 Thank you for tuning in. Today we have a special honor of, I'm going to have a good time of talking to a state representative, Washington state representative, Matt Shia, who had, we had the privilege of hosting him, teaching our interns this week. He's been a friend of our church and personal friend of mine. And he has a powerful testimony. He's been a state representative for over 10 years and six times he was reelected. Not only that, but he's also an attorney. He's a lawyer. He has his own business there in Spokane. And not only that, but he's a veteran. He served in the army. He was a captain at the army and God uses him today. He's a born-again believer, spirit-filled, who walks with God and not only that, but leads people to Jesus, baptizes people at his bathtub, where people get saved and he just baptizes them, so walks with God. And so, Matt, thank you so much for being with Hungry Jen, sharing this week. And we just wanted to hear more about you. First of all, what did you talk about to the interns this week? I know it's a lot of topics. I talked about a lot of stuff, but it's an honor to be here myself. I just appreciate the ministry you have here. It's touching so many lives, not just here in Tri-Cities. And I'm Washington state, but around the world. It's amazing. And it's a real testament to the people that you have here. So I talked this week about America being a Christian nation. There's an idea out there that America is not a Christian nation. I went through all of the proofs, primary source documents and texts that conclusively show it is a Christian nation. We are clearly that the Mayflower Compact is what started it from the first people that were setting foot in America to the Articles of Confederation of the United Colonies in 1643, where they said, we came here with one and the same aim. So all the colonies, we came here with one and the same aim. And that is to expand the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Those are things that you don't get taught in school or in today. That's very important to understand. And then also later, the founding fathers believed about Christianity and the fact that Congress actually did an investigation on it. Our way of Christian nation came to the conclusion, yes, we are 33rd Congress. And then in 1892, the United States Supreme Court ruled the same way. So it is very clear that we are a Christian nation. And I think it's important to have that as a foundation because America is the greatest generator of missionaries, missions. It's the greatest generator of funding for missions in the entire history of the world. And we need to continue to be that and continue to be that city that light on a hill. When I was in Ukraine, this may sound funny, but I was taught that America is the great Babylon of book revelation. I don't know where they got that stuff from. And the only part that I had a hard time reconciling that is the Babylon in book of revelation was drunk with the blood of martyrs. And I'm thinking I'm like America is the one that sends the missionaries, supports the missionaries and pretty much people who die, people don't die in America for the cause of Christ. I mean, some people can get persecuted and everything and stuff. So and then when we came to the United States and started to learn the history of the United States and started to learn of the commitment to the Christian morals that America had, do you see that this nation is drifting from its foundations? Of course. We have drifted far from our foundations. And I think that as Christians, we need to understand that their evil takes many forms. It really does. And there is evil in America today. There is some. And that should spur us to action beyond the four walls of the church to get out there and to pray for people for healing, to pray for deliverance, to get out there and preach the gospel of the kingdom to people in America that America actually is a mission field. There's a lot of people I talked to in Ethiopia believe America is a mission field. People in Korea believe America is a mission field. And it is a mission field. There are folks out here that have never in some cases heard the gospel of Christ or what they have heard is a perverted form of it or a perverted message of it. And so we have a lot of work to do. And the great part is that this generation, this hungry generation, if you will, is ready to hear the truth. But a lot of times they're finding it in the wrong places on the internet. Instead, we can be that resource for them. Well, I believe in that. I believe that change. And I think you would agree it doesn't just start with the government. It starts with with the hearts of people. It has to church is the Holy Spirit. And we the Christians, we can be the one to guess a lot of times we think if we reelect elect a new president from our party or a president that we like, that's when the change is going to happen. I always like to tell our church that the change doesn't start with the White House. It starts with the White throne. You know, if we get things shifted in the spiritual realm, revival begins to break out and the White House will reflect that. The Senate will reflect that because what's happening in the government is pretty much a lot of it is reflection of what's happening in the hearts of people out of out of an abundance of the heart, the mouse speaks and politics shows the state of the heart. Okay, it's not the other way around. It doesn't change the state of the heart. It shows the state of the heart. And our politics today, a lot of people say is very dirty and to a great extent, it's dirty because a lot of Christians have said, I don't want to have any reason to be involved in it. And yet, God, all the way back when Moses appointed 70 elders called people to treat politics as a mission field. In fact, at that time, Moses was praying God came down with this Holy Spirit on those 70 elders. And that is in the Old Testament, right? And that was when a government was being formed. And so I think in spirit filled government, spirit filled government, that was the genius of the founding fathers was at the temple of the Holy Spirit, the body of the believer was a governor in the United States of America, presupposing two things. One, we were believers and two, that we're actually showing up so Holy Spirit could live through us. And there's a lot, there's a sentiment in America today that we should just be Christians in the church. Separation from church to state. Yeah, Christians just on Sunday. Dietrich Bonhoff were guys that really knew about the confessing church in World War Two and endured just unspeakable persecution. Understood that we got to be the confessing church 24 seven outside the four walls, because that's where we're going to reach people. And there are so many hurting people that are out there. And to not hate people, but to view every person as being a potential of being that temple, the Holy Spirit, potential being that kingdom of God here on earth and expanding that kingdom and pushing back the evil ones. Do you, I know that when the church separation of the church and state started, it didn't start for what people claim it to be with the church should stick their nose into the politics. What was the real reason for the separation of the church and state? Well, the modern where it came from was a letter from the Danbury Baptist to Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Jefferson's response. The Supreme Court just quotes Thomas Jefferson's response. The Danbury Baptist wrote Thomas Jefferson and said, Hey, this new national government because of farming, are they going to get involved in matters of the church? In other words, are they going to prevent us from worshiping, prevent us from planting churches, prevent us from living our Christianity beyond the four walls of the church? Thomas Jefferson is like, absolutely not. There's a separation. So it wasn't a separation to prevent churches from living beyond the four walls of the church. It was a separation to allow them to live their Christianity. The government doesn't control the church, but the church lives out this potential. Exactly. Well, that's kind of puts things in perspective. I think that I mean, Esther, Joseph, Daniel, all of these people, they were in the political arenas in the Old Testament and God used them mightily to bring revival and in fact to shake the whole empire of people. And I think we need that. We need that again. How did you feel a sense of calling? Because you treat politics as a ministry. You don't treat it as a, because there's a difference between a political spirit that some people are possessed with and serving in the area of politics. The same way as you mentioned yesterday, the same way as in the church, you can serve at the church and you can be possessed with a religious spirit. And we know a lot of people in Christianity who have a religious spirit. In fact, it's a religious spirit that created this commotion that crucified Jesus and yet we're all called to serve in the church. How do you distinguish that and what helped you to come to that point of serving in the politics versus just being possessed with political spirit and what's the difference? Well, look, a political spirit and a religious spirit, like you said, crucified Jesus Christ. Mark three six as symbolized by the Pharisees, the religious spirit and the Herodians, the political spirit, crucified Jesus Christ. And so we've got to be careful that things it could be your theology or your focus on theology or your focus on miracles or your focus on politics or your focus on, you know, a specific denomination that you miss Christ because you're so focused on this stuff that's taking your eyes off of being in the presence of Jesus Christ, the presence of Holy Spirit. That is really fundamentally what evil is trying to do is get you off of where you're supposed to be. And so, you know, political spirit pledging allegiance to a political party and that's the end all be all or pledging allegiance to religious spirit to a specific denomination. And that's the end all be all. Where's Christ in that? That's that's a man in the world. We need to keep focused on Jesus, keep focused on his presence. If we stay there, the spirit will unite us. It can't be divided when we're there. And if the whole body of Christ is doing that, oh my goodness, the world changes, history changes. And so you see politics as a as a mission field for you as a place to serve in ministry. How did you come about that? Well, so I was after I came back from Iraq was praying Lord, what do you want me to do? And I was led into politics. And I gotta tell you, I didn't necessarily want to want to get into it because I kind of knew a little bit about it. But the Lord was very clear and it was a very clear path for me and has allowed me now to be able to speak to people all over the country and now all over the world about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ about the power of Holy Spirit, about just the peace and joy and righteousness that comes with Holy Spirit. And also speak that into the halls of government and and allow some people who may be kind of on the fence or maybe maybe in a compromised position to hear it. And I can't tell you how many times I've had people come up to me very quietly, very privately. Hey, can you tell me more about Jesus? That's what the body of Christ should be doing. And it shouldn't be just politics. We should be doing this whether you're in business, you're a teacher, every area of our lives. We should be touching folks. That's good, that's good. How did you, how did you come about the Lord? How did you, I know you grew up Catholic, but how did you discover Jesus as your personal Savior? So I served in Bosnia in 2000. I was walking up to a mass grave. This is five years after the original war in Bosnia. A lot of people are coming back to their homes for the first time and they were finding mass graves, some quite literally in their own front yards. So I'm walking up to a mass grave and there were skeletons surrounding it. Some were still bound with wire. Some of the skulls still had blindfolds on. And I saw a lady, she was sitting on top of three bodies and she's brushing in the dirt. She picks the bullet out of the ground and says, there it is. I said, could you explain to me what you're doing? And she said, well, they used to make them kneel outside of the grave. They would shoot them in the back of the head and they would fall on their own bullets. So I'm matching the bullet to the body. And then because Adrina River Wolves kept such meticulous records to the rifle. And then to the person who owns the rifle we're prosecuting for work. And right at that moment, God just hit me right between the eyes that if there was that kind of evil in the world there had to be the opposite good and I wanted to find it. A year and a half later I gave my life to Christ. Within two weeks my life was right side up and he has been sending me down a road that has been just quite a wondrous journey. It really has. And not long ago God baptized in the Holy Spirit. He'll do with the Holy Spirit. And you're not ashamed about Jesus. You're bold everywhere you are. That's so encouraging. You know, you mentioned being in Bosnia being in Iraq and you went to serve there. And last year you had a chance to travel overseas on the mission trip. I did. And you mentioned something that's sad and funny at the same time. To me that it was kind of different for you to go overseas not to kill people but to save them. I mean you didn't directly go killing people but people under your people who you were responsible for were fulfilling certain assignments. And so tell me a little bit more about the feeling and how you feel like God is leading you now into the missions overseas as well. It was really profound that I went overseas the first two times and we trained and we prepared. And in some cases we kill people. And then going overseas this next time and went to Ethiopia where we're literally going into a place two days before we got there there was a gun battle. And I don't have any weapons. And the Lord so complete reliance on the Lord. And the Lord is bringing me there so that he can save people through me. That is it's it's profound. I still can't really give a head around it. And what God did there because they had been two warring Christian tribes and they told us that they were going to continue the war on Monday as soon as we left. And instead as we're driving out they declared the first piece in 10 years. That is the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of God. That's incredible. Wow. So I had this question and a lot of people ask me that question and I had a younger and I know that you talked to an entrance about it. Does God what is the difference between killing and murder? So it's it's very simple that we are not supposed to take innocent innocent human life. That's innocent according to God's standards. Self-defense defending the temple of the Holy Spirit. There were guards in the Old Testament that stood around the temple of the Holy Spirit for a reason. At that time was the temple of spirit of God with the Ark of the Covenant and all that with the mercy seat. Today defending the temple of the Holy Spirit. Self-defense that is justified, very clearly justified. In fact, Jesus and Luke 22 says take a sword. They said hey we got two which means they already had the swords there with them. So he wasn't saying get rid of them. The other part is that I think is very interesting is when we talk about offensive war. And that's where a lot of people get very confused. And the way I say it is that peace should be the rule and war should be the exception always. But if we're doing our job as Christians war isn't going to happen. If we're living out our Christianity being on the four walls of the church there isn't the rise of Germany and World War II. There isn't the rise of Stalin. There isn't the rise of Mao Zedong. There's the rise of Christian pastors, ministers, evangelists, teachers, prophets, apostles and going out into the world. And there's not going to be war. And so I think that that should spur us on. War happens because we are not living out our full potential as Christians. That's what's happening in the world. You had the Serbs who were an ostensibly Christian country Orthodox but an ostensibly Christian country or everything's happened. And these two warring Christian tribes I just mentioned in Ethiopia. What? I mean what about Matthew 18? How are you warring? It shouldn't be happening if we are living out our Christianity being on four walls of church. And if we truly actually walk into what God has told us that the spirit is not just words, it's power. And that power can bring peace anywhere in the world. At any time it doesn't depend on elections. It doesn't depend on circumstances here. It depends on the will of God and his faithful people walking it out here on the earth. I think that as Christians our main call is to a spiritual warfare. It is. And that spiritual warfare, it brings change and it brings blessing to people because I always like to say natural war removes evil people out of the world. Spiritual war removes evil out of the people. You know and sometimes there are cases where evil people they must be removed. And so that's what the law enforcement and the army and those guys they do their job and so but the church is responsible and the like which is said if we would do our job there would be less war in this world. And so any final thoughts that you will have for our viewers about the what do you see this country is headed to? I think that we are headed to a tremendous move of God very soon. And I think that we do need to be doing that spiritual warfare. It's not just a matter of you know the repentance part of it and constantly being clean before the Lord but it's actually walking into it. Get it going beyond the cross to where we are raised as Ephesians 2 5 says with Christ and abiding with him. And I think if we do that we're going to see some amazing things happen and that spiritual warfare we need to take them very seriously that what is manifested in heaven is manifested on earth. Well thank you guys for watching. Till next time.