I was so madly in love with God I remember I would go home and I would seek the Lord and I just wanted so much of God in my life I couldn't get enough of Jesus. He was everything to me I always knew I had this thought process in my mind where if I lost everything if I lost my family I knew that I still had everything because I had Jesus and that was the most important to me And so I didn't really want to be in ministry, but God called me because I loved him so much I said God I'll do anything for you So God really started using me to preach when I was 16 years old when I was 17 I went to Kenya Africa and I started preaching in Crusades there. I also went to orphanage there But that was the start of of the ministry that God had given me. I didn't really know how to preach I didn't take any steps. I didn't go to a college But all I knew was that I loved Jesus with all my heart and I wanted him to use me Wow. And so and so after that God started He told me to go with my grandfather who's also an evangelist and he travels through California, Pennsylvania area, you know around America and God used him to mentor my life to get my character straight to really Bring myself under authority and so after that Actually last July of last year So this July would be one year. God told me to cancel everything. I was supposed to go to Cuba I was supposed to go to Nicaragua Different countries in different places. God said cancel everything. I want you to seek me for an entire year Now that would be hard for some people to do. Yes Because a lot of evangelists would do anything just to have bookings Here you had some lined up and the Lord said cancel them all and what did you do? Yeah, I canceled them. I canceled them. I went I canceled them. I went home and I said God You know, I'm gonna seek you with all my heart because I knew that when God puts you in a season like that It is for purpose Everything that God puts you through in this life is for a purpose. It's for a reason. So if we go through trials If we go through tribulations, that's why the Bible says to rejoice in our trials to rejoice in our tribulations Because there is something in that trial There's something in that tribulation that God is gonna teach you that is gonna prepare you for your future. Wow Wisdom is far greater than money When you get wisdom that can be the very key that keeps your longevity as a Christian That's just a visit as a minister But as a Christian and some people try to skip that process exactly and hurt themselves in the long run Yeah, so tell me now about this word that the Lord put on your heart. Yes about first love well I'll go back a little bit into Who I used to be as a minister because God has changed me a lot through these past five to six years I Would always be the evangelist that would pray God I want to see millions of people come to my meetings God, I want the stadiums. God. I want souls. God. I want to see massive miracles and massive healings But I never went to question myself. Why the reason I prayed those prayers I never went to that place where I said what is the motive of my heart? Why am I praying this? Why am I even getting in my prayer closet? Why do I go to church? Why did I even become a Christian? Why did I allow all this in my life? I had to go to square one where I had to find the reason why I was serving Jesus And I can tell you the truth and I'll be completely honest with you. He was all for myself. I Came to this place where God stripped me of everything even a last couple of years He stripped me of everything and he said Josh until you see that I'm number one in your life until you see I am the thing that you need the most You will never be effective in ministry Knowing Jesus as number one in your life above the money above if for example if God told you right now I'm gonna strip away your ministry. I'm gonna strip away your money. I'm gonna strip away your family everything that you have I'm going to take away from you How would you act? How would you act? What would you do if God took everything away from you? What would you do if God took away your family if you took away your car if you took away your job your finances? Everything that you hold dear most would you still worship him? Would you still serve him? Would you still love Him as your Savior? And so that's where God had to bring me in my life. He had to bring me to a place where Jesus became number one in my prayer life, in my preaching, in my personal life when I'm around other Christians, other ministers. Jesus had to become number one. And now because of that, because I see Him as number one in my life, my whole relationship has changed. Whether I'm able to preach in a church is fine, but what I love most is to get in that closet, to get in that place with the Lord, to get in that secret place and know that I am with Jesus. I pray every day that God would make my life a living image of who Jesus is because I know that if I can love Jesus with all of my heart, with all of my mind, with all of my soul, that I can be a representation to others of who Jesus is. And then it's a process that goes on, like a chemical reaction. It goes on and on and on and on and on. And so when you love Jesus with all of your heart, with all of your mind, with all of your soul, that is the greatest commandment. Jesus said that is the greatest commandment to love God with all of your mind, with all of your heart, with all of your soul. If you can follow that commandment, you can follow the rest of them. That is so, so true. When you know how to love God, not only will you say no to sin, but you will not have a desire to sin. That's holiness. Holiness is not the fact that you say no to sin. Holiness is the fact that you have no desire for sin. Wow, say that again. Holiness is not the fact that you say no to sin. There was a man of God that said this. He said, holiness is not the fact that you say no to sin. Holiness is that you no longer have a desire to sin. When that woman comes by you, you're not having to struggle to look at her. When you see money on the ground, you're not having struggled to steal it because that is no longer a part of who you are. The Bible says that he renews our mind. That is a part of what holiness is, is when you come be so captivated by Jesus. You're so in love with Jesus. You're so consumed with Jesus that everything in you becomes like him. I noticed that when I get in that place of prayer, and I just, you know what my number one prayer is, and I'm saying this, that this will be your number one prayer. My number one prayer is that Jesus, I want to know more of you. Before I ask for the miracles, before I ask for preaching engagements, before I ask for the crowds of stadiums and all this different stuff, I ask Jesus, I want to know more of you. I believe the key to any, the key to longevity in any ministry is having a love for Jesus. There's many ministers out there today, David. They love the miracles. They love the signs and wonders. They love the healings. But how many times will they actually just say, Jesus, I love you. Jesus, I adore you. Jesus, I worship you. Just to take time and say, Jesus, I thank you for all that you've done for my life. You see, the way that we adore God, the way that we worship God is evidence of our prayer life. It's evidence of how we communicate with God in a secret place. And so it is, you may be a minister watching right now and you say, you know, I feel an emptiness inside. I feel like, you know, I go to these meetings and I go to these miracle services and I do all this stuff, but I still feel like I don't know the one that I'm serving. Can I tell you that just a simple prayer, just simply saying, Jesus, I want to know you more. God will open the floodgates of heaven on your life. He will show you who he is. And one of the parts that he showed me when I started praying those prayers, he started giving me a heart for souls. And what I mean by that is this. I'll give you a story. One day where I was praying to the Lord and I said, God, I want a heart for souls because I know that who you died for, that is your reward. That is who you want. And so I started praying and I said, God, give me a heart for souls and immediately God put an image of a man in Africa in my mind. I had no idea who he was. I had no idea what part of Africa. I'd never heard his name, but the Lord showed me an image and he said, Josh, this man is about to die and go into hell. Pray for his salvation. And all of a sudden this burden for souls came in my heart and I began to weep and I began to cry and I said, God, please save this man. God, please don't let him go to hell. And a burden for souls came in my life. But that souls could not come unless I valued it. Whatever you pray for, you will begin to value. So when you begin to pray, Jesus, I want to know you more. You will begin to value Jesus. When you begin to say, Jesus, I want to know everything about you. The more you pray that, the more you will begin to value that. And so it is so important in our lives, David, that we know Jesus. It is so important that he becomes number one because there are so many ministries today. Their foundation is the miracles. Their foundation is the partners. Their foundation is the preaching engagements. That's what holds them up. If they don't have those, they fall. But people that have a foundation of just simply loving Jesus, that foundation will never move. There will be no demon from hell, no religious church, no religious person, nothing in this world that can move a man or a woman of God that simply is in love with Jesus. I love that you're talking about this. First love, it breaks the power of sin over your life because it gives you a desire that's different. It gives you a burden for souls. What else does first love do? First love helps you to operate in the fullness of Jesus. When you love Jesus, you know Jesus. And when you know Jesus, you become like Jesus. And because you become like Jesus, you see the same miracles as Jesus. One of the greatest ways that I've found that faith is so easy to have in your life is simply loving Jesus. When you love Jesus, you love Jesus because he loves you. And because he loves you, he will act upon everything that you pray for him for. If I need finances in my life because I know that he loves me, I know that he will act upon it if my life is right. You see, there is so many scriptures, so many Bible verses that we read that says, if you will do this, then all of these things will apply to you. The Bible says that if you will abide in me, Jesus said, abide in me and then I will give you for whatever you ask for. If you abide in me, look what abide means. Look what that word means. What does abide mean? What does it look like? What does it look like for a man or woman of God to love God with all of their heart, all of their mind, all of their soul? What does that actually look like? Is it Catherine Coleman? Does it look like Benny Hinn? Does it look like Old Roberts? Does it look like David Hernandez? What does it look like for a man or woman of God to simply love Jesus? Not just the miracles, not just the signs and wonders, but to completely love God with all of your mind, with all of your heart and soul. I believe that any man or any woman that loves Jesus will become like Jesus and if they become like Jesus, they will have everything that Jesus was on this earth. Jesus was fully man, but he was fully God and the reason why he became a man, I believe, is to show us how we should live our lives. Wow. He's the perfect example of a Christian, the perfect example of an evangelist, the perfect example of a prophet, of a pastor, or maybe you're not even in the ministry. He is a perfect example of who you are supposed to be in your life, to love the center, to love your God, to love the Holy Spirit, to love people. When you know how to love, faith will be an automatic. Faith is not a mindset, faith is not a word, it is not a thought, it is a lifestyle. When you know Jesus, you will know faith automatically. I remember I would pray for people and I would sit there and I would yell and I would scream and I would kinda say these phrases that evangelists use and the Lord told me, he said, Josh, there is no power in sound. There is no power in voice. There is no power in noise. It is only when you know my son Jesus. When you know Jesus, you will know the power of God but because you know Jesus, you will be able to live under that power. There's so many people that live under the anointing of God, they lose, they first, they have that first love. In fact, I had a scripture in Revelation, chapter two verse four says, yet I hold this against you. You have forsaken the love you have had at first. Every Christian believer starts with the love for Jesus. We see so many of these ministers and we think, these ministers that have fallen, we think how could have God used them? How could God use them in ministry? The reason why is because they first love Jesus and they were somewhere in their life where they lost it and you might be watching right now and you have left Jesus somewhere in your life. You may have left Jesus in a spot and you don't know where he is in your life. The fact is this, Jesus has not forsaken you, you have forsaken Jesus. That's the simple fact of it. So many people, I come to so many people and they say, Josh, I don't feel God's presence anymore. It's not because Jesus has forsaken you, it's because you have forsaken Jesus. The Bible says that Jesus will never leave you nor forsake you. There will be never a moment in your life where he will ever forsake you, but you can forsake Jesus. It is a dangerous place, David, when you are able to sin and not have conviction over your life. There's somebody watching and they're saying, I wanna have that power over sin. I wanna have that burden for the lost. I wanna have that power in my life. I wanna have that first love. Talk to that one watching right now who desires that. The only way to kill the desire of sin is to replace it with a love for Jesus. In my life, I tried to find, I was addicted to pornography. I was addicted to lust. I was always being mean to other kids in my school, just living a life of a sinner. Even as a Christian, in my early years as a Christian, I was living that life. And I would ask God every day, God, how do I live a life without sin? And the Lord told me simply this, when you learn to love me, you will learn to hate sin. There must be a moment in your life. There must be a moment in your life right now where you love Jesus so much that if sin came to you, not only would you be able to say no, but you would have no desire for it. God wants to use you in a mighty way. God wants to use you. Maybe you're an evangelist, young evangelist watching and you have an addiction in your life or you have sin in your life and you're saying, Josh, how, how do I get this sin out of my life? Surrender yourself to God, yield yourself to God. You've got to come to a place, my friend, where you love Jesus. Michael Cugliano said this. There was a man that came up to him and he said, what would you say if Jesus came up to you right now? Two words. And Michael said this. He said in two words, I would say, don't go. You've got to come to a place where Jesus is first in your heart, in your mind and in your soul. When Jesus becomes first, that sin will never have power over your life again. Anyone that values something enough, they will never allow anything to get in the way of that. Would you value Jesus in your life? Have you fallen away from God? Where have you left Jesus in your life? Maybe you're a minister and you have fallen away from God and you used to be a pastor. You used to be an evangelist, but now you've fallen. Can I tell you that you have lost your first love? Go back to the cross, go back to the blood, go back to where Jesus first touched you. My friend, it's not about all the miracles. When you get to heaven, it's not gonna be about the miracles, it's not gonna be about the healings. That's Jesus anyway. But do you love Jesus? Do you love him with all your heart? You sing number one in your life. I want you to pray this prayer after me and I want you to mean it with all your heart. Say Jesus, I ask you to become number one in my life. God get all the things out of my life that distract me from loving Jesus. Change my prayer life. Change the way that I talk to God. Change the way that I read the Bible. Change everything about me. Jesus, I want you number one in my life. Holy Spirit, I ask you to touch every person. Lord, that you would show them your love once again. God, that you would show them that not only must they love you, but you love them. God, I ask you to take away that desire. I break every addiction off of their lives. I break the bondage of sin. I break the power of sin over their lives in the name of Jesus. I commend every stronghold to be broken. God, I ask you now in the name of Jesus that you would set your people free. There are people that are living in a desert. They're living in that state of Egypt. Father, I ask you to bring your people home. Bring your people back to the cross. Bring your people back to their first love. Let these pastors, evangelist prophets, men and women of God who have lost their first love, let them come back to you in tears. Let them spend hours with you once again, Lord. Let them be in that place, that secret place with God where they are weeping because of how much they love Jesus. Let the songs return. Me and David were just singing a while ago, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, there's just something about that name. We sing that because we love Him so much. Father, I pray the songs would come back in their life in Jesus' name. And Father, maybe those that don't know Jesus, I pray, Lord, that you would reveal yourself to them in the name of Jesus. So, Lord, we lift that one watching now. Yes. By this message that you're speaking to your servant is convicted by the Holy Ghost. And Father, we pray right now. You would set their hearts ablaze. Set our hearts on fire again, Jesus. I pray, Father, that you would cause them to look to Jesus and live, to look to Jesus and receive power and life and joy and peace. And we thank you, Father, that you're doing this now by your Holy Spirit and we thank you, Father, for new beginnings. We thank you for your mercy, Lord. And I pray in Jesus' name, today, this moment, would be a marker in their spiritual journey. Let this day be recorded in heaven, Lord. And let this be a transforming moment in the precious name of Jesus we pray. I want you to say it, if you believe it, agree. Say amen. Oh my goodness, my friend. There's an anointing on you for sure. Joshua Kelly. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. How did we get ahold of your ministry? I don't even, I probably don't even have to say much after that, but I do want to encourage you pastors, you ministers, get them at your conferences, get them in your churches. If you enjoy his ministry, support what he's doing in ministry. How do we get ahold of you? JoshuaKellyMinistries.com. www.JoshuaKelly.Ministries.com. You can find my Facebook there if you want to add me on Facebook and all my information is there. So go do that, support him, connect with him. I don't even know what to say. That was just, there was a tremendously heavy anointing on what you were just saying. And so I know you live it. Thank you for being on the program, my friend. Thank you. Well, that is it for this edition of EncounterTV interviews. Until next time, remember, nothing is impossible with God. Thank you for watching EncounterTV. Don't forget to subscribe. Also, help me win souls by spreading the gospel through events and media. Make a one-time donation or become a monthly supporter by clicking on the donate link now.